Aerodus draws his bow and a normal arrow, ready for whatever may come.
Venator absorbs the imagem slowly. He tries to identify if the creature has something like blood on its claws or mouth.
"Hey, get down here!"
Lia moves over to the window where she heard the creature climb outside.
Oh, I hope my pay can cover the cost of the door...
Now that Lia has showed up on the window, he is sure there is no such a problem, aside from the cat-like thing existence. He doesn't take his eyes of it while speaking to the group: "Does anyone know what that is?"
Aerodus glares at the odd creature, trying to see it more clearly and figure out what it is.
|
Jirani
Aerodus
Venator
Lia, Aerodus and Venator all see the creature perched just bellow the window, it hisses at you three menacingly
Lia's eyes widen at the sight of the... creature. What the hell was it, anyway? Lia tries to remember: did she ever hear of such a creature before?
Whatever it was, Lia is convinced it means them harm. She takes a swing with her sword at it.
|
|
Lia
Lia hits the creature with her sword, making a big gash across it, sand not blood flow from the wound, the small creature falls off the ledge onto the ground bellow, it coils around itself wounded and continues to hiss
Jirani shoots up from his chair and runs out the front door, pulling his knife as he goes. What is happening?
Seeing the thing land on the ground, Aerodus draws his bow back, aims, and fires.
Aerodus yells at Jirani. "Nothing much. Just having a party and killing this thing."
Aerodus huffs. He then walks over and yanks his arrow from it's head. "So. Anyone want to tell me what the Hells this thing is? Or rather, was?"
Lia climbs out the window and down to the ground.
She easily makes it down without hurting herself.
"It was some kind of homunculus, I think. Not very well crafted, at any rate. Although what it was doing in there--" She points back at the window she just climbed down from. "--is anyone's guess."
Venator shakes his head sideways. He was clearly unhappy with the attacks, but they were free to do whatever they wanted. He went back inside and upstairs, getting in the room to look after the bell.
Aerodus kneels at the now identified homunculus and examines it.
He turns to Lia. "What info can you get from the corpse? Like who could make it?" After he finds whatever he needs, he heads back to the inn, sheathing his arrow and bow. He stops and turns back to Lia, "See if any of the employees know anything about this. Something's not right here." He then heads to the room it came from. He does his own search.
He asks Venator, "Did you have a problem with how we took care of the homunculus?"
He doesn't even turn to answer to Aerodus. "I still do. You killed it for no reason." But now he turns his gaze to the man. "And don't tell me it was because it was wicked, cause I'll ask you to go buy a mirror." Venator then continues searching for the bell. It came from here, didn't it?
Aerodus rolls his eyes. "Whatever. It was partly due to instinct at this point in my life. Otherwise, yeah, it would have attacked us. Besides, it's not like we could talk to it. If it could talk, then it would have said something. And while you say wicked, I say practical. It was a monster. End of story." He then turns to Venator. "And by the way, I'm Cheliaxian. My soul is already wicked and steeped in sin."
"Oh yes, it would certainly have attacked us. He would have sent his mighty and magic claws flying at us any moment! I'm glad you saved us from that world-threatening menace! But I hope no one ever judges you for a monster. You would not like them getting, say, practical." He focus his gaze on yours. "And there's no sin in this world that cannot be compensated, if you want to. Saying things like that just denounce you don't."
Lia walks back inside after examining the homunculus. She's in time to hear Venator & Aerodus start an argument over it.
"Um... Father, I'd have to agree with Aerodus." She says, stepping forward.
"A homunculus is little more than a tool or an extension of its master's will, with no free will of its own. They're normally used as messengers, servants... and spies." She continues. She looks Venator in the eye.
"When its master dies, a homunculus goes completely insane. It loses what little sense of self it had and becomes a danger to everyone around it. At best, the homunculus Aerodus just slew was likely to hurt--or even kill--innocent people if left unchecked. At worst, it was a spy for some black-hearted mage or other, here for Gods only know why."
"Given the choice between letting a potentially out-of-control creature harm people and letting it live, I had to err on the side of innocents not getting hurt." She finishes.
Explanations...but not much of concrete... The cleric makes a disgusted face.
"Would you like someone to have slain your homunculus just because it did not look like a perfect cat? Were you the master, would you accept that argument from a stranger? 'Hey I just slain your cat because it was potentially dangerous'? Would you treat a homunculus as a simple tool if it were yours? Is the tool evil, or just reflects the master, which, in case, you know is evil? Perhaps you are sure his evil master is dead, then? Or do you know about some black-hearted mage - he pronounces it sarcastically, almost laughing - around? Perchance any reason for such mage to want to spy this place?" He shakes his head again. "Be careful when you play the game of assumptions, lady, cause your premises might lead you to a wrong conclusion... But if you are ok with what you just did, let it be. I'm not your father."
"And if you would ask me, I consider him" - points to Aerodus, whose name he doesn't know - "a potentially out-of-control creature. But please let him be..."
Lia snorts.
"Wow. Holier-than-thou and convinced he knows everything. Tell me then, if you're so smart, you clearly knew the thing wasn't a threat. So, why didn't you do anything to stop us?" The sarcasm in her voice practically burns holes in the floor.
Not bothering to listen to his reply, she turns to the two cooks.
"Excuse me, but there may have been a serious misunderstanding upstairs. There was some sort of homunculus locked up in the bedroom upstairs. Do either of you know who it belonged to?"
Although the woman is probably downstairs now, Venator shows a patient smile, finding it funny the woman just left the room to seek her answers. But he does answer to no one in particular, although probably only Aerodus can hear him. "Because you are free, child."
I hope you are right, kid...
Lia silently hopes that she's right... if she just killed an innocent wizard's familiar...
Nethys' balls... I don't even know if there is a way I can make up for that.
"Er... incidentally..."
She digs around in her coin purse.
"...how much do I owe you for busting the door open? Because that was my fault."
Andando follows and listens to everyone as they debate after the slaying of the Homunculus. Leaning against a wall behind Venator. When Lia goes down to the cooks,
"Homunculi are usually pretty messed up creatures ya know Preacher. Not a construct, a living feeling creation that was forced into an existance as a slave. Pretty dark magic involved in that kinda thing wouldn't ya say, in my mind its a mercy to end something like that." he sighs and begins to follow Lia downstairs.
Flashing a smile over his shoulder he finishes with, "You're right though, people just like to kill, first last and in between. The sooner you accept it the sooner you can get back to praying and savin those that can be."
Aerodus's scowl increases as the Priest debates over killing the homunculus. He then moves around the room some more, searching. "Please. Okay, let's say that it did belong to some mage. If so, then why didn't he take it with him. I may not know much about magic. But even I know that any wizard needs his familiar with him as much as their books. It's pretty much pointless to just leave it here. Then they wouldn't get both the benefits and a partner in combat. And of course you consider me a potentially out of control creature. That's because, for the most part, I can be considered one! Killing is the only thing I have to live for! For survival or for pay! Everything else has been taken away from me! There's nothing!" The whispers in his head return. But he just shakes it off this time around.
|
|
Venator
Lia
Aerodus
While searching the room you see in the distance a man dragging behind him a body towards the inn, you can't quite make the features of either since they're quite far away
"If you say so." Venator takes the bell in two fingers, rings it once to check if the sound matches, then go back downstairs and sit in a bench on the balcony.
Before he headed upstairs, Aerodus took the collar off of the creature.
Understanding that the priest didn't agree with him, Aerodus stays silent. The fact that it looked like someone was caring for the homunculus adds a tad of guilt. Until he sees an odd figure dragging the body. He heads downstairs, stopping by Lia. "We got someone heading to the inn dragging a body. Come with me." He stops outside, leaning on one of the walls. He turns to Lia. "I think the priest may have been right." He holds up the collar. "Someone was caring for it. Do you think I did the right thing?"
Lia, surprised, nods at Aerodus. She follows him, but not before dropping about 20 gold pieces on the bar.
"Sorry about the mess." She says as she follows him.
Lia is silent as Aerodus holds up the collar.
Fluffy...
Her face pales. She swallows.
"I... I'm not sure anymore. From what I remember of homunculi, if it dies, the backlash harms its master greatly... enough to..."
She stops. Her chest is heaving.
OhgodsaboveIthinkIjustkilledaninnocentNethysforgivemeIhadnoideawhatwasgoing tohappen Her thoughts are spinning wildly in her head.
Aerodus's hand lands on Lia's shoulder. "Calm down. We didn't know. If anything, I'm to blame. I killed it. If anything... I'll make it up to them."
Lia closes her eyes. Tears are starting to form in the corners of her eyes, but her breathing is starting to get back under control.
"...I took the first swing, though. I acted without thinking."
She takes a shuddering breath and straightens up.
Aerodus rolls his eyes. However, he looks around before wiping the tears from Lia's eyes. "You were just doing what you felt was right. I mean, it was a somewhat volatile creature in a room in an inn full of people. Plus the window was open. No one can blame you for wanting to protect others. Now, come on, stop crying."
Lia blinks and nods. "Right." She takes a breath, calming down.
She turns to the figure dragging the body. "Well, shall we investigate?"
Aerodus shrugs. "Lead on, magus." He says this with the faintest upward twitch of his lips before they return to the normal frowning expression.
Lia nods and approaches the body-dragging figure.
"Is something wrong, sir?" She asks.
"Lux." She whispers. Her sword begins glowing like a torch.
After being seemingly ignored by those in the room, and realizing that the Preacher wasn't gonna just accept his truth, Andando follows the two down after the anouncement of the approaching people.
Is...is she crying? We don't even know what happened yet. Little green for a magic user.
Walking into the night, Andando stays a few feet back and trys to blend into the surrounding darkness.
Lia's eyes widen. "Oh, no."
She promptly moves to assist the barkeep.
"Who is this? What happened?" She asks. She takes the unconscious man by the legs.
She looks over at Aerodus. "Get the priest. This man needs healing."
Aerodus nods and runs into the bar until he finds Venator. "Priest! We have an injured man outside in need of healing!"
Venator leaps out of the bench and runs toward the direction pointed to him. As the macabre one said, to save the ones you can. His is fantastically fast and gets to the man in no time, kneeling beside him and casting Stabilize. Then he breathes slowly and checks his state, before proceeding with other measures.
Lia starts wringing her hands nervously after she helps the barkeep set the man down.
pleasedon'tbedeadpleasedon'tbedeadpleasedon'tbedead