"You can talk to Callistia here when you get back." She smiles at the woman. "She'll be guarding your ship after the repairs are made..." The woman with the ax grimaces.
The elf eyes Connor, sizing him up for a coffin. "The robe that's made of bones is a Robe of Bones. The priestly attire is a Cossack of the Clergy. The blouse is a Cackling Hag's Blouse. The girdle is a Girdle of Opposite Gender. The helm is a Helm of Opposite Alignment. The black ball is an Orb of Dragonkind, and while I would not want to draw the attention of every black dragon in the world by touching it, I fully support you doing so.. in the ruins... which would kill two drakes with one stone...." She gives sparse details on each item in a crusty voice that doesn't match her youthful appearance.
"A robe made of bones. Called Robe of Bones. Ingenious.", Alys mutters from the corner from which she'd been observing most of the conversation so far with crossed arms.
"Let's do that thing then, so we can get back to doing our thing."
Roderick recalls a few of the tomes he had dug through in his searches for more esoteric alchemical knowledge. One had proved to be a fascinating dead end, discussing the pre-cataclysm cities and their locations on the islands. The name Kliasti struck a chord with him and he added, "It would be best if we are equipped for both jungle and underground excursions. If the smugglers are at all a threat, then they will likely be exploring the underground of the city, rather then just digging among vine-choked remnants. It may also be that we will seeing more then simply Stalmorta smugglers, but the contraptions of old come back to haunt us. Kliasti was somewhat famous for its relic production. I believe this is sufficient information for use to proceed."
"I'm happy we could come to such an agreement. I have no further demands. You have purchased my tiny skills."
He smiles up to the harpy lady.
The harpy seems somewhat surprised, but nods. "I see, very confident you are then, in your own abilities. Wrathborne, do escort them out through the old tunnels. And do let them stop by the armory..." She pauses, thinking. "The one we were talking about the other day, not the main one. In case any of them need to stock up on ammo or need a backup weapon or something."
The six-winged man nods. "Yes ma'am..."
The woman with the ax, and the still silent man in armor both take off, likely headed for the group's ship.
Rathborne nods at the group, and begins leading them out of the warehouse, and down the courtyard to an entrance to the tunnels under the government complex. After 10 minutes of bewildering turns and dark dank corridors lit only intermittently by glowing stones, he stops in front of a large metal door. After a few minutes of pulling levers on it seemingly at random, the door creaks open revealing a small armory with weapons, ammunition, and some armor.
"Production?" Connor asked Roderick, frowning. "That leads to several unwelcome conclusions." To the woman with the ax, he said "If you get a messenger bird, or a mannikin with wings in a few days, weeks, or months, don't shoot him until you've read the message tied to his foot."
-----------------------
"My training didn't include most weapons, and I'll have my hands full with this, anyway." Connor cheerfully told the six-winged guard, twirling his quarterstaff a la psicrystal staff. Inside his head, he was more serious to Hero. Relics. Clockwork, or those stone constructs we were told as childrens' tales? I'll have to make a very large, very hard-hitting astral construct to match one of those. I hope everyone put supplies in their packs, it looks like we might get the privy-hatch treatment on the way out.
"Unless we're stopping a healer's shop or a gemsmith's shop, I'm ready to be off of your hands, Captain Rathborne. I wouldn't want to keep you from your paperwork." Connor said as his compatriots made their own estimations of the offered arms and armor.
"Hey there Captain six wings. You have anything made out of Adamantine. A sword like mine or maybe a big hammer. Contructs are tough but that stuff cuts like a warm knife through butter."
Adran hops around all happy and touches pretty much everything then putting it back down.
Edit: Woops forgot about the weapon groups. Looking for an adamantine Heavy Blade, greatsword prefered.
He looks the weapons over...
... He points to a morningstar hanging on the wall.
Connor racked his brain over the types Rathborne offered. His lack of enthusiasm in the McIntyre combat training classes in his youth was coming back to haunt him. He looked at the others, to see if they recognized the weapons.
Roderick looks over the weapons presented, thinking through and explaining the properties each as he recalls them.
"I got my trusty sword here. Don't have any training with the morning star, though it seems you would just smash stuff with it. Shame about the higher quality stuff. I'm ready when the others are."
After listening to Roderick, Connor said "Elara, grab the morningstar. Rory, take the axe. At least we'll be armed better. That quarterstaff-" Connor shook his head, "I don't have a way to hide or shorten a quarterstaff, or I'd used it already."
"I can take the stick. Not like I'm likely to use it since I have the power to kill a yak from (almost) 200 yards away... with mind bullets, but a backup is good. And it might be useful when we run out of the luxury of the only shaper we encounter being on our side.", Alys looks around, and towards the six-winged man "Or the next time someone stops us and demands our weapons, make them think I am disarmed because they got my stick." she grins.
Elara's ears prick up. "...a straightforward target that needs clearing out? Thank the gods." She fails to restrain the urge to whistle on the road to the armory, though disdains any weapons there in favour of her polearm. She grudgingly takes the morningstar as a backup weapon, slinging it onto her back. "Any word on how we're getting there? Fly over and drop down on a rope?"
Rathborne asks, looking as if he's got something else he wants to do and would like to stop babysitting the group. He tugs a scroll out of his belt pouch, and hands it to Rory.
"Are these magic weapons?" Rory asks holding the axe shoved in his hands as far away from him as possible while using a other hand to snag to revolvers and enough ammunition to start his own banana republic.
"For that matter do you know what the bloody elf was blathering about soul gems and throwing me in irons! You seem the honest sort if nothing else and no one seems to tell me anything unless I raise my voice!" Rory says in his normal thunderous volume.
The man with six wings responds, looking at Rory oddly.
The man shrugs.
"We've dealt with soul gems before, on the Surface." Connor said, clearing his throat. "They're rather like fighting someone in a small room who's got a belt full of alchemist's fire seeded with gunpowder and a lit fuse; you're fine until the end, and then nobody's happy."
"Elara did ask about transportation. If you're kicking us out without our skyship is there a road and a trading post? It'll be hard just cutting our way through the jungle with a magic box saying 'Here we are, let us join your gang.'" Connor asked.
Roderick listens, surprised as the bulky soldier relates what he knows of soul gems. [i]I should recall that even brutes can be clever. He finally recalls the question asked and replies, "I'll survive with what weapons I have at my disposal, I suppose. If you have any dorjes, particularly those capable of healing, I'd like a look at them. We'll be going out into the middle of nowhere, so it seems a reasonable supposition that we will be without ready medical care unless we take it with us."
The man shakes his head.
Looking in the indicated cabinet locates a shelf of first aid kits, 10 in all.
Roderick frowns at the brawny soldier, irritated by the entire process, "Very well, they will suffice for now." He grabs a few of them, keeping one and giving the others to his companions. "I think I've little else I need, so let's be about this bloody business so that it may end even sooner."
"I already have healer's kits, but since you offered..." Connor stated, walking over and helping himself to the cabinet.
"Time to see what the outside is like after the Stalmorta battle." the Humavian said.
The man makes sure the armory is all locked up again, and then heads off down the tunnel again. A few dozen turns, all of which seem to be random and designed to make it hard to find the armory again, and then there's a long straight tunnel with tunnels branching off it.
The group trudges down the tunnel, lit only by the lantern the man carries. Finally, the tunnel ends in a set of stairs. He leads them up the stairs, and into an old building that looks like it's a ruin remnant.
Stepping out, the group finds themselves on the inner outskirts of the city, where the jungle has taken over. The ruin building itself is mostly covered over by vines.
The man gives them the directions. Once he sees them take off, he heads back down into the ruins.
The group begins flying out that day, not getting too far, but then again, it's good to only fly a couple of hours in the sweltering heat of the island's jungle. The oppressive heat and moisture seem to sap the strength of everyone.
The jungle is, in it's way, gorgeous. Riotous explosions of color from birds winging through the trees, a cacophony of sound exploding all around, night or day. Over the centuries, the Stalmorta have imported creatures both normal and exotic for the jungle, and the wildlife represents a massive melange of creatures from all over the world, all brought to a single place.
Things are uneventful for the first few days, but, that's also not unexpected, being close to civilization.
However, on the fourth night...
...Connor is on watch when things become not so drab and dreary...
With the intense heat Adran moves, scouts, and sleeps in his Astral skin.
-10 for being asleep so only a 10 but I may still hear a big noise :)
"And here we are, at the same point if we had been allowed to sell our wares without a war happening." Connor told the stoic Rathborne. As he took flight, he called back, "Tell Aniisa we won't be needing her services after all, and she should be more discreet in the future! For such a 'free port', you lot in Anshrin have too many rules."
------------------------
Over the next few days Connor was forced to use his Cleanse Body multiple times on himself and others. Still, ever since the dragon, Connor was thankful he had the power. It was hot. Sticky-hot in this jungle. After the breezes of Atalanta, and the life onboard a skyship, Connor hated sticky-hot, like on the Surface.
The first night Connor spread out the items from his deeper-on-the-inside backpack and belt pouch. Leaving Anshrin without going to a jeweler's shop left him short of making many more power stones. Or other things. He could empower one, maybe two more bandage packs with his powers. He could make one more power stone of one of his greatest powers to date. Stabilizing fighter's gauze would be a better choice. Not much else. Connor wished he could wait. Apparently his power stones attracted attention. Speaking of which.
Connor studied the bag of coins, thieves' tools, and overly large diamond from Tenfa. Putting all of them into extradimensional storage probably wouldn't help against detection. Still, they kept running into the people who could sense the otherness of the artifacts. He'd need to do something about that.
Connor got to work on making another Gladiator's Gauze. He made another the next night, then gave one each to Rory and Elara to replace the ones they had used.
For his shift Connor tried making one massive Astral Construct that would last longer than all the others, using his psionic focus and every mental technique he could think of. He failed, the ectoplasm evaporating just a few seconds later than expected. The next night he tried staggering smaller constructs. That left him with a deficit of mind-power the next day - Connor needed the replenishing that only sleep could give.
For the fourth night watch Connor settled on making four small constructs with Hero making the rounds between them. The psicrystal complained, something about how the psicrystal staff made him "smarter". Connor didn't see any improvement in the gemstone's wit, but humored him, keeping him on the staff. He needed to hurry and add Crystal Light to the staff permanently. With a Companion Stone or two.
This silvery-transparent mannequin of a winged Humavian stands shorter than a Halvavian. It is ready to move by silent command from its master.
Craft (Sculpting) check:
A result of 10 to 19 creates a creature that is recognizably similar to the desired creature shape; a result of 20 to 29 creates a construct that looks like an accurate portrayal of that creature type; a result of 30 or higher creates a construct that looks like a specific individual.
N Small construct
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception -
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+2 Dex, +5 natural, +1 size)
HP 15 (1d10+10)
Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +0; Immune construct traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., fly 20 ft. (Average)
(only if changed to attack) Melee slam +2 melee, 1d4+3 damage
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 15, Dex 15, Con —, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 10
BAB +1, CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats -
Skills: Can perform any simple task of DC 12 or less for its' duration.
SPECIAL ABILITIES (One option from Menu A; one option from Advanced Constructs Menu A, taken twice)
Fly (Ex)
Utility (Ex) (2x)
A man of the city at heart, Roderick flies with his companions gamely, but the endless greenery and rough sleepy wears on him. He grows increasingly irritable as they continue their travel.
Connor is on watch, and walking back and forth. However, he notices nothing, when suddenly...
Snoring softly, Elara shivers and freezes still.
Hero, Connor sent, feeling something wrong, wake everybody up telepathically. Now. Get off the staff if you have to.
A psicrystal has immunity to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), and any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless it also works on objects or is harmless. It is not subject to non-lethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. It cannot heal damage, but it can be repaired.
"Alarm! Everyone, wake up!" he shouted. Connor dropped to the ground, wings closed, his mind flashing warnings to his astral constructs to be ready to transform and attack.
Adran awakes for a moment only to find he can't move.
Alys too wakes up unable to move.
Roderick wakes with a start, shrugging off the strange torpor that tried to keep him from moving.
Will save.
If this is a fear, compulsion, or death effect everyone within 30ft. of me (including me) gets +3 on their save.
Current Active Presence (Rallying)
Current Readied Maneuvers
Rising up, sword and gun in hand and angrier than ever in his undies he bellows. "WHAT IS IT NOW!?!"
Nevertheless I will still activate it as a swift action as I stand up. Cause reasons.
Only Connor and Roderick manage to shake off the overwhelming wave of resignation and hopelessness that rushes through their minds, making them lose the will to even move, even with a potential threat to their life in their midst.
The rest of the crew is shaken to their proverbial core by hopelessness and ennui.