StormLord

As the ship approaches the leader of the group pulls back his hood and several of the other figures move quickly and precisely to help with the docking. The leader(a somewhat short, slightly pudgy looking man with pointed ears and receding blonde hair) stepped forward and spoke to Jack and Akihiro. "We the Order of the Pale Shadow prayed for our Goddess to send help to defeat the scourge of this land and she has sent you to us. An adult dragon has woken from it's ancient slumber and now terrorized all of the nearby mountain villages, we seek the safety of our village to return and you seek the lure of a dragon's hoard no?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 1: The Lost City of Pandtlatnis. Slowly people peel out of the ship given by Jack and Hyperion, leaving only four of you behind. Jack's voice crackles across your ECHO devices again. "So since you don't seem to have anything to do I've got another job for you, this time on Pandora's surface. Ya see before Atlas corporation pulled out they were digging up some mighty interesting alien ruins on the southern tip of the planet. The flash freeze covered it though and it wasn't until recently one of the egg heads found its location again." The sound of a crinkling chip bag can be heard in the background while Jack is talking. "I want you to respectfully relocate any wildlife you encounter and evict any filthy murderous bandits that have moved in." Inbetween sentences you hear a loud crunch and the resulting chewing of several chips. "And if you bring back some interesting tech I'll give you a bonus." The pilot's console lights up with Pandorian coordinates and if no one takes the job of piloting the ship one of the Loaders offers to take the wheel. The trip down is a bit rocky, you strike space-junk at least twice, but eventually you start getting a good view of Pandora's southern polar ice cap. The coordinates lead you to a place in the ice with out of place looking grey cut stone in arches and the remains of collapsed arches. A hole in the ice sheet reveals a pit leading below it, and a nice flat place to land. There isn't much to speak of around, aside from a few struggling hardy plants and some supply crates half-frozen and marked "Property of Atlas Corporation". The ice cave ahead follows a gentle slope downwards in what was once a bit of a ravine judging by the stony partial walls. The path ahead lists to the right slightly until a sharper turn leads it out of view, there are several shifted boxes along the way, most of which have been haphazardly forced open. Behind you are a couple makeshift ladders leading up out of the pit.

Jack and Akihiro climbed aboard the Enterprise having retrieved the printable Message scroll from the Constructor connected to the Bounty Board. A few minutes of fiddling before Akihiro deciphers the strange mechanism that actually activates the scroll and calls them to their job. A few tense minutes pass before The Enterprise, along with everyone and everything on it, slowly shimmers out of existence. The Enterprise reappears swaying gently in the waves just outside a large coastal village. Behind the village are lush snow-capped mountains as far as the eye can see. In the distance beyond you see a large pillar of black smoke some miles away. Several other ships are in the port, mostly moving cargo on or off, several people are already pointing and staring at the strange ship that just appeared from nothing. A group of men in hooded brown robes are waiting on one of the empty docks, they're looking right and the ship and appear to be waiting.

Cell steps into the room and points at Cicivexa while quickly nodding several times looking at the figure.

Iowa prepares to take one for the team. Lyra’s handgun fire hit Trick’s Paralyzing tongue for 11 damage Atton heals Parlita and Gabriel 17 HP and removes 6 points of stat damage each. Bridgett climbs aboard and begins charging her area bombardment spell. She takes 16 self harm and her barrier jacket reaches 0. Trick’s two more disgusting appendages lash out. (57,58,5)Gabriel and Perlita are Drained, they each take 9 damage and are drained for 11 stat points, but Bridgett manages to pull out of the way. (Con>Syn>Int>Str>Dex) (53,75,23) Mira and Lyra, are Paralyzed, they each take 8 damage and are drained for 9 stat points, but Iowa manages to pull out of the way. Mira in particular feels dangerously weak. (Con>Str>Dex>Syn>Int) Luckily for Mira, Perlita comes to the rescue. Healing magic surges over both Mira and Gabriel restoring them to their normal selves. Gabriel fills the air with nuclear hellfire that somehow only hurts Trick. He deals 13 damage to most of Trick’s appendages, 9 to the claw, and 0 to Trick’s remains. Sun Arcana ticks. Square climbs onto the coaster and throws a heavy attack in the direction of one of Trick’s nastier appendages. She deals 21 damage to the Draining tongue. (92, 31,)The clawed appendage pulls back before swiping at the two carts containing Bridgett and Perlita. Perlita ducks dodging the attack, and Iowa dashes forward to stop the craw from hitting Bridgett taking the damage herself. Her armor reduces it to 30. Mira slashes at tongue designed more for blunt smashing than inflicting any status and deals 26 damage. Init: Status: Notes:

Ignia only frowned deeper and deeper as she listened to the last of the illusions speak. So that was how it would be. "Not only capable. Willing and able to tear out Hearts." She clenched her armored fist slowly, grinding the metal plates into eachother. "I think this 'King' will find several of us a little harder to chew than children and villagers." She nodded at Proditor's urge to wait for the others. "We should group up, and then go confront this King."

Oh hey look I can play too:

Lyra begins her jog back to the main battlefield without much to remark on. Atton inspires Mira(and himself a little along the way) to restore 19 HP and remove 6 points of stat damage. Bridgett summons up her power and fires a HUGE friendship beam at Trick, it hits burning away at him for 132 damage. She takes 16 damage. Trick takes several ragged breaths as he slowly pushes himself up from the attack. Trick uses Draining Drool on 6D, Gabriel, and Perlita. Gabriel takes 4 damage while 6D not only resists any damage, but also steps in the path of the blow heading for Perlita and absorbs it as well. Gabriel suffers 10 points of stat damage, 6D suffers it twice. Damage flows from Con>Syn>Int>Str>Dex. Drenched in drool 6D sluggishly raises a guard as the monster’s tongue makes ready for another pass at her. The floating robot behind her hardly tickling Trick anymore. Sun Arcana ticks for 13 damage. Gabriel blasts more nuclear fire at Trick dealing 39 damage and inflicting a stack of Sun Arcana Trick gasps as Gabriel lands his attack, his breathing slows and his flesh starts to warp and roil. Iowa moves and reloads, not super exciting but she gains some initiative from it. Square uses Curaga on herself curing 6 stat damage and restoring 17 HP. Trick uses his Paralyzing Drool on 6D, Mira, and Square. 6D takes 1 damage, Mira 17, and Square 18. They each suffer 6 stat damage. Damage flows from Con>Str>Dex>Syn>Int. 6D collapses onto the ground from the strain of repeated weakening attacks. Trick opens his mouth comically wide and slams it down over 6D before swallowing her(and a little bit of the concrete) whole. Punch finally finishes her wind-up and clunks Trick on the head for 15 damage, Trick becomes Dizzy. Mira’s power attack slams into the quickly wavering Trick’s side dealing 50 damage. Gurgling on blood and tearing at the seams Trick struggles to make and more attacks. He hits Perlita, Bridgett, and Atton with Draining Drool. Perlita and Atton take 15 damage, while Bridgett takes 11. They each suffer 10 stat damage. Damage flows from Con>Syn>Int>Str>Dex. Trick’s shuttering form finally reaches its limit. As fails it splits down the middle and peels open blooming like some kind of morbid flower, but instead of red flesh and blood it reveals leathery white skin and exposed bleached bones with a few reddish pustules. This “flower” sits only long enough for the party to be disgusted by its grotesque appearance before exploding outward in “growth”. Five titanic alien limbs pull themselves out of the flower, a sixth smaller limb grows outward with a long claw swiping at the nearest party members, next a larger mass connecting the various limbs at odd angles grows outward from the flower top creating an uneven, asymmetric platform of sorts. Nodules grow from the bottom of the platform and the occasional cluster of huge pustules form all over the creature. The thing lifts itself from the ground high into the air before moving three legs overhead and flipping 180 so that Trick’s remains are on top. Then it slowly start meandering around the park, ignoring the party for now. Conveniently most segments of the roller-coaster ride are at or near the perfect level for attacking the monster. Init: Status: Notes:

Contested: 9 vs 7, Jack feels the horrific pain of every cell of his body suddenly setting themselves on fire for a few brief moments just as a wave of grog forces the crystal down the rest of his throat and into his stomach. The first and most important thing he feels is that he isn't drunk any more, not even hung over. His throat is also unbelievable sore, probably scraped and cut too. As the crystal hits his gut he feels a combination of increased resolve and underlying sick. Jack gains: "Pulsing Augment: +2 Ess -1 Con, always active, doesn't require and action slot. Periodically gains an additional level, cannot be leveled normally."

Con save: 11 vs 19, Luck: 55, Random Blitz: ??, Jack puts the crystals in his mouth fairly easily, swallowing on the other hand doesn't go as well. Suppressing several gags he forces the stone past and it starts to go down. Until it doesn't. He can't talk, his face is turning blue, and adrenaline is probably setting in right about now. Int check: 23 vs 17, Luck: 7, Stella flies around at the speed of sound tearing around the place for everything its worth. Sadly with all the combat damage it isn't worth much. Stella finds: Shards of reinforced glass, 3 Twisted white metal, 3 Alchemical Bronze, 4 Magi-tech doodad(Barrier), 2 Magi-tech doodad(Gravity), 7 Broken Tech doodad, Those who head outside find a ship approaching from the station. It's strikingly square, very much like several shipping containers fused together with thrusters slapped on the outside. It's got a large yellow H emblazoned on the side. It slowly approaches the larger of the two bridges and open its lower doors to allow the party to enter. Inside there are two Loaders with light weapons that completely ignore the party. Jack crackles over the ECHO again. "Welcome to your new home, reward for kicking the asses of those monsters. It's loaded with top of the line Hyperion technology." Several consoles inside allow access to various ship functions like controls, digistruction requests, system monitoring, weapon targeting, etc. One of the quadrants of the ship is dedicated to crew quarters.

"Freeze that one, now!" Greg gestured forward at the second Gyarados, the one currently trying to make a snack out of Nicaea. Icy Wind on Gyarados #2.

Lyra manages to wrench the nearby thug, and the one behind him, and the one behind him, dealing a total 19 damage and mopping up the remaining thugs. Atton decides that no, he doesn’t actually want to be here and bails. He buffs Bridgett and Gabriel though. Space ripples around Bridgett as she starts charging a giant friendship beam. She takes 12 damage. As it turns out, ship-to-ship weapons used on relatively normal people have a tendency to create lots of fine red mist, as is the case with Iowa’s 12inch guns and these thugs. Trick uses his Paralyzing drool on Mira, 6D, and Square. Mira takes 2 damage, 6D 1, and Square 7. They each take 9 points of stat damage, flowing from Con over to Str. 6D feels a massive surge of relief as Perlita’s magic reverses the hindrance of all this drool. 6D’s pod tickles Trick for 0 damage...again. 6D taunts Trick, potentially not the best idea considering how these sorts of situations tend to go in...shows. 6D applies deflections to herself. 6D finally strikes, dealing 17 damage, the crushing blow staggering Trick back a bit and causing him to lose focus. Gabriel blasts Trick with another wave of nuclear fire, he deals 51 damage and inflicts a second burn. Sun Arcana deals 6 damage. Square uses Curaga on Bridgett restoring 23 HP and removing her -4 Con ailment. Trick slowly shakes himself back into focus. The two Evac teams start rounding up scared civilians and moving towards the fence break exits. Punch uhh screams more? That’s what is sounds like at least. Mira slashes at Trick once more, this time dealing 34 damage and gaining another Greed stack. Trick attacks Mira, 6D, and Square with his Paralyzing drool once more. Mira takes 8 damage, 6D 0, and Square 12. They each take 7 points of stat damage, overflowing from Con to Str to Dex. Init: Status: Notes:

At the beginning of the journey and during any breaks Spicy HG took time to etch words into the side of her glaive using a shard of the Gashadokuro's core as a sort of stylus. Once they reached the fork in the road she listened to both Lexiel and Mitsu's comments before adding her own. "Just as well, taking down the building may not directly destroy the spirit. I think confronting it directly might actually be our best choice."

Cell waved Gozer an enthusiastic thumbs up and nod, before crossing the room himself and heading straight towards the doorway to the next room, fulling expecting everything to catch fire or explode or somesuch when he did.

"Constantan, Osmium, Diamond, Microcline, and Pitchblend. At least in my world I know the first two are coveted by mechanists looking towards more advanced machines and I believe that Pitchblend can somehow be reduced to a nuclear fuel, but the process I am unsure of." As he spoke Tim pulled out and gestured to various pieces of the samples he collected, before putting them all back away. "If you're interested in working on that vessel we started earlier I've still got it contained in here, I can drop it off something in a hanger if you'd like."

Freidhold nodded at Solomon's response. "Well in that case I will be talking a walk in that area to determine any unpleasantries we may wish to avoid later."

Friedhold looked around and took several whiffs of the rotten sea air. "Smells like home....no, less corpses. Perhaps we could meet here? Or over at that radio tower?" Friedhold thought for a moment in pause. "Speaking of that, if it somehow collapsed would that prevent communications in the nearby area?"

Lyra’s Taunt works well, drawing the ire of almost every thug in the tent as she reveals her flanked position. Atton moves towards the civilians blasting holy healing magic the whole way. He restores 19 HP to himself and as much to the Evac team. Bridgett gets the pain-train moving with 9 self inflicted damage and 10 damage on Trick, magical bolts shattering one after another on his stomach. “Hmmm….” Trick retracts his tongue and smacks his lips a few times before quickly using it to smear disgusting amounts of saliva on Mira, 6D, and Gabriel. Mira and Gabriel feel tense and stiff as their muscles lock up and it becomes difficult to move, 6D feels servos and circuits starting to freeze as well. Mira takes 1 damage, 6D 0, and Gabriel 8. They each suffer -5 Con. Perlita restores an amazing 48 HP to herself. 6D’s pod tickles Trick for 0 damage as she positions herself in front of Perlita. Gabriel blasts Trick for a decent 26 damage and inflicts a burn effect. Square hits Trick hard, dealing 29 damage. Trick spreads the “love” with another round of slobbering, this time he hits Punch, 6D(who steps in for Perlita), and Bridgett.The effect this time is slightly different, thoughts slow and power wanes as the saliva seems to drain away energy. Punch takes 7 damage, 6D and Bridgett 0. They each suffer -4 Con. The Northwestern Evac team practically massacres the distracted thugs with gunfire The other Evac team also fires on the thugs, with similar effectiveness. A nearby Thug tries to give her a bit of headache, but misses when she dodges out of the way(Adrenaline Dodge used). The other Thugs deal 15 damage to the Splash Zone Evac team. Punch screams some more, through the slobber no less. Iowa’s sailors deal 3 damage with their assorted debris as she passes by. Iowa gains 10 Init. Mira slams into Trick's side, making a large cut that deals 29 damage and gaining a Greed charge. Trick smacks his lips again refreshing his tongue and hits Pelita, 6D, and Square with it. They each gain the Virus debuff for one round, making them unable to gain any new buffs(previously applied buffs are fine). Init: Status:

The Maroon Dirge spews more magical fire on Akihiro and Scarlet dealing 10 and 11 damage. [89] Zoe darts to safety behind a nearby overturned steel table and stands to a crouch, she should be pretty safe here for now. Hirata fires a stream of deadly lead at the Maroon Dirge dealing 26 damage and sending it crashing to the ground where it explodes into a cloud of light motes and a single orb that slowly fades away. Akihiro creates another mindless clone. Jack’s grenade rolls along the ground into the next room where the Neoshadows are and clinks against the ground where they take a curious interest to it. Scarlet joins Zoe behind the steel table and heals her for 8 HP. Darkness pools around Jack J.’s feet and body until Vepr-12 pulls him out and gets stuck herself. She take 3 Corrupting damage as the Neoshadow literally pulls her down her waist into the floor. She can’t use movement actions until Neoshadow B is killed. Vepr-12 counter attacks for 10 damage. Another Neoshadow attacks another Akihiro clone, destroying it. The last Neoshadow swipes at Stella[55, hit] for 8 damage. [8 vs 15, fail], Stella becomes knocked Prone. The Violet Hymn blasts Vepr-12 and Jack A. with ice shards dealing 1 and 6 damage. Vepr-12 counters again for 16 damage. Jack forces Hirata to take a swig and heals her for 11 HP. Stella hits the Neoshadow for a solid 17 damage, burning it out of the ground and freeing Vepr-12 whom is sort of shunted upwards. Jack's grenade explodes a split second later dealing massive damage to the three remaining foes and splitting them into motes of light and fading spheres as well. A few moments later and your ECHO devices crackled to life with Handsome Jack at your ears. "WOW. No one could've predicted how that went. Not to say we didn't try, I heard a couple strong arguments saying half or more of you would die, but I didn't place any bets. Now take whatever loot or shit you want from that place and I'll have a ship waiting for you outside." There were indeed two other brightly colored boxes resting buried in the rubble of the second room, similar to the first and both unlocked. Rewards:

Greg and Matilda kept the high ground, raining more lasers from above. Confuse Ray on Gyarados #2.

Team C - Merchant Fight Sha'Tith jumps off the back of the truck and onto the pavement before standing back up and stretching to well taller than most any normal human. He quickly starts walking through the police line and towards the mass of homeless people. He took a deep breath and release a roar that spat embers and smoke into the air. "MMOOOVVE!" Sha'Tith uses Bully as an intimidation action targeting the Tide of Homeless People, counter-taunting them to prevent them from attacking him.

By the time Lucine had finished speaking and Nader had turned to mention it was time to move on Ignia was already halfway out the door stepping into the street and taking in who and what was around. Sh-They needed to find the king, judging by the child's indication he'd be the only one who actually knew what was going on.

After he pulled the rod of materials out of the earth Tim marveled for several moments, before turning and walking it back to the Weatherlight. Once inside he breathed a sigh of relief at the ship seeming to maintain a constant and "normal" reality around them. He took the time to imprint each material in the rod before dismissing them into abstracted suspension and making his way toward Satomi, Kusuke, and Ena. "It's good to know everything seems to be normal in here. I found something in the earth while I was digging around, a sort of rod composed of several valuable and odd materials. I don't have any clue who or what would've put the thing there, but I intend on clearing more of the area out in search of more artifacts." Using a some Iron and Redstone with his Philosopher's Stone Tim synthesizes some Medium Covalence Dust. He uses this to coat and enchant a twig of oak wood into a Divining Rod that will be drawn to high EMC value items nearby. Int of 8, +4 bonus due to Quick Learner, Nearby Sheikah Enchanting Table to boost related crafts,

Atton puts his soldier’s on high alert and moves to the Colorful Blocks area. Bridgett summons up another protective barrier and moves to the Colorful Blocks area. Lyra moves to the Colorful Blocks and then activates her Swapper, disappearing in a pulse of energy. She finds herself standing on a square plateau with roller-coaster track overhead and moving cars cycling through. Several tense seconds later the rest of the party sees a pulse of energy and something large forces its way into the world where they stand. The thing vaguely resembles a bear, colorful and monstrous in design. Wild eyes and huge teeth dominate it’s head, which already makes up a third of its mass. The thing is sitting and cranes its neck to get a good look around, a massive tongue dripping drool out the side of its mouth. “What was that!?” *shhhlpp* “Did one of you HAGS do that? Have you come to try and beat me up like before?!” Atton’s crew fires on CFW Trick, .50 glancing off his skin for 11 damage. “Oowww! I’ll make you pay for that!” *shhhlpp* A tense chunk of muscle flies from Trick’s mouth and whips itself between Atton’s Half-track and Bridgett. It deals 12 and 23 damage respectively. Perlita and Gabriel move forward! 6D moves and applies a massive amount of buffs! 6D pokes the bear inflicting 0 damage, taunting it, and Raging it. Square uses Focus and applies it to Mira, increasing her Syn by 12 for two rounds. CFW Trick lashes out again dealing 4 damage to 6D and 29 damage to Perlita. The Evac teams and Thugs fight, bringing each-other down 30 HP. Punch moves to Colorful Blocks and screams. Iowa moves to Colorful Blocks and loads big guns. Mira slams into Trick for a blistering 39 damage! CFW Trick whips his tongue around yet again dealing another 4 damage to 6D and 21 to Atton. Init: Status: Square's stats: (Feel free to ask for Square to take one particular action over another.)

Music: The Maroon Dirge gathers up another smaller sphere of flames that explodes downwards towards Jack J. in a concentrated cone of fire that deals 14 and 11 fire damage. Jack is left with several major areas of full thickness burns and numerous partial thickness burns all over his body. Jack is unconscious at -10 HP. Zoe gets to work on most of Jack’s wounds, healing a decent 7 HP, the scarring is going to be tough. Hirata fires a spray of leaden death towards the Taskmaster, she deals 18 damage as bullets make their way through bent and broken armor. The Taskmaster collapses to the ground and quickly begins fading, motes of light raise up from the body followed by a single faintly glowing sphere that disappears after a moment. Akihiro summons another duplicate a few feet over. Jack sort of lays there in pain slowly bleeding out while the others try to save him. Scarlet pitches in with the healing efforts as well, restoring 8 HP to Jack J. Jack suddenly wakes up, acutely aware of his pain, but still very much alive. The first Neoshadow swipes at Hirata for 8 damage(24 vs 15) and fails to pull her under. Two more swarm Zoe Walker for 7 and 11 damage(17, 12 vs 15), together they manage to pull her to the ground, roiling pools of darkness threaten to pull her even deeper below the floor and beyond. The fourth Neoshadow swipes futilely at Akihiro’s first clone, obliterating it and looking a tad confused. Two more ice spikes fly from the Violet Hymn towards Jack A. and Vepr-12 dealing 11 and 2 damage. Vepr-12 pulls a counterattack for 11 damage and hinders the Violet Hymn. Jack gives Jack a drink as a pick-me-up and restores a whopping 12 HP. Stella fires a blast at the creature pooling around Hirata’s feet dealing 16 damage, She finds that her darkness burns brighter so to speak as black vapors drift up from the rapidly shrinking pool. Vepr-12 adjusts her stance and decides that since her original target is dead, she’ll just shoot what was behind it all along. She deals 18 damage to the Maroon Dirge. Init: Status: