This continues my game summaries from Six is Better than Seven, and takes us to my current world. I should be seeing Scott soon, so expect another summary before online play.
I woke up in a field of some wheat based crop. I stood up and looked around, realizing I was on farm land, with farm house nearby. I went over to check it out, and heard a dog whimpering under the porch. Going in to the farmhouse, I looked for food to try and coax the dog out, after trying and failing to do so with normal means. I found, on the kitchen table, an uneaten meal. I grabbed the porkchop, sufficiently scared at this point, and was about to go outside when I was confronted with a skeleton. I dropped the porkchop (and a werelight I had summoned) and began to attack it. When I destroyed the first and discovered the second, I decided to invent a magic spell that bathed me in holy light, causing damage to the undead (a 9@2 create light with a 1@something torture spirt incorrporated in, 1@10 I think). I demolished the skeletons, discovered the torn up corpses of the children of the farm house, and left with much haste, dog in tow. I traveled for a while, created a magic spell to talk to the dog, and walked for most of two days or so.
Rain plagued me, I ran into the dog's original owner, and arrived in a cross-roads town. I found the inn and used my rings as collateral for a night's rest and food. In the morning, I went to the silversmith and exchanged one of my rings for paper money, paid the innkeeper and got my other ring back. On the advice of the silversmith, I went to the church and waited till the father showed up. When he did, I asked if I could work for him. He allowed me and gave me a quick run down of what I'd do, mostly involving cleaning. On each Moon Day I was to ring the bell (the next one was in 3 days). I began cleaning the chapel and the gravestones, stomping down the grave dirt as was asked. I went and ate dinner with the silversmith, Johnson, that I had met before. I told him that my family had been attacked by the undead, and that the neighbors decided it was best to use fire to deal with them. This got very interesting responses. They were very quiet about it and immediately changed the subject.
That night, I was woken up by something (or was just about to fall asleep) when I noticed lights in the graveyard. I went up to the bell tower and looked out on the graveyard. I saw a few shambling people and assumed the worst. I ran downstairs and outside, and then something horrible happened. I tried to use my holy light spell and botched, calling to Jared and Jamaal instead of Bah Tor. Therefore, every corpse in the graveyard rose in an eerie blue light. I ran inside and up to the bell tower and saw as they formed a giant crescent, the symbol of the anarch gods, and began to talk to each other (well, those that could make noise did at least).
The exciting conclusion when I feel like updating it!
Ripping off Heinlein now, are we?
Amusingly, Graham relates the lie he later tells about the beginning of the churchyard incident rather than the actual truth (which follows):
He had not yet gone to bed when he decided to climb the belltower (for some reason undisclosed to me). It was locked, but that's no deterrent to a Bah of Graham's magical abilities. Once in the belltower, his eye caught some movement in the graveyard below. I described vague humanoid figures, indistinct in the low light - it was about twilight. Thinking them trespassers or drunks, he went down to the graveyard, where he got a closer look and only then apprehended that they were zombies.
The holy light spell botched as described. It is not certain that Jared and Jamaal were the entities or entity who "answered" his prayer in Bah Tor's stead. It is only heavily implied by the circumstances and results.
The silversmith's name was Jameson, if I recall correctly, not Johnson, but I don't think it's likely to matter in the future. He at least showed some willingness to discuss the recent increase in the presence of roaming undead, but his wife shut him down pretty quickly.
I don't recall Graham blaming the neighbors for the fire, though maybe he was thinking it; I remember the agents of the mishap being concealed through some passive construction akin to "fire seemed the best way of dealing with them . . ."
When he met the dog's owner, the dog changed hands.
One last quibble, because it's telling of Graham's playing style: he didn't invent the light spell for the second skeleton. When he saw the first one, the first thing he did was invent the prayer. He was lucky that he got an answer; he still hadn't atoned for his lack of due diligence in the matter of leaving Talbot downstairs with an ax and a violent group of live opponents.
Which reminds me that his "speak with animal kind" spell was designed arcane, to get around the penalty. Classy. (He atoned later, on his first night in town.)
Still getting around to adding input to the earlier summary threads . . .
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[As an aside, the crescent in the symbol is downturned, like a pointy-tipped capital C that fell on its face. The use of a crescent moon in the symbols of any real-world faith, including on the flags of several Muslim nations, is entirely coincidental.]
So my immediate solution was to call upon Bah Tor to fix all my problems. What else are gods for?
I invented two versions of a holy light spell, the only difference being a longer TF for the second spell. The spell created two shafts of light from my hands, spotlight style, that shone down on the zombies and other revenants. Then the lights stayed up in the air and continued to assault them. I descended the belltower rapidly and met the silversmith and the father outside. The silversmith was sent away to go get help, while the father accosted me about who was in the belltower. He performed a spell in latin (I had seen proof of his magic before, I think) and asked me again. When I repeated the same thing, he apparently knew I was lying. Then, he froze me in some kind of magical restraint so I could move. Then I invented two spells once he began to sic the undead on me.
The first is an undead pusher, similar to the one the feeders use in Bah Ke'Gehn, except it's thought only and pushes just the undead. The other dispels magical bonds and restraints. The distinction I made was "Magically conjured ropes, yes, magically animated ropes, no." So imagine the look on the priest's face when he thinks I am bound and cannot move anything, when his horde of undead gets pushed back into my holy light and I run off through the other buildings. I run a good ways sprinting, then fail a stamina check and collapse. The priest catches up to me and restrains me. I tell him the truth--or a close enough version; my god hates your gods, your practice is an abomination. He seems shocked; what do I think I can accomplish? This kind of stumps me but I remain cool. He didn't expect me to know martial arts though, so when I toss him in answer to his question, I have enough surprise on my side to get away.
I get sufficiently far out into the field land to feel safe sleeping. My memory is fuzzy about this next chain of events, but these things happened; I was contacted in a dream, by a golden eagle who told me that there were indeed other gods in this world and I need to be more careful, because if they can find me so can the enemy. If I ever needed help, though, I was to meditate on the name of his god, which he gave and I have forgotten. Scott will remember. I know if I try to type it it'll be the name of Paul's giant squirrel from Gamma World.
I also did another vision quest with Bah Tor, and he showed me a farm house two towns away from where I was (about a 3-4 days walk, I think). He pointed me towards the cellar, and then I woke up. "Awesome," I said to myself.
I traveled to and stayed at the two towns, having a few close calls with priests and townspeople, but proceeded unmolested. I get to this farmhouse via landmarks, and go through the front door (avoiding notice via my pseudoinvisiblity). In the cellar there is a small door. I unlock it and go inside. There hung an amulet in a small room with books and scrolls and other odds and ends. In the middle of the room was a table with a huge book open on it. I relocked the door with a magic spell, and started reading the book at the beginning. There were a bunch of rituals I was supposed to perform before reading, to make sure it's safe, so after a bit of contemplation I did so and began to read. This book was a book about the god from before, the good one opposing the moon gods. I read the first little bit and then checked out some scrolls once it got into the "here is how to worship this god" stuff. The scrolls I checked out had some bitchin magic spells, one of the least powerful was the genuine invisibility (saying something in itself) which was the only one I felt comfortable trying. They were in a weird cipher language, and so I was using a magic spell to translate them. I botched and rolled "summon author", and so conversed with the author of one of the scrolls via writing, Tom Riddle style. He taught me the magic spell to read the cipher, and basically I got his OK as a disciple of Bah Tor. We just left with me bundling up scrolls for me to take with me.
This takes us up to the current situation. Scott, I almost feel bad about playing tomorrow because it means I'll have to write another summary, but I don't feel almost bad enough not to play. So yes.
This takes us up to the current situation. Scott, I almost feel bad about playing tomorrow because it means I'll have to write another summary, but I don't feel almost bad enough not to play. So yes.
Okay then, I'll write the summary for our next bit in advance. Here goes:
"Graham did a bunch of stuff and then died. He woke up somewhere else (after botching his Flex check) and then we stopped because I really wasn't expecting him to croak that soon even though he invented like fifty spells before he finally kicked off."
There. Now we can go straight to online stuff right after we get back!
After I do my part on your summaries for world eight, world nine, and your second post for world ten.
Scott and I had a short session tonight. The only thing that happened was that I invented a spell modeled after the Mu-tahk's spell to summon books from off-world sources. This bumped my bias up to 12@10, and got me a book which I will read in the next session, titled, Meditations on the Creator: A Cleric's Handbook.
Even though it took almost two hours to figure out what with distractions and all, I am happy and satisfied.
We had another game session tonight, and decided that the spell acted differently than we thought. Instead it is a 14@6 creation spell that gathers information from off-world and then creates a book using that information.
Next, I devised a blessing to help me in my language manipulating skills, and started reading the manual I created. I won't go into the details; a lot of it pertained to being a good cleric of a creator god and other parts were about magic rituals the author had seen or knew about. I botched on my blessing on one point, which just created the reverse effect.
Eventually, the life-trigger I placed on the stairs was tripped, and the door was unlocked by the wife of the house. I told her I was sorry for the espionage and explained the situation. She was very understanding and brought me food, but I had to wait until after dark for her to come back. When she did, we talked about Askatosh and where I was from and things like that. She inferred my use of magic and deduced from that that I was some kind of priest. As she had confessed before, she wanted some help deciphering the Askatosh bible. I helped her and saw her concoct a remove fatigue potion.
In one of our breaks, she told me that she and her husband were planning on expanding the cellar, but she started while he was away and found this room. She assumes it was placed there by the husband's grandfather who built the house, but she did not exclude the idea of its preexistence before that.
So we do more tutoring stuff for a few hours into the night (I improve a remove fatigue spell) and eventually she has to go milk things, so I'm left to my own devices, which frequent readers will know is when things really get kickin'.
I want to delve into the husband's dream and ask him if he knows about Askatosh (his wife is afraid to ask, for obvious reasons) because if his grandfather was indeed the one to build the room, then he might've been told by his father or some such. However, the way I envision doing this is not by directly manipulating his dream, it is by entering the Dreamscape and traveling to his dream. So here we have the skill.
1@1 Enter Dreaming M15@7* TF 10:00 Caster sits crosslegged in a circle of
appropriate size and meditates on the Dreaming; leaving the caster's body asleep, his consciousness [REDACTED] enters the realm of dreams (a related universe) having transformed into a form capable of existing there. When the duration expires, the caster's consciousness is ejected, returning to his body [REDACTED]. Lasts [REDACTED], +9 SM W10
The continuation...tomorrow! See what our handsome hero finds in THE DREAMSCAPE!
So, I spend ten minutes meditating and then I am standing in a cathedral with high ceilings and stain glass windows. I cannot see to the end. A voice calls out, something to the effect of "Hello there little one," and I turn to see a giant blue and gold dragon directly behind me, with a giant hour glass in his head. He is asleep. The sand in the hourglass is running both forwards and backwards. He asks me if I am going to be in his dream forever, and when I tell him it's only temporary, he gets upset and starts fidgeting saying that he doesn't like this dream, that it has bad things in it. He settles down and asks me three riddles;
1. What is my name?
Askatosh
2. What is my favorite color?
...Blue?
and at this point, Askatosh (or a dream parading as him) opens his maw and devours me. I attempted a teleportation out spell, but it didn't work. In his mouth is a giant sand tornado, and I realize down is now into his mouth, and there is a house below me. I fall and become level with the house and the witch cycling around it on her bike. Familiar, much? We have a short conversation about where I came from. She was belligerent that I entered the dreaming without knowing how to get out. She tells me I'd better find a gate, then. I invent a 12@ flying spell and fly out of the tornado and down to the large modern city I see in the midst of a beautiful landscape. I land in an alley-way and hear muffled bangings from a trash can. I open it to find Oscar the grouch, hands hand cuffed with mouth gag around his neck. I ask him what happened and when he tells me none of my business I say Okay and close the trash can. I walk down the street. There is no noise, not even my own footsteps, and it is night time. I yell out "Where is everybody?" and the neon sign for a bar with the word Morpheus in its name flickers on. I go inside; it's empty save for the barkeep, a cowled man cleaning a mug. I sit down and he moves over towards me. In the mirror I am a Bah but looking at myself I'm 14 again. He gruffly asks me what I want and I tell him I don't think I should be here. I want to go back to where I came. He grunts, gets a bottle, tells me it's a bad year, and pours it. I look at the liquid to see myself, sitting unconscious back in the room. I drink it all down and wake up.
I suppose at this point I'll just make my next post, since it's kind of up to me what happens since I don't expect Dora down anytime soon. I guess I'll go back to reading my cleric's manual, doing the blessing every 2 hours and renewing the alien script one every 20. After the first 2 hours though, if nothing has changed I'll start thumbing through the scrolls at random, how about the ones that I stole ribbons from first.
We have a choice here.
We can behave as though this is a situation in which your success at translation skills matters, and roll your checks for each time period to find out exactly how much reading you are able to get done and whether or not you eventually botch (and when). This is treating your progress through these arcane writings as a challenge encountered during adventuring which you are attempting to solve with your magics.
We can alternatively behave as though it doesn't really matter if your translation skills succeed or fizzle. I would take your stated actions as an intent to practice your translation spells by using them to read your manual, assume that you succeed sometimes and fail other times, and as a side effect of succeeding sometimes you make some progress through your book. You wouldn't botch, because the lack of importance attached to your performance means you aren't under the kind of pressure that leads to botches, but neither would your progress through your reading material be as swift as it would under the other approach - if you don't care about your translations succeeding consistently, you're not going to be reading as often or as much. This is treating your progress through these arcane writings as a sort of background process that happens off-camera, used to explain what you were doing between scenes besides twiddling your thumbs.
I welcome your input on this, as well as suggestions from any interested party who thinks he's got something to contribute to the decision.
The practice idea is fine; I was going to read more as a buffer till I feel comfortable implementing my next ideas.
EDIT: Sorry for the short post (I think they're annoying) but I just got home from the HP6 midnight showing and, well, I'm tired. If any more input from my end is needed I will supply it when I can stop blinking.
You read some more, off and on. After a couple of hours you turn to the scroll whose ribbon you appropriated. This one is perhaps three feet long, and it reads (in large script written in an authoritative hand):
Your path is true, but your faith is weak. The secrets writ herein shall only be revealed to those with the strength of conviction to make use of them.
Better yourself, or pass these writings into the hands of better men than you.
Modesty overcomes me and I decide "No, not that one quite yet" and place it back. I take a break from reading and meditate on the nature of Bah Tor (with no intention of a magical effect). When I feel satisfied with that, I'll go back to reading my cleric's handbook.
My other online games are overdue for summary posts, but this one will be short (only one session), it was recent, and the thread had been caught up and waiting for two months with nary a peep from me, so.
Translation/reading/meditation routine was uneventful; noonish, Dora furtively returns with food (bread, cheese, baked potato) and expresses concern about being able to hide the fact from her husband (for more than a day or two) that she's feeding a third person on the sly. Graham promises to take care of the food problem himself, leaving the as only two potential avenues of discovery (a) that the husband notices Dora's nightly stays in the cellar or (b) he remembers his expand-the-cellar project.
Graham's solution was to borrow a variety of out-of-season seeds/tubers/what-have-you, stake out a corner of the cellar (not in the stone room, but the cellar proper) and invent the following holy magics:
1@1 Sustain Growth M13@5+ TF 10:00 Sustains growth of plants in area for one day; caster walks perimeter while chanting in Bah concerning life-giving power of the deity (sound necessary) and gesturing with both hands, area may be as large as may be walked slowly w/in TF (with additional –10 SM per doubling of 10'x10'), RS controls quality of sustenance, lasts one day, +28 SM W10
1@2 Accelerate Harvest M13@5+ TF 10:00 Accelerates growth and maturation of plants in area over one week's time or until completion of growing cycle; caster walks perimeter while chanting in Bah concerning happy anticipation of future gifts/life from the deity (sound necessary) and gesturing with both hands, area may be as large as may be walked slowly w/in TF (with additional –10 SM per doubling of 10'x10'), annual growing cycle completes in one (RS/10)th of one week, +66 SM W10
1@2 Self-Effacing Wall M10@7+ TF 5:00, creates permanent illusory obscurement (wall) which implants a suggestion in all viewers of its prior and unremarkable existence (duration 10:00, resistance check RS=simple/difficult/none); caster gestures with both indicating dimensions while praying in Bah for permanent concealment which will go unnoticed (sound necessary), -17 SM W10
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I'll post this much to make sure that my skill list hasn't caused the forum software to flag the whole thing as spam. Dora's next visit, and the concurrent second trip into the Dreaming (still in progress), will be covered in a second post.
Edit: note that this is the second part of a single summary, the first part of which is immediately above.
I changed my mind. Graham can write the rest of the summary - or at least, the part with the Dreaming. I happen to know he's on fall break, so he has the time (in theory), and I'm interested to see his impression of what occurred. (I know it was early in the morning, Graham, so you're forgiven if you don't remember everything; I'll fill in gaps.)
By way of leading in: that night, during a break in their study of the holy text, Dora expressed her discomfort with keeping secrets from her husband on the one hand and her fear of broaching the subject of her conversion to the cult of the Dragon-God of Time on the other. Graham volunteers to do something about that, and refines his dream-travel ritual to include a locative element. The new version finds the location of a particular dream within the dreaming given the physical location and name of the dreamer, sending the caster to that locale (rather than leaving the arrival point unspecified as in the original):
1@1 Visit Dream M15@7* TF 10:00 Caster sits crosslegged in a circle of appropriate size and meditates on the Dreaming and a sleeping target, who must be uniquely identified and whose location must be known (or guessed at a –20 SM); leaving his body asleep, the caster's consciousness [RDCT'D] enters the realm of dreams (a related universe) at the location of the target's current dream, having transformed into a form capable of existing there. When the duration expires, the caster's consciousness is ejected, returning to his body [RDCT'D]. Lasts [RDCT'D], +9 SM W10
"[RDCT'D]" indicates an aspect of the magic of which Graham remains unaware. As I said, I'll leave the summary of the-dream-so-far to Graham, but I'll go ahead and post the magic skill he invented while there:
1@1 Manipulate Malleable Reality 15@10* Instant activation; caster wills alteration of surrounding malleable reality [learned in The Dreaming], which takes effect; subject to resistance from concerned parties, thought only, -25 SM, W10b
I become aware of my surroundings, and that they are on fire. Two fields on the right and left respectively, with a farm house in the distance, all burning. Ahead of me are two undead, a skeleton and a zombie wearing a top hat and a monocle, the latter of which waved me forward towards the house. By the time I got there, the skeleton had just swung an axe into the door, and from the resulting crack a bunch of bugs crawled out. I threw the zombie trying to climb in the door far into the distance, and willed myself into the house through the window (see 1@1 Manipulate above). I found the skeleton about to chop the man I was looking for. He was already bleeding, with the blood forming odd patterns on the floor, and about to die. I willed the skeleton away, that the house wasn't burning, and that the man was fine. The skeleton vanishes and the house is no longer burning, and the man is fine, but it's revealed that he's actually a doll. Unfortunately, the house is collapsing under its own weight because it is paper. I tear my way out, and a strong wind blows the house away leaving a grey, featureless landscape.
Graham created a dream guide to guide him through the dream world and had several adventures, culminating in his ejection from the Dream King's library by an imposing and supercilious Librarian before he got a chance to have audience with said King.
Do we need a more detailed summary? Did anything else happen? Help me out here, Graham.
Long and short of it:
When I woke up, Dora was not there, so I went upstairs and using my invisibility spell, eavesdropped on the conversation she was having with her husband about her new religion. Satisfied that the conversation would not end in bloodshed, I went back downstairs and meditated, read my cleric handbook, and practiced martial arts. Once it became apparent that Dora wasn't coming back down tonight, I summoned a book about magical transformations. The book I received was a journal of an alchemist (who's name I forget) that successfully turned a magically enhanced wolf into a man-like form (later, he goes on to ponder about the idea of an owl-bear hybrid, since bears sleep at night and don't generally make good guards. The joke is that I know as a player that the owlbears will breed true--and out of control--making that entire area of the world a lot more dangerous). This gives me some ideas about transforming myself into a higher life-form on the Bah chain, especially the use of symbolism. So I create a magic ritual and go out into the fields to try it. Currently it's about 3 am, and my ritual takes 2 hours, so I finished around 5 am. However, I was trying to turn myself into a scholar when I didn't meet the necessary physical attributes (Strength, Stamina, but mostly Agility), so my spell was actually four skills: three permanent raise attribute skills, and one magical transformation skill. It was by the numbers impossible for me to actually raise my Agility enough in one go to be scholar-worthy, so I was just glad to not botch in the end. This lead to what Scott jokingly referred to as "Increasing your Attributes--the easy way!" (even though he knows I can't advance them normally since I'm locked into the limitations of a WORM); basically I created a nine-hour ritual to be performed during the day that raises each of the three necessary attributes. I don't know how well this'll work, because it's still like RS/5 attribute marks or something, which makes it really hard (impossible?) for me to get my attributes to 2@, so I might need to modify that later. However, the ritual was successful and my attributes went up (Scott told me to note that it's apparently my "hidden" attributes that matter, i.e., my old human attributes. this will make things easier). I was thirsty so I invented a spell to suck the moisture out of the air into a receptacle. A little bit later, someone came down the cellar stairs (the husband, David) and into the room. He started reading the Big Book, and Dora came down. I stepped out of my self-effacing wall and tapped her on the shoulder (which spooked her) asking her what she wanted to do about her husband. She made a little noise, so her husband told her it was just him in the room and to come in. They talked about stuff like the punishment for heresy and protection spells and how did you know they worked, etc. He realized she was hiding something, so I stepped out and introduced myself. We had a slightly terse conversation ("...were you hiding in my basement") in which I revealed that I am a priest, not from this world, etc., and he proudly proclaimed that he is a farmer like his father and his father's father (little did he know I had my own magical farm in his cellar--take that!). After I assured him it would be okay, he agreed to take the conversation upstairs, and that's where we broke.
Scott can post the skills cause I don't have them. Other spells invented: three magically blessings for creation magic, transformation magic, and permanently altering attribute magic.
Bears are strong and would make good guards, but they sleep at night and aren't as aggressive as they could be. Combined with an owl's night vision and predatory instincts . . . !
Yes thanks, guy, you just created owlbears. Good going. Graham put the wizard's notebook away before he got to the part where the owlbears ate him.
(They got his little dog, too.)
Quibbles:
David's proclamation of his occupation prompted (as I recall) your admission that you were a priest; it was something of a challenge. Perhaps just asking you would have been too cordial?
In response to Graham's somewhat tortured explanation that he was not of this world, David asked if he was a person. When Dora asked, he clarified, "is he a human being - a red-blooded, fleshly, living creature?" Graham hedged - he had been human once, and mostly still was, somewhat. David was not impressed: "Somewhat." Asked if he was at least living, Graham replied in an emphatic affirmative; only then did David assent to taking the conversation upstairs.
Oh, and you didn't mention the candle botch (Alter Weather, not that he knows it yet). Also, this is your last full day of disguise; the effect will wear off sometime tomorrow, possibly as early as predawn.
Attributes:
· Strength 1@8+2 1@2+3
· Stamina 1@5+3 1@3+3
· Agility 1@6+3 1@3+3
· MSV 1@9+1 1@4+1 (15.3)
· TV 1@5+1 1@4+1 (15.3)
· DV 1@7+1 1@4+1 15/15 (15.00)
Skills:
1@1 Morph Bah to Other Bah M15@7+ TF 2:00:00 Caster stands in diagram (see notes)
surrounded by magically conjured fire, flailing arms about and dancing while chanting in Bah about one form, gradually shifting into talking about other form and stepping into 2nd circle after half the time has gone by. Permanently raises up to three attributes by RS/10 marks each as necessary to achieve prerequisites for the target form before effecting permanent transformation; diagram and fire consumed, full body involvement, forceful, sound necessary, +30SM W10
1@1 Permanently Increase Personal Strength, Stamina, and Agility M15@3+ TF 9:00:00
Caster sits in full lotus position with eyes closed and chants in Bah about the three attributes he wishes to increase, how he will help do Bah Tor's will with these new attributes, etc.; uses both hands, appropriate words, sound necessary, eyes closed, RS/10 attribute marks toward Strength, Stamina and Agility, +27SM W10
1@1 Moisture Gather M3@2+ TF 1:00, caster prays in Bah for the gathering of liquid in
the area he is in (drawn from the air, limited by local humidity), gesturing with his right hand over a receptacle; sound necessary, +??SM, W10
Is there anything else we need to go over, or can we go ahead and resume gameplay (after like what, a year of inactivity)?
Harsh, Graham. Harsh.
He takes the candle with him upstairs. Dora follows (behind you, I presume). He takes a seat in the main room facing the empty fireplace, placing the candle on a side table. There's another seat sort-of across from him, also facing the fireplace; you could take it, but there would be no place for Dora to sit unless she pulled up a chair from elsewhere in the room. She seems unsure of her place in all this.
A little moonlight seeps in from the kitchen, but only the candlelight is good enough for getting a good look at anyone's face.
There's ample opportunity to get the first word in, if you so choose.
I could summon a sitting chair I suppose, but that might be a little too much. I'll sit on the floor between the chairs and the fireplace if there's room.
I'll start out with:
"I imagine you must have some questions for me," and see where it goes. I'm going to try to not use magic too much in this encounter, but let me know if they seem agitated by the low light conditions or whatever and I might summon a werelight.
Er, actually, I seem to have gotten mixed up in the transition; the candle was necessary for the windowless cellar, but now I recall that this encounter is taking place only a little while after your nine-hour prayer, which itself began shortly after sunrise. That puts the present time at somewhere around five in the afternoon, give or take. It will be sunlight coming in through the kitchen, and the candle will have been put out once David left the cellar. That will bleed some of the oppressive weight from the mood, lending a little normalcy to the scene despite the tension.
"I imagine you must have some questions for me."
He looks at Dora, who hasn't sat down yet, and says, "Dear, would you mind bringing us some water?"
She looks almost relieved. "Sure." She departs through the kitchen.
As David's leathery face turns back to you, it seems to acquire more lines. "Yes. I do." A moment of silence. Then,
"Why are you here?" He waves a hand vaguely over his head, "Not 'here', but . . . here, this house. If it was the book that brought you, how did you know?
"And what are you? If you're 'somewhat' human, what's the rest?"
_____
Mechanics:
Not much this time. I did roll a simple An-Mag check for Graham, as an open-ended clue for how hard I should make him work in this scene: it came up 23, usually a failure for his 1@7 An-Mag. (It was 1@8 at one time, but in the early days in Bah Ke'Gehn it was damaged in a neural breakdown caused by psionic experimentation. A later mishap raised his Persuasion, as I recall. It all evens out in the end.)
To his first question:
"If you can accept that Askatosh is a god and exists, then it should be easy to imagine that there are other gods, some like the Twins and some like Askatosh. My god is like Askatosh, a creator god that believes the practices implemented by the priests of the Twins is an abomination. I was sent here by him; he gave me a vision that led me to this house. I believe that I am supposed to help stop Jared and Jamaal, that I am supposed to stop the undead from roaming free.
"As to your question about my origin...I was born human in a place not too different from this one. By some means of magic I was sent to the Outside, to the beyond, and in my travels I was turned into a being that is part human, part spiritual. I know that may be difficult to grasp, but I can show you proof if you like."
If he requests such proof, I will attempt to disenchant myself to show my true form. 2 min time factor, sound necessary, no bodily involvement, praying in Bah for the expulsion and dismissal of magical augments that currently affect my person, both benign and maleficent, with the intended result being the immediate removal of any enchantments/blessings/illusions/curses affecting my character at the moment of casting.
"I don't want your proof. And I can imagine a whole mess of gods, of any kind you please; that doesn't make them real. I can dream of a fire, but my house will still stand, come morning. Why should I think Askatosh is anything more than dead words in a old book?
"If you're meant to be thwarting gods and burying the undead, why did your 'vision' take you here? Were you expecting skeletons in my basement, or clergymen in the pantry? Or didn't your god explain that in your vision?"
I don't know if this was intentional, but nice reference to the house being on fire in a dream, it took me a minute but I laughed quite a bit.
I look away. "I saw that dream, where the risen dead marched on this house as the fields burned and the house collapsed. I heard the screams of those inside, and I put out the fires and banished the undead."
I shake my head a bit and go on:
"Gods are not fires, they are nothing so complicated; if enough believe, and believe strongly enough, then they are real.
"No, I did not expect you to be unconsciously harboring the undead, or worst, men of the cloth. And no, He did not explain my purpose here, I feel like that would have been antithetical to the point of my journey. I personally believe I was sent here to help your wife along her path to righteousness."
His eyebrows draw together.
"You . . . saw my dream?"
___
I had responses prepared to the rest of the post, but I couldn't make it fit; there's no way he'd say those things while this remained unaddressed.
I blink and look surprised.
"I saw that dream when I walked the dreamscape; I saw it when I slept. I wasn't really sure it was yours. Dreams are hard to identify and impossible to pin down."
While he's digesting this, Dora returns with pitcher of water and two clay cups, which she sets on the table by the extinguished candle. She pours water for you both, first handing you a cup, then her husband. He sips from the water, and when he sets the cup back down he has collected himself.
"What you said about gods - it's interesting, and it might be true. Are you really admitting that you believe your gods are the delusions of, of like-minded, sorcerous madmen? Your way, the men come first, and the gods after. How, then, is the world created? In your view, I mean, where the books have it backwards and the men create the gods."
"Ah, no, you're quite right. Creation gods are a bit different other gods, I believe. Either they are created after the genesis of a world as an explanation, or they personally created the world." I take a sip of my water. "The difference is hard to tell, but I believe my god to fall into the latter category.
"As to what I said earlier, perhaps I was remiss. New gods have to come from somewhere, but I'm sure their creation is more complicated than I implied. However, belief does fuel their power. For instance, what do you think would happen if everyone on this planet stopped believing in the Twins, stopped sacrificing to them and stopped raising the dead? Gods are tenacious by definition, and they play by a set of rules completely different from our own. But I believe they can die." I take another few sips of water and watch for his reaction.
Dora speaks up, standing behind the empty chair. "Askatosh is eternal and enduring. If no one believed in Him, He would carry on. It's happened before."
David hesitates. "Uh, yes." It is less agreement than acknowledgment that she has spoken; he evades further comment by turning back to you.
"According to scripture, at least one god has died already; it doesn't seem to have been an improvement. But, I don't think that's what you mean. If no one believed . . . "
He broods on this a moment.
"It would be worse. Everything would get worse. Devotion to the twins is the string that holds everything in place. Without it . . . the priests would become nothing more than sorcerers in power. The laborers and tradesmen would need some other reason to submit to their rule, and the sorcerers would be forced to supply one. Or several. The Necromancers would remain necromancers, but all the righteousness and benevolence and sacred duty would be stripped away, leaving a skeleton of force and blatant oppression. It would be rule by whim, not by right.
"Nothing else would change."
"It is better to live in slavery than die in a revolution, but what the priests do is against my very core. The only true liberation would be empowerment by automation, that is, the laborers and tradesmen would have to be able to overthrow the necromancers both physically and idealistically and rule themselves without the bonding oppression of the priesthood.
"The only way I could see this as a future is to arm the common man with the skills necessary to resist the followers of the twins.
"But unfortunately magic isn't for everyone, and it would take time and secrecy beyond my skills to train enough people to stop them. Other revolutions could make do simply with larger, more motivated numbers, but when every person that has ever lived is fighting for the opposing side...The point is, direct conflict is impossible, you're correct."
I sigh, finish my water.
"Perhaps I cannot unlock your chains, but maybe I can show you that there is a better alternative. That would be enough for me."
I look away, towards the windows at the front of the house. "I must fight the priests. But I can't expect you to change your ways. I only want to help you."
I'll leave space in between these ideas so he can interrupt if he wants, this is basically what I'll say if he doesn't respond at all.
There wasn't too much left to the conversation at this point. The end result was that David would allow me to live on the farm if I would help out, considering that they are short handed on the farm. I ended up going out with Dora and helping her with her random housework. Eventually we all sat down for dinner, during which I was served a stew containing vegetables and some meat products (mostly fowl) which I abstained from eating, leaving enough broth to cover up the meat. Dora, with the permission of her husband, went down into the cellar to read from the Book, and David asked me into the living room. We sat down (him in a chair, me on a stool) and he asked me about his dream, revealing that he was in fact the skeleton in the dream. He asked about the nature of dreams and if I thought this was some kind of prophecy or warning. I told him that I believed there were two kinds of dreams (dreams that are just dreams--random brain activity--and 'true' dreams) but that I couldn't really tell which one his dream was. After coming to a rather unsatisfactory conclusion, I went down to the cellar and talked to Dora, telling her what David and I had talked about. Afterwards, I told her I would probably sleep in the hay loft the next night, and she bid me goodnight and left. At this point, I go upstairs and out to the barn and renew my disguise spell (one failed attempt followed by one success). Then I run back down to the cellar, grab some sand and head back to the barn. I attempt to magically transform myself into a Flyer (Tolo Bran) and succeed.
I have wings now. Sweet.
The Tolo Bran look pretty much like the Tolo Sin except shorter (four and a half feet hunched over) with large, powerful bat like membranous wings. Their primary job in the society of Bah Ke'Gehn is to carry food from the feeders to the walkers and worms.
So, having acquired the ability to fly (now with Bod skills!) I proceed to fly up to the roof of the barn. I fly back down, and then fly around for fifteen minutes, trying to keep up my pseudo-invisibility while doing this. Scott and I decided this would be practice, and he rolled a general effects roll for how it would go. The result was not in my favor. I wasn't able to keep up my spell almost at all, and even though this was done in the dead of night, I have a feeling it'll have some repercussions later. This was where we stopped play.
Thank you, sah! Play will proceed live, more than likely. (We're at the beach.)
Alright so it's time for another summary! I enjoyed another day of work with Dora, but during lunch David disclosed some startling news. According to one of his neighbors, the church found the heretic that committed the atrocities in Twin Rock (the town where I burned the crap out of all the undea--sorry, "Holy Dead") and that Bishop Jarvis himself was coming to Twin Rock to pass judgement.
Most likely permanent death by incineration.
Regardless of my religious obligation to help this man, I have a moral tie to him as well. So, I resolve to save this man by any means necessary. I set out later that night, having earlier designed two diagrams to be used in a teleportation ritual and having drunk a remove fatigue potion before leaving. I flew south (roughly) for a while, until I was almost due west from Twin Rock. I set up my teleportation site here (see skill description, to be posted by Scott), and proceed west towards the town, flying and walking as I have to. It takes me about a day and a half to get there, and I arrive on the day of the heretic's judgment. I get a couple meals worth of food from the inn and hang around, observing the stage being built and the men dressed in all white with cudgels guarding the area.
Priests came out and announced the judgment was about to begin, and the crowd thickened (I stayed to the outside of the crowd due to my wings). The bishop came out from behind the church proper and gave a speech detailing the crimes of the heretic. A (scary) woman in green came out of the church doors when announced, dragging the heretic along in chains.
The heretic is questioned ("The accusssed sspeaksss not"). The priests began to affix him to the giant crescent on stage.
Diagram in hand, I quickly cast my invisibility spell and fly towards the stage. A few people looked up, but it wasn't until I landed on the stage ("fwoomp") that anyone noticed me. Except for the lady in green, who managed to punch my ear half off with her diamond ring (no seriously) as I grabbed hold of the heretic, yelled "Back to the fold!" in Bah, and vanished in a clap of thunder.
Hell. Yeah.
So there I was, standing in the woods with a half-starved, shell shocked man who probably thinks I'm a demon, even though I look like a little kid. After I magically removed his fear, it was revealed that his tongue had been cut off ("The damned sspeaksss not"), and he tried to tell me something, but I didn't really understand his gestures. I tried to heal his tongue three times, succeeding weakly on the last attempt, meaning that over the next hour and change his tongue should grow back. This is roughly where we stopped. I expect play to resume tonight or tomorrow night.
Right! Okay, brief summarization of the last bits of play.
I let the man (Murdoc, pronounced more like Mur-duck) know that his tongue would grow back in the next hour and a half or so.
He looked impressed.
Realizing this, he decided he would like to relax before doing anything, and sat down leaning against the tree. I resolutely decided that I would make us some food goddammit (well, God willing actually), and proceeded to try a few ways to make food. The basic process remained the same for the different methods: sit full lotus, eyes closed/open depending on the ritual, chanting a remix of "The Litany Against Fear" from Dune, subbing in words about hunger for references to fear. The whole ritual lasted like 10-12 minutes. The final one I came up with involved a fire as a material component (which I made using my 9@(2?) Create Fire attack against inanimate objects and some sticks from around the area) which was consumed in the process. Now, I forget if this was a create food or a transform into edible material spell, but now that I think about it it must've been a creation, since my roll (64 I think) got me seven servings of appropriate Bah food, making me think it wasn't dependent on the size of the component fire.
Anyway.
So then we had seven obsidian plates and seven obsidian bowls filled with the tofu cake and milk respectfully, but Murdoc had only half of a tongue, so he just drank some of the milk after watching me demonstrate that it was okay. (I know his tongue grows back real soon, but I forget if he eats anything or not)
However, my fire was consumed in the process. No big deal, I just summoned a were-light that lasted for a little while. When that was extinguished, I rolled for a second one.
99. (my face = :C (that's a really sad face))
So the were-light (PS, I don't actually know why I call them this) appeared in my hands, but it was very dim and kind of green. It grew in brightness and whiteness until it was its usual size, but it wasn't shedding its light very far. When I dropped it, instead of falling like it should've, it just hovered there. It started moving, flitting up to me, then over to Murdoc. It was about eye level with him and started to rise--and Murdoc rose with it. At this point, I had a pretty good idea what this thing was, and what it would try to do. Sure enough, it flew away, and Murdoc, like a man in a trance (my words, not Scott's), followed it. I said "Oh no you don't" and shoved out an arm, catching him and holding him across the chest. I don't remember what he said (if he said anything, I don't know if his tongue was back), but basically he was like "...why are you stopping me" and tried to duck around my arm. At this point, I figured I wasn't going to be able to get him out of the wisp's control (for yes, this was a Will-o'-the-wisp), so I let him go and followed him. As we got deeper into the forest, suddenly we arrived at a natural cave made from the roots of a fallen tree. The light darted inside, and Murdoc and I stopped for a second. I said "This is probably a trap," but found myself incapable of not going inside, even in spite of Murdoc's suspicions and arguments. As we proceeded into the cave, the light illuminated the back of a large brown bear. Not wanting to repeat my last incident with a bear, I told Murdoc "Out, get out!" and darted back behind him. The bear woke up and came out of the cave swinging, and caught me with one of its paws for four intensities of damage. I summoned a force dome, which the bear pounded on, but couldn't get through. I cast Immolate Self, so that I was then on fire and dismissed the shield. I flew up, my wings casting very odd streaks of light, and the bear ran off. I replicated the summon force field that the Bah use to prevent their enemies from getting away (Scott's take on the spell's incantation, "This far, and no further!") and stood on the resultant platform waiting for my fire to wear off. Eventually it did, and I dismissed the force plate and flapped down.
This initiated a conversation that is kind of only half-finished, that started with "So you can fly?" and had such probing questions as "You sound like you think there's only one [creator god]," but I'm gonna need Scott's help putting the whole of the conversation together.
More when we feel like it!
I think the were-light name was from a book you'd been reading.
I am interested in rekindling this thread, but have no idea how I got from this point to where I was when we stopped in live play. My current location is in a stone room that I have teleported to (designated as a "safe" place) which I believe has ties with Askatosh followers.
I know that:
-- Murdoc and I split up
-- I had visions involving the Lady in Green (who punched me)
-- I know that the LiG has some of my blood
-- I know I tried (I think I failed) to summon the ring that the blood is on
-- I know that someone higher up (and supposedly scarier) than the LiG is going to do some kind of magic
-- I know that I have not left the room yet.
At this point I was thinking about trying some kind of spirit projection so I could investigate my surroundings without endangering my body, but that seems silly now. If Scott wants to start play again then we will, although I suspect this is the wrong place for this...
And we'll include an outgoing link to the continuation thread on the newer forum, because I like that sort of thing.