He finds that people are pretty tight-lipped about their private affairs here, although they are friendly about other things.
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I'm having a dilemma too, in that it doesn't seem like anyone wants to do anything. I'm happy to just RP, maybe if it were at a different speed. I guess I just am looking for more deliberate actions from the party -- or more questions. From my perspective, the only definitive story element I've seen that's not player-driven is the crazy angel, and we don't really have any leads to address that. (Unless I'm missing something.) There's some player-driven stuff going on, but for my PC, there's the constant implication that he'll get mobbed if he is seen in most public places. I'm trying to work around that, and the underground area that we're trying to get to should, I hope, loosen that restriction on him. I've been taking actions to get into that scenario. And more immediately, Li'Omrut has sat down at the table to gamble and try and gather information, so... that's doing something.
I hope your daughter is healthy and safe, Li'omrut! It was relatively low-risk, and she's had two negative tests, so we think she's fine. Thanks!
"Oh... uh - Probably duck or goose, if it's any good.", the woman responds, noting the attempt to change the subiect. "We don't have to talk about it now, but I would very much like to learn more about your plane of origin... at some point."
Li'Omrut downs the vampire's ale and heads down to the parlor after a mumble of thanks. His face lights up at the sight of all the drinking, carousing, gaming, and other acts of organized chaos. He circles the room looking at the different types of games going on, and he gravitates towards any games that look to be more about chance and less about skill. He'll watch for a few minutes trying to learn the rules, and if there's a spot that opens up, he'll take a seat and buy in.
If the demon is winning, he'll start talking to the other players around him that are winning. If he loses, he'll do the same to the other players with no luck. Normal banter about how the night is going, but then he'll ask good-natured questions about what they do to earn the gold they're losing tonight.
I'll be taking my family on a roadtrip over the next couple days. I'll be back on Wednesday. Feel free to bot me. Hi, sorry for the delay. I'm managing a possible Covid-exposure regarding my daughter, and that plus Christmas prep has sucked up my free time. I'll try and update tonight or tomorrow morning.
I'll be taking my family on a roadtrip over the next couple days. I'll be back on Wednesday. Feel free to bot me.
The demon reclines his large frame on the bed. He grins as recalls pleasant memories. "Acavyn went crazy, that's what happened. She got so worried about evil and chaos, that she created her own chaos and drew evil to her like a magnet. The Lords of Hell," Li'Omrut offers a flippant salute, "saw that the time was ripe to capitalize on the in-fighting between the Church and... everyone else, and did what they could to increase our presence in Illistrad. I was part of that surge. I lived countless ages in Hell, and I was very excited to come to a mortal plane and wreak whatever chaos I could. "It didn't go well. It turns out, you mortals aren't all stuffy, inflexible paragons of order, but you had just enough of that that the demonic host could be countered. Again and again. "It was after one such battle that I met my current teacher, a mortal warrior of great skill. He offered to train me, to make me more powerful. I'm sure he thinks that the discipline he's bestowed in me will change me for the 'better,'" (Li'Omrut uses air quotes for that last word.) "But when I've learned all I can, or when I'm slain here and my energy is returned to Hell, I'll be more powerful and more skilled than the common, stupid demons around me, and I will be rewarded and given even more dominance amongst demon-kind. It's pretty much a done deal, at this point. "These pillows are really comfortable. I wonder what sort of feathers they use in these."
Li'Omrut is really only interested in lying low until things blow over. He thinks that the undercity is an interesting place to do that, and he thinks that after a few days he can go back topside and return to the status quo. He's probably wrong on one or both counts, of course. In the meantime, he's sticking around with Tiame and Isabela because they're not part of a mob that's trying to kill him. Their investigation sounds more interesting than sitting in a room waiting for nightfall, but he knows that disguising him is difficult and could just impede things. If a disguise is necessary, I'm fine with him just taking a break and sitting in the inn until night comes and they can attempt to get into the undercity, or until something else interesting happens.
Me myself I think as we have already split as players doing that even more will break the same. So Isabela will wait for night and head out with Li'Omrut and Tiame. Agreed. Normally, Li'omrut doesn't have much issue with the occasional zealot or two accosting him in the street, but he doesn't want another run in with a mob, so he thinks things need to calm down for a few days before he goes back out into he sun.
"Riding in a rickety cart covered in fruit was enough. I'll just stay up here out of sight until it's time to leave. It's not like I'm going to stay in disguise in the undercity. If anyone doesn't like what they see, we can talk it over." The demon holds a clenched fist up in front of his face to show what sort of talking he plans on doing.
Li'Omrut took Isabela's cloak with a resigned shake of his head. He put it around his shoulders and draped the wide hood over his head, but the horns made it sit several inches higher. He looked and felt ridiculous. Once upstairs, he returned the cloak. "Why are we here, again? I thought we were heading to the undercity. But if they have decent food, I can lay about for a day or two."
After Isabella is well out of earshot, Li'Omrut curls his lip and says, "Thought you might," in an affected feminine voice and stalks off to the master bedroom.
"I like that better than your barrel idea. If you can find one, I'll be fine with that."
The tall demon scoffs at the barrel idea. "Just give me directions, and I'll make my own way there," he grouses.
Just a quick note that I'm taking my family camping Sunday through Tuesday, and I won't be checking in. Feel free to bot me.
"As for smuggling Li'Omrut out of the house, we could get a wagon and shove him inside a barrel or something. With your convincing disguises, it might be doable when the streets are almost empty. Who's would check a wagon with some barrels or boxes on it?", Tiame thinks out loud. Li'Omrut snaps his fingers and points. "Hey, find a coffin! That's less likely to be inspected, and I can get out of it quicker if things turn hairy. I bet the undead queen of comedy here knows where to get one."
"What? No. I was just repeating back to you details that you just said." "As for walking about town to meet the others from last night. There was that bit of the plan about laying low and keeping away from the entire city baying for your horns was there not. Mind you in the undercity, they do not so care about who or what you are. So long as you have coin to hid with" Li'Omrut is about to reply with something snarky, but he stops and reconsiders. "This undercity may be a good option."
"Does this dead guy, his wife, or anyone who's lived here have anything at all to do with the angel? Because I think that's the priority right now. No telling when it will be back. And if all this with the guy and his missing heart happened as long ago as you're saying, it seems likely you're too late to do anything about it." He juts his chin at Tiame. "I like your idea of teaming up with the other people the angel is mad at."
Li'Omrut picks up the bottle of wine and swirls it around to see how full it is through the glass. He gives himself a healthy pour and breaks off a chunk of bread. He dunks the bread in the wine and then stuffs the soggy chunk into his mouth. "You said earlier that you drink the blood of the dead," he observes after swallowing. "Where do you go to find dead people? Could you use the guy upstairs?"
"His attention shifts to Li'Omrut. He scans the demon top to bottom. [b]"I keep wondering - how are you going to get out of this house? You're a tall fellow. And the horns don't help." "When the hysteria that the angel has stirred up has had a bit of time to settle down, I'll be fine. I've lived in this city for years, and most people didn't really care. Those few that did -- through a misplaced assumption that a demon automatically means 'enemy' -- wouldn't or couldn't stand up to me, and things will probably stay the same in that regard." Li'Omrut looks from the cat up to Tiame and guffaws. "I haven't done anything wrong! But I've known for years that angels are here because they hate my kind, not because they care about humans. Don't confuse them showing their true colors with anything to do with humans and your faith in them."
Li'Omrut grunted and joined Tiame on her trek to the pantry. As they passed by the corpse, he hooked a thumb at it. "I wouldn't be as creeped out by that thing as much as the reason he has a little girl's room that he keeps. That room doesn't get used."
Claiming the house's master bedroom for himself, Li'Omrut sprawled on the large bed with his arms and legs akimbo and remained in that position as he snored the night away. He wasn't much for reflection, but his first thought when he woke up in the morning was that he probably couldn't go back to his master's estate. At least, not until things blew over. His second thought was that if that angel came after him again, he would probably be better off sticking with the vampire and humans that the angel was also pissed off at. He had his third thought as he joined Isabela and Tiame... "So then, do you have a plan of what we shall do next?" "I do! The plan is called 'breakfast.' "If our esteemed-yet-deceased host doesn't have anything available, perhaps one of you will be up for a run to a nearby market while in disguise."
Li'Omrut gave a chuckle of surprise at finding the corpse, very bloodied and sitting up behind the desk. "Yikes!" Noting that Tiame and Isabela are searching that room and the body pretty thoroughly, the demon moves on. Finding the master bedroom, he silently claimed it for his own, but finding the other bedroom surprised him more than the corpse. Thinking of the smaller chairs in the office, Li'Omrut narrows his eyes suspiciously and snoops around this seemingly little girls room.
He searches the wardrobe and behind the mirror, first.
Li'Omrut gives Isabella a deadpan glance as she claims weakness, but he steps past her and opens the door anyway. Rather than look for any threats, he's looking for which bedroom to claim for his own once they determine there's nobody home.
As he follows Isabella, Li'Omrut talks over his shoulder to Tiame. "So, we're just checking up on your patient, then? If he's not here, are you going to go look for him? If he is here, and he wants us to leave, we can convince him to let us stay for a bit until things blow over."
Tiame walks over to the demon with the runic amulet in her hand, and looks over the wounds. She draws several patterns in the air just above the skin, and the wounds start closing. "Ooh, yeah. That's good stuff." Li'Omrut is very agreeable to entering the house despite it's unknown dangers.
Li'Omrut blinks in surprise at the offer. "That would be better than waiting for them to heal on their own in case the winged crazypants shows up again." Not recognizing Isabela, he looks her over. "What's your story?"
Li'Omrut is fine waiting in the midst of barrels and crates for quite a while. When the sun sets, he finally rouses and sets off to find the house Tiame described to him. When he thinks he's found the house, he enters without knocking.
Hey, leinathan, are you able to tell us if Havengul will be a common locale for this campaign, or is there going to be a point where we more or less leave it behind? If you don't want to say, that's fine. I don't have any specific plans related to this, but it looks like some of the other PCs may.
Li'Omrut chuckles loud enough that he hopes the mob chasing him can hear. He briefly wonders if he would have been able to get over the wall before anyone saw him if he hadn't taken the time to try and break down the door, but he figures it doesn't matter. The wall was the most likely place for him to go in a dead-end alley. Even the yokels chasing him would have figured it out. Coming up on the docks, he sees another chance to gain some distance by leaping to the next pier over. He gives it a shot.
Easily making the leap, he finds a comfy spot in the middle of some stacks of crates and barrels, and lies back to watch the clouds roll by and listen to the sounds of the ships creaking on the waves until evening. He entertains himself by thinking of the dumb looks on the townsmen's faces as they chased after him.
Li'Omrut skids to a halt when he sees the dead end. He curses, but he has to admit that he's chased plenty of targets into alleys like this, so he has can't deny a certain amount of professional appreciation for his situation. Trying to decide between breaking down the door or scaling the wall, he grins. What if he breaks down the door and then clears the wall? If he can be out of sight before the mob sees him, they may see the broken door and think he's gone into the house.
Giving the door a solid kick, he determines that it's too sturdy to take the time for his deception. Over the wall it is, then.
Li'Omrut laughs in glee when he hears that the yokels are on his trail. It's hilarious how this mob thinks it can keep up with someone as fast as he is. And what are they even thinking they'll do if they catch him? Spying his way forward along the street ahead, he considers rolling the wagon towards the crowd behind him (because it would be funny to see them scatter), but then he spots the narrow crack in the wall, and opts for the easier option to gain some distance.
Judging the best way to get his horned head through the gap in the wall, the rest of his body slinks through with barely a scrape. He continues his run, chuckling at the thought of the crowd having to squirm through the wall one at a time or find another way around.
Once he has the house’s location and description, Li’Omrut nods, opens the back door, and sprints out and away from the mob. He’ll take a circuitous route towards the docks, preferring any non-paved or cobbled streets if he can. When he finds the house, he’ll try and find a place to hide nearby, and then enter the house at night.
Sorry if that feels like I reacted too strongly. It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction, but it is how I feel.
Li'Omrut rounds on the vampire, bending over so his eyes are inches from hers. His causal ease with the situation is gone, replaced by a seething anger. "Touch me like that again, and I'll leave you bleeding out in a gutter."
"The house is fine," Li'Omrut says, turning back to Tiame. "But you can't hide me. Tell me where it is and I'll meet you there."
Good luck, GM!
She thinks for just a moment. "Do you have a cape or something? You are kind of tall and ... not hard to point out in the middle of the street. Can we do anything about that? Or should we just put a bucket on your head, or something? We need to move fast." Sitting with his back against the doorframe, Li'Omrut is still tall enough to see over the counter between him and the back door. He taps one of his horns. "It would have to be a big bucket. I'm not the sort of demon that hides very well. But I'm fast and could easily outrun any yokel out there. "Or we can fight."
"No, I don't think I ever spoke to any of your kind." Li'Omrut is about to retort, "Aw, and you decide to start now?" but the woman's next words indicate that she's not taunting or being defensive. "Do you have a name?" "I do. It's 'Li'Omrut.' 'Turmoil' spelled backwards."
Stopping at the entrance to the kitchen, Li'Omrut decides that would be a good place to wait. If they hear any commotion from the front, they can hopefully duck out the back. Or vice versa. He looks around at the kitchen and then at Tiame. "I already ate."
"You are beaten up. Touch me, and you will spend the rest of your life as a millipede. A small one" Once through the door, Li'Omrut barks a laugh at Tiame's threat. "You don't talk to many demons, huh? "Anyway, don't start flaunting how you didn't take any wounds in a fight. It's not a good look." With the griffon-rider staying outside, and everyone else leaving, it looks to Li'Omrut that Tiame is the only person coming with him to take refuge. He tries to go deeper into the building. When he sees a servant, he'll accost them to ask where any backdoors are.
Li'Omrut turns and looks at any of the others that fought the angel with him who still remain. "Come on." He heads through the indicated door.
Li'Omrut takes a step closer. "Uh, the angel came here, and only attacked me when I arrived to stop it from doing more then just ruining your shoddy door. Besides, there's nowhere to go except here! You can let us in before that mob gets here, or you can keep us waiting here talking to you until it shows up. "I'm not going anywhere else."
Li'Omrut walks over to the door to the merchant's consortium and bangs on it with his fist. "It's me! The angel is defeated! Open up! Hurry!"
While Li'Omrut submits to Eliana tending his wounds, he looks over at Karthan. "I've been in this city for two* years! You've had all this time to try and attack me, but now that a violently insane angel has come along, you suddenly want to do raise up arms against me? "That's what they call..." Li'Omrut pauses to snap his fingers a few times as he tries to recall something. "Oh, yeah! They call that 'blaming the victim.'" *
Li'Omrut meets Eliana's eyes as she scanned him, looking for something that the eye can't see. "Got what you need?"
"Aha ha ha ha owwww," Li'Omrut's laughter is interrupted as the pain from where the angel burned and cut him finally makes itself known. "Heh heh. She ran away."
There are no PC angels, and yeah, angels in the world will use stats from the Monster Manual. I think NPC vampires and demons are going to be dhampir and tieflings with class levels And werewolves are skinwalkers. I forgot there were no angle PCs. Thanks.
No offense, Isabela and Li'Omrut. But you ARE a vampire and a demon. No, I get it. I'd be jealous, too.
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