Remove ads

Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest

Reader mode
Remove ads
Now That You Are Pure 94
  • Threadmarks
    • MorDrakka said:
    [X] Hide in the storeroom and wait for an opportunity.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Your survival instincts kick in. Cover, you have to find cover! None of the shelves will shield you from someone who is looking, the desks are too easy to search. With no good alternatives, your legs carry you towards the valuables chest at the back, the one you just pulled a load of stuff out of.

    The chest is exactly large enough to hold the hawk sword propped at an angle corner to corner. It's also exactly too small to hold you as well. You climb in anyway, folding your limbs inward like a beetle. You exhale a breath and pull the lid closed with your fingertips, squashing your face between the iron-banded lid and a broken Varangian water clock.

    At the same moment you hear the door open. Muffled voices speak back and forth in a tone of surprise, then confusion.

    You hold in place. You feel footsteps approaching you.

    AWARENESS: DIFFICULT
    5 2
    CHECK PASSED

    The voices are close now, like they're standing right above you. They're muffled, but you can make out the words. The voices sound... familiar?

    ???: "Ah, shit, it looks like she took the sword. What are we going to do now?"

    ????: "Dunno. I guess we report back? Seems like she's made a mess of the place. Should I..."

    ???: "Nah, don't worry about that, leave it to Tanner to sort out. Miserable old git."

    ????: "Shouldn't we look for her? Just so we can report back that we know what's going on."

    ??? "What good will that do? Nah, she'll be off somewhere talking to her toes or something."

    HAWK SWORD: What? You don't talk to your toes, you talk to your fingers. Are you going to take this nonsense, my lady?

    [ ] Open the chest and confront the slanderers.
    [ ] Remain hidden.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [ X] Open the chest and confront the slanderers. I want to see where this can go. speech skills for the win no matter how crazy we might possibly sound.
     
    Last edited:
    Now That You Are Pure 95
  • Threadmarks
    • etranger01 said:
    [X] Remain hidden.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    You remain squashed in place, in the musty darkness of the chest. Just inhaling would be enough to lift the lid and cause a noise.

    STEALTH: DIFFICULT
    3 3
    CHECK PASSED

    It takes your every effort to avoid moving, but you manage it.

    ???: "It's probably Orison's fault, anyway."

    ????: "Why do you say that?"

    ???: "He said he told her that there was a rumour going around that someone had a fake imperial seal, so the guards wouldn't accept it."

    ????: "What? I haven't heard anything like that."

    ???: "I don't think he did either, mate."

    ????: "Oh? Ohhhh."

    That fucker. He got you good.

    The familiar-seeming pair move away from your location. You can hear their voices getting further away. Your lungs burn desperately as you hear the door swinging shut and the bolt turn in place. Only then do you pop open the lid and gasp for breath.

    Disentangling yourslf from the chest is much harder than jumping into it was. Your twisted limbs don't seem to be want to reset to their original positions. After some wrangling and cracking of joints you roll out onto the floor. You tuck the hawk sword back in your cord belt.

    Now, where were we? Oh yes, a giant pile of loot. It should be somewhat easier to move now that nobody is coming in, but it will still be difficult to move it all the way out of the building and away without alerting the guards at the front or without anyone seeing you making your getaway.

    Alternatively, given that the whole fake imperial seal thing was apparently a jape by Orison, maybe you could just walk out of here and tell them to deal with it. Maybe that would be too strenuous a test of your authority as a magistrate, though.

    [ ] Escape with just the sword.
    [ ] Escape with the bundle of loot.
    [ ] Walk out with the sword.
    [ ] Walk out the front door with the loot.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • mike439 said:
    [ X] Open the chest and confront the slanderers. I want to see where this can go. speech skills for the win no matter how crazy we might possibly sound.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    robofin117 said:
    [X] Remain hidden.
    I very much rather get a good portion of the loot, if possible.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    This quest uses first-come-first-serve voting. The first responder decides what happens, unless instructions at the bottom of the post say otherwise. The full rules are spoilered in the opening post of the thread.

    Redundant votes do no harm, but I don't want you to be under a misapprehension about how things are working or be disappointed that your choices are being ignored.
     
    I'm leaving this pause so we all have a chance to think about what we are doing and why.

    EDIT: I mean in the sense of what we are doing in this quest and how we are going about completing our goals, not in the existential dread sense. The DMs asking if I'm doing okay are appreciated but unnecessary.
     
    Last edited:
    Crumplepunch said:
    I'm leaving this pause so we all have a chance to think about what we are doing and why.

    EDIT: I mean in the sense of what we are doing in this quest and how we are going about completing our goals, not in the existential dread sense. The DMs asking if I'm doing okay are appreciated but unnecessary.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    It seems to me that we're [checks quest description] trying to find our way back.

    Part of that sounds like it means trying to rediscover who we are, and we seem to have reached the conclusion that the only person here who really knows what that means is Mei, who wants to duel us, and seems very heavily disinclined to talking it out. It also sounds like we're in general agreement that we need to confront that - not run away from it. So it sounds like going onto this path is the most stable or consistent one for our current attempts at remaining linear or attempting long-term goals. We seem to be inconsistent in how to accomplish this, but there is some vague inclination towards this.

    I guess finding out who we are also means redefining ourselves - not just going along thoughtlessly with what we used to do previously, which is why the people who have been fast enough to vote on those things seem inclined to go 'no, lets not go back to being alcoholics or drug users', for better or worse. Choosing to be Vesper over whoever our past selves were.
     
    Parabola said:
    It seems to me that we're [checks quest description] trying to find our way back.

    Part of that sounds like it means trying to rediscover who we are, and we seem to have reached the conclusion that the only person here who really knows what that means is Mei, who wants to duel us, and seems very heavily disinclined to talking it out. It also sounds like we're in general agreement that we need to confront that - not run away from it. So it sounds like going onto this path is the most stable or consistent one for our current attempts at remaining linear or attempting long-term goals. We seem to be inconsistent in how to accomplish this, but there is some vague inclination towards this.

    I guess finding out who we are also means redefining ourselves - not just going along thoughtlessly with what we used to do previously, which is why the people who have been fast enough to vote on those things seem inclined to go 'no, lets not go back to being alcoholics or drug users', for better or worse. Choosing to be Vesper over whoever our past selves were.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    This is a valuable and valid analysis.

    However, I meant more about what we are doing in the more immediate term. Namely that we seem to have collectively decided that the best way to get Vesper's gear back was to break into the storehouse, make a giant pile of stuff, then abandon it and leave by the front door.
     
    Well our original decision ( breaking in and taking as much as we could), was based on the idea that our ability to secure these items was compromised, so we needed to secure what we needed however we could and probably wouldn't be able to repeat it, so it made sense to take everything we could potentially need. We now know that this was incorrect, so instead we can just take what we need in the moment (a weapon), and leave via the simplest option (the main entrance) with the knowledge we can come back and requisition anything else later.
     
    We have access to a mess hall the food was completely ridiculous, as well as the tent, and the extra breastplate (how would we even use it???).
     
    Well, I guess if we don't know our Motivation it'll be harder to replenish Willpower.

    Parabola said:
    Choosing to be Vesper over whoever our past selves were.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The odd thing is that we found out we used to be with the Realm and just kind of went along with that, despite our demonstrated anti-Dynastic tendencies. We could have just walked away and joined up with the Raigi or whoever's leading them, but I suppose we wanted to figure out what's going on with our past.

    But does our past even matter when we don't remember it? What's keeping us here, really?

    Crumplepunch said:
    However, I meant more about what we are doing in the more immediate term. Namely that we seem to have collectively decided that the best way to get Vesper's gear back was to break into the storehouse, make a giant pile of stuff, then abandon it and leave by the front door.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    We're a Prince of the Earth, we're entitled to requisition something from the storehouse to fulfill the Dragonlord's instruction to acquire a weapon. Stealing a giant pile of stuff might make the troops try to stop us, but they're too mortal to stop us from just taking the sword.
     
    Last edited:
    Crumplepunch said:
    However, I meant more about what we are doing in the more immediate term. Namely that we seem to have collectively decided that the best way to get Vesper's gear back was to break into the storehouse, make a giant pile of stuff, then abandon it and leave by the front door.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Grabbing the giant pile of stuff seemed like a poor decision someone with massive brain damage and no common sense would come up with, in retrospect, and we lost interest in everything except the sword, like a squirrel with adhd, or possibly someone with massive brain damage.
     
    Now That You Are Pure 96
  • Threadmarks
    • Legionman said:
    [X] Walk out with the sword.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    What's the worst that could happen?

    WAR: Well, they could fight you. That wouldn't be great.

    PRESENCE: Let's be honest, we're mostly trying to figure out a way to avoid massive social embarassment here.

    You take out your ring before striding confiently to the door and unbolting it. The guards turn to you, surprised, as the door swings open and you walk into the dim sunlight of the afternoon.

    CAMP GUARD: "Wait, what? How did you-"

    PRESENCE: DIFFICULT
    4 6
    CHECK PASSED

    PRESENCE: I've got this.

    You flash the ring.

    "Imperial magistracy, this is a spot inspection."

    The guard peers at the ring and pales as he realizes it is genuine. He opens his mouth to say something but you sieze the initiative.

    "Do you realize that in the fifteen seconds I have been alone in this room I have been able to bundle up a large quantity of valuable supplies which I could easily have made off with?"

    CAMP GUARD: "I don't understand, how did-"

    "I entered via the roof. The entirely unguarded roof. Honestly gentlemen, this is not good enough. These supplies are the property of the throne, and you are tasked with guarding them. As I have demonstrated, a Raigi marauder or dissident infiltrator could easily have made off with who knows what while you are all clustered around the front door like this."

    The guards look to each other, backfooted and trying to come up with a reasonable excuse for their actions.

    SENTRY: "Well, you see, we were just-"

    You hold up a finger. The guard falls silent.

    "I understand that these are not your regular duties, and the situation has put us all under pressure. So I will make allowances and not make a report of this matter. This time."

    CAMP GUARD: "I... thank you, lady."

    "Now, my duties call me elsewhere. Please have the storeroom properly secured by the time I return."

    The guards salute you. You walk off with your reclaimed sword and no intention of returning.

    HAWK SWORD: Marvelously done, my lady. Now, where shall we go next?

    You've got a sword, but you still need to find a place to rest and clean up.

    [ ] Find Usamir.
    [ ] Find Brindle.
    [ ] Find Orison.
    [ ] Find Rochar.
    [ ] Go exploring outside the camp.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Interact with reflection.

    Is it too late to do this? I saw it was an option for inventory a couple posts back and I'm not sure about the rules for interacting with inventory stuff.
     
    The fools.
    The absolute fools.

    Whilst we may have been forced to jettison the coveted Pile Of Shiny Things as a distraction, and our acquisition of the Sword has already become known, our true objective has remained undetected under those ablative layers of seemingly-random impulses, just as planned.

    I speak, of course, of the peerless, faultless, desperately-needed, ever-useful, critically-important... Mass-Produced Bar Of Lye Soap.
    Crumplepunch said:
    You investigate a stack of small paper-wrapped packages and find that they contain hard bars of lye soap. Thinking that it might be handy for later, you pocket one and move on.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...


    Our victory is assured.
     
    Arrow said:
    [X] Interact with reflection.

    Is it too late to do this? I saw it was an option for inventory a couple posts back and I'm not sure about the rules for interacting with inventory stuff.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Lykantos voted this a few pages back, I'll do it when there is an appropriate opportunity where there is a visible reflection and the interaction will not break up an ongoing scene too badly

    unObservant said:
    I speak, of course, of the peerless, faultless, desperately-needed, ever-useful, critically-important... Mass-Produced Bar Of Lye Soap.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I was going to bring that up when you check your pockets later, well spotted.

    hugh_donnetono said:
    Vesper continues to scoff at your pathetic notions of linearity, it seems :V
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I name the headers by checking the number of the post above and adding one. On this occasion I was scrolled back to a previous page for a reference and forgot about it.
     
    Last edited:
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top