Avalon Academy IC

[Dorni]

"You had a friend with you? When were you separat- oh. Well, ok then, bye Zephyr. Nice meeting you." Anthony frowned. He doubted the challenges were going to get any easier as they went deeper, and the fairy had all but given up against the spider when the two of them arrived. But Zephyr was acting like she knew what she was doing so he answered Kelly's shrug with one of his own while the fairy disappeared.

"Yeah, lets keep moving," he answered, falling in alongside the speedster and trusting her lead for the most part as they made their way forward.

"So if you don't mind me asking, what brought you across the pond?" Avalon was a long way from California, and his 'memories' told him that St. Ambrose had every bit the reputation as a school as Avalon did.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire immediately started to feel better as soon as the disco ball began to twinkle; they could see the angry welts of the repeated lightning strikes fading, and feel the aching pain in their head and torso diminishing.

"Oh, so that's what that was. Awesome!" they say as Adrien gives his explanation. Their smile fades a bit, their gaze turning towards the charred floor. "But...I didn't really do much compared to you guys, even with your help, haha. I mean I spent most of the fight getting strangled by a tongue. I read a lot of comics but I've never really done this sort of thing. Didn't expect to get into big fights like this before even getting accepted! Was sort of hoping there would be a class or something, haha."

Marcus seemed distressed - something to do with that weird black staff he'd been using...? - but Claire was quickly distracted by something even more intriguing, something they'd only just now really noticed now that their head wasn't pounding quite so much. There in Marcus's head, so close to his own mind that it was practically overlapping, there was...another...person?

Claire shifted and sat up straighter, eyes widening. A second mind! Inside his head! Did he have two minds? Had his mind split in two somehow? Or was it something else entirely, a companion or a parasite or a stowaway or a mind-meldy partner?

Was it...was it anything like they were?

...

They had to know.

Spoiler: OOC

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Going to attempt to mind-read Barty.

Roll for initial contact: (1d20+8)[21]

Questions Claire will try to find an answer (or a memory pertaining to), in order:

-Who/what are you?
-How did you get inside Marcus' head?
-Where are you from?
-What do you do/do you have any sort of powers?
-What do you want/do you want to hurt us or Marcus?
-What's the deal with that weird black staff that Marcus seems uncomfortable with?

DC21 to block initial contact/first question, DC18 to block at every question after that.

If they only get surface-thoughts level contact, Claire will simply listen in for as long as possible until blocked, if they are blocked from contact completely Claire will just drop it for the time being.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"It's...kinda hard to explain," Kelly answered, hedging a bit. "It's like...my family's pretty famous back in the States. And kinda as my siblings were developing their powers, this whole big prison break happened and this bad guy that my Mom and Dad had put away started working for this villain called the Black Mask and...just, making a mess in our town. He even came after us once, and after he did, my brothers and sisters started helping Mom and Dad dealing with them."

"So, they all went to St. Ambrose, but by the time they got in, they had...you know, cred and stuff. Reputations. Experience. People knew them and they had proven themselves and stuff. But by the time I got my powers, the bad guys were pretty much beaten. It's like, they managed to get away, but their power base was pretty much shattered. I haven't had...much experience at all really. You know, a couple like, 'stop the robbery, thwart the mugging' kinda things. Popcorn heroics, my brother calls them."

"So yeah, I totally could have gone to St. Ambrose, but I didn't want to have to deal with...with...you know, all the baggage! If I went to St. Ambrose, it would have been like, everything I did would be compared to what my siblings had done. It's like...landing a perfect triple-flurry, or acing a class, or helping the school win a cheer competition is great for most students, but it doesn't really measure up to shattering the Black Mask's telekinetic forcefield, or getting healing lessons from Headmistress Magdalene herself, or helping defend the school from an alien invasion!"

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I love my family to death, growing up with them was super-cool and fun and awesome. And the things they've done...they give me something to strive for, you know? To aspire to. But that doesn't mean I want everything I do being constantly compared to them, either! I just figured, at least here, I'll be judged on my own merits. I'll have a chance to make my own name and earn my own experience without...I dunno. Living in their shadows, I guess." Over the course of her explanation-turned-rant, her voice had grown steadily more serious, even a bit frustrated, her expressive features growing more still, her gesticulations getting a bit sharper. She hadn't...quite intended to go that far, but as was often the case with Kelly, once she started on something, well, it was hard for even her brain to catch up with her before she finished. She blinked twice, and pretty much immediately relaxed, venting the tension that had come to her with a little giggle. "Uh, sorry. Overshare, huh?"

[Dorni]

"Its ok. I... I think I get what you mean about living in your family's shadow. Its like... everyone says my dad's a great Hero. So when they meet me, its all smiles and encouragement about how I'll be great like him. But then the tests come, and most of them won't say it but it's always about how I compare to him, but don't worry they know I'll be just as much a Hero. Doesn't matter that I haven't even done any 'popcorn heroics' yet." His reply started slow but started to move from sympathy to letting out a frustration of his own.

"That's kinda why I'm here. Dad and his friends told me all about how Avalon was the best school and it'll teach me all about being a hero. And I get it, they're busy. They don't think I'm ready. And Avalon's been great so far. But like... it sometimes feels like they just wanted to dump me here so they wouldn't need to keep an eye on me."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked, a bit surprised that Anthony's experience had paralleled her own. "Ugh!" she replied with commiseratory sympathy at "don't worry they know he'll be just as much a Hero," her head lolling back and shaking side to side as she stared up at the ceiling. "Yeah. I've gotten that one a couple times. It's just condescending, right? I mean I know they mean well but sheesh!"

Anthony went on to talk about how he felt like he had been kinda dumped here. Kelly made a face like she had bitten into a chocolate expecting a cherry and it had turned out to be licorice. "That sucks," she said simply. She wasn't really so much for consolation. She was very much a "look on the bright side" sort of person, but actually teling people that was, itself, kinda condescending. To that extent, she preferred to lead by example.

Her curiosity, though, was irrepressible. So it didn't take too many more steps before she asked, "Sooo...who's your dad then? Anyone I might have heard of?"

[Dorni]

"I'd... rather not say," Anthony replied, shifting his gaze to the ceiling. He was already brushing up against his promise to keep his circumstances quiet. What he'd said so far couldn't hurt, but he probably shouldn't give away too much more. "He really is a good hero, and I don't mean to drag you into anything."

"Besides, I can't really be complaining about his shadow if I bring him up to everyone. How about this. If you don't go spreading the stuff about my dad, I'll keep quiet about you being an Albion. And if you ever want to vent about it I'll be around. Fair?"

"I mean, assuming we both pass this entry exam. How deep do you think this place goes?"

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus can't help but give a hearty chuckle at Adrien's method of augmenting his healing. He can't say it isn't damned effective, though, and he wastes no time in using it to heal up him and Claire. In his shared mind space, Barty is trying to distract him from the disconcerted feeling of having used the Blackstaff in real combat. It's mostly effective.

"Now, just gimme a mo to check these two out, and I'll be ready to go," he says as he examines the vial of liquid and the key. Focusing his energies, he holds both items in his left hand, the side that takes in energy. He sorta, well, 'tastes' the vial and key in his magical sense, and tries to determine what, if any, magical powers they have.

Spoiler

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Added a "Detect (Magic)" Sense to Marcus' sheet. Since it's not Ranged, it's limited to Touch range.

Expertise (Magic) rolls to analyze the magic, if any, of the thingies:
Vial: (1d20+16)[24]
Key: (1d20+16)[19]

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

Deeper and deeper the pair went through the cave complex, passing strange sparkling rivers that oozed lazily along before vanishing (deeper?) underground and more empty chambers lit only by the gently glow of more luminous insects whether they be tiny scuttling spiders or fluttering moths drawn to Kelly's bright light, what they didn't come across was any more hopeful students.

Eventually their conversation would be interrupted as they finally reached a dead end in front of a large lumpen rock formation but before they had time to turn around a voice called out in the gloom.

"Who goes there?" The deep voice yawned, the rocks in front of them rumbling with each word.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Spoiler: Marcus

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The key is exactly what it appears to be, an entirely mundane if slightly large method of opening a lock. As far as you can tell about the flask it's ordinary water that has been blessed.

The next door opened without putting up any kind of resistance in to a long corridor lined with portraits of men and women in nobles finery which in itself wouldn't be that odd except the artist didn't seem to be too familiar with how faces worked, with bizarre combinations of features haphazardly thrown seemingly at random on to the otherwise immaculate works of art and if that wasn't strange enough the further the corridor went the smaller and narrower it became to the point that our young heroes would have to crawl single file before they reached a door barely big enough for them to squeeze through.

((Okay now I'm working on the assumption that you're going to go through the door to keep things moving and avoid waiting on another round of posts that just say 'We go through the door' but if that isn't the case and you've got something else in mind simply do not click the spoiler below!))

Spoiler

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After enduring the increasingly claustrophobic corridor and the stares of never exactly the right amount of eyes the four young heroes were confronted with an almost absurdly spacious room, in fact the only way they could tell that they hadn't suddenly been transported outside was the fact that the door they had just come through was imbedded in a wall that stretched off in to the distance on either side.

In front of them was what appeared to be a bustling market place filled with ramshackle stalls where odd looking creatures noisily hawked their goods.

"Get them while they're fresh!" A portly red-skinned figure called out, only just keeping their balance on top of a crate that was angrily rocking from side to side.

"Genuine relics!" A hunched spindly figure in a hood enthused to a small crowd that had gathered before him "Merlin's staff! I couldn't make it up!"

"Memories and secrets bought and sold!" A woman who was trying way too hard to look human hissed, an array of small glass bottles laid out on a blanket in front of her.

[Llyarden]

"I feel like these are either junk or priceless works of art," Adrien remarked, as they swept along the corridor of paintings. It was always rather hard to tell the difference with art.

The narrowing corridor presented an issue - not so much because Adrien was averse to crawling, but simply because he also had his guitar to worry about. Eventually he ended up putting it behind him, where a cartoony mole popped out of the ground and dragged it along after him down the tunnel.

"Anyone - ugh - else get the impression - ow - that Merlin is going to be laughing away at us up there somewhere?" he grumbled, almost crawling into the door headfirst before he noticed it. "This better not get any...smaller?"

He trailed off slightly as he emerged from the cramped tunnel.

"This was not what I was expecting." He was distracted from gazing at the massive marketplace by a slightly irritable squeak from the mole, which was struggling to hand him his guitar (which was about ten times the size of the illusory creature). "Oops, my bad." He reached down and slung his guitar back over his back again as he waited for the others to emerge from the tunnel, and the mole gave a satisfied nod and vanished back underground.

"Oh, wait, I think I remember Co - uh, I remember hearing about this," he corrected himself hastily and not quite smoothly enough to allow his misstep. "It's a...faerie market, or something. No, goblin market, that was it. Didn't tell me there was one here, though."

He glanced around, trying to avoid making eye contact with any of the fae creatures in case they started trying to sell him something. "Uh, anyone see another way out?"

[OutOfThyme]

"I think I read about these things once," said Colin, as the corridoor shrank. He felt a little bad for Adrien and Marcus, but at least this was where being average was a perk. "You use forced perspective to give the illusion of a corridor, but it's really just a lot smaller than that, like... this."

As Colin squeezed through into the market, he looked around. He didn't expect a market, of all things. Based on the errant conversations he could hear, there were some odd items for sale. Colin couldn't help but wonder if that staff was real or not, for instance.

Ah, right, my magic sight. I should probably use that here, Colin thought to himself. The silver glow from his arms disappeared, and his pupils took on a slight grey hue as he shifted his magic to his own sight.

Hopefully, that would tell him more about their surroundings.

Spoiler: OOC

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Perception roll to spot magic thingies: (1d20+18)[34]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly eyed Anthony a moment, a little surprised that he had suddenly hedged. Didn't want to drag her into anything...?

Man! That just made her even more curious!

Buuuut she didn't want to push him if he wasn't comfortable talking about it, so she just said kinda jokingly, "So he's someone really cool, then," with a bit of an impish grin.

"Oh, yeah, I wouldn't tell anyone. Not my secret to share," she said, with a firm nod. "I mean...my family's not like a big secret or anything. It's like, sure, I'd just as soon it not get spread all around the school or whatever. But I'm not gonna stress myself out about hiding it either, you know?" The whole point was not stressing about her family's reputation, after all!

"Yeah. Assuming," she answered with a smirk. Yeah, she was fairly confident. "I have no idea, honestly. I guess we'll see!" she added brightly. Look, she wasn't necessarily going to say they were definitely going all the way to the bottom...buuuut she wasn't gonna just rule it out either!

When they reached the dead end Kelly frowned, but then the rocks spoke to them and her face lit right back up. Cool! "We're students of Avalon," she answered. "Or, well, we're testing to be, anyway. I'm Kelly. What's your name?" Yeah, no question, Kelly would totally just be immediately arbitrarily friendly with a bunch of talking rocks. Wasn't even a stretch.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire blinked as the line of thoughts from Marcus's brain-buddy suddenly faded and cut off after only a few seconds. Well, that certainly wasn't what they had been expecting. But still, he (whoever he was) didn't seem too bad! Despite that, um, last line there. And he probably wasn't a weird psychic dungeon parasite, so that was good.

The few bits of info they'd gotten left them eager for more (Who's Jordan? Was "Blackstaff" the name of Marcus's staff? They still didn't even know who this weird brain-partner was!) , but it was about time to move deeper into the dungeon, and it wasn't like they could ask. "Hey Marcus, tell me more about your snarky brain-friend that I just tried to mind-read!" Still, they resolved to try and find out more later.

Claire picked up her ruined jacket, absentmindedly plucked one of the few undestroyed books from where it lay in the splintered ruins of the chair, and followed the others out of the room.

"Well, they certainly look interesting," they said as they passed the bizarre paintings, "I guess they're, um, what is it called, abstract? Or, surreal, maybe? I wonder if there's like a puzzle to them or if it has something to do with the hallway getting smaller, or-"

Wherever that train of thought had been going, it abruptly derailed as Claire emerged into the wide-open market. Their mouth dropped open and their eyes visibly widened, head snapping back and forth trying to take in the sheer volume of utterly alien sights and sensations.

Were this a cartoon, the others might've looked to the right and seen a Claire-shaped puff of smoke where they'd just been. They wasted absolutely no time at all diving in, weaving through the crowd, bouncing from stall to stall gawking at the wares and their sellers alike, finally coming to a stop in front of the strange-looking woman with the selection of bottles.

"Hello! Who are you? You said you were selling, um, "secrets and memories", right? That's very incredible! Whose are they? Yours? Other people's? How do you get them into these bottles? Uhm wait that is what the bottles are right? How much are they, and uh what sort of money do you take? Do you happen to live down here, by the way? Oh! And would you know of any passages that go further down from here and also where they are?"

Claire got down on their knees and inspected one of the bottles more closely, trying to see if it registered at all with their mental senses.

[Dorni]

Anthony gave a weak laugh at Kelly's teasing. So what if her joke was spot on, he needed to work on his poker face. He needed to get off this topic.

"Yeah, we'll see. We've got all day to find out," he added, doing a poor job at hiding his relief at the change of topic.

When they reached the dead end, Anthony scowled. Even the freaking rocks want to know his identity? What was this ridiculous maze? "I'm Anthony. I'm also applying to Avalon."

[Thokk_Smash]

"I swear, if this is Merlin changing things around as payback for that goatee crack..." Marcus grumbles under his breath as he resorts to literally crawling through the ever-shrinking hallway. Both of his staves had long since become too high to keep upright, and so he has to bring up the rear to avoid smacking anyone with them as he carries them under his arm.

~"It probably wouldn't be out of character, Boss,"~ Barty remarks with a bright tone.

Marcus continues to mumble under his breath until they emerge into the goblin market. He stiffens up slightly as he goes over what he can think of off the top of his head about goblins, and other members of the Fey. "Try not to draw attention to yourselves," he says to the others, and huddles into himself as if to make his large form smaller. "These guys'll probably try to hawk anything on us, and they'll take any payment they think they can get away with."

~"Uh, Boss?"~

~"What, Barty?"~

~"It looks like Claire's already gone, Boss.~"

Whipping around, Marcus is dismayed to see Claire has already disappeared. He stretches back to his full height and catches sight of her. "Ack!" He lets out a strangled noise of concern before he begins to push through the crowd with supernatural strength. He doesn't activate his own Sight; he can assume that most of these items are, indeed, magical in nature. Doesn't mean that he wants to have the image of whatever they are burned into his mind.

"Claire, we're not here on a shopping trip," he says, voice equal parts rough and worried. He shoots the 'human' woman a seething glare, towering over her in his dark duster and slightly-glowing staff. "Whatever they've got here, it won't be worth the price they'll take. A sale is a deal, and you don't make deals with the Fey unless you know who you're dealing with."

Spoiler

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Thaumaturgy Array is set on Knight Terra, so Marcus has Strength 8 as long as he's standing on solid ground.

Intimidation on the Faerie woman: (1d20+12)[23]
Expertise (Supernatural Beings) on Fey creatures in general: (1d20+16)[21], +5 for Barty's Eidetic Memory as well

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

"Name?" The formation in front of the pair pondered drowsily "I think I used to have one of those...can't remember where I put it." It continued only to fall silent for several minutes where the sharp eyed of the two young heroes might begin to be able to pick out rough humanoid features from the mass in front of them, something that would be confirmed when it spoke up again, opening a single rocky eye.

"I suppose you'll be wanting passed me? I really shouldn't move until you've proved yourself...it's the rules you know. Only I'm really not one for riddles these days...tell me, what is passage worth...?"

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Spoiler: Colin

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Much like the rest of the dungeon the place is awash with magic, though luckily for your eyes due to the sheer size of the room you're in it's much more spread out. Most of the creatures before you have at least some magic on their person (if they're not outright magical themselves) and that's before going in to the wares themselves. One thing that doesn't ping on your senses is literally everything on the stall claiming to be selling 'genuine artifacts'.

Inside each tiny vial glimmers of light swirled around in a miniature whirpool like a dozen little never ending snow globes, all of them pinging on Claire's mental senses as mental fragments split off from other minds.

"I am merely a humble peddler, I simply help people preserve that which people hold dearest or forget that which they can no longer bare." The woman answered Claire's first couple of questions with a grin that was far more shark than friendly neighbourhood merchant. "I'm afraid everything else is a trade secret, though I'm sure we could come to some arrangement. Your first kiss perhaps? Or hearts desire? Maybe a secret never to be told?"

Then Marcus' shadow fell over her stall and she gave him a dull look, it seemed every party needed a pooper. "Now now I'm sure we can find something that suits the young sir too."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"...Well, I mean, it'll save us some time, and all. So, you know, that would be nice," Kelly said. It wasn't like they couldn't backtrack and take another route or something, it was just...lame.

But she didn't want to just force the nice talking pile of rocks out of their way! That would be rude!

"I don't want to ask you to break the rules or anything. But at the same time, if we're supposed to get a chance to prove ourselves, it'd be kinda unfair to not give us one, right? Maybe there's some other test we could do to prove ourselves? I've never...actually been clear on how riddle challenges prove someone's worth, myself. Prove their cleverness, I suppose, but even that's kinda iffy, since a lot of times you can come up with a valid solution to a riddle even though it isn't the solution, you know? I mean, I guess maybe the theory is that to solve the riddle you have to kinda think like the person who designed it? But even that seems like a stretch. And what if they've heard that riddle before! That would mess the whole thing up! Oh! What if we asked you a riddle? Here, I've got one! But you have to tell me if you've heard it before! Okay..."

Kelly cleared her throat and kinda drew herself up a bit. "You only notice me when you notice nothing else. I will adapt to any weapon wielded against me too often. To the living I taste of death, but the dead do not know me. What am I?"

Spoiler: OOC

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I tried. I tried so hard to resist, but come on like I could pass that opportunity up. I'm a bottomless pit of self-reference. (And a slightly-less-bottomless pit of OoTS reference, I guess? This one might have kinda gotten away from me.)

More importantly, Persuasion to convince the Friendly Talking Rock Formation to let us through on the basis of being, just, super-friendly and how can it say no? (1d20+16)[25]. I assume Attractive doesn't apply to sentient entities of geological strata, but hey I'm not saying I'd pass up the +5.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's eyes widened as they realized what the contents of the jars really were, and what they meant. This woman could separate out parts of someone's mind and remove them...

Did that mean she could maybe also...?

They honestly only barely registered that Marcus had arrived or what he was saying. Claire straightened up and looked the strange (Fairy, apparently? Wow!) woman in the eyes, matching her hungry-looking grin with a wide, bright smile of their own.

"So you can sort of...remove memories and parts of people's minds? That's amazing! It seems like that would be really difficult to do, I mean how do you even learn something like that?

As they spoke, they sharpened their mental senses, and dove in.

Spoiler: OOC

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Using Deception to try and get the peddler to think about where/how she learned her techniques in her surface thoughts: (1d20+14)[15], opposed by Insight.

Attempting to mind-read peddler, rolling for initial level of contact: (1d20+8)[28], opposed by Will.

Searching for answers/memories pertaining to the following questions, in order. (DC18 Will save to block at every question past the first.) If they only get surface thoughts, they'll just listen in as long as possible.

-Where/how did you learn to separate out mind fragments?
-Can a non-fae learn how to use your technique?
-How dangerous is it for the one having the fragment taken from them?
-Is there a book or some other source one can learn the technique from?
-Are the fragments still "alive"/conscious?

[Dorni]

Anthony just kinda frowned at the rock face. "I don't know who laid down that rule, but I wouldn't mind if you let us pass. We didn't mean to disturb your slumber and we don't really have much reason to want to fight you. If you let us pass we'll go on our way and you can go back to sleep."

He nodded along with Kelly. When she offered her riddle, he furrowed his brow but couldn't come up with an answer. He'd probably ought to offer up his own riddle. "Uh..."

What's a good riddle? "パンはパンでも食べられないパンは、なぁに?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked and looked at Anthony with a bright grin of delighted surprise. "You can speak-...! ...! ...- ...?"

After a few moments of her mouth moving and no sounds coming out she asked a bit sheepishly, "...What, uh, language was that, anyway?"

[Dorni]

"Its Japanese," he answered, taken aback. "Why? Is that unusual? I thought they teach foreign language in american schools?"

Had he just made a blunder? He was pretty sure foreign language was a graduation requirement in american schools.

Spoiler: OOC

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Also, forgot to Aid Kelly in my last post to convince the rocks to let us pass. Routine Persuasion 10; Kelly gets +2 to her result.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"I mean, it's not like weird or anything. Just, you know, cool," she replied. "Uh...yeah they...teach it, I guess. Um. Let's just say that passing a foreign language class and learning to speak another language are two extremely different things. Like...I took Spanish pretty much all throughout school. I can introduce myself and ask someone how their day was with the best of them! And I can conjugate verbs!" she puffed up a bit with faux pride. "I mean, you know, regular ones, anyway," she added with a self-deprecating laugh.

Oh, U.S. education system. You're just adorable.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin raised an eyebrow at the "relic" vendor's stand as he passed over it with his magical vision. Turning it off once again (mostly so he didn't get a migraine from it), he nudged Adrien - who was the only other person who hadn't run off at this point. "The person selling relic doesn't even have a single magical item there," Colin whispered. "Think we should do something about that, or should we just join Marcus and Claire?"

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

The stony creature let out a deep chuckle as a long and spindly arm uncurled itself from around the pile of rocks and lazily scratched the top of the pile "I'm afraid you're going to have to do better than that...I'm no stranger to boredom down here."

But hey, on the plus side Kelly's cheery demeanour had won the creature over somewhat so at least it didn't move straight to trying to eat her now that she had failed to meet the arbitrary standards of its challenge. Then Anthony spoke up in a language that was just as much of a mystery to it as it apparently was to Kelly.

"Now that seems a cheat for a game wits young man..." It chided, reaching out and prodding the powerhouse in the chest with one large hand and rocky hand.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"Mother dearest was quite the witch." The merchant happily explained to Claire, completely unaware that her potential customer was currently pillaging her thoughts "And of course when it was time for me to follow in her footsteps it was only natural that she would lend me her expertise." As she spoke a forked tongue shot in out of her mouth, piercing her carefully constructed guise, but she didn't seem to notice, a small look of nostalgia playing across her face.

"Of course I don't trouble myself with a past that isn't in a bottle." She continued, gesturing to her wares "So how may I help you?"

Whilst this was going on the rest of the newcomers to the market hadn't exactly gone either and pretty soon a trio of small winged humanoids were excited buzzing around Colin & Marcus on tiny insectile wings.

"Hi there! Are you lost? You look lost. We can give you a tour! We're super good guides!" The first one squeaked cheerily as it spun around Adrien's head.

"Ooo what's this?" Another said, pulling at the young musician's guitar case.

"Forget that! This one is...is...is I don't know!" The last of the trio worked herself up in to a frenzy, wildly gesturing at Colin, though she couldn't put her finger on its exact source the scent of Fragarach's magic was practically intoxicating to the tiny creature's sense.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly smiled and clapped at the answer. When the rocks said Anthony's question was a cheat, she said, "Ehh...that's kinda debatable. I mean, maybe it goes against the spirit of the game, but in terms of overcoming a test of wit, coming up with a question you cannot answer by speaking it in a language you don't know is an example of lateral thinking to answer the challenge, which is more-or-less what a riddle challenge is testing.
And I mean, at least he didn't ask you what he had in his pocket. It's like..."

Kelly got a little smile on her face, and evidently shifting gears entirely she said, "Okay! Try this one! A bride was late to her wedding. Her car had broken down and she was rushing to get to the chapel. On the way, she passed a man begging for money on the street, but she didn't have time to stop to give him any. Then she nearly crashed into a brother and sister as they were coming out of a restaurant, but she managed to get around them without having to slow down. Finally with the chapel in sight a nun sees her approaching and hastens to open the door for her, and she arrives just in time for the music to start so she can walk down the aisle. What does the bride have in common with all of the people she encountered on her way to the chapel?"

[Dorni]

"Its not a cheat," he shot back. He didn't move at the rock creature's prodding. At all. "You never set any rules in the first place - just that we needed to prove ourselves. You can't go crying foul just because you don't know the answer. Besides, that riddle doesn't even work after its translated."

He paused with an apologetic look to Kelly. "The riddle basically translates as 'What kind of bread can't be eaten'? Answer: 'a frying pan'. So it doesn't work in English, but the Japanese words for 'bread' and 'pan' are homonyms."

"So will that lesson count as a test of learning? Or do you want to keep going with riddles?"

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus narrows his eyes and tugs on Claire's arm. "Claire, I mean it, whatever you think you're after won't be worth the price she'll want," he says urgently. Using his egregious height, he tries to scan the distance for any kind of sign of an exit.

~"Hey, now, boss, don't be so quick to dismiss it,"~ Barty chimes in. ~"Who knows, maybe she has a memory about the Blackstaff. And, hell, maybe she'd have a memory about your ma."~

Marcus stiffens into stillness so total he appears as a giant statue. The familiar emptiness rears its ugly head in his heart. "It wouldn't be worth it," he mutters, although he sounds less confident than before.

Spoiler

Show

Perception to try and spot an exit: (1d20+10)[23]

[Llyarden]

"Unless you actually wanted to buy a 'genuine Merlin's staff,' I think we'll file that under 'someone else's problem,'" Adrien replied to Colin. "From what I've heard about goblin markets, the less we talk to anyone here the better. Uh, now where did Marcus and Claire..."

He trailed off as he and Colin were ambushed by a trio of pixies.

"...um, hi? That's a guitar, and it's mine," he added. It was bad enough when ordinary people tried to steal his guitar, much less magical faeries. Still, if they had to interact with some denizens of the goblin market, better the pixies than the merchants.

"I'm sure you are very good tour guides," he agreed, smiling at the first pixie. "I bet you even know a way down deeper into the dungeon."

Spoiler: OOC

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Persuasion for flattery! (1d20+6)[10] Maybe he doesn't think they're very good tour guides...

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire blinked as the connection to the woman(?)'s mind was suddenly severed. Their mind raced with questions, possibilities. If this magic really could be used and learned by non-fae, maybe they didn't have to find someone else to fix their...situation for them after all...

Marcus's insistent tugging jolted them back to reality. They turned, and for a moment dejection and cowed acceptance flashed across their face at Marcus's rather forceful suggestion. But something apparently overwhelmed those feelings, because a moment later they flashed him a wide smile. "Oh, hello Marcus! I'm so sorry, I was busy talking with Miss, uhm," they quickly turned back to the memory peddler, "oh I'm sososorry I never even asked your name!"

After waiting a moment (during which the memory peddler may or may not have given her name) Claire turned back to Marcus. "Uhm anyway it's all fine we were just talking for right now, I mean magic is so interesting and I haven't seen much of it before or really any of it before today! I mean look how cool these are!"

Claire bent down lower and inspected the vials of swirling sparkly particles for a moment before turning back to Marcus once more, but this time their expression was a bit different. "Don't worry, I wouldn't buy anything I can't afford." they said with a meaningful look that they could only hope carried the message. It wasn't like they could just sell off Claire's memories and secrets, especially if it probably meant permanently losing them! Those weren't...well, "theirs" to give away. And, well, as nice and interesting as this fairy woman was, they certainly weren't going to give the secret of their true nature to someone whose whole business was SELLING secrets.

But they weren't about to give up a chance at information like this, either, not when every moment they weren't looking for a way out of this mess was another moment they might be discovered. Claire kept smiling, but it wouldn't be incredibly hard for Marcus to notice something else written in her expression: Desperation.

Claire turned back to the memory peddler with a thoughtful look on their face. "So, um, I think I do want to know what sorts of memories and things you have, these could be really cool, or useful! But, uhm, first, I need to ask again, would you happen to know if there is an exit going further down anywhere, or where it might be? I mean, we do want to stay and maybe spend or trade some of what we found down here! But also we are sort of in a hurry, and this place is really big, so..."

They looked (maybe a bit exaggeratedly) over their shoulder, back to the entrance they'd come from. "...if the exit's going to be hard to find, we had better go start looking for it instead, or maybe go back and find a different route...or maybe, oh!" Claire clasped their hands together, expression brightening. "Do you have a memory from, uh, a past explorer of the dungeon? Or someone who built it, maybe?"

As they gave their long-ish talk, they refocused their senses, and dove into the woman's mind for the second time.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Going to try to use Innuendo to convey the following message to Marcus: "I will not be giving her any memories or secrets." (It's fairly simple so I'm assuming DC10...?) Will be taking the Routine check result of 24 [10+14].


If necessary, Persuasion roll to try and convince the memory peddler to tell us where the path(s) leading further downward is(/are). (1d20+10)[20] (She skipped over he question the first time so I don't know if she's holding that info back, doesn't know or just ignored it. Giving the roll just in case.)


Going to attempt to mind-read the peddler again. Initial contact roll: (1d20+8)[23]
Questions Claire's looking for answers to/memories related to, in order. DC18 Will save to block at each question past the first. If they get surface thoughts they'll just listen in.

-What branch or branches of magic do her fragment separating/isolating techniques involve?
-Is there a book/books or other source one can learn the branch of magic from?
-Are the fragments still "alive"/conscious?


Also, one more thing: have written post assuming the peddler doesn't give her name, will rewrite parts of it if she does.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin almost froze as the third pixie pointed him out. Was she identifying the traces of magic that tied him to Fragarach? That... wasn't exactly good. Colin had made a point of not identifying what his sword was, mostly because he didn't want any kind of special treatment for having a sword that belonged to a king of the Tuatha.

But that didn't really matter. Adrien was right, they needed to get further into the dungeon, and find wherever Claire and Marcus had gone to. That was their top priority, after all.

Taking a breath to try and compose himself, Colin finally spoke up. "Or, have you seen our friends? One of them's really tall, with a duster."

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

The rocky creature stayed silent as they listened to Anthony and Kelly's argument, on the one hand it was pretty sure that the boy wasn't playing by the rules (that it made up) but on the other hand Kelly made a compelling argument, and he really wasn't much for riddles any more...

When he finally spoke up again it was with a long drawn out yawn, uncurling its other arm and interlacing its rocky fingers together to crack its knuckles "I suppose I can let it slide this once..." it said as it finally stood up, its head brushing against the top of the cavern and the way forward now clearly visible between its grey legs.

"...be careful now, there's plenty down here than old stones." It said with another yawn before it began to sleepily lumber off.

If the two heroes followed the new path downwards the rough stone of the cavern would give way to a staircase spiralling down to an enormous black door barred with a thick wooden bar and heavy metal chains.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"What seller doesn't know their wares?" The seller replied, scooping three of the vials up in to her hands "This one is heartbreak, this one laughter and this one deepest terror." She said casually, like she was reading off a wine list. "Sadly none of these have the memory you seek, most people who delve too deep don't tend to come back but for the right price I might know of an associate who has a friend who can help but of course then we're back to the matter of payment."

As much as she felt that the situation was playing to her advantage what the peddler didn't know was that as she was angling for payment Claire was ransacking the deepest recesses of her brain, even the alien mind of a fae being no match for her otherworldy powers.

"Yeah we do!" The pixie said brightly, luckily for Adrien whilst Attractive might not apply to sleepy piles of rocks it certainly applied to pixies (in fact they might remind him of some of his more squealing fangirls) "We know a secret and everything!"

"Shhhhh! We've got to keep that to ourselves!" The second one fluttered in to view to admonish her companion "Unless you want to pay us." She finished off, spinning back round to face the young musician.

"Guys! Guys! GUYS!" The final of the trio didn't seem to be paying attention to much else besides continue to invade Colin's personal space, excitedly tugging at his clothes and trying to locate the source of whatever it was that was driving her wild.

"Sorry about her..." The first apologised.