TAU IV: It's a small world after all

Darkdoom · Post by **Darkdoom** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:49 am

Crank saw big magic in the furry rat. That and being rufly his size made him the most sympathetic of the lot to him, not that that would be much of a deed. So he did not feel well when the votes piled up on the skavens little shoulders. But even more afraid made him that the others followed the hated elf!

Don’t follow puny elfthing. Tricky elves will kill you. Kill elf, kill elf, KILL ELF! WaaaAAAaaaAAaaaAAAAaaAAGHHH!!!!!

Vote: Vaelen (Lord Damian Valar)

OC: Sry I vote you first round … again.

Dragonsbreath · Post by **Dragonsbreath** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:12 am

Finally, a felow skaven came to the Grey Seers defense. It might have been one of the mad warlock engineers, but the underling seemed to have his priorities right in agreeing with his betters. Cooperation - accompanied by a short ditty and a strangled screech - also came from the unexpected source of the singing man-thing and the puny green-thing, but Skabslik attributed that largely to his massive cunning and intellect once again drawing allies from unlikely places.

However, the elf-thing, the man-thing wizard and the dwarf-thing seemed determined to vote against him. Skabslik snarled in response,
"Fools. Why would mighty Grey Seer serve daemon-thing face over the power of The Horned Rat? It doesn't even have whiskers!"

"Such incompetence will be rewarded by death, yes-yes," the skaven intoned - levelling a clawed finger at Vaelen.

Vote: Vaelen (Lord Damian Valar)

Belial · Post by **Belial** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:32 pm

"It would seem I am not the only one questioning your motives, elf. We don't really have any proof here, but we need to do something, yeah? And hey, if you turn out to be innocent, be happy that you are probably just a figment of my imagination, like this sack of swag I thought up just now. And then we'll have something to go on..."

Settling back, hands behind her head, against a sack that clinks suggestively with every slight movement, Yana casts her vote.

Vote: Vaelen (Lord Damian Valar)

Lord damian valar · Post by **Lord damian valar** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 3:33 pm

Vaelen looked in disbelieve as people started to vote against him in favor of the evil Skaven. Keeping his dignity he stood straight and adresses them.

"I do understand the filthy ratmen to gang up on me and offcourse the Goblin would vote against me aswell. But why would anyone else vote against me in favor of the Skaven. They are foul and evil.....That one even spoken out that he has eaten members of my race a minute ago!"

He points towards skabslik and continues.

"I am no deamon servant and I urge for sanities sake to reconsider."

Looking at Morr he says: "Would you at least consider voting for the other Ratman to even our score so I might plead my case some longer, mister Morr?"

.

Dresden · Post by **Dresden** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 4:10 pm

Skwee Had his attention suddenly jerked back to the discusssion at hand when someone had the audacity to vote for him. Before he could spit out an appropriately venimous response, however, others began saying there piece, and he saw things stack up against the Grey Seer, and even more so against his elf oponent.

He finally chimed in Do not insult the master race, filthy elf-thing, no-no. It lies, elf-things are all tricky and full of lies. It dares strike out against a Grey Seer? A servent so mighty to a god so mighty he need only send a messenger to foil daemon-head-thing? Elf-thing will die for its insolence, yes-yes. At this point he paused to think, and continued Maybe I ask nice, daemon-head thing let me kill you. Test new pistal, kill two elf-things with one warpstone, yes-yes? Or, at least turn you into sausage and let me eat. Or, skip sausage and I just eat, yes-yes yum-yum. At this point he shot a hasty glance at Skabslik and added Tastiest bits go to you esteemed Grey Seer, yes-yes, of course.

Lord damian valar · Post by **Lord damian valar** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 4:32 pm

As Skwee has finished his rambling Vaelen looks at the gathered people around him and shrugs.

"You do all see the bloodthirsty madness in those creatures do you not? They will gang up on the rest of you as well tommorrow!"

.

Dragonsbreath · Post by **Dragonsbreath** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:48 pm

The Grey seer nodded approvingly as Skwee chittered angrily at the elf thing, though it did not escape Skabslik's attention that the underling had not actually placed a vote yet. A slight twinge of annoyance crept into the white-furred skaven's tone as he addressed the engineer,
"Yes-yes Skwee, vote now hurry-hurry and mighty Seer Skabslik will let you eat elf-things ears," he said by way of persuasion.

Dresden · Post by **Dresden** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 4:11 am

This lowly wretch humbly asks your mercy most esteemed Grey Seer. No offense was meant by the delay, no-no. Obviously vote for elf-thing, yes-yes.

Vote: Vaelen (Lord Damian Valar)

Meteor · Post by **Meteor** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:25 am

Morr became fidgety and began to sweat as the discussion grew more and more intense. He never enjoyed confrontations, always preferred reasoning and a well placed calculation, but he wasn't with such company here unfortunately.

Oh dear, how troublesome.. Morr thought to himself at the sight of them all going at each other's throat.

A handkerchief appeared in his other hand unexpectedly, Morr was jumped slightly in surprise, but it wasn't so surprising in this realm. Wiping his forehead with it before stuffing it into his tight pants, he kept a small distance back so as to not be dragged into this bloodthirsty mess.

"Funny how all sense of reasoning starts to lose its meaning when one is fighting for survival." He sighed to himself in a muttering tone as he watched. He had placed his vote for the time being, even though his choice was wholly ignored now at this stage as the elf and the other rat fought it off.

None too soon did the elf warrior turn to him and asked for Morr to back him up. Morr raised an eyebrow, half in amusement because the Elf was pretty much pleading for support at this stage, and half well...in amusement. Oh wait, that's wholly in amusement.

Collecting his thoughts, he made a bowing gester to the elf as he begun.

"Please take no offense Master Elf, when I say I do not have much interest in this debacle. Accusations at this point are quite meaningless, and it is unfortunate that prejudice has come forth as the dominating source of reasoning for a vote off. For things to move on, we do need to come to a conclusion quickly. I am not a prejudice man, and I will be willing to change my vote. But, I will once again, leave it to chance, for there is no way to tell at this stage."

Bringing forth his instrument, Morr once again, begun to pluck at his marble beads as he muttered under his breath with his calculations. As the last of the beads fell into place, he paused for a moment before looking up at the Elf.

"Unfortunately Master Elf, fate, or whatever one can call it here, has decided against you on my behalf. My vote will be against you. I pray some others may have pity and will support you so you may voice your case further." Morr bowed with a rather sad look on his face, before backing away a short distance as undoubtedly, more heated discussion will ensue.

Looks like this elf had dug his own grave. Morr mused to himself afterwards.

Vote: Vaelen (Lord Damian Valar)

Post by **Drainial** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:57 am

At last the votes were piled high and despite the perhaps surprising support of a dwarf and the less surprising backing of a wizard it was Vealen for whom the bell tolled. As the last fateful vote was cast a great mad cackle from above made all those present look skyward, as might have been expected the daemonic head was descending through the squid filled clouds at a terrific speed. It did not slow as it reached the councillors and several threw themselves out of its way before it came to a sudden spine breaking halt inches away from the elf's face.

"So this is what you have chosen," it said, smiling broadly
"No!" Vealen shouted, his face flushing red with fear and anger "this is ridiculous, you can't take the word of these rats and apes over me! It's not right! It's not fair! I won’t let you do it!" with that a great spear was suddenly in his hands and he drove it deep into the daemon's head, not that the daemon seemed to mind. Its skin rippled like water as it shifted away from the spear point.
"It doesn't work that way elf, my house, my rules. Your fellows say it is time for you to die."
"Yes, kill kill elf thing!" Skabslik chittered excitedly

"No, NOOO!" Vealen screamed as the daemon's great maw opened wide, as the huge teeth closed on him however there was no welter of blood, his body did not move and for a moment it seemed as though nothing had happened. This appearance did not last long, jerking its disembodied head back the daemon ripped something free of the Caledorian, something silver and wriggling, something that looked an awful lot like the elf it had been taken from. Tossing its head back the daemon opened its jaws and swallowed Vealen's soul in one great bite.

The corpse of the late Vealen thudded to the ground now quite without life though otherwise unharmed.
"Do not look so pleased with yourselves, the elf was not amongst my servants. The game continues." Instead of disappearing however the daemon head turned to where a figure lay silent, almost unnoticed by the others
"But not for you, because you are not playing as things are," the brute still sat slouched, not deigning to reply. If you wish to be silent then perhaps we must make you a little differently.

For a moment nothing happened but little by little the councillors could see that the skin of their silent companion was growing darker, grain as seen on wood began to mar his skin and these were but the least of the changes. His back began to broaden, his legs became squat. One of his arms retracted into a rapidly disappearing shoulder while the other made its way to the centre of his chest and took on the appearance of the legs. Doubling over he screamed as the skin of his back split open and his vertebra divided amongst themselves, some remaining bleached white others becoming dark like ebony. Within moments what had been a warrior had become a grand piano.

"No doubt he will be more use in that form than he was in life," the daemon said
"You will sleep now; the night is a time for other kinds of fun. Build your bedrooms as you wish, or sleep beneath the darkening sky if it pleases you." With that the daemon finally disappeared leaving a piano, a corpse and nine councillors feeling less than secure in their new environment.

_______________________________________________________________________

It is now night, all those with night time abilities should contact me as soon as possible. Night will last approximately 48 hours unless all abilities are used before that time in which case it may resume earlier. For the purposes of record keeping I shall give a rundown of how things stand.

Players
1)Belial
2)Dragonsbreath
3)Darkdoom
4)Raneth
5)Deroth
6)Smiller666
7)Draknir

Meteor
9)Dresden

Deceased
1)Noble Korhedron: turned into a piano- inactivity- innocent
2)Lord Damian Valar (Vealen): soul eaten- voted day one- innocent

Remember you may post only once in the night and you are not required to do so. -Drainial

Deroth · Post by **Deroth** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:13 pm

"Well that was poor, now we need to see if we can sort ourselves out and do better for tomorrow"

And with that Herod conjured up a room with a bed and all the comforts of home, "Good night folks, I'm going to sleep and going to try avoid any additional dream craziness"

Draknir · Post by **Draknir** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:03 pm

Hugo tampered nervously with the handle of his pistol.

"I won't be restin' easily wiv' this folk", he said and reluctantly laid rest on a simple, unadorned bunk. After a moment of uneasy silence Hugo rubbed his chin and conjured up a sturdy steel cage to surround his resting place.

Smiler666 · Post by **Smiler666** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:15 pm

"well it appears i've thrown in my lot with a doomed cause," Glorin grumbled to hisself, nudging the lifeless elf's body with his foot, "ah well, that'll serve as a lesson to you rats and thieves, perhaps you should be looking amongst your own for our disembodied host's servants."

And with that he walked down into a widening hole in the ground along a well lit stone staircase.

Raneth · Post by **Raneth** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:33 pm

Rutger watched, flabbergasted, as the Elf's essence was swallowed by the giant dream-boss-head. Not only that, but the blue blob proceeded to morph another one of their number to a piano, supposedly for not playing by the rules. How convoluted, this dream of mine! It suggested they'd all go to sleep now. Sleeping while dreaming? I hope when I wake up this time, it'll be to more familiar sights! Nevertheless, the young jester could not but attune this new grand instrument with a short lament for the fallen.
Please forgive us, for we were wrong
Beloved Elven guest.
Though in my dream you'll not be mourned
I wish you all the best!

Well then, might as well make the most of it... Concentrating hard, Rutger created a large room around him that could only have been inspired by Slaanesh, and two luscious courtesans to accompany him til the morning. Sweet dreams everyone!

Belial · Post by **Belial** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:15 pm

"Dammit... I suppose it was too much to hope for a lucky shot."

Yana stands up, and retreats some distance away.

"Hmm... I wonder if... Yeah!"
At the last word, a small mount of dirt had appeared, with a door set in it. Retreating inside, Yana calls to the others.

"Goodnight, er, or whatever is appropriate in what might be a dream! And you worshipper fellas, don't bother with me, I wished for a strong lock on this one. Also, a crossbow under the bed."

Dresden · Post by **Dresden** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:18 pm

Skwee looked on with mild curiosity as the elf's soul was eaten and another silent person was morphed into a piano. Afterwards, he looked far more intently at the fallen elf's body.

Time for a snack before bed, hmm, yes-yes. Skwee ten scurried over it and, after ripping off a few choicer bits to either bribe the Grey Seer if he came over, or for himself later if not, he set about devouring the corpse of his fallen companion, meat, guts, bones, and all. THe whole affair was rather messy and included a great many unsettling crunching and squelshing sounds. When he had his fill, he then stood up, teeth and muzzle stained red, and walked over to a corner, sumoned up a nice pile of filth, and curled up to go to sleep.

Dragonsbreath · Post by **Dragonsbreath** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:58 pm

Skabslik watched with interest as the elf-thing was devoured. First by the Daemon-thing and then by the hungry warlock engineer. The Grey Seer was content to allow the underling the corpse, reminding himself he could simply summon forth another should the mood take him.

Despite the light wizards dire analysis of the situation, Skabslik chuckled,
"Most productive vote, yes-yes. Elf-thing was trouble even if not a slave"

As the others crafted themselves various abodes, Skabslik mentally lamented that the only breeder present was the ugly half-thing. Muttering darkly to himself, the Ratman brought a lavish pile of pillows into being. Settling himself onto them, he erected a series of high stoned walls about himself. One never could be to careful.

Meteor · Post by **Meteor** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:13 am

The odds were too high to have selected a minion of this bloated head thing, Morr knew, thus he was not surprised when the elf turned out to be innocent. The piano victim was rather unpleasant to watch, though he dreaded what it'd be like to turn into a sausage, being flipped inside out perhaps? He shuddered at the thought, and was keen to get some sleep and try again in the next session. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

Everyone retired to their own separate sleeping quarters, though Morr had wished they all slept next to each other for safety. One cannot know what happens behind closed doors and walls, and cannot keep an eye out for the minions and their mischief when no one is watching.

He sighed and swapped back into his sleeping robe and his magical abacus disappeared. A bed appeared behind him and a mothball orbited slowly around the bed. Satisfied, he simply crawled into it without care for much else.

Post by **Drainial** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:27 pm

Night fell and the abductees all separated off, though it seemed that they made their beds close together the laws of physics meant little in this place and their various chambers' drifted away. Whether this was at the daemon's will or whether it was simply a by-product of the way in which mortal minds tended to wander the effect was much the same, even had the contestants in this sick game not been sequestered in their own little worlds for the night there would be no witnesses.

Wrapped up in his cosy nightgown Morr's sleep was far from sound, although the bed was comfortable and warm he could not shake himself free of a cloud of oppressive morbidity. Even so tiredness got the better of nerves in the end and the engineer drifted into a light sleep.

He was wakened some hours later by a sharp, hard, metallic sound which to his trained ear seemed exactly like a pistol being cocked. He opened his eyes, what he saw made him think that he was probably right. His own pistol floated in mid air rotating gently above his head. Staring at it fixedly Morr's attention was snatched away from the suspended weapon by a voice.
"Hello mathematical man," the voice was odd, familiar and yet not, androgynous but distinctive all the same. Glancing around Morr looked for the source of the voice, there was nothing there. His heart raced, terror sweat began to pour from every pore
"Don't bother looking for me, I am tucked up nice and warm in bed, that is the beauty of this realm it is entirely of the mind and I am not so constrained in that department as you."

"If your' not here than you can't hurt me." Morr said with as much authority as he could muster, trying to convince himself more than anything. The voice only chuckled
"Oh but I can and so much more, but right now I am more interested in this device of yours."
"The pistol," Morr was confused at the abrupt change in conversation "What about it?"
"How how does it work?"

"Well..." slightly confused but wanting to keep the voice talking for as long as possible Morr tried to explain "well there is a charge of black powder in the barrel and a bullet is pressed down on it then some waxed paper is pushed down over that to make it air tight. Then there is another charge in the priming pan, when the trigger is pulled the match comes down lighting the charge in the priming pan which triggers the one in the barrel and the explosion is channelled by the barrel carrying the bullet with it."

"Interesting, interesting; tell me have you ever seen it up close?"
"Errm, what do you mean? I’ve fired one if that's what your' asking." Another chuckle
"No no I mean really close," the voice fell silent and for a brief moment Morr let himself believe that he had gotten away with his life, but then he began to notice something, the bed was getting bigger. His pillow grew to the size of a cart and kept on going, the pistol was growing too. In fact everything was growing, or else... he was shrinking. He continued to diminish until he barrel of the pistol was the size of a drain pipe and kept on going. The cavity stretched wider and wider to his shrinking eyes.

Trembling with impotent rage and frantic terror Morr's nerves were not exactly helped by the sudden appearance of two gigantic hands. Beside the hands a pouch of black powder appeared and methodically they began to charge the pistol. Things took a further turn for the worse when one of the huge hands began to head for the bed, in fact it was heading straight for him. He tried to run of course but his tiny legs could not carrying him far and the engineer screamed as fingers the size of oak trees caught him up in a firm grasp.

Raising him far into the air, or so it seemed, the hands drew ever closer to the mouth of the pistol's barrel
"This ought to give you an excellent view of the weapon's operations, it's good to get a first hand view of these things don't you think?" Morr didn't speak, he was too terrified and with good reason, the hand pressed him into the barrel. He knew what was coming next but it didn't help, a great sheaf of paper pinned him against a bank of grainy black sand and blocked out all light. Grimly silent he awaited his fate.

_______________________________________________________________________

The crack of a pistol woke the councillors with a start, whether their dreams were pleasant or not they were jerked out of them, their several houses melted away as they scanned around for the creature that had disturbed their slumber. It was quickly obvious that the only one who was missing was the human engineer, what was less obvious was where he had gone. The search continued for several long minutes before Herod picked up something which looked a great deal like a tiny pair of legs, turning it around he gasped at the sight of Morr's face pressed flat against the remains of his body.
"I think I know what happened," he said.

It is now day, all usual rules apply. -Drainial

Players
1)Belial
2)Dragonsbreath
3)Darkdoom
4)Raneth
5)Deroth
6)Smiller666
7)Draknir

Dresden

Deceased
1)Noble Korhedron: turned into a piano- inactivity- innocent
2)Lord Damian Valar (Vealen): soul eaten- voted day one- innocent
3)Meteor (Morr): fired from his own pistol- assassinated night one- innocent

Smiler666 · Post by **Smiler666** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:42 am

After a long pause Florin spoke up, "well I see eight of us here and no sausages, so our host is either incompetent or an oath-breaker. Either way it would be best to not give his servants such an easy run at us next time, eh? but how?"

Draknir · Post by **Draknir** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:54 am

Immediately as the shot rang about the plane, Hugo opened his eyes and jumped up. To his own surprise, he didn't bang his forehead on the cage he summoned: it was gone, and he managed to catch a glimpse of his bunk drifting away as well. He clawed at his pistol, finding it's reassuring handle to grab on. He saw another one lying near Morr's bed, still smoking.

"I'll be damned. I see now that not even secret weapons can protect us."

Hugo went on to expertly unload his pistol, kicking the bullet and the powder to the ground. Then he grabbed a hammer from his tool belt and smashed the pistol to pieces.

Deroth · Post by **Deroth** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:11 pm

Seeing the remains of Morr, Herod looked around at the others, studying them, "well it looks like we have to contend with spooks in the night as well as the vote"

"Well as I see it the guilty parties would almost certainly have voted for Vaelen yesterday, a perfect opportunity to get rid of an innocent but still be able to claim a random vote as an excuse."

"From the way they acted yesterday it would be easy to point the finger at the skaven pair but surely it can't be that obvious. What do the rest of you think, what have I missed?"

Draknir · Post by **Draknir** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:34 pm

"The one who cast the first vote on Vaelen wasn't the bleedin' ratmen, but our resident entertainer... Von Mazzeltov, was it? Sure, you could be callin' that a random vote, but he's really, really hasty 'ere. Plus, he's a bleedin' nutcase. Who would suspect a bleedin' nutcase tae be a servant of a Chaos God... oh." Hugo pondered, glancing at the jester.

"Another one that be raisin' me suspicion is Yana the half-blood. Not only did she make unfounded accusations, she didn't vote until after her idea caught on amongst the others."

Hugo summoned an enormous egg and ham sandwich and took a large bite.

"I'll be thinkin' on this more after I've had lunch. I just can't think without food in me belly."

Deroth · Post by **Deroth** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:55 pm

Herod looked over at the engineer with interest, "Both fair points there sir, good to see that the engineers guild is not full of idiots."

"Though I will give it some time to let them sink in and have some others give us their thoughts then I will have a go at picking our unfriendly companions"

Smiler666 · Post by **Smiler666** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:08 pm

"i wouldn't be so eager to discount the rats just yet master wizard, they may seem like the obvious choice but mebey thats bacuse they are. i'd also like to point out that our resident screaming goblin hasnt said much, except to jump on the ale-wagon of voting for Vaelen. However you yourself are not above suspicion master wizard, being that you were quick to reel off your list of who should vote for" Glorin holds Herod's gaze for a moment before continuing, "what i'd like to know is how my father got here?"

"oh hello m'boy, i'm actually an optical illusion" said Florin before fading away. (OOC - we're not allowed to edit so i thought i weave it into the narrative But anyways, serious face back on.)

"for now though i think i'll join you, smith, in having a spot of breakfast."
a large, low table laden high with all manner of foods, most made mostly of meat or mushrooms, appears before the dwarf, who sits down and begins filling a plate, "feel free to join me," Glorin calls out to the councillors as he begins feasting.