Topic: Our Salvation: It Is Written (Read 249701 times)

Harry Baldman · « **Reply #1305 on:** July 13, 2016, 04:18:52 pm »

Quote from: Toaster on July 11, 2016, 05:48:43 pm

"I think it's over there, yes. Whatever it is, and clearly something like that is meant to be investigated. Come along, now."

Check it out, please.

You head in the direction of the not-sound, in between the trees where the woods get thinner and the underbrush, up until that point steadfast in impeding your progress, becomes scorched, then ash, and after some fifteen minutes of walking gives way to a strange scene - a shoreline of hardened black glass, having flowed into organic-looking shapes in place of the more natural, if flame-ravaged highs and lows you needed to traverse to get here. It appears to have flowed partly into the river and cooled, building up the beginnings of a small hillock running along the shore.

You're not one to make such statements usually, you must admit, but you can't help but feel something... otherworldly about all this, sort of like one of those caves full of gleaming stalactites. The Worm-knight looks mildly awed and unusually suspicious as she stands behind you. The guard, meanwhile, is currently displaying a strange look of revelation as he starts to mutter.

[Grasping the Otherworld: 6]

The twinkling has gotten only more intense, and a strange tension grips you as you instinctively look for its source. It starts to come to you in a blink, an instant of twisting red in the corner of your eye. You blink again, and something scurries once more, little bugbears of light and retinal damage skipping away as you try to look upon them, their tails leaving blazing trails. How odd. There are more in a certain direction, emanating from the distant west, where in a moment of strange whimsy you observe a blazing eye in the sky bathing you and the surroundings in fading bright orange light.

You feel something start to build within you. A name steeped in doom and misfortune. It itches to be called into the sky.

Quote from: Xantalos on July 12, 2016, 05:12:39 am

"Hmm. That's ... wait, if those work like that ... the priest couldn't recognize my existence right after that ... so that's what they do. And if those do that, then those would ... no wonder you don't remember her.

Not important! One of you come with me, please, doesn't particularly matter which one."

Take one servant away and absorb their source! Or them, since technically they are the source if I'm understanding this right. Find a place relatively isolated where I won't be interrupted. Any random corner will hopefully do.

If I have to break some of their limbs in order to fulfil the requirement that they're helpless before I take their source, well, empathy's turning out to have been a rather large dump stat of mine.

[Indoor Alleyways: 4]

Fortunately with the rising commotion of the castle it doesn't take long at all to find a servant, an emaciated man in clothes that must have fit him back when a rat every two days wasn't the regular food ration. He looks at you with naked suspicion. You approach with naked abandon.

[Cat and Mouse: 6 vs. 1]

Displaying unusually good judgment or at least a profoundly spectacular feel for nightmarish architecture you raise your hands and scare the poor man right into a dead end. You wonder why a hallway would continue this far to lead to seemingly nothing at all, but hey, you're no engineer. You're more of a break-shit kind of person. Speaking of.

[Seize Him: 6+1 vs. 3]

You clamp your hand over the poor fellow's throat and lift him up from the ground. He kicks at you feebly as you ponder what exactly you need to do before he counts as utterly helpless. As it is you find him a... well, how to best put this, a little too fibrous? Lacking in that certain tenderness that makes for a good absorption. You do however run into the slight issue that you only really have one hand to operate with in this case.

[The Trouble With Indoors: 4]

That, and he also did not neglect to yelp, thrash and shriek copiously as you seized him, even now trying to resist with all of his might, insignificant as that may be. And you're pretty sure somebody heard that, judging by the footsteps coming your way.

Quote from: AoshimaMichio on July 12, 2016, 11:49:59 am

Huh. Weird. I don't remember disemboweling taking place recently. Beating, backstabbing and more beating, sure. Well, in that case:

"No can do buddy. I can kick him for you, but you have get your revenge later. I hear it is better served cold."

Make sure to kick the live stoat man on face while making our way to outside and somewhere safer in long term. Wherever Lee leads us. Maybe slightly towards castle Anglefork. Speaking of which, that's rather weird name. Angles don't fork. What's the history behind the name?

[Justice of a Sort: 4 vs. 5-1]

The stoat does take your foot on his barely existent chin, though his cartilaginous form seems more than able to take the punishment. The broken man on your back chuckles, then spits on the incapacitated soldier. Lucky day for you, filthy oppressor, says he, becoming sullen and conspiratorial as you take him outside after the escaping Lee, lucky day indeed!

You find yourself outside and largely untroubled. If the stoats on the other side of the winery are not still captivated by your story, they've certainly not seen fit to show themselves yet, and much of Lee's immediate caution and weaving through cover are wasted on the mostly serene environment you find yourself in. You use the lull in things trying to actively harm you to wonder - just why do they call the place Anglefork?

[The Important Questions: 4]

It takes you some thought, and you need to confer with your humanoid backpack to come to an acceptable idea, but eventually you suppose that there probably isn't any good reason at all, and the broken fellow concurs. Names in this kingdom can mean very little! Benzerwald, for instance - that doesn't even actually mean anything, at least not deliberately. Anglefork is just another thing in a similar mold. People needed a name, so they just threw something together without really thinking about it. All of Benzerwald is like this. They have no cities like Enduring Flame, named for its blazing torch of alchemical wonder, lighting the path to it from as far as ten miles away on a darkened night! And then there is the township of Three Twisted Trees, most refreshingly straightforward place in its naming that the man has ever been to. To say nothing of Heaven-Sent Promontory, seat of the glorious Sun! Even places other than Wonderful El have it better than Benzerwald. Elizabeth, for instance. A city, a woman! What better encapsulation of the concept can one think of, truly?

Quote from: TopHat on July 13, 2016, 03:09:34 am

"Coming!"
Run down there. Through the gate, mind. Don't get carried away.

You arrive just in time to observe Ms. Minett trying to talk a guard into handing her a deadly weapon. The guard hands her two, actually, which you assume must have taken quite a feat of negotiation. Meanwhile the stoatman on the ground behind Ms. Minett appears to be looking for potential avenues of escape.

Quote from: penguinofhonor on July 13, 2016, 06:28:16 am

"Oh good, he's excited. We'll get more terror that way," I say to the guard. "Let's start getting ready. Could I borrow your weapon? I try to keep a sacrificial implement handy, but they're so hard to find during a prolonged siege."

[Into the Spirit of Things: 5]

Eh, she says. A spear is a bit of a boring weapon to do a sacrifice with. You want something like- aha! Over there, in that pile of armor - is that a serrated blade? Looks pretty nasty, if she may say so herself. The guard walks over to take a closer look. Looks like an import, she says, tossing her spear to you as she digs out the blade. It's an interesting-looking thing, roughly the size of a claymore, very exotic in appearance. The kind of sword you wouldn't be surprised to discover was coated in flesh-eating poison or at least forged in the blood of innocents. Now there's a sacrificial implement! Here, check it out, she says and hands you the sword, which is heavy to enough to lead you to suspect its function may have originally been ceremonial.

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #1306 on:** July 13, 2016, 04:48:50 pm »

I hand Wilde the spear. "Take this and follow my lead."

I push the guard into the pile of junk and bring my sword to her neck. "Don't scream and you don't get hurt. We're leaving with the stoat."

Xantalos · « **Reply #1307 on:** July 13, 2016, 04:59:01 pm »

"Oh for - hush you idiot, I'm not murdering you."

Get him on the ground and pin him there with a foot. Then absorption go!

Toaster · « **Reply #1308 on:** July 13, 2016, 09:30:02 pm »

Interesting. How do they do these effects? Really well done, even out here.

"So hey, Sword, you know anything about that?"

Ask the sword. See if the images can be followed to their source. Also it would be silly to be yelling strange things into the sky. Might be bears out here.

AoshimaMichio · « **Reply #1309 on:** July 14, 2016, 01:54:52 am »

"Elizabeth, eh? Sounds like a nice place to visit. By the way, did you actually do something to warrant that torture? Like besides being local mayor or something?"

Talking about intimate things. And still following Lee. Gotta trust the gal.

TopHat · « **Reply #1310 on:** July 14, 2016, 07:29:30 am »

"Listen, we need to talk about - wait, what the hell are you doing? Can one of you please tell me what's going on here?"
Take the spear, at least.

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #1311 on:** July 14, 2016, 08:16:24 am »

"They want to capture this stoat. I can't let it have a fate like the last one. We have to save it."

Harry Baldman · « **Reply #1312 on:** July 14, 2016, 09:32:35 am »

Quote from: penguinofhonor on July 13, 2016, 04:48:50 pm

I hand Wilde the spear. "Take this and follow my lead."

I push the guard into the pile of junk and bring my sword to her neck. "Don't scream and you don't get hurt. We're leaving with the stoat."

Mr. Wilde does not appear eager to follow your lead. But he'll come around, you're sure.

[Surprise Turnabout: 6+1 vs. 4]

You turn around and sprint forth in a tackle, running straight into the guard and knocking her off her feet, straddling her atop the junk pile as you put the serrated two-handed sword to her throat, ready to drag it over at a moment's notice. She looks surprised for a few moments as you explain what's about to happen, then frowns, thinking for a second.

Hm, she asks. What's your plan here, if she may ask? Thinking of defecting? She knew a lot of people who thought the same way once. Did not end well, let her tell you.

Quote from: Xantalos on July 13, 2016, 04:59:01 pm

"Oh for - hush you idiot, I'm not murdering you."

Get him on the ground and pin him there with a foot. Then absorption go!

[Disturbing Implications: 4]

The thought of what else you might be trying to do is enough to either give the man a moment's pause or frighten him into silence - a bit of both, you suspect. You decide to adjust your method of restraint a little.

[Keep A Good Man Down: 6+1 vs. 5]

You place him on the ground face-down and step on him, then begin to consider your next move. Doesn't seem all that much easier this way. Too squirmy. Not weakened at all, even if entirely restrained. Maybe a little strangulation might be in order.

Of course, before you can further plan out what to do with the man, you notice that you are no longer alone, a royal guard having arrived in this quasi-forgotten corner of the castle.

[Wounded Gazelle: 5]

Hey, he says, naked guy! Quit molesting the castle staff! He was just about ready to call out for reinforcements, too. Could be stoat infiltrators about, don't you know. If you keep making alarms like these you run the serious risk of reducing overall stoat-preparedness, don't you know. They cut your ears off for that.

Quote from: Toaster on July 13, 2016, 09:30:02 pm

Interesting. How do they do these effects? Really well done, even out here.

"So hey, Sword, you know anything about that?"

Ask the sword. See if the images can be followed to their source. Also it would be silly to be yelling strange things into the sky. Might be bears out here.

You find the sword in your hand as if it had never left your grip. This landscape is of slight interest, one finds. Profoundly unnatural, persistent, surrounded by echoes of someone else. One like you, perhaps, an earlier traveler. They entered this clearing, and never left. One can sense a bit of their presence still.

Okay, you suppose that's some kind of information. The weird afterimages group around the eye in the sky, setting still over the castle, the sky behind you turning dark and bluish as night begins to fall. Their silhouettes start to crawl behind the castle as well, seemingly following the eye. It appears to be the key element, lingering for perhaps longer than it should, still harboring the expectation of a call.

The moment is hanging in the air as well, you notice. The Worm-knight is motionless, looking into the distance. The guard is rubbing his hands, muttering repetitively.

Quote from: AoshimaMichio on July 14, 2016, 01:54:52 am

"Elizabeth, eh? Sounds like a nice place to visit. By the way, did you actually do something to warrant that torture? Like besides being local mayor or something?"

Talking about intimate things. And still following Lee. Gotta trust the gal.

Certainly, says the man. Stole supplies, gouged prices for stoatman customers, pushed two guards into the river when they discovered too much, had a passing clanfolk man shoot a flaming arrow into the siege camp. Poisoned the water supply every now and then. Set stoat-traps in the woods for patrols to fall into. Built a catapult to launch supplies into the castle (didn't have enough range though), then used it to launch a plague-ridden corpse (very expensive this time of year, by the way) through the roof of a stoatman barracks building, which was what finally got him caught. Had a good run, certainly. Contributed to the good fight in his own way, he likes to think, and he's especially proud that the stoats in question didn't manage to break him. If there's one way for a merchant to get by in the saboteur business, it's to pick only the most incompetent targets.

Ah, good times. Would have been great to maybe shank one on the way out, but guess you can't have everything. Where are you taking him, by the way? Out of town, yes? You look over at Lee, who does seem to be guiding you toward the woods.

[Trouble In Anglefork Town: 6+1]

Rather fortunately you don't run into any trouble. Or, rather, you don't run into any trouble that Lee does not kindly slit the throats of before you arrive at your leisurely pace. The sight of blood seems to invigorate the broken man. Hah, he says, is it not the most wonderful thing, the spilling of blood in the dying light? There is a certain artistry in subversive action, no?

In any case, you leave behind the outlying farms of Anglefork Town in not too long from now, finding yourself in the thin woods once again, Lee climbing a tree to survey the nearby area, watching for a coordinated response from the town guard that does not appear to come. The broken man congratulates you on a messy rescue well-performed, but wonders what it is you were going to do with him exactly. Being a backpack has been quite fun thus far, of course, don't get him wrong, but he was really looking forward to maybe pointing you at something that you could horribly destroy with many (stoatman) casualties. So he's a little disappointed when the counter-question that Lee poses appears to be one about trade.

Trade, he says! Don't talk to him about trade. These stoatmen know nothing! Nothing! He pauses to wipe a little foam from the corner of his mouth. Really, they should all just be killed like they apparently used to be back when the splintering began. And after the new cities of stoatkind are successfully depopulated, he bets you could no doubt work something out with the Glorious Land on resettlement. Land of opportunity and all that, yes?

Quote from: TopHat on July 14, 2016, 07:29:30 am

"Listen, we need to talk about - wait, what the hell are you doing? Can one of you please tell me what's going on here?"
Take the spear, at least.

You grab the spear and observe as Ms. Minett handily takes down the guard in a surprise tackle, explaining that she (and maybe you as well) will be taking that cowering stoat along.

[Bravest of the Brave: 2]

A cowering stoat that seems to have feebly risen to his feet and started scampering away in the commotion. Look at him go! You wonder if you should mention that to Ms. Minett.

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #1313 on:** July 14, 2016, 09:49:27 am »

"I want nothing to do with the stoat army. Just don't want anyone else to get hurt. I plan on leaving peacefully and making sure the stoat does as well. As long as everyone cooperates." Then I cough, "hmcfWildecfhhm."

TopHat · « **Reply #1314 on:** July 14, 2016, 10:02:14 am »

"Ah. I guess that's why you summoned that monster to destroy the stoatman army? I'm assuming that was you, considering the circumstances. Very peaceful."
Eh, no need to tell Ms. Minett. Sounds like she wants the stoat to escape, anyway.

Xantalos · « **Reply #1315 on:** July 14, 2016, 10:05:14 am »

Daniels sighs impatiently.

"Yes okay fine now go do guard things somewhere else. Don't worry, I'll be out of here soon."

Stare malevolently at the guard until he goes away, then engage in that strangulation I was thinking of. Not enough to kill, just to weaken him enough for the absorption thing.

AoshimaMichio · « **Reply #1316 on:** July 14, 2016, 10:13:53 am »

"But trade is lifeline of any civilization! It's like the force that keeps world rotating or something. When guys in castle break out the siege there's definitely work to do for a mechant. Especially for resourceful man like yourself."

Encourage. Carefully deposit my backpack down. Practice that levitation thing while they are talking.

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #1317 on:** July 14, 2016, 11:06:54 am »

"Hey, they were actively trying to kill me. I'll do whatever is necessary to get out of here alive. I just don't want to hurt anyone else if I don't have to."

TopHat · « **Reply #1318 on:** July 15, 2016, 10:38:45 am »

"~~_{Could have just ducked behind the parapet.}~~ If you don't want to hurt anyone else then why are you threatening to? I'm sure the guards would just let you leave if you wish."

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #1319 on:** July 15, 2016, 04:16:37 pm »

"They won't let the stoat leave. He'll be imprisoned and killed before long. It doesn't take much for these guys to want to brutally sacrifice a stoatman."

"Actually..." I say, making eye contact with the guardswoman. "Would you let me take him and leave peacefully? You heard what Wilde said, I've done a lot to defend the city today. Let me spare a life."

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Author Topic: Our Salvation: It Is Written (Read 249701 times)

Harry Baldman

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

Xantalos

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

Toaster

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AoshimaMichio

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TopHat

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penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

Harry Baldman

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

TopHat

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

Xantalos

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

AoshimaMichio

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

TopHat

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond

penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: Knights of the Far Beyond