Sabhaxlia 2012/09/22(Sat)08:53 No. 456799 ID: f3e45e
File 134832923217.png - (201.41KB , 700x700 , 58.png )

I help McTrinkets get the coracle ashore and out of view of the river. She washed the black make-up from her neck over-night, I guess.

She said she did the same for me, while I was asleep.

I’m not even going to start having an opinion on how to feel about that.

We settle in. Iaxio’s ghost hangs out with us too.

McTrinkets starts cooking some sausage on a little fire. “The deal we had, was you provide your own food,” McTrinkets says. “But I haven’t even taken any money from you yet, so I think we’re in the middle of a new sort of deal.”

“I guess?” I’m sure she’s going somewhere with this. She said I owe her for getting me out of the town, and, I mean, I do, right? “Is this the part where I have to lick your boots?”

“Yes.” She gives me this look like I don’t even know what. “I’m not going to guess why you needed to sneak out of town, but I got you out of there all the same.” McTrinkets’ tone makes it clear she knows exactly why I needed to sneak out of town. She knows I’m the runaway House Geofahn is looking for. “I helped you save your life, would you say? So let’s make that the trade. You can help me save my life.”

That doesn’t sound like, dangerous or anything. Iaxio and I exchange looks.

McTrinkets leans back on her rock. “I owe a lot of money to some people in the Doxedn city. I have it, now, finally. You’ll be paying them back for me.”

“Me?”

“Yes! If I went into the city myself, they would kill me first, find the money on my corpse, and apologize to my ghost.”

So uh. I guess this is the price of McTrinkets’ help?

Remember, the more sidequests you take the less chance the dream-stalker can find you.

go on.

I hope this doesn't involve gambling.

>>456799
I don't suppose just switching our clothes would help at all?
She knows exactly who to give it to and what to say. She's obviously far more clever than us, and could probably use her own charisma, strengthened by her career, to get her our of most bad situations concerning the Geofahn situation. There's a good chance that you could screw up the delivery yourself as well, not mention other risks.
Show her your natural merchant smarts girl! She'll respect you more.
You understand the extra safety in making you go, but in the end, just as much risk to you as to her, if not more due to our previously described factors. We may require more convincing, and clarify your caution is in utmost respect for what she's already done for us. If these are some really bad people, they may take the messenger as extra payment too, turning you into a drug-addicted whore to sell on the streets quickly or to some other horrific fate. Hell, for all you know, YOU might actually be the payment in full and the box is actually empty or has a message describing yourself as the payment.

This sounds suspect. McTrinkets has already demonstrated her skill at disguising herself. If Doxedn would recognize her no matter her disguise, how can you be certain they won't be able to recognize you? How are Doxedn-Geofahn relations these days?

On the other hand, Maexiks warned you that McTrinkets would be "very unhappy" if you refuse. McTrinkets has been nice enough as long as you've cooperated, but she owes you nothing. I don't know that you have much of a choice.

Help McTrinkets. Do not question it.

Sounds like a quest to me! Have some eats.

... what kind of people are these perfectly legitimate businessdogs? Just, trying to assess how not-dead we will want to be. And in whose name will we be making the payment?

Do it. It doesn't seem that bad. Get as many deets as you can first.

Translator's note: deets is short for details.

Indicate willingness to do it but be sure to get as much information about it as you can.

This does sound fair, and a sidequest would indeed keep things nice and confused. >>456811 has a point, though; ask why she can't disguise herself, and make sure that they won't snap you up as a favor for Geofahn.

>>456799
Ask her if, after this, you'll be even. Don't just assume that.

Also warn her that Geofahn probably knows she helped you... but do this only after she's given you the money. Consider going into town and just keeping the money, but don't actually do that.

For that matter, which way should we go to get into the city? Straight into the front gates, or around the side, or what.

Do we have any food?

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/22(Sat)13:55 No. 456848 ID: f3e45e
File 134834730639.png - (163.37KB , 700x700 , 59.png )

>Remember, the more sidequests you take the less chance the dream-stalker can find you.

That basically sounds about right, right? If I’m busy dealing with something stupid like this, my dream-stalker will just have dreams of me doing, uh…

>they may take the messenger as extra payment too, turning you into a drug-addicted whore to sell on the streets

… I should probably be entirely sure of what I’m getting into before I get into it.

>Do it. It doesn't seem that bad. Get as many deets as you can first.
>... what kind of people are these perfectly legitimate businessdogs?

“So what kind of people do you owe this money to? Like, what kind of dogs would actually kill you the moment you came into the city?”

McTrinkets runs her thumb around beneath her gums. Her fingerpad makes squeaky noises against her teeth. “It’s not House Doxedn. It’s just a small opposing family in the Doxedn city. They have three or four generations, and a few associated dogs to their colors. They have a lot of influence over the docks, but it’s really very spotty. Strong boat on unsure waters, you know?”

“And why do you owe them money? So much that uh, that they’ll kill you over it?”

“They loaned me some merchandise. I didn’t turn a good profit on all of it, and I lost some more of it.” McTrinkets looks up at me and giggles. I think she’s embarrassed. “I actually lost a lot of it. I owe them a lot of money. They’re really angry. This wouldn’t be problematic if I could avoid the Doxedn city and avoid them, but I think they’re losing patience. I think they might send someone after me.”

Iaxio speaks up. “So you’re a risk to a young house’s reputation if they let your insult go?”

“Basically.”

Well! I guess McTrinkets and I actually have something pretty big in common with one another.

>ask why she can't disguise herself

“So why can’t you do this yourself? Can’t you disguise yourself?”

McTrinkets looks uncomfortable. It’s kind of weird, seeing her not entirely in control of the conversation. “They’ll recognize me.” She just leaves it at that. Huh. Well then.

“So what exactly do I have to do?”

“You just have to go to the Doxedn city and find the Family Hefehxn residence. I’ll give you directions. Bring them the money I have for them, and tell them it’s from me. I’ll meet back up with you and we can keep going down south.”

Iaxio presses McTrinkets some more, though. “What merchandise did you lose that was so expensive?”

McTrinkets kicks her boots back and forth against the ground. “Special merchandise.”

Iaxio gives me a concerned look Look.

“Sausage is done!” McTrinkets plucks the stick out from its spot near the fire. “Crispy and hot, dripping in fat. If you pay off my debt, we’ll be even on escaping the town, debt-free. If you want one of the sausages, you need to make me a separate offer.”

The sausage looks super-delicious, but, I mean, I have a bunch of travel-rations left. If I don’t lick McTrinkets’ boots for a sausage, I’ll still have food of my own.

McTrinkets and I have been very good about not pressing one another on our respective secrets. Do I want to press her to tell me why they’ll recognize her, or what her merchandise was? Am I going to agree to go along with this?

Well, just ask if the merchandise is drugs. Because you can't become a drug addicted whore without drugs.

if things are this bad already, its a real possibility they will just take the money and keep their grudge up. agree anyway and see how hard it is to pick up cues they dont plan to keep their word, if at all

Don't press her, and lick her boot for a sausage, just to lightn the atmosphere. You and her are a lot alike, and building trust and friendship with another living dog could be a real benefit because you don't have that. Go along with the deal.

>>456848
Eat your own food, your already in debt, no need to go further into it just for a sausage.

>>456855
Oh come on. Don't lick her boot. Especially not right in front of your uncle. That would just be insulting.

Besides, we should keep this relationship as equals.

we've been over this, Sabhaxlia. no boot licking!

even if either of you wants a relationship, that's not the way to go. it will cement you as submissive.

Look, Sabby, there's nothing wrong with being a bit submissive and you might need those rations later. It'll be pretty hard to get more cash later, and you can play it off like a joke. Licking the boot is harmless.

I wonder...

Does McTrinkets' white neck patterning look like makeup? Could "she" actually be a he, who was employing 0a double reach around confusion tactic?

... Probably not the case, but interesting to consider.

Anyway, accept the mission. When it comes time, hide the money someplace outside of town where no one will find it, cut off a tiny piece of Iaxio, then go to the house in question. Tell them you have McTrinkets' debt hidden someplace out of town, and that you won't tell them where if they violate your liberty in any way. Give them the piece of Iaxio, then leave. When you're a safe distance away, tell Iaxio to tell them where the money is. Boom. Job done.

Eat your own food. You don't have to do EVERYTHING McTrinkets says.

why is everyone so against licking a boot? I mean, what has that boot ever done to you that's so bad? besides, that sausage looks tasty, it will take that boot taste right off your tongue

Do not lick a boot!

Maybe just ask her if there's anything she needs you can get.
Or tell her that investing in your empty stomach now builds trust between you two, I mean, you're going to be handling a lot of money aren't you? That is a lot of trust to put on a person.
What makes her trust you so much? You're the one that could end up getting it in the butt from these unsavory folks selling special merchandise here today. You could bail with the cash, does she not see a problem with this plan? And then she could claim that you took and ran away with it, but what proof will she even have? Absolutely no disrespect in pointing this out, by the way. An offer of goodwill, such as nice sausages, is always crucial to a good business relationship.

What illegal things do you know of that they might be trading?

>>456848

I'm sure the boots couldn't taste THAT bad, could they? Well... Maybe they could, who knows the last time McTrinkets cleaned them.

I mean, if it's recently... They actually taste better after a fresh coat of polish, or a fresh rub of oil.

Eat your own food.

"Do I want to press her to tell me why they’ll recognize her, or what her merchandise was?"

Forget about the merchandise; by not telling you she's probably told you too much already. However, you do have a pretty serious need to keep your own identity hidden. If they've got some kind of identification magic doohickey, that is something you need to know.

Boots aren't the only thing you can lick...

God dammit you guys what the fuck. Why are you even. I would expect this from Bite, but not you guys. Come on. No boots.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/23(Sun)12:03 No. 457282 ID: dadb30
File 134842700013.png - (146.60KB , 700x700 , 60.png )

I decide not to lick her boot for a sausage. I mean, if I’m going to lick her boot, it should probably shouldn’t be during one of these little merchant-deal-things McTrinkets likes, right? Yeah. It should be a boot-licking between equals and friends and Iaxio probably shouldn’t be around when I actually do it and.

And I get some packaged travel-meat out of my pack and start eating that. McTrinkets teases the sausages over my face for a bit. Iaxio tries to bite it but McTrinkets just pulls the meat through his dumb ghost-face.

“You’ll have to make me a trade for a sausage, ghost,” McTrinkets warns.

Iaxio waggles his ears scandalously at her. “I’ll lick something for a bit of sausage.”

Great okay this is getting really embarrassing.

>What makes her trust you so much? You're the one that could end up getting it in the butt from these unsavory folks selling special merchandise here today. You could bail with the cash, does she not see a problem with this plan?

“So hey uh, why do you think it’s safe to give me the money? What if I ran off?”

“We both know better than to try and break our deal,” McTrinkets says. She’s all smiles still but yeah, I’m. I’m pretty sure she’s saying she’ll get back at me, somehow, if I screw her over on this.

She fishes a solid wooden box from the coracle. The box itself looks stupid expensive. “This has the money in it. The box is a gift for them too, make sure to impress that on them. You’ll need to take a road over to the city. You may be staying overnight, there. Come back here when you’re done.”

I guess McTrinkets doesn’t want to get closer to the city herself? Whatever, I’m not gonna argue about that. I also guess I’m not gonna press her for any more details. I think what little she’s said has… kind of been quite a lot, right? About how suspicious this all is? Yeah. Yeah.

McTrinkets sidles down to the soft silt-dirt and leans her back against the rock. “If it isn’t prying, did you exchange your money?”

“Oh, yeah. I traded it out for uh, what did I do it for. Butts. Where did I put it? Fauhredn stuff. Five coins, three pennies.”

McTrinkets closes her eyes. “I can tell you some things about the exchange rates, if you want. It wouldn’t be so great if someone conned you out of your own money!”

“Am I going to have to pay you for this advice too?”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been awake all night. You can lick my boots for it when you’re back.”

McTrinkets yawns and tells me all the money-advices. It’s uh, it’s actually all really good. I don’t think I’m gonna need to guess at prices or anything anymore. She helps me abstract the coins into points, like in a gambling game. The Fauhredn coins are worth 5, and the pennies are worth 3. My 5 Fauhredn coins and 3 Fauhredn pennies are worth 21 points in the Doxedn city—they’d probably be worth a little bit more in the Fauhredn territories themselves. A good lunch should cost 1 point; something complicated like a lantern should be 5 to 8 points. A cute piece of jewelry should go for 20 points.

McTrinkets ends up drifting off to sleep. I check my map.

I think I can take two ways to the Doxedn city. It’s hard to judge distances on the thing, but I can go west a bit and find this lazy-windy road to the city. I could just walk along the riverside, too, because that leads right there so long as, like, I don’t mind stomping my boots through reeds and frogs and buttwater.

Go by the windy road so you don't get all gross and wet and you look nice and professional.

Since we don't know the colors or anything else specific about the house we're going to hand the money to spend your travel time thinking of how many ways this deal can go wrong so that the dreambug's visions will mostly concern you getting killed by or escaping from unknown individuals making them absolutely useless.

>>457282
It occurs to me that your enemies know that she helped you, and will come down the river in pursuit of you. They will find her, and she could die. You should warn her.

I'm pretty sure McTrinkets is bringing it up at this point just to tease you for thinking about it so long the first time.

I vote windy road.

> The box is a gift for them too, make sure to impress that on them.

I wonder if the box is trapped somehow. Might wanna ask McTrinkets to see her reaction.

I say take the road, but keep in mind if the road is windy, there's probably a reason for it, like hills or something. If the terrain were flat it would just be straight, unless tombdogs are in the habit of making unnecessarily convoluted roads. Which wouldn't surprise me. Butts.

Also, make sure you leave some kind of trail so you can actually find your way back to camp.

The plan should be to appear to be a generic hired messenger carrier, not a friend of McTrinkets. Ask her the name of the sender you should say to the person you're delivering it to, be it her name or another alias. You may want to ask her how to best appear to not know you well at all and if hiring a generic delivery service would be realistic enough as a lie. This should be free advice, as it relates to the task she's given you and will be crucial in getting the favor done.

Which town is the one on the right with a direct waterway to Doxedn?

Lazy road, no need to look like butts. Be sure to confirm who you're actually delivering this to first, though.

Stick to the road. You'll be nothing but suspicious tromping about on the riverbank while not wearing the right gear for it. It'll also probably take as long as taking the long way by going to the road, and you won't end up wet, muddy, and miserable.

Halfway to the road, find a hiding spot, and pull out McTrinkets' coin box. Examine the entire exterior for anything that would give away you having opened it, then open it if it's clear. Do so with your knife at arm's length, in case there's a trap. Then count out the coins, noting which houses they're from and the denominations on them. Once you get to the city, you'll want to get them appraised to make sure they aren't counterfeits. They're probably large denomination coins, so it won't draw attention if you go around to a few money changers and have each one check a random coin from the lot, as long as they don't see you have a bag full of coins.

Bag the coins up separate in your pack, and take a closer look at the box. Measure the depth of the interior of the box, and the external dimensions of the body and the lid, to check for hidden compartments. If you find any irregularities, shake the box and listen for anything moving around in it, then start poking around for hidden latches.

>>457344
Or the road used to follow the river, before the river flooded and changed directions, or was dredged to make it straighter, or the road was built away from the river so it wouldn't be flooded all the time. Won't know until we get to the road.

Hey guys, let's propose a bunch of other options, too, to throw off the dreambug.

Think you could continue by boat?

Steal her box of money and use it as a desperate attempt to bargain for your life running back home!

Go to Dodoxen and realize halfway there you forgot the money so you have to turn back.

Highly overestimate your progress on the map and instead of heading on the road south, get stuck on the east bank of that southeast flowing tributary. What a nightmare it'll take you days to get around it!

Beat her to death with her the box. Her death shall feed your bloodthirsty hunger for deadly death.

So you suddenly switch ears for some reason HOLY CRAP WHY IS EVERYONE SHOUTING. OH MY GOD IS THIS HOW YOU HEAR THINGS EVERY DAY MCTRINKETS? WE HAVE TO FIND A BIRDWITCH TO DISPEL THIS CURSE ON US.

On your way to Dodoxen you were hiding from some passerby when you fell in a crevice alongside the road and broke your leg, and now you're half dead, helpless and waiting for your end either by the elements or the vengeance of Geofahn. You're not sure which is worse.

Suddenly airships! A whole fleet of airships!

Do Hefehxn know Dude-McTrinkets or Chick-McTrinkets? It would probably be bad if you deliver the money and start using the wrong pronoun.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/24(Mon)15:02 No. 457604 ID: 4b5de2
File 134852415247.png - (132.10KB , 700x700 , 61.png )

>Do Hefehxn know Dude-McTrinkets or Chick-McTrinkets? It would probably be bad if you deliver the money and start using the wrong pronoun.

I mean, she said they’d recognize her in any disguise, right? So I’m gonna guess, when I show up with this much money, to pay off a debt, they’ll know who I’m talking about.

>I wonder if the box is trapped somehow. Might wanna ask McTrinkets to see her reaction.
>It occurs to me that your enemies know that she helped you, and will come down the river in pursuit of you. They will find her, and she could die. You should warn her.

I try to do both of these things, but McTrinkets is out. I could lick her boots and she wouldn’t even know about it.

>Halfway to the road, find a hiding spot, and pull out McTrinkets' coin box. Examine the entire exterior for anything that would give away you having opened it, then open it if it's clear.

I’m actually really worried about the whole “maybe the box is a trap” thing. This sounds like a really smart idea. I get my stuff together, and let Iaxio go back into this reliquary. When I’m all set up, I walk into the soft, wet forest until McTrinkets is well out of view. I get in the shade of a tree and go for it.

The thing has a twist-lock on the front that you just turn sideways and it opens. I creak the lid open really, really carefully, in case it’s gonna explode or something stupid like that. The box is long and flat and it’s just full of coins. A lot of it is Geofahn, some Fauhredn, some other more local currencies. This uh. This is a lot of money. I’ll check in town if it’s counterfeit or what before I deliver it, I guess?

>Measure the depth of the interior of the box, and the external dimensions of the body and the lid, to check for hidden compartments.

Uhm. Okay. Okay, look. The box’s bottom is way more shallow than it should be. Like, the lid is thick, and the walls, sure, but the bottom of the box?

It definitely has room for something to be in there. But, I mean, maybe I’m being paranoid? I can’t find any sort of secret opening. Maybe it’s just a thick bottom for protection? I’m not sure. When I tap on the bottom, it doesn’t sound like it’s solid wood. This is really fishy.

I’m gonna have to decide for sure what I’m going to do about this box, I guess, huh?

There’s definitely more going on to this than McTrinkets is letting me know.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/24(Mon)15:02 No. 457605 ID: 4b5de2
File 134852417359.png - (188.90KB , 700x700 , 62.png )

>Stick to the road.
>Lazy road, no need to look like butts.

And I guess I’m going to the road! It doesn’t take very long to find it. The forest kind of thins out near it, and the ground gets a bit more rocky, but I’m still in the shade of the leaves. The trees here are pepper-trees, too. The smell is amazing. The whole road just smells so bright and flavorful.

>Hey guys, let's propose a bunch of other options, too, to throw off the dreambug.

… actually, you know, Maexiks could only see me licking her face that time, right? And it was all I was thinking about. And Maexiks never really has any good advice when I don’t have a clue what’s really coming up either? Is… is the future thing based on what I know about my future?

>>457500

Screw it. It’s gonna be a long walk. I amuse myself with some excellent ideas. It keeps me entertained and my mind off the stupid trapped box for a good thirty minutes.

POF

And then uh. Then the ground in front of me just kind of bursts. There’s a hole in it now. I. Is someone shooting at me?

“We just shot at you!” It’s some gravely voice from off the road, somewhere. Awesome.

“Drop your spear and sack and don’t move!”

I think… I think I’m being robbed.

“You’re being robbed!” the helpful voice shouts.

Uhm. I have a LOT of money that isn’t mine. UHM.

>>457605
Run like a motherfucker. Get into the treeline and weave between trees trying to keep one behind you at all times. Keep going the direction you were going before. It's going to be really hard for them to hit you between the trees and the movement. Don't stop until you literally can't walk anymore and fall over because you legs are not working.

>>457605
"They'll kill me AND my family if I DON'T give them the money. What are YOU offering?"

Preferably while backflipping out of the road.

I honestly doubt they're going to have pity for us if losing the money butts us up. Make a dash for it, lose them in the forest if you can.

>>457605
Tell them you're a deliveryman on the way to Family Hefehxn and they really do not want to take the delivery. Tell them you're willing to give them the money YOU have, but not the delivery. If they take the delivery, you will have to tell Hefehxn who stole it...

I think you should just run. Dodge amongst the trees to keep from getting shot.

I think you should move. Backwards, where he won't be able to track you across that tree trunk without significant response time.

Unless it's one of those single-shot rifles, in which case just start running into the treeline.

Tell them you're carrying goods for somebody they really don't want to piss off. Like, somebody who would kill them for it.

>>457605
Run fast and yell you owe some tough motherfuckers some good cash, after they're done killing you they'll go after THEM... did McTrinkets give a name? For god's sake, if she did, YELL IT OUT TO THEM!

Uhm. Guys?
THey have guns and want money.
We should not tell them that we have a butt-ton of money. That'll make things worse. Say we're extremely poor and can't afford to lose anything.

Fucking DO NOT tell them your hauling money! That is fucking retarded, what the fuck, people? Don't yell anything, just fucking run. Use iaxio to obfuscate their line of sight, use mantis power , and run into the trees in the direction that you were supposed to be running.

Actually you know what, we should probably get Iaxio out right now.

>>457627
They're telling her to drop her pack. Like, where we're keeping the buttload of money. There is no way to avoid giving it to them if we agree to their terms. Running? PROBABLY a bad idea unless we have some way of making sure they aren't just going to shoot us as we run or track us down then shoot us.

>>457629
>>457627
I didn't say to say we had a butt-load of money. Just to say we had something very important to someone very dangerous, which these people do not want to be found carrying by said very dangerous people.

Wait, I got an idea actually.
Run, get behind the trees. Summon Iaxio. Have him either distract the bandits or bluff them that he's informed the guards in the city and they're already on their way.

Sabby, you do not want those bandits to get near you. They could do a lot worse things to you than merely rob you. They could kidnap you for ransom, or rape you, or capture and sell you as a sex slave, or just kill you and bury your corpse so deep nobody will hear your ghost. So the long and short of it is: You've gotta get away.

You also can't count on them only having one shot. Even if they use single-shot muzzle loading muskets, they'd have at least one more loaded and ready to fire, in case a target decides to run for it.

Slowly take your pack off, and slowly kneel down like you're going to gently put it on the ground. If they get surly about that, say there's fragile valuables in it that you don't want broken. Glance around in the forest in front of you to check for other bandits. If there are any, you're just going to have to give them what they want, and hope for the best.

Once you're down in a crouch, dive to the side, and scramble over the edge of the road. Use your spear to steady yourself so you don't faceplant. Stay low so you have a smaller target profile, and dart from tree to tree for cover. Dig Iaxio's reliquary out when you're behind the second or third tree, wake him up, and get him to spot behind you around trees before you leave cover. Maybe they'll waste a shot or two on him.

Can we say that the box IS Iaxio's reliquary?

>>457605
I'd suggest rushing him while he reloads, but I'm not entirely sure you could survive an actual fight. And that's assuming he even has to reload.

Run like hell.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/25(Tue)19:32 No. 458018 ID: c8072d
File 134862673244.png - (175.20KB , 700x700 , 63.png )

I’m not being butted over without at least trying to do something about it.

>Backwards, where he won't be able to track you across that tree trunk without significant response time.

I can see, by the smoke, where the gun-guy is, behind me, so I turn backwards and just. Just start running. I can see him fumble with his gun to get around the tree. I think this was a pretty smart plan?

I hear another CRACKWHEEPOP. The buttjerk is actually shooting at me! Still! I’m just.

>Run like a motherfucker.

Yes, that. My boots pound into the earth and it feels really weirdly hard right now. My backpack if bouncing against me and kind of leaving a painful oval around my lower back but I just keep running, okay? Between the pack and me just not being that, uh, physical, like, like, I’m not going as fast as I hope I could. I can hear shouting behind me.

“Stop shooting at him you dick!”

CRACKWEEPOP! “You do something!”

“Fuck! I will!”

> Get into the treeline and weave between trees trying to keep one behind you at all times.
> Make a dash for it, lose them in the forest if you can.
> run into the trees

Okay! Obviously just trying to outrun a bunch of bandits isn’t so smart but the trees! I jump off the rise of the road and down onto the rocks and sticks and moss of the ground and now I’m like, jumping off of roots and dodging behind trees! It’s real exciting and I’d appreciate more if I wasn’t sure I was like gonna die but like mostly I’m just thinking about the running and not how my side and back hurt okay?

> Sabby, you do not want those bandits to get near you. They could do a lot worse things to you than merely rob you. They could kidnap you for ransom, or rape you, or capture and sell you as a sex slave

No no look I’m just gonna run as hard as I can okay? Behind this tree and through this shrub and jump over this log and look I’m running okay?

But I swear I can hear someone behind me running too now and they sound a butt of a lot faster than I am. Like, oh man I don’t. I don’t think I’m gonna outrun this one.

> Summon Iaxio. Have him either distract the bandits or bluff them that he's informed the guards in the city
> Actually you know what, we should probably get Iaxio out right now.
> Use iaxio to obfuscate their line of sight

“Iaxio Iaxio wake up wake up!”

Iaxio appears running right next to me.

“What are we running from?”

“Look behind us!”

Iaxio does. “There’s a naked chick with a ghost about to tackle you.”

Wh—OUCH. Something hits my back and I’m rolling and there’s someone caught up in me and then suddenly we stop and oh. Oh there’s a woman on me and her knife is against my throat. She has a ghost bound to her. She isn’t actually naked, she’s just, like. Not wearing pants or a real mantle or anything. She's got like half a skirt. I don't even know.

“Dude! Calm down, okay?” she pants.

“That’s really hard to do with a knife in my throat and I’m out of breath and you’re kneeling on my bladder and I’m laying on my sack.”

“Right, damn, sorry.” She moves the knife away a bit. “We weren’t actually trying to shoot you, just shoot at you, yeah? Yeah?” She notices Iaxio and waves up at him. “Hi. Sorry about this. We’re just in a hard spot and need some money, yeah? Ugh.”

She brushes a twig off my mantle. “We’re just gonna take what money you got, nothing more, okay?” She pauses for a moment and uh. Feels up my chest. “Yeah you’re a girl, okay. I won’t let the guys do anything to ya, don’t worry.”

She seems… kind of reasonable and calm about all this. Like. Maybe if I come up with something really, really clever, I can keep McTrinkets’ money?

Look, Ok, the only thing I can think of is to give her your personal money, but try to keep the box to yourself. If she doesn't seem convinced or asks you for that too, say that you'll be killed if you give it over, which may very well be true.

Ask for her STORY. Then >>458019

If you put the box up already that's even better, because you can just pull out your money sack and it's not remotely suspicious.

Also kiss her on the mouth when you hand the money over. It might make her flustered and distracted, and maybe on your side more and less likely to search your junk.

No, see, if we learn the story of her peoples, Geofahn dreambug will be confused.

>>458026
I think we should toss her the cash first, just so we can seem to have completed the transaction before her buddies show up. They were trying to shoot us, so they might not be close to as friendly.

Give her all of YOUR money. Ignore the box. If they search and ask, it's not yours, you are a courier, and you'd rather they not mess that up, and if it was yours, you would give it to them, but it's not, so you aren't going to hand it over freely.

>>458018
Offer them a stay at a stranger's inn while you do some errands in the city. Or a meal instead or something.
It'll probably be cheaper than getting all of your personal money taken from you. Say you need your money because, well, shit you don't have much yourself. I mean, are we suppose to become a bandit now that we have no cash? I mean, jeez, this is dangerous and stupid. She just jumped some poor person, that's not a lot of profit for so much risk.

Please tell me that when the box moves it doesn't make a jingle sound?

>>458018
Just say okay and give her your money pouch, tell her that's all you have. You have a fairly decent amount. Considering how awkward about it this girl seems, she probably won't bother to search you.

If she asks you for what's in her pack, just tell her she's obviously new to this and give her a 'tip'- trying to sell stolen goods is risky and you don't have anything worth the risk. Technically true!

Whatever you do, bear in mind that cooperation reduces the chances of your being searched.

>>458037

I agree that you should give her at least some of your money, but don't give it all to her immediately. Try to haggle. Say you need SOME money to survive, say she'll be leaving you as badly off as herself - whatever comes to mind. If you try to hold on to your own money, they might think that's all you have. If you give it without a fight, they might wonder what you have that's more important.

Ask if they're hard up for money if they'd be ok doing some work for the money instead of straight up highway robbery. See if you can't get them to act as your bodyguards for the duration of this deal you're doing for McTrinkets so you don't get murdered or something

>>458037
Yeah, this. It sucks that you got robbed but I guess they might need it more. You just need to get your job done... oh shit, we haven't paid McTrinkets yet, have we?

Well, show her what you have (that belongs to you!) anyway, and ask if you can keep some to pay back someone you owe money. And ask her story.

>>458078
This might also work.

Okay, first try to hire her and her friends as bodyguards, or at least to group with you to the next town to discourage any other bandits. When the (likely) fails, attempt to bargain to keep some of your money, so you aren't reduced to begging for the rest of your journey. When that (probably) fails, hand over your money, and ask if you're free to go.

At this point, if she insists on searching your pack, and finds the box full of money, tell her she won't take it, and that she, nor her ghost buddy, will tell their friends about it. When she asks how you know, say your good friend is a dreambug, who you keep in contact with via - point to Iaxio - your great grand-uncle's ghost, and your friend said the bandit lady wouldn't take the box, and wouldn't mention it.

If the bandit lady is confused by this, ask her if she knows that dreambugs can predict events in their dreams. Say your dreambug friend dreamed of this, and told you to do what you did so as not to lose the box of money. Add that you wouldn't be walking about alone, with a box of cash in your pack, armed only with only a spear, unless you had utmost trust in your friend's prediction abilities.

Now, if she scoffs, and goes to take the cash-box, tell her that she'll never get away with it. That contact with you, and the physical description your great grand-uncle's ghost will give to your dreambug friend of her and her ghost buddy, will be enough for your friend to track her. And with that, your "business" partners will know where to send those who will extract it's value, one way or another.

If after spinning that yarn the bandit lady still takes the box, say you warned her, and that you'll be in Doxedn for a couple days if wishes to return the box. Get up, brush yourself off, and walk back to the road.

(It's probably too complex a bluff to pull off, but may as well try.)

Giving away all our money is stupid. With no source of income in the foreseeable future, we need all that we have. Giving up our money is as good as giving up our lives. I would rather risk our life fighting this girl than give up the money.

>>458078
I think this isn't a silly idea at all. How you need to spin it is that yeah, it's the money they'd have gotten anyway by robbing you, but this way they'll be seen as legitimate people with jobs, and can go into the town without it being suspicious.

The facts of the matter are if they are just highwaymen, somebody is eventually going to get away, and then they're all going to get killed.

Some steps towards legitimacy, even though the pay won't be great for this job, will help them out in the long run.

>>458142
And maybe there will be opportunities in the town that they wouldn't be aware of out here.

>>457604
Kind of off the current topic, but a thought occurs to me. If you held the box up to Iaxio's eyes so that it was half inside and half outside his head could he see inside the box?

As to our current predicament, ask her for her story. Tell her you like her ear piercings. You'll probably have to end up giving her a good chunk of your money, but do not give her the box. Don't even let her touch it. Don't tell her about it at all if you can avoid it.

You could hire her, but would having a half-naked bodyguard be more or less suspicious?

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/27(Thu)17:50 No. 458415 ID: 6195c6
File 134879344278.png - (229.79KB , 700x700 , 64.png )

I'm still pretty sick, so the update looks like a butt, sorry. This is probably the last of the fever-updates though!

>As to our current predicament, ask her for her story.
>Ask for her STORY.

I try to cross my arms behind my head all casual-like. It’s not really very comfortable. “So like, you’re pretty friendly for a bandit.” I look up at her ghost-friend. He’s wearing some pretty serious looking armor. “And like, your ghost-friend is all decked up in house-quality stuff. What’s your guys’ deal? You don’t really come off as uh, normal highwaymen?”

She sits back on my stomach and stretches. “We aren’t normally highwaymen but we aren’t normally anything. We’re just… between jobs. I’m sorry Laikadehn kept trying to shoot you, he’s a dick. They’re all kind of dicks. We don’t normally do this “armed robbery” thing enough for them to not be dicks about it.”

>Okay, first try to hire her and her friends as bodyguards, or at least to group with you to the next town to discourage any other bandits.
>How you need to spin it is that yeah, it's the money they'd have gotten anyway by robbing you, but this way they'll be seen as legitimate people with jobs, and can go into the town without it being suspicious.

I’m gonna try something really clever. “Hey, instead of robbing me, I could hire you guys, then? I’ll give you over all my money and…”

She tuts at me. “Let’s be fair, I think we’re the most dangerous things you’re going to meet on the road. Just give us up your money and you’re already guaranteed to be safe.”

I can hear other dogs making their way through the woods. This bandit is sitting on me and has a knife out but, like, she’s being super-reasonable, right? Okay. “Yeah, that’s fair, I guess.”

“It really isn’t,” she admits.

Iaxio chimes in his opinion. “It is pretty rude. I was a beggar for most of my life and I never tried robbing anyone.”

“If you did,” she says, “you probably wouldn’t have stayed a beggar.”

Ouch. I call up to Iaxio. “She has a point.”

“And I have more than half a skirt.”

She starts laughing. I mean, I still can’t get up and she’s still got the knife, but I think we’re doing all right. I can see the shapes of the other dogs approaching, though, and like, I have no idea if I also want to deal with them.

>Just say okay and give her your money pouch, tell her that's all you have.
>Look, Ok, the only thing I can think of is to give her your personal money, but try to keep the box to yourself.

I fish around in my mantle’s pocket for the money I’ve got. “So, okay, yeah, let’s just get the robbery thing out of the way, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” she agrees. I uh. I give her all my money. Okay. I guess I’m completely broke now. She gets off of me and helps me up.

The other dogs get here. The guy with a rifle has, like, turtle-claw boots and his mantle is embroidered and really expensive looking. Jeez. Yeah, these guys are not normal penniless-bandits. The other guy is a corpsebound and like, those are so not cheap to make or maintain.

The corpsebound talks. He’s got the gravely voice, I think he was the one yelling at me earlier. “Nice catch. You get it?”

The skirtless-dog gives the corpse my money. “Yeah. We’re all settled.”

The fancy dog with the gun nods at my backpack. “What’s in the pack?”

Ohboyohboy.

>do not give her the box. Don't even let her touch it. Don't tell her about it at all if you can avoid it.

“Food and bedding and stuff. You’re dressed like that and you need my travel rations too?”

Iaxio and I and the girl-bandit all laugh. I mean, maybe laughing at a guy with a rifle isn’t the best idea, but I think I basically got the girl-bandit on my side by now.

>Whatever you do, bear in mind that cooperation reduces the chances of your being searched.

Look, for sure. I think not freaking out at her but playing it calm and friendly was the best thing I could have done. The fancy-bandit gives me an angry look, though, and the corpse makes this weird sigh noise.

“Just open up the pack and let us see.”

Uhm. Uhm. Damnit. Fine. I just kneel down and unlatch the top and point it towards him. My tarp and bedroll and packaged meat are all squished together. The box is visible, but it’s on its side and nestled between the other stuff. Maybe he doesn’t notice it.

“Take everything out. Let me see what’s in there.”

The girl-bandit makes an exaggerated sigh of her own. “Suck your own dick, dude, just let her go. Gonna make her strip next?”

“If she’s hiding something in her clothes, yes.”

“Oooh, and what if she swallowed the key to a hidden treasure? Are we gonna gut her to get at it?”

“Wouldn’t you rather be chasing after treasure than travelers?”

“Maybe her ghost is the secret to unlocking an ancient Fauhredn vault! All we have to do is find it and we’ll be richer than the Merchant-Emperor!”

They’re just uh. They’re just really going at it right now. The fancy-dog with the gun just sort of stepped away and is leaning against a tree. He isn’t even paying attention anymore. It looks like this kind of thing is normal.

Should I say something? Do something? I think I might make it out of this with McTrinket’s box if I don’t butt something up.

I think you should just stay silent. The girl is arguing your case and will probably get him to let you go free. Anything you could possibly say now would probably just make things worse for you; you are the stranger here completely at their mercy. Keep quiet and let the girldog handle it.

>>458416
Oh, and he might lunge for your pack or something if he gets frustrated, so be ready for that. As long as you can keep it away from him it will probably be fine as it will make him look bad to the other banditdogs.

Is your stuff still in your pack with the box relatively covered up? If so, show rifledog and ask if you can go now.

Also don't look in the box if you get away with it. We are trying to pretend to be neutral hired couriers. We literally don't need to know if it's fishy or suspicious. All that will do is make us less able to lie convincingly. Learning anything special about what is in it does not benefit us at all in any way.

Just watch them fight and make it look like you're really confused and amused by the whole ordeal. Idly close your bag while they're at it, like you're not even paying attention. If they call you out for it, shrug and be like "Sorry, kinda spaced for a second. Im tired and kind of want to get to town."

Maybe give them advice that they really should probably go if they don't want to get caught. Do they know the patrol schedule on the road? This could become a hostage situation quickly if some random patrolman happens across us now. You're just one traveler, it's not like they're robbing a caravan here, guaranteed a lot of nice sellable shit. The longer they linger searching everything, the higher chance that they have getting caught. And like I mentioned, you know that pretty much means a hostage situation, which suuuuuuuuuuuuucks for you.

They got the reward worth it for the risk, and each passing second is more risk than they should take. I mean, they are shooting loud firearms here, who's to say someone isn't all ready on their way to investigate?

Hey, I just noticed that her ghost is wearing different colors than she is. She's in disguise? I wonder if she has something to hide too. The ghost hasn't said anything? How come they're all wearing different colors?

What's with those things in her ears? It looks like she's pinned her ears back.

>>458420
It's a bit late for that. We looked in it earlier, and there's some sort of secret compartment in it, probably. That makes it even more important that we deliver it safely.

Sabby, haven't you figured out by now that clamming up is the best action you can take in situations like this? Just stay quiet, move as little as you can, don't close your pack, and don't draw more attention to yourself. Let them play out their own inter-personal drama, and see where it goes from there.

So, Sabby, what do you think this little group is? They aren't bandits; At least, not normally. They sound like they had money, judging by Mr. Fancy-Mantle with the rifle and the heavily armored ghost, but are down on their luck now. Maybe they're a band of adventurers or treasure hunters. There people in your world that make a living that way, Sabby?

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/28(Fri)17:16 No. 458617 ID: 985d23
File 134887780517.png - (172.55KB , 700x700 , 65.png )

>So, Sabby, what do you think this little group is? They aren't bandits; At least, not normally.

I really can’t even guess. I mean, sure, there are treasure hunters and adventurers and stuff in the remnant, I guess, but like, I always imagined them being these wild, dashing dogs who work for some house in secret and get up to really saucy and romantic adventures and they have secret marriages with spy-spouses and uh.

Look, they mostly only exist in romance novels. I don’t really know what these guys’ deal is. They’re just arguing really loud now. The bandit-girl’s ghost looked so bored he just disappeared and rifle-guy is smoking a freaking pipe.

>Idly close your bag while they're at it, like you're not even paying attention.

Doing it. Done. Iaxio gives me a little smile.

>Keep quiet and let the girldog handle it.

I don’t think their argument is going anywhere. They’re, uh, I think they’re fighting over the payment for a thing they did months ago? Like, the corpsebound guy is angry that she didn’t—something? I. I think the bandit-girl is actually trying to drag it out. She just gave me a wink.

Yeah, I think I’m supposed to leave.

>show rifledog and ask if you can go now.

I shoulder my pack and walk up to him. The corpsebound shouts at me but the girl-bandit shouts back and now they’re not even screaming words anymore. I talk to the fancy rifle-dog. “So uh. Is this going to keep going? Can I leave?”

He bites his pipe. “Just go. They’ve been fighting all morning. We already robbed you, right?”

“Uh, yeah, you kind of have all of my money now.”

“Then we’re done. Go on, scamper off.”

>Maybe give them advice that they really should probably go if they don't want to get caught.

“And like, next time, maybe you guys uh, shouldn’t uhm. Be so bad at this?”

He gives me a long stare. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Iaxio and I walk out of there with no more hassle, and with McTrinkets’ money still in my backpack. Uhm. Well. What the butt was all that.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/28(Fri)17:18 No. 458618 ID: 985d23
File 134887787972.png - (226.76KB , 700x700 , 66.png )

I follow the road for a bunch of hours. I pass a small town, but like, it’s just a little thing on a rocky, uneven set of hills, and they’re just raising animals, so like, I don’t stop. It rains a few times and it’s actually getting late into the afternoon.

I see the Doxedn city well before I reach it. It sits on flat, heavy ground, and it’s huge. It’s a real city. Like, the House Aifix town was nice, right, but this place is huge. This is one of the Older Cities, okay? The House Aifix place has been around for centuries but I’m pretty sure the House Doxedn city is, like, a thousand years old. Maybe more. It’s way older than House Doxedn itself. Like, three or four houses have ruled here before them.

The river meets a big dock-town, and the actual city is on a huge raise of earth to its west. There’s a massive bridge going over this big lake that separates the docks and the city.

Iaxio and I take the road over the lake. The bridge takes like, several minutes to walk across. It’s full of dogs bustling about. There are carts and carriages and a few not-tombdogs too.

I can see the main entrance thing up ahead. Whoa. Whoa, those are corpses set into the thing. That is corpse-architecture. Those arches are huge. The hanging balls are just burning so much incense, I can smell it from over here. It drowns out the smell of everything else, even over the drizzling rain. It’s a thick, musky, purple kind of smell, really deep and woody. It’s really nice, though.

Now that I’m here, what am I actually going to do?

>>458617
I get the feeling we're going to run into these guys again.
>>458618
She remembered to tell you where to drop it off, right? Head down there, drop it off, get the hell out before more bad things happen.

Remember to take the other route on the way back.

Nice job, Sabby!

>>456873
>Anyway, accept the mission. When it comes time, hide the money someplace outside of town where no one will find it, cut off a tiny piece of Iaxio, then go to the house in question. Tell them you have McTrinkets' debt hidden someplace out of town, and that you won't tell them where if they violate your liberty in any way. Give them the piece of Iaxio, then leave. When you're a safe distance away, tell Iaxio to tell them where the money is. Boom. Job done.

This.

Also, see if you can find out what's in the secret compartment at some point before burying or hiding the treasure.

Cities don't have an entrance toll do they? If so, take some box cash before you reach the gates.

Oh hey. This is kind of totally unrelated but the next time one of your friends gets killed, completely incinerate the corpse then slowly scatter the ashes everywhere you go. That gives the ghost maximum freedom travel power!

No, leave the box alone.

Okay, so what's the deal with corpse architecture?

>>458618
Before we do the dangerous delivery, take a short nap and speak to Maexiks. We could use some future prediction for that. She DID say that we should do that in the afternoon.

I'm surprised nobody from Geofahn is waiting here... Keep an eye out.

Let's just do this and get it done.
We can't do anything or buy anything while we're here. I don't want to piss off the mysterious family that would kill McTrinkets with a complex plan or anything to keep us safe, this delivery job seems legit, just don't act like you have any personal attachments to McTrinkets and more like any ol' strange freelance messenger she could have hired. They're not going to abduct some person they aren't aware of, they don't know who would miss you or anything like investigate your disappearance. Otherwise they could just go to any random city and get a girl they don't know there.

With debts, it's all about getting family and friends of people who have fucked them in some way, getting rid of the fuckers so they can't do anything and then they get away with the abduction. If McTrinkets had a daughter, sister, brother, mother, father or husband they'd get them first.

>>458624
That would destroy the ghost!

Take a nap and think about everything we know about this situation first for Maexiks time.

Don't peek into the box. Leave the box alone. Don't take money out of the box. The less you know about the box the better. You are just a courier and this is just a delivery you are being paid to make.

>>458628
What if we're part of the payment? I don't trust McTrinkets. Play it safe. Play it paranoid.

>>458662
We've looked in the box and got a detailed description of the insides from Sabbs. It's just a lot of coins in an ornate box with a possible false bottom. I mean, it's not like she can send messages to this family of ill repute... barring the ghost she's wearing. But I doubt the ghost was used. And using the false bottom to pass the message is REALLY dumb. If we found a way to open it, well damn, we know that she's fucked us over then and we just walk off with a bunch of her money, because let's face it, whatever she's got planned for that outcome can't be worse than getting sold to these mysterious criminals.
McTrinkets has to SEND that message first, that let's them know we're part of the deal. They've got a lot of cash and a nice box coming their way. Why give them even more? Never giving more than you have to is one of the main points of being a merchant.

Better deliver this box of cash before you get mugged or something. Get over to whatever the house is the destination, hand it over to the highest member of that house you can get, so none of the money goes astray, say who it's from, then leave. That's it, nothing fancy.

Once that's done, is there a place you could go to report that you were robbed by bandits? Like, whoever is supposed to be patrolling the highways around here might want to know there's a group of weirdly acting bandits around. They might even know a bit more about them. You could also ask if there's a relatively safe place you could spread your sleeping bag for the night without being hassled by the city guard, since you have no money for the inn, what with being robbed and all.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/29(Sat)15:38 No. 458771 ID: e7bf51
File 134895829121.png - (171.58KB , 700x700 , 67.png )

I consider just dropping it off and getting it over with, but I’m still way too uneasy about this whole thing to just. Wanna like. Go up there and like. Bleh.

Blehhhhh.

“Hey Iaxio?”

“Yeah?”

“Blehhhh.”

“Bluhhhh.”

>Take a nap and think about everything we know about this situation first for Maexiks time.
>Before we do the dangerous delivery, take a short nap and speak to Maexiks.

“But hey, I think I wanna talk to our dreambug friend and see if she has any future predictions. Uhm, she said I actually need to sleep for a bit, so like. We have no money for a stranger’s inn, so.”

“So?”

“So you’re a beggar. Where the hell do I take a nap and not get, like, murdered?”

“Haha. Do you want to peek under the bridge? It’ll be out of the rain. There might be a dozen beggars already napping under there.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Wait a moment. Let’s not let anyone see us go under there.”

Iaxio and I make a detour around to the underside of the bridge. The ground rolls away slowly, into the dark lake it stretches over. But here, in the bridge’s armpit, we can nestle in the packed dirt and big moss-stones, out of the rain. It’s. It’s kind of cozy?

“I’m fortunate to be coming with you,” Iaxio says. “I’ve never slept under such an impressive bridge before. They were usually much smaller and uglier.”

“Oh shut up. You don’t get to sleep, you stay here and make sure no one touches my face while I’m sleeping.”

“Can I touch your face while you’re sleeping?”

“We’re related.”

“Very distantly, and I’m a ghost.”

“Ugh. You’re the butt of a ghost. I should’ve taken your butt as a relic. Okay, nap time.”

I sort of just sit on a stone and hunch over and like, uh. Try to sleep. My body is so sore. I mean, I have been walking all day, you know? My thoughts are just jumbles. I’m getting really nervous about what’s the deal with this box, you know? None of this really feels super legit. I mean maybe it’ll be okay but like seriously now that I’m here what if it isn’t and.

And Maexiks is here. We’re uh. We’re in her bedroom, I guess. I guess she has a bedroom, and a tombdog style open-bed. She’s kind of just splayed out on it.

“Hi,” I say. I plop myself down at the foot of her bed.

“Hello. I thought you might be here. I am taking a nap at the moment.”

“Oh neat. So uh. I have this package to deliver?”

“You do.”

“What’s going to happen when I do?”

“The dogs you deliver it to will not be happy with it. It is meant to satisfy them, but they will become angry.”

“Awesome. They gonna kill me?”

“No. Not immediately.”

“They might?”

“You will have to anger them for that. I have not dreamed of your death yet. I have dreamed of you leaving town with dogs following you. I am not sure if they are following you or hunting you.” Maexiks pauses. “… I do not think you will not leave town without someone following you.”

“Well that’s…” … not terribly useful. I don’t say that but I think Maexiks knows.

“I am sorry.”

“I was thinking of pretending I was just a paid courier? So they… wouldn’t take out their anger on McTrinkets at me?”

“The shorter dreams I have of you there, the less troubling the dreams feel. The sooner you leave them the less danger you are in.”

“So that’s a good plan?”

“I mean how I said it. I am very worried about you. You are walking into a dangerous situation. They are going to be angry. If their anger is not at you, it will be at your companion.”

Well. I guess I have a slightly better idea of what I’m getting into? So uh. What’s the plan? Do I wanna ask Maexiks anything else first, also? Where should I lick her? I mean. I think I’ve been enjoying doing that. Maybe that can wait until later?

Really, come on. I know you're a dog but you shouldn't be licking things so much. Do you know how bad that is for you? Who knows where these things have been.

I guess we go ahead with the plan. McTrinkets is getting herself into this if they get angry at her, and we did exactly what she asked us to do. So just deliver it, politely, deflect questions, and leave as soon as possible.

Lick the underside of her face for being such a good friend, and tell her that you're really glad you've got her here to help her, and how good of a friend she is.

First, report the bandit fucks to the authorities, then go deliver the box and leave as quickly as possible. Give the authorities as much information ans possible on the bandits. Because fuck those guys. Seriously.

Would it be possible to go back, explain to McTrinkets that you have it on good authority that the people would not be satisfied, and figure out a new plan?

>>458771
I think the people that follow you will be trying to find McTrinkets. You should just keep going south after the delivery. Don't go back to McTrinkets- you'll have already repaid the debt you owe her by delivering the box. Going back to her will get her in trouble.

Ask her if you would meet the bandits again if you followed the road back the way you came. Perhaps we can get them to rob the guys following us? To shake them off your tail? There's a few ways that could go terribly wrong though. They could take it as a hostile act by you and actively hunt you down afterwards, or the bandits would consider you a more important person than they thought and take further interest in you, or the robbery could go sour and one of the bandits could get hurt, causing them to go after you... Okay, let's leave the bandits out of it. Deliver the goods, then just go south to the next town, rather than go back to McTrinkets.

As for where to lick her, uh... how about a quick lick on her face, since you should get going. You can hang out for longer tonight. ...wait, where are we going to sleep tonight? Ask Maexiks if she ever dreamed of you getting more money. You got robbed so you're totally broke and thus can't afford to stay at an inn.

>>458781
We're sleeping right now! Under a bridge.

>>458782
It's just a nap though. And we'll need to sleep somehow tomorrow.

>>458777
Personally, I'd leave the 'bandits' be. If we're being followed, we might be able to lead the pursuers back along that same road. We won't have anything else valuable to take, so we'll be let pass, then when the followers pass by the two groups will distract each other while we make good our escape.

Of course the bandits may have moved on, but it's still a decent shot at losing our pursuers.

The problem with not returning to McTrinkets is that when the family is unsatisfied with the pay off and are still after her and we don't return she may assume we ditched paying them and ran off with the money ourselves and she made it clear she would find a way to get back at us for that. It's an option but it could lead to trouble down the road if she gets us back without giving us the chance to plead our case at an inopportune moment.

What we may do instead is take the river path north this time but travel the east bank then when we spot the coracle turn around and pretend to spot our pursuers and start running along the river. McTrinket should know better than to call to us if she sees us running in a panic and the pursuers will probably be more focused on chasing us rather than checking the other bank of the river so she shouldn't find it too hard to not be spotted by them. If they ask why we ran we can tell them we were robbed on our way down and only saw them well enough to realize we were being followed and assumed they were bandits.

Alright, if you're going to play the courier ruse, you've gotta think how it would have gone down if McTrinkets actually did hire you as a courier for this box o' cash.

Now, McTrinkets definitely would not just hand that box and a handful of coins off to some stranger heading towards the Doxedn city. She'd send word ahead via ghost messenger, with your description, estimated time to arrival, what'll be delivered, and what you'd be paid on delivery. Except she wouldn't actually be able to do that. She would fake the message to dupe you, probably using that ghost friend of her dad. So the way you imagine it going is McTrinkets would have made her proposition to you in the Aifix town, you agreed to her terms, she made the fake ghost message, paid you the first half of the fee, and told you to not open the box or even think of stealing it, and you headed off.

That means when you arrive at destination, you should act like you're expected, then get confused when nobody is expecting you. Once it's apparent you were duped and you're not going to get paid the other half of the fee, get a little grumpy, but not enough to anger them. It's important that they only think you're a poor duped traveller, and don't have any other connection to McTrinkets, lest they try to "extract" her location out of you, or have people tail you to try and find her.

>>458827
Oh, good plan. This way we can get some money back if they don't decide to just threaten us for the box or something. What's a normal fee for a courier to receive on delivery, Sabby?

>>458771
Ask her if she's seen anything to do with the bandits at all, or if she knows anything. Like, did one of the futures involve them or like what?

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/30(Sun)12:36 No. 458956 ID: c7ebc0
File 134903380235.png - (152.67KB , 700x700 , 68.png )

>Alright, if you're going to play the courier ruse, you've gotta think how it would have gone down if McTrinkets actually did hire you as a courier for this box o' cash.
>So just deliver it, politely, deflect questions, and leave as soon as possible.

I consider my options. I should probably just deliver the box, and pretend I’m a courier, I guess. That way, if they’re going to be pissed at anyone, it can be at McTrinkets and McTrinkets only. I’ll just go there, maybe tell them I was expecting some payment from them, and then skedaddle. I’m not sure if I even should return to McTrinkets after that. I mean, she has the coracle, and she’s been decent so far, but she’s a bit of trouble too, right? But maybe not returning to her would just make her think I took her money and ran? Jeez. I’ll figure that out when I get to it.

I lean my muzzle up and drag my tongue along the bottom of Maexiks’ mouth. Just beneath the finglet. “Any dreams about those bandits?”

“I have seen them shouting at you from the riverbank as you float away. That is all.”

“Neat. Okay, hey, I guess I should get going. Uhhhh. How do I wake up?”

Maexiks strokes her tarsus along my cheek a few times. I blink and I can feel the soft ground under me also hard, mossy rock. Maexiks’ tarsus is also Iaxio’s finger, pushing up against my muzzle.

“What are you doing?”

“Touching your face while you sleep.”

“Oh, why?”

“You said not to.”

“Oh seriously. C’mon, let’s just go find the place and deliver this dumb package.”

“Do we know where we’re delivering it to?”

“Hefehxn family? Let’s go ask one of the ghosts in the gate, they probably know all the deets.”

I go up to the gate and talk to one of the corpses set into the pillars. It’s kind of adorable, the pillar has like, a quarter of it cut out, and the corpse is posed like it’s holding up the thing. I mean, the pillars are huge and the walls of this city are like, two or three hundred feet tall, but it’s a cute effect. The ghost of the corpse gives me directions and I head on over there.

This entire town is huge, and confusing, and a mess. There are buildings of all kinds of different styles from the thousand-plus years this city’s been around. There are the standard dome houses and dome-cluster houses, and some of the older square-style things, and every now and then there’s just, like, this giant spire here or there. There aren’t any clear streets or planning; it’s like the houses were just spilled across the place at random.

I finally find the Family Hefehxn house. It’s a big, ornate thing. A lot of the painted façade is worn away and you can see the stonework beneath it. I uh. I think it’s actually intentionally been torn down. They’re trying to make it look older than it really is. That’s great. Seriously, I’m getting so sick of all these families and all these family games.

I’m just a courier, I’m just here to deliver a package. I tell Iaxio to clear out for a bit, to keep things simple, and pull on the door-bell. I can hear a distant, muffled series of notes being played inside the house. Classy. I think my family’s manor used to have something like that before it just rotted away.

The door opens and this doofer-dog in what I’m guessing are Hefehxn colors answers. He’s got the stripes, though, so he’s an outsider-under-license. Like, a servant, I guess. Super classy.

He gives me a judging look all across and kind of sneers. Awesome. “And you are?”

Look, that isn’t the polite way to play this, and like, I know how to do one single thing, okay? It’s how to play these stupid house games. Let’s play it. “Of-Hefehxn, stranger-greetings given. I am here under another’s coin to complete another’s debt.”

Hahahaha. The servant just kind of double-takes. He wasn’t expecting me to know how to actually talk all classy and properly but screw you buddy that is all my parents taught me. I am basically quoting from conduct manuals right now. He doesn’t have any choice but to be just as classy. “From Hefehxn, greetings offered. Whose debt is here to be repaid?”

Crap uhm. “I remain ignorant of all but my payment and destination.” I fish out McTrinkets’ box and show it to him. He reaches over and opens it up and blinks.

“Oh. There’s only one dog whose debt this could be. Please come in. The father of the family will want to talk about this with you personally.”

So, right, okay. Am I just gonna try and dump it off with the servant, or am I going to go into this place? He is kind of looking at me like I am kind of have to be going inside. If I’m trying to dump it off, how am I gonna manage that? And where am I gonna go next? It’s early evening, if it matters.

Maexiks told you not to hang around or you'd attract ire, so don't go in. Just say there is literally nothing to talk about, because all you know is the package and the destination. Like, there's nothing you know beyond what you just told him, so... You aren't even sure if the person who hired you is the person whose debt it is.

I think the circuitous route back to McTrinkets and tell her you finished the job is probably the decent thing to do.

Also seriously we should report the bandits to the authorities in the city. Even if they were "nice" or whatever, they took all our stuff and probably would have killed us if things hadn't gone the way they had. They're dangerous and they're fucking over other innocent dogs too. We have no real reason not to at least tell the city about them.

Go on in. Why are you assuming the worst?* Maybe they'll offer you hospitality of food and bed, maybe even a monetary tip. Don't squeal on McTrinkets, but that doesn't mean you can't deflect questions while getting a good meal out of it. Hired couriers who know nothing about their clients get hungry just like everyone else.

*Oh, right. The worst usually happens.

How common is it to shoot the messenger?

Simply state you see no reason to enter, your deed is done. And your job is paid for.

>>458956
Tell him you wish not to get personally involved with your deliveries. You would rather just collect your delivery fee and go.

I agree that we should say that we know absolutely nothing besides what our destination was with the package. But if he insists on us going in, I think Sabhaxlia can handle it, considering how well she handled the butler there. But don't stay for long, just enough to answer their questions and get out (although making it overt that you want to leave could raise suspicions).

If they ask us where McTrinkets is, we're in a bind.

If we say we don't know, and then return to her, that implicates us as accomplices.

If we say we do know, they may ask us to take them to her, which either means we raise their suspicion by saying no, or have them explicitly joining us on the return trip.

We're better off minimizing contact. Is there a, uh, remotely polite way out of this, Sabhaxlia? You are just a courier. Perhaps say you have another delivery to make before sundown?

>>458956
Maexiks said that there's a distinct risk of Sabby getting killed if she angers the family. How do you think they would respond if she dropped it off and left? Would that be considering angering? If so, you should follow all protocol and be as polite as possible. This will likely involve visiting them, confirming that it is McTrinkets, and telling them that the last place you saw her was in the House Aifix town. Beyond that, you know nothing, and would like to continue your journey, as you were robbed on the way here and do not have the money to stay in town, and would not want to impose upon their hospitality. In fact, you were hoping to report the bandits as soon as possible so that there might be some chance of retrieving your valuables if the town guard encounters them.

Make sure to mention that the box itself is a gift, and that there is something special about it.

Also, Maexiks noted that we will probably be followed out of the town no matter what we do, but it sounds like WHO is following is up in the air. Let's try to make it a member or two of the town guard, on the lookout for the bandits. :)

>>458956
Does he have another package to give you?
Time is coin on a couriers path. You can only afford to go in if a delivery job is available.

It may also raise suspicions if we are overly nervous about talking to the head of the house hold. Tell them we can only stay a short while but accept their hospitality. When they begin asking about McTrinket tell them you meet him in the city up north but that he remained enigmatic and you never even got his name.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/30(Sun)15:43 No. 459051 ID: c7ebc0
File 134904498909.png - (137.33KB , 700x700 , 69.png )

´I’m a bit worried about getting their anger all over my mantle by turning down their, uh, hospitality, but seriously, the desire to stay out of things just wins over. I try to come up with some nice and polite way to get the butt out of here.

>Simply state you see no reason to enter, your deed is done. And your job is paid for.
>Just say there is literally nothing to talk about, because all you know is the package and the destination. Like, there's nothing you know beyond what you just told him, so...

“With respect to your family’s father, I don’t want to waste his time. This is just a small job for me. My delivery is the box; I know no more than what I’ve said, and have no further clarification to deliver with it.”

He levels a glare at me but relents. “Very well. Good evening to you, stranger.”

“Good evening, of-Hefehxn.”

And the door is closed and I am done and safe! Whoa. I wasn’t expecting to get out of that so clearly! I’m so good at everything. I pull Iaxio back out and tell him how great it went.

“We should celebrate! Spend a bit of money for the occasion.”

“Funny.”

>Also seriously we should report the bandits to the authorities in the city. Even if they were "nice" or whatever, they took all our stuff and probably would have killed us if things hadn't gone the way they had.

“Bandit-girl wasn’t a major butt but seriously, screw those guys’ tombs. Let’s go to House Doxedn and tell them there’s a butt sitting on their road farting on visitors.”

Iaxio giggles. “Is that what happened when she was sitting on you?”

“Oh Iaxio jeez seriously shut up where’s the Doxedn place.”

The Doxedn place is not hard to find. There still aren’t any streets to follow—it’s just, like, the random spaces between buildings, but I just take those random spaces west, and just wander around until I find it. The Doxedn manor definitely was not originally the Doxedn manor. This place is kind of a palace, basically, and they probably inherited or conquered it from whatever house used to live here.

There are lots of dogs coming and going. There are a few housedogs in armor-dress chilling around outside the wall, and a few ghosts, too. I uh. I guess they are the dogs in charge, right? Screw it I’m gonna go up to them.

They’re playing some gambling game, and I have to cough to get their attention. “So uh, you are all House Doxedn?”

They give me a look like “duh.” I think they’re trying to be all intimidating the obnoxious stranger thing. I don’t let them play that.

“On the road here I was hit up by some bandits. It sounded like they’ve been on the road for a while.”

One of them blows his lips like “pfffft” but another at least acts interested. “Did you come in from the north?”

“Yeah.”

“And you were robbed today?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh dear. I thought they would have moved on by now. Can you describe them?”

I give them the deets.

“All right. We’ll go out around tomorrow and see if we can’t scare them out.”

“Not tonight? They could still be out there…”

“Are you traveling out again?”

“Well, maybe.”

“Then they’ve already robbed you, so I don’t think you have anything else to fear.”

Butts.

So, okay, the bandits are uh, reported to the “authorities” I guess. The package has been dropped off with whatever secrets it has still in-tact. Am I going back to McTrinkets now? Am I just… leaving? I don’t have any money at all. I’m not sure what to do. I can’t really afford a room, and I’m not sure if I want to spend all night out under the bridge. Uhm. Huh.

Just leave. You don't really want to leave too much of an impression on the city. You've potentially pissed off some more factions so just git.

Iaxio can teach you the wonders of sleeping on the road. (they aren't wonderful)

>>459051
Well, you do have something to fear.
You're far from home and have no cash whatsoever.
Ask about the procedure of getting this stuff back or whatever so you can actually sleep and eat somewhere. This shit probably happens enough in your land so that your people have some sort of system in place to prevent mass homelessness, beggary, and a downward spiral of banditry from simply being robbed of all your shit.
Not everyone comes from a fancy family, they have to have SOMETHING for the common people that aren't beggars.
Maybe ask for a job board or something, anything a courier could do so they don't have to sleep with the beggars if this sort of shit happens.

>>459071
You really can't afford to NOT be pushy here. You need money.

Just leave. Take the north road, even--if anyone's following you they'll get bugged by the bandits.

>>459051
He has a point. You don't actually have anything left to steal.

Yeah, you're kind of shit broke now. You don't even have other people's money. Get back to McTrinkets and let's move on.

What would be optimal is finding a real courier job, heading somewhere. Sounds like a good way to earn cash, and it can send you on unexpected tangents to throw off that dreambug. Lets ask around for that sort of thing. A travellers inn sounds like a good start.

Leave now, don't dawdle. Every moment dawdled is dangerous. I guess go back to McTrinkets, 'cause we're square now.

We are almost certainly going to be followed when we leave. If we go back north to McTrinkets, we are DEFINITELY going to be exposed, because they will follow us right to her and go "Hey, you butt, you said you didn't know anything." Then possibly kill us and her.

Our best bet is to just continue south until we get to a safe town. One where Geofahn can't get to us. Then we can work our way up from Broke And Homeless to Established And Comfy.

OK uh, so Maexis is relatively sure you'll be followed when you leave. Obviously the guys McTrinkets paid off want you to lead them to her. So instead of returning to McTrinkets, I say you go join up with the bandits! Tell them you saw the Dodongo troupe heading this way armed and you haven't got anything else to lose so what the hell.

Seriously they're like the nicest people you've come across so far. Not that that's hard to do. They took your money yeah, but they let you keep your pack and your clothes, and didn't hassle you much at all. You totally got them back by turning them in, so now you're as much as a butt as they are and you can go join them for clandestine butt revelry.

Basically, you can't go directly, or even indirectly, back to McTrinkets, since you're almost certainly being followed. Best to head south, away from McTrinkets, and act like a normal traveler/courier. Then when you eventually do run into her again, one way or another, you can say you actually actively didn't lead her perusers to her.

Now, where to sleep tonight? Maybe if you found a stranger's inn with stables, they'd let you lay your sleeping bag out in one of the stalls for the night if laid out your tale of being robbed, and you did some chores for them. Stuff like washing dishes or laundry, if you're lucky, or mucking out the stables, if you're unlucky.

While at the stranger's inn, ask around about southbound caravans, traveling groups, or highway patrols that you might be able to walk with. After your run-in with the bandits, you'd like to travel with an armed group, or at least a group, to discourage highwaymen, since you feel you won't be as lucky the next time.

Sabhaxlia 2012/09/30(Sun)22:10 No. 459189 ID: 249083
File 134906823083.png - (113.54KB , 700x700 , 70.png )

>Ask about the procedure of getting this stuff back or whatever so you can actually sleep and eat somewhere. Not everyone comes from a fancy family, they have to have SOMETHING for the common people that aren't beggars.

Ahahahaha no. No I’m a stranger, I’m unrelated to this city’s crypts, and I’m unrelated to anyone who’s related to this city’s crypts. If I died in the streets they’d fine my ghost for leaving the mess of my corpse behind.

… but…

>Maybe ask for a job board or something, anything a courier could do
>What would be optimal is finding a real courier job, heading somewhere.
>We should see if there is any work that we can get going down the way we were going anyway.

… turning my cover-story into an actual job sounds like a super good idea.

“So like, they did kind of take everything I have. I was here on courier work, do you know any place I might get something like that? Maybe going south?”

The Doxedn dog chews her lip some. She’s actually at least trying to help. The other dogs and ghosts are back to gambling. “I don’t want to actually suggest it, because they’re… less than friendly, but you could check in with family Hefehxn. They might have things for strangers to do.”

Those are the guys I just dropped McTrinkets’ box off with. Well then.

I think she sees the reluctance on my face. “I’m not sure what else to suggest. You could head over to the docks and see if anyone wants to give you something, but I’d think most legitimate dogs would already have avenues for that.”

She stops short of telling me anything I would find down there would probably be “illegal.” Well, I mean, maybe more like shady. The kind of thing you get strangers to do. I’m not sure if I wanna do that?

I’d consider checking out the docks and scrounging around for jobs, but…

>Whether we find anything or not, we should go back to McTrinkets by a circuitous route and at least tell her what happened.
>Get back to McTrinkets and let's move on.
>You don't really want to leave too much of an impression on the city. You've potentially pissed off some more factions so just git.
>Every moment dawdled is dangerous. I guess go back to McTrinkets, 'cause we're square now.

Maexiks said family Hefehxn wouldn’t be very satisfied with my delivery, and I think it’s time to leave, maybe. And like, didn’t McTrinkets say Hefehxn has a lot of influence in the docks? Wurg. Maexiks also said I am probably going to be followed leaving town, but, like, what does that really mean? Is someone gonna come and kill me? I mean. That seems a bit excessive.

I thank the Doxedn dog politely and just make my way towards the city’s gate. My legs really hurt by now, okay? It’s been a lot of walking and coracle-sitting these past few days. I wish running away didn’t actually need me to use my legs this much.

“Hey, Sabby,” Iaxio whispers. We’re coming up on the big arched entrance by now. “We’re being followed.”

“Well Maexiks dream-told me it was gonna happen. What is he wearing?”

“Ahh, dead sea green with gray stripes.”

“Damnit that’s the Hefehxn servant isn’t it. You sure he’s following us?”

“He wandering and keeping his distance and becoming distracted and never actually looking at us. So, yes, he is absolutely following us.”

“Damnit. I guess wandering around a city we don’t know, the only dogs in these colors, it isn’t hard to pick us out of the crowd.”

“What do you think they want?”

“… for us to lead him to McTrinkets? To kill us? We could maybe lead him to the bandits…”

“If they’re still there, and willing to help.”

“Well I still technically paid them for protection. Jerks better deliver.”

“Hah!”

“We can confront him, maybe? Just… go back to McTrinkets anyway? Go south? McTrinkets said she’d uh. She might think we didn’t deliver the box, though, if Hefehxn is angry at her and she never sees us again. She might do something to us. Aah I’m so bad at knowing what to do.”

What do I do?

Let's just ask him why he's following us.

Then do this:
>>459159

Go past the bandits, yes.

>>459159
I like this plan. Find someone else to travel with. If McTrinkets, errr... Ofrehkik sends someone after us, we can tell them exactly what happened, and that we made sure not to lead the pissed-off mafia straight to her.

making McTrinkets think we bolted means she will team up with house Geofahn, she'll tell them where we went. i think we should get the bandits to delay the guy and give him the slip.

What if buttservant pays the bandits to Chase you?

I'm not sure the bandits would touch anyone from any house that actually has influence just to keep a lower profile. You've made it clear young houses don't let slights go very easily the bandits would probably know that and keep track of the local houses so they don't insult one by robbing its members. How late is it getting? If we're only being followed by the one we may be able to move into the woods to rest a moderate distance from McTrinket wait for our pursuer to fall asleep then get to McTrinket and push off back into the river that night hopefully before he even sees we gave him the slip.

If we don't show up, McTrinkets might take that to mean we backed off on our deal. We should try to lose the pursuer somehow.

>>459290

This plan has merit. Pretend to fall asleep, then wait for sevantdude to fall asleep for real, then ditch him.

How good's your nightvision?

Leave the city before you try to lose him. That way you won't have to fight both him and a dreambug's intuition. If you ditch him now they'll know to be more careful, so ditch him outside the city when they think you didn't even notice him.

If there's a meeting you're supposed to make with McTrinkets I guess you'll have to do it. You basically owe her your life. The only trick is how to get followed (and you WILL get followed) and not lead them to her.

Just stand around immediately outside the gate, possible behind the pillar so he can't see you as he walks out. He'll have to either hang around suspiciously or turn back. If the former, you could try assuming that he followed you to get another courier job (and saying it in the most formal manner possible) so he's stuck trying to explain why else he might be trying to follow you out of the city gates. And there'd be enough witnesses around that he couldn't just threaten you back inside.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/02(Tue)14:22 No. 459640 ID: e81a07
File 134921297345.png - (230.85KB , 700x700 , 71.png )

>Go past the bandits, yes.
>i think we should get the bandits to delay the guy and give him the slip.

I consider leading him back up, past the bandits. It’s on the way back to McTrinkets, anyway, and I need to meet up with her, or, like, seriously.

>If we don't show up, McTrinkets might take that to mean we backed off on our deal. We should try to lose the pursuer somehow.
>Pretend to fall asleep, then wait for sevantdude to fall asleep for real, then ditch him.
>ditch him outside the city when they think you didn't even notice him.

She’ll probably try to sell me out to Geofahn. I should probably warn her that her payment didn’t go over with Hefehxn very well, either.

“Let’s just… go north,” I tell Iaxio. “We can see if we can’t get the bandits to bother him, or just camp out in the woods and see how long he follows us. It’s a few hours away and maybe he won’t even keep after us once he sees we’re not going right to McTrinkets, ten minutes out of town, yeah?”

Iaxio shrugs. “If I worked in a mansion in a classy town like this, I don’t think I’d stay up all night watching two vagrants sleep in a ditch.”

“Hah! Yeah. We’re too boring to make good things to follow.”

I set out of town, heading north. I uh. Oh wow. We cross over the stone bridge, again. The lake below is growing dark black, and the stretch of river I can see is also basically the same. The sky is a darkening shade of foggy purple. The air is still really warm and wet, and it feels like it’s gonna be raining on and off all night.

But uh, wow. I’m already really tired. I mean, it was a several hour walk to the city, and it’s going to be a several hour walk, in the dark, back up along the road. I mean, I can use my walking-spear to make sure I keep to the path, and it’s a big, well-paved road, but this isn’t really going to be much fun. Oh well.

It’s safer than pissing off Hefehxn and McTrinkets.

I leave the big dock-town and the city itself behind me and stick to the wide, hard road. It’s raised off the ground with heavy stones like most good roads are around here, and there are a few lanterns along it, for the first few hundred feet or so. Then it’s just dark, although the cover of trees is still maybe twenty minutes away.

“Is he still following us?” I ask.

“I can’t tell. I thought he was, but he might have gone off the road. Is he watching us from the plains? In the reeds? I feel like I’m being watched.”

“Is that your super ghost-beggar sense?”

“I dunno. It’s my paranoia-sense.”

“So you can sense paranoia?”

“I don’t sense enough from you.”

“Ugh. My legs hurt so much. So much walking. Let him come and butt all over us I don’t even care anymore.”

We get to the forest with no real sign of anyone following us. The pepper-trees fill in around us with their spicy scent and I only remember now that the entire city was coated in the smell of incense. It was so easy to get used to! We keep walking.

Under the trees, in the growing night, it’s getting really hard to see right. I have to drag my walking-spear along the edge of the road to keep along. A water-guzzler-drawn-cart passes us by at one point, coming south from the city. It’s full of lanterns but I don’t see our pursuer on there. It just disappears up ahead, the driver doesn’t even really seem to notice us. I wonder if the bandits will catch it. I wonder how long it’ll take to get up to where they were.

There’s no one behind us, that I can see, but it’s getting so dark I can hardly see Iaxio—just the shadows of trees behind him. I’m getting really, really tired, too. I’m just sort of stumbling along. The night is this weird mix of cold and hot. Like, it’s humid, but it’s also cool? I don’t even know. I’m kind of hungry. I stop for a minute and get out something to chew on.

Up ahead I can see the guzzler-drawn cart again. It’s stopped, and there is a bunch of shouting and movement in the lantern-light. Okay, the bandits are still totally there, and still totally busy doing their thing, I guess. Uhm.

If the guy is still following me, I’ve lead him to the bandits. I guess. I look behind me, but I seriously can’t see or hear a thing. What do I do now? McTrinkets was only like, a short walk from here. I could probably go right to her, or do something with the bandits? I could just sleep off the road? I’m so tired but.

>>459640
you should go see the bandits, say hello.
tell them there's a rich guy following you around for some reason. tell it directly to the girl-bandit, make it sound like you're telling her because she was friendly earlier and not because you want to get rid of him.

only do so when they're not busy with the carriage, they won't listen in a friendly manner otherwise.

also don't go to McTrinkets until the bandits are free to harass the servant. they won't be looking for him while they're with the carriage.

or just go around them while they're distracted.

>>459657
we're not avoiding the bandits, they don't have anything left to steal from us. we're using the bandits to delay the guy who's tracking us.

and he IS still tracking us, don't doubt it. we have a bug friend who warned us about that.

Ask them how business is going!

Okay, maybe not, it's none of our business.

I say we stick to the plan of resting off to the side of the road. Just... in your condition, you'll need to make sure that you don't zonk out for good. Have Iaxio wake you should it need to come to that.

Rest out of sight until they're done with the wagon. Don't bother them while they're working, that could piss them off, and they're already pissed off it seems!

>>459677
Yeah, leave them to their work for now. Is McTrinkets expecting you back tonight? If not, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just sleep for now and let any possible follower get bored; better still if you try not to be seen while going to sleep, so they might keep going on past in the dark.

>>459699
Well we're almost there. If we're not being followed it's a bit of a waste of time to sleep before getting to her.

>>459702
But we can't tell, and it'll be a pretty big deal if they follow us back, so it's worth playing safe.

>>459653
This

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/02(Tue)20:20 No. 459758 ID: e81a07
File 134923443874.png - (136.00KB , 700x700 , 72_3.png )

>we're not avoiding the bandits, they don't have anything left to steal from us. we're using the bandits to delay the guy who's tracking us.
>Rest out of sight until they're done with the wagon. Don't bother them while they're working, that could piss them off, and they're already pissed off it seems!
>Yeah, leave them to their work for now. Is McTrinkets expecting you back tonight? If not, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just sleep for now and let any possible follower get bored

Now that I’m actually here, and the bandits are actually there, the temptation to just... avoid them is really strong. I guess I’ll take a compromise and wait out of sight until they’re done, uh, robbing this person.

They pull the driver-dog down from the carriage. The fancy-dog with the gun puts the rifle to his head and makes him kneel. Yeah. Yeah, these are great guys for sure. The girl-bandit that was kind of nice to me pulls open the side door and is shouting inside the thing. Cool. What was my plan here again?

The fancy-dog with the rifle—whoa whoa he’s aiming inside the car—there are a bunch of screams in there and—

POP

He just shot someone I bet. I uh. Oh. No, okay, I think he’s just scaring them.

Okay, I’m gonna go say hi as soon as they’re done here.

They’ve grabbed something from the carriage and uh—oh. Right. Of course.

They all immediately run off into the dark of the forest, out of sight. The people at the carriage stumble around themselves shouting but it looks like that’s over. Yeah. Yeah, of course they wouldn’t actually be hanging around, would they?

I could have gone up to them in the middle of it, but, like. Most of my thoughts really weren’t too enthusiastic about interrupting them, and I guess I missed that boat. Damn. Damnit. The people in the carriage are still shouting, but they get themselves together in a minute or two and the water-guzzler ambles off into the dark. Leaving me alone, on the road, with Iaxio’s ghost.

Maybe alone.

Maybe that guy is still behind me. I don’t know. I don’t hear anything but I can’t trust that, can I? McTrinkets is somewhere about thirty minutes away, along the river. I guess. The bandits disappeared to the west, maybe I could find them? They probably can’t see in the dark much better than I can, they’ll probably have a light at their camp if I wanna find them instead. I could just camp out here, on the side of the road, and hope the guy following me isn’t just gonna stab me. Maexiks said they’d only be angry at McTrinkets, though! Argh.

>>459758
I see him. He's still following you.

Go camp.

Go a bit down the road and then go off road to the west a ways to make camp. Maybe the bandits will find you? Maybe they will find your shadow?

>>459758
It might look suspicious to butler guy if you don't go assist the poor victims in some way. I mean, hell, someone in there can be in grave danger of dying!

Go! Be a saint! You need more allies and this is one of your opportunities!

>>459772
Or we can try not to get killed on the road--like a courier.

Go find somewhere to rest--get Iaxio to keep watch

Sabby, you're dead on your feet, and there's not much you can do in the dark. It's time to make camp.

The bandits actually gave you a chance to mask your trail by leaving a mess of footprints away from the road. If you jump down on that side, and head in the same general direction, and at the same general speed, your footprints will look like just another bandit's. Then the tracker following you might decide not to follow what looks like bandit tracks, if you're lucky. Remember, you'll have to wait for a bit after sunrise for the tracker to pass by, if there is a tracker.

Set up camp far enough into the forest that you wouldn't be visible from the road, even in broad daylight. Even so, either cover up that bright mantle you're wearing by pulling the tarp over you while you sleep, or take it off and stow it in your pack; It sticks out like a sore thumb against the browns out here. Put Iaxio on watch, and finally crawl into your bedroll for some deserved rest. You're going to need to talk to Maexiks to plan your next step.

Oh, and Sabby, you can pretty much guarantee that McTrinkets isn't where you last saw her. She's savvy, and she knows you're very much not, so she'll be expecting you to come back with someone tailing you, or with you, if you sold her out. As soon as she woke up, she probably moved to a hiding spot where she could watch the spot you two parted ways, to see who's with you, or who's following you, or if nobody is with or following you. That'll give her and idea how well things went with Hefehxn.

You know if he has a ghost he could just have the ghost keep watch on you while he sleeps.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/03(Wed)13:24 No. 459960 ID: 0b56b9
File 134929586852.png - (112.90KB , 700x700 , 73.png )

>I see him. He's still following you.

I take a real smooth, sly glance behind me. I think I can see him, the faint impression of his colors. He’s pretty far away, but, like, yeah. Yeah, I guess he’s following me to see if I lead him to McTrinkets? The guy’s dedicated, at least, you know? I bet he gets paid crazy cash. I just wanna sleep.

>Go camp.
>Go a bit down the road and then go off road to the west a ways to make camp. Maybe the bandits will find you?
>Go find somewhere to rest--get Iaxio to keep watch
>Oh, and Sabby, you can pretty much guarantee that McTrinkets isn't where you last saw her. She's savvy, and she knows you're very much not, so she'll be expecting you to come back with someone tailing you, or with you, if you sold her out.

Actually, just sleeping sounds like the best plan. If this guy is watching me to see where I go, well. I’m gonna hop down the road, kind of in the direction of the bandits, and just start walking a bit. I get a real casual look of the spot I thought I saw him in but I don’t see anything else there any more.

“Where are we going?” Iaxio whispers. “Are we finding the bandits?”

“No, that can go under the butt,” I say. “We’re just gonna camp out here. McTrinkets probably isn’t even where she left us, and this guy is probably still following us, so, like, butts on everything. Let’s just sleep. You can keep your head up and make sure he doesn’t start poking me with a knife.”

“Is watching you sleep going to be my new thing?”

“Yeah sure.”

“Nice.”

I find a spot nestled between a few trees, where the roots and rocks aren’t as mossy or as wet, and wriggle my pack free. I pull out the tightly-packed bedroll and tarp and start thinking about how I can keep my colors free from the view of anyone passing by. I guess I can sleep under the tarp, like, totally hidden. Yeah, yeah that sound classy enough. I guess I shouldn’t light a fire. I still have my little firestarter, but being able to see past my hands means people well past my hands can see me.

I decide to use my backpack as a pillow, kind of, to keep my head off the ground. The bedroll isn’t really big enough to fit all of me snug inside it, but at least it fits snug inside my sack. I have to move the meats and the hook-blade and little rope-pile out of there so I don’t sleep on them. I pull the tarp over me but there’s still something in sack, like, a rock. I dig that out too and it’s.

It’s like, it’s wrapped, and stuffed into the bottom corner of the satchel, like, it was under everything else. It’s uhm. I unwrap it. It’s a finger.

McTrinkets’ ghost-friend appears right next to me.

“Hello,” he says.

She slipped a freaking finger into my backpack. I let out super-totally-friendly “Hi…”

“We went across the bank. We’ll come for you in the morning. The delivery went well?”

Well this isn’t creepy. I uh, I guess technically the delivery went well. I guess it also went terribly, since apparently they’re super angry about it, and have a guy who’s maybe still stalking me right now. I’m not sure how to explain it to him. I’m not sure what to explain to him.

One of them followed us out of town and we don't currently know if we lot them or not.

>>459960
"Oh, hey, yeah, sorta I'm being followed for some reason. Go away you big butt, they might torture me now for your location."

>>459963
This, really. I can't think of anything else to do.

Tell him what happened and all, and that there are bandits around.

A dreambug predicted us being followed out of the city, and it seems to have come true. What can we do to avoid causing trouble for either of us?

talk tomorrow

>>459968
I wouldn't mention our dreambug friend to anyone. Just to play it safe.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/03(Wed)15:15 No. 459988 ID: 0b56b9
File 134930254450.png - (106.95KB , 700x700 , 74.png )

>One of them followed us out of town and we don't currently know if we lot them or not.
>Tell him what happened and all, and that there are bandits around.
>I wouldn't mention our dreambug friend to anyone. Just to play it safe.

Yeah, I guess I’m just gonna upright give him the truth. Most of it.

“So, I dropped off the package, okay? But someone followed me out of town and is probably still following. Like, the Hefehxn door servant guy. He’s probably listening in.”

McTrinkets’ ghost-friend gives me a stare.

“We can talk tomorrow, right? It isn’t really safe. There are also bandits around.”

The ghost keeps staring at me. “I’ll contact you in the morning.”

He’s gone. I tell Iaxio to keep a watch on me and curl up under the tarp. It’s cold, and I’ve been wearing this mantle for a while, and I’m feeling kind of dirty and cold and oh my goodness do my legs hurt. Did I mention my legs hurt? My legs hurt from all the walking, all day long. My sides hurt from it, too. And I’m thirsty. And hungry for something more than dried meat chunks.

It takes a while for me to fall asleep.

My dreams are a confusing mess of walking and stuff. I’m not sure at what point Maexiks and I hook up in them, but she’s here, in some forest. Her forearms are held up close on her chest and she’s kind of a distance from me.

“Hi Maexiks. Well, you were right, they followed me out, but I guess since I didn’t really hang out around with them very long, I’m out of danger, right? What do I have to do next?”

Maexiks is still really quiet. She takes a long-legged step back, away from me. “Hello.”

Oh good I thought she might just be some nightmare or something. “So where are we now? Is this just some forest? Look, I mean. Look, I think there’s a guy watching me.”

“He is leaving. He will leave.”

“So I won’t be killed in my sleep? Cool. So uh. Predictions for tomorrow?”

Maexiks takes a few more steps back. Her thin legs make her whole body kind of list to this side and that as she walks. Uhm. “I am sorry. I told you what I told you. They will not be angry at you.”

“So we’re good?”

“You are safe.”

“So we’re safe?”

“You are safe.”

“Well you said they’d be angry at McTrinkets instead but like…”

Maexiks slowly moves behind a tree.

“What did you dream?”

Maexiks just hides behind that tree. Uhm. Uhm. Huh.

Go lick her face and give her a hug. Tell her she need to tell you what she saw.

Ask if they're going to hurt Iaxio. We don't even really care about the merchant!

Looks like she foretold you were totally going to rape her butt. Oh well no use denying destiny!

Oh, you should ask if SHE's the one in danger, first. Actually. I mean, she's hiding. Maybe a nightmare is following you? Check. Look around.

>>459989
turn around turn around turn around prepare to defend Maexis

>>459988
Look around. I think she might be under duress.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/03(Wed)16:43 No. 460019 ID: 0b56b9
File 134930782357.png - (176.38KB , 700x700 , 75.png )

>Oh, you should ask if SHE's the one in danger, first. Actually. I mean, she's hiding. Maybe a nightmare is following you? Check. Look around.

I look around, but like, it’s just the forest. I can see some of the dreambug sky past the thick branches. There’s nothing else out here. The air is warm and soft. I walk up towards Maexiks and, thankfully, she doesn’t try to run away or anything.

>Looks like she foretold you were totally going to rape her butt. Oh well no use denying destiny!

This really isn’t the time to start laughing so I bite my lip. I mean. I wonder how sex with her would even work. In a dream, too. Uhm.

>Go lick her face and give her a hug. Tell her she need to tell you what she saw.

“Maexiks, what’s wrong? What’s freaking you out?”

Maeixks lowers herself nearer to the ground. I lean against the tree down next to her and put a hand on her leg. She twists her head over to me, the dark spots of her eyes staying locked with mine. “Sabhaxlia, I think it is my fault.”

“What’s your fault?”

“I told you the less time you spent with the dogs in the city, the less danger you were in. But now your companion is in danger.”

>Ask if they're going to hurt Iaxio. We don't even really care about the merchant!

“McTrinkets? You mean? I mean, like, I don’t even really care about her.” I’m not sure if I really mean that. She’s been… kind of a confusing companion, for the little time I’ve spent with her. I’m not sure if I actually want her to be hurt.

Maexiks lists her whole thorax against me. Her hard parts smoosh up against my soft parts and I hold her. I run my hand down along her back-shield. I don’t even know if she can feel that.

I give her a little lick across the side of her face as she tells me her dream. “Dogs are going to find her and try to kill her. I have only been having dreams about her. It is my fault if she dies. I told you to avoid her debtors, but that advice has put death into her future.”

Huh. “Well, I mean, she’s a tombdog… death, like, isn’t that bad.”

“They will take their debt from her ghost.”

“Oh.” I think for a moment. “That doesn’t sound very good? What does that even mean?”

Maexiks shakes her head. Her antennae kind of flop around lifelessly. “I am not even myself sure. They will take her ghost and do something to it. The dream becomes timeless nightmare.”

“So, like, this just can’t be stopped?”

“You might be able to stop it. If you are with her. Maybe. I don’t know. I feel responsible for her death. It was my dreams that lead to your actions. I am making things worse. The future should not leave my dreams. I did not see this much danger in helping you.”

“So like. Am I in danger if I’m with her?”

“Yes.”

Great. So uh. I guess I can skip out on McTrinkets and let her get killed, for sure. Or I can go and be with her and maybe try and save her? I guess this is my fault for giving those Hefehxn guys only her to be angry at? I mean, I guess I still owe McTrinkets a debt? Does that matter much to me though? How much does it matter to me if her death is partly my fault?

I think... even if it puts you in danger you should save McTrinkets life. She did the same for you. First wake up. Warn McTrinkets ancestor's ghost that they are coming for her. Then go to her. I don't know what you can do really but you might be wetting that spear with blood tonight.

Well on one hand you don't owe McTrinkets much. On the other hand, she would never have gotten in trouble were it not for you. On the other hand it was her own damn fault in the first place. On the other hand you don't know the full story. On the other foot, they are going to trap her soul in some kind of unending shrieking torment that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. You have to help her! On the other foot you don't want the same thing to happen to you. On the other uh... crap.

>>460021
On the other hand... you have five fingers.

Guess you'd better help out McTrinkets.

>>460019
It's not just her death that's your fault, but whatever else the H house guys are planning to do with her ghost. There must be a way to profit from a ghost, perhaps some vague old ritual or something. Weird necromancy? I mean, look, you guys have undead, that's a fact. There's magic or some energy powering your ghosts and corpses, I speculate that, if one is able to harness that energy, well who knows what they can do with it. They need someone who has offended them, someone who doesn't really have a family or home, someone who they think no one will ever even blink at their disappearance, living, ghost, or animated corpse. Beggars don't qualify because of their unknown origins, someone out there may care of them or even just blink.

There's got to be some really bad mojo involved that like, would absolutely destroy them if anyone even got a sniff of the story, and that's why they need someone off the radar and with enough reason to be angry at like McTrinkets... or you. I figure the reason the head wanted to meet with you is to learn a bit about yourself, to interview you or judge you as a potential victim.
This is your real chance to get involved and distract the enemy dreambug with another problem. Plus, well, you might be getting rid of a horrible thing from the world. I mean, what if they're making a super ghost to rule this entire land or some crazy shit like that?

I don't think you can in good conscience leave someone to what you know will be a fate worse than death.

>>460019
It's not just you that you have to worry about. It's Maexiks as well. You should help McTrinkets because otherwise she will feel horrible.

>>Iaxio speaks up. “So you’re a risk to a young house’s reputation if they let your insult go?”

>>“Basically.”

>>Well! I guess McTrinkets and I actually have something pretty big in common with one another.

I hardly consider your debt to McTrinkets filled. She saved your /life/. You think you can just drop off a box and it'll all be square? Especially since it seems your delivery may have made her situation worse.

Summon her ghostbro, tell him to wake McTrinkets, and come get you right now. Do not wait until morning. Get on the water and get gone.

*looks at the map* Is there any way you can keep going south and avoid the Doxedn city? How heavy is the coracle? Can you portage it and get to the water to the east?

You still owe her, and she's still going to help you--especially now that you have no money and no real talents.

>>460076
>>460063
We don't owe her. She told us that we're square if we do this one thing. We did that one thing. We're square now. Anything we do beyond that is generosity. It's important that we keep that in mind. We will be doing her a favor, now.

I say we go. Just, definitely remember, this isn't us working off any more debt.

Wake up her ghost friend and tell him to wake her.
We're on the run, after all, with only one ally that can actively help us (Meaixks). We could use more friends.

Also, she's running from something too. We're united in that much, like with Iaxio.
Be a bro, not a butt.

Our debt to her is repaid. Help her anyway.

Okay here's the plan:

We tell McTrinkets to sell us out to House Geofahn. Seriously. She goes and tells them where we're heading next and gets some sort of reward, which lets her pay off the guys out for her head.

>>460175
But.... why?
I mean, we could tell her a false place that we're going, but I dunno if we'd trust her that much. We hardly know her.

>>460182
Because we're going to be chased by Geofahn anyway. There's no avoiding it. Giving them an extra lead doesn't actually hurt us much.

We should NOT give her false information to report to them. If we do that she will get in even more trouble.

>>460191
But why should we make things harder for ourselves?
They don't know for absolute sure where we're going. They're going on guesses and partial dreams. We should not, under any circumstances, give them an absolutely clear view of where we're going. That's just stupid.

Sabby, you're going to try and save McTrinkets, 'cause you're not a butt who leaves others to face death and eternal torment.

Get up right now, pack up, and start heading towards the river. Try and summon McTrinket's ghostbro to get him to wake McTrinkets up and moving now. Even if you can't get him to wake up, just keep going to the meeting spot.

Thinking on it, there's a very high probability that whatever terrible slight McTrinkets did to House Hefehxn will never be able to be paid back with mere coin. That they're out for revenge, and only her death and eternal suffering will repay the debt. Which leaves you to wonder what the heck McTrinkets actually did, or didn't, do to raise such ire, 'cause it must have been impressive.

you need to save her. you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you cause her death.

Tell Maexiks this isn't her fault. She has done nothing but help us even when that put herself at risk. From what she's told us from the dreams we should have realized how malleable and unpredictable the future can be even with a way to see into it. We have to take responsibility for our mistakes, if what she told us caused us to do something stupid we have to fix it. Whatever help she can give us on what to expect will be appreciated and we'll make a better effort to be careful of how that knowledge influences us. For those thinking this isn't our responsibility remember the only punishment she would have received if she hadn't sent us would have been only death now it's worse because of actions we committed while trying to help her to repay her for helping us out of a sticky situation even if delivering the box didn't fix her problem we shouldn't have made her situation worse.

>Sabby, you're going to try and save McTrinkets, 'cause you're not a butt who leaves others to face death and eternal torment.

Except your family...

>>460224
We know Mom and Ghost Dad are hostages at their house for now, but I don't think Mom will be sentenced to death for their daughter's crime.
Ghost Dad and the ghosts from the crypt will wither and die, but all things end anyway. We've justified the escape that marriage was just delaying the inevitable. The family name practically dies with Sabby when she passes anyway. Her children would have been Geofahn. Now if Sabby was male it would have been an entirely different story if the agreement was the same. The marriage will just prolong the lifespan of the ghosts, who are all butts and have done nothing for Sabbs really except essentially raise her to pimp her off to the Geofahns. Her Dad pretty much sold everything but the mansion, which honestly would have supported Sabbs for her entire life if he did sell it and could have afforded a better education to prepare her for an independent future. But that asshole, who isn't even a born Tashikox in the first place, declared it too sacred to sell even if the name will die in a generation. Dude must have HATED his previous family or something.

McTrinkets has actually done something for us, in exchange for a favor, but at least it was a reasonable favor. A favor that was a big mistake on her part since it's going to get her killed.
Sabbs, you're going to have to ask bugfriend if it's okay to tell McTrinkets about her and the future.

Oh and also could you tell us why your father forsake his name and completely integrated into your family?

I don't think the point is sabby's justification but the fact that she does leave people to die.
This is ghosts are people too land.

>>460265
Rebuttal
>>/questdis/61702

>>460224
McTrinkets has shown us kindness. It would behoove us to act like decent dogs and do what we can to prevent her grizzly demise.

Ask our dreambug friend about warning her. Oh, and there's no reason for her to worry; we know that she's trying and we appreciate that. We value her assistance, even if we accept that playing with the future can be difficult.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/04(Thu)18:46 No. 460382 ID: e9e3b5
File 134940158482.png - (97.37KB , 700x700 , 76.png )

>Sabby, you're going to try and save McTrinkets, 'cause you're not a butt who leaves others to face death and eternal torment.

Yes, exactly. I’m not really the kind of person who can just walk away from that!

>Except your family...

No look I. But. No, but.

>We tell McTrinkets to sell us out to House Geofahn. Seriously. She goes and tells them where we're heading next and gets some sort of reward, which lets her pay off the guys out for her head.

See, I’ll do that. I’m the good guy here, okay?

I explain the plan to Maexiks. “What if I tell McTrinkets to sell me out to House Geofahn? Then she’ll get reward money and she can pay off her debt better!”

Maexiks doesn’t really seem that into it. “I have not seen it happen. I do not know if that will work. I think it may take too long. She will die if you are not there. She may still die if you are there.”

Butts. An entire row of ‘em. Well, I don’t know if I’ve paid off my debt to McTrinkets or not, but I’m still going to do what I can.

>Tell Maexiks this isn't her fault. She has done nothing but help us even when that put herself at risk. From what she's told us from the dreams we should have realized how malleable and unpredictable the future can be even with a way to see into it.

“Right, first off. Maexiks, like, you didn’t do anything wrong. You were trying to help, and you’ve been helping super-good for a long while. You’ve been the best, okay? I guess this is more my fault. Maybe if I hung around the guys they’d have gotten angry at me instead, so. Uh. Okay that still sounds kind of dumb. Even knowing the future, I’m not really sure what I’m doing, I guess, okay? But that makes it my fault, not yours?”

Maexiks makes a non-committal noise. It sounds like a few mantis words but like, I’m not that fluent I can figure out what it is. I uh. I suddenly realize I have no idea which language she and I have been speaking during our dreams. Huh.

I tap Maexiks on her backeplate. “Okay, look. I guess I need to be more careful taking your dreams at face-value, okay? Having ideas about the future doesn’t mean knowing the future, but, like. Do you know how bad things could have gone for me if I had gone inside with the box? I mean, you didn’t right? So we’re doing the best with what we got.”

>Ask our dreambug friend about warning her.

I should get Maexiks’ permission before telling McTrinkets how I know she’s going to be killed. “Can I tell McTrinkets about you?”

“If you are going to try to save her, yes, it would be good to tell her what you know.”

Okay, awesome.

>Wake up her ghost friend and tell him to wake her.

“Maexiks, I need to wake up now. I need to get in contact with McTrinkets.”

“You are very tired.”

“Yeah probably but—”

Oh damnit I’m freaking tired. I’m awake, and I’m freaking tired. Iaxio makes a shushing noise at me and pretends to pull the tarp back over my head but I brush his hand away. “No, no, they’re gonna kill McTrinkets, Maexiks just said so. We have to warn her. Are we being watched?”

“I haven’t seen the guy. You’ve only been asleep for an hour. Go back to sleep.”

>Summon her ghostbro, tell him to wake McTrinkets, and come get you right now. Do not wait until morning. Get on the water and get gone.

I growl through the tiredness and fumble for McTrinkets’ friend’s finger. I slap at it until his ghost appears.

“Hey, butt,” I yawn. It’s an angry yawn, though. “They’re gonna come for McTrinkets. They’re gonna murder her and eat her ghost or something.”

The ghost looks at me. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“It wasn’t a nightmare, I’m friends with a dreambug and she can dream up the future, okay?”

“Who is coming?”

“The, bluh, Hefehxn guys. They’re angry.”

“At what? Didn’t you deliver the box?”

“I did! They’re still angry! They’re angry because of the box!”

The ghost stares at me for a moment. “I’ll be right back.” He disappears. I guess he’s off chatting with McTrinkets or something.

Iaxio gives me a worried look. “So what is the problem?”

“I don’t really know. Damnit I feel dizzy. Maexiks said they’re gonna kill McTrinkets now unless I’m there with her and maybe even then.”

“So we’re putting ourselves in harm’s way for her?”

“Yeah.”

“All right then.”

McTrinkets’ ghost friend shows back up. “Well, she believes you. She at least believes it’s worth worrying about. We’ve relocated across the river, and brought the coracle up into hiding. What can you tell us?”

“They’re gonna kill her and might not if I’m there. I’m not even sure who “they” are. Dreambug future-telling is really unclear, okay?”

“So what should we do?”

“Let’s meet up now.”

“How do we find one another? We were going to contact you in the morning and arrange a meeting in the city itself.”

“Oh.”

“We’ll have trouble finding you in the dark like this.”

If I want to try and meet up with her uhm, how can we work this out? Or do we wanna do something else?

>>460382
The river is a landmark. We can wait on the bank while she goes downriver to us. Or whatever direction. Or we could just sit in the middle of the road.

>>460388
Yeah, go to the bank and walk slooooooooooooowly in the direction she is relative to you--up river or down river.

>>460382
You could go to the riverbank and light a fire, since it seems like they're going to find her anyway.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/05(Fri)00:20 No. 460442 ID: 3e297e
File 134942165811.png - (192.51KB , 700x700 , 77.png )

“Look, okay. Are you up or down river from where you were before? Because, like, I think I’m still a bit downriver from where you guys had been. I can just walk along the river and you can float down close to it and we can maybe catch up like that…?”

McTrinkets’ ghost-friend seems skeptical but he shrugs. “Let me talk to her.”

He’s gone. I shrug at Iaxio. “I guess we better start packing?”

Iaxio shrugs too. Shrug. We just start shrugging and I just start packing. It’s hard to really get everything packed in tight, and the satchel bulges uncomfortably against my back when I work it on around my mantle, but oh well.

McTrinkets’ ghost-friend returns. “We’ll be along the river in a few minutes. We need time to get back into the water. We should be down-river from you, so head that way.”

“Gotcha.”

I get my walking-spear and stumble my way over to the road. I climb over it and go back down through the forest and reeds until I feel the dirt beneath my boots turn into hard, wet mud. I point myself in the direction the Doxedn city is and just get going.

I remind Iaxio in case he uh. In case he forgot. Wasn’t he there though? “Just keep your eyes on the water for a coracle coming up our way. Or going down. Uhm. Anything in the water.”

I use my walking-spear to keep my path steady along the riverbank. I think McTrinkets’ original plan was I come back to meet her up here, right? Then the ghost-friend said they were gonna meet in the city. I ask Iaxio if he thinks that’s weird.

“There’s a lot they’re probably not telling us,” he admits. “We should probably get them to stop doing that.”

“Yeah. I’m going to stuff a sausage in her nose.”

Maexiks like, snaps sideways when I say that. “Sabhaxlia?”

“I mean, you know, there was the uh. Uh. Maexiks?”

Maexiks is staring at me. I know enough mantis body-language to know she’s just. Staring. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh crap I fell asleep walking didn’t I.”

I wake up half in the river. I’m freezing. Iaxio is trying to pull me out but he can’t even really make a splash in the water. I manage to roll myself over into the reeds. I’m pretty awake, now, from the cold, so, like. I guess that’s okay. I think I’m awake.

McTrinkets’ ghost-friend takes that moment to show up again. “Oh. You fell in?”

“I’ve been walking all day non-stop you butt,” I manage to say. “How about McTrinkets just tries to find you?”

I huddle up against the reeds and nap while I wait for McTrinkets to find me. Maexiks fades in and out of my dreams. She tries to talk to me but the dreams are way too incoherent for her to actually manage to get any more words off. The night is still kind of warm, and the water isn’t that cold, but I still feel like I’m freezing as it dries on me. My whole body feels hollow. Wurgh.

I guess McTrinkets shows up eventually? She’s there in her coracle now. I guess she got here. I guess I’m gonna get in I guess?

“What’s this about people coming to kill me?” she calls over to the shore.

“Dreambug, future-seeing, people gonna kill you unless I’m there. They weren’t happy with the box or something.”

I’m gonna get in the coracle. I uh, I guess we need a plan. Escape plan. I guess I can ask McTrinkets questions. There’s things she’s not telling me, but, I mean, I have secrets too. But her secrets are kind of problems, I guess. Stick a sausage right in her nose.

Are you alright Sabby? You shouldn't be feeling cold if the night is warm. Hollow inside? How is your heart rate? Your breathing?

Start off by explaining that this was urgent enough to sacrifice sleep over. Asking questions is good. Ask what she isn't telling you, and how she thinks she might be able to escape.

>>460442
Tell her she'd better come straight with you. What was in the box aside from the money? Wanna bet it's something that's not worth anything to them now? She already knows who you are. What other secrets could you possibly have to tell her? That you looked in the box?

Also just tell her she'd better be grateful you're doing this to save her life because you're miserable and will probably catch a horrible disease.

An escape plan might be to just pass by the city along the river. She was going to walk right in there before we spoke to her. If we just keep going she might be able to escape notice.

Oh! I know. Have her hide under your tarp while you drive the coracle past the city. But uh, get some sleep first. Just fall asleep drifting in the coracle while she's under the tarp also maybe sleeping.

Or she could just wear your clothes to drive the coracle. Wait, do we have a change of clothes? We could have her wear that, and just proceed as normal. They won't inspect everyone that passes by!

Can you steer the boat? Hiding her in the tarp and just boating through in the middle of the night is not actually a terrible idea at all.

Have your feet under the tarp so she can bite your toes when you start to fall alseep, which you will almsot certainly do.

Also get the deets. You don't actually have any secrets she doesn't know.

Are we sure Doxedn is the way to go?

Hefehxn controls their docks.

You sound like you're sick, Sabby. You shouldn't be feeling "hollow" or the air and water feeling like they're freezing when they're actually somewhat warm. Can you even stand back up without falling over? Tell McTrinkets that you're feeling terrible, worse than just tired from sleep and walking, and that you need her help to get into the coracle without falling into the river. Ask her to feel your forehead, or nose, if that's what works for tombdogs, to check for a fever.

Once in, clumsily grab McTrinkets by the shoulders, blearily look her in the eye, and make her promise that if it turns out you save her life by catching a rifle shot, sword swing, or some other hit meant for her, that she'll do everything she can to save your life, and if that's not enough, that she'll never, ever turn your remains over to Geofahn. Let go, and slump into a heap.

Right now the best plan available is for you to pilot the coracle past the Doxeden city, preferably on the far bank from the docks, and while under the cover of darkness, with McTrinkets curled up and covered on the floor of the coracle. You'll wear McTrinket's mantle, but only if they don't know McTrinkets is wearing those mantle colors, since House Hefexen might have their people looking for your mantle pattern.

However, you can't execute this plan in your current exhausted, half-lucid state. You're going to need to get rest, and it'll have to be better than what you could get sleeping upright in the coracle. Have McTrinkets find a spot on the east bank of the river, land the coracle, drag it up into the reeds until it's out of easy sight of river traffic. You'll lay out your tarp and bedroll, and then McTrinkets can flip the coracle over them to make shelter, and so it isn't as hard to spot the coracle. Once again, Iaxio will keep watch by sitting in the reeds and listening. (Sorry, Iaxio.)

[1/2] Sabhaxlia 2012/10/06(Sat)03:47 No. 460683 ID: 162686
File 134952044513.png - (168.60KB , 700x700 , 78.png )

>You sound like you're sick, Sabby. You shouldn't be feeling "hollow" or the air and water feeling like they're freezing when they're actually somewhat warm. Can you even stand back up without falling over?

I mean, I don’t know how long I’ve actually been waiting on the riverbank waiting for McTrinkets. I don’t really feel sick-sick, you know, just kind of wiped out. My legs feel tingly and it feels like I’m floating when I stand up but like. Okay maybe I am catching something, I don’t really know.

I get into the coracle without too much trouble, but of course McTrinkets helps. It’s kind of crowded in the coracle with the four of us, so the ghosts disappear for now. Iaxio says he can kind of half-listen in on his finger so he won’t really miss out on much, maybe. It’s something he’s been trying to learn to do apparently.

>Tell her she'd better come straight with you. What was in the box aside from the money?
>Also get the deets. You don't actually have any secrets she doesn't know.
>Ask what she isn't telling you

And since we’re in butt-river with only one paddle, it’s time McTrinkets tells me just, uh, why we’re going to be having to deal with people still trying to kill her.

“Okay, look," I start. "I dropped off the box like you wanted. This guy followed me out of town, until I camped out and started sleeping, and that’s a long freakin’ walk to follow some courier. My dreambug friend says you’re basically absolutely going to die now and I can maybe change that if we’re together, but, okay, look. Why are they this pissed? There was a hidden compartment in that box, wasn’t there?”

McTrinkets blinks at me. “There was. One of Kekahkik’s fingers is in the box, in the same way I slipped one into your backpack to keep track of you. If the box had gone off target…”

“… if I had stolen it,” I say.

“… if the box had been stolen by anyone, I could find it,” McTrinkets says. “And it would be no shame if Kekahkik’s ghost spied on the Hefehxns once it was delivered. They should not have found it, though. How did you find it?”

I pull my mantle off. It’s treated so water slides off of it, but it was sort of submerged and it’s still pretty wet and cold. I ignore how naked I feel with it off of me. I can’t really handle it being on me like that. I feel so trapped in this tiny coracle. “It felt like there was too much space at the bottom. So did they find the finger you put in there to spy on them?”

“When you warned Kekahkik, I had him check. Family Hefehxn doesn’t seem to have realized? Although if they were following you, and still want to kill me, I guess they know. And are simply keeping me from knowing they do. Hmm.” McTrinkets starts fingering her teeth again. She’s looking more and more worried under her merchant’s mask.

>Thinking on it, there's a very high probability that whatever terrible slight McTrinkets did to House Hefehxn will never be able to be paid back with mere coin. That they're out for revenge, and only her death and eternal suffering will repay the debt. Which leaves you to wonder what the heck McTrinkets actually did, or didn't, do to raise such ire, 'cause it must have been impressive.

What did she do to get them this angry at her? “So like, why are they this committed to being angry? Even if they found the finger, wasn’t the money enough?”

McTrinkets bites her thumb. “Half of the money was counterfeit.”

I freaking knew it. I was worried about that the moment she handed me the box. I just only barely didn’t find someone to confirm it for me. “Why would you do that? What do you owe them?”

“I may have cheated them out of a lot of merchandise. Runaway, you must have realized I’m not just a trinket merchant.”

I think back to our first meeting. When I said I wasn’t interested in McTrinkets’ trinkets, she asked me if I wanted what was in the boat. I guess that should have made my ears stand up a bit more than it did.

McTrinkets continues. “Family Hefehxn supplied me with a lot of illegal material. I happened to lose a lot of it, which is to say I told them I lost it and sold it for my exclusive profit.”

Wow. I kind of sink into the coracle a bit. “Real smart.”

McTrinkets giggles. “I felt real smart at the time! I can’t say I feel all that clever any more.”

This is so stupid. She isn’t really innocent in all this, is she? “What merchandise? What was it?” I mean, things aren’t really “legal” or “illegal” to sell, usually, you know? It’s like, a really short list of things I can think of that you’d actually be in trouble selling.

McTrinkets shuffles in her seat. It’s really weird seeing her this out of control of the situation. “Taxiholixif fhrefdemnm,” she whispers.

Holy crap okay that is the top of the list of things you probably shouldn’t be selling. It’s this paste you treat a relic with to make the ghost more powerful. It’s made by grinding up someone else’s corpse and that is seriously the worst thing you can do and is basically never consensual. Holy. Crap.

That’s what family Hefehxn was making? Is that what they’re gonna do to McTrinkets’ corpse if they catch her? Holy. Crap.

McTrinkets looks at me nervously. “I never made it myself. I only sold what they gave me. It really does work wonderfully; when I treated Kekahkik’s relics with it, his ghost became more clear and capable than it ever had been!”

I just like. Don’t even know what to think about McTrinkets. I’m tired and still feeling exhausted and floaty and maybe I’m getting sick, so like, whatever I think about McTrinkets, seriously, I don’t know. I’m still here to save her I guess.

>Can you steer the boat? Hiding her in the tarp and just boating through in the middle of the night is not actually a terrible idea at all.

I suggest it. “How about we just keep heading south? You can duck in the boat and I can put something over you and we can just sail on through. Paddle. Paddle on through.”

McTrinkets appraises me again. “Are you going to be able to hold the oar right?”

>But uh, get some sleep first. Just fall asleep drifting in the coracle while she's under the tarp also maybe sleeping.
>However, you can't execute this plan in your current exhausted, half-lucid state. You're going to need to get rest, and it'll have to be better than what you could get sleeping upright in the coracle. Have McTrinkets find a spot on the east bank of the river, land the coracle, drag it up into the reeds until it's out of easy sight of river traffic.

… yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to try and pilot the coracle along. Going through during day might make it easier to see us, but, like, they’ll probably be a bit more river-traffic during the day?

I ask McTrinkets about just pulling the boat back up to shore and sleeping the night through. She was planning on just hanging out until morning herself anyway.

She’s a bit uneasy about it, but like, I don’t know how much she’s believing my thing about the dream-prophecy death thing butt. Whatever. We pull over to the shore and we set stuff up. We don’t turn the coracle over, though, so we can push off faster if we need to. Settle in. McTrinkets just outright gives me a few cold sausages to eat and I’m super thankful for that. We kind of just. Sit around the coracle. I’ll get set up for sleep soon, I think. I guess I can still talk to her.

[2/2] Sabhaxlia 2012/10/06(Sat)03:47 No. 460684 ID: 162686
File 134952047048.png - (56.04KB , 500x500 , 79.png )

When I’m more coherent, we’re going to need to know which direction we’re taking out of the Doxedn city. If we continue on straight south, the map says we’ll mostly be passing along small villages and stuff for a while. If we take a kind of easterly branch, though, we can get to another town that House Doxedn controls, that’s a lot bigger and stuff than the little things. McTrinkets doesn’t really seem to have any preference beyond getting clear and safe.

Which way do you think you'll see less people?
Like, comparatively. Will you see more people all together if you only go past the big city, or if you pass all the little ones?

I think we should go down the path with the fewest people, or the path with the fewest people on both sides of the river. That way, if someone on one side comes after us, we still have the other to retreat to.

Big city will have more traffic making you harder to spot, if they manage to get folk to the smaller villages to observe river traffic you will be easier to spot, or the locals might take notice of dogs they haven't seen before. also rather likely they will suspect that if you are avoiding them you will avoid any of their ports. They may be less likely to take immediate hostile action against you in a smaller unalligned town so you may have a bit more breating room if you have to hide in a small village.......that may result in serious ghosttowering backfire though.

So we've traded pissed off families now, for one that is even worse to have pissed off. Geofahn's aren't going to be able to do shit if far enough south but what about THIS family?
Sabbs, if you want to live in peace while helping McTrinkets your going to have to actually destroy that entire house.
Also, called it on the weird necromancy part, sort of.
Is there anyway we can use this information to make the house an enemy of the entire remnant? If that is some immoral shit that everyone hates, these fuckers are going to get killed and their corpses burned just like everyone who has joined an assassins' or thieves' guild, but even quicker and harder. McTrinkets couldn't tell anyone because of her own involvement, but you can! You can kill this house Sabbs!

Take the easterly branch, and head to the second Doxedn city. There'll be more river traffic to hide behind on the way there, and while there's bound to be some House Hefexen agents of one form or another in such a large neighboring city, as long as you two don't actually stop in the city, and McTrinkets is kept hidden while you're there, the chances they'll spot you are small. Just paddle right through, and if you two need supplies, land past the city, hide the coracle, and you go back to get them.

Ask McTrinkets if she knows of any barges or large watercraft that go directly from the Aifix city to the second Doxedn city without passing through the Hefexen controlled docks, or even bypass the first Doxedn city entirely. Such craft would make excellent cover to hide behind while passing by the first Doxedn city. They'd be craft too big to either navigate the channel into the artificial lake or fit under the lake bridge, so even if she doesn't know any specific craft, keep an eye out for those.

Now would also be the time to ask McTrinkets what other illicit goods she's carrying, mostly out of morbid curiosity. Since she's sold taxiholixif fhrefdemnm "ghost paste," you'd imagine she'd sell anything, no matter how horrible.

>>460695
The only way Sabby could pull that off is if she found an official of House Doxedn in the next Doxedn city over that has suspicions about House Hefexen, but needs proof, and would actually listen to a stranger. Then McTrinkets would have to agree to give testimony for protection, assuming she can give actual specifics, or knows of other hard evidence, such as where they store the "ghost paste," or where it's made. It just doesn't sound like something she has time for, as well as taking the risk.

Who would have more influence in the small towns? Are you likely to encounter Hefehxn or Geofahn there?

Do the branches join up again somewhere down south? Will either one get you to Fauhredn?

Take the eastern branch

If you keep alienating every possible refuge you're going to have to leave dog territory.

>>460695
I am partial to snitching out the house. Even if we have to abandon McTrinkets to do it. I mean holy shit.

We could even have McTrinkets set up as bait to reveal what they're doing. As in, we can talk to Doxedn, have them hand over a relic to monitor McTrinkets, and have her followed and when Hefexen comes calling, she can say something that reveals what they did. They don't dispute it, and they're caught. Then Doxedn can swoop in and save her/her corpse.

>>460805
Oooh ooh, or she could use her ghost-spy to feed information to Doxedn without risking herself, by like, telling Doxedn where the next corpsepaste deal is going down so they can bust in and expose it.

>>460837
>>460805
So good. Dude, Sabby's gonna be a conquerer real soon, if she keeps killing houses like this.

I have also just remembered that tombdogs use ghosts as weapons.
And this paste makes them more powerful.
If anyone from evil H-house does something as insane that one Geofahn did I would suspect that would be the equivalent as a fucking mini-nuke and blow apart an entire city block.
Okay, Sabbs, yeah it's either you become a conquerer and killer of houses for the good of your entire remnant. Your culture's moral boundaries with warfare are slipping, if you didn't notice. I theorize that your Remnant is or has been on the cusp of civil war for at least a while now, a big fat ghost superpower Cold War. The political ramifications are unfolding as we speak in front of your eyes.
War is coming. And I think you and McTrinkets are at the epicenter and you both are the shot that makes everything fall to shit. Your little runaway scheme is about to devolve into a legendary power struggle where alliances are killed and made. You have to make a choice, you can try and hide and let all this shit come to fruition of its own absolve or you can reveal this shit to the right people and kill the Hefehxn fast and quietly enough before they can act on whatever sick conspiracy they're obviously planning with this paste and an entire city with corpses and their ghosts built right into the city's walls.

A terrible engagement will be the source of either the shortest, quietest war or the worse war in the entire remnant's history, can you imagine it Sabbs?

Uhh...
Do you think... it might be wise to, y'know, use some of that paste on Iaxio's finger? I mean, not if you're totally appalled by it, no, but it might be a good idea since he was such a weak ghost to begin with. Uh, if you're ok with it, maybe ask him first though.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/08(Mon)07:51 No. 461131 ID: 2dec3a
File 134970789739.png - (220.77KB , 700x700 , 80.png )

I get out my sleeping stuff, for the second time tonight, and lay down on the ground, for the second time tonight, and fall asleep, for the third time tonight.

I dream of the dreambug remnant, but I can’t find Maexiks. I search for a while, just like, wandering around. Even in my dreams I’m just walking. I’m so tired I lay down and… uh… wake up. Jeez. The sky is slowly turning a foggy purple, so like, I slept a while, but, like. I am not terribly rested. I really do think I feel a tiny bit sick.

McTrinkets is already up, and already getting the coracle ready to go. I help her get it into the water and we start a slow paddle up towards the distant Doxedn city. Far back, further up the river, I can see the floating lanterns of some distant watercraft making their way towards us. The first of the morning traffic.

“So,” she says. Her voice is quiet and tired. “Do you have a plan?”

>Take the easterly branch, and head to the second Doxedn city. There'll be more river traffic to hide behind on the way there
>Big city will have more traffic making you harder to spot
>I think we should go down the path with the fewest people, or the path with the fewest people on both sides of the river.

“Let’s take the east junction at Doxedn city, to the Doxedn client-town-thing,” I suggest. “I mean, family Hefehxn is looking for us, not Doxedn, so they probably won’t go as nuts over us over there?”

“Did you dreambug friend tell you that last night?” she asks.

I huddle up. My water-proofed clothes are still seriously kind of damp, and it’s turning into a cool morning. “I uh, didn’t see her last night. In my dreams. I think it’s our best bet, though.”

“We’re gambling with my life, I guess,” McTrinkets says. “If this is real.”

“I’m really sorry,” I say. “I’m pretty sure you’re in super-bad danger.”

We just float on for now. McTrinkets keeps paddling at the water in strong, slow strokes.

>Sabbs, if you want to live in peace while helping McTrinkets your going to have to actually destroy that entire house.

“How big is family Hefehxn?” I ask.

“Only a few generations and associated dogs,” McTrinkets mumbles. “A few connections. They are powerful, but they aren’t very large.”

“Hmm.”

>I am partial to snitching out the house. Even if we have to abandon McTrinkets to do it. I mean holy shit.

McTrinkets continues speaking after a few more strokes. “They’ll still follow along on my tail anyway, even if we go far away. If they found the finger, and the counterfeit coins, they might just hire some strangers to come find me. It doesn’t matter how big they are, they have enough money to kill me.”

>So good. Dude, Sabby's gonna be a conquerer real soon, if she keeps killing houses like this.

I have… odd thoughts in my head. Thoughts that aren’t the kind of things I’d normally think.

Thoughts that kind of sound really, really good.

Behind me, I can see the brightening approach of lanterns. Turtle-drawn coracles and distant spin-barges are coming down the river, probably from the Aifix town. Traffic House Geofhan had held up being finally released? Does that mean Geofahn’s moved on?

I look at McTrinkets. “Uhm,” I start. “What if we destroy family Hefehxn?”

McTrinkets’ ears go up. She continues her slow paddling, her eyes stay locked with mine. “… go on.”

>Oooh ooh, or she could use her ghost-spy to feed information to Doxedn without risking herself, by like, telling Doxedn where the next corpsepaste deal is going down so they can bust in and expose it.

“You still have Kekahkik’s finger in the box still, right? With family Hefehxn? I mean, they don’t want to get rid of his finger, because then you’ll know that they know you put it there. So they’re keeping your spy in their house to make you think you’ve won.”

McTrinkets’ tired eyes open up a bit wider. “Go on.”

“And like, what, what was it you said. Do House Doxedn and family Hefehxn get along?”

McTrinkets shakes her head. “Not at all. Family Hefehxn hopes to out-grow House Doxedn and take the city over some generation soon.”

“So Doxedn is probably just looking for an excuse to get at them! If you help take out their rivals they’ll maybe even protect you!” I say. My voice is getting a bit loud. I’m getting a bit excited.

McTrinkets actually looks excited too. She sits up in the coracle and stops rowing for a bit. “House Doxedn’s avoided pressing Hefehxn because they never had enough evidence. I have an entire box of corpse-paste in this coracle.”

“Exactly!”

McTrinkets basically starts sucking on her finger. “We’ll need to give House Doxedn more than just some anonymous box of corpse-paste…”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I agree. “Uhm, I mean, if we do this, we need to figure out what we’re gonna do with you, too. My dreambug friend said people will be coming to kill you, and it only wouldn’t happen, maybe, if I was there. But maybe this counts as me being there, if I’m working on it like this? Uhm. Hmm.” I don’t feel very convinced by that.

“I’m undecided, if we should go straight to House Doxedn, or try something less direct,” McTrinkets says. “If we’re going with this? I guess I need to tell you some personal things. This will be free, don’t worry! I’ve sold the corpse-paste for the Hefehxn family since a few years, now. Always impersonal, very professional. Only a tiny bit personal. They know me by now, of course. They know my disguises and habits. I know everyone who works for them, and how they work, but they all know me, too.”

“Okay how do they work,” I ask.

“They sometimes buy corpses from tomb raiders. They don’t need many corpses, not to make the paste, so it’s unlikely we can catch them with any of that. They have a few regular dealers, though, like me!”

I consider my options. I could do this, I think. I mean, I’m not entirely exactly sure what “this” really is, but I think we can maybe figure out a way to expose the Hefehxn family to House Doxedn and maybe save McTrinkets. Heck if I get on Doxedn’s good side they might keep Geofahn away from me too.

I guess going to the Doxedn city would be the best bet, but what do I do from there? Do I try to get more evidence before going to House Doxedn, or go straight to House Doxedn and say I can help them take out the Hefehxn family? I might need the house’s help coming up with ideas on how to really do this, I think, but maybe I can think of something real clever? If I go right to them, do I bring House Doxedn McTrinkets’ ghost-paste as evidence or not?

Where should McTrinkets go during all this? I mean, I guess she’s still in danger. I don’t think I can just leave her hanging around and hope nothing bad happens to her?

Or maybe this is a dumb idea that’s just gonna get everyone killed forever, and we should just put a lot of distance between us and the city. I mean, I seriously think I can do this if I wanted, though. It wouldn’t be easy, but screwing over McTrinkets’ debtors hard enough means they can’t come after her anymore.

>>461131
Is that a waterfall? It looks like the water ends rather abruptly. Don't get swept off a cliff.

I do think we should try to screw over her debtors. That is a pretty surefire way of keeping her alive. How about we just go into town, have McTrinkets stay in the inn or maybe out in public somewhere so nobody can just run up and stab her. You go talk to Doxedn and inform them that you are representing a black merchant who wants to turn against their former boss. Don't say it's Hefehxn off the bat, that will look suspicious. First of all we should make sure they won't burn McTrinket's corpse for her crimes. Second of all we should ask if they have some way of protecting her. Thirdly, THEY should be in charge of figuring out how to get evidence; they have most likely put more thought into it than we have.

Who are these "connections?"
If hefehxn deals by proxy how will you tie the dealers to them?

I feel like you should dip Iaxio's finger in the paste but I can't think of a way to do that or ask to do that without sounding like a total butt

Instead, ask if she knows of any other dealers she can tell the House about to corroborate her story

We should use our spyfinger to collect more information if we can. Since McTrinkets is helping us, maybe she'd be willing to front us some expenses to stay in the town a few days and see what info we can gather from our spy. Her knowledge will be very valuable, but we can't hide her very well because of all they know. However, she also said that they're basically not liked.

Would it be possible to tell Doxedn authority/guard/police/whatever dogs that some Hefehxn dogs or their hirelings are going to come try and cause trouble with McTrinkets. I mean, Hefehxn probably can't get us arrested or anything without getting themselves into trouble.

We also need McTrinkets to tell us about dogs we need to be on the lookout for, and see if she has sufficient info currently to give us some real evidence. But yeah basically wait and try to gather evidence, and maybe approach Doxedn dogs and tell them that some Hefehxn dogs are going to come cause trouble for now.

I'm for destroying an entire house because of all the advantages we can gain
Here's the thing's you could win if you help Deoxeden,
1) Free protection in their lands from Geofahn
and
2) Deoxedon might educate you with skills to be more self reliant
and/or
3) A Deoxedon non-buttjerk husband (probably one of your choice to pursue), which can save your family from both extinction and your Mom from the wrath of the Geofahns. If you care about any of that anymore.
AND
4) We don't have to travel farther south into traditionalist buttjerkin' Faudren territory
So let's go to the city and get their help.

This situation is literally the only plan that assists your long-term goals of finding a home that we've come up with yet. If we don't do this, we have McTrinket's baggage on top of our own and have absolutely no direction. You might end up a lonely beggar with only McTrinkets as a real friend if we just keep going with the Faudren plan and then inevitably killed and made into paste by pissed off Hefehxns (unless we abandon the baggage early, but then you would be a buttjerk).

Sabby, there is not enough distance in the world for McTrinkets to run away. She knows too much, and for that House Hefexen will spare no expense in seeing her dead and ground into ghost-paste, and possibly you with her, at this point. Only way the both of you are getting out of for sure is taking them down first. So you're doing this, Sabby.

Get Iaxio out, and McTrinket's ghostbro Kekahkik, and get them up to speed on things. They need to be in on this.

Alright, if this is going to work, you're going to have to make contact with a high up in House Doxedn; One of the inner family. No associates, since they might be on the take from House Hefexen. And it has to be done without anyone seeing McTrinkets or you approaching them, 'cause it'll get back to Hefexen, and ruin the finger-spy-box part of the plan. Right now, the best way to do this is to get one of Kekahkik's fingers delivered to House Doxedn without Hefexen knowing, and the best way to do that at the moment is by getting one of the people on the approaching boats to do it.

Check that McTrinkets actually has enough coin on her to pay anyone to deliver this, then place Kekahkik's finger into a box or other container, seal it, and start scanning over the knot of boats coming down the river. Paddle against the current so they pass by. Look for another coracle or other small boat with non-Doxedn and non-Hefexen mantles, either full, half, or associates. Make sure to get the names of some high-ups in House Doxedn from McTrinkets before continuing. Approach the other craft, and ask if they'd do a small job for you in the Doxedn city, then make your offer: Deliver the container to whatever Doxedn high-up's name you got, in the Doxedn palace, with half payment up front, and half on delivery.

Keep trying until one takes, then continue on the river, sneak past the Hefexen docks, and take the west branch. Once nobody is in sight, land on the west bank, hide the coracle, and head inland, towards a spot south of the Doxedn city. Hide, and wait for Kekahkik to let you know his finger has arrived.

Have McTrinkets write this stuff down, then courier it to Doxedn, with a (written) request for her to be allowed to turn Supergrass or whatever the local equivalent is (I'm guessing handling and sale of corpse powder is pretty stringently punished). Either Doxedn agree and McTrinkets gets protective custody, or they do not but still pursue house Hefexn on the back of the evidence (distracting them from pursuing McTrinkets).

Un an unrelated note, see if Iaxio can imitate McTrinket's ghost's colours. Though I can't think of an immediate use for it, being able to pull the ol' switcheroo might come in useful.

Oh right and if nobody else has said so yet, be quiet! You're still out in the open. Still hunted. You could be heard. Besides, this sort of subject is best spoken of in hushed tones.

[1/2] Sabhaxlia 2012/10/13(Sat)01:53 No. 462376 ID: 14f67b
File 135011843484.png - (117.35KB , 700x700 , 81.png )

“Okay,” I say. “I think like, our best bet is to try and get Doxedn to want to protect you. How do we get our message to them? Do we wanna send them a mail with one of your ghost-friend’s fingers in it? Catch one of the river-boats and hire them as a courier and…”

McTrinkets chews on one of her own fingers. “That’s a clever idea, but I don’t know if House Doxedn would appreciate us being clever. Kekahkik doesn’t have either of our merchant’s tongues, either. No offense,” McTrinkets adds as the ghosts join in with us.

Kekahkik shrugs.

“How about we just send letters to Hefehxn while we hide out…?” I suggest.

McTrinkets shakes her head. “I think it’d be better if we went to House Doxedn face-to-face with it, instead of trying to do this business through proxy. Never make deals with someone whose face you can’t see. House Doxedn won’t trust us if we can’t put a face to our offer. Anyway, we don’t have time to send in a dozen letters and wait for responses.”

I reluctantly nod along with that. Dang, I thought those ideas were really good. “I mean, I guess we want House Doxedn to give you protection, and they can’t do that if we’re just hiding out in the woods talking to them by ghost. Okay. Do we have anything more than your corpse-paste to use as evidence?”

McTrinkets thinks. “I don’t want to sell out all the other sellers. They don’t deserve that. We could pretend that I think my debt is paid and I can go to Hefehxn, and use me as bait?” McTrinkets seems really unsure about it. “We can worry about the prices after we make House Doxedn aware there’s a deal to be made at all.

“Okay. So am I taking the corpse-paste along as proof there’s something shady going down? Uh, do you uhm, have any money I can use? Too? Because uhm. I sort of was robbed. Last morning.”

McTrinkets blinks at me. “Yes, take a little cap of corpse-paste along as proof. And here, I’ll loan you some money. If you save my life, you won’t have to pay me back. I’ll drop you off here and set myself in hiding on the other bank again. Use Kekahkik’s finger when you want to talk to me!”

She gives me 20 points of currency, and a tiny little thing of corpse-paste.

[2/2] Sabhaxlia 2012/10/13(Sat)01:54 No. 462377 ID: 14f67b
File 135011846977.png - (119.90KB , 700x700 , 82.png )

An hour later, Iaxio and I are standing outside the House Doxedn manor again. I’m really still kind of tired and feeling a bit weak, and I kind of wish I could have a bath and comb out my fur at some point, but, eh, you know, I just look like some normal travel-weary stranger.

I didn’t see any family Hefehxn goons around town. I don’t think they kept an eye out for me after the dude saw me take a nap in the forest a few miles out of town, last night.

I’m gonna talk to the guard and ask for an audience. I had the idea to take this as high as I can, and I can do that, or I can see if someone lower in the family’s hierarchy wants to vet me first. I mean, I know all the protocol, I can, even as a stranger, finagle an audience with the family head if I want. I can take things slow, too. Should I tell the housedog at the gate I’m here about family Hefehxn, or leave it as more of a secret?

Don't drop the Hefehxn name with the guard; he's low on the totem pole, for all you know he's a double agent. Make it clear you have something important to discuss. Be polite. Use all your training. See how high up you can get before getting roadblocked.

Time to diplomat the fuck up. Aim for the head of the house: if they're after taking down Hehexn, and you have the evidence needed for them to move, he's the one who'll be giving the go-ahead for that sort of high level decision. He also has the authority to pardon McTrinkets for trafficking.

Time to use your only marketable skill, knowing protocol! but seriously, try and keep a cool head.

There's no telling if or which of the guards, servants, or other manor-dogs may be on the take from Hefehxn, so until you get into a private audience with a Doxedn member, no mentioning anything about House Hefehxn, or corpse-paste. Also, is there the possibility that Hefehxn has snuck listening reliquaries into the manor? Best be on the safe side and assume the walls have Hefehxn ghost-ears.

You'd best shoot for a low to mid-level full member of House Doxedn. If Hefehxn has any agents in the Doxedn manor, or ghost "bugs," they'll likely be around the higher-ups. It'll also be much harder to get a private audience with a higher-up. If you convince a lower member of the house, they can bring it to the higher-ups without raising suspicion.

Now, in case the audience isn't in private, you'll need a way to convey why you're really here, and that you need a private audience, without speaking. Best write your reasons to be there, and why you can't speak openly, in a letter you could hand off to the Doxedn member. It shouldn't take long to buy the paper, ink and writing utensils, and find a quiet place to compose that.

Could you use the Courier thing again (well, technically you ARE acting as a courier and a messenger in this case) in order to get to the head of house directly? Or is that sort of thing Not Done, or require some sort of seal of office or similar token?

>>462377
Do not speak audibly in a public place about your purpose here. Anyone could be listening. Also, I gotta ask- is it possible for a very low-tier member of the house to betray their house for money? Before you reveal your full purpose you should at least be speaking to someone who is very unlikely to have been bribed or be a spy.

Sabhaxlia 2012/10/25(Thu)11:53 No. 466140 ID: e2f2fc
File 135119119527.png - (110.41KB , 800x800 , 83.png )

I’m standing at the entrance to the House Doxedn manor. The realization of like, what I’m actually here to do twists around in my chest. I’m scared the housedog at the gate can see my mantle being tugged around by the grinding in my heart. Actually being here? This is really scary.

I’m going to try and get a political house to destroy a powerful family so I can save a person I hardly know.

I take a look at Iaxio.

“Why am I doing this?”

Iaxio gives me a cheeky shrug. “You want in McTrinkets’ skirt?”

Jeez. If it wouldn’t attract so much attention I’d slap him across the face with a whole building if I could.

>Be polite. Use all your training. See how high up you can get before getting roadblocked.
>Before you reveal your full purpose you should at least be speaking to someone who is very unlikely to have been bribed or be a spy.
>Aim for the head of the house: if they're after taking down Hehexn, and you have the evidence needed for them to move, he's the one who'll be giving the go-ahead

Let’s do it. I mean, I do know all the protocols and stuff. The worst that can happen is they tell me to leave, and, you know, at least I’d have tried at that point. You literally can’t kill the messenger, that’s not even a tombdog expression.

I approach the housedog guard and give him the formalities. I say I’m here on business that concerns the city and its masters, that I have reason to fear for myself in giving them this information. I look like a mess, my fur is going everywhere, I feel sort of sick, and I think my legs are shaking from a whole bunch of things, but I know all the polite and appropriate things to say, so he’s okay with me.

It’s early morning, and the heads of the house is already receiving general audiences. I said the right things to make sure get to talk to them directly, but that means I have to make sure I’m not wasting their time or this is going to be really embarrassing.

The Doxedn manor is huge. It’s way bigger than my family’s, and it’s a mix of styles. Some outlying buildings are clearly way older than the main thing. Holdovers from before House Doxedn was even a family. The two brown domes outside are crypts that might have changed occupants a few times by now.

The main building is in a more northernly style, still, with straight walls rimmed with solid iron decorations and stuff. Just spikes and bulges. I’m lead inside. It isn’t the first real, living manor I’ve ever been in, but the last time I was in a place like this that wasn’t my family’s butt-farm, I was like ten years old, okay.

I’m lead through the halls. The floor is made from huge solid sheets of brown stone, really smooth, and the walls are pretty close, vertical wood slats that feel really warm. There are doors leading off, and I hear lots of dogs moving around, but the housedog takes me a short walk to the back of the place.

The wooden walls stop and it opens up to a big door, like. It’s a single-bladed door, one-fourth a circle, and it’s way taller than me. It’s solid iron. No one can open this thing normally, but the door has bones worked in the whole surface. The housedog just gives it a tap and the thing shudders and the hidden ghosts of the door pull it open. Jeez. Like. Seriously. Jeez.

The room beyond is really dark, but I can get a feel for it. It’s round, domey, but I didn’t see any domes in the manor from the outside, so this thing probably is taking up more space than it needs, just to be impressive. The walls are iron, I think. I can smell it, dry and warm, curving up over me. There are little candles burning in recessed alcoves along the wall. There’s a skull behind each candle.

This isn’t a room, this is a crypt.

The heads of House Doxedn are seated on three thrones opposite me, immobile in the dim light. The two flanking the center sit low, but the middle seat is larger, and the figure in it is like, way not normal. None of them are alive. They’re all corpses. The two on the sides are corpsebounds, going by the look of them, how their posture is and all. I mean, you live here long enough, you learn to tell the corpses from the corpsebounds, you know?

I don’t know what the one in the center is. I mean, I do, but seriously. It’s a really old corpse. This thing has to predate House Doxedn. My best guess? It’s probably the ancestor of the founding members of the house, the ancestor of the dogs who eventually took the name Doxedn.

It’s a corpse, and it’s worked into the throne at the center like some weird statute. It has the same kind of metal securings as the corpsebounds, but they’re just kind of exaggerated everything. The whole thing kind of looms up into the middle of the room. Its skull is a tiny thing poking out of its massive robes, and I can see its arms, and they’re all the way back down on the throne’s arms, and they’re so far away it’s really kind of weird.

I’m expecting the center corpse’s ghost to manifest, but it just starts talking to me as it is. Seriously, I wish I had paid more attention to mom about how ancestor ghosts work. What is this thing? Is this normal?

“We receive you, guest,” the center corpse says. Its voice is an iron rumble the entire dome makes. I basically almost pee myself from the vibration. “What is your business?”

Okay. Okay, this was the easy part. Getting an audience with the head of a house isn’t that hard if you really know how to phrase it, but now I have to actually decide what I want to get out of them.

I know Family Hefehxn is basically taking up corpses and turning them into a paste to sell which is one of the few universal crimes in the remnant. I know Family Hefehxn and House Doxedn here don’t get along very well, but that House Doxedn hasn’t moved against Family Hefehxn openly, maybe because of lack of justification. I can maybe give them that justification.

Family Hefehxn wants McTrinkets dead, and she’ll be dead soon if I don’t do something. McTrinkets told me how Family Hefehxn gets their corpses from tomb raiders, that they sell the stuff through regular merchants like herself; Mctrinkets didn’t want to sell out any of the other merchants, though.

I might have enough to get them to move against Family Hefehxn. I have some of the corpse-paste, to prove it exists. I have McTrinket’s friend’s Kekahkik’s finger, if I want to call on him as a witness. How do I get them to actually move against Family Hefehxn? How do I get them to protect McTrinkets?

>>466140
Play it using your innate merchant talent. Don't show all your inventory at first, ease it out and watch them give you more and more for that shit as they get desperate. Your turn.
>Desperate.
Desperate.
>Desperate
Desperate
>Desperate
>Dusty old men, running the world

Basically, show them nothing at first, no proof, just tell them you have reason to believe they would like to take down the Hefehxn's operation. Ask them if they're interested in any proof of the operation. Then entice them with the paste and explanation where you've acquired it, a witness willing to conspire against the Hefehxn in exchange for hers and your own protection. Never give McTrinket's name until they've said they'll protect her in exchange for her statement. Then you can give her name and your rendezvous.

This should work, but they'll probably get aggressive and snotty, this is where your going to have to use every polite political trick useful to this situation in combination with your merchant talent. You can do this, it's in you. Just remember to never back down and always remain confident that your offer will help their goals greatly, believe in it like it's the gospel truth. Don't let them make you nervous. They'll lose respect for you.

This is going to go so wonderfully when we discover every major house is grinding up corpses to preserve their ruling ghosts including Doxedn.

Present your grievance and goals.
explain why it is in mutual interest you work together.
when you have their compliance present evidence.

>>466193
If they happen to even so much as hint that they may be doing so, don't even act like you heard it. Don't even acknowledge that it may be a possibility.

Oh, and don't frame anything you say as indicating Doxedn has a beef with Hefexn and may want 'dirt' on them. You want to report a crime that is occuring in Doxedn's city, you are not trying to curry favour with them.