The Lighting of the Death


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Kaodi

Hero
Veyk does not look impressed by the pronouncements of his company. " Perhaps you should all wait to demonstrate your talents by ridding these folk of that which is troubling them, instead of puffing up your chests and acting all heroic, " says the changeling. Turning to Bill, he motions and says, " Call you skycoach and let us get this over with. "
 

ajanders

Explorer
"Oi, wotcher!" Bill replies.
A second later he whistles shrilly and waves both hands in the air.

"OI! WILL!"
A battered skytruck bearing the words

MEURIS MOVEMENT

on its side drops out of the traffic and lands lightly in front of you.
"'Ello, 'ello, 'ello!" grins the half-orc driver.
"These are your blokes? Couple o' right toffs in the mix."
"Garn!" Bill retorts.
The half-orc shrugs.
"Lady and gents, step in at no charge. Today you're part of the Brotherhood."
He reaches back and pulls open the back of the truck, revealing rough benches set along the walls.
Bill hoists his box in and sits down.
"Chicken leg?" he offers to all and sundry, as the truck drops back into another level of traffic.
Over the next half-hour, Bill and Will explain a few things about Wrightspire, Middle Wrightspire, and The Benevolent Craftsman, Professionals, and Residents Association of Middle Wrightspire. Actually, Will usually translates for Bill: his accent is better.

Wrightspire is shaped like a mushroom stacked on an upside-down ice-cream cone. It's actually a little shorter than the average height of towers in Sharn. Wrightspire Cap is a moneyed neighborhood especially popular among House members who are looking for a quiet backwater in which to hide from House politics.
Middle Wrightspire has a microclimate odd even by Sharn standards: there's a relatively stable manifest zone just under the Cap through which cold dry air blows. This air tends to stay cold because Middle Wrightspire is always in shade from the Cap. The cold dry air hits the warm wet tropical air in the rest of Sharn and creates a rain front that hangs about Middle Wrightspire. Thus, it's always cooler than Sharn as a whole and almost always raining, drizzling, or foggy.
The cooler temperatures make Middle Wrightspire comfortable for many emigrants from the Northlands, even if the cool comes with rain. Native Sharnians generally find it unpleasant, and property values are low. This makes Middle Wrightspire a haven for foreigners and Sharnians with no other options.
This motley collection has banded together and created the The Benevolent Craftsman, Professionals, and Residents Association of Middle Wrightspire, a sort of cross between a barter collective, civic association, relief society and (Veyk and Jack get the idea) Mafia family.

About three weeks ago people started hearing funny noises...sort of an oooEEEoooEEEoooEEE sound in ascending thirds.
Then the streetlights started disappearing and after that, people started seeing...things.
Talking about the ...things makes Will and Bill very nervous and it seems as if they might need a bit of Diplomacy check to open up about them.
 


ajanders

Explorer
"Roight..." Will says warily.
"Bill 'ere 'as 'ad summat at his chicks -- a wildcat, loike."

Bill shakes his head.
"Nah. Wildcat would kill chicks for meanness, but not eat sixty an more."
"A pack o' wildcats?" Will suggests.
"Wildcats don't go in packs, thickhead. An' we'd see a big enough pack o' wildcats to eat sixty chicks."

Bill bites his lip.
"An' there's a few things I ain't talked about yet. I served me time in the army, I did, an' I saw a lot o' nasty things. This I ain't never seen, an' when I did, I knew it was beyond the likes o' the sherriff. If he cared." Bill punctuates his last sentence by spitting out the cab window and staring moodily into space.

"Will, take us around the back of my house quiet-like an' let us off at the roof. Lisbet doesn't need to see this."
"Bill -" Will says warningly.
"I'm gonna show them." Will tells him firmly. "I'm no scholar like Buntleby, but they read that letter so's I could hear it. He left a thing or two out, even if he did consult all his dictionaries. They'd better see this with their own eyes. Pull 'round."

Will grimaces and taps the phantasmal mounts gently with his whip. The mounts speed up and climb, lifting the cart just out of the stream of traffic to open up a path for more speed.
The skytruck dips gently under a bridge and banks towards the black clouds gathered far distant, under the Cap.
A minute later the skytruck comes in under the shadow of the great grey cap and the party passes from light into darkness. Will takes the truck low and very fast just over the roof-trees, twitching the reins occasionally to keep out of the way of chimney-pots.
The houses here are built like row houses, but with shops or offices on the first floor: most of the buildings are three stories tall, but there are a few four-storied ones.
Will brings the truck to a gentle halt in midair just six inches behind a three-story house with a lean-to on the roof sprouting from its four story neighbor. Crates and barrels are stacked alongside the lean-to.
Reveka smells a damp gust coming, bringing rain. Lightning flashes overhead and thunder echoes DOOM Doom doom.
Bill leaves his box in the truck, but jumps out himself.
"Shhh!!"
"Wait!" Will hisses after him, then pulls a morning star out from under the seat and hands it to Bill. He reaches under the seat again and pulls out a short spear.

"Come on!" Bill hisses urgently, beckoning you out.

Veyk
[sblock]
Bill's white-knuckle grip on the morning star indicates he's pretty spooked. Neither he nor Will look like they want to attack you.
[/sblock]
 



Moggthegob

First Post
Zook leaps out of the Skytruck and pulls out his Crossbow, looking around and listening for anything unusual, specifically he wants to try and glean whether or not the sounds are illusory( and as such is attempting to disbelieve it)
 

pathfinderq1

First Post
Reveka climbed down out of the skytruck a bit slowly- she had rather enjoyed the brief flight. As their "hosts" readied their weapons, she unslung her greatsword and tightened up the straps of her pack, getting ready for battle. "What is it that you have to show us, that we might prepare for it?"
 

ajanders

Explorer
pathfinderq1 said:
Reveka climbed down out of the skytruck a bit slowly- she had rather enjoyed the brief flight. As their "hosts" readied their weapons, she unslung her greatsword and tightened up the straps of her pack, getting ready for battle. "What is it that you have to show us, that we might prepare for it?"

"These aren't for that. These are for the howlers. Not that they'll do much good if they come, seeing as they're already dead, but at least we can die fighting."
Bill shifts aside a few crates and points, averting his gaze.
"There. I've seen it enough."

He is pointing to the body of a chicken imbedded in the board-and-batten wall of the lean-to.
After a moment or two, one wing flutters. Apparently the chicken is still alive.
 

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