>>33296888
Welcome back, right on time.

As for what to actually do, well, you've stuck us with a tough decision immediately from the outset. Crap.

Can we get directions from the local nagas as to what, exactly, is to the north?
We can find out if there are villages and such, follow them, and turn around if none of the villages have been razed after a few days of travel. Our trail-of-razed-villages thing worked pretty well before, so maybe we can find a new one.

> Explore to the north
for now, but be prepared to double back west if we don't pick up any clues or leads in a week or so.

Also, we need to give those heroes back into the custody of their hero friends. And ask the one why the other was crazy.

>>33296888
>> Head west to the mountain pass. Just because there's a "northern group" that doesn't mean they're due north of here. They might be up by Turtak, or even the cedar forest.

Also, shouldn't we have a chat with the 2 captured heroes?

>>33297061
yeah. They're ON our side, so we should be freeing and talking to them soon. maybe they'll have information.

Also, on a story progression note, I'm willing to cede my north vote if we don't get a tiebreaker in like 15 minutes.

>>33296888
>Explore to the north

Ah, right, we still need to crushthe pazuzu faction.

>>33296888
> Head west to the mountain pass. Just because there's a "northern group" that doesn't mean they're due north of here. They might be up by Turtak, or even the cedar forest.

Special attention to the forest. We should have gone there a lot sooner, but we can still go there now.

>>33297181
Actually, our current objective is just getting the remaining heroes back from them.

Crushing them is secondary, but beneficial.

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>>33296888
You question some locals and learn that north of this fertile valley is a swath of dense jungle. A few villages lie between here and there, but the jungle itself would be nigh-impossible to navigate. There's still time to change your mind, but you and Mannuqappu agree the area north of here is at least worth checking.

You check on the two heroes you rescued to find them both free and talking with Hillallum, with a small crowd of Zagrosi soldiers hovering around them with fawning admiration.

"I'm afraid it's too late to save Kaggar. He was able to slip out of his chains on the way here, but they caught him escaping. He killed a dozen of them before the lizard ran a blade through his back. His death made the earth shake a little. I... I can't explain it."

"The earth didn't shake," says the other one. "You're mad, I keep telling you. I keep telling him, Hillallum. Sometimes he doesn't even speak with his own voice."

Hillallum throws his hands up. "He says he's not mad! Who am I to gainsay a hero of our city?"

"But I'm a hero, too!"

It seems that all the heroes are accounted for, and one shard of Pazuzu may have been returned to him.

> Go hunting for Pazuzu cultists to the north anyway
> Head west. There's no longer an excuse to lose time. Ligish may be in danger without you.
> Take time to scour the city for surviving cultists who haven't escaped. Roll 3d6.

>>33297359
First, explain to the heroes that one of them may have a shard of pazuzu in there, which would account for the "madness".

Second, let's
> Head west. There's no longer an excuse to lose time. Ligish may be in danger without you.
We got revenge, we stopped the lizard's rampagers, and we've got our heroes back. Mission done with a minimum of casualties.
Also there were rampagers back at home, too, who also need to be stopped. We skipped past them last time.

And finally, can we give a little bit of sleep toxin to the skeleton along the way? I feel bad about these things because I'm soft

Rolled 6, 4, 3 = 13

>>33297359
> Take time to scour the city for surviving cultists who haven't escaped. Roll 3d6.

Wonder where the hell that flying guy got to.

I have no idea at this point.

Rolled 1, 6, 3 = 10

>>33297359
>> Take time to scour the city for surviving cultists who haven't escaped. Roll 3d6.

>>33297359
> Head west. There's no longer an excuse to lose time. Ligish may be in danger without you.

>>33297359
>Head west. There's no longer an excuse to lose time. Ligish may be in danger without you.

Ligish is in danger!

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>>33297359
"So there are no more heroes missing?" you ask Hillallum. He lowers his gaze and shakes his head. "They are all accounted for now. I wish we had caught up with them in time to save them all."

"Then I don't think it's worth searching this kingdom any further. The majority of our enemies are back home."

Mannuqappu interjects, "But what about that beast with the head of a jackal! He may have another shard. That mad lammasu considered him worth saving more than his own life."

"Suppose he did go north of here. Of course he'll be hiding in the jungle. He won't be waiting out in the open for us to capture him. And I don't know about you, bu I worry what's happening at home."

"You may be right..."

The party starts its journey while there's still plenty of light left in the day. You go at a reasonably fast pace past rice paddies and small villages that show no sign of ruination. You, Hillallum, and the two heroes, Hazzor and Tabbar, find yourselves held back by the mere humans in the party. They need more rest than you, so you find yourself with some free time every evening. You try studying the scrolls the naga king gave you, but you have absolutely no knowledge of the nagas' written language, so all you can understand are a few diagrams and illustrations of naga and fish-person anatomy.

> Keep practicing spearwork with Hillallum. Roll 5d6.
> Get as much information as you can from Hazzor and Tabbar.
> Sleep early and try to regain your connection to the underworld. Roll 3d6.

Rolled 4, 6, 3 = 13

>>33297785
I want to do all of these.
I'm leaning slightly towards
> Sleep early and try to regain your connection to the underworld. Roll 3d6.
then the spear work, then the info from hazzor and tabbar, in that order.

Though we don't actually have anything to report to the underworld right now, I just worry about losing contact forever.

I suppose we can tell them that the pazuzu thing turns out to be a big deal and there's folks actively trying to summon him and doom the world. That's news. Not good news, but news.

Rolled 3, 3, 4 = 10

>>33297785
>> Sleep early and try to regain your connection to the underworld. Roll 3d6.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg92QpjRcJk

speaking of underworld, did we ever really come to a conclusion on how to deal with that?

As far as I remember, we're still looking for ways to copy how the centaurs are brought back in such great numbers.

Oh! We can tell the scorpions about that. We've met centaurs who apparently were revived directly from being dead without crossing the gates of the dead. They did this by somehow abusing their god's plains?

We're working on replicating this technique. We've got to ask after it next time we're in the centipede guy's city.

>>33298029

We have only discussed such amtters, but have not had the chance to do so in-quest.

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>>33297785
You dig your burrow and nod off to sleep early each night for days in the hope of seeing your dead scorpion friends. One night you finally get that sinking feeling, and you let it pull you under. When you materialize in the underworld, you feel less... material. The feeling that you don't belong here is stronger than it used to be. Maybe it's because you're no longer the last of your species; there's another soul to share the spiritual burden of the countless flesh-eaters who came before you.

You are on a cliff overlooking a vast pile of rubble, near Lady Amata. You look down and see that scorpion-men are digging tunnels into the cliff face.

Lady Amata seems to look right through you at first before she recognizes you. "Living one? Is that you? Can you hear me?"

"Yes! I'm here, I'm here."

Lady Amata gives you clawhugs, but you're so numb you barely feel them. "How goes your mission? How closer are we to the New Hunt?"

"Well, there's something more important than that right now. I have to make sure you'll have a world to come back to!" You explain the danger posed by Pazuzu and your efforts to stop him from coming back.

"Well, I know it may seem like I only ever ask one thing of you, but... we could help you like that if the New Hunt were to begin..."

> Speak to the others and try to encourage them
> Ask for fighting practice
> Try to bring back a sample of a different venom
> Try to find other dead species down here. Roll 3d6.

>>33298327
>> Ask for fighting practice
Venom is also tempting, but our current venom is good and versatile enough in most situations.

Rolled 5, 6, 4 = 15

>>33298327
>Speak to the others and try to encourage them
I feel bad for these scorpion people. Maybe our ideas about centaurs or something will cheer them a little.

How much we are faded is very distressing to me. Maybe eating some raw goat would make us more solid down here, because of connections to our roots or something.

Also, if we have time after that, maybe a little bit of
> Try to find other dead species down here. Roll 3d6.
as we know some humans and lions it might not be so bad to see again. But we'll probably wake up before this.

>>33298327
>Discuss if there are other forms of bringing them back. A true life is preferable than a constant threat of stop existing.

>>33298428
well, we only really have the one lead.

Though, there's a bunch of shit we COULD try. What happens when you blood magic up an undead busted out of the underworld? Who knows!

>>33298428
>>33298576
or we could just let them stay dead

>>33298669
Also true, but they asked us nicely to help, and we seem to be the only ones in the position to do so.
I'm a sucker for these kinds of things.

>>33298697
just saying they are gonna eat people when they get out

>>33298763
Maybe true. There's a lot of complications here.

The entire underworld issue worries and unsettles me.

>>33298669
>>33298697

Don't forget, Hunzuu made a promise to help them. Leaving them the wy they are does not count as helping.

>>33299156
I wonder if there's any way to make sacrifices go to the dead instead of the gods. Being able to send care packages would at least make things more bearable.

>>33299156
so they are pretty evil they should stay dead

>>33299193
>care packages

Anon. Anon, please. Care packages are for the living, they are useless to the dead. Specially since they are risking inexistence, not starvation/etc.

Now, if a care package was, say, reincarnating them, then that would be ok.

We're all split on the dead issue.
I feel like we're going to be used as a morality tale about mortals meddling with mortality later, like gilgamesh.

huh, did Anu disappear?

>>33299765
we may have just been deadlocked all this time or something? I dunno.

>>33298327
> Ask for fighting practice

No sign of life on twitter or in thread, I guess he probably hit by some form of power outage.

>>33300478
Well, these happen in life.
I guess we'll hold idle for a while and eventually archive it as an interrupted thread.

Completely unrelated, but I wonder how our friends are doing. We've not checked in on tabni-ninsun in quite a long while.

it appears my hired assassins were successful...

Anu is kill

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>>33298327
Reports that I am kill are greatly exaggerated. Sorry, guys.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. But when I do it, I want to make sure it's done right. You understand. We're dealing with the gods here. I have to be at my best."

"We've learned how to wait. But don't let your whole life go by while we're still waiting."

"I won't. I made a promise. Now, is everyone busy? Do you think anyone could practice fighting with me some more?"

Lady Amata smiles. "You're looking more solid now, living one. Solid enough for me to spar with, I think."

The two of you circle each other slowly.

> roll 5d6 to try to pin the much larger scorpion once or twice

Rolled 3, 5, 4, 3, 5 = 20

>>33300802

Rolled 4, 3, 3, 2, 6 = 18

>>33300802
I wonder what makes us "solid".

Rolled 2, 4, 4, 4, 2 = 16

>>33300802
Oh, hey, you're back. Just as I was going outside.

>>33300937
Yeah, this is a tricky one.
I don't want to fade entirely.

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>>33300802
You put up an impressive performance, even managing to pin the much larger and more experienced scorpion once. You've spent enough time fighting that you can effectively improvise, even showing her a thing or two. She was expecting to be able to just pick you up in her claws and flip you over, but she actually has to apply herself before pinning you for the final time.

You wake up in your burrow to the sound of the watchmen changing shifts. You climb out and rub the dirt out of your hair.

The rest of your journey back to Ligish is peaceful, much to your relief. Some of the razed villages are showing signs of life again, but others remain empty husks. Where there are locals, they treat you with suspicion, even trying to drive you off with slings. You try to tell them that you mean to protect them, but it's not enough to earn you a hero's welcome.

Finally you find the old familiar road that tells you that Ligish is close by. You keep marching forward, excited but dreading what you might find.

> Roll 3d6

Rolled 1, 2, 5 = 8

>>33301070
Satan guide my dice

Rolled 2, 5, 6 = 13

>>33301070
Poor outlying villages.
We just don't have the ability to get troops to you guys in time right now.

I hope sand priest isn't causing trouble again.

Rolled 5, 5, 4 = 14

>>33301096
Anon no what have you done

>>33301096
fucking satan
you let god down and now you let me down

>>33301070
Spend some cozying up to hillallum for a bit longer.

We might part ways for a while, soon.

Rolled 5, 2, 2 = 9

>>33301096
May Yahweh be good to my dice.

>>33301195
fuck those losers then
I'll pray to zeus next time
or thor

>>33301238
Try mesopotamian gods.

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>>33301070
The first thing you notice when you round the last hill and Ligish comes into view is an enormous burial mound south of the walls. At first you assume it's Patience, but then you see her sitting down by the river eating half of a skinned goat.

You wave and run ahead of your men to greet her. "Patience! What's been going on?"

When Patience turns and rises to greet you, you see there are deep scars across her arms and legs. "Hunzuu! You missed all the fun. They came back. That damned wasp-woman and her cronies."

"They didn't... did they hurt any of my friends?"

"Well, I don't know who all your friends are, but it's possible. They killed the Blood Priest's newest project." she points to the giant mound. "Then they made it into the pyramid and caused all kinds of damage. We drove them off, though."

"Oh dear... If you'll excuse me, I have to go see!'

"Of course. Good to have you back, Hunzuu."

Once you get inside the walls, you see that one side of the pyramid has caved in. Your heart sinks.

The first of your friends yo find are Tabni-Ninsun and Dadanum. Even though you know Tabni-Ninsun hates clawhugs, she hugs you first. They tell you all about the battle that raged from the streets to the king's palace to the depths of the pyramid itself. The Blood Priest had made a giant mole-woman out of a simple tanner's daughter, but she was cut down while drying to keep them from tunneling inside. The Bronze Priest, though still infirm, used his magic to cut off their advance and prevent them from slaughtering everyone. Iltani oversaw the defense of the city and actually did a pretty decent job of it, but she's now the king's prisoner, since the rest of the city is still outraged that you let her live after all the crimes she committed and then told everyone she was dead.

> "I knew that would come back to bite me..."
> "How dare they! She saved them, the ingrates! The king will release her or it's time for a new king."

>>33301563
> "I knew that would come back to bite me..."
Though I told them it was taken care of, not that she was dead!

Also, the new monster recruit got killed! Double fuck!

Go hug all of our friends! Even Illtani, she helped. We'll have to find some way to get her freed again.

>>33301563
> "How dare they! She saved them, the ingrates!"

>>33301563
>> "How dare they! She saved them, the ingrates! The king will release her or it's time for a new king."
Hey, she helped save them!

>>33301563
> "I knew that would come back to bite me..."
God fucking damn.
We should probably find and hug blood dad, and work on springing Iltani. I hope to Christ Nakurtum is alright.

>>33301659
>>33301639
I'm a bit grumpy they arrested her as she was helping them, but don't feel the need to demand dethronings.
I mean, she IS a serious criminal. But we had her working to defend the city from custody for legitimate reasons. One of which being she can punch down any wall we have if she didn't want to cooperate.

>>33301690
Why did you quote me too? I specifically removed the dethroning part from my vote.

>>33301707
oh, because it had to do with the topic.
You know, one guy is for it, one guy is against it, I figured I'd weigh in.

>>33301563
>"How dare they! She saved them, the ingrates! The king will release her or it's time for a new king."

Hunzuu, the conqueror.

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>>33301563
"How dare they! She saved them, the ingrates!"

"The king knows that. But he also knows what she did before. It's a bad situation for him, too. But he's treating her well. I checked."

You're touched. Tabni-Ninsun is usually such a jerk. "Aww! Yo went to visit her?"

She blushes. "Well... I had someone do it..."

"Please tell me Nakurtum's all right. And the Blood Priest. And my new maid. And... I dunno, everybody?"

"Well, not everybody. The Sand Priest died in the cave-in. His oldest acolyte is taking over for him."

"A lot of Archers died, too," Dadanum adds. "In the battle outside, I mean. One of them was... well... my dad..." He gets a little misty-eyed. "It makes me feel bad, you know? I mean, I only ever told you bad stuff about him, but he's still my dad, and I thought maybe one day we could, I dunno, be friends again..."

Tabni-Ninsun hits Dadanum in the arm. "Keep up all that whining and weeping and maybe I'll leave you for a man."

> Go find Nakurtum
> Go find the Blood Priest

>>33301891

> Go find the Blood Priest

>>33301891
Offer sincere condolences to Dadanum. That shit's rough. Losing parents is rough.
Also, fuck, the sand priest! S/he was a bit of a jerk, but still an essential part of our cities lying/cheating/stealing modus operandi!

After that, I dunno, let's
> Go find Nakurtum
or something.

I don't really care the order we visit these guys in, as I'm just relieved they're OK.

>>33301891
>> Go find the Blood Priest
We need an adult

So let me get this straight, the priests made a new monster, which promptly got killed in the attack, as did the sand priest and a bunch of archers. Holy shit are these people useless without Hunzuu.

>>33302041
Hey, they fended off an attack and aren't all dead.

The most worrying part of this is usually the deaths are just among military folk, but this time it breeched the priestly caste, AND a monster.

Our new monster friends keep getting killed before finishing or even getting much training.

>>33301891
>Go find the Blood Priest

Well, fuck.
>>33302041

In the new monster's defense, she was new at being a monster.

>>33302071
She probably did super good for how little practice time she had.

It took us a while to get walking proper down.

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>>33301891
You're extremely relieved that Nakurtum is alive, even though the side of the pyramid collapsed that her bedroom was in, but you feel like you have to talk about all this with the Blood Priest first. He'll have a plan. He always has a plan, even if it's sometimes an evil plan.

You find him in his solar arguing with the new Sand Priest, a young man with a doughy build. When he sees you, he waves his new peer away. "You are dismissed. Get out of my sight."

Only after the new Sand Priest is gone does the Blood Priest take off his scowl and manage a smile for you. "Hunzuu. Thank all the gods you made it back. I'm sure you saw what a mess Ligish is in. My laboratory is under tons of rubble, we've lost any good will we were building up with the king, my new creation is dead, and worst of all, they have Ku-Aya."

"So she's still alive?"

"Yes. Not much more than a pile of useless tissue, but alive. The spells I wove into what was left of her were holding fast. They must want to sacrifice her... or transform her."

You tell the Blood Priest how you got your revenge for Ninlil, how you received some secrets of blood magic, and how your chisel was transmuted into strong blue-black metal by the power of the gods.

"Interesting... Show it to me."

> Hand it over.
> Just hand him the scrolls. "I'm keeping it, to remind me of Ninlil. If it has a purpose, the gods will show me eventually."
> "It doesn't belong to you, or to me. I'm giving it to Ninlil's family, if any of them are still alive."

>>33302041
That's the long and short of it, yes.

>>33302260
>Just hand him the scrolls. "I'm keeping it, to remind me of Ninlil. If it has a purpose, the gods will show me eventually."

FAVOR OF THE GODS

ALso, Ku-Aya is out of the question, no one else can keep her.

>>33302260
>> Just hand him the scrolls. "I'm keeping it, to remind me of Ninlil. If it has a purpose, the gods will show me eventually."
Now would be a perfect time to start tripping balls. I mean, drink from the clay balls.

>>33302260
> "It doesn't belong to you, or to me. I'm giving it to Ninlil's family, if any of them are still alive."
The kid gets it back.
Though, the blood priest CAN inspect it if he likes. No reason to bogart him that.
Give him the rest of the stuff, though. And I guess the skeleton. He'd love looking that thing over.

>>33302313
You raise an interesting point on the godly favor front, and don't mind if your vote wins so much.

>>33302260
> Just hand him the scrolls. "I'm keeping it, to remind me of Ninlil. If it has a purpose, the gods will show me eventually."

We need to explain about Pazuzu's shards to the king and his advisors.

>>33302388
We do need to keep spreading that info, that's for sure.

It's pertinent information many people should know.

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>>33302260
"I'm keeping it, to remind me of Ninlil. If it has a purpose, the gods will show me eventually."

The Blood Priest looks up to see if you're still wearing it around your neck. "Well, I'm not going to destroy it. Just a few simple experiments, maybe have the Gold Priest pull his nose out of his whore's cunt for a minute to cast a divination spell on it. You can remember Ninlil without aid for a day, can't you?"

"Yes, but it'll have to wait. I have a lot to do today, and keeping it close to me makes me feel like... I dunno... like I'm doing something right. That I'm not a complete screw-up."

"I've almost forgotten what that feeling is like. Go, get yourself settled."

> Tell the Blood Priest about the animated bones
> Keep them a secret. Whatever he does with them, it will certainly not end that poor skeleton's pain.

>>33301941
She's not dead. Sand Priest specialty is illusions. I smell a sand rat.

>>33302457
Hm.
I don't mind letting him inspect the skeleton, but I ALSO want the skeleton to be hurt less in our care.

So I guess
> Tell the Blood Priest about the animated bones
but ask him nicely and with big puppy dog eyes to maybe think of ways to make it hurt less, when we're not showing off how bad it's hurting to the snake diplomats.

>>33302464
You know, the worst part is it's entirely in line with the kind of thing sand priest does.

>>33302457
>> Tell the Blood Priest about the animated bones

>>33302457
>Tell the Blood Priest about the animated bones

Need to know what magicks the priest will cast. Something useful to know, for sure, and not risky of our diplomacy with the naga.

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>>33302457
"There was one more thing..." You unfasten the straps holding your baggage to your bronze armor. "The nagas told me about how they learned blood magic from some kind of sea monster, made themselves what they are, and overthrew the priests who used to rule them." You unroll the bundle on the table to reveal a bloom of red vermin crawling between twitching red-stained bones. The Blood Priest is more intrigued than disgusted, of course. "This is one of those priests. I got him as a gift."

"And how did you manage that?" The Blood Priest picks up and inspects a single red grub.

"I said that we'd, uh, torture him even more. But I don't really want to! Could you please try to help him? He's suffered enough."

"His people hate him so much that they do THIS to him, and you still want to help him? Hunzuu, I have a feeling that the owner of these bones was worse than evil. He was incompetent."

"Just help him!"

"I'll study him. That's all I can promise. And if I may say so, Hunzuu, with such a soft spot in your heart, your potential to advance in the field of blood magic is very limited. I didn't get where I am by showing pity."

You pout. "It's good to see you, too."

"Of course I'm happy to see you. said so, didn't I? Creating you might have been the only plan of mine that ended up helping more people than it hurt. A man needs plans like that every now and then. It helps confuse his enemies."

After giving the Blood Priest his gifts, you frantically search the pyramid for Nakurtum. Since her room was destroyed, she and her pet kitten have taken up residence in Ninlil's old room, where she's already starting a new weapon collection. The kitten has grown dramatically since you saw him last, hardly even a kitten anymore. She runs into tight clawhugs. "Zuu! Come here, kiddo... I knew you were all right, I just knew it."

> You may write in anything special you want to say to Nakurtum. Aside from that, I'm going to call it a night here. Thanks for playing!

>>33302880
Thanks for running, anu!

As for nakurtum, we should show off our spear tricks, and admire her cat-raising skills.

Oh crap! How's Mr. Clicks doing? We should check that soon enough.

>>33302880
Thank god she's alright.
>>33302974
Oh gosh, what if he was a casualty?

>>33303128
Oh nooooooo
Crap, what about the blood acolytes? We've got friends among them, too! One of which was nearsighted and watching our scorpion!

>>33303141
>>33303128
Our side of the pyramid didn't cave in, so Mr. Clicks is probably all right. I mean, Anu wouldn't kill off our pet without telling us, right? Right?

>>33303167
PROBABLY not, but worry intensifies.