The Lords of Life and Death

[Wavelab]

"He was not on the other side of the great storm when I met him. This is one of the main reasons I wanted to speak to him further." He looked back to the pile of wax.

"And can something be considered truly immoral if the person didn't know what they were doing at the time?"

[Dr.Orpheus]

"Well if my opinion matters the Wendigo must die or stay pined to that wall so long as he is not bein' a risk to the livin' folks. And if Wax Edgar returns his body to Edgar then I suppose I can forgive him, although a bit more background on him would be nice. Above all I am disappointed that we cannot send folks through the storm to safety."

[nyarlathotep]

Edgar's features have been dissolved completely dissolved leaving nothing more than a roughly humanoid wax sculpture, with a crude hole for a mouth. The figure stands up from its prior position, and begins facing Siggeir before speaking. Its voice is nothing like that of Edgar, instead being a monotone sound constructed by out of ambient buzzing sounds.

Edgar?: The western realms have fallen to the Giants and the Star God's followers. The Scarlet Confederacy is calling on all of its colonists and all other humans of blood true. We were attacked in transit by the forces of Donn, one of whom is now trapped on our ship. I was only able to include a message in this construct to be triggered by the presence of a full blooded human in the hopes that beyond the storms there is some power great enough to save our homeland.

[Dr.Orpheus]

Les pauses a moment in shock and a moment longer when realizing that Edgar was referring to him then speaks slowly "Well I suppose it would be nice to save two continents I if I knew how. Wait a second did you say giants? I thought they were all killed off."

[nyarlathotep]

Edgar?: Be warned I only have contain preprogrammed responses, some message may be outside of my bounds to answer. The giants, or Fomorians, were for a very long time thought to be extinct, with modern sitings being attributed to drunken fools and folktales, but in the last three decades they have emerged in force, led by a Khan named Chronson. He claims to be the direct descendant of the legendary titan Chronus, and his attacks coincided with the lengthening of days and nights. The giants' reemergence has also triggered attacks by the a species known as the mi-go who claim that they are destroyers sent by the Star Gods to exterminate "failled species".

[Kazyan]

"But how can stars be servants? Unless the King is really powerful. Can gods even do that?" Istid slowly scratches the back of her opposite hand, careful not to pull too hard on scales, and leans up against the wall. "I'm...I'm not making sense of this. Why are you here? This isn't the nicest place to live, you know."

[Dr.Orpheus]

"Extermination hmmm... well that doesn't sound very fun. So where does me being a human come in can other races not stop the giants or mi-go?"

[Sneaky Weasel]

Malain is thrown backward by the force of the vampire's blow, his head reeling. He can feel his very essence draining away as the creature moves to strike again. Then the torso monster's tongue smashes into him and wraps around his waist, his ribs cracking like dry kindling. Luckily his unlikely companion rips away it's tongue before it can get a firm grip on him, but the damage is already done.
I'm on my last legs here. One more punch from that spawn and I'm dead. I have to get away. Gritting his teeth with the pain, he awkwardly leaps past the vampires, twisting and tumbling to avoid their attacks. Once he is on the ground, he runs up to the wall, his legs trembling with the effort of running. Without stopping, he jumps unto the wall, black energy coalescing around his hand and feet. Like some sort of twisted spider, he scuttles up the wall as fast as he can, trying to make it inside before the spawn catch him.

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Tumble check, to make it past the spawn: (1d20+6)[26]
Using Dance of the Spider to climb the wall, at 20 ft. movement. It is amusing to note that Malain is actually faster at climbing than running.
Edit: There could be no better time to roll a natural twenty. The dice-gods are with me today.

[nyarlathotep]

At questions of his reason for living here the Hermit seems to lose much of his past excitement, and sighs before slouching onto his home's stool.

Hermit: I am here because the gods guided me here, the star gods, to serve their master the King. I chose this abode because to do otherwise would put a burden on the people of this city, and a good servant does not cause more work. I must be helpful to gain forgiveness for my weakness. I let them all die, my faith was not strong enough to save them from the dragons. I was at Krone's capital on the day the great serpent landed in our lake, the monster Fàfnir. The mayor's son slew the beast but its blood killed all of them, I couldn't cure them. My faith it wasn't strong enough, I had to kill the blood soaked infants. My faith wasn't strong enough, they starved too afraid of the curse to eat anything. My faith wasn't strong enough, Fàfnir was reborn from the son's boy while I treated him. My faith wasn't strong enough.

At this point the hermit descends into a series of sobs while repeating "My faith wasn't strong enough" over and over.
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Edgar?: Demihumans are able to fight to prove they are above their base blood contaminants, but all other races are monsters that cannot be trusted. They are only permissible as slaves and servants that require constant supervision.

[Kazyan]

Istid's face slowly shifts into one of worry, empathic sorrow for the hermit. Though she really had trouble keeping up, she regretted bringing him into this state.

At least she knew something, now: to kill the Fàfnir. The prospect of possibly getting to do it in water made her think it was doable. She sat down next to the hermit, then slowly reached into her haversack and pulled out her psicrystal. She reached up to place it in his hands, but if he would not reciprocate, it would be placed on the ground.

"...The 'dead ones' made my family die. I...I know what it maens to lose everyone like that." She looked up at Anthony, then bit her lip and ran one finger over the graven images of the late nixies on the crystal. "About the Fàfnir, that's something to get revenge on." Istid thought for a moment, not quite at in an emotional state that would bring her to cry--not that nixies could cry, anyway. "You can't make your faith stronger. But maybe I can kill the the Fàfnir again and make things a little better? I can do that." Istid nodded.

[Dr.Orpheus]

"Well I don't see why your creators would trust me more than someone who has fought for you already, I may need to talk to some of your lands humans about slavery. But yes I will help as soon as I save my own homeland, you know how it is."

[Wavelab]

Siggeir looked at the wax model and said "You look disgusting. I preferred your other form."

[NotScaryBats]

Joan looks at the wendigo and raises her sword once more. "Peace be with you." she says solemnly as she executes it.

She turns to the wax golem and grimaces. "I am unsure how far anything from this other land can be trusted. But it seems like, no matter who you believe, things are no better on the other side of the Great Storm. Perhaps we should use discretion in who we tell this information to, to prevent despair among the populace."

[Wavelab]

"Alright, I'll go tell the bartender. I'm sure he doesn't spread rumours right? Siggeir said, trying to annoy Joan to the point where she forgets about his Edgar incident.

[Dr.Orpheus]

"This is not the time to be joking Siggeir."

[nyarlathotep]

Joan brings down her sword on the wendigo's head rending its brow in twain. This looses a horrible wail of a wind rushing through twisting caverns, and with it comes a light blue vapor rushing up through the ship and out into the air outside. After this flurry of activity the wendigo's body collapses into a heap of barely recognizable bones and skins. The sword binding it shines brightly and then its aura dims, retreating into the runes running along its blade and leaving the blade itself to the natural gleam of metal alone.

The wax creature does not respond to this or any of the groups other statements that are not direct questions, simply standing passively.
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Malain's climb up the walls is greeted by the winged dragonspawn he saw earlier in the keep. His chest puffs out and then releases a gout of green flame that destroys the two vampires spawn scaling the wall after him. Meanwhile his avian companion continues to tear at the torso creature.

Winged Humanoid: Welcome I had not known we had brothers so small. We'll have to talk later once the bigger one is dead.
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The Hermit stops sobbing and smiles at Istid.

Hermit: Thank you fae one. I will make preparations to leave soon. There is still so much traveling to do.

[Dr.Orpheus]

"Well this is a lot to take in. Shall we push on though there is more ship left."

[Wavelab]

Siggeir smiles faintly at Les. He watches the Wendigo's death, calmly almost bored.

OOC:

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By the way Nyarlathotep I never did get to thank you for destroying my doppleganger

[nyarlathotep]

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You also never made the knowledge check to figure out that your doppelganger was a wax golem. Oh 2nd edition how I love thee.

[Wavelab]

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You also never made the knowledge check to figure out that your doppelganger was a wax golem. Oh 2nd edition how I love thee.

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Dude... Ok yeah you're an awesome DM.

[NotScaryBats]

"I pray that you will find peace in the afterlife." Joan says, before turning to face the room. She lowers her blade to her side. "Can you tell if this sword is magical? If it has special undead-sealing properties, that would be quite useful in the long night to come. I cannot tell if it was a spell cast upon the sword or the sword's own strength, however.

"Yes, I am ready to move on and search the rest of this vessel. It sounds like these two were the only survivors, but let's keep our senses about us just in case." Joan moves on to investigate the ship, with her sword and shield ready, should any unpleasant surprises await them.

[Sneaky Weasel]

I'm alive! The thought kept going through Malain's head. Once again, he had survived. Once again, he had cheated fate. He started to laugh, but it turned into a bout of coughing and he had to cling to the parapet to wait for it to stop. Alive, but barely.
"Oh yeah, I'm as small as they come. Lucky me, eh?" Without waiting for a response he turns back to observe the scene below. The roc was tearing up the torso thing, so Malain didn't need to worry about that at the moment. As for the spawn, they were all dead...wait. There had been three left from his attack, hadn't there? And the dragonspawn had killed two more. That left one unaccounted for.
Drawing out a second knife for throwing, he swiftly runs through his attack pattern in his mind, preparing to send out fire at the undead once more. He scans the area for the last spawn, making sure that it would not catch him off guard.

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Recovering Death Mark as a full round action.
Also, if I've somehow miscounted and the spawn are all dead, I'm going to feel like an idiot.

[Dr.Orpheus]

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Detect magic on the sword.

[nyarlathotep]

Assuming Lester does not want to keep this secret everyone can look, I'm just posting in spoilers due to length.

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The sword is indeed magical and appears to be designed to easily give up its secrets. Even through nothing more than a detect magic spell you understand what it does and how it works. It is a +2 holy long sword with bane (servants of gods). Additionally if it critically hits a creature that triggers its bane ability or is used to attack such a creature that is helpless it can impale the creature. When used to impale something the wielder lets go of the weapon, and its target is staggered and immobilized as long as it is impaled. Furthermore the impaled creature is affected by dimensional shackles and is unable to take actions that would remove the blade. Additionally if it is a creature that possesses blood it takes 10 bleed damage every turn that it is impaled. Other creatures may pull out the sword as a move or standard action.

Its runes have now shifted to read "No gods, only great men and terrible monsters" in common.

The ship's other rooms all appear to have been broken into and ransacked. The boiler room contains the bodies of two ogres who appear to be have been loading fuel into the furnace with their hands bound, meaning that any defense against the wendigo would have been near impossible. Even beyond the claw marks across there throat they look horribly injured, with lash marks running their backs and an emaciation that would imply starvation. They are curiously undevoured. Otherwise the boilers appear to be running out of currently fed fuel and are cooling down, though it would appear simple enough to restart them.

None of the crew quarters contain anything of note save for the captain's cabin. While the other rooms are relatively spartan affairs with little beyond a footlocker end a bed, or in the case of guard rooms multiple beds, the captain's room contains three separate bookshelves and a nightstand in addition to the necessities. On the nightstand rests a book across whose front is written a message in simplified Hominis, the language of the common folk that was the direct precursor to modern common. Joan is able to read the basics of it, but some of the more complex ideas might be lost. (Think of it like reading Chaucer. Sadly I do not yet have the skill or time to actually type out a message like early modern English or late middle English, so I'll just be typing in as encyclopedic a tone as possible).

The books front reads "an Introduction for Colonists". Its inner pages are written in the same script, but with summaries written in Terran at the end of each entry.

Book: "This book is to serve as a basic introduction to the current events of the home continent for colonists and give a basic understanding of modern day Confederate technology. Of first importance is knowing our enemies.

The inhuman enemies are the Chronan Dynasty, the Mi-go Empire, Ignus, and the Donn Regions. The Chronans are a collection of degenerate descendants of the titans. They have bread for resistance to the mi-go spores and near complete immunity to magic. Though they appear foolish and simple their more powerful khans still maintain of the intellect of titans and are capable of strategy. It is recommended that they only be engaged by martial masters of great skills, or wielders of the great armor given by our Princedom allies.

The Mi-go are sapient fungal colonies that claim to serve the Star Gods. Their primary weapons are devices that can discharge lightning by non-magical means, that have resisted all attempts at reverse engineering, and a spore that takes control of the mind of any it can take root in. These thralls retain some level of intellect, but are perpetually happy and will do anything to defend their mi-go masters. They frequently attempt to open up diplomatic channels, but all of their demands inevitably contain `willingly submit to infestation´. Recommended that they are dealt with using Compound Green detailed later in this book and fire."

At this point you find that several pages have been ripped out of the journal. The remaining portion is speaking of the application of Confederate technology and how to replicate it.

Book: "Compound Green is a chemical that is capable of killing any and all biological contaminants. If a human being is contacted with it or consumes food that has been exposed to it usually develop skin sores, but are otherwise unaffected and they do not suffer any effects of contaminants that might be in the food they consume. It is recommended that all food supplies in a region suspected of harboring mi-go be coated in Compound Green. Here are instructions for an alchemist to synthesis Compound Green from Sulfur and digestive acid. *lists instructions* Furthermore there should be at least a gallon already mixed on the colonist contact ship. *scralled in the margins are the words 'in my nightstand'*

The steam engine is a device powered by steam turning turbines through the use of heated water. Here are the basics of constructing and maintaining a steam engine like the one powering the colonist contact ship. *list instructions, which include notes on bound fire elementals generally being better than fueled fire, but sometimes these are in short supply*"
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Malain stands atop the keep walls, just able to notice the last vampire spawn in time to avoid its wild claw swing. The once human beast now stands inches from him, drool running down its chin as its lips have long been shredded by over zealous biting and chewing.

Vampirespawn: None will escape justice. You least of all small demon.

[NotScaryBats]

"This... Is remarkable. I should get it to Simon so he can study it in more depth. He is a brilliant man, and now that his research attempting to penetrate the Storm is obsolete, he can devote his time to mastering this technology.

"I believe we are done here. Will that sword harm me for wielding it? Though I feel somewhat uncomfortable wielding a weapon designed to punish servants of gods, it would be foolish to give up such a tool for philosophical reasons."

Having explored the ship to her satisfaction, Joan makes her way to the exit, intending on returning to Simon and Ms Ashley to report the incredible findings of the afternoon.

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That sword seems better than my Cold Longsword. I don't know the rules, but can I replace my Tomb Blade with this one?

[nyarlathotep]

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I'd normally allow you to replace your tomb blade by attuning over a 24 hour period, but as your mummy magic comes from service to the Wrapped King, and this sword is specifically meant to fight god servant's it cannot. As for simply wielding it, you can with no penalty.

[NotScaryBats]

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Okay, I will simply keep it on my person, then, for God-Stabbing.

[Dr.Orpheus]

Les examines the blade and describes it to Joan. After looking over the rest of the ship Les is happy that nothing went wrong and he hadn't even needed to lift his sling. "Well now we can finally get out of here." Upon exiting the ship Les calls his eagle and begins walking in some random direction deep in thought.

[NotScaryBats]

Joan searches out Simon and gives him the book she found in the ship.
"This book contains information on the 'steam engine' that powers that metal behemoth as well as several other interesting bits of information. A substance that removes contaminants may or may not be able to be used to remove dragonblood taint from a human. I am confident you could make excellent use of it."

[nyarlathotep]

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For convenience's sake I am abandoning color text for any NPC simply due to how many of them there are. There will still be certain phrases, like King and New Dawn highlighted, but no more NPCs with color by default.

Simon: I will be making the best use of it I can, milady. Even if the substance proves worthless, a new means of mechanical power will be useful, especially in the moving scouts vessels while putting as few men at risk as possible.