Holes/Session 40
A fragment of the Garden of Remembering
EXT. ...
Apheori (GM): You all are following the river out of the caves. She's still trying to cast spells on Gravy's head and it's not working. Ganelon: 22 Arcana to assault possessed Amadi with indecipherable jargon. She gives Radek a confused look and sets Gravy's horn on fire. RADEK ...Really, now. What are you ''trying'' to accomplish? Frezak (GM): I'll take Perception, then. Greibel can take Nature Frezak (GM): 31 Perceptions. Bear Soup Guy: 32 natures Apheori (GM): Need a dungeoneering from someone. Ganelon: rolling 1d20+10 Dungeoneering ( 13 ) +10 = 23 AMADI Magic, I suppose. Wait, that actually was something, wasn't it? Amadi starts poking the horn. THE GRAVEDIGGER Would you mind not doing that? AMADI Sorry. Apheori (GM): Radek gets you all out safely, with Greibel assisting and Gravy ensuring nobody falls in a hole. Frezak (GM): I have excellent hole expertise. I have seen holes before. Apheori (GM): Y'all come out along the river into a horribly bright night full of birds chirping. Gaurav: ... Apheori (GM): The sky is full of funky glowing stuff. Frezak (GM): Uh. As in the sky is glowing or there's... globs of stuff up there? Apheori (GM): It's like the aurora, but... more. Apheori (GM) is so descriptive. THE GRAVEDIGGER Is this normal? RADEK George, what do you make of this? GEORGE (pushing up his goggles) Is what normal? Radek gestures towards the sky. The Gravedigger points at the sky. George looks up. Ganelon: Damnit, man. GEORGE ...yes? I mean... Wait, what do you see? Frezak (GM): I'M A SCIENTIST TOO The Gravedigger looks at Radek. Ganelon: Oh, this looks like another chance to jargon at him. What does /Radek/ see? By which I mean, understand? Gaurav: brb Apheori (GM): I suppose it really does just look like a really massive, complex, colorful swarm of northern lights. Except to his sciency eyes, he might recognise the colours? I dunno. How's his atmospheric physics? Ganelon: I wouldn't exactly consider it a field he went out of his way to study. Apheori (GM): Roll arcana to discern about it, then. Radek: rolling 1d20+16 ( 10 ) +16 = 26 Ganelon: I love that 26 is average for me. GREIBEL Typical. A beautiful natural formation of light and color and we're suspicious that it's a wormhole or else some kind of dark magic. Greibel sighs THE GRAVEDIGGER Or bees. Could be space bees. It never is, but it /could/ be. Bees. Apheori (GM): It looks like an aurora. Charges interacting with the atmosphere. Nothing all that odd about it stands out. Radek scoffs. RADEK "Dark" magic... Apheori (GM): This is the point where a Squirrel drops out of a tree next to you. SQUIRREL BEES! RADEK This is nothing more than a scattering of ionized atmospheric constituents and their resulting optical emissions. Completely harmless. GEORGE (skeptically) I guess I'll have to take your word for that. Ganelon: Thanks, Wikipedia. I knew I could count on you to give me an explanation that means absolutely nothing to a normal person. Apheori (GM): Yay science articles! Ganelon: Now you said "a squirrel". But I see the token of an Amadi. So what does this appear as to us? Frezak (GM): It's not 'a' squirrel, it's Squirrel. Apheori (GM): She looks like them. Her name is Squirrel. And she is nuts. Ganelon: Ha. Ha ha. Apheori (GM): And George gives her Dawn. They proceed to stare at each other. RADEK ...Is this another one? How many are there? AMADI thirteen, approximately. With an allowable failure buffer of five. The flaming fuck were they doing? RADEK ... GREIBEL Language, young lady Greibel takes a toke of his bong RADEK I'm not sure that I am prepared to deal with thirteen. GREIBEL I'm sure they'll reveal themselves slowly for the sake of your sanity. Frezak (GM): brb Gaurav: "And George gives her Dawn." -- like, hands her over? AMADI You won't need to. That as many have solidified as you have is peculiar, but they're... they're not here for you. Gaurav: I suppose Rhu is still blind and cannot see the aurora, unless it's hairy? AMADI Nevermind that, though. I expect you'd like me out of here, no? Could you lend a hand? Apheori (GM): Yup. And yup. HAIRY. Actually... Does he have anything to say about it? Gaurav: Nope. He hasn't looked at the sky since he got the mask, so he probably thinks the sky is meant to be hairy. RADEK ...What do you need help with, exactly? AMADI Magic! And creation. Amadi climbs down off Gravy. RADEK If that is the most accurate explanation you can give, then you may well be here forever. Gaurav: Is the sky-hair any different from the wall-hair or people-hair? AMADI It's a specific object, but my magic seems to be broken. It's like it's a good mould, but the batter is messed up, so If you can do the actual mixing and baking and I'll show you the pan, do you think you could make the bread? Apheori (GM): It's both really far away and really close. RADEK Roll jargon or something. Rhu reaches out to try and touch the sky-hair, then giggles softly. RHU So much hair. Radek: rolling 1d20+16Jargon ( 5 ) +16 = 21 Apheori (GM): Yay +16! Frezak (GM): Gravy will dig a hole just in case. Apheori (GM): Radek: She wants you to do a ritual with her assisting. Amadi walks over and grabs Rhu by the head in the meantime. AMADI (to Rhu) Do you know any songs? Gaurav: Here? We should go back to the village first. Radek sighs and grumbles. RADEK ...I can do that. RHU Ow! What? Songs? AMADI Sing, please. Rhu looks around at the others in confusion, then start sings a random pop song from his home planet really, really badly. It sounds a bit like "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". Gaurav: Should I roll to stay in tune? Apheori (GM): Naw, just singing is good enough. She looks satisfied at this and then shoves a hand in your head. Do you keep singing? Gaurav: ... in? Apheori (GM): In. GREIBEL That's an interesting expression of her love of music Apheori (GM): It doesn't actually hurt, but anyone looking sees a hand just go... in. Bear Soup Guy: err, that was OOC but I guess it works IC too Apheori (GM): XD Gaurav: If it doesn't hurt, Rhu won't react. It'll look to him like the Amadi-muppet is caressing his face except he can't feel it, which is not even the weirdest thing that's happened in the last ten minutes. He'll ignore it. Apheori (GM): Okay. Gaurav: And keep on singing badly. Apheori (GM): She yanks something dark and hairy out and suddenly everything is normal again. You can see normally, hear normally, there's colour, etc etc etc. Also you're really hungry. Radek scowls intensely at Rhu's attempts at singing. Amadi drops Rhu and goes over to Radek, holding out the dark hairy thing. Rhu gasps AMADI Can you use this as a base? Ganelon: You tell me, Miss DM. Apheori (GM): Arcana to figure out what it even is. Hey, for all I know Radek would say yes even if he doesn't know. XD RHU What the FUCK I can see! I can see again! GREIBEL LANGUAGE, young man! Greibel tokes again Rhu runs up and hugs Greibel RHU It's gone! It's gone and I can see! Radek: rolling 1d20+16 ( 3 ) +16 = 19 Of course I can. Greibel coughs out a plume of smoke SQUIRREL (singing) Laaaaaanguage language language! Language! Ganelon: The rolls keep getting worse! GREIBEL I'm glad to see that my attempt at surrogate parental guidance has resonated with you Apheori (GM): Radek: You're not entirely sure what it is, but figure you should be able to sort it out once you get to work on it. Radek stares hard at the black squiggly. Apheori (GM): I mean, because you've got some idea, not because you're that utterly lost. Radek stares /very/ hard at the black squiggly. Rhu is just kind of jumping around exultantly in the background. Ganelon: http://www.seventh-house.org/extras/Zetman_CrazyFace4.jpg Approximately this hard. Apheori (GM): Eeeek. Gaurav: Damn. Apheori (GM): It's a good thing it can't run away. Bear Soup Guy: one eye bulges out of his head like that teacher in Daria Radek nods after a while. RADEK ...Let us begin. Apheori (GM): Functionally I guess this is just like make whole. Except weirder. Ganelon: Creating stuff is most of what Artificers do. Apheori (GM): Aye, that helps. Ganelon: Weird how there's no ritual for actually making mundane objects, though. Just making them magical. Apheori (GM): Amadi gives you the squiggly and I need two arcana rolls. RADEK 26 22 Ganelon: If this is traditional assisting, he gets a +2 to those from being helped. Apheori (GM): Yeah, it works and nothing particularly weird happens. After much not so particular weirdness, a fair bit of black stuff floating around, and a weird feeling of up to three different entities in his mind, you have... a box. And a letter. Rhu attempts to climb the closest tree, making whooping noises interspersed with random praises to Hazz'ridan Frezak (GM): If you want to create mundane objects you take the Martial Practice for it. Mundane means for mundane things. Or be a Shaper Discipline Psion. Apheori (GM): Rhu: Roll athletics to climb. AMADI Whoohoo! You're good. Radek grumbles. Gaurav: Can I use acrobatics instead to somersault up the tree? Apheori (GM): No. Rhu: rolling d20+3 athletics to climb tree ( 11 ) +3 = 14 Frezak (GM): I could just /put/ you into a tree. Apheori (GM): Rhu fails to climb the tree. Bear Soup Guy: I picture Rhu falling backwards, landing hard on the ground, and just grinning widely before standing up to run around yelling again Gaurav: ^ That. That happens. Apheori (GM): Yes. It all fits. Radek picks up the box and letter, but does not open the former. Apheori (GM): Meanwhile Squirrel pokes Dave a few times, giggles, and then runs up a tree. Literally running sideways up the tree. Dave rubs her head. Gaurav: No stone with a symbol on it? Apheori (GM): Just a box, maybe 25x15x10cm. And a letter. Rhu runs back to the rest of the group. Ganelon: Tell me what the letter says. He'll read it. Apheori (GM): It's this. http://wiki.zaori.org/compendium/Letter_84 RHU Wow. Okay. WOW. This. This is pretty amazing. (to Amadi) Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou. AMADI Oh, uh... you're welcome. Gaurav: Rhu will attempt to hug Amadi if she doesn't look scared of his overenthusiasm at this point. Otherwise: an aborted hug and a handshake. RADEK ...Hrm. Apheori (GM): The latter, then. She'd try to pull away. Frezak (GM): Gravy looms over Radek to read the letter. Unless Radek tries to hide it from Gravy's eyes. Bear Soup Guy: THE CODEX OF DOOM Ganelon: Nah. Bear Soup Guy: A book the size of a house that sits in the middle of a courtyard somewhere exuding an aroma of sulfur Ganelon: Radek, being a fast reader, very likely finishes it before Gravy and hands it over to him. So he can open the box. RHU Oh. Sorry. Rhu tries to get a grip on himself. Apheori (GM): The box contains a circular contraption with spaces for seven stones, three more of the stones themselves, and a few chunks of something that looks like it shattered. Bear Soup Guy: "You may not remember me" - Accurate statement Frezak (GM): What material was the shattered thing? Stone? Apheori (GM): It actually seems more like some sort of plastic. Gaurav: BSG: it might be a reference to that person who handed you the first stone in the marketplace in Coffle? Frezak (GM): Yeah, the teleporting lady. Put your rocks in the thing. Gaurav: She's in the session logs as "Mysterious Woman": http://wiki.zaori.org/wiki/Holes/Session_9 Bear Soup Guy: Ah, got it. I did remember her but I didn't pin her for the letter writer for some reason. But I've forgotten all the names of all the towns and planets we've been to, so there's that I swear it's for my character! RADEK Where are those stones all of you were carrying around? Rhu hands the two stones he's carrying to Radek Greibel gets out his stones and hands them over Apheori (GM): You wind up with, altogether, a pile of the following: bird, tree, mask, dragon, contagion, cat, dream, and fire. There also seem to be symbols around the sockets in the contraption, but they've mostly worn off. Ganelon: I'll do my best to place the stones we've got into their correct sockets, then. If the symbols are worn off... Well, Gravy's got good eyes. We've more stones than slots though, don't we? Apheori (GM): 8 stones, 7 slots. Gaurav: Maybe different combinations do different things to the mechanism? Haerevan might know more about this, given that it was his idea. We still need to exorcise Amadi at some point. Bear Soup Guy: Maybe it has an Exorcise Amadi setting Ganelon: Okay, I suppose I ought to ask instead. Do any symbols on the device seem to correspond to symbols on these stones? Apheori (GM): You can't tell. Ganelon: Hmm. Apheori (GM): Get Gravy to look at it. Or not. You look closely and it's like the symbols were never entirely even placed. Frezak (GM): I want to feel the stones. Feel where they want to be. Feel where they should be. Feel the empty spaces, and the spaces that are empty, and what they need. I WANT TO FILL THESE HOLES PROPERLY Apheori (GM): Roll madness or arcana. Or both. Frezak (GM): rolling 1D20 Madness ( 9 ) = 9 rolling 1D20+4 Arcana ( 8 ) +4 = 12 Gaurav: I have a nasty suspicion that Rhu's hairy-vision might have helped here. Apheori (GM): You wind up with stones placed seemingly at random, with the cat left over. Ganelon: Does anything happen? Apheori (GM): Nope. RHU (to Amadi) What is that thing? AMADI Some sort of... thing. They used it to detect and transport oddities. Back when they had all the pieces. Before the universe tried to write it all out of existence. Also, I should probably let you have your friend back. And get back. To waiting. RADEK Does this device have multiple configurations? RHU Waiting? RADEK The letter describes it as a puzzle. AMADI For the bread. (to Radek) It seems to be missing the top, which might be important. Basically they'd first have folks turn it on - that was the test. Then it would be reordered to change the function - the puzzle, to counter the puzzle of the... Amadi just stops, not sure what she was saying. RADEK ...Yes? AMADI I don't know. It's not there. RADEK Hrmph. Perhaps I can fix it. Ganelon: The device, he means. Not Amadi. RHU We could try putting it in the order in which we encountered those things. Cat-Tree-Contagion-Dream-Fire-Dragon-Mask. Not sure about the bird. Amadi nods, waves slightly, says, "Goodbye," convulses a bit, and then falls over. Rhu checks Amadi's vital signs Rhu: rolling d20+15 heal check on Amadi ( 4 ) +15 = 19 Apheori (GM): She's alive, just unconscious. Gaurav: Any sign of zombie!Amadi re-emerging? How would we know? Apheori (GM): Radek could probably arcana it. Or you could try to guess with a madness roll. Ganelon: I want to see that first. Gaurav: Let's keep focussing on the box then. Or we can take it back to the village along with George and get some rest before poking at it further. Ganelon: We solved the zombie problem, I suppose. Gaurav: We did! I hope George is happy. If anybody who aspires to mini-Radek-ness can ever be happy. Ganelon: Radek is capable of being happy, in his own way. You may recall that he had a brief fit of generosity following a certain revelation. And now Gravy's shovel is magic. Gaurav: True. Apheori (GM): So everyone's ready to just head back? Ganelon: Yeah, Radek will try to Make Whole on the broken thing in the box - and the contraption itself - but it can wait until they're somewhere more comfortable. Frezak (GM): I also have magic boots. Ganelon: Right, those too. Gaurav: I like the idea of going back, unless someone wants to spend the night under the aurora? Apheori (GM): Great, next time you'll be in town with stuff and things. Frezak (GM): I'm cool with not sleeping below eldritch skies. Apheori (GM): Sorry this was so short, and sorry about flipping out at someone not showing up. Again. Ganelon: Understandable. Bear Soup Guy: It was a very mild flip-out Regardless, this was a fun session Gaurav: Yes! We got a cool letter and a magic box to play with. Bear Soup Guy: I'm going to go have a shower before the paint starts peeling from the walls Bye everyone! See you next time! Gaurav: bye, BSG! Apheori (GM): For the log: 16 december And that s all. I love you guys, even if this is insanely early.
