Lily says, "Okay, when last we played, you were up in a 
building observing one of the bands of beastmen." 

Moriya says, "Basement." 

Jacqueline says, "who knows, maybe it was a Beastment." 

There's about 40 or so goblin slave diggers, 10 or so 
beastmen, and one guy in red armor. 

Lily says, "OOC Beastmen" 

There's about ten bands like this scattered all over the 
ruins. 

Beowulf nods. "OOC Have I watched 'em long enough to get an 
idea of their work patterns? I.e. working in shifts, rotating 
breaks, etc.?" 

Lily says, "OOC They seem to work on the 'make the slaves dig 
until they collapse' principle." 

Lucien OOC Well, sales come and go 

Lily says, "OOC Other than the fact that each band is working 
a different place, this whole thing seems rather poorly 
organized." 

Beowulf asks, "OOC Ah. Does it look like there'd be a chance 
to take one of the red-armor boys alone?" 

Lily says, "OOC They seem to all generally mill about near 
each other, at least while they're working; getting any of 
them alone will be fairly difficult." 

Lily says, "OOC although each of the bands is out of sight of 
the others." 

Beowulf OOCly nods. All right, then, time for plan B. 

Beowulf turns to Lily. "You know, searching this place would 
be a fair amount of work, even with all of these folks in the 
way... right?" 

Lily nods.  "Yes.  Are you thinking of watching them for a 
while and seeing if they find anything?" 

Beowulf says, "But you know, here we have an entire workforce 
ready for use..." 

Beowulf says, "Not exactly." He smiles. 

Beowulf says, "They look like they could use some competent 
leadership, yes? Suppose we sneak back out, and I walk into 
the camp openly, presenting myself as a wandering scholar with 
some interest in these ruins." 

Mitsune grins.  "Letting other people work is always good." 

Beowulf says, "Set myself up as their expert, get to involve 
them all in the search, and hopefully even intercept what 
we're looking for before they even see it." 

Beowulf asks, "Meanwhile... Mitsune, how'd you feel like doing 
a little hide-and-seek?" 

Mitsune says, "Sure.  What am I looking for?" 

Beowulf asks, "Draw off individuals and/or groups, leading 
them into pit traps, that sort of thing?" 

Lily frowns.  "They've been attacking and killing the locals; 
they might decide you'd make a better stew than a consultant." 

Mitsune says, "They look stupid and easy to manipulate to me." 

Beowulf says, "Well, I can approach one of the groups out of 
sight of the others; hopefully, we can take care of that one 
group and not alert the others if it goes bad." 

Rod has disconnected. 

Beowulf asks, "As a backup... Lily, how hard would it be for 
you to mind-control one of the red-armor fellows if you were 
sitting on my shoulder in cat-form while we're talking? 
Without the others noticing?" 

Lily says, "It depends on how strong his mind is." 

Lily says, "Give me a minute, I'll try a spell to gauge his 
mental strength." 

Beowulf nods. 

Lily spends a few minutes casting a spell, then concentrates 
for a while. 

Lily announces, "His armor provides some defense, but his mind 
isn't very strong. I could probably batter my way into it 
fairly quickly." 

Beowulf keeps an eye on her to make sure she's OK. 

Lily says, "If I can make eye contact with him, I can give it 
a try." 

Beowulf nods. "All right, then... suppose we sneak out, then 
approach his group openly and give this a try." 

Rod has connected. 

Lily nods 

Lily turns into a cat. 

Mitsune says, "I'll go play with the others.  Scream if you 
need me." 

Mitsune turns into a fox and slips off. 

Lily hops up onto your shoulders. 

Beowulf sneaks back outside the building and back out to the 
jungle. 

Sneak, sneak, there. 

Beowulf stops for a moment inside the edge of the jungle. 
"Lily? How good are you at disguise magic?" 

Lily meows at you. 

Then she presses a paw to your neck and mind-speaks, "I am 
okay at it.  Would you like a disguise?" 

Beowulf nods. "I was thinking of an older man, blond hair 
turning to white... name of Rene Belloch." He smiles. 

She spends about an hour casting a spell.  Blink, you're 
disguised exactly as you desired. 

Beowulf nods, and moves through the jungle until he's in a 
position to walk out and meet the one group without the 
others' seeing. 

You approach the group.  Some of the beastmen and the man in 
the red armor turn and look at you. 

Beowulf walks out, looks around at the clearing, and blinks. 
"Huh. I dang well didn't expect this." He goes over to talk to 
the group. "My, but yer busy fellers. What'cha up to?" 

The beastmen simply stare at you in a sort of utter disbelief. 

The man in red armor bellows, "WHO DO YOU SERVE?" 

Beowulf says, "Serve? Sonny, I don't serve no one. I just like 
studyin' ruins, heard they had a nice set here. Didn't expect 
ta see no one else lookin', though." 

"THOSE WHO WILL NOT BOW DOWN BEFORE KHORNE MUST BE DESTROYED!" 

Lily shifts on your shoulders, trying to get a glimpse of the 
armored man's eyes. 

Beowulf blinks. "Khorne? Who's he?" 

Beowulf shifts slightly to give Lily a better shot. 

"HE IS THE GREAT LORD OF BLOODSHED!  ALL WHO WILL NOT KILL FOR 
HIM MUST DIE FOR HIM!  WILL YOU KILL FOR KHORNE?" 

Beowulf says, "Well, sonny, don't believe much in killin', but 
I'd be happy ta help ya explore this place. Looks might' 
interestin'." 

He shouts, "THEN YOU MUST PERISH!!!!"  He draws his sword and 
charges at you, as do the beastmen.  The goblin slaves just 
keep working. 

Beowulf says, "OOC Drat. And here I was trying so hard to be 
reasonable... ^_^" 

Lily says, "OOC Unfortunately, you're dealing with deranged 
worshippers of a war god :)" 

Beowulf first uses the whip to disarm the leader. 

Beowulf then tries to catch as many of the beastmen as he can 
and knock them off their feet. 

Your whip cracks and knocks his sword away. 

Beowulf says, "OOC With one sweep of the whip." 

Beowulf says, "OOC Before turning back to leader-guy." 

And then you slap down four of the beastmen. 

They're moving in closer.  Going to backpedal? 

Beowulf asks, "OOC What's his armor look like?" 

Lily says, "OOC Full body plate." 

Lily says, "OOC Protects his whole body pretty well." 

Beowulf backpedals to keep a range on the beastmen, and tries 
to knock more of 'em down while keeping the leader from 
getting too close. 

Lily begins casting something. 

You keep backing up.  Pretty soon you've knocked out all the 
beastmen with your whip's stunning abilities.  The leader, 
however, seems to have tough enough armor to largely ignore 
that. 

Lily continues casting. 

Beowulf asks, "OOC What's the design of his helmet look like? 
Something that can be yanked off?" 

Lily says, "OOC You can try.  It doesn't look to be latched 
on." 

Beowulf uses the whip to try and pull the leader's armor off. 

Beowulf says, "Er, helmet off." 

The whip cracks.  You pull his armor off.  He looks vaguely 
human, but his hair looks metallic, he has a third eye, and 
what looks like a tentacle coming out of one ear. 

He shouts, "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"  And redoubles his rush 
at you. 

Pull his HELMET OFF. 

Beowulf uses the whip to trip him up as he backpedals. 

You trip him; he falls, and by the time he gets up, you have 
more space.  He begins shouting really, really loudly.  You 
can hear the sound of running feet coming from the direction 
of some of the other dig sites. 

Lily finishes her spell, and unleashes a spray of colored 
lights in the warrior's face.  He staggers about, confused. 

Beowulf keeps his distance, whipping the leader in the head 
and trying to maneuver them back towards the jungle's edge. 

Lots of shouts of 'Blood for the Blood God!!!' echo about the 
ruins. 

After the third whack, the leader collapses. 

Several more of the groups come into sight, but you easily 
flee into the jungle. 

Beowulf asks, "OOC how close is the leader to the edge of the 
jungle?" 

Lily says, "OOC Not very close when you knock him out." 

Lily says, "OOC THough you could easily run and grab him and 
take him with you." 

Beowulf quickly runs, grabs the leader, and carries him back 
to the edge of the jungle with them. 

Beowulf gives the leader another knock on the head to keep him 
unconscious. 

Beowulf asks, "OOC any signs of pursuit into the jungle?" 

Lily says, "OOC Sounds like they're chasing after you." 

Beowulf hmms, and looks for a good place to hide while they 
mind-interrogate the leader. 

You spend a while running about hiding.  Eventually, you find 
a cave to hide in. 

Lucien OOC Just updated my website, for those who care :) 

Beowulf asks Lily to try to read the guy's mind, while he 
keeps watch inside the entrance to the cave. 

Lily turns back to human 

Lily lays her hands on his forehead and concentrates for a 
while. 

Lily finally takes her hand off his forehead.  "What a freak." 

Lily says, "His name is Bonecrusher.  He thinks of himself as 
a 'Champion of Khorne', who he believes is a 'God of Chaos'" 

Lily says, "Apparently, Khorne sent him into 'The Blood 
Labryinth of Khorne', which turned him into this twisted thing 
and gave him the power to walk through shadow." 

Beowulf says, "OOC Sounds like the Logrus. o.o" 

Beowulf asks, "What was he looking for?" 

Lily says, "It struck me as some sort of weird cross between 
the Logrus and the Pattern...it was a tunnel, like the Logrus, 
but unlike the real logrus, you didn't need shapeshifting to 
survive it." 

Lily says, "You just had to be good at killing things." 

Beowulf blinks. "Odd. I wonder what it could be, then?" 

Lily says, "Khorne sent him here along with the other bands to 
find three vases buried here." 

Beowulf whew's. "Good; they still think the vases are here, 
then, and aren't looking beyond. I was hoping that'd be the 
case." 

Lily says, "He seemed rather disgruntled about being sent to 
dig instead of kill." 

Lily says, "We're basically dealing with a very large number 
of homocidal maniacs." 

Beowulf says, "Ah. Joy. Well, won't feel any particular 
compunction about killing 'em, then." 

Beowulf asks, "Were they supposed to be reporting in at any 
given time?" 

Beowulf asks, "Especially reporting in using Trump, or 
anything similar?" 

Lily says, "They wre just supposed to bring the vases when 
they finish.  They don't have any trumps or other way to 
communicate cross-shadow." 

Beowulf says, "Also good." 

Beowulf asks, "They know much of anything else about Khorne?" 

Lily says, "He looks like this." 

Sana_Kurata falls asleep. 

Lily casts a simple spell and an image of a huge guy in blood 
red armor appears 

A very tiny Champion, about 1/40th his size appears next to 
him to indicate scale. 

Beowulf hmmms. "Not the fellow I remember from back at 
Panopticon, then. " 

Lily says, "And they think he's a God; if they kill enough 
people, he'll be free to get loose and help them kill, kill, 
kill...blah, blah, kill, blah." 

Beowulf says, "Unless he was a better shapeshifter than I was 
thinking... hmmm." 

Lily says, "Well, it would be pretty easy for a good 
shapeshifter to change his appearance a lot." 

Beowulf asks, "Anything else useful you can pull out of his 
head?" 

Lily says, "His home shadow seems to be ruled by an empire 
known simply as 'The Empire'.  " 

Lily laughs. 

Beowulf hmms. "Not very helpful, is he? They must have fairly 
good security procedures." 

Lily says, "The Empire seems to be vaguely Germanic" 

Lily says, "It's rulled by someone named 'Karl Franz von 
Schleswig-Holstein'" 

Beowulf asks, "OOC Name ring any bells?" 

Lily says, "OOC IT's a shadow youhave some vague awareness of 
it.  The inhabitants are locked in combat with strange 
monsters who invade constantly from another shadow through 
portals at the north and south poles." 

Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Didn't seem like anything important?" 

Lily says, "OOC It has yet to be studied much.  The emperors 
of it derive their claims to rule from descent from Sigmar 
Heidenhammer, who led a famous war against the portal 
creatures and had a magic hammer." 

Beowulf OOCly hehs. 

Lucien OOC thought John typed "descent from Sledge Hammer" 
there 

Beowulf asks, "Hm." He passes the information along to Lily. 
"Empire ruled by a hammer, perhaps?" 

Lily says, "OOC That would be ammusing." 

Lily nods.  "Hmm.  That could be it." 

Beowulf says, "Anyway... if there's nothing more useful we can 
gain from this chap, how much mental control d'you think you 
could establish on him? Enough to brainwash him and send him 
back out to wipe out as many of his fellows as he can? He 
ought to like that, if he's hung up on blood." 

Lucien OOC has to get to bed. Night all! 

Autolyca has disconnected. 

Lily grins. 

Lily says, "Yep.  Pretty easy to do so." 

Lily reprograms him and sends him out to rampage. 

Beowulf checks around the cave to make sure no one's 
following, then moves out himself. 

Lily follows you. 

Beowulf says, "Let's see... probably have to take a look at 
the clearing to see how many people are following. Our best 
bet is probably to try and take 'em on one group at a time... 
the beastmen don't seem to be much threat." 

Beowulf asks, "Oh, did our fellow have anything of interest on 
the beastmen?" 

As you head out of the cave, you can hear lots of movement in 
various directions; sounds like they're wandering the woods 
looking for you. 

Beowulf finds cover, and tries to estimate their movement 
patterns from the sounds. "Lily? Would you be better off in 
human form or feline?" 

Lily says, "I think I will let you carry me, since I will be 
casting spells instead of going hand to hand." 

Lily goes cat again and hops up on your shoulders. 

Beowulf nods. 

You eventually hunt down and deal with all of them; in the 
woods, your vastly superior warfare means they have no real 
chance against you. 

Since they can't bring their numbers to bear fast enough. 

Beowulf says, "OOC Including the goblins, or were they left 
back at the site? Also, I assume Mitsune took care of a few of 
'em. :)" 

Lily says, "OOC The goblins are all still digging, as they 
don't know what's going on." 

Lily says, "OOC And are slaves rather than fanatical Khorne 
worshippers." 

Beowulf heads back to the clearing. 

Beowulf asks, "OOC What's the situation back there?" 

The slaves are all still hard at work on digging at various 
sites. 

Off in the distance, you hear an explosion. 

Beowulf walks up to one of the goblins, and... blinks. What 
direction was the explosion in? 

The slaves look up at you, then keep working. 

Beowulf runs back to the building and climbs up to the 
observation post, to see what happened. 

Exploding turtles are running about one of the dig areas. 
Goblins are running away from them yelping. 

Jacqueline says, "OOCly Kaolla Su is attacking with her mecha-
tamagos :)" 

Beowulf blinks. "All right, what is Mitsune up to now?" 

Beowulf goes down and heads over to that dig site, stopping a 
safe distance away. 

Beowulf asks, "OOC Can I tell anything more about what's going 
on from closer?" 

Lily says, "OOC Yes, you can tell that lots of exploding 
turtles are chasing everyone around :)" 

Eventually, all the goblins there flee into the woods, and the 
turtles begin wandering around, bumping into things and 
exploding. 

Beowulf asks, "Lily, can you do something to hold them without 
them exploding? And possibly tell where they came from?" 

Beowulf uses his spectacles to take a closer look at them, 
magic analysis. 

Looks like larger versions of Tama-chan. 

Except for the exploding part. 

Mitsune now emerges, picking up one of the turtles and hugging 
it, then putting it back down. 

She turns and waves up at you. 

Beowulf says, "Ah. Hello; I take it you had fun?" He smiles. 

Beowulf goes down and asks Lily to read one of the goblin's 
minds. 

Mitsune grins.  "Lots of fun." 

Lily goes and reads a goblin's mind. 

Beowulf says, "How nasty a folk are they? I'm thinking we 
could get them to help with the search, then send them back to 
help the villagers if they can be trusted." 

Lily says, "Their culture is rather warlike, but they've been 
slaves long enough they've had all the spirit knocked out of 
them." 

Beowulf asks, "Hm. Think they'd respond well to good 
treatment?" 

Lily says, "After being ruled by blood thirsty maniacs, I 
think so." 

Beowulf nods. "All right, then... let's organize the search, 
give 'em some good food, and see if we can prepare 'em." 

Lily asks, "OOC Okay, what are you looking for?" 

Beowulf OOCly hmmms. 

Beowulf sets the goblins to carefully digging around the spot 
where he found the vases -- showing them how to dig properly -
- sets another couple of groups to digging in areas that look 
interesting, and starts searching himself for the town 
library. 

Potemkin falls asleep. 

Several days of work follow, during which you dig, dig, dig, 
and find the town library and start dig, dig, digging there. 

Lily says, "OOC And we'll stop here, as I will need to go bed 
soon." 

Beowulf OOCly nods.