"How much gold you want? Eh? You've been suspiciously vague on that. I'll give you all the gold I have, if you free the beggar an' he's got nothing wrong with him. But you free him first, and then I'll uphold my fecking bargain. Otherwise Moubu Strength Of Many Gods 'ere is gonna bash your fecking skulls in, yer rotting piles of monkeyjunk. Free him!"
Jao smashes his fits into his palm again to underline his point, and then steps backwards to get behind Moubu. Also he searches his pockets and digs out a gold coin and pokes his head round Moubu.
"Look! Gooooooooold. But you can't bloody have it if he ent freed and if he ent right!"
Poke head back behind Moubu.
"Gobshites."
The being reaches to snatch the gold from your hand with a greedy motion...
But, Moubu pushes you aside before it can!
In retrospect, you're really lucky he posted so fast.
"I have a real bad feeling! Feels I'm gonna die if I stay here any longer, something's missing from me!" Caern shouted once more. It was hard for him to explain what exactly was going on, specially since he wasn't sure of it himself. It was frustrating and strange at the same time.
Caern has a feeling that the answer is right in front of him...
As soon as Moubu steps in front of the swamp beings, however, all his thoughts turn to a feeling of sudden, impending doom. In the end, he doen't feel anything at all.
As the swamp things block Moubus ways his eyes narrow dangerously and his lips pull back in a snarl, revealing his long canines as a deep growl rips fourth from his throat. "Аmaa Tat!" He shouted, moving forward. "Lying swamp scum! Whatever magic you have laid upon my companion will be cast aside, if not willingly then by force!" He continued forward, pulling out his warhammer.
If the swamp beings don't get out of Moubus way, he strikes at them as he moves forward.
Needless to say, the beings turn out to be paper lions-as soon as Moubu takes a step toward them, there's a pop, a flash of something that is the opposite light (A flash of darkness?), and the sharp smell of sulfur. The shadowy forms break apart into many, much smaller forms. Strangely, the swamp-beings who lured you here seem to scream in actual pain as they break into component parts....
The things that emerge don't look like swamp monsters, or spider-monkeys, or even reptilemen like Grik-they vaguely resemble evil looking bats, but their bodies are thin and wispy as smoke clouds. They vanish in all directions, before you can do so much as boo, and the verdant face of the village seems to vanish alongside them. They were never real, at least not in the way you saw them.
Stripped of it's own illusions, you can see the village has not been inhabited for years-maybe decades. Only mold grows here, in rotting roofs, and broken floors. Only now can Moubu make out the clear signs of a long ago invasion, battle scars to the face of the buildings, old bleached skeletons, and rusting weapons sunk into the marshy ground. There is no one living here now.
Caern is still in place bound to the tree, but it seems something is wrong with him...he's rapidly fading from sight, becoming transparent...
-------------------------
Caern realizes now, that those chains don't actually exist...but, neither do the arms that are bound to them, nor the person they are attached to.
It's a bit much to accept that he's an illusion. The truth is hard to face. He's an amazingly lifelike illusion, crafted from the thoughts and feelings of the real Caern-but, an illusion nonetheless. A particularly potent mirage, because it cruelly uses a portion of the living being to make it more realistic.
It's perhaps a mercy that his death seems to be relatively painless...still, the feeling of fading away into nothingness is not comfortable at all. Then again, if he never really existed at all, how could he really die?
...
With this knowledge comes a realization that the 'other' Caern (it's difficult to grasp this) is still alive. You (the illusion) can feel his presence...in one of the houses. He's (you?) are still alive, yes, but he (Myself? I?) might not be for very long. These evil beings (and he feels that these beings are truly, darkly evil) have no need for useless bait, and will no doubt siphon whatever life he has left if he is not found soon.
He (We) may will himself to exist, just a bit longer to pass this information along...even if, it's perhaps not much of a consolation.
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Topic: ASOF (Game Thread) Day 1-Jao is useful (Read 29993 times)