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Chapter Eight: Pandemonium

Dis! The first city ever built by the hands of man. The city that was first the center and now the end, of the world.
Dis! The end of your quest, the city that has called your name for nearly three decades now of lost time.
Dis! Greatest work of the First Men, vast and beautiful and grand and hateful. You despise it. The city that killed the sun and damned humanity all for the sake of its own vanity and power. How many atrocities have you already seen as you passed over its cacophony of architecture? How many people suffer here? How many sinners revel in the time they bought with the death of God himself? With their betrayal of their own kin?

The wood of your staff creaks beneath your grip as you stare out the window of the renegade train. Your name is Orion, Lamplighter and Witch-finder and you have come to pass judgement. You’ve come a long way just to be here today.
You are armed and armoured, both in righteousness and in admittedly more practical actual armour. You wear your tattered Lamplighter cloak over your runeplate, your scabbard and the reclaimed sword within hanging from it. You had won the sword from Sacrament’s traitorous mayor when you first re-emerged from the wastelands. You have your staff, one end shod in iron and the other a ruined mess from a rough encounter with a golem.
And you have the lamp-post, wrapped and bundled in thick canvas to contain its light. Once a central lamp-post, ancient artifacts built to protect the settlements of Man and the object of the Lamplighter’s duty, it has been broken and ripped from its base. The circumstances of how this happened will always be your greatest shame but what is now trapped within it is your greatest hope.

A broken shard of sunflame, divine flesh of God. You have come here to seek out its brothers and to reignite the sun. You have borne it upon your back and if you were to remove your gauntlets, your blistered and blackened hands would be proof of it. One way or another, your journey with it ends now. You are here in Dis and you will not leave it until you triumph or you die.
>>
>>1219558
The railway beneath you rattles and screeches as Sleeper, the half-mad train that the Second Men had seen fit to give a brain, forces its way down the aerial rail. These tracks, much like everything else in Dis, are ill-suited to you and are the wrong size. The train is tearing itself to pieces as it carries you all over the city.
Dis is strung with a hundred aerial rails just like this, curving and swooping through vast bronze megaliths from the First Age, shining silver skyscrapers of the second and the web of suspended paths and roads that connect all of Dis together, from the lowliest undertowns that spill out into the chasm to the flying predators hidden in the clouds that hang webs across rails to snare the unwary.

The suspended rooftop railways of Dis have a multitude of users, from Third Age steam trains lit from within with unwholesome green flame to handcars to rail-chariots pulled by serpents. But it has nothing like Sleeper, a gleaming silver bullet that grinds itself gruesomely along the rail. Even if you hadn’t been immediately ambushed by an old enemy upon your first stop, you would be drawing attention. Your arrival has been announced.

“God,” Abe says as he peers out the window at the receding station where you had closely fought off that wretched Imp who has been dogging your travels as of late. “What was that all about? Wasn’t that Zeno’s imp?”
He keeps one hand over his chest and abdomen, where a section of his body has been petrified by a gargoyle’s bite during your battle to wake the Sleeper Rail. Abraham is, as far as you’re concerned, a good man. He probably doesn’t deserve to be here and yet you somehow picked him up anyway. He has no particular aptitude for magic or great deeds but he can cook and can be trusted to be stalwart in the face of darkness.
A rifle, obtained from bandits a short time ago, lies uselessly on his lap. The stone grinding against flesh hurts him too much to easily move or to use such a weapon effectively. You can see his hands shake. And yet not once does he look back.

“It’s a long story,” you tell him. It truly was. “I just wish I knew who his helpers were.”
The imp, former Mr Stocks, had not been alone. He had been accompanied by creatures in the bodies of humans.

“They just looked like imps wearing human bodies to me,” Beatrice says. She shrugs when you and Abe turn to look at her.
“What? It seemed obvious to me.”

1/?
>>
>>1219563
Beatrice doesn’t look well. Her skin is pale and cracked, faint blotches running down and mottling her neck. Her eyes are bloodshot and ringed with black and purple bruises that seep along her face. Her voice is ragged and raw, possessing all the beauty and elegance of broken glass.
This is normal for her. She is a witch or former witch, tamed long ago by a Lamplighter’s seal and imprisoned. It had been quite the surprise for you when you had found her living in Sacrament as if she was a human. As if she deserved a human home. But she has her own penance in a sense, ingesting gunpowder where other witches eat dirt and reclaiming the fire in her blood at the cost of constant weakness. Her own body and blood are forever at war over stolen power.
Your companionship has been rocky at best. You have done your best to treat her in the way that a traitor to mankind deserves and she has always taken that far too personally. But now, after the two of you have saved each other’s lives and shared your darkest moments, you are willing to trust her. She comes in search of absolution that she will probably never find and she still seeks power and magic in the guise of forgiveness but she tries her best.

“What are we going to do? You can’t tell me nobody’s noticed us now!
Abe paces from side to side, his hand forever upon his ‘injured’ side.
“People aren’t going to like us or what we’re here to do. And…”
He looks back out across the blasphemous skyline towards the distant Sea of Mud and the end of the world.
“There’s a lot of people here.”

“Knowledge should be our first priority!,” Beatrice yells to be heard over the screeching train. “We don’t know anything about this fucking place!”

You turn away from the window. The view is sickening.
“No. We need to find a way to lay low first. This is enemy territory.”

“No shit. Which is why need more information!”
She always curses. It’s as vulgar as every other aspect of her life.

“We need to rest and recover,” you tell her. “Look at Abe! Look at you!”

“I admit,” Beatrice says woozily. “I am not feeling my best right now. A bit of rest could do us all some good and Abe really needs to get decursed. But how exactly do you plan to fucking ‘lay low’ like this? I don’t know if you noticed but we just blazed into town on a shitty relic train!”

“We just need to find a safe stop and disembark! Sleeper, what can you see of the rail ahead? Do you think you can find us a place to hide?”

It takes a few seconds for Sleeper to reply, the train rattling and shaking across the unfamiliar sky-rail.
“This is not a pleasant city.”

“We’ve noticed.”

“No, not just that. These rails are not built for me. I am doing everything I can to stay upon them but it still hurts. I am sustaining damage to external systems at a consistent rate.”

2/??
>>
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>>1219568
“Still,” the witch pipes up, “aren’t you happy to finally be here? You’re fulfilling your duty!”

“Happy?”
The Sleeper Rail is quiet for a second more.
“If only. I hate this place. Simply being here is my act of defiance against it. But there is no longer purpose to my existence. At this rate I will cease to be railworthy in less than an hour.”

You shake your head. It may be Sleeper’s purpose to travel to Dis but he has a different one now. He is a relic of the Second Age and all such artifacts will be needed in the time to come.
“Just let us off and leave as fast as you can. Get back home before it is too late for you.”

“And do what?”
Sleeper’s voice is as monotone as ever, no hint or trace of emotion.
“I was ready to die when I believed my function would never be completed. And now that it has there is little else. I wish to scorn this place.”

“You already do by your own existence. But if we are successful you will have an obligation to keep yourself for further use.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“We’re going to fix the world,” Beatrice speaks up. “Relight the sun and make everything alright again, bring back the Fourth Age. We just talked about this didn’t we?”

“Exactly,” Abe says. “You’ll be important then.”

“The new world needs you far more than the old, Sleeper.”
Unable to look it in the eye you settle for simply staring at the screen it has in the wall. The red dot has moved off the little line entirely and the image is skipping and shaking in an unhealthy manner.
“How are they going to rebuild the golden age without you around to act as an example? You’ve done well to get us this far so once this is over just limp home and wait.”

“Done well,” Beatrice mutters. “Yeah he did a great fucking job trying to kill us just before. Real standup guy.”

“I will consider this proposal,” Sleeper states. “But for now I believe there is more pressing issue at hand. We appear to be getting flanked.”

“What?”
You rush over to the window, your eyes straining against Dis’...everything. And then you see it, a thin silver sky-rail that twists close to the one that the Sleeper Rail is riding. And pulling ever closer along it is an armoured carriage with a closed off roof. You can see the imp’s skeletal face in the carriage’s window before it pulls back.

Abe joins you, peering out.
“Is that a pump trolley? How is it moving?”

“It’s too fast to be a handcar. Beatrice!”

“On it!”
Beatrice pulls out her gun, wiping dried blood away from her eyes as she takes her sights.
“You’re lucky that I can do this shit no matter how bad I feel. Sleeper, open the windows for us.”

“The windows do not open. They are always locked.”

3/?
>>
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>>1219576
“Well,” Abe says. “I guess we don’t have to worry then. Do you think they have anything better than Beatrice’s pistol?”

“I’d rather not find out. Sleeper, speed up!”

“Very well.”
The scream of metal against metal increases in volume, the entire train shaking as it powers forward and leaves the imp’s carriage behind.
“Warning: Unsafe velocity detected. Undercarriage damage detected. Passengers please sto-st-s Passenger- War- Warnin-”
Sleeper’s mechanical voice cuts out with a sudden crackle and you can feel the carriage sinking lower as the sky-rail enters a sudden deep.

The force of the descent is terrifying, the city wheeling above and below as you are all forced to grab hold of your seats lest you be flung across the carriage! Beatrice nearly lets you go but you catch hold of her shoulder just in time, the former witch flailing like a ragdoll in your grasp.

You steady yourself just to see something horrific up ahead. The sky-rail you are currently blasting down along is occupied. Some sort of giant beetle lurks up ahead, an amalgam of chitinous flesh and brass with a small platform of passengers upon its back.
There’s a switch up ahead that should switch you onto a different sky-rail, one that loops back up into the thick smog of Dis but you barely have the time! The collision is only moments away.


>”Brace for impact!” It’s all you can do.

>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” All three of you need to escape! Some of those platforms and bridges beneath you aren’t TOO far down.

>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!

>Other
>>
>>1219578
>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!
Or maybe Beatrice could shoot it? Thanks for coming back Ouro. I'm on my way to class now but I'll do my best to participate.
>>
Welcome back to Lamplighter Quest, returning to /qst! This is technically thread 9. Hopefully I'm not too rusty. I'll be archiving the thread now, just to be safe.

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/
Thread Seven: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/799882/
>>
>>1219578
>>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!


You're back Ouro! Oh happiest of days!
>>
>>1219593
>>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!
>>
>>1219578
>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!
Yo it's ouro!
>>
Oh shit! It's back
>>
Oh damn it. Of course I messed up the OP. There's a section between 3 and 4 that accidentally got left out. Luckily it was nonessential.

+++++

“Oh. Don’t worry then, I have a key.”
The sound of her gun going off in such an enclosed space is deafening but what’s worse is seeing the dark glass, whilst smoking and a little scorched, completely unharmed from her explosive shot.
“Bullshit!”

“My exterior is armoured against attack.”

++++
>>
Someone's gotta hit the switch
>>
>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!

“Open the doors, Sleeper!”
There’s no response. The Sleeper Rail’s monotone has been replaced by a buzzing hiss through which nothing can be discerned.

You bang on the doors as if you could ever have the strength to pry them open yourself. These doors are locked by mysteries and machines of the Second Age. Flesh and bone cannot prevail against them anymore than Beatrice’s pistol could. You can see the switch attached to the track suspended above the city racing towards you and for a brief moment the beat of your own heart seems louder than the wailing of the train.
“Open the door!”

Sleeper does not reply, maybe cannot reply but the doors pop open quickly enough that you nearly overbalance and topple from the carriage. You grab hold of the side of the doorway as you stare out across the rail. The infinite panorama of Dis whirls beneath you.

How are you going to manage this? You can’t blast the switch with an Immolate, the train itself is moving far faster than mere flame.

>Climb out onto the train itself and run! If you can get to the front of the train you might be able to knock the switch just in time!

>Have Beatrice take the shot from the doorway.

>Have Beatrice take shot but you’ll stay in the doorway, holding her out above the abyss to make sure she gets a clear angle of fire.

>Other
>>
>>1219674
>>Have Beatrice take shot but you’ll stay in the doorway, holding her out above the abyss to make sure she gets a clear angle of fire.
>>
>”Open the doors, Sleeper!” One of you is going to have to switch the rail before it’s too late!

It's back! It's back!
>>
>>1219674
>>Have Beatrice take shot but you’ll stay in the doorway, holding her out above the abyss to make sure she gets a clear angle of fire.
>>
>>1219674
>>1219678
Seconding
>>
>>1219674
>Have Beatrice take shot but you’ll stay in the doorway, holding her out above the abyss to make sure she gets a clear angle of fire.
>>
>>1219674
>>Have Beatrice take shot but you’ll stay in the doorway, holding her out above the abyss to make sure she gets a clear angle of fire.
>>
>>1219678
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q
>>
>Have Beatrice take the shot but you’ll stay in the doorway, holding her out above the abyss to make sure she gets a clear angle of fire.

“Beatrice!”
You’ve still got her by the arm so you pull her towards you, the witch staggering helplessly. You press her pistol into her hands and her fingers stop shaking immediately.

She pokes her head out and pales, looking as if she’s going to vomit. She lost her hat in the battle for Sleeper so there is no longer any charitable shadows to hide her ruined face. Blood flecks at her mouth.
“Okay. O...kay. I get it. Hold me out.”

You pick her up, one hand across her back and the other above her legs. You try not to think too hard about it as you lean her out past the doorway and over the drop into Dis. You can wash your hands later, for now you just have to keep her steady.

Beatrice holds out her pistol, her eyes darting from the switch to the fall beneath her. She keeps a boot on the side of the train as if it would save her, scrabbling desperately for a grip.
Don’t let go!

“Shoot!”

“Don’t le-”

“I won’t!”

Her bloodied eyes snap to the switch and do not stray again and at that moment you know that she can make the shot. All you need to do is to hold her steady.

The train lurches beneath you just a little.


>Roll a d6. The first 3 rolls shall be used.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1219729
>inb4 3 1s
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>1219729
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>1219729
>>
>4, 5, 6

Noted. An auspicious start.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>1219729
>>
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>4, 5, 6

You keep her steady and Beatrice fires, the sound of the shot briefly overpowering even the screeching metal. The bullet flies true, detonating against the switch’s lever just in time to push it down! You watch the rails ahead of you shift, ancient mechanisms slotting up curved rails to divert from one sky-rail to another.

And then, just moments later, the switch vanishes from view as the Sleeper Rail switches rails. It sways as it does so and Beatrice almost slips out of your grasp! She screams herself hoarse as you pull her back into the doorway before she can hit the side of the train. She hits you like a limp sack of potatoes and you are sent stumbling back into the carriage. You grab hold of a seat before you can fall and Abe is ready to catch Beatrice as she collapses.
“Shit,” she says, blood running from her mouth and nose. “Sometimes I fucking surprise myself.”

There is no time for words however as the train takes up a steep incline, the sky-rail you switched to curving up high above the city and into the poisoned clouds. The carriage begins to tilt further and further back and rifles, provisions and other stray pieces of baggage begin to slide to the back and hit the wall.
Abe, too preoccupied with supporting the witch, begins to slide as well. He catches himself just in time, one hand on the metal leg of a seat and the other wrapped around Beatrice’s hand. You can hear something separate inside of him, stone dissociating from flesh and he turns as pale as a sheet.

Careful not to let go and slide yourself, you do your best to walk down the ever-steeper carriage towards the two of them but before you can reach them the train rattles from some kind of impact! Whatever it is it wasn’t enough to dislodge or stop the Sleeper Rail but the force of the collision rocks the carriage from side to side and you are forced to stop to make sure you don’t fall. The other two aren’t so lucky.

You’re close enough that you can grab hold of one with your free hand. And deep down you know neither of them are resilient enough to take the fall right now. Beatrice is breaking down internally and Abe is slowly coming apart, you can’t imagine either of them falling to the back of the carriage safely.
You’ve had this choice before. Damn it, you’ve had this choice before.


>Grab Beatrice.

>Grab Abraham.

>Relinquish your grip to grab hold of both. Perhaps you can cushion them.

>Other
>>
>>1219798
>Relinquish your grip to grab hold of both. Perhaps you can cushion them.
>>
>>1219798
>>Relinquish your grip to grab hold of both. Perhaps you can cushion them.
>>
>>1219798
>Relinquish your grip to grab hold of both. Perhaps you can cushion them.
>>
>Relinquish your grip to grab hold of both. Perhaps you can cushion them.

You grit your teeth as you let go, racing down the slope towards them. You can’t help but remember your raid upon the bandits not so long ago. There had been fire, a renegade Flame Artist and you had chosen to protect Beatrice knowing that Abraham would take the blow instead. He had been burned beyond your care and it would have meant the end of his quest, even likely his life, had fortune not been kind enough to grant you a miracle.
But there aren’t any Wax Saints here to bail you out this time. It’s just you.

You grab hold of both of them, first Abe and then the witch. Their combined weight and the steep incline staggers you just a little too much in the process however and you begin to slide. You do your best to keep hold of both of them as you go down, your back banging into seats as you try to find something to arrest your descent.

>Roll a d6. The first 3 shall be used.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1219847
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>1219847
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>1219847
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>1219847
>>
Well at least we have a healing factor.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>1219847
>>
We've just started again and we're going to kill both our companions.
>>
>You do your best to keep hold of both of them as you go down, your back banging into seats as you try to find something to arrest your descent.

There were seats. We could have just grabbed a few seat cushions and softened each of our landings.
>>
>>1219558
>Ouro is back
Awwww yea nigga
>>
>4, 3, 3

You are unable to stop yourself from sliding to the back of the carriage but you are at least able to kep hold of both Abe and Beatrice! Beatrice in particularly almost slips from your grasp in her panic, knocking her head against the wall with a nasty crack.
You see blood smeared against the wall.

And then you hit the back of the carriage, the breath knocked from your lungs as you provide a brace for your two companions. Blessed sparks dance before your eyes as you stare up at the tilted carriage in a daze.
You recover a moment later, pushing the other two to a safe landing while you get to your feet. The rail beneath you must be starting to level out because the carriage is slowly tilting back towards the horizontal. This lets you stand a little easier at the very least, ignoring the sharp spike of pain now lodged deep within your chest. It’s probably nothing important.

Abe is clutching his side but otherwise looks fine. Beatrice on the other hand…

“Thanks Orion,” Abe mutters breathlessly.

“Fuck you Orion!” Beatrice screeches, blood streaming down from her face. Looks like her nose is out of joint, the witch rolling back and forth with her hands covering her face. The flow of blood doesn’t look like it’s slowing anytime soon, coating her hands and chest in thick and stringy crimson.

“It was better than you fa-”
The carriage shakes again but this time it doesn’t stop, something rattling the entire train from side to side! Whatever it is, it’s frenetic and irregular but it doesn’t cease or tire. You peer out the window and at first you only see banks of dirty clouds.
And then the sky-rail curves, allowing you to look back towards the back of the train and you see it. The train is missing its last carriage.

Thick strands of gelatinous webbing are smeared down the Sleeper Rail’s sides and in a flash you remember the predators you glimpsed in the high clouds of Dis when you first arrived. The very first impact you felt must have been Sleeper running straight into a web and then blasting through it, the aerial hunters of Dis unprepared for even a crippled Second Age locomotive. That would explain the long smear of black ichor down the side of the train as well.

“Orion!”
Abe calls you over to the other side of the still-tilted carriage, beckoning you to the window he’s leaning up against.
“You need to see this!”

You do your best to pick past Beatrice, who is still thrashing upon the floor. You’ll help her in a moment. What you see from Abe’s window threatens to steal your breath away again.
On the other side of the train, far at the back end where the last carriage used to be, is perched an immense monstrosity, a cross between spider and worm and far uglier than either. It’s long body is supported by spindly legs, many of them broken by the impact with the Sleeper Rail and leaking ichor like old water pumps.
1/2
>>
>>1219972
It roars soundlessly from three mouths as it scrambles up the top of the last carriage, ripping it to the shreds with razor claws as it scavenges desperately for the meat it must know is somewhere inside.

It looks like the beast that set the web has been dragged along for the ride.

As you watch, the monster advances up another carriage, the shredded remains of the previous carriage being torn from the silver train and thrown out to land somewhere in the many-layered city below. There are now only four carriages between you and it!
Sleeper remains silent.


>Run towards the front! That’ll get you as much time as you can.

>Head towards the back. You’ll settle this beast yourself.

>Try to find a spot to safely bail out from the open door. Any high platforms? A tower, even?

>Other
>>
>>1219978
>>Head towards the back. You’ll settle this beast yourself.
>>
>>1219978
>Head towards the back. You’ll settle this beast yourself.
>>
>>1219978
>Head towards the back. You’ll settle this beast yourself.
>>
>>1219905
Unfortunately not. The cushions are attached to the seat and while they can be torn off, they can't be done so while sliding.
>>
>>1219729
Is that the same guy who did the Snakecatcher art?
>>
>>1220007
It was a drawfriend but they didn't explicitly identify themselves.
>>
>>1219978
>Head towards the back. You’ll settle this beast yourself.

We going full Paladin now.
>>
>Head towards the back. You’ll settle this beast yourself.

“Abe, take Beatrice and get to the front of the train!”

“I can take myself, thank you very much.”
Beatrice sounds sullen as she sway to her feet, the carriage properly horizontal once more. She’s still holding her nose, bloodstained gun dangling limply from her left hand.

Abe steadies her and then looks back to you.
“Aren’t you coming with us?”

“No.”

You stride into the next compartment without another word, the rattling and shaking increasing as you make your way through the next carriage and then the next and then the next…
Something heavy lands on the ceiling in front of you, the silver steel deforming from the weight of a huge leg.

It’s here.

Wick: 6/10

>Get a door open and lean out to blast it.

>Retreat back a carriage and then climb up onto the roof.

>Step back into the next carriage and wait for it to tear that one off. You’ll be able to see it then.

>Unfurl the lamp-post

>Other
>>
>>1220113
>Get a door open and lean out to blast it.
>>
>>1220113
>>Step back into the next carriage and wait for it to tear that one off. You’ll be able to see it then.
>>
>>1220113
> Heat up the metal of the train so it's unable to keep its grip.
>>
>>1220139
This
>>
>>1220039
Friend of drawguy here

Yeah, he's the one who did Hiss, Orange, etc
>>
>>1220202
Ah, good to hear! Tell him I said thanks. Sorry about the delay on this one by the way folks, my laptop froze and I had to restart.
>>
>>1220245
Specifically let's heat up the next one so we have longer to do so. Let it waste time ripping this cabin off.
>>
> Heat up the metal of the train so it's unable to keep its grip.

You take a step back and then retreat back to the next carriage, feeling ever more aware of the bruises and aches that are already starting to riddle your body. Let the beast waste it’s time with that last carriage, you’ll be ready and waiting for it in the next.

You pull out your wick the moment you’ve made it safely out and press it up against the roof of the carriage. This should work for even though you are completely unaware of what vile creature of darkness this thing is, you know it will fear the flame. It is no friend of the sun.

But you are also aware that your own Wick is flickering. It might take everything you have to heat the roof to the level required before the beast finishes with the last carriage. It might take even more than that.


>Use your wick. (Will require a roll)

>Use the lamp-post. (Will not require a roll)
>>
>>1220284
Do we still have that extra wick reserve?
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>1220284

>Use your wick. (Will require a roll)

I FEEL LUCKY
>>
>>1220295
Yes, you can choose to channel your Spark any time you wish.
>>
>>1220284
>Use your wick. (Will require a roll)
>>
>>1220284
>Use your wick. (Will require a roll)
Use the spark for sure.
>>
>>1220318
>>1220304
>>1220304

I'll back that sure why not.

We can always use the lamppost if this doesn't work.
>>
>Use your wick.

You tap your long-handled wick up against the top of the ceiling, all too aware of the crunching and tearing of steel that you can hear ahead of you or the scream of metal against metal below you. You concentrate upon the Flame Internal and summon it forth and upwards, flame dancing around up and over your harmlessly as you direct it into the metal ceiling.

A heavy heat builds within your head as you do so, a flame bursting to life upon your forehead in the same spot that Belle once anointed you with her sacred wax. The Wax Saint’s essence burns as you draw upon it for strength, rivulets of molten wax leaking from your brow.

Wick: 0/10
Spark: 5 /8

The ceiling is glowing cherry-red by the time you’re done and not a moment too soon, the carriage in front of you vanishing, the wall you were looking at replaced with strands of shredded metal and view of the rail behind. The beast lands upon the roof and screams.

There’s just one problem. The hotter metal gets, the softer it becomes. The red-hot ceiling collapses underneath the monster’s weight, a giant burning spider-leg scything through it and collapsing right down on top of you!

>Roll a d6. The first 3 shall be used.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1220367
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>1220367
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>1220367
Yeah I figured that would happen
>>
Man this dice system is brutal. It's like we chose the "Orion must die" difficulty setting.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>1220367
D
>>
>>1220396
This is what we get for going full Hero and not being practical.

It is a good pain.
>>
>>1220396
I wanted something a bit tougher than the Snakecatcher dice system which was really relaxed and hard to fail.
>>
>4, 3, 2
So a success on evading the leg, a half-success to avoid the collapsing roof and a failure to get to the next carriage.
Writing.
>>
>>1220419
>hard to fail
really?
>>
>>1220425
Hey. My roll was good. I stand by my luck.
>>
>4, 3, 2

You roll out of the way as the falling leg shears through the roof and the floor below, red-hot metal raining down around you in small chunks. And then, as the carriage begins to fall apart underneath the weight of the writhing monster, the ceiling collapses entirely.

You try to get into the next carriage in time but a collapsing piece of metal clips you on the side of the head and sends you to the ground once again. You can hear the beast still screaming, first from the burns and now as it slips and the train drags it along the rail, no doubt fouling it up for future travellers.

You stare helplessly for a few seconds, stunned and somehow unable to take action. The world is shaking around you and for a long moment, no coherent thoughts materialize. You are lying in a collapsing carriage that is now mostly roofless, exposed to the foul-smelling clouds of Dis. The beast is still clinging to the back of the carriage with a single flaming leg but the rest of its body is lying flat along the rail as it is dragged by the train, leaving ichor and body parts behind as a constant smear of black and red.

And then it topples to the side and the burning monster falls off the sky-rail. It falls off the sky-rail while a single leg is still impaled into the carriage. You wake from your daze as the monster falls, its weight dragging the train to the side and threatening to drag it down with it!

The carriage lurches to the side as the predator lets go and the screeching of the train, already cacophonous, grows unbearable as the Sleeper slows dramatically, the carriage you’re in now lying sideways over the rail!
The rest of the train begins to wobble, knocked off-center by the dragging carriage. And yet you see a ray of light at the end of this metaphorical tunnel.

Coming up just ahead, a large brick tower is topped by a large flat platform that the sky-rail intersects. A station! And whether it is safer than the last one no longer matters. You need to get off now.

>Run to the front, meet up with the rest of your companions.

>Take it slower. Otherwise you might do yourself an injury.

>Try to sever the last carriage somehow. What if it destabilizes Sleeper before it can reach the platform?

>Other
>>
>>1220539
>>Take it slower. Otherwise you might do yourself an injury.
>>
>>1220539
>>Try to sever the last carriage somehow. What if it destabilizes Sleeper before it can reach the platform?


FULL. HERO.
>>
>>1220539
>Try to sever the last carriage somehow. What if it destabilizes Sleeper before it can reach the platform?
>>
>>1220539
>>Try to sever the last carriage somehow. What if it destabilizes Sleeper before it can reach the platform?
>>
>>1220539
>Try to sever the last carriage somehow. What if it destabilizes Sleeper before it can reach the platform?
>>
>Try to sever the last carriage somehow. What if it destabilizes Sleeper before it can reach the platform?

As much as you want to stagger back up to the train and join your companions, you can’t. Not yet. There’s still one last thing you need to do. What good is the upcoming platform if this carriage drags the rest of the train down it?
You stagger through the wreckage until you’re in the next carriage, the undamaged one, the one still aligned with the rail below.
“Sleeper, detach the last carriage.”

Nothing.

“Sleeper?”

Still no response. And you can’t afford to wait! Even if the wrecked carriage doesn’t drag the rest of the train down, the way it’s dragging sideways along the track means that it’s going to smash into the station wall when you hit the platform! You don’t know what effect that’ll have and you don’t want to find out.
Looks like it falls to you once more.

It occurs to you that you are in no shape for such heroism. But that thought doesn’t slow you at all as you step back towards the broken carriage. You can no more turn away than you can fly or any number of other impossible things. This is the duty you accept upon becoming a Lamplighter.

The connection between the carriages is already tenuous or otherwise it wouldn’t be able to shift sideways like that. Indeed, you find that the last carriage is only connected to the rest of the train by a single stretch of wall. A stretch that has already been bent and strained near to the breaking point.

Wick: 0/10
Spark: 3/ 8

It’s nowhere near as powerful as the flame you last summoned but it doesn’t have to be. All you have to do is to heat the metal in one very specific spot and then…

You slam the iron-shod end of your staff into the glowing piece of metal. You swing again and again, not stopping even as you feel something tear open inside of you. You’re not going to let your body stop you from what has to be done!
And then just like that, it snaps and the entire back carriage falls away, leaving you standing on the edge of the precipice at the very back of the train.


The train lurches again. It’s nothing really, just a minor bump, one of the countless many that Sleeper has been going through. But this time you don’t really have anything to hold onto and your legs are already going weak beneath you.

Time seems to slow as you topple out of the train without ceremony.

You manage to twist out of the way of the rail just in time, slipping to the side and grabbing hold of the side of the ruined train! The broken metal is sharp and if it weren’t for your armour it’d probably lose you a few fingers. But your gauntlets are runebound and strong and you hold on, the rail rushing past the side of you and the platform just ahea-

The platform.

Unlike the sky-rail, the platform has a floor, one right beneath the rail.

1/2
>>
>>1220667
If Sleeper pulls into the station like this you’ll be slammed straight into the side of the tower that platform is on top of. You won’t survive that. Nothing can survive that. The flame will be snuffed out forever.

Strength feels like it is flowing out of your body in great tides, the perils of what has been a very long day taking their toll. To lift yourself up now using only your hands feels like it would be as to move a mountain.


>Try to climb your way back up in time.

>Drop onto the rail and roll and hope you don’t go over the edge. At least Sleeper has slowed down enough that it won’t outright kill you.

>Drop from the train entirely and grab hold of the tower beneath the platform. It’s covered in windows and ledges!

>Other
>>
>>1220673
>>Try to climb your way back up in time.
The others are still up there
>>
>>1220673
>Drop onto the rail and roll and hope you don’t go over the edge. At least Sleeper has slowed down enough that it won’t outright kill you.
>>
>>1220673
>>Drop from the train entirely and grab hold of the tower beneath the platform. It’s covered in windows and ledges!

Let's say Hello! To some new neighbours!
>>
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By the way guys, Thread 4 has been put back where it belongs thanks to Lord Licorice.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Lamplighter%20Quest

Won't have to put those clumsy manual archive links in the OP from now on!
>>
>>1220695
>>1220705
Did you forget about our companions?
>>
>>1220667
>Try to climb your way back up in time.
>>
>>1220673
>Try to climb your way back up in time.
Looks like we might need the backup backup hero
>>
>>1220673
>>Drop onto the rail and roll and hope you don’t go over the edge. At least Sleeper has slowed down enough that it won’t outright kill you.
>>
>>1220673
>Try to climb your way back up in time

Jesus Christ we've only just arrived in Dis and the city's almost killed us all
>>
>>1220723
I just prefer not being crushed with the force of a speeding train
>>
>>1220713
Nice! We're really lucky that he provides us with a solid archive system, even after the creation of /qst/.
>>
>>1220723
Yeah, they're cool. We can climb back up after we catch our breath and, you know, don't die.
>>
>>1220791
Yeah I've never talked to him but he seems like a really sweet dude, especially since he lets me keep all my junk on his site.

Sorry about the delay on this post by the way, been feeling sick.
>>
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>>1220854
Actually, it's not getting better and I really need to rest up before work starts soon so I'll think I end it here for now. Sorry.
I'll keep this vote open and I'll update when I get home from work later tonight.

Thank you all for still showing up even after the quest was dead for 3 months!
>>
>>1220879
QM CURSE
>>
>>1220879
It's all good, I can't really stay up like in the old Snakecatcher days anymore anyway
>>
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I'm glad you're back, Ouro.
>>
>>1220988
òooooh shiny
>>
>>1220882
Hah, I wish. This is just my life now.

>>1220988
Wow. Thanks! I'll add that to the folder.
>>
>Try to climb your way back up in time.

Your strength ebbs, sapped from you first by the battle with the gargoyles over the Sleeper Rail and drained ever further by the tolls of Dis. It’s been a very trying day. But surely you can do just this. If all the light is all fading from the world then let you not fade also!

Ever wary of the approaching platform that promises to crush you between brick and train and of the rail beside you that threatens to send you tumbling away should ever accidentally strike against it in your struggles, you heave yourself up upon shaking arms.

Your head crests the broken edge of the train and then your upper torso and from then you must fight the urge to just rest a moment. You have to keep going. You’ll be no use to anyone legless! The floor that your hands scrabble upon for purchase is slick with still warm ichor and for a single moment you feel that death is upon you.That you will slip and fall or else otherwise fail to pull yourself entirely up in time. Doomed to get dragged into the tracks and crushed.

You let loose a strangled cry and call forth your Flame Internal. The spark atop your forehead flickers back to life, warmth spreading through your tired and aching bones as your hands shimmer with transient light.

Wick: 0/10
Spark: 2/8

The Benediction of Succour, half-cast and hasty, gives you just the strength you need to pull yourself up the rest of the way just in time to watch the sky-rail below to be replaced with solid brick. The screeching of the train intensifies as Sleeper brakes even harder and slowly comes to a complete halt.
Every door on the train springs open at the same instant, the punchline to a cruel joke.

The platform is not as populated as the last one, strangely clothed individuals staring at the battered and sparking half-train that has just pulled up into their station trailing broken steel and one very lucky Lamplighter.
A silence descends. But you don’t think it’ll last long.


>Jump out of the train and onto the station. You all need to lay low and that means getting as much distance from Sleeper as possible.

>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.

>Take cover within the train. They might have a nasty surprise for you.

>Try to talk to someone.

>Other
>>
>>1222004
>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.
It might be prudent to conceal our lamplighter symbols and whatnot
>>
>>1222004
>Take cover within the train. They might have a nasty surprise for you.
>>
>>1222004
>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.
>Try to call out to Sleeper, if he's even alive.
if Sleeper fell with the other parts of the train....we should get him back. Eventually. Hopefully we can crash his main brain somewhere hidden, because that's really the best we can hope for right now.
>>
>>1222004
>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.
>>
>>1222004
>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.

>Take cover within the train. They might have a nasty surprise for you.

ain't leaving without them but goddamnit we need to be careful
>>
>>1222004
>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.
>>
>>1222004

>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.


>Try to talk to someone.

Just say hello and that you look forward to seeing their fine city, you just need a quick moment.
>>
>>1222004
>>Take cover within the train. They might have a nasty surprise for you.
>>
File: beeeee.png (352 KB, 535x663)
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New session begins in an hour!
>>
>>1223021
Great that you are back, I'm glad we convinced you not to spoil the story yet :)
>>
>Walk through the train to find Beatrice and Abe first. You’re not going anywhere without them.

You slip inside the open carriage as quickly as you can, hiding yourself and your Lamplighter emblem from sight. Spikes of pain blossom all down your torso as you move but you keep your pace steady. You need to find Beatrice and Abraham before you do anything else, you cannot afford to let this accursed city seperate you. Whatever differences you’ve had with them in the past surely they are as nothing compared to the task that now lies before you.

As you walk through the ruined train you can’t help but to glance through the windows that you pass. The station is mostly dirty brick, a Third Age construction if you’ve ever seen one. The scattered people wear clothes that are strange but not entirely foreign to you, like distorted parodies of what you once knew. Suits and dresses but in different cuts and styles. You see at least two gray-skinned women whose skirts end just above the knee and you hastily look away. Disgusting but what else can you expect? This is a city surely in thrall with the dread powers of the Earth.

The platform, like all of Dis you have seen, is lit brightly but in an odd flickering fashion that bears a green-ish tint. The sunless sky holds no power here even as it torments the sons and daughters of light. You can’t help but search for the source and that’s when you see the lamp-post sitting atop one side of the platform and you can’t help but stop.

It’s a central lamp-post, identical to any number of the holy artifacts that you’ve safeguarded in the past. Identical to the broken one you now bear across your back. And that itself is not a great surprise. It makes sense that Dis would be full of such lamps. It had once been the greatest city of the First Men after all and back in those days lamp-posts had been plentiful. But you must admit, you hadn’t really thought of what they would be like in Dis.
Had you been imagining them to all be lying empty and abandoned? Destroyed, even?

But no, this central lamp-post is in perfect condition, cared for better than the lamp-post you empowered in Sacrament. Spotless and unmarked and inside itself, bearing a soft green flame. The light it spills is strange, flickering and soft and casting more shadows than it erases. A half-light, a green twilight burn that grants the city light and protects it from the consequences of its own actions upon the sun.
And what light is this? Would this light abjure imps? Would the green flame harm witches? Somehow you doubt it. This is fire bent in service of darkness.

You don’t even question how such a thing can be done. You likely already know the answer, know the prizes that seven sinners in Dis use and abuse. And even beyond the sheer perversion and blasphemy of it all...it’s unfair.

1/2
>>
>>1223388
You’ve long been disillusioned of any notion that the world is fair of course but seeing this, seeing the people of Dis bask safely beneath perverted half-light while the rest of humanity, the true faithful, must suffer in darkness makes you feel sick. It’s a visceral sensation, a churning in your gut. How many towns have you passed that toil in the dark, that depend on the fading twilight of almost-snuffed lamp post? How many people die every day as light and flame vanish further and further from the world all while Dis, the source of all their suffering, lives on lit by stolen radiance?

You limp the rest of the way towards the front of the train with your eyes averted.

“Orion!”
Abe sees you first as you enter the first carriage, the seating compartment just before the sealed door that contains Sleeper’s engine room. He lurches over to you, grabbing you by the shoulder as if you need support. Do you truly look that bad?

Beatrice is lying down on a bank of seats, both hands still cupping her broken nose. It’s stopped bleeding for now but you imagine that’s little comfort to her. She’s covered in so much dried blood that you can smell the sulphur in the air.
“What do we do now?”
The witch’s question is half-spoken, half groaned.

“Look at all this!,” you spit. “Look at what they’ve done to the lamp-posts!”

“I don’t like the light it casts,” Abe says. “It makes me feel uneasy.”

“Really? It feels kind of comforting to me,” Beatrice replies. “It doesn’t even hurt my eyes or oh I guess that means it’s bad, huh?”

Beatrice liking it is all the confirmation you need that nothing good can from the green flame.


>Now that you’re all together, it’s time for you to simply walk out and leave. No rush.

>You must closely investigate the lamp-post yourself.

>It’s time to get out of here as quickly as possible. Who knows what searches for you now?

>Try to break down the door to Sleeper’s compartment.

>Just stay in the train for now. You can fortify this position but once you’re in Dis proper all advantage is lost.

>Other
>>
>>1223392
>a short rest, enough to gather the strength to run and hide
>try to talk to Sleeper.
>>
>>1223392
>You must closely investigate the lamp-post yourself.
>>
>>1223392
>Now that you’re all together, it’s time for you to simply walk out and leave. No rush.
>>
>>1223392
>a short rest, enough to gather the strength to run and hide
>try to talk to Sleeper.
>Beatrice it means they have somehow corrupted fire itself, and turned it to Earth. It is worse than you can possibly fathom. Given you pessimistic streak, that should say a great deal.
>>
>>1223392
>>Try to break down the door to Sleeper’s compartment.
>>
>A short rest, enough to gather the strength to run and hide
>Try to talk to Sleeper.

Fortunately nobody on the station seems to want to get close to the mystery train so you probably have some time for now. Time enough to rest at least a little more and gather your strength for what must be done later.
“They have bent fire itself,” you say. “What good is it to them?”

Abraham paces back and forth, apparently having recovered a little from his previous spasm.
“So what are we going to do? Do we just walk out? Ask people if they’ve heard of the seven solar fragments?”

“Maybe,” Beatrice says. “It could work.”

“We still need to lay low,” you reply. “But before we do any of that, we need to talk to Sleeper.”

Beatrice coughs something up. You don’t look at it.
“How?”

“Sleeper? Can you answer me?”

Your only response is the soft hiss that now emanates the train. Whatever it is, it has replaced Sleeper’s voice somehow.

“What about the engine room?”
Abe raps on the door as if knocking on it would let him in.

“Sealed real tight,” Beatrice groans. “I already asked him to open up.”

Maybe you can force it open and confront Sleeper’s brain direc-A flicker of movement catches your eye, discernibly different from the common passengers of the station. Figures are climbing one of the staircases that open up onto the platform, men in dark coats that are obviously worn over plate mail. They wear soft caps instead of helmets and many of them bear strange looking rifles connected via tubing to metal boxes upon their back.
“Out of the way! Make way!”

You don’t have time.


>Try to smash down Sleeper’s door anyway.

>Fortify the train and get ready for a confrontation.

>Flee in the opposite direction. There are stairs on the other side of the platform!

>Charge!

>Attempt to peacefully negotiate.

>Other
>>
>>1223557
>>Flee in the opposite direction. There are stairs on the other side of the platform!
>>
>>1223557
>>Fortify the train and get ready for a confrontation.
>>
>>1223557
>Flee in the opposite direction. There are stairs on the other side of the platform!
Just sitting around was pretty retarded fellas
>>
>>1223557
>>Flee in the opposite direction. There are stairs on the other side of the platform!
sad but the train is in their hands now i guess.
>>
Watch these guys be some form of Lamplighter.
>>
>>1223652
That was my first thought too
>>
>Flee in the opposite direction. There are stairs on the other side of the platform!

“Time to leave,” Beatrice says, clumsily getting to her feet. “We’ve got to go!”

You spare a moment to stare at the door to the engine room. Can you really let Sleeper fall into the hands of the enemy? But what other alternative do you have? You bow your head in apology for just a moment before joining the others in leaping onto the other side of the platform.

The three of you barrel across the platform unimpeded, ignoring the shouts of the men behind as you run towards the stairs. You begin to feel the pain almost immediately but you refuse to slow down or stop. Beatrice brandishes her pistol about as you run and the spectators melt away rather than face you directly, backing away and letting you pass.

But by the time you hit the stairs, the obvious problem has arisen. You are battered and beaten but with long practice in being so and you are already far outpacing the other two. Abe’s already picked up a sheen of sweat as he clutches his side and Beatrice is physically inept at even the best of times.
By the time you run down the stairs and into the hall beneath, they are already almost a dozen feet behind you.

The hall is impressive, some kind of large stone terminal lit by sickly green light but you pay it no attention. You slow, halt and then turn around to run back to your companions.
“Come here! Let me help you!”

Abe shakes his head. In the distance you can hear whistles blaring and distant shouts.

“They went down here!”

“Close the exits!”

“Don’t bother,” Abe says. “Orion...you’re the important one. If they catch you it’s all over. We’ll try to keep up with you as best we can but you can’t let us hold you back!”

“What?”
Beatrice turns and stares at him, clearly unhappy with this idea.
“Fuck that!”


>Just keep running and trust them to keep up. You need to get out before more of those men or something worse arrive.

>Pick one of them up and carry them.

>Try to carry both of them. Probably won’t work.

>Tell them to hide somewhere if they can’t run. They’ll be after you!

>Other
>>
>>1223684
>>Tell them to hide somewhere if they can’t run. They’ll be after you!
>>
>>1223684
>Pick one of them up and carry them.
Beatrice is probably light enough to not really slow us down. It's better than leaving both of them.
>>
>>1223684
>Tell them to hide somewhere if they can’t run. They’ll be after you!
>>
>>1223684
>>Tell them to hide somewhere if they can’t run. They’ll be after you!
maybe b can use her witch status to carry some sort of favor

ok its a long shot
>>
You guys really wanna be separated from both of our friends in a city that wants to kill us?
>>
>>1223684
>Pick one of them up and carry them.
Beatrice.

>never make any hard decisions ever
come on guys
>>
>>1223684
>>Tell them to hide somewhere if they can’t run. They’ll be after you!
>>
Ah sorry,had computer troubles. Vote is called and writing now.
>>
>>1223795
What's with you and writing unpleasant MC's?

First Cennen, now Orion.
>>
>>1223795
>>1223870

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy your quests, but . . . I kind of hope the religious zealot loses instead of enforcing a "bright" age of oppression.
>>
>>1223870
>>1223892
it draws people in, you gotta admit that.
>>
>>1223892
...And ensures the age of witches and their countless ghouls and imps continue to murderfuck everyone?

That aside, the majority of the unpleasantness is a result of the playerbase, rather than built in. Orion was a stick in the mud, yeah, but if you read back it was the players who got on the Warhammer Inquisitor train of assholishness and complete oppression. Same for Cennen back in Snakecatcher; He was kind of a coward, but anytime he really went overboard into being a terrible person, it was the players.

And then once the players consistently vote for something, it starts being IC to keep writing them like that.
>>
>>1223892
What? Is killing witches and preserving the flame necessary for humanity to survive somehow oppression?
>>
>>1223892
you think the current age is better?
Where the weak are trampled and normal folk are victims to the whims of sociopaths that are no longer human
>>
>>1223892
>keeping massive narcissists that kill people "because they do not matter" as well as monsters that like to kill, puppet or lord over people at bay is "oppressive."


Hello Tumblr, in case you missed it, witches and the beasts of Earth are worse by several orders of magnitude than one stick in the mud lamplighter, who is only that way because a witch broke his heart, betrayed him and killed everyone else he ever knew or loved.
>>
>>1223918
If you've played the quest earlier, then you see the weak were just as trampled then and the sociopaths were Humans being the only difference.

So I mean, if I'm going to oppressed by Monsters the least they could do is look the part. And at least in this new world there's the opportunity for personal advancement.

Dis seems to be working out. Maybe they'd be willing to share their system with the other people if they didn't insist that Dis needed to die simply for being what it is.

>>1223910
God this so much.
>>
>Tell them to hide somewhere if they can’t run. They’ll be after you!

Beatrice stares up at you, reddened eyes peering out of circles of black.
“Don’t listen to him! I’m not letting you two leave me behind!”

“We’re not going to!,” Abe says. “That wasn’t the plan.”

You can’t carry both of them and you don’t want to save just one and leave the other. No, there has to be another way out of this. And there is. If there’s anything the dark masters of Dis desire, it is what lies upon your back. Beatrice and Abe both might be able to blend into the crowd, particularly if the witch finds something to cover her face. But you? You’ll need to strip yourself of your armour and your cloak before you stop standing out and you don’t have the time for that.
The only possible path has become clear to you.
“If you can’t run then hide. They’ll be after me. We can meet up around here once this has all been dealt with!”

You turn without another word and begin to run. There’s dozens of smaller passages bleeding off from this hall, it should be easy for them to find a spot where they can change their clothes or at least pose as someone else. And as for you? You’ll just ru-

Something awful happens.
>>
>>1223929
Huh it's almost like imperfect characters make for more compelling stories or something. You're being pretty retarded about "muh evil religion" though.
>>
>>1223941
Interlude

Back up above the hall, atop the tower’s platform sat the Sleeper Rail. Or what was left of it anyway.

...e lost. Compartment Eight lost. Compartment Seven lost. Compartment S..

The dark-cloaked men battered at the door to the engine room, attempting to force it open. The door stayed firm but if they had been able to slide it open, they would have seen Sleeper’s brain room. A small compartment piled high with tall computer banks, towers of arcane machinery that bent light and ate flame and thought without flesh.
A single terminal sat beside it as a means for a hypothetical human to monitor Sleeper’s internal activity. It was broken, malfunctioning since long ago. Beside it sat a clacking mechanical printer that was meant to serve as a diagnostic, printing off error reports whenever something went wrong within the intelligence.
It has been running for centuries now, long since run out of paper and ink, the printer-stamps clacking uselessly together as if an invisible typist was recording all of Sleeper’s flaws.
There were so many.

The air was thick with smoke and the scent of heated metal. Sleeper’s brain had been cooking itself for quite some time.

Vox system down. Communication system down. Propulsion down. Charger lines down. Underrail down. Damage detected to chassis. Unsafe passenger environment detected. Toxic atmosphere detected. Please contact a re-

Sleeper ignored the constant internal listing of various woes. It had been buzzing since he first awoke in the ruins of the Second Age. Never quite this loudly however. Lacking anything else to divert power to, Sleeper instead disabled the engine connections entirely and then removed the safeguards upon the sunlight reactor.

Warning: Unsafe energy concentration det-

The good thing about being defective, about being mad, was that the passenger safety programs really didn’t apply. More like guidelines really.

Here he was, finally in Dis. How Sleeper loathed this place, loathed and loved and longed for it as his sole purpose as the Sleeper Rail, shining light of the Dis Express. He had thought he would never know his function and had been ready to throw himself and his passengers into the chasm.
But now...but now…

The door the engine room is pried open, releasing the smell of smoke and overheated machinery.

It was a curious thing, the Sleeper Rail. How it devoured flame and light to power itself, how it multiplied and intensified such energy through arcane artifice from the peak of the golden times. Liquid lightning. And yet now it ebbed as all such things did. There was no more light in the world and even Sleeper’s safeguarded stores of power were only declining.

Warning: Unstable energy levels rising. Enable safeguards imm-

Oh, how Sleeper loathed this city.

1/2
>>
>>1223947
One of the men covers his face and enters the engine room just in time to see the diagnostic printer spring to life one more time. No paper. No ink. Just a writing press moving by itself along the tracks of invisible fingers. Just one word.

--Good--

For just a split second, a second sun dawns upon Dis.
>>
>>1223929
>If you've played the quest earlier, then you see the weak were just as trampled then and the sociopaths were Humans being the only difference.

>Couple of assholes raping a girl is equal to a Girl literally killing an entire town, betraying a man for laughs, and killing people on a whim because they don't matter.


That's like saying beating someone up is the same as ritualistic Torture.


Furthermore Orion is a dick yeah, but not nearly as much as you make him out to be.


>Dis seems to be working out.
Imps taking over people's bodies and paying witches for them, really.

>Maybe they'd be willing to share their system with the other people if they didn't insist that Dis needed to die simply for being what it is.
Dude, Dis has long been so stuck up it's own ass that it would willingly fuck over the rest of the world to be the greatest city ever. That's a whole fucking plot point.

You're being retarded.
>>
>>1223929
I dont see the point of you playing devils advocate trying to justify witches. What about imps, are they poor missunderstood souls too?
Also Dis killed the Sun, they doomed the rest of manking for their own selfish wishes.
>>
>>1223954

You feel it before you hear it, a single stupendous crack that shakes through your very bones and sets the entire tower shaking.

You turn and look back for your two companions at the same time as the ceiling far above breaks apart, shafts of liquid burning flame carving through stone and collapsing both floor and ceiling.

>Roll a d6. The first 3 shall be totalled.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>1223978
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>1223978
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>1223978
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1223978
>>
Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>1223978
>>
>8

The shockwave follows the killing light almost immediately, scattering the ceiling above you and sending people flying. You are one of them, barely catching a glimpse of Abe and Beatrice before a piece of falling stoneworks obscures your vision of them.

The floor caves in beneath you as you struggle, your feet finding nothing but air as you fall helplessly. Luckily nothing strikes you as you fall. In fact, your fall is broken by something extraordinarily soft.

You lie there for a few seconds blinking, looking up a plaster ceiling that you had fallen straight through, leaving a hole. You don’t even remember striking it. Dust fills the air, both plaster and stone as the echo of the explosion replays itself within your ears again and again.
What happened? You must have fallen down a few layers of the tower down into a ...residential area?

You look around and it does seem to be some kind of bedroom, lush and luxurious. You’ve fallen directly atop a large double bed, breaking it in the process. You can’t make out much else about the room however as the plaster dust coats everything. But what you can see looks decadent.

You try to get up but find yourself barely able to move. So with a groan, you pull out the last of the flame atop your brow to perform the Benediction of Bliss that Belle taught you.

Wick: 0/10
Spark: 0/8

Your body begins to mend just a little and you slowly get to your feet to look around. A quick search of the cupboard reveals what appears to be women’s clothing. You say ‘appears’ because you can’t even imagine any woman wearing something like this.
The window is easily opened and looking through it reveals one of Dis’ many bustling bridge paths that connect from tower to tower like a spiderweb just ten feet below. It is filled with people and carts, all of which have frozen to stare up at whatever is happening above. You might be able to drop down but then you’ll be in the crowd.

There’s also a door and a cursory check of the knob confirms that it is unlocked. But that would entail going deeper into whatever sordid den you’ve found yourself. Neither option seems to an include an obvious way to find your companions.

If they are even still alive.


>Through the door.

>Out the window.

>Try to climb back up through the hole you left in the ceiling.

>Lie here a while. You sorely need to rest and recharge your Wick.

>Other
>>
>>1224116
>Lie here a while. You sorely need to rest and recharge your Wick.
>>
>>1224116
>>Lie here a while. You sorely need to rest and recharge your Wick.
>>
>>1224116
>Through the door.
>>
>>1223971
From what I can tell, Imps can't even rape since it has to be consensual so they're one up above Orions old society.

> Dis killed the sun

You mean the Tyrant of the sky, who murdered the old gods using the stolen power of an enslaved innocent and forced all who didn't bend the knee to be trapped underground for ages unending?
>>
>>1224116
>>Try to climb back up through the hole you left in the ceiling.

I would like to think that we are more than just a vessel for the flame.
>>
>Lie here a while. You sorely need to rest and recharge your Wick.

If we don't and we get in a scuffle, we're going to have to use the lamp, and that will alert the whole city that we have a sun shard.
>>
>>1224145
>>1224152
>buying the manipulative deceptions of dead gods
>>
>>1224145
thanks for the valuable input richard dawkins
>>
>>1224192

Hey, I'd be a lot more forgiving if Orion was a good man in a shitty system, instead of just another thug using it as an excuse to not face up to his own failings in his past.
>>
>>1224203
Pretty sure Dawkins would be all about killing ALL the Gods, not pointing out that one was a tyrant Man standing in a place not meant for any but the cruelest of overlords.
>>
>>1224224
Except he has been? You're just ignoring it entirely. He's owned up to every mistake he has made, and is trying to repent for them.


>>1224230
The Earth spirits are not great people either. Given they LIKE torturing, killing and corrupting humans, they're worse.
>>
>>1224230
Yeah surely the gods who compel you to kill your own kind are the good guys. I know being contrarian is fun but try to think from the POV of our MC
>>
>>1224244
Oh, there have been some good times. Like when we killed the Bandits.

Even though we had to go back and take care of business after people had to be convinced that being excessively cruel and leaving someone out for the Earth spirits to torture to death as pointed out >>1224239 wasn't actually a "Good Person" thing to do.

Hey, maybe we can actually talk to the people of Dis instead of turning an entire town against us because we can't handle women revealing their knees.
>>
>>1224244
> Thinking people need the excuse of Gods to kill their own kind

It's not like the Sun didn't demand this either, just of a different group of people.

Oh, wait, you're going to insist "But they weren't REALLY people".

There's only one true sun, and that's the light of intelligence.
>>
>Lie here a while. You sorely need to rest and recharge your Wick.

You can’t just assume that they are dead, down that road lies darkness. No, you must act as if they are alive and searching for you also. But you must also heed what is practical. You’ll do nobody any good right now if you simply run off and find yourself in trouble without any Wick. For while you place yourself the equal of any mundane threat you may encounter, this is Dis and its threats are anything but. What if you come across an imp? Or a pack of ghouls? Are ghouls allowed to roam free?
It wouldn’t surprise you at this point.

You need to trust that your companions are doing their best to survive and in doing so, clear your mind. You sit upon the floor between the broken bed and the wall, calming yourself as best you can and centring your will upon your Wick.

Many minutes pass and as your body rests, the flame within slowly seeps back to life.

>Roll a d6. The highest of the first three will be used to recharge your Wick and Spark.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>1224279
>There's only one true sun, and that's the light of intelligence.
So that's why you're such a big fan of the sunless world.
>>1224292
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1224292
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1224292
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>1224292
>>
>>1224265
First of all it's called characterization, second of all it's been major plot points that Dis can and has tucked over everyone else to stay comfortable as the best city ever. It also been shown, repeatedly that witches are sociopathic narcissistic assholes who kill people for fun and power. You obviously have not read the fucking quest.

>>1224279
Witches are not people. Even if they were it'd be killing serial murderers who want to kill you. Pay attention fuckstick. Or leave since you can't look at things from any perspective but your own.
>>
>4

Wick: 4/10
Spark: 4/8

Almost an hour later, you open your eyes to find yourself both relaxed and empowered. The fire that runs through you is dim but it is there. The world outside has quietened as well, the hubbub of the path below having lessened to what you assume is just normal levels.

You rise to your feet and immediately discover that while your energy may have returned, the pain certainly hasn’t lessened. That’s going to need bed rest. Oof.

You are still tottering around making sure you have everything you need when you hear someone knock on the door.
“Hello? Who’s in there?”
The tone of the voice indicates a young woman.


>Out the window!

>Hide.

>Stay where you are and explain that you fell in the recent incident. Apologize if you must.

>Get ready to attack.

>Other
>>
>>1224375
>>Out the window!

Okay we seriously need to find Abe and Bea
>>
>>1224340
You're making Beatrice sad, anon. She's bled enough without all that edge to cut herself on.
>>
>>1224375
>>Stay where you are and explain that you fell in the recent incident. Apologize if you must.

We need to keep a low profile.
>>
>>1224375
>Stay where you are and explain that you fell in the recent incident. Apologize if you must.
But
>Be ready to attack or defend if need be.
>>
>>1224375

>Out the window!
That woman is either a heathen or an imp, and we are still missing our companions
>>
>>1224385
Beatrice is one of very few exceptions and it took her years to not be a total witch. Even then she relapses easily. It's not edgy when witches literally kil entire town to make meat pupet ghouls to kill more people.
>>
>>1224385
Beatrice is a weird case of an actual reformed witch and not just thats been ''reformed'
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

Okay, it looks like we have our first tie of the new year! Evens for window, odds for talking it out.
>>
>Out the window!

You slam the window back open and immediately start to squeeze through it, the edges of the window grating against your armour. You have no need to speak with anyone right now, particularly not a woman who is probably either some sort of heathen or imp.

There is however, something else you have yet again failed to take into account. You are very hurt and the pain can make even you hesitate.
Your boot slips on the window-sill…

>Fall back inside.

>Take the ten-foot drop down onto the bridge.

>Grab hold of the neighboring window ledge.

>Other
>>
>>1224528
>>Fall back inside.
>>
Sorry about short and slow posts today by the way, it's been somewhat of a sick day.
>>
>>1224528
>Grab hold of the neighboring window ledge.
>>
>>1224528
>>Fall back inside.

okay looks like we're going to meet our first resident
>>
>>1224528
>Fall back inside.
time to hold out hope that the other brothers already have some sort of underground cult here.
>>
>Fall back inside.

Rather than risk the drop onto the bridge you decide to just accept it and to fall back into the bedroom. You barely feel it, rolling to your feet immediately to turn and face the newcomer. Only to then immediately avert your gaze the moment you realise what she is wearing.

The woman is red-haired and quite tall and as far as you can tell is wearing nothing but a short gown that ends mid-thigh and displays an indecent neckline. You stare at the wall above her shoulder as she jumps.
“Who are you?”

Wait, how are you going to explain this? Do you just say that you fell down from the explosion and were too dazed to move until now? You suppose, even if it is a little suspicious. You can’t afford to tarry here.
“I f-”

“And why are you wearing all that?”
The girl stops, her hands over her mouth.
“Are you the special customer? Is that why you’re all dressed up like that, to hide your shape? I-I’m sorry, I thought you got our notice. I wasn’t here because of the rail explosion, I had to go hide and…”

You’re not entirely listening. Customer? But what finance would a man have in a woman’s bedroom? And then it slowly all clicks together. Oh. Of course. You shouldn’t be surprised that such places exist in Dis, they were plenty enough in the rest of the world before the sun fell too, though you’d never visited one. You have fallen into a house of sin!

The whore is still talking.
“So we had to cancel the appointment! And uh...I’ve been talking to the matron...and I don’t know if I want to go through with this anymore in general? Please forgive me!”
She cowers away for a moment as if she’s afraid you’ll strike her.
“Don’t get me wrong, the payment was good. Very good. But it’d lay me up for nine months and and I don’t know if I’m ready. For...that. I’m sure one of the other girls will accept it though!”

Just as it had moments before, thoughts slowly click together in your head. A special customer who would pay a whore a great deal of money specifically for something that lasts months and months. A customer who’d want to wear cloaks and armour to ‘hide their shape’.

Your helmet hides your disgust. This isn’t just a whorehouse. This is an imp breeding farm. You want to vomit.


>Straight back out the window.

>Explain that no, you simply fell during the explosion.

>Swallow your pride and pose as her customer, demand to be escorted from the premises.

>Rescue this whore from her life of sin.

>A willing collaborator needs no rescue. Punish her.

>Other
>>
>>1224779
>>Explain that no, you simply fell during the explosion.
>leave
>>
>>1224791
Seconding.
>>
>>1224779
>Straight back out the window.
less tracks more fining our companions
>>
>>1224779
>Other
Render her unconscious if possible, otherwise
>Straight back out the window.

We don't want to raise attention to ourselves, and killing or otherwise interfering with this operation for the time being could send their forces against us, while we are weak. They may have already put out a notice or warrant against us, so telling her where we came from or who we are may compromise us as well.
>>
>>1224340
> It's called characterization

That's a poor excuse for voting to be just as bad as Dis. What are you, an American Democrat?


> I can be as shitty as I want so long as I'm not as bad as THAT guy

Hey, at least Orion's Ex tried to save him. That's more than he ever tried to do for ANYONE.

>>1224397
Beatrice hasn't relapsed at all though? Name one time. Oh, wait, you mean pointing out when Orion and the Church have been evil?

>>1224779
>Explain that no, you simply fell during the explosion.
>>
>>1224810
>>1224779

> Add that you're worried about friends that might have been hurt during the explosion.

Maybe start disassociating ourselves from that little atrocity. We can hopefully blame it somewhat on the Imp chasing us?

That we should have shot outright last time IMO.
>>
>>1224838
>That's a poor excuse for voting to be just as bad as Dis. What are you, an American Democrat?

No it's a man being angry. Angry people make mistakes. We owned up to it later anon.


>Hey, at least Orion's Ex tried to save him.
After she murdered everyone he knew and loved and betrayed him, nearly killing him in the process by being sloppy.

>That's more than he ever tried to do for ANYONE.
Patently untrue, he tried to save the town the imp fucked, He saved Bea's life from her getting burninated, and routinely puts his life on the line for others. The fact you ignore that means you're either a troll or a retard.

>Beatrice hasn't relapsed at all though? Name one time.
I meant more about her behavior and her utter and stunning lack of empathy. Which is a witch hallmark due to their massive narcissism and megalomania.

>Oh, wait, you mean pointing out when Orion and the Church have been evil?
Durr hurr hurr, I'll believe the information from a totally biased source that hates the things I dislike, and ignore the reverse. Are you an American Democrat? Cause it sure sounds like it.
>>
>>1224779
>Explain that no, you simply fell during the explosion.
>Ask if she knows where they're taking the injured. You're well enough to walk, but some help would be nice.
>>
>Explain that no, you simply fell during the explosion.

You decide to cut her off, the depravity of this situation already far too much for you to stand.
“No. I fell here during the explosion. My apologies.”
Apologizing to a whore might be a new low but to be frank, you just want out of this situation as quickly as possible.

“Oh. Oh!
She looks up at the hole in the roof, something she had apparently missed this entire time. Meanwhile you keep your gaze fixed on the wall behind her rather than having to look at her. It’s one thing to stare right into a witch-sign where other Lamplighters would balk, it’s another thing entirely to be confronted with such a flagrant display of immodesty. You hope all of Dis isn’t going to be like this.

“So why are you still here?,” she asks. “That was hours ago!”

“I’m leaving just now.”

“Wait. What about my room?”

You gently but firmly push her out of the way. She yelps.
“I have friends involved who I must also tend to. Forgive me.”

You step out the doorway and into a semi-circular room containing several doors, all no doubt leading to equally sinful boudoirs. But how did you get launched down here but the rest of these room’s ceilings are undamaged? There must have been something higher up in the tower that soaked most of the blow.
But that’s something to wonder for a different time as you locate a corridor and start to stumble down it.

You don’t fall down the stairs to what appears to be some kind of waiting room, a small wooden balcony currently empty save for a nervous looking man in a pale suit sitting on one of the couches. He looks at you emerge, a cloaked figure in armour and covered in dust and he swallows.
“So uh...is that good?”

You ignore him and whatever pathetic story lead his life to this point. You need to get out of here.

“Excuse me? Excuse me!”
An older woman runs out of a side-office, two large men flanking her. She’s not dressed like a whore so by process of elimination and what very little you know of such places, you assume her to be the madam. Peddler of flesh!
“Just what do you think you’re doing? Explain yourself or I will-”

“I was just leaving. Do not worry.”


>Leave.

>Actually, maybe you should ask her if anyone has seen anyone who resembles either of your companions. Beatrice at the very least has an unforgettable face.

>Instruct her that what she is doing is a sin.

>Tell her that you are an explosion survivor and then ask her if she knows anything about what happened.

>Punish her for selling girls to imps.

>Other
>>
>>1224913
>>Instruct her that what she is doing is a sin.
while we
>Leave.

it'll fall on deaf ears, regardless, needs to be said.
>>
>>1224913

>Actually, maybe you should ask her if anyone has seen anyone who resembles either of your companions. Beatrice at the very least has an unforgettable face.
>>
>>1224913
>Leave.
>Instruct her that what she is doing is a sin.
Tell her off while we leave, we dont know if the buncers are imps in a flesh suit
>>
I'll probably finish up today's session for now because I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I need an hour or two to snooze before I go to work. This vote will remain open for now until I update after I get home later tonight.
I hope you all had fun!
>>
>>1224853
>Durr hurr hurr, I'll believe the information from a totally biased source that hates the things I dislike, and ignore the reverse.

Sorry, we ARE talking about the Church in game here, yes? The one shown to be hypocritical at best and outright wrong frequently by multiple in-game sources, from the wax saint to Sleeper the War Crimes train, to Beatrice, to Orion's own experiences?

>>1224913

>Tell her that you are an explosion survivor and then ask her if she knows anything about what happened.

Go for sympathy. Ask if anyone else was hurt and hope that things are okay. You know, try to not display

> utter and stunning lack of empathy. Which is a witch hallmark due to their massive narcissism and megalomania.

Like people have voted for Orion in the past.
>>
>>1224791
Thirding

This woman knows what is going on, and despite being a wanton slattern who has bred with an imp, she had the strength of will to turn what she believes to be another imp down. Not only that, she chose to do so after her madame, who likely legally owns her or something similar, has already received payment.

Girl is probably the closest thing we are going to find to a someone with their heart in the right place besides Beatrice and Abe, we could definitely use someone that knows the area, even if we gotta keep some secrets.
>>
>>1224913
>Leave
>Instruct her what she is doing is a sin

If she tries to stop us with her men, burn her alive for selling women to imps.

Here me out, this may be a little drastic, but in character I am not sure how far Orions patience and ability to keep down his bile would hold.

Despite what the stupid edgelord in this thread who doesnt read the archives thinks, what she has done is viciously evil. She has an active hand in increasing the number of imps in the world which actively increases the number of witches and often results in them learning new witch signs faster as well as having a powerful ally when they first arise.

This woman could have been responsible for breeding an imp like the one that drew Beatrice to witchdom, or even Orion's ex-gf. Who knows how many cities have been destroyed or terrorised by the monsters she has serviced and created.

I feel like Orion would be looking for an excuse, but also be smart enough to hold back unless he had a damn good one. If we just flash true flame at her to scare her, they might report it, but if we burn her alive people might consider it to be more of a witchlike act or some kind of witchmagic and ignore it or not be on the lookout for a lamplighter.
>>
>>1225062
>Sorry, we ARE talking about the Church in game here, yes?
Yes
>The one shown to be hypocritical at best and outright wrong frequently by multiple in-game sources,
Wrong
>from the wax saint
not part of the church proper, and has lost it, likely due to being a fire construct where fire is failing. Orion called her out remember?
>to Sleeper the War Crimes train,
Again not part of the fucking church, and was insane from being inactive too long and unable to fulfill it's function.
>to Beatrice
Who was a witch, got a good bit of her "knowledge" from a bunch of crude GOO who hate humans and fire, and had a less than stellar experience because WITCH. Which if you forgot are a combination or narcissistic sociopaths, GOO Cultists, and serial killers.

>to Orion's own experiences
The only bad experience with the church was when he got picked up to be a lamplighter, and even then compared to half the shit the gods of earth did it was incredibly minor. Yes it was a bad situation, but the fact you are shilling literally murderers over a mostly alright if slightly corrupt church is stupid.

>Like people have voted for Orion in the past.
Yeah, mostly when dealing with known Witches (who really do not deserve any mercy if you have read the shit they have pulled) or that ONE, ONE time he got pissed at the merc. Anger is not a lack of empathy, it's ANGER. Witches don't get angry, they just don't care about people at all, to them every single other person is chattel o do with as they will. Orion is nothing like that, and you're either a troll, stupid, deliberately ignoring all the times he's been kind and gentle despite cowardice or near heresy, or a combination of all three.
Leave the fucking quest. If playing an old beat up paladin of a dead god raging against the dying of the light is not to your tastes, then this premise is only going to piss you off.
>>
>>1225116

Ay, if you want to play an Evil Quest that's fine. Did that in Snake Catcher and it was pretty fun.

Just, you know, don't be surprised when Ouro calls you on your shit later like what happened in SCQ.
>>
>>1225128
>Ay, if you want to play an Evil Quest that's fine. Did that in Snake Catcher and it was pretty fun.
So you'd rather be a narcissistic sociopath murdering people for fun, to make more ghouls to gain more power?


Seriously troll leave.
>>
>>1225116
FYI, I'm fine with being a "No mercy for the dark forces" kind of guy, but being excessively petty like >>1225105 wants us to be "Hurr durr, burn a woman alive for selling imps" while we're alone and fucked up in the middle of a city with no good reason to like us, while we have friends to find instead of randomly lashing out?

That shit's just fucking stupid.

I was fine with, for instance, killing that one bandit chick. Just not giving her to the fucking dark. The dark gets NOTHING from us.

I was also the one trying to point out that Beatrice isn't really "redeeming" herself by using gunpowder, she's just replacing one source of power with another.

> She comes in search of absolution that she will probably never find and she still seeks power and magic in the guise of forgiveness but she tries her best.

There's being firm in your faith, and then there's going full 40k.

In which case, we're no longer playing the good guy.
>>
>>1225138
I'd rather not be a narcissistic sociopath murdering people for the tenents of a church built on misinformation because the third men were inferior to the second, or to be "le edgy roleplaying".

I have to believe you're the troll, since you seem to equate not being as Torquemada as possible to being in league with witches.
>>
>>1224913
>>Leave.
Orion is just no good at talking to people
>>
>>1225152
>I'd rather not be a narcissistic sociopath murdering people for the tenents of a church built on misinformation

It isn't?

>because the third men were inferior to the second
Not inferior, just different. Same as the second from the first. or first from the third. Each one has areas they excel in over the others.

>or to be "le edgy roleplaying".
So protecting people, saving them from being killed by ghouls, imps, witches and the like, who will do it for funsies is edgy? Alright then. Idiot.

>I have to believe you're the troll, since you seem to equate not being as Torquemada as possible to being in league with witches.

>Fire and the Sun are Evil, The world should go dark because the only flame men need is knowledge.

Yeah go tell that to little Timmy after his dad got his guts ripped out by an earth creature.

>>1225148
>I was fine with, for instance, killing that one bandit chick. Just not giving her to the fucking dark. The dark gets NOTHING from us.
and now you are shilling for the darkness because fire is totally evil hurr durr durr. That wasn;t fire's fault, it was a mortal man getting angry. I'm sorry that you can't play a flawed character for shit. Not every decision can be perfect all the fucking time.

>There's being firm in your faith, and then there's going full 40k.

Barring one time we got angry, we've been nothing but good and considerate to actual humans. Hell we've been soft on Bea given our backstory and the fact she is a witch frequent moral backslides.


You have advocated that the fire and sun must die, that we must learn from witches (which is how the second age ENDED) and that acting for the faith is a delusion and we are evil, despite the fact we've saved countless villages from the predations of the cruel creatures of the Earth. Barring Beatrice none of them have been friendly to humans. Not a one, and Bea is misanthropic as hell. Earth has proven is malignant and evil countless times in quest, but you choose to ignore that and take their side. So what if some of the lore was re-written to fit dogma better? It's not like the Fallen gods haven't made shit up about their enemy too. So what if the ancient and FAILING constructs of fire are not working properly? They're DYING and MACHINES, machines fail when they die. WE got angry ONCE, and you're calling for the death of humanity because it's evil. You're a bloody fucking idiot and should drop this quest, or reread it and ponder why you're even reading it in the first place.
>>
>>1225201
So, you are excluding the humans in Dis as being, well, human?

Haha okay. They're pretty much the only ones that are going to be left.

> Fire and The Sun are evil

Well, The Sun as in "The God" seemed to be not exactly objectively good, although they were definitely "Good" for SOME of the population.

As for Fire, there's the green fire that doesn't scorch people not beholden to one specific god. That seems alright.

And hey, you can't blame your shit on "It's just roleplaying" when doing excessively evil things.

What, you're going to justify abandoning his friends and mission to satisfy your urge to burn some random woman as "just roleplaying"?

You ever hear someone actually die?

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=969_1263249923

Give that a listen.
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>>1225201
>WE got angry ONCE,

Actually I'd also like to point out that we've gotten angry several times. Usually beating Beatrice into submission when she asks questions about our faith or our religion that we can't answer without admitting to having done evil shit.

Like, when we can't win with words we use our fists.
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Alright I'm very slowly waking up again and what the hell have you lads been doing?
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>>1225271
Arguing morality mostly.
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>>1225230
>So, you are excluding the humans in Dis as being, well, human?
If they are willingly damning the rest of world and everyone in it to a horrible painful death just prove their city is the best? Yeah they don't count. The innocents who know no better can be spared, and I don't see the point in burning them. But it remains to be seen if there are actually any.

>Haha okay. They're pretty much the only ones that are going to be left.
Our quest is in part trying to fix that, by restoring the sun.

>although they were definitely "Good" for SOME of the population.

>some
Most actually barring witches and those the witches held power over. So mostly Dis and whatever lone witches lurked and went around killing people.

>As for Fire, there's the green fire that doesn't scorch people not beholden to one specific god.
First of all no one has touched it, so can you be sure it doesn't scorch?
>That seems alright.
Seemed, and it is tainted by witch craft, which means there is a cost to it somewhere. It's in part what Bea wanted to do, and we know nothing about it at all, except the creatures of the earth are not driven off by it. Not exactly great for normal humans then is it?

>And hey, you can't blame your shit on "It's just roleplaying" when doing excessively evil things.
What have we done, besides that one act where we got pissed, and then later made right, done? Oh wait, nothing. Because you are full of shit.

>What, you're going to justify abandoning his friends and mission
No one except one guy wanted to do that.

>to satisfy your urge to burn some random woman as "just roleplaying"?
See above, one person is not indicative of the body entire, and frankly your strawman is fucking weak. So what if ONE fucktard wants to be ooc? No one else backed it.


>>1225255
Or, maybe, juuuuuuust maybe, she's being a bitch (which she is good at) and the reason we don't counter with words is because she's speaking bullshit and knows it? We've beaten her maybe once and that was doing the whole calling our god an abomination bit, from the enemy's point of view. Of COURSE fire is an abomination to earth. She's looking at it like a witch while we approach it as a human. Too fundamentally and diametrically opposed approaches that cannot meet. It'd be like trying to debate theology with an avowed and stubborn Atheist. There's no give on it at all. The other time have been glares or menacing looming, and given Orion's whole concept is tired, cranky paladin, that is his basic concept.

>>1225271
One guy, thinks all fire and the wheel god is evil and all humanity should die out so the witches can rule the world. Because apparently being human is a crime.
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>>1225279
I think the Wheel God definitely wasn't objectively "Good". And that the humans in Dis aren't necessarily "Not human" and don't all deserve to die.

Hell, maybe even the Imps aren't all that bad when not being forced to extremes just to survive.

Don't put those words in my mouth.

I'm still down for putting a Sun back into the sky, but maybe not necessarily the one that was there before.
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>>1225287
The sun kept the monster of earth surpressed and humanity from getting smashed by them. It is good for humans.

The humans in Dis are still human, but if they willingly and wantonly helps the darkness kill and fuck over the rest of the world? They are evil. And should be treated as such.

As for imps, did you forget that the one soul broke an entire town just because he could? They hate fire and humanity. They are assholes. So I doubt they'll ever be alright.

The fact you keep bashing the very things that kept humanity alive for those that fucked it over is indicative of one of four things.
1. You have not read the quest closely. You have so it cannot be this.
2. You lack the ability to read between lines
3. You're trolling.
4. You are anti religious and using this quest as a soapbox.

Regardless you're making it clear between straw manning, fabrication or facts and ignoring one you don't like, that this quest is not for you.
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>>1225304
"Monsters"

> The fact you keep bashing the very things that kept humanity alive for those that fucked it over is indicative of one of four things.
>1. You have not read the quest closely. You have so it cannot be this.
>2. You lack the ability to read between lines
>3. You're trolling.
>4. You are anti religious and using this quest as a soapbox.

I see you've never played in one of Ouro's quests before. Moral ambiguity is kind of the name of the game.

If YOU had read the quest, you would know that

A) Orion is already "tainted" with knowledge of Witch Signs by virtue of being a witch hunter.

B) We've USED witchcraft such as using dirt to determine where witches are, and the knuckle bone dice we have.

C) The whole Wheel God religion has been pointed out to have been an invention of the third men and a corruption of the truth, whatever it may be, discovered by the second men.

You keep trying to rephrase what I say to make your own strawman and it's getting tiresome.

There are no objectively "right" or "wrong" sides in this quest, but our actions still can be.

> One imp soul broke an entire town under instructions from a witch

Once again I see you're ignoring the part where Imps can't force anyone to do anything. And for the record, I voted for killing that imp every time instead of trying to negotiate. Fuck that guy.

But are all imps terrible? We've only met the one.
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>>1225304
It's telling that you keep trying to deflect from talking about the quest to trying to accuse me of shit, and trying to tell me what my own motivations are, and trying to tell me to "just leave".
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>>1225315
I haven't had time to thoroughly read everything, but I kinda agree that you're apologizing way too much for witches and underdenizens.

Imps have been denied pretty much everything they want, and witches get some real bad treatment. That doesn't exactly excuse all the shit they pull and feel zero remorse about. When megalomaniacs and puppets manipulated by whispers are the norm, Beatrice doesn't stand as an example that witches aren't bad. It just shows how big her "I got my conscience back" moment was as a person.

So yes, we should still get some semblance of sun back.
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>>1225313
Monsters in that they wish to kill humans off yes.

A) yes, I know, but he can't draw power from them without eating dirt and being a witch himself. Witch magic is memetic, so any lamplighter who has fought one would be tainted the same way. Orion due to his training simply understands it better than his peers.
Regardless this doesn't make him a witch, nor does it make him evil. Nor a hypocrite because he doesn't use them.


B) it's explicitly not witchcraft. If it was we couldn't use fire, period, end of story. I mean normal fire not this green shit. We still can, so it's not witchcraft.


C).Hiven the fact they had to pass down advanced knowledge through an apocalypse over millennia degradation will happen. You calling all fire evil and saying the world should go dark is retarded.

We've met and read up on other imps before. Even Bea noted the imp who helped her was a dick. There is no reason to assume they are good.


>>1225315
I'm telling you that because you reject the quest' core premise, make rampant hyperbole, allege that one person's stupidity is indicative of s groups, and generally insult players and everything else in the quest. You're being a blatant apologist for everything that would try to rip Orion in two. If you hate the quest premise and Mc that much you should stop shitposting and leave. Better for those of us who enjoy the quest and less stress for you, who apparently hates it.
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>>1225327
I'm not saying their actions are completely excusable, but they can be understandable.

It also seems like a lot of the bad shit with witches happens because of a) the traumatic circumstances of their creation, and b) the conflict between them and the Wheel God religion. But note that Witches can still feel, like how Orions GF wanted to save him still even though she was committed to destroying all the people who hurt her.

They aren't wholesale killing humanity, but they are taking over. And from their point of view, the humans that refuse to change are acceptable losses. They aren't just killing them outright but are accepting surrenders.

And since the Wheel God religion seems to have a "Kill them all, don't bother sorting them out" view on THEM, it's kind of understandable.

Especially with our hints about how the second men were much more lax with it and the third men were created as a response to that, literally hobbling mankind to keep it from questioning the Wheel God or being less than 100% hostile to underthings.

Then you have Dis, where people seem to be living and not necessarily experiencing undue suffering despite the presence of witches and imps etc. In fact, given that women can show their knees and not be burned at the stake, there could be arguments made that Dis is better for people in general although it might allow for less savory things to occur.

IDK man, we haven't really interacted enough with the people of Dis. I personally would like to have the chance at least, though.

We definitely need some sort of sun back though. This whole "dark world" thing is kind of shitty. Gotta save even the terrible people, because everyone is kind of terrible in their own way.

Please note that I still voted for executing the Bandits in the past, just not to be excessively cruel about it. They weren't even witches or people from Dis, but they sure as hell were criminals who had done evil.

I also voted for shooting Impface McFucker at the station and killing his last life. Screw it if that pissed off other imps/people, that guy in particular has it coming.
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>>1225337
>Monsters in that they wish to kill humans off yes.

despite the evidence of them living beside humans here in Dis, and willing to accept the surrender of other towns.

> Regardless this doesn't make him a witch, nor does it make him evil. Nor a hypocrite because he doesn't use them.

It not making him evil is counter to your previous arguments. Him using witchcraft, while espousing all witchcraft is inherently evil, is hypocritical. Once again, IN THE QUEST, it was pointed out that Witchhunters are seen with suspicion from the church because of this very fact and some factions believe they ARE corrupt.

B) Splitting hairs again.

C) I once again never said all Fire was evil, or that civilization should go dark. The Wheel God/Sun specifically I said "wasn't Objectively good".

I don't hate the quest. Once again I straight out said I enjoyed it. I can enjoy things even while I don't personally like the MC. A lot of that is also, as someone else pointed out, because people sometimes vote to have him be Lawful Stupid instead of good or consistent.

The MC doesn't HAVE to be pleasant. Check out the Flashman novels for a good example of an unpleasant "anti-hero". A phrase people seem to have forgotten doesn't necessarily mean "edgy fucktard" but instead can mean "morally flawed protagonist".
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>>1225359
>The MC doesn't HAVE to be pleasant. Check out the Flashman novels for a good example of an unpleasant "anti-hero". A phrase people seem to have forgotten doesn't necessarily mean "edgy fucktard" but instead can mean "morally flawed protagonist".
but we haven't been that edgy? I think you're pulling too far into the "gotta be nice to everyone" side.
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>>1225397
It's bounced back and forth. There have been some edgy times, though, for sure.

Usually smacking Beatrice without even bothering to explain. After asking her to open up about things.

I'm not saying we even have to be nice, but blending into the city or making it look like we aren't responsible for blowing up a train in the middle of it could be an idea.

I mean. I'm not even arguing that we should get along with everyone or stop trying to bring back the sun. Or even work with witches.

Just maybe hey, we could focus on getting the job done and allowing a little bit of heresy on the way if that helps us complete our ACTUAL objective.

I did get sidetracked a little talking about the morality of the setting and whatnot.

But keep in mind, Orion is a Witch hunter. Allowing SOME leeway with Heresy (such as knowing witch signs etc.) is part of his job and character background, so long as it lets us get the important jobs done.

And personally, I'm saying that if it comes down to killing witches or saving people we should choose option B.
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>>1225397
Actually since the break there's already been a lot less edge.

Before there would have been a bunch of "Let the witch fall because she's a witch" instead of the FULL HERO we've been going this time around.
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>Ouro finally returns
>Now we suddenly have to deal with an obnoxious faggot player constantly posting stupid shit
Life is suffering
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>>1224913
>Tell her that you are an explosion survivor and then ask her if she knows anything about what happened.
>If she asks what were we doing the few hours since the explosion respond that we were unconscious.
>DON'T instruct her that what she is doing is a sin.or do something else to attract attention. We'll get to that once the Sun is up again.
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>>1225105
I agree with this
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>>1225450
I would prefer if you all just shut the fuck up and only posted to vote.

God knows your write ins only make things worse.

Shut the fuck up and vote or roll you faggot.

>>1225167
>>1224913

This please. Orion no talk good.
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>>1225359
They still corrupt towns and kill people for fun.
Next Orion does not use witchcraft or witch sign. Just because you know the ritual to summon Satan doesn't mean you actually try to summon him.

>B) Splitting hairs again.
I give you legitimate logic, something that by the metrics of Ouro's world and his WoG is true, and you discount it because it doesn't fit your narrative.

>>C)
>>1223943
>>1223892
>>1224145
>>1224224
>>1224230
>>1224265
>>1224385
>>1224838


You're lying.


>>1225359
>The MC doesn't HAVE to be pleasant. Check out the Flashman novels for a good example of an unpleasant "anti-hero".


Flashman is a lot worse than Orion. You just straight up ignore and discard any of Orion's positive attributes, like saving a town that hated him because it was the right thing to do, or holding his weapon back and discerning the truth of that strange human lady who lived by the fallen star. Or the fact he repeatedly puts his body on the line for his companions. Noooooooooo because he got angry once, and because one player is being edgy in one write in you think he's a edgelord that wants to burn everyone to death.
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>>1225359
Reminder witches cannot use true fire AT ALL. We can. We do not use witch sign or witchcraft. Also remember witch sign is memetic, you see it once clearly and it get burned into you head. Rolling the knucklebones is borderline, but not something only a witch does. Remember that human lady who survived jackass imp? Yeah, she did it too and wasn't a witch. You saying Orion uses witchcraft which relies on witchsign is false. Yes, we know a few and what they do, that's experience and training giving us an edge on fighting them. Yes we know a few crude techniques that MIGHT be mistaken for it to the uninitiated, but it's not witchcraft.
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>>1225645
>>1225655
Jesup Christ you're just as bad as him at this point.

Shut.

The fuck.

Up.

Shitting up the whole thread with your yapping. I just hope the other guys doesn't respond.

Vote. Or roll. Aside from that shut the fuck up.
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Bad news, am way too tired after work to write anything legible. Next session will be in nine and a half hours or so or whenever I wake up, whichever comes later.
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>>1225663
Get your rest. TTYL!
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>>1225663
Thanks for the head's up. Get some rest snekman.
>>
Orion is over 50 years old and has spent over 30 years traveling across the world, witnessing a countless number of blasphemies, mass murder, monsters and witches who kill and destroy without remorse. He killed them all on sight, trying to right the wrongs wrought upon the people and not until Bea did he meet a witch he even attempted to communicate with- and all she ever does is reinforce his belief that witches are fundamentally twisted and utterly beyond redemption.

He's seen and dealt with every evil imaginable in this world and now he is in the mythical city where people have the fucking audacity to _live alongside the psychopaths and demons who are destroying the rest of the world_, and you sit there and want him to have a change of heart? Ridiculous.

It doesn't matter that his faith and ideology is flawed; He lived before the end of the world and knows what it is he is attempting to bring back. The world with the sun was infinitely better for humans than this age of darkness, he doesn't need his faith to give him conviction and to know the righteousness of his actions.

Orion is a brash, no-nonsense man of action because he needs to be, he has a mission and a means to do it, and he will see it through and settle for nothing less.

If you cannot put yourself in the shoes of a man who was thrust from paradise into a never-ending hell and understand how this has shaped how he perceives the world and his enemies, and how it dictates his actions, I'm not sure why you are here. You're using meta knowledge and your player POV to rewrite the brain of an old man who is literally at the end of the line and that's bullshit.
>>
Session in an hour or so.
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I won't be around for the session, so I'll propose it now: let's take off the helmet. The armor can be more or less hidden by our robe, but a guy in a closed helmet is immediately suspicious.
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Sorry guys, something has come up. I was hoping it would resolve itself soon but it looks today might be cancelled. Session tomorrow!
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>>1226488
Well if it resolves early, feel free to run a little Ouro. Thanks for coming back. See you tomorrow!
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is this the gayest quest of all time?
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>>1226649
no thats you're life
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Sorry about that, I slept in with an insomnia thing. I'll be doing some updates in an hour or so
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>>1231080
umm.
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>>1231080
Ded
>>
>Leave
>Instruct her what she is doing is a sin.

“I was just leaving, do not worry.”
This woman and everything her establishment stands for disgusts you. But you have no real interest in engaging with her or any of her sinners either. Just a whorehouse is bad enough, a den of sin that you can at least accept as necessary for those who lack resolve. But to sell women to imps? To wilfully aid and increase the power imps hold over the fallen world.

The thought of that girl you’d seen just earlier trapped upon the bed beneath some skeletal or beastial abomination makes you almost physically ill. And for that reason, you turn and stop before you open the door.
“I expect that this will likely fall upon deaf ears but all the same...have you not thought about what are you doing here?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“To sell flesh for coin is sin enough but an excusable one. But to sell women to imps? To let them breed? What do you get in return to allow this?”

The madam draws up, looking almost offended. Her two bodyguards don’t yet step forward but you can see them tense.
“They pay for it like everyone else. What else do I need in return? And I’ll have you know that they are some of the most courteous custom to ever step through this door! They don’t try to cheat me, they don’t hit the girls and they pay more than enough for what they require. And they most certainly do not judge! They have far more of a right to be on these premises than you do!”

“Is it not enough that you taint your own soul, must you dirty others? These are imps! They are the enemy of all humanity!”

“Not this humanity,” she replies sternly. “Leave.”

“I already was. But whoring yourself to the earth will reap its own reward from you soon enough and when it comes do not say you weren’t warned.”
Your hands itch to do violence upon this ...this bride of darkness but you control yourself for your companion’s sake. They need you.

“Good riddance. And tell your pathetic little cult that we have neither the need or the desire for your kind. If I so much as see another red cloak again I will be informing the real Lamplighters!”

You walk out the door and it is slammed shut behind you before you can even complete the act yourself, leaving you standing by a large stone stairwell that goes both up and down as well as a hall with several more doors curving around the outer wall of the tower. Nobody else is present.
You stare at the door, noting a plaque reading ‘Madame Burne’s House on 75th- Discreet And Affordable Uptown Quality’.

Disgusting.

1/2
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>>1231828
But what felt worse was the attitude, the lack of respect given. You must admit that you are used to a certain station in life as a Lamplighter. You’re certainly not like Belle but you’ve spent a long time currying automatic respect with your status alone. Your word is as scripture for most common folk and they would at the very least never disrespect you to your face! And those who did otherwise were commonly cultists and witches and other beasts of darkness and could be dealt with the traditional way. But here in Dis your status and your beliefs do not carry with them the station you are used to, only scorn.
And what did she mean by ‘real’ Lamplighters?


>You best find means to disguise yourself.

>Head into the central hall of this floor. If this tower holds many establishments on many floors it must have a map somewhere. Maybe you could use it to figure out where your companions may be.

>Go back into the whorehouse and teach them a lesson. Such blasphemies will no longer be tolerated in Dis.

>Other
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>>1231836
>Head into the central hall of this floor. If this tower holds many establishments on many floors it must have a map somewhere. Maybe you could use it to figure out where your companions may be.
We will still need good armour if we are to fight. The most we could do to conceal that would be a large brown cloak, which might already carry suspicion.
>>
Disguise up
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>>1231836
>You best find means to disguise yourself.

>Head into the central hall of this floor. If this tower holds many establishments on many floors it must have a map somewhere. Maybe you could use it to figure out where your companions may be.
>>
>>1231836
>You best find means to disguise yourself.
>try to track down Bea and Abe

Ditch anything that can identify us as a lamplighter
>>
>>1231836
>>You best find means to disguise yourself.
>>
Interlude

The sunless sky swung emptily overhead as people began to congregate around the chasm. The immense canyon that separates Dis and its section of coastline along the Sea of Mud from the rest of the world has gone by many names over the millennia. The first of the First Men called it by no official name but ‘victory’ for the canyon was originally gouged into the flesh of fallen Ur as the very first beachhead as the First Men emerged from the sea and waged war upon the gods that had sought refuge from the boiling mud. It is here where the first of their chthonic brethren fell and was shattered into soil and the first and grandest of their cities built upon their remains.
And then later it came to be known as Hero’s Rest as the war moved westward along the new continent and the lands around Dis became safe. The bottom and the sides of the canyon were carved into monuments and tombs to commemorate all those who had fallen in the struggle to carve out a land for the flame.
And then for a time as the First Age became the Second it would become abandoned, not through malice but through time, ever Dis’ greatest foe. The city grew apart from the rest of humanity, even as the last lingering First Men of Dis perished and left their Second children to carry on their ways. The canyon, empty and filled with tombs had simply become known as The Pit and then later as Undertown swelled and over-populated, the slums overflowed from past the great walls and filled the chasm with wretched shantytowns amidst the monuments of the dead.

That was who crawled up now, the men and women of Dis who lived beyond it in poverty and knew little save the fact that they were lucky to be born into it at all. They had scaled the sides of the cliffs just before Dis’ wall and they had done so for a reason for the canyon had finally been bridged.
Oh, people had always wondered if such a bridge was possible! And indeed, the oldest and most foolhardy of the canyon-men had always told tales of how the decadent goldskins from outside had forever been trying to link Dis to their decaying empire, that they had been thwarted even as their ‘Golden Age’ collapsed. Some even claimed to have seen or heard ‘the Bullet’, the mechanical devil left behind by the outsiders to roam along their aborted railway back and forth and forever denied.

Just old stories, surely? But no, the Bullet had come again and this time a bridge across the canyon had sprung up overnight to accept it into the city! There had been no men or machines seen to build it, it had simply been there. So of course they were curious.

But they weren’t the only ones. Those who had gathered around the lip of the chasm just beyond Dis’ walls were forced to scatter by a sudden hiss of steam and protesting steel as a motorized handcar flew along the rails out of Dis and pulled to a stop far too quickly in front of the new rail-bridge.
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>>1232036
None of the beggars recognized who stepped out but he was obviously something important, some toff all done up in a white-and-black double breasted coat. He was a Third Man like all the rest of them, his gray skin and flat features proved that but he was tall and slender in a way most were not with long black hair done up in a ponytail behind him.

The Inspector-General paid the scum no heed, still heady from his recent promotion that his mistress had given him. This was his first mission and it was already shaping up to look immensely important. He crouched down by the rails and then ignored them completely, his hands tracing through the dirt instead and leaving traces of poisoned cold all through it.
This was earthcrafting for sure. What else could it be? Someone had witched this bridge into existence for the sole purpose of allowing the Sleeper Rail to finally complete its long journey. But who? And why?

The list of those with the resources capable of such could be counted with one hand and he was uncomfortably aware that his own mistress was one of them.

Any inhabitants still watching would notice something falling out of his sleeve as he got back up to his feet. A pair of ten-sided dice carved from black glass, sides numbered 0 to 9. They both landed with the ‘1’ facing up, a pair of elongated eyes.

The Inspector sighed and rolled them again several times, cross-referencing them with a small notebook pulled from his jacket pocket. It would seem that something urgent had happened and his mistress felt he was needed elsewhere.
>>
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>You best find means to disguise yourself.
>Head into the central hall of this floor. If this tower holds many establishments on many floors it must have a map somewhere. Maybe you could use it to figure out where your companions may be.

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that running around dressed as you are will only draw further attention. You need to distance yourself from everything that’s happened so far and to at least pass as some sort of native. The sigil of the Lamplighter will avail you no more!

But that said, you are unsure whether you wish to give up your armour. It has kept you safe from far too many dangers.


>Just remove your cloak and helmet and walk around in armour.

>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.

>Remove your armour as well, continue on in loose underclothes. There is nothing indecent about them.

>Remove your armour but appropriate new clothes from elsewhere.

>Other
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>>1232070
>>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.
>>
>>1232070
>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.
>>
>>1232070
>Just remove your cloak and helmet and walk around in armour.
>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.

Simpler plain cloak that can hopefully hide at least some of our armour
>>
We should store or hide our current cloak somewhere safe.

If, however, that is not possible, and we must give up the cloak permanently, never to wear it again, we should burn it.
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>>1232070
> remove helmet and find a new cloak
>>
>>1232124
I don't see Orion being willing to do that. Hide the cloak yes. Destroy it for having a symbol of his faith? Nah.

Dude really believes in the Good of the Faith, although sometimes the Church has let him down.
>>
>>1232159
TO be fair the church is mortal and imperfect, but in his experience it's been better than the alternative of The denizens of the earth and muds killing everyone. Couple of decades journeying across the ruined wastelands of a once proud and thriving land watching people fall to darkness and monsters slaughter the innocent gives pretty fucking good perspective.
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>>1232159
It's getting in the way of the larger task at hand

I can totally see it happening
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>>1232070
>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.

>>1232124
>>1232159
note that burning it would be waaaaay more respectful than burying it somewhere.
>>
Still feeling quite sick. I'll update a few more times and finish the thread after I get home from work. Sorry again.
>>
>>1232070
>>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.
>>
>>1232070
>Remove your cloak and helmet and walk around in armour.
>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.
>>
>>1232070
>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.
>>
>>1232262
Hey, how well would

> Turn cloak inside out

Work?

>>1232170
Well, he hasn't really seen anything like Dis before either.

I guess I kind of see Orion being in an "I am Legend" kind of situation. The short story not the movie.

It'll be interesting to see how the residents of Dis have treated Abe and Bea.

Also how Orion will judge his God. Note we already called out a Wax Saint which was kind of a big deal.

I really hope more people vote to play Orion as holding true to what he believes the church stands for, and not using it as an excuse to be cruel or excessive.
>>
>>1232177
By that token he should chill on the accusations. Like, I would like to think that we could be more socratic about confronting people about living with witches and imps and such.

Ask them if it's worth them living in comfort if the rest of humanity suffers. Point out that even a witch like Bea can strive for redemption. That even if it's not actually possible, the attempt is still worthy in its own right.

Kind of approach it as "The past can't be undone, but it doesn't have to hold you down. There's always the choice to carry it with you and move on. It will be heavy, but a person's ability to bear it always comes down to simply making the choice to do so and persevering."

That's how I've seen him in my head at least. Just, not merciful because mercy is the suspension of Justice. But at the same time being Good and willing to help people who are trying to be better.

Because he's in the same boat. He didn't go as far as some, but he has a debt that can't be paid back. Even bringing back the Wheel God won't bring him redemption either, but so long as he's moving forward he hasn't fallen either.

In my opinion.
>>
>>1232754
So . . . Like a Commander Vimes but without anything to hold him back (except himself)?

I wonder if Orion is more Fifth Elephant Vimes where he kills Wolfgang on a technicality, or Thud! Vimes where he is the who watches the Watchman and is the final judge, or Snuff! Vimes where he brings Justice and Law with him even though goblins aren't protected by law and there isn't technically a crime.
>>
>Find a different cloak, one that hopefully covers more.

You take advantage of the fact that you are now no longer being watched by anything you can discern to remove your burgundy cloak, unclasping it from your armour and covering it so that symbol of the Wheel God is covered. You don’t know how badly armour, particularly full runeplate, stands out in this part of Dis but you aren’t yet willing to surrender your armour. It could be the only thing standing between you and a poisoned knife in the back.
No your cloak is the real problem here and not just for the holy symbol adorning it. Something that awful woman had said about ‘redcloaks’ and cults? It wouldn’t surprise you to learn that if some citizens at least tried to keep the truth alive and for better or worse, this cloak identifies you with them. That’s not something you need right now.

But how are you to replace it? You’re standing outside a door in an empty room outside what sounds to be an extremely populated interior hall and a stairwell. There are no cloaks about to wear over your armour and to help you blend. You don’t want to go with your armour out for all to see after all and you certainly don’t want to openly advertise the sword at your side.
Could you just turn your usual cloak inside out? No, that doesn’t solve the colour issue and the sun insignia is barely visible even on the outside. You bundle the cloak up into a ball and stow it away in the crook of an elbow. You don’t want to drop or burn your cloak either but you suppose you’ll do it if you have to.

Some aspects of yourself you’ve given up hope of ever disguising. You’ll never be able to hide the bundled-up lamp-post after all, it’ll always be a plainly visible ...something wrapped up upon your back. But you can’t go around too plain. Not now, not right after whatever happened to the station. You’re still not sure about the cause of that.
But where are you going to find a cloak for a man your stature? The whorehouse? You doubt it.

And it’s then that your eyes are inevitably drawn to the thick brown curtains pulled across the windows of the stairwell…

It’s not a bad fit, it really isn’t. It’s not a cloak at all of course but you can keep it clipped over yourself while concealing your bundled up old cloak, your sword and much of your armour. So what if it makes you look a little suspicious, you’re sure that people wear worse in this city every day. If a girl can flash her knees can a man not wear a thick brown curtain as a cloak?
These are all things you tell yourself as you shuffle into the main hall, the contents of which you are thoroughly unprepared for.

You had been expecting something like the station above or the empty hall below it, a large room for people to travel through, some kind of common ground for all the houses and establishments that seem to be squirrelled away through this immense tower. And to an extent that was true.
1/4
>>
>>1232810
But you hadn’t been expecting it to be this communal.

Buildings are supposed to separate, walls are built to partition one area from another, rooms away from the town or city outside. But here Dis has overflown and you find yourself standing within the city itself.

The hall is huge and well-lit, filled with braziers and little lamps of the blasphemous green flame. And it is filled with a crowd of the likes you have rarely seen before. And to think you thought you might stand out!
Stalls, tents, shanties and small houses and dens fill the hall, segregating the wide open space that you saw in the previous one into many different rows and columns. Some are obviously vendors, cheats and others with something to sell but many others just seem to be living here. And through them is all packed the throng, a wall of grey-skinned people and sound and smell as they make their way through the shanty maze.
The hall itself has obviously gone through several renovations, three large spots in the wall having been knocked away long ago to reveal the abyssal cityscape of Dis beyond, through which stone bridges and suspended highways have been built up from to form roads that people use to walk from one enormous tower to another. People can walk along them from one such tower to this hall and then back again without ever so much as touching any other floor and indeed, people seem to be doing just that.

How does it work? Don’t they fall? What happens when they do? And up even further above in the dark sky you can make out the silhouettes of the sky-rails. You had been rather busy when Sleeper had been racing through them and so you hadn’t really taken the time to appreciate just how impossible and implausible and impractical that whole system was before now.
Dis is a city that should not exist. The moral foundations and the architectural foundations are both equally nonsensical to you. And that, more than any scorn from any imp-laying blasphemer, makes you realise just how out of your depth you really are. You have no footing here, no shared culture or knowledge to link you with any of these people who almost certainly do not respect or understand you in return. And there are so, so many of them and only one of you. You have become a stranger in a strange land and you are already weary of it.

You clutch your purloined curtains close as you wade through the crowd. You’re not the only person to wear armour of a sort at least, though nobody you see has anything that approaches yours. Scraps of leather and chain, nothing that’ll turn aside or slow a bullet.
You look for Abe and Beatrice but mostly you just wander, pushed to and fro by the crowd as you do your best not to stare at the world around you.

A man is selling what seems to be some kind of rat, albeit one the size of a small hound and extraordinarily plump. In addition to his live specimens he has an entire rack of them skinned and slowly cooking over a green flame.
2/
>>
>>1232811
You don’t quite hear what he calls them but they’re apparently some kind of pig? You can’t help but notice how slow they take to cook.

A procession of five men clothed all in white with thorny red masks dance through the crowd whacking sticks together. The people belligerently let them pass and it only occurs to you after they are gone that may not have been men at all.

An ancient man and woman sell broken metal gimmicks, bits and pieces of the Second Age that don’t even function. They also seem to be collecting clocks from passer-bys for some reason.

A poster on a wall promises debtors, beggars and other ‘misfortunates’ a second chance. ‘You don’t have to be a whore to sell your body!’ it promises. ‘Sign the deal, take your coin and come back anytime you please for another round! All damages paid!’. It isn’t before you look further down and realise that it is advertising the ‘Sable Imp Fellowship’ that you understand the implications with the scene you had witnessed earlier in the station. You tear the poster down and then hurry away.

“I’ve got flame!,” a portly man bellows from behind a stall loaded with large metal tanks, one of which is open to reveal that it is full of disgusting green fire. He dip his hand into the open tank and the fire drips through his fingertips without harm. “Softest flame, a formula straight from the Consortium to you!. Got cooking flames, heating flames, seeing flames, all certified, all safe! No smoke, no burns, no discrimination!”

A row of scrawny beggars have managed to claim a blank wall for themselves to sit. Seven of them look as you’d expect of beggars back home but the eighth is quite visibly rotting away, green flesh and bones visible in his outstretched hand. Some kind of illness? And yet nobody seems to be paying him any mind or avoiding him as you’d expect from a sick man.

A thin woman emerges from a small brick house built right into the outer wall of the hall and singles you out. She’s wearing a gray coat and a black dress that while appropriately ankle-length, is far too tight around the chest and hips.
“You there, big guy! Look at you! Don’t you know that’s a curtain you’ve got there! Have you fallen on hard times or is this just some new fashion?”
She speaks fast and in the manner of someone who’s aware that a prospective buyer could be walking away at any moment. But there’s something wrong about her. She’s far too clean and pretty considering the general squalor of the hall for one.
“I won’t take up much of your time,” she wheedles. “Just know it’s easy money, I’m always looking to buy and really, you don’t lose anything! Just sell me your shadow and I’ll cut it right off and stitch it up and you won’t even notice! It’ll grow back in under a week, I guarantee!”

3/4
>>
>>1232813
She casts seven different shadows and each of them are of a different person, from a bent old man to a pigtailed little girl. Her teeth are visibly stained with dirt.
Your hand almost reaches for your weapon but you stop yourself and turn away, walking in the other direction as fast as you can while she hollers offers at you. The Shade in the shape of the little girl giggles as you leave and a chill runs down your spine.

You have to stay calm. You can’t go picking a fight with a witch right now, not here. But they have a damned witch right in their midst! And nobody is doing anything about it! She’s even actively collecting Shades! Everywhere you go it’s as if you see some fresh new sin just waiting to be uncovered. How is any of this supposed to help you find your companions?


>Find the closest thing to a tavern. If either of them are on this floor or passed through it...well, they’re both fond of drink.

>Start asking people at random.

>Go back to the stairwell. They’re probably on a higher floor.

>Ask around to find the cheapest place to rent rooms in this section of the tower. They might be there.

>Go back to the witch. You might be able to get something useful from speaking with her.

>Find someone who’s selling cloaks.

>Other
>>
>>1232814
> >Other

Go talk to the beggars. Pretend to be a refugee from the outside. Ask them about the explosion you heard about and if that happens often here, then lead into if he's sick. Try to find out if there's a hospice or anything for people injured or made homeless like say because of an explosion.

Maybe ask if there's the equivalent of a Church like on the outside while complaining about the Churches refusing or being unable to help people after the sun fell, or something that makes us seem to not trust churches.

No idea if we have any money or such that's acceptable here.

I'd rather not try any benediction or whatever just in case.
>>
>>1232820
>>1232814

Cut off my post whoops. Was going to say we could possibly sell or trade our services for healing benediction.

Provided it actually works on people from Dis.
>>
>>1232814
>Find the closest thing to a tavern. If either of them are on this floor or passed through it...well, they’re both fond of drink.
>>
>>1232821
That seems like the fastest possible way to out ourselves as a lamplighter
>>
>>1232814
>Find the closest thing to a tavern. If either of them are on this floor or passed through it...well, they’re both fond of drink.
>>
>>1232825
Not necessarily. Remember there was also the College of the Flame and that EVERYONE has a Wick outside. Just that most people's wick is weak.

But that is why I said I'd rather not use it. Just pointing out it's an option if we don't have anything else to trade.

We could also go the "attempted conversion" route where we use it as attempted example of how the flame can help. Depends on how the convo goes.

Still. I'd rather talk to a beggar we can bounce on and vanish into a crowd rather than get noticed in a bar where people might be more organized or able to note what we talked about, our odd appearance etc.
>>
>>1232820
>>1232814

I'll back talking to the beggar first before finding a bar. Gotta ask for directions anyways.
>>
>>1232814
seconding >>1232820 , >>1232832
>>
>>1232814
>Go back to the stairwell. They’re probably on a higher floor.

Observe the stairwell from a distance see if anything shows up that could be a lead

no Orion you ARE the witch
>>
>>1232814
Actually scratch >>1232850 I'll second >>1232820
>>
>>1232814
>>Find the closest thing to a tavern. If either of them are on this floor or passed through it...well, they’re both fond of drink.

>Ask around to find the cheapest place to rent rooms in this section of the tower. They might be there.
>>
>>1232814
>Find the closest thing to a tavern. If either of them are on this floor or passed through it...well, they’re both fond of drink.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

Alright whoops I accidentally dozed off for a bit there. Looks like a tie between talking to the beggars and trying the tavern. Evens the former, odds the latter!
>>
Actually going to sleep for an hour or so and then waking up is not conducive to writing. I'll leave this until I wake up. Again.
But tomorrow we should have the whole day!
>>
Session in an hour!
>>
>Speak with the beggars.

You walk away from the witch as fast as you can without breaking into an outright run. Fortunately you are bigger than most and can make a path through the crowd without losing too much speed. How can anyone sleep at night knowing that a witch lives next-door? Aren’t they afraid of what she can do?
Not to mention that some of these people must see her witch-sign on a regular basis, etching it into their memories and rendering them that much closer to becoming witches themselves. You hadn’t ever considered the effects of a witch living openly amongst humans before since it was so improbable in any right-thinking society but the effect would be insidious. Like a poison.

And worse yet you can’t do anything about her just yet and not only because you need to lay low. You think you’re starting to get a handle on how Dis works now and so you have the feeling that any attack upon the witch would lead the crowd turning upon you as if you had just attacked an ordinary woman in the middle of a market. The fact that a witch is anything but an innocent ordinary woman would be lost on them, their years of familiarity with her kind likely having given them the false assumption that she is a real person.

But it’s hard for you to stay your hand for even though you don’t know anything about this witch, you know that at the very least she made a decision to betray humanity and that chafes at you. Every witch’s crime is a personal one even if you’ve never met them before in your life because a witch’s crime is an act against everyone with a flame inside their heart. Everything they do spreads the darkness just a little bit more and helps the light fade from the world.
Maybe here, in their luxury and false light won from the corpse of God, they can be accepting of that. It doesn’t hurt them after all. And that is perhaps Dis’ greatest sin. That they have the freedom to patronize with the enemies of the world and to be unaffected as the rest of humanity suffers as a result.

You almost walk a full circuit around the outer edge of the hall before you realize that that’ll just take you back to the witch so instead you stop near the eight beggars you noticed earlier. Perhaps they could be of use? You can’t just wander forever and hope that they find you after all and beggars can see much.

You don’t stop by the rotting beggar but you do stop by the one next to him, squatting down before him.
“Hello?”

“Oi,” the man says, his crusted-over eyelids blinking rapidly. “Do you have any coin to spare for a man down on his luck? I used to work on floor 91 but they boug-”

“I’m sorry but I have no money.”

“You sure? What about all that fancy armour of yours? I can see it and you can’t tell me it comes cheap!”

“An heirloom. And I have no money because I am not from here.”
Ironically a version of the truth may prove a better shield here than any lie.
1/2
>>
>>1234032
“I’m a refugee from...outside,” you whisper.

One of the beggars spits on you. You do your best to ignore them. You also do your best to ignore how the rotting one swivels to look at you, the bone of their skull visible through scraps upon their face.

“Didn’t know we were still letting you lot in,” the man you had originally addressed says. “But if you don’t have any money then I’ve got nothing for you. Barely taking care of meself, here.”


>Talk costs nothing. All you want to do is ask a few simple questions, surely he can allow you that.

>Promise to pay him later.

>Offer him something of yours.

>Offer a healing benediction.

>Threaten him.

>Walk away.

>Other
>>
>>1234038
>>Talk costs nothing. All you want to do is ask a few simple questions, surely he can allow you that.
>A trade of information as it were.
>>
>>1234038
>Talk costs nothing. All you want to do is ask a few simple questions, surely he can allow you that.
>>
>>1234038
>Talk costs nothing. All you want to do is ask a few simple questions, surely he can allow you that.
>>
>Talk costs nothing. All you want to do is ask a few simple questions, surely he can allow you that.

You don’t move even as he tries to wave you off.
“Talk doesn’t cost anything.”

“Sure it does,” he croaks. “I know how this goes. Big fella or whoever comes down and asks us if we saw anyone or anything, thinks we’ll give it away for free. Tough luck.”


“I’m not asking for anything like that,” you protest. “I just need some basic information.”

The man mulls it over for a second or so before nodding.
“Fine. But only ‘cause I’ve never heard a man sound so lost. But if you ask too many questions I’m going to want something a little extra.”

“That’s fine.”

What do you want to ask? Multiple options can be selected but you should be wary of asking too much.


>Ask about the explosion.

>Ask about money.

>Ask about witches and imps.

>Ask about the rotting man.

>Ask if there’s a hospice around that treats the injured or the homeless.

>Ask about this tower.

>Ask about the pieces of the sun.

>Other
>>
>>1234211
>Ask if there’s a hospice around that treats the injured or the homeless.
>Ask about this tower.
>>
>>1234211
>Ask if there’s a hospice around that treats the injured or the homeless.
>Ask about this tower.
Ask about the green flame
>>
>>1234038

>Talk costs nothing. All you want to do is ask a few simple questions, surely he can allow you that.
>Offer a healing benediction.
>>
>>1234211
>>1234221
Seconding
>>
>>1234211

>Ask if there’s a hospice around that treats the injured or the homeless.
>Ask about this tower.
>The explosion literally blew me up here.
>>
>Ask if there’s a hospice around that treats the injured or the homeless.
>Ask about this tower.

“First of all, what’s this tower? I…”
Considering what you know of the explosion, it might be a mistake to try and say you just got off the train.
“I just walked over here across one of the roads from that other one. But why does everyone live packed up in towers like this?”

The beggar laughs.
“You really are fresh, ain’tcha? The answer is that we don’t. Plenty of people live down below but damn, those who came first really loved their huge buildings. We had to make use of it, right?”

“I’m not entirely sure I understand.”

“Okay, look,” he says, taking on a somewhat condescending tone. “I guess cities outside don’t work the same way. Do you even have cities? But Dis is as vertical as she is horizontal on account of being so old. Everything’s in layers. Down at the bottom on the ground you’ve got stuff like Undertown, the Barrow Burroughs, Dinu’s Bones, etc. And then above them you’ve got the mazes and the labyrinths, all the roads on roads that have basically formed a shell that’s the new ground. Stuff built on uh, stuff. Lot of people live in the mazes but it’s hard to string a proper rail through there especially since people keep taking the metal. Used to live down there myself before I got a job up here in the Big Brick.”
He looks bitter.
“Not that I’ve got that shit anymore.”

“The Big Brick?”

“Well, this place’s real name is Zachariah’s Folly but nobody calls it that. It’s the Zac District or the Folly or the Big Brick because it’s a giant brick turd that looks as ugly as sin. But look, the towers are little towns into themselves, especially the big residential ones like these. They go up and they’re better than say, Undertown or the mazes though all these bridges everyone keeps insisting on building is going to get us a new Maze one day, see if it won’t. And rule of thumb, the higher you go the better it probably is. All those rich toffs are always up high, living in whole floors to themselves. Not that you’d see any of them in the Folly, haha. Most of ‘em have their own special towers.”

“When I first came here I saw a lot of people living in the canyon just before the walls. What about them?”

“Oh, them? Barely part of Dis they are, barely people. Don’t go into the Tombs if you can help it, you know they’re all desperate and feral. Not like us up here,” he taps his nose, inexplicably proud despite his own apparent homelessness.
“Most of them are people who used to live in Undertown or in Wallmites before they got turfed out. Rejects of the rejects, all you need to know.”

“I see. And what about this tower specifically? The Folly? Why is it called that?”

1/2
>>
>>1234664
“On account of it being a big ol’ mistake. Owner went bankrupt, all the builders killed themselves and whatnot. Architects don’t play around. Big Brick was meant to be a posh folk’s district, all modern with its own personal railway and all. Didn’t work out, nobody bought in.”

“And you used to work up higher?”

“Yeah, floor 91, was a scribe. But then those Tangle assholes went ahead and bought up every floor up high except the station and what do you know, I’m stuck here. Still, gotta count my blessings. Whatever they had in there soaked up that big blowout real nice.”

“Right, thank you. You have no idea how much that helps me.”

He waves you off, smiling regardless.
“Not a big deal, not a big deal. You’re in the same boat as I am aren’t you?”

“You could say that. Speaking of which, do you know of any hospice that can help treat people for free or house the homeless?”
You hold your side theatrically.
“I took a nasty fall down the stairs when the whole tower shook, you see. Need a plae to rest up and get it looked at.”

He shakes his head.
“Only people who do medicine for free are the Tangle Workshop and again, bunch of fuckers. You just know they’re only doing it so they can feed people to the Chemist or something. Where do you think those brews come from?”

You don’t understand any of that.
“Pardon?”

“But if you want a shelter you’d be best off heading down to 73rd, there’s a work-home there. They’ll take you in but you gotta sell yourself for labour for every night. Nothing like living it up free up here, right lads?”
The other seven beggars agree semi-enthusiastically.
“Helps that we have our own place at least, even if we all gotta share.”

Your companions might have ended up in this work-home, especially if they were asking for a place to stay. But you can’t ignore the fact that both of them are also very sick and that they might have pointed towards this ‘Tangle Workshop’ instead. Who apparently have some sort of stronghold in this building somewhere?


>Head down to the 73rd floor.

>Ask about going to the Workshop. You might as well start there.

>Talk to the beggars some more, they don’t seem too sinful.

>Investigate this floor some more.

>Other
>>
>>1234670
>Ask about the ill looking beggar, is he supposed to have his bones showing or did he get cursed or....
>Where would someone go if the were unlucky enough to run into a particularly ill tempered and hungry Gargoyle on their way here?
>>
>>1234670
Go to the tangle workshop
I'm confused about which floor it's actually on
>>
>>1234716
It hasn't been directly stated.
>>
>>1234670
>Ask about going to the Workshop. You might as well start there.
They're both badly wounded and unlikely to be able to work for room and board
>>
>>1234670
>Ask about the ill looking beggar, is he supposed to have his bones showing or did he get cursed or....

>Where would someone go if the were unlucky enough to run into a particularly ill tempered and hungry Gargoyle on their way here?

>>1234714
you think Abe went there?
>>
>>1234780
>you think Abe went there?
Yeah, gargoyle bites are pretty nasty, and we can use that to track him assuming he's not kill. Bea's malady is more niche.
>>
>Ask about the ill looking beggar, is he supposed to have his bones showing or did he get cursed or....
>Where would someone go if the were unlucky enough to run into a particularly ill tempered and hungry Gargoyle on their way here?
>Ask about the Tangle Workshop.

“What’s wrong with your friend? Is he supposed to have his bones showing or did he get cursed or…”
You trail off, unsure how to finish the sentence. You’re still reeling a little from how alien this place is.

The beggar chortles just a little.
“Old Boniface, here? Nah but I can see why you’d think he’s sick. He’s just dead.”
The rotting man waves.

You stare at him, the gears in your head grinding to a halt.
“Dead.”

“Yeah, passed in his sleep a year or so ago apparently, way before we knew ‘im. Got an extension from one of those witchy types working for S.I.F down deep down and got back up.”

“Sold me house and my wife to pay for it,” the corpse says. But I still couldn’t afford it so now I’m out here with the rest of the lads. They’ve retracted my license too so if I go back down I’d probably get buried by the Guildsmen.”

“Witchcraft can’t raise the dead,” you blurt out, still staring at Boniface. “It can’t do that.”
You know for a fact that it can’t. So what is he? What’s going on here?

The man you were talking to first just shrugs.
“Beats me. I’m not an expert on that, ask Sophia if you want to know how it works. She’s the lady with all the shadows.”

“Bit of a bitch if you ask me,” another one of them says. “She won’t buy mine.”

“Who’d want the shadow of someone like you? Eh? She’s too classy for us.”

You shake your head, desperately trying to clear your mind of your confusion. Talking to these beggars has only made things worse. Is Boniface a blasphemy? He must be, whatever act spawned him is certainly evil. But he’d have to be the most mellow creature of darkness you’ve ever met. You just try to ignore him for now.
“So if you were say...suffering from a bite from a particularly nasty gargoyle, where would you go?”

The beggar narrows his eyes.
“I thought you said you took a fall.”

“I know but-”

“Okay okay, i don’t need to know.”
He holds his hands up.
“But that’s real nasty. Even I’d go straight for the Workshop for that and hope they can do something about it before it spreads.”

“So this Tangle Workshop are healers of a sort?”

“I don’t know. They’re all fancy learned men doing this and that, it’s why they work with the Chemist, you know?”

“I don’t know actually.”

“There’s always looking to test some new brew or some new procedure, it’s why they take in people for free.”

1/2
>>
>>1234957
That doesn’t sound particularly trustworthy. But they just might be there, especially if Abe’s condition has gotten worse due to the explosion.
“Thanks. I won’t take up your time anymore.”

“S’all good. And if you ever go to that work-home on 73rd, tell them Samuel up on 75th sent you!”

You walk away, still doing your best to ignore the pain in your gut. This workshop place is supposed to be up on a higher floor, is it not? He said around 91? You best start walking.


>Start climbing the stairs.

>Stop by the witch first.

>Find a change of clothes first.

>Other
>>
>>1234967
>Start climbing the stairs.
>>
>>1234967
>>Start climbing the stairs.
>>
>>1234967
>>Start climbing the stairs.
>>
Interlude

The station atop the Folly was a disaster area by the time the Inspector General arrived, the white-suited man walking along an unoccupied rail with a small bucket of dirt in one hand. Mostly dust, awful soil but it’d do. He wasn’t here to do any grand work.
The rail ahead of him comes to a nasty end, the sky-rail burned and broken by the force of the same explosion that has rendered much of the station platform into a blackened crater through which the floors below can be seen. Only the framework beneath the brick is left standing and even that is now mostly slag. In the midst of it all is a burned out hulk, a blackened empty shell of a train.

It would seem that the Bullet had found its final destination.

Lacking any means to get to the station with the rails broken, the Inspector emptied his bucket into the air and made a sign with his free hand. An easy and practiced motion. The dirt froze in the air to form a thin bridge that shouldn’t even be able to exist, much less hold his weight and yet he walked over it all the same, expensive boots touching down in the ash and scorched brick of the station.
“What the hell happened here?”

The question was addressed to nobody. There was nothing left alive here and nobody else had yet dared to stand here. But he could see outlines in the scorchmarks, silhouettes burned across what walls still remain. Chips of bone within the ash. A lot of people died here.
On one hand that didn’t mean anything to him. People die everyday and this was nothing special. That these were men, women and children all with their own lives and dreams and families...was mostly irrelevant. But on the other hand he knew he should feel something for such a ridiculous and meaningless tragedy and that itself twisted his gut. His target had just stepped foot into Dis and yet was already claiming the lives of her people.

It would be too easy to believe they had died in this same inferno. He’d have to searc-

His dice fell out of his sleeve again, the two 1s watching him balefully. He rolled the bones several times and, pulling out his book once more, decoded the message.

-FOLLY UNIMPORTANT. SOMEONE RESTORED THE BRIDGE. SPEAK TO THE OTHER SIX-

Now that was an impossible task if he’d ever heard one.
>>
>Start climbing the stairs.

You make your way out of the bustling hall and back to the stairway, ignoring the twisty little passages that branch off leading to the doors of the more private establishments that circle the hall. The stairs itself are spirals, a single well that seems to drill through the entire tower. And if Sam was telling you the truth, you only need to climb sixteen floors.
How hard could it be?

Excruciatingly hard, as it turns out. You don’t think a man with your injuries should be climbing three stories, much less sixteen. The spears of pain lodged all up through your chest and abdomen only grow worse as you take stair after stair. As far as you can tell none of the floors are numbered either. What if you miss the right one, lost in your haze of pain and confusion?
Nothing about this tower is right. You feel more lost than you ever have.

But you still keep climbing, noticing that every level is almost exactly identical. A huge central hall circled by a small ring of passages and other rooms. Some of them have their walls removed to become a huge open space, others have had more walls to put in to become more like a traditional building, many others you don’t even notice the difference.

But your fears of missing the 91st floor are unfounded. As you round yet another curve of the spiral staircase, legs weak and dizzy in the head, you see that the stairs abruptly terminate in what seems to be a curved wall of dark wood that has overgrown the entire staircase. There’s an opening in the wall and you peer through it to find that the stairs continue upwards as if nothing was there, only now with the walls encased in this giant ...wood-bubble-thing.

This probably marks the floors that the Workshop bought out. Are you supposed to be able to just walk straight in?


>Knock or call out for someone. You don’t want to ruin your chances here.

>Just walk straight in.

>This is wrong. Something is very wrong here. Turn back.

>Other
>>
>>1235083
>Check for our freinds first.
Look around
>>
>>1235083
>Just walk straight in.
who dares wins
>>
>>1235083
>>1235087
Do this
>>
Who wants to bet Orion's old flame who he think he beat to death with the Lightpost survived? and raised the bridge?
>>
>>1235083
>Just walk straight in.
>>
>>1235110
I'd say that's a safe bet
>>
Looks like a tie but fortunately I can do both of these prompts at once. Writan'
>>
>>1235198
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0PC9VYjc9I
>>
>>1235083
>Knock or call out for someone. You don’t want to ruin your chances here.

Dis is such a weird fucking place
>>
>>1235083
>>Knock or call out for someone. You don’t want to ruin your chances here.
just so you know i love this shit ouro
>>
>Just walk straight in.
>Check for your friends.

There shouldn’t be anything wrong with just walking straight in, they’d have guards otherwise. And if someone catches you, you can just claim you need treatment. There shouldn’t be a problem with that. So with that in mind, you step in past the wooden wall.

It’s dark in here and even the stairwell window opens up into nothing but more wooden growths. It occurs to you that this place is like some kind of tumour. A large growth of wood that has swollen up within the building itself and swallowed up several floors.
You give the wood a hesitant tap. It sounds very solid.

A soft green light bleeds out onto the stairwell and you creep up the stairs as best you can, making your way onto the 91st floor.
The room beyond isn’t too unlike the rooms every floor has around their stairwell, not in general shape at least. But the walls and the ceiling and the floors are all covered in living wood panelling and the door that would normally lead to the central hall has been blocked off by a large counter covered in illegible paperwork behind which sits a middle-aged woman in a dark green robe.
The rest of the room is filled with empty chairs, all arrayed in rows before the counter. A glass case sits over in the corner, filled with brightly coloured bottles.

The woman looks up, dark eyes gleaming out of half-moon spectacles.
“Can I help you?”

“I’m here looking f-”

“Excuse me!”
The interrupting voice is loud and brash, footsteps pounding down the stairs from a higher floor. You step out of the way as a tall and slender man in a black and white double-breasted coat exits the stairwell. His hands are stained with ash.
“Out of my way please,” he addresses you curtly as he walks past you towards the counter. “I need an appointment with your Head Doctor.”

The woman blinks.
“Of here? That w-”

“No, the head. The boss of your boss. Workshop head.”
He speaks very quickly and with clipped turns of phrase.

“I’m sorry sir but this is just a branch office. You’ll have to visit the Thorn tower to make an official appointment like that.”

“No time, this was the closest. It is important that I speak to him as well as a number of others as quickly as possible. Please relay this message and appointment up for me, I’ll visit the Thorn and make it official later.”

“You don’t have the authorisation for that. Who are you?”

“Here.”
He drops something on the bench and the woman behind the counter pales.
“I trust that this is sufficient authorisation. Tell your boss to speak to their boss and to make the appointment for as soon as possible.”

You don’t see what he drops, his back blocking your vision but the woman pales immediately, blood draining from her face.
“I-I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks.”

What is going on here?
1/2
>>
>>1235390
>It’s none of your business, is what.

>Ask the man what’s going on.

>Ask the man if he’s seen someone who matches Abe or Beatrice’s description.

>Angle your head around to see what he dropped on the counter.

>Other
>>
>>1235396
>Ask the man what’s going on.
>Angle your head around to see what he dropped on the counter.
>>
>>12353
>Angle your head around to see what he dropped on the counter.
>>
>>1235411
Seconding
>>
>>1235396
>Angle your head around to see what he dropped on the counter.
>>
>>1235396
>>Angle your head around to see what he dropped on the counter.
>>
>Angle your head around to see what he dropped on the counter.

The woman bustles off through the door, leaving the two of you alone in the room. The man doesn’t seem to have any interest in you whatsoever, still facing the counter. You pace a little around the room behind the newcomer and then, when you’re sure he can’t see you, you bend a little to the side to look past him and at what he’s laid out upon the counter. It’s not what you expect.

It’s a pair of ten-sided dice, made from something glossy and black with white pips. But why would that scare the Workshop woman so? And then you see that both dice have landed with their ‘1’ side facing up, a pair of elongated pips that look nothing more like pupils gazing up from a pit of empty black.

You’ve seen this before, back in Augustine. Back with the very dice you’ve cast yourself to help find your way to Dis. To help find your way towards whatever dark thing stares out from behind the false eyes of every pair of dice. You remember the old woman recoiling from the sight and almost declaring you cursed.

And as you stare at the dice, they simultaneously fall onto their side with a sharp click against the wood of the counter. Now the pair of snake-eyes are on the side directly facing you, staring at you eye-to-eye.
The man looks down and then freezes. He slowly begins to turn in your direction, his hands held close but separate from his sides like a gunslinger without a pistol.
“Who are you?”


>Feign ignorance.

>Give him the same covery story you did the beggars.

>Whack him on the back of the head.

>Run

>Other
>>
>>1235644
>>Give him the same covery story you did the beggars.
>>
>>1235644
>Give him the same covery story you did the beggars.
>>
>covery story

Dear God I must be more tired than I thought I was.
>>
>>1235644
Give him the same covery story you did the beggars.

who me? no one important
>>
covery (plural coveries)

(rare) a dispelling of false or misleading notions
>>
>>1235693
ha meaning like a cove would do, good to know that's actually a word
>>1235644
>>Feign ignorance.
I might as well ask you the same question
>>
>>1235693
Well darn if that just isn't the exact opposite of a cover story.
>>
>>1235644
>Feign ignorance.
>>
>Give him the same cover story you did the beggars.

"I was hurt in the explosion," you tell him. "I just wanted to get it checked out."
You decide to withhold the part of the cover story that involves you being new to Dis. For some reason he's already suspicious of you.

"Bad luck for you then. Pretty sure this branch is already full up with people like you. Good thing they grow this stuff so sturdy."
He raps on the wood-covered wall.
"...Are you wearing a curtain?"

You take drastic measures to change the subject.
"What are those dice?"

"Unimportant."
He rolls them several more times upon the counter and to your relief, the double 1s do not appear again. He frowns.
"Must have just been luck."

But you know it wasn't. Those dice swivelled to face you for a reason. So why would they stop doing it now?
Still, it's best to keep to your cover story.
"Is there somewhere else I can go to get myself looked at then?"

"They've got a holding pen for emergency care up in Floor 93. Passed it on my way down. If you go there they might check up on you."

"Thanks."

"Not an issue, citizen. And don't worry, I'll catch the ones responsible for this."

"I'm sure you will."


>Linger behind to listen in on what kind of other business he has here.

>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.

>Get out your own dice to confirm.

>Wait until he leaves and start exploring the Workshop branch itself.

>Other
>>
>>1235777
>>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.
>>
>>1235777
>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.


Get out of here slowly I mean we are ''injured''
>>
>>1235777
>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.
aw shit
>>
>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.

>the dice almost trying to screw us over

This is getting too meta.
>>
>>1235777
>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.
woooooweeeeoooo
>>
>>1235777
>>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.
>>Get out your own dice to confirm.
>>
Apologies for delay, feeling quite frail.
>>
>>1235938
need more fire in your diet. Fish Oil or Rocket Fuel?
>>
>>1235938
Dude go to sleep
>>
>>1235964
Assuming is an ausfag which he most likely is it is still daytime here
>>
>Climb the stairs further up since he'll be expecting you to. Your companions might actually be in the holding pen too.

You decide to follow up on your cover story by doing as he suggests, not willing to spend much more time longer in the presence of him and his staring dice. And if he’s telling the truth you might actually find Abraham or Beatrice there too, provided they did come here for treatment of a kind.

You take the stairs a little slower this time around, noting that next floor is still coated in a thick layer of wood that covers the walls and windows, that accursed and omnipresent green flame the only light source. It renders the stairwell quite claustrophobic!

But just as the man had said, the 93rd floor is just a hollowed out hall, the wood dipping down to form domes and walls throughout the holding pen, sectioning it off into dozens of different rooms. It obscures vision quite well and you have to wonder if that was the intention. This floor is filled with cheap little wooden chairs and beds, each one occupied with men, women and children of every shade of gray. Fortunately none of them seem too seriously injured but the thought of it still makes you feel a little uneasy. Did you cause all of this? You knew that you had come to bring judgement to Dis but what does mean for all the thousands of humans whose only crime was to be born here? Can be they punished for following what they had been raised to do?
The answer was evidently yes but that doesn’t mean it has to sit well upon your shoulders.

But at least these potential innocents don’t have to suffer without aid. The Tangle Workshop can’t be as bad as Samuel had alluded to if they were willing to take in so many people. You cannot impugn an act of charity, even when carried out in a pit of sin. No, especially then. It was given to you bring light into the dark places and you must respect the same act from others.
And yet all this must fall as well.

“Orion?”
You recognize that scratched-up voice immediately and turn to see Beatrice rise from one of the seats. She looks absolutely terrible as usual, pale skin covered in blotchy bruises and dried blood. Her nose has somewhat of a crooked angle to it now.
She stumbles over to you with her arms out as if she was trying to embrace you. You take a step back and she remembers her place in the last second, withdrawing and holding her arms around herself instead.
“Thank God! I didn’t know if you were alive!”

You could say much the same to her but you don’t.
“Beatrice. I see that you are well.”

“Well? Well?
She sighs, a long sound that ends in a choked little noise that is half laugh, half sob.
“Good to see you too.”

“Where’s Abe?”

“Abe’s fine. His condition really did a number on him when he fell, I had to drag him down here. But they say they should able to fix him.”
1/2
>>
>>1236400
She reaches into her deep coat pockets and pulls out a red glass bottle, something you almost assume to be alcohol of a sort before you recognize as a twin to the bottles you saw in the glass case down in the reception. She takes a long swig of the watery black liquid inside.
“What? This isn’t even booze, Orion, don’t give me that look. They call it the uh...the fucking revitsawhatsit tonic. Done up by some chemist. Alchemist? I was bit in a blur when they gave it to me but it really does you good.”

“Hasn’t done anything for your bruises.”

“No but it makes me feel-, ah fuck it. Whatever. It’s made in Dis so it’s probably ground-up babies or something.”

“I see.”

She sighs again and this time what energy she has seems to flee her body all at once, leaving her slumped and pale.
“You could at least pretend that you cared about me even a little.”

“Pardon?”

“I thought you were dead! I was so worried! And now you show up and you’re all ‘duh, what’s up Beatrice, where’s Abe?’ You didn’t even seem that worried.”

You feel very tired yourself, certainly too tired to deal with this.
“Should I have?”

“I’d like to hope that you’d feel at least a little bad if I had died in that,” she says sullenly.


>”I would have. You are very useful.”

>”I wasn’t worried because I knew that you would pull through.You always have.”

>”This is selfish of you.”

>”I care for you. But this self-destruction is your own and I won’t flatter your way down its path.”

>Apologize.

>Ask her how she made it.

>”I’m sorry, this city has me on edge.”

>Other
>>
>>1236405
>”I would have. You are very useful.”
>”I care for you. But this self-destruction is your own and I won’t flatter your way down its path.”

second part is more of a eventual concession
>>
>>1236405
>”I’m sorry, this city has me on edge.”
Then
>”I wasn’t worried because I knew that you would pull through.You always have.”
Mention the time she dove in front of the train to get the lamp post to safety.
>>
>>1236405
>I did not stumble into this place randomly, Beatrice. I was looking for you two.
>>
>>1236405
>>I did not stumble into this place randomly, Beatrice. I was looking for you two.
>I'm relieved that you're both okay, although I hope these tonics work better than what the rumors say. Even if I had the strength, there are too many eyes to try some of my methods.
>>
>>1236672
>wanting to use a Benediction on Bea
>>
>>1236793
I kinda was referring to Abe, but Benedictions still work on Bea. She would just prefer to be injured than to suffer the other effects.
>>
>>1236405
>”I wasn’t worried because I knew that you would pull through.You always have."
>Ask her how she made it.
>>
>>1236800
Wouldn't she just explode?
>>
>>1236838
I'm guessing you forgot what Benedictions do to Witches?
>>
>>1236838
not likely, they'd just be incredibly unpleasent
>>
>>1236405
>>I did not stumble into this place randomly, Beatrice. I was looking for you two
>Abe was wounded worse Beatrice, given he wasn't with you I wished to be sure. Besides you've survived worse.
>This place has me on edge, brothels for imps, witches "buying shadows" , dead men getting 'extensions', and I KNOW I am being watched, a man dropped knucklebones and they landed on one and turned too me.
>>
File: tegaki.png (8 KB, 400x400)
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I'll be resuming in about an hour.
>>
Also to clarify: Beatrice counts as a dark creature for all Benedictions. She's not human just because she's disconnected from the earth and engages in regular self-harm, she's still physiologically a witch.
>>
>>1236869
>“I feel fine! Better than fine! I am completely he-oh shit.”
>She collapses against the side of the trolley for a moment and with shaking hands she pulls herself up until she’s leaning over it. And from there you can hear her vomit out the contents of her stomach onto the track below. When she’s done she steps back and slides back down.
>“I’m fine. Just a little railsick. The venom is gone.”

>It doesn’t look gone to you.

so....the benediction didn't do ANY healing?
>>
>>1236865
I always wondered how flexible Hiss was as human.
>>
>>1236865
everything alright?
>>
>>1236892
maybe who knows? it might just have casued side effects that were just as painful as the poison

Hell the curse of earth that makes witches could basically be a cancer that is harder to cure than anything mankind can currently wield against them
>>
>I did not stumble into this place randomly, Beatrice. I was looking for you two.

This kind of conversation isn’t exactly your strength and you recognize that. But you suppose you’ve came off as a little callous and if her experience with this place has been anything like hers, she must be on edge.
“I didn’t just stumble into this place randomly, Beatrice. I was looking for you two.”

She looks a little embarrassed.
“Yeah, I understand.”

“I assumed you would pull through on your own, you have before. In fact you probably did better than I did.”
Your own journey into Dis so far has not been a comfortable one.

“I don’t know Orion, I had to push my own fucking nose back into place by hand just before. I’m skeptical you’ve had a worse time of it.”

“I suppose it depends on your point of view.”
You say that as an act of diplomacy but also as one of truth. To you breaking your nose would not be anything particularly insurmountable but to Beatrice it must have been difficult. And on the other side of the coin, perhaps she would have been less affected by your own experiences.
“How is that, by the way?”

“Fine,” she growls. “One of these workshop sods had a look of it when I first showed up with Abe and they said I’d done a passable job making sure it isn’t out of joint. It hurts like a bitch now but give it a few days and it’ll heal fine.”

“Anything else?”

“No, there’s not really anything wrong with me. Just...the usual. I had to take a lot of powder to haul Abe around so I’m going to crash real fucking bad sooner or later. Lucky there’s enough injuries all around to keep everyone busy because they seemed extremely interested in me the moment they realised I hadn’t just hit my face on a rock.”

You hadn’t even thought about that!
“You can’t let them examine you.”

“Wasn’t planning on it. Now, I don’t think Abe is getting out of care anytime soon and I’d rather not stick around and let them get a sample of my blood. Let’s just go home.”

“Home?”

She waves an arm feebly.
“Whatever. I rented a spot on this place a lot of floors down, they call it a work-home or something. Free rent as long as you work your way.”

“Beatrice, you can’t do that.”

“I know.”
She has the decency to look guilty about it at the very least.
“I was hoping you’d put in enough for two.”

You glower at her even though you know she can’t see past the helmet.
“It’s bad enough that you’re falling back on deceiving humans to take up a place within them, Beatrice.”

“No I don’t think so,” she says, interrupting you. “I actually don’t think I’m obligated to tell anyone here what I am. They’re the enemy and hell, I don’t think they’d even care. I...I could have been myself openly here.”
She sounds far too wistful for your liking.

“Your ‘myself’ is a sin and one of the worst possible at that. Do not ever forget that.”

1/2
>>
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>>1236962
“I know,” she grumbles. “I know. Why do you always have to tear me down like that? It’s like you’re afraid that if I grow a self-esteem I’ll just be throwing myself at the fucking dirt.”

“It’s not about that,” you say. “I truly believe you when you say you have reformed and that you will abstain. You have performed penitence, of a sort. But that does not erase your past deeds nor will it ever make the nature of your being something worthy of being proud of.”
You’re honestly not sure how to feel about the issue. On one hand you don’t want to insult her as she is a semi-reliable companion. On the other hand her very state of existence is worthy only of insult. To tell her otherwise would be to implicitly encourage witchcraft.
And to encourage witchcraft is to abet the end of the world and the slaughter of countless innocents.

“It’s okay, I’ve spent a good few decades pummelling myself for that issue. And something getting pummelled by others because you people’s prisons suck. I don’t think someone being supportive of me is going to rush to my head.”

“I understand but a witch should be treated as she is. I can’t help but feel awarding you the same status I give to my fellow man is not only a blasphemy but also the start of a slope I may not be able to walk back up.”

“Truly, you suffer so much.”

“You mean that in disrespect but it’s not exactly false either.”

“Whatever, invert. You’re just feeling ornery because your boytoy isn’t here to greet you.”

You decide to ignore her, though surely nobody in their right mind would fault you for cuffing her around the ears for that remark.
“How long is Abe going to be anyway?”

“Dunno.”
She takes another swig of tonic.
“Shit, I could get used to this stuff. But look, he’s in good hands. Let’s just get back to the work-home before one of these spooks asks me about my face or...or someone breaks in and steals the stuff I stowed away in the room I rented. I left the Starbreaker there.”

“You did?”
The idea of the unspeakably powerful Second Age relic just sitting unattended in what amounts to just a cheap inn within the city of sin is a terrifying one.

“Well it’s not like I could bring it with me.”


>No, you’re visiting Abe first.

>Beatrice is right and furthermore, you need your sleep. Best to leave Abe to his.

>Other
>>
>>1236965
>Are you sure that stuff is not addictive? With everything else I've seen here and how mercenary everyone is, it may be a way to insure you come back.
>Given what I've heard about this place, I would rather check on Abe first. If we leave without him, we may never see him again.
>I am happy you're alright, despite you being in a fouler mood than usual.
>>
>>1236965
>No, you’re visiting Abe first.
This place doesn't have the best reputation
>>
>>1236892
Correct. Though the vomiting could expel poison purely as a side-effect.

>>1236893
She's a shapeshifter so very.
>>
>>1236965
>Beatrice is right and furthermore, you need your sleep. Best to leave Abe to his.
>>
>>1236965

>Beatrice is right and furthermore, you need your sleep. Best to leave Abe to his.

this is assuming this is not the location reputed to sell people into experimentational stuff, other wise
>>1236976
>>
>>1236965
>>Other

SHE should get some rest before she crashes, no point in both of us letting our guard down
>>
>>1236965
>Beatrice is right and furthermore, you need your sleep. Best to leave Abe to his.
I'd rather avoid drawing extra attention to ourselves
>>
>>1236992
>>1237049

I was going to add Bea could head back, away from the people who would want to examine her and not leaving the Starbreaker unattended.Only if we think Abe is at risk, but I don't really feel that is the case right now and I'd rather not split up. Plus she would have to come back and get us or we'd have to find her apartment.
>>
Im pretty sure the starbreaker is kaput anon
>>
>>1236965
>Beatrice is right and furthermore, you need your sleep. Best to leave Abe to his.
honestly, Abe is safest without us.
>>
>Beatrice is right and furthermore, you need your sleep. Best to leave Abe to his.

“We’ll have to be sure to visit him in the morning regardless. I don’t like any of us being seperated here.”

“Fine.”
She takes another swig of tonic.

“Are you sure that isn’t addictive? With everything else I’ve seen of this place it could be a scheme to keep you coming back.”

“I don’t think it is. As far as I can tell this isn’t something the Workshop itself churns out, they just buy a lot of it. I saw people selling watered-down versions along the road earlier.”

“Then where does it come from?”

“From something called the Chemist, apparently. Some lone madman hidden away somewhere and nobody else can replicate it. He’s got some kind of deal with these people but I don’t think he’s one of them. Or maybe he is and they’re just lying to hide their monopoly. Either or.”
She burps.
“And besides all that, it’s like the only thing I’ve ever had that’s made me feel not-shit for years. I’m willing to put up with a lot of shady shit for that.”

“Speaking of which, let’s get you back somewhere safe before you crash. You mind leading the way?”

“Not a problem.”

The two of you make your way downstairs and out of the Tangle floors without incident. It is significantly easier to go down stairs than it is to scale them. Who knew? It’s nearly two dozen floorrs but in the end you make it without any woes or ills.
The central hall of this floor is built up, low stone buildings huddled against the walls and piled on top of each other, boxes on boxes. It reminds you somewhat of a broken honeycomb from the days when the world made sense.

“Here we go”
Beatrice leads you to a ground-floor box, something you are grateful for as you have no wish to try the rickety ladders lining the higher ‘rooms’. She pulls a key from her pocket and fumbles with it for a moment before popping the door open.
“Home sweet home.”

The space within is minute, a ten-foot cube with a cushioned floor and a single mattress. A pack of provisions, a set of two rifles, Beatrice’s personal powderkeg and the closed Starbreaker are all piled up in one corner. You stare at Beatrice who shrugs.
“I’ve slept in worse. For years, even. And there’s a lot of common facilities!”

“Exactly what kind of work are we trading here?”

“How do you feel about demolition? This place basically services a whole bunch of floors and that means a lot of smashing bricks apart to make new bricks. Breaking down walls and buildings nobody’s using, etcetera. It’s kind of like mining, I guess.”

That doesn’t sound too bad.
“If I have to do this you better believe you’ll be earning your keep as well,” you mutter.

“Doing what?”

1/2
>>
>>1237091

>”Finding somewhere else to stay, firstly.”

>”How about earning some money?”

>”Information. There are seven sinners here with their own stolen shards and God only knows what they’re using them for. We can’t do anything until we know who they are.”

>Other
>>
>>1237093
>”Information. There are seven sinners here with their own stolen shards and God only knows what they’re using them for. We can’t do anything until we know who they are.”

I'm fine with working here until Abe recovers, of the three of us Abe would probably be best at making money, Beatrice at gathering information, and us as manual labor so we at least have basic shelter. Might as well get established, I think we'll be in Dis for a long while. We can worry about upgrading later.
>>
>>1237105
I'm also basing these assumptions on nothing it just seemed most appropriate, feel free to disagree.
>>
>>1237093
>Checking up on....the remains of Sleeper. If there's even the slightest chance a part of it survived...
>”Information. There are seven sinners here with their own stolen shards and God only knows what they’re using them for. We can’t do anything until we know who they are.”

>I'll handle looking for the supposed "cult" that could help us here.
>>
>>1237093
>>”How about earning some money?”
>>”Information. There are seven sinners here with their own stolen shards and God only knows what they’re using them for. We can’t do anything until we know who they are.”

a person so suspicious looking will surely fit in round these parts
>>
>>1237091
>”Information. There are seven sinners here with their own stolen shards and God only knows what they’re using them for. We can’t do anything until we know who they are.”
>>
>>1237093
First thing we need though is lose the armor. It's the definite distinctive detail any witnesses would remember us by. Let's stash it in the shack. Abe can guard it while he's recovering.
>>
>>1237111
I don't think returning to the scene of the explosion is a great idea
>>
>>1237142
I just don't want any second age tech falling into the wrong hands.
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>>1237149
For the sake of our larger objective we don't really have a choice, and such an act would draw unwanted attention to ourselves
>>
>”Information. There are seven sinners here with their own stolen shards and God only knows what they’re using them for. We can’t do anything until we know who they are.”

“Gathering information, what else? We’re strangers here and this city isn’t particularly willing to explain itself on its own. We need to find out about Sleeper, about this cult of redcloaks-”

“Who?”

“Maybe later for them, if they’re who I think they are I doubt you would be best one of us to uncover them.More importantly, the seven sinners we need to hunt. They each must have a shard of the sun to themselves and to exploit to whatever horrific ends they wish.”

Beatrice nods.
“I’d say look from the top. I can’t imagine that they haven’t used it for their own advantage.”

“I suspect we have seen some of it already.”

It only takes her a moment to put the pieces together.
“The green flame?”

“What else could it be? You know as well as I do that the powers of the Earth cannot produce a blaze for it is the shattered body of the Primordial Flame. If they could there would be no hope at all and the world would have been ruined a much longer time ago.”

“So you think the green stuff comes from a shard?”

“Again, what else? They’ve diluted and perverted it but they must have drawn it from somewhere. And if we can find the means to throttle whoever is behind that we could very well get our hands on the names of the others.”

“Do you think they’ll even know?”

“Of course they will. Bringing down the sun isn’t something you do lightly, it was a collaborative effort and only those who knew about it beforehand or were supremely lucky were prepared to catch a spark of the divine. Mark my words, they were all in on this together.”

“That actually makes sense, Orion, I’m so proud of you.”

“Do not sass me.”
You throw your purloined curtain into the corner of the room and start to remove your armour, your muscles creaking and protesting every step of the way. Your plate is runed enough that you can and have slept in it comfortably but in your current state? You need as restful a sleep as possible.
The witch is staring at you for some reason as you strip down to the loose trousers and vest you wear beneath. She blinks when she sees you kneel by the only mattress however.

“Hey! That’s my bed!”

“I need it more than you.”

“Like fuck you do! Where am I to sleep? The floor?”

“It’s padded enough. And you just said you’ve spent years in worse.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to go back to that.”
She sounds pitiable, a tone which is almost certainly a trick.
“I’ll give you some of my tonic if you do. Actually, go ahead and take it no matter what. I shouldn’t have been hoarding it. It’ll help with the pain.”


>Take the mattress for yourself.

>Let Beatrice have it.

>Other

And additionally

>Drink from the offered tonic.

>Leave it be.
>>
>>1237171
>Let Beatrice have it.
>Leave it be.

we should charge the lampost too. Getting full Wick up on everything is more important, since we have benedictions if the need arises.
>>
>>1237171
>>Drink from the offered tonic.
>Thank you, I believe this will let me sleep well.
>>
>>1237182
Seconding this, though I doubt we can recharge the lamppost and as things stand I'd rather not try to least we attract attention to it
>>
>>1237171
>Let Beatrice have it.
>Leave it be.
Use the benediction of bliss on ourself before sleeping
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>>1237191
knowing our rolls, it would take 4 to 7 days of just meditating. I don't THINK we need to unwrap it to charge.
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>>1237203
That's time we could have spent trying to improve on things we need to do

Frankly not worth it
>>
>Let Beatrice have it.
>Leave it be.

“I don’t need it,” you grunt as you stand back up and relinquish the mattress to her. “You can have the bed too.”

“What, really?”
She doesn’t look like she quite believes you.

“Of course. I need to be meditating anyway, it is not big loss.”

Your response makes her chuckle a little though you fail to see why. You sit down and face the wall as Beatrice takes off her coat and starts disrobing into her now familiar sleeveless blouse and long pair of bloomers. Indecent but unfortunately something you’ll have to put up with for tonight.
She raises an arm as she collapses onto the mattress and you try not to stare at how engorged and swollen the veins of her arm are, the flesh around them mottled with faint bruising.
“Sometimes you fool me into thinking you really do care.”

“If you so much as inch off that mattress towards me at any point tonight you will be sleeping outside. The same for if you bare your abdomen. Keep your wiles to yourself.”

“Aaand it’s gone. Good night.”
>>
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And that concludes our thread! I hope you all had fun and were able to tolerate the extremely lax turn my updates ended up taking for much of this thread and I hope you're all enjoying the return of Lamplighter. The thread has already been archived.

Furthermore I'd like to say thanks again for providing such an enthusiastic response considering that I basically killed the quest three months ago.

I'll likely have an Interlude going up tomorrow as well as a comprehensive post about how the dice mechanics actually work but in terms of playable content, this thread is over. Check my twitter for the date of the next thread as it comes.
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>>1237272
Cheers it was FUN
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>>1237272
NIGHT NIGHT, DONT LET THE RADBUGS BITE
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>>1237272
I already said once that I want to see this animated, and I restate that.
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>>1237272
Oh damn your tegaki skills have come far since snakecatcher
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>>1237272
Thanks for running




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