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For a better look at the character deck: https://imgur.com/lrIhOXh

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Inventory:
-Shorts
-Shirts x2
-Pants
-Broken Mirror
-Copper Coins x 33
-Arrows x20
-Journal
-Candle x2
-Hunting Knife
-Medical Qupiment 3/3
-Assorted Adventuring Gear 80/100
-Fishing Rod
-Rations x5
-Rope

Bonus Valentines day art~~
https://i.imgur.com/vZVxtnM.png


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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You look down at the vulgar hand signals Nathalie is making with your innocent virgin eyes, then back at her, and then back down again. You squint your eyes and watch a little longer before finally admitting to Nathalie that you have no idea what she is insinuating, ”I uh, I don't know what that means?” . You try to copy the motion with your own hands in an attempt to understand its meaning. Nathalie is quick to interrupt you by throwing up her hands in order to mingele them with your own. She succeeds in breaking things up and seems to get flustered , “Never mind! Just tell me what happened then, if it wasn’t THAT. And don't ever make that hand motion at anyone else ok?” . You don’t get it but you comply anyway. Yet you don't really know how to explain to Nathalie what happened, you dont want her to be scared of you and you don't really want to revisit those memories. “well, we actually – didn't- it- I was... I mean I got strange and uhhh we fought and uhh... it was so stupid uhh, so stupid you see...”. As Nathalie listens intently for you to get to the climax of the story, you think back on how your uncle would deal with the really tough questions you imposed on him. Questions such as: “if nothing is holding up the sky why, doesn’t it fall down on our heads?”, “where are my mom and dad?”, “why do we have to live in the woods?”, or “why am I not allowed to cut my hair?”. There were a lot of questions he didn’t seem to like answering. But cunning as he was, uncle always had a way out. So you decide to take a page out of his book and simply sidestep your problems completely. You reach out and put both hands on Nathalies shoulders ” I may have... . ”What? You may have WHAT? . You unclick Nathalies cloak, revealing her neck as it falls off her shoulders. ”bit him” you then chomp down on Nathalies neck!

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”KAAAAEEEEEEE!!!!”, screams Nathalie as the two of you wrestle. Nathalie doesn’t seem to be having a good time or enjoying how you side stepped her question. ”If you don’t want to tell me then you don’t have to! Just stop acting like a child!!!!”. But you refuse to stop, your uncle never stopped until you forgot all about asking him anytime. You keep hold of Nathalies neck in your mouth but never apply any actual pressure, although you do make a big show of it by growling at her like a wolf and climbing all over her like a spider monkey. You almost bully Nathalie to the point of tears again, and you don’t even notice Mary unlock the room door and step in...

... Mary is a doll about the whole thing really, she only dropped one plate and only passed out for a minute. It seemed like she actually thought Nathalie was getting attacked by a wild beast due to all the growling! Mary is SO nice she even agreed to keep the whole escape ting a secret after Nathalie explained everything. But even Mary has her limits, when Nathalie started telling her how she needs to act as a decoy to trick the guards and help you sneak back into your room, she almost passes out again! As great as Mary is she doesn’t seem to have much of a constitution, and maybe asking her for help msy be more then the poor girl can handle. Even still, after discussing a few plans with Mary and Nathalie, the three of you agree with one that seems to carry the highest chance of success.

Before the three of you part ways and commence with your plan, you take Marry aside and give her a list of things to be careful of. You mention some basic things, that Mary is probably well aware of, but you do so in order to subtly warn her about Loki. You don’t mention him by name or get specific but you describe his hat and warm her about drinking. Marry nods her head and promises to watch over Nathalie as best as she can. You unfortunately get the feeling that maybe Marry is a bit of an enabler, and probably couldn’t stop someone as wilful as Nathalie from jumping off a bridge. You also ask Nathalie if it would be ok to visit her later tonight, but Nathalie doesn’t like the idea of you escaping AGAIN after all the risky work you are all about to do in order to get you BACK into your room. She says she wont be mad if you come see her tonight, as long as you don’t “attack” her again, but she wishes you would just stay put. She promises that to come visit you soon, unless “daddy” finds out about her escaping into the town and grounds her. Mary turns white at the mention of Jeraldo finding out about her assisting Nathalie with escaping.

>You are now on your way to sneak back into your room... I personally was only able to think of three realistic ways to go about this. All have pretty high rates of failure.
>what do?

>climb to the top of the building and rope back down into your room.
>>chance of being spotted by civilian: high
>>chance of being spotted by soldier: low

>sneak into the room adjacent to yours and claim it was your room all along, the guards where guarding the wrong room!
>>You and Mary/Nathalie must make charisma checks

>Have Mary and Nathalie distract the guards while you pick the lock and sneak back in
>>chance of being spotted by civilian: none
>>chance of being spotted by soldier: very high

>write in? You don’t HAVE to try and sneak back.

>Seduce guards.

>>3266048
>>climb to the top of the building and rope back down into your room.

Better by a civilian than by a soldier

>>3266048
Nice to see you back
I KNOW something bad is happening with Natalie, damn, why is that girl so stubborn, I really wish I'm wrong

>climb to the top of the building and rope back down into your room.

>>3266526
>>3266048
also, if we do manage to get back into our room we should call for a meeting with Jeraldo, try and convince him to let us go, we won't be going anywhere and he never came to talk with us after what happened

>>3266048
Write-in:

We should go talk to Jeraldo right now, and not try to get in our room.
Tell him we could have escaped anytime but we want to stay because we are worried about Jackson and sorry that we hurt him, Jackson did nothing wrong and we would just like to be let go so we can see him and go to the festival.

I reeeeeally want to go to the festival guys, it would be fun as hell going there with Natalie and we could even see Ratko again now that we activated our powers.

Let's come clean with Jeraldo and apologize for the problems we caused.

>>3266298
This

roll me some dice (d20s)

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3268408

>>3268478
kek

>>3268478
thats for the civilians I need one more for the soldiers

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>3268651

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3268408
Il roll one incase you needed more probably didnt tho

>>3268661
How wrong i was

>>3268661
Lol

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>>3268478
Not going to lie, REALLY didn't want you guys to succeed. The DC was 19.

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You give one final goodbye to Nathalie and Mary before the three of you get to work on your plan. Since you have decided to climb onto the buildings roof, then rope back into your room. you don’t need the two of them to do anything too risky. The first step of the master plan is to simply have them keep watch while you pick the lock of the room all the way on the other side of the floor. You reason that even though the distance is greater, climbing the wall on the outside of the fortress would only put you at risk of being seen by someone all the way down in the town. Instead of being seen clearly by someone inside the fortress, giving you away almost instantly.

The room is as easy to get into as Nathalie's room. Once the door swings open, you see Nathalie already running off to start phase two of your plan. You had wished to say good bye one last time in order to AGAIN stress how careful she needs to be. But chances are she ran off with such speed to AVOID hearing you warn her for the 100th time. You don't want to nag her but a feeling of unease sticks with you. At this time you start to wonder if letting her go is the right thing to do? Would damaging your friend ship be a worse cross to bear then if something actually happened to her?

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You put these thoughts aside as you enter the room and start tying your grappling hook [-35 assorted adventuring equipment] to the end of your rope. As you are about to set off on another risky climb you need to push these thoughts out of your brain and focus on the trek ahead. [rogue] Indeed, you are so preoccupied that you don’t even bother checking this room for valuables! Instead you poke your head out the window and have a look around, the sun is higher in the sky then you had thought and the hour grows late. Twirling the rope around for a few moments, you then toss it up to the roof of the building. Unfortunately it doesn’t hold and comes falling back down, almost impaling you. After brushing off another dance with death you try again. This time the hook holds and you climb out the window and up the side of the building.

Once you’ve pulled yourself up to the top, you chose to stay prone and crawl your way to the other side. The rooftop is absolutely filthy, its covered in a layer of crow feathers and droppings. It almost makes you gag, but there are a few places that you could still be spotted from, even from this height, so you force yourself to endure. Eventually, you make it to the other side and take a look out onto the courtyard. The market is in full view and anyone who happens to be looking in this direction will easily spot you, there is simply no way you can get away with this. Down below are some guards posted outside your window, completely oblivious to your escape. You wonder if there is still time to go back and change your plan, but you ultimately know that this is your only chance. With nothing left to do but carry out the plan you look to Sol, and recalling what Jackson thought you, give a small prayer in hopes of divine assistance.

You first tie the rope around your waist as tightly as you can, then you secure the rope to the roof with your [woodsmen] trusty secret knot tying technique. Then you stand up, take a deep breath, and run off the edge of the roof. As time seems to slow down you hope that you guesstimated the length perfectly, because anything else would send you slamming into a wall. Your life flashes before your eyes as you plummet to the earth, only to have the rope yank you back. Instead of feeling hard stone, you swoosh right into your room through the open window. For a moment you are over joyed at your success until the momentum pulls you backwards and almost throws you back out the window. Luckily you sprawl yourself out and get a good hold of the windowsill. Not even taking a moment to breath you give the rope two gentle tugs and it comes down into your waiting arms. You slam the window shut and collapse onto the floor, you really really hope no one saw that...

...it doesn’t take long for you to notice the arguing outside your room, from the sound of things Nathalie and Mary are delaying the morning inspection for you as planned. But as the door knob starts to turn, you guess your time is almost up. First thing, you take the sword from around your waist and bow from around your arm and slide them under your bed. Your bags don’t get the same fine treatment as you simply toss them across the room to land snugly next to Jackson's things. With no time left you place the iron cuffs onto you wrists. As if on cue, one of the solders enters the room with Mary as the cuffs click shut. Mary is sweating bullets, and the relief on Mary's face is comical once she sees you. The guard on the other hand, seems to seance something is amiss. He enters your room and starts looking around with much more fervour then usual. Completely out of breath you just sit on the ground and watch him, doing your very best to look as inconspicuous as a very conspicuous person can. He eventually comes over to you and gives you a look over before heading to the window and giving a scrutinizing glace up and around it. But ultimately he can't find anything specifically wrong, perhaps if he was smarter he would realize the many things simply don’t add up. But luckily, it doesn’t look like he got his position by using his head.

From then on things continue as normal, Mary does her best to pretend like everything is the same. But she shakes and sweats. The tray of food she brings you rattles in her arms. You decide not to speak to her to much, afraid that it could break her concentration. Instead you choose to speak with your jailor. You tell him that you wish to speak with Jeraldo, adding that you “know” Jackson is in the fortress and he no longer has reason to keep you caged here. The guard promises to relay your massage, but you are going to have to wait for his shift to end which is three hours from now. When you are finally left alone you let the mask fall, collapsing on your bed you start to REALLY worry that someone may have seen you. An unshakable feeling of being watched has been following you ever since you were inside Nathalie's room. At any moment you expect guards to burst in and take you away to be imprisoned underneath the castle or something worse! But, that moment never comes. You are left to your own devices, and you choose to spend that time trying to clean the bird droppings off your clothing and fretting about Nathalie...

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... Several hours later you hear a knock at your door. Composing yourself, you call out to your visitor and allow them to enter. The door opens and you are joined by Jeraldo, the fotress commander, himself. He looks much the same as the last time you have seen him, composed and radiating authority. ”Hello Kae, keeping busy?” he asks but doesn’t wait for a reply. He simply enters the room and takes a seat at your desk. Two escorts and a maid enter with him, the maid caries a tray with one cup of tea that Jeraldo drinks from every now and again. While the escorts simply stand behind him. Motioning for you to sit on your bed, he jumps right to the point ”So what can I help you with today?”

>what do?

>>3269822
>"Can you take off these cuffs?"

>>3269822
Ask if we can be released, as much as we like his hospitality we were hoping we could go to the festival since we never been to one, say that we can aswer any question he may have if it means he can please let us out of our bird cage.

>>3269822
"Lemme oooouuuuuttttttttttt
PLZ
it's boring and you have Jackson, and not having him was the whole reason you were keeping me here. I know you have him, I can smell him. Tell him to take a bath."

roll me 1 d20

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>3271044

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3271044

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>3271044

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>3271044

>>3271208
I hope that's enough, that festival sounds like fun and I don't want to be locked in here for that.

since its a CHA roll, its a best of 1

>>3271483
Sigh...still locked up then....damn

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You start off by pleading for something small
”Before we talk, can you please take off these cuffs? Please stop treating me like a prisoner, I have done nothing wrong!”.
Jeraldo simply gives one of his men a nod. Then the knight quickly produces a set of keys and unlocks your restraints. You rub your wrists and make pretend that you have actually been wearing them. Its a good start, you had assumed he wouldn’t even give you this much
”thank you, these are REALLY uncomfortable” .
”Indeed, I once had to wear a very similar pair in my youth.”
You wonder if this addition from Jeraldo would lead down to a story or something, but it doesn’t, its just a statement of fact.
”You have to forgive me for putting those on you, they were more for your protection then ours.”
”My protection?”
”Yes, you seemed like that type who would do something rash. If these restraints prevented you from acting on impulse then they were worth the discomfort.
On one hand he is right, he judged you very accurately. But on the other hand, he doesn’t realize how ineffective they were at their charge. Even still, his pinpoint accuracy flusters you.
”I-I wouldn’t have done anything, don’t judge me so harshly.”
He tries to hide a smile behind his glass of tea, but you can see he has read your face easily.
”My apologize then. Was there anything else?”
”I want my freedom! I know you have Jackson, thats what you wanted right now let me go, please. I would very much like to see the festival.”
Hhis smile is quickly replaced by a frown, and you already know whats coming.
”Im afraid that is no longer possible. The situation has become... complicated.”
”Complicated? How-
your compose quickly breaks as all the worst case scenarios flood your brain at once.
”wwww- what dii-did he say?”
He doesn’t answer your question but instead seems to be lost in thought. He looks deeply into his tea cup and starts explaining the situation, the long way around.
”You see Kae, I had at first assumed that Jackson had attacked you, and all that blood was your blood. It made sense at the time, all the arrows pointed to that.”
You can see the maids eyes open wide at the word “blood”, she clearly wonders if this is a conversation she should be present for. All the same Jeraldo keeps talking.

”The boy always had a violent streak in him, I had hoped the long years and travel had cooled his temper.”
He looks up from his tea and smiles at you, suddenly he is talking directly at you instead of simply pondering out loud.
”Its that Stonewalls blood you see, like his father and his grandfather before him. Now normally men of such violence usually... die violent deaths. I mean its just statistics at that point, if you fight every man who bites his thumb at you to the death you are eventually going to die yourself. And Jackson had the fever bad, even his older brothers were scared of him. Now imagine ME havering to deal with him?”
He starts to shake his head and laugh, as if he is telling you some big joke.
”Anyway, 'how is this relevant' you are probably starting to wonder, yes?”
You give a half nod and a shrug, not wanting to be rude.
”Well, when our boy came back from Wilstown he didn’t travel alone.”
You quickly realize he is talking about you
”And he seemed different, calmer, collected, I even saw him smile at the dinner party. I had hoped maybe he found whatever he has been searching for since the incident.”
”Me!??”
”Evidently not. After they had found your note and all the blood It made sense that Jackson simply did what a Stonewalls does best: Violence. Then they found you and it seemed reasonable that you had fled from him. With Jackson also disappearing, and the missing arbalest from the armoury, things just started to add up pretty quickly. The bruises all over your body collaborated the whole thing.”
You wonder what an arbalest is, and you wonder how he knows about your bruises? Did Nathalie tell him? But these are not the main question that is on your mind.
”So... why did you imprison me then?”
”To protect you or course. You see Kae, the reality of the matter is 'legally' I dont have much recourse if Jackson decides your life needs to end. But as a prisoner of the crown, well that gives me some leeway. I had hoped to protect you AND use you to bait Jackson back here.”
You cant help but get angry, this whole time you thought you were going to get hanged or something.
”For PROTECTION? WHY DIDNT YOU JUST SAY THAT?”
”I'm not one to reveal my plans to anyone, I don’t answer to you and I dont have to answer your questions.”
You cant help but feel you stepped over a line yelling at him, you do your best to hold it back.
”So why are you explaining it to me now?”
”Because things have gotten 'complicated'. I had hoped by showing you some curtsey you could now do the same for me. As you already seem to know, we found Jackson. Seriously injured and hunting you. Now tell me, did you attack Jackson in self defence?”
You know where this is going.

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”... Are you going to let me leave?”
”How did you know he was here?”
”... I can smell him.”
Jeraldo lets out a sigh.
”I am not your enemy Kae, I hope in time you will come to see that. If you change your mind tell one of the guards you are ready to talk.”

Jeraldo then packs up and prepares to leave the room with his entourage. You simply sit and star at your feet, they didn’t replace your cuffs but you feel more trapped then ever. Jeraldo's parting words to you are: ”If Jackson dies form his wounds, and if you insist on keeping what ever happened to yourself, I will have no choice but to hang you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...Laying on your bed you sit and wallow in your misery. How can you explain to Jeraldo what happened when you don’t even understand yourself? If you give him the truth he will hang you anyway and if you lie he will see right through you. Its times like this that you curse your upbringing, coming form a place that never needed you to lie has put you in a great disadvantage in the civilized world. As the hours pass you wonder how Nathalie is doing, you hope she is safe and you wish you could have seen the festival. Instead, you are stuck without much hope in a bottomless pit of melancholy. The hours drone on and you see the sun fall form the sky. Soon a tapping at your window breaks the monotony. You are used to this sound by now, you know the sound as a harbinger to the sky rats that have plagued you so. Rolling out of bed, you shuffle over to the window to find a single crow as predicted. He taps at your window and inside his beak is a spherical object. Having your full attention, the little crow turns his head revealing the object to be a human eye. The eye he holds, looks right into your soul. [+1 insight]

>what do?
>Open the window.
>Ignore the bird.
>write in.

>>3272766
>Open the window

We'll have to escape, again, or even tell him and hope for the best, damn this room

>>3272766
>>Open the window.

>>3272766
>Open the window

Find out what's up with these birbies

>>3272766
>Open the window

Shit, nat is going to get raped/druged/tricked by Loki and we are not there to save her, this is terrible.
Help us raven!

>>3274551
Not Sure why people are worried about this, them running into each other seems pretty unlikely.

>>3274570
I know, its just that that is the worst case scenario and it worries me, I know I'm being irrational

>>3272766
Well, we prooved him right by running away. Maybe we should just stay put, he might be playing mindgames on us again with the hanging and such

I'm still catching up on old threads - what were the circumstances around us biting Jackson? Dark possession or a ridiculous write in?

>>3274691
mix of both

>>3274691
More of the first. QM made some rolls behind the scenes and that was the result.

>>3274691
Your [insight] was too high. Before it was a hidden mechanic.

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Looking deep into the eye ball you feel yourself become mesmerized by it. You wonder where the crow had gotten itself such a fresh prize, and more so you wonder why he displays it at you so proudly. But the more you stare into it, the more you feel like you are being watched; awareness spews from the pupil of this dislocated unseeing eye. You bring your face closer and closer to the window glass to get a better look at it. When suddenly, the iris quickly contracts and shifts as it focuses on you (+1 insight). [Occult fascination] But instead of withdrawing you look deeper into the eye. Slowly your mind grows numb, and before you know it: you are opening the window for the crow. Wasting no time the crow immediately flies into your room and lands on the bed. In several jerking motions, the crow uses its entire body to point underneath your bed. Before you can react to it, a smell wafts into your room from the outside. Once again, the smell of fire, the smell of smoke, and the smell of death enters your nostrils. You look out the window but you cant see the source of the smell. Looking into the sky you see the sun hangs low, the sky its full of crows, they circle the fortress in a massive ring blackening large portions of the blood red sky. Down below on the ground, the guards seem to be gone. By your observations, they should at this time STILL be there. The coast could not be more clear, things seem too good to be true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRV9uPr4Dz4

The crow suddenly lands on your shoulder and points its trophy right at you, the eye continues twitching and contracting. ”Did you do this?” , the crow doesn’t answer. Even if it wanted to, its mouth is too full. He instead flies back over to your bed, and continues motioning underneath it. You know what he wants, and for some reason you comply without question. Perhaps just curiosity, just to see where this goes. Its not everyday a bird of such inelegance pays you a visit. Crawling under your bed you get hold of your sword and bow. When they are firmly in your hand, you can feel the crow jump down onto your back, then to your butt, then to the ground. By the time you come back out from under the bed, he has already hopped his way over to your bag. He doesn’t have to motion towards it, you already know he wants you to take hold of it. Slinging your sword to your side and you bow across your arm, you head over to pick up the bag too. [+1 insight]

As you bend down to pick up your luggage, you suddenly realize there is a commotion outside your door. Its so loud that you cant believe you didn’t realize. You start to step towards the door, to better hear what is happening outside. Along with the shouting of men it also, almost, sounds like metal on metal, but wetter? The crow doesn’t like you getting distracted at all. He again flies onto your shoulder, but this time he buffets you with his wings and attempts to take flight while still holding onto you. The bird becomes frantic and you allow it to lead you towards the window. [Occult fascination] The birds intensity is so great you worry its little heart will explode, and then all of the questions you have will go with it. The sound outside your room starts to shake your wall, you can feel from the vibrations that something is being slammed against it. You start to understand the birds fear as it starts to become your own. You quickly start to tie a rope as you hear your door knob start to turn, luckily its locked. Although not for long apparently, as a loud bang causes your door to crack. You try not to dwell on it as you try and work with great haste, but your hands are shaking. At first you think its from the vibrations that echo through your room, but quickly you come to understand that “its FEAR. You are scared, because beyond that door is your death. You must run from it, OBEY”. You finally, manage to tighten the rope and throw it over the side.

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Your door screams its own eulogy as it finally breaks. Metal hits the ground as the door knob rolls across the floor. You swing one leg over the side of your windowsill, but curiosity makes you stay. As the door gently opens, as best as it can given its current condition, Jackson steps in with it. [insight: Success] Other then being literally on fire,[+1 insight] he seems to have also managed to find his helmet; blood drips from his hands. At the sight of him your bird companion abandons you and takes flight almost instantly. You are about to follow, when he extends his hand out towards you ”hound” then he points to the ground next to him ”HEEL”.

>escape out the window
>return to Jackson
>write in (You can flavour this up in anyway you want, but you MUST choose one of the options)

>>3275437
Huh
>return to Jackson

>>3275437
>return to Jackson

>>3275437
>Return
How nice of him to come get us! Give him a warm hug

>>3275437
He is possessed out of his mind run you fools, we need to save Natalie

>escape out the window

>>3275437
>>escape out the window

>>3275437
ok, let's see if I got this right.

Jackson is calling us hound because he saw what presence we had in us when we touched him in his sleep and suddenly lost our dark powers, that explains how he changed from a placid expression from a troubled and pained one the moment we touched him

The crow was sent by Ratko, explains why he is blind the birds carry his eyes, he is trying to save us because he thinks Jackson is here to purge the magic users like himself and Kae, and he is trying to convince us to run, the fire we both felt is coming from Jackson purging fury.

Now, Jackson can be either possessed like us or be on a purging berserker rage like we saw him go into earlier, the fact that our inner demon FEARS Jackson and told us and was forcing us to obey it in trying to run makes me think that Jackson is here to purge the hound from us, potentially killing us too.

the thing is, if we run, he will follow us into the city, probably killing anyone that gets in his way, making a mess and probably putting Natalie in even more danger.

my only concern right now is Natalie, we should not run from Jackson, but we are maybe strong enough to resist him if he tries to kill us with our new strength and powers, unless we lose them again the moment he touches us like we did last time.

If he ever calms down we have to tell him we need to find Natalie and bring her back safe, he'll probably ignore us but I'm convinced that the disaster that was going to fall in this city is both Jackson and us.

>>3276101
also, I'm not exactly voting to stay, just stating what I think., I still don't know what to do

If we do end up staying we have to use all our strength to take his helmet off, he always puts it to purge evil, and the only time he managed to control himself was when he was not wearing the helmet, there is a reason why he is not wearing any armour and just the helmet, and there is a reason why he threw the helmet away when he almost killed us, he wanted to be rid of it.

>>3275437
”Well if it isn’t saucy Jack? Just a little too late, as usual...”
>escape

>>3275437
>Return to Jackson

If he was truly possessed the way Jackson usually is he wouldn't have bothered talking, just gone at us barehanded right away.

gas all footfags

I believe Jackson has taken a liking to us. He could have charged and killed us, but instead he tells us to come to his side.

I think he came here to get us

>>3277015
he's obviously talking with the demon inside us, he called it out saing Hound

roll me some d20s, I need three. Preferably from different people.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>3278010

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>>3276101
>>3276112

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3278010
Return to Jackson if it matters.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3278010

>>3278036
Y-you too

Jackson's word of command echos through the room and osculates within you until it fades into silence. The leg dangling out the window seems to grow heavier, you can feel your weight starting to shift as you cant seem to muster the effort needed to balance yourself. You can feel your very soul getting sucked out of your body, pulling you out the window. Your brain screams at its body to move, “RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN”. Has Jackson come to kill you, to purge what ever rests inside you? Are you about to share the same fate as the witch? You have no idea what he is thinking underneath his crown of wrath, but then why can't you bring yourself to run away? You try to buy yourself some time, ”You’re just a little late Jack... as usual”, and watch his reaction. Ready to leap down if need be. At first he doesn’t react very much, other then the subtle increase in rage induced trembling in his arms. But when you swing your other leg out the window he take a sudden step foreword and quickly extents his arm towards you. A hard gust of hot air slams into you, as if Jackson had thrown it. ”return to your master hound” and after short pause ”last chance”. You stare down his extended hand. The fire around him starts to extend as it consumes your room and makes its way towards you.

Despite everything, you slowly bring your legs back into the room. Despite everything, you slowly take your first few steps towards him. Despite everything, despite EVERYTHING, Jackson is still your master. Despite everything, you are prepared to loyally lick his fingers... even if he strikes you.

The closer you get to him, the hotter it gets, soon you can feel the fire licking at your body. [INT:success] But its not real. The fire is in your mind, it has to be. Just like the visions from before: if you push through them, they cant harm you. This is easier said then done of course, because the heat is scalding. You step through the fire even, as it blinds you. You reach out your hand, trying to find Jack in the inferno that fills your room. As the pain starts to overload your mind, your legs start to give out. You feel yourself start to fall until Jackson's hand clasps yours, he pulls you through the fire towards himself. In that raging maelstrom you hold onto him tightly. Putting your hands around his waist you hug him dearly, ''You came to get me, thank you Jackson. You promised you wouldn’t leave me behind again, and you really came!”. Jackson doesn’t respond but you feel his arms around your small frame, in his strong arms the fire cannot hurt you. The two of you embrace each other until the the fire sleeps [insight == 0]...

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... When the fire dissipates from Jackson, and he returns to his normal (yet still bizarrely high) body temperature. He releases you from his embrace and places a hand on your head. As he peels you off himself, your clothing somewhat sticks to each other from all the sweat. He pats your head gently before speaking ”We have work to do, are you ready?”. You are pretty juiced, not only does Jackson seem to have no plans on vengencing all over you, he is ready to take you away form this awful place. Thats really more then you ever hoped for.
”Y-yeah im ready! Is something happening? We have to go save Nathalie I think she is in danger”
”Kae, bring me my armour”
”Oh- yeah. Sure thing. I left it over here...”
You take a few steps over to where you have piled up Jackson's things. Retrieving his breastplate first you turn around to see him still standing where you had left him. He cracks his neck by moving it side to side then stretches his arms out into a T-pose. You get the feeling that he wants you to help him with his armour. Over the next several minutes the two of you, working in tandem start to adorn Jackson in his armour. Luckily you had looked over his armour during the long boring days you had spent cooped up in this room. You even tried it on..! but don’t tell Jackson...

Eventually you are about to place his gloves back on when you notice just how swollen, bruised, and bloody his fingers are. You reach into your bag to produce some bandages from you [Medical Equipment] but are stopped by Jackson, ”Kae, the gauntlets. Now”. You don't like it, but obey anyway. ”Now, about Nathalie...” Kae he extends his hand, palm out, ”my sword”. Having finished with his armour Jackson once again looks like the man you had first met half a month ago. Placing the sword into his hand completes the picture. Jackson's hand firmly, yet lovingly, grips the handle of his blade. He lifts it high into the air, as high as one can without impaling the ceiling anyway, ”At last, my hand is complete”. Letting his sword drop onto his shoulder, Jackson simply leaves the room. ”Follow' he commands.

Outside the room you get a good look at Jackson's handy work, five men lay strewn about. Jackson pays them no heed to them, and simply walks over two of the men like they weren’t even there. You hear pained moans emanate from them as he does so. You, of course, step over them with a rogues grace. ”Can you tell me where we are going at least?”
”This city has become unclean, a festering wound gapes at its heart. We are going to 'cauterize' it.”

>what do/say?
>default [simply follow]

No update tomorrow

>>3279091
>Ask him how we "Cauterize" the city together?

>>3279109
and
>Follow him

>Follow him
Best way to help Nath remove the problem at its source. If you go out to try and rescue her you might not even find her.

>>3279091
Are goimg to kill Ratko? An we kill Loki too? I so wish we can kill Loki.

Ask him how are we cauterazing, who is he hunting?
Ask him if we can pleeeease help Natalie.

Follow him for now, we can decide what to do when the shit starts happening, we lost our powers so I don't think we can snif her out like I was planning to do. If we come near the festival grounds we can start lookong for her.....and maybe snif a little.

>>3279091
I have one question for Jackson or whoever is inside his body.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Either now or before.

>>3279091
>"Is the festering wound Loki? I hate that fucker."

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>>3279213
I'll let you open that can of beans if you want to anon, but are you sure the timing is right?

>>3280117
We can save it for later but we are asking him that after this.

For now just tell him that Natalie is in the festival and we are going to help her, Loki is in the city and we have a bad feeling about it.

Damn, I hope we can kill Loki.

>>3279091
Our best chance at survival is to follow him through this
Questions should be easier to ask after hes over his bloodlust

>>3280255
>>3279213
Just a hint: If you pay attention to the things that Jackson does / says you should already understand 70% of why he doesn't kill you.

You follow Jackson down the hall and hesitate when he starts going down the stairs. You make a suggestion: ”Maybe we should take the servant's exit? I know the way its a lot mot inconspicuous.” But you know Jackson to be stubborn, so you’re not surprised when he doesn’t listen ”Im not a servant”. Hoping for the best, you follow down the stairs after him. On the second floor, you spot two maids poking their heads out of thee laundry room, probably curious about the shouting and tremors caused by Jackson's impromptu prison break. You give them a slow awkward wave as you pass by, and they return waves on par with yours. Down on the first floor, things aren’t anywhere near as busy as they were in the morning. Jackson leads you right out the front door. You keep very close to him, you are worried that maybe Jackson doesn’t know you are supposed to be a prisoner? He may have beat up all those guards without understanding the full situation, that would be very in character. You really hope no one approaches you, and that Jackson doesn’t err- kill them. The more you worry about it the closer you cling to Jackson, you pull your hood low over your head and just try to watch the back of Jackson's feet as you follow along.

Out in the courtyard, the smell of burning wood is inescapable, a thick column of black smoke rises up into the sky and mingles with the crows. They fly circles around it, the whole thing reminds you of a dark ringed ringer. ”So... How are we going to 'cauterize' the city? Who are you hunting?” Jackson doesn’t answer you right away, at first you think that maybe he is giving you the usual strong silent type routine, his confession is not one you expected to hear ”I don’t know yet, I need to get a closer look. But cant you sense it? Its here, I can SMELL it. Solar has brought me back here for a reason, of that I am sure.” from the tone of his voice you are getting the feeling that he is starting to drift off again, like he is out loud instead of you. ”... Whos here Jack?”. ”The wurm”, his reply makes your skin crawl. Something about the way he said it, the way is crawled out of his mouth. It felt unnatural, you’re not sure if you heard him right. ”the what?” The question makes Jackson dead stop in his tracks, its so sudden that you walk right into him. He slowly turns around and takes a good look at you, from top to bottom. You feel a sudden tension in the air, perhaps it was the wrong question. ”Is it maybe Loki you are talking about? I really hope its Loki that we are going to kill, I HATE that guy. He has a wormy personality I guess, well more like a coyote. A coyote worm”. You can feel his scrutinizing eyes continue to linger on you through the slit of his helmet. You start to feel that maybe its your feet in the fire. ”Maybe Ratko? H-he ssaid to me that the gods are coming here. Maybe thats related?” Jackson takes hold of your arm and leans in close ”Tell me more...”

soon you find yourself leading Jackson towards the town with the job of introducing him to Ratco. You already know whats coming yet for now you lead Jackson on. Is it really ok to let Jackson kill a blind man? He was so nice to you the morning after Loki took advantage of you, he wasn’t able to help you last night but does that mean he deserves death? Did that young girl deserve the death Jackson brought her? Now that you think about it, you lead Jackson to that cave/lair/thing. Just like you are leading him now. Does that mean its on you? Are you now bringing death to someone else? The doom herald hound of the fire knight, it almost sounds liek one of the stories from your childhood. You unfortunately don’t have much time to think as you are soon to reach the fortress gates. Worried that you may be noticed, you try to slink back behind Jackson. He doesn’t agree as his hand presses into your back and pushes you forward, hard. Jackson still doesn’t seem to understand the situation or its possible he simply doesn’t care. Yet if you are spotted, its going to be a problem whether he likes it or not. luckily, when you reach the gate you notice the few solders on garrison are all looking down towards the town. You see this as a good chance to slip by, but when you get a look at the town you cant help but stand and look with them...

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Large portions of the buildings are on fire, and its not an illusion. These men can see it, and the people running to and from the fortress can see it. ”W-what are you standing here for??? Shouldn’t you go and help?” you demand an answer from the slack jawed guards, but they reply that they were ordered to keep this gate. When Jackson catches up to you, he preps his arm to give you another hard push. But you are ready for it this time and start heading towards the town yourself. You can hear the guards commenting on Jackson as he passes them, they know who he is. But who you are still seems to be lost on them. Now that you have seen the town, now that you have seen the fire, all of these problems and philosophical conundrums have gone from your mind. Only Nathalie remains, she is somewhere in that inferno. You turn to face Jackson who is several feet behind you”We have to save Nathalie”. Jackson doesn’t answer, he just keeps walking towards you, and the town beyond. Closer and closer he steps, but you stand tall and resolute ”Im serious, we are going to rescue Nathalie.” Again, Jackson doesn’t reply, and when his towering, overwhelming presence steps into arms reach you feel your composure break. Instead of pushing you he takes a firm hold of your shirt collar and he...

>what do?
> Beg Jackson for help -What do you specificity say?
>lead Jackson to Ratco
>write in

>>3285122
Sternly order him to unhand you.

>>3285122
> Beg Jackson for help -What do you specificity say?

WE NEED TO SAVE HER, I NEED TO FIND HER!

Try to smell her out like we did to Jackson, this is a hunt now, we will find

>>3285122
>Instead of pushing you he takes a firm hold of your shirt collar and he...
and he... ?

As for what to do:
>Tell him we HAVE to save Natalie, while weakly hitting his chest as a way to drive message through

>>3285134
>and he... ?
The point is to have you interrupt what ever he is about to do with what you want to do.

>>3285122
Take his helmet off, don't let him hit us if he tries

"I'm not the hound anymore, it went into hiding when you showed up, but I NEED it back, to find Natalie, and then I'll help you find your pray."

>>3285122
>Break free and go.

>>3285122
Dodge if he tries to hit us, IF he tries to hit us slip out of his grasp by sliping out of the shirt he is holding, we have a spare.

Tell him we NEED to save Natalie, she is our friend and if he cares about our friendship he is going to help us. We don't know where she is and we need him to help us find her.

We can start looking at the central square where we saw the big effigy, she would probably be there to see it burn and that is where the fire probably started, Jackson and Kae can pick up her trail there.

>>3285122
>Reason with him - tell him Nathalie has a way of finding trouble, and we have a good chance of finding this wyrm of his if we find her.

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You feel frantic, even as Jackson holds you firm, you toss about and try sniffing the air for Nathalie. [insight: Fail] But you cant smell anything through the smoke and fire, you cant even smell Jackson. Speaking of Jackson... You look back at him, “but he can” you think, of course he can, Jackson can help you but he is REFUSING to for some reason. ”WE NEED TO SAVE HER, I NEED TO FIND HER!” you shout. Your cries fall on deaf ears, because he still doesn’t respond. Your composure breaks and your next plea is more sob then shout ”we HAVE to save Nathalie, Please Jackson PLEASE” you pound your fist into his armour. You hate Jackson, ”Its my fault, please please please help me...”. Any lesser man would have broken, but not Jackson. You have to search far and wide in this world to find a cunt on par with Jackson. Because he not only doesn’t break, he doesn’t even budge. Why wont he help you? This ass hole truly is worthless, why are you even helping him then? ”Fine, don't help me. Ill go without you, I don't need you at all”. You kick and fidget and fight but you cant break Jackson's firm hold on your shirt. Unfortunately, you are wearing your [Leather Harness] over your [Plain Shirt] and cant even slip out of it. You place one foot on Jackson's chest and try to push off him but your damn shirt HOLDS! Jackson's massive hand only grips you tighter!

You feel an anger boiling within you. Taking several rage fuelled deep breaths of air, you stare right into the slit of his helmet. You are about to say some very nasty things when a group of solders quickly marches past you. They look at the two of you but don't interrupt, clearly too busy heading towards the town with their buckets. But it does give you a moment to reassess the situation, unfortunately it doesn’t quell the growing rage. When they finally pass, you speak sternly ”Jackson. Unhand me. Or ill... Ill.... You are finally speaking Jackson's language, his sword sails past your arm in an arc as it moves from his shoulder and imbeds itself into the ground at your feet. With his now free hand he takes hold of the other side of your shift collar. He then gets close enough to your face that you feel the metal of his helmet press on your forehead ”Or you'll what?”. In Jackson's eyes you see hellfire. Not one to be intimidated, you press both your hands on his helmet and pull it right off his head!

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Jackson's helmet burns like a hot potato in your hands, but his face... Your own rage settles as you see the tired man underneath the helmet, he looks defeated and broken. His eyes struggle to remain open and buckets of sweat drip down from his forehead. There is an unmistakable sadness permeating from the lines on his face, and the bags beneath his eyes. Its a miracle he can even stand, if you had to guess he may have some kind of high fever. It takes him several seconds to realize that the helmet is no longer on his head, he look around in a daze trying to find it. In a calm voice ”Jack, we need to find Nathalie. If you value me as a friend you will help me in this. If you don't ill never forgive you”. In the same, slow, agonizing way he searched for his helmet, Jack looks down at you and responds ”Jerlado's... kid?”. ”Yes Jack, we need to get to the town square, and try to pick up her trail. Im sure its all connected somehow, trust in me.” ..............alright. ”Can you smell her?”, he just looks more confused then ever ”smell... her...?”. He lets go of his ever weakening grip of your shirt, and finds your wrists. He then slowly uses your hands to recrown himself. With the return of his helmet, Jackson then once again stretches out into the dominating stance you are more used to. ”Are you sure you’re up for this?”, he pulls his sword out from the dirt, ”lead on hound” ...

...The town is in full disarray, when you arrive the first thing you see is a chain of peasants and soldiers passing along buckets of water trying to stop the spread of the fire to yet unaffected buildings. But its much worse then that, on the ground you see corpses. Corpses of soldiers, and that of bandits! Did they start the fire? Or are they simply trying to take advantage of the situation? You look back to Jackson to see if he is still following you, and he is. Its a habit that you have very recently acquired, but one you cant stop doing. As you get deeper into the inferno you come across soldiers escorting, and sometimes carrying, peasants out of burning houses and around corners. Yet sometimes, its the other way around, you see peasants forced to rescue their would be savours. You have no idea what to look for, you for sure cant smell her, and it doesn’t seem like Jackson can either. Covering your mouth and trying not to inhale smoke you kick down some rubble blocking your path, and enter into an open street. There you see some masked men praying to civilians trying to escape!

>what do?
-help the civilians and enter combat (Adds 1 [DELAY] time unit per turn of combat to [QUEST:Nathalies rescue])
-you cant help them, search for Nathalie instead; only she matters.
-write in

>>3289963
>-you cant help them, search for Nathalie instead; only she matters.

but make sure mary or she is not among them before going forward, we won't be able to save everyone
if we see any of them we stop and help.


I knew the helmet was some sort of purge boner artifact

>>3289963
See if Mary is among them, if she isn't we move on, maybe loose an arrow or two on then while we go.

>>3289963
>you cant help them, search for Nathalie instead; only she matters.

oof hard choices

>>3289963
>Look for Nathalie
>Assess where she most likely would be + Ask Jackson

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This is the end of the thread, sorry no update again but I have two midterms tomorrow So I have been studying quite a bit. Ill cya all on Friday!

We are so close to the end of the chapter, ty for sticking with me.

>>3295182
Thanks for running , things are reaching a climax, I hope we can save Nat from those grabby bandits.

>>3295182
As interested as i am in the conclusion for this one, im really curious where next chapter brings us

hoping for a chapter filled with dex/str checks, and maybe Nat as a follower (dont know how suited shed be for that, would be cool regardless)

>>3297060
Companion Nat would be awesome

>>3295182
Thanks for running, let's save Mary and Nat