((Someone offering the newcomer clothes? These young whippersnappers just get everything handed to them ))
Thomas beat a hasty retreat to the others before getting scalded or asphyxiated or worse. "You know, suddenly I feel like exploring the city. Who's with me?"
Head out and explore the city. Anyone who wishes to come with is welcome to tag along.
Everyone decides to come along with you, as while they can't say for sure that something is going to kill them horribly if they choose to stay behind, their better Rabbity instincts can't rule out the strong possibility that this is so. As such the Rabbit delegation heads back out into Elizabeth's streets - one of the house staff follows you with an unreadable expression, soundlessly gliding behind you and attracting suspicious glares from virtually everyone besides Tabernacle, who knows enough to understand that most of the danger you'd run into here is unlikely to have been following you the entire time.
[Her Magnificent Attractions: 2]
There's rather a lot of Elizabeth to take in, considering she has been here since anyone can remember, shedding outer walls every century or so when her boroughs started getting too large. You spot the occasional statue watching you carefully from a window, and every now and then a distant clansman is walking in the distance before disappearing, invariably in the company of another statue. Elizabeth herself is quite charming still, and very nicely put together if you can say so herself - her streets give the impression of a city that knows how to take care of herself and what she likes - her tastes might be old-fashioned, but you have to say she wears the look of an acropolis very nicely.
That said, it does become increasingly apparent across the next half hour or so that she doesn't seem to very much like the idea of you running into anyone else around here. For one, whenever you almost come close to a clansman or five the servant following you invariably finds some way to interrupt - whether by bumping into you as softly as a five hundred pound statue possibly can, or by suddenly bringing your attention to something in the distance, or even by tapping you on the shoulder and pointing to a plaque that you could swear wasn't there a moment ago, detailing some kind of famous event you lack the context to even recall a few minutes later. Invariably the person you spot had disappeared by then - led away, you can't help but notice, by an analogous chaperone or inexplicable happenstance.
Daniels cracks his knuckles. "Oi Dipper! Quiet down, you hallucinating nut! You're just reacting to some psychoactive bullshit that got put in your booze!"
Restrain the poor man and try to calm him down. If that doesn't work, SILENCE his screaming.
[Resistance Is Useless: 5+1 vs. 2]
You pick Dipper up as he continues to scream and lay him down in bed face down, pinning his arms behind his back as you try to get him to come down off whatever horrific trip he's on.
[The Buddy System: 4]
It's not real, you tell him! You have no idea what he's seeing or why he's screaming, but it's definitely not real and absolutely can't hurt him much worse than you can. He resists at first, but a few rounds of nakedly and fruitlessly struggling against you holding him down begin to exhaust him, and understanding words plus a few flirtations with oxygen deprivation as you push his face into the pillow take him the rest of the way into a state where he, while still bombed out of his skull, at least has become a lot less noisy.
The ship's doctor looks up from his supplies and, noticing Dipper appears to be compliant, walks up and looks him over - well, suppose that addresses the noise complaints he'd been getting. In his qualified medical opinion, however, the dude still looks pretty fucked up.
[Give Me The News: 2]
The doctor leans in and checks his pulse, shines a light over his eyes, tests his reflexes, checks his lymph nodes and looks down his throat - yep, the diagnosis does check out. He really is fucked up in all kinds of ways. Poisoned, drunk, allergic, hypertonic and maybe a bit off his gourd as well. He pulls out a couple of pills from his supplies and hands them to Dipper, communicating in a couple of gestures that he'd better swallow them if he knows what's good for him - Dipper luckily sees reason on the matter. The doctor then takes out a metal syringe and fills it up with something labeled "wow juice" in sloppy penmanship. Dipper doesn't even wince when he gets a full dose right into his arm, but a few moments later is out like a light.
He'll be good in a bit, the doctor explains to you as he rolls him on his side and pats him on the head, then puts a blanket over him all the way. Like a week at most, they have a bit of variability on how soon they come out of the healing coma. Note to self, the doctor says aloud, don't forget to check on him.
"Peaks. What an interesting name. Now, where does someone get a name like that?"
Make small talk with the mad woman. Hope she doesn't stab me.
It's a scripture name, says Peaks as she continues to dig around her closet. They're all taken from the books of genius, which are a thing they have over- well, where you're going right now, actually, where the ship is going, she means. They're written by what used to be people, back when they were people. Kind of like a holy text and a manual. Ideally, anyway. Sometimes they're just complete nonsense, but you never know what'll give you a clue when you- aha!
[And What Do We Find: 5]
Peaks turns around and holds up with one hand a hanger on which you see a black-and-gold paisley bathrobe, waving her other hand over it in a revelatory gesture. There's a faint sheen on it that makes you wonder if that's actual gold leaf put into it. It seems quite fluffy, warm and, you suspect, very comfortable.
"Hey, Oggie, snap out of it! I'm on your side!" I dodge away from her and throw an explosive cyst upward at the ghoul head, timing it to explode in midair and vaporize the head, or at least knock it to the ground.
[Putting In Distance: 5]
You shout at Oggie for a moment and something does appear to get through - enough for her to stop in place and attempt to listen to the screaming outside of her head rather than the screaming within it, at least, and she stops swinging wildly for now, which gives you some much-needed room for concentration as you mature another explosive cyst in your palm.
[Cooking Your Bioweapons: 6 vs. 4]
And it does actually come out as a very nice feat of timing as you throw the cyst upward from behind your back at almost the right time to hit the thing head on, and it's only at the last moment that the rampaging floating head tries to veer to the side, which is why the explosion blasts it into the nearby wall rather than completely vaporizes it. There is a sickening crack as the skull cracks and blood spurts out of the head's mouth and ears and from several other bits as well, and it falls to the ground meatily as the impact briefly stuns it. Oggie shakes her head as her sight returns to her, the shadows around you receding in a lapse of the ghoul's concentration.
Then the head begins to unfold - the cracks widen as the skull bursts, its brain unrolling into a fine mist of neurons, exploding into easily a hundred times its original size, puzzle-piece fragments of the head held aloft by an airy silver sail of neural tissue. It seems unable to scream now - instead it seems intent on striking you straight in the heart, its bleeding eyes fixing on you as its desperate, twisted mind moves not to prod and suggest this time, but to outright strangle.
[A Simple Plan: 3+1 vs. 6]
It is distracted, if only for a moment, by the doctor coming out of the shadows with a bucket of water in her hands - she looks intent to use it somehow right up until an eye fixes on her and you see her stop completely in her tracks as she becomes utterly paralyzed on the spot.
Eileen Minett, Vinyl Collector
- Distilled alcohol (in flask)
- Spirits of salt (in clay jar)
- Soaps of elk, bear, bat and snake
- 4 flasks of lamp oil
- Oil lamp (lit)
- Linen stoat shirt (worn, plasma-scorched)
- Stoat trousers (worn)
- Comfy slippers (worn)
- Never-made scimitar (blackened, slightly dull)
- Tooth-handled hunting knife
- Black leather boots
- An assemblage of amber and amethysts
- Silver thread-necklace
- Onyx spiral earrings
- 2 oaken rings
- Rusty, bloodstained knife
- A Word: HUNGER
- A Word: SYNTHESIS
- A Weapon: Explosive Cysts
- Grenade Jumping: A Solid Technique
- The Good Doctor: Secret Histories
- Sword of the Sand People: Cleaning Supplies
- Sword of the Sand People: The Services of a Minder
- Higher Tonight: There And Back Again
- The Old Mistress: Like A House On Fire
- Our Old Bridge Is Falling Down: A Monster Hunter
- She Who Fights Monsters: The Ghoul's Enmity
Jack Daniels, Karate Man
- Linda the peg-legged manikin (lively, disappointed)
- Red and gold vest and breeches combo (worn)
- Leather boots (worn)
- Rubber mattress (filled with water)
- 14031 gp (in sack)
- Poor Unfortunate Soul: Forever Captive
- The Queen's Guard: Actual Asset
- Powers of the Beyond: Gardener of Thoughts
- Garden of Thoughts: the Stoat-Magistrate
- Dusty Wooden Speaking-Trumpet
- Crossbow Bolt (in throat)
- A Word: REND
- A Word: SILENCE
- A Word: EXECRABLE
- A Weapon: Murder-Thought
- Uncoupled: Strength
- Wooden Door
- Induced Lucidity: The Silent Garden
- Elongated Affairs: Enemy of the New State
- 2 rats, crushed
- 1 rat, strangled
- 1 rat, live
- Doomstones: So High Up But Such A Bitter View
- The Majordomo: A Great Divide Between Us Now
- The Voracious Dark: Decreasing Demand
- The Voracious Dark: More Specific Requests
- The Vault of Heavens: Special Treatment
- Scars of Time: Meticulously Analyzed
- Process of Elimination: Pounds of Flesh
- The Night Sky: How Very, Very Quaint
- Fires, Pines & Day, Minions At Law: Dan Duty
- They Call Me Doctor: Opportunistic Orderly
- Body Count: 3
Thomas Minstep, Insurance Agent
- A Word: ABSENCE
- A Word: GOODBYE
- A Word: WORM
- A Weapon: The Sword They Fear
- Insurance contracts, signed in triplicate: 12
- Nobody Cares
- Helen Clampitt
- Lily
- Undine and Prosper Eke
- Silver
- Tabernacle, treefisher scout
- Treefisher elder
- 4 treefishers
- Make A Man Out Of You: Battle-Tested
- The Grip of Tharn: Insurance Against The Storm
- Ranging fork
- 2 feet of sinew-thread
- Tooth-needle
- A Bowl, Black and Knobby
- Tight Leather Pants (worn)
- Incredibly Tight Blue Dress (worn, mutilated, mildly provocative)
- The Queen's Guard: A Reward Well Earned
- The New Queen: Lasting Gratitude
- The Box: Absolutely Delightful
- The Voracious Dark: The Place of Lost Souls
- The Voracious Dark: Testing Run
- Proof of Concept: An Interesting Student
- Clans of the Northern Wilderness: A Distraction
- The Living City: A Guest In Elizabeth
- Body Count: 12
Oscar Wilde, Chemistry Teacher
- The Mind, It Goes A-Wandering: 1
- Wounds: 2
- A Word: REVELATION
- A Word: THANKS
- The Wicked King's Missive On Economic Reform (in massive silver scroll case)
- Traces of Mischief: Glowing Facial Rift
- The Serpent's Egg: Dissemination
- Body Count: 4
- Cornerstone Helm (worn, out of light, collecting)
- Bottle of aspirin
- Time-ender's measure (wrapped, processing? stopping?)
- 10 m of rope
- Half a candle
- 1 rat, skinless and smoked
- 4 gp
- Lock of Hair (unidentified)
- Iron nail, unused
- An Inauspicious Key
- Moth-Eaten Hat (worn)
- Old Brown Waistcoat (worn)
- A Wealth of Burlap Ribbons
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: The Less Dangerous Friend
- The King's Court: The Greatest Gift of All
- The King's Court: The North Wind's Gift
- The King's Court: Makala's Old Glory
- The King's Court: The South Wind's Gift
- The King's Court: The West Wind's Gift
- The King's Court: A Gift For The Wicked King
- Wizzards Bargins: Copper Springs from Old Bobbleparts
- Wizzards Bargins: A Roll of Your Finest Sticky Tape
- Wizzards Bargins: Styli of Ancient Plumbago
- In High Spirits: But Not Very Useful In The Lab
- Traces of Mischief: Missing Finger
- Wall-Breaker: A Generous Tab
Rindle Fischgartner, Evolutionary Biologist
- Naked
- The New Flesh: The Best Kind of Accident