NM Part 15

With the vanishing of the Phantom Minstrels the dank basement of the tavern is still and silent once more. The chest sitting open and Bob drifts around lazily. "Crap.. going have that tune stuck in my head all day now. I really hate those three."

"....Singing Moogles," Alba says through clenched back teeth, the word spoken in the same manner that one would normally say, perhaps, 'Malboro droppings.' Closing her eyes for a moment, she gives her head a sharp shake and straightens. "Very well. Is this all that was within this chest? Or may perhaps we find a thing of use in this cellar? If so, then we will wish to find it and *leave.*"

Ka'len glances at Alba out the corner of his eye and then he coughs and turns away before nodding, "she's right... we got one of the brothers uh... parts. Perhaps we should see if there's anything else of interest and then take him to join his siblings?"

Remi steps back from the chest as soon as those Moogles show up, his hand starting to raise, but soon halting again as the Moogley ghosts start to sing... The Bard blinking and tilting his head as he stares at them throughout. But as they fade away again, he can't help but glance back at the others a moment, muttering lowly, "No talent..." Before he leans forward to inspect the contents of the chest, just shaking his head, bemused.

Marduke just stares watching the singing moogles for a moment. Taking a moment to collect himself after they vanish and shakes his head with a faint shiver, "This place..." Not finishing the thought as he looks to the others, "Lets search and be on our way, we only have so much time until nighttime and we need to get this head to the sheriffs office." Pausing, "Anything in there we should take Remi?" Before looking down to the head he is holding with a sigh.

Sebastion stares at where the minstrels were with a glower of incredulity, his mouth opening, and then closing. The confusion grows, and his accrued misery shows in his face gradually. "I hate basements," he complains, and that's all he has to offer to this situation, before he starts poking around in search for anything of interest that they may have missed.

The chest indeed holds a few other trinkets. Two black Chess pieces, a Knight and Pawn rest on the bottom along with another of the metal wedges. The basement holds nothing else of value besides a few salvagable bottles of wine.

Alba reaches around Remi to pick up the metal wedge. "Hn," she mutters, turning it over in her hands. "Soon enough we shall wish to see what the whole of this picture is. For now, however... Let us go. Quickly." Whether it's to get to the Sherriff's office with enough lead time to get to safety before darkness falls, or just to escape the musical specters before they have occasion to sing some more, is left to the imagination. Regardless, she takes the stairs two at a time, waiting impatiently by the door to the street for the rest of the party.

Ka'len runs his hands through his hair before he grabs the pieces. Nodding then to Alba's words he murmurs, "she's right." He nods then to Marduke and starts up the stairs after Alba though hesitates to ask, "who... has the skull?" A quick glance sent over his shoulder at those still down in the cellar.

Remi lets the others take the items, and then turns to follow them, wanting to get out of here quickly as well, nodding at Alba as he goes. At Ka'Len's question though, he points at Marduke, and his blackened skull trophy, remarking, "He does, and he's welcome to it!" Eyeing the skull a moment before he climbs the stairs up to Alba.

Marduke grunts as he turns for the stairs and makes his way out to the street, "I have the skull, didn't seem like anybody else dared touch it really." Sighing, "Lets make haste, the sooner I can be rid of this the happier I will be." Glancing to the others, and then turning to start towards the sheriffs office, "Remi, tell me, would all this at least make a good story?"

Sebastion moves to collect the chess pieces when he sees them in the chest, and turns with the rest of the group to leave when they start to depart. "I wonder what all of these are even from. It seems curious that these chess pieces would be kept in each of the locations we need to go to," he mentions to the others, as he examines the Black Knight piece. "Probably just a quirk of the circumstances..." He seems distracted, but anything else would show his discontent with their situation, so it's probably for the best.

As the group exits the basement and heads back out into the street once more the effects of slaying yet another of the Spectres is felt as much as seen. Many of buildings have become twisted and grotesque mockerys of leering skulls or other horrid faces, their wards still intact but it's as if the city itself were coming alive just waiting for a chance to vomit out the lost souls they contain. The trip to the sherrif's office leads back through the town center and past the city hall to reveal another change, the clock tower in the center of the town square now shines at the top with a crimson light like some form of demonic lighthouse, shining out into the hazy overcast sky like a beacon.. but for what?

As the party passes through the square, Alba's eyes snap to the top of the clock tower, skidding to a halt. For a few heartbeats, the Viera stares at the blood-colored beacon, ears slowly lowering. "....Move," she says, her voice quiet but her tone urgent. "Move quick, move sure, but Father Antlion now is sore displeased." Suiting deed to word, she resumes her walk, hovering just on the edge of breaking into a true, ground-eating lope.

Ka'len steps out of the building and he freezes. Quickly the young man looks around and then he mutters, "what in the..." A shudder races down his spine and then he whispers to himself, "this place just gets worse and worse." Slipping the two chess pieces away he glances at Sebastion before he murmurs, "probably pieces to a puzzle we have to solve. Lets figure out which pieces we have so far, um later when it's safe." His voice trails off as Alba freezes and he blinks before looking after her. Despite that he's not slowing a step. Quite the contrary the young nobleman starts to move into quick walk after her while loosing his weapon from it's sheath so that he can easily pull it, "what was it?"

Remi starts looking very nervous and even a bit grim as he traverses the newly transformed town with the others, glancing left and right and the warped buildings, frowning, not looking happy at all, and visibly on edge, prepared to throw a harmful spell out at a moment's notice. Coming to the town center then though, his gaze is drawn up to that clock, and he frowns even deeper as he studies it, actually pausing a moment... The Bard seeming to ponder, before he looks back down at the others and remarks, "... It seems to be counting down to midnight with every creep we kill..." His ears lowering worriedly.

"Chess Sebastion, I suspect we will find a chess board eventually and will need all the pieces for it." Marduke offers with a shake of his head and hurries along. He pauses though seeing the tower and watches it for a moment eyes narrowing a moment, "Remi is right, five minutes per spirit removed. As we were told, each minion of madness restores his power, and brings him closer to freedom. We have three left, and after this two stories to go as well." Shivering a moment and sighs, turning to hurry along again.

Sebastion glances off toward the clock tower around the same time that Alba does, the man having gained a manic, almost-running gait already because of their surroundings, the sword held at the ready in anticipation of surprise attack. His step stutters briefly as he glances at the clock. "Yes," he agrees aloud to Remi's assessment and Marduke's reply.

The trip to the Sherrif's office is uneventfull, the place the same as you left it the first time. The glass domes containing the heads of the other Toriss Brothers lined up neatly on a shelf with the last one standing empty.

"That," Alba answers Ka'Len's question, gesturing toward the clock tower behind them. "Whatever else it may mean, that it is so would be enough to require haste." As Remi pipes up, she falls silent for a moment. "...Although that also is good reason." Shouldering her way into the Sherriff's office, she makes a beeline for the jars, tipping the empty one forward to ease the skull's placement.

Ka'len ahs, a frown dragging at his lips though otherwise remaining quiet, he looks at the buildings and then shakes his head slipping into the office behind Alba. The man takes up a spot near the door and he draws his blade, looking out while waiting for the rest to get inside and place the skull.

Remi hurries inside the sheriff's place, only visibly relaxing once he's inside, and quickly heading to the middle of the room, not trusting any of the windows or doors or even walls. Looking at the others then, he sighs and remarks, "... Let's hope we can finish this soon. I want to go home." And his shoulders slump a bit, before he looks at the glass casing where the skull is supposed to go, curious about what will happen next.

Marduke isn't one to waste time right now, already a couple of steps behind Alba towards the empty jar. Holding up the skull he pushes in into the empty jar with a push clearly not caring if the skull takes any extra bumps along the way. Just glad to be rid of it and steps back with a sigh, "Lets go get some rest, its been a long day."

Sebastion has not relaxed by the time they got to the sherrif's building. He's just gotten more and more tense, the eerie environment putting him heavily on-edge. He nods at Remi's statement. "It will be good to get back to Emberstrand," he mentions, "Where we aren't accosted by the forces of darkness, clowns, and singing moogles."

As the dome is lowered over the Skull there's the subtle hint of Cigar smoke in the air, one of the blue phantoms appears in the chair at the sherrif's desk with it's feet kicked up and smoking a half cigar. He gives a nod to the group and says softly "Mighty fine work there folks, mighty fine." He fades out into a blue haze and there's an audible click as a smal drawer in the wooden base of the dome slide out, revealing two more of the blank journal pages.

"Another ally," Alba says, nodding to herself and picking up the blank pages. "Good. Now... We must hurry. I know not what will find us this night, but I do *not* wish to tax our allies' powers until they are needed most. So. We *hurry,*" she says, waving the group back towards the door.

"I wouldn't say that about singing moogles.. have you been around Mog's temple much?" Ka'len asks while he keeps an eye out on the road. A quick glance is cast towards the desk as the apparition appears and then the drawer unlocks. There's a sniff and he mutters something that sounds like 'makes me mis..." but the rest is lost as he looks back out onto the roadway and he nods, getting the door before he steps out and motions while breaking into a jog, "lets get going then."

Remi arches his brow at the spirit and at the drawer opening, looking curious afterwards as Alba retrieves those pages, and peeking at them a moment until he notices they're blank. As the Viera mentions they should hurry though, he frowns and nods a bit, and with a quiet sigh quickly makes his way to the door to step back out and face the horrors that lurk outside again, even as he mutters, "Yah, home sweet home, without off-key Moogles..." Glancing at Ka'Len and shrugging next.

Marduke isn't moving away from where he is standing, nope not a inch. Instead he is holding up the book he is carrying and flips through the pages and stops on one, he rather calmly starts to read. ""In the days leading up to the great darkness the Town Sherrif found himself fighting a battle on multiple fronts. With the town's heros either dead or otherwise incapacitated as well as the leaders of the city Militia he was forced to Deputize every man he could trust that was able to wield a sword or fire a pistol. With the minions of Madness working against him on one side and the rising tide of crazed and twisted townsfolk on the other he fought as hard as any man can, only to be overwhelemed in the end. Just another sad tale in this twisted story." Closing up the book he hmms a moment then blinks, "Err yes yes we should hurry!" Turning to start for the door at a very quick pace.

Sebastion turns his eyes toward the blue spectre, smiling at the sight. He doesn't put away the sword, though, and his smile turns into a frown when Marduke starts talking about the story of the sheriff. The green-eyed knight lets out a heavy, haggard sigh as the party departs the sheriff's office, and follows at the back of the group once more.

Thankfully the trip back to the Wark and Kupo is a short one, as the sky is begining to darken and the rattling of mishapen doors herald the restless dead as they seek their freedom to once again roam the streets. The Inn is as they left it, still and quiet.

Alba slumps against the wall once she enters the Inn, leaning her head back to rest against the darkened, solid wood. Letting out a long breath, the Viera slides down the wall, resting her arms on her knees. "...We will need to fight soon, perhaps. It will not be a simple task." Leaning to one side, she pulls the wedge of metal from the pouch at her hip, tossing it on the floor with a dull *clunk.* "How many more pieces of this seal remain?"

Ka'len slides the blade away and looks around before blowing out a breath and relaxing, "no moogles.." The young man looks at Alba and her piece of metal for a few moments before he pulls out the chess pieces he's collected, "and how many of these do we have? He sets those out on the floor near the metal shard before looking around and motioning for others to add what they've collected.

Remi hurries into the inn as well, and soon slumps down on the floor near Alba, seeming to be glad to be inside another safe area. Watching her toss that wedge down though, he frowns a moment and starts to pat himself down... Pausing a moment as Ka'Len mentions the chest pieces, before he starts looking for those as well. Soon adding any he might carry to the pile.

Marduke steps inside and offers a faint sigh and relaxes a bit. Looking down at the things collected he just shakes his head, "that reading, a compulsion again. I have enough pages in the book I should probably start resisting them, to be safe. Have been lucky so far." Moving over towards the metal piece and picking it up if he can to add it to the others and seeing if he can make sense of it all, "Yea a tally wouldn't be a bad idea really either. Just what chess pieces do we have among the other things?" glancing back

Sebastion decides to add what he's been carrying around to the collection as well, which mostly just consisted of a few of the various chess pieces they've been running across during their travels. Once it's certain that it's quiet again, he turns off to find a place to sit down and properly inspect the sword he got from that tomb when they brought the coffin back. Like usual, he's keeping to himself if he can help it.

The night goes the same as all the others, the sounds of the lost souls out in the streets clawing and beating on the door and walls. As the group empties pockets the item tally is as follows: 4 metal fragments, 7 blank journal pages, 2 antidotes, 1 Soft Potion, 2 Cure-alls.

And eight chess pieces. A queen, Knight, Bishop, and Pawn of each color

Alba nudges the metal fragments together, searching for any recognizable features to help her line them up, and may provide a decent guess as to how many more need collecting. "Bob," she says as she works, not looking up but perking her ears toward the skull. "The great clock. What does it light the path for?"

Ka'len looks over the pieces and murmurs, "still alot to go here.." He lifts a blank page and turns it this way and that before setting it down and putting his hand out to Marduke, "can I see the journal?" He glances over towards Alba and then Bob his brows lifting a little bit before he looks back at Marduke.

Remi pulls his knees up and wraps his arms around them as he watches their various finds be collected in one pile, regarding each peace curiously, though most of his interest directed to those wedges. And after a moment he actually leans forward then to try and maybe figure out how they fit together, together with Alba, even as he glances at Ka'Len as the swordsman requests to study those pages.

Marduke looks over the metal pieces for a moment as he considers. Then glances over to Ka'Len and nods handing him the journal, "Here ya go. Keep the pages with it, there are compulsions here and there, and you can sacrifice a blank page to resist it. So far they have just been reading for me, but I suspect there will be more sinister things out there. The book seems to let you know when something is coming. I will continue to carry it if that is ok, just need to keep the pages with it." Looking back to the metal fragments and shakes his head, "Old, very old. It depicts a spirit, the image is centuries old. I doubt it is a Great Spirit, I know most of those images off hand, but I could be wrong it is old." reaching over to trace the images thoughtfully, 'Avatar of order, may be a spirit under Alexanders realm." Then reaching up to tap his chin.

Sebastion pauses in his quiet inspection of the sword, and turns his head to look off toward the others as they start investigating the metal fragments. "... hmm," he sounds out, with only vague interest, and returns to his idle activity.

Bob pauses and looks to Alba, you're not sure why but you think he just shrugged. "I still got 3 holes in the back of my skull.. damned if I know."

Alba grunts in response. "...Then with each of these," she says, tapping a fingerclaw against the metal seal, "we shall know more.

Three pieces of Bob's memory, three pieces of the seal. And the darkness yet closes in, deeper and deeper." Carefully, she stacks the wedges one on top of the other, returning them to her hip pouch. "....So." Looking from Remi, to Ka'Len, to Marduke, and Sebastion, "we near our goal, and we travel further into danger."

Ka'len nods quietly to Marduke and listens in while he starts to look through the book. His fingers pause here and there to trace along the inside of the seams before he continues. "I was mostly just curious if teh blank paged were torn out or removed from the book somehow." He starts to read through for clues on their next step while standing and walking over to grab himself something to eat. He pauses and then looks at Alba, "not so sure about how close we are. There's alot of chess pieces still missing."

Remi arches his brow at Marduke some, and then looks at the wedges to try and make sense of them himself, before Alba puts them away again anyway. Shrugging a bit then, he nods at the Viera in agreement, before he looks at Ka'Len and the book he's reading, watching a moment to see if the swordfighter finds anything interesting.

Marduke ahhs over to Ka'Len, "Ahh didn't check for that, but I do know we need those pages. There is more to that book then it seems really." Sighing as he nods over to Alba, "The power of madness grows, the city changes to match it. Very few safe spots, and I am still at a loss why this place is safe, what protects it. The church and the house I can grasp, this." shaking his head as he looks around, "Is a mystery." Then lets out a yawn, "Still We have a couple left to go. A duel unresolved, and a work unfinished. I really do not recall any clues on where either of those could be. though we havn't fully explored the town hall yet have we? Need to visit any spot we havn't been to yet." Shaking his head as he leans back i his chair thinking. "Also, I do not think Madness will strike against us until we get the last piece done, he wants to be free I am sure. Still think he is the damn clown."

Sebastion reaches up to scratch at the back of his head, regarding the rest of the party quizzically. His mouth shows a faint frown. "Clowns," he mutters to himself, after that thing was mentioned. "It probably /is/ the clown."

"The clown must die if we are to leave, aye," Alba agrees, voice sour. "Two tales, three pieces. Unless we have missed something, the final tale will be our own battle with Father Antlion."

Ka'len starts to bite into a piece of dried meat and then stops. He starts flipping back and forth between two pages then looks up suddenly and quickly chews and swallows the jerky, "Marduke, these pages... the chapters fill out when we finish right? But the pages for the Justice Unfound chapter aren't filled out. What'd you read? And what else are we missing?"

Remi glances between everyone as he sits there, listening and looking unhappy, tightening his hold around his own knees and soon resting his chin on them. At Marduke's words he sighs a bit then, seeming to ponder, before his ears perk at Ka'Len and he looks curious.

Marduke frowns a moment, "Suppose then justice unfound isn't done yet. I did read a part about the sheriff, but that doesn't finish it. I wonder what we are missing, we should probably head back to the sheriffs office tomarrow to see what we might be overlooking. being hard to keep everything straight in all this." Sighing as he closes his eyes and hmms, "Good catch Ka'Len." Just resting a moment thinking it seems.

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