guild master POV
How quickly this situation had turned to shit was fascinating in a macabre way. It hadn’t been a full day since that ‘official’ statement got submitted and now Audrey was looking at a Murder scene of 4 bodies.
1 woman tied up, with a look of pure pleasure, while she was in a position with 3 guys doing some very, very wrong things.
Exactly as Marlin had told Tarrani to do. She had heaved her Breakfast out, the dead men had been given a lust potion.
Something so rare it was not even considered something you needed to worry about. But here it was, bloody 3 of them.
Tarrani, quite literally killed by 3 men who lost Control to lust and croaked due to the vile nature of that potion. The look of pleasure on the woman’s face was disgusting, as was the look of sick disgusting pleasure the men’s faces had.
She knew all of em, they belonged to the Honorless, allowed back in town for business. All frequented that bar that Tarrani liked so much.
”3 fucking Lust potions, in this fucking nick of the woods” Audrey cursed her Luck.
The only ones who knew about the craft of this potion were Cultists of Sarrtha, thought to have been rooted out 30 years ago. The crafting of that potion should not have been possible. How on earth did anyone get their hands on three?
Then there was Daini, disappeared without a trace. Her Best trackers had no clue where she was. The Culprit of the crime scene was obvious.
”well, well, well. What a sight” Audrey heard the delight in the man’s voice. Torren he was called and he was the constable they sent.
“O the fucking headache im going to have for the next month alone” she thought. “they send fucking Torren”.
She knew Torren from way back, the man loved to interrogate and blackmail people. He knew that somewhere, there was a juicy tidbit, a secret that could ruin someone’s reputation if it got out. He didn’t investigate crime or solved disputes for justice, no he did it to get people’s secrets. He was always on the Lookout for a secret to abuse. He got away with it because he was the bastard son of a noble who had a fling with a commoner, a relationship that could be denied by the noble at any time. Torren wasn’t really a noble but not really a Commoner either. So he got away with a lot of shit because commoners couldn’t touch him.
“I thought you hated this place, always complaining about the stench of the savage T’jut”. Audrey asked.
”O don’t play coy with me, you specifically asked for me in that second letter you send, after submitting that official statement, and i can see why, you are hoping to curry my favor aren’t you? Knew i wouldn’t be able to resist this”!
He practically sang, looking at it all like it was art, not the most disgusting scene he had ever seen.
Audrey, wasn’t surprised by that ‘second letter’, the bitch Daini had done that, to buy herself time. “Clever girl”, she muttered.
“Although it is a bit of a shame I will only be able to interrogate one person, must say that Marlin fellow is rather stupid to out himself like this” Torren said with a sad undertone in his voice.
Audrey chuckled “That’s where you are wrong Torren”, O she positively cood.
“One of my best trackers tailed the boy, he’s sweet on a T’jut girl”, Torren scrunched his nose and Audrey liked that expression, as if he tasted something vile, she made sure she spoke clear and as sultry as she could.
“You wouldn’t believe~ the things that boy comes up with to please his girl, the tracker was quite descriptive”, she purred. “It’s so good, im keeping notes~!” Audrey gleefully enjoyed Torren’s shock and horror.
“so he couldn’t have done it. And his minions never left his side”. Audrey finished. She knew she couldn’t tease Torren too much.
Torren’s face went through a series of expressions as he thought this over. “So more than one interrogation”?He asked with a raised eyebrow.
”Three”
”What”? Torren looked up.
”Three favors for what im about to tell you “, Audrey looked at him smiling.
“Well~~~~, you must be very confident that this is juicy~”. Toren seemed intrigued. “Hmmm you must be very sure, if you believe it is worth three favors, Very well but if im disappointed its a no”.
Audrey smirked. “This was the work of a spy, Daini, my previous receptionist was the culprit”.
“Do you realize what you are saying Audrey? It would mean i would have to interrogate a lot of people, including you” Torren was trembling from excitement.
“Ive got nothing you don’t already know you sick fuck”, Audrey thought, she kept smiling. “I know” she purred, talking with sultry undertones to add some dramatic effect “you have my full cooperation”.
The smile Torren had, made her shiver. “For that, my sweet Audrey, i will give you 4 favors”
Audrey who had believed to turn a shitty situation in her favor, with the bad hand she had been dealt with Torren in play, felt like she had walked into a trap.
Torren didn’t hand out favors like this. He knew something she didn’t.
“Fuck”, she thought, “how much worse is this”?
milly POV
Milly, Kotak, Bron and Marlin and the minion gang were walking back to town. Milly was riding Billy completely exhausted. It had gone on for hours, Marlin had been relentless. 3 hours, she had never gone for so long before.
3 hours of using her magic
Milly had always laughed at Bradford’s tales of him taking A young Marlin hunting, how his foul mouth got Bradford heaps of troubles. The Migraines He would get from Marlin’s antics and how it was like a constant divine intervention how he hadn’t died yet.
Today she understood Bradford’s pain. She had used some of her buffing capacities on Marlin earlier that day in the morning so he could get a feel for it.
Titans heart, which used her ability to naturally inspire people with the comprehension of the titan. It affected someone’s soul
Melody of the titan which was a chant that affected the mind
and Bones of the titan which was a direct spell that affected someone’s body
All of which did the same thing. Increase someone’s resistance to blunt force trauma from hammers or falling from great heights.
Magic could invoke a change in the body, mind and soul. But only one change could ever affect 1 of these three aspects on a person. Be those changes negative or positive.
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No sage has ever figured out why that is. Many attempts were made to try and change and figure it out. But it was like a puzzle piece once something was fitted into a person any other magic failed to ‘attach’.
One of the greatest advantages Her training as a T’jut sorcerer gave her group, is that she could focus on making her whole group effectively immune to what was commonly referred to as debuffs by prebuffing her allies.
A debuff could only take effect if there was no magical buff or debuff in place.
Marlin had first climbed into a tree and jumped, intrigued he climbed a much higher tree and jumped. She knew when he had that stupid grin on his face, he had thought of something crazy. He had said one word she had never heard before.
”Punting” this is great for an idea that i’ve had for a long time” his grin had been diabolical, “punting”.
‘Punting’, as it turned out, was according to Marlin, the act of throwing someone else at your problems. And the whole morning Marlin had looked like a fool standing on top Billy and making Billy charge and then launch Marlin by Billy kicking his hind legs, flinging Marlin through the air after charging.
She had laughed, o how she had laughed, the tribe thought it hilarious, after an hour or so he gave up blaming his paltry Dexterity and his sight had landed on Bron.
Bron had higher dexterity than him, and even if Marlin had no screws to begin with to think this crazy plan was good, Bron had plenty of loose screws to give it a shot.
It had been a critical success, Things went slow motion for Milly as she saw Bron sailing through the air landing his most devastating blow to date, Marlin used the term ‘kinetic force’.
The dark smile and grin on Bron’s face had been enough. Even Kotak the voice of reason gave it a shot. He had smiled, she saw that god damn sparkle in his eyes that he hid.
And how did Marlon dub this? ‘Milly’s delivery service’. It had been three hours of her chanting, inspiring and casting spells, because this newfound ‘strategy’ had to be practiced by all the men and women in the tribe. Dinatka the only other person capable of helping her in this endeavor had, of course, proclaimed this to be beneath her and told Milly this was great Practice.
Marlin initially sad he sucked at it, regained some of his joviality when both Barry and Jerry simultaneously launched themselves from Billy and unleashed a flurry of stabby stabs at the target.
Marlin had finally made his decision in regards to his level 2. not even his newfound love of the discipline Defiance would stop him.
Defiance
exert 9 stamina to lower the critical multiplier of a blow against you by one to a minimum of one.
how he had overlooked defiance up until now was beyond her, he had never given it much thought but after his near death with Bron, he had a newfound respect for the discipline.
But it could not withhold him from his decision, that when all was said and done, Profound Manifestation simply offered him too many benefits to ignore. It was a straight up boost to everything he did. Not to mention his minions would gain some serious benefit from it as well. All in all too good to not take.
Milly had understood his hesitation perfectly well, unlike warrior, the hidden tidbits of Tyrant disciplines were poorly documented. Not to mention the hidden side effects it had on your thinking.
Marlin had identified the problems and he pretty much mastered his Overlord discipline. He understood now how insidious it was, it was part of why his mockery and taunts were so effective, once unleashed, his darkness would start conjuring words laced with intonations and inflections of his tyrant speech, which could penetrate anyone’s mental defenses and willpower easily.
As far as he could tell there were no more hidden effects he wasn’t aware of. His last and final discovery that his minions could do everything he could do, was shocking to say the least.
It cost him a lot of exertion if Billy for example used staggering strike, which made it ineffective in a vacuum but the fact his minions were basically extensions of his everything, was frightening.
His bond with his minions had grown. He could look through their eyes, hear through their ears. He could tell he had some understanding to reform their bodies if they died but he didn’t feel like testing that.
”Im not crazy Milly”, is what he had said.
Milly did not share his concerns of him falling behind in the slightest. If he gained 4 more minions… how insane would that be? Those gnolls on their own were pushovers but Marlin never allowed them to get hit. Anything that can stab, can hurt or kill you.
Unlike Bradford who hadn’t seen Marlin fight as much as she had, she didn’t think Marlin was benefiting from divine intervention, far from it, his cunning and Merciless approach to combat far exceeded his paltry 10 int and wis.
As crazy as he was, he was intimately aware of his own limitations, allowing him To take risks no one else felt comfortable taking. He never classified anything as stupid or inefficient until he tried it.
Sure as far as root and primal magic went she would argue his stats were more like 6, he seemed as bad at it, as his gnolls. His general comprehension and understanding of life however, were the opposite, more along the lines of how she understood the world.
Marlin was the living embodiment that attribute numbers meant the average of a subset of characteristics on a person.
His strength for example. He was not as strong as someone with 14 strength as far as things went with heavy labor.
But his strength when fighting felt more like someone with strength of 16. At least that’s what Bron told her.
the only attributes marlin averaged, on all fronts, were his constitution, charisma and Domination.
Torren POV
Torren tapped his foot impatiently, after he left the crime scene he couldn’t wait to get to work and the best place to start was with this Marlin fellow. 2 town guards each lvl 5 and well trained were granted to him as escorts, they were well trained and most importantly they barely talked, which is exactly how he liked his cohorts.
4 people came into view and yes to his disgust the fact that the boys was sweet on the T’jut girl, was obvious with how the boy fawned over that fat pig of a tjut.
”must have some fetish, for him to look at her with those eyes, or perhaps she put him under an inspiration command, for him to be this lovestruck”, he thought,
“no she is fawning over him even more so, t’jut are blunt and not that cunning to begin with”.
His own conclusion disgusted him, these two were genuinely into eachother? T’jut in general liked their men bigger. The boy, his confidence notwithstanding was rather unremarkable, not very charming he had that rugged, ruthless look some women were into.
”she likes it rough huh”? He muttered.
“Show time boys” he spoke out loud. He walked forward with confidence, he didn’t need these two guards to take care of these 4.
LvL 1, lvl 2, lvl 2 and lvl 3. The monk looked like he could be a bit of trouble and those minions gnolls, pathetic,
“why is there a goat”? He thought, “a saddle? Ow my goodness! he really sells the humble background well”.
”HALT in the name of the law, i must bring you in for questioning in a Murder investigation”! Torren roared, he always loved this part, the shock, the fear, delicious.
The high kin boy looked straight at Torren. It irked him that there was no fear in his eyes whatsoever.
The T’jut all had the proper response his badge was definitive proof of his station.
They hissed at the Kin boy, to show Torren respect and still the boy had no fear. He even rested his hand on the handle of his axe, the Audacity!
”I’m assuming the murder happened in town so what do you need me for”? He asked questioningly.
”Because it’s someone you had dealings with, someone who ended up, just like you told her to”. Torren couldn’t hold back a vicious smirk.
”wtf”? The boy cursed. The fact that this boy was cursing in front of him made Torren wonder if he wasn’t quite alright in the head, he did have 2 nasty scars on his head.
“If this is about that stupid bitch who couldn’t keep her hands to herself, ive already made an official statement that all i did, was tell her some offensive shit, like get fucked by 3 guys. I never once insinuated or hinted at fucking murder”.
His voice was reasonably calm, but his eyes betrayed him, they were somewhere between blue and red flickering between. It was astonishing how this boy held so little fear for someone like Torren who enforced the law.
“No fear of death? At this age”? Torren wondered. “Yes, speaking of that, since this is a murder investigation im now ‘obligated’ to take your truth statement. We found the woman Tarrani, dead with 3 men also dead, the men had all consumed a lust potion” The looks of absolute shock and horror on the 3 T’jut was completely absent from the boy’s face, and right as Torren thought he got the boy on something the boy asked the female T’jut what the big deal was about lust potions.
His inquiries were quite intelligent for such a vicious looking brute, but Torren’s body language and multitude of observation and perception perks, told him the fool had no idea what a lust potion was.
The T’jut girl, who upon further observation was trained in ancient magic, gave the boy a quick rundown.
”Who the fuck is dumb enough to swallow that shit”? He asked dumbfounded. Again he was making no attempts to hide his emotions and Torren had already mapped out all the boy’s emotional responses. He realized this boy had very little worldly knowledge. “Ow im going to enjoy interrogating you”. He thought.
”we already excluded you from our list of subjects but we need your side of the story to paint a picture for the investigation”.
”Oh why didn’t you start with that? I thought some douchebags had gotten everyone fooled again, and put all the blame on me with outright lies. Alright, hey il meet you guys at the guild or at the tribe if this takes longer then expected alright? Come on Billy”. The boy waved his companions away with a goofy smile and told them not to worry”.
Torren felt glee take over, o he was going to love digging around in this boy’s secrets. He was so naive! Even if he wasn’t present when the murder happened. He was born under the ominous star with the notorious Overlord discipline from what Torren’s discreet divinations told him. That made him a suspect by default.