The Slave and Her Sovereign

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 2 SC, Level 15 (DCs 15/22/31)
Goal: Navigate the Spirit Realm, locating the portent Arunny saw in her dream to The Henge of Time; beautiful and delicate-seeming alpine flowers humming their way through patchy snow, their song dancing around ancient, roughly hewn pillars of stone.
1/6 Successes/0 Failures/1 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available

Arunny leads the group forward after their quarry, into the heart of the spirit-wrought blizzard.

Meanwhile, something stirs in the ranks further back...and further within.

Ibhea briefly thinks he hears a voice of one of his companions, but a simple glance reveals none regarding him nor any lips moving. It is that inventorying of the situation that affirms the voice is either his own or some entity attempting to bridle his horses and commandeer his reins.

"Where flame goes, freeze follows. Where light burdens true sight, darkness devours and reveals. But this place you tread? This place is beyond the reach of our burning embers and hoary frost...beyond the black that envelops. Can you feel our connection rescinding. This creature you follow would lead you astray from Us. It and its kind are anathema.

Do not follow..."

---

What do you do Ibhea? HARD DC.

 

[darkbard]

The Voice. It has been Ibhea's lodestone for longer than he can recollect. Shortly after his venture to Itirilmish and the recovery of the sacred text, at least. He has always thought of it as Delban speaking to him directly, an instantiation of miracle. But it could just as easily be some intermediary working on behalf of the Black Flame, some exarch or angel. Regardless, he is certain of its aim: to lead him true.

And yet.

These conjurations of freeze, of hoary frost. Surely, the black flames freeze the blood. The darkness devours with cold and energies antithetical to the sometimes overwrought exuberance of life, of life gone extravagant and wasteful, needing correction. But Delban's flames burn more than freeze. And who is "Us"? The Mother and Son? The Triune?

No. Ibhea shakes his head. This is Delban, speaking to him directly. Warning him that Arunny, though prescient, does not see all. The Golden General is not infallible.

"Hold!" Ibhea calls out. "The God has spoken to me directly. I receive the words. I am His Vessel. We need to correct our course, Arunny. Though you see much, you do not see all. And the current path leads but to destruction, bitterness, forsaken hope. We heed now His Voice, to a new vision."

---

Elsewhere, we (@Nephis , @Manbearcat , and I) have had extensive conversation about what is at stake here, how this obstacle either inflects the current challenge or offers the possibility of a new, separate obstacle to be overcome.

In resolving this discussion, I believe Ibhea sees this voice as truly that of Delban, warning him away from placing too much faith in Arunny's prophetic vision. Thus, Ibhea's actions here are leaning into the current challenge, not veering from it. At stake is very much (1) whether the Voice speaks true, (2) if the Voice is Delban's or one of his servant's, and (3) whether the Voice seeks to further the group's aim in finding a path (via consultation with Stoneroot and beseeching his aid) in traveling to Itirilmish of the past. Success answers these stakes in the postitive.

To this end, Ibhea makes a Secondary skill Insight check to discern whether this Voice is consistent with the one he associates with his patron (ie, Delban or his servants): r12+9=21 vs 15 Easy DC. Success for +2 forward to his

Primary Skill Religion check to distinguish doctrinal signs, keywords, and orthodoxy from the eisegesis of Arunny's prophetic vision, r11+21+2=34 vs 31 Hard DC. Success.

I think we may have just established some very bad things about Delban, in that His Voice has directed (or allowed) Ibhea to take some rather questionable actions (eg, raise Gan as a skeletal servant, endanger the lives of children (The Blessed), all kinds of crazy megalomaniac talk about burnination, and so on). Maybe it is Arunny who is mistaken about the relationship between Ibhea and his patron, about Delban's "true" nature?

 

[Nephis]

Metacommentary from @Manbearcat:

Alright, my thoughts are as follows. This successful move does in fact source Delban as an interested agent in you guys’ achieving the evinced goal of the SC, right?

That is my reading of what you’ve written in the thread, @darkbard .

If true, then we’re at a crossroads. Perhaps following this spirit into the storm will also get us there, but either (a) that course would put Ibhea in reach of a danger that Delban forbids (danger is everywhere, but this one would be particular to Delban’s interests) or (b) that course will reveal a truth or generate an alliance that Delban forbids?

So if I’ve got all of the above correct, then either (a) Arunny believes her unsteady companion or (b) she rebukes him and it gets hostile (we’ll generate a conflict) or (c) they parley for the next obstacle, making opposing convince moves.

If one of them passes the Medium DC (like a Group Move), you guys earn a success in the SC and the winner gets their way.

I think we can do this contest a number of ways:

* Ibhea's Religion or Bluff or Diplomacy vs Arunny's Insight as a vs contest or her Will DC as a test.

It really depends upon what both PCs are mustering here in this move. Knowledge of scripture, is the entity within attempting to deceive or Ibhea himself (?), or is this an authentic attempt to convince. Is this instinct and understanding or is this firmness in resisting clearly malign overtures?

With this on the line (as per above):

If one of them passes the Medium DC 22 (like a Group Move), you guys earn a success in the SC and the winner gets their way.

If you both fail Medium DC 22, s**t goes absolutely sideways. I’m manifesting Delban and we’ll figure out sides in a violent conflict in the middle of the Spirit Realm…which is very much forbidden by the Primal Elders!

---

At ARUNNY's request, Ibhea shares with the fellowship the exact words (as best as he can remember them) spoken to him by the "voice." She watches him closely as he relates them, then ponders long and hard, sifting through nuance and syntax and image. But her senses reveal nothing that they ought, were these words given to him by one of the Triune Light: no stirring of air, no scent of sacred cardamon, no sense of the Divine. No, this voice is that of a worm, devouring the priest from inside his soul: the words the warlock conveys to them assure the seer of this Truth.

Another proof for her is the darkness she has lately witnessed within Ibhea's eyes: it is not been the glowing mithril flames of Maba's Consort. Instead it is a murky, hungry, matte smoke. The scent of putrescence and decay right now is almost overpowering to her.

Arunny declares to Omthala's other priest, "The Shadowed Star does indeed reveal the true sight of that which is often missed in the Searing Light of Day. But Delban's Dark does not devour. I do not believe it is He who whispers in your ear, Ibhea."

---

Arunny makes a Primary Skill Insight check to discern whether the voice Ibhea hears is leading him astray: r8+25=33 vs. 22 Moderate DC. Success

---

IBHEA stares at his companion. What does she even mean? The Godhead has spoken to him. To him! Not to her.

"The black flames devour, Arunny. You have seen it with your own eyes, your own 'senses.' Need you see it again, firsthand?" His hand crackles with cold and necrotic energy.

But when the Golden General turns in disgust, he drops his menace. Now is not the time. Let her learn the folly of ignoring Delban's Word the hard way.

---

Ibhea uses Beguiling Tongue (Encounter Power), Effect: You gain a +5 power bonus to your next Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check during this encounter, to augment his Primary Skill Intimidate check to convince Arunny to abandon the path she has set, r9+16+5 Beguiling Tongue=30 vs 22 Moderate DC. Succeeds but loses out to Arunny's Insight check.

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 2 SC, Level 15 (DCs 15/22/31)
Goal: Navigate the Spirit Realm, locating the portent Arunny saw in her dream to The Henge of Time; beautiful and delicate-seeming alpine flowers humming their way through patchy snow, their song dancing around ancient, roughly hewn pillars of stone.
3/6 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available

The radiant priestess, fresh from her would-be dispiriting row with her otherwise-stalwart companion, peers through the precipitation's heft. The tracks of the massive tiger, for they could only be that, have stalled completely. More disappeared than stalled, in fact.

The storm intensifies.

A single flower petal appears suddenly in her leftward periphery, exploding out of sight on her right via the power of the blizzard's powerful crosswind.

Curiously, Vruk sees it as well and excitedly rushes after it to try to catch it, goofy, cheerful look taking his face in full.

Ibhea, perhaps stewing...perhaps lamenting...perhaps merely pondering, is either aware or is made aware that the oddly malleable contours of The Spirit Realm give way abruptly to a precipice where Vruk chases the flying petal through the blizzard's opacity.

Mortals may not physically die here...but if their minds believe they are dead, then the body will follow.

From within Ibhea's mind there is a subtle, one-note chuckle followed by a "...yessssssssssssss" as Vruk rushes headlong into his, certainly quest-defying, doom.

---

What do you guys do? MEDIUM DC (all that is left).

 

[darkbard]

For perhaps the first time, IBHEA tunes out the voice in his head as needless noise. The foolish Giant will surely meet his end at the precipice if the warlock does not intervene. And the Giant, simple and pliable as he is, is too potent an asset to relinquish so easily. In fact, now that he thinks about it, Vruk shares much with the fallen ... but not forgotten ... Gan.

Ibhea manipulates the planar substrate via the control with which Delban has invested him. Magic is very much like working a puzzle: the pieces of reality--whatever the plane, whatever the ambient laws--may be rearranged to greater or lesser effect via orchestration of the morpho-sorceric fields. If he but tug at this thread, thus! And alter the wave patterns of this other field, so!

And with that, Vruk no longer stands teetering with his death on the near horizon. Instead, the precipice recedes far off in the distance, and the Giant looms above a purple coneflower, devoid of a petal, uncannily thriving in the snow. And beside the coneflower, the trace of a five-padded print in the snow, remnants of wicked claws distending from the four forepads.

---

Ibhea makes a Primary Skill Arcana check to manipulate the magical energies subtending the Spirit Realm to reshape the landscape more to his needs, r13+17=30 vs 22 Moderate DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 2 SC, Level 15 (DCs 15/22/31)
Goal: Navigate the Spirit Realm, locating the portent Arunny saw in her dream to The Henge of Time; beautiful and delicate-seeming alpine flowers humming their way through patchy snow, their song dancing around ancient, roughly hewn pillars of stone.
4/6 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available

Instead of falling to his death, Vruk catches the petal with a huge grin, holds it out in his meaty palm as the snowflakes cascade down upon him.

"Gotcha," he murmurs as relatively quietly as a Hill Giant can, snuggles the petal to his cheek and then pockets it.

He turns back with an excited, "this way!"

The curtain of snow parts and the terrain gently trundles upward, delicate-seeming alpine flowers humming their way through suddenly patchy snow. Beneath Vruk's huge, shambling feet, stairs of solid stone emerge from the earth, carrying the "spirit soil and flowers" with it like a seagoing vessel riding a wave.

<WHERE

YOU

TREAD

IS

FATEFUL.

WHAT

CARE

IS

TAKEN?

WHAT

STEWARDSHIP

OF

THEN...NOW...BEYOND

IS

OFFERED?>

The voice is the deepest thrum of bass. The inside of your heads shake with it just like the earth underfoot.

Vruk pauses, falls back a moment, frightened.

---

MEDIUM DC

 

[Nephis]

ARUNNY continues to stare at the unbearably lovely alpine flowers as she allows the basso thrum to reverberate against her bones. She can feel something stirring in them, in her being. And she waits.

Naturally, her apparently distracted silence adds to Xin Mae's anxiety, and he begins to chatter excitedly, examining and reexamining what is being said to them -- so obviously by the Voice of Stoneroot -- parsing over words, turning over phrases, taking apart syntax to get to the meaning.

"'Where you tread' ... well! That can mean where we are walking now ... or where we have gone before ... actual roads or the metaphorical paths we have each taken. Are those paths meant to be the ones we have taken together? Or are they the ones to get here? Tal Guk the Diviner talks about the weaving of our separate paths becoming a stronger rope than that of a single, shared road. Does that apply here? And how?"

The Scrivener draws a desperate, panting breath, and images begin to coalesce before the Seer's eyes -- bubbles of history, personal and broad, with winding, twisting ropes of connection turning into strong heavy iridescent strands of ... time? Possibilities? She watches this unfold as Xin Mae continues to speak.

"After all, in the seventh century of the Ninth Dynasty of Xuan Taqlin, there was that controversy about time and its malleable nature ... or lack thereof. Let me see if I can remember: who was it with the stronger argument? And what was their evidence?"

As he rambles on, Maba's Piercing Eye is now able to discern the within of the bubbles. Some of these contain moments she has seen before, some moments she has only heard of, others relating moments completely unknown to her -- of the Now? the Then? ... the Beyond ... place or time? As the sacred scent of cardamon fills her senses, along with the thrumming of Stoneroot's Voice ... and an echo from the Moon above ... another Sacred Stone, Arunny allows these bubbles to simply dance in her "sight" without thinking of meaning: the Meaning will become clear when the Time is right:

* There is her brother among the Blessed Ten.

* In that bubble her mother battles Nerull ... and falls.

* A strange image of an ancient Dragon inhabits that one -- familiar figures nearby -- but the time is inconstant -- green leaves whither and are reborn -- Dragon becomes skeleton and reforms into Dragon...

* A thunderous warcry resounds out of a bubble filled with duststorm and whirring blades.

* Her own fellowship fighting an undead priest of an undead god in a dark canyon.

* One bubble holds a curious battle of bladeling against bladeling, some glowing with primordial fire, Pa'avu upholding the first group of warriors.

* A strange landscape fills yet another, the Astral Sea? For so it seems. Chanvati flying ... and the goliath as well? Is that even possible?

The priestess continues to watch the bubbles, transfixed by the possibilities and histories and memories held within them, all while continuing to listen with half an ear to the murmurings and speculations of their travelling scholar.

"And did not Tal Guk also speculate whether Time Changed breaks into separate strands? Hmmm. Let me see: did they fall on the side of yes? Or that it would be too dangerous to attempt? There is that history of the ancient dragon beneath the City ... does that apply here? But..."

The bubbles continue to form before Arunny, containing more images, sometimes very obscure and confusing:

* A dark lizard's eye, filled with smoky flame.

* A fierce, scarred human face -- of someone unknown to Arunny ... or not remembered?

* Bodies -- burned beyond life -- scattered across a mosaic-tiled floor.

* A shadowed visage, eyes blazing a dark silver luminescence.

* The Moon, with a Woman's face, a Mountain superimposed/beneath/above/within/without: the Ancient link between Maba and Stoneroot in sharp relief.

That final bubble pops suddenly, startling the Seer out of her distraction. She looks up to meet the gaze of her fellow travelers and becomes aware that even Xin Mae has fallen silent. They are all watching her carefully, Ibhea perhaps a bit guardedly.

"Tal Guk is correct, my learned friend, but we have already walked our separate strands. Our path now is to build the stronger, connected rope. We must be careful as we leave the Beyond to enter the Then, only changing what is absolutely necessary to repair the Now. Judicious care must be taken, without incautious impetuousity."

Suddenly the Seer seems to vibrate and glow: her face becomes incandescent, and Ibhea and Xin Mae hold up their hands and look away. Qamra, Radiant Shamishar, stares, transfixed.

---

Xin Mae is using his Encounter power Pedantic Dissertation (CBu5): Target: Xin Mae and each ally in burst (everyone); Effect Choose a skill (History). Until the end of the encounter, each target gains a +2 power bonus to his/her next check using that skill

Arunny makes a Primary Skill History check both to understand the meaning of Stoneroot's words and His ancient connection to Maba: r20+8+2 PD = 30 vs. 22 Moderate DC. Success!!

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 2 SC, Level 15 (DCs 15/22/31)
Goal: Navigate the Spirit Realm, locating the portent Arunny saw in her dream to The Henge of Time; beautiful and delicate-seeming alpine flowers humming their way through patchy snow, their song dancing around ancient, roughly hewn pillars of stone.
5/6 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available

The henges suddenly appear out of nowhere; large, looming stalks of granite jutting ever-skyward. A grove of pure, standing stones. The Henge of Time.

As eyes measure their verticality and register the bolts of lightning that rack them from above, those same eyes eventually descend "earthward" in this impossibly strange world where corporeal and incorporeal have little to distinguish them.

Where before there was ascending meadow laden-with flower and dusting of snow, now there is knee-deep mist. The sound of feet stirring beneath the mist's cover portends gravel or scree (but who the hell really knows in this place?).

With Stoneroot's warning sufficiently requited by Arunny, the temporal transit to the ancient city of Itirilimish, to an age before its destruction, lies in your grasp.

Yet...you can feel watchful eyes at you from...above...below...within. The eyes of a guardian. The greatest perhaps. The sound of coils enfolding, coils that would...did...crush a god to shield the mortal world from harm, bristle somewhere beyond sight.

---

How do you affect the transit? MEDIUM DC.

 

[darkbard]

Cleaving the space between two of the edifices, Ibhea heeds once again the voice rising up within.

A soft whisper rumbling with the potency of the lightning traces above.

"Take us through, Ibhea. Claim the power that is yours. Mine. Ours."

Simultaneously, the shadow of a great shape. Two serpentine eyes, almond disks the size of wading pools, containing similar depths. Staring down. Waiting expectantly.

Ibhea turns to look over his shoulder, making sure the others follow. Follow him to their destiny.

His eyes cloud with blackness.

"World Serpent, we heed your admonition and yet persist. We are not Gods nor Primordials. We are human and something greater at once. I hold the power to part worlds and incinerate my enemies into ash. Interfere not in our transit here, for the doings of the mortals-between are beyond your purview!"

With that, the warlock once again exerts his influence over the morpho-sorceric fields that rise and fall in this place of power. Warding off the lightning, pulling at the strands of wavematter before him, Ibhea channels energy arcane like he never has before. Winds whip into vortex. A gap opens between two henges.

"Hurry!" he shouts. "We have but a moment to cross the wormhole in space and time! To reach ancient Itirilmish before its fall!" He steps through the gap, hoping the others follow.

---

Ibhea effects the transit across the Chronotope by channeling Delban's power to manipulate the arcane energies that govern this plane and ancient site within it, r15+12 (training exhausted per our houserules)=27 vs 22 Moderate DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

BOOKKEEPING/XP/LOOT

* Goal: Navigate the Spirit Realm, locating the portent Arunny saw in her dream to The Henge of Time; beautiful and delicate-seeming alpine flowers humming their way through patchy snow, their song dancing around ancient, roughly hewn pillars of stone (Resolved).

XP

* SC 2400/2 = 1200 xp apiece.

LOOT

* 1000 coin.

---

Complexity 3 SC, Level 16 (DCs 16/22/31)
Goal: Get your bearings in the ancient city of Itirilimish as it was when it was alive and thriving. Locate where the Monocle of Flame is housed and travel there.
0/8 Successes/0 Failures/2 Hard DC Available/3 Secondary Skills Available/2 Advantages Available

Terraced stone architecture and gardening assails the heroes' visions as their eyes clear from their traversal of both a realm alien to mortals and a time well beyond their ken. A visual feast is the integration of both wild, verdant flora and civilization-craft that it's difficult to grasp...certainly "modern" Bantouk, to its shame, has lost more than it has gained in the march of time.

Then the screaming.

Citizenry handling their...affairs...in a public bathhouse are sent streaming from their open-air accommodations. Towels drape haggardly across naked form as bodies rush to dry themselves to prevent slipping on the marble floors. Vruk, likely the source of the panic (if not the sudden appearance of odd strangers!) merely chuckles at the spectacle.

"Silly," he says to himself.

What isn't silly is the squad of myrmidon who work their way through the stampede of flesh to bear down on your position...the business end of spears leading!

---

What do you do? HARD DC.