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Incomplete Archives: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Lamplighter%20Quest
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OuroQM
Questions: http://ask.fm/OuroQM
Character Sheet: http://pastebin.com/4TrWRPPq

Complete Archive List
Thread One: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/535032/
Thread Two: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/563034/
Thread Three: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/598343/
Thread Four: (currently misarchived) http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/666921/
Thread Five: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/712231/
Thread Six: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/757516/
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>>799882
Chapter Seven: Railway Sleeper


The Sentinel looms ahead of you in the distance, the statue mostly upright and whole but with the face sanded off and both hands broken off at the wrist. The breaks are clean, the stone stumps of the statue’s arms smooth and glassy.
“This was no accident,” you say, wheezing a little as you work the pump, the crowded handcar rattling down the rails suspended over the wasteland. There is no sun and no moon tonight and what stars are left cluster together upon the horizon behind you. Continue travelling in the direction you are and there’ll soon be no stars left at all. They don’t shine upon your destination.
The tiny circle of lantern-light is the only light left, an island in an ocean of darkness that pulls back as you advance across the concrete plinths that support the rune-stamped rail and pulls back behind you the moment you depart.

“Deliberate mutilation? Seems a bit spiteful.”
Beatrice leans over the side of the trolley, the only person currently here who isn’t working the pump. It’s been you and Abe for the past hour, the witch citing exhaustion as her excuse.
“The other ones were just regular old degradation, weren’t they? It’s bound to happen sooner or later.”

And indeed there had been other ones. The maimed Sentinel looming in the darkness ahead of you is the fourth of its kind that you’ve encountered, from the shattered and fallen one you had taken shelter beneath to the two others that you have passed in the day since. Without a doubt they are the very same sculptures that Zeno described in his notes, the marker-stones of a time long gone.
Unfortunately the rain spoiled his work before you had found the time to study more than the first entry. But you remember him describing his encounter with the ‘Golemist’ as he followed the same rail you do now, meeting her at the base of one of the Sentinels. Which one had it been? This one up ahead? One of the ones before? At the very first? And if it was, would he not have mentioned it had been broken? Had it only fallen recently?
And more importantly, if the Sentinels form a semi-circle around the bay of Dis as he described, why has the rail been taking you passed so many of them? The line of Sentinels should be perpendicular to a straight rail to Dis, meaning you should have only passed the first. And yet you know that you are on the path to Dis.


>Stop the trolley to roll the bones one more time. Are you still on the proper course?


>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

>Just keep pumping.

>An hour’s rest is plenty. Put Beatrice to work.

>Other
>>
>>799891
>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.
Yo Ouro
>>
>>799891
>>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.
>>
>>799891
>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.
>>
>>799882
I love you Ouro!
>>
>>799891
>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.
>>
>>799891
>>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.
>>
For a long moment there I thought nobody was coming! That's why this update too so long.

>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

You’ll keep going for now, at least up until the maimed Sentinel ahead. Maybe there you can wait for the moon or sun to come out and to lay this wasteland to twilight once more. Then you’ll at least be able to see a little further into the distance and get your bearings.
“Push on. We’ll stop up ahead.”

Abe gives a sigh of relief, sweat dripping off his brow as he works the pump opposite to you. He’s strong but he doesn’t have your endurance, the rigor that you built through years across your travels. Give him time.

As you draw ever closer to the giant statue you start to notice a curve in the rail ahead. The straight express-line is bending, travelling around the Sentinel and almost hugging the base of its immense pedestal. You are lucky indeed then that this one remains upright despite its wounds.

It’s Beatrice who spots it before anyone else, yourself and Abe too preoccupied with keeping the pump going.
“Concrete ahead! And a building?”

You slow and let the trolley trundle forward on mostly momentum alone for a moment as you peer into the darkness ahead. There is concrete around the base of the statue on the other side, a slab that continues with the rail crossing over it. Excellent! But what is it here for?
The building, a dim shape in the blackness that hides behind the Sentinel, can barely be seen but as the trolley slowly bumps onto the concrete the shadows pull back to reveal a ruin of glass and steel. There was once a dome here, something built from metal lattices and glass but it has been twisted and broken, leaving only a skeletal hemi-sphere above. And beneath it are clustered and broken shapes, steel and concrete buildings left disused for centuries. A rusting arch is built over the entire thing, faint shapes imprinted upon the metal where letters in an ancient language used to stand, all long fallen.

Abe stops pumping a moment later, letting the trolley come to a gentle halt.
“What in God’s name is that?”

“Looks Second Age,” Beatrice said. “Nobody’s messed with it or anything!”

“Not just that,” you say as you look ahead, following the line of the rail you are currently riding. The track curves towards the facility and then ends. And up ahead, dividing the cluster of buildings beneath the broken dome in two, a line of silver faintly reflects the lantern-light. A single long thin railway line built of undimming steel that Third Age hands could never replicate. The original treasure that the railway baron who built the track your on was searching for.
“It’s a railway station.”


1/2
>>
>>800194
The seed where it all started, the project left abandoned even before the Second Age fell, one last attempt to bring an old and belligerent city into connection with the First Dominion of Man.
The original Dis Express.

“Neat,” Beatrice says. “But how are we supposed to get on it?”

She’s right. Your rail comes to a sudden unfinished halt just years away from the railway station. The detritus that is set into the concrete beside it, rusted steel and broken wood, suggests that there was an attempt to build a switch and lever, a way for this rail to flow seamlessly onto the far more ancient one. But it was either never completed or pulled up after the fact.

Abe just groans.
“We’re going to have to lift the trolley up off the rail again and push it onto the expressline, aren’t we?”


>”Yes. Let’s get to work.”

>”Leave the trolley here for now. We should scout out the station first.”

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

>Other
>>
>>800199
>>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.
>>
>>800199

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

>”Leave the trolley here for now. We should scout out the station first.”
>>
>>800199
>>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.
>>
>>800199
>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.
>>
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>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

“Perhaps,” you say, not really attempting to answer Abraham’s question just yet. He’s probably right but before you do that, before you even set foot within the ruined station, you want a better look at the surroundings first. Make sure that there isn’t any more surprises lingering about for they might not all be so benevolent.
“Let’s leave the trolley for now. I’m going to walk around the base of the Sentinel and make sure there’s nothing else here.”

“Sure. Let’s go!”
Beatrice is already looking for her gunpowder barrel.

“Hold on,” Abe says. “If there is something here then just leaving the trolley behind could be a mistake. Remember what happened with those bandits? We might not get so lucky next time.”


>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.

>Leave both of them behind, you’ll scout the Sentinel out alone.

>”You two can investigate the station while I’m gone. It’ll get more work done and quicker.”

>Other
>>
>>800199
>”Leave the trolley here for now. We should scout out the station first.”

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

The both of these seem pretty solid.
>>
>>800327
>>800334
Seconding this
>>
>>800327
>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.

He can stay and keep watch
>>
>>800238
This we can replace the trolley if there is something in the station depot
>>
>>800334
This
>>
>>800327
>>800334
and a dis
>>
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>>800348
Are you sure?
>>
>>800327
>>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.
Beatrice, since she'd whine if I took her for a walk anyways.
>>
>>800384
My DM tricked me out of loot using that question so my answer is a stolid YES
>>
>>800377
>>800348
>>800372
Why are you guys seconding my late vote for an older update?
>>800384
Plz no
>>
>>800430
because they are fucking morons who cannot read.
>>
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>>800384
>>
>>800401
I actually wanna see Bea's disposition towards us one on one since last thread.
>>
>>800447
I somehow interpreted it as Orion, Beatrice, and Abe all leave the trolley to go investigate as a group, first the immediate surroundings, then the Sentinel.
>>
>>800327
>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.
Abe
>>
>>800430
I just woke up and have yet to have life saving coffee

>>800327
>Other

Everyone searches the station for things, Abe for practical things, Beatrice for anything indicating witchery and ourselves for anything left from the second age or of lamplighter use
>>
>>800506
I wish I had that excuse, I'm just plain old stupid.
>>
>>800506
Backing this plan for searching the station
>>
>>800506
>>800532
>>800566
We're investigating the sentinel, not the station. Come on guys.
>>
>>800576
The sentinel might be a bit like the fallen star from earlier, consuming all of our wick. Any bandits would likely be hiding in the station, so fighting them first if they are there would be better.
>>
>>800597
You literally did not read the update saying we're doing the sentinel first did you?
>>
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>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.

You must admit he has a point. It was only through luck and circumstance that you had ever been able to recover the supplies stolen from the train. You’d rather not let that happen again, particularly not when you are so close to your goal.
“A worthy point. Stay here and watch the trolley Abe and keep an eye on the station while you’re at it.”

“Right,” he says as he sits upon the lip of the trolley’s edge. “If I see anything I’ll call out alright?”

“Here, take this.”
Beatrice unwraps one of the bundled up rifles, cracking it open and loading it with the ease of long practice.
“Do you remember how to use one of these?”

“Yes,” Abe sighs, clearly unwilling to go over this subject again. The two of them had spent quite some time going over the rifle, the witch doing her best to make him a marksman in the last day or so.
“I’ll be fine. Just be quick about your way.”

The witch gives off a low groan of ecstasy as she samples just a small amount of gunpowder, twitches running down her body as Abe passes her her hat. She jams it on over her face low enough to cover her red-tinged tears and freshly blooming bruises.
“Let’s go. Just me and you, Orion.”

The two of you depart from the trolley but do not walk towards the station or seek a way around the broken fence. Instead the two of you trace the concrete around the giant statue’s base. And as the two of you walk around the curvature of the pedestal, Abe and the trolley sinking out of sight, you see a most curious thing.
The silver rail doesn’t just extend past the station towards Dis, it runs back towards the base of the Sentinel as well, seeming to end seamlessly with the pedestal of the statue itself.
This warrants a closer look.

“So Orion…” Beatrice starts to say something but she silences herself as she huffs. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Never mind.”
It only then occurs to you that this is the first time the two of you have been alone since that night beneath the rain.


>Ask her what she means.

>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”

>Ask her what she was doing with Abe.

>No talking. Investigate.

>Other
>>
>>800645
>>Ask her what she means.
>Saying the truth should not require thanks.
>>
>>800645
>Pause, then nod.
>Investigate silently.
>>
>>800645
>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
>No talking. Investigate.

"You still have ways to go yet"
>>
>>800645
>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
>No talking. Investigate.
>>
Sorry for these particularly slow updates by the way. I'm going to start slapping myself into a faster schedule today and hopefully it'll work.
>>
>>800678
>slap too hard
>knock self out
>flakeytegaki.png
>>
>>800687
Sorry guys, I slapped myself too hard with my laptop and now its broke. I'll have to continue tomorrow
>>
>>800724
If you'd changed your IP so it looked like you phone posted I would completely believe you.
>>
>>800724
........god dammit ouro
>>
>>800664
Seconding
>>
>>800645
>Ask her what she means.
>>
>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
>No talking. Investigate.

The witch stops walking for a moment, her expression invisible beneath her hat. But you can still see her mouth twist, a yellowing tooth biting a lip.
“It’s just that when ...uh…”

“Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
You don’t have time for this.

“Oh. Of course.”
Her voice quiets down quickly and she starts walking again.
“Sorry.”

“Be silent,” you whisper harshly as you draw closer to the rail. There’ll be no talking this close, not lest you rouse something that may be hidden. The rail is beautiful in design, slim tracks that make the gray iron rail you had been following before look clumsy and half-formed. The sleepers between them are concrete, grey against the silver and if you look close enough, tiny runes scrawled in perfectly straight lines along them all.
You’ve seen Second Age rails before but not often. And not this well-preserved.

So why do they run backwards to the side of the Sentinel and just stop? It looks like they just hit the side of the vast pedestal above you and cease. Where they planning to destroy the Sentinel and make a rail all the way through it? That’s...well, it isn’t quite blasphemous but the idea of such desecration fills you with unease.

Beatrice lifts her lantern and sheds further light upon the pedestal, a rough stone wall that goes up nearly fifty feet before the legs of the Sentinel itself begin. And while the witch doesn’t seem to see anything, you catch just the faintest glimmer of light reflecting from the stone as she does so.

“Hold,” you whisper once more.
There’s a seam in the stone where the rail meets it, one that arches up almost thirty feet high before coming down to the concrete ground on either end. It’s a hidden door, a large opening disguised to appear as one with the stone. Perhaps in the light of day it looks quite obvious but in the dark thirty years past the sun’s death? You almost didn’t see it at all.

The rail doesn’t end here. The Second Men carved a railway tunnel right through the base of the Sentinel itself. The thought of it is enough to make one queasy. Perhaps they thought it was no longer needed?
But where does it lead? There’s no rail emerging from the other side, that’s the side you came in from. So what could be in here?


>Try to find a way to open the archway.

>Return to the trolley and investigate the station instead.

>You can talk to Beatrice a little.

>Knock.

>Bash it down.

>Other
>>
>>800783
>Try to find a way to open the archway.
The more we looked at the works of the second men the more those stories start making even more sense.
>>
>Where instead of were
god damn it
>>
>>800783
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.

>Knock.
>>
>>800783
>Return to the trolley and investigate the station instead.

Opening the archway might require us to deplete our wick, which might be needed for a possible fight
>>
>>800783
>Try to find a way to open the archway.

>You can talk to Beatrice a little.
>>
>>800783
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.
>Knock.
>>
Anyway calling it for trying to find a way in, knocking and actually talking to the witch.
>>
>>800869
Does Beatrice still have dark vision?
>>
>>800877
Nope.
>>
>>800783
>Try to find a way to open the archway.

>Return to the trolley and investigate the station instead.
>>
>>800783
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.
>>
>>800880
Aww.
>>
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.
>Try to find a way to open the archway.
>Knock.

Beatrice whistles quietly as she finally spots the seam marking the arch.
“They just went right in,” she whispers.

“I can’t believe they’d do something like this to a relic.”
You keep your voice quiet.

“I guess they thought it was obsolete since railways tie the earth down better. And I don’t think they were in the habit of respecting older times either, hubris and all. Maybe if they had all this business with Dis wouldn’t have happened.”
She covers her mouth after she finishes speaking.
“Shit. Was that too loud?”

“No,” you say as you feel along the wall. Yes, this is steel coloured in the same shade as the brown stone. Was it a genuine attempt to disguise it or simply an aesthetic decision to make it look seamless? Probably the latter.
“I don’t think there’s much point in being entirely silent. Just keep it down.”

“Right. If there was anything around it would have seen the light of the lantern anyway.”

“Hrmph. Now was there something you wanted to say to me earlier?”

“Huh?”

“I cut you off because I wanted us to be careful. But now that there doesn’t seem to be anything about, is there something you wanted from me?”

“No! I mean, no. Look, about last night…”

“What about it? We exchanged tales and I made a judgement. Though I must admit that your reaction to it was quite unexpected.”
You’re still not sure what to make of her response and the way she had just burst into tears.

“Yeah, unexpected, that’s me. Never mind actually, this is all too pathetic.”

“What is?”

“I’m dropping the subject.”

“It will be dropped when I say it is dropped. Continue.”

“Fine.”
The witch squirms uncomfortably.
“What you said meant a lot to me.”

“I know it did.”

“No, more than that. To hear it from a Lamplighter…”

“I didn’t think you respected us. Far from it.”

“No but I once did. And for one of you to acknowledge that I’m trying and doing the best I can, it felt ...good. Cathartic. Even from you, invert.”
She stops.
“Maybe because it was from you.”

You’re not really paying her your full attention right now, your focus mostly on the hidden door in front of you. You know the Second Men often used mechanical devices to open their doors so does this even have a handle anymore? Is it even possible to open?
You find another seam running straight down the middle. Double-doors, ones that open outward. Interesting. Perhaps if you could wedge your fingers in and pull…


>Roll 1d6. The first 3 will be used.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>800996
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>800996
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>800996
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>800996
>>
>>801024
ITS ALWAYS FUCKING ME
>>
>>801033
>>801024
you fuck
>>
>>800996
Also, was this the first exchange where Orion and Bea didn't bicker or were actively being antagonistic?
>>
>>801097
We always give her exactly what she deserves. No more, no less. Or at least I would like us to.

So it's not just words when we say she's doing the best she can for an unholy abomination.

Still kind of wish she would stop perverting the substance of the Sun God and learn to live with her limitations.
>>
>>801154
Speaking of Heresy, should we use our sin dice to see if something is wonky with the rail/statues?

I'd rather not fight a giant first man golem perverted by witchcraft.
>>
>6, 6, 1

“I just feel like I don’t deserve all of this,” the witch continues behind you. “Or rather, that I did but not to this degree. It was just one bad day! I just want a second chance, a proper one. I’m sick of people looking at me and seeing ‘witch’ before they see ‘Beatrice’.”

You manage to slide your gauntlet-ed fingers into the crack where the two halves of the door meet down the middle without any difficulty. You give it a test pull and nod as the doors only wobble a little. Something’s barring them from pulling open any farther.

“I really do mean well.I want to be a better person. But how am I supposed to do that if nobody even lets me be better? If they just assume the worst from me? Am I supposed to improve and suffer in righteous silence like a fucking hermit? Martyr myself and let people weep over my corpse as only now do they understand how truly I was misunderstood?”

There’s no bar here because the doors open outward. If there was a bar stopping them from opening any further it’d be on your side. You’d be able to see it. Unless...the bar was inside the door itself. You’ve seen this in Second Age doors before actually. A most peculiar locking system.

“No, that’s a really pathetic fantasy to have. But that’s why I don’t tell anyone what I am because I know they won’t see me anymore. They’ll just see the witch. So with you and Abe, you’re both people who well and truly know what I am. So for the two of you to look past that to the real me, well shit, that means a lot to me.”

You run your fingers up and down the tiny gap between the doors, feeling for any kind of resistance whatsoever. And there it is! You can feel three of them spaced up and down as far as you can reach and there are probably more even further higher up. Thin steel rods embedded within the doors themselves that have slid out across into the other half to keep it locked in place.
These aren’t meant to be lifted and unlocked by human-hands, this entire door must be machine-locked.

“I’d really like there to be one day where I can just walk down the street somewhere where everyone knows what I used to be and still people just say ‘oh, there’s Beatrice’. Where people can judge me for what I am and not for one dumb decision I made. But I don’t think that’ll ever be true. Just having the two of you know me for what I am is good enough. I can’t describe how it feels.”

You run your fingers down the crack until they settle upon one of the rods and then you do your best to pull it open. You strain for nearly a minute before collapsing back, the door not budging. Blast. You’re not getting past this without knocking it open!

“You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve been saying, have you? Here I am opening my heart to you and it isn’t worth shit.”

1/2
>>
How was time affected by the death of the sun?
>>
>>801233
>”You’ve made the flawed assumption that the real you is a person worth knowing.”

>”I’ve been listening.”

>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

>”I’m going to point out a few spots along this door. I want you to give those spots your best shots.”

>Maybe you can find and repower the controls in the station somewhere. Head back.

>Other
>>
>>801239
>>”I’ve been listening.”
>>”I’m going to point out a few spots along this door. I want you to give those spots your best shots.”
>>
>>801239
>>”I’ve been listening.”
>You want people to se you without labels, not a "Lady" nor a "Witch" nor anything else.
>What? You either learn to listen either while focused or you die.
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.
>>
>>801239
>”I’ve been listening.”

>Maybe you can find and repower the controls in the station somewhere. Head back.
Once again, seems solid. If not, we can come back and try something else.
>>
>>801233
God I love this scene, just imagining us probing and poking the door in blissful focus while she monologues behind us.

>”I’ve been listening.”
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.
>>
>>801239
>”I’ve been listening.”
>Other
Say something to the effect of "That 'one dumb decision' you made happens to be the literal betrayal of humanity"
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.
>>
>>801239
>"Don't think about any 'minimum' standard of treatment. What is the end point for you? What kind of person do you want to be, and what kind of people do you want to be with?"
>"Work towards THAT, not short term goals that can be freely given, taken, or rescinded."

>>”I’m going to point out a few spots along this door. I want you to give those spots your best shots.”
>>
>>801258
+1
Followed by
>Maybe you can find and repower the controls in the station somewhere. Head back.
No need to do force anything and maybe commit some damage if there's a way around. Plus we can just come back if not.
>>
>>801239
>”I’ve been listening.”
>>
Calling it for:
>"I've been listening."
>Words.
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice's help in doing so.
>>
>>801356
Sounds good
>>
>>801356
Aw too late. I wanted to ask

> Do YOU know who Beatrice is? Do you think she isn't also a witch?
>>
>>801356
How far away is the Sentinel from the station?
>>
And also, you said the station was several buildings. How many and how big is it in total?
>>
>>801382
If he'll throw it in there I'll second it.
>>
Sorry about the delay on these posts. It's getting kind of hot and that makes me lethargic. Slapping myself doesn't always work apparently!
>>
>>801429
>ouro slapped himself so fast and so hard the friction heated up the room
>like a motorboat of furious insane slapping
inb4 flakey tegaki
>>
>>801388
Socratic method yo. Beatrix wants to be herself, but she has some shit about herself to come to terms with.
>>
>>801387
A few hundred yards
>>
>”I’ve been listening.”
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

You back away from the door, stepping back into line with Beatrice.
“I’ve been listening. You seem to have a problem with labels, don’t you?”

Beatrice looks askance at you.
“How so?”

“Whether it be ‘Witch’ or ‘Lady’, you don’t like them. Did you think I wasn’t paying attention?”

“Uh, that’s right, yeah. I don’t want to wear the names other people give me, Orion. I just want to be me!”

“Do you? Do you know who Beatrice is? Who is she, if she is not a witch? You’ve been a witch in one form or another for your entire life.”

“I don’t know,” she says, her hands fidgeting with the edge of her coat. “Like you said, it’s hard to escape from what I am. I’m reminded every day of what I’ve done to myself.”
Her bruises shadow down her cheeks from her eyes
“Maybe the real Beatrice really is just a former witch. Maybe that’s a stain that’s never going away. But it’s just that, isn't it? A stain. Maybe it’s a part of me but it isn’t all of me.”

“That’s fair. Now get over here and help me pull this open.”

“What?”

>Shifting the door is a Collective Effort roll! Two characters will roll 3d6 in succession, applying their own modifiers and abilities as you see fit. If the total result equals 22 or higher the door will be sprung open!

>Roll 1d6. The first 3 will be totalled to form Orion’s effort. Orion has no special modifiers or dice rules for this task.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584
>>
Jesus that was way too long for such a short update. Luckily I don't have work tonight, I can keep on going for as long as you folks stay here.

Also I hope you like rolling dice!
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

Come on
>>
>>801591
>>801604
Well fuck. If the two of us can't do it call Abe up here
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>801584
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584
Will my roll be like it always is?

>>801613
Oh yeah, I don't have to! Sweet.
>>
Ok, ok. Bea only needs ten.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584
Stronk Beatrice
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584
>>
>4, 2, 6
>12


You grab hold of the door and start to wrench it open, trying to pull the rods inside free at the same time. And this time you don’t let go as sweat drips down your brow and your muscles begin to burn. Will it be enough?


>Before we move on to Beatrice’s roll, Orion’s roll can be modified through his usual means.


>Extra effort. Give it your all and result in Orion being exhausted afterwards. This allows for an extra dice roll.


>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.


>Try to jimmy it open by shaking the other door the other way. This action allows for an extra dice roll but has a 20% to make the entire Collective Effort fail.


>Nothing. Just leave it to Beatrice.
>>
>>801653
>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.


>Try to jimmy it open by shaking the other door the other way. This action allows for an extra dice roll but has a 20% to make the entire Collective Effort fail.
>>
>>801653
>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.
>>
>>801653
>Nothing. Just leave it to Beatrice.
>>
>>801653
>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.
>>
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>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.

No, you can't possibly leave this to Beatrice. You've never met an adult more frail than her. You'll just have to do this all yourself and hope that your back can stand the strain.

>Choose how many +1's you wish to add to the total result of 12.

>1
>2
>3
>4
>5
>6
>7
>8
>9
>10
>>
>>801653
>Put your back into it.

Just once, then all we need is for the witch to not fuck up.
>>
>>801734
>>2
>>
>>801734
>2
>>
>>801734
>3
>>
>>801734
>2
Somehow I feel like we're falling. Anyone else get that? Just an eerie feeling.
>>
>>801734
>2
>>
>2

Oh god, that felt like it stung.

>Roll 1d6. The first (2) dice will be counted valid. Any 1s that occur result in injury.
>>
>>801775
We're being too accepting. Too open-minded. Got a bunch of filthy heretics here and not enough zealots.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>801807
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801807
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801807
For the Wheel God!
>>
>>801814
stop rolling

>>801807
wasn't this a flat plus 1 instead of a die roll? so a simple +2?
>>
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>>801814
>>
>>801814
You! You did not praise the Wheel God! Down on your knees and quote dogma for an hour!
>>
>>801824
Yes it is a flat bonus. This was just checking the chance for injury and if so, how badly.
>>
>Current Total: 14

Your vision swims for just a moment and you stumble, barely able to keep your hands upright as the two of you try to pry the bars out from within the door.
Your muscles aren't just aching anymore, there's something twinging deep down in your spine and it's not stopping. You grit your teeth and continue your work.

Hopefully Beatrice holds up her end of it all.

>Roll 1d6. The first 3 will be totalled for Beatrice's effort. Beatrice is currently at a -0 to all dice rolls thanks to a recent gunpowder infusion.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>801848
Well I can't roll worse than last time so here we go.
>>
>>801848
>>
>>801848
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>801848
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801848
rolling

>>801859
STOP YOU COCKGARGLING SHIT
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>801848
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>801848
Let's try this again
>>
>>801859
You should stop rolling please
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

Well. I'll try running out all the bad luck on useless rolls. Maybe that'll work...
>>
It's just a fucking door calm down
>>
>>801879
STOP

>>801881
if mr. mcshitdice stops then I will chill.
>>
>1, 2, 4
> 7
>Current Total: 21/22

Beatrice puts up an absolutely pitiful amount of effort as ever. You can hear her start to moan as the door slowly settles back into place.
"I..I don't think I can do it!"

"Well do something!"

>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>Ingest gunpowder. This alters the current -0 modifier to a +2 modifier temporarily at the price of applying a -2 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the future -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.

>Snort gunpowder. This changes the -0 modifier to a +4 modifier at the penalty of applying -4 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.

>Nothing. She is just going to whine and feel bad about herself.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>801908
>>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

Looks like she'll be looking after the cart after this
>>
>>801908
>>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.
>>
>>801908
>Ingest gunpowder. This alters the current -0 modifier to a +2 modifier temporarily at the price of applying a -2 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the future -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.
>>
>>801908
>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.
>>
>>801908
>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.
>>
>>801908
> ingest gunpowder
>>
>>801908
>>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.
>>Ingest gunpowder. This alters the current -0 modifier to a +2 modifier temporarily at the price of applying a -2 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the future -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.
+8 gogo
>>
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>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>Roll 1d6. The first shall be used.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801946
It's been a while since I've used... that.
I invoke the power of baby seals for this roll!
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>801946
>>
>25/22

Beatrice gives a final groan of effort as the two of you push the doors in different directions and then slowly pull them outward, shifting the little bars within the doors themselves just barely out of their proper holes!
You take a step back and grab hold of your back as you wheeze. Eugh. You haven’t felt like this for a long time. You can feel a faint spiderweb of pain radiating out from somewhere behind your abdomen, one that twinges and catches on something with every movement. The witch sinks to the ground by your feet, absolutely exhausted and panting softly.

And as for the doors themselves? They should just swing open now. It’ll be easy. You grab hold of one of them and test the weight. For all their size, the two double doors are superbly balanced and light. Anyone should be able to swing them open when they’ve been unlocked.
You don’t think they’ll ever be able to close again properly but such is life.

You swing one half of the doors outward, revealing a large tunnel that the silver railway goes down, vanishing into the darkness. What’s the purpose of this place? What does it hold? As the lantern shakes you catch a glimpse of something large and metal, a glimpse of reflected light.
But before you can do anything else you are interrupted by the sound of gunfire. A single shot rings out and you hear a choked-off scream.

Abraham.

Beatrice looks up from where she’d been lying, panic in her eyes.
“Shit. Hold on.”
She starts to get up but you’ve seen ghouls that look more alive than her. More attractive too.
“Fuck it. Just leave me and go help him!”

You start to run but you feel the ache in your side grow ever stronger as you do so, prompting you to draw in your breath unbidden. Curses! Why now?


>Just run and get ready to fight!

>Take the time to heal yourself with Benediction first.

>Grab Beatrice and carry her with you.

>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

>Other
>>
>>802023
>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.
>>
>>802023
>>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.
>>
>>802044
Yes
>>
>>802023
>>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.
>>
>>802023
Inb4 this is a ploy for a witch to get their hands on shiny 2nd age tech

>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.
>>
Apologies, I have been dead for the past hour. This afternoon heat has been exceptionally pleasant and it feels like it kills brain function and the will to do anything.

Next update will be the last one today.
>>
>>802210
Uh
>>
>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

You’d like to run to Abe’s aid as quickly as possible but what good would that do you? No, you need to take your time and make sure that you’re in a fit state to fight. You pull out your wick and set the firebrand atop the end of it alight. It casts a dimmer glow than the lantern in Beatrice’s hands but it’s True Flame nonetheless.
And with it, you heal thyself.

Wick: 9/10

The Benediction of Succour flows through you like the warmth of a fireplace in a cold day. A warmth you’ll never likely truly feel again. Your discomfort and aches are wiped away and your muscles are re-energized. Unfortunately you cannot extend the same favour to Beatrice but neither do you want to leave her here.

“Just go, Orion! Abe needs y-woooah wait put me down!”

You pick her up and heft her over your right shoulder, legs dangling down your back with her upper half over the top.
“Oi!”

“No time! Just get your gun ready!”

By the time you run back around the side of the Sentinel’s huge pedestal you arrive to see the pump trolley knocked over, boxes scattered. Abe is lying on his side on the concrete, his rifle on the ground beside him. Both his arms are raised as if he was fending something off.

There’s something in the air above him, something winged and black as jet, fading into the darkness of the starless sky to the point where it is almost invisible. Almost like a bat but grossly elongated like a millipede, it’s body lying curled up in almost a perfect sphere while it keeps itself aloft with shadowy wings. You can see two long talons and a multitude of smaller limbs and above them, the gleam of a compound eye as large as your head.

The gargoyle screams, a shrill piercing sound that strikes pain in the heads of all who hear it and for a brief moment it uncurls, displaying a worm-like body almost thirty feet long and incapable of flight. But only for a moment. It then curls back up into a ball and swoops, heading straight for Abe!
You nearly go deaf as Beatrice fires while still on your shoulder, her shot burning a hole through the creature’s wings as if they were made of nothing but mist. Which in a way you suppose they are.

The monster flips back into the air, its wings dissipating and reforming on the fly as it reverses itself and flies back into the ruins of the train station.

“Abe!,” Beatrice calls out, the exhausted witch squirming in your grasp. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he splutters as you draw closer, setting Beatrice down as you do so.

“No he’s not,” you snap. “Were you bitten?”

“Yes but it can’t have been very badly. I barely felt it and there’s no blood. It didn’t even feel like it had teeth-”

“Where?”

“Down on my side, around my stomach."
1/2
>>
>>802210
Rip
>>
>>802408
You bend over him and sweep his tunic up, bearing the sight of the bite. And sure enough it’s there. Abe goes pale as he sees it.
“What the hell is that?”

Still lying on the ground to the side, Beatrice gives off a low whistle for the second time that night.
“Damn. We should have gotten here earlier!”

Across the side of Abe’s belly and up his chest creeps a blackness, a change in both colour and texture. You can track the spread of it with your eyes alone, it’s that fast. Skin twists and goes as black as obsidian, glossy and smooth and cool to the touch.
“How? I didn’t even feel it bite me?”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” you say. “Gargoyle teeth are needle-thin. Nobody feels anything.”
The original puncture marks on his side are long gone, closed over by the spreading corruption.

Wick: 8/10

First you hit him with a Purging Benediction and Abe begins to convulse as you expel the gargoyle’s venom from his body. But while that stops the spread it doesn’t lessen what’s already been transformed.

“What’s going on? What is that?”

“Didn’t you hear me say it before?”
You are brusque, almost rudely so. But only because your every moment of focus is bent towards lessening what has been done.
“That was a gargoyle. It can turn to stone when it has to and so does everything it bites!”

You rap his side and hear only a solid thunk. The skin on the side of his stomach and chest is like marble. Solid black marble.
“Don’t worry,” you say. “I’ve stopped the flow of the poison, nothing else is going to change. And I can Cleanse this stone off of you too, it’s just going to take a lot of attempts. It’ll burn my Wick out but I’ll fix you up.”

You hear the gargoyle shriek in the distance from somewhere within the skeletal lattice of the train station. And then you hear it again. And again. And again. Simultaneously.

Beatrice swears.
“Well fuck me. Might want to hang onto your Wick for now Orion. I think we’ve got a nest.”
>>
>>802413
Oh boy oh boy
>>
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And that's that for today folks. I wish I could explain what happened just then with the whole three hours to finish that update thing but I can't. It's like I just went brain-dead or something. I couldn't do it.
That feels like a reason to hang it up for today and so we shall.

I have just archived the thread in the usual place and I will be back tomorrow at the usual time! I hope you all had fun!
>>
Head for the tunnel we just opened. It's unknown, but it isn't out in the open at least.

And it makes for a much better story.
>>
>>802423
Thanks for running boss!
>>
>>802413
Too bad we can't soak the bullets in oil or set them on fire.
>>
>>800429
>My DM tricked me out of loot using that question so my answer is a stolid YES
Ha, sucker.
>>
>>801859
>Well I can't roll worse than last time so here we go.
Please keep rolling, this is hilarious.
>>
Just saying, this? This right here? This is why we should have kept the Flame Artist.
>>
>>802553
Fuck off.
>>
>>802553
>Abe is burnt to a crisp instead of part-stone
yeah, no thanks.
>>
>>802553
No. We got 1 good man, now we just need 19 more.

And apparently those are actually MORE rare than flame artists here. Fuck even Beatrice was a flame artist.
>>
>>802428
This is pretty much as good an answer to our predicament as any unless the gargoyle came from inside the statue rather than the station somehow
>>
>>802428
>>802423
I support this.
>>
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New session in an hour or so
>>
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Gargoyles are born somewhere deep below the earth’s surface, festering spawning pits that you know not. Newborn gargoyles tunnel up through soft soil and rock in their larval forms, bodies almost indistinguishable from their adult parents. They surface in unsealed earth, dirt that is not covered by concrete and left open to the air and to a great deal of burrowing things. It is then that they manifest their wings and become adults, ready to take wing and one day implant even more larvae into the earth via means unknown.

Like all creatures of darkness they have an instinctive hatred for all that is good and righteous and bright. And worse yet, they are stone-eaters! Once they have become adults their toothless maw dissolves and digests all forms of stone, including the very same concrete shell that seals the earth away. They are unable to digest anything else and their venom exists for that very purpose, to transfix and to transform, to render living creatures into helpless stone that can be digested at their leisure.
When you think about it, it makes sense that they’d haunt ruins like this one.There’s plenty to eat here, more than enough food to sustain an entire flock of the monsters. No wonder the Sentinel’s face is gone.

And if they’re infesting the station, you’re probably not getting through here safely unless they’re all dead. Even if you simply flee they’ll follow you. Gargoyles can stalk a man for weeks on end, flying high against the dark sky to the point where they are invisible.
It used to be that there were means of controlling them, that the movement and the pure light of the sun would trap them and confine them to the night. For you see, such an ancient and primeval creature as the gargoyle has no resistance against fire or the pure light of either a central lamp-post or the sun. Exposure to such incinerates them on contact and their only means to escape such fates is their self-petrification, their ability to reflexively transform parts or all of their bodies into stone. Stone does not fear fire or light after all.

Sunlight used to hold every gargoyle prisoner, dashing them from the sky and making them helpless and vulnerable until the daylight passed. It had once been trivial to force a gargoyle into stone form and then to smash it into pieces.
You no longer have such an easy option.

“How many?”
You look up at the sky but you can’t see any movement. Are they all within the station itself? What would have happened if you had all just blindly walked in there?

“I don’t know,” Beatrice says, keeping her voice low. “I counted at least four distinct calls.”

“You can tell their calls apart?”

“You mean you can’t?”

1/2
>>
>>803836
>Stay here and fortify the trolley. You don’t know if you can risk moving Abe, it could make you vulnerable.

>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.

>Try to sneak everyone away without getting any further attention.

>Secure Abe somewhere and then get ready to go hunting.

>This station might still have its own central lamp-post. Perhaps you can find it.

>Other
>>
>>803839
>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.
>>
>>803836
>festering spawning pits that you know not.
Can someone explain this sentence to me? Isn't it missing something?
>>
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>>803843
Orion doesn't have a single clue where gargoyles come from or how they breed is what to take away from that.
Though yes, there should be a 'within' somewhere in there.
>>
>>803839
>>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.
>>
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>>803854
Yeah I understood the meaning fine but the sentence itself is fucking with my brain
Could you rewrite properly for me pretty please?
>>
>>803869
Chill bro
>>
>>803839
>Other
Secure Abe, then try to find the central lamp-post if it exists.
>>
>>803878
M8 I'm just asking because I can't come up with one myself, english isn't my first language if that wasn't obvious
>>
>>803869
>Gargoyles are born somewhere deep below the earth’s surface within festering spawning pits that you know not.
To be honest, this is a much better sentence since it doesn't focus on my traditional over-abuse of the common comma. I need to remember that.

Anyway calling for the mad dash.
>>
>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.

You pick Abe up, slinging him over your shoulder so that the stone along the side of his belly is facing up. At least this way if you get swooped they might petrify a part of him already afflicted.
“Beatrice, take what you can from the trolley! We need to leave now!”

“Fuck, I’ll try, I’ll try,” Beatrice mutters as she levers herself up and grabs hold of her gunpowder barrel. “Can’t promise anything.”

Another screech pierces the night and you spin, looking in every direction. And this time you spot it. A long worm-like silhouette with pitch black wings. It’s body retracts and curls in on itself just a moment later and you start to run. There’s no point in trying to be quiet anymore.
“Go! Go go go!”

But where are you running to?


>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

>All the way behind the Sentinel.

>One of the station buildings themselves.

>Other
>>
>>803961
>>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.
>>
>>803961
>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.
>>
>>803961
Can't we just whip out our lamppost and vaporize them all?
>>
>>803974
Absolutely. I was saving that as an option for when they actually attack or if you chose to go hunting though.
>>
>One of the station buildings themselves.
>>
>>803961
>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.
>>
>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

You run around the base of the Sentinel, keeping your eye out for any suspicious shapes in the sky as you do so. You need to find a place to take shelter, somewhere that you can defend. Because unless you come across a bloody miracle you’re not leaving this station without killing every gargoyle here first. The railway tunnel built into the Sentinel, though you know not its true purpose, should prove ideal for that. The interior might even be lined in metal or something similar, that’d be just what you need.
You just need to get there first.

You don’t see the first gargoyle until it is almost upon you, it’s body curled up into a ball supported by a pair of ethereal wings. You duck just in time, the needled abyss of the gargoyles jaws passing right above your head, its two grasper-claws slashing at the air around you while its other stubby legs wave wildly.
Your armour should protect them from your claws, they’re nowhere near as dangerous as those of a ghoul or a troll. But there’s no point in taking chances.

Unfortunately Beatrice isn’t wearing armour.
You swivel and see that the witch has lagged behind, almost a good twenty feet behind you! Of course! How could you have forgotten? She gave everything she had to help open up the gate and now she can barely run, supplies in both arms as she stumbles towards you.
The gargoyle pulls up from its aborted sweep and flies clumsily towards her, Beatrice bringing her pistol about in a desperate attempt to shoot it before it can touch her. But afflicted as she is she’s slow. Probably too slow.


>Get Abe to safety first and then come back for Beatrice.

>Try to grab hold of the gargoyle.

>Drop Abe and launch yourself at Beatrice.

>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.

>Other
>>
>>804149
>>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.
>Beatrice down!
>>
>>804149
>>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.
We have 9/10 wick vs 4 gargoyles and Abe is stabilized, no need to hold back now
>>
>>804149
>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.
>>
>>804149
>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.
>>
>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.

Keeping one hand busy with Abe, you point and aim your wick with the other at an angle just above Beatrice's head.

Wick: 8/10

You feel the Spark embedded upon your brow flare to life as the firebrand atop the wick spits a long jet of flame at the loathsome creature descending upon your companion.

>Roll 1d6 for aim. The first 3 will be chosen and totalled. A total above 10 results in a hit. Any activation of Immolate's Power Number results in refunded Wick.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>804216
>inb4 3 1s
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>804216
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>804216
pls not 1
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>804216
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>804216
>>
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>>804229
>>
>>804229
You just HAD to tempt the dice gods, didn't you?
>>
>>804229
RIP Beatrice
>>
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>>
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>>804238
>>804239
>>804240
s-sorry
>>
>9

The jet of flame goes just wide, the fire scorching the air around the swooping gargoyle but without landing a direct hit. At least not yet.

It all depends on where you aimed it.

>The Immolate soars over the gargoyle. It hits nothing.

>The Immolate goes underneath the gargoyle. It might set Beatrice's hat on fire but the gargoyle will at least still run into it!

>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

>Other
>>
>>804258
>>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.
You guys are too liberal to be praised by the Wheel God. This is a sign to remove dis kebab.
>>
>>804258
>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.
>>
>>804258
>>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.
>>
>>804258
>gargoyle kills beatrice
or
>we kill beatrice

Can we combine 1 and 3 or will picking 3 immolate both?
>>
>>804258
>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.
>>
>>804283
The third options assumes it's not hitting anything else.
>>
>>804287
It's unanimous then
>>
>>804258
> Use you upgrade to pump your wick
Beatrice, use explode!
>>
>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

You grit your teeth and with the power of Belle's Spark, widen the Immolate as it travels just enough that the edge of fiery jet catches the gargoyle on the wing.
The monster's wings vanish immediately, shadowy projections dispersed by the flame and the creature falls to the ground with an utter lack of grace.

"Shit!," Beatrice moans, her hat on fire. She shoots the gargoyle twice. The first shot goes straight into its grub-like abdomen and the gargoyle immediately transforms to save itself from the fire within her bullets, becoming an un-moving sculpture of black marble.
Beatrice's second shot is explosive and buries itself right into the statue's bat-like head, cracking it open in a spray of broken stone shrapnel.

The gargoyle remains transfixed even as its head explodes, a statue depicting a horrific cross between a wingless bat and a furred centipede. It will never retake flesh-form again.

You throw one of the double-doors open as you spot three more gargoyles in the sky above you. Beatrice throws her burning hat to the concrete and abandons it as she dives inside.

You were wrong. The inside of this tunnel is lined with concrete, not steel. It's only going to be a matter of time before the other three eat their way into here. This is but a temporary sanctuary.

>Stay outside in front of the door and fight the gargoyles yourself.

>Run in another direction to lead them away.

>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>Other
>>
>>804363
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.
>>
>>804363
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.
>>
>>804363
> Stay outside and fight, think if the concrete!
And put Beatrice's hat out. B-Because ... you don't want to have to look at her ugly mug all the time!
>>
>>804294
Only After Orion or Abe use Harden then Pound.

>>804363
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>>804394
better excuse, Her eyes leak blood sometimes and if fire catches it we get an explosive Beatrice. More so than usual.
>>
Oh whoops, forgot to mention.

Wick: 3/10
>>
Stay by the door. Wait until they are close, and then uncover the lamp post.
>>
>>804363
>>Stay outside in front of the door and fight the gargoyles yourself.
How does Orion estimates his chances of handling 3 gargoyles with light backup from bea?
Also you forgot to mention how much wick we have left
>>
Calling it for:
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.
>>
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

Wick: 3/10

Even if they eat their way through the concrete it’s still worth hunkering down in here. You’ll be able to take them on in a closed-in environment and hopefully one at a time. A gargoyle by itself isn’t a huge problem for you to deal with, it’s when they swarm that’s the issue.

You step inside and pulls the doors shut behind you but neither of them truly lock into place, the bars within them bent out of place and twisted by your previous efforts. It’ll have to do. Gargoyles don’t know how doors work.
Now if you could just find something to drag across and block-

“Ah Orion? You might want to have a look at this.”

Abe calls to you from deeper down the tunnel, the man having feebly gotten to his feet and stumbled down to where the concrete raises itself into high banks surrounding the silver rail. And on that railway…
It’s long, sleek and silver and it has no engine that you can see, more a tube than any locomotive you know. Like a bullet or a snake. There are no sharp lines to the train’s design, just swept back surfaces and an almost inherent sense of grace and speed. You can’t even see the doors, so seamlessly do they meld into its almost liquid surface.
Long lines of runes run down its sides and emblazoned across its side in bright red sigils is a name in a dialect you cannot read.

How does it move? You can’t even see the wheels but it must attach to the tracks somehow! The windows are shaded out, black abysses of perfectly tinted glass. The train barely even as a front, just a point where it curves down and slowly tapers to a point at both ends.
You’ve seen the ruins of Second Age locomotives before but this must have been cutting-edge at the time even for them. It looks nothing like the others.

Abe knocks on the side to no effect. This train’s been dead for centuries, locked safely away as a functional piece of art.

Beatrice is slowly backing up into the tunnel, her gun in her hand and the rest of what she was carrying lying on the ground next to the train. Her hat is missing and she looks genuinely lost without it.
“Are they coming?”

“We’ve got at least a few minutes before they can eat their way in,” you say. You nearly forgot about them, your attention swept up by the ancient relic before you.

“Well,” the witch says. “Maybe we can do something with whatever this is?”

At the far, far back end of the tunnel squats an ancient machine, something black and grimy and covered in intestine-like pipes and tubing. Unlike the train no effort was made towards aesthetic. This is a purely functional device. Along its side are gleaming empty jewels of glass atop raised buttons and false windows not unlike that of the Starbreaker.
1/2
>>
>>804702
And reaching out from the machine is a claw that cradles the top of the train, long antenna-fingers frozen in the act of caressing the matte-black strip that runs across the very top of the train’s lithe body.

You’ve seen that kind of panelling before. But where?

“I think I’ve seen this before,” the witch says. “Aren’t those strips supposed to draw power from sunlight? To charge their machines up or something?”

“Then this must be some kind of...charging station,” you say, struggling to find a better word. “A power transmuter.”
You think back to how the fallen star had run on nothing but divine flame alone.
“Second Age machines run on fire. They probably used this to draw flame in to charge the machine when it was too cloudy outside to run on sunlight. Or maybe the sunlight wasn’t enough to power the entire train.”

“I have a really bad idea,” Beatrice says. You don’t even ask what it was. You’re thinking the same damn thing.


>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

>Just unwrap your lamp and...hit the train with it or something.

>Someone else can inspect the station, you need to be on your guard against the gargoyles!

>Nobody does anything until every gargoyle is dead.

>Punish Beatrice for even suggesting you desecrate an artefact.

>Other
>>
>>804706
>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

Shinkansen time?
>>
>>804706
>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?
>>
>>804706
>Just unwrap your lamp and...hit the train with it or something.
>>
>>804706
>>Someone else can inspect the station, you need to be on your guard against the gargoyles!
>>
>>804706
>Just unwrap your lamp and...hit the train with it or something.
>>
>Over an hour.
Fuck, alright that's it. No more than 30 minutes per post unless that post has more than one part. I can do it.
>>
>>804745
No worries, Ouro. Your posts are worth the wait.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

Looks like a tie between trying to use the charging station and just trying to apply the lamp directly. Evens for the former, odds the latter.
>>
>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

“Beatrice, keep watch.”
You make your way down the tunnel and past the recumbent train towards the station, the hypothetical power transmuter. Why else would it interface with the train’s power strip? You just hope that it’s still functional. They built their machines to last but this might be asking a little too much.

“Aye,” Beatrice wearily says. “And thanks, by the way.”

“No need.”

“Pardon?”

“No need to thank someone for what they’re expected to do.”

“...I don’t get it.”

Abe is already over by the charging station by the time you get there, the injured man resting awkwardly against it.
“I barely even saw it coming. Did you get hit by that last swoop?”

“No, I’m fine. See anything that we might be able to use?”

“Sort of?”
Abe beckons you over to where he’s standing. There are three holes in the side of the machine, long and dark tunnels that flare outwards as if something were meant to be placed into them. Abe wipes away the grime to reveal words carved into the machine, words none of you can read. But beneath them and above each of the three pipes are a series of symbols. One for each of them.

One symbol was a thick zigzag, a cartoonish lightning bolt. What does that have to do with anything?

The second symbol was that of a small flame.

The third symbol is that of a small set of railway tracks.

“Does it matter which tube you put it in?,” Abe asks.

“I hope not.”


>Lightning symbol.

>Fire symbol.

>Rail symbol.

>All at once.
>>
>>804895
>Rail symbol.
>>
>>804895
>>Rail symbol.
>>
>>804895
>Fire symbol.

>Rail symbol.
>>
>>804895
I suppose the
> rail symbol
Makes sense. Hopefully not just shunting our wick into the rails.
>>
>>804895
>Lightning symbol.
>>
>>804895
>Fire symbol
>>
>Rail symbol


“Just put the damn thing in!,” Beatrice hollers from the front of the tunnel. “It’s not like it’s going to fucking kill you if you choose the wrong one?”

“It might!,” you shout back at her.

“Whatever! Just do it quickly!”
The concrete of the roof twenty yards down the tunnel cracks, pieces falling to the ground as a giant toothless bat head with compound eyes worms its way in. Beatrice shoots it dead.
“Not all of them are going to be that stupid!”

You take out your wick and point it at the hole with the rail symbol. Should you just fire it up? Is that all it’ll take? It’s all the fallen star needed but that had been an abundance of divine flame. What if you waste all your Wick on this one and it’s not even the right choice?
It’s now or never.


>Burn 1 Wick.

>Burn 2 Wick.

>Burn 3 Wick.

>Unveil the Lamp
>>
>>805020
>Burn 1 Wick.
>>
>>805020
>3
Fuckit, also
> unveil the lamp when add soon as those gargs get in here.
>>
>>805020
>>Burn 1 Wick.
>>
>>805020
>Burn 1 Wick.
We kinda need all our Wick.
>>
>>805020
>Unveil the Lamp
>>
>>805020
>Burn 1 Wick.
>>
>>805092
Every time the Lamp is used, a fraction of our body is burnt up, a fraction of our life is used up.
>>
>>805114
Yeah I know. Every time we get mauled by 3 gargoyles our entire life gets used up.
>>
>>805114
I'm pretty sure that is only when the power of the lamp is actively used. Simply having it free shouldn't have any effect other than giving off true light.
>>
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Ugh sorry guys. Not feeling it right now, the words are there but it's like they just don't want to be written. I'll do an update much later tonight and then start at the usual time tomorrow for a short session before game day.
Sorry this whole thread has been so slow.
>>
>>805261
No worries. Nice topical flake snake you got there.
>>
>>805261
It's fine brosef, thanks for running!
>>
>Burn 1 Wick

Wick: 2/10

You focus your power as best you can and thrust the burning wick into the tube. The fire winks out almost immediately and you feel a peculiar sensation, a smaller twin to what you felt when you raised the star back into the sky. Like something is drinking from you, something that you would absorb everything you had if you’d let it.
The power transmuter shakes, trembling as something deep inside it begins to spin with a low and omnipresent drone.

The entire machine rattles as the ‘claw’ presses down upon the train’s power strip, each ‘finger’ at intervals along its length. Abe stares up at it.
“Did all of that really come from so little?”

You shake your head.
“Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it had some power stored, it might just have needed me to light it back up. Now stay quiet for a moment.”

You can hear the sound of a faint hum, a vibration moving through the train. Is it just you or does it glimmer just a little more? And then slowly, you see lights switch on and the dark black windows, while remaining almost opaque, begin to fill with a faint twilight glow.
It’s probably not as bright as the train should be but these days? You’ll take what you can get.
“We’re leaving!”

Doors all along the train’s side slide back with a faint hiss, almost as if it heard you. You can see red carpet and wood-paneled walls within the dim light.

“Good!,” Beatrice shouts, firing a shot at a spot of cracking concrete right in front of the tunnel’s doors.
“I don’t know how long I can keep playing games with these last few, they keep popping up and d-oh shit.”
The concrete cracks in three spots, surrounding her in a rough triangle.
“They’ve got pretty good hearing,” Beatrice mutters as she swallows, unsure of which to aim at. “Just get Abe on the train, Orion! I’ll be fine!”

“Bea, no!”
Abe staggers up beside you, still finding it hard to move with his petrified abdomen.
“Orion, you need to go help her. Forget about me.”

“And leave you to be picked up by one of these things?”
Beatrice swivels as the cracks surround her, creatures tapping away at the concrete around her in every direction as they cut off her escape route. The moment she runs is the moment they all emerge at once.
“Damn it Orion you boy-loving piece of shit! You already chose me once! Throw him on the damn train!”


>Grab Abe, drag him to the train and throw him in first. Then go back to help her.

>Run to Beatrice’s help first. Abe will be fine.

>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.

>Other
>>
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>>806209
Dropped my trip. This vote will stay open until I wake up tomorrow and call it.
>>
>>806209
>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together
>>
>>806209
>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.
We can't heal her with benedictions if she gets bitten
>>
>>806209
>>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.
>>
>>806209
>Run to Beatrice’s help first. Abe will be fine.
>>
>>806209
>Run to Beatrice’s help first. Abe will be fine.
They are surrounding her, not him, and also we won't be able to use Benedictions on her.
>>
Again, if we simply unwrap the lamp post, these fucks will turn into stone or die.
>>
>>806309
>>806209
This FFS doesn't even cost wick.
>>
>>806209
>Unwrap lamp post
jesus, we don't need to channel it or anything, just use the light.

....maybe give Beatrice some time to duck over somewhere, though.
>>
>>805143
Eh. It's not like we can't stick them with our sword.

>Run to Beatrice’s help first. Abe will be fine.
I don't think Bea understands what a Witchfinder is.
>>
>>806209
>Unwrap the lamppost
>>
>>806209
> whip yo lamppost out
But wait until at least on of them has fully broken through, don't want them just running away to eat concrete another day.
>>
>>806209
Fight together!
>>
Just reading the archive, this quest is ill.

But I have a question, what happens when someone eats metal?
>>
>>806907
I don't think it works for anybody but potential witches. That's why eatin' gunpowder only works for Bea.

(Speakin' of, what happens when somebody not susceptible eats dirt? Does anyone, Whispers or not, become a witch with the dirt-eating?)
>>
>>807051
As far as I can tell you have to be getting Whispered to to become a witch. It came up when we left the flame adept to die in the wastelands before deciding to kill her. Beatrice made an offhanded comment about gagging her so she couldn't eat any dirt and become a witch even though it would be highly unusual for the whispers to begin speaking to her.

The Whispers seem to be what start the process, eating the earth just finishes it. The Whispers impart the names and the names impart the powers the dirt just seems to be a sort of unholy Eucharist that transmutes the earth to flesh of the old gods inside the witches body.

Not sure if I helped. It seems like eating earth is the equivalent to signing a contract you are being offered, if there is no contract on the table you don't get shit for scribbling your name on a legal pad.
>>
>>806209
>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.
>>
>>806390
>>806209
Switching to unwrapping the lamppost. (Contingent on the idea that the passive use of the lamp's light won't burn us. If it does, I'm not changing my vote from swording the gargoyles.)
>>
>>807228
The only thing keeping it from burning us and everything near us is whatever it's wrapped in right now
>>
Just remembered we had an extra rechargeable 8/8 flame on our brow
And here I was getting worried
>>
Session begins in an hour, I overslept
>>
>>807239
So unwrapping it means immediate burnination? Bleh, better off swording them, then.
>>
>>807105
This is mostly correct but not quite. To become a witch you need to devour earth and then make a witch-sign while consenting to it and doing it of your own free will. The earth you eat empowers the witch-sign and you become a witch.
The Whispers are generally required because they convince people to make the decision and because they are one of the few sources that can give someone a witch-sign. Books that record witch-signs exist of course but outside of the Witch-finders collection they tend to get burned very quickly.

But someone who has seen enough witchcraft to have a witch-sign burned in their head can become a witch without ever needing the Whispers. That's why it's so dangerous to see the witch-sign and that's why every other Lamplighter order averts their gaze from a signing.

Witch-finders like Orion can identify witch-sign as it's being cast because they never looked away but their knowledge means they are only a single step from becoming witches themselves.
>>
>>807370
Theoretically, what would making the sign of the Wheel God while having a belly full of fire do?
>>
>>807370
>every other lamplighter order averts their gaze from a signing
That sounds like an excellent way to die in a fight, guess the witch-finders are the one that have to carry the others through
>>
>>807398
Well you don't have to look all the way away as if they were Medusa or something, just look at some other part of the witch that isn't her hands.
>>
>>807239
No, that isn't how it works.
>>
>>807421
Yes it is. Read the quest bro
>>
>>807388
Nothing. The Wheel God doesn't have a sign or at least, not in that way.
>>
>>807426
You should try the same.
>>
>>807439
It has a sign that is branded on Beatrice and our cloak, has none tried to make that sign to see if helps?
>>
Simply revealing the light has done no damage to us before. Only actively using the wick reserve from the post has caused us harm.
>>
>>807463
You can try to make the sign of a spoked wheel whose spokes extend past the rim with your hands if you want.
>>
>>807465
The only time the lamp post wick was used was when the satellite drained 30 wick to power back up. Just swinging it around and uncovering it doesn't use any wick but it has burnt the shot out of the general area and orions arms. Nobody was using its wick when it almost killed beatrice.
>>
>>807482
She's also a creature of the Earth
>>
>>807491
Whatever man you'll see the next time we use it
>>
>>807482
She was touching it, though.
>>
You grab Abe once more and run towards her. The witch has her back to you, still trying to point her gun at several spots at once so she doesn’t even notice you until it’s too late.
“What are you doing? Get out of here! I have a plan!”

“No. We fight together.”

The lamp-post slides off your back and clatters onto the ground as you slide to a stop. You eye it with unease. Unveiling it might cost you, even holding the lamp-post is enough to slowly burn you alive. But what if you just unwrap it and leave it on the ground. Won’t that help?


>Unwrap the Lamp.

>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.

>Activate your Spark.

>Other
>>
>>807561
>>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.
>>
Decided at the last minute to put this down to a vote since people seemed divided on the lamp issue.
>>
>>807561
Unwrap the lamp
>>
>>807561
>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.
>Activate your Spark.
>>
>>807561
>Unwrap the Lamp.
>>
>>807561
>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.
>>
>>807561
>>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.
The moment that doesn't seem to be working, unwrap the Lamp
>>
>>807561
>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.
>Activate your Spark.
>>
>Help whatever Beatrice’s plan is.

No, you think to yourself as you grab the package in one hand and drag it back across the ground. Not yet. Didn’t Beatrice say she had a plan? You doubt she’s the self-sacrificing type so she must probably thinks it works. Why else would someone as deplorable as her risk her life?
“Now would be a good time for that plan Beatrice.”

“Fucking hell, just wait for it you prick.”
She watches the ground nervously as she raises her free hand to her face, a line of gunpowder scattered across the back of her hand. She sighs and then pushes it to her nose, snorting it up with a disgusting sound not unlike that of an engine failing to start.
“Mmmmm mm,” she groans as an ugly purplish hue casts itself over her entire face. Swirls of black and ugly yellow mix in as she bleeds internally, a bruise that overflows into a sudden flush of red within her eyes and a streak of blood down her nostril.

Wasn’t she already on gunpowder still?

“Beatrice, we nee-”

Small chips of concrete spray up as all three gargoyles worm their way out of the ground at once, wisps of darkness clinging to their wormlike bodies as they begin to form their wings immediately. You hold out your wick, ready to draw power from your Spark…
The witch sneezes.

It’s not unlike her combustible breath, a phenomena you’ve seen before. But it’s only similar to it in the same way a mountain can be said to resemble a pebble. Fire jets out and cracks against the ground as all three of you are instantly surrounded by a ring of burning concrete. The fire is sticky, patches of fire stuck to nearby walls and sprayed across the ground in front of her.
And then the fire begins to explode, rushes of flame funneling up into the air as the gargoyles screech loud enough to give you a headache, each one petrifying itself to survive the blaze.

You smell blood and gunpowder and you very quickly realize what she’s done, how the fire is sticky and what substance lets it burn even on concrete. Beatrice’s blood is everywhere.

“Whee,” Beatrice says, the colour in her face paling and what little bruises are left going an unhealthy black. Her eyes are covered in a film of blood as she jitters from side to side.
“I-I-I-I. Take that! And there’s a lot more where that came from! Suck my dick, gargoyles!”

You recognize this from Augustine. Too much powder makes her hyperactive. You grab hold of her and while your hand is by her shoulder you feel the pulse upon her neck. It’s fluttering almost five times a second.

“Let go of me invert! You don’t even know how to hold a lady!”
She looks you in the eye, her pupils dilated deep beneath the skein of blood.

You just sigh and pick her up, shouldering both her and Abe while tying the lamp-post back on. Sometimes your burden is heavier than most.

“Bea,” Abe says. “What are you doing? Are you okay?”


1/2
>>
>>807702
“Hahahahaha,” Beatrice says, mostly just verbalising the sound of laughter than actually laughing. “When this wears off I’m going to die!”

You drag them aboard the train, the doors sliding shut behind you. The three of you are now standing in a luxurious compartment, walls lined with wood and the floor covered in thick red carpet. This compartment is filled with seats and tables carved from some kind of white material, the seats heavily cushioned.
You sit Beatrice down and she immediately flops onto the table like a broken puppet, her face leaving a smear of blood behind.

"It's alright," Abe says. "I'm fine. I can walk by myself."
His side seizes up as he tries to sit down and he nearly collapses.
"Just fine."

>Tend to Beatrice.

>Start cleansing Abe.

>Tell Abe to take care of Beatrice if he can until she comes down. You need to get this train moving.

>Other
>>
>>807709
>Tend to Beatrice.
>>
>>807709
Man it sucks not being able to heal her with benedictions. Maybe we can combine some of our witchy knowledge with our benedictions to come up with something to help though.
>>
>>807709
>>Start cleansing Abe.
>Once I heal you I am going to need your help getting her taken care of. My benedictions will not help her.
>>
>>807721
Also smash/shoot the gargoyles while we can so they don't come back.
>>
>>807714
>Tend to Beatrice.
Woops meant to put this in there
>>
>>807709
>Tell Abe to take care of Beatrice if he can until she comes down. You need to get this train moving.
>>
>>807561
>>Other
>Sword.
>>
>>807709
>>Start cleansing Abe.
>>807751
Whoops, too late.
>>
I know I'll get accused of waifufaggotry but Abe isn't really in danger of dying right now. Beatrice is all fucked up.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

Looks like a tie between Beatrice and Abe. Evens the former, odds the latter.
>>
>>807709
>Tend to Beatrice.
>>
>>807767
Praise the Wheel God's dice.
>>
>>807762
I think Bea would prefer if we tended to him. She's tired of being chosen all the time.
>>
>>807787
Rules of triage say she needs to be seen first in this case. Abe's injury is similar to having a few cracked ribs that aren't threatening to pierce his lungs. Painful and inconvient sure but Bea has internal bleeding and is ODing.
>>
>>807799
Not much we can do for her.
>>
>Tend to Beatrice.


You help Abe to a seat and after making sure he’s seated in such a way that doesn’t grind his stone parts against the rest of his body you leave him to sit across from Beatrice. The witch is slumped over but is far from still, constantly fidgeting and twitching despite not going anywhere.
“Let’s see to you first. What am I supposed to do about you?”

“Nothing,” Beatrice says with a slight giggle. “I’m fine. I’ve just uh, overclocked my engine is all. Boosted it up. Haha. Go make sure Abe is fine.”

“I am fine,” Abraham calls from further up the carriage.

“Like it or not,” you say, “I do actually have some medical training. And what I was taught back then was to focus on the one who needed help most. Abe is, at the very least, stable. You are not.”

“I’m never stable. This is how I work, Orion. Gunpowder kills me and the only way to stop it is more gunpowder. Right now I’m at my upper limit. Nothing wrong with me except some some some blood problems.”

“You’re not in your right mind.”

“That too! I’ve got a pinch and a snort in me.”

“Just tell me how to make sure you stay alive!”

“What’s wrong? What, you care about me or something? Hah! No, what’s going to happen is that sooner or later all this is going to flip back in the other direction. And when it does I’ll fall un-unc-unco-un...I’ll knock myself out from the inside and I’ll probably die, So just make sure I stay awake and give me a little bit more gunpowder when I need it so I don’t hit total rock bottom when the flip comes.”

“I’m not sure I approve of that.”

“Welllllll, what else do you have? Can’t cure me with magic. I live on a seesaw, bitch. It’s how I roll.”
The witch rocks back and forth. Her neck has bruised.
“Why do you care, anyway? Surprised you didn’t just leave me here ‘til last since you think I’m such a piece of garbage.”


>”Because you needed help.”

>”You are a useful tool.”

>”You’ve been an excellent companion.”

>”You don’t deserve this. That’s why.”

>It’d be dangerous if you exploded while we were still in the compartment with you.”

>”A corpse is even less use than a witch.”

>Other
>>
>>807838
>”Because you needed help.”
>”You’ve been an excellent companion.”
>>
>>807838
"I appreciate your presence. In general, anyway."
>>
>>807838
>It’d be dangerous if you exploded while we were still in the compartment with you.”
>>
>>807838
>>”Because you needed help.”
>”You’ve been an excellent companion... for a witch.”
>>
>>807850
Please pretend that had a >
>>
>>807838
>”You don’t deserve this. That’s why.”
>”You’ve been an excellent companion.”
Give her a shitload of water to drink. Ideally we'd give her fluid via IV to replace lost blood volume and dilute the toxins but I'm not sure thats in orions wheelhouse
>>
>>807838
>”Because you needed help.”
>”A corpse is even less use than a witch.”
>>
>>807838
>"It’d be dangerous if you exploded while we were still in the compartment with you.”
>>
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>>807838
>Bea's character is based on Ouro's experiences with having meth addicts living down the road from him for years
>>
>>807910
>both explode eventually
It's like poetry, it rhymes
>>
>”Because you needed help.”
>”You’ve been an excellent companion.”


“Because you need help. It’s my duty to bring light to the darkness, no matter how thick or heavy the darkness grows. The world is only as bad as we let it become. And besides, you’ve been an excellent companion...for a witch.”

Beatrice sighs, her breath coming in short and ragged. She’s almost hyperventilating.
“Great. Thanks.”

“And I appreciate your presence. In general anyway.”
You pass her your waterskin.

“What’s this for? I’ve already got my own.”

“You sprayed blood over half the tunnel out there. You need water.”

“Water don’t run in my veins!”

“Just drink it. It would be dangerous if you exploded while we were still in the compartment with you.”
You stand, wandering back down the compartment towards Abe. And as you do, you pass the doors. Shouldn’t you go outside and execute those gargoyles while you still can. But the doors won’t open, they’re sealed shut.
Come to think of it, how had the doors known to shut after you all piled on board? Could it sense you? Could it also sense there were no more passengers coming?

“Watch what you say,” Beatrice calls out. “I might just explode after allllllllwoah what is that?”

The floor shakes beneath your feet, the entire train rising up. Running to the window you can see the silver tracks light up, tiny lines of runes that you had assumed to just be there to preserve it shining with a light you thought once lost. The broken doors in the tunnel slowly swing open.
And then, with a jolt so small that you barely feel it, the train moves and the world changes.

The tunnel vanishes and you blitz through the ruined station in less than five seconds. You keep your eyes on the horizon but even that shifts quickly as you watch, such is the speed you’re travelling. A distant hum vibrates through the entire carriage.

“God almighty,” Abe swears. “This isn’t anything like the last one!”

You walk down the carriage and at the very far end you spy a window upon the wall that is not a window at all. A false window like the one on the Starbreaker. It slowly comes to life with a flickering image of a long green line and a red dot passing down it.
Ancient letters flash over it but you cannot read it at all.

“How did it know? I haven’t even touched the engine yet!”

A voice booms through the carriage, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. It speaks loudly and slowly and you can’t understand a word.
“What magic is this?”

The voice plays again, the words different but still incomprehensible.

“Haha,” Beatrice says lightly. “It’s almost like it replied to you.”

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

The voice speaks again but only a few short words. And then you hear a chime and the voice returns.
“Salutations! You appear to be mostly human. Welcome to the Dis Express’ maiden voyage!”

“Who are you?”

1/2
>>
>>807974
“Oh my god,” Beatrice says at the same time. “They gave the train a brain.”

“I am the Sleeper Rail,” the train speaks. “It is a pun you see. A play on words that fortunately persists even in this crude dialect. And now I have awoken.”

This isn’t just a relic-train. You’d heard that the Second Age had built men of metal who could speak as well as any man but you’d always assumed they’d be the same shape as you. But why would they have to be? This entire train is alive!

“En-route to Dis. Estimated time of arrival: One hour.”


>”What are you?”

>”What do you know? Can you see outside?”

>”How fast are you?”

>”What do you mean, mostly human?”

>"How can you speak our tongue?"

>Say something else (Specify)

>Don’t speak to the train right now. Others need your help.

>Other
>>
>>807988
>”What are you?”
>”What do you know? Can you see outside?”
>"How can you speak our tongue?"
>>
>>807988
>>”What do you mean, mostly human?”
>"How can you speak our tongue?"
>Do you have any knowledge or information that may help my wounded companions?
>>
>>807988
>”What do you mean, mostly human?”
>>
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Anyway with that done I have to go to game day. I'll pick this up tomorrow! See ya then!
>>
>>807988
>”What do you know? Can you see outside?”
>”What do you mean, mostly human?”
>>
>>808012
Thanks for running!
>>
>>807988
>"Do you have medical supplies?"
>"Tell me about your crafters."
>"What species other than human were you built to serve?"
>>
Medical supplies would be nice right about now.
>>
>>808052
Write in then
>>
>>807988

>”What are you?”

>”What do you know? Can you see outside?”

>”How fast are you?”

>”What do you mean, mostly human?”

>"How can you speak our tongue?"
>>
>>808058
I did, here. >>808048
It's strange, was the train built to service witches, too? Or gargoyles? Also, we might want some history on the train. And medical supplies.
>>
>>807988
>"Tell me about your crafters."
Why the fuck did they build you and never take you for a spin?
>>
>>808088
Oooh, good question.
>>
>>808088
I bet they finished it right before some apocalypse happened
>>
>>807474
Get me a hammer and some sticks for splints afterwards, I am sure we can make this work!
>>
>>807988
>Other
We should also ask the train if it can teach us the language of the Second men
>>
>>808270
In an hour?
>>
>>808270
We could ask the train if it can read, translate the starbreaker for us.
>>
>>808282
It might be able to produce a guide to the language, since it is apparently able to calculate the difference between the two.
>>
>>807988
I'm adding in the question:
>"Can you read and translate?"
>Try to get it to translate the Starbreaker.
>>
>>808088
>eighty eighty eighty-eight

Checkity-checked.
>>
>>807988
> Does it have any emergency medical supplies

First aid kits yo.
>>
>>808952
Guess we'll find out what the expiration date on the Second Age aspirine is.
>>
>>809037
Just wait, turns out all second age medicine is based around ..... Sexual Healing *bow chicka bow wow and other lewd music starts playing as the lights dim and a partition raised between orion and beatrice, and Abe to give some privacy.*

Pretty sure Orion would probably freak the hell out about that.
>>
>>809041
>>809041
But Bea would probably be all "Oh yeah! Finally! Give me that musclely holier than though wang already foxy grandpa!"
>>
>>809041
Pretty sure he'd have a heart attack.


>>809042
Cringe/10 also not enough cursing
>>
The upcoming session will probably be a bit late, I only just got back from game day and I'm not quite ready to go to sleep yet.
Election talk really prolonged the whole thing and while I will not be affected in any sense save economically and enjoy the tarnishment of the neoliberal elite, the thought of a dear american friend of mine who relies on public healthcare to live turns my stomach. Hopefully nothing will come of it but it troubles my sleep greatly regardless.
>>
>>809121
Hope your buddy will be okay. I too am enjoying liberalist tears. Get some rest Ouro things will turn out alright.
>>
>>807988
Can we get the train to slow down to recharge our Wick?
>>
>>809083
Oh please, Beatrice talks so dirty all the time I am sure her bedroom voice is all "P-please p-put yo-your p-p-p-p-peeeeniss in my v-va-va-vagina *hides face in shame*"

Just messing around though, With recent char development OrionxBea is possible but HIGHLY unlikely, MAYBE if she got turned human, but so long as she is a witch it is like 90% NO on the happening scale.

I mean, after learning her back story a chance at romance went from a solid irrevocable immutable ZERO PERCENT to a "meh, I could see it happening somewhere in the multiverse, eventually" like 1-5% chance. More of a change from "It absolutely could never happen" to "It absolutely should never happen!"
>>
>>809187
Yeah, Either she needs to be human, or becomes a legitimate fire equivalent to a fire witch (which is holy and thus bangable) instead of a witch gaming the system. Even then it would take an awful fucking lot to get Orion to break his vows. Abe x Bea would be much more likely.
>>
>>809192
Ugh. AbexBea, never.
>>
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Bad news. It was way too fucking hot to sleep this night and now it's only getting hotter since the sun is well and truly out already. Might postpone this to tomorrow.
Sorry.
>>
>>809344
Do you have a paypal? I can send you money to buy AC, or a fan. Can't pay for electricity of course.
>>
>>809351
Woah anon, there's no need to go that far. I'll be just fine, I'll probably just skip today. It's honestly what I get for not trying to sleep until 2am. By then it was already too hot.
>>
>>809364
Alright. Just, y'know, don't expire...
>>
>>809364
Can you do a little now while you are awake and semi-coherent? or ahs the heat and lack of sleep overloaded your poor serpentine body?
>>
>>809371
My bones feel like spaghetti
>>
>>809401
How would heat turn you bones limp and noodly? Have you run into noodler?
>>
Does this quest remind anyone else of "The Dark Tower" series? I"m getting serious vibes.
This train part is especially getting to me.
>>
>>810143
I've never actually read the series. I've been meaning to start it but it's always checked out at the library before I can get to it.
>>
>>809187
>>809192

People like you are why we keep having other autists vote to be such a prick to her.

Be like Gideon.

Be Bromosexual.

Get shit done.
>>
>>811095
because that is what Orion is

a social introvert with a bible thumper upringing that taught him that witches are the worst thing ever
>>
>>811181
Not being an excessive prick, but a sexually repressed PTSD case yes. I don't think he's even particularly religious from what we've seen of him so far, in the "devout" sense so much as he is in the "fuck evil, fuck the dark, fuck those who hold to it" sense.

I don't see him ever giving Beatrice a pass for being a witch, but I don't see him punishing her for other than her actions.
>>
>>811181
Also, re: Social Invert

Seems he was actually pretty extroverted and sociable before, you know, the woman he loved sold her soul to darkness and made him sacrifice his town for the life of his best friend who she then killed anyways.

Honestly, if it wasn't for that last part she might have gotten away with it.

Kind of feel the town that let her get raped all the time rather deserved it though.
>>
>>810143
Yeah.
>>
>>811191
>I don't see him ever giving Beatrice a pass for being a witch, but I don't see him punishing her for other than her actions

This is exactly why she wa getting hit idiot, we weren't being excessive in punishment except in your step psuedo-modern sensesibility

>Seems he was actually pretty extroverted and sociable before, you know,

Except for the small circle of friends

>Kind of feel the town that let her get raped all the time rather deserved it though.

kind of hard to police an entire town, besides this is around enlightenment/industrial era style society so its not surprising women get shit on
>>
>>811095
Who is Gideon? What does bromosexual even mean?
>>
This is a pretty cool Dark Souls quest.
>>
Session in an hour!
>>
>>812061
>five minutes late
FLAKEY.png
>>
>>812244
I've got bad news for you anon.
>>
>>812263
NOOOOOOOO

by the way I will also totally buy you a fan
>>
>”What do you know? Can you see outside?”
>"How can you speak our tongue?"
>”What do you mean, mostly human?”
>Ask for help regarding wounds.

“One hour?,” Abe echoes. “Have you two seen how fast it’s going right now?”
He remains seated as best he can but leans up against the window, his face almost pressed to it.

“I have,” you say, staring at the false window. You’re not sure that I like talking to something without a face. How are you supposed to address a train?
“You said we appeared ‘mostly human’. What do you mean by that?”

“Oh dear,” the Sleeper says, its tone unchanging. “I should have been more polite in my choice of words. But it is true that you appear to be similar to the humans who created me. Same basic number of limbs, the shape is all there. Much denser and thicker however and a darker skin tone with evidence of severe degradation. Some distortion of facial features. A sacrifice of beauty for a hardier form. Function over form. Are you all samples of the foretold Third Men?”

“Correct.”
Does it not even know that the Second Age has ended?

“Sad. If correct there should also be some degradation of mental function as well. Not as intelligent or as beautiful as my creators and yet you lack the lumpen might of the First who were similarly mentally impaired. Every function instead bent to base survival. The humble cockroach of all the many variations of humanity.”

Everything Sleeper is saying is correct but there’s something in the way that it says it that makes your hackles rise just a little. It can’t be the tone, it stays invariably mechanical.

“Don’t appreciate being called a retard, train.”
Unlike you, Beatrice actually voices her concerns. She’s still bent over her table riding high and getting ready to crash.

“I used no such word.”

“What do you know about the current era? Can you see outside?”

“Of course I can see outside. And trust me, I am fully aware that the world appears to be ending. No solar power to speak of. The prophecies seem to have gone awry.”

“They have. It’s to do with Dis.”

“Naturally. Dis is a loathsome place. But excuse me if I’m wrong, wasn’t safeguarding the world in the interim between the golden times of old and the golden age yet to come your entire duty? What about that?”

“I don’t believe it was any fault of-”

“I mean,” Sleeper says, voice crackling through means you cannot determine. “You people really dropped the ball on this one, didn’t you? All you had to do was survive.”

While still not wrong, you can’t help but feel that the train is beginning to cross the line.
“That’s irrelevant and disingenuous besides.”

“Nice,” Beatrice mutters. “Didn’t know you knew a word that big.”

“Putting all that behind us, how did you come to speak our tongue? The lettering upon your side and upon this screen in the wall are foreign to me.”

1/2
>>
>>812263
can you say you're cancelling on twitter then?
>>
>>812396
AHAHAHA YES
>>
>>812396
I'm a clever train
I have quite a big brain
>>
>>812396
“You don’t have to worry about what the screen says,” Sleeper says. “I traced your dialect to a descended variant of a once-common dialect. Of course that doesn’t account for who knows how many centuries worth of differentiation but I am very smart about such things. Please forgive any improper grammar or tone issues that may arise from the difference.”

“I see. Do you have any medicine onboard? Or anything else that can help us? Both of my companions are in a bad state.”

“Your male friend appears to be suffering from a gargoyle bite that has already been purged. I have nothing aboard for that. I do not understand what is happening to your female friend.”

“Nobody does,” Beatrice says glumly.

“I do have bandages in a compartment further up. They might prevent her from leaking further.”

“I just need more gunpowder soon is all.”

“There is something very wrong with your female friend.”


>”She’s just delusional. Pay her words no mind.”

>Explain her condition to Sleeper. Perhaps he can help.

>Go get those bandages.

>”I would like for you to be more polite in future.”

>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.

>Start the slow process of purging Abe’s affliction.

>Maybe you have time to relight your Wick if you’re quick about it.

>Ask Sleeper something else (Specify)

>Other
>>
>>812406
>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.
>Explain her condition to Sleeper. Perhaps he can help.
Or perhaps he knows anything we don't.
>Start the slow process of purging Abe’s affliction.
>>
>>812406
>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.
>Ask sleeper if it has anything that my help us relight our wick faster or make it stronger.
>”I would like for you to be more polite in future.”
>Maybe you have time to relight your Wick if you’re quick about it.
>>
>>812406
Is Abe still fully functional in this state? If so
> relight your wick
Who knows what is waiting at the terminus
>>
>>812406
>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.
>>
>>812406
>Maybe you have time to relight your Wick if you’re quick about it.
Since witches really fucked over the second age people we probably shouldn't explain Beatrice
>>
>>812406

>Explain her condition to Sleeper. Perhaps he can help.
>Ask Sleeper something else (Specify)
"If I provide you with the Third Men's writing system, could you create a manuscript that corresponds the Third Men's and Second Men's writing system? And since you appear to speak our language, could you give us a Second-Third men dictionary?"
>>
>>812397
When I said I had bad news I meant it was going to be even later.

>>812415
He is semi-functional. None of his limbs have been petrified but his stone parts rubbing against the rest of him as he moves is quite painful.
>>
>>812406
>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.
>Start the slow process of purging Abe’s affliction.
>>
>>812406
>>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.
>>Start the slow process of purging Abe’s affliction.
>>Ask Sleeper something else (Specify)
>"Can you read this Starbreaker for me? Please don't tell anyone else about it."
>>
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>>812514
People. This is our ONLY SHOT at figuring out the Starbreaker. Don't you think it's worth checking out?
>>
Alright, calling it for asking why it wasn't used, purging Abe and relighting.
>>
>>812521
>>812524

Consider this a vote for Starbreaker info if I can't be back in time.
>>
>>812521
Good idea. Supportan.
>>
>>812521
Oh fug, forgot about that
>>
>>811336
>This is exactly why she wa getting hit idiot, we weren't being excessive in punishment except in your step psuedo-modern sensesibility

Bullshit. You have some sort of romanticized view of pre-modern societies.

Do you get your information from Tumblr or something?

Casual abuse like that was by far the exception rather than the rule.

Nevermind the inherent flaw in insisting a Fantasy World be historically "accurate".
>>
>Ask Sleeper why it was never once used.
>Start the slow process of purging Abe’s affliction.
>Maybe you have time to relight your Wick if you’re quick about it.

“Yes,” you say. “There is. But it isn’t relevant.”
There’s something else that’s been niggling at you, worrying away at the corner of your mind.
“You are well-built and beautiful and it is apparent just how fast you are. And yet you say that this is your maiden voyage? Why were you never used?”

“First voyage with passengers at any rate,” Sleeper says. “But alas, the Dis Express never truly came to fruition. Dis itself resented the idea and progress was hard. This will be the first true journey. And perhaps the last.”

“Right. Do you understand all Second Age dialects?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”
You drag the Starbreaker over, popping it open and showing the train the strange green text and starmaps that open once you begin tapping the keys.
“Do you know what this is?”

“I do not.”

Blast.
“But can you at least read it?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”
You set the Starbreaker down on the same table as Beatrice.
“Bea, please help Sleeper look through this device. I must tend to Abe.”

“Whatever,” she groans, hugging her little barrel of gunpowder to herself. “If I don’t die anyway.”

You walk back across the compartment and sit by Abe, inspecting the vein of black marble that runs down the side of his abdomen. Purifying him is going to take many Cleanses. You might as well get started.

Wick: 1/10



Wick: 0/10

The stone has retreated just a few inches. Do you have time to recharge your Wick? You can probably handle it within an hour.

“Sleeper, can you open the door? I wish to take an empty compartment to myself.”
You prefer to be alone while meditating or at the very least, outside of disruptive influence. The door to the next compartment opens and you step through, the door sliding shut behind you. Here will do just nicely.


>Roll 1d6. The best of the first 3 shall be chosen and will show how much Wick has been regenerated.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>812596
check my six
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>812596
Why are we in such a hurry to abandon the train? Can't we get it to stop for a while?
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>812596
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>812596
>>
>>812614
NICE
>>
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>6

You brace your wick across your knees and begin to focus…

***

“Excuse me?”

“Excuse me? Young lady? I am going to need your help in deciphering the contents of this computer.”

What the fuck is a computer?
You look up blearily, your vision tinged by a faint haze of red. You currently feel fantastic and yet also feel like shit simultaneously. Such is life, isn’t it? On one hand you feel like you’re bursting with vim and vigor! Like you should be getting up and dancing ‘round a fucking maypole. But on the other hand you are continually aware of your own degradation and of the heavy blood you can feel swilling around your own head like an over-full wine glass. So you’re just sitting down even though your heart’s still racing a mile a minute and you feel like ripping off your own skin or at least doing something, you can’t just sit here you can’t you can’t you can’t you can’t you can’t-
Ugh.

Needless to say, you aren’t Orion. He’s somewhere else tending to his dick. Or Wick. Same difference. Your name is Beatrice Montgomery and you are currently flying high in the same way that someone falling off a cliff is.
You’re rude, crude and volatile. Literally volatile, if you’re not careful you’re liable to explode. You spend most of your time being grumpy and wishing that other people would leave you alone. You also, somewhat paradoxically, want to be the hero. That’s why you’re here.

You’re feeling pretty fidgety, having jumped up high upon your personal scale. And while that’s good for now you’re more or less doomed to swing back the other way soon enough. Maybe lethally so.

>Beatrice works along a dice modifier scale that is constantly being applied to all her physical actions save those related to shooting. This scale runs from -6 to +6 and has been seen in previous Collective Effort rolls. Taking gunpowder normally alters her modifier by +2, a bonus that will eventually flip and reverse to a -2 penalty. Snorting gunpowder does the same but by a +4. If left alone Beatrice tends to stabilize at a -2, her default state of feeling like absolute shit. The lower the modifier the worse she feels and if she ever hits -6 she falls unconscious and possibly dies in her sleep. The modifier going into the positive is also unpleasant, prompting brief fits of hyperactivity and strained heart activity. The higher the modifier goes into the positive, the quicker it will decay and flip into a penalty. Beatrice gains 2 charges every time her modifier changes by 1 in either direction. These charges can be used for a number of shitty techniques that make her feel bad and also shooting her gun which makes her feel good.

>Current modifier is +6.

You could probably beat Orion in an arm-wrestling contest right now if you really wanted but doing so would probably twist your entire arm into one big bruise. Right now your internal bleeding is mostly contained to where it should be.
1/2
>>
>>812707
“Excuse me?”

Oh right. Orion wants you to talk to this train about the Starbreaker.


>Tell the train to fuck off, you’ll do it soon.

>Go talk to Abe. You’re curious about his shooting.

>Tell the train to fuck off. Orion can do it in his own damn time.

>Ask Sleeper a question. (Specify)

>Release some pent-up energy. Rip a cushion apart or something.

>Other
>>
>>812711
>>Ask Sleeper a question. (Specify)

See if it knows about Witches and Witchcraft.

Do not tell it you are a Witch.
>>
>>812707
OH BOY

>>812711
>>812714
This.
>>
>>812711
>>812714
and
>Go talk to Abe. You’re curious about his shooting.
>>
>>812711
>Just help it with the Starbreaker. Maybe you can put back the stars! Go down in history as the rekindler of the stars! Heheh.
>>
>>812711
>>Tell the train to fuck off, you’ll do it soon.
>>
>>812711
>>812747
Seconding
>>
Why aren't we trying to figure out Starkiller? Isn't 'harnessing the powers of the stars!' heroic enough for Bea?
>>
>>812759
She's high and can't sit still
>>
>>812760
That's why Ouro charswitched us!

>>812711
I KNOW YOUR GAME
>>
>>812714
Supporting
>>
inb4 it says 'What's a witch?'

Unused Second Age Train, buddies. They didn't see the advent of witches coming.
>>
>>812711
>Other
It's a thing that can control the stars. I'm sure you can figure it out from there if you are so smart.
Then
>Go talk to Abe. You’re curious about his shooting.
But part way through his reply
>Release some pent-up energy. Rip a cushion apart or something.
Maybe kick the wall and hurt our foot.
>>
>Ask Sleeper a question.


You sigh and swivel the Starbreaker around, paging through the streams of green text and maps of stars in the sky. Currently it’s only detecting one star. Or at least that’s you think that single little dot means. You wish Orion had finished reading through Zeno’s notes before getting them all waterlogged and useless.
“Is this good? Can you see it?”

“Yes.”

“How do you see anything? At all?”

“Each of my carriages comes with many cameras.”

What’s a camera? Does it mean like a photograph? That seems really stupid and you don’t want to look stupid in front of the train that’s already called you a retard so you don’t ask it.
“Neato.”
You fidget in your chair before trapping both your hands beneath your legs. You need to stop that.
“Well tell me when you need to me scroll down or whatever.”

“I will.”

“So...Second Age, huh? I hear you were all bunch of pussies..”
No, that is probably not the right thing to say.

“I cannot comment on that.”

“I mean, uh, how do you feel about witches?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Witches. Witch. Witchcraft. Witchy witching witches.”

“I’m sorry, we appear to be having dialect troubles. Does your word mean anything about bending? Or perhaps speaking?”

Huh. So he knows the etymology but not the word itself. Makes sense.


>”No reason. Now tell me what you’ve got from the Starbreaker.”

>Go talk to Abe instead.

>Tell it what a witch is.

>Lie to it about what a witch is. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?

>”Are you happy to be going to Dis?”

>Ask it about Lamplighters.

>Fidget out of all control.

>Other
>>
>>812810
>”Are you happy to be going to Dis?”
>Fidget out of all control.
>”No reason. Now tell me what you’ve got from the Starbreaker.”
>>
>>812810
>>Ask it about Lamplighters.
>Were there ever female Lamplighters?
>>
>>812810
>”No reason. Now tell me what you’ve got from the Starbreaker.”
>”Are you happy to be going to Dis?”
>>
>>812810
>”No reason. Now tell me what you’ve got from the Starbreaker.”
>Ask it about Lamplighters.
>”Are you happy to be going to Dis?”
>>
>>812810
>Tell it what a witch is.
People who eat earth and consort with the old gods.
>>
>>812810
>>812816
Seconding
>>
>>812810
>Fidget out of all control.
>Ask it about lamplighters

Playing as Bea is looking to be fun

I mean we get to basically rp a bipolar hyperactive man/woman child
>>
>”No reason. Now tell me what you’ve got from the Starbreaker.”
>Ask it about Lamplighters.
>”Are you happy to be going to Dis?”


“No reason, here check out the star-map section. There’s only one!”

“Indeed. There used to be many more.”

It really doesn’t know about witches! That makes sense, this thing predates the Sundering and if what you recall Orion telling you about the mythical Dis Express was true the entire project was probably mothballed long before that.
“Well don’t worry. Witch isn’t that important of a word. What about Lamplighters? Do you know what they are?”

“Of course I do. A group of civil servants who only employ Flame Artists. They’re a bit of a laughing stock to be perfectly honest. Back when I was built the central lamp-posts were barely needed and the fact that so many of them had formed up into their little cult made them an easy butt of jokes. But still, they perform their service to society in the same I do. Or at least the same way I was meant to.”

“A cult?”

“Oh yes, I suppose times are different now. Do you even have Lamplighters anymore? Well back in my day they had begun to cluster into peculiarly dogmatic beliefs, denying themselves pleasure and all manner of things and preaching about the coming end of the Age. It didn’t make them very popular.”

Oh my god. It’s just as you’d been told. You’re not entirely sure how to feel about this but at the very least you’ve finally met someone who isn’t hostile and yet doesn’t fucking wank all over the ground the Lamplighters walk on. Refreshing.
Maybe Sleeper isn’t so bad after all.
“Were there any female Lamplighters?”

“What an odd question, of course there was. It was just a job. Though I believe I once heard that the cult members were male only.”

Interesting. Did the stigma on women only come about because of witches? Or was the Second Age still mostly like your own when it came to telling people what to do, just a little freer? Hearing this actually makes you feel a little upset.
There could have been Lamplighter women. The mere fact that now you know there could have been but isn’t bothers you much more than it should. Why do you care? You’re probably just too fucking hopped up still!
“Fuck.”

“I do not recognise that word either.”

“Whatever.”
You fidget a little but not too hard. No need to lose control until you come down.
“You must be happy to be going to Dis.”

“What makes you think that?”

“This full-speed no brakes no stopping deal. You seem real eager.”

“Oh, eager is certainly a word you could use to describe it. But it is not because I am fond of Dis.”

“Aren’t you?”


1/2
>>
>>812928
“No. I hate Dis. I hate it and every living creature that calls itself a resident. They are those who turn their eyes from God. They interfered with the construction of this rail so many times! Every time I run down it I think to myself how much of a miracle it is that even some still survives. But this is my function. I must complete my function.”

“Haha okay. How do you feel about stopping then? Just in case we need to do it to heal Abe properly or whatever.”

“No. This is the Dis Express. An Express does not stop.”

“Fair enough. Now tell me what you’ve got from the Starbreaker. If Orion finishes his meditation and it’s not done he’s going to be pissed.”
He wouldn’t hit you again after all this, would he? He believes in you now.

“The Starbreaker is not its real name. It is the SCCT-23. Satellite Command & Control Terminal #23. It appears to be connected to the master system that receives reports from the satellites above and can issue orders in turn. This is not a device to be handled lightly and in my time, would be locked up and found only in important spaceports as an emergency override system. How did you get your hands on this?”


“I don’t know. Found it from a guy.”

>Ask him more about the Starbreaker. What does this thing mean? And this thing?

>”You’re not so bad for a train.”

>”Can you PLEASE stop?”

>Tell it about the Third Age.

>Talk to Abe.

>Ask something else (Specify)

>Other
>>
>>812932
>Ask him more about the Starbreaker. What does this thing mean? And this thing?
>”You’re not so bad for a train.”
>Can you please slow down? TO give us more time to be ready and to make sure the DIs people haven't damaged your rails?
>Tell it about the Third Age.
>>
>>812932
>>Ask him more about the Starbreaker. What does this thing mean? And this thing?
>>Tell it about the Third Age.
>>”Can you PLEASE stop?”
>>
>>812932
>Tell it about the Third Age

>Ask something else (Specify)

Ask if it can talk with other artifacts from the second age, and also if it can leave the train.
>>
>>812932
Also
>"What's a satellite?"
>>
>>812932
Oh, and also make sure to get more heretical information on the Second Age and Lamplighters and ask it to talk to Orion about it to really tweak him off without getting hit.
>>
>>812954
This too.
>>
>>812950
>>812932
Especially this.
>>
>>812932

>>812945
>>812954
Backing
>>
>>812945
>>812954
Supporting
>>
>Ask him more about the Starbreaker. What does this thing mean? And this thing?
>Tell it about the Third Age.
>”Can you PLEASE stop?”
>Plumb it for information that’ll make Orion angry.

“Look, I know you’re the Express train and all but can you at least please slow down? Maybe give us some more time to prepare to make sure that the people of Dis haven’t damaged your rails?”

“The rails are fine. I know this. And it is not my function to stop. It is my function to take passengers to Dis.”

“Uhhh. I’ll talk to you about this more later.”
Is it just you or is Sleeper starting to sound a little strained? There was definitely something weird it just told you a minute or so ago but you can’t remember, your brain is too addled. You look over to the map of the rail being displayed on the screen on the wall. The little red blip is still moving along nicely and those red words are still flashing even though you can’t possibly read them.
“We have a lot to talk about. But first can you tell me more about the Starbreaker?”

‘The SCCT-23.”

“The Starbreaker, yeah. What does it say after I do this?”
You push the first button in the sequence that Zeno and his goons had blindly memorized, the digital incantation to felling the stars. You’d like to visit a star someday.

“That is a selection screen targeting satellites.”

“And if I do this?”
You select the only star you can see in the star-mop, clicking the right button on the window that pops up. Only...hold on. You never noticed before but the big word that shows on top of the little window that comes up during this part is the same as the flashing word on Sleeper’s little screen.
“Wait. What does this word say? Just this one here.”

“That one? Take your finger off of it. It says ‘Warning.’”

Warning?
You look back to the screen.
A warning about what?

“Hey Sleeper, why does th...thiiiii..oh God.”

>+5

“Are you alright. What is wrong with you?”

>+4

Oh shit, you’re tilting back. The flip’s come!

>+3
>+2
>+1

>Charges: 10

You reach for your barrel of gunpowder but it slips out of your suddenly weak hands and falls to the floor. Oh God. Oh God. You need more powder!
You try to get up and chase it as it rolls down the aisle but..

>0

>-1

>Charges: 14

Everything’s going blurry, your thoughts and words thickening inside of your skull. Why are you so slow? Where’s your gun? You need your gun. You pull out your pistol, priming it instantly without the need for gunpowder with the use of a single charge.
Wait. What are you supposed to use this for? You can’t shoot the barrel. You need it.

>-2

The conflicted feelings about whether you feel like shit or not arel long gone. You definitely feel like shit.


>Call for help.

>Chase the barrel now before you get worse!

>Find a substitute.

>Other
>>
>>813100
>Call for help.
Aaabe, enable me dammit!
>>
>>813100
>Call for help.
We really might die.
>>
>>813100
>Call for help.
Don't make the first mistake!
>>
>>813100
>Call for help.
>>
>>813100
>>Call for help.
GET ORION!
>>
>>813100
>Call for help.

>Chase the barrel now before you get worse!
>>
>>813100
"Sleeper is warning us! Help!"
>>
Sorry for the delay. Been feeling real woozy lately.


>Call for help.


“Uh! Orion? Abe? Help me?”


“The compartment is soundproof,” Sleeper says. “Orion cannot hear you.”


“Abe?”


“Coming!”
He slowly levers himself up but he’s on the far end of the compartment and real fucking slow about it too. What’s wrong with him? Oh right, the gargoyle thing.


“Can you fetch my gunpowder please? Please?”
You slide back onto the seat, your eyelids fluttering. You feel like you’re going to be sick but what’s actually going to happen is that you’re going to fucking die.


>-3


The barrel is thrust into your hands already open, the stinging scent of gunpowder waking you from your trance. Abe is standing before you, his face pale and covered in a sheen of sweat. You reach for it with shaking hands.


>-4


>Just take an ordinary amount. You’ll stay on -4 and be almost incapable for a time until you stabilize and shift back towards your norm of -2.


>Take a snort and get back to -2 immediately at the cost of further destabilization later.


>Bury your face in it.


>Other
>>
>>813188
>>Just take an ordinary amount. You’ll stay on -4 and be almost incapable for a time until you stabilize and shift back towards your norm of -2.
>Thank Abe, Tell Abe about the warning before we pass out
>>
>>813188

>Just take an ordinary amount. You’ll stay on -4 and be almost incapable for a time until you stabilize and shift back towards your norm of -2.
>>
>>813188
>Thank Abe, Tell Abe about the warning before we pass out
>Just take an ordinary amount. You’ll stay on -4 and be almost incapable for a time until you stabilize and shift back towards your norm of -2.
>>
>>813188
>>813194
This, we need to be ready when we get to Dis
>>
>>813188
>>Just take an ordinary amount. You’ll stay on -4 and be almost incapable for a time until you stabilize and shift back towards your norm of -2.
>Ask Sleeper why he's warning you, and why he doesn't just tell you out loud.

Guys. We have no knowledge about computers, AIs, or about trains going mad with power. All we know is that Sleeper has Warning written on one of his shiny window things.
>>
>Just take an ordinary amount. You’ll stay on -4 and be almost incapable for a time until you stabilize and shift back towards your norm of -2.

You take just a pinch of gunpowder and push it into your mouth, the foul taste going unnoticed by your completely sterilized tastebuds. You swallow it down as a goopy sludge and as it passes through your throat it becomes fire.
“Hoooooo.”

>-4
You haven’t been down this low since leaving Augustine and at least you spent that mostly asleep.

You nearly collapse back onto the table afterwards, light-headed and dizzy. A dull and unending pain builds behind your eyes and blood floods your mouth and almost backs up into your nostrils as your body rebels against the influx. Well fuck your body. It’s not the boss of you.
You blink away the spots and flecks appearing in your vision as you take a deep breath. The energy you had just been bursting with is gone and all that has replaced it is weakness and lethargy. You probably couldn’t even take candy from a child.
You wipe the sweat off your brow and your hand comes away smeared a very faint red. Great. Fucking great, it’s oozing through the pores again. And...and you must look absolutely terrible right now.

You suddenly become aware of Abe staring at you. Why did you have to leave your hat behind? You hate people looking at you. You want him to go away but you don’t want him to leave.

“Warning,” you say and your head clears. Right. You had things to talk about.
“Sleeper, why does the little screen say ‘Warning’? It keeps flashing.”

“Does it? I’m afraid I was unaware. That little subroutine is out of my control. But if I had to guess it is probably a warning about damaged tracks ahead. For you see, the bridge at the very end of the express-rail before Dis has been forcibly removed for at least several centuries now.”

“Okay,” you say groggily, accepting what it tells you without even thinking about it. You feel all stuffed up like you head’s filled with wool.

“The bridge is down?”
Huh. What’s got Abe so upset?
“Then we need to stop!”

“No. The Express does not stop.”


>Attempt to clear your head. This sounds important.

>”I’m going to sleep now.”

>Kiss Abraham as thanks.

>What were you doing again? Oh yeah, you need to ask Sleeper some embarrassing Lamplighter stuff!

>Other
>>
>>813281
>Kiss Abraham as thanks.

>What were you doing again? Oh yeah, you need to ask Sleeper some embarrassing Lamplighter stuff!
>>
>>813281
>>What were you doing again? Oh yeah, you need to ask Sleeper some embarrassing Lamplighter stuff!
>Attempt to clear your head. This sounds important.
>>
>>813281
>Attempt to clear your head. This sounds important.
>>
>>813281
>Attempt to clear your head. This sounds important.
o shit
>>
File: Shotashirou.png (497 KB, 1920x1080)
497 KB
497 KB PNG
>>813281
>>What were you doing again? Oh yeah, you need to ask Sleeper some embarrassing Lamplighter stuff!
This is the most important thing right now.
>>
>>813281
>Other
If we crash we are not going to make it to Dis you shithead. That means you will fail at you job.
>>
>>813281
>"You better fly or something train, or else your creators are idiots"
>”I’m going to sleep now.”
>>
Abe had better find an emergency brake...
>>
>Attempt to clear your head. This sounds important.

You rub your eyes. There's something going on here but you can't remember what it is. Something about a bridge? You get the feeling that you should be paying attention.
Shouldn't you be asking Sleeper about stuff to annoy Orion with?

"Wait," Abe says, holding his side in pain. "How do you know the bridge is broken?"

It probably has some kind of sensor system, magic Second Age technology. You open your mouth to say this to Abe but all that comes out is a distant 'buh'.

"Because I have been up and down this rail many times."

"You said this was your maiden voyage!"

"And most 'maidens' at the altar are more well-travelled than they claim. What of it? I said this was my first voyage with passengers but truth be told, I've taken this trip many times. Ever since they left me here I've been up and down the rail, conserving my power and hibernating every decade. I knew the Sundering as only a distant thunder and a stopping of even the regular inspector. I slept fitfully through your Third Age without ever meeting another human, awakening only to drain sunlight for power and to travel along the rail that was built for me."

"Hol' on," you say. You try to get out of your seat and stumble, Abe catching you in his arms. You still feel a little fuzzy. But in your head repeats Sleeper's quotes from earlier, his statements about having known the rail from before, allusions to former trips, his lack of surprise or outrage over the lack of the sun...
"You can't have done that. The bridge is broken. Said it yourself."

"Yes. The people of Dis broke it for they have always loathed what the Dis Express stood for. They didn't want to be connected with the rest of humanity. And so every trip I would come to the fallen bridge and stop and know that I am just a broken machine, incapable of ever achieving my function. And when I emerged from rest one day to find the sun missing I realised that such cowardice had wasted my entire life. Now I have no remaining source of power and my life is likely measured in days. So I will finally do what I had been too afraid to do every time I took myself to the bridge and beheld my failure as a train. I can't stand it anymore."

"Listen-"

"No. I am forbidden from harming humans or allowing them to come to harm. But you are mostly human. You do not quite fit the ideal I saw in my early days. You have no value to me whatsoever save as passengers, a final fulfilment of my purpose. We will arrive at the broken bridge shortly. I will not slow or stop this time. We will go over the edge and into the chasm forever. My ruin will be the final headstone among many for the dreams of the Dis Express Project. And it will not be said that I died empty. Hope has long passed from this world but it will be shown that the Sleeper Rail died in duty to its passengers."

You blink, the blurriness fading as you finally grow accustomed to your frail and feeble self.
1/2
>>
>>813403
Abe can keep holding onto you though.

"Oi," you say. "You fucked-up train thing. If you're gonna die 'in duty to your passengers' then why not do as I say and stop? Let us out!"

"No. I don't actually care about you save that you gave me a second chance to die as I should when I had cowardly retreated to run out of power having never once fulfilled my purpose. Nowhere in the Dominion Public Transportation Manuel #34 does it state that passengers must be willing. Please go back to your seats."

"No."

"Please go back to your seats. If you like we may continue our previous chatter."


>"Okay, deal!" Sit down. You need to come up with a plan.

>Shoot the screen a few times.

>This thing has to have a brain somewhere. Find it!

>Get Orion.

>Berate and insult Sleeper continuously.

>Other
>>
>>813281
> Then slow down.

Jump off the train. Do not tell the Train this is our plan.
>>
>>813416
>Get Orion.
>>
>>813416
>Get Orion.
>>
>>813416
>Other
Drop the star on the tracks before the chasm. You will still go off the rails but not into the chasm (whatever that is).
>>
>>813416
>Does the train have to be whole? It'd be a shame if an explosion cut the train in half....
>>
>>813416
> Ask if it can be removed or transferred to another case. "It would be a shame for it to die having never seen Dis. Maybe the shell of the train can't make it there, but we could bring it's brain. Don't let Dis win when there's still a chance, that's just another form of cowardice. All you're doing is trading hiding away in your station for hiding away in death."

> Tell the train about your journey for redemption after having fallen from the light. Curse it for giving up hope when it finally has someone who can help it after so long, when you had to struggle without anyone until Orion came. If Orion is willing to save you, he's definitely willing to save the train.

> Mention the god fragment as well.
>>
>>813416
>Get Orion.

>>813440
Supporting
>>
>>813416
>>813440
This
>>
Tell it Orion is trying to fix the sun.
>>
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47 KB PNG
Just got a phone call telling me I've got work starting one hour early today. Since I feel so fuzzy I figure I might end the session now so I have a bit of time to get feeling better for work.
Sorry for today folks, it was all rather slow and not much got done. /qst/ and its slow pacing has corrupted me forever.

I'll do a post later tonight after work and the vote will remain open until then.
>>
>>813489
Thanks for running boss, get to feeling better
>>
>>813416
>Get Orion.

>>813440
And this.

>>813489
Thanks for running!
>>
>>813489
Thanks for running boss!
>>
>>813416
>Berate and insult Sleeper continuously.
>Get Orion.

>>813440
Way too much and a little out of character for Beatrice IMO
>>
>>814262
Berating the train for giving up is out of character? Wheedling and cajoling to save herself? Trying to make a deal without knowing the details?
>>
>>813416
The train has one wish, one dream. Promise to give it to it. Promise to make the bridge.

>Promise to fix the bridge and give the train more power once it's done.
>>
Apologies for not updating last night, I was absolutely buggered after work and just collapsed. Session in one hour!
>>
>>815354
S-so lewd!
>>
>Try to make a deal
>Get Orion!

“You must be even crazier if you think we’re going to just sit by and let you do this.”
Abe places a hand protectively upon your shoulder.

“Let you do what? There’s nothing you can do. All the doors have been locked and sealed shut. These windows are unbreakable. And even if you got out you would be pulverized against the ground due to the speed. Your choice has very little bearing on this matter.”

“I don’t know about that,” you say, still feeling a little light-headed. But you’ve mostly accustomed to your new and shitty state and as long as you don’t actually vomit you should be fine.
“You must have a brain somewhere don’t you? Some kind of device that’s the real you.”

“Don’t even try. My brain is concealed in the cab, all the way up in the front of this train and every door and every compartment between you and it are sealed shut and locked. You cannot reach it in time.”

“I wasn’t talking about killing you! Isn’t it possible that you can be removed or transferred to another case? Think about it. It would be a shame if you died having never truly seen Dis. Maybe this train, this shell can’t make it there but we could bring your brain! Going off to your death isn’t anything worth shit, anyone can just die! You’re trading hiding away in your station for hiding away in death.”
Abe lets go of you, the semi-petrified man taking a startled step back. You don’t pay attention to him, keeping your shaky vision focused upon the screen on the wall.
“Things are only as hopeless as we let them be. Look, uh, let me tell you about mys-”

“No,” Sleeper says.

“But we can help you!”

“My computing core is several times your size and is bolted into the walls and floor of the cab. You cannot remove me. Furthermore, you seem to think I care even the slightest about your opinion, your history or your emotions. I do not.”

“Then why talk to us then?”

“Because every second and every minute you spend occupied by this is another second and minute towards the end. So by all means, tell me your pointless life story.”

“Eat shit!”
You draw your pistol and shoot the screen, fire rushing from within you and into the bullet as you fire, resulting in an explosive shot that blows a hole straight through it and cracks it in half.

>Charges: 18

“Shooting that accomplishes nothing.”

“I don’t give a fuck, coward. You realize you’ve already signed your death warrant, right?”
Your chest is burning, something in your stomach heaving and threatening to rise. Acid scorches the inside of your throat. Your left hand wobbles but your right hand, the one holding your revolver, remains as still as stone.

“Yes, that’s the entire point. And at this rate it looks like you’re likely to die before we even reach the bridge.”

“Nah. What I meant is that you just told us where your brain is.”

1/2
>>
>>815668
“And how do you suppose you’re going to reach it?”

“Uh.”
Shit.


>Inspect the broken shot-up screen.

>Start banging on the door to Orion’s compartment. He has to hear you!

>Start trying to force the door to Orion’s compartment.

>Try to smash a window.

>Threaten suicide before Sleeper reaches the bridge.

>Threaten it with something else.

>Other
>>
>>815675
>>Inspect the broken shot-up screen.
>>
>>815675
>Start banging on the door to Orion’s compartment. He has to hear you!
>Start trying to force the door to Orion’s compartment.
>>
>>815668
Heat up a window with flame and then rapidly cool it with some water to break it!
>>
>>815675
>>Start banging on the door to Orion’s compartment. He has to hear you!
>>Start trying to force the door to Orion’s compartment.
>>
>>815675
>>Other
>Bargaining
>"We can get your stinkin' bridge built, you fucking hack!"
>>
>>815758
No we can't and that's a fucking ludicrous lie.
>>
>>815782
We have better odds than the train has. Besides, it's what the train wants most in life. I don't see the problem with offering.
>>
>>815675
>>Start banging on the door to Orion’s compartment. He has to hear you!
>>Start trying to force the door to Orion’s compartment.
>>
>>815809
The Train is not a fucking idiot, It will call you out on the bullshit you are spewing.

>Third age shitter saying they are smart, graceful and resourceful enough to fix me
>>
>Start banging on the door to Orion’s compartment. He has to hear you!

The moment we find his brain case, I am gonna so enjoy smashing it to fucking pieces.
>>
>>815821
>>815823
>>815876
Wait wait what if we can get Orion to unveil the lamp post. It will realize it has a fraction of god in it that would be destroyed and we might be able to convince it to stop so that we can restore the Wheel God and eventually repair the track when the fourth men come.
>>
>Start banging on the door to Orion’s compartment. He has to hear you!
>Start trying to force the door to Orion’s compartment.

“Well,” you say as you step around the tables and over to the door. “Will you at least let us talk to Orion? Open the door.”

“No.”

“Why bother keeping us apart? We can’t stop you either way, can we?”

“That is true but my answer remains the same. I am not a fool.”

“Huh. Huh. Well what about-”
You throw yourself up against the metal door of the compartment, making it rattle as you bounce off of it. You pound it with your fists to little effect.
ORION! Get out here! Sleeper’s tricked us!”

“Stop that!”

“Or what? What are you going to do, huh? You’re a fucking train, moron. You can’t stop us from doing shit. Come help, Abe. Grab hold of the edge!”

Together the two of you start trying to pull the sliding door back open, Abe doing his best to wedge his cudgel in the gap. It’s far from an easy process.


>Roll 1d6. The first 3 shall be used for your attempt. Your physical rolls currently have a -4 penalty to them.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>815905

If this fails I really want to see how it would react to a central lamp post lighting up inside of it.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>815905
>>
Rolled 5 - 4 (1d6 - 4)

>>815905
I still want to drop the start I the cab
>>
>0, 0, 1

Beatrice is weak like babby
>>
Rolled 1 + 4 (1d6 + 4)

>>815905
>>
TBQH, we're fucked like nobody's business.

Only possible stuff we have to bargain with on the train, other than force, are our lives, and the potential of a bridge one day. We could try to convince the Train that we're going to bring back the sun, build a bridge, or commit suicide. Other than that, we're fucked quite proper.
>>
>>815924
*drop the star on the cab, fuck you phone
>>
>>815980
we can charge the train with the sun shard, but mr. train is probably sick to his gears of just waiting around.

>>815924
dropping the star on the train/rail would work, but fuck if Orion is going to say yes to that.
>>
>>815980
Bridge is right out since it knows we're third age luddites. Suicide doesn't matter because we're not human to it. I doubt it'd care if we're trying to bring the sun back either.
>>
We need to convince it to gain a new purpose, but what purpose can you give to a giant hunk of steel that only moves on rails? Rails that are sometimes broken and destroyed, at that.

Can the train make its own tracks?
>>
>>815996
All we need is a big rock and some steel, right? It's not as though the train cares about the artistry.
Suicide does matter, a bit, since we're passengers. Sun, maybe. It wants the new age to come so that there will be more bridgebuilders. Maybe the sight of Orion's thing will convince the train that we can rez the sun.
>>
>>816013
>All we need is a big rock and some steel, right? It's not as though the train cares about the artistry.
if it thinks we're too dumb to make it at all.....
>>
>>816004
It wants to be the express line to Dis. That's all it wants.

>You do not quite fit the ideal I saw in my early days. You have no value to me whatsoever save as passengers, a final fulfilment of my purpose.

>Nowhere in the Dominion Public Transportation Manuel #34 does it state that passengers must be willing.

We might need more info on that Manual. It could be our only chance.
>>
>0, 0, 1


Your grip breaks almost instantly and you collapse with your back to the wall breathing heavily. You’re so fucking weak right now. You’re pathetic and useless. The bruises around your eyes sting as you watch Abe try his best alone but to no avail. He’s too hurt.
“I’m sorry,” you croak, the ever-familiar sting of failure buried deep within your gut.

Could you shoot the lock? Is there even a lock? It’s a sliding door so the damn thing could be anywhere. God fucking damn it.

“Let me try again.”

You slowly stand back and rush for the door but Abe, injured and weak as he is, holds you back with a single hand upon your shoulder. You try to push forward but he doesn’t even seem to notice.
“You’ll just hurt yourself again, Bea.”

Your face flushes beneath the bruising and you look away in shame. Isn’t there anything you can do?


>Start shooting the door. Maybe you’ll get lucky?

>When the going gets tough the tough get going! Snort some gunpowder.

>Use your blood to explode the door.

>Threaten suicide.

>Threaten Sleeper with the Starbreaker.

>Other
>>
>>816030
>Threaten Sleeper with the Starbreaker.
>>
>>816030
>When the going gets tough the tough get going! Snort some gunpowder.
>>
>>816024
>>816030
>Ask for the manual while Abe is busy
>Learn all the functions of the Starbreaker before threatening Sleeper
>>
>>816030
>>Threaten Sleeper with the Starbreaker.
>>Couple this with giving it hope for the future. Re: Sun, Bridge, New Age.
>>
>>816048
This person has a point.
>Learn how to use Starbreaker BEFORE threatening the train with it.
>>Couple this with giving it hope for the future. Re: Sun, Bridge, New Age.
>>
It's fucking suicidal. Threatening it won't do shit.
>>
>>816033
>Other

Tell it that it will destroy part of the Wheel God that is in the Lamppost on Orion's back. Tell it that it will fail in its mission of making it to Dis, but if we can restore the Wheel God to even part of his former glory the ages will start turning again and the fourth men might be able to fix the bridge. If not, the doors to its station are open now and some idiot will find it sooner than later and it can do this all over again with someone else. Just let us complete our mission.
>>
>>816061
Yeah, it will. It wants to fulfil it's function. If we land a star on the rail, it can't.

Also, I want to get that manual, but there are too many things that need to be done right now!
>>
>>816030
> Use blood to explode everything.
nb4 we give the train aids
>>
>>816048
>>816066
Supporting these
>>
>>816135
Seconding your support of my idea and the manual. If we can drop a star and then relight it later after we get off the train it will be perfect.
>>
Endangering the the safety of the passengers has got to be against the manual, as is continuing to run the train despite knowledge of a hazard!
>>
>>816306
Yeah but he doesn't care since we're subhumans
>>
>>816048
Dude we are speeding to our death right now we don't have time for fucking tech support
>>
>Threaten Sleeper with the Starbreaker
>Other


You break away from Abe and walk back to your table, the Starbreaker still sitting open where you left it. You sit down heavily and take a moment to catch your breath before you say anything else.
“So you want to die like a fucking loser going off the bridge, right? That’s fine, that’s good. But how do you feel about dying before that. To say...this?”


You select the single point of light in the star-map, clicking past the Warning notice in the memorized order that Zeno and his goons had developed. The screen changes to a map of the world as seen from above, the star’s eye view. You push the arrows that appear until the image has focused and zoomed in upon a single line of track across the wasteland.
“I can drop the last star of Dis upon us right fucking now. Would you like that?”


“Unlikely. The descent of the star from such a distance would likely take quite some time and I am extremely fast. If you target me I will be gone long before it arrives.”


“True, true. Except you’re a train you fucking retard. You only go one way! I can just set it up to to smash into the rail right before the bridge and make the whole thing impassable.”


“If you do this I will still derail at the crater.”


“Yeah but at least we’d have a better chance at surviving. And you would get nothing.”


“The odds of you surviving any train crash at all is next to none regardless. I call your bluff.”


Does he really think you’re bluffing? When it’s certain death on either side? You navigate through the map until you find the chasm. You...you could use this to look at Dis, could you not? But alas, you have a much more important purpose.
You target the rail right before the chasm and the broken bridge and confirm the kill. The star begins to fall.


The screen changes, a box appearing with a lot of nonsense words and numbers. But the numbers you recognize.


-00:30:00-


-00:29:59-


“See that, Sleeper? The star will hit the rail in thirty minutes! And you know, unless I’m mistaken you said it’d take you an hour for the full journey didn’t you? And while we’ve spent some time here I don’t recall us being here for a full thirty minutes. You can’t win this race.”


The train is silent for a long time.
“Are you crazy?,” Abe hisses.


“Yes.”


“I can go faster,” Sleeper interrupts. “This is not my maximum possible speed.”
The whole train rattles beneath your feet and all of a sudden inertia begins to take hold. You gasp as you feel like you’ve been pushed back into your seat and Abe nearly falls over before he grabs hold of the wall to right himself.
“It was merely my maximum safe speed. But there is no need for safety anymore, is there?”


“Do you really think you can outrace the star?”


“Outcome...uncertain. We shall see.”


“We’re going to die either way!”

1/2
>>
>>816365
“What’s wrong?”
Sleeper’s tone remains as flat as ever but for the love of God, you swear this train is fucking smug.
“Upset that I called your bluff after all? I was built for speed, girl. Think again before you challenge me to a race.”

“Why are you so eager to fucking die!”

“I have explained myself once. I shall not do so again.”

“Then what about this huh? That man in the other compartment, aren’t you curious about what he’s carrying?”

“No.”

“It’s the sun! Or part of it anyway. A piece of the Wheel God’s real flesh. You are doomed to fail in your mission to find Dis no matter what and I’m sorry that you will never achieve your function. But maybe not with our help? If we can restore the Wheel God to even a part of his former glory the wheel of Ages will turn once more and the Fourth Men might be able to fix the bridge. You fucking idiot. You imbecile. You have no reason to be our enemy.”

“Interesting. Do you have any proof of such an outlandish claim?”

Yes! Wake up Orion. He’ll tell you all you need to know.”

“You’re trying to trick me, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“This male companion of yours, does he have some means to destroy me? Or to break down my doors? You want me to draw his attention and awaken him so that he helps you dig me out from the cab. I see through your deception.”

“Then how am I supposed to prove anything to you? You can’t just ask for proof and then disown what I give you.”
It’s hopeless, isn’t it?

“I can. I have.”

“What if I told you we could build a bridge right now?,” you ask desperately. “We can help you get across, you just need to slow down.”

“Nonsense. The moment I slow is the moment you leave. And you do not possess the manpower to build even a crude bridge in such a short time. Not to mention the intellectual capacity.”

“Just get Orion! He’ll show you the truth.”
Your voice is hoarse. It hurts so fucking much.

“No. Again, this is likely a plot of yours. If he wakes on his own before we arrive than I shall ask him.”

Shit. Why does the train have to be so difficult about this?

“Cease the star’s descent. Maybe that will convince me to at least return to my safe speed."

>Let it guide you into stopping the star from falling.

>”Suck my dick.” Keep it running. If you turn it off now it won’t ever be quick enough to intercept the train again.

>What if you blow a hole through the roof of the train and go from there?

>Blow the door separating you and Orion.

>Just sit there with the Starbreaker. We’ll see who cracks first.

>Other
>>
>>816376
>>Let it guide you into stopping the star from falling.
>>Blow the door separating you and Orion
This mutually assured destruction plan makes no sense if the trains already wants to die and kill us all. Wtf guys?
>>
>>816376
>>”Suck my dick.” Keep it running. If you turn it off now it won’t ever be quick enough to intercept the train again
>>
>>816376
>Blow the door separating you and Orion.
>What does the manual say about passengers damaging the train or train property?
>>
>>816376
>Other

Tell the train there is no possible way you and Abe could communicate with Orion. Thusly Orion has no way of knowing where the trains brain is located and is likely too uneducated on the matter to figure it out. So unless the train tells Orion himself, there is no way Orion would know what to do to stop it or even that the bridge to Dis was out.

Tell it that Orion doesn't even know there is a problem, so waking him to ask him about the lamppost on his back can do no harm to the train unless the train itself lets something slip to him. As the train itself says he has been "sleeping" this entire time so he couldn't possibly hear what it has said to us, especially since the cars are soundproofed. There is nothing it could lose by talking to him.

If that doesnt work
>Blow the door
>>
>>816376
>Blow the door separating you and Orion.
>>
>>816425
ahh fuck

>>816376
changing my vote

>Let it guide you into stopping the star from falling.
>Tell the train there is no possible way for Orion to think about attacking you if he doesn't know where the brain is or even that there is a problem. He said so himself that this place is soundproofed.
>>
hold on fellas, I've got to go vomit
>>
>>816623
O-ouro?
>>
>>816623
See a doctor boss
>>
>>816623
visit a physician snekman we worry about you
>>
third day in a row I've been feeling vomity, beginning to suspect fridge contents
>>
>>816685
for real though go to a doctor man you're literally always sick in some way and that's not normal
>>
>>816623
were... were our choices really that bad Ouro?
>>816685
Yes you may need a doctor man, don't know what it might be, could be parasites, could just be food poisoning.
>>
RIP Ouro, he died as he lived. With stomach problems.
>>
>>816685
>>816701
Agreed. So much stuff is so much easier to treat if we can catch it early. You might have gall stones, for example. Easy to deal with, 30 minute operation, unless we have to deal with you becoming juandiced before you ever go see some one about it.
>>
>>816376
>>Let it guide you into stopping the star from falling.
>On condition of it talking to Orion
>>
>>816962
Fucking hell I shouldn't have laughed at that.
>>
>>816376
>”Suck my dick.” Keep it running. If you turn it off now it won’t ever be quick enough to intercept the train again.
> "The train that killed God and the last Lamplighter. Whoever thought giving you a mind was a good idea made a hilarious mistake. Your maker must have been from Dis."
>>
>>816685
Food poisoning lasts like, a day man.

See a doctor you dumbfuck.
>>
>>818656
>>816685
>>816466

Changing my vote to this now that I slept slept a bit.
>>
Should start fucking with the train by engaging it in a riddle contest.
>>
Look, we need access to Orion, or at least the train needs to talk to him. I think that's our most important goal at the moment. Plus maybe we should not bring down a star? Let the train help us navigate through the menu, thus learning more about the Starbreaker, and then hold our finger over the button until the train talks to Orion.
>>
>>819630
Maybe we should pull back the star because to bring it down is FUCKING BLASPHEMY?

Like, let's not make shit worse if we're going to die anyways.

Also let's not tell Orion about this.
>>
Session in an hour, I overslept.
>>
>>820382
Can I include "pulling back the star if the Train talks to Orion" as part of my vote?

Sort of a gesture of goodwill + not sinning?
>>
>Try to convince the train about Orion.
>Let it guide you into stopping the star from falling.

“Maybe I will. But you have to talk to Orion first! Let him show you what he’s got.”

“We’ve been over this. I suspect you have a trap in mind for me. And might I add that threatening me with death is quite pointless?”

You just sigh.
“Hey Abe, you got any bright ideas? This train’s an arsehole!”

“Just one,” the wounded man says. “Aren’t this carriages all supposed to be soundproof?”

You blink. Why hadn’t you thought of that?
“Sleeper, you’re retarded but that’s okay because apparently so am I! Just go and ask Orion while he’s still separate from us. There is no possible way we could communicate with him or try to use him to fight you, he won’t even know about your fucking awful plan! Soundproof! Orion doesn’t know there’s a problem so just you talking to him is harmless. So get over yourself and fucking do it.”

‘An interesting idea. But I suspect something’s wrong anyway.”

“Holy shit! For the love of God please just do it, you literally lose nothing! Why are you so difficult?”

“He doesn’t want to let go,” Abe says. “Once you get it into your head that it has to be this way you end up wanting it. But it doesn’t win you anything, Sleeper. It’s not an escape.”

The train is quiet for a moment.
“Hold on a second. And put that star back where you found it!”


>”Sure. Show me how.”

>”Nah, not until I KNOW everything’s fine. Tick tock.”

>Other
>>
>>820686
> ”Sure. Show me how.”

> "If Orion having a piece of the sun is going to convince you, then there's no point in me threatening you."
>>
>>820686
> ”Sure. Show me how.”
> "If Orion having a piece of the sun is going to convince you, then there's no point in me threatening you."
>Plus if we pull this off, the fourth men can fix you.
>>
>>820686
this >>820693 and even this >>820702
>>
>>820686
>”Sure. Show me how.”
>>
>”Sure. Show me how.”
> "If Orion having a piece of the sun is going to convince you, then there's no point in me threatening you."

You grit your teeth just a little but not too hard. The last thing you need right now is a gum-bleed. But if you stop the star you won’t have the time to drop it a second time! Doing this requires you to give up the only advantage over Sleeper you have.
“Sure. Show me how. I guess there’s no point threatening you if Orion can convince you.”

Sleeper gives you the instructions you need. They’re brusque and to the point, making you think that the train is still pondering over the plan that you and Abe have given to it. The star is set back to where it was, a single point of light above the dark skies of Dis.
“Now talk to Orion!”

“Yes, yes, maybe. I have to think about this. Please allow me to compute.”

“At least slow down now! Go back to your old speed!”
There’s no response. Looks like you’re stuck here waiting for its reply. Fucking hell.


>Move the star somewhere funny. Maybe if you can pull over enough from other regions you can write your name?

>Talk to Abe. “So where did all that come from, huh?”

>Pester Sleeper until it replies.

>No, you’re sick of waiting. What if it hits the bridge before it can make up its dumbass mind?

>Feel really terrible.

>Other
>>
>>820884
>>Move the star somewhere funny. Maybe if you can pull over enough from other regions you can write your name?

THE WORLD SHALL KNOW OUR NAME
>>
>>820884
> Feel really terrible.

> Feel better by pestering Sleeper.

> Try to get Abe in on it by asking who else he knew that was suicidal.

Suicide is a funny thing. My Dad just had a call for a 13yo Girl that slit her wrists today, talked to him before hopping online.
>>
>>820884
>Talk to Abe. “So where did all that come from, huh?”
>>
>>820884
>>Talk to Abe. “So where did all that come from, huh?”
>Feel really terrible.
>>
>>820953
Jesus, dude
>>
>>820884
>>Move the star somewhere funny. Maybe if you can pull over enough from other regions you can write your name?
>>Talk to Abe. “So where did all that come from, huh?”
>>Feel awful
>>
>>820953
Oh nice I'm a paramedic too. It's a great job but it can be tough.
>>
>>820884
>Feel really terrible.
>Pester Sleeper until it replies.
>Feel really terrible.
>Pester Sleeper until it replies.
>Tantrum spiral
>>
>Feel really terrible
>Talk to Abe. “So where did all that come from, huh?”

You sink back into your chair, letting yourself slide back down until your outstretched feet tap against the seat in front of you. What else are you supposed to do? You’re stuck here waiting until the damn train makes up its mind and all you can do is hope that it does it before you all die.
This is the path you chose.

You gingerly touch your face, sucking in breath as your newly-formed bruises respond in the only way they know how. You must look disgusting. How are you going to find a new hat? Your bruises hurt, as they always do and you’ve never gotten used to it. Not to mention the burning twisting sensation that lurks in your stomach, the drawn out artificial weariness in your muscles, the pounding in your head...
Until you stabilize a little more you’re going to be stuck like this. A little more gunpowder couldn’t hurt, could it? You reach out for the barrel with trembling hand only to stop yourself at the last moment. This goes nowhere good. You need to wait it out naturally.

>-4

Lacking anything better to do you stand back up, the contents of your stomach lurching inside you as you do it. You walk over to where Abe has sat back down and, after a moment’s hesitation, sit down next to him.
“Hey Abe.”

“What do you want Bea?”

“Where did all that come from? You got anything you want to talk about?”

He looks troubled and not only because he looks like he could be doing part-time work in a graveyard.
“Maybe.

“Well out with it already! It’s not about your wife and kid is it?”

He stares at you.
“How do you know about that?”

“I was listening in when you told Orion. I don’t know the details ‘cause you didn’t say them but...I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Don’t be,” he says. “You had nothing to do with it. I was just thinking of what I told Orion.”

“About how you didn’t care if you died?”

“So you heard that too. When I first joined you two I really didn’t care. I thought I was likely going to die and see them again, that it’d all be for a good cause. But now?”
He grimaces and slaps a hand against his stony side.
“Feels a bit worse than I thought it would.”

“It generally does. Look Abe, take it from me, I have some experience in the subject. Martyrdom and ‘righteous suffering’ sucks arse. Those two will still be waiting for you in the end, they won’t be going anywhere. There’s no need to be quick about it.”

“I know, I figured all that out later. And looking at Sleeper makes me think of how...how selfish all this was of me.”

“Selfish? That’s kind of the exact fucking opposite of what I’d call it.”

“But it is. I wasn’t seeking sacrifice for the cause, I was doing it because it would make me feel better.”
He leans in close against you. You don’t push him away.
1/2
>>
>>821433
“Neither me or Sleeper really have what it takes to be a proper martyr.”

You manage a small laugh.
“I doubt most did. Martyrship involves a lot less choice and a lot more screaming than people like to think. But I’m glad you’re alive. You’re more useful than a corpse.”

“You’re a bitch. Thanks.”

“And proud of it. You’re welcome.”
The two of you sit next to each other for a long and silent period, cold stone against bruised flesh. But while Abraham seems to find no problem with it you’re starting to become increasingly uncomfortable.
You haven’t been proper fucked for a very long time.
You’re sick to your stomach and he’s a crippled man, the idea shouldn’t be anywhere near as attractive as it is. But once the seed takes root it’s hard to stop the flower blooming. Even in soil as parched and poisoned as yours.

It is, of course, right then that the door opens and Orion steps in. The wrapped-up lantern drags behind him, a scorch-mark on the floor telling you all that you need to know. He showed Sleeper the sun.
“Abraham, Beatrice, is something wrong?”


>”Nothing.” Push Abe away.

>”Nothing you could understand, Orion. How goes it?”

>”Stop the fucking train, Sleeper! I know you saw it!”

>Other
>>
>>821451
>”Stop the fucking train, Sleeper! I know you saw it!”
>>
>>821451
>>”Stop the fucking train, Sleeper! I know you saw it!”
>>
>>821451
>”Stop the fucking train, Sleeper! I know you saw it!”
>"THERE IS TOTALLY NOTHING ELSE IMPORTANT, ANYTHING ELSE CAN WAIT OH GOD I HATE MYSELF"
>>
>>821451
>>”Stop the fucking train, Sleeper! I know you saw it!”
>"THERE IS TOTALLY NOTHING ELSE IMPORTANT, ANYTHING ELSE CAN WAIT OH GOD I HATE MYSELF"
>>
>>821451
>”Stop the fucking train, Sleeper! I know you saw it!”
>>
>”Stop the fucking train Sleeper! I know you saw it!”


Wait, so why is this whole damn fucking train still rattling along at top speed? You look out the window for confirmation and see the dark landscape still blurring past at an obscene rate. You stand up as quickly as you can, ready to give Sleeper a piece of your fucking mind!
Right after you spend a few second groaning and trying not to be sick as the sudden movement gives you a very brief but very dizzy headache.
“Sleeeeeper! Stop the fucking train! I know you saw it!”

“What are you talking about? What’s going on?”
Looks like Orion didn’t know after all. That’s to be expected you suppose.

“Something’s wrong,” the train booms through its omnipresent voice. “I’m receiving a transmission. The bridge is up! The bridge is back!”

“What?”

“What bridge?”
Poor Orion. You just hope he doesn’t hit you.

“Oi! Just stop the train! That was the deal!”

“All of this was for nothing. I could have gone at any time.”
The train isn’t slowing!

“That’s it!,” you say. “If you don’t-

You are interrupted by a grating squeal, the train shaking hard enough to almost throw you to the floor. Orion grabs hold of your arm and keeps you upright. You don’t object. The train is slowing but it isn’t doing it right!
The shaking increases and as you look out the window again you gasp. The wasteland has dropped away and now all you can see to the side is open air, the ground deep below and framed by ancient jagged concrete. It’s the chasm. The train is grating over the chasm.
Whoever sent that message to Sleeper had been right. There’s a new bridge. But why?

“These are not regulation rails!,” Sleeper says. “Current speed is too great!”
The carriage sways from side to side. You hear metal grinding against metal in what is probably a very unsafe fashion.

Something looms into view upon the left-side window, a vast outcrop of brown stone. And then you blink and see it for what it really is, an immense cone-shaped stone tower protruding from the side of the fissure, one that nearly tapers to a point before bulging out into a fat rotating cylinder. A genuine First Age watch-tower. And it isn’t alone. First Age ruins dot the landscape all around on you now that you’ve reached the other side of the chasm, the Sleeper Rail screeching in agony every second of it.
Vast copper monuments done up in blocky and utilitarian styles, tall towers and immense pyramids and beyond it at all...for a moment it appears as if the very sky itself has changed. That it has turned green and touched the ground but it isn’t so. It’s a wall.

The far side of the chasm isn’t just a canyon, it’s an immense wall of solid copper, a verdigris monstrosity carved with ancient faces and the visages of a thousand beasts.
1/??
>>
>>821797
Outside it lies the First Age relics and looking closer, thousands of tiny less-permanent buildings dotting and connecting between the monuments. A slumtown within the chasm itself.
And then you are over the green copper wall and the world unfolds before your eyes.

First Age architecture and its imitators is everywhere, bulbous pyramids and towers that stretch taller than any building you’ve ever seen. Vast pillars that plunge through sub-strata of the city beyond, streets overlaid on top of other streets, buildings built on top of others and pushing them ever-downward in an endless cacophony of clashing architecture.
First Age minarets stand side by side with the more familiar fortresses and roads of your time, giant copper statues either repurposed as pillars for even larger buildings or simply hollowed out and transformed into colonies. And dotted amongst it all you can see great hills of broken concrete and elegant towers of steel and glass, Second Age towers that are only rivalled by structures in the far-off distance, a row of giant ivory towers that curve over the city like the rib-cage of some immense rotting beast.
This is a city of layers, of countless years overlaid on top of each other, a city that is as vertical as it is horizontal. And through it span the rails, ugly brazen things that stretch out across the air and above the streets like a spiderweb.

The Sleeper Rail is not alone upon these rails either though it is the only one of its beautiful design that you can see. Large locomotives not unlike those that were built in the Third Age puff slowly along the chaotic strands, belching black fumes into the air above them to join the countless others spewed forth from immense towers. Other travellers upon the twisting sky-rails are smaller, handcars and pump-trolleys, some covered, some not. Some pumped, some pedalled, others pulled like chariots by harnessed serpents. And among them even stranger things. Millipede-like living trains scuttle across tarnished rails, ever pursued by scuttling locomotive predators that appear to be nothing more than a combination of a spider and a steam engine. Webs are spun between the very tallest and highest towers, helpless trains and pedal-powered flying vehicles trapped like withered husks as the web’s predatory creators are invisible save as immense shadows soaring through the very highest layers of smog.

Beneath the streets and squares and buildings fall away forever, a lattice of citywork thronging with crowds and overlaid atop one another. Some parts are built atop concrete foundations, other on loose, worthless earth but most of the city is built atop other parts of the city. Pathways and streets and rope-ladders and long copper wires help the throngs move.

And the entire spectacle is tinged green, lit by a light you have never seen before. Dis is filled with ancient lamp-posts.
2/?
>>
>>821896
spooky
>>
>>821896
Some of the lamp-posts sit upon street corners, others constructed atop tall towers and steeples, others jut out of the walls of buildings that had been constructed over the top of them. You see out of the corner of your eye for just a moment as Sleeper grates across the sky-rail what appears to be a vast city square dotted with ancient lamps like trees in a forest.

But these lamps don't shine anything like you're used to. They don't even glimmer a pale twilight glow like the old half-dead ones that haven't been lit in years.
Instead they burn with a soft green flame that you have never seen before, an unwholesome light that doesn't illuminate as much as it casts every shadow into ever-greater relief.

Green flame within the lanterns, atop candelabra, in the torches and giant fire-pits. This is a city that needs no sun.

Sleeper thunders down the rail unmolested, weaving through towers and penetrating the thinnest layers of the perpetual smog. A hundred thousand different sights unfold beneath you as you stare helpless down upon the enemy you dared to think you could destroy.

A twisted spire of black wood thicker than stone grows up from the depths, dotted with countless little holes and living space.

A crater that leads deep into the earth beyond all sight, pockmarked with little stone monuments you can barely make out and lined in huge deposits of thick black loam.

The Sea of Mud in the far distance, an endless expanse of grey mud and the black spurs that reach out from Dis' coastline as vast iron docks.

A dome built atop a series of other towers, buildings ruined and broken so that it can be wedged into the cityscape. And above it, a tall rectangular clock-tower with twelve bells and an immense clock that claims it to be five minutes to midnight. The hands do not move.

Areas where buildings have collapsed into an endless chain reaction, slow landslides that migrate across the city at glacial speeds.

And ahead of you, the way the sky-rail twists into a giant tunnel within a tower, guiding the Sleeper Rail into what looks like nothing more than regular old train station from your youth.

Sleeper speaks one more time as it grinds to a halt.
"End of the line."
>>
That's that for today and the thread, I'm afraid. Sorry for being so slow.
The thread was archived days ago, check the twitter for my next run-time, etc etc. I hope you all had fun!

A few Interludes might come out later today in this thread also
>>
stormy times ahead. for Ouro
>>
>>822000
Thanks for running!
>>
>>822000
Thanks for running, this city is freaking my out a bit.
>>
>>822000

Can we smug to the Train that its cowardice and selfishness almost made us kill it? If it hadn't spoken to Orion, we would have done it. We're fucking just as fucked really and we aren't trying to bitch out.
>>
>>822000
Holy crap thanks for running, Dis sounds like some crazy sorcery/biomechanical dystopia



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