Unraveling Tapestries IC: Interference Pattern

[stveje]

"Five minutes" she says. "Go tell your master. We'll join you in 5 minutes." It's a command, not a request, though she won't try to harm another Mage's familiar unless the mage tries to cast magic through it at her. "We're going to look at the singing first."

Hayabusa was starting to get actively annoyed. Normally, a place had minor spirits. Someplace significant like the mansion might have one more significant spirit like the shadow being. Maybe a second if that shadow had displaced something as seemed to be the case with the owls. You could take the time to get to know them, have some conversations, understand what they were after. Here, there had also been a Changeling who was a special case, dangerous, and prone to flight, so she'd had to act more quickly and aggressively than normal. No time to negotiate and offer essence to a shadow when the changeling would have attacked her when she entered the room if she wasn't helping it. But now there were, what, at least 4 Mages here? Maybe 5? Multiple spirits, some kind of...what was this a demense, or a verge, or maybe an iris to the primal wild she was floating around in? Just...let her focus on one thing for a a few minutes without something else popping up and demand they go a different way. Singing first, then this other mage.

The singing has stopped and the place is eerily silent, although you could still follow the direction you remember it coming from.

The dog makes to follow, or perhaps to block you, but as if some fickle god heard your silent prayer ... an owl swoops out of the darkness and right past the dog's nose, then another, and another. This is your chance to make your escape while the dog is distracted.

You quickly disappear in the maze-like place, leaving the dog behind. You're not sure exactly where you're going or what you'll find, but something about it feels ... right, like you think this is definitely the right way.

You push aside some low branches and emerge in a small clearing with a huge, ancient tree. Looking up, you see something hidden among the branches of the tree ... a tree house.

"I remember this place ..." Sköll whispers, voice breaking, looking at the tree and the old, dilapidated tree house. "My sister and I used to hide here when ... when we were children."

The tree and tree house is brimming with spiritual significance. This is the heart of this place, no doubt about it, and you're willing to bet it's an Iris to some other place.

You also don't think you'd have managed to get here so easily if the resident (or residents) hadn't wanted you to. It feels ... welcoming.

Ah. Here she is, and dancing to strange music, is she not? Not in herself, not of herself.

“Curb.” Her voice is cold as ice. How dare she? Even if her wits are all abuzz, this is wrong. What she has done is wicked, whether she is the hand or the weapon. “Why have you trampled on Will’s? It never did you harm.”

"And if he had, would that change anything?" She stops dancing and regards you more critically. "Is that why you're here? Funny.

"I did it because someone was going to. Better it was me. I got there first and did the job before someone else could do it, it's that simple."

She frowns and glances away, as if distracted by something else. "Oh, come on!"

Jayden relaxed her persona, detaching herself from her identity as a diver kicks off from the side of a ship into the ocean of thought. The Witch had cut right to the heart of the matter - what could she add to the emotion passing between the two of them? She should instead drift and absorb, see the nature of the friction in this moment when it's revealed. What defenses go up? What is the emotional tenor here, what lies does she tell herself, how does her identity justify its existence when challenged?

How does Curb justify a crime to herself?

[Wits+Empathy: 6,6,2,3,8,6,1 - 1 success, strike off numbers from the right if there's a penalty]

There's the "just following orders" justification. Always a good one. You do what your superiors tell you to do and don't ask too many questions.

But on a more personal level, the kid was probably carrying something important, and she believes of all the people who could have gotten their hands on it, she and her superiors were far preferable. The "lesser of two evils".

She doesn't seem wracked by guilt over it. If anything bothers her at all, it's that she had to use a gun. Not exactly an enlightened move, and probably not her greatest talent either. She strikes you as someone with a violent streak, but the kind who prefers the personal touch of punching you in the face rather than shooting you from afar.

[Thanqol]

"And if he had, would that change anything?" She stops dancing and regards you more critically. "Is that why you're here? Funny.

"I did it because someone was going to. Better it was me. I got there first and did the job before someone else could do it, it's that simple."

She frowns and glances away, as if distracted by something else. "Oh, come on!"

"Nah," said Jayden, personality reasserting itself like her ghost had just returned to her body. Her words were... truthy. Cosmic, possibly - they were low and mean and provocative, but the kind of provocative that cut deep, the kind where it wasn't just someone judging you, it was you being judged by your own standards. "You did it because you're a coward and a bootlick. If 'better' came into it you would have done it like a human, with your fists. Instead you gave up the one Truth you happened to discover on your own because daddy reckoned you weren't hard enough to do it without a prosthetic."

Her smile was deliberately punchable. "I mean, that's just how it looks to me, the brain-reader. You're only for real when you're off the clock. Reckon that's the opposite of why I became a wizard, but you know, I guess some of us just have the symbolism of a house full of dogs."

A Mastigos makes a terrible diplomat.

[Jayden is trying specifically to make her feel vaguely unpleasant and bad. Presence+Persuasion+Striking Looks+High Speech: 10,6,9,8,8,7,6,2,5 ; 4 successes, and another on the 10-again for a total of 5]

[Anarion]

The singing has stopped and the place is eerily silent, although you could still follow the direction you remember it coming from.

The dog makes to follow, or perhaps to block you, but as if some fickle god heard your silent prayer ... an owl swoops out of the darkness and right past the dog's nose, then another, and another. This is your chance to make your escape while the dog is distracted.

You quickly disappear in the maze-like place, leaving the dog behind. You're not sure exactly where you're going or what you'll find, but something about it feels ... right, like you think this is definitely the right way.

You push aside some low branches and emerge in a small clearing with a huge, ancient tree. Looking up, you see something hidden among the branches of the tree ... a tree house.

"I remember this place ..." Sköll whispers, voice breaking, looking at the tree and the old, dilapidated tree house. "My sister and I used to hide here when ... when we were children."

The tree and tree house is brimming with spiritual significance. This is the heart of this place, no doubt about it, and you're willing to bet it's an Iris to some other place.

You also don't think you'd have managed to get here so easily if the resident (or residents) hadn't wanted you to. It feels ... welcoming.

"Yeah. Is it the same as it was before?" Hayabusa is talking to Sköll but her eyes aren't on the Changeling. This is an Iris. A powerful spiritual one with an intelligence behind it. For a moment, Hayabusa dares to hope this might even be a golden road, the sort of mystery that's spoken about in hushed whispers. But it's probably not that, probably just a supernal connection to the primal wild. She's looking to learn as much as she can though.

[What can I get just from active mage sight, and should I roll focused mage sight or a particular spell here?]

[stveje]

"Nah," said Jayden, personality reasserting itself like her ghost had just returned to her body. Her words were... truthy. Cosmic, possibly - they were low and mean and provocative, but the kind of provocative that cut deep, the kind where it wasn't just someone judging you, it was you being judged by your own standards. "You did it because you're a coward and a bootlick. If 'better' came into it you would have done it like a human, with your fists. Instead you gave up the one Truth you happened to discover on your own because daddy reckoned you weren't hard enough to do it without a prosthetic."

Her smile was deliberately punchable. "I mean, that's just how it looks to me, the brain-reader. You're only for real when you're off the clock. Reckon that's the opposite of why I became a wizard, but you know, I guess some of us just have the symbolism of a house full of dogs."

A Mastigos makes a terrible diplomat.

[Jayden is trying specifically to make her feel vaguely unpleasant and bad. Presence+Persuasion+Striking Looks+High Speech: 10,6,9,8,8,7,6,2,5 ; 4 successes, and another on the 10-again for a total of 5]

"Oh? Did you become a wizard to diss on dogs, miss brain eater? Fine, yes, I should have stared the kid to f'ckin' death." She jumps off the car and gets right up in your face. "Made him sh't his pants and run away. Instead, I lost my cool and shot him, because unlike you--" she points a finger and a knife-sharp glance at the Witch, "Time doesn't dance to my tune. Still, you can thank ME that he's still alive, at least, if it matters so much to you."

"Curb." Sassolino's voice sounds from the door. How long has she been standing there? It hardly matters, but probably not long.

Curb either doesn't hear or ignores her. "Oh yeah," she rips off her glove and slams it hard against your cheek, Jayden. "No pistols at dawn. We'll settle this like real wizards, then. You and me, the Concrete Court, at dawn. I'm sure you can find your way."

"Curb, dammit."

She turns around. "What? I have this under control."

"I can see that." she says, icy sarcasm dripping off every word. "You f'ed up, Curb."

"The hell I have." Despite her words, you can tell she's worried. There's actual horror in her voice. Not 'oh god they're gonna kill me' horror but 'oh god I failed my family and disappointed my best friend' horror. "I--"

"Too late. You got distracted. Deal with it." Sassolino turns to you. "We need to find your friend and get the hell out. Like, right now."

"The hell is going on?" Curb demands.

Somewhere outside, you hear an unmistakable tune rising to the growing beat of marching boots, and further away the low rumble of engines. Looking outside, this is what you see: Emerging out of the darkness, to the tune of the Imperial March, rows of bright yellow pikachu march in perfect lockstep towards the gates of the garden. Behind them, and from the other end of the street, a procession of fire trucks rumble along.

The first fire truck stops outside, and a very tall man, gray beard reaching all the way to his waist jumps off. Despite his apparent age, he seems quite fit. What stands out, however, is what you swear is an actual unicorn horn growing from his forehead. A long, slender spiral of bone. It's either some freaky form of prosthetic, or grown by magic, both seem just as likely and frankly just as weird.

"This is about to become a f'ing war zone with the f'ing unicorns, that's what," Sassolino says, and starts towards the back of the house. "And we need to get the changeling out, before that guy does."

Outside, the lines of pikachu form up in front of the gates to the garden. They're all wearing what appears to be ... backpacks? The last ones take position, and they all take out ... flame throwers? No, portable tesla coil guns.

"Pikachu, charge!" the one-horned man yells, and all the pikachu begin to charge up their guns. "Show them the magical might of the Unicorns! Fire!"

Lightning, like Zeus and Thor doing battle, blasts forth from every pikachu, hitting the gates and the line of trees beyond. Trees explode in flames and splinters everywhere, and there's no way portable tesla coils could output that kind of energy. You can practically taste the magic, and it tastes wrong. Those aren't mages in those pikachu suits, they're sleepers, probably mind controlled. You can hear the laughter of the Abyss in the crackling of every lightning bolt as the line of pikachu advance, fire, advance again ... burning a path clear through the garden.

So ... that was a mouthful. What do you do?

"Yeah. Is it the same as it was before?" Hayabusa is talking to Sköll but her eyes aren't on the Changeling. This is an Iris. A powerful spiritual one with an intelligence behind it. For a moment, Hayabusa dares to hope this might even be a golden road, the sort of mystery that's spoken about in hushed whispers. But it's probably not that, probably just a supernal connection to the primal wild. She's looking to learn as much as she can though.

[What can I get just from active mage sight, and should I roll focused mage sight or a particular spell here?]

"It ... has seen better days, but yeah," she says, walking slowly up to run her fingers over the coarse bark and weathered wood.

It is probably not a golden road, alas. It is not a connection to the Primal Wild either, but to some part of the Shadow, one that doesn't appear to map to the physical world. It is probably an iris to a spirit manse. And it requires a key of some sort. Learning more, specifically figuring out the key, will take a deeper look at least and probably lengthy research.

"There was a ... song, we used to sing," Sköll says, as much to herself, "to let the other know we were coming." Or maybe your new friend can just tell you the key ... if she can remember.

You hear distant noise, and then ... lightning strikes, far away, but you can hear the explosion of trees and feel the magic rippling, and the foulness of the Abyss tainting it. Something wicked this way comes.

[Anarion]

"It ... has seen better days, but yeah," she says, walking slowly up to run her fingers over the coarse bark and weathered wood.

It is probably not a golden road, alas. It is not a connection to the Primal Wild either, but to some part of the Shadow, one that doesn't appear to map to the physical world. It is probably an iris to a spirit manse. And it requires a key of some sort. Learning more, specifically figuring out the key, will take a deeper look at least and probably lengthy research.

"There was a ... song, we used to sing," Sköll says, as much to herself, "to let the other know we were coming." Or maybe your new friend can just tell you the key ... if she can remember.

You hear distant noise, and then ... lightning strikes, far away, but you can hear the explosion of trees and feel the magic rippling, and the foulness of the Abyss tainting it. Something wicked this way comes.

Ah, can you feel it? The hairs on your neck standing on end. The heart beats faster, the veins at the temples thrum, the shoulders tense. That's the feeling of life of instinct that resides within all of us when we know something bad is coming. Hayabusa bends her legs a little, stands on the balls of her feet and cracks her knuckles.

"Don't suppose you remember that song?" she asks. "It probably opens the portal, and the two of us would be a lot safer over than we will be here."

Of course, being honest with you, Hayabusa is not the right person to ask for memory tricks or sparking somebody's imagination. That's a Jayden thing, you want Jayden for that, she's be able to just grab the right memory in a few seconds and that would be that. Hayabusa's talent

She gestures to Rushing Heartbeat. Go look, be extremely careful and don't get too close, tell us how much time we have, run if you're spotted. And the great hawk flies up and away towards the abyssal taint, careful to stay in Twilight and move carefully. And that leaves Hayabusa to look. Despite the Iris, is the grove here bereft of spirits, even the little ones? What can she gather from what she can see?

[I'm going to focus mage sight here for a revelation to see the surface information of the mystery. 5, 8, 7, 5. Subtract the mystery's opacity from the right to see if this is a success.]

[Thanqol]

"Pikachu, charge!" the one-horned man yells, and all the pikachu begin to charge up their guns. "Show them the magical might of the Unicorns! Fire!"

Lightning, like Zeus and Thor doing battle, blasts forth from every pikachu, hitting the gates and the line of trees beyond. Trees explode in flames and splinters everywhere, and there's no way portable tesla coils could output that kind of energy. You can practically taste the magic, and it tastes wrong. Those aren't mages in those pikachu suits, they're sleepers, probably mind controlled. You can hear the laughter of the Abyss in the crackling of every lightning bolt as the line of pikachu advance, fire, advance again ... burning a path clear through the garden.

So ... that was a mouthful. What do you do?

The aspect of the Mysterium's philosophy that had always rung the most true to Jayden was the idea that knowledge carried a price. Sell your soul, sure - but make sure you haggle for a good deal. Shop around. Find a bargain. Don't make a sale until you're dead certain you know what you're buying and what you're selling.

She knew a bad deal when she saw one. Hell, forget bad deal, that was even straight up highway robbery.

She got back in the car, pulling the Witch behind her. "Drive," she told the zombie, assuming it was going to listen to her. "Fast as you can. Through the back door. Let's get the hell out of here."

[Raz_Fox]

What wonderful days in this dying world, when Pikachu marches against— oh, wow, that lightning bolt was definitely too close for comfort. The Witch lets herself get pulled in after Jayden, fury mingled with an odd desire to laugh. If it was not so terrible, she would stop and cackle until she was breathless, to see such a thing done in the wild places of the city.

“Haybusa,” she says, tapping Jayden’s hand. “If we leave her behind—“ Unspoken: we night as well be killing her. If we are running, then let it be to safer ground. To a fortified position. Not a flight but a withdrawal.

[Thanqol]

What wonderful days in this dying world, when Pikachu marches against— oh, wow, that lightning bolt was definitely too close for comfort. The Witch lets herself get pulled in after Jayden, fury mingled with an odd desire to laugh. If it was not so terrible, she would stop and cackle until she was breathless, to see such a thing done in the wild places of the city.

“Haybusa,” she says, tapping Jayden’s hand. “If we leave her behind—“ Unspoken: we night as well be killing her. If we are running, then let it be to safer ground. To a fortified position. Not a flight but a withdrawal.

"Hell," Jayden grunted, "I am not drunk enough for this. You, uh, drive, I'll navigate. Hold on -"

She rummaged in the pockets of her coat for a tiny little flask of sake and splashed it onto the window next to her. The beads of alcohol vibrated, and shaped into various symbols in rapidly overlaying motion. A clear perspective of where everyone and everything here was.

[2,8,4,8,5 - for some sort of Space Knowing spell to create a perfect map of everything going on inside this house.]

[stveje]

Ah, can you feel it? The hairs on your neck standing on end. The heart beats faster, the veins at the temples thrum, the shoulders tense. That's the feeling of life of instinct that resides within all of us when we know something bad is coming. Hayabusa bends her legs a little, stands on the balls of her feet and cracks her knuckles.

"Don't suppose you remember that song?" she asks. "It probably opens the portal, and the two of us would be a lot safer over than we will be here."

Of course, being honest with you, Hayabusa is not the right person to ask for memory tricks or sparking somebody's imagination. That's a Jayden thing, you want Jayden for that, she's be able to just grab the right memory in a few seconds and that would be that. Hayabusa's talent

She gestures to Rushing Heartbeat. Go look, be extremely careful and don't get too close, tell us how much time we have, run if you're spotted. And the great hawk flies up and away towards the abyssal taint, careful to stay in Twilight and move carefully. And that leaves Hayabusa to look. Despite the Iris, is the grove here bereft of spirits, even the little ones? What can she gather from what she can see?

[I'm going to focus mage sight here for a revelation to see the surface information of the mystery. 5, 8, 7, 5. Subtract the mystery's opacity from the right to see if this is a success.]

"I'm trying," the changeling growls, but is clearly distracted by the fire and thunder. "They'll burn the whole place if we don't stop them!"

There are plenty of spirits here, the little owls in particular, although they're all looking quite disturbed and most are doing their best to hide. Aside from the number of owls, there's nothing unusual about the spirits here, that you can tell, anyway.

The Iris resists giving up its mysteries to you. You get the impression that fully scrutinizing it would be very difficult and time-consuming, and although Rushing Heart tells you you have some time, it may not be enough. It's probably guarded too. [Opacity 6]

She got back in the car, pulling the Witch behind her. "Drive," she told the zombie, assuming it was going to listen to her. "Fast as you can. Through the back door. Let's get the hell out of here."

Sassolino coolly slips into the car as well, taking the last seat without a word.

The zombie appears to have enough instinct to put the pedal to the metal before you've even finished. Curb curses and manages to jump back on the roof, while the dogs scatter in all directions. The car screeches wildly through the rooms of the house and out through the back, into the abandoned, overgrown park.

Behind you, the lightning and fire continues, drowning out the new sound of sirens in the background.

What wonderful days in this dying world, when Pikachu marches against— oh, wow, that lightning bolt was definitely too close for comfort. The Witch lets herself get pulled in after Jayden, fury mingled with an odd desire to laugh. If it was not so terrible, she would stop and cackle until she was breathless, to see such a thing done in the wild places of the city.

“Haybusa,” she says, tapping Jayden’s hand. “If we leave her behind—“ Unspoken: we night as well be killing her. If we are running, then let it be to safer ground. To a fortified position. Not a flight but a withdrawal.

"Hell," Jayden grunted, "I am not drunk enough for this. You, uh, drive, I'll navigate. Hold on -"

She rummaged in the pockets of her coat for a tiny little flask of sake and splashed it onto the window next to her. The beads of alcohol vibrated, and shaped into various symbols in rapidly overlaying motion. A clear perspective of where everyone and everything here was.

[2,8,4,8,5 - for some sort of Space Knowing spell to create a perfect map of everything going on inside this house.]

The sake splashes and sprays, the alcohol evaporating in clouds that twist through the car like hissing mist-snakes. This space is f'ed up. If you expected a neat sort of corn maze ... well, it's a corn maze, perhaps, but more like the equivalent of the last three pictures. Paths that should be orderly and logical are completely twisted in however many dimensions you can count.

Still, you get a map, sure enough. There's the car, with all of you in (or hanging on) it, there's the crazy unicorn and his pikachu army, and there's Hayabusa and someone else ... and that's where it "ends". All the paths that lead anywhere, lead there, although most paths lead ... everywhere but there. There's a portal of some kind, but trying to map through it gets you nothing. Or next to nothing, anyway. It just seems to curl in on itself endlessly, and you can't tell where it goes or what's on the other side. However, from what you can tell, the portal is one-way: if you go through, you'd better hope you can find another way back, because the way you came in won't lead you back here.

This whole place is clearly not welcoming of uninvited guests. Someone went to wildly excessive lengths to keep people out. The Witch, you can tell that it's not just Jayden's map being crazy either, Fate itself seems turned against anyone coming here or finding their way through without being "meant to". That's why it's abandoned: most people just happen to take another road, or if they do walk this way, something quickly happens to distract them from the park itself. That you're here by accident seems to suggest that you're "meant to", so there's that, at least.

I'd like a Wits+Composure from whoever is navigating this mad maze, and Dex+Drive if anyone wants to take over or assist in the actual driving.

[Thanqol]

The sake splashes and sprays, the alcohol evaporating in clouds that twist through the car like hissing mist-snakes. This space is f'ed up. If you expected a neat sort of corn maze ... well, it's a corn maze, perhaps, but more like the equivalent of the last three pictures. Paths that should be orderly and logical are completely twisted in however many dimensions you can count.

Still, you get a map, sure enough. There's the car, with all of you in (or hanging on) it, there's the crazy unicorn and his pikachu army, and there's Hayabusa and someone else ... and that's where it "ends". All the paths that lead anywhere, lead there, although most paths lead ... everywhere but there. There's a portal of some kind, but trying to map through it gets you nothing. Or next to nothing, anyway. It just seems to curl in on itself endlessly, and you can't tell where it goes or what's on the other side. However, from what you can tell, the portal is one-way: if you go through, you'd better hope you can find another way back, because the way you came in won't lead you back here.

This whole place is clearly not welcoming of uninvited guests. Someone went to wildly excessive lengths to keep people out. The Witch, you can tell that it's not just Jayden's map being crazy either, Fate itself seems turned against anyone coming here or finding their way through without being "meant to". That's why it's abandoned: most people just happen to take another road, or if they do walk this way, something quickly happens to distract them from the park itself. That you're here by accident seems to suggest that you're "meant to", so there's that, at least.

I'd like a Wits+Composure from whoever is navigating this mad maze, and Dex+Drive if anyone wants to take over or assist in the actual driving.

Jayden has never dealt with a proper spatial distortion like this before. She's trying to figure it out on the fly while maintaining the size of the car and yelling directions at the living dead. Honestly her life and career kind of prepared her for moments like this - she's argued with her roadies plenty of times as they bulldoze across cobblestone roads in hedgerow mazes of Europe. But those percussive navigation sessions tended to end badly more often than not.

[5,4,1,1,6 - no successes]

[Anarion]

Opacity 6 is almost certainly beyond Hayabusa's ability to scrutinize. She walks over to Sköll first. "Ignore the distant thunder. There is time, and if we have to flee here, we can find another route. I would love to see what's here though, and maybe you would too, so I hope you can remember. Maybe the owls can help?"

She turns to the owl spirits. "Do any of you think you can help my friend here remember a song? It's the song of this place that welcomes us to be here, maybe even the one we heard distantly. I would be very grateful and can offer chocolates and essence for the help."

Then back to Sköll. "I'm going to try and study this as I can, but I don't think I'll get much, maybe a clue at best. Give me a moment though."

[Using Scrutiny. Spending one willpower. I can roll up to 4 times before taking any risks, so I'm going to put those here.
Turn 1: 4, 10, 4, 10. 5, 9. 3 total successes. I'll spend a mana for a 4th. 4 total successes.
Turn 2: 6, 2, 4, 3. 4 total successes.
Turn 3: 1, 3, 8, 4. 5 total successes. I'll spend a mana for a 6th and reduce the opacity to 5, and stop here.

Is there any new information I can find from reducing the opacity, or is this not enough to penetrate deeper?]

[Raz_Fox]

The Witch grabs at the wheel in uncharacteristic panic, laughing a little madly. Sure, she’d prefer to be ramming into the one who trampled her flowers, but she’d settle for getting out of this in one piece.

Speaking of one piece, she’s struggling to keep the steering wheel in one piece, between the steady pulling of the driver and her own frantic yanking. She can’t even keep her Will focused enough to act in tune with what is willed to be, and instead scrapes her metaphysical elbows all the way down fate’s well.

[That’s a failed Fate spell to counteract not knowing how to drive, and a failed Drive roll.]

[stveje]

Jayden has never dealt with a proper spatial distortion like this before. She's trying to figure it out on the fly while maintaining the size of the car and yelling directions at the living dead. Honestly her life and career kind of prepared her for moments like this - she's argued with her roadies plenty of times as they bulldoze across cobblestone roads in hedgerow mazes of Europe. But those percussive navigation sessions tended to end badly more often than not.

[5,4,1,1,6 - no successes]

The Witch grabs at the wheel in uncharacteristic panic, laughing a little madly. Sure, she’d prefer to be ramming into the one who trampled her flowers, but she’d settle for getting out of this in one piece.

Speaking of one piece, she’s struggling to keep the steering wheel in one piece, between the steady pulling of the driver and her own frantic yanking. She can’t even keep her Will focused enough to act in tune with what is willed to be, and instead scrapes her metaphysical elbows all the way down fate’s well.

[That’s a failed Fate spell to counteract not knowing how to drive, and a failed Drive roll.]

There's a great bump and suddenly you're sailing through the air above the old park in the car. Not entirely clear how that happened, but you've got a new problem ... the car may be able to pass through doors and any other tight spaces, but it wasn't exactly made to fly. And even with the map, you have no idea where you are in relation to anything else anymore. If you don't think of something quick, you're going to crash into the ground who-knows-where.

"Seriously?" the radio says, randomly, along with the sound of someone audibly face-palming.

Opacity 6 is almost certainly beyond Hayabusa's ability to scrutinize. She walks over to Sköll first. "Ignore the distant thunder. There is time, and if we have to flee here, we can find another route. I would love to see what's here though, and maybe you would too, so I hope you can remember. Maybe the owls can help?"

She turns to the owl spirits. "Do any of you think you can help my friend here remember a song? It's the song of this place that welcomes us to be here, maybe even the one we heard distantly. I would be very grateful and can offer chocolates and essence for the help."

Then back to Sköll. "I'm going to try and study this as I can, but I don't think I'll get much, maybe a clue at best. Give me a moment though."

[Using Scrutiny. Spending one willpower. I can roll up to 4 times before taking any risks, so I'm going to put those here.
Turn 1: 4, 10, 4, 10. 5, 9. 3 total successes. I'll spend a mana for a 4th. 4 total successes.
Turn 2: 6, 2, 4, 3. 4 total successes.
Turn 3: 1, 3, 8, 4. 5 total successes. I'll spend a mana for a 6th and reduce the opacity to 5, and stop here.

Is there any new information I can find from reducing the opacity, or is this not enough to penetrate deeper?]

Between talking to the owls and looking around on your own, you do start to get a sense of the mystery, although its true secrets still elude you. It's clear that none of the owls know the song; you don't think it's been sung here in a very long time. Maybe you need to find a spirit who's been here longer than the little owls ... the nightmare snake is a good candidate, if you could find it in time. Unfortunately, you have less time now.

Despite the age of this place, you don't think it's an old song, which is clearly strange. Some timey-wimey seems to be at play: for one, you don't think Sköll has aged as much as she should have, given how old this place is. Maybe the Witch could offer some insights, if she were here, but the long and the short of it is that the song might be much more recent than you'd think.

Maybe you can just guess, hope you get lucky ... if the Witch were here, she could help with that, too. Maybe there's a clue ... the only thing around that stands out are the owls themselves, however. Maybe they are a clue?

You may roll Wits+Investigate, if you wish.

Oh, also, like, there's a car flying overhead, barely visible ... but I'm sure that's unrelated.

[Thanqol]

There's a great bump and suddenly you're sailing through the air above the old park in the car. Not entirely clear how that happened, but you've got a new problem ... the car may be able to pass through doors and any other tight spaces, but it wasn't exactly made to fly. And even with the map, you have no idea where you are in relation to anything else anymore. If you don't think of something quick, you're going to crash into the ground who-knows-where.

"Seriously?" the radio says, randomly, along with the sound of someone audibly face-palming.

"This is hard, shut up, also save us please," said Jayden to the radio. She psychically massaged the creases of panic out of her mind and turned around in her seat. "Hope you guys got something because the best I can do here is make it so we don't feel the pain of impact."

[Anarion]

[My chance die is a 4, so we'll just move right along]

A car would be great, and that's not a spirit, Hayabusa can tell. Can we get that car down here? The answer is distinctly maybe! The car has a spirit, it's nearby, she'd like it to arrive in one piece if possible. So, she's going to summon the spirit of the car and ask it to bring its vessel along for the ride!

She grabs her smartphone and lets the car reflect on its dark screen like a mirror as she holds it up above her head and shouts out to the car. This, of all things, is what Hayabusa is best at. Her nimbus flares, hazy though as she casts a rote, and her long hair blows behind her as she waives her phone towards the passing car. Above everything, one word burst from her. "COME!"

[Spirit summons rote 3 reach. Instant cast, Sensory range, it will last for 3 turns naturally, I'm giving it a one word command to COME to me, bringing its car along for the ride.

Rote casting: 4, 2, 8, 6, 3, 1, 5, 2. Not the greatest roll, but we pulled it off.]

[Raz_Fox]

There’s that moment of weightlessness, wonderful emptiness, right before gravity reminds you that you are beholden to the laws of this world. And faced with a multitude of options, all jostling for priority, the Witch asserts herself by taking a moment to breathe.

Isn’t this world strange and beautiful?

That’s right before the car plunges, heavy nose downwards, and she starts laughing in terror while shrugging out of her coat. If she’s very ridiculously lucky, using it as a parachute might work.

“Can’t you cheat the distance between us and the ground,” she asks loudly as she gets her arm stuck in the sleeve, her stomach hurtling down through the floorboards. She’s not gonna be sick. Being sick because you’re falling at high velocity is a Clover thing to do. “Or will yourself to be somewhere that isn’t in here?”

[stveje]

"They don't ask very nice, do they?" the radio chimes. There's a stomach-emptying silence as the car plummets, then a low rumble from the engine, like a machine's shrug. "Alright alright, you're probably right. Everyone hold on tight."

The car begins to move, metal grinding and plastic twisting, the whole thing shrinking as it transforms into a tiny quadcopter drone - partly thanks to Jayden's space-warping magic.

Outside, a small swarm of other drones emerge from the darkened sky and begin to glow and blink, like fireflies. The car drone pulls up and follows their blinking directions as is descends in a twisting spiral towards the ground.

Down on the ground, Sköll blinks at the lights in the sky and goes "Oooh." Then her brow creases, and she starts to hum parts of some half-remembered melody to herself.

[Anarion]

That was...well, one didn't tend to ask about the odds when the Witch was involved, but still that was quite the coincidence. Hopefully they were all okay. Rushing Heart said there was still some time, but that didn't mean they could be distracted. Which is why Hayabusa was immediately all business once she determined that the passengers in the car were alive and intact. Leave the place that was dangerous, then talk about how her friends got a flying car. Getting priorities right is why they put Hayabusa in charge of the shrine.

"Jayden. I found a new friend over there. She's weird. She also appears to have the key to an iris to safely leave here for a spirit manse. Could you please help her remember the song she can't seem to call to mind? Quickly."

[stveje]

That was...well, one didn't tend to ask about the odds when the Witch was involved, but still that was quite the coincidence. Hopefully they were all okay. Rushing Heart said there was still some time, but that didn't mean they could be distracted. Which is why Hayabusa was immediately all business once she determined that the passengers in the car were alive and intact. Leave the place that was dangerous, then talk about how her friends got a flying car. Getting priorities right is why they put Hayabusa in charge of the shrine.

"Jayden. I found a new friend over there. She's weird. She also appears to have the key to an iris to safely leave here for a spirit manse. Could you please help her remember the song she can't seem to call to mind? Quickly."

"I think I remember, just give me a second," she says. "I'm trying to remember the words."

Just FYI, the song she's humming is the same one you heard earlier, when you read about the owls.

As for time, you haven't got much, actually. The Pikachu are creeping up on you, and you're not sure those are people in costumes anymore ...

[Thanqol]

That was...well, one didn't tend to ask about the odds when the Witch was involved, but still that was quite the coincidence. Hopefully they were all okay. Rushing Heart said there was still some time, but that didn't mean they could be distracted. Which is why Hayabusa was immediately all business once she determined that the passengers in the car were alive and intact. Leave the place that was dangerous, then talk about how her friends got a flying car. Getting priorities right is why they put Hayabusa in charge of the shrine.

"Jayden. I found a new friend over there. She's weird. She also appears to have the key to an iris to safely leave here for a spirit manse. Could you please help her remember the song she can't seem to call to mind? Quickly."

"Oh, very efficient recap, I'm impressed," said Jayden, picking herself up off the ground and helping the Witch do the same. "We are being chased by a not-our-fault digimon themed paradox manifestation. Getting away to the safety dimension seems ideal actually."

"I think I remember, just give me a second," she says. "I'm trying to remember the words."

Just FYI, the song she's humming is the same one you heard earlier, when you read about the owls.

As for time, you haven't got much, actually. The Pikachu are creeping up on you, and you're not sure those are people in costumes anymore ...

Jayden slapped the girl and yelled in her face "WE DON'T HAVE A SECOND, REMEMBER NOW! Also hi, I'm Jayden Mavel, you might have heard of me, nice to meet you."

[Some sort of Mind spell: 7,9,7,7 - 1 success]

[Raz_Fox]

The Witch puts her (trembling) hands in the pockets of her coat and looks out at the approaching, adorable wall of lightning death. She lets out a breath, and in that breath is: we almost died. In that breath is: in ninety-nine different times we did. In that breath is: but those moments are withering and this is now.

This is Now.

She holds that last breath in her mouth. She refuses to release it. When that breath goes, so will Now. Now, we have time to watch the advancing doom. Now, Jayden demands an answer. Now, the Witch is here, and everything is—

Everything is Now.

[2,5,8 on a Time spell.]

[stveje]

Sköll snaps her teeth at your hand, nearly taking a finger or two [defense 3, miss]. "Never heard of you," she says, giving you the evil side-eye, even as she turns towards the tree house and starts to sing. Her voice is clear and haunting, rising above the noise of the fire and lightning in the background. This girl could undoubtedly get a career as a singer, if she ever wanted.

Meanwhile, from the burning thicket, a decidedly ragged-looking "Pikachu" emerges, head hanging to the side. Another two are close behind.

Spoiler

Show

Source

As Sköll reaches the words,

"Leave my door open just a crack
Please take me away from here",

the old door of the tree house begins to creak open, and a faint light escapes from within.

Everyone roll Initiative (a single die, add dex + composure)

*

The Witch:
A basic casting like that allows you to slow time for yourself OR someone else, giving them +potency (1) on their Initiative check.

If you want, you can spend a Reach to make it advanced scale, affecting up to 5 subjects, enough to give everyone +1 initiative. However, you only get 1 free reach for this spell (slowing time is Ruling, Time 2), and you need to spend that on instant casting. So if you decide to affect everyone, you have to roll Paradox (1 die, can reduce it to a chance die by using a dedicated tool or spending a point of mana.)

Alternatively, you can spend a point of Willpower and take -2 on the roll to increase subjects to 2 (this is very meta and after-the-fact, mind you, but I'll allow it as a learning opportunity). That allows you to chose two people who get +1 to initiative, without a Paradox roll. It doesn't have to include yourself, either.

You do have to be close enough to touch everyone, but I'll take that for granted.

[stveje]

You all make for the portal. Jayden and the Witch, you're through hardly before anyone notices, followed close behind by Sassolino and Curb - the latter looking rather wind-blown after hanging on for dear life to the car during your, uh, "ride".

Hayabusa, you grab Sköll and drag her with you, which is why you lag behind the others. You feel something cold at your back, and shadowy fingers reaching for you and Sköll. If not for the Witch's magic, those fingers would have closed around your ankles, but at the very last second you're both through the portal and tumbling through space a few paces behind your friends.

The air grows dry and filled with the scent of old books. Behind you, space collapses with each step, pushing you relentlessly forward. And then you're out and find yourselves standing in the center of a great library, multi-storey bookcases towering in a circle around you, a grand archway before you illuminated by stained glass windows. The towering skeleton of a dragon stands in the archway, its long bony wing-claws grasping the bookcases, eyes glowing with an eerie light as it regards you.

"Welcome. I have been expecting you," it speaks in a ghostly hiss. "Although there are a few more of you than originally ... planned, aren't there?" It leans its giant head down as if to better see you all. "But such are the whims of Fate. I am the Book Wyrm. I am here to welcome you on behalf of Miss Nyctimene, the librarian. You'll have to forgive her, she would have greeted you herself but ... so many people, my my. And what a mess outside. My my.

"Oh, forgive me, I get so lost in all my thoughts." It turns its head and looks at Sköll, and its tone changes, becoming almost sisterly, sad. "Welcome home, Solveig. It's been ... so long. Your sister waits for you upstairs," the dragon says, gesturing a claw at the stone passage behind it. "You can go on up. I'd talk to your friends."

"S-sister?" Sköll stammers, then starts running.

[Thanqol]

"Holy sh*t, what the f*ck is that," said Jayden Mavel, after she's finished screaming. Which - oof! She's got some lungs on her! It takes a while. And even those words are more screamed than said.

See, despite this magic thing she's doing now, and despite a whole bunch of training, study and research in the archives of the Mysterium, she has never seen a monster before. She's only ever really seen people - and on the outer wilderness, the dreams and ideas of people. And there is a huge difference - a profound difference - between a dragon skeleton that is a metaphor for someone's emotional bankruptcy at the tail end of a long and exhausting relationship, and a dragon skeleton that is a dragon skeleton under its own power. This does not fit. This does not compute. The cosmos is meant to be people being terrible to each other forever because that is the basic unit of human interaction. There is no place in it for a literal alien magic dragon skeleton thing.

It's speaking, at least. That's reassuring. Speech is communication and communication is a product of the mind so there must be a mind up there. She opens her arcane senses as fully as she can to try and figure out how this thing thinks, what it's mind is shaped like. A golem? A construct? A, uh, zombie maybe? Her Mind senses are all about intoxication - the strange distortions of perspective that render her will powerless. Her self painfully strips away as she tries to take in this new... thing.

[Anarion]

Hayabusa has almost the opposite reaction to Jayden. She has been seeing things for so long. Even before she woke up, maybe as part of her waking up...maybe...not even that she's been seeing things. At some point you just don't have any screams in you anymore. Or startles or starts. It's just, all these things they're part of the world. When you've walked past the distant stars and they regard you as a heavenly deer a hundred stories tall with antlers that could crush you as a speck, is a skeletal dragon really all that odd?

So, she goes to speak to it right off the bat. Jayden starts screaming, so she gives the dragon an apologetic shrug and waits a moment. Regards it with her spirit sight and her life sight. It would be really interesting if this pinged as living in some way, actually, that would be a surprise, it doesn't have any of the...stuff that living things need, but maybe it's got some magic system pumping about inside those bones, so who knows, right?

When Jayden does stop screaming, Hayabusa finally gets the chance to ask the question everyone is thinking: "So. Book Wyrm. Is that...did you pick the pun, or did somebody else make it and if so why do you go along with it?"

[Raz_Fox]

Clover starts laughing. She can't help it. The Witch is supposed to keep her cool in the face of the weirdest sh*t that the universe can throw at her, but this? Hooooo boy. This is manic laughter time, pulse pounding in her head, will still uncoiling from pushing everything into that held moment. Sure! Dragon! Why not? Maybe it's a City Before thing, maybe not, but she can't keep kayfabe here.

She stumbles over to a bookshelf and leans against it, elbow on the wood, looking up at the dragon and cackling. Not, like, wicked witch cackling. Just: wow, okay, sure, I guess this is happening, and Jayden's losing it, and Haybe's talking to it because of course, she's the priestess, she's the shaman, and Clover's job is dusting shelves or something like that. Cracking open an IPA with the front desk or the like.

[stveje]

First of all, you're in the Shadow - a part of it which doesn't map to the real world. Hayabusa knows that already. I'm not sure about Jayden and the Witch ... Spirits aren't really your area of expertise, so maybe you have no idea, maybe you kinda figure.

As for the dragon, it's not alive, sorry to disappoint. The most obvious assumption would be that it's a spirit, this being the Shadow and all ... but it's actually a high-tech animatronic golem, bound with a spirit.

It doesn't pay any attention to Jayden, just letting her scream and scream as it speaks, but it seems a bit taken aback by Clover's laughing. It huffs with a slight gust of warm air and looks at Hayabusa. "My creators chose it for me," it says. "Why? You don't think it's fitting?"

Clover, you lean on the bookshelf, and about a half dozen papyrus fairies and origami animals emerge from among the books to study you, poking and prodding and pulling at you.

[Anarion]

“It is entirely fitting, but it also invites comparison to a small bug, and it’s humorous in any event.”

Hayabusa chuckles, but only for a moment. So, Sköll is from here in some way, or at least welcome? I hope no harm will come to her here. I offered her my protection. And what would you like to talk to us about?”

[Thanqol]

Okay. Okay. She's freaking out. She's freaking out at - click - and she's fine. She's better than fine, even! She's curious!

Killing an emotion outright was beyond her, but transforming it was an easy trick. Fear blends into curiosity very naturally and a quick expression of will renders her as a different kind of person - someone who is captivated by the possibilities of this strange space rather than terrified by it. It's always jarring and artificial when she changes her mind like that - all of a sudden she's an entirely different human being, with mannerisms and responses like a stranger.

So she takes immediately for the books like a good Mystagogue. Books are fascinating in terms of Mind magic - frozen thoughts, crystallized daemons, like the deep dreams of the world that still dream even if nobody's there to dream them. With the right adjustments to her intelligence and memory she should be able to sort through a vast amount of information in a narrow period of time. What is this library about? What kind of secrets are contained here?

[Raz_Fox]

Out it hops gleeful from her coat’s pocket: pressed careful in a steel case stamped with the moon, and how she got it is another story indeed: her tarot deck, holding her instructions. Let’s draw now, draw here, in the shadow of all libraries: what book are we to read?

[Fate 1 spell, 1 success!]