Lurker > MariaTaylor

And it was clear to see how that beauty and happiness had been passed on to the future generations. Their sons were handsome, their daughters were lovely young women. And below that were the grandchildren. They ranged in age from young adults all the way down to toddlers.

All of these people looked so fulfilled. Seeing this large, happy family made Owen realize exactly how much he had been missing that from his own life.

Somehow all he had earned was a painful divorce, and ended up alone. Somehow the only meaningful portrait he held was the one of his immediate family members conspiring to betray him. Why was life so different for Cain and why had it been so hard for him? Was Hendrake such a terrible place that no one there could ever be happy?

"These people got to live a life that we couldn't even dream of having," Owen concluded. "It's a shame that it was so cruelly ended, but if I could have that life... I'd almost trade it for-"

"Hey, hey," Kidd threw an arm around Owen, leaning on him more heavily than before. "Don't let me hear you say that you'd rather be dead. There's always somewhere to go as long as you stay alive."

"Plus, I need someone to help me walk," Kidd tacked on. "So do your best to keep moving forward."

"Yes." Owen left the room with the portrait, probably changed forever by what he had seen. Such a small moment that had left such a deep and dramatic impact on him. Just what the fuck had he been doing until now? Why was he okay with living such a pathetic life in a place that he hated? "I'll do it. Let's move forward."

Fakeru didn't know what the big deal was, anyway. It was just a portrait. It was a snapshot of a particularly happy moment that had been captured for people to look back on fondly. And even that memory might have been fake. Having spent her life as a servant to the nobility, she had seen many unhappy families that could still put on a fake smile for a portrait or a charity event.

Some of the doors had been sealed shut due to the high pressure of the water in the passages, mostly depending on how far long they were down the flooded corridor. Zephyr, once he began speaking openly again, revealed that he had gone to study the contents of the pool at the end. It sounded as if there was something of note hiding at the bottom of that water... but none among those here felt confident about diving into the water just to try and retrieve it.

Many of the remaining rooms were empty of anything valuable, but they did get more of a sense for how the mansion was constructed and how the people lived their lives here. It was almost as if they were uncovering more of a picture of what had happened here... both before and after the disaster. Maybe if knowledge was a treasure, that would have been satisfying enough.

Jamison also found a red jeweled brooch which had belonged to one of Cain's daughters from the portraits. Due to the resemblance to the family matriarch it was assumed that this was a blood related daughter to Cain rather than one who had married into the family.

As valuable as the brooch was, oddly enough, it was Kidd who took note of something even more alluring inside. The gemstone was smashed and they did their best to collect the jewel shards, which could still be worth something. Inside of the brooch, however, was an Alchemical Stone that housed transmutive and magical properties.

"How in the heck did you know that was in there?" Jamison had to inquire. Even as an inspector with a good eye for detail he never would have guessed such a thing. However, at the end of the day, he knew that some things just came down to experience.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

However, despite that logic, Owen got the sense that dumb monster wasn't -protecting- anything. It was a damn evil killer that had simply gone berserk with its desire to slaughter all humans. At the end of the day this seemed like the only explanation. Yet he couldn't deny that with two rooms turning up empty, if there was treasure here, it meant there were fewer doors to search before finding it.

Somehow, it had turned out, Owen was forced to remain near the door space as they prepared to open it and search inside. Their formation had turned out this way because Kidd and Jamison were both better at using guns to support from behind. With Zephyr being fairly demoralized at the moment, the ferret had wandered to the end of the passage and was quietly watching the others. He hadn't said much since the battle.

And what about Fakeru? What was she doing?

She felt like she was just watching it all. In the same way that she couldn't replace the role of Tenna, to accomplish the major goal of this quest, nor could she replace the role of Punch or even Matsuda, to protect the people here while they were still alive. What the hell could she even do...? Why was she here...?

"I despise this..." Owen muttered to himself, lamenting the fact that he had somehow been chosen for the front line duty. With his axe in hand he threw the door open, using his foot to help forcefully push it. Then he stumbled in through the portal as if expecting to be jumped upon by a horde of monsters.

All he found were the corpses of giant birds, carrion creatures that had gotten locked away in the room somehow and perished. Either from starvation or hypothermia, after the corridors flooded. Beyond that was ruined furniture and a portrait hanging on the far wall. Owen walked forward to examine the portrait.

"Odd creatures," Jamison noted as he came in behind Owen to look at the birds. "They have large bodies, likely incapable of true flight. And they are so wide and flat. I've never seen birds with this body type before. Nor anything this large."

"Gotta imagine it could do some serious damage even to a human," Kidd noted.

"Eh... Maybe." Jamison wasn't so sure. "Birds generally have the advantage if they can invoke a diving attack while flying. Big, heavy, grounded birds like this seem like they won't be able to truly pose any threat to a human as long as it doesn't take us by surprise."

"Well, at least we know they exist," Kidd noted. "We'll keep our eyes open. And-... Hey, where's the little guy?"

Zephyr appeared in the doorway, sulking.

"Zeph, make sure you keep your eyes open for these kinds of monsters. Since you're small, they might be more dangerous for you," Kidd told him. He was hoping for some kind of response but all he got was a sad nod.

"A family portrait. I'm almost jealous," Owen said. While the others were speaking he had been taking in the details of the picture hanging on the wall before him. There was a forlorn smile on his face. Almost as if he was happy for Cain despite all that he had said.

"Yeah, his wife was quite the looker. Even for a woman of that age," Kidd noted.

"It's not just that." Owen's eyes scanned the contents of the picture. Cain was getting older but he still looked so happy, so full of life. Unlike Owen, who had been crushed, Cain seemed as if he had been able to enjoy himself all the way until the end. Or, at least, until this portrait was taken. His wife wasn't much younger and, despite her age, she was still quite a beauty.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

The contents of that shelf contained some glass jars which had once contained various sundries, as well as a few books. The books had been destroyed from sitting in the water for so long. The jars had all shattered on impact when the shelf fell over, except for one.

Jamison squatted down in the water, not wanting to get the knees of his trousers wet by kneeling, and grabbed the last remaining jar. Inside of there was a preserved Honeyflower. Someone must have picked it and then sealed it away in this jar to keep it like this forever. To be honest, Jamison thought, the flower was likely long dead. All that remained was this stiff illusion created by killing the flower. And if he shook the jar or tried to open it... that illusion would turn to dust, as there'd no longer be anything to help keep the flower together.

Still, even though it was just a farce, he liked looking at it. Jamison kept the jar, sliding it into the outer pocket of his long coat, and led Fakeru back out of the room to rejoin with the others. They had already searched the room which he had used to take cover, and were considering whether it would be worth the effort to give this place a full search or if they should retreat right away.

As Fakeru emerged she saw the remains of the battle in full force. It was something she could only imagine while she was laying face down in the water, hearing the sounds of the last moments of combat behind her, after diving into the adjacent room for safety. Now that she saw Matsuda's mangled body, Punch's remains floating in the water, and the fallen husk of the giant beast... her heart sunk ever so slightly. What would be waiting behind the next door? Was it worth it?

Gunslinger Kidd was against the opposite wall, his legs slightly bent, using the wall for support as he was now having trouble standing. In addition to his mangled hand, he had also been hit the first time that beast was charging. Owen had helped him wrap numerous bandages around his torso and even inserted some flattened wood splints for support... but... at the end of the day Kidd was so battered it was hard to believe he was even still conscious.

"We paid a hefty price to come this far," Kidd muttered in a voice that was riddled with pain. It gave his words a sickening, heavy rasp to them. It was an intensity and a weight that made his opinion hard to ignore. Somehow the fact that he was pushing on despite being in so much pain meant that he came across as more assertive. "I think we should at least find out what it was guarding before we go home."

Owen crossed his arms, glancing to the end of the hall and then back the way he came from. "It seems the other two rooms were empty. Is it really worth the risk?" He shook his head, looking quite fearful in that moment. "Right now I don't think we have the firepower needed to win again if we uncover something like... that."

All of their eyes went to the husk of that terrible beast.

A creature beyond belief.

Then, as the moment of tension and silence wavered, Fakeru found herself emboldened by Kidd's spirit. Or, perhaps, there was some small part of her that just wanted to die and get this over with. It was hard to say how she really felt in that moment because she was still so emotionally numb. "I think Matsuda would have wanted to gamble on it. You know, the fact that there must be something worth finding behind one of those other doors."

Kidd put his hand on Owen's shoulder and leaned on the smaller man for support. "Believe me, guy, Punch wouldn't have wanted to turn back either. Now let's respect their memory by finding out what the hell that beast was protecting so ferociously."
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Tenna Marigold was probably the smartest, most beautiful person that Fakeru knew. At least from Fah's point of view she had always been looking up to the older girl. It was hard not to listen to everything that she had to say, and try to emulate it, or act like she really understood that way of thinking. Even though it was hard for someone so young to understand such large woes of the world.

And yet, Tenna Marigold herself was the special kind of person who really did. She had always been wise beyond her years, with a view on the large picture of society and how sick it had grown.

Tenna, especially, hated the Lord. And, on some level, she hated her parents as well. She was a kind and a sweet girl but there was a darkness and guilt and anger inside of her that was only shown when the curtain was drawn completely and no one was around but her most loyal handmaiden. "The system is completely rotten to begin with. Half of that money doesn't even end up where it's supposed to go. The whole thing is just a scam for the ruling class to benefit from the increased taxes. And as long as they never fix things in the city, they can keep making excuses for why the taxes need to be so high."

"But, I think..." This was the first time that Tenna Marigold had said it. But it had been largely influential on her further endeavors. It was the entire reason why she had ended up here, and why she had come to this shitty place just to die. "I think once I gain enough power, enough influence, I'm going to destroy the system."

Tenna Marigold would never get that chance.

Fakeru was crying now. That felt much better. A dead emotionless husk, laying there in the water after nearly being killed, with no reaction, was a terrible feeling. At least now she had made herself cry. Now she could force herself back to her feet.

Tenna should definitely still be alive right now. She would have seen this quest through to the end. Tenna would have accomplished something great at the end of it all, using the riches and the fame they had gained. Yet, somehow, she was gone now, and Fakeru had been left behind by herself.

And she wasn't a teenager anymore but Fakeru felt like she didn't fully understand everything still. It didn't seem like she was the right person to finish this quest. It never felt like anyone would listen to her even if she was the one to come back alive. Fakeru wasn't someone who could destroy the system. They had lost their chance. No, it wasn't just that. Her best friend had died.

"Hey." Jamison spoke in a gentle voice as he put a hand on Fakeru's shoulder. Still, she had been so lost in thought, that she flinched in that instant. Jamison pulled his hand away. "Oh... I-... I'm sorry. I just wanted to check. Um, to see, if you were alright."

Fakeru turned and put her back against the wall. She leaned heavily into it, using the wall as support. The back of her hand was in front of her eyes now. To hide the tears and to wipe them away. "Yes. I think I'll be fine." She had been raised as a kind and sweet girl, with a gentle demeanor which allowed her to remain passive in all situations. Yet, just like Tenna, there was something else inside of her. This was still the same girl who had been breaking floorboards when she was six years old, and she didn't cry when they pulled the splinters out of her fingers. "Thankfully there was nothing lurking in this room."

"Y-Yes. That's for the best." Jamison glanced around the small chamber, examining the contents of it. Unfortunately the ornate rug on the floor had been completely destroyed by water damage and was curled up into a soggy mess. The bottom of the nearby shelf had been rotted away, causing the top half to break and fall forward.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Entry 15: Under My Fingernails

Fakeru was laying on her side in a darkened room. She had fallen into a puddle but that was the worst of it. There were those who hadn't survived. Maybe in this kind of situation she was lucky to even be alive. Her dress was soaked. Her hair was wet. Somehow she felt nothing.

A person in this situation would normally panic, or become hysteric. She had just nearly died, hadn't she? So why wasn't she screaming or crying? Why hadn't her breathing increased to a rapid pace so intense that her chest was going to burst? It was more like the encounter had made her feel completely dead inside. Her body might have survived but her spirit felt weak.

This wasn't the first time Fakeru had been so low to the ground.

As a child, Fah and her parents had moved across the Wide Ocean on a small ship that had barely been suited to make the journey. Her father had perished due to lack of nourishment on the voyage, and he wasn't the only one. Almost thirty percent of the passengers had died on the voyage. When Fakeru and her mother arrived in Hendrake, having spent their fortune just to afford their place on the ship, and now having lost their precious immediate family, they were all alone with nothing to do.

At that time Hendrake was in a period of 'Blossoming.' It had always been a medium to large sized city, but things like crime and poverty had long been stain on the perception of Hendrake. It wasn't ever going to be considered a respectable major city unless the local Lord was able to clean that perception away. Unfortunately, as more effort and resources were poured into expanding the city, the public services which were already stretched thin began to collapse under the strain.

It was like the Lord had missed the point entirely.

Rather than fixing things and looking after the people he had simply poured more money into the problem and expanded the number of people he already wasn't taking care of. Fakeru and her mother were in that group. People who had come from across the Wide Ocean looking for a new life of opportunity, only to find this was a land without much opportunity at all. Her mother ended up taking a job peeling floor tiles and wood from the base of buildings that were being torn down or reconstructed.

Fakeru remembered those times as well. To her it had been a game, to come to work with her mother, and to help play at picking apart the floor boards. It might have been hard work, and she could remember the pain beneath her fingernails, and it was hard when she got splinters, too. At the same time her father had just died and she was too young to really understand the world. To her, this wasn't 'Child Labor.' This was just a chance for a girl, all alone in the world, to spend more time with her mother.

"Why is this young girl peeling floor tiles?" An angelic voice had arose from somewhere at the border of her perception. It was the voice of a young girl, not much older than her, but one who had lived a far different life. "She is far too cute to be doing the work of a laborer..."

This is when Fakeru entered the service of Lady Marigold.

Maybe it was wrong to enjoy it, to trade one life of service for another, but to her this job was much better than the last. She had already grown tired of the pain beneath her fingernails. Serving tea and brushing hair and helping Tenna get dressed was a much easier job. Only, it was Lady Marigold when her father and the others were around. She had to remember to say Lady or she would be punished.

"It's just like that, Fah. It's always been like that. No matter how much money we throw at the problem that's not going to fix it." Tenna was always talking about these sorts of things. Even though she was only a few years older, when they were teenagers those few years seemed to make a world of difference.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

ColZach posted...

Guys I have a good solution

Click on ultis name

Click ignore

Voila youre one more liar free on gamefaqs

seems like reasonable advice

'this person did something somewhat amusing

'IGNORE THEM!!!'
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

UltimaterializerX posted...

What percentage would you give it? I'd go as high as 15% or so.

I always said somewhere between 20% and around 33% when I was analyzing my arena stats. depending on the era. never really thought about it while playing constructed but intuitively it feels like a bit less than either of those. most of the time when I queue into ladder it feels like the deck my opponent is playing is the most important factor in at least 4/5 matches. that means 20% would be the absolute maximum if there was no draw RNG or anything else involved. and that's before you even get into cards that create new cards from outside of your deck. 10% would be my guess based on all of that information.

haven't really tracked the stats enough to say that confidently though, but that's my raw estimate.

davidponte posted...

This is the most heel post Ulti has ever made in his time on B8.

We've spent over a year at this point arguing with him about skill being a factor, and he never budged until now, on his own, without any real resistance.

Fantastic post. This was the ultimate long con.

lol yeah somewhat amusing that he literally refused to accept it when I would always say 'RNG is way too large of a factor, but it's obvious there is at least some skill involved' and now suddenly it's like he achieved this divine truth on his own. but whatever.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

alright not gonna promise anything but I do plan to be up for the next few hours and if I get anything complete and written I'll go ahead and post it! would like to have at least one more update this week.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

some IRL stuff has come up. not sure yet exactly how busy I'll be the next few days but in the worst case scenario we may not see an update till sunday or even monday. just keep the topic bumped, I guess.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

14. Deep Slug Rescue
() A. Valter and Mona
(111111) B. Goetic and Gray
(1111111111) C. Save your damn selves, Maria and Cata!
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

FakeAccount3000 posted...

Ah, so it's not actually a story to see if we can live then. There was no way he was getting through this alive. There are some planned story beats and sometimes a death is one of them.

the best way to put it is that some characters are definitely going to die, based on the outline I come up with them at the start. MOST characters have some chance of surviving, based on where the story takes them, but sometimes there can be a ripple effect where a direct choice doesn't kill them as much as a choice that was made 10 chapters ago. for example when we made the squads. it's entirely possible I decided ahead of time "Everyone in Squad Q will die over their next few chapters" and so we get a situation where the choices only determine which order they are going down and how quickly it escalates to a bad end. not saying that did or didn't happen here, but that line of logic is possible and I've done it in the past. in a case like that the "choice" of putting characters 2, 4, 5, and 7 into Squad Q already decided their deaths.

Lastly, there are NO CHARACTERS who I decided ahead of time that they "definitely will" survive. meaning there is a chance for every single character to die before the end.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

in this specific case I had been intentionally cultivating the feeling that Dismas should have seemed to be invulnerable, highly capable and probably in the back of the readers mind they felt like he had some kind of plot armor or even a bit of author favoritism. for me it's very fun to build up those expectations only to completely flip them on their head. it's not really a guarantee that Dismas was going to die here or in this way but I've pretty much known all along that I was going to use his death as a set piece at some point in the story. it was only a matter of when it was going to happen.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

so this isn't really like D&D where I design a dungeon ahead of time and then the players make specific decisions or moves to try and "beat" the game. it's more like an improv theater course where I know the general beats of the story and I adapt based on the prompts I am given by the players.

what I mean by that is: if you guys had voted for something else (like looking for treasure) you likely would have seen a different dungeon layout where the group could have found some treasure and then potentially faced some kind of different enemy while trying to escape.

it's not really a given that the group always walks down this exact same passage with the exploding body horror slug at the end and finds no treasure along the way. I'm constantly adapting the story based on the prompts I'm given.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

14. Deep Slug Rescue
(1) A. Valter and Mona
(1111111) B. Goetic and Gray
(111111) C. Save your damn selves, Maria and Cata!

looks like shin megami tensei is winning right now
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

someone sent me a friend request yesterday and I ignored it
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

https://imgur.com/VgSeVOC

NOTHING MORE

NOTHING LESS
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

She tried to peek her head above the table to get a glance around the room, but her gaze instinctively went to the monster before it could go to Cata. And she saw that it was staring at her. She ducked her head back down just in time to avoid having a ball of that acidic goop strike her clean in the face. Instead, Maria slumped down and then rolled to the side as the slug's saliva burned the top of the table on that side and began melting through it.

Why hadn't she kept the crossbow? Now that was underneath Dismas corpse. There wasn't any weapon she had on her right now, not really. Some of the ingredients that had gathered from the lab. What... what was she supposed to do? Maria felt her entire body shivering as she was locked in place. Was there anything in there that could work, that could kill this thing, that could even hurt it...?

"Are you still alive?" Cata called out. Perhaps to her, or to no one in particular. His back was against the wall. His sword was drawn. The walls to either side of him had been torn to pieces. A green liquid was flowing freely from the barrel beside him, where it had been punched through with multiple holes. Cata's entire body was shaking too. He couldn't even hold his weapon straight.

But he had found the strength to speak.

"I'm.... I'm...." Maria's voice was weak and lacked all confidence.

But that didn't matter to Cata. He knew that she was still alive and that meant he wasn't alone in this death trap. He looked at the monster and then looked to the table. Was there a way to save her, still? What about himself? Or were they both doomed to death? To be honest, Cata wasn't the best at figuring that kind of stuff out.

And, at the end of the day, he was definitely scared. There were times when he got so scared that he almost couldn't force himself to act. Multiple times now in the last few days he'd been in situations where his courage had been tested and he hadn't always been proud of himself in the end. However... now that he was here, with his back against the wall, there was nowhere else to go.

Cata Spade knew that if he did nothing he would definitely die.

He just needed to make sure Maria understood that, too.

"As long as we're both here," Cata said, honoring the words of the recently departed Dismas, "Let's look after each other." He tried to sound confident but he had no clue how he was going to do that. And, without seeing her face, he didn't know if his words had given her any courage or not. All he could do was imagine that there was still some chance for them to survive.

[End]

14. How will these wacky characters get out of this pickle?
A. Valter and Mona will purge all evil with the power of Love!
B. "Bright Eyes" Goetic calls upon his wicked cool pal, Gray!
C. Maria and Cata will have to escape on their own...
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Three of the bone shards fired outward into the room around them. One slashed right through the wooden barrel Cata was standing right beside. The other one hit the ground between Maria's legs. The third one fired in a direction that wasn't near to either of them. And, aside from those three, there were two additional bone shards that fired right up at Dismas and struck him in the face as he swung his hang upward.

Maria's eyes widened and she let out a gasp. It was the first time Dismas had seen her make any reaction to anything. He wondered how horrifying he might look right now. As he was locking eyes with her, he realized that there was nothing she could do to save him now. And, if their positions were reversed, he doubted he would've risked his neck to save her either.

It was fine. This was a fitting end for someone like him.

"Ggggkk! It hurts!!! It hurts so-!!!!" Dismas was unable to finish the rest of that sentence, at least not vocally. One of those shards had hit him in the neck. And, as that happened, his throat began to swell up to the point where his air passage was blocked and he couldn't speak anymore.

Maria was watching in horror as his lips began to swell from the other infection but then as his head grew in size she realized it was about to burst. Maria let out a panicked shriek for the first time since arriving on Cain's lands.

It was all Maria could do to take a step forward the overturned table and then roll over it. She grabbed the far end of the table as she made her way across it, to hold it steady due to the missing leg, but also to pull the table down once she was safely on the other side. As she did that, the table flipped. It was impossible for her to fully control it or fully predict what it would do.

The table ended up slanted in the moment when Dismas head exploded.

A shower of those bony shards fired in every direction away from him, launching those infecting spurs into the room at multiple angles. One of them punched a hole right through the overturned table, blasting right past Maria and missing her by only an inch. It seemed her idea of using cover hadn't made a difference but she had gotten lucky in that moment.

Where was Cata? Was he alive? Dismas definitely wasn't. Glancing through the hole she could see his mutilated corpse there on the ground, the entire top part of his head missing, a pulpy mess with flesh and blood streaming out of the side of his neck. Oddly enough the spurs didn't seem to be reacting with his corpse. Nor were they doing anything to the wood from the table or the stone.

Organic matter. Rather, beyond that, it seemed they needed to hit living flesh in order to trigger a chain reaction. It meant if she got hit one time she'd be pretty much guaranteed to die. And, if Cata had gotten hit, it meant another explosion was coming in just a few seconds. Would it be smart to run for the door? Did she have time to run for the door?

Did it even matter what she did at all?

Maria felt her chest rising and falling, swelling with panic. Her lungs seemed too big to fit inside of her chest. They were burning with pain as they crushed her ribs from the inside. Her pupils wouldn't stop shaking and she couldn't see straight. Was this panic? Was this what it felt like to panic?

There was absolutely no control over this situation. Too many things that she couldn't account for. It seemed like in the next six seconds she was going to live or die and she'd have no way to affect the outcome. It was all a matter of whether those spurs would hit her by random chance or not.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"Oh, you needn't worry about me," Maria said. She strode into the room cautiously while also keeping a keen eye on her surroundings. She ended up between Dismas and the overturned table. Then, in her paranoia, she even stopped to peek behind the table and make sure nothing was hiding back there. "I'm an absolute master at hanging back and observing things from the sidelines."

Cata drew his blade from the enemy which had finally finished dying. He wiped the blade, attempting to clean it, as he looked back at the other two. "You should be a bit more careful, though. Not every foe is going to allow you to do that."

"Yeah, and don't expect me to babysit you," Dismas said in a grumpy tone.

"Oh, Dismas, don't be like that," Cata said. "You've watched my back every time. I know if she were in trouble, you'd go to her aide as well."

Dismas looked down at his feet, thinking about his nature as a person. Why was it like that? It must have been a practical thing. Nothing more, nothing less. In the end it would give him better odds to survival if he kept his companions alive. He definitely wasn't the kind of idiot who would risk his own ass just to save people for sentimental reasons. "Yeah, I guess. As long as we're all here together we should all look after each other."

"And," Dismas hesitated. He didn't really like revealing to others that he had a soft side at all. "Of course that means I'll look after both of you."

At that time there was a silent but significant drippy drop from the ceiling, which dripped and dropped from above. The space where that creature was perched, that salty and puffy bodied dripper, began to drop something that would completely destroy the current atmosphere in the room. If only they had known how significant one drop of that dripping substance could be. Perhaps this moment proved that ignorance itself was the greatest danger that could possibly exist.

Dismas looked down at his hand. "Oh. Something wet."

Then there was a hissing sound as his flesh began to burn and sizzle. His eyes went wide with shock, but also with pain, as moisture began to form in the corners of his eye sockets. Then freely streaming tears began to run from his face as he hissed in extreme agony. "GG---Ahhh!"

Dismas dropped the knife he had been holding and stumbled. First toward Maria, causing her to back away cautiously, and then away from her. His free hand went to the one that was burning, clutching at it, trying to stop the pain but unable to think clearly. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know if there was anything he -COULD- do. "Maria, help me!" he pleaded.

However, at that time, Maria had a completely flat and distant expression on her face. She wasn't empathizing with him, she wasn't worried about him. At that time she was entirely an observer. There was a chance, she thought, that she might try to save Dismas if she could. But before all of that, Maria took a step away from him and looked up at the ceiling above him.

There was a twisted and fleshy body of some kind of giant slug. It was hanging down off the stone above, now, looking like it might release its grip and drop down below. If that thing fell on top of Dismas it'd be bad. But if it fell on Maria when she was moving that way it'd be even worse for her. The only way to guarantee her safety was to stay back for now.

"GG----AHHH! FUCK!" Dismas hand suddenly swelled and then exploded. As it did a strange purple and green goop erupted from the stump of his hand. And inside of that soupy, pulpy mixture were small fragments of bone. Attached to those fragments of bone were strange little hooks that almost looked like they were alive. The hooks writhed and slashed like shrapnel as they fired out from the infected hand in every direction. "S-Someone help! Someone get it-... Offa-!!!"
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Like all real fights this was going to be messy and bloody, and it would likely end in three or less attacks. And that enemy was launching the third stroke right now. That meant odds were in favor of him dying within the next few moments. Or, if not, he'd somehow manage to turn the odds in his favor and kill the enemy before it killed him. As for what he was about to attempt; Cata would be forced to try and hit a fast moving object with his weapon perfectly with enough angle and force to redirect the attack away from himself.

His blade rung quietly as the enemy claws caught on it and, as was the nature of this technique, the sabre was actually somewhat damaged in the process. He felt a jarring strength in his arm as the impact from the blow caused a heavy strain on his shoulder. And, as Cata ripped the sword to the side, he realized he had failed to execute the move perfectly.

The claw of the enemy slashed diagonally across the space between the two, and the pointed ends of those blades dug into his shoulder on the way by. His sword, in that moment, was knocked out of his hands because of the failed parry and went sliding across the ground.

That was, in essence, the third strike which had ended the encounter. In any normal situation the disarmed Cata Spade was as good as dead. He had two options now. If he attempted a grapple there was a small chance that he might be able to fight the attacker off. However, more likely than not, injured and without a weapon, the enemy would overpower him and kill him. The other option was to dive after his weapon and get stabbed in the back about 99 out of 100 times.

The only thing Cata Spade knew was that this wasn't a duel.

At the end of the day he was in a living and breathing world with many moving variables. And that 99 out of 100 times was not really an absolute in his case. So he dove in the direction of the blade even as it spun across the ground.

As Cata did that, the enemy turned and lunged at him.

And, as the enemy made that movement, he extended his arm and left himself exposed to a critical strike. Dismas stepped into the space between the two and drove his knife in under the armpit of the foe. Dismas wasn't exceptionally strong but he was strong enough to force the enemy back and cause him to fail that strike against Cata's exposed back.

Cata did a diving fall, using his arms to slide forward, then grabbed his weapon and flipped his momentum as he skidded against the rocky ground. He could feel the angled stone digging into his stomach, creating small cuts and bruises on the way by. But, as his body spun, he was able to leap back to his feet with his weapon in hand and throw himself back at the enemy.

Dismas took a step backward, ducking the return swipe of the enemy. And, at the same instant, Cata's quick response time and absolute control over his body at allowed him to launch another thrusting attack at the foe. This time it was the enemy that was off balance. It didn't have the intelligence or the skill needed to even attempt a parry. So, instead, Cata's blade ended up stuck in its neck.

He put his other hand on the pommel of the blade and pushed, charging the enemy and forcing him all the way back against the far wall. Cata held the enemy, pinning him there, and waited for the foe to stop twitching.

While he was doing that Dismas lowered his knife and quickly examined the room. It was unlikely there were more of these large monsters hiding in here but it never hurt to be too cautious. 'Whew. That was another close one," Dismas said. "Oi, Maria, are you alright?"
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"Just don't go anywhere too dangerous," Goetic warned them. Though it was a half-enthused remark which he seemed to speak while paying more attention to the door in front of him than the people behind him.

Abom squatted down beside Goetic and began to think about the best way to work the door from this angle below. With enough force they should be able to push it up and reveal whatever was behind. Some kind of lever would help but it would absolutely require a bit of time and effort to unmask the mystery behind that door.

And, at the end, he had a feeling he would see something that would answer a lot of questions.

"How are we supposed to know if it's dangerous before we go there?" Cata muttered to himself. But, not having much to do about it, he simply followed Dismas and Maria as they led him down the winding circular path into the next lowest chamber.

From here, Cata and the others found a forked split that led into two separate areas. One of them contained a cache of unhatched eggs, similar to the ones found above. The other was a more open room which had been originally used as a miner's camp but had fallen out of use over the last year for obvious reasons.

There was a rectangular table with one broken leg, leaning in an uneven manner, on the right hand side of the room. Though not quite against the wall now, it looked like it had been dragged out of its original position. Against the back wall were two large barrels which might have contained anything but could also be empty by this time. It was hard to say without checking directly.

And, in the center of the room, a fishy monster was waiting for the group. This one hadn't managed to sneak up on the party, nor had they managed to sneak up on him. Instead, the monster was simply watching them with a curious and silent gaze. Both sides completely locked into not moving. Because both sides knew that as soon as one person moved the entire room would erupt into chaos, and then the battle would begin.

The monster then took a step forward and bared its long claws. Thankfully, its eyes flashed a dim and weak color, almost signalling that it didn't have the strength to fire any fully powered beams of light at the group.

Cata advanced forward with his sabre at the ready, a look on his face similar to 'okay, fine, I'll do it.' However, when he met the enemy, he found it was a bit more limber than he might have expected. Despite its body being a bit more thin than the others, looking tired and weak and possibly starved, the enemy still fought back with a ferocity that he hadn't expected.

The two exchanged slashes and Cata was forced back without dealing any damage, just to avoid being damaged in return. As he stumbled across the room he tried to correct his footing. It was all he could do to plant his back foot firmly and avoid falling over from the unbalanced way in which he'd been forced to retreat, all because he had advanced without expecting the enemy to be fully ready.

And, at that time, Cata knew he'd have to keep a steady balance. He couldn't rely on evasion against the second stroke of the enemy. If he tried to do that he'd probably have to tumble to the ground to get away, and the enemy might come at him while he was on the ground. Instead, he had to bring his blade forward and attempt to parry the incoming attack.

Cata's eyes narrowed and he maintained an intense focus beyond that which he normally experienced. This was, after all, a life and death moment. The parry was not an easy technique to pull off, definitely not as simple as it was often portrayed in stage plays or in novels which often espoused the virtue of knights and duelists.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Maria stood back up, then glanced toward the direction they had come from. Some gears seemed to be turning in her brain. "This could explain why the eggs hadn't hatched yet. Maybe they aren't hatching... or, rather... maybe the eggs are meant to lie dormant until a new food source arrives. Until then, we're dealing with the last survivors of a starving population that has been driven mad with hunger."

"You can figure all that out just from looking at this?" Cata inquired. He seemed a bit skeptical, but also like he was willing to believe it as long as she asserted that it was the truth.

"Well, it's just a theory." Maria gave a shrug and went toward the exit to this chamber. "Shall we continue?"

As the outer passage looped around the great cavern in the center, they eventually reached the next lowest level of the underground labyrinth. From here they came across a rather odd sight. It was something they couldn't see above from the darkness but which caught their attention as soon as it came into view.

Here, far below the mansion, as a smooth stone wall carved into the side of the rock face. And, in the midst of that, was a perfectly functioning stone door. The vertically scrolling portal had been built into the man made structure. That was of course assuming that humans had made this structure at all. It was entirely possible something else had put it beneath the earth before the original ancestor of Cain ever moved to these lands and built his estate.

Goetic was the first to go to the structure and examine it, placing his hand on the door and running that hand along the length of it. The Abnormal seemed to be highly interested in what they had found down here. "Now this is quite a wonder. I simply must know what is inside!"

"Doesn't look like it'll be too easy to get in." Dismas walked up behind Goetic and tilted his head. Examining the way the door was structured it didn't look like there was a way to open it normally. They'd have to either find some kind of mechanism to force the door open with brute strength.

"Just what do you think could have built a structure like this so deep underground?" Goetic inquired, looking to the others, but, most especially to Maria.

"There's nothing in the journals about this," Maria replied. She gave a thoughtful expression but didn't say much in the way of a concrete explanation. "We could come up with a hundred guesses and each one would be as valid until we found some real evidence."

'But I know,' Mona told Valter, as he was watching the others quietly from the back of the group, the place where he had naturally fallen to. 'I know, I know... oh ho ho.... nihihi....'

It was unclear if she actually knew or if she was just trying to put dark thoughts into his head.

"We can... force our way in," Abom said suddenly, stepping forward. "I'll help dig it up from the bottom."

Goetic slid down to the ground, planting himself on his butt, and putting his feet against the door. From here he could reach forward and touch the bottom of the door frame. He looked back up at Abom and smiled up at him. "That's more like it. So you're curious too, aren't you?"

Abom, however, was looking down at the Abnormal with more than a bit of apprehension. He'd been trying not to think about it but the thought just wouldn't go away. At that time he could feel Mona's hand on his shoulder, and her warm breath against his ear. He couldn't make out her exact words but he knew what she was saying.

"We'll I've had enough damn digging for one day," Dismas said. "Why don't the rest of us go look around while you two focus on that?"
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"I know. It sounds foolish," Cata grumbled. "You don't have to keep reminding me."

"It doesn't just -sound- foolish, it -is- foolish," Dismas stressed.

"Be that as it may, there is some logic to it," Goetic cut in, trying to bridge the gap between the two. "We're going into a dangerous place where there will surely be fiends around every corner. Why not try to cull their numbers before we go too deep into the labyrinth?"

Maria held up the monster manual. "Plus the book here says that these fish monsters do lay eggs. We'll be doing a public service by getting rid of those."

Dismas grabbed the front rim of his hat, pulling it down in frustration. He made an exasperated face and then turned away from his companions. "Since when the hell did I get in the business of doing public service?" He marched off down the long and uneven corridor, cut haphazardly into the stone. He'd always been the kind of guy who looked out for himself and no one else. He was a selfish rogue. Nothing more, nothing less. "Come on already," he cried out to the others. "I said I'd do it so let's go!"

The passage from the ready room down to the lower tunnels was crooked, but eventually led to a series of open caverns that were each connected to each other by natural paths. The crooks and crannies housed within each allowed space for the mining operation to set up camp sites, but none of those were still functioning. And, in the last year or so, the monsters had begun to make use of these niches as their own little resting and nesting areas.

The first large open cavern had a bottom so low that they couldn't make it out through the dark, and a winding passage that wrapped around the outer rim of the high shelf. The first notable open cave attached to the outer side of this was one where a series of egg pods were found. Without hesitation, the group went to work burning and smashing those. The creatures within would never hatch to wreak havoc upon the world.

"Well, technically, if you want to look at it this way," Cata went on, "we are carrying out the terms of Cain's will. That means if we finish cleaning up this place we'll be entitled to the Lordship."

Despite that this was meant to make Dismas feel better, he still had a sour look on his face. "Do I look like I want to be the Lord of some crummy run down keep that was infested by monsters and Elder Gods and cultists and... who the hell knows what else?"

Abom stopped to examine his surroundings. Yes, this place was bad. It was a dark place. It wasn't a place he would want to call home. He knew that his Mona would never be happy in a place like this, and so it was a place that he couldn't stay.

Not further down from here they found a large open pit where the corpses of humans from above had been dragged down. They had each been feasted upon before being tossed down into the pit. Oddly enough, there were a number of fishlike corpses that had found their way down here as well. Some of them had crawled into the chamber only to curl up and die. Others were down in the piles of bodies, looking as if they had been feasted upon as well.

"Hungry bastards must've started eating their own," Dismas noted. "Heh."

"I've read theory that monster populations can't sustain their numbers over long periods," Maria said. She knelt down at the edge of the ditch, seemingly not bothered too much by the smell, and observed. With only a small cloth retrieved from her pocket she covered her nose and was examining the gore beneath her. "Invasive species that appear from nowhere, kill and eat the native populations, and disrupt the natural ecosystem. Eventually there's no more biomaterial left in the food chain and everything breaks down leading to... this."
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Entry 14: Nothing More, Nothing Less

'Nihihihi... You have found yourself some odd companions this time, haven't you, Valter?'

Valter kept his eyes ahead, focused only on what was in front of him. She had returned to him, again, as she always did. He heard her voice. He felt her presence. And he knew that if he saw her... his heart would stir again as it always did.

'Reliable. Easygoing. Even if they aren't friendly or nice, that's okay, because they are the kind of people you can get along with. Isn't that what's most important of all, Valter?'

And, in the end, he knew where she was going with this.

'.... But...'

Because that was the direction it always went with things like this.

As far his Mona was concerned.

There wasn't any reason that Valter should share his compassion with anyone else.

'But don't you think it's odd? We come down here to learn about Elder Gods. They're nothing more than Devils, you know? Maybe they call themselves ""Gods"" but those things are surely Devils.' Mona was floating there now, at the edge of his vision. Tempting him. She was watching the backs of his allies, just as he was. 'Which among them do you think are Devil Worshipers?'

Mona's green eyes were glinting now.

'Which among them are Devils in disguise?'

Well, if he had to think about it, Valter would say--... No, he wouldn't force himself to think about it. He wouldn't do as he was told. He wouldn't -allow- himself to think about it. Because once he went down that path there would be no return. He couldn't come back to the place he was at right now.

This healthy, stable place.

Valter had known it for some time now. It was the same reason why he had forced himself into bondage, restricting his own impulses and his own intent. Valter was a monster who was just smart enough to put a leash on himself. And the moment he gave into that temptation, the moment he removed the leash, he would return to his natural state -- that of a rabid dog. Nothing more, nothing less.

'You might choose not to think about it, but...' Mona floated suddenly in front of his field of view. Her angelic wings filled the passage before him, completely blocking his vision. And, here, hanging upside down in the air, her hair spun downward like magnificent spindles of thread. Her green eyes were gleaming their mischievous gleam. There was an odd temptation here, a transcendent sense of otherworldly beauty. With a mere look she had made his heart begin to stir. 'If you're ignoring the potential threats that means you're only opening yourself up to be stabbed in the back. That's all I wanted to say, Valter.'

"Oi, Abom!" A voice called to him from ahead, cutting through the delusion. It was Dismas, who had been leading the pack. The rogue was glaring at the big man who had, apparently, stopped walking and was staring ahead at nothing. "What the hell are you doing? Let's go already. Jeez."

".... Right." Abom muttered quietly to himself. He looked to each of those before him now. His companions. His allies. If walking together with people and fighting at their side made them friends, then that meant these people were his friends.

Maria Taylor, Cata Spade, Dismas the Guilty, and now this Goetic who had mysteriously returned from beyond the shadow. Who among them were Devil Worshipers? Who among them were Devils? It would have to be-...

"You and Mr. Hero over there are the idiots who came up with this brilliant idea of searching for monster nests," Dismas was grumbling to himself, now. Though it was more like he was complaining for all to hear. "Now if we're going to do it on your account you better do it properly. No lagging behind and getting lost in your own thoughts, big man."
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

speaking of salt, who is ready to get salted by some slugs
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

https://imgur.com/qveV6Q7

drawing mood this morning
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

WHY am I AWAKE so EARLY
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

13
(111111111) A. Search Upstairs
B. Clear the ground floor
(11) C. Head on to the basement
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

secretly the most important passage in the chapter

MariaTaylor posted...

It was the gnawing fear at the back of their minds. The unseen corpses which should have been found in the other buildings in the village, but had likely vanished for reasons that were too gruesome to imagine. At least whatever had eaten the people in this hall had left their bones behind. There was evidence that they had once existed.

---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

true existential horror; realizing you identify with the characters in the story because of their shortcomings...
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"Just what were you doing here?" Leone asked to no one in particular. To the woman. Or perhaps to the person who had brought here here and trapped her in this cell, hidden from the other denizens of the manner. There were far too many questions to ask. First, it would be useful to figure out who this woman was.

Luckily, there was one among them who had been on these lands before.

"... I know this woman," Enoch said. He went to the glass and put his hand on it. "This was the wife of the smithy. Erina, I think, was her name." He tilted his head to the side, examining the puffy-eyed corpse with her still smooth skin. Perfectly preserved like this it sent an odd chill through him. Aside from the bruises around her eyes she almost looked like she could have just been sleeping.

Seeing a person that he knew, now dead, should have troubled him greatly. But somehow the way her body had been kept almost gave the feeling that she wasn't truly gone yet. It created a strange ambivalence that tore his brain between the rational and the emotional side, breeding conflict and more than a bit of unease. "I don't like this. This troubles me greatly."

"I find myself affected as well," Leone said. He stepped away from the corpse, trying to think about everything he had seen. And the more he thought about it, the more he didn't like it. Whatever was going on here was not right. Fundamentally there was something very disturbing about these lands. 'How much of it did Cain know?', that was the first question that came to mind.

But, even more than that, Leone found himself upset as he thought about the wider spanning implications.

How much of it did Laurence know?

"... More than you might expect..."

[End]

The promised Leone chapter. And now we start to understand why I've spent a lot of time talking about the situation in Hendrake, and giving background information on the Thieves Guild and other factions, and how all of that lore and information begins to tie into the overall story of what is going on here right now.

13. Where will the Shell Party go from here?
A. Continue searching the upstairs area.
B. Begin to secure the ground floor of any monster threats.
C. Look for a way down to the lower floors.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"These are apspora fungal pods," Enoch explained as he took them out and began to carefully squeeze the acidic juice onto the tablet. "Well, you can't credit me for this one. Torin seemed to know a lot more about it than I did. But according to him they're very interesting."

There was a soft hissing sound. Leone watched carefully as rivets began to burn into the stone tablet. It was slow going, but they did seem to at least be weakening the integrity. "Go for the edges," Leone instructed. "If we can at least break apart the seal where it's attached to the wall, we may be able to punch our way through."

This strategy of relying on physics seemed to work. Once Enoch melted the sides of the tablet it no longer had a sturdy base that was holding it in place. And, with the combined strength of all three of them pushing on the stone tablet, they were able to use the weight of the tablet to simply push it backwards... straight through the opening and into the secret passage beyond.

"I don't even want to -THINK- about how this door would be opened normally," Enoch said, gratefully stepping over the stone wreckage. Parts of it had broken on impact and left rocks scattered all over the passageway. Looking ahead, it was a bit too dark to see.

Leone, who had better eyes for the dark, pushed ahead and watched the upcoming corridor carefully. "Blood, most like," he theorized, thinking about what had happened with Goetic on the previous night. And, of course, after seeing that, he had no interest in touching those demonic markings with his own blood.

"Should we go back?" Jen inquired. Her primary concern was the danger of this situation, with only the three of them here, in this crowded and small corridor. She was more afraid of anything that Leone might get killed by acting too bold.

However, it wasn't in Jen's power to actually stop Leone or force him to slow down. Maybe Leone was usually passive by default. But if that person saw something interesting... getting him to give up and retreat was not very easy.

"Once we have something to report," Leone said, striding forward with no torch or other source of light. Leone had long ago become accustomed to the dark. Laurence hadn't always been a member of the city council, and they had not always led such comfortable lives. When those two brothers were younger they had been forced to get by in some pretty dark places.

Enoch, not wanting to let Jen walk face first into danger, ended up taking the position behind Leone. He drew his small curved knife and held it at the ready. Though it was hard for Enoch to see in the low light conditions it wasn't impossible. He was good at stabbing things with the knife but he was even better at throwing it. If something appeared, he figured, he might be able to throw the weapon and slow it down or kill it before it could fell Leone.

Luckily for the three, curiosity did not kill the cat this time.

Leone entered a hidden isolation chamber at the end of the secret passage. It was in this place where the engraved stone walls held a faint white-blue glow to them. The darkness receded as they ended the small, cramped room filled with its own magical source of light.

And, there, against the far wall, was a cell that almost looked to be made of some kind of glass. Though Leone had a feeling it wouldn't be so easy to break. Inside of it was a perfectly preserved corpse of some woman. Even in death she seemed to be oddly at peace. She was not a beauty nor was she a crone. In a manner of words, she looked really like your average person. No one special. Not the kind of prisoner one would typically imagine being taken for the sake of some sick arcane ritual.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"Wow, so it's that powerful," Enoch exclaimed with a sense of wonder. "I suppose I should handle it carefully, then?"

"Yes, I'll have to rely on you for this." Torin glanced at the wreckage of what had once been the staircase to the second floor. He wasn't sure he still had the strength to make that climb. But he could put the ingredients into a satchel bag for Enoch and have that man bring the mixture up to Leone. "Why don't you pass these on to Leone and make sure those two are kept safe while they investigate whatever they've found upstairs?"

"You can count on me," Enoch told the old man. He gave a serious nod while taking the bag from Torin. "While I'm at it, why don't you go through those ingredients and see if there's anything else useful? I'd be truly grateful if you could mix up an elixir to make me immortal." Enoch was half joking. Although, at the end of the day, who really wanted to die? He supposed there was a bit of truth to his humor there.

Aaron went back to the wagon and quietly watched as Enoch began the climb up to the second floor. While waiting with Torin, he looked at the old man and gave him a shrug. The two of them would be forced to wait down here while the others were exploring above. With his heavy armor it was unlikely Aaron could make the climb, either.

Plus, beyond that, it would be better to have someone reliable down here to defend the wagon. In Aaron's mind there was no one more reliable than himself. He would keep Torin safe and guard their supplies for the time being. He was fine with taking that role.

"Can you read all of this?" Jen inquired, tracing her hands over the etchings on the stone tablet.

Leone shook his head. Part of him wanted to warn her not to touch things she didn't understand, or to move away from the tablet. But, since nothing bad seemed to be happening, it was probably fine to let it go. "Nope. It reminds me of that strange card that we found in the clinic. A language that I don't understand, but... it has similarities to the other. That's why I think it's probably in the same script."

"So you've seen this before?" Enoch inquired, entering the room as they were in the middle of the conversation. "It's very strange to me. I've been to many different places but I don't think I'm familiar with any kind of language that uses this alphabet."

"We found a card with the same kind of letters on it," Leone explained. "When one of our companions activated the card with his blood... it... seemed to suck him into some kind of portal." Leone made a very worried face. "I think there is some dark magic at play in these lands."

"Mm. Yes." Enoch seemed to be muttering to himself as he went to stand beside Jen, and examined the tablet. "You know, I always thought that Cainas was a strange lad. Who would have thought he'd grow up to get involved with such bizarre things, though? Such dangerous things?"

Leone walked over to join the two of them and spurred the situation forward. "Well, in any case, let's have that compound. I'd like to see if it works."

Jen glanced at Leone, who was generally not so motivated, and usually fine with hanging back and reacting to the situation as it unfolded. For some reason, Leone was very driven to see whatever was beyond this door. Or maybe Leone just wanted to destroy the stone tablet by any means. Even if there was nothing behind it.
---

~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

"But don't worry, Jen," Leone said, looking to her. "I will look after you."

The fact that Jen tagged along was probably Leone's biggest regret. There was no reason for her to get caught up in all of this. No reason for her to get hurt because of things she was not responsible for, and things that she didn't understand. That was Leone's job, after all. Smart enough to figure things out as he went along, and stupid enough to try and pick up the mess of his older brother and the others. That's exactly why Laurence trusted him so much, even without telling him the real reason why he had been sent here.

"Yes. Of course," she agreed. Jen moved away from the railing and went to the door of the chamber from which the bookshelf had been ejected. Placing her weight against the open frame, she looked through the door cautiously and into the room beyond.

The room contained human corpses whose flesh had been stripped from their bones. It was one of the first true gruesome reminders of the massacre that had happened on these lands since long before the caravan arrived. This was the visual evidence of the fall of Cain's estate. Seeing it was a reminder of things that the letters themselves couldn't have prepared Leone or Jennifer to see.

It was the gnawing fear at the back of their minds. The unseen corpses which should have been found in the other buildings in the village, but had likely vanished for reasons that were too gruesome to imagine. At least whatever had eaten the people in this hall had left their bones behind. There was evidence that they had once existed.

"A natural death," Leone observed, entering the room quietly and moving toward the nonhuman corpse in the room. One of the fish monsters here was curled up and seemed to have perished long ago as well. Its body was partially rotted. "They have some sort of lifespan."

"It smells in here," Jen observed.

Yes, it did. Leone grabbed the scarf and pulled it up from beneath the lower section of the cat-eared cloak. With the cloth material pulled over Leone's mouth and the hood covering his head, most of his face was no longer visible. But at least he didn't have to deal with that awful dead fish smell.

Scanning the room, he quickly spotted an object of note. Part of the wall had been torn down and, hidden behind it, there was a great stone slab with engravings upon it. The slab was large enough that it very well may have been a portal to a room beyond. Some kind of hidden chamber, perhaps?

Beyond that it seemed to have been a small study chamber. Not large enough nor containing the furniture to be a true bedroom. Rather, it look as if someone was using this as a sitting hall to read and to write notes. Perhaps the same person with the fixation of trying to solve code in old novels?

Leone went back out into the main hall and looked to the ground floor. "Torin, do you have anything to get past solid stone? I fear the hatchet is not going to cut it for this," Leone called down to the group below.

As it turned out, the alchemy kit which had been discovered by Jamison and the others at the abandoned inn, contained some specific compounds which Torin happened to be familiar with. Specifically there was an extract from fungal pods that were sometimes found in the underground tunnels during the mining operation.

"My experience with these, is, ah, mostly that the workers were warned to stay away from them," Torin admitted, as he was demonstrating the ingredient mixture to Enoch. "It was said that the acid released from these fungal pods could melt through your tools and even your skin if you weren't careful, and others warned that they could even eat through stone or corrode the materials you had collected."
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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Now she had a short and wide blade attached to her hip, a shortsword that had been pulled off of the wagon. More like a hatchet than anything else. It would serve well enough for cutting through wooden debris. Though her shoulders were still lacerated and her arms were sore, Jennifer Lowell was at least capable of swinging that weapon. And if it came down to it, if she or Leone were in danger, she could probably...

Leone went to a bookshelf leaning against the off side of the high balcony. It didn't look like it belonged here, but rather it had been pushed out of a nearby chamber and almost thrown over the railing. There was a bandage wrapped around the knuckles of the hand that retrieved the one remaining book that hadn't been scattered, and began to turn the pages.

While Jen was busy catching her breath, she leaned against the railing and quietly watched as Leone became focused on skimming through the book. "Does it concern you?" Jen asked in a timid voice.

"More than you might expect," Leone muttered. Holding the book and turning the pages with one hand was hard, but it was good practice for Leone to get used to operating things with this limited functionality. It wasn't like that missing hand was going to grow back.

More alarming were the contents of the book. What appeared to be mundane pages of some romance novel had passages crossed out, others marked as significant or circled in odd ways, drawing attention to combinations of letters from entirely different words or sentences. It was almost as if someone were trying to crack a code hidden inside of here.

But, looking over it, Leone only saw signs of hysteria.

There was no secret message here, no code. Only the hysteric belief of someone obsessed with the contents of a very mundane novel. Then, written in notes on the edges and margins of certain pages, were warnings encoded in Trinspeak. The language of the Thieves Guild.

Leone was beginning to think he had been sent here under false pretenses.

"My little brother," Laurence had said, "You are the one I trust most with this task."

Laurence was a councilor on the governing group that made decisions on how city resources in Hendrake would be allocated. He was also a plant, a member of the Thieves Guild who thrived on the current state of things in the city. His tying vote was responsible for the gridlock which had stopped the city from mobilizing the Fisher Knights to come and deal with the problems on Cain's lands.

Because, if the Lord sent his Knights there first, they might strip the place of all valuables.

Instead, Laurence had intentionally created a situation where the government wouldn't act. And, during that period, private companies would instead move in to scout out the situation and return with their own share of the loot. While that was going on it would be possible for the Thieves Guild to send their own members in with this mission. Maybe sending his own little brother into such a dangerous place was a callous or a foolish move on the part of Laurence. It was hard to say which it was.

Leone closed the book and thought about all of the carnage they had witnessed so far.

Did Laurence know it was going to be this bad?

... Did he care?

And, being the second time that Trinspeak was found within records of the people on Cain's lands, in two separate locations, Leone began to wonder something else. Just how much involvement did the Thieves Guild have in this place -before- everything had gone to hell? Was Leone really here to return with treasure? Or was the actual mission to wipe the place clean of any evidence that might implicate Laurence and the other high ranking members?
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Owen gained +Resistance
Leone gained +Stealth
Torin gained +Intelligence
Aaron gained +Skill

Entry 13: Hysteric Belief

Owen knelt down in the bloody water, examining the last effects of Captain Punch. A single coin, or, no, rather, it was a chip of some sort, floated past them in the water. His hand went out, going to the satchel at Punch's side. Inside there was the land deeds which Punch had looted from the farm. The papers were rumpled and wet now, but they were still legible.

The idea was that... after all of this was over... if the land was really made safe again, someone who survived to the end of this quest could actually inherit some of the land here. There was a tangible goal at the finish line. Owen thought that Punch probably would have wanted that dream to be kept alive.

Jamison came to him and put a hand on Owen's shoulder. The Inspector had worked with Owen in the past and knew what kind of man he really was. Not just a coward, but a timid man who probably didn't have the stomach or the tenacity for this line of work. Jamison, himself, at this point, wasn't sure if he had it. "You know," Jamison said. "It's getting to be more difficult here than we could have imagined. If you wanted to turn back, we-..."

Yet, at that time, Jamison wasn't speaking for Owen's sake.

He was speaking for himself.

Because, truthfully, Jamison looked around at this group and he saw something. There was no one left who could lead them. And as the fear and anxiety took hold of him, wrapping around his heart and constricting like vines, he knew one sad truth; if Owen was ready to run away from this place, he would have gone with Owen.

"No," Owen said, shaking his head. "I'll see it through to the end."

Jamison's face grew dark and haggard as he looked on at the situation. He was too much of a coward to run away unless he had someone to run away with him. That was all that happened here. And so, because Owen had found a strange courage in that moment, Jamison had been forced to press on.

\\###\\

While Aaron and Enoch began to scour the main open hall and check the status of each of the statues, and Torin was busy organizing the supplies on the wagon, Jennifer and Leone decided to take a short glance down one of the side passages. The two had already been warned to avoid getting into any danger, but Leone was perfectly fine with that. There were very few idiots in this world who were fine with voluntarily wandering into danger just for the sake of danger.

Getting the wagon up the stairs was going to be impossible anyway, so Leone figured it was worth it to take a look up that way. Going by foot would be easier. The ground was a bit unsteady, but finding ways through the unsure footing wasn't too unfamiliar of a task. There were plenty of districts in Hendrake that hadn't seen repair to the stonework or construction for years, not since before Leone was born. And the hidden hovels and passages beneath the city that were utilized by the thieves guild, well, those weren't always up to code.

Jen required a bit of extra attention. Leone was forced to stop and turn, reaching out a hand to help pull her up from one elevation level to the next. She had always been a tough girl, at least since the two had met, but at the same time Jen had a sense of reluctance to her behavior. It meant that maybe, because she was unsure of herself, it meant that she wasn't able to accomplish certain things.

In the absolute sense you might say 'Jen could do it if she really tried.'

But if she was incapable of trying then what was the difference? The reality was that she couldn't do it.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

definite update incoming tonight, especially since I know I won't be updating on saturdays
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

honesty is always the best policy

also checking in as one of those annoying people who sends a bunch of messages in a row as I basically just release my thoughts while they come to me. combined with a fast typing speed this can lead to disastrous walls of texts. funny enough I can't remember any time when someone actually told me that it bothered them, but I've definitely been able to read at times when it bothered the other person.

ironically the opposite usually happens here, I'm the one who just stops talking to them eventually because... I dunno. it just annoys me when people can't be direct or honest with me. plus if they're always disengaging from the conversation or seem unenthusiastic about what I want to talk about there's basically no reason for me to bother talking to them anyway.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Grand Kirby posted...

Does liking their hentai count?

damn it someone got here before me
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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Wanglicious posted...

i just usually fallback to utorrent 2.2.1
also known as "the last good utorrent client."

this is exactly correct. just download 2.2.1 and never update it.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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really interesting to see what the final battle is like for a casual player without resetting

it's super brutal going in blind but if you're willing to let people die along the way you can eventually find victory even after all of the losses.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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I didn't know you had to bring Marth's sister to the final map. I guess this is another one of those weird cases where I would have always been using her anyway so I just didn't notice?
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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of course! anyone can vote in any choice really, for the most part.

also I agree Enoch is probably the best remaining character to cure mental status effects. though there are probably some substitutes that will work in a pinch.

anyway looking like grab and retreat will be the option.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

you da man PK

A. explore - 6
B. scan and retreat - 6
C. full retreat - 2
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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(insert tally here)
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
https://imgur.com/tdhOSKc

Heroic Bigpun posted...

She has an amiibo so I KNOW she's recruitable

this is the world we live in now...
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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trdl23 posted...

I cant help but feel a little irritated that Matsuda got hit with what felt like rocks fall u die. Probably just salt on my end.

MariaTaylor posted...

In this world, sometimes, hell, maybe even most of the time, the game was actually rigged. No matter which cards came down next, Matsuda would never see his payout.

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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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resistance well help owen a lot, getting through the mental strain and stress of what's going on around him right now. plus he's a bit on the squishy side so any bit of tanking potential helps.

the already stealthy leone with added bonus stealth is interesting!
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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