Sad. Things were getting very fun.
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Gedeon gave a nod and vanished into the house. He immediately went back to the hidden compartment in the bedroom, took what was in it, and then moved through the rest of the rooms.
"She didn't try to kill us. The thing inside her that hijacked her body did." Gideon said. He didn't sound angry. It was more like he was tired.
Gideon looked sad and frustrated. Above the scarf covering his face his eyes looked a lot like Oleg's. "We could have at least tried to save her. What are we going to tell Oleg? ' His voice suddenly became Karlak's "Sorry your wife's dead. We don't know if we could have gotten the monster out of her throat because we decided it was faster just smash her head. It was safer that way."
"The one I had when we first met was actually Mac here. You just couldn't see it because I was wearing a clown suit." A bit dejected, Gideon tugged on his sleeves, turned his clothes inside out again, and went back to wearing a mask.
Gideon blinked in surprise. "Oh. Right, sorry. No disrespect meant. It's easy to forget who I'm looking like if I don't concentrate on it." Mama Cas' brow's furrowed in thought and melted into the form of Isen. "Gotta pick someone. It's usually easiest if I pick someone close by. This ok?"
"Is it an option just to burn them?" Gideon asked. He was still looking like Mama Cas.
"Whoa there, big guy. I think the idea is to try get the thing out of her neck without killing her." Gideon said.
"But what do you really look like?" "I don't... really remember. I have a vague idea, but every time I try to put my own face on, the features kind of... slide around. It's like trying to remember a dream." Gideon shrugged.
Oleg looked down at himself and then awkwardly looked around at the group. Oleg's feature's began melting into a strange combination of Oleg's and Mama Cas'. The transition was slow and unsettling at first, the expression on Oleg-Cas' face one of discomfort and strain. Then the androgynous combination-person person seemed to give up and slide quickly into a perfect copy of Mama Cas. She sighed, her voice sounding like a copy of Mama Cas' own, but with distinctly different speech patterns. "Not much to tell, really. I can change into people. Sometimes comes in handy, but mostly just causes problems. I can't always control it, which is why I usually keep my face covered. People tend to get mad when they unexpectedly end up talking to themselves. Like... right now... for instance." She tugged on her clothing and it unfolded into Gideon's cloak and scarf, which she proceeded to hide her face with. "I'd really rather skip this whole discussion, but I figure I owe you all some answers so you don't decide I'm a monster too. So go ahead and ask."
From where "Svetlana" had dove behind a horse trough for cover, "Oleg" stood up. He wrinkled his nose at the gruesome scene of Karlak hunched over the remains of Isen. "Well that was gross." he said. Looking over where the body of Svetlana had been dragged he sighed. "Maybe we don't wake this one up? We know the thing inside her lives in the throat, right? Maybe we can get it out?"[/b]
Carter abandoned his pretext and dove for the closest cover.
Well, I've seen people throw themselves on a grenade in games before. That's a first time seeing someone try to eat it.
"Svetlana" looked horrified. She struggled against her bonds. One of her tongues reached out toward Isen, but recoiled when Karlak glared at her. She nodded to Isen reassuringly. "It's alright." she said, pained, sounding like she could barely speak.
I'm enjoying the dichotomy.
With Svetlanna down and Isen unconscious, "Oleg" said "I have an idea." in Gideon's voice. He quickly scraped himself free of the sticky crud. He pointed to Svetlana's body. [b]"Drag that out of sight before he wakes, quick!" With a subtle yank that drew his clothing over his body, suddenly he was a perfect match for the hideous Svetlana. He assumed her position on the ground, as though she had been defeated and captured as well.
"Oleg" made a disgusted face at the strands of sticky bile that spewed over him. He swung against at Svetlana, but his aim was fouled by the vomit-ropes.
A half naked, wounded man who looked like he was barely conscious ran out of the house and swung a morning star at the closest tongue-lashing monster.
Take your time. We aren't going anywhere.
"Sonofa!" Gideon cursed. "Go. Gogogo." He followed the others out of the house, still looking like Oleg.
Inside: "It doesn't wear off. I'll be fine. Get going, ok? We don't know when they'll be back."
Inside the House: Gideon shook his head. "No, they wont." He reached up and grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand and his right shoulder with his left hand, and [i]pulled[/b]. The effect was something like his clothes turning inside out while they were still on his body, like a quick-change artist in a stage magician's show. The transformation took a blink of an eye and when it was over, Gideon was Oleg, right down to the weeping sores on his chest. He winked. [ooc]Using Sleeves of Many Garments to copy Oleg's clothing. Taking 10 on Disguise.
Disguise total: 38
Inside the House: "That's not gonna work." Gideon said when Leo wanted to take the blanket. "They'll notice if the blanket's gone. You'll have to cover him with something else once you get him out."
Inside the House: "Ok, get him out of here." Gideon said. "Be careful with him, but move fast. I'm going to stay here and cover your tracks. Go."
"That'll have to be good enough. You two, come with me. We're going to go get Oleg and get him back here. Move where I move and if we run into anyone play along and let me do the talking." Gideon slipped out back into the night heading toward the house.
"I.. think I have an idea." Gideon said. "We have to move fast though. Which of you is sneaky? I'll need two of you."
Gideon shook his head in frustrated worry. "Might be premature to blame the wife. I mostly just want to get Oleg some help. I'm not a healer. I thought maybe someone with some medical training might be able to tell what's wrong with him."
"Yeah. That's kinda what I'm worried about. Something's not right here, and I'm not super keep on leaving if the one guy we were told might be able to help us is about to turn into some kind of hatchery."
"No. I just let myself in. No one saw me, and if they did, well, they wouldn't have known it was me. Like you said, something seemed off earlier and I thought I'd check on him personally to try to get a better feel for what is going on." Gideon said. "Look, that's not all of it either. There was... something above the door. Like a cocoon or hammock or something. It was organic, but didn't look like anything made by any animal I've ever seen."
Gideon melted out of the dark like he was made of it and gave Szemyan a small wave. "Hey. We have problem. Give me a hand waking everyone up." A few moments later while everyone else was rubbing their eyes and gathering their wits, Gideon said "I went and checked out the house. Oleg is... well, he's doing real bad. Whatever is going on, it doesn't look like any kind of sickness I've ever heard of. It looks more like something has been, I don't know, feeding on him or poisoning him, or something. Maybe both."
GM:
"Aw, hell." Gideon muttered. This was way beyond him. He couldn't do nothing though. He took a long, careful look at the various wounds, their placement and coloration, then pulled the blanket back over Oleg and left.
GM: Yeesh. I'm in the thick of it now, ain't I Gideon thought to himself as he looked around the putrid room.
He gave Oleg a shake. "Hey, pal. How far gone are you? Can you wake up?"
GM: Gideon wasn't optimistic about his climbing skills so he ignored the refuse pile and focused on the house.
GM: Yeah, pretty much all that. Opposite order though.
"I'll take the one before." Gideon said. GM: I'll be doing a little snooping on my watch. My rough plan is to shapeshift into Svetlana's form and go check on Oleg.
"Well, she just met us. She doesn't have much reason to trust us." Gideon shrugged.
"Is it contagious, or is he just feeling his age?"
"Good enough for a start. If you're willing to do some trading, we'll buy some supplies and be on our way." Gideon said. "Oh, and is there anything we can do to help out your husband?"
Gideon shrugged and followed Mama Cas.
"Sick." Gideon said after the man had left. "Not a good start."
As the group had traveled, Gideon had been chatty and entertaining, making frequent jokes and telling humorous legends to pass the time. His knack for voices and animal sounds during his stories was impressive. The jester's outfit had been changed out for a more sensible travel garb with a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face and a hood up, ostensibly to ward off the cold, but after a few days it began to dawn on the group that he seemed to be hiding his face. When they arrived at Oleg's, he slid his Charter over the counter and said "Are you Oleg? We'll need rooms, some basic supplies, and any information that might help us out. I'm Gideon. The rest of our ragtag group of explorers are Andelis, Szemyan, Mac, Karlak, Lemnis, and Cas. We were told you we the guy to talk to around here."
I like how we were all like "yeah yeah yeah. Let's get there." Without any sort of charter or direction lol Murderhobos gonna murderhobo.
Straight to Oleg's is fine with me.
The jester looked like he'd taken a bite of an apple and found half a worm. He coughed to clear his throat and got up to follow the fellow with the thick accent, purposefully taking long strides so the halfling soothsayer would have trouble keeping up. Doesn't mean she's the real deal. Maybe she's just really good at cold readings. Wonder what she'd do if I gave her my hand again but with her own damn palm...
The jester raised an eyebrow at the little woman. He'd seen plenty of cold readings before. He'd even seen a few genuine aura readers and mediums. No telling what version of that gimmick she really had up her sleeve. Not yet at least. "Oh! Do me next!" he grinned.
"I didn't do anything. I'm here to help. I know I look like a bad person, but I'm not." Eyes narrow, and his knuckles crack as he prepares to dodge thrown stones or rotten fruit, as usual on trips to town, but when none comes he visibly relaxes. "What someone looks like and who they really are don't often have anything to do with each other." the jester shrugged.
"If we find it, we will recognize it." the jester said.
The man in the jester costume looked at the talking bird and slowly broke into a wide grin. "Oh, this is going to be fun."
He tapped the tip of his mask's nose. "The bird has a point though. Can you tell us anything about what is going on there? If you want us to succeed, forewarned is forearmed."
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