Just as Frederick shouts out his warning, Kendrick sees a rat-like humanoid stand up from behind a desk and turn toward the door. It lets out a primal scream as it turns, and a pillar of fire appears out of nowhere, completely blocking the doorway. Luckily, both Kendrick and Frederick are able to back up in time for the pillar of fire to cause anything more than discomfort.
The pillar of flame continues to blaze just inside the hallway, concealing the door and the room beyond from your view. As the heat in the hall grows, you hear a voice from the other side of the flames shout out, "Just leave me alone!"
Meanwhile, Myra stops running at the end of the hallway and turns back to face the flames. "I can sense him now," she says as she approaches again. "Powerful psychic... I know some can mask their power. He was trying to hide."
OOC: Matt... No, Kendrick couldn't see what Frederick was seeing. I guess I could have sent him an email detailing the psychic stuff that only he can see/feel/whatever, but I don't plan on doing that unless it benefits the story. Quim, if there is ever a time that you want to keep something like that a secret, just let me know.
"Huh? The rat is psychic? What's going on here?"
ReplyDelete"Yes, a dangerous one it would seem," Myra says. "Normally I can sense the presence of a powerful psychic, but I couldn't tell he was there until he started to attack. He's stopped hiding it now, though." She gestures toward the pillar of fire as she goes on, "I don't think anybody can do anything that drastic and keep masking their psychic aura. I just..."
ReplyDeleteMyra is interrupted by the humanoid rat yelling out again. "Go away! Leave me alone!"
"Well, what do you guys think? Should we just walk away?" she asks.
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DeleteOOC Side Note: Updated XP totals and inserted the spreadsheet on the character sheet page.
DeleteWalk away? I'll put holes in this joker before I walk away. I'm looking for missing people, and this guy is the first entity I found. He's answering some questions, or he's throwing down. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteTo the rat-like creature: "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
It yells out in reply, "Mmmmmm.... no tell name! Not safe! Go away! Leave me alone!"
ReplyDeleteMyra looks at Kendrick disapprovingly. "It's scared and backed in a corner. I hope we won't need bullets."
She turns toward the fire and, in a sweet motherly voice you're hearing from her for the first time, asks, "Why isn't it safe? What's wrong?"
"It has them! They come back! Not safe!"
OOC: Could continue, but pausing for more player input...
"We are here to help! Don't be scared. Company hire us to fix this mess. We are friends. Please let us in. Let's talk." - Fred puts the pistol into his holster and rise his hands meaning he means no harm to the psyquic rat, and showing his scars in arms and hands.
ReplyDelete"What's yours name, friend? Where are the others?"
OCC1: No, it's fine for me. No secrets with my game pals. Matt, in character I'll always try to express what Fred knows.
OCC2: Cool XP sreadsheet! Good job Josh!
I lower my weapon. But just to be clear, I wouldn't be so on edge had this guy not tried to barbeque us. But if Myra thinks he's harmless, I'll go along with it.
ReplyDelete"What has them? And who's coming back? Listen, we're only here to find out what's going on. If there's anything you know about what happened to the humans here, we would greatly appreciate it."
There is a long pause with no response from the rat at all. Finally, the pillar of fire dies down, leaving a scorched mark on the floor where it once burned.
ReplyDelete"Burn you if you hurt me. I promise I will. I just want you to leave me alone. If I answer, you will leave me alone?"
Myra steps ahead and into the room. "If that's what you want, yes. We still need to find some people, but we won't bother you if you help us find them."
"Fine," it says. "I answer questions. People came to steal my things. I didn't like it. I scared them a lot. Didn't hurt them. Just wanted them to go away. Wanted them to leave me alone. But they wouldn't leave. They kept digging. And they found it. And it made them crazy. They kill people. They try to kill me! I burned one of them. The other dead ones were not my fault though. They kill each other."
"It's ok, man. You did what you had to do. We understand. We're not angry.
ReplyDelete"What did the people find? What did the people find that made them crazy?"
"Where are the corpses?"
ReplyDelete"Found a big knife. They fought over it. Some left but came back for friends, but the one that carries the knife tells the others what to do. Humans killed their own friends! Took them down into the hole. Hole is in another room. Door is closed. They lock themselves in. I just want my stuff. They keep me out!"
ReplyDelete"I understand. Can you show us what room the hole is in? Maybe we can talk them into leaving with us. That way you can get your stuff back."
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm well aware of the fact there's probably no talking to those people. But it sounds a LOT better than 'Yeah, we're gonna go start a fight.' And as timid as this guy is, telling him the end result is probably just gonna make him alienate himself from us even more. But it's not a lie: I hope just talking will do it. It would be nice to get out of here and never fire a shot. But realistically, this is going to get ugly.
(Whispering to my mates) "I can hardly understand the being language, but it seems someone found a sword and they got a quarrel about its possession. According to the described behavior, should I get it properly, could it be an enchanted/haunted sword?"
ReplyDeleteObviously, I agree with Mr. Kenson here. We must found where they hide, and we should expect some resistance.
Agreed, Fred. Definitely a magical sword. Maybe if we can find Fred and Myra one of the deceased humans, they can get some information from the corpse.... Or revive them. Or whatever they do. LOL
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Kenson, my curative abilities are many, but I'm afraid, all are far from being capable to revive the dead. In any case, finding the corpses surely will give us some clues of what happened here and who is our adversary. And of course, will provide us with some new organs and extremities in case are eventually necessary.
ReplyDeleteOk, then. Well, now we know.
ReplyDelete"Yes! Yes! You help me get stuff back! Yes! I show you the way! Hole is in door down the hall!"
ReplyDeleteOOC: Next post will be a description of the room with the trap door. Let me know if there's anything else you want to do or talk about before you enter that room. I should have time to post again later tonight.
The only thing I can think of would be to look for stuff to loot. But I think this is a bad time for that seeing as we just promised the Ratman to help him get his stuff back.
ReplyDelete