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[_DivideByZero_]

Roll 46


((No response >.<))

...

You remember a red, blue, and a green spell-slime (weak)
You remember many eyes

You have a spiny walking stick (Attack power: (attacking head) 2, (attacking other parts) 1)
You have a silversteel falchion (Attack power: (on odd swings) 3, (on even swings) 2)
You remember your time in the wilderness well
You have some sandwiches and citrus
You have a Sprite Trap, labelled with the words "Samantha Magdelene, professor at U.T"
You have seventy-five Hours

Spoiler: Status of Archae Severo (Pencil_Art) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Mystical Learning
>Your Aganis spells are reduced in complexity by 1. Spell complexity determines the number of turns it takes to prepare a spell. You can cast early, but each turn you skip incurs a negative die. Complexity rules:
+1 if range is longer than 1-2 yards
+1 if multi-target
+1 if effect lasts more than a single turn, or if a creature is created
+1 if created creature is more complex than a slime
Animal Handler
>Gain +2 positive dice whenever animals are involved, unless you are hunting them
Wilderness Survival
>Gain +2 positive dice for actions involving gathering natural resources, starting fires, tracking, and other survival skills
Photographic Memory
>Weak memories become strong if you successfully cast them the first time
Cannot Speak
>Silence is golden
One-Eyed
>Your targets gain +2 positive dice if you attack them from a distance

...Why do I even try?

"Milady, could you please give us at least a general direction of said obelisk? Stumbling around the castle for ages to find it seems like a waste of precious time."

"There is no way I could know. It eludes my perception. I could look for general cues, such as air currents perhaps, but anything I discover that may turn out to be the obelisk is wiped from my awareness."
[1][2] You find nothing on this floor. You wonder how an obelisk could somehow be snuck down here anyway.

There is a stairwell leading down that's open. There is also a hall leading into some far off corridor.

...

Your whole body is protected by some sort of green glow, visible in the dark (-1)

...

Spoiler: You have a stack of spell tomes (click to show/hide)

You have 3 black empty tomes (black tomes must be written in red ink, and gain +2 positive dice if inscribed with an illusionary spell)

Silent Wind of Night: Dispells all nearby items and detatched effects, regardless of origin. Shapeshifts, summons, and polymorphs are unaffected.
Phantom Lake Essence: Dark tendrils emerge from the book, ensnaring enemies that fail to dodge.
Unending Phantasmagoria: Dissolves a dead body to create a reanimated ghost in place of this tome. The ghost can use Shadow Blink and drops a black spell tome upon death.

You have a stack of spell tome pages and a black cover

You have a bloodied ceremonial dagger (Attack power: 3) (attaches to target and Drains it, suppressing it) (remembering a memory teleports this weapon to your hand)

You have a Beech Javelin (Attack power: 3 (thrown), 1 (stab))
You have 10 Javelin memories (lucid)
You have about thirty Hours
You have a royal goblet, a golden watch, and some jewelry

You remember the Lady of Winter
You remember many eyes
You remember many pixies
You remember a band of Arinthian soldiers and some bandits
You remember a bandit sinking into the ground

Spoiler: Status of Zikal Marin (HighEndNoob) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Forest Ranger
>Gain +2 positive dice when navigating and moving through the wilderness, as well as performing stealthy actions
Javelineer
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a javelin
Noble's Education
>Gain +1 positive dice when learning from writing or conversing about literature
Shapeshifter
>You have unlimited strong memories of forest animals
Cynical
>Others will press any advantage...
Xenophobe
>Foreigners always disappoint

[5][6] Your presence must keep the shadows away, for you have found their secret weakness.
Vile Spawn of Darkness: I am aware of these shadow beings. In fact, they are all around, hiding in the shadows where they cannot be interacted with. I think the Lady cannot see me, however, for she would have commented on my presence by now.

...

You have a schematic of an iron arrow trap

You have a steel axe (Attack power: 1) (Deals piercing damage if the attack connects but fails to pierce)
You have an iron mace (Attack power: 2) (If the target has less than 2 damage, deals piercing damage)

You have a charged large greatbow (Attack power: 3 (charged), 1 (uncharged)) (charging takes one turn of preparation)
You have an uncharged Quickbow (Attack power: 1. Can fire twice per turn. Charging it allows you to fire two arrows per attack, four in one turn)
You have 11 arrows in your quiver (Attack power: 1)
You have an important scroll in a copper cylinder
You have about one hundred Hours

Spoiler: Status of Willhelm (Pancaek) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Man of Steel
>Gain +1 positive dice when using melee weapons, as well as lifting and wrestling actions
>Your opponents get +1 negative dice when attacking you
Fists like Hammers
>Gain an additional +1 positive dice while unarmed
Bow Mastery
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a bow
Illiterate
>What's a book?
Amnesia
>You have forgotten many things

Mysterious Voice: I do. The lake outside will sooth your pain. Just step into the water. And no, splashing it on your face won't help. You have to submerge the wound in the lake itself.

You search for a monolith. Finding nothing at first yourself, Efa chimes in.
"Hmm, there's an interesting heat source over there, but no monolith as far as I'm aware."

You glance in the general direction she's looking at. There is most certainly a large, tall black object with black glowing lines across its surface located there. Most unusual, perhaps it's the one?
"You see anything?"

...

Your head is sunburned (1)

...

You have a black Cloak of Ash (protects against Ashlight and fire)

You have a Zweihänder slung on your shoulder (Attack power: 4) (can only be used offensively every other turn)
You have a Katzbalger (Attack power: 2)
You have an arquebus (Attack power: 3) (Your opponent gets an extra positive die to dodge)
You are wearing light plate armor (incoming attacks lose 1 attack power if over 1)
You have about one hundred and fifty Hours

Spoiler: Status of Leonhard Amsel (Caellath) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Charisma
>Gain +1 positive dice when speaking with others and persuading them
Veteran
>Gain +1 positive dice to defense rolls, and your enemies gain +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Swordmaster
>Gain +1 positive dice to attack rolls with long, bladed weapons
Sharpshooter
>Your targets get +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Noisy
>You get +1 negatice die to stealth, and an additional +1 negative die if you are wearing armor
Old Pains
>In cold weather, without thick clothing, you get +1 negative dice to all actions

((You can't see the monolith))

Spoiler: Status of Valyrie (Lenglon) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Secret Powers
>DoOOoobillidabidydappidydap dipigillidydapda!

Current Stat Modifiers:
+2/(max 2) positive dice to attack rolls
+0/(max 0) negative dice to enemy attack rolls
+1/(max 1) positive dice to defense rolls
+0/(max 0) negative dice to enemy defense rolls

It is the 6th hour after noon. Ash is burning out, still giving +1 to the first die of a Thoughtform roll. This effect will linger on until the start of the 8th hour.
Expected end of Ashstorm: 7th hour.  (Next hour: Turn 50)

[Caellath]

((You should probably update the thread's name.))

"Large, tall black object with glowing lines just where ya're pointing. Seems like a monolith alright." Leonhard says.

(-Action Edited-)

[_DivideByZero_]

((You should probably update the thread's name.))

"Large, tall black object with glowing lines just where ya're pointing. Seems like a monolith alright." Leonhard says.

Submerge head and neck into the lake to get healing done, then try to destroy the monolith with a shot from the arquebus if Efa hasn't destroyed it yet.

((Thanks))

You are in a cavern, and the lake is outside. There is water on the ground though, lying in puddles. Lakewater, perhaps?

[Caellath]

"Is the water from the puddle from the lake and would it be enough? 'Cause the lake is outside." he points out.

[_DivideByZero_]

"Is the water from the puddle from the lake and would it be enough? 'Cause the lake is outside." he points out.

Mysterious Voice: Yes, the lake is outside. Oh... right. Well, the water down here contains the same essence, so it should work.

[Caellath]

"Got ya."

Use puddle water to get healing done, then try to destroy the monolith with a shot from the arquebus if Efa hasn't destroyed it yet.

[_DivideByZero_]

"Large, tall black object with glowing lines just where ya're pointing. Seems like a monolith alright." Leonhard says.

"I can't see it! My lady, is it possible for this phantasm barrier to affect humans, either land-dwelling, subterranean, or both?"
Mysterious Voice: The phantasm barrier does not work that way! It only affects keepers and spirits, beings of thoughtform. There is no way you can be affected by it. Wait, how can you see? You are a subterranean!
"I... don't really know how to put it."

[Lenglon]

I whisper to Efa. (whisper contents sent via PM)

[HighEndNoob]

"Ah well, thank you for helping us milady."

Look down the stare well. Try to make out any potential threats or objects.

[Pancaek]

Stick with Zikal and hammer hostiles if I see them.

[_DivideByZero_]

Roll 47

"Ah well, thank you for helping us milady."

Look down the stare well. Try to make out any potential threats or objects.

Alright, you step into the darkness and stare downward while being accosted by shadowy hand things.

[1][6] Somehow, this doesn't lead to your immediate demise. Maybe it's the shield. But they don't seem to be attacking.
((Continued below))

...

Your whole body is protected by some sort of green glow, visible in the dark (-1)

...

Spoiler: You have a stack of spell tomes (click to show/hide)

You have 3 black empty tomes (black tomes must be written in red ink, and gain +2 positive dice if inscribed with an illusionary spell)

Silent Wind of Night: Dispells all nearby items and detatched effects, regardless of origin. Shapeshifts, summons, and polymorphs are unaffected.
Phantom Lake Essence: Dark tendrils emerge from the book, ensnaring enemies that fail to dodge.
Unending Phantasmagoria: Dissolves a dead body to create a reanimated ghost in place of this tome. The ghost can use Shadow Blink and drops a black spell tome upon death.

You have a stack of spell tome pages and a black cover

You have a bloodied ceremonial dagger (Attack power: 3) (attaches to target and Drains it, suppressing it) (remembering a memory teleports this weapon to your hand)

You have a Beech Javelin (Attack power: 3 (thrown), 1 (stab))
You have 10 Javelin memories (lucid)
You have about thirty Hours
You have a royal goblet, a golden watch, and some jewelry

You remember the Lady of Winter
You remember many eyes
You remember many pixies
You remember a band of Arinthian soldiers and some bandits
You remember a bandit sinking into the ground

Spoiler: Status of Zikal Marin (HighEndNoob) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Forest Ranger
>Gain +2 positive dice when navigating and moving through the wilderness, as well as performing stealthy actions
Javelineer
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a javelin
Noble's Education
>Gain +1 positive dice when learning from writing or conversing about literature
Shapeshifter
>You have unlimited strong memories of forest animals
Cynical
>Others will press any advantage...
Xenophobe
>Foreigners always disappoint

Stick with Zikal and hammer hostiles if I see them.

Despite walking into the shadows, there don't seem to be any more of the monsters. One would think they would use this opportunity immediately, but... what if they want you to go down there?

There is nothing down the stairwell, but one wouldn't expect some strange rock. How would a monolith enter the building anyway? Sorcery? That means there must be a culprit.

...

You have a schematic of an iron arrow trap

You have a steel axe (Attack power: 1) (Deals piercing damage if the attack connects but fails to pierce)
You have an iron mace (Attack power: 2) (If the target has less than 2 damage, deals piercing damage)

You have a charged large greatbow (Attack power: 3 (charged), 1 (uncharged)) (charging takes one turn of preparation)
You have an uncharged Quickbow (Attack power: 1. Can fire twice per turn. Charging it allows you to fire two arrows per attack, four in one turn)
You have 11 arrows in your quiver (Attack power: 1)
You have an important scroll in a copper cylinder
You have about one hundred Hours

Spoiler: Status of Willhelm (Pancaek) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Man of Steel
>Gain +1 positive dice when using melee weapons, as well as lifting and wrestling actions
>Your opponents get +1 negative dice when attacking you
Fists like Hammers
>Gain an additional +1 positive dice while unarmed
Bow Mastery
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a bow
Illiterate
>What's a book?
Amnesia
>You have forgotten many things

((No action :C))

...

You remember a red, blue, and a green spell-slime (weak)
You remember many eyes

You have a spiny walking stick (Attack power: (attacking head) 2, (attacking other parts) 1)
You have a silversteel falchion (Attack power: (on odd swings) 3, (on even swings) 2)
You remember your time in the wilderness well
You have some sandwiches and citrus
You have a Sprite Trap, labelled with the words "Samantha Magdelene, professor at U.T"
You have seventy-five Hours

Spoiler: Status of Archae Severo (Pencil_Art) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Mystical Learning
>Your Aganis spells are reduced in complexity by 1. Spell complexity determines the number of turns it takes to prepare a spell. You can cast early, but each turn you skip incurs a negative die. Complexity rules:
+1 if range is longer than 1-2 yards
+1 if multi-target
+1 if effect lasts more than a single turn, or if a creature is created
+1 if created creature is more complex than a slime
Animal Handler
>Gain +2 positive dice whenever animals are involved, unless you are hunting them
Wilderness Survival
>Gain +2 positive dice for actions involving gathering natural resources, starting fires, tracking, and other survival skills
Photographic Memory
>Weak memories become strong if you successfully cast them the first time
Cannot Speak
>Silence is golden
One-Eyed
>Your targets gain +2 positive dice if you attack them from a distance

"Got ya."

Use puddle water to get healing done, then try to destroy the monolith with a shot from the arquebus if Efa hasn't destroyed it yet.

The water heals your head on contact, it's surprisingly quick. Far better than any of the herbal stuff the locals across the empire like to try.

[5][2] The report of your gun echoes many times throughout the cavern, and gets more garbled and wet every time it passes. Soon you hear a sound much like the wind blowing through the sea of light tendrils around you.

It bounces off the rock, predictably, but the gunsmoke billows around it. A woman appears next to you, who wasn't there before. When she opens her mouth, it is the voice you've been hearing this entire time.
Lady: It's right here, where the smoke is parting. Efa, can you dispel that area only?
I can't control my dreams. You know that, right?
Lady: Then I shall control your dreams for you. Is that fair?
That's a good idea, but I don't think it will work.
Lady: Just trust me. Cast a spell.

Efa pulls a dagger from her hand, the same kind she used to make the table of freaky food at the palace (it literally comes out of her hand, you see her fingers deforming to accommodate it). She then stabs the dagger in the direction of the monolith, and it scrapes along the surface uselessly.

But as she does so, the lights on the stone darken, and it becomes a boring old piece of obsidian. A strange kind, too, fiendishly black, almost like meteor stone.

...

You have a black Cloak of Ash (protects against Ashlight and fire)

You have a Zweihänder slung on your shoulder (Attack power: 4) (can only be used offensively every other turn)
You have a Katzbalger (Attack power: 2)
You have an arquebus (Attack power: 3) (Your opponent gets an extra positive die to dodge)
You are wearing light plate armor (incoming attacks lose 1 attack power if over 1)
You have about one hundred and fifty Hours

Spoiler: Status of Leonhard Amsel (Caellath) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Charisma
>Gain +1 positive dice when speaking with others and persuading them
Veteran
>Gain +1 positive dice to defense rolls, and your enemies gain +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Swordmaster
>Gain +1 positive dice to attack rolls with long, bladed weapons
Sharpshooter
>Your targets get +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Noisy
>You get +1 negatice die to stealth, and an additional +1 negative die if you are wearing armor
Old Pains
>In cold weather, without thick clothing, you get +1 negative dice to all actions

I whisper to Efa. (whisper contents sent via PM)

"There is a being with me. I think she is a spirit, because she is also affected by the 'phantasm barrier'. But she's lending me her eyes."
Voice: The barrier must affect her as well. If it affects her, it will infect anything she grants you.

Spoiler: Status of Valyrie (Lenglon) (click to show/hide)

Traits and Skills:
Secret Powers
>DoOOoobillidabidydappidydap dipigillidydapda!

Current Stat Modifiers:
+2/(max 2) positive dice to attack rolls
+0/(max 0) negative dice to enemy attack rolls
+1/(max 1) positive dice to defense rolls
+0/(max 0) negative dice to enemy defense rolls

It is the 6th hour after noon. Ash is burning out, still giving +1 to the first die of a Thoughtform roll. This effect will linger on until the start of the 8th hour.
Expected end of Ashstorm: 7th hour.  (Next hour: Turn 50)


A message is heard by everyone!

Lady: We are safe now. But it appears that my castle has suffered some minor damage... There is a hole in my roof.
But for now we are no longer being watched, so let us all meet at the table in the room above.

[Lenglon]

no action one last time.

[_DivideByZero_]

((Assuming nobody else has reason to interrupt, I'm posting this now.))

Appearing in her winter form, the Lady speaks:
Lady of Winter: The castle you see is no ordinary castle. Legends hold it was built in the sixtieth year before the foundation of the Empire, but in truth it was built long ago, before Man ever set foot in this forest.
What use is a castle without a duke or king, you might ask? The purpose is to suggest that there was in fact a prince of this castle, that there is nothing special about it. But I tell you, the purpose of this structure is one far deeper and noble than both the squabblings of the nobility and the schemings of the Keepers.

The Keepers, whom I have referred to before, are a class of beings completely unlike your mortal selves. The red-robed one of you, whose name is Efa, already knows part of the truth.
A Mortal has but one body. Once that body dies, so too is the mortal killed.
A Spirit has a body through which it acts, but not through which it thinks, or exists, for that matter. Spirits are rooted in a second kind of matter, known as their Essence. The Lily known by two of you is a spirit. Her essence is the flowers of the land, and so long as this land blooms she cannot be killed.
A Keeper, unlike a spirit, has only an essence. A Keeper needs no body to act. I create phantasms of myself across this land in many places at once, including the one you speak to now.


This may pose further questions, but prepared as I am to answer them I shall mention that this is forbidden knowledge. Once the other keepers know of my conspiracy they will stop at nothing to hunt you down and kill you. In fact, the one of you who is a mercenary captain, Leonhard, has had firsthand experience of the other Keeper's workings. A recent paper was submitted to the Office of Astrologos, arguing against the immutability of the moon. The Keeper of the Stars, who rules over the northern arctic wastes, discovered this through his informers and sent the feared mercenary Kari to stop the paper from circulation. But even those mortals working for the Keepers are not told of the Keeper's true nature. If a human finds out and reveals himself as knowing the truth, he will surely be removed.

So be it. Such is the price of freedom! I implore you all to join me and act as my agents. Because I abstain from underhanded tactics by principle, I do not lie to you as the other Keepers would, but I shall make my intentions clear. The leader of the Min, the Dao Ayeshang, is no human, but rather a projection of the strongest Keeper, Anthem.
Anthem is the one who set this very world into motion. He set humans, elves, and all the mortal races to live upon this world. But he is no God, for we are all created beings. Anthem's purpose for humanity and all the others is to study them like animals in some twisted experiment. It is not the purpose set forth by the creator of all.

The Keeper Anthem is, therefore, a rebel against nature and the creator. And for this reason I rebel against his dominion over the world. I have many tasks which must be fulfilled, and I cannot garauntee your survival. But I appeal to your sense of honor and dignity as morally upright beings. Will you join me?

((Note that you are perfectly free to refuse, in game terms. I won't force your character to accept.))

[Lenglon]

((Did people gather at the table for that speech or did she appear in several disparate locations? do we see each other? etc.))

[Pencil_Art]

((Regardless)) Archae absorbs this information. "Then upon what medium does magic operate?"