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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nephis" data-source="post: 9458884" data-attributes="member: 20459">For the purposes of color, let's assume that the magic effect of the cathedral's domed roof allow for malleability of projection: e.g. a speaker can allow projects of any particular moments of celestial positioning.[HR][/HR]Before her mad companion can answer the demand, ARUNNY herself steps forward into the emptiness within the circle of figures kneeling beneath the vast cavernous ceiling. She glances around them for a moment, allowing a few beats of silence to pass. Then, Omthala's Searing Voice rings out, saying one word only: "WATCH!"As the kneeling figures raise their heads to comply with her command, the Seer throws open her arms, and the positions of the celestial bodies shift into a new configuration. Arunny raises her left arm in front of her, palm upward as if holding a spherical object. She blows on the unseen object and it materializes and grows: one of her bubbles of memory, fully visible to all present.Visible within is a hill in summertime somewhen. Lying upon its grasses are two figures, one clearly very pregnant -- thus female, the other perhaps male? Their voices, however, are very clear ... amplified, perhaps. The man speaks first, evidently practicing newly learned words in a language still foreign to his tongue, "...and Qu'sheml'reh -- that is the name of the bodies of the Night Sky, right?"The woman (whom the listening Ibhea now realizes is Arunny's elven mother), affirms this. "They all belong to the Blessed Heofoncandel," she asserts. When asked for an explanation of this, she replies that it is "The Triune LIght: Sun and Moon and Star ..., she continues, numbering them off on her hand, "... Omthala the Mother, Maba the Maiden, and the Moon's Consort and Omthala's son Delban. The Qu'shem'reh is their Court." She points at the Crescent above them: "there is the Maiden's Moon ... so thin in the sky at this time..."The man points at a smaller, darker object in the sky: "And that one? The other moon? What's that?" he asks."Not a moon at all. It has several names, some call it the Shadowed One...""Ah, yes!" he interrupts, eager to impress her with his newly learned facts, "Kuelgelleh I have heard it called. Does it not translate as 'Shadowed Star'?"She hesitates for a moment, troubled. "Yes, some do call it that. But those of us who are able to 'See' call it Shyubelleh. That word is more precise, the combined meanings more fully embody its ... being. Shadowed meaning 'shady' and also 'suspicious.' Its complete name for us is Shehvet Shyubellah, the Shady Satyr, for it is no star."He smiles in appreciation at the pun -- although her own face and tone reveal none. Then, in a voice full of the puzzles he feels, he asks for confirmation: "Isn't that Delban's Satellite, Omthala's Lost Son? The Itirdi?" He cocks his head for a moment, as if chasing a memory triggered by his words.His words do trigger something for his wife. She turns her head sharply to look directly at him. "Did Huseyn tell you that? Did he use that word," she demands, "'itirdi'? Our people only began using that word -- itirdi -- after the fall of Itirlmish, the Lost City -- you have heard the legend, yes? -- We rarely use that word, let alone teach it to those outside our family ..."   She trails off for a moment, looking at him, but he does not seem to have taken offense."We rarely use this word," she continues, holding a protective hand to her belly. <those observing the bubble are suddenly encased in a sense of the warm protection of a fierce and powerful love> "It is only used to convey the unbearable loss of something of unspeakable value: that which is lost and greatly mourned is 'itirdi,' so, yes, Delban is sometimes called The Itirdi -- for the loss of Him was perhaps the greatest loss of all."In fact, we will not be able to see His satellite in the sky -- I am even uncertain whether it is a moon or star or .... -- because the Alov'pekkya has not visited for hundreds of years, not since the Fall of Itirilmish, in fact."After a pause, the woman, the mother-to-be, gives a strangely nostalgic smile, as if recalling an ancient but familiar memory: "when Alov'pekkya visited, the Comet flashed across the heavens, lighting up the Night Sky, allowing us to see the hidden celestial bodies. Some called it 'The Glowing Hawk,' but that was only a mistranslation of our own words for this event. Together, Maba and her Consort were the Protectors of that Night Sky, the Seen and the Unseen. Maba, of course, remains as such, but together They were called the Nighthawks. And when Alov'pekkya shown his 'glowan' tail, the Hawk Consort (Delban) could find His way to His Steppe Hen (Maba) to give her a 'love peck' ..." The woman briefly allows herself a slight smile. Then, with a sign, she looks up at the Night Sky. "But that," she mutters angrily, pointing to the smaller "moon," "now hides the 'glowan' of Alov'pekkya, the Satellite of Flame. And now the Hidden remains hidden..." she finishes."But what happened?" the man asks.With another grand gesture from Maba's Piercing Eye -- the Night Sky under the Cathedral's dome changes again. With her right hand, the Seer points to the eastern edge of the constellations, and all can see the Comet mentioned, Alov'pekkya with its 'glowan' tail, travelling across the heavens, as described. But Arunny then points with her left hand at a dark "Moon" -- larger than what the couple had been looking at, so long in the future past and/or past future -- The two celestial objects move inexorably toward one another until they, inevitably, collide. The Comet veers off course and moves out of it. One larger piece of that false moon remains in orbit -- about the size of the Shady Satyr in the Night Sky of Arunny's parents -- but many smaller pieces are broken off the brittle larger planetoid, and they fall from the sky and toward the watchers, trails of purple and orange smoke following in their wake.As meteoroids seem materialize in the air above them, everyone except Arunny begins to scramble desperately out from under the now terrifying Night Sky. But the Priestess holds up both of her hands, calling out to the Heofoncandel for aid, and -- with a flash of blue light -- they return to the images they were ... [HR][/HR]* Arunny uses a Secondary Skill Perception check to read the Night Sky in both her parents' time and in the near future past of Itirilmish: +21 for an Autosuccess vs Easy DC 16, giving a +2 bonus to her* Arunny's Primary Skill History check to reveal the story of the Night of the Glowing Hawk: r10+8+2 SS +2 Pedantic Dissertation =22 vs Medium DC 22/Success.</blockquote>

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