Sleeping Gods Quest #53

Take care of things here, you tell Ra as you move to shake his hand as well, someone needs to keep things neat and tidy.

“Oh, I'll make sure everything is in its place,” Ra assures you, with a sardonic smile, “I think that's the perfect job for an old man like me. It'll be nice to take a break from all this... trouble.”

Stepping back, you face both of them and bow formally. It's been interesting, you tell them again, and you were glad to do your part. Now, though, you've got to return to the Nameless Temple – you've got people waiting on you. Before you can rest, though, you've got one last task to take care of. One last loose end to tie up.

-

Under the dark sky, thick clouds shrouding the moon and the stars, you set out through the city streets. Yet, as you walk, you can't ignore a vague and nameless unease that churns within the darkest pits of your mind. It's almost like Murmur's maddening song, except even more ephemeral and fleeting. Just nerves, you almost manage to convince yourself, a restless anticipation ahead of your journey to Makai. That's all it is – what else could it be? With that fearful dismay, that ever-shifting anxiety eating away at you, you take a horse from the city stables and hit the road. As the clouds finally part, and a brilliant – yet somehow sickly – moon shines down upon you, you begin the long ride east.

It feels like a retreat, running away from some phantom enemy.

[2/3]

The days you spend on the road are surreal, as if you ride partially through your own dreams and fears. At points, you guide your horse from the road and wait for a pursuer that you know – logically, at least – is not coming. Each time, you wait a few moments before pressing on ahead, and each time you promise yourself that you won't give in to that paranoia again. Yet, time after time, you find yourself looking about the road – be it under the cold moon or the hot sun – in search of the enemy that trails you.

It's no physical enemy, you know that. It just doesn't change anything. It may just be a phantom of your restless mind, but it still haunts your every step.

The Seer needs to be dealt with. You won't be able to rest easily until this is finished.

-

When the Nameless Temple rises high above you, it comes as a relief, but one that is strangely muted. It's a blessing, to return to civilisation for a time, but the comfort of home seems to elude you. Even now, you feel more like a thief hiding from his pursuers. No, that's not it – you feel like an animal cowering away from a predator, hiding within a tomb for fear of being hunted down.

This needs to end.

>Head south to the cult enclave
>Find Soma – you leave immediately
>Get some rest before leaving. Try to, at least
>Other

>Find Soma – you leave immediately
Lets get it done.

>Find Soma – you leave immediately

>Find Soma

would bringing the choke gauntlets help?

>In this case, no. They were crafted to deal with a very specific kind of enemy, the leech-children found in Nodens' city.

alright then, let's go.

we could fish for a spell from Mentor, but Takino was mortal through and through, no gods involved whatsoever.

>>Find Soma – you leave immediately
Umm why is Ira so paranoid now?

His childhood abomination is stalking him and he can sense it.

Ira has been tripping death flags by the dozen, the realization is catching up to him now.

You're not here for the comforts of home. You're here to fulfil a promise you made to Soma, to take her south in pursuit of the Seer. With that in mind, you set out to find her – and it's not a long search. As you expected, she waits in the blank, near-empty space of her room, sitting on her bed and staring at the opposite wall. A charitable mind would guess that he was meditating, emptying her mind of useless thoughts, just as she emptied her room of clutter and waste.

Somehow, you suspect something less noble. She masks it well, but a single glance into her eyes tells you that she's mired in the same kind of restless unease that you felt on the road. Even without knowing you were coming, she knew that the end was fast approaching.

“It's time?” she asks, without even sparing the breath to greet you.

It's time, you reply with the same blunt tone, is she ready to move?

“I'm as ready as I'll ever be,” Soma confirms, a slight hitch in her voice suggesting otherwise. Perhaps she can hear that brief hesitation as well, because she hastily continues speaking. “Don't even think about leaving without me,” she adds angrily, her anger forced and phony, “I'll follow you, Ira, don't think I won't.”

Just making sure, you shrug, you wouldn't think of leaving her behind.

“Then let's go,” she mutters, pulling up the deep hood of her flowing robes, hiding her face from direct sight. Without waiting for a response, she slips past you and heads out into the corridor, leaving you to catch up with her. She rattles slightly as she walks, you notice, countless bits and pieces of metal clinking together beneath her loose garb. Weapons of the Seer's own design, you assume, brought to assist in his undoing.

It seems fitting, somehow.

[1/2]

> countless bits and pieces of metal clinking together beneath her loose garb
etc etc gokigenyoumotherfucker.jpg

The moon is still bright as you're riding out with her, your exhausted horse left to rest at the Nameless Temple and replaced by a fresh steed. A small dose of that vile stimulant from your little silver flask drives back the fatigue, and you feel ready for whatever might cross your path.

Together, you ride most of the way in silence. Then, after a number of hours – on the featureless road, a more specific guess becomes meaningless – Soma twists around in the saddle to address you.

“You look like death,” she remarks, blind to the fact that she looks far from serene herself. Her eyes are ringed with dark shadows, and her skin has the pallor of a fresh corpse. When she catches you looking back at her, she barks out a humourless laugh. “I know, I know,” the young woman says, “It's a bad time for everyone. Just... we just need to get this over with. That's all.”

Right, you assure her, it's going to be over soon. You're impressed, actually, at how steady your voice is – your nerves feel shot, worn thin by the invigorating potion and the nameless fear that stalks you. As silence descends for another long period, you try to imagine what might wait for you in Makai. One last show of spiteful defiance, or a broken and defeated old man?

It's hard to say. You couldn't even begin to guess what the Seer might be thinking. Someone like him, one who has lived more years than any man has a right to, how can you know what he might be plannning? He could simply wait out there for a hundred years, returning to cast his shadow upon the next generation.

“We're getting close,” Soma declares after another long stretch of silence, “The passage shouldn't be too far from here.” Then she falls silent again, turning away from you and focussing on the road ahead.

>Ride on in silence
>I'm going to kill the Seer. If you can't handle that, turn back now
>When you see him, what are you going to do?
>Other

>When you see him, what are you going to do?
If I remember correctly we already told her we were going to kill him when she brought up this idea of coming along with and she accepted that.

>>When you see him, what are you going to do?

>What do you think of Sho now? Of how he measures up against the cause you first believed in?
>What kind of place do you think Tengaru should be?

>>When you see him, what are you going to do?

We didn't stop at the notpetra temple this time, strange.
>Ominous even.

When she sees him, the Seer, what is she going to do?

Your question seems to fall into the void separating you from Soma, vanishing without a trace into an abyss from which no reply, not even a hint that she heard the question, comes. At several points, it looks as though she was about to answer, even going to far as to turn and open her mouth, but every time she merely turns her eyes back to the path ahead. Then, when you've given up all hope of an answer, she speaks up.

“Talk to him,” she replies vaguely, “Ask him... I don't know. I've got so many questions, but I don't know if I want to hear the answers. As it is, I can almost convince myself that he was... that he had good intentions once. When I'm standing face to face with him, I'll know for sure. Maybe that's going to be enough – just seeing him one last time.”

What about the Emperor then, you ask after a lingering pause, what does she think about him and his cause?

“I wish it hadn't taken so much to teach him a little perspective,” Soma admits, “Looking back... I don't think he was ever bad, not like I thought. Young and foolish, maybe, but not the tyrant I was prepared to fight against. Now though? He was willing to swallow his pride and speak peacefully with Lord Lapis. That alone is more than I ever thought possible of him.”

And Tenngaru, you ask as you dismount your horse, what kind of place does she wish it to be?

“A place where men can live with the gods, and not struggle against them,” she decides, “I don't know about how a land should be ruled or governed, but the gods have a place here – I'll defend them, their place here, for as long as I live. Soldiers defiling sacred ground, or twisted men trying to shape the gods in their own image... it doesn't matter, I'll stand against them.”

As you consider her answer, Soma thrashes into some tall bushes and drags out a small boat, pushing it into the mouth of the river. Ahead, the cult enclave awaits.

[1/2]

You row the small boat onwards, into the tight and choking confines of these strange tunnels. Soma sits in front of you, holding a short carbine to her shoulder and scanning the waters ahead for any threats. She needn't bother – there is nothing here at all, either threats or friendly faces. The only sound is that of your oar cutting through the water, propelling you ever onwards. The further you go, and the closer the tunnel walls become, you start to move slower and slower. By the time the cavern opens up, you're barely moving.

“Someone should be here to meet us,” Soma says suddenly, “That's how we worked – we'd hear boats coming in, and we'd come out to meet them. If there was anyone left here...”

True enough, you think as you look out across the makeshift settlement, the place looks abandoned. Not just deserted, but smothered under the deathly air of a barren land. Makai's presence is in the air, heavy in your lungs and grating against your already frayed nerves. As your boat bumps up against the crude dock, and you both rise up into the settlement, you find yourself wishing for someone to emerge. Even a desperate shot from a rifle would be a welcome sign of life.

Of course, nothing comes.

“So...” Soma murmurs as she traces the barrel of her carbine across the dead settlement, “Pharos... you can lead me there?”

Hopefully, you reply, you just need to take a look through these lenses. That should uncover the path. You'll find a good place to set things up, and then you can get to work.

“I... I want to take a look around first,” Soma asks, “I know we shouldn't be wasting time, but...”

>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
>There's no time for that now. Stay close and keep an eye out
>You go ahead and look. I've got to focus on these lenses
>Other

>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
Finagle with the lenses while we walk.

>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
>Sorcerers have the bad habit of turning corpses into death traps for passers by.

>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
notes on what the seer aspired for, maybe.

gnight

this

>>No, we'll look. There might be something hidden here
Maybe the runaways left something behind.

It's not a waste of time, you reply, there might be something left behind here. Something hidden, perhaps something that might shed a little light on things here. That alone would be worth the time spent searching. You'll both have to be careful, though – sorcerers have a habit of leaving traps behind, vile things sculpted out of dead flesh.

“Gods...” Soma mutters darkly as she starts to move into the settlement. Perhaps it's your grim warning that's to blame, but she seems less eager to search all of a sudden. Letting the carbine dangle from its sling, Soma draws out a heavy pistol – one of the cult's usual revolvers – and presses into the first building she comes across. As she sweeps through the small shack, you take out two of your lenses and study them. The patterns carved into the glass are wild and hypnotic, sprawling lines twisting out into pathways that cheat the eye. It would be all too easy to lose yourself in those designs, and it's with a great effort of will that you look away. They lenses all have one marking in common – a single marking at the top. Line those markings up, and the secrets will be revealed.

Maybe.

“Something here!” Soma calls out, her voice breaking you out of what you realise was almost a trance, “It's safe, just something you might want to see.”

Following Soma's voice – when, you wonder, did she get so far ahead? - you enter a larger building and stare, amazed, at a truly monstrous weapon. Far too heavy for any one man to carry, it looks more like a pile of rifle barrels arranged around a set of vast gears and mechanisms. You couldn't even begin to guess how it works.

[1/2]

“You turn this crank here,” Soma tries to explain, “And the barrel here fires, faster than any rifle or revolver. It's inefficient though – it was used once, and it burned through nearly all of our stored ammunition. Still, it's a terrifying thing to behold.”

It was, you agree as you realise what you are looking at, even more fearful when you're on the other side of the barrel. Sometimes when you close your eyes, you still hear the thundering sound it made when it fired, and the shriek of bullets falling like rain.

“Oh...” Soma hesitates, grimacing a little, “I hadn't realised...”

It doesn't matter, you shrug, keep looking.

The next time Soma catches your attention, it's for darker reasons. In her own, long-abandoned quarters, she finds a folded letter, one addressed to her. “Three people,” she says as she reads it, “That was all he had by the end of it. Three people, desperate enough to hang on every word and promise he made. Maybe... maybe they'd thrown away everything else. No better than those monstrous assassins the Ascetic used – and they're little more than weapons as well.”

And what about her friend, you ask, the one who wrote that letter?

“He said he was going to try to escape,” Soma grimaces, “But... I should have heard from them if they'd gotten out.”

Perhaps...

“No, don't say it,” she interrupts, “I know – prepare for the worst. Listen, these weapons... what do you want to do with them? As far as I know, the Seer kept all the plans and designs in his private chamber. If we destroy them, these weapons will never see the light of day again.”

>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
>I'll take the plans. This information could be valuable
>Leave them here. We don't have a right to decide this
>Other

>>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way

>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
Revolvers and her grenades are fine, but gatling guns? Those are weapons of war which we don't need.

>>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
>I'll take the plans. This information could be valuable
Have Howa lose it in the library. If it's needed the gods will give some poor stupid Wanderer with more balls than brains a nudge to find it.

>>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way

>We'll destroy them. The land is safer this way
"I don't believe for a second that getting rid of these designs will permanently stop it's widespread creation. We aren't ones to stagnate technology wise, specially with Sho at the helm. But we can slow it down a bit and give this fragile peace a better chance at getting stronger without it. Hopefully by the time it is reinvented there will still be no need for it."

Destroy them, you tell her, the land will be safer without these weapons falling into the hands of the military. Even with Sho's new, more moderate perspective, putting so much power into his hands could only lead to disaster. Destroy the prototypes, burn the plans, and let the knowledge be lost to the mists of time – it's better this way.

“I agree,” Soma nods, producing a small device from underneath her robes. A small clay pot, stopped with a thick wad of cork and trailing a length of cord. A bomb, you guess, of a particularly crude and improvised variety. With a sigh of faint regret, Soma leans down and places her bomb underneath the monstrous weapon, playing out the fuse so that it doesn't get tangled or cut off. With flint and steel ready to set a spark to it, she reaches out to the fuse. “When I light this, we'd better get out here quickly. It's not going to be a huge blast, but...”

Better safe than sorry, you agree, now do it.

“Here goes...” grimacing, mouthing some prayer to an unknown god, Soma flicks a few sparks onto the fuse, rising bolt upright as they take hold. Together, you flee from the shed, pressing hands to your ears as the bomb detonates. It's a fairly flat explosion, the sound muffled by the shed walls, but Soma still flinches away from it. After taking a moment to be sure that the building isn't about to collapse, you enter it once more and examine the remains of the weapon. It's a shattered mess, twisted metal scattered to all four corners of the room. “There,” Soma nods to herself, “Dead and buried.”

If only you could be that optimistic. Even without plans and a prototype, this technology will – one day – return to the land. That's something you can't stop, no matter how hard you try. At least this way you can slow it down, and buy the land a few more years for the fragile peace to settle.

That's all you can do, all you've ever been able to do.

[1/2]

With the prototype weapon destroyed, your next move is to destroy the Seer's plans. Except, you don't get that far. As you head towards his private domain, the great sealed door – barring the path to Makai - looms into view, and you are both struck dumb by the hideous, mocking sight of it. For the door is not like you remember it, blighted by the addition of a new and macabre trophy. Strung up upon that door, arms spread, is a battered corpse – old, and falling into decay. Around its wasted neck, however, you can easily make out the sign, and the word painted on it.

DESERTER.

“Gods...” Soma breathes, turning away and retching, “That... that bastard!”

It's him, you ask, isn't it? Her friend, the one who had been feeding her information? Unable to form the words, Soma merely nods, still facing away from both you and the awful sight. When she can finally trust herself to speak again, Soma returns her gaze – burning with newfound hatred – to you.

“We're cutting him down and we're burning his body,” she snarls, unwilling to accept a single word of argument.

Very well, you reply with forced calm, you were already going to put a torch to the Seer's papers. They'll serve as his funeral pyre.

-

Standing outside the Seer's chamber, you watch as the flames consume the structure from within. You don't say anything – no prayers or ritual words this time – but you simply watch. When Soma turns and walks away, returning to the great sealed door, you turn your back to the fire and start setting out your three lenses. The pyre casts off light enough for you, and it's about time you learned where this route will take you.

It takes a bit of awkward arrangement, but soon the light of the fire and lenses casts out an image, a vision that you lose yourself within.

[2/3]

It's impossible to properly describe what you see, to put a name to the wild and furious journey that you mind flies down. If you were asked to draw a map there, leading to dead Pharos, you simply could not do it – the directions have been wiped from your mind mere seconds after they were burned into it.

What's left is pure instinct, a longing urge that tugs you towards that great and ancient tomb. You might not be able to draw a map or name the directions, but you could set out on the path to Pharos as if you were a blind man, and you'd never stray.

Such is the divine power contained within these lenses.

Still reeling slightly from the experience, you stagger to the great door and join up with Soma again. She has donned her gas mask already, the smeared glass lenses not quite enough to cover up her reddened eyes.

“The Seer can't be allowed to walk away from this,” she announces as you draw close, her voice cold and hard, “He dies today.”

>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
>Nobody is beyond redemption, Soma
>This isn't your call to make
>Enough. You're staying here – I can't risk taking a liability with me
>Other

>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
Dude is spite incarnate. Mentor earned our trust as an ex-sorcerer with everything he has done as penance and the fact that he is so afraid of using most of his powers it drives him to inaction instead.

Seer committed atrocities and for all his talk about hating sorcery he used it often and made an apprentice that could then teach more people of the practice.

>>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
I really hope the seer sees this one coming a mile away. Also I hope Soma has a Baph charm on her, because we are probably going to have to murmur.

>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
That's the plan yeah.

Soma doesn't know magic so she'll be fine. Remember that our spell is a much quieter version of Murmur's chant, almost unhearable. It doesn't disorient.

>>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes

>You're right. It's time for him to pay for his crimes
I'm willing for Soma to have the final blow. It'd be fitting.

Right, you nod, it's time for the Seer to pay for his crimes. If he had simply slipped away into Pharos, running away to hide, then you might have stayed his hand. Then, with this last spiteful insult, you know that such mercy would be pointless. He won't stop or back down, so it falls to you to put him down.

“I wanted to know if there was any good left in him,” Soma remarks, before nodding back to the dying remains of the funeral pyre, “That's the only answer I need.” Slowly flexing her fingers – she looks like someone dreaming fondly of strangulation – Soma finds the hidden mechanism and pulls it, the sealed door slowly grinding open. As a gust of dead, ancient air rushes out to meet you both, you pull on your own gas mask. Looking out through stained and filthy glass, you set your sights on the wasteland beyond.

Neither of you says anything as you press on through the newly opened tunnel. You follow the instinct that sings out within you, while Soma merely traces your steps. As you emerge from the passage, and dead Makai stretches out before you, a shudder of revulsion runs down your spine. This place was bleak before, but now – now that you're starting to uncover the role Tenngaru's great gods played in its destruction – the wasteland is a place of true horror.

Pharos hides the Truth. You're not sure if you even want to know it.

“Here,” Soma manages to say, passing you one end of a short rope, “I don't want to get separated. Not out here. Not now.”

Nodding mutely, you tie the cord around your waist. Then, closing your eyes for a moment – listening to the alien guidance howling within your mind – you start the long journey to dead and forbidden Pharos.

[1/2]

fuck back to /qst/

The things you see as you travel cannot be justifiably named, for they seem to obey no laws that you recognise or abide by. You pass through ruins of ancient temples – or maybe just buildings of an unspeakable archaic style – and empty courtyards of vast size. The one time you stop to examine your surroundings, brushing dust from cracked and shattered flagstones to peer at the designs beneath your boots, the things you see twist your stomach. The Nameless Temple is an uncanny thing, unnatural and unnerving to strangers, but the ruins you pass through in Makai are of a whole other order – looming, leering and twisted like cancerous bones.

After the first sickening time, you don't stop to examine anything. You just press on, keeping a close eye on the rope binding you and Soma together while the ancient guidance calls you on.

When the vast bones of titan beings – already dead, you suspect, when the mountains were young – loom up either side of you, you know that you're getting close. That's something you could guess, even without the directions burned into your mind. Forming a macabre set of archways, the bones lead towards a great stone door, one guarded by the shattered remains of inhuman statues.

Those statues – little more than legs and ankles, really – aren't the only sentinals. Three loathsome things, fleshy little monstrosities, are slumped across the broken, ashen ground, staring up at the door with mute stupidity. The abominations have the horns and claws of savage beasts, but the limp and soft nature of a mistake, something born before it was ready. They offer no resistance, simply flopped out facing the door.

Almost as if they were prostrating themselves in prayer.

Three last followers of the Seer. Three malformed abominations.

You can guess what happened here.

[2/3]

Forcing down your revulsion, you pass the fetal abominations by and slip through the great stone door, passing through the ajar opening. They paw vainly at you as you pass, moaning like cattle, but you ignore their piteous attempts and head into Pharos. From the outside, the building looked close to the Nameless Temple – larger, grander and somehow more complete – but inside... it's hollow, perfectly empty and barren.

From the entrance, you can see all the way to the furthers corners. You can see everything there is to see in this place – but there is only one single thing TO see. Sitting, meditating, in the precise centre of his vast tomb, is the Seer.

He wears no mask. He wears nothing but a thin robe to protect him from the harsh land, but he still appears perfectly in his element.

“Gods...” Soma whispers – the first word she has said in a very long time.

Numb, you approach the Seer with your weapons drawn, the muzzle of your revolver never straying far from his forehead.

“Have you come to kill me, Ira?” the Seer asks, without looking up, “A defenceless old man like me?”

He's not defensive, you retort, he probably has more power than you could ever possess.

“Perhaps so,” he admits, “But what if I choose not to use it? What if I choose to accept whatever judgement you pass?”

Is that it then, you ask, he's just going to give up? He's run this far, he's murdered and mutated the last of his followers, and now he's just going to let you kill him?

“Perhaps that is the case,” the ancient sorcerer tells you, finally looking up at you with his mismatched eyes – one dead, blinded from a look into the future, the other flat and blank.

>Why?
>I won't kill a man who refuses to fight back. Defend yourself
>It's time to die, old man
>Let me ask you something... (Write in)
>Other

>>Why?

>>Why?

>>Why?
Be ready for trickery, get ready to land the final blow and get the answers that Soma want.

>>Other
Turn on Song of Discord. Better safe than sorry.

>Why?
"Everything I've heard about you says the contrary. That you will keep blindly following your goal to prevent a future that has no chance of actually occurring now. Selene played you Seer."

>Why?

>Why?

>Other
Song of Discord.

>Why?
>Let me ask you something... (Write in)
"How is it that you claim to be fighting for the gods and then you go ahead and create an apprentice of sorcery?"

Why, you ask again, why won't he even raise a hand to defend himself?

“Ira... do you know how long I've lived, drawing my plans and working towards my goals? Can you even comprehend the time I've spent?” the Seer asks you in response, “All that time, I've never allowed myself to stop, to compromise or to meet my enemies halfway. To bend even an inch was to accept defeat. Even now, I live by that – I cannot stop now. For as long as I live, I must fight against the future. To even consider surrender would be to cast aside every second I have devoted to my cause. That, I cannot allow.”

Then why not fight, you ask as Soma draws up next to you, why accept death?

“...I'm tired, Ira,” the Seer replies slowly, his voice betraying a crushing weight of fatigue, “I cannot allow myself to rest... but perhaps there is rest to be found in death.”

As Soma points her own gun at the Seer's calm, serene face, you call upon Murmur's discordant song. A flicker of pain crosses the Seer's face as he senses the magic, soon replaced by a dark amusement.

“Even now, Ira, you suspect me of trickery,” he lets out a hollow laugh, “I suppose I've earned that much.”

Is it any wonder, you retort, when he uses sorcery – an ancient blasphemy – to achieve his own ends? He claimed to be a defender of the gods, and then he passed the forbidden arts to a new student. How exactly does that work?

“In war, one must use every tool in one's arsenal,” he answers, “If it offers you any comfort, it was not a decision I made lightly... and it was one I quickly came to regret. Desperation makes men do foolish things, does it not? To that end, I ask you – how desperately do you wish for peace? Enough to shoot a defenceless old man?”

[1/2]

If you let him live, you say slowly, he'd just keep blindly chasing his vision of the future – a future that can never happen now. He might have stolen that glimpse of the future from Selene, but she'll have the last laugh. He was played, led down this path by a goddess with her own agenda. How does it feel, you ask on sudden impulse, to be the butt of her joke?

“Ah, fair and noble Selene,” the Seer laughs bitterly, “Yes, if anyone was to play men against one another, reducing them to little more than toys, then it would be her. You may think me a manipulative man, Ira, but I learned it from her. But as you say, she was the better game player – she moved her pieces against me, and I lost.”

“Is that all we were to you?” Soma cries out, “Pieces on a chess board? Tools and weapons, to be thrown away when we were no longer of any use? My brother – was he just another pawn in your game?”

“Of course,” the Seer replies, turning his head to look her in the eye, “I won't lie or pretend otherwise – I used you all. I must say, you were a great disappointment to me, Soma. I expected better from you.”

With a wordless gasp of hate and despair, Soma begins to tighten her finger on the trigger of her revolver. Her hand shakes as she holds the gun to the Seer's head. Seconds away from death, and the Seer looks... happy.

The bastard looks happy.

>Let Soma shoot him
>Pull her aside and shoot the Seer yourself
>Pull her aside, let the old man live
>Other

just give him a gun with only one bullet

>>Other
Both at the same time. Make sure he's dead. One in the head, one in the heart.

>Let Soma shoot him

bastard wants a suicide by cops, wanderers in this case.
If he wish to an hero, he can do it while we watch.
>Ira "Do it faggot" Furyo

>Shoot him in the gut
>Leave him a knife to finish the job.

>Hold Soma off for now
>Don't let him be a martyr

>Let Soma shoot him
Let her close this chapter of her life.

A martyr for who? I don't think you get what martyr means.

>Let Soma shoot him

He is going to die in an abandoned temple in the middle of nowhere with no one believing in his cause. A martyr he ain't and cannot be.

>Giving him a gun that he might shoot one of us out of spite with.
>Instead of just giving him a knife to sudoku with.

I mean there is still a danger but a much more manageable one.

I'd rather not give him anything and just end. HE has no honor as it is, so it's just putting down a mangy old dog.

True enough, I was just pointing that out on the off chance it went through.

>>Other
Veragi's dagger must taste his blood!

>>Let Soma shoot him
Just get it over with quickly.

The sound of the gunshot seems very small, almost insignificant, in this vast tomb. Even if the noise is swallowed up by the empty space, however, the effects are anything but ineffective. A clean shot, even with the tremors gripping Soma's hand, the bullet drills into the Seer's temple and knocks him back, leaving his unresponsive body sprawled out across the ancient tiles, and the lunatic designs they form. As the sound of the shot fades away, it is joined by a second, far smaller sound – a metallic clatter as the gun drops from Soma's unresponsive hand. Fumbling for her mask, she turns away from the body and lets out a heavy, rasping gasp.

As she recoils from her act, you slowly kneel down and press your fingers to the Seer's throat. His beat has grown still, and already the body is taking on the waxen texture of a corpse. Black flowers of decay start to blossom across his skin, the countless years of his unnatural life rushing to catch up on him. By the time you've risen to your feet, you can already see bone through his crumbling flesh. A moment more, and that bone is pitted with signs of age.

Watching the dissolution of his flesh and bone, you feel... something. It's like something brushing up against your mind, creeping around and trying to find a way in. Soma doesn't seem to notice it – she's far too busy staring off into space, her eyes hollow and dead – but still, the sensation tugs at your awareness. Then, it speaks to you.

“Don't you want to know?” the voice – three voices, all whispering at once – rushes into your mind, “Don't you want to know the Truth?”

Of course, you realise, this is Pharos – where the Truth of dead Makai is said to slumber. Now, it comes to you with the offer – and the curse - of knowledge.

>Open your mind to the Truth
>Close your mind. You don't need to know

>>Open your mind to the Truth
We've gone this far to find it. Time to experience it for ourselves.

I feel like it's more trouble than it's worth. Our percpetion of things is good as it is without digging into the past and bringing up ancient knowledge.
>Close your mind. You don't need to know

>“Don't you want to know the Truth?”
"What I want is to go home and take a nap with my lover."

>“Don't you want to know?” the voice – three voices, all whispering at once – rushes into your mind, “Don't you want to know the Truth?”

Okay just the way that was phrased is giving me bad vibes. I am going to go with my gut instinct here and not give into temptation, as anti-climatic as it is.

>Close your mind. You don't need to know

Like hell I'd fall for that last bit of 'are you sure you're sure?'. We've come here with a goal knowing full well that it could change us, but still being us at the end. We have went into dangerous situations unheeded before and came out of them. It is not like Ira to throw it away just like that.

>Open your mind to the Truth
We may be an old wander, but seeing the world and all aspects of it, we should see the truth as well. Even if it's ugly. For thats who we are.

>>Open your mind to the Truth

>We've come here with a goal knowing full well that it could change us,

We came here to kill Seer. Pharos's offer is just a bonus. But if you think it's worth the risk, whatever that risk may be, I guess go for it. I'm just getting bad vibes.

>>Open your mind to the Truth
I've got my own theories and I want to see if they were close.

This was always going to be a risk. We knew that. It's the same truth that scared Seer and Mentor on their paths. But the thing about knowing truths, is that they don't necessarily change you.

I do agree with you though. This is going to lead to trouble one way or another. The truth always has after all. Yet we have always gone for the thorny path to get it. Even on our first mission. We seek the truth no matter what, and in doing so found ways to right old wrongs and help the future. This is just the last big surprise awaiting us before we tie up the past.

>last big surprise awaiting us
Oho I bet there are two more for Ira coming up very soon.

Curiosity, once aroused, can be near impossible to ignore. It's driven men to destruction, that capricious desire to learn, to study and understand the land's secrets, but you still cannot resist giving in to it. How many men get the chance to know this, the ultimate Truth?

Not many.

Accepting the risks, the dangers of what you're doing, you sink down to your knees and you close your eyes. Here, in the darkest corner of dead Makai, you close your eyes and open your mind to the Truth. When you open your eyes once more, you're no longer the man you once were.

-

Your name is Titanos, and you hunger for strength, for bloodshed and glory.

Your name is Nodens, and you thirst for knowledge, for secrets of arcane wisdom.

Your name is Selene, and you lust for power, to hold dominion over the hearts and minds of men.

That's why you started down this dark path, ripping the power from the gods themselves and using it to fuel your own selfish desires. As many have done before you, and few will do afterwards, you have pulled the gods from their thrones and taken their crowns for yourselves. Now, driven by the desperate urge to surpass your past sins, you have turned your hunger upon the last and greatest of all the gods. Here, in Pharos, you consumed the sun itself.

And it still wasn't enough for you. Fattened and drunk on stolen power you gathered here, upon the grave that was once a grand temple, and you reached into the land itself. Wherever life flourished, you fed, leaving naught but empty dust behind. Men and animals, plants, insects, stars and hope, all those were taken to feed your hunger. With such power within your grasp, you gained true divinity – true strength, true knowledge and true power.

But with those blessings came the curse of insight. With hubris cast aside, you were faced with the depths of your crimes.

What else could you do, other than fleeing to the peaceful lands to the north?

[1/2]

>>Open your mind to the Truth
this is the second reason we are here!

You – once again Ira Furyo, an ageing Wanderer and the pivot upon which fate has rocked – watch as the land blossoms around you, Tenngaru's history playing out in front of you. Too fast to notice all but the broadest strokes, you watch as the three great gods – liars, frauds and cannibals all – cast aside much of their old histories, and with it the burden of their sins. Unpunished, escaping the weight of their crimes, they settled in to rule over the land as three almighty gods. Old now, and distant from their ancient selves, they still reign – Tenngaru's past, present and future all within their grasp.

This is the Truth they conspired to hide, the Truth that Selene warned against. Shame, bitter regret, and grotesque self-pity, this Truth is stained by all those.

Now you know it too.

-

“Ira?” Soma shakes you, gripping you tightly by the arm, “Ira, wake up! Wake up, damn you! Agh... stop passing out on me!”

You're awake, you reply numbly, you're still alive.

“Well... good!” she seems to have recovered her wits – how else would she cry out like that? - but her eyes are wild with fear, “We need to get out of here, now! I can feel something... something clawing at my mind. Come on!”

She feels it too?

“I don't want to feel it!” she snaps, punching you hard on the shoulder and tugging at you, “We need to GO!”

>Right... we need to leave
>Soma, you need to know this. The gods aren't what they say. Sit down and listen!
>Other

>Right... we need to leave

So a sorcerer got really fucking powerful and was insatiable for more power. Killed Pharos and every other god in Makai, drained the land, realized how fucked up things have got, fled to Tenngaru and split into the Trio of gods.

Shit is heavy, but what's done is done. We might not look at them the same way, but for the most part they have changed.

>The current gods were sorcerers who killed thier way to true divinity
Called it!

>Right... we need to leave

>>Right... we need to leave
And that is the simple truth. Though in a way, they still suffer and are making penance. Titanos is teaching people how to be better, enlightening tribal people to help everyone.

Nodens suffered greatly and is making amends. Celeste? She's a bitch, but as time passes she is going to lose power and followers as the people come and go and new ideas are brought. Her visions will be mired.

We came for the truth, we got it, and it is what it is. The past is the past, and Ira is Ira.

3 sorcerers but yes

>Right... we need to leave
The Bitch is coming I think.

>>Right... we need to leave
We can't let this break us.

>Right... we need to leave

It takes an effort, a mighty act of will, but you shake off the lingering grasp of the past. What's done is done, and you can't let yourself become mired in the secrets you've been given. The gods have their own share of sins, but even now they strive to redeem themselves. As the Mentor labours away, trying to purge himself of what he sees as an unforgivable sin, so too do the gods work to pay their penance. This Truth is a weighty one – you're not sure if you'll ever be able to see the land in the same way – but you refuse to be crushed by it.

Selene said that it would break you. You refuse to give her the satisfaction of being right.

“Stand up old man!” Soma rages, sending a sharp little kick into your backside. That, as much as anything else, is what blasts away the last traces of your fugue.

Right, you declare firmly, it's time to get out of here.

“Thank the gods,” Soma breathes, holding onto your arm as you rise to your feet. Perhaps it's terror that makes her cling to you like that, or the simple fear of getting lost. Maybe she worries about your old bones, and holds on in case you fall. Whatever the reason, it takes a lot to shake her off.

And no more of that old man talk, you tell her as you both head towards the entrance, or you'll leave her behind.

-

You can't avoid comparing your flight from Makai with the journey undertaken by the gods – or those ancient sorcerers, as you can't help but think of them. Just as they sought to flee from their sins, so too do you flee from the knowledge of them. Even so, you know that you'll never be able to strike it from your mind. Once learned, this Truth is a part of you until the day you die.

And you don't plan on dying any time soon.

[1/3]

The sun has risen by the time you return to Tenngaru, to the land that you call home, but you have no idea how much time has passed. A matter of hours, or a matter of days? A deep hunger gnaws at you, matched by a great and deathly exhaustion, but that doesn't mean much. In Makai, the flow of time seems abnormal – as if those ancient devils shattered all natural laws when they fed on the land. Whether it has been hours or days, the facts remain the same – you need a damn good meal, and a damn good sleep.

Both rest and food can be found at the closest outpost town – not exactly good rest or good food, but you're willing to take what you can get – and when you return to the road, your mind is clearer than it's been in days.

It doesn't last.

It's only a small thing at first, occasionally glancing over your shoulder as you ride, but soon the crippling paranoia that blighted your journey from the capital has returned. No, it's more than returned – it's worse than ever. Whenever you close your eyes, you can practically feel bony claws closing around your face, the hot breath of a predator caressing your back. Soma rides on ahead, blissfully ignorant of the horror that gnaws away at you. When she gaily announces that the Nameless Temple is close, the most you can manage is a strangled murmur of acknowledgement. When you arrive at the temple itself, you nearly fall from your saddle as you dismount.

This isn't right. This should be over. This IS over.

Hiding your turmoil behind a dead, expressionless mask – a passing glance would mistake you for a man broken by fatigue – you enter the Nameless Temple and lock eyes with the woman you love. She was waiting for you, waiting to welcome you back.

Waiting like a spider, a sick part of your mind whispers.

[2/3]