Pezzle

The Five Senses

Hey! @Elevation welcome back! I love the idea of a cottage to hide out in! I've been pondering where to go and your character's background in this town solves all those problems. One quick change though, can we make it inside the town's limits. The town is walled off and they are trying to prevent people from leaving the town.

Also let me know if I need to get you caught up on anything. I'll stop RPing your character now that you're back.

The Five Senses

To be fair, Ms. Witch, you did call him a Turkey.

Chres post up. I'll devise a Major Plot Point post before the end of next week. Maybe later. I want to give you all time to respond before Sending The Sightless after us. I'll also work on a minor Plot point to send trouble in Mr. Turkey's direction (Hey now, At least I didn't say it to his face :P). I'll have the post up in the next few days.

The Five Senses

Chres Sansus

Interaction with @Elevation, @13Org, @SonOfJet, @HokumPocus
Mention of @eclecticwitch

---

"Can you still run, Chres?" Karina asked.

Chres glanced down at his bad foot frowning. It felt as if someone had slammed a door on it. The pain was that of a rhythmic throb; it was probably in the process of swelling. He figured by night fall it would probably be horribly bruised.

"Try to preserve your strength... Things will only get harder from now on..."

Chres watched as Karina and the rest began to cross to the next building.

"They will soon find out what happened... We may need to fight..."

Chres followed the group over being the last to cross. Placing his good foot on the heat construct’s edge, he dissipated the makeshift bridge into the surrounding air.

”I’ll manage... One way or another…” Chres said, limping his way quickly over to the next gap. The throbbing in his foot made him wince, but he said nothing of it. ”Hopefully by the time they notice, we’ll be far enough away to not have to worry.” Chres placed his good foot down on the edge of the roof top. Stored heat traveled from his shirt, down his leg and into the air. Once again he Wove the flows of heat into another bridge.

Chres gestured his companions to cross, watching as they did so. His felt his mind wander over to his familiar Sil. Her metal glass pendent still felt cold against his chest. She had yet to respawn. Why? The pendent had plenty of light.

An uncomfortable thought crossed his mind. The thought of her never respawning. He hadn’t realized just how much her presence had come to comfort him. A welcome distraction from the dark thoughts inside him.

Chres turned his gaze behind him to Octavio. Not only did the man have a familiar, but he was also able to create illusions. ”Octavio, what do you know about familiars?” Chres asked, his hand unconsciously clasping the pendent. ”Mine appears to be broken… I w-”

A bit of movement caught Chres’s eyes making him cut himself off in midsentence. A dark skinned woman was climbing up onto the roof of a building behind them. ”Karina, 5 o’clock. Female. Dark skinned.”

“Karina?” Chres heard Hark ask inquisitively. “As in the daughter of…” Hark’s words trailed off in realization, his gaze turning to Karina as if seeing her for the first time. It was not a friendly look.

Chres cursed under his breath. In that moment, he had forgotten Gin had given Karina a fake name.

The Five Senses

No problem. Take your time, man. Whenever is convenient for you is fine.

The Five Senses

And we are officially out of the Inn! It only took us four months, lol.

I'll get working on a post soon. @Fetzen @eclecticwitch Shall I send some trouble your way?

The Five Senses

Plot point is up. I'll do another one within the next few weeks showing what happens after Sightless Syella realizes the ones they are chasing are illusions.

The Five Senses

Plot Point

---

Something was off with this whole situation. Sightless Syella, was certain of this. Nobody had come running out of the building in an attempt to escape or surrender. Either she had let her anger get the better of her due to the... well... feces tossing incident... and in doing so ended up killing all those inside, or...

"They are outsmarting us somehow." Sightless Syella said through gritted teeth. Her voice sounding dry, as is typical of a Sightless. As she spoke, her tongue brushed up against some remnants of the poop which the familiar, from earlier, had tossed into her mouth. Sightless Syella instantly began retching, spitting and gagging all over again.

"Such insolence!" Sightless Syella growled in frustration after the retching stopped. "Once I get my hands on the one who owned that familiar..." Syella relished at the thought. Oh the pain she would inflict upon that sorry soul. Unfortunately, her vengeance had to wait. Her current priority was the mission.

Recomposing herself Syella closed her eyelids calling forth the Insight. She needed a clue to figure out what she was missing here. The Insight came to her in a rush. The euphoria it granted being a familiar friend.

Syella saw the inn, or rather a shadowy image of the inn. The image was not very clear as it would appear in the dark. This was due to the daylight which managed to creep through the Distortion. Were it not for the Distortion, she would not have been able to see the inn at all while it was illuminated by daylight. It truly was fortunate for her that this was not the case.

One by one, Syella viewed the different vantages of the inn. She viewed each vantage starting in the recent past. She would then leap forward a given amount of time looking for particular discrepancies between the two time frames. When she noticed any, she would narrow-in on gaps in time between the two time frames in order to better identify exact what had occurred.

Syella sorted through two vantage points without noticing anything. The light coming off the blazing inn didn't help. However she was able to work around it. She was about to sort through a vantage point give her a view of the back of the inn, when some shouting from her fellow Clan members drew her back to the present.

"Sightless Syella!" Her fellow Clan member, De'laire came running over to her in a rush. Syella identified De'laire by her voice. "Sightless Syella, the clan has spotted the deniers escaping out the window. They are heading down the back alley on the opposite side of the building. We are pursuing them now!"

A smirk crossed Sightless Syella's face. She made sure to keep her personal relief off her face. It would have been a terrible waste had she accidentally killed the ones who made the Unspoken Pact. "Capture them alive using any means necessary." Syella commanded. "If that requires cutting off a few limps or severing a spinal cord, then so be it. The ones who captures them shall be rewarded."

A smile crossed De'laire's face. "Shall I have our magic wielders and magic deterrent users chase them as well?"

"Yes," Sightless Syella replied, nodding. "keep some behind, though, just in case."

"As you wish, Mistress." De'laire replied with a bow. She then ran off to deliver the message.

Syella, smiled as her clan member ran off. Things were back on track. She closed her eyes, and embraced the Insight so that she could monitor the chase.

---

The Five Senses

Lol I can already imagine reading all sorts of fun conversations between Týfurkh and Millie, Just going off of first impressions.

The Five Senses

Just typed up another monster of a post. I'm proud of it though.

I'll work on Plot point post over the course of the week which will have the Cult and Sightless react to the Player character escape.

Don't feel like you need to wait for it to post something. I'll improvise with whatever you guys throw at me. :)

The Five Senses

Chres Sansus

Interaction with @Elevation, @13Org, @SonOfJet, @HokumPocus

---

With the pillow he grabbed off the bed, Chres took a deep breath before dashing out of the room and into the blazing hallway. Smoke covered the top of the hall. Chres was sure to crouch in order to avoid breathing in the smoke as best as he could. He held the pillow up to his nose and mouth to further avoid inhaling smoke.

He knew he didn't have much time to dally. The heat construct he had woven had about an hour's worth of stored body heat in it. It would last for approximately ten minutes... well maybe more like eight minutes now. That gave him enough time to get the candles... He hoped...

It was hot. Very hot. Fortunately, for Chres, he was a Tempraisionist. The heat was his friend. The stairs he had woven made plenty of room for him to store away more heat for later. Under normal circumstances, recovering the heat he lost would take an hour.

Playing with the body's temperature was a dangerous thing. Changing one's body heat in either direction just a smidge could be the difference between hypothermia and hyperthermia. A Tempraisionist's greatest enemy is the former of the two. That in mind, when a Tempraisionist needs to store away body heat, it is important to only store away only a little bit of body heat while keeping the rest for oneself in order to... well... not die.

The blazing heat from the fire, however, presented Chres with an interesting opportunity. He could store away a larger amount of body heat by using the surrounding heat the help keep his body functional. Heat will rush towards colder objects, and Chres was about to make himself very cold.

Chres began storing away a dangerous amount of body heat. His body began shivering instantly. Chres had never done this before, so he didn't realize just how much of a shock it was going to be to his body. Fortunately the instant relief from the surrounding heat prevented Chres from collapsing to his feet.

Shaking off the initial shock, Chres made his way into the room Hark had stayed in. Weaving between the flames, Chres made his way over to where the three Crystal Jade Candles were left. Their surface glittering in the fire's light. Chres grabbed each of them and placed them in his traveling sack before moving on to DB's room.

The flames were really bad in this room. Chres was only able to get two of the Crystal Jade Candles before he heard a loud crack. Chres looked up. The ceiling above doorway had just sunken slightly. He glanced back to last remaining candle in the room. It was only a few feet away. There was another loud crack follow by a groan.

With difficulty Chres tore his eyes away from the last candle and made a dash towards the exit. Another crack. He was at the door, almost out!

The ceiling collapsed in on itself. Chres dove to the ground and out the door as a cloud of debris enveloped him.

Chres hit the floor. There was a sharp pain in his left foot. Something heavy was on it. Chres couldn't see how bad it was from the cloud of debris. He coughed loudly while swatting away the particles with his right hand. Chres tugged on his foot. Nothing. He tugged it again. It still didn't move.

The cloud of debris began to disperse. Chres was able to get a better view of what he was dealing with. A big chuck of ceiling had collapsed on his foot. Chres tried lifting it. He could lift it a tiny bit, but it wasn't enough to get his foot out from underneath. He was stuck.

Chres sighed. Well, this wouldn't be the most pleasant of deaths, but he supposed it would be decently humiliating enough. He stupidly ran back into a burning building for magic candles and died in the process. He knew his death would be excruciatingly painful, but he deserved it to be painful. He deserved it for his crimes.

For the first time in a long time, Chres felt at peace. Closing his eyes, he relaxed his body and waited for the flames to engulf him.

Are we are happy with ourself, then? Happy to finally have the chance to die? A part of him said in the back of his mind.

"Yes." Chres said absently. "I'm tired... Tired of the constant reminders. Tired of the self-hatred and self-disgust... I'm tired of not sleeping every night. I'm tired of the nightmares which plague both my dreams and waking thoughts... but most of all..." Chres opened is eyes, a deep pang in his heart. "I'm tired of being alone... without her..." Chres absently began to finger the simplistic wedding band he still wore on his left ring finger.

Well then, I suppose that's it. It ends here then.

"Yes." Chres said softly, amidst the ash and blazing black flames. "Yes, it ends here indeed."

What of the others? The other part of his mind said. Are we happy with how we left things with them?

Chres parsed his lips saying nothing in response. He could feel the heat of the nearby flames licking at him. Creeping closer to him.

We left them there on the rooftops, Chres.

"They will find their own way down." Chres said. He could feel his mood beginning to sour. "They don't need me to help them with that."

Perhaps they will... Perhaps they will even be lucky enough to escape the Cult's notice while doing so.

Chres could feel a touch a dread begin to seep in. He had been close to death a few months back before his inner thoughts began walking down the same path as they were now. He knew where this road led.

Or... perhaps they won't...

"Don't..." Chres begged softly.

Perhaps they will be stuck on the rooftops left for the Cult to find them...

The end was so close... "Please don't..."

We're leaving them there to their fate.

"Please... Please, just stop..." Why now? Why couldn't his conscience just let it go?

We came up with the plan-

"Stop!"

We initiated it-

"Please!"

And now they are depending on us to follow through and finish it!

"Why?! Why can't I just let it be?"

Why? You know why! Because you're better this! We are better than this! It's okay for us to end our life, but we should do it without putting everybody else's life in danger too!

"God Damn it!" Chres yelled as he slammed his fist to the ground. Tears of frustration streaming down his face. "God fucking damn it! To hell with the five senses! To hell with them all!"

Chres closed his eyes and took a second to calm his breathing. When his breathing slowed he opened his eyes, wiped away the tears with his arm, and stared at his trapped foot with a look of determination. He knew what to do.

Chres called forth some of the heat he had stored away and Shaped it into a long lever which he wedged in between the floor boards and the broken bit of ceiling which sandwiched his foot. Then, with all his might, he pressed down on the lever and lifted the debris high enough to pull his foot out from underneath. As soon as he slipped it free, he called the remaining heat, from the lever Heat construct, back into him and stored it away for later use.

Ignoring the pain in his foot, Chres got to his feet and half ran, half limped his way back to Almos's room. Even though this was the room where they had climbed out the window, Chres had left the candles in this room for him to pick up on his way back out. This way he could spend more time getting the candles in the rooms closer to the worst of the flames. Chres grabbed the three candles in Almos's room and then carefully began climbing out the window and up the steps.

The heat construct he had formed was running on fumes. He could see it unraveling before his eyes. He ran/limped his way up the steps as fast as he could, watching as the glow to the construct began to fade. At that point, he knew he didn't have time make it up the last few steps. So he jumped, grabbed hold of the roof's ledge and scrambled his way to the top.

Chres rolled on his back breathing heavily. "I got eight of them." He said in-between breaths. "Eleven, including the ones from my room."

Chres glanced down. The cult still hadn't noticed them. Good.

Getting to his feet, Chres limped his way over to the opposite edge of the building. All the while ignoring the pain in his foot. He would tend to it latter. For now he need to focus on escaping.

Placing his hand down on edge of the roof, he called forth stored body heat and Weaved the flows together to form a paper-thin plane bridging the gap between buildings. He made sure not to use as much heat for this one. It wouldn't last nearly as long as the stairs.

"Quickly now." Chres said to the group. "This one won't last as long as the other one." The innkeeper and his family were the first ones to cross.