The Demon (Adventure Thread)

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

"Yess, the authoritiess musst be told . . . however, we should sscan the area and ssearch. A few minutess will not sslow us overly and we may find ssomething important . . ."

Shorrusshumm does not seem at all phased by the destruction around him. In fact, he seems to be surveying it callously, as if he sees it as a curious problem rather than a horrible event.

[Sir Shadow]

Jaggers

The kobold was more surprised at the dwarf's question than what little she revealed. He had been waiting in the square all night, no matter what the girl's sense of time told her. Snorting, he thought for a moment. How could this matter at all? "Well, Loyalty and Truth... both are manipulated for various purposes... Absolute Truth cannot be revealed until the end, when the Arbiter strips away the layers of deceit and lays it before all to see... Therefore, I must say Loyalty is most important. By being loyal to ideals you can strife to find the truth you are searching for, not to mention loyalty between comrades may at times be more important than sharing all information."

[lostsole31]

Valnorath whispers quietly in Marali's ear: "I would speak with you in private about your hand's new adornment and how you came by it, for I know what it is."

EDIT: [OOC, sorry, I missed several posts including your explanation of the evening's events.]

[Fixer]

Valnorath whispers quietly in Marali's ear: "I would speak with you in private about your hand's new adornment and how you came by it, for I know what it is."

Marali would whisper back, "I would prefer an answer to my question first. It is not for myself that I ask."

[lostsole31]

"Truth," says Valnorath. "There are many virtues, mind you, but to uphold Truth is key among them all. Loyalty can be had by murderers and thieves, yes, even more than just respect for power. But even a dissembler who uses honesty as a 'weapon' still deceives.

"Truth, however, is a function of purity; in fact, it is the most powerful, universal concept for purity that most philosophers can name. It is because of its elusive nature and inherent power that people seek it out their entire lives: believing they have found it, only to realize there are deeper truths within the truth they initially sought.

Loyalty, though paramount for any group not ruled by fear or despotism, holds no such latent power all its own."

[Rathgar]

Lege

"If a prisoner were to be sentenced to deal with the Larnok, this is where they would go. But now, all that remains is this large skeleton, quite possibly incinerated to purge the world of its lawlessness before its anarchic taint could spread like a plague."

Lege turned to the celestial. "Valnorath, as for your idea to warn King Draym of the horrific fate of Jalam. We shall remain here and await your return, for some of the slower ones of us, such as myself, would do naught but slow you down." The enforcer looked around at the remainder of the party. "Unless one among us has some other, faster means of communication, though I don't recall anyone brought a carrier pigeon with them."

"To answer your question," Lege said to Marali, "Truth is more important than loyalty, though not necessarily the knowledge of truth. Within truth there is pure order, though the order might not be apparent without actually knowing all available information. Truth contains patterns, and it is those patterns that govern the very existence of everything, which then have an influence on truth. The truth isn't always pleasant, but one thing it always is is true.

"Any organization worth anything will be built upon the truth, even if it is just the limited perception of the truth available to the founders. Loyalty to such an organization will be inevitably better than loyalty to an organization that is built upon anything but the truth, just as a well oiled machine is a better way to do work than performing said work without a plan. It is not necessary for the cogs in the machine to know the full truth, only that the operator can get the machine to perform the intended goal.

"Luckily for us, Jalatar laid out for us in the Ordena Publiko the truth necessary for the establishing of the highest level of organization: the state. As long as our fair kingdom follows the guidelines laid down by that book, all shall be well; at least, all shall be more or less well as a whole. In light of these facts, we can be assured of the wisdom of loyalty to both the church of Jalatar and the kingdom that was built upon its teachings.

"However, we must always be on the lookout for any attempts at subverting their stability in truth, either by external force internal sabotage. The Demon proves to be a such an external threat, and we must make sure that he is brought to justice, so as to ensure that the loyalties of its people are loyalties towards an organization of truth. Therefore, we must contribute all we can towards the pursuit of The Demon, regardless of any credit or monetary rewards that we may or may not receive."

After his rant, Lege was surprised that he could be so incredibly long winded. Then, following a brief pause, he spoke to the party as a whole again. "With the exception of Valinor, who shall be going to inform the king, we should all continue to search this town for any clues. However, even though we could cover more ground by separating, we should remain together, for I have a bad feeling about this, and I don't want any threats to be able to single us out."

Lege then pulled out his chalk and approached the skeleton. "Before we go searching, though, I need to mark this before I forget." He then proceeded to draw an outline of the skeleton (with a dashed line, so as to save on chalk with such a large amount to draw). After a while, Lege was finished. "There. This will help keep a record of the exact location and position of the remains, in case it may help in the near future."

[Fixer]

Marali answers Lege's and Valnorath's responses as follows: "I am 90% sure that the King already knows about this. I came here BECAUSE someone told me about this happening a couple days ago, and if they knew then I find it unlikely the King wouldn't know. I have also already spent all morning searching, but by all means knock yourselves out. I could find no survivors and only limited clues. Any chance any of you know Ignan, Auran, or Aquan? I know Terran and could only read one of the set of runes I found. Perhaps with some more readers we can piece together some more clues."

OOC: If the party decides to search the village, Marali will start to search other areas of the village she hasn't already searched. Preferably somewhere that looks like it had money or something sale-able, as she largely ignored those areas previously.

[lostsole31]

Valnorath thinks for a minute. "Marali, I do not doubt that in all likelihood such destruction wrought upon the land must assuredly be known to those that need to know. I knew that probability before I offered to go.

"Yet until I am sure that the message has reached the court of the king, that other 10% is too much to pass by ... especially when lives are at stake."
.....
"Lege, I am sure that you feel you need your own assurance that Marali has done what she can here. But as a leader you need to learn trust in those that aid you. Time may be against us, so I recommend that instead of re-searching what Marali has gone through, rather receive what further intelligence you can from her and these runes. After that, go as the mission dictates, and I will try to find you as I can."
.....
"Amras, I recommend that you pray to Bahamut to allow you to read what we otherwise cannot."
[Dresdor: OOC]
.....
Valnorath, before he goes, asks Marali to show him where these runes are. He doesn't understand any of these languages, but recognizes that they are the four constituent languages of the elemental planes.

Once he does that [Dice], he will take his leave of Lege and wish the party well, and leave back to the capital.

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

"Thesse disscussionss of morality our pleassent and all, but I think more important isssues are about uss."

[Fixer]

Shorrusshumm

"Thesse disscussionss of morality our pleassent and all, but I think more important isssues are about uss."

Marali looks at Shush and rolls her eyes before responding, "I ssstill insssissst on an anssswer before I ssshare anything, if you please. Which matters more to you?"

OOC: Marali will show anyone who asks where each of the runes are, and explains that the Terran runes state, "Test yourself by stone's embrace; No other trial fear you to face."

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

Shorrusshumm growls with annoyance and says, "I am a ssoldier, loyalty is more important than truth. We can not alwayss know why we do what we do, ass long ass you trusst the man at your back and the one who ssends you out to fight, truth matterss not, only loyalty."

[Rathgar]

Lege

Before Valnorath departed, Lege spoke to him. "I was not second guessing her work. I just wanted to stay in Jalam until your return, so that you would know where to find us. I trust her findings full well, and thank her for what she has discovered on her own." Lege then turned to Marali. "As for the runes, I'd help you if I could, but i'm not very well versed in foreign languages. I didn't really study that many books, really. The only one I much of at all was the Ordena Publiko, which I've read several times."

[lostsole31]

"I have seen something like this before, but I can't remember where," says Valnorath regarding the runes. "These are representative of what are called the 'Inner Planes' ... planes not based on philosophy given form, such as my home plane of Celestia ... but the planes of the fundamental building blocks of the Universe: the elements.

"Two things are missing here, though, and those are the planes of Light and Void which represent the expansive and entropic energies of the universe. I see nothing here that is of the Void," says Valnorath, looking around.

"And the Light," Valnorath continues, looking at Marali, down to her adornment, and up again, "is often hard to see, and yet familiar."

To Marali ...

Spoiler

Show

"We have matters to discuss upon my return. But for now, guard them - and it - well."

Valnorath leaves them with that, and heads for the capital.

[Fixer]

As Marali awaits the last person's answer, she asks Lege, "What is this "Ordena Publiko" thing you keep talking about? What is it? What does it look like?" Then she addresses Shush, "To whom or what are you loyal? Forgive me, but I know nothing more of you than your lisp. You have certainly not been very forthcoming about yourself and what I have learned is potentially very sensitive."

Marali looks around, then a look of fear crosses over her face, "I do not wish to remain inside this village after nightfall. I have had enough dealings with the undead and I doubt these souls died peacefully or were properly lain to rest. Can we set up camp OUTSIDE the village? Please?"

OOC: Reminding GM that I am trying to sense motive on everyone's responses to try to gauge if they are trustworthy about what they are saying.

[DJDeMiko]

Then she addresses Shush, "To whom or what are you loyal? Forgive me, but I know nothing more of you than your lisp. You have certainly not been very forthcoming about yourself and what I have learned is potentially very sensitive."

"And you have not been forthcoming with mysself either," Shorrusshum says to the dwarf. "To my eyess you abandoned the group and went off by yoursself, then offer excussess over your abssensse, then we find you here in a desstroyed village and ssudenly you begin demanding that we ansswer your questionss. Why don't you ansswer your own quesstion for uss instead of being alloof ass to thier porposse. How are we to trusst you, how are we to beleive you have good intentionss when you act sso? No, I have no more interesst in being treated sso by you until we know more of your intentionss."

[Fixer]

Marali is rather insulted by having someone so secretive call into question her character. "It appears, then, that you and I will not be cooperating, Shush." And, with that, Marali turns her back to him to make clear she has no desire to speak with him further.

Marali then addresses the rest of the group. "I suppose it is fair to make my own motivations clear. I am an adventurer at heart. I have no loyalties to state, religion, organization, race, or even gender. My only loyalties are to those who stand beside me in battle and that loyalty extends for as long as they are willing to trust me to do the same. I do not believe in profiting at others' expense and try to benefit those less able to take care of themselves than myself. I work for what I keep, and I keep what I work for."

Marali is obviously agitated, but she continues, "What I have learned is politically sensitive. I bear no grudges with this King, any power centers within this kingdom, nor any religions who shepherd the souls of the confused or bewildered. I do, however, know that what I have learned can hurt one or several of those groups and I have no desire to have a big, stupid bullseye painted on my back because I told the wrong people. This is not my home, my land, nor my people and I see no reason to end my career with an assassin's blade for something I care not one whit about. For that reason I will not be sharing what I have learned with Shush. He has demonstrated a hostility towards me I am not comfortable with." Marali spits upon the ground (which seems to bubble and dissolve under her spittle) and then takes a moment to compose herself a bit, then continues a bit more calmly.

"What I will share audibly at the moment is the following:
"The beast that destroyed this city was called a Larnok. Its bones are what Lege has outlined. Apparently it was fed someone who disagreed with it, the person the King named as 'Demon'. This 'Demon' killed it from within, while the Larnok was destroying the city. This information came to me by way of someone in a neighboring town two hours to the north. I have made sure this person is no longer there, arranging for them to leave before any mercenary groups attempt hostile means of collecting information from them. I have discovered runes among the ruins as I have shown, and shared what I know of their translation."

Marali then turns directly at Shorrusshumm with an angry glare in her eyes and nearly yells, "What have you done, besides hide behind robes and make accusations? What have you done to earn any loyalty or trust from anyone? Nothing! I am not going to stand around here and put up with these insults! If this is what I will have to deal with I am far better off by myself!" Marali then turns from the group and starts stomping north in apparent anger.

[Sir Shadow]

Jaggers

Jaggers was inclined to agree with Marali about Shorrusshumm, if only because of racism. Damn Spellscales... Always acting so haughty.

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

"Little Dwarf, I have acted polite until you began demanding that we reveal perssonal information about oursselvess without exsplaning why and then when ssomeone assked you a quesstion, you further demanded ansswerss to your quesstion."

Shorrusshumm lifts back his hood revealing a human face with mottled green scales mixed into the flesh. His head is hairless, but at the eyebrows and hairline the green scales grow thicker.

"No, You demanded that we sshowed you loyalty and honessty without doing uss the ssimple priveledge of acting the ssame. Not only did you DEMAND our ansswerss while flaunting that you had a ssecret which would only be told bassed on our ansswerss, but you did sso without sshowing uss the ssimple decsencsy that you were demanding of uss."

"When I ansswered your rude quesstion ass you asked, you haughtily told me that my ansswer wass not good enough for you. I told you that loyalty was more important to me than truth and then assked you to ansswer your own quesstion. You demand resspect without giving it. I will tell you that I value the loyalty of peerss and will never sshow you resspect until you are willing to sshow me the ssame amount of resspect."

"If that iss not good enough for you, if you truly beleive that we sshould ansswer to your unexsplained demandss, then you only sshow me that you are not trusst worthy. You sshow ussthat you beleive that your own loyaltiess, your own ssecretts and your reassonss are more important than ourss. I can not trusst you to protect me, if you can not trusst me enough to be honesst."

"I am Shorrusshumm, I am a sspellsscale and a ssoldier. Ass long ass any man who walks bessidess me breathess, I will be nexst to him fighting. I exsspect no lesss of any of you."

[Rathgar]

Lege

"Shorrusshumm, show some respect to the others on this quest. You've managed to be so harsh that you caused something to happen that I've never seen before: you hurt a dwarf emotionally. Now go apologize to her. We are at a very crucial point in the life of our unit. If we cannot trust each other from the beginning, we'll have even more trouble doing so in the future. If you don't go apologize, it might be wise for us to start considering booting you from the group. In these times, we have no time for bickering." Lege begins to doubt that Shorrusshumm is in the party for the right reasons, but rather is possibly attempting to undermine the group's efforts. To help him decide the reptilian man's loyalties, Lege uses Detect Chaos in Shorrusshumm's general direction.

[Fixer]

Marali was probably in earshot for part of Shorrusshumm's statement, but by the end she was long gone. She never turned to listen and walks off to the edge of the village, quite a good distance away.

OOC: Marali won't know anything that's said at this distance. She will sit there and think for a while, maybe an hour, before going back to the Black Dragon Inn. She is seriously reconsidering hanging with this group after what has happened.

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

ooc - shush is LG

"I have no interesst in apologizsing to the dwarf, she acted rudely and became upsset when i ressponded in kind. We are wassting time with this argument, I think the current evensts are more important than her bruissed emotionss."

Shorrusshumm surveys the destruction around them.

"My role on the battlefield wass alwayss that of artilery," Shorrusshumm says, "I am not a planner and I am at a losss of what our nexst move iss."

[Rathgar]

Lege

Though mildly reassured by the findings of his Detect Magic, Lege continued to chew out Shorrusshumm. "I just said what our next move is. You, no, we shall go and talk to Mirali and offer her an apology. She's a perfectly fine team member and, like it or not, she's the one amongst us that knows the most about the current situation. Let us not waste any time, I don't want her to run off, especially since she'll be alone in such dangerous times."

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

"There iss a creature, a demon on the loosse, a town desstroyed like thiss and you want to sspend time trying to cheer up a dwarf throwing a temper tantrum. Go ahead, but keep in mind that if she actss thiss rude and getss upsset at being called on it on the firsst day in the field, you will only be encouraging the behavior by giving in to it."

Shorrusshumm starts to walk towards one of the burned out buildings.

"I am ssure that why you sspend time conssoling her, no more innocsentss will die. I bet the demon is taking a nap right now in fact. We have a job to do, while you wasste your time, I will be doing it. I will ssee if I can find anything elsse while you are with her, though that iss not where I am sskilled, I would rather do ssomething than sspend more time doing nothing and letting that creature sstay loosse upon thiss land."

Shorrusshumm walks off and begins looking through the rubble, clearly without any skill at searching or finding clues.

[Rathgar]

Lege

Lege was starting to get quite enough of Shorrusshumm's attitude and lack of willingess to cooperate. "No, YOU must talk to her, for YOU are the one who wronged her! It is written that one must try and make amends for those that they wrong! I'm not even asking much of you! I know that what she said wasn't the nicest thing, and she needs to apologize as well, but two wrongs do not make a right! If you do not come with us now, I'm afraid we might be forced to abandon you! I give you one minute to come to your senses, or we're leaving without you! We don't need anybody disrupting our unit's moral and unity!"

Lege turned to the party. "Everybody, start looking for Marali. I don't want her to run off, she is one of our top team members, and we are likely lost without her skill and intelligence."

[DJDeMiko]

Shorrusshumm

"Leave? Ass far ass I can tell, I am the only one who caress about thiss misssion. You would rather chasse after ssomeone throwing a tantrum than do your job. Have you no code? Have you no caress for the people who died and the demon that we must catch?"

"I would almosst rather you leave. If she iss goign to be rude, do you not ssee that thiss will continue? Every sstep you take, she will be rude to you and offended if you quesstion it. You are ssetting yoursself up for failuress and delayss."

[Rathgar]

Lege

"We aren't wasting time by attempting to maintain group integrity. We are awaiting the return of Valnorath, as you may recall. But if you don't want to work with us, we are probably better off without you.

Lege turned from Shorrusshumm and pointed towards the city. "We have no time to spare! We must go off in search of Marali now! We shall return to this location at sundown, hopefully with Marali! I don't know how I'll make it without her." With that, Lege walked off into the city to begin the (second) search for Marali.

As he walked down the now desolate streets of this town, he thought of how it used to be a very bustling town, bustling with excitement, with the business of both the merchants and the priesthood, but, most importantly, bustling with the things that allow a child's imagination to run wild. Thinking of how he had lost all of that, Lege couldn't stand to think of losing Marali, too. "Marali! Marali! Where are you?! We need you to come back! Lege continued to shout until his throat began to grow raw, hoping that he could find her.

[Fixer]

OOC: Unless dresdor has some reason it should happen otherwise, Lege would find Marali and she'd relate to him everything I typed in the OOC thread. She would also tell him some things that I will send to Rathgar in a PM that dresdor told her. Marali trusts Lege to not want to cause undo harm.

[Rathgar]

Lege

When he found Marali, Lege's mood changed from distraught to joyful. "There you are, Marali! I thought you'd gone and left us for good. I don't know what we'd do without you. you know more than we do, and you're probably the most skilled amongst us. Please, come back with me to join up with the remainder of the unit. You might be glad to hear that Shorrusshumm will likely no longer be a part of it."

[Fixer]

Lege

When he found Marali, Lege's mood changed from distraught to joyful. "There you are, Marali! I thought you'd gone and left us for good. I don't know what we'd do without you. you know more than we do, and you're probably the most skilled amongst us. Please, come back with me to join up with the remainder of the unit. You might be glad to hear that Shorrusshumm will likely no longer be a part of it."

OOC: Marali's responses were done in PM with dresdor CC'd into it.

[Sir Shadow]

Jaggers

The situation was becoming quite disastrous. It appeared that this "warmage" was incapable of tact, though Jaggers would assume that in his years of military service, the spellscale should have picked up on how to deal with peers. Then again, being a spellscale, Shorrusshumm probably never thought himself as a "peer" with anyone.

So, while maintaining an air of indifference and squelching any sighs he felt coming on, he assisted Lege in locating their run-away dwarf companion.

"Marali! Shorrusshumm can't help acting like an idiot! He's a spellscale! They're a haughty race that thinks they're better than everyone else! Not to mention, being in military service couldn't have helped his humility. I'm surprised he doesn't buckle under the weight of his own ego! He probably thinks of us as some sort of peasantry or common folk!" The kobold didn't quite feel the need to mention that he, personally, would feel much better if the spellscale was left to scrounge around in the dust.

( OOC: Desdor, you can roll a diplomacy check for me if you want, to see if maybe Jaggers can lighten marali's mood. btw, yes, Jaggers is racist <__< )