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Today, it was evening time, and you were digging one more grave in your expansive yard, for one last casket you had. You thought a little more about things you remembered as you dug...

Cleanly and precise, the head of your shovel pierced the dirt, diving through the soil under your strength like a knife through bread. You had always been formidable in your own right, freakishly even, as even stone and cement could not resist you digging through it with your shovel lightly. Nearly everything seems to avoid your cemetery out of fear. Humans once came and they did not fear you because you had not shown them spite or wrath, but rather appreciation and protection. Spirits on the other hand feared you because you almost always attacked them on sight immediately when you saw them, and they would flee, or end up unlucky enough that they were slain by your hand... or rather your shovel, causing them to vanish from existence. It always struck you as odd that you did that given that you yourself are most likely a Spirit too. You had no flesh to speak of, only bone underneath your hooded cloak and garments. One such theory you'd came up with is that maybe you were a human once, and death was not your real end. Or maybe you've always been like this...?

Whatever it was, all you knew is that you only felt prejudice towards Spiritkind. It makes you lean a little more towards believing theory one, as Mankind and Spiritkind have always been bitter enemies, that was something you recalled.

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Now wide and ready, the large frame of the casket fell into the freshly dug grave by your hands, the body inside colliding with it's inner walls. Driving your shovel into the pile of dirt you gathered, you threw it back into the hole, the dirt clattering against the top of the casket.

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'Rest in Peace.

The task always fell to you to etch wording into the gravestones when you made a new grave for a body you received. You had plenty leftover in the storage chamber. With the head of your prized shovel, you patted the dirt softly, forming it down and flatter. You finished your work for this poor soul by placing a pale flower on the top of the new grave.

Now walking away, your work finished, you stood there, looking over your cemetery with pride at all the graves you've dug. You did good here, always. These dead were truly at rest here, in bliss. The howling wind at times almost seemed like their souls leaving to the Paradise they believed in. It made you feel warm to think about. It was such a dutiful and serene process, laying the dead to rest, their souls knowing their material form had a proper burial from the Paradise they inhabited now.

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You looked down at your hand, and then up to the gate to your Cemetery in the distance. You felt as though something was pulling at you, trying to tell you something, trying to tell you to leave, that you have unfinished work to do elsewhere....

Was this some memory you forgot resurfacing? Was this signs of a madness that has overtaken your mind? Dementia? Schizophrenia? Perhaps the tricks of some unseen force or Spirit? Guidance from above? Or nothing at all...?

Whatever it was.... you really felt like leaving the Cemetery now.... and as you tried to repress the desire to venture out.... it happened.... a flashback to something that happened to you once.... a flashback to a figment of your past that you forgot....

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It was.... dreadful....

In it, you saw yourself fighting off three figures, one demonic.... one metallic... and one ethereal...

In the stressing flashback, you wielded a scythe, and you aimed to kill these figures. In the fight you had with them, you were winning, and nigh about to kill them when the demon in it leads you right where it wanted. Now paralyzed, you see yourself battered and tortured by a greater power as the demon had revealed it's trump card.

There was a divine child there, imprisoned and drained of it's strength by the demon, who used it to empower himself. And it says something to you, but you do not hear it's words. It was though it was cursing you, vexing you to a fate of irrelevance.

What last you see, the demon has defeated you, and as it attacks for the last time, crimson flames and holy light colliding with your skull, everything goes to a pitch blackness.... and you hear a soft voice say something intelligible to you.

"Come back to us, o' Arbiter! Come back for only you can destroy the fiends and the devil! It is only you who can advert the horrific future we march to! Come back!"

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You stand, trying to comprehend the sudden and stressful flashback, and you were surprised to see your hand shaking violently in some rage you now felt about it. It takes a while of you venting through heavy breathing with the air cycling through your skull's nostrils, but you eventually manage to calm yourself down and regain your composure, and when you do you feel.... different.

It was difficult to explain, but now that you've thought so hard these last few minutes, now that you've focused so well, you feel as though you are.... more free to think and act, as though you weren't nearly as beforehand....

Having gotten a grip on things, you are quick to retrieve from your shed your journal, a pen and some parchment which you keep within the inner pockets of your overcoat. You would have taken your lantern too, but you had no oil. With your treasured shovel over your shoulder, you take a good look at all the graves you could see that you've dug over the years here at your home. You take a look at the gate to the cemetery and nod to yourself.

To the east, there was an old dilapidated church building you knew of at a ledge overlooking the sea. To the south, there was Interstate 81, a gigantic series of highways that lead out to the Scrap Dunes, a deserted collection of fields littered with refuse that scavengers and bandits inhabited, you heard the Guards mingling about it once. To the North, there was the nearby settlement of Coscovy City which shined in the sky, it was where the radio channels you occasionally picked up were broadcast from, and it may even be inhabited. Also to the North was the lane leading to Dole Cove, where you heard the guards say they came from.

>Go take a nap.
>Wander off into the woods.
>Travel to the Dilapidated Church.
>Travel to Interstate 81.
>Travel to Coscovy City.
>Head to Dole Cove through the lane.

>>3827180
>>Travel to the Dilapidated Church.

>>3827180
>Head to Dole Cove through the lane.

>>3827180
>Go take a nap

>>3827180
>Travel to the Dilapidated Church.
POLEMAN IS THAT YOU?

>>3827317
Definitely looks like him

>>3827180
>>Travel to the Dilapidated Church.

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Stepping forward, you shambled past the gate of your cemetery and closed the gate, locking it behind yourself. As if you were bidding farewell to close friends, as if someone was there watching, you raise a hand and wave goodbye to the graves and mounds you've taken care of for all these innumerable years.

The grass and the trees were a bleak and drained green, almost grey. The dirt and cobblestone covering the walkways beneath your feet seemed as lifeless too, but one should always feel like that when the world itself was practically as dead as the bodies you buried for a living.

Following the walkway splitting off around the vicinity of the cemetery, you passed through the trees covered in moss. Bats flew off and spiders shifted away as you knocked their webs out of your path with your shovel. This walkway to the church sat unused for so long, and yet it seems like it was only yesterday that it was still in use as you recall the humans who used to visit from this path.

Your ears.... well, you didn't have any yet you still had the sense of hearing. Your sense of hearing picked up the noise of the sea as it's indigo waves splashed about the rocks below the ledge overlooking it. There ahead, barely capable of standing anymore from it's own rotten woods was that old dilapidated church building you knew of, but never personally visited yourself until now. The windows were broken and there was not a sound or sign of any life here besides the bats fluttering above.

And then your eyes fell to something standing near the ledge over to the left, almost hiding in plain sight from where you stood. A large figure who stood in the church's garden. They looked to be cloaked as well, and their head turned in the darkness twice. Feeling as though you were spotted, you thought it may be appropriate to introduce yourself, and so you stepped to the church and past the broken fence towards them....

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"A shame what this has all come to, wouldn't you agree, Grave Digger? The mysterious strange suddenly says, making you stop as you approached. He was even taller than you, not that you were intimidated.

"For.... sixteen thousand years, the Great War for Survival has been waged between Mankind and Spiritkind. Over it's course, from it's beginning, to it's height, to now, this conflict has blackened and ruined our world.... dusting it over into what it is now. Is there a hope anymore? A hope for a chance of transforming this rock into something worth living on again?"

"On the judgment day, the climatic height of the war, the heroes of Man were led by our revered Saint Gaspard, founder of the once great Zodic Church which led us, in battle against the hordes of the Spirits. With silver and gold in hand, Man was poised to win the war and at last defeat the abominable enemies, the archaic remnants of earth's past. But alas.... they failed..... we failed.... Our Saint and our heroes were felled by the Devil, by Time and by Metal. Our hope and morale was shattered and it seemed as though God had abandoned us...."

"In the beginning, God formed the world and washed it in his light and darkness, and soon after slumbered. The unnatural and primordial energies left over from the creation came to life, thus the first Spirits lived and Spiritkind was born. They are all of them abominations, an unintended side effect.... a blight.... and so God hated them when he next awoke, they were not his own. When God next awoke an eon after making this world, he made us. Mankind, in his image molded, were born and made the chosen ones to inherit the Earth."

"Do you not as well desire to see one day Man rise from the ashes to finish our hated enemies off? To Rebuild this world as God intended for us to? Do you not as well desire to see our dreams and our hopes come true, Grave Digger? You are a friend of us."

You coughed, dust and soot clouding out of your jaw, you have not spoken in so long. The mysterious stranger seemed eager to hear your answer.

>"I do."
>"I... do not."
>"I cannot say."
>Say nothing.
>Walk away without another word.
>Write in.

>>3827907
>>"I do. Mankind will rise again."

>>3827907
>"I cannot say."

>>3827907
>"I cannot say."

>>3827907
>>"I do. Mankind will rise again."

>>3827907
>>>"I do. Mankind will rise again."

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"I do. Mankind will rise.... again." You say, speaking for the first time in forever.

The mysterious stranger nods to you, his hands shuffling underneath his tattered cloak. Out from under the burlap you see his linen wrapped hands holding out for you a majestic golden sword.

"A relic of our age old Zodic Church and a mark of covenant forged between Man and God. A sword of gold made to destroy Spirits at one time. Now, this sword is a piece awaiting the hand of it's true wielder. I ask that you carry it for me for now. It will protect you, and through it, you can call upon help in your times of need."

The stranger holds it out and you take it. It was not particularly light, so you hang it inside of your overcoat by a pocket.

"A blade of a true hero... a legend... a Saint. It is the Burial Blade." The stranger says.

You've received the Burial Blade.

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"I bless you for taking on this blade. It will suite you well."

You nod and turn, leaving the dilapidated church.

"I am sure we will meet again...."

You return to the gate of Wallingham Cemetery and stare at the splitting walkways of cobblestone ahead.

>Wander off into the woods.
>Travel to Interstate 81.
>Travel to Coscovy City.
>Head to Dole Cove through the lane.

>>3828330
>>Head to Dole Cove through the lane.


[poleman it's great to see you back on /qst/]

>Head to Dole Cove through the lane.

>>3828330
>Head to Dole Cove through the lane.

>>3828330
>Wander off into the woods.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWwJBmzHPr8

Continuing, you walked along the pathway ahead to it's split where you turned down it's right way.

The cobblestone beneath your feet ended off and turned to brown dirt.

After some walking, you stopped. There ahead was a metal bar gate with two brick posts and a sign forbidding entry to unauthorized personnel. A guard in blue stood there, he appeared to look the same as the ones you knew to bring bodies to your graveyard.

"Excuse me." You politely said. The neck of the guard snapped as his head jolted up.

"....." You held your shovel tightly.

The guard turned to you, brandishing a baton. His skin was.... mildewed.... a rotten green with flakes peeling off. The eyes of the guard were as glass, his pupils were missing and he seemed to slump over somewhat.

You had a feeling, a bad feeling. A feeling that this person wasn't Human.... You always seemed able to tell Humans and Spirits apart, and you felt nothing Humanly coming from this guard.

"Hrehh.... HEY!" The guard spat, holding his position and whipping his own leg with the baton threateningly. "Go back Grave Digga'! GO BACK NOW! You aren't permitted leave!"

The radio on the guard's chest rig made some noise, the chatter of more guards heard over it in obscured static.

"Back! BACK GRAVE DIGGA'!" The guard shouted, now stepping closer with the baton in hand.

>This thing isn't Human. You feel only prejudice, you kill it.
>Try to reason with the guard, say something to him.
>Silently back off and leave yourself.
>Write in.

>>3828707
>>This thing isn't Human. You feel only pity, you end it's cursed existence, truly this is a mercy.

>>3828707
>>This thing isn't Human. You feel only prejudice, you kill it.

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Unwilling to tolerate this thing, you raised your shovel and took a step forward yourself. The guard stepped back as you did. It seemed to shudder at you before grabbing hold of it's two way radio and screaming something through it.

"L'anatema ha riguadagnato il suo libero arbitrio!"

Raising the baton, which sparked with electricity, the guard snarled like a beast and flung itself at you.

With precision faster than an eye could see, you curled both arms back with your shovel in hand and then drove it forward into the incoming guard, the blade of the flat head carving it's way through the cranium of the guard with ease, the top of his head flying off with it's cracked helm. As this happened, you noticed the faint pale glow of a Spirit exiting the body of this Human, a green glow surrounding your shovel allowing it to cut through the incorporeal Spirit as well, killing it stone dead.

And when the body fell to the ground, limp and still, it finally dawned on you what this was.

The brain was missing from the body and as you severed it's head, you saw the faint glow of a Spirit dying inside of the body. This Human was long dead.... his body was modified surgically..... and re-purposed.... made suitable for possession by a weak Spirit.

You didn't recall much about possession... but you did seem to remember that a Spirit could only possess a Human under certain conditions, one usually being that the Human had to be dead before a Spirit could control it's body.

What kind of sick person would do this? Mutilate and desecrate the dead for the abominations of eld to inhabit? It made you feel anger and deep resentment. Should you see anymore of these "Human" guards, you will not hesitate to slaughter the Spirits possessing them. You want to get to the bottom of how this even came to be in the first place.... but first...

You dig a hole and place the corpse down in it, giving the Human body a proper burial. While doing so, you loot a key with which you open the gate ahead with before continuing onward....

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Now upon a high view, you looked out over the mass of Dole Cove, a massive private villa. You came in from one of many entrances though you found it strange as to why there was one leading directly to your cemetery....

You see a walkway through the rocks and bushes leading down to the sands and platforms of the Cove and take it down. There were multiple buildings, but you weren't sure yet if they were all inhabited, as you couldn't notice any activity. Of course, you could be walking right into a trap, since that last possessed guard did manage to speak something over his walkie-talkie.... Perhaps the other guards were preoccupied with the other entrances for now...

There was a luxurious manor in well-kept condition, a dock with a warehouse, a stone building built into the side of the Cove, and a lighthouse overlooking the foggy sea.

Besides that, there was another driveway you could see which looked as though it led off to the North, possibly towards Coscovy City.

Where will you go from here?

>>3828357
Oh, and a bit late to say but thank you. I thought I might try to make another quest after dealing with some pesky house problems here lately.

>>3828865
Knock on the manor's door.

>>3828985
Support

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Cautiously, you moved past a fence and up the cement walkway to the door of the large manor, being greeted by the sight of potted plants and a wide variety of garden gnomes mocking you with their aura and exaggerated cheeky smiles.

Raising your hand, you try to push down on the door bell button, but it is stuck. You instead rap on the door three times and wait.

Nothing happens, so again you knock three times.

......

The lock to the blue double doors sounds and the door squeaks open, showing the roomy interior of the manor.

"Come in, please. Oh, and don't worry about the shoes, this place cleans itself! Ho ho ho!"

Heeding the sudden raspy voice you heard, you entered the manor, the dirt from your boots seemingly vanishing as you came in. To your left you saw coat racks, a ticking grandfather clock and a small desk with some keys and assorted papers. To the right, you saw the door to a dining room and a living room with the faint glow of a fire.

You entered the living room of the manor....

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You admired plethora of exquisite paintings hung on the Egyptian blue and cream walls as you went through the manor and stopped at the frame of the living room door. There was a man sitting on a leather chair there in front of a burning fire. You heard him smoke from a pipe he had.

"I knew one day you would come from your cemetery, Grave Digger." The man sitting said. "Ah, it is no bother, every man deserves his freedom to do as he wishes, no?"

"Hmm.... from the way you stand now, I should think something is on your mind. To us, you always seemed..... robotic, never spending your days doing anything but digging for the dead we send you, but here you are moving and thinking now. Tell me, what is it you seek, Grave Digger?"

You placed your shovel against the wall and stepped forward, easing your head to get a better look at the owner of this manor.

What will you do?

>Speak/Ask the man something.
>Write in.

>>3830022
Question him about the guard we killed and ask why he sends us bodies.

>>3830298
support

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"To know." You say.

"...To know? Well, what is it you want to know?"

"To get here, I had to kill a guard. When I decapitated half of his head.... there was no brain, or other such vital organs. His body was being used by a Spirit, it was possession." You say with venom, stepping closer.

"So I ask you, why? Why was that human body being used as a vessel by a Spirit!? And who are you? Why do you send me bodies?"

Groaning to bend his spine, the old man sets his pipe down and stands, turning to you and smiling with his arms outstretched. He was typical and wrinkly, wearing a nice grey tuxedo. You did note one thing off about this coot. His eyes.... they weren't natural...

"I am Carlin, Carlin Piedmont, I am the patriarch of this manor and it's family. It a pleasure to see you again, Grave Digger."

"...Again?" You say.

"Why yes. You and I go back a long ways. We're old friends. You might not remember yet but I am sure that in due time it will come to you."

"Now, about those bodies... Well, I don't send them. My brother Herbert does. He requires live subjects for his tests you see, all willing subjects I assure you. He's usually locked in his laboratory somewhere around here. His results don't always produce.... complete specimens, and so we have the guards take the bodies to you. A long time ago you swore to bury them for us."

"Our guards... they are.... positive results of my brother's experimentation. As I said before, those Humans were all willing. It's nothing to worry yourself over I assure you."

"Now, since you've no work and you're out and about, I assume you wish to go see more, find what's out there to do. Perhaps you could help me with a little matter of my own involving quaint little Cosvovy. It shouldn't be hard to do, consider it a solid. What do you say, Grave Digger my old friend?"

>Agree to do this solid for Carlin Piedmont.
>Agree only if you get a reward in return. (Specify desired reward.)
>This man is crooked. You will have nothing to do with him.
>Grab your shovel and attack this disguised abomination.
>Politely decline and go elsewhere in Dole Cove.
>Talk/Ask Carlin Piedmont something.
>Write in.

>>3830589
>>Politely decline and go elsewhere in Dole Cove.

the nope factor is off the scale right now

>>3830589
>Grab your shovel and attack this disguised abomination.

>>3830589
Ask him what he knows about the war that stranger mentioned and then do the solid.

Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>3830632
>>3830661
>>3830698

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"....No." You say, turning and walking over, grabbing your shovel from the wall. "You're not Human, just like that guard. I can see it in your eye. You're a Spirit, you have to die."

Carlin's expression drops. The patriarch does not step back but rather glares at you hatefully as you took some steps forward, easing closer with intention to kill him. But then, Carlin lowered his head and smirked devilishly, snickering quietly.

"Oh, Grave Digger... you're just like I remember." Is all Carlin gets out before you moved hastily and the blade of your shovel swiped across his neck, licking the flesh off and away, puncturing it deep. The old man looked at you smiling for a second more before he lets go of his composure and yelps with his throat clogged of his spilling blood on which he choked before falling to his knees.

Taking your shovel in both hands, you see it again become imbued with that green glow before you swing, smacking Carlin in his face with the flat head of the shovel, an audible snap heard from it as he tumbled over to the ground, now only a warm body. You aren't sure if he was also just another Spirit possessing a Human body, or if he truly was a Human. Regardless, you do not think you want to bury him.

You find a key in one of Carlin's pockets.

You flick your shovel to clear off some blood and look around. The living room had a selection of bookshelves with tons of books stocking each row. You explored a bit and found there was an office room, a master suite, a kitchen and dining room, a few guest bedrooms and a garage. There was unfortunately no vehicles in the garage.

>Enter one of the Manor's rooms.
>Investigate the stone building built into the rock of the cove.
>Investigate the Lighthouse.
>Take the driveway to Coscovy City.
>Write in.

>>3830876
>Enter one of the Manor's rooms.

>>3830876
>>Enter one of the Manor's rooms.

>>3830876
>>Enter one of the Manor's rooms.

>>3830876
>Enter the office room.

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Clumping up the stairs, you try to push open the door the office, but it doesn't budge until you kick it in, the door flying open and you see that a dresser was blocking the door.

The office was dark with no working lights and thin layers of dust covered most things you could see strangely enough despite the manor being lived in.

You saw a clock on the wall which read the time as 8:34PM. It was late.

Searching around, you pulled drawers out on the file cabinets and desks you saw, trying to see what there was to discover. Topics that interested you right now were things concerning the war you've heard of, and the state of the world around. What's been happening while you were recluse in your cemetery for all this time. You hope to learn why you were there...

Your search turns up nothing to your dismay. Nearly all of the papers you found throughout the office were either so old the writing was unintelligible, or they were completely unrelated to anything you'd like to know of right now.

You nearly leave, until you spot something on the master desk in the room, hidden underneath a scale. It was some pages torn from a book.... You read it....

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These pages... seemed to belong to a diary. They speak from the prospective of a Spirit about the war. You didn't like the contents, they seemed to reflect the nature of Spirits. You take the pages and stuff them into your overcoat's inner pocket.

A key falls out from the pages as you took them. You pick the key up and see it is rusted and vintage.

You take the old key too. You wonder what it unlocks...

Your train of thought crashes however at a loud sound you heard suddenly.....

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You saw holes opening in the wall ahead of you and ducked until the loud sounds stopped. You looked over your shoulder and saw the window behind you broken and the walls near it sporting holes in it as well.

That was the sound of gunfire! You grabbed your shovel and stayed low until you heard a loud static voice over a megaphone.

"Assalta l'edificio! Taglia le sue uscite! Entra lì dentro e uccidi la bestia!"

You heard the doors downstairs get kicked in, followed by the clamor of boots. It had to be more of those possessed security guards....

You didn't have a lot of time until they made it upstairs and to you. You didn't know how many there were. You looked over and saw an untouched window to your right. Ahead of you, there was an electric panel on the wall, and this room was filled with plenty of paper....

>Block off the door and get ready for a fight.
>Dive out of the window to the right and make a break for it.
>Destroy the panel's wiring and start up an electric fire.
>Write in.

>>3832493
>>Destroy the panel's wiring and start up an electric fire.
We must molotov them to stop them.

>>3832493
>>Destroy the panel's wiring and start up an electric fire.

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Quickly, you darted across the room and ripped the panel's opening slot off of it, nearly tearing away at the wall too. You reached your skeletal hand in and grabbed a multitude of red and blue wires running through the walls and with your other, flipped some breaker switches from off to on, cycling power back through this section of the manor, the lights coming alive.

Then, you pulled, tearing the wires out, electricity and sparks flying out as the wiring soon burned itself into a fire that began to spread along the wood of the manor's foundation on it's interiors and behind the walls.

The massive amount of paper inside the office added to the fire as it spread from out of the wall, quickly turning into a raging inferno within the walls and the office. You kicked the door to the office open to see the halls now beginning to crumble from the old wood burning quickly. You saw a guard there coughing from the smoke that you walked through unaffected. You take his head off in a quick swipe and you see a revolver fall from his hand.

Taking the weapon in your free hand, you made your way down stairs and saw more disoriented guards blocking your path to the back doors of the manor. You made short work of several of them, firing .357 rounds through their heads and stabbing them with your shovel

With the guards out of the way, you moved a burning beam of wood from your path before running out the back of the manor and away outside, heading for the trees and foliage of the villa's garden to conceal yourself as more guards arrived at the manor....

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As the manor went up in flames, you ran quickly through the night, aiming to escape this place.

As a result of your actions, you expected that you wouldn't be receiving bodies anymore at Wallingham Cemetery. You also expected that these possession Spirits would be after you now after you killed Carlin Piedmont....

As you made your way up to higher ground in Dole Cove, you heard vehicles moving and spotlights shining about. The guards knew you escaped, they were now after you. You couldn't use any of the exits now, because you saw more of the possessed guards blockading them.

As you ran, you simply decided to enter the thick foliage of the perimeter of the Cove, fighting your way through groups of trees and large thick bushes until you came at the bars of a black metal gate. Prying them open with your hands, you are able to slip through and way, finally making it out of the Cove.

You were closest to the driveway entrance to Dole Cove, and from where you were, it was most likely that they could pursue you now with vehicles, and going back to your Cemetery would be a bad idea, as that's the first place they would look for you...

The closest places to flee to were Coscovy City and Interstate 81 leading out to the Scrap Dunes. Whichever you decided to choose, you had to now.

>Flee to Coscovy City and seek refuge, possibly even other people.
>Flee to Interstate 81. It's too difficult for them to search in the dunes.

>>3833217
>>Flee to Coscovy City and seek refuge, possibly even other people.

I hope we made the right call.

>>3833217
>Flee to Coscovy City and seek refuge, possibly even other people.

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Taking your first option, you ran from Dole Cove along the road leading to it and fled to the North, to the settlement of Coscovy City.

As you came to, the fog you saw increased in density. You passed several signs and broken down cars on the road as well as a rest stop before you entered the cities' limits. Now walking among the buildings of the outer skirts, you looked up to see at least eight skyscrapers standing tall.

All around you Coscovy City appeared to be abandoned at large. You tread through the empty streets, seeing only ruined buildings, turned over and wrecked cars, and the ground was covered by much shattered glass and papers and other articles of garbage and litter. Everything you saw was deserted, restaurants were cleaned out, stores were plundered, apartments were without inhabitants and all you heard was the howling of the wind. Perhaps Coscovy was subject to the touch of the war between Man and Spirit...

The sky was green and the atmosphere was as gloomy as your home was, if not more even. But this was a whole entire city, there were at least a few hundred buildings.... there had to be someone here somewhere. There just had to be!

You needed to find a place to start searching....

>Look the radio studio.
>Go to the Town Hall.
>Reach the nearest supermarket.
>Explore the metro.
>Find the commerce guild.
>Write in.

>>3833653
>Look for the radio studio.

>>3833653
->Look the radio studio.

>>3833653
>Look for the radio studio

>>3833653
>>Look the radio studio.

>>3833653
>Look for the radio studio.
There's something wrong here, Why is it so quiet?

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You moved across the streets through the city. Strangely, some lights seemed to still work, and a lot more was illuminated than you expected. You got the feelings that someone walking in this environment would under any normal circumstance. Feelings of being watched from the dark, feelings of danger, but as far as you were concerned, you were alone in this city and if there was anything out there that wanted to quarrel you say let them come and meet their end at your shovel.

You looked up high and saw a yellow building in between two taller office towers, it had a tilted sign with functioning neon lights that read 'Coscovy Times Radio'. This building had four radar dishes on it's roof and a large rotund dish in the middle. Some lights were on and the entrance to the building had been boarded away by two wooden walls and barbed wiring. You tore it away easily, having no skin, and entered.

The inside was notably less ruined than most buildings you've seen thus far. The walls and roofs still had some broken parts and missing pieces, a few bits of trash were here and there, but the furniture remained mostly untouched and the doors weren't locked.

On the second floor, you began to see more traces of somebody having been here before, with wooden traps set up in multiple places. You nearly get bashed out of a window by a bundle of wooden planks covered with jagged nails hanging from the ceiling by chains, the trap having been triggered by you tripping a wire. And there was also a trap set up with lighters and some cans which you nearly tripped but disarmed using your shovel before you accidentally set yourself on fire.

There were tacks, nails, legos and pins all over the steps on the stairwell leading up to the third floor, where you saw things boarded off by wooden walls which you broke through with your hands alone. Now, you were in the main office, and there was no more you could see, no stairs..... but there was some music you heard....

Coming from behind a bookshelf....

You moved the bookshelf aside and found a door hidden behind it. You twist the handle and open the door, stepping inside to the next room.

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The room behind you found was where the majority of the actual recording and radio equipment was. There were computers, consoles, acoustic paneling on the walls and a man in a purple suit with funny red glasses staring at you surprised. He turns the radio he has music blasting from off and sighs, looking defeated.

"Damn it, Alphaville, why do you have to be the band that kills me...." He says, shrugging at you. "Alright, well, you got me. I won't put up a fight. Just go ahead and do it already."

You stand there, staring at the man with confusion while he looks at the floor. You see him look back up at you impatiently.

"Well? What are you staring for? Kill me already you slime!"

"Kill you? Why would I kill a Human?" You ask. The man is next to be confused as he crosses his arms.

"What? You're not one of those creeps from Dole Cove?"

You shake your head.

"Huh? So... you're not here to murder me and take me back there for that zombie shit?"

You nod.

The man looks a bit relieved. "Oh, well, you got me there. Still though, you're a Spirit... and the first other living thing I've seen for ages, how can I trust you?"

"I am not sure what I am. I am just a Grave Digger. I have fought and hated the Spirits for as long as I can remember just like you Humans do. The last thing I think would be wise for me to do is kill somebody I've only just met for any reason." You replied, setting your shovel aside and waving your fingers to signal harmlessly and reason.

"Hmmm.... Fair enough.... You haven't tried cleaving me like the last blokes I saw, so I guess I can trust you... Still, I'm going to keep my eye on you at all times... no offense" The man says, relaxing himself a tad. You nodded.

"I'm Larry, Larry Cropdin. I'm a survivor and I run this studio. Things haven't been as good as they used to be... but at least I don't have others around to bother me and take my things or kill me. Radios are a special thing, you know? They work even in the harshest conditions, picking up forlorn signals and channels that probably don't even have anybody behind the wheel anymore. I used to be the big honcho at this studio before things went to the shitter, and even after the Spirits swept through Coscovy, I lived and I still ran this station, using it to try and call others that might be out there listening. Oh, and I ran it because I'd just plain be an arse if people out there couldn't keep listening to their favorite tunes over my channel."

"Here lately, it's been a bit worse, harder to run my station. I went up to the roof a week ago and saw that my big dish was busted! Something metal fell from one of those big office buildings and decom-fucking-missioned it! The four radars can only reach locally and I'm not sure many are left here in Coscovy like me to listen. I could fix it myself if I had the parts but... I don't think there's any here in the city, and I've looked. Might be some in the scrap dunes though, that shithole has all the parts ever.... But I'm not going there again, last time I tried I barely escaped these Spirit highwaymen hold up there. Cunts...."

>Talk/Ask Larry Cropdin something.
>Offer to take care of the highwaymen for him.
>Ask if he's seen anyone else.
>Ask about other notable locations he might know of.
>Ask for a hat.
>Write in.

>>3835816
>>Ask about other notable locations he might know of.

>>3835816
->Ask about other notable locations he might know of.

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"I am under the impression that there are things that happened to me in the past but my mind has become so boggled that I cannot remember them quite well anymore. For as long as I could recall, I've lived at a cemetery named Wallingham for a very long time. I know very few places besides it, such as this city. Do you know what else is out there, Larry?" You asked.

Larry opened a bottle of wine and took a swig as he looked up a little before he jolted slightly, spilling a drop or two from the bottle. "Oh! I've got just the thing for you mate. Ahh, it's somewhere around here..."

Larry dug through a stack of books and folders on one of the desks before pulling something out and becoming agitated as he wiped at it to no avail.

"Here chum, it's an old map of our nice little surrounding canton. Do keep in mind that it ain't so blue and green no more."

You take the map in hand an look it over. It has a few coffee stains or something of the like on it, and some marker writing showing where the Scrap Dunes were. You see one thing in particular that interests you immensely, the presence of an airport.

"Oh, I wouldn't get your hopes up lad." Larry says nonchalantly, making you look up. "True, that old airport is there... true, it may still have some working planes.... However! You can only reach it through the dunes. The lands around Lake Boot watered over into deep swamps that aren't easily traversed even with a boat. I heard from someone I managed to contact over the radio once that awful monstrosities live there now, and to make matters worse, one would be met with disastrous and massive ravines if they actually managed to get past the swamp alive. Apparently though, there's a safe straight shoot to the airport from the dunes. The dunes can be quite dangerous too, fucking Spirits are everywhere these days."


>Go somewhere in Coscovy. (Town Hall, Supermarket, Metro, Commerce etc...)
>Travel to another location.
>Go out and look for other survivors.
>Talk to/Ask Larry Cropdin something.
>Offer to take care of the highwaymen for him.
>Ask if he's seen anyone else.
>Ask for a hat.
>Write in.

>>3836258
>Go somewhere in Coscovy.
>Town Hall - to look if there are any important documents or info about the state of the world
Holy shit, Poleman is back!

>>>3836258
Ask Larry about Dole Cove.

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"Larry. You're aware of the guards of Dole Cove, yes?"

"Course I am, I had to kill one of those zombie cunts once to save my own hide when I was wandering about outside the city. Couldn't get the asshole Spirit though, it escaped out the body. Having your body used by a Spirit after death... now that's just.... Eugh...."

"What do you know about Dole Cove?"

"Well, it had some historical significance. It was home to the Piedmonts, they're a family that apparently goes back since the first founding of the Church, which would make their line seventeen thousand years old or so if that's true and not just hogwash. The family's head Carlin I settled this canton and eventually established the little villages that would one day become places like Coscovy here and Raspharn, and then they ruled over it as barons of the Church or something until modernity reached this place and we got some mayors in here to calls the shots and enforce Zodic taxation."

"I don't know what happened to them all. I only know those fucking zombie troopers come from their old historical home. Used to be one of the only places with a dock around here, could be used to reach what they call Endinlos Island far, far way from the coast. That island's bad news, it's where the Demon host of Spiritkind all lived at. Never seen it myself or knew of anybody that's been there.... I'm not sure if it's real or just a popular myth."

You nod and Larry takes a rest on a chair, tampering with one of his computers.

You left the radio studio and continued down into the city, using road signs to find your way to the town hall.

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The town hall of Coscovy City is a sight you find more disturbing than anything you've seen as of yet. The front lot of the hall was littered with many..... many skeletal remains of dead humans... both mere bystanders and law enforcement.

You carefully stepped over and past the remains, taking care not to disturb their remains out of respect as you headed up the steps and into the marble building. It was mostly untouched inside as well save for a specific path leading through the building and up the stairs to the office of the mayor. Inside the mayoral office you see a skeleton in a suit with a shattered skull on the desk and decide to look around.

You find an unsent letter on the desk and read it after opening it's sealed envelope....

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Intrigued by the letter, you ever so desire to know more about what happened in this world. There are no more documents you could find relevant to what you sought, only masses of papers concerning the evacuation of this city into the underground. It seems like they made it, but you wonder what became of them....?

This letter was dated to the year 15997. The letter itself seemed quite old... but just how old? What year was it?

As you think over it, you exit the town hall and see a familiar cloaked figure standing there. The stranger from the Church...

"Zodia. That is the name." The stranger says. "The Name of God who shaped all things, the patron of Humanity, the Twilight God of Light and Dark, and the God who has in all likelihood abandoned us. Zodia hated Spirits, but in his benevolence he decided to spare them and allow those unworthy creatures a place in his world."

"To communicate with us all, to relay his guidance, Zodia placed upon this earth a divine being we knew as the Orphan Zol, a child who carried his power and his voice. Through the Orphan, Zodia ruled Mankind and cooperated with the dreaded Prominents." The stranger tells, shaking his head.

"The Prominents?"

"Yes, the Prominents. They were the most powerful of the Spirits, hand picked by Zodia to receive of his words so that they could guide the Spirits. He chose the Devil, kind of the Demonic host, and Time, the master of the universe. An era lasted in which Mankind and Spirits attempted to coexist under the leadership of the Orphan and the Prominents, and it concluded with the beginning of the Great War for Survival. It has been fought for sixteen thousand years and many great battles such as Judgment Day came and went. The war is still on, no doubt, but things slowed to a halt when God began his contingency and created a Savior."

"I what will happen ultimately in the end...... Perhaps one day we will find out together. For now, you should worry only of yourself, Grave Digger. This world is teeming with Spirits, one needs power to survive in it."

"I have only a suggestion for you to find more power. You must go to the west, past the Scrap Dunes. A journey west will lead you to Metal, wherein a grand city lies with life and a ruler unforgiving."

"We will meet again. I pray that Zodia blesses your path."

The stranger begins to walk way into the fog. You hear something to your left as he goes.


>Leave Coscovy and begin your journey to the west.
>Go somewhere in Coscovy.
>Travel to another location on the map
>Stop the Stranger and ask him something.
>Investigate the faint sound of a scream from the left.
>Return to Larry Cropdin.
>Write in.

>>3836585
>Ask the Stranger about what we should fear in this strange world.
After that, I want to go back to Larry and grab the hat. Gotta look stylish in the apocalypse, afterall.

>>3836258
Hat, hat time. Give me a hat

>>3836585
>Investigate the faint sound of a scream from the left.
Poleman's BACK baby!

>>3836585
>>Investigate the faint sound of a scream from the left.
Gotta investigate the Metro next

>>3836585
>>>Investigate the faint sound of a scream from the left.

>>3836798
+1.

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You raised your hand at the Stranger and called for him to stop as he neared the fog wall. He turns his head to look back.

"What should I fear in this blasted heath of a world....?"

"Fear nothing." Is the last thing the Stranger says before vanishing into the fog.

Looking up at the noise you heard, one that sounded as a scream, you picked up your speed and ran to find it through the foggy streets. You saw something in the distance then, a glow becoming brighter as you neared.

It was a lot of buildings set aflame, burning to a crisp black by the sticky fires that spread quickly.

And there was the source of the fires. A strange being with no visible limbs. It's head was as fiery as the arson it committed, spraying streams of fire from the candle it seemed to have floating alongside it's arm. It's body was shrouded by a melting cloak, wax perhaps....

It screams loudly like a siren before breaking down into some fit of wicked laughter at another humanoid you saw scrambling to escape the flames. This Spirit seemed to be trying to kill the humanoid...

You couldn't allow this. You grabbed your shovel and tapped the ground with it's metal head, stirring the attention of the wax Spirit towards you instead. The thing stared for a moment before screaming again and waving it's candle, floating ever closer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N27kSs882Lw

>Attack with your shovel.
>Shoot it with your revolver.
>Wait to counterattack.
>Attempt to use your Burial Blade.
>Write in.

>>3837961
>Attempt to use your Burial Blade.
If ever a time was worthy, it is here and it is now.

>>3837961
>Attempt to use your Burial Blade.
Let's see what this baby does

>>3837961
>>Attempt to use your Burial Blade

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Thinking quickly, you coursed over what the mysterious stranger once told you and opened your overcoat, reaching inside and taking the golden form of the Burial Blade into your hand.

You looked the relic over, unsure of how you were supposed to use it. The Wax Ghost before you seemed to stop temporarily in fear at the sight of the relic.

You tried waving it, pointing it's blade at the ghost, rubbing it, but all to no avail just as the Spirit realized that it wasn't working. It began to snicker again before levitating towards you at an increased pace...

"Come on... come on....!"

"Help me!"

You had considered throwing it at the Spirit next but you stopped before you did, the blade suddenly coming alive with a brilliant gleaming light that radiated from the blade itself brightly, even enough to blind you.

The Wax Ghost panicked, and the Burial Blade shook uncontrollably in the bones of your hand, the light from it exploding, knocking you back and the blade out of your hand...

>>3837961
>>Attempt to use your Burial Blade.

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You heard the Spirit scream again, but this time in terror as you were blinded by the light. Your right eye manages to open for a second, glimpsing the form of a regal and ethereal figure imbued with the lightness, using the Burial Blade. This regal helper mercilessly kills the Wax Ghost, tearing it to pieces with the golden sword that licked it's body apart and destroyed it's true incorporeal self.

Once his handiwork was finished, the regal figure throws the Burial Blade back to you like a spear, blowing up in your face in another quake of light that blinded you.

When your eyes opened, the flames around had died down and the corporeal part of the Wax Ghost's remains were melting away to nothing on the ground.

You looked within your overcoat again and saw the Burial Blade where you left it. The blade however had changed, it was no longer shining gold, but a bleaker and blackened metal. Perhaps it worked in a specific way....

You think you shall wait to see if it changes again in due time....

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You looked over and saw the humanoid figure that the Wax Ghost was attempting to burn alive. They were a bit shorter than you and appeared to be a fire fighter, using a fire axe with a tip that looked silvery.

The fire fighter looks around cautiously, then to you, then to the remains of the Wax Ghost before stepping out into the open.

"You... are you a Spirit? Why did you save me? I thought you Spirits hated us Humans?" They asked, their voice indicating that they were a female.

"I am just a Grave Digger, but I could not stand by and watch as that abomination murdered someone." You said back.

"Well, I'd have surely been ashes if not for you. Thank you, Grave Digger, that was a close call." The fire fighter says, tipping her helmet to you. "I come from a camp that was near the mountain's base. Some nightmarish thing from space fell and started to attack us, it destroyed my camp and I think I'm the only survivor.... I heard someone speaking over the radio from here a few months ago, I thought I might try to find them now that my camp is gone. This city is big and empty enough, I think it could be turned into a good settlement if things laid low here. Would you happen to know where the studio is?"

You pointed to your right. "A few blocks down there, then take a left and then a right."

"Ah, thank you. Stay safe out there." The fire fighter says before walking in that direction, waving back at you as she went.

Hmm... That fire fighter came because she heard Larry's radio a few months ago. He said he found his dish destroyed a week ago.... If it was fixed, maybe it might help attract more survivors like that girl you just saved...

Larry mentioned the parts may be found in the Scrap Dunes. Coincidentally, that was also the direction the Stranger pointed you in, beseeching you to journey west.

You couldn't stop thinking about the Burial Blade, it's function as a summoning catalyst deeply interested you... you wondered how the Mysterious Stranger could have gotten his hands on such a relic.

>Leave Coscovy and begin your journey to the west.
>Go to the city Library.
>Travel to another location on the map
>Delve into the Metro station.
>Return to Larry Cropdin.
>Write in.

>>3838347
>Delve into the Metro station.

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You waste not a minute more standing around and decide to search for one of the entrances to the underground.

Your search begins fruitless. All of what would appear to be metro station entrances at first glance were all covered expertly in cement and stone. You saw no other options and you had plenty of time, so you decided to get there the conventional way. You started digging through one entrance's cover, breaking the cement with your sturdy shovel, but you find it goes on down very deep.

What feels like two hours go by of you digging down deeper and deeper and deeper.... It comes to a point where you soon discover the cement covered stairs of the old metro entrance, and so pick up your pace, now whacking away wildly at the cement, cracking and shattering and breaking through it and chucking debris and cluttered bits of it over your shovel until you at last reach what is an opening down into the metro. You see a short drop and break the hole you could see through a bit more.

Dropping down, you land on the green tiled floor of the metro. The air, the floor and the walls of the station were surprisingly clean, a consequence of going without exposure to the surface for so long you would guess.

You see up ahead booths for entry, boards that would have once listed travel times, the platforms where trains received passengers and............and....

Oh..... oh dear God....

This place.... it was a metro no longer.... now it was a tomb...

So many skulls.... so many bones.... patches of clothes, the dust of what was skin at one time... you only heard the sound of you dropping your shovel in shock, your jaw falling too.

And then there was a laughter from up ahead, from a voice that taunted you, daring you to come closer and avenge these dead Humans....

"Yesss... they all died as they lived.... as insects..... Did you want to join them, Grave Digger....? Then come to me.... heh heh hah hah hah hah hah!"

>Run to the voice with shovel in hand, you will fight and kill whatever you find.
>Turn back to the surface and recover this entrance with whatever you can find.
>Write in.

>>3838636
>Run to the voice with shovel in hand, you will fight and kill whatever you find.

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Enraged and taking no moment to think, you pick up your shovel and take off into the darkness ahead at a pace exceeding any speed you've ever moved at before.

You intended to find this thing, whatever it was, and kill it stone dead. You couldn't sit about knowing that there was something here that could threaten your new allies like Larry or the fire fighter you saved. It would surely dash any chance at gathering more Humans here to survive in this damned earth.

You soon found yourself moving only in a shrouded darkness, the light of the hole you came through now out of sight. You couldn't even see a foot in front of you as you slowed and just walked cautiously.

Now, you saw something at your sides, a crimson mist in the air. It was moist as mist should be, wetting your overcoat.

"Yesssss..... Oh, it would be an honor.... I would receive so much recognition for disposing of you.... we wouldn't have to live knowing you were still out there."

"That's right.... walk into my mist.... right where I want you... so I can.... ground you to a fine bone dussst..... Heh heh hahah hah hah.... ready or not.... here I come..."

Again, that slurred voice taunted you. It seems there was no turning back as far as you knew....

You steeled yourself and prepared for the worst. Whatever this thing would show you, you would show it much worse. This thing will die.

"Grrrraaaaaveeee...... Diggggerrrrr......... Garaaaaave Digggaaah!"

>Strike in front of yourself.
>Reach and grab at your surroundings.
>Wait for it to appear and then shoot it in the face.
>Write in.

>>3838715
>Do a low wide swing with your shovel. Make sure it's not trying to backstab you.

>>3838731
+1.

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You hesitate, looking at the red misty darkness you found yourself in. There was a flicker so inaudible you could have mistaken it for the quietest breathing. You knew better, it was suppressed sound, of a buzzing.

"HYAAAEGH!" You heard the Demon scream.

Flying like the blade of a rotor, you spun around, chopping at the body of the Demon approaching from behind, it's blood flew and blended in with the mist.

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

You looked up and saw the full form of the creature. It was a disgusting sight, it's limbs were in nature like an insect. It's single wing buzzed, lifting the fattened creature from the ground, which hissed out of it's eight teeth and waved it's claws.

"Your senses are as keen as ever, monster!" It said to you. Oh, the irony in that one...

"I have a duty to uphold! Like how I once devoured the flesh of these humans, I shall bite at your bones until nothing remains! I am Atzittering of the Demon Spirits! I am a champion of all Spiritkind! You will fear my name for it is the last you will know!"

The revolting mess before you manipulated the red mist around it, preparing to attack...

You could only fight back now and hope to dispel the environment it created around you.

>Target and attack a body part of Atzittering.
>Shoot Atzittering with your .357 magnum.
>Trust in your own strength and lunge with willpower.
>Try to use it's surroundings to your own advantage.
>Wait and defend against it's next move.
>Write in.

>>3839627
>Target and attack a body part of Atzittering.
>Chop its legs

>>3839627
>Shoot Atzittering with your .357 magnum.

Just the idea of them monologuing and promptly getting capped in the head with a .357 tickles me.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3839688
>>3839690

>>3839690
support

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Eh I'll just do both then.

"Now stand still so I can rid the world of yo-"

POW!

"-AEEERGHH!

The insectoid Demon recoils as you drew your revolver and fired a round directly into it's head with deadly aim. The bullet punctured the skin of the Demon, making a bleeding hole that entered one side of his mouth and left the other.

"Your evil has tainted the world for long enough, Demon! Die!"

You backed your own words up as Atzittering clawed at his facial wound. The head of your shovel flew in both hands as your waist and torso twisted, your upper arms passing your shoulders as you flung the blade at an angle downward with such force that bisected the legs of the Demons with ease. Again, you witnessed your shovel imbued with the mysterious green glow that harmed Spirits.

You had the power to destroy a Spirit. But why?

"REEAAAAAWRGH! The Demon screeched, his mouth vomiting some awful fluid with a rank stench to it. He swung his claws wildly at you, prompting you to backstep as your attention came back to the fight.

The Demon launched himself at you with his two left claws aiming for your neck....

>1d50 to maintain your flow of attacks.

Rolled 43 (1d50)

>>3839985

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....But you evaded and let your hatred of it's kind flow. Like a branch, it's claws snapped as your shovel went through them.

It again screamed, but this time in pure terror and shock. It went there, waggling it's limbs as it backed away, you didn't give it the chance, jumping on it like an animal yourself, you beat at the Demon mercilessly.

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It shook you off momentarily, cycling all the energy it had to it's wing as the blood drained from it's bisected wound fast.

You were faster than the stream, chopping the wing to pieces, causing the fat body of the disgusting Demon to fall down and blow the red mist in every direction.

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You stepped on it, holding it down. In response, the remaining arms pinched at your boot and scratched the leather.

You reached forward and took a hold of the squid-like arm with a steel grip. It cried and squealed, pulling back. You took the arm from it with your free hand, and gladly gave it back, dropping it down to the Demon's face.

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The Demon whimpered pathetically now, unable to escape. You had it suffer as the Humans of this city once did.

It pleaded with you to spare it. It offered it's service, it's power and far too much to list. You were unconvinced of the plea of a Demon, and raised your shovel, eliciting it to stare in terror.

It cried of how unprepared it was, that it didn't know what it was getting into. You did not listen.

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"This thing has taken many lives. It is one of many of Mankind's enemies. They all have to die. Start with this one. Do it, kill it and be on your way."

>Finish Atzittering off.
>Hesitate and spare the Demon.
>Write in.

>>3840157
>Dew it!

>>3840157
>Try and get as much information you can out of it, then kill it. Gotta be pragmatic after all.

>>3840173
Support

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You glanced back slightly at the voice of the Stranger over your shoulder. He wasn't there when you looked.....

You pressed the blade of the shovel against the eye of the Demon. It squirmed and bubbled more of that horrid liquid from it's mouth.

"I will spare you, Demon.... but you must speak.... You lied to it.

"S-speak?! I.... I cannot tell you anything... my lord... he will surely torture my SOUL!"

You pressed the shovel harder, making the thing yelp.

"Who is your lord?! What did you mean when you called me a monster?! Answer me!"

"Iii..... I.....My... m-m-m-m-my lord.... Ama.... Amalefon.... will save us all.... from Evil God..."

"My lord will save us! MY LORD WILL SAAAVE USSSSS!"

You had enough of hearing it's annoying voice. It only repeated that phrase, but you at least got a name out of it.

You put your foot on the head and stomped down, finishing the Demon off, making it vanish into dust. The red mist and the darkness around you went with it, no more than an illusion. You saw more bones of long dead Humans around, and there was no more way to go in the Metro, the tunnels were collapsed with broken trams lodged inside of them.

You did a motion you knew using your hands and blessed the remains of the Humans you saw before leaving the Metro station.

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It was brighter out now. The sky was a lighter shade with it's green clouds... perhaps it was morning you guessed to the best of your ability.

Your overcoat was now slightly soaked by the moist red mist you walked around in, and your shovel in the dissipating blood of the Demon. Both were fading, so you didn't think you'd need to go find a laundromat or something. Besides, if there was one, the machines most likely didn't work.

You looked and saw Larry's building still lit up. Did the lights here in Coscovy City constantly run? They must have some nice generators here in this city.

You got your mind back on track. There was things to do.

What will you pursue next?

>I should pay a visit to the library to learn what I can.
>I should heed the Stranger and travel to the west.
>I should go west to find Larry's parts to help him.
>I should go to the Town of Raspharn to look for survivors.
>Fire fighter mentioned something 'nightmarish' at the mountain, I should destroy it before it can harm others.
>I should go get a hat.
>Write in.

>>3840255
>>Fire fighter mentioned something 'nightmarish' at the mountain, I should destroy it before it can harm others.
This sounds more urgent

>>3840255
>We should probably go get a hat.
Come on, are we going to be hatless this entire quest? We need to look cool while we slay spirits! Also, whereabouts is the mountain? To the West?

>>3840272
>not liking grim reaper aesthetics
What hat do you even have in mind? Ghastly Gibus?

>>3840276
I was thinking something like the Sinners Shade.

>>3840279
The grime reaper outfit is perfect, leave it alone.

>>3840272
>>3840276
>>3840507
If we get a hat, it's going over the cloak. Not replacing it.

>>3840798
We wear the hood over the hat so it just looks like we have a very tall skull

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You checked the map Larry lent you quickly. The only mountain around was Mount Kilend, which was a bit to the East. It was quite a trek away, but then again, everything other thing was.

You returned briefly to Larry's studio to see the Fire Fighter had made it there safely, making a temporary home in the second floor.

You ascended to the third and saw Larry Cropdin snoring with a book over his head in his chair. You tapped his foot with yours to wake him and he nearly falls up, scrambling up with a cigarette falling out of his mouth from behind the book.

"SWEET ZODIA ABOVE I'LL KI..... heh?" He panicked for the second, having pulled a sawed off shotgun he had out. "Oh, it's you. Eheh, ah, almost thought you were one of those zombies."

"Ehhhhhh...... What can I do for you, chum?" He asks, stretching.

"I want headwear." You say. Larry props his head up at that, looking at you with his glasses lowered before smirking and snapping his fingers, walking over to one of the trunks in his room.

"Headwear eh? Lucky you, I got just the thing."

Larry presents five different hats to you.

>Choose the nostalgic Flat Cap.
>Choose the stern Ushanka.
>Choose the baroque Top Hat.
>Choose the classy Fedora.
>Choose the stylish Trilby.
>Ask Larry what he thinks suites you.

>>3840867
-#Choose the stylish Trilby.
It's the most consistent fashion category we can pick. We could use more consistency & easy, simple routines in our lives.

>>3840867
>Choose the nostalgic Flat Cap.
Hats on the right are for neckbeards!

>Choose the nostalgic Flat Cap.
I think this suits us more than the stylish options. We're a jobber, if a passionate one.

>>3840875
Switching from this to >>3840888
+1.

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You choose the Flat Cap.

As you went to put it on, Larry suddenly interjected.

"Ooh! Hey, I found another one, it's an open crown."

The large rimmed open crown hat was quite enticing.....

>I'll stick with my choice.
>I've changed my mind, I want that one instead.

>>3840943
Hnnnnnn...

>>3840943
>This one. It's just perfect.

>>3840943
Actually, let's do the large rimmed one. Seems like a good compromise.

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You take the sixth choice and don it, fitting it over your hood.

"Looking good there chum, top notch." Larry complimented you, making some clicking noise.

"Hey listen pal, you seem to be pretty rough. Of course, I mean that in how tough you must be, eh?" Larry says, lighting another cigarette.

"So I think you might know already that I really need those dish parts, yeah? I happen to have a very nice goody hidden around, a particularly BOOMY one. We're talking a bazooka with a silver headed rocket mate, you could blow some shit sky high with that. I looted it from the mayor's home. I'd be willing to part with it to you if you could get me those parts. I know it was only that one girl that came here but still she only found her way here cause of my radio. I think I could get more, yeah? Start up something good."

"Be a pal and lend me your bones for those parts and I'll reward you handsomely."

What will you do now? Where will you go from here?

>>3841043
>>Fire fighter mentioned something 'nightmarish' at the mountain, I should destroy it before it can harm others.
Maybe there are still some survivors. We'll be going west later anyways, for the dish parts and strangers' lead.

>>3841135
We shouldn't abandon those that still need of us, I support this course of actions. +1.

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Satisfied with your hat, you bid Larry farewell and took back to the roads.

You followed the tall highways out of Coscovy before finding a place to drop off at back to the ground. The grass blew with the wind beneath your feet and the daytime, though dim, brought decent illumination to the world around.

You went east, traveling to the nearby mountain, Mount Kilend. It was visible in the distance that dark mountain, towering above all else, it was majestic even with the way this world was. Faintly, you heard thunder in the distance as you went ever closer to the mountain.

You stayed on the roads, traveling away... you might encounter Spirits. They seemed to be everywhere.

You hummed a song as you went.....

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It seems to have taken you some time, but you eventually come near the base of the mountain....

The sky was..... distorted... there were auroras above the clouds raging and twisting around in a spectrum of colors, and the clouds themselves seemed to swirl like a hurricane, blowing in and away from the peak of Kilend...

Just as you took another step, the earth around seemed to rumble briefly before shaking uncontrollably, you stabbing your shovel down into the dirt to keep your balance until the rumbling subsided.

You saw the auroras explode away from the mountain in bursts of air, spreading color across the sky as new ones replace them. Lightning bolts struck the very peak of the mountain continuously and you saw the grass and trees move violently with invisible and almost noiseless shockwaves radiating from the mountain....

Whatever was causing this..... it was astonishingly powerful...

You continue closing in on the base of the mountain... and you come upon a charred sight with burnt dead trees and black patches all across the grounds. And.... bodies, black and smoldering still, propped near objects that seemed to be destroyed tents. There were many of them, and there were sparks and cinders flying with you now noticing tiny flames still dancing across the ground.

This must have been that Fire Fighter's old camp.... it was still burning....

Will you really ascend the mountain to investigate? Or turn back to far more important things for now....?

>>3841342
>Ascend
No backing down, however powerful it is.

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Steadfast, you begin the climb up the mountain.

The hard rocks had paths carved upward into the mountain's side, allowing you to go up almost unimpeded save for the effort it took to lift your legs and continue going up.

The bits of frost and snow flowing with the air current tickled at your bones through your hood and the thunder became ever louder as you went up, passing stacks of stone slabs. From here, the colors in the sky became ever more visible and the paths began to transition into long shoots stretching around the rocks and higher into the air.

And that was when you came to one long path where the fog was so dense that you had to use your shovel as a blind man would a cane to see what was ahead. These gusts of fog and snow particles came from piles of it falling off from the higher up the mountain most likely.

And when you exited the next gust, you saw a being there. It was shiny, almost ceramic, gleaming with dark and bright coloration. It had protrusions like wings and ringed parts that turned with eyes on them. It's face seemed like a statue and it looked at you with a most concerned stare before finally speaking.

"Master, I would not advise ascending any further, what lies ahead is currently beyond your ability to defeat."

You stood, looking back in visible confusion as you turned your head up slightly.

"...Master?"

"Yes, you are my assigned master. I am Heliac, I am a guardian angel and a servitor. By God's will, I am to accompany you. I have spent much time observing you at your cemetery, and I feel that now is the time to reveal myself again after so long."

"I always follow and watch from the shadows, only revealing myself when necessary. The being sealed at the top of this mountain is both insane and far too powerful for you to kill at this time, Master. You must find more of yourself first. That is only my advice, I cannot force you. Your decision is your own Master."

>Go on and continue to the peak.
>Heed Heliac's warning and turn back.
>Write in.

>>3841497
>*squint*
>try to see if that's a Spirit or not

Hmm. This is interesting. On the one hand I kinda want to see what's up there. On the other I don't want to die...
The Stranger did say that we shouldn't fear anything.

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Cautiously, you slowly approached the Angel and reached at it. Your hand touches it, confirming it corporeal, and you pressed hard against it's surface, trying to push through, but you could not for it was completely corporeal. The Angel offers then to change if you willed. You tilted your head at it before falling forward slightly. The Angel had made itself.... completely incorporeal suddenly...

Spiritkind was diverse in how it's members functioned in the Universe. Some Spirits were more corporeal than others, some more incorporeal. Some were completely corporeal, some were completely incorporeal... but no Spirit could affect it's corporeality or incorporeality at will, none. This Angel was certainly supernatural.... but it displayed a feat Spirits were incapable of. You had reason to believe it was truly something different.

"I recognize your exploration, Master. Should I give you a reminder?" Heliac asks. You just sort of nod your head.

"Angels such as myself are higher beings lacking attributes that Humans and Spirits do such as Souls and emotion. Our existences are bound outside of the Universe in the space of God himself. We are able to interact with the material Universe by projecting hardlight manifestations and we can only be truly killed if we die in God's realm. My body here is one such hardlight vessel. I was not made to fight nor act in any such serious capacity. I am merely your advisor, servant and a voice of reason. My powers are limited here, though I am capable transporting things through space for some distance, albeit not repeatedly." Heliac explained, his number of words coming out very quickly.

"For convenience and ease of summoning my help, I shall assume the form of a minute ring for you to carry around. You may call on me when you require my aid by pressing it's gem."

Heliac burst into light then, momentarily blinding you. You look down at your hand and see Heliac around your finger in it's ring form. It did not speak or move, it must have 'deactivated' itself you supposed....

What will you do now?

>>3841560
>Check the Burial Blade
>If it's golden again then continue ascending
>If not then go west to find the dish and slay the highwaymen

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You open your overcoat and look at the Burial Blade. It has slowly began to transform back into it's active golden form. You see splotches of the blade shining gold again. It'll take some more time before you can use it again.

You turn back and leave Mount Kilend. Whatever waits up there you will have to take care another time.

As you walk through the woods, you are suddenly ambushed by two Spirits who jump out and block your path. You see a Brotherhood and a Wax Ghost.

"Burn baby buuuuurrrrn!"
"Mother... help...us... air... cannot breath...."

>Slaughter the Spirits as is proper and move on.
>Attempt to reason with the Spirits.
>Use Heliac to transport somewhere else.
>Write in.

>>3841610
>Slaughter the Spirits as is proper and move on

>>3841610
>Kill the Disco Inferno one, try and reason with the suffocating one. I want to find out about this 'mother'

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Without hesitating, you dodged a spiral of flame sent at you by the Wax Ghost who you proceeded to chop down into a mess of wax that is sent everywhere across the ground.

You feel a burning sensation from behind and turn to see a bubbling liquid eating away at the leather of your boot. You stomp it out and move out of the way of acidic tears the Brotherhood sends at you.

It tries to gasp at you, sucking air away, but you unaffected by whatever this means of violence is. It just sits there and cries when it gets nothing from you. It's cries are interrupted by exasperated gasps for air as you lowered your shovel and raised a hand. The thing just sort of stared at you with a confused glance as it cried and gasped and hiccuped.

"Spirit child." You called to the Brotherhood Spirit. "Why do you cry for air?"

It tears up and convulses.

"Womb... too tight.... mother died.... suffocated.... we died.... no air to breath...."

The Brotherhood Spirit flees from sight, it's wailing and crying heard in the distance as it flew.

Again, like multiple times before, you have some Deja Vu....

You seem to recall that Humans who turned their backs to God would be counted among those he hated and their Souls would be condemned, and after death their soul would rise anew, rejected by God. They would become Spirits....

From what you could deduce... the Brotherhood Spirit is actually three Spirits in one form. Their three souls must have never known God, and thus this was their unfortunate fate, having been reborn as Spirits.

You shook your head and moved on....

You would never forget the creed. God was always right. Perhaps one day when Spiritkind is wiped out, their souls will have a second chance. At least, that was a common hope.

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Eventually, tiring of walking and certainly in no mood to walk for such a long distance West, you press the gem on your ring and summon Heliac. Your servant Angel appears in a flash of light.

You showed Heliac a map and told it to take you to Interstate 81. You wanted to be able to enter the Scrap Dunes for yourself. Simply appearing there would be bad, you didn't know what to expect. The Angel complies and glows with light again, the light Heliac produced enveloped you and the world around began to cycle rapidly.

After reaching an absolute speed, the world around you begins to slow down and you see a new environment. There was asphalt beneath your feet and you saw wrecked vehicles strung all about. Heliac resumes it's form as a ring on your finger as you looked about.

Interstate 81 was massive with over seventeen different lanes. Vehicles both large and small dotted the lanes, upright, overturned, or smashed into each other. There were what looked to be military vehicles as well, and you saw Human remains here and there.

Dead trees were seen to both the left and right, and to the left you saw some ground formations going upward with grass and moss and more trees.

Despite how many broken down vehicles you saw, the lanes of the Interstate were still mostly open, enough even that a car might be able to cruise through at a decent speed to take one across the Interstate.

You scanned the area, looking around until your sight fell upon something nice. A muscle car with the top down. It looked to be in slightly better condition than the rest of the junk you saw. You sprinted over and hopped in.

You plunged your hand down inside the vehicle and managed to grab a hold of some of the wiring. You pulled the wires out and looked them over..... Hmmm...... You've never hot wired something before.... so this will be your first time. Better late than never.

>1d100 to hot wire the car.

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>3841707

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>3841707

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Verily you did not know what you were doing, touching and tying the wires together. You used the thin tip of your finger bones to jam inside the ignition and turn it. You were thinking that maybe you could have gotten Heliac to help you with this even though you were unsure if the Angel could, but as your mind got off of it, you move with your seat as the muscle car roared to life and started up with you touching together two yellow wires hidden deep within the circuitry of the vehicle. You tied the two together and kept them connected, which seemed to keep the car going so long as you had gas.

Thrilled over this, you threw your belongings in and put your hat to the floorboard to keep it safe. You buckled up and switched from park to neutral to to reverse to back up with the gear shift before shifting it into drive with the car perfectly aligned with the lane. You pressed the button on the radio and music began to play before finally you pressed your foot on the gas pedal and took off down the Interstate.

The breeze blew your hood back and the ride was smooth and relaxing with the only obstacles you had to avoid being other cars about the Interstate ahead, and maneuvering past them was as simple as turning your wheel slightly given the distances between each.

You saw dust in the air and looked up to see the sky turning slightly bluer. You were getting close now, Interstate 81 seemed to end in sand as it trailed off into the Scrap Dunes. You saw the amount of cars lessening and buildups of trash becoming more dense. Finally, after a ride that seemed to take fifty some minutes, you were riding only on sand now, the asphalt road below was covered completely.

You were here at last, the edge of the Scrap Dunes.

You slowed and parked your car behind a giant buildup of garbage. You donned your hat and looked up, seeing the dunes. There was trash everywhere, metals, plastics, old parts, household refuse, clothing and fabrics... cardboard.... everything.

You saw directly ahead, an enormously tall metal tower with blinking red lights at it's top. You climbed up one of the dunes and got a better look at the wasteland before you. There was what appeared to be an oasis in the south-west, but far uglier than oasis' normally were, with water that looked more like oil.

Oh! And there to the south even farther away, you saw some shacks of scrap visible from behind a wall of shipment containers and poorly nailed together wood planks. Somebody lived out here in this shithole? You hoped they were friendly, you could use some help finding Larry's parts.

There also was the matter of finding out why the Stranger sent you out West.....

>Investigate the metal tower.
>Investigate the shacks.

>>3842501
>Investigate the shacks.
This could be a lure used by highwaymen, but we gotta get rid of them anyway.
https://youtu.be/uSP0rKieqac

>>3842612
support

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Hiking through the expanses of the Scrap Dunes, you pushed through the sandy wind and ground, stepping through the ocean of trash.

It looked as though this whole hub was used by scavengers who would come and pick through the things they saw as they traveled, taking what valuable and worthwhile things they could find. There was tons and tons of things more useless than there were things you could see that looked like they could be used for something.

You see trenches dug out in the sand, fortified by sandbags and trash and scrap metal, but no one else is about out here but you. You delve down between the dune walls of the trenches and eventually come upon the sight of a hydraulic door activated by a switch surrounded by junk and brick.

You went back out and looked around, not seeing any other viable options close by for getting past. It looked as though this door was the only way past the sandy dunes full of and covered by heaps of metal and trash spanning miles.

Will you use the switch to open the door and continue or turn back and build something to get over the tall dunes with using all you could scrounge up nearby? It would take a long, long while given how tall the dunes were....

>Use the door.
>Take option 2.

>>3842871
>Use the door.
Knock-knock

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Going without fear, you knocked on the large hydraulic door.

There was no response. So you went ahead and pulled the switch. The hydraulic door sounded and began slowly moving upward to the clanking of metal and the racket of turning gears.

You had expected a trap by now where you stood outside the door, but as you come to find upon walking through, there was a trap on the other side actually and you question why you had thought with such reverse psychology. You guess it's because the trap being after the door was so typical. Oh well, here you are.

On the other side of the door were identical dune trenches with little space to walk with and a large metal pad you stepped upon. Immediately after stepping on it, a large metal container fell from above onto the pad, snapping onto it and trapping you inside. Goddammit, this was just bothersome.

Oh, and now you heard something outside the container. The laughter of goons presumably.

"Eheheheh! Lookie what we got here boys! It's a nomadic Spirit treading where he shouldn't!"

"Oh poor ole' lad isn't he? Guess he didn't know Cheridex don't rule out here, huh? Ehehehehee!"

"Alright you in there, there's no gettin' out now! Ya' see that little box on the wall in there? You're gonna put everything but your clothes in there if you want out."

"Yeah! Yeah! You're gonna be handing over everything and then fucking right off you will!"

"Well come on now lad, make this quick see? You're holding our cards up! We don't got all day!"

"Actually, we do have all day, and more, you're just impatient."

"Shut your mouth you weasel, you know you wanna get back to it just as much! Don't for one second act like you don't!"

"Hey, it's the bosses orders!"

The two goons outside were now arguing....

Hmm.... They instruct you to put your belongings inside the box on the wall.... does that mean it goes outside of the container...?

What will you do now?

>>3843031
>Smash the box with your shovel and try to get out
>Alternatively, try to mess up the part with a rivet in the top-left corner.

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You prodded at the box on the wall and pulled it out. As you suspected, it goes two ways and you could see outside with it halfway open. The solution was clear.

You grabbed the handle of the metal box and reared back, pulling hard and making a loud banging sound that seemed to stop the goons outside from arguing. The handle of the box came off. You grabbed the box itself with both hands and heaved again, an audible snap coming from the metal, and again... and then the box comes right out of the wall as you ripped it off.

You crouched down prone and crawled your way out of the box back into the sand.

You stood up and brushed your overcoat off and looked over, seeing two humanoids standing there in dirty overalls with a few metal plates. One was fat and the other was thin. They both glanced at each other and back to you, and to each other, and back to you.

Ahh, you recognized this. These were Shadow People, Spirits able to hide in the shadows of others. But what were they doing all the way out here in the desert?

"Uhhh..... he just... just done and went and tore himself out of the box! W.. What do we do now?"

"Now now, look here, he's a skeleton! He's not such a big threat! Look, I'll smack him once and his bones'll fly everywhere!"

The fat one hollered haughtily and ran at you with his fist in the air. You raised your hand and caught his punch as he threw it at you. In response, you proceeded to crush his hand to which he stumbled backwards and yelped in pain.

"Okay! Forget what I said! He is a big threat!"

You took two steps closer and the Shadow People Highwaymen both recoiled in fear. They didn't seem to possess any weapons themselves.

"Ah! Ah! M-Mister skeleton man, we... we didn't mean anything by it! No really! The scrap dunes are mostly picked clean! Robbing peoples the only way to get new shiny things, only way to get by these days!"

"Y-yeah! Come on lad! Let's just forgive and forget, let bygones... OW! ...be bygones, yeah?!"

You didn't really care what happened to these ignorant Shadow People. You could easily kill them where they stood with one swing of your shovel.

On the other hand... they were backing down, and you didn't really know the Dunes so well. Perhaps these Shadow People might be of some use for finding your way around the desert. Still, they are wretched Spirits. Consorting with Spirits is usually a mistake.

>Dispose of them and continue ahead.
>Demand they take you to their 'boss'
>Question them.
>Write in.

>>3843119
>>Dispose of them and continue ahead.
We're clearing this camp. With extreme prejudice.

>>3843141
+1 Actions speak louder than words, hehe

>>3843141
>>3843148
I don't think we should just go full murderhobo right away into a camp with a lot of people that could be heavily armed. We should try to get something out of them first, then kill.

>>3843192
>let's not kill them and take their stuff
>let's take their stuff and then kill them
I see no difference

>>3843194
We don't even know where to begin looking for what Larry needs yet, we could at least find that out.

>>3843197
Yeah, that's true. We could interrogate them, then murder them. They are spirits, and I'm pretty sure one of our goals is to kill all spirits.

>>3843119
>Demand they take you to their 'boss'
>Question them.
odds are we might not be able to find the rest of them, and they may have information. Let's calm down for a little bit, then we can unleash the shovel

>>3843119
>>Demand they take you to their 'boss'
>>Question them.
We need to find Larry's thingy and get allt he survivors we can. We can always kill them later on.

>>3843119
>>Demand they take you to their 'boss'
>>Question them.

support

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"Take me to this 'boss' of yours."

"Hmm? Oh! Uhh... Should we uh... really...?" The thin Shadow person says before being slapped on the back of his head by the fat one.

"Course we should, don't look like we have much of a choice now. Alright, mister skeleman, right this way. Stick with us and the other boys won't try cleaving ya'."

You scoffed at the words of the fat Shadow person and followed the two through the dune trenches and past the piles of trash. The hydraulic door you came in through closes behind you fast. The two take you to a blackened wooden gate which they knocked on and announced themselves at, saying they have a 'guest'.

You waited there for a few minutes before the gate opened, and four more Shadow People were standing there holding awlpikes which they pointed to you as you walked in behind the other two goons. You got a good look at the encampment of these highwaymen. There were several hovels assembled from wood and rusted metal, some with sheets to cover the open ceilings, some held up by cinderblocks. There were at least ten shipping containers around the encampment forming some makeshift wall connected to built up wooden fences and tire stacks. You were brought to the center of the encampment and looked around. You counted a total of twenty nine Shadow people there, eighteen males and eleven females. Some of them looked to be like teenagers if compared to Humans, but that was only because Shadow People were Spirits who aged very slowly, and were among the types of Spirits in the world who eventually did one day vanish, "dying" of age.

The two clumsy goons who tried to rob you ran off the side, speaking briefly with another Shadow person. You stabbed your shovel into the dirt and waited, looking as a new Shadow person emerged from behind the tarp of the largest shack, it was a female with a blue bandana and a metal claw on her left hand's gauntlet. She struts forward and stands a few feet away from you, staring into your empty sockets with her yellow eyes.

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"Well now, aren't you a gaunt looking one.... So just who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm the Grave Digger." You respond coldly. The boss of the Highwaymen looks at you for a second before smirking.

"I'm Strela, I'm the matriarch of this little ragged band. We don't care about politics or religious hogwash, we just live for ourselves. We rob Spirit and Man alike out here, it's all we can do to get by in these sands. We aren't too keen on killing a fellow, might surprise you. We try to let as many live as we can actually, out here we should only be fighting to survive. If you don't mean us no harm, we don't mean you no harm.... at least now since you're past our trap."

"So what business do you have out in the dunes, Grave Diggah'? On your way to Metaldom? Trying to get away from Lord Hallow's authority....?"

"I'm searching for electronic parts. The kind that goes on a satellite dish. Tell me where out here I could find such parts." You say. The highwaymen leader waves her finger, making you twist your look at her.

"Nah ah ah, it's not gonna be that easy. I might just know where the parts you want are but.... well, it's a bit more complicated than you might have wanted"

"See, there's an old factory out here in the dunes a few miles away, it might have the parts you seek but it also has something we want too, a working plane engine. There's a problem though, the factory is occupied by the Scout Legion of Metaldom, so it won't be easy to get either."

"I'd have gotten that engine we need long ago myself, but as it turns out a load of killing machines and a giant fuck off robot guarding the factory don't make that easy."

"I'll make you a proposal, Grave Diggah'. You and me both go to the factory and we help each other get what we need. I can handle myself pretty well and you look fairly tough too. What say you?"

>Accept Strela's proposal.
>Decline her proposal, you won't consort with Spirits.
>Attack Strela and wipe the camp out.
>"Metaldom?"
>"Tell me about this 'Lord Hallow'."
>Write in.

>>3844289
>"Metaldom?"
>"Tell me about this 'Lord Hallow'."

>>3844289
I want to know about Lord Hallow and Metaldom. Also, what are the relations between spirits around here? I thought they were unified, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

>>3844331
support

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"Hmmm? What? Have you been under a rock or something? Don't tell me you're really this oblivious?"

You just stared. Strela seemed shocked. The gang leader waves her hand, causing the surrounding Shadow People to get back to work.

"Alright... where do I even begin with this..."

"I have seen the name of this 'Lord Hallow' before, but only seen. Who is he?"

"Lord Ion Hallow, he's one of the Prominents and currently rules most of the known world from the Sky Spire in the northern most pole. He's apparently the oldest Spirit ever living right now and claims to be the 'pure embodiment of time'. Everyone out there knows this stuff, it's literally kindergarten tier you dunce."

"Pretty much nobody out there today can claim to actually have seen him though. Sometimes I ponder if such a being even actually exists in the first place."

"Life isn't so great in the Northern Dominion, Lord Hallow's laws forces everyone under strict systems and Spirits are assigned jobs in one of many castes. And there's also the Harvests....." Strela says, her tone and mood dropping at the mention of that last bit.

"Us Shadow People here, we were all born in Dominion lands, but we fled after our settlement was razed by Dominion levy... we barely escaped with our lives and the rest of our kin didn't make it...."

"The Dominion's military is made up of Spirits sworn to serve Lord Hallow. They get sent to places with large populations, they kill any who can fight back and then they take the rest in chains. Those they take are never seen again..... They call these events harvests..."

Strela looks to the ground for a good, long moment. You shifted and her gaze returned.

"So, anything else?"

"You mentioned something else. "Metaldom"."

"Ahhh... Yes, Metaldom, I could never forget about that place..."

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"Metaldom is a vast city state to the south ruled by the notorious Caudillo Cheridex, he's one of the Prominents and quite possibly one of the worst people you'll ever hear of. You want the full story?"

You nod.

"Cheridex claims to have been a Human near the beginning of the Great War for Survival. They say he turned his back on God and took his fascination with meta and souls to the extreme. I assume you know what happens to damned Men, right?"

"Yes, their souls are turned away by God and forsaken. Usually they up reborn as Spirits, what God hates."

"Righteo. Well for Cheridex, his soul was revived in a metal body he built for himself. It's said he went out convincing more Humans to join him and turn against God, which led to him amassing an army of soul-powered machines large enough that he joined Spiritkind and turned his back on Humanity entirely."

"The things Cheridex has always done still go on in Metaldom to this day. He has control over all metal, and he subjugates everyone he finds by turning them into machines, more of his servants. He'll send them out to go find more people, be they Human or Spirit. He'll enslave them and have them forcibly transformed into more of his mechanical abominations."

"At times it seems like Metaldom is at odds with Hallow's dominion. Cheridex thinks that metal is the answer to all questions and he wants to make the whole world like his city state, want to make everybody mechanical. Hallow doesn't really agree with that, being a Spirit supremacist and all. Really I just hate both of them. I think this freedom we have here is a much better alternative to both of them, wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh, that reminds me. Ole' Cheridex is really obsessed with marking his property. Got this here off of a machine I totaled before. Here you can have it."

Strela gives you a bronze emblem with the symbolism of Metaldom on it.

"So, if you don't want to consider my proposal, then that's fine, but don't ask me to help you find that factory, it's quite a long ways to go. I'll just be here in camp if you need me I guess.

"Now, is there anything else you wanted to know?"

>Talk to/Question Strela.

>Accept Strela's proposal to work together.
>Decline her proposal. You can do it yourself.
>Attack and wipe out the encampment.
>Write in.

>>3844606
>Ask Strela what do they need that engine for
>Thank her for the information, but mention that you are VERY displeased with their criminal activity.

>>3844606
>>3844622
>Oh, and ask about the Metal Tower nearby

>>3844606
>Accept Strela's proposal to work together.
They seem pretty reasonable for spirits,might help to have some allies in the Scrap Dunes.

>>3844700
We don't even know their motivation and they are still robbing humans. Don't consort with spirits just because they have a sob story.

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"On the way into the dunes, I saw a tall metal tower in the distance with blinking lights. Any idea what that is?"

"Oh yeah, that tower is apart of an old Human Church installation or bunker or something, I don't know, I just know it has Church symbols all over it. We tried to get in once, but the place is locked down tighter than the lids on the peanut butter jars we scoured a week ago from a Human with funny glasses we robbed."

"I see...." You affirm, having a clue as to who it was they robbed when she mentioned 'funny glasses'.

"I think you should know, I am not exactly amenable to your criminality." You say harshly. Strela frowns at that and shrugs.

"What should we do then? Go back to subsisting in the sorry society of the Dominion, living in fear of being harvested? Or go to Metaldom and join Cheridex's botnet? If you had a digestive tract and a desire to be free away from those tyrannical conditions, you'd understand why we do we what we do. Any other questions, boner?"

"What do you Spirits need with a plane engine of all things for in the first place?"

Strela raises her eyebrow at you and thinks with her hand on her chin.

"Hmmm...... Ahhh! Blast it, it's not like it'll matter soon enough anyway. What's the harm in telling. Follow me." She says.

You walk behind Strela and she leads you over to a metal shed situated behind her hovel. It is locked by a metal barred door which she unlocks with a red key from one of her pouches and motions you in. Hesitantly, you step inside the shack and look marveled at what was lying on the ground before you.

It was a full set of pieces to form the chassis of a large bomb, the kind that looked atomic. That might explain it a bit as to why they need the engine...

"I see you're impressed by it, huh?" Strela says, leaning on your shoulder as she talked. "Aaahhh! It's not that impressive. It's just a chassis."

"....You need the engine because you want to drop this bomb? You don't even have a plane." You said, a bit wary of her possession.

"Now see that's where you're wrong. We ourselves don't want to drop this bomb, but a client of ours does, and they have some mighty rewards in store for us in return for getting and giving them the engine I mentioned and this chassis."

"A client...?"

"That's right. There's an old airport near the town of Nedhe, we had a scout meet some Humans that way about ten months ago. They reported that these Humans were remnants of the Zodic Church. Over the next few months, they came to us and we met personally. They told us about an old Church store house near Lake Boot where this chassis was at and said they would pay us tremendously with all kinds of things if we got it for them, things we need here like food and weapons and parts..." Strela drones on, kneeling down and looking over the bomb parts.

"Well, we got the chassis, but last month we met them again and they said they needed one more thing before our deal could go through, the engine. They told us to hold onto the chassis as a sign of trust until then. I guess desperate times can make even those Church fanatics reasonable to deal with."

"If I recall correctly, they said they had a plane that flies, since they're held up at the airport. I do believe they are planning on dropping this bomb on Metaldom when it's assembled. I don't blame them, anything bad that happens to Cheridex is a good thing in my book."

"So, there you have it, that's why we need the engine. If you help us get it, we'll help you get what you need, boner. Heck, I might spare a few more things later if you help us."

>Talk to/Question Strela.
>Make a demand.
>Accept Strela's proposal to work together.
>Decline her proposal. You can do it yourself.
>Wipe out the encampment.
>Use Heliac for something.
>Write in.

>>3844739
>Accept Strela's proposal to work together.

>>3844739
>Accept Strela's proposal to work together.
>Make a demand.
Ask her to let us speak with her clients. Large bombs,atomic or not,are always trouble.

>>3844739
>Accept Strela's proposal to work together, but warn her that we're going to be keeping an eye on these 'clients' of hers.

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"When will you next meet this client of yours?" You ask, resting your shovel on your shoulder.

"We have a scout watch tower a little ways out south. We were supplied some fireworks of all things which we put at our tower there by our client and were told to fire them into the sky to alert them when we had their things. Depending on whether or not we get the engine today or tomorrow or the day after that, they'll show up in at least two days after we signal them. Why do you ask?"

"You mentioned them reportedly being remnants of the Zodic Church. I would quite like to meet your client myself."

"Well, that's on you to do, just let us get our deal through with them first."

You nodded and followed Strela out of the shed. She briefly steps into her workshop and gears up, stocking her satchels and pouches and slots carved into her clawed gauntlet. She comes out wielding a white and orange streamlined blade that was short and smooth.

"It's a thermal weapon, prime Human technology. You like it?"

"I prefer simpler things myself." You say, taking your shovel into two hands.

"Well if you've gotten this far with a shovel of all things... more power to you I guess."

"Do you have any ammunition? Preferably for this?" You say, taking your revolver out from your coat.

"Well, we do have some ammo, but it's only nine milimeter and for our only gun."

Strela retrieves a tactical weapon from her workshop and shows it off to you.

"It's modified, a machine gun. It spits ammo and leaves a LOT of holes in things. You can borrow it just this once if you like. We never really liked guns ourselves, they're more efficient for killing Humans, they're practically useless against most Spirits."

"Oh, and machines like the ones Cheridex makes. The smaller ones seem to be pretty weak to guns."

You only have enough room for one gun and it's ammo at a time.

Will you trade your .357 magnum revolver in for the modified SMG?

>Take the SMG, it can hit more targets and dish out more damage at a time.
>Keep your revolver, it only needs one shot for one kill.

>>3844914
>Take the SMG, it can hit more targets and dish out more damage at a time.
Now all we need is to find a second one.

>>3844914
>Take the SMG, it can hit more targets and dish out more damage at a time.

>>3844914
>Keep your revolver, it only needs one shot for one kill
It's also a cooler weapon. Can you quickdraw with an SMG? Can you shoot as accurately with an SMG? No.

>>3844977
I mean we're just having it for this mission,might as well try out another weapon for a while.

>>3844914
>>Take the SMG, it can hit more targets and dish out more damage at a time.

a diverse skill set is better than a one-shot wonder.

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You gladly trade your .357 magnum revolver in for the SMG and a few ammo belts which you stuff into your overcoat.

With that, you tell Strela you are ready to embark. She nods and passes out instructions to her subordinates and eventually comes back to you. The two of you both exit the Highwaymen encampment and leave out West. Strela walks alongside you, you followed her lead into the desert, ready for anything there was out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SefxmOv-88M

Strela and you make small talk as you go. She describes the nature of feral Spirits, Spirits who have devolved into states in which their minds are rotten and gone. She says that such Spirits as these can be found roaming away from civilization or just anywhere that isn't so heavily populated, like the Scrap Dunes here for example.

As you and Strela go on your way, your path through the desert is blocked by a Ghoul that has detected your scent. It howls and snarls, alerting a Sandbody to your presence as well, the rock Spirit lumbering over and stomping through the sand.

You and Strela are then taken by surprise as one more Spirit phases into the scene, the Vizier, an extraordinarily powerful sorcerer Spirit.

Strela's thermal blade could easily dispatch of a Spirit as the blade was lined with Silver, a material that all Spirits shared a weakness too. Her gauntlet arm was equipped with gadgets and traps, such as nets, smoke bombs, a cable for climbing and a knife thrower. She also possessed a few mines she could throw down.

"HRUMMVMMMM!" The Sandbody vibrates.

"You cannot harm me." Vizier boasts.

When attacking, describe the points on your targets that you will strike at. Dismembering opponents can result in gravely wounding them or even instantaneously killing them if the point you strike at is vital. There is no sure way to know which points will be vital, you'll have to guess as much based off of visuals.

>Attack one of the Spirits.
>Shoot with your SMG.
>Wait and Defend.
>Wait and try counterattacking.
>Give Strela a command.
>Attempt to tap into your hidden strength.
>Write in.

>>3845866
>Tell Strela to toss out her mines, good set up for any further actions. Go defensive this turn.
>Attempt to tap into your hidden strength.
What's in the mystery box?

>>3845913
support

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At your behest, Strela draws one of her mines.

"Watch and learn!"

Strela tosses the mine out into the sand and taunts the Sandbody. The brutish sandstone Spirit hums with primal anger and charges forward. It's leg catches the mine and the device explodes, blasting the form of the Sandbody into the air and thousands of small rocks and pebbles, swiftly dealing with it. The true incorporeal form of the Sandbody escapes, fleeing into the desert to find more rocks to make apart of itself.

You bring your shovel to bare and use it's head to deflect a few swipes from the claws of the Ghoul's hideously shaped muscled arms. It roars as it fails to hit you.

You raise your shovel and stare the Spirits down fiercely.

You remembered the green aura that you had at times before, the same aura that would allow you to completely and utterly kill Spirits. You focused on your hatred of Spiritkind and meditated on your own inner strength as you stood tensely.

You let your desire to kill Spirits take over your arms, your mind and your weapon...

>1d50 to unleash that power again.

Rolled 24 (1d50)

>>3845965

Rolled 35 (1d50)

>>3845965

Rolled 48 (1d50)

>>3845965

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As though a man in darkness searching for a light, as a person donning the armor of God, as though discovering yourself, you find it in you.

Yes, this magnificent power of death that vanquished Spirits, you had managed to call some of it forward to your hands. Like with blood pumping through veins, you feel it circulating over and around and throughout your skeleton, coursing into your weapon and flaring on it.

Strela and the other Spirits looked on, confusion and inaction taking over as you accumulated this strength within you like never before now, a green aura representative of your domain flowing and burning off of your skull....

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You feel yourself reach a new height, and deja vu passes with you taking back abilities long forgotten within your ancient mind.

Terror Force

This ability allows you to launch an invisible wave of pure reactive force from your shovel's head cobbled in with your malignant aura. It blows enemies away and puts them into a trance of fear for a time, weakening them to be easily dispatched unless they escape first. There is a chance that this attack can miss however.

Cyclonic Spin

This ability allows you to deliver a devastating spin attack with your shovel by charging it with much malignant energy. The attack can seriously cripple Spirits or even kill some in one to two hits. You become slightly slower for a short time after using it however.

Which ability will you recall?

>>3846220
>Terror Force
Some control abilities are always welocome, and I think this could be helpful outside of combat. Miss chance is an issue though.
What do you guys think?

>>3846220
>Cyclonic Spin
>This ability allows you to deliver a devastating spin attack with your shovel by charging it with much malignant energy. The attack can seriously cripple Spirits or even kill some in one to two hits. You become slightly slower for a short time after using it however.

I am a sucker for AOE attacks

>>3846245
Support

>>3846220
Though Cyclonic Spin seems really usefull,we could use Terror force in non combat situations like clearing debris or propulsing fire,so I'll go with
>Terror Force

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There, you remember a technique, a method you utilized for purposes long ago using your powers yet hidden still.

Reaching back like a hunter preparing to thrust his spear, you shot forward with the head of your shovel and delivered your Terror Force towards the Ghoul and the Vizier.

The ground and the rocks were kicked up and metal bits such as screws and nails flew with pieces of soggy cardboard and rusted panes and the sand exploded out of the ground from your deathly aura striking it.

The Ghoul is blown away like a rag doll, flung far into a heap of trash with many pointy metal bits that cut the creature's corporeal flesh to ribbons, it unhinges itself from the trash and runs, fleeing in terror induced by your aura into the desert sands, yipping like a mutt.

The Vizier comes out unaffected, having shrouded himself in a mystical veil. His long neck goes back and he seems awestruck by your display, rubbing the linen of his dismembered and wrapped left arm with intrigue.

"Humm.... Hmm.... Interesting, this is interesting. I am faced with the anathema himself. I am wiser than to trifle with the shadow of death, but we may meet again."

Upon uttering that, the Vizier waves his hand and vanishes, leaving the scene.

You and Strela have emerged victorious.

"Well how's about that. Seems you got a few tricks up your sleeve too, I like that." Strela remarked. "By the way, what did that mage mean when he called you the 'shadow of death'? There something you haven't told me yet?"

"I do not know. I've only ever been a Grave Digger, I cannot place what these Spirits mean when they refer to me as such."

Strela shrugs before tugging you along by the sleeve back into the desert, saying that there was still a long way to go.

You pass what the Vizier said off and continue the trek on. You sink your skull down a bit and covered your face slightly with the neck of your garnet sweater.

The trek onward is quite long, with Strela leading you through the desert and traveling by locations her gang has marked over time to help with navigation.

First you and her make a pit stop at a gorge of tires filling a sinkhole in the desert where she shows you a little cache with some more ammo, you pocket what little more you can carry.

Next she shows you the way across a creaking and old bridge with many planks fallen out of it over a deep ravine with water flowing through it from the sea far away. Across you find the beginning to a massive junk maze mostly composed of wrecked vehicles and remnants of ruined houses. You go left, and right, and left and left and right and swirl around through the tight corridors of the maze and even up a ladder hidden behind some dirty fridges until at last Strela leads you farther off into the desert, where the tall dunes now begin to vanish.

Things were more like a flat now past the junk maze, and there wasn't as much anymore, if any at all.

The last area you go through is what looks like the bits and bobbles of an old town. It was ruined to such an extent one would barely be able to tell that this was a town once.

The sky above darkens and night fast approaches when Strela stops you and points to something over the horizon in the distance.

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You've finally arrived, sort of. You must have came at least eighteen miles.

You could see the factory in the distance in front of the orange dark dusk sky. It was quite large with eleven tall chimneys and multiple industrial bays. The vicinity of the whole factory was surrounded almost totally by a tall brick wall that blocked all but a few passages into the factory.

You could faintly see three large objects hovering around in the air above the factory, shining lights down at the ground level as if patrolling.

"Alright, we're here. I've found some ways in, how we go in all depends on how we're going to take this. However we get in, we may end up having to fight some scout legionnaires. Machines." Strela says, putting her arm around your shoulders and pointing to the factory.

"There's small machines, and there's also a big fuck off one too and it's a bastard."

"If you want to take it from the ground... there's the shipping ports where we can go in, but we'd have to do it guns a-blazing because machines are posting around there. There's also another way in behind the facility from behind, I discovered a crack in the wall of the chemical bay just big enough that we could probably squeeze in. Whichever way we go, we'll have to make it into the main factory building in the center of the complex since the smaller productions are all centered around it."

"What you want will probably be in the electronics bay, but what I need is in the main building."

"I see..... Wait, what did you mean by if I wanted to take it 'from the ground'?"

Strela sighs.

"There's a third way in that leads directly to the main building. There's a sewage tunnel leading in near the seashore. I personally am NOT going to be taking that, but if you want to get in quietly then by all means, you are welcome to be my guest and crawl through shit and worse into the place, boner."

"So which way do you want to do this?"

>"Let's fight our way in through the shipping ports."
>"Let's sneak in together through the chemical bay."
>"I'll take the tunnel in and get our stuff quietly."
>Write in.

>>3846767
>"Let's sneak in together through the chemical bay."
Go sneaky-breeky for now, maybe we can find more stuff to help us to clear out this factory - there's mo way to take the dish and the engine without alerting the machines.

>>3846767
>"Let's sneak in together through the chemical bay."

>>3846793
Support

>>3846767
>>"Let's sneak in together through the chemical bay."

"Agreed, that way will be best."

Following her again, you and Strela detoured around the wide vicinity of the factory, taking care to get past the viewing zones of machines stationed around the shipping ports. You saw a number of them, they are combat drones slightly taller than a human with red and navy blue paint on their armor plating. Their heads seemed to resemble CCTV cameras as well. You couldn't tell what their hands were for, they didn't appear to have fingers at first glance....

Tugging you along, Strela and you both cross a segment of the brick outer wall to the factory, coming to the wall of the chemical bay. She shows you the crack she mentioned, which she proceeded to squeeze through with ease. You get yourself caught in it, your rib cage just big enough fit in the crack before you push back and get in yourself, crushing some nasty roaches underneath your foot as you did.

You saw the smooth interior of the chemical bay, it was large with many rooms separated from each other by inner walls and doors with plastic windows and view ports. You looked around at all the plastic and metal devices and lab objects surrounding you in this room. The chemical seemed to have been used for multiple purposes back in it's day, such as for the production of medicines and antibiotics, the production of things that needed outlandish materials such as mercury or other egghead projects you didn't care to understand fully.

You saw pill bottles and books, clipboards and papers with pens and chemistry sets with flasks and beakers. The doors in the bay seemed to still function being devices that worked without power, they open when you step on the tile in front of them automatically.

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You see Strela going up stairs to the second floor and follow her up. You see a large board room at the end of a hallway where she goes, the end of the wall is completely glass panes looking out over a wide space in the factory grounds. that's mostly cracked or broken already.

"You know, I had an idea of how we could easily take out most of the machines. See, there's a lot of highly flammable and reactive chemicals on the floor below, and the drop from here isn't so high.... So I was thinking... maybe we could lure most of them into this bay, I could leave one of my mines down below, then we jump out this window and detonate it, that'd make them all get caught in the ensuing explosion."

"I'm not sure about the big one though, that one just stays in the main building. Bother..."

Curiously, you walked down the stairs again and looked around in the various storage rooms. What Strela said was in fact true, there were a whole cabinet room full of containers with small beakers in them containing white and yellow substances and dyes.

You looked over the labels and saw one that caught your eye. Azide. That stuff was so unstable that touching it slightly would cause it to detonate, the amount of it here.... would almost certainly cause a crater in place of where this whole bay is.

You walk back to the main chemical bay room and Strela is standing there.

"Alright, you remember what I told you. Your stuff should be in the electronics bay, my engine is in the main factory building. It's probably too big for the both of us to move.... so I'm thinking we need to clear this place out, I'll need my boys to get that engine. We could split up or go together, but whatever we do we need to take out the big bot in the main building regardless. We could probably handle the smaller ones ourselves."

"Oh, there is something else. The main building should have a security room. I noticed a bunch of deactivated turrets on the buildings outside and some inside. I'm not sure if they would target us but I'm sure they would almost certainly target the machines if they were reactivated. And there is a large truck in the vehicle bay, almost in mint condition."

"So what are you thinking, boner?"

What will you do? How will you go about things in this factory?

>>3848065
>Grab some flasks of Azide and go to the security room. Don't want to burn the whole complex down in chemical fire.
>Set up our defences there, fix the turrets, plant more mines. We can safely grab our stuff after clearing out the robots.

>>3848083
Support. Keep the Azide for the big bot though, we're probably going to need something big to take him down.

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Silently, you stepped back into the storage and reached for one of the two Azide flasks there were. You stopped as Strela exclaimed 'no!'.

"Don't you have any idea how volatile that stuff is? Do you want to kill us both?!"

You heavily considered the options here but you were adamant to what you were thinking of. You reached into the display and retrieved one flask with utmost care and gentleness, making sure not to ease even a particle of it out of the risk of detonating it had.

"Trust me, I have a plan."

Strela looks petrified as you handle the Azide. You could not even store in in your pocket, you simple kept it held between your two fingers as you went.

You went out the side exit of the Chemical Bay and ducked behind a vehicle, Strela sticking close by. You peaked your head out and saw a column of the machines marching, the chattering of their footsteps ringing in the air.

"How do we get in?" You asked, looking towards the main fabricator building of the factory. The large hydraulic doors of it were sealed shut and you saw machines posted around every other entrance.

"We can only go in through the top, there's a chimney access we can get to by a ladder. Follow me."

You went with Strela, circling around the expanse of the grounds, behind dead bushes and cinderblocks and broken down vehicles and through the distillery building. This factory seemed to have absolutely everything conceivable for production, it must have been a big megacorp's asset in the past.

Finally, Strela gets near a fence with you, she carefully lifts it, trying not to make as much noise as she could so you could crawl under with one hand, the other carrying the Azide.

You hug the brick wall of the factory and peer around a corner with Strela. There was a door there guarded by a single Scout Legionnaire machine. It's internal mechanisms clicked as it rotated and turned it's limbs, looking around. The soul powered machine had strange fittings, it's right arm ended with a knob, a round metal object and the left ended with a single thumb and flat metal. Perhaps it's weapons systems were mystically fueled by the soul inhabiting the machine?

"Son of a bitch! This way wasn't guarded last time I was here!" Strela silently curses.

"Why are these machines even here in the first place? They're just standing watch and nothing else."

"Scavenging operations. Cheridex sends his minions out from Metaldom to secure places with lots of materials, and eventually they'll all be looted and brought back to go towards the unending expansion of Metaldom."

"We gotta get through here somehow, there's no other way in...."

You looked up and saw a metal beam connecting the main building with the vehicle bay, it was incredibly tiny though...

>Ask Strela to cause a diversion.
>Call on Heliac.
>Do something about it yourself.
>Try to enter from the vehicle bay.
>Dig your way in with old reliable.
>Write in.

>>3848592
we can turn the bot to our side.

>>3848592
>Dig your way in with old reliable.

>>3848601
How?

>>3848622
Support

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Taking one last peak around the corner at the machine, you backed away and held the flask of Azide to Strela who recoiled in nervous fear at it. It takes her a moment to realize what you want before she steadily raises her hand and takes the Azide from you. You take your shovel and walk away a little more, getting to a good spot behind the fences where you were sure nothing could hear you.

"Uhh... What the hell are you doing?!"

"Digging." You say back.

"Digging? ....Through cement...?"

"Yes."

You drive your shovel into the ground and lift up a slab of the cement, throwing it to the side and revealing the dirt underneath. Strela was dumbstruck but shook her head, focusing on not dropping the Azide under any condition.

This process was sure to take a long while. You had to dig the hole out large enough that Strela would be able to get through while maintaining a safe hold of the Azide. You had to beat your way through the cement and dirt and clay, all the way under the wall of the main fabricator building and deep down into the dirt. Hours passed and you weren't even halfway into the where you needed to be.

You had patience though, and Strela's resolve as a spirit allowed her to endure, despite the painful slog it was and how boring it felt.

After a considerable amount of time, you start digging upwards until you reach more stonework, it crumbles easily enough down into the hole you dug out, but you shove it over the hole with your shovel to make space as Strela eases through on her knees.

You stand out of the hole, propping yourself on your arm and look around, you were in the basement of the main fabricator building. The lights were off and you smelled a horrible stench coming from these dried red stains on the wall ahead of you along with a solid puddle. Could that have been.... a melted body?

You stood out of the hole and pull Strela up, she covers her nose at the stench.

"Let's get going, we still have some work."

You nod and ascend the stairs into the main fabricator room....

The ground floor was dark and the only sources of illumination were the glows of massive cast iron pots of molten steel you spotted around the room. The floor was elevated by chain-link walkways and railings and you saw dozens of large metal chains hanging from the ceiling. There were even at least four large manually operated crane arms higher up as well, and more railed walkways even higher up, at least two more floors of them until it hit the roof of this giant building.

You spotted fabricators in the room, large chunky machines with many conveyor belts that ran through the main room to others and back. The belts were lined with slabs and cut out pieces of steel and iron and other materials. This building seemed to serve the purpose of producing materials and synthesizing them. You even spotted crates and carts full of the ores mined from the earth used to make these things, melting them down and forming them back into a new shape. It was easy to see why the machines had secured this factory, their master needs the resources for his empire.

But of the things you could see, the 'big robot' Strela mentioned was not among them. Granted, the room was dark, but you couldn't make out the shape of anything that looked particularly robotic as well. Perhaps it was hiding? Well, so would you then.

You kept close to the railings, moving down to the area with the carts. You looked up and saw the security room's window overlooking the interior from the second floor up high. That was your destination.

You stealthily stepped across the floor of the carts and past the check-ins, spotting the door leading up there behind a booth and next to the restrooms. Quickly, you hopped over the railing and to it as fast as you could, Strela keeping pace as she could behind you with the Azide.

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Ascending the stairs up quickly and past other rooms such as the mess hall and manager's office, you came to the locked door of the security room. You twist the handle of the door until it breaks and you pull the knob off, pushing the door open. The security room is as typical as you would expect, there are three desks with chairs, lockers and computer consoles with a CCTV monitor bank with at least twenty one different screens.

You messed with them how you could, but they didn't work, the power was offline.

"Hmm... Ah! I got this, I can go to the subbasement and flip the auxiliary power breakers, that should turn everything on for long enough to let the turrets do their jobs. I'll be right back."

You see Strela go out and back into the building. You look from the glass and see her go back down into the basement again and there is a pause of you staring before the consoles around you suddenly light up again. You watch them go through a system reboot before you are able to log into the central one, which came on as though it never went off.

Brushing the dust off the screen, you access the turret control functions. It asks for a password.... one you don't know...

Uhh... Hmm.... maybe one of the things you saw around would have it. You begin to dig through the desks and what you could find until you find a flip book. You go through the pages reading mostly irrelevant information until you cross one such page that stood out. It read something simple enough....

" ʎɐɹ-X ɐipuI ɐɹɹǝiS
oɥɔƎ ɹǝqɯǝʌoN ɹɐɔsO
oɥɔƎ oɥɔƎ oǝɯoɹ lǝʇoH oƃuɐ
oƃuɐ lǝʇoH ɟloפ ɐipuI oɥɔƎ
oǝɯoɹ ɯɹoɟiu∩ ɹɐɔsO ʇoɹʇxoℲ
oɥɔƎ ɹoʇɔiΛ ɐipuI ʇoɹʇxoℲ
oɥɔƎ ɹǝqɯǝʌoN ɐipuI ɹǝqɯǝʌoN "

What will you do now?

>>3848783
>Input the password "6138459"

>>3848790
Actually, wait, would it be reversed since the text is upside-down? Shit.

>>3848783
>>3848794
I think it would be reversed
>9548316

>>3848807
Yeah pretty sure that's the one.

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Ahh, phonetics. You turned the sheet upside down and saw it read out clearly. But perhaps there was a twist here being that the letters were written upside down....

Reading it clearly, you saw the password as nine five four three one six. You brought the sheet over and punched in the code backwards on the password input. Six one three four five nine....

It doesn't work, bother. Alright, nine five four three one six.... It works.

There, you were in the turret control mainframe, there were at least thirty security turrets present at many locations on the exteriors of the factory complex's building, and ten on the interiors. Whoever owned this factory in the past must have really valued it.

You looked at the diagnostics and technical specifications. The turrets were all 5MM, and the shells were charged by electromagnetic coils in the barrels of the guns, which the terminal describes as being effective for dispersing Spiritual entities. You weren't sure how effective electromagnetism was against Spirits, but against the machines present, it would almost certainly be of great assistance.

So, without further delay, you activated the turret system.

In the span of the next two minutes, you here things whirring to life outside the walls followed by the discharge of many, many bullets with the racket of the fire being heard all over. It seems the turret system was doing it's job on the outside. You didn't activate the internal turrets as you weren't sure or not if they might target you and Strela as well.

With that all said and done you...

Wait....

What was...

"It has been a long time, nemesis."

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Hard, you are thrown to the platform below. You pick your hat up and shake your head, looking upwards at the hulking form of a massive machine.

"So, what I have been told is true, the nemesis of our past has returned." You hear the speakers of the machine say.

"But this time, we are not threatened. It is like a miracle! I had almost thought that it was urgent when I first received word the Piedmonts, but I was again reminded of the seal. You shall fall by the wayside without much effort."

"Who.. are you...?"

"Hmm? You don't recognize my voice, old nemesis? Ohh, you disappoint me! The seal works good! Oh ho ho hoo! Well, don't dwell on it then. Just sit there and let my wonderful machine do it's job. I have engineered it to perfection."

The platform underneath you shifted then, beginning to move forward. You looked ahead and saw the opening of a large container full of molten steel. You looked below and saw more raw metals. You were on one of the fabricator's conveyor belts heading right towards incineration!

You stood up and backed off, the massive battle drone in front of you barring it's claws and taking heavy steps forward.

You looked above and saw steel beams hoisted by the chains of a crane. Behind you, you saw barrels of gasoline.

"What's happenin..... Oh no! Hey! Grave Diggah'!" You heard Strela call from below, still carefully carrying the Azide. She was quite the drop down from you.

"Hold on right there! I'll try to stop the belt!"

>Attack the machine.
>Shoot at something.
>Wait and defend.
>Wait and try counterattacking.
>Use Terror Force.
>Summon Heliac.
>Write in.