Abyssals 2.5 - IC Thread

[Crocodile]

"Yes... I cannot create without better context. We will need more information and context. I must find the cultural levers to pull and push to our benefit. That aside, helping them go to work on Creation will create other opportunities," The Merchant mused with a sigh as he finally calmed his laughter as his mask of composure reasserted himself. His expression more focused an calculating as already he was considering pieces in this new game to examine and explore.

"It will also help to study Autocthon to ensure our methods will proceed as we desire. An entire world though... Yes, we must move wisely to not lose our prize. And the Contagion... it should be adjusted to maximize fatalities. Helping them will allow us to find subjects to slip away with to refine a new form."

 

[Eonivar]

Camina floated nearby the Deliverer, her enshadowed eyes had tracked this strange man from when they brought him in to when they escorted him out. After he had been escorted out she carefully observed the rest in the hall, lingering on the Toymaster. She did not trust him. And then back to her Mistress, tracing the fine alabaster features of the Deathlord, features unchanged from when they met when she was a but a small child. She hardened herself and gazed out at the others asking.

"Could this strange man be a plant? Someone to lead us into a trap? The other Deathlords would be just as interested in this new place as we are. How do we know if we are ahead of the game here? Aggressive action, yes, I agree we should move quickly but we must be wary. I have no doubt the others will be involved at some point."

 

[Sherwood]

Voice nods, saying, "We haven't hurt this man, so showing up with him under the premise that we are returning a survivor to them as a sign of good will, that could get us in the door to begin talks with them. We can bemoan our mutual enemies up in Creation, and try to 'ally' ourselves with these invaders enough to learn what their motivations are and how to exploit our knowledge of the Great Contagion with the best way to spread it far and wide across their world."

 

[Psychie]

Camina floated nearby the Deliverer, her enshadowed eyes had tracked this strange man from when they brought him in to when they escorted him out. After he had been escorted out she carefully observed the rest in the hall, lingering on the Toymaster. She did not trust him. And then back to her Mistress, tracing the fine alabaster features of the Deathlord, features unchanged from when they met when she was a but a small child. She hardened herself and gazed out at the others asking.

"Could this strange man be a plant? Someone to lead us into a trap? The other Deathlords would be just as interested in this new place as we are. How do we know if we are ahead of the game here? Aggressive action, yes, I agree we should move quickly but we must be wary. I have no doubt the others will be involved at some point."

The Deliverer shakes her head. "I don't think so. The mental influence Charms I used leave little room for falsehoods like that, unless the subject has been very well conditioned before hand, and it would be a very difficult thing to do to such a complete level. There would be traces of such conditioning, and I sensed none of that. Besides, the fact that the Contagion is still running strong was an unknown to these invaders, and the odds of this man being able to survive could not have been predicted. No. I believe that this is a genuine opportunity."

She stands, and heads for the exit. "Prepare for travel, my darlings. You have our guest to take home."

 

[Eonivar]

Camina did not show her concern for the plan, the Day Caste did not feel easy that no one else knew of these people and that their enemies did not have pieces in play involving these new exalted, but it was her job to be paranoid and vigilant for such things.

She accepted her Mistress's wishes and desires with a nod. "As you wish my Deliverer..."

The Deliverer's Shadow waited until the others left the throne room and turned to the Deliverer. "Mistress, are there any additional duties that you require of me during this mission? Also could I take some additional resources that we may need for the mission?"

OOC the last question is a result of Camina having Liege 5...

 

[Psychie]

Camina did not show her concern for the plan, the Day Caste did not feel easy that no one else knew of these people and that their enemies did not have pieces in play involving these new exalted, but it was her job to be paranoid and vigilant for such things.

She accepted her Mistress's wishes and desires with a nod. "As you wish my Deliverer..."

The Deliverer's Shadow waited until the others left the throne room and turned to the Deliverer. "Mistress, are there any additional duties that you require of me during this mission? Also could I take some additional resources that we may need for the mission?"

OOC the last question is a result of Camina having Liege 5...

The Dark Lady gently touches Camina on the cheek and smiles. "Ah, my dear, you may ask, and know that as my favored disciple you can have much of what I can provide. Just make sure you are alert and wary of these foreigners. Find out what it will take to spread the Great Contagion far and wide through their numbers and make it so and you will be rewarded quite well."

 

[Eonivar]

Camina felt her body shiver upon the Deliverer's touch, so much like she did when they first met. Camina could not look away, enraptured by her Deathlord. Camina lived for these short moments with the Deliverer, her touch and attention is what kept the Day caste going in her life. Camina struggled to focus on the task at hand.

"My Mistress, I think I will need a list of contacts and spies in the region we are going to, so we can cast a wide net for information, as well as some resources, monetary and otherwise, with a list of properties we may have access to to aid in our cover and assist in getting more information while we are there."

 

[Crocodile]

The Merchant bowed and excused himself to go back and prepare. He was talking to himself some, more or less working to recall his knowledge of the region and perhaps whatever ancient lores he could on Autochthon for interacting with this invaders from another primordial world. So much to do and so little time. He would be in his element though, reading the moments and finding the right place to introduce the words and ideas needed to serve his master. It would be a nice change of pace from his work in the labs here and even create new opportunities in it.

 

[Psychie]

Camina felt her body shiver upon the Deliverer's touch, so much like she did when they first met. Camina could not look away, enraptured by her Deathlord. Camina lived for these short moments with the Deliverer, her touch and attention is what kept the Day caste going in her life. Camina struggled to focus on the task at hand.

"My Mistress, I think I will need a list of contacts and spies in the region we are going to, so we can cast a wide net for information, as well as some resources, monetary and otherwise, with a list of properties we may have access to to aid in our cover and assist in getting more information while we are there."

The Dark Lady nods. "I will have the list and the jade ready for you before you leave. Travel safe, my dear. I will be most displeased if anything were to happen to you."


It takes a short amount of time to prepare for your trip, and soon the circle is gathered in the courtyard with the Servant of the Night and his small detachment of guards and the now cleaned up Aaron-26. He is seated on a horse, looking very uncomfortable on the back of the animal, but at least he seems ready to travel.

You are all aware that it will take you several days to travel to the lands controlled by the Twisted Toymaker. With five different Abyssals traveling together, the various denizens of the Underworld have the sense to stay away from you and not try their luck in confronting you, and with the Servants me keeping watch on Aaron-26, he isn't going to try anything stupid like an escape attempt, especially with your stated intent to return him to his people.

Soon enough, you come to the castle of the Toymaker. Several horrible undead constructs are mindlessly wandering around outside, but they make no effort to attack you as you ride in the gates. Ghostly servants quickly rush out to take your horses, and you are told that the Toymaker wishes to speak with you right away.

 

[Sherwood]

During their ride over to the Toymaker's domain, Voice will try to learn more about the world of Autochthon and the people inside it. She does her best to not try and garner military secrets, but instead tries to learn what an outsider coming to this new land would need to know. How is Creation viewed by the people of Autochthon? Aaron-26 mentioned that he comes from a nation called Kamak or Yugash or something like that. How many different nations are there inside the world that they inhabit? Do they all get along with one another, or are there rivalries and alliances between them? What are the Exalted of his world like? Is there anything like the Wyld Hunt inside Autochthon?

If Aaron-26 ever seems suspicious, she will back off her current line of questioning and change the subject.


Once they have reached the Twisted Toymaker's castle, Voice will make sure that Aaron-26 is safely taken care of, with strict instructions to make sure he is regarded as a valued guest before heading off to see the Toymaker. She is rather interested to learn just what it is that this Deathlord wishes to discuss with them.

 

[Psychie]

Void manages to befriend Aaron-26 a bit, letting the man open up to her as you travel. You learn that there are a great many people in the world of Autochthon, and there are eight different nations of different size and wealth. The current invasion into Creation is a conglomerate of three of these nations, led by a committee of generals all working together. The three different groups get along well enough, but that is while things are going well. If there are problems up ahead, that might put a strain on relations and the different opinions on how to respond to them.

It is a bit of a surprise to learn that the Exalted of this world are are created beings, not like in Creation where the Exalted Shards infuse a living person with the power. These Exalted are also not the leaders of the nations that have made them, but are instead follow the orders of the hierarchy over them of mortal men and women. The Exalted of Autochthon actually grow in size as their power increases, until they go into a hibernation and emerge as a brand new city or fortress, fit to be inhabited by the human population. Fortunately, these city-sized Exalted are rare.

When you get inside the fortress, servants move quickly to care for Aaron-26, treating him as a VIP in their care as the rest of you are taken to the Toymaker. Even knowing what to expect, it is always somewhat disturbing to see the Deathlord in person with how he had forsaken any attempt to retain his humanity.

Going down into the heart of the castle, you are led to the worship of the Toymaker. You find him there, inhuman hands covered in blood and gore as he is elbow deep in a necrotech construct. Continuing to work, his head turns towards you. Servant of the Night drops to his knees in front of his master and bows his head.

The Toymaker speaks in a voice that sounds like dried bones rattling together. "While you were gone, I was able to find out a few nuggets of interest. The Deliverer has told me of the idea to spread the Contagion by using insects. Normal bugs won't work. Too easy to kill, to hard to control. But I have an idea."

With a wet sloppy sound, he pulls his hands free of the corpse and shambles over to another table. Sitting on it is a glass box with a swarm of bugs the size of a human thumb. They are clearly artificial constructs, sitting on the base of the box, motionless. The Toymaker reaches in and pulls one of the bugs out. "Look carefully, but do not touch. These are a thing that I was able to put together with relatively little effort. They are not living per se, but that makes them ideal for what we want. They are designed to seek out people and give them a sting, then fly off to find another victim. The plague is injected in the form of small pellets that linger in the body for days before starting to become symptomatic, all the while the host is spreading the virus to those he or she comes into contact with. At the the point that the host is showing signs of being ill, he has days at most before death. Truly a marvel of engineering if I do say so myself."

The Toymaker returns the bug to the case and closes the lid once more. "Now all we need is a good way to encourage these strangers to allow the carrying case with our little friends here into their lands to do their work. I have some ideas on that."

 

[Tachyon]

Toymaker. His name was well spoken, and the Apostle could even appreciate the macabre beauty of his craft.

"Do we know what happens to those from Autochthon that perish? Have those that succumbed to the Great Contagion recently shown up in the Underworld?" Are we delivering their freedom, or just destroying them? he thought. "And what of this invasion, could it provide a screen for our gambit? If it fails, perhaps a scapegoat could come in handy? Someone or something that these newcomers are already in conflict with. Perhaps there is a way for a middle man of such a nature to deliver this weapon onto Autochthon?"

 

[Psychie]

The Deathlord reaches over to another table and picks up a small glittering stone. With a rasping chuckle, he says, "Another fascinating thing. Come look at this. A gem like this is inserted into the forehead of each person born inside Autochthon. They call these soulgems. When a person dies, their soul is gathered into the gem to be recycled into the next generation. Truly a masterwork of necrotic technology." He stretches his hand out to an abnormal length to place the stone back on the table it came from. "I have a theory as to what will result once the Contagion takes root. Once the Contagion takes hold, the sheer amount of death will create shadowlands inside Autochthon for the first time, making a connection between the newly minted shadowlands and the Underworld, and I suspect that the bridge between our lands and the shadowlands inside Autochthon will appear near the beachhead that has been established by the Autochthonians. Fortunately, that is not very far from my holdings, and the Deliverer of Dark Dreams and Nightmares and I can be well positioned to move into the heart of this Great Maker as the waves of death spread far and wide."

The Servant rubs his chin, saying, "A way must be found to introduce these bugs to the interior of Autochthon. A gift of some sort, with the bugs lying dormant inside until they are given the order to awaken, ready to have them spread out and begin to infect the population. A gift from us as potential allies, perhaps? Or possibly a prize hidden in one of the cities of Creation, ready for the invaders to ransack the city, find a item of First Age manufacture, and have them take it back to their lands as a trophy."

The Toymaker nods. "Yes. Yes, either one could work. It just depends on how you approach the invaders. Or, we could try both gambits, making a 'weapon' of some sort to plant inside a future target of the invaders for them to take, and at the same time, we approach them openly as friends, returning their lost soldier to them with stories of how well we treated him, saving his life from the monsters of the Underworld." More raspy laughter can be heard from the Toymaker. "I like this. I like this very much, and I look forward to seeing the heart of Autochthon as we raise an army of dead inside Him with the intent of killing the Primordial and making a whole new Underworld."

 

[Crocodile]

The Merchant regards the items with a bit of a jealous expression. He had hoped to be the creator of the doom of the fled Autochthon and the nations within him. He was a bit sour to see he would be relegated to mere deployment, but then again he might still enjoy the game of toying with the nations. There were still an art to sowing destruction even though he had been robbed the joy of creating the deployment source.

"I suppose we will find ways to get them in place. The nations must be seen first, their needs and desires ferreted out. From there, we can build a means to distract and enrapture as the means of seeding this doom there." He taps the jar with the bug with a still sour expression. His ego a bit bruised but already working himself towards a task that would distract and entertain him at the very least.

"Bait or gifts, various means to lay the seeds of death in place." Another slightly petulant tap at the glass before the Merchant steps a way and bows. "I will be happy to work with my compatriots and yours, Great Toymaker, to see the work is done. It will be quite the prize once all is set in motion, barring any interference. I would love to see those gems, what one might do with them."

 

[Sherwood]

As the others start to discuss the hows of getting the plague-ridden bugs into the heart of this new world, Voice is wondering what kind of ideas will be come up with. "We have to many questions as to how we will proceed. We need to focus our efforts on getting some information from these invaders. How shall we proceed? Do we approach them openly, or try and sneak into their midst? I personally like the idea of coming to them as a friendly group, wanting to welcome them to Creation with the return of their man, Aaron-26. Once we learn more about these people, we can better prepare ourselves and our plague delivery device."

 

[Psychie]

The Toymaker looks at Voice and says, "It is said you catch more flies with sugar than salt, so approaching the people of Autochthon openly as potential allies might get toy a better result than the alternative. I will craft a message device that can link to a receiver here, and hide the wasps inside it. Go to these invaders and offer up the communicator as a way to reach your master and to extend a pleasant greeting to them. Servant of the Night, go with them and be my eyes and ears. I can have your 'gift' ready to take to the intruders in two days. Get to the invaders, and get them to take the device."

He then looks to The Merchant and says, "The Deliverer tells me that you are skilled in a workshop. Would you like to assist me? Working together might accelerate our project and you might learn a few things while you're at it."

 

[Tachyon]

"Aye, Voice speaks with wisdom. I think extending an open hand is our best option." the Apostle says. "Where would we meet them, and how would such a meeting be arranged? If they've already encountered hostilities, then perhaps they will be weary of strangers." He glanced at his present company of Deathknights. Compared to others that he'd met, at least his circle weren't a too abrasive sight.

"But perhaps this is something our new guest can assist with?" That would be best. If they could come in the company of another authchtonian, much of the early work would be easier.

 

[Eonivar]

The Deliverer's Shadow had been watching and listening to the ideas and deliberations being passed around between the Toymaker and her circle silently in the shadows.

Camina glanced at the Apostle. Her voice seemed to echo in the room unexpectedly.

"If they are encountering hostilities perhaps we could aid them in a time of need to gain their trust? Also, we do not have a lot of information as to the situation they are in. It would do us well to investigate and do some reconnaissance on the incursion. "

 

[Sherwood]

Voice looks to the Toymaker and asks, "Lord, while you work on the devices are there some agents that can be sent to get some direct intelligence on placement and numbers of the invaders, along with the defenders in Creation? If we can set up an ambush against a Southern force, or possibly spoil one that is being established against the Autochthon force, it will go far to get us into their good graces."

She thinks for a moment, then nods to herself. "Maps. I need to see as many accurate maps of that area as possible. I should be able to predict the most likely spots for this to work."

OOC I'd like to try a intelligence + war roll to try and spot some good ambush spots. Is that ok?

 

[Psychie]

Voice looks to the Toymaker and asks, "Lord, while you work on the devices are there some agents that can be sent to get some direct intelligence on placement and numbers of the invaders, along with the defenders in Creation? If we can set up an ambush against a Southern force, or possibly spoil one that is being established against the Autochthon force, it will go far to get us into their good graces."

She thinks for a moment, then nods to herself. "Maps. I need to see as many accurate maps of that area as possible. I should be able to predict the most likely spots for this to work."

OOC I'd like to try a intelligence + war roll to try and spot some good ambush spots. Is that ok?

With the use of the excellent maps of the area and some ghostly spies, you can get an additional two dice to your roll.

 

[Sherwood]

Rolling.

Two lousy successes

 

[Psychie]

While Voice pours over the maps that are provided by the Toymaker's people, she can see that the maps are not as accurate as she had hoped, and there are a great many different places that could be used for the southerners to try and set a trap for the invaders. Until you get out there and take some steps to look for yourself or get better maps, there are just too many options.

 

[Sherwood]

Voice will not express her dismay at the poor quality of the maps to anyone, least she offend her host. Instead, she will wait for word to come back from the various scouts before making any comment on where to try and find a location that might be used by the Southerners to try and ambush the invaders.

Can I attempt another Int + War roll, since I'm holding until some reports come in?

 

[Psychie]

Voice will not express her dismay at the poor quality of the maps to anyone, least she offend her host. Instead, she will wait for word to come back from the various scouts before making any comment on where to try and find a location that might be used by the Southerners to try and ambush the invaders.

Can I attempt another Int + War roll, since I'm holding until some reports come in?

Sure. With the reports you are getting, I'll still let you use the extra two dice to your roll. Good luck.

 

[Sherwood]

Rolling.

8 successes. That's more like it!