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Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest

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I am frankly offended that you think we can't mortally offend a sorcerer we are about to desperately need with a successful roll just as well as we can offend him with a horrible failure of one.

After all, look at how well that worked at dinner.
 
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For A Better World 109
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    • glyph said:
    [X] (Give him the finger.)
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    You take a moment to consider how to respond to this without asking a question.

    After due consideration, you raise your left hand and extend your middle finger towards him.

    Unfortunately, Rooster's prosthetic finger is still attached to the first knuckle of your middle finger, so with a soft double-click it fully extends at the same time as your middle finger, leaving you with two fingers extended together.

    FINGER 3: Woe is me! I have become defamed! Aspersed! Shackled to a ligneous doppleganger!

    Mei and the Bane of Kadj both stare at your hand.

    THE BANE OF KADJ: "What is that meant to be?"

    PRESENCE: Okay, we've got to salvage this. Quick, think of something clever. It's fingers! Something to do with fingers!

    PRESENCE: DIFFICULT
    3 3
    CHECK FAILED

    "I ate too many rice fingers."

    PRESENCE: What?

    THE BANE OF KADJ: "Pardon?"

    "They tasted really good. Now I have too many fingers, so... I don't know, I was hoping to make this up as I went along."

    PRESENCE: I am ashamed to be part of your conscious subjectivity.

    Mei slaps your hand down.

    MEI: "Gods save me from you eel-brained bastards. We are conducting the autopsy in the main surgical tent, doctor Jades presiding. We'll need your expertise, sorcerer, so you will be removing your mask."

    INTEGRITY: Instructions and statements only. She isn't asking him questions either.

    THE BANE OF KADJ: "When we are inside."

    MEI: "Acceptable. Come."

    You follow after Mei as she strides off apace. You're a little taller than her, but you still need to half-jog to keep up with her power walk.

    NAVIGATE: Wait, this isn't the direction of the surgical tent. We're going south.

    "Isn't the surgical tent over on the western edge of camp, Mei?"

    You hope adding her name will qualify that you aren't asking the sorcerer a question.

    MEI: "It's dragonlord. And there are five surgical tents. Legion doctrine, one for each talon, and at least one for each dragon of auxilliaries, flexible to their operational requirements. You should catch up on the Thousand Correct Actions if you're going to be one of my surgeons."

    Even at your brisk pace you probably have time to ask Mei a question while following her.

    [ ] Is anyone else going to be there?
    [ ] What's the deal with this sorcerer guy?
    [ ] Did that guy say he knows me?
    [ ] Can I ask you about something personal?
    [ ] What am I doing at the autopsy?
    [ ] (Say nothing.)
     
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    • Everyone seems wary of Offy, so what better time for
    Update said:
    Can I ask you about something personal?
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    right in front of him? Just literally like 'ignore this person that makes you uncomfy and spill your deepest secrets to me, someone you don't totally trust, where he has no choice but to eavesdrop.'

    Foolproof.
     
    For A Better World 110
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    • Mirage said:
    [X] What's the deal with this sorcerer guy?
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    "What's the deal with this sorcerer guy?"

    THE BANE OF KADJ: "I'm right here."

    MEI: "Why don't you ask him?"

    "You told me not to."

    MEI: "The correct answer."

    "Why did you tell me not to?"

    MEI: "Because his mask is enchanted to create a disorienting hypnotic effect whenever anyone asks him a question."

    THE BANE OF KADJ: "You never let me have any fun."

    You glance at the mask. Closer, you can see that it's made of a slightly reflective white metal with the faint surface translucence of jade. Vine-like spiral patterns are etched in the metal from the brows down to the hollows of the cheeks.

    CRAFT: Likely lead with a white jade acetate.

    A group of drilling legionaries part and salute as Mei strides through the training yard.

    "Oh, is that why you said he was an asshole?"

    THE BANE OF KADJ: "Again, right here."

    MEI: "No, he's an asshole because three people have died in mysterious circumstances in his workshop since we embarked."

    THE BANE: "I told you none of those were my fault."

    MEI: "He's also a fucking liar."

    The sorcerer gives a noncommital shrug but says nothing.

    You approach the surgical tent, half again larger than the one you visited this morning, likewise denoted by the seal of Sextes Jyllis. Mei sweeps inside, and you follow. The interior smells strongly of sage incense, vinegar and myrrh.

    An operating table has been set in the centre of the room, covered in a canvas. Around it stand three people.

    Jades, the navy physician, is dressed in white coveralls and gloves. He is accompanied by two monks, a tall man wearing the green sash of an Immaculate of Sextes Jyllis, and a hard-faced woman with the pale yellow sash of an Immaculate of Pasiap.

    The Bane of Kadj takes a seat at the writing desk in the corner.

    MEI: "Nobody else will be joining us, you may proceed."

    Jades does a slight double take as he sees you.

    JADES: "As you wish, dragonlord. In what capacity is the magistrate attending?"

    MEI: "The capacity that I said so. Get on with it."

    JADES: "As you wish."

    He draws back the canvas, revealing the hunter's corpse in three parts. Dark fluid has leaked onto the operating table in a spreading pool. The smell, ashen, leathery, threatens to overwhelm the sage incense.

    Your mind refuses to conceptualize the body as something that could once have been alive. It looks more like a macabre sculpture made of charred hides and driftwood.

    MEI: "It's still bleeding?"

    JADES: "No. The corpse was exsanguinated at some point before it was subjected to surgery. This liquid is a mix of embalming fluid and rainwater, plus a little bile from where the liver was cut."

    Mei looks to you.

    MEI: "Ready to take a closer look?"

    [ ] Okay, I'll examine it.
    [ ] I'd rather just stand back here.
    [ ] I don't want to look at it.

    We're about to conduct an autopsy on an extensively mutilated corpse, so, you know, content warning for all that stuff on the next sequence.
     
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    • Scriptd said:
    [X] Okay, I'll examine it.
    I'm pretty sure this is why we're here, but I don't actually remember.
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    It's like that 'wear a fluorescent vest and carry a clipboard and no one will stop you going anywhere' thing, except she gives off the energy that she really would just attempt to do whatever job people assumes she has without seeing it as a potential way to blow her cover. Like if agent 47 from hitman wore a bunch of disguises to approach the target... and just gave the roles the old college try on the way. And obviously everyone is like 'why is this bald nurse I don't remember incapable of even running a line of saline to the patient?' Whilst Vesper is like 'well, my character wouldn't shy away, and I might have been good at it!'

    Just watching the last person to figure out if she is skilled at any individual task or competency as she eagerly gets in everyone's way. "I know drawing out the palisade lines is important, but stand back - I might be good at this!"

    It's obviously reminiscent of Disco Elysium but idk, there it feels slightly different to me; in DE it's understood that he's a cop first and foremost, and he's trying to get a feel for what sort of cop he is. But because in this world might makes right, vesper's job requires absolutely nothing of her save that she is as demonstrably magic as her exaltation makes her, so she truly has nothing to go on. It's not 'which cop archetype am I? Which secondary skills and hobbies support or contradict my investigative skills?' It's basically 'huh, might be I can cook! Better stride into the kitchen and tell them all what to do, because if that is my job they'll all think it's pretty weird I haven't done that in a while!'
     
    SkrmnMrgsm said:
    It's like that 'wear a fluorescent vest and carry a clipboard and no one will stop you going anywhere' thing, except she gives off the energy that she really would just attempt to do whatever job people assumes she has without seeing it as a potential way to blow her cover. Like if agent 47 from hitman wore a bunch of disguises to approach the target... and just gave the roles the old college try on the way. And obviously everyone is like 'why is this bald nurse I don't remember incapable of even running a line of saline to the patient?' Whilst Vesper is like 'well, my character wouldn't shy away, and I might have been good at it!'
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    Goddamnit now I want a Disco Elysium style Hitman quest.
     
    For A Better World 111
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    • Scriptd said:
    [X] Okay, I'll examine it.
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    "Okay, I'll examine it."

    MEI: "Good. Jades, let her guide the examination for now."

    The navy physician frowns at this, but nods his acquiescence. You take your place opposite him, on the left side of the burned corpse. Up close, the smell of charcoal and embalming fluid are almost overwhelming.

    JADES: "Initial observations. Male, indeterminate age, two spans and a hand. Cause of death is unknown. Exsanguinated, disembowled, gelded, eyes removed, all post-mortem. Congruent with certain primitive funerary preparations of the near South, I believe."

    SAGACITY: He made that up to sound smart.

    JADES: "Signs of extensive surgeries across the whole body, also post-mortem. Signs of intense heat burning but little structural damage from fire. Many lacerations, presumably battle damage. Beheaded, torso bisected."

    MEI: "Yes, thank you, we can all see that."

    He draws a short serated blade, gleaming silver in the candlelight.

    JADES: "Where would you like to begin, magistrate?"

    [ ] Head.
    [ ] Upper Torso.
    [ ] Arms
    [ ] Lower Torso.
    [ ] Legs.
     
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    • For A Better World 112
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    • 1337Procrast said:
    [X] Legs
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    "Let's start with the legs."

    JADES: "As you wish."

    The legs are lean and blackened with heat. Like the rest of the body, they are criss-crossed with subtle lines of surgical scarring and less subtle cuts that you inflicted in battle.

    "Deep wound across the knee. Partially severed patellar tendon. That was me."

    JADES: "Why attack the knee?"

    "Knee is the joint that bears the greatest weight for its size in the body. Good target if you are facing a humanoid opponent that can't be hurt with damage to the vitals."

    You gesture to the wound.

    "This didn't work though. The knee joint is reinforced with some kind of metal insert from the postmortem surgeries, possibly to resist that exact kind of attack."

    AWARENESS: Some kind of mark on the calf. An old scar or tattoo.

    "Something else here. Could be worth a look."

    JADES: "There's something wrong with his feet."

    You look. He's right, there's a blunt metal stud the width of your thumb protruding from the skin of each heel, caked with grey soil.

    [ ] Let's look at the knee wound.
    [ ] What's this on his calf?
    [ ] What happened to his feet?
    [ ] Let's examine at the rest of him.
     
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