Eberron with Giant Robots: Sharn

[Winged One]

Achille

Achille's voice comes out of the communication crystals. There's a somewhat strained quality to it. "Um, shouldn't someone let Thrax, ah, sit on the head of, er, the mechanoid they're piloting?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Hide. Right.

"Roger, commander!" The Caex draws its greatsword again and salutes the Gar Adduran, then turns to address the rest of the squad. "Right. The 'forged can come with me. As for the search, I'll take the north end of the spread. Then we go Achille, Angel, Gnome guy, and Steph takes the south end. Hundred-foot fan spread, like the lady said. Problems? No? Good! Let's go, nice slow recon."

Before heading off in a north-northeastern direction, Rin kneels her mech down to pick up the newly-arrived Warforged guy.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax is a little surprised as he's picked up, but shrugs and goes with it, seating himself on the machine's head. He watches for signs of another large machine, enjoying the view from his perch.

[Elvith Jars]

Maintain constant communications on an open channel? If anybody is listening, they'll be able to triangulate our position pretty quick. I guess Gear pilots didn't start using encrypted communications and hand signals until years later. Piloting 'Stomper' definitely brought back some memories. I miss my Mk IX Templar... Too bad I don't remember what looked like.

As she hears Rin shell out directions, she smirks inside her suit, but of course nobody can see that. Well, I suppose I can provide cover fire for our left flank from here... She considers saying something, but reminds herself to keep a low profile.

"Three." Angel says simply, acknowledging the directions, noting her order in the lineup and reflexively keeping communications to a minimum. Then she catches herself. "Uh, roger that, Commander."

Angel keeps evenly spaced between Achille and David as she fans out. Her Ixen sites down the barrel of the crossbolt as it walks forward. Wherever Stomper looks, the crossbolt points, ready to fire upon encountered hostiles. The miracle-worker looks for branches broken away from the battlefield and large footprints, both of which might indicate a mobile suit traveling away from the battle.

[Lucid_Archon]

Stephanie's bechalked Kothar stomps off roughly to the southeast at Rin's command. Inside the cockpit, the changeling shifts through piles of paper scraps and notes tied onto controls and readouts while humming the titular song from the Karrnathi opera, 'Twenty Concubines for King Kaius.' Finding the diagram she was looking for, Stephanie activates the comm.

"So, what're the specs on the squad's equipment? Did not get a chance to inspect them earlier, sorry."

[Elvith Jars]

"Good question! I'm kind of learning as I go. One thing's for certain though, the purple and black paintjob on my Ixen has to go. I'd much prefer camoflauge in various greens and browns.

Anybody know the range on my... well, I guess it's not really a crossbow, there's no bow."

[Winged One]

Achille

I'd probably miss even a mobile suit like this... Achille thinks. After a pause, he answers "Understood." to the other Caex pilot's instruction in his monotone. Angel's transmission is met with "It's not your Ixen, it's the king's Ixen. The weapons are called crossbolts, and if you get ready to fire it you should know everything about how to use it the same way I know how to use this Caex's wrist-mounted chain."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax is oblivious to the chatter going on over the comms, mostly because he can't hear any of it. He continues looking back and forth over the terrain for signs of other mecha while he absent-mindedly taps his finger in an annoying rhythm on the mech's helmet.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin only half-registers the annoying rhythm. Sadly, her subconscious is picking it up and getting a song stuck in her head.

Our dreams call out for tomorrow...something something passion...gah! Why is this song in my head?

"Yeah, I noticed that on the way over here. I've never had any spiked chain training, but this one seems to act just like a long flail or something. Of course, I'll stick to the big swords for damage. Can't go wrong there."

[Magnus_Samma]

"Hmmm, a few weapons drills might not be a bad idea," Kara mutters over the comm. The Adduran is slowly moving down the middle of the spread, being remarkably careful of the landscape. There's not much such a huge machine can do to remain inconspicuous, though.

"The mobile suits are enchanted to make the use of the attached weapons more instinctive," The Gnome cuts in, "practice makes perfect, but if we get into a scrape before we get the chance, just try to act naturally and let it come to you as it will."

(O-kay. Let's see some spot and listen checks, boys and girls.)

[Lucid_Archon]

Steph cracks in over the comm, voice oozing joy.

"I had heard that the user interface was made to facilitate idiots, but I thought it was an exaggeration! It's amazing, nearly anyone can fight in one of these wonders, despite their own ignorance or incapability. Field data is so illuminating!"

Listen (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1362662)
Spot (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1362660)

[Winged One]

[roll0]
[roll1]
Achille

"That's true. It's actually completely possible for someone with no experience with mobile suits at all to climb into one and fight in it without any problems. Of course, skill at fighting without one definitely helps."

[Nerd-o-rama]

blah blah being myself...no, that's a different song. Dammit!

"Well, there's still no substitute for experience. The theorists among us might want to hang back and use ranged weapons."

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax continues to look around and make that infernal tapping, though he's paying more attention to his surroundings than anything else.

Spot - 22
Listen - 18
(ooc: wow, my d20 didn't hate me for once. This jinxes it, I'm probably going to miss and fail everything else for a week now.)

[Elvith Jars]

Crossbolt, eh? The way I've been holding and walking around with it, I'd guess I've used something like it before. But how much of that familiarity is the Battle Gear's enchantment, and how much is prior experience? I definitely have some muscle memory action going on...

"Stomper may be bought and paid for by the Brelish military, but I signed for the... mobile suit... and I'm responsible for it, so for all intents and purposes, it's 'mine' until I sign it back in again. But given how possessive the Suit Boss was, I think he might dispute your claim- and mine too! Anyway, this 'crossbolt' doesn't seem that much different than a heavy crossbow. While I prefer a longbow when my boots are on the ground, I've used a crossbow before, and with the suit's help it isn't much of a stretch to use the 'crossbolt' too. And considering I had all of 5 minutes to familiarize myself with the Ixen before we left, I'd say I'm doing pretty good. In theory, I won't shoot anybody in the a*s as I 'hang back', as long as they have the good sense to stay out of the line of fire, heh."

Angel begins to wonder how long it'll be until the squad's melee specialists threaten her if she accidentally shoots them. Gotta stroke their egos. Standing toe to toe with the enemy isn't easy, and they need all the bravado they can get.

Try as she might to look inexperienced with the rifle, it just isn't happening. Either the suit's magic is pretty strong, or she knows what she's doing. Perhaps it's both, but it's hard to tell. She shifts her attention back to the search and rescue operation.


Spot: 1d20+3 = 15 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1362693
Listen: 1d20+3 = 14 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1362695


How do I use the [roll] tag?

[Magnus_Samma]

*Everyone but Achille notices a flock of birds suddenly flying upwards out of a large clump of forest to the north.*

"What was that?" mutters Kara, jerking the Adduran around.

"I said, what's an eight-letter word for a fleshy nub?" says The Gnome.

[Winged One]

Achille

"'Fingertip', why do you ask?" Achille answers The Gnome, oblivious to the birds.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax notes the birds and unslings his crossbow. He focuses his mind, centering himself and preparing for the possibility of a fight. He stops tapping on Rin's mech's helmet, meditating for a moment, though he keeps his eyes on the area around the flock of birds.

(OOC: performing Concentration check to become Psionically Focused -Result - 23 vs. DC20)

After a few moments, his focus is razor-sharp on the area, and his crossbow is trained on the area directly below the birds.

"Looks like we may have company."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin immediately turns toward the source of the birds, sword readied. "Permission to check it out, commander? And fingertip is nine letters."

[Winged One]

Achille

"Check what out?" Achille asks, deciding that it would be a waste of time to acknowledge that he is an idiot.

[Lucid_Archon]

"Some sort of micro-climate event, triggering a seasonal migration event in that flock of birds we just saw. Oh, and try 'leg stump' my dear Davey."

[Winged One]

Achille
"Something scared off some flock of birds that everyone but me noticed?" Achille guesses after a moment. "And 'leg stump' is two words."

[Elvith Jars]

Angel tracks the birds like she's about to go skeet shooting for a moment, then traces a line down to where they flew off from, trying to judge how far away their perch was.

"****orus. 'Prostate' also works, and it's a fleshy nub if you access it right."

[Magnus_Samma]

Kara hmmms to herself. "A nub? Really? All I ever got was kind of a bump..."

Brief pause.

"YES by golly let's investigate that flock of birds! Uh, feel free to take point, Rin. Keep us posted."

The Gnome can be heard snickering to himself.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax keeps his focus, bracing himself for the inevitible bumps and jolts that come with riding a giant robot. He keeps his crossbow trained on the area, watching for any signs of hostiles.

[Elvith Jars]

Angel responds as if she's talking about the weather. "Generally the middle finger can only go so far. Try using your whole hand. Then it'll feel like a nub. Just make sure they're relaxed first. And be careful, you can get 'tennis elbow' that's not really tennis elbow. That's a fun one to explain to the doc, though at least in my case I can take care of myself."

The Ixen's left hand leaves the rifle for a second for Kara to see. The thumb and pinky come together at about the middle finger, making a teardrop shape with the giant robot's hand, which then makes thrusting motions, gyrates around, and makes a "come hither" motion.

With that, the Ixen resumes its battle-ready stroll, falling in line as needed.

[Winged One]

Achille

Either Achille doesn't know what Angel is talking about or no amount of embarrassment can get through his current state, since his only reaction is to follow right behind Rin.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Right. Achille, you're with me. Ladies and Gnomes, cover us. Thrax, hang on."

With that, she heads toward the suspicious thicket, very forcibly ignoring Angel.

[Elvith Jars]

Shortly before arriving at the disturbance, Angel takes a moment to channel divine power. Silvery flames begin to dance around the Ixen, shielding it somewhat. She channels again, and additional flames dart across Stomper's crossbolt and greatsword. She offers to do the same for Rin but it seems she's ignoring her.


Angel casts shield of faith and divine favor

[Magnus_Samma]

Kara is fascinated despite herself. "The whole hand? Really? What kind of lubrication would you use for something like that? I only ever had like, animal grease, and believe you me that stuff does not like to go away..."

As Rin approaches the thicket, she and her backup begin to hear what sounds like the clashing of metal on metal, screams, and an unusual, inhuman roar...

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax tenses, looking in the direction the sounds are coming from.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Sounds like a party in there," Rin assesses, an agressive edge to her voice. "Let's crash it."

She proceeds forward, sword out, using the bulk of the Caex to push through any plant growth in between her and the source of the noise.

[Winged One]

Achille

"Understood." Achille says, drawing the Caex's sword and moving to walk side-by-side with Rin, pushing the growth aside as well.

[Elvith Jars]

The Ixen strides forward and off to the side a bit, ready to provide cover fire.

"The whole hand, definitely. It's a mind-blowing experience, so I'm told. It's best to go slow because the inner sphincter is involuntary and is harder to relax. Swirling helps.

And there's no such thing as too much lube, because that body part doesn't get lubed much at all. You've got a few options like, oh, Slip-N-Slide, which is a mild form of oil of slipperyness and is the best lube. It cleans up well too, and doesn't stain anything. Kind of expensive though. The grease spell works wonders and also cleans up well. A wand of grease is pretty easy to come by, especially from House Cannith. I'd suggest the Elbow Grease brand as it was originally made for lubricating the organic parts of warforged so it's body-compatible. And since you don't need to use a whole charge to lube specific areas, the wand lasts awhile.

Your mundane options do have problems with cleanup. Vegetable oil is ok but it gets everywhere. Animal grease works better but again, cleanup is a pain. Ditto for vegetable shortening, which I'd recommend over animal grease. The best stuff is from an alchemist I know. It's called 'Shaft' and is like vegetable shortening but it cleans up with water. It can still stain though. But if you have a wand of prestigation handy, that'll help get the stains out. And trust me, make sure they clean out first, and get some thin gloves like the alchemists use.

Oh, the technique works great for the g-spot too, and of course you don't need as much lube. Slip-N-Slide is the best for that area."

She gets serious in an instant after hearing Rin's comment and seeing her Caex surge forward.

[Lucid_Archon]

A series of gagging noises followed by retching and then heavy breathing is transmitted from Stephanie's Kothar.

"I hate you... so... much."

"Who's gonna clean all this up?"

The Kothar draws its axe, and tries to force its way forward with the others.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax notes the harder going the suits are having. He taps Rin's mech's helmet loudly, three times.

"Perhaps it would be easier if I got down. I may be able to move more easily through the forest than your machines can."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"If you like, go right ahead." Rin briefly pauses and holds the Caex's arm out at a diagonal to give the Warforged a safe path to the ground.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax deftly runs down the arm and quickly makes his way ahead of Rin, following the sounds to their source....

[Magnus_Samma]

The scene the party comes upon as they peel back the screen of trees is chaotic- a convoy of wagons has apparently been passing through the area, only to be stopped by a strange creature. Tall as the mobile suits they pilot, the monster is a humanoid beast composed of what appears to be bone and steel, its face a red crystalline visor flanked by two horn-like projections. The beast wields a great sword in one hand, and an enormous crossbow in the other, though a trio if enormous spikes set in its right arm hint at some violent purpose. With a roar of gears and sinew the monster brings its foot down on one of the caravan's unfortunate guards- apparently, the last one still alive. The scene is otherwise deserted, save for the passenger wagons that may yet hold innocent victims.

(Roll initiative!)

[Elvith Jars]

What the Khyber is that! It's as tall as the War Gear! Angel thinks to herself

Initiative: 1d20+1 = 14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1373190)

She keys in the comm crystal: "Woah, hello, I think we found the convoy the Commander was talking about! What is that thing?!"

What is considered point blank range for a giant robot's heavy crossbow? Normally it is 30 feet.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax gazes at the monster, looking for indications that the convoy's guards might have done something to it before the group's arrival....

Initiative: 20 (18+2)

[Winged One]

Achille

"If you can understand me, then you should run before I kill you." Achille adresses the creature in his monotonous not-shout. The lack of emotion doesn't detract at all from the threat, and in fact makes it seem like a simple promise.

[roll0] To engage in a duel of wills if the requirements(enemy INT>2, within 30 feet) are met. +6 ranks, +2 CON, +4 Unnerving Calm feat(which is also why he can use Concentration instead of Intimidate). Target may submit(taking a -2 to initiative, and -1 to hit against Achille for round 1), ignore the challenge(granting Achille +2 to hit for the first round, again due to Unnerving Calm feat), or participate(making an Intimidate check or, if he also has Unnerving Calm, a Concentration check, to oppose Achille's, with the winner getting +1 to hit and damage and the loser getting -1 to hit and damage, against each other only, for the duration of the encounter. Again, this is only if the target has an Intelligence score of 3 or higher.
[roll1]

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Achille, flanking maneuvers. Everyone, mind the civilians. Let's go!"

[roll0]

[Lucid_Archon]

"Wow, neat. Let's kill it!"

[roll0]

[Magnus_Samma]

The order: 22-Kara
20-Thrax
18-Rin
17-Horrific Maiming Killbeast that Reams Things
15-Achille
14-Angel
7-Stephanie
1-The Gnome

The Gar Adduran blasts into the air and sails over the troops, skidding to a halt in the very narow window between the white construct and the convoy, drawing its enormous blade with the motion. The beast takes a swipe at the black gear with its sword, but fails to pierce the Adduran's thick armor.

"Take it down fast and hard!" roars Kara, brandishing the Adduran's collossal sword.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax flanks to the side of the Adduran and the white beast, moving around towards the wagons with civilians in them. His eyes glow bright and flash, and for a moment, his body seems to shimmer with something akin to moisture. His eyes continue to burn brightly azure as he stops, readying his crossbow.

Thrax manifests Offensive Precognition. (OOC: How close are we to the baddy now?)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin yells a guttural battlecry and charges the enemy, bringing her sword around in a strong backhand at it's chest level.

[spoiler](Charge, Power Attack 2.)
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Magnus_Samma]

(You guys are starting out about forty feet away.)

The bone creature swings its sword at Rin as she attacks it, the net result being that both of them manage to swing wide and miss the other, leaving both unharmed.

(Someone asked earlier if the thing looked damaged? I think I forgot to say anything about that. It doesn't look damaged. Thing's in pristine condition, really.)

[Winged One]

Achille
AC 24(10+2 DEX+3 dodge+13 armor-2 size-2 stance) touch 11
HP 39/39 mech 40/40
6 action points

Achille darts into the melee to surround the Horrific Maiming Killbeast that Reams Things with the rest of Squad 1.1 and delivers a strike that is halfway between a stab and a slash, putting every muscle in his arms and every gear or spell in the arms of the Caex into it, then pulling back as soon as it can go no further and guarding with the sword in a diagonal across his chest.
Move action: move to flank with whoever is convinient
Swift action: move into Punishing Stance(+1d6 damage, -2 AC, in case you've forgotten)
Standard action: initiate Emereld Razor. Fighting defensively(-4 to hit, +3 dodge to AC due to 5 ranks in Tumble), Power Attack -3/+6. Attack is against touch AC.
[roll0]+3 BAB -3 Power Attack +2 flank -2 size +2 enhancement -4 fighting defensively +8 STR
[roll1] 4d6 base+1d6 stance+2 enhancement+12 STR+6 Power Attack
[roll2]

[Winged One]

Did the HMKtRT dodge Rin's last attack, or did she just hit it's armor or carapace? If the former, using an action point to augment that attack roll: [roll0]

[Lucid_Archon]

"Taste the might of Onatar, vile thingie!"

Stephanie charges her Kothar forward, and swings it's massive axe haphazardly at the monstrosity.

Attack Roll:[roll0]
Slashing Damage:[roll1]
Shocking Damage:[roll2]

[Elvith Jars]

"Lady of the Flame, guide my aim." She says over the comm crystal as the combat starts. Angel steps to within whatever constitutes point blank range for a mobile suit, flanking if possible.

"FROSTBURN!"

Angel yells as she lets loose a crossbolt round. The blue-flamed bullet leaves an icy trail as divine magic mixes with cold enchanted fury and streaks towards the monster...


AC 27 (25 +2 from shield of faith), 25 flat-footed
HP 45 (stomper)/22 (Angel)
Touch 10

To Hit: 1d20 +5 + 1(divine favor): +1 (point blank) = 22 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1378522
Damage: 3d8+2 = 18 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1378526 +1 (divine favor)
+1 (point blank shot)
+1d6 = 4 (cold) http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1378529
Total Damage: 24

[Magnus_Samma]

(Rin failed to pierce the thing's AC. Which... I -think you did too, action point or not... that's a really confusing bunch of numbers right there. XD)

Achille, Angel, Stephanie, and The Gnome attack the beast. Angel's shot goes wide, but Stephanie and Achille manage to hit and cut great splintered gashes across the thing's torso. The Gnome lets out a fearsome battle cry, rushes forwards, sword wielded back and forth like a maniac, trips on a rock, flies foward, over the beast's head, and slams into the Gar Adduran.

You can hear Kara let out a few choice words over the comm as her mobile suit stumbles backwards, managing to skid to a halt just before both mechs would have flattened the caravan.

"... sorry boss... just tryin' to help."

"Bad gnome! No helping!"

"Aw man..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Assuming Thrax's actions don't significantly change the situation))

Rin grits her teeth and refocuses, pushing her frustration at missing the enemy into her magic, and that magic into the enormous sword in her suit's hands. "Think you're tough, huh? Check this out! Lightning Sword!" As she swings the blade, a bolt of lightning courses from hilt to tip, and hopefully into the metal of the enemy suit.

HP: 40/17
AC: 23 Touch 8 Flat 23
Spells Remaining: 5/4

Arcane Channel: Shocking Grasp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shockingGrasp.htm)
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

[Nerd-o-rama]

Better make that a Stylish Lightning Sword

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

(OOC: Arrgh. For some reason I never saw Mag's post last night, or else I would've replied before now. And yes, I checked the board several times last night. >_<)

Thrax's eyes glow brighter as moves about ten feet closer to the monster and takes aim at the giant beastie. The bolt in his crossbow glows slightly as he fires it, sending it flying faster than the weapon alone could.

(OOC: Thrax expends his psionic focus to use Psionic Shot; he's also moving to just within Point Blank shot range)
To Hit: Natural 19 (threatens critical) + 1 equipment + 2 Base Attack + 2 Dex + 1 insight (Offensive Precognition) +1 misc (Point Blank Shot) = 26

To Confirm: 15 + 1 equipment + 2 Base Attack + 2 Dex + 1 insight + 1 misc = 22

Damage (w/o critical): 6(1d8) +1 (equipment) +1 misc (Point Blank Shot) + 10 (2d6, Psionic Shot) = 18
(I believe Psionic Shot is considered a modifier for the purposes of damage multiplication, but I'm not sure. If so, the critical damage would be 36, otherwise, it would be 26.)

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Oh, sonofacrap. I forgot arcane spell failure for my Shocking Grasp spell. Well, here goes))

[roll0]

[Magnus_Samma]

Rin gets her spell off, and she makes contact, but the glow glances off the white thing's heavy armor.

Thrax's corssbow bolt, now... uh... it hits square in the middle of the huge gash created by Achille's Emerald Razor and busts a sizable hole in what is now clearly a cockpit. The pilot inside, a man in a black uniform with goggles, screams something offensive in Goblinoid and steps on the warforged.

(Thrax takes 25 damage.)

[Winged One]

Achille
AC 21 touch 8 flat 19
HP 39/39 Mech 40/40
5 action points
The lifting of the Caex's sword over his head(trying to cut at the mechanoid again as part of the movement) for a wild overhand blow that contrasts sharply with the skill of the one before heralds Achille breaking from his numb state. Along with a screamed and mostly incomprehensible stream of death threats in a mix between the Valenar dialect of elven and goblinoid with a thick hobgoblin accent, of course. No matter how effective or ineffective the blow is(even if it finishes off the enemy pilot), he moves the blade to point at the enemy's apparently living mechanoid from around shoulder level for the Caex, clearly intending to try and duplicate the results of the previous attack despite lacking the calm calculation he employed last time.

Swift action: required, along with a standard action to either attack or do nothing, for a warblade to recover his maneuvers at the end of this round.
Standard action: Attack, of course. Power Attack -3
[roll0]+8 STR +2 enhancement -2 size +2 flanking +3 BAB -3 Power Attack
[roll1] 4d6 base +1d6 stance +12 STR +2 enhancement +6 Power Attack
Move Action: used to do two things. The first is jack. You get 3 guesses what the second is.
Expended maneuvers recovered at the end of this turn.

[Winged One]

Forgot to roll fire damage. [roll0]

[Magnus_Samma]

(Nerd-o-Rama made a valid point in the OOC thread. You guys want to make some AoOs?)

[Winged One]

AoO: [roll0][roll1][roll2]

[Nerd-o-rama]

Frustrated at her inability to hit the enemy, Rin shouts and takes a wild swing as he stomps past. "Hey tiny! What's the matter, I'm not threatening enough? Urgh!"

Attack of Opportunity: Power Attack 3
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

((EDIT: Forgot you can't declare Power Attack off your turn. Add three to the attack and subtract six from the damage. Honestly, that probably works in my favor...))

[Elvith Jars]

I'm at point blank range at whatever that counts as for a giant robot (30 ft for humans) but outside of melee range so I don't think I get an AoA unless firing into melee counts.

Angel reflexively pumps the crossbolt to load another round and then realizes how difficult it is to hit the monster. This War Gear has too much armor and has lousy dexterity for ranged combat! I can't shoot worth sh*t! I need to be light and fast on my feet so I can finesse the shot and use hit and run tactics. Float like a butterfly, sting like a buffalich*...

"That's no monster, it's a mobile suit! Time to change tactics. Eat this, Steelbone!** BODY SHOTS!"

The emitter on the Ixen's left torso lights up and four magic missiles burst out, two arching left and two arching right, looking like the Ixen launched flares. The eye-searing missiles dive to the ground, zip between the legs of the melee combatants, and pummel Steelbone from the groin to the chest.

Magic Missile Seal: 4d4+4= 14 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1383198

*Buffalich: a buffalo turned into a lich.
**Steel-bone: a.k.a. Horific Maiming Killbeast that Reams Things

[Lucid_Archon]

"By the gods, that hideous beast ate that poor goblin! We have to save it! Sharn Justice Squad GO!"

The kothar wild swings it's axe at the mech, hoping to connect at all.

Attack Roll: [roll0]
Slashing Damage: [roll1]
Shocking Damage: [roll2]

[Nerd-o-rama]

"You're...new to this whole "giant robot" concept, aren't you Steph," Rin asks in a flat tone.

[Lucid_Archon]

"Actually, I have three dozen registered designs of functioning mecha on file, in addition to at least fifty system designs. Why do you ask?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax attempts to dodge out of the way of the giant foot of the mech, but he's not quite fast enough and winds up smashed aside, the huge machine's foot tearing a gash along his chest. He rolls away some from the impact, and winds up about five feet from the thing's foot, on his stomach. He lies there, head facing the mech that just stomped him, watching it.

[Magnus_Samma]

Achille and Stephanie, sadly, fail to pierce the mech's armor again. Rin, however, lands a solid hit to the cockpit, followed by Angel's magic missile attack. The mobile suit's pilot is reduced to a fine red mist and the machine topples over backwards, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

*FF7 victory music, 500 exp for everybody.*

"... good work!" cheers Kara.

[Winged One]

Achille

Achille starts to let out a bone-chilling scream and stab right through the cockpit, but at Kara's praise, he instantly switches to a less agressive stance, holds the sword ready, but without intention to attack, and says "Um, thanks, Commander! Can someone, er, fix Thrax's body? He's not, ah, dead, right?" There's a note of desperation in the last question...

Going into stanceless state.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax slowly rolls over and sits up, his body creaking. He unslings his pack and fishes about in it before pulling out a small vial and opening it. He quickly dumps the dark liquid into his mouth and quickly looks a little bit better, but not by much. His joints quit creaking though as he stands up and reslings his pack.

"I'm not dead yet....though a bit of repair work or some healing would be much appreciated."

He looks down at the rather large gash in his chest that's still there. He shrugs and looks to the mech they just defeated.

"Though it might be better for the artificers to work on the suit we just defeated....a lucky shot like that may not be enough next time..."

(Thrax used an Oil of Repair - gained 3 HP. Now AT 3 HP.)

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Angel, fix up the tin man - that was a good shot, by the way Thrax. Steph, get the suit up and running so he's got some armor next time."

Rin turns her suit and looks down at the remains of the goblin pilot she helped take down. "So what do we figure? Mercenary? Or is someone in Darguun getting greedy with all the war noises the Four Nations are making?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax limps over to where the enemy mech fell, figuring that it'll be easier to just have all the spellcasters in the same place.

"Thanks for the complement, but honestly, I was surprised it was as effective as it was against a machine as massive as this....I'm still going to say it's a lucky shot."

He seats himself on the ground, as if to accentuate his last statement.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Eh, skill or luck, you still made him angry enough to pretty much walk into my sword. Speaking of, the armor on these guys is thicker than I thought. Can't just hack through it, even with a magic sword." She sighs. "Guess I'll have to 'restrain myself' and be more accurate next time. Or use targeting spells. Hm...Wraith Strike would be a good spell to have, but it'd take a lot of research to fit it into Dusk style...hey Steph, can I borrow some chalk? I need to do some diagramming."

At this point, she seems to have largely forgotten the previous combat, and is more talking to herself while absentmindedly leaving her hand on the comm crystal.

[Elvith Jars]

"When in doubt, kick 'em in the nuts... Those magic missiles worked better than just shooting it." Angel muses. "Already on it honcho," She says to Rin. "Healing magic isn't very effective on warforged but I'll see what I can do. And I might be able to help you improve your melee chances in the future, and beef up your suit's armor too, if we have enough warning lik we did this time. Oh, Commander, is this the convoy you were looking for? Maybe they know something about that missing pilot."

Unsure of the tactical situation but satisfied that she can channel spells through the War Gear mobile suit, Angel's Ixen safes the crossbolt rifle, bends down gently to touch Thrax, concentrates, and channels healing magic through the suit. Azure flames flow down the armor's right arm and down its fingers and finally onto Thrax's body. At first the flames are cool, but then become a soothing warmth along the warforge's wounds.

Cure light wounds
1d8+2=9 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1386651

If it appears that Thrax needs more healing, she'll cast another CLW: 1d8+2=9 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1386680. Half that would be 4.5...

"I've got a bit of healing magic in reserve. Beyond that I'll be down to using first-aid until we can rest. By the way, are these mobile suits customizable? I hate to say it but the Ixen feels a bit clumsy for ranged attacks. Kinda odd for a fire support ...mobile suit."

[Lucid_Archon]

Steph whistles to herself in the Kothar. She doesn't say anything in response to Rin's request for chalk for a few long moments. Finally, she responds.

"Hey, I have some chalk. Why don't you use mine?"

"... Who in Khyber is Steph?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Steph. It's like 'Stephanie', but much more changeling-y-sounding, am I right?"

She looks around, her armor mimicking her wariness rather poorly. "And now that I think about it, let's stay combat ready. I'd need a proper lab for spell research anyhow. Just put a couple of Repair infusions into that enemy suit so Thrax can use it, alright?"

[Lucid_Archon]

"What kind of a name is Stephanie? And do you even think that Thrax can pilot it? It might not even be made for humanoids of our stature. Let me go inspect the cockpit."

Stephanie starts unharnessing herself from her suit.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Besides 'too long'? Dunno. Never met a Stephanie before."

[The_Snark]

It is at that point that a new voice interrupts over the crystals. "Good afternoon." The voice sounds feminine, but with a slightly artificial quality, like a construct or someone with a rehearsed speech. It continues after a slight pause. "Please identify yourselves."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax looks up as Angel touches his head. Her cure spell perks him up a little more, and some of the gash in his chest starts to heal, but he's still pretty banged up.

""Thank you, dear. I appreciate your efforts."

(OOC: With one CLW Thax'll be up to about 7 HP, which is a little less than a third of his total. I don't know if Angel will want to spend her other CLW on him or save it.)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin responds guardedly over the crystal. "We're with the Brelish military, and I just realized we don't have a squad name, but we'll take care of that later. Who and where are you?"

[Lucid_Archon]

Stephanie is about to hop out of her Kothar when she hears the voice over the crystal. She turns back to answer it.

"This is Mileva Maric, of Squad One Point One of the Brelish special forces. Now you identify yourself, okay?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Well, making up names is good too.

[The_Snark]

"Brelish military status accepted. I am Dove, currently located inside the second wagon." Pause. The voice adds, "The damaged one." Damaged, in this case, apparently means it has been overturned.

[Winged One]

"Um, who else would be piloting these suits? Have some been, er, stolen besides the one I know about? Are you, ah, stuck?

[The_Snark]

"The attacker appears to have been using one as well, or at least something very like it; therefore at least one individual outside the Brelish military possesses suits."

"And yes, I am unable to get myself out from under this."

[Lucid_Archon]

"Thrane and Karrnath are reported to have similar programs in effect, and I've seen confirmed field reports of Thranish war machines."

Mileva hops out of her Kothar and runs over to the broken enemy gear to inspect it.

[Winged One]

"But, ah, how would they have Caexs and Ixens...oh, right, you can't see us. Um, is it okay if I pick the wagon you're in up a bit so you can get out, or do you, er, think you'll get hurt if I do that?" If Dove doesn't have a problem with that, he picks the wagon up exactly enough that it will be possible for someone of human size to get out.

[The_Snark]

"I do not believe it will unduly damage me."

Once Achille has picked up the wagon, a warforged of slightly unusual manufacture comes out from under it. It (she) is on the short side for a warforged, with a mostly wooden structure—she still has metal plating, but it almost looks like it's been partly removed. At least part of her back looks hollow.

"Greetings, Squad One Point One. Do you require any assistance?" The words are still coming over the crystals, rather than being spoken.

[Elvith Jars]

More icyhot blue flames flow from the giant robot and into Thrax, healing him. as noted above for another 4.5 points.

"That'll have to do for now Thrax unless we can rest awhile."

Angel directs her attention to Rin, "Honcho, like I said, I'm down to my healing reserves. Minor wounds only. I'll do what I can for the caravan survivors with what I've got but I'd recommend we secure the area or find a place to hole up to make repairs and heal the wounded, unless we're still on a timetable and can reach that airship soon."

The purple and black Ixen turns towards the caravan survivor and notices the warforge's unusual design. Angel reflexively holds up and looks at her own arms and the Ixen does the same before waving at the newcomer. "Nice to meet you Dove, I'm the team's medic. How many are in your caravan?"

[ooc] Does Dove look like:

http://www.spellflight.com/images/femaleforged.jpg

[Nerd-o-rama]

"I'm gonna have to defer to commander Kara on this one. What's our schedule look like, ma'am?"

[The_Snark]

Not quite how I'd envisioned her, but it's not too far off. She looks almost as if she was partially taken apart and never quite put back together all the way.

"I was not appraised as to the full contents of the caravan." She looks about, turning slowly. "It seems that the guards and drivers have either fled or are in critical condition, and I am uncertain whether the other wagons carried passengers or not."

She stops turning when she comes back to Thrax and Angel. "I am capable of enacting basic structural repairs, although it seems these are no longer necessary. In future, however, it may help to conserve your supplies," she offers both helpfully and a little too late.

[Winged One]

Achille
Achille calls out(not exactly his not-shout, but similar in purpose) around the caravan "Does anyone else need help?"

[Elvith Jars]

"Well if you can do anything get that mobile suit running that'd help," she says pointing at Steelbone. "We thrashed it pretty good. Thrax is stable but still needs more repairs. At the very least, I need to tend to the caravan's dead and dying before we move out." With that Angel searches for more survivors, tending to the most critically wounded first.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax just nods again as he's healed and the large gash in his chest closes some. He hauls himself to his feet and begins poking around the white mech as Angel shifts her attention to the Warforged survivor, looking for indications of what country might have sent it....

(Search - 14)
(Thrax is now at 11 HP)

[Magnus_Samma]

The vast majority of the caravan's personnel seem to have fled, and those few that remain are no longer among the living- the mobile suit's pilot seemed to enjoy stepping on people a little too much. Kara is silent for a long moment, then, "Hmmm, got in touch with headquarters, they want us to head for the rendevous point as soon as is feasible, but we've got plenty of time for a night's stop, and there's enough supplies in the caravan for us to make a good night of it. Seems there's been a change of plans regarding Dove here, too, the brass wants her to come with us. Apparently whoever was going to be examining her in Wroat's been transferred to the airship we're headed for."

The cockpit of the white mech is largely the same as that of the Brelish suits, aside from being soaked in blood. Inscribed on the inside of the hatch is the legend: "Kar3-P-01 Phantom"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax hops down after seeing the inscription on the hatch. He crosses his arms and thinks outloud.

""Kar3-P-01 Phantom....Hmmmm. Karrnathi, maybe?"

[Elvith Jars]

"Roger that Ma'am. Since there's nothing more to do except burry the dead, I'll go ahead and use up my reserves. I hope all our stops don't end this way..."

Stomper the Bitchen Ixen squats down enough for Angel to climb out of the cockpit. The beautiful half-elven, dark skinned woman, in her mid-twenties with a khaki shirt, brown gloves, black leather chaps over light-blue pants and matching black boots grabs her pack and katana as she kicks the boarding ladder overboard and dismounts her giant robot. She briefly greets Dove in person and then channels the last of her energy into healing Thrax. The icyhot flames are just a brief flicker compared to before but they do the job. She looks somewhat tired but reaches into her pack, grabs her fedora hat and folding shovel, and gets to work administering last rights and burrying the dead.

"Here's a question for you artificers: is it possible to build a device that would convert healing magic channeled into it to something more effective for repairing warforged?" Like I used to have... she recalls.

Thrax gains an additional 3 HP

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin gradually assumes her slight red-haired human shape as she unfastens from her mobile suit and eventually hops down.

"Right. Burial and salvage. Damn but this place got dangerous all of a sudden." She walks over to Dove and extends her hand to the incomplete-looking Warforged. "Dove? Nice to meet you. I'm Rin of Fairhaven. Although...you know, I really should get a proper surname if I'm working for someone besides Aundair. Anyway, though, I guess you're with us, at least until we get to the rendezvous."

She then starts looking over the damaged caravan. "Hmm...guess it's only fair if I'm on burial detail here. Let's see...three, four, five...eight people. Alright, Angel, Thrax, and myself, grab shovels. Achille and...Mileva, you take Dove and look over the wagons for anything we can use. Commander and Gnome-guy, you outrank me by a wide margin, so do whatever. Right then." She then does her best to find a shovel and a casualty and get to digging.

[Winged One]

Achille takes a short gasp-like breath and then answers in his creepy monotone not-shout "I don't think so. Not many humans from Karrnath speak Goblin when they're that mad. I'd be able to recognize his fighting style if he was one of the other people like that that I know besides me, and he might have also yelled in Elven."
Unless he initiated some maneuvers that Magnus didn't tell me I needed to roll Martial Lore for, that is.
Rin's plan breaks Achille's emotionless state and he calls down from the Caex's cockpit without exiting it, "Um, shouldn't I watch for, ah, more attackers?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax shrugs as Angel heals him once more. The gash in his chest has mostly healed, but there's still a few dents and scrapes here and there. He moves over to the wagons and looks around for either a shovel or a piece of debris to use as one, then begins digging.

[Nerd-o-rama]

She walks over to Achille's Caex, looks up at him and stage shout-whispers. "Yeah. I was kinda trying to make the commander do that without actually ordering her to. It's a fiendishly clever plan, I know, so I'm not surprised you were fooled." She considers concealing a grin, but figures Achille doesn't really do subtle, so she goes ahead and doesn't to clue him in to the facetiousness of he comments.

[Winged One]

After a moment, Achille takes the straps off of one of his arms arm to see if that stops the suit from reacting to his arm. If it does, he does something with that arm that takes about 2 seconds before he starts finishing the process of getting out of the Caex. If it doesn't, the pause occurs right before he opens the hatch to step out of the Caex.

He's about average height, with slightly tanned skin and a few scars here and there. Apparently, he never got the chance to change into a military uniform, since he's dressed more like a civilian who does a lot of traveling. His posture is even worse than usual, since he's obviously trying to avoid giving anyone a decent look at his eyes(which are gray, as the non-warforged should know) by staring at the ground more than he normally does. His hair is brown and looks like he cuts it with the bastard sword sheathed at his waist. Once he's out of the Caex, he goes and looks through whatever areas noone else is in at the moment.

[roll0]
Yes, I know I should have stated his appearance into the thread when the game first started so that I wouldn't have had to make it up again now due to the profiler outage.
Anyone who gets a good look at his eyes against his wishes can see that his eyes have gotten red and slightly puffy, which is almost certainly why he doesn't want anyone to see them.

[Nerd-o-rama]

[roll0]

Rin notices (probably) Achille's odd movements, but decides not to pressure him about it.

Hm.

She quietly finds a shovel or shovel-surrogate and a casualty and begins digging, somewhere where Achille won't have to watch.

[Winged One]

Noticing that he's hiding them at all is DC You Don't Have to Roll Unless You Think It Would Be Funny To Fail(in which case I'd call it 5). If you want to see the above post's spoiler, it's a Spot check, not Sense Motive.

[The_Snark]

Dove nods affirmation and gives a pleasant greeting to the unit healer (designation currently unknown, inquire during nonthreatening situation), and begins moving towards the downed suit.

"Nice to meet you too, Rin." She's not certain whether Rin is her superior or not, and defaults to saying, "With your permission, I will repair what I can of the downed suit first, since you have a spare squadmate." She walks over to the possibly-Karrnathi suit, looking it over to gauge its capabilities; as she does, the worst rents in the suit, like the gaping hole in the cockpit, begin closing themselves together.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin comments on the work while digging. "Hey neat," *shovel*, "a respectful artificer," *shovel* "my day just got," *shovel* "a lot better." *shovel*

[Elvith Jars]

"Thanks for the help, Honcho," Angel smiles, taking a break. "Don't know if you caught it earlier but one of the things I can do to help is provide buffs for the mobile suits before a fight. I used shield of faith and divine favor before fighting 'Steelbone' over there. Those two spells gave Stomper extra armor and steadied its aim somewhat, respectively. Not that it didn't help much this time given how the Ixen is configured, but every little bit helps.

"I don't really know what arcane enhancements you have access to, but I'm guessing I have access to magical enhancements that you and the artificers might not. Just something to keep in mind. Since you've gravitated to the squad's leadership role, I figure it's best you know what the team can do so we can complement each other's strengths and be that more effective."

She yawns and resumes digging. "Totally getting a workout today..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Yeah, yeah, I know my combat buffs," Rin comments back, leaning on her shovel for a short break. "I was just busy ignoring your pervy conversation with the commander. Next time, I probably could use the extra armor, though..."

"And as for leadership role, it's strictly out of necessity, you know?" she adds quietly, digging in with her shovel again. "I've obviously got the most combat experience here except the commander and maybe Achille, and that guy's in no shape to give orders. A squad needs a corporal, so I guess I volunteered. Here, get his legs." After the unlucky caravaneer is in the ground and she's begun putting the dirt back over him, she adds, "Plus, it turns out ordering people around is nearly as fun as the actual fighting. I should've gotten an adventuring party years ago."

[Elvith Jars]

"Yeah, I don't find a kindred spirit like the Commander too often, I'll try to keep it on the QT next time." Angel grabs the caravaner's legs and hoists the cadaver into the hole. "There's a difference between being bossy and being the boss. I think you've got the potential for the latter. Works better from a respect and teamwork perspective from wha I've seen."

"I don't have much experience working with an adventuring party but I learned a lot about teamwork from the 12th Strikers- one of House Lyrandar's Special Forces team, better known as 'Lightning Strike'. We used to go HALO jumping- High Altitude, Low Operation (with feather fall talismans), do our thing, then get back to the airship. Got over my fear of flying that way, that's for sure, heh.

"I was the unofficial thirteenth member for a couple of years after the war. They like me because I can channel whatever spell I know that is appropriate for the situation rather than trying to guess what I'll need beforehand. That, and I didn't try to shove my faith down their throats like the teams' official priest did."

*dig dig dig...*

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax keeps on digging in his quiet way. He's half listening to the girls and half watching the artificers as they work on the downed suit. His gaze seems to fixate on the newcomer when he looks up,though he doesn't say anything to her.

[Lucid_Archon]

As the rest of the squad digs graves or tries to salvage bits of the caravan, Mileva stands in the cockpit of the Phantom, giggling like a homicidal schoolgirl. Even when Dove begins repairing the suit, Mileva stands completely unresponsive, cackling at the controls of the suit.

[The_Snark]

Dove stares at Mileva in between looking over the downed suit (although she never actually touches it, or anything but look at it). Perhaps fortunately, her expression is naturally a bit hard to read.

Finally, she asks, "Are you all right, Miss Maric?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"And didn't I tell you you were on salvage?" Rin shouts over from her current workplace.

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva abruptly stops laughing and turns to face Dove, wiping tears from her eyes. She then dives onto her, embracing her tightly.

"This is such a beautiful armor, so beautifully crafted. Being inside of it is just so... exhilarating. Can't you feel it?"

She doesn't seem to have any intent of letting Dove go.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax glances at Rin, looking to see what her next move might be. He doesn't really stop working though.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Steph? Mileva? Whatever your name is? Stop spazzing out and help Achille look for stuff. I promise we can keep the skeleton-mech-thing for you to play with later," she calls across again.

[The_Snark]

"It is very well-crafted," Dove says carefully, trying her best not to fall over. "Perhaps... you should repair it, or we could start looking through the caravan?" she suggests in a soothing tone.

[Lucid_Archon]

"Yes, well, I suppose I should indulge the short psychotic prostitute. We can finish this later."

She gives Dove one last squeeze before hopping down from the mecha. She runs over to Achille still smiling like a maniac.

"Hey! Quiet guy! Find anything yet? Huh? Huh?"

[Elvith Jars]

*dig dig dig*... This all seems familiar to Angel somehow... She looks over at Steph-Mil after hearing her comment, shrugs, then gets back to work.

[Nerd-o-rama]

...
...*twitch*

"We've got another artificer now, right?" Rin observes to Angel. "That means I can kill her and we won't be short a man, right?"

Fuming, she marches in a direct line toward the other Changeling, fists clenching and twitching in the direction of her sword hilt.

[The_Snark]

Dove follows, catching sight of an extremely angry Rin on the way. She pitches her voice tactfully low, for Mileva to hear. "Mileva, I believe you have offended Rin..."

[Elvith Jars]

"Naw, honcho, but you get to tell someone else to do it. But if you're gonna go psycho, don't you need an axe or a magic chainsaw or something?" She laughs, then adds, "Have you ever considered that she's deliberately provoking you and you're just giving her what she wants?"

She turns back to work but then something in the back of her brain kicks in, and it's not her sex drive in high gear. Although..."Say Dove, the Commander said the Brelish military wanted to examine you. Any idea why? Your construction isn't standard, is that it?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"I got a big sword and lightning powers. That's good enough for me!" Rin shouts back, without taking her eyes off her target.

[Lucid_Archon]

"Actually, I somehow doubt Dove is an artificer, as she never touched the suit, and because of her unusual construction I would be led to believe that-OHGODSSHE'SGOINGTORAPEME!!!"

Mileva hides behind Dove, trying to use her as a shield from Rin.

[The_Snark]

"I am not an artificer, in fact, I—Rin, don't you think you should talk this over first?" Dove asks, interposing herself... or, well, actually Mileva is already behind her?

[Elvith Jars]

"Sweet Voice of The Flame, that girl ain't right... I wonder if Steph is from Cyre?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin stands, arms on hips, and glares intensely at her quarry.

"Okay, first off? I'm short by choice. It throws off the enemy in a fight. I'm a good five-eight by default. Second, psychotic?" She pauses and seems to consider. "Let me get back to you on that."

At this point she gets significantly louder, and starts emphasizing her sentences with wild swings of her arm and accusatory points toward the other changeling. "Third...I'll give you a warning this time, 'cause we're both new hires and I don't want to get sacked for decapitating you. If you ever even imply that I would give up my body for money again, you die. Period. Half the rest of our species may be disgusting sluts, but I'm not one of them, and don't you damn well forget it!"

She sighs, and seems to regain some composure. "And finally, what the Khyber? Why would I rape you? That's disgusting. Kill you, sure. Defile the corpse, maybe, but not like that."

She then reaches back over her shoulder and puts her hand on her sword hilt. "Now, are we clear, or am I going to have to demonstrate consequences?"

[Lucid_Archon]

"Alright, my response is as follows; Three, you have iss-ues! Two, aha! So you admit it! Four, preconditioned response. One, short can quantify other aspects than your height, and in this case it does. Additionally, it would be implied that said 'consequences' are undesirable as I've taken steps to avoid them."

Mileva is unnecessarily twitchy by the time she's stopped talking.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin smiles in her most disconcerting manner. Rather effective, since she's still in her fifteenish-year-old girl shape. "Yeah, I've got issues. But there's a very simple way to avoid me taking them out on you, and now you know."

She releases her sword and moves out of any semblance of a combat stance. "And knowing is half the battle. The other half is getting your ass kicked by me, so I'd quit while you're ahead."

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva pulls out a fork from her belt.

"Once killed three men with this one fork in a bar fight. Shall I demonstrated how I did it?"

She menaces with it's spikes of metal.

[The_Snark]

Dove looks back and forth between the two, reasonably satisfied at the low level of threats, until Mileva pulls out... a fork (used in threatening manner, inquire as to reasoning at later date). "Please refrain from taking hostile action against one another. This is," she adds meaningfully, "a recent combat zone." Still polite, but in a much firmer tone.

[Elvith Jars]

"Yeah. No fighting in the war zone. Can one of you give me a hand with this one?" Angel points to the cadaver, still curious about why Breland wants to examine Dove.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Heh. You're very brave when it looks like I'm backing down," Rin says dismissively. "But Dove here has a point. And we both have jobs to do. Now get to work."

She turns her back to Mileva, and goes back to help Angel with the burial.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax watches for a second as Rin and Mileva go back and forth before going back to work. He makes a mental note to stay away from the crazy one....and not to piss off the other...

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva goes to help Achille with the salvaging, putting th fork back in her belt. Her clothing shifts from a military outfit to a slightly stained peasant garb.

[The_Snark]

Dove pauses and looks back towards Angel for a moment, but they're on duty and Angel wasn't in her mech; she makes a note to answer her question and get her name when one or the other condition stopped. Methodically, she assists in looking through the wagons and debris.

Search [roll0]

[Winged One]

"Um, no, I haven't found anything yet..." Achille answers the name-changeling. It seems that he'd like to tell the changelings to knock it off, but all he can get out is a mumbled "Please stop fighting..." Once the crazier one pulls the fork, he starts going for his sword, but stops when she seems to listen to Dove and Angel. When she goes to help him, he finds that the process of salvaging is quite helpful for stopping her from getting a good look at his eyes.

Just trying to explain the craptastic Search check. Apparantly, I rolled a d2 on the regular check. My die gives an 18 after his INT bonus.

[Magnus_Samma]

There's a lot to find, but not much variety- the caravan was mostly carrying weapons and supplies for humanoid soldiers, and none of the former better than masterwork. There are rations and various other odds and ends in plenty, though, and some food that isn't usually used for rations and looks reasonably fresh.

Kara watches the altercation between the two shangelings very carefully, but doesn't intervene. She helps bury the bodies, and then joins the others in searching for useful supplies. She's there when Achille uncovers a large device that resembles a giant-sized bracelet set with what appears to be some kind of measuring device, which is covered in dials and switches.

"Hmmm, this might help any problems you lot have with the suits' balance," says Kara, loudly enough for all to hear. "This is a machine artificers can use to adjust the enchantments on a mech. David can use it to tune your machines to your specifications, if you like."

The Gnome, meanwhile, after watching the two girls almost beat the crap out of each other in rapt fascination, takes a little while to look Dove up and down a few dozen times. It's probably very unnerving.

(You guys can adjust the Strength and Dex bonuses on your machines as much as you want by trading points in one for points in the other. The limit is that there must be a bonus of at least +2 in the lower stat boost and that for every +2 you put into Dex, the mech is going to lose a point of its armor bonus to AC. The supplies are pretty standard fare- if you want, assume you can pick up one or two of more or less any mundane item from the PHB at this point, though I'm sure most of you already have everything you want in that area.)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin, having finished with the burials in the time the others took to search, wanders over to look at the stat-adjuster machine. "Mmm...nope, my Caex is good I think. I just need to work on my precision against these other suits. Neat thing, though."

Rin then walks over to take a look at the other search results. "Right. Good job you all. If anyone forgot anything, go ahead and take it. Respectfully. Other than that, grab whatever food and...hey boss, are we camping here, or moving on?" She looks up to gauge the time of day as she waits for a response.

[Elvith Jars]

Exhausted, Angel finishes the last of the burials, but perks up a bit after hearing about the rebalancing bracelet. "Hey David... Daaaaviiiid..." Trying to get the gnome's attention, who seems to be leering at Dove.... "Eberron to David... DAVID! Hey, snap out of it, will ya?" She waits until she has his attention. "That bracelet thing, can you rebalance Stomper's sense of balance with it?" She says, pointing at the purple and black Ixen she's been riding in. "For a fire support War- mobile suit, it's too strong for its own good. Fine motor control gets too exaggerated and throws off my aim. Can you dial it down a bit so subtle movements don't get washed out?"

Trading 6pts str for dex, new AC +12

[Nova_Eclipse]

When he's finished digging, Thrax takes a few moments to look around in the caravan before gravitating towards the downed and now at least partially fixed suit. He spends a few moments looking in the cockpit, attempting to figure out how and what the various things do, though he doesn't actually go into it just yet, as he's aware the artificers might not be finished with it. To that end he looks to where Dove and David went, and over the areas that they worked on to see how much has been fixed.

[The_Snark]

Dove notices the Gnome watching her, although she doesn't seem to know what to make of it. For a while, she settles on ignoring it, but once Angel goes over to talk with him, Dove silently follows. She might as well address two curious individuals at the same time. If that was why he was staring at her.

"I don't think I had either of your names... David? And..." She trails off looking at Angel expectantly.

[Elvith Jars]

"Angel," she says wearily, waiting for the gnome who seems lost in thought even after apparently getting his attention. "Nice to meet you."

[Lucid_Archon]

"Ah, it's sad, my darling Kothar is too old of a model to modify for my benefit. You would think the nation that made an entire city fly could infuse a suit with a bit more potent dweomer-weave. Well, maybe the next batch..."

Mileva looks around at the newcomer and Thrax, and starts counting on her fingers.

"We've not enough suit so go around, one short by my count. Who gets to sit on Rin's head this time?"

[The_Snark]

"That will not be necessary, I am happy to say. The reason I was in the convoy in the first place, as you asked earlier," she nods to Angel, "was that I have been extensively modified to serve the suits much as a docent does when attached to a warforged. I do not require a suit of my own to function, and should be able to fit within the framework of most standard production models."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin looks at Dove incredulously at that announcement.

"That...is incredibly cool! What all do you add to a suit if you're not piloting it?"

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva stares at Dove agape for a moment, then launches into rant.

"Cool? That's amazing! I knew you were special, a body that beautiful isn't just made for ascetics! You are the most amazing advancement in Warforged technology since the incorporation of living tissue. Do... Do you want to... ride in my Kothar?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax notes the commotion over Dove, but is probably just out of earshot, and makes a mental note to ask her about it later. He continues his inspection of the Phantom, looking over its head and arms, noting differences between it and the Breland models that everyone else is piloting.

[The_Snark]

Dove looks gratified under all the attention. And possibly slightly bemused by some of it. "I can assist the pilot, but more importantly, I can provide enhanced sensory capacity, accuracy, or an added layer of defense to all suits in communication with me."

"I would be happy to," she adds to Mileva after a moment of only slightly awkward thought, "although the final decision is up to the commander, of course. I would be best centrally located."

[Winged One]

Achille

Huh. I wonder if any other countries have that sort of thing. Achille thinks when he and Kara find the balancing device, remaining silent. When Rin gives permission to take stuff respectfully, he thinks for a bit, then smacks himself on the forehead. "Er, I think I left everything in the, um, prototype Kothar I was in." He's busy moving the supplies needed for an extended period of time traveling by foot, including no-doubt-redundant human-sized weapons and armor, into the Caex he pilots, when Dove announces her ability. "Ah, Dove, how long ago were you made?" he calls curiously.

I'll list all the stuff he takes on his character sheets, and then on the OOC thread.[roll0] To know that warforged creation has been illegal since the official end of the Last War. EDIT: got my modifier wrong, it's really +7 for 16.

[Elvith Jars]

"A giant robot docent? Dove, a docent is what, a familiar for a warforged? Well I guess that answers why Breland wants a look at you, but that would also imply that Breland didn't make you either. Who did?"

Angel grabs a medkit from the caravan's supplies, along with Slip-N-Slide if there is any.

[The_Snark]

"I was constructed five years, three months, and ten days ago at a House Cannith Forge in Sharn," Dove responds obediently, "although I was a standard model then. The modifications were made by Brelish artificers, but I do not believe they were expected to make any practical progress until recently, hence my transfer to Wroat."

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva freezes, and shivers for a moment.

"Dove...? How long ago were your modifications made?"

[The_Snark]

"They are months old or less. The precise dates vary, and are difficult to give in some cases... Why?" She looks at Mileva with a blend of caution and curiousity.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax shrugs after examining the Phantom thoroughly and goes into the cockpit. He messes about for a bit before attempting to strap himself into it as he's seen the others do. Then he attempts to have the large machine sit up where it lies.

[Lucid_Archon]

"I'll tell you my theories later, it would take to long now. I've just found that the timeline sometimes doesn't add up with the warforged project."

She turns to Angel.

"Oh, a docent is an ancient device that can fuse into a modern warforged and act as a guide to them."

She turns back to Dove.

"Such as that."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Well, it's definitely good to have you on the team, Dove. Any additional edge we can get over enemies in mobile suits is a great help."

Hmm. If we can link a 'forged directly to the suit...that gives me an idea for later.

"Hmm...I guess where we assign you depends on whether we give an extra edge to the strongest suit (Kara's or one of the Caexes if you don't like getting lit on fire), or shore up Mileva's prototype unit. Your thoughts, Dove?"

[The_Snark]

Dove nods a confirmation of Mileva's statement.

"I'm not sure I would be able to fit within the largest model. It looks distinctly nonstandard. Tactically..." She hums monotonously a moment, apparently thinking. "It would be sound either to further enhance a strong suit or to bring a weaker one up to the level of the rest of the squad. The most important consideration is that I be placed centrally—if I am out of range of the rest of the squad, I can only give limited aid."

[Winged One]

"Um, how far out is your range?" Achille asks Dove as he moves. "Er, Commander, would it be okay if I took, ah, someone's uniform? I never, um, got one."

[The_Snark]

"Fifty to sixty feet in most tests; beyond that, I can't seem to interact with the binding enchantments well enough to affect anything," she responds, a note of irritation creeping into her voice. "Given the size of the suits, it's not very good. Fortunately, it should not prove too great a limitation in a small force such as this."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Hrm. Well, Mileva's still in a prototype, and she's midline support. Achille and I have got the strongest production models, but we'll likely be on point. For now, I'd go with Mileva unless she bothers you, and believe me, I'll understand if she does."

[Elvith Jars]

"With the changes I hope to make on Stomper, that should bring my ranged capability relatively on par with the melee units- though a long-range sniper attack would be nice too-, so enhancing St-Mileva's suit makes sense."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax manages to get the Phantom to sit up, and from that position, manages to get the suit into a standing position. He takes a few moments to try and familiarize himself with some of the secondary controls, such as the comm systems and the strange weapon on the suit's arm. He is careful to keep the suit away from the people on the ground, however, in case he accidentally sets something off he doesn't intend to.

[Elvith Jars]

"Er... what do you mean the timeline for the warforged project doesn't add up?"

[Magnus_Samma]

Kara hops out of one of the wagons and holds up a spare uniform in front of Achille. "Hmm, yeah, this one's just your size. Wear it proudly."

David is practically peeing his pants over the chance to screw with the bitchin' Ixen, so he's all over that.

The sun is indeed starting to set- you couls still get a couple of hours good marching in if you wanted to, but Kara seems to think that you need your rest at this point- Pulling off her long coat, she starts to build a small fire, musing aloud as she does.

"I agree with Dove about the Adduran... I don't know how she'd interact with its elemental spirit, and I don't like to think about the potential implications of that. She shouldn't bond with David's Ixen, either, he's likely to get her killed."

"Hey!"

"Shut up, David. Anyhow, Dove, as far as I'm concerned you should pair up with whomever you feel the most comfortable with, unless we have a concrete reason for you to go with a specific person. 'Mileva's' as good as anyone at this juncture. Just try not to pick up too many habits."

(Sorry if the posts are coming few and far between, you guys are overwhelming me just a bit. XD)

[Nova_Eclipse]

Having familiarized himself some with the Phantom's basic operations, Thrax has the suit hold itself in a kneeling position as he unstraps from it and hops down. He does take quite a bit of time inspecting the back of the suit and areas he glossed over earlier, looking for compartments or possibly personal effects of its former pilot...

(Thrax takes 20 on searching the suit for such things-total score of 23)

[Nerd-o-rama]

(Just killing time here, boss. Otherwise I'd bug Kara and TG more)

"Well, if we're camping," Rin says as she stretches, arms reaching above her head and coming together. "We'll probably want to be off to the side there." She relaxes with a bit of a bounce. "Hmm...didn't bring camping gear." With that, she briefly disappears into a wagon, in search of a bedroll and other accouterments. When she returns, she's significantly cleaner and less sweaty thanks to a Prestidigitation, and dressed in a more traditional adventuring outfit of a tunic, cloak and leggings. She also seems to have gone with red eyes, for some reason.

[Winged One]

"Um, I'll try..." Achille says, looking a bit worried that he might not be able to comply. "Ah, thanks, Commander." He adds, taking the uniform and going behind a wagon to get changed. He never stops hiding his eyes, of course, meaning he has to grab in the air for the uniform a bit. Once he's changed(assuming that nothing happens while he's getting changed), he starts taking everything that isn't nailed down or on fire gathering supplies again.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Lacking a particular task, Rin wanders over to where Achille is busy resupplying. She regards him for perhaps slightly longer than socially normal before speaking. "So I heard you got to meet King Boranel before you deployed," she opens. "He as crazy as I've been led to believe?"

[Winged One]

Achille doesn't manage to look down fast enough when Rin approaches him to stop her from getting a good look at his eyes. He keeps hauling supplies(currently a tent that he doesn't seem to have realized would do more good on the ground than in the Caex), apparently believing otherwise. "Ah, no, he's actually nice. He saved me from a, um, rampaging bureaucrat. I don't think he likes it when people, er, treat him like he's the king, though."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Yeah, so I'd heard. I can respect a king who's a man of the people, you know?" She pauses awkwardly for a bit. "Commander says we're camping here, by the way. You might want to leave that tent on the ground for now."

[Winged One]

Achille just nods, then slaps himself on the forehead again when Rin points out the camping arrangements. "Ah, where did you say we should set up?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Well, she's got a fire going over there," she hooks her thumb over her shoulder, "but we should probably pitch off to the side, away from the wreckage."

And graves.

Rather suddenly, she changes topics and takes on a much more earnest tone, doing her best to make eye contact with the other pilot. "Listen, I understand how you feel, Achille. But you can't beat yourself up over casualties in a war. If you let things like that get to you...you'll never survive. Trust me, I...I know."

[Winged One]

Achille closes his eyes, and his fact starts to contort before he inhales deeply and it goes entirely blank. "It's been a while since I let myself have friends, and I wouldn't have done it this time if I had known the war was coming back, but it's not new to me. The other times, I didn't even have Heart Freeze." He says in his creepy monotone, meeting her eyes and not blinking. "The new part is being as useless at fighting as I am at everything else..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"That some kind of meditation trick? No, never mind, that's not important. And what do you mean, useless at fighting? You did well against that guy just now"

(OOC: In fact, looking back, I think Magnus might have missed an attack that probably hit. Not that it matters)

"and if you're worried about what the guy in the Dragon mech did to the last squad...I saw what he did to the other mobile suits. Whatever did that was a monster, humanoid-made or not. There was nothing you could have done."

She thinks for a minute. "And I've known you for all of three or four hours, but something tells me you've got other talents besides swinging a sword. What did you do for the five whole years we managed not to be at war?"

[Winged One]

"Yes, it is. The one I'm using now, actually. Did you think it just happened by itself?" Achille says, still in that monotone. "And I'm not worried about anything, not right now. That's why I use Heart Freeze so much. But not being able to do anything is exactly the problem. As for what I was doing, someone once told me she'd send ninjas to kill me if I told anyone. I think she was joking though. She'd probably actually have them find me and then kill me herself."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"That doesn't really narrow it down, you know. Military intelligence agencies, any one of the Houses, any given citizen of Zilargo...hell, my Spellcraft professor at Wynarn once threatened me with ninja, and all I did was show up tardy. I wouldn't worry overmuch about it."

Rin looks closer at Achille's impassive face, analyzing it from different angles. "This is Sublime Way stuff, isn't it? How long can you keep this up?" she asks. Whether she means that psychoanalytically or out of curiosity is left as an exercise to the reader.

[Winged One]

Achille looks impressed that she figured it out...and then goes back to his normal body language(though he's only looking down a bit rather than still trying to hide his eyes). "Er, I think it only lasts until I start to feel something, and it only, ah, stops me from feeling things I was feeling when I, um, started it."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin smiles a bit at seeing his defenses so easy to circumvent. "Ah, I see. I'll have to remember that. You're much more interesting when you're all flustered-looking. So to speak."

Ahem.

"But anyway, you might want to find a coping mechanism that doesn't require blanking all your emotions. I mean, I'm no psychiatrist..." She pauses, looks thoughtful, and flows into a different shape, a much taller, blonde woman in her late twenties or early thirties with slightly harsh features. Her clothing also changes at a muttered command from her, into the white robe typical of healers and researchers. "But I am now. I think you should find what gives you these feelings of self-doubt, and face it head on like a warrior. After all, you're good at fighting."

She smiles narrowly. "I also use this shape for lectures, if you want anything explained to you."

[Elvith Jars]

Angel waits to hear 'Mileva's' response regarding the warforged project's messed up timeline, but if she doesn't say anything, then the miracle-worker shrugs and makes a note to ask again later.

After checking in on David's progress and asking if he can paint Stomper in pixelated camoflauge at some point (possibly once they reach the airship), Angel searches the wagons for supplies and finds some good food, a pup-tent, spare ammo for the Bitchin' Ixen (which she hands to David to rearm, watching how he does it), an unopened bottle of Slip-N-Slide, a recent Korranberg Chronicle, a portable shower (since it seems someone already found the Prestidigitation), a lightweight bathrobe, a beige shirt and brown pants, a composite longbow and quiver of silvered arrows, a towel, and a leather cleaning kit. She takes a few minutes to wash her dirty laundry, sets it to dry, does a quick clean of her leathers, finds a spot behind one of the wagons, and takes a shower.

[Winged One]

Achille looks utterly perplexed by the "interesting" comment. "Um, no I'm not. I could have saved them if I was," he mumbles. "Er, do you think maybe Master Sergent David and I should, ah, set our tents somewhere else?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Well, the Gnome certainly can," Rin observes dismissively. "If I have to turn male to get him to stop harassing me, I'm gonna be pissed," she adds, without really thinking.

[Winged One]

Achille takes out a gold piece, flips it, slaps himself on the head, and says "Um, I forgot which side means which one."

[Magnus_Samma]

David is making excellent progress with stomper, and is very enthusiastic about this "digital camoflague" Angel's telling him about. He'd like to try some for his mech, maybe in a mix of pale oranges, with some yellow highlights...

Kara, having gotten the fire started, sets about putting together a halfway decent meal with the caravan's supplies. It's difficult, if not impossible, to read her expression behind her mask, but she seems to be glancing at Achille and Rin a lot.

Thrax finds that someone has carved "Thronehold or Bust" into the Phantom's left foot.

(Aaaaand I'm going to need a Listen check from Angel.)

[The_Snark]

"... Yes, Commander," Dove says obediently, and assists in setting up camp. Unlike many warforged, though, manual labor does not seem to be among her talents.

She also retrieves her personal effects from the wagon, which are decidedly sparse; a crossbow, a wand of some sort, and a repair kit, and unobtrusively keeps out of everyone's way. Eventually, as they run out of things to do setting up camp, she drifts towards the fire, settling in near it and ineffectually attempting to help the commander; she's never quite mastered the level of burning food necessary to make it palatable.

[Elvith Jars]

Angel continues to enjoy the Portable Shower's magically heated water, filled to the brim by her before getting started. Time slows and light but playfully sexy jazz music pipes in from somewhere as Angel washes herself. Water cascades down her beautifully crafted metal alloy arms in slow motion, down her flesh and blood body, and finally down her well built and shapely artificial legs. Anybody watching (like the audience) only gets a hint of her goodies; she skillfully keeps certain parts of her obscured while showering like a supermodel in heat, but the tattoo at the small of her back is clearly visible, looking like lettering from a forgotten language.

Angel thanks the Silver Flame and her artificier/healer for the umpteenth time for having rust-proof limbs. She suddenly shudders briefly from a flashback, her brain tricking her into thinking she hears the sickening crunch of airships colliding, her body lurching as she gets thrown overboard from the collision, her vision a chaotic mess as she tumbles from the sky...

Then she snaps out of it and double-checks to see that her weapons are within arms reach. Angel tilts her head, maybe she really did hear something...


Listen: 1d20+2 = 14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1396435)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin shifts back to her previous, smaller form and clothing and pats Achille on the shoulder. "Just think about what I said. Confronting problems head-on is a lot better than retreating, whether they're bad guys or doubts."

She then walks over in the direction she smells food cooking.

[Winged One]

Achille reflects on Rin's words while he flips the gold piece again, pockets it, and starts setting his tent wherever the side it lands on would indicate. If someone tells him to set it the other way, he complies.

[roll0]1: together with the women 2: seperate.

[Magnus_Samma]

Angel is sure it's just her imagination.

Kara tries to help Dove cook the evening meal. She's remarkably patient about it, but she also very carefuly makes sure that she cooks the majority of the meatrolls, so there's sure to be enough for everybody. The Gnome shows up when everything's just about ready and chops up a very nice salad. Which Kara then carefully inspects.

"... David, what's this?"

"That? Oh., that's just some... parsley."

"This is horny goat weed."

"... really. I... I had no idea."

Kara hands Rin a couple of canteens. "We passes a small stream on our way here, if you wanted to go fill these up real quick and drop David into it while you're there? That'd be just great. One of you should probably go with her and carry him, too."

The Gnome immediately attempts to flee.

[Lucid_Archon]

As David runs away, a brilliant idea forms in Mileva's head.

"Hey, David! If you come back, I'll show you my chest!"

[Winged One]

Achille chases after the Gnome, grabs him, and starts dragging him in the direction of the river. As he goes, he asks "Ah, what's Horny Goat Weed? Oh, and should we, er, pull him out before or after he drowns?"

Grapple check +6, if you actually want the Gnome to roll to oppose.

Also, since this is an animesque campaign, can we call you "kame-kun"?

[Elvith Jars]

She shrugs it off but finishes her shower, towels off, then dresses in fresh clothes including gloves to keep warm, then joins the campfire. She gives Rin a brief curious look at her red eyes before sitting down. Angel keeps her weapons close by as she sits down to enjoy the meal and read the newspaper, but wonders where The Gnome is running off to. She casually reads through it looking for Tesla's ad, and for some reason, news about Thrane.

"Hm... the Wroat Memorizers beat the Sharn Seahawks 5-3 in cricket. *sigh*"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"No need to debase yourself, Mileva. Assuming you don't want to." Rin comments as she attempts to help Achille tackle the Gnome...shoulder first. No point in giving him what he wants.

(Grapple +5, aiding Achille, if it comes to that. And I've been mentally calling him Samma-sama, actually.)

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax, having found nothing of the former pilot's equipment, quickly stows most of his own possessions aboard the Phantom, save his crossbow and spear. He looks about as the others go about getting a meal going, but seeing as how he doesn't eat, Thrax just stands off to the side, alternating between watching Commander Kara and Dove cook and the forest around them, watching and listening for trouble.

[Magnus_Samma]

David is so distracted by Mileva's offer that he isn't able to put up even a token resistance as Achille and Rin double-team him. He can be heard swearing profusely in gnomish as they presumably drag him to the river.

"You don't want to know," Kara says in reponse to Achille as she picks the herb out of their salad. "Don't let him drown, but, you know, give him a good ducking. And maybe slap him around a little bit. You slap him around, not Rin, he'd like that."

"I will plant scorpions where you sleep, vile woman!"

"Oooh, hey, extra protein. Well, it looks like the meal's as ready as it's going to be, dig in everybody."

Kara sits back and watches the feasting, the fire glittering wierdly off of her mask.

"Hmmm, it occurs to me that now might not be a bad time for us to swap stories, I'm afraid I don't know much about you all. I'm sure David mentioned that I was a heavy metal rocker before I joined the army, but you ladies seem a bit delicate for that sort of thing. And Thrax being heavy metal would be too ironic for the fabric of the universe to handle."

(Apologies for the lull between posts, but finals and Christmas are looming their evil heads- long pauses will probably be the norm for me until new years, but I will do what I can.)

[The_Snark]

Dove has been watching the gnome-related proceedings with some bafflement, and the last meatroll is rather well-done as a result of her distraction.

She watches everyone eat hopefully, looking slightly crestfallen at any grimaces of distaste—her expression is surprisingly... er, expressive, considering it doesn't change much. Or maybe it's the way she slumps a bit. "Oh! Yes," she chimes in at the commander's last suggestion, "it would be interesting to hear more about all of you." She shifts, realizing that was probably a little too much enthusiasm, and makes a noise that sounds a lot like a cough. Which has to be an affectation.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin, meanwhile, isn't objecting to the slight delay of dinner as she repeatedly dunks the Gnome in the nearby stream, having switched her outfit to something waterproof so she can stand in the water and keep him in a solid full-nelson.

"You know," she says, pausing between dunks. "This can be avoided in the future if you just treat us all with respect." She shoves his head underwater once again, and lets him back up after a few seconds. "If you're that sexually frustrated, I'm sure there's thousands of cheap whores out there for you. Some of them might even be of an appropriate height. Although I imagine they're mostly goblins or your mother." She holds him under again briefly. "Hey Achille, hurry up and get a few punches in, my arms are getting tired."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax simply stands back and watches the others eat. He doesn't really acknowledge what Kara said, though he does seem to be listening. He tilts his head ever-so-slightly at Dove, though he says nothing and quickly turns his attention on the rest of the group, waiting for someone to pipe up.

[Winged One]

Achille shrugs as he drags David to the river. Once it's his turn to beat the **** out of the prisoner, he puts him on the edge of the bank, then slaps him with the back of his hand hard enough to knock him into the river. If the river is shallow, he holds The Gnome's face in the river until just before he starts to drown. If the river is deep, he finds a stick and holds it out for The Gnome to climb onto, then shoves The Gnome's face into the river until just before he starts to drown. After he pulls The Gnome's head out of the water, he then uppercuts him on the jaw, punches him in the kidney, and then gives him a black eye just for the look of the thing. "Um, if putting Horny Goat Weed in someone's food is that bad, then, ah, why did you do it? Oh, and if you really, er, try to put scorpions where she sleeps, I'll, um, put you into a, er, wood chipper feet first so you, um, have to watch. And also, ah, light you on fire while I'm doing that. Um, the army doesn't use undead here in Breland, right? I wouldn't want to, er, take away a good body if they do. I'd have to think of something else to do if we do use undead..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin stares incredulously, then starts looking around frantically for a pad and paper to write that down.

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva hums to herself at the sounds of David's blubbering and crying. She perks up when Kara suggests swapping stories.

"I do love a good story, and I'd wager that we have a few between us."

She looks over towards the river.

"Could you pass the salad?"

[Elvith Jars]

"Commander, some of my stories will have to wait. The present company" she points to the interrogation scene going on by the river, "wouldn't appreciate them." Angel continues in a lower voice so only those around the campfire can hear. "Suffice to say that a lot more people than David enjoy being much more than just slapped around, though not to the extent where they receive significant injuries. Of course most just like a good roll in the hay, but that alone is a little... dull. I'm... well known and respected in certain circles if you know where to look. And I rather enjoy what I do. Obviously after being 'drafted' for the squad, I'm retired now. Well, mostly-retired... A girl has needs, you know? Mine can get pretty... demanding. But if you really want to know more, I'll tell you later. Oh, I found a couple of these in the supplies." She flips Kara an unopened bottle of Slip-N-Slide.

"Anyway, I started my previous job about three years ago after the 12th Strikers' CO found out that I was the unofficial 13th member. Apparently Lightning Strike is pretty strict even though I was more versatile than their official healer. I couldn't find work as a healer because it seams that in your d- uh, around here... favored souls like me are shunned because we don't need years of practice to cast divine spells. It just comes naturally through force of personality alone. So, I basically turned a hobby into a profession."

The half-elven beauty takes a long pause before continuing. "Since we'll be working together for the foreseeable future, I need to tell you something that'll possibly save my life. I haven't told anybody since the 12th Strikers. Healing spells are about as effective on me as they are on warforged. Similarly, repair spells are partially effective on me."

Angel removes her gloves. Her hands look normal except for the fact that they're made from a chrome-like silvery metal that gleam in the firelight. There is a hint of warforged construction in them, but they look far more advanced.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax seems to grow slightly more forlorn, though it's just in the way he tilts his head slightly lower as Angel shows the group her arms. His face grows grim, though it's possibly just a trick of the flickering fire light. His eyes seem to glow slightly.

"What happened, Angel? Who did this to you?"

Was it you, Merrix?

[Magnus_Samma]

The Gnome is not crying. He is trying to find a piece of paper in his sketchpad that isn't wet so Rin can write this stuff down.

"Slow down, boy! Feet first into a wood chipper you said? So I can watch, he said! He wants me to watch! Get that down! That's brilliant!"

Kara casually catches the tube of slip-n-slide and looks at the label almost forlornly.

"Boy does that bring back memrories," she mutters before Angel drops the bombshell. She seems interested, but leans back so Thrax can get a good look. At that precise moment The Gnome slips out of Achille's hands like a greased pig and reappears directly in front of Angel, where he proceeds to place a magnifying lens in one eye and begin measuring her fingers with a pair of calipers, muttering about the shine.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin sighs, defeated by enthusiasm as the Gnome runs off. "Well, I guess there's no help for the guy. C'mon, let's fill the canteens. I'm hungry."

Water refilled, Rin heads back toward the campfire, morphing her eyes and clothes so that she's back to the appearance and casual dress she started the day in. She looks over at Angel's prosthetics as she helps herself to some food. "Huh. Can't say I've seen that before. How..." she shuts up here, realizing the human woman is probably in the middle of her story, and gives Angel her rapt attention.

[Winged One]

"Er, you forgot the part where you're also on fire." Achille points out helpfully. "Um, do you think he knows I'd, ah, actually do it if I could find a wood chipper?" he asks Rin as The Gnome runs off "I, ah, hope he does. That way, I, er, probably won't have to do it. That's the, um, whole point of threatening people, right?" He goes with her after the canteens are full, he first wonders what the Khyber everyone's getting so excited about, then asks "Um, did you think that, ah, warforged arms and legs would be, er, stronger or something?"

[Elvith Jars]

Angel looks annoyed at The Gnome but sighs, figuring he'd take a look sooner or later, and removes her shirt (she has a hunter green tank top on underneath). Etched into her right bicep is a carving of an eagle holding a lightning bolt and arrows. The arrowheads are etched with flames. Everthing from her deltoids down to her hands are metal alloy, chrome-bumper smooth and glossy, seamlessly merged with her flesh. Her hands have etchings for fingernails but they don't extend past the ends of her fingers.

"You could ask first next time... I'm not particularly technical but this I know by heart. Titanium mithral alloy endoskeleton, tendons and ligaments, oak fiber musculature, covered with semi-fluidic titanium mithral 'skin.' Both arms and legs, collar bone, spine, shoulder blades, kidneys, and heart, all prosthetic and based on warforged technology. They're a surprisingly good reproduction of my original limbs and organs.

"I don't remember much of the accident. It was a few years ago, somewhere out in the countryside. I do recall lots of flash gems going off from the paparazzi hounding me- I guess I was famous but I don't really remember- and a collision of airships as one of them got too close. I was thrown overboard and fell for who knows how far. I remember landing hard on something, catching a glimpse of falling wreckage above me, and then the world went black.

"When I woke up, I was in a church of some kind, in the healing ward. In order to save me, they had to amputate my mangled limbs and replace internal organs. There just wasn't time to bring someone in skilled enough to use magic to heal me, so the healer/artificer used prosthetics instead. Pretty typical good-quality stuff used for people unable to afford healing magic.

"My mom, a high priestess of the Silver Flame, was furious and distraught since she could've done something. But by the time she got to me it was too late to do anything except fade the scars away and make a good fit between flesh and machine. Aki. Her name is Aki...

"I wasn't quite the same after that brush with death... not as physically strong as I used to be, magic that affects warforged affects me, and I had a fear of heights and flying until the 12th Strikers taught me HALO jumping with a wingsuit and a featherfall talisman. On the other hand, I can drink the average man under the table, I have better fine motor control than before, I don't rust and I learned to appreciate life. And some of my.... dormant pecular tastes for... personal recreation came to the surface of my psyche after the accident too. Sometimes I wonder if it really was an accident...

"Anyway, if I'm injured, you'll find healing magic about half as effective as it is on a normal person. Repair spells are half as effective too, so I'm glad we have a couple of artificiers on the team."

Angel fishes a shiny chain shirt from her backpack, putting it on under her beige shirt. She avoids the salad but tears into a juicy steak.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax just nods slowly and seems to visibly relax.

I'm glad it wasn't you, Merrix....Though I wonder where I got that idea in the first place. Merrix wouldn't do something like that.....At least, as far as I can remember....

"I'm glad you were able to be saved....it is extraordinary that you managed to survive at all. I'm sorry, I did not mean to imply that someone had somehow done something to you against your will....or well.....perhaps they did, but it did....save your life, and I am glad of that."

Thrax rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva stares in total awe of Angel's metallic body. She mumbles incoherently to herself, and fidgets nervously. She starts to shift facial features and hair color randomly. Eventually, the temptation becomes too great for her to resist, and she runs over to Angel, and starts poking, prodding and rubbing her.

Knowledge: Arcana [roll0]
Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering [roll1]
Use Magic Device [roll2]

[Elvith Jars]

Mileva notices:

There are rumors of construct grafts that take limbs from a warforged donor and graft them to living flesh. That would be crude by comparison, Angel's arms are nothing like that. The alloy in her limbs isn't even theorhetical at this point. "Titanium" isn't a known metal like mithral, iron, or adamantinum. The basic principles of construction follow that of warforged, but advanced by several years, perhaps decades. The etching on her right bicep is not the mark of an artificer, more like a military unit insignia. There is however a very small and faint arcane mark on her left deltoid. A d'Cannith clearly had a hand in making Angel's limbs.

"No worries, Thrax, I made my peace with my situation a long time ago it seems. Given how rare the really powerful miracles are, having artificial limbs and organs beats the alternative."

Angel puts her hair up in a ponytail, revealing pointed ears. She's clearly a mixture of elf and human. She giggles at Mileva's prodding, it tickles. She starts munching on the salad.

"So you're a psi-forged? I thought the last one was destroyed years ago."

[Winged One]

Achille looks away when Angel starts taking her clothes off, and can only say after her story "Um, sorry." He has a bit of everything, including a salad(either confident in his ability to resist the effect of whatever drug is known as Horny Goat Weed or trusting Kara to have gotten it all out). No matter how good, bad, or drugged the food is, he finishes it all and says "Er, thanks."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"For the record, if I ever get construct grafts, there will be no touching," Rin comments. Nonetheless, she looks on appreciatively at the craftsmanship of Angel's artificial limbs, while wondering at her story.

[roll0]
(That was a 21, in case I mess up the formatting with editing)

"I've heard rumors of people getting limbs or even internal organs replaced with construct components, but nothing this extensive," she comments. "How recent was this?"

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva stands up, having learned all she can with such a limited observation. She grabs a few fistfuls of salad and munches on them absentmindedly, while pondering Angel and her prosthetics. Suddenly, a brilliant theory comes to mind, explaining in full how Angel could have such advanced limbs. Mileva promptly forgets it, however, and turns back to Angel. She starts prodding her again, this time with the intent to tickle her.

"You're confusing, did you know that?"

[Elvith Jars]

"It's been about eight years now, it happened when I was nineteen. Thanks Mileva, I'll take that as a complement. ACK! Tickle fight!"

Rin notices the same things Mileva plus:
The arcane mark comes from someone related to Merrix d'Cannith or someone trained by him. [ooc]and whatever Magnus_Samma has to add.

After a few minutes tickle-fighting with Mileva, Angel settles down, still curious about the psi-forged.

[Nerd-o-rama]

(Actually, that roll was for general knowledge of people with construct-based artificial limbs (Faiths of Eberron, p. 156) even though I know your stuff is homebrew. But I guess I noticed the mark while looking at them.)

She's twenty-seven? I want to look like that when I'm twenty-seven. Oh wait, I can! I love being a Changeling.

"Eight years ago...that puts it about a year pre-Mourning, then. And it probably happened somewhere in Cyre or down here in Breland, since that's a Cannith South mark on it. You sure it was an accident, though? There was a lot of underhanded warfare going on then, and depending what you were famous for, or who else was on that airship..."

[Elvith Jars]

(At the very least she noticed the arcane mark's origins. Can't help you with the Faiths of Eberron material though, don't have that one.)

Sure, that'll work, I don't think they're ready for everything. Khyber, it's hard enough for me to believe. And she's right, it might not have been an accident...

"I'm... not entirely convinced that it was an accident. The Inquisitors say it was, but maybe they overlooked something or kept evidence hidden. My memory around then is a bit blurred," she says earnestly, realizing to herself that her memory has been jumbled twice now... "so you could be right. Maybe I wasn't the target. Kind of a moot point now though, what's done is done."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"A....psi-forged? I-I'm sorry, I'm somewhat unfamiliar with that term....though I'm guessing you were referring more to the fact that I have some psychic abilities, correct?"

Thrax shifts somewhat uncomfortably before seating himself.

[Elvith Jars]

"Psi-forged... Psionic Warforged? Sorry, I hope I didn't offend you. I don't know much at all about warforged with psionic ability so I'm curious about how you can do that."

Angel bites into something in her salad that makes her crinkle her nose.

[Winged One]

"Well, um, psionics comes from your mind, right? So what's so, ah, weird about a warforged being able to use it? They've got minds, er, just like everyone else does, even if they, ah, think differently a lot of the, um, time." Achille asks as he starts on the possibly-drugged salad.

[Nova_Eclipse]

"No, you didn't offend me, I was just slightly confused about the term, that's all....As for where my abilities came from....I should probably just say I was a 'useful failure', as my brother puts it."

Thrax crosses his arms and looks up into the night sky.

"Yes...in fact, that's probably the way he would put it as well...."

[Lucid_Archon]

"Psionic ability is more than just useful, it's the next step in your race's evolution. Failures and mistakes that prove useful are incorporated into the greater design. At such cross roads, potential and ability are pushed past their limits, driving progress as a whole forward in leaps and bounds. And out of the heat of the old ways is born a new and brighter future."

Mileva is stuffing fistfuls of salad into her mouth as she speaks.

[The_Snark]

"Technically," Dove adds in absently, "I believe the term psi-forged refers to a specific body frame designed to store psychic energy." Dove's initial reaction to the odd grafts is interest (like everyone else), leaning forward to get a better look, but at some point during the conversation she fell back quietly, thinking.

After another moment, she asks, "Angel, how is it you came to the Brelish army if your mother was a priestess of the Silver Flame?" Unspoken is the slightly awkward fact that Breland and Thrane are in a state of almost-war.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax snaps his head down and regards Dove with what seems to be surprise.

"You mean there are actually Warforged out there made to store psychic energy, like a cognizance crystal? Or parts for Warforged that would let them do that? Interesting....."

[Winged One]

"Um, so's my sister, and she was going to be in the, ah, Karrnathi army, er, the last I heard." Achille points out. "She always was better than me at everything that matters..." He immediately seems to realize something and puts his hand over his mouth, then realizes something else and smacks himself on the forehead hard enough to leave a bruise.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Yeah, the Silver Flame isn't synonymous with Thrane," Rin chimes in in agreement with Achille. "Host, they funded the orph-wait a minute." She stops, and looks askance at Achille.

"Which are you freaking out about, exactly? That you said you're Silver Flame, that you said you're Karrnathi, or that you stumbled into self-pity for no real reason?"

[Winged One]

"Um, the, er, f-first one." Achille says. "And that wasn't, ah, self-pity, I was just, um, what's the word, it starts with an, ah, 'r' and means, er, kind of the same thing as remembering?" Of course, a deaf lemming on LSD could tell that the first sentence is a lie.

[Elvith Jars]

"Mmph" Angel says with a mouthfull of salad, pointing and nodding at Achille and Rin. She swallows her food, then says to Dove,"The Church of the Silver Flame is the number two religion in Breland." She continues listening to Thrax.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Mmhm," Rin "agrees" to Achille's statement. "Well, like we were saying, there's nothing wrong with the CotSF, just the country they run. No one should hold it against you whether this war escalates or not."

She thinks for a moment and adds off-handedly. "As for the fact that you're Karrnathi, don't sweat it. We're riding to your homeland's rescue right now, free nations of Khorvaire united against the depredations of the long-expected Thranish Inquisition! Or something. I don't know, I'm here for the neat toys and the gold."

[Winged One]

"W-wait, are we going t-to go there? Um, Commander, do you know where I could, ah, get a mask like you and, er, Casfal have?"

[The_Snark]

"Oh. I... well, I'm not sure I can really see much difference between the church and the country run by that church's leader..." Dove says hesitantly. "But I don't really know much about the religion, I'm afraid."

[Elvith Jars]

"I'm not well versed in the details of the doctrine myself," the miracle-worker admits, "kinda aggravating to sit in class all day listening to all the nuances of praying to The Flame for spells for years on end when you can already channel divine magic without thinking about it, you know? But the gist of it is that we Flamers root out the world's evils and 'burn' it away. We're a martial religion, meaning we actively partake quests to destroy the world's evils. Can't cast spells? No problem. Grab your rifle- uh, bow... and start shooting. The religious capital is in Thrane, where the Silver Flame itself- the closest thing to the manifestation of a deity on Eberron- is kept, but there are many practitioners outside of Thrane with differing views on how to apply doctrine. It's not uncommon for instance, to enact a lesser evil in order to stamp out a greater one. "

[Winged One]

Achille bites his lip and stares resolutely at his dinner.

[Lucid_Archon]

Mileva turns her head to the side and stares at Achille.

"What's the matter? Are you okay?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax stares into the flames of the fire. His voice takes on a far away tone.

"Sometimes I wonder how much a person is capable of....to what lengths would one go to push the limits of their abilities....their knowledge....their power.....And in that pushing, where does one cross the line between good and evil, law and chaos, darkness and light? What does one find...in the deepest reaches of their minds and souls? Does the discovery bring joy? Or madness?"

He trails off, finishing the thought in his head.

Or perhaps both. I know what I have found. But my brother, what have you found, in the depths of your mind and your soul? Does you journey know no end? Have you looked further inside, as I have? Or do you still believe your journey to the Xen'drick will bring the answers you seek? Wherever you are, I hope you have friends such as these to share your discoveries with....

[Magnus_Samma]

(Okay, I didn't mean to be out of comission for that long at a time, but darned if my immune system didn't decide to up and fail at a critical juncture. The doctors assure me that it's just a cold, but I know the plague when I've got the plague, fortunately medical science has come a long way recently and those beaked masks with the spices in 'em are actually kind of cool. Anyhow, on with the game.)

Kara watches Angel intently while she tells her story, slowly stroking her chin behind her mask.

"I knew a guy with metal limbs, once, but that was a lot more primitive, some kind of golem grafting. The stuff on you, Angel, that's some quality work. Whoever did that knew what they were doing."

The Gnome is seemingly in agreement. as he continue minutely examining Angel's implants until Kara seizes him by the collar and tosses him over her shoulder.

"... anyhow, I'm not really one to debate religion. The Silver Flame, the Sovereign Host, what have you, I've never been all that terribly religous. My loss I suppose. But I sure never held anyone's country of origin against them when they seemed determine to fight for a good cause."

She throws an arm around Achille's shoulders and taps him on the nose. "Why do you want a mask for, anyway? You're a good-looking young man, Achille, no reason to cover that up."

The food is good, and while the salad does have a slightly odd aftertaste, it doesn't seem to cause any ill effects.

[Winged One]

Achille smiles a bit when Kara puts her arm around him and says "Just if we, um, go to Karrnath. My family might see me and, er, they think I'm dead." Achille says, degenerating into a mumble.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Not like that's ever stopped a family reunion in Karrnath before," Rin quips without really thinking about it.

[The_Snark]

"Do you want them to think you're dead?" Dove asks curiously, glad that the conversation has started up again; she hadn't really known how to appropriately add to Thrax's musings. Catalogue: warforged, designation Thrax, male/neutral. V. introspective.

[Winged One]

"Um, they think my body's in too many pieces to turn into an undead too." Achille adds. "And, ah, yes I do. I actually, er, asked someone who they thought was probably going to kill me to say she did."

[The_Snark]

"Oh. Ah... would you mind if I asked why?" she says, a bit hesitant. Always hard to tell when humans did or didn't want to talk about their families, but this sounded more like something most wouldn't want to talk about.

[Winged One]

"Er, I thought they'd believe her if she told them." Achille says. After a moment, he adds "Oh! Um, I thought they'd be happier if they didn't know she kicked me out her, ah, fighting school, and most people die when she trains them anyway."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Wow. Harsh teacher," Rin comments. "So she kicked you out but didn't kill you? That's...lucky, I guess? Who was your teacher?"

[Winged One]

"Er, she was that person I told you about who said, ah, that she'd send ninjas after me. I'm, um, only allowed to tell who she is if I do something really amazing first."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax snaps out of his internal thoughts after a few seconds, looking directly at Achille. He doesn't say a word, though, and turns his gaze from the nervous man back to the flames, though he keeps listening as the others talk.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Interesting security policy. Still, I sincerely doubt your parents would be sorry to hear you're alive.

"I mean, they know you existed in the first place," she adds, not a little bitterly.

[Winged One]

"Well, er, I'm sure mom's always known along with the rest of the Flame, but I wouldn't want to, ah, distract Darcie from her work worrying about me. That why, um, dad sent me there in the first place." Achille says. "Um, what do you mean 'they know I existed'?"

For those players who don't know what their characters would know: followers of the Silver Flame believe that the souls of worthy followers join with the Silver Flame itself after death. I think. It might be everyone worthy to join it.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Let's just say that neither of my parents ever really took an interest in me, okay?" Rin suggests, backing it up with a harsh glare.

"Anyway, so Darcie's your sister?" Rin overtly changes the subject. "What does she do that finding out her brother is alive would be too much of a distraction?"

[Winged One]

Achile reacts predictably to Rin's glare, dropping his gaze to the ground and muttering "Sorry." Her question makes him think for a bit before answering "Well, um, I think they said something about a special kind of undead from, ah, Aerenal that she could, er, control the same way most priests in the Karrnathi army can control normal undead."