Scene 7b, closed: Show me the way to go home
In the street outside the restaurant, Moll moved close to Varien in the chill air. The darkness was disorienting, as always. There was never a sun over Sigil; it simply fluctuated between day and night according to its own rhythm, mostly predictably, but sometimes not.
Varian silently reflected on the wisdom and utility of getting a girl drunk on the first date.
As they walked back towards the gate back to the school, they continued their conversation from earlier, exchanging ideas for magical products and golemical strategies, but mostly planning their next date. Moll wanted to take him to her next match. They were both pleased at finding someone as unprincipled, mercenary, and mercantile as themselves.
Turning the corner from the Way of Knives into the Courtyard of Justice, they came upon a wrinkled Gith dressed in undyed leather robes, preaching at the top of his lungs. A small crowd had gathered to hear what he had to say.
"The Gods are parasites! They serve no lasting purpose but to manipulate us. Think on our past. Have the Gods ever done anything purely good for us? No, not even the most 'good' of them ever does anything but serves his own purposes. And those purposes, even when intended, supposedly, to bring greater good, always bring suffering. The Gods struggle and strive for position among themselves, and use us as tools, easily broken and easily replaced.
"And for all this we give them our worship and sacrifice. I say, no more. I say, let them serve themsleves, and let us do the same. The Gith have long survived without Gods. Now we will show you the way."
No one jeered, no one threw anything, but grumbling about impiety was widespread. "He'll bring this whole place down," a day laborer muttered. Gesturing with his rough hands he continued, louder, to those around him "The Lady keeps us from the Gods' warring, but if this attitude catches on, they'll all come down on us."
An apothecary nearby jumped in. "No worries there. He's been preaching this for at least a year. Calls himself the Prophet of the Empty Heavens, and the only followers he has so far are a few other Gith. He can say what he wants, but the Gods have been good to us, not here of course, but everywhere else."
10 comments:
Since you've only got 1 point in conjuration, you've only got a very small imp, which actually works out well for you in this case, and he's not going to be around long, probably no more than an hour. I'll assume, if you're determined to spy on him, that you resummon Xilvin every morning and every hour or so during the day until something happens. Or you could think of another way to do it, or try and get some help.
William isn't doing anything for another day or so, and after that, assuming he survives.
Whatever you do, it'll be a bit before you hear back on this.
"Well..." Varian says, wrapping his arm around Moll, "What should we do now? There are a couple of options. We can go back to school, and end the evening, or we can try to do something exciting before we head back. I think I heard something about a few escaped half-ogres, if you feel like a hunt, or we can just head see a play or something."
"Half-ogres? Wouldn't they be dangerous? Oh! But I have a transmuter friend who would absolutely love to get a hold of one of those. Where do you think they'll be? And how are we going to catch them?"
Well, there was a reward, but you could try to keep one or two and see if you can get a partial reward. And the idea of finding something of their's was a good one.
"Elsa's mostly in agriculture, better grains and animals to work fields, but lately she's been talking about finding ways to mass produce altered creatures for millitary purposes. She lives in my dorm; I can go get her. You go see if you can find their blankets or chains or something. We'll meet back by the barns."
It doesn't take you much effort to find the pen they escaped from. A decaying foundation had weakened the wall enough for them to break through and wander into the nearby woods. Fortunately their pen was on the outside of the school grounds. Their blankets are all there.
ooc: What exactly is shadow magic? What will it be used to do, and what is its source?
About the shadow magic: I fail to see the point. Wouldn't that just be illusion plus something else, like evocation?
"Well, I have an idea, but it won't work with illusions running around to distract and upset the stupid beasts. I've actually observed these half-ogres before, when I was trying to write a paper on their industrial uses. If we just sneak close and leave them the blankets, they'll carry them around until they go to sleep, and then curl up in them. They love those blankets, kind of a security thing, like a small kid. Then, when they're asleep and wrapped up, I can turn the blankets to steel. Only for a few minutes, but long enough for Moll to get a good firm enchantment on them. You just have to get the blankets somewhere they'll find them, and then keep an eye on them with your mirror."
The half-ogres wander along as expected and seem delighted to find their blankets. They do say something to each other about how they got there, being a bit smarter than a normal ogre, but quickly become bored with the topic.
Moll is sure she can enchant them, but only for a few hours; after that you'll need a more permanant way of restraining them. Moll intends to return her's for the reward, but Elsa's going to put her's in a pit and experiment on it.
They do go to sleep come nightfall, and curl up in their blankets. Everything goes according to plan. Three blanket wrapped half-ogres become three stone wrapped ones, which become three temporarily charmed ones, fortunately only about two hours walk from the school grounds.
Illusion will work to hide the brand short term, but for a longer term solution, you can have Elsa transmute the flesh to obliterate the brand.
The school will rent you a dungeon cell, but they're not going fail to wonder where you got a half-ogre at the same time as another was returned. Also, he isn't really smart enough to make a deal with. Half-ogres are useful, but take a lot of supervision until they're really well trained. However, maybe you can work out something with William to make this doable.
Once again I should be penalized for delay of game.
The plan sounds good, if there are any difficulties I'll smooth them out when we get there. Elsa has no issues with removing a simple brand. Fortunatly for you, the half-ogre knows how to fight quite well. What you might have trouble with is getting him to not eat his opponent once he's dead. You'll want to observe him for a few days so as to craft an illusion that makes him look like he's moving like William, but still able to inflict enough damage that the remains don't raise any eyebrows. For that you might want to make William look a little tougher.
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