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Old 02-03-2021, 10:21 AM   #141
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 42 (2021-01-23)

Xipil sneaked closer to the village. At first the people seemed normal, but Xipil got suspicious when he saw a metal spike in the road, a hundred meters from the village, with a human skull mounted on it. There were more skulls and bones lying in a heap around the spike. A woman came out of the village, carrying a bucket which she emptied there: More bones for the heap. Xipil went around the village to look at it from all sides. On a south-bound road, there was another skull on a spike, but there weren’t as many bones around that.

Xipil returned and told us what he had seen. He thought the villagers had become cannibals. His theory didn’t seem as far-fetched now. There were somewhere between thirty and a hundred people in the village, and Wolfram suggested that we pass the village at a safe distance. He thought the skulls could have some religious connotation, but Yana and I could inform him and the rest of the foreigners that Arland authorities often hang up criminals, to warn others to keep to the narrow, lawful path. We believed that the skulls here were meant to warn others away. Xipil didn’t think that fit with the villagers being cannibals. They should want to welcome strangers to their village, so they could eat them.

Xipil suggested asking You for guidance. I fell to my knees and placed my palms on the ground in prayer. Xipil and Yana followed suit. You gave me a strong impression that the people dying in this village were luckier than those dying elsewhere in this region. Whatever was going on in the village was inoffensive in Your eyes, but something else was happening not far away that You despised. I relayed Your message and supported Wolfram’s suggestion of leaving these villagers alone.

When the sun went down, I saluted the dying day with Your sign, and reminded Xipil and Yana of why we Ashtarites do this: Even something as powerful, as vast, as the day has to pass through Death’s Door. Not once, not twice, but every night! O Ashtar, You are mighty indeed!

The villagers began their own celebration. A choir of rough voices could be heard, even at this distance. Xipil and I wanted to approach, to see what was going on. There was some debate regarding what the others should do. Without Xipil and me, they’d be blind in the gathering darkness, and they couldn’t risk lighting a lantern. Therefore, we walked towards the village together, along the road, until we were a kilometer or two away. Then, Xipil and I sneaked closer on our own. Anticipating trouble, I retrieved my poison vial from my pouch and smeared the syrupy liquid on all four of my knives.

The shouting only got louder when we approached. Many people were out, celebrating in the village square. We moved stealthily towards the pile of bones in the road, and even at a distance, I could tell that there were bones enough for ten people there. A chant rose from the village: “Fight! Fight! Fight! Kill! Kill! Kill!” I glanced at Xipil, but it didn’t seem like he thought we were spotted, so we moved up to the bones.

I studied the remains. The bones belonged to adults of both sexes. They looked like they’d been boiled clean of all soft tissue. I saw signs of recent violence on some arm bones and skulls, but could inform Xipil that I noticed no gnaw marks on any of the bones.

Xipil pointed at the nearest house and whispered that he wanted to climb it. “Blood! Blood! Blood!” the villagers chanted as we approached. There were no windows on our side of the building. It’s common around these parts to have the windows facing the sunrise. I peeked around the corner while Xipil climbed the wall. There were thirty or forty people with torches in the village square, facing inwards to watch what appeared to be a brawl. I sent a silent prayer that You would welcome the losers. This was a fight to the death, going by the chants and the cheers. Xipil had seen over the heads of the crowd and told me that three or four people were trying to kill each other. He was aghast at how the other villagers urged them on. I suggested that we return to the others and we got on our way.

When we told the others what we’d seen, Yana was horrified, naturally, being so averse to violence as she is. Wolfram couldn’t think how they could get enough water to boil all the bones, what with every well being dry. They had to have a store of water barrels or something, I postulated. Nobody wanted to try to refill our water skins there. This village was doomed. The inhabitants would kill each other off, and the last person standing was going to starve to death when all his friends and relatives had been eaten. I saw no reason to dwell on the topic, and Yana heartily agreed. Wolfram even changed into a bear so he didn’t have to discuss the horrors of this place. Hylda was a little disappointed that Grogg wouldn’t get to fight these people and wanted him to hold her and promise that he would “conquer” her later.

We started moving again. The voices faded away behind us, and Yana asked how I could be so calm in the face of such an abomination as Xipil and I had witnessed. I told her, “As despicable as we mortals might find their behavior, the villagers haven’t transgressed against Ashtar.” When Yana stroked my arm, I saw sadness in her face, or perhaps pity. She had a way to go yet, if she was going to accept You truly into her heart. I smiled compassionately at Yana until I realized she couldn’t see it in the darkness. Then I stopped and hugged her.

Xipil said he wanted to cast a spell to locate the crypt, and receiving no reaction from bear-Wolfram, he began to dance. He kept at it for a full minute, then he stopped and looked around, and even climbed up on Grogg’s shoulders to look farther. Back on the ground, he informed us his spell had apparently failed. Last night, he had cast the same spell, and got a sensation of something magical to the east, but he didn’t receive the same sensation now. He still believed we should continue east, though.

On this side of the village was only wilderness. There was nowhere we could hole up for the night with walls and barricades, although there were enough bushes and small trees that it should be possible to find a good place to hide. An hour away from the village, I began to look for a good spot, and it didn’t take me long to find one. We decided to leave as much of our gear as possible on the cart so we could get away in a hurry. Wolfram pointed out that our tents could protect the rest of our stuff from the ash clouds, but I thought we should keep our distance from them. That meant that Xipil and I had to split the night’s watches between us, as we were the only ones who would see the clouds in time. Like the others, Xipil is impeded by darkness, but he’s incredibly perceptive, and can discern one darkness from another. I offered to take the first watch, as he had gotten less sleep than me last night.

After a quick meal, we packed our stuff back on the cart, and then people were supposed to sleep. Grogg sat down to sew, but Wolfram recommended that he got some shut-eye. “Just one hour…” Xipil began meditating, and Wolfram erected his totem pole. “Just in case…” It seemed Yana and Hylda were the only ones who tried to fall asleep immediately. I knelt down next to Yana and prayed for her. When I stood again, Xipil and Wolfram were lying down, trying to find comfortable positions on the uneven ground.

Half an hour later, I spotted an animal snooping around a few hundred meters to the south-west. Observing it, I thought it looked like some kind of dog. It sniffed the ground and dashed off to the north, where it met two more of its kind. The three of them began to move closer. Without taking my eyes off them, I prodded Yana with my foot as gently as I could and asked her to wake the others. “There are some dogs coming towards us, and I think they behave oddly,” I informed her.

Yana prodded Wolfram, who sprang to his feet, far too loudly for my taste, then she continued towards Grogg. I drew both my throwing knives, but kept them hidden behind my back, under the cloak, to prevent the moonlight from reflecting off them. The blades were still coated with venom. Just a scratch should fell the animals; I recalled how easily the holy venom had killed those rabid dogs on that river island a couple of months ago.

Yana woke Xipil, too, and he followed her back to me, asking what I had seen. I told him about the three dogs, how strangely they behaved, and pointed them out. Now that Xipil kept an eye on them, I looked around to see if there were more dogs in other directions, but I didn’t spot any.

As the dogs approached, I began to suspect that they weren’t completely feral. Perhaps they were left behind by villagers fleeing these parts? Yana asked nervously what we should do. I told her to stay behind me. Xipil drew an arrow. Wolfram was struggling into his armor, not as soundlessly as I could wish, but the noise didn’t bother the dogs. They spread out a little, but continued towards us. Xipil asked if we should throw food at them. I thought that was a terrible idea. It would be far better if we ate the dogs. If the food trick worked, the dogs would only return for more, and we didn’t have endless supplies to give away.
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-03-2021, 10:31 AM   #142
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 42 (2021-01-23)

Xipil ordered me to take the dog on the left and Wolfram to take the one on the right; he’d take the middle one himself. He told Yana to find some food and throw it out to the dogs. At fifty meters, one of the dogs spotted us and barked. Yana asked what to do with the food she had found. I told her to throw it at them if they came too close. The lead dog bounded ahead. “Now?” Yana asked. Xipil said yes, but I shook my head. I intended it as a last defense for Yana. The dogs rushed towards us, and Xipil grabbed the food from Yana’s hand and pitched it at them. The lead dog snapped it up and turned around. Wolfram asked if anyone had any qualms about killing these dogs. He snorted at Xipil’s short protest and threw his knives at the lead dog. Both missed. I would have been impressed if he had hit, a moving target at that distance, in the dark.

The other two dogs made half-hearted attempts at snagging the food from the first one, but their priority was to flee the scene. Wolfram was convinced they’d be back and thought we should have killed them. I agreed, but Xipil told him, “I knew Nuur-Karif was a cold-blooded murderer, but I didn’t think that about you!” Wolfram and I tried to tell Xipil about how dogs behave, that they’d be back to steal more food, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen. Seeing that we wouldn’t get anywhere with him, I ordered everyone back to sleep. Finally, I eased my knives back into their sheaths.

I watched the eastern veil, the fog clouds on the horizon. It was darkening, and it took me a while to realize it was in fact growing denser. Then, it seemed to come closer. Since he was the most reasonable of my companions apart from Yana, I woke Wolfram and explained the situation. He thought we should wake the others, and began clanging metal objects together, making an awful racket. Perhaps I should have woken Yana instead.

I began to explain what was happening to Xipil and Yana, who had gotten up, but then someone to the west answered Wolfram’s racket with their own. Whoever it was, they were much closer than the village, but still at a safe distance. Wolfram put on his armor again; Grogg slept in his. I made sure Grogg and Hylda got up, which didn’t please Grogg at all, but he could hear the noise to the west. Hylda said there was someone here he could fight. She nearly wet herself with excitement.

I spotted movement to the west, still a kilometer or two away. “We have to get away! Let’s go north!” I ordered. Grogg asked why, as he often does when I take the lead, and Xipil told him about the fog approaching from the east. Xipil asked if I could see who had made all the noise, and I informed him that I believed it to be most of the people from the village we passed, not long ago. I took Yana’s hand and led the way north. Footsteps and rolling wheels followed.

The racket in the west subsided. It was probably a reply to Wolfram’s alarm. I kept an eye on the villagers, and saw several of them lighting torches. I heard angry voices shouting, and familiar-sounding barks. The dogs that had visited us earlier must belong to that village, then. Wolfram concluded that the cannibals were using their dogs to track us.

The wall of fog came closer, so I turned slightly to the left, still holding Yana’s hand. Not much later, the dogs found our campsite and alerted their owners. A voice bellowed, “Blood! Attack!”

We kept running, as fast as I dared lead the others in the dark. Grogg said that the scent of ashes grew stronger. Glancing to the right, I could tell that the fog was accelerating, so we turned even more to the west. The people behind us kept chanting for blood. Wolfram complained that we didn’t kill the dogs when we had the chance, but there was nothing to do about it now. Yana thought that by killing, we would give in to Yori’s rage, and she wasn’t the only one holding that belief, but I stated that it was quite possible to take lives without having the slightest feeling of anger or aggression. As soon the words left my mouth, I knew that Yana was going to bring it up later, when we were alone. Xipil spoke truly when he named me a cold-blooded killer, but that is how it should be. The sacred act of ending a life shouldn’t be undertaken lightly, or in a temper.

Wolfram asked what weapons our pursuers had. I told him that only some of them carried bows, but they all wielded simple melee weapons, like axes, clubs and knives.

The wall of fog picked up its speed again, and I recommended that we headed straight west. Grogg suggested studying the fog through the spirit-seeing ring, so Xipil got it out and turned to watch the wall. He thought he could see something inside the fog and handed the ring to me. Affixing it to my face with the straps that Yana had so cleverly made, I could see a human-like figure. It most definitely wasn’t a farmer or a villager. It was some kind of spirit, a kind I hadn’t seen before. It moved like it was familiar with its spiritual existence, unlike most of the spirits we have encountered. I was quite certain it wasn’t a wraith either.

The spirit approached the villagers. They couldn’t see it, of course. I stopped to see what happened to them. The dogs raised the alarm; they could probably smell the ashes that was about to roll over them even better than Grogg. Some of the villagers threw their torches into the fog, but that didn’t accomplish anything. Most of the villagers decided to flee, but a few ran straight at the fog. The spirit gestured with its hand, and one of the villagers collapsed. It studied the fallen for a moment, then repeated its gesture, and another villager fell. Five gestures, and five villagers were down. The rest of them had possessed enough sense of self-preservation not to charge the fog.

I relayed what I saw while it was happening. Xipil asked if I thought the spirit took the villagers’ souls, preventing them from reaching You. I knelt and prayed, hands to the ground. I got a bad feeling that the fog banished Your presence. That the spirit somehow tried to help those that entered the fog didn’t make me feel any better. As I got to my feet, I saw two men come from the depths of the fog, to pull the fallen villagers with them. They could see the spirit!

Now that Xipil and I weren’t leading the way anymore, Wolfram lit his lantern. We hurried to catch up, but it didn’t seem like the fleeing villagers noticed the light. Still, Xipil asked Wolfram to extinguish it when we caught up with the cart. I was more eager to check if Yana was all right. She was, and Wolfram closed the shutters of the lantern.

After ten more minutes, the fog slowed down, so we turned to the right again and relaxed the speed. After half an hour, we were due north of the village, where we found a small road. We followed it away from the village, and suddenly, the fog burst. I could see many small, black ash clouds moving around with minds of their own.

There was a farm to the north-west, and Xipil went ahead to see if it was abandoned. It was plundered, too, he could tell us when we met up again. “Don’t hit the ceiling; it doesn’t seem stable,” he warned us. It wouldn’t present any danger sleeping under it, but walking on the roof would be risky.

We shacked up in the barn, for we could bring the cart with us inside there. Wolfram took over watch duty, so I gave him the spirit-seeing ring. I found a corner with Yana, too tired to erect the tent, but not so tired I wouldn’t brush my teeth or say my evening prayer.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-03-2021, 10:40 AM   #143
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 42 (2021-01-23)

8th of Ratanu, year 412

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

I woke when Wolfram shook Xipil awake and Xipil told him to wake Yana instead. She slid out from under my arm and got up, telling me to go back to sleep. I grunted with displeasure. Yana returned quickly and informed me that there were black clouds nearby. “Should we just close the hatches and hope?” she asked. I said yes.

I woke again a little later, when Xipil asked Yana if she had seen anything during her watch. It was strange how Yana’s name made me perk up, alert. Yana whispered that she had only seen dark ash clouds. I must have missed something, for Xipil’s next comment was that he didn’t trust her, and Yana replied that neither she nor I was interested in going near Amrosh’s intelligence agency. Xipil accused us of wanting to mate with each other. Yana didn’t want to discuss it, and hissed that now that Xipil was awake, he could take over the watch. She came back to me, and found her place under my arm. I pulled her close and felt my anger drain away. Xipil went outside.

When Wolfram rose and began making noise, it was impossible to remain asleep, so Yana and I got up, too. Everyone ate in a hurry, for we were eager to get going, since it seemed safer to travel during the day. When a rat came close, near Wolfram, Yana let out a small yelp. Wolfram drew a knife and stabbed at the rodent, but he struck the floor. Yana told him she thought it was unnecessary to bring out weapons. Wasn’t the rat simply hungry?

We all watched the rat flee through the open door. It stopped out in the yard, and Xipil said there was something unnatural about the rat, so I drew a throwing knife, aimed and threw. I missed. Xipil ran after the rat, and I followed him out the door. Xipil grabbed the rat and I picked up my knife. The rat tried to wriggle free, but didn’t use its teeth. Xipil claimed it used magic on him.

Since the rat could be sapient, possibly a shapeshifter, I prayed for permission to kill it. You told me you didn’t mind if I did. “Let me take care of the rat,” I told Xipil, but he understood what I was intending and took a step away. I asked Wolfram to check out the rat through the spirit-seeing ring, and he said it looked just like a regular rat. Still, he transformed to the horned bear shape and smelled it. After shifting back, Wolfram stated that it was indeed a normal rat.

Xipil informed us that he had cast spells on rats before, and had suddenly become thirsty. This time, he became hungry instead. Wolfram postulated that someone had laid a spell on the rat which triggered when Xipil targeted the rat with his own magic. Xipil handed the rat to Wolfram and cast his spell again. “It has a normal aura now,” he said, but admitted that he didn’t have any experience with animal auras. I suggested he test Slikk and Slakk, his pet frogs, so he did. They had auras that looked more similar to his own than to the rat’s. Wolfram erected his totem pole and cast his own aura spell, confirming that there was nothing special about the rat now. He proposed that we killed it, but Xipil theorized that someone might have fed the rat prior to casting that spell on it, and if we let it go, it might lead us there. Yana thought that sounded plausible, but I thought the whole idea was a waste of time.

However, in the spirit of teamwork, I asked if we had anything left of that goblin potion, the one that smelled something awful. Surprisingly, Grogg was able to produce a familiar-looking bottle from his sack. After pondering what else we might possess that could smell strongly enough that he’d be able to track it in bear form, Wolfram agreed to use the goblin potion. Yana and I returned to the barn to finish our meal, and let the others deal with the smell and the rat.

When we were ready to go, Wolfram changed into a bear and followed the rat’s scent. The tracks went east, then north, then east again, and then Wolfram began digging. Suddenly, he held up a paw with a skewered rat on one claw. He stared at the rat embarrassedly for a moment, then flung it away. “That was that plan,” he said when he had turned back into human form.

We continued east, towards the crypt. Xipil reported seeing an area that looked even ashier than the surroundings, and asked if we should go there. Everyone agreed. Xipil took the spirit-seeing ring and scouted ahead while the rest of us followed in a more sedate pace. Wolfram turned into a bear again.

Xipil waited for us where we had first camped last night. We looked for drag marks on the ground, and Grogg found a torch. We located where the villagers had fallen and saw drag marks leading a short distance away. There, someone must have picked them up and carried them away. Xipil waved Wolfram over and told him to smell the tracks, asking if there could be “grey men” here. I wasn’t quite sure what these “grey men” were. Xipil has mentioned them before; I think they were someone he encountered while traveling with Lunari, Grogg and Krupik. Grogg said that there could be “grey women” too.

Xipil thought we had wasted much time this morning, and hoped we would reach our destination before dark.
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-11-2021, 11:27 AM   #144
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 43 (2021-02-06)

8th of Ratanu, year 412 (continued)

Wolfram reminded everyone to keep their anger in check. We were up against a rage demon, and getting angry could be an invitation of possession. Xipil proposed that Hylda and Yana took the cart and most of our gear away, to protect it from the ashes. Yana would rather stay with me, but I told her I thought it was best if we separated for a little while, so I wouldn’t have to worry about protecting her if and when we met people who wanted to fight.

I rearranged my equipment while we talked, for we were traveling light, and the others did the same. I brought only the most necessary: My four knives, my cloth armor, my medicine kit which included all my poisons, my pouch with assorted small items, a full water skin and enough food for two days.

I noticed two riders coming from behind, and something told me they were Night Riders. They were still far off, but I told the others we had to go and meet them, in case they were the ones that the Ashtarites had told us about, the ones we needed to protect. Xipil and Wolfram spoke up against me. They feared that going back might waste so much time that it would be dark when we reached the crypt. It was with a heavy heart I asked Yana if she and Hylda could stall them until we returned. I didn’t like the idea of putting Yana at risk, not at all, but this should hopefully be a social encounter, and I had every confidence that Yana would excel. Yana wisely asked Grogg if it was all right if she were in charge while we were away. She knew that Hylda would do anything Grogg said, and thought it would be easier to convince him than her.

I took Yana aside before she and Hylda turned back, asking if she wanted my poison vial. I could tell from the way she lit up that she was proud to be trusted with it, and she told me what an honor it was. “But I can’t take it all – what if you need it yourself?” she asked. I showed her that the vial was only half-full, and explained that I had applied venom to all my knives already. I also had a dose in reserve in my glands, if I needed to bite anyone, but I didn’t mention that; Yana would recoil from the violent image. Yana thanked me for the gift. If they got into trouble, she would rather use that than the small knife she carried in her backpack.

We said our goodbyes, and so did Grogg and Hylda, and then the two women walked off, Hylda pulling the cart. They were supposed to find somewhere safe to lie low until we returned. In our party, Hylda had been quite reserved, rudely pretending that only Grogg existed, but now it seemed she was opening up. Yana has that effect on people, I thought fondly.

Suddenly remembering something, I ran after them. I hugged Yana again, and whispered in her ear that she had to ask permission before using the holy venom. I held her shoulders while I looked her in the eyes. Yana nodded and traced Your sign on my chest with her finger. She understood. I pulled her in for another hug. “Be safe, and come back to me,” I think she whispered, but I had trapped her hand on my breast, and its wiggling was setting off fireworks in my head, despite the thick cloth armor under my dress. My body responded on its own volition, and I found myself seizing Yana’s earlobe with my teeth and flicking my forked tongue at it. I didn’t use my razor-sharp fangs, of course, but Yana’s hand froze and she gasped in fear. I pulled back instantly. “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! I don’t know what came over me,” I apologized flusteredly. Yana’s expression as she felt her earlobe with trembling fingers was mystifying. She looked terrified, but at the same time both aroused and confused, which didn’t make any sense. Finding no blood – and I hoped she felt no pain either – she relaxed. “It’s all right, Nuur-Karif. Don’t think about it,” she said with a reassuring smile. The glint in her eye as I turned to go, though, made me think she was plotting revenge for scaring her. Still, it was her smile that I carried with me, and I realized I was actually looking forward to her payback. It might be uncomfortable for a moment, but then we’d be friends again.

When I returned to the others, Xipil was holding a faintly glowing stone in his hands. “Where did you find that? Was it just lying here?” I asked. “No, Kraa brought it,” Xipil explained. I rolled my eyes, instinctively making sure Grogg didn’t see it. I’ve learned that the spirit raven, like every living creature, ultimately belongs to You, but that fact didn’t make it any less annoying. It’s too unpredictable and prone to cause trouble for my tastes. I guess some of my basic theology education still influenced me, even though I’ve learned that there are more nuances to it than what I first learned, that winged creatures are too remote from the ground to be trusted.

Wolfram questioned Xipil further, and discovered that Kraa had actually brough the stone earlier, and that Xipil now had infused it with light magic. I didn’t see the point. It was still early, and Wolfram had brought a lantern to use tonight. Not being able to see in the dark makes people afraid of darkness, I suppose.

Wolfram was afraid that Yori might discover the magic rock, and wanted to bury it. Normally, the rock wouldn’t have become magical; it would just contain a spell. Here, though, some of the energy Xipil put into the rock had made the rock itself magical. Kraa snapped it from Xipil’s hand and returned to Grogg’s shoulder. Burying the rock now required persuading Grogg to have Kraa give it up, and nobody even bothered trying.

We finally began walking, and followed the tracks of whoever had carried away the villagers. Xipil and Wolfram discussed what we might encounter further on, mentioning grey men, ghosts and something they called a “saplurp”. I wasn’t the only one who grew bored of the speculations, for Wolfram changed into a bear so he didn’t have to talk anymore. Xipil continued babbling. Deep-rooted politeness training made me nod and mutter encouragement. Xipil occasionally blurted out some useful tidbits, like saplurps being vulnerable to things that can harm spirits, at least according to Krull. Xipil asked me to check how much of the anti-spirit venom I had left. I was about to make a joke that I had forgotten to bring it, but nobody would have believed me, so I just dug up the vial and glanced at it. “About six doses,” I told the others.

The fog grew slowly denser as we made our way inside it, but we still had decent sight when we stopped for lunch. This was no ordinary fog, rather it was a cloud of ashes, and it deposited a fine, grey dust on our skin and clothes.

We continued walking after a short break, and after a while, Xipil reported that he had caught up with, or at least spotted, five men carrying three villagers. One of the bearers was from the jungle, he claimed. I didn’t know of any jungles; there are none in Arland, nor in the western part of the Prince’s Cities. Xipil explained that the man looked like those who live far east of the Prince’s Cities. He and Grogg had been there some months ago, before I met them, with Lunari and Krupik. Krupik was that Salt Guild dwarf who was a pain in the butt according to Grogg, and who made everything blow up according to Xipil. Xipil was obviously exaggerating, and Grogg isn’t exactly the best judge of character that I’ve ever met, so I don’t feel that I have very much to go on to build an image of their former companion. I guess he has his quirks and peculiarities, like most people. Not much is required to antagonize Grogg; a disparaging comment about Kraa will do the trick.

Wolfram growled at Xipil’s report, so the lizard man asked if we should stop the bearers, and if Wolfram was able to harm spirits in his current shape. Xipil thought these people might become spirits and try to escape. For answer, Wolfram transformed into his larger, translucent bear shape. Xipil proposed an attack, but I knelt down to pray, placing my hands on the ground to improve my connection to You. You gave me an impression that these people were insignificant. When You want me to kill someone, I usually feel a desire, no, a compulsion, to execute Your will. I felt nothing like that, so I said to the others I didn’t agree that attacking was right. Unlike what the others may think of me, I don’t enjoy killing, not in itself. What I do enjoy is the feeling of furthering Your cause, doing Your will and pleasing You. It’s true that my duty, my calling, often entails taking lives and sending souls on to You, so I see why my companions misread me.

Grogg claimed that these people were enemies, and Xipil argued from a tactical standpoint, that we didn’t want to fight them at the crypt, where they’d be with their friends. I didn’t disagree with either of them, even though it’s a long way from being enemies with someone to actually killing them. Even in his unspeaking bear shape, it was clear Wolfram wanted a fight, too, so I agreed to come along. I hoped I didn’t have to kill anyone. We should be able to capture them. I thought I should wear the spirit-seeing ring, so I could deal with any spirits appearing, but Xipil said he needed it, as he planned to circle the enemies and come at them from the other side, alone. Since Wolfram in his current shape would be able to handle spirits, I accepted Xipil’s argument.

We moved up, and soon saw vague shapes in the fog ahead of us. Xipil took off to the left, and Wolfram abandoned me and Grogg to come at the enemies from the right. Grogg glared at me, clearly uncomfortable with being alone with me. We sneaked towards the bearers.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

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Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-11-2021, 11:42 AM   #145
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 43 (2021-02-06)

Slowly but surely, Grogg and I closed in on the bearers, but we were still a long way off when one of them dropped to the ground with an arrow through his chest. The other bearers looked at their fallen compatriot in confusion, but Grogg and I began to run, and I saw Wolfram come charging in from the side, also far away from our targets. Why did Xipil begin shooting so soon? Why didn’t he wait until the rest of us were discovered?

Grogg easily outpaced me with his longer legs, but that suited me just fine. I didn’t want to partake in the fighting, anyway, and took the opportunity to hide behind him so the bearers wouldn’t see me if they turned.

After their initial confusion, the bearers noticed Grogg and Wolfram approaching, and began running away from them, but first they reverently put their loads on the ground. Their direction would lead them right to Xipil. At first, I thought he had some encountered something closer, for it took very long before the next arrow came flying out of the fog, around ten seconds, but it turned out he had some trouble with his quiver.

The bearers dropped, one after the other, and when I realized that the others would catch up with the last ones if Xipil didn’t fell them first, I veered off towards the villagers. So did Wolfram. He trampled the first bearer Xipil had shot, thoroughly squishing the corpse into the ground. I was glad Yana wasn’t there to witness his bloodthirst.

I knelt by the nearest villager to check his status. He seemed a little cold, and I was uncertain if he was alive or dead. Wolfram moved up to the next fallen foe and squished him as well. Grogg and Xipil joined in on his butchering of the other bearers. Were they taken by Yori, to act out this way? Personally, I felt no hint of rage. In fact, I was practically devoid of emotion. Thank You, Ashtar, for shielding me from the demon!

I checked on the other two villagers, a man and a woman. They were cold, too, but alive, and when I checked on the first one again, I understood he was alive as well. They were all in deep comas, and there wasn’t anything I could do, other than to stretch out the bodies on the ground, to make them comfortable.

I saw Wolfram turn into a human again, and he discussed something with Xipil. Now that the enemies were as dead as they would ever become, my companions seemed to calm down. Xipil came over, and I told him that the villagers were alive but comatose. He wanted to kill them, so our enemies wouldn’t be able to use them.

Wolfram explained that someone had put small pieces of souls into each of the five bearers. He had sent four of them on, but not the fifth; that was still tethered to its corpse. Wolfram set up his totem pole to analyze the last soul shard. Once he had drawn the required symbols on the ground, he turned into the black bear shape with horns all over, the one that Xipil calls the dancing bear, as opposed to the spirit bear or star bear that was his other bear shape. Xipil asked if he could help with the spell dance, and handed me the spirit-seeing ring to keep an eye on the soul shard.

While they were dancing, one of the villagers woke up. A curse had bound his spirit to sleep, and Wolfram had successfully dispelled it. I hurried over to the villager, who glared at me with contempt, and seethed with rage. I spoke a quick prayer. It was too late. We couldn’t save his soul. I informed the others, and Wolfram came and grabbed the poor man, stabbing him with the horns protruding from his torso. He turned his rage on Wolfram, who just sniffed the guy.

Xipil asked what had happened to the soul shard during Wolfram’s spell casting. “Nothing that I could see,” I reported, “but a twisted spirit is emerging from the villager Wolfram is holding!” Xipil asked me to materialize the spirit, so I drew a knife, focused my will and drove the blade home. It was strange, seeing two identical bodies next to each other, one still skewered on Wolfram’s horns, the other standing beside the first.

Wolfram grabbed for the newly materialized spirit, but missed. Xipil drew a knife and cast a spell. I kicked the villager in the groin, but he was too rabid to notice the pain, if he could feel pain at all in his peculiar state. He tried to throw himself at me, but I used my still raised leg to guide him onto Wolfram’s horns and into his grasp. Xipil asked again if we should kill him, but Grogg seized the villager by the shoulders and pulled him away from Wolfram so he wouldn’t inadvertently kill himself again.

The villager started verbally abusing Grogg, since he was held too tightly to attack him physically. Grogg snapped and tried to head butt him, but managed to hit Wolfram’s foreleg instead. Grogg’s heavy helmet prevented him from getting a horn in the face. The villager called for blood and said he hoped they would kill each other. Then he would rape me to death. Usually, such a claim would have drawn me to violence, but in my numbed state, I just cocked my head and stared at him. If he somehow pulled free from Grogg and came at me, I’d skewer his neck, but as it was, I could just watch while Grogg tore at his arms. I heard a pop as one of the arms came out of its socket, but it didn’t come all the way off. Not until Wolfram slashed the villager across the back and killed him. Then the corpse disintegrated completely to ashes in the matter of seconds.

Xipil asked Wolfram to turn into the star bear and euthanize the other two villagers. Wolfram did as Xipil asked, and also destroyed the last soul shard still attached to a bearer. He jumped on the villagers most violently. Xipil asked me to keep an eye on things while he collected his stuff and prepared to go. I noticed a disturbed spirit trying to escape the first villager Wolfram jumped on, and made him aware of it. He seized it and squeezed until the spirit vanished. Another spirit tried to leave the last villager, but now that he was aware of the possibility, Wolfram didn’t need me to point it out.

Wolfram rolled on the ground to wash away all the blood he was drenched in, but all he managed was to gather up ashes and turn grey. Then, he held up his wounded paw, clearly wanting first aid, so I told him to turn into a human. I’m not used to treating animals. While I bandaged his arm, Wolfram told me about the sleep spell that he had undone.

I returned the spirit-seeing ring to Xipil, and he scouted ahead. Wolfram turned into the “dancing bear” so he would be able to block the magic of the spirit we saw in the fog last night. As we walked, Grogg and Wolfram glared at each other angrily. I had thought it was an accident that Grogg injured Wolfram’s arm, but maybe it was the rage demon who was responsible. Grogg tried to get Wolfram to use the healing needle, but the bear made a rude gesture at the troll. To keep the situation from escalating, I distracted Grogg by asking if he thought Yana and Hylda were all right. Here and now were the worst place and time to get angry, and it doesn’t take much to get Grogg to snap even without demonic influence.

Xipil came back and told us he spotted and shot a magical rat. He darted ahead again. Grogg was most helpful, asking if we would travel faster if he helped me with my backpack. With Wolfram in bear shape, I was the slowest party member, and when I gave my backpack to Grogg, we were indeed able to pick up the pace a little.

Suddenly, a man appeared out of the fog, walking towards us. Where was Xipil? The man saw us at the same time as we saw him, and he slowed down and bowed towards us, with his arms crossed and his hands on his shoulders. I waved at him without missing a step. The man looked questioningly at me and bowed again, then held a rolled-up piece of paper towards me. I walked up to him and took it, since that was clearly what he wanted. The man jumped backwards and began retreating. I asked him to wait, but he kept backing up. It seemed he didn’t understand me. Actually, I got the impression that he didn’t realize how dangerous my companions were.

I rolled out the note. It looked like the message was written in three different languages, none of which I comprehended, although one looked familiar. I held up a hand to signal that the man should stop. He lifted first one arm and then the other, before bowing to me again. I noticed Wolfram moving around the man, so I held up the note to Grogg and asked if he could read any of it. He thought Lunari would understand some of it, so presumably the half-recognized script was Lithin, the elvish language.

I asked Grogg to hold the man until Xipil returned. Grogg seized his arm and Xipil appeared almost immediately, asking about the note. I told him Grogg believed Lunari might have understood one of the languages and handed it over. Xipil was able to make sense of one of the other languages, and translated that the writer was sorry that we had bumbled into a grave danger. The text followed up with a choice of either leaving the area or coming to their camp for a better meal.
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-11-2021, 12:00 PM   #146
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 43 (2021-02-06)

I sat down to pray. I sensed that there were several beings here that couldn’t die properly; it wasn’t only the demon. When I told the others, Grogg said he didn’t think these people were very nice. I agreed. Not going to You when you die is blasphemy, but I didn’t feel any desire to punish them for it. That was strange. Was this lack of vindictiveness a result of Your protection against strong feelings, or was it a sign that You were more distant, as I had been warned before entering the fog?

Xipil cast a spell to study the courier’s aura. He informed us that he was alive, and that his soul was weak. Grogg sniffed his face and grimaced. Wolfram did a spell dance behind the courier, but nothing happened that I could see, other than Wolfram also sniffing him. Then Wolfram transformed to the spirit bear shape and pushed the courier down to the ground. Grogg still held his hand. I got a feeling that the man lacked the ability to speak, so I bade Wolfram wait while I examined his mouth. He still had his tongue, so something had to be wrong inside his head, rendering him unable to communicate verbally. Something was definitely wrong with this man. Xipil tasted his blood and said he was like the others, the bearers, so Grogg asked Kraa to wake the man’s spirit. Like the bearers, Grogg! Not the villagers! The bird jumped around on the courier’s chest for a little while, before flying back to Grogg’s shoulder. Kraa didn’t upset the man noticeably, but Wolfram certainly disturbed his calm.

Wolfram turned back into a man, and explained that he tried to cancel the spell on the courier’s soul, but he was afraid he had failed. He wondered if he should try to strengthen the man’s will, so he could break free on his own. However, Wolfram changed his mind. The required spell would take too long to cast.

Wolfram speculated that these people’s leader was some kind of wraith, and suggested that we attack their camp from range. That way, we could neutralize some of their forces before entering melee. This isn’t how we Fangs would have done it – we would sneak into their camp and take out the high-value targets first – but I had no objections to the plan. Wolfram asked permission to kill the courier. I didn’t mind that either. It wasn’t possible to save him and bring him to You, so since I felt no desire to avenge that sacrilege, I didn’t care one way or the other what happened to him. Wolfram turned into the spirit bear again and stomped the man to death before destroying the soul shard that was bound to the body. Grogg let go of the man’s arm and glared at Wolfram. The violent destruction of the body had spattered blood all over him.

I suddenly got the sensation that I needed to return to Yana alive, and that there was something here in the fog that I needed to see, first. It might not be something I literally had to behold, rather it could be the case that I had to realize something. My head seemed to clear up a little, and I felt the numbness recede. Invigorated, I declared that we should go. I wanted to spy on the camp!

Grogg lifted his axe and prepared to throw, and Xipil pulled an arrow. They both aimed at a rat watching us from thirty meters away. They both attacked, and they both missed. Xipil commanded Grogg to run and catch the rat. Grogg lumbered after the rat, followed by Xipil and Wolfram. I went to see if I could retrieve the axe and the arrow. I found them both, and returned them to their owners.

Xipil had found the rat, and Wolfram had killed it. That seemed to make him slow-witted, and he gave the dead rat to Grogg and told him to eat it. Grogg inexplicably wanted Xipil to check out his aura. Xipil said we needed to hurry onwards, but took the time to cast the spell. Grogg’s aura was unchanged. Xipil also decided to go through the courier’s pockets. There was nothing on the corpse but some string and a belt knife.

We continued, with Xipil in front. We had to see what we discovered at the campsite before we could make further plans. Wolfram reiterated that we needed to finish before dark. What a cowardly statement!

Xipil shot another rat and triggered a spell that made him weaker, so he came back and asked Grogg to carry his water skin and his staff. Grogg didn’t like the commanding tone, but he accepted that Xipil couldn’t range ahead unless he was able to move faster than the main party.

A short while later, Xipil returned to us again and reported that he had heard someone making noise up ahead. Wolfram wanted to rest for a few minutes, so we backtracked a couple hundred meters. There, we found another rat spying on us. What if we caught it and buried it? The rats around here have nasty backlashes when we kill them, so Grogg thought hurling it as far as he could was clever. I wasn’t so sure that a trip through the air was lethal to a rat, even considering Grogg’s immense strength. If we buried the rat, it would be neutralized without us having to kill it at all.

Xipil sneaked up on the rat and picked it up. It squealed until Xipil forced its mouth shut. Wolfram dug a hole, only to discover that under a thin layer of rubble was only ashes. The rat wouldn’t have any difficulty digging itself out of such a hole, so we let Grogg toss it. The rat disappeared into the fog.

Xipil noticed two more rats. It looked like there were more of them than we would be able to capture, so we decided not to go out of our way to eliminate them all. Wolfram sat down and readied his crossbow, pointing it at a rat that disappeared from sight before he could shoot. Grogg threw a rock at another rat, killing it. He asked Kraa to retrieve the carcass, then he ate it. Wolfram thought eating it raw was disgusting.

I prayed, and Xipil followed my example. My feeling that this area is outside Your influence was confirmed. The things that You ordered me to “see” here were not related to Yori, at least not directly.

Xipil soon got bored with waiting and wanted to sneak up on the camp, but Grogg warned him that the rats could see him and report to their master. Perhaps to distract the lizard man, Wolfram launched a tirade about Kabal and Tivito, as well as these people we were up against here. There were only men in these organizations, he claimed, old men who no longer have what it takes to attract women.

As if in response, a woman’s voice called out from the fog. When Xipil replied, she asked if approaching was safe, in broken Common. Xipil said yes, and soon pointed out a shape in the fog for the rest of us. I stood and brushed off my dress. I thought the woman looked nervous, and Xipil said she hadn’t spotted us yet. He wanted to know what she had to say.

When the woman noticed us, she jogged over to where we waited. She hoped we wouldn’t harm her, she claimed. I asked who she was, and she introduced herself as Nyra. She gestured elaborately in greetings, in a way I had never seen before. I asked what she was doing here. Because of her lack of experience with our language, she misunderstood, and answered that she came because she didn’t believe we would hurt her.

I asked again, using other words, and she explained that she came here with a man with many names. She wanted us to stop killing, arguing that they were alive despite it not necessarily looking that way. I ignored her digression and asked what her companion’s purpose of coming here was. He was going to save the earth on which we stood. Wolfram asked if they were planning to save the local soil, or if they had another motive for being here. Nyra said that her master was going to save everything on earth, everything under the sun.

Wanting to keep her occupied until Wolfram had finished his rest, I asked Nyra to come and sit down with us. She counter-offered that I could come over to her instead. I couldn’t blame her. A woman alone was wise not to come too close to big, muscular, strange men. I walked the few meters separating us and sat with her. She took my hand. I guessed she was nervous. Up close, I could smell her scent. Her flowery perfume was a welcome diversion from the constant stench of ashes.

Nyra explained that she couldn’t get rid of her thoughts and emotions like the others in her party, but her master didn’t mind. She was the only woman in her group, and I tried to get out of her how many men there were, but without success. I chose not to risk antagonizing her by manipulating the conversation. She grimaced, and I saw she was disturbed by Grogg’s meal. He’s a messy eater, and blood and other fluids streamed down his chin, even after he finished slurping up the rat’s tail.

I caught Nyra’s attention again and asked about her. She told me she belonged to a family of high-ranking administrators, diplomats and politicians in Amaya. I had never heard about that place before, but apparently, it was the most wonderful city in the world! “If it was so great, why did you leave?” I asked. The master had come seeking help, but the city leaders rejected him. Nyra felt that this was wrong, and supplied him with what he needed, people. The master was all alone when he first arrived in Amaya, cast out by his own people. Nyra wasn’t sure exactly where the master came from, but it was far to the south.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-11-2021, 12:56 PM   #147
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 43 (2021-02-06)

Xipil wanted a private word with Wolfram, Grogg and me, so we stood up and walked off to the side; I asked Nyra to remain where she was. Xipil corroborated Nyra’s story. He knew of the internal struggle among the grey men. Wolfram speculated that her master had “soul lobotomized” the people she brought him. Xipil would like me to get more information from Nyra, and Wolfram asked me to see what she knew about the brown forest. Amaya was situated in the jungle to the east of the brown forest, and Xipil’s and Grogg’s expedition had taken them near that city.

I returned to Nyra and gave her my hand again. She worried that she had said something wrong, but I assured her everything was fine. We sat down and I asked about the brown forest. Nyra didn’t recognize the place by that name, but then she gave a foreign-sounding name of a place “beyond Mallab”. I had no idea what she was talking about, but Xipil nodded, so I said “that’s it!” Nyra didn’t know much about the brown forest, other than it was a horrible place that worked as a barrier between Arland and the Prince’s Cities here in the west, and her own country in the eastern jungle.

Nyra asked if she had managed to stop the killing, and beamed at me when I told her she had. Unlike some members of our party, I can lie with a straight face. I think that ability is another thing that drives a wedge between Grogg and me. He can listen to me telling lies to strangers, but would have believed me if he didn’t already know the truth. Sometimes, I suspect him of actually falling for the stories I make up, even though he should know better. Witnessing my skill at deception makes him afraid that I’ll use it on him. I felt bad the few times I’ve had to trick him, but admitting I’ve lied to him is tantamount to suicide. I do long to meet You in the afterlife, but You still have tasks for me in this world.

I asked Nyra what gods they worshipped in Amaya. She mentioned the Sun God, the River God, the Great Lizard and the Talking Lizard. They hadn’t even heard about You, so I began talking. Nyra nodded along with my story. When I mentioned You were the Keeper of Death’s Door, she asked about it. Nyra, and I assume her people, had a misconception that some souls were meant to leave the realm of death. I explained how wrong she was. Your job is to welcome the dead to their final home, not to leave the door open for anyone to come and go as they please. Nyra insisted that we had to speak to her master about this. I couldn’t agree more. I needed to explain to him that what he was doing was wrong, and if he persisted, send him to You for proper punishment.

Xipil came over and whispered in my ear that Nyra’s purple gemstone was magical. The noblewoman wore many necklaces, but one of them stood out now that I took a closer look. On a fine, gold chain hung a garish pendant with a purple stone. Before I could open my mouth, Nyra asked Xipil if she could feel his skin, and Xipil said he would like to hear more about the two lizard gods. He even admitted to having been near Amaya.

Wolfram asked Nyra directly about the necklace, and she became defensive about it. She wouldn’t take it off, and her master had in fact ordered her not to, explaining that it brought good luck. Nyra didn’t believe it was magical, not until I pointed out that it would have to be, if it did what it was supposed to. That realization unsettled her, but she still allowed Xipil to touch the amulet. It most definitely was magical.

We left her alone again so we could talk. Wolfram thought her master planned to use her body as a vessel for Yori, and that was why they were here. Xipil believed that due to the grey men’s schism, Nyra’s master and we had a common enemy, and he wanted to discuss it with him. Grogg added that we could kill him, but Wolfram didn’t think it would be that easy to defeat a grey man who can release his spirit at will to fly around freely or to possess other bodies. I reminded the others that I still had a dose of the poison that was meant for “those who won’t die”. I also said that if Nyra’s master confirmed a deliberate opposition to You, I was going to kill him. Wolfram thought it was a bad idea to go into their camp, as we would have to fight all of the minions at once. “Should we ask Nyra to fetch her master here instead?” I asked. Wolfram liked my idea. Xipil repeated that he wanted to hear him out before we killed him. That was fine by me. Without a direct kill order from You, I wanted to make sure he deserved to die. Having an admission of guilt from his own lips would suffice.

I went back to Nyra and asked if she could invite her master to come here. She said she was glad that there wouldn’t be any more death, but wasn’t optimistic that she could persuade him. I told her we only wanted her to ask him, and if he was too busy, she could come back and tell us as much. She began walking, and a rat followed her into the fog.

Kraa brought a purple gemstone for Grogg, and Xipil said it was magical. I wasn’t sure if it was Nyra’s stone or another one. Wolfram warned Grogg that the stone could brainwash him, but Grogg brushed off the warning, convinced that Kraa wouldn’t bring him anything dangerous.

Xipil asked Wolfram to dispel the weakness curse, which he did. Xipil and I suggested to Wolfram that he tried the same with himself, since it was obvious to us that he was suffering from a stupidity curse. Having Wolfram sink to Grogg’s level of not-quite-intelligence was entertaining, but we should all be at our best when we met the grey man himself. Wolfram said he needed to rest before attempting another dispel.

Xipil went out to scout; Wolfram asked him to look for more grey men. Grogg decided to stitch the purple stone to something, but he had left all his thread behind with Hylda and Yana, so he began tearing up his trousers to get some there. His ham-fistedness made sure all he got was torn trousers, so I asked why he didn’t simply ask Kraa to go and fetch thread from his sack. His expression was undescribeably funny. He couldn’t decide between gratitude and suspicion. I made sure not to laugh, or even crack a smile. I watched with stoic calm while he gave instructions to Kraa. Wolfram erected his totem pole, complete with mystical drawings on the ground around it, just in case it was needed.

When Xipil returned, he told us he had found the campsite. The tents were protected by a giant whirlwind, which kept the ashes out. A passage through the whirlwind had opened to let Nyra out. She was on her way back here now, and couldn’t be far away. Xipil had also seen men working to excavate ashes from two mineshafts. He thought they pointed straight towards Yori’s crypt. Nyra’s master choosing this place to set up was no coincidence, then.
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-21-2021, 04:49 AM   #148
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 44 (2021-02-13)

8th of Ratanu, year 412 (continued)

Wolfram insisted on not giving up our weapons if we were to speak with Nyra’s master. I said I had no plans to do that. Just then, a shape became visible in the fog. It was Nyra. We lowered our voices and whispered quickly, so we would be able to say as much as possible before she came all the way over, without her overhearing anything. Wolfram voted to attack their camp, but Xipil opposed. Wolfram asked Grogg for Kraa’s opinion. Grogg said he wanted to wait for Kraa, so he could sew again. Wolfram feared we were walking into a magical ambush if we entered their camp. Since Xipil was so intent on not attacking, he could go and reconnoiter, and if he didn’t return in two hours, we’d attack.

Nyra saw we wanted to be private, and stopped at a distance to let us finish our discussion. Xipil still believed Nyra’s master could be an ally against the other grey men, but Wolfram disagreed. In his opinion, all the grey men were evil, and there was no justification for striking a bargain with one, just to gain an advantage against others. I admired Wolfram’s conviction, but didn’t accept the evil premise. In my world view, there are three groups of people: Those who follow You, those who oppose You, and those who are indifferent. While I would like to eliminate the second group and convert those of the third, I’m not the one to decide who lives and who dies; I do Your bidding. There are people with good and bad qualities in all groups. If I encounter someone who is cruel and corrupt, someone who treats people I care about badly, I may ask Your permission to stop them, but I won’t kill them if You say no. If I meet a decent, virtuous person, their good behavior won’t protect them if You have marked them for death.

I noticed Nyra glancing nervously over her shoulder, looking back towards their camp. Seeing nothing, she was clearly relieved. I sat down to pray, as I didn’t know yet Your opinion on Nyra’s allies. I got no answer. It would be vainglorious of me to expect a reply to every question. Compared to You, I’m insignificant. Your teachings dictate that prayer is good, so there wouldn’t be anything wrong with asking again, later.

Wolfram stated that if he was going into the enemy’s camp, he would go as a bear. Since he wouldn’t be able to speak, he had a question for us to ask. What was Nyra’s master’s plans for the demon? If he planned anything but neutralizing the demon, Wolfram was against it. Xipil was afraid that Wolfram might decide to attack in the middle of a discussion, and said that he wouldn’t join in if Wolfram attacked unprovoked. Wolfram asked my opinion. I told him that if Nyra’s master opposed You, and didn’t heed my warning to correct his ways, I would kill him. If he planned to let Yori possess Nyra and wanted to use the demon to – for example – invade Byblos, I didn’t care one way or the other. However, if Wolfram started a fight, I would join the fray. Wolfram told Grogg that he had to come, too, for Kraa wouldn’t arrive with the sewing thread in a long while, and the troll agreed.

I felt we wouldn’t get further by just talking amongst ourselves, so I asked if it was time to hear Nyra out. I waved at her to approach. She walked hesitantly towards us and stopped a few meters away. She informed us that her master referred to what he wrote in the letter. She phrased it in a way that made me suspect she didn’t know the contents of the letter.

Wolfram asked her how to become a grey man. Nyra didn’t understand the question. I guessed the term was unfamiliar to her. I joked that if Wolfram stayed in the fog long enough, he’d turn grey on his own. Wolfram elaborated to Nyra that he would like to become one of her master’s servants. Nyra replied that someone like him would be used in other ways. Wolfram tried to impress upon Nyra that her master kept slaves, and that this was evil. Nyra disagreed and eventually waved me over. She whispered in my ear. “Is he making the mocking at me? Is it such that I did wrong?” I whispered back that she had done nothing wrong, and explained that we were concerned that those who followed her master had lost their free will to him. Nyra was clearly devoted to her master, so it would be impossible to convince her of any wrong-doings on his part. Consequently, I changed the topic. “Have you thought further on the fact that Ashtar is the Keeper of Death’s Door?” Nyra shook her head. She hadn’t dared, she confessed.

I knelt and put my palms against the ground to pray. Nyra knelt too, hands in her lap. You made me feel empathy towards her and revealed that she felt inadequate and worried for what was going to happen. She had done what she could, and hoped that the killing had come to an end. You also told me she believed there was something screamingly wrong about Death’s Door. A tiny flicker of hope for her lit up in my head. If she could detect that Your sibling was missing and knew enough to worry about it, she might yet come to the faith.

I stood up and returned to my companions. They had debated while I was talking to Nyra and You, and had come to the conclusion that Xipil was going alone. Xipil would rather go alone than with Wolfram. I asked Grogg’s opinion. He thought that Xipil could go and be eaten by rats if that was his wish. Grogg asked if he should watch over Xipil’s stuff while he was gone. I suppose he suspected that the lizard man might not return alive. Xipil gave me the spirit-seeing ring, but kept his other gear. Wolfram reminded him that he would have two hours. If he didn’t return by then, we’d attack.

Wanting to keep Nyra occupied and out of trouble, I walked over to her and asked her to tell me more about Amaya, her home city. Xipil followed me and said he was going to speak with her master, and wanted her to escort him. Nyra replied it was important that we considered her master’s letter and acted accordingly. I assured her that we had read the letter, and that our decision to send “Hisse” took the contents into account. Xipil blurted out that the letter said to either come or go, which made Nyra fear that she wouldn’t see the rest of us again. I tried to convince Nyra that she didn’t have to go with Xipil. He didn’t need her to find the way, and if her master wanted to talk, he’d open the whirlwind for him.

Grogg, having heard us discuss the letter, raised his voice and said that Lunari said you didn’t have to do what letters told you to, in fact you should never trust letters. His statement made Nyra extremely nervous, and she whispered to me and Xipil that she didn’t want there to be any more death. Xipil made excuses to Nyra and asked me to go with him back to the others, but Nyra held me back. “I will become here as long as you want, Godana,” she whispered in her broken Common, “but if I shall go, I have the hope that you and your friends have made the choice.”

Seeing I didn’t follow, Xipil stopped and asked Nyra if it would be possible to enter their camp without her help. Nyra said that she couldn’t get in, herself, without help, but for all she knew, Xipil could just walk right through the whirlwind.

Nyra let go of my hand, and Xipil and I returned to Wolfram and Grogg. Xipil had cold feet and didn’t want to go alone into their camp anymore. He wanted the rest of us to come, too. However, he reiterated that he didn’t want us to do anything rash in there.

I told Nyra we had changed our minds, and that we were all going. Wolfram transformed into the horned bear shape behind me. I could tell, because I got the sensation that I should be afraid, and Nyra shrunk back in fear. I hugged and patted her, pretending to try to calm her, but actually, I searched her for hidden weapons. I found none, but discovered that she carried a small flask, a pouch and a handkerchief in her pockets.

Nyra and I walked in front of the others, but she kept glancing over her shoulder at Wolfram. Xipil signaled that he wanted to talk to me, so I excused myself to Nyra. Xipil asked if he could have the anti-spirit venom, in case he had to attack a saplurp. I handed him the vial discreetly and returned to Nyra.

We soon heard digging, and then we passed a large, black mound where a man emptied a bucket of even more ashes. When he noticed us, he straightened up and stared blankly at us. The digging subsided as we passed the excavation, and more men stopped to stare. Nyra indicated that she should walk in front as we approached the whirlwind, so I slowed down a little. Nyra stopped in front of the barrier and spoke a word which I assume meant “hello” in her language. After a few seconds, a tunnel opened through the whirlwind, and another empty-minded man stared at us from the other side. We walked through the tunnel. Inside the whirlwind were five tents. In front of two of them stood a guard. On the ground, four lifeless bodies lay in shallow pits. The sun was shining, and the air was wonderfully clean. I brushed the worst of the ashes off my clothes, and Nyra did the same. Wolfram shook his fur violently, making a cloud of ashes that slowly settled on the ground around him. The tunnel closed behind us, and we could hear the work resuming outside.
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Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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Old 02-21-2021, 05:06 AM   #149
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 44 (2021-02-13)

The man who seemed to have opened the tunnel nodded at Nyra and showed the way to one of the tents, holding up the tent flaps for us. I led our party inside. There were foldable chairs around a large but simple table made by stretching cloth over a metal frame, like a drum. The four lamps inside were unlit, for the thin fabric of the tent allowed the sun to illuminate the inside. Nyra signaled that we should sit down, and I did as she requested. She and Xipil sat down on either side of me. Wolfram clumsily swept away the chair directly opposite Nyra’s and sat there on his haunches. Grogg just sat on the ground.

Wolfram’s and Grogg’s barbaric behavior made Nyra nervous and she focused on me, trying to ignore them. I asked where her master was. “Did it not stand in letter? You are ones who know instructions,” she replied. I told her we had hoped to speak with him if we did as he asked and came inside his camp.

The tent flaps opened and a man with dark grey robes with purple trimming entered. He looked like a half-elf. Grogg pointed at him and exclaimed “You!?” like this was someone he had met long ago and didn’t expect to see here. The man sat down next to Nyra and began speaking with her. I didn’t understand their words, but I recognized mild fear and irritability on his face when he regarded the visitors. Nyra whispered to him, and he replied, again in that incomprehensible tongue, so I asked Nyra what they were talking about. From the lack of reverence in her voice, I understood that this wasn’t her master.

Nyra said she hoped it wouldn’t be a problem that he had met some of us before. I smiled and said I couldn’t see why; we were nice people. “I hope it is not such that you are in work with Master’s brothers,” Nyra continued. I assured her we weren’t conspiring with them, and tried to revert the topic back to us speaking with her master. “Did it stand in letter such that you will speak with him?” she asked. I admitted that the letter hadn’t mentioned that. Glancing over her shoulder at the presumed half-elf, I saw he was frustrated and annoyed, and began to fear that Grogg had antagonized him when they met before.

“What’s the deal with the men lying in the holes outside?” I asked Nyra. “They are at rest. Anchored,” she answered. I told her I didn’t understand. “Sleeping?” Nyra tried. They had looked more dead than asleep to me, but I hadn’t examined them closely, and far be it from me to argue if they wanted to sleep like that. It didn’t look very comfortable, but then, I hadn’t tried it myself, so I shouldn’t judge.

Wolfram had a staring contest with the robed man. This could get out of hand, so I sought guidance. I knelt behind my chair and placed my palms against the ground, hoping it would be easier to reach You here, where the air was clean and clear of fog. The half-elf said something to Nyra and left the tent. Wolfram padded over and sniffed my hair. Nyra pulled back from him, but Wolfram ignored her and licked my cheek, then he headed for the exit. Xipil asked him to stay, but Wolfram didn’t heed his words, so Xipil followed him to the opening. Grogg pushed his way past the lizard man. All this commotion was disturbing my prayer. Nyra was about to address me, but thought the better of it, and walked over to Xipil instead, inviting him and the others back to the table. Xipil relayed the message to Grogg, who wanted to remain outside to watch the sky. He was obviously waiting for Kraa’s return. Xipil asked if Nyra had sewing kit for Grogg. She pulled something from her pouch that Xipil passed to Grogg. He came back inside and sat down to sew, repairing his torn trousers. The fact that they were beyond repair didn’t discourage him.

When I finally was able to focus my attention downwards, I nearly recoiled from the ground. We were directly above Yori’s crypt, and I felt his malice. I would not want him to answer my prayers.

I sat down at the table again and made small talk with Nyra. Xipil joined us and asked about the Great Lizard. After a while, another man entered. This was the man I had seen as a spirit in the fog, the one who had spelled the villagers. I relayed this to the others. The spirit man came inside and looked around and Nyra ran over to him. Finally, her master had arrived!

The master spoke incomprehensibly. Nyra guided him to the chair she just vacated, and sat down on his other side. I asked if he understood when I spoke, but he turned to Nyra and asked her a question, which she answered. Wolfram watched through the tent flaps while still keeping an eye on something outside. I looked questioningly at Nyra. She nodded, looking relaxed and satisfied now that her master was here.

The spirit man spoke, and Nyra translated. “Who is it I speak to?” I presented all four of us with our cover names, Godana, Hisse, Mork and Little Bear. Nyra’s master said that names were insignificant and asked again, via Nyra, who we were. I didn’t want to reveal too much, and said instead that we were concerned about what he was up to, asking him to explain what he was doing at this fateful location. “Is it such that you will not answer Master’s question?” Nyra asked worriedly. “No, actually, I won’t! It is he who must explain himself.” Nyra was aghast at the disrespect, but she translated my demand. Her master replied that we were right to be concerned, and asked what he could do to help us.

I asked Nyra what her master hoped to achieve here, and she gave the same answer as earlier, that he wanted to save all life between heaven and earth. That sounded like bragging to me, so I directed my next question to the master himself. “Are you aware of what you are about to unearth here?” Nyra translated. The only thing he knew for certain was that it couldn’t remain where it was. I felt the urge to kill rising in me, and asked if he shared Nyra’s view, that it was all right for beings to pass through Death’s Door without the permission of the gods. That made him pause. He shouted something. A command, or perhaps a name, for a man entered the tent. The master pulled a soul shard from his sleeve and looked concernedly at the new arrival, who nodded solemnly. The others might not be able to discern what he held between his fingers, but I still wore the spirit-seeing ring. I asked if he had retrieved this in the Realm of Death, but the master ignored me and made a gesture at the man in the tent opening.

Then, the master turned to me and spoke in Common. He said we had much to discuss. Nyra looked both enraptured and surprised. “Did you just swap souls with someone?” I accused. The master denied it; he didn’t do such things. He was just donated a piece of that other person, a piece he regrettably wouldn’t be able to return. I asked him to explain. He brushed it off, saying this was how they lived.

The master asked Wolfram if he could understand him while in that shape. Wolfram just stared at him, so he asked me. “Little Bear understands,” I replied. Again, I asked what his view was on passing Death’s Door without the guardian’s consent. “Have you heard about the twin serpents?” he countered, and I asked him to tell me about them, curious what he knew about You and Your sibling. He explained that You constituted a force that until the last “meltdown” kept in check the part of the underworld where no living may live. It was obvious to him that You were weakened, and he claimed to be worried about You being just a shadow of Your former self. I nodded encouragement for him to continue, clamping my mouth shut to keep from lashing out at the insult. He said that he was sad that I had to know about this at all, but his friend’s sacrifice was right, for it allowed us to have this conversation.

The master was afraid that some of his brothers had gotten hold of “an aspect of the twin serpents”. I assumed he meant Your sibling, the one I seek. I asked what his brothers’ plans were for this aspect, and he replied that he thought it was just a means for them to grow in power. “Not being able to die attacks your head,” he postulated, insinuating that he and his brothers were immortal. If it came to that, I would demonstrate the power of the venom I carried, even though he wouldn’t appreciate it for long.

I asked what he planned to do with what he found under our feet, if he thought he could reverse the curse of the ashes. The master claimed he would imprison the demon in a living body until a better plan could be hatched. It was a plan similar to Ebsalon’s, so it couldn’t be too bad.

Xipil made the master confirm that he was the one to release “the nine”, even though he called them “the dancers”. Neither name told me much, but I got the vague feeling that they were talking about stars. Perhaps I had been too much around Xipil, or perhaps my subconscious was telling me something.

This talk of names made me a little annoyed that the master hadn’t introduced himself. Nyra had many names for him, and I asked what we should call him. Names mattered little to him, he said, but we could use one of those Nyra used, Odon for example.

Returning to the reason we were here in the first place, I asked if Odon was confident that he could contain the one who was imprisoned under us. He elaborated that he planned to use donated pieces of souls to tempt the demon. When Odon was done here, he had plans to check out two more locations.
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You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue

Last edited by coronatiger; 02-25-2021 at 09:20 AM.
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Old 02-21-2021, 05:17 AM   #150
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 44 (2021-02-13)

Xipil asked if Odon was one of those who locked up the seven demons in the first place. He wasn’t, but he did exist back then, he said. Grogg almost began to fawn over Odon when he told him he had heard about Ogra, the titan whom Grogg worships. I had to interrupt before Grogg revealed his real name, and we agreed that he could go by the moniker Ogra-friend.

Odon thought Wolfram still seemed skeptical, and tried to explain himself to him, that he had good intentions. I turned around and whispered to Xipil that it looked to me like Odon was doing the right thing here, and that I thought we should leave him to it and return to Yana and Hylda. Xipil answered that it was terrible what Odon was saying, and that we needed to stay and help him. I whispered that I had seen what You wanted me to here, and was ready to go.

I turned back to listen to Odon trying to convince Wolfram. Odon was saying that his brothers wanted to destroy Death’s Door, and that he had to use his powers, despicable as they seemed to Wolfram, to oppose them. Wolfram turned into a human so he could talk back. He ranted that Odon used magic in a way that he shouldn’t. Controlling souls and bodies was evil. Even worse was what Tivito did, enslaving spirits, and Wolfram asked Odon if he did that. Odon evaded the question, but I didn’t think Wolfram realized it. Using clever equivocation, Odon seemed to manage to convince Wolfram that he was one of the good guys.

Xipil unrolled our map on the table, and had Odon show which two locations he had mentioned earlier. He pointed at the Kings’ Crypt in the swampy delta south of Guling, and at a place in the desert, south of the mountain range that makes up the border between Arland and the Prince’s Cities. Xipil revealed the plans to put a demon inside the Kings’ Crypt, and Wolfram told me to slap him if I agreed that he was acting like an idiot. Xipil heard him and dodged.

Xipil asked what we could do to help Odon. Odon replied that it was important to bolster the twin serpents, but that this was beyond us. I asked if he knew where his brothers held the twin serpent, but he didn’t know. He reiterated that they were only holding one aspect of it. Odon had no idea how I could track down Your sibling, but was relieved that someone else knew about the problem. The threat from the underworld was enormous. Now that we were entering a cataclysm, or meltdown as Odon called it, the bonds between the stars, the earth and the underworld weakened and strengthened at once, making the three worlds meld together.

The talk shifted to historic events. Xipil was most keen to learn about how the demons were imprisoned in the first place. I was less interested, and eventually changed the topic to how we could find Your sibling. Odon suspected that his brothers drew power from him, somewhere in this world, but he didn’t know where. It could be anywhere. Some of his brothers had Azura priests under their influence, he warned us.

Odon was going to the Kings’ Crypt next, and recommended that we sought knowledge in that other location, which was a ruined city. That place had a similar defense as this one, but Odon thought we could overcome it. We must have strong bonds between us, since we avoided killing one another on the way here. My thoughts went out to the poor villagers who had fallen to the rage curse.

Xipil asked me if I thought it was time we discussed in private. I agreed, and Xipil asked our host, who took Nyra out with him. I pulled Wolfram and Xipil around Grogg who was still sewing. Xipil asked if Odon could be trusted. I believed so. I had been skeptical initially, for it was suspicious how Odon knew exactly what to say to ingratiate himself with Xipil, Grogg and me. It was his difficulty getting Wolfram to come around that convinced me. Had he had ill intent, he wouldn’t have been honest with Wolfram about his magic.

Now that we were alone, Wolfram berated Xipil for revealing the plans for Lord Madan and the Kings’ Crypt. I joined in, adding that Xipil was far too trusting for his own good. I had no doubt that if sensitive information reached our enemies, it would be his fault. Grogg or Wolfram might slip up and reveal someone’s real name, but they weren’t prone to disclose actual secrets, not like Xipil might.

Xipil asked if we agreed that we should go to the ruined city. We would need Pak and Groman, or someone else with language and research skills, I said. Xipil said they already had plans to go there and Grogg suggested sending Kraa with a summons. I told him that was a good idea, but there were some caveats. What if they weren’t where we expected them to be? What if they needed persuasion to come? What if they had questions? It would be better if we went ourselves. It might take longer, but we wouldn’t risk having to wait for weeks without knowing if Pak and Groman were coming or not.

While we were talking, Kraa entered with a lock of Hylda’s hair for Grogg. The interruption was welcome, for we were getting nowhere with our argument. The distraction made us rethink. Xipil suggested asking if Odon knew magic that would allow us to communicate with Pak and Groman. I left the tent to ask.

Outside were still those two tent guards, but there was no sign of Odon or Nyra. The disturbing sight of bodies in holes in the ground was still there, though. I called for Nyra, but got no reply. I waited a little, then called for Odon, which made Nyra come out of one of the other tents. She said the master was busy, but she could ask if he would see us when he was done. I returned inside and informed the others.

Odon arrived after a while with Nyra on his arm. Wolfram began by asking if Odon had any underlings who were fluent with languages and knew how to decipher old texts. Xipil, speaking almost on top of Wolfram, asked what we had planned, if Odon could put us in touch with far-away acquaintances. Wolfram and Xipil glanced at each other, then explained to Odon that we wouldn’t be able to figure out things on our own in the ruined city. Our own skill sets didn’t cover what would be needed there.

All our talk about the ruined city made Odon assume we thought that place was more important than the Kings’ Crypt, and wondered if he should go there first, instead of the crypt. He also thought we were grasping at straws, trying to find a way to assist him, and asked if it was true that Azura only had female priests in the Prince’s Cities. Xipil and Wolfram confirmed it. Then it would be good if “someone” went to cooperate with them, for they would remember what happened in the past. Apparently, Odon’s brothers don’t want anything to do with women, and only use men in their work. Wolfram asked what we would be cooperating with them about. Odon wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, it would thwart his brothers. He had a more concrete suggestion for us: Destroy Tivito. They were in league with his brothers, so maybe Wolfram’s rant about their gender inequality wasn’t as far-fetched as it had seemed at the time. Wolfram was certainly eager to pounce upon this opportunity.

We could simply spread rumors somewhere of a demonic possession, and when Tivito agents eventually were summoned, we could capture and interrogate them. We brainstormed over this topic for a while. We would need to track down the demon Tivito controlled and do something about it. Odon said he could help with that, once he was done here. That would take days!
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
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