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And now ... with the Loom and the other benches all operated off of Needles, it seems that time is finally at hand. You are ready to learn, ready to help, ready to be worthy - only for you to be told that your next lessons are to be with the flute! You had been confused, thinking a flute to be some stripe of Mysterious Instrument you had not yet been aquantied with … but father made it quite clear that he was speaking of the musical instrument, not any Mysterious one. The flute! You ... horizons that you couldn't even have dreamed of two days ago are beckoning, and you are being told learn music?! You cannot imagine this to be a joke; father has never had the time nor sense for humor. So assuming that this isn't just a ploy to keep you busy while he returns to his work, you have to think that by learning to play you would cultivate a sense of rhythm and timing; for a surety, that would come in handy delving the Mysteries. Even so ... you have to ask yourself why he is only doing this now. And surely, don't you have enough of a grasp of timing and rhythm from your years as a sneak-thief?

Moreover, you have – completely unbeknownst to father – done some delving into the Many Mysteries on your own. You … well, you didn't die. You didn't even hurt yourself, not really. So in spite of everything, you know that you are ready for a lot more than mindless timing excercises. For a surety, you very nearly Emanated yourself! And honestly, if it is going to take another year of wheedling before you get to sink your teeth into something serious then your father – if not the two of you – will be dead and buried before you even learn the basics of anything.

Right now, you are finishing up the after-dinner cleaning while your father is out – 'doing errands' as he calls it, when he is lightly plying his first trade at many places instead of a running a full knock-down somewhere specific. You will not know how much time you have until you hear him climbing up the belltower, but if he is staying out until he finds and steals a flute for you, then you would imagine that you have more than a few hours to work with … though you mustn't forget to clean up and put everything back into order, otherwise he'll never teach you another thing so long as you live, and that is not even considering whatever drubbing you'd get for going against him like this ...

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> Previous Thread: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/6053771/
> The Terrible History: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5061777/ (starting from 5097780)
> Archive of Threads: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=eternal+rome

> From 6090983 in the last thread, the vote was a tie – so I figured that we'd do a bit of a flashback, and expand the options. There will be a few branching choices after this, and potentially some rolling. The better you do here, the better the reward will be for Chlotsuintha once the flashback concludes.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will try your hand at the Life-Loom, though it may prove to be hard to get away with using
> You will try your hand at the Fetish-Foundry, though you have the least familiarity with it – or perhaps because of your lack of familiarity
> You will try your hand at the Glyphery, though of the three benches it will be the hardest to work with in the time available and the constraints that you are under
> You will look for Implements, Instruments and the like to practice with
> You will look for Constructs, Assemblies and Hermaphrodites to practice with
> You will look through your father's old Inquisitor kit for articles to practice with
> You will look through your father's desk for writings and schematics you may learn from
> You will practice working with the Scarification Glyphs that you already have
> You will practice your Reaching and potentially your Emanation or Projection

> You will look through your father's desk for writings and schematics you may learn from

>>6114723
>> You will look through your father's desk for writings and schematics you may learn from

>>6114723
>You will try your hand at the Life-Loom, though it may prove to be hard to get away with using
Welcome back, only took a month or so

>>6114723
>You will look for Implements, Instruments and the like to practice with

Closed and writing!

>>6115002
> Welcome back, only took a month or so
I know, I know ...

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Buoyed by the prospect of how much you learned last night, and how much more you stand to learn tonight, you scour the last of the pots faster than you would have thought possible. Beyond how to use your three Scarification Glyphs and to perform Mitigations and Remediations, father had kept the door to the Many Mysteries shut to you for so long, the prospect of finally being able to learn excites you more than you can even articulate. So once you are done with the cleaning, it is with a broad smile and a flush mind that you heft the washing-tub and hustle over to the nearest window, ease open the unbattened shutters and throw out the last of the water. It is only once you hear the distant splash after setting down the washing-tub that it occurs to you that in your excitement you didn't even give the customary 'beware'. You cringe at your forgetfulness; were you to make an oversight like that with one of the benches ... well, you don't even know what would happen. You have never known father to make a mistake with them, so you can only guess as to how bad things might get. That ... that is a sobering thought, isn't it?

Perhaps ... perhaps you are getting ahead of yourself here. Just because you know how to use Socketing Needles now, it doesn't mean that you have to immediately try your hand at the benches. You could do that ... to-morrow, or the day after. Instead, maybe you should find something a little more forgiving to work with tonight. Racking your brain, you take an inventory of what you know to be in the Belfry, the Implements, the Instruments, the Constructs. All the Mysterious articles you know about. You are spoiled for choice ... and if you are being entirely honest with yourself, even less confident than you were just mere moments ago. That fraying wash-water, you cannot get it out of your mind. A mistake like that, you'd be liable to get hurt by the Mystery or caught by father - and while you cannot say which prospect scares you more, the thought of either is enough to make you blanch and your stomach ache. The thought of both, oh Mercy ...

No, you ... you are in a right state now. Father has told you about these - when he was teaching you about stealing, not about the Mysteries - about how you have to recognize when you are in your own way. To-morrow, to-morrow, you will be more on top of things. Your are just ... flustered about the flute, that's all. Honestly, if this was to be part of your education, you could have started practicing music years ago now ... Well, you are not like to square that corner anytime soon. Anyway then, if you aren't going to be delving the Many Mysteries, then perhaps you can be reading about them. Of course, father has forbidden you from his writing desk as well, but you have sneaked peeks at his writings and drawings before and got away with it.

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Of course, that was just a glance at whatever happened to be on top, if you wanted to get a real look at the stuff he kept in the locked drawers of the desk and the cabinets and chests next - ah, shit! You fraying idiot! How are you going to use your Cold-Touch Scarification Glyph to pick a lock when you just dumped the last of the water out the fraying window!

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Look for some other liquid that you may use with Cold-Touch amongst the supplies and ingredients kept in the Belfry. With any luck, father will overlook its absence.
> Look for some other means - Mysterious or otherwise - to get into the locked compartments of father's desk and study.
> Wrap your gauze and don your mask, then head out into the Midden to the communal well to draw enough water to perform Ice-Lockpick a number of times.
> As use of Cold-Touch Breaches in a goodly deal of the Strangeness - and shortens the span of your days in the process - you will just have to settle for peeking at whatever is on top of his desk.

>>6115133
>> As use of Cold-Touch Breaches in a goodly deal of the Strangeness - and shortens the span of your days in the process - you will just have to settle for peeking at whatever is on top of his desk.

>>6115133
> As use of Cold-Touch Breaches in a goodly deal of the Strangeness - and shortens the span of your days in the process - you will just have to settle for peeking at whatever is on top of his desk.

>>6115133
>Look for some other means - Mysterious or otherwise - to get into the locked compartments of father's desk and study.

Alright, consider this closed.

A stiff breeze slams the outer shutter against the frame, starling you. As you hastily batten it down, you find yourself beset by a host of second and even third thoughts. Setting aside the point of you actually using Cold-Touch to perform an Ice-Lockpick - a feat that you have performed only once before - there is the issue of the spent working material, the water. Obviously, water and paper don't mix, doubly so for Estranged water and paper. You don't doubt that you could Mitigate or Remediate away whatever Strangeness that was Breached by the cast, but ... you are not sure certain that you could do it without leaving behind evidence of your work. Or doing it quickly enough that the writings and such didn't come to some more mundane harm in the process. There is also the matter that these casts use you as Fuel, winnowing the span of your days. That ... no, that is just too hard of sell. Surely you will learn better ways of dealing with the Strangeness and overcoming locks that don't require you to kill yourself in dribs and drabs. Until then, you will just have to hope that you may satisfy yourself with whatever has been left out for you.

You make sure that you are finished putting everything away, then you batten down the remaining windows and with the last of the embers from the ramshackle stove you light a thoroughly scuffed clay lamp, so discolored with age and oil that you cannot even guess what shade the clay might have been. Once you have a healthful flame lapping, you quit the room, giving the trap door and the winch that looms over it a lingering look as you do, wondering how much time remains to you before father returns. Spurred by the thought, you hurry to then up the stairs to the second floor of the Belfry. Unlike the first, which is divided into rooms by sailing-cloth and rope, there are actual wooden walls and doors here. Father says he built them for safety, and it took you an embarrassingly long time to realize that he meant them to keep his work safe from you. Of course, you might have had an easier time of concluding their intended purpose if they were ever able to accomplish it. The walls only go high enough to hang the doors, but the ceiling of the second floor is the very peaked roof of the old bell-tower. As soon as the walls were up, you were climbing over them in father's frequent nightly absences to see what ever he was up to, to the point that he never even bothered stealing locks for all of the doors. The cabinets and the drawers and the chests though, these you cannot climb your way in, so these he has kept locking. Especially those on his writing desk and in his study.

Following your lamp's warm glow into the room, you have to wonder how late the hour must be as so little light wins through the shutters. On approach to the desk, you can see a few loose papers strewn over the surface. Fewer than you would have liked, certainly - but not none. Carefully setting the light down away from the curling edges of the paper, you wonder how to best approach this.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Look through the bookcases instead. If memory serves nearly all of the texts are in languages or cyphers that are unreadable to you, but there might be notes or sketches left in-between pages instead.
> Focus on the papers on top of the desk, memorizing everything about them. In time, you may forget some details here and there - but there will be no evidence of your subterfuge for father to find.
> Focus on the papers on top of the desk, writing everything on them down on another piece of paper. You won't forget details if you don't have to remember them - but there will be damning evidence of your subterfuge, if the copied notes are ever found.

>>6115377

> Focus on the papers on top of the desk, memorizing everything about them. In time, you may forget some details here and there - but there will be no evidence of your subterfuge for father to find.

>>6115377
> Focus on the papers on top of the desk, memorizing everything about them. In time, you may forget some details here and there - but there will be no evidence of your subterfuge for father to find.


>Surely you will learn better ways of dealing with the Strangeness and overcoming locks that don't require you to kill yourself in dribs and drabs

Lol, then we never did

>>6115377
>> Focus on the papers on top of the desk, writing everything on them down on another piece of paper. You won't forget details if you don't have to remember them - but there will be damning evidence of your subterfuge, if the copied notes are ever found.

>>6115377
>Focus on the papers on top of the desk, memorizing everything about them. In time, you may forget some details here and there - but there will be no evidence of your subterfuge for father to find.

Consider this closed!

>>6115572
Yep.

>>6115839
Sorry for the off-topic, but I just found this thread after following the archive for many months. Thank you so much for continuing this quest.

Is there any way you can be reached privately? I have something of a fan work that I'd like to share if you are willing.

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There are just no two ways about it, you have never had any success in keeping things hidden from father - and you cannot muster up any reason why this would time be any different. You will just have to do your best to remember whatever you find ... though as you read more and more of the documents atop the desk, you have to wonder if you will be able to retain anything. Almost half of the papers are pages that have been cut out of a book - not recently to your eyes - and of course, they would have to be in some language that you cannot recognize, let alone read. You are able to recognize tables of numerical values on the pages, and you would think that these numbers are probably the most important bit of the passage, but you cannot possibly expect to make even the wildest of guesses as to what your father's interest was about. Flipping through the loose pages - careful to keep them in the order you found them in - you search for notes in the margin from father, or illustrations, anything that you could actually use. As you had feared, there is nothing. Trying not to completely sour on all of this, you turn your attention to the more incidental and scattered pages across the desktop. A number of them just appear to be scraps of paper with numbers written on them and the occasional doodle, but here and there are lists written in plain Reichtongue, quite obvious in your father's tight, neat hand.

By your count there are five of these lists, two of which look like they were written on the same piece of paper then separated. All of them list different sorts of cuts of meat from various animals, nothing particularly unusual about the animals or the cuts - though you can see that there are duplicate and triplicate items on the list, specifying different purveyors for the same cut. You are intrigued, certainly, but beyond the notion that these lists are materials for Constructs, you cannot possibly conclude anything. You cannot even say if these are to be the target, the working material or the Fuel for the Weaving ... at least until you notice that there is one line on one list that is stuck through twice, with the note 'respiratory' to the side. From that you could reasonably guess that the lists are of working material, and the line - which appears to be 'rabbit quarters' - suggests ... that it was or wasn't suitable for respiratory work? The strike through would certainly suggest something negative, considering that it - along with the note - is the only additional marking on any of the lists. Or maybe it is saying that rabbit quarters are good for respiratory work, though from your limited understanding of Weaving and the Many Mysteries in general, you would assume that you would want rabbit lungs to work into a respiratory system for a Construct.

Little and less you might have to work with, but you cannot help but be intrigued by what you have seen. You are not sure how much good it would do your education to memorize lists of meat, but considering how excruciatingly slow your progress has been so far, you will take anything and everything that even feels like forward momentum. Of course, the night is still young. You could try your luck elsewhere in the Belfry ... or you could remain at the desk for the moment. You aren't feeling up to picking the locks on the desk and in the study, but perhaps it would be worth your time to just check them, to see if there had been a fortunate oversight here or there. You don't think father has done anything to trap them ...

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Go elsewhere in the Belfry and investigate something else, referring to >>6114723
> Remain at the desk, in the study, and check everything to see if there is anything unlocked.
> Remain at the desk and start memorizing everything about the available papers.

>>6116184
I'm glad that you could make it anon! To answer your question, I don't have anything set up at the moment, but I might have an idea how you could get in touch. I'll see if I can get it to work tomorrow.

>>6116248
>> Remain at the desk and start memorizing everything about the available papers.

>>6116248
> Remain at the desk, in the study, and check everything to see if there is anything unlocked.

In an effort to make hay while the sun shines, I will leave this open for another hour, then I will roll for it.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

On a roll of one:
> Remain at the desk and start memorizing everything about the available papers.

On a roll of two:
> Remain at the desk, in the study, and check everything to see if there is anything unlocked.

>>6116427
Okay, closed and writing. Look for update within the next two hours.

You are nervous - being here, doing this - and rather eager to get something, anything in the proverbial poke. Yet ... worming through both worries and yearning is a blossoming sense of disappointment. To be sure, father is cautious; enough so that you never expected that you would have a lot to work with, just lying out there for you to read ... but you have to admit to yourself that you expected more than a barely notated list of materials. Without even intending to, you find yourself glancing towards where the winch and platform sit, on the floor below. By the best of your estimation, you have the time - but do you have the nerve? Now unable to draw your eyes away from the veritable forest of drawers, laden down with knowledge and Mysteries you cannot even hope to imagine, you find yourself more and more sure of yourself. You start to glance behind yourself, then you stop, instead cautiously reaching towards the nearest of the drawers on the desk. There has never been anything to suggest that the drawers were trapped or alarumed or gimmicked in anyway, ever. Even still, this is your father that you are dealing with, so touching and pulling on the handle of the drawer to his desk is not something done idly or easily.

When you do try the handle, however, you end up making a rather remarkable exhalation - equal parts relief that the drawer is not trapped or alarumed or gimmicked and frustration that it is quite predictably locked. Obviously, it is locked. Of fraying course, it is locked. Did you honestly expect that the first drawer that you tried was going to be unlocked for no more reason than you wanted it to be so? If you are that much of a child, then quite honestly, father might have some sense in delaying and deferring your edification and education into the Many Mysteries. Blushing in spite of yourself - or rather, on account of your childishness - you start trying other handles at random, to the self-same results. No tricks - at least, none that you can see - but no opening either. But as you start to falter again, you try a drawer that feels different from the rest. The others felt locked - this one feels jammed. For all you know, it might just be locked and jammed, but you seize upon the handle, bracing yourself against the desk, ready to throw your weight into the opening of it- and stop yourself just as quickly. What if you free the drawer - assuming it isn't locked - and father finds the jammed drawer no longer jammed? What if it is locked and jammed, and you damage the drawer or the desk with your heaving and hoing? For that matter, what if it is just locked? It could be that the lock on this particular drawer is tighter than others.

Doubting everything once again, you let go of the handle entirely, resolving to - oh! Oh! As you extricate yourself from your braced position, you catch a glimpse of something you wouldn't have seen otherwise, standing in front of the desk normally. Underneath the lap-drawer, there looks to be a pull out writing surface tucked underneath it. When you try it, it moves as smooth as silk dragged across thick cream - and the schematic left on top of the surface is enough to take your breath away. It is a flying Construct. From the scale, it is nothing that could ever be ridden - which you understand to be father's first and greatest interest - but still! At two cubits tall and two-thirds of a cubit around, it would well and away be the largest Construct you ever saw, if father made the thing. A note on the schematic identifies the Construct - or more accurately, the Assembly - as a Drone, which if you understand the name means that the Construct has no cognition of its own, that it must be controlled, either by a Bearer or another Assembly that was cognitively capable. If you can read the schematic properly, it demonstrates how the Bearer controls the ... altitude of the Drone? You are not sure. You flip the paper over and find nothing on the back. Unfortunately, there are no other schematics on the pull-out. As you understand it, there would be schematics for each point of interest in the design, each process. Still, just the Bearer-Drone Altitude interface has given you all sorts of Sub-Assemblies and Constructs to study. Switch-style and Test-style checks, clearance considerations, intakes and outfalls, all alongside things you have never even heard father mention, like recursive and iterative architecture, false consciousness and counter false consciousness. Everywhere you look on the paper, you see something you have never seen before. It is incredible! It is exactly what you were looking for!

Is there more?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Wait, no. No. You need to stop yourself. This is more than enough. Take what time remains to you, and commit everything on this paper to memory as best as you are able. Then you call it a night before you make a mess and get caught.
> Wait, no. No. You need to pace yourself. You have collected, now you just need to get away with it. Take half and hour or so, maybe more and commit all of this to memory. Then once you are done, resume your search at the desk.
> Yeah, there might be more. There might even be better. Put it back where you found it for now, and keep looking. If nothing turns up, then and only then do you take the time to commit the schematic to memory.

Little later than I thought I would be, apologies.

You still around >>6116184?

>>6116532
>> Wait, no. No. You need to pace yourself. You have collected, now you just need to get away with it. Take half and hour or so, maybe more and commit all of this to memory. Then once you are done, resume your search at the desk.

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>>6116532

> Wait, no. No. You need to stop yourself. This is more than enough. Take what time remains to you, and commit everything on this paper to memory as best as you are able. Then you call it a night before you make a mess and get caught.

Birds aren't real.

>>6116532
>> Wait, no. No. You need to pace yourself. You have collected, now you just need to get away with it. Take half and hour or so, maybe more and commit all of this to memory. Then once you are done, resume your search at the desk.

Consider this closed. Look for the update within the next two and a half hours.

>>6116533
Still around! Just been preoccupied with an infection after a wisdom tooth extraction. Were you able to sort something out?

Wait. No, you are ... you are getting ahead of yourself. This schematic might be in your hand, but until it is in your mind, you haven't accomplished anything. With that thought sobering you up, you lean in and study the paper before you, soaking up everything that you possibly can - staring until your eyes and the lump behind them are aching. There is certainly a lot to take in ... and without you making a copy of it, you have to wonder just how much you can possibly retain. Of course, you have to temper your expectations somewhat; realistically, you were not going to be learning how to Weave these 'bleeding edge' Assemblies tonight ... but as far as being exposed to ideas, to concepts, seeing how Weaves such as these were all put together, that is something that you could keep in mind for future, for a surety! You don't know quite how long it takes, but eventually you reach a point where you feel as if you have done all you can do to memorize the content of the page. Even so, you mood is soured by the nagging doubt that you might not have spent enough time, that you might misremember or forget some rather important detail entirely. And once you move on to actually trying the rest of the drawers, you mood is soured further when you find not one single, solitary drawer in the entirety of father's study to be left unlocked.

Trying and ... marginally succeeding at not feeling defeated, you spend a few more minutes scouring the schematic with your eyes, then, only once your head feels fit to burst do you allow your gaze to drop to the jammed and potentially locked drawer that you encountered earlier. You slide the writing surface back into its position as you contemplate the drawer. Should you risk it? Should you look elsewhere? Or should you spend a little more time with the schematic then call it a night?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Try to force the Jammed Drawer open by hand
> Look for tools and Implements that might open the Jammed Drawer
> After another round with the schematic, go elsewhere in the Belfry and investigate something else, referring to >>6114723
> After another round with the schematic, go call it a night [Opener Concludes]

>>6116862
Glad to hear that you are still around, and sorry to hear about the infection. Yes, I believe I did figure something out. Tomorrow, while I am sitting down and writing the next post, I'll go to guerrilla mail and get a temporary email. I'll post it in the thread. You can get one too, if you like, then you can send me your work that way - assuming, of course, that you don't have any objections.

>>6116989
> After another round with the schematic, go call it a night [Opener Concludes]

I really like the almost cinematic feel that these flashback segments give, but I do also want us to be in present to face the consequences of our many bad decisions and hopefully make sone more

>>6116989
> After another round with the schematic, go call it a night [Opener Concludes]

>>6116993
Thanks, friend. That would be great.

>>6116989
> Look for tools and Implements that might open the Jammed Drawer
or
> After another round with the schematic, go elsewhere in the Belfry and investigate something else, referring to >>6114723
Keep the learning train going!

>>6116989
>Look for tools and Implements that might open the Jammed Drawer

Okay, so taking the split vote into consideration, we have a tie here. I will wait an hour, then I will roll to break the tie.

>>6117034
I just checked guerilla mail, it seems that 'sending email has been suspended for today'. I can still receive stuff though. If you want to wait until you can send your work through them that's fine with me, or if you have an email you are comfortable sending it with, that can work as well. Just let me know.

Just a heads up, I might not be able to start writing right away after all. I'll keep you all posted, but in the meantime, the vote is open until I know I am ready to write.

>>6116989
> Look for tools and Implements that might open the Jammed Drawer

Forbidden drawer.

>>6117105
I was just going to send it from a gmail account anyway so no need to wait.

Okay, back on track. And as an added bonus, the tie was properly broken too! I'll get to writing.

> Gain one lucky Tenth-Talent

>>6117143
Okay then, send away to iokusrtg@sharklasers.com

>>6117410
Thanks, friend. Sent.

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Well ... you suppose it wouldn't hurt to at least look for something or other to open the drawer. Taking up your light, you retreat out of the room and head over to father's mundane workbench. There will be hand tools there, for woodworking and the like, which you imagine would be able to win the drawer free - assuming, of course, that it isn't locked as well as jammed. With some rummaging around, you track down a collection of chisels, punches and wedges, some wooden and leather mallets in various sizes, and a crowbar that has been cut to about a hand's-width. If you were any to judge, you'd say that father keeps these tools around as duplicates for his cracking-kit. You spare a glance around looking for that, but when it doesn't turn up in the small room set aside for non-Mysterious endeavors, you have to assume that it is with father at the moment. Your attention returned to the tools present on the bench before you, you consider how likely you are to be able to free the drawer with them. You would give yourself good odds - so long as it wasn't locked. Now, as far as you being able to get the drawer free without marking or marring the woodwork, that ... well, no two ways about that. That would be harder. If you were lucky - something you know better than to count on, but can never stop yourself from hoping for - you'd be able to get it moving freely with a couple of whacks with the leather mallet. If it came to prying, then you would probably end up doing something to the wood, though if all went well any damage could be kept out of sight.

Alternatively ... you recall that father has mentioned ... a Construct you believe, called the 'Picking Purse'. It was in passing - more or less to himself, for that matter - but it has come up more than once, and judging from the name and from father's interests, you have to imagine that it is some sort of living cracking-kit. You don't know if he has actually made one, or this is all just ideas floating around ... but if he has actually Woven one, if he is actually using one out on the Mount tonight, then it follows that there would have had to have been prototypes - some of which might still be alive, kept for observation in father's Pound. Now, you cannot know if any of these surviving prototypes are functional - let alone exist - and you don't know if they are able to working jammed drawers free ... but if the drawer in question proves to be locked and jammed, then it would certainly be of assistance. And once you had that one open, then nothing would be stopping you from getting into the others, would it?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You are biting off much, much more than you can chew here. Keep things mundane, try to get the drawer open with just the leather mallets. If that doesn't bear fruit, then decide on more extreme options.
> You are biting off much, much more than you can chew here. Keep things mundane ... and try to find where father keeps his lockpicks. For a surety, he couldn't have taken all of them with him tonight.
> You may be biting off much, much more than you can chew ... but you are a growing girl - er, woman. Growing woman. See if there is anything alive in the Pound, then see about getting it out for a proper look.

>>6117486
I'm flattered, beyond flattered. I think the changes work fine, given the constraints of the medium. Is medium even the right word here? I don't think it is, but I think of a better word. Regardless, I'm impressed! It has certainly made my day. And my apologies for making it so hard to get this to me in the first place.

>>6117621
> You may be biting off much, much more than you can chew ... but you are a growing girl - er, woman. Growing woman. See if there is anything alive in the Pound, then see about getting it out for a proper look.

>>6117621
> You are biting off much, much more than you can chew here. Keep things mundane ... and try to find where father keeps his lockpicks. For a surety, he couldn't have taken all of them with him tonight.

That's very kind of you to say, thank you so much. I think medium is as good a word as any. It is a challenge to compress the information into song given you only have so much time to work with. I'd like to make more in the future to explore other aspects of the intricate and fascinating world you've made.

Thank you for going to the effort to make it work. It would've been easier to just drop the link in the thread but I didn't want to do so without your blessing. Would you mind if I post it now?

>>6117621
>> You are biting off much, much more than you can chew here. Keep things mundane ... and try to find where father keeps his lockpicks. For a surety, he couldn't have taken all of them with him tonight.

>>6117621
> You are biting off much, much more than you can chew here. Keep things mundane, try to get the drawer open with just the leather mallets. If that doesn't bear fruit, then decide on more extreme options.

Alright, consider this closed.

>>6117697
If you want to link it, that's fine.

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Your mind having well and truly run away with itself, you sit down in the middle of the room and try to reign your thoughts - and yourself - back in. It does not need to be said how mucking about with prototype Constructs could be dangerous, or messy, or otherwise liable to give you away to father in ways that peeking at loose papers and picking your way into locked drawers might. And as far as forcing the jammed drawer goes - it seems that it is going to involve hand tools no matter what, and that is going to come with a serious risk of leaving evidence of your handiwork behind. In your estimation, the jammed drawer is not particularly special - the only things setting it apart from the rest of the drawers and chests in the study is that the jammed drawer is potentially unlocked. And of course, jammed. What you are driving towards is that you have no reason to believe that whatever is inside would be of any greater interest than what is inside the rest of the drawers in the room.

And if that is the way of it, then it would make sense to ignore the jammed drawer, and focus on some that you could open without any risk of father knowing. To that end, lockpicks, of a mundane stripe would be best. Feeling resolved and eager once more, you stand up and start forward, only to stop. Now there is a new issue at hand here. You don't know where father keeps his spare picks. You have to believe there are spares though, he's always saying things like 'if it is worth having one, then it is likely worth having two'. And as he keeps his kits up here when he is not out on a job with them, this room is the first place you'd look for them - but this little space has very few places you have already not looked when you were looking for the tools, and you never came across hide nor hair of any picks. Starting to more and more acutely feel the passage of time, you look through the room for a little longer before you finally accept that there are no picks to be had here. The next most likely place to have picks would be father's room. And you know most everything in there is locked up as tight as it is in his study. Fraying Hell, if the lockpicks are locked up, you are really going to have time of here tonight, aren't you?

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will go into father's room, looking for lockpicks as thoroughly as you can without unlocking anything - leaving the option of fetching water and using Cold Touch open for now.
> There has to be at least one misplayed lockpick lying around somewhere in the Belfry. If there is, and you can find it, you can save yourself a lot of trouble.
> You should just call it here. Take another round with the schematic, then go call it a night [Opener Concludes]

>>6118137
>> There has to be at least one misplayed lockpick lying around somewhere in the Belfry. If there is, and you can find it, you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

>>6118137
>> There has to be at least one misplayed lockpick lying around somewhere in the Belfry. If there is, and you can find it, you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

>>6118137
> You should just call it here. Take another round with the schematic, then go call it a night [Opener Concludes]

>>6118137
> There has to be at least one misplayed lockpick lying around somewhere in the Belfry. If there is, and you can find it, you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

>>6117945
Thank you.

For any anon who is interested, I wrote a song inspired by this quest. It's mainly written from the perspective of Chlotsuintha's internal monologue. I hope you enjoy it.

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

>>6118197
Very very cool, anon. Thanks for sharing!

>>6118137
>You should just call it here. Take another round with the schematic, then go call it a night [Opener Concludes]

Alright, consider this closed.

Sorry for the delay - again. Update should be done in a few hours.

Oh, come on now ... all things considered, there simply must be one single, solitary lockpick that isn't under lock and key at the moment. For a surety, there must be, what with all of the cracking-work that father does. Moreover, if your ship is to come in, then by all reason your father's room is the berth you'd favor for it the most; so it is you follow that reason downstairs and into his room ... though as soon as you arrive, whatever eagerness you might have been nursing withers. You know well it is your nerves - or lack there of - that make the shadows here seem deeper and harder for your lamp to displace than they did elsewhere in the Belfry. Or if it is not a question or absence of nerves, then it must be the trampling march of the hours - you did spend quite a bit of a time with that schematic, after all. But it cannot be denied that there is an almost tangible sense, a taste to the air, that you are not suppose to be here. That you are not supposed to be doing this. At the moment, rather than thinking of specific places to look, it is all you can to do not think of what father would say - and what he would do where he to catch you in here, doing this. And where he to glean that you were looking for lockpicks to sneak peaks at his work ... he might just never teach you anything ever again.

Moving into the room doesn't lessen this load upon you - if anything, it does the opposite. Only once you throw yourself into the minutia of actually looking for the picks you find some slack in the line. Of course, there are not too many places too look. Father's room is not much larger than yours - and though he has more in it certainly, most of it is under lock and key, and as such are islands in the sea of your search. Checking in between chests and under - and then through - piles of clothes is quick work, and after searching in what you feel to be the most likely of spaces a second time, you are compelled to get a bit more creative with your casing. And ultimately, this creativity is what sends you to the paymaster, for underneath father's bedroll is a single, old-fashioned pick. More than old-fashioned, the pick is old - a patina of rust attests to its age. Given its apparent age, taken alongside its location, you have to assume that it has some sentimental value to father.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> This night has seen enough transgressions placed on your head already. Pinching what is clearly a special pick is simply a march to many. Maker's Mercy, what if the locks are gimmicked and you ended up breaking the thing? Keep looking.
> You have been trying to get father to introduce you to the Many Mysteries for years now. Years. And if he let you build out a kit of your own, you wouldn't need to pinch his pick or even be in his room. And of course, you will be careful. You will head up to the study, and start picking drawers and chests at random. Obviously, you won't have the time to memorize everything, but any little bit helps.
> You have been trying to get father to introduce you to the Many Mysteries for years now. Years. And if he let you build out a kit of your own, you wouldn't need to pinch his pick or even be in his room. And of course, you will be careful. You will remain in his room, and see what sort of Mysteries and Witchworks he keeps for company. Who knows what you will find in here?
> You have been trying to get father to introduce you to the Many Mysteries for years now. Years. And if he let you build out a kit of your own, you wouldn't need to pinch his pick or even be in his room. And of course, you will be careful. You will head up stairs and try to pick your way into the Pound, so you may learn from whatever Constructs and Assemblies father has stowed there. Seeing a whole living thing will probably be more informative than just reading about it ... though it may prove messier. And more likely to be gimmicked or otherwise protected ...

>>6119291
> This night has seen enough transgressions placed on your head already. Pinching what is clearly a special pick is simply a march to many. Maker's Mercy, what if the locks are gimmicked and you ended up breaking the thing? Keep looking.

>>6119291
> This night has seen enough transgressions placed on your head already. Pinching what is clearly a special pick is simply a march to many. Maker's Mercy, what if the locks are gimmicked and you ended up breaking the thing? Keep looking.

>>6119291
>> This night has seen enough transgressions placed on your head already. Pinching what is clearly a special pick is simply a march to many. Maker's Mercy, what if the locks are gimmicked and you ended up breaking the thing? Keep looking.

Alright, consider this closed.

You stare intently at the pick in the strained glow of the lamp for more than a few moments. You want to learn, so very desperately, and what with the pace that father is taking with you, you have come to accept that cracking your way into his papers and notes are your best bet. However ... upsetting father is one thing, hurting him is another. And if this is as sentimental to him as you think it is, then ... no, you - you just can't. You cannot risk breaking it. And if you were of a better stripe, you wouldn't even consider using it to violate his confidence. Or rather, you wouldn't be looking for implements to violate his confidence with ... but, that's not the point here. There has to be something else. Something you overlooked. You commit yourself to a third scouring of the room, trying to be even more expansive and creative with your search than you were in your last tilt at the smokestack.

And in spite of your doubts, you are send to the paymaster a second time - though your wages are not what they were the first time through. After taking apart a pile of Sleep-Season clothes and meticulously going through every pocket, you turn up a skeleton key. It certainly isn't anything you expected to find; you know from your education in father's first trade that has a very dim view of the things. While they don't require any skill to use, and are presumably beyond the ability of a typical gimmicked lock or careless hand to destroy, they are only able to open locks that have chambering that more or less corresponds to the teething of the key. You have absolutely no idea which locks - if any - this will be able to open, but considering how many there are throughout the Belfry, you would in effect be playing the odds to the point that you are certain that you could get at least a few open. Of course, if it turned out that there were locks that were gimmicked, alarumed, or otherwise trapped then you would simultaneously be playing those odds as well. Father did make a point of telling you not to mess with anything under lock and key - and even went so far as to make you promise not to do so when he taught you Cold-Touch and how to do the trick, the Ice-Lockpick. But he knows that you are the only other one up here in the Belfry with him, so he wouldn't want anything like that around, right?

Definitely no traps, nothing dangerous. But alarums or gimmicks? There could be ... but not on everything certainly. Probably only on a few, very important things. Which would likely be kept with newer locks - which won't admit a old style key, like this skeleton is teethed after. You certainly feel better about your prospects of not falling afoul of anything during your cracking ... though it has cost you your confidence of finding something really, really great.

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It may be a bitter draught to choke down, but there has never been any guarantee that there is anything more - or anything better - for you to turn up, lockpick wise. Expanding your search into the rest of the Belfry is an option ... but you cannot give yourself good odds of turning up anything better than the sentimental pick and the skeleton key. Still, you do have the time, and just about anything would be a better use of it than sitting around waiting for father to return with a flute. Even if it was just heading back into his study, looking over the schematic one last time, then going to bed.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Leave the skeleton key where it is and look through the rest of the Belfry for a proper lockpick.
> Leave the skeleton key where it is and head out into the Midden to fetch water to perform Cold Touch with.
> Leave the skeleton key where it is and head back to the schematic for one last round of study. [Opener Concludes]
> Take the skeleton key and head into the study, looking for locks that it may open.
> Take the skeleton key and head into his room, looking for locks that it may open.
> Take the skeleton key and head over to the Pound, looking for locks that it may open.
> Take the skeleton key and head over to [Write-In, referring to >>6114723]

>>6119834
> Leave the skeleton key where it is and head back to the schematic for one last round of study. [Opener Concludes]

>>6119834
>Leave the skeleton key where it is and head out into the Midden to fetch water to perform Cold Touch with

>>6119834
> Take the skeleton key and head into his room, looking for locks that it may open.
Or Pound- I’m curious, sue me.

Feel free to also consider this as a vote for Midden/Cold Touch if you want to move on, I don’t mind.

Considering that the vote has now been up for more than a day, I'll count >>6120447 as a vote for heading out into the Midden to collect water to perform Cold-Touch with, as per the instructions given with the post. I'll get to writing immediately.

Your jaw sets and your lips purse as you contemplate the skeleton key. You don't want to play the odds, you don't want to still be locked out of most everything in the Belfry. For years now, you have sat on your hands and held your tongue, and your education and elucidation of the Many Mysteries has suffered for - no, not suffered. Hasn't fraying existed for it! Well, starting tonight that is over and done. You will use Cold-Touch, the one damned thing father has taught you, to take your education into your own hands. Father did specify that it was for emergencies only, and you are deep enough into the Mysteries to know that you are using yourself as Fuel, quickening your life and hastening your death ... but what of it? With the way the Whole is - and even the lands beyond it - you cannot count on living the full span of your days anyway. More than that, you have to think that the deeper you are into the Mysteries, the more capable you are, the longer you'll live. As it stands right now, were you and father to be made by the Inquisition, you'd be little more than dead weight. Or Pattern preclude, that you ever had to separate from father ...

No, enough of that. You need to get moving, get dressed. As it stands, you imagine that you have little more than an hour and a half before father is liable to return. It might be that you have more time, a lot more time ... but you aren't going to count on it, not when you are so blatantly going against him like this. Retreating into your room, you go to where you left your cloak and mask before dinner - you are still wearing the leggings and jerkin - but as you start to wrap your face with the gauze to protect your skin from the lead lining of the mask, a thought gives you pause. Inside of the Midden, there is no curfew for Lepers. No rules to stop you from heading straight to the pumps and drawing out all of the water you need ... save for those given by father. He wouldn't want you out on your own, not without him knowing. If you were seen at the communal well, and it got back to him, you'd be in for it - though nowhere near as bad as you would if he learned that you were trying to crack and case his study and the rest of the Belfry besides.

It might be possible to sneak your way to the pumps, what with the gathering darkness and the thinned out crowds, but that would certainly take a lot more time than just walking there and walking back. Time that you could otherwise be using to learn. Perhaps ... you don't like the idea, but ... what if you just went to the pumps normally, brought the water back here and did it up like you had drawn yourself a bath. You would still catch Hell for it - and his old Dosimetrist's belt besides - but neither as bad as you would if you were caught trying to pick your way into father's notes. And he wouldn't be like to retard your education any further on account of an unsanctioned bath - or at least, no where near as like to as he would if he caught you trying to pick your way into his study. It does go without saying, however, that if he ever realizes that you tried to trick him like this ... well, that isn't even worth thinking about. But as far as reasons for fetching water goes, perhaps it would be better if you just were to say that you didn't realize you used the last of the water for cleaning, and you wanted to fetch some more. Of course, father would be suspicious of that - going out to do chores so late for no other reason than not to do them tomorrow at a more reasonable hour - and as a matter of principle, you'd still get 'a talking to' for leaving without leave, though probably not as bad as it would be if he caught you drawing a bath. With the bath though, there would at least be a reason, and so he'd be less like to look for or consider other explanations - which might see things go better for you, depending on how much evidence you end up having to leave behind. Obviously, you are going to have to Remediate away any of the Strangeness that you produce; if you leave the Strangeness behind father will see it with his Strange-Staining Glyph, and if you damage things with Mitigations then your handicraft is going to be apparent as well.

It suffices that cleaning up is liable to prove as hard or harder than the picking. It also suffices that you'd sorely like to avoid a licking. It has been near half a year since your last bout, and you are a grown woman now too. The prospect of being shouted at, lectured, then having to bend over the kitchen table with ... oh, by the Heights of Hell, are you really going to set yourself up for that?! Shouldn't you at least consider trying to get away with this, without any of ... that? You would either have to take the time to sneak over to the well, or walk and accept the risk that it might get back to him ... but you could only take the water that you need for the cast at least, which should save some time and effort. Or perhaps your eyes have proven to be bigger than your stomach. Perhaps you should just go back to the schematic, then call it for the night. There will be other nights, other opportunities, for a surety.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will sneak your way to the communal well, accepting that it will take longer and you may be seen if you cannot stay hidden the whole way through. [Requires Rolling]
> You will simply walk to the communal well, accepting that news of your evening stroll could potentially get back to father and an explanation for it will be necessitated.
> You will remain in the Belfry, study the schematic once more, then go to bed. [Opener Concludes]

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will fetch enough water to perform a number of Cold-Touch casts and enough for a bath besides.
> You will fetch enough water to perform a number of Cold-Touch casts and refill some of the Belfry's supply besides.
> You will fetch enough water to refill all of the Belfry's supply, drawing enough for the Cold-Touch casts from this supply.
> You will fetch only enough water to perform a number of Cold-Touch casts, so that you may try to get away with everything.
> You will fetch no water. [Opener Concludes]

>>6120673
>> You will simply walk to the communal well, accepting that news of your evening stroll could potentially get back to father and an explanation for it will be necessitated.
> You will fetch only enough water to perform a number of Cold-Touch casts, so that you may try to get away with everything.

>>6120673
> You will remain in the Belfry, study the schematic once more, then go to bed. [Opener Concludes]

> You will fetch no water. [Opener Concludes]

>>6120673
> You will remain in the Belfry, study the schematic once more, then go to bed. [Opener Concludes]

> You will fetch no water. [Opener Concludes]

This opener only ends with Chlotsuintha getting beat so bad the belt feels bad for her

>>6120673
>> You will simply walk to the communal well, accepting that news of your evening stroll could potentially get back to father and an explanation for it will be necessitated.
> You will fetch only enough water to perform a number of Cold-Touch casts, so that you may try to get away with everything.

>>6120673
>> You will remain in the Belfry, study the schematic once more, then go to bed. [Opener Concludes]
>> You will fetch no water. [Opener Concludes]

>>6120673
>> You will remain in the Belfry, study the schematic once more, then go to bed. [Opener Concludes]
> You will fetch no water. [Opener Concludes]

Alright then, that will be it for the opener. I'll get to writing.

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As if coming out of a swoon, you realize with a start that the roll of gauze is still in your hand and much of your face is unwrapped. Instinctively, you cinch the gauze tight and continue where you left off ... but your thoughts are running away from you. It is just ... if you are intending to get away with this cleanly, there are so many things that are going to have to go right, go perfectly, and quite a few of them are at least in part out of your control. Of course, you could say that about any old job, but this one is different. You are looking to knock-down your own father. You are a known quantity to him; he knows you are a thief - he raised you as one. He knows you are interested in his work. So if there is anything off, anything at all, you can almost guarantee that your culpability is going to be the very first thing that he considers. And while you do want to learn, you don't want to risk your continuing education. Or his trust, as precious little of it he has given you.

With that, you realize that you aren't going to be able to pull this off. You might have the stomach for the risk, but not for the consequences. Feeling defeated, you undo the gauze and take up the light again. Back upstairs to the study for another round with the schematic before bed. By any weight or measure that is a poor consolation ... but you have to acknowledge that eventually, a better opportunity will have to present itself. Not to mention, you might be able to push yourself through this musical nonsense that father is trying to foist on you, clearly as some delaying tactic. A consolidation that is simultaneously both better and more bitter is that because you actually did so little here tonight, there isn't any evidence of your prowling left behind to make you to father. At least, you don't see how there possibly could be. Oh, Mercy, you - you'll take a look around, of course, to make sure, but you are fine. You'd be more than fine though, if you could just stop with all of the second guessing ...

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Three years and seven days hence ...

In Scrimshaw Mount, all graves are shallow. Even on the Promontory, where Nature, through the permutations of the Pattern had placed soil on the otherwise nude basalt of the Mount, the bone white stone was never more than a few feet down, commonly less than one. As such, getting graves to the standard depth of eight feet was simply not practical for those interned in the Mount's public burying grounds. But those that lived their lives and died their deaths on the Mount didn't take overmuch umbrage at their shallow graves. For both the practical and pious among them understood full well that under the panopticonical Gaze of the Patternmaker Above ... all things are shallow.

"Goodman Nasturtium ... I'm sorry, but will you ... will you promise me you or yours won't speak to the master - or anyone else here - on my behalf? Whoever it was, father would find out ... and ... take exception."

The words pushed themselves out of you so quickly that they were all spoken to the man's back, but even so, there is some surprise still left on his face by the time he turns to you.

"If the man is as gifted with perception as you, I believe he well could ... alright then, my dear. I so promise. For me and mine."

"Oh, thank ... y-you, you have no idea the kindness this is. Truly, no conception."

As he walks away - noticeably slower, presumably because he is no longer trying to catch someone before they are brought to you - you are deeply relieved that the man clearly understood what you were driving at, why you claimed you were pushing him away so hard. Moreover, you parted with the truth. As blunt, indelicate and awkward as this all may have spun itself out, you were at least able to give the man truth at the very end.

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Yet that is assuming you are at the end. Plainly, at some point - sooner than you would like, no doubt - Nasturtium will try to call upon you here. If you invoke "Wilhelmina's" father again, you might be able to convince him against it, especially if you were to promise to call upon him instead. That promise would simply have to be a lie, but if you were to make it for the day after Titheday, the day after you intend to leave, then you would be in the clear - of him, at least. Weighing against this little gambit is the suspect nature of such a request - and a fear that you might have drawn all you can from the well of "Wilhelmina's" father. Perhaps ... perhaps if you didn't make him promise anything, but you just were to say that you'd call on him two - no, fraying Hell, tomorrow now - it might be enough to get him to leave you well enough alone until then. It wouldn't be as sure of a thing as it would to pull another promise from the man, but you couldn't see it being harder to swing. Easiest of all would be to just say nothing and hope for the best; though going that route would bear neither promises nor reasons to not call upon this house and potentially slit the ankles and pin the feet of everything you had put in place here.

Well ... as it stands, you parted with the truth. And after all of the lying you have done - to him and others - that means quite a deal to you. Does it mean so much to you that you are going to deprive yourself of some very advantageous pieces of whole-cloth? You might be overstating their value, or perhaps even the risk you face here. Considering the alleged infirmity of "Wilhelmina's" father, Nasturtium might assume that he has days to check up on the "two" of you. Considering how vaguely you have discussed his sickness, he might ultimately just decide to stay away on account of the Uncleanliness of it all. And there is the point that by making yourself expected at some point when you know you aren't going to be taking callers means that you are effectively guaranteeing that you will be missed and sought out at some point hence. Just like those most venerable of stories, where by fighting against something you end up bringing about or hastening whatever you were fighting against.

You parted with the truth. That ... that is important to you, and there is enough besides to commend holding your tongue that you are wiling to so. You watch the two men retreat out of the house, stifling a ragged sigh as Nasturtium's porter opens the door for him. With them gone, the easy - or rather, easier - part is done. Now though, you must contend with whoever is keeping the house at this hour. And obviously, you cannot explain away your actions with an ill father. You will need to come up with something that justifies your presence - your very singular, very inappropriate presence - at this unwholesome hour. .

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Or ... it might be that you don't. You could just remain here, out of sight if possible, until Nasturtium is far enough away then leave. With or without your stage. Now that would be a gamble, certainly.

> If you choose HANDLE, please choose ONE of the following:
> You will seek to speak to the master of the house, so that you may board yourself and your stage here for the night – exactly as you told Nasturtium.
> You will seek to NOT speak to whoever is keeping the house at this hour. As soon as Nasturtium is far enough away, you will head to the stables and retrieve your stage from the night-grooms so that you may find a third house.
> You will seek to NOT speak to whoever is keeping the house at this hour. As soon as Nasturtium is far enough away, you will head off onto the Mount, gambling that your stage remains here until this evening without making arrangements or paying for it until then

>>6121287
>You will seek to NOT speak to whoever is keeping the house at this hour. As soon as Nasturtium is far enough away, you will head to the stables and retrieve your stage from the night-grooms so that you may find a third house.

High winds have taken out power and internet. I don't know how long it will take to get everything back. I'll post when it is.

>>6121287
> You will seek to NOT speak to whoever is keeping the house at this hour. As soon as Nasturtium is far enough away, you will head to the stables and retrieve your stage from the night-grooms so that you may find a third house.

I think putting distance and degrees of separation between ourselves and Nasturtium is important

But I'm not sure, so other anons, tell me why that's a bad idea!

>>6121428
Trash will punish Chlot no matter what we choose

>>6121287
>You will seek to NOT speak to whoever is keeping the house at this hour. As soon as Nasturtium is far enough away, you will head off onto the Mount, gambling that your stage remains here until this evening without making arrangements or paying for it until then

>>6121287
> You will seek to speak to the master of the house, so that you may board yourself and your stage here for the night – exactly as you told Nasturtium.

We need sleep.

>>6121383
Take care, and take the time you need.

>>6121438
Yeah, that's a common theme with his protags, lol

Alright, the power is back, I've had a dinner and a shower, and I am ready to write. Consider this closed.

>>6121438
Punish is a very strong word. I think I have been quite clear - both in and out of the narrative - that Chlotsuintha is behaving alarmingly far afield from the settings conception of propriety, and getting away with doing so is going to be appropriately difficult. I would also add, that leaving the stage at Nasturtium's was an option, but ultimately taking it elsewhere won out, with the majority believing that having to explain away everything all over again somewhere else was better than leaving the stage in one place - a place with Thief-Takers and prosecutors coming and going - for longer than absolutely necessary.

Would’ve preferred we husband our time instead of being frivolous with it, but whatever. Like, lads, how do you expect we get anything done if we’re constantly juggling shit and adding more paranoid bullshit to the pile?

Question related to all this: how discoverable would a coach be left someplace in the woods?

Like, I guess, how settled in this area? Are there places where you could leave 4 horses and a coach for a day and expect them to be undiscovered?

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Lurking in a half-shadowed corner of the common room, empty, still and barely lit on account of the hour, you wring your wits to muster up some stratagem, some explanation to get you through the keeper of the house. Claiming your - no, Wilhelmina's father - had taken rooms here for himself, you and his attendants was enough to get you through Nasturtium and the night-grooms. But how could such a fable to pass here? Even if your luck was running white enough that the keeper believed you, he'd still want your father's name, or to know what room he took, and that is something that you simply cannot lie your way - damn it, you keep doing it. Wilhelmina's father. Not yours. Pattern's Peace, you have to keep it square and plumb. If you are conflating, confusing the issue - then who is to say that you don't accidentally let something slip, or miss an important cue, or ... oh, Maker's Mercy, you are too tired to be doing any of this right now. Now that the shock from ruining the Hide-Eyes Glamour has worn off, you feel more tired than you were before the nap in the stage, not less. To tell it true, you are at the point that if you were able to somehow talk your way into a room here, you would give serious thought to actually sleeping there for the night, as opposed to sneaking back into the Midden, as you had intended.

What little food you took at Nasturtium's table is not sitting gently, and you as you try to focus again on thinking up a lie you have to stop yourself from jumping at the intermittent groan or creak from the building above. Even half-asleep, you are a bundle of nerves alight. And you have a rather good idea why; you know that you aren't going to be able to swing this. You just aren't. Not in the state you are in, and perhaps not even at top form. There are some lies that you just cannot sell. That no one could sell. Here and now, with the width and breadth of your Thread, you feel that this must be one of them. But for the life of you, you cannot think of anything better! What could you say? What possibly could excuse a woman - with a stage and team but without a chaperone or anyone else to accompany her? You ... you don't know. You'd certainly like to think that there is something, that you haven't buried yourself ... think, Perdition, think!

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And you do think; not about the lie, certainly not about the burden of it - but about your position here. The deception that saw you through to this point is not going to work here, nor is it liable to work anywhere except Nasturtium's coachery - and you aren't willing to return there, for fear of leaving too clear of a trail behind for the hunters that will be following before long. What you need is a new deception, but one doesn't immediately come to mind, given the state you are in. And if you remain here for too long, the keeper of the house will come and ...

You are going to have to leave, find another Coaching House to stay at. Pain that it may be, it will be for best as it will cut or at least cover the trail leading away from Nasturtium's house. Hopefully, you will work out a better explanation by the time you find a third Coaching House that boards big teams like yours, you will have worked out some new lie, one within the light of reason. A sudden imposition of more creaks and groans startles you out of your thoughts, and you curse yourself for being so jumpy ... only to curse again when you realize that these noises are of a different stripe than the ones you heard earlier. Someone, perhaps two someones - on this floor, not above you - are moving around, possibly towards you. Your immediate impulse is to rush to the stables ... but if this is the keeper, come to find you, won't that be the next place they look if they don't find you in the common room? Perhaps you should hide instead? It may be that these footfalls are from some of the house's custom ... though you cannot possibly expect luck as white as that.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Hide in this room and listen to see if they are approaching [Requires Rolling]
> Sneak out through the door you came in, and hide somewhere - not near the stables. [Requires Rolling]
> Sneak further into the house, hide somewhere, and listen to see if they are approaching. [Requires Rolling]
> Sneak out through the door you came in, and then run to the stables. [Requires Rolling]
> Sneak out through the door you came in, then prowl your way to the stables. [Requires Rolling]

> Feel free to suggest or discuss lies that Chlotsuintha could use under the circumstances. I can think of at least one that would work. She will eventually come up with it, but any of you can suggest it - or another one, as near as good, as good or better - then you will get a permanent boon to all deception and all deception-persuasion tests involving that particular lie.

>>6121932
Missed this question, sorry.

Outside of the city proper, the land is rather rough. If you have been around since the first thread, you may remember that Scrimshaw Mount - the geologic feature, not the city that bears its name - was described as being a shorter but much broader Devil's Tower, surrounded by dozens and dozen of acres of terrain similar to the Giant's Causeway (all in a tooth-white basalt). The defensible twin harbors and the very modest river that feeds into them is what commended this place for settlement, not the soil. There are groves, orchards and the occasional terraced farm on the outskirts, but ultimately, much of the food (and some of the soil besides) is ferried down the river, from more places more fertile and flat. Any incidental forests in the area are long gone as wood for building and fuel is also ferried down river, though given the irregularity of the land there is quite a bit of wasteland, some of which would surely have copses of brush wood thick enough to hide the stage and team. The issue is that getting off-road into the copse (and out of it) would leave a rather obvious trail - besides the risk to the stage and team itself. There would also be the question of leaving the horses - presumably still in harness - without food or water for a day. Even if they were alright - which wouldn't be guaranteed, they wouldn't perform anywhere near as well as they could and be more like to get hurt once Chlotsuintha was really driving them on the open road.

If it got enough votes though, I'd be more than willing to allow it, were you willing to risk it. And it would certainly be a real risk. Perhaps even more of a risk then simply picking an isolated farm or orchard at random, and trying to convince the head of the house to look after the stage and team.

>>6122335
> Hide in this room and listen to see if they are approaching [Requires Rolling]

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> Stealth Test I-I:

> DC 35: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is a Born and Bred Sneakthief, making an Involved Stealth Test like this [Rather Easy]
> + DC 7 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is Hard to Miss, given her size
> + DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is carrying a deal of bulk in an unusual fashion at an unusual time, making her hard to overlook if seen and markedly more suspicious
> + DC 10 Impressive Riding Habit gives Witchlet Chlotsuintha a large profile, limiting the places that she can conceal herself from sight
> + DC 2 Cancer House Common Room I is empty and otherwise silent, making Witchlet Chlotsuintha harder to overlook
> + DC 9 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III, and is not moving as quickly or as surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Drained III, and is not moving as quickly or surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is beset with fears and doubts about her Nature, and of the Wages of her Work [Banes, Halved]
> - DC 10 Cancer House Common Room I is empty, allowing Witchlet Chlotsuintha her choice of hiding spaces
> - DC 12 The Hour is so unwholesome that incidental potential witnesses are extremely unlikely
> - DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area closed to the public [The Hour, Doubled]
> - DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area where witnesses will inevitably make themselves known to her
> - DC 5 Cancer House Common Room I is empty, allowing Witchlet Chlotsuintha to effectively start Stealth Test I in Stealth
> - DC 10 Cancer House Common Room is poorly lit and filled with shadows, aiding in concealment [Impressive Riding Habit, Doubled]
> - DC 2 Second-Hand Footwraps are a Boon for Stealth Tests in places suitable for wearing footwraps

> DC 25: Anything lower is a failure. [Auto-pass(es) available. Re-roll(s) available. No hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: Drop-ins Not Welcome! Even with forewarning, Chlotsuintha bungles and makes noise. More pressingly, she is liable to drop her bundle - making more noise and maybe doing damage! [Snap Deftness Test, ST I-II Bane]
> One Pass: Bump in the Night. Chlotsuintha accidentally makes a little noise in the process of taking what proves to not be the best hiding spot available. [ST I-II Bane]
> Two Passes: Slipping into Shadow: Chlotsuintha accidentally undermines her footing as she rushes to the best hiding spot available. She must regain her footing, else she will make noise! [Snap Deftness Test, no NCF/CF]
> Three Passes: Shadow-Footed. Chlotsuintha manages to get into the best hiding spot available without any upset with plenty of time to spare. [ST I-II Boon, no NCF/CF]

> Stealth Test I continued:

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Failure (Roll of 1 or 2) then Chlotsuintha makes her noise by accidentally knocking over a lit lamp and starting a small oil fire.
> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Chlotsuintha picks up on a point of interest about Cancer House that she would otherwise have overlooked.
> May our luck run white, and may I have three rolls of 1d100?

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>6122717

Thanks for the clarification on the landscape. As the question-asker, I no longer consider it viable to hide our coach in the wilderness.

As far as the lie to tell at the next coach house (or here), I think I have a good one: we ask for our father and are surprised when he isn't here -- my goodness, we've gotten the wrong coach house! Could you please do me the kindness of letting me stay here the night so I can find my father come morning?

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>6122717
Maybe we'll pick up on a reason or info that could help us stay here.

>>6122745
Well, simply having an idea of what to say this far in advance is worth something, certainly. I'd be willing to give a -1 or -2 Boon for it. If you - or anyone else - could come up with an explanation that addresses the big, glaring issue of Chlotsuintha being alone, at such an unwholesome hour - driving a team of horses, no less - then the Boon would be considerably bigger.

>>6122750
If you roll well enough, you just might.

To clarify the shortcomings of the proposed lie; under typical circumstances, Chlotsuintha wouldn't be separated from her father or the chaperone that he arranged for her, or the servants that someone of her presumed station would have. Any fib or fable needs to address why she is alone first and foremost.

>>6122766
The only thing I could come up with was that her Father and servants fell ill while in sea transit and were under doctor's care somewhere and just needed a place to stay while they finished recovering.

>>6122780
I'd say that is a bit better - it more or less is what she poured in Nasturtium's ear - but Chlotsuintha will really have to talk her way around the lateness of the hour. And driving a stage and team besides.

Anyway, I'm going to bed now. I'll be back tomorrow morning to run.

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>6122717

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For a long-lingering moment, you stand stock still, staring off towards the noise. Your hope, fain as it may be, is that with just a little more time and effort on your part, you would be able to tell definitively if the footfalls are closing the distance or not. But more than fain, this hope proves to be false. Your ear simply isn't keen enough to tell, and with no way of telling what is confusing the issue, it might just be that you aren't able to tell right up until the feet responsible for the footfalls are in this very room. Scanning the common room, you can see several spots that would offer much better odds of discerning the bearing and heading of the noise ... but none of them are suitable for hiding, and if it proves that this is the keeper of the house, or someone sent on his behalf, you might not have time to get yourself under wraps.

No, better to hide now, and wait out whatever comes. Looking around the room again with fresh eyes, you are drawn straight-away to a bank of alcoves along the wall opposite you, each complete with a service, dining table and chairs for four. If you were to judge, you'd say that these were reserved for custom that was too well-heeled for the trestles out on the floor, but who don't quite rate a spot at the master's table, or a private dining room. All of these alcoves have glassed windows overlooking the tables, so you wouldn't be utterly boxed and buried if you were to be caught in one. Moreover, you would judge that the two closest to you are blocked from sight of three of the potential entrances to the room by a four-lintel fireplace on the floor, and that these alcoves are also well out of the little light remaining in the room.

Bursting into movement after so much stillness almost takes yourself by surprise, but you manage to quickly and quietly get yourself over to the darker of the two alcoves with little more than the soft rustling of your dress. Without even giving it much thought, you drop to your knees, then contort and tuck yourself under the table, keeping your bundle close at hand, in case you need to defend yourself. Blessedly, the floor is clean - there is barely any dust, and no cast offs from the table. You offer up a silent prayer of thanksgiving, then a second, longer one for Wisdom. As it is belated, it is more for your nerves than anything else - calling upon what wits remain to you, you have made your decision, and once again placed your back against the wall. This time physically as well as figuratively. Swallowing in a suddenly dry throat, you can do naught but listen, wait and pray ...

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> Stealth Test I-II:

> DC 35: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is a Born and Bred Sneakthief, making an Involved Stealth Test like this [Rather Easy]
> + DC 7 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is Hard to Miss, given her size [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is carrying a deal of bulk in an unusual fashion at an unusual time, making her hard to overlook if seen and markedly more suspicious [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Three-of-Four]
> + DC 10 Impressive Riding Habit gives Witchlet Chlotsuintha a large profile, limiting the places that she can conceal herself from sight [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 2 Cancer House Common Room I is empty and otherwise silent, making Witchlet Chlotsuintha harder to overlook [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 9 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III, and is not moving as quickly or as surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Drained III, and is not moving as quickly or surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is beset with fears and doubts about her Nature, and of the Wages of her Work [Banes, Halved]
> + DC 5 ???
> - DC 15 Witchlet Chlotsuintha has found a superior spot for concealment, putting her well out of sight
> - DC 12 The Hour is so unwholesome that incidental potential witnesses are extremely unlikely
> - DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area closed to the public [The Hour, Doubled]
> - DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area where witnesses will inevitably make themselves known to her
> - DC 5 Witchlet Chlotsuintha passed ST I-I, as such she is considered to be in Stealth
> - DC 10 Cancer House Common Room is poorly lit and filled with shadows, aiding in concealment [Impressive Riding Habit, Doubled]

> DC 27 or 17: Anything lower is a failure. [Auto-pass(es) available. Re-roll(s) available. ??? hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: Tabledrop. As the noise draws nearer, Chlotsuintha retreats further under the table - neglecting the bulk or her riding habit in the process, knocking loose the table top in the process. [Snap Deftness Test, ST I-III Bane]
> One Pass: Bump in the Night. Chlotsuintha accidentally makes a bit of noise while trying to remain out of sight. ??? [???]
> Two Passes: No Rushes to Rustle. Chlotsuintha accidentally rustles her dress while trying to remain out of sight. ??? [???, no NCF/CF]
> Three Passes: Service for None. Chlotsuintha manages to remain still and silent in her most excellent hiding spot. ??? [???, no NCF/CF]

> Stealth Test I-II continued:

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Chlotsuintha picks up on a point of interest about Cancer House that she would otherwise have overlooked.

> May our luck run white, and may I have ONE roll of 1d4 and THREE rolls of 1d100?

Rolled 1 (1d100)

27 or 17?

Rolled 4 (1d4)

>>6123106
Hmm no critfail?

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>6123108

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>6123108
Thank the Pattern for no NCF/CF…

> On Roll of 4, DC 17

> Two Passes: No Rushes to Rustle. Chlotsuintha accidentally rustles her dress while trying to remain out of sight from the two men who enter the room. The sound is slight and distant enough from them that they don't know where it came from or if they even heard it, but they take a second, longer look around the room from their position by the door. The Chimney Boon incidency drops from Three-in-Four to One-in-Two, value remains constant. One hostile re-roll for ST I-III, no NCF/CF.

Writing!

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So you commit yourself to just that; listening, waiting and praying. Of course, your current position - or perhaps predicament would be the better word - is ill-suited for listening or waiting, to the point that you frustrate yourself attempting either. Tucked away as well as you are, you cannot hear the footfalls any longer. In fact, you can hear nothing more than your stifled breathing and the almost imperceptible sound of the wind outside the window. Moreover, between the contortion required to get and keep yourself under the table, as well as the impedance of the corset you are quite distant from any comfort at all - and that is to say nothing about your nerves, about the stress of the situation. If you don't hear anything soon, then you will need to come up with a count, to make sure that enough time has passed that you can safely extricate yourself. You always agonize over those. To be sure, you should agonize over coming up with a safe count, but still, you -

You can just barely hear something. If you hadn't heard footfalls earlier, and if you weren't listening for them now, you might not have even ... no, no these are definitely footfalls. And they are definitely getting closer. Your entire body - save for the site of your Hide-Eyes Scarification Glyph - goes cold. As you press yourself even tighter against the floor beneath and the wall behind, your gaze falls to the bundle you have with you. Pattern's Perdition! You should have been Socketing the wand, or at least considering doing so, not just ... fraying woolgathering! If it were to come to it now, all you would have are the pin-stilettoes and casts of Salt-Mitigation, neither of which you could possibly hope to use while remaining in concealment. Panic suffuses you to the point that your breathing becomes noticeably more ragged, and in a bid to keep quiet you just end up holding your breath, which proves difficult, as between the way you have done yourself up - under the table and in a corset - you have not been breathing particularly deeply. Your lungs begin to ache almost immediately, so you seek to relieve them through your nose to marginal effect - you aren't going to suffocate anytime soon, but any further relief is beyond you.

All the while, the footfalls are louder and nearer - and most certainly plural. Your head pounds to the point that in a flight of fancy you imagine your brain trying to batter its way out of your skull to escape. Suddenly, silence imposes itself on the common room. A moment later, this silence is broken again by the sounds of shuffling, which you would imagine to be someone turning around on a spot, surveying the space. Then -

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> Snap Test; Hearing

> DC 40: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is not Keen of Ear, making a moderate Hearing Test like this [Moderate]
> + DC 9: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III and is not as perceptive as she might be otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha mind is not as keen nor as focused as it was when the wages of sin were out of her mind [Banes, Quartered]
> - DC 20 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is only separated from the Conversation by a short distance and a few incidental objects
> - DC 10 Witchlet Chlotsuintha may listen as long and as hard as she likes as she is stationary and hidden away

> DC 20: Anything lower is a failure. [Re-rolls and auto-passes are available. No hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: False start. Chlotsuintha's eavesdropping is undermined completely by a shutter breaking loose in a gust of wind.
> One Pass: Low confidence (Flip three Coins, one state is a failure) Chlotsuintha is unsure, but she thinks she can make out the gist of what is said
> Two Passes: Moderate confidence (Roll 3d20, five states are failures) Chlotsuintha is not quite sure, but she feels that she can make out most of what is said
> Three Passes: High confidence. (Roll 3d20, one state is a failure) Chlotsuintha knows that she has heard everything that she can possibly expect to.

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Failure (Roll of 1 or 2) then the Conversing Parties also perceive the shutter breaking, and come closer to look at it. Chimney Boon dropped for ST I-III, Drawn Hither Bane applied ST I-III. Ruckus Bane applies further Hearing Tests in Common Room I.
> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Chlotsuintha overhears something about Cancer House that she might otherwise have overlooked.

> Rules for re-rolls and auto-passes are in effect, as always. May our luck run white, and may I please have three rolls of 1d100?

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>6123457

>>6123555
You can roll again, if you like. This has been up more than long enough.

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>6123457

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>6123577
Okay

Apologies about the delay there.

> Now may I have ONE roll of 3d20?

Rolled 6, 4, 7 = 17 (3d20)

>>6123721

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"So then, Lucullus, where is this mystery woman you roused me for, hmm?"

"I - I cannot rightly say, Goodman Machares, but I assure you she was here."

The conversation started so suddenly it took you by surprise ... but even caught flatfooted as were, and in a poor position for it besides, you can hear every word they speak - though you cannot see them yet, as the one of the main fireplaces of the common room screens them from you as much as it screens you from them.

"You know, it is a rather curious time to develop a taste for practical jokes."

"I swear, on my eyes. There was a woman here, with the Goodman who keeps the house up the street, oh ... the one with the wheel-table -"

"Nasturtium?"

"Yes, that's the one."

"Whatever was he here for?"

"I don't know, Goodman-Master. He never said one word. She spoke for herself, she did. Told me to fetch you, as quick as I could. And so I did."

"And he let her just hen-peck him like that? Phah! Either he has no spine, or her father could buy and sell him with the household account ... if not both, I suppose."

"She was dressed quite richly, Goodman-Master. A riding habit, of the latest style"

"Oh so? Was she a guest here then?"

"No."

"Pity ... though I must say, you are rather certain for someone who woke me up to speak with someone who isn't even here, Lucullus."

"I-I s-swear, she wasn't a guest here. I'd recall, honest! If I'd seen her but once, I'd remember."

That is certainly not something you care to hear now. Or ever. Honestly, there has to be some way to be less ... freakish. Before you can dwell on such thoughts, however, the brief lull is punctuated by laughter, then -

"And I haven't seen her at all, but I'd wager I'll remember her too."

"No, she ... she's like a statute, stepped off a plinth. A head and half taller than I, if not -"

"You are really intending on taking this lark all the way, aren't you?"

"Master, I swear! I would never, never play wise with you. I - I thought I heard a stage in the yard, even though everything is held up on account of the roads being the way they are at the moment."

"And you came down, and they were waiting for you?"

"No, when I got to my post, the room was as empty as it is now. After a couple of minutes, I was thinking that I had imagined everything, but then just as I was leaving, I heard it again, so I went to my post."

"And there you met the two of them."

"Yes! Er, no. There were three of them. A servant. His or hers, I couldn't tell. And I was at my post when they came in."

"Hmph. If I didn't know better ... "

You are fairly certain the man - Goodman Machares, presumably the night keeper of the house - simply trailed off, but you cannot say anything for a surety, as neither the position nor state you are in is conducive for the work you are engaged in here. Without a thought of caution in your head, you lean in just a hair - causing the well-used crook of your left arm to spasm in pain. You are almost able to keep yourself still, but compromised by your contortions you cannot quite manage to suppress a full body shiver. Your dress rustles like a tree full of leaves as your heart skips at least one beat. Were you not so scared, you might just start crying in frustration. This fraying dress! You really misjudged how suitable it would be for you to ply your first trade in - at the rate you are going, you are liable to be buried in it!

"Did ... did you hear that?"

Oh, Mercy. Oh, Merciful Maker, no. Please ...

"Hear -"

"Quiet, you turned out poke!"

This whole situation is deteriorating quickly. If you are going to use your Wand of Head-Knocking - or you at least want the option of using it safely - then you are going to have to start Socketing it right now. Probably in a hand, or your neck - or perhaps through the dress. Of course, giving yourself that option is going to require more movement, and that is going to risk making more noise. And of course, Machares seems to be rather keen of ear ...

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking through the sleeve of the Riding Habit
> Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking into your left hand
> Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking in your neck
> Do not Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking

>>6123820
>> Do not Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking

We just rent the room and get some sleep or talk out way out of it otherwise.

>>6123820
> Do not Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking
I cannot imagine a worse outcome than murdering this random innkeeper that lives right by someone who thinks we're here

>>6123820
Already voted.
Socket into NECK?! O_O
Chlot has clearly completely lost her mind from lack of sleep.

>>6123820
> Do not Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking

I'm hoping we're still not discovered and they just leave, cause I have no idea what our excuse for hiding under a table would be

>>6123820
>> Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking in your neck
Unlock secret powers

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>>6123948
"I saw a mouse."

>>6123916
You can Socket it, though it is rather dangerous if you intend to move around. Also, smaller Socketing Needles could be Socketed under the jaw, though the one with the Wand of Head-Knocking is a bit too large for that to be practical.

Consider this closed.

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Rolled 41, 68, 68 = 177 (3d100)

Hostile Test; Hearing

DC 85: Keeper Machares is keen of ear, making a preposterous Hearing Test like this [Near Preposterous]
+ DC 20 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is aware that Keeper Machares is performing a Hearing Test, and is doing everything in her power to defeat it
+ DC 2 Keeper Machares is distracted by Concierge Lucullus [???, Doubled]
+ DC 4 Keeper Machares is Recently Roused II, and not as effective as he otherwise might be
- DC 20 Keeper Machares is only separated from the Rustling by a short distance and a few incidental objects
- DC 10 Keeper Machares may listen as long and as hard as he likes, as he has no need to fear discovery

DC 81: Anything lower is a failure. [No re-rolls and auto-passes are available. "Hostile" re-roll(s) and auto-passes are available]

No Passes: False Lead. Keeper Machares convinces himself he heard something - in the complete opposite direction! [The Chimney Boon's incidency restores, Stupefied Search Boon applied for ST I-III]
One Pass: No Lead. Keeper Machares cannot hear any more of the Rustling, and was not ever able to winnow down where it was coming from.
Two Passes: Questionable Lead. Keeper Machares heard something more, and was able to winnow down the direction where it might be coming from. [The Chimney Boon drops for ST I-III]
Three Passes: Solid Lead. Keeper Machares definitely has heard something, and has more than just an idea of where it came from. [The Chimney Boon drops, Sagacious Search Bane applied for ST I-III]

If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Failure (Roll of 1 or 2) then Keeper Machares convinces himself that he heard something in another room, and rushes out of Common Room I
If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Keeper Machares correctly directs his attention to the table in the corner alcove

May I please give myself one roll of 3d100, and may your luck run white!

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> Stealth Test I-III:

> DC 35: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is a Born and Bred Sneakthief, making an Involved Stealth Test like this [Rather Easy]
> + DC 7 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is Hard to Miss, given her size [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is carrying a deal of bulk in an unusual fashion at an unusual time, making her hard to overlook if seen and markedly more suspicious [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Three-of-Four]
> + DC 10 Impressive Riding Habit gives Witchlet Chlotsuintha a large profile, limiting the places that she can conceal herself from sight [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 2 Cancer House Common Room I is empty and otherwise silent, making Witchlet Chlotsuintha harder to overlook [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 9 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III, and is not moving as quickly or as surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Drained III, and is not moving as quickly or surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is beset with fears and doubts about her Nature, and of the Wages of her Work [Banes, Halved]
> - DC 15 Witchlet Chlotsuintha has found a superior spot for concealment, putting her well out of sight
> - DC 12 The Hour is so unwholesome that incidental potential witnesses are extremely unlikely
> - DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area closed to the public [The Hour, Doubled]
> - DC 8 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide from a search that she is well-aware of
> - DC 5 Witchlet Chlotsuintha passed ST I-I, as such she is considered to be in Stealth
> - DC 10 Cancer House Common Room is poorly lit and filled with shadows, aiding in concealment [Impressive Riding Habit, Doubled]
> - DC 10 Keeper Machares is focusing much of his attention in the wrong direction [Stupefied Search]

> DC 15 or 5: Anything lower is a failure. [Auto-pass(es) available. Re-roll(s) available. One hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: Tabledrop. As the search draws nearer, Chlotsuintha retreats further under the table - neglecting the bulk or her riding habit in the process, knocking loose the table top in the process. [Snap Deftness Test, ST I-III Bane]
> One Pass: Bump in the Night. Chlotsuintha accidentally makes a bit of noise while trying to remain out of sight. [The Chimney Boon drops, ST I-IV Banes]
> Two Passes: Still No Rushes to Rustle. Chlotsuintha accidentally rustles her dress - again! - while trying to remain out of sight. [The Chimney Boon incidency drops, ST I-IV Bane, Hostile Hearing Test II]
> Three Passes: Service for None. Chlotsuintha manages to remain still and silent in her most excellent hiding spot, and ultimately waits out the search. [ST I-IV Boon, Snap Hearing Test II]

> Stealth Test I-II continued:

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Chlotsuintha picks up on a point of interest about Cancer House that she would otherwise have overlooked.

> May our luck run white, and may I have ONE roll of 1d4 and THREE rolls of 1d100?

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>6124049

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>6124049
Oh boy

Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>6124048

Okay, I'll get to writing.

File: Noise II.jpg (165 KB, 437x654)

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Once again, there is movement, footfalls. When it seems to get louder with time, bile rises in your mouth, and from the tips of your toes to the ends of your hair, your entire body crests atop a surging wave of roiling, black panic. The singular thought left in your head is to shrink down more, further into the now questionable safety of the alcove's shadow - but you stay yourself. You mustn't forget, you already are as far as you are like to get into the shadow, so further movement would do naught much more than risk making noise. You also catch yourself trying to close your eyes, as if you were just some scared little child, as opposed to the grown woman you are. Angrily, you stare and strain at the the little tableau before you - which at the moment is nothing more than the hearth of a great, looming chimney and the feet of trenchers and benches. For a moment, you think you can see a shadow playing - movement from the master or the servant - but when you blink again, all that you can see is as still as the grave.

More movement, more footfalls ... but this time they are heading away. You strangle the sigh that blossoms from deep in your breast, and you do what you can to keep your composure, even as you feel fit to melt. As quick as it came though, the sound stops - worry returns, panic at bay. Moments pass like screws into wood. There are more incidental noises - a step here, a groan of wood there - all further and further away. Finally, there the unmistakable sound of a sigh. Then -

File: Hearing Test III.jpg (136 KB, 900x792)

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> Snap Test; Hearing II

> DC 40: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is not Keen of Ear, making a moderate Hearing Test like this [Moderate]
> + DC 9: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III and is not as perceptive as she might be otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha mind is not as keen nor as focused as it was when the wages of sin were out of her mind [Banes, Quartered]
> - DC 16 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is separated from the Conversation by a relatively short distance and a few incidental objects
> - DC 10 Witchlet Chlotsuintha may listen as long and as hard as she likes as she is stationary and hidden away

> DC 24: Anything lower is a failure. [Re-rolls and auto-passes are available. No hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: False start. Chlotsuintha's eavesdropping is undermined completely by a shutter breaking loose in a gust of wind.
> One Pass: Low confidence (Flip three Coins, one state is a failure) Chlotsuintha is unsure, but she thinks she can make out the gist of what is said
> Two Passes: Moderate confidence (Roll 3d20, five states are failures) Chlotsuintha is not quite sure, but she feels that she can make out most of what is said
> Three Passes: High confidence. (Roll 3d20, one state is a failure) Chlotsuintha knows that she has heard everything that she can possibly expect to.

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Failure (Roll of 1 or 2) then the Conversing Parties also perceive the shutter breaking, and come closer to look at it. Chimney Boon dropped, Drawn Hither Bane applied ST I-IV. Ruckus Bane applies further Hearing Tests in Common Room I.
> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Chlotsuintha overhears something about Cancer House that she might otherwise have overlooked.

> Rules for re-rolls and auto-passes are in effect, as always. May our luck run white, and may I please have three rolls of 1d100?

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>6124155

Rolled 26 (1d100)

>>6124155

>>6124155

Rolled 14 (1d100)

>>6124221
Fuck

> Now may I have ONE roll of 3d20?

Rolled 1, 4, 12 = 17 (3d20)

>>6124290
ROLLAN'

Great, I just lost the update. This is what I get for writing in the thread instead of on a separate document. I'm going to get dinner, then I will get to writing. Again.

File: Conversation II.jpg (268 KB, 1600x1132)

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"I would have sworn that I had ~~~ something."

"No doubt you did, Goodman-Master, it just ... what?"

"You swear I was sent for, just I as I swear ~ ~~~ something. Something is afoot - and I intend to find out what."

You strain your ears until you feel as if you can hear your own heartbeat, but nothing more is being said. There is, however, some more noise, footfalls - moving away, if you are to judge.

"No, no. You wait here, in case this moon-woman of yours makes another appearance."

"You believe me then?"

"Yes, if only because it would be the stupidest thing imaginable to lie about."

"Oh, thank you. Thank -"

"And if you do see her again, don't let her out of your sight. I'm not about to start allowing those who have paid neither room nor board freedom of the house at such a preposterous hour. Doubly so for women! "

That is the last word spoken in this room, of that you are certain. Of what you are to do next, that is ... markedly less certain. If Machares were to get to the night grooms before you, then you would expect it to be harder - and more expensive - to induce the husbandmen to make ready your stage and team. They might no do it at all. Now, as you listen to his retreating footsteps with an insistent, nagging dread, you have to wonder if that is where he is heading. Judging from what may be gathered about his heading, you doubt that he is looking to exit the room from the door that you entered, but ... oh, by the Heights of Hell, there could be a way to the stables through the house. There would be a way, wouldn't there? If your luck is running white though, he could just as easily be looking for you elsewhere in the house. If that were the way of it, then you would still have a window to sneak yourself back into the yard, find the stable, find the grooms, see your team back in tack and harness then be off before Machares imposed himself upon you.

That is rather a lot to be done with little time and less tolerance for foul-ups - and it is contingent on things wholly or partially out of your control all going in your favor. It also happens to be the best case scenario. Which is abjectly terrifying. Your other option is to incapacitate or otherwise distract Machares and his servant, Lucullus ... well to that point, if you were to use the Wand of Head-Knocking on him, it would appear to both him and Lucullus that he had some sort of attack - assuming, of course, that Lucullus didn't see you, and Machares survived the cast. Your opportunity for that though might already be passed; for by the time you get the wand pinned and yourself out of concealment, Machares might be out of the room, or at least out of range. Failing that, the only other distraction you can think of would be to deliberately start a small fire somewhere. But setting aside the risk of it getting out of hand, a fire is much more suspicious than an inconvenient medical episode, and is more like to raise questions. With any luck, you will be long gone by the time those questions are being raised, but still ... who knows how what you do would reflect on or affect Nasturtium.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Attempt to sneak out of the common room [Requires Rolling]
> Attempt to use the Wand of Head-Knocking on Machares [Requires Rolling]
> Attempt to use the Wand of Head-Knocking on Machares and Lucullus [Requires Rolling]
> Attempt to sneak to somewhere where a fire catching by accident would be plausible [Requires Rolling]
> Write-ins Allowed with QM Approval

>>6124530
>Attempt to sneak out of the common room [Requires Rolling]

>>6124530
>WRITE IN
Wait here and sneak later.

>>6124682
If I didn't make it clear narratively, Chlotsuintha believes that she has a limited window of opportunity to find and sway the night grooms before Machares speaks to them and severely complicates things for her. The only case where remaining under the table and trying to wait out Lucullus makes things easier and not much harder is one where Chlotsuintha is not heading to the stable, not seeking to speak with the husbandmen - and one where she is abandoning stage and team, either temporarily or permanently.

If that is what you are suggesting - that Chlotsuintha bails out of Cancer House as soon as possible - then I can accept that as a write-in. Is that what you are driving at?

>>6124682
>+1 to this.

>>6124744
I haven't accepted his vote yet, I am waiting for clarification. If you - or anyone else - wants to vote for attempting to wait out Lucullus to leave Cancer House as quick as possible, leaving stage and team behind, reply to this post with +1.

>>6124682
>>6124731
Oh, thank you. I did not catch that. I guess that I would then like to sneak out now to talk to the grooms

Alright then, we will be sneaking out of the common room.

Also, preemptive lie if Marchares happens to come out to the stables while we are there: I think we should claim to have stopped at the wrong house and, realizing our mistake, will now be leaving

> Stealth Test I-IV:

> DC 45: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is a Born and Bred Sneakthief, making a Difficult Stealth Test like this [Rather Involved]
> + DC 7 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is Hard to Miss, given her size [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is carrying a deal of bulk in an unusual fashion at an unusual time, making her hard to overlook if seen and markedly more suspicious [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Three-of-Four]
> + DC 10 Impressive Riding Habit gives Witchlet Chlotsuintha a large profile, limiting the places that she can conceal herself from sight [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 2 Impressive Riding Habit has a bad habit of rustling at the worst possible times
> + DC 2 Cancer House Common Room I is empty and otherwise silent, making Witchlet Chlotsuintha harder to overlook [The Chimney, Three-in-Four to Halve]
> + DC 9 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III, and is not moving as quickly or as surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Drained III, and is not moving as quickly or surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is beset with fears and doubts about her Nature, and of the Wages of her Work [Banes, Halved]
> + DC 20 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to move about Common Room I in stealth with a Witness in a state of Alert
> - DC 8 ???
> - DC 12 The Hour is so unwholesome that incidental potential witnesses are extremely unlikely
> - DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area closed to the public [The Hour, Doubled]
> - DC 8 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide from a search that she is well-aware of
> - DC 5 Witchlet Chlotsuintha passed ST I-III, as such she is considered to be in Stealth
> - DC 6 Cancer House Common Room is poorly lit and filled with shadows, aiding in concealment [Impressive Riding Habit, Doubled]
> - DC 10 ??? [???]
> - DC 2 Second Hand Footwraps are well suited to sneaking in these conditions

> DC 51 or 41: Anything lower is a failure. [Auto-pass(es) available. Re-roll(s) available. One hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: Rustled by Rushing. Chlotsuintha manages to get to the chimney unseen ... but not unheard. Lucullus is now actively Searching again. [Prompts Vote, HRR R, HRR +1, The Chimney Boon drops, ST I-V Banes]
> One Pass: Something to See Here. Chlotsuintha manages to get to the chimney unseen ... only to realize that a portion of her footwrap tore away and is not sitting in on the floor in plain sight. [Prompts Vote, HRR R]
> Two Passes: Left Undone. Chlotsuintha manages to get to the chimney unseen ... but between chimney and door there is nothing for concealment and her footwraps are coming undone ... [Prompts Vote, if ST I-V no CF/NCF, HRR R]
> Three Passes: Before the Breach. Chlotsuintha manages to get to the chimney unseen without issue, however, the distance between chimney and door offers scant little in the way of concealment. [Prompts Vote, if ST I-V no CF/NCF]

> Stealth Test I-IV continued:

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Lucullus is temporarily called away, bestowing significant Boons to ST I-V

> May our luck run white, and may I have ONE roll of 1d4 and THREE rolls of 1d100?

>>6124767
No problem, I was writing that real late at night and didn't focus down that point as hard as I should have.

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>6124949

I have a question about the layout here, Trash. Are we basically in a corner? As in, does the common room have only one entrance?

>>6125056
Yes, the table that Chlotsuintha was hiding under was in an alcove that was right in the corner of the room. She's moving towards the door that she came into the room through. Regardless of the roll, she will manage to get about half way to the door, keeping the bulk of the chimney between her and the concierge. Beyond that point, there simply isn't much in the way of cover. She will either need to make a second and harder stealth test, commit to using her Wand of Head-Knocking, or come up with some other alternative. There are other egresses in the room - leading into the house, as opposed to into the yard - but the safest way to any of them is to use the chimney as cover for as long as possible. There are also windows, but they are glassed windows; fixed in place with shuttered vents along the top of the frame, they have to be broken.

In case anyone is still in the thread, we are waiting on two rolls of 1d100 and one roll of 1d4.

Rolled 94 (1d100)

>>6124949

Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>6125266

Rolled 57 (1d100)

>>6125285
Hostile re-roll

Rolled 1 (1d4)

>>6125266

Alright, writing.

File: Strange-Stains.jpg (297 KB, 900x900)

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You want to be done with this place, to be ... just about anywhere else. More than that, you need to be, lest this night get even longer. But to do that, you are going to have slink past Lucullus - who by all weights and measures seems to be diligently keeping watch. You don't know, of course. Between the walls of the alcove and the bulk of the great chimney, your view of the room is limited. But you are long leagues away from being well and truly blind. Looking to what shadows you can espy from your vantage point, you get the sense that Lucullus must be on the other side of the chimney - if he weren't, then from what is cast by the scant, scattered lights, his shadow should be visible. You think. You hope. You desperately, desperately need. Otherwise, you are not getting out of this room without using the Wand of Head-Knocking, which isn't something you are particularly inclined to do. Setting aside the Breaching - on wand, caster and target - as well the odds of a fatal outcome from rattling the brain, there is the question of how Lucullus is going to understand what happened to him. If you had been able to cast and knock out Machares with the wand, while Lucullus watched, he would be there to tell Machares that he just ... passed out, or collapsed, or something. But if no one else is there, if no one is able to attest that no one laid hands on the target as they come swooning out of unconsciousness, then who is to say that the target doesn't think someone hit them over the head from behind? Would they then raise the hue and cry?

They just might. But they would for a surety if they actually saw you - and beyond the chimney, there is precious little in the way of concealment on the route to the door you came in. There is a bit more cover to work with if you were to risk heading into the house ... but somewhere in there is Machares, and who knows who else, and you mustn't forget you only are assuming that there is a second way out into the yard or the stables from the inside this building. Damn it, you just cannot get yourself mired in this - not yet. Just ... move, now. Getting yourself out from underneath the table without rustling this fraying noisemaker of a dress is going to be the trickier half by far, closing the distance from alcove to chimney is going to be an afterthought - well, no, not an afterthought, not that easy. But it should be easier. Safer. You think, you hope, you desperately, fraying desperately need. Pattern's Perdition, grab the bundle and just move!

File: Footwraps.jpg (147 KB, 1429x843)

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Getting your feet underneath you - in silence, without disturbing the table above - is an endeavour. But even with your heart so up in your throat that you are like to choke on it, you manage, taking up the bundled domestic dress only once everything else is in order. Then before you can lose your nerve, you make your move - as slow as you can bear, as fast as you dare. And half-dozen silent strides later, you are standing on the cold, rough hearth of the chimney. Your left footwrap has loosened however, and you can now hear Lucullus. Shuffling? Pacing? You look for his shadow, and you find it - cast right across the path to the door, and your stomach sinks like a stone. Mincing your steps as to not make noise, you creep around the chimney, trying to find him. Just as the cover from the chimney is about to give out, you finally find him, sitting a top one of the trenchers - facing away from the chimney, in the direction that you thought he and Machares were looking in earlier. Your knees go weak with relief, but only for a moment. Sneaking past isn't impossible - but it is going to be very, very hard.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Attempt the remaining distance between the chimney and the door to the yard - a path with negligible cover, closer to the one Alerted witness in the room. [Requires Rolling]
> Attempt the remaining distance between the chimney and the hall leading into the house - a path with moderate cover, further from the one Altered witness in the room, but leading to parts unknown. [Requires Rolling]
> Attempt to use the Wand of Head-Knocking on Lucullus [Prompts Vote, Requires Rolling]
> Attempt to employ some mundane diversion [Prompts Vote, Requires Rolling]

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking in your left hand, and make i ready to use straight-away
> Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking in your left hand, and make it ready to use as a precaution
> Do not Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking in your left hand, do not make it ready to use as a precaution

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Take the time to rewrap the footwrap
> Take the time to remove the loosened footwrap
> Leave the loosened footwraps as it is

>>6125580
> Attempt the remaining distance between the chimney and the door to the yard - a path with negligible cover, closer to the one Alerted witness in the room. [Requires Rolling]

> Do not Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking in your left hand, do not make it ready to use as a precaution

> Take the time to rewrap the footwrap

I think these are the best choices for sneaking out, but I'm also increasingly thinking that maybe we should reveal ourselves (in a way that doesn't make it appear we were hiding, like sneaking to a booth to pretend sleep or "emerging" from the hall) so that we can either ask for a room or (wrongly) declare that we would like to reunite with our father but cannot find his room.

I wouldn't have chosen to hode if I thought it would be this involved, lol

Sorry for going radio silent today, had a bunch of small things come up. I'm not quite ready to run yet, but I intend to. Anyway, consider this closed.

>>6125625
+1

Alright, now everything should be on the other side of me. I'll write up a short, short update, and then ask for the necessary rolls.

Also, this is a test to see if I have lost my ID or not.

File: Footwraps II.jpg (249 KB, 1920x2181)

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Cringing in the shadows cast off of the great chimney - which seemed so much darker, so much more obscuring from under the table - you feel as if you were some stripe of tender plant, caught out by an early killing frost. But the chills and aches that beset you cannot change the arithmetic of your position. You need to get yourself out onto the yard and find the stable before Machares makes what is already going to be inordinately difficult effectively impossible. Your eyes drop to your bundle, but you drag them right back up. That is a solution that will fruit and set too many problems. If you were seen, and if you absolutely couldn't talk or bribe your way out of it ... then maybe, maybe it would be a different matter. As it stands though, it is just not worth hurting and Breaching in the Strangeness on the poor concierge, not so long as there are other options. There may even be other reasons against it, but ... if they are, then they are utterly unknown to you.

At this point, in this state, you cannot count on thinking of everything. And if you keep pushing yourself for much longer then at some point you might not be able to count on thinking of anything. Rather than sober you, that thought sends your head spinning, and it is only by forcing yourself to peer out of cover once more that you regain something of a stripe near enough to composed concentration. Lucullus, for his part, is not making things any harder for you. By all appearances, he has not moved from his atop the trencher - and gives no indication that he is going to move anytime soon, either. If that is the way of it, then you need to make your move ... after dealing with a tripping hazard. On tender-hooks, you pull yourself back behind the cover of the chimney, then you slink down into a crouch - or as near as you can get to a crouch, what with the the stiffness of a the corset and the bulk of the dress impeding you. Your chest tightening and your breath getting noticeably hotter and shallow, you set down your bundle, then as you offer up a silent prayer, you lift up your left foot so you may rewrap your errant footwrap.

It takes longer than you would have liked, but ultimately, you manage to get it snug again. You feel marginally better once you have both feet on the ground once more, and better still once you have your bundle in your arms - tender as your left may be from the Socketing - but as soon as you face the prospect of having to break cover, whatever you have ginned up just drains away. Nonetheless, you need to move. Now. Before you end up hemming and hawing yourself into being made.

File: Born and Bred Sneakthief IV.jpg (942 KB, 1400x1793)

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> Stealth Test I-V:

> DC 45: Witchlet Chlotsuintha is a Born and Bred Sneakthief, making a Difficult Stealth Test like this [Rather Involved]
> + DC 7 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is Hard to Miss, given her size
> + DC 20 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is somewhere she shouldn't be, making her patently suspicious and impossible to overlook if she is seen
> + DC 10 Impressive Riding Habit gives Witchlet Chlotsuintha a large profile, limiting the places that she can conceal herself from sight
> + DC 2 Impressive Riding Habit has a bad habit of rustling at the worst possible times
> + DC 2 Cancer House Common Room I is empty and otherwise silent, making Witchlet Chlotsuintha harder to overlook
> + DC 9 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Tired III, and is not moving as quickly or as surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 6 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is now Drained III, and is not moving as quickly or surely as she might otherwise
> + DC 1 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is beset with fears and doubts about her Nature, and of the Wages of her Work [Banes, Halved]
> + DC 20 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to move about Common Room I in stealth with a Witness in a state of Alert
> + DC 15 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to move in stealth through areas without continuous concealment
> + DC 5 Witchlet Chlotsuintha must open and close the door to Common Room I while remaining in stealth
> - DC 24 ???
> - DC 12 The Hour is so unwholesome that incidental potential witnesses are extremely unlikely
> - DC 4 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide in an area closed to the public [The Hour, Doubled]
> - DC 8 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is attempting to hide from a search that she is well-aware of
> - DC 5 Witchlet Chlotsuintha passed ST I-IV, as such she is considered to be in Stealth
> - DC 4 Cancer House Common Room is poorly lit and filled with shadows, aiding in concealment [Impressive Riding Habit, Doubled]
> - DC 10 Concierge Lucullus is focusing much of his attention in the wrong direction [Stupefied Search]
> - DC 2 Second Hand Footwraps are well suited to sneaking in these conditions

> DC 73: Anything lower is a failure. [Auto-pass(es) available. Re-roll(s) available. No hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: Who Goes Where? Concierge Lucullus manages to catch sight of Chlotsuintha, prompting an awkward confrontation and a difficult decision [Out, Prompts Vote]
> One Pass: False Start for False Shadow. Chlotsuintha fumbles her start, but manages to get the chimney between her and Lucullus before he can turn around. [Prompts Vote]
> Two Passes: Another Door Closes. Chlotsuintha manages to get through the room, but the sill of the door creaks a bit under her weight, alerting Concierge Lucullus. [Ob. Hostile Hearing Test, ST I-VI no CF/NCF, Prompts Vote]
> Three Passes: The Largest Yard. Chlotsuintha manages to get through to the yard, but now needs to find the stable as quickly as possible, while making some important decisions. [ST I-VI no CF/NCF, Prompts Vote]

> Stealth Test I-V continued:

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then Chlotsuintha realizes a rather glaring mistake she almost made, and will never need to worry about making it in the future.

> May our luck run white, and may I have THREE rolls of 1d100?

A reminder about the rules pertaining to Auto-Passes. These powerful Boons may be redeemed before OR after rolling, so long as the result of the roll is neither a Critical or Near-Critical Failure. This rule remains in effect, even if the penalty for rolling a Critical or Near-Critical Failure has been nulled. To wit; in any case that either a 1 or 2 is rolled, then the associated test cannot be passed with the Auto-Pass.

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>6126615

>>6126654
Good roll anon. You may roll again if you are still in the thread.

Rolled 69 (1d100)

>>6126619
RNGesus, I pray you don’t fail me now…

>>6126719
Okay, that is 1-1 for the tests. We just need one more roll, then we will have a snap vote for using an Auto-Pass or Re-Roll or not.

Rolled 56 (1d100)

>>6126619

Rolled 23 (1d100)

>>6126615

Okay, we are looking at False Start for False Shadow, where Chlotsuintha accidentally draws attention to the chimney, but is able to get out of sight before Lucullus gets a look at her. She does have options - but before I write that update, I figure I should ask if there is any interest in using Auto-Passes or Re-Rolls here? I believe the tally is at eleven Re-Rolls and five Auto-Passes. If we stick with the current outcome, she will have to choose between giving up on stealth (either speaking or walking away from him), using the Wand of Head-Knocking on him, or trying to remain in stealth by sneaking to whatever side of the chimney is opposite of him at any point during his search, until he gives up.

> Please specify how many Re-Rolls and how many Auto-Passes you wish to use. None and none are valid answers.

>>6126738
I'm definitely in favor of using re-rolls. I don't think we should use an autopass. I have no clue how many to use

The way I see it, we only need get to 2 passes on this check (2-1) because if we are caught on the sill then at least we can act like we were coming from the interior of the house which I think is easier to explain away

>>6126738
Use 2 rerolls and accept the results.

>>6126743
Count me as supporting this

>>6126738
We shouldn’t use our rerolls for an unlikely gambit- 75% chance of failure, 25% chance of success? These are bad odds lads.

>>6126760
Success is preferred but not necessary.

>>6126738
1 auto pass and as many reroll as necessary for 3 successes

Voting for just one autopass, this is one of the highest DCs we've had in a long time and spending rerolls here feels very bad because of it, most of them will just fail. This is a great situation to use an autopass, we should spend rerolls when we need to do well on lower DCs and manage to fuck up or really need the extra pass.

So I am seeing four votes here, two for using two Re-Rolls and accepting the results, one for using an unspecified number of Re-Rolls (which I am not sure if I can even count as a vote) and one for using one Auto-Pass and as many re-rolls as needed to get to three passes on ST I-V.

>>6126760
There is a lot of sense in that, but this is not a life or death situation, and it could be argued that these Boons should be used sparingly outside of such situations.

> May our luck run white, and may I please have TWO rolls of 1d100?

>>6126863
Damn it, just seeing this one now. We now have two votes for one Auto-Pass and two votes for two Re-Rolls. We will wait for a tie-breaker.

>>6126863
Anything rolled for this post is to be ignored.

Rolled 1 (1d69)

>>6126863

>>6126958
Well, better on a worthless roll than on something that actually mattered, I suppose.

>>6126865
My IP probably changed again because I'm a filthy phoneposter, but I am this anon >>6126741 and this one >>6126745

In the interests of moving the game forward, I'd like to switch to supporting an autopass

Alright, so it seems we will be using one Auto-Pass to get Another Door Closes. I'll get to writing immediately.

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The first step out of concealment is always the hardest - right up until you have to take the second. Every breath, every tread, every potential footfall you make, your stomach drops. You cannot understand how it manages to recover enough between these bouts for each and every one of them to feel worse then the last, but it does. Clenching your jaw shut, you fight the urge to glance at Lucullus. You know better though. Looking at him will do nothing but unmake what little scraps of nerve you have remaining to you - and even if you were able to glean an indication that he might have heard something, or might be about to look back, you know full well that you would have no way of acting on it. For this stretch between hearth and door, there is neither enough shadow nor cover to even justify attempting to hide. So if he were to hear you, if he were to look in your direction, then you will be made. No recourse, no other options, no clever way out. If you are to remain sight unseen, then you must put that door between you and him. To that point, there is nothing to be gained by trying to read him; your eyes instead scour the floor before you for the soundest of footings - with the occasional furtive glance up at the door ahead, so long as you aren't moving.

A step, a pause. Another step, another pause. Now two steps and a pause longer still. In fits and drips, the distances closes agonizingly ... but it closes. Blessedly, it closes. Of course, the real trick here is going to be the door to the yard. It was not locked when you passed through it last, nor was there any indication that it was locked during the abortive search of common room ... but if it remains unlocked - and you must mind that this is still an 'if', considering how poor your read of the room was from your hiding spot under the table - then now you must win your way through it without making noise. Did it make a noise with your passing when you came into this room? No, you don't recall. But when you opened it, did it make ... no, no wait, you didn't open, did you? In such a state as you are, even the freshest of memories have a slippery quality to them; but if you had to take a stake on it, then you believe Nasturtium or his porter got the door for you. You paid it no mind, damn it all. Paltry solace may be made by the notion that if there was a noise from its opening, then it wasn't intrusive enough to be noticed in a state of distraction.

But! Is Lucullus as distracted as you were?

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With the arc of your approach, the door now looms opposite of you, the light from the lamps outside casting a warm glow around it. With each step, you now move further away from the lights, not further into them ... though now the prospect of getting through the door unheard - or rather, not getting through the door unheard - robs you of whatever relief it might have won you. Though telling it true, it would not have been much. You are near as exposed here as you were on your first stride out from the chimney. You certainly cannot afford the usual hemming and the typical hawing, nor any lingering contemplation. Get to the yard. Get to the stable. Get to the grooms before Machares. Get the Hell out of this hole, and never - damn it, no, you cannot even allow yourself to think ahead. Focus only on the next step. There is nothing else in the Whole but this next step. The roiling, full-body flush of stress and panic and even a bit of guilt and shame - you cannot quite put a name to what specifically you are feeling guilty and ashamed of, though it certainly isn't for want of wares. Rather, you just cannot articulate anything at the moment; you feel as if you are about go up in flames or fall apart at the joints or ...

A step. A pause, perhaps longer than necessary. And then, another step. That is all there is. That is all there can be. A few steps further on, you consider lengthening your strides, but in short order you decide against it. Already, you are striding longer than you usually do, and you have exceptionally long legs to begin with. If you were to go any longer, then it seems that you would be playing with worse odds for making an unsound step. Besides, you are so close now ... just a few more, then the door. You catch yourself leaning in and speeding up; as difficult as it may be, this last gasp must be slower, not faster, lest you bungle the all important door. With all the haste of a drop of dried paint, the final approach is agonizing, but you inexplicably manage it before your heart, knees or anything else gives out.

Holding yourself steady, you strain your ears, listening for wind - or any other sounds on the other side of the door that will give you away once you ease the thing open. As of now, you cannot hear anything ... but to tell it true, even if you did, would it matter? Would you really just wait here, outside of the door on the chance that it would let up before you were seen or Machares made it to his husbandmen? Would you honestly sneak back to the chimney, to find another way through? No, you wouldn't. This is just going to have to work. Of course, you aren't thrilled about the prospect of having to open this door wide enough to allow the riding habit through without brushing up against anything. Now more than ever, you are reconsidering how suited this dress is to this kind of work. Carefully, you let your hand rest on the handle, and allow yourself just enough time for one last deep breath.

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Then without allowing another thought, you ease down on the handle until you feel - but don't hear - a click. All well and good ... unless the door was locked. If it is, then you are about to find about ... and potentially make some noise in the process, if you aren't measured and deliberate enough. You rush through a silent prayer for deliverance, then try the door.

When the door swings open without so much as a whisper, you so buffeted by relief that the fringes of your vision darken a bit. The under-over of getting out of this place with your stage and team have just bolted; bolted up and away. Oh, blessed Mercy. You have to stop yourself from offering up another silent prayer, of thanksgiving this time, and focus yourself once more on actually delivering yourself from this place. To that end, once you have the door open wide enough for the 'worn piece', you make a mincing step right on the sill of the door, as it would be the strongest, soundest -

Under your weight, the sill lets out a sharp, curt groan. The wind is knocked from your lungs, as if you had just seriously fouled a cast. Behind you, from where Lucullus would be perched, there are the unmistakable sounds of stirring. And the light from the lamps just without cast you into such a sharp, unrelieving relief!

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> Do not look back to where Lucullus is sitting, you will not know if you are made or not. The arithmetic may or may not be changed, but regardless, the time is better spent getting yourself hence. That is the advantage you need.
> Look back to where Lucullus is sitting, so you may know if you are made or not. The arithmetic is not as it was earlier. Knowing one way or another will provide an advantage in what comes next - and if he isn't, a needed relief as well.

>>6127519
> Do not look back to where Lucullus is sitting, you will not know if you are made or not. The arithmetic may or may not be changed, but regardless, the time is better spent getting yourself hence. That is the advantage you need.

Better to pretend we did not see him

>>6127519
>> Do not look back to where Lucullus is sitting, you will not know if you are made or not. The arithmetic may or may not be changed, but regardless, the time is better spent getting yourself hence. That is the advantage you need.

Alright, consider that closed.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will take the time to close the door, taking extra time to attempt to do so quietly. [Deftness Test I]
> You will take the time to close the door, but you will not spend extra time keeping it quiet. [Deftness Test I]
> You will not take the time to close the door.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will rush out to the yard and find the stable as quick as you can. [Athletics Test I]
> You will get out to the yard and sneak over to the stable. [Stealth Test I-VI]
> You will get out to the yard - and fearing pursuit - hide at the first opportunity. [Stealth Test I-VI]
> You will turn about in the doorway, and pretend you are re-entering the common room. [Deception-Persuasion Test I]

Also, a question about the Quest itself. For most of the Quest, I have asked for a bunch of rolls, then written-up a massive update. For much of this thread it has been the opposite, small updates after each test or vote. Do any of you have a preference?

>>6127648
I think I prefer this more, but it matters more which you find most convenient for your own workflow

>>6127643
> You will take the time to close the door, but you will not spend extra time keeping it quiet. [Deftness Test I]
I'm voting this option in the assumption that this is closing the door regularly. I wouldn't want to leave the door open because that would be rude, but I just want to close the door, not be super stealth about it or anything

>WRITE IN
>Walk towards the stables like a normal person. Rather than run or cat-crawl, Chlotsuintha using a more moderate speed setting and walks at a brisk normal pace towards her destination

>>6127643
>You will take the time to close the door, but you will not spend extra time keeping it quiet. [Deftness Test I]
> You will turn about in the doorway, and pretend you are re-entering the common room. [Deception-Persuasion Test I]

>>6127643
>You will take the time to close the door, but you will not spend extra time keeping it quiet. [Deftness Test I]

As we have already blown an entire day, if the tie isn't broken by the time that I am ready to run tomorrow, I will just roll to break the tie.

>>6127835
+1

Okay, consider this closed. I'll get to writing as soon as I can.

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Without thinking you snatch your foot back off of the sill, as if that could somehow unmake the noise. The prospect of making another noise stuns like a Sledge-Axe, stupefying so thoroughly that you simply leave the offending foot in mid air for want of footing sure or sound - or perhaps, in this case unsound. Bile has risen into your mouth, it slides past your tongue and laps at your teeth. More than once this night, your brain has felt as if it had melted; now it feels as if it had emulsified. You feel numb, deadened. You'd sorely like to just ... no, no this is not going to be the way the night ends!

Close the door. Close the door and walk away as if nothing untoward had happened here. Lucullus may follow you out into the yard, or he may run for Machares ... but there is nothing that you can do about that now. Even if you wanted to use your Wand of Head-Knocking, you cannot count of having enough time to Socket the damned thing. And if he were to come out, were to confront you ... well, if it absolutely comes to it, there is nothing stopping you from just walking off into the night. You must remember, you are not some raggamoffyn sneakthief to be run down and held until the Guard or a Bailiff could be fetched. It may further delay or complicate your departure, but - ah, you have dwelt enough! You complete your stride, tenderly stepping on the stair beyond the sill, then side-step the rest of the way through the door, your right hand reaching over your left arm to snag the handle.

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> Deftness [Actuate] Test I:

> DC 5: Witchlet Chlotsuintha not Fine-Fingered, making a Very Simple Deftness [Actuate] Test Very Simple.
> + DC 14 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is currently Tired III and is not as coordinated as she might be otherwise [Once and Half Again for Deftness]
> + DC 9 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is currently Drained III, and may not be thinking as quick as she normally does [Once and Half Again for Deftness]
> + DC 5 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is Pushed by Panic, and may not be a sure in her movements as she normally would be.
> + DC 2 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is performing Deftness Test I in less-than-adequate light, potentially confounding her
> + DC 2 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is performing Deftness Test I from a position that would complicate any actuation.

> DC 37: Anything lower is a failure. [Re-rolls and auto-passes are available. No hostile re-roll(s)]

> No Passes: Such are the Breaks. Chlotsuintha manages to close the door before she is entirely through it, damaging her dress, leaving the door swinging open and making a considerable amount of noise. [Hostile Boon III for Hostile Hearing Test]
> One Pass: Shrieking Sill. Chlotsuintha manages to close the door without too much noise ... except for the point when she accidentally back stepped onto the sill. That made some more noise ... [Hostile Boon II for Hostile Hearing Test]
> Two Passes: Is No-One There? Chlotsuintha manages to close the door with little delay and less noise. [Hostile Boon I, CF/NCF nulled for Hostile Hearing Test]
> Three Passes: Another Door Opens. Chlotsuintha manages to close the door promptly, without so much as a sound. Hostile Hearing Test [Hostile Bane, CF/NCF nulled for Hostile Hearing Test]

> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Failure (Roll of 1 or 2) then Chlotsuintha hurts her hand instead of damages her dress in Such are the Breaks.
> If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) then two rolls for Hostile Hearing Test are Auto-Failed.

> May I please have three rolls of 1d100?

Rolled 99 (1d100)

>>6128812

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>6128812

Wut?

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>6128812

>>6128831
Very nice

>>6128831
Nice roll anon, good job

Apologies for the late start, had some things to do around the house.

> Gained one lucky tenth-talent (redeemable for one single re-roll)
> Currently there are 12 single re-rolls and 4 single auto-passes available.

So, for this Hostile Hearing Test we are about to see the first instance of the auto-fail. As you might expect, it works similarly to an auto-pass, with two distinctions. The first is obvious, that it fails tests instead of passing them. The second is that it must be redeemed before the roll, as opposed to the auto-pass, which may be redeemed before or after. In a case where an auto-fail is redeemed, the test is rolled typically. If the result of the test is a Critical or Near-Critical Success, then the auto-fail fails. If the result is a Near-Critical Success, then it is treated as a standard passed test, while if the result is a Critical Success, then it is treated as a Near-Critical Success, bestowing whatever additional benefit and subject to standard rules on negation. If the result of the test is a Critical or Near Critical Failure, then the auto-fail is refunded to the redeeming party. If the result is a Near-Critical Failure, then it is treated as a standard failure - regardless if Near-Critical Failures have been nulled for the test or not. If the result is a Critical Failure, then it is treated a Near-Critical Failure, bestowing whatever additional benefit and subject to standard rules on negation.

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Rolled 2, 27, 3 = 32 (3d100)

Hostile Test; Hearing II

DC 40: Concierge Lucullus is not Keen of Ear, making a moderate Hearing Test like this [Moderate]
+ DC 20 Witchlet Chlotsuintha is aware that Concierge Lucullus is performing a Hearing Test, and is doing everything in her power to defeat it
+ DC 18 ???
+ DC 5 Concierge Lucullus is facing away from the source of the Squeaking, confounding his efforts
- DC 20 Concierge Lucullus is only separated from the Squeaking by a short distance an a few incidental objects
- DC 10 Concierge Lucullus may listen as long and as hard as he likes, as he has nothing preventing him from doing so
- DC 10 The Squeaking is Lingering I, with echoing and subsequent lesser noises to suggest its existence and location

DC 38: Anything lower is a failure. [No re-rolls and auto-passes are available. "Hostile" re-roll(s) and auto-passes are available]

No Passes: A Quiet Night. Concierge Lucullus convinces himself that he didn't hear anything.
One Pass: A Roused Watch? Concierge Lucullus is unsure if he heard anything. Roll 1d2; on roll of 2, Concierge Lucullus walks to the door and investigates.
Two Passes: A Curious Creak. Concierge Lucullus heard something and will walk to the door and investigate. [Hostile Boon I, NCF and CF nulled for Hostile Test, Search]
Three Passes: A Suspicious Squeak. Concierge Lucullus definitely heard something, and will run to the door and investigate thoroughly. [Hostile Boon I, NCF and CF nulled for Hostile Test, Search]

If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Failure (Roll of 1 or 2) then Concierge Lucullus falls from his perch while performing Hostile Test, Hearing II, bestowing Hostile Banes on his test for the next hour - as well as Boons for anyone tested by him, for the same period.
If ONE of the THREE rolls comes up as a Critical or Near-Critical Success (Roll of 100 or 99) the Concierge Lucullus perceives the Squeak quick enough to actually turn around in time to see Witchlet Chlotsuintha closing the door to Common Room I.

May I please give myself one roll of 3d100, and may your luck run white!

The auto-fails applying to the two highest results (the inverse of auto-passes being applied to the lowest results) seems like we are adding insult to injury here. Figuratively and actually, as Lucullus hurts himself from trying to twist around to face the door! As per the previous vote, Chlotsuintha is following the trail of her stage and team at a walking pace. I'll get the update out for an overnight vote.

I'm sorry, I would have sworn I posted the update. I'll get it re-written and up as soon as I can.

> Gained one very lucky tenth-talent (redeemable for one single auto-pass)
> Currently there are 12 single re-rolls and 5 single auto-passes available.

>>6129669
Did you write it in a word processor?

>>6129769
Lmao, you know he didn't

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The Width and Breadth of your Thread is shouting at you to make haste; haste the likes of which have never been made before. In such a state as you are, you cannot entirely strangle the impulse - like a flame that inexplicably remains lit underneath a snuffer. The fruits of this unstrangled impulse are little treasons; your head turning itself away from the door, your weight shifting as if you were about to break into a full sprint. The sum of these betrayals is that what otherwise might have been mindless - even under the gun as you are - becomes 'touch and go'. Or rather, it doesn't become touch and go, because there is naught between your fingers but air. As you wrench your head back towards the door so you may properly see the latest of your failings tonight, the numbness that suffused you is being burnt away, replaced with a blooming, stressful tension. You feel as if you are fit to fall apart at the seams - but just as it becomes too much to bear, you get your fingers on the handle - just a hair of a moment before you lay eyes on the damned thing. Grasping the iron in clammy, jittering hands you backpedal, taking the door with you. Distantly and perhaps belatedly, you realize that this is a far cry from the deliberate, quiet closing of the door that you intended, so you hitch your step a bit, slowing the door as it approaches the frame. The door does close - not entirely quietly, but with the speed that you needed to potentially get out of the common room without being made. You turn on your heel - which is not particularly easy, when wearing dilapidated footwraps - and force yourself into a measured march out into the yard. You must keep telling yourself that -

From behind you, there is an unexpectedly loud thud, loud enough that even with the space and the closed door between you, you nearly drop your bundle all the same. Noticing that you are shaking, visibly shaking, you draw yourself up to your full height, holding yourself taut in a bid to force yourself into something that would make muster as composure. Such an approximation though, does nothing for your nerves, which are so thoroughly shot they might well have been dragged in front of a firing squad. Somehow though, you manage to keep walking - though if your pace did quicken, and your stride did lengthen, then you could certainly understand why, even if you neither wished nor wanted for such to happen. One step after another. The corner around which stage and team disappeared ... you don't even know how long ago now, but draws nearer and nearer all the same. And from behind you, inexplicably, nothing. No cries nor entreaties to stop, no sounds of pursuit or deleterious attentions from attendants. It is enough to make you want to sob in relief - until you have the misfortune to recall everything that you must still do tonight, which is enough to make you want to sob as well ...

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Your eyes remain dry, however. If not because you cannot allow it, then because you are too spent to cry. Some time ago, you decided how you were going to approach the night grooms, but ... quite honestly, you cannot even remember what exactly you decided, and now that you are being searched for, it stands that even if you could remember, you might want to rethink things. Unless ... did you decide on a course of action before or after Machares started searching for you? Well, you suppose it is no matter - beyond that you cannot remember things and decisions made mere minutes ago. What matters is now. Already, you can see and hear what must be the stables from around the corner.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will sneak your way into the stables, hoping to avoid Machares if he is already there. If you are made by the husbandmen - or Machares, or anyone else he has roused to search for you - you will be suspect. Assuming that only the husbandmen you met and paid off earlier are there, you will make yourself known to them, and try to convince them to make the stage ready to depart. In doing so, you are taking a risk that Machares or someone he has roused has already spoken to the husbandmen and has since left.
> You will sneak your way into the stables, hoping to avoid Machares if he is already there. If you are caught by the husbandmen - or Machares, or anyone else he has roused to search for you - you will be suspect. Regardless of who is there, you will remain in stealth, and evaluate what options you have for getting your stage ready to depart without involving anyone else. If you are made by anyone while trying to prepare your own stage, then you will be very suspect.
> Assuming you perceive nothing that would indicate that Machares or anyone else besides the husbandmen are in the stables at the moment, you will simply walk right in, make yourself known to the husbandmen, and try to convince them to make the stage ready to depart. If you are made by Machares, or anyone he has informed about you - potentially including the husbandmen - then you will be suspect.
> You have lingered here long enough. Walk away. You may come back to Cancer House Coachery later tomorrow - which is already today, actually - and you may find that your stage and team is still here. Likewise, you may find that it is not. If at least part of the ensemble remains, you may have an opportunity to recover it, and this opportunity may have odds that are better than the odds you have now. Likewise, you may find that the odds are worse than the ones you have now.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> As a precaution, you will take a moment to Socket the Wand of Head-Knocking
> Your presumed status will have to be protection enough, the Wand will remain in your bundle.

>>6129769
>>6130257
Even worse, I wrote that particular update on my phone. Really, I was asking for something to go wrong ...

>>6130368
>> You have lingered here long enough. Walk away. You may come back to Cancer House Coachery later tomorrow - which is already today, actually - and you may find that your stage and team is still here. Likewise, you may find that it is not. If at least part of the ensemble remains, you may have an opportunity to recover it, and this opportunity may have odds that are better than the odds you have now. Likewise, you may find that the odds are worse than the ones you have now.

> Your presumed status will have to be protection enough, the Wand will remain in your bundle.

>>6130368
> Your presumed status will have to be protection enough, the Wand will remain in your bundle.

Unsure about the other vote. I think I need to think about our overall plans again and the options for a third coachhouse. I hadn't even thought about the guilds snd the fact that all of these housemasters know each other and of course they're going to talk about you... I need to spend some time to recap our agenda for tomorrow

>>6130585
The core issue here, to me, seems to be that Nasturtium knows all the other coachmen, which makes sense. Meaning, unless we hoof it out of town, he is going to find out (probably tomorrow) where are coach is and that will raise a million questions, especially as we will still be without a father. I don't think there is a way for us to recover the coach tomorrow from any inn; even if we change cover, Nasturtium will probably be talking about us and, since we aren't at Cancer House, he'll probably start a search for us or smth. So, I don't think we can change identity/cover by changing location and I don't think it will get Nasturtium off our tail

The only solution I see is sneaking back at some point and taking our stagecoach by force of wand

> You have lingered here long enough. Walk away. You may come back to Cancer House Coachery later tomorrow - which is already today, actually - and you may find that your stage and team is still here. Likewise, you may find that it is not. If at least part of the ensemble remains, you may have an opportunity to recover it, and this opportunity may have odds that are better than the odds you have now. Likewise, you may find that the odds are worse than the ones you have now.

If there are no more votes in the next few hours, I'll close this. I just want to leave it up a little longer, considering that there was a two-day gap, and players might have wandered off.

>>6130464
+1

>>6130368
>>6130857
Been busy unfortunately, and the 15 minute post system disincentivizes posting.

I’m sorry to impose on you, TL:DR of the situation would be nice- I left off around the time Nasturtium left, did we actually leave the Coachery he took us to or is this it? And why are we sneaking around?

>>6130954
We tried to leave, but the owner and nightclerk came in before we could so we hid and then snuck out. The owner and nightclerk also gossiped about how freakishly tall we are and how weird it was that we were doing the talking despite being a woman

>>6131008
The only other thing that I would add is that the nightclerk - who is still inside the common room - heard something, but in the process of looking for the source of the noise fell from where he was perched on top of one of the trencher tables. He is disorientated, and not likely to go or do anything soon without very good cause. Currently Chlotsuintha is not sneaking, she is just walking out in the open - though there is a corner between her and the stable, so she is not going to be seen unless she proceeds further into the yard, and even then she could hide if that is how she wanted to play it.

Hope this answers your question.

>>6130954
>>6131054
Replied to the wrong post, damn it.

>>6130464
+1 then

Sorry for holding up the thread- turns out posting on mobile resets the new system every 15 mins or so. Soooo fun.

>>6131123
No problem.

Consider this closed. I'll get to writing.

Softened by the distance, obscured by the careless ruckus of lingering gusts fresh from the harbor are the sounds of labor and noises of indelicately roused horses. There is not so much as a whisper of conversation, nor anything to suggest that were you to close even all of the distance between you and the stables that you might be something there for you to catch. With a half-start, you realize that you have stopped dead in your tracks. You know full well that even those belonging to the most trusting of stripes would find someone just standing in a dark corner of a yard, staring at the stables suspect - or at least, cause for question. And those who bear responsibility for horses and carriages, one of which could easily be worth more than they make in a year are not typically trusting. If you are going to go in and speak to them, you should keep moving. Likewise, if you are going to try to sneak in, you should keep moving as well - or at least, not stand out in the open.

Instead, you remain where you are.

Did Machares beat you here? Would the stable be as restive as it is right now if he had? Could he be in there at this very moment? You'd be inclined against that; it seems to you that there is too much noise for him to be in there now. From the admittedly little you have seen of the man, he strikes you as being cut from the same cloth as the South Sexton, the sort to make his unfortunates stand at attention ... or whatever the servant equivalent is called, while he gives orders. So from this reasoning, it would seem that he isn't there now. But if there is similar reasoning as to whether or not he had been in the stables, you cannot muster it. And even if it turns out that you are in the clear here, that you can talk to the night-grooms for as long as it would take to convince them to get the team back into harness and let you drive them off, your night still isn't over. If anything, it has yet to begun! You have to retrieve your hand-cart from the Closet, then get yourself back into the Midden with the cart somehow - or at least find a better spot to stash it temporarily. Not to mention, you still need to make a final decision on planting the False Graven Ball ... which you might well have already done, but ... no, you just cannot remember for the life of you. Just ... decide again, odds are you will come to the same conclusion. As to what the odds may be that the decision you come is the right one, well ... never mind that.

But what you are driving at, is that on top of all of that - which is paired down from what you originally intended to do tonight, mind you - you will need to find another Coachery that can accommodate a team-of-six stage in the most unwholesome of hours. And there will need to be a whole bushel of lies as to why you are out alone at this hour. There is also the matter of ownership to consider. Nasturtium didn't question you on it because he sold the fraying thing to you. But at some other house, you could definitely see these questions being raised - or at the very least, there will be doubts. What papers you have for the stage are all in Wilhelmina's name, but you don't have Wilhelmina's Family Patent made up yet, so if you are pressed on whether or not you own the damned thing, or even have the right to drive it, you have nothing to produce in response. To be sure, you don't imagine that someone dressed as richly as you are right now, who can throw around the talents that you can is taken to task on such trifles, doubts notwithstanding ... but if they do crop up, you ... you'll just have to try to lie your way out of them, you suppose.

Perhaps though, if you were to ... put things off a bit. Reprioritize. The cart needs to be moved tonight, lest it be discovered when the Cleaners get to their Closet in the morning. Likewise, you need to be in the Midden by the morning for Roll Call. And Ablution - you mustn't forget it is Titheday. And of course, if you are to plant the False Graven Ball, then it is best done at night. Perhaps even can only be done at night. Your fellows - or rather, just Vaclav, as Father is gone, you fully intend to call yourself out and Smil has died twice now - will be working when he isn't receiving Ablution or being led in prayer, and even when he isn't at the job, the South Sexton, his household and anyone who turns up to pay respects to the honored dead will be about. You cannot imagine that there will be much of an opportunity to get to Aldoin's grave and get it open, not during the day. And tomorrow night - which is actually tonight, as it is already morning - you don't imagine you will have time to do this one last bit of graverobbing - or rather, this first bit of gravegifting. Point is, if you are going to follow through with your bid to make yourself lesser prey in the eyes of the Inquisition - a potential Stranger as opposed to a probable Witchlet - it would best be done sooner than later. Quite possibly it can only be done sooner.

The stage though ... that would be best dealt with during the day. The hour makes everything suspect, especially with the state of alert everything is in on account of the roads. And if you were to take the time during the day to forge a Personal Family Patent for Wilhelmina, then you would have one less thing to worry about. Of course, the issue is that while waiting until a more wholesome hour will make getting the stage into another house easier for you, it will make getting it out of this one harder. But for all you know, Machares has already been by, and has poured what amounts to poison in the ears of the husbandmen. With that in mind, as well as everything else that you will need to do tonight - not to mention the increasingly vain hope for a few hours of sleep besides - it simply seems that it would be best to try again later. But you certainly still intend to come back though. Realistically, you cannot count on finding another stage and team for sale in such short notice. To tell it true, you couldn't even count on finding the one you found in such short notice.

You take a tentative step back, but keep your eyes forward, locked on the stable. Walking away ... it feels like a mistake, and you feel like pulling your hair out. But if it is a mistake, then it was one that has already been made, not hours ago but days, when you didn't leave enough time to get a means off of the Mount entirely in hand. Now you got to scramble. Worse than the scrambling though, is that you have to walk away. Looking back on it now, it probably would have been for the best to leave the stage at Nasturtium's after all, even with the inclement issues weighing against it. That doesn't stop you from feeling physically sick about the notion though.

Don't dwell. You cannot dwell. Just ... start walking. That's all you can do. Just one foot in front of the other, all the way to the Landward Wall.

> Please choose ONE of the following:
> You will attempt to simply walk through the wall - perhaps through the gate you came through, with that Guard who couldn't be bothered to stop you?
> You will close the distance to one of the Gatehouses, then you will use your Wand of Head-Knocking on the Guard to win your way through.
> You will take a longer and more deliberate route to look for opportunities to either climb over or otherwise sneak through the Landward Wall.

>>6131897
> You will close the distance to one of the Gatehouses, then you will use your Wand of Head-Knocking on the Guard to win your way through.

We should probably also change back into our maid/servant outfit when opportunity allows

>>6131897
>> You will attempt to simply walk through the wall - perhaps through the gate you came through, with that Guard who couldn't be bothered to stop you?

I suppose I will have to go to the general and ask for a tie-breaker.

>>6132002
>>6132709
No, it's alright. This vote is me. I'm fine changing it to the "just walk past" option

>>6131897
>You will close the distance to one of the Gatehouses, then you will use your Wand of Head-Knocking on the Guard to win your way through.

>>6131897
> You will attempt to simply walk through the wall - perhaps through the gate you came through, with that Guard who couldn't be bothered to stop you?
Sorry, been busy.

We just got Mitigated of Strangeness, rather not Re-Estrange ourselves with the Inquisition presence high and on alert.

Alright then, by my count we are 3-1 for just trying to walk through the gate that we came through. I will get to writing as soon as I can.

>>6132847
I didn't thank of that, really solid point anon

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As far as how you are to actually win your way through it ... perhaps that Guard that couldn't be arsed to stop is still there. He very well might not be though, as you have nothing approaching an inkling as to when the Colors are changed for the Guards assigned to the Landward Walls. To tell it true, this smacks more of a hope than a plan, but under the circumstances ... well, a poisonous fruit is only dangerous once taken. If there is anything to suggest that you couldn't just pay your toll and walk on through, anything at all, then you will at least consider other ways through - or more likely than not, over. Of course, what you can see and hear isn't going to get you to certainty, or anywhere near it. But you are at the point where you have to keep moving or you risk falling asleep; just as you cannot count on certainty on getting through safely or not, you cannot count on yourself having enough wits and strength to get yourself through the Walls by duplicitous means. What really tips the scales though, is what would happen if you were undone taking either tack. Getting held up and questioned trying to pay a toll is one thing, getting caught trying to sneak over or through the Walls is something else entirely.

You have a general idea of where Cancer House is, relative to the Gatehouse you are looking for, so you set your best heading and try to ignore the ache and recriminatory pangs racking your body at the thought of abandoning your stage and team. You can only hope your heading is more hale and whole than your ignorance. You'll ... you'll be back for them. For a surety. You don't know exactly how you will do it, you don't know when you will do it, but you will ... try. You will try.

Buildings, half-remembered from your earlier search for a Coachery, swim in and out of the darkness. With the hour being late enough to be early, more than a few of the streetlamps have guttered out - and no house shows any light more than the occasional glint that could be a lone candle near a window, or just a curious reflection from one of the 'lamps still burning. The street is quite close to quiet, to the point that for one moon-fancying moment, you think that you can actually make out the crash of the surf, before you realize that it just must be the wind. Other noises distant and indecipherable exist but do not intrude. The silence is such that you can clearly hear the husky whisper of your footwraps over the stones passing beneath your feet. A few dozen paces on, an errant breeze shatters the stillness - and makes you well aware once more of the bulk of your riding habit. You consider changing into something more domestic, but while you are spoiled for choice on alleyways, you belatedly and abashedly remember that you need to be dressed as well as possible.

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There is also another point; the complete absence of anyone else. You weren't expecting crowds at this hour, but this is not some sleepy alley off of a spur or a spur. This is a major avenue - and it is completely desolate. No wagons carrying in or out freight, taking advantage of the nighttime laxity in the prohibitions on city roads, no late night carousers wandering home, none of your fellows - rather, your former fellows - the undeserving poor skulking or prowling about. Somehow, you've got it in your silly head that the moment you were to undress, you would finally find some company out on the street.

Stupid as it may be, your luck has been black enough that you cannot put the idea entirely from your mind. It so happens that you are still recriminating yourself over this latest madness when you notice that the Landward Wall is before you, looming over the Outer Belt. You slow your pace to a shuffle so you may peel apart your bundle for the coin - only to stop as quick as you started, once it occurs to you that you should make sure that you are out of sight of Guards and sundry before you draw attention to your bundle by unwrapping it - not that you are expecting much in the way of sundry, but if you were to meet anyone out on the streets besides the Guard, it would be at a Gatehouse, for a surety. As for keeping out of sight of the Guards, well ... as little as you may know of the workings of the Law, you do know that Guards may inquire and investigate the persons and possessions of Subjects and Foreigners at gates, bridges, crossings and crossroads. Dressed as you are, you could pass for the daughter of a Citizen ... and the insanity of wearing a dress worth as much as year's wages for a laborer, by yourself, alone - that strikes you as some mischief such a daughter might get up to - but without a Family Patent to produce, if they were so inclined to press the issue, you would fall within their authority. As well as the contents of your bundle.

Best then to draw as little attention to it - and yourself - as you possibly can. With a painfully deliberate casualness, you look up from your abortive fumblings to properly case the Gatehouse for anyone who might be able to lay eyes upon you. It just so happens that you cannot see anyone - for good reason.

Or perhaps, bad reason.

Light, harsh and steady, is pouring out from the steel lips of the mouths-of-murder, causing the wroughtwork of the unmistakably closed door below to twinkle with a cruel, taunting gleam. With what scant wits remaining to you so enfeebled by the sight, understanding is an embarrassingly long time coming. The Thoroughfares; it might very well be that whatever is transpiring out there is worse than originally believed - or that a wider, finer net needed to be cast to catch the culprits - and what manpower that remained on the Mount was simply not enough to meet this new need while rising to the longstanding ones.

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To that end, some Gatehouses - including this one - must have been shut up. It would at least help explain the dearth of the streets, if everyone who would otherwise be here was having to go a long way around ... still though, you would imagine that there would still be some people who lived here - as opposed to those just passing through - out for some reason.

What if ... what if all of the Gatehouses are shut up? You have never known such a thing to happen - you have never even heard of single Gatehouse being closed - but that doesn't mean much; as a Leper, you are the last to know anything about everything, if you are ever deemed fit to know anything at all, and as a sneakthief, your interest - and consequentially, your knowledge - of the way the Guard conducts themselves begins and ends on the routes they take through the places where you ply your trade.

Still, this seems ... bad. You don't imagine that the Guard would just idly shut up a Gate. Obviously, they are charged with protecting the Mount, and all that comes with it ... but can they really close gates just to cover man-power shortages? You kind of thought that things needed to be in a real bad way before the Guard or the Port Authority could order something like that. Maker's Mercy, are things in a real bad way? There were no alarums, no hue and cry - and even if you had missed it, you would have picked up on something being wrong from watching Lucullus and Machares, and Nasturtium and his porter before them. Was a curfew implemented? No, not in the middle of the night, that makes no sense. But then, just what exactly is going on here?

A terrible thought suddenly casts a deep shadow over your mind. Father said quite explicitly that if he weren't back within a week, you were to leave the Mount. It has now been seven nights since he left. You had assumed that he was just giving you a number, something large enough to make sure that he had a chance to get back to you if there were delays, but short enough to get you away if he and his professional friends were ... undone. Point being, that in your estimation of everything, the deadline had always been arbitrary, and as such, flexible. He had given previous deadlines before, just like it.

But he had always kept them. Until now ...