Café de Nuit

Lucien is about to yell at the zombie in front of him, when Zumba reminds him that he still knows how to find Chicken Bone. He nods appreciatively.

To Vincent, he says simply, "I do not intend to keep it. That may not be a choice for me, but it is my intent to get rid of it... after we accomplish our goal. You've seen how formidable our opponent's zombies are. You've felt their claws. We.. that is, I need to do this if we're to survive."

After Zumba points the direction in which they should proceed, Lucien turns to Lissa and also points in that direction. Go forward, he commands. PROTECT me.

The zombie starts to plod in the direction Lucien indicates. She goes ten paces, twenty -- then stops and turns, dully eyeing her new commander. 'Go. Protect,' her undead mind dully echoes.

(OOC: Intelligence check, DC12.)

"Ezra's breath, must she take me so literally?" Lucien mumbles. "All right, then, one command at a time...."

Lissa, go forward, he commands her mentally as he again points in the direction that Zumba gave.

"Monsieur!" Vincent says aloud to Lucien "I do not think this discussion is as easily over as you just indicated." he says. "You intend not to keep it? Not your choice? Something you need to do?" he asks, seemingly baffled and a little irritated at having been given a simple response. "Yes, I have seen our foes are great and strong and all powerfull" he says waving his arms to indicate the "strong" en "powerfull". "Yet that wand didn't do much last time it was used. What's changed except the wielder?" he asks intently.
"There's four of us and half of them not agreeing."

The red haired priest is stunned by the fact that Lucien is willing to use this evil magical item. And when Lucien begins using it, he grabs his mace in both his hands. Looking at Lucien, his face is one of dead seriousness, eyes solemn. In a loud voice, he will say:

Souragnien "I warn you one more time, Lucien. If use item, I destroy Zombie. And I getting chance, I breaking wand."

When Lucien begins toying with the wand, Goren counts down to five and with both hands moves as fast as he can and smashes the mace into the Zombie's face!

19 attack roll

5 damage roll

Guzrath wrote:"Monsieur!" Vincent says aloud to Lucien "I do not think this discussion is as easily over as you just indicated." he says. "You intend not to keep it? Not your choice? Something you need to do?" he asks, seemingly baffled and a little irritated at having been given a simple response. "Yes, I have seen our foes are great and strong and all powerfull" he says waving his arms to indicate the "strong" en "powerfull". "Yet that wand didn't do much last time it was used. What's changed except the wielder?" he asks intently.
"There's four of us and half of them not agreeing."

Lucien glares at Vincent. "I thought Goren was the one with the language problem," he says coldly. "The wand 'didn't do much'? It led an army of ravenous zombies -- creatures like her that would attack us without a thought, literally -- against a force that would have annihilated us had we confronted them alone! Or did you think that the four of us alone defeated the hybrids?!" He shakes his head in disbelief. "'Didn't do much,'" he repeats.

"And there is NO END to the zombies in this swamp!" he continues, now focusing on Goren, too. "Do you wish to fight the dozens that we may encounter?"

His voice is calmer now. "Remember why we are here, gentlemen! We are here to speak to Chicken Bone. We are here to end the drought and save Souragne, if such a thing is even still possible. We are NOT here to fight zombies every single hour! And the only thing that can prevent them from attacking us and exhausting the tiny resources we have left is THIS." He indicates the wand.

"Did I ask for this, Vincent? NO. Do I fear the consequences?" A pause. "YES. It terrifies me more deeply than anything I've imagined. I fear that it's cursed -- that I may become like the undead general. But to relinquish it at this point, in this situation... is akin to suicide. And weighing the near-certain deaths of ALL of us against the possibility that I -- and I alone -- lose my soul... that is what I mean when I suggest I have no choice."

When Goren declares his attention to destroy the zombie, Lucien shrugs. "Fine. I can get more to protect us."

Vincent visibly relaxes as Lucien speaks. He nods now and then to confirm some statements about the situation of the group. He waits patiently for Lucien to finish.

"That is a nice martyr speech" he says coldly. "It might have been a poor choice of words, but the answer does show how much power and credit you give that wand as if everything depended on it." he says with a smirk as if that was his intention. "However, you have assumed from the start that this is our only solution and that is unsettling to me." he adds calmly. "I have known you for but a day, and in every conversation since, you have put out in good, cool and well thought out advise and options. Yet now you act without thinking." He pauses for a moment. "Goren and you are both right. You are holding an extremely powerfull object there"nodding at the wand "in an area which is the living embodiment of death. However, Goren is right for not wanting to use it."
"It's all nice and well that you're terrified and that on you alone weighs the possibility of losing your soul" he says. "This wouldn't have to do with anything about an apprentice you lost?" he adds, looking Lucien straight in the eye.

"Surprised I support it, Vincent?
Why? This is Souragne, you don't know this land as I do. Zombies are as much part of it as cats are of other lands. And death is everywhere around us here, yes. I fear the swamp, and I've lived here. This at least gives us a chance of survival... for a while. When we get to Chicken Bone, we'll see. But anyway, I'm sure he can trump this wand if he wants.

Now, what gods do you pray too in Souragne? Not Ezra, no... It is the Lord of the Dead... and other loahs. And we ask him, simply, for more time... to let the Rider take his lives away from our door. Well, we are in his domain now, and he may ride over us whenever he wants. He even has the tools all around us. So I say, for a while, let's use those tools to defend us. And anyway, when the deed is done, there's 3 of us to break the wand if Lucien can not do it."

"An apprentice I lost...?" Lucien looks at Vincent blankly. "I don't know what you..." If I may hazard a guess, Lucien, says Claude crisply in Lucien's and Vincent's minds, I believe Monsieur Fausse is referring to me.

Lucien blinks, his jaw opens, and then -- despite everything around him -- he laughs. "Oh, Vincent, I do apologize," he says finally, "Believe me, I do not laugh in mockery but in genuine mirth. And I greatly appreciate the compliments that you paid me. They are reciprocated. You -- the three of you -- are stalwart, brave, wise men, even if I have no idea what you, Goren, is talking about half the time!" Vincent's comment seems to have dismissed, if perhaps only temporarily, the gloom in which Lucien had wrapped his thoughts. "No, if you do mean Claude, he is not and never has been an apprentice, and when this matter is over, I shall -- as they say in Kartakass' gambling dens -- lay my cards on the table."

After Zumba speaks, he nods and says, "And there you have it. I vow that I want to be rid of this thing when the time comes... but this is not that time. And should I refuse, I give you gentlemen free rein to take it from me..." His mood grows somber once more and looks Vincent squarely in the eye, "...by any means necessary."

He steps back. "So, does that satisfy you, Vincent? Goren... well, if you're done pummeling what's left of Lissa's corpse, that is? Temporary use until the Rider is defeated or we leave the swamp -- whatever comes first. Then it's done. None of us is happy about it. But it's a weapon that could help us survive the next day or two."

After Zumba has finished Vincent says "That's all nice and well, death being normal and all, but comparing it to cats or some such is a poor excuse at downgrading the severity of it all. Those cats don't eat brains........several exceptions aside" he adds "I do understand, with my limited knowledge and different culture, that death is part of this land, its life and its culture. That is no reason to trivialize the power and possible consequences of all this. Power is in withing grasp and you both jump on it." he says. "There is a reason people in this land are scared of the swamps as well. Whether it is out of respect or something else, the basis is fear."
"I may not be from this land and its culture, but it's not the issue i'm putting out there. In short, yes, I am surprised. Not on why, but on the rashness of the decision."

Vincent seems to tense up for a moment when Claude 'speaks'.

"No Lucien, it does not satisfy me, nor Goren I would presume" he replies looking at the battered corpse. "And whether we have your premission to grab it from your cold, dead hands if it comes to extremes or not, is not the point. Aside from the fact that 'us three'" looking at Zumba "might easily take it from him....... if he isn't surrounded by an army of walking corpses protecting their master or controller. That same power that Lucien and you put so much faith in."

"Another thing, whose soul would exactly be lost if a soul should be lost while you are holding that wand Lucien? You or this Claude person?" he asks.
"Simply put, I'm aguring the haste with which this decision of yours has been made, without having tasted the pallet of wines."
"To me it sounds all like a 'just one gem' moment" he adds.

Lucien's eyes grow dark. "I resent the suggestion that I would place someone else's soul in jeopardy for personal gain. Tread carefully, Vincent. And once again, I ask, what would you have us do? If you can think of a better solution that would help us stay alive against a swampful of zombies, believe me, I shall entertain it. I see none.

"What you call 'rash,' I call 'direct.' Why waste time debating alternate means of protecting ourselves when -- unfortunately -- only one seems to exist? If you have no suggestions, then we'll proceed, and I shall use the wand only if we are attacked.

"Or shall I summon the zombies, break the wand, and let us make our final stand now? As I suggested, I don't like to waste time."

Ken of Ghastria wrote:Lucien's eyes grow dark. "I resent the suggestion that I would place someone else's soul in jeopardy for personal gain. Tread carefully, Vincent.

Vincent sighs, his eyes rolling, throwing his hands up in the air in despair. "What is it with you people and twisting every questions there is in some personal issue." he exclaims looking at Lucien and Zumba. "By Ezra it's tiresome."

"Direct?" he pauses "I agree with that, direct, rash, in this case the same thing. Although I'm curious to know all the scenarios you have thought of and decided against. Just to know how you came to your single purpose solution."

"Well one solution is going simply without the wand. If not, well you can discuss the issue with Goren, who seems a tad bit upset about it." looking at Goren.

With sarcasm he adds "I'll just sit around here and let you convince him of your decision." He moves to a root, taking a seat and letting Goren speak his mind.

Goren removes his mace from the Zombie's caved in head. He listens to Lucien as he puts his mace back at his hip. His eyes narrow after listening to Lucien. He looks at Vincent and nods solemnly before turning back to Lucien.

Holding his hand out, he tells Lucien: Souragnien "I ask only one timing. You give me wand, s'il vous plait. I no caring if may helping. It .... control undead ..... evil... evil .... EVIL PRIEST control undead. Please, give me or throw away in swamp. I break it if you no give me."

"Evil, Goren? Yes, may be. But it was that evil that kept us alive here. Life in Souragne, as in anywhere else I know of, must be lived in compromise. There are many evils I've had to endure to be alive today, and I be damned if I'd not be rather alive than dead!

These Zombies... do you think they're evil? Have you looked at them? Well, I bet with you I must have know quite a lot of them in years back. And some of them could even be alive in that grey crowd. You don't know the mysteries of the swamp, no, misters... you don't know what the voodans do. But the zombie? The zombie is not evil, he's merely a shell without will, a tool in the hands of the evil master.

And there is the difference. The general was evil. Lucien is not. The wielder makes the tool.

Vincent, you have not understood my comparison. I've seen dead people working the fields. I've seen broken senjeiurs using zombies when they could not afford slaves. And I've pitied them. But never I thought of destroying those zombies, poor fellows. Let them rest, yes, I would, but for that I'd have to kill the seinjeur who was controlling them. They were slaves like I was. But they were not evil.
"

He pauses, as he understands and weighs the implications of his own argument. He continues, more slowly and less confident.


"I guess you could say I would be evil for wishing to keep them with us for a while more, instead of giving them freedom. But I tell you, I fear something else. I fear that if Lucien leaves the wand, someone else will take control. And that someone else might not like us.

I see many possibilities... and I think if I would pray to the Lord of the Dead, and tell him earnestly that we are fighting for Souragne and for his people, that he might help us and keep the zombies from us. But I fear him and what he may do to us through his zombies.

And at any rate, I'm sure Chicken Bone himself could keep the wand from Lucien or any of us once we free him. He is powerful enough to keep them from us, I hope...


Then why does he need our help?, he thought for a moment, his faith showing signs of being breached.


"I say we go on. There are times when a man must compromise, and I've heard tales of heroes who have had to accept it to reach the good end for all. We will free the zombies once they've helped us and Souragne. For it is Souragne we are fighting for, and these zombies... they're as much part of Souragne as this swamp is, they have a right to fight for it."