Murderous Bastard
Apr. 25th, 2009 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothI missed Shadake last week because Rowyn was in town visiting (more on that later, unless I never get around to it), so when I got there this week I found out that my character had been operating on remote control, murdering people and making a beeline for the highest concentration of enemies in the world with the apparent aim of being enslaved by them. Luckily, the rest of the party had chased Cane down to rescue him.
Me: "Wait a second -- this doesn't make any sense! That isn't something that my character would do. Bob was murdered by being smashed against the wall repeatedly? Cane totally would have murdered him by stabbing him with his sword. And he never would have run to *Crisium's* territory"
GM: "Well, you don't remember any of it. The rest of the party is assuming you were mind controlled."
Me: "Ah, that makes sense."
Anyway, they'd found Cane on board the airship he'd stolen, badly wounded but lucid, and surrounded by the signs of mass slaughter. Aside from him, the only other body on board was one of the bunnies from Ree, hanging on the end of a 20 foot rope -- it looked like the same bunny who Bob's ghost had told them he'd seen with Cane when Cane smashed him against the wall until he fell unconscious and presumably died.
They were heading back to Nubium's territory, or at least out of Crisium's territory, when it occurred to them to ask whether Cane would be arrested for Bob's murder -- well, of course he would! The only evidence available painted him as the suspect, and it wasn't like they really cared about justice on Morpheus. Bob had been one of Nubium's favorites, so anyone suspected of involvement in his death was going to be treated harshly.
While they were trying to decide what to do about that -- a tarot card reading suggested that they fake their own deaths -- they noticed that something was wrong. The airship the party had chased Cane down in was gone, but the shadow was still there... they sent Nico out to look and see if it was, say, hovering directly overhead.
Yep. Their airship was losing altitude thanks to a big hole cut in the top. Just as Nico was noticing that, swords punched through the bottom of the canopy into the gondola -- they'd been boarded!
For the most part, it was a standard swordfight... meaning, Takara and Cane fought in melee, Kyngeah hid inside her sanctaury bubble healing and trying to convert people to the worship of Abraxis, Nico was off in another time zone fighting his own battle and earning a mutual kill, and Vesperian got taken out quickly.
The main difference was that because of Takara's poor choice of magic arrows at the very beginning of the fight, their blimp was on fire. Halfway through the fight, the flaming wreck crashed into the forest below. By this point, Vesperian was in the process of feather-falling, Nico had taken out or scared off the crew of one of the enemy blimps, which the enemies had set on fire in response, Takara had turned into a kitten after leaping out the window 'to her death' (since the plan was still to fake their deaths) and Kyngeah had converted one of the soldiers to her cause and (after the crash) led him off to talk further.
This left Cane alone against five enemies. He didn't notice this at first -- he took down one who was stunned from the fall before he could recover, then used sweeping blows to take down three more, before the last enemy ran him through, and he fell unconscious and bleeding as the skeleton of the gasbag overhead began to collapse on top of the pile of bodies. The last enemy, seeing the imminent collapse, ran for his life and was never seen again.
GM: "Well, at least everyone's going to think you're dead."
Me: "I think I forgot one key part of faking my death. The 'faking' part."
Fortunately, Vesperian's featherfall dropped him right into the flaming mess, and he was loyal enough to drag Cane out of the wreckage before he burned to death. Cane was still alive enough for Kyngeah to heal, at least, and was soon conscious and running for his life from a forest fire with the rest of them. They took cover in a stream that they thought would be safe, but when flaming branches started raining down... well, they had more running to do. "Swim through the fire!" Cane said, and fortunately that actually was the best choice, and soon they were safe in the burned out section of forest.
Without any food, or much equipment. Cane had always been carrying around all their emergency supplies in a big sack, and he hadn't taken that with him on his initial flight from the city, let alone from the crash. They spent the rest of the day trying in vain to escape from Crisium's territory before nightfall, and failed.
In the dreamtime, they were bombarded by advertisements from the followers of Ree, trying to recruit for one of their privateers that was moored in 'the remains of Crisium's port'. For some strange reason, signing on to the ship sounded like the only safe choice to Cane.
Me: "The heck? Is this lingering mind control? Why in the world would I feel safe going into the heart of enemy territory to sign on with even *worse* enemies who've tried to slaughter us on sight on every occasion?"
GM: "The ones you actually fought are all dead."
Me: "What, all of them? We fought like an army of them, ineffectually, and we know they recognized us because they later had us arrested and brought to the warehouse before the zombie attack. They couldn't have all been killed by the zombies before night fell, since we didn't even get through the next building."
GM: "The zombies might have stopped attacking when night fell, but they were still oozing... all the ones in the expedition force died."
Me: "Well, they had to be in communication with the other bunnies safe inside the port, that we robbed, and later tried to blow up their ships, because the ones in the port were trying to arrange to have them smuggled in through the same mafia that was trying to have us arrested."
GM: "These ones are advertising as privateers -- you were fighting with their regular military. Totally different groups."
Me: "I guess it's *possible* that it isn't a trap, then, but it still seems like a pretty stupid idea. Couldn't we just head to like, Imbrium's territory and find passage off-world with some random trader there, if we were determined to leave this planet?"
GM: "I kind of planned for you to accept that offer, I guess I'll have to think of something else."
Takara did manage to keep them safe from Crisium until morning, when they had a serious talk about what they *did* want to do. Going back to Nubium's territory meant bad news for Cane. Staying in Crisium's was bad news for *everyone*. The deadlands were at least not instantly fatal, but they were pretty boring. Maybe the dragon wouldn't kill them instantly if they tried to start living with her?
In the end, they decided to head back to the crash site and speak-with-dead with the corpse of the bunny who'd been hanging by a rope before the fight. To avoid spending 8 hours slogging through smouldering muck again, Cane scavenged for useful herbs (they had gotten pretty near the outer extent of the forest fire zone) and then using the soldier's field kitchen as an improvised alchemy set, and Vesperian as a mildly skilled assistant, managed to cook up a batch of Caravan's Miracle Cream in a couple hours. They spread it onto a wooden raft and floated through the air a lot faster than they could have managed on foot.
There they had a somewhat enlightening conversation with the ghost of the bunny -- the ghost insulted Kyngeah for allowing a necromancer to play with the dead -- wasn't that something she should be doing herself? It also spun a story in repsons to Cane's questions, painting him as the murderer not only of Bob but of many other people in the past 900 years. They were going to take him to the privateer, where a priest of the Eternal Void (Teatime) would 'fix' him, if possible, or do something to his soul if not.
Cane was disappointed that the ghost's version didn't exonerate him OR prove that he was really at fault -- Vesperian's spell tried to make ghosts tell the truth, but often failed. Cane, for one, didn't believe a word of it.
Cane: "For one thing, I'm pretty sure I don't even *have* a soul. I don't think souls really exist."
Vesperian: "Then what were we just talking to?!"
Cane: "Some sort of magic echo or something, I don't know. I'm not the mage."
Vesperian tried to prove to Cane that he had a soul by forcing him from his body with the speak with dead spell, but just like on the failed ressurections easlier, it failed, knocking Vesperiant from his body instead. Which, like everything else, proved nothing.
last session | next session
Also, we had pizza. I ate too much pizza -- I probably shouldn't have had any, but I convinced myself one or two wouldn't hurt. Then ate five. I *know* I shouldn't have had five... but... pizza!
Me: "Wait a second -- this doesn't make any sense! That isn't something that my character would do. Bob was murdered by being smashed against the wall repeatedly? Cane totally would have murdered him by stabbing him with his sword. And he never would have run to *Crisium's* territory"
GM: "Well, you don't remember any of it. The rest of the party is assuming you were mind controlled."
Me: "Ah, that makes sense."
Anyway, they'd found Cane on board the airship he'd stolen, badly wounded but lucid, and surrounded by the signs of mass slaughter. Aside from him, the only other body on board was one of the bunnies from Ree, hanging on the end of a 20 foot rope -- it looked like the same bunny who Bob's ghost had told them he'd seen with Cane when Cane smashed him against the wall until he fell unconscious and presumably died.
They were heading back to Nubium's territory, or at least out of Crisium's territory, when it occurred to them to ask whether Cane would be arrested for Bob's murder -- well, of course he would! The only evidence available painted him as the suspect, and it wasn't like they really cared about justice on Morpheus. Bob had been one of Nubium's favorites, so anyone suspected of involvement in his death was going to be treated harshly.
While they were trying to decide what to do about that -- a tarot card reading suggested that they fake their own deaths -- they noticed that something was wrong. The airship the party had chased Cane down in was gone, but the shadow was still there... they sent Nico out to look and see if it was, say, hovering directly overhead.
Yep. Their airship was losing altitude thanks to a big hole cut in the top. Just as Nico was noticing that, swords punched through the bottom of the canopy into the gondola -- they'd been boarded!
For the most part, it was a standard swordfight... meaning, Takara and Cane fought in melee, Kyngeah hid inside her sanctaury bubble healing and trying to convert people to the worship of Abraxis, Nico was off in another time zone fighting his own battle and earning a mutual kill, and Vesperian got taken out quickly.
The main difference was that because of Takara's poor choice of magic arrows at the very beginning of the fight, their blimp was on fire. Halfway through the fight, the flaming wreck crashed into the forest below. By this point, Vesperian was in the process of feather-falling, Nico had taken out or scared off the crew of one of the enemy blimps, which the enemies had set on fire in response, Takara had turned into a kitten after leaping out the window 'to her death' (since the plan was still to fake their deaths) and Kyngeah had converted one of the soldiers to her cause and (after the crash) led him off to talk further.
This left Cane alone against five enemies. He didn't notice this at first -- he took down one who was stunned from the fall before he could recover, then used sweeping blows to take down three more, before the last enemy ran him through, and he fell unconscious and bleeding as the skeleton of the gasbag overhead began to collapse on top of the pile of bodies. The last enemy, seeing the imminent collapse, ran for his life and was never seen again.
GM: "Well, at least everyone's going to think you're dead."
Me: "I think I forgot one key part of faking my death. The 'faking' part."
Fortunately, Vesperian's featherfall dropped him right into the flaming mess, and he was loyal enough to drag Cane out of the wreckage before he burned to death. Cane was still alive enough for Kyngeah to heal, at least, and was soon conscious and running for his life from a forest fire with the rest of them. They took cover in a stream that they thought would be safe, but when flaming branches started raining down... well, they had more running to do. "Swim through the fire!" Cane said, and fortunately that actually was the best choice, and soon they were safe in the burned out section of forest.
Without any food, or much equipment. Cane had always been carrying around all their emergency supplies in a big sack, and he hadn't taken that with him on his initial flight from the city, let alone from the crash. They spent the rest of the day trying in vain to escape from Crisium's territory before nightfall, and failed.
In the dreamtime, they were bombarded by advertisements from the followers of Ree, trying to recruit for one of their privateers that was moored in 'the remains of Crisium's port'. For some strange reason, signing on to the ship sounded like the only safe choice to Cane.
Me: "The heck? Is this lingering mind control? Why in the world would I feel safe going into the heart of enemy territory to sign on with even *worse* enemies who've tried to slaughter us on sight on every occasion?"
GM: "The ones you actually fought are all dead."
Me: "What, all of them? We fought like an army of them, ineffectually, and we know they recognized us because they later had us arrested and brought to the warehouse before the zombie attack. They couldn't have all been killed by the zombies before night fell, since we didn't even get through the next building."
GM: "The zombies might have stopped attacking when night fell, but they were still oozing... all the ones in the expedition force died."
Me: "Well, they had to be in communication with the other bunnies safe inside the port, that we robbed, and later tried to blow up their ships, because the ones in the port were trying to arrange to have them smuggled in through the same mafia that was trying to have us arrested."
GM: "These ones are advertising as privateers -- you were fighting with their regular military. Totally different groups."
Me: "I guess it's *possible* that it isn't a trap, then, but it still seems like a pretty stupid idea. Couldn't we just head to like, Imbrium's territory and find passage off-world with some random trader there, if we were determined to leave this planet?"
GM: "I kind of planned for you to accept that offer, I guess I'll have to think of something else."
Takara did manage to keep them safe from Crisium until morning, when they had a serious talk about what they *did* want to do. Going back to Nubium's territory meant bad news for Cane. Staying in Crisium's was bad news for *everyone*. The deadlands were at least not instantly fatal, but they were pretty boring. Maybe the dragon wouldn't kill them instantly if they tried to start living with her?
In the end, they decided to head back to the crash site and speak-with-dead with the corpse of the bunny who'd been hanging by a rope before the fight. To avoid spending 8 hours slogging through smouldering muck again, Cane scavenged for useful herbs (they had gotten pretty near the outer extent of the forest fire zone) and then using the soldier's field kitchen as an improvised alchemy set, and Vesperian as a mildly skilled assistant, managed to cook up a batch of Caravan's Miracle Cream in a couple hours. They spread it onto a wooden raft and floated through the air a lot faster than they could have managed on foot.
There they had a somewhat enlightening conversation with the ghost of the bunny -- the ghost insulted Kyngeah for allowing a necromancer to play with the dead -- wasn't that something she should be doing herself? It also spun a story in repsons to Cane's questions, painting him as the murderer not only of Bob but of many other people in the past 900 years. They were going to take him to the privateer, where a priest of the Eternal Void (Teatime) would 'fix' him, if possible, or do something to his soul if not.
Cane was disappointed that the ghost's version didn't exonerate him OR prove that he was really at fault -- Vesperian's spell tried to make ghosts tell the truth, but often failed. Cane, for one, didn't believe a word of it.
Cane: "For one thing, I'm pretty sure I don't even *have* a soul. I don't think souls really exist."
Vesperian: "Then what were we just talking to?!"
Cane: "Some sort of magic echo or something, I don't know. I'm not the mage."
Vesperian tried to prove to Cane that he had a soul by forcing him from his body with the speak with dead spell, but just like on the failed ressurections easlier, it failed, knocking Vesperiant from his body instead. Which, like everything else, proved nothing.
last session | next session
Also, we had pizza. I ate too much pizza -- I probably shouldn't have had any, but I convinced myself one or two wouldn't hurt. Then ate five. I *know* I shouldn't have had five... but... pizza!
