IC: Rathess [Mission: Infernal]

[Coyotekin]

He shrugged nonchalantly and simply said "We're problems solvers of a sort. And as for why we're here, well, we saw the issue that you're having and figured we'd take a look into the matter. Care to help us out by giving us some details?"

 

[Blackadder]

The bold approach seems to work for this guy eh? Jak pondered, knowing that lurking wasn't going to help much with the guy speaking gibberish. And what the heck did those things be? Yozi rejects, though the bar was pretty low to begin with?


Whatever. "What's so special about this Eye?" He asked out loud, stepping over to face the man in black. He was just human after all. "I mean, my eye would fetch 30 talents, but I'm blessed. What's your angle boss?"

Spoiler

Cha+Performance


4 sux.


http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3040566/

 

[Persell]

Malchior and Iona come forward to meet the grieving Raptok.There's a little difficulty getting through the frisson but sooner of later you get to details.


Summarized, the Raptok are fully engaged in loosing a war with beastmen. The beastmen came to the city several years ago, driven by their "misshapen master, a beast of horrifying, fluctuating appearance. Cursed by their profane goddess with mutability of appearance, even his own features rebel from him, and thus he melts constantly between forms." Now perhaps half the city is populated by the beastmen. They have the the eastern side of the city. They worship the Lunar Blood Goddess, and praise her by letting her moonlight bleach the bones of her enemies white as herself.


On the other side of the city is the human faction. It's lead by 'the Black Sun,' who they also call 'Apostate.' It takes you a little time to get this straight, but the human faction doesn't actually have any humans in it, beyond the one in charge. The raptok don't seem to know exactly who is in it, referring to them as the 'ugly ones.' They and the beastmen had some friction when the beastmen were just coming to town, friction punctuated by the Apostate and the Beastlord having a fracas. Both survived, they totaled half an octad, and subsequently an uneasy truce between them has developed. They think it is the Black Sun you hear calling for Octavian. These guys worship 'The Eater.'


As things stand now, the Raptok are remaining in Rathess mostly out of sheer stubbornness. They could flee the city, but have no place else to go, and require huge amounts of time and a protected location to bring their people forward out of atavism. They're losing though. The Beastmen hunt them to expand their control of the city and kill them in a fashion to 'send a statement.' Not long ago another human arrived, the guy you just saw, who approached them and offered his aid in exchange for the Eye. Their Eye is one of the sacred treasures of the species, but they don't get specific about what exactly it does. Now they're worried he'll break his deal because he didn't get what he wanted.


Jak gets a flat, curious gaze when he appears. The dark guy pauses his incoherent babble, and says, "Well if you snuck up on me you can't be overtly threatening. Skilled though."


For a moment he sizes you up. He says, "My angle is I'm looking for things. This Eye isn't what I thought it was, but we'll see what it does. But who're you, and more importantly, why should I care? Are you any good with a knife?"

 

[Blackadder]

"Am I good with a knife?" Jak folded his arms in mock thought, and then in a sudden burst of speed his short sword was out and the tip was on the dark man's throat. He grinned, in a decidedly worrisome way. "I'd say I am. Besides, I think you ought not underestimate me." He withdrew and sheathed the sword casually. "Name's Jak. And well, me and my friends can help you, if you help us in exchange. You're not the only one looking for something in this place."

 

[Feantari]

"Bloody malfeas," Iona muttered under her breath. She turned to whisper to Malichoir, "This god could be one of them, pulling the strings or something else entirely. I've half a mind to just kill the moon mad and this apostate fellow and see what falls out, and that shouting fool too." She scowls impatiently and frets with her bowstring looking between Malichoir and the lizard things.

 

[Coyotekin]

Looking to Iona he nodded and whispered in response. "That may not be a bad idea either way. We could use these Raptok as allies and all of their knowledge while ridding us, and them, of a potential threat in the long-term."

 

[Feantari]

Really? Oh, right of course. Good idea. Wait lizard allies? "Uh, you want those things for allies?" Iona whispered back giving an unimpressed glance and the grieving Raptok. "Well, you know better than I do in this area, but I wouldn't plan on counting on them in a fight. They seem.. as though they have given up on themselves. I would not fight with warriors like that at my back."


"Jak should be on top of this whole Eye business by now. I suppose the beastmen are first..."


Iona turned to the spokeslizard, "Tell me about these beastmen. What are they like? I have heard the moon mad twist men in many strange ways. I mean to scout out what I can and I don't want no bloodhound mongrel chasing me about if I can avoid it."

 

[Persell]

Jak gets a look of professional disdain. Much later he would learn the man's name was Diomedes, and we'll use that now for simplicity's sake. Diomedes does not react when the Infernal draws on him, giving his 'I'm too badass to care' attitude. He's trying to out-cool the GSP. Jak's impression is that the guy has some prior-warning charm either active or latent, the lack of which told him Jak's gesture was demonstrative, not violent. Underneath his demeanor though, he's impressed and intent on not showing it.


Diomedes says, "Well, if you're willing to use that piece of cutlery, you might want to go distract the shouting bastard upstairs. If he actually hollers long enough that someone replies, Ma-Ha-Suchi will take advantage of it, and then the old conflicts will errupt again. The whole city will burn before anything useful can be gotten out of it. Burning rocks isn't easy, but those twits would do it."


Jak gets the impression Diomedes doesn't want to pick a fight with either of the parties involved himself.


Malchior and Iona


The Raptok most definitely do not look like combat troops. Of the beastmen they say, "They're the minions, spawn perhaps, of the Lunar Ma-Ha-Suchi. In the days before the fall of the Sun's Chosen we grew plants to purposes, and the moon-mad warrior has done the same. Yet he offends the Incarnae with his experiments, for he works them on his own flesh and blood. There is an army breeding that wears the skins of great creatures, but all miss-mashed together. They do not know our history, nor the value of this city."


He goes on to explain that while there are three main 'breeds' of beastmen, the divisions are not sharp yet, nor are the breeds themselves homogenous. In effect there are the quick ones with low cunning and viciousness. They have the mannerisms and appearances of dogs. There are the slow ones, which are great and powerful, with the heads of rhinos and hippos. Finally there are the small ones, like rats, that have great endurance and are quite stealthy. Even the Raptok can defeat the small ones if they know where they are.