ic Hunt for the Serpent

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer pulled the griffin to a stop and landed in front of them next to the Carnifex. "Stand down, give us the information we seek and no further harm will come to you or your business." She took a deep breath, focusing on forming a new dream in her head. A wall of stone, smooth as a mirror snapped into existence around the group in a ring, fifteen feet tall and ten thick. "Now, if you want to get out of here, start talking. I want all of the information you have on Advay Upal, or this will end far more unpleasantly than simply being shot at."

The sound from the Carnifex's throat could have come from a shifting glacier as it glared at Alaynah. "Attacking us was a mistake you would do well to not repeat, lest I remove your trigger finger and those hands you two seem to be so proud of." The Dreamer's lips tightened in displeasure, but she did not contradict the demon.

"I am still willing to offer compensation for your information, but I warn you I am running out of patience with your games."

[Zeitgeist Blue]

GM

 

You hear a crack as one of the gargoyles punches the wall of stone surrounding them. They try again, unphased, but again the wall does not yield. Seemingly at a loss on what to do, the two gargoyles look at Alaynah.

 

Their boss doesn't take long to recover. Though she has to press a hand to her forehead to stem the bleeding, she forces herself to stand. She looks up at you and you see the look in her one good eye as she realizes that she's been beat.

 

"*#%&." She doesn't holster her revolver but she keeps it lowered, and begins to pace the enclosure.

 

"About Advay?" She calls from the middle of the stone wall. "Why do you want to know anyway? Is it justice? Revenge? Or do you work for another cryptid Clans?"

 

She scoffs.

 

"You can keep your bribe. Think whatever you give is going to compensate for the loss in my reputation when word gets out that I sold my client?" She spits on the ground, the scorn on her voice apparent. "That's not going to happen."

 

She looks back up to you and as if steeling herself, exhales slowly. She glances at the Carnifex quickly then returns her attention back to you. "If you want that information, come here yourself like a real woman and take it."

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer had the griffin fly to the ground in front of Alaynah and settle lower so that they are as close to eye to eye as they could be. "I am here to bring a murderer to justice, and my offer of payment was not meant as a bribe. It was payment for services rendered by a professional." She pauses, her eyes filled with sympathy, "I will not spread the source of my information, and if you wish I am willing to lie and claim that I simply used my powers. Now, given what you have essentially said that your client hired you for something related to Advay,  know you probably know where he his or will be. Just tell me the location and time and I will let you free." The Dreamer's face hardens before she continues, "Be warned however, if you lie to me I will let the demon decide what to do with you."

The Carnifex's grin shows far too many teeth as her eyes seem to glow, "And there are so many lovely things I could do to you, I'd be so spoiled for choice!" The monster starts pacing and counting off on it's fingers "Why there's dehydration, isolation, flaying, hot irons, why even a modern kitchen contains so many potential implements! Have you ever wondered what you could do with a cheese grater?"

The Dreamer cut off the demon with a look. "I do swear on my honour that if you deal with me in good faith that no one will ever hear about your involvement from me, and the offer of compensation of course stands. I am also willing to protect you from possible reprisals if you wish it of me." 

[Zeitgeist Blue]

GM

 

Alaynah eyes you wearily, though she still stands on edge from the Carnifex as her brief looks at your dream monster every few seconds testify.

 

"How much compensation are you talking about here?" she says. Beside her, the gargoyles move just the tiniest bit to glance at her. She continues slowly, ignoring them. "Because it will take a lot to compensate for the loss of my reputation because word will get out one way or another. It'd need to be enough for me to move to another city or even country so I continue making my living. I'd need to set up shop, to regain contacts and start with small contracts before the locals start trusting me for the really big things." 

 

She quirks an eyebrow up at you. "Is that payment you are willing to make? Because if so then I can lead you to him myself. He's waiting for me in my PT boat right now, ready to be transported away from the Emerald Cities for good. Once I get my payment and you do what I need to do then I'll leave the Northwest for good."

 

She nods as if convincing herself of her plan. "Just one more thing." More confident now, she points at the Carnifex. "Get your pet out of my sight."

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer smiled easily as Alaynah asked about compensation, this would be the easy part since she could generate more gold than every country in the world possessed in a single go. "It is safe to say that I am both willing and able to give you enough to disappear for as long as you want." She should probably check what form they wanted the compensation in, since while she could dream up anything, it would take her a while to dream up individual notes compared to an emerald the size of her own head. "On the topic of compensation however, what form would you like it to take? I can provide you with money, although that will take some time to manage or I can provide you with valuable items or even large quantities of precious metals or stones." If asked how would she justify the items? Most people probably wouldn't believe that her constructs were real, but if she could come up with a convincing lie that couldn't be proven wrong...

 

If the question of where the items came from came up, she would answer it then. For now she looks to the Carnifex as Alaynah demands it's absence and dismisses the creature, a number of dreams that were intimidated into hiding by the demon. If need be she can draw the monster back to the fore, a multitude of creatures swarming to the walls and scuttling out from behind the griffin despite assuredly never being there before. Outside of her sight a large dragon-like creature with the teeth of a rabbit, great spidery hands and a waistcoat peers over the wall, staring at the group with fiery eyes. The Dreamer focused for a handful of seconds, dreaming up a set of wide stairs up the wall and down the other side. "If that is all, shall we be off?"

Edited September 1, 2020 by Kaede Kimura

[Zeitgeist Blue]

GM

 

Alaynah looked at you skeptically.

 

"I was expecting you to bargain," she says. Then she shrugs. "But if you're okay with anything, then fine. I'll think of my payment when we get there."

 

The Carnifex disappears but your creatures swarm out of the open, and Alaynah's hand goes back to her weapon as she watches a multitude of your dreams arrive. Her companions stiffen at the sudden influx too, but they do not engage. Instead, they pick up their luggages warily. Alaynah steps forward and gives you a nod, before she moves carefully around your griffin and the rest of your dreams. The two gargoyles follow, pulling their hoods up to cover their faces.

 

"Come on then, whoever you are." She waves you over then begins to retrace her steps through the dark alleyways. Her flashlight turns on, sending a beam of light through the dark.

 

After a few minutes of silence, she looks up at you, sitting in your griffin. "I never asked how you would be able to pay me. Form isn't a problem so what are you? A mage? You transmute lead to gold or rocks to cash? Or do you have a hoard of treasure like a dragon, which you can pull out of at a whim?"

 

***

 

Whatever your answer, Alaynah seems to accept it better than most people would. She is someone who dabbles in weirdness after all, as she quickly points out.

 

It takes a half hour of walking through the twisted maze of alleyways and derelict buildings, but finally Alaynah leads you towards what looks to be a broken gap in the wall, bricks and concrete surrounding it. Inside, a large sewer greets you, large enough to fit you and your griffin multiple times over. Water fills the bottom of the sewer, though it looks as clean as water could be in an abandoned ruin of a place. Two walkways hang above the water as if it was designed with navigation of the sewers in mind.

 

Alaynah looks at you then points to the water and shrugs. "Your griffin can't fit the walkways so you'll have to take a dip. Don't worry, no one's toilets lead down here anymore though plenty of water from above drips through, especially when it rains hard. And some of the Undercity locals might use it when they need to go, but it's not so bad if you don't think about it."

 

***

 

From there it is another several minutes down the sewer until you find yourselves walking down a straight path. Then Alaynah's flashlight catches a hint of gray steel. Then the light moves over painted words, The Red Summer.

 

Alaynah bangs her fist against the side of her PT boat. "Hey Zach! Get up here will you?"

 

Then she turns to you and hands a slip of paper to you. It reads 100 million dollars in 100 dollar bills. 250 gold bars. Four luggage bags of colorless diamonds.

 

"How fast can you churn that out?"

Edited September 1, 2020 by Zeitgeist Blue

[Kaede Kimura]

The Dreamer's smile remained in the face of Alaynah's suspicion. "To be honest I could have bargained, but you are correct that I have caused you and your compatriots some rather significant problems through my actions and it would be unbecoming of me to deny your reasonable requests." She followed alongside Alaynah into the alleyway, her lips returning to a neutral expression as they marched through the dark.

 

At Alaynah's question as to the nature of her powers she decided to continue with the lie she had come upon. "I can draw items out of a near endless vault of treasures. I can assure you that money is no object, although it may take time to access."

 

***

 

The Dreamer looked down into the waterway, quickly replacing the griffin with a smaller mount that would fit into the sewer, a clockwork pony made of bronze and brass that ticked with every step into the water. It looked back at her and Alaynah disapprovingly as they walked.

 

***

 

The Dreamer looked down at the piece of paper that Alaynah had handed her, silently swearing at the quantity of money that Alaynah wanted. The gold was easy, it wouldn't even take half an hour if she made each bar individually, and she could easily make layers of gold bars joined my tiny pieces of gold such that picking one up would cause the joining pieces to break. Bags full of diamonds would be a bit more problematic depending on the sizes of diamonds desired, but the previous trick should work.

 

However, a million dollars in one hundred dollar bank notes was another thing entirely. That was ten thousand notes, nearly a seventeen hours of non-stop creating, ignoring sleep. Could she fuse them similarly to the method she was planning for the gold and diamonds? Unlike the others the paper would not likely have the mass to tear on it's own, and The Dreamer was doubtful that Alaynah would accept sheets of money that were joined in such a way. She knew that a common way of storing money like that based upon what she had read and watched upon finding herself in Emerald City was wrapped in rubber bands. She could dream up a combustion engine, surely linking the pieces with the rubber band so that when they were removed the money would detach would be no problem.

 

The Dreamer nodded to herself, working out numbers. A thousand notes wrapped in a rubber band, each linked to the band by as thin a piece of paper as she can manage, then she removes the rubber band and hands the notes to Alaynah. Ten. The gold bars could be in layers five wide and ten long. Five. The diamonds she could generate a quartet of bags and then drop the diamonds into the bags, causing the tiny links to break. Four and four. Twenty-three generations each taking about six seconds makes it...

 

"I can have your payment to you in two and a half minutes at the outside. Probably slightly less." She looks up at Alaynah, fire in her eyes. "Assuming you have a place to put the roughly three tons of gold. Is that acceptable?"