{Nexus} Good League of Good LXXVII: Earth Vampires DON'T Sparkle!

[Reinholdt]

Dwarf Fortress



"Yes. I don't doubt. We're friends. From above."

[billtodamax]

Forest

Good bear. The dwarf says, continuing to walk back to the Fortress. I'm going to have to find a cheaper way to train you, aren't I? The dwarf asks Koro. How do you feel about copper?

Dwarf Fortress

This isn't one of those goblin tricks, is it? Me mum told me all about them. The young dwarf says suspiciously. I've never seen you before. Of course, he also has never left this fortress, and traditionally spends most of his time in the dining hall.

[Gullara]

[Forest]

Koro stops in his tracks and growls at the dwarf upon hearing 'copper'. Nice try, but no.

[Reinholdt]

Dwarf Fortress

"You ever been upstairs before? Cause I stay up there most of the time, kid." Reinholdt frowns.

[billtodamax]

Forest

How about silver then? The dwarf asks Ghar. Surely silver's good enough. I've got some useless gems? The dwarf says, bargaining with a beargon. What about fire agates? They gleam a lot. He says.

Dwarf Fortress

'Course not. Horrible place, way too bright. The young dwarf says. If you come from there, I don't think you'd be a friend. The dwarf insists. How come you can talk anyway?

[Gullara]

[Forest]

Koro is not backing down! It's gold or nothing, dwarf. Another growl follows.

[Reinholdt]

Dwarf Fortress

"Look. Kid. I'd really love to stay down here and continue to deal with your rudeness, but I have an assassin to go assassinate." Reinholdt says, tapping his foot.

[billtodamax]

Forest

Fine then, gold! You drive a hard bargain, bear. The dwarf mumbles, annoyed that a bear just outsmarted her.

Dwarf Fortress

I bet my mum could deal with that assassin. The dwarf says.

He seems at a loss for what to say for a few seconds. Can I come and help? The young dwarf asks Rein.

[Reinholdt]

Dwarf Fortress

Reinholdt peers at the dwarf.
Well... can't discount the guy's courage.
"You'll have to ask your mom." He's not about to say yes to a kid in a dangerous situation.

[Gullara]

[Forest]

Koro makes bear noises! Ha! Won't get the better of him, dwarf!

[billtodamax]

Dwarf Fortress

But she'd just say no! I haven't even got a set of keys for the magma levers, and she only lets me harvest plants. The little dwarf sulks. She says I can do it when I'm twelve, but that's ages away!

Forest

Yeah yeah yeah, just don't push your luck. The dwarf mumbles, making empty threats at the bear. They're probably getting close to the entrance to the fortress soon.

[Gullara]

[Forest]

Koro will follow along without any further issue. He's got himself a steady supply of gold. He is quite pleased.

[Reinholdt]

Dwarf Fortress

"Well I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. I can't go against your mom can I? She can beat us up easy with her hammer." Reinholdt counters.

[billtodamax]

Forest > Outside Dwarf Fortress

Alright, well, you did okay today bear. The dwarf says. Here, you can have a bar of gold. She says, handing him one.

Dwarf Fortress

Yeah, I guess you're right. The young dwarf says. Hey, after you kill this assassin, wanna come see my room? A more tempting proposal has never been uttered.

[Gullara]

[Outside Dwarf Fortress]

Koro takes the gold and maneuvers it into his bag somehow. Happy bear noises!

[happyturtle]

Outdoors, at night

An owl is hunting for dinner. Perhaps a nice, juicy rat.

[Slii Arhem]

Outside - Night

There are certainly plenty about, perhaps even more than normal. Unfortunately for the vermin, being bred as pets doesn't lend its way to camouflage, and the are several with white backs out in the fields that the owl could easily spot. It doesn't look good the prey tonight.

[happyturtle]

Outside - Night

The owl swoops down and snatches a rat, and flies away with it. It lands in a tree and transforms into an elf, holding the rat in his hands, instead of his talons. Quickly, while the rat is still alive, Gideon takes out a knife made of bone and opens the rat. "Forgive me, brother," he whispers in his native tongue. He reaches into the body cavity with a pair of curled fingers and pries out the heart and the liver of the rat, bringing them to his mouth, and eating them both raw.

Moments later, the man is gone. A rat, looking exactly like the rat that was just killed, crawls down out of the tree and creeps around. Gideon's elf-mind starts to sleep as he connects with the rat-mind, to act as the rat would act.

Another owl finds the remains of the first rat and enjoys the unexpected treat.

[Slii Arhem]

Outside - Night

The rat struggles briefly in his hand, but doesn't accomplish anything and dies when he guts it. Nothing happens until...

Sometime Later

Just as dawn has nearly broken, a much larger black rat will seek out the shapeshifter that has stolen its kin's form. If found, it will chitter out a short series of demands in primitive rat-speak.

"Chktchitchitchittachittachittachik! ~Speak-word. What see-hear-smell-find?"

The black mound of a rat also sniffs at the much smaller one suspiciously. "Chiktcht? ~Smell of man-thing and prey-shadow. What is?"

[happyturtle]

Sometime Later

Giderat has some vague idea that he should know this black rat, but the shapeshifter does not gain the memories or training of the animals he consumes. All he gains are natural instincts.

He also does not have access to his elf-mind. If he is to gain the ability to use rat-form at will, he must become a rat for a time. So there is no ability to reason, to bluff, to tell lies. There's barely even the memory that he is something more than a rat. It all lies buried for now.

"Chikt-tck ~ Confusion fear." Giderat cowers a little, fearing that he must fight this larger rat, and that if he does, he will lose.

And since I forgot the tektek before:

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[Slii Arhem]

Outside - Dawn

The Spyrat is not amused, and chitters angrily before moving closer to the Giderat. It should be noted that this rat is around three or more times larger than the more normal sized rat, and could possibly be mistaken for a small dog when the light is bad.

"Chktchikkachit ~Come-come, must retrain you. Back to tunnels."

The larger rat will advance right up to Giderat and, unless stopped, will attempt to clasp its jaws over the nape of his neck. If it looks at all like Giderat is going to bolt, the larger rat will give chase.

And he's very fast.

However if all goes well then the spyrat will attempt to drag Giderat back to the nearest tunnel, and eventually to Slii himself.

[happyturtle]

Outside - Dawn

Giderat has two options:

1. Fighting the large rat or fleeing from him or submitting to him - all of these choices are the same, as all must end the same way.

2. A choice that Giderat does not understand, but that will make him somehow cease to be. One that he must only use if the only other option is death. His rat mind does not understand that taking this choice means returning to his elf form, having failed in his attempt to master the shape of rat. He only knows that it is both a death and not-death option.

And so with a soft squeal of unhappiness, Giderat is carried off by the Spyrat.

[The Bushranger]

Garden

The little onion rolls out of Jamie's hands when she lowers it close enough to the ground. It begins precisely whacking weeds. Whack! Don't. Whack! Have. Whack! One. Whack! Yet.

Jamie can't help but giggle cheerfully at the little onion's enthuiasm!
"Wellll, um....are you a boy or a girl?" she asks, as she sets about whacking some weeds of her own!

{Inside Infirmary --> Main Gate}

Vidalia doesn't run into Quinn. Though she does frown at the sudden stall of their adventure. What now? If you're worried about Jamie following, not gonna happen.

Vidalia tilts her head. Plan B? she crosses her arms over her chest. We haven't even started Plan A yet.

"I've just been informed by Tobias that he's here - and that I need to prepare a True Resurrection." Quinn crosses her arms over her own chest with a huff. "Translation: he's off doing something arguably heroic and unquestionably stupid.

Again.."

[Earl of Purple]

By The Tree

The symbol works. Assuming it's magic, and not merely some weird pattern drawn for no real reason. "Huh? What happened? That fox-slave did something, didn't it?" Yeah, good thing Zamira's not here.

Outside The Main Entrance, A Distance Down The Path

There's an ornate carriage here. The wheels have been lifted off the ground by a complicated mechanism giving it four legs, and the carriage won't move until the mechanism has been reused. It is made of highly polished dark wood, though the wheels are a pale, nearly white. It is inlaid with spirals of gold, silver, and platinum. There's a short, bearded figure sitting on the front, apparantly asleep. His clothing is fine, and he has a long, swishy cane. Between the long yokes where other carriages have horses, this one has four ten-foot-tall humanoid creatures with bull's heads and immensely muscled bodies. Their horns have all been cut off a foot from their skulls, and their manacles and collars have been welded together so they can't move their arms. Their eyes are small, beady, and red- with pain, anger, distress and hatred. They are all nude, save for a simple loincloth, and they have brown fur. They look incredibly savage and vicious; freeing them might be dangerous.

Other Side Of The Lake

"There's a very high chance they'll be violent, minotaur believe that their lives are measured by how many they have sent into the afterlife. The minotaur can speak, but only their own language and a few words of Elvish; I can't speak their own language and the words they know are stuff like 'forward', 'stop', 'left' and 'right'. They might understand they're being freed; I don't know. They scare me. They can't swim, though, and fear water they can't step over." Fortunately, though, Myrim's speaking her world's 'Elvish' now.

[Lord Magtok]

Somewhere in the Skies Over the Good League of Good, In a Paddleboat

Spoiler

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Reelshka doesn't say anything about the arm. She's glad to have something to hold on to during the flight. I think I've show off to enough people for the time being, she says with a slight smile. So unless there's a sight you'd like to see from above, I suppose we ought to head towards GLoG.

Magtok and Reelshka make their way back towards her home, and once the League is in sight, he gestures down towards the community below.

"So where am I dropping you off?"

[Morty]

[Other Side Of The Lake]

I'm sure Zamira will be alright. But if the minotaurs don't want to be freed, I'm not sure what we can do, Reelshka says worriedly.

[Skies Above]

Oh hey, a plotclone.
Near the cellar I live in would be best. Reelshka points at a small cellar entrance near Main Cabin. I had a wonderful time, Magtok. Thank you, she adds, looking up at him with a smile.

[Reinholdt]

Dwarf Fortress

Yeah, I guess you're right. The young dwarf says. Hey, after you kill this assassin, wanna come see my room? A more tempting proposal has never been uttered.

Reinholdt can't help but give a smile. "Yeah. I'll do that. Better make sure it's clean before we get back." Reinholdt jokes.
He gives the obviously stuck Tobias a nod before heading back up to the surface, coming out of the Infirmary

[Outside Infirmary]

and taking a look around for the assassin.
He is, of course, instantly distracted by a flying paddleboat, peering up at it.
Magtok.
Hmmmmmm...
And he seems to be kidnapping Reelshka. Reinholdt starts flying their way, but stops a few feet off the ground. No. There was something off about that picture.

Probably the lack of screaming.

[happyturtle]

Other Side of the Lake

"Zamira will take care of the others," Brand decides. "What about you, Myrim? Do you live in the water all the time, or do you want to stay in a cabin? Or there are underground places, as well as a barrow on the island." Whichever place she prefers, he'll lead her there (unless it's the island, since he does not share his daughter's desire to go swimming in November ). In addition, he'll encourage her to ask for whatever food and clothing and basic necessities she needs and do his best to provide them. As long as she doesn't need anything exotic, it should be handwavable as being available in GLoG's supplies for refugees.

((Naptime now. It's a shame my evening nap seems to overlap with your online time, Earl. Brand does want to talk to your elves at some point soon as well.))

[Earl of Purple]

Other Side Of The Lake

"They want to be free, they just might not like the process of being freed. They won't be here long, either; they're migratory, and they have years, maybe decades, of walking to do to catch up with their clan." Myrim then turns to Brand "My parents had a hut on stilts in a lake, so a cabin will be fine." She'll follow Brand to one, unless Reelshka has more to say.

[Morty]

[Other Side of the Lake]

Reelshka has nothing more to say and follows Brand and Myrrim.