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Archives:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Lamplighter%20Quest
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OuroQM
Questions: http://ask.fm/OuroQM
Character Sheet: http://pastebin.com/4TrWRPPq
>>
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>>2856917
>Send in a small group to sneak in and extricate the prisoner.

The prison tower looms above you as you and your companions cluster up upon a walkway below. This aerial street is surprisingly desolate for the usually crowded city of Dis but after last night, many people here are evidently staying far away. The prison was untouched and they remained so through the use of violence. You can still see the bloodstains littering the street.

If what the Bridesmaid told you can be relied upon, most of this tower isn’t the prison at all. In fact, you can’t even see the prison from here. It is set into the very base of the tower and as you look over the railing, your view is quickly obscured by hundreds of criss-crossing pathways branching between towers that blur together into the urban undergrowth of the Mazes. But even though the actual prison is all the way at the tower’s base, the rest of the tower is apparently quite well defended. The guard company hired to oversee the prison range their patrols through the entire tower.

“So the rest of this bitch is just purely residential?”
That grating voice can only be Beatrice, the diminutive witch leaning against a bloodstained guardrail. She’s taken her hat off to reveal her ruined face.
“Weird to think that they let people live right next to a prison.”

“Where else is it going to be?,” you ask. Dis doesn’t work on the rules that you and Beatrice are used to. Everything is crammed up against everything else in both a horizontal and vertical sense. There was no space anywhere.

“I hear it’s pretty good living,” Alex says. She’s taken up a position behind you on the opposite side of Beatrice. In the interests of not causing trouble, she and her fellow redcloaks have all taken off the usual tokens of their faith but you can still see a bright red corner of her neckerchief poking out from a breast pocket. She’s tall and lanky and looks much more like an Alexander than an Alexandra.
“The prison guards protect the whole tower so it’s like getting your own watchmen for free.”

“It’s unfortunate,” you say. “It means we can’t even sneak in from a higher floor.”

Alex shrugs.
“That’s the point.”

Beatrice’s hand drifts to her coat pocket, home of the Second Age revolver you’d given her. Her old gun seems to have gone the way of her old hat.
“That’s an issue but it’s not the end of the world. Not like we’ve never had to kill guards before. If we just do what we did with the Thorn or the Consortium than this should crack pretty easy. I doubt it’s got heavier security.”

1/2
>>
>>2856930
That would certainly be a simpler way. But just because it is, it doesn’t mean it should be your first resort. Every prolonged fight you get into is the chance for something horrific to happen. You almost didn’t survive the Thorn.
“No. I want us in and out as quickly as possible, ideally without them even knowing. This place isn’t a priority and we’re not here to destroy. We’re just here to get one man out.”

“Cool. We don’t even know where in the prison he is though. I hope you’re fine with a smash and grab.”

“And in the interests of that, there’ll be no shooting unless we’re sure that they know of us.”

Beatrice makes a disgusted sound and throws her hands up into the air theatrically.
“What good am I then?”

“In fact,” you continue, “We should only need a small group. Anything bigger is a liability so the rest of us can wait outside to reinforce or distract. And it’ll be…”


>You and Alex.

>You and Beatrice.

>You, Beatrice and Alex.

>Beatrice and Alex.

>Alex and a small squad of redcloaks.

>Other (Specify)
>>
>>2856941
>You and Beatrice.
>>
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>>2856941
>>You, Beatrice and Alex.
Time to assemble the squad
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>>2856941
>You and Beatrice.
>>
Vote called, writing.
>>
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The best day of the month is there!
>>
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>You and Beatrice

“It’ll have to be just me and Beatrice. Two people will be best and out of all of you, we’ve been working together the longest.”

“Huh?”
Beatrice looks surprised, bruised eyelids flying open.
“But I thought we weren’t going to be shooting anyone?”

“Not for now. But if we have to start, I’d prefer to have our expert doing it. Though just to be sure, you don’t have any way to make your shots silent do you?”

“Absolutely not. If anything, I’m louder than a normal gun.”

“What about the rest of us?”
Alex almost sounds disappointed.

“You and the rest of the redcloaks will stay out here, ready to act as reinforcements or to make a distraction.”

“How will we know?”

You look down past the railing again, the sight of your mind’s eye piercing the many layers of Dis. Somewhere down there, all the way down, past where the tower penetrates the Maze and into the Undertowns, where the base of the tower meets the cold soil of the earth, is your target. A fellow brother of light.
According to the Paper Bridesmaid, he arrived in this city years before you did. Like you, he challenged the Iron Duke. But he didn’t win. Instead the Duke broke him and took him as a trophy. It would seem that as much as the Duke collected weapons, he also had a penchant for collecting people. And the prisoner isn’t just a man of like mind to your cause. When he arrived to the city...he was bearing a shard of the sun! If it still exists anywhere you need him to tell you. This mission isn’t just just, it could be vital.

“You’ll know depending on the plan. And here’s how it’s going to work…”


>You and Beatrice will gain entrance high up in the tower and sneak your way down, evading the patrols.

>If Alex and the redcloaks do something down in the Mazes around the tower, it should draw out some guards. Doing it higher up probably wouldn’t work.

>They must have a way to get supplies in somehow. A prison need both input and output. You and Beatrice can find a way to use those.

>If you go all the way down to the ground level, you might be able to get a better view of the situation.

>Other (Specify)
>>
>>2857191
>>They must have a way to get supplies in somehow. A prison need both input and output. You and Beatrice can find a way to use those.
>>
>>2857191
>They must have a way to get supplies in somehow. A prison need both input and output. You and Beatrice can find a way to use those.
>>
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>>2857191
>>They must have a way to get supplies in somehow. A prison need both input and output. You and Beatrice can find a way to use those.
>>
>>2857191
>>They must have a way to get supplies in somehow. A prison need both input and output. You and Beatrice can find a way to use those.
>>
Vote called, writing.
>>
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>They must have a way to get supplies in somehow. A prison needs both input and output. You and Beatrice can find a way to use those.

“It can’t be sealed off. There has to be a way for supplies to get in and for waste to get out. We’ll be able to make entry through there.”

Beatrice wrinkles her nose.
“Ideally through the input, right? I don’t want to swim through garbage.”

“Well,” Alex says. “You already smell like rotten eggs all the time anyway. But if you want to get in through any of those ways, I’d bet anything that they’ll be all the way down there.”
She points down.

“It makes sense,” you say, already starting to walk. The others trail after you quickly. “We’ll take the roads down through the Mazes and into Undertown”

“Wait!,” Alex says. “Before you two actually go in, let me and my redcloaks scout out the way. We’ll find out how they get in and out and we’ll tell ya. We know the way things work down there.”

That seems reasonable enough so you give the nod, the redcloaks scattering in every direction. It’s faster than you trying to confirm everything by eye. And as they leave, Beatrice sighs and sits down with her back to the street-wall. You remain standing.

“I don’t smell like rotten eggs you know,” she says after a while.

“Pardon?”

“Sulphur. I smell like sulphur. It’s different.”

“Is it really?”

“Yes! And it’s a natural byproduct of what’s saved your asses a bunch of times so if anything you should be thankful. And it’s always eggs. Nobody ever tells me I smell like potassium nitrate and I’ve got as much of that in me as anything else.”

You have no idea what potassium nitrate smells like and even moreso, you’re sure that it doesn’t smell anywhere near as strong.
“This doesn’t really seem like anything worth getting concerned over.”

“Thanks for the support, Orion. But I guess I’m still strung up from that gold bitch. She took my gun.”

“It’s just a pistol. You have another one.”

“Nah it’s different. That revolver was me. It’d be like if you had to throw away your fancy wick.”

You pull out your long-handelled wick. You’ve had it ever since before the sun died. With your cloak and helmet gone, it’s the last surviving remnant of your authority as a Lamplighter.
“That’s not equivalent. This is a holy tool, yours was just a gun. But even so, if I had to, I would throw it away without question.”

“Really?”

“I wouldn’t hesitate.”

“Hah. I guess we’ve both thrown everything else away already.”
A brief pause.
“We’re getting way too old for this, aren’t we?”

“Hrmph.”

“Okay fine, whatever. But you know, my old revolver was a holy tool too. So it’s more equivalent than you might think.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

1/2
>>
>>2857540
“I didn’t say it was my holy tool. It used to be a Lamplighter’s back when I was locked up in a witchhold. Don’t worry, I didn’t kill him! I just took it off his corpse.”

A witchhold, one of the special prisons run by Witch-finders to hold and study tamed witches outside of the Watchtowers. You suppose you always assumed that Beatrice would have had to have spent some time there in her past, considering her brand, but you never really thought about it. You’ve only ever visited one but that was enough to know just how unpleasant they were. At the time you had thought nothing of it. It is, after all, the best a witch could hope for and still better than they deserved. But for some reason you have trouble connecting that sense of righteous judgement to imagining Beatrice in one.
“So you defiled its holy purpose?”

“Pfft. I think its holy purpose would prefer to be used, even by me, than to just sit in the ghoul-infested rubble forever. And now Maria has it maybe. She probably just threw it away.”

Alex and the redcloaks return before you really get a chance to reply. She’s holding up two fingers as she approaches.
“Two!”

“What?”

“I looked for those kinda entrances you were talking about and I found two. You wanted to know how they get food and shit in, right? Turns out we were wrong. It’s not down but up there!”
This time she points up and following the path of her finger, you see a distant sky-rail emerging from a fog-bank and connecting to the very top of the tower.
“It’s mostly a station for the people I think but one of my lads saw them carrying big metal crates in from the last train. And instead of carting them anywhere, they put them into this big locked elevator up on the station itself. I bet the shaft runs down all the way through the middle of tower towards the prison. That’s how they import things in.”

“That might be troublesome. What was the other one?”

“Well we also found their waste pipe. It empties right out into the Undertowns. S’where they huck all their garbage too. It’s got a grate but if you could loosen it it looks big enough for you to crawl right up into.”

“Oh nice,” Beatrice says in a completely neutral tone.

“And well, there’s one other but I don’t know if you’ll like it. We also caught sight of shipments going through the main gate at ground level. But it’s…”
She looks uncomfortable.
“It’s tame people. Looks like they might be taking in some of the beasts from the Fellowshop farms that got broke open last night. You’d have to pretend to be one of them. I don’t think it’s possible.”


>The secure elevator.

>The sewage grate.

>The men and women broken by imps.

>Other (Specify)
>>
>>2857546
>>The men and women broken by imps.
We need info on the SIF, this might be a way to get some.
>>
>>2857558
Also it's more narratively impactful.
>>
>>2857546
>The sewage grate.
>>
>>2857546
>The sewage grate.
>>
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By the way guys, did you know that if you have over ten unlisted pastes pastebin won't even let you edit them? Even if your account was before they did this stupid rule trying to extort you into a paid account?
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>>2857606
That fucking blows
>>
>>2857546
>The men and women broken by imps.

>>2857606
what the balls

Can you copy the texts from a couple of smaller ones to a document, delete them, and then edit one of the remaining by adding what you've deleted?
>>
>>2857546

>The sewage grate.


we'd have to lose our armor and weapons, same for Bea. Not a good idea.
>>
Vote called, writing.
>>
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>The sewage grate.

“I don’t want to do that,” Beatrice says. “We’d have to give up our weapons, that’s just asking for trouble!”

As tempting as it is to do something about the beasts that once were people, you’ve got bigger priorities right now. You give her a nod.
“I agree with Beatrice. We’ll go in through the sewage grate instead.”

“Oh goody. Well, at least I get to keep my gun.”

It’s a long walk down through the Mazes to the Undertowns by the base of the tower. It is a cold and haunted place, an expanse of bare earth and broken stone. The sky above is a low ceiling of mishmashed urban strata, sometimes low enough that you have to stoop. The only light comes from barely flickering green embers scattered every sixty feet or so. And yet, people persist.
Their homes make the slums in the Mazes above look like paradise, frail shanties made from trash and built into the earth itself. The people watch you pass silently, pale and starving things with barely a hint of proper grey. They are earth-touched and earth-tortured, the very bottom level of Dis. And you get the feeling that there used to be a lot more of them here. There’s too many shacks, too many burrows, too few faces. It makes it all look empty, even though there are still hundreds of them visible.
But of course, what else could you expect? The cold of the hostile earth is a constant threat here and with the Consortium gone, there must have been a massive death toll for everyone down here. How many people, already constantly battling poverty, starvation and the constant poison of the earth, simple froze to death as the pale flame dwindled?

“Surprised there aren’t more witches down here,” Beatrice whispers, her boots scuffing the soil with obvious distaste.

“Any witch can find a job upwards and leave,” Alex says. “Not even they’d want to live here. But they and their spawn still pay lots of visits, so I hear.”

“What for?”

“Do you see any corpses?”

An unsettling detail. These Undertowners live their whole lives in the unwilling embrace of the earth and the dark, living their lives as best they can. Everything that can be sold is sold and when you can live no longer, the city takes that too.

1/2
>>
>>2857814
The prison is up ahead, the base of the tower plunging through the cluttered ceiling and into the foundations of the earth like a gnarled and wicked tree. The slums have been cleared away from the front gates, presumably by force, but the waste pipe that Alex described juts out on a spur of rock and flows freely into the homes of the people around it.
Perhaps there wasn’t slums there when it was first built but Dis had grown within itself and beside the clear plain before the gates, the prison was surrounded by Undertown. What was trash for the prison and indeed, all the towers of Dis, was valuable food and shelter for the Undertowners. You’d wager that every single tower’s base has Undertowns like these clustered around it, desperate for every scrap and penny that might fall from above.

Didn’t the Bridesmaid claim to have been an Undertowner? Is that what she meant?

You can hide from the roaming prison guards as you approach but you can’t stop the slow and silent eyes of the Undertowners from observing your every move. You’ll have to be quick. But before you can grab hold of the pipe’s grating, Alex grabs you by the shoulder.

“Hold on,” she hisses. “What about…?”
She nods towards the burden on your back. Should you really take it with you?


>Of course. There is no safer place than with you.

>Perhaps you can leave it with Alex for now.

>Other (Specify)
>>
>>2857819
>Perhaps you can leave it with Alex for now
>>
Why wouldn't we keep it? Am I missing something here? We've taken it into much more dangerous situations before.
>>
>>2857819
>Of course. There is no safer place than with you.
We've never let it out of our reach, now is no time to start.
>>
>>2857819
>>Of course. There is no safer place than with you.
We don't get burned by it. Alex isn't so fortunate.
>>
>>2857852
Since the Thorn, Alex is newly aware of you being a mortal old man.
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>>2857819
>Of course. There is no safer place than with you.
Since we have a witch with us we'll need at least something concrete to convince the lamplighter we've been fooled into thinking is here.
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>>2857819
>Of course. There is no safer place than with you.
>>
>>2857857
What could Alex even do with it? Could she keep it safe?
>>
>>2857875
Well she'd just hold it presumably.
>>
>>2857886
Outside the prison, I meant to add.
>>
Vote called, writing.
>>
>Of course. There is no safer place than with you.

You just shake your head and return to inspecting the rusting grate. It’s still tightly secured to the concrete of the pipe but age and the less than excellent conditions have eroded it severely. You suppose that they’re not too concerned about people trying to get in to the prison. It’s certainly no match for you!

With a quick screen of metal, you yank the entire thing out of the pipe! Scraps and chunks of concrete come free as you do so. The pipe looms ahead, just big enough for you to crawl through and with a faint trickle of sluggish fluid running down it.

“Oh is that all we have to deal with?”
Beatrice sounds relieved.

“Nah,” Alex says. “If it works anything like the waste pipes up in the towers, they collect it all in a tank and then flush it through the pipe every now and then. This stuff here is just backup or something.”

You’re not sure if you like the sound of that.
“Do you know when they flush it?”

“Nope!”

“This is fine,” Beatrice says. “Let’s get going already! Oh and...Orion, you first.”

You have a dark idea about why Beatrice wants you to take the lead but it makes sense. If you find anything in the pipe you’d rather not meet, you can endure it much easier than she can. Grabbing hold of the top lip of the pipe, you pull yourself up and swing your legs up into it. From there it’s easy to just crawl in. The pipe is tight but not particularly so and you have room to move your arms and legs with the sides of it only scraping up against you a little.
The awful smell on the other hand...just something you have to bear.

“This sucks,” Beatrice says after about three minutes of slow crawling.

“It does. But don’t be too loud, the pipe might carry out voices.”

“Right. But what if he isn’t here?”

“What?”

“We’re going off something told to you by the Bridesmaid, right? I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.”

“Neither would I. But I think she was telling the truth. She wants us to succeed.”

“She just doesn’t want us to go all the way. So when exactly do you think she’s going to step in and sabotage us? Because if we keep winning…”

Another long pause. The two of you just focus on crawling, putting one hand before the other. And so on and so on for as long as you can. This continues for a few minutes until Beatrice, having apparently sped up, bumps her head into your backside.
“What?”

“Uh...so what happens if they flush the tank while we’re still in here?”

You speed up as well.
>>
>This is a Collective Effort challenge! The current goal is to use your combined efforts to struggle through the pipe fast enough before the next flush, after which things will become steadily worse.

>The two taking place are Orion and Beatrice

>The DC to meet or beat is 30.

>Please roll 1d6 for Orion. The first 3 shall be totalled and added towards the DC.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>2858356
Rollin
>>
Sorry about the delay on this one by the way, I'm still hella rusty.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>2858356
>>
Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>2858356
I hope we get another Snake Eyes sometime.

Also, if gas is flammable, what happens if Bea inhales it?
>>
>3, 5, 3
>11
>11/30

You push on as best as you can, aware that Beatrice is relying on you not just to clear the way but to accommodate for her own speed. If you can’t succeed, she won’t either. And as the two of you crawl further and further in, you start to encounter more and more...blockages. Yes, blockages is an apt term. You think Beatrice would have a more vulgar word in mind however.

>You now have the option to modify Orion’s roll with the following possibilities:


>Push yourself hard: Roll an additional d6 but Orion will be exhausted afterwards.

>Use your staff to help poke through blockages and clumps up ahead: Add +4 but if the flush occurs, the staff will be lost.

>Keep a steady pace: Add +1 to all Beatrice’s rolls in this Collective Effort.

>No need to do anything further.
>>
>>2858396
>>>Keep a steady pace: Add +1 to all Beatrice’s rolls in this Collective Effort.
>>
>>2858396
>>Keep a steady pace: Add +1 to all Beatrice’s rolls in this Collective Effort.
>Use your staff to help poke through blockages and clumps up ahead: Add +4 but if the flush occurs, the staff will be lost.
This works.
>>
>>2858396
>>Use your staff to help poke through blockages and clumps up ahead: Add +4 but if the flush occurs, the staff will be lost.
>>Keep a steady pace: Add +1 to all Beatrice’s rolls in this Collective Effort.
>>
>>2858396
>Keep a steady pace: Add +1 to all Beatrice’s rolls in this Collective Effort.
>>
Vote called, writing.
>>
>Keep a steady pace: Add +1 to all Beatrice’s rolls in this Collective Effort.
>11/30

You focus on keeping pace with Beatrice,, since she can’t crawl anywhere but where you’ve already crawled. Her progress is dependent on yours. You just make sure that there’s no more sudden stops or slows that could cause further conditions.

Behind you, you can hear Beatrice still struggling away. It’s easy to see why. As a contest of endurance it’s nothing but there’s nothing to stop the slow buildup of pain in your knees and back. And the stench! It is only getting worse.

>Roll 1d6 for Beatrice. The first 3 shall be totalled up and used for the Collective Effort. Beatrice is currently at a +1 dice modifier thanks to Orion easing her way.
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>2858426
>>
Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>2858426
Work those stunted growth legs!
>>
Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>2858426
>>
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Oh, nice rolls for once! Writing.
>>
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>5, 5, 7
>28/30

You can’t see her obviously, it being both pitch black and cramped but you can hear her. And by the sound of it, she’s doing very well. Your steady pace clearing up the front lets her keep crawling forward without having to hesitate or stop. And her doing this in turn means that you don’t have to stop and wait.

But even as it seems like everything is going unnaturally well, the flow through the pipe in front of you starts to increase and the smell somehow gets worse. What’s more, the pipe is starting to slant up.
“Well,” you mutter. “Here it is.”

“What?”

“We’re about to climb up the pipe into the kind of tank Alex was talking about.”

“Oh.”

After following the pipe upwards for a few feet, it suddenly slants sharply downhill again. And feeling ahead, you can tell that the descent goes straight down into a pool of what one could consider water.
“That’s bad. I thought there was a tank.”

“There probably is,” Beatrice mumbles. “How’s your knowledge of plumbing, Orion?”

“Nonexistent.”

“Well I know what this kind of bend is. It’s the kind of bend in a pipe you put below something in order to keep the fluid in it. Like a toilet!”

“You could have chosen another comparison.”

“Considering the circumstances?”

“But that’s good.”

“Depends on your exact definition. So yeah, we’re right below a tank and one that’s probably open topped too. But you better grab your nose with your cleanest hand and keep your mouth very shut because it’s going to be a swim.”

You have no doubt in your ability to do it. But Beatrice might have to try her best.


>Before continuing, Beatrice can make the following modifiers to her result.

>Extra effort: Add one additional dice roll at the cost of exhausting Beatrice.

>Ingest gunpowder: Add a +2 modifier to rolls at the cost of inducing a -2 penalty later.

>Snort gunpowder: Add a +$ modifier to rolls at the cost of inducing a -4 penalty later.

>Nothing.
>>
>>2858450
>>Nothing.
Nah, we're good.
>>
>>2858453
On second thought, maybe we want to crush this Collective Effort? Large numbers have been useful before. Might be worth snorting.
>>
>>2858450
>Ingest gunpowder: Add a +2 modifier to rolls at the cost of inducing a -2 penalty later.

Getting us over would be tops. If we don't do we just get penalized and go through Orion and Bea again or are we fully up shit creek?
>>
>>2858450
>Ingest gunpowder: Add a +2 modifier to rolls at the cost of inducing a -2 penalty later.
>>
>>2858450
>Ingest gunpowder: Add a +2 modifier to rolls at the cost of inducing a -2 penalty later.
>>
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Sorry guys, I dozed off for an hour or so there. Updates will resume for a bit in a few hours.
>>
>>2858534
Rest well.
>>
Why do they have to swim through the tank? Wouldn't there be some maintenance shafts or something?
>>
>Ingest gunpowder: Add a +2 modifier to rolls at the cost of inducing a -2 penalty later.
>7, 7, 9
>23
>34/30

Behind you, you can hear Beatrice muttering something to herself in disgust. She’s fiddling with something in one stained hand.
“Can’t believe I have to put anything into my mouth in here! Just give me a moment, fuck.”

“Didn’t you already just take gunpowder?”

“Yeah and? Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Do you want me to risk it?”

“Just remember that this there’ll be no Workshop to put you back together afterwards.”

“Yeah. That’s our fault, I suppose.”
Beatrice thrashes around behind you for just a moment, her whole body convulsing from one side of the pipe to the other. You can hear something soft tear and a soft drip distinct from the trickle you’re crawling through. And just when you thought the stench overpowering, it was diluted by the familiar smell of iron blood and gunpowder.
“Lead the way.”

You descend into the pipe, letting the tainted water close over your head. You can’t call it pleasant. But in comparison to some of the trials you’ve already been through, you’d happily swim through a mile of it. You keep one hand firmly clamped around your nose to prevent it flowing in and you use the other to drag yourself forward along the downward pipe. It’s perversely easier than the craw. The water takes most of your weight, you just have to pull yourself forward and down.

It’s completely dark, somehow even darker than the previous pipe but with metal on every side, you know the earth cannot touch you. You let the walls of the pipe be your guide as you pass through yet another bend and just as Beatrice had promised, the pipe angles straight up.

You swim up and feel the walls of the pipe all around you fall away as you emerge into something wider. You keep your hand tracing one wall in the darkness and drag yourself further upwards. You have to keep moving. You’re not in any real danger of running out of breath. Even Beatrice should be able to hold her breath for a few minutes and you can last much longer. But if you stop moving up, you’re going to start sinking.
Maybe this would have been easier for a Second Man, like the thing that this Maria was supposed to be, though part of you still doubts Beatrice’s account of that. But you are built of stronger stuff. More importantly, heavier stuff.

You don’t swim as much as you drag yourself upwards. You can feel something in the water move and you pray that it’s just Beatrice flailing around behind you. And above...up above, you can see the glimmer of green light.

1/3
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>>2858715
Your head breaks the surface a moment later and wiping the foul-smelling water from your eyes, you find yourself doing your best to tread water halfway up a large concrete cylinder. The light is coming from up top, through which you can see the ceiling of some sort of chamber. Pale green half-light flickers and casts moving shadows. The top of the tank is at almost ten feet higher than the current water level and even if you could reach it, there’s a heavy metal grille laid out across it. It looks in a lot better condition than the one you came through.
But it doesn’t seem to be only way out. Two or so feet higher than the current water level, set into the cylindrical wall, is a large concrete balcony with a rusty metal railing. It’s for a circular metal hatch. If you could just get into that…

Your train of thought is derailed by Beatrice surfacing beside you, wild-eyed and gasping.
“Fuck!,” she whispers, barely controlling her volume in time. “I swallowed some.”
Her expression is manic and her voice has that brittle yet chipper quality, quickly informing you that she’s riding high. Well...as long as she can keep herself under control it should be fine.

“Look,” you say, pointing out the balcony and the hatch. “I think it’s a maintenance hatch.”

“Oh good, great. Excellent. Why couldn’t there have been one before we had to swim through sewer water?”

“There could have been one for all we know. We might have missed it in the dark.”

“Whatever.”
She’s slowly floundering over towards the balcony. With nothing else to do, you follow her.

It’s not difficult for you to grab hold of the railing’s bottom bar and use it to lever yourself up two feet and out of the water. Beatrice, unable to reach, simply attaches herself to the tank wall like a limpet until you can reach down and pull her up to join you on the balcony. There’s barely room for you, let alone both of you. You huddle together as you inspect the little door.

“Not a moment too soon,” Beatrice says, squeezing out her hair in vain. “It was everything I could do to not just sink for a bit there.”

“It was actually easier swimming through the Sea of Mud.”

“Only a little bit more poisonous too, probably. But don’t worry about me getting some in my mouth though, I ain’t sewage’s bitch.”

Ah, of course. It’s very hard to poison a witch who is aware of it. Transubstantiation. “That doesn’t get you anything, does it?”
You thought you’d known all that was needed to be known on how witches processed essence but that was before you’d met Beatrice.

“A big fat nothing. And hrm, we might have a problem here. This little door is all big solid metal aaaand it’s locked! From the inside! There’s not even a handle or anything on this side!”

“That’s foolish. What if a maintenance worker shut it behind him and got stuck in here!”

2/3
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>>2858718
“Fucked if I know. Here.”
Beatrice swivels and using the little room either of you have, she slumps into a squat with her back firmly braced against the wall. Her hands are crossed in front of her.
“Let me give you a boost up and you can grab hold of that grating at the top. See if there’s anything you can do up there. Better you than me.”

She holds her hands up together in front of her and taking her invitation, you jump up and step onto her outstretched palms. Gritting her teeth, she then slowly straightens her back and propels you upwards. She can only hold it for a few seconds but that’s more than enough time for the tips of your fingers to brush up against the grille, at which point you grab hold and pull yourself up and away from Beatrice.

At this point you’re now just hanging freely from the grating covering the top of tank, Beatrice sitting on the balcony below.
“Is there anything you can do up there?,” she hisses.

Unfortunately this grating actually seems pretty new. It’s set at least an inch into a concrete and even if you had any sort of leverage at all instead of just hanging there, you still wouldn’t be able to pull it free as you had the previous one. The individual bars are quite thin so you should be able to slice them away with the Magistrate’s runesword but considering your awkward position and the fact that you’ll have to do it one handed, there’ll be an awful lot of clanging.

But if you just heated the bars themselves, couldn’t it be possible to grab hold of the suddenly softened metal and peel a portion of it away? But that would require a constant source of heat and between having to provide it, having to hold on and having to do the peeling, you’d need an extra hand. Unless…

“Beatrice!,” you whisper urgently. “How far can you breathe fire?”

“Pretty far. And we’re so close to the earth down here that all this sewer gas probably won’t even catch fire and make me explode!”
She sounds pretty eager.


>Just hang here and work at the grating with your runesword. It’ll be noisy but simple.

.>Have Beatrice douse you and the grating both with her molten breath long enough to get it red hot. You’ll be able to endure it quite happily and the grating will be more malleable.

>It’s possible that you might be able to loosen it with a precision Immolate sustained for a long time. It’ll cost a lot of Wick though…

>Well you tried being subtle and it didn’t work. Unveil the lamp-post.

>Other (Specify)
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>>2858721
>Other: try to find the bolt holding the maintenance hatch closed and sever it with a runesword stab.
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>>2858721
I don't quite understand how the rune sword works, I thought it was similar to a lightsabre but you seem to be describing it as being more akin to a chainsaw or circular saw in cutting power
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>>2858745
It's very sharp, unnaturally so, but if you don't have any leverage or force when you swing it it's not going to cut through metal. That'd be like if it sliced through the floor when you dropped it.
Orion can cut the grating with it even when he's hanging from it and is no position to exert force at all, but that still means metal clanging against metal in an echoing space.
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>>2858744
This
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>>2858746
It occurs to me that this explanation is incoherent due to tiredness. I'm going to sleep. Thread will resume updating in the morning and the vote will end then.
Goodnight anons
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>>2858721
>Other: try to find the bolt holding the maintenance hatch closed and sever it with a runesword stab.
This, but heat it up a bit with Bea flames
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>>2858721
try melting or cutting through the maintenance hatch. it's more solid metal, but we're in a better position to leverage or carefully apply fire.
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>>2858846
We could try targeting the hinges if they're visible from this side.
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>>2858871
The hinges are the one part we DONT have to target. Even if we destroyed them, the actual bolt will keep the door plenty rigid.
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>>2858721

>>2858744
Supporting this
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>>2858744
>>2858721
tribridding this
there's probably multiple bolts ofc.
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Yeah, I know I didn't leave it on the most exciting choice. I was too slow updating yesterday. Anyway, thread resumes in an hour.
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>>2859760
weeeee!

Hopefully that isn't the sound he makes when we find whatever sad corner they've stuffed him into.
>>
Fuck, I'm sorry guys. I fell asleep again after starting the update. But now that I'm awake again there's a much bigger problem. You can probably figure out what it is.
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>>2860311
Broke your laptop or have work?
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Interlude??

The prison cell was dark but there was still enough light to leave a shadow. Pale and trembling light cast from the corridor outside the door, green torchlight visible through the barred window in the door. It had been growing less and less over these past few days but the prisoner could not guess why.

If one were to look into the cell, it would be possible to miss the prisoner entirely. A figure crouched in the darkened corner, just another bundle of rags among the filthy cell. But if you were to see them clearly you would know them not to be the kind of wretch you might expect to find in such a place. The glint of eyes beneath a shroud of ragged hair...they were strong and they were piercing and they were the eyes of a man who did not sleep.

And how could he? Every night it was the same dream. The same memory.

A pale white hand clasping a gray hand. It had been to pass on a blessing but also so much more..

Your sword strung across your back, you ignore their pleas and keep walking on. She is left behind…

A confusion of battle, of the deaths of men and women as you refuse to let them bar your path. Blood stains the walkway…

A wrenching of metal and then a wrenching of flesh. A metal claw smacks you away hard enough to splinter your rib cage…

[i[How was this possible? You’d come so far and yet...and yet…two figures are outlined against the firelight, both entirely unaffected by your last stand. A hunched metal monster lit from within by flame of his own and barring your path of escape, a too-tall hooded figure wrapped in shadow even now. This wasn’t right. What are you supposed to do against both of them at once?

”Kill him.”
This voice was far too beautiful for the thing that spoke it.

“No. This little slave is mine. I will break him yet.”
This voice was much more appropriate, a harsh and metal-edged thing.

“The gods demand that-”

“Dead gods, be they flame or shadow, can demand nothing from me. Nor can their slaves. This is my prize! Look elsewhere for your own!”


The last thing you see is a metal claw closing around a blackened and broken sword.

But that was then and this is now. And now, the shadows in the cell are changing. The door slides open and two figures stand framed in the pale half-light.

“Well met brother. We’ve come for you at last.”
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Far away across the city of Dis, in the thing called the Paper Bridesmaid, at the very highest floor, the madam of the establishment was entertaining visitors.

“So you figured it out, hm? I suppose that’s not too surprising. You two were always grand at figuring me out just a...little...too...late.”
The voice of the Bridesmaid brooks no interruption, not even from these things.

The Bridesmaid is alone in the room, woman and snake blended together in something that was both and neither. Of its visitors, nothing could be seen save for two dark shadows suspended on the far wall. They could have easily been Shades but they were not. Shades are but errant shadows unattached from their owners. These were shadows, undoubtedly cast by something, just something that wasn’t here.
They didn’t speak. They didn’t have to.

“Well, it’s true,” the Bridesmaid admitted. “He’s working awfully fast. I’ve long passed the point of failure on my little gamble. Even if you killed him now I’d still come out ahead.”

“A traitor? Don’t be so nonsensical. I already betrayed you two long ago. But if I really intended the Lamplighter to be a tool against you specifically, why didn’t I tell you anything about you? Why didn’t I warn him? But he doesn’t know you exist.”

“That’s what I thought. Let me play among the mortals in peace. It’s not like you can even do anything about anything anyway? Nothing except show up here and growl at me as if I’d be frightened of you! You two really have nothing to do but to sit back and watch. I do hope you enjoy the finale!"

End?
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>>2860581
aw fuk
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I suppose I should explain myself.

As you guys might have noticed from the two cancellations this quest has undergone, the many, many delays and flakes and the fact that this quest has had only 20 something threads over the course of 2 years is well...

I can't do it. I'm sick sure, that never stopped being a thing that was happening, but in truth a lot of it was from the fact that my passion for this project had faded. But I figured I owed it to you guys to keep going anyway, no matter how many times I sat down to write without being able to see the way forward. It felt like everything I was doing had become staid, boring, incomplete. The Lamplighter I was writing could never hope to match the Lamplighter in my head.

And all the breaks in the world didn't help because I just kept thinking that I need to do more Lamplighter and that the delays were only making it worse and as a result, I always came out of them with more stress than when I came in. And they were making it worse, I can't deny that. It's amazing any of you are invested at all considering the constant hiatuses and cancellations.

And as a result of just trying to do it because I felt obliged, I grew to hate the thing I once loved. I couldn't muster anything for it and I really don't have that much to muster in the first place.
Obviously that's bad. I don't actually owe anyone anything and trying to force myself to keep doing Lamplighter, even after 2 years, was just poisoning the project and making it toxic inside my own head. And as a result, I was putting in a lot of subpar nonsense and taking far too long to do so.

So I'm not going to just take a break. That doesn't help, it does the opposite. But I'm not going to cancel Lamplighter like I did twice before either. We both know that'd be a lie. But I think I'm just going to put Lamplighter on the shelf for now. I'll work on something else, something new. Something that doesn't involve me being shackled to a quest I've poisoned for myself.
And when the poison has faded and I'm feeling genuinely reinvigorated once more, I'll come back to this. You guys don't have to. I'd like it if you did though.

So think of it as less of a break or a hiatus or a cancellation and more as the end of a season of a tv show or the ending of the last book in a series. Something that'll come back eventually when everyone's ready for more.
And in the meantime, I'll do a different Quest. I don't know what it is yet. Maybe get my work schedule a little better in order as well.

I hope you can understand and that you don't feel too bad. Thank you for supporting Lamplighter up to this point.
>>
>>2860627
That's fair, if you don't like what you're doing don't do it. I mean you're not getting paid for any of this. Regardless thanks for running it's been a wild ride.
>>
>>2860627
It's all good man. I've followed your stuff for years and I'm not gonna stop now. Looking forward to your next one!
>>
>>2860627
AW FUK

But, I understand. Far too well. I'll look forward to your new thing while awaiting the further fecal adventures of Orion & Bea.
>>
>>2860627
I cannot help but feel slightly disappointed that this has happened, but I understand. Thanks for at least telling us who things are ouro.
>>
>>2860627
Lamplighter's great, but if you need to do something else you do you.

Maybe something......without snakes?
>>
>>2860894
Yeah a fair distance away from snakes might be a good idea. Maybe... toads, big cats? Seals?
>>
>>2860627
I agree with the others. While it's a shame to see this ended for now, you should work on what you actually feel inspiration for. I do hope you come back to Lamplighter someday, and I'll definitely read it when you do. But I also look forward to the new cool stuff you'll surely come up with. See you in the next thread, pal.
>>
>>2860627
I can't be too disappointed when it's not really dead, and with a promise for something else to boot. I'll be sure to check your twitter sporadically for your new thing, and I look forward to reading it.
Thank you for making these quests, Ouro :D
>>
>>2860894
Let's not get too crazy here.
>>
>>2860627
You might be amazed that we keep being invested in Lamplighter, but holy crap, this quest is worth it. If you consider it subpar, I can't imagine the bar you've set for yourself.

Thanks for providing us with so much enjoyment all this time.
I just hope it doesn't go the way of Spice&Wolf's 3rd season.
>>
>>2860627
Thanks for everything Ouro. Believe it or not this quest really helped me get through when times were rough so it will forever hold a special place in my heart
>>
>>2860627
Thank you for having run Lamplighter, Ouro. You made the right choice in prioritizing your own wellbeing, and I hope to see your new quest whenever it may appear.
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>>2860627
Sadness
>>
Thank god
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>>2860627
That weirdo's "review" in the qtg didn't play a part in this decision, did it?
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>>2862205
What? No.
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>>2862320
Good, can't wait to play your next quest.
>>
>>2860627
>>2861162

I'm going to second this. I don't always have the chance to catch every thread, but I love every minute of your writing. I'll be sure to try and catch your next quest.
>>
>>2860627
I wasn't a regular because my set schedule didn't mesh, but I loved reading Orion's adventure.

Good luck in finding the fun for your next adventure you aloof snake.
>>
>>2860627
If you start the new quest while this thread is still up, could you link it here or at least give its namd? I'll probably never find it otherwise.
>>
>>2862320
Dudebro. I sincerely and passionately hate some of the decisions anons have made in this quest. Because it makes me fucking care about it. I've never thought you've made it anything but excellent no matter what the players threw out for you to deal with. You're/qst/ royalty, up there with Moloch, TSTG, and Crusty (rip). Not only one amazing completed quest, but this second one has been of exceptional quality.

The world building, the character development, the narrative progression, all finely balanced and interactive with player input to an amazing degree, it's fantastic.

I'm sad to hear you no longer enjoy something that I've come to love, even when parts of it have hurt to see happen, because it's a good pain.
>>
>>2861160
Have you considered doing a collaborative quest with another QM?

Foxfire reboot with Riz! RizRiz! Heal both my favourite QMs with fluffy tails! Also I think your writing styles would mesh really well, and your dice mechanics plus his narrative resolutions would give me brand new heights of anxiety ridden tension.
>>
>>2865569
That sounds harder...
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>>2865569
Riz's long-winded introspective autism is never going to work with Ouro's detached purple prose. It will be the most painful slog with nothing happening despite paragraphs of narrative.
>>
>>2860627
I can't get over what a kickass anime this would make.
>>
>>2865815
It will be a beautiful journey through a fantastical world. Low key slice of life, no hard moral choices at all I promise.

>>2865728
Just learn to love suffering.
>>
>>2865817
You mean AAA video game.

Honestly, it could also be fun if other QMs did side quests in the setting too, if any were interested in that sort of thing. It could even be QMs I personally don't like.

Just little one-shots featuring people around the world dealing with the fall of the sun.

A way for other QMs to kind of relax and experiment with things outside their own quests, while Ouro doesn't feel guilty about people not getting a Lamplighter fix.

Collaboration is often the cure for stagnation.
>>
>>2862320
Ouro, you're like David Bowie. You're going to have a break, try something new with Tin Machine and then you're going to come back with a passion. No sweat.
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>>2866743
Will Ouro also turn christian and claim the absolute daffodil state of his sexual orientation to be a symptom of the times?
>>
For those wondering, the 'cooldown' project is going to be significantly more light-hearted, more character focused and way more episodic. And in a weirder setting.
Soon.
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>>2866902
>Ouro
>light-hearted
is this code for tearing people's hearts out?
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>>2866909
>Ouro
>Tearing people's hearts out
Ouro can write sad things?
>>
I've never thought of myself as particularly saddening
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>>2866902
Word of advice from a QM who got burned out and ran another quest for a while - use a different trip. No baggage makes QMing less stressful.
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>>2866902
>significantly more light-hearted
I remember how it was when Moloch wanted to go for a lighter tone.
Let's see what we'll get this time!
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Just got to this thread because my life has been hell recently, just wanted to reiterate that I've adored everything you've ran Ouro and that your quests have been a source of much comfyness in my life. I look forward to whatever you come up with next!
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>>2866941
Well, Orion's backstory was sad. Bea's life is sad. The world is quite sad. The people of Dis and all the lands we passed are pitiable, and also sad. All in a hopeless "is it even worth saving" kind of way. It's one of only two quests where I seriously doubt there's going to be a happy ending if we live that far, or if the ending that we have in mind to meet is even possible.

The metamorph earth god manifestation of dirt bound concepts is the happiest thing in the quest and it basically bathes itself in others misery.
Maybe sad isn't the exact right word, but I feel like it works.
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>>2867277
While I see what you mean, I think there's a marked difference between something is sad and something that makes you sad. The world may be a pitiful crapsack, but I've never actually felt sad from reading any of it. Or even mildly upset.
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>>2867295
Well it has made me feel sadness, though that's not the same as upset or tear-inducing.
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>>2867300
I think its because its clearly fantastical, there haven't been a whole lot of times in lamplighter where I felt some kind of thematic connection to my own life.
Compared to say, going to the ball in Snakecatcher which upset me enough to take a from the quest
>>
Best in all your endeavors, Ouro.
>>
This quest sucked anyway. Good riddance.
>>
>>2869342
Low-quality bait.





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