Book 1, Part 3: Investigating the Fires

[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

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KAC: 18/17 Fort: +8 Ref: +4 Will: +5
HP: 23/23 THP: 0/4 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +5

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The corpse let Temperance pull the squalid spud from its face, its one good eye seemingly trying to peer around its own nose to get a good look at the proceedings without moving any of the rest of its face. Being this close to the corpse was, perhaps, not exactly a pleasant experience as Temperance was afforded a good look at the burned ruin of its face, twisted flesh turning its mouth into a semi-permanent snarl. The effect was somewhat undercut by the hulking, unliving thing fidgeting like an impatient child trying to hold still despite some distress.

"Hrnt-Tim-prance..." The corpse started once the potato was extracted, clearly trying to summon the correct interactions from deep within its necrotic brain. "Thhh-Thank?" It finished, somewhat uncertainly.

[ripleycat]

"Right here, dear. Everyone's all abuzz, I had to see for myself! My, look at you! They used all the extra pieces putting you together, didn't they?"

As if summoned from the growing gaggle of gnomes (and halflings, humans, and numerous others. Being an Argentbloom is apparently something much more powerful than mere blood relations), Granny Calix stands next to Kjersti, peering up at the immense human girl with intense scrutiny. Rexus yelps in surprise. It's impossible for this to be anyone else. An aged, tiny, slightly bent gnome with a force of personality those at the top of the pit can almost reach over and touch. Her immaculate updo is a striking and peculiar shade of platinum blonde that doesn't seem natural, even for a gnome. The clearest mark of relation to Kyla is her clothes. She's wearing a shockingly bright, floral-patterned muumuu, in eye-searing, almost electric pink and blue.

"Kyla, it is you! You're a terrible mess! Climb out of there, dear. There's nothing worth being hurt for. Honestly. They put the fences up for a reason."

With some risky effort that eventually pays off, Maria frees a miraculously (mostly) intact display case from a hollow in the rubble. In the little glass and wood box sits a beautiful cherrywood violin. It's probably not actually from the Age of Legends, despite what Shensen's written on the boastful and irreverent little tag hanging from the neck, but it is absolutely a master's work, humming with a warmth and tone that borders on the magical.

"Who are all of these interesting friends you've gathered? Why haven't you brought them by yet? It's not like you to keep secrets. Were they going to be a surprise? Oh! Do you have any important announcements to make?"

OOC

The violin in the display case is a (lesser) Maestro's Instrument. It doesn't need to remain a violin if someone wants it to be a different instrument.

 

[Toraka_Stormheart]

Title

Temperance - Character Sheet

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AC: 19 Fort: +6 Ref: +10 Will: +4

HP: 24/24 Rebel Points: 2/3 | Perception: +6

Ammunition: 20/20 (40 Reserve) | Alchemy PreparedAlchemical Cartridges: 20 | ConditionsNone

---

The only indication of discomfort on Temperance's countenance would have been a tightening of the jaw as she heard the dead man's flesh shift under her ministrations. Holding her breath, she sighed a little as the spud was extracted, allowing herself a flicker of a smirk at his reaction.

"Yes, I'll take your thanks. Anytime, big guy. Let's get these people out, mm?"

Nodding as she noticed Maria take some kind of chest out, the tiefling started to assist in getting everybody out, showing surprising strength when she bodily lifted a protesting Kyla on top of Deadman to push her out of the pit.

"After you, I'll be fine" Was all she said as it was just her and Deadman left, the short gunslinger working to scrabble herself back up to join the others. She regarded the wizened gnome as she did so, a brow raised but otherwise silent.

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[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

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KAC: 18/17 Fort: +8 Ref: +4 Will: +5
HP: 23/23 THP: 0/4 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +5

---

After taking a moment to dig the last few stray fragments of potato out of its eye socket, the corpse settled at the base of the slope it had so gracelessly descended earlier and interlaced its fingers, ready to serve as a step up and out of the pit. The dead things had shown little to no concern about filth and dirt in the past and seemed unlikely to balk at people smearing its hands or indeed the rest of its person with soot in their efforts to climb out. It might not be the best detective but the shambling mess certainly had its uses when it came to matters physical and the moving of bodies, as Beq could already attest.

Once everyone save Temperance was out, the corpse clambered out of the pit. The sight of a soot-caked and half-burned corpse hauling itself out of the burnt out ruins of a beloved institution like the Silver Star was, perhaps, not the sort of thing a collection of upstanding citizens might have wanted to see. It did not have a disguise in place and under direct regard there was clearly something wrong with the hulking figure that busily tried to tug its ragged hood down over its ruined face and stay to the back of the strange group.

"Khhk-Kyla?" The corpse rasped in an attempted whisper to the tiefling, uncertain what to do when faced with a crowd like this that it was clearly not supposed to do violence to.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Mister Doctor (see edit history)

[Fletcher]

Kjersti Volden

AC: 19 | Fort: +8 | Ref: +4 | Will: +7
HP: 24/24 | Focus: 0/1 | Hero: 0/3 | Perception: +5
ConditionsNone

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Kjersti takes a knee next to Granny Calix for both the purposes of speaking with her and offering a strong hand to assist anyone with that last leap up, climbing out of the pit. Most importantly, clasping wrists with Maria to help her retrieve the ornate case she has found. An eyebrow quirks at the find, but she decides to wait. "Pleasure to meetcha, Ma'am," the farmgirl says to the Argentbloom matriarch. "Your girl has been makin' herself all sorts of a nuisance - but the good kind, I reckon... aside from spoilin' that dress." A smirk tugs at the corner of her mouth as Kyla makes it up top. And even though there is no more need for her help climbing, Kjersti stays down at gnome-level to speak with them, as is polite.

"We been a bit preoccupied with the recent unpleasantness in town," she adds, leaving the depth of their involvement vague for the time being. It wasn't a lie - everyone has been dealing with the aftermath of it all. "But she's spoken kindly of you and her family. And been polite and useful. You can be proud, I promise." The temptation to dig Kyla further into a hole with her tut-tutting Granny is strong, but Kjersti decides it's best to keep things straightforward. No need to confuse anyone with jokes.

"Whatcha got there?" she finally asks Maria, looking at the real fancy instrument that has been rescued from the debris.

[ccanary]

Maria Callus

Maria Callus — Human Monk (medic)

At Rexus' home

"Aha!"

Maria exclaimed on seeing an unbroken musical instrument, grabbing it quickly, stashing it and moving to climb out. She noticed the congregation above and Kyla's reaction to them, but thankfully Kjersti had intervened socially to try to diffuse the situation. She just whispered to Kyla on the way up, "Someone you'd rather not see here?"

Up top, she nodded to Kjersti as she gripped the strong hand to help her out. She handed over the musical instrument, not exactly sure what it was, but that it was somehow important. Hells, maybe the gnomes would be impressed by it even. Kjersti was doing good work talking to Kyla's Gran, she figured finding a lost Shensen instrument might help. Gnomes liked music, right?

For her part, once she had the violin handed out, Maria focused on helping to haul Deadman up and out of the hole, land then Temperance if the Tiefling needed a hand. She tried as best she could to spruce Deadman up while working to conceal his identity as much as possible, pulling his cloak up and over his head. She fussied with his general appearance like he was a surly five year old caught rolling in the mud, slapping soot off the clothes and doing her best to make him look if not presentable, at least not like a walking corpse. Everyone had seen what he was of course, but they didn't need to KEEP seeing it!

"Darling, you're a mess, you should be more careful, falling in a sinkhole like that! Yes yes that's Kyla, very good dear. He's just a little confused. Oh dear, we will have to get someone to look at that," she fussed as she rearranged and adjusted the corpse as best she could.

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[ripleycat]

Maria's fussing helps keep the crowd of Argentblooms from seeing much of Deadman's true state, despite Cousin Jenny's increasingly frustrated and frantic insistence that "That's a zombie! I saw it! You're hiding a monster!"

"Jennifer Becket Argentbloom, that is enough! It is terrible and cruel manners to make such jokes. We do not judge others on their misfortunes. You know nothing of how that poor man was burned." Granny Calix's scolding produces a scowl that could kill an ox at twenty paces, but Jenny falls silent, though the tiny would-be paladin still stands defiantly at the edge of the crowd, hand on her slingshot, lest the creature attempt to eat Kyla again.

"I'm sorry, dear. She's got a positively ferocious imagination. Gets it from her mother's side, I expect. Playwrights, you see."

"Of course she's being a nuisance, and of course I'm proud of her." Granny Calix mutters as though Kjersti were pointing out that the sky is blue, but she smiles at the farmgirl's endorsements all the same. "Kyla wasn't raised to just sit quietly and let marauders and villains do whatever they like! She's a fierce and clever young woman. She'd be quite the catch, you know, especially for an enterprising young man." The sudden veer into the topic of Kyla's eligibility makes Granny Calix's eyes twinkle. Rexus coughs into his sleeve and begs Vendafek to help him disappear.

Edited August 30, 2023 by ripleycat (see edit history)

[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

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KAC: 18/17 Fort: +8 Ref: +4 Will: +5
HP: 23/23 THP: 0/4 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +5

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"Hhrk-hiding," the corpse parroted in its halting way, seeming to shrink a bit behind Maria in hopes of avoiding another root vegetable-based impact from Kyla's relations. While it had been bold in announcing its presence back in the Devil's Nursery, here it felt out of place. The people of the Nursery were not picky when it came to help, they could not afford to be.

Here though... well, the corpse clearly expected more to share Jenny's reaction if they sorted out just what was lurking in their midst. It did not know what it would do if they decided to not tolerate a shambling corpse. The others... it needed the others to keep something from happening.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Mister Doctor (see edit history)

[theredshirtwholive]

Kyla

AC: 19 | Fort: +7 | Ref: +7 | Will: +8
HP: 28/28 | Rebel Points: 3/3 | Perception: +10 | Stealth +7
ConditionsNone

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Kyla goes the approximate color of a grape. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to my great-aunt thrice removed on my mother's side and general matriarch of this entire damn neighborhood, Granny Calix Morgen. Granny, meet Kjersti, Star, Maria, uh, Deid, Temperance, Beq, and Rexus. All of whom I literally met less than a week ago, so don't be getting any ideas. The halfling over there is my sister Lia's kid, Jenny. And...yeah. We are kind of...sort of....doing a thing here? The kind of thing which would best be done with a minimum of fuss?" She's praying to Cayden, Shelyn, Desna and Nivi too that Granny, for once in her long life of well-meaning nosiness, gets the message.

OOC

 

 

[ccanary]

Maria Callus

Maria Callus — Human Monk (medic)

At the sinkhole

Maria saw Rexus' discomfort, not to mention Kyla's at her 'grannys' suggestion that they could be a match and decided to help out. As best she could. She moved away from the corpse, trying not to look too relieved, and sidled up next to Rexus, grabbing his hand and pulling him close, and dragging him a little ways to the front, still hoping to block Deadman from view as best she could, but whispering, "Play along."

Then she put her arm around him and tried to look as proud and loving as she could manage.

"Of course! Kyla will be a great catch for the right young man, I'm sure. But all the good enterprising young gentlemen are taken, aren't they dear?"

She asked her 'boyfriend' Rexus, hoping to save him some embarrassment but possibly making it worse. She lowered her voice a little for Granny adding, "We do have a few eligible young friends we might introduce to Kyla though. With your permission, of course."she winked conspiratorially at Granny.

But it will have to be another time. We are out past curfew (I think?) and we really should disperse before we attract the wrong kind of attention. It was so good to meet Kyla's family," she moved down the line, clasping hands, Granny last, and then hurrying to take their leave.

 

 

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[Fletcher]

Kjersti Volden

AC: 19 | Fort: +8 | Ref: +4 | Will: +7
HP: 24/24 | Focus: 0/1 | Hero: 0/3 | Perception: +5
ConditionsNone

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Maria has the right idea for both sparing Rexus the embarrassment of dealing with the "why are you single" conversation with an overbearing matriarch, since it would likely unsettle him to the point of having to take a night off of his studies over the cipher he was attempting to break. "We'll make sure she doesn't get herself wrapped up in someone who ain't worth her, I promise," Kjersti interjects as well, unable to keep a smile from her face. Family introductions could be rough, but having this many folks gawking and invested in your life must be something else. "But Kyla's got the right of it - we don't want none of them dottari showin' up cause we drew too big a crowd, so we'll just be headin' on. But it was a pleasure!" She gives a not-subtle dip of her head to indicate folks should start to move.

"Oh! And ya'll mind that hole. It was shiftin' somethin' fierce. Don't recommend any explorin'." And with that, she shoulders her long hammer and starts to move away, only pausing to make sure no one is being bogged down by the crowd or by clinging family members.

[pi4t]

 

Star

AC: 19 (+2 nimble dodge) | Fort: +6 | Ref: +10 | Will: +6
HP: 28/28 | Rebel Points: 1/3 | Perception: +6 | Stealth +7
ConditionsNone

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Star shifts from hoof to hoof, fidgetting nervously with her tail. She cringes when Kyla introduces her, and she feels everyone's eyes on her. For someone who's used to being on the edges of society, ignored or chased off, being the centre of attention is deeply unnerving and she has to fight the urge to run off and hide in a corner. But she masters herself, even managing to give a little wave before Kyla - thankfully - moves on to Maria and the others.

A few moments later, though, Star gives a yelp. She had foolishly let go of her tail in order to wave, and one of the youngest Argentblooms took this as an invitation to grab it and give it a pull. Star pulls back, too hard, stumbling backwards and crashing into Rexus from behind just as Maria is dragging him forwards...

Edited September 7, 2023 by pi4t (see edit history)

[Toraka_Stormheart]

Title

Temperance - Character Sheet

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AC: 19 Fort: +6 Ref: +10 Will: +4

HP: 24/24 Rebel Points: 2/3 | Perception: +6

Ammunition: 20/20 (40 Reserve) | Alchemy PreparedAlchemical Cartridges: 20 | ConditionsNone

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Resetting herself after exiting the pit, Temperance watched silently as the antics unfolded. Her brow pinched in annoyance as she adjusted her glasses, a touch of strain in her voice as she turned towards the street.

"If that will be all, let us move on. Daylight is in waning supply."

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[ripleycat]

 

It's just a touch past noon, so Maria's hurried claim of being out past curfew raises a few eyebrows from the literal-minded, and draws some laughs from those who appreciate absurdity. The Argentblooms are mostly theater-folk, and mostly night owls. Everyone's out past curfew. "I didn't mean to imply anything, dears. Didn't mean to be rude. Just appreciating a handsome young fellow when I see one. Stating facts." Granny Calix is too much herself to be shamed by Kyla's pleading or Maria's intercession with Rexus, who plays along thankfully, but she's more than canny enough not to get anyone into real trouble, and waves the Ravens along with a chuckle. "Most certainly not. You clear out then, go do whatever it is you're up to, and I'll see you later. Perhaps tonight, Kyla? I thought I might drop by and visit your mother. It was lovely to meet you all. No, no! You stop that!" Granny scoops up the curious toddler who'd been pulling on Star's tail, leaving the group a brief window to make their escape from the gossip vortex.

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From Jarvis End, it's a long and winding, but not unpleasant, trek along the water's edge to Yolubilis Harbor and the next of the fire locations, the remains of the Thrashing Badger tavern. Mid-afternoon's light is beginning to give the water the silver glint that helped name the city. "I don't know if there's anything to find like the things we've pulled out of the other buildings." Vendalfek admits. "Mr. Rexus says they burned my home because of the people who met there. The Thrashing Badger was very nice, cozy. It always felt like home, but I never felt any sort of magic or anything unusual."

"Many of the professors at the Academy met here after work, many of the professors were members of the Sacred Order of Archivists, and many of the professors love to talk, at enormous length, after a few glasses of whatever their pleasure is." Rexus smirks, obviously familiar with the habits of chatty academics firsthand. "One of Thrune's agents overheard them, no doubt, and that would be reason enough to make the place a target, by their cruel logic. I was hoping that there might be something more practical left here, notes or correspondence, some clue to the location of the Sacred Order's headquarters, but... well, perhaps not."

Like the fence around the ruins of the Silver Star, the dock that used to house the tavern has been roped off and closed to the public. Nobody’s guarding it, though. If you absolutely insist on marching into trouble, the Harbor isn’t the sort of neighborhood to stop you. The relative distance and privacy allows Vendalfek to drop his glamor and stretch his wings, skimming out over the water's surface.

The reason for the rope is clear enough: there’s very little left of the Thrashing Badger. The fire burned through the boardwalk, and the tavern has collapsed into the river below, along with a number of neighboring buildings. Whatever survived is submerged in the Yolubilis. Anyone who wants a closer look will be going for a swim in a forest of wreckage and burned pilings.

Vendalfek looks stricken, both at the fate of his home, and for more practical reasons. He flutters his delicate wings as he lands on a dock post, frowning. "Nixies and fishes. I can't swim. Can any of you?"

[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

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KAC: 18/17 Fort: +8 Ref: +4 Will: +5
HP: 23/23 THP: 0/4 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +5

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Not even a second after the word 'swim' left Vendalfek's mouth and the corpse had already plummeted into the murky waters with the grace of a falling rock. Whatever unholy force kept its body moving had kept away true putrefaction and prevented the typical buildup of foul gases many decaying bodies underwent. All it had to do was simply release the air that it had been forced to keep in its lungs to power speech and began to sink down between the pilings until its feet hit the muddy bottom.

Submerged in the cool darkness, sounds turning strange and distant, the corpse simply sat for a moment, feeling something like peace. The sensation of being submerged, isolated from the worldly concerns felt abstractly right somehow in a way that the corpse had no hope of articulating. Then its eye focused on the burned timbers and it remembered the fire and the pain.

The corpse began to move against the weight of the water around it.

Athletics Check to Swim: 12

Perception: 7