Did I forget the title? Oh, well.

Start flinging soldiers at the prison guards. Stuff like "Everything you ever loved is being held imprisoned in that cell over there."

Experiment with what motivates these soldiers. If they don't seem to move into action give up the delusion and try another solder/delusion.

>>23449221
>nd a two or three dozen of the soldiers haven't abandoned ship despite the fire and the creepy assassinations.

Can we make out their leader?

>>23449221
Holy shit OP, I only meant to suggest you write down a line or two about that stuff and you come up with all that?

Not a complaint, mind you.

Can we make someone think that everyone around them has been replaced by doppelgangers and that they are the only "real" human left? It wouldn't be an actual illusion, since we wouldn't be changing what he sees.

>>23449247

The other soldiers would surely notice that he is being manipulated by a magical entity and would call for magical assistancd:

"Open the cage!"
"Why?"
"I have this feeling that my family is in there."
"What? Your family lives a month's travel away!"
"I said open the cage!"

>>23449294

Let's teach them what fear is.

"You're the only human left in this camp. Those around you are shapeshifting monsters. They killed the officers and you will be next. Kill them before they kill you!"

>>23449307
And? Where would they find magical assistance? They would assume everyone is going mad. And there is nothing wrong with that

>>23449327
And then they run away.

>>23449327
Yes!

>>23449342
One less enemy to fight.

>>23449327
Change it to "if you kill them all you can find your friends again." If he succeeds we turn off the compulsion, because demon.

>>23449356
That's true. It might also be possible to scare the shit out of them just by addressing them as a creepy shadow, without resorting to delusions.

>>23449221

New to this. The pastebin expalins Delusion pretty well, what do "Unnoticed" and "Shadow Form" do, aside from what you can guess from the name?

>>23449374

You track down one of the soldiers holding mostly still amidst the confusion and say to him "all the other soldiers have been replaced by shapeshifting demons. The only way to get your friends back is if you kill all of them."

The soldier begins fleeing the camp, taking a few opportunistic jabs and thrusts at the others on his way out. As the other soldiers aren't expecting an attack from someone who looks like one of their own, one of the thrusts manages to find purchase in one of the soldiers, driving through his stomach. The soldier who has actually been caught by delusion is soon away from the camp, but now a completely rational paranoia has been added to the chaos. Some of the soldiers begin attacking one another in a panic and, unable to tell one side or another, many more of them simply flee altogether in twos and threes, usually on foot.

There's still maybe fifteen who are keeping it together, though. Probably veterans.

>>23449463
Not OP, but I'll give it my explanation.

Unnoticed allows us to avoid being noticed (not literally invisible, someone actively searching may still find us). Requires us to remain stationary, hardly drains us to maintain.

Shadow Form basically makes us a shadow of our own form. Useful because we're much more difficult to notice, we can move around in it and creeping through tight spaces and such since we "exist on surfaces" rather than being 3dpd.

>>23449492
Time to corrupt a veteran.

>>23449516

This is pretty much correct. In order to keep the primer as manageable as possible I'm going to try to limit power explanations to powers which are commonly misunderstood.

A question about the Twitter/RSS Feed. Would it be more convenient to those using it if I tweet when a new thread is started, or with every time I write a new post in the thread?

>>23449631
Only when you start a new thread. If I want to know if there was a new post I will watch the thread not you twitter.

>>23449519
seconded

>>23449492
This is nice. But sounds like we're not much closer to our bonus objective of liberating the prisoners. How many are still staying behind?

>>23449678
looks like we took out half of them.

>>23449678
>>23449704

Oh shit, I completely missed the last line answering my exact question. Disregard my retardy.

>>23449519

Okay. How?

>>23449773
Lets try doing it with the one we used earlier. The everybody is a shapeshifting demon thing.

>>23449823

Additionaly tell them that they are blessed with invulnerability.

Alternatively, give one the feeling that he knows exactly who stabbed the officers.

>>23449914

Making the soldier "invulnerable" would require a second delusion, which will probably tire you out inside of ten or fifteen minutes. Granted, he probably won't last five. Given this, do you still want to go for both delusions?

>>23449941
Yes! We haven't properly exerted ourselves for centuries, may as well get used to being busy.

>>23449941
We could make him think that all of his friends were replaced by doppelgangers who happen to be terrible combatants who he could kill pretty easily. And killing them would save his friends.

Given that they're paranoid can't we just make one of them believe he heard his commrade draw his sword to attack him.

Pretty low effort to make him think he heard a noise, and if he's paranoid he won't believe it when the guy says "What? Me pull out my sword on you? I swear I didn't!"

>>23449941
Go for it. If he fails, he dies, if he succeeds then he kills everyone.

>>23449941
Do it but only keep it up for about 5 minutes

>>23450093

You creep up on one of the veterans, close enough to whisper "your comrades have been replaced with doppelgangers, and the only way to get your friends back is to kill the ones who've replaced them. You've been blessed with invulnerability." It's only a few seconds before the soldier gets over his hangups and splits one of the "doppelganger's" heads open. The other soldiers whirl around in a panic and a bloody melee begins, but it doesn't last long and ends with a dozen soldiers still on their feet.

"What the devil is going on here?" one of them asks.

"The curse, it must be," another says.

"Kill them all," says a third, turning towards the prisoners in the cage cart, who react variously by screaming in panic (several of them were doing this already), begging for mercy, or just quietly sobbing. "It's the only way to be sure."

"I saw the captain leaving with one of them earlier," a soldier says, "he must have been bewitched into letting him go."

"Kill these ones anyway, just in case!"

>wat do?

>>23450189
How good are we in direct combat? If we are decent, we should attack with shadow walk to get a sneak attack on the most capable looking sort, then use unnoticed and shadow walk to mess with the soldiers while killing them.

>>23450189
Whisper to two guards "Guard these prisoners with your lives, it is the King's right to judge them, not yours."

We can keep this up if we're careful and the delusions dont last long enough to tire us out.

>>23450189
Time to simply tell the guards we'll let them live if they just leave and refrain from hurting the prisoners?

"If only one of the prisoners is harmed, you all will die horrible deaths"

If this doesn't work, we shouldn't wait long and continue cursing them with chronic backstabbing disorder.

>>23450189

Convince 2/3 gaurds that killing the prisoners will make the curse irrevocable
.

>>23450230

You're decent, but you're also outnumbered twelve to one. Beating this many in a straight fight isn't "decent" it's "godlike."

>>23450280
>"If only one of the prisoners is harmed, you all will die horrible deaths"

And then one of them is a smartass and points out they weren't going to harm only one.

But we should threaten them directly now, promise not to murder every single one of them if they leave now.

>>23450189
Delusion two soldiers at once with "The other soldiers are going mad and are killing innocent people! You gotta stop them!"

>>23450376
>>23450243

Agreed, I think actually communicating with them might be a good way to diffuse this situation.

>>23450397
Or get them to hold the prisoners hostage since they would realize that's out objective. Unless we intimidate out the ass 12v1 isn't going to go well. Unnoticed wont work anymore if they know what they are looking for and shadow form would just stalemate things.

It's all up in the air though.

>>23450430
Their warband has been almost completely routed, shit's on fire, their commanders are dead. If some supernatural being shows up making demands now, they should be scared shitless. They don't know that we can't take them all on.

>>23450504

That's true. And it will also distract them from the prisoners.

How long does it take to change into/out of shadow form?

>>23450504
Well, if we go this route I suggest we stay in shadow form. A formless voice would probably freak them out more than a little girl, and we haven't been too keen on being seen in our real form yet.

Appear, whisper to 2-3 (whatever our max is) Tell them that they must slay their fellows as we are an angel \ god and they are not worthy.

>>23450564

About two seconds. It's not quite instantaneous, but it's close.

>>23450574
Yes, being a shadow fulfills the "supernatural" criterion nicely. Much scarier, despite what horror trends want you to think.

Okay, let's roll for "delusion guards into continued betrayal" or "reveal self in shadow form, intimidate guards into submission/flight." d100, highest roll wins, and I'll ignore repeat rolls for the same option.

Rolled 92

>>23450661
Intimidate

"Run away, soldiers. Those prisoners are mine."

Rolled 47

>>23450661
backstabbing

>>23450676
Neat.

>>23450676

The flickering fires of the burning wagon stretch your shadowy form out across the ground. The soldiers notice you, know, a shadow without an owner, and several of them kneel down to brace their polearms into the dirt, as though expecting you to charge them on horseback somehow. Their fears are not alleviated when your shadowy form peels itself off the ground to stare down at them, towering and distorted by the flickering fires.

"Run away," you say, and point to the cage full of prisoners, "these belong to me." Several of them break ranks and flee, but a determined few hold out. Oh, well, time for plan B. "Killing him will make me go away," you say pointing one soldier at another. "No, him. Try that one. Killing that one will definitely work. All alone? That means death is the only way to get away from me."

That was tiring. You feel bad. But bright side: Soldiers all dead. Fortunately, the lieutenant in charge of guarding the prisoners naturally had a set of keys and isn't making much use of them since being stab-murdered. Unfortunately, your incorporeal form isn't going to do much good in getting them from the tent to the cage.

>>23450891
Can we make our body partly corporeal?

Just sort of stick a hand up out of shadows, grab the keys, and throw them into the cage for the prisoners to use? Then tell them to make their way to Deepwell in an imposing voice.

>>23450891
Not being one of the shadow fetishists, I am perfectly okay with this. Go grab his keys, wherever he was when we murdered him, then free them the same way an actual person would.

>>23450891
Just tell them to all face in some direction until we've opened the cage.
Not like they have much choice.

I also have no problems with them seeing our corporeal form, though.

>>23451000
Yeah, this works.

"Turn away, lest you see what I am and I am forced to kill you as I have killed your captors."

Then open the cage. If any of them look, don't actually kill them, because nobody will really believe a little girl did all this anyway.

>>23451056
This could work

>>23451056
I say we go for this as well.

>>23451056
Eh, preserving whatever anonymity we might actually have can't hurt I guess. Though I've been thinking that we may actually have very little of that, since it's very possible that someone, rather than just blind fortune, directed events so that we would be freed.

>>23451174
Perhaps. Either way, the general populace doesn't seem to know what we are.

>>23451056

The cowed villagers are, for the most part, too terrified to look. Those who do sneak a peak are children (who are, after all, about 2/3s of the cage's contents). You return to your shadow form after sliding the door open.

Dawn is breaking now, filling the grim scene with grey light. The fires are beginning to burn out, and everything seems less frightening, yet more desolate. To mortal eyes, at least, to you it mostly just looks like a job well done.

>>23451300

Need to find somewhere to rest soon. Follow the villagers home?

>>23451300
Tell the villagers to go to the safe village and then find somewhere to sleep.

>>23451247
It seems that to Mari we are a "shadow spirit" similar but not really to the nice forest spirit whose existence she is convinced of despite admitting he never answered her and didn't seem to stop this warband (we are so awesome).
And the soldiers spoke of the locals spirits living in the woods, as opposed to their own living on the roads. So even if they don't understand daemons, I think they're generally quite aware that they're around.

>>23451339
Oh and ask them to bring as much military equipment as they can manage.

>>23451300
Child soldiers, ho!

>>23451300 Have the villagers salvage anything useable from the camp, then accompany them to the village where our minions are waiting.

>>23451352
Yep, let's follow em home and make sure that they bring back whatever supplies aren't burnt if they are still strong enough to carry them.

>>23451300
"Go to Deepwell, humans. Go to Deepwell and prepare for the coming storm. Your home is gone, but you have your lives, and you have your freedom. That should be enough for a smart human."

We'll follow in their shadows and check in on Mari.

The freed prisoners head towards Deepwell and you follow them there, hiding within the shadows of one of the ones on the edge of the group (mostly so that you can leap from their shadow to a forest shadow in a hurry if you decide to ditch them).

As you approach Deepwell's watchtower, the guard calls out "halt! Go no further! What is your business in Deepwell?"

The Greatoak villagers look to one another for a moment and then one of them steps forward to act as spokeswoman. "We're from Greatoak," she says, "we were taken by Golgothan soldiers, but some spirit of the woods killed them and bid us come here."

"There's no room here for refugees," the Deepwell guard says, "not in your numbers."

"Where else are we supposed to go?" the woman asks.

"That's not our problem," the guard says, "our village owes no debt to Greatoak, so be off!"

>wat do?

>>23451748
They remembered to bring lots of salvage, right?

>>23451748
Whisper to the guard:
"It's probably not a great idea to turn them away after a spirit who murdered a golgothan <insert proper military unit size descriptor here> told them to come here."

>>23451748
Looks like we need to decide whether we want to intervene or not. We could probably stay in shadow form and relate to the guard without our help Deepwell wouldn't likely exist anymore, and secure their help at least for the time being while playing up our benevolent spirit guise.

That is, unless someone has a more clever idea. I don't particularly like this solution but its the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

>>23451748

"If you send them away to die, your fate will be the same as the Golgothan soliders...The blood of your family will be on your hands"

>>23451748
"Sending them away to die after something slaughtered an entire Golgothan military unit to protect them probably is a terrible idea."

Delusions, go go go.

Could also just remind him that he probably should consult the village elder. Getting the guard to let them in is no good anyway if the rest of the village decides to kick them back out.

Can we just shadowstep up to where the guard is and stab him in the back from behind and open the gate?

I'm tierd of thinking.

>>23451784

Yes.

Looks like we're starved for consensus again, so let's roll for your preferred option.

>>23452085

You don't have Shadow Step.

>>23452062
Actually this is a better idea. First delude the guard into letting them in, then go and delude the village elder into making the village accept them.

I guess they will need to put the refugees to work fairly quickly, but that is to be expected.

Rolled 65

>>23451806
>>23452010
Rolling for this.

Rolled 77

>>23452139
>>23452062

This seems like the most reasonable appraoch.

Rolled 64

>>23452089
Whoever is "leading" the refugees should ask the guard to speak with his boss and of course offer up their salvage.

>>23452139

Okay, looks like we're going with this. First, how do you plan on getting into the tower? And second, exactly what do you plan on making them believe?

>>23452463
Well, there's gotta be shadows leading up to the tower.

Make him believe that letting refugees in or not is absolutely not up to him, and that he should ask the village elder first.

>>23452463
No clue, wasn't my suggestion.

>>23452533
He must be aware that it's not his jurisdiction to dispense justice in this way, he'll effectively be killing a group mostly of women and children. And even if it is his role, it won't be hard to convince him that he doesn't want to make that call, because most likely he doesn't want to condemn a bunch of kids to freezing to death in a forest.

>>23452463
Can we move up surfaces in shadow form? If so, that.

And I would say that we politely inform the guard that "The Elder is a strong believer in mercy and charity. He would not want the refugees turned away."

>>23452570
>>23452533

Which of these two are we going with?

>>23452568

Delusion doesn't work like that.

>>23452734
Can we make him believe Delusion works like that?

>>23452734
Go with
>>23452533
Otherwise he may just ignore us gnawing at his shoulders because the elder doesn't know anyway. Well, he could either way, but seems less likely.

>>23452570
I like this

>>23452734
>>23452795
>>23452818
Oh wow. It's like we're allergic to consensus.

>>23452533
This.

>>23452533
Fuck's sake lets just go with this, this is taking way too long over something we can solve other ways if this doesn't work.

>>23452533

The guard shouts down to the others to go inform the elder that there are Greatoak refugees who won't bugger off and he doesn't know what to do with them. Someone heads towards the elder's house to relay the message.

>Now for Phase 2 of the cunning plan. What was phase 2 again?

>>23453002
>Now fer phase 2 of da kunnin plan. What woz phase 2 again?
Is the category: Things an Ork would say?

>>23453002
Profit?

>>23453002
Rush to the elder, and make him believe that having all hands available for the impending Golgothan counterattack is the only way the village will be able to survive this.

>>23453043
And if that fails, we could talk to him directly. Relying on a delusion in the first place may be bad, since we don't want to maintain it indefinitely.

>>23453094
Perhaps you're right in that regard. We'll wait and see if the elder allows them to remain after the delusion is gone, and if not, we'll talk to him directly.

>>23453043
This, and what >>23453094 said as a contingency.

>>23453094

Delusion isn't ideal given that we want permanent residence for the civies.

Can't we wait and see how he interacts with them first, but get into position to delude or something else if necessary?

>>23453002
Rush to elder and if it seems he doesn't not want to let them enter, MAKE him want them to enter.

>>23453121

Delusion still does not work that way.

>>23453137

On the plus side, it wasn't me being wrong this time.

>>23453137
OP will never know peace from this evil.

We should gauge the Elder's attitude, and if he's against, use our natural charms rather than our supernatural charms. His village is a target whether he likes it or not, and refusing help is not only stupid, but might also make us unhappy.

You decide to wait and see how things play out before throwing around more Delusions (if nothing else, you still haven't had a chance to rest since the battle last night, and you're getting rather tired).

The village elder is currently holding what would seem to be some kind of council with three others, but he doesn't bother consulting the others when the situation is explained to him. "Send Tirvil to investigate those Golgothans with one of the refugees. If they are indeed destroyed then their loss is our gain. The women can work the fields to free up more of our own to guard the walls and the children can be kept in various households as apprentices, servants, whatever use we can find for them. Keep them away from their mothers, though, they're most valuable to us as hostages."

And with that, the elder shoos the messenger away and returns to his council.

>wat do?

>>23453410
That seems like an ideal solution, actually. This elder guy seems to know his stuff. I guess the refugee issue is dealt with for the time being.

We should probably go check to see if Mari found Jens or not. Then plan our next move. I would suggest investigating the fortress they were talking about, possibly assassinating some more officers/bloodguard.

>>23453410
Whey, someone does what we want of their own free will. Separating the children from their mothers is a little cruel, but whatever. Now I'm sure Mari has missed our charming company a lot. Find her!

>>23453410
Excellent. Time to get back to Mari.

>>23453410

Go see Mari if poeple want.

We need nap time soon.

On your way out of the elder's house, you notice an especially shadowy and creepy looking room that has lots of caged animals and also an altar of some kind. Like most mortal altars you've seen in your day, it's covered in symbols that have absolutely no metaphysical relevance whatsoever, but which probably serve (or served) as a secret code established between a daemon and his mortal pets/tools/cattle/whatever that particular daemon used them for. There's also a shaman-looking guy in there doing something with a corpse. So that's kind of weird.

You find Mari still hiding out with Leson at Jens' shack. Seems that guy still isn't back from the hunt.

>wat do?

>>23453785
Well, tell her we're back and that we've managed to free the others from her village.

>>23453785
Ponder the implications of the absent welcoming party. Check what she's been up to, does anyone even know they're here yet, ask if she knew any of the people taken prisoner.

>>23453785
Also ask the shaman while being unnoticed in shadow form "Whats up."

>>23453951
Risky. If that daemon isn't already taken out, I could imagine wandering around that place could be considered an invasion of privacy.

>>23454003
Risky, but the payoff could be worth it. Mortal allies are all well and good, but I'm sure having a friendly daemon on our side would expediate our return to power immensely.

>>23453945

Well, hunting is usually a pretty time-intensive process. On the other hand, it is also usually pretty dangerous process.

"Mari," you say, and she leaps a solid two feet into the air, looking around for the source of the voice. "It's me, Anne," you say, "your shadow."

"Oh," she said, "you've been gone for a while."

"I have. What have you been doing?" you ask.

"Just hiding in here waiting for Jens to come back, and trying to keep Les to shut up," she says, glancing to her brother, who is currently asleep. "I don't want anyone to know we're here before Jens does. I hope he doesn't mind that we've been hanging out in his house for a day or two when he gets here..."

"I'm sure he'll understand," you say, "how well did you know the people from your village?"

"Oh," Mari says, "well...I knew everyone well enough. It's not like one of those big cities you hear about with ten thousand people all living together. Everyone knew everyone else. Why?"

>>23454360
"Because the army that destroyed Greatoak has been crushed, and the captives released. They are taking refuge in this village.

But you are correct. You should not leave until the hunter returns."

>>23454428
Pretty much this, be a little forthcoming if she asks for details though.

>>23454428
"It was REALLY fun, by the way, would've loved for you to see it. Kinda tired now, though."

>>23454517
Seems kind of out of character.

If she inquires, though, we should describe it in detail.

We should also take our hours rest while we are here. Can we do that in shadow form or do we have to sleep on a rooftop or some such so nobody sees us?

>>23454620

You can rest in shadow form. You can't *sleep* in shadow form, but that only comes up about one hour of every week. Yay daemons.

>>23454428

"They were?" Mari says, "by you?"

"Yes," you respond.

Mari smiles and says "thank you," but her expression soon grows worried again. "Where are they going to go, though? Any village that'll take us would only take us as bondsmen."

>wat do?

>>23454704
Tell her what the elder is planning to do with them. Then ask what bondsmen status means for a person.

>>23454764
Sounds like a pretty word for 'slave'.

>>23454704
"I am not unfamiliar with the term, but it's meaning has probably changed since I heard it.

And certainly, it has to be better than execution? Even as bondsmen, they still have their lives, and all the other humans need to stick together if Golgoth is to fall."

I want to point something out since nobody else noticed it.

There was a dead guard near Mari that night we were investigating the camp and she was extremely tired afterwards. During the fight with the Blood Guards one of them started choking and spat up blood and Mari looked like she was having a seizure.

Coincidence?

>>23454997
Very unlikely. She kept dodging our questions about it and we decided not to push it for the moment. We could ask again.

>>23454997
There's something up with her, definitely.

>>23454997
We need to ask about this again, preferably while being as concerned as possible.

>>23454821

It's the nascent form of slavery practiced by people who do not have the resources to waste on an overwhelmingly inefficient but ego-pleasing labor economy. I'm intentionally avoiding using the word "slave" because it conjures up images of the American South or Rome, both of which saw the slaves being dehumanized a lot more than is possible in communities this small.

-----

>>23454764

"It's what happens when you capture someone from another village," Mari says, "at least, if you're not cruel enough to just cut their heads off." She peers out the door to the shack, careful not to reveal more of herself than is necessary. "Bondsmen can't carry arms or leave the village that captured them. Usually they end up as farmhands to the family of some warrior who won honor and glory in the battle they were taken in. If you're captured in a fight, your life is forfeit to your captors, so if they spare you, they owe you everything," Mari says. "I don't owe anything to anyone, though," she says, looking towards the rest of Deepwell through the wall and scowling, "it was Golgoth that overran Greatoak, not Deepwell, and Golgothans are barely even human."

>>23455084
Well that reveals a lot about the mentality between villages at least. Wonderful.

Let's reassure her that her safety is of our concern, and that if we can slightly help the situation of the others in her village we will try.

Also thank her for being cooperative while we were gone, she pretty much listened to our order word for word.

>>23455084

Meh. I messed up the pronouns a bit in there, but I assume the point is gotten across.

>>23455084
"You have it exactly right, dear Mari.

Now, you didn't happen to notice anything odd when the two red robed figures died, did you?"

Trying to bring it up in a way that will make her less defensive about it.

>>23455168
Rotten neighborhood, it seems like. Still, I think we picked the best possible fate for them, so that wasn't completely wasted.

So I'm thinking, if the village elder answers to a daemon, that daemon may have been eliminated by Dominion already, and if so...

>>23455272
I like this train of thought. And at least we will be able to further our knowledge of the relationship the two share(d) if we investigate.

>>23455272
We usurp it's position and use the local village hunters as the beginnings of a guerrilla army.

While it's true that nobody can match Golgoth in terms of sheer manpower, it's very hard to fight hunters when you are in a forest that they know like the back of their hand.

>>23455221

Mari glances aside when you bring up the Blood Guards. "I dunno," she says, "I wasn't really paying attention to the fight. I...I was mostly just trying to find out how to get away. Anyways, who cares how they died? All that matters is that they're dead and not hunting children anymore, right?"

>>23455328
>>23455329
Well, that, or we think of it this way: They would be completely defenseless against US. We don't take the place of their guardian spirit, fuck we have enough to babysit already, we simply intimidate our way into making them do what we want.

>>23455385
"Hmmm, it seems that we'll have to improve your lying skills."

>>23455464
She doesn't trust us, even after all we've done! She's totally shadowist!

>>23455464

"What?" she says, sounding a lot more scared than offended, "I'm...what do you mean?"

>>23455385
"Have we not done enough to earn your trust, dear Mari? We saved your life, and that of your brother. We destroyed an army for you, Mari, and saved the villagers. Have we not proven our loyalty, Mari?

You can tell us anything. The shadows are very good at keeping secrets."

>>23455547
"Oh you're so cute when you're evasive!'

>>23455547
>>23455556
Just use this, it fits the context.

>>23455556
Might want to replace the we's and us's with I and me.

captcha: was otoculk

I'm onto you Otoculk!

>>23455608
Force of habit.

Besides, the character is speaking as though he/she is the shadows, which would make we and us the correct terms.

>>23455556

"Have we not done enough to earn your trust, dear Mari? We saved your life, and that of your brother. We destroyed an army for you, Mari, and saved the villagers. Have we not proven our loyalty, Mari?"

"I...I'm sorry," she says, "for lying. I'm not supposed to tell anyone about this."

"You can tell me anything," you say, "the shadows are very good at keeping secrets."

Mari is silent for a while, but finally works up the courage to say it out loud. "I killed the Blood Guard. And another Golgothan, two days before," she says.

"How?" you ask.

"I grew teeth in his throat," she says. You recognize that power. That's Fleshshaping, the signature Talent of the Court of Dominion. But how the Hell did a thirteen-year old girl learn it?

>>23455746
"Interesting. Most Interesting.

Did anybody tell you why you might be able to do that?"

>>23455746
"It's okay Mari, thank you for being honest with me."

>>23455746
Interesting Mari, do you have any other abilities?
And thank you for being honest with me.

>>23455746
"Where did you come upon this power, this ability? It is familiar to me, I know it well. The power to sculpt and shape the flesh of mortals, it belongs to some... associates of mine.

There is more to you than meets the eye, dear Mari. Far more, I am beginning to suspect. I grow more glad I saved you by the day."

>>23455837
Careful with the honesty train there. Need-to-know, chief.

>>23455837
Too Much Information

>>23455746
I know quite a few anons have a hard-on for staying in shadow mode all the time, but wouldn't showing her or corporeal form make it a bit easier to establish trust?

>>23455915
Only thing I had a hard on for was turning Mari into a sadistic killing machine.

>>23455915
Yes, apart from having already claimed that we ARE a shadow, not that we can be a shadow. But really, keeping that up indefinitely is foolish, too restricting.

>>23455936
Annoying how she was already dreaming of murdering their collective asses before we even got to her, huh?

>>23455976
>Yes, apart from having already claimed that we ARE a shadow,

I think she's already figured out that this is probably not entirely true.

>>23455976
She has the sadistic but not the machine.

>>23455883
>>23455910
Fine, take out the associates part.

But I am still all for making it known that we are aware of the ability.

>>23455976
>Annoying how she was already dreaming of murdering their collective asses before we even got to her, huh?
No, no, no.
I was planning on delusioning her to make her believe she literally gained pleasure from killing and hurting people.

>>23455976
Well, it certainly makes our task easier. She just has to train it a bit, and I'm sure it can become very powerful. Stopping somebody's heart is presumably very easy to do with fleshcraft.

>>23456057
Well, that's a bit too much on the sickfuck scale for me.

Anyway, were you the guy who proposed switching people every few days because lol randum?

>>23456085
No, I was always a firm supporter of staying with Mari.
What's the point of wasting a delusion if we don't stay with her after all?

>>23455769

"I dunno," she says, "Dad just said that I shouldn't ever do it. That if people found out I could do that, they'd kill me for it. I didn't listen, though. I'd practice on rabbits caught in snares and then cut their heads off so no one would see. Someone did see, though. Someone must've." Her voice grows quieter. "They're looking for me. Golgoth. They were looking for me at Greatoak." She draws out her hunting dagger, an iron blade of exceptional craftsmanship for this region. "My father's the greatest hunter in the village," she says. "When he talks, people listen...When Golgoth came and he said we had to fight, everyone listened..." She drives the dagger into the ground, tearing up, "and then everyone died."

>>23456124
Eh, delusions is like, bruteforcing the problem. For our masterpiece, we shouldn't need to rely on keeping a delusion on her at all times. Especially since she may actually be able to detect that, given her condition.

>>23456057

Yes, because Delusion has always produced reliable results in the past. Sooner or later you people are going to have to wrap your minds around the risks and limitations of this power or you will get stuck in a never-ending cycle of undoing all your progress with poorly thought out delusions.

>>23456157
"So those rabbits were your doing. Hmmmm... This changes things significantly.

I assume you still want to destroy Golgoth and make them pay, correct?"

do daemons and mortals breed? A crossbreed could explain this and her father might have known. Or been one. Though that is unlikely.

>>23456157

That's one messed up kid. That's a lot of sick psycopath and a lot of guilt all balled up into one.

I like it.

>>23456192
>>23456182
And thus, the reason why I wanted until later.
Well, that and we're as weak as shit.

>>23456192
"But now you have me. I will help you avenge your village."

>>23456157
"It isn't your fault, Mari. It may seem like a curse, but this power is a gift. Golgoth fears it, and rightly so. You need not blame yourself for these things, but you can choose to avenge them."

Do we know enough about fleshsculpting to give her some pointers? It's not one of our powers, but we might have some theoretical knowledge to pass on.

>>23456157
"It's okay Mari. From what I've gathered, these Bloodguards are somehow able to find people with talents like yours. It doesn't matter if anybody has seen you while using your talent or not, the Bloodguard was coming for your village regardless."

This is where I'd usually suggest to hug Tom.. erm Mari, but shadowform etc.

>>23456157
Oh well, guess we technically owe her and her father for our freedom. Not that we'll ever mention that.

>>23456266
There was practically no resistance against leaving shadow form a few minutes ago. We could get all feely if that's what we want.

>>23456266
Like it was said earlier, we should probably manifest and at least give Mari the trust of showing our actual form to her at some point. Better sooner than later.

>>23456314
>>23456326
In that case I'd say we reward her honesty by showing her our true form. And give her a hug.

"I haven't been entirely honest with you either..."

And then this was /u/ quest and everyone loved purely ever after.

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>>23456436
And this is where Mari reveals those soldiers were the last thing sealing her powers and now her quest for world domination is realized, with us as her unwitting pawn.

>>23456487

>not wanting to be on the winning side, in any capacity

Better to be a pawn of the victor than then leader on the losing side.

>>23456388

I guess being part of the Court of Fortune there's nothing stopping you (well, except the lack of consensus amongst anons and heavy opposition from a number of other players, but nothing in-universe, I mean). But it's worth noting that the most extreme, radically pro-mortal Court that there is was gape at the debauchery of getting this touchy feely with mortals. And Mari is clearly not a daemon, because she's been sleeping 8 hours every night (though having what is apparently an inherent Talent rules her out as a mortal, so clearly one of these rules of thumb is wrong and the only way to know for sure will be to cut her head off and see if she survives, not a course of action I recommend).

>>23456549
How many daemons could possibly watch us give a little girl a hug?

>>23456549
Jesus, if you don't like it just don't use it and say so.

>>23456549
Appearing out of the shadows and hugging her is just creepy anyway. What, would you guys be particularly welcoming in that situation?

>>23456549

>hugging an 8 year old girl could lead to daemons trying to kill you

Don't buy it. Still, let's just go for a rest. Tell her we're grateful for her honesty, and will look after her, but that you're tierd and need a rest.

>>23456388
Nope.

Manifest, perhaps, but for the love of god, don't hug. We're a daemon, she's a minion, perhaps a very good minion who we favour, but still a pawn.

Pretty sure he said she was 13 at some point.

>>23456671
She's our first minion that means if we take good care of her she will start a cult worshipping us when she grows up or smething. Besides she has magics which is ultra rare and that is another reason to keep her close to us.

I just thought of something as well, we should ask her if Leson shares in this affliction as well.

>>23456608
>>23456611
>>23456647
>>23456655
>>23456671
I vote NO to hugging her. We are a daemon. Lets at least save it for when it will have maximum effect.

>>23456388
Is there anything that /tg/ will not waifu?

Let's not break character in this most spectacular of ways. No hugs.

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>>23456757
This is for manipulation's stake, not for change of character.

Perhaps I can brook peace here and propose a maximum of manifesting and looking straight into her eyes in that super sincere way while swearing bloody vengeance on whatever the name of her favored enemy was?

>>23456849
This seems like a fair compromise to me.

>>23456849
Agreeing with this most based anon.

>>23456849

Works for me.

This does a raise a question, though. Besides just being the little girl, what do you look like? Being the little girl would be enough except that we have another major character who is also the little girl. Apparent age? Clothes? Build? Hair color/style?

>>23456910
Whatever it is, it's gotta be entirely monotone.

>>23456910
13 years old. Orange curly hair in ponytails. Freckles. Acrobatic build. Orange eyes.

Going for a orange theme here.

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>>23456910
>Works for me.
No, we're hugging her.
>Besides just being the little girl, what do you look like?
See.

Rolled 76

>>23456956
fuck you, no
black hair

>>23456983
But orange goes so well with blood splatters!

Rolled 3, 4, 4, 4, 1 = 16

>>23456910
Rolling 5d6
>Apparent age
1=8
2=9
3=10
4=11
5=12
6=13

>Clothes?
1=Something simple.
2=Something oppulent.
3=Some kind of armour.
4=Something appropriate for a semi-wealthy merchant's daughter.
5=Rags.
6=Monk's robe.

> Build?
1=Short.
2=Tall.
3=Athletic.
4=Short.
5=Tall.
6=Athletic.

>Hair color
1=Blonde
2=Brown
3=Black
4=Red
5=White
6=Animu colour. Blue, green, whatever

>Style?
1=Short.
2=Long.
3=Short.
4=Long.
5=Short.
6=Long.

>>23456910
Bald. Completely black eyes. Flat. Very spindly limbs. Needle teeth. We're pretty inhuman.

>>23456997
The dice have spoken! I personally dont mind the results.

>>23456997
Asking the dice. I approve of this, regardless of the result.

>>23456964
Considering where that character is from, I'd like to support it, but she could look a little younger.

>>23456956
Yeah, no.

>>23456997
Ten years old, Merchant clothing, Short, Red short hair.
The way you used was interesting, but eh.

>>23456997
Rabaddon form appears to be looking like a 10-years old girl, wearing simple yet well-made clothing appopriate for a family of mild wealth.
The girl would be called short for her age by most. She wears her red short for a girl.

>>23456948

While for obvious reasons I'm not counting my own post as an actual vote, I will say that I've kind of seen Anomaly as a monochrome twin of Mari. Mari is thirteen years old, skinny, has short blonde hair and pragmatic clothes in brown/beige colors that are basically the same as the ambiguously pre-Renaissance materials they are made out of. So I see Anomaly as having the same height, build, and hair style, but her clothes and hair are pitch black and her skin is vampiric pale white.

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>>23457057
I prefer being original.
And creeping out Mari isn't the best option for us.

>>23457057
I did the post with the dice, but I could live with that as well.

Am I the only one who noticed that we'd have to be naked?

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>>23457070
The clothes become Shadow too.

>>23457070
the clothes are an illusion or a part of us, i guess.

>>23456997
I approve of this.

Could we have a slight tell-tale sign of being demon though? Like unnatural eye-color or something?

>>23456964
>>23457034
A younger Saya would be okay for me.

>>23457057
Bonus: This way we weren't totally lying about the "I AM YOUR SHADOW" because we kinda look like that could be the case. Also, extra destiny points for a girl that looks so similar to us happening to be right on top of our seal the moment its broken.

>>23457138
good point, I like it

>>23457087
NO. WE ARE NAKED.

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>>23457184
Well, we certainly can be if you convince everyone to agree with you.

>>23457138
And by destiny points I also mean more excuses for our character giving even half a fuck about her.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, we can totally frame Mari if we want people to be scared of her. Or more scared.

>>23457196
I believe that it would add to the creepiness factor, so I will support it.

>>23457216
It also makes our corporeal form useless in most situations. As amusing as showing up naked right now might be, it's not worth it in the long run.

>>23457184
>>23457196

No. You aren't.

>>23457216
creepiness of the players?
it's a terrible idea.

>>23457216
I won't.

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>>23457241
I expected that one.

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>>23457138
Due the the chaotic nature of our magic our form is influenced by whatever is closest to us when we re-enter this world.

But i liked most other parts of the random dice roll.

So looking in shape mostly like Mari but have vampiric pale white skin, red hair and wearing clothes appropriate for a semi-wealthy merchants daughter?

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Time for waiting.

To be honest, I like all of those suggestions. Maybe >>23457274 is a good enough compromise?

Although looking like Saya would be awesome as well.

>>23457313
make it a dark red maybe? The color of old blood.

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>>23457327
>>23457274
We wouldn't be doing a good job of being a trickster if we made all of our victims scream BEFORE we begin starting on them.

>>23457274
How about a monotone copy of Mari, except with blood red hair and somewhat wealthy looking clothing.

>>23457327
I could agree with that
>>23457360
And this

>>23457274
Mnah, I know black is overused, but I'd really prefer it here.

>>23457380
>>23457367
>>23457360
>>23457327
>>23457274
Guys, why do we have to look ultra-creepy?
Can't we just use our magic for that?
Sure we're a demon, but fuck if we WANTED to be a demon we would have chosen that instead of being a little girl.

>>23457404
What? Red hair is a pretty regular thing to have.

>>23457427
Yeah, the color of old blood, vampiric white skin.
Great.
What exactly would we use those for anyway?
We should have a form that makes people seem at ease, because to be perfectly honest we're hardly USING this form, and when we do use it we want to be accepted, not shunned to death.

I'd vote either for that saya thing because it looks kinda cool or OPs suggestion. Prefer the latter.

>>23457449
WELL I JUST ORIGINALLY WANTED SOME COMPLETELY FINE AND 110% INNOCENT LOOKING RED HAIR WITH FRECKLES.

>>23457502
>Try to avoid making girl look like a demon.
>Make her look like a witch instead.
I love you. No homo.

"It's not your fault," you say to Mari. "No one saw you changing the rabbits. The Blood Guard were coming anyway. Because they're scared of you."

You emerge from the shadows as a mostly normal thirteen year old girl with red hair, dressed in dark clothes made of finer cotton than most of the locals can afford. Mari's eyes widen a bit when she sees you emerge from the shadows. "But we'll make them pay. Won't we?" you say.

"...Yeah," Mari says, not sounding uncertain so much as just taken off-guard. You fade into shadow again.

>Okay, now what?

>>23457632
And red hair is like red(orange) hair or like blood red hair?

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>>23457632
Ah well, I'm just glad we're finally out of that "voting" session.

>>23457632
Did she find anything in the house that might indicate where Jens is hunting? If so, we might get him to return more quickly.

>>23457632
Unless anyone can think of more we need from Mari, we either go check out the altar or we take a rest.

>>23457632
Do we know enough about fleshsculpting to provide some tips?

If so, we should do that.

>>23457657

Either way would make basically no difference strategically speaking and so long as everyone has a mostly consistent idea of the fundamental visual differences between major characters, the details are irrelevant.

>>23457690

Well, no. But Jens must've hunted the same places as her father did since they apparently ran into each other a lot, and she has a rough idea of where those are.

>>23457707

You don't. For most of your life it was one of those minor House Talents that are super obscure, and then a few thousand years ago when the Court of Dominion suddenly became important you were mostly friends with people who didn't like them. You've seen it used and even been on good terms with people who've used it, but you never studied it.

>>23457632
>Okay, now what?
Now
We rest for a while.

>>23457708
Well, in that case let's either set off to find him, or rest like some other anons suggested. I'm fine with both.

>>23457632
Ask if she knows where Guille fortress is.

She can head into the forest to practise fleshsculpting after Jens gets back and we confirm accomadation arrangements. In the meantime, we could go ahead and kill everyone in the fortress or something fun like that.

>>23457808
> In the meantime, we could go ahead and kill everyone in the fortress or something fun like that.

I'd guess the fortress would be guarded against our ilk if Dominion has been fighting non-allied demons all those years.

>>23457839
Well, we won't know unless we try.

At the very least we can gather some valuable intel.

>>23457839
I's also prefer to avoid the fortress if a confrontation is not neccesary.

We should keep an eye on the army encampment. Let's see how they'll react after an obviously supernatural attack.

>>23457839
We strongly suspect that Blood Guards are anti-us, and we know that the force wanted to return there to get new ones to protect them from sorcery and such.

>>23457808

"Guille Fortress? It's pretty far west. It's sort of a legend," she says. "A long time ago there were these two kings and each of them ruled half of Dorrik, and each one was determined to rule it all before they died. So the warlord in the west began rallying all his soldiers to march east, while the warlord in the east went to all his vassal villages and took all their healthy young men for bondsmen to raise up a great fortress. It's the biggest fortress in the entire country, and they say that so much stone was mined for it that the spirits of the caves were left without a home, so they followed the stone blocks and now they live in the dungeons.

Anyways, the king in the west just starved Guille Fortress out and captured it without losing a single man of his army, and his dynasty ruled the entire country for his entire life and three generations after. Do you know if there really are spirits in the dungeons?"

You don't know, but there was a daemon of the Court of Stone who used to live around these parts, before all the mortals came. You and he weren't on good terms, but you weren't enemies either and war does make for strange bedfellows.

>>23458101
Let's sort out the situation in the village first before making any other plans.

>>23458206

What specifically about the village situation did you plan on sorting out?

>>23458101
Might be worth investigating possible ties between this daemon and the altar in this village. Its a stretch but perhaps. Do we know any ways to call a particular daemon?

>>23458236
See how things develop once the villager and her guard return from the campsite we razed, and make sure Mari is in good hands with Jens.
We should also investigate that altar we've seen earlier once things have calmed down a bit.

investigate the altar in the village.

>>23458101
Perhaps we should have a chat with the shaman in the elders ritual room.

Or, see what he is up to at the very least.

>>23458247

No. Daemons are too numerous to keep track of every single one in a region unless you live there permanently, and you always drifted to whichever place seemed most interesting. Even if you'd known all of them ~400 years ago, they've no doubt shuffled things around a lot. Possibly they're far less numerous, for example.

>>23458366
Can a demon be permanently destroyed?

>>23458407
Missed an a, please don't kill me.

>>23458407

No, but they can be evicted, stuck in oubliettes, or robbed of much of their power. Typically this sort of thing never happens en masse, but doing this sort of thing en masse is exactly what makes the Court of Dominion crazy.

>>23458461
And that's why they're our prime suspect for getting us stuck in one of those boring holes too. And we also suspect this forest was crawling with daemons that we haven't run into a single of, likely including whatever Mari's forest friend was called, because Dominion went purge mode here.
We should get up to speed with the politics somehow, if this is a usual thing for them they can't be very popular among the other courts.

You head towards the altar in the shaman's room. In a nearby corner, you can find the naked corpse of an older man that's been ripped open in several places. Most notably the throat has been opened up, revealing that there's lots of teeth grown through it, so perhaps they were trying to figure out how this Blood Guard died.

As before, you don't recognize anything in particular about the various holy symbols and ritualistic instruments lying around. Ritualistic instruments tend to be pretty generic anyway.

This thread definitely seems to be dying down and I should probably be off about now anyway. Someone should probably archive this, though.

>>23458834
Got your back, Jack.

Thread is archived. And I'm not surprised it's dying down, the thread has been up for just under 11 hours. Go to bed, OP.

>>23458958

Eh. It's the weekend.

>>23458834
Would love to play, OP, but after more than 40 hours awake, my idea factory is grinding to a halt. When's next?

>>23458680
I've always wondered why so many quests offer options to the players at the end of each set of posts.

Now I know. Things just progress so much faster if a few choices are offered.

>>23458979

It's again after 5:00. You're completely messing my sleep rhythm up, OP.

>>23459000
We do move very slowly, but I prefer it to some multiple choice thingy. If things need to be sped up, I'd rather that OP just put down the hammer and demand a roll.

>>23458999

Oh, yeah, next quest shooooould be tomorrow at 12:00 EST (server time)? Probably then. I will send a tweet from @MCJohnnyQuest for sure whenever I do start the next thread, which will be at 12:00 EST probably. And definitely within the next few days. Monday at the latest.

>>23459052
You are a gentleman and a scholar OP, you have one heck of a drive to keep this up every day for 8 hours+

/tg/, would you please stop turning every single fucking quest on this board to shit? God, I hate you all. I know you all can't keep from playing moralfags, because of your lonely and miserable lifes. But atleast try to keep shit consistent. Yes, I'm soooo "dark'n edgy" for calling retards out on their behaviour.

Fuck you all and have a nice evening.

>>23459290
I don't understand where this aggression is coming from. There was only one moment where we almost slipped up and it was avoided in the end. Aside from that, I'd say the character has been pretty fuckin' chaotic neutral.

>>23459325
That's not how you spell neutral good.

>>23459342
You can perform actions which would be construed as neutral good as a chaotic neutral character.

It's all about the intent behind said actions, yo.