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All the Creeping Things: An AIMhack Campaign


Lilith

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  • 2 weeks later...

Somewhere, in an alternate dimension...

 

Commissioner Gombhe: Thank you.

Lucia: You don't have to thank us.

Commissioner Gombhe: Yes, I do.

[all look at Hirst's body on the ground]

Commissioner Gombhe: Hurak won. Hirst's weapon, everything he fought for - undone. Any chance you gave us at fixing our city dies with Hirst's reputation. We bet it all on him. Hurak took the best of us and tore him down. People will lose hope.

Lephista: They won't. They must never know what he did.

Commissioner Gombhe: So many dead, two of them guards? You can't sweep that up!

Lephista: No. But Hurak cannot win.

[kneels down next to Hirst, whose buggy left side is facing up]

Lephista: Pelinora needs its true hero.

[turns Hirst's head so that his unmarred side faces up]

Commissioner Gombhe: [immediately understanding] No!

Weimin: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." We can do those things because we're not heroes, not like Hirst. We killed those people. That's what we can be.

Commissioner Gombhe: No, no! You can't, you're not!

Creidne: We're whatever Pelinora needs us to be. Call it in.

Commissioner Gombhe: They'll hunt you.

Amadan: You'll hunt us. You'll condemn us, set the dogs on us. Because that's what needs to happen. Because sometimes... the truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

Arielle: Adventurers? Adventurers! Why are they running, Commissioner?

Commissioner Gombhe: Because we have to chase them.

Arielle: They didn't do anything wrong.

Commissioner Gombhe: Because they're the heroes Pelinora deserves, but not the ones it needs right now. So, we'll hunt them, because they can take it. Because they're not our heroes. They're silent guardians. Watchful protectors. Uncreepers.

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log for the second-last session is up! lots of quotes this time!

 

Click to reveal..
Lephista: "Well, you might remember, our plan was to rest here, then go force Hirst to release Arielle and stop his experiments. Your suicidal idiocy didn't change it."

 

Lucia: "I'm not sure if we can even get into Pelinora right now. We're kind of wanted criminals there, remember?"

 

Lephista: "We'll surrender, then tell them what happened, then offer to fix it for them. They'd be stupid not to let us go."

Creidne: "They ARE stupid though, Leph. That's the problem."

Lucia: "I think we've already established that they're stupid."

Amadan: "...yeah, the Pelinorans have been shining examples of intelligence thus far."

 

Weimin: "Oh, good. All we need is Iskania to come south, and we will have all three monsters in one place."

 

Lephista: "Well, I don't know for sure that there isn't a way to undo it... but even if we could, which is far from certain, he'd still be the same man who thought this was a good idea in the first place. There's no way to undo that."

 

Gombhe: "You're angry because you offered to help and we didn't assume that you'd follow through and bring us victory — which, allow me to add, you didn't? You're throwing that back in my face now? Are you saying, after all that you've done, that we should have trusted you? Is that really, truly the argument you're going with? When you met Hirst, did he replace your blood with pure gall?"

 

Creidne: "Lephista, any way I can make these things permanent, short of dying?"

Lephista: "New limbs are Hirst's department. I'm afraid you'll have to ask him."

 

Weimin: "I suppose I should thank you, Hirst. It has taken this fight against you to realize who I truly am. I am not a revolutionary, or a saboteur. I am certainly no politician. I am not even an adventurer. I am an exterminator."

 

Hirst: "Lephista. Do you know… what an ant mill is?"

 

Arielle: "It's over, then. Perhaps this is for the best. It's... hard to feel any sense of victory."

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guess what!

 

no, really, guess!

 

fine, be that way! it's the really, truly final log!

 

also, lucia earns a perk that will probably never see use since this was the last session!

 

Click to reveal..
Ms. Hannel Goes to Pelinora – The effect of any Stamina you spend on a Composure roll is doubled.

 

also also, quotes!

 

Click to reveal..
Weimin: "We killed two guards in self-defense, and we have offered nothing but regret. You recklessly ordered an entire squad to their deaths. What do you have to offer to this court?"

 

Gombhe: "No, there can be no comparison between my actions and theirs. The only precedent you will set today is that of passing a just sentence upon saboteurs and murderers."

 

Lephista: "As for Lord Gombhe, I've saved many people's lives, and he's the first person ever to take me to task for not doing it fast enough."

 

Tarros: "I want the people of Pelinora to know that even in times of war, there is still law and order in this city, and we will not excuse crimes because those who committed them believed their own motivations to be noble and pure."

 

Creidne: "This is a time of war, no? Were those two soldiers, as tragic as their loss is, more important than the soldiers we saved from marching on Wireld?"

 

Lucia: "Every action we have taken since then has been either to ensure no injustice was brought against us or to protect innocent lives, whether they be Pelinoran or Wireldi. If you want to make an example of us, just remember that everything we have done, everything we have sacrificed, has been for the people of… this… island."

 

epilogues are coming soon!

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  • 2 weeks later...

As one final bit of business in this thread, we've worked out epilogues. First, Amadan's:

 

 

It wasn't much of a good-bye. The fatigue felt by everyone put a damper on the mood, and while the others had half-heartedly tried to convince him to stay, Amadan was having none of it; he felt no compunction to justify himself to the Pelinorans, and their proclamation of exile meant nothing to him. So, in the swamps of Pelinora, Amadan parted ways. His task was almost done. Gathering some herbs as he traveled, he arrived at Hirst's tower one last time, to finish what he started.

 

Using the tower's alchemy equipment to brew up more explosives, Amadan ransacked the varied magical equipment throughout the tower, rendering it useless and damaged beyond repair. He then went through the texts and notes in Hirst's tower. Stowing the ones that were innocent and not connected to dark arts in his pack so as to take them far out of Pelinora and Wireld's grasp, he piled the rest on top of the freshly-brewed explosives at the base of Hurak's altar. Standing in the doorway, he nocked his final arrow.

 

"Destroy yourselves, if you want." He murmured to no-one in particular, setting the arrow ablaze and drawing the bowstring back. "Since that indeed seems to be what you want. But I will not let Mote pay for your mistakes."

 

He loosed the flaming arrow into the pile of books, using his magic to ensure the books ignited into a pyre, before turning and fleeing out of the tower. A safe distance outside under a canopy of stars, he saddled Ember and watched the tower. A small 'bang' echoed through the clearing, signaling the explosives had gone off. "Well, Ember, our work here is-"

 

The tower's north side blew outward, belching out red and black flames with an ungodly roar and bathing the swamp in crimson light for miles. A rumbling and screeching sound ripped through the clearing as the top half of the tower came crashing to the ground, scattering masonry across the swamp and sending a fine brown dust up towards the heavens. As the dust settled, Amadan stared, wide-eyed, at the smoldering ruins of Hirst's Tower, now a small, jagged spire of stone one-storey tall. Small supernaturally-colored flames flickered across the shattered stone and metal scattered around the wreck.

 

"...well, I'm glad I'm not sticking around to explain this." He managed faintly. "C'mon, Ember." He said, mounting up. "I think you'll like Ona. High-quality oats," He said as he rode out of the swamp, "and we only get a couple psychopaths in office there at a time."

 

 

Second, an epilogue for the rest of the party and for the cities of Pelinora and Wireld:

 

 

Amadan's destruction of Hirst's tower did not go unnoticed -- the plume of smoke rising from the ruins was quickly spotted and soldiers were sent to investigate, although by then Amadan was long gone. Investigators suspected that the tower's destruction was deliberate, but could not prove that any particular suspect was involved, nor that the explosion was not caused by a burst of wild magic or some kind of trap set by Hirst himself. Lady Zesh purchased the ruins of the tower from Lady Arielle for a token sum, and began the arduous task of salvaging what little she could from the wreckage for her own purposes.

 

Lady Arielle married Maridanos less than two months after Hirst's death. The marriage raised many eyebrows among the nobles, but there was no legal impediment to it. Maridanos was inducted into the Pelinoran nobility and joined his wife in advocating for peace. Their advocacy proved fruitful: with Hirst and his weapon destroyed, and Lord Gombhe's reputation as a military mastermind stained by his association with Hirst's ill-fated projects, Pelinora's people had lost the will to fight.

 

Pelinora sought peace with Wireld, and received it, but on Wireld's terms: the dam stayed in place and no reparations were paid by either city. Pelinora's fishing industry was devastated by the effects of the dam, and agriculture was harmed by both the reduction of the water supply and the damage caused by Wireldi raids. The lucrative dye and medicine industries relying on plants growing in the river delta also suffered: not only did the wetlands begin to dry out and shrink due to the dam, but strange, aggressive vermin both small and gigantic were occasionally seen roaming the swamp, forcing all who entered it to dress in thick protective clothing and travel with armed guards. Pelinora would survive, but its future looked considerably less bright.

 

One Pelinoran who did not suffer from Wireld's victory was Lady Ondou. Her connections to Wireldi merchants left her in an excellent position to profit once diplomatic relations and legitimate trade resumed. Rumour has it that she intends to vie for the position of Prefect of Pelinora once the aging Prefect Tarros retires.

 

Grand Marshal Iskania of Wireld became even more popular and respected among the people of her city, having won the war and secured Wireld's economic future without needing to resort to a long and bloody military campaign. Those who criticised her over her failure to protect River's End were shouted down, and her re-election for another ten-year term seems all but certain.

 

Time heals all wounds, and so it was with the rift between Pelinora and Wireld. The two city-states signed a treaty delineating the borders of their territory, and sent soldiers to patrol and monitor their own side of it. Banditry on the main road between the two cities was forcibly suppressed, and both armies kept permanent outposts on the border to watch for military incursions. Relations were tense and strained, but not violent.

 

As for Lephista, Weimin, Creidne and Lucia, after their banishment from Pelinora they travelled north to Wireld, where Grand Marshal Iskania offered them a fair, if far from generous, payment for Hirst's assassination. The four heroes stayed in the city a short time to rest and resupply before returning to the border, where they worked in an unofficial capacity to help stamp out banditry and maintain the fragile peace. At times they strayed into Pelinoran lands: the local civilians welcomed their aid, and Pelinoran border guards mostly turned a blind eye to their incursions.

 

Pelinora and Wireld have both survived their brief war, and the damage caused by Hirst's forbidden magic has been contained. The people of Pelinora still rankle at the perceived injustice of Wireld's dam on "their" river, but they are only alive to complain thanks to the efforts of five heroic travellers who were exiled for their pains.

 

 

And that's a wrap, unless any of the other players decide they have something to add to it after all. See you all next campaign, I guess, if there is one.

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