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[S34N1C]

Tell him the truth

[Murphy]

Remain silent.
Launching a long-winded explanation isn't something too in-character to do when you're heavily wounded and tired, and I reckon magical healing does not remove the "tired" part.

Maybe afterwards, if we have time.

[Liquefied Spleens]

Storytime!

I wasn't *gah* tortured. I was part of the bandits for a time.
Ambrosius is taking off your bandages, and applying his healing magic. It stings quite a bit, and the cool sting that seems to spread from your injuries to the rest of your body isn't exactly pleasant. Still, you feel much better that before.
After I brutalized the guy they had me duel over some grudge he kept. The kid that stabbed me during our first meet-OW!
The good doctor is using pliers to remove stuff from your wound. You didn't notice until the first yank. He waves it around a bit in front of you. A human tooth was embedded in your flesh, it seems.
Oh god, that's disgusting... Where was I? Oh yeah, so, I killed that idiot, and eh... well. I ate a chuck of him in the heat of the moment. That impressed the bandit leader so much he wanted me in his gang.
And you agreed?
I wanted to make sure the town was safe, so I made a deal that he'd leave the town alone if I go with him. And he prefers a lieutenant over whatever bits and pieces he could have scrounged in our village. I wasn't exactly happy, but I'm glad he kept to his promise.
Hmmm. A futile effort. Your village is kept in the poor district, as refugees. They aren't allowed to leave for a couple of weeks, to prevent hostage situations arising, or traps. Still, the houses being ok will please quite a few people.
Oh, wonderful. *gah* how many teeth are IN THERE? *mfff*
I'm up to seven. Continue the story, please. I won't interrupt anymore.
Right, right. So, I get there, and the bandit leader, Vvulf, makes a complete 180 in his personality. Went from *gah* boisterous to grim in a second. Then he marked me with some special paint, and gave me some revealing armor so everybody could see the paint... and my cleavage.

Ambrosius finally puts the pliers down, and gives you another dose of healing magic. A dull throbbing you stopped noticing is suddenly silenced. You sigh in relief, until you get a burning feeling in your lungs. You clutch the offending part, and cringe a little. Ambrosius quickly gets to work on it.
Anyway, after that, I started living in the camp. I made up a little posse, but not before saving somebody from burning at the stake. Under the guise that I was going to torture her. I had to look tough, you know.
Admirable of you. Now, hold on a minute, this next part is going to hurt!
You grab hold of a local table as Ambrosius grabs a thin, flexible rod of metal. Without warning, he jabs it into your side, piercing your broken rib! You kick in surprise, hitting a table with some force. Beakers and bottles rinkle, but nothing falls. The pain quickly subsides.
Owww... What was that!?
I'm not an osteomancer. I can't fix bones that well, so I need to set them right using some alternative magic. The rod i stuck in there will dissolve when the bone is properly re-attached. Continue?
Right, so I keep my "torture victim" inside my tent, while I spent most of my days training. Most of the group is dead now, except for one of the people outside, some nordic guy and a sneaky guy that's the son of the next person we get to. The cripple. She was massively powerful when it comes to magic, but it destroyed her body. She had her own group of people, and she awakened my own magic powers. But that's only after the ritual. Anyway, eventually we get to a raid.
What? The one of a day ago? No civilian casualties, but a whole regiment of guards was lost...
You begin blushing in pure shame. You continue telling the story, though you hold your face in one of your hands.
...yeah. Vvulf blew them up when they gathered around the church, where the escape route was. I helped a family escape, I think.
You think? You aren't sure?
At some point... The whole thing is hazy. I can't remember anything but a red fog. All I know is, later on I was vomiting up some meat, and I'm terrified I might know where it's from. I'm... not exactly proud of it. To be honest, I've been trying n-not think about it.
Tears are burning in your eyes as you tell your story. Ambrosius doesn't look angry, however. He seems compassionate enough. It gives you just enough courage to cry a little.

Then... came the ritual. On the way back to the bandit camp, Vvulf suddenly stood on some boxes and... Well. He sacrificed his entire, thousand-man strong force to the "Gestating God". That paint I was covered in? Turns out it marks you as special for that God. A lady that I got to know in the last day was also a lieutenant, and I saw her transform into some grotesque mockery of a spider. Her bones snapping through her arms, t-the skin just... flopping there and I couldn't do anything but just look as the fucking paint burned and I...
Hey, hey! Calm down... You're shaking.
You slam a fist on the nearby table as you grit your teeth in anger at yourself. Why does that still affect you like that!? You're a warrior, a strong girl! people look up to you and you're still crying about something that already happened!
... Look. I understand why you did what you did. I don't think you meant anybody harm at any point. If anything, you wanted to sacrifice yourself. You've been through some heavy things, as I can clearly see. Just take a deep breath, and tell me whatever you can. If I'm not mistaken, the nearby bandits... transformed, right? I don't need details about that.

He pushes your shoulder down, to make you sit on the floor. It hurts a little because of the burns, but you're just kind of... distraught. Panicky. Your heart feels like it's going to beat out of your chest and your lungs feel as though they've been filled with ash. You cough as you try to force down a sob.
Just... skip to after the ritual.
You take a couple more shakey breaths as Ambrosius gets to work on your dead leg. He actually cut it open, but you can't feel anything. the nerves must be completely shot.
W-well.We made it out because I'm resistant to wild magic. Driders have that ability, who knew? Yunikki, one of my companions, made it out because she reinforced her armor with my silk, and the other two because of their own little ways. There were some other survivors I didn't know, and all but one of them left. Then the crippled woman returned, and explained to me that I'm now marked. My lower back's been- AAAH, DAMN IT!
The feeling returns to your leg, and you REALLY wish it didn't. A feeling of a thousand needles is spread through-out the leg as you can move it again. Ambrosius has to hold the leg stead with his other arm while he heals up the rest. Eventually, it stops hurting, but it feels as if the limb's asleep. Ambrosius doesn't even skip a beat, and goes to one of his cabinets as you try to regain your composure.
Lie forward, if you please.I'm going to tend to your burns.
He is holding a massive snail! It's dripping with slime and stares at you with the laziest eye-stalks you ever saw. You decide to just accept it, and lie forward. The snail, and its slime, isn't cold. But somehow that makes it feel even worse. A shiver passes through you as it moves across your burns, slurping your skin along the way.
*guhhh* So, eh... The mark means that this ancient god is going to send things after me, now. And, of course, we decided to go after one of those abominations because it would only get stronger with time. I had to rest up, though, because I was already quite injured just from escaping the ritual.
Those would be the gashes I found... Continue, if you please?
Well. Once we got there, it was too late. There already was a massive monster there. Some weird-ass pillar of meat with a ton of mouths. It basically only went after me, so I let it chase me around for a while while the rest of the gang built a bonfire. Eventually, we tricked it into slamming into the fire, but it managed to grab me just before it died. My dad came in and killed it before it could do much else, and ghouls ate the corpse. Anyway, the nord I talked about and my dad barely saved my life, and got me into walking order. Then we walked here, I got stabbed, and then I started telling a longwinded story to a doctor!

The Snail's healing effect is honestly kind of wonderful, now that you're used to him. The roughness of your skin, along with the pain, seems to have melted away. However, you can still tell there's a mark visible on your lower back, it still feels a little rougher than the surrounding skin.
That was... quite the tale. You must be really tired, by now?
Oh yeah, and HUNGRY. I could eat a horse right now, hooves and all.
That makes sense. If you didn't have a spider for legs, you would have bled out, simple as that. You had just enough blood to go around... Anyway, I'm going to need 45 coins from you. If I was using my normal price, you'd be up at 60, but I appreciate you telling me all this. And besides, I wasn't exactly going to leave you like that.
You decide to just pay him the coins our of your own pocket. It leaves you with a measly 15 coins remaining, but after getting every last bit of pain removed from your body, it's hard to still care.
Also... While it isn't my area of expertise, I think you've been traumatized by whatever happened with the ritual. You should try and find some way to deal with that, or it'll end up eating you alive. Anyway, stay safe, Sydney... Try to relax in the city for a while.
You get ready to leave, putting on your shirt again. While you are still tired, and hungry besides, you should go do something.

Go with Sam and Yunikki to watch them pawning off the loot.
You are in need of cash, and it might be interesting to keep watch over what those two are doing. Of course, that would take you to the seedy underbelly of the city.

Follow your dad.
Your dad most likely has some further plans, perhaps even some food! Not to mention, you can catch up with him properly.

Questions about Ambrosius
Whatever is going on with Ambrosius has to be interesting. It would likely be rude to ask him that right now, so it's likely a better idea to ask one of his guards

Other
Remember that experimentation with your necromancy is not only always possible, but even encouraged!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Level: 4
HP: 18/20
Mana: 9/9
Stress:10/100
Equipment:
Old shirt

Items:
Around 15 coins

Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(1) (invests 1 of your max mana)
Reshape minion: Allows you to slightly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.

Skills:
Poison Stinger (Potentially lethal)
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: excellent
Corpse Cutting: Awful.

FORUM RUNNERS

[crazyabe]

Ask one of his Guards what happened to him, and if that conversation doesn't take too long or gets no Response Go with Sam and Yunikki to watch them pawning off the loot

[Murphy]

What happened to the amulets of faster healing and meditation that Sydney had found in the ruined church?

[Liquefied Spleens]

What happened to the amulets of faster healing and meditation that Sydney had found in the ruined church?

I forgot to add them in her inventory.
They're mostly placebos when it comes to strength, however, as most church items aren't mean to be expensive. The amulet of meditation has some legitimate magic in it, but meditation hasn't been attempted properly. It was mostly used as a bit of a temporary cure for your brain getting ready to explode.

Regardless, i'll start adding them retro-actively to the inventory. Because everybody makes mistakes.
Thank you for pointing it out, however.

[TankKit]

Gwolfski's late...

[Liquefied Spleens]

I did give him another day, however. He has thirteen hours remaining in my time-zone.

[Liquefied Spleens]

Sorry to doublepost, but I need to make two things clear.
I have my final exam tomorrow, and that's for early in the morning, meaning I can't spare the time to make an update (135 pages of borderline unreadable bullshit make me very tired).

Also of note is that I have received an update through my personal inbox from Gwolfski. Sadly, there was a misunderstanding, and he wrote too far. By which I mean he described the childhood, the traumatic event (which would have been the next event), and then the life as a bandit up to the raid. As such, I had to cut a lot from his story. It gives him the chance to work on the next part a little further, but as it stands there simply isn't enough time for me to see if he'll post it in the thread here. As such, I will post the part that he wrote in this update.

EDIT: Gwolfski has posted his update below. So  I have removed the older version and updated the feedback.

If I misunderstood something, I would like to apologize, but I simply don't have any more time.

I will add my personal feedback to the stories given in the next spoiler tag.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well now, aren't those some suitably tragic events to start off a story. Colour me impressed! I suppose a happy life doesn't really make a piece of work like you two.But, there was a point in time where everything when from terrible to downright shit. I do believe you know exactly what I'm talking about, isn't it?
Of course, as long as you're in limbo, whatever you wish to imagine will appear. So, Sir third-person-narrator, I'd like to point out that you've been doing this to yourself. I must say, while it is admirable that you continue a story while getting nibbled on by fragments of your own mortal thoughts, it is a little... distracting. Of course, I'm not one to talk... And as for you, Arak. You really have to extrapolate a little... Brevity is the soul of wit, but too much of it is still a bit of a problem...

Anyway, please continue. Perhaps you might give me a small tingle of excitement! What, exactly, traumatized you enough to turn to the life of a parasite?
Go on... LET'S HEAR IT!



OOC feedback:
Gwolfski improved much of his story now that he rewrote it a bit, which is a very good sign, but there are still a few troubles. One of which is that it is written in an almost telegram style. The sentences are mostly just descriptive, with almost no flair attached. I'd suggest putting in some fluff sentences, something to break up the monotony a little bit. Extrapolate about the relationships of the character. Do some exploring.

TankKit rather surprised me with the length and enthusiasm of his story. While the story of a lost childhood friend isn't groundbreaking, it does its job well enough and isn't cliched in any sense of the word. It comes together quite well. The story is also rather compelling, and it gives a good idea of where, how and when through showing instead of telling, which is a BIG plus.
 However, the lemony narrator is a little bit too distracting, and the looney toons-esque antics of said narrator give such tonal dissonance it gives me whiplash. Of course, it does give a unique style, but it should still mesh with the story. The occasional spot of humor is certainly good, a bit too much of it is distracting. The sarcastic commentary is where i'd suggest you keep the bits of humor, and not in physical comedy.
Still, this is YOUR thing, and YOUR style. So these are all just my personal opinions.

[Gwolfski]

Yeah so I messed up earlier

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Arak was a farmer lad. He lived on a farm with his mother and father. Ever since he was a young lad, he dreamt about knights and heroes. However, he was often brought back to earth by the chores he had to do. His father was an alcoholic, and often beat Arak. The only person Arak loved and was loved by was his mother. Arak often considered running away, but the thought of his mother held him back. To gain some respite from his father, he sometimes snuck out to an older family who lived on the other side of a forest by his own house. However, he couldn't do this during the winter months, as there was simply too much snow. So instead, he hid away in the attic, in the hope that his father would be too drunk to remember him. This lasted until one fatefull night...

So, good? bad?

[Liquefied Spleens]

You look to your left, and see that Dismas is dozing off against the wall. Once you come closer, his eyes turn to you. He looks you over, and nods to himself. Considering you're rather curious, you decide to ask him what kind of things are happening with Ambrosius. Dismas' expression is hard to properly grasp, considering he keeps hiding half his face behind a bandanna, but after a short moment of silence, he decides to tell you: He recently got a letter from some sort of far-off uncle. Our boss is now the owner of a old estate and some kind of hamlet. The thing is, the previous owner and the sender of that letter didn't exactly do a pristine job of keeping the family name clean. So now, Ambrosius is going to travel there, and fix whatever kind of troubles are happening...
To tell you the truth, the "problems" something beyond us, from what I could get. "Ancient, forbidden knowledge" is never a good thing to hear. Doesn't bother me, though. Ambrosius pays, I follow. Not like I've got much better to do.
Hm... So is he gathering up money to travel there?
Nah. He's got a carriage all ready. I guess he just needs some starting money to start fixing up these troubles. That, and I think he doesn't want much guests. You're lucky he knows you.
...I suppose I am. Well, best of luck to you.
You too...
He goes back to staring at a wall, crossing his arms and keeping one hand on his pistol. You just leave the building.

When you get outside, you see only your father. Sam and Yunikki aren't around, they must have gone ahead. Your father knows where they went, however, and you begin walking with your father to what looks like the poor district. The gate is already visible from where you're standing, and what lies inside isn't very welcoming. Ruined houses, and a lack of roads make it clear that this is the poor district. Looking at the road-signs, it seems like the official name of the poor district is the "Miracle Courts".
Your father quickly begins talking  as you walk. The housing isn't nearly as interesting as when you entered the town, as most of the windows are blocked off or even barred up. It gets worse when you enter the actual district. Most houses look as if they're held up with with some rope and the collective will of the fifteen people living in it. Many people laying down on the street, begging for money. Of course, you attract a lot of attention. Most people don't even try to hide their stares as you enter, some even swear in shock at seeing you. You really thought there were enough of your kind that it wouldn't be THAT special, but it seems like fate has other things in mind. Still, you appearance does have the advantage of warding off any would-be troublemakers.
Okay, stay close. I found the 100mags bar while I was forced to stay here... It's a bit confusing, so stay with me.

When you reach the center of the district, a massive open area that is utterly covered with filth, your father takes you to a small street that you wouldn't have noticed if he didn't point it out, and then takes you through a small maze of alleyways. You were forced to crawl on the wall and remain above your father, as the alleyways were simply too small for you to fit. Your father shimmied through sideways. It's a good thing that the houses are smaller at the top than below. Eventually, you reach a wider part, allowing you to stand on the ground (there's little trouble in sticking to walls, but your human half get's a bit of a core workout as you try to keep it straight). Your father knocks on the door, and a small latch opens up. Two beady little eyes poke through, and look you over. They bulge a little when they fall on you, but the door is unlocked after a small pause. You enter, and get a look at the doorman. He looks like a hybrid of a man and a boar, covered in black fur and having a nose-ring through his snout. He looks monstrously fat, but there's still a lot of muscle visible in his arms. He looks like he could condense you to a cube with his bare hands. He snorts as you walk by.

Finding Sam and Yunikki is easy enough. Yunikki is the only one here in heavy armor, and they seem to be in a heated discussion with a person dressed head to toe in brown and green rags. When you come closer, the figure stops in his raspy argumentation as to why this precious stone is CLEARLY only worth fifteen gold pieces to stare at you in bewilderment. You cross your arms in annoyance and sigh. You're getting pretty tired of getting stared at. Your legs tense up together, and you take to tapping sometimes
No, no. Don't mind me. I'm just checking to see how the pawning goes.
It's going fine... I'll be at this for a while longer, so how about you go keep yourself busy for a bit, eh?

Stick around anyways.
You're going to keep an eye on this stuff. It's for the best.

Find a table and order something.
It IS a bar, after all. You could use a drink.

Look around, find something interesting
Something random will happen. It's a busy place, after all.

Other

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Level: 4
HP: 18/20
Mana: 9/9
Stress:20/100
Equipment:
Old shirt

Items:
Around 15 coins

Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(1) (invests 1 of your max mana)
Reshape minion: Allows you to slightly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.

Skills:
Poison Stinger (Potentially lethal)
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: excellent
Corpse Cutting: Awful.

FORUM RUNNERS

[crazyabe]

Look around for somewhere out of the way, Possibly Animate a Small dead animal if you spot one, Mess with Mostly safe necromancy in general

[Murphy]

I sense a story arc ahead.
Maybe we could help Ambrosius out. Surely he's gotta be a better boss than Vvulf, and it sounds like he could use a few more people he can trust.

[TheBiggerFish]

I sense a story arc ahead.
Maybe we could help Ambrosius out. Surely he's gotta be a better boss than Vvulf, and it sounds like he could use a few more people he can trust.

[Murphy]

More specifically, I suggest speaking to father about that possibility. Preferably somewhere with fewer ears.