Chapter 2.15: Cleanup
Previously: Chapter 2.14: The Nest part 3: More DakkaRoll to Investigate for loot
Result: 1 success. Benny spent: another 1 success
The building was already overgrown and falling apart, not to mention infested with hungry biological builders. Anything as edible and fragile as paper (and even leather) is long gone.
There are myriad more sturdy objects in the rubble of the manor: twisted bits of metal, broken ceramics and statues, shattered glass. Maybe some of the ruined and burned antiques would be valuable salvage. The most probable valuable object Alric finds is a heavy iron signet ring with recognizable esoteric mathematical symbols engraved on its face.
The tunnels to the dead nest rooms are rather clean for dirt tunnels, and have been excavated around the circumference of each room to a height enough that Saint needs to stoop only a slight bit and are just wide enough for the two men to squeeze past each other if need be. A faint pearly mist leaks out of the dead nest rooms and rapidly evaporates when it hits the gravel floor of the dirt tunnel.
The nest rooms themselves look quite dead: bloated with internal bruising, but not yet beginning to rot. Loot, should Alric try to take some, would be in the form of chunks of shimmering chitin, or mother-of-pearl shell.
Saint, you smell a ruby chip of yourself that the massive shoggoth bit off of you at the beginning of the assault on the nest. It’s in a stomach embedded in the wall of the last room.
Saint audibly sniffs the air as the pair carefully explore the remnants of the hive, pressing his hands and feet to each doorframe as they pass through it to make sure their pathway stays open. He's content to keep watch over Alric as he investigates, posture alert but attitude relaxed - this place isn't as dangerous as it was before, it's not actively trying to crush them to death. This is... acceptable.
His head swivels as they reach the final room, attention focusing on the wall in the last room, letting out an audible curse as he trots forwards, double-checking the protections he's laid on Alric as he heads for the stomach, tentatively running a claw over the flesh to see if the stomach acid will be a problem - he could just cut it open, but it might be better to ask Alric to burn the stomach so he can get the shard out.
The acid stings and reeks, but doesn’t dissolve Saint’s flesh… if he angles to present his hardest facet.
Alric, while collecting a few bits of ceramic, glass and metal, also notices the ring. He gives it a short look-over, the same as the other materials, then throws it into his backpack with the rest.
He notices Saint's focus shifting. "What is it?"
Saint curls his lips back from his teeth and shakes his hand, clearly not enjoying the result. "It's trying to digest the part of me it bit off earlier and I don't want to know what happens if it actually finds a way to succeed."
He looks back to Alric. "Can you burn this for me? That's going to be the easiest solution. I don't want to toughen my flesh more than I have at the moment."
"Sure, no problem." Alric, standing in the doorway, aims at the general area Saint points out, then torches it.
Saint pulls one arm from the sleeve of his jacket and waits, reaching into the fire to pluck the shard of ruby flesh from the stomach as soon as is reasonably possible.
Smells like barbecue and vomit.
"Got your.. part? I'll go ahead and torch the rest of the room then, if that's good with you." Alric's voice is pretty muffled, coming through the gas mask.
Saint nods. "Yes. Good idea." He joins Alric at the door, pinching his nose shut with one hand and wiping the shard of his flesh clean, leaving it glittering in the light from their headlamps as he checks it for acid damage. He isn't hiding it from Alric.
Alric glances at Saint, at his shard, then back at Saint, but doesn't ask. This is still a fae, and the brother of Weaver nonetheless.
He collects a whole bunch of samples, takes a few fotos (both polaroid and with his phone), takes a short video, torches the room, then nods to Saint and returns to the previous room.
Saint carefully pockets his shard before doing a last inspection to see if there's anything left to finish off after the application of fire. He pauses as he follows Alric back to the prior room, stopping to pick up a shard of shimmering chitin, turning it over to examine the colours.
They've swept through once with Saint on alert - he can afford to take a little extra time to see if there's anything that might be interesting to take back, assuming Weaver confirms it's not a biohazard. There are plenty of interesting things to be found or made from the remains of monsters, after all.. even if shoggoths don't seem like they'd be safe materials.
He sighs, eyeing the maze they'll need to enter into to travel through room four and looks at the door, then calls to Alric. "Alric, I think I should try letting go of the door to the last room. Any objections?"
"No objections!" He half-yells from the other side of the door. He checked the room Saint is about to close, it's just shoggoth biomass. Well, was. It's ash now. Ash and smoke.
Saint finishes making his way through, running his fingers over the doorframe and taking his power away from it, turning to watching the doorway with interest to see whether that will result in the room's final destruction or not.
He watches as the door collapses in a deflated heap, sighing and stepping forwards to prod at it with the toe of one boot. "Cleanup's never my favorite part of a hunt but this is going to be a lot. Do you think we'll have to drag the inside out and burn the rest of it outside?"
He considers. "Maybe it's not going as quickly because I'm keeping the front door open? The pamphlet didn't give a rate of breakdown, but maybe it's a ... broad variable?"
At the loss of the last bit of structural integrity in the dead room, the dirt above smushes the nest further and collapses the cavity.
"Well, that resolves that, I guess. I suggest we just torch as much as we can and hope for the best? I only have so much fuel left, but I can probably spread it out to avoid a refuel. The room seemed to do most of the burning itself."
He'll wait for Saint to join him in the forth room, check it for anything interesting, then collect samples, catalog the room, and subsequently torch it as well.
There’s enough fat content in the nest flesh for each room to smolder on for a time until the remains get smothered by dirt.
With that room torched, he turns into the next room. As he makes his way through the maze, he speaks up.
"Hey, question. Would it be possible for me to temporarily give away my ability to lie, to you or others of your kind?"
Saint swallows his prepared 'get to know you' question down as Alric speaks. "Are you asking if you could temporarily give one of us your ability to lie or whether you could be bound to tell the truth the way we are?"
"I meant to ask the latter, but I'd be interested to hear both." Alric starts cataloging the room, as usual.
"One of the requirements to be considered Seelie is to swear an oath, a contract, to offer no explicit falsehoods," Saint says, expression darkening. "There are a lot of things we have to promise, if we don't want to be branded Unseelie by the Courts and treated like the real thing. Real Unseelie are malevolent monsters."
He pauses after he says this, thinking for another long moment before he rubs at his jaw, expression leveling back out to friendly as he turns his attention back to Alric’s question. "... anyway. If we gained your ability to lie, because of that, we'd still have to deal with the consequences if we did something to break our oath. To be bound to tell the truth the way we do is way easier. Binding others to the same rules we have to follow is as simple as making a deal."
"Okay.. I think I'm following. Your kind's magic enforces contracts made, and that's what the 'no lying' thing is based on. So if you were around at the Dawn HQ tomorrow morning, for example, you could make a deal with both Phoenix and me that would magically force us both to be honest to each other, for a while?"
"That's one way to put it," he tilts his head. "... if that would make you comfortable, sure. The binding doesn't stop us from giving non-answers, dodging questions, or being indirectly misleading, but you've talked to Weaver, so..."
He rolls his eyes, the motion mostly broadcast by the way he shifts the angle of his head. "... you've probably figured that out already. Either way. I think Phoenix would be fine with that, and I should be able to make some time tomorrow, as long as it's under an hour?"
Alric's not going to talk about Weaver, that's a guaranteed diplomatic incident.
"I appreciate the warning, but I'm not concerned about Phoenix slipping anything past me. I doubt she'd try, and I doubt I'd miss it even if she did, even after-" It takes him a few seconds to find a diplomatic way of phrasing this. "..Even after losing some of my caution.. But.. Mhm.. I don't want to set anything in stone yet. I don't know where Phoenix stands, it might just be a short 'Alric, you're fired' from her side. And.. I'm not sure where I stand either, whether I actually want to stick around. I just wanted to know if the truth thing was an option in the case that both Phoenix and I want me to stick around. Would short notice work for you? And what would that cost?"
He finishes collecting samples, and starts torching the room.
"You don't seem incautious to me," he seems like he's tempted to say more, but circles past it in a way that feels similar to how Alric danced past directly mentioning Weaver's involvement.
"She didn't accept your resignation yet, why would she fire you?" He makes sure to pick up one of the strange animals before Alric can get started with the flamethrower. He's definitely bringing this one to Weaver. When he speaks next, it's with genuine curiousity. "Do you want advice on figuring out what you want to do?"
He laughs. "Short notice is fine, most of my calls are short notice emergencies, so a short notice non-emergency is... less stressful. I'll give you my card when we're out of the hive." He shrugs. "Depends. Do you want to use some of your current balance or keep it in case of an emergency? I usually ask people to do community service or volunteer, but the scale goes up to things like monster hunting and other more... high danger or high investment stakes. But like any negotiation, you're free to offer something you think is reasonable and see if I'll accept it, just like I can ask you for something and you can decide if it's a price you think is reasonable. Deals are negotiations. There isn't always going to be an answer that makes everyone happy, but you don't have to accept the first thing we offer or ask for, just like we don't have to accept the first thing you offer or ask for. The Accords don't make us tell people that, though."
Does Alric recognize the model of Saint's shotgun (either seeing it right now or recalling it from earlier)?: [2, 1]+2 Result: Success! 🎯
Alric's voice suddenly has an edge to it, as much as that's audible through the gas mask. "I'm incredibly incautious. I can point at several things that I got wrong, including, for example, needing Vesper to tell me to bring someone with me into the hive. It's-" He stops himself there, takes a deep breath, then returns back to normal. "Not right now, I'll straight up talk myself into a rage. I can explain it to you another time, if you're interested."
"Advice.. I-" He sighs, chuckles, shakes his head. "That's connected to the previous thing. The short explanation is.. I'm actively postponing making a decision. If you think there's anything I should know, I wouldn't be opposed to hearing it. Though, you brought it up again, so I have to ask.. I haven't done you any favors or made any deals with you, excluding the one about the beer. What- Where does my current balance come from?"
"If you want to. You don't have to explain it if you don't," he shrugs.
"Think about what you want, what you value, how can you get those things? The more you've seen of the supernatural, the more you're probably going to notice. It builds on itself. If you're going to keep looking, a place where you can have a support network to lean on is better than being alone."
"Your balance? You’ve done things that I like; fighting monsters, trying to help people." He tips his head. "I want to protect mortals. Making it difficult to get my help isn't conducive to that."
"Wait, so.." He shakes his head. "I- The- Is-" He rubs his forehead. Is this just normal social stuff, but explicit, mixed in with a bunch of ..older customs? Mhm... There's the whole contract thing. And then there's the whole balance thing.. Does that actually model everything well enough? Alric's first guess would be, yes, it's that simple, but he's not sure. He decides to put a pin in it. "Nevermind that.. Mhm... So, I appreciate the advice. I think I'd prefer to keep the balance for the now probably inevitable emergency, whenever it comes."
He wrap up this room, then moves onto the next one.
"Another question, if that's not pushing it too much. If someone were planning to do things you like, would you be willing to potentially support them in that endeavor even if they don't have a previously established positive balance with you? My coworker Hope, for example, I know she doesn't look like it, but she does a lot of hunting herself, at least from what I heard. You two might be aligned."
Or, you know, in case someone with 'kill all carnivore vampires' on his todo list decides to do something big, potentially, some day, and could use some help.
"If you ask a question I don't want to answer, I can choose not to answer. I'm not easy to offend. I'm shaped to talk with mortals, not to deal with Court stuff," he gives another relaxed shrug of his shoulders, stooping to pick up another piece of shell.
"Yes. I do that a lot, actually. I like to leave my cards around for people to find - I think the Commission's librarian probably has a stack of them - and you're right, I think she and I might have some things in common. I actually gave Hope one of my cards already."
His smile brightens. "I'm inviting her to join a hunt I'm organizing to clear out an overpopulation of some of the supernatural wildlife out in Connecticut - there aren't enough natural predators in that area to keep them in check, so I try to gather a few hunters up every so often and ask them to help with it before get hurt," he lifts his lip to show a few sharp teeth in a sheepish smile. "... a few too many cryptids in that area know what I smell like, so it's ... a much lower time investment to get help."
What am I missing here?: [1, 2] Result: Failure ❌
Nothing in between the lines here.
Alric's done with his cataloging and starts to grab a few samples.
"Cool stuff. Didn't think there's a whole lot of supernatural wildlife out there. ..Actually, I didn't think about that at all, yet.. Mhm.. So, what horrors are hiding in the oceans?"
He stores the samples in his backpack, then starts torching the room.
"There is. A lot of it blends in unless you know what to look for or have some kind of magic perception that has the right kind of crossover. Sometimes they blend in until they hit a certain population level and have to diversify their diets, which can cause bigger problems that cascade into property damage and people getting attacked."
"I've done most of my hunting inland and in North America, so I don't personally know much about deep oceans. I'm..." he stops, considering. "I don't actually know how much pressure it would take to crack my body apart. I know a few freshwater monsters, though, since they're more likely to be active problems? Kelpies, for example. Very real and very into drowning people."
Let's add that to the list as well.
"I mean.. I'd wager that the pressure in the ocean is higher than what shoggoths can put out, and.. well, they managed to damage you. Not that that's any of my business, say, what's the biggest monster you've slain? A dragon, maybe? Wait, no.. not in North America, I hope."
He wraps up the room, then moves on to the next room, room number one.
"The real problem was the acid, actually," he pauses and looks Alric in the eye. "Not everything that looks like a monster is one, including dragons." Says the gargoyle man. "It's what they do that matters." He looks at the massive smoldering nests in the tunnels around them, hands on hips. The strong visual is only somewhat marred by the little animal he picked up in the third room clinging to the shoulder of his coat. "This is the physically largest."
Alright, what's going on? He's not baiting Alric into shit-talking Weaver, is he? Or is this his way of being all 'Alric be careful lest you become the monster'? Is he warning Alric that if he goes for Weaver he'll consider him a monster and hunt him? What's his angle? And why is putting so much effort into letting Alric know how to hurt him / hurt fae? He doesn't WANT Alric to go for Weaver, right? RIGHT?: [2, 2]+2 Result: Success! 🎯
Alric senses no guile in this gargoyle. It's just as likely that he was implying that he knows some nice dragons, actually, and please don't be speciesist against them. He also might be talking about himself, about how he is not a monster because of his actions, not the way he looks. He did seem positively vitriolic when he mentioned that he had to promise oaths to not be branded an Unseelie by the Courts, earlier.
Does Alric have siblings?
Let's call it two siblings. Two younger brothers? That sounds about right.
The dynamic between Saint and Weaver snaps into focus once Alric thinks back to his brothers: each is treating the other like he is the younger brother. There's fondness there, inextricably entwined with the constant testing of nerves.
It's a bitter-sweet memory, being reminded of his brothers. Alric hasn't had any contact with his family for a while now - not since he went off the deep end with his obsession with magic. He could prove to them now that it actually exists, that magic is real. But that.. would also open them up to the dangers of this world, and Alric's already gotten a good taste of that.
Alric's steps carry him out of the second flesh room and into the first one of the shoggoth hive beneath the freshly napalm'd mansion. As he catalogues the room and collects a few samples, he responds to the brother of the Sidhe who forced him to give up a part of his soul.
"Yeah, I agree on that one, it's not the species or what they look like. It is what they do."
He closes up his backpack, and starts torching the room.
Once the room is torched, Saint will head towards the exit with Alric, holding out a business card. "My contact information."
The card is simple and white, professionally printed, and has a little punch-out in the shape of a door on one side of the card.
`Saint (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Opener Of Doors Guardian Hunter
Patron of Lost Causes IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK DOWN THE DOOR`
He nods to Alric’s bag. "I'm going to get Weaver to check the things I picked up here to make sure we're not taking anything out that could cause another infestation," he pets the creature on his shoulder as he speaks, scooping it down to carry it in the crook of one arm again. "I'll let you know if they do pose a hazard."
He frowns. "I would have checked what Ellie was carrying around, but considering she stopped in the middle of the hive to eat one of the shoggoths, I assume that she and her family have their part handled."
(( For a very rough image, click here! BROKEN LINK ))
Alric investigates the suspicious fae present.: [2, 4]+2 Result: Success! 🎯
Alric gives the card a good look over - it's a fae present, after all. Really, he shouldn't take it, but he also can't not take it? That might be offensive? Who really knows. Saint, at least, seems chill, as far as Alric can tell.
"Hey, so.. What exactly happens if I press in the punch-out?"
Alric activates his sight to see if it's magic. It's magic. It's definitely magic. Isn't it?
Alric spends one power point for Detect Metaphysical Vectors (basic Detect Active Magic)
It is not actively magic.
"If you punch out that door, I open one nearby. It lets me know you need help and to come to your aid," Saint explains. "The closer you are to a door - especially one that you need open - the easier it will be for me to come lend a hand."
Alric, visibly confused, looks between Saint and the business card. "This.. This isn't magic.. How does that work?"
There's a strangely blank space between Hunter and Patron of Lost Causes.
Does the space look like it's been scratched out by hand somehow, or was it printed like that?
"It... is? It's just not active all the time, the magic would be eroded away over time if it was constantly active. When you punch out the door, that's the action that finishes the summoning," He pauses for a long moment. "But. Uh. Don't try to call me if you're inside Bright Books. I swore an oath to Morgan that I'd try not to break his doors. Same thing goes if you're anywhere with one way in and out and don't want to potentially have the lock broken."
It’s not scratched out by hand… but studying it closer and looking at the card from different angles shows that there is a slight indentation of uninked letters.
Yeah, this thing is the magic equivalent of a live bomb. Alric changes his grip on the card to two fingers on the right side of the card, holding it an arm's length away.
"..so if I put this in my wallet, and while I'm paying at the grocery store my wallet is bent a little and it breaks the punch-out, I'll.. accidentally summon you?"
He notices the uninked ..letters? Yeah, that's definitely letters. He pulls out his phone, turns on the flashlight, and tries to angle the light so he can read it.
The uninked letters read “Faerie”
"No," Saint gives Alric's paranoid response an amused look. "You have to do it on purpose. I'm as safe to mortals as I can be while serving my purpose, Alric, I'm not a Hunter of mortals, I'm a Hunter of Monsters."
"No, I'm not concerned about your intentions, I was just concerned about the mechanics at work. So.. But if I break it on accident, I can't break it on purpose anymore, right? So if it's bent I can't use it later when the first Nosferatu show up?"
"...right."
Saint's gaze sharpens at the mention of the Nosferatu, scrunching his nose for a moment before he reaches into his coat and pulls out three more cards, holding them out. "... most people get a card protector or use their wallet. I'm still working on how to make them sturdy enough to stay reliable while being easy enough to make that I can spread them around as much as I do now."
He's pleasantly surprised. "Well, I did want to ask you for a stack of these, so I'm not going to say no." Alric chuckles as he takes the cards and puts them into his notebook, between blocks of pages, to keep them straight. "I appreciate it. It's a bummer though that I can't rig them to summon you if someone breaks into my apartment while I sleep. Not a complaint, this is still free scrolls of Planar Ally for a level one Artificer, that's kind of overpowered, it's just a thing that came to mind. Like, summoning you on break-in, maybe rig them in a packet sent by mail? Fly them in via drone? Mhm.. Maybe I can figure out a way to get you less accident-prone mechanics, I bet it'd be convenient for you to just mail monsters a package and have them summon you to themselves.." He's lost in thought for a moment, his fingers tapping a beat on his flamethrower. He shakes his head. "I'll see what I can come up with when I have some time.. I have to ask though, why's.. the.. F-word on the card?"
"Check the Dawn Commission library every so often. I usually add a few to some of the books when I'm in the building," he smiles, then his shoulders sag slightly. "Eh. Maybe? It... still isn't enough, sometimes. So. Try not to use the door unless you're really going need my help - I've had to stop answering one person's summons because he doesn't understand that I have a phone number on there for a reason, that's the non-emergency line. Wanting to invite me to go on a hunt is not an emergency, I've got other responsibilities, you know?"
"... being summoned by monsters, assuming they could offer the intention to make it work, would probably get ... messy, with the cards. It would need to call on my Hunting aspect, not my Guardian or Doors aspects. I guess I'd know where they were, after, but... it's a lot easier to just hunt the practical way?" he smiles. "... if you can think something up, I'd still like to hear it. I appreciate the consideration."
Then Alric asks about the card and Saint's expression turns frustrated. "Because I think it should be. Because it's what I am. I don't have everything I am on my card, I'm not stupid, but it's important, and .... Look. I can't lie but we're not supposed to be straightforward about some things, but that's just a social rule, not even an oath. Aspen edited my cards so no one in the seasonal courts would be offended."
"Pretty relatable. I get the sense that the whole ..illegibility, perhaps?, thing you have to deal with on your side is at least somewhat mirrored in human magical circles? I've never had to deal with as infuriating as people as I had to today, even though everyone taken for themselves seems very competent? Like, pretty much everyone present is hitting in a weight class several above my own, including the college kids. They in particular did really well today. But.. the stuff inbetween people? The way they coordinate? ..I can't quite put my finger on it, but.. yeah, it's just infuriating, for me personally."
They make their climb out of the basement, and meet Vesper waiting for them outside.