”I meant where in final city...” she mutters, but still materializes then all at the front gates of civilization.
"How's about the front..."
after materializing
"...gates. ta-ha."
"What would each of you like to do next?"
Corso sets about arranging funeral arrangements for Psymaster: contacting his next of kin as well as setting up a service with whoever was handling that function in the city.
As the well attended funeral is ending, Corso is a approached by a familiar face.
"Bloody good service m'boy." Former Mayor Oscar Henders making his best attempt at sincerity.
"Before you go, there are some gentlemen I'd like you to meet."
He leads you over to a two men dressed in traditional Qadiran clothing.
"Corso, meet Baresh al'Hakam and ...er..."
"Azar Karim Daryush Seyed" says the shorter of the two
"...ah yes" says Henders, already forgotten. He pats you firmly on the back and addresses the Qadirans This is the man I was telling you about. Corso Altaire, the Hero of Taldor. and card-carrying Lastguard!"
"Your exploits are impressive Mr. Altaire" says the taller of the two.
"Corso I've been speaking to these men bout the living situation of our people. As representatives of a large corporation, they would be willing to offer living accommodations for every Taldan refugee for a year free of charge! isn't that wonderful!
the two Qadirans nod respectfully, eyes thoroughly inspecting you.
"And what would you ask in exchange?" asked Corso. It would not do to have saved his people from giant monsters only to have them enslaved by a giant company.
"Nothing beyond you abilities I'm sure..."
The tall one goes on to explain that the business they represent sells food products throughout Final City. You've heard of them and seen their shops/vendors. One of their signature dishes is a particularly pungent roasted lizard on a stick available throughout the city.
They'd like you be the face of their new ad campaign.
The short one unscrolls a lengthy business contract.
Henders seems very pleased with himself.
Corso is not a legal scholar, so he will say "I will be more than happy to sign it, but I want to have someone take a look at it first. I don't like to sign anything without doing so first. I'm sure you understand."
He will then wait to see what the man's reaction is to his proposal.
The man seems only slightly disappointed that you wouldn't sign without reading it, his eyes silently conveying 'ugh...fine." as he hands you the lengthy document. You sense that their motive is purely their own financial gain.
"Fear not Corso m'boy I have read the document thoroughly and this is an offer we simply can't refuse. Think of the women and children suffering on the streets. They look to you." -Henders
"Don't worry Henders. I'm sure everything is on the up-and-up; I just need to make sure. I know that you don't put your name on anything you don't understand."
Accepting the scroll, Corso takes his leave from the others and spends some time looking for a lawyer to look over the document. He is specifically looking for the best lawyer that he can hire to work on this.
Your lawyer reviews the document. Its pretty innocuous. Basically the kind of contrat you would sign for an advertising deal.
You agree to the use of your likeness in print advertisements and merchandise, you agree to do several live appearances at times and places dictated by the company, you agree to allow the company to tell you what to say and what to wear to these public appearances, you agree to be seen eating Hakams Roasted Reptiles in public on several occasions, you agree to continue your association with the Lastguard for at least one year. they agree to provide housing to the remaining Taldan refugees. Henders receives a small finders fee. You acknowledge that actions or words defaming Hakams or Hakams products can lead to renegotiation or terminations of the contract. ETC ETC ETC ETC
Henders continues to try and assure you that its the right call. "Any small sacrifices you can make will help you people tremendously! You'd be serving your people." yadda yadda
What follows over the coming weeks is a string of unpleasant events for you Corso.
One qadiran approaches you with a stack of stickers to adorn your armor. They bear the logo of Hakams Roasted Reptiles and are intended to literally use your body as advertising space. It falls under the apparel clause of the contract.
You are scheduled to appear at several lizard-on-a-stick joints throughout Final City. and given painfully cheesey scripts to follow when interacting with vendors and fellow customers.
'Golly, this roasted reptile has roasted my appetite!'
'These can sustain my energy cause they are sustainabley sourced!'
'I simply MUST have another Hakams Roasted Reptile'
'Oh me? I'm just on another Hakams Roasted Reptile run. I'm picking up a Party Pack for my fellow Lastguard members!'
or feel free to improvise (while expressing the same spirit of the message)
At each of these events you are required to consume at least 51% of a unit of Hakams Roasted Reptile. The charred lizard on a stick is surprisingly stringy and pretty gross.
You and your teammates continue to take down Kaiju when your squad is called upon.
You take down this fellow in a suprizingly complicated underground battle.
This kaiju gives your party some trouble with its constant regenerating armor plating.
this one comes down fairly easily, but THis guy manages to burrow its way past you and into the city. Though once there Ara quickly dispatches it with some Arcanist gobbledygook.
---
Every time you go out to fight you are contractually obligated to bring a lizard-on-a-stick with you to eat during the fight. and when you return home, after your debriefing with Chronoa about the battle, a team of Hakams employees shows up to debreif you as well. Although they care much more about the image you are maintaining and tying your success to the Hakams brand of products.
Meanwhile, the Taldan refugees are better than ever. The Housing units that are leased to them by the Hakam corporation are pretty sweet. They have a distictly Qadiran look to them but overall the accommodations are clean, well maintained and versatile enough to fit the needs of everyone being housed there. People don't have to worry about where they are going to sleep that night, so that gives them an opportunity to start rebuilding. everyone seems grateful, especially Henders.
---
Your fellow Lastguard seem less than grateful. they've all stated their distaste for the fried lizards and you've overhead them talking candidly about you selling out. There are whispers of the other Lastguard squads calling you lizard-boy.
One day, during training on the practice grounds you find yourself walking past the half-orc fighter from Alpha Squad
"grmmm... Why do you do it? Why do you shill for those things?"
Corso delivered his chosen lines with, if not exactly joy, than pretend joy. He was often heard between missions saying "I simply MUST have another Hakams Roasted Reptile!" and "Hakam's Roasted Reptile stand is my favorite stand in the market!".
"Because it's my duty to care for my people. If doing this small thing provides for them, I'm happy to do it."
Corso then brushed past the Half-Orc and continued on his way towards his next location.
"Ta-ha!" Cro nearby swoops down and flutters along side you."Well said Master Corso! I've come to inform you that Mistress Cronoa requests a meeting with you in the Bell Tower. Is now a good time?"
"Of course. Lead the way." Corso moves forward without looking back at the other group.
As you make your way you pass scenes of destruction within the city. Buildings that have collapsed due to the endless march of kaiju. You pass makeshift memorials to loved ones lost in the wreckage. You pass more displaced survivors looking for refuge. Dirty children, desperate people, dire situations.
Cro takes you up the Bell Tower to see Cronoa. This is unusual as your team typically only sees her st the post-kaiju debriefings, when she is mostly focused on gathering information about the monster and your team. When you arrive you also notice one other irregularity. Typically Cronoas imaging devices are displaying kaiju battle images and footage. Today Cronoa seems to be studying citizens of Final City.
"Welcome Corso Altaire"
"What is your relationship to the Hakam corporation?"
"Greetings. I signed a contract to say that I enjoy their product when I at various events, and in exchange they are paying for housing and food for my people. An equitable trade, in my eyes."
"Is it not true that in your youth you fought a war against the Qadirans? And you now have no qualms with allying with them in an endeavor so.... mundane?"
"As long as they don't serve the enemy, and it feeds and houses my people, I don't care who I have to work with."
"Detestable allies are a suitable price for accomplishing your goals. Is that a correct statement?"
"We're pretty much it for Humanity, barring some small pockets of civilization. Old nationalities and hatreds don't really make much sense any more."
"Old nationalities and hatreds don't really make much sense any more."
You hear yourown voiced echoed back to you through Cronoas recording constructs.
"Our understanding of this concept is incomplete. Will you elaborate?"
"Nations are groups of people that come together for a common reason: be it trade, mutual defense, magic, or the religion of a god or particular set of gods. They grow as more people come and join them, until they control large areas of land. They usually, however, do not grow in isolation. They will have neighbors, whether friend or foe; typically this is dictated by scarcity of resources, although once nations reach a certain tipping point, they can themselves become the reason that groups come together."
Corso pauses for a moment, realizing that his father's expenditure of gold on a bevy of tutors may not have been the waste of money he thought it was, before continuing:
"We have before us, however, a situation that has only happened a handful of times in the history of our world: nations, as we know them, have all but ceased to be. In such times, what matters most is survival, or to put it as my father would, 'today's enemies are tomorrow's allies.'"
Cronoa remains with her back to you but grows still.
Cro is also uncharacteristically still.
'today's enemies are tomorrow's allies.'
Cronoas recording constructs sound again echoing your fathers words back to you. Only this time it is not your own voice you hear repeated but the voice of ... your own father! as perfect as your own memory.
"That was nicely done." says Corso by way of compliment.
"Why do you ask these things of me? It should not bother you what any of us do with our downtime, as long as we are not harming your city."
She pulls up a illusory image of your father with you as a child. You remember this. but the point of view isn't yours, its viewed from above, as if from the eyes of a cro.
"I've been observing your plane for quite some time"
"Why? Why would you have been watching me even as a child?"
"Not only you. All inhabitants of this plane. The kaiju needed a suitable receptacle."
Cronoa brings up more images of kaiju destroying various locations around the globe.
"The experiment has yielded much useful information. Your plane has performed its function admirably."
"Do you mean to say you brought these creatures here?"
"Yes"
"This troubles you?"
"Yes" says Corso as he draws his blade.
"I find it very troubling that you decided to murder most of the sentient population of this world. Did you think that anyone who lived here would NOT be troubled by that?"
"Would it help if you knew you were saving most of the sentient population of the Multiverse?"
She goes on into her monologue.
"These creatures come from a cancerous plane of existence. a Plane that spreads and infects all other planes it touches. Their wave of destruction is a threat to the cosmos. They do not eat, they do not sleep, they seek out order and reduce it to chaos."
"These Kaiju could not be sustained by any known ecosystem. Their size and energy attacks alone would require them to metablolize whole worlds, which they do , in a sense. According to my research, they are fueled by what i have dubbed "Chaos Energy" It can take many forms and accounts for the kaijus varying appearences and attack patters. Just as energy must be expended to bring order out of chaos, the energy spent is regained when these kaiju bring their chaos to otherwise ordered systems."
"An unfortunate side effect of this density of Chaos Energy is that when amassed in the quantities found within the kaiju, the borders between planes begin to erode. This happens wherever they are but is greatly exasperated upon their deaths as the Chaos energy within them dissipates. As the Planar Borders erode, other of their kind find their way to new planes and new sources of Chaos Energy repeating the cycle until nothing exists."
"As a Lhaksharut Inevitable, my primary concern is maintaning the borders between planes. I directed the Kaiju toward this plane in order to save all others. While here I formed the Lastguard, you, to kill the kaiju as they came that I can study the effects of Chaos Energy on planar borders and one day find a solution."
"One planes sacrifice to bring salvation to all others is an agreeable price, wouldn't you say? or have your Qadiran companions failed to teach you how to spot a bargain?"
Her mechanical forearm shifts casually into a sword to match your own and your Cro flaps upwards to the rafters where you see several other identical clockwork ravens.
"Will you find the truth as hard to accept as your squadmates?"
"Let me guess, you killed them as well when they discovered the truth?" Corso does not waiver in his intent.
"They are not dead. Killing them would be a waste. but they chose to threaten the integrity of the experiment and have been ... removed for now. Unfortunate, because they were selected for their ability to sympathize with the need for the experiment.
The gunman with his beast of burden. Mistreating a slave because his ends justified the means. I brought him here first.
The Paladin allied with the undead. Forsaking her ideals in order to fulfill higher ideals. Too noble in the end.
The wicked king defending the innocent. I was sure he would understand the value of order in the face of imposed moralities.
And the mage who sold her soul to the devil to achieve the greater good. Unfortunately the metaphor was lost on her.
"and now the man. The Baron who acquiesces to the will of his former enemies in the face of a larger threat. Surely you understand your situation. Help me destroy a world in exchange for preserving the others."
your voice rings out from the Cros overhead.
"An equitable trade, in my eyes"
your statement from only a moment ago.
"That's because you have no skin in the game, as the saying goes."
"No, I will not help you."
Your voice:
"It's my duty to care for my people."
from your brief conversation before coming to the Bell Tower
"Recognize that it is my duty to care for the Multiverse and maintain its ordered existence."
The Cros begin to flap in circles overhead. The walls and floor being to shift like clockwork as well, or maybe that's just your imagination.
"Will you prove a threat to the experiment Altaire?"
"To make you answer for the lives you have taken, yes, I will."
Corso dives at Cronoa sword drawn. She assumes a fighting stance as her flock of Cro's circle the two.
[freeze frame]