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-UE
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-UE
Comments
What Alex said.
You look back at Osten's spirit.
"Would you like to come along with me?" you ask him. "I can offer you a chance at revenge on the people who killed you, and I could use the assistance."
The spirit shakes his head. You sigh.
"Okay," you murmur. "Thank you for your help."
Osten doesn't look particularly grateful as he slides back through the veil.
You turn back to Rory. You can feel fatigue beginning to build up, slowing your thought processes.
"Do you need anything else?" you ask him.
Rory shakes his head. "Not today," he replies. "If you could come back tomorrow, I could use your assistance then, however."
[A] Head back to the inn. You need to get something to eat and then head to bed.
Head back to the inn. You wish to begin making the compass to track down the assassin who tried to kill you earlier.
[C] No. You still have a task to do. (Please specify what your task is.)
B.
.
B.
.
sorry
[Quick post before I leave for a while.]
You nod respectfully at Rory. "I will make myself available at your convenience tomorrow."
With that, you turn and leave, gesturing for Lien to follow you.
---
You arrive back at the inn some time before sunset.
"You may as well get something to eat," you murmur to Lien. "I will take some time to prepare what I wish to prepare, although I hope I will not take too long."
Lien nods in acknowledgement and heads over to a table, gesturing for a tavernhand.
You head up the stairs to the lodging rooms, and head over to yours. The blood you collected has dried out, but that's okay- you drip several drops of water onto it, and the blood is liquid again, if diluted.
The principles to making a ritualized compass are fairly simple. You need a circular container that helps to focus magic, and is also transparent; glass is most common, although some extravagant compasses use diamond. You need a needle to point in the right direction; a simple iron needle works fine. And lastly, you need water and the focusing material.
It is a two-stage ritual. The first stage is fairly simple; you attune the iron needle to the blood. Of course, attuning is not so simple itself- you need to give the iron needle the same properties as the blood. To do so, you need to give up ownership of the needle, bequeathing ownership of it over to the owner of whatever material you are using. This makes it fundamentally useless on many powerful Fae, who can sense when somebody bequeaths them an item.
The second stage is slightly more complex. You then need to suspend the needle in the water, and make it point in the direction of its owner. Luckily, the needle then wants to point in the direction of its owner, so all you need to do is make it possible for it to do so.
When you are finished, you are feeling quite fatigued. Necromancy exhausts you quite badly, and viewing memories is not a simple process.
You stagger downstairs and sit next to Lien. Lien raises his brow at you, biting into a roast chicken wing. You turn your face away in disgust, then hold your hand up to signal a tavernhand.
The tavernhand you call over is a busty girl with long, black hair. You smile at her.
"Can I help you with anything?" she asks brightly.
"I'd like something to eat," you reply. "Preferably something without meat, if you have it."
"We have a stew," she replies. "Carrot, beans, potato, and spinach. Would that do?"
"That would do fine," you reply faintly.
The girl smiles at you again and leaves. She returns some ten minutes later with a bowl of stew. You hand over a silver and smile politely at her before turning to your stew.
Lien looks at you incredulously, before turning back to staring around at the tavern. You ignore him.
Once you finish eating, you push your bowl over to Lien and stand. "We'll be going after dawn," you warn him. "Be up."
You head up to bed.
---
Light streams in from the window in your room the next morning, waking you up. You stagger around blearily, washing and getting dressed.
[A] Head immediately over to Rory. You did promise to be there at his convenience.
Grab your compass and track down that assassin. You want to know what she is going.
[C] Something else. (Please specify what.)
[A]
(crimson i just want you to know i like you best now A+ posting :< )
[Three votes for A; A wins.]
You're looking fairly rumpled when Lien turns up, looking as neatly dressed as always. You kind of want to mess up his hair, but he's too tall for you to reach up and do it.
"Are we going?" Lien asks, looking strangely at you. You nod, trying to blink some of the tiredness out of your eyes, and head downstairs.
Breakfast this morning is a simple affair, of bread and honey and eggs, washed down with the juice of oranges, produced in the fields nearby. If there's one good thing about Farever, you have to acknowledge, it's that no matter where you are, it's always easy to afford good foods that would be too expensive to show up in taverns in other cities.
Once you finish eating, you take a few minutes to let it settle, half-listening to everyone around you. You don't hear anything interesting in that time.
Eventually, you get up, rubbing your sore shoulder, and motion for Lien to follow you to the constabulary's office.
Lyara is already there when you arrive. She is looking distinctly unhappy, probably due to being forced to stay in the constabulary's office by Rory.
Rory is up in his office already when you get there. He looks like he's gotten even less sleep than you; dark circles ring around his eyes, and he's jumping at the slightest movements.
"Ah, Urien," he greets you when you enter. "It's good to see you here."
You incline your head at him. "You requested I be here," you murmur.
"Indeed I did," he says, glancing down at the papers scattered over his desk. "I have two requests of you, actually. Would you mind?"
You nod, trying to ignore the spinning in your head from the quick action. Hopefully your fatigue will pass soon.
"Very well," he says. "First off, I'd like you to lead some guardsmen to the alleyway where you say you saw Feila disappear, some time today. Secondly, I will send a request for Uva to come and report in early today. Would you be able to help us to get the information we require out of him"?
You nod again. "I can... encourage him to tell the truth," you murmur. "Or I can force him directly to tell the truth, if you don't mind him being incapacitated for a few days."
Rory nods. "Tell me when you are ready," he says roughly. "It's going to be a long day."
[A] Tell Rory you are ready to deal with Uva now. You may as well get the rituals over and done with, so that you aren't swamped with fatigue later.
Lead the guardsmen to the alley where Feila disappeared. Save the rituals for the last bit of the day, when the fatigue won't matter as much.
[C] Something else. (Please specify what.)
A. Seems we'll have to increase our chance of fucking up either the ritual or whatever happens in the alley. In the alley, we'll have backup.
[A]
[A].
>mfw i realize we're playing Persona
:O
quick learn demonology
we must fuse Jack Frost
Fun story: During the original draft of my setting, demons were included in the traditional hell-lite area of the afterlife.
I eventually dropped that idea, and now demons are more extra-dimensional entities that aren't called demons, and they aren't very involved with the human situations, instead being at war with the races in the plains to the south.
[Three votes for A; A wins.]
"Call Uva in," you say reluctantly. "I really shouldn't wait to do this, or I'll be too tired to do anything else."
Rory nods. "We have a break room," he advises you. "It's down the corridor, to the left at the far end. It could take a while for Uva to arrive- we have some tea in the break room, so you should try and wake yourself up a bit while you wait."
You nod, and head over to the break room.
The tea is okay, but not delicious. There's not a lot to do while you wait, so you try to get yourself in the proper mindset for this ritual.
Eventually, Lyara walks into the room and gestures for you to follow her. You nod and finish the rest of your tea.
Uva is waiting in Rory's office when you arrive. He's not wearing his blue armband.
"Things have been- who's this?" he asks, looking at you.
"I am Urien," you say smoothly. "Don't worry about me; I am just here to speak to Rory. Pretend I'm not here."
Uva looks suspicious, but one look at Rory shuts him up.
You wait until Uva looks away, then you pull a chair up to the side of Rory's desk and shuffle the papers around. Concealing your actions with your sleeve- loose sleeves are good for some things- you quickly draw your ritual symbol.
"- nothing strange has been happening," Uva is saying smoothly.
You press your finger to the desk, inside your ritual symbol, and concentrate. Power blankets the room again. At least Uva and Rory do not appear to be able to feel it, although both Lien and Lyara shudder slightly.
You nod at Rory. He acknowledges it with a slight nod of his head.
"Are you sure about that?" he asks.
You close your eyes and breathe deeply. A sustained effect on another person is much harder to pull off than a sustained effect anchored within yourself, like necromancy (where the spirit is anchored to you and draws off your power, rather than affecting an external part).
"I..." Uva looks troubled. Your ritual is working. "Some odd things have been happening, but I..."
"Yes?" Rory prompts, forming his face to look appropriately concerned. "Is everything okay, Uva?"
"I... There are criminals int he slums," he blurts, then looks horrified.
"Criminals?" Rory looks up sharply, but you can't see any hint of blame or reproach on his face. "Where? What are they planning?"
"They are planning a burglary," Uva says quickly. "Tonight- on old Estagard's house. They-" he cuts himself off, clamping his mouth shut.
"I see," Rory says quietly.
There is silence for a few long moments, during which Uva grows increasingly pale.
"I am aware of your involvement with the criminal Urghal's organisation," Rory says finally. You didn't think Uva could grow any whiter, but he does. "If you wish to confess anything else, it may help to alleviate your sentence."
"I..." Uva is trembling. "I... No."
"I see," Rory murmurs. "Lyara, please escort Uva to the holding cells. Please try not to alarm any of the other guards working here today."
Lyara nods and walks over to Uva. She roughly pulls him up out of his chair, then begins to march out of the office, looking back to make sure Uva is following.
You allow yourself to slump forwards once Lyara and Uva have left. Rory does not speak for a few minutes.
"I thank you for your help in this matter," he says quietly. "If you wish to get some rest, I will not blame you, but I will ask that you return to me soon so that you can escort my guardsmen to your alleyway."
[A] You may as well take him up on that offer, and catch up on an hour's sleep or so. It'll waste time, but it will help your fatigue, somewhat.
You don't want to waste the hour there. You can simply retire earlier than planned later tonight. You need to lead the guardsmen now.
[C] Take fifteen minutes, and return to the break room to drink some tea and eat something. It won't help your fatigue that much, but you should be able to at least function during the search of the alleyway.
C.
C. Get them omnoms on.
[C]
[C] looks like sensible middle ground.
You drag yourself up and head back to the break room, with barely a perfunctory nod of acknowledgement towards Rory.
You honestly do try to keep from taking too long, but you're very hungry. You spent a large portion of yesterday walking in a dry environment, you were stabbed in the shoulder and still haven't fully recovered, and using your will to bend reality is quite exhausting.
Somewhere between your third and fourth cup of tea, your fatigue... ebbed, somewhat. It didn't disappear entirely, but it goes from a blanket smothering your thoughts to a dull ache hampering your thoughts, rather than smothering them entirely.
Lien is still on his second cup of tea, sedately eating a finger sandwich buttered with avocado and covered in strips of ham and cucumber when you stand. He hurriedly finishes his cup of tea and stands, sneakily eating his sandwich as you return to Rory.
You re-enter Rory's office soon enough, Lien dusting off his shirt behind you.
"I am ready," you murmur.
Rory nods and turns to Lyara. "Can you please get Ari for me?" he asks politely. Lyara nods sharply and heads out.
You sit in a chair and stare at Rory's desk as you wait. He has cleaned up your ritual symbol in the meantime- you almost yell at him for wasting so much silver dust, but you can't muster up the effort required.
Lyara enters the room some time later, with Ari in tow. You remember Ari- she's the blonde-haired guardsman from yesterday, the only person you had found who had been found trustworthy.
"Ari," Rory greets her. "I trust you followed my orders?"
Ari nods sharply. "I have five guardsmen assembled outside, practicing their riot drills," she says. "We are ready to leave on your command."
Rory nods appreciatively. He gestures over to you. "You may remember this young lady."
Ari looks at you consideringly. You stand and offer her your hand. "I am Urien," you say smoothly.
Ari takes your hand and shakes it. "It is nice to be introduced to you," she says.
"I am sorry for the deception yesterday," you reply. "I was asked to investigate corruption in the guardsmen by Sir Rory here."
"Indeed," Rory says. "Thank you for not accepting the bribe, by the way, Ari. Now, for today's job. Urien here will be leading you to the Grocer's District. I would like you to investigate two areas, which Urien will show you to."
"Very well," Ari says. "How long until we leave?"
"You should get a drink first," Rory replies. "But please, do hurry."
---
It is a fairly long walk back to the Grocer's District, but you feel distinctly safer with half a dozen guardsmen at your back.
You lead them to the alleyway where Feila had disappeared.
[A] Head in the doorway first. It's probably more pleasant than wherever the grate leads.
Head in the grate first. Criminals always escape to the sewers.
My coin says B.
[A]. Fuck sewers.