NOTW XVII: The Stealer of Souls (restored)

Welcome to Pinman's grand restoration experiment for zxcvbnm's The Stealer of Souls. I will be your host and tour guide for this bit of fun, as the original GM was abducted by aliens left forum games some time ago. For reference, the sign-up and comment thread is here (formatted text file is here), and the "rules" are here.

Enjoy yourselves!
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NOTW XVII: the Stealer of Souls
-no wolves this time-

The 7th of Elembiuos, the Revelry, long have you waited for this day.

The Revelry is celebrated in all cultures. Lanun ships moor themselves together into large floating islands where the wine and rum flow freely, the Hippus hold races and the Bannor are said to be able to come to their post up to 15 minutes late. But none of the festivals compare to the Balseraphs.

The Balseraphs celebration lasts several days and foreigners often slip over into Balseraph cities to enjoy it. Disputes and wars are forgotten, most countries make it illegal to go, and most religions call it immoral. So foreigners have taken to wearing masks and elaborate costumes to keep from being recognized by fellow citizens and members of their local parish. Most importantly it keeps them from being recognized when they partake in the debauchery that they intended only to witness, but after an evening of vapors and vinum they are no doubt enjoying at a more personal level.

That's where you were going.

But never got there.

While traveling through a remote mountain village in the Grigori lands you stopped at a small village in a not much bigger valley to spend one night in.

During the night you heard a horribly loud rumble coming from the road.

The mayor of the village, an old drunk who took the post only because nobody else wanted to, sent his bodyguard, Melusine, a valiant dragon slayer, to investigate what caused the noise.

"Sire, I have good, bad and worse news."

"Yessh, whath ish it? Let meh guessh, that noise in the night wash a rockshlide and we are shtuck here. Then thereh are shome werewolvesh amongsht ush who shneaked in during the night, and theyh are going to kill ush all, right? And the good newsh are that we can lynch one person every day to find theh wolvesh.
Thath always, always, happensh when twenty people are gatherehd at teh shame place in the shame time. They geth shtuck for shome shtupid reashon and wolvesh kill them. Damn."

The mayor has been, surprise, drinking.

"No, sire. The bad news is that it really was a rockslide, but the good news is that there are no wolves at all! This time we managed to avoid the second most common cause of deaths!"

"Well, whatsh the worshe newsh then?"

"We are out of beer..."

"Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!" the mayor screams, and jumps off a cliff.

"Youuuu knooow thee driilll..."

Suddenly he stops in mid-air.

"Wait, whatsh that I wash about to say...?

Yeeeesh, nooo lyyynch voooteeesh yeeet, noobooody gooot kiiilleeed yeeet..."

You turn your heads away just before he hits the bottom.
*Thump*

"Hear our mayor's wisdom: For the first afternoon we will sit here helpless like ducks while our enemies plot for our ruin, as it has been so decided."


Characters:

Dwarf Engineer Rheinmetall (reprised by Frozen In Ice)
Dwarf Merchant Kol.7 (AKA Ekolite)
Elf Mage Izipo
Elf Hunter Tasslehoff (reprised by Icekommander)
Orc Shaman thomas.berubeg
Bowman Chandrasekhar
Blacksmith sirtommygunn
Jester merciary (reprised by Winston Hughes)
Nobleman Mergle (reprised by PaulusIII)
Knight Stuck in Pi
Bard LightFang (reprised in part by CCRunner)
Conjurer Catharsis
Beggar Brisingamen (reprised by oyzar)
Farmer D'Artagnan59
Innkeeper Pinman
Guardsman Hitti-Litti] (reprised by KingMorgan)
Lord gandhi rules (reprised by sprig)
Sage Backwards Logic
Adventurer Niklas
Fisher PrinceScamp
Captain Leeksoup (reprised by Seon)

reserve: dcbandicoot

Special guest appearance by Charles Li (reprised by Krill).

First 24 hours getting into character, no votes yet.

Cycle: 24-midday-24-evening-24-morning (48/24) because of practical reasons, and to give time to plot

Updates around 12.00 GMT
may vary a few hours.


some rules:

Everyone's base strength is 1 unless otherwise told


special rules:

The "wolf" mechanic is very different from earlier NOTWs, you'll learn how in due time.

Many special abilities are new.

Every morning and evening you should send me a PM listing a summary of all your private discussions during the last day or night.

Those who are too inactive or fail to be honest in that private discussion summary may be punished.

Not all items are good for their owners, and some aren't good for others than its owner.

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(Originally posted March 10, 2008 at 1:39 pm.)

voting tallies

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If you have any questions please ask them now

You may post now!

"Heeeee heeee. Most disturbing, most."

"What we oughta do is build, what. Something something."

The engineer pulls out a sheet of pergament. The page is already full of images of complex pulleys and gears, but somehow he manages to find a clean spot for his scribblings.

"Three round boulders each wieghing about 500st, 30 lengths of rope and 10 sturdy logs. Yes that should be enough, three."

Looks around, searching for something.

"An axe, an. Hee heee heeeee."

"We need one of those too, we."

Twirls his pen and swiftly places it behind his ear.

"GREASE! grease."

"That we need too, that. For lubrication you see, for. Heeee hee."

*The Jester comes bounding in cartwheeling towards the dwarf and then jumps on to the Engineer while he was working. He does a flip and lands*

Oh my ears tell that they hear
A little Dwarf working at top tier
to get us out of here
But I have a question I fear
Can a Dwarf work without Beer?

*The Jester bounds off again laughing at his own rhyme leaving the others to stare and the Engineer cursing*

(OOC: Does no one read the opening post: "Well whatsh the worshe newsh then?"
"We are out of beer...")

"Yes emergency this is, yes. No beer is always most serious, no."

Pulls out the same pergament and again manages to find a clean corner to scribble.

"Brewery we must build first, brewery. Essential it is, essential."

Spins his pen and continues scribbling.

"Barrels, yes, barrels. Pipes, yes, pipes. Tubes iron, wood, copper, tubes. Yes yes."

Absent mindedly looks at the innkeeper.

"Beer, beer beer. Now where did I put it, beer. Hee hee heeeee."

The Captain, a rather short Lanun dressed in loose-fitting clothes, watches bemusedly at all the infighting about beer and wine. Finally, he speaks up.

You know, mates... beer and wine aren't all that important if you figure we have a high chance of dying here within a week.

Er, actually, I think I'd like to get drunk now. Where did I put my sake?

The merchant turned to his horse-drawn cart, rumaged in the back of it, and pulled out a deckchair. He sat on it in the shade of the cart and sipped a small alcoholic drink which was certainly far more civilised then beer, rolling his eyes at the arguing villagers. Even if there were soul-sucking evil creatures running around he still intended to enjoy his holiday.

The old sage looks on at his fellow villagers and shakes his head. Alcohol? During this time of duress? He sits in his ancient wooden rocking chair with his cane upon his lap.

"No, alcohol dulls the senses. We best be about our wits here. I've heard many a story of what that dangerous liquid can do to you. But, if you are intent on desecrating your mind and spirit, it is your will."

He goes back to rocking gently in his chair, meditating, pondering the past. Times have certainly changed.