ayy lmao this alive

Bugger, always forget this part.

QM Twitter: @OutsiderQuestQM

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Since then you’ve returned to the village where you’d been summoned, took the form of a mortal to better understand how humans work. Your success has been…. limited. Of the two people you’ve spoken to so far, one was a particularly unpleasant brute whose soul you bent until he gave you the information you wanted, and the second is a priestess of The Lady of Green Places. You aren’t sure how that one went, because time is stubbornly linear in this particular world and you can’t look at the end of the conversation from the future.

What you are sure of is that your presence here will be expunged with extreme prejudice if the local divinities discover you, and that your current level of social ineptitude will become a liability if left unchecked. So it is that you are currently resorting to using words to try and discover the nature of your adversaries, and what exactly happened while you were gone.

What line of questioning will you push?
>The Lady of Green Places
>The Village
>The Plague
>Write-in

Bloody hell, forgot this bit too.

Character Sheet: http://pastebin.com/QgXjNVTm

>>42240718
>The Plague

>>42240718
>>The Lady of Green Places

Walking dog. I'll tally and write when I get back.

>>42240718
>The Plague

Hrm. Is this a bad time to run?

>Plague

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The priestess continues with her own unimportant inquiry, seemingly unaware that you’ve decided to keep questioning her rather than answering what she asked you. How very rude.
"It isn't that ha-"

"I'd like to know more about the plague that came through here. What happened to it?"

“Wha-”

“Tell me what happened to the plague.”

“Bu-”

“Why aren’t you answering?”

“Okay! Okay.”

Here she takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them and continuing. You don’t quite know why she did that, but learning that sort of thing is why you’re stuffed inside this fragile shell and communicating within the boundaries of physics.

“The crippling of the Dying King’s plague is one of the Lady’s better-known miracles. You must really be new here if you haven’t heard of it."

Odd. Her blood-flow seems to have concentrated on her face, reddening her cheeks. Her brows are a bit pushed together, too. Whatever the cause, though, she’s answering your questions now.

1/2

>>42241960
Maybe. The freaks usually come out at night.

>>42241960
Mostly you going on hiatus for few months and then coming back. It's hard to care when quests happen once per three months and run for super short time.
I'd suggest just keeping on running until you get people back. Someone's bound to pop in and get interested. Unless you go on a hiatus again then top lol.

>>42242430
Fair enough. I'm trying to keep my schedule stable enough to run regularly, so hopefully that won't be a problem for long.

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“One of the three known Necromancers of the Apostle Nation is the Dying King, a man who, having been struck by the Plague God’s judgement, turned to the dark arts to extend his own life rather than accepting death and joining with the Veil. He is rumored to be older than most kingdoms, and is the least aggressive of the Necromancers, focusing on staving off death rather than cheating it entirely. The plague was one of his few attempts at actively increasing the number of corpses available for his twisted research, and our Lady thwarted him. She heard the calls of a band of her most loyal acolytes and came in answer to their prayers, a black mask of mourning covering her sorrow at the wretched state of her faithful. Without speaking a word the Lady of Green Places provided her mercy to the suffering masses.

Not a man more died of the plague, though it lingered through the Dying King’s malicious will, and as a reminder that the Lady is not to be called on lightly.”

“And that is the story of how the Lady of Green Places saved this village and so many others from a horrible death and a worse eternity in service to the Necromancer’s plots.”

“Now that I’ve told you about one of the many wonderful acts of the Lady, perhaps I could persuade you to answer my question? Where are you from, and what is your name?”

>Write-in

2/2
>Now with picture

>>42242885
Got nothing.
>Lie through our teeth as best as we can

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>42242885
>>42242968

Righto. Get me a 1d100, best of two due to low Humanity score.

>>42243110
If you want to lie, that is.

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>42243110
Might as well, what ever we say is going to be a lie unless we are dumb.

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>42243110
>>42243128

A name would be nice, but I can roll one if you guys are dry.

>>42243323
Mary Kellen

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“I’m an immigrant from across the Ocher sea, what your people call the land of apostates,”

You think you’re getting the hang of this talking thing. The story was helpful as context for sentence structure.

“and my name is Mary Kellen. I came here to learn about your gods, and your Lady of Green Places sounds positively benign.”

You still don’t quite get the facial movements, or what they signify, but your mask renders that irrelevant in this case. Smiling is simple to understand, though. You’re not sure how her teeth are that clean on such a primitive world, but she seems to have believed you.

“Well, I’m happy to introduce you to the ways of the Lady, Mary. But might I ask how long you plan on staying in town? These small villages can be somewhat hostile to strangers, especially, well….”

She gestures vaguely towards your mask, seeming momentarily unsure of herself.

“Ones that look as foreign as you do. I’d hate if something were to happen to you in a place blessed by the Lady.”

>How do you respond?
>Deflect attention
>Be indignant
>Explain your mask (Lies require a roll)
>Screw it, stealth mode

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>42243705
>>Deflect attention

>>42243705
>>Screw it, stealth mode

Waiting for a tie-breaker.

>>42244054

>>42243792

>>42244188
Righty then.

Walking dog again, back soon, post mostly written.

>bump

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“That’s very kind of you, but why don’t you tell me a bit more about your Lady first? Does she have rules for her worshipers? Does she usually perform miracles like she did with the plague?”

“Well.. I suppose we can get to that later. Our Lady of Green Places is not terribly demanding of her worshippers, but she does expect us to follow certain guidelines. We are to do something to encourage growth and life every day, to avoid disturbing the wilds more than we need to, and never allow the needless destruction of life. Her lack of strict dogma attracts many of those that live in far from the larger cities, but in urban areas we priests often tend large gardens with the help of the local faithful.”

Some people have begun stopping to watch your conversation, drawn by the sight of a masked woman and a priest speaking amiably.

And no, she does not. The few times that she has intervened have been to prevent the taint of Outsiders and Necromancy from causing irreversible harm to the natural world, as she did when the Mad Smith called upon a fire demon to fuel his forge with the forests.”

Her tone takes on a level of zeal you haven’t heard outside of the Penitent Halls in your Progenitor’s many-angled home, and she turns away from you to address the small crowd.

“But it is not apathy that says her hand! It is her love for us, and her desire for life to grow and flourish as it will! She is our Lady, but she gives us the gift of choice, unlike the great gods in the cities!”

You can’t help but notice that nobody’s paying you any attention.

>Slip away (To do what?)
>Decorporealize and re-manifest elsewhere (Where, and in what shape?)
>Say awhile, and listen (To what end?)
>Interrupt (Write in)

To avoid stopping to ask questions each vote, I'm including the additional questions in the initial prompt.

>>42245352
>Slip away
If we can adopt animals for free we should locate some domestic or semi-domestic animals (cats, dogs) in the village and adopt them to gain eyes on the population.

>>42245432
Keep in mind that without active communication they will not be able to inform you of anything until you get the AWARENESS levelup.

Food tiem. Back in awhile.

>>42245489
Could we get useful information from them if we met with them though? ie have them all meet us outside of town at midnight every 3 days.

>>42245352
>Slip away (To do what?)

Walk around town and see if we can find more interesting people.

>>42245603
Yes, you could.

Unless anyone has anything else to add, I'll be mushing those votes together.

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It’s simple enough for you to escape the scene of what promises to be a somewhat fiery sermon, your nature as Masked in Darkness lending itself to the art of moving quietly and not being noticed. Admittedly, the way the houses are built makes it a bit harder to turn a corner and vanish - the corners are simply the legs of the houses and do little to cut line of sight. Nonetheless if takes you only a minute to distance yourself from the crowd without being noticed. A glance and the smell of dung tell you that you’re not far from some sort of animal pens, but it’s unlikely that anything confined will be able to tell you what you want to know.

Instead, you turn your attention to a squirrel, the hapless creature freezing in place halfway up a house’s leg. Perfect.

…

Unless you can think of some way to gather them quickly, it will take you some time to Adopt enough of these vermin to be worthwhile spies.

>Focus on recruiting less tame animals (Plans may speed this up)
>Break into homes, turn domestic animals into informants (Also time consuming, but much easier to find)
>Find someone (Suggest a profession, and why you want to find them)

>>42246537
>Break into homes, turn domestic animals into informants (Also time consuming, but much easier to find)
We want animals that are close to humans so that they can observe how they move and talk. Would they be able to tell use enough to improve our humanity?

>>42246636
They could, if that's what you'd like to focus on. Their memories are rather poor, so you'll need to have them gather one type of information at a time.

>>42246726
We need to focus on getting humanity so that we can adopt talk to some humans and adopt them

>>42246537
>Focus on recruiting less tame animals (Plans may speed this up)
have the squirrels and any other animals we pick up lead us to any mates or families they have

>>42246869
This may be less effective than you'd think. Male squirrels have pretty much nothing to do with their families, and a given squirrel will only have regular contact with a few others at irregular intervals.

.... To be continued. Tomorrow.

>>42247288
Well, at least it's not a month break.

But man, this quest is going nowhere fast.

>>42247388
living in the hexer zone

>bump

And so I return.
>>42247388
Is the problem the time it takes me to write, the general pacing, or the plot thus far?

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Security is clearly less of a priority for this village than in more densely packed settlements, as is quite aptly demonstrated by your first break-in; The front door had a lock on it, but the balcony entrance was completely unprotected from entry. All you had to do to get in was climb the smooth wooden leg of the house, cling to its side like an overgrown spider, and climb past the rails.

The interior was surprisingly well furbished, and you were briefly tempted by the prospect of trying out the furniture. It' merely an idle thought, though, and you soon discover that there is in fact a domestic animal in the building.

1/2

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Or two, depending on how you count children. While you do adore them as you would your own, human larvae are rather incomplete in terms of functionality. They cannot communicate anything but the most base desires, lack sufficient personality to be considered much higher a life-form than most dogs, and are physically helpless.

This does present you with an interesting opportunity; A child would not think it abnormal to be under your influence, and could be shaped into whatever form you'd like, both physically and mentally. Not that you'd hurt the poor thing, of course, but your ability to alter your adopted children would be far less traumatic to someone that grows up with the gifts you can bestow upon them.

>2/2

>Adopt the cat, proceed with your scheme
>Adopt the child, come up with a new long-term plan
>Adopt the child and the cat, proceed with your scheme
>Write-in

Oh god I finally found a way in. Phew, I though I was gonna miss it just because the opening picture was dead.

>>42254229
>Adopt both, proceed with your scheme.

>>42254251
Huh, I guess I technically did miss it yesterday. Here's hoping it kicks back up.

>>42254251
What do you mean by the opening picture being dead?

Votes tallied.

Adopt both wins by default.

Any changes you'd like to make to either the cat or the girl before moving on?

>>42254726
The opening post has no picture on my end. And no, no direct changes yet.

>>42254726

To what extent can we alter them? Something to the cat to make it a better spy, be it through senses or intelligence, would be good.
As for the girl, some blessings that will ensure her growth and strength, as it will take some time (ugh) for her to become truly useful.

>>42254784
Four minor alterations (IE Cosmetic changes, slight attribute improvement, and some alteration of personality)

Two minor alterations can be used for a major alteration (Significant changes to body structure, Minor magical ability, Rudimentary telepathy, ect.)

Sorry, got distracted by a puppy.

>>42255042

If we have time time, I think these would be nice (with approval of the hivemind), though I'm not sure what the attribute categories are:

Kitty: Major: Rudimentary Telepathy; Minor: Improvement of Memory
Child: Major: Minor Magical Ability; Minor: Health/Constitution Improvement

This gives us a decent informant, who can watch over our human investment.
I say do what we can along these lines, and start moving on; we have a lot more work to do regaining our reputation from that green hussy.

>>42255138
You've got more than enough time. After this decision there will be a timeskip, unless anon has plans that require fine manipulation.

>>42255138
The hive-mind seems somewhat inactive. Continuing in 10 minutes.

>>42255138
Yeah that sounds good. Maybe a little birthmark somewhere that looks kinda like a mask.

>>42255392

Not sure what timezone you're in, but it'll probably wake up as the US starts getting out of work/class.

>>42255452

Yes this A++

>>42255465
Hrm. Shall I delay another hour or two, then?

>>42255488

Up to you, I say just keep it moving slowly so people see it and can get involved.

>>42255526
Agreed.

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It takes but a moment for you to decide; To bring a child into your family and give her your blessings is as natural to you as breathing. Not that you breathe, but if you did, it would be.

She barely stirs as you cross the room, your movements graceful and your steps impossibly light. The cat panics for a moment as you press your finger into its head, flesh parting like water to allow you easier access.

Moments later the pet has joined your family, and gained a limited capacity for telepathic communication as well as a memory far longer than most of its species. It settles down aside the child's head, returning to its rest with not a mark to show for its new capabilities.

Adopting a human is a slightly more complex affair, even when that human is a sleeping child. First you establish your connection to her, your fingertips pressed firmly against her temples. You can feel the not-quite formed mind within feebly struggle against what it sees as an invasion. Futile, given your parentage and abilities. Soon she is yours in thought if not in spirit.

The next step changes that. You pull back your hands and reach into her essence, carefully pruning and shaping portions of it to properly receive your gift, as well as molding her into something that is entirely Y̰̜͓͞ͅO҉̩̥U̮̘̣R͎͇͘S̙̯̱͜.

Finally, you make a small investment of knowledge. A faint glimpse of your home to establish an affinity to the unreal and the arcane.

>Do you wish to specialize your new child's magical affinity? (Irreversible, but does not completely lock her out of learning other types of magic)
>The power of death and the dead (Necromancy)
>A bond to life itself (Healing, manipulation of essence)
>Power unbound and untamed (Destructive magic)
>A permanent connection to the worlds beyond this one (Outsider magic; will be based on your own abilities)

Hrm. Anyone know a way to un-kill the first few images?

Oy vey I'll post when my mobile internet aligns with non-banned IP.
>Power unbound and untamed
We've got defensive and healing magic of our own, sort of,, what we need is something offensive.

>>42256076
none whatsoever, you done fucked up now
try moe archive

>>42256050
>>42256259

I go for
>A bond to life itself (Healing, manipulation of essence)
Something that would make her popular with the people, and perhaps provide competition for the green thumb priests.
But I'll go with the first suggestion, if there is no other input.

22 minutes since last post, still no words from QM.
I'm done, good luck with your hexer zone CB.

Bleh. Back. As it is now clear I am not ded, I'll wait for 5 and then post. Barring a surge in activity and planning, it will be the last pre-timeskip post.

I think healing would be good

Right.
>>42256259
Destruction
>>42256396
>>42256975
Healing

Clear enough. Writing.

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But mostly you show her the gardens of your parent''s house, where things that have no name grow in patterns and forms that reflect their owner's wishes. Life, yes, but life shaped and nurtured with purpose. This vision, this glimpse of a place ruled by powers not within her limited comprehension, will influence her growth in both body and mind.

And she is and always will be yours. Your first human daughter, and your first servant capable of properly recognizing you. Not yet, but soon. You decide that the cat will watch over her, a companion and the tool with which you will ensure the safety of your investment.

Perhaps this is how your own parent felt when it first split off the part of itself that would one day become you. A mother who has neither been given birth to or given birth herself, a mask that hides what little of you there is, and a hand that can tug at heart-stings as easily as it can sculpt flesh and bone.

...

You're rather sure that that was nostalgia. Perhaps you are learning from humanity after all.

Thread end.
Archived at:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/42240439/

Thank you for playing.

Next game in two days, at a more traffic-heavy hour.

>>42257561
Thank you for running OP.