Another Roadside Distraction

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The member 'Atlatl Jones' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 6, 12

Posts : 799 Join date : 2008-08-21

Vox mutters a curse. "Had to be the nice one, had to offer them a chance, no, never think about what that thing might have done to them.... Jackass."

(OOC: Religion: 22.)

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The member 'Rolzup' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 12

Posts : 1428 Join date : 2008-08-22

gridley wrote:: Roxy watches very closely, listening carefully to what he says to her.

Perception: 15 (rolled a 1!)

Roxy strains to hear the words Amos whispers to his wife but she can't make them out over the funereal song that's everywhere here.

"Ohhh... that's.... wonderful!" exclaims the widow Magda. "Is it..." her voice trails off in joyous weeping. In lieu of speaking more she joins the dance of the dead. Which is rather like a jig performed by cheerful epileptics.

Posts : 1428 Join date : 2008-08-22

Atlatl Jones wrote:: "'Top that?' 'Top that?!'" Gepetto Jack says with incredulity. "This isn't a game, Mr. Barnum. People's lives are at stake here!"

OOC: Barnum didn't actually say 'top that' out loud. His little smirk was meant to convey that.

Quote :: Even now, you only talk about money, talking about the 'value' of your unholy relics, and trying to buy these people's loyalties for 10 gold pieces a head!"

"I also mentioned bringing their dead loved ones back to life" says Barnum. "Can you do the same?" Barnum points to a boy at the back of the crowd. "Josephus, go to my house and fetch my ritual book. It's in my study. The door's unlocked."

Quote :: 10 gold per person is a lot of money.

"Make it 20 gold, then. "

Quote :: What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid these grieving people won't be able to buy bread with talk. Which is all I hear you offering them."

Quote :: "They make you too much gold, so you kept them, consequences be damned!"

"We'll be safe as soon you are thrown out of town".

OOC: Barnum got a 30 on his Diplomacy check, so he's just barely got the crowd on his side. However, if he successfully raises even one of the dead towns folk... then again, he'll have to get lucky and pick the dead farmer with the 'special destiny' as per the 4e rules.

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The member 'Mallus' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 13

Posts : 1428 Join date : 2008-08-22

Rolzup wrote:: Vox mutters a curse. "Had to be the nice one, had to offer them a chance, no, never think about what that thing might have done to them.... Jackass."

(OOC: Religion: 22.)

The bones and the cherub both represent power from the Interior. It's frequently permanent stuff and deals with essential nature(s).

Vox has never heard of a case where a dead soul was in effect contaminated by contact with an Interior entity. If that's what happened here, it represents an enormous danger. But he's not sure exactly what's going on.

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OOC: John, make another Religion check for Vox. There's something else not quite right about the Other Side here...

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OOC: Oh, how the dice hate us today! Religion: 11. Maybe I shoulda rolled for Dexter as well....

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The member 'Rolzup' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 1

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Rolzup wrote:: OOC: Oh, how the dice hate us today! Religion: 11. Maybe I shoulda rolled for Dexter as well....

Vox can't quite shake the feeling something else is amiss as he watches the widow Magdalena caper and dance with recently departed.

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OOC: Does Christabel notice anything amiss here? She can take 10 for a 25 in Perception and a 24 in Religion.

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shilsen wrote:: OOC: Does Christabel notice anything amiss here? She can take 10 for a 25 in Perception and a 24 in Religion.

Christabel gets the same hard-to-explain-to-mortals feeling when she looks to the verdant and faintly radiant hilltop in the distance as she does from the god bones in the barn. A vibration/scent/shade/tenor of the Interior.

It's an Emanation of home. One expects that from bones of the God of the Plateau, but not from random hilltops in the Clutch.

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"I have a bad feeling about this," Vox mutters, edging closer to Christabel, "So be ready. Try not to kill anyone, should it come down to conflict. As it is, Dexter's going to be working for hours on the paperwork tonight."

The hand perched upon his shoulder slumps a little.

Posts : 1078 Join date : 2008-08-21

Rolzup wrote:: "I have a bad feeling about this," Vox mutters, edging closer to Christabel, "So be ready. Try not to kill anyone, should it come down to conflict. As it is, Dexter's going to be working for hours on the paperwork tonight."

The hand perched upon his shoulder slumps a little.

Christabel grunts. "I'll try, but somehow, ever since I met you bunch, that's not an option I usually seem to have."

She points a stubby finger at the hilltop in the distance. "What do you make of that? It reeks of the Interior, and we are way too far away from it for that to be happening. Especially in that volume." She frowns and then glances around for Roxy. "Hey, Roxy! Is Vine that way?"

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Meanwhile...

Confused, angry, and hopeful mutterings all compete for space in the crowd gathered in the barn. The boy Josephus returns with Barnum ritual book. Barnum accepts it with a medium-weight sigh, tips the boy a silver piece, and opens it both showily and slowly. A few eyebrows raise at the books ominous Goetic appearance, bound in black leather and covered in blood-red symbols. He reads for a minute or two, then walks over to the pile of bones, selects a slender specimen the size of a sapling's branch.

Gepetto catches Barnum muttering a quick prayer to Chax, demon patron of artists and horse thieves, who is sometimes venerated by those looking to 'steal fortune'.

Then he kneels before one of the corpses and intones the words of the spell. About the minutes later the bone in his hand turns to ash in a flash of light.

The corpse remains dead.

"Damn it!" exclaims Barnum. "No good destiny-less mother..."

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The member 'Mallus' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 4, 14

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shilsen wrote:: "Hey, Roxy! Is Vine that way?"

OOC: yes.

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Vox grimaces. "Nothing good," he says morosely to Christabel. "That's inevitable. Might explain a few things about those grapes we're looking for, though."

"SO!" he says loudly, stepping forward. "All our farewells have been said, yes? We should really return to the land of the living, friends."

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Rolzup wrote:: "All our farewells have been said, yes? We should really return to the land of the living, friends."

Amos's wife Magda shows no interest in returning to the living world.

Posts : 1428 Join date : 2008-08-22

Meanwhile...

Barnum attempts to soothe the crowd while hastily selecting another, slightly bigger bone for the next ritual. This time the Tiefling's words are not nearly as persuasive and cries of "the stranger's right!" begin to circulate. Perhaps flustered by the room's changing mood, Barnum's ritual vaporizes another holy bone, to no avail. The dead farmer remains dead.

"Fucking serf" hisses Barnum. "Born to die, eh, you shit-covered peon bas... " At this point he realizes he's speaking Clutch common and not his native Infernal.

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The member 'Mallus' has done the following action : Dice Roller

#1 'd20' : 5

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#2 'd20' : 10, 8

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Mallus wrote:: Amos's wife Magda shows no interest in returning to the living world.

Vox steps forward and lightly lays a hand upon her arm. One of the attached ones; Dexter is still perched 'pon his shoulder.

"We need to go," he says quietly but firmly. "This is not a safe place for the living to spend time; there are things that would very much enjoy devouring you. Remember, this is not the end. You will see him again, in time."