Ch.26
About fifteen minutes later, all of the ingredients were brought to me. The DCs to make antiplague and antivenom were 25, and my Alchemy skill was at +16. That meant that I could take 10 and succeed every time. As I wasn’t under duress, I did so.
I realized that at some point in time, the mayor had left. I was surprised and a bit disturbed that I hadn’t noticed him leaving. Ok, that’s even more suspicious! How in the heck did he manage that? My Perception is really danged high! Is he higher level than I thought? That’s sort of scary.
I had to admit, I’d been really focused on my alchemical concoctions at the time, so maybe that explains it. I still filed it away under, ‘Yet another reason to be suspicious of the mayor.’
The best part about all of this was that I was gonna get experience from making the alchemical concoctions, and from using them as part of a Heal check to ‘beat’ what was afflicting these guys, and then probably another Quest reward!
As I finished the first set of alchemical concoctions, I looked at the medic, who was obviously worried sick about the five men. He’d introduced himself as Medic Garrith earlier.
“Garrith, would you like to help me administer these? It will be best if both doses are given to them as close together as possible.”
He eagerly agreed and began following my instructions. “Does anyone from this town know who the leader of that Cult was?” I asked him casually.
The medic looked like he wanted to run away the second I asked that question.
I looked at him. “He was a local, huh?”
The medic looked at me in shock. “What? No! There’s no way...”
I smiled and shook my head. “You’re a terrible liar, Medic Garrith.”
Let’s be clear. I didn’t KNOW he was lying. It was possible accusing him of lying might insult him greatly.
But I was nearly sure I had the right idea... and if I pissed this guy off, so what? I just took out a damned army of undead, demons, and cultists that was about to wipe this town off the map!
Sure, it was a very SMALL army, but that doesn’t make the rest of it any less true...
“Wh, what makes you say that?” he asked, looking almost ready to collapse in on himself.
“Come on. Let me guess. He’s a local, from looking at him, he’s probably the mayor’s brother? The mayor probably told everyone not to tell me, because I’d do something awful if I found out or some such bullcrap, right?”
Yup. Nailed it. The shocked look on his face was all it took.
“The cult leader and the mayor could probably wear each other’s clothes and use one another instead of a mirror to shave with, almost. Anyone with eyes could see that they’re closely related. Also, your mayor is not a great liar, either.” I continued.
He blinked, then grimaced. “I... I don’t want to cause any problems, Battlesage! The mayor’s family has run this town for decades!”
I nodded. I looked at the medic’s patients. “Let me guess. A lot of people like him,” I pointed at the guard captain who was one of the sick the medic and I were tending, “better than the mayor? Maybe a lot better?” One of the things Sense Motive and a high wisdom score did was allow you to make intuitive leaps, Sherlock Holmes style.
I didn’t have all of the facts, but it sure as heck made a lot of sense in light of what I’d seen so far. Maybe I was wrong, but combine a shady mayor with a handsome, powerful home-town war hero doing brave things and you had a recipe for causing problems with the status quo!
For a politician whose family sounded like it had run the town for generations, I’d be more surprised if the mayor wasn’t trying to get rid of the captain than I would be if he was!
The medic’s eyes got wide. “The captain... well, he’s a real hero! He grew up here, went and fought in the army, then when he returned after he mustered out, he was the new captain here within months! He’d learned some basic Qi techniques and Combat Arts and has been teaching anyone who wanted to learn... though only a few people have reached a point where they can use it.”
I groaned. “Let me get this straight. The heroic captain, who everyone admires and who has probably been challenging some of the mayor’s decisions lately, goes out of the town for some reason, that no one probably knows, with two of the four people in town that have any kind of real chance at fighting a demon summoning necromancer and warlock, and gets captured. Within hours, you have the captain and his escorts nailed to crucifixes just outside of town alongside some stark raving mad cultists led by the mayor’s evil twin brother, and no one is suspicious of that!?”
Again, it was all pure conjecture from a few statements I’d overheard and what I’d seen since I’d arrived, but it felt on target, or very close to it, though I’ll admit I was going off of my gut feelings.
The medic’s face would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. It went back and forth between angry rejection and despairing acknowledgement three or four times while I watched.
“Cousin, technically.” was what he finally said.
“What?”
“The mayor and the cult leader. They’re cousins. The mayor’s mother and father and the cult leader’s mother and father were two sets of identical twins. That’s why they look so alike.”
I just shook my head. “But the rest all sounds about right, doesn’t it?”
The medic sighed and nodded. I could tell he hated admitting that with the fire of a thousand fiery suns. “I just... I can’t see him doing it, though. You don’t know the mayor at all!”
I looked at him with pity. “He’s just a good politician, Garrith. Lying is what they do. My people have a saying about politicians. ‘If you figure that half of everything a politician says is a lie, you're probably 50% of the way to the truth!’” I grinned at him as I told him that.
My Diplomacy was pretty far below the standard set for a lot of my other skills, at only a +12... but adding in a little truth, confirming a few suspicions, all the while saving his friend’s lives?
The Game’s social skills made it almost too easy to be fair. I wasn’t lying to him, or misleading him, of course, though I’ll admit that I could be wrong... but I REALLY doubted it!
It was easy to see that I’d planted a seed of doubt in Garrith just by looking him in the eyes.
A few hours later, and they’d all been administered all of the alchemical cures I’d made. They weren’t magical cures, really, they just gave a +5 alchemical bonus to their Fortitude saves for a few hours. Basically, instead of magically fixing them, it gave them a better chance of fixing themselves! Combined with my easily made Heal checks, which gave them an additional +4 circumstance bonus to their Fortitude saves, meant they had a +9 to their saves versus disease and poison, and they got Advantage on their rolls, which allows them to roll twice and take the best result for each save!
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
There was also such a thing as Disadvantage rolls, which worked the opposite, you rolled twice but took the worst of both rolls.
To kick the effect of most poisons and diseases, you had to make a certain number of saves in a row, usually 1 to 4, and since some of the nastiest ones attacked Constitution, lowering the modifier to your roll, it made it so that each failure made the next try that much harder to succeed. Add on two different effects targeting and lowering Con., and you had a really lethal cocktail that would probably kill most people that didn’t succeed the first time they made a check.
Luckily, the save DCs for most diseases and poisons weren’t terribly high. A +9 to your rolls, with two chances at each check, made these guys getting better almost a foregone conclusion.
And the mayor almost for sure knows that. Which means that, if I’m right about all of this, something or someone nasty should be showing up pretty soon.
I’m happy with my +22 Perception check, but even as cool as that is, Vanish is a 1st level spell that turns people invisible. Being invisible is a +20 to your Stealth check, +40 if you stay still!
Magic items that can let anyone be invisible aren’t exactly common, but they’re not really THAT hard to find either, especially things like Invisibility potions. Items that give big bonuses to Stealth were even more common.
Which is why I moved all of the beds the sick guards were in to one side of the room, away from the two doors into the recovery ward room... and put up one, huge, contiguous sheet of cloth, from floor to ceiling. Unless someone’s incorporeal, they may be able to get through it without me seeing THEM, but I REALLY doubt they can get through it without me seeing the cloth move.
To be that sneaky using pure skill is probably a DC 30+ check. No guy that’s that skilled will be out in the country working for some yahoo like this town’s mayor.
If they’ve got access to incorporeal undead like ghosts, wraiths, or phantoms, or some other way to go Ethereal then that’s a different story. I can still kind of fight that kind of enemy due to my Mind Blade and Qi, but it’ll be ugly, for sure! A magic weapon, though, lets you hit an incorporeal enemy half the time, but even if you DO hit, the attacks only do half damage! If you don’t have a weapon or attack that counts as a magical one, you just can’t hurt an Ethereal enemy at all! In order to hit all the time, I’d need a magic weapon with the Ghost Touch enchantment, and that was something that was a little way away, yet!
If an Ethereal enemy attacked, I’d probably have to run away if I wanted to live, which would really suck. I really didn’t want to be forced to abandon the Captain and his men, but fighting an enemy I couldn’t hurt, yet, would be acting the fool.
All I can do is my best, though, right?
It was time to see if I could catch me some sneaky killer types.
-----------------
Georgy was not a happy camper right now. His boss, Maxie had called him down to Sinful Delights, and the only reason he didn’t ignore him or tell Maxie off on the phone was because he wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with the fall out of doing so.
Yet.
Becoming an Awakener after the Man in Black had beaten him to death was still really messing with his head. He didn’t think he was ready to deal with Maxie’s bullshit... but he knew damned well things would be worse if he blew Maxie off.
Of course, Georgy already knew what this was probably about. Two of the Federov family’s places had been raided in just two days, and he’d somehow just happened to both be there AND be one of the only people to get out of either place in one piece.
It wouldn’t look good to Maxie OR Vlad. Heck, it wouldn’t look good to any of the underbosses of the Federov crime family, really. But Vlad, in particular, was a hard ass, and more than a little paranoid. There wasn’t a lot of questions as to what was going to be said whenever Maxie got done with what he liked to refer to as the Managerial Perks of running a strip club.
They’re absolutely going to suspect me of selling the family out, despite almost ten years of loyalty... because they’re all fucking backstabbing opportunists, so they expect everyone else to be, too!
Of course, Georgy was a backstabbing opportunist, too. He even had Feats for it now! He was just hoping that he’d get a chance to try to Bluff his way out of things. He hadn’t invested much in Diplomacy, of course, but Bluff and Intimidate were important tools for the kind of character he was making himself into... ESPECIALLY Bluff!
He would have never thought of trying to talk his way out of a situation that way before, but his mental stats were MUCH higher than they were before he Awakened.
Georgy could admit that he hadn’t done great in school; he knew he hadn’t been the brightest bulb. Most of his past successes had come from low cunning, ruthlessness, and looking out for himself before anyone else... but now he realized that acting like that had screwed him, too.
My rep tells everyone that I’ll always cover my own ass, only helping others if my butt is already covered. Yeah, I’m pretty sure Maxie is gonna try to put a bullet in me tonight.
Why had he shown up then?
He’d decided that what Maxie and Vlad wanted didn’t matter for shit anymore! He was a LITERAL ninja now, after all!
Well, 5th level Shadow Stalker, 3rd level Unchained Ninja, 3rd level Gun-Fu Monk, really!
So, yeah, he wasn’t super worried about Vlad and the Federovs. Maybe the weirdest part of all of this to Georgy was that he no longer thought of himself as a Federov, something that had been part of his identity for decades!
Still, he regretted how this conversation was probably going to end. Regretted it, but was not worried about it! His new abilities had made him very powerful, and he was now a bad ass... but so was the Man in Black.
He had to have been an Awakener, too, right? If he’s one, and I’m one, that means there has to be more Awakeners out there, too. It only makes sense. Of course, if Cheating Death is the only way to do it, there might not actually be very many of us... but just because that’s how I Awakened; it doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it!
Georgy had no way to know what his stats were before he became a Dreamer, but he was positive they were a lot higher now. Things just made sense to him more easily now, things that he just wouldn’t have been able to understand before. He was also much better at understanding and dealing with social situations now, too.
That’s that high Charisma and those Lore and social skills hard at work, I guess? Georgy sighed, feeling a little sad. Being smart enough now to realize how stupid I was before sort of feels bad. He frowned. Being so honest with himself was a new thing, too.
The door to Maxie’s office opened and the same gorgeous stripper as the last time he was here walked out, fixing her lipstick again. Georgy, completely concealed in the shadows, rolled his eyes. “Georgy, get your ass in here, now!” Maxie barked out into the hallway. This was when Georgy was supposed to be here, and Maxie simply assumed that he would be.
Because, whatever else he was or wasn’t, Georgy had always been a good little soldier and done as he was told.
Let's see how this goes. I could totally be wrong about what this is about! Georgy didn’t really think that he was wrong about how this would go, but he wanted to give Maxie the benefit of the doubt... and hopefully get the chance to bullshit his way out of things.
Maxie had helped him out a lot over the years, given him a foot in the door. Sure, Maxie was absolutely taking advantage of him the entire time, but Georgy thought he’d come out ahead or at least even in the deal.
Georgy sat down in front of Maximov Volkov, the man who’d let him earn his way into the Federov crime family, and who had been his boss for well over a decade, ever since he was in high school! He already felt a tiny bit guilty as to how this conversation was probably going to end.
Only a tiny bit, though. If it went badly, it wouldn’t be because of anything he’d done. I’m still loyal, though I’m pretty sure Maxie is gonna try to off me in a few minutes... but my loyalty NEVER went far enough that I’d willingly die for the Federov family!
Maxie looked him up and down, then smiled. “You’re looking good, Georgy boy! You been hitting the gym?”
Georgy smiled back, more than willing to let the conversation go somewhere normal, first. “Yup. Been working my ass off lately. My analyst says exercise and martial arts are a much healthier outlet for my problems than casual sex, drugs, and booze!”
Maxie rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Probably, but that shit’s boring as fuck!”
Georgy grinned back at him. “Well, yeah. I didn’t say I’d stopped drinking and pounding your old lady in the backside, Maxie, I said I was working out more!”
Neither of them was married. Neither of them ever would be, either, most likely, so talking about having sex with each other’s wives was just light banter.
Maxie’s snort turned into a genuine laugh. “Dammit Georgy, you could always make me laugh... but no one’s laughing about the shit that went down at the Panda Palace. You think the guy who did the warehouse the other day and the asshole that did the guys at the Palace were the same dude?” Maxie had gone from lighthearted joking to dead serious in an instant.
Georgy sighed. Fucking Maxie watches too damned many movies. He thinks this suddenly serious bullshit of his really works.
“No idea. Considering how the guys at both places ended up looking like chopped hamburger, it sure seems likely, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it sure does. I gotta tell ya, Georgy, ma boy, it doesn’t look good that you were at both places just before it all went down. People are talking, ya know? The shit they’re saying doesn’t look good on you OR me, buddy.”
Georgy sighed. He was a little sad now that things had come this far. “I was afraid of that. You gotta know I’m not involved in that shit! Come on, you know me better than that! I’d never sell out; I owe you and Vlad too much! If I was somehow forced to, I’d sure as hell never stick around like this!”
Because I really wouldn’t! If I sold out mother fucking Vlad Federov, I’d do it and then be out of the country that same day! Not the next day, or a week or a month later! I’ve helped track down traitors before. I know damned well what Vlad does to people he even suspected of selling him out!
Maxie nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I told Vlad.”
Ka-BOOM!
There was a blur of motion and the sound of a shotgun discharging at point blank range rang out through the small, VERY well soundproofed room.
“Shit! That hurt more than I’d thought it would.” Georgy told Maxie while rubbing his ears, who was staring at the knife piercing his chest and stuck into his heart.
“What? How? That’s...” Maxie was both unable to understand what had happened, and literally going into shock.
Georgy patted Maxie on the shoulder. “Please, Maxie. You’re a goddamned coward. Not only that, but you’re a coward who’s also a dumbass, but believes he’s smarter than everyone else around him! How many times have I helped repair the front of your desk or redone the sheetrock in this room? I knew what tonight was going to be the second you called me. I just... well, I hoped I was wrong.”
Maxie grimaced, obviously in pain. “You... you traitorous fuck! Vlad will eat your eyeballs in a soup!”
Georgy frowned. “I’m not a traitor, Maxie. Hell, you’ve fucked with the boss more than I have with how much you skim off the top here. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and got really fucking lucky. You’re already a dead man, Maxie, I’ve got no reason to lie to you.”
Maxie looked down at the knife blade sunk deep in his chest, a perfect heart shot, and the blood pumping out of the wound. “Then... why?”
Georgy laughed. “Oh, come on, Maxie. Really? ‘Why?’ You just tried to kill me, you miserable ass hole. Also, Vlad will never even know I was here. No one saw me come in, I guarantee you. If you had time to check, you’d find out that every security camera, even the super-secret ones that you don’t tell anyone about, have all been down since about five minutes before I got here. I avoided every security camera for a couple of blocks around by getting here on foot, too. Vlad will never know I was ever here.”
Maxie didn’t respond, though, because he was dead. A moment later, the phantasmal throwing knife disappeared, the duration of the Combat Art that had created and enhanced it finally expiring.
Georgy walked out of the office and disappeared out the back door like the ghost he now was.