Emjajoas

Grinning slightly to himself, Mortimer focuses on the blue-toned Masson. "Both of you step back a few paces," he commands them, drawing his bow, the grin disappearing from his face. "Let's have a little test, shall we?"

"Alice, how weak was Seerus when he poisoned you?" he mutters, thinking for a split second. Mortimer's eye glances between the two Massons-- he reaches into his bag, suddenly grinning at them maliciously. He attempts a bluff-- "This is a joke-- we can use the Harvester I picked up. Once they're both under our control, it'll be easy to figure out which one's telling the truth. I had always wanted one, and to be able to use it first on its creator-- a dream come true."

"Let's head east, then."

"Poor little Iris is caught between a rock and a hard place," mutters Mortimer with a grin. Glancing around, he questions the party. "Is there more to find here, or should we move on?"

"Seerus' abused wife?" Mortimer shrugs. "Sounds like Iris has been having a rough time. I feel worse about not killing her."

"I'm no astronomer. I've no idea what these mean," Mortimer mutters, glancing around the party and offering them the book. "What'd you find, Karie?"

I start a new job tomorrow; my hours of activity will decrease quite a bit. I'll still be pretty active, but most likely only during the evening and at night-- just a fair warning.

Mortimer picks up the book, rifling through it quickly. "Iris was probably weeker than Seerus. I don't know about now. Who knows what they've done with her. Plus, I'm not sure what that Alatreon the Oculoid mentioned was. Hmm."

"I thought perhaps with the title of hero I could wash some of the blood off my hands," Mortimer shrugs, leaving the remark hanging.

"If Seerus is the Regret's right hand man," Mortimer explains, his grin still present. "Iris is his left. She creates her own brand of Oculoids, the Disciples of Iris. She turned Jetorix into a devil, and terrorized the Progg city. I was forgiving at the time and thought perhaps if we let her live we could use her, but..." Grinding his teeth despite not losing the grin, Mortimer focuses on inspecting the desk instead of continuing.

Mortimer's previously grumpy face contorts into a toothy grin. He clenches and unclenches his fists, his smile widening. "Iris," he purrs. "There's a name I was hoping to hear. I would have liked to send a message to her, though. Poor oculoid left before I could socialize." Moving towards what looked like some sort of desk, Mortimer inspects it.

"West it is, then," Mortimer mutters, heading in that direction.

"Where to? I'm not sure east is a good option." Mortimer chews on a bloody lip, thinking to himself. "West, perhaps?"

OOC: We kicked some megablocks, and after that we found a girl named Alice whose sister was turned into a Canvas by Seerus. She was poisoned, we healed her, and now she wants to come with us and help us out.

It instantly kills them unless they're immune to instant kill, I believe.

"He's just... logical. You can trust him not to betray us, at least." Mortimer glances at the automaton. Was he giving Jeaux too much credit? Sighing, he turns back to Alice. "I trust him. I've traveled with him often."

Thanks! In hindsight, I definitely should've had that kind of thing prepared, especially for the final battle. That's sorta what the Elite Dream Soldiers were supposed to be, but it ended up failing because of how strong the party was (and how strong I made them). I've definitely learned my lesson for next time, though. I'll keep that in mind! Thanks!

"Don't worry about him. At the very least, you can cover my blind spot-- so you'll be of use. Come with us." Mortimer tries his best to smile, though the grin is skewed. The look on his face would instill more fear than comfort. "Let's move on, shall we?"

Yeah, I kinda threw him together at the last minute-- I didn't expect the party to ask him to tag along. Rogue seemed the most fitting class for him, so I went with it. I thought maybe he wouldn't be that bad, but that ties into me underestimating negative effects. Yeah, I feel pretty bad about rushing the ending. Couldn't really help it, but hopefully my next quest doesn't end on such a sour note. The last battle in the quest was originally not going to be the last battle. I had one planned for the witch, in which she would summon a dragon, and then I also had one planned with the Marquis if the party failed to persuade him to their side. Those two would've definitely been better final battles, but I thought it sort of took away from the story I wanted to tell and at the time I thought the Elite Dream Rogue final battle would've been "good enough," so to speak. It was my mistake-- it's one of those times where I wish I had gone with my original idea instead of branching out to something else to fit the situation. That's not true; I was fully prepared to roleplay-out the Marquis' reaction to whatever it was any characters had to say, diplomacy or not. Sometimes you just gotta talk to NPCs, regardless of what skills you have. The pleasure was all mine, WBD. Thanks again for all your help, and for giving me this opportunity. That's what I was going for; I'm really glad it worked. I'm really excited to visit the Low Kingdoms again; especially since I sprinkled a little bit of buildup in Dreamscape-- the arms race and surrounding cities preparing for war is something I hope to build on in a bit of a loose series of quests, each introducing a little bit more of the conflict until the eventual head. Going there gave me quite a bit of "free reign," which is really nice to have, especially when I want someplace I can go back to in order to develop more. ________________________________________ Thank you everyone for your feedback! I'll keep everything mentioned in mind for when my next quest is ready. The battles will certainly be more varied, and hopefully the story will be better too. Appreciate all your feedback and support. That being said, I've started working on my next quest, though I won't be through planning for a bit. This one'll be really different from Dreamscape, hopefully (and if we're lucky it'll have better loot and battles, too. ). This one'll be in one of Redstone's neighbouring cities, one participating in the arms race. I'm looking forward to shedding more light on the brewing conflict and exploring the area. I'll get around to posting again with a solid idea and outline when that's prepared, but if anyone wants to collab with sets and bounce some ideas around sooner in the planning stage rather than later, I can do that too. Shoot me a PM if you're interested. If you guys have any advice or things you'd like to see me do, let me know! (Especially if you've got suggestions on how to build the conflict between the kingdoms; I'd like something fresh, and I'm not sure what's been done before.) I'd like to make my quests as enjoyable as possible, and I'm hoping this next one is a huge improvement. Again, thank you!

Mortimer shrugs, muttering to Boomingham. "He's cold, but he's dependable. We need him." Turning back to Alice, Mortimer decides to continue questioning her. "Why did you and your sister come here, anyways? Treasure? Adventure, maybe?"

"Seerus was always a talker," Mortimer growls. "Though I don't trust her, we can cut her down like everything else if she proves an enemy."

"Then I'm sorry," Mortimer sighs. "We could've saved her, had we known. Can you fight?"

Mortimer glances between his friends, unsure of how to ease the tension between them and deciding it best to not intervene. It wasn't his business.

"It's fine," comes the gruff reply. "Worry about getting her on her feet. We can move on from there." Sighing, Mortimer stands and glances around, doing his best to keep watch. "The only thing that'd stop infection would be putting something in the socket. The eyepatch should be preventative enough until we kill everything."