Holes/Session 42
A fragment of the Garden of Remembering
INT. Dorgin guardhouse - day
Radek finally finishes building his thing at some point in the afternoon. It is a robot, big enough to be held in both hands, called the Navigator. Its purpose is to scout passage within Holes and map and plot a course through the space in-between, thus establishing a reliable means of travel for the party to potentially use.
Ganelon (Radek): Basically, it exists to find destinations we actually want rather than leaving that up to the fickle whims of fate, and then give us a way to reach them. That's the theory behind it, anyways.
Ganelon (Radek): And for posterity, it stalks the earth on steel talons.
Radek nods and adds the Navigator to his impossible collection of things.
The squid adorning his cranium gibbers as he gathers up and leaves to find the others. A pair of midgets follow him closely.
EXT. Dorgin street - day
The party gathers around as Greibel, returned from his scouting, draws out a map of everything he saw in the dirt.
RADEK
So you found a wizard's tower? How did you know it belonged to a wizard?
GREIBEL
I've played D&D before. I know what a wizard's tower looks like. All pointy at the top and made out of stone. And it also has 'WIZA D' written in big letter over the door.
Radek shakes his head in disappointment at the very idea of a wizard branding his door so ostentatiously.
GREIBEL
The most effective marketing strategy is an accessible one.
Even so, they make up their minds to check it out and head out.
Rhu brings up the rear singing a happy song.
Amadi joins in Rhu's singing. She seems perfectly fine now, chipper and dandy. One would never know how she has a headache, or how very on fire Greible looks to her. And the things Dawn is remembering... well, she doesn't even care, now does she?
EXT. Wizard's tower - day
The tower is tall and white and old, crumbling a bit at the edges. Pointy as it is, it's unclear if it was supposed to be this pointy, or something broke off; the entire thing looks a bit run down, especially higher up.
Over the door, in big letters, is something that might say 'wizard'.
Aside from a narrow band of dead soil around the base of the tower, the forest is grown almost right up against it.
RADEK
...Knock on the door please, Gravy.
The Gravedigger knocks on the door. His knock booms inside the tower.
RHU
We don't have to knock. Greibel could fly in through the window or something.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
It's polite.
(yelling)
HELLLOOOOOOO?
Something seems to be rustling inside. The rustling gets louder after the hello. Nobody actually responds.
Amadi hums.
The Gravedigger whistles, not at all in tune with Amadi. He has no musical talent whatsoever. Small sponges have disdain for his musical ability.
Radek frowns and checks the place for security systems. (rolled 23, 22 arcana) He finds a trigger for a magical trap that seems to be slightly busted, and disables it. (rolled 26 arcana)
RADEK
The security should be disabled, now. Shoddy piece of work - I doubt the owner's home.
Radek strokes his beard and grins.
RHU
I say we go in. We've announced our presence. We've knocked politely. If there's something in there, it's probably smaller than a dragon.
The Gravedigger tries the door, but it's either locked or jammed.
RADEK
Let's hope the failing defenses have kept whatever's inside undisturbed, hmm?
The Gravedigger walks back to Radek and turns smartly on his heel.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVES.
The Gravedigger charges the door. (rolled 26 strength) He sends the door flying off its hinges, winds up on top of it, and surfs about halfway into the tower atop the door.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
YEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.
INT. Wizard's tower foyer - day
Every surface is covered in butterflies, flapping vaguely, washing the space in chaotic colour. Underneath them, it looks as though some of the stonework might be crumbling, and a wide staircase winds its way up around the walls. Several boxes and large crates are shoved under the stairs.
The only part not covered in butterflies is a swath of crushed bug parts and innards where the Gravedigger surfed the door in over them. That part's just smashed butterflies.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
AMAAAAAAAAADI. BUGS!
Amadi runs inside.
AMADI
BUGS!
Amadi flaps her arms like a butterfly.
Radek leans in to peer through the destroyed entrance, leering in like the Grinch, and grumbles.
RADEK
...Bugs.
Rhu and Dawn walk in around him, Dawn exactly mimicking Rhu's foot movements in the doing.
Rhu examines some of the boxes, and tries to wave some butterflies away from one. They bend away from him like leaves on a bough.
Greibel shouts at the heavens with his arms outstretched as his figure dramatically turns into butterflies. They remain in a Greibel shape for a long moment before slowly dissipating and float in over Radek's shoulder to mingle with the other butterflies.
Radek finally skulks inside and inspect the butterflies. He scowls intensely. (rolled 12 intimidate) This has no effect on the butterflies.
Amadi dances in the butterflies and Greibel, and Dawn starts following her instead, very, very closely, not dancing.
RADEK
Someone catch one of these for me. A closer inspection is warranted.
Butterflies are landing on Amadi rather like mad, starting to outright cover her.
The Gravedigger grabs and picks up Amadi, takes her over to Radek, and plonks her down in front of him.
The Gravedigger beams.
Radek strokes his beard again and leans in close to have a look. (rolled 29 arcana) He finds that the butterflies appear to have been charmed to do this, though it was probably done by someone else entirely than the tower owner.
RADEK
...What a flamboyant waste of resources these must have been. Their lifespans have been extended and they've been given a directive to linger here.
Rhu hears something coming from one of the crates. (rolled 21 perception) He waves the others over and points to the box.
Radek raises an eyebrow and gestures for Gravy to look behind him.
The Gravedigger does so, going over to the crate, and picks up a golf club along the way. Gravyvision reveals something hiding in the crate. (rolled 29 perception)
The Gravedigger smacks the crate.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
HELLOOOOOOO?
A stone man bursts out and tries to punch him, but bounces harmlessly off the Gravedigger's armour.
DAWN
(from across the room)
BUGGERING WHATSIT ALL YOUR GRAVES ARE TOP FEELS THAT CANNOT INTO THIS?!
Dawn sets the stone man on fire. Then she just looks confused.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
GRAVES?
The Gravedigger marks the stone man and then slams it to the ground with his shovel, causing shards of stone to crystalise around it.
Greibel recoalesces and summons a fire hawk, which fizzles and then bounces off a wall, setting a bunch of butterflies on fire.
From the floor, the stone man tries to hit the Gravedigger with a hammer, but misses, then slams its shield into Gravy's legs, knocking him over as well.
RHU
(pointing to the stone man)
You will fall, stalagtite-droppings!
He smites the stone man with radiant vengeance.
Amadi, meanwhile, is distracted by butterflies. She sings something weird which is entirely unhelpful.
Radek loads an acid bullet and shoots the stone man, then rushes over to stop the thing from breaking down completely from damage that was almost definitely not his fault.
RADEK
Prepare yourselves. I'm going to attempt to restore functionality to the thing.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
So that it can hit us again?
RADEK
...It's intelligent. Well, capable of thought, at least. And not much threat, besides.
Radek has a go at fixing the stone man, (rolled 21 arcana) putting out the flames and stopping the breakdown of its parts. He finds that it seems to be sort of converted creature, originally organic, but then turned to stone later.
RADEK
I thought this was a golem at first glance. It looks like it used to be organic. ...What a curious process.
RHU
What was it in a box for?
RADEK
Better to ask the thing itself.
Rhu tries to poke it with a finger. This has no effect whatsoever.
