Post by Learned Hand on Feb 21, 2008 20:58:19 GMT
The quest continues with our heroes approaching Chiaroscuro. Eight Curses, who has just remembered that he grew up there, fills the group in on some of the city’s history. Once a great metropolis, Chiaroscuro’s fortunes suffered during the usurpation and the contagion. For decades bandits fought among the ruins until the Delzahn, steered by the first age lunar Tamuz and his young protégé, took control. Now Chiaroscuro is regaining some of its former glory, and is a trade hub of the south. As long as you don’t interfere with trade, Chiaroscuro will welcome you with open arms.
The pack is searching for Ragara Viridian, Soras’ lieutenant in the city. It turns out that Silver Claws had been infiltrating the same Yozi-cult as Soras, and had inadvertently targeted Soras himself as a potential leader of the cult. Once this misunderstanding was cleared up, the two became partners in the battle against the Yozis. The last Soras heard of him, he had successfully broken into the inner circle.
Upon entering the city, the group witness a child being kidnapped by some robed bandits in broad daylight. Eight Curses is not the caring type but he does love a rumble and so decides to clothesline the lead-kidnapper as he runs past, deftly catching the falling baby. However, after seeing his boomerang curve harmlessly past the rest, and seeing his punches rebound off 4 buff jackets it looks like these mortals may put up more than a fight than he anticipated. Steeped in Moonlight fares little better as she tries to hypnotise her foes, but fortunately Crimson Voice, in his trusty buxom-wench-form effortlessly dispatches two of the villains, sending the other two running for their lives, thus earning a smattering of applause from the assembled crowds.
Whilst Steeped in Moonlight steals the kidnapper’s flamepieces, and anything else that catches her eyes, the locals explain to Curses and Voice that robed figures have been stealing children for months, gradually becoming bolder and bolder. Anybody who interferes is swiftly dispatched, and the city lives in fear. It is at this point that Steeped in Moonlight, looking underneath the robes for ‘clues’ notices the cultists are covered in old realm script, albeit script that makes little sense. The learned Steeped in Moonlight, seeing no link between this random encounter with members of a large group of robed figures, covered in old realm script, taking children off the street, and the Yozi-cult they need to track down, promises to return to help after they have taken care of business elsewhere.
And so the lunars hole up in a tavern and send for Ragara Viridian. Viridian, who is suspicious of lunars who randomly murder village-people, nevertheless shares his intelligence, what little of it there is. It turns out that, however unlikely the coincidence, there *is* a link between their random encounter with members of a large group of robed figures, covered in old realm script, taking children off the street, and the Yozi-cult they need to track down.
The ever-cunning Crimson Voice hatches a plan. He shall find and devour a small, innocent child, steal its shape, and then wait until he’s kidnapped. Eight Curses likes the sound of this, but Moonlight and Viridian think that there are some minor ethical problems. A compromise is reached. The lunars shall stalk the streets in animal form, until they spot a kidnapping. They shall then simply follow the kidnappers to their base.
The plan succeeds, and leads our heroes to The Thirsty Camel, a tavern in the nasty part of town. Moonlight’s super-hearing confirms that the child has been taken underground via a door in the tavern.
It’s time for infiltration.
Voice scopes the place out by posing as a barfly (literally), and, deciding there is no imminent danger, saunters in using his trusty buxom-wench form. Eight Curses follows as his faithful hound, and Moonlight simply uses her human form. Whilst Voice gives into his strange compulsion to play cards with gropey drunkards, Moonlight sneaks into the cellar. Careful investigation reveals a secret door that is so secret that even the owners of the tavern don’t know about it.
However, things above ground are not going so well. The perennially unobservant Voice fails to notice the men sneaking up behind him. He also fails to notice the first two blows to his head. Fortunately, the warrior Eight Curses is on hand, and will no doubt spring to his rescue. Unfortunately, the last thing Voice sees as he falls to the ground amidst a crowd of people, consciousness rapidly fading, is Eight Curses taking advantage of the handy distraction to join Moonlight downstairs.
The two conscious lunars use the secret passage to follow the cultists and Voice’s body, all of whom have gone down the non-secret stairs which were behind the non-secret door in the tavern. Moonlight hears Voice being locked up behind a door and the group returning upstairs, but Curses and Moonlight hold back. Presumably there may be danger ahead and they should see what happens to Voice before committing themselves.
Voice, in fact, is coming to, and finds himself in what is handily signposted as The Maze of Doom. There are passages leading away from his location, some small children, and a door behind him, through which he can hear the voices of Two Inept Guards. After some artful reasoning, and judicious use of charms, Voice not only persuades the guards to let him out, but also that their cult is evil. Suddenly realising what the error of their ways, Ronald and Donald immediately set about coaxing the children back out of the maze. Indeed, Donald, after revealing that he has always loved Ronald, charges headlong into the maze to rescue the children who have already walked into it.
Hearing that they no longer have to defeat two mortals to rescue their ally, the other two lunars join Voice, Ronald, and the children. They mull over the idea of facing The Maze of Doom but decide that ‘for the sake of the children’ it will be better if they go back outside. The decision has nothing to do with the fact that Moonlight can clearly hear the death-croak of Donald. Now all the lunars have to do is fight their way through the 4 dozen or so cultists upstairs. Easy.
Moonlight casts Invulnerable Skin of Bronze on herself. She will leave the cellar first and Obsidian Butterly a path to the door. Curses will follow, and take care of anybody left standing. Voice, still groggy from that time Curses decided letting him get knocked out was a good way to generate a distraction will hang back with Ronald (who now has a crush on what appears to be a buxom wench) to look after the kids.
Moonlight’s opening volley -perfectly timed to match the crescendo of the cultist’s jaunty, yet evil, sea shanty- is devastating. An explosion of black glass erupts into the bar, ripping the flesh away from 20 skeletons and leaving splintered wood, liquor, and glass everywhere. One second later, just as the two cultists behind Moonlight are about to thank the gods they were behind Moonlight, Curses flies from the cellar as if fired from a cannon, and cleaves them both into two. Before anybody else can react, Moonlight has fired one of her pilfered flamepieces into the pool of highly alcoholic beverages behind the bar, and started a fire.
The first attempts of the cultists to fight back are feeble. The flamepiece shots, arrows, knives, bottles and shoe that come flying across the side of the bar where people are still alive bounce harmlessly off Moonlight’s bronze body, and are not accurate enough to trouble Curses, who escapes with a couple of minor grazes, which, nonetheless, seem to enrage him. In a fury, Curses jumps through the fire, ignoring that smell of singing flesh, and dispatches two more of the cultists.
In the meantime, the fire is rapidly spreading. Crimson Voice, worried for the children, quickly instructs them about how to stay safe. They have to carry a barrel of beer up to the bar. He will turn into an elephant, suck up the beer, and then spray it out to quench the flames. Nothing can go wrong with a plan this simple. Unfortunately, two cultists on the balcony, overlooked by Curses, panic when an elephant appears in the bar, and toss their swords at it. One sticks in Voice’s hind leg by sheer chance, and the shock causes him to swallow all of the beer. Already only barely conscious, the beer goes straight to Voice’s head and he passes out. Fortunately, his body provides ample cover for the children.
By now, the alcohol fuelled fire is turning into an inferno. Curses is surrounded, and not even he can defend against 5 simultaneous attacks and swords slash through his scales. Moonlight moves to help, but the burning floor cannot support her weight, and she falls through it, holding herself up through sheer willpower. Curses sends 3 more cultists to the underworld, but 3 more take their places, and he still can’t avoid 5 flashing swords. Ronald has left the kids to try to open a window that might let them escape, but by the time he turns around a beam of burning wood has blocked his only path out. And is that smell... burning elephant?
Things look dire, but Moonlight is not out. She flings herself out of her hole, and unleashes another round of Obsidian Butterflies, clearing out the cultists who were waiting for a turn to get a pop at Curses. Now, when he kills another three there are no more to replace them, and the last two drop easily. Ronald jumps through the fire, promoting himself to heroic mortal in the process, and summons up enough strength to break the weakened wall next to Voice. Now it’s simply a matter of Eight Curses using a strength excellency to haul Voice’s elephantine form out of the hole. Victory seems to have been stolen from the jaws of defeat, but what next? Crimson Voice is still incapacitated, although now that the children are stamping out the tiny fires on his ears and trunk he’s stable. Eight Curses can barely stand, and lies exhausted on top of his friend, whilst Steeped in Moonlight is amusingly unscathed, but only has one mote of essence left.
Enter Ragara Viridian; an unlikely but hugely convenient saviour. He has his men block off the ally and happily commandeers the building opposite the alley. He offers the lunars as much time as they need to rest, and recuperate. As our heroes nurse their wounds they will have time to reflect, and to plan their next move. They have surely damaged the cult, exposed its base, and rescued the children. On the other hand they seem no closer to finding Silver Claws than they were before.
The pack is searching for Ragara Viridian, Soras’ lieutenant in the city. It turns out that Silver Claws had been infiltrating the same Yozi-cult as Soras, and had inadvertently targeted Soras himself as a potential leader of the cult. Once this misunderstanding was cleared up, the two became partners in the battle against the Yozis. The last Soras heard of him, he had successfully broken into the inner circle.
Upon entering the city, the group witness a child being kidnapped by some robed bandits in broad daylight. Eight Curses is not the caring type but he does love a rumble and so decides to clothesline the lead-kidnapper as he runs past, deftly catching the falling baby. However, after seeing his boomerang curve harmlessly past the rest, and seeing his punches rebound off 4 buff jackets it looks like these mortals may put up more than a fight than he anticipated. Steeped in Moonlight fares little better as she tries to hypnotise her foes, but fortunately Crimson Voice, in his trusty buxom-wench-form effortlessly dispatches two of the villains, sending the other two running for their lives, thus earning a smattering of applause from the assembled crowds.
Whilst Steeped in Moonlight steals the kidnapper’s flamepieces, and anything else that catches her eyes, the locals explain to Curses and Voice that robed figures have been stealing children for months, gradually becoming bolder and bolder. Anybody who interferes is swiftly dispatched, and the city lives in fear. It is at this point that Steeped in Moonlight, looking underneath the robes for ‘clues’ notices the cultists are covered in old realm script, albeit script that makes little sense. The learned Steeped in Moonlight, seeing no link between this random encounter with members of a large group of robed figures, covered in old realm script, taking children off the street, and the Yozi-cult they need to track down, promises to return to help after they have taken care of business elsewhere.
And so the lunars hole up in a tavern and send for Ragara Viridian. Viridian, who is suspicious of lunars who randomly murder village-people, nevertheless shares his intelligence, what little of it there is. It turns out that, however unlikely the coincidence, there *is* a link between their random encounter with members of a large group of robed figures, covered in old realm script, taking children off the street, and the Yozi-cult they need to track down.
The ever-cunning Crimson Voice hatches a plan. He shall find and devour a small, innocent child, steal its shape, and then wait until he’s kidnapped. Eight Curses likes the sound of this, but Moonlight and Viridian think that there are some minor ethical problems. A compromise is reached. The lunars shall stalk the streets in animal form, until they spot a kidnapping. They shall then simply follow the kidnappers to their base.
The plan succeeds, and leads our heroes to The Thirsty Camel, a tavern in the nasty part of town. Moonlight’s super-hearing confirms that the child has been taken underground via a door in the tavern.
It’s time for infiltration.
Voice scopes the place out by posing as a barfly (literally), and, deciding there is no imminent danger, saunters in using his trusty buxom-wench form. Eight Curses follows as his faithful hound, and Moonlight simply uses her human form. Whilst Voice gives into his strange compulsion to play cards with gropey drunkards, Moonlight sneaks into the cellar. Careful investigation reveals a secret door that is so secret that even the owners of the tavern don’t know about it.
However, things above ground are not going so well. The perennially unobservant Voice fails to notice the men sneaking up behind him. He also fails to notice the first two blows to his head. Fortunately, the warrior Eight Curses is on hand, and will no doubt spring to his rescue. Unfortunately, the last thing Voice sees as he falls to the ground amidst a crowd of people, consciousness rapidly fading, is Eight Curses taking advantage of the handy distraction to join Moonlight downstairs.
The two conscious lunars use the secret passage to follow the cultists and Voice’s body, all of whom have gone down the non-secret stairs which were behind the non-secret door in the tavern. Moonlight hears Voice being locked up behind a door and the group returning upstairs, but Curses and Moonlight hold back. Presumably there may be danger ahead and they should see what happens to Voice before committing themselves.
Voice, in fact, is coming to, and finds himself in what is handily signposted as The Maze of Doom. There are passages leading away from his location, some small children, and a door behind him, through which he can hear the voices of Two Inept Guards. After some artful reasoning, and judicious use of charms, Voice not only persuades the guards to let him out, but also that their cult is evil. Suddenly realising what the error of their ways, Ronald and Donald immediately set about coaxing the children back out of the maze. Indeed, Donald, after revealing that he has always loved Ronald, charges headlong into the maze to rescue the children who have already walked into it.
Hearing that they no longer have to defeat two mortals to rescue their ally, the other two lunars join Voice, Ronald, and the children. They mull over the idea of facing The Maze of Doom but decide that ‘for the sake of the children’ it will be better if they go back outside. The decision has nothing to do with the fact that Moonlight can clearly hear the death-croak of Donald. Now all the lunars have to do is fight their way through the 4 dozen or so cultists upstairs. Easy.
Moonlight casts Invulnerable Skin of Bronze on herself. She will leave the cellar first and Obsidian Butterly a path to the door. Curses will follow, and take care of anybody left standing. Voice, still groggy from that time Curses decided letting him get knocked out was a good way to generate a distraction will hang back with Ronald (who now has a crush on what appears to be a buxom wench) to look after the kids.
Moonlight’s opening volley -perfectly timed to match the crescendo of the cultist’s jaunty, yet evil, sea shanty- is devastating. An explosion of black glass erupts into the bar, ripping the flesh away from 20 skeletons and leaving splintered wood, liquor, and glass everywhere. One second later, just as the two cultists behind Moonlight are about to thank the gods they were behind Moonlight, Curses flies from the cellar as if fired from a cannon, and cleaves them both into two. Before anybody else can react, Moonlight has fired one of her pilfered flamepieces into the pool of highly alcoholic beverages behind the bar, and started a fire.
The first attempts of the cultists to fight back are feeble. The flamepiece shots, arrows, knives, bottles and shoe that come flying across the side of the bar where people are still alive bounce harmlessly off Moonlight’s bronze body, and are not accurate enough to trouble Curses, who escapes with a couple of minor grazes, which, nonetheless, seem to enrage him. In a fury, Curses jumps through the fire, ignoring that smell of singing flesh, and dispatches two more of the cultists.
In the meantime, the fire is rapidly spreading. Crimson Voice, worried for the children, quickly instructs them about how to stay safe. They have to carry a barrel of beer up to the bar. He will turn into an elephant, suck up the beer, and then spray it out to quench the flames. Nothing can go wrong with a plan this simple. Unfortunately, two cultists on the balcony, overlooked by Curses, panic when an elephant appears in the bar, and toss their swords at it. One sticks in Voice’s hind leg by sheer chance, and the shock causes him to swallow all of the beer. Already only barely conscious, the beer goes straight to Voice’s head and he passes out. Fortunately, his body provides ample cover for the children.
By now, the alcohol fuelled fire is turning into an inferno. Curses is surrounded, and not even he can defend against 5 simultaneous attacks and swords slash through his scales. Moonlight moves to help, but the burning floor cannot support her weight, and she falls through it, holding herself up through sheer willpower. Curses sends 3 more cultists to the underworld, but 3 more take their places, and he still can’t avoid 5 flashing swords. Ronald has left the kids to try to open a window that might let them escape, but by the time he turns around a beam of burning wood has blocked his only path out. And is that smell... burning elephant?
Things look dire, but Moonlight is not out. She flings herself out of her hole, and unleashes another round of Obsidian Butterflies, clearing out the cultists who were waiting for a turn to get a pop at Curses. Now, when he kills another three there are no more to replace them, and the last two drop easily. Ronald jumps through the fire, promoting himself to heroic mortal in the process, and summons up enough strength to break the weakened wall next to Voice. Now it’s simply a matter of Eight Curses using a strength excellency to haul Voice’s elephantine form out of the hole. Victory seems to have been stolen from the jaws of defeat, but what next? Crimson Voice is still incapacitated, although now that the children are stamping out the tiny fires on his ears and trunk he’s stable. Eight Curses can barely stand, and lies exhausted on top of his friend, whilst Steeped in Moonlight is amusingly unscathed, but only has one mote of essence left.
Enter Ragara Viridian; an unlikely but hugely convenient saviour. He has his men block off the ally and happily commandeers the building opposite the alley. He offers the lunars as much time as they need to rest, and recuperate. As our heroes nurse their wounds they will have time to reflect, and to plan their next move. They have surely damaged the cult, exposed its base, and rescued the children. On the other hand they seem no closer to finding Silver Claws than they were before.
