Difference between revisions of "March 19"

Latest revision as of 22:26, 24 April 2019

Heian has gone to find Solstice Ashdragon. Tranq has returned and met us at Korro's Court.

Evening

Lady Afra asks us to come with her. The palace has been stripped back to its bones. It looks like they're packing everything up to move. Ruben concludes they have moved on already and this is what is left. Afra confirms this, acknowledging this isn't their home, but she will take us there. She assures us it is on this plane. Zyrell protests, he doesn't want us to see.

Afra leads us to a teleportation circle, with 6 points on the edge, instructing us to stand on them. Nick Furry is visibly distressed. Ophion talks to him, tries to encourage him, understands he must be missing his friend Onai. Nick Furry is very scared, doesn't seem to trust anyone even Ophion, but he reluctantly comes along.

We teleport. We're deep in the jungle. The sky is torn, jagged edges, sickly green colour like the edges are infected, oozing, with nothing but blackness behind the tear. It's very hot & humid, monsoonal, raining. Brazil nut tree circles, trees at least a hundred metres tall. There's many structures, most of them partly buried, from an old civilisation, like a lot of architecture we've seen recently. Semudan maybe? A few hundred years old?

We come to a palace. It looks to be from the Emerald Empire of Gaoro Semudan, the empire before the current day Ruby Empire of Redin Semudan. It looks like a typical royal residence, rather than a personal one.

There's women dancing, covered head to toe in green paint.

Afra tells us she protected us when we were "disassembled". She focuses on Ruben, telling him she especially protected him and his incredible mind, that she loved his machine-like mind, with all it's "tick tock vibrations", and that she wishes she could just scoop it out. She is quite keen for us to see what they can do with the ink.

Zyrell & entourage arrive, coming out from a nearby building. Green painted men join the women dancing.

The ink appears in the middle of the clearing. Ruben visibly perks up. Tranq immediately puts a hand on Ruben to steady him. The ink looks different from before. It looks even more like circuitry, and there's beiges and purples.

Afra tells us "You didn't think you could teleport it, and you're right. But we can control it ... look!" She casts a teleport. The spell rips us from where we are, moves us and the ink, to the outskirts of what looks like an abandoned rundown Sosso city, and flattens it, easily a kilometre in every direction. We understand it because the loa are riding Afra and Zyrell now - as intermediaries between gods and people, they have more control.

Ruben suspects the ink is folding reality.

We return to ourselves, still deep in the jungle. Everyone else leaves us, except Afra. Tranq recognises this as a warning, but he's not sure who it is meant for. We are teleported back to Korro's Court. We can hear everyone running around, and we know we are not safe. As we set out to leave, we work out based on our timelines that those of us who were at the convocation are missing at least a week. We realise that's what Afra must've been referring to when she said they protected us when we were disassembled, we must've been held in suspended animation in The Spaces, but for what purpose we have not been told.

Mayb has an idea. She makes a dimension door and ask Ruben to step through it. He is initially hesitant but Mayb assures him he can trust her, and so Ruben steps through. For a moment there are two Rubens ... and then just as quickly, they are one again.

Tranq steps through. The same does not happen with him.

Mayb looks into Ruben's eyes, asks him how he feels. He says he feels normal. Mayb can see the ink inside him. Tranq realises the strange smell he's been noticing is the ink in Ruben. Ruben cuts his finger and he bleeds as normal. Atala asks him to remove all his magical items, as she wants to detect magic on him. She finds it is all over him, strongest in his blood. Ruben is asked to show his arm. His scars look to be healing, but the damage is worse than anyone else realised. His entire arm is damaged, with the scarring all over his upper arm and past his shoulder now.

The dimension door is still up. Mayb asks Ruben to go through it again. As he does, she sees and realises the ink is bonding with Ruben's system, becoming a part of him. There is nothing more we can do or work out at this stage so we move on.

Ruben & Mayb decide to head into town to see if they can find out more about the Leopard Orchids. Atala & Tranq follow at a discreet distance. Ophion & Kunoh remain behind, training and sparring. Nick Furry is back to his old self now and he lazes about nearby.

Early morning

On their way to the academy, Ruben & Mayb come across a lot of very agitated people. Mobs start to form, people are alert, tensions are rising. They arrive at the Arcane Hall, it's not too busy, a few scribes copying down onto massive sheets. They start researching. They discover that Leopard Orchids are not a locally found flower, so they look into it more.

In their rooms at sunrise, for just a second out the window Ophion & Kunoh see Mocha from Ol Alum standing there. But when they go outside to try to find her, she's not there.

Tranq & Atala, who are on the roofs near the Academy, see that in the centre of the city, all dressed in red, there's the Revelations man with a huge mob around him, and they're all chanting about the end of days, calling to burn down the temples. From the other side of town, they see the Emperors Army heading towards the man & his crowd. A few people start climbing onto nearby roofs.

Meanwhile, Kunoh & Ophion hear the rumblings from town and decide they'd better head in. A small girl approaches Kunoh on the outskirts of town, holds up a puppy to him, who licks his hand, and she says "We love you Catar".

Other small children walk through the rioters, interacting with them, 'blessing' them. No full on riots, but some people are killed in the skirmishing.

Atala tries to figure out if there's a pattern to the areas that are being targeted. She notices the children seem to go to the most tense pockets of people and actually seem to deescalate the issues, calming and healing people. Tranq notices a man who was trampled to death brought back to life by one of the children.

Darksun Tower is under siege.

Atala & Tranq watch as the children wander towards the edges of town, and disappear into balls of light, puppies too.

Ruben & Mayb discover that there is no such flower anywhere called a Leopard Orchid. They find - a transcript of Mama Tet telling Emperor Darius (Semudan emperor from several hundred years ago) "31 or 13, what does it matter? You're a ghost walking backwards! You're obsessed with the 13, but you should be more concerned about the 31. But they'll all be extinct soon anyway". - mentions of a group called the Holders of the Blue Flame. They promised to care for everyone. They seem to still be active. Largely believed to be a cult that had a lot of power 20 years ago, but all but vanished when the Emperor died. - back in the days of the Sosso Rebellion, roughly 800 years ago, there was a group of children who healed the sick. Always recorded as a supernatural thing, some mentions of devils. They didn't seem to favour either side.

Tranq & Atala, and Kunoh & Ophion all notice a lot of names in red have been written on the city walls overnight. From asking around, they learn this is Ol Alum, the idea is if your name appears, you will die within the week. One of the names is a well known member of the Golden Brazier. None of us know how to contact anyone from Ol Alum.

Ruben asks the librarians to organise more information to be brought to this library regarding the children and the 31.

Evening

Ruben & Mayb head back to the Korro lodgings, Atala & Tranq following. They meet up with Ophion & Kunoh on the way who return with them.

Someone notes the sky is still torn & bruised, just like what we saw in the jungle. No improvement.

We all receive a message, it is Mama Tet. "Sweet Northern ghosts, you are of interest to many. I offer my protection if you want it. None of the empire's 50 million would touch you". Ophion suddenly changes briefly, looking like his exemplar form, huge angry demon, with a sigil burned into his chest. Atala sees brilliant platinum white wings sprout from Mayb's back.

Morning

We decide to go looking for the man who was resurrected. Ophion disguises himself as a vagrant, and disguises Tranq and Ruben as local citizens.

We find out the man's name is Tavarus Stone. We go to his house. There are hundreds of people swarming outside.

Tranq breaks away and heads into town. There are legions in the street. All the people who are around seem to be armed with some weapon or another. There are still crowds around, the Darksun Tower is smoking, people are trying to get inside. There are 2 robed figures standing in the crowd, Tranq recognises these as Ruby Imperials - magicians who work for the emperor.

The Revelation group escalates again, calls to burn the city, pillars of fire come out of the sky directed onto temples and shrines. Priests defend themselves and attack in response.

At Tavarus Stone's house, everyone seems to be meditating. The house is made of stone and thatch, with a sunken floor inside. Stone is sitting at his hearth. He is blazing with a white light. He sees us "Brothers & sisters, come forward to embrace the lifelight".

Atala is immediately very defensive. Ophion starts steaming. Ruben is entranced. He recognises that the light is younger than the Elder Gods but older than just about anything else. He sees a symbol in the light - the first symbol of the first Atlantis! - and starts drawing it over and over again. Kunoh tries to get Ruben's attention but fails. Kunoh decides a repeat performance is undesirable so he puts his arm around Ruben and leads him away from the light.

We realise we cannot get what we came from at this time. We leave Tavarus Stone's house. We hear the commotion from the city and head towards it. We meet up with Tranq, who tells us what's been happening. We decide to head back to the Korro residence, to see if there's anyone who can help us find out more.

Early afternoon

We talk to Deputy Seneschal Santrell, who is the highest ranking person remaining on the grounds. Atala asks him how we can contact the Imperial Mages. He cannot help us, he does not have that kind of influence. We start working on a plan.