Downtime Thread 2: Interrogating the Dead


Downtime Thread 2: Interrogating the Dead

As Unasi strikes the final blow with his enchanted spear (what was Pete Segreti's suggested name? Thorn something?), the tentacles melt away. You take in the scene of ruin. The counters are smashed, and seeping black ichor spreads across the floor. Within the smash glass of one of the display cases, the decapitated head of Samir looks up, his ruined face staring with horror filled, ublinking eyes. All that is left of the corpse of the assailant is his skin, armor, gear, and mask (depicted below). The hanging skin and long hair has the ivory pallor of the Zyanese, and the white leather armor he wears is finely shaped, but now ruined and stained black. He carries a fine longsword (1d8 +1 to damage but not to hit), and three stilettos, two of which are still coated in some poison (it will wear away soon). On his person he carries as well a set of five small cards with gold backs. Two have sylized eyes on the front, and three have stylized ears.

Cletus steps forward, calling on the power of Nepthlys, the Spider God, who wrenches the spirit of the man back from the dead. The skin shifts and the mouth moves in ghastly speech.

"Who are you who call me back from the bronze sepulchres of Ushanpoor? For what purpose this most unnatural feat?"

Pete Segreti's character says, "To ask you some questions. Is there another door? Or another way through the door? Who sent you? Why?"

To which he replies, "None sent me. I abide still in the echoing domes of Brass Sepulchres, whose nighted precincts wind ever deeper, until you called me forth. But I think perhaps you wish to question that which slew me and inhabited me in gruesome fashion. So long before my appointed time did it snatch precious life from me! The thing is neither living nor dead, but a strange emanation of the cursed Hidden King. I have met others here who have suffered the same fate, we are drawn to one another, and our numbers grow."

Comments

  1. Ben L.March 21, 2018 at 2:48 PM

    "A bottle of liquor was delivered to me, supposedly from my father, as a peace offering in a bitter quarrel we had had. The note that accompanied it was convincing. It was dark and thick, smelling of licorice. When I swallowed it a strange feeling overtook me of something moving in my bowels, and I was compelling to drink the flask down. The sensation was unbearable; I was devoured from the inside. As it consumed my memory and absorbed my talents and personality, for a moment I saw the world through its eyes. It was an inhuman thing, an imposter, cunning but not overly smart. I believe these things are, in their essence, soldiers for whom Hidden King's commands are over-riding imperatives."

    The flaccid lips pause for a moment, and then continue their ghastly performance, "As my life's flame was extinguished, I had a sudden sense of its purpose in my case: to position itself close to my uncle, Cloyame who bears the antiquated title of ambassador. It was to guide him towards the purpose of extinguishing some threat that had gotten out of hand, a source of peril to its master."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris P.March 22, 2018 at 6:28 PM

    What do you know of Cloyame and his agenda? Is he pawn or willing servant to the Hidden King?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ben L.March 22, 2018 at 6:30 PM

    "My uncle was not, at the time, a witting accomplice of the Counter Monarch. He is a competent enough man. He has penetrated many of the secrets of our clan, and has control over appearings and phantasms."

    ReplyDelete

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