>>843056
Chapter Eight: Pandaemonium


“End of the line.”
The train’s voice echoes as it pulls to a grinding stop inside some kind of station, a place where the twisted sky-rail passes through a huge tower, a large hollow space bored through the building to accommodate it. You still can’t believe it. It all happened so quickly.

Dis. The first city ever built by the hands of man. The city that was first the center and now the end, of the world. The end of your quest, the foul city that has called your name for nearly three decades now of lost time.
It is vast and it is beautiful and you despise it. How many blasphemies have you seen already as you passed over its cacophony of architecture? How many people suffer here? How many sinners revel in the time they bought with the death of God himself? With their betrayal of the rest of humanity?

You grip your staff hard enough that the wood creaks. Here it is. You are now in Dis and you will remain here until you win or you die. Victory or death.

“Orion? You in there?”
You turn to look at Beatrice, the witch’s face smudged with ugly bruises. Abe is beside her, the man still half-petrified. You had intended to help cure him but now you’re not sure if you’ll ever have the time or the Wick.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, nothing. I just saw a familiar face.”
Her hand is resting above her coat pocket.

You follow her gaze to the station outside. Several rails run through this hollowed tower and great stone blocks have been erected next to each one, platforms where people waiting for the train may sit and wait. The platform Sleeper has pulled into is full of people, gray-skinned Third Men of all ages wearing strange clothes. And as the doors of the train hiss open, they’re all staring at you.

“I don’t think we’re the train they were expecting,” Abe says.

Neither of you answer him. You’re too busy staring at the man that Beatrice pointed out to you, a figure standing in the far back of the platform that even now steps forward. The people around him look at him with some distaste but there’s no panic, no outrage as he moves openly through their midst.
A man in black with bony white hands and a deformed and grinning horse skull where his head should be. Black tears roll down the side of a skeletal face and raise tiny trails of smoke as they strike the platform.

“Well howdy,” the imp says. “Look what followed me home.”


>”What do you want?”

>Kill it!

>”How did you know we’d be here?”

>”Your master is dead.”

>Other

>>843065
>>”What do you want?”
>”Your master is dead.”

>>843056
>>”How did you know we’d be here?”

>>843065
>”What do you want?”
>”Your master is dead.”

>>843065
>Kill it!

Oh hold on folks, I've gotta go out and attend to something. Friend wants help moving some stuff from one house to another. It probably won't take too long so I'll just leave this vote open until then!

>>843065
>”What do you want?”

>>843065
>”What do you want?”
>”Your master is dead.”
Kinda want to kill it but... it might have friends in this sacrilegious place.

Okay so things my friend (who still lives at home) neglected to mention.
-He and his mum are moving out without their step-dad's knowledge.
-His step-dad was supposed to be away at work today.
-He wasn't.
-Walking up and introducing myself and saying I was here to help him move was a mistake.

I hate drama

>>843326
hooooo boy.

scale of 1-10 how bad?

>>843326
did you bring your piece with you?

>>843326
Hahaha shit man good luck with that

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>>843326
Those sounds like very important things to mention, what an asshole.

I'm still laughing.

>>843340
Kek he's an aussie of course not

>>843326
those idiots

>>843065
>”Your master is dead.”

>>843326
Well, did the guy atleast do you a solid and punch that tape worm out of your gut or whatever?

>>843065
>Kill it!

Fuck him.

One life left motherfucker.

We can explain to the other people afterwards that it was purely for personal reasons of this Imp previously trying to kill us, and that we have no plans to go nuts killing other imps so long as they don't make this ones mistake of trying to kill us first.

We're totally reasonable. Look, we even have a Witch traveling with us whom we aren't horrible to any more than we are to ourselves.

>>843326
Well. That's . . . something. I ain't gonna judge, hopefully you were able to not get too tangled up in the situation

>>843065
>Kill it!

>>843248
That's why we kill it before it can say anything. Lets enter with a bang.

What, are you worried about offending a witch? They're sociopaths.

Honestly I see it a good PR.

>>843996
My only issue with it is the normie humans might not appreciate what they see as cold blooded murder

>>844031
See >>843974

Honestly, it's self-defense. The Imp tried to kill us several times before, everyone saw that he already knew us.

And then the other normie humans will know that we don't fuck around.

>>844141
Yeah but none of the bystanders know that. They'll just see some weirdos step off a train they've never seen before suddenly killing an imp for no apparent reason

>>844336
>Neither of you answer him. You’re too busy staring at the man that Beatrice pointed out to you, a figure standing in the far back of the platform that even now steps forward. The people around him look at him with some distaste but there’s no panic, no outrage as he moves openly through their midst.
>A man in black with bony white hands and a deformed and grinning horse skull where his head should be. Black tears roll down the side of a skeletal face and raise tiny trails of smoke as they strike the platform.
>“Well howdy,” the imp says. “Look what followed me home.”


Clearly, they a) don't particularly like him, and b) know we have a previous relationship.

If anything, people in Dis are MORE likely to find Imps distasteful for who they are as opposed to just hating them because "muh witchcraft" because they know about imps.

I feel pretty confident they would understand shooting an Imp you knew.

>>843065
>>Kill it!

Does he know about our quest, and has he told his masters?

>>844937
Its master is dead itsobviously in the shop for oneself our stealth is buggered since he knows we are here may as well kill it

>>844993
>stealth
A big shiny train comes rumbling in to the station for the first time ever.

>>845227
It's dis likely not the strangest or the first thing thats likely happened in this damned city

>>844993
Don't forget to link your votes!

>>843065

But yeah, I can't see how killing the Imp before he has a chance to mess with us or set up a trap of some sort can go wrong.

At worst, we have to work with a Witch.

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>>845805
>At worst, we have to work with a Witch

No

I mean theres fighting with fire, and then theres downright heresy

>>843065
>”Your master is dead.”
>Kill it!

on the other hand if it is looking for a master.....

>>845823
>>845821
Nigga what.

Working with a Witch might be heretical, but working with an Imp that bears us a grudge is just retarded.

They're deceitful by nature, petty and vengeful. Not in a learned manner or habit, but as a central concept of its existence as a magical creature.

We're probably going to have to work with a Witch regardless. We're in Dis now and the rules have changed.

Besides. Our master is dead too.

This boy better talk fast.

>>843326

Ouro are you okay? I am being serious, kinda worried about you after this post, didn't know if you just got dragged back into real life drama after this post like you might be implying, or if something is wrong.

Kinda worried about you at this point you spider fucker.

Rolled 2 (1d6)

You know it's been a shit day when going to work is just about the highlight of it all. I'll do an update now and it'll stay open while I sleep and we can get this session going proper when I wake up.

Also we seem to have a tie between talking to it at least a little or going straight for the kill. Evens the former, odds the latter.

>>845918
Can we do it in a non lamplighters fashion? I mean ironically enough if we burn an Imp to ash on a crowded station we're just going to start a witch hunt

>>845825
>Working with a Witch might be heretical, but working with an Imp that bears us a grudge is just retarded.

Sure we killed it twice but it's on it's last life but consequently the very last thing it will want to do is cross someone who could very well kill it

>They're deceitful by nature, petty and vengeful. Not in a learned manner or habit, but as a central concept of its existence as a magical creature.

Simple things to look out for and given not something we'd want in return for a tour guide of sorts

>We're probably going to have to work with a Witch regardless. We're in Dis now and the rules have changed.

Ugh no the rules haven't changed but the landscape has and we'll be hunted if we give away our cause or identity as a lamplighter because ALL witches in Dis are likely working ultimately towards the same goal

A world of pitch black darkness free from light

>>845947
We still got a sword, yeah?

>>845949
I don't think we have a sword but we do have a staff obviously

Maybe beat its brains in?

>>845960
Nah, staff broke.

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>”What do you want?”
>”Your master is dead.”

You step forward, not quite stepping out past the threshold of the Sleeper Rail.
“Imp.”

“Lamplighter,” the creature says, its tone low and mocking. “Welcome to Dis. I don’t think you’re going to enjoy your stay.”

“What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? I live here!”

“You know what I mean,” you say through gritted teeth. “Your master is dead.”

“I figured as much. He was fun but ultimately a little...provincial. I’m not here for his sake. I’m here because a little bird told me that you’d be around.”

You hear Beatrice gasp behind you.
“The bridge,” she mutters quietly. “Orion, I think we need to leave now. This is a set-up!”

“Witch,” the imp says. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten you either. We have a very personal score to settle. And...who are you? Who are you supposed to be?”
He still doesn’t know Abe of course. The former barkeep just does his best to keep a brave face, one hand clutching his side.
“No matter. What are you all doing here anyway? Was tracking me down really that important to you?”

And he doesn’t know about your mission either. He doesn’t even know about your lamp-post! If this is a set-up as Beatrice claims, the imp standing before you is nothing but an unwitting piece in something else’s plans.

“As if we’d come all the way out here for your bony arse,” Beatrice scoffs, her hand ready to pull her pistol at any moment. “Are you really stupid enough to think you can take us a third time?”

You smile beneath your helmet and get ready to charge.
Wick: 6/10
You’ve got more than enough to deal with this monster. You’ve fought and killed him twice before, you well and truly have his measure now. The moment he so much as even twitches his hands you’ll have covered the distance and disrupted his witch-sign.

“I’m not an idiot, I value my life quite highly. But this is my land, Lamplighter. Did you think I came here alone?”

You don’t see anyone too suspicious, not more so than you suppose is the norm for Dis anyway. No other imps, no monsters, just an ever-widening circle of strangely dressed men and women backing away from what is sure to be a confrontation.

“Go ahead and try to shoot me if you want. Or charge me. Or burn me. It’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

>Attack anyway.

>"Sleeper, next station please."

>Run.

>Keep talking for now. (Specify)

>"How much are you willing to bet on that?"

>Other

>>845965
Your staff got the bottom tip of it exploded in the fight with the golem. The rest of the staff is still there.

>>845968
>"Sleeper, next station please."
Either he's bluffing or he has a ton of humans under his control here

>>845968
>Immolate him from here
>"Sleeper, next station please."

>>845968
>Beatrice, shoot him
>Sleeper, next station please
who the hell keeps raising him? He's coming back way too fast.

>>846009
Beatrice is feeling like shit right now, so I wouldn't trust her aim.

>>845968
>Immolate the immediate area
>"Sleeper, next station please."

>>846009
Probably some third party, maybe a witch does a third party insurance raising for Imps? Hell if I know it's Dis shit is heretical and weird as fuck and entirely alien to the rest of humanity

>>845968
Ouro lives! Oh Goodness gracious! We love you Ouro thanks for coming back to us from the land of Roo's and Spoiders! Also really sorry about your day. Really appreciate you running this quest though, it is a great story I have come to really enjoy.

So know that you are atleast appreciated by a bunch of fat neckbeards on the internet.

>>845968
>"Sleeper, next station please."

>>845968
>>"How much are you willing to bet on that?"
If that bluff doesn't work then this.
>>"Sleeper, next station please."
I have a VERY bad feeling that this city has laws against immolating citizens.

Remember, we are in Dis, and no one is attacking the imp, and the imp is not attacking or controlling anyone. This probably means there are LAWS against fucking with each other.

We don't want to get thrown in Dis jail, these guys have learned to live alongside and deal with each other, we have to play along until we can figure some shit out.

>>845968
>>Attack anyway.

Fuck him and his bullshit.

>>845968
>Attack anyway.
>Sword.
>Look out for birdies.
Stabbity stab.

>>846074
I don't think the law apparatus is going to be in our favor anyway.

>>846074
It's easier to apologize than ask permission.

Like, nigga what we brought them a train. Train for an Imp, fair deal.

I suppose we could challenge him to a duel.

Or just make sure to inform everyone that we killed him because of our past history and he came out to meet us instead of moving on.

Hell, he just threatened our Witch. Fuck him, we're protecting her.

>>845968
>>"How much are you willing to bet on that?"

>>845968
Imps always have a master right?

Let's call out for his backup to come and negotiate so we can kill him, and if they don't come out attack him anyways.

Or if it's too late to recommend that I vote

> Just attack

>>846466
No, not always, some get free and go solo

>>847325
Then fuck him. Imps are pretty low on the food chain if I recall, I doubt he will have any serious support if he doesn't have a master.

Especially since he's a rather crappy imp with only one life left, dude is vulnerable.

>>845968
>"Sleeper, next station please."

Overslept due to insomnia. Session begins in an hour!

Yay!

>"Sleeper, next station please."


You don’t see any imps anywhere around and if he tamed more humans...well, they wouldn’t be difficult to spot. Does he just have human help? Or does he have something you can’t see?
Or is he just making the stupidest bluff you’ve ever seen?
You don’t really think you want to find out.


“Sleeper, take us to the next station please.”


No response.


“Sleeper?”


After a tense few seconds, the doors to the train finally start to close. The imp thrusts out a hand and roars!
“After them!”


You hear the crack of a gunshot as Beatrice fires just before the doors close but you don’t see what she hits. What you do see however are several people, three men and a woman, suddenly run forward, pushing people out of the way as they run towards the train!


The train begins to slowly move but not before an incredibly thin man, barely skin and bone, thrusts his hand between the doors! And while you can’t tell if there is truly an inhuman strength behind him or if Sleeper’s safety protocols stopped him, the door does not close. The man stares at you from beneath ragged gray hair.
“Got ‘em! Get over here!”


Beatrice points her gun at him.


>Let her do it.

>”Don’t shoot him!” You can’t just kill humans and Beatrice has to understand that sooner or later.

>”The leg! Shoot him in the legs!”

>Step up and try to simply push him out by hitting him with the staff.

>Other

>>849418
>Step up and try to simply push him out by hitting him with the staff.
Yo it's Ouro! How was all that drama yesterday?

>>849450
Bad

>>849418
>gdoc's double spacing shit strikes again
fuck

>>849418
>”The leg! Shoot him in the legs!”

>>849418
>>Step up and try to simply push him out by hitting him with the staff.

>>849418
>”The leg! Shoot him in the legs!”
Just wait for the next train, asshole.

>>849418
>>Step up and try to simply push him out by hitting him with the staff.
Ugh, we should have just killed the imp.

>>849418
>>Step up and try to simply push him out by hitting him with the staff.

Stupid fucks we should have killed him

Why the hell would you just vote for us to stand there like an idiot and wait for a train to just

>Step up and try to simply push him out by hitting him with the staff.

You can only assume this man is one of the imp’s mysterious helpers but what is he supposed to be? Is he really just a human? If he is then you can’t let Beatrice simply shoot him. You’ve let her kill too many humans already.
So before she can pull the trigger you swing your staff out and give the man a firm rap around the head, hard enough to make anyone see stars and stumble. It shouldn’t matter how tough you are if your brain is getting rattled around.

And yet this man doesn’t even budge.

You swing again, this time aiming to strike him in the chest and simply force him back but he catches your staff in one hand and pulls you forward! He’s strong, far stronger than his impoverished frame has any right to be! Behind him you can see the imp.
Your leg slams into the door and you stop, the two of you trapped upon the threshold as the Sleeper Rail crawls further and further out of the station and back towards the sky-rail.

In just a few seconds the two of you will be struggling on the edge of nothing but open air.


>Roll a d6. The first 3 shall be used.

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>849595

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>849595

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>849595
welp

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>849595
HEADBUT

>5, 4, 4

Noted. Too bad that wasn't an Immolate roll! But since this counts as a staff roll, these 3 numbers are automatically arranged into their best possible order.

>4, 5, 4


You let him pull you forward just a little more but as you’re about to go over the edge you pivot and use the force of your momentum to swing the staff back out! Still holding onto it, the man has no choice but to stumble back out onto the stone of the station, smacking up against passer-bys as the Sleeper threatens to drag him across the rest of the station and out into the open.
Needless to say, he lets go.

“Hey!,” the imp shouts from back along the station, the Sleeper Rail’s slow movement having left him behind. “What are you doing? Grab onto the train before it leaves!”

The emaciated man just shakes his head.

“Why not? It’s not going to kill you!”

“No! Didn’t you just fucking see that? I could have died! I got this body under contract, I’m not paying for it!”

“You contracted for it? You cuckold!”

The rest of their rather confusing conversation are lost to you as the doors slam closed and the Sleeper Rail finally grinds back out onto the sky-rail and picks up speed as best it can.
‘I must warn you,” the train chimes in. “This is not pleasant.”

“God,” Abe says as he peers out the window and back into the blasphemous cacophony that is Dis. “What was that all about? Wasn’t that Zeno’s imp?”

“It’s a long story,” you say. “I just wish I knew who his helpers were.”

“They looked like imps wearing human bodies to me,” Beatrice says. She shrugs after she sees the two of you’s reactions.
“What? It seemed obvious to me.”

“Regardless what are we going to do? You can’t tell me nobody’s noticed that.”
Abe begins to pace slowly, still holding his ‘injured’ side.
“People aren’t going to like us or what we’re here to do. And…”
He looks back out across the skyline towards the distant Sea of Mud and the end of the world.
“There’s a lot of people here.”


>”We need to find a way to lay low first.”

>”The more commotion the better. We need to shake the Sinners out of hiding.”

>”Information should be our top priority.”

>Ask Sleeper’s opinion on where you should stop.

>Other

>>849828
>>”Information should be our top priority.”
>Ask Sleeper’s opinion on where you should stop.
>Give him a brief overview on what witches are too.

>>849828
>>849853
Seconding

>>849853
This

>”We need to find a way to lay low first.”

>>849828
>”Information should be our top priority.”
Shit lets head right to the sea and see what we can see.

>“They looked like imps wearing human bodies to me,”
all of them!?

Information is not our top priority, people. We need a safe base before anything else. We need to recharge our Wick, we need Beatrice to stabilize, and we need to geal Abe. This requires a home base. We can't go gallivanting off for information right now!

>>849828
>”We need to find a way to lay low first.”

>>850088
This so much this

>>850156
Your vote won't be counted unless you link to the story post.

>>849828
This >>850088

It's getting to the point where I can't tell which is stronger, the QM curse or Ouro's flaky urges

>>850359
I don't believe in the QM Curse. I do believe in Ouro's flakiness.

>>849828
>Ask Sleeper’s opinion on where you should stop.
>”We need to find a way to lay low first.”
I'm with >>850088

>>850533
I just checked his Twitter and apparently he lost internet connection. So I can't really call this one a flake

>>850833
Ouro flakiness is infectious?

>>850959
Why do you think he runs this instead of gming a group?

>>849828
>>Ask Sleeper’s opinion on where you should stop.

>>851064
I think he does both actually

>>849418
Not killing the Imp was a mistake.

Not killing the second Imp was a mistake.

But hey, at least now we know there are no laws against imps killing people in the street.

>>850088
Why don't we just go back to the station we found sleeper at?

>>849828
> >”We need to find a way to lay low first.”

See if Bea knows how to avoid divination spells.

Too bad the Imp that knows what we look like is still around.

What is the point of the Starbreaker? Why would someone build a guided kamikaze self destruct satellite?

>>851483
To be able to safely deorbit them probably.

Pretty sure that's not its actual purpose.

>>851483
It's a general purpose control console, crashing the stars with no survivors is just an unorthodox but effective way of using it

>>851415
That wouldn't be an interesting story

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Yo check it out I found a pretty good pic of what a healthy human Beatrice would look like

I fucking loathe telstra. Phone line down, connection down, keeps telling me to connect with my isp

>>853092
That you on the phone Ouro?

>>853112
Yes waiting in Telstra store trying to get this figured out

>>853153
>Cast Immolate
>10 wick

>>853153
Why does Australia have third world-tier internet connectivity

Can someone please archive this thread properly? Making no progress, store couldn't help and referred me instead

>>853609
I got you

>>853166
Because our network is stiff 98% copper and the two major networks basically run protection rackets to basically kill new buisness in the market

>>851426
We know a way to detect Witches not lamplighters t just involves hiding next to a bunch of donotwant