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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paka" data-source="post: 430813" data-attributes="member: 100">Meeting with Gorog Recedes met Gorog in front of a small manor built on the wall of the Witch-King's Keep. She parked her cart in the street. He had one of his pole-arms but a segment had been taken off so that it would be handier indoors. He extended his hand for shaking, "I am Gorog, my name is the same forwards as it is backwards. This means I am no stranger to telling truths." She shook his hand, "I am Recedes Python, you may call me Red." "There is an escaped slave within that house. She had a Witch's Collar to stop her from consorting with Devils but she has found a way to take it off. We must go in and take her to the Witch-King." "What is a Witch's Collar?" Red asked, unfamiliar with their making. "It is a collar that prevents Sorcerers from using their craft. They are nigh impossible to take off." (Ripped shamelessly right out of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Books.) "Well, how impossible can they be to take off if she took it off?" (Then they argued for about ten minutes, about whether or not there was a door behind the house from which she might've escaped, if she had summoned a monster, etc., etc. Actually, and VERY oddly, it was kinda cute.) Recedes took a moment and went to her cart, touched the Anvil and spoke with her Demon. When Gorog asked what she was doing she answered that she was looking for something. "Gods, woman! We have work to do unless you want me to fetch a Magistrate and have you put in the stocks for your crime. This is why there are not women in the slavery business!" Recedes responded quickly, "One moment, fool! I am looking for something to aid us with the girl's Sorcery. There are women in slavery, fool, they're called slaves. Don't get me started right now." The Anvil of Doom enhanced her Lore and she could tell from here that the escaped slave was summoning a creature, the manor's Hearth Spirit. The Anvil gave Recedes a manacle to put on the Spirit if she could bind her. Holding up the manacle Recedes said, "Found it, let's go in." An Atlantean in the Lemurian Court  As Fosalas entered the Keep he noted the whores on one side of the gate and the pigs on the other. The Pig-Farmer's wife was calling out to her husband, looking for him in vain. The whores were surrounded by guards in their rhinok hide skirts and breast-plates as a magistrate let them know that they were now property of the Witch-King. Disgusted, Fosalas told the nearest servant that he was a friend of Janus, the recently widowed and that he was to meet her here. Quickly and politely he was taken through the maze halls and put in a comfortable room with pleasing human slaves, fresh water and even grapes. Not able to figure out how the room was lit, the Wizard-Scientist sat and waited. Where Left Turns Lead  Tsunami turned the corner and found an opulent room, far finer than the hard, stone room he was left to wait in with his motley company. The Spider ambassador spit a curse and Fosalas looked up from a bowl of water. They quickly discussed their days, Tsunami convinced that the Witch-King wanted him dead and Fosalas relating his unfortunate student. As they talked the Keep's Seneschal with five black rings tattooed over his heart (which a successful Lore role told Fosalas that the tattoos were rank and concerned how many Demons the Witches and Warlocks of Lemuria had bound to them). The seneschal related calmly that no harm would befall a friend of a friend of Lady Janus and they were all welcome to meet the Witch-King if they wished it. Wary, they followed. Bento tried to keep track of the windy paths they took but could not keep them in his head. His master, Tsunami had better luck and knew that he could at least figure out how to return to the plush waiting room from the parlor they were now entering. Escaped Atlantean  Gorog and Recedes entered the manor to find a servant dead on the floor, throat slit. Noises were coming from up the stairs, where the master bedroom was located. They found an exotic bird of some kind, a pet, impaled against the wall with arcane runes around it. They could hear the Binding ritual that the slave was attempting as the Hearth Spirit coalesced and asked, "Who summons me?" Recedes spoke up, "I do." The slave, Fosalas' former student, was stunned, blood covered her up to her elbows, "I summon you, fair Hearth Spirit. I summon you with the blood of those who profane your halls." "No, she is an escaped slave. She cannot offer you any home or any fine places. She has no home. She is property." At this point they made conflicting Lore rolls and I gave Brandy a heinous bonus for her cleverness. She beat the Atlantean just as Gorog clicked a Witch's Collar around her neck. The Spirit related that she was indeed the spirit of this house. She appeared to be a beautiful woman with long brown hair and fine robes, matching the white walls of the house with some blood stains on them. She told her "summoner" that she wanted to offer guidance to any who could offer her spirit a place to reside, wishing to solidify and ward a home or place, especially with a family. Scowling at the idea of a family, Recedes told the Hearth Spirit taht she had a place for her, a nice place that moved. She would get to see many different places all over the world if she would be bound to her. Pleased with that idea, the Hearth Spirit accepted Recedes' offer. Red offered the Spirit a token, a bracelet token to show their binding. As it clicked down on her wrist, Recedes said, "You should've never trusted me. I lie." Humanity (called Heroism) CHECK! She failed. I told her that lying and enslaving isn't enough but catching one slave and enslaving a noble Hearth Spirit is just too effed up and demanded a check. The Spirit was taken outside to the cold Anvil and rickety cart that was now her home. Nexus Point in the Witch-King's Parlor  The Witch-King sat on some cushions, writing on two slabs of granite, held on the unmoving backs of two gray slaves. Their black eyes looked at the floor as the Witch-King signed some papers and sent them out with runners. I told the gamers that if I were casting the Witch-King in a movie he would be played by Michael Wincott, the bad guy in The Crow. Like all of his Magistrates he wore black robes open to his broad chest and a black loin clothe. His black hair is pushed back with two braids on either side of his face. He took his spectacles off of his face and welcomed his guests. "Well, look at this. Guests," and he turned to his seneschal, "Who the <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> are these people?" In the parlor was Tsunami, Fosalas and the Jarl of Spider's angry ambassador. Janus, newly widowed Baronness and Witch in her own right was standing next to Orog, who held her indentured servant, the newly convicted and re-captured Atlantean. Recedes was on her cart, accessible to the parlor through a narrow cart path. Introductions were made and the Witch-King assessed the situations and made the following decrees: The Ambassador of Spiders could hold on to his anger and do battle or he could accept the King's apology and hospitality. The Amassador accepted both of the latter. Gorog the Slaver and Recedes Python were worthy of great praise for catching the dangerous convict and were to be commended and honored. Tsunami delivered his Emperor's message and the King bowed appropriately when accepting, to which Tsunami replied that he did him honor. The King laughed appreciatively at the missive, telling Tsunami that he had a good mind to hand Lemuria over to him, lock, stock and barrel, so that the Emperor could take it all that much faster. "If I didn't think that the governing of Lemuria would lead to your death I would give it to you too. Just walk into the waste and leave the headaches to you..." He offered his library and maps so that Tsunami might find the others he had to deliver messages to that much faster. Fosalas and the Lady Janus, the Witch-King mused, should be married. The honorable Widow had to soon leave Mu's Bed and claim her Barony, a noble Atlantean could surely aid her and find her company pleasurable. Fosalas was stunned. Recedes laughed so hard that she nearly fell off her cart. Tsunami offered that in his lands men and women have a four year courtship period, in which they meet one another and their families are allowed to assess if the match is acceptable. The King enjoyed this idea but decided four years was too long, "You have four days to reach this decision. Four days to court one another and decide if the match is worthy and if at the end of that time you find the marriage worthy, I shall marry the two of you. Tsunami, in lieu of a family, I propose that you act as the Atlantean's patriarch as I shall act as Lady Janus'. We shall meet in four days' time to discuss the validity of this engagement. I am tired. Go." Thus Ends Game the First of Well-Met in Mu's Bed (a Sorcerer Campaign)</blockquote>

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