Quest [Winter SQ] Alliance

[Clyde Sullins]

Next in turn was Nolan's chance to speak, to give his view and ideas. Clyde listened, particularly since he had given the go ahead more or less by leading into his work. "In fact, I DO currently have an approach in which I have great confidence. Furthermore, I have all the materials required to see it done. As you know, toxins are my field. What I suggest is poisoning the beast." In and of itself Nolan had said little, except that he planned to poison the beast... Which coming from a poisoner, said little. Clyde could only hope that he planned to elaborate on said poisoning idea, which luckily Nolan was so gracious to do soon enough. "Now, please...let me elaborate. I assure you, I am NOT suggesting some extensive dumping of poison into the lake. Your very looks show quite clearly that I do not need to outline to you the many reasons why this approach would fail on several fronts." For one it was a lake, and the scale of the poison needed to spread such a poison over such a area over normal circumstances... Second with the lake being the domain of Rhysol, and protected by him, there was an odded issue of such a thing working. But from his words it seemed his idea went beyond simply polluting the lake with massive amounts of poison. "No, what I have in mind is a multi-component toxin, inflicted upon the beast in separate "Packages", so to speak. No one, single dosage would be the killer. But the combined elements, triggered by the beast's own digestive system, would release a massive flood of death from within. By this method, there would be no risk of a contamination of the water upon which we all so fully depend, since no one package would be harmful in and of itself. Also, even once blended into a deadly compound, it would be contained within the beast's body for a sufficient time to break down and lose its potency. I see no way that it could harm the ecosystem of our lake." It seemed a simple enough concept. Separate the poison into its base compounds, which would interact and create the poison when mixed... Insulated inside of bodies to be fed to the creature, and so not spreading about or losing potency, instead contained until eaten... "Now, I already have developed what I consider to be a compound with sufficient strength in a relatively small enough dose to succeed easily. What I need is understanding, or counter suggestions, that what will make the best "packages", are bodies sufficiently large to contain the dose, and draw the creature's hunger, while not being too large to dilute the strength of the element contained within. Frankly, I see human...ish bodies as the best vessel for these doses. It will require four such." "I also am not sure how we would go about tracking the beast down to set this trap. These are details I hope others can aid with." From there the conversation changed hands once more moving on to other members of the group. First was a response to Clyde's ideas, vague as they had been. “Tracking may not be necessary. The Monssster is not sssmall, and we have often known of its position. The Lake is large enough that it has what can bessst be described as a migratory pattern.” Clyde nodded, glad to hear that one aspect of his idea would not be needed. He had covered all of his bases theory wise that might come up, but admittedly was less certain of how to do such a things as a tracker with Magecrafting. He did no doubt he could figure it out, but would not want to do so when so pressed for time. “At thisss time, it isss probably in the Eassst of the city. If we were to enter the water, we could detect vibrationsss, knowing where it isss.” Clyde was further interested to know that the Dhani could track and sense the beast and its passage. An interesting ability, one Clyde would certainly like to examine and perhaps further come to understand. An interesting ability regardless. “I do not believe you were here at the time, Clyde, nor you, Miss Marin, but we have previously tried to your Water Reimancers in order to... help solve this situation. The conclusion drawn was that no single magic will extinguish this threat.” Clyde could not help but smile a bit, at the word of water Reimancers. From the sound of it they were relatively low level Reimancers, if they still called themselves water Reimancers. And with the various elements that could be used, water only being one of them, it seemed silly to say that the failing of one element meant all were not of use. But clearly from what was said he doubted the Reimancers who had been used had the skill of Clyde, or even Anna. Next in turn was the prospect of Magecrafting, something else to be considered. “Cost is not a factor, assuming support can be found in loyal families, though time is a concern; the Ivyess have shared that the Monster grows.” It was more or less as Clyde had expected. Funding for an item for such a endeavor would not be too hard to find... But the time aspect was far more hindering, as it would surely take days at a minimum. Clearly this group desired finishing the problem here and now, and were not willing to wait the days it wold take for the enchantment to be laid. But still Clyde had felt a need to explain it as a prospect, and to explore all possibilities, even knowing they would be shot down. Better to bring up a topic and have it turned down, than to not bring it up and find it could have been of use. Next was Nolan's words, and a response to it from the various parties. “We are aware of your work, Parnell, and that of Verin Rush. But for those who do not share your expertise it is important to recount that the lake itself does not become contaminated by toxins or chemicals. One of Rhysol's gifts to the city was plentiful, safe water, which is why our most esteemed poison crafter knows that simply dumping poison into the lake will have no result.” Clyde was uncertain if he had specifically known it, or simply vaguely known the waters were protected... It was hard to say, but useful knowledge all the same. “What you suggest is to impregnate an item with this... already developed poison?” “And attack the Fish with it? You know that contact with the waters will neutralise any agents that you add to it.” “Ah. Interesting, you wish to send bait for the creature, offer it sustenance that is poisoned” It seemed a possible idea had been revealed, a possible avenue of work that could be used to take out the beast. Until the Dhani spoke, poking a large hole in it. “No, that will not work. ” “Not with anything dead, at least. In the same way that a true land predator would not touch something already dead, this... Fish will also not do such a thing. It likes the hunt. You will only waste your poison if you fill a carcass with it.” Clyde nodded, and pondered things for a moment, mulling them over logically and breaking down the argument and the possible solutions. Clyde had spent a good bit of time with such things, of understanding the inherent logic of such things, and time spent observing, speaking, and figuring things out through such methods. “As far as I can tell then, there are two possibilities for a solution to this particular avenue of thought. One, we must put the poison into a living host, so that the beast will then eat it, thus getting rid of the issue of dead bait... Or two, we must break the rules of your understanding, of the truth of things, and make what was once true false, and once false true.” Clyde could not helping grinning once more, as he found another use for what he termed "Chaos Logic." By thinking outside of what was generally assumed or accepted, fully examining and understanding things, and thinking in such backwards and unexpected ways as how Clyde had come to understand Rhysol himself did in his actions and thoughts, one could do much that would initially seem impossible. “For the first option, of poisoning live beings... I could see that having issues of its own. Would large enough amounts of the unactivated poison components in a living being kill it, thus once more making the prey dead and unpleasant?” “For the second option... The truth we assume is that the monster will not eat the dead bait, and so that avenue of thought is pointless... But if we understand why it won't eat it... Or subvert that so that it will eat what we lay before it...” Clyde pondered this deeply, and all of the accompanying tangential concepts. Eating, food, consumption, a yukman gorging on human flesh, a zith clawing and scratching... Infection... Poison... Nolan... Hunger... Hunger poison... Nolan... Vilemoss! Suddenly Clyde recalled that he and Nolan had only recently worked and found such a poison, one that caused hunger in whomever ate it, hunger without end and without choice or qualms. It had its own issues, but it was possible. “Poison... We must poison the beast, so that we can poison it. There is a poison, found off world and reachable by summoning, called Vilemoss, which causes an insatiable hunger. A hunger in which the thing so poisoned would not care about the state of its food, whether living or dead, so long as it is food and can be consumed. Myself and Nolan here have had some experience with it, myself in finding and summoning it, Nolan in preparing it.” “So you see if we put aside assumptions, and make what was once truth a lie, and poison the beast with Vilemoss, it would eat anything, living or dead, and could then be poisoned as Nolan had theorized. Considering that it already eats most anything alive, surely it would not increase the danger that much for it to be made willing to eat anything whether dead or alive... Particularly if said plan allows us to kill the beast, and end its threat forever. Some added risk for a time, but the possible end result surely would be worth it?” Turning to those before him, Clyde looked at the man who was speaking for the Druvin, along with Nolan, and the Druvin herself, waiting on a response with a grin on his face to his successful use of Chaos Logic.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna had not spoken for the majority of the talks, instead she was merely watching and listening to the theories tossed around. Normally she might well confer with Vex but currently the Kirt was also keeping to herself, her displeasure palpable. So the Chaon was forced to rely on her own judgments. Clyde’s suggestions very much mirrored her own, so there was very little input that the sorceress could rightfully add in. Except perhaps suggesting a bit of Voiding. The problem with that was that Void Portals were mostly indiscriminant with what they absorbed; opening one underwater would likely drain a good bit of the lake.

This idea or that one was put forth and the sorceress was finding herself wondering more and more why she was still here. Clyde could very well double as an arcane expert, he knew as much as she about the ways of magic. Barring his ineptitude in Voiding of course. The poisoner’s suggestion of using Vilemoss however most certainly earned her attention. It was a poisonous substance from one of the common worlds, that alone meant it was something to be very cautious about. Anna herself had never summoned some of the stuff, it seemed unwise.

Seeing as Clyde was not protesting this she finally spoke up. “Ahem, Vilemoss is supposedly an extremely dangerous substance and is not of this world. Putting aside possible adverse effects if anything else should end up being poisoned by the substance. If what Clyde says is true it might make our problem even bigger, not smaller.” The sorceress said.

“This thing eats anything perhaps, but introducing that kind of hunger into it could cause the thing to go berserk. It could lash out at the ferries; it might very well become twice as ravenous and therefore twice as dangerous to the citizens of fair Ravok. We don’t even know if the poison Mr. Parnell has in mind would affect the beast. I would recommend against using Vilemoss to deal with this, there are too many unknowns to act so rashly. Desperation can be dangerous when trafficking in any product of magic.” Anna offered.

With that Anna fell silent once more, shifting back in her seat and steepling her fingers out before her. Sahova had taught her that action without wisdom was like a bird without wings, using such a dangerous weapon smelled terrible to her. She was not fond of shooting Clyde down, however even he had to recognize this might not actually make things better. They needed a method that was safe and unlikely to blow up in their faces. Anna herself had no idea what that might be, but she figured that it was her responsibility to advise against the worst of the ideas. Not to say the plan was completely invalid.

“How large would you say the beast is now? A general idea?” Anna inquired, her mismatched eyes locking upon the serpent folk.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was breathing hard as she pelted along the canals of Ravok. It was a short route from the Nitrozian Estate to the Temple (only one canal bridge if she planned it right, but she wanted to get there as soon as she could. Earlier that morning, she had gone to check on Valerius, maybe wake him up, clean his room, torment his other slave, Tuuli. She hadn't been Valerius's personal slave for a while, having long since been given over to the rest of the family due to her "uselessness", but he was the one who originally bought her, so she felt compelled to..."check in" on him from time to time.

This morning however, something was different. The room, when she entered, was empty. Not inclined to pass up the opportunity for mischief, she started rummaging through his things. She avoided disturbing the bed; it was freshly made, and she knew she wouldn't be able to put it back neatly if she disturbed it. The slightest wrinkle could give her away, so she decided to stick with snooping through hard objects. Like the desk! She glanced over the top, but Valerius kept his things in order, so she could quickly see he'd left nothing of interest there. She began quietly opening the drawers. The first one held only quills and ink, the next a few blank sheets of paper or parchment (she wasn't sure she knew the difference). But when she started down the next row of drawers, she struck gold. There was a letter. She took it out, expecting to find some glorious form of blackmail material. What she found instead was even better.

Most of the words didn't make sense to her. She didn't recognize any of the names, and she wasn't at all sure what a "Dhani" was. Still, the letter mentioned that he was needed at the temple, and that his "expertise" would be quite valuable. Alea wasn't sure what Valerius was supposed to be an expert on, but a twerp like him who'd never even been outside of Ravok couldn't possibly have much to offer. Alea's worldy experience would surely be MUCH more useful.

Before she'd even realized it, Alea had already decided. Stopping only to swing by her quarters to pick up her one possession, she began a mad dash toward the temple. She arrived a few chimes later, breathing hard and with a stitch in her side. Panting, she walked up to the attendent. She held up her right hand, revealing the tattoo that marked her as a slave. She gulped a few breaths before managing to get out, "Valerius...Nitrozian...sent for me." The attendent looked dubiously at Alea, whose lack of decorum was cause for some suspicion. While he deliberated however, Alea was able to catch her breath, and said imperiously, "Well, take me to him! Do you think Aemili will appreciate having to wait?" She didn't quite remember the name from the letter, but her pronunciation was close enough that the attendent couldn't tell the difference. He led her to where the others were gathered.

Now that she had done this thing, suddenly Alea was a bit nervous. Here she was, in front of all this important-looking people, and she wasn't technically supposed to even be there. Her best chance, she decided, was to pretend she knew what she was doing and hope Valerius didn't rat her out. She recognized a couple of the others there. Nolan Parnell she'd met once before, when Valerius was sick with the flu. He'd given her a..."placebo", he'd called it. But apart from bonding over Valerius's foolishness, she did not know him very well. Then there was Clyde, who she'd seen a few days earlier at a "party". She did not recall being terribly impressed with him. One of the women she recognized from Clyde's party as well, though at the moment Alea couldn't recall a name. The scary face was unmistakable though. She went to stand a short distance from Parnell, hoping to use her "master" as cover for being there, and suspecting that if she were going to convince anyone she had a reason to be here, Parnell was the most likely to back her up. Not by much, but her options weren't exactly great right now.

Alea had come in time to hear the last bit of what the scary-looking lady was saying. She gathered that there seemed to be a giant monster menacing the lake, and they were trying to figure out how to deal with it. Preferably without causing untold damage to everyone else. "What if it couldn't eat meat without getting sick?" she asked, speaking up before she thought about it. "Would it eventually starve to death?" She clenched her fist tightly, flexing the wrist to which her one possession was attached.

[Nemesis]

As ideas and discussion started to flow more freely around the room, the Acolyte relaxed, settling down into his chair a little more. It was pleasing that those within the room were showing no overt aversion to the three visitors from the depths of the lake and that, as such, their opinions, experience and wisdom were being taken at face-value. It meant, perhaps, that his role as mediator at this summit was superfluous, but he remained as the mouthpiece of the Black a Sun, sharing information that the others present might not know.

Unknowledgeable in the art of poison crafting, or herbalism, Stephin had not heard of the Vilemoss poison before. A simple enough concept, it made logical sense to cause the Fish to crave anything, thus he might then gorge on the poisoned carcass that followed into the water. Surprising, however, that this idea was not coming from the poison crafter. He opened his mouth to speak, intending on questioning the Mage on how the logistics might work, on how long before the poison would take effect before a beast that size ravaged anything, but the female spoke first, and Stephin patiently listened.

“I find myself torn, ladies and gentlemen. Our esteemed member if the Ebonstryfe offers a simple yet plausible and possibly even effective solution to our originally problematic quandary of how to poisons beast which resides in waters blessed by our protector.” Trailing off, the Acolyte inclined his head in the direction of the IHL Instructor, “Yet Miss Marin voices some of my own concerns. There is no telling what adverse effects this Vilemoss poison might have. Is it new? Has it been tested? Have you considered what dosage the beast might have to ingest, and could such a large quantity kill the host before it reaches the Fish?” Stephin didn't even bother questioning where they might find a victim to sacrifice, alive, to the fish; all humans probably considered the surplus of slaves at their disposal.

But he continued, “I am sure that none of us wish to exacerbate an already dire situation and, if poorly executed, this could make the Fish unstoppable.” It was clear from his tone that he was not dismissing the idea, merely trying to gauge the effectiveness of this solution. Turning to Parnell, he asked, “A slow acting poison - one that would not kill live bait before it reached the Fish, that is - would not be potent enough to kill the Fish, I assume?”

It was when Annalisa addressed the Dhani that the slave of Valerius Nitrozian burst into the room. All eyes turned to the new arrival, and Stephin stood, outraged at her poorly formed excuse. To the Agent that followed her in, he uttered profanities and threats, as all officials in the Temple were aware that this was one summit not to be intruded upon. But the Druvin stepped forward and rested her hand lightly on her inferior's shoulder, silencing him instantly, "The slave can stay, Stephin." Aemeli nodded to the Agent, dismissing him. As she spoke, she started pointedly at the slave's wrist, where lay a bracelet of Charodae teeth. "Your Master has left us, girl. Presumably he is searching for funds and will hopefully return to us. For now, you are welcome to his seat."

Silence fell over the table as those present digested the events. Then, the elder Dhani spoke, “It isss my length in snake form, and half asss long again,” was her probably useless reply to the Mage's question. Then, one of the younger Dhani, Vesse, spoke up, “How, may I asssk, are you expecting to use live bait to kill thissss beassst? It swimsss mossst often at depths that no air-breather could reach alive.”

OOCSome food for thought for you guys I'm liking what you've come up with so far, but I'm gonna ske you exercise those brains!

Please feel free to ignore (or talk about and dismiss) Aemeli's interest in Alea's bracelet. Or pay attention to it if you want. It was more of a plot device to introduce Alea! Sad to see Val go, but welcome to our victim help!
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[Inoadar]

Inoadar Inoadar choked back a furious outburst. Once again, that insufferable, self-important little shyke, Sullins, had slipped in to snatch the glory that was rightfully his! He nearly activated a Fluxed reaction when Clyde usurped his triumphant recommendation of Vilemoss as the solution to their obstacle. He continued to fume in speechlessness as Annalisa made her rebuttal. She had nothing to offer that he assumed was not already understood by everyone present. They would be in dire straights if their timing in laying the bait was off by more than a couple of ticks. It took no great insight to realize this. 'Why is she wasting the committee's time with the obvious? Have you got a better idea, woman? Spend your breath on a useful contribution, you glorified whore!' his thoughts raged. It was only the timely arrival of the Nitrozian slave that interrupted his impulse to vent this thought aloud, and getting himself voided on the spot. But he was so angry at the mage for stealing his thunder, he almost wished for total razing of the whole city right then and there anyway. Right then, it seemed like it would serve them all right. The voiced parameters of the beast's size calmed him slightly. 'Here, at least, is something useful to learn.' The poisoner gauged the size of the Dhani, figuring him to be a good twenty feet long, crown to tail. He had known a constrictor named Kyo...something, and had seen that this brute grew to more or less double his Dhani size when he transformed to a full-on snake. He had no reason not to assume this ratio was consistent with ALL Dhani. So he guessed the beast to be forty feet long, give or take. Not so monstrous after all. Glimpses had given rise to wild exaggerations throughout the city. But this only spiked his anger again. All the panic in the city. The talk that it could consume a ferry in a single bite. It bubbled out of him as he attempted to rein it in to "only" disrespectful tones, and not outright insulting ones. "What is this nonsense? Have we not all sworn to give our lives in His service if it is necessary? Had I the ability to track this beast, I would do this task myself, so you could all whimper safely in your beds! Must I find that the man who booby trapped my old shop is the only one who agrees with me?" He gestured at Clyde angrily. "So the beast is ten times the size of a man. So what? It takes only a thimbleful of the compound I have prepared to kill a man, so a mere cup should kill this beast. Not sure enough? Make it a gallon then! That's only a quart per baited body." his eyes glared at everyone equally as he spoke. They rested on Miss Marin a moment as he continued, inwardly extending a begrudging thanks to Clyde for not mentioning how his accidental poisoning had "allowed" him to test the Vilemoss. "And I can promise you doubters that Vilemoss is very effective. It is the very fact of its off-world origin that make it least likely for those of this world to have developed any kind of resistance to it. This creature will succumb to its effect. It will go after our bait, and it will die!"

[Alea Davenport]

Alea flashed an uncertain smile at the in-charge-looking woman who had endorsed her presence. She was not the slightest bit used to having anyone in authority be on her side--in fact she couldn't bring to mind a single time it had ever happened before--and she was uncertain how to take it. Still, she was grateful; it took the large weight of unskillfully bluffing off of her hands. Now, she could speak freely.

Of course, that didn't mean anyone would answer her questions. Even the hissing ...person's question was ignored in favor of her three "colleagues" arguing amongst themselves. She edged closer to the hissing people, who were clearly not human, but not a race Alea'd encountered before, and it had been so long since she'd met anyone but arrogant humans. They seemed the most interested in finding a solution, rather than getting the credit. She was a little skeptical at the last question though; it seemed obvious to her. Not being born of Ravok, and not being fully caught up on the current trend of the plan, it did not occur to her in the slightest that anybody's life might be sacrificed.

"Why use air-breathers?" she wondered aloud with genuine confusion, loud enough to be heard by all, unless they were too distracted by bickering to notice, but directed specifically at the hissing group. "There's fish in the lake, right? Doesn't the monster eat fish?"

Not that she endorsed the poisoning plan. The mean fellow, Stephin, had a good point that it could go wrong in very scary ways. Moreover, she still hadn't gotten an answer on whether her own, possibly crazy idea might work. In fact, being ignored, especially by this crew, was starting to annoy her a little. In a firm, raised voice, with more than a dash of her current mood thrown in, she asked more directly, "Does anyone know if cursed bracelets work on lake monsters?" She held her wrist aloft, letting everyone see the cursed bracelet in question.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde was mildly surprised when the first person to argue his idea, or the possible solution to a issue with a prior idea, was his own cousin Anna. He was more surprised by the negative attitude most of those present had. Clyde knew well and good the dangers and merits of what he said, and had made it clear enough in his own statement. Instead of thinking on what he said, and perhaps trying to be positive and find a actual solution, most of those present seemed satisfied with shooting down any idea that popped up, his included, without actually themselves putting anything force. Clyde was beginning to wonder if anyone here actually wanted to find a solution, or if they were simply here to look important. Clyde had exposed himself willingly, had put himself out there, had made his ideas and possibilities clear, something no others besides perhaps Nolan the poisoner had done. It was beginning to appear that this entire meeting was devolving into a bureaucratic snafu, with the appointed mediator focused more on other problems, and not noticing the largest one cropping up in the midst of the conversation. “Ahem, Vilemoss is supposedly an extremely dangerous substance and is not of this world. Putting aside possible adverse effects if anything else should end up being poisoned by the substance. If what Clyde says is true it might make our problem even bigger, not smaller.” “This thing eats anything perhaps, but introducing that kind of hunger into it could cause the thing to go berserk. It could lash out at the ferries; it might very well become twice as ravenous and therefore twice as dangerous to the citizens of fair Ravok. We don’t even know if the poison Mr. Parnell has in mind would affect the beast. I would recommend against using Vilemoss to deal with this, there are too many unknowns to act so rashly. Desperation can be dangerous when trafficking in any product of magic.” Honestly, Clyde was starting to wonder if this meeting actually did have the support of Rhysol, who surely could strike down such a threat with a stray thought. The fact that he was letting them all deal with it meant Rhysol likely cared little one way or the other, and quite possibly had created the problem to begin with. He could not of course say one way or the other for sure, as much of Rhysol's motivation and actions and goals were cloaked and confused in secrecy, which made it hard to truly predict his actions which were seemingly random and chaotic. Before Clyde had a moment to respond to any of this though, another person unceremoniously popped in, someone that looked vaguely familiar but still not well known by Clyde. When she did speak though her comment did make Clyde think, and smile at the woman, who was actually one of the few people offering a solution. That tied in with her outside of the box thinking, as compared to the others, seemed to say much about her. If she'd heard what he had said, he might have thought she was carrying on with his own logic, that of making a truth a lie as a solution, but alas she had not come in until after he had spoken. "What if it couldn't eat meat without getting sick?" "Would it eventually starve to death?" Clyde spent the next chime or so deep in thought, thinking over her words and those of himself, wondering what she meant, if she had a plan, and how to go about such a thing... When the mediator did speak, he seemed satisfied to say nothing, instead simply repeating what he and Anna had said, while tweaking it slightly. Clyde was finding himself a bit annoyed by this representative of the sun, and could not see how he could have survived without drawing Rhysol's ire, or some other powerful individual. What use was such a wishy washy person who did not want to take any risks, did not want to step on any toes, and was more concerned with peoples feelings than doing the job they'd come here to do? Clyde listened to the Dhani explain the size of the monster, and then listened as Nolan made a rebuttal. He grinned as Nolan once more found an excuse to dredge up old things, once more mentioning his destruction of his shop, a action Nolan's direct threat had caused, and something he'd only indirectly done. He hadn't literally burned down his shop, it was only Nolan's poor handling of the booby trap he had left behind that had surely burned the place down. He seemed to love bringing it up to try to sully Clyde's name, but it seemed to make Nolan instead seem childish, particularly since it was clear his view was a rather impassioned one, and did not tell the whole tale. "What is this nonsense? Have we not all sworn to give our lives in His service if it is necessary? Had I the ability to track this beast, I would do this task myself, so you could all whimper safely in your beds! Must I find that the man who booby trapped my old shop is the only one who agrees with me?" "So the beast is ten times the size of a man. So what? It takes only a thimbleful of the compound I have prepared to kill a man, so a mere cup should kill this beast. Not sure enough? Make it a gallon then! That's only a quart per baited body." "And I can promise you doubters that Vilemoss is very effective. It is the very fact of its off-world origin that make it least likely for those of this world to have developed any kind of resistance to it. This creature will succumb to its effect. It will go after our bait, and it will die!" Clyde was about to make yet another rebuttal, when the new entrant, the female who had mentioned turning the monster into a vegetarian or something, spoke again. Her new thought once more made Clyde grin, and appraise the woman more deeply. "Why use air-breathers?" "There's fish in the lake, right? Doesn't the monster eat fish?" As she said it, the solution seemed rather obvious. Fish. Poison the fish, perhaps with the aid of the Dhani, and feed them to the monster. "Does anyone know if cursed bracelets work on lake monsters?" As she continued on, showing off some odd bangle she wore, Clyde connected a few dots, recalling her observed idea of making the monster not eat meat. Logically if she was putting the idea forth now of using this item, that was perhaps a work of malediction, perhaps then its effect was indeed to make its wearer unable to eat meat without growing sick? Clyde laughed out loud, a loud barking chuckle, as he mulled over everyone's words, and finally had a chance to speak. “Well aren't we stupid, air breathers indeed...” Clyde paused for a moment, before explaining himself. “First, Vilemoss is not a permanent effect, the hunger it would cause would not last forever, as from my understanding most effects of poison that are not fatal are not permanent.” “As for you Nolan, calm yourself. Yes they have been being unhelpful by only poking holes without putting forth any ideas, and by being wishy washy.” With this Clyde indicated to the mediator from the Sun. “But you get us no where by being full of bluster and fire. Yelled words close ears, while whispered solutions gain attention. So stay on topic, and stop bringing up that petching shop that died due to your own actions, or I'll burn down the new one just to make it an even number.” Clyde paused for a moment, suddenly grinning and shaking his head, as he turned his attention from Nolan. “As for the Vilemoss... As Nolan says I have seen it "tested" with my own eyes, have seen its effects and longevity and potency. I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't think it had any chance of working. As Nolan points out, the Vilemoss' offworld and magical nature is a upside in this case, since as he says it is more likely to work against a mundane foe such as this monster of this world. How can it protect itself against something that it has both never seen, and that does not exist on this world?” “Likewise, with a magical effect, there is another chance that it would evade the protections of the lake. Normal mundane contaminants do not work, but it would be hard to say how much powerfully magical entities would be affected by the lakes cleansing waters. So its magical nature might in fact make the success all the more likely.” “As for the issue of air breathers, and poisoned bait, the girl here brings up a good point. Why don't we just use poisoned fish as the bait? They can breath in the water, they are a natural prey of the monster, and so are all the more likely to be eaten by it. If the Dhani could perhaps leave the fish in its path, perhaps crippling or slowing them so that they cannot get away, then it would work far better than a human body or such as a receptacle.” “Actually, I feel a bit silly for not thinking of it myself. But fish as bait solves the issue of the air breathing.” “As for the cursed bracelet... I would assume then that it is a work of Malediction? And from your earlier statement, its effect is to make something unable to eat meat without becoming sick, and therefore only able to eat plants. A few thoughts on this.” “One, from my understanding of the magic, I am unsure how scalable its effect is. While a given effect works on a human sized target, for the curse as you called it, we can't know for certain if said effect will work on a larger target. Also, how would we put it on it? If it eats the item, then once it passes it the effect would be gone. And if it stops eating meat, and only eats the plants of the lake, this would perhaps not alleviate the problem, only cause a new one. Perhaps even killing off the fish by consuming what they normally eat. Thus in the end by using this cursed object we would likely be no better off...” “A merit of poison in this case is its scalability, as Nolan has said. We can make more, or use larger quantities. In the case of this cursed object, can you make more, or perhaps make a larger one? Do you understand how it works, or do you simply own the object? I could attempt to inspect the item Auristically, and could perhaps ferret out some info about it and its making, but I am afraid in the long run such a cursed object would not truly solve our problem.” For the later part Clyde turned to the late entrant into the meeting, the girl with the apparently cursed bracelet. While her latter idea was perhaps not as good as she thought, it was still a idea all the same, more than many of those present had put forth. And so for that Clyde responded to her idea kindly, not putting it down, which might stymy other ideas from her. Her idea of the fish though, it was a good idea, and a possible solution to other problems they had.

[Nemesis]

Unsurprisingly, Aemeli did not acknowledge the grateful smile that the slave flashed in her direction, not overtly, at least. She was impressed at the girl’s intelligence and resourcefulness; clearly she knew nothing about the meeting, yet her curiosity brought her hear, and her bravery had allowed her to pretend to have purpose her, thus earning her a seat at the table. At the very least, she might prove her usefulness by being the one to voluntarily sacrifice herself to poison the fish. “Not any more, Miss Davenport. The Fish has consumed most and has now started eating the Dhani. It goes without saying, however, that it would be uncommonly difficult to fish trout out of the water, poison each one and then ensure that those same trout were eaten by the Monster.”

The gazes of both the Acolyte and the Druvin flickered over to the poison crafter briefly, in which time they both saw the anger - almost rage - that flashed across the man’s face. Once again, they were reminded of how volatile this group was, and not because of the presence of the Ivyess. No, the mistrustful race relations seemed to have nothing to do with the strife and bad feeling that weighed down upon the table. It seemed far more likely that all problems would stem directly from the humans in the group. History showed the Black Sun that Sullins and Parnell were not allies, and whilst they were currently being cooperative, there was no telling whether or not their private dispute might jeopardise the operation. Then there was Miss Marin. Word had it that she had not left the Arcane island on good terms - perhaps Clyde might take issue with that too? The Acolyte found himself constantly, keenly aware of the amount of Chaons in the room. It was not often that Stephin found himself at a disadvantage in his particular gifts.

Then Inoadar spoke, and a smile graced Aemeli’s lips. She was impressed with how well Ematho’s curse had seeped into the poisoner’s core. Even now, it seemed to have potency in his devotion to Rhysol. Looking closely, she could find nothing that cause her to doubt the deceptive traitor’s loyalty to the city or to the Defiler. Yet perhaps Ematho had only cemented the beliefs of an already devoted individual… “Your competency in your profession is not under scrutiny here, poisoner,” milky eyes bored down upon the one she spoke to, “But a dog can digest bones where a human’s stomach would be shredded apart.” There had been no confirmed sightings of the Fish from the city - only the Ivyess knew what they were looking for, and there were no guarantees that the chemical and biological make-up of the Fish would produce the desired results when using a poison.

Conversation flowed once more, or it started to, with Sullins offering a little more information on the Vileness. But then it regressed, “Enough, soldier.” Stephin’s voice took on a cold quality, one that would not suffer further debate. It was the first time that he had asserted his control and it surprised even the Druvin. “You are both present as guests of the Black Sun, and if you wish to remain here, I expect you to respect that invitation.” Once said, he allowed Clyde to finish speaking. They were back on using fish. “Do you have a method of finding these fish you propose to use? I am aware that you have been gone for almost a year Sullins, but surely you have noticed the distinct lack of trout on your plate since returning?”

“Poison is at least worth testing. The Vilemoss, however…” the room fell into silence as Xeres worked through the concept in his head, clearly ignoring the words of Alea, whom he did not approve of being present. “No, I doubt the benefits outweigh the dangers. The Vileness might work, but will the poison? That is the most important element of this plan. We must exhaust all other options first.” Stephin turned to look directly at the poisoner, “Is it possible that the corrosive agents in a stomach could eat through a vial or container of some description? If we were to have a live person swallow a container of a poison, the container might remain in tact for a bell or so? ”

Read MePlease don't exhaust all options >.> we might be here forever. I'd like to round off the debate within the next couple rounds and get on to the juicy business of killing the beast!

Glad someone came up with the suggestion of using the Ivyess!
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[Alea Davenport]

Alea was trying her best to follow the conversation, and the current plan. She couldn't imagine what she'd missed in the beginning that had everyone else convinced they needed human bait. Even using corpses seemed...unnecessarily disrespectful. She spoke quickly and a little louder than strictly needed, trying to summarize what she understood so far. "Look, the point of using the bodies is to keep the poison from being purified, right? But wouldn't a glass container do the same thing? Why don't we just swim up and throw a bottle in the monster's mouth?"

Actually, that sounded kind of fun. The kind of life-and-death action that she hadn't tasted in far too long. She grinned and added, "I'd volunteer, but I can't exactly breath underwater. As an afterthought she mumbled, "Maybe if we could lure it to the surface..."

Also, now that she was envisioning the scenario, it occurred to her that a weapon wouldn't go amiss, something to fight back with if she were attacked, or to give her a chance to cut her way out of the monster's stomach if she were accidentally swallowed. A harpoon came to mind. She'd had one once, attached to a fishing pole, but it had been taken from her when she was sold to Ravok. She had no idea where it was now.

Alea had never seen or encountered the monster before, only heard rumors. Not having fought it yet, she could only assume she was a match for it. Still, it might have teeth. Maybe she should try to get some kind of armor too, just in case. If she was even going to have a chance at the beast.


Clyde!Use Air reimancy to have fabulous underwater adventures with me!

NemesisI hope this doesn't count as derailing. I'm trying to move it forward as much as Alea will allow Also, I think Alea really wants to fight the monster..... Please don't make her die! ^^;

[Clyde Sullins]

“Not any more, Miss Davenport. The Fish has consumed most and has now started eating the Dhani. It goes without saying, however, that it would be uncommonly difficult to fish trout out of the water, poison each one and then ensure that those same trout were eaten by the Monster.” Clyde nodded, understanding her point. While a few large poisoned fish might do the job, smaller ones as were more commonly fished... They would be problematic in quantities needed. Though surely if the monster was eating fish, there had to be some in the waters. It had to be eating something, or else there wouldn't be a problem. And if there was no fish left, well then likely the monster would just starve... Several contradictory thoughts buzzed about in Clyde's mind in confusion. Although another fact also came to Clyde's attention then. The monster was beginning to eat Dhani... And only now where the Dhani willing to work with the humans. Only now that the problem was affecting them. Perhaps then they were not as they seemed, and were in truth simply acting in a self serving fashion. Next the druvin spoke in turns, first calming and nicely to the poisoner Nolan, and then in a more honest and harsh way. Still though in general she said little, instead seeming to allows others to speak in her stead as she simply listened. Perhaps that was simply her way. “Your competency in your profession is not under scrutiny here, poisoner. But a dog can digest bones where a human’s stomach would be shredded apart.” Next Steven spoke, addressing Clyde this time in terse terms. Perhaps, or so Clyde thought, attempting to exert dominance and put Clyde in his place? But the hypocracy of the acolytes words, just after similar ones being spoken by the druvin to Nolan to Clyde's own were not lost on him. The chilled tone of the words simply washed over Clyde as a breath of air, and Clyde smiled back at the Acolyte with a false grin. If he wanted to intimidate Clyde, he would need to try much harder. Not to mention actually saying something that made sense, and in a situation in which Clyde was in the wrong, not doing something to progress the discussion when Nolan clearly was going off on a vent and tirade on the past as he too often did. Clyde had done nothing wrong, and so he did not even both responding to the words, instead simply looking back with a false smile settled over his lips, all the while laughing inwardly at the lies and hypocrisy present before him. Politics, leadership, persuasion, all just lies and dishonesty, all facades. “Enough, soldier.” “You are both present as guests of the Black Sun, and if you wish to remain here, I expect you to respect that invitation.” “Do you have a method of finding these fish you propose to use? I am aware that you have been gone for almost a year Sullins, but surely you have noticed the distinct lack of trout on your plate since returning?” Clyde simply continued grinning, taking in a slow breath and letting it out equally as slow, as the Acolyte took his imagined place of being in charge, of making decisions, while it was clear the Druvin was the one there. Instead he simply poked holes in others words, and accepted or rejected things, without adding anything truly. “Poison is at least worth testing. The Vilemoss, however…” “No, I doubt the benefits outweigh the dangers. The Vileness might work, but will the poison? That is the most important element of this plan. We must exhaust all other options first.” “Is it possible that the corrosive agents in a stomach could eat through a vial or container of some description? If we were to have a live person swallow a container of a poison, the container might remain in tact for a bell or so? ” As the conversation dwindled down, and ideas that had not been poked full of holes for no reason other than to be able to say something, Clyde began to wonder if his purpose in being here was nearing its end. He did not see himself being able to add any new information, nor aiding in the stroking of the Acolytes ego as he played leader and made "his" decision. If there wasn't still the implementation step which might require his aid, he would have gone ahead and excused himself. As it was he was prepared to do so soon, if a use for him did not arise quickly.