Sword of Heaven - Game Thread

[Tibbius]

Varus had been questing for a long time on the road, journeying from place to place in search of the Other and of ordinaries in need of assistance. With his skills in Tracking and Survival he had found lost goats and children, led a group of citizens to hunt down and arrest a band of desperados (one, whom he identified as Other, he had killed on sight), and weathered some rain and hail. Now he had found a peaceable little village in a meadow on the shoulder of the forested hills, much like many other villages of the land, and he looked forward to getting a few day's rest with all the customary comforts that were accorded for free to a visiting paladin.

The village had a tiny shanty smithy, a couple dozen small cottages, a few big barns, a granary, and an ox-mill for grinding barley into flour. A burbling stream ran down the slope from the forested heads of the hills past the village meadow and down into the forested waist of the hills again. Dozens of goats and sheep grazed the meadow. The scene was bucolic.

The woman confronting Varus, however, was not feeling placid. She was irate. "She put a curse on my son!" she exclaimed, waving her hand toward a dilapidated cottage over by the verge of the forest. "She's an Other, I tell you. With dark powers! My son hasn't walked straight since she caught him in her vegetables last week."

Rules
The Paladin RPG (https://archive.org/details/paladin_rpg)

Characters

Flesh: Might 4 Fortitude 3 Reason 2
Light: Courage 2 Insight 2 Wisdom 2
Dark: Fury 2 Pride 0 Intimidation 1
Abilities: Arms (greatsword), Tracking, and Survival

Equipment: two handed sword; white tabard; traveling clothes; a few coins; a few day's food; a waterskin

Setting
I'm going to use Google Maps for the locations of population centers, and for walking travel times, but the populated areas will be much less populous than in the real world, and the borders of the Iberian peninsula will be like the edge of the world - nothing and no-one beyond there, other than beasts and fish. Also, "imagine there's no heaven, ... no religion too." The Order is the only arbiter of morality, morality is enforced mainly by little kings, and the moral code is pretty sparse.
Suffer no Other to live. Protect the ordinaries. Obey the kings of the land. Obey the head of the Order. Do not harm the ordinaries. Do not lie. Do not steal.
Do not kill an ordinary.

[UselessBlob]

Varus was feeling rather irritated at the moment. False Other reports about strange old women living at the edge of town were a dime a dozen in small villages like this one, and everyone knew children made up stories in order to get out of trouble. Regardless, he would be remiss in his duties if he did not make at least a cursory investigation.

"Calm down madam, please. That is a serious accusation you are making. Why don't you tell me the whole story, starting with why your son was trespassing in a vegetable garden?"

[Tibbius]

The story has a lot of venomous comments about cranky old ... women ... but the gist is that there's a community garden, the strange old woman's plot is next to this lady's plot, and their bean bushes are intertwined so that her son picked some beans from the old lady's bush. Which was strangely productive compared to everyone else's plants this summer, the mother of the befuddled boy adds mysteriously. She stops talking and plants her hands on her hips, chin high and elbows out, staring a little down her nose at Varus:

"So whatcha gonna do, sir knight?"

[UselessBlob]

"I am going to do my duty and investigate these claims. May I see your son? If he has been afflicted with some manner of curse, I may be able to break it." Varus didn't really believe that he had been cursed, since it seemed rather risky for a genuine Other to use Dark Animus on something so petty. Still, he knew a thing or two about injuries sustained when foraging, and hoped that it was merely a sprain. The village did not look to be wealthy enough to be equipped with antidotes for spider bites.

[Tibbius]

"He's out in the meadow stumbling around," said the mother severely. "They make fun of him now." Her posture and expression suddenly softened and her voice broke. "Do you think ... do you think you could fix him? Even if it's not a curse?"

[UselessBlob]

Varus felt slightly ashamed for his attitude. She was obnoxious and prejudiced, but she was mostly just a mother worried about her son. His duty was not to judge, but to help.
"I will not lie, I don't yet know. Curses can be broken and bones can be set, but if he has an infection, my knowledge of treatments is rather limited. I'll have to see your son's leg to give you an answer." With that, he left to look for the boy.

[Tibbius]

It's not hard to find the boy - among the dozen preteens playing tag in the meadow, he's the slower one who lurches while he runs. It doesn't seem like his friends are ostracizing him, so whatever mockery they've been making was more likely gentle teasing than serious bullying.

It is difficult getting his attention. He's obviously more interested in playing than in talking with an adult, and he's probably also embarrassed at being singled out among his friends.

Varus feels awkward with the idea of chasing the boy down, but after calling "Erbil! Erbil! I want to talk with you a bit!" and getting no response, he's not sure what to do.

[UselessBlob]

Varus wracked his brain trying to think of ways to attract the attention of a typical village boy. What do they like? Playing games, obviously. Girls? Maybe not yet. Fighting? Maybe... of course!

Varus unsheathed his blade, letting it shine in the sun, and proceeded to perform his daily exercises. If there's one thing that boys found interesting, it would probably be real life weaponry.

[Tibbius]

Quickly, the boys veered away from their flight-and-pursuit to gather in a crescent formation gazing at Varus' exercises. He counted eleven of them, varying ages and shapes and colors, from about eight up to about twelve. The gimpy one resembled his mother, dark wavy hair and green eyes with an upturned nose. Aside from the problem with his left leg he appeared to be healthy and cheerful, shoving back and forth with one of his friends.

Varus moved through the first and second forms while he thought about how to start a conversation with the boy Erbil.

[UselessBlob]

Varus hadn't thought this approach all the way through. He had their attention, but how could he get Erbil to talk to him? The boy might be spooked if he got singled out too quickly, so he needed to think of something that would include the whole group.

"Greetings, boys!" he proclaimed. "The Order is always looking for strong young lads to join the fight against the Others. Who here thinks you have what it takes?"

[Tibbius]

Now that they had his attention, the flock of boys began to chatter eagerly at Varus. They had many questions, all about his travels and what he had seen and who he had met, what was it like to get knighted, how did you get knighted, was there a special school for knights and what did you learn? One question jumped out and brought a pause to the whole discussion. Erbil asked it, hesitantly but firmly: "So do you have to kill the Others?"

[UselessBlob]

The question stopped Varus cold. The answer was clear cut, but something about the way the boy asked it made him start to sweat a bit. Could he have befriended the old lady? If so, she probably wasn't an Other, but the annoying thing about them was the fact that they're usually virtually indistinguishable from the ordinaries. Some learn to fake kindness and manipulate the ignorant in order to hide themselves, but is that the case here, or is it a misunderstanding?

"Yes, boy, we do. The Others are people who have gained dark and unnatural power from killing another in cold blood. They become monsters in human skin, and they will do whatever they can to kill more. It is our solemn duty to end them as quickly as we can, before they hurt anyone else. I've been told of a woman in the village that some suspect of being an Other, but I have to make certain so I do not slay an innocent. Do you know her?"

[Tibbius]

Varus' inquiry fell heavily on the group of boys, who turned quiet and serious and shuffle-footed. They all looked awkwardly at each other but not directly at Erbil. Erbil, meanwhile, looked at his feet and wiggled his bare toes.

"Uh..." he said. "You mean ... Old Ana?"

Varus heard one of the boys gasp. "She's no Other!" said another. "She cures fevers," said a third.

"I don't think she's an Other," Erbil said, finally looking up to meet Varus' eyes. His own were watery and his voice trembled. He pouted. "She yelled at me, and then I hurt my leg, and then my mom got mad at her..."

[UselessBlob]

Varus knelt down. "I saw you were limping earlier. May I take a look at your leg?"

[Tibbius]

The boy's left knee was red and swollen to the touch below the hem of his tunic. Next to the right knee, it appeared a bit larger. He clearly had trouble carrying weight on it; yet, being a boy of about ten, he couldn't stand to sit still and rest it. He winced and whimpered as Varus gently probed the injury.
Not sure whether Varus has an ability relevant to this task ... even "Survival" seems a bit off from medical diagnosis. I'll check the rules for what you might want to roll ...
... phaf ...
... the rules direct you to roll Might (if we consider this an "active" inquiry) or Fortitude (if we consider this "passive"). Neither of those makes sense. I could go with, "roll Insight." But that would do a lot of violence to the rules. Can you think of a way that Might or Fortitude might be applicable to this task?

[Tibbius]

or maybe the problem that Varus doesn't have a Fleshly attribute to suit this task, is a feature of the rules?

Posit that Varus understands the metaphysics of his situation. He knows that his Might and Fortitude won't help him here, and that his Reason is only useful in social settings ... but if he burns a point of Insight, that will buy him one die toward attempting diagnosis, which is a Hard task that will require 2 successes (a 6 on the one die). Two points of Insight will significantly increase his chance of success. Now he faces a difficult choice!

[UselessBlob]

Can't Paladins detect Dark Animus? Or does that only work at the time it was used? Also, I think Reason might be applicable in the form of asking questions to narrow down possibilities.

[Tibbius]

Seems like Animus detector only works during an active use. Won't detect lingering traces.

You're right, Reason does seem applicable. This is a medium task (not easy) for reasons that probably will become apparent.

[UselessBlob]

Varus asks the boy various questions about how he feels and what plants or bugs he might have come into contact with that day.

[roll0]

[Tibbius]

It's a frustrating experience. Varus can tell the boy is evading some issue, but he's not outright lying. There's no malice to his evasion, either. He's trying to protect someone, maybe himself. All of his actual answers are matter of fact: he saw some wasps, didn't get stung; got into a spider's web, didn't get bitten; stayed well away from the snake den in the woods ... Indeed, there are no signs of any sort of bite or sting on the knee. It does feel a bit wobbly compared to the other one.

[UselessBlob]

The book says I can activate my Animus attributes once for free in order to reroll, so I'd like to use my Wisdom.

[Tibbius]

Sounds good. Go for the re-roll please.

[UselessBlob]

A subtle glow lit Varus' eyes as he called upon his Animus to show him the truth. Animus was best used to augment one's natural abilities, so he didn't know how effective it would be, but without a doctor this was the best shot they had at saving the boy's leg... or his life.

[roll0]

[Tibbius]

With a flash of Insight, Varus realized that his questions might have been too leading - too pointed. Taking a quick breath, he asked: "Tell me everything that you did yesterday."

There was a lot that went on in a boy's day, and Erbil told the tale hastily and in a pressured way. Two key points jumped out: he had been reprimanded by Old Ana, and then he had run away into the woods and gone to climb on the strange old haunted tower, where he fell off and twisted his knee. He had been afraid to tell his mother what had happened because he knew he wasn't allowed at the tower, so instead when he limped home he had focused on the yelling by the old lady. It had been a few days since then and his knee wasn't getting better. Ordinarily, Old Ana would be the go-to for a thing like this, but since Erbil's mom was mad at her, that wasn't going to happen.

[UselessBlob]

Varus was glad that he was finally getting somewhere. Whatever the affliction was, it started with the old tower he had not been made aware of before. Speaking of which... "Haunted tower? What do you mean haunted? No, hold on, first things first." Varus then went on to lecture Erbil about telling the truth and taking responsibility for his actions.

[Tibbius]

What tone does Varus use for his remonstration? Gentle? Firm? Stern? Severe? Angry?

[UselessBlob]

Firm. He knows that the parents should be the ones to discipline children, but he needs to get Erbil to understand that he has put both himself and Old Ana in danger by not telling the truth.

[Tibbius]

As Varus explained to Erbil the fault in his actions, and how to do better, the other children looked at each other uncomfortably before drifting away toward the village. The stranger with his big shiny sword no longer was entertaining; instead he was a little bit scary.

Erbil began to tear up. "Old Ana's usually nice," he said softly. "I feel badly that I blamed her. I didn't understand how dangerous it was. She helps everyone in the village when we're sick or hurt. She grows the best vegetables! ... I guess I should tell Mommy that I lied, so that she stops being mad at Old Ana."

[UselessBlob]

"Indeed you should. Now, tell me about this tower you were climbing. Where is it? Why do you call it haunted?" By this point Varus had become pretty certain that there was no Other involvement with the situation, but the Order had to be ever-vigilant.

Are the Unliving still a thing here?

[Tibbius]

"I ... can show you the tower," said Erbil. "It's hard to give directions."

The sun was bright, and a few brilliant clouds drifted across the placid blue sky. It was a beautiful late summer morning. The shade of the woods upslope, where Erbil pointed, looked cool and refreshing. Varus was a bit heated after his exercise.

[UselessBlob]

Varus didn't have anything to say, so he simply looked at the scenery as he walked. It was nice not having an Other threat looming in the background all the time. True, most days were entirely uneventful travel, but they still carried with them the constant worry that he was too slow, and the Others were taking more lives because of his incompetence. The job is important, but anyone who says it's fun is insane.

[Tibbius]

The haunted tower would have been about a half hour easy walking from the village, if there was a clear path. But there was not, and Erbil's awkward hobbling further slowed their pace as they followed a vague route over fallen trees and around brambles. It was early afternoon by the time they reached the tower. Varus was hungry. He wondered how the boy had ever found this place to begin with. The tower was built of grey and brown stone blocks, about twice the size of a head, some bigger than that, well mortared. Thick ivy hid big parts of it. There was no roof. It was about forty feet tall. The window openings were empty and shadowy. The main doorway the same. A broken door lay across the threshold. The place felt eerie.

[UselessBlob]

Varus went inside to look around. The quality of the walls suggested that a good amount of work went into the tower's construction, but there was nothing to indicate what the tower's purpose was from the outside. Chances are there wouldn't be much more on the inside, but it was worth a shot.

[Tibbius]

Erbil followed Varus as far as the threshold. There he held back, silhouetted against the green tinged forest sunlight when Varus glanced behind. The interior smelled rotten, the pungent sweet scent of old damp wood. Varus stumbled over a big hunk of wood that flared with soft blue luminescence where his boot had scuffed it. Looking around, he gradually discerned the remains of a fallen staircase that had led upward to a dilapidated patchwork floor. "I fell from the stairs," said Erbil. "The glossy pushed me."

[UselessBlob]

Varus blinked several times, dumbfounded. "The what?" he asked. He looked at the piece of wood he had stumbled over, specifically the glowing part. He had heard tales of rare cave fungus that glowed in the dark, but this was not the right climate for a cave fungus, and the sun was directly overhead. Could this be Animus related?

[Tibbius]

Something in Varus' head fit together all of a sudden. He had seen from the outside that there was no roof on the tower. But inside the tower it was shadowy and dark. The sun should be nearly overhead, he was sure of that. But there was no bright midday light inside the tower. Only gloom.

"The glossy!" said Erbil, and he stumbled back from the doorway, pointing past Varus as he did so.

[UselessBlob]

A haunted tower where no sunlight dare shine? Varus had a bad feeling about this. As fast as possible, he pulled out his blade and took a defensive stance in the doorway, preventing whatever it was from getting to the boy. But what was it? Varus tried to peer into the dark.

[Tibbius]

It was translucent and shimmery. "Glossy" was a good word to describe it. Varus could see its bones and organs as it scuttled down the inside wall of the tower, moving indistinctly in the darkness. It had a vaguely human head, four human arms and four human legs, and somehow its eight appendages were able to grip the wall so that it climbed swiftly downward. About three feet from the floor it leapt inward from the wall to land in the middle of the gloomy room, and charged toward Varus on its four legs with its arms spread wide.

[roll0] = three successes

[UselessBlob]

Varus braced himself against the door frame and attempted to shove the beast back, or at least reduce its momentum.

[roll0]

[Tibbius]

Varus braced himself against the door frame and attempted to shove the beast back, or at least reduce its momentum.

[roll0]

The great big sword gives you an additional two dice on your roll, however, you need at least two successes in order for the successes to count at all.

[UselessBlob]

As you've seen, I have really bad luck with dice rolls here. It probably won't help.
[roll0]

[Tibbius]

Varus loses 4 points from Flesh attributes - you pick which and where.

[UselessBlob]

The creature struck much harder than expected, slamming Varus' head against the frame with tremendous force. His thoughts were muddled and he felt nauseous, but he still had his sword between them, and so attempted to shove the edge of his blade into the creature's torso

-2 to Reason and Fortitude
Might roll: [roll0]

[Tibbius]

Undaunted by Varus' resistance, the glossy tried to strangle him with two of its four hands while the other two wrestled his own hands for control of the blade.
[roll0] = two successes

[UselessBlob]

I will activate Courage to reroll two dice (even though it probably won't help)
[roll0]
Varus was in a bad position. The monster had him by both the throat and the blade, but he couldn't afford to split his attention between the two. If he failed here, this abomination would surely slay both him and the boy, which he could not allow. Animus flowed to his heart, giving him the will to persevere. He tried to shove the glossy off of him.

[Tibbius]

We're getting into the situation where you might consider burning some animus points ...

Incidentally Clinton R. Nixon's mechanic here may be where Monte Cook got the idea for how attributes work in Numenera / Cypher system ten years later. But the Paladin rpg does it better.

[Tibbius]

By the way, activating Courage should have let you re-roll any dice that were less than or equal to 2. That should be 4 dice, not two. I'll roll the two extra dice for you:[roll0]

[UselessBlob]

Varus was in real trouble now. No matter what he did, he just couldn't get the upper hand. With bony hands constricting his windpipe, Varus couldn't concentrate very well anymore. In a second-to-last ditch effort, he shifted his weight backwards to pull both of them out of the doorway and into the afternoon sun. At this point he was relying on a flicker of hope that this thing lived in a magically gloomy tower because it hated the sun, but with his luck it would just disembowel him then and there.

-1 to Fortitude and -3 to Might
Can I heal during combat? If so, I would like to do that.

[Tibbius]

The Healing rules are stringent:


Flesh attributes that have lowered due to physical damage are recovered at the rate of one point per session. They may be healed faster by spending Animus. It costs a number of Animus points equal to the new level of the attribute to heal one point of damage.

I would rule that concluding the combat would be the end of a "session." I think some of the damage is temporary anyway - rules about reactive/active loser.

The sunlight seemed to intimidate the glossy. It held back momentarily.

[UselessBlob]

It didn't hurt the thing, but the light gave Varus an opening that he desperately needed. He renewed his grip on his sword and readied a swing. White fire danced along the edge as he poured Animus into the attack, and he performed a mighty overhead chop aiming to cleave its skull in twain.

I'll spend two points on this.
[roll0]

[Tibbius]

2 points of what?

[roll0] - you had six successes vs the glossy's two - enough to take out this Unliving completely.

With a surge of flame, Varus' sword strikes true. The glossy collapses in a heap of limbs, its eerie glimmer suddenly dimmed. It seems much smaller now that it no longer moves.

Varus is not immediately certain where Erbil went. He is relieved - but somewhat unsettled - to notice that the gloom is literally draining from the tower, the interior brightening from the top downward with sunlight tinted green by the overarching trees.

+3 points Light Animus to distribute as you wish.

[UselessBlob]

Points of Light Animus, which I used to add more dice to the roll. On a related note, should I have been adding another die when using my sword since I have the Arms ability? Regardless, if the session has ended, I would like to heal a point of Reason.

Varus dropped his sword and himself to the ground, panting heavily. It had been a long time since he had fought an Unliving creature as ferocious as... the glossy. What a non-threatening name. Varus laughed, then immediately regretted it as his head throbbed. He groaned instead, realizing that he would eventually have to get up. He laid there for a while, enjoying not being dead, but he eventually got up and retrieved his weapon. He decided that it would be a good idea to search the tower now that the monster was dead and the gloom dispersed. Perhaps he could find clues as to the whereabouts of the Other that created it.

[Tibbius]

Points of Light Animus, which I used to add more dice to the roll. On a related note, should I have been adding another die when using my sword since I have the Arms ability? Regardless, if the session has ended, I would like to heal a point of Reason.


The session has ended, and it's time to gain Animus and heal Flesh. (As far as I understand, Animus doesn't heal.)

I'm sorry, I think you're correct that right at Step 1 you should have added a die to each roll for your Arms ability. It would be a bit much to retcon the whole combat ... on average one die would give you 1/2 success per roll, and you made three rolls. I'll round up and say you should have had two additional successes = two points of Flesh not lost.

Please select which Flesh attribute did not lose points. Also, please select which specific Light attribute(s) you spent down on your last roll.

[UselessBlob]

Sweet, I'll retcon myself some Fortitude back. What does the last sentence mean, though? I thought I just had to spend Animus points to do supernatural things.

[Tibbius]

Sweet, I'll retcon myself some Fortitude back. What does the last sentence mean, though? I thought I just had to spend Animus points to do supernatural things.

When you spend Animus, you have to track which Animus attribute you're taking from - e.g., when you spent Light Animus, which of the following did you reduce by 2?

Courage 2 Insight 2 Wisdom 2


Please update and post revised character sheet accordingly.

This loss of Light attributes (putting your character at risk of "going dark") is a built-in feature of the rules as far as I can tell. "What will your character sacrifice to serve The Good?" Maybe you're supposed to roleplay changes in Varus' personality as the Light or Dark Animus becomes more significant (he's just gone from 6 Light 3 Dark to 7 Light 3 Dark after spending and gaining).

[UselessBlob]

((Talking through spoilers is getting kind of annoying, so I'll just do this with OOC stuff. Anyway, I keep looking through the book and don't see anything about giving up attribute points whenever I spend Animus for extra dice. What page is that on? Also, the book says that Light Animus points are given for defeating primarily Dark foes. That's in addition to the points gained from overcoming adversity, right? It also says that not all Unliving have Dark attributes, so I get not receiving that here.))

[Tibbius]

((This convention works for me.

You're right. This is my first time running these rules, and I misunderstood them. You spent 2 Light Animus and gained 3. Those go to a pool of points, not directly to the Light attributes. During character creation we should have clarified how many of 6 initial points went to Light Animus vs Dark Animus. Could you please do that now?))

[UselessBlob]

((5 Light, 1 Dark. Yeah, I was really confused.))

Might 3, Fortitude 2, Reason 1

[Tibbius]

Stepping around the remains of the Unliving, which already was beginning to stink now that the semblance of life had been removed, Varus found the tower vacant and jumbled with fallen beams and floorboards. The upper levels had collapsed under weather so that the tower essentially was open to the sky. The floor of the ground level was paved with hexagonal stone tiles, each about a foot across. Aside from the collapsed structures, the ground level was open from side to side between the outer walls. At one side there was a hearth and fireplace that must have served as a kitchen space. Under a pile of beams stood a long and sturdy wooden table, its chairs broken by the weight that had fallen from above. There were no other furnishings. After a few minutes searching for clues, Varus wondered again where the boy had gone.

[UselessBlob]

Satisfied that he wouldn't get anything useful out of the ruin, Varus left the tower and started to yell for the boy to come out. After a few shouts, he thought of something and unsheathed his sword. Before he left the place, he should gather some proof that there was a real monster out here. He swung his great weapon overhead and chopped off one of the corpse's hands. With the hand in hand, he started walking back towards the village, again yelling for Erbil.

[Tibbius]

After about a minute, Erbil emerged from the underbrush. He gasped when he saw the shriveled hand that Varus carried: "Is that from the glossy?!" As they scrambled back through the overgrowth and underbrush toward the verge of the forest, the boy explained that he had found the ruined tower back in the winter while following squirrel tracks in the snow. He had made a game of seeing how far in he could enter before getting frightened. After a while he had begun to see the glossy lurking in the rafters, but he had never been harmed by it until it knocked him down as he was trying to escape over the threshold last week. He was relieved that Varus had killed the thing. He would never go back to the tower now; he could not explain why he had been so drawn to it.

Erbil's story did not answer a pressing question - where was the Other who had animated the Unliving thing?

[UselessBlob]

Varus made his way to town as quickly as possible, not bothering to even attempt to remove the unholy corpse-slime from his gear. After forcefully receiving directions to the mayor's office, he barged in, brandishing a severed hand and telling him that he needed to call a town meeting immediately.

[Tibbius]

Although there's not really a mayor or an office in the small village, Varus does secure the attention of a middle-aged man who represents himself as the selectman who deals with outsiders and settles disputes. The man's name is Tuni. He is fit and muscular and well-tanned, indicative of his usual work as a farmer in the fields below the village. He wears simple peasant clothing, tunic and knit leggings. He has come from hoeing for weeds, so his clothing is damp with sweat in this summer warmth.

"I know Mother Ana quite well," says Tuni. "She helped my wife in both births so far. I think Ula has been prone to drama since her baby daughter died two years ago. She blamed Mother Ana for that, too, because Ana told her to put the baby to sleep on her side when the baby had a cold.

"Anyway, this thing you are showing me is horrifying. I don't need to go look at this tower to believe what you're telling me. Are you sure there's no more like it?

"Of course you are welcome to rest here as long as you need to recover from your danger. We honor the Order and the sacrifices that you all make for our safety.

"I wish Erbil had told the truth sooner, he's caused needless dismay in the community and there must be some consequence for his fiction. Do you have any suggestion?"

[UselessBlob]

Varus sighed. "I've already told him off, more people doing so would just make him feel attacked and resentful. Instead, you should have him work for Ana. It's a punishment in that he loses his free time, but it also works as restitution for any harm he's dealt her, inadvertently or otherwise."

He stopped for a second and yawned. Fighting the glossy took a lot out of him. Varus really needed some rest. Not just yet, though. He continued. "Now we need to determine the whereabouts of the creature's creator. Gather your oldest and wisest, and anyone well versed in local legends. Figuring out when that tower was built will be a good starting point."

[Tibbius]

The rest of the day went quietly along. The selectman found the oldest people native to the village, and each of them contributed another legend about the haunted tower that everyone seemed to have known was in the woods for generations. All of them had played at the tower as kids. Nobody other than Erbil knew of the glossy, though.

Ana was not among the old natives, and a few questions revealed that she was "new" to the village having only lived there for about twenty years. Nobody was sure where she had come from.

The selectman suggested that Varus should go over to Ana's cottage and talk to her if he was so curious about her.

[Tibbius]

Five days since I've posted ... still interested?

[UselessBlob]

Varus felt a bit awkward having to go talk to the old woman. He had dismissed her earlier as a typical harmless old coot that locals would blame all their problems on, but since he had discovered an Unliving in the vicinity of the village, he had to admit that Erbil's hysterical mother might have been right, something he felt an inordinate amount of discomfort doing. Varus did not like to think of himself as prideful, but he was willing to admit to his shortcomings, at least to himself.

In order to take his mind off of all the introspective stuff, he unsheathed his sword and had a go at cleaning it of the glossy's fluids. Liquid essence of evil really did a number on steel, and the Order tended to frown on Paladins damaging their blades so carelessly.

((Sorry, I've been busy with all the preparations to go back to college. I'm back now, though.))

[Tibbius]

Now that the forums are back, would you like to continue this game?

[UselessBlob]

((I'm back.))

[Tibbius]

Sunset was nearing and Varus had not yet eaten that day. His stomach churned with hunger, accented by the let-down from fighting for his life. He knew he had his choice of hearths to sup. Where and when would he eat? Before, after, or during an interview with Old Ana? Or would he leave that to the next day?

[UselessBlob]

As a travelling Paladin, Varus was no stranger to hunger. He would sometimes have to eat no more than once a day in order to save on rations. Then there were the times like this day, where he had simply forgotten to eat due to all the excitement. Oh well. Varus decided that he should eat dinner before talking to the old bat. As for where, well... Varus didn't want to impose on random citizens, but there was a certain boy whose mother had certainly imposed upon him. He headed towards Erbil's hut.

[Tibbius]

It turned out that Erbil's mother was named Ula, and that she was more hospitable than her initial encounter with Varus had suggested. She pleasantly set a place for the paladin and ladled him a generous serving of barley porridge replete with onions and scallions and carrots. "I'm sorry, the spring celery is gone," she said.

Erbil sat quietly, looking at his wooden bowl and eating slowly. It was clear that he had something on his mind. He almost seemed to be afraid of Varus. Maybe that was not surprising, since he had a few hours earlier witnessed the paladin slay one of the Unliving.

[UselessBlob]

Varus ate silently for a while, not knowing what to say. He had never been good at talking to children. The meal was simple but decent. He thought it could use some meat, but they undoubtedly couldn't afford it except on special occasions. Although being visited by a Paladin surely counted as a special occasion... no, bad Paladin! No selfishness, that way lies the path of darkness.

Varus forced himself to speak up just to get out of that headspace. "So Erbil, it seems something is on your mind." It felt awkward to say, and Varus had no idea how the boy would react, but the tension was killing him.

[Tibbius]

"So Erbil, it seems something is on your mind."

There was a moment. Then, "Mama -" said Erbil "- I did a bad thing." And he explained, speaking rapidly, the whole story that had taken Varus all day to puzzle together.

Ula set down her spoon, stood up, leaned across the table, and smacked Erbil across the face. He began to cry silently.

"Don't tell tales on people," she said firmly and without any apparent awareness of her own rumor-mongering. "It brings trouble."

[UselessBlob]

Varus was angry. Not because of the slap (although he disapproved of it, it wasn't his place to judge parental discipline), but because of the hypocrisy. This woman was punishing her child without any acknowledgement of her own actions. Varus grabbed his spoon, wolfed down his porridge despite the heat, and slammed it into the table. Then he stood, fixed her with the stare only one who is absolutely sure of his own righteousness could give, and spoke.

"Need I remind you, Madam, that it was you who accused Ana of being an Other to a Paladin without checking to see if it was true? If I had not done my due diligence and investigated first, her death would have been on your head. I must go and speak to her now, but I expect the both of you to apologize first thing tomorrow. I thank you for the food. Good night." With that, he stormed out of the hut and went to finally meet Old Ana.

[Tibbius]

The door of Old Ana's hut threw a warm yellow glow across the cool green grass of the summer evening. Varus saw her shadow crossing the doorway as she stooped to the hearth. His boots fell softly on the grass but as he neared the door the crone came to it, looking directly at him in the darkness. Her face was shadowed as she greeted him:

"Paladin. I am surprised you didn't visit me sooner. It used to be a custom for travelers to visit with the selectman and with the elder of a village. What brings you now? Do you need dinner?"

[UselessBlob]

"No thank you, I just ate." said Varus. It was a partial lie, he was still hungry, but he couldn't risk falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book. "I'm here because an Unliving monster was found nearby, and that means there's a good chance an Other lived or still lives in the area. Frankly, a villager accused you of being one, which means I am duty-bound to investigate." He raised his hands in supplication. "Not that I believe that you are one, of course. I would like to hear your story, is all. What brought you here?"

[Tibbius]

Old Ana laughed. It seemed like a genuine spontaneous shout of laughter. Then she chuckled. "I've never been called an Other before," she said, shaking her head. "It's quite ironic. Come in, sit down." She shuffled back into the cottage, gesturing Varus to follow. "I didn't know there was an Unliving here," she said over her shoulder, "but I guess when one retires, one's skills get dull."

[UselessBlob]

Varus followed her for a couple steps, then paused. "When one retires, one's skills grow dull." It couldn't be... but it was.

"You're a Paladin."

Varus was flabbergasted. Not that a woman was a Paladin, there was too great a need for them to discriminate like that, but that a Paladin could retire. He was under the impression that they just kept fighting until they physically couldn't, then spent the rest of their lives training new ones.

Varus needed to sit down.

[Tibbius]

"You can sit on my stool," said Old Ana as she stooped again over the fire and stirred a heavy bronze pot. It smelled a lot like what Varus had just eaten ... but spicier and better.

"So of course you're wondering, how does a Paladin retire? The answer is simple. One simply ... stops. No more killing. No training to kill. One keeps the sword as a memento, and because nobody else would want it. No student to gift it." She looked over her shoulder and smiled. "But why one would stop? That's my secret to carry. Just be sure, I'm no Other. Do you doubt me? Reach out with your spirit and test."

Please take a look at the rules and see if you can figure out what to roll here ... I can't quite see how many dice you get to use for sensing Animus.

[UselessBlob]

((I can't figure it out either. I guess it's an oversight. My best guess would be the active Animus attribute, since they can use their reactive attribute to confound your attempts at detection. Or maybe just a flat 3d6. IDK. I'll go with my first guess.))

[roll0]

[Tibbius]

It was unmistakably obvious now that he looked. Ana was a powerful Paladin.

[UselessBlob]

((I got four successes, how high is her highest att?))

Varus was literally staggered by the power radiated from what everyone thought was a little old lady. He tried to sit on the stool, missed, and fell right on his tailbone. He didn't even notice the pain.

"You... you're so... why? Why did you leave?"

[Tibbius]

"As I said, that is my secret." Ana brought a bowl of porridge and a spoon to the table next to the stool and set them down. She reached a hand to help Varus up; her grip was (un?)surprisingly strong.

((highest Animus is 7))

[UselessBlob]

Varus took a seat. He really wanted to know why she was here, but she seemed unwilling to discuss her past. Instead, he got straight to business.

"The Unliving in the tower was accompanied by some sort of gloom spell that aided it in ambushing anyone who entered its lair. I believe this means it was left there to guard it, yet I couldn't find anything inside worth guarding. In addition, I have a hard time believing a Paladin as powerful as you missed it for twenty years, which could mean that it was placed there recently. If that is the case, an Other might be trying to set up here. What do you think?"

[Tibbius]

Old Ana inhaled through her sparse teeth, making an eerie sucking whistle. "Young man, I think you're right," she said. "I have been too relaxed in my retirement. I thought that I could leave the work behind, and so I ceased to be vigilant. Now Erbil paid a price for that, which could have been higher - too high. I have heard about his injury and how his mother wouldn't bring him to me. Hopefully that nonsense will cease now. I would like to help with his leg. That is a piece of work I still would do."

[UselessBlob]

Varus grinned slightly. "I told his mother off for making dangerous accusations earlier. If she understands what she's done, she'll be here in the morning." He yawned and stretched, then winced from the pain of his many bruises. "Ow. The monster put up quite a fight. I should get some rest, give it time to heal a bit. Would you happen to know a good place for me to spend the night? I wouldn't want to impose too much."

[Tibbius]

"You can sleep on my floor," responds Ana. "I have a spare blanket. As you know, the summer night is cool. In the morning, if Erbil and his mother do not come here, let's go to them. I want to see that knee."


Recover 1 point to a Flesh attribute.
---

Morning in summer comes early and Varus awakens no stiffer and a bit warmer and happier than the many times that he's slept under stars with only his cloak for cover and his sword for company. Old Ana arises a few minutes after Varus opens his eyes. She immediately goes to kindle the charcoal in the hearth then dips a small brass pot into a barrel of water in the corner and sets the pot onto the iron tripod. "We'll have tea before we go to Ula's house," she says.

[UselessBlob]

((I'll put that in Reason.))

Varus picked himself off the ground and sat in the stool he had missed last night.
"I took a look at it yesterday, but I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong. He can walk on it, so it isn't broken, but his knee is greatly swollen. I believed it to be the result of a venomous bite, but I now know that it was somehow caused by the Unliving, which he called "the glossy." Could its claws have had a poison that didn't affect me?" he asked the senior Paladin with at least twenty years of healing experience.

[Tibbius]

"I won't guess without seeing it," responded Ana calmly. It was obvious from her demeanor that she wasn't worried. "It might ... no, I'll see it first."

As they were finishing their tea, Ula and Erbil showed up at the door. Both had downcast faces and hunched shoulders. "Mother Ana?" asked Ula from the doorway. "May we speak with you?"

"Hah. Come in," responded the elderly Paladin. "What would you like to say?"

Erbil edged in front of his mother. There was a faint bruise on his cheekbone. "Mother Ana," he said, "I'm sorry that I told a tale on you. I was afraid about the glossy because I wasn't s'posed to play at the old tower. I knew if I told I would be in big trouble. It's not your fault I hurt myself running away."

Mother Ana approached the boy, sparing a glance at his silent mother. She knelt stiffly and probed Erbil's knee beneath the hem of his shirt, wiggling the knee cap in a way that caused him to suck breath briefly. He kept a stoic expression although his eyes got wet.

"It's a bad sprain," she said firmly. "You need to be lying down for a few days, and wrap it tight with cloth. Only get up to pee and poop. I know that will be hard for a little boy, but it's important. Your mother can come for me when it stops hurting, and I will look at it again."

"Now what can you tell me about the glossy?"

Erbil quickly told her what he knew. The glossy had been there since he started playing at the tower. At first he had barely seen it, as if it was playing peekaboo. It had gotten bolder and then it had begun to make little rushes toward him. It never left the tower, as if it needed to stay hidden. The last time it had rushed all the way to the door, and Erbil had stumbled over a stone as he was running away. He had never told any of his friends about the game. He knew it was bad.

"Huh." said Ana. "How long have you been playing at the tower?"

A couple of years.

"Well," Ana said thoughtfully, "Varus. Do you have any questions?"

[UselessBlob]

A sprain. Varus had to deal with a hysterical woman, a stupid kid who willingly played with a murderous corpse, and said corpse which had nearly disemboweled him, and it was all because of a blasted sprain. He gripped the seat harder to keep himself from saying anything. And harder. Hard enough that a chunk snapped off in his hand.

It was the last straw.

Varus burst out laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all. He was just supposed to go where he was told and hit the bad people. He was still relatively inexperienced, and this was by far the strangest situation he had ever faced. All he could say between painful wheezes was "You were *wheeze* more afraid of your *wheeze* mother than a four armed monster?" He laughed again, but his eyes showed more anger than mirth.

[Tibbius]

Glad to hear from you.

Yeah, I go for the unexpected when it's reasonable. Sometimes it's funnier in character.

Everyone else in the cottage got a shocked look on their faces. Then Ana chuckled. "It does seem absurd, I agree. Ula, you might want to reconsider your parenting choices. Your son should trust you enough to tell you things like this! And Erbil ... what were you thinking? How could it be a good idea to play with something that creepy? ... Varus, I am at a loss what else to ask."

[Tibbius]

"I thought it was just pretend," said Erbil sullenly. He blushed with shame. "Then it came out of the shadows and I saw it was real. May I go home and lie down?"

"Yes, baby," said Ula protectively. "Come on now. ... Thank you, Mother Ana. ... I'm sorry I said bad things about you. You've always tried to help." There was a note of bitterness in her emphasis on "tried." ... "Goodbye," she added sadly. She went out the doorway slowly, keeping pace with Erbil's awkward hobble. If anything, the boy's limp seemed to have gotten a little worse.

[UselessBlob]

Varus managed to restrain his laughter to manic giggling so that Ula could make her apology, and calmed down once they left sight. After taking a couple of deep breaths, he asked Ana about the injury. "It's worse than it looks, isn't it? He's been aggravating the sprain with his playing, and thanks to his mother he's avoided treatment for some time. Tell me honestly, will he be able to fully recover?"

While not a healer of any sort, Varus knew a little about muscle and bone injuries. It's natural to pick up that sort of information during training, when a serious injury could permanently disqualify a recruit from receiving their sword. He had laughed a minute ago, but Varus knew that there was a good chance that Erbil's knee would never bend quite right again.

[Tibbius]

Ana sighed. "As you can tell, I have a little reserve of power. I am willing to use it if nothing else works, though I am worried it will freak the villagers out. But worst case, I should be able to fix things. Have you ever used Animus for healing?"

[UselessBlob]

"Er, no I haven't. I always just relied on our naturally fast healing ability. Wait, are you talking about healing other people? I'd always heard it was dangerous to try without extensive training. Anyway, if you can help him, do it. The people wouldn't hate you if they found out you were a Paladin. If anything, I'd think they would be grateful for your silent protection all these years."

[Tibbius]

Ana snorted a little and grumbled something crotchety. It might have been "Yes and a lot of good I did them."


There's more to the story. Should we cut scene a couple days here? What would Varus do in that time?

[UselessBlob]

((Sure. He'd probably be searching the village for places an Other could be hiding from detection.))

[Tibbius]

The village was relatively large - a few dozen cottages surrounded by fields and pastures. Many of the cottages were two stories tall, with livestock living in the lower room and people in the upper. Others had adjacent sheds for animals. Varus poked all around, imposing a bit on the natural deference of the ordinary villagers. He found nothing. When he checked on Erbil, the boy was cranky about his bed rest but seemed to be limping less when he got up to go make water in one of the community holes.

After a couple of days staying with Old Ana, she mentioned on the third morning: "Should we go take a look at the glossy's corpse? I'm curious what it was, and the more I think about your description the more puzzled I am."

[UselessBlob]

"Of course. As far as Unliving go, I wouldn't call it particularly strange, though. I hear the ones made of multiple corpses are truly abominable. What sticks out about it?"

[Tibbius]

She grimaced. "I've been here a few years now. I'm curious whether I can recognize any of the ... parts ... of the thing. Maybe too late to do that now, I should have thought about it sooner."

[UselessBlob]

Varus grimaced as well. "It was pretty far gone from whoever it had once been. I couldn't even tell you if it was a man or a woman. We can go look, but it had translucent skin. That means no scars or birthmarks to identify. I suppose that leaves the bones. Could you figure out who it was from that?"

[Tibbius]

"Maybe ..." said Ana slowly. "... if any of the bones had ever been broken and set, since I've been here, that would narrow it down a lot. And even if it's translucent, maybe I could tell from the structure of the face. Do you remember whether it had hair?"

[UselessBlob]

"I don't remember, I was too busy fighting for my life at the time. I don't think it did but I may be wrong. Anyway..."

Here Varus got up from the stool and started walking out the door.

"We won't find out just by sitting around and talking about it, will we?

[Tibbius]

It took a little time - in fact, it took all morning - to re-find the lost and haunted tower where Erbil and the glossy "played" and where Varus fought for his life. In the summer sunlight it did not look menacing. They entered the creepy doorway without incident, and found the interior well-lit by sunbeams down through the ruined wooden roof.

Right by the threshold the remains of the glossy lay scattered. Its weird translucent glow was gone; its scraps of flesh were pallid. It had two heads and two bodies fused spine-to-spine, with a third smaller head and body sprouted from the chest of the "front" bigger body. The two big heads had hair, one blond, one red. The little head had pale blond fuzz.

The odor of decaying meat surrounded them as they gazed on the carcass.

Ana looked closely at the faces, keeping her hands at her hips as she creakily knelt beside the no-longer-glossy. Suddenly she gasped and came up to her feet.

"That's Erbil's father's face, I think. And that his baby sister."

[UselessBlob]

"They're what?" shouted Varus. He knelt next to Ana to get a closer look. A baby... the sick bastard used a baby's corpse in his blasphemy against life. Trembling with fury, white fire erupted in Varus' palm as he prepared to incinerate every last scrap of the monster.

Then he clenched his fist and extinguished the flame. He couldn't destroy it just yet. "Who's the third one, another relative of Erbil's?"

[Tibbius]

"I don't know," Ana answered. "I think it may be ... older ... than the rest." She wiped her hands on her dress as if trying to clean them, though she hadn't touched anything dirty. When she wasn't speaking her lips were clamped together and there was a crease in the middle of her forehead. She shook her head, wavy gray hair brushing her shoulders as she did so. "A baby ... what's the significance of that?"

[UselessBlob]

Varus stood back up and turned away from the thing in the ground. He didn't need to look at it further. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then spoke.

"Shock value. All it takes is one moment for a foe to hesitate attacking what looks like a baby, and the monster strikes without fear of reprisal. If it weren't a mere guard dog, I would assume that the father and sister being components meant something, but as it is, Erbil finding the tower and playing here is probably a coincidence. I think we'll find that the third body was buried next to them."

Varus walked outside and leaned his back against an overgrown wall.
"You can search around if you want, but I'm not spending another second looking at that abomination. We're heading to the graveyard next."

[Tibbius]

Ana assented and led the way back through the forest to the graveyard, which was set at the edge of the forest downhill from the village - at the entire other side from the haunted tower. "People come here when they need to bury someone," she said. "Otherwise not much. Last time was when little Sonra died. Erbil's sister. People don't die often here."

They found two adult-sized holes, overgrown with weeds and brambles, right next to each other.

"They buried Sonra with her father Unril," Ana said. "It was a tragedy."

[UselessBlob]

Varus nodded his head absently in thought. It was strange. The sloppiness of taking three corpses next to each other instead of searching the place for the biggest and strongest, combined with the fact that they never bothered to fill in the holes, suggested an absolute amateur. Yet, the construction of an amalgam Unliving and their apparent ability to evade the detection of an experienced Paladin meant a degree of skill that he had a hard time believing a new Other would possess. Unless...

"Have Others been known to have apprentices?" he asked.

[Tibbius]

"Inexperience!" said Ana. "I remember once finding an entire family of Others, in a large city south from here. All but the toddler were involved in dark deeds. The odor of rotting Animus rolled off the parents like a cloud of greasy smoke. But if the children had not confessed their actions, I would not have seen them for what they were ... as one gets older, it gets harder to identify the smaller traces of evil."

[UselessBlob]

Varus would have asked what kind of monster would force their own children to kill, but the answer was self-evident. Instead, he knelt down to look closer at the empty graves, specifically the weeds that had sprouted out of them. He was no more a gardener than he was a healer, but even he knew that brambles didn't grow out overnight. "How long do you think these holes have been empty?" he asked.

[Tibbius]

"Maybe a year," said Ana. "Most of the vines still are green. Whoever dug here must have cut back the brambles first, they have been all over the gravesites for a long time.

"I remember now, the grave next to Unril was Nuba, his sister. A tragedy. They died within days of each other, once Sonra passed. The father struck down by grief, then the aunt by double grief. Only Ula and Erbil survived. That little boy has been through a lot."

[UselessBlob]

Varus grunted in frustration.

"None of this makes sense. If the Other or Others have been here for at least a year, why haven't they been doing anything besides creating that one Unliving?"

Varus started to pace in front of the open graves, pondering.

"They may be preying on travelers, people nobody around here would notice, but what does the tower have to do with it? Why go through the trouble of making a guard for an empty tower most of the villagers avoid anyway? What does Erbil's family have to do with any of this?"

Varus stopped and turned to face Ana, his displeasure evident on his face.

"I don't know what else to do. Must we wait until someone else dies?"

[Tibbius]

Ana pulled her hair into a ponytail and wrapped it around her neck as she stood pondering over the brambly graves in the bright summer sun.

"Well," she said, "it takes a lot of Animus to make an Unliving. Maybe the Other ... ran out of Animus? Usually they would kill again to get more. Maybe they made the Unliving, left it to haunt us, and then moved on?

"Usually," she added, "an Unliving kills and consumes without mercy. This one ... did not. That puzzles me. Maybe Erbil's family does hold a key to this puzzle."

[UselessBlob]

"I hadn't thought about it before, but you're right. Mindless Unliving can't control their appetite for bloodshed. Hold on... I've got it! The creature hated light, but what if that was intentional, to keep it in the tower? Perhaps the tower was meant to be a trap for someone, maybe even Erbil. We need to go ask him some more questions."

[Tibbius]

Old Ana clapped her hands. "Yes! I think you're right. Come with me..." and energetically she hobbled toward the cottage shared by Ula and Erbil. "... I should fill you in a little more about those three," she added with an abrupt gesture back toward the robbed graves.

"First Sonra died. Then ... I said that her father died of a broken heart. Well, it was more that he ... killed himself. Within a week. Then the sister, likewise, after only a few days helping Ula care for little Erbil. That left only Ula and Erbil out of the whole family. I'm glad the other children have accepted Erbil again, for several months they all were shy of him. Because ... death is frightening."

[Tibbius]

They quickly arrived at the cottage. Ula was out. Erbil was sitting by the hearth, sipping at a bowl of gruel. He looked healthy.

"I think my knee is better!" he said excitedly when Ana and Varus appeared in the doorway. "Look!" He put down the bowl and easily stood, walking stiffly around the inside of the small one room cottage with only a slight limp.

"Are you here to talk to Mommy?" he asked.

[UselessBlob]

Varus cleared his throat, trying to buy time while he thought about what exactly he wanted to say to the boy and his mother. Jumping straight to the fact that their family members' corpses had been desecrated was obviously out, but that didn't tell him what he should say instead. Maybe he could try figuring out whether Erbil was intended to be a victim of the glossy.

He motioned Ana forward so she could check the knee, and replied "I'm here to talk to both of you. I'd like you to tell me about the day you found the tower again. Give me every detail you can remember, especially who you talked to and what it was about."

[Tibbius]

"I knew about the tower for a long time," Erbil answered. "A couple of years ago. One of the older kids told me about it and dared me to go there. So I went. It was kind of pretty with all the ivy on it. I didn't see the glossy. Just ... it was dark inside. That was in the spring, two years ago. I was eight. It was a hot day and the inside of the tower was cold."

Varus remembered that cold. He had been concerned with the darkness, but the cold had been almost wintry.

[UselessBlob]

Well that wasn't very helpful. The only new information was that it was really cold in the tower, which Varus had experienced firsthand (though admittedly forgot about). Why was that, though? It may have lacked exposure to sunlight, but shade couldn't stop hot air from coming in. It must have been part of the same enchantment that caused the gloom. Still, why do that? Unliving were protected from (further) decay by the same dark energy that animated them. The only thing Varus could think of was that the glossy was made incorrectly and leaking Animus, but that probably would have been detectable by Ana. Dammit, conjecture was getting him nowhere, he needed real clues!

[Tibbius]

The game is definitely in a puzzle-solving stage right now. If that's something you don't like, I can try to think of bigger hints or just answer the riddle and let you get ahead to the next stage. But if you would like to keep working the puzzle a bit more, try re-reading the entirety of the game so far and looking for any inconsistencies.

[UselessBlob]

((Oh, we're Phoenix Wrighting it up in here, are we? I'll give it a shot))

All of a sudden, Varus had a flash of insight. There was something that Erbil had said a couple days ago, something out of place. "Could you tell me one more time how you hurt your knee, I believe I've forgotten."

[Tibbius]

A smug look flickered across Erbil's face. "I ... was running away from the glossy," he said.

[UselessBlob]

Varus caught that look. There was no doubt about it: Erbil was lying. "Oh, I remember now. That's funny. I could have sworn you said that the glossy pushed you down the stairs." As he said this, Varus casually strode to the entryway to the hut and leaned against the wall in such a way that he wasn't blocking it, but very easily could with a single step.

[Tibbius]

The boy twitched and looked away before turning an utterly innocent gaze on Varus. "I told you that I fell off the tower," he said, "because I was afraid to tell about the glossy. I'm sorry I lied about that. But then I told you the truth."

[UselessBlob]

Varus fixed Erbil with a glare that clearly conveyed how much crap he was about to take from the brat: Zilch.

"Let's try this again. You told me that the glossy pushed you off those stairs. Why don't you stop wasting both of our times and tell me the truth? Remember when I told you that lying can hurt people? Lying to a Paladin can kill."

Varus took out his blade and started to polish it, keeping eye contact with the boy and making it clear that he had one more chance before Varus started to get serious.

[Tibbius]

Varus heard Old Ana suck in her breath when his sword slithered out from its sheath. Erbil began to whimper, tears rolling down his face.

"What is going on?!" a shrill voice demanded from directly behind Varus. He recognized it: Erbil's mother, Ula.

[UselessBlob]

"Oh good, you're here at last. I've been busy interrogating one of the only two people who've lied to me during my stay here. I'm growing very tired of being lied to, so I would very much like it if you answered me honestly."

Varus stepped into the doorway and faced Ula, leaving his back to Ana and Erbil. He lifted his sword to rest on his shoulder and put the cloth in his pocket.

"I only have two questions for you. First things first, do you love your husband and daughter?"

[Tibbius]

Ula's face went white, except for the skin around her eyes, which almost glowed red.

"How dare you!" she responded. "Of course I loved them. But they're gone. How do you dare throw that in my face? I only have Erbil left. What have you been doing to him?"

[UselessBlob]

Varus stood stoic. He knew he looked like a complete and utter bastard, but he was prepared to face the consequences of being wrong. "Of course. I wouldn't expect anything else. That's why I'm sure the next question will be easy. When is the last time you visited their graves?"

[Tibbius]

Ula blinked. Anger on her face faded slightly toward puzzlement. "When they were buried?"

[UselessBlob]

((Well crap, I'm kind of stuck now.))

[Tibbius]

Hmmm. What are you looking for? Is there any aspect of the rules that lets you make a roll for it?

[UselessBlob]

((Final projects and stuff are coming up, so I'm really busy right now. My replies might take a while. Anyway, I'm trying to get her to slip up and admit she and/or Erbil is an Other, since it's pretty obvious that's where this is headed. That means I'll have to roll Reason.))

[roll0]

[Tibbius]

Good luck with exams and projects!
You're on the right track, I'm trying to figure out how we can get your character there so that we can move to the moral decision phase of the game.
You've got one success. Try bothering Erbil with the same question.

[UselessBlob]

Seriously? That did explain why the cemetery was overgrown, but what kind of backwards-ass town buries their dead and just forgets about them? Varus mostly kept his composure, merely blinking and slightly twitching his jaw, and turned sideways so he could see Erbil again. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling he should ask him too. Maybe his subconscious figured something out. Or he was grasping at straws.
"What about you, Erbil? When is the last time you went to see your father and sister?"

[Tibbius]

"I went to their graves but they weren't there."

[Tibbius]

"What?!" exclaimed Ula.

[UselessBlob]

"What?" said Varus. He knew that they weren't there, but he didn't think Erbil would just say it like that.

[Tibbius]

"They weren't there," said Erbil. "The holes were open. It was scary. I ran to the tower. The glossy was there."

[UselessBlob]

"When was this, then?" asked Varus. He wasn't so sure what was going on anymore. Why couldn't the Other just show up and monologue like in every lame bard's tale?

[Tibbius]

Erbil began to cry. "I didn't mean to," he said urgently. "They just came ... out. Together. And we went to the tower. I told them to stay there. And sometimes I went and played with them like before. But they got scarier and scarier."

[UselessBlob]

Varus blinked slowly. Then he sighed. Of course. That was why everything about this seemed weird. The kid had no idea what he was. Varus turned back to Ula.

"There's no way to make this any easier, so I'll tell it to you straight. Your son is an Other, and has been for some time."

[Tibbius]

The woman's face went blank, then white, and then she sent Varus sprawling backward against the doorframe as she lunged past him to put herself between the paladin and her son. "He is not!" she exclaimed.

[Tibbius]

"To become an Other one must kill," said Ana. "How could he have done that?"

[UselessBlob]

Embarrassed about being knocked down so easily, Varus got to his feet quickly and dusted himself off.

"It was your sister first, wasn't it Erbil? You held her wrong and she stopped breathing, and you were too scared to tell anyone. Then your father and your aunt, possibly by accident. You brought them back when you were feeling lonely, but they came back wrong. How close am I?"

[Tibbius]

"How close am I?"

Sobs and lamentation answered him.

[UselessBlob]

The exact details didn't really matter. What mattered was that Varus was a Paladin, and he had a duty to destroy Others before they kill more people. In a way, Varus was lucky that he caught this before Erbil figured out how to control his powers.

"I'll wait outside for you to say your last goodbyes. Don't bother running, it will only make it more painful."

Varus crooked an eyebrow at Old Ana, wondering what she was going to do.

[Tibbius]

The old Paladin sighed. "Ula," she said, "this is a hard thing. You stay in here for a while. Erbil, come with me."

"No!" shrieked Ula. "He's the last one I have!"

[UselessBlob]

Varus did feel bad about what he was about to do. He might very well have been about to ruin the poor woman's life. He couldn't let it get to him, though. No matter how old, an Other was a danger to everybody around them. By ending things here, other mothers would not have to suffer similarly.

Varus stopped to wonder what Ana was going to do with Erbil. Explain what was about to happen? He waited at the door to see what came next.

[Tibbius]

[roll0] Ana tries to use Empathy to get Ula out of the way

"No!" screamed Ula. "You can't have my baby! Not this one, too!"

"Ula," said Ana firmly, "of course it hurts to know that Erbil killed her. Nothing ever can make that right. Erbil tried his best to fix it, and he made a monster. He made himself a monster, too. All that is horrible for you, as it is horrible for all of us who know your family. I remember Erbil as a baby - so sweet, so innocent. I'm sure that you remember him. That's how we always want to think of children, sweet, safe, harmless. It's a very hard thing to see your child change, dear. It's a terrible thing to learn this, that your child is an Other. I can imagine your grief. But we can't give shelter to evil, Ula."

"You talk too much!" Ula shrieked. Tears streamed down her face. She trembled where she stood.

Ana abruptly stepped forward and embraced Erbil's mother, tripped her up, fell easily under her onto the dirt floor, wrapped her up in arms and legs. Ula sobbed and sobbed, making no effort to get free.

"Take him," Ana said with a glance toward Varus.

Erbil sat in the corner.

[UselessBlob]

Varus was grateful that he didn't have to do that himself. He didn't think he could have taken Erbil without having to hurt Ula. Varus walked past the sobbing woman and grabbed Erbil by the arm, dragging him out of the house. With some rope from his travel pack (Never leave home without it!) he bound the Other's hands.

"If you have anything to say, you might as well say it boy." he said.

[Tibbius]

Erbil cried softly and shook his head. From the corner of his eye, Varus saw two of the boys with whom Erbil had been playing in the meadow, several days ago. They stood slack-limbed between two cottages fifty feet away, silently watching him and Erbil.

[UselessBlob]

"Begone! This is not for your eyes!" Varus yelled at the boys. He wouldn't be responsible for their irreparable trauma. Once the gawkers had run, Varus ordered Erbil to kneel. He raised his great weapon and spoke one last time.

"I'm sorry. This won't hurt long."

[roll0]

[Tibbius]

Shall we leave the story? I'm not very fond of the rules now that I've seen them in action.

[UselessBlob]

((Sure, if you want. There does seem to be some features missing from the system.What now?))

[Tibbius]

I told the story I wanted to tell. I guess if you enjoyed this, I'll let you know next time I start up a game.