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[BFEL]

Just open the tabs and read them tomorrow.

Don't you WANT this to update?

[Niccolo]

Up... date? What is this? There is no trope called update.

Do you mean the website?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Kinda...interesting. Although BushOklahoma sucks at names.

[BFEL]

I BUMP IN YOUR GENERAL THREADSURRECTION!

[Niccolo]

Fun fact: Cnoc Adh is Irish. You really should have translated that.

You also possibly should have paid more attention to the devilish signs painted on the walls and less attention on phat lewt and the morality thereof.

- Turn 28: Of Crystals and Charred Carriages -

Stand still and try to pinpoint the location of the voice and anything else of interest. Is it the same voice that I heard before?. If I've got an idea as to where it's coming from, carefully make my way there. ((Kidzuku: comprehension go))

"God damn, this is even worse than pirate raids..." you mutter, swearing profusely. You’ve seen worse, but only once.

The bickering of Ekoka and Lyu distracts you. "Would you two be quiet for a second? I know looting corpses and having a discussion over what's right and wrong may seem like something very important to you right now, but there's someone in there who is still alive! Now shut up for a bit so I can find them. If anyone wants to help me go save them, feel free to tag along."

Leaving them to their amusements, you step a little way past the first bodies and stop still, opening your mind. Wind rustles. The heads tied to the maypole a couple dozen feet away from you clank like a devil-child’s rattle. You shut your eyes and focus fully on your ears…

“Help!”

The voice is thin. Feminine. Quite thready, a little throaty. You’re almost totally convinced it belongs to a woman in her final few years of life, which makes her survival all the more peculiar. (6+1) You’re also shocked to discover you can hear her heartbeat! Bloody hell.

Curiously, you can hear two more heartbeats. One is strong and young, sounding for all the world like the gorillas you’ve seen in some of Limero’s jungles, beating his chest in a display of dominance. It sounds like it’s coming from the same cellar as the old woman’s. You can’t make out the words, but by the tone of the whispering your crazy-sharp ears pick out, he’s telling the old woman to be quiet.

(2+1) There’s a third heartbeat in that cellar, too. You can’t quite pick out it’s details. Your mind just slides around the edges. Curious.

However, you’ve pinpointed the exact house. “Small cottage, one street beyond the maypole, on the left.” Good lord your ears are sharp.

Smack him.

Head towards the voice, keeping an eye out for anyone alive that could be saved with timely application of life magic.

You and Lyu hold a long and tangentially philosophical debate on the merits of looting bodies, which you punctuate heavily with smacks to the priest’s head. While ordinarily most people would feel that hurting priests is probably a good way to get cursed, it would appear that in this case the universe has given you free reign.

So you smack him. Several times. But he doesn’t seem to get the message.You sigh in disgust and stand close to the gate, watching in revulsion as Lyu begins to pat down the various body pieces. At least he isn’t collecting them this time…

Grumbling, you stalk past the priest and head towards the center of the village, following Felice’s cue. You and the sailor slowly stalk through the bloodied village, pausing a few feet from the maypole to wait for Baldur and Cyrus, who is trailing along behind you with a handkerchief pressed to his nose. Privately, you wonder just where Thuun has gotten off to. Surely he knows it’s no safer outside the village?

Continue looting regardless of getting smacked or not. Make sure to pay attention to how these people were killed, mentally recreating the circumstances of their death to see if they match what we've seen the false-demons do, and also for fun.

You endure the slappings of the irate mage with good humour, quietly thankful that he didn’t use the hand made from rocks. When he gives up, you smile and stroll towards the first corpse, humming to yourself. Naturally, it stinks. Really, really badly. Thankfully the cold air keeps most of the stink down; had it been a hot day you would currently be throwing up last week’s meals. You wrap your cloak around the lower part of your face and kneel to examine the pieces.

There’s a perverse sort of artistry to the destroyed corpses. The wounds bear a passing familiarity to the dead messenger’s body, but to say they are caused by the same being would be akin to saying a lion and a housecat are the same. The monsters outside were mad, you could see it in their eyes. Whatever killed these was methodical. And judging by the state of several of the womenfolk, he enjoyed it.

You shudder. You’ve never heard of demons that treat women like this. Yet the maddened monsters outside were certainly demon-touched. Just what the hell is going on here? You play the smiling and unflappable priest to the others and most of the time, it’s true. But right now? You’re just a little too sickened to properly notice the fine details. You can see it was all dony by one creature, though. One human. Or demon that looks] human. You’re not sure which is worse.

You mutter darkly under your breath before beginning to pat the bodies down for valuables. You decide to search the five most assembled bodies, since picking through piles of organs doesn’t really seem like a  good idea.

(6, 4, 2, 1, 3) You pick up some interesting loot. One body yielded a curiously-shaped dagger in a crude buckskin sheathe, while another body contained nothing but maggots. An alarming number of them. As you turned over a third body, something jabs you through the fabric of the remaining garments! You wince and push the cloth aside to find a small collection of dark shards. They appear to be from a shattered black sapphire that would have been about the size of your thumb; as it is, the remaining shards appear to be still of somewhat respectable size. Score! The remaining bodies contain nothing but a few coins. No magical items, no Elven artefacts. Sad.

You shrug and examine the collection of black sapphire fragments in your hand. The sight of them makes you smile.

(3) The hairs on back of your neck begin to prickle...

Baldur gives the dead bodies a wide berth, and heads towards the centre of the village.

“I doubt you’ll find any clues besides the fact they’ve been brutally murdered,” you mumble to Lyu as you pass by the incorrigible priest. You don’t stop to listen to his reply, instead picking your way through the village.

(3) A familiar smell assaults your nose, cutting through the charnelhouse reek of the village. A mix of bronze, leather and oil. You can’t quite pinpoint the source of the smell, but it certainly grows stronger as you reach Ekoka, Cyrus and Felice in the village square.

You stare at the morbidly-decorated maypole in the center of the village. It’s terrible and you know you should look away, but you just can’t tear yourself away from the grisly sight. Finally you manage and begin to look around, keeping your back to the others and your eyes on the buildings.

Make every effort to stay in the carriage, safely away from my teammates demons

You decide that the safest place for you is in the charred, flimsy carriage, outside the gates. You’d better hope that no predators with a keen sense of smell and supernatural strength happen alo-Oh, wait. Right. They live in this forest. You begin to wonder if this was altogether wise.
Within the village, the sigils painted on the walls begin to glow a musty cinnabar red. Similar signs begin to blaze all through the village, where bloody markings were made and then partially washed away to hide their true purpose. The gates and walls flare up brightest of all as an unseen force slams the heavy wooden structures shut with a dreadful finality.

Pitch-black flames roar into being atop the walls, tongues of fire reaching for the heavens themselves. An oblivious hawk soars too close to the fire wall and is reduced to ash in an instant; it would seem that entry or exit is no longer possible.

A dense, clinging mist begins to rise from the ground with no apparent source. There are whispers and howls within the mist, half-remembered words and sighing secrets that you can’t quite catch.

You can feel your teeth being set on edge slowly as adrenaline begins to pump through your system... Anxiety courses through your mind! What's going on?

Oops.

Spoiler: The Players (click to show/hide)

Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)
Profession: Priest
Status: Looting
Inventory:
Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Pile of black sapphire fragments
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] Righteous Litany]

Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)
Profession: Mercenary
Status: Walkin’ and lookin’
Inventory:
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak
300 gold

Wounds/Status: [Slashed left eye(2/3)][/color]
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]

Lao Thuun (BFEL)
Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Inventing prepackaged meals.
Inventory:
Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak
Religious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]

Abilities:
[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword (2/3)][Regenerative Magic]
Spells:
[Life Spell: Wisp]
Magical Experience:
[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]

Felice Nasib (Pancaek)
Profession: Seaman
Status: Listening for not-nasties.
Inventory:
Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp Dirk
Nautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Kidzuku
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:
[Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime]  [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]

Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)
Profession: Wanderer
Status: Wandering the deathly streets.
Inventory:
Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities:
[Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]
Spells:
[Wind Spell: Alacrity]
Magical Experience:
[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]

[USEC_OFFICER]

Baldur grumbles, "What a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into."

[Harry Baldman]

Lyu feels oddly vindicated by his investigation - he has both a new dagger and a black sapphire now, and he also has a clue about what might have done this! Success!

Quickly locate my good friends. Relay information!

"Hey, friends! I've discovered that these people were obviously killed by somebody who enjoys killing things, rather than some manner of beast like the ones in the forest. Also, said killer also seems to have been a person. So, watch out for suspicious murderers. I also found some good stuff on the corpses. Well, that and some maggots."

"Finally, is anybody else feeling very unsafe all of a sudden?"

[USEC_OFFICER]

Baldur sighs and shakes his head.

[BFEL]

((Predators with supernatural strength? You mean like a +2? Like what I have to strength rolls? And +1 to endurance? And also constantly healing from any current and future wounds?
I'm pretty sure I've avoided the boss battle, so unless you decide to go crazy and send an army of demons again I think I'll be good. And even then I can turn off my regen and...presumably go thermonuclear, seeing as you up and gave me a giant tower of fire within easy magical reach.

Note that an army of what amounts to Cthulu cultists/hybrids looked at me, crapped themselves and ran, and that was before my last TWO powerups.))

Thuun wonders how many of his teammates have just soiled themselves. Then he wonders how they expect to survive without him. They're probably pretty doomed.

[Niccolo]

((Predators with supernatural strength? You mean like a +2? Like what I have to strength rolls? And +1 to endurance? And also constantly healing from any current and future wounds?
I'm pretty sure I've avoided the boss battle, so unless you decide to go crazy and send an army of demons again I think I'll be good. And even then I can turn off my regen and...presumably go thermonuclear, seeing as you up and gave me a giant tower of fire within easy magical reach.

Note that an army of what amounts to Cthulu cultists/hybrids looked at me, crapped themselves and ran, and that was before my last TWO powerups.))

Thuun wonders how many of his teammates have just soiled themselves. Then he wonders how they expect to survive without him. They're probably pretty doomed.

What I read: GM, please try your hardest to kill me because I bet I can kill whatever you send at me.

[BFEL]

((Predators with supernatural strength? You mean like a +2? Like what I have to strength rolls? And +1 to endurance? And also constantly healing from any current and future wounds?
I'm pretty sure I've avoided the boss battle, so unless you decide to go crazy and send an army of demons again I think I'll be good. And even then I can turn off my regen and...presumably go thermonuclear, seeing as you up and gave me a giant tower of fire within easy magical reach.

Note that an army of what amounts to Cthulu cultists/hybrids looked at me, crapped themselves and ran, and that was before my last TWO powerups.))

Thuun wonders how many of his teammates have just soiled themselves. Then he wonders how they expect to survive without him. They're probably pretty doomed.

What I read: GM, please try your hardest to kill me because I bet I can kill whatever you send at me.

I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut huh?

[Harry Baldman]

I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut huh?

((You should also probably realize that having 0.5 legs (not one whole leg, mind you) does not bode well for your survival of terrible odds.))

[BFEL]

I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut huh?

((You should also probably realize that having 0.5 legs (not one whole leg, mind you) does not bode well for your survival of terrible odds.))

((Which is EXACTLY WHY I STAYED IN THE CAR SHAGGY))

[GreatWyrmGold]

While ordinarily most people would feel that hurting priests is probably a good way to get cursed, it would appear that in this case the universe has given you free reign.

1. As a shaman(-in-training), I receive many of the same cursey types of privileges as priests.
2. The universe has had to deal with Lyu, it understands.

Pitch-black flames roar into being atop the walls, tongues of fire reaching for the heavens themselves. An oblivious hawk soars too close to the fire wall and is reduced to ash in an instant; it would seem that entry or exit is no longer possible.

Um...break the gates? We have two mages.

Lyu feels oddly vindicated by his investigation - he has both a new dagger and a black sapphire now, and he also has a clue about what might have done this! Success!
Quickly locate my good friends. Relay information!
"Hey, friends! I've discovered that these people were obviously killed by somebody who enjoys killing things, rather than some manner of beast like the ones in the forest. Also, said killer also seems to have been a person. So, watch out for suspicious murderers. I also found some good stuff on the corpses. Well, that and some maggots."
"Finally, is anybody else feeling very unsafe all of a sudden?"

Ekoka stares at Lyu, with a mixture of irrutation and disgust on his face.
"Empty your pockets of maggots. And yes, things are VERY unsafe! It's obvious!"

Head towards where Felice indicated the survivors are. Manipulate my rocky hand into a fist.

[Pancaek]

Felice swears every nasty word his vast vocabulary of swearwords contains, in both common and Limerate. "This is bad, why did I ever get on land. Nothing good comes from being on land, capn' used to say. All right, gotta stay together, land-beasts are cowardly and try to pick off stragglers."

Stick with the others. Keep a lookout for nasties. Defend against possible nasties.