Sabhaxlia's Terrible Life

Sabhaxlia's Terrible Life by coracleboat
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A young tombdog escapes an arranged marriage by fleeing south.

Some artwork with interesting (though not necessarily canon) details about the setting and back-story to the quest can be found over on the author's FurAffinity account, here is a good place to start.

After a long hiatus, the story was concluded in a lengthy epilogue.

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

Characters

Sabby and Maexiks

Sabhaxlia Tashikoxix

The young, fleeing south, tomdog in question. Sabby is basically the last hope for the failing House Tashikoxix, meaning her parents are determined to marry her off to any House that can take care of the Tashikoxix family ghosts, whether Sabby likes it or not. As a result Sabby has led a rather boring yet stressful life, living in an empty manor house in the middle of no-where, spending her time learning all those useful skills a noble wife needs (like protocol, languages, calligraphy etc.) and getting into constant arguments with her parents about the arranged marriage thing. Unfortunately her husband to be is a bit of a buttjerk. Like a complete and utter buttjerk that no one would marry. Ever. At least she thinks so anyway. Not be out done in the “being a buttjerk” department, Sabbys parents are convinced that if they just shout at her and remind her how disappointed everyone will be if she doesn’t marry, she’ll eventually start to like him.

Hence the running away thing.

Iaxio (the beggar)

The ghost of a No-Town beggar. Some local dog took pity on him and made a little shrine, near the road to Tashikoxix manor, from his corpse so his ghost wouldn’t completely fade away. Despite his cheeky demeanour, he led a rather miserable life as a Stranger, surviving on the handouts of others and making a little money by gambling. Its not know how he died but, in death all he can do is sit in his shrine, occasionally getting the chance to chat with passers by or Sabby, who considers him something of a friend. He in turn is rather friendly and protective with her, as well as a bit leery. Sabby decides to take a fragment of his corpse with her so she has someone to talk while running away and he gets to something other than sit by the roadside waiting to die. Again. His ghost has persisted so long, and with so little to do that he has lost nearly all his memories, even his own name. However an elderly corspebound in a nearby town seems to recognize him and calls him by the name Iaxio…

The beggar at his shrine

Maexiks

Sabbys other “sorta friend”. Maexiks is a quiet, Mantis, living as an outsider-under-license in town near to Sabbys house. She makes a living running a little market stall, and Sabby likes to hang-out with her sometimes. (Beats all the shouting at home). Maexiks is generally helpful and friendly (and maybe a little enamoured) around Sabby, and goes out of her way to help her escape. As a Mantis, Maexiks can see visions of the future by studying the skies of the Dream Remnant; she can also communicate with others through this shared dreamspace. Recently she has focused on the possibilities of Sabbys’ future.

McTrinkets

Or Ofrehkik of Tahlekmehrdn-em-a if you prefer, though it’s fairly unlikely that’s her real name. She’s a sharp-minded, trinket peddling river merchant, probably from somewhere south judging from her colouring and accent. She used to sell something a lot more valuable and a lot more illegal for a rising Family, but having lost both the merchandise and the money to pay them back, said Family now want to make her deader than dead.

Other Characters

McTrinkets

• Tabaxian Geofahn – The buttjerk fiancé. He is confused by Sabbys opposition to the marriage, and has resorted to rather convoluted means to try and make her happy.
• Corpsegramps – a corpsebound from the town Yaihahlrefdn-em. He and the ghost of his daughter, Saexix, seem to have some connection with Iaxio…
• Kekahkik – McTrinkets’ stoic, ghostly, companion. A friend of her fathers.
• Kehfn Doxedn – House Doxedns’ living heir. He is trying to discredit the family pursuing Mcktrinkets.
• Akilfhren Doxedn - Kehfn’s sister, and officer in the Doxedns’ City guard.

The Houses

Tashikoxix – [Green / Pink]
Was once a very large and influencial house but in the past five generations it has dwindled to only two living members, Sabby and her Mother. The only thing of any value the House has left is its historic lineage, something some younger Houses are keen to aquire by marrying into the family.

Geofahn – [Strong Blue / Emerald Green]
Started as one family that ran a good shipping business, and after a few decent marriages with other shipping families, was able to declare itself a House. Since then it has expanded in both members and territory, and now controls much of the sea trade with other remnants, and has a strong presence along the coast, particularly in the north. Despite its size and wealth, House Geofahn still lacks the ancestry to earn any respect from some of the more established Houses.

House Fauhredn – [Red / Gold]
A truly ancient House (possibly the oldest) and one of the largest Houses’ in the Remnant. Their territories are based to the south, inland away from the coast, and a lack of outside contact has lead to a more traditionalist attitude within the House, including strong prejudice against young and powerful Houses like Geofahn. Fauhredn is so large that it has birthed several client-houses (Ahnjaksis, Ahfdredn and Xiafdehn). The House has developed a complicated arranged marriage system to help keep its marriages internal. As one branch of the family becomes too large (or incestuous) they can be married into another client-house and back into the main Fauhredn household as necessary. These marriages are often planned out generations in advance. Consequently, all the client-houses and Fauhredn proper share ancestral ghosts, meaning the House has a population of thousands of well cared for ghosts to its name, giving them a daunting political and cultural presence as well as making them a very powerful military force.

House Doxedn – [Yellow / Brown]
A fairly old, medium sized house of around fifty living dogs and over a hundred ghosts, based in a huge ancient city. The House has a strong dislike of Family Hefehxn, but is happy to simply “outlast” its rival, rather than resort to open action against them.

Family Hefehxn – [Dark Green / Grey]
A small but powerful family that seeks to usurp House Doxedn, and take control of their city. A decade ago Family Hefehxn was unheard of, but though the trade of illicit goods, particularly corpse-paste, they have gained wealth and influence very quickly, as well as a rather grim reputation.

House Aifix – [White / Pale Red]
A tiny House that controls a single town. Said town receives some traffic as a river trade route, but the House lacks the manpower to even effectively collect tax from it. east side of town is ocean blue over white, west side of town is white over ocean blue

Strangers – [No Colours]
Stranger refers to anyone that does not belong to a House or Family, and therefore wears no House colours. The lack of family ties means Strangers are often hired for rather shady work, giving them dubious reputations as transients and vagrants. However the term has numerous uses and can be applied in a more polite fashion to foreign races, travellers, or even someone who is simply wearing unfamiliar colours. Strangers who are adopted by a House are known as outsiders-under-license, and typically wear House colours, with the addition of horizontal stripes in the submissive colour.

Setting

Tombdogs

A partial map of the Tombdog remnant

A race of anthropomorphic African Hunting Dogs (Lycaon pictus), that live throughout the swamps, mountains, and deserts of the Southern Remenant. Fur colouring differentiates by gender, with females having white chest and neck fur where as males have much darker tones. Desert dwelling Sourthern dogs can be identified by their greyer fur markings and longer ears. A unique aspect of their species is the ability to persist after death in a ghost form. This has led to a culture almost entirely based around the preservation of their dead, and a network of family Houses to ensure a line of descendents who can properly care for the deceased.
Houses are formed when a large or influential family declares itself so, it will then independently (?) govern and protect its holdings, including family crypts. Each House even has its own currency, with a complicated system of exchange-rates, based on a Houses’ current reputation and standing. Steady lines of succession are so critical to a House that arranged marriages are the norm (sometimes planned out generations in advance) and refusal of marriage can be considered a grave insult. Childbearing outside of wedlock is considered very distasteful, and detrimental to a family’s line of succession, with the illegitimate child receiving as much blame as their parents. Consequently Tombdogs are very reserved in nature, public displays of affection of any kind are basically unwelcome, even a married couple holding hands or hugging is way too saucy for most Tombdog. What goes on behind closed doors is another matter, as long as it eventually results in children.
Tombdog society is somewhat conservative with a rather obvious focus on family responsibilities, especially those that support ghost relatives. Relations between houses are done through an elaborate tradition of ritual and protocol. While Houses to the north have become more open and flexible due to contact with other races, the Houses in southern territories remain staunch traditionalists who value their privacy. Those who live outside the House system are known as Strangers, and are generally viewed with suspicion and are treated as second class citizens. Strangers and even foreign races can be invited into a family, and become outsiders-under-license.
Membership of a House is represented by displaying a Houses colours. This is a central facet of Tombdog society, and to be seen not wearing colours is considered very unusual, to the point where foreign races residing in the remnant have adopted the practise. It is also considered a grievous offence to wear the colours of a House to which you do not belong. Ties to House colours are so strong that Tombdog ghosts are able to appear wearing the colours of their House. There is a lot of etiquette in the Tombdog dress code. Outfits are usually made of three items, a mantle, shirt and skirt, and are dyed in the Houses’ colours. Additional clothing such as hats or armour is often coloured to match. Not wearing a mantle and bearing ones shoulders or collarbone is considered very immodest; there is a strong taboo towards nudity in general.

Some of the common patterns are as follows:

A Hefehxn outsider-under- license, note the striped pattern

• Standard – The typical form of dress worn by most Tombdogs, with the Houses’ dominant colour shown on the mantle ands skirt, and submissive colour shown on the shirt.
• Striped – Similar to the standard pattern, but with the addition of horizontal stripes in the submissive colour across the mantle. This form of dress is worn by outsiders-under-license.
• Half-Mantle – Half the mantle is dyed with the colours of another House. This is to show a connection to another family or to a town of previous residence. This is a common pattern for those who have married into another House.
• Three-colour – Patterns using three colours imply no affiliation with a House. They are usually worn by foreign races, as an act of courtesy towards Tomdog culture.

Sub-families that a part of a Larger House, will typically use variants of the parent Houses’ colours.

Tombdog Ghosts

When a Tombdog dies it is immediately reborn as a ghost. This ghost form is partly non-corporeal, they cannot make physical contact with a living Tombdog (and in some cases other ghosts), but also cannot “phase” through solid objects like walls etc. Ghosts can however physically touch their own remains; in fact they are bound to their corpse and can only materialize and move within a few feet of it. If there body has been dismembered they can appear at any (post-mortem) fragment of their corpse they wish. If the body is destroyed completely, by fire for example, a ghost will not form. Consequently the loss or destruction of a corpse is considered utterly horrific in Tombdog society. While immaterialized Ghosts experience a dream like state, spending to long “asleep” is detrimental to a ghosts’ well being, and will damage their minds in a manner similar to dementia. If a ghost loses its memory completely it will fade from existence, essentially dieing again, permanently.

Strong personal willpower will slow this, but an active and varied existence is the surest means to keep a ghosts mind healthy. Life as a ghost is often repetitive and monotonous, and loosing track of time is very harmful to a ghosts’ sanity. Conversation with other ghosts helps, but is no substitute for contact with the living, whose daily changing; busy lives are far more interesting than occupying space in a crypt. Strong emotional connections further boost the positive effects of socializing.

A corpsebound and a ghost. The ghosts' corpse can be seen in the tree

A rather grim alternative, though unquestionably effective means of keeping a ghost healthy is the use of “Taxiholixif fhrefdemnm”, also know as corpse-paste. Corpse-paste is made by grinding up the remains of another dead Tombdog, killing said dogs ghost in the process. The end result is a powdery cobweb like substance, that when applied to another corpse has a powerful and immediate effect on the ghosts’ strength. The practice is highly illegal throughout the Tombdog lands but a sizeable black market trade in the substance exists.

A healthy ghost will retain all its mental faculties and may even gain slight physical tangibility, comparable to that of water. Properly cared for ghosts are potentially immortal, some House Fauhredn ghosts for example, are thought to be more than a 500 years old.

Ghosts have the same rights as the living, marital commitments continue and they retain ownership of all their property. Some ghosts even continue to work, usually in an advisory role, as physical tasks can be a bit problematic without a body. It is also fairly typical for the leader of a House to be a ghost.

The majority of Tomdog corpses are placed in familiar or communal crypts. Living relatives take parts of a corpse and fashion them into relics and reliquaries to keep around the home or wear on their person, allowing the Ghosts a much greater choice of places to materialize. An alternative to this is the practice of Corpse architecture, where a corpse is set into the structure of a building. Ghosts placed in this state often make a living as guides, touts, doormen etc. Weaker ghosts preserved this way have also been used as a means to power and control simple mechanical devices such as door locks, and as a useful means of insect repellent.

Less common is turning a body into a corpsebound. By properly preparing the remains of a tombdog, a ghost can posses its former body, allowing it the same freedom of movement as if they were alive, though they can no longer manifest at detached fragments of their body. The initial process is somewhat expensive and the corpsebound body requires regular maintenance and occasional reinforcement with iron pins and supports, to prevent it from simply falling apart. Corpsebounds are also traditionally used as caretakers in Tombdog crypts.

One of the more significant uses of ghosts is their use as a means of long range communication. By dividing up a corpse and leaving it in different locations ghosts can quickly relay messages across vast distances. Many Houses maintain a network of such ghosts for just this purpose (?).

The most important ability of a ghost is being able to bind itself to a living or corspebound, Tombdog. By doing this they can temporally pass their skills to their host. For example a ghost who was a gifted cook in life could bind themselves to a living Tomdog and guide their actions to make them a better cook. But more that that, the ghost quite literally lends their strength and speed to the living host. This has led to the process of “stacking” where multiple ghosts bind themselves to one person to create a Ghost Tower, greatly increasing the living persons’ physical capabilities. Personal and family connections greatly help this process and because of this it is rare to see a Ghost Tower of more then 10 ghosts. Ghosts Towers are used primarily for combat. Tombdog warfare consists of a handful of soldiers with 3-5 ghosts each bound to them. Because of this, the number of ghosts belonging to a House can be used as a direct measure of their military capabilities.

The Remnants

Thousands of years ago, massive apocalyptic event destroyed several worlds of very different origins, and caused the remains to merge together into a new world, know as the Remnants.

As well as the southernmost continent that is home to the Tombdogs, there are three other landmass that make up these remnants, all separated by a large central ocean. They are quiet literally fragments of another world, and the environments, right down to the laws of nature (?) can vary greatly. Each is also home to a unique sentient species.

Maexikis doing Dreambug things

• The Bird Archipelago – located in the eastern part of the world. It is home to “Birddemons”, as other races call them. A humanoid race of flightless(?) avians that worship millions of sprit creatures.

• The Reptile Continent – located to the west. Home to a rather repressive society of Lizards, who have some means of reincarnation. It is rumoured that they also practice cannibalism.

• The Human Continent – the north most remnant. The “Prayermen” have a reputation as easy-going, and worship numerous deities.

Although the landmasses of only four worlds survived, races from other worlds did survive the catastrophe and live thought-out the Remnants.

• Mantises - also known as “Dreambugs”. The Mantis remnant also survived; in fact it was never really destroyed, but is only perceivable as dream.

The Dreambug remnant is where all Mantises truly reside. They can persist in this world even if their physical bodies die. They can also project themselves into the dreams of others, including other species. One the most notable features of the Dream Remnant, is its planet filled skyline. By studying the movements of these spheres, Mantises can prophesize the future. They can only see the possibilities of some ones’ future, and the further from the present they look, and the more possibilities there are in that persons’ life, the harder it becomes to discern their future.

• “Walkplants” - plant people are an ambulatory life-phase of sentient trees. They sometimes grow into the form of another sentient species and live among them for a few decades

There are thought to be numerous, unaccounted, remnant-less races as well.

Plot Summary

Pre-Quest

Sabby lives a fairly boring life in her family’s’ rundown manor in the middle of a swamp. She spends her time visiting the family shrine, hanging out with her Mantis friend Maexiks. She also has to endure the advances of her buttjerk fiancé. It was bad enough when he walked in on her taking a bath, but when hired some thug to threaten her so he could swoop in and defend her honour like in some cheesy romance novel, she decides enough is enough.

Part I

Yep, totally running away

Sabhaxlia is running away. The big wedding is just around the courner and she can’t marry that buttjerk Tabaxian, and she can’t go on constantly arguing with her parents about getting married. After a particular unpleasant fight with her parents, she walks out, and keeps walking. This is totally planned and she totally knows what she’s doing.

Before properly running away she decides to say goodbye to her sort of friend, the ghost of a nameless, amnesiac, beggar, who resides in a nearby shrine. It takes him about ten seconds to figure out what she’s up to, but seems supportive if a little bemused about the whole idea. He offers some money; to pass on a message to her mother and some useful travelling advice, seeing how he was a seasoned vagrant in his life. Realizing how unprepared she is for life on the road, Sabby comes up with the great idea of taking a relic of him with her, so he can be her travelling ghost bro. He is hella happy about this, as waiting die by the side of a road is a kind of miserable existence.

They head for a nearby market town where Sabbys’ other friend, Maexiks, lives. Unlike Sabby, Maexiks has actually made some preparations, in case she planned to runaway from the marriage, and uses the Beggar’s money and her own merchant contacts to buy Sabby lots of useful travelling stuff, including a set of clothes in a made-up House pattern.

While Maexikis is busy gathering everything up, Sabby and Beggar mange to come up with something resembling a plan. Head South deep into House Fauhredn territory. House Fauhredn is strict and old-fashioned, and probably not very friendly place for a travelling stranger (never mind a runaway bride), they do however have a fierce dislike of House Geofahn (Tabaxians’ House) meaning the angry in-laws to be, can’t follow her for long. They all spend the night at Maexiks’ house, eating, chatting, and playing cards. The next morning Sabby thanks Maexiks with a platonic face lick for being so awesome, and then hits the road again with The Beggar.

They soon arrive at the town of Yaihahlrefdn-em; probably the furthest Sabhaxlia has ever been from home, though Beggar has some memories of the place. A little unsure of their next move Beggar suggests they try and make some money gambling, he was pretty good at it in life. While scoping the tables for someone to play with, an elderly corspebound calls out to them, apparently recognizing the Beggar as “Iaxio”. The corpsebound claims to be Beggars grandfather and the one who built his corpse shrine, though Beggar himself is drawing a complete blank. After introducing herself with the fake name of Taliaxix, Sabby suggests they continue their conversation over a game of dice. She decides to get rid of her near worthless family currency and… the corpsebound points out how a travelling young woman, in unfamiliar colours, trying to change lots of Tashikoxix coinage, so close to the day of the big House wedding, is something a runaway Tashikoxix bride might try to do…he asks them to follow him into the swamp.

A little way out of town he leads them to a old tree, which is actually a hidden corpse shrine and introduces them to the ghost of Saexix. Beggars Mother. Saexix died when Iaxio was three years old, she had given birth out of wedlock and her corpse was denied entry in the town tomb, forcing Corpsegramps to hide her body. He also tried to raise Iaxio but being an illegitimate child; he too had to face the slander of the townsfolk and eventually ran away at age sixteen. Corpsegramps found Iaxios’ corpse some years later and built his shrine in effort to care for his ghost. Iaxios’ father was married to another woman, and had threatened Saexix into silence about the affair. He was an influential, Tashikoxix Housedog. Sabbys great-grandfather…

The reunion with his family, and discovering Sabby is part of his family does wonders for Iaxios health as a ghost (he even begins to manifest wearing Sabbys made-up House colours). Despite some painful memories everyone is happy to be reunited. Sabby and Iaxio camp out for the night with Saexix, while Corpsegramps heads home.

After a strange night in the Dream Remnant with Maexiks, Sabby and Iaxio head further south to a House Aifix town. They visit the docks, where they meet a travelling merchant; Sabby dubs “McTrinkets”, and arrange for him to take them down river that night. With some time to kill, Sabby buys herself a room at the Strangers’ inn. While haggling with the money-changer she hears a commotion outside, and sees an Aifix dog killed by a Geofahn dog and ghost tower. The town is in an uproar at Geofahns’ lack of restraint and Sabby panics, fleeing to the docks. She desperately tries to get Mcktrinkets to take her south now…and maybe let’s slip that Geofahn is after her.

With a smirk he agrees to get her past the Geofahn river patrols, he even has a clever plan for doing so. Or rather she has, it turns out McTrinkets is a girl. Using some special fur dye, she disguises Sabby as a guy too, and they mange to slip out down the river with the guards none the wiser.

McTrinkets says Sabby will have to pay her back for the escape with a favour, though both of them are too tired to worry about that now, and Sabby drifts off to sleep. She again has visions of Maexiks and the Dream Remnant. Maexiks says Sabbys future is to open for her to accurately predict, but there has been worrying development. She leads Sabby across the Remnant to an overlook, where they spy another Mantis, one wearing Geofahn colours…

Part II

Still running away

Sabby wakes to find that McTrikets has shored their boat and set up camp. She has a simple courier job for Sabby to do in exchange for her smuggling her out of the Aifix town.

Sabby decides to get it out of the way and hits the road with Iaxio. Her curiosity quickly gets the better of her and she opens the package to find it contains money, lots of money, and decides to hide it at the bottom her bag.

Which turns out to be a good precaution, as not far down the road she is ambushed by a strange crew of bandits. The group consists of an underdressed knifewoman; an overdressed rifleman, a mean corspebound; and the ghost of the knifewomens’ boyfriend (?). They don’t hurt her but take all her personal money and are about to go through her pack, when they start bickering about the necessity of a strip search. While the arguing continues the rifleman allows Sabby to slips away.

After a long trek she reaches the Doxedn City. While seeking shelter from the rain Sabby has a quick dream consultation with Maexiks. She can see some danger in her near future, and advises that the quicker she completes the delivery the safer it will be for everyone.

Getting some directions from a gatekeeper ghosts, Sabby heads to the Hefehxn manor to drop of McTrinkets’ payment. She is greeted by a rather sombre butler, who seems a little surprised by the package, and insists Sabby comes in and answers some questions. Sabby insists otherwise and begins the walk back to camp, though not before reporting the bandits to the city guard.

Not far out of the city Iaxio notes they are being followed by the creepy Hefehxn servant. The plan is to camp down by the road for the night and hope the guy gets bored. While laying out her bedroll, Kekahkik, McTrinkets’ ghost companion, appears. A little annoyed McTrikents planted a relic on her, Sabby fill him in on what happened with the delivery, and he relays it to McTrinkets.

Exhausted, Sabby falls asleep and is greeted by a worried looking Maexiks. She feels guilty for telling Sabby to complete the delivery quickly, as this has made Sabbys future safer but has doomed McTrinkets, unless Sabby intervenes.

Still dreadfully tired Sabby rouses herself and uses Kekahkik to tell McTrinkets about her Dreambug friends’ premonitions. She agrees there’s cause for concern and heads along the river to meet up with Sabby.

Mcktrinkets comes clean and tells the full story. She used to sell highly illegal “corpsepaste” for family Hefehxn, and found an opportunity to steal some of their merchandise and sell for her own profit with them none the wiser. They eventually found out and unable to payback the debt she ran away. Most of the money she gave Sabby to deliver was counterfeit, and now they’ve realised this, they are after her again. The bigger problem however is that not only will they kill her, they will likely make their money back by turning her remains into corpsepaste.

After a miserable night, they decide to head back and through Doxedn city, in order to get further south and avoid both Geofahn and Hefehxn, when Sabby hits on an idea.

Why not snitch out Hefehxns illegal activities to a rival House? McTrinkets has plenty of details on their operation, as well as a package of their corpsepaste stashed in her boat, not to mention the relic of Kekahkik she hid in the counterfeit money. Doxedn is a known enemy of Hefehxn, and would likely welcome the chance to move against them if they had any hard evidence.

McTrikets hides outside of the city, while Sabby heads in to try and use her knowledge of protocol to wrangle a meeting with the Doxedn higher ups. She is granted an audience with some eerie corpsebound nobles…but they are uninterested in the actives of an insignificant upstart Family. The plan seems to have failed but on her way out of the Doxedn palace a guard hands her letter. It is a short cryptic message suggesting Doxedn does want to act on her information, and lists an address for a more private meeting.

With nothing to lose she heads for the meet. She is greeted by Kehfn, Doxedns’ living heir, Meandraxix one of Doxedns’ informants in Family Hefehxn. Kehfn wants to dismantle family Hefehxn before they become too big a problem. McTrinkets knows how Hefehxn sells their product and Meandraxix knows how they move it, now they just need someone who supplies the corpses. Sabby wonders whether the strange bandits from earlier could be involved. Kehfn smirks and says that even if they’re not they can still testify that they are. Everyone agrees on the insane plan. While Kehfn leaves to arrange for a carriage and guard to take Sabby to pick up McTrinkets and hire the worst bandits, Meandraxix offers to run Sabby a bath and cook up some food for her.

After several weary days travel Sabby welcomes the chance of a little r & r. Enjoying a hot soak, she falls asleep, to find a paniced Maexiks. In her visions she has seen Meandraxix sell Sabby out to Hefehxn, and one of their men is already in the building! Sabby awakes to find an embarrassed Hefehxn dog peeking through the door. He says he give her a minute to get dressed before taking her in for questioning by his masters. Thinking quickly Sabby uses the corpsepaste to boost Iaxio and bind him and Kekahkik to herself to form a ghost tower, and rushes the Hefehxn dog killing him with a single strike. She then confronts Meandraxix, who reveals she is being blackmailed into being a Hefehxn spy, and is trying to foil Kehfns’ plan. Sabby steals Meandraxixs’ clothes but lets her live, and then makes her escape across the rooftops.

She makes for the carriage house to try and find Kefhn. She instead meets Akilfhren, Kehfns’ sister, who was to be her guard escort and the ghost of their father, who seem stop be the leader of the Doxedn anti-Hefehxn movement. After explaining what happened at Meandraxixs’ house, they decide they can no longer offer Sabby protection, as she has killed a Hefehxn dog they are within their rights to kill her. Despite this Sabby is still willing to try and make the plan work, they only needed McTinkets and Meandraxix to testify anyway not her, and she can still use the Doxedn money to hire the bandits without their House being directly involved.

She heads out of the city by carriage, only to see the exact bandits she’s looking for heading in…

Trivia

Squeegy is running an author approved tabletop RPG campaign based in the Tombdog setting, currently on its first chapter, Rise of House Kaliaxix. The irc deets, chat logs and some player artwork can be found in the dis thread and the campaign info.

Gallery

This quest has (fan) artwork that is not safe for work. See the NSFW gallery.

Official

Yay!

Fanart

Sabby meets Zane By LonelyWorld

Sabhaxlia's terrible new fetish (follow link to post for terrible fanfic)

tabletop-games By w_

By LawyerDog

Quests by Coracleboat

TGchan: Sabhaxlia's Terrible Life | Best Bandits