[Dude, Where's My Daiklave] Aftermath

[Sherwood]

Xandra sets the Orca down on the desert floor next to the burning rubble of the crashed airship. The strange Exalt inside the ship was a fierce opponent, and the damage done to the ship was just too much, causing it to come down. He was able to hold his own against the group of you for a while, and even managed to cause a lethal blow to Alma before everyone had to teleport out of the out-of-control vessel as it slams into the ground. It is not surprising that he was able to finish off two Dragon Blooded by himself.


As the flames die down, you make your way over to the rubble of the crashed ship to look for salvage. Strangely enough, while you can find the bodies of the twenty or so passengers and three members of the flight crew, you can't find the body of the man that fought you inside the ship. When this comes up, Xandra makes a grim statement, "Without a body, we must assume that he survived the crash. After all, you were able to teleport out; perhaps he did something similar. Expect to run into him again." You do manage to find the strange burning sword that the Exalt was using. It is very heavy for its size, and made mostly of Orichalcum laced with some jade and starmetal. At the moment, the burning blade is gone, leaving the hilt by itself. But you do remember, the Exalt pulled it from his belt like this, then he activated the blade somehow. Probably by focusing some Essence into it. Perhaps if you try to attune it like a normal daikalve it will work for you?

 

[Seeker of the End]

Aeos, the Heritor


Aeos frowned as he considered Alma's death. He did not know her too well, but he had failed her. He wasn't fast enough, he wasn't strong enough. And now she was dead. And it was all his fault. He shakes the thoughts from his mind as he picks up the strange weapon and frowns, channeling essence into the blade as if he was attuning it.

Spoiler

Rolling Limit for failing something.


[dice]1309[/dice]

 

[JayTee]

"Any luck with that gizmo?" He asked, turning from the pyre he had created out of his essence for Alma. He walked over to the ruined airship, looking it over for signs of useful gear or other salvage.

 

[snake obsidian]

June instantly dived into the wrecage, looking for anything that could look valuable, specially those odd weapons that shooted plastic. He could see that they would be quite interesting once he handed them to Amber.


"Ok, let´s see what these guys were packing. Someone call the old man now! He will want to take a look of this."

 

[Sherwood]

As Aeos works Essence into the strange device, soon it becomes much lighter and easier to handle; just like any artifact being attuned. After a few minutes of this, you are now able to channel 5m into the handle and form the burning blade that you all saw earlier. (OOC it is a Orichalcum beamklave of standard design)


Elsewhere, the two Dragon Blooded ladies are helping to go through the wreckage, pulling bodies and gear out to be examined. One by one, the corpses are lined up. Xandra brushes her hands clean on a cloth as she examines the bodies. "Look at this. First impressions are that these are no bandits like I have ever seen before. Check this out. All of their armor and weapons are uniform. It looks more like a military force than a bunch of ragamuffins that have gotten lumped together to make a quick buck robbing travelers, and they all are wearing these goggles to shade their eyes from the sun. Then there's this." She picks up one of the weapons that looks like a rife-bow of some kind. "I've heard of these before, used by the Haltan armed forces. But we're thousands of miles from there. Finally, all the bodies have these little gemstones implanted in their foreheads. Are they supposed to be hearthstones? If not, what are they?"


Equipment wise, you find four unbroken mechanized crossbows, 16 damaged but possibly repairable crossbows, the beamklave, 20 short swords of good quality, and finally, another crossbow that is made from a blending of various Magical Materials. Obviously it is an artifact weapon of some kind, namely a Onslaught Crossbow. In the back of the artifact crossbow, there is a spot that is obviously meant to hold a hearthstone, but the item in its place is unlike any hearthstone you've ever seen before. It has many of the same qualities of being generated by a manse, but it looks artificial somehow, as if it is a conduit for some other source of power.

 

[snake obsidian]

"Has anyone on this group having any qualms on me having a go with this artifact crossbow?" June said, while looking at the spoils. "Also, I think we should take this weapons to Amber. If these guys have friends, and they come for revenge, at least they will know what they are facing."


He stood besides Xandra and Ilyanna, as they looked at the bodies.


"So, what do you think we should do? Leave them there? Bury them? You think they have people to come for them?"

 

[Teggetto]

Yuumaru


Damn it! He'd failed to protect one of his Circle and now she was amongst the corpses of the others that hadn't managed to survive the wreckage. He hadn't paid much attention to the looting of artifacts, the others could take what they wanted from what was there. The one thing that did bother him was the lack of body from their main foe, he'd been a tough bastard to fight against already, if he came back stronger it could be bad.


He heard the question from June, "We bury them, regardless of whether they were enemies or not. Everyone deserves that much." Though he had heard what Xandra said as well and considered it all, "Is it possible that they were a rogue unit?" There were a lot of possibilities for what it could be, unfortunately, especially with those weird gems on their heads.


"Anyone have an idea of what these things could be?" maybe if someone could get a rough idea of what their purpose was, it might give them a better clue. He wasn't that knowledgeable on a lot of these subject, he was more geared towards battle, so if someone else could offer insight they'd be good.

 

[JayTee]

"No need to bury them." Said Misuro, glancing over the collected bodies. "I can send their souls to Yu-Shan once we're done here." Once he had assessed the damages and possible loot, he tired to recall anything that could help him identify what he was looking at and what he had just fought.


OOC


Int 2 + Lore 5 for 7 dice and 4 successes for identifying stuff.

 

[Sherwood]

The grumpy Dragon Blood, Iylanna, kneels down and examines the gemstones implanted in the heads of the bodies. With a frown, she looks over at Misuro. "You may have some difficulty with that. These stones seem to be housing the soul inside it, for what purpose I cannot even guess. I've never even heard of anything like this before." As Misuro looks over the bodies, you come to the same conclusion, that the stones seem to be a repository for the higher soul of the fallen.


Xandra walks up next to Yuumaru. "Their uniforms don't match any that I have heard of before, and some basic military history and tactics are a standard course in the schools for the Dragon Blooded. Plus, these automatic rifle-bows are unlike anything I've heard of before. Lets keep searching the wreckage to see if there are any other treasures to be found."

 

[Seeker of the End]

Aeos, the Heritor


Aeos gives the lightsaber beamklave a few practice swings before deattuning and deactivating it. "I am not skilled at using melee weapons, so who wants to have it?" he asks, "You need to attune it before you spend motes to activate the blade."

 

[JayTee]

Misuro looked at his Wavecleaver Daiklave and his Slashing Sword."I suppose I could take it, if only to officially start a collection of blades." he said with a smirk. He truly did not mind someone else taking it, but of no one else wanted it, he would keep it.

 

[Teggetto]

Yuumaru


"Well, that just sounds peachy, so the gems hold souls," he rubbed the back of his head. This was going to be an interesting case to piece together. When Xandra walked up next to him, he listened to what she said, frowning at the information.


"Right, let's see if there might be anymore clues as to who they are as well," he hated being this much in the dark. He hoped there was something that they could find as he started to look through the remains. It was like someone was building a disposable army.

 

[snake obsidian]

June looked at the Dragonbloods as he stashed guns and swords into his elsewhere pockets.


"Ladies, would you leave those gem encrusted souls on peace? I´ve got need of your expertise." He said, as he stood on the enemy´s airship ruins. "I need to find the engine of this thing and whether we can carry it or not."

 

[Sherwood]

Xandra looks doubtful, but gives June a nod and starts over to the wreck. "As messed up as it is, we could spend days looking over the parts of this thing before we can even get to an Essence reactor. But, it can't hurt to look." The three ladies make their way over and start helping to move twisted metal aside. It will take several hours to clear enough of the hull to get to the engine.

 

[Sherwood]

Several days pass, and you are able to make sizable progress with the wreckage. Most notably, there is a slightly damaged Essence engine that was used to power the alien airship that has been recovered. Mera examines the remains, and announces that with a bit of work and the right tools, she should be able to get the machine working once more. What it could be used to power is a loss for her to say, but she should be able to get it flying once more.


More surprisingly, two more things have happened that should make you sit up and take notice. The first is, Mera produces a Hearthstone Compass, and with a bit of work, she is able to make some minor adjustments to the device and it is now working to show the direction to the source of the strange hearthstone-esque devices. She seems to be quite satisfied with her work, and with a bit of flying to establish a angle for triangulation, you should be able to locate a point of origin for the strange military men and the weird Essence users.


Second, the old Sidereal Asyk Vaysel makes a unexpected appearance one morning. He looks to have aged several years in the time that you have last seen him at the airship dock. He walks over to the pile of rubble of the crashed ship with a unreadable look on his face. Finally he turns to face you. "Ah, my friends. It is good to see you once more. I see that you have had an eventful time out here. Please, tell me what has happened, and leave nothing out."

 

[Seeker of the End]

Aeos, the Heritor


"We encountered a strange Exalt, using this." Aeos ignites the Beamklave before he extinguishes it. "He seemed to be more automaton than man, and he had a stone in his forehead. Some of the other crew members had a similar stone. We believe that it contains the higher soul of the person within itself. The Exalt managed to kill Alma unfortunately." Aeos frowns at his personal failure before dislodging the thoughts from his mind. "It looked as if his entire body was made of metal, but yet he was far too advanced to be a golem. It doesn't help that we never managed to find the body."

 

[Sherwood]

Asyk looks troubled. "With no body, we must assume that somehow, this automation-man has survived the crash and is out there, somewhere." He kneels down and examines the assorted gear. "This is not just a collection of junk. These weapons and items all appear to be mass produced, not just cobbled together from a pile of junk. This may be a raiding party from a larger force somewhere out here. Their point of origin must be found, and we need to get some answers as to what these strangers are after."

 

[snake obsidian]

June smiles as he considers just where that point of origin could be.


"I think I know where we should look. Just consider this. The caravan was attacked in the route between the Sand-sea Towns, and Gem. Since we didn´t hear any news about skyship pirates on the towns themselves, it is unlikely to find more of them there. We should go back to Kotu to tell them of the caravan´s fate, and prepare the trip to the only place we´re missing. Ladies and Gentlemen, this time we must go to Gem."

 

[JayTee]

"June, not to be rude, but what makes you think they're from Gem? They seemed... not from the South, at the very least." He turned to Asyk. "You seem to know an awful lot more than you're letting on, and I'm willing to keep trusting you for now. Any information you might be able to share with us would be appreciated."

 

[Seeker of the End]

"If they are that foreign, I would imagine that they would try to stay as far away from civilization as possible to lower their exposure. I would say we check up on the locations that Mera has discovered first. If we don't find anything there we can go to Gem."

 

[Teggetto]

Yuumaru Mori


Tapping his chin in thought, there was something that he was wondering about with the leader of that group. Just how had he managed to escape from all this, "Is there any way we could track the leader through his means of escape? If he is able to use Daiklaves, I assume he has some form of Essence. Is it possible to lock onto that?"


He had turned his attention mainly towards the Dragon-Blooded and the Sidereal, hoping one of them might have a way to do it. Maybe it could lead them directly to where they needed to go as well. It was likely a long shot, but if it was possible than it would help them greatly.

 

[Sherwood]

Asyk stands up from the bodies that he was looking at. "There are spells of the Celestial level that allow a person to teleport dozens of miles; perhaps this leader you fought is capable of casting such spells as that. I am just confused as to where these people have come from. If they are the threat from beyond Creation that I have sensed in the Loom of Fate, where were they from? What do they want?" Mera shows off the modified hearthstone compass she has been working on. "I can't answer any of that yet, but we may be able to back track them to their source with this. I'm getting a signal that points off to the southwest. I just need to get airborne and then I can triangulate the exact position, and we can check it out and see what is going on there." The old Sidereal nods. "Good. The sooner that some answers can be had, the better. I just have a bad feeling about this."

 

[JayTee]

"Excellent." Said Misuro. "Let us hope we haven't lost much time, I look forward to seeing where this automaton came from. "

 

[Sherwood]

With the salvage work on the wreck done, and the bodies properly disposed of to avoid their ghosts from rising as angry spirits, the party makes their way back to the Orca and heads for the sky. Mera's work on the hearthstone compass seems to be working, and as you fly, it shows a slight change in the direction indicated by the needle. After putting a hundred miles of distance to get a good basis for triangulation, your maps show that the source of the hearthstone analogs is far to the west, over the mountain range that marks the edge of the Sand Sea. At your top speed of flight, you should be able to get there in a few hours time.

 

[Seeker of the End]

Aeos, the Heritor


"I would suggest warping to the location, but we might need it for an escape option. Let's hope we find something there." Aeos frowned as he looked at the map. "Oh, and Xandra." he said, holding the Jade Hearthstone bracers he got off of Khone. "You do more with this than I can," he said, handing them to the Fire Aspect.


He turned to Asyk, "I received a Sorcery Capturing cord at the tombs, do you have any spells of the Terrestrial or Celestial Circle that would be wise for me to store?"