Post-Pitir Progression

"Maybe we should let him go." Penelope shrugs, considering her words carefully. "He's no better than that dark creeper - pathetic. There's no justice in this, especially if he didn't kill L." She pauses, looking at Hans. "Unless you want death. You don't seem to have anything left."

"I'm not opposed to letting him go," says Odanais, "but I would like to see what Vox's little ritual reveals before we do anything rash."

Penelope wrote:

"Maybe we should let him go." Penelope shrugs, considering her words carefully. "He's no better than that dark creeper - pathetic. There's no justice in this, especially if he didn't kill L." She pauses, looking at Hans. "Unless you want death. You don't seem to have anything left."

Hans begins to frown at the word 'pathetic', but then there's a dim glimmer of hope in his eyes at Penelope's subsequent words. Clearly picking his words carefully, he says, "No. I do not want death. And you're right - I have nothing left. My followers, my lair and my reputation are all gone. I have no reason to stay in the Port. If you free me, I'll leave here immediately and never return. Ever."

He does seem to be telling the truth.

gridley wrote:

"I'm not opposed to letting him go," says Odanais, "but I would like to see what Vox's little ritual reveals before we do anything rash."

OOC: John, is Vox going to do the ritual now (or as soon as he gets whatever he needs to)?

shilsen wrote:

If you free me, I'll leave here immediately and never return. Ever."

He does seem to be telling the truth.

"Let us rejoice, then!" says Yatagan happily. "Handsome Hans Pitir has survived the absolution by fire and is this day reborn. His old life has been cast aside --well, torn asunder is more like it-- and he's been freed from spiritual bondage. He can start his life anew... as soon as we get him out of that barrel."

As Yatagan begins working to free Pitir from the chain-draped barrel he adds, in his sermonizing voice, "Now go forth and sin no more, my child. At least around here."

"Wait, does this mean we're not going to stap explosives to him and blow him up during the play?" says Heyoka.

He thinks about it for a minute. "Okay, if he didn't kill El, we don't need to kill him." Turning to Hans he says, "But first promise that you're not going to seek vengeance against us for murdering all your friends, okay? No harm, no foul."

Vox shrugs. "Death is hardly something to fear," he complains as he vanishes the knife. "A transition, and nothing more. But if you want to keep on living, Hans, who am I to gainsay that?

"For answers, I'll need L's corpse and about half an hour. Hopefully it's intact enough for this to work...."

He uses the wine cellar. It's used to death and suffering; that helps.

It takes ten minutes for all of the preparations: drawing a pair of chalk circles around the body, inscribing several intricate runes in the space between them, mixing precise amounts of materials into a handy pewter goblet, and setting the mixture aflame.

Smoke gathers and spills out of the goblet, forming a tendril that creeps with slow deliberation towards the body. It enters L's nose, and the corpse seems almost to shudder and take a breath at the moment of contact.

Vox mutters something and raises a hand. L's body shudders again, and coughs, smoke now issuing forth from its mouth. Vox takes a deep breath, and the streamer of smoke arrows directly at him as he inhales....

(OOC: Religion Check: 19)

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

'd20' : 10

Mallus wrote:

As Yatagan begins working to free Pitir from the chain-draped barrel he adds, in his sermonizing voice, "Now go forth and sin no more, my child. At least around here."

Hans' gaze darts back and forth from Yatagan to the others as the dragonborn begins to free him. He looks like he's half expecting a particularly cruel joke, maybe Penelope yelling "We were kidding - surprise!" as she shoots him in the face. When that doesn't transpire and he is finally free, he carefully rises to his feet. And...

Heyoka wrote:

"Wait, does this mean we're not going to stap explosives to him and blow him up during the play?" says Heyoka.

... then his face falls, as he realizes (or thinks he does) what the fiendish plan is.

Quote :

He thinks about it for a minute. "Okay, if he didn't kill El, we don't need to kill him." Turning to Hans he says, "But first promise that you're not going to seek vengeance against us for murdering all your friends, okay? No harm, no foul."

Again, a look of hope flashes across Hans' face. "Sure," he says, with what seems to be uttermost sincerity. "Really - I have no intention of coming anywhere near any of you again. You ... you're ... well, best of luck to you. If you don't have a god looking out for you, something is, and I don't want to know what." He looks around hopefully. "Can I go now?"

Rolzup wrote:

"For answers, I'll need L's corpse and about half an hour. Hopefully it's intact enough for this to work...."

He uses the wine cellar. It's used to death and suffering; that helps.

It takes ten minutes for all of the preparations: drawing a pair of chalk circles around the body, inscribing several intricate runes in the space between them, mixing precise amounts of materials into a handy pewter goblet, and setting the mixture aflame.

Smoke gathers and spills out of the goblet, forming a tendril that creeps with slow deliberation towards the body. It enters L's nose, and the corpse seems almost to shudder and take a breath at the moment of contact.

Vox mutters something and raises a hand. L's body shudders again, and coughs, smoke now issuing forth from its mouth. Vox takes a deep breath, and the streamer of smoke arrows directly at him as he inhales....

(OOC: Religion Check: 19)

OOC: Man, that's a nice description. I'll have the results up a little later.

Rolzup wrote:

Vox mutters something and raises a hand. L's body shudders again, and coughs, smoke now issuing forth from its mouth. Vox takes a deep breath, and the streamer of smoke arrows directly at him as he inhales....

Those around Vox see the streamer of smoke settle around his eyes and hover there. For the shadar-kai himself, it is as if a gray pall had settled around his vision. For an instant, and then it swiftly passes and he sees - or more precisely, sees through eyes which he recognizes as L's. And not just sees but hears, smells and feels. Everything that L senses, from the sense of heavy armor around his limbs to the faint sound of a dog barking in the distance, is instantly available to Vox. Except for his thoughts or control over his actions, though Vox can see and feel their results.

L, his vision indicates, is in the mouth of a dark alley somewhere, facing a hooded figure of approximately the same height and size, who lunges at him with a knife. The priest, who has already been engaged for at least a few seconds, going by the rasp of air in his lungs, blocks the attack with his shield and raises his axe, but the blow was a feint. Vox feels the tearing of flesh as a second knife rips into the inside of his wrist. The axe falls from suddenly nerveless fingers and the assailant is on L, stabbing viciously with both blades. L staggers back , opening his mouth to scream, and then the last thing Vox feels is a blade sliding in through his beard under his chin.

As L's vision begins to fade, Vox sees one last thing, the lower half of the killer's face, now wearing a pleased smile. He can't see enough to identify the murderer, but one thing is clear - he's a dwarf and he's not Hans Pitir.

A second later, Vox's vision returns to normal, leaving him with some information as well as a mild pain in his wrist and his throat.

shilsen wrote:

"If you don't have a god looking out for you..."

"We do" says Yatagan with a curt piety that deftly exposes a subtext of 'so don't fuck with us'.

Quote :

"Can I go now?"

"Yes. Go and sin no more." The Dragonborn paladin gives the recently, not to mention violently, disenfranchised dwarf a final once-over.

"Well, let's be realistic. Sin less."

___________________________

Later, after a surfeit of mercy and a little light necromancy, over pot roast, boiled cabbage, and a few surreptitiously swallowed live mice, Yatagan says to the gathered League, "So what's on the agenda for tomorrow? Find a venue, commission costumes and finally write the Treasure-damned play so we can begin rehearsals. Anything else? Is there someone we need to smite?"

"Whoever it was that so viciously killed L, I would assume," Vox snaps. "At least the poor bastard was dead before he was mutilated. You people knew him longer than I: did he have enemies? Kin, perhaps? Or have the rest of you mortally offended a dwarf lately? Other than Hans, I mean."

"When I was young, my family had a gardener that was a dwarf," says Odanais. "Or was he a stable hand? No, must have been a gardener. Dwarfs are too short to attend to horses, aren't they? Anyway, I doubt he would have murdered El. Not unless he thought El was a bottle of my father's gin..."

Mallus wrote:

"Yes. Go and sin no more." The Dragonborn paladin gives the recently, not to mention violently, disenfranchised dwarf a final once-over.

"Well, let's be realistic. Sin less."

"Thanks," says Hans. "You'll never see me again." The dwarf turns and heads for the door at a quick trot. His stride lengthens as he nears it and when he pushes through he's almost running. Through the gap between the swinging doors and the ground, those watching see Hans shrink and morph into a large dire rat as he emerges, which quickly leaps into a nearby sewer opening.

Quote :

Later, after a surfeit of mercy and a little light necromancy, over pot roast, boiled cabbage, and a few surreptitiously swallowed live mice, Yatagan says to the gathered League, "So what's on the agenda for tomorrow? Find a venue, commission costumes and finally write the Treasure-damned play so we can begin rehearsals. Anything else? Is there someone we need to smite?"

Rolzup wrote:

"Whoever it was that so viciously killed L, I would assume," Vox snaps. "At least the poor bastard was dead before he was mutilated. You people knew him longer than I: did he have enemies? Kin, perhaps? Or have the rest of you mortally offended a dwarf lately? Other than Hans, I mean."

Once Vox goes over the description of the vision he had, Asarlai chips in, "Only dwarf I ever knew who used two knives is Amadeus Perigee, the assassin. Well, butcher's more like it. Mean bastard. Saw him gut a man for singing near his table. He got hung on the Spindle for the fourth time a couple weeks ago. Not that it means anything, since he's been hung thrice before and showed up hale and hearty every time. Weird. Anyway, if he's back and it's him, maybe he was hired to off L?"

OOC: Nobody has any idea of whether L had any family, since he never mentioned any.

shilsen wrote:

Not that it means anything, since he's been hung thrice before and showed up hale and hearty every time.

"He sounds like a man both needing and capable of withstanding our kind of moral instruction" says Yatagan happily. "Bright is the day when the dark clouds of sin are burnt away by uncontrolled fires."

Quote :

Weird. Anyway, if he's back and it's him, maybe he was hired to off L?"

"He sounds... expensive. But we should investigate him anyway, and the dwarf that ran out on Pitir's gang. What was his name? Krap? Krup?"

Mallus wrote:

"He sounds... expensive. But we should investigate him anyway, and the dwarf that ran out on Pitir's gang. What was his name? Krap? Krup?"

"Perhaps we could put that on the docket for after the play is finished?" suggests Odanais. "Frankly, I'm more concerned with making too poor a showing at the theater and losing Treasure than I am with being murdered."

gridley wrote:

"Frankly, I'm more concerned with making too poor a showing at the theater and losing Treasure than I am with being murdered."

"Quite so, Mr. Dare!' exclaims Yatagan enthusiastically. "Once again your clarity of thought proves invaluable. Let us hire ourselves a stage. Preferably one that's fireproof. Just because we've freed Pitir doesn't mean our play can't end with a bang!"

"And en route we should discuss the issue of roles. Ms. Pindar shall have a shooting-but-not-speaking part. I'll, of course, play the part of the narrator under my nom du art Onan Ruckus. I feel you, Mr. Dare, should be central to events as you're the first convert to the Church of Treasure. Plus, you wish to be the target of ravishment by the uncloth-ed wraiths. Mayhaps good Heyoka will play bad Captain Jagoff. He's bestial enough of demeanor and bleeds quite dramatically."

OOC: Since we're now going to be focusing on what happens with preparing for the play (I'm presuming the actual performance will happen at the table), I'd like to propose a few things:

* I'm going to treat this as a very extended skill challenge, with a large number of tasks that the PCs will be undertaking (some suggested by me, some by the players) to bring the play to fruition. Some tasks can be achieved simply by saying you're doing it and devoting some time (and probably roleplaying) to it, and some will require dice rolls as well.

* To that end, we're going to stop tracking things on a day-by-day basis and instead move to the various tasks/aims that the PCs undertake. I'll come up with a ballpark number of days that each will take and if needed PCs can try to hurry them along via dice rolls and roleplaying.

* I'd like to make this a collaborative enterprise, so feel free to suggest various things as and when they occur to you. For example, one of the tasks is finding a decent place to put on the play. Feel free to invent a particular location and/or some NPC(s) you have to interact with there, and suggest them to me. Similarly, suggest tasks which may help your play or hinder Clagoff's.

How does that sound? And is there anything we need to add to the above or change?

Assuming the above sounds generally fine, here are a few tasks which you currently have on the table (some of which you've already begun) and a couple of possibilities:

* Find a suitable location (note: you have an anonymous list, probably from Lord Dandy, of likely locations)

* Write the play

* Choose a judge for the play from the PCs' side

* Propose a third judge & decide with Clagoff who it will be

* Hire actors & dancers besides the PCs (note: already begun by talking to Matitia, the Gilded Orchid)

* Hire musicians, stagehands, etc

* Obtain props, scenery or any other stage properties needed

* Advertise the play

* Find out about betting and odds once they have been established and then place bets

* Spy on Clagoff's preparations for his own play (note: you do know where they're being performed)

* Arrange security for the play

Any other tasks come to mind?

Also, you now have eight days until the play is due to be put on. No pressure!

shilsen wrote:

* Arrange security for the play

OOC: Why would our characters do that??

Quote :

Any other tasks come to mind?

Heyoka has to perfect the drug and alcohol cocktail we're going to sell during intermission.

And Penelope has to decide what she's going to shoot off of who....

Mallus wrote:

shilsen wrote:

* Arrange security for the play

OOC: Why would our characters do that??

Good point. You guys never would.

Quote :

Heyoka has to perfect the drug and alcohol cocktail we're going to sell during intermission.

*facepalm*

Added something to the list about stage properties, scenery, etc.

Feel free to post about who's arranging what next.

Both OOC and IC, Vox hasn't the slightest idea of how to contribute to this...production. He has a few magical effects that he can make use of, such as that Battlefield Elocution ritual, and if he obtains the Hallucinatory Item ritual he can use it to produce props and backdrops for the play.

Beyond that, though? He can use Streetwise to spread rumors about the play, I suppose, and about how Clagoff's production is actually a ritual designed to make the attendees impotent (all part of a dastardly plan to reduce the numbers of the working class and make them more easily controlled)....

gridley wrote:

And Penelope has to decide what she's going to shoot off of who....

She should definitely shoot something off of Yatagan. He's the group's designated martyr.

Rolzup wrote:

He can use Streetwise to spread rumors about the play, I suppose, and about how Clagoff's production is actually a ritual designed to make the attendees impotent (all part of a dastardly plan to reduce the numbers of the working class and make them more easily controlled)....

That's actually perfect. Our play begins with the rescue of Treasure on the docks during a labor protest (we may have to downplay the goblin angle by having the goblin mob portrayed by short white humans).

If we play this right we can add 'accidentally fomented socialist revolution' next to 'accidentally started new religion' in our list of party accomplishments.

Also, as a name for the play... The Porcine Comedy? Too classy?

OOC: I'm still fond of Porky and Bless'd.

Speaking of which, have we worked out how we're depicting Treasure? Should we hire a puppeteer to do a marionette boar?

The Passion of the Swine?