Axiom: The Quest for the Holy Lapis: A Sci-Fantasy Pathfinder RP

[Protagonist]

The interior of the ZSS Krishna was white, shiny, and sterile. The vessel was quite small, with less than 10 crewmembers. Isaac sat on the captain's chair of the bridge. He pressed a button on his chair and said "Hello, this is your captain speaking. We are about to decelerate from lightspeed. We will be arriving in one hour. Everyone please report to the bridge. The Enigma will spot us once we leave FTL speeds."

That was the thing about space travel. It's very difficult to be spotted at FTL speeds, but it's very easy to be spotted at STL speeds. A ship's engine is one of the least subtle things ever designed. The plan wasn't to bother with stealth, anyways-the Krishna broadcast to Zionite ships in the region (who might otherwise assume the Krishna was an enemy ship) and simply evade enemy fire by randomly changing directions. The distances involved in space flight means that enemies won't know you've changed directions right away thanks to the speed of light.


The sky is empty, with only the starts keeping the crew of the Krishna company. But behind the vastness could lie death at any moment. Isaac sat in trepidation, waiting to see what, if anything, would happen...

 

[Sherwood]

Ailera straps her sword to her back and checks her pistol and grenades to make sure that everything was in its proper place. Slinging her equipment pack over one shoulder, she heads to the bridge as ordered. Once there, she gives the captain a polite nod. "Greetings,  captain. I am as ready for planetfall as can be expected. If we run into trouble before then, I'm at a loss. My sword is not the most useful weapon for ship to ship combat. Should we be expecting any trouble once we break into normal space?"

 

[Psychie]

Kiera responds to the captain's summons quickly, but sees that the paladin made it there first.With a bow, she greets the two of them. "Good morning, captain, Ailera. It is a good day for an adventure! Are we about to arrive at our destination?"

Spoiler

Spells


Level 0 - Light, Read Magic, Purify Food and Drink, Detect Magic


Level 1 - Bless, Bane, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Protection From Evil


Channel Energy 9x

 

[Blu3]

Lean Janchi
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Lean slowly sneaked not wanting many people to see him and looked around to the large ship for him. When he walked in he saw Ailera and Kiera talking to the captain.  "G'morning Mates! I hope we get there soon." Said Lean walking out of the shadows with his hand behind his head and his weapons to his side and a big grin on his face.
​

 

[Sherwood]

Ailera looks over at Kiera and Lean with a smile.  "Ah!  More of our team has awoken from their slumber.  Welcome.  I look forward to having you at my side as we go forth to find the Lapis."  Her enthusiasm appears to be genuine at the thought of the adventure to come.

 

[Protagonist]

Isaac turns to Ailer and says "Well, when we're in FTL we're more or less invisible since we're outrunning the light hitting us. But when the Alcubrie bubble is turned off and we go to STL speeds, then the Enigma fighters in this system will all know we're here in...oh, 13 hours?"

The ship suddenly makes a sharp turn. Isaac says "That was nothing! Just a sharp turn."
From the front window, we can see the planet Lacondra slowly fading into view. The ship starts to slow down.
And then, we hear something over our bridge's microphone. It would seem that we're being hailed.
"Zionite vessel. We are the RVV Moloch of the Enigma, you'rn't allowed are. You will surrender your ship immediately."
Their voice has a frighteningly harsh accent to it, with every word overpronounced just a little.

Isaac ignores him and says "Everyone! Brace for evasive maneuvers!" but as soon as he does, the ship is hit with a missile. The ship begins to spin around, as it hurtled towards Lacondra. The ship's auto-pilot kicks in and tries to stabilize the ship. It succeeds. The friction from the ship ionizes the air around it as it passes through the Lacondran atmosphere. Isaac says "Everyone, keep your mouth closed when we land so you don't bite your tongue!"

The ship starts to slow down, and after a few minutes, the ship makes a loud "thud" when it lands, but the landing was soft enough that nobody was injured. Isaac says "We...we lived!"
Out the window, we can all see that we're on some kind of beach. There seems to be some grassy hills and a few small trees behind that. Way behind that, one can see what appears to be a tower.

 

[Psychie]

Kiera lifts herself up from the deck where she had fallen.  After shaking her head a few times to clear the cobwebs, she says, "Is anyone hurt?"  If no one calls out in need of the healer's skill, she says, "Well, I suppose that any landing you can walk away from is a good one.  I just wish I had the forethought to offer up a prayer before we left FTL flight, but perhaps it was not needed; it was with Metatron's blessing that we survived the attack and hard landing."

Spoiler

Spells
Level 0 - Light, Read Magic, Purify Food and Drink, Detect Magic
Level 1 - Bless, Bane, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Protection From Evil
Channel Energy 9x

 

[Sherwood]

Ailera holds her head and mutters out, "Ow!  I conked my head, but with my thick skull, its just a bump.  I'm fine otherwise.  Captain, how bad is the ship?  Can it still fly, and is there any sign of the ship that fired on us?  Are they coming down to finish the job?  In any case, we had best be on the move as soon as possible.  I would suppose that the tower out there is the most logical place to start out on our hunt for the Lapis.  Good thing that I packed my bag ahead of time, eh?  So, is there a ground transport on here, or are we hiking out?"

 

[Protagonist]

Isaac looks at his console again. He says "Our Abraxium Energy Cells were damaged. We have enough power to keep the lights and such on, though not enough to power our engines." He sighs and stands up. "We'll have to think of a way off this planet later. We'll have to hike toward civilization."

He then presses another button, and a hologram of the planet is shown. He quickly explains "Just so you know, this planet was largely co-owned by various feudal lords of alien empires for the last 500 years or so. The Enigma is currently attempting to conquer the planet, with the official goals of spreading their ideology and obtaining Abraxium. Zion has offered to assist the locals in exchange for some of their Abraxium."

Abraxium, as all our heroes will know, is a crystaline material that is useful for making super-batteries that store obscene amounts of energy. The material is not fuel in and of itself, but storing a lot of energy in a small space is not easy.

 

[Blu3]

Lean Janchi
​

"What...Wha..happened.." Lean got off of the floor holding his head. He listened to the Captain explain something he barely got a looked out the window and say "Yeah lets get to the Civilization quick."
​

 
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Ooc - I'm sure where I should put this but I will make a  Perception check too see more then just that
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Check = 16 perception check
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[Protagonist]

Lean can see a creature that appears to be some kind of pterosaur. It's fairly large, and carrying a fish in its mouth. It's gliding slighty away from us, so it appears to be no threat. What could this imply about the native wildlife?

 

[ARSENIC]

Few things in this universe are capable of distracting a man from the blaring warning sirens of a crash landing. Unfortunately, diving into a virtual reality digital library while blasting industrial metal cranked up to 11 on the headset is one of those few things. It took the violent rocking of the ship itself to finally rouse Moryn enough to return to the real world and see what was going on. He had to go through the central core room to get from the residential to the bridge anyway, so it wasn't difficult for him to see exactly what the problem was, finding the rest of the team just as the captain was explaining the problem.


Considering Moryn had all the social graces of a bull in a china shop, he completely forgot to introduce himself, and seemed utterly disinterested in knowing the names of the others, instead diving right into the conversation. "We could extract some of the Abraxium from the local ore, but we'd still have to find a way to charge it. Fringe planet power plants rarely have the kind of juice needed to power an Abra Cell, even if I hacked into the mainframe and rerouted all non-essential power, and being a mining planet I doubt this place is any exception." he said, walking into view as the rest of the team could notice the cute, white robotic sphere orbiting his shoulders, its one, big, beady, red optic sensor scanning over everyone while letting out a series of chirping beeps. "Though, if we find a volcano we could tap into the planet's geothermal energy pretty easily and without having to do any drilling, which could definitely work. Do we have any satellite maps of the planet's surface, Captain?"

 

[Dicer]

Robbare pulled himself up from the floor. He was not at all accustomed to such terrible travel conditions. He strode out of his compartment and headed for the bridge. There he saw a gathering of servants and the captain. He knew if he stood back and listened to their gossiping, he would get a fair understanding of what happened.


It seemed the ship's captain had poorly judged the reception he received upon entering this system and was shot down by what he didn't care. It was an inconvenience.


It was then he heard they had to "hike" to whatever this world called civilization.


"Mon Dieu, capitan," he spoke out. "Hike you zay? Are zere not vehicles in ze hold? Zurely we need not travel zo preemiteevly? It zeems zat ze sheep is mostly intact. N'est-ce pas?"

 

[Protagonist]

Isaac thinks about using volcanic energy. He says "I think a volcano would work. It won't be even close to enough to get to FTL speeds, but if we can leave this planet we can find a new way out."
He's asked if they have satellite maps. He says "We have some maps, but most of the planet's satellites have been destroyed by the war above us. So GPS, phones, internet and all that jazz are going to be unreliable"

He's asked by Robbare about better transport "You're right. We should take the Rover." He beckons everyone to follow him to a garage. Inside the garage there's a rover with enough seats to hold all of us. He says "Alright! who wants to drive?"

He gets in the passenger seat of the rover. 

 

[Sherwood]

Ailera nods in satisfaction, and heads to the rear cargo area to store her gear. "Looks like it will do the trick. If there a crew served weapon on it? Besides the passengers, that is." Then, she looks over to Kiera. "If you still wish to, let us say that prayer to our God now, to bless us on our journey."

 

[Protagonist]

Isaac nods to Ailera, and says "Very well. Shall I lead us in prayer, or would you like to?"

 

[Psychie]

Kiera smiles at the paladin. "If you don't mind, I would be honored to offer up a blessing on our party."

Spoiler

Spells
Level 0 - Light, Read Magic, Purify Food and Drink, Detect Magic
Level 1 - Bless, Bane, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Protection From Evil
Channel Energy x9

 

[Protagonist]

Isaac smiles and says "Go ahead, Sister Kiera."

 

[Psychie]

Bowing her head, the priestess begins to pray.  "Dear glorious Metatron, please be with us as we set forth on our journey to find the holy Lapis.  Guide our footsteps and protect us from harm, and open our eyes to opportunities to spread thy holy word to others that are ignorant of your goodness.  We thank thee for all thy wondrous gifts that thou has given us, and we pray to always be in thy shining light.  I say this in thy holy name, amen."  A look of happiness passes over her as the prayer concludes, showing her to be a true believer of the words that she speaks.  With a gleam in her eye, she raises up her head and looks at Isaac and simply says, "Thank you.  I feel ready to take on any challenge that would face us, now."

Spoiler

Spells
Level 0 - Light, Read Magic, Purify Food and Drink, Detect Magic
Level 1 - Bless, Bane, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Protection From Evil
Channel Energy x9

 

[Dicer]

Inwardly, Robbare scoffed at such showing of piety. He knew that the gods only helped when it was convenient for them and not for their mortal followers. However he knew that if he showed his utter disregard for their faith, they would turn into zealots and try to "convert" him to their idea of the "true" faith. Thus he kept quiet so he wouldn't be bombarded with by the priestess's zealousness. That would deprive him of the "I told you so" moment he knew would come.


He simply prepared quietly for the arduous journey that was to come.

 

[Beedub]

Alex sat rummaging through his back, double and triple checking his gear, making sure he hadn't forgotten anything though if he had he knew it was too late, but he wanted to be ready to compensate for what he lacked; luckily it seemed everything was in order. This was his first time being so far away from his home, and he was accompanied by people he barely knew; a fact he was on edge about thanks to past experiences working with strangers. He kept to himself the majority of the ride, only answering when spoken to, and being quick to dismiss small talk. Not out of being shy or unwillingness, but to exercise caution.


Once he heard the Captain's announcement he closed his bag's pockets, slung it over his shoulder while rising from his seat, and proceeded to the bridge with the rest of the group. He was one of the last to arrive and stood listening to the conversations, as well as Isaac's reports. When the ship was struck, Alex attempted to plant his feet, but to no avail. He was thrown to the ground with the rest of his party.


Alex could be found laying belly down covering his head with his hands when the ship made contact with the ground. Once he deemed it safe to rise to slowly climbed to his hands and knees, groaning as he rose. He heard Kiera call for anyone injured and gave himself a moment to make sure he was okay before answering.


"Yeah. Fine." he replied as he slowly rose to his feet,  "The whiplash is gonna suck, but otherwise I'm good here."



Alex followed the party to the rover, packed his things (save for his pistol and ammo) into the cargo hold and found his seat, whether it was in an actual seat or sitting someone a bit less convenient was up to where the rest of the party chose where to sit, he had no preference, and would rather spare the good seats for those who wanted them.


He patiently waited for the three to finish their prayer, watching them as they asked Metatron for his blessing, but took no part. He had nothing against prayer, after all, he spent the last few years in a temple, but he had never asked the gods for any favors as he felt that his life was none of their business. He nodded as they finished and got as comfortable as he could in his seat. He was ready to get started working on what he came to this planet to do.

 

[ARSENIC]

Moryn wasted no time when asked who will drive. "I will." he responded, instantly and like clockwork.


He made neither affirmation, nor protest, to the prayer. Faith was something he decided to gloss over, as it was with anything that couldn't be seen, felt, or analyzed. As far as he was concerned, Metatron was just a big Dyson Sphere hooked up to a super-advanced computer with an AI, no different from a heavily juiced up version of Moryn's own floating droid - certainly not something that should even care about being worshiped. At least Metatron existed, unlike some of the Gods of other faiths, but it wasn't like the cleric's magics came directly from him, so it hardly even mattered. It was the strength, and focus, of the faith itself that produced the magic - a kind of willing suspension of disbelief so powerful that it influenced reality in much the same way his own spells did. It was fascinating in principle, but not something he could ever get himself to indulge in - cold, hard facts simply mattered too much.


Long, spidery fingertips danced over the wheel of the rover as Moryn plopped into the driver's seat, adjusting himself somewhat as the tiny, flying, spherical droid, Casper, hovered around his head, bleeping and blooping happily. "No, Casper - no stunts. We can go for a joyride in the datadome once we get the ship running." Moryn responded - making it clear he could actually understand the thing. Casper responded another affirmative bleep.