15[20:06] <@VoxPVoxD> An hour has passed since the expedition passed the first trial of the Tomb of Cold Iorn, but Tsuka looks more tired after the break than he did after the fight. Still, he's ready to press on at Keldar's command. The voice in the walls is less patient. "What are you doing? Are you having a picnic?" [20:07] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Catching my breath. You said there WASN'T any kinda time limit, didn't you?" [20:08] 5 Xu Sim takes a last whiff from the steambreather before putting it away. [20:08] 13Disgusting. 15[20:09] <@VoxPVoxD> "There isn't technically a time limit, but I think you'll agree that it's very much against the spirit of a heroic trial to dawdle." [20:09] 5 It's certainly more degenerate to enjoy a little flavored vapor than binge-drinking the liquors of Hell in the company of demons. [20:09] 13Xia Lan: "The disembodied voice has a point." [20:09] 13Not that one. 15[20:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Elsewhere, Stranger's been waiting in the manor of the late Evening Master for about as long, and the smell hasn't gotten any better. How does he pass the time? [20:10] "We should be moving." 5 Xu Sim glances at Cathak Tsuka. Is he okay? [20:11] 14He takes another look about the house. He's under quarantine for now; might as well make the most of it. Regretably, putting on some tea would be unsanitary. [20:11] 14There's probably nothing left of interest to the Guild, but perhaps there are at the very least some interesting books. 15[20:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka seems sulky and withdrawn. Well within healthy parameters for a 17 year old boy, in Xu Sim's expert medical opinion. [20:11] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar, idly slicing a chunk off an apple with a pocket knife: "See, this is why thorough and clearly-stipulated rules are a must in any competitive endeavor." 12He eats it. "'specially one where lives are on the line. But I'm ready to get moving if the rest of ya are." [20:12] 13Xia Lan: "I'm ready to move. Put this all behind us." [20:14] <@Ferrinus> "Alrighty." 12Keldar stands and stretches, his armor clanking slightly as joints swivel into position and satchels swing against the steel. He adjusts the scabbard hanging at his side briefly, then looks around, then points his gaze ahead. "Onward." 15[20:18] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger combs the library, and finds shelves full of back economic data, treatises on finance, and revised growth projections and sector analyses. [20:19] 14... 15[20:19] <@VoxPVoxD> Say what you will about Brughel, but by all accounts he kept it dead fuckin boring, perhaps the most prized trait in a money man anywhere in Creation. [20:20] 14Then this would be a good time to get up to date on everything he thought worth keeping around. Even if it doesn't involve the Guild. [20:20] 14One of us should know this stuff. [20:21] 14Rather than start reading now, Stranger skims, trying to identify relevant tomes for later. He's looking for general lessons and specific truths about Nexus's finances and economy. Something to help a novice learn not how to use the city bureaucracy, but wherefore. 15[20:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar leads his team onward. The corridor narrows ahead, and the heat is once again dangerous. The crystal flares to life with a gentle thwom, as the corridor flares open slightly. At the far end, the explorers see a pried-open stone door. They'll have to leap through the ring of fire to get to it! 15[20:22] <@VoxPVoxD> ...and they'll have to jump over the pressurized spiked platforms styled like dragons' heads to get to the ring. 15[20:22] <@VoxPVoxD> ...and they'll have to walk a narrow bridge criss-crossed by swinging blades to get to the platforms. 15[20:23] <@VoxPVoxD> ...and they'll have to leap over a pit of gnashing saws to get to the bridge. [20:23] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "I see." [20:24] 13Man, I knew there was a reason I retired, Xia Lan thinks grumpily as she sizes up the room. [20:25] 5 Xu Sim stares, incredulously, at the array of traps. [20:25] 13Xia Lan, brightly: "Well! Isn't this just a delight." [20:25] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's slowly shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Xu Sim. Can't... teleport or anything, can you?" [20:28] 14Whenever he is interrupted, he'll likely be in the former Evening Master's former library, adding to two neat, unequally-sized piles of books. [20:29] "If you want to come back tomorrow I could have an erymanthus carry the Tiger of Nexus across. But..." 5 Xu Sim mutters softly as he continues studying the room carefully, stooping and bending here and there. [20:33] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "It's you I'm worried about. I've seen worse. Though in smaller portions, admittedly." [20:35] "Next time remind me to bring my Heavenly Solvent and my All-Catching Glue," 5 he notes as he uses a sight beyond sight to examine that which is obscured beyond mortal eyes. [20:36] "Very clever. The last sorceror who came through used some magic to make this much easier to pass through. These traps are all moving a little slower than they should. In any case though - we can use some cruder tricks. Jam your ten-foot pole into the saws there, for example." [20:37] 13How's Tsuka looking in the face of these deadly traps? [20:37] 13Xia Lan: "And the rest of them... just don't screw up?" [20:37] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "I gettin' it back?" [20:38] "Part of it. Those blades are old and soft from so much heat." [20:38] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar goes into his pack and produces a cruder, sturdier-looking pole, one with some latches and things to hold its structure steady once it's been unfolded. "Alright. Lemme see here-" 12Hup- 15[20:38] <@VoxPVoxD> Up in the library, Stranger hears the door downstairs open. "Get a perimeter established. Air and water upstairs, earth at the corners." The voice is louder, searching: "Hello? What's your condition?" [20:39] 14Loudly but leisurely: "In the library." [20:40] 14He snaps the volume he was examining shut and places it in the pile to which it belongs, then sweeps out into the hallway to meet the Lookshyans halfway. 15[20:40] <@VoxPVoxD> The spinning blades groan and snap against the pole, which only breaks in one place. [20:43] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar frowns slightly, but looks satisfied. "Alrighty. Otherwise it looks like it's time for an obstacle course. Who doesn't think they've got this?" 12He's stretching now, rotating one arm and then the other as his brow begins to glow red with a soft flame that outlines his armor. 15[20:43] <@VoxPVoxD> A burst of minty-smelling green light flies in front of Stranger's face as he steps out into the hall, rising through the ceiling and the floor of the level above. He looks down and sees a short figure wearing matte white jade armor, obscured behind a red visor, and a team of men and women in blue bubbles fanning out behind them. The armored figure looks up. "Get us up to speed while we check you out, sir." [20:43] 14Stranger: "Of course. Need I disrobe or simply lift my arms?" [20:43] 14He's wearing his usual peasant's robes. [20:44] 14Bubbles. Smart application. 15[20:44] <@VoxPVoxD> "Just roll up your sleeves. Any symptoms to report?" [20:44] 13Xia Lan eyeballs the traps. "It'll look a little strange, but I've got this." 15[20:45] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "This isn't even the test. This is the application for the test." [20:46] 5 Xu Sim shrugs. "For me, it's a coin toss." 15[20:46] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "What's the most you ever lost on one of those?" [20:46] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar shoots a dubious look at the sorcerer. "I gotta give you a ride or anything? Can't weigh that much." [20:47] 14Stranger: "None. This is a precautionary measure, but a necessary one. We are dealing with contaminated materials in a crawl space beneath the master bedroom on the third floor. You may access them through a trap door in the master bedroom, or by going through the walls if you wish. It is my belief that whomever was kept in there was or became some variety of what you would term [20:47] Anathema, and that given the general aesthetic filth attending the scene, you might prepare as you would for the infectives that come courtesy of our...allies from Thorns." [20:47] 14He has rolled up his sleeves while talking. [20:48] 5 Xu Sim squints. "A gentle toss should do it. [20:50] 14Stranger: "You're looking at a soiled mattress, specifically, along with a fully contaminated safe room. There are also a dozen or so empty phials in the master bedroom itself that I removed from the room for examination." [20:50] 14Stranger: "You're looking at a soiled mattress, specifically, along with a fully contaminated safe room. There are also a dozen or so empty phials in the master bedroom itself that I removed from the room for examination." 15[20:53] <@VoxPVoxD> "Breathe deep for me. Alright." To the bubbles: "Upstairs." To Stranger: "What did your examination turn up?" [20:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar looks from Xu Sim, then to the door, then back. "Nah, don't like those odds. I can carry you through or I can, uh, provide moral support. Up to you, old man." [20:54] 5 Xu Sim crinkles his nose. [20:55] "Forget it. I'll handle it on my own." [20:56] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Alright. Follow my lead." 12The mercenary takes one more moment to stretch, then walks around the saws, then takes his first step onto the bridge. [20:56] 14Stranger: "Nothing died in there -- or at least, nothing died in there and was permitted to decompose. The filth is incredibly in quantity, but it is what you'd expect, roughly, from someone locked in a room for a month or so while still able to excrete. The phials were filled with preservatives -- not for food, but the dead. Embalming fluid. My hypothesis is our mystery resident [20:56] drank it. That he kept expelling filth rather than perishing is an interesting medical conundrum." [20:59] 14He pauses. "...My name is Stranger-Visits-Heaven, by the by. Emissary of Nexus. I don't think we've been introduced." [20:59] 5 Xu Sim hastens under the swinging blades, nearly stumbling as the keen, ancient blade slices off a tiny sliver of his flowing robes. [20:59] <@Ferrinus> 12Woosh, step, woosh, step. The trick with the bridge is just not to lose your nerve. It's the platforms that really get difficult, and frankly it's astonishing how quickly Keldar's able to roll or far he can jump in the full suit of plate he's wearing. The diving roll he does through the ring of flames looks extremely sketchy - but he sticks the landing flawlessly, and there [20:59] <@Ferrinus> 12isn't so much as a wisp of smoke rising from his bandanna. "Still got it." [21:00] "Ho!" 5 The doctor managers the moving platforms with a little more grace, leaping from one to the next. [21:01] 13Xia Lan stretches first, winks to Tsuka, and... dances her way across the bridge, spinning through the amalgam of saws, launches herself across the platforms, landing on her toes with a pirouette before each leap, and finishing off with an astoundingly crisp somersault through the ring of flame. She takes a bow as she lands. [21:02] 5 The alchemist does not handle the fire quite as well - leaping through the flames, rather than over them. "Yeee!" 5 he exclaims as he does so. 15[21:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka takes a running start and somersaults over gaps, between blades, and through the flames before landing neatly on the otherside. Gymnastics isn't dancing, but... it's not totally not dancing. [21:03] 14Such good matchmaking. [21:03] 13Hush, you're not even here. 15[21:05] <@VoxPVoxD> Behind the visor: "Vissi D'Arte, commandant of the Seventh Caduceus. Pleasure. Were you expecting to find contaminants here?" [21:07] 14Stranger: "It was within my conceptual purview. My hope was that circumstances would end up being less extreme than I found them. The good news is that the room was sealed; the Guildsmen who went through the estate before us and the two outside should be fine." 15[21:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Flatly: "What luck." [21:09] 14Mildly, but with a slightest hint of correction: "Until the armies descending on this city are dealt with, yes, commandant; I'd say so." [21:10] 14He swore good faith, after all. 15[21:11] <@VoxPVoxD> D'Arte, who didn't: "I'll defer to your judgment. It's going to take us a few hours to make a full assessment. In the meantime you're cleared to go, if you like. We'll see to it that you get a copy of the report." [21:13] 14How far was he able to make it through sorting Brueghel's library, working industriously through his wait? 15[21:14] <@VoxPVoxD> If it only took him a minute or two to decide which pile a given book went in, he probably could've cleared half the shelves in that time. [21:14] 5 Xu Sim rolls through the flames and stands up - singed but unhurt. [21:15] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar inspects the team. "We all alive? No worse than medium rare?" 12He actually sniffs. "Nice. Moving on." [21:15] 13Xia Lan: "You okay, Xu Sim?" 13Also, are they going to have to do this again on the way out? [21:15] 13She doesn't ask after Tsuka, because he, unlike Xu Sim, didn't screw up. [21:17] "Fine." 5 He sounds a little surprised she didn't take the opportunity to spit on him. [21:18] 13Hey, they're in a tomb of horrors, here. Trust is the key when you're in deep. [21:23] 14Stranger rolls down his sleeve. "You're not wrong, of course." 15[21:26] <@VoxPVoxD> The trek into the tomb continues. Again there's sound audible down the hot, cramped corridor, voices and clashing metal. "Not the tidiest solution, but a solution nonetheless. On the battlefield, few victories are clean. I led armies against the most devious monsters and masters from beyond the real, and I never knew defeat! But in a contest of armies against armies, it is not the general's strength that wins the day..." [21:27] 14Conversational, but soft enough not to be heard too well down the hall: "However. We are in an extremely volatile situation. There will be, in all likelihood, a much larger medical campus to manage in this city than any of us either provisioned or prepared for. And they are the ones who will control the access to the goods and supplies need in excess of our budgets. That's the only [21:27] reason we kept them around, instead of allowing them to slink from the city: the necessary invoicing. But it's not the two outside, for instance, that control those purse-strings. They grew up in this city. This city is their home. The ones changing talent into talents...well, they won't be found anywhere near your tents. All I ask is you keep that in mind." 15[21:27] <@VoxPVoxD> The corridor opens out into another round room, the walls projected with soldiers in ancient armor clashing against hordes of raksha, and demons. Columns of flame sear the air and the ground is littered with dead. Not all of the dead are projections. 15[21:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Charred and crumpled corpses are strewn about the floor of the chamber, jade glinting beneath the soot. A massive stone statue of an air dragon, its great arms folded, dominates the center of the chamber. [21:28] 13So they made it this far, then. [21:29] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar looks carefully. Any members of the previous party? 15[21:29] <@VoxPVoxD> Yeah, this is them. [21:29] 5All dead? 15[21:29] <@VoxPVoxD> To a man. [21:30] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Well... got 'em, I guess. Yo, voice! These are the guys we were looking for? Got problems with us recovering the bodies and gear?" 15[21:31] <@VoxPVoxD> "Prove yourselves worthy of their leavings by succeeding where they failed." 15[21:31] <@VoxPVoxD> "Time to turn up the heat." [21:32] 13Xia Lan: "That joke sucks." 15[21:32] <@VoxPVoxD> The floor flares orange. Xia Lan's shoes start to smoke. [21:32] "You're not clever." [21:32] 13She hops from foot to foot, hoping to minimize the exposure. 15[21:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "The question is, are you?" [21:33] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar frowns. How's the hearthstone? It keeping the heat from being anything more than painful? [21:33] 13No, but she's not about to tell a disembodied voice about that. 15[21:33] <@VoxPVoxD> So far. But the hearthstone won't protect anyone from direct contact with superheated iron. [21:34] 5 Xu Sim scans the room. "Surely the strength of a general is in his army, of course." [21:34] 14When he gets no real reply, Stranger says, "Just a thought. Please don't disturb the stacks of books in the library." 14Then he moves for the door. [21:34] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "To a point. Alright, uh, let's see." 12He wastes no time in stalking around the chamber, paying special attention to the statue from all sides. The element of air, properly channeled, should be able to cool things down, right? [21:35] 5 He scampers over towards the air dragon statue, skidding across the rapidly-heating floor. 15[21:35] <@VoxPVoxD> The floor begins to burn in wild, elaborate patterns. Whorls and spirals and steadily progressing chains of overlapping circles. "A mighty army with a weak mind behind it will crash like the tide against a lesser force led well. We measure the moment. We measure the man. The time has come to test your tactics." 15[21:35] <@VoxPVoxD> "Have you the wits?" [21:38] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's eyes flash as he realizes what the swirls of heat are doing. "It's a pincer movement! Brace for three... two..." 15[21:41] <@VoxPVoxD> As Stranger departs: "I take your point, sir." 15[21:41] <@VoxPVoxD> Where does he go now? [21:41] <@Ferrinus> 12With everyone standing back to back, clustered tightly, the twin sheets of flame bearing in from both sides stop just short of the party. Of course, the ground beneath everyone's feet starts to glow almost immediately. "It'll follow us for the first few seconds! Stay - stay - stayyyy BREAK-" [21:41] 14Stranger leaves instructions to have both the smaller pile of books and the books remaining on the library shelves sent in two separate parcels to the Council tower and put in the formal custody of the Emissary. He'll finish sorting them later. [21:43] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's right. The circles of heat beneath each person shadow them, jiggling back and forth as one's balance shifts until right at the last moment. Then it's as simple as stepping apart. [21:43] 13Xia Lan almost gets the timing wrong, but dodges just in time. Oh man, this is only going to get worse. [21:44] <@Ferrinus> 12The mercenary's eyes track madly back and forth as he watches patterns of light ripple across the floor and superheated gas shoot from slits in the walls. "Ah fuck, ah fuck, this one's - wait, no, yes. Form up, like a wedge, then turn-" [21:45] 5 Is this what war is like? Intense! Xu Sim follows along as hurriedly as he can. [21:47] 13...actually Keldar picks up the pattern pretty quick and wow, this stuff is super easy with a good leader. These idiots got smoked by this? [21:48] <@Ferrinus> 12As it gets more and more complex, it feels more and more like a battle. A specific one, though - it's as though the party's a shield phalanx, turning this way and that to rebuff certain thrusts but draw back or split around others. It's almost fun until the ceiling lights dim, some kind of alarm blares, and the entire floor lights up at once. "Are you SERIOUS? There's not even a [21:48] <@Ferrinus> damn - wait a minute, its eyes." [21:50] 14Stranger has only one place he does not, under any circumstance, wish to go: wherever the former Emissary of Nexus is at this current moment. Until the report comes back from the Lookshy doctors or Bubo sidles back up with good news, he's a bit at ends on the investigation -- so what makes the most sense, then, is to try and reconstruct the cabbage-monger's journey from what he was [21:50] 14to who he is now, even if he is a legitimately-minted Emissary temporarily embarrassed from office. [21:50] <@Ferrinus> "In! In here! Narrow, NARROW wedge!" 12Keldar pulls his team in close such that they're standing right before the snout of the carved air dragon. The mercenary reaches out to touch a sword right at the ground before the creature, while behind him, directly in the path of the monster's snout, the other Chosen stand two by two. The floor gets brighter and brighter and brighter... and [21:50] <@Ferrinus> 12right as it detonates, a cone of frozen essence jets forth from the carving. [21:51] <@Ferrinus> 12A sensation that feels like it'll bloom into mind-shattering agony if given another second or so to build dances across the party's skin, but fades with the flames. Keldar releases a long breath. "Fuck. Cool." [21:51] 14Perhaps there's some bit of him left in there to divine. Perhaps not. Whatever the case, Stranger will determine where the cabbage-monger kept his cart before his unfortunate run-in with fate, and head there. Surely there was some infrastructure supporting his low-level vending -- a license, a local Guild "security" rat, so on. [21:53] 13Xia Lan: "That's, uh, one way of putting it." 13She's shivering a bit. "Your tomb sucks, dude." [21:53] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Nah, I like it. Though these shmoes clearly didn't. Shoulda been quicker on the uptake." [21:54] "It's an enormous amount of sorcerous power to separate the wheat from the chaff," 5 notes Xu Sim. [21:54] 13Xia Lan: "Dude, they literally died here. At least wait a room to make fun of 'em." [21:54] "Wheat from the chaff. Sun almighty." [21:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "They knew the risks." 15[21:54] <@VoxPVoxD> The voice sounds genuinely pleased. "Well done. Well done! I could scarcely have done it better myself. Which makes sense, I suppose." [21:55] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Whooo. The one where you had to bait 'em and they grew when separated... alright, what's next?" [21:58] 13Xia Lan: "And how many horrible death traps does it involve?" 13They should probably - hm. Should they move the bodies? 15[21:58] <@VoxPVoxD> Again, the projection dims and flickers out... but this time, only for a moment. A new image is projected against the walls, and on the floor. A shining city, stone and silver, at the conflux of great rivers. It glitters in the dark, against the full moon and stars uncountable. A road winds yellow beneath them. "There is only forward." [21:59] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar thought of that, but what, is he gonna carry 'em deeper into the tomb? Better to look over them for gear that can be salvaged right now and leave the rest to pick up on the way back. [21:59] 5 Xu Sim follows the yellow brick road. [22:00] 14First, however: lunch and tea. Stranger draws a very slight per diem now as an Emissary, and uses it entirely for food. He buys a modest toasted sandwich and tea lunch somewhere nearby in the district, and reclines outside in the shade, thinking. [22:01] 14He has carefully chosen a table an unsuspicious but appreciable distance from other diners. [22:01] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar follows it shortly. First, he crouches brushes some ash aside, and then stands with a red jade daikalve in his hand. He clenches his fist on the hilt and his caste mark flashes. Then he glances over to Tsuka. "Need better armor? Might grab this, too, otherwise." 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Take it. We might need to jump around more and you're lighter in it than I'll be." [22:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar nods and begins to undo the heavy steel armor he's wearing. "Voice! You better not blast this place again before we've left it going the other way, I like this armor." [22:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Before long, Keldar's more lightly dressed, wearing hard-wearing leathers beneath a breastplate of reinforced white jade. A red daiklave's slung diagonally across his back, somehow magnetized to the armor. "Could use another breather, unless any of you are gettin' antsy." 15[22:06] <@VoxPVoxD> The bad news is, the heat hasn't let up this time, so your breather's coming out of the crystal's clock. [22:07] 13Xia Lan nudges one of the corpses with her feet. "I'll need to change, anyway. This is -" 13She makes a face. "I can't pass up this kind of protection." [22:07] <@Ferrinus> 12Eh, we can probably take an hour out of the crystal. Leaves us with three, and the actual trip's not that long. [22:07] 5 Before moving on, Xu Sim takes the blue jade bracers and, rolling up his voluminous sleeves for a moment (all manner of bric-a-brac fallings out), claps them on before shaking his sleeves back out again. "We don't have much time to delay, if we have to come back through this again. [22:08] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Just an hour, then. Need to cool off at least a bit if we're going to see something like that again." 12Of course, it's quite warm in here despite the hearthstone, but Keldar's probably referring to the fiery glow around his brow. [22:12] 13She strips the armor with brutal efficency and looks for something in the room to put it on behind. "I'm going to change. No peeking." [22:13] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Please. We're professionals." [22:13] 13"Are we?" Xia Lan stops herself from saying. 15[22:17] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger has some difficulty moving through the city now that everyone knows he's an Emissary. How does he react to people demanding recompense for economic distress, telling him about petty crimes, or demanding he intervene on their behalves to set personal wrongs right? [22:17] 14He listens and arbitrates, or schedules hearings. [22:18] 14This is the job, is it not? 15[22:18] <@VoxPVoxD> It could be. 15[22:18] <@VoxPVoxD> He's the Emissary now, and it's his turn to decide what that means. [22:18] 13After a mildly uncomfortable minute, Xia Lan steps back out from behind a statue looking... approximately the same as she did before. "This feels weird." 15[22:18] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Is it because you keep remembering you just took that off a dead person?" [22:18] 13Xia Lan: "Not entirely." [22:19] 14Excellent. Then as each appeal begins, he raises a hand to request silence and says, "Before I start listening, you have a choice." [22:20] 13She makes a face. "Though that is, as you might guess, a pretty big part of why it feels weird." [22:21] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Not like they need it any more." [22:21] "It should be quite sanitary, though we might need to propitiate their ghosts, I suppose." [22:22] 14Their choice is this: first, summary judgment within the Civilities and Dogmas, right here, right now -- with "unlitigatable due to lack of deposition or evidence" a perfectly valid reason for dismissal. Second, a marker given for a scheduled hearing, corresponding to a series of colored straws Stranger carries about with him now: he breaks one end and holds it, then hands the other [22:22] 14to the claimant. Then at the end of the day, he sends a runner to the Council Tower to schedule a public hearing. Third, the complaint is withdrawn for the moment and no judgment is passed. The claimant is free to bring their case again when they are more fully prepared. 15[22:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka, who doesn't want to think about slipping into a dead body's skintight underwear, just shakes his head and eats some trail mix. [22:23] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar frowns as he considers Xu Sim's point, then shrugs to himself and focuses on breathing. [22:23] 14Those who request his justice are advised to choose wisely. [22:23] 13Xia Lan: "The necessity on the part of the already dead is also not why it feels weird," 13she deadpans. 15[22:24] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "You'll probably forget you're wearing it after a while. Like glasses." [22:24] "Just. Do you routinely come across dead bodies and think, oh, I should put on their clothes if I want to be safer? It's weird, is all I'm saying." [22:24] "Also it's not quite as limber as not having it, but you can't really see it. That's the other part." [22:25] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Not for long. You do enough fighting, salvaging, or thieving and it's just sense. Less you're an ancestor cultist, I guess." [22:25] 13She taps her head. "Messes with you." [22:25] "I dunno what kind of outfit you ran with but we always got stuff out of the tombs before we put it on our bodies. That's just sensible." [22:26] 5 Xu Sim is a little surprised, Tsuka must be getting irritated if he's going to quibble with Xia Lan of all people. [22:26] 14Stranger will note, if asked or if the apparent issue seems particularly complex, that if the claimant does choose the first option and Stranger finds he needs time to consult texts or deliberate, he will motion to postpone with no penalty to the claimant and move the case to the front of his docket. But there's no guarantee he won't find it frivilous and dismiss it out of hand -- [22:26] 14and there is no court of appeal. [22:26] 13It's true. Xia Lan is the most agreeable and beautiful member of their raiding squad. To disagree with her is unimaginable. [22:27] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Well, depends what it is. On the battlefield, you snap your spear off in some poor bastard's ribcage, you'll pick your replacement up from wherever you find it and as fast as you can. In a tomb, you find new rations, or a replacement grapple or something..." 15[22:27] <@VoxPVoxD> "Not underwear, though." 15[22:28] <@VoxPVoxD> "You don't find underwear in tombs." [22:28] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "You might well, and if it's the magic kind that'll protect you from the rest of the traps you don't waste any time." 15[22:28] <@VoxPVoxD> "Have you ever put on magic underwear in the middle of a tomb?" [22:29] 14The choices don't take long to lay out -- some three minutes or so, as he has the right to be precise and spare in language -- but hopefully they help cut down on spur-of-the-moment, unconsidered legal action. In a very real way, given the severity of these laws, he is protecting the people of Nexus from themselves. [22:29] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Point of fact, no. But I never put on a magic breastplate in the middle of a tomb, either. Couldn't wear it 'til recently." [22:29] 13Xia Lan: "Regrettably, yes." [22:29] "Not the first time, either, which is the more upsetting point." [22:31] 13Hastily: "Though to be fair last time the person who it came from was alive." 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger finds that most people will prefer the full hearing, though the most impassioned and impatient demand immediate satisfaction. These are the people demanding he intervene in strings of robberies or current business feuds. 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka looks up at Xia Lan. [22:32] 5 Xu Sim sucks in some air through his bared front teeth. [22:33] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "'Magic underwear' is a bit misleading, anyway. I saw that thing before it went invisible or whatever. It was like, whatsit, a shift?" [22:33] 5Offered in the spirit of changing the conversation:"I'm sure I can put something together to launder it effectively when we return. Good as new." [22:34] 13Mostly to her knees instead of facing the room at large: "I would appreciate it, thank you." 15[22:35] <@VoxPVoxD> By way of changing the subject even more, Tsuka points at the image of the city projected on the walls. "Do you recognize this place?" [22:35] "It might be nice to get a little less-" 5 he gestures grandly- "sass, you know, seeing as I keep trying to do nice things for you and you have been really rude to me. Just a thought." [22:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar considers it. Does he? [22:36] 13Flatly: "We're not having this conversation right now." [22:36] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Mmm... not Hollow, is it? Could be a better angle on those rivers..." [22:36] 14The first enterprising and clever arbiter who sees this choice and attempts not to clarify a legal point or invoke a duty under the Civilities but litigate a full complaint in the middle of the street without the other party present will find himself being asked to produce the opposition for arbitration. The first time an arbiter tries to do this by ambushing his unprepared opposite [22:36] 14number over tea, he will find himself administratively censured (A purely internal designation! on his permanent record in the new Office of the Emissary.) and slapped with a postponement At Leisure -- the case will be taken up when the Emissaries have time. [22:37] 13Xia Lan studies it closely, to avoid looking at anyone: "It is! The angle's not great, but everything else matches --" 13She points out the similarities between them. [22:38] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "...oh, yeah. Oh yeah, shit! My favorite street cart's right under that tower, I think. 'cept the top half is blown off, obviously." [22:39] 14As for investigations of robbers, boundary disputes, and other cases of fact finding, Stranger handles them as able. Most simple robbery sprees should be solvable by a Chosen of the Sun with the proper interest and training in short order; he makes a note to see if he can find some go-getters to task from Pellicia's ranks to follow up and handle even simpler matters. [22:41] 5 Xu Sim paces around the room to see if there is any clue to these projections and how they function. [22:45] 13Xia Lan: "Hey, there's CIO's. Or, uh, where it would be?" [22:45] 14This is in addition, of course, to his overhaul of the Nexus judiciary on the whole. If he's clever enough -- and from time to time, Stranger fancies that he is -- he can combine the establishment of an Office of the Emissary and the reform of the judiciary into the same bureaucratic project...answerable directly to the Emissaries of Nexus. [22:46] 14By the time he sits down for lunch, he has already set this process in motion. 15[22:53] <@VoxPVoxD> A small, potato-shaped man wearing half-spectacles toddles up to Stranger and pulls himself into the seat across from him. He's got the plain dark suit of one of the city's bureaucrats. "An update, sir." [22:54] "Ah. Excellent." 14Stranger nods and invites him to sit. One of the fringe good things about treating everyone as an equal is that when an equal disguises himself as a social inferior, you can still treat him as an equal. "Tea?" [22:57] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's ready to move after an hour's time, unless Xu Sim's come up with something earth-shattering. [22:57] 5 Nope. [22:58] 5 Xu Sim keeps his own counsel, for now. [22:58] <@Ferrinus> 12In that case, onward! [22:59] 13Again, a check in on Tsuka. How's he keeping up? 15[23:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Potato man: "Thank you. I've been looking into our merchant friend. Primarily interesting for his banality. A humble man, with a very minor produce trade. Never bothered anyone or broke any rules, as far as I can tell. There is one point of alarm. There are records of both a marriage and a birth to the couple, and records of their residence in the city. I can't find them right now." 15[23:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka seems rattled, but he's got a game face on. 15[23:03] <@VoxPVoxD> He looks like he wants to get out of here. [23:04] 13Well, that makes at least two of us. [23:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's rarin' to go, on the other hand. He looks a little worn out, but then this breastplate's a lot comfier than his articulated plate was and he's got a proper daiklave on him. Bring on whatever's next. [23:06] 13She taps Tsuka's shoulder as he passes near her. "We've got this. Can't be too much longer." [23:06] 14Stranger: "That is now the top priority. I need to work on...larger institutional questions for the next few days, as my predecessor has left me -- us -- a city in litigative chaos. This is constraining my movements...but perhaps also drawing the attention of interested parties. I delegate the inquiry we've previously discussed to you, if you can fit it into your ministerial brief." 15[23:07] <@VoxPVoxD> The yellow road onward gives the illusion of winding ever closer to the city. They can't be more than a hundred yalms outside the high gates between the city's ancient dams when a meteor screams across the sky, lighting up the night and striking that silver spire Keldar's street cart stands in the shadow of. There's a deafening crash and everyone can watch the tower's top half shear off and collapse to the street below. [23:07] 14Stranger: "Oh." [23:07] 13Xia Lan: "Uh." [23:08] "One more thing." [23:08] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "So that's how it went down, eh?" [23:08] 14He sips his tea. "One I take it you know, but I feel the need to reinforce." [23:09] "There will come a time when you, and I, will both be less important than the work. That time has not yet come. Take care of yourself." [23:10] 5 Xu Sim watches the scene in awe. History in action! That must have been a great work of sorcery, or a mighty war engine or something! [23:10] 14As a nod to his cover: "That will be all, I think." [23:12] <@Ferrinus> 12Had to be, Keldar would concur. You can't break old Hollow architecture easily. Hell, you can't break it at all in most cases. 15[23:12] <@VoxPVoxD> The meteor is followed by another, and another. The sky burns day-bright with them, illuminating advancing armies. Titanic beasts and legion upon legion of warriors clash in gouts of flame and torrents of frost with huge jade walking automatons, towering demons, and lattices of light. Sorcery cuts wicked, indiscriminate arcs across the battlefield. [23:13] 13What. [23:14] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "We watchin' the Crusade here?" [23:14] "The tomb was built and sealed long before that." [23:15] 13Xia Lan: "Might've updated for the times." 15[23:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Potato man: "Thank you." He waddles away. [23:17] "I don't think it's sophisticated enough for that. No offense, Voice of the Tomb." [23:17] 14Stranger will settle up a few moments later, and then head for the Council Tower. [23:19] 14He probably hands out three or four more colored straws on his way, too. But soon there will be order in this bureaucratic chaos. 15[23:21] <@VoxPVoxD> "The war began at Calibration, at Meru's feet. By the time it spilled forth from the Isle, treason's heavy hand had broken the Deliberative, broken the host. As the tide turned, the fighting grew more vicious." [23:21] 14When he arrives, he doesn't spare much time for greetings or meandering beyond the quickest boundaries of politeness. He is here to work. Where is this office that governs the Nexus judiciary? What is its formal name? [23:21] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Ah. Right." 15[23:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Clouds obscure the stars above. A hard rain falls, acrid and hot. The rain ruins all it touches, pitting steel, scouring stone, laying flesh to ruin. Everything burns. 15[23:23] <@VoxPVoxD> "Prey and predator both fight for survival." [23:24] 14Those without pressing business for the Emissary would do well to stay out of Stranger's way. He is pleasant enough, and totally unarmed -- but he is also limned in white-gold, and when mortals look at him directly, they can feel rather than see the great looming shadow that is the banner of his true office lurking in his soul. [23:24] 13Xia Lan: "Hey, Keldar? Your tomb sucks." [23:26] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "You kiddin' me? Where else are you gonna find a direct sorcerous record of the Usurpation?" 12Can you see any actual people in the fighting, or is it all siege weapons and war crimes sorcery? [23:27] 13Xia Lan: "Is that even what we're seeing? Anybody could put this up here, and besides, think about the absolute garbage we put up with to get here. Not thrilled about it." [23:29] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "I guess it could just be an artist's interpretation... but it does look cool." 15[23:30] <@VoxPVoxD> There are individual people, but they're hard to make out, in the same way as the cheering crowds in the first chamber and the surrounding armies in the second. [23:30] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Question is, where am I - where's Lados, I guess - in all this?" [23:30] 13Cool? She stiffens, walks away from Keldar, and turns back around without comment. They can have this talk outside. [23:31] "It's heartfelt, whoever made this. Wrote it. The author was hard, and principled. Befitting an 'oathkeeper'." [23:32] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Befitting a fan of the oathkeeper, right? Lados didn't make the place himself. Bit of a paradox if he had." 15[23:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "The last of the Deliberative retreated here, to Hollow. The traitor armies converged here, tasting their victory." [23:32] 13Xia Lan: "Were they one to record even the histories that looked upon them poorly? Because that's always my concern." 15[23:33] <@VoxPVoxD> The road winds, impervious, through the heart of the city as people run screaming through the streets, in fear or fury. [23:33] "I don't think this is a flattering portrayal, to be honest. Think of the last displays, great victories at great cost." [23:33] "Lot of records out there that mysteriously blame literally everything aside from themselves for their misdeeds. 15[23:33] <@VoxPVoxD> Over river, under bridge... the golden dome of the Deliberative rises before them. [23:33] "...true. Still." 13She wishes she had some glasses to adjust. "Trust but verify." [23:34] "Pah, ask Stranger-Visits Heaven about it. I'm sure he'd have something to say about it." 5 The Deliberative. Those fools. [23:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Multicolored light plays across Keldar's face as he walks through the tableau, until at last the warrior is lit gold by the phantom Deliberative. "In we go, then. Keep your guards up." [23:36] 13Don't have to tell Xia Lan twice. Again, though, she checks in on Tsuka. Still seeking to get out as soon as possible? [23:36] 5 Xu Sim laughs, darkly, at the suggestion. [23:36] 5 More darkly than circumstances would otherwise warrant, even for someone like Xu Sim. [23:37] 13...concerning. 15[23:37] <@VoxPVoxD> It seems bigger in the image than it was in person. Keldar would need to stand on tiptoe to even reach the bottom of the cord to pull to ring the door-bell. 15[23:38] <@VoxPVoxD> In the light and the dark, Tsuka's face is twisted with anger. [23:38] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar'll try just pushing the door first. Bell's plan B. 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> Luckily, Keldar doesn't need to open the door. It swings open for him as he approaches, on a face he recognizes. 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom: "It's you! I thought you'd been lost!" [23:39] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "The fuck?" 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> "Tell me you're you. Tell me I'm not staring at a dead man right now." [23:39] 13Xia Lan: "Uh." 15[23:40] <@VoxPVoxD> The voice of the tomb: "More than kin and less than kind." [23:40] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "You're not, but I am. I saw you die, buddy." 12He half-turns from the man he's facing and shouts up at the ceiling of the Tomb. "Fuck are you playing at, voice? Is this supposed to be funny?" 15[23:41] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom: "We've got to mount up. Stranger's sealed the hall, but we can't hold the barricades forever. They're coming in." [23:41] 13Oh, no. [23:41] 13Oh no. [23:42] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar actually reaches out to poke Anilom in the shoulder. He solid? 15[23:43] <@VoxPVoxD> As solid as the Ram was. [23:43] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar sucks a breath in through his teeth. "Cute. Fine. Who's coming in." [23:43] 13Xia Lan has her hands on her weapons but isn't drawing them yet. She's waiting for the word. [23:44] "If you won't stand for your word - or your people - you're nothing," 5 notes Xu Sim, as he looks around. Not his word. Barely his people. 15[23:44] <@VoxPVoxD> Looking past Anilom, Keldar sees soldiers in ancient armor standing spears-up as the great golden doors of the hall thud and thunder before them, a rumbling growl coming from beyond the gate that everyone can feel in their ribcages. [23:45] 5 Xu Sim is distracted and scampering about. Something in here isn't right, though. Something is off. What could it be? Where could it be? Someplace a true reincarnation of Lados would never look? 15[23:45] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar recognizes the soldiers, too. There's Cotton, the quartermaster. There's Pruga, the watch-arrow. There's Neel, the camp cook... this is the entire expedition. [23:47] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar glares at those assembled - then turns to Xia Lan and Xu Sim. "Who do you see?" 15[23:48] <@VoxPVoxD> They see strangers. Small-s. [23:48] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "This guy in front of me, olive, short hair, kinda sweaty? Him at the stewpot, scar down the cheek?" [23:49] 13Xia Lan: "Never seen them before." 13She's careful - who knows what Keldar is seeing. 15[23:49] <@VoxPVoxD> They do match the descriptions Keldar's giving, at any rate. [23:49] "That's accurate, though." 13She hesitates. "I don't..." 15[23:50] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom: "We thought we'd lost you. We thought you'd abandoned us." [23:50] <@Ferrinus> 12A small storm plays across Keldar's face, only to be replaced by a tight grin. "Okay. Okay, fine. Perfectly fair. Gotta make it real, eh? For the end?" [23:50] "Keldar." 13A beat. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." [23:50] 5 Xu Sim strokes his moustache, silently evaluating Keldar. [23:50] "...what do you want us to do?" [23:51] <@Ferrinus> 12Jade scrapes on jade as Keldar draws his daiklave and strides forward, past Anilom and past the line of soldiers. "Well, here I am. Form up - rest of you, behind the Chosen. Ready to break for the interior if this starts going south." 15[23:52] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom, his back to Keldar's back as Keldar walks past him. "But you didn't abandon us." [23:53] <@Ferrinus> 12There's a red blur at Keldar's right side as he spins his borrowed sword one, two, three times in his hand before idly drawing a thumb along the flat of the sword. He takes up position before the shaking door as he does so, planting one foot firmly straight and pushing the other back slightly, to brace. "I never did. Specifics on what's behind there?" 12he calls to his 'men'. 15[23:53] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom: "What's behind there?" 15[23:53] <@VoxPVoxD> The door thunders. A howl rips the air apart. [23:54] 13Keldar. Your tomb sucks ass. [23:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Delayed. Humor me." 15[23:54] <@VoxPVoxD> "What about what's in here, Lados? What about you?" [23:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar half-turns, tip of the daiklave resting on the ground. "Sorry?" 15[23:55] <@VoxPVoxD> "You didn't abandon us, did you?" Anilom's voice grows thick and vicious. "You turned on us." [23:55] 13Oh no. [23:55] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Why'd I do something like that?" 15[23:56] <@VoxPVoxD> "You cut us down because we fought. You cut us down because your word mattered more to you than your kin." 15[23:56] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar remembers having this conversation. He remembers what he said. [23:57] <@Ferrinus> 12Decked out in the leavings of dead dragons, Keldar's illuminated by an eerie light from the door behind him and a few small fires to one side or another. The mainstay of the man's figure is in shadow, but firelight gleams along his daiklave and across his eyes. "I swore." 15[23:57] <@VoxPVoxD> "YOU SWORE TO ME!" [23:57] 5 Xu Sim excuses himself from the conversation if possible, mumbling to himself and looking through the rows of enormous desks. "Red-hot... cold... red-hot... cold..." 15[23:57] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom wrenches his eyes shut. "No. No. Don't- don't SAY anything!" 15[23:58] <@VoxPVoxD> "No more words." [23:58] 13There's a grim look on her face and no hint of any former humor regarding the tomb raids. Xia Lan is ready to draw down. 15[23:58] <@VoxPVoxD> Anilom opens his eyes. They're yellow now. [23:58] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar looked like he was about to say something, but now he just tilts his head slightly. 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> The voice of the tomb: "Any man can keep his word when it suits him. But a true hero knows that his word, above all, marks the righteousness of his soul." 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> The door rattles on its hinges. 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> "Greater than virtue." 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> The door groans. 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> "Greater than blood." 15[00:02] <@VoxPVoxD> The great golden door splits open. The great gray wolf bounds over every man and woman in the room. Anilom, Cotton, Neel, the others... they dissolve into motes of light, surging into the intruder. Their light becomes its light. Their flesh becomes its flesh. 15[00:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "When your heart is tested, hero... how will you fall?" 15[00:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "Have you the will?" 15[00:03] <@VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: The wolf comes home