Turn 8.0: Inhibited Interfacing
Sufficiently Analyzed Magic
Gibeele invented a highly sophisticated communication ritual to be included in the Secrets, whichever form ends up more prevalent in the world.
Name: Aetheric Net
Recipient: The Secrets magic system
Condition: A clear mind, intended recipient's AP address, the recipient's consent regarding the sharing of the information in question, and a small amount of stable source energy. (Scales with the physical distance the message must be sent.) Alternatively, cooperation from the Angel Raheal.
Effects:
+ Correct: Allows for free communication with the recipient, either directly between minds or between suitable mediums, such as books.
0 Incorrect: A blaring dialup headache.
- Cursed: This is a simple and safe spell, so the extent you could fuck it up would be to accidentally cast a different spell.
Acts consumed if any: Small amount of non-act magical energy.
Description: A system of protocols which would allow mortals to communicate using preexisting channels embedded into the contours of the world. Any information may be freely shared, including knowledge and instructions relating to The Secrets, making this a valuable spell for one who wishes to learn more.
Among the other magic systems created this turn are
Harvey Harvest's Farmer's Reward Program, a bizarre bazaar of Boons for the agrarian sort,
Qwitzikottle's Faith Energy, which draws from the worship and adoration of mortals, and
Harvey Harvest's Anti-Corruption, a means of escaping
C'thun's orbit.
Not to be outdone, C'thun attempted to modify all the newly created magic systems. Whether because it was somehow created in an incompatible fashion or because it was too heavily contested, even garnering three acts of opposition, it has diminished into a potentially separate magic system instead.
This was inexplicably followed by C'thun attempting to intercede with a magic system, a vote-based creation, rather than opposing it as is expected and permitted. Harvey Harvest responded by creating the Sanitrees, which C'thun blocked from the world (bewilderingly, without an intercession) and reacted to with a blast of dark red energy. Harvey Harvest managed to
call in Reaping Rachel to help deal with C'thun. C'thun, in turn, called on Trandarc.
There in the night
In a parenthetical that will certainly not backfire on anyone,
C'thun conducted a paratheic ritual with the
Flesh Conch of Screaming's support to draw the Great Old Ones closer even as Aila concentrates on placing hexes on the empty spot in the sky. (target: ? ? ?, roll: -4 + ? ? ?)
All shall be well
The
Flesh Conch of Screaming remained hungry, and worse yet, began developing many tumors throughout their form, divine though it may have been. They plucked the growths away and flung them into the world where the oddly shaped lumps began growing alarmingly quickly, even developing sophisticated magical links perhaps initiated by their divine origin and maintained by the strange music that so surrounds them.
Name: Tormour
[Resonant] [Magic-granting] [01]
Neighbors: Wellsprings of Meatas
Region: Singing Flesh
Traits:
+ Resonant: The various tumourous provinces resonate with each other through magical music. Any being that touches the Tormour gains a benign tumorous growth in the touched body part, becoming a resonator (Excessive touching of the Tormour is inadvisable and potentially fatal). Resonators instinctively and precisely know the direction and distance of every resonant province, though with no identification of which resonant province is which. Potentially this makes for almost trivial navigation in combination with the sky axises. In addition, resonators may sacrifice stored bodily calories or calorie equivalents to the Tormour, allowing them to propel themselves towards a resonant province of their choice. Toggleable free smart pathfinding is available. With no pathfinding, the resonator simply moves in a straight line to the target resonant province. With pathfinding on, the resonator is propelled along the predicted fastest path to the target resonant province, veering around obstacles and calculating in the effects of various speed-altering features such as the Polis Trade-Winds. Greater calorie consumption allows for greater speeds and phasing through obstacles and restraints. With clever switching between target resonant provinces, this allows for resonators to employ crude and limited multidirectional flight for combat or other purposes. It possible to starve yourself to death by poor management of resonant calorie sacrifice, making becoming a Resonator an easy method to lose those pounds. With the instantaneous sacrifice of roughly sufficient calories to cause a province-wide famine, it is possible to teleport all the way from one region to completely another region's resonant province. Shorter teleports are less calorie-intensive. The benign tumour is the link and familiar allowing for the sacrifice of calories to the Tormour for magic, and if it is somehow removed the being ceases to be a resonator.
+ Zodiac of the Ninth Pasture: As a contractor of Tormour, the resonator may spend bodily caloric energy (or equivalent) to summon outsiders, this being far easier and simpler than most other rites or methods. The outsiders are compelled into a period of service determined by the amount of caloric sacrifice to Tormour. The outsiders are further prevented from harming their summoning Resonator without explicit commands to do such. Frequent usage causes the Resonator's Tumour Familiar to grow and spread throughout their body, potentially disabling or killing them eventually.
- Haunted: Except for causing tumours on contact, the Tormour is also haunted by ghosts, restless spirits and vengeful spectres who will attempt to possess, kill or curse anyone who who wanders this place.
Description: A great calcified and keratinous tor lodged into the side of the Meatas mountain range with various formations and crevasses forming a parody of a leering face. Within its mountainous, rocky shell squirms a living god-tumour, hungry for sacrifices from contractors, crooning happily to greet any visitors. The remnants of summonings gone wrong, lost grudge-spirits, the souls of dead contractors and assorted other events of ill omen wreathe it in a halo of mild misfortune. It is largely barren and lifeless except for the hardiest of organisms.
Name: Barrancancer
[Resonant] [Magic-granting] [02]
Neighbors: Black Swamp
Region: Trunthia Multa
Traits:
+ Resonant: The various tumourous provinces resonate with each other through magical music. Any being dips a part of their body in one of the highly carcinogenic geysers, predictably enough, gains a benign tumour, making them a resonator. Resonators instinctively and precisely know the direction and distance of every resonant province, though with no identification of which resonant province is which. Potentially this makes for almost trivial navigation in combination with the sky axises. In addition, resonators may sacrifice stored bodily calories or calorie equivalents to the Barrancancer, allowing them to propel themselves towards a resonant province of their choice. Toggleable free smart pathfinding is available. With no pathfinding, the resonator simply moves in a straight line to the target resonant province. With pathfinding on, the resonator is propelled along the predicted fastest path to the target resonant province, veering around obstacles and calculating in the effects of various speed-altering features such as the Polis Trade-Winds. Greater calorie consumption allows for greater speeds and phasing through obstacles and restraints. With clever switching between target resonant provinces, this allows for resonators to employ crude and limited multidirectional flight for combat or other purposes. It possible to starve yourself to death by poor management of resonant calorie sacrifice, making becoming a Resonator an easy method to lose those pounds. With the instantaneous sacrifice of roughly sufficient calories to cause a province-wide famine, it is possible to teleport all the way from one region to completely another region's resonant province. Shorter teleports are less calorie-intensive. The benign tumour is the link and familiar allowing for the sacrifice of calories to the Barrancancer for magic, and if it is somehow removed the being ceases to be a resonator.
+ Cancerous: As a contractor of Barrancancer, the resonator may cause spontaneous cancer growth in any desired location of the body of any being they can see, potentially killing or disabling them. This causes the resonator's tumour familiar to grow and spread as much as they made the target's cancer grow. This does not cost any caloric energy. A very useful magic for those who possess a decent knowledge of anatomy. Useless for resonators who are unable to see, whether due to bodily limitations or environmental conditions.
- Carcinogenic: The Barrancancer spews out clouds of cancer-causing spores from various geysers all throughout the cleft about once per year, which spread and drift over the entire region of Trunthia Multa.
Description: The impact of a god-tumour in the mountainous side of the Trunthia Multa carved out a large cleft or barranca which the cancer spread along and grew over before becoming mostly quiescent. Now the Barracancer is an ominous gully with ground and floors of gently pulsating flesh filled with a thin mist from effluviant geysers. It pulsates hungrily for sustenance from resonator contractors, and a comforting drumming vibrates from somewhere deep below. Carnivorous mountain goats, leopards, eagles, vultures, and assorted animal life make their home here.
Name: Tumbourland
[Resonant] [Magic-granting] [03]
Neighbors:
Region: Central Garden
Traits:
+ Resonant: The various tumourous provinces resonate with each other through magical music. Any being gorges themselves on pusfruit equivalent to a third of their bodymass within a few hours gains a benign tumour somewhere in their body, becoming a resonator (Excessive consumption of pusfruit is discouraged). Resonators instinctively and precisely know the direction and distance of every resonant province, though with no identification of which resonant province is which. Potentially this makes for almost trivial navigation in combination with the sky axises. In addition, resonators may sacrifice stored bodily calories or calorie equivalents to the Tumbourland, allowing them to propel themselves towards a resonant province of their choice. Toggleable free smart pathfinding is available. With no pathfinding, the resonator simply moves in a straight line to the target resonant province. With pathfinding on, the resonator is propelled along the predicted fastest path to the target resonant province, veering around obstacles and calculating in the effects of various speed-altering features such as the Polis Trade-Winds. Greater calorie consumption allows for greater speeds and phasing through obstacles and restraints. With clever switching between target resonant provinces, this allows for resonators to employ crude and limited multidirectional flight for combat or other purposes. It possible to starve yourself to death by poor management of resonant calorie sacrifice, making becoming a Resonator an easy method to lose those pounds. With the instantaneous sacrifice of roughly sufficient calories to cause a province-wide famine, it is possible to teleport all the way from one region to completely another region's resonant province. Shorter teleports are less calorie-intensive. The benign tumour is the link and familiar allowing for the sacrifice of calories to the Tumbourland for magic, and if it is somehow removed the being ceases to be a resonator.
+ Telepathy: Resonator contractors of the Tumbourland may sacrifice caloric energy (or the equivalent) to sense any other resonators within their vicinity. The more caloric energy expended the larger the radius they can sense. This is relatively cheap in terms of energy expended. Resonators may then initiate two-way telepathic contact with any resonators they can currently sense at no additional cost. Alternatively, the resonators may expend caloric energy to communicate telepathically, both sending and receiving, with any being they have communicated telepathically with before, making use of the remnant connections of such exchanges. This is more expensive the farther away the target is, but cheaper than sensing for resonators, and extremely expensive if the target is in another plane, by for example having died. A reckless telepath attempting to contact a deceased travelling friend without confirming their living status and sending more than a telepathic sentence or two may accidentally starve themselves to death quite easily. There is no consequences of overuse of resonant telepathy beyond the caloric costs involved.
- Enchanting: Beings that enter the hypnotically beautiful Tumbourland are supernaturally reluctant to ever leave it again. Even if they do manage to leave it through force of will or being physically compelled to do so by outside forces (like a distant callback crew with ropes), they will often dream of it and frequently find themselves feeling homesick for the land of Tumbourland.
Description: A grove of meaty trees bearing pus-filled fruit amidst their hair-filled branches, roots filled with teeth digging deep into the fleshy mat of skin and gristle making up the forest floor. A tantalizing haze of perfume fills the air, coming from ear-flowers and trunks filled with malformed mouths. Everything is swaying slightly to a barely audible melody, so beautiful and entrancing that you could just sit there and watch and listen for hours on end. There are plenty of edible fruits, leaves and roots within the Tumbourland and plenty of animal life. Many of the plants are however carnivorous and care should be taken when travelling this province.
Name: Great House of Cancer
[Resonant] [Magic-granting] [04]
Neighbors: None?
Region: The Endless Blue
Traits:
+ Resonant: The various tumourous provinces resonate with each other through magical music. Any being meditates on one of the bone monoliths of the Great House of Cancer gains a benign tumour in the part of the body that was touching the monolith, becoming a resonator (Excessive meditation to gain wisdom may be unwise). Resonators instinctively and precisely know the direction and distance of every resonant province, though with no identification of which resonant province is which. Potentially this makes for almost trivial navigation in combination with the sky axises. In addition, resonators may sacrifice stored bodily calories or calorie equivalents to the Great House of Cancer, allowing them to propel themselves towards a resonant province of their choice. Toggleable free smart pathfinding is available. With no pathfinding, the resonator simply moves in a straight line to the target resonant province. With pathfinding on, the resonator is propelled along the predicted fastest path to the target resonant province, veering around obstacles and calculating in the effects of various speed-altering features such as the Polis Trade-Winds. Greater calorie consumption allows for greater speeds and phasing through obstacles and restraints. With clever switching between target resonant provinces, this allows for resonators to employ crude and limited multidirectional flight for combat or other purposes. It possible to starve yourself to death by poor management of resonant calorie sacrifice, making becoming a Resonator an easy method to lose those pounds. With the instantaneous sacrifice of roughly sufficient calories to cause a province-wide famine, it is possible to teleport all the way from one region to completely another region's resonant province. Shorter teleports are less calorie-intensive. The benign tumour is the link and familiar allowing for the sacrifice of calories to the Great House of Cancer for magic, and if it is somehow removed the being ceases to be a resonator.
+ Carcinization: As a contractor of the Great House of Cancer, a resonator may burn caloric energy(or equivalent) to adapt to an adverse environmental danger by somehow becoming more crablike, such as gaining book gills to breathe underwater, or a exoskeleton to protect against arid conditions or turning their white blood cells into tiny crabs to easily defeat some disease, or gaining the robust cell structure of Great House of Cancer native crab types to resist radioactivity. Additionally, the resonator may instead become more deadly and durable in combat by somehow becoming more crablike like gaining fearsome pincers or a durable crab exoskeleton. Carcinization can also be used to recover from injuries or dismemberment. Changes are inheritable and generally irreversible except for using carcinization to overwrite crabbiness with different crabbiness. Overuse causes the resonator to become a very dangerous, durable and enduring crab who is filled with cancers that increases its bodily functioning. Resonators can generally manage to assume their place near the top of any particular food-chain with this magic.
- Radioactive: The entire Great House of Cancer is highly radioactive with all the potential health risks that implies. The native life is somewhat resistant to this.
Description: A relatively plain plain of golden hairgrass, yellow meat-weeds and yolk-coloured skin-lichen growing out of and on top of the cancerous ground of this province filled with lakes and rivers of tears and sweat. The animal life is exclusively some form of crab, from conventional crabs to flying crabs to giant land-crabs to canny hermit crabs to pit-trap digging crabs to web-weaving crabs etc. The entire province is filled with odd yellowish bone monoliths of various sizes and heights, that draw out the fixed constellations and stars of the heavens in a grand star map. They regrow in their fixed positions if damaged or destroyed, and attempts to alter or add to the starmap with invalid stars are aggressively devoured by swarms of crabs that congregate from the surrounding area. It updates itself if fixed astronomical bodies are somehow added or removed.
Name: Cayncer
[Resonant] [Magic-granting] [06]
Neighbors:
Region: Driftlands
Traits:
+ Resonant: The various tumourous provinces resonate with each other through magical music. Any being that submerges themselves in one of the shamsprings on the island for over half an hour grows a hairy tumour familiar somewhere on their body, marking them as a resonator (Excessive soaking in the shampoo waters of Cayncer may cause irritation to sensitive membranes and the eyes). Resonators instinctively and precisely know the direction and distance of every resonant province, though with no identification of which resonant province is which. Potentially this makes for almost trivial navigation in combination with the sky axises. In addition, resonators may sacrifice stored bodily calories or calorie equivalents to the Cayncer, allowing them to propel themselves towards a resonant province of their choice. Toggleable free smart pathfinding is available. With no pathfinding, the resonator simply moves in a straight line to the target resonant province. With pathfinding on, the resonator is propelled along the predicted fastest path to the target resonant province, veering around obstacles and calculating in the effects of various speed-altering features such as the Polis Trade-Winds. Greater calorie consumption allows for greater speeds and phasing through obstacles and restraints. With clever switching between target resonant provinces, this allows for resonators to employ crude and limited multidirectional flight for combat or other purposes. It possible to starve yourself to death by poor management of resonant calorie sacrifice, making becoming a Resonator an easy method to lose those pounds. With the instantaneous sacrifice of roughly sufficient calories to cause a province-wide famine, it is possible to teleport all the way from one region to completely another region's resonant province. Shorter teleports are less calorie-intensive. The benign tumour is the link and familiar allowing for the sacrifice of calories to the Cayncer for magic, and if it is somehow removed the being ceases to be a resonator.
+ Propogative: Resonator Contracters of the Cayncer can sacrifice their bodily calories to rapidly grow hair from their bodies (even if their race is hairless), which clumps together into a mildly nauseating orb which turns fleshy and tumorous. The contractor may then deposit this newly made resonant tumour in a location of their choice. Any resonator that touches one of the propogated resonant tumours may sense its direction and distance and pull themselves towards it just like they can with resonant provinces. By pulling themselves towards a propogated tumour, they are sacrificing their calories or equivalent to it specifically, causing it to grow larger as it is fed. Propogated tumours die and cease functioning when the contractor who created them dies, but this does not prevent them from potentially being revived somehow. They are otherwise ageless and immune to passive environmental dangers but can be physically harmed or destroyed about as easily as one would expect a tumour to be. Clever placing of propogated tumours could allow resonators flexible three dimensional maneuvering and navigation, particularly useful in the harsh conditions of the Driftlands. Overuse of this ability tends to make the contracted resonator very hairy, even if their kind does not naturally have hair.
- Unstable: The structure of the Cayncer is not very firm and it is prone to dandruffquakes every so often.
Description: At first glance merely another of the monochromatic islands of the driftlands, travellers who drift closer will discover that the entire surface seems to be made of dandruff, with the hardy plants and fungi of the Driftlands growing out of the icky substrate, though warped and twisted. The usual animals for the Driftlands are present, though there is more edibles available here that other places in the Driftlands. Careful inspection will reveal to an intrepid explorer springs of soapy, yet somehow potable water, which thoroughly cleanses any who washes in their water.
Name: Tumoors
[Resonant] [Magic-granting] [07]
Neighbors:
Region: Murica
Traits:
+ Resonant: The various tumourous provinces resonate with each other through magical music. By spending a week in a hallucinatory daze from constantly consuming the red BerryNights, a benign tumour will subsume one of a being's sight organs, making them a resonator. Resonators instinctively and precisely know the direction and distance of every resonant province, though with no identification of which resonant province is which. Potentially this makes for almost trivial navigation in combination with the sky axises. In addition, resonators may sacrifice stored bodily calories or calorie equivalents to the Tumoors, allowing them to propel themselves towards a resonant province of their choice. Toggleable free smart pathfinding is available. With no pathfinding, the resonator simply moves in a straight line to the target resonant province. With pathfinding on, the resonator is propelled along the predicted fastest path to the target resonant province, veering around obstacles and calculating in the effects of various speed-altering features such as the Polis Trade-Winds. Greater calorie consumption allows for greater speeds and phasing through obstacles and restraints. With clever switching between target resonant provinces, this allows for resonators to employ crude and limited multidirectional flight for combat or other purposes. It possible to starve yourself to death by poor management of resonant calorie sacrifice, making becoming a Resonator an easy method to lose those pounds. With the instantaneous sacrifice of roughly sufficient calories to cause a province-wide famine, it is possible to teleport all the way from one region to completely another region's resonant province. Shorter teleports are less calorie-intensive. The benign tumour is the link and familiar allowing for the sacrifice of calories to the Tumoors for magic, and if it is somehow removed the being ceases to be a resonator.
+ Rite of the Vital Missive: A resonator contractor of the Tumoors can expend nearly all the caloric energy in their body, putting them on the edge of death by starvation, in a highly unpleasant process involving hot wax or scalding sludge, to receive a important message that was irretrievably lost or destroyed before it could be delivered to its recipient, the object in question simply appearing in their possession. The contractor can sense the distance and direction towards the recipient and pull themselves towards it like they could with resonant provinces. The particular important missive is random, but the more caloric energy expended in the summoning, the more important the lost and then retrieved message generally is. The contracted deliveryperson is supernaturally lucky in avoiding harm, misfortune and death while they are actively attempting to deliver the message to its intended target. If successful in delivering the message, in addition to whatever reward the recipient may wish to grant them, the contractor will be healed of all wounds and ailments they may have gained in the course of delivering the message and gain good fortune for the next five years. This stacks if they can rapidly summon and deliver important messages in a short timeframe somehow. There is no particular danger to overuse of this rite, but a specific contractor can only be contracted to deliver a single vital retrieved missive at a time. Additionally, if the summoned vital missive is somehow lost or destroyed once more, the failure of a messenger suffers a year of bad luck.
- Nightmarish: Any who spend more than a week in the Tumoors will suffer mild hallucinations and nightmares, even if they do not sleep, of the hills coming alive and wandering around like monstrous giants, devouring the living, or of the black sludge rising up and flooding everything or forgotten gods descending from the stars and causing a horrific rapture, or other cataclysmic events, usually linked to the land itself somehow being alive and malicious. These visions and dreams are incredibly vivid but do not linger very well, giving beings a good scare but only mildly impacting their mental health.
Description: The Tumoors is a hilly, swampy moor, full of the characteristic black sludge of Murica, though it has a significantly more meaty scent around these parts. The hills seem to swell and shrink slightly, as if breathing, and the heath looks disturbingly like hardened systems of capillaries branching into the air. The way the crows and rabbits stare at you is unnerving, the sounds you hear on moonless nights spine-chilling and vaguely blasphemous. The red berries, named BerryNights growing from certain shrubs are potent hallucinatory agents.
Timely intervention by the
Faceless Prince (target: 18, roll: 14) has sent the Great House of Cancer splashing into the Endless Blue, and a fiery bolt by
Shinka has seared away the Flesh Shrine despite the
Flesh Conch of Screaming's warping of fate (target: 14, roll: 9).
Having thus excised their tumors, the
Conch entered the Painted Spire to look into recent setbacks (success?) starting with the liberation of night from unfriendly eyes (-2 Sight):
"Of what use is a roof against the rain if there are no walls to keep it out?"
CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.
STRANGER: Indeed?
CASSILDA: Indeed it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
STRANGER: I wear no mask.
CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!
Also, Eater seems to be having the time of its life feasting on what appears to be a very rapidly growing patch of vines in Farmaland.
The Forbidden Gardens
The Wanderer created the Wondrous Portal, which gradually expels those with the audacity of staying in the same province for more than one night at a time in the Central Garden. This has had the wonderful effect of dispersing various animals into neighboring regions, and it has a synergistic effect with the
Flesh Conch of Screaming's resonant roads.
Name:the Wondrous Portal
[magical]
Neighbors: None
Region: the Central Garden
Traits:
+ Call to travel: All those that stay in the same province inside the Central Garden for more then one night here the call to pass through it, with the call getting stronger every night you stayed at the same province as the last, with the call stopping only if you pass through the portal or leaving the Central Garden
+ Portal: Passing through the portal teleport the being to one of connected regions to the Central Garden in which the being can live
- Surprisingly hard to find with the calls only giving vague sense of closeness
Description: A ring of islands all cut in a way to indicate a large circle between them which is the portal itself.
The caravan leader has also been sent without further incident to the Central Garden, not to be confused with the centrally located Garden of Souls. This quickly draws Voicers back into their burgeoning city in the Garden of Souls.
Terminic Uplift
The Faceless Prince has proposed a set of modifications for uplifting the Termit:
Name: Telit
Traits:
+ Entrepreneurial: The Telit have keen minds for opportunities and innovation, with a sense for what can be done but hasn't yet. Trade among them will be common, as those with skills will be happy to trade their use for things that they want, but cannot get themselves.
+ Evolving: Telit can, with work, gradually reshape and remold their stone bodies to more effectively fulfill the role that they choose to fill. Craftsfolk may add additional, dexterous limbs, while soldiers might build themselves toward great strength and durability, for example.
- Emotionful: Telit run hot-blooded (despite not technically having blood), and can be roused to the greatest peaks and brought to the lowest troughs of emotion. This can make them... difficult to work with at times, due to reason falling to the wayside when such extreme emotions are invoked.
Description: Due to their abilities to reshape themselves, the Telit form cannot be expressed as if there were any single shape it might have; it may well vary by profession, culture, and personal preference. However, they are uniformly stone in material, with flexible crystal "fuzz" covering them, similar to how organic creatures might have scales, feathers, or fur, and their shape is typically at least invocative of insects, especially ants and termites. Like their evolutionary predecessors, Telit remain lithovores.
This has yet to draw enough interest for prototyping. Shinka, too, had a proposal for a creation of some sort known only as the Hands:
Name: Hands
Traits:
+ Extremely high reproductive rate
+ Intrinsically immune to corruption
- Extremely high mutation rate
Description: TBD
In more concrete news, the
Faceless Prince has created the
Iron Traveler, a wandering angel of trade, travel, and transformation. The
Iron Traveler has begun climbing (crawling?) the wild mountain of Yamayunqa from its foothills in the Old World.
Name: The Iron Traveler
Affiliation: The Faceless Prince, The Wanderer, Gibeele
Class: Angel
Traits:
+ Trinkets for Trade: The Iron Traveler is a gracious wanderer, and any kindnesses visited upon it are wont to be repaid. Depending on the magnitude of the kindness given - not merely in terms of raw amount, but also from how much it cost the giver to provide it (that is, the same kindness from a prince or a pauper will have very different results) - the Traveler may provide anything from useful-but-mundane items to works of arcane artifice that, while not history-changing, may still be life-changing. However, kindness given for its own sake is valued more highly than that given with the expectation of reward; the Traveler will not look particularly highly on those who seek to entreat it solely to gain its rewards.
+ A Myriad Iron Faces: The Iron Traveler is capable of molding its appearance to come across as a mundane mortal, although those sensitive to magic may likely be able to see through its disguises. The Traveler values their ability to travel unseen, after all, and experience the world as any traveler might (or at least, any given the resources of the divine). No matter the face, however, the Traveler will always have either an iron-grey or rust-red pallor to them.
- Wanderlust: The Iron Traveler never remains in one place for any length of time, and rarely returns swiftly. It is simply not within their nature.
Description: The Traveler is defined less by their personal appearance - an aspect in which they are unbound - but by the clothes they choose to wear. Typically, they bear a plain white scarf around their neck, and a wide-brimmed conical hat the gold of straw adorns their head. When wearing a face for which such clothings are applicable, their shirt, too, is a plain - if moderately dirtied - white, while their trousers are a fading brown. In terms of behaviour, they travel from locale to locale, seeing what is around and conducting petty trades with those they encounter.
Colony Drop
Qwitzikottle excised a piece of Kotun'Rah and cast it into the mortal world to build the region of Carociber, one of a rapidly increasing number of fleshy landforms. With a baleful gate to Tun'Goul itself and all around savagery, visiting Carociber is actively harmful to mortals in general.
Name: Carociber
Neighbors: Any that aren't argued against being near it
Traits:
+ Evolution in motion; the flesh creatures of this region adapt quickly, and violently, for there is only one thing to eat here, and if one is not eating they are being eaten.
+ Flesh horror; This region is made mostly from flesh, its "plants" are flesh, and even its few rivers and lakes are technically flesh through being made of blood.
- Not for mortal enjoyment; Born from a shard of a gods divine plane, the living region is very much NOT safe for mortals- between exceptionally vicious flesh creatures, rains of blood akin to acid, and the movements of the land as it's fleshy ground seeks prey for itself- seeking to live here is a poor choice
Description: A Gory mass of hungering flesh and viscera drawn from the sea of blood "pretending" to be a region, vaguely wrapped around a mountainous shard of Kottun'Rah that keeps it substantiated within the world.
FREE PROVINCE #1
Name: Tlakuepali'Ies
Neighbors: N/A
Region: Carociber
Traits:
+ Planer Anchor; Possessing a 'tight' binding to its origin, even separated by an entire plane- it allows the outsiders of Qwitzikottle's plane to remain within the world within a region's distance of it, though it works most strongly upon those who are in direct contact
+ An odd sort of 'gateway'; those who sleep upon Tlakuepali'Ies will find themselves awakening within Tun'goul until they find the release of death, similarly those who find the place it was plucked from from within may 'escape' Tun'goul for a time, though as with all outsiders will not be able to go far without proper ritual and binding.
- Interplaner misplacement; Occasionally souls destined for Tun'goul instead find themselves here; tied to this shard of the mountain of Glory
Description: a mountainous 'shard' of Kottun'Rah- the mountain of Glory- held tightly at the center of the region by the masses of flesh that make up Carociber
Down the Gateless Path
The
Faceless Prince's time with the First Step draws to a close, netting them one fragile but surviving Knowledge act (The Faceless Prince: +1 soft Knowledge act).
Susan is the First Step's new/current depositor.