View source for Holes/Session 19

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Ganelon: Well, here I am.
Apheori (GM): I feel like I'm forgetting something.
Or someone.
Ganelon: Ellemerr? She may not show up at all.
Apheori (GM): Aye, she's... immaterial to this conversation.
Or something.
But anyway, the situation is simple enough. A meat monster exploded all over the place and holes started opening and you had to evacuate, leaving Dave and the mouseforged behind. Rhu popped into and out of some portal he opened in a fit of insanity and has no idea what's going on, but nobody seems to have noticed. Then Dave called Gravy inside, leaving the rest of you on the street outside...
And now the door of bees is once more open.
Beyond you may or may not be able to see a ruined vaguely meaty courtyard, Dave sitting on the ground with the mouseforged toppled beside her, and Gravy nowhere to be found.
Gaurav: ew, meaty courtyard
Rhu mutters to himself: "So Dave and that priest have some kind of history, and now Mrs. Teatime and this Fred person have some kind of history ..."
Gaurav: Should we go in and investigate?
I have an alternate plan, we could all go to the pub and get some waffles.
Ganelon: I was *just* about to suggest that.
Except Radek doesn't eat.
So he's going in.
Rhu follows Radek, a little nervous now that Gravy's hulking presence isn't at the head of the group.
Ganelon: Well, he's going in so long as it seems safe.
If things still feel hole-y, he'd stay back.
Apheori (GM): No sign of holes.
Dave is sitting there looking shocked.
Radek: What happened here?
Rhu stays away from the heart of the meaty explosion, and looks around for other people, especially wizard-y types.
Dave: I've lost him. That wasn't it. I thought that was it, but it wasn't.
Apheori (GM): The scruffy-looking wizard is watching from a doorway.
Perception, or something.
Rhu ignores Dave for the time being, as long as she looks visibly undamaged
Rhu: Hey, Gravy, you should --- oh. Never mind.
rolling 1d20+12 perception check
(
19
)
+12
=
31
Rhu wanders up to the scruffy wizard
Rhu: Hey.
Scruffy-looking wizard: Did you need something?
Rhu: Did you see our friend? Tall guy. Broad. Horns. He came back in here a few minutes ago.
Gaurav: Did Greibel come in after us?
Bear Soup Guy: Surely
Scruffy-looking wizard: Do you see your friend?
No, no, no.
That's not right.
None of this is right.
Rhu sighs.
Rhu: So little is these days.
Scruffy-looking wizard: Instabilities of this scope do not simply balance themselves. There has to be a counter reagent.
Rhu: Still, no giant fish. That's a bonus.
A counter ... what?
Scruffy-looking wizard: Can you approximate his mass?
Rhu looks confused
Rhu: I went to mass once. I was bored but there were biscuits.
Ganelon: I'd going to guess "yes".
But I'll ask
Apheori (GM): GREIBEL.
Gaurav: Maybe he is One with the Bees now.
Bear Soup Guy: HUHRN?
Gaurav: 7am sounds! :p
Scruffy-looking wizard gives Rhu a look like he's some kind of inanimate object.
Greibel intones a guess at Gravy's weight while glancing sideways at Rhu
Rhu is even more confused now, and looks around for somebody else to talk to.
Ganelon: I'll pull it up, here.
Scruffy-looking wizard: Hmm...
Gaurav: So I guess that 31 perception check didn't perceive whatever was there to perceive?
Ganelon: Maybe there was nothing.
Scruffy-looking wizard stalks over to the mouseforged and starts poking it and asking Dave a slew of seemingly very random questions.
Ganelon: It's "perception", not "creation", after all.
Dave sort of answers some of them, especially the ones about sheep.
Apheori (GM): Oh, I missed that completely.
I blame this terrible interface.
And being half asleep.
Gaurav: I blame maths.
But then I usually do.
Apheori (GM): You perceive... nothing notable, since I forgot why I made you roll that.
Rhu looks around for anybody else, particularly the gardener, who made some sort of sense at some point. If there's nobody around, he's going to go knock on the door of the building the monster came out of earlier.
Apheori (GM): The door it came out of is off its hinges.
Ganelon: So, I take it these questions between Dave and the scruffster are fairly inane?
Apheori (GM): Aye.
But Dave is starting to look less freaked out and more just confused as a result of them.
And a wee bit frustrated.
To Radek, they sound like the guy is insane.
Rhu pokes his head through the open doorway and says in a normal voice, "Hello?"
Radek: None of that matters!
Dave. What did you do?
Dave: I don't...
We closed the hole?
Gravy!
Where's Gravy?
I lost Gravy! Gods, I lost him, how could I lose him?!
Radek: Lost him /where/?
Rhu calls loudly through the open doorway, "HELLO? ANYBODY THERE?"
Dave: In... the hole?
No, wait, she was there.
She took him.
Pulled him out. Out.
Dave gestures vaguely.
Apheori (GM): Rhu: What's your reflex?
Gaurav: Rhu has 14 Reflex Defense, but he's trained in acrobatics if that matters
Apheori (GM): I don't know, does it? Because someone inside throws a fireball at him.
Ganelon: Acro doesn't help against that.
Also, holy shit.
Apheori (GM): The fireball misses.
Rhu ducks behind the remains of the door.
Rhu: ... huh.
[loudly] I Was Wondering If Any Of You Saw Our Friend Who Came Back In Here A Minute Ago.
Voice from inside the building: Go away!
Rhu considers saying something rude, pauses, then mutters something under his breath before walking back to Dave and Radek.
Rhu: [to Greibel] College people are the worst.
Greibel: Finals can be stressful.
Rhu: Fireball-in-your-face stressful
?
Greibel: I like to think so
It makes me feel better about never attending
Radek mutters to himself. "Out..."
Rhu: Just think! You could be chasing exploding monsters around a college somewhere. What larks.
Radek: So you closed it. How?
Dave: The...
Gravy...
Shovel?
Apheori (GM): If any of you have insight, you might suspect that it's actually just Rhu that was bothering them. His voice is very grating.
And loud.
And unhelpful.
But Radek is probably just used to that, so it's all on Greibel to not notice.
Apheori (GM) eyeballs Greibel from beyond the beyond.
Bear Soup Guy: INSIGHT
Radek: ...
Gaurav: Hey! Rhu's voice is melliferous. Apart from the smoking. And the hating academicals. And the recent Hole-related panic.
So, eh, no, you're right. Never mind.
Bear Soup Guy: 20 passive insight
Apheori (GM): Then you probably notice how annoying it might have been to them. Whether or not you notice you notice is up to you.
Dave: I'm sorry. I don't know.
Radek: Am I the only one in this entire world who knows /what/ he is doing when he does it!?
Dave: Everything is... swimming. I see things and they're there and they're not and I see them as they change, and I don't know what they are, and I thought it was the mushrooms, but they were always there and I just segfaulted when I tried to see them, that's all.
Array access out of bounds. Runaway process. Metaphor that doesn't fit the situation.
Who am I?
Rhu: [to Dave] How are you feeling now?
Scruffy-looking wizard: Oh, lots of people know, they just don
't care.
What kind of soul did you use this thing?
Dave: Stoned.
Ganelon: He means the Mouseforged?
Apheori (GM): Aye.
Gaurav: Is the courtyard surrounded by buildings?
Radek: It belonged to a recently dead mouse. You may observe that, for an unrelated experiment, it has not caused even the slightest dimensional instability.
Apheori (GM): Some, but there's only one important-looking building.
Gaurav: But that one has fireballs in it.
Scruffy-looking wizard: Transpositional approximation, is it? Very interesting.
Apheori (GM): Apparently.
Rhu starts walking from building to building, knocking on the door and shouting "Hello? I'm looking for a friend? Did you see a universe-twisting explosion in this courtyard a few minutes ago?"
Radek: What, you want to talk sense /now/?
Ganelon: Oh, here's a thought.
Don't we all have radios?
Scruffy-looking wizard: It all makes sense. There's just the minor inconvenience of the sheep.
Gaurav: I can't remember if they've worked since we got here.
Rhu: ... did you say sheep?
Scruffy-looking wizard mutters something about crossed juxtapositioning.
Apheori (GM): You do have radios.
Rhu: ... 'cos I teleported into a painting and there were sheep in it also.
One of them was black.
I named him Thunder.
Apheori (GM): The wizard ignores Rhu. Two more wizards step out of portals and join him poking the mouseforged.
Rhu sighs, and returns to knocking on doors.
Ganelon: I'm sure this will be futile, but it's the effort that counts.
I'll see if I can't contact Gravy in his mystical plane of "Out".
Apheori (GM): Say something into it.
Gaurav: Do you think this "Out" is the same "Out" that we saw on the transporter?
Apheori (GM): It indicates it can connect.
Radek: Gravedigger, are you there? If you are capable of responding, there is a high probability that you are still alive.
Gaurav: Ha!
Apheori (GM): From the radio comes a voice that sounds suspiciously like the sphinx.
It says, "Hungry."
Radek scowls intensely at his radio.
Apheori (GM): Then there's a bunch of fumbling noises and someone else is saying, "Hello? Who is this? Are you a friend?"
Ganelon: Nobody I recognize?
Apheori (GM): It sounds a bit like Amadi.
Rhu walks over to Radek and listens in.
Radek: That would depend on your relation to the man who owned this radio.
Ganelon: Unless you want to get technical, in which case nobody is really Radek's friend.
Because he's a huge grouch.
Radio: Of his. The soranai with the shovels.
Radek: Yes. Why are you speaking instead of him?
Radio: He's... occupied. Slightly stuck. Not dead, but dreaming. But not dreaming, either. He needs a way out.
Apheori (GM): You hear some mumbling and muffle sounds of a squabble.
Radio: Can you dig? He's lost himself, but if you dig him out for him that might work too.
Agh, you... get off, will you?
Apheori (GM): ...and some more strange noises.
Rhu: [to radio, but maybe he's too far away for them to hear] Where are you?
Apheori (GM): You both have your own radios, but you can both use them.
Is this what you do?
Ganelon: Well, it would be my next question.
He's welcome to ask it instead, though.
Gaurav: Naah, I just shout at it over Radek's shoulder.
Apheori (GM): Man, you're noisy.
Ganelon: I wish I could throw fireballs at him.
My magic isn't quite as flashy.
Radio: Where? Um...
Woods, I suppose.
Nice place for a picnic, if you're into those sorts of dreams.
Gaurav: Gan: if you give Rhu a dirty look or something, he'll stop.
Rhu: Are there any sheep?
Ganelon: What, you mean more than usual?
Yeah, you get a dirty look for shouting in Radek's ear.
Rhu backs away apologetically.
Radio: Certainly.
Rhu: [to Radek] Ask them if there's a black sheep named Thunder.
Radek sighs.
Radek: Are any of them black?
Radio: Oh, I'm sure. You could probably find whatever colour you like if you look far enough.
Your noisy friend likes sheep, does he?
Rhu: They might be in the same place as I teleported to, then. It was a painting with sheep in it. Any think you thought of immediately appears.
I got out by thinking up a portal back to you guys.
Radek: ...And you didn't think to try and take anything with you?
Rhu nods
Rhu: But I was pretty sure you guys would kill me if I brought any more pets to this party.
Radek: No money, powerful weapons, an impossible device that could solve all of our problems instantly and without consequences? Nothing?
Rhu: ...
yeah, I forgot about that stuff. Sorry.
Ganelon: Radek's scowl advances to the next tier.
Rhu: I wish I'd remembered to dream myself a sandwich though. Is anybody else hungry?
Radek: Unbelievable.
Gaurav: Rhu sort of ignores all of Radek's scowls now. He's only really concerned about who the scowl is pointing at.
Ganelon: You had the power to create anything!
Rhu withers under the heat of Radek's scowl, then suddenly remembers something he has to do way over on the other side of the courtyard there, mutters an excuse and leaves.
Greibel shakes his head in pity
Greibel: Never seen a guy stay the same after coming out of a painting
Dave: How many have you seen going in?
Greibel: Well, after today....one
Dave: That's... hmm.
Dave wiggles her fingers.
Radek: So, you closed a rift.
Could you do it again?
Dave: Yes.
Ganelon: Attention's off the radio, now.
Dave: I mean... I don't know.
Yes.
Apheori (GM): How's Radek's insight?
Ganelon: 3.
It would probably be lower if wisdom wasn't important to him.
Gaurav: o.0
Apheori (GM): Greibel: Dave is hiding something.
Roll to... uh...
See if you can tell something.
Ganelon: Radek has insights into things by the definition of the word.
But as far as the D&D skill is concerned, nah.
Too much of it involves reading people, and he often doesn't care what people are thinking.
Greibel:
rolling 1d20+10 stuff!
(
9
)
+10
=
19
Gaurav: Yeah, mine is only 5. I just thought he was more insightful than Rhu, who is pretty clueless at the best of times.
Apheori (GM): In the general sense, Radek probably is much more insightful.
Ganelon: But Rhu would definitely read into how people act more.
And that's what the skill is about in 4E.
Apheori (GM): Greibel: Dave is still really stoned, but also worried enough that it's getting through the stonedness.
She may have figured something out.
Gaurav: Makes sense.
Radek: Well, at least something good came out of this mess.
Apheori (GM): Greibel: It may or may not involve mushrooms, and it makes you nervous.
Greibel: Not-Dave, you know something, don't you?
Dave: I don't know.
Dave looks at Greibel imploringly.
Gaurav: It's all up to you now, Greibel.
Bear Soup Guy: THE PRESSURE
Gaurav: Pressure makes diamonds. But it also causes decompression sickness. All the best!
Bear Soup Guy: Excellent
Greibel:
rolling 1d20+1 diplomacy to try to weasel something out of Dave
(
9
)
+1
=
10
Dave gives Greibel a shiny stone.
Gaurav: Yay?
Greibel: Score
What's this?
Ganelon: It appears to be a shiny stone.
Dave: Shiny. They were on the ground with her.
Rhu: I've got one of those.
Greibel:
rolling 1d20+12 stone nature
(
6
)
+12
=
18
Rhu: From the beach on the other side of the Hole i went through. Someone who looked like Amadi gav it to me.
Rhu shows everybody a shiny stone with a symbol of a tree growing on it.
Rhu: i don't remember any woods or picnic spots though
Apheori (GM): This one has a dragon.
Greibel: Goodie! I've always loved collections.
I wonder how many there are.
Dave: Eleven.
Apheori (GM): Frazak!
You're in a place that is not where the others are.
Bear Soup Guy: Oh hi Frezak
Greibel stares at the stones
Greibel: That's gonna take some work.
Radek: Are they important?
Frezak (GM): I'm a little late and I'd apologise if it was my fault >.>
Well, lots late.
reading backlog.
Apheori (GM): It's okay. Since your guy is somewhere else we just went without you.
Say when you're ready and we can do your thingy, if there's time.
Frezak (GM): I'm still in the Far Realm?
Gorramit, guys.
Way to save me.
Apheori (GM): What's a far realm?
Ganelon: Do not answer that, Frezak.
Frezak (GM): It's- awwww.
Ganelon: It is not a fun place.
Anyways, Gravy is within radio range of us.
Frezak (GM): Oh, awesome.
Ganelon: Or maybe magic is involved there.
Apheori (GM): Or his radio is.
Frezak (GM): Possibly.
Apheori (GM): Wikipedia says the Far Realm is a mix of horror, madness, and Lovecraftian geometries.
Ganelon: Well, yeah. Basically, we got an answer from probably-Amadi.
Apheori (GM): Intriguing.
Frezak (GM): I'm a Far Realm expert.
Apheori (GM): You would be.
Frezak (GM): Totes.
I wonder what teh perception DC to see across planes is.
Apheori (GM): A mushroom.
Frezak (GM): Also, hello BSG.
Is Rave here?
I don't see his colournameboxthing.
Apheori (GM): I don't either, but he's been talking regardless.
Frezak (GM): Mysssstical.
Gaurav: I have died and become a ghost. I exist solely in this game now.
Frezak (GM): My condolences.
That sounds pretty shitty.
No offense, Names.
Apheori (GM): I am offended.
Frezak (GM): Tough.
I'll stop interrupting, now.
Rhu: So: we have two shiny stones now. Out of eleven?
Ganelon: For convenience's sake, I'll repeat Radek's last question: are they important?
Dave: Yes.
Gaurav: oh, right, sorry
Apheori (GM): Total you should have five between you, but I don't know who has what or if Rhu would know about the others.
Ganelon: Five? I remember two from... messages we got.
Gaurav: These are the only two shiny stones I have in my campaign log. We got two rocks with messages.
Apheori (GM): There were two from that lady who showed up when you entered the city, Rhu got one in a weird place, and I dunno about the other.
Gaurav: If anybody interested, here's what's carved on them: a stylised mask, some sort of bird, tree, dragon.
This is reminding me of the tree over the Hole where we lost Azir and dunked a zombie into a pool.
Ganelon: It became a zombomb, yes.
Gaurav: So: should we try rescuing Frezak ourselves, or try to convince these turbulent wizards to help?
well, "help"
Ganelon: Who has them, though?
Apheori (GM): Oh, there were only four.
Ganelon: I'd guess "not me", because they're rocks.
Chronologically I'd much prefer if he did his whole thing first.
Gaurav: I have both the ones that were handed to me. I think the first rock/message was handed to Greibel, so he should have that one, plus the one Dave gave him just now.
Bear Soup Guy: Yay collectibles
Gaurav: Gotta find 'em all.
I'm okay with chronologically if that's easier on everybody.
Bear Soup Guy: Maybe they have mystical elemental powers that can turn us into themed bio-mechs
Frezak (GM): Maybe if I was a giant robot I could actually lift something.
Apheori (GM): Do you want to be a giant robot?
I'm sure Radek could put your soul in the mouseforged body.
You could be with your mousie forever and ever and ever.
Ganelon: That's just a regular sized robot, though.
Also, creepy.
Apheori (GM): It would be a start.
Frezak (GM): Just a little too creepy.
Gaurav: To be fair, this game has a very high creepiness threshold.
Apheori (GM): Yay, creepy!
I mean...
What were we all doing?
And when were we ending?
Bear Soup Guy: We're deciding what to do about Gravy
I think
Gaurav: we were conspiring to kill all the wizards, or at least kick them out of this college
Frezak (GM): I can probably go on for an hour or so.
Apheori (GM): Okay.
Okay, so you all just got another rock to go with others, which you don't know who holds. You may or may not be sorting that out.
Several more wizards come out and join the others poking the mouseforged.
One exchanges incoherencies with Dave and Radek.
Ganelon: I should probably make sure the Mouseforged is okay.
Rhu glares occasionally at the wizards but avoids Radek's eye. Mostly he's just looking over the dragon stone he has and thinking.
Apheori (GM): Frezak: You are in a clearing in an old forest, with towering branches reaching overhead, almost closing over the clearing.
Frezak: Standing stones line the edge of the clearing, forming a broken circle.
Gan: You push through the wizards, and behold... a mouseforged that looks pretty much exactly as it did before.
Roll or something to sort out more.
And I need a bathroom.
Ganelon:
rolling 1d20+11
(
20
)
+11
=
31
Oh cool.
I mostly just want to know why it's not been moving around.
Gaurav: You glimpse the soul of every mouse forged in the universe.
Ganelon: That doesn't sound too tough.
Frezak (GM): I'll go examine the stones without stepping into teh circle or touching the stones.
Apheori (GM): You started in the middle of the circle, so does that mean not stepping out in this case?
Also is there any good way to run two concurrent parts of the same story without confusing everyone?
Frezak (GM): Oh, right.
Yeah.
Sure, whispers.
Apheori (GM): Whispers are annoying, though.
But okay.
Perhaps we should do that, then.
Bear Soup Guy: We've managed it a couple times so far
Gaurav: Right. Rhu's encounter through the Hole has never been entered into the main story logs, but nobody's complained so far.
Apheori (GM): Gan: Its... uh... power is depleted and something is broken with some of the connections. It looks like someone jerryrigged them and it fell apart again.
(This is new.)
(It wasn't like this when you were working on it before.)
(To Frezak): The stones are old and mossy, with smoothed edges. They look like they might have been carved, but there aren't any patterns carved in them.
(To Frezak): "They're just stones," Amadi says behind you, but when you look, it isn't Amadi. This one is too pale, too white.
(From Frezak (GM)): How deep into the earth are the stones?
Rhu loiters near the wizards and tries to overhear what they're talking about
(From The Gravedigger): A stone is a stone is a stone is a stone.
(To Frezak): Deep enough that you can't tell without digging them up.
Greibel continues inspecting the stones
Rhu: [to Greibel] What do you suppose they're made of?
Apheori (GM): Whispers are primarily annoying in that the chat interface kind of sucks for them.
It's like... no, it's WORSE than irssi.
Frezak (GM): If you're that irritated, use skype?
Apheori (GM): Greibel: It resembles shale. You can use your nature to... I dunno.
Skype is worse than irssi too.
Greibel:
rolling 1d20+12 nature to... I dunno
(
4
)
+12
=
16
Apheori (GM): Apparently it isn't shale and I don't know what I'm talking about. But you don't know either. HAH!
Greibel: (To Rhu) Certainly some kind of sedimentary rock
Bear Soup Guy: That'll show me!
Rhu nods, although he has no idea what that means.
Ganelon: Well, I push any wizards who happen to be within reach of the Mouseforged away.
And try to fix the poor thing.
(To Frezak): Stones know what they are.
(From The Gravedigger): Doesn't mean I do. What time is it?
(To Frezak): Almost midnight.
(To Frezak): But it's always almost midnight here.
(From Frezak (GM)): What is the sky like?
(To Frezak): Sky looks like daytime. Probably afternoon.
Apheori (GM): The wizards grumble and rearrange themselves and try to help.
Roll arcana.
Ganelon:
rolling 1d20+11
(
9
)
+11
=
20
I'm not accepting help from crazy wizards who probably caused the problem in the first place.
Apheori (GM): You manage to reconnect the broken bits and wind up with a wizard's beard glued to your own.
They aren't taking hints.
This wizard hasn't even noticed yet.
Ganelon: Glued? Not just tangled?
(From The Gravedigger): Am I in the hole?
(To Frezak): No, not quite.
(To Frezak): You've lost yourself, Gravedigger. Or perhaps I should say she's lost you, but you are here, and here, if nothing else, you are safe.
Apheori (GM): Glued.
(From The Gravedigger): How did you break?
Ganelon: Do I have anything sharp?
Because I'm totally merciless enough to cut his beard off.
Frezak (GM): Can't you conjure fire?
(To Frezak): Gods are cruel. They do not take kindly to what they do not understand. Someone had to take the fall.
Apheori (GM): You should have a knife in your kit thing.
Ganelon: I cannot conjure fire.
(To Frezak): But you're not asking about that, are you?
Ganelon: Also, fire spreads.
(From The Gravedigger): I might be. I don't know anything. What's out there?
Ganelon: Alright. Should I roll for this, to not be noticed?
And if so, stealth or thievery?
(From Frezak (GM)): He'll gesture outside the circle.
(To Frezak): Woods, I suppose. Dreams. It doesn't matter.
(To Frezak): Find yourself. It is all here.
Apheori (GM): I suppose you probably should.
Since while he's incredibly unlikely to notice, we still don't know what will happen as is.
He's arguing with another wizard about the mouseforged's feet.
Ganelon: Well, pick a skill. I have training in thievery but not stealth.
Apheori (GM): Thievery.
Ganelon:
rolling 1d20+6
(
7
)
+6
=
13
Apheori (GM): You're thieving a piece of beard.
Ganelon: That I am.
Apheori (GM): You thieve a piece of beard.
Gaurav: Smooth.
Bear Soup Guy: Achievement unlocked
Radek: Are you "wizards" good for anything at all? Give me some power, here. That's why the damn thing isn't moving.
Apheori (GM): One of them helpfully sets another on fire and he runs away yelling about pancakes.
Another more helpfully offers some sort of power crystal.
Ganelon: Fantastic.
I don't think Warforged strictly have a power source beyond simply "magic".
Unless they're powered by the soul, which seems unlikely given how the soul is used to govern their actions.
Apheori (GM): Magic is a source.
Ganelon: But hey, if it's low on magic, well... I've got some magic here.
Have some magic, Mouseforged.
In crystalline form.
Apheori (GM): Roll to restore the energy magic stuff of the mouseforged.
Ganelon:
rolling 1d20+11
(
15
)
+11
=
26
(From The Gravedigger): Myself? That's... hard. I'm... wherever a corpse needs to be buried, wherever someone forgets the old ways, wherever a hole is dug, wherever a hole is filled. I could have been a god, you know. But I never liked the idea of worship. Sounded hard. Or was that me? Maybe I'm just a dreaming kid, eyes full of strength and stone.
Ganelon: I'm good at two things: Being grumpy, and magic.
(From The Gravedigger): Sometimes, it's not easy to remember.
Ganelon: Well, three things. We can add safari hunting to that list.
Frezak (GM): Roll to grump?
Apheori (GM): Your magic succeeds and the mouseforged curls up and tries to hide under you.
Needless to say it fails.
Frezak (GM): Instill some Wis into the mousie.
Gaurav: One of these days we're going to get an ally who won't trip us up.
A Wisinjection?
Ganelon: I don't have the wisdom to spare.
Radek: There! Back up and moving.
(To Frezak): The not Amadi nods, and says, "Where words fail, your eyes will tell you true." The clearing falls away, and you hear her say, "This is who you are, soranai of the shovels.
Radek: Now please admire my work without interfering with it in the future.
Rhu comes over to see
Rhu: I wonder if he saw anything.
(To Frezak): You are now somewhere else. It is like a house of mirrors, shards of them everywhere, reflecting back at you, showing yourself, showing other things. None of the backgrounds are quite what you would expect, however - they don't show your surroundings, but other ones, as though they are something in the mirrors themselves.
Dave: Nice.
Radek: Let's find out. Greibel, get over here.
(From Frezak (GM)): I'll hold out my hand and examine it.
(To Frezak): Do you touch it?
Greibel saunters over non-chalantly
(From Frezak (GM)): What, my hand? I'm examining my extremity.
(From Frezak (GM)): Checking that it's still... mine.
(To Frezak): Ah, right. Your hand looks like your hand. But it's glowing slightly for some reason, and almost seems like it could be partially transparent.
Greibel:
rolling 1d20+12 try to talk with the mouseforged
(
13
)
+12
=
25
Apheori (GM): You talk to it. Go.
(From Frezak (GM)): I'll turn around and look for an Amadipiece.
(To Frezak): No amadi pieces, just more mirrors.
(From Frezak (GM)): Are there any mirrors with a... blank or reflective background?
Bear Soup Guy: Oh, right-o
(To Frezak): Some, further away. Or maybe you're just not close enough.
Greibel: Hello? Are you alright in there?
(From Frezak (GM)): can I move, or am I stuck in on spot with mirrors all around?
Apheori (GM): The mouseforged makes happy mousie noises at Greibel.
(To Frezak): You can move. It's a forest of mirrors and you are in the middle of it, but you can go find a new middle.
Greibel: Good. Good. Tell me what you've seen around here?
Apheori (GM): It doesn't seem to understand the concept of here, but it recalls a story of sorts of a whole lot of darkness, and some sort of storm that would have terrified it utterly had it not had its friend helping it dig.
Gaurav: HUH.
(From Frezak (GM)): what kind of 'other things' do these mirrorshards show?
Bear Soup Guy: Diggy diggy hole
Frezak (GM): Gods damn you, BSG.
Greibel: He's seen Gravy. Can't get much out of him though. There's not much he can articulate really.
(To Frezak): In the closest, you see yourself, and your reflection is tall and certain and powerful, surrounded by a field of fallen towers. You have buried something underneath it all, something vast, something... you don't know.
Greibel: A storm and digging.
Rhu: That's not bad for a mouse. Can he walk? As compared to diving under tables or Radek, I mean.
Gaurav: Was the incident at the laboratory every described to us as a storm or wind of some sort?
Apheori (GM): Maybe, maybe not.
Ganelon: The incident?
You mean the cave-in?
Gaurav: No, the bit where everybody died and left their corpses lying around everywhere.
Ganelon: Oh, that.
(From Frezak (GM)): Do i see one with a fairly happy-looking, ordinary, possibly slightly dirty Gravy with a big hole?
Gaurav: I thought somebody said something about a wind rushing through the caves and everybody running for the transporter, but I can't find it in my notes, so maybe I'm misremembering.
Frezak (GM): I thought that was the sort of wind that comes from a collapsing tunnel?
(To Frezak): Several. You're not sure which, if any, are entirely accurate, however.
Frezak (GM): The rushing roar of failing masonry?
Gaurav: Could be. I might have been thinking about the cave-in instead.
Never mind, it's not important for now.
(From The Gravedigger): This is silly. None of them are 'real'. None of THIS is real. They told me so. I'm just making things up again.
Ganelon: We should probably figure out where to go.
(To Frezak): Nothing is real. All we have are pieces, fragments, and with them we make reality.
Gaurav: It might make sense to stay here. Wherever Gravy is, if I can portal back to this place (or be spat out of the Hole earlier), he probably can too. Plus, Dave knows something and probably these wizards know something too.
(To Frezak): I'm not sorry, but I also didn't mean to. You didn't deserve this. You're too nice for that.
Gaurav: The only place we could go to that might improve our ability to find Gravy is back into the lab. I don't recall a machine for making holes, but we assume they had something like that somewhere, right?
(To Frezak): I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
Frezak (GM): YES.
THEY ARE CALLED SHOVELS.
Or spades.
Gaurav: Hey, what happened to that shielding artefact Radek and Gravy found in the tunnels?
You took all our shovels away :-(
(To Frezak): Were you then, you might have been. Movement is possible. The camera can be in motion if you like. Let's move the camera.
Bear Soup Guy: HOW WILL WE TEND THE GARDENS NOW
Frezak (GM): WITH YOUR BARE HANDS.
Or trained moles.
Bear Soup Guy: I'll use my trained mole hands
Gaurav: Greibel can actually use bear hands.
Bear Soup Guy: =D
Frezak (GM): Molebears!
You could steal the Gardener's stuff.
(To Frezak): You can't see them, the madwomen behind the voices, but you hear them, all the same, but different, drifting through the mirrors, trying to help, to give some sort of direction, some sort of clue, but you get the feeling they are as lost as you are.
Ganelon: I still have the artifact, I think.
Gaurav: It didn't have any effect on the Hole, right?
Ganelon: I didn't exactly get close to the hole.
(From Frezak (GM)): Do I seem to have all my things?
Ganelon: And I doubt it would. It protects against high-energy sources, not... whatever the holes are.
Gaurav: Ah, fair enough.
(To Frezak): Yes.
Ganelon: Maybe if we could test that in a controlled environment.
Gaurav: Can you try talking to these wizards and see if they know anything? The Ridcully-wizard might be sensible, and they're MUCH more likely to talk to Radek than Rhu.
o.0 ... do you mean heading back to the pool with the Hole in it, or are you proposing we deliberately create Holes to test it against?
Ganelon: Deliberately creating holes could be very useful to us, under the right circumstances.
So... maybe, yes.
What do you want to know about?
(From Frezak (GM)): I examine the ground beneath me.
Gaurav: Why was there suddenly a Hole in the middle here, and how did Dave and Gravy fix it? Do they know what Holes are, and have any idea about fixing them? Where do people go when they go through a Hole?
Oh, and ask them if the pub at the corner has waffles.
Radek stands upright and strokes his beard authoritatively.
Radek: Who here knows about the instability that was here moments ago?
(To Frezak): Packed sand, slightly transparent. Like the mirrors themselves.
(From Frezak (GM)): I begin to dig!
Apheori (GM): One of the wizards (a much younger one) jumps up and starts shouting, "Me! Me! Pick me!" and another one smacks him with a nailgrabber.
Frezak (GM): Nailgrabber?
Apheori (GM): Magnet on a stick. Use it to pick up nails off the floor. Probably has a real name, but I forgot what it is.
Ganelon: Well if nobody else volunteers...
Radek points at the young wizard. "Speak."
Apheori (GM): He opens his mouth and the other hits him again.
Another says, "Well, that's it, isn't it? They just sort of started showing up, and now they're showing up more and more, completely at random."
"It shouldn't have happened here, see. Normal botched spells, they don't do that. But now they do. It's completely random."
Rhu: We saw a Hole which has been open for years apparently, but the others we saw closed pretty quickly. Have you noticed any other persistent Holes?
(To Frezak): The pack of the sand gets harder the further you go, and you don't make it very far down at all before it becomes solid rock.
(To Frezak): Then Amadi is there, really there, peering over your shoulder. "That won't work, you know," she says. "This isn't a digging dream. Isn't a dream at all. You should enter one of *them*."
Scruffy-looking wizard: Oh, no, no, wouldn't dream of it.
Dave suddenly stands up and, pointing toward the largest building with the busted main door, says "Wayfarers! This way!"
Dave then marches off inside.
Ganelon: I... assume she's talking to us.
Rhu run behind her, scurrying to keep up, saying "careful! they have fireballs in there!"
(From The Gravedigger): I'm sick of people telling me what to do. "take those pills", "don't say that', "stop fidgeting" "stop running" "stop talking" "stop thinking" NO. I'll do what I damn well want, even if it avails me naught.
Rhu: Yeah, it's what that priest dude called us too, I think.
Ganelon: And I'm not leaving the Mouseforged in the company of these wizards.
Rhu: He can walk now, can't he?
I'm assuming he's a he.
Ganelon: Well, let's see. I'll try to direct "him" to follow us.
As in, by tugging.
(To Frezak): Okay.
(To Frezak): You still might want to try entering one of them.
(From The Gravedigger): No, I really don't.
(To Frezak): Well you don't want to stay here.
(To Frezak): I was here. Look how I turned out.
Apheori (GM): The mouseforged resists and stares at Greibel pleadingly.
(From The Gravedigger): I am the Gravedigger. Rather be broken that not be what I am.
Greibel tries to calm the mouseforged down
Ganelon: That must be pretty impressive with a metal face.
Greibel: It's okay, we're just going, uh...exploring.
(To Frezak): The Gravedigger isn't broken.
Apheori (GM): It's a porridge-like expression.
Gaurav: *very* impressive. maybe it wiggled its ears or something?
Gaurav tries to imagine a porridge-like expression and falls over.
Apheori (GM): The mouseforged tries to follow Greibel.
Greibel: That's right, this way buddy. I can't promise there will be cake, but there might be!
(From The Gravedigger): No, but the person he /was/ IS.
(From Frezak (GM)): Any mirrors show the... college?
(From Frezak (GM)): It was a college, right?
Ganelon: I'll follow, of course, and try to fix this "beard fragment glued to my beard" situation.
(To Frezak): With the wizards? It was, but there's nothing about it here.
Apheori (GM): You follow after Dave and find she's cornered a pair of wizards, asking in an authoritative tone that they kindly tell her where the gateway is.
They direct her down a hallway and she promptly marches off in that direction.
Radek chuckles to himself and mutters something about pushovers.
Rhu continues following Dave
(From Frezak (GM)): Bah. I'll just.... poke a random mirror.
Apheori (GM): You all wind up in a decently large room with a large archway in it. Dave stops in front of it and glares on it for a bit, rubbing her temples.
Gaurav: Just to check, this is an arch over the door, right, not a free-standing arch sitting inside this room?
Well, standing
(To Frezak): You catch a glimpse of yourself for a moment before you enter the mirror, and yourself looks back, big, strong, useful, and not at all special. Then you're there, standing on the other side amidst piles of parts, pipes and cogs and ducts spiralling through the room.
(From Frezak (GM)): SPiralling? As in moving?
(To Frezak): And it is a room - a workshop, perhaps, though not one like you would use yourself. There's an old man at a desk putting something together.
(To Frezak): Maybe. They look like it, at least, but it could just be the weird shapes and angles. It makes your eyes hurt.
(From The Gravedigger): Uh. Hello?
Apheori (GM): Free-standing arch.
Radek: What are we doing here, Dave?
(To Frezak): He mutters something. It sounds like "Go away, it's not business," but you're not really sure. All the sound here is wrong. The colours are muted, but brighter.
Rhu: Rhu walks around the arch, looking for sphinxes.
Gaurav: sorry ooc
Dave: Yes.
(From Frezak (GM)): I'll try and find an exit.
Dave: Er, that is...
Apheori (GM): The space in the archway goes opaque as the gateway opens into a portal thing.
Dave: This.
Come.
Dave walks into it and disappears.
Rhu looks at everybody else
Rhu shrugs
Rhu follows Dave into the archway/gateway/portal/thing
Greibel: Um...
Right, okay.
Greibel walks in cautiously
(To Frezak): There's a door in the other direction, opposite the old man. Did you come through that? You don't remember, but you think you got what you came here for even though you don't remember what that was, either. So yes, door. You need to get back, after all.
Apheori (GM): The mouseforged runs after as soon as it sees Greibel disappear, and passes through as well.
Ganelon: I'll be a little more careful and try to determine where this will take me.
rolling 1d20+11 Arcana
(
12
)
+11
=
23
Even if it's just something as vague as "not oblivion".
Gaurav: or "out"
the teleported was booby trapped, so who knows if this is too
Apheori (GM): You determine that it is a portal that goes somewhere else, and seems to go both ways.
(From Frezak (GM)): COME HERE, DOOR!
Ganelon: Good enough.
I'll enter.
(To Frezak): Their door or yours?
(From Frezak (GM)): The one I can see, of course.
(To Frezak): You want it to come to you?
(To Frezak): Very well. You are now standing in front of the door. It is unclear if you moved to it or it came to you, but here it is, and here you are.
Apheori (GM): Okay it's been a few hours let's call it a day.
Apheori (GM) runs away.
Gaurav looks around
Gaurav: Where did the DM go?
Bear Soup Guy: yay fun]
Ganelon: We just got cliffhanger'd.
Frezak (GM): Gorram cliffhangerers.
Gaurav: It's not a proper cliffhanger until someone does the scary chords.
Are you cliffhandered over on your side of the story as well, Frezak?
Frezak (GM): Um.
Sort of?
I can't tell.
Because that would be telling.
Gaurav: Fair enough.
Apheori (GM): Sorry about that.
But let's continue... next week.
Yes.
Frezak (GM): Never be sorry!
Gaurav: Sunday 8am?
Apheori (GM): I'm always sorry.
Ganelon: I don't mind.
I've always got stuff to do.
Bear Soup Guy: Works for me
Apheori (GM): Excellent.
Gaurav: hullo!
sorry, my wifi died. so same time as today next Sunday?
Apheori (GM): Aye.
Gaurav: Awesome. Thanks for a fun game everybody! See you next week!
</pre>

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