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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sialia" data-source="post: 804234" data-attributes="member: 1025">Dylrath gives Teliaz The Big IdeaIt was all a little blurry afterwards. Dylrath could never quite recall how the conversation had started, or at what moment he had taken leave of his senses and allowed his mouth to start thinking for him. Sure he’d shared a couple of beers with the guy, but he was sure he’d been sober at the time. He was certain Teliaz was sober--heck, with his immunity to poisons, the poor kid couldn’t help himself.He remembered Teliaz whining about being depressed, abused, miserable, etc. etc. He remembered that Teliaz had said that  . . . had said . . . how did it go? “They want me to mastermind your friends' death. *Everyone* hates them: Yorrine, my Dad, Imbindarla, Orthyss, everyone. They want me to do this and that, here and there. I hate being manipulated.And Dylrath had replied easily enough, "Sounds like a slacker's daydream assignment to me. As long as they're stuck either going to the White Kingdom or getting executed by T'Cri, seems like there's little point in working up a sweat. Hardly worth planning anything grandiose when they can take care of getting themselves killed all by themselves and you can take credit for it.”He remembered a vague and giddy sense of elation at that point, as the flow of words coursed out of him. Jollying. Sympathizing. Per my instructions. Also buying the Defenders some short time to be forewarned. Talking Teliaz into blowing it off as long as possible can’t hurt.It was like a really beautiful aircurrent under the Outgrabe. He remembered abandoning his sense of reality to the entracing music of his own words and hoping against hope that Teliaz would, too. Hey this sort of thing always worked for Nolin, right? And Alix. Alix could do this in his eternal sleep. Why not go for it.  The really big scam is always harder to get caught at than the petty one. Murder one man and get sent to prison. Send troops into battle and be a king."What you need," Dylrath said, "is to get out of your Dad's house. You need your own place. Your own thing.""First of all, you gotta realize by now, he can't be grooming you to take over the family business. There's only room for one God of Murder, and he isn't about to retire and hand you the keys to the shop, is he?  Which means you're gonna be his lackey _forever_. ""Second, his worshippers are mostly losers and if you did knock him off and take over, you'd have to listen to them whining for the rest of eternity. Spare me.""I mean, if you were a god in your own right, you'd be able to grant wishes and stuff, right? So you could wish yourself a suit of less bugrepellent skin and a set of hot babe priestesses, and you'd be all set.""But a god needs worshippers, and some sort of domain that doesn't tread on some other god's turf. And while you're at it, I'd go fishing for a set of worshippers I felt like hanging out with.  People who's petitions were actually interesting."   "If it were me, I'd go grab the franchise for being the God of Suicidal Hobbies. First of all, I don't think there is one already. No, no, not the God of Suicide--yuck--if there's any group of folks more pathetic and whining than murderers, it's got to be suicides. Nah, I'm talking about people who don't wanna die, they just wanna do stuff for fun that has a high probability of getting them killed or maimed. Daredevils.""Think of it this way: I'm careening down a mountain on the Outgrabe, and I hit a rock I wasn't expecting, and what's the first thing I think: "Ohgodohgodohgod!" "And you know I'm not talking to Calphas because you know what he'd say: 'Get off the flying lumber and WALK, you moron.' Calphas, I love him, and I've got this sweetheart deal with him that as long as I stay a worshipper my lungs keep working--but his idea of protecting folks can be kind of stifling, you know? Stay out of trouble is great advice, but you just can't really live that way, you know?” “Anyway, if I were the kind of god who answered that kind of prayer with an improbable survival, just this one last time, I'd have a bucket of worshipers in short order. ""And the great thing is, the longer you keep people alive, the longer they go around worshipping you and converting others and stuff like that. Y'all can always take back your favor if they push it too hard or don't pay their tithes, or whatever."Dylrath took a sip, and thought for a moment. Well, it felt like thinking, had there been any actually thinking invovled."For that matter, the Defenders all know they trip to the White Kingdom is a suicide mission--that's why T'Cri agreed to let them take it on as part of their death sentence. So they're all about to go engage in a suicidal activity.""OK, so it's not a hobby, per se, since most of them are career adventurers, but there might be some flex in your demesnes. I'm not saying you want to do them any favors, but it'd be a hell of a group to have in your debt, wouldn't it? And it would gall your dad no end, I'm sure. ""The point is, you start off with something small, like 'dangerous hobbies' so the other Big Gods don't feel a need to pay too much attention until you get going and wind up the God of Adventurers.  I mean, who's gonna have more powerful worshippers than the God of Adventurers? Sweet."Teliez had looked . . . impressed? Suprised? Interested at least. Dylrath was still talking, so he must still be breathing, so Teliaz couldn't have lost patience with him just yet.Dylrath mused, almost to himself  “. . .probably want to be Neutral at least, so I didn't have to worry about whether folks were being 'true to their ideals' and all that. When you're messing with probabilities, it's probably best to be even handed about who you screw up and who you save--the daring of the stunt is the thing, not why they're doing it. But that's just me. Grandiose moralizing always gets me down."And at last Teliaz interrupted. “You think that could work?”And Dylrath had replied, “It couldn't hurt, could it?”Teliaz looked skeptical.Dylrath felt the twist in the terrain and knew that this was the moment to either shift his weight a bit, or crash into the hill in a truly painful way. Bailing out never crossed his mind. Where was there to bail out to?“I'm just guessing,” he started up again, pouring Teliaz another useless beer, and himself another that made him feel better at least, “a guy with your native gifts, well, poisons don't do much to you, do they?  So getting drunk to drown your sorrows isn't much of an option is it? Or even faery dragon breath? Pity.”“But speed, that's the thing.” “Acceleration isn't a poison, though it'll kill you just as neat. But if it doesn't kill ya' and you stick the landing, whoa, now there's a rush.  There's great cliff diving not far from here. And I knew a barbarian once who liked riding stampeding herd beasts. And a guy from the Theocracy who said they had some deal with ice and long metal runners. Oh yeah--and there was a sailor told me about standing in a dinghy, shooting a harpoon into a leviathan, getting yanked out of the boat and then getting dragged a couple of leagues standing on the wake. ""Ok, I think he was swappin' fibs."" But there's got to be dozens of ways to get there, and a guy like you, well, I'll bet you're pretty damn hard to kill.  So you might as well try out a few things and see what ya like. Kill a few hours, blow off some steam and give your dad a headache. Even if you don't decide to be God of Lethal Amusements, it's bound to be a good time."Teliez stared into his beer in a pensive way. “I suppose. Where would you start?”Dylrath hemmed. “Um.  Someplace with a lot of adventures in it? I dunno. You're the half-God: extend your senses and find a big group of them."Teliez looked up, and to Dylrath’s surprise there was a fiercely interested, and scarily determined glint in his eyes. “ I.. I will! I'll defy my father. I will make my own path!”And then he was gone.Only a creepy echoing voice lingered in the hall. “I will praise you, Dylrath, because I think you've found me my calling. You'll see me again.”“Oh.” Dylrath said. “Calphas and Alianna in a hotspring. What have I done?”</blockquote>

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