>>40885957
>>You seem remarkably unconcerned about these boogiemen.
>How do you know all this about them?

DEAD QUEST

D E A D
A
D

>>40886266
1. No it isn't
2. You fucked up the format.

>>40886266
father's day was hard and I am still upset, sorry

>still dragging this through the mud

>>40886304
>still being a butthurt shitposter.

>>40885957
>You seem remarkably unconcerned about these "boogiemen".
>Other: "What does it say?"

>>40885957
>>You seem remarkably unconcerned about these boogiemen.
>>How do you know all this about them?

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"You seem remarkably unconcerned about this. If they are as bad as you say."

"Well, given how you got a hold of that letter?" He says, gesturing to the shed where the late Phoenix soldiers are on ice.

"Point made, but you said your father was killed?"

"My father got the letter when we were on a ship leaving the empire. He said for me to wait inside the cabin. There was fighting. I don't remember much, but when he came back he said the crew were bad men, and told me to keep waiting in the cabin. I remember being in there for quite some time, it was a Nitor boat that found us. I remember seeing father slumped over the wheel when they took me aboard."

"How long ago was this?"

"I was five at the time." The Phoenix man says simply.

"I'm sorry." You say hurriedly, "But if anything that would make me more worried about this Kingfisher. How do you know about these people anyway?"

Tai speaks with an uncharacteristic hardness refusing to change the subject, "I've made my peace with it since then. They set out to kill my father, and did their job, eventually. As far as I know he killed them to a man, managed to see to me, make sure we were still bound to freedom, AND nearly survived. From that view, these assassins seem far less capable than their reputation says."

"Still, a group like that is worrying."

"Look at it this way, Miss Sasha, if these people are the same group as then. They had superior numbers and were fought off by us and maybe four former soldiers." He's dancing around something, that much is certain.

>?

>>40887152
>"if there's something that might help us, then you should tell us, but if it's nothing that we need to worry about, then it's up to you if you tell us."
>"So what's it say?"

>>40887152
What aren't you telling me?

>>40885957
Ded quest

>>40887423
Shut the fuck up, and get the fuck out.

>>40887423
Stop shitposting idiot.

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"Is there something you're not telling me Tai?"

"What?"

"If there's something important we need to know, don't hesitate to tell me. Look at McCain."

"There's nothing like that. I just do not like talking about family."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

You sigh, outside of his aunt and uncle, Tai has never really opened up about his family. "Well, if you change your mind, I'll be here. I just hope if it is bad, it doesn't bite us in the end. In any case, you wouldn't happen to be able to read highborne Phoenix script, can you?"

He shakes his head, "Sorry Miss Sasha, outside of maybe identifying the letters? No."

You leave him to his garden and head back towards the house. Off towards the bridge you see Liama having an animated conversation with the foreman for the work team. Two of Liama's men patrol the outer perimeter and you can see McCain standing near the pasture looking over to where, it seems that Marie is finally getting back from contacting the nitor.

>Action?

>>40887874
Fuck this shit, go learning magic.
McCain and everyone can handle talking to the Nitor and whatever else, and we have the intrigue out of the way for now. Let get doing.

>>40888139
No. We are the head of this ranch, and we need to see to it's well being first.

On that note. . .
>>40887874
>make sure Liama and the foreman aren't going to start a fist-fight.

>>40887874
As much as I want to run off to learn magic, things going tits up while we're gone would be annoying to deal with later.

Seconding:
>>40888294

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Suppressing the urge to ignore your problems and focus on learning more from Veles, you head over to where Liama and the bridge crew are.

Liama's voice is the first you hear, "If you've got guards, let me know who and what they've got."

"No problem, but why do you need to know?"

"More manpower means we can get more eyes looking out for trouble."

James, the foreman, nods, "I guess, I was mostly usin' 'em to do the heavy lifting, but if more of the Phoenix bastards are lurking about I'll shunt them off your way."

"No need to go that far, I just want to be able to plan around the eventuality. Make sure it goes smoothly."

"Any problems?" You call, causing the pair to look at you.

"Oh? Not at all, just seeing to my job." Liama says, "It seems we've got a little more in the way of muscle than I was led to believe."

"Good, because between those UFK reservists and this Kingfisher business we've got more than our share of problems."

"Kingfisher business?" Liama asks, eyes narrowed.

"Well, Tai says its something to do with some boogieman assassin thing the Phoenix empire has." You say, producing the now opened scroll tube. "Dunno how much weight it has, but he seemed confident it was them. Opened this and everything. Shame its in their high fancy script."

"Mind if I take a look?" Liama asks rather intently.

"You can read this?" You ask dubiously

"Probably, Mum was rusty when we got to that point, but she tried to get the basics down. I'll need this for a bit though." Liama responds. "I'll also need to have a word with Tai."

>Response?

>>40888930
"Okay. If you could tell me what it says when you're done, I would appreciate it. Also, don't hurt him."
>Hand over the scroll-tube.

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>>40887423
>being this unoriginal in your shitposting

step it up senpai

>>40888930
"Okay, but I insist on being present when you speak with him."
Hand over the letter.

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You hand over the tube, "Okay. If you could tell me what it says when you're done, I would appreciate it. Also, don't hurt him."

"I wasn't planning on it. I just want to know how much he knows" The other snake says.

"Okay, but I insist on being present when you speak with him. Its a touchy subject for him. Something about family."

She looks grim, "Yeah, I can imagine. In any case, fine, on all counts. It'll be a minute to translate this anyway and I'd rather know what it said before I ask him any questions."

"Do you really suspect him?"

"No, but I'm covering all bases, especially with the Reserve soldiers around."

Speaking of, you snag Marie as she barrels past, "Something wrong?"

"Oh, Miss Masterson, didn't see you here with... Miss Patrick. Anyway, Nitor should be on their way." Marie says.

"Did you happen to see any UFK reserve soldiers on your way into town?"

"Did I? They've got the roads picketed, almost didn't want to let me into town. Changed their tune when I mentioned the attack, went right to the nitor office, Keel or someone will be here in a day or two. How'd you know?"

"Seems our little lieutenant friend was somewhat on the level." Liama says, frowning.

"Oh, by the way!" Marie says, remembering something, "There's a bounty on the soldiers now. 100 isens a head. Not bad money all things considered."

"That explains why he was so eager to get the bodies." You say.

After giving Marie a quick rundown on the situation, you send her off to McCain for new work. Heading inside, you think of what to do next.

?

>>40889999
You got a GET.
>thinking out loud(Or not)
Okay, so. We have two days to wait for the Nitor to get here. What do we need to do in the mean time? Right now we need to wait for Liama to finish translating, then observe her questioning of Tai. Do we have anything else that needs to be done today? What time is in anyway? If nothing else, we could talk to Veles some more about magic. If nothing else, we could actually tend to the cattle. . . Is there anything I'm missing?

>>40890186
Its late afternoon. Same day as the attack. Just for clarification.

>>40890482
Did we miss lunch?

>>40890502
No, but given there was taking care of the bodies, making the ice for said bodies, and seeing to everything post attack, lunch was a more simple affair than usual.

>>40890643
I suppose we wait for Liama to finish her translation. She did say it wouldn't take too long.
(I wish we had more people who could make puns here. . .)

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You figure you may as well see how Liama's doing with that letter. Get to the bottom of this intrigue nonsense. Quite frankly, you're tired of it. Slithering back out to their tent-wagon construct, you knock on the base of the wagon.

"Enter." You hear Liama, though it sounds muffled.

Ducking under the tent flap, you find Liama... well cocooned for lack of a better word, in blankets sitting next to a fold out desk.

"Oh, hello Miss Masterson. Don't mind all this." She says, gesturing to the wrapping, "Helps me think, whoever wrote this not only had it in that script, but spoke in code too. I'm not discounting it being a cipher either."

"Any progress?"

"Well, if it isn't a cipher, they've taken to referring to things by letter instead of the actual word. 'K' Must be kingfisher, since this is addressed from someone under K. 'S' must be Lamia's since it mentions three 'S' while keeping watch on this place, which is probably us. 'L' and 'T' I don't know, but they make reference to signs of both being around. There's a reference to an 'M' as well, but that appears to be an outside asset. There are a few others as well, but they seem more related to troop disposition."

"What exactly did they say about the ones you don't know."

"Ah, right, 'The divination suggest that L is located somewhere near the mountains. T is located beyond. The signs of T are faint, and the chances of it being usable are not high. L is nowhere in sight, but the presence of 3 S suggests it being nearby. Interrogation of M after retrieval was inconclusive. K requires more divination supplies. Solve this and remove the S from the equation.'

"I would have imagined it more flowery." You say.

"Yeah I kinda cut that nonsense out. Its just another lair of obfuscation."

>Well?

>>40891763
Well, I think this "M" might be the "Two-Hands McCain" that they had working for them, because We know for a fact that he was working for them, as we saw them in his, and his gang's camp, and also someone got him out of jail. -if this is not true, modify it untill it is.-
"T" might be for Centaurs, and the rest, I have no clue.

>>40891989
s are snakes. Aka us Liama and Veles

>>40892091
I know. She already said that.
>"Solve this and remove the S from the equation." -Liama

>>40891763
Sounds like they are making reference to something in the Casmiran lands. Lets fetch Tatiana, see if she has an idea as to what might be aluded to as 'T'.

>>40892288
>T
>Titania
>FUCKTHEYKNOW.jpeg

Is there an agreed upon response?
Not opposed to mashing everything together, just want to make sure that's the consensus.

>>40892639
I'm fine if you pick and choose from us. I think mine might go for all of them, but asking Titania about what might be in their lands that's being talked about would be a good idea, I think.
(Though, they use a different way of writing, so they probably have a different word for everything from us.)

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"Well, the M probably stands for McCain. The imposter." You add quickly, "He was working with the Phoenix soldiers we saw after he attacked the ranch."

"Ok. That makes sense. Any idea on the T or the L?"

"Something in the Casimiran Lands I imagine. Lemme see if Tatiana knows anything about that."

It takes some doing to cajole Tatiana away from the bunk, but you stress the importance and she hesitantly follows you in the rapidly shrinking space of Liama's camp.

[I am sorry, but I do not get the meaning of this message. There is something these people want in my lands?] She says, after the third time of you reciting it to her.

[That's the gist of it, yeah. I figured it was a long shot.]

[Well, I do not understand. Are they asking for things or a single thing. We have riches, but there are not many riches we only have ONE of.]

That's a good point actually. It really does seem like they are looking for an individual thing. Still, this avenue seems to be a wash.

[You could try and contact one of the the south court. They do not see things the way we do. They might have some insight.]

[That's easier said than done. Especially since that one from Purobka is gone.]

[Every szlachta hold worth its name has the backing of one of the court. Bralin, Krasick, the southern holds as well.]

You mull that over for a bit, before Liama speaks up.

"Well, did she think of something?

>?

>>40893384
No. We might try to gain entry to one of the Szlachta, though. All of the ones that are worth their name have a member of the "South Court" as council. . .Oh yeah. The Szlachta are their cities. I forgot if I had already told you about that.
Anyway the South-court elves might know what it's talking about.
There is one other Szlachta that we know how to get too beyond the one that was destroyed, but we could probably get to more than that one as we'll have -insert name of male Centaur here- with us. We might have Titania too, but I'm not sure.
And then "L" might be a spy that they have hiding out on the mountain, but Veles would probably have found them by now if they were. . .

>>40893695
>>40893384
-Ignore the part about "L" and use this-

"L" sounds like someone they're trying to capture. and that "K" is probably a mage in their employ.

Interesting note:
Szlachta means "Nobility" in Polish.

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"She suggested we go to one the Szlachta holds." Noting the blank look you add, "Casimiran landed elite, closest thing they have to cities. Anyway, each of the nobility has the backing of... I think its called the south court fae. Elves I think. Never saw them, Veles says magic is the same."

"Why?"

"Something about not seeing things the same way we do, having insight on these things. They are probably old too, so I imagine they're well versed on the goings on in there. In any case I've only been to one before, not counting the ruin we pulled Artyom out of. With him we might be able to get to find more. Especially since they seem to think T and L are an individual thing, not a concept."

"Sounds like a plan. Wish I could come with." Liama says.

You pause, then remember she's getting paid to watch the farm, not adventure. In any case, it looks like you're going to have to take a trip to the Casimiran lands.

You just hope everything will be okay in the meantime.

>Calling the thread here for now. As always I'll be loitering around for a bit provided you have any questions pertaining to setting or characters or whatnot. Again, thanks for reading.

>>40894473
Thanks for running.

>>40894473
Hmm. My Shadowrun senses are itching like a motherfucker, and we STILL don't have a pun-master. Hmm. I need to learn the art of the pun. We'll need it if we interrogate anyone.
Oh well. 'Night.