Dance with the Devil

"That thing is evil; it should be destroyed, not wielded."

Azzar gave her a hug to comfort her. He tried to make his tentacles feel more like arms and less like squid parts.

"But it looks like a normal sword. What does it do that makes it evil?""thank you...I needed that.."

The trader took the sword out again. "Pestilence? Plague? A horrible disease? Still doesn't ring a bell?"

"You can try a throw to steal the sword, but because you're a warrior, you need to roll 18 or higher. Fail and Stanley will get attacked."

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"We can't change what happened, but dwelling on the past isn't good either."

"I don't want to take away the sword from them yet..I want to know more...I don't even know what a plague is..." Willow sighed. "I know... " She looked back at him. "At least she has someone qho would do anything for her..."

"A plague is a serious, often uncurable disease that kills people en masse. Mobius and pretty much every civilized world has survived at least three of them in their history."

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"I can only protect her on the outside, on the inside..." A single tentacles pointed at her head.

"oh I see..." Lillith try my best but it's hard."

"so... do you wanna try and take it? Stanley is supposed to be evil."

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"I know, but without you, Lillith wouldn't be Lillith..."

"But Stanley isn't an idiot either. He should take the better swords. I don't want him giving everyone a disease. " "Buy I can't fight them all forever...."

"Your call. You may not get a chance like this again."

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"But there's nothing I can do..."

"fine I'll take it but I'm not going to use it much.." Wendigo rolled. "Yeah...I'm just telling you this now..just in case on day...you come to visit Lillith and Lillith isn't home..."

She rolled a twenty. "Stanley steals the Sword of Pestilence; the traders are not very happy."

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?! Give that back!"

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Azzar just silently nodded; there had to be something that could be done.

"Now I'll take my leave unless you want to die!" "I can only do so much.."

"The traders attack you and have an advantage in numbers. Two of them are mages, one has daggers and the last one has a sledgehammer. Roll to dodge the first blow and counterattack; must be above ten."

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Azzar looked at the ground.

," please let me roll high!" Wendigo almost threw the dice. "I do not know jow to separate them from her without damaging her.maybe you can figure a way but until then...you should enjoy the time you have with her."

Another twenty. "Stanley dodges and swings his sword. He then counterattacks and all of the traders melt before his very eyes, locusts and acid devouring them alive. -100 to global reputation. -4000 to Travelling Traders reputation. +4000 to Blight reputation."

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Azzar nodded slowly. He never considered that he'll outlive her; Willow gave him a grave reminder, one that made him reconsider if he'll be able to protect her and make her happy after all.

What good would anything he does do when it won't last?

"What's a blight reputation?" "don't look sad like that...nothing good lasts forever...but you've done good...she gets so happy when you're here"

"For short, they're one of the bad guys. The sword belongs to them."

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Her saying that didn't lesson the blow; now he knew Lillith could just die for no apparent reason.

And there was nothing he could do to prevent that.

"Am I going to find them? What are the other bad guys?"

((Lillith isn't going to die. I meant that Lillith would lose control and one of the other souls would completely take over. That's what I meant.))

((As far as the character of Azzar is concerned, complete takeover = death of Lillith. Also the fact that a complete takeover implies permanency.))

"The Followers of the Flame, The Dirges of Crestfall... Really, can't remember all of them," Legion said. "The game always places you in a random location, but the map is persistent. If you're determined, you could probably locate the remains of the first Stanley."

"ok I'll do that" Wendigo said.

Recin and Ris arrive at the gameroom, with Legion and Wendigo playing some sort of game.

"Okay; the whole map is composed of twenty big tiles," Legion said. "To get where stanley the corpse is, you need to go two tiles left and four tiles riles; that's four hours of walking provided you don't run into anything."

Ris whistled. "That's a sight for the ages."

"Then the current goal is to find my old body and then...what? Do I find a side kick or something?" Recin looked at the game.

"There's no point in doing, since there's no reward; you should instead search for the Blight."

It was less an arcade game and more like a slightly older computer game built into an old arcade cabinet. The art on it looked handmade.

"Heeeey guys!" Ris greeted them "Any of you wanna show us around?" A mirror image of Legion appeared.

"Anything less creepy?"

"So where do I go to find the blight? What happens when I do?" "O come on ris. Just let him do his thing."

"The Blight is located five tiles west and three tiles south; that's six hours and you'll probably run into pretty much everything the game has to offer," Legion explained. "Then, after you reach it, you'll need to pass initiation or have a sufficiently high negative reputation."

Legion's mirror image glared at her. "This is the gameroom; to your right are timeless clasics – Pacman, Alley Brawl and Space Invaders – to your left are new games made into arcade cabinets. No quarters are required," the mirror image lectured her. "Additionally, there's also a pool table, a complete poker set and a bar."

"Whoa, you guys like spending time here, huh?" Ris muttered. "Give me your strongest drink. We're gonna play poker."