A Legacy of Oversight
Log Info
- Title: The Legacy of Oversight
- Emitter: Delilah
- Characters: Delilah, Donna, Ashes, Elyanna
- Place: Underground: Magus Ectra Na'Garra's Manse
- Time: Monday, June 07, 2021, 9:00 PM
- Summary: The Valethor gang work their way further into Magus Ectra's manse, with the now friendly ghost, Poppy, disabling the front entrance traps for them, the medusae statue, and a couple other things. One the party's questions sparks a sudden memory in the ghost who rushes off, then can be heard wailing in despair. The gang, very easily for themselves and with some difficulty with Lerethil, tear themselves away from the Illithid's unsettling art collection to follow the sobs. They find Poppy in a prisoner room, full of bodies that have turned to mush and bones in the intervening decades. Ectra's presumably amongst them as well. Poppy is completely distraught, she watched all her friends starve then decompose, her mistress-mother too. No orders were provided so she waited and did nothing. The two hobgoblins reassure her, these are not her sins, she was prevented from acting. Donna is adamant, Ectra is completely monstrous and unforgiveable. Poppy asks the gang to make her Pay, and they seem willing to do so. Ashes feels compelled to do her duty as a Mourner and collects and cleans the remains, while the others advance to the Mage's Parlour to investigate traps that kill, but not completely.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Donna 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A black-haired human girl in black robes. Delilah 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A golden haired human girl in white robes. Ashes 5'11" 177 Lb Hobgoblin Female A somber arvec in grey clothes with a skull face Elyanna 5'11" 153 Lb Half-Orc Female A grim, Arvek-blooded woman in raven feathers. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NPCs of Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lerethil Half-elf Female A trader with questionable connections. Poppy Human Female A ghost, daughter of the body that became Ectra. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Delilah 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A golden haired human girl in white robes. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Luckily for the group, the obstacle presented by a ghost who wanted at least one someone to swear their fealty to a dead illithid has been sorted; and said ghost is standing by (or floating by, if you prefer). Poppy clasps her hands behind her back, and manages to smile; and then she just full on beams at the group, but... mostly at Ashes.
"I don't know what I'll do after today," she declares, "But for today, I'd really like to help you. And if we can destroy once and for all that horrible creature that turned my mother into a monster and ate me, I'd be even more grateful."
And with that, she turns and steps through the wall, back into the Manse.
"Well, that's just great," complains Lerethil. "Now what--"
"Just wait," interjects Delilah, with an exasperated sigh. "Sometimes the biggest part of adventuring is patience."
And indeed, patience pays off; the door doesn't so much open, as it melts out of existence, with a triumphant looking Poppy on the other side. "Welcome to the Manse of--" she begins in a clear display of habit, before she stops, and her lips press together in disapproving thought. "...The Manse of a hideous monster that needs to be excised from reality. May all hospitalities be made available to you."
Elyanna is giving the spirit another odd look, well, odd for her, and she bows her head quietly to the emancipated spirit. She steps forward with a soft, "Thank you. Are you well acquainted with the inner secrets of this place, at least so far as structure and resource?" She glances at Ashes, then the sisters again, but any musings are kept within her own head.
"Y'know," Donna grumbles as the ghost melts into the wall and Lerethil begins to complain, "I *gotta* wonder what you thought adventurin' *was.* Ain't never met a merchant as couldn't hold their water if profit was on the line, but here you are yammerin' away like a new noble try'na jump the line for a theater show." Turning, she fixes a jaundiced glare at the trader. "Now you did us a good turn, an' thank you, but if you'd be nice enough to *quit driving the wagon from behind the cargo,* please an' thank you."
Loosing a rough sigh, she spins back around... And the way is opened. The ghost gets a genuine smile, and a bob of the head. "Thank you *very* kindly, Poppy. You jus made our day a hundred times easier."
Ashlee waits patiently. She's not one to smile, ever actually. Her head bobs up when Poppy dissolves the door. She's surprised, although her voice almost completely hides it, "Thank you Poppy."
Her head turns, she looks at Elyanna, not quite picking up on her silent message.
Donna's rant at Lerethil is observed. The ashen Arvec is about to move on when a thought occurs. "Poppy, why didn't you need her oath of servitude?"
An explanation might come easier now. "Do you know all the traps inside, for living and the dead?"
Poppy beams back at Donna, and then the reast of the party. "Easy," she declares, grinning ear to ear. "Opening the door, I mean. Ectra made it so I could open it. ...She made some of the traps so I could disable them, too. You know, so approved visitors wouldn't get vaporized, dismembered, eaten, sucked into a temporal vortex, or turned into a statue." She gestures towards the antechamber beyond the door. "I've already fixed up that room. But, no, she didn't tell me about everything, or give me instructions on how to turn everything, y'know, off. I guess she felt if I entered her study without permission, I would've deserved what was coming to me."
The ghost's eyes land on Lerethil, and she perks an eyebrow upwards. "I didn't need her oath because..."
She trails off, and her jaw drops. "Wait... no. I didn't. I *didn't*. Oh no. OH *NO*!" She turns and rushes off into the Manse; and a moment later and ear-splitting wail of despair echoes through the halls.
"Oh Gods, what happened?" Delilah is about to rush in, and almost makes it over the threshold when she remembers herself. The recently almost-beheaded sorceress doesn't go first, that's a job for people who don't have the constitution of a stiff piece of sphaghetti.
"Poppy!" she yells, "Are you okay?!"
"I'm sure she's fine," answers Lerethil, who glances at Donna and shrugs. "Time is money," she explains, "But okay, I'll try to pipe down and let you do your things." She glances at Ashes, and quirks her lips upwards at one corner. "She didn't need my oath because Ectra used to to business with me, I was a protected person, even though I never got this close before."
GAME: Elyanna rolls sense motive: (3)+8: 11
She seems truthful enough.
Ashes stares blandly back at Lerethil, then turns to look into the Manse. "It sounds like more than that." She thumbs the strap of her satchel thoughtfully. She carefully examines the threshold, her eyes glowing darkly. She calls out, echoing Delilah, "Poppy, are you okay?"
Her first few minutes of keeping a ghost haven't gone so well.
Donna's eyes likewise linger on Lerethil for a moment, before she turns back to the threshold. "Well... she said we was welcome, yeah?"
Because *it's her job,* Donna steps across the threshold; whether to prove it's safe, or take whatever countermeasures exist in the face to prove it's *not* safe, only the next few moments will tell.
Elyanna frowns and starts to edge into the manse as Poppy starts to freak out. She readies her buckler and Maidenhead and ventures in with a shrug back toward the merchant, "There might be another security measure she had overlooked."
Inside the door, the antechamber is a room carved from the stone in a domed shape; a tiled floor surrounds a statue, of the unclothed female variety that Ectra increasingly seems to have been fond of, for whatever reason. This time, the statue has a sheet that's been draped over its head; though sticking out from under the sheet are a couple of snakes, which unlike the rest of the statue, seem to be animated.
"...Trap disabled," Delilah observes, pointing over Donna's shoulder at the sheet-covered statue. "That would've been awkard if we hadn't played ball with Poppy, but... I mean I sorta wonder if that was always how it's done?"
As far as Ashes can tell, the place is bursting with magic. The statue is definitely one nexus for it, however, but there doesn't seem to be any other major sources inside the room, just a general pervasiveness.
Behind the statue, a large, doorless opening leads into the rest of the Manser; and from what can be seen from here it is a central room with an array of furniture, comforts, and art, all apparently meant for comfort and entertaining. As long as you're into the dark and twisted sort of stuff that seems to please the Illithids, that is.
Ashes looks around, focusing first on the statue with the animated snakes. She's glad of the hood. She's generally favourably disposed to snakes as well, but likely not those mobile stone ones. Next is the art and the comforts of Illithids. There is an interesting choice of colour pallettes; shades and hues the Mourner generally would be well disposed to, which she's starting to reconsider.
She exhales, reaching into her satchel and brings out a clove cigarette. She lights it, using a match instead of a cantrip. She inhales, holds it, then exhales and watches the smoke curl upwards, "I wonder, if smashing everything we see would please Vardama."
"Some of it, I'd guess yeah... the stuff we were already plannin' on smashin'," Donna says. "The rest... gotta let the ride have 'er pick, like we agreed. Other than that?" The brawler lifts a shoulder in a careless shrug. "I know *I* might feel better smashin' a dish or fifty."
Elyanna has some rather dark tastes, herself, but, she's trying to keep her mind on the tactical situation more than plundering certain of the more aesthetic knicknacks just yet. She shakes her head a little, "It would be a shame about the bookends." she notes dryly.
Lerethil, for her part, doesn't waste any time; she meanders past the hooded statue, sparing it a single glance as she stops beside it. "That could have value in Rune," she muses, "Have to... hmmm. Perhaps next time I come this way." She keeps going and wanders into the living space, inside which she stops for a proper look around. "...My Gods, this place is incredible," she pronounces, and immediately goes to study a piece of art; a painting on the wall, that is... something that most qould classify as deeply disturbing. It is entirely possibel that human blood has been used in the painting of it; though it's hard to say for sure. Maybe it really is just paint. "There are collectors," she mumbles, mostly to herself, "Who would pay a *fortune* for this."
It would seem, at least so far, that the living space is not trapped. Or perhaps Poppy has already disabled what was relevant.
So far, anyway.
There are three doors on this room; a room that is round, and with a high, domed roof inlaid with gold reliefs that are in the same theme as the paintings. Were the room a square, there would be an entrance on each side. The far door (to the North) and the one to the East are unopened, and look like toothy, lipless jaws pressed together; the one to the West is open, and Poppy can be heard down a passageway. The ghost is sobbing loudly.
Furthermore, the stench coming from that direction is beyond hideous, like rotting meat that's taken sentience and is out for vengeance in odorous form.
For Ashes, there comes a simple reply; "No." more felt than stated directly, but it is as clear an answer as one can get from such an augury.
"Be a real shame about a lot of things," Delilah agrees, moving to stand beside Elyanna. "Be a real shame if we set the whole place on fire. But..." She gestures towards Lerethil. "Like Donna said... someone gets first pick."
The sobbing is... a source of disquiet within the Keeper, and any musings, or rebuttal she has for Delilah's observation is curtailed in favor of a look toward the down whence the vile stench emanates. There is an adjustment of Elyanna's collar, and a look to the sorceress with a, "We should see to her." then she starts to venture that way, intoning a concerned, "Poppy?" in lieu of wasting the breath for 'Are you alright?' when by the sound, she clearly isn't.
GAME: Ashes casts Magic Circle Against Evil. Caster Level: 5 DC: 16 <OOC> Ashes says, "like Protection from Evil, but a 10' radius and mine lasts 50 minutes."
"Feiu of the Tears, protect my friend from evil and all that stand near her." Ashlee makes the simple prayer, then draws a small circle on Donna's shoulder with a piece of chalk. There's the sensation of the Grey Lady's presence, just a little, emanating out from the brawler, as clear as the 'No' from earlier.
Usually, her Auguries aren't that definitive. The Mourner is a little shaken.
Her voice remains a flat monotone, and she starts after Elyanna, towards the source of the smell and the sobbing. Her heart sinks, in this place of twisted horrors, what would make a ghost cry? It's not something she wants to find out, yet she must.
"Yeah," is all Donna says at Elyanna's suggestion, nose wrinkled against the offensive -- or perhaps actively assaultive -- stench... and pauses as she feels magic settling around her rolling her head once to acclimate herself with the feeling of the ward on her skin. "Thanks, Ash... let's so see if we can help your friend out."
And for a change, Donna isn't in the front line. And not terribly sure how to feel about it.
Delilah falls into step alongside her sister, as they follow Elyanna and Ashes up the passageway, and into the worsening, horrific assault upon the senses. "This is hideous," she gasps, as if it needed to be said.
Lerethil seems quite content not to come along; she remains in the living area, looking excitedly at this or that; all of which is also kind of frightening, but at least none of it stinks.
The passageway leads past a small number of chambers; rudimentary, doorless living spaces, that bring a new meaning to the term 'minimalist'.
But it is the final room at the end, which is the source of Poppy's sobbing. The passage opens into a dungeon, of a sort; a domed room, lined with cages, with more hanging from the ceiling on chains, and even a couple set into the floor and accessed from above.
Most of the cages are full, and the stink of meat that has been slowly putrifying for twenty years without any scavengers to eat it is what assaults the nose. Piles of bones lie in decomposing slime, and in the middle of it all sits Poppy, with her face in her hands.
"I didn't... let them go," she whimpers, not looking up as she senses company in the room. "I was... Ectra didn't tell me... to let them go... so I didn't. All of them were... they were my friends... and I let them starve to death in here... because my Mistress didn't tell me to let them go."
Elyanna is heartened by her companions following after her as she girds herself for whatever special horrors Ectra's left behind to taint Poppy's liberation. Having inflicted any number of horrors herself, to say nothing of witnessing some of what a Bludgunni Ogress's imagination is capable of, she feels somewhat better equipped to bear first witness to any such spectacle, and steer away her more untainted friends, to spare them the scars her calloused soul may shield her from.
Within certain extents... she is not wrong.
Horror is not there, for horror is a shattering of illusions, and in this arena, the former slave breaker has few.
Still, her eyes close for a moment, a crimson bead blossoming at her mouth as she draws her lower lip under her teeth and silently implores the Mother, her initial guiding light on her course of redemption, for the proper things to say, to offer succor to this tormented soul.
Inspired, or mad, Ely's eyes reopen and she steps closer, holding a hand up toward her companions before taking a knee beside Poppy, "Your mind was not your own, child..." There is a brief glance back to the others before she seeks the spectre's eyes once more, sympathy and shame in equal measure within her own, "That monster left you only enough mind to obey and no more. This..." she tries to ignore the itching along her back, "this was the sin of she who bound you, Poppy. Mourn the lost.... that is proper, but do not shoulder that sin... that is not for you to take." she says gently.
The Mourner halts, and stares. She's smelt death, fresh and old. Dealt with bodies left a little too long before they were sent to be prepared. It's still overwhelming, the difference between a glass of water and a firehose. Like standing at the outflow of the great sewer channel of Alexandria, the other end of a giant swirling drain. Her breath chokes in her throat and she forces herself to tentatively inhale. Too much at once and she might throw up.
"Elyanna is right. It's not your fault." You were just following orders. Ashlee is uncertain about that sentiment now, despite how it's valued among the Arvek Nar. She opts to say something else, that doesn't imply freedom and conscience, and thus, fault. Confirm what her hobkin has already broached. "You were compelled. This is on her."
Perhaps the scales tilt more in Ectra's disfavour. Perhaps the Feiu of the Tears, all knowing in the happenings of death, has already tallied these. Thoughts vie for supremacy in the ashen Arvec' mind, culminating in an enigmatic observation. "We might have to stay longer."
Proper rites will take some time.
There is precisely nothing that Donna can possibly say, upon entering the charnel sewer that was apparently slave pens, once upon a time. Hands come up to cover mouth and nose, mostly out of... not quite horror, but certainly shock.
Adventurers see the best and the worst, and this? Absolutely the worst.
Glancing at her sister, Donna moves behind the ghost, and drops into an easy squat. Something that keeps her knees out of the muck. "Poppy... Elyanna an' Ash, they know what they're talkin' about. Delilah an' I... we don't speak for the gods or from experience or nothin', but, we know stolen childhoods. You lay this -- all of this, all your friends -- an' you lay them square at that monster's feet. An' she *is* a monster, an' the *reason* she's a monster is she won't *care* that she did this. So you hate her, an' you stick with Ash 'cos y'know what the *best* way to get revenge is? Have what she took from you anyway, an' rub her face in it. Have good friends. Have good memories. An' every smile you have from then 'til you're ready to go... That'll be another chain broke."
Delilah follows her sister, and takes a similar position, on the other side of the ghost. "All three of these people are smarter than I am," she murmurs. "And all of them are right, Poppy. This wasn't you. You had your choice taken away -- and I know what that's like. I was locked away too... not for as long as you were, but it happened." She holds up her wrist, the one that still has a few links of chain dangling from the manacle, before dropping her hand back to her knee.
"That Monster took everything from you, even the most basic things. Even thinking for yourself. And that wasn't right, and it wasn't your fault. All of this is on her. Don't let guilt for something you didn't do poison you, okay?"
"But, I was here," Poppy sniffles. "I was here, the whole time, and I didn't even think about them, I didn't think about *anything* unless she told me to and when she was gone I didn't... I couldn't... I didn't know how to think about anything, I just stood still and watched *her* decompose, waiting for her to tell me to do something even though I knew she couldn't, and... and I knew my friends were all dieing and I didn't do anything, and you all say it's not my fault but how can't it be? I was here. I was *here*. And I let them all die."
"No, Poppy." Elyanna croons softly, "In most of the ways that matter... you were not. Your memory, yes... but your heart, your reason, your will... all usurped by her."
Her lash marks tingle, and there is a subtle shifting of her jaw as she swallows the bile of certain truths, "A will broken... a mind ignorant, will choose the wrong path to avoid the wrath of their Mistress."
There is a furtive look amongst the companions and, back to Poppy, "A mind supplanted... -cannot- choose at all. You were her instrument... and held thrall in the most profound form of slavery there can be. You were every bit the victim these souls were and more... for they, at least were allowed to slip to the beyond, proper."
Ashlee listens. There's a certain perverse justice that Ectra's control was so complete that even in her death, it prevented her from receiving assistance from her loyal slave. Not that this brings any elation to the Mourner. She's sat patiently with ghosts, but it doesn't help her imagine watching a friend starve death, then decompose. There's a helpless horror to that which she finds familiar in some ways.
"Elyanna is correct." She steps forward. Comfort and contact isn't her strong suit. Poppy sounds more alive than the Mourner, even if Ash's voice has uncharacteristic hints of emotion. Assertion isn't proof; she needs to say more. She searches her thoughts for something relevant, stares at the slime and bones that were people. "This is all her doing. You weren't allowed thoughts or you would have had them."
Ashlee feels a deep conviction that vies with some doubt. How is this different from Elyanna's experiences raised under the lash? The two circumstances aren't the same, but the Mourner's inability to grasp the nuance keeps her from coming up with some insight that might help the spirit. 'You were under a spell and had no choice', isn't comforting, anymore than 'You didn't know better' or 'that's how she raised you'.
"It is what it is and it can't be undone." Ashlee says, demonstrating her true charisma. She stares at all the bones, fingers the strap of her satchel. "You can honour them, and I'll do rites to give them rest if they are restless."
"And Poppy honey, as sweet as you are, I *know* that if you had your own mind, you'd've helped," Donna says softly. "And I wish *so bad* that she didn't do that to you... But we're your friends, Poppy. You've every right to be sad, and mad, but feelin' guilty's somethin' you're gonna hafta fight. Lissen to Ash on this. She knows what she's talkin' about, an' she got a Goddess she's speakin' for."
Poppy takes a deep breath; she looks up at Delilah, and the golden sorceress' deep look of concern. She looks to Donna, and then up to Ashes. Finally, she stands, and walks to stand in front of Elyanna. "You have to promise me something," she whispers. "Please. And I know it's a terrible thing to ask, but... but if I am not to blame, and... and I still think I *am*, but if I'm not, then... then the only way I can accept that is if Ectra *is*. She took my Mother, she took all my friends, she stole my life and killed me and stole my afterlife as well."
The ghost wipes her hand across her cheeks, beneath each eye. "If..." She trails off, her bottom lip quivering as she glances downwards at Elyanna's knees.
"If you get the chance, make her PAY."
The Keeper looks up as Poppy stands, and in turn, rises to her feet as she makes her declaration. The red woman's steely eyes hold to those of the tormented spirit, a child of grief released from thrall, yet now bound with guilt not truly her own.
There is a silence, then, Elyanna's face contemplative as she weighs the hows and whens of such a transaction, then, "There may be a way to do that, in more... immediate terms, Poppy. It would require some patience as we gathered the means."
She looks then to Ashes, then the skeletons interred, "The means to give you life again, true life, not the sham Ectra seeks. A life that is free. Free to dream, to love... perhaps even to brighten this world with a new generation, should you wish. A way to honor your friends."
Ashlee nods slowly at Elyanna's suggestion, it had been implied earlier, and she's convinced the Feiu of the Tears would be sympathetic in this case. It's unfair to weigh the weight of a soul that was never allowed to be properly tested. She gazes softly at Poppy, saying simply, "It's possible. You should."
She moves to the nearest... mess, that was a person and takes out her scales. She gives them a little shake, 'tink'. "Feiu of the Tears, send me water to cleanse these bones." The Mourner starts cleaning. She makes an effort to contain the slime, it is remains, it has value, disturbing as it is. She'll bless whatever vat she fills then dispatch it with something. Fire. Perhaps Delilah can assist there; the Mourner doesn't ask yet.
There are twenty skeletons, most human-sized although a couple are halflings or gnomes. Or children. Ashes doesn't examine that closely, but she will ask Poppy for names. Once cleaned, she puts the bones in her satchel, which carries far more than it should and is deceptively light for the weight of former life it contains.
This takes an unpleasantly long while.
As the work begins, Donna straightens, rising to her feet and trying not to look at the muck that was once sentient people. "Poppy... We came here lookin' for somethin' we could use to take down the Monster's apprentice. While Ash is doin' her thing... y'know where we might start lookin'? Only... The sooner we can get you outta here, I'm thinkin' the happier we'll all be."
It kills Donna a little inside, to bring business into this scene. But better she be the one to risk the ghost's trust, and not her sister or friends.
Lerethil can fuck off though.
Poppy clasps her hands in front of her, and looks up at Elyanna with big, wide eyes. "You mean...?" she whispers. She bites her bottom lip, and ghostly tears well up in her eyes that shine with hope. "Please," she whispers. "Please. If it can be done, I... I want what I have never had."
She watches as Ashes works on the skeletons of her friends, until Donna's request takes her attention once more. Rather than upset, she gives the dark twin a grateful look; a reason to leave this room has been given. "Yes," she replies. "Her personal chambers, and her laboratory. Her chambers you can access freely, I think; but her laboratory... it is guarded. Protected. I dare not enter, she warned me that if I did without permission, I would be destroyed in ways that cannot be recovered." She shudders, and her shoulders hunch over worriedly. "But you can, if you are careful. She told me... her traps will not affect the living quite the same way. At least, not... Well, you'll die, but not be utterly destroyed? I think. But I will help you in the chambers. I can do that."
As long as she doesn't fuck off with 'How to be a Lich in Five Easy Steps!'....
Elyanna is ready to assist Ashes with her toil as is within her lay experience from the onths serving at the Soldiers Defense; enduring the plague of the Endless Winter, even as others succumbed for so long as she could.
However, she waits, to see what response Poppy has to the offer, and further to Donna's reintroduction of their primary business to the affair.
Was she overcorrecting, then?
Hmmm.
Back to Poppy as she replies, she smiles in return, a true, but unaccustomed thing, one often found offputting by certain bloodlines for the interlocked daggers behind her lips, "It can. It will, as you wish."
"It can." Ashlee confirms, continuing her work, picking up the bones. She looks from Elyanna to Donna, Delilah then Poppy, and back, "It'll be ok. I'll come when I'm done."
It would go faster with assistance, but it is her purpose and the Mourner would spare the others if she could.
"Delilah can Detect Magic as well as I can." Well, Ashes assumes so anyhow, "and I wouldn't have many ideas regarding the traps."
Traps that kill you not dead though, that she's curious about.
"You're sure?" Donna asks... and not just for form's sake; if Ashes asked for help, it's pretty clear that Donna would pitch in with only a moment's hesitation. But the brawler also trusts that the Mourner would ask if it was necessary. Nodding, she turns to Poppy.
"Well... consider us good an' warned, then." Her smile may be impeded by the horrors that surround them, but it's still there, and genuine. "Let's start with the safe bits first."
OOC Food for Thought
<OOC> Ashes can only imagine those bookends..
<OOC> Donna says, "Two halves of a solid bronze brain with gold inlay in the folds. BECAUSE WHY ILLITHIDS, WHY."
<OOC> Elyanna has... tastes....
<OOC> Ashes says, "hah, with books in the middle 'expand your mind'"
<OOC> Elyanna says, "heh"
<OOC> Delilah says, "XD"
<OOC> Ashes says, "read this, then I'll eat you"
<OOC> Ashes says, "I want that delicious, semi-confused, semi-understanding flavour"
<OOC> Elyanna says, "the book binding just says 'seasoning' or 'marinade'"
<OOC> Donna says, "... Look *there are other reasons* for someone to read Descartes."
<OOC> Delilah says, "It's like Hansel and Grettel but... actually just as horrifying."
<OOC> Ashes says, "would she feed people Nietsche or not?"
<OOC> Ashes says, "Marx, it's like pizza. Everyone bring a pizza brain."
<OOC> Ashes now feels both stupid and hungry
<OOC> Elyanna patpats
OOC Pick up the Bones
<OOC> Ashes says, "anyhow back on topic, I'm assuming I can't do last rites for everybody here, and there are no ghosts hanging around invisible besides Poppy, but can I collect all the bodies?"
<OOC> Delilah says, "There's probably twenty skeletons."
<OOC> Delilah says, "How would you like to collect 20 skeletons of human-sized beings? (We'll say three of them are halflings or gnomes to make life easier)"
<OOC> Elyanna says, "sorry sorry"
<OOC> Ashes says, "weeelllll... I have a Handy Haversack, and that 80 cubic feet, so that's 8x10 and if they're just bones they'd probably all fit, although the HH can only take 70lbs with what i've already got in it, and any extra would put in pillow case. Enough pillow cases, enough time, could pack them all separately. Ashes has knowledge doman though, so she could probably sort the loose bones out afterwards by touching them all."
<OOC> Ashes says, "I think she'd think the right thing to do is separately collect bag up each of them, and the limitation would be others letting her, and bags"
<OOC> Ashes says, "actually, the haversack magically sorts stuff too. so you could say 'give me all buffy's bones' and all of hers would pop out"
<OOC> Delilah says, "That's both disturbing and hilarious to think about."
<OOC> Delilah says, "Also, are you planning to just pack them in there, or would you like to clean them off a bit first?"
<OOC> Ashes says, "'what you want is on top' seems to imply exactly that would happen. Yes. Absolutely clean them."
<OOC> Delilah will say sure, you can fit the bones in your pack. :3
<OOC> Ashes says, "okay, making a pose."
<OOC> Ashes says, "getting the feeling Ashes is like a vampire with toothpicks. If you put a body in front of her she'll deal with it."