Chapter Four: End of the Line


Light streams through the window.

Your eyes flutter open slowly and you squint and for the briefest moment as you wake, you feel the warmth of the sun on your face and the shine of blue sky above. Your work is done and you are no longer needed. You can rest.
But then you wake and you know it to be just a fantasy. The light is pure, yes and bright besides but it’s just the central lamp-post outside.
You’ve rested long enough.

You rise with some discomfort as you ease out the stiffness in your back and neck that comes from falling asleep seated in the corner. You’re still in the back bedroom of Enoch’s pub. How long did you sleep for? A few hours? All ‘night’?
You look outside the window to see a town in peace. The sun has gone down and the stars are out and Enoch is bubbled within a shell of golden light. Your handiwork.

Beatrice is still in bed, lying still with her hat stood on top of her face to ward off the light. Is she still sleeping? You suppose you can’t blame her.

But enough is enough. You’re burning time and you have to get moving. You can’t afford to be dallying about in towns that no longer need you. And the express line to Dis, now that you know it for what it truly is, calls to you. You doubt you’ll ever be able to rest again so close to that cursed track.

You nearly wake Beatrice first but in the end you stay your hand when you see her bandaged arms. Yesterday she risked her life to repair what could have been the greatest mistake you ever made and considering your history, that’s really something. If she has not proven herself worthy than at the very least she has proven her aspiration towards it. You know now that she will always chase the light.
But for how long? Trust not a witch’s heart to stay steady.

But she’s earned some rest regardless. And doesn’t she want to stay here? You see no real problem with Enoch and you’re sure the townsfolk would happily take her in even considering her rudeness. But they would only do so because they don’t know that she is a witch. Can you in good conscience let her find safe haven by fooling the grateful? She might claim right of hospitality but those are forgeries, customs set aside for humans. A witch is not obliged a safe home or hearth anywhere.

You walk out through the pub and the few people currently still within hastily nod and get out of your way as you pass. But one of them follows after you, the hairy barkeep named Abraham. He steps over to you but keeps his distance. There’s an increasingly troubled look to his eye.
“How is she?”

“Still sleeping.”

“After all this time? Is she well?”

“Evidently not but in this case I think she just needs rest. But your concern is appreciated.”
To tell the truth the amount of concern he’s suddenly acquired to Beatrice’s well-being is somewhat perplexing. Does he feel guilty for the altercation yesterday?

1/??

>>666927
“There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Is it urgent?”
The dismissive tone to your question startles him just a little and he takes another step back. A tad rude perhaps but you have never felt at ease assuaging the guilt of others. If he feels bad for nearly starting a fight with the saviours of the town and forcing you to step in personally that’s his problem to get over. You’ve already told him of this and you have little patience for those who choose to wallow in their regrets.

“No bu-”

“Then we can speak of it later. For now I have a task I must attend to.”

You leave him behind and return to the lone rail that bisects the town of Enoch right down its main street. The locomotive is still there, your battered old handcar looking even more destitute than usual sitting on the track next to it. The trolley still has an old hook so you should be able to connect it to the back of the train and take it with you. You never know when you might need a good handcar.

But before you can make sure that the train’s engine is in working condition you are stopped, brought to a halt by the approach of the mayor. You...You can’t remember his name. He won’t notice, will he?

“Mayor. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
This is fortuitous, you’d been meaning to speak with him about those two fool cultists.

“It’s about the train.”
You can feel your spirits begin to sink already as the mayor continues to speak.
“We lost our last carriage over a month ago and it’s been hard depending on the shipments of other towns. It would do Enoch much good if we could keep this for our own use.”

No.
You almost just say that out loud before you restrain yourself. You need this. You’ve found the express-line to Dis, you need a train! You need something with an engine, something to finally put an end to constantly working the pump trolley! And you’re to give it up for what? These people? You fought for this train while they hid. They don’t even need this beast, it would certainly make their lives a lot easier but so what?

Truth be told you don’t REALLY need it either but it would certainly make your life a lot easier as well. Can you really weigh the importance of yourself over the needs of an entire town?

“No. It won’t help you, falling stars have already ruined the track to many of the other nearby towns. Unless you have regular trade deals with Dis? And I need this engine. Would you ask more of me than you already have?”

He blanches at you naming the cursed city so freely but if he takes offense to your implication, he doesn’t show it.
“So be it, I thought you might say as much. I don’t intend to argue with you over it for you’ve already done enough. But...Dis? That’s a long rail Orion. It goes for miles and miles without a single stop and there’s wasteland up ahead.”
2/3

File: Orion.jpg (104 KB, 700x959)

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>>666930
“There’s wasteland behind as well. I’ll make it through. And I promise you that giving this train to me will lead to good in the long run. Now, how are those two cultists doing?”

The mayor shakes his head.
“We’ve got them tied up in the town hall but they’re not conscious. They’ve lapsed in an out of sleep.”


>”Fine. Just send for me immediately when they wake.”

>Pay them a visit regardless.

>Ask for them to be dragged out to you.

>Other

>>666921
>ouro will never impregnate you

>>666942
>>Ask for them to be dragged out to you.

>>666946
Don't give up on your dream, anon.

>>666942
>Ask for them to be dragged out to you.
Yo Ouro's back!

>>666942
>>Ask for them to be dragged out to you.

>>666942
>Pay them a visit regardless.

>Ask for them to be dragged out to you.

“”They don’t deserve rest. Drag him out here and leave the rest to me.”

You remain standing by the side of the dormant train as the townsfolk rush to do your bidding. The two men, both trussed up in rope, are dragged from the town hall and thrown onto the dust before you. They wake with their faces in the dust, coughing and groaning and squinting as the relit lamp lights up Enoch as if it were the middle of day despite the black sky above.

“What do you want?”
“I won’t talk! I don’t even know anything!”

You drop the Starbreaker in front of them, the case flipping open to reveal the blank screen. You still haven’t figured out how this accursed machine works or how to read it.
“The two of you are going to help me. And you’re going to start with this thing. How does it work?”

“I don’t know, I swear?”

“You seemed pretty confident in your ability to use it before!”
This is far from the only question you have for them. You also want to know where Zeno lived, how he got around, what he was using the tribute for, the rail to Dis...the list goes on and on. And yet neither of these two men seem particularly willing to help you with your inquiries.
“Why keep mum? Surely you’ve noticed your current situation. The two of you have nothing to lose.”

“But you’re just gonna kill us anyway aren’t you?”

He has somewhat of a point there. Neither you nor the people of Enoch are inclined to let such cultists live. In fact the idea of letting them go if they answer all of your questions is a foul-tasting one. Could you trust them not to repeat their mistakes again? Unlikely.
And the people of Enoch would not be happy and that’d be their right. Both these men threatened their town. And what’s the alternative? Lock them up? Spend Enoch’s dwindling resources on feeding them?


>Promise to let them go if they help you.

>”If you answer my questions I’ll turn you loose.” This is a lie.

>”Your fates are not up to me but Enoch itself. You’d best make a good impression.”

>Threaten to torture them.

>”What are you so afraid of?”

>Other

>>667065
>”Your fates are not up to me but Enoch itself. You’d best make a good impression.”

>>667065
>>”Your fates are not up to me but Enoch itself. You’d best make a good impression.”

>>667065
>”If you answer my questions I’ll turn you loose.” This is a lie.

>Your fates are not up to me but Enich itself, make a good impression
>Threaten to torture them
"Just because they get the final say doesn't mean I have to give you to them unharmed or...in one piece."

>>667065

>”Your fates are not up to me but Enoch itself. You’d best make a good impression.”

>>667065
>"Fair enough." set one of them on fire. "Unless you have anything else to say, I'll turn you over to the town and go."
Fuck it, who cares about the contraption. Let's just find someone who actually knows how these thibgs work later.

>”Your fates are not up to me but Enoch itself. You’d best make a good impression.”

“Maybe so but I’m the wrong person to be talking to about this. I’m just passing through after all. It’s the people of Enoch who are ultimately going to decide what to do with the two of you. So maybe you’d best make a good impression while you can.”

In the end it seemed like they believed you and decided that Enoch itself would show more mercy than you. Rather foolish in your opinion. But if they want to talk you’ll not stop them.
Unfortunately what they have to offer isn’t very helpful.

They don’t actually understand what any of the writing in the Starbreaker actually means though they claimed Zeno did. They just know how it functions by copying him and from base trial and error. They show you how to press a button on the top right of the fold-out pad and how doing so changes the screen from lines of green script to a complex diagram of connected points that vaguely represents the night sky. You can click on any one of the stars to bring up some kind of table of options and clicking the third on the lower left, followed by clicking the right button on the window that opens followed by selecting something on a map followed by clicking the left button on the window that opens after that...
It’s a tiresome process and one learned entirely through rote. But what else can the Starbreaker do? Is this a command module for the stars themselves? Should mortal hands even attempt to tinker with it? They claim not to know where Zeno found it save that it was some kind of Second Age ruin.

The map of the concrete plains that the Starbreaker brings up when selecting starfall targets is an option worthy of interest all on its own however. It’s dark and blurry but it seems to be accurate and looks far more like a birds eye view of the real world than any drawn out representation.
Maybe that’s exactly it. Do the stars have eyes?

They also eventually spill the answer to your questions about Zeno’s home, a small base of operations upon the express-line to Dis. It’s ahead of you. But everything else and the rail itself? They seem to know little of and you can believe them on that. These two men weren’t as important to Zeno as they had seemed to think they were.

You watch as the people drag them back into the town hall, the mayor by your side.
“What are you going to do with them?”

The mayor shakes his head.
“We’ll have naught to do with letting them loose upon other towns. We’ll burn them.”

You nod. Such is the way of things.


>”Do you need my assistance for that?”

>”They answered our questions, maybe you could be a little more lenient.”

>Experiment with the Starbreaker.

>You have nothing more to say on this matter. They got what they deserved.

>Other

>>667162
>You have nothing more to say on this matter. They got what they deserved.

>>667162
>>You have nothing more to say on this matter. They got what they deserved.

We should see if Zeno left notes before experimenting.

>>667162
>>You have nothing more to say on this matter. They got what they deserved

>>667162
>”They answered our questions, maybe you could be a little more lenient.”

>You have nothing more to say on this matter. They got what they deserved.

That’s that for the cultists. You can’t say that you feel remorse for their fate. They might not have been witches but they still made their choice themselves. People who would turn from the light deserve nothing and are forever dependent on the good graces of the virtuous. And if those graces are short-lived than there is little that can be done. This is the way things should be.

You walk back along and the rail and climb into your old pump trolley. You’re going to have to move your supplies from here to the train but first...first you’ve got a little extra work that needs doing. You start pumping and the handcar rattles back to life as you slowly push it along the rail until it gently bumps into the back of the train. From there it’s little work to hook it onto the train as another carriage. Not the most graceful of solutions perhaps but it’ll do.

By the time you’re finished with that you can see the townsfolk busy preparing the pyres. But you don’t see the smith taking part. Good. You pay the smithy another visit only to find him ready and waiting for you.

“Please forgive me, Lamplighter Sir! I was mislead and fooli-”

You just toss your staff at him and leave without saying another word.

Following that you return to the little pump trolley and sit down inside of it, your wick laid out straight over your knees. The fire is running low and you’d rather spend the time to stoke it now rather than be caught off-guard.

Wick: 2/10

Time passes as you clear your mind and meditate upon the flame.


>Roll 1d6. Highest of the first 3 determines how much Wick is regained.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>667238

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>667238

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>667238

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>667238

File: lamplighter4.png (175 KB, 249x372)

175 KB PNG

>>667256
Nice. Writing.

File: beee.png (352 KB, 535x663)

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>6

Wick: 8/10

You wake feeling refreshed and ready, the fire within now burning stronger than the one without. It’s still not perfect but it’s the best you could ever hope to do with what time you have. This’ll do for now.
A faint trail of aromatic smoke spills forth as you sling the wick back over your shoulder and rise to your feet. Is that everything? You’re just about ready to be on your way.

Almost.
You still have one more task to attend to.

Beatrice is awake when you enter the room, the door knocking loudly against your armoured side as you linger in the doorway. She turns and stares and once more you are thankful for your helmet to cover your expression. She looks awful.
Her face isn’t just pale, it’s started to tinge a faint bruise-yellow all over and the cracks along her skin are made all the more visible for it. The sclera of her eyes are almost entirely washed red, puffy and swollen with spilled blood, with the bruise shadows behind it a dark black all around her eye-sockets. She coughs and a few stray flecks of blood decorate the sheets covering her.
“Hey Orion. How do I look?”

“Absolutely terrible.”

“Thanks.”
She sits up, the sheets spilling off her to reveal that her heavy coat is gone with just a sleeveless blouse to cover her. That might not seem like much but it’s the most skin you’ve ever seen from her and the result is disturbing. Her shoulders are a much more healthy shade of gray but even they are mottled with light bruising, faint blotches forming around engorged veins that stand out from the rest of her flesh to a disgusting degree. Her arms are still covered in bandages.
“I...I really fucked up back then didn’t I? I didn’t shoot anyone, I just grabbed your stupid lamp and got burned for it. I should have just pushed the damn thing.”


>”You did the best anyone could reasonably expect.”

>”You did a lot better than I thought you would. Thank you.”

>”Perhaps in the future consider a more wise course of action.”

>”How are you feeling?”

>Ask about her arms.

>Punish her for blaspheming.

>Other

>>667344
>>”You did a lot better than I thought you would. Thank you.”
>”How are you feeling?”
>Ask about her arms.
>I have not told them about what you are.

>>667344
You helped prevent the consequences of a questionable choice I made despite excruciating pain. I'm both grateful and impressed.

>>667344
>”You did a lot better than I thought you would. Thank you.”
> "But that is not an excuse to blasphemy."

>>667344
>>667368
Seconding

>>667344
>>”You did the best anyone could reasonably expect.”
>>The lamp burns everything that touches it

>>667367
Also add
>”How are you feeling?”
>Ask about her arms.
And show her our arms too

“You did a lot better than I thought you would. Thank you.”

Beatrice sighs.
“I’m glad your expectations were so low.”

“Hmph. That is still no excuse for blasphemy however.”

“What?”

“This lamp,” you say as you stop to rap your knuckles against the package. “It is a holy relic and one that must be protected at all costs. Do not refer to it as ‘that damn thing’ again.”

“Well we’ve been doing a grand job of that. Maybe next time don’t leave it lying on the tracks right in front of a train.”

Your fist clenches and she shrinks back a little but you stay your hand. She’s right. This was your mistake and she paid the price for it.
“I made a ...questionable choice and you helped to prevent the consequences of it. I am not ungrateful. I’m actually quite impressed with you.”

“About time. I don’t suppose you not telling everyone in town about what I am was too much to ask too?”

“I didn’t, actually.”

She has the nerve to look surprised.
“Pardon?”

“I told nobody here about what you are. I owe you that much.”

Her jaw drops.
“Holy shit, you actually mean it for once. You are being nice to me. Or trying to anyway.”

“Was that not apparent.”

“No. I don’t know how to break this to you Orion but you’re not a particularly nice person. Even to regular people. I guess I’ve gotten used to grudging approval at best and constant reminders of my mistakes.”

“What you did does not deserve to be forgotten.”

“Ah, there it is. There’s the Orion I know. You piece of shit invert, I should have taken Zeno’s offer and left you to die.”

“But you wouldn’t have.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil and I...I don’t want to be the kind of person who chooses evil ever again.”
She sighs again as she looks down at her bandaged hands.
“Though I guess the lamp has different ideas. It didn’t like what it saw.”


>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”

>Show her your hands.

>”Are you ready to leave.”

>”I will not apologize for my prior treatment of you if that is what you are seeking.”

>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>”I’m a very nice person to people who aren’t witches.”

>Other

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.
>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>>667448
>Show her your hands.
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.
>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>>667448
>>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.

>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.
Adequate?! She left us to push that dinky cart all by ourselves! I mean it's not like if she want there we would have had to do the same shit anyway.

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>”I’m a very nice person to people who aren’t witches.”

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.

>>667496
> In a very nice person...
Citation needed!

>>667520
Well we were sort of nice to that kid whose name I forgot

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”

>Show her your hands.

>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>>667448
>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.
>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>>667448
>>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>>Show her your hands.
>>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

>”The lamp burns everything that touches it.”
>Show her your hands.
>”For what it’s worth I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

You shake your head and hold out one of your gauntleted hands.
“As far as I can tell it judges nothing. It’s fire is such that it burns everything it touches, holy or unholy. There is no shame there.”
You slowly unbuckle one of your gauntlets to reveal your left arm, a limb that has long since been burned char-black. You hold it out to her and watch as the witch just stares at it.

“Is that really from the lamp?”

“Of course. It asks a heavy price every time it is brought forth. Do not call on it lightly.”

Beatrice unwraps one of her own arms and brings it up to contrast against yours. It bears the exact same shade and with a short hiss of pain, she clenches the blistered hand into a fist.
“Will the pain stop?”

“Eventually. But the scars will never leave.”

The witch snorts, a raspy noise that sounds like a small animal choking to death but was probably intended to be a chuckle.
“Oh, however will I live with such scars marring my perfect appearance?”

“So take heart in knowing that this is no divine judgement upon you. The Wheel God burns for that is his nature and to gaze into the sun is to suffer. And for what my own opinion is worth, I have found you to be an adequate companion.”

She blinks and when she next speaks her voice is small.
“Is it bad that that means a lot to me? Even though it’s a fucking shitty thing to say to anyone?”

“Being adequate is a step up from what I once thought you to be.”

“Thanks. But even if the lamp just burns all it touches, what if God was there? What would he think of me?”

“He would likely incinerate you. His forgiveness is for humans.”

“Your bedisde manner is about as terrible as the rest of you. I can’t say I’ll miss it when you leave.”

“Then you are staying here after all? In Enoch?”

“I guess so. This is what I wanted, isn’t it?”

It is probably for the best. You work better alone anyway.
“Then goodbye.”

“Wait!”
The witch’s cry stops you halfway through the door.

“Yes?”

“Why the hell are you carrying that thing around anyway? And why Dis?”


>”It’s a long story.” Leave.

>Tell her of your mission.

>”It is better that you do not know.”

>Other

>>667596
>Tell her of your mission.

>>667596
>>Tell her of your mission.

>>667596
>Tell her of your mission.

>>667596
>>Tell her of your mission.

>>667596
>Tell her of your mission.

>>667596
Beatrice a qt

>>667596
>Tell her of your mission.

> And that you did not ask for it, but it must be done and you cannot ask someone to do it in your stead.

> Mention the Innkeepers concern for her as well, and that just as the lamp didn't judge she also will not find salvation in ingesting gunpowder. What redemption she might find will lie in the choices she makes and actions she takes. Perhaps if she lives as a human, whether or not her wick relights, that will be redemption enough.

>>667596
> tell her of your mission
The king sent me to try putting Humpty Dumpt- err, I mean I intend to resurrect God.

>>667628
Or if that is not possible, make sure Dis is erased and forgotten for it's sins.

>>667596

>Tell her of your mission.

You turn around and heft the wrapped-up lamp off from your back and dump it onto the floor, careful not to let its light show. You note that the witch doesn’t shy away from it like you had been expecting her to. Instead she almost seems to reach out wistfully for it but she pulls her hands back just in time.
“You already know exactly what this is. You knew it back in Sacrament.”:

“How could I not? You’re carting around a piece of God and trying to act like it’s nothing. How did you even get that?”

“That’s a long story and one I’d rather not tell. Just know that I saw the sun as it shattered in the sky and I was able to catch a piece of it as it fell. It would have burned out years ago but as luck would have it I happened to have a most fitting receptacle to keep it in.”
As luck would have it? That was one way to see it you suppose. You’d seen dear friends die for that ‘luck’.
“God was dragged to the horizon and slaughtered, cut apart and split open. There is only one city upon the horizon, upon the very edge of the world. And it reminds the only place that still prospers now that the Ages have run out and the world has stopped. They even boast of it!”

“Dis,” Beatrice says unnecessarily.

“They have stolen away the sun and I would have it back, even if I have to use this wayward spark to relight the ashes! Or at the very least I would see the city burned and forgotten so that they could at least die with the rest of us.”

“Have it back? You mean bring back the sun? The whole thing? Orion, that’s crazy.”

“You know more of this than I do, Beatrice. But even I know that gods do not die as mortals do. Whether it be earth or darkness or fire itself, their corpses make up the world we live in. And I bear a true spark of the Wheel God’s will and I know I am not alone in that respect. Dis still bears the sun’s power and bend it to their own ends, how else can they prosper? I have to believe that it’s possible.”

“Three brothers and seven sinners,” Beatrice whispers. “The old lady’s fortune.”

“Yes. If I am to believe her then I am not alone. There are ten pieces of the Wheel God that still burn bright, even if most of them have been claimed by evil. Surely all ten would be enough to make the world change once more.”

“But what if you can’t? I mean, that’s either the last best hope for the world or the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. So what’ll you die if it doesn’t work?”

1/2

>>667758
“I’ll die probably. In all honesty I should already be dead so that thought doesn’t bother me. What does is the idea that I might die without at least trying. Everyone is doing their best to survive in this world Beatrice but doing so is just prolonging the end. Every day the fire grows more distant, the world colder and the dark stronger. Mankind now sits before but a single candle, every day spent begging and relying upon the mercy of those monsters who owe us none. And one day they will blow it out. It’s this or nothing.”

“Shit,” Beatrice breathes.

You pick up the lamp-post once more and shoulder it across your back.
“You will have a good life in Enoch, I think. The people here are ever-grateful and will leave you alone. But just as the lamp does not possess the cognition required to judge or damn you, neither can the gunpowder save you. If you truly seek redemption you would do well to seek it in the choices you make and the actions you take. Even with all this gunpowder nonsense you’re still just just being a witch of a different stripe, still too concerned with power. But the barkeep was greatly concerned for you despite what you said to him and such respect was earned through your deeds and your sacrifice, not the power of your magic. Perhaps just living as a human, wick or no wick, is what you need to find the light.”

Beatrice looks down and says nothing.

“I hope that someday you do, Beatrice. Goodbye.”

You turn to leave but you are once again stopped by the witch’s cry.
“Wait!”

“What now?”
You turn back but stop the moment you see Beatrice weakly struggling out from bed. She lands on both feet and winces as she uses her injured hand to brace herself against the wall. In just her unsleeved blouse and bloomers, she is far too indecent and you find yourself averting your gaze automatically.

That doesn’t seem to stop the witch however as she does her best to stumble towards you.
“Fuck you! You know Orion, you almost had me going there. I almost thought you weren’t just some stuffy sod with a clump of mud in between his fucking ears. But you know what? I don’t give a shit about what you think of me! And I’m not going to waste away in some shitty village knowing that the fate of the world rests in your incompetent hands! How am I supposed to sleep at night knowing that the only thing standing between us and eternal damnation is your dumb arse? Where are my pants?”

“Be silent. What are you doing?”

Beatrice groans.
“Orion maybe this has gotten blase to you but you’re on a quest to save the world. Do you really think I wouldn’t want to help?”


>Push her back into bed. She is still injured and too sick to take.

>Ask her to rethink this.

>”Fine. We’re leaving now so you best be ready.”

>”Did any of what I said to you sink in at all?”

>”Put your clothes on.”

>Strike her for flagrant disrespect.

>Other

>>667764
>Push her back into bed. She is still injured and too sick to take.

She can follow when she's better. We cannot wait.

>>667764
>”Fine. We’re leaving now so you best be ready.”
>”Put your clothes on.”

>>667769
We're taking the train, there's no way she could catch up

>>667764
>”Did any of what I said to you sink in at all?”
But I love her so
>”Fine. We’re leaving now so you best be ready.

>>667764
>>”Put your clothes on.”
because we are pure and not lewd
>”Did any of what I said to you sink in at all?”
when she makes it obvious it has not
>Long suffering sigh
>”Fine. We’re leaving now so you best be ready.”

That update took a bit longer than it should have, was eating.

>>667764
Supporting
>>667777

>”Did any of what I said to you sink in at all?”
>”Fine. We’re leaving now so you best be ready.
>”Put your clothes on.”

You just sigh and put your gauntlet back on, shrugging the head of your cloak up over your helmet. You keep your gaze firmly locked on the corner of the wall behind the witch rather than look at her directly.
“Did any of what I said to you sink in at all?”

“Maybe the wrong message. If I’m to find light with my actions alone surely it makes more sense for me to keep the power that lets me undertake them. To speak frankly as a human I’m kind of worthless. I need the gunpowder if I’m to do any good in the world.”

“There is more to doing good and bringing light than simply shooting the creatures of darkness.”

“In this day and age? Maybe not. But really Orion? You’re going to try and argue that I’m more likely to be redeemed if I just stay behind as someone’s housewife rather than coming with you and using my magic to help save the fucking world and revive the Wheel God?”

“I said nothing about housewives. And you’re supposed to do good out of the virtue in your heart not out of a desire to cheat forgiveness.”

“I’m not cheating it if I actually do it. And I have plenty of virtue!”

“Put your clothes on.”

“I would if I knew where they were. Give me a moment.”

“It’d best be a quick moment because I’m leaving now. Meet me at the train.”

Nearly ten minutes later the small train is properly stocked up and the two of you are ready to leave. The Mayor and the townsfolk of Enoch have gathered to set you off, many of them offering up what little food and drink they can spare to help you on your way. The smith hands you your staff and you give him a nod but say little else.

“Hold on a moment,” the Mayor says as he steps forward. “I thought the woman wanted to stay in Enoch.”

“She has changed he-”

“Nah,” Beatrice interrupts as she makes sure the doors in all of the carriages are locked and secure. “Most of you are cowards and I want nothing to do with you. Get stuffed.”

You stoke the fire and just like that ,with a piercing whistle and a blast of steam, you are ready to be off! The train thrums around you as if happy to finally be moving the way it had been made to do. It’s time to leave Enoch behind you and pursue the lonely rail that strikes out on a straight path to the end of the world.

Or so you thought.

In truth however, you are interrupted by a shout as a large and hairy man pushes his way through the crowd, running over to the rail and banging on the door to the locomotive before you leave.

It’s Abraham, the barkeep who helped you fight the cultists.

You swing the door open.
“What is it?”

“Let me come with you,” he says slowly, barely out of breath.

“I beg your pardon?”
You had heard him right, you just didn’t believe it.

1/2

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>>667857
“I heard it all,” he says. “Most of it anyway. I was at the door and I couldn’t help it, I’m sorry. I know what you carry and I know what you’re trying to do with it. And I want to help. You remember what you said to me yesterday about fighting the dark? If you can make the world change even just a little I want to be there.”

“You have a place here already. You own the inn-”

“Argh, my sister and her son mostly run it! I’m just the guy by the counter. They don’t need you as much as I owe you.”

“Owe?”

“For what I owe your cause. You and her both fought for this town and all I did before that was sneer and get into fights with you. I don’t want to be that kind of man.”

Before you can reply Beatrice sticks her head out window of the carriage behind you, her hat jammed firmly back over her head.
“Oh, it’s the barkeep!”

Abe jumps just a little.
“How are you feeling? I didn’t get t-”

“Get fucked. We aren’t playing around, this is serious shit.”

“I am serious. I don’t know any magic but I can fight as well as any man and I can cook as well! Have you really just been eating those rations raw?”

Beatrice retreats from the window and opts to try and get into the engine compartment where you are instead only to find that you locked the door.
“Orion,” she wines from the other side of the door, “tell him to fuck off. We’ve got to go.”


>”We have no need for you but people here still do. Surely you have a wife or children of your own.”

>”You’re not coming.”

>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”

>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.

>"Surely you must have more reason than that."

>Other

>>667859
>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.

>>667859
overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
>"Surely you must have more reason than that."
Depending on his answers we will allow or not. Leaning towards yes though.

>>667859
>"Surely you must have more reason than that."

>>667859
>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.

If she's coming, then so can he.

>wines

Goddamn it.

Anyway folks, I have work in about half an hour or so I'm going to end this session here. The vote will remain open until I get back from work, at which point I will update once and then the session will continue tomorrow. Hopefully at the actual time this time.
Thanks for putting up with the hiatus and for me being even rustier with update speeds than usual. See you tomorrow!

>>667859
>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
If he truly remains adamant
>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.

Also can we try recharging the Lantern a bit more once the train is safely underway?

>>667859
>>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
>>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.
it's the right of every human to choose to fight for the light

>>667859
>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
>"Don't you have a wife and children?"
>"Surely you must have more reason than that."

On one hand, he'll probably provide amusing banter with Beatrice. On the other hand, he will surely die. Decisions, decisions.

>>667859
>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
> "But your bravery is commendable. If you are willing, I can think of no better reason to risk your life. Allow me to bless you and give you what solace I still can in these dark times so that stay or come you can be reminded of the light and the flame that still burns in each man."

Strongest benediction in case it's the fucking imp again.

>”We have no need for you but people here still do. Surely you have a wife or children of your own.”

>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”

1. ACTUAL food
2. Someone who will ACTUALLY help fuel the train
3. Maybe we can teach him runes or some shot or at least how to properly fight

Also supporting >>667955 idea of a benediction in case Imp McImp is trying to hitch a stealth ride

Is Barkeep one of the seven sinners?

Also >Benediction.

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Guys, why did you vote to immediately let Beatrice come with us? She's going to think we like her!

>>667955
Benedictions don't really do anything to imps when they use a human body though

>>668015
If she comes on to us we can just punch her in the face again, then go to bed satisfied that that day was a good day because we got to beat up a poor defenses gir- witch, chastise an evil witch.

>>668013
maybe we'll just have to find out

>>668015
she helps her and arguably we are interested in her redemption besides we can use all the help we can get in Dis

>>668019
Inncorrect Benedictions can be used as a Indicator that the person is a witch or a Imp in disguise

>>668015
Are you kidding me? Ol' Abe here is going to be fucking Beatrice so hard we can't meditate!

>>667859
>>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
>>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.

>>668034
Your body is aching, dripping with sweat as you heave rhythmically. Beatrice is clearly flagging, her usually pale flesh flushed and glistening with the effort of keeping up with your demands. But the coal cart is still mostly full, the furnace is insatiable and it is a long way to Dis. So you both keep shoveling.

>>668019
More like the one we used was too weak last time. We have stronger ones.

>>”If you overheard us than you must know how dangerous it is. It’s very possible that we will ALL die.”
>>”Sure, climb on.” It can’t hurt.

“Be quiet Beatrice, if I took you then I can at least consider him.”

“What?”

You ignore her banging at the door and just shake your head at Abe.
“It would appear that she does not share your goodwill.”

The barkeep seems to be doing his best to ignore her.
“And what of me? You said you’d at least consider me just then.”

“Hrmph.”
You look him over and see little that you dislike. He’s large and strong and you already know that he knows his way around a cudgel quite well. But will he be of any use?
“If you overheard us before than you must know how dangerous this is. It is very possible that we will all die.”

His face is hard-set and resolute.
“I understand.”

“You said you had a sister but surely a man your age has a wife? A child? Would you leave them behind?”

His face doesn’t change.
“If you had asked me that question a year ago you would have been right Orion. But even if worst comes to worst this railway is just carrying me to meet them.”

Oh, you’ve seen this type before. But can you really dispute him? While he might not be as useful as you or Beatrice in an actual fight it would be nice to have someone to help you fuel the train. You can already tell that between her frailty and her attitude the witch will be of little aid there. And to have a cook after so long alone in the wasteland would be divine.
And in the end warm bodies are warm bodies. You’ve made this calculation before and it gets a little easier each time.
“Climb aboard son, it’s the right of every human to choose to fight for the light and I’ll not deny them that.”

“That’s not what you told Marcus,” Beatrice grumbles from behind the door.

“That was different. Ignore her.”

“Thank you. You won’t regret this!”
He tries to climb aboard into the engine compartment but you catch him by the arm as he does so. The tips of your fingertips take on the faintest of glows.

Wick: 7/10

The Purging Benediction passes through him without effect and you breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing you need is another imposter situation. This one was a lot stronger than the basic thing you hit Jeremiah with, empowered with actual Wick. Surely just a human shell wouldn’t protect an imp from this?
You pull him aboard.
“See to it that I do not.”

And with that, the train settles into motion at long last and you leave Enoch and every other town behind you. Ahead there is only concrete and the solitary rail and soon enough, the end of the world.

If only it had been that easy.

Sorry about taking so long about the post-work update, I got caught up in some pointless stuff. Next session will be in a few hours when I wake up.

Sleep tight.

Sorry guys, next session will be tomorrow instead. Don't feel well.

>>670110
get better Ouro.

>>670110
Look after yourself, Ouro.

>>668301
Hope you get better.

So can we charge up the Lamppost while Beatrice and Innkeeper work the train?

Session starting in an hour or so.

With all of this magic at their command witches can accomplish a terrible variety of feats.My brethren and I have done our best to catalogue them and to sort their many signs into different categories as follows bel-

The train jumps just a little as it goes over a bump in the track and your writing is interrupted halfway with a splash of ink as the impact sends your pen skittering across the page. You take a deep breath and set the journal down. You’ve been doing your best to stay at work but this is not the first mistake you’ve made. You need to find something else to do that isn’t writing.

But what? It’s been several hours since you left the protective bubble of light around Enoch, stepping out from radiant shores and setting sail back into the night. The sun has set so even that twilight is gone and the train has become a moving oasis within the darkness.
You look out from the window and see nothing but concrete to every side. No towns, no other railways. Just an endless concrete plain and this single rail ahead.

The train is chugging along nicely, not particularly fast but quick enough. All the outside doors and windows have been locked and barricaded and the train’s great burning eye should hopefully deter any unwanted guests.
Or perhaps it would serve as invitation.

You let those morose thoughts recede for now. You cannot stomach idle hands or idle thought and with the journal set down you must find some other productive means with which to occupy yourself. You would shovel more coal but the engine is still running fine.

And what of your companions? You can’t imagine they’re getting along well. Abe seemed desperate to make amends but Beatrice didn’t seem to want him to come along at all. You don’t know why nor do you particularly wish to entangle yourself in such pointless matters but it might prove important later on.

You blow the ink dry and push the thin little book closed.


>Walk down into the carriages and talk to Beatrice.

>Walk down into the carriages and talk to Abraham.

>Patrol up and down the length of the train.

>Stay here and top off the rest of your Wick.

>Stay here and work on relighting the lamp post.

>Go to sleep. It's well into night.

>Other

>>673695
>>Walk down into the carriages and talk to Beatrice.
>She should tell him her nature before it comes up.

>>673695
>Stay here and top off the rest of your Wick.

>>673695
>Walk down into the carriages and talk to Beatrice.

>>673695

>Stay here and work on relighting the lamp post.
this is charging the sunshard, right?

....Not that I advise doing it, but does snorting gunpowder/flammable stuff enable Beatrice to temporarily charge things?

>Walk down into the carriages and talk to Beatrice.

You don’t particularly want to get involved but it is something to occupy yourself with and if the problem turns out to be serious you’d rather not have to find out the hard way later. You get to your feet and unlock the door, having slid it shut and barred it to stop anyone from intruding on you. Beatrice has expressed interest in your journal in the past and you wanted to protect it from being tampered with.

You leave the engine room and step into the first of the two carriages. The faint stench of rotting flesh and feather still lingers on but it’s a smell you’ve already grown accustomed to. Abraham is here, seated by the Zeno’s old map but when he hears you enter he rises immediately.
“What’s wrong? Do you need help with the food?”

“Nothing. Stay at ease.”
You’re not here to talk to him. Not yet at any rate.

Beatrice is in the last carriage sitting in the corner with her knees drawn up tight and her head covered. At first you almost think her sleeping but the way she twitches when you enter proves that a lie. You can see one bloodshot eye regard you from underneath her hat.

“Beatrice. Are you feeling well?”

“No.”

You think for a moment and rephrase the question.
“Are you feeling uncommonly ill?”

“No.”

“Good. Now tell me what is wrong between the two of you. If it’s about that little fight you need to stop. Abe is sorry for his actions.”

“Oh who gives a fuck about that, that’s not it.”
She groans, drawing it out long and loud.
“Look, I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but I’m not great with people. I prefer to be alone and without people bothering me.”

“He won’t bother you.”

“Yes he will! You’re doing it right now!”

“Then you shouldn’t have come with me.”

“You barely count as a person Orion. All you do is grump about and leave me alone most of the time. I didn’t think we’d start taking on random arseholes every time we stop.”


>”It’s not your place to dictate policy here.”

>”So that it’s it? Nothing? Stop wasting my time.”

>”You should at least tell him what you are or I will.”

>Give her a kick.

>”Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable.”

>”We need all the bodies we can get.”

>”Being bothered is the least of what you deserve, you can’t complain.”

>Just leave.

>Other

>>673904
>>”Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable.”
>He can cook, He can help with the train, He has courage if not skill to fight. He chooses to go of his own free will and he is of age. He's also likely the last person we will see until we reach Dis. To borrow the parlance of another, 'Suck it up'. If anything him here means you'll have to do less work in the train.
then whisper
>”You should at least tell him what you are or I will. If only because him finding out is bound to happen and he will respond badly.”

>>673695
>Walk down into the carriages and talk to Beatrice.

>>673904
>>”So that it’s it? Nothing? You should at least tell him what you are or I will.”

>>673904
>>”Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable.”

>>673904
>I'm sure you will change your tone once you've had something decent to eat.

>>673904
>”Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable.”

>>673970
+1

>>673904

>”Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable.”

>”Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable.”

You can feel your brow crease beneath your helmet and you have to stop yourself from just turning around and leaving her here to fume.
“Unfortunately we are on a quest to relight the sun and save the world, not a quest to make Beatrice feel comfortable. If this is the worst you suffer then be glad of it.”

“I know that! But ugh, he’s not even going to be useful!”

“I’m sure you’ll change your tone when you’ve had something decent to eat. He can cook, he can help with the train, he has the courage if not always the skill to fight. I will not stop someone from choosing to fight the dark Beatrice and neither should you. So just deal with it and be thankful that I haven’t called upon you to help shovel the coal.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I could and would.”

“But you’ve got Abe right there! Surely he’s much more useful to you for that!”
She trails off immediately afterwards.
“Oh. Fuck you Orion.”

“See? I’m glad we agree.”


>”You must tell him about what you are.”

>Ask about the gunpowder.

>Ask what she knows of Dis.

>Tell her to stop propositioning you.

>Force her to come shovel coal. You must remind her that your threats are never empty.

>Just leave.

>Other

>>674033
>“But you’ve got Abe right there! Surely he’s much more useful to you for that!”
>She trails off immediately afterwards.
>“Oh. Fuck you Orion.”

>“See? I’m glad we agree.”

KEK, this is why you do not argue with a Lamplighter, they will find a way to turn it around on you.

>Tell her to stop propositioning you.
>”You must tell him about what you are. he will find out eventually, and telling him now is better than waiting for the alternative.”
>Ask what she knows of Dis.

>>674033
>”You must tell him about what you are.”
>Ask about the gunpowder.
>Ask what she knows of Dis.
>Tell her to stop propositioning you.
All the things

>>674033
>>”You must tell him about what you are.”
>>Ask about the gunpowder.
what about charcoal? maybe not for guns, but were there Flame Rites that she used to know?

>>674033
>>Ask what she knows of Dis.

>>674033
>>”You must tell him about what you are. he will find out eventually, and telling him now is better than waiting for the alternative.”
>>Ask about the gunpowder.
>>Ask what she knows of Dis.

>>674033
> ask what she knows of Dis
Nothing else.

>”You must tell him about what you are.”
>>Ask about the gunpowder.
>>Ask what she knows of Dis.


“Is that everything? Did you just come to moralize to me about the virtues of friendship?”

“No. How’s your gunpowder?”

“Over there.”
She points to the table by the wall and you spot the little keg atop it.
“I’ve already ate some if that’s what you’re asking about. And I’m not going to stop.”

Hrmph. Your little talk with her about being human may have had the opposite effect.
“I didn’t intend to ask that of you. But how much is left?”

“Enough hopefully. I don’t really think we’ll have a chance to find more.”

“And what will you do if you run out?”

“Don’t know.”
You get the feeling that her heart really isn’t in this conversation.
“Maybe I’ll eat something else. Maybe I’ll finally die!”

“What else can you eat for this? Does charcoal work?”

“A little. Anything that burns well can work but there’s not much that’s better than gunpowder. And most of the stuff is murder on the mouth. Have you ever tried to gnaw on a lump of coal? Because I have and it’s shit.”

“I can’t imagine gunpowder tastes good either.”

“It doesn’t but my sense of taste is about as derelict as the rest of me.”

Makes sense. No wonder she isn’t enthused about the prospect of a cook.
“And what can you do with the gunpowder anyway? Is it like a Flame Rite?”

“I wish. It’s nothing like that, got no Wick. Look, so your Wick is the fire inside of you right? You draw it out with the help of flame without and it lets you do things. That’s great. That’s not how it works for me. My magic is more of a give and take right now.”

“Explain.”

“I’m getting there, I’m getting there, fuck. So I’m always feeling like shit right? But when I take ‘powder I stop feeling bad and the stronger I take it the better I feel. But when I call upon it and use it I’m drawing it from that well so the more magic the worse I get. And I don’t really manipulate fire so much as it just ….come out of me. It’s hard to explain.”

“So why don’t you just store these charges and stay healthy?”

She looks at you as if you were an idiot.
“Because my body hates them? The good feeling the gunpowder gives is an investment I pay against my future health. The effect is temporary and once it’s gone I feel worse because my body hates my blood. How do you think I got to feeling shit in the first place?”

“So...you take gunpowder to temporarily relieve the ill effects you have from digesting gunpowder in the first place?”

“Yeah! Well that and magic.”

“What would happen if you just stopped.”

“I’d feel fucking terrible for one.”

“But if you go long enough without imbibing wouldn’t it be clear of you? You’d return to normal.”

1/2

>>674284
“This is my normal. And it wouldn’t work anyway. Look at this.”
She takes off her hat and holds a finger to her nose, blocking one nostril. Her nose darkens and bruises itself before your very eyes as blood slowly oozes out in a thick ropey string.
“This is easier than cutting my palm. My hands still hurt and once I get cut I don’t always stop bleeding normally.”

She flicks the bead of blood onto the ground and rises to her feet, a tiny flame coming from the tip of a gloved finger as she holds it to her cracked lips. She breathes out, the same combustible breath you saw her use back in Augustine. The tiny jet of fire that results strikes the bead of blood sitting upon the floor and the little thing combusts instantly in a burst of yellow flame.

“You see? It’s a part of me now. If I swallowed a lit match I’d probably explode. So I don’t even know if going back is possible. And even if I could I’m not going to.”

“Then consider using less of it. I doubt we’ll be able to locate any in Dis.”

“Probably. But you never know. You know what they say about Dis!”

“I don’t actually.”

“Oh. Never mind then.”

You step closer and she immediately retreats, backing herself back into the corner.
“What do you know of Dis anyway? Have you ever stepped foot there?”

“No! I know what everyone knows and little else. First city of the First Men, built atop the shores of the Sea of Mud. It’s the only one of their cities to survive from the First Age to the Second to the Third and whatever this is now. But it never took part of all that unified mankind business, it always set itself apart as its own state. Right from the Second Age and on, that’s why they called it the Fallen City back then.”

“And what do ‘they’ say about it?”

“That you can get anything there,” she says softly. “For a price. So maybe I’m not as short on gunpowder as it looks.”

“And what do the witches tell of it?”

“Oh yeah, let me just spill all the sweet Dis stories we swapped around at our local fucking witch-orgy.”
She stops but is forced to continue when you don’t reply.
“We didn’t exactly get together and talk all that often you know! But I do know that it’s the one place in the world where witchcraft isn’t a crime. Where being something other than human is just something you are, not a reason all on its own to get lynched. I heard tell from a friend of a friend of an enemy of a friend of an acquaintance of mine that you can just go about your business there and as long as you can pay rent they don’t give a fuck.”

“You sound rather wistful.”

“No I don’t. I’m not particularly looking forward to going there.”

“Hrmph.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. But speaking of which, you need to tell Abe what you really are. Better that he knows of it now than for it to be a surprise later.”

2/3

>>674407
“I thought we already talked about this when you decided not tell Enoch about me? Have you gone back on that? Should I just put on a placard with WITCH written on it and direct myself to the nearest stocks already?”

“A town I was willing to overlook for your services. But a companion is another. You need to tell him.”

“I don’t know, maybe I was enjoying having a day where I can get by without my shame being thrown up into my face.”

“You are right to be ashamed.”

“Fine, I’ll do it now.”

Beatrice just rolls her eyes and jams her hat back on before walking straight past you, bumping into your shoulder on the way. She bounces off with little effect for a moment before she screws up her face and walks into the other carriage.


>Perhaps you should supervise.

>Eavesdrop.

>Tend to your Wick and lamp-post instead. This doesn’t concern you.

>Other

>>674414
>Eavesdrop.

>>674414
>Perhaps you should supervise.

>>674414
>Eavesdrop.

>>674414
>>Eavesdrop.

>>674414
> eavesdrop
I understand shame but not how it applies to me.

>Eavesdrop.

It’s not that you don’t trust Beatrice. It’s just that you don’t trust Beatrice. Would she really say nothing and pretend she did? You wouldn’t put it past her. You exit the carriage with her and just keep walking as she stops next to Abe, looking as if you were continuing directly back to the engine room. But instead you stop just behind the partition between the main section of the carriage and the door. After a moment’s thought you swing the door open and then slam it shut for effect.
You’re not particularly accustomed to this but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. You need to make sure that the witch has taken your words to heart.

“So uh, hi Abe. My name is Beatrice.”

“I know. I’m sorry about what I said when we first met.”

“Oh who gives a fuck, I mean really?”

“That wasn’t the problem?”

“You overestimate how much I care about your opinion of me. It’s fine. You’re fine.”

“Thank you.”
A long silence falls before Abraham eventually breaks it again.
“Are you going to apologize as well? For what you said?”

“Nah.”

“Well how about some thanks?”

“No. I’m not going to have sex with you either.”

“What? What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh come on, you think I don’t know what you were doing with all that asking after me? I know you don’t have a wife either. Well too bad because…”
You hear her slam something down on the table, probably her hat.
“Because I’m ugly as sin!”

“You don’t look that ugly.”

“Excuse me.”

“Don’t get me wrong, your face is unfortunate. But whatever sickness ails you cannot hide the shape of your face, only obscure it. And appearance doesn’t matter because after what I saw yesterday I know you and your master are both good people. That is why I chose to come.”

“I’m a witch.”

You hear the chair grate backwards and slam into the side of the carriage. Is something happening? You can’t tell.


>Walk back in and accidentally interrupt the conversation.

>Try to peek around the partition without being seen.

>Just go back to the engine room. This doesn’t concern you.

>Other

>>674553
>Try to peek around the partition without being seen.

Go in if shit gets too heated though.

>>674553
>Walk back in and accidentally interrupt the conversation

>>674553
>>Walk back in and accidentally interrupt the conversation.

>>674553
>>Walk back in and accidentally interrupt the conversation.

>Walk back in and accidentally interrupt the conversation

You can’t quite tell what’s going on in there but this is starting to sound dangerous. You’d been hoping Beatrice would approach the subject with a little more tact and in hindsight that comes across as hopelessly naive. What did you think was going to happen?

You open the door to the engine room and slam it shut again as you stride in past the partition and back into the carriage. Beatrice and Abe are both standing, the chair where Abe had been sitting lying on its side against the floor. They both freeze and turn to look at you as you enter.

“As you were,” you say. “Just patrolling the train.”

Both of them slowly sit back down, Abe grabbing his chair from where it had fallen. Beatrice’s hat is off, her face completely uncovered.

“It’s not like that now,” Beatrice continues, clearly uncomfortable with you being here at all. “Got a brand and everything for all the good that does me. I’m not the same person I was.”

Abraham is just staring at you and back to Beatrice as if he’s trying to put the pieces together.

“It’s not fair,” Beatrice continues. “Everyone gets like this. I made a mistake a long time ago and there’s never anything I can apparently do to make up for it.”

You can’t just sit by and merely observe this blatant lie.
“Your ‘mistake’ is who you are, Beatrice. You can do your best and I hope you will but you will never be clean of it.”

Abe furrows his hairy brow.
“Hey, I don’t know what’s going on here bu-”

He is swiftly interrupted by the train itself as the carriage begins to rattle and shake from side to side! You all manage to grab hold of something and a few moments later the rattling subsides with a tremendous jolt that shudders across the entire train.

“What was that?”

Abe struggles back over to the window and peers out, his face pressed up right against it.
“There’s no concrete,” he speaks, half-whispered in awe. “We’ve hit the edge!”

He’s right. You’re back in the wasteland, the concrete shell broken irreparably and with just the rail itself continuing a foot above the bare earth with just a few scattered concrete plinths left to keep it up. You can see dying trees in the distance up ahead.

“Orion!,” Beatrice shrieks. “Get the fuck back to the engine room and keep lookout! What if the rail had stopped there too! We could have died!”

She’s not incorrect. You should have been watching ahead.


>Return to the engine room.

>Put Beatrice on lookout duty.

>Put Abe on lookout duty.

>Not until you make sure Beatrice won’t try to sponge pity where she deserves none.

>Other

>>674741
>Return to the engine room.

>>674741
>>Return to the engine room.
>"would pity make you a better person?" leave with that comment

>>674741
>>Return to the engine room.
>"Abraham I am aware of her nature, would a Lamplighter bring along a witch, even a sealed one if he was unsure about her desire to better than her mistake?"
>"would pity make you a better person?"

>>674741
>Return to the engine room.

>>674741
> return to the engine room
We are turning into a hopeless gossip.

>>674741
>"I know what she is"
>Return to the engine room

>Return to the engine room.

You nod, acknowledging that she is right without directly saying so as you walk back down the carriage towards the engine room. But you stop as you pass the former barkeep.
“Abraham, I am aware of her nature. Do you think that a Lamplighter would bring a witch, even a sealed one, if he was unsure about her desire to be better than her mistake?”

“You brought me along because you outed me to the whole damn town and I didn’t have a choice,” Beatrice grumbles.

“And you, what are you trying to achieve with comments like that and before? Pity won’t make you a better person.”

“I ain’t fishing for pity! Look at you go, acting like you know all about the damn human condition when you’ve never even a kissed a g-”

You step into the engine room and shut the door, drowning her voice out quite effectively.

She was right that you needed to be paying more attention to the track ahead however. Let them sort out their business by themselves, all this gossip-mongering is beneath you. You stand by the window and let the landscape pass by, the dim and dismal wasteland lit only by scattered stars and red moon.

There are pieces of concrete littered here and there across the earth in the distance, most of them ancient enough to be nothing more than piles of gravel. There are trees up ahead, a forest of dead and dying trees not unlike the one you passed on your way to Sacrament. But not every plant is dwindling.
A strange pale grass covers the hills up ahead in a faint fuzz, pale white night-flowers in the distance.

And it is only because of these catching your eye that you see what lies among the hills. At least a hundred feet from the rail, maybe more, is a dark cave set into the front of one of the hills. Several more tunnels come out onto ledges above it and helps lend it the impression of some vast and misshapen face set directly into the hillside itself. You doubt that it’s a natural formation.
Is that Zeno’s lair? You were told that it was up along the Dis rail.

Or perhaps it’s nothing, just a trick of the light and a natural albeit coincidental landscape. Or even worse it could be the trap, the lair of something foul. Any number of beasts make their homes within the wastelands.


>Stop the train.

>Keep the train going. Whatever it is you don’t need it.

>Other

>>674929
>Stop the train.

>>674929
>>Stop the train.

>>674929
>Keep the train going. Whatever it is you don’t need it.

>>674929
>Stop the train.

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Ugh sorry guys I feel a little fuzzy still. I might pick this up tomorrow instead.

>>675011
It's all good amigo

>>675011
See a giddamn doctor Ouro how many damn times are you going to be/feel sick before you see one?

Was the wick/Inner flame partially inspired by the occultist origin from darkest dungeon?

>>675011
tis fine, better some than none.

>>675033
It's not so much 'sick' sick as it is 'I feel like a wrung-out dishrag' sick.

>>675057
Go get rest Ouro.

>>675057
Nigga that's basically the same thing

Go see a doctor let them know this a common issue for you and see what they can do for you

>>674929
> stop the train
Dungeon delving time!

Session in an hour. I don't have work today and I feel pretty good so this should be a nice long one to make up for all this.

Ready when you are.

>Stop the train.

Even if it isn’t Zeno’s lair it’s almost certainly worth investigating. If it’s just a cave then you lose nothing. And if it is the den of some other beast? Then you will rid yourself of it. The damn thing is too close to the concrete plains for your liking anyway.
You pull the lever and slam on the brake just hard enough that the train should slowly coast to a stop by the start of the hills.

You look out the window as the train begins to slow and do your best to note the nature of the earth below. Hard-packed ground by the look of it, mixed with rock and gravel. As far as soil goes this should be pretty safe. But why would a witch make their home here?
There’s something oddly refreshing about being back in the wasteland. After all the safety of the concrete plains had proved to be not all that. Three towns you passed and all three were under siege in one way or another. There are no safe places anymore and at least the wasteland is honest about it.

You go to rap on the door to the carriage and then stop as you hear a faint murmur beyond. Can you really listen in on their conversations all the way from here? You hadn’t even considered that.

“-that’s all.”
A raspy voice that is unmistakably Beatrice’s.

“Right. And I know your mission already. But where did he get that thing in the first place? How?”
A deeper and more mellow voice. Abraham.

“No idea. Orion doesn’t talk about himself. At all. Don’t know where he’s coming from or why or even really who he is. Other than a pain in the ar-oh woah, we’re slowing! What’s the deal?”

You shake your head and do your best to clear your thoughts. What’s wrong with you? You’re becoming an incurable gossip. You slam the door open and enter the carriage with your wick and staff held high.
“I’ve sighted what just might be Zeno’s lair. We’re continuing on foot.”

“On foot? Across the wasteland? Into a witch’s home? On foot?”
Beatrice doesn’t waste any time making her displeasure known.

“I don’t see any other option. And Zeno is dead, the earth should be silent. Unless you think another witch has moved in already?”

You both know how unlikely that is and for a moment that seems to stymy her.
“The imp is probably there!”

The staff creaks as your grip on it tightens.
“I hope so.”

“Even still, I’d rather not set boot on earth unless I absolutely have to,” Beatrice grumbles. “Not out here in the wasteland. Come on Abe, back me up here!”

The former barkeep just shrugs.
“I trust Orion’s judgement. But maybe we could sit out and keep watch for a little while? See if anything comes out to look at the train.”

“You fucking coward.”


>”That’s enough. We’re heading out now.”

>Head out to the lair. “Feel free to stay behind if you want Beatrice.”

>Stay on the train and keep watch first.

>”And what would you have us do?”

>Other

>>678163
>>Head out to the lair. “Feel free to stay behind if you want Beatrice.”

>>678163
> "Would you have us leave the I'm behind if he was there? To let him continue to be a danger to the townsfolk? Are you choosing now, to walk away from evil?

> "Do you think an Imp is going to be the worst we face on our quest, because if so you might as well go back to the town."

>>678163
>Head out to the lair. “Feel free to stay behind if you want Beatrice.”

>>678163
>Carry Beatrice to the lair.

>Head out to the lair. “Feel free to stay behind if you want Beatrice.”

You shift the barricade over the carriage door to the side with a grunt, unlocking the door and opening it wide to the wasteland beyond.
“Feel free to stay behind if you want. Better we find the imp now then avoid him and let him hurt more people, I thought you’d understand that.”

Beatrice just groans and steps out beside you, the two of you making contact with the earth at the same time. Loose puffs of dust kick up as Abraham follows.
“Do you feel that?,” Beatrice hisses.

You kneel and drag a gauntleted finger through the dust before swinging open your helmet to smell it. The faint sense of cold is familiar.
“Witch-chill but it’s old. Old or very weak.”

“Just old,” Beatrice says. “Ain’t no witch this weak.”

“Then he’s not here?,” Abe asks. “We aren’t going to get sick walking in this, are we?”

“This? Nah.”
Beatrice stops to think for a moment.
“Although….”

“Stop that.”
You point over the top of the hillside.
“It’s that direction, three or four hills down. Start walking.”

The three of you make your way up the first hall, a gentle slope coat in short pale grass that you don’t trust for a single second. The earth here is more fertile than it looks.

“You know this isn’t so bad,” Beatrice says as she trudges along behind you, her boots kicking up clumps of grass and soil. “Feels kind of comforting really.”

You reach the top of the first hill and look out across the rolling expanse that lies beyond. You can spot the jagged hill that is hopefully Zeno’s lair in the middle distance, not far to go now.
The moon is large tonight, directly above you and is bathing the landscape a gentle red. It’s light does little to the darkness and only really serves to better contrast it.

“The moon’s bleeding yet again,” Beatrice says conversationally.

“Isn’t this normal?”
Abraham peers up at it.
“It’s been like that my whole life.”

Beatrice snorts a little and then stops.
“Fucking hell you’re young.”

“I’m twenty seven!”

“Yeah and? Sorry. Sometimes I forget not everyone remembers the way the world used to be. The moon’s supposed to be white.”

“Silver,” you interrupt. “The moon was silver.”

“They’re basically the same fucking colour!”

“I remember hearing of that now that you speak of it, Abe says. “But why the change? I thought only the sun was broken.”

“The moon is a shadow of the sun,” you reply. “She mourns the Wheel God’s passing.”

Beatrice shakes her head.
“He.”

“Pardon?”

“The moon’s a he.”

“Not the way I heard it.”

“Well the way you heard it was wrong. And he wasn’t made with the sun. He’s older than that.”

You just shake your head and start making your way down the next hillside, Beatrice and Abe still talking softly behind you.
1/2

>>678373
“I seem to vaguely recall being told Orion’s version of the story as a child though in the frontier these days we had little time for tales.”

“To be honest I don’t really know if anyone’s right. I was just saying the way I heard it.”

“And how did you hear it?”

“”You really want to know? I mean, I guess we don’t have anything else to do right now.”


>”Be silent.”

>Let them talk.

>Scout ahead of them.

>Other

>>678379
>>Let them talk.

>>678379
>Let them talk.

>>678379
>>Let them talk
Damn, why do all the good quests run at 12am onwards in my timezone

>>678379
>Let them talk.

Maybe a reminder to do so quietly though.

>>678379
>>Let them talk.
>>Scout ahead of them.

Y'know chatter is probably going to get us ambushed right?

I took too goddamn long for this update. Just give me a moment.

File: NotAnAccurateDepictionInT(...).png (1.24 MB, 646x983)

1.24 MB PNG

>Let them talk.

You’ve still got quite a walk to go before you reach the lair, surely there can be no harm in letting them talk. You must admit that you are somewhat interested in just what story of the moon she has to tell. And even if it all it results in is Beatrice spouting heresy you can just hand out the appropriate punishment and wash your hands of it.
You’d have hoped by now however that she’d have learned not to issue such misinformation in your presence.

“So it all starts in the time before time, the age before ages. When the world was but a shallow sea of mud through which the gods waded. There were hundreds of them in every shape and size and they were free to cavort and play and devour each other and their mortal detritus as they pleased. There was no time and no rules and no morality and every living thing that swam and hid and wallowed in the mud shared in this primal joy.”
Her voice falters, the witch noticeably slipping out of what she had once memorized by rote.
“By which I mean it was bad. Everything beneath the gods suffered greatly. And among those was the Moon, a lesser god with a heart filled with empathy and love for those lesser than himself. But he could not defend them nor could he overthrow the rule of Ur and Im, father and mother of the 333 divinities. So he would swim to the walls of the sea of mud and would cry out for help into the Without, the steep black walls of the universe.”

You’re not sure what to make of this. Your own version of the tale had no such mention and Beatrice is spending a little too much time on discussing the old gods for your comfort. But you won’t stop her just now.

“And eventually something answered his call and the Wayward Flame scaled the walls of Without to dash herself upon the world. And the gods shrank back in fear for she was radiant and made of flesh that burned and gave off light, something that had never existed before. She was light and for the first time the gods knew themselves to be of darkness, a quality that they did not even know the existence of before the coming of the Wayward Flame’s first light. Her every step boiled the sea of mud around her and the gods quailed for this too was alien, a foreign sensation that had been brought from the Lands Without. Heat existed for the first time and by facing it the gods knew themselves to be cold. She took action one after the other and decreed there to be cause and effect and for the first time the 335 gods were aware of the passage of time. And in response to their opposition she unfurled herself and displayed her 333 arms, each one a ray of light and-”

“Sssh.”
You don’t even turn around to shush her. The three of you are travelling back up the slope now, slowly wending your way through the hills.
“Don’t get too loud.”

1/3

>>678711
“Whatever. The point is that they fought and the Flame could not be stopped. She was a mindless devourer of all things and tore god after god to pieces, whether they be things that swam or walked or slithered or crawled. And then Ur spoke and the world shook and the Wayward Flame did battle with the progenitor of gods and with a crack, Ur too was slain. But Ur was not torn into pieces. He fell as a single mass and landed face-first into the sea of mud and he crushed the Wayward Flame beneath him. And at first the gods were joyful for the Flame had finally been extinguished but that was a false hope. They very mud beneath them began to boil and they could not stand it. They screeched and wailed and took refuge atop the corpse of Ur as the sea of mud burned. And from the sea came the Wayward Flame’s children, the First Men. Their skin was as the mud that birthed them and they carried fire in their bellies and in their eyes and they broke upon the shore of Ur and climbed atop him to do war with the remnants of the Powers of the Earth. But the First Men lacked the power of the Wayward Flame to tear the gods limb from limb and so every Power they felled died like Ur, their bodies clogging up the mud more and more. And so it went until the time came that there was a vast expanse of earth floating within the sea of mud and atop this pile of their foe’s corpses did the First Men raise their cities.”

“I’ve heard much of this already,” Abraham complains quietly. “What of the moon?”

“I’m getting to the goddamn moon!”
Beatrice clears her throat.
“The moon could not bear the death of his brothers and sisters even though he had asked for it. He fled the advance of the First Men and took to the sky, the idea of which the gods had not even comprehended before the Wayward Flame had showed them disparity. He hid himself from view and for a long time the First Age continued unabated, with the First Men fighting back the lesser gods and protecting themselves and their cities with the first lamp-posts. But then one of the First Men dredged up the body of the Wayward Flame from the still-boiling sea of mud and he defiled her corpse. Through such forbidden acts was the Wheel God born an-”

You turn around and grab her by the back of her pale blonde hair, pulling her back to you and stifling her shriek with a gauntlet across the mouth.
“That’s enough. The Wheel God was a First Man who ascended to become the new Flame and to fight in his brethren’s stead so that they would not have to. Do not impugn him.”

You toss her to the ground and her hat rolls off, tears of pain in her eyes.
“I was just telling it as I heard it!”

You can’t make out Abe very well in the darkness but he looks a little sick.
“Orion was that really necessary?”

2/3

>>678722
“No hold on,” Beatrice interrupts. “I...I deserved that. So anyway Wheel God yay, sun yay, whippy doo dah hooray. The Wheel God comes up and shines bright and shit and now nobody had to fight because he was doing all of it for them. Start of the solar calendar, time is properly hooked up, the Prophecy of Ages is made, the Second Age and the Second Men come and Dis gets real pissed off about that, etcetera etcetera. Anyway the Wheel God finds the Moon hiding in the sky at some point and stays his hand and spares him and the Moon, finding peace of mind within his mission to protect those beneath him, agrees to reflect God’s light so that people can still find their way at night. Good times all round.”

“So why red now?”
Abe is still looking a little ill at ease at the exchange that just took place.

“Well he’s sad ain’t he? Being sad is really all the moon is good for. Maybe he’s scared he’s gonna be next!”

“Hrmph.”

Beatrice immediately cringes back.
“I’m sorry Orion,” she says in a small voice.

“It was a mostly fine tale and similar to the ones I heard. Though in the true tellings the Wayward Flame is masculine.”

“Of course.”

“And it is said that the moon didn’t shine until the coming of the Wheel God because the moon was his bride, left behind just before the wedding by his divine ascension. So she took to the sky to chase him and to reflect his light. She cries tears of blood because she saw him die before she could ever catch up to him.”

“Yes,” Beatrice says diplomatically. “That makes much more sense. I was wrong. You were right. I’m sorry.”

“Now now, don’t be-”

Something bursts from the darkness ahead of you, swooping down right for your face!


>Duck!

>Hit it aside with your staff!

>Push Beatrice out of the way.

>Other

>>678726
>Hit it aside with your staff!

>>678726
>Hit it aside with your staff!

>>Hit it aside with your staff!

>>678726
>Hit it aside with your staff!

Ah. Nothing like some good old misogyny to really lock in that Religious feeling.

>Hit it aside with your staff!

Rather than try to dodge or duck away, you choose to take it head on with your staff! If this works you should be able to deflect the attack quite easily. But should it fail...you’ll just have to take the attack head on and hope your armour can take it!

Ghoulclaws flash in the darkness.

>Roll a 1d6. The total of the first 3 shall be used.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>678782

File: bbbb.jpg (65 KB, 225x225)

65 KB JPG

Sorry for taking so long on that update by the way. No idea what happened.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>678782

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>678782
NAT 1

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>678782

>>678726
>Other
Breathe fire upon it

I'm curious as to why Beatrice's versions of events treat the Wheel god with aborhent disdain and the true flame with reverence

>>678790
>>678796
>>678800
Nice! We are great at handling long objects.
"Inver-"
"Don't finish that word Beatrice."

4, 4, 5. Not bad, not bad at all. And since you have a staff it naturally rearranges into the best possible order which in this case is 5, 4, 4.
Writing.

>4, 4, 5

You swing your staff around and intercept the hit almost perfectly, the length of wood striking the ghoul-crow in the chest as both of the uneven clusters of jagged blades that pass for his talons swipe awkwardly around it. Your swing continues and bats the little ghoul away from you and into the hillside before you.

“Huh?”
Beatrice barely seems to have noticed, her hand going to her coat.

Abraham already has his cudgel out and is advancing but you hold out a hand in warning.
“Be careful, their claws are still as strong as any normal ghoul. They’ll rip you to shreds if you’re not careful.”
You should know, you still have that hole in your helmet from the last time.
“Don’t shoot it either Beatrice. The less noise we make right now the better.”

You step forward and bring the staff down to crush it but it hops out of the way, one of its wings dangling awkwardly, the threads connecting it to the rest of its patchwork body stretched out by the impact. It opens its mouth and its tongue extends, the ghoul organ somehow bigger than the rest of the birds whole body! You throw up an arm to block but all that does is let the swollen tongue wrap around that! The ghoul horks, its beak snapped clean in half from having to extrude such a large tongue and immediately starts retracting it, hooking itself up right towards you as if it were a rope.


>Hit it to the ground. You need to conserve your Wick if there’s more of these ahead.

>Set your staff aflame and strike it.

>Step on its head.

>”Nevermind! Shoot it!”

>”Get the lantern Beatrice!”

>Other

>>678809
Guess what we actually have in the lantern?

We gonna get to choose to be the next wheel god ya.

Also most women are turned off by rape. Gotta beat them into line.

>>678894
>Step on its head.

>>678894
>Step on its head.
Flaming stomp!

>>678894
>Step on its head.

>>678894
>Other

Pull it towards you and use its own momentum to smack it into the hillside.

THEN step on its head, pulling on the tongue like a brace.

Either the tongue comes out or its head gets crushed.

>>678927
>>678894
Also hopefully the smack into the hill will stun it so it won't shred our leg.

>>678894
>>678927
this

>>678907
>Also most women are turned off by rape. Gotta beat them into line.

Yeah but Witches are a non gender specific thing so where the hell did this story come from? This story is heretical because it treats the wheel god as an abomination born of rape instead of a divine being so it's unlikely she learnt it when she was human

>Step on its head.

You step back and swing your arm around to the side to throw the ghoul off-course, pulling it towards you and over you as you swing it around and back into the side of the slope above you. It smacks into it with a muffled thunk as you lift your boot and bring it down on top of its head, crushing flesh and brittle bone with equal ease.
The ghoul stops moving.

Beatrice slides her gun back into her coat.
“You know, it wasn’t acting like it had a master. It probably would have just run away if we unhooded the lantern.”
She shakes the large lantern around in her hand, the flame within burning but covered with a thick black hood to ensure nothing would see you coming.

“Perhaps. But if there’s anything worse than carrion crows out right now I wouldn’t want to give away our position.”

“Carrion crows?”

“It’s what I’m calling them. Ghoul birds sounds terrible.”

Beatrice looks as if she’s about to say something snide but she stops herself at the last moment.
“I think that’s the name of a real bird.”

“These things are Zeno’s pets,” Abraham says. “I’d wager this is his lair after all. We better stay on watch for more.”

The rest of the walk is done in silence and in the dark as you scale the last hill and find yourselves just across from the cave you saw earlier. The cave is set into the bottom of a hill and when combined with the two smaller holes exiting above ledges it bears a passing resemblance to a vast face within the earth itself.

“I assume this is it,” Beatrice says. “Those holes are up there aren’t natural, the ledges are too smooth.”

“Be on guard.”
You walk closer and closer towards the cave mouth, peering forward as best as you can do in the darkness. You still haven’t unhooded the lantern or made a light and so the blood light of the moon is all you have to go on.
And that’s enough to see some movement.

Lots of movement.

The walls and celings of the dark cave seethe with small flutters and sounds, tiny things coating every available surface. You can’t make out what they are exactly in the darkness but at this point you can hazard a guess.

“Aww,” Beatrice says. “All the ghouls that scattered off during the fight came back home. That’s kind of sweet albeit fucking repulsive.”

Abraham raises an arm as if to ward off an invisible assailant.
“That is...that is quite the smell.”

“Alright, now we gotta show the fucking lantern,” Beatrice says. “Ghouls hate light and without a witch to puppet them they’ll just fly away.”

“To where?,” Abraham asks. “Deeper into the cave? Because we have to go in there.”

“Nah, we could try to go in and scare them back out the cave mouth and into the open. I mean, we’d be surrounded by a giant flock of panicked ghouls for a little bit but they shouldn’t actually attack us.”
1/2

>>679115
“What if we light a fire to smoke them out instead while we sit over to the side? Do ghouls fear smoke?”

“They sure as fuck don’t like it. But that kind of fire would be pretty fucking visible from afar. What do you think Orion?”

For a long moment you don’t answer. There must be hundreds of the monsters all cooped up in there! A single wrong choice could lead to all of you getting eaten alive.


>Just go in.

>”Light the lantern at the cave mouth and scare them deeper into the base.”

>”Give me the lantern, I’ll go in and try to drive them out back the other way.”

>”Light the fire, we can smoke them out.”

>”Can you puppet them Beatrice?”

>Other

>>679125
>”Light the fire, we can smoke them out.”

>>679125
>>”Give me the lantern, I’ll go in and try to drive them out back the other way.”

>>679125
>”Light the fire, we can smoke them out.”
>....and into the lantern
if the fire's already visible, may as well go all the way.

>>679125
>>”Light the fire, we can smoke them out.”

I'm eating lunch by the way so this one is going to be a little delayed.

>>679125
> There must be hundreds of the monsters all cooped up in there!

Fuck that. Let's go back to the town and get enough flammable material to burn them IN the cave.

Alright I'm back. Writing.

>>679125
Nobody wants to ask where all these ghouls are gonna go?

Hold up guys, feeling a little sick. But I will continue soon.

Alright I'm back. Some time spent with a bunch of reprobates actually made me feel better by comparison.

>”Light the fire, we can smoke them out.”

“Get the fire lit by the cave. We can smoke them out.”

“Eugh,” Beatrice snarls. “I still think my ide-I mean. Okay. Sure. Let’s light the fire. Whatever you say boss.”

“What can we burn?”

In the end you have to grab a bunch of Zeno’s old detritus from the train that must have belonged to him and his men. Old clothes, blankets, not much but enough to start a decent blaze. Beatrice sets it alight and you use your passive Flame Rites to angle the blaze so that the smoke flows into the mouth of the cave.

“Ghouls don’t need to breathe, of course,” Beatrice is saying. “But without a witch to guide them smoke should still make them panic. After all where there’s smoke there’s f-”

Her words are cut off as a terrible screeching begins deep within the tunnel and she jumps back to you and Abe just in time for the carrion crows to start swarming out, each one going their own direction and spiralling into the sky as a thick black cloud.
The rush continues for nearly a minute. There were far more of them in there than you could have ever guessed.

“Where are they going?”
Abraham is watching the horizon, looking for the concrete plains of home no doubt. There’s a dark look upon his face.

“Don’t worry,” Beatrice says. “They won’t go anywhere near Enoch’s lamp post.”

“But not every town is so lucky.”
You take the hood off the lantern, figuring there’s no need to for remaining hidden. Not after the fire and the swarm.
“We can only hope that they disperse peacefully and eventually fall apart before too long without hurting too many other people. We couldn’t have fought them all yourselves.”

You smother the fire with a touch and prepare to descend. You do your best not to think about how many people’s death warrants you may have just signed.


>Descend down the main cavern. Surely Zeno wasn’t expecting people to be investigating his home.

>Try to find another way in through the upper holes. Witches are often fond of traps.

>Split everyone up to investigate one of the three tunnels each.

>Other

>>679830
>>Descend down the main cavern. Surely Zeno wasn’t expecting people to be investigating his home.

>>679830
>Try to find another way in through the upper holes. Witches are often fond of traps.

Ah nevermind. That's that for today folks, most of you are probably asleep already anyway. I dont think I'll be able to run tomorrow but I will the day after that!

>>679830
>Descend down the main cavern. Surely Zeno wasn’t expecting people to be investigating his home.

Cautiously however in case of traps

>>679830
>Try to find another way in through the upper holes. Witches are often fond of traps.

Beatrice is suspiciously obedient now. What the hell has happened?

>>679830
>>Descend down the main cavern. Surely Zeno wasn’t expecting people to be investigating his home.

>>680692
Either she's getting antsy about her special snowflake redemption or something about Abraham

>>680692
She's always been obedient. And we kinda came to an understanding after she got burned.

Calling it for the main cavern. I know I said I'd be absent today but I will update tonight once work is over.
Regular updates resume tomorrow.

>>680692
She's afraid.

>>686413
Check for traps Ouro!

>she's afraid

what of? I can't wait to find out!

>>679830
wait, why couldn't we get them to run straight into the lamp post? By sheer proximity, a good fraction of them would die before they could physically run away.

>Try to find another way in through the upper holes. Witches are often fond of traps.

>Descend down the main cavern. Surely Zeno wasn’t expecting people to be investigating his home.

“Are there any left?”
Abraham leans into the mouth of the tunnel, Beatrice behind him with her lantern raised high to illuminate nothing but empty stone.
“Looks clean. Let’s go-”

You grab hold of Abe before he can step further forward.
“Be patient. Witches often trap their lairs.”
Or at least they did back in the good days, when every witch was no doubt constantly reminded of how fragile their existences truly were, how easily they could be ruined with but a wrong word or action. Protecting their sanctums came second nature but would it to Zeno? Did he really fear anyone?

“With magic? Some kind of curse?”

“No, the more mundane variety usually.”
Or so you hope. The idea of there being a curse lingering here is a foul one. Would he really curse his own home?
“He probably had, at the very least, his two cultists coming in here regularly. Probably more. And the carrion crows were familiar enough with this place to return to it. If he had laid a curse here it would have affected them too.”

“Yeah probably,” Beatrice agrees. “Most curses aren’t picky.”

Now that makes you uneasy. A curse is witchcraft that has been repeated enough times to be inlaid permanently into the ground. A magic that can persist even when a witch’s fingers are stilled. And because of this they typically behave automatically, like a Second Age machine only far less intelligent, activating blindly and often ceaselessly and without any conscious direction.
So to deliberately live on cursed ground would be foolish even for a witch. And even if the curse didn’t affect creatures of darkness, what of the cultists? Just how impossibly sophisticated of a curse would you need to recognize friend from foe?

And then you remember that you’re being a fool. That swarm of ghouls must have unnerved you more than you thought to have you on the mental back foot like this. Abhorrent things.
“Zeno is dead and I doubt he was the kind to share territories with other witches. If he laid any curse upon the ground then it died with him. But stay on watch for regular traps.”

“Unless the imp laid the curse.”
Beatrice shrugs as she speaks, as if she’s simply floating the idea out there.

“Imps cannot lay a curse of the complexity required to spare both ghouls and human cultists.”

“True. But what if this isn’t his main base? From what I saw Zeno was a pretty dandy arsehole. Why would he shack up in a fucking cave?”

“This roughly matches the description the cultists gave me.”

“But what if they lied? Or if the real place is here and this is just a decoy built over it and it’s full of nothing but traps and imp curses?”

The worst part of Beatrice’s suggestion is that Zeno could have possessed sufficient geomancy that constructing such an elaborate trap may not be too great of a stretch.
1/2

>>686812
“But the masterless ghouls returned here. They would not do so if this was not their typical domain.”

Beatrice nods, the light of the lantern shaking as she moves her hand.
“Truth. And I can’t imagine that these ghouls are smarter, fuck, they’re probably dumber. But this still doesn’t feel right. Why would a vain guy live in a literal hole?”

“Can you check for curses somehow? Detect them from afar?”

The witch narrows her eyes.
“Yeah sure let me just go back on my promise and swallow a big clod of earth and I’ll get right back to you on that one.”

“Oh hush.”
You barely move but Beatrice flinches back all the same.
“I was just wondering if there was a way to find them through witch-lore.”

“Nope. If there was one of your superiors probably would have taught it to you. It’d be damn useful. Only proper witches can smell a curse.”

“Right.”
You gaze down into the tunnel, ill at ease with how it seems to grow more and more similar to an open maw with every second that you look at it.
You don’t like curses. Imagine all the devilry and havoc of any ordinary witch-sign but with no caster to disrupt, no hands to bind or force apart. And no way to see it coming before it was upon you. Fortunately significant curses are a rarity and to be honest, you’ve never heard anything more than rumours about imp curses lasting more than a few hours.

“It’s probably not cursed. Stocks didn’t strike me as the most learned of imps and he might not have even come back here at all. For all we know Zeno never called him back up after his second death and he’s stuck underground worming his way up the hard way.”

If only.

“Orion.”
Abraham steps forward, his feet at the very lip.
“May I please borrow your staff?”

“What for?”

“If I use it to strike the walls and floors ahead of us as we walk with enough force we should be able to set off any traps preemptively.”

“Indeed. The most likely problem here are a few concealed pits, they’re easy for a dirtworking witch to hide.But why you?”

“Yeah,” Beatrice says. “No offence but scouting out like that will probably get your fool head bitten off. Let Orion do it.”

“Orion is too important. Both of you are. But you could accomplish your quest without me if you needed to.”


>Give him the staff. What he says makes sense.

>Give him the staff and also offer up some of your armour. You can’t imagine it’ll fit him well but even ill-fitted it could save a life.

>Do it yourself.

>Give the staff to Beatrice. “Since you seemed so eager to volunteer someone else.”

>”Just remember that suicide is a sin.”

>Other

This vote stays open until I wake up and resume the thread. Hopefully we'll be able to have a nice long session for once.

>>686495
You, of course.

>>686814
>Do it yourself.
We're the most experienced with this sort of thing anyway as a witch finder

>>686814
>>Do it yourself.

>>686814
>Give him the staff and also offer up some of your armour. You can’t imagine it’ll fit him well but even ill-fitted it could save a life.
>”Just remember that suicide is a sin.”

Don't let him be brazen about his checking, only methodical about it

>>686814
>Do it yourself.

>>686818
And this what we get after being so nice to her! 0/10, would not not immediately immolate again!

>>686814
>Do it yourself

>>686814
>>Give the staff to Beatrice. “Since you seemed so eager to volunteer someone else.”

Let's continue to bully the witch.

>>686814
Also, still not convinced this guy isn't a trap of some sorts.

Maybe the Imp has his wife and kids and they aren't dead at all, or they were taken or fled to Dis or something IDK. But we just had to deal with two cultists.

Session starts up again in one hour.

>Do it yourself.

You shake your head as you hold the staff out before you, pushing it along the ground.
“No. I’m the most experienced with this and I’ll not ask someone else to take the danger in my place.”
You step past them and into the cave, the floor of the cavern sloping down steeply ahead of you.
“Stay behind me and keep your eyes peeled.”

Beatrice shivers as the three of you start your descent and it’s easy to understand why. You’re going underground, earth and rock on all sides and above. A fading witch-chill haunts the soil and the darkness seems to take on an almost physical presence, dancing around the edges of your lantern-light as it throws shadows up upon the walls.

You walk just a little ahead of the other two, the sound of the metal cap atop your staff rapping against stone walls and floors filling the cavern. The walls are roughly hewn stone and scattered soil lines the floor. As you descend further and further you see no furnishings, no signs of any human life even as the tunnel bottoms out and takes on a horizontal aspect. Beatrice was right, this place is a dump.

The tunnel begins to curve tightly around itself and you’re starting to wonder if coming down here was the right thing to do when something comes into view just ahead of you. A rope? A long strand of thick string strung out across the tunnel at knee height just around the corner!
You try to snap your leg back but it might already be too late, the momentum of your step carrying you into it!

>Roll 1d6. First 3 will be totaled.

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>687796

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>687796

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>687796
Dive!

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>687796
Well I thought we'd be experienced with this but we're not that great at avoiding traps I suppose

>>687796

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>687850

>2, 5, 6

You are unable to stop yourself in time and your leg brushes up against the string! And...little else happens. For even though you weren't able to stop, you still slowed down considerably and tripwire traps like these? They need a good amount of force to actually set off. You’d have to walk through it. Did Zeno expect people to just come blundering around the corner expecting nothing?

You hold up an arm as Beatrice and Abe blunder around the corner behind you, stopping them just before they walk into it.
“Hold. There’s a tripwire just ahead.”

You kneel down beside the string and poke it just enough to make it thrum, your eyes following it as it leads almost seamlessly into the wall. But now that you know it’s there you can make the mechanism of the trap out. There’s a seam in the wall just up ahead that the rope is tied to, a thin and long segment of rock that runs up the side of the wall. Beatrice shines her light up further and you see that the section of the roof directly above the rope is separate from the rest.
“Looks like if someone blunders through the rope with enough force it’ll knock the part of the wall over and break the support for that boulder that’s pretending to be part of the roof. We’ll be fine.”

You carefully step over the rope, beckoning for Beatrice and Abe to follow you. The witch seems rather dubious.
“Is it safe?”

“As long as you don’t strike the rope with enough force to dislodge anything, yes. Or break it.”
Come to think of it, you’ll refrain from hitting the walls here just to be certain.

As the two of them make it over you can’t help but notice the haunted look in Abe’s eyes and the new sheen of sweat upon his face.
“Something bothering you.”

He flinches at being called out so directly but he doesn’t shy away from answering.
“I don’t think I would have had the presence of mind to just stop when I touched the string. I probably would have set that off.”

You nod.
“Maybe next time you should be less eager. This isn’t a game and acting like you can throw your life away just because of your dead wife is foolish.”

Beatrice groans just a little.
“Fuck. Have you ever heard of being subtle?”
It would appear that having Abe between the two of you has emboldened her once again, her previous airs of servility having all but faded entirely.

You don’t dignify that remark with an answer and so you continue on. Just further around the corner your incessant tapping with the staff yields some benefit, the far end of the stave poking a hole in the ground that shouldn’t have been there.
“Stop! There’s a hidden pit ahead!”

1/2

>>688000
You poke several more holes into the ground before you, enough to see that the concealed hole in the ground takes up almost half the tunnel, the only safe ground narrow pathways with your backs against the wall. The pit itself seems to be concealed with some kind of rigid sheet covered in a thin layer of dirt. Whatever it is it’s one that the staff simply pokes holes into rather than tear it all away.
“Shouldn’t be too hard to avoid, just follow my lead.”

Your speech is punctuated by an echoing clang, a sound that reverberates all along the tunnel with an almost painful volume as the stone walls bounce it back over and over. It’s hard to trace because of this but...it almost sounds like it comes from above. From the cave’s entrance.


>”Change of plan. We’re leaving now.” Back up towards the entrance!

>Keep pushing on. Sounds can be deceiving.

>Push on but do so quickly! You can’t let whatever that is catch up to you.

>See if you can use the traps to your own advantage.

>Other