Rabaddon
Known as the Mindcrusher or the Anomaly, sometimes uses the alias of Anna Malle
Talents: Obfuscation*, Dementation, Tenebriety
Powers: Delusion (Dementation), Unnoticed (Obfuscation), Shadow Form (Tenebriety)

First thread is here:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/23394127/

Bump?

I'll try another bump, but if this doesn't work I'll come back in a few hours.

>>23414029
Sorry OP, I'm here for you. Was looking for the thread since you said noon, glad things are punctual.

Let's take a closer look at the people wearing the cattle skulls and try to figure out who they are.

>>23414029
>>23413902

I'm here, lets do it

>>23413736
>a pair of men (or women?) in red cloaks

I'm wary of these. Do we have any ways of detecting other daemons? These could be ones or they could be some kind of special agents or Inquisition of the Golgoth

Aha, just in time.
What happened last time after we picked up that girl?

>>23414093

You can only get so close to the skull guys without entering the light of the torches they have posted nearby. If you do that, you'll have to activate Unnoticed, which doesn't work while you're moving, so you'll be stuck there until they put the fires out. And if the sun is up by then, you'll be stuck until the army leaves (that, or you could just go ahead and let them notice a shadow running away; the advantage of incorporeality is that unless these guys are packing magic, you can't be harmed).

These guys are unnaturally still, though. They're completely motionless, but nevertheless seem alert. Since you can't see how old they are, you can't rule out the possibility that they've learned magic. The Court of Dominion is clearly on the rise locally, and their ally the Court of Wisdom loves handing out magic to mortals, so there could be a whole caste of wizards in Golgoth.

Or maybe these are just creepy priests who conduct rituals whose only real purpose is to beg daemons to help you out and hope a friendly one is close enough to hear.

>>23414148

Might as well make the captain paranoid that they have come for him for his insubordination and the only way to escape alive is to start fires all over the camp and flee during the chaos

>>23414112

You can't detect other daemons, no. As usual, there is a Talent that lets you do that (in this case, Clarity), but unfortunately you don't have access to it.

I should also mention that you'll be able to pick up new Talents as the story goes, so you aren't permanently locked out of these abilities.

>>23414148
Well, let's make a random soldier believe that they are imposters who need to be executed. We'll be able to tell if they are wizards by how they defend themselves.

>>23414148
>>23414176
Agreeing with this one, we need to figure out what these new figures are capable of. If it looks like they start using magic we need to back the fuck up and make sure we stay out of sight. If we get detected things could get ugly.

Try and find a soldier who is patrolling or near the perimeter.

>>23414176

Oh, that works too. Hopefully if they are wizards/daemons they cannot detect tampering with the mind otherwise we are in deep trouble

>>23414174
That's cool, will our existing talents become more powerful as we time goes by or if we keep using them or practice. Having our obfuscation talents work only when we are completely still is a bummer.

>>23414176
It'll put them on their guard, so I think it'd be better a lieutenant or something think the mages impostors and that they need to tell their superior about this and double-check everything they know about them

We should get some good exposition out of that as the commander talks down his subordinate.

>>23414223
He mentioned something about a certain talent unlocks the ability to use normally immobile spells while mobile iirc. Hopefully one we can acquire before too long.

>>23413751
>>23413736

OP, it's Rabbadon the Mindbreaker.

I should know, hehehe.

>>23414261

Sorry about that. This is fixed in my notes and should be consistent from now one.

>>23414250

Yes, there's a power in the Obfuscation talent that lets you use other Obfuscation powers while mobile. New powers for existing Talents come semi-frequently and Obfuscation is your primary Talent, so you should see it before too long.

>>23414353

Alright, now use dementia on a random soldier?

>>23414422
I can't do that.

>>23414230
I agree with this, but only if we can actually reach one of the lieutenants without getting detected.

>>23414422
Better find someone with a higher rank and giving him the suspect that the two motionless guy might be imposters and he should double-check everething he knows about them.

Or make so that a random soldier go to the Lieutenant and say "Sir, those guys seem... Different than the last day"

>>23414486
Or just say "they're just really wigging me out, sir. Tell me again why we need to have them here?"

Basically, significant distrust over the two, needing to be reassured as to why the are necessary.

>>23414422

Sure, that seems to have the most consensus for the next course of action.

You find a guard near the perimeter. "The people in red cloaks are impostors who will kill you all if you don't execute them immediately," you say. It takes a bit of effort to get this one out; the delusions are starting to take their toll.

As with the captain, the guard mulls things over for a while, looking agitated and paranoid, before finally turning around and heading into the camp.

"Lieutenant, sir," he says as he approaches one of the minor officers, "I need to speak with you in private immediately. It's urgent, sir."

The lieutenant stands up from where he'd been eating his dinner with a few of the other men and finds a secluded spot in the camp to talk to the soldier. "What is it?" he asks, clearly agitated.

"Well, sir, it's our Blood Guards. They're impostors, sir, infiltrationists sent by our enemies. The real ones were probably killed and replaced during one of the raids," the soldier says.

"What makes you think that they've been replaced?" the lieutenant asks, suddenly paying much more attention.

"Well, I...It has to be, sir, they're just off, just look at them, you'll see it," the soldier says.

"You mean to say that you brought up an accusation against the Blood Guard on a hunch?!" the lieutenant demands. Before the guard can say another word, he says "that sort of talk gets better men than you executed, soldier. Next time I or anyone else hears you breathe a word about this, we'll put your head on a pike."

>wat do?

>>23414654
>Blood Guard
Interesting.
It doesn't give us much information, but NOW I'd go say for a direct confrontation to our poor sap guard to walk up and just cut one down, shouting "IMPOSTOR!"

Feel slightly bad for the guy, but either he'll make it and halve the freaky red dudes in the camp, or he'll get toasted and we'll find out about them.

>>23414654
Fuck, looks like we're starting to get fatigued. Perhaps we should just quietly observe things for a bit longer and recharge a bit. Blood Guard doesn't sound promising.

>>23414654
I don't like these Blood Guard things. Since our powers seem to be getting exhausted we should probably head back to the girl and her brother and rest.

>>23414654

Ask the girl for a blood sacrifice.

Sympathetically use it to incite chaos in the guards.

>>23414654

Now dementia on the lieutenant! It will be ore likely to work after what he heard from the guard

>>23414654
Those guys are really the big cheese around uh?
Keep trying to find more informations about them, sneaking in the Lieutenant's room to find some documents for example.

And since they can't even be judged upon by others, if (and only IF) they are just normal humans (no magic) then possessing one of them might lead to... Interesting results

>>23414701
we don't really want to cause that much trouble. if these guys are important it could bring down all sorts of shit toward us.

Let's retreat for now.

Let us think back, and recollect; what are the methods to regain power and essence?
What do we do to:
1: remove our fatigue,
2: gain new talents
3: expand in our abilities?

>>23414701
Oh shit, I missed the part where we are getting tired.

Lets hang around for an hour or two and rest before applying next dementia.

>>23414714
I was under the impression we wanted to mess up the camp. If we aren't, lets get away from here. We need to get the little girl and her brother away from here, lest someone comes investigate after they learn what the captain did.

>>23414715
well our abilites get expanded pretty much by adventuring so there's not much we can specifically do about it.

let's just go find the kids again and wait for some new stuff to do.

>>23414754
Not by causing chaos itself, then?

If it is, last-ditch our power to have the guard go suicide-kill one of the Blood Guard, then laugh, and bugger off.

>>23414764
Nah, we're getting really tired

>>23414701
Yeah, I agree with this.

Sowing distrust in the ranks of the enemy is a very effective way to begin the downfall of Golgoth.

>>23414764
the most likely way our powers expand (not return) is the cosmos itself getting bigger. OP explained it in the last thread.

i don't think we particularly care about chaos unless it serves our interests in some way.

OP, you're taking mighty long for updates

>>23414881
Well, then let's get back into practice so we can get our powers back, then.

>>23414681

Delusion isn't Suggestion, so you can't force someone to do anything. "You have to X" implants the belief that something terrible will happen to them unless they do X. If something terrible will also happen to them if they DO do X, they might end up being indecisive and spiraling into non-committal madness rather than doing what you actually want them to do. So you can try it, but it's not guaranteed to work.
.
>>23414715

You remove fatigue by resting. Although you spend a lot of time using your nifty Shadow Form power, daemons are in fact just corporeal creatures who in a lot of ways work just like any other animal. Worth noting that you don't actually have to *sleep* to rest. You can totally just put your feet up and read a book. You're only a little bit tired right now, so an hour's rest will have you back on all cylinders. Also, this isn't a sign that you're about to drop from exhaustion or anything, just an early warning that your powers are starting to run out a little bit.

Gaining new Talents and expanding old ones is, in-universe, a function of practice, mostly. Out-of-universe it happens at a couple of points along the plot.

>>23414764

You're a daemon of Fortune, not chaos. Chaos is probably a House inside of Fortune, but even then you're not in that House. You'd be in the House of Madness or something, since Dementation is your House Talent. Either way, expanding daemon powers by expanding concepts is something that occurs across decades at a minimum, and usually the growth of a daemon's powers is measured in centuries. You aren't getting new powers, you're relearning stuff you used to know before the oubliette. And occasionally quickening an enemy daemon if you find you can take in a fight.

>>23414923

Yes, they're taking about twice as long as they should. I am slightly distracted and probably will continue to be so until around 14:00. I apologize.

It's not clear to me whether we want to retreat or continue messing with the Golgothans, however.

>>23414961
If we're not in danger of falling down exhausted then we might want continue messing with the minds.

>>23414961
>>23414982
Yeah, this, if we're not going to go unconscious or whatever, let's strike one last blow.

Change the dementation to the belief that "killing the Blood Guards will show them they're impostors, if I don't do this they'll execute me."

>>23415042
let's go with this

>>23415042
Sounds about right.

He's probably going to get slaughtered, but it'll give us an idea of their capabilities.

>>23415042

The soldier slinks back to his post, and you replace his first delusion with the new one. As usual, it takes a few minutes for it to settle in properly, but this guard doesn't seem to be moving past the "look really worried" stage. Finally, he looks around nearby and then sets off...Away from the camp.

>>23415182
Information learned. Daring to attack a Blood Guard member is more scary than the charge for desertion.

Anyway, let's go back to our pets. I mean, girl and boy.

Assuming they haven't buggered off, which they would do if they're smart.

>>23415182
Follow him, we need to figure out what's going through his head and exploit it if possible. If the guy is going to desert over this compulsion or kill himself it would be interesting to try and find out what he knows.

>>23415182
Let's follow him.

>>23415239

You follow the soldier through the woods for about an hour, but you don't know the region well enough to have any idea of where he's heading except that it's not really in the direction of the camp or Mari's village. He isn't saying anything, either. After all, he thinks he's alone.

>>23415341
spook him a bit. pretend we're a woods spirit and inquire about his intentions

>>23415341
Delusion into believing that it would be a good idea to order his thoughts by talking to himself about his current worries.

>>23415476
Exactly what I was about to say. Definitely this, if it doesn't look like he's going anywhere interesting we need to turn around and find our little rebellion-in-the-making and move on.

Forget about the stupid soldier and go back to the little girl, we are being to hung up on these stupid blood guards

>>23415544
If we want to pull the strings we need to be able to see the whole picture.

Intel is important, though I do agree that we probably won't get much more out of this guy.

>>23415544
we can learn more from this guy than the kids. we've been locked away for a while and don't know where the world has gone.

>>23415476

It only takes the guard a few seconds to go with this. Leaning against a tree, he takes a few deep breaths, and then immediately asks "what am I doing? This is stupid, a bunch of backwoods savages couldn't possibly replace a Blood Guard! Maybe if I just go back...No, they must have noticed I'm gone by now, it's been at least an hour! Oh, gods, why did I even think..." He sighs, and then says, "well, I suppose it won't do to panic about it now. There's got to be a village or something around here somewhere, at least I'm not so far out that people are speaking another language. I never asked for this posting anyway."

He takes a few steps. "But then...If I just go back to Golgoth on my own, with a new name, would it make such a big difference? There are plenty of households in need of a farm hand and I'd still be able to live properly." He looks around. "I suppose...Would it be better to live here? It won't be safe to live here very long, after all, Golgoth is always matching, as they say..."

>>23415668
farm hand who would ever do that?

you have military training others have abandoned posts before gather them and pillage raid have fun what use is a life if you aren't doing something

you know army supply lines those fat juicy supply lines

you know how they would search for you just keep a few steps ahead of them wouldn't be hard there too big and bolted to catch you

keep putting a new town between you and them they will never catch up

>>23415759
This is actually a clever suggestion, even creating one brigand that targets the people we want gone would be beneficial. I just can't think of a way we could twist he mind so he truly believed it though. Our delusions only work so long as we maintain them correct?

>>23415668

I told you guys, this guard is useless.
We'll find better ways to learn about the freaking blood guards. Lets go back.

Also, it seems you people are heavily mistaking dementia with suggested even after OP brought that up

>>23415668

Say OP, we're a daemon of shadow.

Do we realize that without light there wouldn't be shadow?

>>23415793

As >>23415802 mentions, Delusion can instill a *factual* belief in someone for as long as it is maintained. By factual I don't mean it's necessarily true, but a belief about the way the universe works. You can make someone they have no legs, but even making someone believe that talking aloud is a good idea is a stretch. So you can make this guard believe that ambushing caravans would work, but you can't make him want to do it, nor can you make him good at it, nor can you make him continue to do so after you lift the Delusion, which you'll need to do if you want to smack anyone else with it (or else tire yourself out very quickly).

>>23415833

So far a lack of light has just meant that shadows are impossible to see.

>>23415884
Back to the girl, or she'll make a break for it.

>>23415884

Well no one would call them shadows then, would they? Hehehe.

>>23415884
he dosen't need to be good at it at all just try and weaken law thats all

>>23415884
i guess we're done here, we don't really care about this guy.

>>23415802
>>23415884
Alright then let's think about this for a second. I realize this guy ultimately will be worth little to our prospects, but as the OP has said the only way to get better is to continue using our powers and living up to our old hat (so to speak).

If we were to convince this guy, possibly through using Delusion to make him have a strong belief that raiding Golgoth caravans is very profitable, to do these things we'd very much be living up to the mental dickery and mind games we were probably known for.

Again though, just kicking a thought out there for people to mull over. If everyone wants to just turn around and leave this poor sod alone, by all means.

>>23415968
it's a whole empire, even all of these soldiers aren't gonna do shit.

>>23416000
And we're not going to be able to do anything either until we start getting more proficient at using our powers and growing. The point is to work with what we can manage.

>>23415968

Using your powers to get back into practice is an in-universe explanation as to why your powers will slowly return to you over the course of the game. The idea is to encourage you to actually interact with the plot rather than hiding in a cave for a year until you're back at full power and then never getting another upgrade. Spitting out a bunch of extra Delusions on characters not because you are interested in manipulating them but only because you want to spit out a bunch of Delusions is boring and also ineffective for mechanical reasons.

>>23415945

You wander back to the kids, then. Being that one is seven and the other is exhausted, they haven't gone anywhere. Leson rouses himself soon after dawn, Mari is dead asleep still. Inside of ten minutes, Leson has set himself to trying to irritate Mari awake, but you're not sure if that's because he grasps the urgency of getting an early start or because irritating his older sister is his modus operandi. Either way, after about twenty minutes of "get up get up get up get up get up get up" she finally rouses herself to chase him up a tree.

>wat do?

>>23416152
My apologies then OP, I just thought that there was something to be had from practice. I'll keep my suggestions tailored closer to our primary objective from now on then rather than chasing offshoots.

Let's ask the girl if she knows anything about bowmaking. If she doesn't, lets try to find a village that hasn't been raided to seek advice on how to get or make one. We did promise her one if I remember.

>>23416360

"Mari," you say, having resumed your place as her "shadow," and she turns towards you, ignoring her giggling brother in the tree, "do you know how to make a bow?"

She shakes her head, but then says "well, I guess I know how. I've watched Dad do it and I know you're supposed to use yew wood and deer sinew and you need a notch for the string and stuff. But I've never actually done it before. Anyways, I don't know how we'd get the sinew without having another bow to hunt the deer."

>Find a village now?

>>23416514
Sounds good, yeah. Also ask her if she knows anything about the western kingdom.

>>23416514
Sounds like a smart plan.

Somewhere to obtain supplies, and get some information on local events.

>>23416514
>Find a village now?
Yup. Be careful though. From time to time split off to scout ahead.

>>23416514
we could just steal a bow from the soldiers

>>23416514
Let's go then, better than waiting around. Ask her if she knows where any nearby villages are, else we just start walking.

Bring up the dead soldier from last night, she didn't want to talk with us about it then. Maybe she will now.

Does anyone really want to keep the kids? I have the feeling turning this into Babysitter Quest would get old fast. Dragging them along/convincing two little kids to go where we want will probably limit our options.

I like the idea of fucking with Golgotha (and other large empires/institutions) to screw with Dominion.

But travelling around at the pace and means of a 7 year old doesn't seem like the way to do this.

I vote we find a farmstead or something that can take them in. We'll promise Mari that we'll take care of the Golgothans for her then head off.

Spend a week or two working over the troops, once we're done with them, then head off for the big city!

>>23416649
>Does anyone really want to keep the kids?
Yes.

>>23416673
seconed

>>23416673
Thirded.

The girl is an interesting character and I'll be damned if we ditch her just yet.

>>23416568

Mari has never actually been to another village, but fortunately she knows the way. "Leson, come on," she calls up to the tree. He just sticks her tongue out at her. "Fine then, we'll just leave you here 'till the wolves come for you," she says casually and starts walking away. Leson follows a few moments later, silently bringing up the rear, bringing a smug grin to Mari's face.

"Do you know of any villages nearby?" you ask.

"Besides mine, you mean?" Mari says, her expression growing more serious again, "there's Deepwell Village, which is, uh..." she glances towards the sun, and then points towards the southeast, "that way, more or less. It's along the road. Also there's Elmwood Village which is somewhere north, but I've never even talked to anyone who's been there before. Well, except Deneen, but if you asked Deneen for directions to every place he's been you'd be up all night, and you still probably wouldn't hear half of them."

>>23416751
"Who do you know from Deepwell Village?"

>>23416673
>>23416689
>>23416711

Really? You want to babysit the kids?

Okay then, In that case we need to find a village or something.

Two little kids won't last long in the woods without supplies.

>>23416772
This. If there's anyone of import there, let's go that way. Finding this trader fellow she knows seems like a slim prospect, after all.

>>23416807
we'll stick the kids, but that doesn't mean we'll be particularly responsible.

>>23416751
>It's along the road

Is this the road the troops are following? If the troops are heading in a different direction; go there. If the troops are heading in that direction.... We'll go to the other village.

>>23416751
Let's go to Deepwell then.

>>23416649
The only thing better than bringing down Golgoth is bringing down Golgoth by twisting the ambitions of a small child into vengeance and bloodlust.

Besides, if we act directly then other demons are going to know we got out more quickly. Using somebody else as a face seems safer for now.

>>23416807
It's less of a "babysit" and more of a slowly manipulating/corrupting them for the lulz. We are a Fortune Daemon and therefore give zero fucks about the Dominion.Fucking with them is just a means to an end.

>>23416807
One of them killed a fully trained guard with her bare hands. There is potential there.

>>23416886
well, we haven't actually seen any other demons yet. we don't know if there are any around.

it's not like we really have anything better to do than shadowing this girl, anyway. the part where an entire empire is after her should make for enough action to keep this interesting.

>>23416974
We found a guard dead outside the camp.

I doubt she had anything to do with it. We have a third party in the game.

>>23416772

"Well, I don't know anyone," she says, "but my father knew Jens, the hunter, there. They found each other while hunting by the river ten years ago, and they were friends for a while. But then there was a war, and when the two of them found each other, they both shot and wounded each other. Each one was afraid that they'd killed the other, but they both recovered and the next time they met, they agreed they wouldn't let the quarrels of warlords come between them again."

The army is following the road towards Deepwell and away from Elmwood. However, it's possible they don't intend to attack, since they'd have to go out of their way half a day along the main road to get to it.

>>23416807

Mari will last until winter unless she gets unlucky. She's the hunter's daughter, and while she can't hunt big game, she knows how to set snares for rabbits and which wild plants are poisonous and which aren't. She couldn't kill a wolf, but she knows to start a fire to scare them off, and hide your food in a tree a few dozen yards away so that the bears won't wander into your campsite.

Winter will kill her dead, but until then she should be good.

>>23417100
Whom we will deal with, because these children our ours we claimed them and if we want to make them into Gritty Revenge Fueled Adventurers we will. because it amuses us.

>>23417143
In that case, we should probably spend a few days in the woods, and then head for Deepwell. Just in case the Army does intend to attack that village.

>>23417143
Still voting for Deepwell. We might get a chance to dick the army over some more.

>>23417143
Let's try and beat the soldiers to Deepwell. Bonus points if we can find Jens; he'd be a great resource for getting a spare bow.

If the soldiers are already there we can always steal equipment from them.

>>23417143
Vote for Elmwood.

Better safe then nailed to a tree for target practice.

>>23417276
this

how strong is our physical form? could we take a soldier one on one, for example?

>>23417333

You could. You're about as strong and fast as a full grown human male despite your appearance, and since you've been learning how to kill things for countless millenia, you are likely going to be much better at it than a standard soldier. You should fare pretty well even given the fact that he'll be armed and armored and you won't. That said, you are not an invincible killing machine or anything. You have none of Potence, Celerity, or Fortitude, so you can't charge a trio of soldiers and expect to come out with your head attached to your shoulders. Decapitation would take you out of the game for a few months, so try to avoid it.

Okay, I see two posts for "go to Deepwell," one post for "wait, then go to Deepwell," and two posts for "go to Elmwood." Roll dice?

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32 KB JPG

>>23417511

Rolled 14

>>23417511
Rolling for going to Deepwell asap.

>>23417423
Or maybe Delude one of them to attack the other (I swear i totally saw him trying to backstab me/he's a monster/etc) or to split off the other two (Checking what's in that direction seem a good idea, i won't bother my companions thought, i mean, is only a few metres away)

Rolled 9

>>23417511
>"wait, then go to Deepwell,"
Rolling.

>>23417511

Combination. Wait and watch. If the army fucks the village.... That option's out; we go to Elmwood.

If they don't wreck the place, then we can go there. Look for her dads friend and see about getting some gear.

>>23417609
I'd be okay with that.

>>23417609

In addition to this. If we see them take the side-road for the village we should move ahead of them (come back for the kids later) and warn people.

The solders job will be a lot harder if their victims have advanced warning.

You begin moving ahead of the Golgothan army. It's not too hard, they're over fifty men strong and are hauling around a number of prisoners. You're able to arrive in Deepwell Village well in advance of the others, even despite the fact that you're slowed down significantly by Leson, who Mari ends up carrying for an hour or more on a typical day once he's exhausted. As snares take too long, Mari and Leson subsist off of gathered plants, and the slim diet is taking its toll when you arrive at the village two days later, but the Golgothans are miles behind.

During the trip, you ask her about the guard you found dead not far from her tree. She claims not to have killed the guard, but rather that he stumbled and died on his own. She wasn't sure if he'd seen her or not. The entire topic makes her uncomfortable.

Deepwell is about fifteen minutes hike away.

>wat do?

Rolled 59

>>23417423
Go to the town, see if we can find something, then had to the next village. Let the kids stay safe and tell them we are going to save some of the humans there.

>OP, do you have twitter or something to inform us when the next thread goes up?

>>23417851
>wat do?
Scout ahead, ask how the men her father knew looks.

Rolled 36

>>23417851

Use our skill to convice her she can tell us. "I don't want to hurt you, but I need information about them, you understand?" Don't be pushy, we don't want her to run away.

Rolled 29

>>23417865
Agreed, let's try and find out what the mood in the village is and find this Jens guy. Ask her what he looks like.

Rolled 48

>>23417965

sadly too late. Damn noScript, blocking AutoUpdate..

>>23417851
She's probably gonna need to get over that aversion to killing.

Unless there actually was a third party at work. In that case, we should probably be worried.

>>23417851
Head into town, tell Mari to look for her dads friend.

Also, tell her to warn people about what happened to her village and that the soldiers that did it are heading in this direction. They may just pass by... They may not.

>She didn't kill the guard, he stumbled and died on his own

This is making her uncomfortable, we should leave it for now, but I want to know if anything like this has happened before. Do things just 'happen' around her a lot?

Hmm. What was that about 'cursed children' or something?

>>23417851
"Something killed that soldier, but the punishment was not undeserved. Wouldn't you agree, Mari?"

On that note, move onto Deepwell.

>>23417865

K? I'm just going to assume that the guy who co-wrote the Tomes is playing my quest, now. Nothing you say can persuade me otherwise.

I do have a Twitter, @MCJohnnyQuest, current username is Sovereign. I used it to post updates for Super Villain Quest, I should probably start doing so for Trickster Daemon, too.

Just to make sure I know which nouns your post is referring to: You want to go into Deepwell Village, scout around, and then head to Elmwood Village, right?

Rolled 66

>>23418063
>@MCJohnnyQuest

No, dieregard that post. I suck cocks. My AutoUpdate fucked me over.

I only had time to browse the first thread. But was /tg/ honestly retarded enough to make us into a little girl? Or is that just a disguise and we actually have a more combat capable and non pedobait form.

>>23418063
>@MCJohnnyQuest
Which would make your RSS
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=MCJohnnyQuest

>>23418144
>Implying we're ever going to enter corporeal form again

We are the shadows, anon

>>23418144
we're a daemon. we're combat capable.

>>23418144
Both and both.

Now we are a bit "low powered" but maybe later down we'll be able to change our appearance.

Plus who could even think ill of a little girl, is not like she's dangerous or some-OOHH GOOOD! THE SHADOWS! THE SHADOWS!

>>23418144
OP made a point of us not being the little girl and /tg/ apparently does not take orders like that.

>>23418221
Sounds like something out of a dime a dozen survival horror game or anime.

>>23418249
The in-setting population probably hasn't watched those yet. Should be fine.

>>23418249
And it is delicious.

you here OP?

>>23418249
Yup! But we are the monster.

I mean, we have the strenght of a fully grown man, we can blend in with the shadows, pass unnoticed and manipulate others really easily.

Who needs to fight someone directly when you can make one of them think that starting a rebellion might be a very good idea?

>>23418317
Because shock and awe is just as valuable. Plus if we really are an ancient demon, something more inhuman as our natural state would make sense. I'm not saying we should be a black and spiky demon from some "2edgy4u" teenagers sketchbook. But a little girl is just something the mongoloids waiting for the Fetishquest to update would come up with. And just as bland.

>>23417965

Mari tells you that she doesn't know what Jens looks like exactly. She's never met him, and come to think of it doesn't really know much about him. Her father's name was Lannis, though, so if you pass that name around you should be able to find Jens soon enough. Though she isn't entirely sure if a shadow can ask around. She's not really used to working with shadow spirits, she mentions a bit apologetically.

>>23418044

"...Yeah," she says, "He was Golgothan, I guess."

>>23417905

"I...I dunno, he just tripped and gurgled something up and then he was dead. I think he saw me. He was Golgothan anyways. Please, I don't want to talk about it right now."

>>23418144

Yes, /tg/ honestly did do that. There are Talents which allow you to alter your appearance as well as your actual shape if it really bugs you, though.

Moving into Deepwell:

The village is bustling and seems fairly healthy. There are some fences in need of repair and the occasional hole in the roof, so things could be better, but nobody seems murdered and all appear happy enough. There is a certain tension in the air, but no one seems to be fearing an imminent invasion.

For details, I'll need to know exactly how you're proceeding. It's midday, which will make it difficult for your shadow to go unnoticed, but if you stick to dark spots and move only when no one's looking, you should be fine. On the other hand, your corporeal form doesn't need Obfuscation to go unnoticed.

>wat do?

>>23418282
>The in-setting population probably hasn't watched those yet.

And the first time we ever confront someone in our physical form their reaction is going to be- "Monster in the form of a little girl? That is sooo cliché! Sounds like something from every two-bit horror novlé and low budget play."

>>23418422
Stick to following Mari as a shadow. We don't particularly want her seeing our corporeal form.

Get them to ask around for Jens. There should probably be people gardening or some such.

>>23416673

I might be late but no, I do not want the story revolve around them and you KNOW that it will. One of the reasons is here >>23416946
"We corrupt the girls becouse lel it is edgy and stuff xd". This would make a lick of sense if the girl was important, a noble or a daughter of rich influential people but no matter what the defenders of this course of action will tell you the only reason why this is happening is because it is the first girl, a little one to top it off, that was encountered in the quest. Perhaps some of them are pedos who want to "protect the little girl" or maybe they are just moralfags (nothing against that, honestly).

OP really dug his own grave with this, be ready to keep them around forever and no matter how great and logical the justification, if you kill off the girl expect the players throw a massive shitfest like a bunch of spoiled brats.


And it is not like I don't like the idea of helping and protecting the kids, it is just the whole "lol because it is funny/random/hilarious" justification that is annoying me... oh, that and the whole "corrupting" a little kid. I mean, really?

>>23418594
I'm mainly in it for the storytelling. I know it's a terrible and massively overused cliche, but I'm a sucker for a story in which a young child has their home burned/parents killed/sensei murdered/whatever and then grows up to destroy the evil empire.

So I'm fine with the kid sticking around. Not so much corrupting as pointing them in the direction of Golgoth and seeing what happens. Seems to fit the purview of the court of fortune if you ask me.

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>>23418594
Do you honestly think that the idiots who wanted to look like the pic will want to do anything BUT follow around the little girl?

>>23418787
Fapping

>>23418594
>This would make a lick of sense if the girl was important,

Maybe she is. Right now I'm thinking about the 'he just dropped dead when he found me' thing and the fact that these people were on a mission to hunt down witch-children or something.

Or, maybe not.

Honestly, I don't want Babysitter Quest. And I don't want a quest makes major decisions that all future actions will revolve around and be limited by because "lol it is funny/random/hilarious"

However, I think OP might have gave us this girl for a reason. If she is a plot hook; I say we bite and see where it goes.
If not; meh. I say leave her with the friend of her father and go do something else.

>>23418737

I'll note here that the purview of Fortune is "do whatever the Hell you want because we are invincible individually and as a political entity." People talk about how we "should" do this or that because chaos or amusement or whatever, and I'm never certain if they mean "because that's the character we've established" (good, because consistent protagonists help tell a good story) or "because that's what we think Fortune daemons are supposed to do" (bad, because Fortune daemons have no obligations to anyone or anything, so taking care of the little girl because you like the goddamned little girl is totally plausible from an in-universe perspective).

Mari heads into the village with Leson, instructing him to stay immediately next to her at all times. She asks around, introducing herself as Lannis' daughter, saying that Great Oak Village (her home presumably) has been burned to the ground, and asking to see Jens. Before long she gets pointed to a small shack at the outskirts of town.

Before she can head there to investigate, however, she catches an odd sight out of the corner of her eye. The villagers all grow hushed as they walk into town. Two people hidden beneath long red cloaks, their faces covered by a mask in the shape of a cattle skull.

The villagers are not immediately hostile, but are clearly unnerved. Mari's reaction is to freeze with terror for a moment, and then to step behind the crowd and try to stay out of sight.

>wat do?

>>23418594
Personally, my interest in her is basically that she was in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time which is totally fate. Maybe.
She did surprise us by seeing right through our initial bullshit and she's totally denying having murdered a soldier when we looked away.
Basically, she's intriguing.

>>23418919
Ohgod they found us.

Make sure Leson stays the hell out of sight. Watch what they do, and be ready to delusion them into believing they already searched the village if they find anything.

>>23418919
INVESTIGATE

>>23418919
Could you mark parts that are not directly tied to the story in some way? like with
----------------------------------------------
or similar?

>>23418787
Yeah that was worrying. When reading the first thread I was hoping that OP too the shapeshifting idea which happens to be stuck a little girl and cannot shape into something else because we are still recovering a lot of power.

I think the people who chose that had some bad reading comprehension and didn't understand from the initial OP that we are not a little girl and later on felt a bit cheated.

>>23418919
Remain unseen and get closer. I want to know why they're here.

Let's see what they have to say.

>>23418919
hide as best we can because they are a dead ringer for trouble we don't want.... 1B4 they see the little girl and for whatever reason kneel before her 'cause turns out she's important due to some cosmic bullcrap

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>>23419096
It just bugs me that we could have been anything, and instead chose to be something small, fragile and squishy rather than having an impressive or unnerving form.
We were given a blank check and wasted it

>>23418919
we could make someone believe they're someone he hates to provoke an actual attack on them.

>>23419211
why would we want to be some unimaginative muscle demon? where's the fun in that?

>>23419211
frankly daemons having impressive, terrifying or even beautifully form are *way* overdone the little girl , while maybe not the best choice I'll give you that, is imaginative and will force us to play differently than most quest in which we usually are an adult stereotypical "insert race here"

>>23419211
Well, at least it helps us... hide?

Just realized that we have no offensive capabilities.

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>>23419286
Because a magic little girl is at least as bland, if not more so. We could have been a shapeless form, a mass of tentacles, a suave devil. A pitch black silhouette. But no, we had to be alma.

>>23419372
meesa gunna burn?

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>>23419365
Exactly, stealth is already covered. A natural form suited to causing terror and disemboweling redshirts and heroes alike is needed.

>>23419059

This is probably a good idea.

>>23419211

I kind of worry about this. It's becoming increasingly clear that at least one or two of my more interesting players are disappointed in the form we've taken, which means that the wide variety of daemons we'll be encountering later on in the game are probably going to sound kind of like you're being mocked since each one has a different and often bizarre form. On the other hand, thanks to the anonymous nature of quests I have no idea how many of my other interesting players are completely on board with the little girl form.

----------

>>23419105

The Blood Guards move deeper into the village, and soon a pair of villagers, one old and wizened, hobbling along on a cane, while the other a strong, burly young man, come out to confront them. "What do you want?" the elder asks, "we gave you what you asked for, now leave us be."

"You have lied to us," one of the Blood Guards say, "you know what we seek and you have hidden them. Bring them to us. Do not seek to deceive us again."

"You're damnable liars yourselves," the elder says, "we didn't hide anything from you, and we only did as you asked because you said we'd never trouble you again. We kept our end of the deal, now you keep yours!"

"You have not honored your end of the bargain," the Blood Guard says, "in our generosity, we will permit you another chance to comply. Deny us, and we shall burn your village to the ground."

>wat do?

>>23419372
there's not that many ways to play a shapeless mass of tentacles in a world mainly populated by fairly normal humans.

we're already mainly doing "kill and hide", there's no need to make us more so.

>>23419453
provoke some random villager to backstab them

>>23419453
Delude them into thinking that the village elder is their best and most loyal friend.

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>>23419466
We already have a way to be stealth. Our physical form needs to be one that can get shit done.

>>23419453
Get as far away from them as possible.

>>23419577
we don't want to go near the bloodguys. everyone's disproportionally scared of them and stuff so they might actually have something that could detect or hurt us.

>>23419453
I'm not sure our form matters, really, since 80% of the people thus far have been in favour of never coming out of the shadows. If we were going to change it, we would probably end up as a silhouette or a shadow anyway.

>>23419582
we just woke up yesterday. that's why we can't directly get shit done, not because we look like a girl.

>>23419599
Well, yeah, but what's the worst that could happen?

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>>23419605
Hell, even a corporal shadow would be better than Alma

>>23419582
what is done is done let's not delve on the past and figure out how to handle >>23419453
I say use delusion on the red shirts to make them believe the elder is telling the truth

>>23419453

"Your companion is trying to stab you in the back. He has hated you for as long as you've known him. He'll kill you if you don't stop him now!"

Let's set these two at each other.

>>23419502
This could provide a viable distraction AND a demonstration of what these fuckers can do.

>>23419649
they could magic and fuck us up, i guess.

we should get someone else to fight them first to get an idea of what they do. common sense, no?

>>23419679
Supporting this. If the attempt fails leg it as fast as possible, and try to get our charges out of the mix. The confusion it creates should give us ample time to escape, maybe grab some supplies on the way out.

Instilling a delusion will require speaking aloud, and everyone but the person deluded will remember hearing it. Still want to go with that?

>>23419851
Definitely not.

>>23419814
Fuck I meant to quote >>23419502, sorry.

>>23419851
find a villager somewhere with no one else around and do >>23419502

>>23419851
Can't we whisper to some random peasant?

>>23419851
Oh, I thought it was a mental command.

Don't do that.

Look around for someone with a bow or a spear. Someone away from a group.

"Look, two wild boar have wandered into the village. They look viscous, you should stop them before they hurt those people."

>>23419945
>>23419951
If we can't avoid being heard, maybe we could think a delusion that would be suitable to being shouted instead?

>>23420051
Any ideas?

>>23419951

Nice. But get ready to run and make sure that the kids are ready to leave in a hurry. Wouldn't want them playing hide and seek when we need to leave the village.

>>23420076
IF YOU ARE "BLOOD GUARDS" THEN WHY HAVEN'T YOU COLLAPSED IN A BLOOD PUDDLE ALREADY?

>>23420095
i think they know how to run if shit goes bad.

anyway, they didn't sense us before so they probably won't now either.

>>23420114

And internally they will say "because that isn't what Blood Guard means" while externally they'll probably murder someone. A Delusion needs to be a statement.

>>23420051
Well, off of
>>23419951
maybe a paniced cry about "wild animals" in the village and someone needing to stop them?

I just realized we're essentially fucked two ways from tuesday if we aren't careful here. Here are my concerns:

We get some villager to freak out and attack them. This poses a problem because 1: If he/she succeeds the war party is going to expect these people back and when they don't come back burn the village to the ground for killing them. I doubt we can raise the village to arms and defend against the whole war party. Not unless we pull some Roran (Eragon) shit, which well...yeah.

2: They dont succeed and they will know something is seriously up, condemning the village anyway for attacking them and burning it down. Resulting in aforementioned scenario, plus the knowledge in either scenario that we just fucked over this girl's own people. She probably isn't going to like that.

>>23420159
shit goes bad: we run
shit doesn't go bad: the villagers fight the soldiers, then we run after they lose

we're protecting the girl for now but that doesn't mean we really give a shit about human life. anyway, how would she know it was us who made someone attack the bloodguy? or why would she assume they weren't going to pillage the village anyway?

>>23420159
Then perhaps the appropriate course of action is to not intervene at all. It doesn't sound like they're looking for either us or our kids.

>>23420159
>the war party is going to burn the village to the ground for killing them.

From the way the blood guard were talking I have the feeling it's heading in that direction anyway. Regardless of what we do.

>>23420225
>>23420283
Fair points. I suppose we should go ahead with the idea of getting someone to attack them. We could find supplies on the way out once things go south. Maybe stop by the hunter's shack on the outskirts of town before we skedaddle.

So, a thing might or might not come up that I will have to deal with soon, and I probably won't be able to run quest tomorrow, which means this *might* be quest end for today. So it's kind of lame that all I can do is ask whether we're decided to delude a villager into attacking the Blood Guard or not.

It'll tweet when the next thread will be up as soon as I know if I won't be able to get on later today.

>>23420463
>whether we're decided to delude a villager into attacking the Blood Guard or not.
no one's really been against that, have they?

>>23420463
Alright. I vote for delusion, and is this thread archived yet?

>>23420283

Guess you're right. But the question is, how did they find out about the "betrayal"? Did they sense us, is Mari actually one of the cursed children they are seeking and they sense her or are they here for something else? That they had an agreement before makes it seem like they are not trying to force a fight, if their goals can be archieved in another way.

>>23420550
either it's unrelated to us or the captain disobeying his orders is what tipped them off or they sensed us at the soldiers's camp and we're probably somewhat fucked.

>>23420508
Just archived it.

They are being accused of hiding what the Blood Guard was seeking. So it's very possible what they were (and are) seeking is what we have hidden, not what we have stolen.

>>23420508

Supported.

Also archived.

>>23420550
Well, it seems to be heavily implied that there is something up with Mari, so I would guess they are looking for her.

>>23420463
>decided to delude a villager into attacking the Blood Guard or not.
I'd rather not.

>>23420550
>you know what we seek and you have hidden them. Bring them to us.

From what we know of their mission, they are trying to hunt down and capture 'witch-children'.

Best guess. They came to town and demanded the villagers hand over all children that fitted whatever description they are looking for.

Most parents probably said "fuck that. I'll do an Anne Frank and hide my kids."

Aand here we are.

there's two of them, we can get them both?

"You have to explain it to these ignorant oafs, they forgot what you wanted."

We're a shadow, we can pretend to be one of their shadows.

Finally, we just tell them both ot believe the village has fully complied.

This way the villagers think we're some part of the red cloaked people.

>>23420723
me neither but we'll need to find some way of getting them off the villager back, my idea would be to hide in someone shadow and to shout "we've already gave you what you want!" that way it won't seem too weird to the other villager if they decide to leave after earing this

>>23420811

Then it is still unclear why they were satisfied before and came back now. If they sense those children, we can assume that the village was purged before. If not, how do they know that the situation has changed? It would even be possible, although unlikely, that they are just bluffing to see if someone becomes nervous.

I personally guess that they can sense at least one membe of pur party, most likely us or Mari.

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OP has abandoned us

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>>23421184
He'll be back.

>>23421184
He did say that this might happen, to be fair.

I guess that's it for today, and possibly tommorow as well.

>>23420422

It was probably unwise to try to run quest on a semi-busy day. Oh, well.

---

>>23420461

You slip into a nearby tavern, the villagers too distracted to notice your shadow form on the ground behind them. Inside, you find a middle-aged man which, like most of the men in this village, has an axe at his side. He'll do. "Those two men in red cloaks are really a pair of wild animals attacking the village," you say, "you'd better go help kill them, quick!"

The man immediately picks up his axe and heads outside and, upon seeing the two Blood Guards, let's out a howl of fury and attacks, swinging his axe in wide arcs. It looks like he's more trying to scare them off in the hopes he won't have to fight them, which makes the fight rather one-sided. One Blood Guard steps to the side of his attack, draws an elaborately detailed scimitar, and opens his throat. As his cloak opens during the attack, you can see that underneath they wear no armor, only black leather engraved with gold runes. As far as you know, the runes are meaningless, but you're not an enchanter. The other Blood Guard simply drifts to the side, looking ghostly as his cloak glides across the ground.

The two Blood Guard begin advancing on the elder. "What is this?" the one who drew his sword asks. He sounds like he's the same one who was talking earlier, but it's hard to tell. "Is this treachery? You might at least have had the decency to spring a good trap."

"I have no idea what he was thinking," the elder responds, "certainly this was not planned."

"I tire of your lies and your games, old man," the Blood Guard says, and then makes an odd, strangled noise. He draws his sword again, steps towards the elder and slashes towards him, but the large man next to him steps forward and takes the blow across his arm, knocking the old man aside.

>cont.

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>>23422171
he's back!

The second Blood Guard draws his weapon and advances, while the first one staggers as he advances. The larger, younger man draws his own axe and prepares to face the Blood Guards, his attention focused primarily on the one who doesn't look like he's dying. The man's strength avails him little against the Blood Guard's skill and precision as they exchange blows, but the first Guard is already staggering writhing on the ground in death throes, clutching at his throat, blood gurgling up from his mouth and dribbling out of his mask.

The young man with the axe continues fighting with the silent Blood Guard, and the battle goes poorly for him.

>wat do?

So, yeah, bad news was I was out for a while and who knows if my audience is still around. I can go for a few more hours today, even though this is usually about when I have to leave.

Good news is, since that happened today it won't happen tomorrow which means I will be running quest tomorrow after all. Though it will be cut short several hours early by a D&D game.

>>23422213
find a bow. both for utility and potentially helping with the killing without being in clear vision.

>>23422284
also, try to remember if we're any good at shooting with a bow.

>>23422213
>>23422284
This. If we cant find one within the next minute or so delusion more people into attacking, we know these Blood Guards aren't elite soldiers at least (from what we've seen).

>>23422328
And by people I mean one at a time, hopefully these people realize they are fucked and mob the remaining dude so we dont have to resort to attrition.

>>23422328
i think they'll be fairly happy to attack by themselves now that the bloodguards already kill someone.

>>23422213
We can still take control of the blood guards. As a shadow, no one is going to notice us. We could attempt to stop the violence by convincing the blood guard to try and end it.

"Enough of this pathetic resistance, tell them what you want or we will be here all day."
Make each bloodguar dthink the other spoke and do so in one's shadow to spook and calm down the villagers.

yeah watching this place get wrecked ight be amusing, but it gets us no information.

>>23422448
One of them is already dying. We're past that point.

Also now that I think about it, fuck finding a bow immediately. See if the dying guard has a scimitar on him too, and take it while everyone is focused on the fight. I imagine things we hols turn invisible and become part of our shadow in shadow form correct? If not, then let's stick with the previous idea.

>>23422284

You begin looking about for a bow. Unfortunately, in small, poor villages, you don't typically just find a stack of bows lying around waiting for sale or whatever. You head towards the shack that Mari said Jens lives at, since after all he probably has a bow and maybe even a spare, but the shack is empty of both bows and hunters.

By the time you race back to the town, the fight has concluded. The large man is mortally wounded, but the second Blood Guard has been hacked to pieces. One of the village men, a rougher looking one, has retrieved the mask and hung it on the end of his axe, while several of the more sensible ones are trying to tend to the wounds of the elder's bodyguard. You know enough about mortal anatomy to know that his intestines are supposed to stay inside and also not be split open, so it's safe to say this guy isn't long for this world. The elder himself seems mostly okay, though.

>>23422495

Your shadow form affects only yourself. As usual, there is another power in Tenebriety that covers making other things shadow.

>>23422501
stick around to see what their next move will be. they're clearly forced to make some plans now.

>>23422516
Ah fair enough, I was afraid my revision post was too late anyway.

Where's our kid? We can't let her escape from us already.

>>23422501
Wait for the elder to move away from the rest of the group, then make him speak his thoughts aloud.

>>23422516
>>23422618
Actually...if we did this we could become a deadly shadow for Mari couldn't we? That seems like a pretty intimidating prospect if she winds up building a reputation.

Thoughts on grabbing the scimitar and letting Mari keep it for the time being for us to use anons?

>>23422714
we can maybe get it later when everyone's attention is off them. it's probably a pretty good weapon but being seen with it might get you in trouble in some places.

>>23422707

I'm pretty sure that the elder won't be left alone anytime soon. I propose that we find someone to go tell him that the army will seek retaliation and that everyone should arm themselves. Maybe they will stand a chance against a small army.

>>23422555

Well, their immediate next move is basically getting an early start on the funeral for the elder's bodyguard. Those who had killed the Blood Guard have calmed down a bit now and have joined the others surrounding him as he expires. The bodyguard himself is mostly just happy that the elder is safe and the village as well, and no one mentions that it probably won't be much longer but that's to be expected when you're comforting a dying man.

>>23422688

You can see Mari and Leson heading up to the shack. Leson is running up a few steps and waiting for Mari to catch up, looking anxious. Mari is moving pretty slow considering she was half-terrified last time you saw her.

>>23422707

That'll be a while. Do you want to do anything else or should we skip to the next time you manage to catch the elder alone?

>>23422999
If there's nothing else we are doing, sure.

>>23422999
look to scavenge those bows/scimitars

>>23423083
Yes, lets discretely take the scimitars at least if we can manage it. Keep an eye on our kids so we dont lose track of them as we do so.

>>23423083

Okay. Keeping in mind that your shadow form is incorporeal and can't touch anything, how do you plan to do that exactly? You can change back to your corporeal form at-will, of course, but anon has so far been pretty opposed to doing so. Especially considering that these scimitars are not going to be tossed in a ditch and forgotten. They're valuable trophies.

>>23423165
if they get put somewhere out of sight, switch to corporeal and hide them elsewhere.

>>23423123
>>23423165

Guess that the Scimitars wouldn't help us much. As soon as we change back into shadow form, we will lose them. Instead, we should make the villagers arm themselves, lock the gates and prepare for an attack. Are there any fortifications around the village, and how big is the population?

>>23423165
>>23423234
Create a distraction then go corporeal and take them quickly, hide them somewhere for the battle ahead. I'm sure we can ambush a few soldiers in corporeal form later and help make a difference. The villagers aren't going to complain if someone starts killing enemy soldiers int he middle of the fight they haven't seen before.

>>23422999
Say to Mari and Leson that they need to wait for you in the hunter's house.
Then go back to corporal form and go to wherever most of the people are and ask "Where are (insert hunter's name here)?".
If you found him say that you need a bow if not leave the village and go to the other one,

>>23423358
Unfortunately our corporeal form is a little girl due to shitposters at the start of thread 1. That form lacks reach, weight and intimidation value, making us good for nothing in a stand up fight.

>>23423278

Probably I should have described this place a bit when we got here. The village has a palisade wall surrounded by a ditch about five feet deep. The bridge over the ditch and through the "gate" (which is just a gap in the wall) can be pulled in, and there's a tower next to the gate where a watch is posted. The watch is typically not super-vigilant (Mari and Leson walked straight past and he didn't say a word) but presumably would react more to an approaching army. The village itself contains a solid four hundred people, but most of those are women are children. Their actual fighting force struggles to match a hundred, and that's counting men too young or old to fight under most circumstances. All of their able bodied men can fight in theory, but none of them fight as a profession and their only training seems to have been previous wars. Their equipment is pretty scattershot too. Most have no armor at all and if they have a shield, it's basically just a block of wood with leather straps bolted onto it. About half of them wield axes that appear to double as regular axes that cut down trees. Some have spears or bows which look like they're mainly used for hunting. None of them has a proper sword except for the two who claimed the scimitars, one of which is a kid maybe sixteen years old who you gather is the younger brother of the elder's dead bodyguard. Probably that guy didn't have any children, then (he was only like eighteen himself, as near as you can tell).

Fortunately, Deepwell Village is not populated by mouth-breathing idiots, so they have gathered that they're probably going to be fighting pretty soon and have started preparing for an attack without any provocation on your part.

>>23423234

Unfortunately, they are kept on the backs of their new owners pretty much constantly, but you might have better luck once they're asleep. You spend your time shadowing the elder (no pun intended) while you wait.

>cont.

>>23423445
Except for the part that we are as strong as a full grown man and have some combat experience if I recall. The OP said we can easily overpower a single soldier in combat even with our current form. Also with that comes underestimation by the enemy.

>>23423476
The thing is a couple of mooks with spears can easily keep us at bay by jabbing us before we can get in ankle biting range.

>>23423517
i can think of a couple of ways to get around that, such as using our supreme strength, speed and damage resistance or just slipping to shadow form to get close.

we're not actually a little girl. we just look like one.

>>23423553
Strength is not as important as weight and reach in that situation. We may be as strong as a full grown man, but a full grown man is also bigger and heavier.

>>23423358

We can take one soldier in a direct fight, maybe two or three if we're armed. By posessing officers so that they give idiotic orders we could make a way bigger difference.

My plan so far:
>Ignore the scimitars
>Alert the people, have them prepare defenses. It should suffice if a hunter tells them that he spotted the army moving towards the village, if they don't get it themselves
>get outside the village and find the army
>have the captain give orders:
>sending out a small scouting force (5 people) to look for the Blood Guards, they should easily be killed and help the villagers stay focussed on the coming battle
>order a large rear guard to be formed so that we divide the main force

When the army is split up and the village readx to defend itself we have good chances to repel the attack. I'm unsure whether the children should hide within or outside the village, outside might be safer.

>>23423553
Fighting is a shitty option if we want to help this village anyway. We can cause so much more damage by messing up their commanders.

>>23423553
Which causes us to drop our weapons unless we get our hands on the "turn held objects into shadows" upgrade, as the OP just clarified a few posts ago.

I'm also not sure if we are indeed more lithe and durable than a normal human, or even if our combat potential will grow with time. That much wasn't really made clear.

>>23423614
OP said we could overpower an armed and armored soldier emptyhanded and survive being decapitated.

>>23423445

The problem with reach and intimidation value are very real, but you are supernaturally capable of swinging a sword with just as much force as a fully grown man, differences in weight and muscle mass be damned.

>>23423476

Don't expect to get too far on being underestimated in the middle of a swordfight. While you can use underestimation to your advantage during parley or the like (potentially), kids who take up arms are not all that uncommon in this part of the world and if they manage to hit they can be just as deadly as anyone else. Soldiers know that taking a kid lightly is what'll give them a chance at splitting you open, so they don't.

>>23423408

The first part of this seems pretty uncontreversial, but so far "never go corporeal" has been a thing for us, so I'll wait to see if others are on board with it before moving ahead with that.

-----

>>23423408

Mari is breathing heavily and plodding slowly up the steps towards the shack, which sits on a small hill. Leson beats her there easy, and both agree to wait for you/Jens here.

>>23423666
Yes, at the expense of taking months to regenerate and being incapacitated the whole time.

>>23423666
Survive as in recovering from it eventually. Still going to be non-functioning.

>>23423688
Great. lets hope the don't wear leg armor.
Christ. This is turning into an anime.

>>23423408
>>23423688
Find a random lone villager, then make him believe a friend is asking where Jens is.

>>23423666

I said that having been fighting things since before the dawn of humanity means you have combat expertise that will leave the average human soldier greatly outclassed, even though you don't make a point of fighting terribly often. Your strength is extraordinary for your form, but not all that awesome compared to a regular mortal.

You can *survive* being decapitated because you are literally impossible to kill. That's why you got stuck into an oubliette instead of murdered. Being decapitated still means you have lost the fight, and you bleed just as easily as anyone else.

>>23423614

With the Talents you have right now, your combat potential isn't going to go up that much. None of them are really geared towards directly killing dudes. You can pick up some new Talents as you go, though, and you can choose something more direct then if you like.

>>23423688
Hm, very well. I'd still like us to at least visit one of the sword-holders in their sleep and inspect the blade. We did see some curious markings so I'd like a closer look at the very least.

>>23423604's plan makes more sense for the time being, I'm in agreement for fucking up their chain of command from the shadows.

For the time being, let's implant the idea of a small army headed this way with as much intel as we know into someone's head.

>>23423604
Yeah, screwing with the captain to make them use obviously dumb tactics is a good way to let the villagers win.

they don't actually seem to have a way of detecting us. we could go to the soldiers and screw with the captain further to see how much of a wreck we can make him before he reaches darkwell.

>>23423926
>>23423604
Our power is not Suggestion. We do not know if the commander will actually do what we want.
Searching for Jen and getting Mira out of here is the best way to act.

>>23423944
uh, meant to say deepwell. welp.

>>23423971
But it's very easy to make the captain believe there are enemies in different places to reality, or that they actually outnumber him 3:1.

>>23423830

Delusion can't induce hallucinations. The result of this will be that the villager now believes his friend wants to know where Jens is, but the villager is unlikely to drop everything to go tell him.

>>23424062
we could just make him want to go talk to jens. i'm still in favor of going to mess with the soldiers, though.

>>23424142
It's probably a better idea. Tell Mari to wait and then screw with the captain.

>>23424142

You leave a few of the locals you find alone with a very strong hunch that the incoming retaliation force will have about 70 people in it and then leave to go and find said force. Since they're on the road, it's not that hard.

Unfortunately, they're on the march, which means you won't be able to follow the captain and use Unnoticed at the same time, and the sun hasn't yet gone down. You can certainly wait in one spot while Unnoticed and just let the whole force pass over you, eavesdropping all the while, however.

>>23424182
Best of both worlds: Use delusion on someone to make them think "Jens is a hunter, he would be very useful in defending the village so I should ask someone where he is before it is too late."

Then simply follow the person until we learn what we want. Inform Mari and go run off to fuck with the soldiers.

>>23424265
well let's do that then

>>23424373
Agreed. We can at least learn something of value that way.

>>23424265
Use unnoticed in front of the force to get inside, then change into a shadow and follow it.

>>23424294

I will reverse the timeline enough for you to have used this trick, by which you learn that Jens the hunter is hunting. You also make a villager look like a fool since how the Hell did they expect anyone other than Jens to be able to find Jens while he's out in the wilderness hunting? They'll just have to hope he shows up in time.

While hiding beneath the army you catch snippets of conversation. Mostly from soldiers worrying over how long they'll be able to continue raiding. Two dozen dead or wounded in the last fight, so they'll be glad to be back at the fortress as soon as possible. It's convenient the Blood Guard managed to cow that one village (Farwell or something?), but it worries them that the Guard returned there. Did they miss one of the children? Is that where the cursed children have been hiding all along?

Everyone's abuzz about what happened to a guy named Gerell, too. Killed in the middle of the night and not by raiders, not a mark on his body, throat bulging, and blood coming from his mouth. No one knows how he might have died and the Blood Guard run off before they could examine the body. Some of the soldiers say they can't wait for them to get back, they don't like this country, they feel like they're being dogged by evil spirits and they feel like they've charged into melee unarmored without the Blood Guard there to fend them off.

>>23424409

I don't really see how this is supposed to work? Armed forces are not really known for marching so far apart from one another that none of the soldiers will notice an extra shadow moving in between them. I guess you mean follow at a distance?

>>23424612
promote being lazy have some people run dice games

>>23424797

They're marching right now. That wouldn't really work well.

>>23424612

Great. They're already low on morale. This means that they will not fight at full strength and are likely to flee, especially if they learn that the blood guards, which they seem to heavily rely on, are dead. Depending on how far it is until the army reaches the village, we might do something to further weaken their will. Petty annoyances like throwing stones and then going unnoticed/shadow would be a good example.

>>23424612
Find out where they are keeping their supplies, if they are carrying them or if they are on a wagon or something. We could potentially ruin some of their stuff and make it look like an accident.

>>23424772
I meant that we hide in a shadow of a tree or something reaching onto the road and enter the shadow of a soldier when the situation allows it.

>>23424908

Darting off to the side, you circle ahead of the army and wait for them to pass by again, this time keeping an eye out for where they keep their supplies. Each soldier carries a fair-sized pack, but they also have a wagon.

>>23424952
Question, we cant ride on the wagon while incorporeal can we? I'm asking because we haven't tried to walk through walls and stuff yet and I'm not sure what the limitations are. If we got onto the wagon quickly while they were passing through and went into shadow form we could get a closer look at their supplies.

>>23424952
enough people watching it to notice us if we go corporeal and mess with it a little?

>>23424995

You can ride the wagon, yeah. A shadow doesn't pass through solid objects, it lies on top of them, and since you're a shadow cast by magic rather than an actual light source, you can crawl basically anyplace that isn't airtight.

>>23425025
Gauge whether we can hitch a ride on the wagon discreetly and if we have a solid chance, go for it. Worst comes to worst we abort and dash back into the woods. That should heavily demoralize the soldiers anyway, if they were to notice and they might be super paranoid.

Why not just make one of the soldiers believe that it's full of plague rats and should be burned immediately?

It'll probably be up in smoke before anybody can stop him.

>>23425131
needs a voice command.

we can fuck with them more effectively once they stop.

>>23425025

What would happen if one of the soldiers stabs the shadow?

>>23425131
It might be damn hard to convince a soldier to burn all of their supplies for that odd of a reason. Probably easier to do the deed ourselves or at least assess the supplies to come up with a plausible delusion.

>>23425153
We cant be harmed in shadow form outside of magic, iirc.

>>23425081

The wagon is towards the back but has a significant guard. Being sneaky is kind of your schtick but you're still feeling fairly rusty. Nevertheless, you decide your odds are pretty decent and try to hop into the wagon.

One of the soldiers does see you jumping in, but once you're inside you turn on unnoticed and he scrutinizes the wagon carefully for about ten minutes solid, riding a little closer to get a better look. Unnoticed has pretty spotty reliability when you are being actively searched for, but it's really not that weird to see shadows in a wagon full of goods, so eventually the soldier shakes his head and decides he's seeing things and he's just on edge.

Now you're in here you can see that it is indeed a whole lot of non-perishable type food. Dried fruit. Biscuits. Gruel.

>>23425170

This is pretty much correct. Your shadow form is incorporeal which makes it immune to any sort of regular attack that I can think of. The flip side being that your ability to physically interact with the world is likewise very limited.

I will need to go in about half an hour. By then we'll hopefully be close to the stage where the army is about ready to hit the Deepwell.

>>23425296
Oh, you mean stuff that burns easily.

Find something to set it alight.

>>23425473
This.

>>23425473
fires good I like fire

>>23425473

Well, the soldiers have flint and tinder probably (those campfires you saw a few nights ago when last you visited them must have been started somehow), but how can you lift it off them without their noticing? For that matter, since you can't strike them together nor carry a torch while incorporeal, how are you going to stop the soldiers from noticing you starting/carrying a fire into the wagon?

>>23425473

It will hardly be possible to just run there and set it ablaze. This requires a lot of fiddling, which has to be done in our normal form. Attempting to do this will no doubt be noticed. I'd rather have the wagon drive down a slope/cliff/into a river/mud/heavy forest from where it cannot be salvaged, thus further damaging the morale of the soldiers without being this obvious.

>>23425646
How would you go about doing that?

>>23425733

By whispering in the drivers ear that the road just made a turn. Bonus points for breaking the wagon or getting it stuck.

>>23425633
Well there goes that idea. Let's just hitch a ride in the wagon and see if we cant overhear any conversation outside for a while when we ride. If these soldiers stop anywhere along the way for a short rest we can exploit that time possibly.

>>23425852

A Delusion cannot induce a hallucination. When you tell someone that what they're seeing isn't real, the best you can hope for is that they'll freak out. More likely, they'll just ignore the impulse entirely. If you keep up the delusion long enough, the gnawing feeling that the road didn't turn when it was supposed to might collapse their psyche eventually, but it isn't going to immediately cause them to turn the wagon aside when their own eyes are telling them the opposite of what the delusion is saying.

>>23425852
Or this, rather. Damn posting from my phone being slow.

>>23425903
Dont we have time to burn anyway? If we keep this up for long enough the potential damage to the dude's mind could be all we need to create one hell of a disturbance anyway.

I am out of time. So, tomorrow at 12:00 server time. I'll put up a tweet. See you then.

>>23426023
Thanks for your time OP. See you then.