In the den of the shrieking ship of Shriekpot...
Niklas tries to somehow articulate his joy, but only manages to wobble his central chair!
"Ha ha! I now have power over chairs! I know exactly what to do with this amazing power."
And by that, he means he tries to indicate to Erin that he really wants some speech and hearing here.
[Nonverbal communication roll: 5]
Fortunately, long hours spent watching seals and waiting for a moment to pounce upon them have granted Niklas a deep enough understanding of body language to allow him to express these ideas perfectly, like poetry in motion. Awfully needy motion, but hey, that's poetry for you. Erin seems to get the idea rather nicely, though she doesn't say anything audible. Heh.
Anyway, while she does her thing, Niklas takes a moment to answer his family.
"Well, Torkel, I think it only worked because I was a chair, but if you want to fuse with other people to become a flesh golem of some sort, go ahead."
"Cool! Can I, mom?"
"I'm not sure that's the best idea, Torkel. I mean, your father seems a little... distraught. And perhaps confused."
"Dearest Helsvar, I'm fine! I just need fingers now and I can cook again! I'll be just fine... ehehehe... hehehehehehehehe... hahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"[/b] Niklas says to assuage her doubts, even lapsing into full-on evil laughter to complete the impression that he hasn't changed a bit. After a moment, he abruptly stops.
"*ahem*, but yes, I'll be fine."
"Um... well, if you say so, my dear..."
Meanwhile, Erin seems about ready to help him, confused as she is.
[Erin magic roll: 1]
Niklas is suddenly overcome by rather considerable pain as two rather large holes form in his armrests. Looks like Erin started forming ears from the wrong end. Burns like fire, Niklas finds.
[Niklas endurance roll: 2]
The pain is intense enough for Niklas to immediately double over, as the sensation of something important to him suddenly vanishing kicks in, formed by long conditioning in the world of the living!
"Aw, crap. Well, doesn't look too badly hurt," Erin concludes, much to the chagrin of her fellows. Sigmund, rather than discuss this particular issue, just attends to other issues.
"Where did you say the harpoons where?" he asks Scott.
"Well... heh heh... let's just say they're very well-hidden on my person and leave it at that. Now, I need you to turn around so I can make the magic happen."
Sigmund thinks about this for a moment, and supposes he can do it. After all there's other people here. He wouldn't do anything overwhelmingly untoward if there's witnesses, right? As he turns around, Scott retrieves two harpoons.
"Holy mother of fuck!" comes an exclamation from Kevin, who takes several steps back, sword drawn, though whether this is a reaction to Scott or Niklas, Sigmund would rather not know. Scott, meanwhile, hands two harpoons over to Sigmund and considers using a third to poke Niklas a bit to make him sit down, but he appears rather downed already. What a bummer.
"So, I'm... like... ready to do stuff. I guess."
"We will wait until night to strike. Meanwhile, let's try to not get killed by Niklas."
Everyone looks at Niklas. He looks pretty harmless right now.
On the outskirts of the City of the Dead...
Darren explains his purpose here.
"I'm a traveling magician. Who died recently."
In order to prove his identity beyond any reasonable doubt, he performs a magic trick.
[Magic roll: 5]
He does the trick with the rags again - requires minimal audience participation, plus it's very distracting. It looks as visually impressive as ever!
"Ooh, nice trick."
Darren chooses not to follow up the kind words with any kind of reciprocation - instead, he states his mission.
"I'm here on a mission from a god. Need to head down into the catacombs."
"Catacombs? A god? What? You're talking nonsense, dear."
"Yeah, I don't remember there being catacombs in this city. What're you looking for, anyway?"
They seem oddly interested in Darren's problems.
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 562336 times)