"I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"
Push my way through the crowd and cut my hand with the knife.
You crowd surf over to the pedestal and cut your hand over the bowl.
One of the leaves on the tree separates and drifts over to you. It looks like it's the one made of gold. It passes through your robes and embeds itself in the flesh of your chest. You feel the sudden sensation of power, of control.
"I think I just got given the power to control gold?"
Search through the doors. Stop when I find the one that exits to the outside world. Exit. Use the same spell I tried last turn.
"Oh, hello. This is new. Don't rightly remember a hallway in the arena, or antimagic. What else is there?"
None of these doors seem to exit to the outside, although there is a stairway here in the back that leads down. Maybe this is the way?
[Hahahahaha, seems that crowd following you is kind of back firing.]
"What's all this then?" Glassco nods to the other guy, then shuffles over both the man, who is now kneeling, and the important looking monk. Remembering the strange scene before, and putting a few things together, he addresses the monk. "I'm guessin' you're the reason we're here? Where exactly is that, some mountains? Why we here?"
You are in the Anchor of the Eight. A temple atop a mountain. And you are here to break a seal. Mercury room and a knife, eh? Are we talking FIRST EMPEROR OF CHINA here?
Struggle outside to doorway as it was too hard to breathe in the room. Bite thumb, and see if I can get just a small but regular flow of blood going. Just enough.
Go to a flat part of the hallway and begin drawing.
A32 E4 C47
Use this for practice. If I can't bleed quite enough, or can't draw here, don't draw. Just bleed.
You bleed enough to doodle up the circle but it doesn't do anything.
"Right, screw this room. Everybody go outside."
Get outside!
(Damn this 20 PM's an hour limit...)
You head down stairs and out into the cold and the snow of the temple grounds.
"~I-dub-this-altar-BAD-NEWS.~"
Run to a place magic works, say things (nonviolent things that harm absolutely nobody, I might add). Should anyone attempt to eliminate me, say a few choice words if magic works in that area. In any other case, run.
You run out to the room and all the way down to the temple grounds outside and skid to a stop in the middle of the sparring ring. You notice that there's a steep switchback path down the mountain over on the far side of the grounds. You can't see where it ends.
[pot:3+1]
a magical mark in the shape of a man about your size appears behind you and goes flying off into the distance. Weird.
I nod back in response to the newcomer then continue with my questions.
"You say I'm supposed to destroy the source of your power. What is it? Where might I find it?"
Below. It waits below. Down in ancient depths where our king bound it. Where he usurped it's power. Where the first book was written. Behind the seal the great ones made to with hold its corruption. It is the god of no name, of times forgotten. The Other.
((Well some one has to say this eventually "BLOOD FOR THE PALM GOD"))
Wend through the receding crowd and sacrifice to the palm altar then follow derm.
You walk to the pedestal and cut your hand, dripping the blood into the bowl. One of the leaves, the one that appears to be made of a rather nasty black and greenish haze, affixes itself to your chest.
That done, you follow derm outside.
Kin felt unusually out of breath. He could not remember that it took so much energy to say a word. But he was pleased with the result.
Kin considered his options. Going back inside, or keep on exploring. He choose to explore by going in a straight line away from the wall. He also says a word.
The temple garden, or more accurately temple grounds, is just a large square expanse of flattened rock with little in it except for the sparring ring, benches and the low wall around the entire place. You walk along the outer edge of the area; to the south you think you can hear the very distant sound of water somewhere below the clouds surrounding the mountain. To the west there's a switchback path running from the temple grounds down toward who knows where. to the north there's not much but clouds as far as you can see. You shiver a bit.
"Looks like the only way out of here is down that path, everywhere else is a sheer drop."
[pot:6]
You summon a giant lump of silvery metal that causes some of the metal that Thrakor summoned to roll in it's direction and stick to it. Huh.
Head back to the spawn room and record the circle design and runes if i can see them using the inside of my perplexicons back cover and my own blood.
Afterwards head outside and say my word at nothing thats near anyone.
You record the general shape and design of the circle but the runes in it keep changing. Also they don't look like any of the runes or circles in your book.
That done, you head down stairs and say a word or two.
[pot:2+1]
You summon about a pocketwatch's worth of brass springs and gears
Follow Derm outside. Try and find out whether magic works here.
You follow Derm out to the temple grounds.
[pot:2+2]
Two things appear a few feet in front of you. The first is a flow of glowing dust particles that seem to defy physics. The form nested platonic solids, burst apart and reform several times before vanishing. The second thing that appears is a burning hot point of white light surrounded by orbiting threads or thin streams of light. It vanishes before it touches the ground.
"Well, that's something. "
Grab the most weaponizable part and get out of here. If the only exit is back inside, go for it.
You grab the a hunk of clockwork junk and walk over to the switchback path that leads farther down the mountain. You don't actually get on it yet though, for the sake of your nerves.
((Anyone wanna divulge the secret of making a metal controlling staff? Well that is if I can make it with three words. Er... never mind... I can only say one word at a time. Great...))
Ah shit... a giant a bug... I run way from danger only to run into it... here's to hoping it's friendly.
"Um... hello friendly bug thing... haha..." Back away from it and exit the room. If it attacks say "Zentol" at it and run back up the stairs. ((That is the dark void space time ripping thing right?))
[spd:4-1]
[Chrome Hopper spd:2]
You turn tail and run for the door. The bug gives chase for a few feet but seems to become disinterested after a few seconds and disappears back behind the boxes. You find yourself in the dark hallway, gasping for breath, but alive.
I didn't realize these would be tiny ass shrine rooms!
Agreed. There's what, half a dozen people in here? I've seen bigger bathrooms.
Exit teeny-tiny shrine.
(well, the shrine is taking up most of the room.)
You get out of the shrine, although it's become much less busy by now, and into the hallway.
Say Sootheel Zerth Hobitaoed
Grab it, keep walking in my random direction
[pot:3+1]
You summon up a 3 inch long copper knife.
As per random directions there's really only two ways to go, back into the temple or down that switchback path. Or you can throw yourself off one of the sheer cliffs around here. Take your pick.
Leave the entire building, then say words
You walk out to the temple grounds and say your words.
[pot:3+1]
You summon up a pair of of rather menacing looking brass clockwork gauntlets. They've got what look like rather sharp gears set into a mechanism just above the knuckles and a windup key near the end. They're pretty nasty looking.
You can't say your next set of words because you don't have the pool (you've already used up 2 of your 3 words for this turn.)
Read Scrolls.
You grab one of the scrolls at random. The scroll is talking about a god named " Sha-calun the Everflame". He is the god of potency and flame, the all consuming burner of anything in his path. His worshipers give offerings by displaying their own overwhelming potency and those who gain his favor gain not only an unnatural affinity and power over flame but are even capable of channeling the power of the Everflame, becoming burning juggernauts of unstoppable magical power.
"Neat."