Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)09:50 No. 611999 ID: 3009b4
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:: HMES connection via TEN ::

:: Welcome to the TEN - We're Cat People!
:: Please stand by while contact your parties.

:: Your Administrators are ONLINE

Hi.

So, you're probably wondering who we are, huh? Look, we know this guy who you probably met.

He's not a killer, he's a scout. With gold.

Yep.

greetings, chosen one.
we are advisor spirits, and we have come to aid you in your efforts to settle your debts, as well as offer general advice.

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)10:18 No. 612012 ID: 3009b4
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:: ... Connection complete ::

Sami takes a deep drag from her pipe.

:: Loading Statistics ::
:: Warning: Current IP is 0; Influence is unavailable ::

She pauses.

:: Current Plot Armour: 100 ::
:: Racial Notes: The Rollen people are physically weaker than their human counterparts although there is considerably less strength difference between men and women (approximately 20% less muscle mass in women on average). Rollen culture includes a love of science, especially math and astrology, but they also enjoy engineering. They are omnivores but have a distinct preference to plant proteins over animal protein although they are not adverse to meat in any way. Rollen culture is one that is suspicious and secretive to outsiders, preferring stealth and avoidance giving them a cowardly reputation, as well as being known for being savage, ruthless fighters if pressed. Despite some isolationist behaviours, if befriended Rollen are friends for life and there is a story of the "The Good Bit" which despite the derogatory name is a tale of where a Rollen saved the life of a trapped Mericudian fighter despite their people having a hostile relationship. The Mericudian became the Rollen's lifelong defender and it is said their friendship opened trade between the two people ::

Sami looks around in confusion.

:: Attributes ::
:: Strength – Sami’s strength is below average. She's stronger than the average female civilian but is weaker than a male fighter ::
:: Agility – Exceptional. Sami is exceptional even within the context of her own people who are quite agile. Besides being graceful, it also means she can wiggle into areas others couldn't. ::
:: Speed – Above Average. Sami's speed is normal for her people, gives her better-than-average speed in comparison to Gaelish or Merucidian. ::
:: Stamina – Average (comparable to a fit human) ::
:: Bio Resistance – Exceptional. Sami’s people have no special resistance, but she is extremely resilient against harmful drugs, poison, toxins and disease. Sami won't catch diseases when others would, and toxins will take much longer and have significantly reduced effect. ::

:: Education – Reading, writing, complex arithmetic (algebra), read/write music, hunting, trapping, preparation of wild game, flute/pipe. Sami has also a very basic idea of how to care for wounds in the wild, but no other medical knowledge. She is a very talented but untrained singer with a voice similar to Biff Naked. ::


Sami: Goddess, what did he sell me? I know cloppers love their dreamtime but...

She exhales, and then takes another deep drag.

Sami: ... I just want to relax. Maybe it's seeing the old house again.

>So, you're probably wondering who we are, huh? Look, we know this guy who you probably met.


Sami: The bloody hell?

>greetings, chosen one.
we are advisor spirits, and we have come to aid you in your efforts to settle your debts, as well as offer general advice.


Sami: What the hell's going on? Who are you? Or you?

Sami drops her pipe and scrambles to her feet. She grabs her walking stick and puts her back to the wall next to her fire and gazes at you with narrowed, deep indigo eyes.

...0 IP.

SON OF A -

Ugh, sorry. Without IP we can't permanently increase your abilities!

You want to be stronger or faster or smarter, right? We can help!

This isn't a deal with the devil. Unless you consider a network of bickering, joking voices to be the devil. In which case you should probably throw away items until you stop hearing us, even though one of these items has magic that acts as a shield against death.

Did I get your attention?

Since you're our client, we can help you with... whatever it is you're supposed to do. Rekki said something happened to your village, we don't know much more than that.

You want to improve yourself? Just perform self-improvement activities, which create "skill points" known as IP, and we can ensure that they lead to genuine improvement!

Or we can sacrifice these "skill points", to help save your life or help you do something REALLY important, like kill a monster when you would otherwise miss and be pummeled to death.

Also, if you think this is all silly, you aren't seeing what we're seeing. (Cat people? Seriously?)

>What the hell's going on? Who are you? Or you?
Hello, there. Sorry to butt in on your relaxation time, but we don't really have much choice about being summoned.

We're a collection of spirits. We're not corporeal, and mean you no harm. Our usual function is to offer advice and companionship to those we find ourselves in the service of. Usually, those we're drawn to need it.

*cough* Did you need help with something? Or is there anything you'd like to talk about? We're pretty good at planning and brainstorming (it helps that time tends to pass differently for us than you, we often have more time to think), and if you just need someone to talk to, well, we're not in any position to go blabbing.

>Goddess, what did he sell me?
Something with a connection to a network of spirit-based advisers, it would seem. Unusual. We're usually attached to an object, not a substance. What were you sold, exactly?

...um. We don't have to play that silly game where we prove we're not a hallucination, right? (I suppose you've got a background in mathematics. I suppose that means we could always prove we're not a product of your mind by explaining concepts you aren't familiar with yet).

>>612015
What my companion is trying to say is we have a limited ability to influence the world. We can try to force outcomes towards a certain result (weighting the dice, as it were), or we can spend influence to accelerate our client's growth in some way.

A moot point, as our reserves are currently depleted.

yes yes. voices in your brain. magic just works like that.

I guess the first thing we want to know is your current situation. Where are you? What is your goal? Are you doing well to reach that goal? That kind of stuff.

Well madam, I suppose our starting circumstances could be better, as you have heard, we're powerless to assist you beyond our advice!
Personally, I'm more interested in the advising part of aiding you rather than the IP powers the others are focused on, but we collectively are here to help.
It rather sounds like that, ah, substance is the key to our connection...Which could make for some rather interesting complications to our presence, but I do hope not!

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)10:49 No. 612023 ID: 3009b4
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>Ugh, sorry. Without IP we can't permanently increase your abilities!


Sami: Oh please let me be high and paranoid.

>Did I get your attention?


Sami: Oh please let this just be the dreamtime!


>Hello, there. Sorry to butt in on your relaxation time, but we don't really have much choice about being summoned.
>We're a collection of spirits. We're not corporeal, and mean you no harm. Our usual function is to offer advice and companionship to those we find ourselves in the service of. Usually, those we're drawn to need it.


Sami: Goddess I know I've been unfaithful but I need you now!

>...um. We don't have to play that silly game where we prove we're not a hallucination, right? (I suppose you've got a background in mathematics. I suppose that means we could always prove we're not a product of your mind by explaining concepts you aren't familiar with yet).

** Sami's TRUST is now -3. **


:: ADMIN: Mathematical concepts of the future sounds quite a lot like madness, don't you think? She didn't summon you, sweethearts. A third party has requested you. ::

>Something with a connection to a network of spirit-based advisers, it would seem. Unusual. We're usually attached to an object, not a substance. What were you sold, exactly?

Sami thinks for a moment.


Sami: FUCK.

Well, if nothing else, you can simple ignore us, of that I'm certain.

Look, we're sorry, alright? Our last client on TEN was a lot less high-strung than you are.

Look, we can help you. If you don't want our help, you're free to throw away whatever it is that is causing you to hear us. But we can give helpful suggestions, we can permanently make you stronger, and we can't directly harm you.

Can you think about it for a while before you decide? Thanks.

>Mathematical concepts of the future sounds quite a lot like madness, don't you think?
I've personally never considered education to be madness.

And who said anything about the future? No one person can have perfect knowledge of a subject. Exposure to things you don't know usually requires a source for that information.

>She didn't summon you, sweethearts. A third party has requested you.
Yes. Which would be why we didn't describe ourselves as summoned 'by her'.

Care to elaborate on that third party, admin? We can make a few informed guesses, but introducing or speculating on unknown third parties influencing her life is hardly helpful with paranoia, don't you think?

>FUCK
Care to elaborate? It sounds as if you know more about our situation than we do.

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)11:14 No. 612032 ID: 3009b4
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Sami digs through her pocks and produces a coin coin with a familiar death's head on one side.


Sami: "Oh... oh no. '>He's not a killer, he's a scout. With gold.' THAT 'scout'. The strange man that I met when I was eight, and he gave me this coin, told me to keep it secret and never lose it.

Ten years ago.

It's been ten years. I never made the connection."

(She shifts here gaze back towards you.)

Sami: You called me back, didn't you?

>I've personally never considered education to be madness.
>And who said anything about the future? No one person can have perfect knowledge of a subject. Exposure to things you don't know usually requires a source for that information.

:: ADMIN: Sweetie, you've no exact idea about Sami's mathematical background. Usually when people explain that they came up to the solution thanks to the help of the voices in their head, others think they're mad. When a girl who isn't mad but suffers from sleep deprivation and is in a medicated state hears voices trying to explain advanced mathematical theorem in an effort to prove they exist, she might just think she's gone mad. ::

>Care to elaborate on that third party, admin? We can make a few informed guesses, but introducing or speculating on unknown third parties influencing her life is hardly helpful with paranoia, don't you think?

:: ADMIN: No, I don't care to. ::

>Look, we're sorry, alright? Our last client on TEN was a lot less high-strung than you are.

:: ADMIN: Your last client was a naive, trusting and carefree young lady who was told she could call on you for help. A good *introduction*. ::

Sorry for not including this earlier, but this is an appropriate bit of theme music for reading this section: http://youtu.be/y5PZIxZ-OZU

>>612032
Called you back? I'm not sure what you mean. Please elaborate. Also, please calm down. We are here to help you, and we cannot do anything to directly harm you besides. We can't even do anything to indirectly affect you without IP.

For your information, that gold coin is a powerful mark of death. If you give it to a Fey, they will surely die.

>>612034
Do you have any advice on our functions, Admin?

called you back...I suppose that's what we're here for, then.
Good news is, this might be your first rodeo at dealing with Death but this isn't ours, so...
It is time, for someone to pay Death his due, and we are the Tax force to do it.

>>612032
We didn't call you anywhere. Our first actions here were to speak with you.

For the moment, we are largegly incapable of doing anything but speaking with you.

>>612034
The idea was provide information she unambiguously did not possess herself. Math has the attractive features of always being math- it's less prone to distortion of time and place than other trivia we could provide. I don't know a simplier means to differentiate a hallucination from a seperate entity.

What is your game, administrator? If you care to participate, or have a better means to relate to a client you seem to know better than we do, then act on it.

>>612032
...@#$%.

If that coin is your connection to the TEN network... then...

In case you don't know, that gold coin has a magic property: you slam it on someone, preferably a vital weak spot, and it marks them for death. Any reapers in the area will be tasked with killing the marked target. We've seen it up close, it's super effective.

Look, just make sure that you're ready when you use that coin. Like I said, we can permanently strengthen you, so be sure that you want to discard us when you no longer need our services.

And don't use it on anyone who is currently so powerful that even a reaper can't kill them. Any reapers who fail to kill a marked target are in turn killed... horribly.

Augh, ok ok ok. Let's start over, miss. We're a bit chaotic and weird sometimes.
We're the TEN system, a collection of usually-friendly spirits whose purpose is to help provide guidance to those we are attached to.
Have a goal? We point you the right way.
Having troubles? We figure out how to solve them.
We're not infallible, of course, but you've now got access to what's essentially a large think-tank comprised of ethereal beings with nothing better to do but meddle about with mortal affairs.

So uh, tell us a bit about yourself!

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)14:50 No. 612094 ID: 3009b4
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>Good news is, this might be your first rodeo at dealing with Death but this isn't ours, so...
>In case you don't know, that gold coin has a magic property: you slam it on someone, preferably a vital weak spot, and it marks them for death. Any reapers in the area will be tasked with killing the marked target. We've seen it up close, it's super effective.
>Look, just make sure that you're ready when you use that coin. Like I said, we can permanently strengthen you, so be sure that you want to discard us when you no longer need our services.
>And don't use it on anyone who is currently so powerful that even a reaper can't kill them. Any reapers who fail to kill a marked target are in turn killed... horribly.

Sami's eyes go wide as this is mentioned. Her face darkens into a scowl and she rushes outside.

Sami shrieks: I AM NOT ONE OF YOU!!

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)14:51 No. 612095 ID: 3009b4
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:: CONNECTION ERROR ::

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)14:59 No. 612096 ID: 3009b4
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Sami's TRUST went down 10 points! Her trust is now -13.


::ADMIN: Oh NICE one! So you introduce yourselves by babbling on about stuff she's got no experience with, and then clarify that you're a creepy death coin when she starts to ask questions. And you're surprised when her first response is to try to toss you and then get overwhelmed by some horrific vision. Wow, I didn't think you guys could mess things up THAT fast. You... maybe looking for an achievement? Here's an achievement! Very amusing. I'll give you 5 IP as a reward.::


::ADMIN: Don't encourage that kind of behaviour. Not all of us are amused.::

:: Reconnecting... ::

You already know algebra, right? Addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, maybe exponents and roots? Let's talk calculus. It's another pair of mathematical operations, which is tricky to invent but reasonably easy to use once you understand it, and has all manner of practical applications to engineering by allowing you to calculate exact solutions to entire categories of problems which someone without calculus would need to come up with kludgy case-by-case approximations for.

For example, say you've got a barrel full of water with a hole in the bottom. You know the size and shape of the barrel, and how long it takes to drain completely, but you owe somebody exactly half a barrel of water, so you need to know how long it takes to drain halfway. Or, to some other arbitrary fraction. You can't measure the level of water remaining in the barrel directly because the barrel is opaque, and the flow rate varies over time because deeper water is under more pressure and thus flows faster.

How would you go about solving this problem normally?

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)15:10 No. 612098 ID: 3009b4
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:: Connection re-established ::

The morning sun wakes Sami, but its soft warm fingers feel like nails dragging across her eyes and brain. She's got a terrible headache and feels horribly shaky.

She must have had another nightmare. She remembers trying to throw away the coin again. It lies a short distance away from her face and maliciously reflecting the glare of day into her poor, tired eye.

Her body is stiff and aches from the uncomfortable way she's been lying on the floor. She assumes that perhaps the dreamtime tobacco must be stronger than she's used to. It's supposed to relax her, but maybe this time it just made her paranoid again?

** Sami's Trust is reset to zero **


:: ADMIN: I'm going to mute anyone who starts to say something that stupid again so the girl won't hear you. I can't stop you from talking amongst yourselves but I can at least make sure she doesn't react that way again. Why don't you try to ease her into this gradually this time? Clearly any girl who's an insomniac and smoking dreamtime tobacco is in a more delicate state that a cheerful, curious girl like Nemain. Hence the profile of her culture -- isolationist, skittish, that sort of thing? I would advise NOT revealing some of the darker nature of the coin this time around.::

>>612098
Sup, s-dawg

>>612098
Hello miss. No, you're not crazy. Say, how long have you had that cape?

>> Jumpy culture
>>Insommniac

Okay, guys, I dunno how to do this without flipping her out again so I'm gonna shut up. But I'm thinking this time we should try and talk like we're thoughts in her head. HOPEFULLY she won't spot the difference if we're careful and passive. No addressing her directly and whatnot.

>You already know algebra, right? Addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, maybe exponents and roots? Let's talk calculus. It's another pair of mathematical operations, which is tricky to invent but reasonably easy to use once you understand it, and has all manner of practical applications to engineering by allowing you to calculate exact solutions to entire categories of problems which someone without calculus would need to come up with kludgy case-by-case approximations for.

Sami groans and gently looks at the coin. Her head throbs painfully and she could have sworn it was trying to teach her maths.

She quietly waits for JamesLeng to finish before wondering if she still might be under the influence. Normally she does ache like this when she is, but she doesn't have too many other explanations for the voices echoing through her head.

She digs through her pack and fetches out a skin of water and takes a large drink from it. As her head starts to clear, she fills her little kettle with water and wonders which tea she should brew.

:: INVENTORY ::
- Short hunter’s bow and a quiver of 6 arrows.
- Materials for a snare trap
- Flute/Pipe
- Sheet music for "On Mount Golgotha”.
- Regular sheets of paper
- Faerie paper
- Faerie pen
- Quill
- Small bottle of ink
- Hunter’s survival knife
- Small kettle for tea
- Dried rations (2 days remain)
- Small stash of Gaelish Dreamtime “tobacco” (marijuana) with smoking pipe
- A hip flask of very strong Mericudian whiskey.
- Sami has 54 pennies to her name; it’s enough for five meals or a cheap room at an established city
- Black Tea
- Herbal Tea

Most of the gear is stored in her pack. Sami doesn't have a spare change of clothes and it's been three days since she's bathed. She knows she's probably smelling a bit ripe but the last town she visited was Welser, and it's a two day trip on foot from here and it was the last place she could bathe. Sami is currently in her parent's old house. Her secret compartment in her room is still in one functional piece but due to the infestation of VERMIN in her home town of Ronnalin she won't leave any rations anywhere. She's probably lucky her supplies haven't been raided already.

*cough* Good morning, Sami, can we start again?

How are you feeling? You don't look so good, sprawled on the floor.

>admin, censorship
Thank you.

*That should read "normally she doesn't ache"

** NEW COMMAND - Mark your suggestion "PRIVATE" if you want to hide it from Sami.

>Hello miss. No, you're not crazy. Say, how long have you had that cape?

Sami rubs her temples.


Sami: In my experience, the moment the voices start talking back it's the definitive proof one *is* crazy. I guess it's about time.

Sami thinks for a moment and decides that BLACK TEA might be a good idea right now, even if it makes her jittery. She adds the tea to the kettle.

Sami's had this old cape for awhile now. It's been damaged and she should really replace it. Her mother would be beside herself is she knew what condition it was in but she had a bit of a scrape with some wild animals who were ultimately delicious if irritating.

She's not quite sure what's going on and doesn't realize yet you can hear her thoughts. She rubs the coin between her fingers and then looks up to the sky.


Sami: Goddess Faustia?

We weren't sent by any goddess we know of, but we were sent by an unexplained third party. Our job is to help you with whatever needs solving that you can't do on your own. Or make what you can do on your own easier.

So, first things first. How're you for food, water, and why're you traveling?

** Author Note:

Admin Yorick is a bit of an asshole. Do not assume his voice is that of an author avatar. Most stories need at least one asshole, and we have Yorick. **


:: ADMIN YORICK: Canadians say the cutest things when they're being apologetic little bitches. ::

>We weren't sent by any goddess we know of, but we were sent by an unexplained third party. Our job is to help you with whatever needs solving that you can't do on your own. Or make what you can do on your own easier.
>So, first things first. How're you for food, water, and why're you traveling?

Sami looks nervous, and instead of answering she checks the room for anything suspicious. While she does this, she wonders why the voices would question her supplies. She's never gotten sick like other people have, and she never suffers like other people have to.

Yet.

She checks her food -- it looks fine: dried fruit, lots of nuts and seeds and a bland paste made of tree bark that's filling but about as tasty as gruel. Her water looks OK.

And Sami's done travelling. Something has been calling her, demanding she return to her home town. It's been just a little under ten years ago today.

Why did you stay away from your home town for ten years?

>>612109
I believe now that we have shown up something is going to force you back there. We will help you with whatever it is, Sami. No matter what it is.

>Something has been calling her, demanding she return to her home town. It's been just a little under ten years ago today.
Odd. I would normally not trust something demanding that you return somewhere, especially if one cannot place what is making that demand. *Sigh* I don't know if you've gone crazy, or been cursed by the Goddess or what, but you're you're own person, Sami. While we may like to advise you along a certain path, understand that you're welcome to take your own path. As such, I would like to ask you: What reasons would you have for returning home?
Understand, even if we were sent by Goddess Faustia, we don't necessarily know what's going on, so if we say something stupid, let us know. ...What kind of goddess is Faustia, by the way? In your own opinion, and what you believe the common one is, I mean.

*Private*
>>612094
>>612095
>>612096
...Wow.

I'm better at this than I thought. Too bad I went in the opposite direction. I apologize.

I got this sense of "experience" from what Sami showed us. I mean, a girl with that level of distrust and high stats seemed unwilling to trust others, but willing to use the services of those who could promise her power for co-operation. I also figured that she would hate Rekki, but also respect him as an assassin and would thereby be on her guard to Rekki's friends, while also recognizing the potential of their power.

So I figured that explaining the coin's abilities and our connection to Sami as soon as possible would be our best bet at getting her to respect us (but not trust us).

...Okay, it doesn't feel right that you undid the negative trust. Can you restore her memories one at a time so that we can explain ourselves, thereby creating a different type of bond? Then we get +5 IP every time you restore 1 point's worth of memories that cause her to distrust us? May as well manipulate this achievement rather than call it a failure.
*/Private*

We're not the goddess. We're just a community of bickering people who bicker and nag for fun.

So, want to bicker with us?

The two fundamental operations in calculus are derivation and integration. You can think of them as, respectively, finding the slope of a curve, and finding the area under a curve.

Consider a coordinate plane, with X representing position on the east-west axis and Y representing position on the north-south axis. In fact, don't just consider it, draw this out in the dirt so you can see with your own eyes I'm not just blowing smoke.

First of all, mark off the origin, and perpendicular lines for each axis at x=0 and y=0. Then, sketch out curves for three functions:

x=1
x=y
x=y*y

Or equivalently,

x=y^0
x=y^1
x=y^2

The first one is a straight line, parallel to the axis. The second one is a diagonal. The third one is a parabola, tangent to the Y axis at the origin but curving away from it to either side.

With me so far?

>>612121
All you're gonna do is convince her she's making breakthroughs in mathematics due to going mad. Insane brilliance and all that.

Who wants to know? Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)16:33 No. 612124 ID: 3009b4
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>What reasons would you have for returning home?

Sami: Hold up, hold up. Who wants to know? Why should I spill my guts to a talking coin? Who are all you... things? How do you know my name? How did you find me?

Sami paces back and forth, glaring at the coin and then in your approximate direction. She lets out an exasperated snarl of frustration, takes a deep breath and sighs.

>I don't know if you've gone crazy, or been cursed by the Goddess or what, but you're you're own person, Sami.

Sami: Look I don't know either, Toko. But before I say anything more, I want to know who I'm dealing with.

Sami's subconsciously guarding her thoughts now. There's a lot she's not telling.

>What kind of goddess is Faustia?

Her initial reaction is to refuse to share anything more but she changes her mind about this subject.

Sami: ...If we actually listened to the Goddess Faustia, maybe the whole mess wouldn't have happened. She teaches peace, harmony, and friendship. To be faithful, we are supposed to open up to people instead of just our own communities, and while every adult attended the church every Fausday to worship, none of us truly believed in her.

Her thoughts remain guarded, but it takes more effort now.

****
PRIVATE
>...Okay, it doesn't feel right that you undid the negative trust.

It was basically my way of working around an early "Game Over". Sami's trust was sent right off into the negatives thanks to certain trigger words and phrases being mentioned repeatedly. I zeroed out the mistrust because otherwise she'd spend most of her time and energy trying to figure out how to ditch the coin and sending the quest into a downward spiral that might be recoverable but I didn't want to go in that direction -- so rather than have everyone dig things back out thanks to a few suggestions dumping way too much stuff on the girl way too early, I just did a Silent Hill number instead. I would have done a warning but the triggers just came so fast and furious it was the only way I felt I could resolve things in a way that allowed Sami to stay in character.

END PRIVATE

>>612124
We're spirits on the TEN. I'm not sure why we're talking to you right now but... we are. We were given your name when we showed up.

What mess are you speaking of?

It is morning, time to eat a bagel.

You can call me redaeth. As for how we found you... well we didn't, we were sent. By whom we don't know.

The group now nattering in your ear does want to help, but some of them are kind of overzealous. So even if it doesn't mean much sorry about that. We'll do our best to help you even if you have to filter 90% of what we say into inane vs helpful.

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)16:50 No. 612138 ID: 3009b4
File 141869104565.jpg - (187.51KB , 800x600 , Sami wants straight answers.jpg )

>We're spirits on the TEN. I'm not sure why we're talking to you right now but... we are. We were given your name when we showed up.

Sami: That means NOTHING to me.

>You can call me redaeth. As for how we found you... well we didn't, we were sent. By whom we don't know.
>The group now nattering in your ear does want to help, but some of them are kind of overzealous. So even if it doesn't mean much sorry about that. We'll do our best to help you even if you have to filter 90% of what we say into inane vs helpful

Sami: Redaeth. (You can sense her memorizing it) At least I have a name. So what are you? If you're a spirit, what WERE you?

:: Contextual Help (Private) ::
:: Nem reacts differently to the term "Spirit" because in her cultural background there are many kinds of spirits, some of which one might interpret more as an "elemental". Sami's culture is less nature-oriented. And she's considerably more cynical. ::

>>612123
So? She seems smart and opportunistic enough to accept valid, useful results even when they come from an unconventional source.

*Private*
Flattery!
*/Private*

>What were you?

Human, though as I understand it that species doesn't exist here. So that probably doesn't mean much.

We looked like you pretty much, two arms, two legs, ears, eyes, mouth, nose etc. The exact details differ of course.

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)17:13 No. 612147 ID: 3009b4
File 141869239468.jpg - (188.12KB , 800x600 , Sami is surprised.jpg )

>Human, though as I understand it that species doesn't exist here. So that probably doesn't mean much.

Sami: Human? Actually the word sounds familiar. I've heard it mentioned by our scholars, something to do with the digs. If you're human...

She looks down and studies her coin, rubbing her fingers across the skull. She's trying to pick her words carefully, but her mind is racing at the thought that she could be speaking to the dead.

Sami: So... you *are* human or you *were* human?

>>612144
...Really?

*sigh* Look, we're mortals. Plural. You are speaking to more than one mortal.

>>612138
Okay, you want it straight? The TEN is like a magical communications network that can stretch across into other universes. We're people in another universe with a completely different history and different set of people from yours. We communicate to you through text, and receive text and images in response. To your world we seem like spirits, but we're kindof not. We are bound to that coin, as you've guessed. WHY, I don't know.

We understand math, and science, and we are socially similar. Magic, on the other hand, is alien to us, though I wonder if the "magic" in your world is just really advanced technology. However there is only one race of people in our world, similar to Tryties but with rounded ears.

And I'm pretty sure that most of us are alive. I can't speak for the others for sure, though, but the expected consensus is that anyone still talking is still alive... or their communication device got stolen by someone else.

So, what are you doing today?

Oh, and the TEN is run by cats.

>>612152
DUDE WHAT?!

Sorry, we just saw something before we connected to the coin. Pretty weird stuff.

Look, we're not possessing the coin, we just use it as a communication device. Believe me, I don't like it either. Last time we got to connect using an item that was less likely to be STOLEN.

Not your fault, but please don't just trade this coin in for goods. This coin is special - and not just because of the nagging voices inside of it. I won't say more - we...

We'll try to help you get rid of us. Carefully.

>>612153
*PRIVATE*
It's literally run by cats. They run the TEN, and anyone who worships cats can access it. We have a lot of cat videos, which counts as cat worship. Swear to god, that's why.

>>612147
Sup, I'm Riot. And yes, we are human. Just very strange humans.
Like the guy before me said, we're not from around here, but we do this sort of thing a lot.
Sorry if we spooked you, we're really not as bad as our first impressions might lead you to believe.

>>612153
I'm very glad Sami now knows some of us are crazy. Because right now you sound crazy. Besides I'm pretty sure the coin can't be stolen without the thief dying. Normal people generally have their everything as a weakspot. No HP shield.

>>612157
*Private*
Uh, dude? I think Sami just heard that...
*/Private*

Now that introductions are out of the way, can we get going already? You know the sound of pebbles grating will help drown out our voices.

>I'm very glad Sami now knows some of us are crazy. Because right now you sound crazy.

Sami nods slowly without blinking.

Either she has gone mad, or the voices have.

>Oh, and the TEN is run by cats.

Sami's heard of that. She's never seen a cat but she's heard many legends and stories about cats.

>Okay, you want it straight? The TEN is like a magical communications network that can stretch across into other universes. ... To your world we seem like spirits, but we're kindof not. We are bound to that coin, as you've guessed. WHY, I don't know.

Sami is now pretty sure she's speaking with the dead. She's reminded of the stories she's heard of how they come up with strange stories rather than face the truth, and that one should humour them because they can react violently to that fact until they realize it on their own.

>Sup, I'm Riot.


Sami: Hello Riot. If you pardon my asking, but how much of me are you aware of? Can you see things? Hear? Touch? Smell? Are you a man or a woman? These are the kind of things I like to know when dealing with creatures as intangible as you all appear to be.

See and hear mostly. No sense of smell or touch. Not directly anyway.

I'm a woman.

>>612171
I'm a guy, and we can see you and your immediate surroundings and kinda... read sounds, I guess. As in, anything you and people around you say is immediately converted to text.
Makes it easy to remember stuff because we can just go back and look.

As for taste, touch, and smell? None o' that.
Closest we can do is that thing we mentioned where we boost your physical attributes, and even then there's some restrictions.

>>612171
We can see things quite clearly, and we are notified when audible events occur around you, though we do not directly hear them. Smell, taste, and touch we can only get information from if you comment on it, I think?

We can hear some of your thoughts. Surface ones.

I am a man, but it may be difficult to pick me out of the crowd of voices since I do not go by any name.

We can sometimes see, can't really feel, but we can hear you and we can hear your thoughts, if you let us.

>Sami is now pretty sure she's speaking with the dead.
You know, maybe we are spirits of the dead, and the way the world of spirits works, we simply aren't aware of it. So, uh, please humor those of us who are inevitably going to argue that they're still alive. You can call me a spirit or a ghost if you want, of course, I won't mind. I'm fairly open minded... Though some people tend to say I go overboard with that.
> If you pardon my asking, but how much of me are you aware of?
I am a man, personally, though some of us may be women. I don't really pay too much heed to genders, aside from whether to refer to a person as a he or a she.
We seem to see the area from a random point, though it almost always seems to focus on either your face, or the direction you're focusing on. Sometimes we see magical auras that our "ward" does not see, but for all we know you're an exception capable of seeing them yourself. Surface thoughts from those we are directly connected with are readable, but any effort put into hiding your thoughts will succeed--in your case, shortly after I first spoke, you instinctively put up a barrier, meaning only thoughts you will out will be picked up. Subconscious thoughts, even if you are aware of them, do not qualify as surface thoughts. We may pick up a very vague empathic sense, but that will only tell us that you're angry or happy, not what about.
Senses of touch, taste, and smell are right out. We lack them whatsoever. Sense of hearing is a bit odd--We're deaf, but we have a different way of hearing things. I'm not sure how to describe it, being that we, as well, use those five senses in our own "spirit" world, but it sort of picks up on words and sounds and... Spells it out for us, I guess. If that doesn't make sense, then please don't push it, because it'll just get more confusing.

*private*
Are the years still going to be unintelligible to us?
*/private*

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)18:35 No. 612205 ID: 3009b4
File 141869731098.jpg - (188.58KB , 800x600 , Sami relaxes a bit.jpg )

>I'm a woman.

That seems to relax Sami a bit.

>...Closest we can do is that thing we mentioned where we boost your physical attributes, and even then there's some restrictions.

She mentally files this under "crazy things dead people say".


:: ADMIN: It's about time you lot showed some manners. I'm awarding 5 IP for introducing yourselves. ::

** Current IP is now 10 **
** Programs available for purchase:
Network Detection (10 IP) - Detects nearby active faerie, TEN and Pantheon networks. Identifies if the network allows anonymous login.
Port Detection (10 IP) - If in range of an active network, attempts to access it. Port detection will automatically change protocol to match the target network. **

>What reasons would you have for returning home?

Sami: Now that you've told me a bit about yourselves, I guess I'm OK with letting you know a little bit about me. Ten years ago the town suffered a terrible disaster. My family was spared. The disaster killed the town -- a lot of people left afterwards, my folks included. I know I was just a girl at the time, but I wished I could have done more to help the victims. It's been bothering me more and more lately. I have a lot of nightmares. I've just got this feeling that the only way to be free was to come back here for some reason.

Well did it work? Do you feel free yet?
If your vague feeling was really pointing to a resolution for this turmoil, I am curious if it was pointing you to finish line, or to the start of the journey.

Smik 2014/12/15(Mon)18:50 No. 612211 ID: 3009b4
File 141869823860.jpg - (250.27KB , 800x600 , Stay out of her head.jpg )

>We can sometimes see, can't really feel, but we can hear you and we can hear your thoughts, if you let us.
>shortly after I first spoke, you instinctively put up a barrier, meaning only thoughts you will out will be picked up. Subconscious thoughts, even if you are aware of them, do not qualify as surface thoughts. We may pick up a very vague empathic sense,

Sami: Stay the FUCK out of my head, both of you.

Sami's TRUST has decreased; Trust at -3.


:: ADMIN: Until Sami trusts you, you're going to need to hide some things from her. She's very private. You keep that up, she's going to try to throw the coin and we've ALREADY BEEN DOWN THAT ROAD!


ADMIN: Hee hee hee!


ADMIN: Shut the hell up, Yorick. Don't mention things she hasn't told you herself. Let her take things at her own pace. The poor thing is scared and alone, and will be alone even when surrounded by spirits. At least until she starts to trust you. ::

>>612211
We will do as you say.

>If your vague feeling was really pointing to a resolution for this turmoil, I am curious if it was pointing you to finish line, or to the start of the journey.


Sami: Worse. I feel worse. It's bringing back a lot of bad memories and it's worse at night.

Sami's tea is ready. She has some breakfast and her headache subsides a little.

Sami: I don't know what to do now. I don't know if you've seen Ronnalin or knew what it was like before, but it's infested with VERMIN now and it's so dead. When we left, there were still a few holdouts but now everything is rotting and horribly silent and I have this feeling of dread everywhere I go.

Are VERMIN a threat? Would you need to fight? What do they look like? By the name I'm guessing rat-like.

We can keep an eye out since sometimes the scope of our vision is a bit larger then yours.

Allow me to apologize, I didn't mean to be imposing. So if you don't mind what are your plans today? I only want to help by the way, if you want to talk about something else the ball is in your court. You can refer to me as Momo, if you want a name.

>Sami: Stay the FUCK out of my head, both of you.
Certainly! I'm not one to invade people's heads, anyways. Makes me feel as uncomfortable as they end up.
>When we left, there were still a few holdouts but now everything is rotting and horribly silent and I have this feeling of dread everywhere I go.
Good lord that sounds like some horrible kind of plague. Hopefully the looks are deceiving, and there's something still there, but don't get your hopes up too much...

Did the VERMIN noticeably come from anywhere, or just kind of show up?

Right, ok, let's stop with all the everything we are doing right now. Not you sami. The other voices.
Sorry again about this chaos, we've had problems with it a lot in the past.
*private*
seriously dudes, chill out. Just let her do her thing for a bit, and offer advice on the sides. We can't get in all gung-ho like we were before with Nem (yet), so PLEASE stop dropping crucial info right into her lap with all the subtlety of a sack of bricks.

It's likely we won't be doing much right off the bat aside from watching and chatting, so let's not push it.
Patience, virtue, yadda yadda.
*end private*

So Sami, you enjoy tea? I'm partial to the ginko brews myself, but black is always great if you need some perkin' up.

You may as well check out your surroundings. Why not tell us about the area? It'll keep us from asking more questions about you for now.

Hey Sami. Sami.

Hey Sami.

What do you get when you combine a bunch of disembodied autistic nerds, a Rollen, and a sarcastic TEN administrator?

>>612346
WHY

*Private*
DUDE WHAT THE HELL

Please don't make funny jokes that will make Sami hate you.

Okay, I think we need to learn the extent of Sami's abilities. To that end, why not "barter" with her for information on what she knows, in exchange for us being distracted by the trivia?
*/Private*

...I am so sorry.

Look, why not tell us... oh! Can you show us some quarterstaff techniques? You might be able to distract us for a while!

 

Hopefully this streams properly

*private*
Seems Yorick will enjoy the actions of 066a87...
*/private*
>>612346
>>612349

That guy's certainly feeling mischevious! But ultimately he's here for fun and once we all stop rising to his bait, he should grow bored and leave, I hope.
Ah, and I should probably introduce myself-I am Zaealix, miss Sami, pleased to make your acquaintance.

>>612351
You all are too serious and too quick to pester her. The smart thing would have been to let her unwind and sleep properly and not assault her with a half dozen disembodied nitwits.

[private]
>hints regarding Sami's background and profile
*cough*. If you wanted the slightly paranoid, very private insomniac to have a smooth introduction maybe you should have made her profile available to us before initiating the connection?

>>612118
Honestly, I would advise not making blatant assumptions about characters you've just met. We had no information about her past contact with Rikki, how she felt about him, etc. Take it slow. (And maybe if you have a theory, maybe raise it in the dis thread for people to consider? Since we can't trust she won't react badly if we say the wrong thing here).

>upgrade options
I like the sound of network detection more than port section, if our client is right and there's something to be paranoid about here. Thoughts?

[open]
>I don't know if you've seen Ronnalin or knew what it was like before
We didn't, I'm afraid. I'm sorry for what you lost.

>I don't know what to do now
Well, we could help you search for information, if you'd like? Like we said, we're a TEN network. If there's any kind of network in the area, we should be able to sense it, and communicate with it.

I understand if you're skeptical there, but if there's something to be found here, maybe it's more spiritual in nature?

If nothing else, we'll watch for vermin. Another set of eyes doesn't hurt if there's danger about.

>>612346
*Attempt HMES-sided muting of this message*

Hey You Learned Something New Smik 2014/12/16(Tue)12:18 No. 612426 ID: 3009b4
File 141876113255.jpg - (251.22KB , 800x600 , Hey look you can stream video to Sami ass.jpg )

>Are VERMIN a threat? Would you need to fight? What do they look like? By the name I'm guessing rat-like.


Sami: I don't know what you mean, Redaeth. Most vermin are rollie pollies, and they're just a nuisance -- they try to eat anything they can find -- mostly going after our produce and they eventually go after wood. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the floors give away in common homes. They've avoided my parent's place for some reason. The dangerous ones are the Leapers -- they've got powerful legs and they hide in shadows, and then they leap out and sink their teeth into you. If they hit the wrong spot they can go through bone, but the worst part is the infections. They're not big and the wounds aren't deep but they're painful and they're extremely difficult to remove. We usually have to burn them to make them let go, and then we have to deal with disease. The cloppers must have found some way to deal with them because occasionally we get a trytie selling this repellant for a king's ransom -- damn stuff works so the greepy bastards get what they ask for.

Now the problem with rollie pollies is that they've got a hard shell and they tuck up into a ball and nothing short of a hammer will kill 'em, but the leapers can actually penetrate their armour through the chinks. You kill the leaper's pollie and it goes after you. Plus pollies taste like shit. The WORST are the damn grites. Basically mouths with legs attached, 'bout the same size as a pollie (fist sized) but in packs they'll actually go after people. Bites get infected easily too. The only good thing 'bout them is they've got no armour and they eat pollies if there's nothing easier around.

>You can refer to me as Momo, if you want a name.


Sami: Whatever.

>Did the VERMIN noticeably come from anywhere, or just kind of show up?


Sami: We had a LOT of trouble with vermin for years before the disaster. Then we didn't, but it killed the town too. I guess the vermin have moved back.

>So Sami, you enjoy tea? I'm partial to the ginko brews myself, but black is always great if you need some perkin' up.

Sami: Don't know what you mean. There's black -- I like it but like I said, makes me jittery -- and I have rosehip. I don't know what a ginko is.

>You may as well check out your surroundings. Why not tell us about the area?

Sami: My parents lived in the small middle-class section of town. We're not too far from the blacksmith. Mom is a chemist, and Dad is a part-time astronomer and musician. He occasionally does fortune-telling using tea leaves, but only when the timing is right. We used to send out word when it is. Funny thing he... uh... nevermind.

Sami's mental shields come up again. She is consciously blocking some thoughts; more than likely because she was told her surface thoughts are readable.

>>612349

TRUST DOWN 3. TRUST NOW -6.

Sami sprays her tea across the room.


:: ADMIN: Congratulations! You've discovered that Sami CAN see and hear images and video you send. You've also properly freaked her out and now she distrusts you more. +5 IP! Nice job! ... Ass!


ADMIN: 066a87 you are now MUTED. Anonymous transmission of video, links or images to Sami is now blocked. Human-people, if Sami's trust drops below -10 we're going to have to go through this whole mess again and she'll still subconciously be aware of this idiocy. I shouldn't have to remind you if she loses conciousness again she's just going to use up what little rations she has left that much faster.
::


Sami: WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?

>Ah, and I should probably introduce myself-I am Zaealix, miss Sami, pleased to make your acquaintance.


Sami: Whoever you're talking about - can you hit him for me? I will be your friend if you hit him.

MUTED: 066a87

>Well, we could help you search for information, if you'd like? Like we said, we're a TEN network. If there's any kind of network in the area, we should be able to sense it, and communicate with it.

Sami thinks "Blah blah blah, addled rambling of the dead,"

>I understand if you're skeptical there, but if there's something to be found here, maybe it's more spiritual in nature?


Sami: When you lot showed up that's what I began to suspect too. If you want to help though, I'm going to need some supplies. I thought I could do some hunting but all the edible things seem to be consumed by vermin or avoid the town altogether. I barely have enough supplies to trek back to Welser and I don't have much money left to buy more. So I either need to go hunting or maybe scavenge something here.

The town is divided into three classes -- the common, middle-class and the wealthy. It was built around the church for the Goddess Faustia. The church, town hall and merchant's guild are all in the wealthy areas along with boutiques. A school, a research laboratory, blacksmith and several shops in the middle-class area. The commons had the farmer's market and several farmers. Like I said, my family was middle-class -- my family's from a long line of gifted individuals. Like I mentioned, my Dad can see the future in tea leaves when the time's right. I don't have his gift of premonition... but I did get his gift of music.


(Private)
>I like the sound of network detection more than port section, if our client is right and there's something to be paranoid about here.
** A second vote will buy the upgrade. Currently 15 IP available. **

>>612426
Oh wow, that worked? Uh, sorry Sami, that was the wrong time to experiment with that. If it makes you feel any better, we have dealt with that spirit rather harshly and they won't be bothering you for a while.

Hmm. Sami, perhaps your trust in us is lacking right now but uh... we have some resources we can spend on gaining a choice of two abilities:

Network Detection (10 IP) - Detects nearby active faerie, TEN and Pantheon networks. Identifies if the network allows anonymous login.
Port Detection (10 IP) - If in range of an active network, attempts to access it. Port detection will automatically change protocol to match the target network.

What do you think? Or would you rather we not upgrade at all at this point, until you trust us more?

>Hmm. Sami, perhaps your trust in us is lacking right now but uh...


:: ADMIN: MUTED! BAD HUMAN! ::

>>612429
Wow, I thought it would be polite to include her in something like that. What's your objection, just telling her ANYTHING we can do?

>>612426
Consider him smacked, in the "He's been muted permanently" sorta way.
Yeesh.
Anyhow, you mind if I send you a picture of it? Ginko, I mean. Like you saw, we can do that, but it's kind of rude to do it unbidden, COUGH COUGH.

But if not, it's a tree leaf formed of a bisected sort of third-circle, and is usually a bright green color. Helps focus the mind, improves memory, etc etc? I'm curious if there are parallels between our knowledge and yours in some way.

>>612426
Sami, we'd like to hear a song. Might pass the time. As I said, we'll shut up if you start singing.

RIGHT, GUYS?

*Private*
I admit it, I have screwed up. So did 066a87. I think that one possible reason is because we don't have much to talk about, so we go with all the annoying, disturbing stuff first. Can we please get this plot on the road so that we'll have stuff to earn her trust with?
*/Private*

>Wow, I thought it would be polite to include her in something like that. What's your objection, just telling her ANYTHING we can do?


:: ADMIN: We watched Nem's Quest. Did you learn nothing from trying to explain your concepts of reproduction to a teenager purposely kept ignorant and generations behind your own? Stop being so *alien* an expecting the poor girl to just adapt. It's not in her nature. ::

>Anyhow, you mind if I send you a picture of it? Ginko, I mean. Like you saw, we can do that, but it's kind of rude to do it unbidden, COUGH COUGH.

There's a flash of curiosity across Sami's mind, but she represses it in short order.


Sami: I'd prefer if you stay out of my head as much as possible. But if you see any, feel free to point it out. Could be something I could sell.

Hey, New headvoice/spirit. I'mma just say some of us are idiots...Now I'm not pointing fingers, But uh...Yeah, For now Why don't you just focus on enjoying that Tea while we try to figure out what we are actually trying to do...It's like tying animal's tails together you know? they all scramble in different directions and go nowhere.

>It's like tying animal's tails together you know? they all scramble in different directions and go nowhere.

Sami raises an eyebrow.


Sami: You have tails too? I thought we were the only ones. Umm.... I'm going to assume you don't know what 'tying tails' actually refers to, right?

She finally smiles.


Sami: Let's just say you paint an interesting mental picture when you talk about a group of people with their tails tied together and scrambling everywhere. Very interesting.

*private*
More like that's freaky dead stuff that will flip her out because she doesn't trust us.

Oh, and while I'm here, I'll upvote the network detection thing.
*/private*
Hrrrm.
The disaster...I'm guessing that if there WAS anything left, there'd still be people around, and you would have encountered them. You sound like you're planning to stay here or in this area given you said you barely have enough to make it back to Wesler, soo...Maybe scavenge the rich part of the city?
I feel like whatever drew you here is most likely going to be around that area if it's not someplace important to you, like a memory.

>>612439
I don't know...But going by the way you refer to it, it's probably something sexual...ANYWAY, No we don't have tails...well...I don't at least, It was just a metaphor.

>>612446
By the way, I'm using the alias adjective noun...Just call me Noun for short~

>>612435
Sure, I'll keep an eye out. It's good tealeaf, makes for a very herbal-taste without all the bitterness that comes of herbal stuff

>We used to send out word when it is. Funny thing he... uh... nevermind.
Well, now I'm curious...
>Sami sprays her tea across the room.
But with jerks doing stuff like that, I'm not going to press. Really, now, throwing sounds and pictures at a person?
>but I did get his gift of music.
Ah, that sounds lovely! Perhaps, if we prove ourselves helpful, will you consider playing something for us? Not asking for an outright yes or no, as that would be unfair, of course.
>Let's just say you paint an interesting mental picture when you talk about a group of people with their tails tied together and scrambling everywhere. Very interesting.
...Oh dear. You make it sound like we said something naughty. I'm hoping that isn't the case, but uh, let's avoid talking about tails anyways.
>ANYWAY, No we don't have tails...
That's... Iffy. While we don't have large, wolf like tails, we do have a tiny one. And good heavens if you tied a tail THAT tiny to--no, I said let's not talk about it.
>I'm using the alias adjective noun...Just call me Noun for short~
...I'm going to call you Article, as that's the name for something that involves those two words together.

I, for one, have very little context on your personal problem beyond it having something to do with settling old debts. That's why I started with maths, which is so universal.

You can call me Mr. Leng, by the way, or James if you'd prefer to be overly familiar. I'm willing to admit the possibility that I died at some point, but would prefer not to dwell on the subject.

Last thing I was aware of (previous to when you were smoking), the coin was in the hands of a Gaelander named Nemain Morrigan. aka the Black Wolf. Does that ring any bells? She might have become a noteworthy historical figure, or might not. She was certainly well-known when I lost contact with her, but mostly just in her home village.

>Ah, that sounds lovely! Perhaps, if we prove ourselves helpful, will you consider playing something for us? Not asking for an outright yes or no, as that would be unfair, of course.

She grins unpleasantly.


Sami: Maybe. We'll see what happens.

>That's... Iffy. While we don't have large, wolf like tails, we do have a tiny one. And good heavens if you tied a tail THAT tiny to--no, I said let's not talk about it.


Sami: Are you talking about your penis? Because I'm actually talking about a tail.

>That's why I started with maths, which is so universal.

Sami: You'd think that, wouldn't you Mr. Leng? But no. Rollen is the only place that really respects math. The stouts aren't bad, but they're way too focused on their stomachs and the trytes just fake it. Cloppers are as dumb as shit. I'd love to see one try to follow what you started with.

>Last thing I was aware of (previous to when you were smoking), the coin was in the hands of a Gaelander named Nemain Morrigan. aka the Black Wolf. Does that ring any bells? She might have become a noteworthy historical figure, or might not. She was certainly well-known when I lost contact with her, but mostly just in her home village.

Sami looks uneasy but regains her composure, and when she speaks her voice is steady and soft.


Sami: Why would a clopper be known as "The Black Wolf"? Do you mind my asking what happened to Nemain? Who gave her the coin, and how did she lose it? What's her story?

She's nervous and while she's hiding it pretty well, her mental distress is visible within your spectrum -- a flash wide, fearful eyes briefly overlays her outwardly calm expression.


:: ADMIN: Think very carefully about your answer.::

She had a sort of ancestral curse from a magical debt her great-grandmother had that would sometimes manifest as a Black Wolf. She ended up using the Wolf to kill the Fae Blind Yaga and Grendel Redcap who were terrorizing her town. Over the course of her journey she gained much more control over her curse, though she did not get rid of it entirely. I am not sure if the coin she had was the same one or a similar one; she was given the coin by the scout Rekki who was himself under some sort of magical debt that involved delivering items which are sometimes magic coins.

**private** Lets not mention Death if we can avoid it. **/private**

I don't know much about Nem, but I believe things worked out in the end.

** Author Note: Audrey's MUTES are NOT permanent. Her mutes apply to suggestions she feel would be repeating the same mistakes. **

She came off of things happy and well, and we parted amicably. Though...She ended up in a position that I would describe as a...Debt collector, of sorts.
*private*
Death and Taxes quip for the win? For The Win.
*/private*

>>612501
I don't remember the whole story, But uh...there was magical shenanigans, Mysterious mysteries...and meat...mmmm...Uh...Sorry got a little distracted there, what were we talking about?

Oh, certainly knowledge of and respect for math isn't universal. Even where I'm from most people don't seem to know much, or take much care with what they do know. But the underlying principles are the same. It takes a lot of context to figure out something like "is this tasty, or will it make me sick?" or "which way will the wind blow tomorrow?" but two and two always make four... oddly enough, that's true for 2+2, 2*2, and 2^2. What's the largest prime number you can name?

I'm not sure who, if anyone, knowingly gave Nem the coin. She found it inside a piece of bread which she got from Rekki. Similarly, I'm not sure how she lost it; as I said, she still had it with her the last I was aware of her, which was just as she was going out into the wider world.

Her story is, something was taking away people she got close to, and she didn't really know what. When the matter became excessively personal, threatening her beloved grandmother and stealing her panties, she picked up an axe and solved the problem as quickly and cleanly as she could. Heroic rescues earned her a few close friends, and the blood on her hands made a lot more people want to stay as far away from her as possible. I could give more detail than that, if you think it's relevant.

Smik 2014/12/16(Tue)18:52 No. 612594 ID: 3009b4
File 141878474650.jpg - (535.37KB , 800x600 , Sami cuts herself.jpg )

>She had a sort of ancestral curse from a magical debt ... magic coins.


:: ADMIN: Don't tell her th... hmmm... actually... I'm not quite sure what will happen. You're right, you shouldn't mention 'Death' and definitely not that she's holding a token of Death... at least not just yet but you probably shouldn't... hmmm... ... It's against my better judgement but I'm curious what will happen too. ::

Sami listens to the stories, and as she hears about Rekki, the coin, and especially about Nem's family curse her face falls and she begins to tremble. She grinds her teeth and softly whimpers as if in pain.

Then she digs into her pack and pulls out her hunting knife. She pulls back the sleeve and grits her teeth as she draws the blade down her arm.

For several moments, she watches her blood drip down and gather around her sleeve.


:: ADMIN: Hey she's a CUTTER! Well I didn't really expect that. Well I am entertained -- that's certainly worth 5 IP. How about you, Audrey? Don't you like drama? ::


:: ADMIN: ... all right I hate to admit it but... drama is a guilty pleasure and I'll grant 5 IP as well. ::

** Also, yes the 2nd vote for Network Detection Registered. DETECT NETWORK now obtained! Program runs automatically. 8 NETWORKS have been detected in Ronnalin. One is close by. 3 are near the commons and 4 are in the wealtheir area. Other networks may be available but offline at this time; not all networks run 24/7

10 IP spent; 10 IP remaining.
**


** AUTHOR NOTE **

I was really not sure how to handle telling Sami what happened with Nem in quite the way that was done. The questors have inadvertently confirmed Sami's greatest fear. From personal experience, my greatest fear was the death of my wife. When it happened, I fell into deep depression (which Sami has been dealing with for awhile now) and did want to hurt myself although not in a cutting way, but I'm also not Sami. There was terrible, intense guilt despite there being very little I could have done and crushing grief. So when I put myself in Sami's shoes and tried to think of how she would react, this is what I came up with. I apologize if this seems contradictory or counter-intuitive, and no this is not what you were 'meant' to do, but in actuality Death is in fact a negative-reaction trigger word, especially when dealing with the coin. Debt is also a trigger word of a different kind. The real difference is the fact that prior the wording was "Hey, we're a Death Coin and we can do crazy stuff and you can kill people" whereas the way Nem's story was worded was "a bunch of people are being pushed to do things because of their debts", and the difference should hopefully be clear later.

In a nutshell however, I figured that if I was given equivalent information, I would just be broken. I'm still broken. So you've broken Sami. It's not the same as trust, but the immediate result is her defences are crippled for right now.

*******************

Sami's wound stops bleeding on its own, and while it looks unpleasant it has no serious impact on her. She finally speaks.


Sami: ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, alright? I know... I know I should have saved them. It's my fault, and I'm sorry. I don't know what I can do to make things right, I don't know how I can possibly make things right but I'm sorry. I'll do what I have to. All right? I'll listen.

She tries to remain in control of her emotions but tears overwhelm her and streak down her cheeks.

** Sami's Trust has reset. For the time being, she is broken. While broken, she will not behave rashly but it will also impacts her reflexes -- she's not quite suicidal but she will have a penalty to avoid things like sneak attacks (if that becomes an issue) and she will not act first in combat (if that happens). More importantly, she is more willing to listen if only because the fight is worn out of her **

** Sorry, just got corrected you have 15 IP left after buying Network Detection. I miscounted **

okay, you should probably dress that wound even if it isn't effecting anything vital it can still be infected.

>>612594
Fuuuuck...That's...kinda a bomb being dropped, isn't it? In the mean time...Well, Take care of that cut, It's not your fault, You didn't know. just take a deep breath and try to calm down a little.

>Are you talking about your penis? Because I'm actually talking about a tail.
N-no. We have a tiny tail above the rump. Clothing fits right over it because it's so tiny, and in most people, the layer of fat goes right over it, anyways.
>She pulls back the sleeve and grits her teeth as she draws the blade down her arm.
OWWWW that hurts just to look at!
>I don't know what I can do to make things right, I don't know how I can possibly make things right but I'm sorry.
I'm sorry too. We all pressed things in the wrong direction. What can you do to make things right, you wish to know? That is something that we will all find out, together. It may involve the Vermin. It may involve something else.
>I'll do what I have to. All right? I'll listen.
Alright, thank you. While we don't know the specifics of things, once we start learning, we quickly realize what must be done, and will try and advise you on how to do it. If you can think of a better means to reach the result we seek, then go ahead, as right now, the results are our focus.

>okay, you should probably dress that wound even if it isn't effecting anything vital it can still be infected.


Sami: It doesn't matter.

>Fuuuuck...That's...kinda a bomb being dropped, isn't it? In the mean time...Well, Take care of that cut, It's not your fault, You didn't know. just take a deep breath and try to calm down a little.


Sami: I always try to tell myself that but I never believe it. I think there's always something I could have done differently. If I had acted sooner. How can you say it's not my fault? You don't even know me.

I know you're just trying to be kind but you don't know.

Or maybe you do know. Do you?

>OWWWW that hurts just to look at!
>What can you do to make things right, you wish to know? That is something that we will all find out, together. It may involve the Vermin. It may involve something else.


Sami: Pain on the outside helps me match the inside. I think the vermin are just an irony now. There is *nothing* I can do to make things right.

We don't. But that's just it. You've been obsessing over the answer for so long that you may have forgotten what the question really was. It happens.

Are you trying to ask if there was something else you can do? Or are you actually trying to ask if there was something more to all of this?

We're confused on what you are going to do, and what you're trying to figure out. Can you give us some questions so we can get to answering them?

I don't believe that, I believe that we were sent to you for a reason. I think you can do something, you can continue to live and look towards tomorrow. The past will always be there but it only has as much power as you give it. You may not believe it but you are strong, and from the way I see it you can only become stronger.

>>612634
Right now, you need to focus on what you are going to do next? are you going to let this defeat you? I understand this is crushing...I've experience that same feeling (perhaps not quite as intense) But You can't just sit there and waste your life...The least you can do is find out How to keep this from happening again.

Smik 2014/12/16(Tue)20:48 No. 612646 ID: 3009b4
File 141879173366.jpg - (304.77KB , 800x600 , This was his pipe.jpg )

>The least you can do is find out How to keep this from happening again.

Sami smirks weakly.


Sami: There is *no way* it will happen again. Ever. That is the *one thing* I made sure of.

She takes a long breath, pulls out her hip flask and takes a long, slow drink, then leans back against the wall.

"Ten years ago, I was the last surviving child in Ronnalin. All the others were drowned like vermin, but I survived. I saw the other children, wide eyed and terrified like me, being swept away by the current, all thrashing and clawing and desperately trying to get a breath of air. We pulled on each other, kicked each other, all trying to get to the surface, and sent tumbling against the bottom or from the sheer speed of the water.

Despite the speed, despite the chaos, despite the vain wild thrashing for survival, I got to the other side. And I saw the man responsible. And I killed him."

She digs around her pack.


Sami: This was his pipe. I took his things and hid them. Later at night, before what bodies we could fish up were recovered, I went back and took his things and hid them away in a secret stash in this house. I took them with me when we moved and kept them hidden there.

The day before the children were drowned, a man came by. Said he was a scout and a messenger and gave me the coin. Said it was a birthday gift, and that I should hide it from everyone and never give it away.

Now you tell me that your girl -- this "Nemain" -- got the same or a similar coin, and that she had a debt and a curse she was never able to get rid of.

Tell me...

Did she have faerie blood too?

...
...
...
yes.

>>612646
aww shit...Yeah...

Hold on... You have Faerie Blood? Damn. Well, look, two similarities is still a coincidence. Your history, and the reasons you were given a coin are completely different. Nemain had lived a pleasant life, no troubles whatsoever, when she was given it, but you had survived a flood and slain the man responsible. So much destroyed, all you could be given was hope.
Don't assume my sugar coating is the absolute truth, though. It's a hope to have, not an expectation to accept.

>aww shit...Yeah...
>You have Faerie Blood?

Sami nods quietly.


Sami: Was she forbidden anything? Told of dire consequences about certain actions?

[private]
>admins rewarding us for 'drama'
I'm going to pretend you're giving us resources to help someone hurt and in need instead of what you're really doing.

At least when we crossed a line it was out of ignorance or carelessness.

>broken
Which means, obviously, we try to help her put herself back together, and not take advantage of her condition to push her into doing things.

>8 NETWORKS have been detected in Ronnalin
Well, at least we have leads to follow up on, when she's ready to hear it.

[public]
>Did she have faerie blood too?
From her great-grandmother.

>Was she forbidden anything? Told of dire consequences about certain actions?
Yes.

A very specific warning, without the consequences explained, that changed the course of her life.

(private)
>I'm going to pretend you're giving us resources to help someone hurt and in need instead of what you're really doing


:: ADMIN Yorick: Pretend what you like chummer, but fact is we're just here to be entertained. ::
(end private)

>From her great-grandmother.

Sami cocks her head to one side in interest.


Sami: Mine was on my great-grandfather's side.

>A very specific warning, without the consequences explained, that changed the course of her life.

Sami suddenly laughs bitterly.


Sami: Me too. Well, actually the consequences I was told were a lie which is about as bad. I suppose if I knew the truth back then I might have been curious enough to try it. What was her warning?

>What was her warning?
"Do not bring anybody to your grandmother's house." She was not told anything else on the matter, but it was advice she followed, and was grateful she did.

I'm guessing you want to know why she was grateful, but if you want that answer, I've got a question, first: What was your warning?
I swear, if it turns out to be a similar one...

[private]
>but fact is we're just here to be entertained
Which would be the biggest difference between you and us. If we sought mere entertainment, we have virtually unlimited options available to us.

Which means, if we choose to be here, that we're interested in something else.

[public]
>What was her warning?
"Do not let anyone follow you to grandmother's house"

Seems simple, doesn't it? But it left out the why, and the consequences.

I suppose it doesn't sound particularly important without a lot of context, either. It would take a while to describe all the particulars though, and I'm not sure how comfortable we should be retelling her life for her.

>I'm guessing you want to know why she was grateful, but if you want that answer, I've got a question, first: What was your warning?


Sami: "Stay away from running waters. Streams. Rivers. Lakes. The ocean. Baths were fine, anything indoors was fine, rain was fine. So I was told to never, ever go by the river by our town. Funny thing is, I love the water.

When I was with the other children, by the time I realized what was happening I was under the water -- but I was not drowning. It did something to me, and it's why I killed the piper.

But I could have saved the other children if I could have only controlled myself. But I didn't. I couldn't. I barely even remember attacking him -- it just keeps coming back to me in my nightmares. The scared, bloated, unblinking eyes of my friends and neighbours and a terrible ear-rending screaming sound."

Sami takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She closes her eyes in remembrance and wipes her teary eyes. After a few silent minutes, she looks up.


Sami: So what happened to Nemain?

Nem was advised by higher authorities than us to stay on the path (which she soon completely ignored, and honestly that worked out pretty well), and not to lead anyone to her grandmother's house (which she attempted to comply with, though it mostly resulted in wandering around like a fool and flinching away from her own shadow).

*private*
I think whoever's setting up these scenarios should maybe put more thought into anticipating what might happen when, not if, someone among us ends up misreading a culture we know almost nothing about, or otherwise acting creepy and weird. Instead of taking the best suggestions and ignoring the chaff, Sami seems to be dismissing anything she's unfamiliar with and clinging tenaciously to whatever hits her weak points.

This would have gone a LOT smoother if we'd started with a clean slate, no knowledge of Nem at all.

Ah, so you're dealing with a Hamelin sort of situation! The traditional saying for those is "the piper needs to be paid." I should have connected the dots sooner.

Alright, going by precedent here, you've got the option of clearing the vermin out of your town by playing that flute to get them to follow you into the lethally purifying environment of the river, and some other option which is less well-defined, at least from the information I have available so far.

What else do you know about the piper?

>So what happened to Nemain?
From your description, something similar to what happened to you. She became one with an unknown part of herself, something that killed and hunted. "The Black Wolf" is a rather literal title.

Without intervention, she would have unwittingly fed that aspect of herself, continued in ignorance, and perpetuated the cycle. The wolf would have taken it's due from her family, as it had for generations. With the warning though, she ended up confronting it directly, and mastering it. To do so was a surrender of innocence though, and becoming other than she was.

Ultimately, she said if she had a choice, it's what she would have chose. She didn't relish it, but it beat the alternative.

...sorry if that's vague. I'm trying to explain what happened without getting too much into what might be too personal for us to talk about, or going into enough detail that the story would take hours. Did I get the balance right?

>So what happened to Nemain?
Nemain met up with a strange new girl, who helped her along her journey. She refused to let this new girl, who's name was Macha, visit her grandmother, since the Scout told her not to take anybody there. Strangely enough, every time Nemain came across another person, Macha would stop following and seemingly vanish, and if the other person turned out to have malicious intentions, they wound up mysteriously dead.
...Eventually, Nemain learned that her innocence caused her "violent" side to be split apart from her, so that she never personally harmed anybody, but in learning of that fact, she lost her innocence and the two joined.

Your "other side" seems to be brought out by running water, though, which is completely different than what Nemain suffered. Perhaps the Court from which your blood originates is different? I have heard that there is a Court of the Deep, Sea, or whatever else you want to call it, which is based in water.

We're divulging too much information about a previous client. Let's move on and we can talk about this later, alright?

Look, the main reason we're providing a slew of this codex information is because we don't have much to talk about except our past experience in this situation. You also show interest in someone who was also in a similar position - you're not alone.

Also, please try to make friends with Nem, if you see her.

...Look. People die EVERY day. For stupid reasons. You don't know how many people can die because of an accident, Sami. Trust us on this, every day there are little things that we could have done to make other people's lives better, or little things we did that combined with bigger things to make a tragedy.

I don't know the answers to the ethics about this, but in my opinion? You missed your chance to be a hero. That's all. Do you honestly think anyone else in your position, ESPECIALLY one who couldn't breathe underwater, had a better chance of saving someone than you? Least you killed the guy who kept screwing children over.

That counts for something.

*frowns*
I hardly think it fair for you to blame yourself for being unable to control yourself after that...Transformation? Since it caught you unawares and kinda messed with your head. I'd have considered that a situation where you'd have been able to do something HAD you known about it and was used to it, but your first ride? At least you got the jerk that did it, well done.

I suggest you stay away from the river this time. But do what you want.

*Private*
Sami could become the next Pied Piper, just like Nem became the next Big Bad Wolf. Diverging from the script of the official fable seems to ensure that the story stops being directly linked to the fable.

I wonder if there's a way for her to create her own legend, or at the very least become something other than the Pied Piper.
*/Private*

Okay, it seems that you probably do NOT want to use that flute, for obvious reasons. Why not just turn it into something else? Or transfer its magic into a new musical instrument? Or look for a way to change the magic?

If you hate what it does, why not turn it into something you like, something that does what you like? Well, we can worry about this after you get moving.

Sami, in case you don't know what >>612687 means - your situation is similar to a folktale in our world, called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". In this story, the town of Hamelin hires a piper in pied (striped) clothing to get rid of the town's rats - a kind of vermin. The piper plays his pipe and lures the rats into the river, where all of them drown. The mayor of the town, for whatever reason, refuses to pay the piper for his services, angering him. The piper then uses his pipe to lure all of the town's children away, either drowning them in the river or taking them into a cave, never to be seen again, depending on the version of the story.

Nem this, Nem that, you all are obsessed with Nem. I quit paying attention to her when she pissed herself and spent the day wandering around without any knickers.

>>612730
*private*
Why are we even talking about the future, anyways? Rekki told us that Sami was the first person he brought a coin to. Nemain was the third.

*Private*
My god, would you people stop telling her the story of the Piper? Did you see anybody telling Nem the story of Little Red Riding Hood? Would sharing that story have accomplished anything besides upset her? What on EARTH makes you think doing it this time would improve the situation, given our history with this poor girl. Know the reference yourself, use it to inform our decisions if applicable, keep your damn mouth shut about it.

Don't make assumptions, don't overshare. These are the same mistakes we KEEP MAKING. Stop it.

>>612741
As for this timeline thing, that's still kind of up in the air. Sami got her coin ten years ago. Nem's adventure could have happened almost any time in that window.

*/private*

>This would have gone a LOT smoother if we'd started with a clean slate, no knowledge of Nem at all.
** Smoother does not make for an entertaining story.**

>Alright, going by precedent here, you've got the option of clearing the vermin out of your town by playing that flute to get them to follow you into the lethally purifying environment of the river, and some other option which is less well-defined, at least from the information I have available so far.


Sami: Oh THAT has been done already. It didn't end well.

>Ultimately, she said if she had a choice, it's what she would have chose. She didn't relish it, but it beat the alternative. ...sorry if that's vague.


Sami: No, no... that's fine. It helps, really.

>...Eventually, Nemain learned that her innocence caused her "violent" side to be split apart from her, so that she never personally harmed anybody, but in learning of that fact, she lost her innocence and the two joined.


Sami: Interesting.

>Your "other side" seems to be brought out by running water, though, which is completely different than what Nemain suffered. Perhaps the Court from which your blood originates is different? I have heard that there is a Court of the Deep, Sea, or whatever else you want to call it, which is based in water.


Sami: I don't know anything about the courts past Seelie and Unseelie. From what I've been told, the Seelie are untrustworthy and hostile and the Unseelie are untrustworthy and indifferent. I do know that my great-grandfather sacrificed a great deal when he fell in love with my great-grandmother but never regretted it. I was told he was a little scary but a great man. I don't mind telling you that he bound himself to my great-grandmother so when Death came for her, he would have to take my great-grandfather too. I think it was wonderfully romantic... and in my experience, practical.

>We're divulging too much information about a previous client. Let's move on and we can talk about this later, alright?

Sami: I respect that.

>... Least you killed the guy who kept screwing children over. That counts for something.


Sami: Counts for nothing. I should have died with the others. It would have been so much easier. You've no idea what it was like to be the only child left, to watch them fish up the bodies of my friends, and see your home town drown in a sea of grief. Everyone would have preferred to have perished along with them. The mayor 'died from grief' -- I think he killed himself but that wasn't the public story. Have you ever seen so parents lose all their children at once? They showered me with affection because I was the only one left and it just made it worse. I'd have become a drunk if I didn't have such an iron constitution.

>Okay, it seems that you probably do NOT want to use that flute, for obvious reasons. Why not just turn it into something else? Or transfer its magic into a new musical instrument? Or look for a way to change the magic?


Sami: You want me to *what*? Do I look like I know anything about magic? I have faerie blood, that's it and I only told you about it because of that Nemain story. I can't DO anything with the flute but I know I can't let anyone else have it.

>...The piper then uses his pipe to lure all of the town's children away, either drowning them in the river or taking them into a cave, never to be seen again, depending on the version of the story.


Sami: I don't know about Hammelin but it's the same story of my town and our children were drowned in the river. That is the disaster of ten years ago, and I was the only survivor.

>Nem this, Nem that, you all are obsessed with Nem. I quit paying attention to her when she pissed herself and spent the day wandering around without any knickers.

Sami: ... really?

She smiles.

Sami: You all have done this before, haven't you? I've been having nightmares for years about demons taking me down a dark path and becoming a monster... but they weren't as clumsy as you lot.


** SAMI'S TRUST has increased by 10 points. She'll need ten times that before she'll have the faith that Nem had in you but it's a good start **

(private: Why are we even talking about the future, anyways? Rekki told us that Sami was the first person he brought a coin to. Nemain was the third.)
** My quests don't always go in chronological order. Be careful who you mention future events to; immortals are likely to shrug it off but Sami's not quite ready for it yet **

Indeed. I'm surprised you find it endearing but yeah, we can be somewhat awkward due to the nature of us...
Anyhow...If you're ready to take action, I recommend searching the wealthier areas-it's easier to have gotten a hold of something fey with more resources, and easier to keep it under wraps as well, yanno?

:: ADMIN: All right, you guys figured out some SECRETS! Let's see... where's my list....

Ya got:
10 for discovering Sami is half fae
10 for discovering Rekki's Death Token

Nice!
::

** You now have 35 IP! New items available:

* Spoof 1.4 Personal for 25 IP -- prevents you and Sami from being traced by nearby networks. It's a good program to use if you're planning on brute force hacking a network. Pro version will hide you even from Physical Scans (10IP upgrade) and Pro Gold will hide you from being detected by any non-physical means.

* Charmnet for 30 IP -- Includes the song of "Analog". Using the appropriate instrument, Sami can play the song of "Analog" and it will allow her to remotely access the network later (an approximate equivalent of a Botnet). Check User Manual for specifics on use as different options are available depending on slaves used.

* Glamour Personal costs 20 IP -- the Admins regret that Sami lacks the hardware requirements to use the Pro version. Glamour Personal will allow you and Sami to impersonate another user ID on a Network. You'll needs to download an ID first.

* Physical Scan 2.3 Personal for 20 IP -- Detects the physical source for active networks, otherwise known as "Detect Magic". Will identify the physical location of any 'hotspots' worth investigating.

* BOOST for 20 IP -- Boost doubles the allowable IP use per player -- allowing a single player to spend up to 10 IP on a probability adjustment instead of the usual 5. This means only 2 players would be to team up to cause a 100% chance of a possibility to occur.

* BOTCH for 25 IP -- turns regular failures into critical failures, costs 10 IP to use. Requires 2 players unless BOOST is purchased.
* CRIT for 25 IP -- turns regular successes into critical successes, costs 10 IP to use. Requires 2 players unless BOOST is purchased.

**

**Private**: I vote Physical Scan; right now we have a vague suspicion something supernatural is up with the Vermin but we don't know what.

*Private*
I'm voting on Spoof 1.4, possibly Spoof Pro. Sami has two magical items, that makes her REALLY easy to be detected with magic.
*/Private*

>clumsy demons
Ha. But yeah, I think we're far too uncoordinated and transparent to pull off that level of manipulation.

>it was my fault
I understand why you would blame yourself, but I have a hard time condemning a child for crimes of heritage and circumstance.

>moving on
If you're up for it, we've detected several of the 'networks' we mentioned before nearby. We could investigate them.

I won't get into spiritual mumbo jumbo, but they're places we can access information. Like... invisible books, or bulletin boards.

>>612776
*Private*
Wait a minute. How many admins are on?!

You're Norton, right? Howdy do. Thanks for the Secrets IP.
*/Private*

Hey, do you have a map of the town that we could look at? You may want to plot a route to get to the town, or something.

If you're worrying about dark paths, what do you call your life so far? We're trying to offer more options, including better options.

*private* Voting physical scan. She's got no magic of her own, so hardware access is the way to go.

>>612765
The only one who can choose your path is you, Even if we were demons, you could ultimately just ignore us...But you have to trust that we want to help...In what little ways we can.

Wait, when did we become Demons? I thought we were the ghosts of the dead.

>>612957
Demons was what she originally thought we were, Blah blah blah, I'm just trying to do motivational speech...

*private*
Invest point into Spoof 1.4
*/private*

>I thought we were the ghosts of the dead.

Sami: Well, technically I think you're delusional, slightly addled ghosts of the dead but I'm pretty sure you're not tricking me down some dark path unless you have a very unique method of doing so.

>If you're worrying about dark paths, what do you call your life so far?

Sami: It could be worse. A lot worse. I'm grateful for my guilt, because the day I stop feeling guilty I'll know I'll have become something irredeemable.

[private]
Physical scan. First step to investigating, here. And she'll likely respond better if we can provide concrete objectives for her to seek out.

[public]
>Well, technically I think you're delusional, slightly addled ghosts of the dead
Interesting, then, that you thought we wouldn't understand loss.

>because the day I stop feeling guilty I'll know I'll have become something irredeemable
Or you'll have forgiven yourself.

Not that there's anything wrong with feeling the way you do, or being vigilant or cautious. But bad outcomes aren't the only way things can end.

>Not that there's anything wrong with feeling the way you do, or being vigilant or cautious. But bad outcomes aren't the only way things can end.


Sami: Maybe that's the way it's been for others. Maybe for girls like Nemain. Not for me, and not for my town. You maybe understand what it's like to lose your present, but you haven't seen suffering until you see a whole town lose its *future*. It's overwhelming. There's no hope, and no light at the end of the tunnel. I think suicide's a sin, and I just... can't be so selfish as to kill myself and do to what my parents what the piper did to all the others. So I've got no outs. I think sometimes I'm hoping something else takes me out, just so it's not my fault.

Won't die that easy though. I've had a few close calls, they shook me up, and they made me fight. Same time, I don't really want to live. I would have just stayed in the bottle or pipe if I could actually get a high that would last... I can't even afford to just waste away.

So I'm here.

::ADMIN: You guys could get Physical Scan 2.3 Pro for 30 IP. Pro allows access to the TEN cloud database and can give further information about the scanned object. Scans can take up to 15 min. depending on complexity, so scan before you attempt to kill something. Has a wider radius.

Or you could get Spoof Pro 2.3B for 35 IP; it will prevent you from being detected by physical scans from hostiles.

Limited time offer - pick one or the other right now. Personally, I think it's better to get exploration first, and work on defence when you know what's needed. Physical Scan Pro will be 35 IP later.


::

>>613118
Voting for the Physical Scan, mister antivirus.

Hey Sami they're saying we can buy stuff now. Are you a take-away meal kind of person, or the kind of person who prefers to eat in the restaurant? There are no wrong answers, this isn't The Price is Right.

>>613124
I'll agree.

>I'm pretty sure you're not tricking me down some dark path unless you have a very unique method of doing so.
Sami, if we're tricking you down some dark path, I assure you, it's entirely by accident. We may, however, show you some dark paths and let you decide if it's worth it or not... but that doesn't mean we know how dark the paths are. YOu got it right that we're pretty damn clueless.
>It could be worse. A lot worse. I'm grateful for my guilt, because the day I stop feeling guilty I'll know I'll have become something irredeemable.
They who walk the path of darkness and yet tremble still at the cold it brings are those who hold even the smallest speck of light within their hearts. Do not lose sight of your emotions, Sami. While we may try to console you and lessen the weight, you should never shun it completely.
>There's no hope, and no light at the end of the tunnel. I think suicide's a sin, and I just... can't be so selfish as to kill myself and do to what my parents what the piper did to all the others.
Sami, I understand what it's like to walk down a dark tunnel with no sign of light. Don't lose track of where you've been, though, and you'll be able to feel your way forward.
...I feel I'm being redundant now, so if that did sound like different words for the same statement, I apologize.
>I think sometimes I'm hoping something else takes me out, just so it's not my fault.
...And yet--
>Won't die that easy though. I've had a few close calls, they shook me up, and they made me fight.
The light of the future? This may sound cruel, Sami, but it sounds less like you're in a dark tunnel without a light, and more like you're just afraid to open your eyes. The reason you can't sleep, nor maintain a worthy high, is that you can't even wake up to reality.
You're alive, girl, and have the strength to prevent others from being caught in the snare of darkness. At some level, you are aware of this, and simply refuse to admit it to yourself.
>>613125
...What? I think you've gone off the deep end, sir, but a question's a question, I suppose. Without worry of any malicious entities, would you prefer to stay inside and eat, or still to carry rations about?
*private*
Almost wanted to block that, talking about shopping. Let's go with Physical Scan Pro. I'm guessing the point of the question was to determine which you felt Sami would prefer, but that's just ridiculous.
*/private*

*Private*
Ooh, thanks for the sale!

I vote for
1. Physical Scan Pro
2. Spoof Pro
(I vote that you buy either app, and prioritize physical scan. I still like spoof, but being able to scan enemies would make this a lot easier. Plus, based on what Sami said, it looks like she wants to fight after all.)
*/Private*

For what it's worth, you don't know if the piper was the only person who could have destroyed the town. Maybe there was something within that was also destroying it. It won't bring the children back, but you may as well keep fighting - you wanted to protect the town's future. Maybe you still can.

Well, do you think that someone else moved into the town by now? The church still stands... right?

[private]
>>613142
I think it's way too early to change her perspective by talking her out of it. I'd drop the subject, for now, and work on slowly getting her to be less depressed / out of a suicide by cop mentality. Pushing is likely to upset her, and lower trust.

...although, if I want to perverse, she may fundamentally right about her situation, although she doesn't know how much. "She should have died with the others?" That's very likely literally true. If she's not supposed to be alive, she has the same debt Nem did. And in order to try and repay that debt, she very well may end up employed as a psychopomp as well- meaning she is literally going to spend the rest of her life hunting down dangerous things until one fails and takes her down.

Alright Sami, do you have a map of the area or something?

Smik 2014/12/19(Fri)18:35 No. 613265 ID: 3009b4
File 141904293263.jpg - (442.93KB , 1280x720 , Sami Layout 2.jpg )

PHYSICAL SCAN PRO obtained! You can now scan objects, people and occasionally places. Network connections will be detected, and if the subject has a known signature in the TEN's private wiki the information will be pulled up. Note that no information is available on Sami due to your connection to her -- essentially her profile is in flux.

You have 5 IP remaining.

>Well, do you think that someone else moved into the town by now? The church still stands... right?


Sami: The church stands from what I can see, but the town looks dead and fairly scavenged already. Most of the doors have been broken down. I haven't investigated the church recently but it looks to be in decent condition.

>Alright Sami, do you have a map of the area or something?

Sami: I know my way around this place -- things haven't so much changed as rotted. Points of interest -- other than just nosing around abandoned homes -- include the Blacksmith, school, research labs and an inn. There's a few shops as well. All look abandoned. The church is in the wealthy area, the farmer's market is in the commons.

** NETWORK SCAN: FAE.NET is active at the Blacksmith. **

** Author Note: I'm attempting a new Quest interface -- please let me know what you think. **

Okay, back when the town was still active, which areas were frequented the most?

You said that the heart of the town was built around the church, so that's a good place to start. Afterwards, decide which areas obtained the most supplies and revenue, and loot / investigate those areas.

See, even though the town is mostly deserted, people tend to forget to bring things when they move. So, places that were once popular are good places to find supplies and information. Not to mention that they're likely to be more structurally sound due to the increased budget that the owners could spend on shop upgrades.

Be on the lookout for other wanderers or residents, and greet them politely.

>NETWORK SCAN: FAE.NET is active at the Blacksmith.
Oh, we just got a feeling from the Blacksmith's. Might be worth checking that out later, but since we're already talking about the church, may as well go there first. Could be that looters were just superstitious enough to not damage the church, or it could be that somebody is guarding it, so knocking to make yourself seem friendly should be a good idea.
Or, y'know, it could turn out whatever's in there is aggressive anyways and knocking would clue it in to your presence, so your call.

Our definitely-not-ghost senses say there might be something magical around the blacksmith's, though the church also sounds worth checking out if it is still intact somehow.

As a side question, how large an area is effected by the plague of Vermin? If this town is the only place that is seriously effected by them (or has them at all), then it is quite likely there is some specific source we can find.

*Private* The interface works for me.
Also, would it tell Sami if we were to Scan something nearby such as the flute? */Private*

>Also, would it tell Sami if we were to Scan something nearby such as the flute?

** All programs run silent. **

>>613337
Let's scan the flute, then.

We definitely sense something at the blacksmith. The last time we sensed something like this, it was around a fae settlement.

Which means it's probably worth investigating, but we may want to be cautious in our approach. Someone or something set up what we're sensing at some point, and we don't know if they're still around.

Smik 2014/12/19(Fri)23:02 No. 613383 ID: 3009b4
File 141905893456.jpg - (560.43KB , 1280x720 , Sami_ApproachChurch.jpg )

>Okay, back when the town was still active, which areas were frequented the most?


Sami: The church. It was full every Fausday.

> Afterwards, decide which areas obtained the most supplies and revenue, and loot / investigate those areas.


Sami: I would think the Merchant's Guildhall and Town Hall -- but the problem is most other people would think the same thing.

>As a side question, how large an area is effected by the plague of Vermin? If this town is the only place that is seriously effected by them (or has them at all), then it is quite likely there is some specific source we can find.


Sami: Vermin's always been an issue. I don't think anyone honestly looked into why vermin was such an issue, but they often are in growing cities. The piper got rid of them. It's odd they've come back -- I didn't see so many vermin when my family left town.


>Let's scan the flute, then.

** SCAN RUNNING **

Database Results: The pipe is the former property of the legendary "Pied Piper", a faerie of the Seelie court. It is a secure hacking tool -- hacking tools like a Third Eye have a vulnerability of leaving one open by virtue of connection and can be detected through their use. Secure hacking tools are more limited in their application but do not have these vulnerabilities -- similar to how using hardware security can prevent software exploits. In this particular case, the Pipe is limited to only impacting the "Natural" world -- it has no impact on fae, pantheon or cat elements. Of note, the pipe has a limited security device that restricts its use to the piper's 'essence'. 'Essence' was loosely defined, but essentially one needs to do more that simply take the pipe from the piper to be able to use it correctly. Of note, the pipe is useless on its own without specific songs.

** END SCAN RESULTS **

Sami approaches the church, and gently presses against the doors. They swing open quietly -- someone's taken the care to oil the hinges -- and at the far end of the church, a lone figure kneels reverently in prayer. He is dressed in the gold robes of a Faustian priest. While the church has seen better days, clearly someone has been taking good care of it, and Sami guesses the priest is the one to be doing so.

*Scan priest*
Go ahead and knock on something, or something related in grabbing his attention. A priest surely wouldn't be aggressive to a peaceful visitor.
>Magic Pipe
Ah, hm. Found a page on the pipe, Sami. We've, uh, got an encyclopedia here. The Golden Piper's Pipe, able to control that which is not of magical origins. ...Well, that suggests that the Vermin didn't come from a magic spell, so there's that out the window. It also says that in order to control anything, the person who holds it must know the right songs, so hey, good news is that it's very unlikely for anybody who manages to steal it to be able to use it... Bad news is it's still possible.

...Huh. That's... odd... what...?

*Private*
Why do I get the horrifying feeling that the flute is made of the same material as the statue of Faustia?
*/Private*

Sorry, it was the statue. Heh, too bad it isn't made of gold or you'd have made a fortune. Still, looks pretty; so, is that how the statue was? Is there some kind of material or magic or spiritual blessing that causes the glow, or are we just seeing sunlight?

I'm getting off topic, sorry. Approach the person praying and introduce yourself. You may not want to explain that you're a resident of the town, they might realize who you are and blame you for the town's downfall.

Ask about what they're doing here, if the town is populated now, and other current events.

>It's odd [the vermin]'ve come back
Unless someone or something has been fostering them, here.

>the church
Is that the correct iconography on the statue and the windows? I'm afraid we aren't previously familiar with the goddess Faustia. (And would be significant if someone decided to redecorate).

I would also like to point out, now that there is another person present, that we are speaking directly to you. Baring certain magics that can spy on our conversation, the priest and others you encounter should not hear us.

[private]
...I'd like to explain that she has the option of speaking to us non-audibly if she doesn't want to be overheard planning by others, or look as if she's talking to herself, but there's no way to word that that doesn't suggest mind reading. And I don't think she trusts us enough to be comfortable with that implication. (Trying to justify her choosing to send us a thought as different as our looking though them unannounced would come across as a poor excuse, I think).

There's also something a little disingenuous about offering privacy when we know she's being spied on.

Smik 2014/12/21(Sun)23:14 No. 613857 ID: 3009b4
File 141923244150.jpg - (463.35KB , 1280x720 , Sami Meets Nick.jpg )

** SCAN COMPLETE **
** PRIEST not found in TEN database - he is no one notable. **

> It also says that in order to control anything, the person who holds it must know the right songs, so hey, good news is that it's very unlikely for anybody who manages to steal it to be able to use it... Bad news is it's still possible.


Sami: I'm aware, because I've used it. Not in public of course. "On Mount Golgotha" seems to be the only song that seems to do anything.

>Sorry, it was the statue. Heh, too bad it isn't made of gold or you'd have made a fortune. Still, looks pretty; so, is that how the statue was? Is there some kind of material or magic or spiritual blessing that causes the glow, or are we just seeing sunlight?


Sami: It's coated in a common metal that shines like gold but isn't useful for much beyond impersonating it. It's been polished and it is shining in the sunlight. I think the material was chosen for a spiritual effect, and as a goddess of the sun her colours are gold with reds and orange and violet for the rise.

>Is that the correct iconography on the statue and the windows? I'm afraid we aren't previously familiar with the goddess Faustia. (And would be significant if someone decided to redecorate).

Sami: The iconography, like the priest's robes, are correct. I agree, it would be significant if someone dared try to change the church in that way.

>I would also like to point out, now that there is another person present, that we are speaking directly to you. Baring certain magics that can spy on our conversation, the priest and others you encounter should not hear us.

Sami: I'm hearing voices in my head, don't talk to you around others or they'll think I'm nuts. Even if I am nuts, it's still sound advice.

>I'm getting off topic, sorry. Approach the person praying and introduce yourself. You may not want to explain that you're a resident of the town, they might realize who you are and blame you for the town's downfall.
>Ask about what they're doing here, if the town is populated now, and other current events.

Sami points out that as the last surviving child of her home town, EVERYONE knew who she was. She was treated as a miracle or cruel mystery, but generally treated well by everyone and she shared in the town's grief.

Sami politely knocks on the pews and clears her throat. The man stops his fervent praying and turns.


Father Nick: Yes my child? What can Father Nick do for you?


Sami: My name is Sami. This was my home. What are you doing here? My town looks dead now; are there other hold-outs remaining?


Father Nick: Oooh, my poor child... I am the last priest to try to maintain the church here. I cannot let the church fall, it is the only good place left now. If I can, I offer comfort to lost souls who come near. Some look for redemption, others are mere hungry travellers. I do my best and warn them of the dangerous of this place. I do so free of charge, but I gladly take any offerings you may spare -- it is hard work to maintain this place, especially with all the vermin.


Sami's tone and body language changed the moment she saw Nick's learn, tired and hungry face. Her voices softs and loses its edge, and is more open and more graceful in her movements.

** Network Detection has determined that there is a Pantheon Netowrk active in this area. It allows for anonymous connections and secure ones via a login.

[private]
Can we scan the pantheon network for more information before we connect? Can we tell what source is broadcasting it?

After checking up on it, join the pantheon network via an anonymous connection.

[public]
A church without a flock is sad indeed.

I'd say to talk with him a bit. Maybe ask after the others who have passed through recently? It's possible they may be of interest to you. Or following up on the dangers might be important- especially if he happens to know of present of specific threats you might not.

>"On Mount Golgotha" seems to be the only song that seems to do anything.
I'd be curious as to the effect, when you're in a position to answer.

>there is a Pantheon Netowrk active in this area.
Oh. There's a note here, Sami: A "Pantheon" network is available here. I'm doing some research on what this means, but for now I will ask: Do you want us to learn everything we can if we believe it is safe to do so, or would you prefer we play more cautiously than we believe necessary?
*Check the wiki for information on secure and anonymous connection ports, and scan the port to see which pantheon it connects to*
>Sami's tone and body language changed the moment she saw Nick's learn, tired and hungry face.
Good to know you carry compassion in your heart, no matter how dark your path has been. Even if we're mucking things up and making fools of ourselves... You at least are showing yourself to be a trustworthy person. *Faintly, FAINTLY show a smile for a few seconds*

>>613867
[private]
Asking her how we should proceed is a little unproductive when she thinks she can't answer us, right now.

>>613876
*private*
Oh, right, derp.
*public*
As it stands, I will, of course, avoid doing anything without absolute proof, so it's something to think about until you're away from the priest.

*private*
Can we get a scan of the statue?
Also a scan of the "On Mount Golgotha" sheet music. Judging by the reference, I'm not sure if we should outright ask Sami what it does.

Smik 2014/12/22(Mon)09:53 No. 613941 ID: 3009b4
File 141927082334.jpg - (598.01KB , 1280x720 , Double Scan.jpg )

>I'd say to talk with him a bit. Maybe ask after the others who have passed through recently? It's possible they may be of interest to you. Or following up on the dangers might be important- especially if he happens to know of present of specific threats you might not.


Sami: Father, has anyone else passed through the town recently? And would you know if there is anything dangerous about this place I should know about?


Father Nick: A few travellers my child. They made an offering to Goddess Faustia and then were on their way. As to dangers... you must take shelter when night falls. A great tragedy befell this town and now the cursed spirits roam the streets at night. The church is safe, except on Fausday when they all gather here. I think the poor souls are trying to pray for salvation, so I leave them be and wait for them to leave upon the dawn of the next day. Might I ask what would bring a young lady like yourself to a place of pain?

Sami's face twitches upon Nick mentioning the cursed spirits, but he does not appear to notice.


Sami: I know about the tragedy, Father. I was there. I am the only child survivor, and I've spent my last ten years lost. I don't know what drew me back here.


Father Nick: Oh my poor child! You're THAT Sami. I'm sorry. Well... I'm sure you know this place better than I then. Ah! I almost forgot the golems!


Sami: What about them?


Father Nick: Be WARY at night. While looking for supplies, I've seen the golems acting peculiar, like they were searching for something. Ever since my brush with the Grinder I look for supplies only while the sun protects me.


Sami: Why skulk about at night in an abandoned town?


Father Nick: I'm afraid that sleep is difficult while the cursed spirits roam - they haunt your dreams. It is sometimes easier to sleep during the day.


Sami: ... I'm used to nightmares, but thank-you for the advice.


** SCAN RESULTS **

PANTHEON NETWORK allows for anonymous and registered (secured) login. PORT ACCESS program required due to Pantheon Protocols. Physical Scan shows the network source to be the status of Faustia, but there is no physical access available to the network.

"ON MOUNT GOLGATHA" is a secured TEN-active relic, and extremely old piece dating back to before AD. It is designed for use with TEN-access instruments such as the Piper's Pipe. It is divided into six sections - BIRTH, CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, LOVE, WISDOM, and DEATH.

BIRTH is shrill and carries far -- its purpose is to gain the attention of listeners. As such, the song is disruptive and breaks security and manipulative code alike. The concept was to break any running code designed to prevent targets from being unable to hear the song via barrier, illusion, or counter-measure. This is not a subtle device -- any TEN-active individual will be aware of its use from quite some distance away... but as its purpose is to obtain attention, that's the point.

CHILDHOOD is sunny and sweet. Unless the listener is aware of the song and its purpose, it will draw the intended targets towards the player. Focus is required to draw specific targets, otherwise anything applicable to the instrument will be drawn towards the player.

YOUTH is a lively but somewhat bittersweet song. It is primarily used as a catalyst as it turns the target's mental defences into physical strength, making them more susceptible to programs and hacks while improving their physical abilities.

LOVE is a sweet song that gradually increases in tempo, and is a manipulative hack. Like the other songs, being consciously aware of the song and its purpose will render it ineffective. The targets become extremely susceptible to suggestion. Suggestions that go against their nature will break the effect, but anything short of that will be complied with. The Piper infamously used this section to lead targets into powerful rivers by promising a vision of Heaven at the other side, subverting the suicidal nature of the suggestion. Interesting to note that this suggestion only works on creatures naive enough not to realize the true nature of the request -- while effective on children and animals, most suspect that adults are too aware of the threat of the river and would not blindly enter its water (they do suspect that the adults would quickly try to build a bridge however).

WISDOM is a sad, reflective song that has the opposite effect of YOUTH - instead of granting physical empowerment in exchange for mental resilience, the section of the song sharpens the mind and brings forth memories, especially repressed ones. The song causes fatigue and disrupts fate shields (HP Shields/Plot Armour), making the targets more susceptible to disease, toxins and so forth. Unless a specific memory is focused upon, most targets tend to reflect on critical moments in their lives.

DEATH marks the targets for Death. There is no counter-measure except for specific hacks against the song itself. Completely destroys fate shielding, and a specific cause of death can be chosen. The song itself does not kill the target, they are simply marked and in doing so lose all protection against Death. In the case of applicable constructs (golems and undead) they are instantly destroyed, being animate only due to a variation of fate shielding. The song is not applicable to curses and other elements lacking fate shielding or direct physical links.

Note that the song requires a specific instrument depending if the intended targets are Natural, Automation (construct, undead, elemental, program), Faerie, or Pantheon. The infamous Piper's Pipe only affects Natural targets.

Ask about where you can stay, and if looting is permitted.

[private]
>but there is no physical access available to the network.
...can we connect without physical access? I assumed most of this was magic wi-fi.

I'd like to attempt an anonymous connection, if we can.

[public]
>cursed spirits
If we're cursed, we're unaware of it. Also, we don't do much wandering around on our own. We need a client to travel with.

>ON MOUNT GOLGATHA
Woah. I don't know how much you experimented with this, but we took a look at the music, and this piece is potent. There's a lot that can be done with just that one piece. Definitely something to be kept from unscrupulous hands. (You need a reason to live? Not dying before this is secured somehow is a start).

>Ask about where you can stay, and if looting is permitted.


Sami: Father, can you recommend safe places to stay? Do you mind if I check the abandoned places for supplies?


Father Nick: This is a safe place, or it will be for the next five days. If you can find any supplies, I only ask that you let me know -- keeping this place going is very difficult. The closest town is two days travel and I do not want the vermin to over-run the last good place left here. If you wish to make a donation of money or food I will offer prayers on your behalf to Our Lady of the Light -- may she bless you with good fortune and peace!

Sami half-smiles. She would love a blessing of peace but she gave up on Faustia a long time ago. She's not completely lost her faith, but she has so little left that she's become agnostic. Still, she admires people like Father Nick who can manage to keep striving for their ideals despite being surrounded by despair.

** PRIVATE **

>...can we connect without physical access? I assumed most of this was magic wi-fi.
>I'd like to attempt an anonymous connection, if we can.

** The PORT ACCESS program is required because the PANTHEON uses a different protocol. The TEN is the standard protocol (think HTML) but Fae.net and Pantheon.org use propritory protocols (think how Microsoft or EA). The PORT ACCESS program is a simple hacking tool that emulates protocols.

For those wondering, Nem had built-in Fae.net protocols because of the nature of her cape. Sami is using the Death Token and it only has standard TEN protocols initially) **

>>613941
Ah. Sami, that song's final section has the potential to destroy golems, but we'll need to find the right instrument first. The other sections can do a lot of different things... let me give you a basic rundown.

The first is called BIRTH and it is like a baby's cry. It will call attention to you over a large area. To do this, it will break any magical silence or similar things in the area.
The second is called CHILDHOOD and draws the target to you, unless they know what the song does.
The third is called YOUTH and weakens the target's mind while strengthening their body.
The fourth is called LOVE and allows you to manipulate the target through suggestion. Like CHILDHOOD, it doesn't work if they know what the song does.
The fifth is called WISDOM and is the reverse of YOUTH.
The sixth is called DEATH and allows you to mark a target for death, and you can choose to specify whatever cause of death you want. The song itself doesn't kill, though... I'm not sure how long it'd take for the target to die, but I'm betting it depends on what cause of death you specify, if any.
The pipe can only be used against non-fae people and animals. I'm hoping we can find more instruments like it but on the other hand I don't think it's very likely that we'll just come across one here.

Our not-ghost senses can feel a presence here that might be Faustia's, but we are not currently strong enough to find out more. We should head out now if it isn't too late to make good use of the remaining daylight.

*private*
> lead targets into powerful rivers [emphasis added]
Interesting; this mentions the river trick being used in multiple places by the Piper, though it is ambiguous whether the previous times were also massacres or were legitimate vermin-specific pest control. To clarify, in the version of the story I remember the Piper came when hired for some unspecified price, and only killed the children after the vermin were dead and the village then refused to pay their debt.

As another side note, those spirits sound like they might be our target. Find Automaton weapon, bring peace (either through suggesting they pass on or death marking) to tormented spirits.

>I've seen the golems acting peculiar, like they were searching for something. Ever since my brush with the Grinder I look for supplies only while the sun protects me.
Five Nights at Sami's?

*Private*
>>613973
Can someone mute the D-word?!
*/Private*

Well, you may as well get going. Start looting!

Smik 2014/12/22(Mon)22:42 No. 614214 ID: 3009b4
File 141931692722.jpg - (466.48KB , 1280x720 , Sami Leaves the Church.jpg )

Sami tells Father Nick she'll keep an eye out for supplies and will let him know if she finds any stashes. Then she thanks him for his help and bids him good-day.

Outside, Sami sighs.

Sami: Please don't ramble on like that when I'm around other people and can't talk back. It's one thing to ask me what you need to know from people, and another to go on about things that... I haven't even shown you. It's very distracting.

Now as to "On Mount Golgotha" -- I'm curious as to where you got your information from.

As to looting -- where did you want to go next? In this area of town there's the town hall, merchant's guild, some shops for the rich, the former homes of the wealthy including the mayor's.

** NETWORKS DETECTED **
There is a ROT.NET local network in the Graveyard near the church.
There is a FAE.NET local network in the Town Hall and Jeweler's Shop.

The TOWN HALL Fae.net has a public notice:
"Avoid this area for your own protection. It has been infected with a malignant entity, “Song of Guilt and Grief”. This curse has infected the area of the town and approximately a 100m area around it, and has also impacted the constructs in the vicinity. This is a multi-layer curse and that means that both faerie and mortal are at risk. For your own safety, avoid this area until notified otherwise. We expect Rotland Redeemers to resolve this situation shortly."

This message was posted 10 years ago.

** PRIVATE NOTES **
>Interesting; this mentions the river trick being used in multiple places by the Piper, though it is ambiguous whether the previous times were also massacres or were legitimate vermin-specific pest control. To clarify, in the version of the story I remember the Piper came when hired for some unspecified price, and only killed the children after the vermin were dead and the village then refused to pay their debt.

You might need to ask Sami about that, but be careful on how you word it.

Sami is a little annoyed at your scanning her music without her permission, but not enough to distrust you more than she already does.

>Now as to "On Mount Golgotha" -- I'm curious as to where you got your information from.
We 'scanned' it. Basically the song is magic, and we have the ability to intuit certain things about that magic when we turn our attention to it.

Sorry if that caught you off guard, but it's almost as natural as looking at our surroundings for us (makes up for the lack of smell or touch or taste, maybe). We didn't think.

>Please don't ramble on like that when I'm around other people and can't talk back.
Would you like to be able to talk back around other people, without being heard?

>also
Um. Speaking of scanning, the were just looking around, and the town-hall has the spiritual equivalent of a notice tacked up. It's a warning that claims the town and a hundred meter radius around it are cursed. It claims the problem should be dealt with soon... but the message is ten years old.

Would explain why things haven't improved around here.

>>614223
Speak for yourself, there are spells that allow for remote tasting. Very useful if you're in the court protection business and want to be able to detect poisoned food without risking your taster.

Or if you're a pervert, but polite people don't talk about how the spell can be misused like that.

Anyway, Sami, you ever heard of Rotland Redeemers?

And Admins, I know you're tuned in. Who are they?

>BIRTH, CHILDHOOD, LOVE
Hmm. It seems that luring and convincing are the effects of two songs combined. If one were to find a way to play Childhood and Love together... Sami, be very cautious if you ever play that song again. If you must play it, start with the BIRTH section so that any person nearby is aware of it, and focus the tune on the unaware. I will be sorely disappointed if you accidentally effect an innocent person by forgetting this step.

>In the case of applicable constructs (golems and undead) they are instantly destroyed, being animate only due to a variation of fate shielding. The song is not applicable to curses and other elements lacking fate shielding or direct physical links.
>Ah. Sami, that song's final section has the potential to destroy golems, but we'll need to find the right instrument first.
If these golems weren't conjured up by faeries, and were instead created from nature itself, the Flute will be able to mark them for death, anyways. Death is a very specific protocol, and has to be focused to work. As such, you do not want to play Birth if you are using it.
>There is a ROT.NET local network in the Graveyard near the church.
>There is a FAE.NET local network in the Town Hall and Jeweler's Shop.
There's a "stench" coming from the Graveyard. I don't know what it is, but I think it should be avoided. There's the aura of Fae in the Town Hall and the Jeweler's, but it's an old aura, about ten years old, but after you left, not before.
>It has been infected with a malignant entity, “Song of Guilt and Grief”.
*private*
I'm really hoping that Sami didn't do this herself...
*public*
>I'm curious as to where you got your information from.
I told you, we've got an encyclopedia. It's not so much a physical thing, but we can look stuff up in it.
Uh, sorry for rambling on in there, though. We should have saved our information for afterwards. It turns out we weren't able to access the network, anyways, as it requires something from the Faeries. It did scan as Faustia, interestingly enough; perhaps Faustia is a Cat who poses in the shape of a Mortal, but she does seem to be real either way. The philosophy she teaches suggests she doesn't mind anybody not worshipping her, though. You won't be punished for abandoning faith, and she may still bless you indeed... if you trust a God or Cat to do that.

Looks like the Jeweler's is protected by a curse. Since you're pretty strong, you may want to start there and loot all the valuables you can find. See how far you can go without magic.

Stake a claim to one of these houses.

>Now as to "On Mount Golgotha" -- I'm curious as to where you got your information from.
We, as ethereal beings who are not ghosts, have a magical ability to sense, examine (scan), and occasionally interact with (access) magical effects (networks) nearby.

Around the graveyard we sense something that might contain useful information or useful tools but will very likely be dangerous, as it could be either ghosts much less friendly than the talkative sort (which we are not) or a camp of magical police who most likely got killed 10 years ago by said unfriendly ghosts.

*Private* Basically, I think ROT.NET might mean a camp of the Rotland Redeemers the message said were supposed to fix things, but since it has been 10 years with no fix something nasty probably got them first and might still be lurking near their camp. */Private*

There is also something magical at the jeweler's of an unclear nature, so I think we should examine either there or the blacksmith's shop.

Smik 2014/12/23(Tue)10:26 No. 614453 ID: 3009b4
File 141935920839.jpg - (536.04KB , 1280x720 , Sami enters the jewllers.jpg )

>Sorry if that caught you off guard, but it's almost as natural as looking at our surroundings for us (makes up for the lack of smell or touch or taste, maybe). We didn't think.

Sami: It's all right, I'd just like more warning in the future.

>Would you like to be able to talk back around other people, without being heard?

Sami: That would be lovely, thanks.

>Anyway, Sami, you ever heard of Rotland Redeemers?

Sami: Rotland? That's the underworld where the dead go. I've never heard of the "Redeemers". I've heard of shadows from Rotland that walk the land, who are very different from the faeries. They don't care for tricks or games and have voracious appetites. These wraiths sometimes come to drag people back with them, and are drawn to cursed places. You can usually tell them by their smell, it's like leaves rotting in the fall or wet earth in the spring. They can take multiple forms. Sometimes they come for revenge, other times they just want to deliver a message or fulfill a dying wish. If you see one, it means Death has come or will come shortly for a friend or family member. I've never met one myself. Maybe that's a "Redeemer"?

Sami makes her way down the streets to the Jeweller's shop. She can hear the skittering of vermin and occasionally catches one moving out the corner of her eye, but none accost her.

The door to the shop has been kicked in and hangs impotently off its hinges. It's dark inside and looks like it was ransacked awhile ago.


:: NORTON has awarded 20 IP. He will not say for what, except that he should have given you 15 IP back at the church when Sami met Nick.
::

** 25 IP AVAILABLE **

** FAE.NET in range, Hearth version 1.98. Requires login, no welcome message. **

>>614453
*private*
Waaaaait.
>one needs to do more that simply take the pipe from the piper to be able to use it correctly.
Yet, we know Sami can use the pipe. She has the piper's essence somehow.
*/private*

Sami, watch out, there's one on the top of the doorframe.

Let's buy Port Detection so that we can connect to fae.net stuff.

Uh, Sami, we see a giant bug or something behind you, on top of the door frame.

Well, it might leave if you pretend it's not there. Your choice.

*Private*
I'm not sure if telling her about the giant bug is a good idea. Nem lost trust when she was asked to look behind her, only for the wolf to leave before she did. Any suggestions?
*/Private*

There is something that looks like a really big spider on the doorframe directly above your head!

I assume that's some kind of vermin. Careful!

>That would be lovely, thanks.
It might take a bit of practice, but basically, you very deliberately form a thought with the intent of speaking... and then don't. And then the intent carries your words to us, unspoken.

To make a crude analogy, an attempt to read your thoughts would be like reading through someone's diary unasked. This is more akin to passing notes. Same medium, different means.

This technique obviously only works when there's a spiritual connection to pass notes along. It's how we talk to you- from our perspective we're not speaking aloud, per se.

[private]
Thank you, Norton.

Smik 2014/12/23(Tue)12:01 No. 614500 ID: 3009b4
File 141936487084.jpg - (466.29KB , 1280x720 , Sami swings at the leaper.jpg )

Sami looks up and barely reacts in time, knocking the Leaper aside with a wild swing.

The creature is not killed however -- it bounces off the wall and rights itself quickly, preparing to make another strike.

** Your timely warning earns 5 TRUST. **

Sami takes a hunter's stance and prepares to defend herself against the LEAPER, a disease-spreading parasitic VERMIN that prefers to ambush its hosts. Once on, LEAPERS are difficult to remove and their needle-like appendages for drinking blood can inflict serious injury if they hit a bad spot, although they tend to aim for non-lethal areas. They have a hard exoskeleton; the legs and head are extremely resilient to crushing damage but their abdomen is relatively soft and if ruptured will kill the beast.

Every strike Sami makes against the soft spot has a 25% chance of killing the LEAPER, and this increases per consecutive hit (so her second hit has a 50% chance of killing, then 75% and if she lands 4 in a row it's dead regardless). There is a good chance that if the fight takes too long or Sami hits it too much the LEAPER will run away instead.

** NEW ENCOUNTER COMBAT INSTRUCTIONS **

Since quite honestly minor combat like this bogs down the story in Quest format, please indicate your IP budget for this fight -- it will automatically be used to modify Sami's rolls as needed for the swiftest end to the fight. Then the fight will continue until Sami kills it, drives it off, or it lands a successful attack (and then it's a matter of removing the beast).

>>614500
10 IP. This nasty little bastard is more dangerous than any foe Nem ever faced!

>10 IP. This nasty little bastard is more dangerous than any foe Nem ever faced!

** Maximum IP Spend per Player is still 5 to prevent group over-spending (plus Sami's got a much tighter IP budget) unless BOOST is purchased.

On the plus side, you don't have to calculate how much IP to spend per compressed combat round. If Sami misses a roll by 5%, then only 1 IP will be deducted from the spend to cover the difference. This will also include when rolling to see if Sami's hit is fatal or not -- if it misses by 15% and there's 5 IP in the budget, I'll use 3 points automatically to end it faster and the 2 remaining IP will be returned to the pool.

Significant combat against foes with Plot Armour goes in the traditional round-by-round format **

>>614500
>>614503
I say 5 IP is enough. We don’t need to waste stuff here.

I'll throw in another 5 IP if we manage to burn through the first 5 without resolving the combat.

>I've never met one myself. Maybe that's a "Redeemer"?
Sounds like what we used to call the "Reapers," then. Rotland Redeemers, huh. Interesting name, gotta say.

Spend no IP. See if Sami can win this fight herself.

Sami, pin the bug to the wall and hold it there until something breaks! Then whack its head until the consistency of its brain is chunky salsa. If you don't know what salsa is, we can explain later!

Smik 2014/12/23(Tue)17:12 No. 614625 ID: 3009b4
File 141938352360.jpg - (515.08KB , 1280x720 , Sami kills the Leaper.jpg )

Sami quickly swings again, stunning the Leaper. Before it can recover, she follows up with a stronger one that lands on a weak spot, splattering the VERMIN.

(She rolled well; no IP spent)

>Sami, pin the bug to the wall and hold it there until something breaks! Then whack its head until the consistency of its brain is chunky salsa. If you don't know what salsa is, we can explain later!


Sami: Pin a Leaper? Look, no offence Kome but don't give advice about fighting creatures you know nothing about. The head's the most armoured spot on a Leaper -- it can punch through a rollie-pollie. They're fast and you don't want to get any part closer to the needle than you need to.

>Sounds like what we used to call the "Reapers," then. Rotland Redeemers, huh. Interesting name, gotta say.

Sami checks for other vermin but doesn't see any. Leapers work alone. She doesn't drop her guard but she does relax a little. Now that she's had time to look, she can see the shop has been ransacked. Nothing of note remains.


Sami: It's an odd name to be sure. So what's so important here? I don't see anything but dust.

:: ADMIN PUNI has quietly awarded 5 IP. You now have 30 IP on hand ::

Glad to see you handled that as well as you did. Nasty thing.

There's... something spiritual, here. We'll examine it and see if there's any information, if you approve?

[private]
Do we need to make an IP purchase to connect to this network?

** PRIVATE **
>Do we need to make an IP purchase to connect to this network?

This network is a Fae.Net, which means you'll need a Port Access program to handle the protocol AND a valid Login ID or you'll need to use an OVERFLOW PROGRAM, which is 50 IP. In order to get a valid Login ID you'll need to get in contact with a Fae.Net local network owner. Since there might not be any left in the town, alternatively if you can find an unsecured network you can use the GLAMOUR PROGRAM (20 IP) to copy and impersonate someone else's ID.

Regardless, you'll have to purchase at least PORT ACCESS to use this network since you're using TEN protocol and it's using FAE.

Well. Let's purchase PORT ACCESS first.

*Private*
Buy port access.

>>614625
Oh. Okay. Sorry.

This may make a good safehouse. Look around for a secret exit (this was a jeweler's store, so it would be reasonable to create an exit strategy in case of raiders), then barricade everything except said exit.

Also, this place has a connection to the fae. Probably a result of a few magic trinkets being bought and sold at this store. We can't do anything about that yet, but it might be useful later.

[public]
There's something here, but it's fae in origin, not TEN. Which means we'll need time before we can try and get any information for you.

The fae and the cats use different ciphers, essentially.

>>614679
I'm not sure why "rural jewelers" suggests "secret passages" to you. Or how that would significantly increase the strategic value of this location, when we're dealing with significantly smaller opponents who aren't as limited in their possible entrances.

The place Sami was staying before, at least, she was able to sleep without being attacked, so that was reasonably secure. The church is also pretty secure (except one day of the week) and has the added advantage of an additional pair of eyes and ears.

[private]
Thank you, Puni.

Huh. How many of you guys are there?

Smik 2014/12/24(Wed)16:00 No. 615128 ID: 3009b4
File 141946562533.jpg - (559.14KB , 1280x720 , Sami at Jewellers Shop Quiet.jpg )

** PORT ACCESS has been obtained! Now any unsecured Network (or those that allow anonymous access) can be used. Note that the local network at the jeweler's requires a login. **

>This may make a good safehouse. Look around for a secret exit (this was a jeweler's store, so it would be reasonable to create an exit strategy in case of raiders), then barricade everything except said exit.


Sami: Are you nuts? The building's picked clean, the wood is rotten (thanks to the damned rollie-pollies) and there's no 'secret exit' because this is the rich part of town we USED to have a garrison (which is stationed in the middle-class part of town, near the gates).

>There's something here, but it's fae in origin, not TEN. Which means we'll need time before we can try and get any information for you.


Sami: I don't have a clue about what you're going on about. Anyhow, do you have any other ideas about what to do next? We could check the Town Hall, Merchant's Guild, an upper-class inn, Mayor's mansion, scout some of the homes of the rich, or head to the Middle Class or Common area of town.

>>615128
Town Hall, please.

>I don't have a clue about what you're going on about.
There are different kinds of ways spiritual messages can be written, and they're not all easy for us to read.

It's kind of like using a cipher or a code. Or a different language. The ones we know are easy. The ones we don't we have to find a way to work though or get around before we can understand.

I mean, all we can tell you right now is one of the fae, or someone with fae blood, or who was taught their workings, was once here. Not particularity helpful, in and of itself.

I mean, given what you know of them, is it really surprising the fae would have a hidden way to communicate with each other? Or that they'd make it hard for others to intercept their messages?

The garrison might be a good place to loot, but only because the vermin likely use it as their base. Maybe later.

Okay, secure the research labs. You may want to look for any information the scientists discovered on the various diseases the vermin brought with them. It should help in case you (or another survivor) get wounded by one of the vermin.

Um, which way is the river? From what I know about ghosts (which is not first-hand knowledge), they often stay close to the last place they saw. I don't think we have the tools to approach there for now, but it would be good to know for future reference. For now going to the Town Hall sounds good.

>I don't think we have the tools to approach there for now, but it would be good to know for future reference.
Well, I think the flute should be able to effect them. They're the ghosts of mortals, right? So they should still be effected. Would kind of be mean to use the source of their death against them again though.
Town hall. It's where we first sensed something at.

Can we do a Physical Scan in here and locate the physical thing the FAE.net is tied to?

Physical Scan Smik 2014/12/27(Sat)10:27 No. 615898 ID: 3009b4
File 141970481968.jpg - (575.10KB , 1280x720 , Sami at Jewellers Shop Network location.jpg )

** SCAN RESULTS **

The Physical Scan has revealed the Network source is beneath the floorboards.

According to the wiki, the configuration and type indicates that it's using a Faerie Ring fungal growth as its physical manifest. Under normal circumstances, tampering with the network draws the ire of the owner -- hence the warnings to never step within a faerie ring in old lore.

This is a Hearth local network, version 1.98. Version 1.98 has a security exploit where an iron nail placed in the centre of the ring can be used to gain admin access. This was patched in version 2.5 and later, but clearly this network hasn't been updated in some time.

****

>>615898
Sami, there's a thing you can do for us to get more information. There's a faerie circle under the floorboards here, in front of you and to your left a bit.

If you pull up the old floorboard there, and put an iron nail in the center of the ring, we'll have full access to whatever magic it is capable of. Of course, whoever put the ring there in the first place might be annoyed if they find out you had a hand in it but this place doesn't seem to have been touched lately. If the owner were keeping the circle up they would have fixed the iron nail issue.

Aha! It's a fairy ring, Sami. Must be mushrooms growing underneath the floor. If you turn your face forward, it's uh, under the third floorboard from the wall, there, in between those two stains.

If you place an iron nail in the center of the ring, that'll trick it into allowing us access. Should be a lose nail or one that can be pried free somewhere.

Maybe before trying the nail trick we should try connecting normally with Port Access? The ring is old and not well maintained, but we should check first whether there is some kind of hermit-faerie around to get mad at our fiddling.

>>615931
*private*
We can't connect with Port Access because we don't have any valid login credentials. Port Access just lets us switch protocol.

I think you should use magnetized iron. In case you don't know, magnets are charged pieces of metal that attract and are attracted by other metals. We heard that this can sometimes interfere with fae magic, since magnets use the same type of energy as lightning, so it's really useful. We can help you build a machine that can turn ordinary iron into magnetized iron. It's pretty simple, you just need to heat up some ordinary iron, then take naturally magnetized metal and move it around the iron really really fast.

Before you ask, no you can't magnetize the gold piece and leave us stuck to a. For some reason, some types of metal (non-ferrous) aren't attracted by magnets or able to become magnets.

Oh, and can you sing a tune inside the faerie circle later? We want to see what happens.

>>616007
*Private* This bunch of jargon and mumbo is just going to get Sami to either be angry at us, or distrustful. We don't have enough trust to get her to do all sorts of sciency things.
*public*
Sami, as the others said, an iron nail in the middle of the faerie ring should do the trick. Depending on how it works, you might need to brush a second nail, this one heated up, against the first one, but I highly doubt that's the case, and it would be too much trouble to heat it up safely.

It's too bad there's no bar here. Sami could have a piña colada while we play The Girl From Ipanema in her head. That'd be much better than worrying about magnetic gibberish.

Author Note - Trying Different Interfaces Smik 2014/12/28(Sun)22:18 No. 616384 ID: 3009b4
File 141983389515.jpg - (424.81KB , 640x720 , Sami Rips up the Floor.jpg )

** Author Note - I found that the layout didn't work very well for smart phones and have adjusted accordingly. You'll see the Quest layout change a bit until I think I have something useful) **

Sami rolls her eyes at the various suggestions, and shakes her head.


Sami: Hope you don't mind me asking but none of you died in an asylum or anything, right?

She slams the end of her walking stick -- which has a heavy metal tip for combat -- into the rotten floor boards. After digging them away, she finds the faerie ring. Finding a rusted nail, she tosses it into the middle.

While she sees nothing happening, the HMES leaps to life as it connects to the local network.

After some gibberish -- although it mentions a time-out error when trying to connect to the Admin -- the Network enters maintenance mode, granted admin-level access. This network security will stay down until the admin fixes it.

** LOCAL NETWORK: Goblin332 **

Public Login Message:
“This place is done. The mayor’s gone and thrown himself from the coils, the grim’s spread to the golems and I’m leaving. There’s just no point in living in a town without children, they’re the only good things they ever had. I’m glad the Piper’s dead, hope it was horrible and that the girl didn’t get indigestion. Side note – if someone else finds this note, please take a piss on the mayor’s grave. He’s got this big fancy headstone behind the church – had the money for that and to cover up his suicide but NOT to pay debts, apparently”

A quick search of the directory reveals a compatible program: BOTCH can be copied to the system. BOTCH is a modification program that turns failures into disaster, but its use requires 10 IP. Note that BOTCH does not change the probability of a target to fail an attempt, but to turn the failure into the worst possible outcome.


:: An ADMIN has awarded 5 IP ::

>Hope you don't mind me asking but none of you died in an asylum or anything, right?
No offense taken. You just have to put up with the kooks for a little while, we're stuck with 'em.

>faerie ring
Thanks for listening to us about the nail, though. I don't know why that works, it just does. Magic is weird.

Hmm. Seems to have belonged to a goblin. Doesn't seem to have liked the mayor much, left a message disparaging his suicide and wishing for anyone who reads this to desecrate his grave. And he bemoans the lack of children for reasons I'm glad it didn't elaborate on. Nasty little thing.

Only thing recorded here that might be useful is a kind of hex we might be able to use. If employed, it can exacerbate or worsen a failure. (Say, if someone were to trip up while attacking you, we could make the consequences worse for them). Kind of limited in application, though.

...we could leave it, if you're uncomfortable with that.

>>616384
We found a note. It says to piss on the mayor's grave.

(yeah sure copy BOTCH, no reason not to)

** Contextual Help **
>(Say, if someone were to trip up while attacking you, we could make the consequences worse for them).

BOTCH is used to turn failing rolls into critical failure results. Tripping while attacking actually an example of a BOTCH. In application, an enemy who strikes but misses (thus, a failed attack roll) can be turned into a loss of weapon, stumbling, or striking another enemy. BOTCH can be stacked to a point, depending on circumstance. For example, if the floor is known to be weak, a BOTCH can turn a strike into a fall, and a second BOTCH to cause the floor to break.

** Program downloaded automatically. Note that it will take at least 2 players to activate unless BOOST is purchased, which allows players to use double their normal maximum contribution. **

*Private*
Let's run a search on what the Goblins of this world are.
*Public*
Alright, that worked out as much as it is going to... We did learn a couple of things, though they may just be the owner's opinions. A note was left behind, which stated that the Mayor commited suicide, and had simply left money behind to cover it up, but also that the mayor had some debts that were never paid, so it could be more that he was killed for not paying up.
The only thing the message makes clear is that the owner was glad the Piper was dead, and that they didn't like the mayor.

Sorry about all the mumbo-jumbo that went on involving the ring. What we know about faeries and breaking through their magic is quite lacking, but we do know that "Cold iron" can break certain bits of it. Iron qualifies as cold when it is sharp, and a nail has a sharp point, while also being something that presses through, so I guess that makes it effective, or something. Again, "Mumbo Jumbo."

>>616384
...Wow, what a DICK.

Sami, we just found out that the mayor was RICH. Rich enough to pay the piper ten years ago. I guess you can blame yourself less, because if he wasn't such a miser, maybe this town would have lived.

I think this message implies that the mayor faked his death. Makes sense. He was probably running, not just from the angry raving townsfolk, but from some kind of debt. Fae debt, maybe? Well, he has a grave in the church backyard.

Considering what a miser this guy was, you should probably desecrate his grave and loot the contents! If the priest asks, just tell him that what you learned about the mayor from his citizens makes him unworthy of Faustia's embrace.

>>616423
No. Let's not go desecrating holy grounds.

The graveyard is dangerous anyway. We should not go there unprepared.

>>616423
Just no.

[private]
Geeze, I was trying for a little trust by asking permission before pickup up the potentially unsavory (but useful) program instead of just taking it or surprising her with it later and then you start talking about desecrating graves.

This was her home, and she's already worried we're crazy, or she could be lead down a dark path. Stop saying things that affirm that.

>>616474
It's not desecration if the grave is a fake!

But yeah, I guess that might be sacrilegious, I apologize. Either way, you may want to visit the mayor's house. As the legal representative of the town, his house may have clues as to why the piper did what he did, and/or more information on the town itself.

For now, it looks like the former owner of the faerie circle no longer cares who uses it, so I guess you can claim it as your own. Why not play us a song inside the circle?

>Um, which way is the river?
** Author Note - I originally meant to do a sketch for her reaction but forgot **

Sami: Let's avoid river, OK? It's the same one the Piper tried to drown me in.

** Contextual Help **
>Only thing recorded here that might be useful is a kind of hex we might be able to use... Geeze, I was trying for a little trust by asking permission before pickup up the potentially unsavory (but useful) program instead of just taking it or surprising her with it later

Good idea, but Sami isn't notified about network communications, she just hears suggestions in her head. While it is a nice gesture, it's more information than she needs to know. Audrey has muted the comment; hold off on revealing your capabilities until Sami asks directly.

>This was her home, and she's already worried we're crazy, or she could be lead down a dark path. Stop saying things that affirm that.
Fortunately Sami isn't an idiot -- she is aware of different ID's and handles and now that she's had some time with you has begun to understand the different personalities.

** END HELP **

>Hmm. Seems to have belonged to a goblin. Doesn't seem to have liked the mayor much, left a message disparaging his suicide and wishing for anyone who reads this to desecrate his grave. And he bemoans the lack of children for reasons I'm glad it didn't elaborate on. Nasty little thing.


Sami: What do you mean? Goblins usually only cause trouble for adults. I've never heard them do anything worse than a few harmless pranks to children. They can be a bit eccentric but they're usually good luck to have around.

>A note was left behind, which stated that the Mayor commited suicide, and had simply left money behind to cover it up, but also that the mayor had some debts that were never paid, so it could be more that he was killed for not paying up.


Sami: Perhaps the mayor was murdered? Possible -- everyone was very tight-lipped about the cause of death.

>Sami, we just found out that the mayor was RICH. Rich enough to pay the piper ten years ago. I guess you can blame yourself less, because if he wasn't such a miser, maybe this town would have lived.


Sami: That's not news. Everyone on the council was wealthy. The Piper's asking price was 130 gold crowns. ** CONTEXT: $1,300,000 equivalent value **

>I think this message implies that the mayor faked his death. Makes sense.

Sami: There was a body. I highly doubt that.

>Considering what a miser this guy was, you should probably desecrate his grave and loot the contents!

Sami: Kome, so what you're saying is you think he faked his death so naturally I should desecrate the grave of some innocent substitute and anger the dead around it? I shall place that idea alongside "pinning a leaper and bashing its head in" in a little bin of suggestions I shall label "Lunatic Ravings". When it gets large enough my asylum lobotomist should have no problems locating the tumour.

Sami shakes her head.


Sami: I'm not sure what you've all found in that faerie circle but I do think you could be right about the suicide. Suicides... leave a stain. You know why we view it as a sin? I don't know what you seen on your side of the grave, but it's been said that suicide and murder leave a curse behind. The suicide's curse is worse, because while a murder leaves a lack of resolution for the poor victim, suicide involves succumbing to the idea that certain mortal troubles were worse than Death itself, and these troubles are given life as demons as a result. Now you understand why suicide is not an option for me -- I shall not stain the land with what I've endured.

*************************
** TEN WIKI: GOBLINS **
*************************

Goblins are members of the Unseelie Court. They have erratic tempers and eccentric personalities, even by faerie standards. Their culture is similar to that of the Goon in which they have a poor opinion of mortals and people in general, but they have a soft spot for children of all races and their pranks on children are nowhere near as malicious as their standard fare. Cultures differ widely based on geography; Northern goblins in Gaelend are more hostile while in Rollen they're more sociable.

Goblins on occasion will decide to adopt a family, similar to behaviour of their Seelie brownie counterparts. On such an occasion, the goblin will deem itself head of the household -- after which point the goblin's own managerial skills will determine if the adopted family will honour it or need to take steps to sever the arrangement. Like certain kobolds, some goblins will also attempt to domesticate organized groups of people (especially miners) much like a beekeeper -- making the work far easier in exchange for a portion of the rewards.

In general, Goblins are wild creatures and thus make poor pets although there are always exceptions to the rule. It is usually better to observe the personality of a goblin before interacting.

*************************

>>616494
Hmm. One phrase stands out in the note. "the grim’s spread to the golems".

Shall we head to the town hall next?