Chapter Six: Stories And Rain


The black sky has broken open above you. Thick clouds cover the sky and distant thunder rumbles constantly. And rain falls all around you, a deluge that promises no end. It bounces off your armour and saturates your cloak as you work the pump, pushing the handcar across slippery rails.

Beatrice is standing across from you and even with her thick overcoat she’s soaked to the bone. Her waterlogged hat has taken on a distinct tilt as she does her best to keep up with you at the pump. Abe is sitting down by her feet, wet hair slicked down his forehead. It’s been less than a day since he was so badly burned and he’s still not feeling well even despite what you might refer to as literal divine intervention. His own coat is spread over your supplies in a futile attempt to save them from the water.

And all around you, the wasteland greets the rain. Dirt becomes mud on either side of the track and what once might have been solid ground becomes treacherous. Thick slabs of rock shed rivulets of muck as they are washed clean and the thin pale grass atop the hills drinks deeply. White night-flowers close and wait for the rain to stop so that they may spread their seeds over newly-fertile ground. Even after the end of the world life still goes on, albeit in a withered and aberrant fashion.
And in the distance, lightning! Wild flame and light still does its best to dance in the sky and the wasteland is illuminated even for just a brief flash. The tiny circle of constant light that the lantern clipped to the side of the trolley provides you seems scant in comparison.

Rain pitters off the sides and the floor of the trolley as you work with a loud metallic sound and you can’t help but notice the growing depth of the rainwater swirling around your feet within the trolley itself. Your handcar is quite the raincatcher despite your best efforts!

“We need to stop!,” Abe yells. “Everything’s just going to get waterlogged and ruined!”
He shouts something else but a clap of thunder steals his words away before they can reach your ears. Something about shelter?

Beatrice seems to take his word as law and stops pumping immediately, falling against the side of the trolley with a desperate whoop. She’ll take any excuse to stop pumping.


>No! Keep going, hell or high water!

>Stop. See if you can repurpose the trolley into a shelter to wait out the rain.

>Search for shelter in the wasteland around you.

>Other.

I'd just like to point out that your said an hour about an hour and 35 minutes ago. Dont play games with my heart, Quro

>>757521
Look for shelter. Better for a story if nothing else.

>>757521
>No! Keep going, hell or high water!
Stopping in the wasteland and stepping out into the mud sounds like a poor idea. At least if we're moving then it makes us slightly less vulnerable.

>>757516
Whoops. For the record, it's Thread 4 that isn't in properly, not Thread 3. Didn't take me very long to mess that up.
And in that vein, I've already archived this thread early.

>>757521
>>Search for shelter in the wasteland around you.

>>757521
>>No! Keep going, hell or high water!

>>757521
> search for shelter in the wasteland
Tempted to flip the trolley and cuddle Bea for warmth under that but we would have to roll to get it back on the tracks and we'd probably kill someone, like god.

>Search for shelter in the wasteland around you.

As much as you want to keep going it’s becoming clear that you cannot. The pump trolley is flooding and lacking any appropriate means to bail the water out, it’s only going to get heavier and heavier and ruin whatever supplies have managed to stay dry.
You let go of the pump and the trolley slows as it begins to coast towards a stop. You don’t see any danger about but that doesn’t make this choice any more palatable. If there is a witch about then even setting foot on the cursed earth could alert them. But what other choice do you have? This storm blew in from nowhere!

“Look for shelter! Not too far from the tracks!”

You peer out into the darkness and even with the lightning’s help you don’t see a great deal. The rain and the darkness work in tandem to occlude your sight and it makes for a particularly dismal landscape. What about those hills to the left? Surely there must be some kind of shelter there, even if it’s just a slope.

“What about that!”
You follow Abe’s gesture and spy something up ahead by the tracks. A pile of rubble? Concrete this far out? You can’t tell what the damn thing is save that it’s quite a distance away.

“Are you kidding me?” Beatrice says, having to shout herself almost hoarse to be head over the storm. “Why don’t we just tip the damn trolley?”

“We know you’re not going to help us lift it afterwards!”


>Head for the hills.

>Go straight on for the potentially suspicious rubble in the distance.

>Tip the trolley.

>Other

>>757535
Seriously, just pop in and talk to Lord Lemon.
>>757521
>Search for shelter in the wasteland around you.

>>757596
> go to the not at all suspicious rubble pile

>>757596
>Go straight on for the potentially suspicious rubble in the distance.

>>757596
>>Go straight on for the potentially suspicious rubble in the distance.
We're big, we're bad, and we're waterlogged and don't want to run too far.

(I'd feel bigger and badder if we had kept the Flame Artist.)

>>757596
>>Go straight on for the potentially suspicious rubble in the distance.

>>757604
I was told the irc didn't do that anymore.

Keep pumping looking for a better spot, or go check out the rubble.

>>757596
>Go straight on for the potentially suspicious rubble in the distance.

>>757623
Huh.

hold on guys, I'm getting some fucking severe lag right now. Taking five minutes to load a page.

>>757714
oh man, please don't die again/.

>Go straight on for the potentially suspicious rubble in the distance.

As suspicious as the rubble might seem it’s better to risk your chances with it than it is to search the hills for shelter that may not even exist. At least the shape up ahead promises shelter. But what is it? Any concrete this far out would be improbable. Is it really just rock?
“We’re not tipping the cart, it’s too much trouble. Stay in here for now, I’ll push us over.”

Beatrice just crosses her arms and sits down, an extremely unwise decision considering there’s at least an inch of water sloshing around the bottom.
“Well I just ruined my pants,” she sulks. “You two realize that there’s probably something already in there right?”

“Why?”

“You don’t have to be human to dislike getting wet! If this is the only visible shelter for miles around something is going to seek it out.”

“Hrmph.”
For a while you just continue to pump and let the roar of the rain cover for you but you eventually speak again.
“What kind of monsters care for shelter against the rain? How many?”

“Witches, for one. Wild ghouls don’t like rain either because it makes them soggy. Also goblins and gremlins and trolls.”

“But no golems or imps or gargoyles? Not even a duskcrawler? We can handle most of what you listed.”

“What if there’s a witch in there?”

“If there was a witch in there she would take umbrage to our presence regardless of whether we stepped into her shelter or not.”

“That’s...true, I guess.”

The trolley soon rattles to a stop in the pouring rain just outside the rubble. Now that you’re closer and you have the lantern you can see it a little clearer but not by much. It’s a long cylindrical slab of stone that sits down the slope of a hill and at the base, the pile of rubble that you sighted earlier. They lean against each other to make a cover that one could shelter under quite nicely. There’s more than enough room for you all down there.

You leap from the handcar and land in the mud, sinking past your ankles and nearly falling over. That settles it. You wouldn’t have wanted to try for the hills like this! You raise the lantern high and watch as its light falls over the rubble.
Pale brown stone. That’s a little odd.

“Oi!”
Beatrice is calling out to you, the sodden witch still in the cart.
“Can somebody pull me out of this? I think I’ll slip if I try to climb out the usual way right now.”


>Help her.

>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove.

>Abe can do that. You’re going to climb the hill above and see if there’s more of this stone.

>Other

>>757769
>>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove.

Abe, help the witch.

>>757769
> Abe can do it. You need to scout out that alcove
Haha, good joke Beatrice. I'm glad you have retained your sense of humour even I this downpour. Now excuse me, I have important lamp related things to see too.

>>757769

>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove.

>>757769
>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove.
Hit her with your gauntlet just for being a cockney slag

File: fleksnek.png (13 KB, 400x400)

13 KB PNG

Yeah fuck this, my internet is being terrible right now. Can't load anything particularly complex at all and it insists on eating my posts.
We'll continue this tomorrow at the usual time. Sorry

If it's not one damn thing it's the other

File: 1274310501618.jpg (144 KB, 608x352)

144 KB JPG

>>757769
>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove.

>>757842
>just get here
>session canceled
>(pic)
Stay safe Ouro, the curse is being especially dangerous this season.

File: 4974917+_5ce674530bc78340(...).png (30 KB, 520x390)

30 KB PNG

You know, this quest seems pretty baller.

Carry on the good work, QM.

>>757842
Ouro I love you!

>>757769
>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove.
reminder to update the pastebin

Now would be a real good time for Bliss, but Relief is what's in our skillset.

>>757842
Oh son of a bitch

>Beatrice
>wanting help

She really should know better at this point

>>758636
We'd help, but we need to be sure there is no danger first.

>>758555
would Bliss even help her?

>>758733
who said anything about helping Beatrice? This is for clearing out the Alcove.

>>758733
>We'd help, but we need to be sure there is no danger first.

That would be quite out of character anon, if she was in danger sure we would help but she's not so she's on her own

>>758787
we'd help so she'd stop whining. If it was solely OOC

>help her

would not even be an option

>>757769
>Help her out of the cart and stalk off to examine the Alcove without giving her a word.

Jesus ducking christ all these edgy ducks who want us to not be a decent human ourselves.

Let's save punishments for when Beatrice actually does something wrong.

>>757565
You know the whole "Hurr Durr bully the witch" thing keeps happening because you post shit like this, right?

You all disgust me. Letting a Witch influence you to be either a sexual deviant or a petty bully.

So maybe I'm an idiot but why did Bea's dad tell her she won't be a lamplighter when she grows up? Was her side of the organization not the same as Orion's just with different abilities?

>>759399
I THINK it's because the dad was going to do everything in his power not to put the daughter in such a dangerous job as a lamplighter. Which led to the daughter realizing how corrupt he was....

>>759408
More that he felt no daughter of his was going to become some impoverished cultist

>>759399
Lamplighters are a fraternal order only. And besides, as the only daughter of a nobleman she has a duty to marry well.
Lamplighters are something that noblemen send third sons to or the like.

Beatrice was a member of the Flame College which is basically a religious boarding school/college for non-Lamplighters who have powerful Flame Rites nontheless. They are sponsored by the Lamplighter faction Order of the Wick and many of them do go on to become part of the civilian clergy but it's not unheard of for upper-class people to send them there for the education alone.

>>759471
>Lamplighters are a fraternal order only

Huh, so about that pure waifu.......

>>759477
You remember we're an invert right?

>>759480
Yeah but we're not, well we are but we aren't

we're an introvert i get it and I suspect we killed the pure "waifu" I just want confirm it

>>759482
Invert means our pure waifu is a man anon

>>759484
I know You are implying we are actually an Invert when we may or may not be

>>759505
Actually I'm just shitting around.
On the other hand, is there anything purer than the Purest Love?

>>759510
Yes The indifactiable will of the light and the pure madness of the true dark

>>757769
>>Help her.

>>757769
>Abe can do that. You need to scout out the alcove

Remember kids trust not the witch for she is a consort of darkness, the only reason Beatrice is here is because she wishes to return to the light of the wheel god and she has earned some small seed of trust from us in service to our holy mission

If that is even possible

>>759484
I just want to play like we're Gideon. Bromosexual and turned on by getting shit done.

>>757769
Help her

Session in an hour. Sorry to keep you waiting so long!

>>772109
Woo just checked the thread hoping it would be alive!

Time to bully witch!

>>772109
anxiously waiting

Inb4 Australian power outage

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

104 KB JPG

> Abe can do it. You need to scout out that alcove

“Good to see that you haven’t lost your sense of humour, Beatrice.”
That is all you say as you walk away with the lantern and leave her. Abe will probably help her in your stead. You’ve got to make sure that this little hideaway isn’t already occupied. How deep did it go? And where did all this stone come from anyway?
You’ve got no reason to trust this place and that’s more important than the wellbeing of a witch.

You step past the threshold and shove your lantern into the little cranny beneath the long slab of rock. It’s deeper than you were expecting! Rather than simply be a shelter beneath the stone it looks like it continues a little into the earth of the hill itself. Just the thought makes you a little uncomfortable for though you feel no witch-chill you’d really rather not be underground.

You keep your lantern up as if it were a shield and walk inside. It’s very dry in here at least, the angle of the rain is in your favour, none of it has blown inside. The alcove itself looks fine. The tunnel behind it on the other hand…
You hope it isn’t too long. You’ve already had more than enough underground adventures to last you a lifetime.

You hunch down to fit through the rest of the cave and slowly squeeze your way through, walls of rock and soil weeping water far too close on either side for comfort. But in the end you find nothing. The little tunnel only goes for about twenty feet before stopping in a dead-end. No further little chasms or burrows, it just stops. Just a small natural crevice in the hillside and nothing more.

You turn around and start to head back towards the alcove, keeping your steps slow and cautious so you don’t slip or trip. You can hear Beatrice and Abe’s voices echo up, though you can’t make out their words and by the sounds of it they’ve already taken their shelter beneath the stone shelf. Excellent. You will rejoin them shortl-

Something flickers in the light and you swivel, a cry of warning already swelling within your throat. But it’s not a creature or a monster that caught your eye but a mark, a mark upon the side of the tunnel wall. Three long scratches gouged into the very rock itself.
This tunnel might be empty now but it once was not.


>Warn the others. You’ll remain here to wait out the rain however, there’s only one entrance and you’ll all be there.

>Go back and tell the others to leave. You’ll take your chances with the rain.

>Remain here but barricade the alcove just in case.

>Tell Beatrice to get down here and take a look.

>Other

>>772632
>Remain here but barricade the alcove just in case.
>Ask, VERY insistently, for Beatrice to get down here and take a look. Carry the lazy shit if we have too.

>>772632
That sure is a lot of exposition for a simple innocent abandoned tunnel

Going to go with >>772650

>>772632
> remain here and barricade the alcove
Only one exit you mean.

>>772632
>>Go back and tell the others to leave. You’ll take your chances with the rain.

>>772632
>Remain here but barricade the alcove just in case.
>Tell Beatrice to get down here and take a look.

>>772671
Orion said entrance because he was thinking in terms of the creature coming back since it plainly isn't here right now.

Anyway I finally fixed the damn charsheet. Should have done that days ago.

>>772650
supporting this

>>772632
>>Remain here but barricade the alcove just in case.
>>Tell Beatrice to get down here and take a look.

Just in case she catches something we missed.

>>772632
>Warn the others. You’ll remain here to wait out the rain however, there’s only one entrance and you’ll all be there.

>Tell Beatrice to get down here and take a look.

>Remain here but barricade the alcove just in case.
>Tell Beatrice to get down here and take a look.

You don’t like the look of any of this but the fact remains that you need to take shelter from the rain somewhere. Whatever left those marks plainly isn’t here anymore and if it intends to return it’ll have to do it through the alcove you’ll be camping out in. You can’t even tell how old these marks are, whatever left them could have died or moved on long ago and there is still no witch-chill present. This is still probably safer than trying to blunder through the hills.

But that doesn’t mean you should start taking chances. You’ll get Beatrice to have a look at them even if you have to drag her all the way through. And you’ll cover up the alcove with something to block it off and barricade it. And-...do you smell smoke?

You return from your tunnel to find Beatrice and Abe sitting together in the alcove, a small but cozy campfire already lit. Abe has an apologetic expression on his face and the witch is smeared with mud. Looks like his attempts to help her out of the trolley didn’t go so well after all.
“What are you doing?,” you hiss at them.

“Warming up?”
Beatrice glares at you.
“I’m going to catch my death of cold otherwise.”

“What if something sees it?”
The light of a fire in the wasteland, in the rain? It’ll stand out.

“Well we ain’t sitting in the dark are we?”


>Just shake your head and get to barricading.

>”Help me cover the entrance then. It’ll hide the light at least.”

>Extinguish the flame. They should have waited for you!

>Send Beatrice outside into the rain to help set up the barricade. She’s not supposed to go behind your back.

>Ask Abe to set up the barricade himself. You need Beatrice.

>Other

>>772804
>”Help me cover the entrance then. It’ll hide the light at least.”

>>772804
>Ask Abe to set up the barricade himself. You need Beatrice.
Is there anything else we can ask her about ghouls and other witch-creatures? How the first ghouls and imps came to be

>>772804
>Ask Abe to set up the barricade himself. You need Beatrice.

>>772804
>>”Help me cover the entrance then. It’ll hide the light at least.”

>>772804
>Ask Abe to set up the barricade himself. You need Beatrice.
>send beatrice to examine the mark
>go help Abe set up the barricade

>>772882
Seconding

>Ask Abe to set up the barricade himself. You need Beatrice.

“Well you can at least barricade up the entrance at least. Get a little cover, stop the light from getting out. Can you do that, Abe?”

“Sure.”
He rises to his feet looking a little puzzled.
“What are you going to be doing?”

“I need Beatrice to have a look at something down this tunnel.”
You go to grab the witch’s arm and pull her up but she’s already on her feet and backing away from you, looking wet and miserable all the while.
“Come with me and I’ll point it out to you.”

Beatrice snatches the lantern off of you.
“I’ll be fine just by myself Orion. I wouldn’t want you to accidentally help me, that’d be just fucking terrible.”

“Fine by me. Look for the claw marks.”
What’s wrong with her?

Lacking anything better to do you go back outside with Abe to help him set up the barricade. But what will you use for it?


>Just hang something over the mouth of the alcove to block the light.

>Box up your supplies and stack them in the mouth. They’ll block off the light but they probably won’t stop a monster for very long at all.

>Get the pump trolley off the rails and lie it on it’s side in front of the alcove.

>Find some stray boulders.

>Other

>>772882
Yes

>>772953
>Just hang something over the mouth of the alcove to block the light.

>>772953
Stray boulders and something to drape across the mouth to block out the light.

>>772953
>just hang something
then
>look for stray boulders

It's interesting how people get butthurt if we try to act like a decent human being in this quest when the opposite was true in snakecatcher

>>772953
>>Just hang something over the mouth of the alcove to block the light.
>Find some stray boulders

>>773001
I try, but anons want to keep being a dick til it bites them in the ass.

>>773014
they're too busy fighting the imaginary waifufag boogeyman to accept being nice to our companion

Things Beatrice has done to engraciate herself

>seek redemption
>save the lamp
>aid us in battle
>refute the darkness

Things Beatrice has done to irritate us
>Call us an Invert
>Be a witch
>Insult a living saint multiple times unapologetically
>openly talk heresy
>Pull as little of her weight as possible

>>773184
Also

>Intiate uneccesary firefights that could have been resolved peacefully

>>773184
To be fair the saint was on the fritz, even Orion said as much. Calling the saint out was warranted. Also calling us an invert is not far from the truth, as we're solarsexual. a The Wheel God is male.

>>773184
I wish our bullying was more harmless honestly, as soon as we start to act okay suddenly we return with an assholeish vengeance.

Not trying to waifu her, just be more friendly and less autistic. Gotta keep her on the straight and narrow.

Sorry about the delay on this one, my laptop froze and had to be restarted.

>>772953
>Find some stray boulders.

>>773231
Yeah but we at least held our tongue in regards to outright insults

>Solarsexual

I mean I guess?

>>773249
The problem is Orion isn't a people person in the slightest and Beatrice is litreally the one of the worst things in the world to him trying to seek redemption

Personally I think Orion should have just ignored her and scouted ahead instead of making a shirty remark that probably added insult to injury

>>773298
>I mean I guess?
We swore a vow of chastity (no wimins or sex) and are basically a Wheel god and fire zealot.

>>773307
>We swore a vow of chastity

That doesn't mean we will never be tempted or will always keep our vows

Not advocating for anything just saying

>basically a Wheel god and fire zealot.

The Zealotry kind of goes out the window when we are a witchfinder and question the divine rights of a living Saint however it is inarguably true m we are certainly a dedicated man of the faith

>>773344
>divine rights of a living Saint

Only because she was literally going against church doctrine herself, remember?

>>773351
Yes I don't believe that dismisses the point however

>>773447
It does when the "saint" is a dying construct that is provably defective.

>>773468
That pretty fucking blasphemous right there

You can't really refer to a divine construct as a mere machine even if from a meta perspective that is quite possibly true

>Just hang something over the mouth of the alcove to block the light.
>Find some stray boulders

Abe strokes his chin in thought, rain plastering his hair down his face.
“I’d prefer not to box up the supplies to do it, the last thing we need is for them to get even more water into them.”

“Water shouldn’t spoil most of them.”
Your supplies are hardy, enduring fare. Hard-bread and biscuit, cured meat, pickled vegetables and dried fruit.

“It’d still make it unpleasant. Can we drag the handcar over?”

You shake your head.
“We could but we might need to use it quickly if an emergency arises. Here, just help me look for some rocks.”

“God knows there are more than enough of those.”

The two of you toil upon the hillside for a few minutes more, grabbing large chunks of the brown stone scattered down the hill and rolling them down the slope. And as you work Abe attempts to strike up a conversation.
“What’s between you and Beatrice anyway?”

“Between us? Nothing.”

“Then why act the way you do?”

You stop to stare at him.
“She’s a witch. Do you have any idea what she’s done?”

“Do you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Do you actually know what she’s done?”

“...I can hazard a pretty good guess. You can ask if her you want but if she actually tells you I doubt you’d be so friendly to her. The mere act of accepting darkness within herself and betraying humanity makes her as low as dirt already. And make no mistake, that’s as high as she can possibly be. Whatever crimes she committed as a witch only dig her deeper.”

“So what she’s done doesn’t really matter to you?”

“No. But she crawls towards the light, I’ll give her that. Maybe one day she’ll dig herself up above ground level.”

“Huh. Well I’m curious and not just about her. I’m not a fan of mysteries in general.”

Well that’s a subject you have no intention of ever broaching to anyone. You need to change the subject to something safer. Safer for you.
“Don’t feel bad for her just because she’s a woman.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s how they get you. Sympathy for the unworthy is a sin in itself.”

“That’s how who gets you? Are you talking about witches or women in general?”

You shrug, your experience with both never having impressed you.
“Either or.”

The boulders are across the entrance now, blocking off the lower half. After a moment’s hesitation you take off your burgundy Lamplighter’s cloak and hang it over the top to help block the light. It’s soaked through anyway, it needs to be dried off.

Beatrice is back by the fire by the time the two of you re-enter the alcove, Abe shivering from the cold. The witch is looking even worse for wear now, a few small lacerations down her bare hands from pawing at the jagged stone. Fortunately they are bloodless gashes, her thick rubbery Third Age skin torn but not all the way through.
1/2

>>773495
Otherwise sitting next to the flame would be extremely dangerous.
“It’s a troll,” she rasps. She looks to be in the process of taking her gloves off.

“You sure?”

“Not really, never had much to do with them. But they aren’t ghoul-claw markings and I don’t know anything else with claws that go quite so deep. Either way its old as hell and I couldn’t find any newer marks. Probably nothing to worry about.”

“Hrm.”
A troll. You don’t know how to feel about that. They aren’t your least favourite beast to fight but you’d have much rather it been a ghoul.
“I haven’t seen any goblin dung, have you?”

She shakes her head wordlessly.

“Then it’s probably long gone,” you say. “Either that or it’s sterile.”

The three of you cluster around the growing fire, Abraham quickly shedding his wet tunic and trousers to stop himself from freezing. He hangs them by the fire so they’ll dry out and you nod in approval. You might have to do the same with your armour.

And then you notice Beatrice taking off her jacket and working at the buttons of her blouse with one hand.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Uh, I don’t know if you noticed but I’m fucking soaked through and through. And look at all this mud! They need to be dried out and maybe cleaned later.”

“Then put on something else.”

“What, you mean all my other clothes that are also wet because the bottom of the handcar turned into a sodding pool? Don’t worry, I’m keeping my underclothes on. You’ve seen them before.”

“That’s obscene. I won’t allow it.”

“Why? You were fine with Abe doing it!”
Beatrice suddenly gives you a knowing smile.
“Unless...you know I was just joking when I called you an inv-”

You raise your hand.

“-inveterate defender against the darkness!,” she yelps. “We’re all buddies here. Friends. Comrades of light. Pals.”


>”Put your clothes on and keep them on. You of all people will hardly die of cold.”

>Let her do so but banish her to the tunnel so nobody has to see her.

>Just let her do so.

>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later.

>Other

>>773480
>You can't really refer to a divine construct as a mere machine even if from a meta perspective that is quite possibly true

She admitted that with the Wheel god's Death she was waning, since she was going against church doctrine, and acting erratically, is it not possible it has addled her wits too?

>>773495
Who wants to bet a girl Orion was sweet on went Witch and then betrayed him getting his buddies killed?

>>773506
>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later.

>>773506
>>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later.

>>773506
>set up a fire further down so we don't have to see her
>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later.

>>773506
>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later

Fuck it, its cold, wet and we're all rather miserable

>>773510
That's an excuse for turning against the light if I ever heard one and it's not acceptable

besides I suspect a more base and mortal reason why she turned

>>773570
I was talking about the defective construct of light and wax, not the foul mouthed rich girl witch bitch trying to redeem herself.

>>773510
>>773522
>>773537
>>773538
>>773506
>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later.


>>773510
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised. I didnt think Lamplighters have to take a vow of celibacy, it is like people in DnD think all paladins are celibate, don't drink, and give all their earnings to orphanages.

Monks in real life were drunken lechers half the times, had to make sure those innocent nuns in the convent didn't get taken advantage of by vagabonds and the like, if you know what I mean.

I am sure he stocked a few of the female flame adepts fires if you know what I mean, they helped him cultivate his wick, polish his lantern, rubbed his penis.

>>773580
concessions of a half broken down doll whose a conscious and programming have been eroded by time and a fractured power source

>>773506
>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later.
Tell them some awkward stories to pass the time.

>>773506
Wait, has Orion ever even SEEN a titty before?

Is his first real life titty sighting going to be the titties of a cold witch.

In fact, how cold is a witches titty? Are we gonna find out?

>>773620
Doubt it, If he was a womanizer he'd have tapped Beatrice already, just put a bag over her head. He seems the type to have fallen hard for a girl, and in all likelihood she was a witch, fucked him over, killed his freinds, destroyed a first age lamp(the one he conveniently had to carry the sun shard) and soured him on women in general and witches in particular.

I'll be honest the thought of removing our armour to spend the night in some cave in the middle of nowhere triggers me softly

>>773637
That's what I'm thinking too

>>773620
Magic and the very real threats lamplighters face may actually inspire some to take their vows seriously or at least those on the frontier anyhow

File: OrionWithoutArmour.jpg (27 KB, 540x765)

27 KB JPG

>Let her do so and take off your own armour and garments as well. It’s all bloody wet and it has to dry off sooner or later

“But seriously,” Beatrice says. “Why can Abe do it but I can’t? No jokes this time.”

“Abraham is a man, as am I. It is acceptable for us to disrobe somewhat when in the company of the opposite gender. You are a woman.”

“Wow thanks I didn’t know.”

“It is obscene. It is bad enough that you wear trousers for practical purposes.”

Abe is staring at you now.
“Orion we’re not in a church right now. You get that right?”

“Don’t bother,” Beatrice grumbles. “That stick is so far up his arse that it’s in danger of popping out his mouth every time he talks. The only question is if he was born with it or if it got jammed in there back in the monastery when he was just a wee little choir boy in private prayer sessions with his abbo-”

“That’s enough.”
The witch cringes away as you take your helmet off.
“Do as you please Beatrice, Abe’s right. This is no place to be concerned over such things.”

“Oh so Abe is allowed to be right about this but not me.”

“Take it as you will.”
You start unbuckling your runic full-plate, quickly stripping down to just your undershirt and breeches, the former of which you take off too. Your breeches are still dry though so you leave them on. Fortunate indeed, for you have always loathed stripping down all the way in front of others. Or even when alone. It’s too vulnerable for your taste.

Beatrice is done before you, stripped down to just a sleeveless under-vest and a long pair of bloomers. This is the second time you’ve seen her like this and it’s no less disgusting each time. You can see the way her engorged veins run down the muscle of her arms, the tiny fractures and purple bruises in her pale gray skin.
“Done staring?” she says, her tone acidic. “I didn’t think you spun that way.”

“Your body is fascinatingly ugly to look at. Much in the way that people used to gaze upon a derailed train.”

“Thanks,” she mutters. “You know you don’t look that good your...your...uh.”
She trails off.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. Just a bit of a surprise.”

Well now you’ve ensured what promises to be a slow and awkward night for all concerned. Abraham can’t take his eyes off the witch, no doubt utterly disgusted and you have no idea what’s wrong with Beatrice. This is morally questionable all round and you’d be happy for any way to pass the time.
But how best to do it?


>Tell a story.

>Ask someone else for a story.

>Go sit in the tunnel.

>Push Beatrice into the tunnel.

>Talk to Beatrice about her promised punishment for how she spoke to the Saint.

>”I’m going to sleep.”

>Other

>>773735
>Tell a story.

>>773735
>“Thanks,” she mutters. “You know you don’t look that good your...your...uh.”
>She trails off.
She wants the O

>Go sit in the tunnel.
>Tell a story.

>>773735
>Tell a story.

>>773735
>Tell a story.

>>773735
>>Tell a story.


>>773749
Orion is a confirmed beefcake grandpa (or would be if he had kids) at this point. Her reaction was predictable, especially given she likely hasn't gotten any for a long ass time at best. The only question is how long she will stare.

>>773735
>Tell a story.
And keep a good watch out. Bad enough getting surprised but now are we without armor.

>>773735
>>Tell a story.
>>Ask someone else for a story.
Start yours then ask bea about one of hers

>>773735
>“You know you don’t look that good your...your...uh.”

Hahaha we made her moist.

>Ask someone else for a story
>Tell a story

Whichever is most interesting, kinda want to know more about Beatrice's past since we know most of Abe's story even though we have only traveled with him for a little bit.

If Beatrice isn't forthcoming we could maybe give a bit of our own back story

If none of that works then go to bed.

>>773776
We're actually not that old, our hair just turned white for some reason that I can't remember

>>773776
No we just look superficially older thanks to the lamppost

>>773735
>tell a story
>go sit in the tunnel

Awkward Orion a best

>>773681
>>773779
Consider this is the first time we've sorta lowered our guard it's quite refreshing

If shit happens well we lowered our guard in the wastelands

>>773776
I think Orion is somewhere in his 40s or something, he is definitely a DILF but not quite a GILF. His hair is just bleached.

Sorry about the delay on this one, the stick-tape holding my laptop monitor to my actual laptop came undone and I've got to restick the whole thing.

>>773927
Jesus Christ Ouro the fuck?

>>773927
Jesus Ouro do you use your laptops to hammer nails or something? This one didn't last you very long

>>773968
He uses them to hit vermin.

>>774004
Witches do have hard heads, look at Bea

>>773927
Use glue?

File: finally.jpg (565 KB, 3264x2448)

565 KB JPG

Alright, I can write again now that the monitor is firmly attached and internet rehooked. Please wait warmly.

>>774033
Christ man, I think we have the same laptops but I haven't used mine to crush squirrels so it is still in tact.

>>774033
Such is life in Australia

>>774033
Damn it Ouro I can barely wait for you to finish! Stop hunting spiders and salt water crocodiles with your busted up laptop and post! :p

>Tell a story
>Ask someone else to tell a story.


“Does anyone have any stories to tell?”

Beatrice looks up at you.
“Huh? Why?’

“We might as well do something while we wait the rain out. And stories by the campfire are practically traditional. Helps keep the dark at bay.”

Abe scratches his scruffy chin.
“Don’t know about you but I reckon what stories I know both of you have already heard. You’re both at least twice my age aren’t you?”
When neither of you respond he just shakes his head.
“I know both of you were old when God lost his shine. So I figure you have a lot more stories than I do. How old are you anyway?”

You consider the thought.
“It’s been some time since I kept track of the days but if it’s still been thirty years then I’m about forty-seven by my reckoning.”

“Fifty-five,” Beatrice says at the same time.

“Hard to tell,” you continue. “Time isn’t as straight as it used to be. And it’s only going to get worse.”

Beatrice shrugs.
“You’re a bit younger than I thought to be honest. So why don’t you tell us a story Orion? Since you’re the one who wanted this and all. Just nothing churchy.”

“Hrmph. You don’t get to choose but very well.”

“You don’t actually know any stories that aren’t religious, do you?”

“That’s not true! I have….The Mistakes of Jack Wick. A long tale and an entertaining one.”
It was one that you had considered telling to the children of Sacrament.

“Never heard of it,” Abe says.

“I haven’t heard it but I’ve heard of it,” the witch says. “Isn’t it a children’s tale?”

“So what if it is? It’s still a Lamplighter story.”

“I’ve had my fill of Lamplighter stories,” she grumbles. “But maybe there’s one I’m still interested in. Why don’t you tell us about yourself huh?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Oh yes, look at how mysterious you are with that sun-shard and that broken lamp and those vague allusions to a terrible past. To be honest Orion I’m getting pretty sick of it. You might as well take this opportunity to spill the beans.”

You shake your head.
“No.”

“I must admit,” Abe says as he joins in, his voice pitched up to be heard over the rain. “I’ve been wondering the same thing Orion. And about you too Bea. It doesn’t sit right by me, not knowing anything about my companions.”

“I’d imagine Beatrice’s history is of a far more pertinent nature,” you say. “Her past could actually be dangerous to us in the future. If it hasn’t been already.”

“Screw you. I want to know about the lamp post!”

You avoid looking at Beatrice as she leans over towards you.


>”I suppose it’s unfair to expect you to keep following me without knowing. But you first.”

>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”

>”Can you at least put your coat back on over your vest?”

>”No.” End of story.

>Other

>>774203
>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”

>>774203
>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”
I wann know too!

>>774203
>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”
>”Can you at least put your coat back on over your vest?”
>Certain parts of your femininity are quite literally pointing out your gender, and they should not be that cold by the fire.

>>774203
>>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”
Orion Origin Story is Go!

>>774203
>>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”

>>774203
>”I suppose it’s unfair to expect you to keep following me without knowing. But you first.”

>>774203
>>”No.” End of story.

I know y'all are eager to learn Orions backstory but I don't think it would be something he'd relent on easily

>Beatrice is 45
>Orion is 47

Jesus Christ do people age the same in lamplighter as they do IRL?

>>774264
Bea is 55, and she stopped aging because witch.

Orion has fucktarded good regeneration and is basically a paladin. Both have likely absurd longevity.

>>774264
>>774270
We all know this is going to end with a Tsundere Orion putting a babbeh in Bea after slinging a foot of righteous dicking into her.

Just kidding I don't really see Orion and Bea getting it on, we have been pretty rough on her and she is an embodiment of what we hate, although she strives for redemption. I don't see good old Orion as the type to go for forbidden fruit, especially when it as veiny and splotchy as Bea.

>>774338
pretty much. The only way he'd contemplate it is if she got her wick back, and even then it'd be a looooooooong road.

>>774338
>Orion putting a babbeh in Bea
We would probably ignite her with our flame empowered dick.

>>774380
a literal case of dick too bomb

Sorry guys, I'll be back tomorrow to finish this. My screen's slipped off again and I need to buy more sticky tape.

>>774469
dude...

>>774469
I will probably get masking tape this time though. The thin plastic sticky tape is getting a little melted by how hot my laptop is, I feel.

>>774483
get some superglue or something

>>774469
God damnit Ouro, you just couldn't resist smashing that last tarantula could you?

Get some goddamn twine or wire or something, invest in hotglue man.

Ohwell good luck, try using a non-adhesive method to make it work since the warmth from the computer will cause the adhesive to dissolve. Wish you had another computer/posting device.

>>774478
I'll post the update by tonight or so when the computer is feeling better. I won't leave you hanging for long!

>>774033
....At least mine is still the original screen and only needs duct tape at the hinges, I guess.

>>774483
epoxy could work too. That stuff doesn't melt. Just ah, don't mess it up.

>>774203
>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”

>>774338
If it they did develop "that" kind of relationship it would be a minor point or a delayed point until the quest is done

Alright, everything's taped back together. I'll start updating now. This is going to be a fairly big one.

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

175 KB PNG

>”Fine. Just give me a moment and I’ll begin.”

You cross your legs while you sit by the fire, barely feeling its warmth upon your skin. One of the downsides of being fireproof. And what are you supposed to do now? You hadn’t ever imagined that you would have to share this story. But something Abraham said struck you as meaningful.
You’ve asked a lot from these two, even the witch. For them to accompany you on your quest, trusting that you’ve had the right idea all along, all without ever knowing what set your feet upon this path. So why do you hesitate? Surely you aren’t afraid of what they’ll think of you.

“Well?,” Beatrice asks. “Are you going to spill it or not?”

“Fine, just give me a moment! I’m thinking of where to begin!”

You are! Yes, even the witch. You’re afraid of throwing a shadow over the respect they have for you, for your quest. You don’t want them to see the real Orion. But is this not simply pride? You don’t want to look lesser in their eyes but that is no noble desire. That is a selfish and sinful fear.

You could always lie.

You entertain that thought for no more than a moment. If you’re going to trust them with your life and ask them the same in return the least you can trust them with is your past. And if what they see truly disgusts them then you will not argue. You will make no apologies or justifications.

“Maybe you should begin at, you know, the START,” Beatrice interjects.

“It’s a long story,” you grumble. “One without a clear beginning or end. But I suppose you could say that it began just a little over thirty years ago. I was a young Cenobite in Saiph, the Ninety-Seventh Watchtower. Is something wrong Abe?”
The man’s reaction to your last words had been odd.

“No, nothing. It’s just so strange to hear you speak of them in such a familiar tone. The Watchtowers are practically a myth, something dead and gone from a bygone age. Just like…”
He stops but you already know what words he chose not to say. Just like Lamplighters in general.

“Well back in my day they were real and they were strong, each one a bulwark against the darkness, the 108 home fortresses of the Lamplighters. Saiph was primarily a Witch-finder bastion but like all the Watchtowers it housed members of all four Orders. The Knights Sol, those Lamplighters most wed to the Church. The Order of the Wick, the Order who sponsored the Flame Colleges and studied the sacred pyromancies. The Bulwark, unparalleled masters of combat who patrolled the boundaries of mankind and protected the innocent. Andr the Witch-f-”

“Holy shit,” Beatrice says. “You already said it was a Witch-finder bastion, Orion! I know what all the Orders are!”

“Well this is sort of new to me,” Abe says. “I like it.”

1/??

File: 0ea13b7cff07ba7ce00a06427(...).png (167 KB, 800x800)

167 KB PNG

>>775215
>“Holy shit,” Beatrice says. “You already said it was a Witch-finder bastion, Orion! I know what all the Orders are!”
shut the fug up Beatrice, we're telling a story

>>775215

“Well whatever.”
Beatrice shrugs.
“I already know where Orion is going with this. And among those Witch-finders,” she says with a mock deep voice, “there was a young particularly devout and particularly dense lad who had been born with his sphincter permanently clenched around a stick.”

“Do you want to hear the story or not?”
You shove your bare hand into the flame and pull it back out after several seconds, a fistful of fire dancing atop your palm.
“And you’d be surprised Beatrice. I wasn’t always the paragon of duty that you see before you now. Quite the opposite in fact. For you see, among those Witch-finders there was a young and moody lad of
seventeen summers who found himself chafing beneath the life and duty that was expected of him…”

The fire in your hand quivers at your words and begins to shape itself into pillars. Pillars that then shape themselves into people, tiny fire dolls of only crude approximation to humanity. You gaze at them and through them, your eyes looking upon a scene many miles and years distant.

***********

“...And with that, it was divined that the post-Sundering kingdoms would have to be re-united by any means necessary and a second Dominion built atop the ashes of the old. And that the Third Age and the long Lamplighter’s Vigil would end when the Dominion was whole once again. We approach that hour now, brothers and sons of the light. The promised Age that the Wheel God set aside for us is nigh. But until the Fourth Age dawns and the first Fourth Men set foot upon blessed concrete we will not waver! We will not be tested and come up short! You will shoulder this duty for as long as you need and you will not set it down until the promised time has come and no darkness reigns. Pray that it be so!”

“Pray that it be so,” the crowd chanted. Unlike the large man who spoke to them, old and weathered like bad leather, this was a crowd of young men. All fit and strong and clad in habits of burgundy and gold. Not a single one of them was over twenty but all of them had been blooded in the eternal battle against the dark and many had the scars to show it.

“Very good,” the Lamplighter-General of Saiph spoke again. “I expect to see you all in an hours time for midday prayers. Until then you are free to spend your time in whatever constructive manner that you see fit.”

“We go through this every week,” you groan as you file out of the church. “If we don’t know our duties by now I’m not sure how old Lawrence up there has any hope in us at all.”

The young Lamplighter with the shaven head by your side chuckles as the two of you walk out into the courtyard. It is a bright and sunny day above Saiph.
“I’m surprised he didn’t pull you aside specifically, Orion. If you were anymore of a pain in his bony old buttocks he’d probably have you declared a witch.”

2/???

>>775262

“Hey,” you say, suddenly serious. “Don’t joke about that. That’s no laughing matter. You shouldn’t disrespect the General.”

Brother John stops, drawn up by your sudden change in demeanour. But then he narrows his eyes.
“You’re messing with me right now aren’t you?”

You smile and he does too. John is one of the few friends you’ve ever made, even despite having spent all your life in the Watchtower. You aren’t comfortable around people and most of them don’t seem to really understand you. It gets you a little angry sometimes.
“Aye,” you say, drawing out the confirmation. “It’s not that I’m unfaithful, John. I always show up for prayers don’t I?”

“You pray in the dorms Orion, I don’t think anyone doubts your devotion. Just your discipline.”

“I just don’t see the point in it all,” you say. “The Fourth Age is coming when, exactly? Next year, the year after that? It could even be next month depending how the unification goes. Soon enough nobody is going to need us.”

“I think the world will always need Lamplighters.”

“Probably so but they’ll need us like they did in the Second Age, just people with Flame Rites and the means to use them. Nothing serious. Face it John, this Age was the Age of the Lamplighter and we’ve grown up just in time to see it end.”

“When you put it that way you make the coming salvation sound almost depressing.”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait. But doesn’t that make you realize how pointless all of this is now?”
You gesture around at the landscape around you, the many buildings and churches and behind it all, the titular Watchtower itself.
“We’re all going to be obsolete in just a few years tops. It’ll just be peace, joy and whatever the Fourth Age women look like.”

John laughs again.
“You’re planning to break your vows?”

“It’s not like they’ll mean anything soon. As long as the Fourth Men don’t have a really strange skin color like blue or something I think we’d be set. So you’ll have to forgive me for not really putting my all into all these annoying rituals and little acts of discipline. We’re hardening ourselves for a life we’re never going to have to live!”

“I trust I’m going to see you in midday prayers regardless.”

“Naturally. But I’m going into town for the duration. Got people to see.”

“Is that so? ‘People’”

“What are you implying?”

“Nothing! I’m just saying I’d really like to meet ‘People’ someday. Find out just what makes ‘People’ so important that you’re off nearly every day. You don’t exactly have a wide network of compatriots, Orion.”

“But John, are we not all brothers in the Orders? Is that not stronger than any friendship?”

“I can tell you’re not sincere and I’m fairly certain most of our brothers think you’re a prick.”

“Well I’ll see you at noon anyway. Are you off to the brewery again?”

3/??

>>775304
John raises an eyebrow at your tone.
“Orion, please. It is a charity of work of ours, labour to supply the needy and those without vows. I can’t believe you’re implying I would touch a drop.”

“Well don’t let Thomas catch you again. The last time-”
You can’t help but notice John is suddenly walking away at a very brisk pace. You feel a heavy hand settle on your shoulder. You already know who it is before you turn around. Speak of the ghoul and you’ll find him at your door.
“Good morning Brother Thomas.”

“Is it?”
The man has aged quite a lot over the years since he took you from your old home as a small child, an event you have no remaining memory of.
“What’s this I hear of you speaking false doctrine?”

“Nothing false about it,” you say sullenly. “Just regular old dogma. I mean I’m not wrong about any of it, am I?”

“Hrmph.”
Thomas purses his lips.
“That it may be so but the General has concerns about your discipline.”

“Lawrence is always concerned about my discipline. And why you, brother? I stopped being your sponsor when I got the full red-and-gold. I settle my own mistakes now.”

“I know, I know. Is it impossible that I simply care for you? It does me grief to hear of you straying and setting foot upon a wayward path.”

Your heart softens against your will and you can’t help but feel at least a little contrite.
“I know I’m not always what you expected me to be. But I’m trying my best to figure out who I really am still. And sometimes I feel like that person isn’t the most ideal of Lamplighters.”

His grip lessens, his hand resting atop your shoulder for just a moment more before he withdraws.
“I am proud of you,” he says. “Sometimes I think you don’t really understand that. And I’m sure you’ll be a magnificent Lamplighter. But until then can you at least promise me that you’ll fix your conduct with Lawrence? Sometimes I fear he considers expelling you.”

“Expelling me would just be a quicker fate to the same fate that awaits all of us once the Age turns over.”

“Maybe so. But I’d miss you.”

“And I you.”

“Will I be seeing you at the library today?”
Thomas, as one of the most elder Witch-finders in Saiph, was often on duty guarding over the trove of plundered witch-lore that the Witch-finders had built their power out of. You’d spent many a day studying the Dark there with him and you know he appreciates your company. Probably thinks it keeps you out of trouble.
If only he knew how wrong that was.

“Sorry, I was already there this morning and I’m going into town before noon. Maybe tonight.”

4/???

>>775356
Nearly twenty minutes later and you’ve changed clothes to a drabber tunic and breeches, one that lets you blend into the small town that’s grown up around Saiph. You’re standing on a dirty concrete road, just outside a ramshackle wooden house. You don’t bother with the front door, instead jogging around to the side and up the stairs. The person you’re looking for only lives on the second floor.

It takes a moment before anyone responds to your knocking and when she does, she sounds tired. She’s been sounding exhausted more and more lately, you hope she isn’t ill and hasn’t told you. That would be just like her. The door opens just a crack.
“Have you got it?”

“Here.”
You pass the slim volume that you had ‘appropriated’ from the Saiph’s library to her through the barely open door.
“What do you want with this anyway? It’s just basic witch-lore as far as I can tell.”

The door creaks open all the way and you enter, noting the shutters pulled down across the windows to keep the light out. Serafina always kept things a little darker than you really found comfortable.

The room is small, as small as you’d expect from someone only earning money from occasional scribe-work. She lives off that alone. Well, that and the occasional donation from you when you can pressure her into accepting it. You have no need for coin. It’s dusty and cluttered, strewn with books and scrolls. It’s this that Serafina spends her money on, purchasing the scholarly leftovers of the Watchtower as they slowly filter into the outside world.
Not for any practical use that you can tell. The girl simply devours knowledge. The daughter of a scrivener, she’s been like this as long as you’ve known her. Not the most appropriate hobby for a woman but one you find strangely intriguing regardless.

The girl herself is very small, almost impossibly slight when contrasted with your broad and burly frame. So thin and small that it makes her look far younger than she really is. Her short red hair contrasts nicely with her gray skin as she holds your book to her chest.
Every time you see her you are astounded all over again that anything this fragile could ever possibly exist. But you know she has a core of steel buried in her that lets her survive. You don’t think you’d respect her otherwise.
“I didn’t think you’d actually bring it to me. Orion, I said it as a joke! Won’t this get you in trouble?”

“Only if they find out. Get what you want from it quickly and I’ll return it in a few days, nobody will be any the wiser.”
She’s right, this is the sort of thing that could easily get you flogged and likely worse. But you get a little thrill from the way she stares up at you, at the stepping over the boundaries that you have been forced into your entire life. Not that you would ever stray fully out of course. But they chafe at you far too often.
“But really, why do you want it?”

5/???

File: IMG_0257.png (455 KB, 582x477)

455 KB PNG

>>775387
You doomed your order for pussy Orion think about that

Oh no, he's educating a witch!

>>775387
Wow Orion.
Just... wow.

“I-I didn’t really mean it but I guess you could say I have some interest in witch-lore. This Black Compass in particular looks very interesting.”


“Oh that? I already know how to do that. I can show you if you want.”


She flushes just a little.
“Thank you again. You have no idea what this means to me.”


“I can’t do it right now though.”


“Oh?”


“Yeah I’ve spent too much time wandering around already. If I don’t leave now I’ll be late for midday prayers.”


She pouts.
“You’ve been late for them before.”


“Yes but I’ve made a promise to someone to be good and I don’t want to break it.”
You don’t mention Thomas’ name to her. The more you can keep her separate from all other aspects of your life the better as far as you’re concerned. You don’t think she minds too much.
“How about I see you tonight? I can show you the Compass.”


“That would be nice. See you soon.”


“And the same to you,” you say, gently tousling her hair and ignoring her quiet complaints. Serafina is the one aspect of your life that doesn’t fit quite right, the one broken cog that slowly sets the rest out of proper motion. You’ve known her for a few years now, ever since she tried to steal your coin while you were in town incognito. You had let her keep it at the time.
But there’s something here that isn’t quite right and it’s only as you’re leaving that you notice it.


“Oh ‘Fina! Did you knock your lantern over?”
The lantern is one of her most valuable possessions, a little glass and metal contraption that helps her read when the sun goes down. Better than using the light from the central lamp through the window, the angle of it in her room just wasn’t right. It was rare to see her room without it’s soft and constant glow.
But here it was sitting on its side on the floor, the flame within having gone completely cold.

6/???

>>775419
Dun dun dunnnnnn

>>775419
The night sky overhead is a beautiful dark blue, dotted by roaming stars and a full and pure moon. You’re sitting atop a rooftop, enjoying the view where the radiant shell the central lamp-post extends over Saiph and its town mingles with the softer light of the night sky. The world outside has gone dark but the area around the Watchtower remains wrapped in cozy light.
You’re not alone either. Serafina sits beside you.
“Thanks again for the book. I still can’t believe you actually did it.”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” you boast.

“It makes you feel good, doesn’t it?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“To throw off what everyone expects you to be and defy them, even for an act so small and harmless.”

“Maybe so. I just don’t see the point in any of it.”

“You don’t want to be a Lamplighter?”

“Of course I do! But pretty soon most of this won’t even matter. It’s just a big stuffy waste of time.”

“I always thought you ‘lighters had it pretty good. You make it sound very strict.”

“It’s not that bad. It’s great actually. Just...nevermind.”

“Well I’m just happy you’re back. You sort of vanished on me for a few months there, Orion. What was that?”

“I was out over at Watchtower Sixty-Eight. Some extra training for stuff I won’t even need. Why? Were you okay while I was gone?”

Her voice catches just a little.
“Of course. I can take care of myself.”

“If you say so. I’d been meaning to make time to talk to you more but I’ve been busy lately.”

“I know. It wasn’t your fault.”

You tear your gaze from the stars to look at her questioningly.
“You’re making this sound like something more serious than it is. Are you sure nothing happened while I was gone?”

“Very sure. Sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you concern.”

“Oh, good. Now let’s talk about that Compass. We don’t have any witch-dirt and be thankful for that but I can show you how you need to hold your hand.”

“Like this?”

You study the shape of her fingers and shake your head.
“You’ve almost got it. Here, let me just move it into position…”

You grab hold of her hand with yours and you feel her breath catch. So does yours. What are you doing? You let go of her.
“Shit. I really shouldn’t be here. I’m sorry Serafina.”

“Don’t be.”
She reaches for your hand again and this time you don’t pull away.
“Is this the right way?”
She holds her hand in yours and this time the position for the Black Compass is perfect.

“You’re really good at this. I didn’t expect you to pick it up so quickly after just reading about it.”
You don’t let go of her hand.

“I have very smart hands. All that clerk work.”
This time it’s her that withdraws from your grasp.
“Look Orion, we need to talk about this book.”

“What of it?”


7/???

>>775492
Oh shit! Here it comes!

"I found this sketching of another girl in it you cheating bastard!"

"This book made me realize I am a lesbian"
"Oooga booga imma witch nao!"

"This book isn't nearly enough knowledge! Go my little booty slave and fetch me more!"

"Someone stole the book"

"Someone drew dickbutt in every single margin of this book"

>>775492
“I have a bad feeling about keeping it, like someone will find it missing in the library soon. Can I give it back to you tomorrow?”

“You know as well as I do that I don’t have any spare time tomorrow.”

“What if I bring it to you instead? I can just leave it by the dorm.”

That would be easier.
“You’re a girl though. You’re not allowed anywhere near the dorms.”

“Am I talking to the same Orion? Don’t you think it’ll be fun? Another harmless small thing to break the rules over?”

You really don’t want Serafina to get in trouble. But her knowing a way in and out to the dorms...the idea is an exciting one.
“There’s a bad stone in the bottom of the wall around the Watchtower on the other side from the town. Just by the little scrape in the concrete. A few people use it to sneak in and out.”

“Thank you! If anyone else finds it before you you can just say you dropped it!”

“Maybe this is a bad idea. I’ll try to make the time to visit you tomorrow and pick the book up alright?”
You’re already starting to regret this a little. You’ll come to regret it a lot more very soon.

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

Broken stone tumbles to the ground beside you and you roll out of the way just in time for something small, all fur and scale and flashing teeth to leap at you! You catch the little creature before it can strike you, tiny claws tearing up the skin of your outstretched arm and drawing blood. You look the creature in the eye, a deranged little fetus of a thousand different chimerical features.
And then you throw it against the broken wall and draw your wick, blasting it into ash before it gets back to its feet.

Goblins.
What are goblins doing here? They couldn’t have caused this!

It is night once more, the night after your last meeting with Serafina. You have just been awoken from your slumber by your entire dorm room collapsing underneath you. You are left stranded in a broken ruin, fallen walls and stone littering the ground beside you. You can see red-clad bodies in the wreckage. Oh no. No no no no.
It can’t just be goblins!

But where there’s goblins there are often trolls.

You free yourself from the wreckage of the dorm to find yourself trapped in a living nightmare. Saiph’s central lamp-post throws light over the Watch-tower’s compound, more than enough to illuminate the pools of blood, the scattered bodies. Most of these Lamplighters hadn’t even been in armour, their weapons not even in hand!
You had all been unprepared.

You can see goblins in the shadows, the little half-formed creatures shying away from the light and roaming through whatever shade they can find instead. You aim your Wick and let loose a battle-cry as your spurt of flame vanishes their protective shadow, letting the light of the lamp paralyse them.

“Orion!”
John rounds the corner of the courtyard, his hastily donned armour stained with black ichor and red blood, a flaming sword in hand.

Fuck you, Orion, and fuck you too, Serafina.

File: Iw1ALyK.png (143 KB, 437x282)

143 KB PNG

>>775541

>>775541
dumb frey ass nigga doomed his order for the iea of pusyy.
fucking deadass lmaoooo

>>775541

“Thank god you’re alive! We need to get to the Tower, they’ve set up fortifications in th-”

It happens before you can even think to stop it. You couldn’t even call out as something unfolded around the same corner that John had just run in from. You see a long shadow, the shape of a claw and then John is dead, his head dashed against the wall. It was over in an instant.

The monster steps forward into the light and it doesn’t even flinch.

Goblins, your mind recites to itself, a distant corner of calm in the chaos raging everywhere else, were the most pathetic of all the creatures of darkness. Typically spawned when a human baby was abandoned in the dirt or as the result of a witch cursing a pregnancy, these twisted infants are chimeras of a hundred different features. They are small and weak but nimble and with an endless malevolence. Their claws are blunt and stubby but the venom in their mouths can be enough to kill. They are stupid and yet possess a certain animal cunning.
And if one of them somehow manages to live long enough they grow into a troll. And what an old troll this was.

It pads around into the courtyard upon half a dozen catlike-legs, a long chimerical scorpion covered in thick plating and with a pair of huge clawed arms protruding from its puffed-up chest. It’s head is framed by a thick mane choked in blood and its head is flat, an owl-like beak framed by three rows of unblinking eyes. Its tail is long and spiny, covered in thick quills that ends in a second head, this one an eyeless maw filled with needle-teeth.
It is almost ten times the size of a man and it is covered in the still-drying blood of many more than that.

And as it slowly prowls towards you it is just as slowly coming apart. Small pebbles of armour-plating and scale bounce off it, dislodged by the countless broken Lamplighter blades embedded in its side. Flakes of ash and burned meat pull loose from its other side where it had been struck by an Immolate of immense power. One of its eyes cries constant tears from where a bullet is lodged in it.
And yet you know all that damage is entirely superficial. Trolls age like trees, in great thick layers. And each layer inwards is denser and tougher than the last. And this troll has lived for centuries.

The swords in his side? None of them have penetrated more than just a few inches. The burn down his side and back? Just the destruction of an outermost layer. The bullet in his eye? The eye still moves, still swivels constantly from side to side, it’s just been cracked slightly as if itself was stone. And that’s ridiculous, even for a troll.
It isn’t just ancient. Someone’s feeding it power. It comes here on the whims of a witch.

The scales and ash and tears that fall to the ground in the crumbling monsters wake don’t rest for long either. Every dropped piece of itself squirms and throbs like a beating heart. They’ll be newborn goblins in less than a minute.

9/??

>>775600
I want this animated by ufotable.

>>775607
Urobutcher?

>>775600
Holy shit old trolls are golem tier scary

>>775607
Too bad Ouro isn't supported by unlimited budget works

>>775617
I wouldn't mind seeing this get animated, would make a decent show I think.

Also is anyone else worried about how spooky the skeleton on the bottom right is getting, it seems to get spookier and spookier every time I load the page.

>>775617
>>775600

Ouro, man, you must turn this into a screenplay and sell for mad money.

As long as we anons don't fuck up the ending of course

>>775626
>implying Urobutcher isn't browsing this thread right now planning to fuck this up

>>775600
All of this passes through your mind in just a flash, the amount of time it takes for you to lift your wick and point it at the troll. And the amount of time it takes for the monsters tail to flick, a quill almost as long as your arm spearing through the air and smashing your wick in half.
It’s useless.

The troll’s tail flicks again and you jump to the side, a thrown quill shattering against the concrete where your leg was resting just a moment ago. It’s not even trying to kill you! The next barb, this time aimed at your arm, confirms your suspicions. It doesn’t even see you as a threat, it sees you as a toy.

Well you’ll make it regret that. You’re not sure how just yet, given that fire is your best bet against such a beast and it just shattered your wick but you’re not going to back down and run. You step to the side, dodging yet another quill and getting some distance from the spines it’s already shot at you. The discarded quills are already bubbling, beginning to transform into goblins. Most of them will just be paralyzed by the lamp’s light and die but a few might manage to strike at you before that happens. You can’t afford that.

The troll slows to match your pace, the beast circling the courtyard as it stares you down. It seems to grasp your intent perfectly. You just need to keep it busy until you find another source of flame…

The troll lunges and time seems to slow as it leaps across the entire courtyard, soaring through the air above you with its worm-ringed belly exposed to the light.
And then the moment ends with a crack of thunder.

A cannonball smacks into the monster’s side and it is sent tumbling to the ground mid-leap with a shriek of pain so high-pitched you can barely hear it at all.
“Orion! Get over here!”
You swivel to see Brother Thomas running down the road from the chapel, a second Lamplighter pushing a treaded cannon while a third one reloads.
“We’ve got more cannons in the tower! Get the survivors from the dormitory and get over there while we deal with it!”

You see John’s head shattering in your mind’s eye and you shake your head.
“There are no survivors in the dorm.”

For a moment you see a look of hopeless grief upon the elder Lamplighter’s face but then it vanishes, his mouth set into just a line.
“So be it. Damn thing caught us by surprise, don’t know how it managed to get in bu-get down!”

The fallen troll writhes and another barbed quill lashes out through the air! And then Thomas just holds his hand, fingers wreathed in the trailing light of Benediction and catches the projectile upon his outstretched palm. You just watch as the quill vanishes in an instant, burned to nothing by the Cauterize Wound Benediction covering his hand before it can pierce the skin.
The cannon fires again a moment later and the troll is sent to the ground once more with a crater at least foot deep in its chest.

10/??

>>775677
>You just watch as the quill vanishes in an instant, burned to nothing by the Cauterize Wound Benediction covering his hand before it can pierce the skin.
Nice. Maybe we should use our Benedictions more?
Also, fuck yeah, cannons!

>>775677
Thomas is badass.
Too bad he'll die.

>>775685
>>775689
>>775677
Wow, well I now understand why Orion treats Bea like shit.

Goddamn that must have hurt, fuck I can't even imagine how totally this fucked up his head. Shit dude, you think that the world is going to be perfect, you let yourself have one mortal pleasure of holding hands with a girl, a girl that seems like she really likes you and truly understands your interests, and bam. Toll breaks in, all your friends die, your watchtower is destroyed and killed to a man all the while the bitch is cackling after fucking with your head. She even tricked him into using the black compass right next to her, that ballsy bitch. You know he is either going to kill her or going to find her later and kill her on the way to Dis.

I wonder if Orion thought the sun shattering was his fault, since it seems like it happened right after his watchtower fell.

“Your work here is done,” Thomas grunts. “Find a wick or get going, it’s one or the other.”

You’re still reeling from everything that’s happened, your feet unsteady beneath you.
“Aye. Is this the only one?”

Thomas nods.
“As far as we can tell every goblin in the compound stems from this from. It’s the only one. It’s taken us by surprise and has wreaked quite the bloody havoc but this is where it ends. In the end it’s just one troll. Fire!”
The cannon fires a third time, pummelling the collapsed troll even further.
“Make sure it isn’t playing dead! I want at least three more shots into that thing!”

It looks like it’s all over already. Was your belief of a witch being behind this beast just a mistake? Almost certainly. You turn to look through the wreckage and as you do, you see something in the shadows by the outer wall.
The stone at the base has been dislodged, the runes pushed aside in the only possible way that’d avoid setting off the alarm. And standing beside it is a girl, her shape peeling out of the shadow where you were certain there was nothing before.

A little woman with a short red hair, a book in her hands.
You freeze and just stare at her as she drops the book onto the concrete. And then she steps forward into the light and casts a shadow, one far longer and thinner than it has any right to be. The shadow falls across the boundary of the courtyard and nearly reaches the two Lamplighters by the cannon. Their attention trained on the troll, they don’t see it.

“Serafina!”

The shadow blurs, two bladed arms rising up from the ground and slicing one of the ‘lighters legs off at the ankle. The man screams and falls to the ground, his clothes and armour untouched as the Shade reaches through them to slice at his flesh. The second Lamplighter reacts quickly, pulling out his Wick and setting himself on fire to ward off the shadow’s touch.
But now the cannon has stopped and the troll suddenly rises, all nine eyes snapping to Thomas.

You charge for the girl...for the witch but you aren’t fast enough. Three quills pummel the burning Lamplighter back away from the cannon as the troll crashes into Thomas, sending him bouncing across the courtyard like a ragdoll.
The monster’s tail lashes out once more and then stops, the monster whipping back as Serafina waves her hand.

“Don’t kill him! Orion, stop!”

You do come to a stop before you can reach her but not because of her command. Her Shade has coiled up around her feet in a defensive posture and in the corner of your eye you can see the troll holding Thomas aloft. And yet it doesn’t kill him, not yet.
The threat is apparent.

“J-Just stay where you are and we can talk this out. And if you do that this man doesn’t have to die.”

You don’t know what to say. So you settle for saying nothing at all. You can’t believe it. Why? Was this all your fault?

"I don't want to hurt you Orion. Don't make me."
11/??

>>775784
WHY?! Why would you do this to Orion?! I don't get it, she obviously cares about him, does she think by destroying the watchtower they can be together?

Damn, the earth really is manipulative.

>>775795
A speech about the oppression of the Wheel God ensues

>>775784
Can a troll really have fit through a single opening in the wall? It could have, couldn’t it? You wouldn’t be surprised if it could squeeze itself like a ghoul. So that’s it then. This is what you get.

When you do finally speak you don’t shout at her. You don’t rage or bellow or anything even remotely as heroic as that. Your voice sounds tired and small.
“How long?”

Serafina brings her hands up by her side, ready to unleash witch-sign if you so much as move. But your question seems to disarm her just a little and her guard lessens.
“Since you left me all by myself for Watchtower 68. That’s fine though, you really didn’t have the time. I understand that.”

“Why? What the hell have you done?”

“You see, when a big man like you stops hanging around a little girl like me, people get ideas. Some of them got that idea more than once. And it turns out having all your precious inner steel in the world doesn’t help you against that. That’s all I’ll say on the matter. So you know, fuck it. I’m a witch now. I’m not going to justify myself more than that or make apologies. I got an offer at a very miserable time of my life and I took it up. And in exchange the voices want me to kill every Lamplighter in Saiph.”
She sighs, almost a yawn.
“If it helps I was going to kidnap you so it wouldn’t come to this. But you’re a Lamplighter in Saiph. Orders are pretty clear. So I’d like you to break your vows now.”

“What?”

“It’s not too late! Throw off your cloak, declare yourself an apostate. Then you won’t be a Lamplighter anymore and I won’t have to kill you.”

“Serafina.”
The voice is harsh, like stone grating against stone and it comes from the ancient troll holding Thomas in its claws.
“This is a waste of our time.”

“Hush down a moment, GrumbleGuts!”
Serafina stops and then looks back at you, her hands now fiddling with each other in the same way they always do when she’s feeling awkward.
“Oh uh, this is GrumbleGuts by the way. He didn’t have a name when I dug him up so I gave him one. He’s sort of my tutor? The voices told me where to find him. I would appreciate it if both of you got along.”

“You’re insane.”

“This isn’t going how I imagined it at all! Just renounce your damn order Orion! It’ll save your life!”

“What’s one more life among many? Look at what you’ve done! How could you have possibly thought that you could just come and take me away after all this and that I’d be fine with it? You used me.”
The troll is caked in blood. You refuse to even refer to it by Serafina’s name even in thought.

“That’s not how I meant that. Look Orion, it’s really really hard to care about people dying anymore. Humans anyway. It’s like watching a character in a book die. Academically I understand it’s bad but the emotional investment just isn’t there.”

12/??

>>775830
>“Hush down a moment, GrumbleGuts!”
> I would appreciate it if both of you got along.

Goddammit she's like a magical girl with her familiar.

This is so surreal.

>“That’s not how I meant that. Look Orion, it’s really really hard to care about people dying anymore. Humans anyway. It’s like watching a character in a book die. Academically I understand it’s bad but the emotional investment just isn’t there.”

Do all witches get that?

>>775830
>>775845
Damn, this wouldn't have happened if Orion had stuck around to protect her. This is like failure on a supreme level. This shit has layers, layers upon layers, all made of guilt, and all of them ours.

Its like a shit sandwhich with shit bread all wrapped up in shit wrap and we get to eat it shit-coated cellophane and all.

I can just see Orion slowly losing more and more of himself.

>>775850
Orion did mention multiple times that witches are an entirely different species, they aren't human anymore, etc

>>775830
She stops for a moment.
“Scratch that, I mean a character in a book that I don’t care for. I still felt really bad when I read the last Bonney Clay book. I think the author was just sick of the series, it was so abrupt.”

“You’re an absolute monster.”
And the worst part of it is that she isn’t even all that different from what she once was. It’d be almost comforting to think of her as some sort of creature that had eaten Serafina alive and now wore her skin. But all her usual ways of talking, her mannerisms, her hobbies, they remain achingly familiar. This was the real her and it only makes everything more surreal.

“I’m just suffering from a current lack of empathy Orion, I’m not unfeeling. So I’d like it if you didn’t call me names.”

“Do you want me to apologize? For not being there for you?”
You’re just spouting nonsense now. Running on automatic.

“The past is behind us, no point worrying about it now. But if you really want to make it up to me? Here.”
She bends down and picks up something at her feet. She tosses it to you easily, a throw that she once would never have been able to make.

The axe bounces off the concrete at your feet. Where did she get that from? It’s large and heavy, the kind even you would have trouble wielding for long.

“Renouncing your Lamplighter status can come later. For now I’d really like it if you could take this axe and chop that down.”
She raises her finger and points up, to the central lamp-post of all Saiph.

She can’t be serious.
“No.”

“Let me rephrase that. Chop down the lamp-post or else GrumbleGuts will kill this Lamplighter. This is one you like, isn’t it?”

You stare over to the troll and watch as it lifts Thomas’ prone form higher into the air. No. No. No. No. No. No.

“Do you...do you really expect me to believe that you’ll let him live even if I do it?”

“Why not? With the central lamp-post gone that kind of counts for the Watchtower falling. It might be enough to persuade the voices to let the rest of you go unhurt. You should be grateful for this kind of offer really. The world wasn’t kind enough to give the same chance to me.”

“...Why me?”

“You know how the runes protecting it work, don’t you? I bet you can chop it down real easy. And nobody will stop you either!”

“Why?”

“As long as there’s less light in the world I think the voices will be happy. I’ll spare everyone else once the lamp-post goes down. And let’s be honest Orion, don’t you remember your own rhetoric? Come a few years and the Fourth Age will be here! The final victory of light! It doesn’t matter if we knock a Watchtower down or not!”

“Orion.”
The voice is faint, almost a whisper. Thomas is still conscious.
“Don’t do it! Don’t! I’m not worth that much!”

You turn your head away from him and pick up the axe.

13/??

You sit in the rubble, a broken lamp-post balanced across your knees. Hacked right from the base. Darkness falls upon you all as the ancient magic fails and the light goes out. Your handiwork. It had to be done, didn’t it? You were doomed either way.


“I can’t believe you actually did that just because I asked. You absolute madman! GrumbleGuts, kill the Lamplighter.”

>>775910
Women, not even once

>>775910
The pain train has no brakes

>>775910
Fuck, kinda makes me wish one of her rapists had a snuff fetish and had decided to indulge.

>>775910
Damn son.

>>775910
I really like the way the shortness of the post contributes to the feeling.

>>775910
You look up to see Thomas fall to the ground. Or half of him at least. The other half follows shortly after. The tower behind you bursts open, Lamplighters rushing out but it’s too late. You’ve removed the last protection Saiph had left.
The troll bursts open, shredding itself to pieces so that it falls apart into a tidal wave of goblins.

And over the wall come ghouls, the former residents of the town outside the walls.

It’s the end. There’s nothing you can do to stop this. And it only now that the dam walls in your heart finally break and you scream. You’re still roaring as you pick up the broken lamp-post and what little embers are left in it are spurred back to life by your Flame Internal. You’re still screaming as you bash your way through a horde of goblins, each lamp strike incinerating one without a trace left behind.
And there it is before you, the ancient troll itself. It’s looking almost skeletal, having shed most of its body mass to drown the last defenders of Saiph in goblins. You lift the blazing lamp high as you charge in towards him and-

The troll bats you aside without even blinking, a single clawed hand knocking you into the air and leaving you to crumple against the wall of the tower with an agonizing crunch. Your vision goes white as you feel your bones twist and snap inside of you. You fall to the ground and the broken lamp-post lands on top of you.
That’s the last thing you remember for some time.

…

You open your eyes just a crack and for the first few moments, see only darkness. Everything hurts. And then the stars and moon above make it into your vision and you see a shadow above you. Someone standing over you.
It suddenly hurts a lot more.

Something foul and awful and impossibly malignant forces itself down your mouth and into your chest. Somehow you can feel it and yet know it has no substance. It pushes you together from the inside and you’d scream if you could.

And then it withdraws from within you, your vision still blurry and your head still ringing. Gentle hands cup your face and lever you up, moving your head to somewhere soft and warm. You see red hair above.

…

You wake alone in the ruin and rubble of the Watchtower. Dawn has come and the Wheel God once more imparts light upon the world. But for what reason? So that you may see this?
You wander a broken landscape filled only with broken buildings and broken people. Too many of those people share faces with those you once knew. You drag the broken lamp-post behind you? Why? You’re not sure. Perhaps it is your penance.

The fire within the lamp was long gone by the time you woke up. It’s just empty glass and steel now.

And while you wander you slowly set your thoughts into order. This is your fault. That cannot ever be denied. So what are you going to do about it?
You find a slip of paper in your pocket.

‘You can thank me later. I’ll be waiting at the edge.”

14/??

>>775980
KILL
KILL
KILL
KILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL

File: 3175928-5998460041-Guts..jpg (284 KB, 1479x1100)

284 KB JPG

>>775830
>>775902
>>775910
>>775980
Holy shit that was intense.

>>776031
What they said.

>>775980
She actually saved our lives.... fuck

Well sentiment aside pretty sure we gotta kill her. Too bad we couldn't waifu her though.

No wonder Orion is all fucked in the head.

Well, at least she cares, I suppose. Our attitude about witches feels significantly more justified now, though you would think it might also give us a small bit of sympathy toward people that became witches because they were powerless and being hurt.

File: Holy shit.gif (16 KB, 218x257)

16 KB GIF

>>776073
I bet Beatrice and Abe look like pic related.

>>776077
I swear, I NEED this story to come into my life at a faster pace, I wish that Ouro had it all pre-written and could just copy paste it in. Then again it might be pre-written just takes him a while to post while holding his computer together.

>>776084
What he should do is place his computer between his thighs and type sideways.

>>775980
***

You hit the ground hard and roll, your recovered armour absorbing most of the impact as you roll away from the beast. You haven’t even attacked it once and you’re not planning on doing it anytime soon. The last thing you need right now is to be swimming in goblins.

“She was wrong to heal y-”

After nearly twenty minutes of being beaten about, you finally get your chance. You roll underneath an outstretched claw, step past a feline leg and jam your new wick straight into one of the ancient troll’s eyes.

Wick: 8/10

Immolate.

Wick: 0/10

The troll slumps to the ground, a hole burned straight through one of his eyes and every increasingly dense layer of flesh between that and its brain.

***

You’ve found it. It’s taken you nearly a damn week since Saiph was destroyed but you’ve finally found the closest wasteland. The closest edge where concrete falls away and the wild earth takes hold. Serafina must have taken this trip in secret countless times.
During that week you’ve lived mostly as an animal. Unthinking, a beast in armour with the shape of a man. You’ve done nothing but search and pursue. To hunt. You’ve already vanquished one of your prey. There’s only one left now.

Its waiting for you, sitting on the edge of the concrete. The witch.

“Orion! I knew you’d figure it out. It was me that healed you by the way.”

You don’t say anything but you walk closer, the empty lamp-post still being dragged behind you.

“Orion? You’re not still mad about the lie, are you? Sometimes it can be hard to remember what gets people upset.”

Closer. It still doesn’t know.

“And now we’re ready for your baptism into the earth. Come with me, I’ll lead you into the wasteland. I will show you fear in a handful of dust. And I will show you power as well.”

It disgusts you.

“We can both be witches! Then you’ll understand everything and it’ll be just like old times!”

Closer still.

“Please?”

You grab your wick.

“S-stay away. Get back! GrumbleGuts!”

You stop but not to heed its command. Instead you unload the package slung along your back, flicking it open. The troll’s head hits the concrete.

“Oh no. I don’t want to hurt you Orion.”

You point your wick at its face.

“I’m even willing to overlook the uh...the troll thing. What you just did with GrumbleGuts right now. I wish you hadn’t done that really. He was my friend. But I understand that to you he looked like a monster. I’m willing to forgive. But I’m not a monster! I saved your life! I’m still Serafina.”

“I know. That’s what makes it worse. You had a choice.”

You will the Wick to life and as the fire ignites upon its tip, the monster laughs. Almost like a laugh. A croaking shrieking cackle that steals into your head and douses your inner flame. The flame at the end of your wick disappears.

The witch falls to the ground, blood dotting the concrete as it coughs uncontrollably.
15/??

>>776084
I was thinking of pre-writing it but it still would have taken me just as long ultimately.

>>776099
“Ow. Ow. I can’t believe that worked. I don’t think I will be Cackling again though. Ow. Now listen to me Orion. I’ve shut down your Wick temporarily so don’t even try your magic. Please don’t make me use a witch-sign on you.”

Silence.

“Stop that.” Say something. Say something else. I-It’s alright actually. You don’t have to join up with me. You can leave if you really want to.”

Closer.

“I'm sorry?"

You beat her to death with the lamp-post.

>>776104
True, just all these cliff hangers in one day might kill me XD

"Ohno! What happens next! Crap gotta wait again."

But seriously it is great work, thanks for writing this, obviously loving it so far.

>>776108
>You beat her to death with the lamp-post.
The end.

File: tumblr_m7siciXIH21qbvovho(...).gif (1008 KB, 500x267)

1008 KB GIF

>>776108

File: Blessings.png (390 KB, 331x501)

390 KB PNG

>>776108
>You beat her to death with the lamp-post.

File: yes.jpg (19 KB, 176x211)

19 KB JPG

>>776108
I like this story. It has a good moral.

File: gut nightmare googles.png (242 KB, 540x261)

242 KB PNG

>>776108
Holy shit, Orion had a hard life.

File: 1395709730676.jpg (49 KB, 493x828)

49 KB JPG

>>776108

>>776108
Fucking shit....
God it does make it so much worse that she was still Serafina

He just killed a person that he really loved, a person that really loved him. Loved him enough that even as a witch she couldn't bring herself to kill him. She could have used Witch-sign on him as he advanced, she could have done it when he started hitting her. But she didn't.

She loved us too much to hurt us, even after we left her without a word to be taken advantage of, after we killed her friend and mentor, even after we started beating her, and even as a witch. Fucking hell, she really wanted to be with Orion no matter what. That just makes it so much worse, she had to be stopped.

But damn, in Orion's place I can't say I wouldn't be tempted because I could see how you could start thinking "What's the big deal about humanity and light" since in this world being human seems like it is just living in constant fear and/or subjugation. Would be nice to walk out into the wasteland freely and safely.

Too bad you seem to lose a LOT of your empathy.

>>776166
I'm wondering how much empathy does Beatrice currently have.

>>776166
Tbh if she really loved us then maybe she should have considered not becoming an enemy of all mankind and everything we stand for

>>776166
She didnt love us, she see us a thing to have. A thing her new power would bring to her.
There is always choice, no matter how dark the circunstances. And she chose to turn her back to us.

>>776188
It depends on how you interpret the final scene.

Either she was too weak from the cackle to resist

Or she chose not to

>>776188
No it was pretty obvious that Serafina cared for us. She did her very best to save us, to convince us to join her. Part of her might have been thinking of using Orion, but I believe the bigger part honestly cared about him. Cared about him enough that even through the numbness of being a witch she still felt something.

She could have used witch-sign to stop us and kill us, but even as we were coming to kill her she didn't. I think part of her wouldn't let her kill us. If she had the power to Cackle then I am sure she knew a sign or two that could kill us.

>>776185
Not to try to defend her, but Orion disappeared without a word. For months she had no idea where he was. For months there was no big burly guy visiting the vulnerable little waif and protecting her. For months several men realized this and like she said, they got an "idea" into their head, some more than once. If you can't figure out that she was forcibly held down and raped repeatedly at this point then I will just spell it out for you.

While sure, it isn't the most terrible thing that one human can do to another, it is pretty high up there. The sense of safety being ripped from you, the feeling that someone took something from you and you can't get it back, the helplessness, there are a lot of emotions tied to that kind of thing happening to someone. A lot of emotions for the darkness to twist and bend and use to convince you to just use one little bit of witchcraft to protect yourself. They wont be able to break into your home and rape you if you just do this one little thing. You will be safe from all the bad things in the world, all the bad people in the world.

That shit is pretty seductive, especially when you are feeling that completely betrayed and broken. She still made the choice, but I can understand how and why she did and that she still loved Orion. She just wanted to be safe, and never knew if he was coming back.

>>776194
I don't think that it was ever stated that a cackle will reduce a witch's power or weaken their witch-sign abilities. The witch we fought before both cackled and used witch sign. I thought at least.

>>776108
Gotta go sleep, so my parting words:

Ouro, you're a goddamn titan of questing.
That scene where Serafina is introduced? Everyone could see she will go witch from the first moment. Yet you turned "scoffing at the predictable plot turn" into "powerlessly awaiting the inevitable doom". That takes mad skills.

>>776226
Serafina had blood run from her mouth and stated she wouldn't be able to cackle again. It's probably a taxing technique.

>>776235
More specifically using the Cackle tears up your throat. It's basically verbalising a witch-sign and that's ridiculous.
Witches who can actually Cackle often are few and far between and generally have puffy callouses lining the inside of their throat. It's as uncomfortable as it sounds.

Update nearly done

>>776108
Fucking Called it. Also holy shit Ouro that was well written.

And Polycarpus illustrated the whole thing. With pretty fire pictures.

You burn the body when the Cackle wears off. And then you burn it again.


And from there...where can you even go from here? By now the other Watchtowers must have noticed Saiph’s disappearance. They would be investigating it as you speak. You should just go back there and help them. Tell them what happened. Accept your punishment for being the cause of it all.
They’ll kill you.


For a long while you just stay by the edge, walking the concrete boundary. You can’t go back. You’re too ashamed. But if you won’t go back to face punishment how else can you penance?
Two different kinds of shame pull you in two different directions and so you stall.


Days pass and you stay by the edge. Doing nothing. Eating nothing. You just sit and stare at the sun even as it hurts you. If the Wheel God wishes to punish you, let him do it yourself! It was a practice of the hermits of old and one you were more than happy to take up.


But before you could drive yourself blind God was ambushed and slaughtered like a pig.


It happened before your very eyes. You saw it all. It was dusk, the sun sinking below the horizon as it was meant to. And then you watched it tilt to one side as something just past the horizon had latched onto it. It shook and you watched in horror as cracks spread across it as if the sun itself were nothing more than egg. And then, less than five seconds after the initial tilt, the sun exploded.


You watched with open mouth as the sky filled with light, streaks of fire scrawled across the heavens as pieces of the sun went flying in every possible direction. Fire scattered across the world in a thousand motes and yet each burning spark was doomed.
Each and every one of them struck the ground and promptly burned out. Even those saved by those with good intent dwindled and died without the sun to sustain them.


Only those who had been ready for it were able to claim their piece. Only those terrible sinners and those who were incalculably lucky.
You fell into the second category.


The sun-shard hit the concrete less than hundred yards away from you and you, still in shock from what you had seen, ran to claim it. But all you could do was watch it dwindle. There was nothing to feed it, nothing to protect it.
What kind of vessel could even sustain a flame like that?


Your gaze slowly falls to the battered and broken lamp-post by your feet.


***


And so you found your purpose once more. It wasn’t going to be an easy journey, anything but. Your destination was on the far side of the world and finding a way to cross it would end up taking you three decades.
Thirty years of travel and investigation, of dead-ends and darkness. You would meet a great many people and some of them would even accompany you for a time. They usually died and you withdrew even further into yourself, distancing yourself from the people you swore to protect.


16/17

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

352 KB PNG

>>776343
And across it all there were a great many witches. Such is the Age unfortunately. Time is undone and the Fourth never came and there is only darkness and the ever-closer end of everything drifting closer and closer. Lamps fade, candles gutter out and witches multiply.
But no matter how many of them you face and how fearsome they grow, you are safe in the knowledge that they’ll never be worst witch you’ve faced.

***

There is silence around the campfire, only the omnipresent din of the rain against the stone. You slump down with a hoarse throat. That felt...that felt good. It felt good to finally get it out. You only wished that you could have chosen better people to air it to.

Abe is just staring at you and Beatrice is...well, she’s not exactly being kind.

“Holy shit,” Beatrice chortles, laughing for what has to have been at least the fifth time during your tale. “I can’t believe you’re such a fucking hypocrite. ‘Ooh, you made a choice and you chose badly’. Doesn’t that just cover you as well?”

“Perhaps.”
You grit your teeth.

“And here you are chewing me out for what I’ve done while completely neglecting to talk about you doing more or less the same thing! And what about that crap you always tell people about not letting themselves be motivated by the past? That’s all you are! Shame you got traumatised out of being a little prick, Young Orion actually sounded like he might have been fun to hang around with instead of the fucking no-fun hypocrisy brigade you grew up into.”

“Beatrice!”
Abe waves her back.
“That’s enough. Orion just shared a very personal story with us. Don’t laugh.”

Beatrice lounges back against the stone, her hat off and the bruises around her eyes nearly pure black.
“Perhaps, perhaps so. But we do understand how the balance of power has shifted now, do we not? Orion can’t claim the moral high ground on me ever again. No more acting like you’re all fucking better than me either.”
If it’s possible for Beatrice to look smugger than she is right now in this very moment you have no interest in seeing it.
“In fact, I think I’m losing confidence in our mighty leader’s capabilities to make decisions. Should I take charge?”


>Ignore her entirely.

>”Now it’s your turn.”

>Push her into the tunnel.

>”The past reflects nothing of what I am now. You can count on that.”

>Punish Beatrice.

>Other

>>776351
>>”The past reflects nothing of what I am now. You can count on that."
>”Now it’s your turn.”

>>776343
>16/17
Ouro you absolute madman

>>776351
>”The past reflects nothing of what I am now. You can count on that.”
>”Now it’s your turn.”

>>776351
>I did something human and paid the price, you turned your back on it entirely. I am forever unclean and eternally seeking to atone for my failure, the fact you revel in it shows you're still just as much a monster as her.

Okay so that was a single update that was 17.5 posts long and took 8 hours to (slowly) write. Is that a record?
Regardless I am now ready to die since I decided at midnight that I wouldn't sleep until I finished this post. It is now 8am. Goodbye.

>>776351
>”Now it’s your turn.”

>>776351
>Other
>"No. I'm still in charge."

>>776374
Ouro, that was amazing. Pat yourself on the back, you deserve it.

(No, it's not a record. AzureEarth did a 48 hour run.)

>>776351
>>"I did something human and paid the price, you turned your back on it entirely. I am forever unclean and eternally seeking to atone for my failure, the fact you revel in it shows you're still just as much a monster as her, so tell us for what trivial reason did you turn your back to humanit? Also as long as our destination is Dis I am in charge for you would turn tail at first setback."

>>776351
>”The past reflects nothing of what I am now. You can count on that.”
>”Now it’s your turn.”
>Other
And now you know why I allow a former witch to continue this journey. The choices humans make may make them but dont define them.

>>776369
>>776394
She doesn't revel in it, though. Like, at all.

>>776407
She's enjoying our pain. She's is reveling in our mistake.