Southern Comfort IC

[AshesOfOld]

"Oh, I don't know. I find it absolutely hilarious when people catch on fire and burn alive, yet I'm not amused by animal sex jokes or petty bullying. I guess we're all just different."

Thorwald keeps close to the sphere, hiding his face.

"I think this might be a portal of some kind."

[Marlowe]

((I'm going to say one thing. You are all standing on the internal wall of the sphere, 120" from the central globe. Which is hovering in space with apparently no means of support.))

Gretchen, who's been walking around; mutters, "This place isn't Imperial. Not even Union. This place is Administrate. That right; Merchant?" She gives Bethlen a hard look.

Bethlen looks at her blandly. "Technically, pre-Administrate. This is Abberancy War vintage. Our policity was only established after the Sage's war. But that's ancient history".

She picks up one of the poles that Gregor has been hauling, and mutters; "I missed it, being indisposed at the time, but I've heard about rooms like this before" She slams the pole down upon the nearest purple tile.

It bounces free from her hand into the air, accelerates toward the central globe, slows down, speeds up again in its odd trajectory, slows down again, and lands upon the central globe with a faint and gentle clang.

Bethlen smiles, and puts her hands to her hips. "Anyone still confused?"

[mattie_p]

"Grath is still confused, but dealing with it."

Grath decides to take matters into his own hands and jumps for it. He springs into the air and lands on the same purple tile Bethlen had poked.

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Not sure what check... jump? Tumble? Let's try both.

Jump: (1d20+13)[30]
Tumble: (1d20+6)[17]

[Marlowe]

Landing on the purple tile sends Grath springing into the air much higher than he should. About nine feet up gravity seems to reverse and he finds himself falling toward the central globe.

It switches around several times, leaving Grath looking a little queasy, but by constantly accellerating and slowing him leaves him landing on his feet on the central globe with no more force than if he'd taken a long-jump.

[u-b]

"Wooo... will it work the same way to get back here or will we use some other way? Try throwing something with the same speed you jump?"

[mattie_p]

"Grath try to get back and see what happens."

He steps back on the sphere to get some space, then takes a running start, jumping from about the same place he landed into the air.

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(1d20+11)[16]

If necessary, take 10 on second leap for a 21

If really necessary, keep trying until he takes 20 for a 31

[Marlowe]

Jumping from the same spot on the globe just gets him falling back onto it...except that he lands on a purple tile. Which does send him bouncing high enough for the gravitational change to take hold and sends him falling back toward the inner surface of the sphere. After some odd changes in velocity, he lands not too drastically about thirty feet from Gregor.

((Did I not make it plain the inner globe had the purple tiles too? Sorry))

[stanleyindraven]

"Well aside from maybe being fun, I don't see much reason for staying here," Horbin says as he looks around.

[mattie_p]

"Grath thinks all need to jump onto orb and go inside now. All done outside."

And with that he jumps back onto the purple tile, somehow averting the urge to bounce back and forth indefinitely.

[u-b]

Gregor "persuades" the dogs to do the jumping (or persuades Horbin to "persuade" the dogs), then follows.

[Marlowe]

The dogs require very little persuading, although some firm words are required to stop Cherry from bouncing back and forth all night. Grath, Gregor, and Bethlen, the latter looking a little cheerful, make easy landings on the central sphere.

"I make this a dual-purpose training area for three dimensional tactics for people who don't have flight yet, and a general-purpose nuisance. Anyway" She looks "up" at the others. "Coming, then? Or are we going on by ourselves?"

[Linguz]

Dardiana approaches the nearest purple tile and steps on it cautiously. She mutters to herself, "I don't really trust gravity-changing effects..."

[Marlowe]

"Oh? that's nice. I suppose the Orc, the Wolfrider, the pups, and me will just have to wait for you to build up your faith in applied smartassomancy while the Orc, the Wolfrider, the dogs and me have a little tea party up here. Or down here. Or whatever. Coming, Legs?"

Stepping on the tile cautiously causes Dardiana's leading foot to spring into the air with noticable force, almost dislocating her hip and throwing her onto her back.

((If just stepping could do it then the skrolls would have been bouncing between the surface and the central globe pretty much at random, which would have been really really really quite slightly annoying.))

[Linguz]

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Dardiana jumped onto the tile.

[Marlowe]

A sudden spring upward and a few vertigo-inducing changes in the sense of downward-ness that seem to strangely enough correspond with the ripples in the magic aura Dardiana noticed earlier, she makes a gentle landing on the central globe.

A couple of gentle thumps indicate that Gretchen and Nuisance have managed the same, Gretchen is carrying three of the metallic 10-foot poles.

Dardiana

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The fey whispers in your head "I'm beginning to think the people who built this place had a strange sense of humour"

Delphi

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The voice is back in your head. ""Going with them? Be brave, it's forward now, or into the green. The way you came in now leads elsewhere. I could do something about that, but I shouldn't. I'm only allowed to be doing this much because your Cleric, without apparently knowing, is carrying something into my house he really shouldn't".. The voice has a hard edge now.

Bethlen, picking up the pole she sent up (down) here earlier, looks up at Delphi with set eyes and jaw.

Thorwald

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A voice that crackles; "Yes, it's a portal. And not to scare you, but it will not be the first you've gone through this evening. Some of those downwardness-changes are done in a very, very simple way indeed. ALso, I don't think I can be here much longer. Wherever here is. SOME ONE has noticed me".

[stanleyindraven]

Horbin will grab any remaining poles and then launch himself to the central sphere.

[RaggedAngel]

Delphi holds up her hand, looking to the cleric of Loki with some concern. "Wait, the voice is back. She said that the way back does not lead out anymore; it's forward or into the green.

She also said that our cleric is carrying something into her house that he shouldn't, and that he isn't aware of that fact. And that she's only allowed to do so much... there's something that has to grant her permission, it seems."

Delphi runs to the nearest purple square, leaping onto it gracefully, making her way to the middle. "I really don't like voices in my head, but at least this one is informative."

[AshesOfOld]

"Something I am carrying?" Thorwald looks back at Delphi, brain buzzing.
"I don't have anything magical on me, as far as I'm aware... Dardiana, perhaps your magesight could spot something out of the ordinary on my person?"

Thorwald jumps after Delphi with little hesitation.

[Linguz]

"I doubt you accidentally grabbed a magic item, but sure." She activates the sight and looks at Thorwalt. If she finds anything, she tells him. Either way, she also comments, "Could it be your holy symbol? And the thing be that you're not aware that it shouldn't be in here? Just a comment, probably wrong."

"Oh, and Delphi: Welcome to my world. Except I'm fine with the voice in my head."

[RaggedAngel]

Delphi frowns, looking at her hands. "I'm fine with the voice; it's been perfectly polite, non-distracting, and I'm ninety-three percent sure that it's a magic-user doing it, and that I'm not crazy. That said, if they can put a voice in my head, what else can they make me do?" You don't need to see her face to tell that she's afraid.

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Delphi's a pretty-damn unmagical person. She has no idea what they can or cannot do. If I were in her shoes, and without my OOC knowledge, I'd be afraid too.

[stanleyindraven]

"It could also be a god, seems to be going around," Horbin spouts off at Delphi.

[mattie_p]

"As long as the gods are not contagious, doesn't bother Grath much. All should have the right to hear their own god in their own head. When people start hearing strange gods in their head, that is problem."

Grath shakes his head. "Should all go into this orb, or should play bouce the orc some more?"

[Marlowe]

((Yay! Home internet at last!))

There are too many of the poles for Horbin to carry with any degree of grace, but he manages to get across with eight.

Dardiana's attempt to use detect magic on Thorwald

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Reveals nothing more than that using it in here gives her a splitting headache.

The corridor into the middle of the globe, on closer examination, looks identical to the ones you've been moving through so-far. It appears to run 60 feet and then turn a corner to the left. Which would be extremely ordinary except for the fact that there shouldn't be enough globe to allow this.

Bethlen is already sticking her pole into it. "Downwardness appears to be in my direction" she mutters, "I don't see anything funny happening with the torches. We really need to rest soon."

"Also, is anyone going to ask how she-hobbit acquired her new ring?"

[stanleyindraven]

"She has a new ring," Horbin looks up as he drops a pole.

[Marlowe]

"My Recaller is singing and buzzing" Bethlen touches her chest. "And what it is telling me is that the aura of The Empress of Midnight is all around the she-hobbit right now."

She raises the pole and gives Delphi and appraising look. "This is an interesting development. You're not a citizen, not even a spellcaster. Well." She laughs. It's her creepy laugh that goes on just a little too long and cuts off too quickly. "You're Kissed by Midnight, Delphi. This will raise some eyebrows somewhere."

[Linguz]

"No magic aura on you Thor," says Dardiana while grabbing her head. She turned to look at Delphi and told her, "You know, usually one wears a ring under gloves."

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She got them dex gloves that should be on after the ring's on, no? Well, not at the moment, since she put it on midfight.

[mattie_p]

Before moving forward into the hall, Grath will bounce back and forth to retrieve the rest of the poles as necessary and move them on, staying out of the discussion for the time being.

[RaggedAngel]

Delphi holds up the ring for everyone to see before taking it and her glove off, putting the ring on again, and then covering it with the glove. "I don't really know what it does, but the voice, who I suppose I should call the Empress of Midnight, told me that it would help me against undead and the like."

Delphi shrugs a bit, holding up her sling. "I don't know if I've told you much about what I do to hurt things; while it isn't nearly as interesting as your magic, it's still neat. There's a culture around throwing stones and using slings with us halflings; I've never been sure why, exactly, but we're all rather good at it, so it may have something to do with that. Anyway, there's a certain way to throw a stone or use a sling that allows you to be way more accurate; to hit someone's head instead of their chest.

It requires movement to work right, however; you use the momentum to help you throw just right, though the extra hurt doesn't actually come from your movement. The problem that a lot of us face is that things like undead or plants or whatever don't really care if you hit them in the face or chest or family jewels; they just keep plodding along. This ring, as far as I can tell, rectifies that. Which is awesome."

[AshesOfOld]

"I guess that would have been too easy." Thorwald replies to Dardiana, before turning to Delphi.

"That sure is a nifty ability. Did she tell you why she gave it to you?
By the way, I could venture a guess as to why our gods are having a field day inside our heads. I have a theory that the gods live by strict rules, that prevent them from roaming around the material plane. Something like a trade embargo, only covering all sides. So when one god decides to stick his head in where he shouldn't - it permits the other gods to do the same.
But as I said, it's just a theory. But maybe the fire lord's presence is what enables your Lady of Midnight to pass any barriers that exist in here."

[Marlowe]

Thorwald (oh, and Delphi can see this too, but it's written for Thorwald):

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"That's a bingo", says something in your head, closely followed by a crackling "Oh Shi-".

The person that abruptly appears right in front of you is a medium-height human woman, with black hair marked by a streak of white at her left temple. She wears a high-shoulder black coat over a dark blue tunic, black gloves and leggings, and a grim, set expression.

Three pairs of angular black wings, more like the blades of knives than anything organic, are unfolding from her back even as she appears. In them you think you can see stars, but that's not really first thing on your mind right now.

"Get out of him, and get out of here." she says, and thrusts a hand right into your chest. It goes right through you, feeling like a shaft of ice, and then she whips her her arm through your head. You're conscious of a pressure you hadn't even registered getting ripped away, and a faint, crackling cry.

She withdraws her hand. A tiny flame burns in the palm. She folds her hand into a fist around it. Then she looks at you. Her eyes are unblinking and a very bright blue. "Also, I needed to wait until you had openly declared his presence. Now, "obscure and very evil", was it?"

((ironic that the smartest thing Thorwald's said in many pages is what gets him into this))