ARCHIVE: suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com
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You are Brianna la Croix, necromancer, and you just got - you just got some bad news.
Hellfire. Things've been going so well, too.
You can't light up down here, but that's actually kind of fine? It'd seem disrespectful, somehow. So instead you hobble next to the lip of the Shaft and take a seat next to Brigette, then look up at everyone else. "River, can you head back to Split and tell the others what happened?" you ask. "Razor Feathers, and Catherine, and all the rest that are heading back to the Roost. Tell Catherine that I need her thoughts on how to conduct this war."
"I will," River promises softly. She squeezes your shoulder, then Brigette's, and leaves with Tina and Lark.
"Who got them?" you ask Brigette, softly. "Where's Natalia?"
"Natalia's fine," Brigette murmurs. "Silence...called her, somehow. It was like words made of quiet, booming in that absent way like her bell does, and she...she said if Nattie wanted to make up for being a traitor, now was her moment. And Nattie, she just vanished there somehow. Maybe she's got teleport runes buried somewhere, maybe...maybe Silence just /called/ her."
"How do you know she's fine?" Nathan asks.
"She told Victoria. On Silence's communication bell," Brigette whispers.
You look up at Nathan and Amy. "Go on ahead. Help who you can. I'll be after shortly."
Nathan nods, solemnly. Amy stops to hug you both, folding her wings around you while her feathers play a jangling sound of mourning. It almost sounds like they're sobbing.
"We'll have our revenge," Amy murmurs.
"I won't," comes Brigette's miserable answer.
You take the bottle from Brigette as your lovers leave and take a slug from it yourself. It burns in a pleasant way. A numbing way.
"I tried to go with her," Brigette whispers. "I tried so many words. 'Leave'. 'Go'. 'Dispel'. 'Free'. Lora's will is like a damn vice. I had to sit here and...and listen to nothing but quiet until they told me. Natalia's all tore up. She had a thing for Jack..."
You hug Brigette around the shoulders, and she buries her face in your chest and screams in frustration, in grief, in sorrow.
"I shouldn't have been drinking," the Poet mutters miserably. "Victoria's down there. What if she's next? What if the angel has her killed so she can have me? She's got forever to wait. She can be patient."
You run a hand through Brigette's hair. "Yeah, she can be patient. Why murder Victoria now when she can just wait out her life?"
"...I guess," your friend agrees.
> This wasn't your fault
> We still need you, Brige
> I will talk to Lora about lifting your sentence
> C'mon. You and me, we're gonna find all the booze on this damn level and smash it.
> Write-in?
>we still need you Brige. We'll talk to Lora later
>This wasn't your fault
>> We still need you, Brige. We'll talk to Lora later.
> This wasn't your fault
> We still need you, Brige
The Librarian made my shit list, as did Cobalt.
> This wasn't your fault
> We still need you, Brige
>> This wasn't your fault
>> We still need you, Brige
>> I will talk to Lora, maybe find a way for you to participate without breaking you sentence.
> We still need you, Brige
>There are other ways to help. The Atheneum is huge, right? There's bound to be /something/ in the books that can help.
This is assuming that she isn't already looking through the giant library for things like records of secret passages between the levels or the like.
this
best case scenario, bridge finds us a secret weapon. worst case scenario, she at least finds something to do that isn't drinking while we save the day.
Here shortly I'm gonna be giving a couple of copies of Mourners to my local library. After that, I'll be running until 7 PM or so, when I go to work; I'll be there until after midnight.
Back, called, tallying, writing.
Where can I pick up a copy?
dreamscarred.com
This is the only time I'ma link it. Reviews are definitely welcome, as is feedback of any kind. I've got an awareness of a few places I went definitely wrong but, y'know.
You know what's bothering me?
Why did the information chain stop at the atheneum? was there no one else there besides Brigette to pass on the news that the rest of the dungeon was under attack by the chainholders? was it deemed not important enough? I don't know, send reinforcements or at least let Bri know what happened?
Maybe the other levels couldn't have been able to respond but they should at least have been informed in case the battle for the roost was lost and the atheneum and new hell would have fallen under attack
Even though Bri is all about bringing together the levels of the dungeon as a community no one really seems to be doing anything to work towards that
You said that this is your first book, right? Then a lot of those mistakes can be forgiven. Live and learn, right?
Serious critique? For me, the jumps between perspectives and events felt too brief. It was like I was reading an abridged version of a quest like DLQ, and not an actual novel.
And the characters, cool as they might have been, were too powerful on introduction. I didn't get to see the qt Paladin grow as a warrior. The wyrm? Again, cool but kinda boring. The final battle? It didn't feel like there was any risk involved, or any challenge to overcome. Just business as usual.
Still liked it, and still want to see more.
>silence killed off screen
aaaaaaaaand quest dropped, goodbye Vox you beautiful bastard
WAY too early for that, user. Still waiting for the rest of the details
"You've been helpful," you murmur softly. "We need the Athenaeum. We've needed your research, and your experience. It's been good of you to keep an eye on Jewel and Cherry, and to help Natalia."
"I could do more," Brigette whispers. "I have all this /power/ and I can't use it! Why is she doing this to me? Why teach me all these words I can never speak? What did I do to be...nevermind," she shudders, and sucks in a deep breath. "I know what I did to deserve this."
"I'm not sure she's punishing you, Brige. I do think maybe we need to talk to her sometime soon. Together."
"...Alright," Brigette says quietly. "What...what can I do?"
"Sober up. Cry it out. Then find me everything you can on the Cornucopia and the Sunless Sea. The Pallbearer too, for that matter."
"Okay," the Poet agrees. "...Bri, did it go okay on the surface?"
"Phenomenally," you promise.
"That's good. I...I told them not to bother you with the news. That you were doing something important."
"You did good, Brige. You did good."
* * * *
Vik, Silence's second, is waiting for you in the Company Store. He's obviously seen better days; the man looks ragged from grief and exhaustion.
"Your lovers came through, went on to the Roost," the man says. "We need to talk."
"I heard about Silence. I'm sorry -"
"Don't you be sorry yet, corpsefucker," the Miner snaps. "She's not dead. Just...unwell."
"Define," you ask, flatly.
"They got her with iron. Barbed bolts, the fucks. She wouldn't fall back, kept defending the Roosters, kept fighting back. She drove them back, you know? She didn't deserve that. She left you some final message in the stones near the Roost entrance, made us drag her there, but I don't think she's as dead as she looks. She said...she said she's a body, right? She doesn't have a soul."
"Which would make reviving her complicated even if it wasn't already too late," you tell him.
"I'm getting to that!" Vik interrupts, annoyed. "Look - if she is a body, and we /have/ her body, then all she needs is some life, right? We /have/ life. Half a snake's worth of wraithsteel. We can, we can get a smith, right, and use it to drive the iron out of her system, patch up the wounds, and she'll be better."
There's a /need/ on his face, a desperate plea in his eyes.
Gods, he's in love with her, isn't he?
> What do you say?
Yeah, I've had worries about that looking back at it. Ashes to Ashes will be better there, in part because Asheholm is kinda Adventure Town so the playing field is more generally even. My thanks, my friend, for the read and the critique.
Sorry to see ya go, my friend. Hopefully we meet again.
>"There is a line that should not be crossed, are you desperate enough take responsibility when she wakes up?"
>muttering about zombie armies
Not sure what we /can/ say. We lack the knowledge to know if that'll work.
>Do you really think she wants what you're proposing?
>We can remove the iron as best we can.
It would be interesting if she's well enough to communicate, what her opinion is.
But I'd be for trying to do it.
>"I've never done this shit before and frankly I'm not sure the Silence that comes out the other end of this will be herself or Gods know, she could wake up as that wraithsteel snake. I don't have to remind you what it did to your men do I?"
>"If she left me a message, I need to hear that before I make any sort of decision. That said, this is a faery we're talkign about, not one of the First or Secondborn, and that means if there's naything to be done about it, I'll need to know more than I do now. Finally, it's not just raising her - there's costs and responsibilities that go with that. I don't know if I can pay those costs and dues right now, in my current condition, or if she'd be willing to live with them either."
wait, did they leave to bolt heads in her when they removed the arrows? why else would there still be iron in her system?
>If we have the time, we should read her message before making any decisions.
She fought with the bolts still in her. By the time she was treated the iron poisoning was already killing her (you can see another example of that with Miles' manacles).
>...I don't know, to be honest.
>let's take a moment and just examine what we have on our hands here, alright? Silence's body is....itnact just filled with iron, yes? From what I know generally when the fae die, they tend not to leave bodies. They explode into glitter or turn to sea foam or fade away into dust. I am not an expert though. If her body still has vital signs, and she's not decaying maybe there's something we can do.
> The thing is though, even if she is still barely hanging on to life somehow, there might not be a way to pull her back. This is uncharted territory and I have no knowledge of the fae. We do have the atheneum's books, doctors, and several very talented smiths in new hell but we're all mortals. She's something else.
>So. Let me see the body. Let me make calls. If there's a way to keep her alive, you have my word I will work to bring her back like she was my own flesh and blood. But if there's no hope for her, if there's risk that we may bring back something that is not HER you need to promise me you'll let her go.
>Well shit, then. I guess we're gonna bring her back. Don't know how much help I'll be, since I can't well bring her nonexistent soul back from the sunless lands, but I /do/ know a master smith up in Glen.
>First, though, I recommend we check this message she's left me. Could be important for just this reason.
>We're going to read that message, and then we're going to fix Silence, because killing off best girl is unforgivable
Alright folks, I need to go be Gainfully Employed. Brakes in the car are shot so it's the two-step express for me; I'll be back at around 1 AM or so. Votes remain open.
Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.
Thank you all for reading and participating!
If folks are inclined to do stuff like the cards, writing/drawing, that kinda thing, these work absences and/or sleep absences are a good time for 'em.
>Do you know any other fae we can ask about this? Really don't want to mess with Silence like that without any idea of what I'm doing.
this
Hey guys... you know, we have someone in the single biggest repository of knowledge on this side of the world who would be aching to figure out a solution. That, coupled with the insanity this guys speaking and some life juice might just do it.
With a soul off the table the rules get a lot weirder.
Aye this has got to be something up grandpa Lich's alley, an insane experiment no one has attempted before
>Sic Brigette on the ressurection of faery research quest.
...I don't know why, but I have a feeling we'll end up accidentally giving Silence a soul somehow.
Well, we have the innocent soul on the Warehouse level, though that would come with it's own cost...
Nah, just cram Cherry in there, should work.
Sure. Cherry is undead, and that's basically the same as life, and Silence needs life to make her good again. This is a totally logical course of action I back because I want to watch the world burn.
...
Yeah I mean, body without a soul, soul without a body, basic math really.
No, bad! That way lies zombie armies.
Two hours and change to call, possibly plus or minus the other thing I have to do tonight.
ooooh, ship of Theseus problem
At this point, it would be safer to cut off her head now, stick it in a jar that keeps it functioning and supplied with oxygen, and turn her body into a cyborg using cheaty wraithsteel.
>.....her brain IS intact, right? No head injuries? How long has it been?
>If we cock this up, it won't be Silence that wakes up. It'll just be the wraithsteel using her body like a puppet.
On my way home, see you in thirty or so.
Aight, so from the looks of things the general sentiment is 'don't get his hopes up, listen to Silence's message, approach this with an eye to the potential consequences'.
Called, writing.
The general sentiment is "don't just kill off golden waifu quietly offscreen as an unforeseeable consequence, at least give us a chance to save her"
>unforeseeable
I dunno, i was thinking about a lot of things during Jack's pov.
War is war, and I'm surprised that Necrofowl Inc. has managed to go through the meatgrinder and come out the other side intact (well, mostly). Hell, I should have started bets on who would be the first to get the axe.
Pretty much this.
Okay, I'm about to break the fourth wall a little; would it be possible to create a kind-of broad life-exchange with volunteer miners offering small pieces of their own lives to help revive Silence?
That damn triage network is a fucking cool idea, lich. I want one for the home team.
Sure, just tell them to clap their hands if they believe in faeries.
But faeries are real user, didn't you know that?
Of course I knew that, asshole, that's why we're clapping our fucking hands!
In that case. TAKE MY CLAPS!
Hey user; what's the sound of one hand clapping?
Snapping fingers?
Cl. The other hand makes the ap.
"You're making a lot of assumptions, Vik," you warn the man. "...She's my friend too. I don't want her dead, but you're overlooking a lot of really awful possibilities. What if the thing we bring back isn't Silence? What if she was happy being dead and she resents living again?"
Vik scoffs.
"Laugh it up, I've seen it happen," you snap. "You're asking me to do something that may have never been done before, to a being I know phenomenally little about - a /sapient being/, mind you, whose very existence you're thrusting into my hands like a child with a broken toy. You'll treat this request with the gravity it deserves."
Vik folds his arms, but you've got his attention. Good.
"I want to read this message she left me," you tell him flatly. "And I want more information. How is her body?"
"Intact," Vik confirms. "...And you can't /read/ the message. But you can hear it. Come with me."
You're a bit surprised to find that Silence's body has been nestled next to the entrance into the Roost, not even five feet from the transition. She's been rolled onto her back, her eyes have been closed, her hands laid across her breast, but other than that she hasn't been touched. Rust colors her veins, and blue blood stains her clothes, is splashed on the stones near her corpse. You kneel down next to her, but your suspicions are confirmed nearly immediately: she's dead, or whatever it is fairies get.
"Where's her message?" you ask. In answer, Silence's face sculpts itself out of the nearby stone, with polished onyx for eyes. You bite your lip as she starts to speak.
"Don't interrupt," she says in a weak voice. "This is just something I've left behind. I'm not actually here, Brianna. I'm pretty sure I'm about to die."
The voice pauses to cough; the sound is wet, and ragged. "It's been interesting times. You know, I always figured I'd be murdered in my sleep by some Mine Boss sick of my shit. It's nice...it's nice to die doing something good for others."
"I bet you've guessed that I can be a real bitch," Silence continues, her voice pained with the effort it takes to speak. "I made my peace with that. This hurts a lot, Bri. Maybe it's justice for the folks I've wronged over the years, but, maybe not. There's a lotta years, and a lotta wronged. So I'm gonna be a bitch again, and try to do somethin' decent with my death. Vik gets all of my shit. All of it. He's the Boss now. You tell him, he's the Boss, and he better look after my boys. The gold on my body is his too, but he has to keep my word. He has to help you out. I promised, and I won't be forsworn. Never in life, and not now in death."
"Damn you," Vik whispers, his throat tight.
"You take my bones, corpsefucker. Give 'em to that smith of yours. Make something handy. They should forge like steel, if I'm hearing the Mine right. If I'm not just crazy with the iron and the pain and...and everything else."
"Nobody rules the Dungeon," Silence whispers. "But if someone did, you might not be too bad a choice. Throw me a drunken wake, necromancer, and kill that damn geargrinder in agony for me, and we're square. You have a nice life without me."
The face melts back into the stone, leaving you, and Vik, and Silence's corpse. The man weeps, quietly, and looks down at her remains.
> Talk to Flitter about Vik's plan
> It sounds like she made her peace with death, Vik. I don't want to do this.
> Did you know about this when you asked me?
> Write-in?
>> Did you know about this when you asked me?
And my hope was extinguished, alas.
I didn't need this at 4 in the morning.
I need to crawl into bed and die now. Votes remain open.
Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.
Thank you all for reading and participating!
>> Did you know about this when you asked me?
> "I know she was..important to you, Vik. And she was a good friend to me and mine. Would I like to have her back? Gods yes. But she found a certain..satisfaction, a contentment. That in giving her life she saved many others. There's not many out there who get to die at their best."
> "All we can do for her now is make sure that her sacrifice was worthwhile, to free the Dungeon from the bastards that did this. If you want, I would be glad to have you and your men with us when we hunt the fuckers down. But right now, I'm going to ask that you help me dig a proper resting place for our friend. Say our goodbye's, then we go to the Saloon and drown our tears."
Dammit Vox, this sucks. I still remember the deal Bri and Silence struck, and how the Mine was /happy/.
No mercy for the Librarian. That Skynet-wannabe and all his clockwork people burn. There will be nothing left of his works, his legacy, save for Silence.
Oh, fuck this, fuck you, god fucking DAMNIT
> Write-in?
>I wouldn't even dare, Vik. She's made her peace, but more importantly, she's given me her last will and tstament to enact, and I'm going to do as she asked....because she asked me to do it. We made a bargain....and the mine was involved in that bargain. I am NOT going to piss off the Mine by pretending I know better than she does.
Seconding.
Since it's now unavoidable that Silence is gone, maybe we can do one last thing for her and the Mine.
A single, unadorned church bell forged from Wraithsteel. A symbol to represent all that the Mine has lost, and all that it has gained. Named for the brave Fae who gave up her place in the Mistlands for some Roosters and a Dungeon.
....you want to make a bell that intones in sonorous silence rather than sound? You want to make Old Tom.
A bell that will never toll
arent you a fucking poet
>A bell that will never toll
you misunderstand. read up on Old Tom, it doesn't "just" never toll.
Link?
You misunderstand; the bell would be forged from Wraithsteel, which is basically magic metal.
I was trying to lead towards maybe giving the Mine something to 'speak' through, or something poignant in remembrance of the Fae.
This is the only Old Tom I can think of that fits.
en.wikipedia.org
It was weird, I was playing my music on random when this song came on. Felt appropriate for Silence. Or maybe I'm just dead on my feet and slightly drunk. Probably that last one.
youtube.com
>not the Sound of Silence by Disturbed
Fail.
Eh, tastes vary. But it was the lyrics that struck me as fitting.
... Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spell...
Good point.
>Write-in?
>"Vik, I am truly sorry for your... /our/ loss I may have only known her a short while but in that time I came to regard her as someone I can trust, someone I would share my sorrows with, a good friend, and I cannot in good conscience do what you are asking of me."
>Offer the man a shoulder to mourn on.
I think we should ask the Mine if it would like to set up a spot for Silence, after we have taken the bones and gold, there will still be flesh that needs a proper burial.
Actually, right there, where she chose to expire, is probably the very best place.
Because who knows what might result from it.
...
Shut up, !Vaelys. It's a fucking war, there will be casualties, man the fuck up or get the fuck out. Shit happens off screen, regardless of how much time, effort and money you pump into it.
Bri has bigger balls than you do.
I believe user may have been referring to the Librarian.
I really like the idea of a bell memorial, in a part of the Mine which never changes.
Oh, in that case, my apologies, and have a rare XS sketch.
Vox already got that one in the thread title.
Also Disturbed's cover a shit. Gimme original youtube.com
Disturbed's cover is way more appealing.
I need to AFK for awhile and then Prevent Homelessness. I'll call and write when I get back, whenever that is.
> Write-in?
"It seems she's made peace with her death, Vik. Do you really want me to bring her back?"
He's probably gonna say yes, which is good.
Fuck this, Vox. Don't kill important and interesting characters off screen and expect us not to do anything about it.
>> Did you know about this when you asked me?
> Did you know about this when you asked me?
I still don't want to reject out of hand that there's nothing to be done about Silence, until we're sure she's all the way dead, instead of only mostly dead
>> Did you know about this when you asked me?
She asked us to dissect her and give her parts away, and make things out of her bones, user. She's pretty fucking dead.
Okay, I'm backish. Need to prevent homelessness and then I'm good.
yeah but she's fae, we don't really know how they work.