Also, this computer has crashed twice in the past half-hour. I'm hoping it might just be bad luck, but this thing may be in its death throes. If the thread gets cut short, you'll know why.

>>25377012
>http://pastebin.com/NXXFJGEH
Reading this, this one seems interesting.

File: 1370968673835.png-(455 KB, 1553x872, TDQ Map with notes and shit.png)

455 KB PNG

>>25376957
Copypasting my reply from last thread:

Verin, huh? Guessing that's a rat in another ghetto who actually convinced them that this daemon was just the guy they needed. We need them to lead us to him. Try to catch Boldrat alone or at least some place with a decent chance of dropping a delusion unnoticed, then feed him "If you don't find Verin, all of you will die painfully." I think that should do the trick.

>>25377081
I was fine with this in the last thread, and still am

>>25377038
If you want to jump in the IRC group you're welcome to. We're on Rizon, channel's #Rabaddon

>>25377136

Why jump in a chat room when you could just discuss it here in the thread about the Quest?

>>25377332
I like you.

>>25377081
>>25377136

It takes a few minutes to catch the bolder Rat alone. He spends some time convincing the others that the statue fell apart because it was poorly made, and probably they should just rebuild it, something which they resolve to do...Later. Sometime. For sure. You get the feeling there's not a ton of spare labor around what with half of everyone dying of sickness or starvation.

He wanders off on his own eventually, though, climbing up a rickety watchtower to look across the wall at the archers barely visible on the other side and silently try to hate them to death. He's not having much luck when you whisper the delusion from shadow form. As usual, it takes a few minutes for him to settle on exactly what to do, his nose twitching nervously as he does so, but finally he descends the watchtower, slips into a tenement building against the edge of the wall of the ghetto, and from there through a small gap in the ghetto wall guarded by a Rat. "Balder, where you going?" the sentry asks, to which Balder replies "need to grab something, be back before it's light," and scurries through the hole. You're glad you're a shadow, because squeezing through the incredibly narrow crevices here would not be fun corporeal.

Balder comes out at the edge of the wall a few feet later, hopping over to a nearby windowsill, and from there nimbly pulls himself up onto the rooftop above. Ducking down, he scans the nearby area, counting the archers under his breath. "Five...Six, seven...Seven. Where's eight?" he asks himself. Cautiously moving to the edge of the rooftop, he peers out over the edge, then ducks back. The eighth archer is sitting in the window of the next house over.

>cont.

>>25377332
Well sure if you want to just stick in the thread to ask questions that's fine, it's just typically faster and easier to do so inside the IRC if they dont concern the immediate events of the quest.

Balder slides down to the wall of the house he's currently on and, holding his breath, leaps across to grab the edge of the adjacent rooftop, scrabbling for purchase on the side of the house, feet scrabbling against the wall. The archer sticks his head out the window, looking for the source of the noise, but can't see Balder around the corner. He narrows his eyes in the direction of the noise and steps out onto the windowsill, hands tightening on the edge of the roof above. He pulls down on the edge of the roof, testing it for stability, and the frame groans beneath the weight. The archer sighs in frustration and pulls back within the window, and Balder lets out a sigh of relief and shimmies over to the far side of the building before pulling himself back up and continuing on his way.

From there it's touch and go, through alleyways and across rooftops, constantly darting out of the way to avoid crowds and mobs, but eventually Balder comes to a locked grate, slides some picks out of his shirt, and begins fiddling with the mechanism.

Bored while waiting, you scan the area and see a burly man with a piggish face and a long axe crouching behind some nearby barrels. With remarkable quiet for his bulky frame, he begins slinking towards Balder. A bounty hunter? Mugger? Serial killer? Just some thug who really hates Rats? Whatever he is, he doesn't look like he's there to give Balder a hearty handshake.

>wat do?

>>25377477
Whisper a delusion to the man to get both the rat's bewildered attention and to distract: "You idiot, that rat could easily kill you".

>>25377477
Sneak behind the nice man, go corporeal, kick his leg to make him trip, then quickly slip back into the shadows.

How quickly can we shift in and out?

>>25377551
I think my kicking idea is a little more subtle. Could easily be interpreted as just an accident, voices from nowhere is creepy.

>>25377620
True, but I want to know the answer to that shifting question as well before I settle on it.

>>25377559

It takes a second or two to transition between shadow form and corporeal.

>>25377694
That seems safe, since we will be on the other side of a pretty big guy and it's dark.

>>25377716
Agreed, let's do the kicking plan then.

>>25377477
Delusion him with "That rat is bait for an ambush, and dozens more rats are hiding nearby to attack."

>>25377745
There's a chance Balder will hear us if we spout off a delusion, and that may affect his plans if we aren't careful.

>>25377790
There's a chance he might beheaded. Kick the guy and delusion him, the latter quietly if we must.

>>25377832
If we must, sure. I'd just rather not risk it unless it looks like the delusion will help. We're already maintaining one.

>>25377865
Maintenance isn't any excuse, this encounter won't last more than a few seconds. My concern is that if Balder only sees the man trip, he'll think he got immensely lucky. If he also hears a voice, he might think someone is following him and decide not to risk exposing Verin.

>>25377716
>>25377728

Alright, looks like we've got two for tripping, I think that's a majority.

---

You go corporeal behind the thug and kick his legs out from behind him, then duck down and return to shadow form. Balder whips around at the noise, eyes widening at the sight of the thug, and bolts. You sprint after him, hoping the darkness will conceal you as you chase him since you don't have the time to spare flitting from shadow to shadow. In any case it's not like there's any Blood Guards around to know what it means when a shadow moves around on its own.

Balder sprints through a half-dozen alleyways and up a rooftop before he's convinced he's safe. Letting out a deep breath, he looks around himself and scurries through the city again. It's another half-hour before he comes to another grate. This time he's able to pick it open uneventfully and slip into the catacombs below.

The catacombs double as sewers, apparently, tunnels sloping downhill towards the coast and carrying piles of refuse along the way. It's a good thing incorporeal beings can't get filthy, but there's no protecting you from the smell. You wonder if maybe the ghettos wouldn't have as much of a disease problem if they didn't cut through sewage all the time while bringing food back to eat. Of course, they don't necessarily have a choice, considering they're kill-on-sight up-top.

>cont.

Eventually, Balder comes to a drier area, dams piled up to keep the sewage out. A basin of what looks to be clean water is just inside, and Balder washes himself off with it as best he can before proceeding further. A pair of Rat guards with faces painted like skulls glare at him as he enters a large central chamber, but do not move to stop him. Inside, surrounded by the bones of hundreds entombed in the walls, is a great temple of Mortil. Another junk statue, though smaller due to being underground and all, sits in the center, surrounded by crude paintings on the floor. The paintings run in a spiral, some depicting horrible death, others depicting celestial beings, others torment in some kind of hell. At a glance, you can't make heads or tails of what it might mean, but "a supernatural dictator will make us awesome and punish all of our enemies" is usually a safe bet. At the edges of the chamber are pillars of flesh covered in eyes, which follow Balder as he enters...Though you can't escape the feeling that it's you they're watching. You're safely hidden in Balder's shadow now, but these things might not be fooled by the trick. In any case, no alarm is sounding.

"Verin," Balder says, approaching an older Rat, his face deformed by ritual scars, naked but for a loincloth and covered in white-and-black paint, his face painted like the guards as a skull.

"What do you want?" Verin asks irritably, rising from some ritual with incense and bones.

"Something's happened in the west camp," Balder says, "some say it's a sign. We need your advice."

"So what is it?" Verin asks.

"Our statue, our monument to Mortil, it's collapsed. We didn't touch it, it just fell over," Balder says.

Verin scowls. "Wait," he commands, and pulls a nearby bowl and a few bags of herbs, mixing up some concoction that would no doubt be foul-smelling if the stench of sewage weren't already overpowering.

>wat do?

>>25378042
Lay low and watch.

>>25378042
Just keep an eye on the proceedings, we don't want to miss the chance to figure out what sort of connection this fellow has to that daemon.

>>25378100
>>25378106
Be on guard and prepared to blind everything and run. This smells like a trap.

>>25378106
We could just show ourselves and ask. I doubt these rat guys can do much to us in our shadow form, and if we introduce ourselves as friendly and tell Balder we scared the guy off before he was attacked, then we might be able to negotiate on somewhat friendly terms later.

>>25378042
What are our current bonus objectives? First time ever seeing this quest. Liking it so far and I'm going to be in it for the long haul.
>>25378154
This, lets be prepared to dip it.

I think we could use a power that will allow us to read minds.

>>25378161
TM hasn't really decided if he wants to name objectives for the chapter last I checked because he wanted to let us choose what we were doing. That may have changed though, so I'd wait for his word on that.

A power that will let you read minds is in Clarity, and yeah it'd be useful as hell.

>>25378161
We don't get told our objectives, though so far it's been made pretty clear that acting selfishly is going to screw us over.

>>25378154
I also think it is a trap, so I reckon we just step up, apologise for the statue and explain that we hoped to speak with Mortil. They'd be less likely to spring a trap to catch us if they think we came on amicable terms.

>>25378159
The problem is that their worship of this Mortil probably didn't appear out of the blue. The most likely case is that this daemon was actually sent here by Dominion to infiltrate and weaken the city for when Golgoth is going to march on it. And if that daemon is here, it may be able to harm us even in shadow form. Better that he isn't alerted to our presence.

>>25378161
>>25378183

We do so need to get our hands on Clarity sometime. If we don't get it naturally, maybe we can steal it from someone from Wisdom. Eye-van perhaps?

>>25378223
Perhaps, I think Ivan's thing might be Alchemy though judging by all the wards we encountered.

>>25378203
I agree with this. This Mortil most likely would be able to harm us as he himself is most likely a daemon as well.

Also does being worshiped by mortals give you powers or bonuses? If so why the fuck haven't we started a shadow assassin cult dedicated to bringing peace and justice to the lands.

Hell even then we should still start up that assassin guild/cult or find one and take it under new management.

>>25378183
>>25378223
Are you guys talking about Clarity or Celerity?

>>25378243
Not to mention the enchanted soldiers and Golem.

>>25378254
Nope, worship doesn't confer any power so much as provide you an easy method to influence mortals to do your bidding without mind control and the like.

And we are talking about Clarity.

>>25378243
>form with one huge eye
He has no excuse whatsoever not to have Clarity. None.

>>25378254
Worship doesn't make a daemon more powerful. Their power comes from their "concept" which could be anything like a mountain, a kind of animal, a disease, an empire. Anything significant enough, and essentially the more significant it is, the more powerful the daemon.

>>25378203
>>25378254

Mortil is likely a decay daemon though, so belonging to the Sky alliance, not Dominion. In which case we can find amicable ground. Even if it is a dominion daemon, then openly stating our intent to negotiate means we can at least buy some time to try and work out its intentions before booking it out of there.

>>25378297
True, I would imagine he does have some Clarity in a fashion. I don't think its his main Talent though, which is typically what you absorb from Quickening.

>>25378297
What is our concept exactly?

>>25378307
Explain this faction shit, my brain must devour this knowledge!

>>25378161

So far I've kept the bonus objectives hidden. The idea here is that if players don't end up particularly interested in one of the objectives but instead end up chasing something else, I can quietly change the objectives without making a fuss.

On the other hand, not knowing what the objectives are supposed to be leaves players blind. It's kind of a conundrum. I'm not married to the idea of keeping them hidden, so if you guys would prefer a more rigid but also more transparent set of objectives, we can do that.

>>25378196

It's not so much that the universe is going to karmically punish you for acting selfishly, and more that being an unambiguously selfish dick is going to leave you with a shitton more enemies than you can handle and no friends to help.

>>25378339
You can read up on the courts in the first thread:

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

but basically, there's three alliances of courts: Sun, Sky and Dominion. Each alliance hates the others. Our court is the court of Fortune so we are not part of any particular alliance, but We have a bone to pick with Dominion for sealing us up for a few thousand years.

>>25378339
There's thirteen courts with three alliances:

Sun-Nature-Water-Souls
Sky-Night-Decay
Dominion-Blood-Knowledge-Strife
Neutral: Fortune, Stone

All the alliances don't really get along, though speaking in immortal Daemon time Sky and Sun's alliances have been around forever comparative to the relatively new concepts of the Dominion&co alliance. In the past we've favored the Sun alliance, but we have some big friends in Night (Thin Jack is one).

Our concept isn't truly known, as TM hasn't decided as of yet.

>>25378345
I think I may have a solution. At the beginning of every thread or so, the players can come up with a list of objectives they would like done. Then the players eventually agree upon a set of them ranging from 3 to 5 or whatever.

>>25378384
In fact, if you want Granthos I can drop the link to the (currently in progress) updated primer that is vastly more exhaustive in its detail and accuracy than the current primer in the OP's. I haven't touched on Courts much, but they are the next topic for writing in.

>>25378339
From what I remember, daemons from the court of Fortune are tricky in that regard. Fortune is basically about stuff happening that can turn out one way or the other (so fortune as in chance, risk, etc), meaning that nothing in particular is their concept. Which further means that you can't weaken or strengthen them (though you can punch them until they die, daemons just don't stay dead very long).

>>25378395
Oh and the objectives can't be easy such as "Trip at least five people" it would have to be something a little more complicated like "Trip five people trying to mug/murder another."

Of corse you would have the authority to approve or disapprove of some goals based upon their relevancy to the quest.

File: 1370975837949.gif-(2.56 MB, 319x239, 35120723.gif)

2.56 MB GIF

>>25378429
I would love that good sir.

>>25378429
The compendium? The one with the "the story so far" section that I have no idea why you aren't posting in every thread?

>>25378477
http://pastebin.com/JBR9g9VW

>>25378498
I'll start getting better about that, or at least hit TM until he starts throwing the current WIP version in the OP's.

>>25378446
Those sound more like achievements than objectives. Objectives are things that specifically help advance our fight against dominion; from the previous chapter such objectives were:

Drive Golgoth from Westercoast city (succeeded)
Saving the port from burning (failed)
Founded the beginnings of a Dorriki empire in Westercoast (failed)

Each of these objectives would be a significant boon in trying to defeat Dominion; we failed two of them so we ended up having to steal a boat to reach Margell and losing any potential resources from having the Dorriki as an ally.

All objectives work that way; the current primary objective is likely to be uniting the kings of Margell against Golgoth; our ultimately pointless fucking about in Arn city seems to have lead to the loss of one of the kings, so that will likely hurt us in the long run.

>>25378339

Anomaly's concept is something unassailable (everyone in the Court of Fortune has a concept that's basically impossible to destroy). But her House Talent is madness. Houses are subdivisions of a Court, smaller groupings of daemons who have a lot in common, and some of them have unique Talents, or access to a Talent they otherwise wouldn't have. Since Anomaly's House Talent is Dementation, that would imply she's in something like the House of Madness. As such, Anomaly could be the daemon of a specific mental disorder like paranoid schizophrenia, present across all worlds but not extremely common or influential on any of them.

>>25378446

The problem with this is that often the players don't have a goddamn clue what's going on upon arrival in a new area, and frequently objectives revolve around enemies they don't know about.

Also, mugging or murdering a single mortal is peanuts for a daemon. First fight Anomaly had, she harried and harassed and demented a company of seventy soldiers until they turned on themselves and routed. Seventy, and that was the warm-up. Anomaly's not even a combat-oriented daemon.

>>25378498

I've been waiting for every section to be filled in. I have posting incomplete shit, although the half-complete compendium is still probably better than the primer, which is technically complete but covers much less.

>>25378574

I hate* posting incomplete shit.

>>25378574
It's not really going to be truly completed until the quest is also completed, is it? I think it covers almost everything we know so far, aside from a single section or so. Also noticed most (but not all for some reason) of what's in the primer is in the compendium, so if those last parts were moved over it'd be really useful for new players I think.

Okay we've derailed quite enough from the actual quest so far, so I'll restart the vote for action.

I suggest we simply wait and see what happens, and be ready to blind people and leg it if need be. We don't want to risk revealing ourselves to a Dominion pawn, especially if it catalyzes a premature action by Dominion on the city as a result.

>>25378691
This is still my suggested course of action.

>>25378691
>>25378744

Right. Quest. Let's get on that.

---

Verin takes his finished concoction to before the ten-foot statue of Mortil. He tosses in a pinch of some powder and the contents of the bowl flash green briefly, smoke rising. Verin, kneeling before the statue, begins chanting in some other language. "Mortil, god of death and spirits, answer thy servant's call, guide me through the darkness," he says over and over again. So apparently this Mortil guy has enough eye for ceremony that he won't just feed his followers some gibberish prayer in a foreign language they can't understand anyway.

With a creak and a groan of old wood, the statue's head turns to look towards Verin, the rest of it holding perfectly still. Verin ceases his chanting, lays a piece of charcoal before him, and asks (in the local tongue) "Mortil, greatest of all spirits in the underworld, I beg you, grant me your wisdom. Your statue in the western camp has fallen. Is this a sign? Have we, in our mortal frailty, done something to earn your disfavor?"

The charcoal piece rises of its own accord and begins writing on the ground in front of Veril: "There is an intruding spirit at work," it writes, "it hides in the shadows. It thinks it can escape my judgement. It is wrong. Rebuild your statue and I shall watch over you." Then the writing ceases, the charcoal suddenly swept away by an unseen hand leaving the floor below completely unmarked, and the statue's head slowly moves to its previous position.

"Mortil commands you to rebuild the statue," Verin says, "that its destruction is the work of some other spirit, and that he shall deal with the intruder if you remain faithful. No go! Trouble me no further." Balder nods his head, speaks some words of gratitude, and heads towards the door.

>wat do?

>>25379062
Neat trick. We haven't actually found this guy though, and it's unclear if he's even in the city at all. Though if he isn't, he can't possibly stop us. Perhaps if these sewers aren't too expansive we can look around a bit to see if he's hidden somewhere else. Otherwise, at least we know where the main shrine is now.

>>25379062
Is the pillar of eyes still staring at us?

>>25379225

Yes.

>>25379310
Okay. It knows we're here, has said it plans to deal with us and is staring at exactly where we're standing. NOW can we talk to it?

>>25379342
Actually, yea, why not? No harm in it now. If it was a trap, he'd probably have sprung it already.

>>25379393
Then let's step up to Verin, introduce ourselves, apologise for knocking over the statue and say that we only needed to talk to Mortil.

>>25379479
Apologize? Way to look weak. We DEMAND to speak to Mortil.

>>25379529
Yeah, because that attitude went over SO well with Jens.

>>25379553
Jens got hissy because everyone died. Besides, we're trying to contact a daemon here, we're not winning any respect by appearing weak.

You people are nuts, don't you remember what happened when we tried diplomacy with Ivan?

>>25379652
We're also not winning any respect by belittling is head priest while he's watching. And Jens got hissy with us because from the beginning we just showed up and made demands. "Give me one of your hunters," "Babysit this kid," "Give me your bondsmen." We made no effort to be diplomatic and it ended up nearly biting us in the ass.

Besides which, we ARE pretty damn weak. We're a hedge daemon, which is second from the bottom rung in terms of how powerful daemons get. The only reason we haven't been absolutely trounced by every other daemon we've came across - and some mortals for that matter - is because we have shadow form. If this daemon has any way to disable our shadow form, or is common rank, then he won't give a shit how powerful we look. He can ignore us and/or kick our ass.

There's two old sayings I think are relevant. "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar" and "Judge the character of a man by how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." If we treat his head priest... Thing like trash, then he'll immediately assume we're hostile and will treat him like it as well.

>>25379798
You mean Ivan, who is explicitly our enemy and knows we're a lying, untrustworthy jackass by reputation already? And the diplomacy attempt that was cut short by someone who ordered a blood guard to fucking DANCE, of all things? That went badly because we fucked it up, not because it was a bad idea.

>>25379835
Oh fine, we'll play diplomatic with this fellow. I don't expect it to go our way easily though. That is if we don't get smacked.

>>25379835
You can't really count on either of those sayings actually holding true. Some daemons are outright nasty and would probably shun you just for speaking nicely to them. But sure, if you still think this daemon has any chance of being friendly, we could refrain from outright insulting his minions and making him appear powerless. But apologizing is a sign of weakness and submission, and would tell this daemon that he has no reason to listen to us at all. Perhaps you would settle for a simple "you should call your master again so we can communicate with words instead of toppled statues?" Shows our intentions aren't immediately hostile but doesn't show weakness either.

>>25380166
I don't expect easy, I just think it keeps our options open.

>>25380181
If you'd rather not apologise then fair enough. I only put that up there to help pacify the daemon in case it's angry; given it seems to, as TM put it, "have an eye for ceremony" I assumed that knocking over one of its statues would be tantamount to an insult and at the very least say that it was done out of necessity, not malice.

>>25380280
Well we're not talking to it yet, we're going to talk to his minion, and I don't think apologizing to a mortal looks very good with this guy.
Besides, the fact he's having statues and shrines built and cares so much about ceremony smells more like Dominion, and befriending Dominion daemons is going to be steep at best.

Hm. This discussion ran longer than it should have probably. Seems like we've got a decision, though.

"Tell your master I must speak with him," you say to Verin, your shadow now distinct against the flickering torches that light the chamber.

"Who are you?" Verin asks, and behind him the statue moves again. Now it comes alive completely, stepping off its pedestal and striding across the room.

"Indeed," the statue asks in a deep voice, "who are you? Ah, but first," he turns towards Verin, "are there any others nearby? Your servants?"

"Just the guards at the entrance, master," Verin says, his eyes wide with awe.

"Call them in," the statue commands. Verin shouts for the two guards at the door to come scurrying in, and as they do so the statue clenches its fist and both them and Verin collapse to the ground, clutching at their chests as blood foams up at their lips. "Now, who are you, and why have you come here?" the statue asks.

>wat do?

>>25380755
"I am the Anomaly. I had came here seeking the source of the plagues above, hoping I would find one of the court of Decay I could speak with. If you are not, I will leave and trouble you no further."

That should be diplomatic enough. If they are a decay daemon they'll be curious why we wanted to speak with one of their court specifically, and if they are anyone else they will probably take us up on our offer and tell us to fuck off; that should get us out without triggering any traps.

>>25380972
I'm okay with this, it doesn't reveal too much or seem too ambiguous for our intentions specifically.

>>25380972
The mere mention of blood is making my mind scream THAUMATURGE ALERT, but I suppose it's possible that some kind of Pestilence could be doing it. I hope I'm just being paranoid, and will support this suggestion.

>>25381083
Even if it is thaumaturgy it might not be a dominion daemon using it. Talents can be learned and stolen, after all. Best to ask, and if it is a Dominion daemon we get the fuck out of there, pronto.

>>25381115
If it knows thaumaturgy it's a reason to be concerned no matter whose side it's on. But usually thaumaturgy just rips the blood straight from the victims, rather than this, so it's probably something disease related. Maybe he just wanted to assure privacy and thought this was more fun than telling them to leave.

>>25380972

"Interesting," the statue asks, stalking about the room, "what do you want from Decay? We are not allies of Fortune, but then...Nobody is, really."

>wat do?

>>25381520
Be very careful with what we say folks, this could be a Dominion agent that's simply acting like one of Decay to figure out why we're here now that we've said what our interest is.

I'm thinking but having a hard time coming up with something ambiguous yet satisfying.

>>25381520
We didn't mention being Fortune. The most obvious assumption for someone who doesn't know who we are would be Night, given the shadow business.

"You know of me, then? Then surely you can also guess what I want."

>>25381622
We identified ourselves as Anomaly. We're pretty well known, because we're the only Noble daemon in the area besides Razag. Even daemon peers are pretty well recognised, so it's not surprising someone would recognise us by name.

>>25381580
That is a concern, but unfortunately I can't think of any avenue of discussion which would trick him into outing himself. Could try this:

"Not allies, but not enemies. I trust that is enough for a, uh, peaceful discussion? I don't think I am too familiar with talents of Decay but whatever your allies are doing is disturbingly reminiscent of Thaumaturgy and I would hope to talk without worry that you may try to break my shadow form. I assure you I have no hostile intent."

>>25381816
"Oh btw, here's my weakness" + "I'd like you to put down your weapon but I'm not putting mine down"

You could rather look around at them and mention that they're tensing up the atmosphere, making it difficult to have a civilized conversation.

>>25381880
I wasn't sure what to say. I don't think we have any way of knowing if they're telling the truth or not. I'd rather just plow ahead with this:

"I come hoping for a truce of sorts to help push back against Dominion's aggressive expansion with Golgoth, driving out mortals and daemons alike. The duke of the city above is worried about the impending war, fearing a war with golgoth and concerned about his lack of men, with you and your followers here forced to squat in the sewers below. I come offering a proposal to negotiate with the duke to provide food and prevent the hunting of your people -or anything else you may desire- if you would in turn fight against the golgothan armies and Dominion influence as it expands."

>>25382181
If he's Decay, he's probably not too bothered by the circumstances of his followers, likely that it's the way he wants things actually, so expect "anything else" to be selected option. But yea okay, let's not delay things more than they need to be.

>>25382266
Agreed, being transparent hoooo!

>>25382181

"An interesting proposal," the statue says, "there is another in this city. I should consult him before making a decision. Return tomorrow, and the three of us can discuss it together."

>wat do?

>>25382574
"Another from Decay?"

>>25382574
I'm not sure there's a way to do so that doesn't scream "I don't trust you" but asking for a different, more neutral meeting place might be a good idea here. This place is cramped, underground, somewhat mazelike and crawling with his minions. When you can literally count the number of daemons you've met recently that didn't want you dead on one hand, that's just alarming.

>>25382730
Yeah, it does stink of a trap - and other things. We could ask them to delay 'til Girdin gets here, so they have a daemon of stone as a neutral party on hand. Which itself would also require having the meeting elsewhere, as Girdin would have to tear apart the city to get in.

>>25382860
But they'd know he isn't neutral in this matter if we're calling him in. I think that asking for a place more open, such as outside the city, is at least a little more agreeable than asking to bring a combat monster, right?

"I don't really know how to say this politely, but in recent times the number of daemons that try to kill me has been frighteningly high, so I'm sure you can understand I'd be a little wary of going to a meeting outnumbered and in a cramped underground maze. Perhaps a more neutral meeting place could be arranged?"

>>25383029
I like the sound of this.

>>25383029
Offering a truce in one breath and suspicion in the other is not likely to go down well. I'd suggest mentioning Girdin because it's a passable excuse.

"Perhaps we can make it four? I have a contact from the court of stone I am intending to meet with in a few days, when he arrives. He is a careful thinker and offers very wise perspectives when asked. His neutrality in alliance affairs would also help us from falling too far into bias one way or another. If you are willing to wait the few days for his arrival we can all meet and discuss matters together. We would have to do so elsewhere though; he is a little large to fit through the narrow alleys and sewers without tearing everything down."

>>25383029

"Hm," the statue says, considering. "It is a fair request, but not an easy one. I have no Talents that might aid in stealth, and my form is distinctive and difficult to hide. My height alone would start rumors, rumors I don't want Dominion or especially Wisdom to hear." He pauses, thinks a moment. "Nor can you smuggle me out without first coming here, which would rather defeat the purpose." He thinks a moment more. "There is a secluded cove two miles up the shore from the city. The local fishers do not use it. Meet me there in one week's time. Hopefully by then I will be able to design away to get myself out, and then back in, the city. If I haven't come, it means I cannot find a way out. You will either have to return here or else abandon your hopes of alliance."

>wat do?

>>25383258
"Very well, I shall meet you then."

Then we'll take our leave and make a roundabout path throughout the city to make sure we aren't being followed. It could be that we've been bugged with a scrying power, but there's no real way to wait something like that out in this timeframe. After we've made sure to lose any trackers, meet up with Mari and inform her of the situation. Also ask if she's seen Girdin.

>>25383258
He took that well.

"That is a fine compromise. In the mean time I will speak to the duke, as I will need to negotiate with him also."

>>25383258
Wow, barely any sign of taking offense. Either he just understands our situation, seems plausible that his kind would really, or he's still planning an ambush. Possibly both. Either way, this is a lot preferable since we can actually watch this location ahead of time to see if he's plotting something.

>>25383335
We don't know yet what this guy will want, so that seems pointless to mention. It may not involve the duke at all.

>>25383316
>>25383335

The two of you part ways. There's no ambush on the way out, so working so far.

Now, however, I need to go. Next time, we negotiate with a statue or maybe get ambushed by him and maybe we also talk to the Duke.

>see you then