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[SeriousConcentrate]

"I'm not after doubloons, they went out of style ages ago and hardly anyone accepts them as currency anymore. I'm not saying I won't take 'em if we find 'em, though. What about you? Cosplaying as an elven ranger? Sheesh, elves are so stuffy. I was one of those centuries ago. Got stabbed in the liver by some crazy kitsune lady, bled out in a cave. Bones are probably still rotting there, it was pretty deep in." Sometimes he wondered if he was his own descendent. It was possible. Not likely, usually, but possible.

"Hey, you know what the best part about being hung is?" Royce formed his hands into two gun shapes and pointed them at Terys. "All the guys are so jealous you might get hung for real! Ah, that was a good one. Let's go." The slightly crazed trickster took the lead, pushing past Trent to head down the same tunnel. But first. He didn't feel like following at the moment.

[Digital Hellhound]

Ecidona held the Silence, letting it wash over her, hiding her emotions and petty fears in its depths. She continued with the others, staying focused.

Move on, Silence on

[Skyrunner]

(Subquest)

Aes snapped out of the reverie she was in at the rumble and the nervous man's words. She glanced at him, not a very comforting one.

"I thought you were a man..." Aes says, softly. She wanders after the people who were heading on. Perhaps she helped shake the man into coming with them. She just loved when it worked, and loved when it didn't, too. It was all part of the big game everyone was in but few knew they were playing. Very very few.

((People on the subquest, let's append "subquest" so both the GM and the players can tell them apart xD))

[Ochita]

Gurrath didn't blink, only pausing momentarily to look around the area, while staying in the group.

Continue moving.

[Spinal_Taper]

"Cosplaying, what do you think-"
As he processed Royces words, it finally clicks for him, and he jogs to catch up with Royce. Once he's even with him, he taps him on the shoulder.
"Wait, you've died? What are you?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Me? I'm Royce Orange, the traveling entertainer. You might have heard of me." He grinned. "Not the answer you wanted, is it? All right. I like you, you have the guts to just ask me, so I'll tell you but I don't expect the name to mean anything to anyone - it's literally been ages since anyone's spoken it. I'm Lalawethika. The spirit who managed to anger the implacable Matoskah enough that a curse was laid on him for all eternity that he be bound to the mortal cycle until nothing left was born on this earth to hold his essence? Ah, didn't figure it would register. Anyway, until literally everything on this planet dies, I'm pretty much doomed to be born every time my current incarnation dies naturally or gets killed off, and that happens more than you'd think, too. I think I might have died of old age, once, and that was... seven centuries ago or so? Hard to keep track of time when you're as old as I am."

He grinned. "If you'd ever met Matoskah, you'd be impressed that I managed to piss him off. Took me YEARS to get under his skin, and it's STILL worth it. Plus being a mortal's not so bad. I kind of forget what I am at times, though. I really liked being a bear. I was one last time, 'til I got killed by a pack of hunters and probably turned into boots. I think I might be wearing myself, in fact." He raised a foot to look at his boots. "No, I was a black bear last. These are brown-furred."

[Spinal_Taper]

"You're a spirit, huh? Interesting."
He nods a few times.
" Jus' like dad always said. You know what? I'd like to hear s'more of your stories, Lalawthika. Y'seem like an interesting guy. So, just how long have you been surviving forever?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Oh, wow. That's a tough question. I don't remember when I first 'woke up', so to speak. I just... was. This was back before any of the sentient races knew how to walk on two legs, let alone create languages and myths and all that interesting stuff that I like about them so much. Myth. Yes, that was it. What you call the Age of Myth. It was about the middle of that era that I earned myself this little curse." Royce stopped for a moment and looked around, just in case anyone who shouldn't be like the rest of the party or rats or stone worms was listening, then went back to his ramblings.

"That was... I think six ages ago by how mortals reckon them. I'll be honest, I thought I might've found freedom during the Age of Death - that was when the sun and moon were sundered. I didn't see it happen, unfortunately; I think at the time I was tipping over cows in a dwarven mountainhome. It seems to match up right chronologically, though hell if I can remember. Heh. Should've figured that even a dead God's curse is more powerful than magic. And to be honest I haven't really been looking for a way to break the curse myself. I ain't going to complain if it happens, but I'll settle for seeing what I might be next, or what's going to happen to the world while I'm still in it. Anyway, we got nothing but time - or at least, I certainly do, heh - and nothing bothering us. What do you want to ask about?"

[Spinal_Taper]

His eyes shone a little as Lalawthika spoke. A spirit, straight from one of his fathers texts. Immortal, able to see the world, able to see what normal people could not. A treasure trove of tales, of stories and wisdom.
"Did you ever fight anything big back then? Like a hydra? Or a dragon?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

Royce grinned. "Fought them? I've BEEN them! The only one I remember all that clearly was back in the Age of... Alchemy, I think. About the middle of the time period. I was a magnificent white-scaled dragon. They called me Taregan, and I was worshipped by hundreds of thousands. Armies at my command, mountains of gold in my hoard, and temples of polished marble stretching to the clouds containing statues of my image. My people's enemies were sacrificed to my glory." The spirit sighed. "Got too old and complacent. Did you ever hear of the... well, you're elven, you probably have heard stories of your people's hero Ryoro Norrendlin. When my armies marched on his fortress, the last stronghold of the northern elves, he challenged me to single combat. I didn't think a lone elf could defeat me, so I accepted. But, like I said, old. I'd lost a few scales in a few vital areas and my reflexes weren't as good as they were in Taregan's youth."

He tapped his cheekbone, just below his left eye. "Final arrow went through my eye. Last thing I remember, and the most clear memory I have from Taregan's life, is seeing that arrow coming and being too slow to dodge it. Ended up being Ryoro's daughter Kalanna - born at the same moment Taregan died - and fighting in the war upon my previous worshippers. Who else has been lucky enough to have the chance to smash their own temples and steal their own gold from themselves? Even killed a dragon myself, some red-scaled female who they bribed with Taregan's riches to take his place when they started losing. Coincidentally, I have to say I learned a lot about how to kill a dragon from dear old dad there..." Royce grinned.

"Of course, like I said earlier, I've been eaten by dragons, too. That period of my life was nothing but dragons, one way or another."

[Tiruin]

((Awaiting Irony's action ^^))

Why do I feel like this is all a follow-the-leader thing? :/ Yes this is transparent because I'm too concerned about what is going on and if something is wrong with what I did...

[Spinal_Taper]

"Only a half-elf, to be honest. Heard of Ryoro, though, of course. So, is it true about Taregan? Y'know, butchering the innocent and roasting their property."

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Some of it. I ate a lot of people; some of them may have been innocent, but I wasn't checking out the history of everyone my subjects brought to me. Food was food and I didn't particularly care if the person in front of me was a virgin maiden or a mass murderer or a hero. And oh yeah, I burned a lot of places to the ground. It was fun and it gave my armies the edge in war." Royce shrugged. "I've been around long enough to know human nature. If I hadn't torched those buildings, people inevitably would have themselves, and done it a lot less inefficiently - anyone inside when I burned the places down didn't have time to feel the dragonfire incinerating them. Trust me, when push comes to shove, all sentient beings are animals down at their core and they will act like it. I just choose to embrace the animal inside rather than deny it."

[Spinal_Taper]

He nods, continuing to walk down the tunnel. After a few moments, he turns his head back around and looks at Royce.
"So, uh, you ever someone who was called a hero by people like me?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

Royce laughed, long and quietly. "Hero, me? To be a hero you have to follow a certain set of guidelines or morality or whatever people want to call it. If any of my incarnations were ever a hero, they would have been folk heroes at best. There was one life where a certain man who had stolen a throne had pissed me off in a previous life - details aren't important, although let's say one never does get used to daggers to the liver - so I spent all of it pretty much making his rule miserable. I besmirched his name, I repeatedly poisoned and ambushed his soldiers, I stole from his tax collectors and gave the money to whatever peasants I felt like to undermine his authority, I stole state secrets and sold them to the neighboring kingdoms. My masterstroke was confronting him on the eve of a battle and telling him exactly who I had been last and what I had dedicated this entire life to doing before humiliating him in front of his troops."

He grinned. "His army surrendered the next day and his minor monarchy was consumed by the Komodian Empire. I even became a mythological figure for the life of the Empire. That was during the Age of Myth, so it's too far back for anyone but the most studious of scholars to know of. But I think if you could find and read the stories of Kigus Phaedran, you might enjoy some of the more ridiculous things I got up to in my effort to overthrow the tyrant Serpolgha." He checked his surroundings once more, wondering when the hell Sal'savira was going to stop standing around and do something. (Hey, we got amulets we can use to check on the main party, right? Totally justified. )

"I gotta be honest though. For every life I tell you about where I was someone important or famous, there are almost a thousand where I never amounted to much of anything. Half of it's the luck of the draw. Sometimes I'd be born in a more fun body like a dragon, or I'd stumble across an interesting situation to insert myself in, but most of the time things were relatively quiet across the land or I just didn't feel like going out of my way to get involved with things. And there's a lot of things I've forgotten, too. Some of it on purpose, like the one time I decided to try out being a hermit - Gods was that boring, never did that again - and some are things I just can't recall too clearly no matter how much I try. For example, I can tell you that at one point in my existence I was a dwarf fighting in a civil war. Can't tell you what side I was on, or why the war happened, just that I was there." Royce shrugged.