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Yukarii was pleased that the fighting was over and said, "Thank you Yukaari-chan, you can return now," and with that she recalled Yukaari into her mind. Yukarii began to move around and look over what they had retrieved and noted several mogical items recovered. With only one set of potions un-identified she cast a spell and looked them over herself to see if she could figure otu what they were.
After checking over the potions Yukarii said, "It may be smart to leave quickly, I am sure the port authorities are wondering why there was a sudden fight so close to the docks and would like to detain us for questioning on charges of piracy."
Xindyra thanks Ferian for the healing, it is very welcome.
"Quite the sneaky guy, that one."
She dusts herself off, and does a short inspection for any indication of affiliation, if any.
Edwin joined in the discussion, "I'm inclined to agree with Yukarii. If we want to avoid legal complications and lengthy delays, immediate departure seems advisable."
You're likely correct, but we're kind of stuck in a bad spot here. We had to act to stop an imminent threat, but we're placed in a position where our prisoners are the only possible backup to our story or evidence we have of being in the right. I just want to look over the ship first to see if there is anything else that could help. I'm confident that we did the right thing, but if we run now, do we look like heroes or pirates?
A second more thorough search reveals again no personal ID on any of the dead or the prisoners. The only thing you find, hidden under a loose insole is a piece of card with a strange picture of a circle with what might be four wing like arms. You get the impression whoever these people are they don't want to be identified.
The man who surrendered mutters something you don't quite catch under his breath.
Ferian finds himself mostly agreeing with his companions who want to leave with haste, but he suggests, "Perhaps we should leave a note? Professor Munroe, do you have some sort of seal or insignia you could place at the bottom? At least some form of communication would probably be good in the event we ever have to return or give an explanation for our actions."
Zendara studies the insignia, trying to determine if she recognizes any of the iconography.
She can't identify it, but is at least glad that they found something... perhaps someone else will be able to use this to identify the group. In fact, she asks the professors if they have seen anything like this before.
Fearing that the man who surrendered is planning to do harm to himself, Zendara ties him up.
She then talks to him, trying to calm him down.
You're looking for redemption? If you tell me what was going on here, and who was behind it, I will do my best to help you.
Realizing that she isn't getting through, she looks around to the group to see if someone else can help.
With the search of the prisoners done and the muttering of the survivor Yukarii turned her focus to the card that had been found with the symbol on it.
It was a curious design, one that was vaguely familiar, if only she could remember what it was. It would help if he would stop muttering and distracting my train of thought, she thought, I can't think with all that mental turmoil coming from him!
Yukarii finally picked up on what the prisoner was saying about his "only chance at redemption" and realized that was not going to end well for him or them. Yukarii decided that she needed to quiet the man so that she could remember what the symbol meant and so turned to him and approached slowly.
We should boff him, Yukaari whispered to her, right here and now in front of everyone.
Yukarii thought back, No Yukaari, we will not be doing that. Her thoughts tinged with amusement and continued, but I think we can let him think we will.
Yukarii walked to the downed man and adjusted the front of her dress to expose more of her cleavage and knelt before the downed man. "I know what you are thinking sir, that you will be redeemed if you do what you are trying to make yourself do." She smiled and moved a bit closer leaning forward to place her hands on the floor and lean her face closer, "but would it not be better to survive? Redemption in that way is such a shallow thing, not nearly as pleasant as you might think it is." She sat up slightly, straddling his legs with her knees, "If you tell us I can make things very pleasurable for you."
Dr Munroe scanned the area looking for any signs of an official response, not seeing any yet he replied, "We we should definitely report this. I think we could drop a letter off or if you really want to go now there's the ship has a quill of automatic writing. We've got to figure out what to do with him, I don't really want him aboard." He pointed at the surrendered sailor.
The man's eyes grew wide as Yukarii straddled him and he cried, "Temptress!" as he suddenly bucked away from her.
<--- YES
Yukarii was momentarily thrown by this extreme reaction. Still on his knees he fumbled at his belt and part of the buckle came away revealing a thin needle like spike coiled like a corkscrew. With a wordless cry he rammed it into the meat of his left bicep wincing at the pain. Grinning at her triamphantly he shouted, "It is done, oblivion calls!"
The man is quickly restrained again and starts to look rather pale.
Professor Dexter snatched up the strange implement now red with the man's blood. With a rag she wiped it off before handing it to Dr Munroe and then she suddenly stopped down to check one of the belts on a corpse. She fiddles with it for a few moments before muttering, "Ah!" She twisted it and suddenly another identical corkscrew like needle was visible with a spec of something dark green on its tip.
She eyed it before saying, "Some kind of poison, there's no telling how quickly it acts. If we want anything from him, we need to act now. Ideally getting him to a cleric."
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Heinrich was visiting a new town where he heard tell of a tall swarthy man whose entrance to the town a few days before had caused a public sensation. The man was a kind of itinerant showman or lecturer who held forth in public halls and aroused widespread fear and discussion with his exhibitions. These exhibitions consisted of two parts – first, a horrible – possibly prophetic – enchanted slide show; and later some extraordinary experiments with scientific and electrical apparatus.
A half blind seerwoman, the kind who read palms for a few coppers everywhere grabbed hold of Heinrich's hand as he heard of this showman and beseeched him to turn away. As a rational man of Science, Heinrich angrily demurred and turned to the throngs of men plodding through the night, all whispering affrightedly and bound in one direction. He fell in with them, afraid yet eager to see and hear the great, the obscure, the unutterable Nyarlathotep.
In a later entry Heinrich tried to describe what he witnessed but failed admitting 'I find myself unable to articulate the scene layed out for us by Nyarlathotep. It was horrible beyond anything you can imagine — but wonderful. His words haunts one for hours afterward. Even a day later I am still shuddering at what he showed.'
The following diary entries became increasingly chaotic as Heinrich's world buckled around him amidst whispers of revolution and war. In the end Heinrich found himself a drone amongst a multitude of other followers, an army blindly enacting their masters will as they conquered town after town, putting all resistance to the flame.
All in all a strange story, without the usual structure followed by the other folk tales. At the time you discounted it as nonsense but you remember the woodden block print of Nylarthotep's card bearing the same strange shape found on the dead sailor.
If so..
Edwin tried his best to limit the spread of the poison.
Zendara removes the belt from the wounded and unconscious prisoner, hoping to prevent him from doing something similar.
She responds to Doctor Munroe
If we aren't taking the prisoners aboard then we should go find a physician immediately, and find a member of the watch on the way.
Edwin tries to draw the venom out to little effect other than distressing the prisoner.
Dr Munroe nodded, "There should be several healers on duty in the port building."
Turning to the dwarfen ship master he said, "Braenar can we disengage those grapples quickly or do we have to haul this ship over with us?"
Braenar replied, "Aye there's another command word ta make the ropes unlash from the grapple heads... I'll tell ye what it is an then we can ferry this lot over to da watch."
He glanced around to see if folks agree with this plan.
No knowing unless we try. We've no other leads. :)
Xindyra thinks for a moment, marking off possible options connected to these symptoms. One dawns to her as plausible suspect.
"Say, there is this venom called cone snail venom, that causes symptoms like these. I recall drinking a very strong tea made from the digitalis flowers, foxgloves also called, is a potent counter agent."
"I noticed some growing on the outskirts of the city, but if we do that, it will be a 50/50, probably, if he is still alive by the time we can have him drink the tea."
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Ferian looks with concern at the self-poisoned man.
He nods at Braenar and says, "If that's the quickest way to get this man aid, then I think that's our best course of action. It was one thing to leave him tied up here for the authorities to deal with, it would be quite another to just let him die without trying to save him."
To Xindyra, he says, "50/50 is better than the man's current odds. If we can get him to the healers, do you think you could find the flowers again? It might be his only chance."
"I think so. Having another person along to help gather them would be nice, though. Safer too."
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Yukarii was not surprised what the man did. He was a fanatic and fanatics were inherently unreasonable. Still her efforts had been worth a try. While the others decided what to do with him Yukarii began to think through what she knew of that symbol when it struck her. She remembered the story of the symbol and looked to the others as she said, "I remember what that symbol is. When we are done treating this one," she gestures to the cultist, "I will tell you the story."
<--- PASS
Zendara agrees with Ferian and Braenar that they should get the prisoners some help.
Since travel time between here and there is less than a minute , she adds
Perhaps after getting them help and letting people off to report the incident you could come back for Xindyra and the flowers she is trying to find. I will go with her to guard her back. If she finds some, we may be able to help him even more.
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Edwin cast a spell, telling everyone, "I'll keep watch. This spell will let me communicate with you, as long as you're not too far away."
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Ferian nods at Zendara's suggestion and says, "Yes. I'll help get them to the healers then come back for you. Hopefully the flower won't be too difficult to find."
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Edwin casts his spell and Xindrya and Zendara cross over to the other ship and disembark on the far side.
Meanwhile Dr Munroe and Prof Dexter use the new command words to instruct the grapple ropes to untie, freeing the Dawntreader. Braenar then guns the throttle causing the electric motors to whine for a moment as they drive fans which propel you across the gap. He deftly brings the airship to a halt alongside a mooring point close to the main port building and the prisoners and the dead are offloaded. A port official darts out of the building to enquire what you're doing, notes the bodies and rushes back inside for backup.
Ferian and Dr Munroe disembark and rush after the official hoping to get medical aid. Professor Dexter also disembarks to keep watch over the prisoners.
Once everyone was off Braenar directed Edwin, who was staying to help with communications, to untie the mooring ropes. That done, the Dawntreader nimbly took off towards the far bank where Xindrya was searching for Foxgloves. It took ten minutes to finally track some down, but she found a good patch of them, all with bright pink and white flowers. She cut these with a pocket knife and re-boarded the Dawnthreader which whisked her and Zendara over to the other side.
They landed to find a large watch detail waiting for them and there was a tense moment where it looked like they where going to get arrested. However there was a commotion from inside the port building where heavily armed soldiers in real Merchant League Navy uniform appeared. Their commander a woman in gleaming field plate with, short raven black hair, a midnight blue cloak trimmed in silver and an ornate bastard sword said something to the watch who stepped back. She then turned to you, "Greetings I am Colonel Ivonava of the 5th Dragoons. It seems we may be in your debt, I hear you where searching for an antidote, where you successful?"
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Xindyra quickly gathered as good an amount of the flowers as she deemed needed. While the ship flew back, she already started cutting the leaves into fine pieces.
Once back ashore....
"Greetings colonel. We have indeed found the antidote, but time will tell if we can administer it in time. We require hot water to make the tea."
Zendara is relieved that she doesn't have to shoot anyone, and also impressed by the beautiful Colonel, but she says nothing to slow down the process of getting the cure made.
"Excellent!" replied Ivonova, and in short order a copper urn was set up above a fire, filled with spring water. Xindyra threw in a handful of the harvested flowers and waited as they stewed.
The sailor who had poisoned himself was brought forwards looking deathly pale with shallow rapid breathing and an irregular pulse. He could no longer stand on his own and had to be supported by a pair of burly soldiers. The tea was decanted and allowed to cool for a few minutes, and force fed to man who struggled weakly. Some of it dribbled over his clothes but most was swallowed.
Then it was a matter of waiting. The other prisoner had been attended by one of the Ports duty healers and was being roused although he was still too groggy to be questioned.
A pair of soldiers enter from the dock side and whisper into Colonel Ivonova's ear. She listens in silence before addressing you, "I've just had a report on that monstrous ballista, it seems it was enchanted as well as the bolts with the purpose of shattering Lift Crystals. If it had struck the Imperial Cutter it would have consigning it to the depths with all hands. Of course The Kez would have used that as a pretext for war. As you can imagine I'm very curious to find out who our mysterious sailors are and who sent them and how they got such a weapon. They look like pirates in bad imitation Merchant League fatigues but that's far too convenient for my liking. Did you witness anything that might she'd light on their origin?"
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Zendara steps forward to address the colonel.
That was pretty much our estimation too, but we did find this scrap of paper with an interesting icon. Some kind of insignia perhaps?
She shows her the piece of card with a strange picture of a circle with what might be four wing like arms.
They also appear to be somewhat fanatical, being willing to kill themselves for the cause, but, uh, you probably knew that part already...
Zendara finds herself a bit flustered, and tries to breathe slowly and remain calm.
Ferian is curious to learn if the colonel knows anything about the strange symbol or who it might indicate the sailors were working for. Hearing her mention the purpose of the ballista, he's even more grateful they decided to intervene.
Colonel Ivonova studies the strange symbol and frowns, "Doesn't mean anything to me. Let's see if the spook recognizes it." She turns and bellows, "Mathers!" A slim mousy looking soldier with close cropped blond hair and a clipboard darted to the Colonel's side and he examined the card.
Mathers ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "Doomsday cultists Ma'am. This lot it seems worship an outer god called Nylarthotep. Bad news that one, pops up a weed."
With a deep sigh the colonel replied, "Great... That's all we need with The Kez here. Could there be another cell?"
Mathers shrugged, "Hard to say Ma'am, it possible."
"Ok then, we'd best prepare for the worst. Start putting some feelers out and get a message to central, we're going to need the diviner.
Turning to you Colonel Ivonova said, "All right we can take this from here, you are free to go but do me a favour and keep this quiet at least until The Kez have gone. Ok?"
Zendara nods in agreement, a little stung at being dismissed, but knowing that feeling that way was unreasonable.
She retreats back to the group.
So, what now friends? Are we finally ready to be off on our adventure?
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Edwin was glad to be free of the entanglement in local events. "Yes, now we can finally depart for the archipelago!"
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“I, for one, am definitely ready to depart,” Ferian replies to Zendara’s question. “The colonel has given us permission to leave. I think we should do so lest she change her mind or anyone else decides they want to ask us questions.”
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Yukarii had stayed behind at the ship in case further trouble occurred while most of the others went to find the cure for the cultist's poisoning and report to the authoraties what had happened. She thought through what she remembered about the symbol, and the horrors that accompanied it, so that she could explain it properly when the others returned.
As she saw Xindyra, Ferian, and Zendara return Yukarii waited until they were aboard and said, "We need to have Dexter-sensei and Monroe-sensei join us. I have information about the symbol that might be important."
Nylarthotep? Wait, i'm quite sure i've seen that name in the occult section of that one library some time ago.
is unusual among the Outer Gods in that he seems to enjoy toying with and causing discord among mortal races, rather than leaving this to his cultists. Scholars of the Dark Tapestry believe that Nyarlathotep himself is the prime mover in preparing countless worlds for the devastating return of the Great Old Ones, nudging events along in subtle ways to encourage various apocalyptic ends. Some sources whisper that it was Nylarthotep's advice which lead to the sundering of Oberon yet others pour scorn on such thoughts.
Back on the airship a consignment of dried food is being loaded as you have a readiness conference in the mess hall. Large enough to seat twenty people on two long tables in relative comfort, the hall was bright and clean although the decor could best be described as functional.
Dr Munroe had just finished speaking about the provisions which he said should last comfortably till the free port. Braenar then spoke up, "The repairs to the ship's lift crystal enclosure looks right professional. Everything else checks out. I think we're good to go, so any last minute considerations or should we set off?"
Mariam spoke up next saying, "I think we should debrief about about those cultists and think about the general situation. It looked like they want to start a war, fortunately we stopped them today but situation with The Kez is a powdercake ready to explode. We should prepare ourselves for the prospect of hostilities breaking out while we are away."
Zendara sits attentively, eager to hear what Yukarii and everyone else had to say, so she could piece everything together in her mind.
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Xindyra shares what little knowledge she has.
(see spoiler)
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Ferian listens closes to Xindyra's recounting of what she knows. Slowly shaking his head, he says, "If some sort of apocalypse cult is behind all this, it's likely more than we can handle right now. Maybe it's best that we'll be away for a bit. Who knows? Now that the colonel is aware of the attempt to start a war, perhaps such a thing can be forestalled a bit longer. At least till we have time to do some proper exploration."
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Once everyone had gathered Yukarii met each person's eyes before she began. "When I was a child I found a very old book hidden in the eves of itoko barn. The pages were yellowed and brittle and as I unwrapped it several..." she paused as she looked for the right word. After a moment she shrugged and said, "hōkai s~+&a at my touch. Still there was plenty left to read, the book was a collection of folk lore and other scary tales. One story stuck in my mind, an shasetsu collection of diary entries written by one Heinrich Agrippa who fancied himself as something of an educated man of science." Despite her occasional hesitation Yukarii's voice was steady and it was likely the most any of them had ever heard her say at once.
Yukarii sat forward in her chair slightly, her hadns resting in her lap as she continued her story, "Heinrich was visiting a new town where he heard tell of a tall swarthy man whose entrance to the town a few days before had caused a public sensation. The man was a kind of...junkai shōman or lecturer who spoke in public halls and spread fear and talk with his nokia. These nokia had two parts – first, a horrible – possibly yogen – enchanted...suraidoshō; and later some namihazureta examples with scientific and electrical apparatus."
Yukarii's voice had taken on the lilting tones of a story tellerby now as she wove the tale of what she had read, "A half blind miko, the kind who read palms for a few coppers everywhere grabbed hold of Heinrich's hand as he heard of this showman and begged him to turn away. As a rational man of Science, Heinrich angrily refused and turned to the throngs of men plodding through the night, all whispering scared and bound in one direction. He fell in with them, afraid yet eager to see and hear the great, the obscure, the hatsugen dekinai Nyarlathotep." Yukarii shuddered at the spoken name of Nyarlathotep, the movement causing distracting things happening as her body jiggled.
"In a later entry Heinrich tried to tell what he witnessed but failed saying 'I find myself unable to meikaku ni suru the scene layed out for us by Nyarlathotep. It was horrible beyond anything you can imagine — but wonderful." Yukarii continued, "His words haunt one for hours afterward. Even a day later I am still shuddering at what he showed.'"
Yukarii paused a moment and said, "I am sorry for using words you may not know, I do not know how to say them in your language." She shifted slightly and crossed her knees then continued the story, "The following diary entries became increasingly chaotic as Heinrich's world fell apart around him while whispers of revolution and war began. In the end Heinrich found himself a drone among many of other followers, an army blindly enacting their masters will as they conquered town after town, putting all resistance to the flame."
Yukarii took a moment before she said anything more and then continued, "It was a strange story, without the usual structure followed by the other folk tales. At the time I thought it was nonsense but I remember the wooden block print of Nylarthotep's card. It had the same strange shape found on the dead sailor."
Yikes, creepy. I mean, I think we knew there was a lot of badness involved after seeing those fake-pirates willing to commit suicide for him, but still. Sounds like something to stay well away from.
Addressing Mariam she says I kind of agree with Ferian. Unless there is anything else we can do in the short-term, I think we should get going. We can't single-handedly stop a war. ... Well, I mean I guess we just did, but it is unreasonable to assume that we could be in the right place at the right time like that every time. By preparing ourselves do you mean extra supplies, or ... mentally preparing?
____
After getting underway, Zendara asks if she has any messages through the automatic writing thingamajig from Sheldon... which could give them insight into what is going on back home.