In one of Mothdale's canals...
Kevin thinks it best to follow that dolphin, and glides through the waters of the canal in a fashion as carefree and light as that of a traumatized brick. Nevertheless, he makes decent progress, though the dolphin ahead of him is definitely much faster than he. Fortunately, it does wait up for him, impatiently jabbing him with its nose whenever he lags too far behind. Eventually the two reach a particular point, when the leading dolphin jumps out of the water, landing on the cobbled street with a wet splash. Imitating the creature, Kevin leaps after it, landing at its side.
At this point, the dolphin stands up on its tail, a feat Kevin can't seem to imitate, much to his new friend's disappointment, and he is reduced to crawling after it. In any case, they slowly move through the streets until the other dolphin suddenly notices Art of all people walking down the street. Its eyes gleaming with strange intent, it begins to move in the unsuspecting fellow's direction.
Inside a nice little parlor...
Mark, guessing that, if he's not hungry, he probably should be, eats some of that unattended meat - it's nice and spicy, and actually quite rare. A steak of some sort, he guesses, or at least vaguely remembers. Eating it provides him with a rather nice sense of fullness - it's almost enough to make him reconsider immediate looting and getting out of here as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, the call of loot is not to be ignored - the other two dead ladies seem to have about six coppers and five silvers between them, not to mention a lute and a bongo, both of a very high quality. When the three instruments are in close proximity, Mark notices an odd glow begin to emanate from them. Hm.
The rest of the house contains little of note - there's silverware, of course, and candles and some tapestries, and some fairly expensive furniture, but nothing else. Looks like the only proper treasure here were the instruments.
On one of the more blazing streets of Mothdale...
Scott deflects any accusations of ill intent with all the flippancy one would expect.
"Shush, I just wanted to scare the little thing. Is it much to ask for a 'Hello' 'I am doing fine' 'You presence is appreciated Scott'?" he says to the air, floating over to the sphere of metal and examining it - he concludes that it is spherical and made of metal, oddly enough. And judging from the way it hasn't exploded yet, probably mundane as well, and this assessment is confirmed when he manages to successfully phase through it.
~that's actually a bear, scott! it is presently delivering its focus to erin!~
Huh. It sure looks like Erin, Scott thinks.
In the streets of Mothdale...
Morton senses looming conflict, and it could potentially be quite nasty, he suspects.
~Oh dear, that all sounds absolutely dreadful. I hope a peaceable parley can be reached.~
~we guess it can be reached! the only matter is the cost!~
Fortunately, it is beyond Morton's control what dire consequences may be in store for him, his master and all of his friends, and finds the idea of meeting the tailor an agreeable proposition for now.
~I'd very much appreciate that, good group Gub, I'm quite confident in good tailor Craig's abilities.~
~the way shall be illuminated!~
And it sort of is - Morton notices a blazing trail of light form ahead of him. Seeing no reason not to do so, he follows it for a good while until he comes to the familiar form of Tailor Craig, reading a book on a terrace idly. He doesn't seem to have noticed the trail culminating in a flaming arrow pointing to him. Morton approaches the man and bids a cheery greeting!
"Mm, yes?" Tailor Craig asks, turning away from his book. "You are presumably going to ask something of me, yes?" he then says. Morton wonders how Tailor Craig could have known this, really.
At a forming stalactite...
Darren tries to push his viewpoint on the pile.
"What, you don't think we can show them how cool our fun is? They can't be that stubborn."
The creature thinks a bit, smacking its lips while one of its eyes inspects Darren.
"Hm. I do suppose we could go in there if you really want it that badly. Who knows, might be fun," it eventually says. "Though we will need a little something to get in."
The pile of flesh begins to bubble and stew, its ectoplasmic body beginning to deform. The eyestalks slide into the mass, as do the lips and the arm, and a pillar begins to grow from the shape, a head, arms and legs emerging almost immediately. The definition of the thing increases up until the point where Darren sees before him the ghost of an elderly, portly man who for some reason doesn't seem to have any eyes. Or a mouth. Just a bulbous, spotty nose.
"Right. Follow me, and look natural," the creature tells Darren, floating off in the direction of the mausoleum.
In the library of the Red Tower of Power...
Niklas quickly mobilizes to get some more food - in good time, too, he was beginning to feel a little hungry again. Unfortunately, however, there don't seem to be any pies left unattended in the area this time around, or any other sort of consumables strewn about careless to just pick up like nobody's business. Hm.
Fortunately, he believes he can still get some reading done before the day is done. At least the Godly Gossip section. He sits down and looks through it. The basic myths seem to run along the lines of each god teaching mortals various important life lessons - Arnold Q. Arnold notes that these myths are those that are least likely to be literally true, since it seems quite uncharacteristic of gods to teach mortals these kinds of things in any direct fashion.
The second sort of myths are the various creation myths (the gods appearing in the world, either creating or enslaving the demons, then working out the order of things is the general gist of it, with the second two steps occasionally reversed and the initial state of the world varying) - the gods don't really seem willing to provide any evidence for these, and are fairly tight-lipped on the matter, Arnold Q. Arnold notes, except for Velusius, who just responds with conflicting, outrageous accounts of creation that involve varying degrees of sex, violence, violent sex and usually copious amounts of incest. Velusius is kind of unhelpful, Arnold Q. Arnold also notes, and his stories lack any form of internal consistency, as he seems to be making them up on the fly.
The third sort are individual accounts of encounters with gods - these are probably the most reliable, and it is from these that Arnold Q. Arnold has principally deduced the general disposition of each god - it is easy to obtain information on them this way, because the gods are, to reiterate an already stated point, easily reachable. Gods, when contacted, tend to give quests rather than the more demon-typical rewards-for-souls deal, or accept some form of token of personal growth instead. Velusius has a fixation with virgins, blood and danger in most of these stories, Rysinia tends to give quests involving violence and power grabs, Narcillicus mostly gives quests involving reflection and striving for perfection, Pacitarius prefers people becoming more in touch with nature (whether that means more tranquil or more savage doesn't seem to matter), and Almiria is pretty much there to just hurt you if you do badly.
The fourth sort are more amusing stories - the treasured godly gossip that injects life into the entire pantheon. Many are blatant fabrications - like Almiria hating Tuesdays specifically because one of her children - the Sixth God - met an unspeakable fate on that day (this is a fabrication mostly because Almiria is not known to hate Tuesdays in particular - if anything, she hates all days of the week equally). The most credible of these are tales of flings happening between gods and demons, and of these the only one that might be semi-confirmed is the somewhat obscure love triangle involving Narcillicus, the Aspect of Greed and Velusius - Arnold Q. Arnold has apparently sent several parties (mind-controlled and subtly mind-wiped beforehand, of course) to question the gods and the Aspect of Greed - none of them ever returned, which to the author screams confirmation. There are also other confirmed stories, but those are focused upon in Demonic Testimonies.
Niklas would read more, but his stomach seems to be protesting rather loudly and uncomfortably to such a course of action.
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 564591 times)