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Author Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again  (Read 564143 times)

Yoink

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6855 on: September 09, 2013, 11:02:04 pm »

>Make a last-ditch effort to imagine Skelehippo back alive again, even just for a moment.
>Before he/it disintegrates again, ask:
"How I puts you back together? Not meanin' to hurtcha..."

If/when that fails, Timothy will sigh and look up in whatever general direction he imagines the voices to come from.
"Uhmm. You know, place wif alla things?"
Wait, maybe he had to describe with a bit more detail. Weren't they in his head already? Timothy didn't know, but either way he concentrated, trying his best to summon up memories of the places from his former life/unlife.

>Shortlist a few central places from Timothy's un/life: Mister Bob's house, Bernie's lair, a carnival wagon and even *shudder* his childhood home. Whichever of those he has the clearest memory of, imagine what it looked like in detail, hopefully giving the Voices something to work with.

>If nothing happens, start trying to describe the place verbally to 'em.
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Booze is Life for Yoink

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miauw62

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6856 on: September 10, 2013, 12:54:05 am »

((Good thing we have the tailor to make me some new robes.))

Keep playing dead and hope I'll be able to dig myself out.

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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

Spinal_Taper

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6857 on: September 10, 2013, 03:45:46 am »

"Do you know anything about the girl that comes in here occasionally? The one who brings things to the surface?"
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Harry Baldman

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6858 on: September 10, 2013, 10:27:13 am »

At the guard headquarters of Shriekpot...

Scott decides to not stand for this kind of treatment.

"I'll have you know that the 'dead guy' is a transfigured construct of a peculiar infernomancer, who is partner to a very powerful necromancer to boot! Would you like to annoy those sorts of people? Return the remains to the haunted ship at the docks as a gesture of supplication, or at least neutrality."

He glares at Carlson.

"...and please don't speak of my husband in such a manner.

"Well, I'm sure all these people who definitely exist will be perfectly willing to come over from their jolly little haunted ship to vouch for you, buddy. And I haven't even begun to talk about that freak, though mostly because he's not the sort of thing you mention in polite society."

Sigmund, currently busy silently fuming over the mockery of the name his mother gave him, decides to explain a bit about his history.

"That IS my actual name. My mother had an affair with a farmer called Grimes. When she got pregnant of me, her husband, whose surname was Drakers, had a legal dispute with the farmer about who was my real father. The local judge was on a funny mood that day, and decided that I was the son of both, so he set my legal surname as a mix of both."

"Eh, alright. Have it your way. What about the dead guy? What was his name? And the chair-thing?"

Said dead guy, Kevin, is currently busy getting dragged through the corridors of the guard headquarters. The guards remove all his earthly possessions - they somewhat fail at taking off his clothes, as those seem to be fused directly onto his body, much to the guards' puzzlement. Still, after thoroughly looting whatever can be looted off the guy, the guards place him into a sack, sewing it shut with practiced hands, then dragging him through another set of corridors until they reach what Kevin thinks might be a yard. He can hear digging sounds, which persist for a short while, and then he feels getting flung into a rather shallow hole - just a little less than a meter deep, he'd say. Guess the guards were feeling lazy today. He stays still while dirt is liberally shoveled on top of him, which also continues for a while.

When he is absolutely sure he is alone, Kevin decides to try and dig himself out.

[Kevin digging roll: 3-1]

However, even with a hole this shallow, Kevin finds that it's very difficult to get out. If only he had had more practice in his time - perhaps if the old king had let him go to the beach, maybe, just maybe this wouldn't be so bad.


At the Brotherhood of Fine Furniture and Other Odds and Ends...

Niklas tries to elaborate to the best of his abilities.

"I'd like the chairs to be made out of steel, about the same size as the one that serves as my hand currently but with 6-inch spikes all over them. Optimally aerodynamic, if you could, and deadly, yes. Intimidating is preferred. No markings necessary, the blood of my foes will do. What would be the cost for two of those?"

"Steel is rather cheap, not very difficult to make at all, so we start from the standard 1 gold rate. The spikes will cost a little extra, about two silvers for the desired size. Aerodynamic design is difficult, and will cost 2 gold. Preferred style is intimidating and obviously deadly, which is 2 more silvers for guaranteed frightening visages. No poison, either - that's 3 gold and 4 silvers per chair, 7 gold and 3 silvers for both. And that's if you provide the courtesy amount of material, which is a quarter of the weight of the end product, slightly less if you do not. Perhaps you'd like to specify a particular desired weight for the chairs as well?"


On the shrieking ship of Shriekpot...

Morton finds the idea of going for a walk on the town rather agreeable.

"Hm, you do have a point. I was actually about to comment how I'm starting to become a touch worried about the others, it has been a while since they've left. Surely they haven't gotten into any trouble, yes? Either way, a walk would be wonderful, I'm hoping that if I get used to this form more I should find it easier to get around so it is well due. Places always take on a new look after dark afterwards, there are many things one can only see when others have left."

"Not going to be dark for much longer. I think dawn might be breaking soon. Anyhow, let's go," Art says, walking off, with Morton following closely behind.

"Don't DISAPPEAR now, will you?" the Captain's head, which is currently poking out from the deck, states plainly.

"Yeah, sure," Art answers, and he and Morton go out, the crystal warrior princess and fabulous desk respectively walking and rhythmically wobbling forward side by side. "So, uhm, know anyplace interesting?"


In Undefined Space...

Timothy, intent on not giving up, tries once more to fix this whole mess and imagine Skelehippo alive and well! He summons up his entire will, intent on brute-forcing his way through the boundaries of reality, and he succeeds! Well, in a way, anyhow. As in, there's now a gaping, screaming hole in front of him, and several appendages of uncertain origin that protrude from the thing appear to be grasping for him presently.

[Timothy dodge roll: 3]

He is rather weakly grabbed by one such appendage, which is strange, because he hasn't been grabbed by anything in ages.

[Timothy strength roll: 6]

Fortunately, he reasserts his superiority by pulling his intangible foot out of said appendage and calmly floating away before he's caught. Well, guess there's little else to do but give up - he shudders to think what other possible misadventures might ensue should he keep trying.

And with that, he looks... well... in some direction. Really, the voices are coming from everywhere, he thinks. He tries to successfully convey an image to them - a carnival wagon. His carnival wagon, actually. Despite much of his memory being slightly muddled, he remembers that place, and remembers it well. The image is something one does not forget. Once he thinks this, the voices seem to react - they react very vividly, actually. They shout and hoot, and Timothy finds it difficult to get their point at first, but it comes to him quickly enough.

They are saying he is going to die should he return home. He cannot return home, home is death. But he can go elsewhere instead. To better places. Less deadly places.


At the engineers' gate of the City of the Dead...

Darren tries to ask the gibbon a question, abolishing any thought of the notion being more than merely borderline ridiculous.

"Do you know anything about the girl that comes in here occasionally? The one who brings things to the surface?"

The gibbon nods once again, looking very pleased with itself in some very distant way.
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Innsmothe

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6859 on: September 10, 2013, 10:59:58 am »

"Polite society?! We are nobles! WE ARE SOCIETY!! What treasonous poison do you speak?!"

Scott will sound genuinely infuriated.
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"That which does not kill me, can only make me stranger." -Dana, Creator of Ozzy & Millie.

Tomcost

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6860 on: September 10, 2013, 11:18:08 am »

Sigmund trid to calm things down:

-Scott, I already told you, make such a rattle won't change anything for good, I can assure you that. Do you remember what has people told you about complaining?

He then adressed Carlson:

-I don't know much about them. I know that the spectacularly mangled one was called Kevin, and the chair freak is called Niklas, he's a foreigner, but I can't really say how will you encounter him next time, as he tends to change a lot.

Sigmund then remembered something:

-Speaking about him, I think that you should not let the families see what he did with the dead guards. That should not be endured by any sane person.

miauw62

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6861 on: September 10, 2013, 11:43:57 am »

((Things went better than expected.))
Try to dig myself out of the hole and crawl back to the ship as stealthily as possible.
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.

Tomcost

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6862 on: September 10, 2013, 12:12:21 pm »

((Well, for you. Luckily I didn't kill anybody nor attacked them, so I shouldn't be executed, right?))

Xantalos

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6863 on: September 10, 2013, 01:22:20 pm »

Will they be costlier if I make them lighter? What's the typical weight for a chair?
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Yoink

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6864 on: September 10, 2013, 07:43:37 pm »

Timothy was getting a bit tired of this place with all its undefined weirdness.
First he'd pushed a sortof-maybe-friend down a flight of rather unfriendly stairs.
Then he'd been grabbed by some kind of magic-y tentacle with who-knows-what planned for him. And now these Voices were telling him that his old carnival wagon was too dangerous a place for them to send him to, too 'deadly'?
But he was dead already, right?? How does that work?!

"Aaaugh why's dis gotsa be so confusing?!"
He attempted to massage his spectral temples with the heels of his ghostly hands. It helped. Maybe.
He guessed it was time to move down the list of 'places out of his memory'. "Uh, try this, den."

>Mister Bob's house, Bernie's lair, Timmy's childhood home. Try and visualize whichever of these places I remember best.
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Booze is Life for Yoink

To deprive him of Drink is to steal divinity from God.
you need to reconsider your life
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Xanmyral

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6865 on: September 10, 2013, 10:03:38 pm »

Interesting? Hm. Morton hasn't really investigated the town much, to be honest. "Well... I suppose it depends on what one deems interesting. I recall a ship who's captain spoke in my head, another which was currently being watched over by a rather diminutive man. I saw a pub on a ship, although I can't exactly profess if it is interesting or not as I had to leave rather quickly afterwards, Sir Scott was there." Morton let that be enough said on the subject. "I suppose I did meet a very talented toymaker and carpenter, he was the one who crafted my arms, if such takes your interest. I'm afraid I can't really recall much else about this town, I've not wondered it much and every time I did something typically came up, or I was whisked away with the others on some scheme." Morton really did hope that they were alright. They have a terrible tendency to get horribly maimed when he's not around for some odd reason, what in the world do they do to cause such physical harm on themselves? "Worse come to worse, we can just wander and look around, sure to be an interesting sight or two."

Spinal_Taper

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6866 on: September 11, 2013, 12:16:05 am »

"Could you go into more detail about what it is?"
Darren, though hopeful that he could get in, was beginning to suspect that the guard wasn't going to start talking anytime soon.
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Harry Baldman

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6867 on: September 11, 2013, 09:17:45 am »

At the guard HQ of Shriekpot...

Scott can't believe these people. What terrible manners!

"Polite society?! We are nobles! WE ARE SOCIETY!! What treasonous poison do you speak?!"

"Scott, I already told you, making such a rattle won't change anything for good, I can assure you of that. Do you remember what have people told you about complaining?"

However, Carlson can't stop himself from retorting to Scott.

"Well, you're hardly important, are you? Not to mention that you have died at least once, I would say, and dying does make your properties, such as they may be, pass to any extended family you may have. So you're not really a noble, are you? You haven't even got any land! And a landless noble is just no good, is he? I mean, you could try to coast on a noble reputation, but your post-mortem adventures, not to mention your involvement in disgraceful thievery, kind of defeat that idea as well. So, really, you are a noble without property or dignity, which puts you several leagues behind what one would consider a noble worth accounting for."

"I wish I could say this sort of thing happened more rarely, really."

That being established, the stage is once again given to Sigmund, who spills whatever beans he currently possesses with all the enthusiasm of a practiced expositor.

"I don't know much about them. I know that the spectacularly mangled one was called Kevin, and the chair freak is called Niklas, he's a foreigner, but I can't really say how will you encounter him next time, as he tends to change a lot."

"So, Kevin who's dead and Niklas who's very much alive and extremely dangerous. Duly noted."

"Speaking about him, I think that you should not let the families see what he did with the dead guards. That should not be endured by any sane person."

"Well, we'll be posting a bounty for him in any case - murder of five guards, corpse disfigurement, aiding and abetting of thieves, resisting lawful authorities - all in all, he is looking like a solid 10 gold coins to me. And worth spreading the word about, too. All in all, he's got the makings of a properly infamous sort, I think."

"And he does not seem to be a construct, judging from these individuals' reports."

"Indeed. So, do you lot admit that you are disgraceful thieves and deserve to be severely punished for the crime?" Carlson asks Sigmund and Scott in equal measure.


In the criminal grave plot of Shriekpot...

Kevin, glad at being freed at last, even if it is at the bottom of a shallow grave, decides to move along with his plan of action - escaping!

Sadly, though, that is still a whole lot of earth he is trapped underneath of. While mangled. And inside of a sack. With nowhere to really displace earth and lacking the ability to just punch through almost a meter of dirt with his arms and legs, which, as mentioned, seem to be broken in places Kevin didn't even know he had.


At the Brotherhood of Fine Furniture and Other Odds and Ends...

Niklas asks more on the whole weight thing.

"Will they be costlier if I make them lighter?"

"No, as that wouldn't make any sense. The heavier they are, the more expensive they are - and, considering that this is steel we are talking about, lower weights will mean less room for detail, hollow spikes, that sort of thing."

"What's the typical weight for a chair?"

"The very lowest I can go is ten kilograms for a steel one, and the very highest... well, there is no real limit to that."


In Undefined Space...

Timothy finds this whole thing rather bewildering. He just wants to get home! Is that so wrong?

"Aaaugh why's dis gotsa be so confusing?!" he implores convincingly, trying to visualize places that may be safer instead. Like Mister Bob's home. Or Bernie's lair. Yeah. Those places. As he does this, though, he can't really hear much of the voices - a faint murmur is all he gets, in a tone that seems almost patronizing to him.


In the streets of Shriekpot...

Morton considers whether there's any places he knows of that might fit a certain definition of 'interesting'.

"Well... I suppose it depends on what one deems interesting. I recall a ship who's captain spoke in my head, another which was currently being watched over by a rather diminutive man. I saw a pub on a ship, although I can't exactly profess if it is interesting or not as I had to leave rather quickly afterwards, Sir Scott was there. I suppose I did meet a very talented toymaker and carpenter, he was the one who crafted my arms, if such takes your interest. I'm afraid I can't really recall much else about this town, I've not wandered it much and every time I did something typically came up, or I was whisked away with the others on some scheme. Worse come to worse, we can just wander and look around, sure to be an interesting sight or two."

"Well, no point in going to a pub. Neither of us can get drunk, after all, and the atmosphere becomes pretty dull if you don't have a drink. And the carpenter's probably asleep. That ship sounds pretty weird, though. Maybe we can go talk to this captain or something. Don't see many mentalists running ships these days. Where is that ship?"


At the engineers' gate of the City of the Dead...

Darren pursues answers like an intellectual bloodhound, going for all the hard questions.

"Could you go into more detail about what it is?"

The gibbon nods solemnly.
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Tomcost

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6868 on: September 11, 2013, 09:31:21 am »

Sigmund, a bit frightened about the prospect of being mauled yet again, asked Carlson:

-Well, first I feel the need to ask you two questions. The first is what kind of punishmend does thievery deserve, and the second is if there is a way to decrease that punishment by doing any kind of charitative act.

miauw62

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 5: The Path of Dreams
« Reply #6869 on: September 11, 2013, 09:44:59 am »

Kevin mutters to himself: "Well, there's not really anything else I can do, is there?"
Try to break the sack and dig my way out.
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.
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