THE SLORG!
"Out here? No, take her inside, and then we'll deal with her" the militia member told Lewis, pointing across the yard at the front door. He then grabbed his walkie talkie and quickly said into the militia channel, "got guests at the front gate, coming to the lobby with a prisoner."
The militia member then looked back, getting a slightly confused expression as he noticed Garrett leaving. "Where's your friend going?" the militia member asked.
Valentina stared at Ben with an unimpressed expression. "Who raised such a bullheaded little brat? You should be spanked" Valentina commented in a dry tone, before glancing at Two and then Rex, and frowning slightly. "Both sides at fault? Dealing with a threat that was killing our people puts us at fault? How ridiculous. And you know the lamias would not be okay with us marching in and only taking those responsible. Would've left quite a few embittered members of their species who would come looking for revenge later; our king made it clear to leave no loose ends. We were not just dealing with the threat for now, but dealing with it permanently. That is why we burned the whole village" the sorceress said, glancing back as Rick and Morty came in to berate her.
"Pardon me for trying to find a way out of this mess" Valentina retorted with sarcasm, otherwise not seeming upset by their words. She then looked at Chise and Elias with a somewhat disgusted expression that made it clear she believed they were so very completely off the mark. "Gah! You people all seem so averse to logic, I hardly see the point in wasting my time trying to debate you" the sorceress then said with a scoff.
"Well you can't prove yourself right if you don't even try" Miss Tairee pointed out as an idle comment, while currently focused on typing. "And Rex, I did mention dating boys in my history, just usually only once each. And before I died, I was even looking into potential suitors to try to marry. You must have forgotten" the librarian told Rex in a dry, almost belittling tone.
"Hmm." Valentina turned back towards Ben, narrowing her eyes for a moment in thought. "Well boy, then let's see about your reasoning. In a true conflict, there is nothing wrong with 'fighting dirty' as you put it. If there is a threat, you find a way to deal with it; I saw an opportunity to attack and possibly free myself from this place, and maybe even everyone. It would have been neglectful of me not to try" Valentina explained, scowling at the thought. "And your ideas of what makes a hero? I fit every one. I protected the farmers trying to work the lands from the raiding orcs who would pillage their homes, and the ogres that would come down from the hills to eat their livestock, and sometimes the farmers as well. The raiding orcs, the feasting ogres, the bandit kobolds attacking caravans, the lamias killing anyone who came into the forest, and other monsters; I'm pretty sure they would all be 'evildoers', and were certainly hurting people. And as she even admitted, the lamias most certainly were harming others. And the other champions and I put ourselves in danger combating these evils several times" the sorceress ranted along, though her voice was still fairly calm.
"And you two" Valentina muttered, turning to Chise and Elias. "Not 'going to', did; the cleansing was finished years ago. And the cleansing was our solution to an overrunning of monsters in our borders so bad that it became known as the scourging. The orcs even became so bold that they eventually attacked our capital; a group of their raiders even made it into our famed university of magic, and in the skirmish that followed there, my own sister was killed" the sorceress told them, with some true anger and fury finally seeping into her tone and expression.
"That attack on our capital was the last straw. We had been unable to properly deal with the monsters and protect our borders at the same time; the king made some political moves to get our neighbors in a promise not to attack us, so we could gather our forces. He then called on us champions to lead the efforts. This was no conquering of foreign lands, or a ruler trying to gain more personal power; we were protecting our people, nothing more, nothing less. I joined willingly, not as a puppet" Valentina went on, with another scowl at the end, then paused for a moment. "... And as for the lamias specifically? Peace with them? During all that? We had no reason to believe they could be reasoned with. And every reason to believe that if we sent an envoy into the forest to try, they would most certainly just be killed by the lamias for encroaching on them. That would've been naive at best, and outright foolish" the sorceress concluded.
edited 16th Oct '17 3:51:24 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
As Valentina explained her reasoning, Arcade appeared less and less impressed. Once she was done, he spoke up. "You know, that sounds an awful lot like a situation from my world," he said, "two sides of a conflict that was ages long, and neither side was willing to compromise. At least, they both assumed the other wouldn't. Do you know how that ended?"
He stared straight at her, "millions of innocents died, on both sides. The paranoia and unwillingness to even find a compromise ended up killing both of us, and leaving the entire world an empty husk, so, sorry if I don't find your excuses very credible." Granted, his understanding of what Pre-War America was really like was pretty scant, but there was no way Valentina could call him out on that.
edited 16th Oct '17 4:32:29 PM by Skooter910
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Stop Killing My Titles
Two, Library
The longer she listened, the more conflicted the bluenette was. Valentina was... probably not a good person, all in all. She was haughty, arrogant, self-assured of her greatness... but she was honest, and the picture she presented was vivid.
Monster infestations were nothing new back in her home parts; it was something all five of them dealt with, either by themselves or via the soldiers employed in their stead. Two was of the former category, and she knew full well the threat of a group of ogres, of merciless centaurs and hungry wyverns. Silanea and her people Two had seen, could talk with them; see they were sapient, intelligent. Monsters she usually dealt with had nothing to offer but violence (and a source of nourishment).
That was why she was feeling so conflicted. Monsters were not usually sapient. Even if they were, they were not usually benevolent. Silanea was just... hurt. Her mother was worried about her, but... It was true. Valentina and her group were doing what heroes were supposed to do. What soldiers were supposed to do. What any decent person would do if they had the power.
"Forgive me, Lady Valentina." Two bowed her head in shame. "I have misjudged you and your companions' actions. As one who have done the things you've described myself, the shame is burning even brighter." Arcade tried to fight this conversation more, but this was not a conflict of two powers. It was one power and the monsters that encroached on it.
"I weep for Silanea, for she had been robbed of her home and family, but I understand this had to be done."
grah
Happy Box Hater
Library
"Yeah, just call me Caboose." he said to Rex distractedly. Caboose was currently hard at work trying to decode a puzzle. Something seemed off about what everyone was saying to Valentina. Why were they yelling at her and saying she was bad? And then, like lightning, it hit him. They thought she was bad!
He wasn't sure how they came to that conclusion. She was fun to play games with, if a bit of a sore loser, and anyone's hands could slip and shoot a person in the face. Nothing to suggest a villain. No baldness, no cackling, no steepled fingers. It was all so confusing.
And everything being said was just so mean. The skeleton man was way less nice than the other skeleton men from the game they played. People can't be puppets, who would be big enough to pull strings that large? The train in his head was starting to move, sluggishly but surely.
Valentina's rant finally hammered it into his head. His perception was still tinted by his trademark Cabooseness, but the situation was relatively clear in his mind. "It makes sense," Caboose said after she was done talking. "Becoming friends with the bad guy is hard, because the bad guy is bad and that makes you good. Even having to work together to fight another side doesn't make people friends on it's own. If a person has to play a game than they might lose. The only way for two to win is if there is a three to lose. I don't think there was a three here."
Why is a yam attacking me?
"Quite interesting," she remarked to Hibiki, "Can't say I've seen one of these back home. How about you?"
She stepped into the friendly looking, warm and inviting place called the Prison, looking around. She said "You know, I don't think I even knew we had this thing. Lewis, di..."
She trailed off, recalling about 30 seconds ago when he didn't seem keen on talking. "Sorry."
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
"Right, of course." I kept gliding to the door, before the guard pointed out Garrett leaving behind me.
I looked back and shrugged. "I dunno. Figures his job is done, I guess. Don't know where he's headed, why?"
Yoshika was surprised that there was a prison in the city in the first place, but for some reason cut herself off "For...what? ...I'd heard of this place, but this is the first time I've seen it."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Annoyed Mode: ON
"...I don't get it," Yuna muttered, scratching her head. "Secretary has god powers, yes? This whole thing got very confusing, but I don't think she's the one that brought us all here. But if she was, and you killed her... wouldn't that have gotten us all stuck here forever?"
The rest of Valentina's words did not really endear Yuna to her, but they did bring some new light into the whole situation. And, more importantly, it made her think about some things. For example, that there was a way she could help clear up this whole mess. And at least a third of the work was already done!
"Hey, I think I got an idea!" she loudly announced, visibly excited over what she was planning to do. "Everyone, stay where you are! I'll be back in no time!"
With that out of the way, she quickly started running towards one of the library's many entrances with her phone already in hand. Her two faeries, which had at some point freed themselves from Caboose's grasp and were glad to get as far away from all the squeezing as possible, followed suit.
"Well, yes. Portals aren't all that common but I've had experience with them." Looking up from the blades of grass that she had lost count of multiple times around the twenties due to it all looking about the same to her eyes, the girl blinked at the appearance of the sickly green dimensional movement oriented construction while scooting slightly further away from it.
"Usually the villains tend to use them to pop around the world to attack target locations or try to access stuff like the Treasury of Babylon. I almost got stuck on the other side of one of those... what do you call it... dimensional pockets? Yeah, I almost got stranded in Babylon with the portal shrinking and it was a close call." It took her mind a couple of seconds to catch up to what she said due to being initially surprised by the appearance of the portal, a flustered look appeared on her face. "Ah... er... yeah. Portals tend to mean bad news when they pop up." Man, keeping secrets was hard.
"Not really helping, dude" Rex totally agreed with insulting Valentina and he liked Elias' choice of words. 'Puppet' rolled off the tongue nicely and it carried much more venom than a simple jab at her flashy clothes or pale skin. But that wasn't the best course of action to solve a racial issue.
Where to begin? Probably the huge ego. Don't look directly at the dialogue or the irony might kill you. Valentina apparently fit all the requirements to be called a hero that Ben had mentioned. And that somehow made everything a-ok.
"You've got it all wrong. That doesn't make you a hero. Not completely, anyway. It's easy to brush it off, just say it someone else's problem, I get that. Sometimes I'm like that, you know? Thinking that everything is justified because I'm beating up bad guys. But that's not really how it works"
Of course, things could never be simple. Valentina had a personal grudge with orcs for attacking her city and killing her sister. But genocide was never the answer. No matter how much Two surprisingly agreed with it. Seriously, what the hell?
Oh and Yuna had an idea: Run away from the library "...did she just?"
Moving on.
"You lost someone and you are hurt but you can't take it out on anyone of the same species. And lamias can be reasoned with. I even bet that's true for every other one of the 'monsters' you mentioned. Have you even looked around? This place is filled with so many people from so many different species and backgrounds and, aside from a few incidents, we've somehow made it work. Everyone wants the same, we all have with families, friends, and homes we want to protect. We just want to live in peace. We are all people"
edited 16th Oct '17 8:04:12 PM by DeisTheAlcano
Hangar
So Wells had been working on law enforcement since the 5th day. That was pretty impressive. She could tell by the way that Samson described the 9th day that it was a kind of sort spot for him, and Makoto wasn't sure she had the courage to press him for more details on it. Just what had those people who'd been kicked out done that was so bad? Considering that the whole day involved zombies, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the specifics anymore.
"I guess facing something like that would push people to their limits..." she said. Even if something similar happened in the future, she wouldn't cave in and give up...right? She didn't think she was too afraid of dying, at least. Not after risking her life multiple times back at home. And here it wasn't even permanent.
edited 16th Oct '17 10:45:09 PM by ScorpioRat
Seiga had taught her barely anything. Ciri had taught her about self-protection and common sense.
Who was there to teach her about socialization? Rex's advice on dating was insightful but brief! And she didn't want to date Lewis, believe it or not! He's a skeleton and, she's just gonna take a guess here, way older than...wait. Wasn't she a thousand years old?
Uhh...okay, Yoshika stopped that line of thought immediately, and from Ghostfriend's perspective it seemed like she had just rebooted after a brief bout of staring somewhere else in embarrassment. Now, where was she?
"I just worried that you didn't want to talk to me, or something," Yoshika admitted. "You know...after the anime stuff."
"Though, I have to ask," as she leaned back and pleasingly popped a couple vertebrae, "you're not talking about the old, old Babylon, right? You hardly look like you'd live in a hut with clothing like that."
THE SLORG!
"Wait, you forgot your water" Miss Tairee said, raising a hand and blinking a couple times, as Yuna was already gone. The librarian glanced around, then tapped a few keys on the keyboard. With a blur on the desk, a bottle of water appeared, as from behind the desk, a small medivac flew up into view. Miss Tairee grabbed the bottle of water and held it sideways up to the bottom side of the medivac, which it then apparently attached to. The medivac then flew out towards the revolving door quickly, its little engines flaring brightly and leaving a slight smoke trail as it activated its temporary boosters. Once out the door, it would try to chase down Yuna.
Valentina looked at Arcade with an incredulous expression. "Oh really? Millions you say? The world a broken husk?" Valentina muttered, then shook her head and frowned. "Sir, if you want me to agree with you, you're going to have to do better than first ignoring part of what I just told you, and then making up a clearly false story with an obviously exaggerated number meant to shock me" the sorceress told him dryly.
"Because as you would know if you'd been paying attention, we already wiped them out. There isn't room for us to be destroying ourselves with hubris against them, because they're gone. Far from us destroying ourselves in the process, we prevented ourselves from being destroyed. And now, years later? We don't have a broken husk; we have a flourishing kingdom that is safer and more prosperous than it has been in generations" Valentina explained to the doctor, in a dismissive and conclusive tone. "And you..." the sorceress turned her attention then to Rex.
"What you're saying is contradictory, hypocritical, outright wrong, and assuming that the situation in this place and the situation of my homeland in the scourging are the same, which they are not. I didn't treat it like 'someone else's problem'; I took it upon myself as my own personal responsibility, and I set into it to the best of my ability. You acknowledge the good of peace and the right of those to protect the ones they care about, yet you say I am in the wrong for having done what was necessary for precisely those goals? Oh please" Valentina said, rolling her eyes. "And you would seriously have had us wait and seek diplomatic solutions with all of them, while each day more villages were being attacked, and people were being eaten? Until what? They said, 'sorry, we won't do it again'? Oh, I'm sure their apologies would be of great comfort to the homeless widows, the grieving mothers, the orphaned children, and the traumatized men that were left in the wake" the sorceress went on in a sarcastic way, then very seriously added, through grit teeth, "I do not lightly use the term, 'monster' out of mere racial prejudice, boy."
Valentina then glanced at the door that Yuna left out of, concentrated for a moment, then Valentina's body briefly flickered in a swirl of color that was reminiscent of strokes of a paintbrush, but otherwise nothing happened. "It seems I don't have a choice but to stay where I am" Valentina thought out loud to herself with a frown.
It was just a bit before Valentina was done that through one of the revolving doors, Veela walked in, along with two young women wearing french maid outfits, and masquerade ball masks. Their colorfully dyed and somewhat unique hairstyles were a bit of a giveaway though if one payed attention and recalled them. "Well here we are. If you want to come back with me too, then don't take long, alright? I wasn't planning on sticking around here" Veela commented as she walked towards the central desks. Behind her the Annas slowly followed the gremlin while looking around, trying to see if Wang was still in the library.
Outside in another direction, Wells was approaching the library from just a bit down the street.
Meanwhile, Louie was standing near Ben and looking towards Valentina with a... Mostly lost expression, though also angry. "I don't really get what she's talking about... But I don't like her" Louie commented to Ben.
Thomas kind of half turned, half slouched in Arcade's general direction, then wearily turned his eyes towards the others talking. "Another bloody argument..." Thomas muttered sleepily, then flopped onto the couch and turned himself on his side facing the back of the couch, while letting out an annoyed groan.
"He kinda looked like someone we're supposed to be looking for... But it's probably coincidence" the militia member said to Lewis, then headed back for the door to the guard tower.
The front door opened ahead of Lewis, and Fastanook looked out at him. "So, I'm guessing that's our..." Fastanook trailed off a moment, one of his ears twitching. Then he quickly drew his phaser and aimed it up at the floran.
There was an angry snarl as the pretending-to-still-be-unconscious floran began to flail her limbs, realizing she'd been had. But a fast shot from Fastanook to her exposed skin between parts of the armor had her out cold again for real.
edited 17th Oct '17 12:20:39 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
Yoshika was just shy after the porn thing, was all. "Wha...? No, no, I don't mind talking, it's that particular subject that was awkward and embarrassing. You can ask me things."
According to the guard, Garrett just happened to resemble someone they were looking for. Funny. It sure was a small city. I wasn't about to sell him out without knowing what he supposedly did, if it was indeed him they were out for. Not when there was shit like the church massacre. Still, the suspicion was there...
"Does he? I wouldn't know of him doing anything arrestworthy, in the city anyway. Can't guarantee the same about outside. Who are you looking for, and what for?"
As was Fastanook, catching the captive stirring before I did and knocking her out again when she started attempting to writhe free of me. "Thanks."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
THE SLORG!
"Arrest? No, one of the prisoners wants to talk to some guy; I don't know what about" the first militia member said with a shrug, then walked through the door into the guard tower.
Meanwhile, Fastanook kind of wiggled his nose, and lowered his phaser, though kept it in hand. "Yeah, just put her down and we'll take it from here now" Fastanook said to Lewis, letting out a breath and giving a slight shrug.
You are reading this.
feeling blue
The more she explained her side of the story, the less sure Chise felt about who was right in this whole matter. It could be that it was just different shades of gray but even then, what Silanea went through just wasn't right...
"Elias, what do you think?" Chise asked, looking up at the mage.
"Assuming she isn't simply lying to make her and her kind seem like the victims, the fact that her kingdom had been the target of every other race is suspicious to say the least. The lamias are clearly intelligent and all they were doing was protect their territory, for the others to be actively attacking them, clearly they must have done something to instigate it. Something that this woman likely isn't even aware of."
That was a point that made Chise stop and think for a while, it could be that neither side was lying, but were missing the full details. As she tried to think of something, she glanced down at the book that Rex was holding, remembering that he had asked for a book on Silanea's world. Seeing that, she walked over to him and grabbed his arm.
"Rex, I have an idea, come with me, please." She requested.
If he went along with it, she would bring him to another corner of the library, trying to stay out of earshot of Valentina and potentially out of view too.
"That's not my point!" Arcade cried at Valentina, "I don't think your world will literally become the Wasteland, I know you don't have the technology to invent nukes. I'm saying that this paranoia doesn't do anyone any good! If you don't care about the children and infants you slaughtered, at least you should care to hear what my country did to its own citizens in the name of protecting itself from the other!"
There was a tremble throughout Arcade's body as he started to rant. "They tortured their own civilians, just to get a little more protection from their enemies! They tried to exterminate the survivors of the war, still more of their own citizens, because they were suffering side-effects from their battle. They had to be stopped, before they slaughtered even more innocents!
"And I'm sure, you think that can't happen to you! Your ruler is probably the most trustworthy ruler ever! I bet those lamia children agree, their parents were evil, so even the children had to be murdered! Everyone had to pay for those crimes, even though some of us were children at the time!"
Arcade panted, as he stood stock-still, staring at the ground. He had no idea what just came over him, but it felt... good.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
For the Horde!
Ben frowned, staying quiet as he himself wasn't exactly sure what to say in response to this woman. One thing was totally clear though— this lady was definitely nuttier than a fruitcake. He glanced at Louie, who seemed to be just confused by the whole ordeal.
"She's the one that killed Silanea's people," Ben told him. "And yeah, I don't like her either." He steeled himself and prepared to make an argument of his own when Arcade suddenly flipped. Ben's eyes widened and he turned towards the doctor, who was getting positively livid. And making really darn good points. Ben nodded at him, then glared at Valentina again.
"Yeah, uh, what he said!" Ben retorted, if only to get some word in.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
"Oh. Huh." There was one person I could think of who both knew Garrett and would be doing time. But that was probably going to end in a prison break, and I didn't have any interest in being tied to that. Not like I liked the guy anyway. On the bright side, they didn't have it out for the thief. Yet.
Anyway, the guard had gone back to...guarding. I dropped the floran to the floor in front of me. "There you go. She's yours now." I wondered, if I told them I'd looted her weapon, whether they'd ask me to hand it over to them. "You know anything else about what he just said?" I pointed a thumb in the direction the guard went.
edited 17th Oct '17 11:04:02 AM by Oceanstuck
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Happy Box Hater
Library
This was a bit less fun now that Caboose knew that everyone wasn't on the same team. The arguments and fighting just reminded him of that period of time when no one was happy after the two factions of Chorus formed a truce. Why do people love fighting so much? It just makes things sad for everyone forever.
He waved hello to the two Annas without a moment taken to recall who they were. When you learn to identify people by things as generic as armor color and what weapon they use it becomes very simple to recognize someone that isn't wearing heavy full-body armor. Caboose didn't really want to talk to them though, so he instead gravitated to a different individual.
The tall skeleton was probably pretty grumpy or something. The obvious explanation Caboose came up with was quite sound. The taller the skeleton the less nice they are. Sans was tiny and great, Lewis was nice but sad, and this guy with a name he didn't catch was mean and rude. Clearly this theory needed to be investigated. Caboose walked over to Elias and said "Hello, I wanted to ask you if tall skeletons are meaner than short ones. The tiniest one I've met was great, but you seem very grumpy."
Why is a yam attacking me?
That One Gal
Kokichi, not wanting to stick around this boring place any longer, decided to follow Rick and what's-his-face through the portal...
The scene in the Library was very interesting, at least; the mysterious witch woman from the park was in a bubble and seemed to be the object of interest right now, the collection of people of all shapes and sizes, and what seemed to be three of the same person dotted around the room. That must've been the god-lady that blue girl was talking about, then.
"Aww, did we come at a bad time?" Kokichi said aloud, his tone suggesting that yes he knew they came at a bad time. "Everyone looks so dark and dreary. It's almost like somebody died!"
someone
Eve | Library | Progress
Eve smiled at Arcade after he finished his rant and patted him on the back. "About time," she said quietly, but with pride.
[TOP SECRET]
"Ok, first things first, my name is Rex" he was already getting tired of Valentina calling him a boy. As for Arcade, he really seemed to identify with the situation. He mentioned something about a great war, nukes, and him being a kid when something similar to what happened to Silanea happened in his home. That would have to wait but they were on the right track to change Valentina's mind "And Arcade is right, saving farmers or random citizens from getting killed is okay but you killed innocent people. I've seen it with my own eyes. There has to be a way to better handle this. Some kind of compromise"
Elias had his issues with the sorceress' explanation, though. To him, the constant attacks made little sense without provocation and even if Valentina wasn't lying, she was still probably didn't have the full story. Chise had an idea, and just in time too because the female gremlin and the Annas wearing maid costumes showed up. Time to make a quick escape.
"I like ideas, especially as far away from here as possible" he said pulling Chise to a corner of the library with him since she was grabbing his arm.
edited 17th Oct '17 2:36:01 PM by DeisTheAlcano
feeling blue
As it turned out Rex was actually quite eager to go to a different part of the library and listen to her. As they were leaving, Chise decided to instead direct Rex upstairs since there would be a better way to get some more privacy. Once there, she began speaking.
"I don't think we're going to get anywhere by just arguing with her without knowing the full story. That book is on their world, right, let me read it and then we can decide what to do from there." She explained her hands held out waiting for him to give her the book.
Once she got it, Chise would start flipping through the pages, trying to find as much information on the history of the kingdom and about the different races that lived there as she could.
Downstairs, in the meantime, Elias was about to follow Chise and Rex when he was approached by someone with a rather peculiar question.
"Well, I wouldn’t know as I'm not a skeleton." He explained, giving a half-hearted shrug. "Now if you'll excuse me..."
He then began heading upstairs, not even bothering to wait for Valentina's rebuttal.
THE SLORG!
Valentina still looked unimpressed from Arcade's outburst. "Another sob story from the liar? Even if I was to assume what you said is true, you just touched upon the reality of the situation in your sarcasm, and must have again ignored what I said. For every point you have just made, I had already countered" Valentina said in a dull tone. "It is as she said; I did what was ultimately necessary to ensure the lamias would never be a threat to our people again. For that is what my king ordered" the sorceress added, motioning to Two. Then Valentina glanced at Rex.
"And as for you; you've made it clear that you lack the maturity to have earned the right to be addressed as a man" Valentina commented towards Rex. From the central desk, Miss Tairee let out a snort and leaned over, bringing a hand up to her face as she tried desperately to stifle laughter.
Valentina then sighed in irritation and rubbed her forehead with a couple fingers. "I grow tired of the idea of repeating myself for those who refuse to listen. If that is how you choose to debate, then begone from me. For I will no longer extend the courtesy to those who refuse to do the same" Valentina stated in a dismissive tone, then turned around in her bubble and sat down crosslegged.
"So she killed innocent people?" Louie asked, trying to grab onto at least one bit of context he could understand clearly. "So she's a bad guy! We should teach her a lesson! Then throw her in the jail!" the trainer added, punching his right hand into his left palm in an obvious tell of what kind of 'lesson' he had in mind.
Meanwhile, skimming through the book, Chise would see that the situation was indeed like what Valentina had described. Apparently, a hundred years ago or so, in some prior adventure module that the book referred to in passing, a powerful dark wizard's tower was exploded in a faraway land. The blast was so cataclysmic that it shifted the climate of the whole world, which drove a number of the more nomadic, 'monstrous' races to move from their prior homelands to new territory. And Vusluora happened to be included in that new territory.
Not much was done at first, aside from a few skirmishes where Vusluoran forces happened to encounter them, as the people did not yet realize just how many of these monsters had wandered into their lands. By the time they did, things were already starting to get problematic, and the Vuslouran army could not control both their borders to their political neighbors and rivals, and try to drive out these monsters at the same time. Just as Valentina said, the campaign's starting point is set at an orc raid upon the capital city, as the roving bands of orcs had been gaining in strength relative to the humans, and grew cocky enough to try to plunder the largest city of the land. Player characters were meant to be caught up in the middle of the raid and help beat the orcs back, then the narrative would move on to the king declaring the cleansing.
Oddly, though predictably if they knew about these kinds of games, there wasn't actually any mention of Valentina herself, or any of the other champions specifically. As players were meant to create their own characters and story- though the campaign did have strict guidelines about them: They had to be human, they should be in the mid to high range of starting level, their primary alignment should be in the neutral band, and since the king would personally summon them to be declared as his 'champions' of the cleansing, they should already have some amount of reputation in their back story.
"Not really. Though I think it might be the same guy we caught yesterday. Get this, the idiot just melted some kind of hole in the front gate, then charged straight in through the front door- while tiny! Practically walked straight into Wells and me, and I just picked him up like a toy" Fastanook said to Lewis, grinning in a cheeky way.
edited 17th Oct '17 3:41:51 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
A lot was going on, the sorceress attempted to attack the librarian which did kill her but... she just shrugged it off like it was nothing and since it was just a copy it came back just fine, not that anything else was expected given the nature of the city. There really was no point in trying to fight against her. Still, now that she couldn't do anything except talk while she was in "time out", she began talking about what happened from her perspective. People understandably were upset about it but something struck Chise that nobody seemed to have really much mind to.
"... Cleasing? You were going to do the same thing, to the entire kingdom? Not just the lamias?" She asked, sounding horrified.
"Men can be more fearful and more hateful than any animal. This sorceress thinks of herself as important but in reality she was likely just a pawn in some king's plot for conquest, nothing more." Elias said, still sounding rather apathetic to the whole situation.
The other lady's explanation of how the lamias weren't entirely innocent did shed some light on things but it all still seemed very... unwarranted.
"But... they had a chance to just talk things out and maybe start peace between the two races, didn't they? They still made the decision to kill them all even after a chance for peace presented itself." She argued back.
"That would imply that they actually cared about peace and weren't just doing what they were told to do like the puppets they were."
edited 16th Oct '17 3:16:26 PM by FullMoon