Blaze of Glory (Exalted)

Guancyto · Jan 4, 2020

You've gathered your team together and they haven't killed each other yet, so you're going to take that as good enough to get things moving.

"Let's go for the Chest through the basement," you say, "if it goes to plan then we can send Ten Feathers to draw out Diamond in Your Knapsack, Misery can take care of the Lion because she deals with the dead a lot."

"That doesn't make much sense," Steals says and you nod in agreement vigorously.

Misery doesn't even argue, just waving her hand at you to keep going. You're going to have to work out her deal after this, there has to be a limit on how mysterious someone is allowed to be.

"Steals can you cover our escape with a distraction?"

"I've got some ideas. It shouldn't be a problem," Steals Kisses says. "Wait, we talking a distraction or a distraction?"

"The second? I think it's got to be big if it's going to be a bigger deal than everything already going on."

Steals' gleeful cackle is probably something you should worry about, but if you start worrying about things now you'll never stop.

"And you?" Ten Feathers says, reaching out with their firewand to nudge you in the stomach, "coming up with the plan isn't a free pass to skip doing any work."

"I'll be taking care of the guards."

Ten Feather snorts.

"I will! Trust me, I can handle it."

A quick flurry of attacks!
Thrown 2 + Slings 1 + Dexterity 3 = 6 dice.

Attack 1 = 3 Successes
Attack 2 = 6 Successes
Attack 3 = 3 Successes

I don't think any of us expected it to go this well.

Watching the firelight crackle over the rooftops of Gem, Lehgan is enjoying a rare moment of good luck. The Glass Fangs had been wary of getting paid so much to guard a crumbling ruin and he'd spent a few days in the baking sun sure it was all some kind of big joke as day after day nothing interesting happened.

Now the city has descended into chaos and Lehgan is here, guarding an unremarkable stone door to a place which looks like even the rusted nails will be too much effort to be worth stealing. Getting paid a small fortune to skip out on a fight that'll have more than a few bodies piling up before it's done, yeah, this isn't so bad at all.

So his mood is ruined a little when a steel bullet whips out of the fire smoke shrouding the rooftops and smacks him right in shin. Right in the spot where the greaves join with armoured sandal, a tiny weak point that has now become a not so tiny pain point. He goes down to one knee with a hiss, drawing in a breath to shout a warning.

What good luck Lehgan can hope for ends then when a second steel bullet whips out and smashes into his throat, choking the forming warning in his lungs. He isn't about to go out so easily though, falling back against the door and scrabbling to get a hand on the join and try to pull it open.

A third bullet smashes into his fingers and Lehgan breaks, curling up into a ball to shield himself from further attacks.

The fire crackles on the edge of his hearing, throbbing in time with the pain from his injuries. He waits for the impacts, trying to drag in a breath to get a shout for help out through a swollen throat, but all he can manage is desperate wheezes.

"Hey, you look hurt," calls out a voice. Soft, comforting, Lehgan uncurls a little and looks up at a small woman wearing a leather coat, bending over him. Plain looking, face dark with smeared ash and charcoal, with the Despot's Hound behind her looking very amused. This should worry Lehgan but he can't seem to connect up the thoughts.

"I got hit," he slurs, choking breath making it hard to speak. But she'd asked, it feels right to reply.

"Yeah, what happened there? Why didn't you go over?"

"Padding," he says with a slur, tapping his leg. His metal armour isn't all he wears after all, a good thick layer of cloth has saved plenty of mercenaries skin before.

"Oh darn. Is there somewhere would have been better?"

"You can't just ask him for his weaknesses Sharell, this is cheating," the usually terrifying but currently unimportant Hound says. For just a little moment a thread of terror grips Lehgan's heart but it's washed away when the girl starts speaking again.

"You're just mad it's working. So where should I have gone for?"

"Waist area," Lehgan coughs out. Talking hurt, but not talking just doesn't make sense to him. "Joints and throat. We don't have visors so my face would have been best."

The butt of the Hound's firewand is swung right at his face and just before it connects Lehgan realises that maybe, just maybe, something weird has gone on here.

The only guard on the adjacent building dealt with and as long as nothing goes wrong you've already done the hardest bit you'll need to. The smugness is catching.

The guard didn't have the keys for the door, but Steals Kisses makes short work of the lock anyway and you all slip inside, Ten Feathers dragging the unconscious guard after you and propping him up against a wall. The place seems to be some kind of excavation tool storage, sledgehammers, shovels and bundles of iron stakes and ropes stashed not very neatly into barrels the yellow dust of the desert ground in the stone floor. Diamond doesn't really have an immediate need to do any more treasure hunting, so whoever had put these away clearly hadn't put much effort into doing it neatly.

Once you find the cellar stairs though you notice a problem immediately that had definitely been left out of the executive summary.

"Thin walls, you said," you raise an eyebrow at Steals Kisses.

"It is! Look, it's already cracking and you can see the other side."

"This is stone! I had assumed you meant plaster."

"Thin stone, though!"

"We could use a crowbar and chip it open," Feathers suggests, "it'd be slow going though. I don't think any of us have the strength to… just…"

Feather's suggestion is cut off by Misery wielding a sledgehammer charging at the wall like a berserker, and you have the faintest notion that only the need for discretion is keeping her from yelling a battle-cry while she does it.

Misery: Strength 4 + Athletics 4 = 5 successes.

You and Steals Kisses both gape as Misery twists her body into a two-handed hammerblow that kicks up a shockwave of dust and shatters the thin stone wall straight through.

"Okay, you are explaining that one!" you say as the four of you charge through, "no excuses!"

Misery scoffs. "Do you know how many ghosts pull the 'oooh you can't chase me through walls' trick?"

"See this is why I had to kick you out of the city," Ten Feathers says as you press into the adjoining room. A similar looking cellar but one a lot tidier, meticulously swept clean and the worn stone doors you're used to replaced with a metal monstrosity with some kind of wheel and bars on your side that was no doubt a very clever and complicated locking mechanism.

Ten Feathers snatches the sledgehammer from Misery and shoves it handle first into the door mechanism, slamming their fist on top of the metal head to press it in tightly. It's the kind of idea you'd have come up with but you're occupied, because it's right here.

Resting on a white cloth that isn't fit to bear it, polished black stone and shimmering gold metal both gleam in the room's lamp light. Halrun had called it beautiful but it's clear to you he hadn't communicated just why properly. You can feel the potential rolling off it, the fragments of it you'd glimpsed of it in your dreams had shown you only pieces of something that is far more than the sum of its parts. It is simply perfect.

"Well," Ten Feathers says, dusting their hands, "can't argue with results. Help me get it under an arm and I'll go yell at Diamond."

Misery is right beside you, similarly frozen at the sight of the chest but when Ten Feathers makes a move towards it she steps forward and plants her foot on the lid.

"You're not taking it."

"Sharell picked my plan, I need it for this to work. You're backing out now?" Ten Feathers says with unusual coolness. It makes your spine tingle, when Ten is fiery they're just being Ten. Cold words are new and you don't like it.

"I trust Ten," you say, "let them take it."

"I don't and you shouldn't either. I know them, once they've got what they want they'll leave us and we won't have any way to stop the fighting."

"Misery you can't keep doing this. You wouldn't blink at me shooting you for something that weighs on your conscience, but you're ready to wound me again because you can't trust anyone to make their own decisions." Ten Feathers says, "I deserve this."

"This isn't the time," you hiss, but it's no good. Misery is giving Ten Feathers a put upon look and they're back to staring each other down. You'd really hoped they'd gotten over that.

"Well I could take it," Steals Kisses pipes up.

"No!" the pair both snap, which only makes Steals Kisses laugh hard at them.

You'd have been offended, but that wouldn't have made things any better. Instead the tension bleeds right out of the room as the proud pair realised how ridiculous they're being and quickly move to saving face.

"Well then, time for the dirty word. Compromise," Ten Feathers says slowly, "I need the chest, but in the interests of ensuring that neither Diamond, nor I, nor our mysterious lady full of secrets, nor the actual thief get their hands on what's inside, Sharell should take that key she has and take its contents first."

Two sets of eyes swivel to you.

"Isn't that right?" Feathers is smugger than you've ever seen them before, and that's saying a lot.

Feathers: Perception 2 + Socialize 4 + Specialty 1 vs Perception 3 + Socialize 2 = 4 successes vs 2 successes. Damn you Ten Feathers!

"How long have you known?" you boggle at them. You'd been so careful, information security had been your top priori-

"Oh, about five seconds or so," they say with a lazy smile. This is it. This is the peak. Your face burns with embarrassment and you can practically see Feathers transcending their mostly-mortal shell to become an avatar of pure smug.

"Of course I suspected far longer," they continue, while Misery looks at you as if to say do you want to kill them because right now I'd be okay with that. "The Antiquarian's books had an explanation of how this worked and so I knew a key was out there somewhere. Diamond told me rather a lot about it when I pressed him, trying to talk me into revealing where I'd hidden it. Was under the impression that the strange street rat turned cat-catcher the Guild had sent wouldn't have the competence to find it, or if they had, wouldn't have the independence to keep it away from the Factor, or if they had, wouldn't be foolish enough to not sell it for a giant pile of coins and skip town."

"Wait, wait," you wave your hands trying to get them to slow down. ...huh, selling it and leaving might have actually been a good idea and you'd never even considered it. "So Diamond thought you had it, and you let him? You were protecting me this whole time? Drawing attention to yourself?"

Ten Feathers tuts, "that's a poor way to put it. Drawing attention to myself is what I do, Sharell. And I could've found you any time I liked. Consider yourself an unwitting hiding place for the most important piece of the puzzle. The only real question was whether or not you'd bring it with you."

You hear sounds from above, impressive though Misery busting through a wall might have been it wasn't quiet.

"Anyway let's not dawdle. Chop-chop!"

The chest looms in front of you, black and gold and shifting strangely under your sight in a way the others don't seem aware of. The Gold Lion Key burns against your skin, vibrating the closer it gets to the keyhole.

"Wait," Misery crosses her arms, "opening this thing, it's not something we can undo. There'll be a time for it, this doesn't have to be it."

Intelligence 4 + Investigation 4 = 3 successes; finally getting a bead on Misery is worth using a Willpower and this time there are intimacies in play.

You're used to Misery's face being the kind that would make a card sharp eat his own deck in frustration, but she can't hide everything from you. She's staring at the chest like she can see right through the metal to what's inside and there's just a hint of tears in her eyes.

"You know what's in here."

"I have an idea of what's in chests like these yes."

"No, no," you say, shaking a hand at her, "you know what's in this chest. Specifically."

"Even I can tell," Steals says "And I barely know what's going on. So what is it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ten Feathers says. "Another of her mistakes and she's all torn up about facing it, because that's always her problem."

"Ten," Misery sighs, the fight going out of her voice, "forget it, I trust you. I'm sorry. Take the chest."

"No," Ten Feathers says. "You're making a new bad decision just to avoid an old one. Sharell, open it."

You look between them and their suddenly changed positions. On the one hand it seems like a good idea, the only idea - a way to keep the prize away from Diamond and bait the trap for him without real bait. On the other hand, you have some inklings of what's inside from the fucked-up dreams you've had and your life is definitely going to get a hell of a lot weirder than it was already if you open this thing.

[ ] Open the Chest. Find the truth.
[ ] Do not open the Chest. Let Ten take it.

Guancyto · Jan 11, 2020

What's in this chest might cause a lot of trouble but you can practically hear rumbling through the stone the sounds of firedust and screams from above. Your city is at war with itself and innocent people are going to suffer for it the longer it goes on, whatever's in this chest can't be worse than that.

You withdraw the Golden Lion Key and expect a smug smile from Ten Feathers at being right, but they're not even looking at it, they're still locking eyes with Misery, who is shrinking back from their glare but not looking away. You give her a moment to convince you otherwise, but Misery doesn't take it, finally turning away and touching Steals' shoulder.

"I'll go find a spot to ambush and be ready for that Lion, come up and join me after, I'll need some help," and she's quick to clear out of the room.

No reason to wait any longer, you push the key into the lock and try to turn it. A warmth wells up in your stomach and rushes through your body, down your arm which spasms from the shock of it. You force yourself to grip tighter on the key as your body tries to wrench away, the metal blisteringly hot against your palm. It isn't willing to do this easily but you're more determined than it is wilful and you force the key to turn, slowly but steadily until you hear the grinding hiss of a mechanism coming to life.

The chest doesn't just open, it unfolds, panels breaking apart into thin strips and peeling back like the petals of a blossoming flower. You've seen small parts of the mechanism as it was being assembled in the Dreamstones but the fully constructed thing looks more like a cage than the weapon you've been expecting. Golden cogs fit into intricate systems of levers and pistons, all gently humming away at a steady heartbeat as white hot energy flows among the spaces, pushed along with each thumping beat of the machine. Through the gaps you can see what it's all wound around, a single yellow gemstone firmly held in place by the device constructed around it, bathed in the white energy that rolls around the device.

The golden mechanism is fitted to the base of the chest but there's a space at the top where the crystal juts out with just enough clearance to pull it free of its prison.

1 Dice = No Successes

Steals and Ten Feathers seem enraptured by the chest's contents and your stomach sinks, arm shaking with worry at the idea that they'll be unable to resist the chance to take it once they regain their senses. Your hand snaps out to grab the crystal before they can give into temptation.

The moment your fingertips touch the crystal your sight is taken away in a flash of white light and hammer blow is delivered to your senses, you feel yourself stumbling as you lose all sense of direction and fall forwards.

The feeling doesn't stop for some time.

This is not your first time waking up in a strange, seemingly-endless city. There's a little surge of pride in your chest as you think that, but as the smell of honey and… something else? Is that lavender? You've never actually smelled lavender but you've been told it's a pleasantly soft smell and this fits that perfectly. As it hits your nose you're suddenly aware of how much more alive this dream is than the ones you've had of late. Makarios' bazaar was busy, but the noise and grey imperceptibility of the people didn't ever let you forget that it was a dream, while this place feels real, the feeling of a breeze on your skin and people going about their day as if tomorrow really does exist for them.

There are so many people too. Regular, ordinary human people, dressed in styles that are like the city itself, simple but elegant. Perfume and fresh bread mix with the smell of honey, lavender and something you can't quite identify and it all makes a soothing scent that eases your mind and delays the moment when you're struck with just how clean everything is. Spires of shimmering white and gold stretch up to the sky and wooden pagodas float gently on the breeze, making their way across the cityscape. It's strange to see floating buildings, but it doesn't feel wrong. Everything here fits together neatly, like someone has taken great care to make a fantastical city that people can actually live in.

"Ah, it's about time," a familiar voice beside you says, you don't need to turn to know it belongs to the thin-cheeked, hawkish face of the Dreamer. "Welcome back to the real world. I thought you'd never wake up."

You whirl on him, shooting him the glare of all glares. Raicho would be proud. "You're messing with me."

He's dressed in pristine white robes with a gold trim and a band of purple around the waist to hold it together. Somewhat awkwardly you realise you're wearing much the same, clothes that you wouldn't be caught dead in if you had anything to say about it. Looking at the Dreamer the worrying idea that you might actually be dead and get no say in it makes your face a real picture. He smiles almost sheepishly. "I'm sorry, yes, I am joking. I don't get many visitors and I have to get my fun where I can. The last one was… not impressive."

You look him in the eyes. He actually looks a lot better now that he's not working himself to death.

Sharell: Perception 3 + Socialize 2 = 3 successes.
Dreamer: ??? + ??? + ???, Using ??? and ??? to ??? and ??? = 15 successes and ???.
Truth is, Courier, the game was rigged from the start.

He looks right back at you, and you have the distinct feeling of being cut into thin slices like the chest was and examined piece by piece by piece by piece in the space of a single glance.

"You, on the other hand, are much more interesting. Far from a dreary merchant lord who only understands money and power and control you, oh no. You understand justice. Like I do."

If he's going to be playing silly buggers while you and everyone you care about is under threat, you're not going to play along.

"I saw how it twisted you, drove you completely insane," you say, "sorry if I don't feel complimented right now."

He makes a pained expression, almost embarrassed. "...yes, I think you caught me at a very complicated time in my life. My story ended rather poorly and it's left some, shall we say, residual effects. It wasn't always like that. I built this city, these people, with my own two hands. Kept it safe against the madness of the god-kings and the near-destruction of the world when they fell. On balance, I like to think I didn't do so badly."

"The Silver Woman didn't agree, her judgement of you seemed pretty brutal," you say, looking away from him as you remember the sight of her dashing his brains out against his own desk.

"Silver Wo- oh you mean Gentle Guiding Hand."

"Gentle?" you scoff.

"Well, as I said. Neither of us were at our best at the end. I promise you she did as much as I did to look after everyone here, more even. To the very end she tried to put me back on the right path and I refused to listen. I don't blame her for doing the only thing left that made any sense."

He goes silent, staring out over the city and the idea he's sitting there reflecting over his own death creeps you out too much to let him have even that moment.

"How do I get out of this? If you're not going to let me go until you've said something then can we get to it? I've my own city to look after."

"Ah, but the merchant did have a bit of ambition," the Dreamer smiles again and you're suddenly aware that the little voice inside you that nonsensically didn't trust Steals has been quite sensibly screaming all this time, "I didn't bring you here just to chat. You want to look after your city? Splendid! I want to help with that. All you need to do is let me in a little."

The Dreamer: ??? + ??? Using ???: 6 successes.
Sharell: A̵̲͆ư̶̧̦̽ẗ̷͚̯ŏ̸͛ͅṃ̸͂a̴̹͍̓̔t̴̫͍́ḯ̴̜̑͜c̷̛̠͛ ̵͇͌s̶̞̓̃u̷͙͉͑̕ĉ̵̛̪c̶͚̈̋ê̷̤ṡ̵̲̅s̶̹̣̓̌

He seems so charming, so trustworthy, so free of the madness that plagued him before that you feel yourself falling into it. Then your vision flashes and you see the city in ruins, white stones stained red, and that same smile on a warrior with enough blood on his hands to drown a continent.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," you grit your teeth, and although you're back in the city of shimmering white spires suddenly its cleanliness takes on a new edge.

"Gentle Guiding Hand said you let these people down, but that's not all, is it?" you continue, "That's a very nice way of putting what happened to them."

He sighs long and hard, sinking into his chair. "The Adversary."

"I still don't know what that's supposed to be. She said you let them down, not the Adversary. I pay attention to these sorts of things, don't worm your way out of it."

"She wasn't wrong, I did. I watched over this city, protected them from harm for centuries. No crime, no murder, people raised hands to help each others without even thinking about what would need to be put in them first. We made a city that cared and then," he grits his teeth. "Murders I couldn't solve, fires I couldn't stop, a slow rot that ate away at everything we'd built up. I was the greatest investigator this world will ever see and so Creation in all its spite made an even greater maniac."

"So it's your fault for not catching them? That doesn't sound like-"

There's a great crash as he slams a fist down on the table, the stone chipping under the force of the blow, his face twisted with fury.

"Don't be a fool, you of all people should understand! No one else could have stopped this, the worst of killers need the greatest of investigators to catch them and if we can't, if we fail, then the consequences can be more awful than we can bear. Imagine Gem being slowly ground down by a killer you can't catch, one whose only goal seems to be breaking everything you've ever cared for."

You stare at him, the echoes of the madness that had taken him making his eyes strain with tiredness. He's not so pretty anymore.

"You're still trying to solve it," you say slowly. "Is that what this is all about? You helped set my city on fire because you just had to know who broke yours?"

"Wouldn't you?"

"No! Of course not. Why would you even think that I'd do that?"

"Pattern recognition, for one. How much have you given up to get this far? This didn't just fall into your lap, you've had to give things up you wouldn't have a week ago. You're going to see this through to the bitter end."

"I'm not going to burn down a city for it."

"You've no choice in the matter. Do nothing and your city will burn just like mine, a little today, a little tomorrow. You let things continue as they are and one day there'll be a fire it won't recover from. Gem is doomed, greed is no foundation for people to live on."

You laugh at him and there's a little mania in the edges of it. That infectious paranoia that has bled into you makes it difficult to stop but you aren't trying all that hard anyway. He takes it surprisingly well, waiting for you to tire yourself out before raising an eyebrow.

"I'm doing this to save the people I care about and you're trying to compare it to throwing everything into a fire to get answers. What's the point in being an investigator if the answers you're looking for don't even matter anymore?"

"You wouldn't look for a murderer that destroyed everything you cared about? You'd let them get away with it?"

You snort. You don't trust the Dreamer. You can't, the very thought of it makes you sick but you can maybe relate, just a little. Something that awful would be impossible to get over. You've felt that burning rage against injustice, what would it do to you if that never stopped? But even if he thinks otherwise, you know you're not the same sort of person.

"I'd hunt the fucker to the edges of Creation, but I wouldn't pile more misery on top of what they've already done getting there. I'm an Investigator and a damn good one because I know what I'm doing all this for. The people who matter, I don't lose sight of them along the way, even when I do take stupid risks. You? You threw it all away and even with nothing left you're still finding ways to make it worse. You don't deserve the title."

His face is impassive as he stares you down and you think you've finally hit the mark hard. Then he smiles and you feel your heart sink, of course not, why would it ever be that easy?

"You're correct. My life became a disaster and my death has gone no better. Everything I do will always be tainted with fear of the Adversary. Which is why I've been looking for someone without that fear I can trust to take it over. Cheshago only cared about power, so I gave him just enough to cause him no end of trouble and in the end it seems trouble found him. You Sharell, you're someone I can work with. No, work for."

The flip this conversation has taken would give you vertigo if you weren't in this weird dreamscape. You boggle.

"You're serious."

He nods. "Very. The nature of this artifact lets me share my power with you, and you're the last person I need to tell that I have quite a bit of it. Just a little bit at first, I think. Until there's more trust between us. In return, I need you to bring this to a definitive conclusion. Keep Cheshago and the Adversary and Hand, if they're still out there, from using my work to bring an age of sorrows."

You wince, "I've got bad news for you, there."

He chuckles ruefully, "fine, more of an age of sorrows."

Something about that seems to stir something in him and he turns to look out over the shining city, and you swear you see his eyes get misty, "I remember every brick, every stone, every soul. If you really want to go all-in, we could rebuild it. You've lived a desperate hardscrabble life and you're almost the only one left of your friends. The world wasn't meant to be this hard. We could put it back the way it was, the way it should be. Do it right this time."

The way he says it raises your hackles immediately, you're not even going to begin to take the chance that he means to build it on top of Gem's shattered ruin. "Hard pass on that."

"Had to ask," he says sadly, "the rest of it?"

[ ] Accept the deal.
[ ] Refuse, but keep the Yasal Crystal.
[ ] D̵̯͎̚ē̴̯s̷̹̉t̷̼̏̒r̶̲̜̒̔o̴̺̓y̷͉̣̕ ̶̛͍̉h̶̘̎i̸̯̘̕m̴̗̓.̵̳͋͛ ̷̞͓͗B̵̞͑̎ṛ̷͖̊ẹ̵̱́̿a̸̡͠k̸̹̩͊ ̵̦̥͗t̴̟͇́͠h̴̤̅̇e̵͔̜͝ ̴̲̟́ĉ̴̈́͜r̷̥͝y̴͕̐ș̶͐ͅt̵͔̑ä̵̛̪̞́ḽ̶̑͝.̸̼̈͘
[ ] Nuts to this. Put him back in the box.

Guancyto · Jan 18, 2020

"Now hold on just a second." You hold up your hands, "I can understand Cheshago, but what did Hand ever do to you?"

The Dreamer's face is impassive, "it's important to hedge one's bets. It's been a long time and I don't even know if she's survived all this time, but she possessed unparalleled knowledge of my methods and operations. She would be extremely dangerous if she put that knowledge to the wrong ends."

You furrow your brow at him. "So, what, paranoia? About someone who's probably long dead and only tried to help people and was never anything but good to you right up until you tried to kill her."

"Hedging one's bets," he says, more firmly this time. "If she has a grudge about the way things turned out I wouldn't blame her. If she's dead or if she's retained her old habits of helping those in need or if she's found a new life and a new cause, there'll be no cause for conflict. But if there is cause for conflict, it's better to be sure and agree upon it in advance."

Well, the last thing you remember about the Gentle Guiding Hand was her dying and you're not even rightly sure her soul survived, but by the time that happened the Dreamer was already gone. He might have some secret information about her survival or maybe the dream was inaccurate somehow, but the simplest explanation is that he just doesn't know and the thing he did where he deep-dove your entire fucking history at once didn't cover that bit.

Well, hell if you're going to be the one to tell him. Maybe constantly looking over his shoulder will keep him busy not trying to take over your mind.

"All right, I accept," you say, "but I'm staying in the driver's seat the whole time."

"Of course, of course!" the Dreamer says, and takes your hand. The city fades to white and the first thing you see is the big, worried face of Steals Kisses.

"Oh, thank goodness," she says, "I didn't think you were ever going to wake u- eek!"

The device with the Yasal Crystal that you had been hugging next to your chest springs to life. Its golden frames unhinge reminiscent of spider legs, extending its tendrils under your clothes, the cool of metal slithering along your skin and slowly warming to match your bodies heat. There's no pain, but you still yelp as the attachment process presses the Yasal Crystal directly against your chest.

Ahh, the Dreamer says, it's so good to be out and about again.

Me. In the driver's seat. The whole time, you shoot back.

Of course, of course, just let me enjoy the moment, would you? he says, and you know the tone. The one of a man feeling the sunlight on their skin after spending half their life in the Despot's dungeons.

"So… was that supposed to happen?" Steals asks.

You shake your head. The Dreamer might be having fun but you're suddenly completely aware of your skin and how you're driving it with your muscles and bones and the taste of the bun you ate this morning lingering on your teeth and it feels a little like a very low-key drug trip.

Whenever Sharell rolls Awareness, rolls of 9 are two successes, and her appreciation for fine perceptual details is increased.

You are also aware of the smell of smoke, and rather a lot of it.

"...I thought you were doing distractions."

"They were very distracted!" Steals nods proudly, "I helped myself to some of your bombs, too, hope you don't mind, but this place is a little more on fire than it was. Ten has, uh, Ten drew a lot of them out with the Chest, like she was supposed to. Probably too many of them, I think? The idea was to divide them and, well, thanks to me they took some time getting their act together, but they aren't actually that divided."

"Misery?"

"Haven't seen her! Haven't seen the lion either, so that's a win in my book."

Assuming she's alive, anyway. You pick yourself back up and look at Steals properly, suddenly aware that everything she has on her person is stolen. Your mind starts by itself on assembling a dossier of her potential misdeeds (and it's a long list!) before you stop yourself.

Sharell is permanently aware of opportunities to use her Investigation skills, particularly where it concerns crime scenes, suspicious people, and traps. At present, she is automatically aware that Steals Kisses is an incredibly suspicious person that she should build a Profile on.

"I am talking to Sharell right now, right?" Steals gives you some side-eye, "not some kind of freaky monster using her as a skin suit? Tell me something only Sharell would know."

...that's actually a question you're asking yourself a little right now, but if she decides she needs to fight you then Ten is going to have a very bad day.

"When were younger you brought home a whole sack of bread loaves. We all got way too far into them before we broke one open and it was full of this weird white mould. We all got so sick that when you went on your date with Whispering Winds he went in for a kiss you threw up in his mouth," you say, barely able to keep the smirk off your face.

"Oh good, you're just the normal kind of horrible monster," she groans, punching you in the arm. It still hurts, so either you didn't get tougher from your bargain with Dreamer or he's a dick and is letting you get punched. "Come on, things have gotten a bit crazy."

Steals' suspicions assuaged you look out and find she's dragged you back into the adjoining building through the tunnel. Diamond's Ruin is a lot more on fire than it was before and you can hear people shouting and running and a cackle that sounds like Ten Feathers all right, but the sudden addition of smoke (some of which looks like your smoke bombs) to the battlefield is a problem for you.

Up to difficulty 3 Awareness actions related to sight are automatically successful. Sharell gains an extra two dice to notice hidden things and disguises, and negates penalties from smoke or fog.

Until it suddenly isn't: you catch glimpses of what's going on through tiny gaps in the smoke and you slowly piece together what's beyond, giving you an eye watering sight of a cloud of blocking smoke and what's beyond all mixed together in your vision so there's no difference. Chest strapped to their back like a backpack, Ten is running for their life from a pretty unreasonable number of goons. Their parkour skills aren't as good as yours, either, not by a long shot.

And there's Diamond in the back, in no hurry at all, a trio of bodyguards keeping pace with him.

Perception 3 + Awareness 3 + 2 Keen Sight = 3 successes.

If it's not him then it's a really good fake. Either way, you should probably save Ten.

That looks like a situation that could use your intervention, the Dreamer chuckles. Personally I'd go for the leader, but you might have a different approach and, well, I do work for you now, don't I?

Damn right you do, you think.

Be that as it may, don't presume you're invincible merely because you're backed by one of the greatest beings to ever live. There are limits to how much of my power I can share, and frankly, how much I retained.

Fine, then. How are you going to handle this?

[ ] It's much too far a shot for a slingstone at this distance. Or it was, anyway. Now, maybe not so much.
[ ] Not invincible, but definitely good enough to show off for Ten Feathers. Charge in and deck those goons right in the schnoz!
[ ] Find a high place and start talking. Spellbind them with your words!
[ ] Use your bombs and… damn it Steals! Well there's plenty down here, quickly make something.
[ ] Diamond's after the Chest. It's been a while since you've been in a relay race but swoop in and take it off Ten's hands, they'll split up nice and good when that chest is moving.

Guancyto · Jan 26, 2020

Catching flickers of the chase through the smoke, you turn to Steals and point to a rooftop along the street.

"Can you meet me there? Going to play keepaway with the chest. I'll go fetch it, then we'll get them running about chasing us. Break them up so Ten Feathers can deal with them."

"Sure," Steals Kisses says bouncing on her heels. "Easy, easy. I'll do the distraction thing."

"Distraction thing? Oh hey my bombs! Give those back!" you yell at her retreating back, but you don't need the Dreamer's help to know she's ignoring you on purpose. Well, she probably does need them more right now, you've got other options.

You think. And immediately after you think, you do.

On her turn, Sharell can automatically leap a range band in combat without concerning herself with height or distance or difficult terrain.

You've made some exceptional leaps in your day, but always with the right preparation and your very human frailty has always made sure it's hurt at least a little. The sudden way your muscles coil feels like you're a tiger ready to pounce, your prey the smoky fray and it is so, so doomed. The world around you blurs as the coil releases and you shoot like an arrow, the sheer effortlessness of it almost makes you laugh aloud. You've worked so, so hard to be good at this your whole life. This, though? This is just cheating!

You dive into the smoke, the swirls your body makes as it parts it rolling out and then bouncing off the surroundings. The reflected patterns whorl in front of your eyes and help guide you through, slipping right under the nose of a coughing mercenary and over a short stone wall that had kneecapped someone far less lucky with their eyesight. Ten Feathers has gotten themselves behind a broken cart further down, keeping the mercenaries from pressing down on them with their flame piece, a blossom of bright white light flaring through the smoke any time someone tries their luck.

You're not entirely sure how much Dreamer's power can let you get away with so you pass on trying to run into that, looking for an alternative.

"Up, along the roofs," the Dreamer says. It's still a shock to hear a voice in your head that isn't yours, but you thankfully don't jump at it. Right now you're not even sure how far you'd go if you did.

The buildings here are simple things, a single door with no windows and large chunks of misshapen stone fixed together with mortar. A certain lack of gutters and drainpipes too. Unless they're well weathered it's a rough climb and the ones here have been washed clean by the deluge, but haven't quite reached that crumbled state you like. You try anyway, reaching out with a hand to feel along the stone for an edge.

For the rest of the scene, Sharell has perfect balance and can stand on things that shouldn't really be able to support her weight. Any feats requiring balance no longer require a roll.

It's only a fingertip you can press into the gap where the stones join, but it's enough to push yourself up just enough to throw an arm out and catch the shallow curve of a rock. Hands sliding off it you keep up the momentum, boots biting into impossibly small footholds and hands grasping at the tiniest cracks and forcing them to make do, if just for a moment. A pulse of surprise hammers at your heart as you grip the roof edge and pull yourself up, a climb that could have taken you a precious minute over in seconds.

After that, running across the roofs is child's play and you draw level with Ten Feathers, the black and gold chest on the ground beside them as they pour firedust down the barrel of their rifle. You wait for your new senses to flag them up as a suspicious person, ready for the litany of crimes.

They look at you staring at them and tilt their head. "Sharell what are you doing?"

"Wait, you haven't broken the law at all?" you blurt out when you realise the senses aren't wrong, they're just not finding anything to complain about.

Ten Feathers thumps their chest. "I am the law."

Oh. Right. Gem. Yeah. Unfair.

"And I thought you were running!" you say as they snap their firewand back into place and fire another shot. Now that you're close enough to have line-of-sight they're red in the face and breathing hard, inhumanly good at things they might be but apparently distance sprinting while carrying a heavy load isn't one of their strong points. Then again, is it anyone's strong point?

"Fine, stay put, I need the chest!" you call and they wave their hands at the chest and then more angrily at the mercenaries shooting at them. They couldn't see a few had broken off to circle around them and warning Ten will do no good. You trust in the power, diving off the side of the rooftop and sliding down the stone, the faint bumps enough to slow your descent that the impact with the ground is merely knee rattling instead of bone shattering.

You grit your teeth and push yourself to keep moving. The Dreamer doesn't seem to bother helping you unless you really need it, he isn't going to waste power just making things more comfortable for you. You can't really argue with that, but your knees aren't willing to stop throbbing just because it's practical. An arrow whistles your way and you slide into cover with Ten, wrapping your arms around the chest and giving them a smug smile.

"That was good right?"

"Now we can both die here, superb," they grump.

"Ten! You think I'd let you down? You'd kick my butt if I dared."

Ten's a little busy but you think you hear a scoff.

You grab the chest and heave, it's not overly huge but it is made of heavy metal and your noodly arms strain to lift it. You feel warmth flowing through your muscles as Dreamer moves to assist and the chest gets lighter. It's still pretty heavy and while at least you can lift it now, you're not going to be carrying it across the city or anything.

Allows you to buff up your strength to meet the requirement for a feat of strength. Unfortunately, this at most doubles your strength and Sharell, well, she's not exactly strong.

"A little more?" you huff as you get your hands under the chest and hold it up.

"I can only work with what's there I'm afraid. I'd advise you stick to your strengths - no pun intended. I can aid so much better there."

If he didn't intend that pun you're a two-headed wildebeest, but the point is made. Your arms will ache in the morning, but you can just about deal with the weight thanks to the Dreamer's help. Now you just need to pick your exit.

"I'm going to make a run for it. Draw them off after me, you be good with a few?"

Ten Feathers barks a laugh. "Give me an opening and I'll be fine. I've survived worse."

You're pretty sure they haven't, but now's not the time for it. You risk a peek through a gap in the cart and your ridiculously enhanced vision sees that Steals has gotten on the roof, but the hounds have been released early and a small pack are barking up at her. Tracking hounds aren't really much use in a warzone, but it seems you're already making Diamond desperate enough to do foolish things. It does complicate matters though, you can't pass the chest off to her without dealing with those dogs.

Maybe a change of plan then and quick, before the mercenaries finishing sneaking round and you're both in a lot of trouble.

[ ] Go long, try to draw Diamond's band into some of the groups of mercenaries fighting elsewhere in Gem. It'll separate you from your friends, but help whittle down the enemy band through attrition.
[ ] Go high! Find the tallest place you can, present the chest and do your own round of taunting Diamond, just to make sure the heat's really off Ten. Then run like hell.
[ ] Go wide. Work your way around to Steals and then you're going to have to deal with some dogs early. If only there was someone whose job was to specifically deal with animals.
[ ] Go… deep? Circle back to Diamond's Ruin and find Misery, she's missing and she might have a lion now. You're not really sure where you were going with that one except that you want to make sure she's contributing.

Guancyto · Feb 5, 2020

Making Steals run away from a pack of dogs feels at the very best a bit mean, but then she did take all your bombs and she'll probably be fine, dogs hate bombs right? Maybe it's the heady rush of power from suddenly pushing past your mortal limits, but you're really the only one who can pull this thing off.

Ten goes up to take a shot and you burst out from behind the wagon as all the mercenaries duck for cover, soaring up the side of the building and landing neatly on the lip of the roof. A cool exit somewhat spoiled by some panicked flailing as the weight of the chest threatens to push you back over the edge. At least it catches the attention of the people below as you stumble forward onto the roof and then twist to look at them, blowing hair out of your face.

Thankfully using this doesn't worry about encumbrance!

"Hey Diamond!" you shout from your high perch, hefting the Chest over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Looking for this?"

You see arrows ready but trust in the faerie gift in your voice, the trilling notes just outside the range of human hearing that keep them from aggression, at least until Ten has made their escape.

Perception 3 + Socialize 3 vs Perception 2 + Socialize 4 = 3 successes vs 3 successes. A standoff of motives!

The two of you stare each other down, him surrounded by rough killers, you empowered by the strength of ages (not that he knows that, not yet), and you realize for the first time that you have no idea what to taunt him with.

"Sadly, my eternal nemesis, you have failed!" you start. You're winging it but it doesn't need to be a powerful or compelling speech, you just need to keep talking. "You will remember this as the day that you almost caught-"

He stops questioning his own people and looks up, "who the hell are you?!"

...eh? What? He doesn't know? Either it's not the real Diamond or he just… doesn't know?

The Dreamer is laughing at you. In fact, you suspect he's laughing at you and Diamond both. Never spoke with him, did you?

Shut it! you fire back, what can you give me on this guy, anyway? It is, you realize, actually kind of hard to get under the skin of someone you've never met.

I never spoke with him either, the Dreamer says, still laughing, and the only reason I know who he is? Is because you do.

You file away this apparent limitation in the Dreamer's omniscience for later, you've got work to do!

Manipulation 3 + Presence 1 = 1 success. You just have to keep talking, but it's a shot in the dark as to what will make him mad. This might not end well.

"Oh this is great, I've taken apart your whole plan," you say with a manic smile, "and you don't even know who I am!"

The air sings with your words and Diamond's mercenaries keep going to draw their bows before your words catch them and they settle back to listen. It's a fragile peace you're weaving here, but as long as you fill the space with words it'll last for now.

"A little fey magic and a flair for the dramatic. It's not that hard to guess," Diamond replies with a smug smile of his own. "You're helping with Ten Feathers' latest revolution, I take it? I thought I'd ask for his help, but then I thought, nah, that doesn't end well. Nobody's ever worked with Ten Feathers and come out better for it. Either he wins and turns on everybody that made it happen, or he loses and does it anyway to save his skin."

Ten is exchanging fire with all those you didn't manage to catch in your conversational trap, their focus on trying not to die is pretty absolute but you can see a dark, dark look on their face.

"Come on Diamond,'' you huff, sitting down on the edge of the roof, "you really think I'd buy that? I know enough about Ten to know they wouldn't break the laws of Gem and revolution is pretty high up there as things you just don't do."

Diamond's laugh like a slap to the face, crashing through the roar of the flames and clash of steel.

"How precious! I can see you're young and while I respect your enthusiasm the lack of experience really shows I'm afraid. You must have been just a child the last time someone tried to wrest Gem free from the iron grip of the Despot, a lady with a heart of gold promised people a better future and with Ten Feathers at their right hand they seemed they might just pull it off."

A ball of flame spits out from where Ten Feathers is fighting, washing down the street. The mercenaries' bow arms tense, but the flames lick out before they reach them. You can feel the fey magic straining under it though, this ripple of the disharmony bouncing off the thin wall of civility you're using as protection. You glare at Ten Feathers, but they're already back to fighting their own battle. The lack of trust that you can handle this does hurt a little, but you'll talk about it later.

"You think you're going to get me over the fact Gem makes people compromise their morals you really don't know me," you say, watching the trigger fingers of Diamond's guards. They've backed away from Ten's redoubt and eased off the more Diamond and you talk, which is good enough for now. You just need to draw this out a little longer. "It's not all on one person to make things get better, they tried, that's enough."

Well, the Dreamer whispers in the back of your head I'm afraid there we disagree. You wave a hand in front of your face to shush him.

"If it had stopped there then I'd agree," ahh fuck how does he get to be so smug, it's betraying the laws of nature, "but then he wouldn't have become the Despot's Hound. No, for that Ten Feathers had to not just betray the people, he had to crush their spirit. The Despot's smart enough to know you can't cut the throat of every rebel or there wouldn't be a city left to rule. Instead Ten Feathers gave himself up as his instrument of control, knowing all the secrets of the people he'd fought against, vanishing the woman he'd called a partner and remaining as the boot stamping down on any embers of revolution that'd try to flare up. Using whoever else he could along the way."

'Oh bullshit' is your immediate thought. Interesting; I can show if he's telling the truth, the Dreamer offers and you shake your head. Well, I suppose if you refuse you've made up your mind already.

You like Ten Feathers a lot, they're spirited and full of passion. A bit violent, but not nearly as much as they pretend to be and if people think they're cruel then that's just one of their tricks working. Ten Feathers is a mystery and… you do have to acknowledge you love mysteries. Is this one you want to solve? Or does Ten deserve to just be Ten without you dragging up a history they clearly aren't interested in telling you?

[ ] Find out if Diamond is full of shit
[ ] Don't pull that thread

Your ears pick up the tension of a bowstring, something you're pretty sure isn't possible without Dreamer's help and with his gentle touch your attention snaps back to the scene. A bow nearly drawn pointing right at you, the thin thread of fey magic breaking apart as you're lulled into silence.

Diamond looks so pleased with himself, he's planned this. Has he worked the magic out? He does deals with the Fair Folk, it'd make sense he'd pick up a few tricks.

You have just a moment to get their attention again, then Misery comes bursting through the wall below, claw-rent robes fluttering around her as she focuses on punching the hell out of a Lion.

The words die in your throat, you aren't going to top that as a distraction.

[ ] Book it! Stick to the plan of splitting them up for defeat in detail.
[ ] Drop down to help Misery. She claimed she could deal with the lion, this doesn't quite look like that.
[ ] Help Steals. Either she's got the dogs under control or you've got an excuse to unleash a dog-pocalypse upon everyone watching.
[ ] Confront Ten. Help them fight, collar the bad guy and while you're there ask all the questions.
[ ] Let Dreamer Handle it. He wanted this, he should earn his keep!

Guancyto · Feb 12, 2020

The Lion and Misery are making an ungodly racket as they spill out onto the streets and it saves your skin. The Mercenary lets loose their arrow with a thin snap that you hear as clearly as if it had echoed out in a quiet room and the feathers of it kiss against your neck as you leap aside.

4 Archery + 2 Dexterity + 1 Archery Spec = 4 successes. Matches Sharell's standard DV, but Sharell has a Distractions specialty in play here. Not good enough!

You feel the charm in your voice crack, coughing reflexively as it worms its way back to wherever it hides. It leaves an awkward silence hanging over the street and then an awful lot of shouting from everybody rushes in to take its place.

You're pressed down onto the rooftop so the next volley of arrows swish harmlessly overhead, but the heavy chest is still an issue and you drag both it and yourself further back so you've got some space to move. Misery and Ten are in a bit of trouble, but you're confident they'll handle it somehow just as long as they don't get overwhelmed. The best way you can help right now is to draw as much attention on yourself as possible.

Ten.

Ten's going to betray me.

It's an ugly thought, so ugly you're pretty sure it's not really your own. You've only known Ten Feathers a few days and clearly there's a lot left unsaid, but the idea they've been just using you feels wrong. Not only do they have more than enough to go to the Despot and ruin your day and they're holding off on it, but you have the prize so many have bled and died for attached to your chest and feeding you strength and Ten just let you have it.

No, if they're in this to use you up and burn you then they've chosen a crazy roundabout way to do it. And, you reluctantly admit to yourself, when they squeezed your hand it had felt warm and genuine. So no! To hell with Diamond, he doesn't know shit.

The arrows overhead are arcing higher now to account for the lip of the roof, coming down in a tinkling rain as the metal heads bounce off stone tiles. This isn't really the best place to work through this, even if you do have bullshit ancient ghost powers now.

You really need to stop putting the chest down, you think, gasping as you lift it back up onto your shoulder. The Dreamer enhancing your muscles only just enough that everything is still hard to lift feels like a bit of an intentional dig at your personal fitness.

It's not, he says in your head, voice a little amused, I can only work with what's there is all.

Totally a dig. You haul the chest to the edge of the roof and hop off, feet finding tiny gaps in the stonework for you to balance on as you jump across a gap as if it were nothing more than a small crack in the pavement. All it takes is a little power to turn a city you've spent years learning to traverse safely into something that you can flow through like a gentle breeze.

The deep booming yells of a lion that is not enjoying being punched in the face is drowning out a lot of the sounds of the blazing city but you can pick the jingling sound of chainmail chasing after you and the soft leather of Diamond's shoes on cobblestone. Success!

Fumbling into a pocket you take out your sling and press a metal bullet into the pouch. You don't even try to aim all that hard as you use the weight of the chest as leverage to spin yourself around, flinging it out towards Diamond and his troops and missing them completely, metal loudly knocking off stone and clattering down the street.

There's a yell and you finish your spin with a little flourish of your arm and run to the other side of the roof, skidding to a stop when you see it open up into a market area that's half alight, empty stalls woven from reeds and the willowy tree branches of the desert are barely able to hold your weight at the best of times, lugging around a chest the weight of a small child would be a disaster.

I may not be able to do much with your weaknesses, the Dreamer says just a little too huffily for your liking, but you have strengths too. One foot in front of the other and let's trust each other to keep us out of the fire.

The idea of trusting the Dreamer any further than you already have gives you a horrible case of the shivers, hands flexing into fists and straining at the very idea of it. But whatever malign thoughts the sickness is pushing onto you is beaten by something far more powerful. You really, really want to do this ridiculous thing because the bragging rights over Steals will be immense.

You hop off the edge of the roof just as you see the flash of steel spear tips rounding the corner and your foot finds a pole to balance on, that begins to bend and snap as you stand there marvelling.

Keep going! The Dreamer hisses, You don't get anything for inaction, exert yourself!

You stumble forward and catch your footing on a thin support for the stall's poles, it snaps and cracks under your weight but it holds at least until you move on and then it breaks apart like it's been smashed by an angry fist of a vengeful god.

Picking their way through the flames and coughing through the smoke, your pursuers can't see as well as you do nor move as quickly. So they don't see the small group of fighters already laying waste to the market, nor the one with a flame piece raising to take a shot with far too much blood already running down their face into their eyes. You don't even know what they're aiming at but there's no doubt they completely whiff it, the shot blazing though some of the markets debris and smashing into the wall of an aged shopfront that just can't take the hit and begins to collapse in on itself.

Dexterity 3 + Athletics 3 + Urban Traversal 1 + Excellency 4 = 1 success

Okay so being amazingly good doesn't mean it works all the time.

You're not going to pass up all those footholds! Running across a small waterfall of bricks and shattered support beams and straight towards the melee itself, an empowered leap launching you through the air and straight onto the best foothold you've had yet. Some unlucky soul's metal helmet shaped like a beetle head, only the first in a chain as you bounce between them thoroughly annoying both sides who swing at you with long spears that are just giving you another convenient foothold to use, one which you go right for.

Convenient footholds that move and as you plant a foot where a spear should be it's pulled back and you spill head first into the melee, body checking one a woman in a far less fancily styled helmet and smashing his shoulder with the edge of the chest, sending her down cursing bloody murder.

Sharell's face planted into combat and everyone's rolled super bad for initiative!

Initiative

Beetle Head Helmets: 4
Boring Normal Helmets: 3
Sharell: 3

First Group: Dex 3 + Melee 3 + 1 Size = 2 success
Second Group: Dex 2 + Melee 4 + 1 Size = 4 success

The first misses. The second gets to press her and would hit! But she's got charms at her back still you can see below.

Against two battlegroups it's going to suck for Sharell to fight, but you can't just leave combat unless you can just Monkey Jump up and away, which she can making it the best charm oh my god.

Combat over in one round, Sharell isn't sticking about!

Sharell sinks 2 Initiative for an extra Evasion so they miss.

Sharell moves a range band up!

A Beetle Helmet man with a massive hammer comes swinging in and you dance back out of their reach, leaving him spinning on the spot from the over commit. You back right up into the hard metal of a chestplate and an arm grabs around your stomach pinning you in place. There's the sound of a blade scraping free of a leather scabbard and you try to twist free of their grip but they've got a really good hold. They've got a dagger that they go right for your throat with and in a last desperate attempt you raise your legs and kick out to try find some purchase. A warm rush of energy flows down your legs and there's a blast of wind as your feet smash against the air itself, pushing the pair of you back and letting you slide out of their grasp as they're knocked over.

You don't even see your attacker amongst the confusing smoke and gleaming tips of Diamond's mercenaries spears as they pile right in to this messy brawl, a spear aimed for your chest cut short as you take another flying leap and flip right on out of there back up to the rooftops to the shocked gasps of a not insignificant few of them.

"Fae Witch!" someone cries and you'll take it, flicking back your coat and letting it fan around you.

"That's right mortals!" you say with an edge of a manic cackle that you hadn't meant to be there, but your nerves are shot from that far too close call. "Guards, take care of them for me!"

Then you run for it, happy that if only a few of them buy it that'll be enough for it to be an almighty mess. Smoke's burning your lungs and all this leaping about is magical and fun but it's also absolute hell on your knees. You're wearing down and you're going to need a solution soon, you think as you take another roof leap and almost twist your ankle, going down in an undignified sprawl.

"Looks like you could use a hand." You look up, not for the first time today, into the smiling face of Steals Kisses.

"You pick the worst timing, I looked so good a moment ago," you groan, taking the offered hand. "Guess you stopped being trapped."

"I used Ash to escape the dogs just like you said," she says proudly.

"But you're clean." Well, as clean as she ever is. Not a spot of ash on her.

"Well," she grins, "let's not find those dogs again, because they're going to be really mad about how I used it."

You can't help but chuckle despite yourself. "All right, I've got an idea. You've still got some of my bombs?"

"A few!"

"Right, this'll take some twine and we'll need to scrounge up some more scrap, they're not far behind but we can make this work…"

...

??? 3 + ??? 2 + Dreamer Help 4 = 4 successes

Your name was one you'd earned in a gutsy tale of misadventure, but mercenaries being mercenaries they just call you Rash. Diamond might have pulled you out of the gutter and he might be paying you a good bit of money but he hasn't been paying you to chase damned roof pixies around, or whatever these girls are. Your sword's already wet with the blood of some idiot who took you for a fair folk and all the taunting is really getting on your nerves. But you're closing on them now, they might be quick but you've got stamina on your side.

You catch a flash of the one's coat as they take another roof, and you let fly an arrow. You don't see the result but you know you've finally got them when you hear a loud "FUCK" from the roof above and a heavy thud on the cobblestones before. Sounds more like a clang, even. You and five of your buddies and Diamond round the alley to see that the roof pixie has dropped the big prize. The big prize! But…

"Boss," you snap your head back to Diamond, "it's open. Just a crack. Fall must've jostled it loose."

Diamond looks absolutely dumbstruck. "What, that's all it took? After all the…" he starts swearing uncontrollably, which is a bit out of character for him but after all the hats he's dropped on the ground for this thing it seems completely reasonable to you to be pissed that a nice drop from a high height would do it. That was your first idea, anyway.

You and yours go to take a peek inside to see what the treasure that everyone was fussing about was, when Diamond shouts, "Wait! It can't possibly be that simple, it's a trap-"

Your partner has already opened it, and inside is a mess of wood spheres and scrap metal and other bits. Too late you dive to the ground as-

BOOM

A whole barn's worth of roofing nails and sharp metal turns the alley into a pincushion and all those unfortunate enough to be near it don't do much better, groaning men writhe around on the ground all around you. You've gotten lucky, only taking a few to the legs as one of your comrades had eaten the brunt of nails that were meant for you. You reach for your quiver, but it's been knocked to one side and the arrows all spill out onto the ground with a great clatter.

"Ouch, embarrassing," one of the roof pixies says from above swinging something round and round to her side. "If they're this bad at fighting maybe you should've picked them for brains instead, Diamond."

Diamond swears as the pixie snaps her arm out and your vision goes dark.

You are Sharell Zenteno. And Diamond in Your Knapsack is awfully low on goons right now.

What's your play here?

[ ] Kill him?
[ ] Kill him.
[ ] Kill him!
[ ] You had probably best kill him, the Dreamer notes.
[ ] What? No! If Ten gets to do this, you get to do this. "Confess your crimes!"
[ ] It's a mess right now, just restrain him and do this when everyone's back.
[ ] Straight to the Despot! There will be no messing about.
[ ] Wave Crashes Against the Rocks did ask you to find him, you can really prove to her you did that.
[ ] Other (Write-in)

Guancyto · Feb 24, 2020

The pair of you lay into the few mercs still standing and after the shock of the explosion and with your substantial height advantage it's a decidedly one-sided fight. You go for the ones with weapons drawn first, smashing into their limbs with the heavy sling bullets and leaving them rolling around in pain.

Steals Kisses flicks one of her knives out beside you and you spin and let the Dreamer guide your hand, releasing your sling bullet so it flies through the air and knocks off her knife, flinging it into the thigh of one Mercenary while bouncing off to smash right below the helmet of another, painfully bruising an eye.

"Well that's just cheating," Steals huffs as she waits for you to not have a sling bullet ready before throwing her next knife. There's no one left who is really a threat anymore, you're just bullying whoever is left until they give up and lay down in defeat.

"Right?" you agree, nodding furiously. "It's so good, you missed me running across a group of mercenaries helmets earlier. Perfectly, with no accidents at all."

Steals gives another little huff and narrows her eyes at you, but you return with such a smug smile she seems to buy it and gives you a friendly punch on the arm as she tucks her knives away, work done.

It stings a bit, and you don't dare risk a punch back, she might explode. Instead you pick your way through the fan of downed fighters towards Diamond at a leisurely pace.

int 4 + Investigation 4 = 5 successes.

He's sporting a few spots of blood on his clothes from the nail bomb, but it's just scratches and it's obvious to you he's just faking something worse. There's still that steely confidence in his eyes too, not the paranoid man you'd heard Steals describe. Is this the double? There's a trick going on here for sure, you'll just have to dig a little more to find out what.

"Ah," he says, affecting a pained voice, "Please could you ju-"

You shut up with a boot to the face and wave for Steals to come over and tie him up. If he does have a plan it'd be stupid to stay here and let him carry it out, better to keep him subdued until you're ready to deal with his attempts at needling you.

You've done well, but it really would be best to kill him. I can help work out his plans just fine without having to deal with the seeds of betrayal he's laying, Dreamer says as if that's just a perfectly reasonable suggestion. You fold your arms and shake your head slightly and he doesn't put any further fight for his plan beyond a small sigh. You're fine with that, long as he follows your lead you don't mind if he's a bit annoyed about it.

"We done?" Steals says as she binds his hands with leather cords she's pulled from a pouch, winding them into loops around fingers and wrists and then pulling and tying a firm knot so his hands are completely entangled.

"We just have to hope the others did okay, it'll be best to handle this when we're all back together," you say, "congratulations on your first successful Diamond heist."

"First?" Steals laughs. "Even with your bullshit powers I guess you don't know everything."

...

The city is still a mess and you can't run the roofs with Diamond in tow, but between your enhanced senses and Steals up on high directing you it isn't too difficult to wind around the danger and back to the rat infested Temple at the Eatery. Tiny beady eyes watch you from the shadows as you go about tying Diamond to a chair, making sure you aren't going to cause any trouble while Niall is away. You've encouraged him to stay away for all this and hopefully he'll never find out the full story of what you've been up to or the lectures about taking care of the one life you have will be endless.

Ten is late to your rendezvous, with freshly-applied bandages to some nasty arrow cuts - apparently a sustained shootout with a large number of goons will take a lot out of them. When you ask them about it, they brusquely say they'll be fine.

The Dreamer notes before you can even ask that you have no medical expertise whatsoever, so no, he really can't give you anything to help. You protest, but you had declared someone dead by accident before so you can't really argue too hard.

Misery takes even longer to arrive and her normally-immaculate clothes are an absolute wreck. She takes a detour to her room to change and as she comes back in she's drinking some kind of strange purple liquid out of a vial. You suspect she's going to be exactly as chatty about it as Ten is about their injury.

"We resolved our disagreement," she says. Yup, that's pretty much what you expected. Also as you expected, Misery lights up like a firefly sanctuary under your investigative vision. Yes, she's very suspicious. This is not news.

"Was that the part where your flesh disagreed with his stomach, or your fist disagreed with his face?" Ten asks, leaning against a wall.

Misery holds up another one of those purple vials in her fingers and shakes it in Ten's direction, who scowls and says nothing further.

"I thought you said you could handle the lion?" Steals says from her perch on a pew, legs kicking back and forth as Leviathan lies below waving their paws to try to attack her boot laces.

"I thought I had an understanding with them, but apparently even a lion can swallow its pride for enough coin. It's a resolved issue, they won't be bothering us again," she says as she adjusts a fresh shawl around her neck, wincing from the arm movements.

"Wow, it seems everyone hates you. You really have the worst luck," Steals says and shies back quick when Ten Feathers flashes her a death glare.

Huh.

Well as much as you want to poke that sore tooth, you've got more important things to do. As Misery tosses Ten the vial you go to slap Diamond awake. You haven't taken out the gag yet but you've got Ten's bullshit crime sense now, so unraveling Diamond should be easy as a-

You do a double take at him.

"Ten!" you say urgently, "Ten, his crimes!"

Ten sniffs at him, looking at his face.

"No," Ten says, their scowl deepening as they see it too. The man you've got in the chair is innocent. Well, mostly. "Fuck, no. He had all the right body language. He knew too much to be a double. He must have found a way to hide from my senses, or some technicality that got him a stay of execution, or…"

"Or it's not the real Diamond," you say heavily. "What happened to the other one?"

"Gone," Misery says, "got caught between me and the Lion, they're gone."

"Oh, well, you deal with the dead a lot," you say, feeling dirty actually using that phrase unironically, "can you call them here?"

Misery shakes her head.

"No, I meant it when I said gone. I know a dead body when I see one and that one was all wrong. It was more like cutting the strings to a puppet than the severing of a soul."

Int 4 + Occult 3 = 3 Successes. The training paying off!

You know a lot more about this sort of thing now and a soul and a body aren't something that can easily exist apart. It isn't like he can hide his soul in things, the Dreamer had tried that and his body is definitely gone for good. No when it comes to soulless creatures moving about, you only have one place to go and it isn't a pretty one.

You press a palm to your forehead and grind against it, speaking through gritted teeth. "He made a faerie duplicate of the Chest. The hell does that do to a person?"

Steals looks between the three of you and then rolls her eyes. "They were both fake Diamonds? That's just overdoing it," she says, just absolutely disgusted.

"It's not a person then," Ten Feathers says, still grimacing from the taste of Misery's potion. "A Behemoth that's shaped like him."

"Behemoth's are huge engines of destruction," Misery says, "he's a little short."

"And you don't know Raksha half as well as I do. The huge monsters are popular, but they could be a hurricane, or a poisonous lake or simply a man. If they want to be. It's just a little too boring for most of them. They prefer something with a bit more style."

"So a smaller behemoth-esque creature. A homunculus you might say," Misery says, looking at her nails.

"I'm so glad you're here to prove there's things even more annoying that Raksha," Ten growls, "you want me to correct you on a few things if that's what we're doing?"

"Is Diamond one of the Fair Folk?" you say even as Dreamer clicks his tongue at you for asking silly questions. You can work the answer out yourself but right now a distraction will keep those two from picking at each other. The Fake Diamond will be so much harder to deal with if you all start arguing now.

"In the Guild? No, he'd never last without being found out. They're paranoid about that sort of thing. But nothing stops him trading with them, as long as he makes good on his debts."

"Well he really fucked this one," Steals scoffs. "Half the city on fire and he didn't get anything out of it. I'd have his boots for a bag of sand if we'd ever met."

"Still got the chance," you say, "we work with what we got, let's get the Behemoth up."

"Homunculus," Misery mumbles.

"Don't care, Behemoth's more fun to say."

...

Splashing water on them doesn't work, nor some rather cathartic punches to the arm. In the end you rouse the fake Diamond by taking your iron key from the necklace around your neck and slapping it across their cheek. That wakes them up with a hiss, writhing on the ground to get away from the metal.

If I may, the Dreamer interjects, as a man who's conducted a few interrogations in his life, it's important to have a plan so you don't end up meandering.

The Dreamer's "expertise" in the subject is not really something you want to think about right now, but he's not wrong.

How do you want to do this?

What's your objective? (One is locked in, choose TWO more. You may have the opportunity to ask more later, but you're trying to stop the war so you're on the clock here!)
[*] How do we stop the fighting? (Locked in due to previous choices - Sharell won't not attempt this)
[ ] Why did the Guild War go hot? Why here, and today of all days?
[ ] Where is the Real Diamond and what's he planning?
[ ] Where is Dreams of Red Sands? What's he doing from here?
[ ] What assets does Fake Diamond still have that you could make use of?
[ ] Where's Cheshago's Soul? Why did he have to die?
[ ] How did they find out about the chest?
[ ] What was their endgame here? Is it still possible?
[ ] Why have the Fair Folk gotten so involved in this? What do they stand to gain?
[ ] Other (Write-in)

What's your angle? What do you offer?
[ ] He's not getting much in the way of clemency, but maybe he can angle for a nice cell instead of getting his head cut off.
[ ] He's really not getting clemency, but maybe he can angle for getting his head cut off instead of staked out in the sun for a week.
[ ] Play to his feelings of betrayal - Real Diamond left him holding the bag, time to get revenge.
[ ] Play to his feelings of betrayal and offer (slight) clemency - Real Diamond left him holding the bag but he hasn't actually committed any of those many many crimes, if he plays nice he just might get to keep his head.
[ ] No Mercy. He's a fey creation, so he helps you or you give him back to them.
[ ] Other (Write-in)

Who do you want in the room for the interrogation? (Choose as many as you like or none to do it solo. Well, as solo as you can with the Dreamer in your head.)
[ ] [Interrogation] Misery
[ ] [Interrogation] Ten
[ ] [Interrogation] Steals

A lot's gone unsaid lately. Who do you want to clear the air with later? (Pick One)
[ ] [Clear Air] Misery
[ ] [Clear Air] Ten
[ ] [Enthuse About Bullshit Powers] Steals

Guancyto · Mar 6, 2020

The smell of burnt flesh makes your stomach turn and yet when Diamond takes the hand away from his cheek the burn you'd given him with the cold iron key isn't there anymore. You jangle the chain as if moving to swing it, but are stopped by Ten Feathers pressing a hand to your arm.

"Not the way to do this," they say, "and it puts my teeth on edge."

You nod and tuck the key back into your shirt, sneaking a look at Ten out of the corner of your eye to see if they're angry. Ten has never really embraced their heritage, but they do visibly untense once the key is safely away.

They do look angry, but it's not directed at you. The target of their ire is the wriggling Diamond on the floor, who isn't letting the hands tied behind his back stop him from getting up to a sit so he can crane his neck up and give one of those annoyingly smarmy smiles at the pair of you.

"So good to see you Ten Feathers and… I don't believe I've had the pleasure," Diamond he gives you just a little nod, like you're having goddamn tea here. You stare back, not rising to it and he lets the awkward silence stretch on trying to wait you out. Ten doesn't have the patience for either of you and grabs him by the shirt, hauling him up to a stand before throwing him back none too gently into a chair.

"The fact you're not even the real deal already makes me think I'm wasting my time," Ten Feathers says as they unsling their firewand from their back and make a show of checking it's loaded. "Convince me I'm not."

"Ten, really," Diamond says with a puppy sized bark of a laugh, "I thought I showed already I know you quite well, let's put aside the pretence that you're the hard man of the two of us, shall we?"

You can see Ten's temper rising from the way they grip the rifle barrel tighter and you really don't want to find out just how hard (or if) they're bluffing. It's convincing enough to fool you and Diamond really hasn't shown very good judgement of character so far.

"You are a fake," you say, "I can hit you with the key a few more times if you're not going to admit it."

"If it shines like a Diamond, then why should it be worth any less?" he replies with a gentle smile turned your way. You're starting to prefer it when people are smug at you already. "Another fool who got just what he wished for." (what does this mean?)

Ten bashes him on the leg with their rifle and he hisses, the smile dropping as he stares up at them. Ten raises an eyebrow as he goes to try to smile again and you can watch him decide better of it, stoney faced now.

"Better," Ten says, planting the butt of their rifle on the ground and leaning on it casually. "And Diamond didn't know a damn thing about me, so if your act is to be just like him you'd best find another."

"Can't help if I do a better job at it. Surprising what roles we find ourselves excelling at, isn't it Ten?"

Wits 2 + Perception 3 = 1 success. You catch on quick enough!

Your amped up senses hear the hiss and the scrape of metal on the ground and you step in front of Ten Feathers before she can raise the rifle to beat down on Diamond. They did say that wasn't the way to do it, no point letting him get a small win by making them go back on it.

He's hinting at their past again, the Dreamer murmurs, You could get him to reveal more if you're careful. They wouldn't even know you're doing it.

You feel the itch in your mind to go for it, to dig into the wound and find out what Ten's hiding from you. That crawling feeling along your skin that they're just working their way up to a betrayal and you want to believe it's just the soul-sickness worming its way into your thoughts but you're not sure. Even without that parasite living in your head all the secrets people are keeping would probably have begun to get on your nerves anyway by now.

Trust. Gem rarely ever repays it, but you haven't let the city grind you down yet. For all their faults Ten has done a lot for you, they'll reveal things in their own time. Besides it isn't important, the Dreamer might be more interested in your allies' faults but right now you have a city to save.

"So you make a good Diamond," you say, leaning forward and putting your hands on his shoulders so you can get a look at him up close. "We're after the real thing, but we can settle for a copy. You can take on all his guilt and pay the price for all his crimes."

You raise your hand to pat his cheek.

"You know I heard a funny story about your name."

"I know the story," he grumbles but you press on.

"How a clever Bagman tricked a gullible Lookout, who couldn't look past their own nose and ended up losing their neck for it. Ten, what's the punishment for sedition?"

"Beheading," they say, "if they're lucky"

"I want the Bagman," you say, "you're the Lookout and the sad thing is you've only just realised it. A little too late."

Manipulation 3 + Presence 1 + Excellency 1 = 4 successes. Playing to an intimacy to save their own neck, it's a good hit!

"Ten doesn't kill people," he whines, head hung low. "It's an act."

"More than a few dead out there who'd disagree," Ten says, repeatedly tapping the metal of their rifle like a death march, "let's assume for a second that I play the ruthless killer so people will give up easier. If you've figured it all out, why should I let you live to blab about it?" Their gaze is the sharpest thing in the room and that's saying something, "you think I'm soft but even if I was, the Despot doesn't play that act and you are going to him if you don't help us. You deserve everything he'll give and more."

Ten Feathers has a go. ??? + ??? = ???

"It's too late," Diamond says, shrinking in on himself. "He'll be long gone from the city now, we were going to finish his work and then rub it in his face."

"How'd that turn out?" Ten Feathers says, pulling you back from him so they can get some staring in too.

He grumbles to himself but doesn't reply.

"Answer our questions, help us call off the mercenaries and then…" you decide you can push your luck here with Ten, just a little. "If you really do think Ten is soft, all that help you give us will count for something. We're after Diamond and peace, not whatever the hell you are."

Ten Feathers swats the back of your head, but not that hard. So they're probably not going to murder you after this.

"Sounds like a poor deal to me. Easy to get them to stop fighting each other by letting them know they're not going to get paid, but whoever does it is going to have an exciting new career opportunity as a pincushion. Death by furious mercenaries isn't much of a percentage," Diamond says, but he's sitting up straighter in his seat. You can see the hunger in his eyes for an angle with which they might just save their own neck, however faint a chance.

Ten Feathers shoos away this worry with a flick of her hand. "You're worse than scum, I'm sure you can lie to them one more time."

He's going to go for it, just tip him over the edge Dreamer whispers in the back of your mind. Not something you needed to be told but clearly Dreamer isn't taking the chance you'll miss it. No point ignoring good advice just because it's obvious, you rest a hand on their shoulder and give them your best commiserating look.

"Just get them to stop today and we can worry about tomorrow if there is one."

He rolls his eyes at you and gives out a long suffering sigh that's a bit much, but you let him have it because you're too busy doing a little victory dance in your head.

"Fine," he says, "I wasn't planning on giving up my neck anyway. Name your price."

"Answer my questions. What was Diamond planning?"

"Open an ancient vault out in the desert and enjoy wealth greater than even the Despot," he says with a smile, "stealing from the dead to become the richest man in Creation. Contemptible, but quite the story."

Wealth? Dreamer barks in your head with such a wounded tone you almost thought the paranoid maniac he'd become was back. Is that all he thought it was?

Well you aren't about to correct him. Even that is dangerous enough as it is.

"And who told you about all this wealth? Cheshago?"

"The old man?" he laughs "He kept it all close to heart, but the ghost he was using as his hand, they were much more open to being bought off. Everyone's got their price and theirs was pretty cheap all things considered."

"The Ghost?" Ten asks, "Is this our Exorcist's problem?"

"No, well. Maybe," you say, rubbing your arm uncomfortably, "Dreams of Red Sands right? It was them."

The Fake Diamond spits. "As much use as they were. Call themselves a mercenary and then have other aims? If they can't play the part why even put on the face?"

"Other aims?"

"This vault, they wanted Diamond to open it and then when we're stalled they come to laugh at us and say we're no longer required. To gloat about how they've never liked us and about how their interests are now secure. Diamond's only got one shot to go down swinging. Well, no. Diamond splits, and unless I don't know myself as well as I should he'll be halfway to the Lap by now. We were going down swinging and, well, you can see how well that went. Not for lack of effort, but we weren't expecting whatever kind of monster you are."

"I find lost cats," you say.

"Do you now?" he says, looking past you to Ten Feathers who stares daggers at him. "This one's far too lost for you, I'd find less dangerous work."

"She finds lost cats in Gem," Ten says, and you have to admit that does sound better, "she knows what she's getting into. Stop trying to distract us and give up Red Sands. Not like they're doing anything for you anymore right?"

"Vengeance would be nice, but if you want hard ideas on where that ghost's headed you'll have to speak to him yourself."

"Ugh, Ghosts," Ten Feathers grumbles, "Sharell I can handle this, you want to go consult our expert?"

Actually a good question there. Misery might be useful but she's been shadier than this fake Diamond of late and you certainly don't need the Adversary's infection whispering in your ear to distrust her.

"You keep this interrogation up, I've got my own to get to, yeah," you nod. There's a faint smile on Ten Feather's lips as they turn back to Diamond that Misery is about to get hers that you don't love.

But you can't hate hair that pretty. You really do have the worst taste in partners.

"Misery," you start. She's already raising her hands defensively.

"I know I said I could deal with it," she starts, "it was just tougher than expected."

You pinch the bridge of your nose. If you couldn't deal with cryptic bullshit you'd have to hang up your hat right now, but Misery is an exceptional study at it. "Misery, that's not what I'm worried about. Let's take a walk."

"I'm glad you're not worried about it," she says brightly as the two of you take the air. "The air" being a mixture of smoke and ash and damp rat fur, it's not really as relaxing as it could be. "It was an obvious misjudgement on my part and I'd be grateful if you could just forget it ever happened."

Sharell: Perception 3 + Socialize 3 = 1 success.
Misery: Perception 5 + Socialize 2 = botch.
Finally, a break! Eat it, Misery!

You know a thing or two about Lions and trying to punch one in the face, no matter how strong you are, has a razor-thin margin for error where any mistake ends with some massively strong jaws wrapped around your throat. She seems way too casual about it. Normally you expect this would just be her usual calm beating out the adrenaline of a near-death experience, but...

"Was it, though?" you turn on her. You'd feel like an asshole questioning her like this when she's wounded, especially since it was just helping you, but she has been entirely too mysterious today. "It seems like it was just the distraction we needed, when we needed it, and it didn't seem to be a problem afterward. It wouldn't be totally out of line to say that Ten is still standing right now because you messed up with the Lion."

"No, no," she says too quickly, "I definitely messed up completely. Completely misread how much pull I had with the lions, just glad it worked out."

"Misery," you feel an edge in your voice that you hadn't intended, "that you even think you should have any pull with Lions is the issue. You're strong enough to knock down walls and fight things three times your size, you know what was inside the Chest when everybody who does is either long dead or very recently dead, a whole pile of people in the Underworld hate you for no discernible reason, and you never explain anything."

You hold up a hand to stop her reply as something nagging at the back of your mind finally becomes clear.

"When I came to help you and you just happened to need to help Halrun, you pointed me right at the chest. Ten keeps needling you about it, but a lot of your mistakes seem to turn out really favourably for us. Who are you? What are you? How mixed up in all this are you, really?"

Misery sighs and her shoulders slump. "I really wanted to stay out of this mess, you know. I really did."

"That's not an answer!"

"You might have heard I deal with the dead a lot," she says, raising a hand reflexively just in case you're going to repeat yourself and throw something at her. You don't, it'd get in the way of her getting on with her explanation.

"I don't just mean that in the sense that I spend a lot of time convincing them to go home. The spiritual nature of gods and ghosts isn't as different as you'd think. If they're powerful, they can impart blessings. Make you just a little bit faster, stronger, smarter, if you're willing to pay the price. The fae aren't the only ones that you can cut deals with."

"...yes, about that," you say, cocking your head to one side. "You knew about the Chest. How?"

"Yeah, I made a pretty bad deal," she says ruefully, "I told you Dreams of Red Sands wants to push me into their cause and that's true, but we've had a little more of an association than that. We don't get along any more, but for a while they were more or less my mentor."

Okay, well, that's a thing, but.

"Still doesn't explain how you knew."

"They told me, of course," Misery shrugs, "they knew that enough power to not mess everything up again would be something I couldn't resist. We talked, and I managed to get out of them that the occupant of that Chest happened to have a disastrous failure even as one of the most powerful men in the world."

And boy, did he ever, you think, and the Dreamer takes a moment from attentive listening to mentally huff at you.

She eyes the golden lines just peeking out from under your collar, the very edge of the soul containing device that had embedded itself onto you and takes a deep breath.

"That's it isn't it?" she says, "the place he hid from death"

Drawing your attention to it, you can't help but tap the heavy lump of metal that contains the crystal near your heart. It feels like a natural part of you rather than something grafted on, moving gently with your breath and lighter even than the clothes you wear.

Sharell: Integrity 3 + Wits 2 = 4 successes.

Influence by a paranoid something isn't the end of the world; you're able to trust Misery here and open up a little.

Misery knew way too much and she'd not seen fit to ever share it with you but you weren't an investigator for nothing. You could read into things and it was clear she'd been burned and burned hard by something in her life, enough that even her name reflected the pain of it. Everyone hated Misery but you, because you could see how desperate she wanted to make amends, no matter how impossible the task and if you couldn't help give her that, then what was the point in fighting for any kind of justice in the world?

"It's him" you nod "But he's working for me, we've got a deal and he's kept to it so far. You were worried I couldn't handle him right? That's why you had nerves about it just before we opened it"

"I had a lot of worries, that was one of them. I just don't know them that well, all second hand tales and what they became at the end, it was chilling. Someone who didn't know when to stop and trust others to know better"

Intelligence 4 + Perception 3 + Excellency 4 = 3 successes. It's the rough shape of it! Good enough

"We're talking about Dreamer right?" you say, folding your arms "Come on Misery, you trust me with this responsibility, just tell me what's up with you. I know it probably sucks, but I want to know"

Misery takes a long moment to think about it, the silence draws on long enough that a rat scampers up her dress and onto her shoulder, looking at her expectantly until she digs into a pouch and offers it a little piece of dry bread to nibble on. Niall's rats weren't usually beggars but you know Misery had surprisingly nice food, you'd have taken your chances if you were one of them.

"You need power to change things, but every time I've wielded power it's gone badly," Misery says, "I feel awful complaining about it, others would kill to have all the chances I've been given. So many have put their trust in me that I could bring an end to their misery and I can't, I just can't. Every time I get so close and then that last step is just too much, too painful, too big a cost. Dreams of Red Sands said I have to push through and take the chest's power, that a little pain now is worth an end to suffering and I know they're right, everyone is right when they say it but I just can't do it. I want this to go right for once, so it can't be me."

She's gotten misty eyed from her little speech, hands clenching and unclenching. You have a little mercy for her and take a hand, giving it a squeeze.

"You can't bottle all this up Misery, you could have told me. You're willing to put an awful lot of faith in me but you need to explain everything too. Like how did Red know who was in there? I can't stress enough that everyone who knows anything is long dead."

"Yeah," Misery smiles at last and pokes you in the forehead, "and what do you think Red is?"

"Mrgh," you try to think of another angle, you expected getting secrets out of Misery would be like pulling teeth but you still feel like she's answered your questions in full and still left out half the important parts.

I can't expect Hand would go off and become a common murderer, the Dreamer notes with disapproval. One of her followers, perhaps? She had a way of collecting strays.

That's pretty goddamn old, even so.

"And now they're just running around killing people for the Cause. How do you feel about that?"

Misery crosses her arms. "I told you, I know Dreams of Red Sands. They wouldn't do something like this."

"Really? Because he's dropped two hats on the ground already. Guild Prince Cheshago I can see a righteous crusader taking down, he was trying to grab after power too big for him and killing and stealing for it already, but there's an old Antiquarian's blood on Red's hands and besides knowing lots of interesting things and owning a very mischievous cat I think the old man might have been the one person in the whole of Gem who's never hurt anybody."

Misery frowns, but doesn't say anything. You go for another hammerblow.

"And the manner of Cheshago's death had some ritual purpose to it," it had been a conjecture, but Mishri hadn't argued and he was one of the resident ghost experts. "But mutilating the Antiquarian served no purpose at all. Whoever did something like that had some serious issues to work out."

"They came from a better time, what we've made of Creation is something they can barely stand," Misery sighs, and you get the distinct mental impression of the Dreamer raising his eyebrows, "but I just can't believe they'd go this far, they're like Ten Feathers. Get past the rough exterior and deep down they believe in people and want only the best for them"

The history between those two was something you needed to hash out, but for now you were going to let it slide. Wasn't fair to do it without Ten here to explain themselves. Misery on the other hand, wasn't getting off the hook so easily.

"That's just the people I know Red has killed. Working for a murderous dickbag like Diamond in Your Knapsack means he's almost definitely got a bigger bodycount waiting in the wings, but we don't really have time to investigate his recent crimes, now do we?"

"Tonight," Misery says, shaking her head. "One or the other."

"You know if we're supposed to be dispensing with the cryptic bullshit I really hadn't noticed," you say. "Is it so hard to believe you might have been wrong about him?"

"The Antiquarian or Red," she says with determination, "I'll summon them and get them to answer to what happened."

Well, that'll be quite something.

You advise she...
PICK ONE
[ ] Summon the Antiquarian. Misery seems confident she can and she'd know best right?
[ ] Summon the Dreams of Red Sands. He's got an awful lot to answer for.

There'll be time before that, though. What do you do until then?

PICK TWO
[ ] Go with Ten and the False Diamond to help end the Guild War. Pincushion is a bad career, right?
[ ] Help Misery prepare for the summoning. Maybe with the right coordination you could try to summon the ghost that she doesn't.
[ ] Confident that the players are in place, go challenge Steals to a roof-racing contest to take her Champion title while you're still bullshit.
[ ] Go visit the Midnight Tales, you've got a hell of a payment to collect from Makarios.
[ ] The Gold Lion Key seems less searing hot now that it's been used on the Chest, but it still thrums with power. Ask the Dreamer about it and see if you can't unlock its abilities.
[ ] Have a long and serious discussion with the Dreamer about what the future holds.
[ ] Pay a visit to the Old Brothers and see how they're holding up, and how Mishri is taking the revelation last night that Red's been an asshole all along.
[ ] Report in to Waves Crash Against the Rocks. You've done your job, the rest is just a bonus.

Blaze of Glory (Exalted)

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