CMP

Atramor frowns and scratches his head as the strange voice appears within it. Yet having it there was more annoyingly familiar than anything. He pulled the golem kidney stone out of his pocket. "Well, if ya' can point the way, I just wanted to get this thing examined. Figure out what it's good for, maybe track down who or whatever made it."

Yeah, this workshop looks incredible.

Atramor shuffles amount, looking around at the considerably large workshop impressively, and waves a bit to try and get the attention of the overseer-looking woman with the paper. " 'Scuse me. This Kog's and Company? I was told there might be alchemists here who can help me get somethin' checked out."

One at a time, jeez. As Thalion touched the staff, his fingers became numb. The image of an impossibly dark void flooded his mind, leaving him permanently afraid for the foreseeable future. To Dyric's surprise, there's actually nothing behind the banner. Hoke finds a small stack of paper labelled Memoirs - The Story of Rear Admiral Herman Melville, authored by Rear Admiral Herman Melville. There are no drawers. Mortimer picks up the gloves. Carpenter's Gloves (Enhancement is automatically successful, traps deal double damage, handwear, suitable for artisans) Erik doesn't make it in time to help out Thalion, but he spends 1 ether probing the staff for spells. His mind is nearly overwhelmed by the number of disturbing, some ancient enchantments that have been placed upon it. This weapon is clearly at least a thousand years old, but the sheer amount of dark magic surrounding it makes it hard to tell exactly when. He does determine that the 'heart' at the end of the staff might not be too far off a metaphor. In fact, his shamanistic blood magic tells him there might be more than just that lying around. The staff pulsates, exuding an excessively cold black aura that chills the entire party...and also reveals some questionable renovations Melville seems to have made to his office at some point. Knife-Tongue is speechless. Melvin mumbles something under his breath in dwarvish and looks away from the scene. "...This- this is- what the hell is this?"

"Er...thanks, Bobby," replied Miderun, blushing slightly. "You know. Questing, killing stuff, and...well." Miderun scratched her head, failing to come up with anything more. "Yeah. Questing and killing stuff." "People like us don't breathe toxic fire," she retorted, waving her bandaged arm before Kiray's eyes. "We're also easier to kill. Usually." Miderun winces a bit and covers her eyes with the back of one hand, looking none too pleased about the distinctly unnatural entrance. "Nalkuai...so...Elnath, is there some reason why it took this long to learn where we're going? I'm always ready for some heroing, but the quest note was...vague." "Sounds familiar," replied Miderun quietly, after a long pause.

The lock clicks, and the door unlocks. "According to the cadets they've been sitting around here for three days. Whatever they want, I don't think the Bonapartes proper have anything to do with it." "Maybe. I just have no interest in dealing with them when me and my crew are still wanted. But I suppose once we're gone you can do what you like." The party enters the office...and the room is in pretty stark contrast to the unrelenting darkness of the torture chamber many of them have now seen. A simple desk sits in the corner, and a Bonaparte banner hangs off the wall. The only truly troubling item was a staff sitting in the center room, darkness coalesced around it, the red end pulsating not unlike a beating, emaciated heart.

That is sick. :thumbup:

Atramor heads over to Kog's and Company with the golem kidney stone in hand. Loot didn't get divided so I assume I can just take it to get it checked out.

"Which place is the alchemist's, Dumora? I want to head over and see if this golem kidney stone will get us any leads."

You must not've watched EA's.

I must've missed something - we have a time-based deadline?

"At least you're good at it by now." "I wouldn't call in any favors with the Bonies after wiping out their secret military base. And assassinating one of their admirals. And stealing his ship." The second slot being rotated turned both the first and second slots. Bird, bird, bird.

The first slot rotates freely on its own, now showing a ship, ship, and a bird.

Doesn't get any DAMN better.

Sorry, I'll fix that in the next update. Hybros turned the slot in the lock, but they didn't exactly end up as intended. He rotated the third image twice in order to get the skull to show, but as he did so the other two slots also rotated twice. Now they showed a skull, a ship, and a bird.

#112.

It was stimulate people joining MANTIS - we had like half the number of people as other corporations. The bribe bag thing is over now that we've caught up in terms of personnel.

Check your maps, friend. We're already halfway to domination.

"He's trustworthy. I'm sure of that." "In your defense, walking into the traps is pretty much the reason you're here." There's not much Thalion can do to dismantle the cannons - they're far too heavy and solid to do any real damage to. "I wouldn't want to price a docking permit from the Bonies on one of their stolen flagships." The heroes head back to the office with the crew in tow. There they find a rather heavy, iron-reinforced door. Much like the one upstairs, this one has a combination lock. Unlike the one upstairs, there are only three slots, and they don't seem to be letters or numbers. In the first slot is a ship, in the second is a bird, and in the third is a skull. "Eh? Where'n Olegaia does Melville get these ridiculous locks? Hm....didn't we find a clue or somethin' earlier, some of these symbols look familiar...."

Miderun picks up a Woodcutter's Axe, jamming her eyes shut tight in a vain attempt to block out the blaring sound of half a dozen axes rhythmically clunking into the logs, and starts chopping, clearly very well experienced with this type of labor. "So I take it-" she slams her axe down. "-this Prospector isn't exactly looking for metal. At least in Baltarok, we're taught Spesiala is a realm of a lot of elves and a lot magic. But then, we never really talk with them...ever." "Right. Yeah. Bobby is-..the...shizzle?" Miderun didn't look entirely convinced what she'd just said was a thing.

Excellent build, love the lab (as usual) and all the plant samples. :thumbup:

Miderun walked into the clearing a bit later than the other heroes, holding a paper bag of ice to her head and wincing slightly as she approached the party. "Miderun works," the orc explained briefly, nodding gingerly to the other heroes as well. "Fine to meet the rest of you...ugh." She rubbed her head idly, and glanced down the strange creature by the name of Lyrion. "This headache...must be worse than I thought, I could've sworn you just mention going to Spesialia."

After my venture on Barnius and an appropriately romantic interrogation with Special Agent Dynarski I was transferred to Yallorn II, to test out a new rocket propulsion system built into my fuel pack and funneled into my boots, courtesy of the science nerds. Probably Big Sal. The rocks jutting out of this sea are nice to fly around, but in the dead of night a nearby speeder got my attention - nobody else was authorized to use this flyspace, it was designated for testing only. I had Sixer track its movements - for some reason it didn't give off electromagnetic readings, but luckily its engines were in overdrive so thermal imaging did the trick - and soon enough we were quick in pursuit. This propulsion system has some sick acceleration. Turns out the reason we can't see it so easily is because it's experimental stealth speeder, meant for quick recon incursions into enemy territory no more than ten meters above surface level. Sixer's picking up a communication from the science post I was assigned to test at, looks like they found a few bodies and the craft they were testing is confirmed to be missing. They're feeding me intel on how to exploit its flaws, but damn is this pilot smart. I have the advantage weaving between these rocks, but they prevent any easy reinforcement deployment. The only thing quick enough to reach us is a fighter, and they can't get down in here. For now, I'm on my own. I'm catching up, whoever the hell this guy is, he's in Kawashita colors, haven't dealt with them in a while. Suit's nearly overheating, I've pushing the propulsion far longer than advised. Adjusting weapon for a controlled burst, moving into range. Direct hit on- he's returning fire, performing evasive maneuvers. He's going down, Sixer's getting an ID on- he has a gun, taking- propulsion system damaged, losing altitude, Sixer, upload coordinates of lastlastlastlastlastlast [DATA CORRUPTED] Not the best editing, but this scene is bigger than my photo setup and I had to remove a lot of supports. Pretty happy for my first real sci-fi vehicle.

My stats have been updated. Where exactly is this taking place?

Naturally the plan is to seduce ancient vorpal dragon guy.