Story (Jim flails around)

Jim asks if Krisaga needs anything.  She politely says that she is fine.  He goes over to Balthier's gun and looks at it for a bit.  Deciding to do something different, Jim decides to start digging a ditch with his anchor.  Jim tells the golem to keep digging a hole, and wanders off to the beach.  He searches around for a big oyster, but doesn't fine any.  He spends the next hour or so searching, to no avail.  He decides to go for a little swim.  Most of the time the water is slightly cold, but in some spots it is really warm.  He decides to dive down in one of the warm spots.  It gets very warm around the bottom.  He starts shuffling some sand, and comes across some of the hard metal that he found in the workshop.  He can't find the edge of it, it is too wide.  He goes up for some air.  He dives down once more, and clears some more sand off of it.  There seems to be no end to this piece.  He goes down again, and tries knocking on the piece.  It sounds solid at first, but there seems to be a faint sound coming from inside.  He clears away more sand.  It seems to be very slightly sloped.  He goes on clearing like this until he has uncovered several meters of the object.  There is some red paint on the very edge.  He clears some more around the paint.  Knocking on it reveals that it is no more hollow than the other parts.  The paint reveals what appears to be a 7 with a circle on the bottom like a percent sign missing the top circle.  He continues working for a while.  He spots what appears to be a thick glass or plastic edge sealed to the metal, creating a smooth transition.  It is firmly held in place, it does not even wiggle.  He tries to see through it, but it is very dark inside.  He commits this spot to memory, as it is not far out from the shore, and swims back in.  He wanders back into the cave, through the grassy area, down into the workshop, and drops into the hole leading to the jail.  There is the open cell, and a metal door, seemingly made from this mysterious hard dark metal.  He tries the door, but it appears to be rusted shut.  He bends over to whip out his anchor, and rails it against the door.  Rusted metallic dust falls from the edges.  He then causally opens the door.  He walks into a very surreal room.  It is a giant hallway, with lights on the walls, ceiling and floor stretching down to the end.  There is a door at the end of the hallway, a door in the ceiling, and a door on the floor.  The lights are behind glass panels sealed to the walls, and are very strong.  Not even a blow from the anchor cracked one.  He tries to open the ceiling door, but he can't reach it.  Its too far up.  He attempts to swing the floor door open, but it appears to be sealed shut, and it does not budge.  Frustrated, he kicks down the final door.  He enters a circular room, with glass panels in the front.  He can see up into where he was clearing sand earlier.  Inside this room are various monitors, and controls.  It looks like you can only get to some of them if you could fly.  Much to his disappointment, there are no jetpacks or other methods of flying in this room.  He pokes around the controls, but can't understand anything.  There are only 3 parts he can understand.  The first is a red light that says Hull Breached.  The second is the screen below that light that has the number 3 on it, which he determines to be the number of breaches in the hull.  The third is a green light that says Main Engine Power.  He gives up, and goes back to the ceiling door.  He attempts to use a whip and vine to get the door open, but he can't seem to open it.

Lady Krisaga Gemviper

People call me viper
I live up to my name
Fools dyin' all around me
They gotta change their game

I'm a little tired now
I'll get better soon
There's all these guys around me
All they do is swoon

I'm biding up my strength
No one's even SEEN my power
Attacking me is assaulting a wall
'Cause I'm a freaking tower

These guys I'm with are pretty cool
Balthier's beat is sick
Jim just kinda flails around
Wait, wasn't there a third dick?

I live by the Gemviper code
I'ts written in my blood
If you challenge this royal node
You'll get taken down in the flood
-Lady Krisaga

Story (Hole in workshop Pt. 1)

Balthier wanders over to the hole in the workshop and shoves his face and left arm through it, and then undulates through after his body parts.  Now in a room, there is a metal jail cage with a pile of something in the corner, and a door.  The door is locked, and made of reinforced metal of some kind.  Inside the jail the pile of something moves, and the metallic sound shakes again.  Balthier calls out to the cage. "Hello?"  A thin rasping comes from inside the cage.  "Help, please.  I need to eat, I can't get out."  Balthier responds: "What manner of creature are you?"  "Last time I checked, human.  I can't promise that for long if I don't get out though."  A thin person stands up in the corner, still mostly covered in darkness.  Balthier: "I have no food, but do you know where I could find some?"  The figure shrugs "I do not know where I am, but if you have no food, perhaps you could get me out somehow?"  Balthier steps closer to the cage.  The rusted metal seems strong, yet it is very old.  The door has recently replaced double lock.  They are very small, and highly polished, as if they just were made.  He pulls out his pistol, and shoots both the locks off, and the door swings open.  The figure walks over, showing itself to be a woman, badly bruised, cut, and starved.  "Thank you.  My name is Lady Krisaga.  I am going to assume you have a way out."  Smiling a little, Balthier asks, "Are you sure you are okay?"  Krisaga looks at him, "Yes, if we get out.  I need some rest and food."  Balthier introduces himself. "My name is Balthier, and uh, we should probably try to get you some medical attention."  Krisaga holds her side gingerly.  "That would be nice, but some rest would do me some good for now."  Balthier says, "I came in from the ceiling.  Do you think I could help you get up there?"  Krisaga: "I suppose we could try."  Balthier boosts Krisaga up, and she exerts an extraordinary effort, and climbs through the hole.  Looking around once more, there seems to be nothing around.  Balthier clambers up into the hole, and gets into the workshop.  Jim introduces himself to Krisaga.  Balthier wanders over to the golem, and says "Hey boulderbrains, Krisaga needs to get over to our camp, do you think you could give her a lift?"  The golem turns, looks at Balthier, considers this, and then considers how easy it would be to step on him.  He gets lost in thought, and ignores Balthier.  Jim offers Krisaga a ride back to camp, and offers to make a nice hammock for her.  Krisaga says that Balthier was the one who rescued her, and that he had promised her lodgings.  Balthier turns to Jim and says that he can take her back to camp.  Upon finishing his turn, Jim is putting some carnivorous grass into his aptitude potion.  Jim starts having violent convultions, and collapses hard on the floor, knocking himself out.  The golem picks up Krisaga and Jim, and books it out the door.  Balthier is surprised by how fast it moved.  He chases it out of the cave and sees it pound off the beach and into the forest, chasing it over to where Jim's camp is.  It gently places them on the platform, and then sits down at the ladder.  Jim's camp is quite simple, a platform made of wood lashed to a tree, with small notches hacked into the trunk.  The only thing odd is that wherever Jim is moved, small objects around his feet like pebbles or such seem to float, as well as when he is placed, he seems to float slightly.  Balthier asks the golem if he can get up onto the platform to try and fix Mr. Stupor, and the golem scoots over to let him up.  Balthier looks over at Mr. Eats acidic grass, and determines that he needs to sleep it off.  Some of the pebbles float over and land on Jim.  One gets stuck in his nose.  Balthier starts to lift Jim, and puts him back down after some consideration.  While thinking some more, a small shock hits his hand.  John takes the plant and rock package meal, and thinks very hard at it.  His left foot catches on fire.  He slaps the fire out, then gutpunches Jim.  Jim hurks, but doesn't upchuck.  He rises to his feet.  The pebbles fall back to the ground.  Balthier tells him that Jim better vomit that crap up right now or hes gonna have bad munchies for the rest of his life, which may not be for very long.  Balthier suggests that Jim tell the golem to at least listen to him sometimes, at least not just when Jim's life is in danger.  Jim concentrates on the golem.  It says ping, then nods its head.  Balthier, investigating why his leg caught on fire, thinks hard at Jim.  Jim yells as a very loud noise goes off in his ears, with a bright flash of light.  Jim, wondering how powerful his acidic stomach is right now, eats a pebble.

Not story

Balthier gains a class:  Rhyme Gunner Lv.3

(Skipped 1 and 2 due to immense skill)

Story (The workshop)

Everyone is in or around the workshop.  The elemental is standing in the middle.  The two Xill are experimenting with the carnivorous grass.  Jim is looking at the machines.  Aldrec is picking his nose as he wanders around the machines.  Balthier is also idling in the workshop.  Time passes, and crickets chirp.  A loud noise comes from the floor.  The noise is repetitive and metallic.

Story 14 Quick update

Jim is in the workshop, the golem is standing nearby, Aldrec is looking at a large crystal door, Balthier and the two Xill are wandering around near the workshop.

The Xill reveal their true names: Tok-Zanrith and Tok-Arul.

Story 13 (daw crap)

Jim exits the crevice, and heads out the door.  He heads into the grassy room.  The floor is slightly caved in.  He identifies it as carnivorous grass.  Using the anchor as a makeshift shovel, he harvests several patches of grass.  Jim then clears a path through the grass to the cave in.  The temperature rises as he gets closer.  Getting to the edge of the cave in, he sees what looks like a small workshop, and it is really hot inside.  Jim climbs down into the workshop, and finds that the source of the intense heat is a pipe that has ruptured, and lava is pouring out of it, and flowing into a crack in the floor.  There are several tables, and various equipment scattered around the workshop.  Most of the mechanical equipment is hooked into the wall with the same type of piping that the lava is pouring out of.  On closer examination, the piping seems to be made out of a metal, but there is only slight heat escaping the pipe sides.  One could rest their hand on the pipe, and it would not burn.  There are 3 2'x2' sheets of the metal around the workshop.  The metal is extraordinarily strong, and even the golem cannot bend it.  The carnivorousness plants do not make any sort of mark on the metal.  Going back into the workshop, Jim finds a piece of equipment meant to shape objects via bending them.  He takes a sheet of the metal, and bends it into a half pipe design.  He gives the golem the metal, who brings it over to the pipe, and fits it on.  The lava holds it in place, and melts around it creating a seal.  Most of the machines around the workshop cycle once, then turn themselves off.  Now that the room is safe to look around in, Jim looks around the shop.  There is a small set of tools made from the same metal that the pipes were made out of.  Examining the machines again, they seem to be made to create, maintain, and salvage other machines or items.  Each wall seems to be dedicated to the task of one of those.  The fourth wall is covered in machines built to refine materials into others.  The room is covered in a thick black hardened coating.

Story 12

Aldrec wanders into the cave with his sack.  Balthier is fooling around with two demons, and there is a loud buzzing in the air.  Jim is having fun at the bottom of a small ravine, and there is a small clay golem standing around.

Life carries on.  There is a faint crunch from the grassy room.  Upon wandering over to investigate, Balthier finds a small box tucked away in a corner, covered in dust.

UPDATE:

Upon opening the box, there is a small vial of a green liquid inside.  The wax seal has a skull and crossbones on it.  There is also a small metallic object the size of a knife only thicker, and more blocky.  Balthier recognises this as his weapon of choice.  A rather rusty model, a Ruger SP101.  There are only 4 rounds loaded, and the chamber is seriously rusted.  One would probably not want to use this until repaired.

Story 11 (Balthier goes bowling)

Balthier, outside the cave, enters nimbly, pausing to wonder if that bush was moving.  In front of him are 3 doors, the north one shattered all over, the east one filled with some sort of clay, and the west one closed.  Entering the west door, he is greeted by a northern, and western door, a southern crystallized door, and a wirefly, stuck to the ceiling.  There is very loud buzzing coming from the crystal door, and some scraping and buzzing from the west.  Upon examination of the wirefly, it seems to be asleep.  Balthier sneaks up behind the wirefly, but not before he takes his shoes off as to not wake the beast.  A deft hatchet swing cuts the fly clean in two.  He takes the corpse of the machine, and heads through the northern door.  Inside are a few small skeletons, partially dissolved away on top of a rather large patch of grass.  Balthier throws a nearby rock at a skeleton, which falls apart into dust.  He then throws a rock at the grass, which lands.  There is a faint hiss.  Turning on his heals, he is out the door as fast as his feet can move him.  The buzzing noise has stopped from the west room, and the scraping has turned to rustling.  Balthier head through the west door, only to be surprised by two creatures, instantly identified as Xill.(http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG259b.jpg)  Both are carrying spears.  One has a flask, and is wearing glasses.  They look at Balthier as if they do not know whether to attack or to continue looting.  An awkward pause passes between the three entities.  Balthier puts the bucket on his head, beats it with the flat part of his axe, and yells at the top of his lungs in an attempt to intimidate them.  He looks like an idiot.  The Xill begin to laugh, and come over to Balthier.  The one with the glasses calls himself Bill.  His glasses allow him to find and identify telekinetic energy.  The other one, Dill, explains that Bill is a big dork and you shouldn't listen to his hokey pokey crap.  Bill asks how Balthier got here.  Dill explains that they don't remember how they got here, last they knew their craft was having problems with a telekinetic energy flux coming from this planet.  They have been trying to find their ship and the source of the energy for several weeks.  Balthier begins to explain to the demons about his situation, before he gets uninterrupted by Dill saying that they are not "Demons" but simply "Enlightened Helians" or to put in simple terms, the opposite of fallen angels, stripped of their powers, and sent to a mundane world.  Balthier is led back to the room with the crystal door.  They have been trying to crack this open for a few days, but this is the main entrance to the wirefly hive, and is heavily reinforced.  Balthier inspects the crystal door, and finds a few cracks that have sealed over with a thick resin, making the door stronger still.

Story 10 (aka. The Jim saga)

Jim decides that he has had enough of these fools on his island.  He gathers up all the vines he can find in the forest, spending most of the night while they were asleep doing so.  He then collects some rocks in his giant sack, and heads over to the beach.  Upon arrival, he jumps in, collects some clams, and a few urchins.  He fashions a belt out of vines, and is proud of his creation.  After doing a quick hero pose, he continues on.  He ties a vine around an urchin, making a makeshift flail.  Upon creation, he repeats this for the rest of his urchins.  Arriving at another idea, he crafts up some clam flails.  Realizing that a more permanent home would probably be best, he heads inside the cave...

Inside, there is an intense buzzing.  It gets louder the closer he gets.  He lights a whip, and uses it as a torch.  He comes face to face with a giant bee-creature the size of a football.  Seeing this as a wirefly, he pulls out his ANCHOR OF RETALIATION, and gives it a preemptive strike.  Unfortunately, he just misses.  Fortunately, it didn't notice.  Swinging again with extra power, he connects with the wirefly and spikes it.  It plummets across the room and hits the wall, smashing itself into a pile of scrap.  He goes over and picks up the scrap.  The mess of scrap is made of several different types of metal.  Further examination of the cave reveals a darker entrance that leads off to much louder buzzing.  After taking a few minutes to breathe, he prepares himself for the louder buzzing.  Jumping through the entrance, he sees 3 wireflies buzzing.  Throwing 2 clamflails, he misses with both of them.  The wireflies jump off the wall and fly towards him.  His reflexes allow him to swing with his anchor, and nail one of them before it has the chance to attack.  It falls to the ground, sputtering.  The second one swings with it's stinger, but narrowly misses, and the third one doesn't even get close.  Jim swings up 2 clams again, and missing with both yet again.  Both of the flies miss as they take another jab.  2 more clams spin up, and one of them connect and send a wirefly in a downward spiral.  The third wirefly attacks on relentlessly, this time connecting with a ram.  It grapples on, and refuses to let go. In a burst of greater-than-hornet strength, Jim pulls the wirefly off and reverses the grapple.  Holding the creature down with one hand, he smashes it in with a final clam.  Looking around, he sees a fancy stone walled room.  He entered from the south through a cave-in.  There are doors North, East, and West.  The first door he tries is the North door, which is locked.  Swinging the anchor as a lever, he busts the door open. There is a gap in the floor that crosses the room, falling for about 20 feet, and 5 feet across.  On the other side is a pile of something, you can't quite tell what, and a box.  Jim swiftly jumps the gap, and notices that the mound of dirt is actually clay, and has a humanoid shape to it.  Taking no chances,  he spins up a clam, and instead of hitting the mound, rails his face.  The mound stays put.  Tending to his wounds, he rests for a few minutes.  Leaning over, he identifies the mound as a golem.  Jim takes out the script in it's head.  A quick scrawl of, "Jim is best friend and obey Jim and Jim only" makes the golem complete.  Placing the script back into it's head, the golem's eyes light up.  It looks at Jim.  Jim checks the box, and finds a flask filled with a starry blue liquid, corked and sealed with wax.  Jim identifies this as an "Adaptive Advantage" elixer.  When given an element of another power, such as magic or psionic abilities, or elements of a skill, the drinker gains a permanent genetic advantage related to that object.  Jim tells the golem to pick up the box.  It silently does.  Jim hands one end of a long vine to the golem, and rappels down the gap.  Finding nothing at the bottom, he climbs back out, and goes back into the main room.  Opening the east door now, there is a bland stone-wall room.  Upon further investigation, there is a hidden indentation in the wall.  The anchor is quickly used as a crowbar, and the false wall comes tumbling down.  There are 2 boxes inside this room, as if someone would figure no one would find them.  Opening the first box provides a stick, standing on it's end.  Inside the second box is another potion, this one identified as a bonus to Health and Strength.  Jim rapidly quaffs the potion.

Story

Balthier pokes around on the beach, but does not find any food.  He does find, however, a little inlet.  The water slowly passes into a small cave entrance on the inside, and the river is teeming with fish.  Continuing on, he continues on the beach, finding that to his belief, this is an island, and not a spit of land coming off of a larger continent.

Aldrec finds that the "mechanisms" that hold the platform together are simple physics, and that they are simple posts tied together with lashings.  The fire spews black smoke from the leaves that he adds to the fire, allowing Balthier to explore the island even farther.

Feeling confident, Balthier steps towards the cave.  The buzzing sound is louder, and seems to be coming from inside.

However, from outside the cave, he is being watched.  Jim peers down at Balthier, hidden in a bush above the cave entrance.  Beside him is a sack.  Jim knows the contents of his sack already.  He knows very well what is inside.

Story

There seems to be no flint or steel around, but there is some tinder.  A faint buzzing can be heard in the distance.  Aldrec shivers as a chill rolls through the forest.  There are a few embers left on the firespot.  A quick adding of tinder and some blowing causes a small fire to spring to life.  Balthier checks the lashings on the platform, tightening a few, and ensuring that the vine can continue to hold up the house.

Story

Aldrec pries open the clams with his knife, and begins to burn a few.
Bob steps in, and carefully roasts them over the fire.  This novel idea tastes very good, whether because everyone is hungry, or it is simply tasty, no one will know.  As the conversation wanes into the night, the party falls asleep, comforted by the feeling that someone or something is watching out for them.

Morning comes around, Balthier wakes up first, and notices that Bob is not there.  Aldrec is awoken by Balthier, and they both eat the last of the clams.  A new day stretches ahead of them.  Dew rests lightly on the tree canopy.

Story

Aldrec climbs up, finds no food.  Bob has no food.  Balthier has clams.

Balthier also has a strange rock and plant.  Bob doesn't recognize it, but he does go into a slight trance for a second there.  He shakes his head.  Aldrec thinks the rock is shaped stupid.

Story

Bob calls down for the newcomer to come up and be new.  There's space for everyone.

...Darkness falls.

Story

Aldrec decides to attempt to find people.  Fortunately for the universe, they are close by.  Up a tree are two such people with a fire somehow not burning down the forest. (yes much better)

Balthier finds out that if you burn the burnable material, it acts as a pure carbon insulator.  Part of the platform is burnt, and in the middle is a burnt out firespot. (+1 woodworking)

Story

Balthier returns to the shelter to find a small platform, about 10'x10' lashed to the tree.  Bob is hoisting a rather leafy roof onto the top of it, and there is a light coming from above.  There is the faint smell of smoke.  Lashed to the tree about every 3 feet are wooden planks.

Aldrec looks at the trees, gets interested in the glowing one, and heads off in that direction.

Story

Balthier quickly makes a makeshift glove, and picks up the rock and plant.  He can feel a connection between the two, albeit very faint.  He feels slightly queasy trying to tell what is connecting the two.  He stops, and continues back to the camp.  The sun is starting to set, and there is only a little daylight left.

Story

Aldrec Thorton wakes up with a pounding head.  Surroundings are a sandy beach, ocean as far as you can see, and a thick forest.  You are wearing average rags.  You have a sack.

Balthier wakes up stuck in a tree, haning by his once above-average threads.  They are reduced to average rags.  All you can see are trees.  A faint salty breeze ruffles your hair.  There is a sack about 20 feet below you on the forest floor.

---

Aldrec opens up his sack all over the sand.  All kidding side though, there is a small knife inside.

Balthier climbs up to the highest branch he can get to, so fast he surprises himself (+1 climbing from crit)  Looking around, he can see most of what looks to be an island shore.  There's some bloke dicking around with his sack on one of the sandbars

---

Aldrec tucks away his knife into his sack, and carrys his sack.  He then sacks around while waiting for sack.  Then takes a quick sack.  I mean nap.

...sack...

Balthier spots someone else on the way down from the tree.  There seems to be another bloke up a tree as well.  Continuing down, he finds in his sack a bucket and hatchet.

---

Balthier shouts out to the other tree-fairing man, but to no avail.  He is too far away to hear, or is doing something rather loud.  In other news, The trees are oak, tough and sturdy, and the smaller ones could be cut down with a little work.  There are also vines, and copious piles of acorns the squirrles have yet to discover.

---

Balthier heads off in the direction of the man in the tree.  Along the way, he finds a few plants with 4" needles.  He can't quite remember what they were called, but he thinks they are some varient of the nettle plant, and they carry a potent knock-out poison.  He manages to collect 6 mature spikes, and stores them safely in his bucket.

---

Balthier calles up to the man in the tree:  "Hallo, chap!  How and who are you?"

From Balthier's point of view, the tree replies, "My name is Bob, and I'm doing just fine aside from the memory loss.  What brings you 'round these parts?"

After explaining his situation, Bob invites Balthier up into his tree.  Bob is cutting oak tree branches into planks, and collecting vines.

---

Bob looks at you quizzically.  I do not know of anyone on the beach, but there are some great big shells out there.  Size of a man's head and whatnot.  Fairly creepy if you ask me.  I was gathering these here branches for a shelter, ive got about 8 planks.  I have me trusty hatchet, me father gave it to me.  And before that it was me grandfather's.  It goes all the way back to before my family can remember.  I'd be much thankful if you helped me build a bit here, I'll even show you a few tricks of the trade. (+1 woodworking, +1 woodcutting, +4 oak planks given to bob)

---

Balthier helps Bob gather some wood planks for a few hours.  Unfortunately, Balthier falls out of the tree.  Upon climbing back up, he slips again.  After carefully arriving at the top again, he proceeds to drop the axe down the side.  His efforts are not in vain, and he does manage to cut some more oak planks for Bob.  After testing the potential for the bucket to be used as a tool, the rounded edges are a little too rounded to dig through the hard forest dirt, but it would go right through topsoil or sand.  It is a strong lightweight metal bucket, and is watertight.  After all his adventuring, he climbs safely back up to the branches again.  There is about 4 hours of sunlight left in the day.  (+6 oak planks to Bob, -4hp, -1 appearance due to dirt in face)

---

Bob agrees that more hands equals more progress, and wishes you luck in finding that wayward sacker.

Upon returning, you notice a strange plant.  Only about 6" high, It looks like a miniature bamboo plant.  For some reason it stands out, but you can't see why.  There is also no bamboo on the island that you have seen so far.  Upon further examination, you see the roots are wrapped around a small rock the size of a man's fist.  This rock also holds your attention, but you can't quite place why.