Inside 63

[Earl of Purple]

Paladins!

A scroll drops from the sky and lands between the two warriors. The scroll is made of vellum, and bound tightly with a dark blue ribbon tied in a bow.

Oh, look! An artefact that may create random events. Read it and find out.

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

"You wish me to make a call?" She asks rhetorically. "Well, if you're sure then..." She suddenly pauses as she spots the scroll materializing before them. "Speak of the oni. I believe our conversation might have made an "random" artifact appear." That was her first hypothesis anyway. "Could we stop? I wish to have a look at it."

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"You wish me to make a call?" She asks rhetorically. "Well, if you're sure then..." She suddenly pauses as she spots the scroll materializing before them. "Speak of the oni. I believe our conversation might have made an "random" artifact appear." That was her first hypothesis anyway. "Could we stop? I wish to have a look at it."

Steve shouts "hoah" and his horse stops. He gets off his horse and extends his hand to Ambrosia "I know that you said you can handle yourself just fine, but would you like assistance." He looks around briefly, checking for any hostiles in the area.

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

She gratefully accepts his hand as she steps off the horse. "I wouldn't deny your assistance. But I must warn you, these artifacts can be dangerous and not in the 'dragon slaying' fashion. Curses are mean spirited and there is no way to fight back against them by usual means." She then moves to pick up the scroll and have a look at it.

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

She gratefully accepts his hand as she steps off the horse. "I wouldn't deny your assistance. But I must warn you, these artifacts can be dangerous and not in the 'dragon slaying' fashion. Curses are mean spirited and there is no way to fight back against them by usual means." She then moves to pick up the scroll and have a look at it.

"I know" says Steve, "I had to deal with a few, I've lost several good men to them." Steve follows closely. "Before you tamper with it, I think I know something that can help" Steve bows his head. "Omnipotent One, giver of life, please protect your servants from this curse." A warm light goes out "This should protect us from a curse, blessings from the divine have never failed me."

[Zefir]

[Park of Seasons - Departing!]

"C'mon, let's go!" Adir says, bounding off toward his vehicle, where it waits in the street just outside the Park's gates. He calls back, "I don't know if plan A was fight there, C4, but we were pretty badly outmanned for plan A!"

Unless they're attacked before they reach Adir's pickup, he'll open the passenger side door for Zefir and hurtle himself across the hood of the truck with a single easy bound. Into the driver's seat he flies, and it won't be very much longer before they're revved and moving unless Zefir's friends have something to say about it.

[Park of Seasons - Departing!]

"That wouldn't be a problem for me alone." C4 replies as they run.

The mages haven't got out of the smoke screen so far, but they can hear that they run away and so they start shooting red orbs at the two. The orbs work like little fireballs when they hit something they explode. But without sight the orbs go down randomly across the path.

Still they should manage to get away, even thought the explosion hurl behind Adir. C4 will jumps into the truck after Adir opened the door for him and they both get away, for now.

[Recaiden]

No... it's newer, and different. A Domination effect of some sort has been used much more recently than the battle.

And almost certainly intentional.
Someone...the dragon-king revived already? One of his minions? Or was the celestial spider the one employing this, bewitching a poor pony?
Arlem looks around for physical signs of a struggle and magical signs of other spells that might have transpired here, and recently.

[Earl of Purple]

Paladins!

The scroll is old, but the vellum is still soft; it's been well-maintained. The ribbon is binding it tight, but the knot could be undone fairly easily. Of course, it won't have any effect until the ribbon is removed, the scroll is opened, and any text upon it has been read.

The protection against curses may prove futile, however; whatever it does, benign, malign or somewhere in between, won't react as a curse unless both the person who cast the spell and the person it affected sees the result as a curse, and the magic bound within is also uniquely powerful. Sometimes, at least; the magical aura is constantly scaling through the levels and types of magic, from a barely-enchanted wisp of paper, to one of the most powerful items in existence. That's the easiest way of identifying a D20 Artefact; they all do that.

[Shadowcaller]

Paladins!

"I do not doubt it." Ambrosia remarks as Steve casts his spell just before she opens the scroll. Yet nothing seems to happen so she studies it closely. Does it have to be read aloud for it to activate? Since otherwise it is likely to trigger. "Perhaps it's faulty, or your protection works perfectly."

[Earl of Purple]

Paladins!

As the words are read, the scroll begins to crumble into ash and dust. Once the scroll has crumbled completely, the ribbon ignites, but more importantly the magic bound within is released and... Result: 18. Ambrosia's hands and feet are swapped. She may fall over, since that's bound to be awkward. It may rub off; all I get is the result, and the effect- players decide things like the duration. Maybe it fails, due to the curse protection spell put up earlier. Maybe the curse protection spell causes it to rebound and affect Steve.

Maybe Shadowcaller isn't happy with the result and asks for a reroll (though whilst awkward, this one is at least painless).

[Shadowcaller]

Paladins!

The scholar's brown eyes turn a deep shade of purple as she reads the scroll, but she isn't just reading it; she's communicating with it in a silent language. In the span of its activation she has already asked it to stop and consider what it really wants to do. It's existence will end once it has spended itself, perhaps it would like to do something else? If it joined her, she would let it do what it was made for and prolong its existence. The offer is to bind itself to a page of her book from where it could be activated infinite times.

[8BitNinja]

Paladins

Steve notices that something strange is going on, so he carefully walks up to Ambrosia, being sure to not disturb her, fearing the worst. When he looks, he sees that her eyes are purple. Hidden in his helm is his worried face of seeing someone's eyes unexpectedly turn purple. This must be the magic that Ambrosia talked about thought Steve. He wondered if it worked similar to how his holy powers worked, instead of magic. "Ambrosia, are you okay?" asks Steve. He waits for a reply, still looking around for hostiles

[Earl of Purple]

Paladins!

After activation and apparent destruction, the scroll still exists. It will recreate itself later, somewhere new, where other people will trigger one of its effects. This one has been used before, in fact, and therefore the scroll itself will decline the unprecedented offer, and inform her that there's others like it elsewhere. Most are jewellery, and I don't know how many players still use the characters that possess an example, and the first D20 artefact is in the possession of a character of a player who seems to have left.

[Shadowcaller]

Paladins!

That was unfortunate. But she makes a counteroffer, if she copied it's concept into her book, effectively creating yet another scroll just like it and simply let it go, would it simply leave in peace? It would be one more of it fulfilling it's purpose. It would be a simply trade.
To Steve the scholar is simply staring at the scroll as if in deep thought. She doesn't even seem to notice that he's there right now.

[Earl of Purple]

Paladins!

The scroll has a better idea. Sort of. It'll wait until its magic is at its peak, and then divert some of it into the book. One page in the book will generate as a multi-use scroll, but the effects will be new. It won't be a copy of this scroll- it'll be a whole new scroll, with its own twenty possibilities.

The scroll's 'purpose' is to spread a little bit of chaos and alter things, and if there's another scroll with different options then that's more chaos than the first time! Or that's what the scroll thinks. It wasn't intended to be intelligent when it was created. Though, it, and all D20 Artefacts, were created by accident...

[8BitNinja]

Paladins!

Steve goes over to his horse. "Here you go Henry." says Steve. He gives Henry an apple and pets its head. The horse grunts and puts his head down. While he is by Henry, he pulls out a scroll holder for if they decide to keep the original scroll and walks back. He makes a mental note to talk to Ambrosia about her eyes turning purple

[Shadowcaller]

That would do!
With th bargain struck The book informs her that yet another of its pages have been filled and the scholar lets go of the scroll in delight. Hopefully it would fulfill its part of the bargain and just disappear. She would use the newly scroll to create some chaos, she promises.
She then turns to Steve with a smile. "Fascinating. An object with the purpose to create chaos. No doubt similar to your gambler."

[8BitNinja]

That would do!
With th bargain struck The book informs her that yet another of its pages have been filled and the scholar lets go of the scroll in delight. Hopefully it would fulfill its part of the bargain and just disappear. She would use the newly scroll to create some chaos, she promises.
She then turns to Steve with a smile. "Fascinating. An object with the purpose to create chaos. No doubt similar to your gambler."

"I think we have a lead." says Steve "But on a side note, about your power, though, how does it work. I assumed at first that you knew magic, but you seemed to think of it as a vulgar thing to call it, similar to the holy powers I'm given. I don't actually do anything, I just pray and then my God gives me the power I requested if he so chooses, I am simply a proxy. Is it similar, except instead of talking to a heavenly being, you are talking to something else?" Steve gets on his horse and extends his arm to help up Ambrosia if he needs help "It's not important if you don't want to tell me, or if you feel it is more appropriate to tell me later. Anyway, could you decipher who made it?"

[Fenric]

And almost certainly intentional.
Someone...the dragon-king revived already? One of his minions? Or was the celestial spider the one employing this, bewitching a poor pony?
Arlem looks around for physical signs of a struggle and magical signs of other spells that might have transpired here, and recently.

The effect is psionic, not magical, which makes it harder to isolate. The overall sense is shockingly rigid and lawful, though, unlike the laid-back spiders.

There are scratches on the floor, as if small claws resisted something, but there are no signs of any particularly magical battle: nothing burned or shattered and no leftovers of repair-type spells. And in one floorboard is the end of a sparkly white claw that has broken off.

It's been several weeks since anyone was in here: the signatures of what was done are dulled only by time, not by further activity. But nobody here at the time the effects were used was a pony.

---

[Red Zone]

Drak the Kumiho rests quietly in locked back room of a cellar, accessible through a secret passage and long forgotten to the inhabitants of the building above. The liver-eating abomination currently has a tally of eight, and is discontented with the slow progress

I had thought it would be easier to get victims here in the crowded metropolis.

[Recaiden]

Nice and rigid and lawful. Very comforting. Except how horrible it is.

Well. Should probably send a psionic message off to Samantha, detailing that their poor spider got to Carousel Court and then was attacked and quickly defeated by something that took mental control of her. That he's going to try to follow their trail.

Time to turn into something that has a good sense of smell. Maybe a fox-person. Pick up the bit of claw. Maybe there's the faint scent of something leading away. More likely they departed by a magical or psionic working.

[Shadowcaller]

"We do?" The scholar asks in surprise, just how long had she communicated with that curse? Or did Steve believe it was connected to the gambler?
But before she can follow that train of thought Steve seem to have other questions regarding her "power". "My..." She pauses for a moment. "Yes, ah, my 'power'." It was hard thinking it as such as she couldn't quite figure out why humans couldn't communicate with concepts and spirits. "It is simply something I was born with. A inborn gift you might say." Her eyes still carries a streak of purple but the color is now slowly fading back to brown. "I couldn't find out who made it though, concepts aren't easy to communicate with, curses least of all. I'm just lucky I managed to convince it to leave without causing any harm." She couldn't to see what her scroll did though, but perhaps under more controlled forms.

[8BitNinja]

"We do?" The scholar asks in surprise, just how long had she communicated with that curse? Or did Steve believe it was connected to the gambler?
But before she can follow that train of thought Steve seem to have other questions regarding her "power". "My..." She pauses for a moment. "Yes, ah, my 'power'." It was hard thinking it as such as she couldn't quite figure out why humans couldn't communicate with concepts and spirits. "It is simply something I was born with. A inborn gift you might say." Her eyes still carries a streak of purple but the color is now slowly fading back to brown. "I couldn't find out who made it though, concepts aren't easy to communicate with, curses least of all. I'm just lucky I managed to convince it to leave without causing any harm." She couldn't to see what her scroll did though, but perhaps under more controlled forms.

"Then we don't have a lead if we don't know the scroll's origin" says Steve "I was assuming that you had a way to find the scroll's origin and we could go there. Right now, we seem to have no idea what we are supposed to do or where to go." Steve then looks around in thought "I have no idea what to do, so do you have any ideas? If you don't, do you have any contacts or allies that might have information?"

[Ionbound]

[Red Zone]

Drak the Kumiho rests quietly in locked back room of a cellar, accessible through a secret passage and long forgotten to the inhabitants of the building above. The liver-eating abomination currently has a tally of eight, and is discontented with the slow progress

I had thought it would be easier to get victims here in the crowded metropolis.

Serra shrugs as she sits cross-legged across the room from Drak, looking rather more serene than him, and says, "It takes time. Honestly, it would probably be easier in the countryside. More people isolated, you know? Here, the only thing that we've got going for us is the Bystander effect."

[Fenric]

His initial animosity has long since faded, and so it is without any spite or anger that Drak speaks to Serra now

I must consume a thousand victims, Serra. Out there, it would be noticed and then the hunters would be on our trail once more. Truly, I spoke in anger when you first turned me and for that I apologize, but the fact remains: I am invincible so long as you exist, but if you are destroyed...

he glares out into space a moment, then chuckles and shakes his head

You are quite literally the most precious being in my entire existence. And it is no mating instinct nor shallow friendship that drives me... Neither gentle Inari nor fierce Tamamo waits for me should I fail.

Only you stand between my consciousness and the eternal sleep of the void.

---

[Carousel Court]

Actually... it seems the spider did indeed walk out the back door and out into the garden, at the very least.

[Recaiden]

Well, visiting someone's garden is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. But it's still the best lead right now. Out to the garden!
Where did she go from there?

And, a small part wonders, how are these plants doing after weeks alone?

[Fenric]

The plants, of course, are doing fine: this is the land of excessively-friendly technicolor ponies, after all - they wouldn't let their neighbor's plants die!

And so there in the backyard is a bright green pony with a leaf-shaped cutie-mark, helpfully watering the plants.

[Recaiden]

Downright neighborly indeed.

"Howdy there, friend."
"I don't suppose you know what's kept Deep Reflections away for so long?"

[UncleWolf]

Loch and Key

"Yeah... I'm honestly worried about her. But I have minded my own business for now. I just hope she doesn't decide to have more children. I speak from personal experience when I say that such large families can be problematic." She shakes her head. "Either, just how old are your children now? Biologically I mean I never got a good impression on either their age." Considering neither was a product of a standard pregnancy....

Loch and Key

"Yes, I think both of us can attest to issues of large families." Jezebel admits with a wry smile. "As for Sergei and Ariel, they're about eight and four respectively. Sergei is actually a couple years younger, but that's what he is in equivalent years."

[Murkus]

[Park of Seasons - Departing!]

"That wouldn't be a problem for me alone." C4 replies as they run.

The mages haven't got out of the smoke screen so far, but they can hear that they run away and so they start shooting red orbs at the two. The orbs work like little fireballs when they hit something they explode. But without sight the orbs go down randomly across the path.

Still they should manage to get away, even thought the explosion hurl behind Adir. C4 will jumps into the truck after Adir opened the door for him and they both get away, for now.

"You wanna go back and murder them all in broad daylight, be my guest!" Adir hollers unnecessarily, starting his truck with the sound of those magical bombs still ringing in his sensitive ears.

Once they're out of the space and into the street, moving away, Adir looses a sigh. "So what now? If you wanna handle this alone, I'll leave it to you alone. I won't interfere. You can get at them on your terms, since their intentions are so clear now. If you still want my help, I'm gonna need to be better equipped." He flicks nervous, sidelong glances at Zefir as he wrestles the pickup left and right.

[Halae]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

"Oh." He says, grinning for some unknown reason, and, "Oh right."

"You can, I've got no objections. Only, be forewarned I suppose, I'm told I can be rather disconcerting to look at." He sits up and straightens his back, holding still for her to 'scan'. Whatever in specifics that might mean.

And he's not precisely lying. Seen through magical means, Sebastian is a silhouette dropped out of the space around him, a flat window into a backdrop of light, of brilliant sparks like stars entangling and drawing in the leylines of the park into their gravity, drawing threads of magic into a single maelstrom wrapped around the center of him. It can be very disorienting, akin to trying to follow a moving spiral.

Crescent Park - Inside Bastian's Curse

It's a curse! It does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, changing him from one to the other every time he hiccoughs, and inducing random hiccoughs for its duration. It does seem to be very slowly weakening since he got it, likely why the hiccoughs haven't been as numerous as when he first acquired it. By the time the end of the 96 hours rolls by, he might be in a form for a long time before another change occurs, and the changes might begin to get slower, disconcertingly.

However, as she's examining it Trick finds it begin to react to her intrusion, a bubble of energy inverting on itself, collapsing into a threatening "looking" spike. She gains two more pieces of information before she has to abandon her scan or risk it being violently dispelled. The curse is pretty much immune to direct, brute force attempts to dispel it, but there is a loophole, as is common with otherwise undispellable curses.

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

"Interesting." Trick mutters , then lets the spell drop. Strangely, she doesn't seem disoriented for having looked into Bastian's essence magically, "I'll assume the more disconcerting part of what I saw that was your natural state of being and focus on the effects of the curse I could feel."

"It's transmutation, high grade, but it's retributive. If someone were to try and brute force dispel it, the curse would likely respond violently; I'm not sure what effect it'd have on the person who made the attempt, but it likely wouldn't be pleasant. Even just the scan was apparently risking, as if I put any more power into it it may have lashed out. As is the case with the vast majority of curses that can't be reversed directly, there's your loophole to get out of it; which would be, thanks to what we know from the Meddler, an adventure for you. It'll go away after four days, and then we can work out what needs to be done then if you don't want to do the adventure bit, but it might be smarter to solve this quickly." Trick nods, putting away her dagger.