1 Soul Bound
1.1 Finding her Feet
1.1.5 An Inscrutable Mastermind
1.1.5.17 Your friendly neighbourhood murderer
Things did not go according to plan.
It may have been because leaving the crypt and pushed the sarcophagus back exposed them to the revenge of a slighted sky deity; or it may have had nothing to do with that. But on exiting the mausoleum, they were confronted by two figures.
“What do we have here, Luigi?” said the tall, well built man wearing dark leathers.
Luigi: “What we have here are tomb robbers, Stefano. Thieves who steal from the dead.” said the shorter older man, wearing fine but subdued robes suitable for a mortician, and a wide brimmed hat to keep the rain off.
Stefano: “Robbers, Luigi? That’s no good. People aren’t allowed to take things from here without an official license.”
Luigi: “You are right, Stefano. Well done. That isn’t good. Not like us. We have a license. We are allowed to open these doors. We are artisanal providers of vital practice equipment to discerning artists and medical students. They do not have a license. They are not allowed to open the doors.”
Bungo: {Did they just say they were licensed grave robbers?}
Tomsk: {Artisanal grave robbers. They’re obviously very proud of their status.}
Wellington: {Perhaps they think we’re competition.}
Stefano: “The door is open, Luigi. I didn’t open this door. Did you open this door?”
Luigi: “No, Stefano. I did not open this door. The criminals in front of us opened this door.”
Stefano: “They’re not allowed to do that, Luigi.”
Tomsk: {If these guys wander around here all the time as a pair, without getting eaten, they must be pretty tough. And we don’t want to fight them anyway; Cov wouldn’t see it as just.}
Bulgaria: {Yes. They have a license. Cov is in favour of law and order.}
Luigi: “No, Stefano. They are not.”
Kafana tried her sweet talk skill. “We were sent here by Captain Lelio. He has a license. He is allowed to open these doors. We are on our way to bring him here. If someone is a criminal, it is his job to deal with that.”
Luigi: “Did Captain Lelio open this door?”
Stefano: “No, Luigi. I saw it with my own eyes. That man there” He pointed at Tomsk “just opened the door. I do not think he is Captain Lelio. I have met Captain Lelio, and this man does not look like him. It would take a very good disguise to make Captain Lelio look like this man.”
Luigi: “You are right, Stefano. I also saw that girl there close the door.” he indicated Alderney “She is too short to be Captain Lelio, no matter what disguise he used; Captain Lelio couldn’t be both the man and the girl at the same time.”
Stefano: “They are lying to us, Luigi. You know what we have to do when people lie to us.”
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Alderney bounced off. {I’ll go get Lelio, and tell him about these clowns. Try not to kill them.}
Kafana tried again: “I’m a singer not a robber. I spend all my time singing. I wouldn’t have time to be a robber.”
Stefano: “How can we know that you are a singer? We know you lie. Maybe you are a robber who is just claiming to be a singer.”
Luigi: “You are…”
But Kafana had had enough. Question her, would they? She opened her mouth to sing "Silent Night" while while trying to leave the tone of her voice untouched by all her frustration.
The rain eased off. Stefano yawned. She tried to make it sweeter, using the strength of her frustration instead to power the magic.
The odd pair sat down, faces relaxing. Gentler! She visualised them sleeping peacefully on the ground, willing their breathing to match her voice as it grew quieter and slower.
The two men were lying down, eyes closed, snoring gently.
[Skill gained “Sleep debuff”]
Bungo and Tomsk simultaneously put their palms over their faces. Quietly.
Wellington just pointed in the direction they should go.
They left.
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They found the ghouls’ nest easily enough. It was a large pumping chamber in the sewers near several of the concentrations of ghouls they’d killed earlier. It smelled putrid, which was why they’d avoided it. By the looks of it, there were several weeks worth of half-eaten corpses that the ghouls had stockpiled to munch on. There were signs that the smugglers had already searched it a couple of times. The only thing of note was a relatively fresh body, that appeared from the new Cov’s pendant around its neck to have been an adventurer. Bulgaria wrapped it in a cloak and put it in his storage then they left, holding their noses.
Alderney returned. “I left the crate at the gatehouse with Lelio. He’s very pleased with us. Tomsk, I think he’s got some rewards for you when you return to complete the quest. I also told him about Ugo and Odo. Lelio was mad, and said he’s going to stick them on staking out that part of the graveyard. He’ll let us know where the tunnel leads to.”
She added, conspiratorially “The people waiting to enter the gate were not so happy. I think they’ve been listening to rumours. Many of them fled at my approach, screaming things like ‘the bouncing demon’ and ‘the dark demon that eats souls!’. Do you suppose I should make a sign that says ‘I am not a demon. I have an official piece of paper certifying me as Covadan’? “
Bungo: “Yes, you should definitely do that. People here trust pieces of paper, apparently.”
Then she got closer “Oh gods, you guys stink! Stay away from me.”
Bulgaria: “Necromancy sometimes gets a little messy. Let’s head to Ruffiana’s house. She has a way to clean us up.”
Kafana: {I’m so glad I put a limiter on my tiara when it tried to calibrate unpleasant sensations.}
Tomsk: {Wasn’t an option for me. I do professional experience capture. They require full calibration. Pain and all.}
Bungo: {You should have said, man. You could have waited outside while we dealt with the corpses.}
Kafana looked at Tomsk’s expression, which showed what he thought of that idea. He’d really bought into the warrior ethos thing. She hoped he wouldn’t do anything too suicidal, just to live up to his own expectations of how a man must behave in order to be worthy of respect. ‘Sexism, your friendly neighbourhood murderer - killing people of all genders since the invention of the locker room.’ The jokey slogan had a sour taste.
Ruffiana’s house was in the oldest part of the Necropolis, on a small hillock in the north west corner where the river split into two branches in order to flow around Libri, giving the impression of being an island in a sea of mist. Spooky didn’t begin to do justice to it. Even the Addams family would have made excuses to avoid visiting it.
Alderney: {It is just me, or is this a location that’s been put here deliberately by the game developers rather than one that was generated procedurally?
Tomsk: {It isn’t just you. They even have bats, for goodness sake. I bet you the gates creak.}
Kafana: {I’m putting you two horror film addicts on mute. I need to feel scared about this.}
Alderney mimed zipping her lips.