[Let's Play] Fighting Fantazine Adventure 7: Queen of Shades

[JourneymanN00b]

I still vote to look for the Witch of Krooe. I would like to know if she will ask for the same price for her assistance.

[Queen of Swords]

Let's keep looking for the Witch. Hopefully we won't be forced to accept whatever bargain she drives.

[Beroli]

Two narrow streets lead off the square, one heading west, the other south.

Go west?
Go south?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 14/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 5
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to go west in order to stand against fascism.

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, might as well try west.

[Beroli]

After you leave the square, you meet with few people. The doors on either side are closed, the windows shuttered. It is very quiet. When you have walked a little way, the street goes up and over a small wooden bridge. As you are crossing, you lean over the parapet and look down. A sluggish canal flows between the houses on either side. Almost directly beneath you is a small boat, tethered to the bridge. A fisherman lies sprawled in the boat, his hat tipped across his face; his line trails in the still, green water.

Throw a stone into the water to wake him up?
Keep walking?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 14/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 5
[/spoiler]

[SGamerz]

Wake him.

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, let's try waking him up.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to throw a stone into the water to wake him up.

[Beroli]

The dull plop! of the stone in the water wakes the fisherman. The MAN-ORC sits up suddenly, almost losing his hat overboard in the process. When he realises there is no fish on his line, he looks up at you, shading his eyes against the light.

‘Ha, had old Vasudevi fooled, didn’t you?’

You ask him if he knows where you can find the Witch of Krooe. He smiles, an ugly, gap-toothed grin.

‘That I might. For a gold piece, I’ll even take you there.’

Throw him a Gold Piece?
Continue walking?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 14/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 5
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to throw him a gold piece.

[Queen of Swords]

Give him a Gold Piece.

[Beroli]

Vasudevi pockets the coin and tells you how to join him in the boat. A narrow alley between the houses, no more than a slot of light between two dark walls, leads to a flight of steps down to the water’s edge. Once you are onboard, the Svinn unties his craft and rows you down the canal.

The houses on either side of the canal are larger than most of those you have seen in Krooe, with stone foundations that go straight down into the water. Many have water gates, where cargoes were once unloaded direct into basement storerooms, but, according to Vasudevi, these have long since fallen into disuse. The houses themselves are in poor condition; the plaster is flaking away from the walls, exposing the rotting timbers underneath. Windows are covered with sun-bleached cloth hangings or not at all, dark empty eye sockets in the bare walls. There are no signs of life. You could believe that most of the buildings are abandoned but Vasudevi shakes his head; many people live here, including the Witch of Krooe.

He steers his boat over to the water gate of a particularly dilapidated looking house. The dark corridor beyond is partially flooded and strewn with rubble. A flight of steps leads upwards into the house above.

‘Is this the place?’

Vasudevi nods. As soon as you have disembarked, he pushes his boat back out into the middle of the canal; he is not keen to linger in this area and will not wait for you. It occurs to you that he might have cheated you by bringing you to a derelict house. The suspicion becomes more insistent once you have explored the rooms above; all are empty, the surfaces thick with grime and dust. There is nothing to suggest that anyone lives here at all, although a bundle of filthy rags in one room might indicate that vagrants occasionally spend the night within its walls.

On the ground floor, you find a door that opens onto the street that runs parallel to the canal on the other side of the house.

Leave the house and walk down the street?
Wait here for the Witch of Krooe to return?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 14/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 4
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to wait for the Witch to return.

[Queen of Swords]

I guess we could wait for a little while, although I suspect he just made 1 GP for doing nothing.

[Thaluikhain]

Wait around.

[Beroli]

The house is chill and gloomy; you decide to wait in a room on the first floor, overlooking the canal, that at least catches the sun. You wait several hours but nothing happens. Jardakka gets bored and decides to explore the rest of the house once more. You hear her moving from room to room
below.

The patch of sunlight disappears and the room quickly loses its warmth; evening is coming on. You cannot waste any more time waiting. You get up and go downstairs, calling to Jardakka to join you. There is no reply. You walk from room to room, looking for her, but the house is empty. Jardakka has disappeared!

The bundle of rags you noticed earlier starts to move and shift. You hear a groan as the sleeping vagrant wakes. An old woman sits up against the wall. Her skin is dirty, her hair matted with filth. She beckons to you to come closer.

Approach her?
Leave the house and find Jardakka?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 14/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 4
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, approach her. Though if she wants 1 GP too, she's out of luck.

[SGamerz]

We've spent all this time looking and waiting for her, we'd be letting all that go to waste if we leave now. Approach.

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to approach her.

[Beroli]

The old woman grabs your hand as if she were drowning. Before you know what is happening, she leans forward and bites deeply into your thumb, drawing blood. Lose 2 STAMINA points. She sucks greedily on the wound until you shove her away in disgust.

She laughs and wipes her bloody mouth with the back of her hand. A change seems to come over her in that moment. She remains as dirty and filthy as she was before, but the lines have disappeared from her face and she looks twenty years younger. The Witch of Krooe laughs.

‘Do you fear me, Sightmaster? The powers I serve are far more terrible. They will tell you whatever you want but at a price. There is always a price to pay.’

‘What price is that?’

‘That is for the spirits to decide. The spirits take what they want from those who call upon them.’

‘Will they tell me how to defeat the Shield Maidens of Lumlé?’

‘If that is what you wish to know.’

Ask her to summon her spirits?
Balk at entering into a bargain with dark powers?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 12/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 4
[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to summon her spirits.

[Thaluikhain]

Summon her spirits. Our goddess is pretty awful, maybe the dark powers will be more worthy of devotion.

[Queen of Swords]

Sure, let's try summoning spirits.

[Beroli]

‘But they are already here!’

The witch bends forward, until her face is almost touching the floor, and caresses the wooden boards as if they were a lover.

The dust and filth that has accumulated on the floor of the house seems to be moving of its own accord. The detritus crawls into the centre of the floor where it forms a seething, shifting heap, like a mound of ants. As you watch, it rises up, forming a choking cloud. Your mouth becomes dry and you are seized by a spasm of coughing. When you can look up again, you seem to see human faces in the cloud of dust, faces that appear and disappear like bubbles in froth. They have no eyes.

‘Who calls us? Who?’

‘I do.’ The cloud veers towards you, as if following the sound of your voice.

You stammer out your request, that the spirits tell you how to defeat the ghostly Shield Maidens.

‘The mirror. Their souls are bound to the mirror. Break the glass!’

The cloud of dust swirls about the room. ‘And now you must pay! We want an eye, sightmaster. Give us your right eye that we may see!’

Agree to sacrifice your right eye?
Offer them something else instead?

[spoiler=Adventure Sheet]
Name: Rey Ulthran
Skill: 12/12
Stamina: 12/16
Luck: 8/11

Gold Pieces: 4
[/spoiler]