File: lamplighter3.png (2.18 MB, 1465x1313)

2.18 MB PNG

>>799882
Chapter Seven: Railway Sleeper


The Sentinel looms ahead of you in the distance, the statue mostly upright and whole but with the face sanded off and both hands broken off at the wrist. The breaks are clean, the stone stumps of the statue’s arms smooth and glassy.
“This was no accident,” you say, wheezing a little as you work the pump, the crowded handcar rattling down the rails suspended over the wasteland. There is no sun and no moon tonight and what stars are left cluster together upon the horizon behind you. Continue travelling in the direction you are and there’ll soon be no stars left at all. They don’t shine upon your destination.
The tiny circle of lantern-light is the only light left, an island in an ocean of darkness that pulls back as you advance across the concrete plinths that support the rune-stamped rail and pulls back behind you the moment you depart.

“Deliberate mutilation? Seems a bit spiteful.”
Beatrice leans over the side of the trolley, the only person currently here who isn’t working the pump. It’s been you and Abe for the past hour, the witch citing exhaustion as her excuse.
“The other ones were just regular old degradation, weren’t they? It’s bound to happen sooner or later.”

And indeed there had been other ones. The maimed Sentinel looming in the darkness ahead of you is the fourth of its kind that you’ve encountered, from the shattered and fallen one you had taken shelter beneath to the two others that you have passed in the day since. Without a doubt they are the very same sculptures that Zeno described in his notes, the marker-stones of a time long gone.
Unfortunately the rain spoiled his work before you had found the time to study more than the first entry. But you remember him describing his encounter with the ‘Golemist’ as he followed the same rail you do now, meeting her at the base of one of the Sentinels. Which one had it been? This one up ahead? One of the ones before? At the very first? And if it was, would he not have mentioned it had been broken? Had it only fallen recently?
And more importantly, if the Sentinels form a semi-circle around the bay of Dis as he described, why has the rail been taking you passed so many of them? The line of Sentinels should be perpendicular to a straight rail to Dis, meaning you should have only passed the first. And yet you know that you are on the path to Dis.


>Stop the trolley to roll the bones one more time. Are you still on the proper course?


>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

>Just keep pumping.

>An hour’s rest is plenty. Put Beatrice to work.

>Other

>>799891
>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.
Yo Ouro

>>799891
>>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

>>799891
>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

>>799882
I love you Ouro!

>>799891
>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

>>799891
>>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

For a long moment there I thought nobody was coming! That's why this update too so long.

>Keep going to at least the Sentinel up ahead and try to use what you see there (if anything) to help get your bearings.

You’ll keep going for now, at least up until the maimed Sentinel ahead. Maybe there you can wait for the moon or sun to come out and to lay this wasteland to twilight once more. Then you’ll at least be able to see a little further into the distance and get your bearings.
“Push on. We’ll stop up ahead.”

Abe gives a sigh of relief, sweat dripping off his brow as he works the pump opposite to you. He’s strong but he doesn’t have your endurance, the rigor that you built through years across your travels. Give him time.

As you draw ever closer to the giant statue you start to notice a curve in the rail ahead. The straight express-line is bending, travelling around the Sentinel and almost hugging the base of its immense pedestal. You are lucky indeed then that this one remains upright despite its wounds.

It’s Beatrice who spots it before anyone else, yourself and Abe too preoccupied with keeping the pump going.
“Concrete ahead! And a building?”

You slow and let the trolley trundle forward on mostly momentum alone for a moment as you peer into the darkness ahead. There is concrete around the base of the statue on the other side, a slab that continues with the rail crossing over it. Excellent! But what is it here for?
The building, a dim shape in the blackness that hides behind the Sentinel, can barely be seen but as the trolley slowly bumps onto the concrete the shadows pull back to reveal a ruin of glass and steel. There was once a dome here, something built from metal lattices and glass but it has been twisted and broken, leaving only a skeletal hemi-sphere above. And beneath it are clustered and broken shapes, steel and concrete buildings left disused for centuries. A rusting arch is built over the entire thing, faint shapes imprinted upon the metal where letters in an ancient language used to stand, all long fallen.

Abe stops pumping a moment later, letting the trolley come to a gentle halt.
“What in God’s name is that?”

“Looks Second Age,” Beatrice said. “Nobody’s messed with it or anything!”

“Not just that,” you say as you look ahead, following the line of the rail you are currently riding. The track curves towards the facility and then ends. And up ahead, dividing the cluster of buildings beneath the broken dome in two, a line of silver faintly reflects the lantern-light. A single long thin railway line built of undimming steel that Third Age hands could never replicate. The original treasure that the railway baron who built the track your on was searching for.
“It’s a railway station.”


1/2

>>800194
The seed where it all started, the project left abandoned even before the Second Age fell, one last attempt to bring an old and belligerent city into connection with the First Dominion of Man.
The original Dis Express.

“Neat,” Beatrice says. “But how are we supposed to get on it?”

She’s right. Your rail comes to a sudden unfinished halt just years away from the railway station. The detritus that is set into the concrete beside it, rusted steel and broken wood, suggests that there was an attempt to build a switch and lever, a way for this rail to flow seamlessly onto the far more ancient one. But it was either never completed or pulled up after the fact.

Abe just groans.
“We’re going to have to lift the trolley up off the rail again and push it onto the expressline, aren’t we?”


>”Yes. Let’s get to work.”

>”Leave the trolley here for now. We should scout out the station first.”

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

>Other

>>800199
>>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

>>800199

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

>”Leave the trolley here for now. We should scout out the station first.”

>>800199
>>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

>>800199
>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

File: barkeep.png (104 KB, 210x330)

104 KB PNG

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

“Perhaps,” you say, not really attempting to answer Abraham’s question just yet. He’s probably right but before you do that, before you even set foot within the ruined station, you want a better look at the surroundings first. Make sure that there isn’t any more surprises lingering about for they might not all be so benevolent.
“Let’s leave the trolley for now. I’m going to walk around the base of the Sentinel and make sure there’s nothing else here.”

“Sure. Let’s go!”
Beatrice is already looking for her gunpowder barrel.

“Hold on,” Abe says. “If there is something here then just leaving the trolley behind could be a mistake. Remember what happened with those bandits? We might not get so lucky next time.”


>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.

>Leave both of them behind, you’ll scout the Sentinel out alone.

>”You two can investigate the station while I’m gone. It’ll get more work done and quicker.”

>Other

>>800199
>”Leave the trolley here for now. We should scout out the station first.”

>Investigate the Sentinel, see if it has any further surprises hidden behind it.

The both of these seem pretty solid.

>>800327
>>800334
Seconding this

>>800327
>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.

He can stay and keep watch

>>800238
This we can replace the trolley if there is something in the station depot

>>800334
This

>>800327
>>800334
and a dis

File: tegaki.png (40 KB, 400x400)

40 KB PNG

>>800348
Are you sure?

>>800327
>>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.
Beatrice, since she'd whine if I took her for a walk anyways.

>>800384
My DM tricked me out of loot using that question so my answer is a stolid YES

>>800377
>>800348
>>800372
Why are you guys seconding my late vote for an older update?
>>800384
Plz no

>>800430
because they are fucking morons who cannot read.

File: tegaki.png (65 KB, 400x400)

65 KB PNG

>>800384

>>800401
I actually wanna see Bea's disposition towards us one on one since last thread.

>>800447
I somehow interpreted it as Orion, Beatrice, and Abe all leave the trolley to go investigate as a group, first the immediate surroundings, then the Sentinel.

>>800327
>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.
Abe

>>800430
I just woke up and have yet to have life saving coffee

>>800327
>Other

Everyone searches the station for things, Abe for practical things, Beatrice for anything indicating witchery and ourselves for anything left from the second age or of lamplighter use

>>800506
I wish I had that excuse, I'm just plain old stupid.

>>800506
Backing this plan for searching the station

>>800506
>>800532
>>800566
We're investigating the sentinel, not the station. Come on guys.

>>800576
The sentinel might be a bit like the fallen star from earlier, consuming all of our wick. Any bandits would likely be hiding in the station, so fighting them first if they are there would be better.

>>800597
You literally did not read the update saying we're doing the sentinel first did you?

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

352 KB PNG

>He has a point. Leave one person behind to guard the trolley.

You must admit he has a point. It was only through luck and circumstance that you had ever been able to recover the supplies stolen from the train. You’d rather not let that happen again, particularly not when you are so close to your goal.
“A worthy point. Stay here and watch the trolley Abe and keep an eye on the station while you’re at it.”

“Right,” he says as he sits upon the lip of the trolley’s edge. “If I see anything I’ll call out alright?”

“Here, take this.”
Beatrice unwraps one of the bundled up rifles, cracking it open and loading it with the ease of long practice.
“Do you remember how to use one of these?”

“Yes,” Abe sighs, clearly unwilling to go over this subject again. The two of them had spent quite some time going over the rifle, the witch doing her best to make him a marksman in the last day or so.
“I’ll be fine. Just be quick about your way.”

The witch gives off a low groan of ecstasy as she samples just a small amount of gunpowder, twitches running down her body as Abe passes her her hat. She jams it on over her face low enough to cover her red-tinged tears and freshly blooming bruises.
“Let’s go. Just me and you, Orion.”

The two of you depart from the trolley but do not walk towards the station or seek a way around the broken fence. Instead the two of you trace the concrete around the giant statue’s base. And as the two of you walk around the curvature of the pedestal, Abe and the trolley sinking out of sight, you see a most curious thing.
The silver rail doesn’t just extend past the station towards Dis, it runs back towards the base of the Sentinel as well, seeming to end seamlessly with the pedestal of the statue itself.
This warrants a closer look.

“So Orion…” Beatrice starts to say something but she silences herself as she huffs. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Never mind.”
It only then occurs to you that this is the first time the two of you have been alone since that night beneath the rain.


>Ask her what she means.

>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”

>Ask her what she was doing with Abe.

>No talking. Investigate.

>Other

>>800645
>>Ask her what she means.
>Saying the truth should not require thanks.

>>800645
>Pause, then nod.
>Investigate silently.

>>800645
>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
>No talking. Investigate.

"You still have ways to go yet"

>>800645
>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
>No talking. Investigate.

Sorry for these particularly slow updates by the way. I'm going to start slapping myself into a faster schedule today and hopefully it'll work.

>>800678
>slap too hard
>knock self out
>flakeytegaki.png

>>800687
Sorry guys, I slapped myself too hard with my laptop and now its broke. I'll have to continue tomorrow

>>800724
If you'd changed your IP so it looked like you phone posted I would completely believe you.

>>800724
........god dammit ouro

>>800664
Seconding

>>800645
>Ask her what she means.

>”Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
>No talking. Investigate.

The witch stops walking for a moment, her expression invisible beneath her hat. But you can still see her mouth twist, a yellowing tooth biting a lip.
“It’s just that when ...uh…”

“Do not mistake my acceptance for forgiveness.”
You don’t have time for this.

“Oh. Of course.”
Her voice quiets down quickly and she starts walking again.
“Sorry.”

“Be silent,” you whisper harshly as you draw closer to the rail. There’ll be no talking this close, not lest you rouse something that may be hidden. The rail is beautiful in design, slim tracks that make the gray iron rail you had been following before look clumsy and half-formed. The sleepers between them are concrete, grey against the silver and if you look close enough, tiny runes scrawled in perfectly straight lines along them all.
You’ve seen Second Age rails before but not often. And not this well-preserved.

So why do they run backwards to the side of the Sentinel and just stop? It looks like they just hit the side of the vast pedestal above you and cease. Where they planning to destroy the Sentinel and make a rail all the way through it? That’s...well, it isn’t quite blasphemous but the idea of such desecration fills you with unease.

Beatrice lifts her lantern and sheds further light upon the pedestal, a rough stone wall that goes up nearly fifty feet before the legs of the Sentinel itself begin. And while the witch doesn’t seem to see anything, you catch just the faintest glimmer of light reflecting from the stone as she does so.

“Hold,” you whisper once more.
There’s a seam in the stone where the rail meets it, one that arches up almost thirty feet high before coming down to the concrete ground on either end. It’s a hidden door, a large opening disguised to appear as one with the stone. Perhaps in the light of day it looks quite obvious but in the dark thirty years past the sun’s death? You almost didn’t see it at all.

The rail doesn’t end here. The Second Men carved a railway tunnel right through the base of the Sentinel itself. The thought of it is enough to make one queasy. Perhaps they thought it was no longer needed?
But where does it lead? There’s no rail emerging from the other side, that’s the side you came in from. So what could be in here?


>Try to find a way to open the archway.

>Return to the trolley and investigate the station instead.

>You can talk to Beatrice a little.

>Knock.

>Bash it down.

>Other

>>800783
>Try to find a way to open the archway.
The more we looked at the works of the second men the more those stories start making even more sense.

>Where instead of were
god damn it

>>800783
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.

>Knock.

>>800783
>Return to the trolley and investigate the station instead.

Opening the archway might require us to deplete our wick, which might be needed for a possible fight

>>800783
>Try to find a way to open the archway.

>You can talk to Beatrice a little.

>>800783
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.
>Knock.

Anyway calling it for trying to find a way in, knocking and actually talking to the witch.

>>800869
Does Beatrice still have dark vision?

>>800877
Nope.

>>800783
>Try to find a way to open the archway.

>Return to the trolley and investigate the station instead.

>>800783
>You can talk to Beatrice a little.

>>800880
Aww.

>You can talk to Beatrice a little.
>Try to find a way to open the archway.
>Knock.

Beatrice whistles quietly as she finally spots the seam marking the arch.
“They just went right in,” she whispers.

“I can’t believe they’d do something like this to a relic.”
You keep your voice quiet.

“I guess they thought it was obsolete since railways tie the earth down better. And I don’t think they were in the habit of respecting older times either, hubris and all. Maybe if they had all this business with Dis wouldn’t have happened.”
She covers her mouth after she finishes speaking.
“Shit. Was that too loud?”

“No,” you say as you feel along the wall. Yes, this is steel coloured in the same shade as the brown stone. Was it a genuine attempt to disguise it or simply an aesthetic decision to make it look seamless? Probably the latter.
“I don’t think there’s much point in being entirely silent. Just keep it down.”

“Right. If there was anything around it would have seen the light of the lantern anyway.”

“Hrmph. Now was there something you wanted to say to me earlier?”

“Huh?”

“I cut you off because I wanted us to be careful. But now that there doesn’t seem to be anything about, is there something you wanted from me?”

“No! I mean, no. Look, about last night…”

“What about it? We exchanged tales and I made a judgement. Though I must admit that your reaction to it was quite unexpected.”
You’re still not sure what to make of her response and the way she had just burst into tears.

“Yeah, unexpected, that’s me. Never mind actually, this is all too pathetic.”

“What is?”

“I’m dropping the subject.”

“It will be dropped when I say it is dropped. Continue.”

“Fine.”
The witch squirms uncomfortably.
“What you said meant a lot to me.”

“I know it did.”

“No, more than that. To hear it from a Lamplighter…”

“I didn’t think you respected us. Far from it.”

“No but I once did. And for one of you to acknowledge that I’m trying and doing the best I can, it felt ...good. Cathartic. Even from you, invert.”
She stops.
“Maybe because it was from you.”

You’re not really paying her your full attention right now, your focus mostly on the hidden door in front of you. You know the Second Men often used mechanical devices to open their doors so does this even have a handle anymore? Is it even possible to open?
You find another seam running straight down the middle. Double-doors, ones that open outward. Interesting. Perhaps if you could wedge your fingers in and pull…


>Roll 1d6. The first 3 will be used.

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>800996

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>800996

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>800996

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>800996

>>801024
ITS ALWAYS FUCKING ME

>>801033
>>801024
you fuck

>>800996
Also, was this the first exchange where Orion and Bea didn't bicker or were actively being antagonistic?

>>801097
We always give her exactly what she deserves. No more, no less. Or at least I would like us to.

So it's not just words when we say she's doing the best she can for an unholy abomination.

Still kind of wish she would stop perverting the substance of the Sun God and learn to live with her limitations.

>>801154
Speaking of Heresy, should we use our sin dice to see if something is wonky with the rail/statues?

I'd rather not fight a giant first man golem perverted by witchcraft.

>6, 6, 1

“I just feel like I don’t deserve all of this,” the witch continues behind you. “Or rather, that I did but not to this degree. It was just one bad day! I just want a second chance, a proper one. I’m sick of people looking at me and seeing ‘witch’ before they see ‘Beatrice’.”

You manage to slide your gauntlet-ed fingers into the crack where the two halves of the door meet down the middle without any difficulty. You give it a test pull and nod as the doors only wobble a little. Something’s barring them from pulling open any farther.

“I really do mean well.I want to be a better person. But how am I supposed to do that if nobody even lets me be better? If they just assume the worst from me? Am I supposed to improve and suffer in righteous silence like a fucking hermit? Martyr myself and let people weep over my corpse as only now do they understand how truly I was misunderstood?”

There’s no bar here because the doors open outward. If there was a bar stopping them from opening any further it’d be on your side. You’d be able to see it. Unless...the bar was inside the door itself. You’ve seen this in Second Age doors before actually. A most peculiar locking system.

“No, that’s a really pathetic fantasy to have. But that’s why I don’t tell anyone what I am because I know they won’t see me anymore. They’ll just see the witch. So with you and Abe, you’re both people who well and truly know what I am. So for the two of you to look past that to the real me, well shit, that means a lot to me.”

You run your fingers up and down the tiny gap between the doors, feeling for any kind of resistance whatsoever. And there it is! You can feel three of them spaced up and down as far as you can reach and there are probably more even further higher up. Thin steel rods embedded within the doors themselves that have slid out across into the other half to keep it locked in place.
These aren’t meant to be lifted and unlocked by human-hands, this entire door must be machine-locked.

“I’d really like there to be one day where I can just walk down the street somewhere where everyone knows what I used to be and still people just say ‘oh, there’s Beatrice’. Where people can judge me for what I am and not for one dumb decision I made. But I don’t think that’ll ever be true. Just having the two of you know me for what I am is good enough. I can’t describe how it feels.”

You run your fingers down the crack until they settle upon one of the rods and then you do your best to pull it open. You strain for nearly a minute before collapsing back, the door not budging. Blast. You’re not getting past this without knocking it open!

“You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve been saying, have you? Here I am opening my heart to you and it isn’t worth shit.”

1/2

How was time affected by the death of the sun?

>>801233
>”You’ve made the flawed assumption that the real you is a person worth knowing.”

>”I’ve been listening.”

>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

>”I’m going to point out a few spots along this door. I want you to give those spots your best shots.”

>Maybe you can find and repower the controls in the station somewhere. Head back.

>Other

>>801239
>>”I’ve been listening.”
>>”I’m going to point out a few spots along this door. I want you to give those spots your best shots.”

>>801239
>>”I’ve been listening.”
>You want people to se you without labels, not a "Lady" nor a "Witch" nor anything else.
>What? You either learn to listen either while focused or you die.
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

>>801239
>”I’ve been listening.”

>Maybe you can find and repower the controls in the station somewhere. Head back.
Once again, seems solid. If not, we can come back and try something else.

>>801233
God I love this scene, just imagining us probing and poking the door in blissful focus while she monologues behind us.

>”I’ve been listening.”
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

>>801239
>”I’ve been listening.”
>Other
Say something to the effect of "That 'one dumb decision' you made happens to be the literal betrayal of humanity"
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

>>801239
>"Don't think about any 'minimum' standard of treatment. What is the end point for you? What kind of person do you want to be, and what kind of people do you want to be with?"
>"Work towards THAT, not short term goals that can be freely given, taken, or rescinded."

>>”I’m going to point out a few spots along this door. I want you to give those spots your best shots.”

>>801258
+1
Followed by
>Maybe you can find and repower the controls in the station somewhere. Head back.
No need to do force anything and maybe commit some damage if there's a way around. Plus we can just come back if not.

>>801239
>”I’ve been listening.”

Calling it for:
>"I've been listening."
>Words.
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice's help in doing so.

>>801356
Sounds good

>>801356
Aw too late. I wanted to ask

> Do YOU know who Beatrice is? Do you think she isn't also a witch?

>>801356
How far away is the Sentinel from the station?

And also, you said the station was several buildings. How many and how big is it in total?

>>801382
If he'll throw it in there I'll second it.

Sorry about the delay on these posts. It's getting kind of hot and that makes me lethargic. Slapping myself doesn't always work apparently!

>>801429
>ouro slapped himself so fast and so hard the friction heated up the room
>like a motorboat of furious insane slapping
inb4 flakey tegaki

>>801388
Socratic method yo. Beatrix wants to be herself, but she has some shit about herself to come to terms with.

>>801387
A few hundred yards

>”I’ve been listening.”
>Try to pull it open again. Enlist Beatrice’s help in doing so.

You back away from the door, stepping back into line with Beatrice.
“I’ve been listening. You seem to have a problem with labels, don’t you?”

Beatrice looks askance at you.
“How so?”

“Whether it be ‘Witch’ or ‘Lady’, you don’t like them. Did you think I wasn’t paying attention?”

“Uh, that’s right, yeah. I don’t want to wear the names other people give me, Orion. I just want to be me!”

“Do you? Do you know who Beatrice is? Who is she, if she is not a witch? You’ve been a witch in one form or another for your entire life.”

“I don’t know,” she says, her hands fidgeting with the edge of her coat. “Like you said, it’s hard to escape from what I am. I’m reminded every day of what I’ve done to myself.”
Her bruises shadow down her cheeks from her eyes
“Maybe the real Beatrice really is just a former witch. Maybe that’s a stain that’s never going away. But it’s just that, isn't it? A stain. Maybe it’s a part of me but it isn’t all of me.”

“That’s fair. Now get over here and help me pull this open.”

“What?”

>Shifting the door is a Collective Effort roll! Two characters will roll 3d6 in succession, applying their own modifiers and abilities as you see fit. If the total result equals 22 or higher the door will be sprung open!

>Roll 1d6. The first 3 will be totalled to form Orion’s effort. Orion has no special modifiers or dice rules for this task.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584

Jesus that was way too long for such a short update. Luckily I don't have work tonight, I can keep on going for as long as you folks stay here.

Also I hope you like rolling dice!

Rolled 2 (1d6)

Come on

>>801591
>>801604
Well fuck. If the two of us can't do it call Abe up here

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>801584

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584
Will my roll be like it always is?

>>801613
Oh yeah, I don't have to! Sweet.

Ok, ok. Bea only needs ten.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584
Stronk Beatrice

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801584

>4, 2, 6
>12


You grab hold of the door and start to wrench it open, trying to pull the rods inside free at the same time. And this time you don’t let go as sweat drips down your brow and your muscles begin to burn. Will it be enough?


>Before we move on to Beatrice’s roll, Orion’s roll can be modified through his usual means.


>Extra effort. Give it your all and result in Orion being exhausted afterwards. This allows for an extra dice roll.


>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.


>Try to jimmy it open by shaking the other door the other way. This action allows for an extra dice roll but has a 20% to make the entire Collective Effort fail.


>Nothing. Just leave it to Beatrice.

>>801653
>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.


>Try to jimmy it open by shaking the other door the other way. This action allows for an extra dice roll but has a 20% to make the entire Collective Effort fail.

>>801653
>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.

>>801653
>Nothing. Just leave it to Beatrice.

>>801653
>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.

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

104 KB JPG

>Put your back into it. Add +1 to the total result. This action can be repeated multiple times with no limit but with the likelihood of being injured increasing each time.

No, you can't possibly leave this to Beatrice. You've never met an adult more frail than her. You'll just have to do this all yourself and hope that your back can stand the strain.

>Choose how many +1's you wish to add to the total result of 12.

>1
>2
>3
>4
>5
>6
>7
>8
>9
>10

>>801653
>Put your back into it.

Just once, then all we need is for the witch to not fuck up.

>>801734
>>2

>>801734
>2

>>801734
>3

>>801734
>2
Somehow I feel like we're falling. Anyone else get that? Just an eerie feeling.

>>801734
>2

>2

Oh god, that felt like it stung.

>Roll 1d6. The first (2) dice will be counted valid. Any 1s that occur result in injury.

>>801775
We're being too accepting. Too open-minded. Got a bunch of filthy heretics here and not enough zealots.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>801807

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801807

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801807
For the Wheel God!

>>801814
stop rolling

>>801807
wasn't this a flat plus 1 instead of a die roll? so a simple +2?

File: every day.png (280 KB, 452x710)

280 KB PNG

>>801814

>>801814
You! You did not praise the Wheel God! Down on your knees and quote dogma for an hour!

>>801824
Yes it is a flat bonus. This was just checking the chance for injury and if so, how badly.

>Current Total: 14

Your vision swims for just a moment and you stumble, barely able to keep your hands upright as the two of you try to pry the bars out from within the door.
Your muscles aren't just aching anymore, there's something twinging deep down in your spine and it's not stopping. You grit your teeth and continue your work.

Hopefully Beatrice holds up her end of it all.

>Roll 1d6. The first 3 will be totalled for Beatrice's effort. Beatrice is currently at a -0 to all dice rolls thanks to a recent gunpowder infusion.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>801848
Well I can't roll worse than last time so here we go.

>>801848

>>801848

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>801848

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801848
rolling

>>801859
STOP YOU COCKGARGLING SHIT

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>801848

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>801848
Let's try this again

>>801859
You should stop rolling please

Rolled 2 (1d6)

Well. I'll try running out all the bad luck on useless rolls. Maybe that'll work...

It's just a fucking door calm down

>>801879
STOP

>>801881
if mr. mcshitdice stops then I will chill.

>1, 2, 4
> 7
>Current Total: 21/22

Beatrice puts up an absolutely pitiful amount of effort as ever. You can hear her start to moan as the door slowly settles back into place.
"I..I don't think I can do it!"

"Well do something!"

>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>Ingest gunpowder. This alters the current -0 modifier to a +2 modifier temporarily at the price of applying a -2 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the future -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.

>Snort gunpowder. This changes the -0 modifier to a +4 modifier at the penalty of applying -4 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.

>Nothing. She is just going to whine and feel bad about herself.

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>801908
>>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

Looks like she'll be looking after the cart after this

>>801908
>>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>>801908
>Ingest gunpowder. This alters the current -0 modifier to a +2 modifier temporarily at the price of applying a -2 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the future -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.

>>801908
>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>>801908
>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>>801908
> ingest gunpowder

>>801908
>>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.
>>Ingest gunpowder. This alters the current -0 modifier to a +2 modifier temporarily at the price of applying a -2 penalty to Beatrice's physical actions later. This stacks with the future -2 penalty she's already queued up with her previous gunpowder infusion.
+8 gogo

File: dicegods.png (30 KB, 1190x1104)

30 KB PNG

>Extra Effort. Beatrice gives it all her and immediately collapses afterwards. This allows for one more dice roll to be made at her current modifier.

>Roll 1d6. The first shall be used.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>801946
It's been a while since I've used... that.
I invoke the power of baby seals for this roll!

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>801946

>25/22

Beatrice gives a final groan of effort as the two of you push the doors in different directions and then slowly pull them outward, shifting the little bars within the doors themselves just barely out of their proper holes!
You take a step back and grab hold of your back as you wheeze. Eugh. You haven’t felt like this for a long time. You can feel a faint spiderweb of pain radiating out from somewhere behind your abdomen, one that twinges and catches on something with every movement. The witch sinks to the ground by your feet, absolutely exhausted and panting softly.

And as for the doors themselves? They should just swing open now. It’ll be easy. You grab hold of one of them and test the weight. For all their size, the two double doors are superbly balanced and light. Anyone should be able to swing them open when they’ve been unlocked.
You don’t think they’ll ever be able to close again properly but such is life.

You swing one half of the doors outward, revealing a large tunnel that the silver railway goes down, vanishing into the darkness. What’s the purpose of this place? What does it hold? As the lantern shakes you catch a glimpse of something large and metal, a glimpse of reflected light.
But before you can do anything else you are interrupted by the sound of gunfire. A single shot rings out and you hear a choked-off scream.

Abraham.

Beatrice looks up from where she’d been lying, panic in her eyes.
“Shit. Hold on.”
She starts to get up but you’ve seen ghouls that look more alive than her. More attractive too.
“Fuck it. Just leave me and go help him!”

You start to run but you feel the ache in your side grow ever stronger as you do so, prompting you to draw in your breath unbidden. Curses! Why now?


>Just run and get ready to fight!

>Take the time to heal yourself with Benediction first.

>Grab Beatrice and carry her with you.

>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

>Other

>>802023
>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

>>802023
>>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

>>802044
Yes

>>802023
>>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

>>802023
Inb4 this is a ploy for a witch to get their hands on shiny 2nd age tech

>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

Apologies, I have been dead for the past hour. This afternoon heat has been exceptionally pleasant and it feels like it kills brain function and the will to do anything.

Next update will be the last one today.

>>802210
Uh

>Grab Beatrice, place a Benediction on yourself and run back to the trolley.

You’d like to run to Abe’s aid as quickly as possible but what good would that do you? No, you need to take your time and make sure that you’re in a fit state to fight. You pull out your wick and set the firebrand atop the end of it alight. It casts a dimmer glow than the lantern in Beatrice’s hands but it’s True Flame nonetheless.
And with it, you heal thyself.

Wick: 9/10

The Benediction of Succour flows through you like the warmth of a fireplace in a cold day. A warmth you’ll never likely truly feel again. Your discomfort and aches are wiped away and your muscles are re-energized. Unfortunately you cannot extend the same favour to Beatrice but neither do you want to leave her here.

“Just go, Orion! Abe needs y-woooah wait put me down!”

You pick her up and heft her over your right shoulder, legs dangling down your back with her upper half over the top.
“Oi!”

“No time! Just get your gun ready!”

By the time you run back around the side of the Sentinel’s huge pedestal you arrive to see the pump trolley knocked over, boxes scattered. Abe is lying on his side on the concrete, his rifle on the ground beside him. Both his arms are raised as if he was fending something off.

There’s something in the air above him, something winged and black as jet, fading into the darkness of the starless sky to the point where it is almost invisible. Almost like a bat but grossly elongated like a millipede, it’s body lying curled up in almost a perfect sphere while it keeps itself aloft with shadowy wings. You can see two long talons and a multitude of smaller limbs and above them, the gleam of a compound eye as large as your head.

The gargoyle screams, a shrill piercing sound that strikes pain in the heads of all who hear it and for a brief moment it uncurls, displaying a worm-like body almost thirty feet long and incapable of flight. But only for a moment. It then curls back up into a ball and swoops, heading straight for Abe!
You nearly go deaf as Beatrice fires while still on your shoulder, her shot burning a hole through the creature’s wings as if they were made of nothing but mist. Which in a way you suppose they are.

The monster flips back into the air, its wings dissipating and reforming on the fly as it reverses itself and flies back into the ruins of the train station.

“Abe!,” Beatrice calls out, the exhausted witch squirming in your grasp. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he splutters as you draw closer, setting Beatrice down as you do so.

“No he’s not,” you snap. “Were you bitten?”

“Yes but it can’t have been very badly. I barely felt it and there’s no blood. It didn’t even feel like it had teeth-”

“Where?”

“Down on my side, around my stomach."
1/2

>>802210
Rip

>>802408
You bend over him and sweep his tunic up, bearing the sight of the bite. And sure enough it’s there. Abe goes pale as he sees it.
“What the hell is that?”

Still lying on the ground to the side, Beatrice gives off a low whistle for the second time that night.
“Damn. We should have gotten here earlier!”

Across the side of Abe’s belly and up his chest creeps a blackness, a change in both colour and texture. You can track the spread of it with your eyes alone, it’s that fast. Skin twists and goes as black as obsidian, glossy and smooth and cool to the touch.
“How? I didn’t even feel it bite me?”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” you say. “Gargoyle teeth are needle-thin. Nobody feels anything.”
The original puncture marks on his side are long gone, closed over by the spreading corruption.

Wick: 8/10

First you hit him with a Purging Benediction and Abe begins to convulse as you expel the gargoyle’s venom from his body. But while that stops the spread it doesn’t lessen what’s already been transformed.

“What’s going on? What is that?”

“Didn’t you hear me say it before?”
You are brusque, almost rudely so. But only because your every moment of focus is bent towards lessening what has been done.
“That was a gargoyle. It can turn to stone when it has to and so does everything it bites!”

You rap his side and hear only a solid thunk. The skin on the side of his stomach and chest is like marble. Solid black marble.
“Don’t worry,” you say. “I’ve stopped the flow of the poison, nothing else is going to change. And I can Cleanse this stone off of you too, it’s just going to take a lot of attempts. It’ll burn my Wick out but I’ll fix you up.”

You hear the gargoyle shriek in the distance from somewhere within the skeletal lattice of the train station. And then you hear it again. And again. And again. Simultaneously.

Beatrice swears.
“Well fuck me. Might want to hang onto your Wick for now Orion. I think we’ve got a nest.”

>>802413
Oh boy oh boy

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

13 KB PNG

And that's that for today folks. I wish I could explain what happened just then with the whole three hours to finish that update thing but I can't. It's like I just went brain-dead or something. I couldn't do it.
That feels like a reason to hang it up for today and so we shall.

I have just archived the thread in the usual place and I will be back tomorrow at the usual time! I hope you all had fun!

Head for the tunnel we just opened. It's unknown, but it isn't out in the open at least.

And it makes for a much better story.

>>802423
Thanks for running boss!

>>802413
Too bad we can't soak the bullets in oil or set them on fire.

>>800429
>My DM tricked me out of loot using that question so my answer is a stolid YES
Ha, sucker.

>>801859
>Well I can't roll worse than last time so here we go.
Please keep rolling, this is hilarious.

Just saying, this? This right here? This is why we should have kept the Flame Artist.

>>802553
Fuck off.

>>802553
>Abe is burnt to a crisp instead of part-stone
yeah, no thanks.

>>802553
No. We got 1 good man, now we just need 19 more.

And apparently those are actually MORE rare than flame artists here. Fuck even Beatrice was a flame artist.

>>802428
This is pretty much as good an answer to our predicament as any unless the gargoyle came from inside the statue rather than the station somehow

>>802428
>>802423
I support this.

File: lamplighter5.png (2.3 MB, 1461x1317)

2.3 MB PNG

New session in an hour or so

File: lamplighter2.png (311 KB, 343x484)

311 KB PNG

Gargoyles are born somewhere deep below the earth’s surface, festering spawning pits that you know not. Newborn gargoyles tunnel up through soft soil and rock in their larval forms, bodies almost indistinguishable from their adult parents. They surface in unsealed earth, dirt that is not covered by concrete and left open to the air and to a great deal of burrowing things. It is then that they manifest their wings and become adults, ready to take wing and one day implant even more larvae into the earth via means unknown.

Like all creatures of darkness they have an instinctive hatred for all that is good and righteous and bright. And worse yet, they are stone-eaters! Once they have become adults their toothless maw dissolves and digests all forms of stone, including the very same concrete shell that seals the earth away. They are unable to digest anything else and their venom exists for that very purpose, to transfix and to transform, to render living creatures into helpless stone that can be digested at their leisure.
When you think about it, it makes sense that they’d haunt ruins like this one.There’s plenty to eat here, more than enough food to sustain an entire flock of the monsters. No wonder the Sentinel’s face is gone.

And if they’re infesting the station, you’re probably not getting through here safely unless they’re all dead. Even if you simply flee they’ll follow you. Gargoyles can stalk a man for weeks on end, flying high against the dark sky to the point where they are invisible.
It used to be that there were means of controlling them, that the movement and the pure light of the sun would trap them and confine them to the night. For you see, such an ancient and primeval creature as the gargoyle has no resistance against fire or the pure light of either a central lamp-post or the sun. Exposure to such incinerates them on contact and their only means to escape such fates is their self-petrification, their ability to reflexively transform parts or all of their bodies into stone. Stone does not fear fire or light after all.

Sunlight used to hold every gargoyle prisoner, dashing them from the sky and making them helpless and vulnerable until the daylight passed. It had once been trivial to force a gargoyle into stone form and then to smash it into pieces.
You no longer have such an easy option.

“How many?”
You look up at the sky but you can’t see any movement. Are they all within the station itself? What would have happened if you had all just blindly walked in there?

“I don’t know,” Beatrice says, keeping her voice low. “I counted at least four distinct calls.”

“You can tell their calls apart?”

“You mean you can’t?”

1/2

>>803836
>Stay here and fortify the trolley. You don’t know if you can risk moving Abe, it could make you vulnerable.

>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.

>Try to sneak everyone away without getting any further attention.

>Secure Abe somewhere and then get ready to go hunting.

>This station might still have its own central lamp-post. Perhaps you can find it.

>Other

>>803839
>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.

>>803836
>festering spawning pits that you know not.
Can someone explain this sentence to me? Isn't it missing something?

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

65 KB JPG

>>803843
Orion doesn't have a single clue where gargoyles come from or how they breed is what to take away from that.
Though yes, there should be a 'within' somewhere in there.

>>803839
>>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.

File: over here.jpg (85 KB, 456x306)

85 KB JPG

>>803854
Yeah I understood the meaning fine but the sentence itself is fucking with my brain
Could you rewrite properly for me pretty please?

>>803869
Chill bro

>>803839
>Other
Secure Abe, then try to find the central lamp-post if it exists.

>>803878
M8 I'm just asking because I can't come up with one myself, english isn't my first language if that wasn't obvious

>>803869
>Gargoyles are born somewhere deep below the earth’s surface within festering spawning pits that you know not.
To be honest, this is a much better sentence since it doesn't focus on my traditional over-abuse of the common comma. I need to remember that.

Anyway calling for the mad dash.

>Grab Abe and make a mad dash for shelter.

You pick Abe up, slinging him over your shoulder so that the stone along the side of his belly is facing up. At least this way if you get swooped they might petrify a part of him already afflicted.
“Beatrice, take what you can from the trolley! We need to leave now!”

“Fuck, I’ll try, I’ll try,” Beatrice mutters as she levers herself up and grabs hold of her gunpowder barrel. “Can’t promise anything.”

Another screech pierces the night and you spin, looking in every direction. And this time you spot it. A long worm-like silhouette with pitch black wings. It’s body retracts and curls in on itself just a moment later and you start to run. There’s no point in trying to be quiet anymore.
“Go! Go go go!”

But where are you running to?


>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

>All the way behind the Sentinel.

>One of the station buildings themselves.

>Other

>>803961
>>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

>>803961
>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

>>803961
Can't we just whip out our lamppost and vaporize them all?

>>803974
Absolutely. I was saving that as an option for when they actually attack or if you chose to go hunting though.

>One of the station buildings themselves.

>>803961
>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

>The tunnel you and Beatrice just found.

You run around the base of the Sentinel, keeping your eye out for any suspicious shapes in the sky as you do so. You need to find a place to take shelter, somewhere that you can defend. Because unless you come across a bloody miracle you’re not leaving this station without killing every gargoyle here first. The railway tunnel built into the Sentinel, though you know not its true purpose, should prove ideal for that. The interior might even be lined in metal or something similar, that’d be just what you need.
You just need to get there first.

You don’t see the first gargoyle until it is almost upon you, it’s body curled up into a ball supported by a pair of ethereal wings. You duck just in time, the needled abyss of the gargoyles jaws passing right above your head, its two grasper-claws slashing at the air around you while its other stubby legs wave wildly.
Your armour should protect them from your claws, they’re nowhere near as dangerous as those of a ghoul or a troll. But there’s no point in taking chances.

Unfortunately Beatrice isn’t wearing armour.
You swivel and see that the witch has lagged behind, almost a good twenty feet behind you! Of course! How could you have forgotten? She gave everything she had to help open up the gate and now she can barely run, supplies in both arms as she stumbles towards you.
The gargoyle pulls up from its aborted sweep and flies clumsily towards her, Beatrice bringing her pistol about in a desperate attempt to shoot it before it can touch her. But afflicted as she is she’s slow. Probably too slow.


>Get Abe to safety first and then come back for Beatrice.

>Try to grab hold of the gargoyle.

>Drop Abe and launch yourself at Beatrice.

>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.

>Other

>>804149
>>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.
>Beatrice down!

>>804149
>>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.
We have 9/10 wick vs 4 gargoyles and Abe is stabilized, no need to hold back now

>>804149
>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.

>>804149
>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.

>Use your wick with your free hand to launch an Immolate.

Keeping one hand busy with Abe, you point and aim your wick with the other at an angle just above Beatrice's head.

Wick: 8/10

You feel the Spark embedded upon your brow flare to life as the firebrand atop the wick spits a long jet of flame at the loathsome creature descending upon your companion.

>Roll 1d6 for aim. The first 3 will be chosen and totalled. A total above 10 results in a hit. Any activation of Immolate's Power Number results in refunded Wick.

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>804216
>inb4 3 1s

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>804216

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>804216
pls not 1

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>804216

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>804216

File: 12345565647.jpg (15 KB, 399x262)

15 KB JPG

>>804229

>>804229
You just HAD to tempt the dice gods, didn't you?

>>804229
RIP Beatrice

File: sadcat2.jpg (20 KB, 426x314)

20 KB JPG

>>804238
>>804239
>>804240
s-sorry

>9

The jet of flame goes just wide, the fire scorching the air around the swooping gargoyle but without landing a direct hit. At least not yet.

It all depends on where you aimed it.

>The Immolate soars over the gargoyle. It hits nothing.

>The Immolate goes underneath the gargoyle. It might set Beatrice's hat on fire but the gargoyle will at least still run into it!

>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

>Other

>>804258
>>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.
You guys are too liberal to be praised by the Wheel God. This is a sign to remove dis kebab.

>>804258
>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

>>804258
>>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

>>804258
>gargoyle kills beatrice
or
>we kill beatrice

Can we combine 1 and 3 or will picking 3 immolate both?

>>804258
>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

>>804283
The third options assumes it's not hitting anything else.

>>804287
It's unanimous then

>>804258
> Use you upgrade to pump your wick
Beatrice, use explode!

>Use your upgrade to just pump the Immolate with enough Wick after the casting so that the stream of fire suddenly widens just enough to catch the gargoyle.

You grit your teeth and with the power of Belle's Spark, widen the Immolate as it travels just enough that the edge of fiery jet catches the gargoyle on the wing.
The monster's wings vanish immediately, shadowy projections dispersed by the flame and the creature falls to the ground with an utter lack of grace.

"Shit!," Beatrice moans, her hat on fire. She shoots the gargoyle twice. The first shot goes straight into its grub-like abdomen and the gargoyle immediately transforms to save itself from the fire within her bullets, becoming an un-moving sculpture of black marble.
Beatrice's second shot is explosive and buries itself right into the statue's bat-like head, cracking it open in a spray of broken stone shrapnel.

The gargoyle remains transfixed even as its head explodes, a statue depicting a horrific cross between a wingless bat and a furred centipede. It will never retake flesh-form again.

You throw one of the double-doors open as you spot three more gargoyles in the sky above you. Beatrice throws her burning hat to the concrete and abandons it as she dives inside.

You were wrong. The inside of this tunnel is lined with concrete, not steel. It's only going to be a matter of time before the other three eat their way into here. This is but a temporary sanctuary.

>Stay outside in front of the door and fight the gargoyles yourself.

>Run in another direction to lead them away.

>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>Other

>>804363
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>>804363
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>>804363
> Stay outside and fight, think if the concrete!
And put Beatrice's hat out. B-Because ... you don't want to have to look at her ugly mug all the time!

>>804294
Only After Orion or Abe use Harden then Pound.

>>804363
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>>804394
better excuse, Her eyes leak blood sometimes and if fire catches it we get an explosive Beatrice. More so than usual.

Oh whoops, forgot to mention.

Wick: 3/10

Stay by the door. Wait until they are close, and then uncover the lamp post.

>>804363
>>Stay outside in front of the door and fight the gargoyles yourself.
How does Orion estimates his chances of handling 3 gargoyles with light backup from bea?
Also you forgot to mention how much wick we have left

Calling it for:
>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

>Just get inside and help them. It's still a defensible position.

Wick: 3/10

Even if they eat their way through the concrete it’s still worth hunkering down in here. You’ll be able to take them on in a closed-in environment and hopefully one at a time. A gargoyle by itself isn’t a huge problem for you to deal with, it’s when they swarm that’s the issue.

You step inside and pulls the doors shut behind you but neither of them truly lock into place, the bars within them bent out of place and twisted by your previous efforts. It’ll have to do. Gargoyles don’t know how doors work.
Now if you could just find something to drag across and block-

“Ah Orion? You might want to have a look at this.”

Abe calls to you from deeper down the tunnel, the man having feebly gotten to his feet and stumbled down to where the concrete raises itself into high banks surrounding the silver rail. And on that railway…
It’s long, sleek and silver and it has no engine that you can see, more a tube than any locomotive you know. Like a bullet or a snake. There are no sharp lines to the train’s design, just swept back surfaces and an almost inherent sense of grace and speed. You can’t even see the doors, so seamlessly do they meld into its almost liquid surface.
Long lines of runes run down its sides and emblazoned across its side in bright red sigils is a name in a dialect you cannot read.

How does it move? You can’t even see the wheels but it must attach to the tracks somehow! The windows are shaded out, black abysses of perfectly tinted glass. The train barely even as a front, just a point where it curves down and slowly tapers to a point at both ends.
You’ve seen the ruins of Second Age locomotives before but this must have been cutting-edge at the time even for them. It looks nothing like the others.

Abe knocks on the side to no effect. This train’s been dead for centuries, locked safely away as a functional piece of art.

Beatrice is slowly backing up into the tunnel, her gun in her hand and the rest of what she was carrying lying on the ground next to the train. Her hat is missing and she looks genuinely lost without it.
“Are they coming?”

“We’ve got at least a few minutes before they can eat their way in,” you say. You nearly forgot about them, your attention swept up by the ancient relic before you.

“Well,” the witch says. “Maybe we can do something with whatever this is?”

At the far, far back end of the tunnel squats an ancient machine, something black and grimy and covered in intestine-like pipes and tubing. Unlike the train no effort was made towards aesthetic. This is a purely functional device. Along its side are gleaming empty jewels of glass atop raised buttons and false windows not unlike that of the Starbreaker.
1/2

>>804702
And reaching out from the machine is a claw that cradles the top of the train, long antenna-fingers frozen in the act of caressing the matte-black strip that runs across the very top of the train’s lithe body.

You’ve seen that kind of panelling before. But where?

“I think I’ve seen this before,” the witch says. “Aren’t those strips supposed to draw power from sunlight? To charge their machines up or something?”

“Then this must be some kind of...charging station,” you say, struggling to find a better word. “A power transmuter.”
You think back to how the fallen star had run on nothing but divine flame alone.
“Second Age machines run on fire. They probably used this to draw flame in to charge the machine when it was too cloudy outside to run on sunlight. Or maybe the sunlight wasn’t enough to power the entire train.”

“I have a really bad idea,” Beatrice says. You don’t even ask what it was. You’re thinking the same damn thing.


>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

>Just unwrap your lamp and...hit the train with it or something.

>Someone else can inspect the station, you need to be on your guard against the gargoyles!

>Nobody does anything until every gargoyle is dead.

>Punish Beatrice for even suggesting you desecrate an artefact.

>Other

>>804706
>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

Shinkansen time?

>>804706
>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

>>804706
>Just unwrap your lamp and...hit the train with it or something.

>>804706
>>Someone else can inspect the station, you need to be on your guard against the gargoyles!

>>804706
>Just unwrap your lamp and...hit the train with it or something.

>Over an hour.
Fuck, alright that's it. No more than 30 minutes per post unless that post has more than one part. I can do it.

>>804745
No worries, Ouro. Your posts are worth the wait.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

Looks like a tie between trying to use the charging station and just trying to apply the lamp directly. Evens for the former, odds the latter.

>Inspect the charging station. Can it possibly still work?

“Beatrice, keep watch.”
You make your way down the tunnel and past the recumbent train towards the station, the hypothetical power transmuter. Why else would it interface with the train’s power strip? You just hope that it’s still functional. They built their machines to last but this might be asking a little too much.

“Aye,” Beatrice wearily says. “And thanks, by the way.”

“No need.”

“Pardon?”

“No need to thank someone for what they’re expected to do.”

“...I don’t get it.”

Abe is already over by the charging station by the time you get there, the injured man resting awkwardly against it.
“I barely even saw it coming. Did you get hit by that last swoop?”

“No, I’m fine. See anything that we might be able to use?”

“Sort of?”
Abe beckons you over to where he’s standing. There are three holes in the side of the machine, long and dark tunnels that flare outwards as if something were meant to be placed into them. Abe wipes away the grime to reveal words carved into the machine, words none of you can read. But beneath them and above each of the three pipes are a series of symbols. One for each of them.

One symbol was a thick zigzag, a cartoonish lightning bolt. What does that have to do with anything?

The second symbol was that of a small flame.

The third symbol is that of a small set of railway tracks.

“Does it matter which tube you put it in?,” Abe asks.

“I hope not.”


>Lightning symbol.

>Fire symbol.

>Rail symbol.

>All at once.

>>804895
>Rail symbol.

>>804895
>>Rail symbol.

>>804895
>Fire symbol.

>Rail symbol.

>>804895
I suppose the
> rail symbol
Makes sense. Hopefully not just shunting our wick into the rails.

>>804895
>Lightning symbol.

>>804895
>Fire symbol

>Rail symbol


“Just put the damn thing in!,” Beatrice hollers from the front of the tunnel. “It’s not like it’s going to fucking kill you if you choose the wrong one?”

“It might!,” you shout back at her.

“Whatever! Just do it quickly!”
The concrete of the roof twenty yards down the tunnel cracks, pieces falling to the ground as a giant toothless bat head with compound eyes worms its way in. Beatrice shoots it dead.
“Not all of them are going to be that stupid!”

You take out your wick and point it at the hole with the rail symbol. Should you just fire it up? Is that all it’ll take? It’s all the fallen star needed but that had been an abundance of divine flame. What if you waste all your Wick on this one and it’s not even the right choice?
It’s now or never.


>Burn 1 Wick.

>Burn 2 Wick.

>Burn 3 Wick.

>Unveil the Lamp

>>805020
>Burn 1 Wick.

>>805020
>3
Fuckit, also
> unveil the lamp when add soon as those gargs get in here.

>>805020
>>Burn 1 Wick.

>>805020
>Burn 1 Wick.
We kinda need all our Wick.

>>805020
>Unveil the Lamp

>>805020
>Burn 1 Wick.

>>805092
Every time the Lamp is used, a fraction of our body is burnt up, a fraction of our life is used up.

>>805114
Yeah I know. Every time we get mauled by 3 gargoyles our entire life gets used up.

>>805114
I'm pretty sure that is only when the power of the lamp is actively used. Simply having it free shouldn't have any effect other than giving off true light.

File: flakeexpress.png (46 KB, 300x300)

46 KB PNG

Ugh sorry guys. Not feeling it right now, the words are there but it's like they just don't want to be written. I'll do an update much later tonight and then start at the usual time tomorrow for a short session before game day.
Sorry this whole thread has been so slow.

>>805261
No worries. Nice topical flake snake you got there.

>>805261
It's fine brosef, thanks for running!

>Burn 1 Wick

Wick: 2/10

You focus your power as best you can and thrust the burning wick into the tube. The fire winks out almost immediately and you feel a peculiar sensation, a smaller twin to what you felt when you raised the star back into the sky. Like something is drinking from you, something that you would absorb everything you had if you’d let it.
The power transmuter shakes, trembling as something deep inside it begins to spin with a low and omnipresent drone.

The entire machine rattles as the ‘claw’ presses down upon the train’s power strip, each ‘finger’ at intervals along its length. Abe stares up at it.
“Did all of that really come from so little?”

You shake your head.
“Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it had some power stored, it might just have needed me to light it back up. Now stay quiet for a moment.”

You can hear the sound of a faint hum, a vibration moving through the train. Is it just you or does it glimmer just a little more? And then slowly, you see lights switch on and the dark black windows, while remaining almost opaque, begin to fill with a faint twilight glow.
It’s probably not as bright as the train should be but these days? You’ll take what you can get.
“We’re leaving!”

Doors all along the train’s side slide back with a faint hiss, almost as if it heard you. You can see red carpet and wood-paneled walls within the dim light.

“Good!,” Beatrice shouts, firing a shot at a spot of cracking concrete right in front of the tunnel’s doors.
“I don’t know how long I can keep playing games with these last few, they keep popping up and d-oh shit.”
The concrete cracks in three spots, surrounding her in a rough triangle.
“They’ve got pretty good hearing,” Beatrice mutters as she swallows, unsure of which to aim at. “Just get Abe on the train, Orion! I’ll be fine!”

“Bea, no!”
Abe staggers up beside you, still finding it hard to move with his petrified abdomen.
“Orion, you need to go help her. Forget about me.”

“And leave you to be picked up by one of these things?”
Beatrice swivels as the cracks surround her, creatures tapping away at the concrete around her in every direction as they cut off her escape route. The moment she runs is the moment they all emerge at once.
“Damn it Orion you boy-loving piece of shit! You already chose me once! Throw him on the damn train!”


>Grab Abe, drag him to the train and throw him in first. Then go back to help her.

>Run to Beatrice’s help first. Abe will be fine.

>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.

>Other

File: yawn.gif (1.65 MB, 300x300)

1.65 MB GIF

>>806209
Dropped my trip. This vote will stay open until I wake up tomorrow and call it.

>>806209
>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together

>>806209
>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.
We can't heal her with benedictions if she gets bitten

>>806209
>>Grab Abe and run over to her. You'll risk this all together and you'll fight through it together.

>>806209
>Run to Beatrice’s help first. Abe will be fine.