[X] Assume open-hand to Steele's closed-fist and be kind and reasonable to get her to talk.
Like Nevill has said, we should think about how easy it will be to sell our loot. Things that are unique and easily identifiable can be hard to fence, whereas anything with gems sounds good to me, because in a pinch we can just detach the gems and sell them separately.
By that standard, the Scorpion Panoply is problematic, so we should maybe drop it.
[X][Jettison] Scorpion Panoply: 4 Load
I don't really know which weapons to pick, so I just went with what sounds cool to me.
If anyone has arguments in favor of or against some items (Blade Of Uncertain Origin surely looks tempting, especially since it's the right size for a Locust... could make a great gift to the right person), I may adjust the list.
[X] Assume open-hand to Steele's closed-fist and be kind and reasonable to get her to talk.
JETTISON -
Scorpion Panoply (4 load)
Hook Blade (1/2 load)
Elaborate Helmet (2 load)
TAKE -
Blade of Uncertain origin (3 load)
Nashaxi Beastspear (1 load)
Nashaxi Cylinder Jezail (1 load)
Yasaali Kheferu Saber (1 load)
"Hey, hey hey hey, we got time to be polite about things," you quickly interject, stepping in and raising your hands to show the lack of weapons. Though you suppose the spurs being out doesn't exactly do you any favors there. Ah well.
"Just slow your roll and let her talk."
While giving your best Stern Don't Be Violent Glare to Steele, which is copied entirely from Rubble, who was the closest thing to a voice of reason your crew had, you twitch your ear a tiny amount. The equally minute raise of her eyebrow suggests she knows what you're up to, and the renewed snarl and shaking of her victim confirms it, so you continue, turning back to the mimic-armed Oriza. Her big orange eyes turn to yours pleadingly. Wait. This close... those are multiple eyes sharing sockets, and the skin is clearly not living. This is some kind of very convincing disguise, partially ruined by the exposed arms--but then again, they did make you think of an Oriza with fucky arms rather than a Mimic hiding in a skin-suit, so mission accomplished?
"Cousin, please, talk some sense into your compeer!" she pleads, legs kicking futilely. Someone clearly studied up on bipedal body language.
"Yes, everyone just calm down," you say, making soothing gestures in the air. This whole act is your best Rubble impression, really, with a little dash of that weird stony peacefulness Dial has, like she saw it all before. You're a quick study.
"Now catch me up. What 'keeps moving around' and why don't you believe her?" This last directed at Steele.
"I was asking her where the shitting office is, Mock Vey's office, and all she'll tell me is, well."
"I swear to the Firstborn it's true! The office moves throughout the Palace, it's an extension of Vey's body, and I can't track it, I'm not resinwise or demesnewise! If I knew where it was I swear I'd tell you, you're very big and I'm afraid of being crushed and smashed!"
"You better be, because there's nobody in this entire pit that can do it better than I can!"
You gesture for silence.
"Both of you, stop it. Steele, put her down? And... we haven't been introduced."
"Ch-choi."
You smile, which she thankfully doesn't wince at. An Oriza wouldn't anyway, their choppers shame even yours--for now, anyway.
"Choi, as you've gathered, we're robbing the Palace. And that's fine! We've avoided and gotten past everything set in our way so far, so we deserve to, unless we get caught, in which case we deserved that too. Anyway. We're not here to kill without cause, and we want very specific things, so if you can give us any information relevant to finding the office faster, we can be out of here in no time. Unfortunately, the alternative involves me wandering off for a while so that Steele can pursue her favorite solutions."
Choi shivers, little pincers clacking together in a shaky but recognizable rhythm, waves of little snipping noises nicely syncopated between arms.
"...I was telling the truth, but also the office moves between s-several different places that it always stops in by. The Greenhouse should be next..."
Under your watchful eye, you and Steele get a sketched map of the area, and the air is too full of fear and not enough deceit for you to mistrust it too much. Steele's repeated growls and lunges indicate she's having too much fun being the fist to your hand, and you have to admit that the little yelps and squeaks of startlement in response are pretty funny. Choi lets out a series of quietly relieved whistles as you and Steele each fold up your copy of the map and tuck it away. As you move to leave, your partner gives you a Look, and at the exit to the little library area you have a brief whispered conversation, resulting in:
[ ] Knocking Choi unconscious and binding her.
[ ] Setting some kind of fire so that Choi will be too busy saving things and escaping to raise any kind of alarm.
[ ] Leaving Choi behind you.
[ ] Steele killing Choi.
[ ] You killing Choi.
With that bit of business taken care of, the two of you move down the next tunnel--lined in red brick and shallow alcoves covered by iron grating, oddly enough, some kind of green slime that smells like algae and mildew encrusting the mortar--in a sort of companionable silence. At the end of the tunnel is a round crossroads with a pillar in the center, and you take the time to pack your spoils so they don't rattle too much. Steel took some spoils of her own, mostly books and some kind of jar of something, and she takes the moment to do some repacking herself. The bone spear stays in your hand; you don't really have much experience with a boarspear as much as with a billhook, but it's something sharp and painful at the end of a sturdy haft, and that's core enough to your style that you'll take what you can get. The sword's exciting, and you can't wait to get a chance to learn it, but you don't know how to use a sword, and mid-harrowing is not the place to try and figure out an entire new weapon. And that jezail... keeping it in ammo is your next priority, cause it's a beauty. After you pack, the pair of you squared away and secured in the least clattery, most motion-freeing way that your looting allows for, Steele finally breaks the silence.
"Wasn't expecting the old open-hand closed-fist routine from you. It worked pretty well, I think. Good job."
[ ] "Thanks!" you beam. "I think we make a pretty good team, don't you?"
[ ] "Thanks. You just have to adapt to the situation, right? Come what may."
[ ] "It was nothing, just... something someone I used to run with was pretty good at."
[ ] Just nod in acknowledgement and move on. No need to make of this something it isn't.
[X] Thanks. You just have to adapt to the situation, right? Come what may."
[X] Steele killing Choi.
OK, I don't want to leave Choi around to give alarm, and usually with my luck in this kind of situation it turns out that the person just killed was an Important Person of Importantness, so let's let Steele do it, if things go to hell it's her fault
[X] Setting some kind of fire so that Choi will be too busy saving things and escaping to raise any kind of alarm.
[X] Leaving Choi behind you.
we're still playing at the open hand, so we give them a chance to run
Fire isn't good as it is an alarm all by itself, and Choi is unlikely to prioritize saving things over saving herself.
I don't suppose we can make her chew enough Dreamwax to actually put her to sleep, or at least in a state where she can no longer call an alarm?
[x] "It was nothing, just... something someone I used to run with was pretty good at."
So I looked a bit closer and found out that we have already met a Mimic named Choi, namely the proprietor of the Vile Prawn, who has been suspiciously friendly to us.
"Do I! You came to the right place, Grail. I'm pleased to be known as Six-Coin Choi around these parts, and I'd be delighted to connect a cousin with the supplies needed for such a trip. Here, step into my parlor."
So I looked a bit closer and found out that we have already met a Mimic named Choi, namely the proprietor of the Vile Prawn, who has been suspiciously friendly to us.
I have no idea how and why Choi is in the Scab Palace, though.
It's because I'm a terrible writer and can't keep names straight. Watch me do it with the Locusts that Grail used to run with in like fourteen chapters. I should probably rename one of them
[X] Knocking Choi unconscious and binding her.
[X] Thanks. You just have to adapt to the situation, right? Come what may."
"Thanks, I guess. You just adapt to the situation, right? Come what may. You think fast and you just do what needs doing."
Steele lightly bonks you on the shoulder, before nodding sagely. "Hey, take pride in your work. If someone wants to hand you kudos, take them for all they're worth. Still, you got a point. S'how I got anywhere, definitely. Think and take stuff into account, sure, but ultimately acting's better than not acting, any day of the week. Be decisive about it, and you'll get through."
You nod back, smiling a little, and she returns it. You get the feeling she definitely approves of your answer, despite gently mocking you for not being prideful enough.
You had waited until Choi (No relation to Six-Coin back in Irontown, apparently, it's just a common name) had all her attention focused on Steele before giving her a solid clonk across the head with the haft of your new spear, following that up with wadding a little chunk of dreamwax into her mouth as she reeled. Felt weird, for some reason, in a way that just killing her wouldn't have, but something in you objected to straight-up ending her life. It just didn't feel necessary or appropriate for the task at hand. Steele happened to have some coir in her pack, and volunteered it for tying her up, using some candlesticks crushed together into fetters by your combined strength to round out the binding. You pushed some bookcases in front of both entrances, too, just for good measure. You don't really know how long that'll last, given as she's a Mimic, but dreamwax works on them too, so it hopefully shouldn't matter. The pair of you put your best efforts into ensuring Choi would not easily be able to come after you without resorting to unneeded violence, and that'll have to do.
"So... can we trust these maps she gave us?" Steele asks you as you move on together. "She didn't seem like the type to try and fuck us over at the risk of her own life, but you never can tell with people."
You shake your head. "No, she didn't smell enough like deception, your first impression was right. All panic and desire to get us out of there, no trickery. We better move quick, though, if the place moves around, since I don't imagine these maps will be accurate for long. She said something called the 'Greenhouse,' right? I heard correctly?"
"Yep. Which, given as this is a funhouse nightmare zone ran by some of the best dungeon designers on the Continent, I fully expect to be full of carnivorous plants and horrible botanical Neph."
"Yeah, that'd track. Nothing's ever simple. Still, we got a direction, now, it's more than we had."
The pair of you get moving, hurrying along the paths the map lays out for you--first brick, then shaped, rusting metal plating, then odd triangular hallways paneled in irregular but smooth, beveled pieces of baked, glazed clay, hurrying towards the greenhouse past art too large, flimsy, or crude-looking to want to sell. As you go, entirely unknown to either you or Steele, you set off a subtle, hidden defense mechanism, one that you won't even know you ran afoul of until much later. What did it do?
[ ] Woke up an automated guardian that began tracking you down immediately, which could be anything from a wide assortment of potential dangerous sentinel creations.
[ ] Hit you with a curse that wouldn't take effect until much later, which could be anything from a disease to attracting monsters to inspiring unreasoning hate.
[ ] Alerted Mock Vey directly to your presence and appearance, ensuring it knows what you and Steele look like and what you've done on the way here.
The winding pathways take you in a strange looping pattern, like the path of a fighting top, and you notice Steele muttering under her breath, like she's taking audible notes, with every architectural change, keeping track of what's changing and why and the special details involved in every thematic passageway. You try to, but ultimately you're a little more focused on tracking your progress and matching it up with the map. You're pretty good at finding your own way but someone only really has to get lost in Vespergren once before a significant part of her brain becomes dedicated to stopping that from ever happening again, anywhere else, for any reason. Finally, you reach a sort of antechamber, a little rounded room made of poured concrete with all the edges curved and rounded, the door a metal hatch with a spoked wheel for opening it. After a brief, wordless conversation conducted through enthusiastic gesturing and glares, Steele gives in and turns the wheel, preparing to wrench the hatch open. The noise is truly awful, a loud, grating, aggressive screech that plays a horrible resonant song on your exposed teeth. Your spurs feel it, for fuck's sake. Steele winces too, snatching her hands away from the wheel like it's on fire, cutting a look towards you that's both pleading and angry.
"Hey, let's shoot our guns in the air and shout praises to Rhakui!" you hiss at her. "Just in case they didn't hear us back in Qoma!"
"Dealing with loud, rusty airship hatches in the middle of an ever-shifting subterranean dungeon which is probably watching and listening to us as we speak was not exactly covered exhaustively in my training, Grail!" she hisses back, talking extensively with her hands as she makes neck-wringing and hatch-pulling motions.
Despite yourself, you snicker at that, because it's legitimately pretty funny, and after a moment she does too. The situation's a little too silly to get angry about it, not for real.
"I have some mineral oil in my pack," you finally say, digging around until you find the dinky little vials.
"Cool, I can probably do... something with this. Hold up."
Steele messes around with the oil and the hatch until it becomes ready to open, the wheel moving near-silently this time instead of screeching fit to wake the gods. It swings all the way open, and the two of you poke your heads through, guns raised and eyes wide.
It was worth all that messing around.
The Greenhouse deserves the capital letter. It's a gigantic spherical chamber that you're peering down on from one of at least a dozen metal hatches scattered across the upper hemisphere, each at the center of a hexagonal concrete panel anchored amid dozens of panes of ensorcelled glass, like a glowing honeycomb. Shafts of greenish-gold light filter in through the magic panels, bathing a lower sphere made up of dozens of curved trays, each with a different setup of plants and furniture, all orbiting, at different levels, a gigantic central pit from which spills a tremendous tangle of plants. A moat of glittering water surrounds a central well of huge flowers and vines, some of which are huge and broad enough to serve as bridges and roads to the other planters. An absolutely dizzying blend of scents, from the various little animal echoes of the fertilizer to the hundreds of different flowers and nectars, wallops you directly in the face, headier and more intoxicating even than that mead the Factor served you. Fuck, you can smell honey and hear bees, to. You need more of that mead. Steele seems impressed too, but she does recover faster than you, and makes a gesture with her wing at the central plant.
"What did I tell you? Giant weird plant. Guarantee there's teeth in those bulbs."
She gestures towards the various ladders and staircases leading down from the hatches.
"Come on, let's go get turned into fertilizer."
[ ] Scramble along the upper hemisphere, opening hatches. Surely the office will anchor to one of these, right? And there could be all kinds of plunder hidden behind the many little doors. Of course, there could also be guards, rooms with denizens, or, according to Steele, "lava or acid or some shit" lying in wait behind one or more of them.
[ ] Descend to the outer rim of the planters, which is mostly small trees, including fruit trees, and lots of flower arrangements and little features like statues and small fountains. So dense with weird little features, there could be all kinds of things.
[ ] Descend to the inner rim of the planters, where there are gazebos, stranger-looking plants, bees, and opportunities to fully explore how the denizens of the Scab Palace actually use this space.
[ ] Get right to the point and get yourselves a good look at that central pool, that central well, those big weird plants, and whatever structures and things are down at the center. There's some kind of spiral staircase there, too, and when have spiral staircases ever let you down?
[X] Woke up an automated guardian that began tracking you down immediately, which could be anything from a wide assortment of potential dangerous sentinel creations.
Seems like the less bad option, the curse is a mystery box I really don't want to open and the Mock Vey could call the Law, or hold a grudge and try to take revenge later. In the end the guardian is bad right now, but if we get out of the Palace it should be dealt with.
[X] Descend to the inner rim of the planters, where there are gazebos, stranger-looking plants, bees, and opportunities to fully explore how the denizens of the Scab Palace actually use this space.
This seems like a relax area, which are less likely to be stuffed with traps that want to kill you.
Get right to the point and get yourselves a good look at that central pool, that central well, those big weird plants, and whatever structures and things are down at the center. There's some kind of spiral staircase there, too, and when have spiral staircases ever let you down?
When we used them to descend?
Stupid joke aside this is the other option I'm inclined to take, it should take us somewhere quickly. Which seems good since the more time passes the more attention we are attracting
[x] Hit you with a curse that wouldn't take effect until much later, which could be anything from a disease to attracting monsters to inspiring unreasoning hate.
Let's go for something we won't know it's there.
[ ] Scramble along the upper hemisphere, opening hatches. Surely the office will anchor to one of these, right? And there could be all kinds of plunder hidden behind the many little doors. Of course, there could also be guards, rooms with denizens, or, according to Steele, "lava or acid or some shit" lying in wait behind one or more of them.
The logic, as much as it is applicable to an offie that moves around te building, is sound. I am not very enthusiastic about opening them at random, though. You might enter the wrong kind of office, and at this point there is not a lot of benefit in courting trouble, because our backpack is almost full and there in no loot to be had.
[x] Descend to the inner rim of the planters, where there are gazebos, stranger-looking plants, bees, and opportunities to fully explore how the denizens of the Scab Palace actually use this space.
Or we can hide and observe, hoping that someone or something leads us to Mock Vey's office.
[X] Woke up an automated guardian that began tracking you down immediately, which could be anything from a wide assortment of potential dangerous sentinel creations.
[x] Descend to the inner rim of the planters, where there are gazebos, stranger-looking plants, bees, and opportunities to fully explore how the denizens of the Scab Palace actually use this space.
[X] Woke up an automated guardian that began tracking you down immediately, which could be anything from a wide assortment of potential dangerous sentinel creations.
The brute force option feels the safest, honestly. Less potential for shenanigans.
[X] Get right to the point and get yourselves a good look at that central pool, that central well, those big weird plants, and whatever structures and things are down at the center. There's some kind of spiral staircase there, too, and when have spiral staircases ever let you down?
Grail's right, we've gotta put our trust in spiral staircases.
[X] Hit you with a curse that wouldn't take effect until much later, which could be anything from a disease to attracting monsters to inspiring unreasoning hate.
[X] Descend to the inner rim of the planters, where there are gazebos, stranger-looking plants, bees, and opportunities to fully explore how the denizens of the Scab Palace actually use this space.
[X] Woke up an automated guardian that began tracking you down immediately, which could be anything from a wide assortment of potential dangerous sentinel creations.
[x] Descend to the inner rim of the planters, where there are gazebos, stranger-looking plants, bees, and opportunities to fully explore how the denizens of the Scab Palace actually use this space.
You begin carefully picking your way down the various tiers of the greenhouse, jumping only after making sure that you have a safe landing point every time, making your journey to the inner rim with caution and light, precise leaps. Steele watches you go for a little bit before just jumping and gliding down with her big dumb wings, completely bypassing everything you did and just landing in front of you with a whump on a flagstone. You catch up with her a second later, and give her a mock frown.
"Show off," you mutter. She grins in response.
"Slowpoke," she responds.
"Yeah, yeah, you fuckin behemoth. Some day you're gonna need to tell me how you won the harrower lottery like that. After, you know, we've worked out the business of betrayal or alliance or what not."
She nods, mock-serious in response to your half-joking appraisal about the future of this partnership.
"Sure, after we dig each others' knives out of our backs, I know this one taverna. Terror bird drumsticks and a stout that corrodes spoons, you'll love it."
"If I'm alive to drink it and intact enough that it doesn't dribble right back out my gut holes, I'll take you up on that."
Pact of convenience sustained, you both turn your attentions towards figuring out what exactly you've gotten yourself into here.
For starters, the inner rim has been divided up into three rings, each supporting the hives of a different kind of bee. Cartographer bees, dull russet with brownish stripes, buzz here and there from their big paper nests. You've handled those nests before--they unfold into extraordinarily accurate maps of the following area, somehow filled out by the bees themselves. You have no idea what they could be possibly mapping, though--the Palace? Great Men? Qoma? Something else? Regardless, they seem happy, feeding on flowers to make a honey that you know is mildly narcotic for Unchosen, though Vesakh are immune, and will be dyed with plant extracts and a natural excretion to form the ink and waterproofing of the maps. Clockwise from the cartographer bees are the glittering golden hives of coffer-bees, the source of hard gold coffer-wax. They shine and gleam, studded with 'gems' of resin colored with dye extracted from flower petals, gorgeous but of unwieldy size and dubious, complicated value. You already have some cofferwax, but it might be worth it to harvest these hives... Last are the casque-bees. Huge, banded in ash-white and blue-black, and with a drone that sounds like a fiddle instead of a buzz, their spiky, cathedral-like hives of white spires encrust what are definitely assorted skeletons and a couple sarcophagi, arranged between the gazebos and planters to support the strange little scavengers. These are where you get dreamwax--and, if you can afford the refinement process, songwax and sleeper's honey, much more thorough and expensive drugs. You just need to make sure they can build their hives on a body.
[ ] Loot the cartographer bees, taking a nest or two. A little bulky, but lightweight.
[ ] Loot the coffer-bees, harvesting unrefined cofferwax. Useful but might be hard to sell it right.
[ ] Loot the casque-bees for unrefined wax and honey that, if you can pay to refine it, will get lucrative drugs.
[ ] Leave the bees alone.
The matter of the bees aside, you and Steele go poking around in the gazebos. The benches are bizarre--dozens of little wooden platforms of varying sizes and heights, and a few bars like bird perches, presumably for Mimics of varying sizes to get comfortable upon. Unless you're a Pandorino, like Six-Coin Choi, or in a weird skin-suit, like No-Coins Choi (your personal identifier for her), you, as a Mimic, i.e. a box full of crab in the majority of cases, will just not get much mileage out of an ordinary bench. There's an assortment of tiny trinkets and loot that the both of you silently agree to pocket, a few coins here and there, some easily-fenced pieces of mundane decoration and jewelry, some scraps of silk, split evenly between you. +11 Astrels
Overall, it's just a nice garden-space down here. Like Vesakh, Mimics never get bothered by mundane insects unless they're being magically controlled or otherwise impelled to strike, so "surrounded by bees" is a relaxing, totally unworrying space for both of your peoples. The flowers smell nice and are beautifully arranged in gradients of color, the gazebos are nicely painted and lacquered and decorated with little paintings of Mimics engaged in commerce, colelction and exploration, and the bees' hums combine to a soothing background noise. It's beautiful, and you find some tension bleeding out of your body even as you strive to stay alert. You're in enemy territory, and you can't forget that, but this is just a pretty, green, colorful space, alien after a lifetime of rainy, sooty grey stone and concrete, bone and cobbles, metal and sour, lifeless dirt, and it speaks to something inside you even with the bizarre environment surrounding the little ring of calm verdancy.
At length, Steele speaks up. Seems she'd been enjoying the atmosphere as much as you had.
"Alright, no more fuckin' around. It's nice down here, but we're expecting Mock Vey's office to touch down here any moment, and if I'm any judge, I think that spiral staircase in the middle is gonna be how they make contact. That gives us a solid target, and it also means we have to knuckle down and make sure we're ready for it. Limber up and get ready to fight, and if you have any ideas for how to prepare, or you think I'm just wrong as hell, then let's hear it."
[ ] Knuckle down, limber up and get ready to fight. You think she's right about that staircase, so you better get your best raiding face on. The spear's crossguard isn't as good as your billhook's hook for grabbing things, but it's okay at it, so you'll use it to board, while keeping your pistol ready to fire.
[ ] Diversify your approach. Have Steele fly up to the dome and get ready to either interfere if the office joins contact up there, or dive down to aid you, while you prepare to catch the office if it joins down here using an armature of your grappling hook, rope, and some cofferwax.
[ ] Clamber up to the top and start opening hatches while Steele keeps watch down here to cover you, because you still have a feeling about those hatches, and you bet they hold the secret to finding the office when it gets here.
[ ] Write in.
Pity that we are currently homeless, I would have like to take the bees and have a source of Astrels.
Edit: vote changed
[X] Loot the cartographer bees, taking a nest or two. A little bulky, but lightweight.
[X] Diversify your approach. Have Steele fly up to the dome and get ready to either interfere if the office joins contact up there, or dive down to aid you, while you prepare to catch the office if it joins down here using an armature of your grappling hook, rope, and some cofferwax.
[x] Diversify your approach. Have Steele fly up to the dome and get ready to either interfere if the office joins contact up there, or dive down to aid you, while you prepare to catch the office if it joins down here using an armature of your grappling hook, rope, and some cofferwax.
We don't know where the office will arrive. It's best to cover more ground.
Bees... sound too much trouble, and not the kind Locusts are attracted to. Still... it's loot, and we may eject the hive if we encounter pursuit that does get bothered by bees.
[x] Loot the casque-bees for unrefined wax and honey that, if you can pay to refine it, will get lucrative drugs.
