Forums » General Roleplay » Cult of the Machine God (Closed Steampunk RP)

The year is 1,512AFY, Gear based technology advances have helped our civilization come a long way since the five hundred years of darkness. After the events where dark magical energy nearly destroyed all life most magic has been lost forever accept by alchemists who study ancient runes and spell books of the past. Though not many of these alchemists still exist it is more common to see people using flint lock fire arms, crossbows, and smaller machines to do battle! Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Bearons were the only three mortal races to escape the Shadow Age as it is called, but it is now over a thousand years after those times and a new race has found itself into existence.

Automaton's are iron cast gear powered robot people who use ancient wizard runes for hearts to survive and have a limited personality. But with their mechanic bodies and such they were thought to be unable to use magic in anyway. So that is why when an Automaton name Babelwas fitted with a special rune known as the Arch-Mage Rune, he was able to manipulate a different arm in each of his four mechanical arms. Fire, Ice, Healing, and Shock magic. Babel left his home city of Tall Shore, a Steampunk city to the north! Mortals and machines alike began following Babel, doing as he commanded and worshipping him.

A cult formed around Babel and he was known as the great Automaton Spellcaster, or Babel the Machine God! And as the cult grew, one investigator from a southern city was flown in on a Zeppelin to meet with Tall Shore elders to stage an full scale investigation on Babel and his cult to find out if he posses any sort of threat to the Cities of Steam or neighboring townships. "Why did I have to pick this officer up at the air dock?" Icias asked into the hand radio he held, "I'm a bounty hunter not an errand bear..." The Bearon crossed his arms as the General on the other side of the radio explain to him that as a licensed Hunter for the Allience of Steam he is to do what is requested of his by an Allience representative. "Yeah, yeah..." Icias shit off his radio as he wait for the airship.

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Jack, a new detective had been moving to place to place as he was looking for a job but would only specifically be willing to protect people and now he had finally found what he was looking for fortunately. As he walked on, he looked up at the building he'd be working at "This must be it..." he headed on inside and looked for the room of the one who'd be giving him his assignments. Eventually upon arriving, he knocked on the door and waited for his response.

Inside the air station Icias saw the grizzly Bearon get off his airship, "thank you for coming today detective..." Icias's face was buried in a note he was reading from, "it is an honor to meet... This is bull." Tearing the note and dropping it in a waste bin, Icias put out his hand. "From one Bearon to another welcome to Tall Shore, a place governed by the shortest people in the world." Tall Shore was known to be populated by mostly dwarves. There were a good amount of humans and Automatons here but elves and Bearons were a bit more rare this far north. "I've been tasked to not only retrieve you from the air station but to act as your back up when you head for the cultist camps to the west..." Marreting no real response Icias led the detective to a carriage and opened the door, "this'll take us to the Council of Tall Shore, they wanna see us before we head for Babel..."

Jack followed his back up along "Gotcha. So what appears to be the problem round these parts? In a place like this, I'm sure there's some dark sides to this place with its technology and all. Such as the weaponry and other tricky stuff." he said as they walked along to the council "So...What is it they want to say to us?"

"Say to you..." Icias sighed before handing the Grizzley Bearon a letter, "We have to go to the capital district, Area Four, to meet with the Council, two dwarfs, two dark elves, and an old human," he wasn't happy that the government had demanded his presence in this cold Stoney city. "Just read the letter already and hurry it up, I haven't got all day:

'Mister Bearstone,
Please forgive the urgency of which we sent for your company. You have done a great deal of good detective work in your past and we were wondering if you would search out Babel the Gear Profit and tell us if he means any real threat to us?
Signed, The Five Men of Four.'

Jetson got off the airship, 'Alright, alright, no need to shout!' he said to the guide. He kept on asking how to get to Area Four to speak with the Council about the cult that the Automaton started. Not only did they send in a detective to sort out the problem but they reached out to other cities and asked for professional inventors to help with reprogramming Babel. Hharold got into a carriage and told the driver, 'Can you take me to Area 4 please?' the driver nodded and they took off.

Jack takes the note and reads it and mumbles. Once he finished he looked up at Icias "You wouldn't happen to know anything about Bable the Gear Profiter, would you? I believe I've not heard a whole lot of the threats in places like these." he said as he put the note away for later.

Icias explained to the Grizzly Bearon about the so called Machine God. "So you know how Alchemists use Wizard Runes or Mages stones?" Icias started, "Master Inventors use these to create Automatons, and one man, thought it would be wise to use a rune he found in an ancient dragon nest..." Obviously extinct now, "but this runes power was too great and it created the first ever Automaton who could use magic. The four armed fend killed his master and started performing these so call miracles all over the Tall Shore, so one by one his followers came together to worship him," after being banned from worship in the city the group moved to the Stoney Hills and their they reside taking whatever the profit God wants and gifting in to him in his holy name. "Their in the Stoney Hills, that's about it..." After he explained everything the two got into their steam limo and took off across the city.

Jack listened to the story intently and found it quite bizarre for something that was offered so much power by its own master that only made them decide to kill their master. "Right...I think I'm starting to understand now. So these worshipers...Are they a cultural kind of group that are aggressive or merely the ones that nose into people's faces about this so called Automaton?" he asked as he knew he'd require all the information he'd need to solve whatever problems related to this.

"A bit of both," Icias admitted as the tank like limo chugged down the bustling street. "The Babelists that reside in city limits are just really forward about their living God of gears, but the followers who camp in the stone lands with him are violent and brutal to any travelers who get lost in that part of the hills." After a bit more talking the limo pulled up to the Council hall, the council itself was waiting at the top of the steps, outside for Detective Bearstone.

They had called her an Automaton, since her arrival here in the city. She remembered the name -- that was what she had been marketed as, in a very distant town, by the tycoon who had stolen her away, flashing her about as some military luxury of which thousands would be made.
She was not one of them, she told herself. Her blood was oil, her breath was steam, and her flesh was metal and rivets, but she was not one of them. The same magic that made the Machine God run, and all the other Automatons, was what breathed a pale blue light into her glass eyes, but she was a girl, a human girl, deep inside, and she had to tell herself that. It was the Automatons, and Babel's worshippers, who told her she was not human. It was them, who tried to sweep her away in his mysticism and enchanting draw.
But, from the Council, she had caught wind of someone present in the city, someone who was going to oppose the new god. With trembling gears, Florence dressed herself thickly to hide her flesh. She covered every inch of her metal body in a brown corset and matching brown bustle that dragged the ground behind her with heavy ruffles, her arms shrouded in black gloves, and her face hidden behind a wide hood from which her wig poured forth in thick chocolate-coloured waves. She had to escape the whisperings of a metal god.
She had ran across the city, metal legs carrying her quickly, holding her hood down. She could see the limo as it pulled up.
"Detective!" She cried, running still. From this distance, and this volume, her tinny voice almost sounded normal. The Council was there, she could see, but she couldn't bring herself to care about disturbing them. "Detective, wait! I need to talk to you!"

Another character was on a never-ending quest to evade a life of war. Grant Treivoli was an ex-captain of a massive army of Featherfolk who's forces attempted to challenge the world. Grant Treivoli now whats to evade a somewhat unjust past and is trying to start anew. Of course, he knew it was inevitable that war would find his way to him again. Now he lived in a small building with a large area for tinkering.

He was currently working on a huge set of armor that seemed even taller than he was. He was working on what appeared to be a motor device in the back of the armor. He just made a misstep, and steam spewed out all over his face. After a while of getting annoyed, Grant decided to take a break from fixing his battle armor and decided to leave the house.

Grant basically looked like a large Cassowary with arms, a thick black robe and a pair of tan pants. He was a variant of the Featherfolk that was known for growing exceptionally tall, and often had a savage spirit. Grant's been trying to take that savage spirit for a while. As he was walking down the area, he eventually came across something that seemed intriguing. There was a cyborg girl, or an Automaton as he's heard them called, and she seemed to frantically be calling for the detective. For now he just watched the scene unfold until he had a reason to talk.

Thinking that the cyborg woman was a worshipper of Babel, Icias pulled out his hand cannon and pointed it at her, "back off psycho, Detective Bearstone has very important business with the High Council," the council lead Bearstone inside with another man as Icias stayed outside with the guards. "I'm a bounty hunter, Damnit, not a body guard... This is so stupid." Seeing the woman not hadn't left yet he waved his hand cannon at her, "scat, go, get out of here! No one gives a crap about Babel or his fake miracles!"

As Jack got out the limo, he turned to see the lady call to him but once he saw the events go out, he tried to speak "Hey hold o--" he was soon taken in before he had the chance to speak and felt somewhat annoyed but at the same time he knew it was for the best at the moment and he'd expect he'd find her later on hopefully. He eventually looked around for the council as he was taken inside.

The council promised Jack that if he investigated the threat level he would be payed fifteen thousand Shill, and if the threat level was high enough he was given permission to take Babel out. The combination of killing the machine God and delivering the Arch Dragon Rune brought the cost up to twenty five thousand, a payment that him and Icias would be expected to split between themselves. 'A fair deal mister Bearstone?' One of the Drow council members asked, 'OF COURSE ITS FAIR!!! SEND THE MAN OFF ALREADY!!!' A dwarf council member interrupted. Meanwhile Icias held his guard outside as people came and passed, he continued mumbling words about being better then a baby sitting duty.

She had missed him.
Running still, Florence slowed to a jog, eventually getting only as close to Icias as he would allow without shooting. Her glass lenses were fully extended, blue lights glowing brightly behind them. Panting felt natural, and as such it was what came forth from her empty body, though there was no biological need for it. Hundreds of years may have passed since she had last inhabited a human body, but she felt the need still.
A bear.
A big, white bear, standing on its hind legs, was what had yelled at her. She stared him down for a long moment, falsely blinking with clicking apertures. "Please--" She begged, holding out her gloved hands to him. "Please, I'm not one of them! I wanted to talk to the Detective, I-- I want to help you, I want to..." She glanced around herself, voice falling quiet. Were there Automatons close by? Could they hear she was speaking against 'her own kind?' "Please. I'm afraid to explain myself here."

Grant looked at the Automaton for a while. What he knew about them was not good. They reminded him of Cogyucytox: War-driven, mad, lust for power. But this one seemed different. She seemed to act more human than other Automatons. And yet, detective Icias didn't care. He still had the gun pointed at her. Grant did want to help, but... he was a lot less confident outside his armor. And she still appeared to be an Automaton. His mind was in a struggle right now. Then, something came out.

"Leave her alone!" Grant called out. "Can't you see she's begging for help?" Grant saw the gun Icias was holding, and was hesitant not to care. Eventually though, he went forward blindly up to the Automaton girl and started to examine her. "Hmmm... you don't seem to be like other Automaton. And yet, you are. You are an Automaton, are you not?" His mind was conflicting again. He then looked at Icias, who was still holding his gun about. "Ummm... is there anything I can do sir? Ummm..." He couldn't avert his gaze from the Automaton entirely. He was unsure what to do.

Automaton's were made to serve, they were for the most part an innocent race with great loyalty. They did what they were told in an efficient time frame, Icias actually liked Automatons before Babel. This Machine God changed everything and he had only come into existence two years ago or so. Rewiring the machines do do nothing but preach about their sacred speacial master lord, and become aggressive. And now everyone was pretty much discriminatory of ever Automaton because of it, "shut up feather folk, why does everyone think they can just boss me around?" Sighing he holstered his hand cannon, "I'm not a baby sitter, I'm not a body guard, and I'm not an information booth!!!" He was a bounty hunter and he was being tossed around by the government almost to the point of quitting, good thing the Babel guy had a large bounty or he would totally just ditch town. Steam Harbor was nice this time of year, "just get out of here, I ain't no detective either..."

As Jack was given a explanation of the upcoming job he was amused with all the money that he could potentially use for a number of things but of course would share some to Icias. Once the deal was offered, Jack smiled and nodded "You have yourselves a deal." Upon hearing the interruption, he looked up at the dwarf "You needn't worry. I'll be right off now and I'll take care of it. Should anything come up albeit something I should know or the threat level, please let me know." he said as he left the building and saw the slight banter outside. Curious, he walked towards Icias and looked at the two people he was talking to "What seems to be the problem here, Icias?"

"Babel worship is going on all over the place, spies around every corner, this chick and his robot," he snarler insulting the Feather folk, "want to get close to ya..." Icias wasn't normally this irritable but baby sitting a fully capable Bearon like himself was just a giant waste of time in his opinion, even if it did pay well. "But your the detective, you think the gear head is a threat to the mission?" His hand rested on his holster as he waited for Bearstone's answer.