(4) Ren'Shan - Adventures on the Elemental Isle (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

"...Maybe we should try moving on. It looks like he wants to pledge his allegiance to us. Maybe he'll follow wherever we go." She purses her lips as she examines the oni, unsure what to do.

If only I knew tongues! Although, in all honesty, I'm not sure this guy even can talk.

"Well, Avernus he won't respond to you if he's accepted Xu as his Lord. Xu must give him leave to stand or respond."

The others, who had been moving but stopped, begin to slump, as if they were melting, but there's no water under them.

others?

The other Oni, the ones that stopped moving when the caster died

Xu looks about with a slight frown and then shrugs, trying to catch the eye of the oni and gesturing to stand.

The oni stands up rapidly upon being given the motion to stand.

Avernus glances from Xu to the oni then back to Xu. "Well. It looks like you've got a puppet."

Xu frowns at the revelation but is unsure of what to do next, So what else whould we do here? Is there anywhere else we should explore?

Well, we still haven't gone down the stairs. And we haven't searched this area."

"Why don't you see if you can put him back in the sarcophagus?"

Xu scrucnches up his face in a combination of confusion and anxiety. He then gestures from the oni to the sarcophagus. Go!

The oni looks from Xu to the sarcophagus several times, and then walks over to it and begins waiting again, turned so he can see Xu.

Avernus watches, plainly puzzled at the oni's strange behavior. "Do we bring it with us?"

"Unless Xu can exhibit more control than he already shows, we may have no choice. Are there any clues in the sarcophagus?"

Zamu saunters over to the sarcophagus to see if there is anything of interest in it.

"Hey, there are some clothes in here. They're rather small even for a small oni! and some weird runes. Anyone recognise this script?"

Omen pokes his head over Zamu's shoulder to take a look. "Wasn't that cloaked troublemaker stuffing goblins into these as we approached?"

"Sure, but these clothes are too small for goblins. So where do they come from?"

Zamu snaps his fingers as a sudden realisation dawns on him,

"What if they were goblin children? that would explain the small size of the clothing. That is truly despicable."

"Children?" Avernus' tone is baldly appalled and the sneer that twists his face quickly matches. "Foul thing deserved worse than he got if he was turning kids into-" he waves at the puppet-like oni Xu has been testing commands with, "these."

"We still don't know what these are, exactly. Or even that he was turning the children. Perhaps he was feeding them to these. Can anyone decipher the runes in the sarcophagus? It is not a script I am familiar with."

Sorry everyone, things have been hectic over the holiday. We confirmed my brother in law tried to commit suicide. He's stable now, and out of ICU and off dialysis. He will, however, be instatutionalized now by the state. He's fighting his med levels, despite trying to commit suicide. So they're not going to let him out anymore. Beyond that, I had to spend most of last week searching for a facility to put my dad in here in Texas (Assisted living, not institution or nursing). So lots of crap going on. Part of my delay is I didn't have time to put up posts for each game, and I didn't want to put up one game and not the others, as I feel awful when I do that. So, tonight is the first chance I've had to work up posts for all my games. Due to the big delay, I'm kind of fast forwarding all my games a bit, in order to get them past the delay my RL stuff imposed.

Ok, the GM still needs to know what you're going to do about the Oni following you, and if you're going to open any of the other sarcophagi or not, or if you're just leaving.

1. Sorry about ALL that stuff in the family. That is SOOOOO much to tackle especially this time of year. Just wanted to voice that. 2. At this point is it he case basically response to gestures but otherwise we cannot seem to truly get it to respond verbally in any language we can muster?

It only understands Oni (Orc), which no one has spoken, if they speak it. But yes, other than that, it only responds to hand signals if they are very simple ones.

Avernus shakes his head at Zamu's question, "It's not a language known by me, I'm afraid." He then looks at the oni blankly following Xu and shakes his head. "Whatever it is or however it came to be, I haven't the heart to put it down. But I'm also at a loss as to what to do besides press onward with it in tow. That, in and of itself, though, also seems less than ideal." He sweeps his eyes over the group and shrugs helplessly, "What should we do?"

Absent any other ideas I think we take it back to our Master.