Of Magic and Metal R2D

What makes you think that? I don't think we're all attacking simultaneously.

Don't know why people are against Flame's action... even if it's not particularly helpful. If your attacks fail, he has the least chance to get immediately killed or harshly punished.

Anyway, I'll roll soon. Expect the results to be up in a few hours. If there's no list, than I will go with whoever posts their action first goes first, whoever goes second, second...
But since you guys didn't know that for this roll, I'll be nice and order it how I think is best.

And Rulyon.... Nice appearance detail!

EDIT: Rolling Now.

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The silence in the cavern is unnerving. Other than the sounds of metal on rock from the Metal One’s pick, there is no noise. Up above, in the High Mines, there is constant noise, either from the clanking of golems, the clashing of picks, the drone of machinery…
Without it, the world seems a much more abandoned place.

Edging away from the others, Vitr{5} holds his arm out to his side a bit, and moves his hand in small circles, trying to see if the Metal One standing in the middle of the cavern moves it’s head to observe the movement. The Metal One’s head does not change position at all.
Without a word to the others, other than a small nod to each other, Gerrick, Jayk, and Kreja run towards the Mine-Ward. Jayk{10} covers the distance silently, and leaps the last few feet, swinging his pickaxe at the Mine-Ward.

Jayk
Attacking: rolling D7 (Pickaxe: +1 to attack)
Effects/Traits: None
= 6

Mine-Ward
Defending: rolling D6
Effects/Traits: Unaware (-6 to defense, lasts until end of defense)
1 – 6 = 0

The pickaxe thuds into the Mine-Wards right kidney. He stays completely still, other than swaying to the left a bit. A slight whine escapes his lips.
Gerrick{2} trips and falls on a loose bit of scree on the floor. He lands flat on his face with a sharp smack, and a cracking sound leaves no doubt that something is broken.
Kreja{8} follows Jayk’s exact path, avoiding the loose scree that littered the floor of the cavern. As she nears the Mine-Ward, she swings her pickaxe at his head.

Kreja
Attacking: rolling D7 (Pickaxe: +1 to attack)
Effects/Traits: None
=7

Mine-Ward
Defending: rolling D6
Effects/Traits: Immobilized with pain (-6 to defense, lasts 1 turn)
= 5 – 6 = 0

With a crunch of bone, Kreja’s pickaxe slams into the top of the Mine-Ward’s head, and his body falls to the ground.
Nameless{8} watches the Mine-Ward fall, dead, and gives a slight chuckle as Gerrick falls flat on his face.

The Metal One’s both stop moving, staying completely still for a long moment. Both Metal One’s heads suddenly jerk back, and the Metal One that had been mining‘s arm turns back into a long, pointed, metallic arm. They both turn towards Kreja and Jayk, and the Metal One in the middle of the cavern begins walking towards them, it’s four pointed legs knocking chips out of the rock wherever it stepped. When they both stood side by side, facing Kreja and Jayk, they both incline their heads.
An “O” seamlessly forms in one of the Metal One’s face, and a smooth, metallic voice filled the cavern.
“Thank you for restoring life to us. We are in your debt. This, however, does not sit easy with us.”
Each Metal One lifted one of their arms, and a small metal disc falls onto the floor in front of each of them.
“If ever either of you have need, press down on the square in the center, and call out our names. I am El. This is Se-e. We will come.”
With that, they both turned and walked across the cavern, disappearing through a tunnel that led away to the north.

The five of you stare after them, stunned. It had never occurred to you that creatures that were created by MetalCasters had sentience.One thought runs through each of your minds: Perhaps we should tell Ordal? You each consider this a possibly crucial piece of information towards the escape.
Kreja and Jayk each pick up a disc and pocket it.
“Should we wait for Ordal?” Gerrick queries.
“Unless we want to wander lost down here, I think that would be a good idea.” Nameless responds, looking at the Mine-Wards body. His torso is criss-crossed by multiple leather straps that hold an assortment of items you can’t identify, while his black pants and boots appear fairly ordinary. A strange metal handle, striated and contorted, pokes out of a short sheath on his side. His whip lies on the floor beside him.

The cavern is a good bowshot in width, and roughly equal in length. You stand the right, near the middle of the cave. To the north is the tunnel the two Metal-Ones left through. Another tunnel is a few meters to the left of it. Another tunnel leads out of the cavern to the west. To your south lies the large, metal building. It takes up the whole of the south side of the cavern. There are no windows, and a large, closed door is the only entrance. A long elevator shaft travels from the roof of the building, pierces the roof of the cavern, and continues upwards. Thats how you all got down here.
Two turns until Ordal arrives.

Character Information:

Heh. That was a shorter roll than I thought it would be... They will be longer in the future, since this roll really didn't have much going on. Gerrick rolling a two should've had a more severe penalty and injury, but what can I say.. it was the first roll. I was lenient.
What I am surprised at is how you guys slaughtered the Mine-Ward.. I was already thinking of a sort of boss battle between you five, him, and the Metal Ones.
Also, something I forgot to put in the main post. Meditating will also show you how much experience you have, and in what areas.

Thanks!

hmm, I think I'll try that out to get an idea of the information format.

"Might as well wait for him to get here."

Minor Action: Confiscate the Mine Ward's whip and the (presumably) sheathed weapon.

Major Action: Use them as my focus while I meditate on the past events.

@ Aeryn

Yeah, I was very surprised at the good rolls against the Mine-Ward. And a little dissapointed. I wanted to inspire fear in you guys for creatures made of metal like the Metal Ones .

8680... Do you want to gain experience using your pick as a weapon? Because once you guys get some real weapons, these pickaxes will quickly become obsolete as a fighting tool.
I could chalk down the training experience towards your mining skill instead. Which do you want?
And as for them being your friends... it's your choice.

Name: Natania
Gender: Female
Appearance: Jet black hair with strips of green highlights, tanned skin, medium overall in size, nimble hands, agile feet from dodging and running from bullies.

did i do this correctly?

its_crunchtime wrote:8680... Do you want to gain experience using your pick as a weapon? Because once you guys get some real weapons, these pickaxes will quickly become obsolete as a fighting tool.

Pickaxes can be good weapons. And swinging a pickaxe shouldn't be that much different from a battleaxe or warhammer (of course, I've never swung a pickaxe, axe, or hammer, so I wouldn't know).

its_crunchtime wrote:I could chalk down the training experience towards your mining skill instead. Which do you want?

Hmm... could I get it split evenly? If not, I'll change my major to Help Gerrick and Vitr mine the soul rock. [Train Mining.]

its_crunchtime wrote:And as for them being your friends... it's your choice.

I choose yes. But others might choose otherwise.

its_crunchtime wrote:@ Aeryn

Yeah, I was very surprised at the good rolls against the Mine-Ward. And a little dissapointed. I wanted to inspire fear in you guys for creatures made of metal like the Metal Ones

I GM a D&D group, as well as being an avid player as well. Let me tell you this: It's one marker of a good GM to be able to roll with whatever unexpected developments your players come up with. To he able to toss a plan out the window and go with the flow...rare to find. The temptation to force developments on them is a tough urge to fight off at first. I'm looking forward to the rest of this game!

Edit: I'm all for friends. We were already brothers-in-arms for our country, right? Being captured and enduring the indignity of slavery as POWs together would have only solidified that bond.

The mole's going to unlock that door in two turns, don't bother.

@Malregima
Yes you did. Welcome! I will add you in on the roll when Ordal arrives, since that makes the most sense plot-wise than you randomly running out from a cave and joining up.

@Rulyon
Thanks!

@8680
The pickaxes would become less useful because they are a bit unwieldy. I too was thinking about it being similar to a battleaxe or war-hammer... I think that I will put it down towards a skill for axes and similar weapons. (PickAXES, so...) Yes, training with your pick would increase your mining skill a bit, as well as your strength. Most actions using arms increase strength experience by a bit.

I will roll later on today, when I feel a bit better. I've been staying home from school these past two days because I have a cold.

Also, you guys can give conditional actions, like
Help mine the soul rock. If it's already mined, then go train with my pickaxe.

Also, so I don't ahve to tell you guys this later on... Don't feel forced into combat, or any other situation. This game will be a bit freeform in the respect that instead of immediately following a guy down the street when he asks, you can say "Hang on a minute, I want to check out this shop."
Of course, soon enough the plot will catch up to you, and in some situations, tarrying would probably not be the wisest thing.

Natania and Jayk both have jet-black hair... perhaps they're related?

Bugger.
I completely forgot that I added in another fifteen miners... that's why they were not mentioned in the roll. For simplicities sake, and because the roll would have ended differently if I remembered about the miners, they do not exist. You five are currently the only ones outside the building in the cavern.
Apologies to all, and I will do my best to ensure that it does not happen again.

About the skills...
The categories you suggested really are quite broad. A little too broad. To pick out one, a one-handed blade is very different to wield than a two-handed one. They require different styles to use.
Some would work. Thrown weapons can be it's own category, as well as the "Point and click".(yes, I would give it a different name)
Though this is stretching boundaries between categories a bit, for the sake of not making picks useless to train in, I will chalk down experience with picks towards an Axes section, unless someone has a better idea. You will find other picks, some possibly even being made for battle. Mattocks, one of the closest things to picks, will also be under the Axes section.
Skills will work so that weapons with similar styles will go under the same category.

Mining for an action will slightly increase your experience with the pick, but not by much. It increases because you used it, which causes your character to become more familiar with the item.
Strength increases a very small amount whenever you do an action that will strain your arms. Picking up a object will not give you any experience. Using a weapon that is suitably heavy will give you a bit of experience towards both that weapon and strength.

So, mining rock would give you a small chunk of mining experience, a bit of strength experience, and a bit of Axe experience.
And, as the first post states, if you specifically spend a turn training a skill, you will get a large chunk of experience, depending on how successful the roll is.

Don't worry guys. I'm keeping track of all of it. If you worry that this will turn into a huge numbers game, it won't. You won't even know how much experience you have, and in which areas, until you meditate. So if you choose to, you'll never even have to look at experience numbers in this game at all.

I'm sick, unable to go outside, and have nothing to do.
So I decided I might as well do something fun,and roll early!

List is much appreciated.

Rolling now.

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Sorry guys, I had to go out for a while and couldn't finish in time. So now, five hours later, here it is!
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With the Mine-Ward gone, this has been one of only a few times in the months you’ve been imprisoned that the five of you are without scrutiny by the men and women who enforce control over the workers and miners in the mine. This knowledge makes you all relax a bit, but underneath is still the hard layers of tension you’ve accumulated over time.
Jayk and Kreja stand side by side, examining the discs the Metal Ones had given then. Though neither of you knew any element of magic, you knew that generally objects like these needed certain runes or glyphs carved on them to function. Neither of you were able to descry any, which challenged your knowledge of magic, meager as it was. You wondered if you should bring up the topic of magic with Ordal. You doubted that he knew much about it, but he had struck you as a worldly and knowledgeable person; the kind who knew the answer to most questions, no matter what they were.

“While were waiting…” Gerrick{8 -1 = 7 + 2 = 9} mumbled, as he sauntered over to the patch of soul rock. He examined it with a critical eye, born of two months spent extracting minerals and rock such as this from nature’s walls. The Metal One had done most of the work, and with a few quick, accurate blows, sent the Soul Rock falling to the floor. As it lands with a thud, a small, jet black mineral falls out of the head-sized hole the Soul Rock had left. You look at the stone, noting its dull black sheen, before pocketing it in your belt pouch. Then you look at the far more interesting item in your opinion: the Soul Rock you managed to get out. It was about the size of your head, and while you did not know what it did, or how valuable it was, judging by the reactions of the Mine-Ward, it had some value. You stare at it, debating whether you should break it into smaller chunks.

Meanwhile, Jayk pockets his disc in one of the small pouches on the belt of his jumpsuit, before walking over to the Mine-Wards corpse. He grabs the whip, giving it a cursory glance, but it was nothing special. It was made from stout leather, now worn with use, with a small metal spike at the end. It had a cold handle made out of a black metal that you are not familiar with. You wonder if it has any special properties, before pushing it behind your belt. Making sure it’s secure, you then bend down and unbuckle the short, sheathed blade from his belt. You hold the sheathed weapon closer to the ceiling, trying to catch as much of the rather dim light as you can that the small glowing stones emitted.
The handle had a shiny, silver trim on all of its edges, which were many, as the handle twisted and contorted itself in such a way that you had no idea how to hold such a thing. The rest of the handle, as well as the short sheath, was a deep black shade, not unlike the handle on the whip.
You try to grasp the weapon multiple times in different spots, before finally finding a comfortable position between two of the handles striated pieces. A bar sat there, and you had no doubt that this was where it was meant to be gripped for use. Taking a short, excited breath, you yank on the handle, looking forward to see the blade of the weapon.
It doesn’t budge.
You try multiple times, to no avail. With a frustrated sigh, you buckle the sheath onto your belt, resolving to discover the mysteries of the weapon later.

Walking a short way away from your companions, Jayk{4} takes the whip and sheathed weapon, and thinks back on the events that led him to this point.
Your mind immediately runs into a thick wall. Your mental self pushes at it, pounds at it, and shouts at it, to no avail. It doesn’t seem to be your day. With a sigh, you open your eyes and watch Gerrick, still staring at the Soul Rock with a pensive look on his face.

Vitr{4} gives a small smirk and a rueful shake of his head at how quickly these recent events have happened. With a quick, slightly envious look at Jayk’s whip, you walk over to Gerrick.
“I would have helped you with that.” He points out, hoping to get a piece of the rock in return for your kind intentions, as you bend down and examine the rock. Its hard edges quickly draw you in as you follow them as they form ridges and valleys along the deep blue stone. The flecks of white look like small patches of stone, and the more you stare at them, the larger they seem. In fact, they seem to be growing. Soon, they will engulf the whole stone! You have to stop them! You-
“’Course you would. And, for your kind intentions, and my small problem with the size of this rock, we shall split it.”
You are brought out of your fascination with a start. You give a quick glance at the stone, fearful of how easily it drew you in, but respectful of its unknown powers. With a sharp nod to Gerrick, he brings down his pick on the stone.
But his aim is not true, and he shears off a quarter of the material instead of half.
Gerrick, hearing a strange sound as he hits the rock, quickly examines his pick. A chunk is missing from the end he hit the stone with.
“Definitely not trying that again,” He says, handing you the smaller piece. “Ah well, I worked to get it out anyway. Fair is fair.”

Nameless{6 + 2 = 8} walks over to the area directly below the large mushroom, and begin practicing his mining on the caverns wall. After a short time, you stop, panting from the task of hammering a heavy pick against the rock. You feel like you learned a good amount, and are pleased with your effort. Walking over to Jayk, you squat beside him, trying to catch your breath.

Kreja{7} walks a few meters away from her friends. Hefting her pick, she begins slowly swinging her pick in precise, though a bit shaky, movements. She gradually speeds up, intending to end swinging as fast as she can, but as she swings her pick at just half of what she feels she can do, her arms begin screeching in protest, and she must stop. Resting the picks head on the floor, and leaning on the haft, Kreja casts her gaze around the cavern as she catches her breath, wondering if the cavern somehow has sapped her energy.

One turn until Ordal arrives (Malregima, you are added on this coming roll. You will be added at the end, so you have no need for an action yet.)

If there are any errors in this, please point them out. It's late for me, so I'm expecting there to be a few.

Character Information:

wait im confused.
Do i join when you introduce me in the story or do i start posting action?

its_crunchtime wrote:Rolling now.

Uh.... What happened?

Malregima wrote:wait im confused. Do i join when you introduce me in the story or do i start posting action?

You'll get to join in two turns.

Darien, you don't train strength with a pick. To do so would probably result in uneven muscle. If you want to train strength, just say:
"Train my strength by working out on.."
And say "the tree, a rock, etc.

Minor : Walk over to the mushroom and lean on its stalk.
Major : Rest. [Train Endurance.]

In-game, I'm not "training" Endurance now, rather I always had it. Out-of-game, the effect is identical. If this isn't acceptable...

Major : Rest. [Meditate.]

@ 8680

A little more explanation, please. What do you expect endurance to give? Strength at a high enough level already increases your melee defense and inventory size. When you say you've "always had it", do you mean that whenever you rest, you train it?
To be honest, you've confused me a little.

@ Everyone:

I would like to roll tomorrow. Malregima, you do not need an action, you are introduced next turn. I will roll tomorrow provided that I have at least 3 actions, the other two players will be NPC'ed for the turn. I want to keep this game moving at a good pace, and, really, if you are too busy to spend two minutes a day checking this forum, you are doing something wrong.

Be prepared for some major plot developments and some intense stuff happening soon, starting with this next roll.