The_Warlock
Explorer
40. What Time Is It?
While traveling from one bastion of civilization to another, a tremor wracks the earth near the PCs, making it incredibly difficult to stand. The last party member to remain standing hears a terrible cracking and rushing sound, and a sinkhole collapses directly under them to the horror of their comrades.
The sinkhole PC rushes through a slick, abrasive, musty chute-like ride, eventually dumped into a damp, unlit oubliette - the rushing sound of the sinkhole behind them, but no feeling of any tremors or any continuing rush liquefied earth. The chamber is utterly stable, and completely dark.
As soon as the character takes any action to stand, speak, etc, a querulous voices sounds from every direction (except from the area of the rushing sound), "Sorry! SORRY! No, the fourth triad of elemental vortice matrices...damn, Sorry! Just a simple question...What year is it, if you please?"
The voice will dodge any questions directed at it as best as possible, becoming more concerned and worried as it tries to get the PC to answer it's question of year.
If the PC refuses utterly, the voice finally exclaims..."Oh, OH! NO, the OTHER matrix..." and the PC will suddenly feel a heavy weight in the chest as if they can't breathe...and then black out.
If the PC answers, "Well, hmm. Oh dear, no, no, that simply won't do at ALL. That's completely off. Who calibrated this measurement, this isn't even the correct ERA. I'm terribly sorry. With my appreciation..." and an unseen force unbalances the PC, causing them to pitch backward into the rushing sound.
In either case, the rest of the party will see, only seconds after he disappeared, the swallowed PC, reappear over the sinkhole, as the sinkhole refills in from below and any cracks in the earth undo themselves, as if the tremor never happened. Trees, vehicles, campsites, animals, and the remaining PCs still have any damage or injuries incurred by the initial earthquake.
If the swallowed PC refused to answer the question, they fall over, covered in terrifying wounds, as if skin and muscle was simply evaporated in various places (assume some form of temporary critical injury or disability), and covered with a variety of unidentifiable bits of grime, muck, slime, and such.
If examined quickly, expert healers, alchemists, or forensics find 1 to 4 small silver gelatinous bits of slime which waver and pules on their own. If they are touched with flesh, the mote disappears and the person who touched it receives a disjointed vision of what the swallowed PC experienced. If they are not captured and stored within a minute, they appear to evaporate.
Magical or alchemical research identifies them as some form of liquefied magical essence which reduces the effect, strength, or duration of a magical item or effect by half. A magically capable character who applies the silver gel can chose which attribute is halved, otherwise it is random. The halving lasts the target's new duration, or 1 minute (for effect or strength). If a magically capable character applies more than one mote for the same purpose to the same target, the target's duration can be halved for each application, or the reduction in power increases to 10 minutes, 1 hour, and finally 1 day for effect or strength.
If the swallowed PC answered the question, they find themselves standing, and unharmed, except for an odd musty smell. Hanging around their neck is a simple silver amulet on a silver chain. The amulet is a simple circle, divided into 5 pie slice sections by thin engraved lines. The PC instantly knows that if they remove a pie slice, it will disappear, and they will gain "time". (By game system it should be roughly the equivalent of gaining a Move Action)
Once all 5 slices are evaporated, the necklace the amulet is attached to evaporates as well.
No other marks or information presents itself. Attempting to determine the nature or history of the amulet results in the character making the attempt being either blinded, or knocked unconscious, and a pie slice disappearing.
While traveling from one bastion of civilization to another, a tremor wracks the earth near the PCs, making it incredibly difficult to stand. The last party member to remain standing hears a terrible cracking and rushing sound, and a sinkhole collapses directly under them to the horror of their comrades.
The sinkhole PC rushes through a slick, abrasive, musty chute-like ride, eventually dumped into a damp, unlit oubliette - the rushing sound of the sinkhole behind them, but no feeling of any tremors or any continuing rush liquefied earth. The chamber is utterly stable, and completely dark.
As soon as the character takes any action to stand, speak, etc, a querulous voices sounds from every direction (except from the area of the rushing sound), "Sorry! SORRY! No, the fourth triad of elemental vortice matrices...damn, Sorry! Just a simple question...What year is it, if you please?"
The voice will dodge any questions directed at it as best as possible, becoming more concerned and worried as it tries to get the PC to answer it's question of year.
If the PC refuses utterly, the voice finally exclaims..."Oh, OH! NO, the OTHER matrix..." and the PC will suddenly feel a heavy weight in the chest as if they can't breathe...and then black out.
If the PC answers, "Well, hmm. Oh dear, no, no, that simply won't do at ALL. That's completely off. Who calibrated this measurement, this isn't even the correct ERA. I'm terribly sorry. With my appreciation..." and an unseen force unbalances the PC, causing them to pitch backward into the rushing sound.
In either case, the rest of the party will see, only seconds after he disappeared, the swallowed PC, reappear over the sinkhole, as the sinkhole refills in from below and any cracks in the earth undo themselves, as if the tremor never happened. Trees, vehicles, campsites, animals, and the remaining PCs still have any damage or injuries incurred by the initial earthquake.
If the swallowed PC refused to answer the question, they fall over, covered in terrifying wounds, as if skin and muscle was simply evaporated in various places (assume some form of temporary critical injury or disability), and covered with a variety of unidentifiable bits of grime, muck, slime, and such.
If examined quickly, expert healers, alchemists, or forensics find 1 to 4 small silver gelatinous bits of slime which waver and pules on their own. If they are touched with flesh, the mote disappears and the person who touched it receives a disjointed vision of what the swallowed PC experienced. If they are not captured and stored within a minute, they appear to evaporate.
Magical or alchemical research identifies them as some form of liquefied magical essence which reduces the effect, strength, or duration of a magical item or effect by half. A magically capable character who applies the silver gel can chose which attribute is halved, otherwise it is random. The halving lasts the target's new duration, or 1 minute (for effect or strength). If a magically capable character applies more than one mote for the same purpose to the same target, the target's duration can be halved for each application, or the reduction in power increases to 10 minutes, 1 hour, and finally 1 day for effect or strength.
If the swallowed PC answered the question, they find themselves standing, and unharmed, except for an odd musty smell. Hanging around their neck is a simple silver amulet on a silver chain. The amulet is a simple circle, divided into 5 pie slice sections by thin engraved lines. The PC instantly knows that if they remove a pie slice, it will disappear, and they will gain "time". (By game system it should be roughly the equivalent of gaining a Move Action)
Once all 5 slices are evaporated, the necklace the amulet is attached to evaporates as well.
No other marks or information presents itself. Attempting to determine the nature or history of the amulet results in the character making the attempt being either blinded, or knocked unconscious, and a pie slice disappearing.