Difference between revisions of "Holes/Session 57"

A fragment of the Garden of Remembering
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<pre>
<screenplay>
4:51PM    Apheori (GM):  Not that I even remember wher we left off. IS EEVERYONE HERE?  REEEEADY TO RUMBLE?  Is Ellemerr here?
EXT. Unmade between - starheart concept


4:52PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Ready to make slight vibrations  I don't know about rumbling
Radek wakes up screaming.


4:52PM    Apheori (GM):  Is Gan ready to be his crazy old man?
The Gravedigger hugs Radek.


4:52PM    Ganelon:  I'm here.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
There, there, it's all right.


4:52PM    Gaurav:  Given that the last thing to happen to Rhu was nearly falling off a cliff and needing rescue, he is going to stand way back and as still as possible. Can you switch the background map back on?
The Gravedigger pats Radek.


4:53PM    Ganelon:  The last thing to happen to Rhu was very possibly saving my life.  
RADEK
What.... what have I...
(he pants heavily, staring down at himself)
I'm... still here.


4:53PM    Apheori (GM):  Right, y'all were floating in the... weird between space, surrounded by light.  Radek nearly overdosed on light orbs.  Rhu injected him with something.  Like a proper trained medic and stuff.  
RHU
You're not going anywhere until we've fixed... all this.


4:54PM    Gaurav:  Oh, right!
Rhu gestures toward the light surrounding them.


4:54PM    Apheori (GM):  And Radek had been using Greibel as a sieve...  But then he got his six orbs and kind of accidentally on purpose absorbed them all into himself. Whereas the Gravedigger had pointedly NOT tried absorbing the great orb in the middle of the space.  
AMADI
You want to fix ''this''?! I think you've got your head turned around. Here, I can fix that.


4:55PM    Frezak (GM):  Yup.  
Amadi reaches for Rhu's head.


4:55PM    Apheori (GM):  Well.  
The Gravedigger snatches Amadi.


4:56PM    (To Ganelon):  You've turned yourself into a god, you know. The literal sort. You have all the aspects of creation at your disposal, free to use in any way you can think of.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
No head-touching!


4:57PM    Apheori (GM):  So Radek just woke up flailing after being stabbed in the heart with a syringe by Rhu. Go?
Amadi climbs up the Gravedigger and fixes his hair instead.


4:57PM    (From Ganelon):  His past self from like five minutes ago would be so disappointed.
AMADI
Pink or green?


4:57PM    (To Ganelon):  But not his current? :P
Radek looks up at Gravy with some relief.


4:57PM    (From Ganelon):  His current self has a job to do.  
RADEK
You were right.
(annoyed)
...Now get off of me.


4:58PM    (To Ganelon):  So did his past self!
The Gravedigger releases Radek.


Rhu puts away the syringe with a smug smile.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Wonderful! ...About what?


Radek wakes up screaming.  
RADEK
Coming here - this power. We did need it.
(he chuckles a bit sadly)
...I hardly knew what I was doing, before. I don't know if you're wise or just lucky, but you were right. Shall we go?


4:58PM    Apheori (GM):  Uh oh, Rhu may have a saviour complex. Don't let him ever lose a patient!
Rhu nods enthusiastically.


4:58PM    Frezak (GM):  This map, Gaurav?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Yes!


4:59PM    Apheori (GM):  Nobody's there. You're in the weird light place.  
The Gravedigger pumps a shovel heroically.


The Gravedigger hugs Radek.  
The path back is falling apart. The navigator is working on it trying to recreate disintigrating bits, but the degredation is now exceeding its abilities to repair the damage.


4:59PM    The Gravedigger:  There, there, it's all right.  
The Gravedigger looks at Radek to fix things.


The Gravedigger pats Radek.  
Radek drifts over and raises his arms at the path like he's goddamn Moses.


4:59PM    Frezak (GM): Sure, but it's prettier.  
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): Let's try to repair it. Maybe even improve it. ''(rolled 24 arcana)''


4:59PM    Gaurav:  He's lost maaaaaany patients in this campaign alone. Luckily, they're usually gods.  
The path strengthens and solidifies before them, glowing in madness patterns shifting and twisting like nightmares. It looks perfectly safe.


5:00PM    Apheori (GM):  Everyone on weird light place map! We can get back to prettier once I've sorted out npcs or something.  Heh.  Aaaagh my eye keeps twitching.  
Radek drifts forwards.


5:00PM    Frezak (GM):  Lack of sleep.  
RADEK
Much... better. Yes.
I may require some practice to familiarize myself.


5:00PM    Apheori (GM): I got seven hours of sleep!
'''''Frezak''' (Gravy): I'm totally ready to continue on, because this is totally safe.


5:01PM    Radek:  What.... what have I...  
'''''Ellemerr''' (Amadi): This is totally not safe.


Radek pants heavily, staring down at himself.
'''''Gaurav''' (Rhu): What's the worst that could happen?


5:01PM    Radek: I'm... still here.  
'''''Frezak''' (Gravy): Yes, gaurav. The Worst is indeed what could happen.


5:01PM    Apheori (GM): I should probably not hijack Amadi. Or should I?
'''''Apheori (GM)''': That depends on how you define 'worst'.


5:02PM    Ganelon: ...I dunno, did we start without the Merr?
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): Oh, you know. Just the unraveling of all reality.
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): But on the bright side, the concept of "worst" will go along with everything else. However, so will the concept of a bright side, so really you'll not be able to enjoy ''or'' hate it past a certain point.


5:02PM    Apheori (GM):  Yes. We're on a tight schedule.  
The others follow after Radek, into the light, all around, vast and blinding, but the path is an expanse of visibility before them. Its patterns shift and change, glowing in rhythm to the song of the light, almost unheard. It's so perfect, so complete, that there had been almost nothing to hear at all when in the centre, but now, passing through it once more, from time to time a whiff drifts through. Strange and lonely, and then gone...


5:02PM    Ganelon:  That we are.  
The Gravedigger turns to Amadi as the resident expert at songs. She's singing an entirely different song that ''sort of fits'' all the same.


5:02PM    Rhu:  You're not going anywhere until we've fixed... all this. (gestures vaguely at the light surrounding us)
Radek scowls.


5:03PM    Amadi:  You want to fix ''this''?!  I think you've got your head turned around. Here, I can fix that.  
The Gravedigger hums a tune that is subtly different from Amadi's. Jussssst enough to irritate a careful listener.


Amadi reaches for Rhu's head.  
The light fades almost suddenly as they emerge from the other side, and the path twists and curls, much as it had before, out against the strangeness and the stars, same same, but different. The stars are singing all around, at great distance, near enough to touch.


The Gravedigger snatches Amadi.  
The path behind them unravels, unseen, unnoticed. At the tail of the party, the Navigator drifts along behind them, dutifully cleaning it up, cutting off tears before they can spread too far.


5:03PM    The Gravedigger:  No head-touching!
This time Radek's not taking notes, he's just experimenting. The tone-deaf star stands out in particular, jarring but distant, right there, just off the path. He directs the path before them to change, to redirect itself through the dissonnt star, and it shifts and rejigs, now leading them right through its heart. ''(rolled 32 arcana)''


Rhu tries to dodge Amadi.  
As they approach, this star is full of motion, of roliling things within the light, hinting of madness and strangeness. Different hues glint in and out. The song, now, is loudest of all.


Amadi climbs up the Gravedigger and fixes his hair instead.  
RADEK
...Why do you sing when you cannot do it correctly? Are you aware of your own flaws?


5:04PM    Amadi:  Pink or green?  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Are you walking into a star, Radek?


5:04PM    Apheori (GM):  ...sorry. >.>
RADEK
I believe so. This should only take a moment.


Radek looks up at Gravy. Relieved at first, then increasingly annoyed.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Okay.


5:04PM    Radek:  You were right.   ...Now get off of me.  
Entering, the light blooms around them once again, not quite overwhelming, just sort of there, growing in intensity and tuna. The song is full of beef, stranger and stranger. And then they step out into another space within the light, like the last, but not.


The Gravedigger releases Radek.  
This time the light around is not constant. It's shifting and changing, moving to the notes in the dissonant song, and when the song jumps, everything else jars too. And in the middle, instead of an orb, is a box, small, gift wrapped, with a bow on it. A bright merry present.


5:06PM    The Gravedigger:  Wonderful!  ...  About what?
Radek creates a tuning fork.


5:11PM    Radek:  Coming here - this power. We did need it.  
Amadi goes over to the present and pulls another out of her pocket. It looks exactly like the first one. She juggles them both a bit before putting them both down where the first one was, each inserted neatly into the same space.


Radek chuckles, a bit sadly.  
The song jangles and Radek's tuning fork melts.


5:11PM    Radek:  ...I hardly knew what I was doing, before. I don't know if you're wise or just lucky, but you were right.  Shall we go?
Radek frowns and reconstitutes the fork.


5:12PM    The Gravedigger:  Yes!
RADEK
What are you doing?


Rhu nods enthusiastically, eager to get out of here.  
AMADI
Um... Presents?


The Gravedigger pumps a shovel heroically.  
Another Amadi appears across the present from Amadi. It looks just like her, but a bit more confused. Or possibly less.


5:14PM    (From Ganelon):  Can I just make us all ''be elsewhere?''
Rhu whimpers.


5:14PM    (To Ganelon):  Ye-es...  
Amadi waves at the other Amadi.


5:14PM    (From Ganelon):  Back to Kyrule? I don't mind walking, but hey, if I wanna show off and all...  
Radek shakes his head and taps the fork against the end of his rifle.


5:14PM    (To Ganelon):  Say where you're trying to go, how specifically you're thinking, what kind of identifiers...  
The other Amadi raises a hand to wave back, but then frowns a bit at it, examining the hand, and suddenly smiles joyfully. She seems to be the current direction of the song.


5:15PM    (To Ganelon):  And then go?
The fork cancels out bits of it, and things in the surrounding light flicker.


5:15PM    Apheori (GM):  Or you can be sensible and try scouting it first.  Er, that was supposed to be a pm.  
Amadi smiles overbearingly.


5:15PM    Ganelon:  Eh.
ANOTHER AMADI
You brought the song?


5:16PM    Apheori (GM):  Well, yes.  Do whatever.  
When she says the word 'song', the word sort of flickers between 'song' and 'gift'.


Apheori (GM) grins.  
AMADI
It seemed like you might need it.


5:16PM    Ganelon:  Sensible sounds like my kind of thing.  
ANOTHER AMADI
(indicating Radek)
He can fix it. Can you?


5:16PM    Apheori (GM):  But would you think of it? Making sure where you want to go is actually where you'll wind up before actually going?
AMADI
I've never fixed a thing in my life. But I can cover up the cracks so they're nigh impossible to notice.


5:17PM    Frezak (GM):  We have faith!
The other Amadi beams.


5:17PM    Apheori (GM):  How fried are you?  Well, yes.  Whatever. THE MADNESS!
RADEK
Hmph. I'm not here to ''hide'' flaws, I'm here to erase them.


5:17PM    Ganelon:  It's a valid point.  This seems like a dangerous time to experiment, though. ...I'll probably still be doing some of that anyways. For now, though, let's leave the way we came.  Is the path still open?
The other Amadi opens her mouth and the song pours out, broken and strange, full of discordant notes and missing pieces. It tastes of Nightmare.


5:19PM    Apheori (GM):  It's falling apart. The navigator is working on it trying to recreate disintigrating bits. Gods dammit I hate airports. I need to take all my stuff to go to the bathroom.  
It's simple, really. It's not even a star. A piece of reality. A shape of universe, interacting with more shape. This is all an abstraction, in a way. Maybe it's the angle. Out of balance.


Apheori (GM) kicks it.  
Radek turns the star like a tetris block 90 degrees.


5:20PM    Apheori (GM):  So whaddya do?
Everything shifts jarringly around them. The light turns. The shapes shift. The other Amadi suddenly looks a lot more like Dawn than Amadi. This maybe improves things a bit, but now they're off in a different direction.


5:21PM    Frezak (GM):  Look at Radek to fix things.  
Rhu, meanwhile, is too terrified to do anything. Giant fish are going to start flying any minute now, he just knows it.


5:21PM    Gaurav:  ^
Radek holds up a needle and balances the entire star on its point. This time he turns it more carefully, in three dimensions, to see if he can't keep it from falling off. It gets close and far and close again, ''(rolled 31 arcana)'' narrowing down until it's as close as it's likely to get. So then he gives it a spin to keep it in place. Spinning a star on the tip of a needle like a ball trick.


5:21PM    Frezak (GM):  Just wait patiently for him to make the problem go away.  
It works. The song stabilises, in tune! Perfectly balanced, mathematically sound. The light around still shifts, but now it's sensible, full of chaos, properly balanced. And the other Amadi just looks surprised. Now she doesn't looke like Dawn or Amadi or all, but... the other one. The one they saw in Midnight, the one... with the name...


5:22PM    Gaurav:  Is there any where we can walk to from where we are? A path in the lights or some part of the light looking brighter/dimmer than the others?
AMADI
Oh dear. I mean, oh. Hi. Hi. Oh.


Radek raises his arms at the path like he's goddamn Moses and attempts to visualize it.  
The other Amadi giggles, strangely melodic, a part of the song, and then does a backflip and swoops around.


5:22PM    Ganelon:  Let's try to repair it. Maybe even improve it.
ANOTHER AMADI
Hi!


5:23PM    Apheori (GM):  Well, you're just floating. You don't need to walk at all. You can just drift through space.  
RADEK
...There.


5:24PM    Gaurav:  Hmm, I suspect if Rhu tries drifting in a random direction we'll never see him again.  
RADEK
Everything in its proper place. Or a better place than before, at least.


5:25PM    Ganelon:  Hence why I'm trying to get us a way back.  
RADEK
Hello to you.


5:26PM    Ellemerr (GM):  I'm here and read up. A little tired and eating dinner, though, so don't expect too much all at once.
ANOTHER AMADI
Thank you!


5:27PM    Apheori (GM):  The thing with the path is it's the ''direction'' to go. So if it disintigrates while you're using it, you may find yourself lost amongst the singing stars. But yeah, do it. Roll arcana or stuff.  
The other Amadi sings, full of joy and strangeness and mad terror, singing out into the black...


5:29PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+16
RADEK
( 6 )+16  = 22
(To Amadi)
''Is'' that normal, for her?


5:29PM    Frezak (GM):  Gravy has complete faith in Radek's ability to fix things.  
AMADI
...I don't even rightly know if it ''is'' her...


5:29PM    Ganelon:  Hrmph.  
'''''Apheori (GM)''': Power takes form. Avatars exist within and without, and take shapes sometimes misleading, or confusing. I was trying to think of something, or perhaps understand, but I seem to have lost the pieces.


5:29PM    Frezak (GM):  He's super smart!  Right?  Right!
Radek bows to the new Amadi.


5:29PM    Ganelon:  Well he _is_ that.  
RADEK
Try to remain as you are. I have more work to attend to.


5:29PM    Apheori (GM):  Great. You get a free assist from that.  
The other Amadi doesn't explicitly respond, just beams happily, and takes one of the presents and swoops away with it, dancing around the space at the heart of the star with the sheer mad joy of the song, holding it close.


5:29PM    Ganelon:  24, then?
The party goes to where the path should be. It's not there.


5:29PM    (To Ganelon):  Because you're a god and another god has faith in you.  
RADEK
...Hrm.


Apheori (GM) cackles.  
He knows what he needs - to find Kyrule, and the shovel, and the hole - and suddenly he's right there, not as himself, but as an avatar, tall, glowing, floating almost a metre off of the ground.


5:30PM    Apheori (GM):  Hmm, that doesn't really change much.


5:30PM    (From Ganelon):  Should've convinced the others to start cults!
INT. Great rift at Sanessee - caverns


5:30PM    (From Ganelon):  Except yeah, I doubt that's why.  
Everything is much as they left it. The Rist, hovering in strange globules, ghastly and Black. The ground, cracked and sheered in patterns of broken glass. The shovel, pinning down their opening. Kyrule, now two, standing nearby it.


5:31PM    Apheori (GM):  The path strengthens before you, glowing in madness patterns shifting and twisting like nightmare.  It looks perfectly safe.  
Radek raises a glowing hand.


5:32PM    Ganelon:  ...Do I, a sane person, have any reason to fear?
RADEK
...Greetings.


5:32PM    (To Greibel):  It's not safe. Probably fine, but not safe.  
The word almost comes out broken. Speaking is strange with this, but then he manages it regardless and the word emerges as it is, off, but understandable. ''(rolled 18 diplomacy)''


5:32PM    Ganelon:  Okay, that may be giving myself too much credit. A person invested in the preservation of his sanity.
RADEK
Is it safe to return here?


5:32PM    Apheori (GM):  To fear? Many, many, MANY reasons. But it should be fine. You knew what you were doing. Perfectly safe.  
One of the Kyrules turns to regard Radek. It's not the right one. This one is skeletal, empty, wearing a black mask writhing in madness patterns about its skull.


5:33PM    Frezak (GM):  It's okay, guys. Radek would never fail us.  
The one behind still has her hand on the shovel, still holding it in place, not moving.


5:33PM    (To Amadi):  Prrrrrobably not that safe. He should really be careful.  
The skeletal Kyrule suddenly reaches out of its robes and holds a sword to the other's chest.


5:33PM    Ganelon:  Wow, no ''pressure'' or anything.  
Only now does the non-skeletal Kyrule look up, and she smiles slightly.


Radek drifts forwards.  
Radek has a go at taking everyone there. ''Urgently.'' He tries to step into his avatar, bringing the others back with him, but then it doesn't work. ''(rolled 24 arcana)'' He loses hold and suddenly he's there alone, in the flesh, dropping to the ground.


5:34PM    Radek:  Much... better. Yes.
Kyrule leans back slightly, away from the sword, but doesn't let go of the shovel. She doesn't even seem concerned. ''(rolled 6 insight)''


5:34PM    Frezak (GM):  I'm totally ready to continue on, because this is totally safe.  
RADEK
Tsk.


5:34PM    Apheori (GM):  Great!  Y'all follow?
Radek raises his free arm towards the Kyrules and snaps his fingers and places a ward on the not skeletal Kyrule, directed at the skeletal. ''(rolled 30 vs fortitude)'' This has no visible effect.


5:34PM    Frezak (GM):  And Radek would never do anything that would endanger us.


5:34PM    Ellemerr (GM):  This is totally not safe.  
EXT. Unmade between - starheart concept


5:34PM    Radek:  I may require some practice to familiarize myself.  
Radek just disappears.


5:34PM    Gaurav:  What's the worst that could happen?
AMADI
Hey! Wait for us!


5:34PM    Ganelon:  Oh, you know.  
Amadi drags a water balloon out of her pocket, then splashes it across the ground-that-isn't-there to make a black puddle. ''(rolled 34 bluff against reality)'' The puddle splatters and makes a bubble as the other Amadi swoops by in a swirl of song. It might even be helping.


5:34PM    Apheori (GM):  That depends on how you define 'worst'.  
AMADI
(gathering the others around her)
We need to hold hands, now.


5:34PM    Frezak (GM):  Yes, gaurav. The Worst is indeed what could happen.  
Amadi and the Gravedigger wind up having to reach out and grab Rhu's hands in order to get him into the circle. Greibel is just mysteriously there, though the other hand Amadi winds up with turns out to be Rasputin.


5:35PM    Ganelon:  Just the unraveling of all reality.  
Amadi jumps into the puddle, pulling everyone else in with her.


Rhu follows Radek.


5:35PM    Ganelon:  But on the bright side, the concept of "worst" will go along with everything else.  
INT. Great rift at Sanessee - caverns


5:35PM    Gaurav:  Reality is overrated.  
The rest of the party tumbles out of the air just behind Radek.


5:35PM    Ganelon:  However, so will the concept of a bright side, so really you'll not be able to enjoy ''or'' hate it past a certain point.  
The Gravedigger falls like a sack of bricks. Rhu pronks down daintily. Amadi rides an umbrella down, which promptly poofs when she lands.


5:36PM    Apheori (GM):  Great. As you head into the path, the patterns shift and change, glowing in rhythm to the song around you.  Radek: You get a rather strong urge to sing along.  
Greibel falls on his arse with a disturbingly loud splat.


5:37PM    Gaurav:  brb
GREIBEL
SPLAT!


5:37PM    Frezak (GM):  I turn to amadi, because she is the expert at songs in this team.  I mean, she's a bard!
Everyone accounted for, Kyrule pulls the Gravedigger's conceptual shovel out of the ground, unpinning the opening and letting the smaller hole close with a pop.


Amadi sings an entirely different song that ''sort of fits'' all the same.  
The skeletal Kyrule stabs her in the chest, and she flickers, grabbing the blade with another hand, and falls to her knees. She doesn't let go of the shovel, however.


5:38PM    (To Amadi):  What are you thinking about as you do this?  
RADEK
What is this, a feud with ''yourself?''


Radek scowls and tries to tough it out. He's worked long and hard to rid himself of urges.  
KYRULE
This... is not me.


5:39PM    Ganelon:  "Step 1: Eliminate the need for a latrine."
SKELETAL KYRULE
You are not the real Kyrule!


5:39PM    Apheori (GM):  So no singing from Radek.
KYRULE
Neither are you!


5:40PM    (From Amadi):  Er. Pancakes? And maaaybe fixing the world-related stuff.
RADEK
Is this really the time!?


5:40PM    Frezak (GM):  Gravy hums a tune that is subtly different from Amadi's.  Jussssst enough to irritate a careful listener.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Sandwich kid? Should I be smashing either of these?


5:41PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay, so we have two gods humming slightly differing tunes and one stubbornly not singing at all.  Great.
Amadi replies with a definite:


5:41PM    Ganelon:  I'm a rebel like that.  
AMADI
Maybe.


5:42PM    Apheori (GM):  If and when you come out, Gravy has an armour of pancakes effect on him, and Amadi has armour of waffles.  SO THERE.  
Greibel rubs his eyes.


5:42PM    Frezak (GM):  Sweet!  Or savoury!  Who knows!  
GREIBEL
Woah, double vision. There's four of them now!


5:42PM    Apheori (GM):  Anything that tries to eat you, presumeably.  Y'all drift down the path, following Radek?  You pass into the light, which is vast and blinding, and then it subsides as you come out the other side, the path much as you recall, but different, too.  Stars are singing all around, at great distance, near enough to touch. Anyone look back the way you came?
The Gravedigger eyes the two Kyrules and realises the one with the shovel is about to try to shovel the other one even regardless of having just been stabbed and still being slightly impaled. And she's even holding the shovel ''properly''.


5:44PM    Ganelon:  Not... likely. Not for me.  
The Gravedigger charges to assist. His assistance involves turning himself into a meaty missile.


5:44PM    Bear Soup Guy:  And be turned to a pillar of salt?! Pffft!
The non-skeletal Kyrule shovels the skeletal Kyrule, knocking it off-balance, and the Gravedigger rams it into the ground, bringing the full force of the earth up to meet it and hold it in place. ''(rolled 37 attack)''


5:44PM    Frezak (GM):  Forwards to the grave!
Rhu follow's Gravy's lead and calls down radiant vengeance on the skeletal Kyrule. This doesn't seem to do anything.


5:44PM    Ganelon:  This time Radek's not taking notes, he's just experimenting. First experiment - can he fix a tonedeaf star?
Radek sighs.


5:44PM    Frezak (GM):  You got a problem with salt?  Huh?  DO YOU?!
RADEK
Explain your dispute quickly or risk being ignored. I have more important things to do than entertain questions about your identity.


5:45PM    Apheori (GM): Radek: You can see which star it is exactly. It's off the path, a bit. You'd have to change it to get close enough.  
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): Lest we forget the holes, right over there.


5:45PM    (To Amadi):  The way behind you is unravelling.
KYRULE
It's the Rift!


5:45PM    Apheori (GM):  Also, did you leave the Navigator behind?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Give me the shovel, Kyrule-With-Shovel, please. The shovel that's not a shovel. You know.


5:46PM    Ganelon:  I might not need it anymore, but... let's be appreciative and say no, I did not leave it behind. It did a fine job.  
Kyrule tosses Gravy the shovel and collapses, falling on her face - and the sword. Its blade is poking out her back, with black tendrils spreading out from the wound. Their colour looks oddly like the Rift itself.


5:46PM    Frezak (GM):  And it doesn't deserve a medal?  Or a nap?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Thank you.
AAAAARGH GRAVY SMASH.


5:47PM    (To Amadi):  And the light you left, it was just another star, like any other, but not. This one's song had been so perfect, so complete, there had almost been nothing to hear at all. But now you hear a whiff of it. Strange and lonely, and then gone...  
The Gravedigger shovels at the skeletal Kyrule, attempting to excise it from the world, from the Rift. It writhes away and throws a blast of not quite energy at him with a spare hand, which he ignores.


5:47PM    Frezak (GM):  new paint job?
ANOTHER KYRULE
You fool! She is an imposter.


5:47PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Yes. It's true. I am a fool.
(loudly)
BUT I AM A FOOL WITH A SHOVEL.


5:47PM    Ganelon:  A nap for a machine is analogous to death.  
The Gravedigger digs harder. ''(rolled 26 digging)''


5:47PM    Apheori (GM): I'ma go to the bathroom, and hopefully Gaurav will actually be back by then.  
'''''Frezak''' (Gravy): It's a filthy tumour and I'm the doctor! Doctor Dig, M.D.


5:52PM    Gaurav:  Back!
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): He wears some pretty nice digs for a doctor. I dig 'em.


5:58PM    Apheori (GM):  Back.  So Radek was going to go fix the dissonant star?  Rhu: As you pass out of the light down the path proper, you do look back. You see the light fade almost to a point as the path unravels completely behind you... Hah, these are like creation engines or something. XD
He digs at it, pulling at the skeletal Kyrule, pulling it out, but it resists. Its connection is not just from the rift, it's also a manifestation of the same thing as the Kyrule that brought you here. Or almost the same. Mirrors.


6:00PM    Ganelon:  Yes, I'll stray a bit to fix a dissonant star.  
The Gravedigger applies more force.


6:00PM    Apheori (GM): Uh, roll arcana for me.  
'''''Frezak''' (Gravy): If problem is unsolved, apply force. repeat.


6:00PM    Frezak (GM):  I'm expecting a gift-wrapped box and a creature with four winds. *wings
He finds himself digging up Hole.


6:01PM    Apheori (GM):  SURE WHY NOT.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Um. RADEK?


6:01PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+16
RADEK
( 16 )+16  = 32
Interesting.


6:01PM    Frezak (GM):  I'm a beeeeee
The other Kyrule flickers again. She tries to get up, but it doesn't work.


6:01PM    Apheori (GM):  Oh, good.  Radek moves toward the dissonant star, and the path moves with, rejigging itself to take you into the star before continuing onward.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
ER.


6:03PM    (From Amadi):  I'm really sorry, but I'm also really tired, and seriously, I'm not going to be much good tonight. You should just know that. Sorry. >.<
The Gravedigger lodges the shovel in the skeletal Kyrule hole thing and goes and pulls the other Kyrule over onto her back. ''(rolled 22 strength)''


6:04PM    Apheori (GM):  Before you is great light, just like the last, but this one is full of motion, roiling things within the light, different hues floating about.
RADEK
You want it gone?


6:04PM    (To Amadi):  Crap. What do I do about it?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I want things fixed! DO SOMETHING.


6:04PM    Apheori (GM):  And the song, filling your very being as you approach...  
Radek steps up to lean on the shovel and scrutinise the skeletal Kyrule.


6:05PM    (From Ellemerr (GM)):  I don't know. >.< Prod me extra hard if I should be doing something important. Otherwise, I'll try to do some random crap here and there, but thinking is just... ugh.  
RADEK
...Where are you ''from'', I wonder.


6:05PM    Radek:  ...Why do you sing when you cannot do it correctly? Are you aware of your own flaws?
In answer to the question, what Radek sees could fill volumes. ''(rolled 41 arcana)'' Shapes. One, the shape of the god from the world they may as well have left, but only a smaller aspect of it. Another avatar, like the one he had sent here... the other, also the same shape, but different, older and newer. It took its shape not from the world, but what had left the world...


Radek wonders aloud, although really, if a star can sing...  
The Holes had already taken the real Kyrule when the other stepped into the hole this left behind. How they felt about this was far stranger than any emotion, for whatever it was, it wasn't anything at all...


6:05PM    (To Ellemerr):  Right.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Fixitfixitfixitfixit.


6:05PM    Apheori (GM):  Go into the star?  ...do you all follow Radek into the star?
Rhu is also hanging around at this point with no real idea what to do, but since most of the action has died down he figures he might as well check it out and hang around closer. Greibel, on the other hand, scared and confused, hangs back and tries not to look at anyone.


6:06PM    The Gravedigger:  Are you walking into a star, Radek?
Amadi gives Greibel some gummy worms.


6:06PM    Radek:  I believe so. This should only take a moment.  
The Gravedigger tries to pull out the sword, but it's stuck, firmly rooted. It feels like death, but not just death, death seeped into the Holes, the death of reality itself.


6:06PM    The Gravedigger:  Okay.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Aaagh!


6:09PM    Apheori (GM):  The light blooms around you once again, not quite overwhelming, just sort of there, growing in intensity and tuna. The song is full of beef.  Um.  Seriously, though, it's bloody weird and the song is all messed up and then you come out into another space within the light.  
Rhu tries to help pull out the sword, but has no better luck, so the Gravedigger has him just sit on Kyrule, and pulls harder. ''(rolled 35 strength)'' Together they manage to get the sword out and Kyrule collapses back against the ground, unconscious, suddenly looking much more real than she had just a moment before. The flickers also stop.


6:10PM    Frezak (GM):  That's encouraging.  
Radek strokes his beard.


6:11PM    Apheori (GM):  This time, however, the light around is not constant. It's shifting and changing, moving to the notes in the song, and when the song messes up, everything else jars too.  And in the middle, instead of an orb is a box. A small, wrapped box with a bow on it. A bright merry present.  
RADEK
(to the skeletal Kyrule)
Ah, you... you are part of the problem. You tried to fill a space that was intended to remain empty.
Gravedigger. These two are just as they say - impostors.


6:13PM    Frezak (GM):  Nice.  Do we hear DREAMERS?  Do we hear their black song taint the Gaia Engines?  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
(waggling the sword)
Is there even a real one?


6:13PM    Ganelon:  I don't think I want to go poking around with that, especially in what is definitively a damaged or otherwise flawed star.  
Amadi shakes her head really emphatically.


6:13PM    (To Ellemerr):  That's something you should do something with. Or about. Or something.  
RADEK
No. Kyrule is dead.


6:13PM    Ganelon:  I think I'd rather just try to fix things from here.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Okay. So... What do we do?


6:14PM    Frezak (GM):  ORTHOGRAPHIC INFECTION?
Radek leans harder onto the shovel, for all the good his old man weight does compared to every grave that has ever been.


6:14PM    Apheori (GM):  Frezak No dreamers, no black song taint, just the strange, dissonant tune of the star itself.  
RADEK
''This'' one is but a shell filled with emptiness - which is worse than being empty in the realm of concepts, of course - and the other... I believe the other to be a discarded piece of a once-larger whole. Curious that she survived, however. Try to keep her alive for now, please.


6:14PM    Ellemerr (GM):  Er.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
You should be aware that my profession does not tend towards the generation of abilities related to the preservation of life.


6:15PM    Ganelon:  I'll create a tuning fork.  
The sword the Gravedigger is holding turns to smoke.


6:15PM    Apheori (GM):  Great. You have a tuning fork.  
Rhu tries to stabilise the non-skeletal Kyrule. ''(rolled 25 heal, 23 religion)'' He's not really sure what he's doing, but the black stuff begins to fade, receding back into the rather conspicuous hole in her chest, though the hole itself remains unchanged.


6:15PM    Frezak (GM):  I hope your fork hums like Gravy.  
The skeletal Kyrule, still held down by the shovel, struggles a bit, and a blob of Rift oozes out around the edges of the blade and drifts lazily upward.


Amadi goes over to the present and drags another out of her pocket. It looks exactly like the first one. She juggles them both a bit before putting them both down where the first one was.  
Radek leans down and ''creates'', filling the skeletal Kyrule shell with reality stuff. ''(rolled 30 arcana)'' It pours in, and in, and in, but there doesn't seem to be a bottom to it, and besides, the song is wrong.


6:16PM    (From Ellemerr (GM)):  That's "something". Right?  
RADEK
Tsk. Going to be difficult, are you?


6:16PM    (To Ellemerr):  Yup.  
Somewhere in the background of all of this, Greibel is eating gummy worms as fast as he can. This is pretty fast.


6:16PM    Apheori (GM):  Do the presents take up the same space exactly?
Amadi, of course, is helping as much as she can.


6:16PM    Ellemerr (GM):  ... I'll leave that to you.  
Greibel Dreams.


6:16PM    Apheori (GM):  I'ma say it looks like yes.  Radek: When she does this, the song jangles and your tuning fork melts.  Whether or not you want it to remain melted is up o you.  
: ''It is a twisty, tripping dream, and it shifts around in madness patterns before coallescing, and recoallescing.


Radek frowns and reconstitutes the fork.  
: ''In the Dream, you're Kyrule. Or the concept of Kyrule. At least, you think you are. You're not sure who Kyrule is, or when you are, or anything, but it doesn't matter, it just is. It's very vast. You're very vast. Your toes reach into the bottoms of the pits of space. Your nose is like clouds. Your eyes are many, and everywhere.


6:17PM    Radek:  What are you doing?
: ''You really like cupcakes.


6:18PM    Amadi:  Um... Presents?
GREIBEL
(mumbling)
Mmmmmmmmmmmm...


6:19PM    Apheori (GM):  Another Amadi appears across the present from Amadi.  It looks just like her, but a bit more confused. Or possibly less. I'm not sure.
The Gravedigger puts his shield-lid down and opes it up like a bodybag, and they slide the skeletal Kyrule shell inside. ''(rolled 36 tombs)''


Rhu whimpers.  
The Gravedigger mostly seals it, but leaves the top open so Radek can pour more reality stuff into its skull-shell.


Amadi waves at the other Amadi.  
Radek does this.


Radek shakes his head and taps the fork against the end of his rifle.  
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): ...We're pretty much just encasing this thing in concrete, aren't we?


6:22PM    Apheori (GM):  The other Amadi raises a hand to wave back, but then frowns a bit at it, examining the hand.  Radek: The other Amadi seems to be the current direction of the song. The fork cancels out bits of it, and things in the surrounding light flicker.  The other Amadi smiles joyfully.  
He pours in the full of creation, open-ended. It doesn't even matter what he's putting in there, just something, everything, anything, filling the space. ''(rolled 44 arcana, 17 reality)''


Amadi smiles overbearingly.  
The rift shapes over the crack wobble unsettlingly. The globule that had drifted out of the skeletal form explodes, splattering everyone but Amadi and Greibel with black.


6:24PM    Another Amadi:  You brought the song?
RADEK
Hah! Ha ha ha ha! Yes, that's it! Back to the ''nowhere'' you belong!


6:24PM    Apheori (GM):  When she says the word 'song', the word sort of flickers between 'song' and 'gift'.  
GRAVES
(somewhere in Gravy's head)
Shit, two of you? Fuuuuuck.


6:25PM    Amadi:  It seemed like you might need it.  
RADEK
Give me... yes, just a moment.


6:26PM    Another Amadi: (indicating Radek) He can fix it. Can you?
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): I'm like a kid being introduced to Minecraft!
'''''Ganelon''' (Radek): Specifically, y'all are playing Survival and I'm floating through the sky littering furnaces all over the floor.
'''''Frezak''' (Gravy): Nah, man. You're filling the floor of your mud house with TNT.


6:26PM    Amadi:  I've never fixed a thing in my life. But I can cover up the cracks so they're nigh impossible to notice.  
: ''In the Dream, you're on a grand quest to accumulate all the cupcakes. Rasputin is fighting you. He's getting all the truffles. Been doing it as long as you recall. As long as you've existed. Som of the cupcakes have truffles in them. But that's okay. You have sphinxes. An army of kitties. They're very fluffy. Sometimes they feed Rasputin. Sometimes Rasputin feeds them.  


6:26PM    Apheori (GM):  Radek: What dol you want to do with the song?
: ''Now, you are facing down a giant, solid black cupcake that's trying to stab you. You need to eat it, of course, and so you lumber up to it hungrily with your mouth hanging open, and devour the cupcake, and all the black pours out, filling you, slicing, a little poke. You look down, and someone's stabbed you with a tiny stake. Coraline, your... mini-you, just like you but smaller, she's always been there, and yet never... she's staring at you, horrified, like you've made some sort of awful, terrible, social mistake.


Another Amadi beams.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I'm going to need a new one of these. Unless...
Hmmmm.


6:27PM    Ganelon:  Well naturally, I want to fix it. This seems like a problem with the medium rather than the message, so to say.  
RADEK
I can accommodate that easily. But first...


6:27PM    Another Amadi:  So what do you do?  Er, ooc.  
Radek retrieves the box of explosives from his many things and lets it hang in the air before him. It was always ''mostly'' finished - a puzzle he solved without quite putting together - but this is the time to see it done properly. The parts move of their own accord, locking and spinning and connecting just so, to form a perfect whole.


6:27PM    Ganelon:  That is, I don't think the star is a bad singer.  Well.  I don't think the problem is caused by how bad the star is at singing.  It clearly just needs some autotune.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Gosh.


6:28PM    Apheori (GM):  Ahahahah. Great.  Do it!
RADEK
...This was precious to me since the day it came into my hands, but...
(he pushes it carefully towards Gravy)
I can always build another. How long would you like the timer to be?


6:29PM    Radek:  Hmph. I'm not here to ''hide'' flaws, I'm here to erase them.  
The Gravedigger peers into the rift.


Another Amadi opens her mouth and the song pours out, broken and strange, full of discordant notes and missing pieces. It tastes of Nightmare.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
As deep as that.


6:30PM    Ganelon:  That said, I do need to perceive the flaws in a constructive manner so that I can make an auto-tuner - or just fix the existing tuner if possible.  Ah! There they are.  
Radek cups his hands together, then brings them apart to reveal a small button.


6:31PM    Apheori (GM):  Whatever you do, hurry if you can.  
RADEK
...This will have to do, then.


6:32PM    Ganelon:  ...Put it this way.  People release software patches to fix problems, not new software to get around them. The latter is a last resort.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Cool.


6:33PM    Apheori (GM):  Also, you can just say you do blah thing, no matter how abstract, even if there's no indication how. That's an added skill from your... er... current state.  You may need to roll if it's too weird, but yeah.  So you make a patch for it?
The Gravedigger slips the bomb into the sarcophagus lid tomb and takes the button.


6:34PM    Ganelon:  If I am qualified to repair this thing, I will do so, but I do not understand it OOC, and I don't know if I do IC. Does Radek understand the composition of a star and where this one has gone bad?
: ''The Dream shifts and it's done. You've eaten the entire cupcake and all its black and you're sitting in a tree with a bunch of other birds and everything's fine, aside from the fact that Rasputin is eating some of the birds. You tell him to save some for you and reach for the birds as well, but they keep moving away, every time, scooting away, just out of grasp. Bouncing, bouncing, hopping, jumping away. Then suddenly Amadi is there, sitting on one, helping, giving you birds, and you eat the birds, all the birds, but they're not birds at all.


6:34PM    Apheori (GM):  You don't need to have any idea what you're doing. Don't worry. You can still try. Just look at Amadi!  Nope!  It's not even really a star.  
: ''They're gummy worms.


6:35PM    (To Ganelon):  Well, actually, you do sort of understand. It's not a star. It's... a piece of reality. A shape of universe, interacting with more shape. You're in an abstraction of reality, in a way...
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I'll see you guys later. And remember.
(his voice drops to a whisper, and he gathers the party, including a rather surprised-looking Greibel)
''Four kiiiinds''


6:36PM    (From Ganelon):  Where's the damage coming from, then?
Amadi nods attentively, holding onto Greibel, who doesn't appear to have heard at all.


6:36PM    (From Ganelon):  Something missing, or something extra?
RHU
Good luck!


6:36PM    (To Ganelon):  But only in a way. Really it's all abstractions anyway. And you could use anything to make your own abstractions...  
The Gravedigger hurls himself into the rift, shield-first, as though to bash his way in.


6:36PM    (To Ganelon):  Maybe it's the angle? Maybe if you turn it. Or twist it. It's not the right shape. They're all missing a bit, really. All have a bit much in other places. They need to balance. Make it balance.  
THE GRAVEDIGGER
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAVES.


6:37PM    Apheori (GM):  While Radek tunes or whatever, anyone else feel like doing anything?
He didn't fall, simply drifts slowly toward the suspended globules as everything lurches around. Suddenly there is no down, down isn't down at all. The shapes of Rift floating before him seem almost to stretch into infinity as he approach, stretching, stretching, stretching as he sinks deeper against the swirling membrane.


6:37PM    Ganelon:  I'm going to turn this star like a dial. Or perhaps more accurately, a tetris block.  
The Gravedigger screams and disappears into the Rift.


6:37PM    Apheori (GM):  With the space, or the present, or the other Amadi?
Greibel trips over a rock behind Radek, mumbling about gummy worms.


6:37PM    Ganelon:  That sounds sensible.  
Radek gives the place where Gravy was a curt nod, then kneels next to Kyrule to try to help her not die. It would be regrettable if she died...


6:37PM    Apheori (GM):  You do that. 90 degrees?
AMADI
Oh, no, not again.


6:38PM    Ganelon:  Absolutely.  Right angles are correct angles.


6:38PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay.  
EXT. Midnight - the Rift


6:38PM    Ganelon:  And we all know the world is really square.  
Beyond the Rift is light, strange, blue, vast. It is familiar, but not.


6:39PM    Apheori (GM):  Everything shifts jarringly around you. The light turns. The shapes shift. The other Amadi suddenly looks a lot more like Dawn than Amadi. This maybe improves things a bit, but now they're off in a different direction.  
The Gravedigger floats, spinning, not quite falling, and for a moment he waits, having the tiniest fraction of a zen-like moment. There is no sign here of the Rift itself, but it is here, it was, it will be. It won't matter, not with what Radek did with the bomb.


6:40PM    Gaurav:  Rhu is too terrified to do anything. Giant fish are going to start flying any minute now, he just knows it.
Graves presses the button.
 
</screenplay>
6:41PM    Ganelon:  Right then.
 
6:41PM    Frezak (GM):  Should have multiclassed to Angler, then.  Quick, cut off your leg and grow a beard.
 
6:42PM    Ganelon:  I need to abstract a point of space for this thing to weigh upon. Like the head of a needle - something to test its balance in two dimensions.
 
6:42PM    Apheori (GM):  Gaurav: No fish now. Now it's all tires.  Would you like to use the head of a needle?
 
6:43PM    Ganelon:  Yes, although it ought not to actually pierce through, that'd ruin everything.
 
6:43PM    Apheori (GM):  Great. You hold up a needle and balance the entire thing on your needle?  Or an abstraction of it.
 
6:44PM    Ganelon:  Yep.  Then I'm going to turn it more carefully, in three dimensions, to see if I can't keep it from falling off.  And once it's as close as it's likely to get, add a nice spin to keep it in place. Like that trick people do with a basketball.
 
6:46PM    Apheori (GM):  Roll arcana and a d20
 
6:46PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+16
( 3 )+16  = 19
rolling 1d20
( 13 ) = 13
 
6:47PM    Apheori (GM):  Great.
 
6:47PM    Ganelon:  Never thought I'd be so appreciative of Skill Focus.
 
6:47PM    Apheori (GM):  This works. The song stabilises. The light around you still shifts, but now it's sensible, full of chaos, and properly balanced.  And the other Amadi just looks surprised. Now she doesn't looke like Dawn or Amadi or all, but... the other one.  The one you saw in Midnight, the one Rhu kept running into...
 
6:49PM    Amadi:  Oh dear.  I mean, oh. Hi.  Hi. Oh.
 
6:49PM    Apheori (GM):  She giggles, strangely melodic, a part of the song, and then does a backflip and swoops around.
 
6:49PM    Another Amadi:  Hi!
 
6:49PM    Radek:  ...There.
 
6:49PM    (To Amadi):  It's not actually her.
 
6:49PM    (To Amadi):  Just a semblance of her. The full picture for the... star, the same as it would have been the full picture for you.
 
6:50PM    Radek:  Everything in its proper place. Or a better place than before, at least.
 
6:50PM    (To Amadi):  At least... you don't think it is?
 
6:50PM    Radek:  Hello to you.
 
6:50PM    Another Amadi:  Thank you!
 
Another Amadi sings, full of joy and strangeness and mad terror, singing out into the black...
 
6:51PM    (To Amadi):  It sure looks like her. And sounds...
 
6:51PM    Radek:  (To Amadi) ''Is'' that normal, for her?
 
6:52PM    Amadi:  ... I don't even rightly know if it ''is'' her...
 
6:52PM    Apheori (GM):  The song is in tune! Perfectly balanced, mathematically sound...  But of course it is.
 
6:52PM    Ganelon:  For the sake of everyone, Radek is trying to curb his own instinct to make things ''exactly'' as he thinks they should be.  That... can wait.
 
6:53PM    Apheori (GM):  ...oh dear.
 
6:53PM    Ganelon:  Right now, he understands that things will be better of if they just go back to being whole.  Imperfect designs can remain, but they must be functioning as intended, at least.
 
6:54PM    Apheori (GM):  The other Amadi takes one of the presents and swoops away with it, dancing around the space, holding it close.
 
6:55PM    Ganelon:  So in light of that, he's hoping that this is a "fixed"... uh, piece of Amadi.
 
6:56PM    Apheori (GM):  Power takes form. Avatars exist within and without, and take shapes sometimes misleading, or confusing. I was trying to think of something, or perhaps understand, but I seem to have lost the pieces.
 
6:57PM    Ganelon:  A frightening prospect, certainly.
 
6:57PM    Apheori (GM):  I don't know what's going on! Yay!  Eh, anyone wanna do anything with this, er, piece thingy?  Or shall you just continue on?
 
Radek bows to the new Amadi.
 
6:58PM    Radek:  Try to remain as you are. I have more work to attend to.
 
6:58PM    Ganelon:  Good to go, here.  We've a hole to close.
 
7:01PM    Frezak (GM):  Great work, for sure.
 
7:01PM    Apheori (GM):  The Amadi doesn't explicitly respond, just beams happily, dancing around with the sheer mad joy of the song.  You go to where the path should be.  It's not there.
 
7:02PM    Radek:  ...Hrm.
 
7:03PM    Ganelon:  Do we... need it?  Other than for direction, of course.
 
7:03PM    Gaurav:  Can we still go back the way we came?
 
7:04PM    Ganelon:  Eh, let's do that scouting as previously mentioned.
 
7:04PM    Apheori (GM):  Gan: Not explicitly, no.  Gaurav: It looks like this is the way you came.  The path just rerouted its way to bring you here, then to bring you from here, then disintigrated.
 
7:05PM    Gaurav:  Huh.  I need to leave in 30-40 mins, btw.
 
7:05PM    Apheori (GM):  Very helpful of it.  Aaargh.  Radek: WHADDYADOWHADDYADO?
 
7:06PM    Ganelon:  SCOUTING.  I need to find Kyrule, and the ur-shovel.
 
7:06PM    Apheori (GM):  Alternately, Gravy, you wanna do something drastic and shovelly?
 
7:07PM    Ganelon:  And the HOLE.
 
7:07PM    Apheori (GM):  Oh.  OOOH.
 
7:07PM    Ganelon:  All six of it.
 
7:07PM    Apheori (GM):  I forgot.  Yes.  So you just want to find Kyrule, and that hole, and the shovel. The endpoint of the path that should really still be there, because Gravy pinned it down with more than reality, he pinned it down with all the graves there ever were...
 
7:08PM    Ganelon:  ...That's weighty.
 
7:08PM    Apheori (GM):  That actually poses no problem whatsoever.  You, or rather, a piece of you, is suddenly right there, perceiving the space, the hole (all six of it), the shovel, Kyrule (all two of them). It's almost as you left it. Only a little time has passed.  There, you're a glowing avatar thing floating about a metre off the ground. Want to do anything?
 
7:10PM    Gaurav:  All two of them?
 
7:10PM    Apheori (GM):  Shhh, you don't know that yet.  ...but yes.  Radek sees two Kyrules.
 
7:10PM    Ganelon:  Sure, I'll say hello.
 
Radek raises a glowing hand.
 
7:10PM    Radek:  ...Greetings.
 
7:11PM    Apheori (GM):  Uh, roll displomacy.
 
7:11PM    Radek:  rolling 1d20+8
( 10 )+8  = 18
 
7:11PM    Ganelon:  "Wow, Radek is trained in that?"  "Well, that's what the sheet says..."  Oh, that's why. It was a choice between diplomacy and history.
 
7:12PM    Apheori (GM):  The word almost comes out broken. Speaking is really strange with this, but then you manage it and actually communicate what you mean.  XD
 
7:12PM    Radek:  Is it safe to return here?
 
7:12PM    Apheori (GM):  One of the Kyrules turns to regard you. It's not the right one.
 
7:13PM    Ganelon:  Oh my.  But still, this must be done.  I'm taking us all there.
 
7:14PM    Apheori (GM):  Then it puts a sword to the other's throat, the one still with her hand on the shovel, still holding it in place.
 
7:14PM    Frezak (GM):  Gosh.  Shovel, defend!
 
7:15PM    Gaurav:  Huh.
 
7:15PM    Ganelon:  ...I'm taking us all there ''urgently''.
 
7:15PM    Apheori (GM):  Arcana and a d20.
 
7:15PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+16
( 4 )+16  = 20
rolling 1d20
( 4 ) = 4
Four!
 
7:15PM    Apheori (GM):  Oh my.
 
7:15PM    Ganelon:  Yeah, that sounds bad.
 
7:16PM    Ellemerr (GM):  ... Can I... help?  In any way?
 
7:16PM    Apheori (GM):  You try to move into your avatar, taking the others back with you, but then it doesn't work. You lose hold and suddenly you're there alone, back at the rift.  Radek: ^  Ellemerr: Yes.  You can... uh... get everyone there after him.  Yes.  Radek: You're in the cavern with two Kyrules, one the one you were with earlier, the other skeletal and somehow far more menacing. Except they feel the same. Exactly the same.
 
7:18PM    Apheori (GM):  The skeletal one has its sword to the other, and the other, well, she's just leaning back, still hanging onto th shovel.  You have a moment to do something before they react.
 
7:18PM    Ganelon:  Is she at all concerned?
 
7:18PM    Apheori (GM):  Insight!
 
7:18PM    Amadi:  Hey! Wait for us!
 
Amadi drags a water balloon out of her pocket, then splashes it across the ground-that-isn't-there to make a black puddle. She gathers the others around her, informing them to all hold hands.
 
7:19PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+5 Insight
( 1 )+5  = 6
 
7:19PM    Apheori (GM):  Amadi: roll some skill and a d20
 
7:19PM    Ganelon:  ...Well.
 
7:19PM    Apheori (GM):  O_o  Gan: You know, you're not sure she is.
 
7:19PM    Ganelon:  Gotta love when failures come in waves, huh?
 
7:19PM    Apheori (GM):  Well, whaddya do?
 
7:20PM    Amadi:  rolling d20+14 bluff against reality
( 14 )+14  = 28
rolling d20
( 6 ) = 6
 
7:20PM    Frezak (GM):  No, gan. Not really.
 
7:20PM    Gaurav:  Do we actually hold hands? Rhu would like to go in weapons blasting, but I'll look to see what everybody is doing first.
 
7:20PM    Radek:  Tsk.
 
Radek raises his free arm towards the Kyrules and snaps his fingers.
 
7:20PM    Apheori (GM):  Amadi: The puddle splatters and makes a bubble as the other amadi swoops by in a swirl of song. You're not sure, but it might even be helping.
 
7:20PM    Ganelon:  Thundering Armor on the one being held up.
 
7:20PM    Ellemerr (GM):  I intend to be Mary Poppins mixed with a bit of Looking Glass Wars.
 
7:21PM    Ganelon:  It's... not that spectacular, but it's a power that pushes things away from the person I use it on.
 
7:22PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay, and that's an attack on the other one?
 
7:22PM    Ganelon:  Creates a temporary and quite weak barrier of force for a round, too, to ward off attacks. And I do mean weak, it's like 1 AC.  Yes, vs. fort.
 
7:22PM    Apheori (GM):  Ellemerr: Whatever you do, it works.
 
7:22PM    Ganelon:  Shall I roll?
 
7:22PM    Apheori (GM):  So.. continue.  Gan: Yes, but add an extra d20.
 
7:22PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+11
( 6 )+11  = 17
rolling 1d20
( 7 ) = 7
Still sitting in my pit of failure, huh?  Well it's an attack vs. fortitude.
 
7:23PM    Apheori (GM):  Add another d20!
 
7:23PM    Ganelon:  It'd work on Radek, the wimp.
rolling 1d20
( 6 ) = 6
 
7:23PM    Apheori (GM):  ...man.
 
7:23PM    Ganelon:  Frezak goes through this a lot.  I can't feel too bad about it.
 
7:23PM    Apheori (GM):  Well, that still adds up to 30...
 
Amadi convinces everyone to hold hands somehow and jumps into the puddle with them. They fall out of the sky just behind Radek. (Not that there is a sky, but hey.)
 
7:24PM    Apheori (GM):  Which is kind of crappy, really.
 
7:24PM    Ganelon:  It really is.
 
7:24PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay, Radek does that, which doesn't hit th other Kyrule.  Then everyone else falls out of the air behind him.
 
7:25PM    Ganelon:  Worth a shot, anyway.
 
7:25PM    Apheori (GM):  Acrobatics from everyone falling to not fall badly?
 
7:25PM    Frezak (GM):  I am Gravy.  I fall like a sack of bricks.
 
7:26PM    Apheori (GM):  ...but is that badly?
 
7:26PM    Rhu:  rolling d20+11 acrobatics check
( 20 )+11  = 31
 
7:26PM    Frezak (GM):  Yes.
 
7:26PM    Apheori (GM):  Rhu pronks down daintily!
 
7:26PM    Amadi:  rolling 1d20 + 9
( 11 )+9  = 20
 
7:26PM    Bear Soup Guy:  rolling 1d20+2
( 8 )+2  = 10
 
7:27PM    Apheori (GM):  Greibel falls on his arse and makes a disturbingly loud splat noise, though he doesn't actually look at all hurt.
 
7:27PM    Frezak (GM):  Luckily the porridge broke his fall.
 
7:27PM    Greibel:  SPLAT!
 
7:27PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20+0
( 12 )+0  = 12
Actobatics.
 
7:28PM    Apheori (GM):  The Gravedigger falls like a bag of bricks and takes 4 damage, though he retains his feet.  They don't up and walk away.
 
7:29PM    Ganelon:  Praise their loyalty.
 
7:30PM    Apheori (GM):  The Kyrules, meanwhile...  The skeletal one stabs yours, and yours pulls Gravy's conceptual shovel out of the ground. Yes.
 
7:31PM    Radek:  What is this, a feud with ''yourself?''
 
7:32PM    Apheori (GM):  Getting stabbed was probably a result of her pulling the shovel out, I mean, and does not look like it was good for her.  I suck at order.
 
7:32PM    Kyrule:  This is not me.
 
7:32PM    Gaurav:  And they say never leave conceptual shovels lying around. Ha!
 
7:33PM    Another Kyrule:  You are not the real Kyrule!
 
7:33PM    Kyrule:  Neither are you!
 
7:33PM    The Gravedigger:  Sandwich kid?  Should I be smashing either of these?
 
Greibel rubs his eyes
 
7:33PM    Greibel:  Woah, double vision.  There's four of them now!
 
7:33PM    (From Ellemerr (GM)):  What do I know/see?
 
7:34PM    Frezak (GM):  And they're all different!
 
7:34PM    Rhu:  rolling d20+10 religion check to see if I can figure out anything about the Kyrule-not-Kyrule situation.
( 3 )+10  = 13
 
7:34PM    Apheori (GM):  Greibel/whoever: They all look very similar. They all feel like the same thing.  All four of them!
 
7:34PM    Radek:  Is this really the time!?
 
7:34PM    Apheori (GM):  Amadi: Insight  Rhu: The skeletal one looks slightly more... correct. The other one looks slightly more real?
 
7:35PM    Ellemerr (GM):  rolling 1d20 + 4
( 10 )+4  = 14
 
7:35PM    (To Amadi):  This may be related to the rift itself.
 
7:36PM    Frezak (GM):  Is the one holding my conceptual shovel holding it with the respect a finely imagined tool deserves?
 
7:36PM    Apheori (GM):  Um... possibly. She's certainly holding it firmly, and looks like she's about to use it to shovel the other one.
 
7:36PM    Gaurav:  Can I tack on a request for Hazz'ridan's help to my previous religion check?
 
7:36PM    Apheori (GM):  How do you tell?
 
Amadi replies to Gravy's question with a definite
 
7:37PM    Amadi:  Maybe.
 
7:37PM    Apheori (GM):  Rhu: You do that. Nothing comes of it for the time being.
 
7:37PM    Frezak (GM):  Shovel expertise.  Waait, one of them is going to shovel the other?
 
7:38PM    Apheori (GM):  The one who got stabbed, yes, looks like she intends to shovel the other one before it can actually pull the sword out and do anything else.  She's really impaled and it has this weird black stuff spreading through her from around the wound.
 
7:39PM    Frezak (GM):  I charge to assist the shoveller. At least she's doing things right.  My assistance involves turning myself into a meaty missile.
 
7:39PM    Apheori (GM):  Go on.
 
7:39PM    Gaurav:  Ew ew ew.
 
7:39PM    Bear Soup Guy:  ^
 
7:40PM    Gaurav:  Will we eventually need to Heal Check a god?
 
7:40PM    Frezak (GM):  How far are we from these Kyrules?
 
7:40PM    Apheori (GM):  Hmm, I should be making will saves for her every quasi-round to see if she dies or not.  Oh, back to the rift map.  You're all placed.  I'm sorrrry.
 
7:41PM    Frezak (GM):  Okay. I jump up and attempt an earthgrasp strike.
 
7:41PM    Gaurav:  Okay, I should get a move on. I'll try to come back for a few minutes before I start teaching at 2pm local time, but I should go double-check that my lab is ready to go and stuff.
 
7:41PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20+11
( 9 )+11  = 20
AC  Or not.
 
7:41PM    Gaurav:  Sorry for having to leave early! Rhu's character sheet is at <link> if anybody needs it.
 
7:41PM    Apheori (GM):  Frezak: d20
 
7:41PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20
( 17 ) = 17
 
7:41PM    Apheori (GM):  Gaurav: Noooo!
 
7:42PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Bye Gaur!
 
7:42PM    Apheori (GM):  Eh, have fun... classing. >.>  Frezak: Yeah, works.
 
7:42PM    Ellemerr (GM):  I... uh... should go very shortly, too. I need sleep. >.<
 
7:42PM    Apheori (GM):  Noooooo!
 
7:42PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20+6
( 2 )+6  = 8
And she is basically driven into the ground.
 
7:42PM    Apheori (GM):  Actually I think the other might be a he.
 
7:42PM    Frezak (GM):  As in prone and can't get up until I go again.  It!
 
7:42PM    Apheori (GM):  Hard to tell. Skeleton and all.  Yes.  Where are you on the map?
 
7:43PM    Frezak (GM):  I'd be here.
 
7:43PM    Apheori (GM):  Great.  Wait, what's the 1d20+6?  Oh, whatever. Does anyone else do anything?  Radek?
 
7:45PM    Frezak (GM):  Oh, that would have been damage.  I... don't hit that hard.
 
7:45PM    Apheori (GM):  A d20?
 
7:46PM    Frezak (GM):  UH.  No.  No, I don't hit for D20s.
 
7:46PM    Ganelon:  If only, eh?
 
7:46PM    Frezak (GM):  Should be D10s.
 
7:46PM    Apheori (GM):  I'ma have Rhu follow your lead and also attack it with radiant vengeance, but this doesn't seem to do anything.  Actually your hit didn't seem to hurt it either.  Though you did knock it over and interrupt it doing what it was going to.
 
Radek sighs.
 
7:47PM    Radek:  Explain your dispute quickly or risk being ignored. I have more important things to do than entertain questions about your identity.
 
7:48PM    Ganelon:  Lest we forget the holes, right over there.
 
7:48PM    The Gravedigger:  Give me the shovel, Kyrule-With-Shovel, please.
 
7:48PM    Kyrule:  It's the Rift!
 
7:48PM    The Gravedigger:  The shovel that's not a shovel.  You know.
 
Kyrule tosses Gravy the shovel.
 
Kyrule then falls over.
 
7:49PM    The Gravedigger:  Thank you.  AAAAARGH GRAVY SMASH
 
7:49PM    Frezak (GM):  I attempt to excise this thing.
 
7:49PM    Another Kyrule:  You fool! She is an imposter.
 
7:49PM    Apheori (GM):  Roll digging!
 
7:50PM    The Gravedigger:  Yes. It's true.  I am a fool.  BUT I AM A FOOL WITH A SHOVEL
rolling 1D20+12 DIGGING
( 12 )+12  = 24
 
7:50PM    Apheori (GM):  Add a d20.
 
7:50PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20
( 2 ) = 2
Ooops.  Can I... use my Action point to reroll that one?
 
7:51PM    Apheori (GM):  Uh... if you'd like.
 
7:51PM    Frezak (GM):  It seems like a 2 there would be bad.  What with filty rift thing.
rolling 1D20
( 2 ) = 2
 
7:51PM    Apheori (GM):  Not as bad as a 1.
 
7:51PM    Frezak (GM):  Well.
 
7:51PM    Apheori (GM):  Well.
 
7:51PM    Frezak (GM):  Nevermind.
 
7:51PM    Apheori (GM):  XD  At least it wasn't a 1 rerolled as a 1. Had that happen in pathfinder the other day. >.>
 
7:52PM    Ganelon:  Yeah, we're deep in the Zone of Failure today.
 
7:52PM    Frezak (GM):  No-one here is surprised that I did what I just did.
 
7:53PM    Apheori (GM):  Ellemerr: If you can sleep without Frezak, I recommend having Amadi do something long-impact or whatever and then doing that.
 
Apheori (GM) clings to Frezak.
 
7:53PM    Frezak (GM):  Erm.
 
7:53PM    Apheori (GM):  Frezak: You digging to bury the thing, or to dig the thing out?  Mmmmmy freeeeeezzzzzzzaaaaaaaakk!  Or something.
 
Apheori (GM) clings to Gan.
 
7:56PM    Frezak (GM):  I'm removing it.  I'm cutting it off from the Rift.  It's a filthy tumour and I'm the doctor!  Doctor Dig, M.D.
 
7:56PM    Ganelon:  He wears some pretty nice digs for a doctor.  I dig 'em.
 
7:57PM    Apheori (GM):  You dig at it, pulling it out, but it resists. It's not just from the rift, it's also a manifestation of the same thing as the Kyrule that brought you here.  Try harder, or what?
 
7:58PM    Frezak (GM):  Hells yes.  If problem is unsolved, apply force.  repeat.
 
7:59PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay.  What happens when a god dies normally?
 
8:00PM    Ganelon:  ...Depends hugely upon the setting.  Sometimes gods are sustained by their followers' faith in them and can't die until they've been forgotten. I've always liked that one.  Of course, that doesn't help here, because Gravy's not assaulting Kyrule's power base.
 
8:02PM    Apheori (GM):  Doesn't really cover having two copies of the same one fighting each other, that are entirely cut off from their followers, either.  Hmm.
 
8:02PM    Ganelon:  Othertimes (like in the game Sacrifice), they can be destroyed, but a new god will inevitably arise to claim their missing aspect.  This doesn't speak of anything special happening regarding the death of a god, mind you, although in Sacrifice you had to like, destroy every last temple of theirs.
 
8:02PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay, so Gravy keeps digging at the skeletal one. He finds himself digging up Hole.
 
8:03PM    The Gravedigger:  Um. RADEK?
 
8:03PM    Radek:  Interesting.
 
8:03PM    Apheori (GM):  The other one starts flickering.
 
8:03PM    The Gravedigger:  ER.
 
8:03PM    Radek:  You want it gone?
 
8:03PM    Apheori (GM):  Like she's about to explode, but for the moment not.
 
8:03PM    The Gravedigger:  I want things fixed!  DO SOMETHING
 
8:04PM    Apheori (GM):  She seems to be trying to get the sword out.  But it's not working.
 
8:04PM    Frezak (GM):  I'll... lodge the shovel in this thing and go to yank the sword.
 
Radek steps up to lean on the shovel and scrutinize the skeletal Kyrule.
 
8:05PM    Apheori (GM):  Rhu will also come up-ish and hang around with no idea what to do, and praying and stuff. For help. From Hazz.
 
8:05PM    Radek:  ...Where are you ''from'', I wonder.
 
8:05PM    The Gravedigger:  Fixitfixitfixitfixit
 
8:06PM    Apheori (GM):  Gravy: She's collapsed partially on top of it and you have to roll her over, but she's heavy. Like really heavy.  Except she's a lot lighter when she flickers...  WOULD YOU LIKE TO ROLL STRENGTH?
 
Apheori (GM) grins helpfully.
 
8:07PM    Ganelon:  Roll it.
 
8:07PM    Frezak (GM):  Yes?
 
8:07PM    Ganelon:  Can I study this thing? How did two Kyrules even come to be?
 
8:07PM    Apheori (GM):  Sure.
 
8:07PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20+7
( 5 )+7  = 12
Thbbbth
 
8:07PM    Apheori (GM):  Add another d20.
 
8:07PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20
( 11 ) = 11
 
8:07PM    Apheori (GM):  Huh.  Oh, good enough.  You get her over and pull on the sword. Roll something that isn't strength to get it out.
 
Ellemerr (GM) is already more or less asleep, so she's just gonna leave now.
 
8:09PM    Apheori (GM):  Sweet nightmares.
 
8:09PM    Frezak (GM):  ... Nature?  Intimidate?
 
8:09PM    Ellemerr (GM):  Sweet nightmares, dearest.
 
8:09PM    Apheori (GM):  What's Greibel up to in all this?  Radek: Arcana to study or whatever.  Frezak: Sure.
 
8:10PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20+11
( 6 )+11  = 17
 
8:10PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+16
( 20 )+16  = 36
ABOUT TIME
 
8:10PM    Apheori (GM):  You know what, whenever you roll anything on a god, just do 2d20. >.>  Both of you, give me another d20.
 
8:10PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20
( 5 ) = 5
Aw.  Well hey, 41.
 
8:11PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 1D20
( 4 ) = 4
Wheee
 
8:11PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Greibel's confused and scared and trying not to look at everybody
 
8:11PM    Apheori (GM):  Then Amadi will come and try to comfort Greibel.  Possibly with gummie worms.  That might be laced with LSD.  Man, these roll.  s  Gravy: The sword does not want to come out. It seems to have attached itself to her, absorbing into her. And it should have killed her immdiately; when you touch it, you know. The thing is not just death, it's death seeped into the rifts, it's the death of reality iself. Somehow she's just been ignoring the effects.
 
8:13PM    The Gravedigger:  Aaagh!
 
8:14PM    Apheori (GM):  Radek: They're both shapes. One is the shape of the god from the world you may as well have left, but only a smaller aspect of it. Another avatar, like the one you sent here...  And the other is also the shape, but different, older and newer. It took its shape not from the world, but what had left the world.
 
8:14PM    Frezak (GM):  How about you make the bad things explode?
 
8:15PM    Ganelon:  Oh, now I most certainly do wish to.
 
8:15PM    (To Radek):  The Holes already took the real Kyrule. Yours, she just stepped into the hole this left behind.
 
Radek strokes his beard.
 
8:15PM    Radek:  Ah, you... you are part of the problem.
 
8:15PM    (To Radek):  If the holes had emotion, they would be very, very angry about this. Instead, there is something even stranger...
 
8:17PM    Apheori (GM):  Rhu will go tug on the sword too. This doesn't really help.
 
8:17PM    Radek:  You tried to fill a space that was intended to remain empty.
 
8:18PM    Frezak (GM):  I get Rhu to sit on this Kyrule while I pull harder.
 
8:18PM    Apheori (GM):  Excellent.  Care to roll strength again?  She's still not dead.
 
8:19PM    Frezak (GM):  Ssssuure.  is this 2D20+Str or 1D20+STR then another D20?
 
8:19PM    Apheori (GM):  The former.
 
8:19PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 2D20+7
( 11 + 15 )+7  = 33
 
8:20PM    Radek:  Gravedigger. These two are just as they say - impostors.
 
8:20PM    Apheori (GM):  Gravy: You get the sword out and she falls unconscious, but also stops flickering and stuff.
 
The Gravedigger waggles the sword.
 
8:21PM    The Gravedigger:  Is there even a real one?
 
Amadi shakes her head really emphatically.
 
8:21PM    Frezak (GM):  (he doesn't really know how to use a sword)
 
8:21PM    Radek:  No. Kyrule is dead.
 
8:21PM    The Gravedigger:  Okay.  So... What do we do?
 
8:21PM    Apheori (GM):  (you may or may not even see her do this.)
 
8:22PM    Ganelon:  If I'm understanding this right...  Are these two just holestuff wearing the skin of a dead god?
 
8:22PM    Apheori (GM):  The one with the shovel in it bleeds a blob of rift that floats a above it.  ...so that one definitely is.
 
8:23PM    Ganelon:  Right.  And the other one is, or was, a piece of Kyrule that ran away while the real thing died.
 
8:23PM    Apheori (GM):  The other one? You're not so sure. It seemed to be trying to destroy her.  Quite possibly.
 
Radek leans harder onto the shovel, for all the good his old man weight does compared to every grave that has ever been.
 
8:25PM    Apheori (GM):  ...man, that's actually a perfect explanation. O_o  Mind blown.  I mean, you're not entirely sure IC, but it makes sense.  But completely aside from all that, I'm just talking to myself. >.>
 
8:27PM    Radek:  ''This'' one is but a shell filled with emptiness - which is worse than being empty in the realm of concepts, of course - and the other... I believe the other to be a discarded piece of a once-larger whole.  Curious that she survived, however. Try to keep her alive for now, please.
 
8:28PM    Ganelon:  If my theories (frantic guessing) were correct, I ought to be the ultimate enemy of emptiness right now.
 
8:29PM    Apheori (GM):  Hopefully.
 
8:29PM    The Gravedigger:  You should be aware that my profession does not tend towards the generation of abilities related to the preservation of life.
 
8:29PM    Ganelon:  So let's try to just ''create'', inside this skeleton.
 
8:29PM    Apheori (GM):  Hmm, the character sheet I have for rhu is level five. What's the difference between that and whatever you actually are?
 
8:30PM    Ganelon:  We're 7.
 
8:30PM    Apheori (GM):  So for skill checks... what, add 1?
 
8:30PM    Ganelon:  So if you're going to roll anything... it's probably +1 higher, yes.  And attacks/damage should be +1 higher as well, from inherent bonuses.  But don't worry about that.
 
8:31PM    Apheori (GM):  rolling 1d20 + 13 Rhu trying to heal Kyrule?
( 12 )+13  = 25 
Rhu does some stuff and... uh...  [1d20 + 10] = 23
Hmm, I guess with religion he actually does manage to get rid of some of the black stuff. Hell if I know how.  Do whatever you were going to do.
 
8:32PM    Apheori (GM):  Use arcana, probably.
 
8:33PM    Radek:  rolling 2d20+16
( 5 + 9 )+16  = 30
 
8:34PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay.
You fill it with ''stuff'', pouring it in, and it goes in, and in, and in.  There doesn't seem to be a bottom to it, and besides, the song is wrong.  What do you do?
 
8:35PM    Radek:  Tsk. Going to be difficult, are you?
 
8:35PM    Bear Soup Guy:  GAAAHHH
 
8:35PM    Apheori (GM):  What?
 
8:35PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Did I miss anything important?  In the last...two minutes?
 
8:36PM    Apheori (GM):  Nope.  Radek is pouring reality into the Kyrule... shell.
 
8:36PM    Bear Soup Guy:  I managed to accidentally click the back button then accidentally close the tab a minute later :P
 
8:36PM    Apheori (GM):  BSG: Do you eat the gummy worms Amadi offers?
 
8:36PM    Ganelon:  Here, there is nothing to fix. I'm just trying to close reality around this thing and shut it out for good.
 
8:36PM    Frezak (GM):  I... make a tomb for the Hyruleshell.  A mould.
 
8:36PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Do I eat the gummy worms?!  Do I EAT the GUMMY WORMS?!  What a silly question!  Of course I do!
 
8:37PM    Apheori (GM):  Eeeexcellent.
 
8:37PM    Ganelon:  ...That sounds like something we can both get behind. Care to get some help, Mr. Gravy?
 
8:37PM    Frezak (GM):  I just fucking put my shield-lid down, and open it up like it's a bodybag.
 
8:37PM    Apheori (GM):  They're laced with LSD.
 
8:37PM    Ganelon:  I'll happily assist.
 
8:37PM    Frezak (GM):  And slide the shell inside.
 
8:37PM    Bear Soup Guy:  I'm already eating them as fast as I can!
 
8:37PM    Frezak (GM):  DRUG FASTER
 
8:38PM    Apheori (GM):  Well.  I wonder what he's hallucinating.  Frezak: Roll tombs.
 
8:38PM    Frezak (GM):  rolling 2D20+13+2
( 6 + 15 )+13+2  = 36
Grave Skill + Assist.
 
8:39PM    Apheori (GM):  Gravy: It works. You slide the shell into it, forming a full tomb, and seal it up?
 
8:40PM    Frezak (GM):  I leave the top open so Radek can pour reality into its skull-shell.
 
8:40PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay.
 
8:40PM    Ganelon:  Don't want it eating into the walls.
 
8:41PM    Apheori (GM):  Pour in more reality?
 
8:41PM    Ganelon:  ...We're pretty much just encasing this thing in concrete, aren't we?  Yes, absolutely.  MORE STUFF.
 
8:41PM    (To Greibel):  Do you wish to have an acid trip?
 
8:41PM    (From Bear Soup Guy):  Who wouldn't?
 
8:41PM    Apheori (GM):  Gan: Another arcana, and also a stand-alone 2d20.
 
8:41PM    Frezak (GM):  MORE STUFF
 
8:41PM    Ganelon:  Let it flow, and tumble, and drift.
 
8:42PM    Frezak (GM):  Can I assist in some way?  Funneling?
 
8:42PM    Ganelon:  rolling 1d20+16
( 9 )+16  = 25
rolling 2d20
( 3 + 14 ) = 17
 
8:42PM    Apheori (GM):  You're holding it put. You're containing the shape of the shell.
 
8:42PM    Ganelon:  Aaaagh.  Can't do anything right. If I were to reroll something here, what would I even do again?
 
8:43PM    Apheori (GM):  That should have been 2d20 on the first one too so it's actually 44.  SO THERE.  Although your reality check was a bit iffy.
 
8:44PM    Ganelon:  Yes it was.
 
8:44PM    Frezak (GM):  "Your reality check is iffy" sounds pretty average here.
 
8:44PM    Ganelon:  Usually they're less than "a bit" iffy.  Or more?
 
8:44PM    Apheori (GM):  You pour in the full of creation, open-ended. You don't even know what you're putting in there, just something, full and constrained, filling the space. The bubble floating above the form explodes.
 
8:44PM    Ganelon:  Worse than.
 
8:44PM    Apheori (GM):  The rift shapes over the crack wobble unsettlingly.
 
8:45PM    Frezak (GM):  Erm.
 
8:45PM    Radek:  Hah! Ha ha ha ha! Yes, that's it!
Back to the ''nowhere'' you belong!
 
8:45PM    Graves:  SHit, two of you? Fuuuuuck.
 
8:46PM    Frezak (GM):  There's only enough Graves for one. You're one your own, old man.
 
8:46PM    Radek:  Give me... yes, just a moment.
 
8:46PM    Ganelon:  I think it's time I used that bomb.
 
8:47PM    Apheori (GM):  Radek, Rhu, and Gravy got splatered by exploding small blob, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything to you.  Where's Graves?  What just happened?
 
8:47PM    Ganelon:  Heavens know I've been saving it for a long time, but you said it was enough to leave a hole in a planet, and here we have a planet littered with much smaller holes.
 
8:47PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  The trip is very... lengthy.
 
8:48PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  You're Kyrule. At least, you think you are. You're not sure who Kyrule is, or when you are, or anything. But it's very vast. You're very vast. Your toes reach into the bottoms of the pits of space. Your nose is like clouds. Your eyes are many, and everywhere.
 
8:49PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  You really like cupcakes.
 
8:49PM    Ganelon:  Let's take that energy and use it to fill something empty, huh?
 
8:49PM    Frezak (GM):  Graves is just shaking his head from inside Gravy. he's watching Radek go off the deep end.
 
Greibel mumbles
 
8:49PM    Greibel:  mmmmmmmmmmmm......
 
8:49PM    Ganelon:  It's the power to make ''stuff!''
 
8:49PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  You're on a grand quest to accumulate all the cupcakes. Rasputin is fighting you. He's getting all the truffles. Been doin it as long as you recall. As long as you've existed. Som of the cupcakes have truffles in them.
 
8:50PM    Ganelon:  I'm like a kid being introduced to Minecraft!
 
8:50PM    Apheori (GM):  Frezak: Ah. Yes, yes Radek is. O_o  Heee.
 
8:51PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  But that's okay. You have sphinxes. An army of kittles. They're very fluffy. Sometimes they feed Rasputin. Sometimes Rasputin feeds them.
 
8:51PM    Frezak (GM):  http://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/61/60818/auto/1010842689_DYj3P-L.jpg THis?
 
8:51PM    Ganelon:  Specifically, y'all are playing Survival and I'm floating through the sky littering furnaces all over the floor.
 
8:51PM    Frezak (GM):  Nah, man. You're filling the floor of your mud house with TNT
 
8:51PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  Right now, you are facing down a giant, solid black cupcake that's trying to stab you. You need to eat it, of course.
 
8:51PM    Frezak (GM):  Or dropping lightning on creepers
 
8:51PM    Ganelon:  Did I ever link that thing I actually did?
 
8:52PM    Frezak (GM):  Off-topic!
 
8:52PM    Ganelon:  Where I blew up... here, it's still around.
 
8:52PM    Frezak (GM):  Back to thing!
 
8:52PM    Ganelon:  And yes, fair enough.
 
8:52PM    Frezak (GM):  Time is short, I should be in bed.
 
8:52PM    Ganelon:  I want to prime my bomb and let that be the last thing to fall into the tomb.
 
8:52PM    Apheori (GM):  Frezak: What do the sticks become?
 
8:52PM    Ganelon:  ''Potential'', Names.
 
8:52PM    Frezak (GM):  Exactly, Gan.
 
8:53PM    Apheori (GM):  Aaaagh need bathroom I'll be right back.
 
8:53PM    The Gravedigger:  I'm going to need a new one of these.  Unless...  Hmmmm.
 
8:53PM    Apheori (GM):  Also my flight leaves in hal an hour I think. >.<
 
8:53PM    Radek:  I can accommodate that easily. But first...
 
8:53PM    Ganelon:  Well let's blow some shit up, then!
 
8:54PM    Apheori (GM):  Queue things. I'll be right back.
 
8:56PM    Frezak (GM):  I'm intending to take this shield and go jump into the rift with it.  Make sure this is delivered.
 
Radek retrieves the box from his many things and lets it hang in the air before him. It was always /mostly/ finished - a puzzle he solved without quite putting together - but this is the time to see it done properly. The parts move of their own accord, locking and spinning and connecting just so, to form a perfect whole.
 
9:00PM    The Gravedigger:  Gosh.
 
9:00PM    Radek:  ...This was precious to me since the day it came into my hands, but...
 
Radek pushes it carefully towards Gravy.
 
9:00PM    Radek:  I can always build another.  How long would you like the timer to be?
 
The Gravedigger peers into the rift.
 
9:02PM    The Gravedigger:  As deep as that.
 
9:03PM    Frezak (GM):  Or, you know, just give me a trigger.
 
9:03PM    Ganelon:  I'm not sure either of us are capable of comprehending how deep this particular hole goes.
 
9:04PM    Apheori (GM):  Ack, sorry.  Also boarding is happening ack
 
9:04PM    Frezak (GM):  Ack.
 
9:04PM    Bear Soup Guy:  ack
 
Radek cups his hands together, then brings them apart to reveal a small button.
 
9:04PM    Radek:  ...This will have to do, then.
 
9:05PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  Whaddya do with the cupcake?
 
9:05PM    The Gravedigger:  Cool.
 
9:05PM    (From Bear Soup Guy):  well I think I definitely lumber up to it hungrily with my mouth hanging open trying to eat it
 
9:05PM    Apheori (GM):  Okay, so... tomb with reality-filled kyrule corpse has bomb and puzzle box with it and Gravy is about to jump in with the whole thing?  Am I reading this right?
 
9:06PM    Ganelon:  I did not include the puzzle box. The bomb itself was just not assembled.
 
9:06PM    Apheori (GM):  Oh, assembled bomb box.  Perfect.
 
9:06PM    Ganelon:  I ''could'' put the puzzle box in there, but I think that could be very bad.
 
9:06PM    Apheori (GM):  Giant arse reality bomb box in god corpse on sarcophagus lid?  Do whatever you're doing with it.
 
9:07PM    Ganelon:  Yep. It's like a turducken.  Reality being the stuffing.
 
9:07PM    Frezak (GM):  A reality-pasting nihilism-blasting turducken strapped to a god of graves.  Yes, this sounds like D&D.
 
9:08PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  You devour the cupcake, and all the black pours out, filling you, slicing, a little poke. You look down, and someone's stabbed you with a tiny stake. Coraline (the Kyrule who'd been with you), looks horrified.
 
9:08PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  And then you've eaten the thing and you're sitting in a tree with a bunch of other birds and everything's fine, aside from the fact that Rasputin is eating some of the birds.
 
9:09PM    Apheori (GM):  Yup.  You riding it down?
 
9:09PM    Ganelon:  Surf it
 
9:09PM    (From Bear Soup Guy):  I tell him to save some for me and start trying to reach for birds.
 
9:10PM    The Gravedigger:  I'll see you guys later.  And remember.
 
9:10PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  the birds keep moving away as you do. Then Amadi is there, sitting on one, helping, giving you birds, and you eat the birds, all the birds, but they're not birds at all.
 
The Gravedigger 's voice drops to a whisper, and he gathers the party.
 
9:10PM    The Gravedigger:  ''Four kiiiinds''
 
9:10PM    (To Bear Soup Guy):  They're gummy worms.
 
9:10PM    Frezak (GM):  And then he hurls himself into the rift.
 
9:10PM    Rhu:  Wait!
 
9:11PM    Frezak (GM):  And teeters on the edge
 
9:11PM    The Gravedigger:  Whoah  Hey, Rhu.  Something I can do for you?
 
9:11PM    Apheori (GM):  No, no, you go. Rhu's just yelling after you and trying to run after.
 
9:11PM    Frezak (GM):  Oh, great.
 
9:11PM    Apheori (GM):  Because he does that sort of thing.
 
9:11PM    The Gravedigger:  GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAVES
 
9:11PM    Apheori (GM):  But, uh, stabbed Kyrule grabs him or something and mutters something about 'not you'.  Grabs his foot.  Yes.
 
9:12PM    Frezak (GM):  Shield in front, like he's going to shield bash the world.
 
9:12PM    Apheori (GM):  And the Gravedigger rides his shield down...
 
9:12PM    Frezak (GM):  Gan, Graves is like Krieg's inner voice.
 
9:12PM    Apheori (GM):  Well, not down.  He doesn't go down into the crack at all.
 
9:12PM    Ganelon:  I getcha.
 
9:14PM    Apheori (GM):  He jumps off with his shield and full payload expecting to dive down, but then the whole world lurches and down isn't down at all. He's flying at the bubbles, the shapes of Rift floating right there, and then the one in front of him is stretching out like taffly, and stretching, and stretching, and he's going deeper and deeper against the swirling membrain.  membrane
 
The Gravedigger screams
 
9:14PM    Apheori (GM):  Radek: You see Gravy diseappear into the blobs.  What do you do?  Unconscious Kyrule is still mostly dead; she's jjust latched onto Rhu's foot.  Greibel is tripping behind you.
 
9:16PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Literally tripping across the ground  Mumbling about gummy worms
 
Radek gives the place where Gravy was a curt nod, then kneels next to Kyrule.
 
9:16PM    Apheori (GM):  Gravy: Do you have the detonator? What do YOU do?
 
9:17PM    Ganelon:  He hits the button and confetti comes out.    AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE OF CONFETTI.  (No but really, that's up to him)  Radek's going to try and help Kyrule not die. It would be regrettable if she died.
 
9:18PM    Apheori (GM):  Ah feck I think I need to board momentarily.
 
9:18PM    Frezak (GM):  Gravy waits for a moment.  He has a toniest fraction of a zen-like moment, floating there, spinning. He is at peace.  Then Graves presses the button.  
 
9:18PM    Apheori (GM):  Bewm!
Gravy: Everything explodes, but nothing explodes. All around you it explodes and changes and ''becomes''.  Ack.  Crap I need to go.  h.  We'll finish this when we can.
 
9:20PM    Apheori (GM):  Almolst done.  I'm sorry!  Thank you all!
 
9:20PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Right!  Have a happy flight!  Don't crash into a large internationally significant building or anything!
 
9:21PM    Frezak (GM):  Just large internationally insignificant ones!  And I'll go to bed.
 
9:21PM    Ganelon:  That's fine.  Thanks again!
 
Apheori (GM) hugs Gan and frezak and rob.
 
9:22PM    Apheori (GM):  You'e the best.
 
9:23PM    Bear Soup Guy:  Adios, all!
 
9:23PM    Frezak (GM):  Until next our ships cross in the dark night of D&D!
</pre>


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Revision as of 20:46, 15 November 2015

≪ Previous
Session 57 (raw log) (Overview)
EXT. Unmade between - starheart concept
Radek wakes up screaming.
The Gravedigger hugs Radek.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
There, there, it's all right.
The Gravedigger pats Radek.
RADEK
What.... what have I...
(he pants heavily, staring down at himself)
I'm... still here.
RHU
You're not going anywhere until we've fixed... all this.
Rhu gestures toward the light surrounding them.
AMADI
You want to fix this?! I think you've got your head turned around. Here, I can fix that.
Amadi reaches for Rhu's head.
The Gravedigger snatches Amadi.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
No head-touching!
Amadi climbs up the Gravedigger and fixes his hair instead.
AMADI
Pink or green?
Radek looks up at Gravy with some relief.
RADEK
You were right.
(annoyed)
...Now get off of me.
The Gravedigger releases Radek.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Wonderful! ...About what?
RADEK
Coming here - this power. We did need it.
(he chuckles a bit sadly)
...I hardly knew what I was doing, before. I don't know if you're wise or just lucky, but you were right. Shall we go?
Rhu nods enthusiastically.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Yes!
The Gravedigger pumps a shovel heroically.
The path back is falling apart. The navigator is working on it trying to recreate disintigrating bits, but the degredation is now exceeding its abilities to repair the damage.
The Gravedigger looks at Radek to fix things.
Radek drifts over and raises his arms at the path like he's goddamn Moses.
Ganelon (Radek): Let's try to repair it. Maybe even improve it. (rolled 24 arcana)
The path strengthens and solidifies before them, glowing in madness patterns shifting and twisting like nightmares. It looks perfectly safe.
Radek drifts forwards.
RADEK
Much... better. Yes.
I may require some practice to familiarize myself.
Frezak (Gravy): I'm totally ready to continue on, because this is totally safe.
Ellemerr (Amadi): This is totally not safe.
Gaurav (Rhu): What's the worst that could happen?
Frezak (Gravy): Yes, gaurav. The Worst is indeed what could happen.
Apheori (GM): That depends on how you define 'worst'.
Ganelon (Radek): Oh, you know. Just the unraveling of all reality. Ganelon (Radek): But on the bright side, the concept of "worst" will go along with everything else. However, so will the concept of a bright side, so really you'll not be able to enjoy or hate it past a certain point.
The others follow after Radek, into the light, all around, vast and blinding, but the path is an expanse of visibility before them. Its patterns shift and change, glowing in rhythm to the song of the light, almost unheard. It's so perfect, so complete, that there had been almost nothing to hear at all when in the centre, but now, passing through it once more, from time to time a whiff drifts through. Strange and lonely, and then gone...
The Gravedigger turns to Amadi as the resident expert at songs. She's singing an entirely different song that sort of fits all the same.
Radek scowls.
The Gravedigger hums a tune that is subtly different from Amadi's. Jussssst enough to irritate a careful listener.
The light fades almost suddenly as they emerge from the other side, and the path twists and curls, much as it had before, out against the strangeness and the stars, same same, but different. The stars are singing all around, at great distance, near enough to touch.
The path behind them unravels, unseen, unnoticed. At the tail of the party, the Navigator drifts along behind them, dutifully cleaning it up, cutting off tears before they can spread too far.
This time Radek's not taking notes, he's just experimenting. The tone-deaf star stands out in particular, jarring but distant, right there, just off the path. He directs the path before them to change, to redirect itself through the dissonnt star, and it shifts and rejigs, now leading them right through its heart. (rolled 32 arcana)
As they approach, this star is full of motion, of roliling things within the light, hinting of madness and strangeness. Different hues glint in and out. The song, now, is loudest of all.
RADEK
...Why do you sing when you cannot do it correctly? Are you aware of your own flaws?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Are you walking into a star, Radek?
RADEK
I believe so. This should only take a moment.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Okay.
Entering, the light blooms around them once again, not quite overwhelming, just sort of there, growing in intensity and tuna. The song is full of beef, stranger and stranger. And then they step out into another space within the light, like the last, but not.
This time the light around is not constant. It's shifting and changing, moving to the notes in the dissonant song, and when the song jumps, everything else jars too. And in the middle, instead of an orb, is a box, small, gift wrapped, with a bow on it. A bright merry present.
Radek creates a tuning fork.
Amadi goes over to the present and pulls another out of her pocket. It looks exactly like the first one. She juggles them both a bit before putting them both down where the first one was, each inserted neatly into the same space.
The song jangles and Radek's tuning fork melts.
Radek frowns and reconstitutes the fork.
RADEK
What are you doing?
AMADI
Um... Presents?
Another Amadi appears across the present from Amadi. It looks just like her, but a bit more confused. Or possibly less.
Rhu whimpers.
Amadi waves at the other Amadi.
Radek shakes his head and taps the fork against the end of his rifle.
The other Amadi raises a hand to wave back, but then frowns a bit at it, examining the hand, and suddenly smiles joyfully. She seems to be the current direction of the song.
The fork cancels out bits of it, and things in the surrounding light flicker.
Amadi smiles overbearingly.
ANOTHER AMADI
You brought the song?
When she says the word 'song', the word sort of flickers between 'song' and 'gift'.
AMADI
It seemed like you might need it.
ANOTHER AMADI
(indicating Radek)
He can fix it. Can you?
AMADI
I've never fixed a thing in my life. But I can cover up the cracks so they're nigh impossible to notice.
The other Amadi beams.
RADEK
Hmph. I'm not here to hide flaws, I'm here to erase them.
The other Amadi opens her mouth and the song pours out, broken and strange, full of discordant notes and missing pieces. It tastes of Nightmare.
It's simple, really. It's not even a star. A piece of reality. A shape of universe, interacting with more shape. This is all an abstraction, in a way. Maybe it's the angle. Out of balance.
Radek turns the star like a tetris block 90 degrees.
Everything shifts jarringly around them. The light turns. The shapes shift. The other Amadi suddenly looks a lot more like Dawn than Amadi. This maybe improves things a bit, but now they're off in a different direction.
Rhu, meanwhile, is too terrified to do anything. Giant fish are going to start flying any minute now, he just knows it.
Radek holds up a needle and balances the entire star on its point. This time he turns it more carefully, in three dimensions, to see if he can't keep it from falling off. It gets close and far and close again, (rolled 31 arcana) narrowing down until it's as close as it's likely to get. So then he gives it a spin to keep it in place. Spinning a star on the tip of a needle like a ball trick.
It works. The song stabilises, in tune! Perfectly balanced, mathematically sound. The light around still shifts, but now it's sensible, full of chaos, properly balanced. And the other Amadi just looks surprised. Now she doesn't looke like Dawn or Amadi or all, but... the other one. The one they saw in Midnight, the one... with the name...
AMADI
Oh dear. I mean, oh. Hi. Hi. Oh.
The other Amadi giggles, strangely melodic, a part of the song, and then does a backflip and swoops around.
ANOTHER AMADI
Hi!
RADEK
...There.
RADEK
Everything in its proper place. Or a better place than before, at least.
RADEK
Hello to you.
ANOTHER AMADI
Thank you!
The other Amadi sings, full of joy and strangeness and mad terror, singing out into the black...
RADEK
(To Amadi)
Is that normal, for her?
AMADI
...I don't even rightly know if it is her...
Apheori (GM): Power takes form. Avatars exist within and without, and take shapes sometimes misleading, or confusing. I was trying to think of something, or perhaps understand, but I seem to have lost the pieces.
Radek bows to the new Amadi.
RADEK
Try to remain as you are. I have more work to attend to.
The other Amadi doesn't explicitly respond, just beams happily, and takes one of the presents and swoops away with it, dancing around the space at the heart of the star with the sheer mad joy of the song, holding it close.
The party goes to where the path should be. It's not there.
RADEK
...Hrm.
He knows what he needs - to find Kyrule, and the shovel, and the hole - and suddenly he's right there, not as himself, but as an avatar, tall, glowing, floating almost a metre off of the ground.


INT. Great rift at Sanessee - caverns
Everything is much as they left it. The Rist, hovering in strange globules, ghastly and Black. The ground, cracked and sheered in patterns of broken glass. The shovel, pinning down their opening. Kyrule, now two, standing nearby it.
Radek raises a glowing hand.
RADEK
...Greetings.
The word almost comes out broken. Speaking is strange with this, but then he manages it regardless and the word emerges as it is, off, but understandable. (rolled 18 diplomacy)
RADEK
Is it safe to return here?
One of the Kyrules turns to regard Radek. It's not the right one. This one is skeletal, empty, wearing a black mask writhing in madness patterns about its skull.
The one behind still has her hand on the shovel, still holding it in place, not moving.
The skeletal Kyrule suddenly reaches out of its robes and holds a sword to the other's chest.
Only now does the non-skeletal Kyrule look up, and she smiles slightly.
Radek has a go at taking everyone there. Urgently. He tries to step into his avatar, bringing the others back with him, but then it doesn't work. (rolled 24 arcana) He loses hold and suddenly he's there alone, in the flesh, dropping to the ground.
Kyrule leans back slightly, away from the sword, but doesn't let go of the shovel. She doesn't even seem concerned. (rolled 6 insight)
RADEK
Tsk.
Radek raises his free arm towards the Kyrules and snaps his fingers and places a ward on the not skeletal Kyrule, directed at the skeletal. (rolled 30 vs fortitude) This has no visible effect.


EXT. Unmade between - starheart concept
Radek just disappears.
AMADI
Hey! Wait for us!
Amadi drags a water balloon out of her pocket, then splashes it across the ground-that-isn't-there to make a black puddle. (rolled 34 bluff against reality) The puddle splatters and makes a bubble as the other Amadi swoops by in a swirl of song. It might even be helping.
AMADI
(gathering the others around her)
We need to hold hands, now.
Amadi and the Gravedigger wind up having to reach out and grab Rhu's hands in order to get him into the circle. Greibel is just mysteriously there, though the other hand Amadi winds up with turns out to be Rasputin.
Amadi jumps into the puddle, pulling everyone else in with her.


INT. Great rift at Sanessee - caverns
The rest of the party tumbles out of the air just behind Radek.
The Gravedigger falls like a sack of bricks. Rhu pronks down daintily. Amadi rides an umbrella down, which promptly poofs when she lands.
Greibel falls on his arse with a disturbingly loud splat.
GREIBEL
SPLAT!
Everyone accounted for, Kyrule pulls the Gravedigger's conceptual shovel out of the ground, unpinning the opening and letting the smaller hole close with a pop.
The skeletal Kyrule stabs her in the chest, and she flickers, grabbing the blade with another hand, and falls to her knees. She doesn't let go of the shovel, however.
RADEK
What is this, a feud with yourself?
KYRULE
This... is not me.
SKELETAL KYRULE
You are not the real Kyrule!
KYRULE
Neither are you!
RADEK
Is this really the time!?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Sandwich kid? Should I be smashing either of these?
Amadi replies with a definite:
AMADI
Maybe.
Greibel rubs his eyes.
GREIBEL
Woah, double vision. There's four of them now!
The Gravedigger eyes the two Kyrules and realises the one with the shovel is about to try to shovel the other one even regardless of having just been stabbed and still being slightly impaled. And she's even holding the shovel properly.
The Gravedigger charges to assist. His assistance involves turning himself into a meaty missile.
The non-skeletal Kyrule shovels the skeletal Kyrule, knocking it off-balance, and the Gravedigger rams it into the ground, bringing the full force of the earth up to meet it and hold it in place. (rolled 37 attack)
Rhu follow's Gravy's lead and calls down radiant vengeance on the skeletal Kyrule. This doesn't seem to do anything.
Radek sighs.
RADEK
Explain your dispute quickly or risk being ignored. I have more important things to do than entertain questions about your identity.
Ganelon (Radek): Lest we forget the holes, right over there.
KYRULE
It's the Rift!
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Give me the shovel, Kyrule-With-Shovel, please. The shovel that's not a shovel. You know.
Kyrule tosses Gravy the shovel and collapses, falling on her face - and the sword. Its blade is poking out her back, with black tendrils spreading out from the wound. Their colour looks oddly like the Rift itself.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Thank you.
AAAAARGH GRAVY SMASH.
The Gravedigger shovels at the skeletal Kyrule, attempting to excise it from the world, from the Rift. It writhes away and throws a blast of not quite energy at him with a spare hand, which he ignores.
ANOTHER KYRULE
You fool! She is an imposter.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Yes. It's true. I am a fool.
(loudly)
BUT I AM A FOOL WITH A SHOVEL.
The Gravedigger digs harder. (rolled 26 digging)
Frezak (Gravy): It's a filthy tumour and I'm the doctor! Doctor Dig, M.D.
Ganelon (Radek): He wears some pretty nice digs for a doctor. I dig 'em.
He digs at it, pulling at the skeletal Kyrule, pulling it out, but it resists. Its connection is not just from the rift, it's also a manifestation of the same thing as the Kyrule that brought you here. Or almost the same. Mirrors.
The Gravedigger applies more force.
Frezak (Gravy): If problem is unsolved, apply force. repeat.
He finds himself digging up Hole.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Um. RADEK?
RADEK
Interesting.
The other Kyrule flickers again. She tries to get up, but it doesn't work.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
ER.
The Gravedigger lodges the shovel in the skeletal Kyrule hole thing and goes and pulls the other Kyrule over onto her back. (rolled 22 strength)
RADEK
You want it gone?
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I want things fixed! DO SOMETHING.
Radek steps up to lean on the shovel and scrutinise the skeletal Kyrule.
RADEK
...Where are you from, I wonder.
In answer to the question, what Radek sees could fill volumes. (rolled 41 arcana) Shapes. One, the shape of the god from the world they may as well have left, but only a smaller aspect of it. Another avatar, like the one he had sent here... the other, also the same shape, but different, older and newer. It took its shape not from the world, but what had left the world...
The Holes had already taken the real Kyrule when the other stepped into the hole this left behind. How they felt about this was far stranger than any emotion, for whatever it was, it wasn't anything at all...
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Fixitfixitfixitfixit.
Rhu is also hanging around at this point with no real idea what to do, but since most of the action has died down he figures he might as well check it out and hang around closer. Greibel, on the other hand, scared and confused, hangs back and tries not to look at anyone.
Amadi gives Greibel some gummy worms.
The Gravedigger tries to pull out the sword, but it's stuck, firmly rooted. It feels like death, but not just death, death seeped into the Holes, the death of reality itself.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Aaagh!
Rhu tries to help pull out the sword, but has no better luck, so the Gravedigger has him just sit on Kyrule, and pulls harder. (rolled 35 strength) Together they manage to get the sword out and Kyrule collapses back against the ground, unconscious, suddenly looking much more real than she had just a moment before. The flickers also stop.
Radek strokes his beard.
RADEK
(to the skeletal Kyrule)
Ah, you... you are part of the problem. You tried to fill a space that was intended to remain empty.
Gravedigger. These two are just as they say - impostors.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
(waggling the sword)
Is there even a real one?
Amadi shakes her head really emphatically.
RADEK
No. Kyrule is dead.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Okay. So... What do we do?
Radek leans harder onto the shovel, for all the good his old man weight does compared to every grave that has ever been.
RADEK
This one is but a shell filled with emptiness - which is worse than being empty in the realm of concepts, of course - and the other... I believe the other to be a discarded piece of a once-larger whole. Curious that she survived, however. Try to keep her alive for now, please.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
You should be aware that my profession does not tend towards the generation of abilities related to the preservation of life.
The sword the Gravedigger is holding turns to smoke.
Rhu tries to stabilise the non-skeletal Kyrule. (rolled 25 heal, 23 religion) He's not really sure what he's doing, but the black stuff begins to fade, receding back into the rather conspicuous hole in her chest, though the hole itself remains unchanged.
The skeletal Kyrule, still held down by the shovel, struggles a bit, and a blob of Rift oozes out around the edges of the blade and drifts lazily upward.
Radek leans down and creates, filling the skeletal Kyrule shell with reality stuff. (rolled 30 arcana) It pours in, and in, and in, but there doesn't seem to be a bottom to it, and besides, the song is wrong.
RADEK
Tsk. Going to be difficult, are you?
Somewhere in the background of all of this, Greibel is eating gummy worms as fast as he can. This is pretty fast.
Amadi, of course, is helping as much as she can.
Greibel Dreams.
: It is a twisty, tripping dream, and it shifts around in madness patterns before coallescing, and recoallescing.
: In the Dream, you're Kyrule. Or the concept of Kyrule. At least, you think you are. You're not sure who Kyrule is, or when you are, or anything, but it doesn't matter, it just is. It's very vast. You're very vast. Your toes reach into the bottoms of the pits of space. Your nose is like clouds. Your eyes are many, and everywhere.
: You really like cupcakes.
GREIBEL
(mumbling)
Mmmmmmmmmmmm...
The Gravedigger puts his shield-lid down and opes it up like a bodybag, and they slide the skeletal Kyrule shell inside. (rolled 36 tombs)
The Gravedigger mostly seals it, but leaves the top open so Radek can pour more reality stuff into its skull-shell.
Radek does this.
Ganelon (Radek): ...We're pretty much just encasing this thing in concrete, aren't we?
He pours in the full of creation, open-ended. It doesn't even matter what he's putting in there, just something, everything, anything, filling the space. (rolled 44 arcana, 17 reality)
The rift shapes over the crack wobble unsettlingly. The globule that had drifted out of the skeletal form explodes, splattering everyone but Amadi and Greibel with black.
RADEK
Hah! Ha ha ha ha! Yes, that's it! Back to the nowhere you belong!
GRAVES
(somewhere in Gravy's head)
Shit, two of you? Fuuuuuck.
RADEK
Give me... yes, just a moment.
Ganelon (Radek): I'm like a kid being introduced to Minecraft!

Ganelon (Radek): Specifically, y'all are playing Survival and I'm floating through the sky littering furnaces all over the floor.

Frezak (Gravy): Nah, man. You're filling the floor of your mud house with TNT.
: In the Dream, you're on a grand quest to accumulate all the cupcakes. Rasputin is fighting you. He's getting all the truffles. Been doing it as long as you recall. As long as you've existed. Som of the cupcakes have truffles in them. But that's okay. You have sphinxes. An army of kitties. They're very fluffy. Sometimes they feed Rasputin. Sometimes Rasputin feeds them.
: Now, you are facing down a giant, solid black cupcake that's trying to stab you. You need to eat it, of course, and so you lumber up to it hungrily with your mouth hanging open, and devour the cupcake, and all the black pours out, filling you, slicing, a little poke. You look down, and someone's stabbed you with a tiny stake. Coraline, your... mini-you, just like you but smaller, she's always been there, and yet never... she's staring at you, horrified, like you've made some sort of awful, terrible, social mistake.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I'm going to need a new one of these. Unless...
Hmmmm.
RADEK
I can accommodate that easily. But first...
Radek retrieves the box of explosives from his many things and lets it hang in the air before him. It was always mostly finished - a puzzle he solved without quite putting together - but this is the time to see it done properly. The parts move of their own accord, locking and spinning and connecting just so, to form a perfect whole.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Gosh.
RADEK
...This was precious to me since the day it came into my hands, but...
(he pushes it carefully towards Gravy)
I can always build another. How long would you like the timer to be?
The Gravedigger peers into the rift.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
As deep as that.
Radek cups his hands together, then brings them apart to reveal a small button.
RADEK
...This will have to do, then.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Cool.
The Gravedigger slips the bomb into the sarcophagus lid tomb and takes the button.
: The Dream shifts and it's done. You've eaten the entire cupcake and all its black and you're sitting in a tree with a bunch of other birds and everything's fine, aside from the fact that Rasputin is eating some of the birds. You tell him to save some for you and reach for the birds as well, but they keep moving away, every time, scooting away, just out of grasp. Bouncing, bouncing, hopping, jumping away. Then suddenly Amadi is there, sitting on one, helping, giving you birds, and you eat the birds, all the birds, but they're not birds at all.
: They're gummy worms.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I'll see you guys later. And remember.
(his voice drops to a whisper, and he gathers the party, including a rather surprised-looking Greibel)
Four kiiiinds
Amadi nods attentively, holding onto Greibel, who doesn't appear to have heard at all.
RHU
Good luck!
The Gravedigger hurls himself into the rift, shield-first, as though to bash his way in.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAVES.
He didn't fall, simply drifts slowly toward the suspended globules as everything lurches around. Suddenly there is no down, down isn't down at all. The shapes of Rift floating before him seem almost to stretch into infinity as he approach, stretching, stretching, stretching as he sinks deeper against the swirling membrane.
The Gravedigger screams and disappears into the Rift.
Greibel trips over a rock behind Radek, mumbling about gummy worms.
Radek gives the place where Gravy was a curt nod, then kneels next to Kyrule to try to help her not die. It would be regrettable if she died...
AMADI
Oh, no, not again.


EXT. Midnight - the Rift
Beyond the Rift is light, strange, blue, vast. It is familiar, but not.
The Gravedigger floats, spinning, not quite falling, and for a moment he waits, having the tiniest fraction of a zen-like moment. There is no sign here of the Rift itself, but it is here, it was, it will be. It won't matter, not with what Radek did with the bomb.
Graves presses the button.


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Session 57 (Overview)
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In the eye of the storm, there is no way out, no escape.