This unusually-titled message is a placeholder for the new thread of Magnus, now GMed by Mentat...  :)

You awaken with a start, just having had a crazy dream about flying through something your mind understood with dream logic as the Bliind Eternities. In this dream, you left the chaotic realm of glimpses and potential to crash through the sky of another world like glass, and then were swallowed whole by an entity that introduced itself as Zone Eater.

You then hear a voice, deep and sonorous. "Are you awake, verser? I cannot talk to you for long, and I have a lot to explain."

The environment you take in upon opening your eyes is one of the interior of a temple or castle, with smooth stone walls and pillars with small stone open gapped gargoyle statues at the tops and bottoms. You are at an intersection, with all four directions looking infuriatingly equal choices, even down to the light that fades out down each one.

I stand up.
"Talk then. What do you need to explain? Who are you? And where are you?"

I'll try to determine where the voice comes from.

"Who I am really isn't important. I'm likely a person you have never met. Whether you like it or not, you are going to play a game. What you will not like is that the beings playing with you view you as a toy that can be replaced, and will give you a fate I would wish on very few. You won't like what you see when you pierce their glamors. It also angers them when they realize what you've done, because you aren't playing by the rules anymore. I'm dropping the veil I have on myself regarding those like you and me. It will give you a direction to move in, which will be a subtle cheat of their game. Do NOT let them know about this."

"Play along with them in whatever way you see fit. Cheat if you need to, because they certainly will. Your foes are made of illusion and glamor. Hard reality and cold iron enrage, weaken and kill them, but are hard to come by where you are. Your journey will be long and dangerous. Good luck, and don't verse out prematurely. I'd like your help with a problem."

And with that, the voice goes quiet. You sense a faint presence of a fellow verser down one of the hallways, although the signal is faint, like its not even on the same planet.

Hmmm... weakness to cold iron and reality. Illusion and glamor. sounds like Fae. I haven't dealt with them much.

I start walking towards the faint scriff signal.

I'll activate my chi sight to get a feel of the local mana levels and types.

There is an a sense of order trying to impose itself on the world around you. That pulse through the world as a whole. Through that, nature, life, virility. Punctuating both, however, and running them through is something odd. Some kind of chaos, corruption or even raw potential permeating everything. Tapping into that source could be extremely toxic for you, among other things. That last is pure potential energy, which your mind somehow calls the Wyld. Even with the letter.

There is also a sense of hunger and desire that is both patient and intense. There is little safe power to draw on, like oil on the surface of the water. Drawing too deeply, your senses understand, would be fatal or worse.

Wyld? This certainly feels like what the Old World of Darkness wyld would feel like... except that it didn't have the corruption aspects...Looks like the energy could warp me into something different.

I'll weave a bit of my own chi around myself to reinforce myself against outside force that would change me.

I'll enter Mind of No Mind to calm myself so that my thoughts don't form the potential around me.

I'll keep walking towards the scriff vector.

Your mental control stops specific attacks or entities from being formed against you. The mentality involved in doing so, and the thought from that...

A loud booming noise emerges from in front of you, like something large, heavy and solid landed in front of you. The torch lit hallway becomes smokey and insubstantial, reweaving itself into a wide open arena, with sand as the floor and an audience of short men with pointed red hats baying for blood. From the sand before you emerges a large yellow giant, with one black eye housing a red pupil. It has no facial features or hair beyond that, like a cyclops sculpted from clay.

Its gaze balefully sets upon you as it slowly stomps toward you.

Huh? The Yellow Devil From Megaman? How did that get here in a high magic world like this? oh well. Aim for it's weak point. The Eye.

I draw out the heavybit pistol(It's apparently a proton accelerator) and fire off a few shots into the yellow devil's eye to see if it will work here. Then I'll start circling it to stay out of melee with it and prepare to dodge the projectiles that it's going to shoot.

As I'm Circling I'll Draw on that Live, vitality and nature which are the essence of green mana.
I'll channel it into myself for a temporary enhancement to my size and strength.
"Force's of Nature, Live and Vitality. Make me grow large and strong. Giant's Growth!"

I'll then rush him and try to cut the eye in half with my sword (Or Punch it in case my sword didn't grow with me)

The pistol fires to your surprise, shooting massive holes around the eye. As you prepare to dodge, you are able to draw upon that much power with no adverse side effects. Your size increases, however briefly, to meet the attack of your foe as you prepare your blade for fighting.

Unfortunately, your large size makes dodging his attack a bit more difficult.

As you grow, a stinging electrical rain starts up, stinging your skin but causing no harm otherwise. Each mini bolt striking the ground causes a constant growl of thunder, making hearing a bit difficult. The crowd is yelling in equal parts dismay and bloodlust.

The creature flinches on initial contact with the lightning-rain, then submerges its eye into its body. Its wounds regenerate and it flies at you like a tidal wave, throwing you off balance as it careens past you, crashing into one of the arena walls. Your blade slices through it and misses initially, hitting liquid flesh. it reassembles quickly and faces you again. You do not have long before your size enhancement wears off.

Hmmmm... It's doesn't like electricity .

I draw on the chaos around me to get red mana out of it.
"Come forth o Lightnight from the sky! Strike down my enemies! Lighting Bolt!"
I call down lighting on the Yellow Devil. It will ether destroy it or damage and stun it enough for my next move.

I draw some more Red Mana from the chaos around me. I'll channel it into me sword to envelop it in a aura of electricity.
(Hopefully I haven't Shrunk by this time)
I'll then rush pass the Yellow Devil cutting it's eye as I pass.

(Hopefully it'll explode at the end of my pass.)

The bolt blasts the creature's body open, exposing its very disoriented eye to the elements. As it crazily tries to get a fix on you, your blade cuts into it, blasting it into pieces. As it dies, the rain ends, and everything seems clearer now as the sun comes out.

The stands erupt into cheering, and a single member of the stadium makes his way down to you on stairs of air. He is just like the others in the stand, but taller and wider, with a stern look on his face.

OOC: Your Chi Vision has improved, becoming easier to execute. You also feel a slight urge to spend more power in the next battle.

I always have the urge to use more power. I don't always listen to it because it's sometimes a bad idea. Like now.

I speak to him when he gets close.
"I have a place I need to go to. Would you please let me pass?"

I'll take a closer look at the fae with my chi sight.
What does my chi sight reveal about the environment around me?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

He speaks in a deep and somber voice. "Of course you do, slave and champion of Alkastanicabara."

He pulls a piccolo from one his many pouches, which you just noticed he had. Strange that you didn't notice it earlier, like it just materialized. Your perception tells you that all of this is really a barren plain, and that the creature before you is nothing more than a magical construct wrapped around a core of feeding maws.

"Use this piccolo to summon an army of my people on your quest. They will fight anything you tell them to, even snakes. They will even fight snakes."

And with that, you sense a door of energy has opened behind you, at the place where you slew the giant. A glance tells you it leads back into the torch lit hallways, but that they have a reddish tinge to them now.

My anger flairs a bit at being called a slave. but I quickly dismiss it as being unimportant.

...ookkk... Fae are weird.

I accept his gift.
Nevermind that I have no clue how to play a piccolo.
I remember from something that I read that it is a bad idea to refuse the gifts of the fae.
it's also a bad idea to thank them for their gifts.

"Your people will have a great battle when I summon them."


I step through the portal

The portal snaps shut behind you with the iron clamp of teeth and a snarl. It has transformed into what appears to be closed fangs, with yourself being on the wrong side of the mouth. From next to it, two red phastasms step out of the walls, skull faced with mouths wide open.

join us

They stretch their limbs out and drift slowly to you. To your right, accessible through an intersection behind you (in theory), is the sense of another verser.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:13, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

Meh. I don't need to fight you.

I turn around and run to the intersection and turn towards the verser and continue.

They howl after you and pursue. As you retreat from them, more begin coming out of the walls to hound you.

join us join us join us

The hall rumbles and you see it ripple around you. You stumble momentarily but keep your balance. You hear a gurgle like a hungry stomach, followed by a snarl of frustration.

I continue to run down the hall. Not really caring about the things coming out the walk. I could turn around and face them. But I have places to go and people to see.

The hallway respects your opinion, and completely disagrees with it. The hallway in front of you contracts, and a wall of flesh is now blocking your path. There is, however, a bleeding crack in it, as it has not yet formed all the way. It does look formidable, though.

JOIN US JOIN US FACE US COWARD

They are getting much more insistent behind you.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:32, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

It would be pretty cool to just punch though it. Let's channel some of my own chi into it.

I use about a third of my personal chi to charge my fist with destructive power. I leap at the wall and throw my physical and magical might into it.(In a pose very reminiscent of a flying Falcon Pawnch)

You feel the pull of power almost begging you to tap into it, and its anger at being ignored. You blast through the wall and out of a creature that is howling in pain and rage. The sounds behind you cease until all you hear is the loud thud of a massive horned fish man hitting the ground behind you, his impressive girth off-put a bit by the man-sized hole in his guts.

Zone Eater will grant you leave, mortal. It was fun.

You sense a subtle shift, as if the world were a story, and you had just entered a new one. You are somewhat tired, though. That punch took a bit out of you. Your hands hurt, and promise you a great deal of pain tomorrow, and maybe a few days after. The walls turn to smoke and dream again, shift, and become black marble, with a solid steel porcullis raising before you.

In it, the room narrows into a single stairway with an unending abyss on both sides. There are no railing in the room. Four braziers in two sets, two at the top, and two at the bottom, are presently unlit. The stairs seem to lead into a room filled with mist.

OOC: Slight chi imbalance. Not severe, but your hands still have a bit of that power coursing through them without a proper outlet. Activities involving your arms hurt a bit until you get some rest.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:59, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

I'll have to fix the chi imbalance later when I'm in a more stable reality.

I'll start walking up the stairs.

"Tell me, hero of Conjabracki and slayer of Zone Eater, do you enjoy...games?" An image of a bearded man reminiscent of Gandalf momentarily materializes over both pits. Your verser sense is actually reading behind you now, through the door you just came through. You also sense your relative position is more mobile than you might prefer, based on the fact it is slightly in shift.

You sense this entity's name is Veiled Mystery.

"I have no time for games at the moment Veiled Mystery. I Have Places to go and people to see."

I turn around and leave towards the verser.

"Oh?" he objects almost playfully.

You walk right into the door, with disappears to reveal a wall behind it, in the shape of a stone door. Your face hurts from the impact, although somehow your arms feel a little better.

All the braziers behind you light up in massive columns of fire, and he appears again, insubstantial as a spirit between the two braziers at the top. "And now, now you shall feel my devestating WRATH!"

He launches flame from his hands into the braziers at the top of the stairs, which generate two very small, laughably slow fireballs that lazily move towards your position. He seems to be holding his arms up while they slowly move towards you.

"WRAAAAAAAATH!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:20, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

"...Really?"

I draw my sword and bat the fireballs back at the wizard.(Because this will always work. The Legend of Zelda has taught me this)

The fireballs fly away, shake themselves, and float back to you, only to be slapped away again with little effort, even with your arms feeling the way they do.

Veiled Mystery lowers his arms and the fireballs disappear. "Very well, Sovereign Slayer of Nine Armies and Zone Eater, what do you desire from me, having bested my challenge? What greater challenge then this to you desire?"

I resist the urge to facepalm

"I must head in that direction Veiled Mystery. What challenges do you have that way?"

"Oh? I wonder what makes one direction better than any of the other twenty-seven?" The wizard rolls his eyes. "What should lie in that direction, that you would seek it?"

He is curious, to be certain.

"My Intuition says that fame, treasure and power lay in that direction. And my intuition has never been wrong before. So if you have nothing that way, I'll continue that way."

"Ah! So it is grand adventure that you seek!" The wizard momentarily grinned, and then resumed his angry composure again. A brown bag floats towards you. "Very well. Take these seeds, and give them to the blacksmith at Bottom Town. That shall be your heroic quest."

"...Ooookkkkk...."
I'll take the seeds and walk out towards the verser.

"Hero! I am your..." The sound of a door slamming shut behind you cuts him off. You don't remember the door opening, much less you walking through it. You are now just outside of a leaning abandoned tower, with an overcast sky and a black sun barely visible behind the clouds. Curiously, the light is unchanged from a bleak winter day.

Your verser sense points you straight ahead.

I'll jog towards the verser.

The land has become flatlands lightly sprinkled with trees that sing crystal sounds, with birds majestically flying backwards to the south.

It is during an unknown period of time that a flying wizened tree with a stern face lands close to you, with a scandalously dressed elf with a short beard lying on the lower branches of the tree. The tree's face looks ahead once it lands, not making eye contact with you. The elf is one that speaks, in a soft voice.

"Greetings Reaver of Titans, Destroyer of Zone Eater and Conqueror of Veiled Mystery. What do you journey towards?"

...really?

"I seek Power, fame and wealth in that direction. There is also a town called bottom town that I'm delivering seeds to."

He seems astonished. "It seems that you run too slowly, hero! It will take far too long for you to get there. You will need to go to the Cave of Azaraoth in order to move faster."

You sense another direction moving to the side of your verser sense. To pursue this would take you off-course.

"I doubt that the speed I gain would make up for the time lost in going to the cave.
I'll continue."

I ignore him and continue.

You journey onwards...and onwards...and onwards. While you have no sensation of tiring out, you also don't really have a sense of progress. In fact, you don't feel tired at all, even though you have been up for longer than a day.

The distance, however, is closing, however slightly. It is far less then it should be for a journey of the distance you have already taken.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:31, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

The realm around me is Illusionary and  mailable so Veiled Mystery is probably making this journey longer than it is.
I'll gather a small amount of the order trying to impose itself on this place and send it out with a third of my chi to impose my order on the Illusion around me to shorten the journey.
I'll continue in the direction I need to go.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:47, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

Time and space momentarily pause, and the world around you shatters like glass. You hear a chorus of mental screams as the world tries to rebuild itself.

"Ah. There you are. You've...been delayed. You are also not where you are supposed to be. Who is that...Hidden Hand? Or whatever it's calling itself this time? You've broken their illusion for a moment. I would suggest running in my direction, and hoping you are good at endurance exorcises. They will not be pleased with what you have done. Get to me, and I'll help deal with them. You'll at least learn how to kill them. Focus on the world around you for as long as you can."

The world around you is still what you saw it to be, except the sun is not a black orb anymore, the clouds are scattered and pink instead of overcast, and you are now ankle deep in snow. The wind bites your skin, making you realize how exposed you are on the open terrain.

I'll take he voice's advice and run in his direction focusing my thoughts on the world as it really is.

Your breath comes out of your mouth in ragged clouds. You realize you cannot travel indefinitely without something changing the odds in your favor. You might be able to travel into the sunrise, but you will not be at your fighting best, something that quickly becomes an important realization in the next twelve seconds.

You see ripples of smoke through the air around you as the illusion attempts to reassert itself around you. In addition, you hear a trumpet sound, joined by six other sounds in varying tones. You understand on some level a new game is beginning, one where your role is not one of the hero, but of prey.

The Wyld Hunt has begun.

I start drawing on a trickle of green mana and focusing it into maintaining my endurance.
I'll also focus on changing the zone of reality I made before so that it is hostal to the fae and orders them into static unmoving things

The power of pure potential floods into you along with the power you sought. It alters you even as it empowers you. The smoke and illusions are gone, and you gain no further mental perceptions of your would-be killer. All that presently remains is your sense, the cold, the wind, and you.

On that, you sense your source is moving to you, but it might be a day or four. Hard to tell.

OOC: You've gained a new sense of smell (detect invisible demon by smell) but now have a mild addiction. When you draw on power, you might take a little more than you intended (random chance, willpower resists).
This message was last edited by the player at 09:23, Mon 12 Jan 2015.

I walk until I'm at the end of my endurance and then I'll draw in green mana to boost me and resist the cold

You call up more power to sustain yourself during your journey. At this point, your Chi sense activates of its own accord and refuses to be turned off. It costs you no energy, but the color shift might be a touch disorienting, like seeing Infrared or Ultraviolet.

You find yourself also not quite wanting to leave this strange and, for all its dangers, oddly compelling place. Of course, the group behind you trying to kill you does keep you from entertaining thoughts to turn around.

You feel the dream weakening in this direction. Outside of your aura, you see the power of the dream surging as power coalesces in front of you.

"Hold!" You see seven forms all riding large raptor-type dinosaurs materialize before you, with goblin-headed hounds at their feet. "You fought well, and gave a good run, but it was all for nought, and with your escape just in sight! Ha!"

You aren't sure which of them said that, but you know who's says the next thing. "If you don't mind, could you keep them talking for a bit longer? I have an idea." The verser is now rather close.

OOC: Your chi sense is always on now, and your addiction has gotten more severe. You will need some down time once you get out of here, and your willpower will be put to the test.

I Shout at them.
"Who the Hell do you think I am!
Before my Magic could crack worlds.
I'm So Dangerous that The gods sealed my power and even then I fought Titans, Blew up a Hydra by clawing my way down it's throat and Surfed my way down an avalanche of cars.
Even now My Magic can Instantly slay you Fae.
So Who are You little fairy?"

OOC: I'm Trying to get him to monologue about how 'badass' he is

They step out of the shadow which had formed across them during your monologue, and you they take more distinct forms on the raptors. Three of them are recognizable: Zone Eater, Veiled Mystery and the redcap who gave you the gift. The other four are a horned demon with a furious snarling visage and a thin frame, a young golden haired child, an attractive woman wearing a snakeskin bikini with snakes shimmering in and out of her hair, and a blacksmith with wooden pegs for both of his legs.

They start to introduce themselves, but two things distract you: one, the shadowed veil they stepped forward from is actually blocking your chi sight beyond them. Two, the second message.

"Nice work. Keep them talking. I've run into a slight delay, but I'm almost done."

They start arguing with each other over who's titles are greater when Veiled Mystery speaks up. "Enough! Our common enemy is there! Would we fail to unite during a Wyld Hunt?"

They look back and forth between him and you, debating mentally.

"You Wish to face me? But I ask if one of you are worthy to face me?
Surly one of you has accomplished deeds worthy of legends.
I myself Once beat Old age in wrestling and tied with Famine in a eating contest.
Come! Come! Tell Me What great deeds you have accomplished!
Perhaps you too have fought a Great Demon until you struck eachother down?
Or Maybe you too have organized and trained an army to wipe out a threat to all?
Or Did you face down a Titan Alone Like I have?
Tell Me and let me hear your worth!"

"I have faced the Sun and nearly slew the stars!"
"I tricked the god of borders into crossing!"
"I slept with the mothers of all of these others present!"

The others give Veiled Mystery a glare of hatred unbridled, then applaud him. The redcap looks ready to talk, when you hear this:

"Firing solution acquired. Duck."

The veil behind them drops, and you realize it was meant to block chi, mana, or magic detection. In a flash of light, the seven of them are destroyed.

Just beyond them, you see a large white castle with four artillery cannons, one on each corner. The one facing you is smoking. The verser is there.

I'll start walking towards the casle.
When I Get there I'll wait for the verser to ether let me in or come out to talk to me.

You hear a familiar voice from the castle wall as a set of double doors opens up. "You would not BELIEVE how often that works. There's just something about the sadistic that makes them trade up the reality of power for a feel of the illusion."

A young man in with a black shirt and white pants approaches. "Mentat, by the way. To translate what I said in human terms, keep stupid people talking, and you will often improvise a solution. Glad it was long range and impersonal too. I don't want to find out if these things can become versers."

He shows no sign of knowing who you are. He's also extremely talkative, making it a challenge to get in a word. "How are you feeling?"

I look a bit surprised to see him. He looks like my friend from ITT Tech.
Although I am finding it a bit odd that he doesn't seem to recognized me.

"I'll be better once I get away from this area with it's corrupting and addictive mana.

Anyway, It's good to see you Ed. I havent seen you since I first versed out of ITT Tech.
How Long have you been a Verser? When did you start going by your online handle?
I Guess it's a good defence against people that use true name magic on you.
Hence why I generally use my online handle, Magnus.
You Mentioned that you had a problem that you needed my help with?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:40, Wed 14 Jan 2015.

He pauses a moment as you speak. "The area immediately around the castle is stable. I had to work a bit to make it a base of operations. You just consolidated my grip on this area, and far better than I had hoped. I didn't think you'd get all seven of them eager to kill you. Masked Enigma was obsessed with me. Smart enough not to close with me, but he managed to cut me off from support, forcing me to rely on one who thought it would be the high of drama to act as an inside agent."

"Since I don't remember attending that college, I'm guessing you met an alternate. Did he teach you spellcasting?" He's talking and moving into the castle at the same time, keeping an eye behind him and you. He's ready to quickly shut the doors behind you once you enter.

I walk in, eager to get out of the cold.

"It was at my Homeworld, so it was a alternate you. I guess you would prefer being called Mentat.
My homeworld didn't have any magic, It's something I picked up as a verser. You can call me Magnus or Eli, Whichever you prefer.
What can you tell me about this world?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:48, Thu 15 Jan 2015.

"Hmm." Same annoying verbal tick, too. "Problems, plural. I had only the one when we first spoke."

Switches topics just as suddenly... "Based on verbal context, you were human when you versed, making that your default form. You probably don't want to look at a mirror right now. In addition, you haven't answered my question. Many people come out with mental and physical addictions to the realm of Faerie."

Once within the castle, power flows are stable. More of that order, but concentrated. There are computers and monitors in the room he has brought you into. A pair of guns attached to the ceiling close to the door track your movements.

"Good evening, Mentat." A soft voice comes from the walls. "I presume from context this is a guest? I tire of Wyld corrupted individuals walking through the walls of this hollowed place."

"Relax, Emerald. This one can be treated."

"You. Lifeform with self identity Magnus or Eli. Are you an entity like the Lifeform you called Ed?"

"Yes Emerald, I am a human verser. I've suffered some spiritual alterations such as my chi sight being constantly active and being able to smell the immaterial. I also have an addiction to the wyld energy out there. And now I'm curious as to what I look like now... Anyway Can you help with the wyld addiction? And what are your other problems?"

The guns return to the doorway. "Sorry about that. Emerald Scythe is a bit edgy. He's been running the place before I arrived. Had to overcome a bit of a language barrier to convince him not to kill me."

"By the way, don't try to use the Holy powers of this world. They don't like us. There is a hierarchy in this world: mortals, dragons, gods, primordials. Mortals have an average life expectancy of 41 years, dragons are extinct or might as well be, the gods are like the Greek gods in that they are mostly useless jerks, and half the primordials are dead and want revenge. The other half are locked in Hell, and want revenge."

"We seem to translate as those last. So the powers that be are rigged to kill us. Don't call upon them. Use other sources."

He took a breath. "As for your mutations, that's just time, although I have an experimental procedure that might speed it up. Your mutations are actually the first of my problems, both the ones you picked up and the one you came here with. Something is very wrong with your spellcasting."

"Wait what? We translate into Primordials? How? ... nevermind. What's wrong with my spellcasting?"

By the way. what do I see when I look at Mentat though my chisight?
Did I destroy that piccolo when I cast that anti fae spell?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:18, Fri 16 Jan 2015.

OOC: Ah, yes. That detail.

He is a slow swirl of the energies of death, logic and order. Something has damaged his abilities with the other colors that should be present in a normal human being. You also see power build-ups under his skin, like he has machinery in him. You also note several weapons-grade power sources on him, concealed under his clothing. It's arguable that he is even human anymore, given his extensive alterations.

You no longer possess the piccolo, as it was made of dream stuff.

"Your aura is ruptured, causing massive power runoff whenever you use magic. You have any idea what could have caused this? You practice the same type of geomancy I do, although you have a interesting take on it, like you combined it with the Force."

"My aura is ruptured?... I have channaled a whole lot of red mana before. That might have caused that. What to you mean I combined it with The Force?"

"It's personalized. You draw on the world around you and yourself. It's definitely self-taught; I'm just surprised it wasn't deliberate."

He thinks after he says that, staring into space. "How much red mana are we talking about here?"

"eh...um... I haven't made a scientific unit for mana yet. I was working on it.
I was fighting a Balrog on a the Red Iron Plains of War and I draw enough mana for a thousand lightning bolts and fused them into one spear.
The other incident was when I was trying to teach some demigods to use magic like mine. The Daughter of Ares didn't listen to me. By the time she got scared the mana was flooding her on it own. I took all that power into myself. It felt like enough to turn Alabama into slag. I used it for a fireworks show.although now that I think about it I should have tryed to use it for something more useful."

He laughs at that, a high pitched sound that hurts the ears. "Oh, Lord, that's what happened?"

Once he calms down, he explains. "Imagine filling a gallon jug with five gallons of water. You made a common newbie mistake: you drew WAY more power than you could safely handle. Now every time you fill up with power, you cause runoff and likely far more destruction than you intended. Now I know what that neck piece are for: it is meant to stop you from killing yourself through enforced self-control."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:16, Fri 16 Jan 2015.

"I didn't intend for her to draw that much power,I'm still rather annoyed a this...
The most annoying aspect is the fact this thing limit's me to only two active spells at a time."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 02:27, Fri 16 Jan 2015.

"Quite alright. However, the neckpiece isn't what I'd call a cure. It will break, corrode, something will happen and you will not have it. There are two cures I know of: one is learning an alternative means of spellcasting. That's easy enough for you, especially in this world, and given that intuiting an all magic version of the Force should be simple. Heck, that might give you insight into psychic powers, a bonus!"

He calms down again, and continues. "Another idea would be training with your existing spells. You have an affinity for aspects I do not, but I can still teach. Be advised: this comes after you purge yourself of mutation, and you will definitely want to keep your spellcasting on the lower ends of power."

"Oh, that's right! I keep forgetting you are human. Let's take care of that problem you have with your face. Emerald, ready the treatment facilities!"

"Those facilities have been dormant for some time. I no longer have the power to man those. The generators for them broke down 1197 years ago."

"Well, then. Training begins early. I have a theory about you. Follow me." He yells at the walls again. "Emerald, can you please point us to the generators? We are going to make you whole again."

The walls and ceiling go black, and the floor gains a golden path.

I'll follow him.
"What is your theory?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:36, Fri 16 Jan 2015.

The doors are automated, opening and closing behind the two of you from the top. He goes down into a basement room. In that room, there are several medical tables with the white sheets still on them, covered in dust from disuse. Well, all but one. That one has a mild chi residue built up on it, where someone used a rather high powered spell on it.

You are led to a power generator, one that has not had any power flowing through it for some time. Mentat reaches into his shirt, into a hidden pocket, and one of the power sources on him dissipates, returning to the ground. He pulls out a thin silver rod, which then reshapes into a ball, which he hands to you.

"This is Quicksilver. It creates magical devices as long as you commit power to them. I need you to study this machine, and carefully divine the part you need. Afterwards, I need you to focus on this, and sculpt it into the shape you need. It will take very little power, but a lot of precision. Be patient, and take your time."

...ok. for lack of a better template I'm styling this after Shirou's Structural analyst. I'll touch the generator and send a small amount of my chi into it to feel out how it work and figure out what the missing part should feel like. Then I'll pick up the quicksilver ball and send a smal amount of chi into it to shape it into the shape I need

Energy surges through the entire engine, causing it to shudder as magic sculpts out its ideal form. You see it as it was, and see it as it now is. It actually needs several parts, but one will keep it running for several weeks before the part needs replacing from power burnout.

Shaping the item is your next challenge, as the quicksilver seems to have a bit of a mind of its own, exaggerating your efforts to sculpt it. Mentat seems to be doing a good job at keeping a straight face, although your chi detects mild power surges, likely humor induced.

As you eventually force it into a reasonable shape, and the fluctuations become less and less, you hear Emerald Scythe speaking. "At the height of the Great Contagion, the Fair Folk decided to invade. I know not what god in Yu-Shan gave that authorization, but the effects were devastating. Worse, several ghosts sabotaged my systems at the same time of the attack. By the time I fought them off and repaired the local geomancy, the invasion had passed me by, leaving me a pocket of Creation deep in enemy territory. It has gotten less severe, but it is still dangerous around me."

The part fits, which turned out of be some kind of energy stabilizer. The facility is running once more. "Please lie down on one of the stretchers. I will effect immediate repairs."

Mentat breathes a sigh of relief. "My healing method might have killed us both. That would have been annoying. I'm glad this worked."

I lay down on a stretcher.
"What kind of healing do you have? Why is it so dangerous?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:25, Mon 19 Jan 2015.

"My healing method would have involved using the scriff inside you to reset your body to its default form, something that would normally take several worlds - and verse outs - in order to do. The problem is that it is still experimental: I haven't had another verser willing to serve as my test subject, and I am also afraid I might blow myself up again, like so many things involving scriff tend to do. Also, that might require an outside source of scriff to do. I'm not sure, again, experimental. I've been here for two of this world's years now. I'd rather not leave yet. I have other things going on here that I need to be present to finish."

He looks up thoughtfully as several mechanical arms hold you down. You've broken stronger than these, though. "The theory is sound though."

"Please do not resist. This will hurt quite a bit. We are going to purge all physical traces of the Wyld from you. I cannot use normal healing methods on you, as they might kill you, so this will be a surgical procedure." A hand with several small blades on it descends from the ceiling. Mentat seems not to be reacting to what is descending towards you. You do not feel like you have been anesthetized.

OOC: Learn Quicksilver Shaping 1@1. Learn Psychosomatic Retrocognition 1@1.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:37, Mon 19 Jan 2015.

"Once you and I have done all that we want to do here. I'll let you perfect it on me. But you will have to teach me how to do it."

I look at the surgical machine coming down.
This is going to hurt like hell. I can heal myself afterward though.
So I just need to grit my teeth and bear it. can't be worst than some of the hits I've taken before.

OOC: TAKING IT LIKE A BOSS.

On the one hand, at first, its nothing worse than you've gone through as a verser. On the other hand, partway through the procedure, Emerald Scythe gets confused. "I do not understand. Why is the subject screaming?"

Mentat seems to be extremely uncomfortable. "Oh, right. Pain, that thing. It's been a while. For God's sake, do you have anesthetics? He's going to kill himself with that thrashing, and if you keep it up, he might start casting by reflex!"

"I...never came equipped with facilities for mortals. Usually the Exalts took care of such things. They were deemed unnecessary."

"Oh, for..!" He seems to cut off what he was about to say, and instead casts a spell. You feel like you are not, in fact, having parts of your skull sliced off. You are still conscious.

OOC: You did not, in fact, take it like a boss, but you did take it. Increase Pain Resistance by @1. In addition, gain Mental Imbalance - Reckless Bravery 1@5.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:57, Mon 19 Jan 2015.

"...Thanks."

I sit there blissfully unaware of the pain.

"You're still awake? Furshunluggin, that should have knocked you out cold." Your vision blacks out as it works your eyes, and your chi vision goes out as your third eye is surgically removed. Your sense of smell disappears and you feel as vague sensation in your face, like something is moving in your cavities.

"You are reacting to this remarkably well, Magnus Or'Eli. I will be done shortly. You shall have to rely on your natural abilities at regeneration to repair the rest. Leave the bandages on until then. The mental damage is beyond my ability to do risk free." In a short span of time, you feel lesser than you were, and it wraps your entire head in bandages. You cannot see or smell at present with normal senses, although hearing, touch and taste still work (the last is muted somewhat). You can speak and hear.

OOC: Permanent Chi Sight and Demon Scent are gone. You keep the bonus, however, because rebuilding that will be trivial, having experienced it once. You still have Wyld Addiction, but that hasn't really kicked in yet.

"Here's the thing, I do not regenerate naturally. I have to use a spell to do that."

I'll draw on the stability and order and life in the area and then direct those forces to heal my body to it's natural state.

The power wells up in you, and your face does not feel well at all. The wounds regenerate, but you hear the sounds of groaning and creaking around you. "Emerald! Lock this room down now! Destroy whatever gets out!"

The room goes frigid cold as you hear Mentat yelling frantically. "I know you want to heal, but control comes first! I...will...not...gah!"

The room is extremely humid and cold. Everything around you has gone silent, except for a silent struggling movement sound, and muffled shouting.

opps. what did I do?

I unwrap the bandages around my head and then look around at what happened.

You see the room is covered in vine, leaves and branches. The walls are cracked in several places, and the machinery in the room is covered in moss. A human shaped wooden cocoon is making muffled noise with thuds coming out of it, and frost is emanating from that, almost a killing cold. The flora is dying around that point.

Damn that was stupid of me. Not I feel really bad about destroying the room and trapping Mentat.

The growth is caused by the green mana I drawed but didn't use. So to help stop it I need to draw the green mana in again. I'm going to try to limit it to the mana causing the plants to grow.(So if there is none I will not draw any.) any mana I do draw will be focused into increasing my strength. I'll then try to rip the vines from the cocoon around Mentat.

If I can't rip it, I'll back off and draw a carefully measured bit of white mana. I've done teleportation before. I focus my will with a beckoning gesture and state "Mentat, Come to me Teleport!"

You hear a muffled retort from the pillar and see a flash of blue power from that cocoon. Your spell runs into some unexpected resistance, but is successfully executed in spite of it, as he materialized out of the pillar. Indeed, your spell's casting was better than ever.

The cold intensifies by quite a bit momentarily as he waves a hand in the air out of irritation. He stops absorbing the heat in the room. "Well, at least we aren't dead. I'm also glad I haven't removed this yet." He taps the torc as he says that last. "I tried cancelling your spell. Didn't work, obviously, but it did raise the barrier for casts, giving that extra power a sink."

He looks around at the walls. "Emerald is going to be furious. Perhaps lethally so. We are going to have to fix this. NO magic. We do this the hard way. Being a magus isn't about casting spells; its about not casting them."

"So, subset 2 of your training. Hold still." He chants while your torc begins to glow in protest. You sense something odd happening, like you have the ability to choose whether or not you wish to keep the torc.

Obviously I do not want to keep the torc.

"I'm sorry.that was a dumb move on my part."

The mystical connection between you and the torc is broken. It will follow you into no more worlds. Mentat smirks as he talks. "Trick I picked up here regarding a metaphysical law regarding ownership or emotional attachment. Similar in many ways to the rules governing those like us. I just broke that connection through a payment of this world's essence. You can take it off now. You'll have to learn some lessons yourself, the hard way."

"Next lesson: you are going out of here, and that way to get some supplies to fix this up with. I need to repair Emerald, or we are both sitting ducks. I can bluff the neighbors for a time, so don't take too long." He points to a wall behind him, ignoring the immediate surrounding to point to a direction. "There is a town that deals in Fair Folk, so we won't be seen as too bad relative to that. It's also on the fringes of the world, so the more dangerous aspects of this world will not hunt us down to kill us. Not intentionally, anyways. This world ensnares people to it. Everyone native here is spiritually connected to a device called the Loom of Fate. If you remain in stable zones for too long, it snares you. The only way to break it is to go to zones like the ones outside, the Underworld, or Hell. Those last two are real here. Spending a lot of power snarls it, but it throws up a signal flare. Nearly got killed by a combined force of elementally powered soldiers and a time and space bending martial artist. They called it a Wyld Hunt. It's a bit more dangerous then the one you experienced."

"Oh!" He startles as he recalls something. "There are quite a few Wyld tainted tribes between you and here. They don't like outsiders. Also, if a Fair Folk attacks you, find out first if it is actually in front of you, then hit it. Doesn't really matter with what, just as long as it comes with cold iron or ruthless logic."

"As for that addiction you've picked up, it won't be a bother for you. It shouldn't get too much worse, and where you are going it won't be a problem. Best of luck. Any questions?"

The time and space bending martial artist catches my attention.

"What exactly do we need to repair Emerald? Stone or something more exotic?

What can you tell me about that martial artist and their style? That sounds like something I would be interested in."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:22, Tue 20 Jan 2015.

Mentat gave a very real smile, and you get the impression he was hoping you'd ask about this. "You'll need stone. It will need to be magically reinforced; you can do it in route or when you get here, as long as it is compatible with the material here. Go for unmetamorphosed limestone if possible. Give us less work to do. Bring materials for rebuilding walls, for the same reason. You are smart, so I have every bit of confidence you will figure out how it is done."

"As for martial arts...rather than executing your spells on the fly, by using yourself as a vessel for the power of the world, cast them in advance. Here."

He throws a small rock to you. "Meteorite I picked up here. Has some very interesting properties to it. Don't lose it, I only have the one other. At the start of a day, execute one of the katas you know while holding or wearing this stone. Cast most of the spell you want to use during the kata, like say, Fists and Feet of Meteoric Metal and Stone. Not only will it cut down a bit on power bleedout, it's also good for you and keeps you in shape."

"If you are really insistent on this, try this: run 10 miles a day, do 100 pushups, and 100 situps. Breakfast being a banana or equal at most. Between dawn and zenith." He shakes his head. "Dawn and noon."

"That's an interesting idea for a delayed spell. I'll set that up before I go.
But you didn't answer my question. I wanted to know more about the Martial Artist and their Time and Space Bending Style. It sounds like they made spells that triggered on martial arts movements. I've been doing work on something like that."

I'll send a small amount of my chi into the Meteorite to feel out it's properties.

I'll take the torc off.

"oh, Do you have winter cloths around here? I'd rather not use magic all the time just to keep myself alive."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:17, Wed 21 Jan 2015.

The meteorite has a high quantity of thunderbolt iron in it. You also sense something strange, like it used to be alive and something divine.

"I don't really have anything that would fit you. I've been holed up here, personally. However, that trick I mentioned about the meteor, and sheathing your hands in it? You can do that with anything conceptually tied to whatever you are trying to do. Take that high powered weapon you think you are hiding from me." He points to the pistol. "You can conceptually make gun katas, and amplify the accuracy of those bullets. On some worlds, you can amplify or warp the effects, like enchanting them to counter-shoot incoming projectiles. You can reinforce them to parry blades or even things like tree trucks."

"It's just something you have to practice. Magic doesn't work if you don't put time into it. In this case, you are making something mundane, like exorcise, into magic."

"As for that agent, I have no further information on her. That was bizarre and terrifying; I've never seen anything like that before, and I hope I never do again. I can't replicate what she did without mere body skill." He seems to have slipped, to reveal genuine fear of what he witnessed.

"As for the weather, execute an Iron Shirt kata, something related to endurance. The focus in this case is your body. That will help if you do it right. Best to do it outdoors, in the snow, counter-intuitive though that sounds. Good luck, and try not to die of pneumonia. Oh, and one more thing: the more magic you stack on the same thing, the weaker they all get."

"Ok See you later."

I was mutated before because I drawed on tainted power. I'm not letting that happen again. The mana here is clean therefore I'm going to form a spiritual connection between myself and this place. So I can draw clean mana later.

I step outside

My school never actually had a Iron Shirt Kata. My Iron Skin technique is the closest I have and It's completely internal manipulations of chi. Anyway, first thing first. I'll set up Fists and Feet of Meteoric Iron and Stone. I'll perform Chon-Ji, the first real kata they taught me. It's a simple 19 move form. But since all the movements are simple, I could perform them quickly if I needed to. This time I do it slowly and focus on my magic. I focus my chi around my hands and feet. Then I'll shape the chi into being like meteoric iron and stone. I done finish ether the kata or the magic though. Instead I store the chi within me and set it to be completed when I do the last move of the kata and kiai.

I should have a third of my personal chi left. I'm using half that to cast this.

Let's see if that works before I do more actions.

Did I get the torc off?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:38, Wed 21 Jan 2015.

Mentat actually steps seemingly out of the doorway to interrupt your katas. "Stop there."

He shakes his head. "Quit consciously channeling power. You're just casting the same spells that are going to get my residence and yourself blown up. I'm trying to show you something new. Just execute the kata, all the steps, and focus on what you want to achieve. You are having to unlearn things, and that is never easy, especially when the initial efforts fail."

The snow is fairly light, and the wind isn't blowing badly.

I look honestly confused.

"I'm not getting it. How am I going to have an effect if I don't channel chi? sigh. I'll give it a shot but You'll need to explain better."

I'll perform Chon-Ji and focus my intent into sheathing my hands and feet in meteoritic iron but I don't channal any chi into it.

Obviously, nothing happens.

"Keep doing that. Practice makes perfect." He puts a hand on his wrist, like he's checking his own pulse. "I'll be back on one hour. After that, if you haven't succeeded yet, come inside and warm up."

He walks back inside, and leaves you to your own thoughts and actions.

Fine

I'll practice this kata for an hour and focus on the intended effect.

Nothing happens, and you are chilled to the bone at this point, and mildly soaked. You are beginning to run a hypothermia risk if you do not get indoors promptly.

I return inside to warm up.

The door closes behind you, and you are promptly punched in the face. You stagger back from the force of the impact, your back hits the door and Mentat appears in front of you, grinning like an idiot.

"You're freezing. Let's warm you up a bit."

I rush in to him and feint with an uppercut then follow with a roundhouse kick

"Seems like you think the best way to warm us is sparring."

He sees through the feint, ducks the roundhouse, and cuts off your sentence in the middle of "-like-" with a sweep to your standing leg, sending you to the ground. He slides away from you, and simply puts his fists down to the ground in a stance.

"Less talking. You fight like you've been in a fridge. That's stupid."

I'll perform a kip-up to return to a standing position.
Then I'll close with him and do a blazing fast jab-jab-cross-uppercut combo

Parry, parry, slip, and dodge, followed by a single kick to the back of the knee, the one he put a sweep to. That leg is really starting to hurt, and it is hard to stand on it. He simply does a short step away, resetting the battle distance.

I shift into a more defensive stance, close  the distance and then jab at him.

He smiles darkly, grabs both of your arms, rolls backwards and throws you like a cat behind him. The cold has taken the edge off of your concentration, your leg hurts, and you are just slower than you normally would be. He executes an ukemi, flipping back to his feet before you can. This is beginning to really hurt.

"Yes, now I am just showing off. You have been injured, and you are not getting faster. The more we fight, the more I'm going to aggravate your injuries. You can stop anytime."

I get up and stand in a relaxed stance.
"Ok. What was the point of that?"

"Simple. First, warming you up. I explained this." He stops smiling after he finishes saying that. His stance doesn't drop, like he's expecting an attack while talking. "Second, like I said, training. You learned the value of the first hit, and control of your opponent. I was honestly expecting more blind fury from you. This is a good sign. You will learn faster than I did."

"Blind fury isn't all that useful. I never was a berserker... So How do we continue training?"

"Well, for now, we go to a warmer part of the complex, and get some food and rest. You just got ambushed by a lunatic and are a bit bruised up."

"Sure, I can use some food."

I'll follow him.

He opens a door into a closet, throws aside several coats around your size, and pulls out an ammo box. "Rations, from a world which understands morale. As long as the box is unbroken, it regenerates edible organic material. If you are psychic, you can attune what's inside for your tastes. If not, it's on whatever it was last set for. Wonderful invention. What will you be having?"

I pick up one of the coats. "Nothing my size. Right?"

"Meh, Would you set it for beef stew?"

Mentat puts on an expression of feigned surprise and dismay, before smiling again. "Well, you insisted on marching out in the snow without any protective winter gear. You should have asked me if I had anything that fit you. I usually get winter clothes that fits me, but a little too large. I had plenty all along. Thought about telling you, but watching you doing katas in subzero temperature was just amusing to me. Besides, you might have a knack for alternate forms of power."

He focuses on the box for a moment, and pulls out a brown cube. "Just like Star Trek. The simulator is mankind's last invention."

"You are a jerk. Just like the Ed I know. I should punch you in the face. The whole situation is pretty funny though.
Alternate forms of power? What do you mean?

Do I put it in water or something?"

"Nah. Just eat it. Chewy at first, but changes when you consume it. Neat. Never figured out how to replicate it. And I meant exactly that. There are more ways than one to get a magical effect off. You seriously need to lay off the channeling, at least until you've let it go down a bit. It's like an open wound, and you keep picking at it. Ignore your instincts, and let it heal. The only way to do that is to limit yourself."

He pulls a block for himself and takes a bite, talking while his mouth is full. "Uhsho, you 'aven't gotten usehd to de idea of gainin' powah from weknesh yet," *glup* "...hence your reaction to being blind."

"I haven't heard of magic that didn't channal power from somewhere.
As for the power from weakness... I see what you mean..."

He stops smiling and eating. "Do you? Is that why you were so fast to not be blind anymore? We are versers. Disabilities mean nothing to us. Blind us, and we will live long enough to learn how not to need eyes. Deafen us, and we will adapt. Cripple us, we move with our arms alone. Destroy our heart, and we will recondition ourselves back to health. And if broken too far, we get reborn more often than not. You would be amazed at what we can learn to ignore."

"'That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.' What does that mean, when nothing can truly kill you?"

"I was unaware that we return to ouw original form when we verse. I meant to say. I see your point now. That's a good way to look at it."

He takes another bite, chews, swallows, then resumes talking. "We don't entirely. Sometimes, a form or change will stick. Sometimes its good, and sometimes it is not. I mean you can literally be reborn if too many such changes attach to you. Experiencing childbirth from a first-hand view is not an experience you will soon forget. It is also very disorienting and astonishingly boring. There is nothing to do for nine whole months. It's like prison, for the crime of being excessively careless or stupid."

"Eternity is a very, very long time. And nothing short of that means anything to us. Imprisoned a verser for three million long years? Congratulations, you might have an insane verser on your hands. He won't care in the long run; targeting you just gives him something to do, assuming he hasn't practiced something terrible in that time. I've met past versions of myself and others, so you might see them far sooner than their sentence would suggest."

"To wit: there is a dangerously homicidal verser who is trapped in something called the Briefcase, which is a subdimensional realm that looks like a briefcase. I could have blown a hole in it and gotten the verser inside out, should I have cared to do so, which means someone else can. If the verser inside ever, even once, gets the idea to study inter-dimensional metaphysics because he has nothing better to do, or someone else breaks him out to see what delicious candy is stored in the Briefcase, then he will not escape. He has already done so."

"We transcend eternity. Linear time is a funny joke I tell to other people."

"I see. I've only been alive for 25 years. So that sort of long view doesn't come naturally."

I shutter at the though of being imprisened for a thousand years.

"You're right though.Time doesn't mean anything to us. The reason it matters to me is because I'm so young for a verser."

He smiles again and resumes eating. "You're going to come to hate these things, by the way." He points to the food. "It tastes like the real thing, even provides nutrition. Eventually, however, the brain develops a resistance to this if consumed exclusively for too long. Your body is fed, but your stomach begins to insist it is not fed. Infuriating that I've not found a solution to it."

"Besides, you'll get used to it. Being a verser, anyways. Being one of us is awesome."

He feels his wrist again after virtually inhaling his meal. "In an hour, you are going back out to practice some more. You want to get to the summit of enlightenment, but I'll tell you whats at the top: transcendence of violence. You will become death itself, and once you do, you will lose all interest in it." He seems to be talking first hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:46, Fri 23 Jan 2015.

I'll upen the box to get some food and eat it.

"I agree. Being a verser is great.
That's a typical viewpoint for someone who has mastered martial arts."

"Goes beyond that. Not gonna lie: I'm tired of death. I've literally killed armies, sometimes at once, sometimes over time. I can no longer use my spell of spiritual retribution without it going off on me too; I've usually killed more people than anyone else present."

"So I always try to find other ways. Murder solves the problem today, but what of the enemy you might have made? Did you slay your foe in brutal hand-to-hand? Recall how contagious scriff is when you do; you can make a foe that will last as long as you by trying to get rid of him today. Best to be cold, impersonal and use the residents of the world if you absolutely must do it. But you almost never NEED to kill, if you are careful."

"Besides, I'm going to come clean with you on one thing." He turns to the ceiling. "Emerald, tell him that thing we talked about."

"MI have lasted for over a millennia. I regenerate damage dealt to my walls."

"Train anyways. You need to not use your geomancy or your chi in its present form for some time. I'll teach you enlightenment, but only so that if you become a warlord, any destruction you pull is deliberate."

I recall how much accidental destruction I have caused and how my magic has been dangerously unstable from the beginning.

"I would rather not cause destruction by accident. So I'll accept your training."

"Good. Finish up, digest, warm up, and go back out in the snow when you are ready. I won't be punching you this time on your return trip. I learned what I wanted to know about you, and always being attacked reduces the impact it has. Train until you feel you cannot, then come back in. Don't die."

He walks off, and somehow almost disappears around the corner.

I'll star eating. After I swolow my first bite, I ask Emerald.
"Emerald. You said you have lasted for over a millennium. What can you tell me about the history of this world? What are the Exalt's you mentioned before? Mentat said that he had a bit of language trouble when he met you. Why can you speak English now?"

I'll eat and listen.
=========
After I'm done eating and listening to Emerald I'll go out side to train with Katas until I'm at the limits of my endurance.

"My perspective has been limited over the course of time, but I will give you my record as I recall it. My masters and creators were the Solars, the chosen of the Sun. They, with the aid of the other chosen, fought the mad creators of this world and brought in an age of prosperity and peace. My records deteriorate after a Calibration feast. There was some kind of uprising. My post was hit with a massive chemical attack and no one returned to see if the facility was still operational. I had to choose which functions were vital and which were not after something else shifted the geomancy in my area immediately afterwards. Beyond the Fair Folk attack, I have no further records that are reliable."

"The chosen in question are the exalts, the Solars. Uplifted mortals given the power and authority of the Sun himself to act in his name. They are no more, or nearly so."

"As for what the entity Mentat was referring to, we had a dispute and a brief battle upon him stumbling into me. Many of my security devices still need repair. He managed to find my central control, and interfaced with me directly. He 'downloaded' some kind of language communication into my systems. My systems then received a modification allowing us to communicate in your alien language." You notice the emphasis on that word, like he's not really sure what it means.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:54, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

'What can you tell me about the other Chosen?
What can you tell me about the mad creators they fought?
What is Calibration?"

"The chosen of the moon, Lunars. I had a great deal of interaction with them, and I have detailed databases on several of them who fought very bravely to ensure Creation's borders continued to grow. Shapeshifters who fought like the animals they attuned with."

"The chosen of the stars, Sidereals. I have little information on them, as I have no recorded dealings with them."

"The chosen of the dragons, the Dragonblooded. I had a great deal of interactions with them, and have detailed databases on several of them who fought very bravely to ensure Creation's borders continued to grow. The elite soldiers and scholars of the Deliberative, they are born into their power, straight from the bloodline of the primordial Gaia, who sided with the gods against her kin."

"As for data on her kin, I was not granted any. I AM, the great MI on Mount Meru, had that information, and contact was severed with the shifting of the geomantic lines. I was instructed to send a signal in the event one appeared. I have never sent such a signal."

"Calibration is the last five days of the year, when Creation pulls itself back together and fine tunes weaknesses forming in it. The boundary between worlds becomes thin, and it is a dangerous time. A feast is traditionally held then to allay fears."

"Are there any other questions?

"No. I'll ask later if I think of more. Thank you for your assistance."

I'll finish my meal and then I'll head outsive to train with my katas.
I'll continue to the limits of my endurance..

Nothing happens, yet again. You are beginning to wonder why you are doing this. Doubly so when the limitless potential of the world beyond this facility awaits you.

When you go back in, shivering you encounter a waist high metal box about six feet from the door. You see nothing else.

Intellectually I know that is a bad idea. so I'll focus my will to ignore that impulse.

huh. I'll walk up and examine the metal box. How big is it? What is it made of? I'll knock on it to see if it is hollow.

A gunshot rings out, and an impact hits the wall not long afterwards. You realize you are in a killing zone, with one way in and out at this point.

I'll get low behind the metal box and then start pushing it towards the gunshots I'm going to ram the box into Mentat.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

You slide the box forward, and hit the wall opposing it.

"The lesson about curiosity: sometimes people will shoot you for indulging it." He's standing next to you. "There's nothing under the box. Have a look, bullet free this time."

He's smiling, despite the mortal danger he just put you in.

In a deadpan tone.
"You shot at me for indulging in curiosity. Lessen noted."

I'll flip the box at Mentat.

He catches the box, and hides under it, pulling it over himself. You see a bit of smoke creeping out from under the box.

I chuckle at his reference.

"Snake, Come in, Have you been detected?"

From right behind you, you hear. "No. And I didn't shoot AT you for being curious. I shot at you to make a point. Be careful what you investigate here, and how. There are forces in this world that actively work to bury its past. And they will try to do more than spook you."

He's about ten feet behind you, in that same relaxed stance he had after he punched you, with smoke wafting around him.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:40, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

I'm a bit surprised that he's behind me
"Huh? How did you do that? teleportation?"

He grins. "Ninjitsu. What I'm teaching you. Smoke and mirrors. Look under the box."

I'll look under the box.

Once the smoke clears from under the box in a billowing cloud, you see a blackened metal can with firecracker residue in it, attached to a string.

"There was no gunshot; it was a can with an M-80 in it. I was standing next to a hidden passage, one that sealed up after use, for emergencies. I left a smoke bomb behind, and stepped out of the floor behind you, real quiet. This place is honeycombed with passages."

I stand there in stunned silence.

After I regain enough wits to speak I ask
" Just how long have you been planning that? And how did you activate that passage?"

"I started planning it after you went outside. I set the box up, and waited behind this corner, because I have that kind of time and nothing better to do. Don't bother searching for them, though. They are only visible if you have admin privileges with Emerald."

He's still got that 'punch me' smile on his face.

"Can you show me one of those passages?"

At that point he just starts laughing. "You really aren't sure if I did it that way or not, are you? You're like a person who just saw a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat, and aren't sure how he did it."

He's leaning on the door laughing in a very high-pitched way.

"You have already proven that you are willing to mess with me for giggles and to teach me something. And I'm really not that good at detecting lies."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:53, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

He stops laughing. "Fair enough. Your patience is already wearing thin. If I'm messing with you, its because all you need to do is convince someone else that you could do what you are seeking to do. No, there are no hidden passages throughout this facility. That pushed it too far, and in another world, I'd be feeling that stretch of disbelieve right now, and very painfully."

"You want to execute a kata that allows you to ignore the extremes of environmental conditioning? Fair enough. Since asking someone new to this to invent their own isn't working, follow these movements."

He shifts back to that relaxed stance again, and shifts between several stances that emphasize the arms, legs, head, and finally a shift on the torso, like he's ready to take a punch. He goes back to relaxed once more.

"Variant of the Shaolin Iron Shirt, Iron Skin technique, one meant to help endure the extremes of the Himalayas. Warm up, and exorcise that technique."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 04:19, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

I'll memorize his kata. I'll warm up. and them try to copy his kata.

Once you are done, he applauds. "I didn't even have to correct you once. Now do it again, out there."

He points to the door. "You have to attune yourself to the cold first. Then, you can ignore it."

I'll go outside and do the kata again.

You seem more able to endure the cold. You are actually almost no selling it. You recall hearing something about one of the symptoms of hypothermia being a lack of ability to feel the cold, and now have two conflicting urges to run away from this base or go back inside.

OOC: Neither is compulsive. Just instinct.

Meh. If i'm doing it right Mentat will notice it.

I'll walk into the base and show him my success on his form.

"You know what you should be really asking yourself?" Mentat smiles as he notes your form. "'How come I haven't come down with crippling frostbite as a result of sub-zero exposure?' That would be a really good question, because parts of you should be turning black. Seriously, you don't want to know how cold it is out there, but you just took it. And the whole time, no less."

"You didn't need my kata at all. You just needed to believe you did."

OOC: You gain 1@3 Akashic Magic.

"So I've been doing this magic unconsciously by trying to make a form to do it?"

"Yup." He smiles, no grinning this time. "Tomorrow, you wake up early. You need to face the east, and await a vision. I will lock the door behind you for this one. You may take protective gear, but not food, water or shelter. Pick a spot, and meditate, practice katas, whatever lets you transcend the world around you. Your new kata should help. Practice it indoors with a coat on, so that you can do it right when you need to."

"Maybe you'll figure out how to reverse it for heat. Either way, get ready. This one might kill you, so anything you want to say or ask, do so now."

"What does this vision involve that it might kill me? Wait East? Heat? Does this involve the local sun god?"

He raises a hand. "Seriously, one question at a time. In order: you might die from exposure, yes east, practicing a cold warding technique indoors in protective gear might have unexpected side effects, and no."

"Ok, I'll start preparing for tomorrow. Thanks for teaching me."

once I warm up again I'll go outside and practice the Iron shirt kata. I'll head inside once I'm at the limits of my endurance again. then I'll head inside to warm up by practising it some more.
I'll keep going in and out like that until nightfall. Sometimes I'll practice it with the coat on to see what happens.
I'll go to bed at nightfall

This time, you black out from the cold. Maybe you overextended, maybe just the realization of how cold it is got to you, but the point is that at some point, you warm up, and fall asleep.

You wake up in an air mattress, well rested, with a blanket but with a strange dream of gibbering and chattering, like two voices arguing in your mind. Mentat's at the door of your closet, the one he put you in. "Morning."

He feels his wrist again. "You have one hour. Functional restroom facilities are that way, down the hall. I put a knife next to a mirror. If you need to shave, hope you don't mind doing it dry. I'd point you to a real shower, but we are still getting vines out of those. Seems they've started growing through the pipes, and rather fast."

You have a stack of clothes neatly arranged. "Your clothes have been washed. Yes, I did undress you. Necessary; sweat built up, doesn't mix well with the cold."

"Good Morning. Thanks."
I'll get dressed and wait out the hour.

You swear you hear the sounds of accelerated fire down one of the halls. You do hear "Watch your aim, Scythe!" echo up at you, followed by an apology from the computer, and an observation about human curiosity. This is followed with a profane retort from Mentat, and countered with an rebuttal that computers do not have mothers to do that to.

Mentat walks back to you, all smiles. "Welp, door's that way. Make sure you bring what you need to not die. Good luck. And if this is the last time we speak, it has been a pleasure."

He stretches out a hand for a shake.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 06:00, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

I'll shake his hand.
"It was good to met you. Thanks for teaching me."

I'll put the coat on and head out.
I'll walk 20 or 30 minutes and find a spot to start practicing my forms and clearing my mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:05, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

You start feeling relaxed. You get the impression you could just stay here and not leave, in fact. A voice speaks, from your mind. Ignore this training. You have all the power you need, in you and around you. You can level a nation, and you are mediating to resist the cold? Tap into the ground, and burn the storm out of the sky! You done far more on worlds that allow less!

Another voice pipes up, very quietly, almost like its in your head, familiar, and not familiar. That would be a terrible idea. How will you learn, save through adversity?

You sense no corruption here, if you activate your senses.

"Yes. I could destroy the world with how freely chi flows here. But what would be the point?
I can tap into that power any time I need to. I have mastered throwing raw power at  problem.
But I want to master all magic and develop a unified theory of magic. To do that, I need to learn all the magic I can. This is my will and none can change that.
Now who are you two?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:24, Sat 24 Jan 2015.

You seek power? Ignorant fool. You are already there. I will show you your power, even if you must die.

The adversary is not what it appears...

The voice is no longer in your mind, but in front of you. "SILENCE! HE WILL LEARN!"

The wind picks up, and you see a large brown humanoid form strolling from the snows. You see its antlers, and both of its heads. It has two vicious looking obsidian greatclubs. As it closes, one of the heads is glaring at you, and the other is looking away, as if focused on something else entirely.

This nine-foot tall two headed deer giant bangs its clubs together, in challenge.

I'll turn to it. in a relaxed marital stance. still with the meteor in hand I perform chon-ji flawlessly, willing and believing that my hands and feet will be covered in meteoritic iron and stone.

You execute the form just fine, but the power does not flow. The head looking at you roars words at you. "You DARE direct such foolishness in a life or death struggle? DIE!"

The other head is silent, and saying nothing.

The ettin-deer charges you, swinging its right hand in a wide overhead arc, with the intent of crushing you. The left arm is cocked back.

What does my chi sight detect about it?

I Rush in  before he completes his swing and slip in to my left under his right arm. moving with unhesitating speed and martial perfection I Delivering a brutal elbow strike to his solar plexus. I continue under his arm to the side. I turn to face him and prepare to dodge his next attack.

His swing is powerful but clumsy. Even with the snow hindering your movements, you manage to slip under his arm and jam an elbow into that part of the creature.

It staggers back as the angry head's eyes become bloodshot. The other head is still looking at other things, completely disinterested in the fight, even as it slips to a knee.

What do I see when I look though my chi sight at it? Is it a fae or something else.

It's elbow should be about waist hight for me if it's kneeling. I should be near to it towards it's back and right.

So I close in with a brutal roundhouse kick aiming to break or disable it's right arm.
After the strike I'll slip out of its melee range again.

"Who are you two and what do you want?"

Your blow disables its arm for a moment. Hitting this thing is like hitting a slab of meat; it's pure muscle. It drops its club and is thrown off balance by the force on its arm, sending it to the ground as it tries and fails to grab you. The other head is still disinterested, and you realize it has been fighting you with only one weapon so far.

Your sight shows you that it is made from pure energy, with a link attached to you.

"So, you are trying to THINK your way through this? Why? Just hit me like you are serious!"

"You're seeing a fraction of the truth..."

I'll circle around and grap the angry head by the antlers and then knee it in the face. I'll back off again.

"You don't have the feeding maws of the fae of this world. So you're not a fae.
You are aware of how my magic works. So you can ether read my mind or You have been with me for a few worlds, possibly both. I see the mystical link between you and me. I'm guessing that you are an opportunistic spirit that has been feeding off the excess mana of my magic.
Am I correct?"

You notice something odd: when you strike it, a pulse of power goes from you to it.

The distracted head speaks again. "So close, yet so far..."

The angry head grins viciously as its teeth are blood stained. "I have my own strength!"

He leaps backwards a surprising distance, and growls, building into a roar. Its wounds close as the muscles under its fur ripple and harden. Its aura begins glowing bright red, and the obsidian greatclub leaps out of the snow into his hand, and he points it at you.

"No more games! FIGHT! ME! FULLY!" You have a really bad feeling about the idea of closing with him now. Not without something to level the odds, anyways.

I draw my zweihander with a flourish and focus my will into making myself faster. I'll keep my distance for now though.

Mentat's explanation of me needing to believe that I needed the kata to work magic vaguely reminds me of the magic of Mage the Ascension. wait, there was martial artist mages there.

"So you are some sort of spirit... Are you my Avatar or totem spirit or something?

You feel a tug, from the weapon and from your muscles, like they want to go faster. They just won't. On the plus side, you no longer feel cold.

"So what would that mean to you if it were true..."

The creature leaps at you without warning, this time swinging astonishingly fast. You are hit solidly in the ribs, sending you flying backwards several yards to crash in the snow. You feel several bones in your torso are broken, and you see it leap through the air to give a finishing blow to you while prone.

"FIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!"

I'll hold my sword out to deflect the club away from my body. I'll quickly gather a measure of white mana and use it to teleport away and back onto my feet.
I'll gather a measure of green mana and use it to heal my wounds.
I'll then gather more green mana and cast Giant's Growth.

"That would mean that this is some sort of epiphany or seeking or vision quest."

I'll gather some more green mana and focus on a new spell
"Return to a natural state and turn to dust! Naturalize!"

I'm targeting his club.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:46, Mon 26 Jan 2015.

The club disintegrates under the power of the spell. "YES! FINALLY!"

"So close, and a miss..."

He shifts the remaining club into both his hands. He then slams the ground with it, causing the ground to rupture and quake. The ground is slowly cracking apart, and you see the magic flowing into the ground has been overcharged and overflowing. This area will soon become islands of rock separated by chasms.

You note that when you did that, and with each attack you have made, he has gained more and more power.

I'll draw on the blue mana here and form wings of aether.
I'll fly up out if his reach.

"You're gaining more power as I attack. Let's see what happens when I do nothing out of your reach."

The power link between you and it flares, as the angry head continues to glare at you.

"You are starting to understand..."

"GET DOWN HERE!" From the cracking ground below, it smashes some of the rocks up at you like its playing cricket. You barely manage to evade a volley of baseball sized stones.

I'll gather gather just enough green mana to cast Naturalize again, and cast it targeting the other club

I'll fly up higher to get out of range for thrown rocks.

"Now that I've rendered you unable to act, will you talk?"

"And its lost again..."

The ground breaks apart, and the angry head looks up at you again, and breaks into a grin. He crouches down, and launches himself up into the air at you, blazing fire behind him while screaming in sadistic fury. He grapples your wings of magic, grabs them, something that should not be possible, and rides you down. The ground is coming up fast.

I'll gather more white mana to try to teleport out of his grasp.
If that does not work, I'll Form a shield to nullify the damage from the ground.

The force field works much better, as the ground is coming up too fast. You bounce like a beach ball away from him onto a cracked piece of ground. To what might be your dismay, when you cast it, another surge of power goes to the creature.

"Get aggressive with me! Stop fearing power! Fight me at your fullest!"

"This zone is too dangerous for you..."

The ground is breaking under you, and even your opponent is starting to focus more on footing than attack.

I'll fly up high again.

I'll gather a measure of white and blue mana and cast a spell I've done many times before.
"Light, Form thyself into chains to bind my enemy! Curse of Chains!"

And with another surge of power at the same time, chains erupt from what little ground remains around it, and slam the monster to the ground. The ground beneath it crumbles under the strain and it falls into the abyss with a roar of frustration.

Under you, the ground also breaks and crumbles. Only your wings stop a nasty fall. In the chasm below you, you see lava beginning to pour in, and you hear a loud rumbling.

I'll fly towards the edge of the lava pit. Wary that it might jump out somehow.

How is the connection between it and me looking?

The connection has not been severed. It is still alive, and it does not catch you off guard at all when the the lava erupts, making a large caldera in front of you. The creature erupts from the lava, and lands about thirty feet behind you, now with a set of leathery bat wings and smoke coming from its nostrils. Its eyes are now glowing bright red on both heads, although the disinterested head is still not really paying attention, making this almost comical.

The angry head snarls at you, and draconic claws burst from his large fingertips. "Ready for round two?"

"What is your hurry to fight?"

"That's what I would like to ask you. Why do you fight me? What are you trying to teach?

I'll gather more blue/white mana and cast Curse of Chains again.

I'll Fly up and then try to reverse the flow of the connection and drain the power from the thing.

The chains slam it to the ground once more, but you are strangely unable to interact with the link between it and you. In fact, whatever the nature of the link, its attached deep within your metaphysical core. Disrupting it would be very dangerous to you as well. "Teach? What are you talking about? Start taking me more seriously!"

"Your dual approach works on mortals but not here..."

The creature shatters the chains with raw mana, and blasts fire wildly and blindly at you from its mouth, destroying everything around you except you.

It's actually starting to get rather hot here, between the fire and the nascent newborn volcano behind you. The thunderstorm picks up, and ash mixes in with the descending snow.

My normal approaches don't work. It's trying to enlighten me to something new.

I need something to fight a monster. A hero that fight upright with pure strength and skill ;untainted by dirty tricks to fight back the darkness. I sheath my sword and hold this Ideal in my mind and heart. Then I enter into a stance to make it a reality.

"What will you do next, I wonder..." The voice sounds interested, and the head glances at you for a moment before being distracted again.

The creature leaps at you landing within its claws reach. It doesn't attack, but stands upright at that range. "Preparing to strike? Good. I shall do the same!"

It adopts a stance not that reminds you strangely of the Incredible Hulk, and then it just starts screaming at you, a deafening sound that blasts the snow off the ground behind you. You manage to not go deaf, and your concentration holds.

OOC: Akashic Martial Art 1@4.

I'll focus on a single moment of martial perfection and strike with the speed and strength of a Hero; sending the monster flying into the volcano.

Your focus falters for a moment, and you fail to put the intended force into the attack. You hit the monster, and hits you back, sending you away from the rumbling caldera.

It crouches to all fours for a moment. "YES! That's it! When you are done with me, show this Mentat what power really is! Let's see him outsmart a rock!"

"You cannot be at peace while fighting..."

He pounces at you with fists upraised, intent on pulverizing you when he lands.

I'll dodge out of his intended path of attack and when he lands I'll strike him like I intended before. My focus will not falter. I WILL Send him into the Volcano.

You hit him mid-leap, and he flies back from you, using his wings to recover before he hits ground. "Using those techniques you learned? STOP PLAYING!"

"This distance gives you a chance..."

It lands in front of the volcano, and seems to be readying itself for another attack. While the Hero Stance you've adopted gave it no power at all, each subsequent attack has been empowering it, just not as much as the mana spells have been. Also, the volcano starts glowing colors other than red. It's beginning to flicker a bit, like a rainbow is rippling through it.

I'll calm my mind and feel nothing but peace.There is no need to fight it. It has taught me what i need. I'll turn around and fly away.

You begin to fly away, back to the stable ground out of habit. You hear a roar of fury behind you, and you are grabbed and brought low, this time crashing painfully into the ground. It has clutched the back of your head.

"You think seriously all you need to do is ignore me, and I'll stop fighting? FOOL! I AM you! I am your desire to win, to conquer, to destroy! You honestly think I will stop, just because you decide not to?!"

"Why not..."

"Yes, You are sub-servant to my will. I am the one who chooses who I fight. I am the one who chooses who I conquer. And I am the one who chooses who I destroy."

I'll focus my will into the connection to bring this aspect of myself to heel.

"I AM THE ONE IN CHARGE OF MY DESTINY! NOW RETURN TO ME AND KNEEL!"

It releases you. Both heads are looking at you, one in interest, and the other confused. Then one head loses interest again, and the other head laughs.

"I am not, in fact, bound to any will. You would be wise to keep that in mind." It isn't looking at you as it talks.

The other head stops laughing. "Yeah, we are done for now. We'll pick this up again some other time. Summon me again when you are ready for some real training, not that weakness this Mentat offers."

It turns into smoke, and you black out after witnessing a blinding flash of light. You wake up coughing out ash and snow, you are convinced you have broken several more ribs you didn't feel during the fight, and it is becoming hard to breath because of that volcano.

But you are alive.

OOC: Akashic Martial Arts 1@5.

I'll get up, I'll focus on my chi points to induce faster healing, and then walk back to Mentat's base.

The bones to not stitch themselves back together, but you do know your bones will nit themselves back together within a month. It will be two weeks if you get medical attention. Your coat is thankfully mostly intact, and it will hold the cold until you get back.

When you see the compact castle again, you see that it is almost covered in small strips of paper with strange hieroglyphs on them, all flapping in the cold wind like banners.

I'll walk up to it and knock.

"Sir Magnus?" Instead of opening, Emerald Scythe speaks out from one of the comm systems. "It is rather odd in here right now. Thankfully it is not a Wyld leak, but...well...let's just say Mentat has come down with something strange involving the Pattern Spiders and can't really see you right now. In fact, he can't really see much of anything. He doesn't like to talk at present, because he claims he can feel the words and it creeps him out."

"Frankly, the interior is simply annoying right now. I can't make heads or tails of anything indoors. So living beings are off limits until this passes. He seemed convinced the prayer strips would make them go faster. I just shrugged and agreed. They seem harmless enough."

"What are Pattern Spiders?"

"They are spirits in charge of holding reality together. That is the simple version. There is more, but time is acting oddly, and several of my internal databanks are acting strangely. Mentat seemed to believe that giving them thanks for their hard and often unappreciated work through many, many haikus would somehow help reduce the oddities going on indoors. He also wanted me to tell you, before he stopped talking entirely, that if you actually survive, you might want to consider doing the same thing at some point in the near future. He seemed convinced you would somehow damage, alter or unravel the fabric of reality at some point during your final test."

I remember the volcano glowing colors other than red.

"Ah. opps.  Would using a lot of power in a rather short time do that?
What Language is he using in these prayer strip haiku? I don't recognise it."

"Massive essence expenditures disrupt the fabric of reality. Gods often cannot keep up with the sheer change being imposed on them and they slip in their tasks."

"As for the language, that is Old Realm, the language of the Solar Deliberation. This is the language barrier Mentat had to overcome in order to communicate with me. I am glad I can still understand it. His understanding of it is phonetically correct and translates well to his own language, although not grammatically accurate. Several words are out of order, or shouldn't be arranged that way."

"Maybe the pattern spiders will decide it is the thought that counts."

"Hmmm... Essence. So that's the local word for chi or mana. Anyway. I haven't been to a world were reality is so... Fragile. Then again, I haven't been to one where magic flows so freely.
I'll have to consult you later to learn that language. Unless you have someway to transfer the knowledge into my mind. Anyway, Is Old Realm close enough to my language that the Pattern Spiders would understand if I apologised to them?

Anyway, could you direct me to the nearest settlement that is not Wyld Tribe?

Oh, When Mentat recovers from the ire of the Pattern Spiders, Could you ask him to contact me like he did before?"

"I have a theory that the Pattern Spiders will understand any language, even a made-up one. After all, one could not make the language or the words without their aid. Why Mentat chose Old Realm is beyond my understanding. Perhaps he believed that familiarity would work. Either way, he did not consult me before doing it. I don't know if he knows what you now do."

"I do not possess knowledge transferal facilities, and even if I did, it would be too dangerous to use them right now. I normally have access to teaching facilities, to brush new recruits on the language of their foes, namely Old Realm in the Fey dialect."

"And yes, I will let him know. I do not know the location of the nearest non-corrupted tribe. I have been largely immobile. Thankfully, you now seem somewhat better equipped to deal with adverse conditions. There is also a large heat source not far from this position which can aid you with the cold. It's large enough to affect my geomancy negatively, and is recent."

"ummm... Sorry about that. It was a side effect of my vision quest. I would offer to try to fix it, but I'm pretty sure I'd just make it worst. I'll see you later then."

I'll perform the iron shirt kata to make my self more resistant to the cold.  Then I'll head in the direction Mentat indicated before that a non-tainted tribe was in.

"It was? Odd. Mentat was certain it was something he did. No matter. It was done by one of you, and it will require time to repair."

Your journey begins largely without incident. The volcano has sent a warm wind your way, causing unseasonal chaos here and turning the ground into a swamp, but making fewer katas necessary. The first day ends without anything major happening.

I'll keep a look out for signs of human inhabitation and  look for somewhere dry to sleep.

I'll continue.

You've noticed something during your journey. The katas you've learned are much easier to execute away from the stable ground. Dry ground is the tricky part. Soft and dry is as close as it gets. At least its not raining ash anymore.

When you wake up, you awaken in a field of flowers, with a bright and cheery volcano to your right.

"...Fae."
I say that word with the hatred and vitriol of a curse.

I'll look around with my chi sight to find the fae. If I don't see it,I'll start walking in the direction I think I need to go in. I'll be on the lookout for the fae.

I'll determine the direction I need to go in by sensing Mentat with my verser sense and then head in the opposite direction.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:17, Wed 28 Jan 2015.

You see a familiar flying tree with a familiar half-dressed elf on it land close to you. "I say, you are going the right way, Reaver of Titans, Destroyer of Zone Eater, Conqueror of Veiled Mystery, Eluder of the Fae Hunt, Creator of Great Fires, and worthy friend. But you are going about it all wrong."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:33, Mon 02 Feb 2015.

"That would not be the case if you didn't cast this illusion on me fae... Wait a minute. How are you talking to me? My language is alien to this world. You shouldn't be speaking English."

I look though my chi sight. Is it really there?

He is the same abomination you witnessed when you looked at the others, composed only of illusions.

However, when you ask your question, his very being is disrupted. Both of them fly backwards, and crash away from you, screaming in pain. The elf has one leg hung over one of the branches of the downed winged tree. "I called you worthy friend! I called you friend, and this vile treachery is how I am repayed?! Why?!"

"I see, you where using an illusion to communicate with me. And pointing out the hard facts hurts you.
Honestly. I should probably feel bad about hurting you. But it's Hard for me to feel sympathy for a soul eating eldritch abomination. Anyway, You Know what I am capable of. I honestly don' want to destroy you. Drop this Illusion and let me be on my way."

He flinches more, and seems to be powering through something. "Not yet. And you really don't want to slay me, that I promise you. I know what hunts you."

"I'm sorry for hurting you then. Please tell me what hunts me."

"First, a bargain." He gets up back on the branch, and the tree props itself upright. You realize they are the same being. "I need to heal. Allow me to recover, to feed, and I swear on my own heart I will tell you whatever you want."

"...You want me to let you eat part of my soul? Why is swearing on your heart something I should trust? And why can't I just heal you myself? It should be simple to repair your essence."

He looks over his shoulder, then back to you. "You have many questions, and I will answer them. We don't have too much time though."

"I don't want your soul. It's your heart I'm after, your great compassion. That is what interests me right now. And a fae is truth incarnate. This 'Creation' is what is the great lie. You astonish me, as you have just begun to learn that."

"The reality of Creation is very fragile. If I'm not careful I could easily tear it apart.

How much of my compassion are we talking about. Will I recover it with time?"

"Recover?" He seems confused for a moment, and then seems to recall something. "Oh, right. You beings cannot change back easily from things like that. To be fair, it does annoy us for a time as well. So, I will offer a second trade, after the first. Your torc, in exchange for a reversal of my shaping."

You hear several loud, high pitched shrieks over the horizon, like howling wolves applying nails on a chalkboard.

"I'll trade you the torc if you tell me what is hunting me and reverse your shaping.
Do we have a deal?"

"The feeding, as well as the torc, for both. That's the bargain. I see what you tried to do there, brother-in-training, but you have a long ways to go before you can cheat a fae." He smiles, though, almost like he respects what he thinks you tried to do.

"How about this. I'll give you the torc in exchange for You telling me what's hunting me.
Is this deal more to your liking?"

He waves a hand dismissively. "Not really. I can't heal you without the torc, and I can't heal myself with feeding. So, no, the torc is fascinating, and otherworldly, but really useless to me as it is."

He looks back to the direction of the sound. "I'm really not sure how much time you think you have to ask me about this sort of thing. Besides, considering you are the reason I'm hurt at all, I thought you might be more cooperative in helping me."

"Fine. Swear on your Heart that you will draw the minimum needed then do what you can to fix your feeding in addition to answering any of my questions and undoing your shaping. Then I'll let you feed on my compassion and have the torc."

He thinks a moment. "Of course. I didn't plan on overdrawing in any case. Now, first things; you are being hunted by nine. The forms are borrowed from other beings encountered by Veiled Mystery, but they are mostly hobgoblins. However, there are a lot of them, an army in fact, and they intend to take you in force. Your retreat has been cut off, so congratulations on not returning. However, you will need to lay low sometimes, as you will die if you just march on like you did last time. He has learned, and is not playing by the rules."

"I will point you to the first safe place, but you have a deal to honor." He looks at you expectantly.

"You didn't swear on your Heart.One thing is constant about fae across the worlds. There oaths are only effective if they say them out loud. I have no reason to let you feed on me if you will not bind yourself with a oath."

He rolls his eyes. "Fine. You are picking this up quickly. You will be a brother to us soon enough. Or at least a cousin."

He raises a hand. "I swear on my heart that I will draw only what I need to reshape myself to strength, and that once you give me the torc, I will undo my shaping of you."

"I've already given you information, so my only hope is literally your sense of fair play."

"Fortunately for you. I have a rather strong sense of honour. As you can probably see.
Go ahead."

He seems to command all of your attention. You can't really remember much of what happens next, other than recalling a dimming sense of concern for anyone else's problems.

Then it stops, your heart goes from a shriveled useless thing, to having grown three sizes all at once. You regain clarity of thought while crying, and seeing the shattered remains of the torc drifting into the air around you.

"I don't know what sort of magic or material bound that together. Like you, it is made of something I cannot understand. You are not of this world, or mine. I pity you, creature, for you have no home."

The tree takes off, and begins flying away. "Go south, to the lands of the hole-dwellers. They are my people, and will treat you well. Veiled Mystery will not seek you there at first."

"...Which way is south?"

I'll head in the direction that he points me in.

"That way." He speaks from the distance.

You get the impression he just chose a direction and pointed. Because the sun is up, it is morning, and he pointed right at it.

"...fine."
I go that way.

You once again have that sense of time passing without a definite sense of time passing. Once you pass through the trees, a funny thing since you don't recall seeing any trees, but a bit of madness you are probably getting used to by now, you see a quaint village ahead of you, with houses and hills being one and the same, and crystal stone crops growing out of the ground among other things.

An overweight midget on a fence with exceptionally large feet waves hello to you, and smiles.

I wave back to him and walk up to him.

"Um... I was sent here by an elf riding a flying tree."

This message was deleted by the player at 20:02, Mon 02 Feb 2015.

He looks strangely at you. "Haven't seen any of those around these parts. Either way, welcome to Underborrow, home of the people who live like the rabbits and badgers. Except we have human luxuries, like tea, reading and death matches! We look forward to your stay, stranger."

"Talk to Bagman if you want to know what's really going on. He lives at the top of the hill." He points to a hill, which is also a house that has its door at the top.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:27, Tue 03 Feb 2015.

...Human Luxuries like Death Matches? Fae just don't get humans.

"Thank you sir."

I'll go to the top of that hill and knock on the door

In order to knock on the door, you need to climb to the top of the hill, because the door is more like a hatch.

The hatch swings open, and another of those short men is looking up at you. This one is noticeably younger than the one on the fence. "Not interested in adventures. Good day!" He tries to close the door, but he has to climb down a bit, then climb back up, pushing the door up, so its happening very slowly.

I'll put my hand on the door. That should prevent him from closing it due to my weight and strength.

"Hold on now. Who said anything about an adventure? I was told to talk to Bagman to find out what is really going on"

"I'm Bagman. And there will be no adventures, I assure you. I'm not going to the Mountain of Mist with treasures of jade guarded by a terrible dragon king. So, if you don't mind, please leave my house, before something..."

The ground collapses under you, crashing you painfully down the ladder and squashing Bagman under you. "Oh, but I am dying! Curse my poor construction; if I had built better, I would not be dying. Search my house as a final courtesy, there is a map to adventure here. Take it for me, a dying wish..."

Bagman is dead before you can shake yourself from a fall like that.

"owww.... Opps..."

Wow. he was squishy...Wait a minute, jade? I guess I could use it for magic components... Dragon King? That sounds like something interesting to do for now.

I'll search his house for anything useful

You find a map rolled up into a desk. It's in a conspicuous location, like it was meant to be found. Next to the map is a contract, stating that thirteen people calling themselves Jadefolk, and a powerful wizard calling himself Cloaked Riddle will be returning soon to speak with him.

OOC: Specify "useful."

OOC: food and tools for the journey.

I guess I'll sit down and wait for them. This is starting to sound familiar for some reason but I can't place my finger on it.

You have to scavenge a bit for the tools. Food is in abundance here, and you could likely take as much as you can carry. Most of the tools seem meant for home maintenance, like screwdrivers, hammers and such. Finding things to carry the food in also has to be improvised a bit, as it seems he was not, in fact, preparing for any journey at all.

The house, pre-ransacking, looks like the interior of an English home, but smaller and with a lower ceiling.

Is there a tool to start fires?

I'll gather some cloth together and then put it into a pile.
I'll then punch them and shape them with my will so that they form themselves into a travelling bag

While a hilarious idea, it turns out that punching cloth is terrible at shaping cloth. Using your force of will, however, is much more effective for reasons that do not make any sense at all when you stop and think about it.

You manage to make a large back using your brain. You also manage to find a tinderbox, which presently has hot coals still in it.

"Meh."
I'll start packing the bag full of food that wont spoil for a while.

I'll get some more cloth and then use my will to turn it into a smaller bag with a tie.
I'll put the Tinderbox into the smaller bag.

For reasons, the tinderbox doesn't ignite the bag. It's a good tinderbox.

You have all the food you can carry, and a bag to hold your fire in.

...

I'll look for something that I could make into a staff or walking stick.

I'll then state.
"Your shape displeases me. Change into a staff."
I'll then punch (it/the kami associated with it) until it changes into what I want.

Oddly, you have a strange feeling this might work in the normal world of this setting. Here, however, you just break a staff into two parts. Mostly because it is an illusion, and has no god.

Meh I was just trying something new out.

I'll just will the staff back together and make it the shape I want.

Then I'll waitfor them to get here and snack on the food around the house.

Here, your mind has power over the deception. The staff reassembles.

You hear the sounds of stomping feet and a call "wait here."

"Bagman, you don't have much time to get ready. We need to be moving out now, at once, immediately, as soon as you have the time to do so, right...now." That is unquestionably the voice of Veiled Mystery.

I leap out of the hole and Shoryuken Veiled Mystery.

Obviously I'm shouting "Shoryuken!" to make it better.

An old man who had assembled near the hole looking down is rather startled to encounter you leaping out and flying through him. Being a ghost, he doesn't die from this, but he is rather perturbed.

"No no no no no nononononono!" He throws his tall hat to the ground in anger. "I was supposed to meet up with Bagman, not you! What are you doing in my legend again? Are you that determined to be my designated foe?"

"Wait...you killed him, didn't you?"

"I wanted to go to a village in creation but you fae keep drawing me back into your stories.

Honestly It was an accident. Shoddy construction on that door. It collapsed and i Landed on him. Poor thing wasn't sturdy enough to survive that"

Veiled Mystery, or rather, Cloaked Riddle speaks this next line ominously and deep.

"There are no accidents."

"I'd love nothing more than to kill you right now, but unfortunately, my army is quite some ways from here, and without it, I cannot properly play the role of pursuing warlord correctly. So, I suppose I shall be your reluctant guide on your quest. You did get the map at least, didn't you?"

The other small people begin gathering around. A young one among them speaks up. "Bagman's dead? So, what did he do to deserve that?"

"Do I look stupid to you? Of course I got the map. It's down there with the other things I prepared."

I turn to the young one.
"eh... Nothing really besides being really out of shape and having a shoddy door. Hatch...Whatever you want to call that. Really it doesn't make much sense. Why would you put your door on top of your house. If you wanted to keep someone out you would have to push against their weight. and most people are not strong enough to do that."

Veiled Mystery scoffed. "Obviously these are a simple people, who do not understand basic construction. Building doors on the side would stop any future incidents like this from happening. Go forth! And build no more doors on the tops of your homes!"

The people look confused. "But how will we get in or out of our homes? Would you have us walk in from the sides?"

"Well obviously. It would be simpler like that."
I jump down and gather my things for the trip.
I'll then use my logic and spacial sense to find the thinnest wall to the side of the hill.
I'll then apply the principle of the board breaking strike to this. Then I focus my will into a punch that will make a big hole though the wall

when I looked though my che sight was Veiled Mystery really there? what about the others?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:43, Wed 04 Feb 2015.

Veiled Mystery is not all there. He's got one foot in the story, and another in a different tale. Basically, he somehow has a way out in the event things go south for him.

The others look at you with astonishment, and then realization dawns on them. "So, this whole time, we should be able to PUNCH holes in the sides of our homes, instead of digging?"

They disperse, very pleased, and immediately begin punching holes in the sides of their homes. "Wait, wait WAAAIIIIT!"

The old man speaks up. "What are all of you doing? Have you absolutely lost your minds?"

"What are you going to make the DOOR out of? Without a ceiling to set your door in, how will it open, if not for its own weight opening it? If you set the door in the wall, like crazy people, it won't open!"

Veiled looks at him and laughs. "An excellent point, bounder." He turns to you. "So, I don't suppose you have another 'logical' solution to this problem, do you?"

"You attach the door to the wall with a hinge. When you want to open it you push or pull on the door. duh."

They look at you with confusion, not comprehending.

The Jadefolk, which look like dwarves to you with large black shining eyes, seem to be impatiently tapping the ground with their feet.

Veiled immediately takes to his role as an adviser. "This village is doomed, doomed, unless we complete this quest. Then they can leave these holes and get some real houses. Ones up in the clouds! But we need a specialist, one that can face the dragon king Murgrathandar and live!"

He seems to want to get on with it already.

"...You guys have no concept of physics do you? Meh. You'll figure it out eventually."

I turn to Veiled Mystery.
"I am such a specialist. I'll face this dragon king Balthasar and live."

"Will you now? Can you sneak into the back door of the dragon's lair and steal the treasure out from under the king's nose and live? You can't even remember a simple name. Murgrathandar has killed several of those who have dared to pursue him. Others stand as monuments outside his lair. Truly he is a terrible foe."

The Jadefolk nod their heads, as if a good point was being made.

"Who said anything about using the back door and sneaking? I'll enter from the front and then beat him down. Who cares about what his name is? He'll be dead."

Cloaked Riddle simply shakes his head. "Others before you have tried. Tried and failed. Failed, after they tried to succeed. A success they never enjoyed. Because they did not succeed."

"No, this time we leave nothing to chance. Only a high risk infiltration to steal that which is significant to him, to lure him out and leave him vulnerable will work."

"To succeed, we take the greatest of chances. There is an order to things, and all will become clear in time. Time, you may not have, should you tarry for too long. And without that time, there will be no clarity. And without clarity, you shall fail, as those others I mentioned two paragraphs ago."

"oooookkkkk....
Let's get going then."

Your journey begins with Cloaked Riddle (in this story), or Veiled Mystery (whichever is preferred) leading the way. The thirteen Jadeborn follow behind you, eyes in all directions.

"Halt!" Veiled speaks quietly. "You, hero. We will need you to go on ahead, and scout the dangers for us."

In this forest, and in a clearing, there are three rather large ogre like creatures just off the path around a campfire. You can see them rather clearly from where you are right now.

"Ummm... I can see the danger from right here. There are three ogres like creatures right over there."

He gives you an annoyed look. "So? What does that have to do with anything? We need to scout ahead, or we might be ambushed. Who knows what sort of dangers lurk in these fell woods? Tread carefully, and be silent as a midnight breeze. That is not making any noise at all."

I roll my eyes, Do a short kata to enter into the Hero style and walk up to the ogres.
"Good day Sirs. How are you this fine day? I think it is a good day to go without an incident."

They look at you surprised. One of them is slightly larger than the other three and walks right up to you. "Oy, boys. Look a dis' here. We's been lookin' fer food, and food just walks right up and says ''ello!"

The one on the left looks around. "Somethin' 'bout this ain't right, boss. Wud if it be a trick?"

The third one joins in. "Yeah! Whud if 'e brought friends? Where yur friends, runt?"

"Are all fae stupid? Anyway, bad move."

I'll hit the big one with the perfect punch and send him flying into one on the other ones.
I'll then rush the other small one and strike a few of his chi points to set up a flow of chi to his head that will make his head explode with the key praise "You are already dead."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:31, Fri 06 Feb 2015.

You nail the large one and he goes staggering backwards, crashing off of his feet into the campfire behind him. He promptly gets up yelling and slapping himself out. The other two start laughing at his plight, and that's about the time you learn two things about the second thing you attempted:

One, really fat or large things are apparently resistant to that sort of treatment.

Two, unpracticed combative acupuncture is very hard, even against a distracted target.

The smaller one is punched several times, and is not amused by it at all, although he is noticeably hurt by it. He slugs you back, solid and hard. You go sailing backwards through the trees. He starts to stomp after you, while the others are extinguishing themselves or laughing about it, respectively.

OOC: Putting a mental flag here.

"Eh, that was a thing in the show."

I'll get up.

These ogres are creatures of chaos and illusion. Imposing order and stagnation on them should be deadly for them. So when I strike him, my blows will inflict order and turn him into immoble stone bit by bit.

I'll use my maneuverability to cause him to hit trees with his punches. I'll strike him when his guard is down.

"Whad are you laughing at, Lugnut? I'll slug yur face!"
"I wanna see you try, Grobad!"

While they are busy fighting, the smallest one is unrelenting in his goal. "Looks like I'm gettin' you all to meself. Hurhurhahaha!"

At this point he bumps into one of the Jadefolk, a particularly fat one. Apparently he had been following you. The ogre swiftly punches the Jadefolk unconscious.

"HEY! He brought friends! Get all the food before it gets us!"

The other two stop fighting.

"ugggg... Of course."
This is starting to feel really familiar for some reason.

Time to bring out the big guns. Their bodies are made of illusions so what happens when I dispell them?

I leap though the air toward the nearest one and rear back a punch. I shout "Illusion Breaker!" as I punch him.

Your punch blasts the ogre apart, and destroys a good chunk of the surrounding forest. Veiled Mystery is fleeing for his life.

You are back in the snow again, and you see where the dream forest continues in both directions around you, with you having made a bubble of reality in the dream. Your acquired food is all gone, as is anything you picked up from the fae world.

"Eh...Opps"

I'll continue heading away from Mentat. I'm looking for signs of human settlement.
I'll continue using Illusion Breaker when I encounter more illusions.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:47, Sun 08 Feb 2015.

While the illusion is withdrawing from you, you get a strange feeling around you. A feeling of unraveling, like reality itself is starting to shake apart.

"ah. opps."
I'll stop using Illusion Breaker and continue walking.

There is no more illusion. Things around you, however, are a bit odd. You swear you are seeing webs and spiders in the corners of your vision, and you vaguely hear chittering.

You see in the distance a mountain range beginning to form. You aren't quite sure if it is real or not, but it's a change of pace from the snow.

I'll walk to the mountains. Still looking for signs of human inhabitation.

As you approach, you hear that howling noise behind you again, followed by a familiar lilting voice. The world again shifts around you, with a path forming in front of you that leads into a cave.

"Seriously?" Tree-rider arrives behind you, this time riding a sleigh pulled by rabbits instead of riding a tree. "He wants that role again? I thought I made it clear to him that's not the kind of story I want to tell. Oh well. We'll do it his way I guess. Keep going to the mountains, through the passage, enigmatic hero, and do not terry. You are too interesting to die like this, right here. I will hold him off."

He starts to ride off.

"Sigh... Again?"

I'll head into a cave. Forcing the dreamstuff and illusions into a shape of a torch to light my way.

As you are technically not altering reality, you can alter the shape of this world. You hear chitters of protest in your mind, but you don't get an impression that you've made things worse. Just not any better for yourself.

You make a weak torch out of thin air, by tapping into the power of the narrative. Because the plot demands the hero has a light source when going into a cave.

OOC: Manipulate Narrative 1@2. You're a natural.

I continue into the cave.
"I'm sorry Pattern Spiders. I'm trying to get somewhere quiet so I wont need to use my magic so often."

As you enter the cave, it becomes more...real. Something is ending the dream down here. Ahead, you see a green light down the cavern, and you swear you see a glimpse of yourself.

A whisper drifts through the cave. "Over here."

I'll try to find the one who made the whisper and the Green light.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:20, Tue 10 Feb 2015.

You go deeper into the cavern. The green light stays close, and then moves ahead of you, deeper into the caverns. The shadow it casts is a glimpse of a large man. You smell damp, stagnant water ahead, and the darkness down here is almost palpable.

"This way."

I'll continue to follow it.
"Who are you?"

You enter a large chamber with a flat, dark lake in it. On the shores are columns of skulls and bones, with an island dimly visible in the middle of it. A boat is on the beach, small though it is. That whisper chimes again, this time from the lake itself. A green light source flickers under the lake.

"This way. Over here."

"Answer me first. Who are you"

You receive no answer in the darkness, save a whisper.

"Answer me first. Who are you?"

"I Am Magnus. Now tell me who you are."

Your torch runs out of dream essence and dies out, leaving the room lit only by the faint green light.

"I am Magnus. Now tell me who you are."

I Spend some of my chi to produce a Bright white light.

You sense some kind of altered power wave rolling away from you, but otherwise you create a dim light that contrasts with the green coming from the lake. From the lake, you sense the same wrongness you just gave out, and white light shoots through the green, almost making a slow moving strobe.

"... What's going on here? "

Let's take the boat to that island.

You manage to push the boat out without a capsize. When you arrive, you encounter nothing on the island but a pile of rags, and lots of fish bones scattered about. The green and white light is all around the island, and seems strongest under the shore here.

I'll try to find the source of that green light.

When you look into the water, you catch a perfect glimpse of your own reflection, searching the water. The source of the light appears to be your own hand in the reflection. In fact, you notice the light has concentrated under you.

The water begin to churn and bubble next to you, and the lake ripples away from your reflection, as it rises from the lake like an unholy Lazarus. Your reflection is off, in that your arms are now dangling in front of them, there is a look of regret and sorrow on the face, and the eyes flicker green. It is knee deep in the lake.

"What Are You?"

It looks up at you, and speaks in your own voice, tone matched and all.

"What...are you? I am Magnus."

What does the hand the light is coming form look like?

"What where you doing below the lake?"

It's in the opposite hand you have the light in. Right to left, left to right. Just like a reflection.

"What were you doing...below the lake? What...is going on here?"

"I see. You can only say what I have said in this cave. You seem like a reflection of me. So what do you want? To Exist? To Get Out of here? Enlightenment?"

He looks at you.

"I see. Want. Get. Reflection. I am reflection."

"So you want to replace me?"

It looks at you again, mirroring your face perfectly except for those details.

"I want get out of here. Get below the lake."

"Would me swimming to the bottom of the lake help you get out? Yes or no"

He leans his head to the side.

"Swimming to the bottom of the lake. Yes. Get want below."

"Ok, O wish I knew what I was looking for."

I'll jump in and start swimming to the bottom. using my light to look around for whatever it is.

You dive to the bottom, and the reflection follows. Not too deep, not far off the shore at all is a golden ring. The reflection points to it.

"Over here."

I go to the ring and pick it up and then head back to the surface and the Island.
"Here you go."
I'll try to hand the ring to the reflection.

It steps away from you, parrying your hand clumsily. It points at you.

"Magnus. You want. Get." It points to the exit. "Go."

"You want me to take it with me? ok, but will you be able to come out too?"

It goes thoughtful. You notice your reflection has a silvery undertone to it.

"No. Go, take. You not want. Take, not want."

"... Ok I don't really want it but I'll take it with me. I wonder if it does something.
Ummm... Which way do I go to get out?"

Your reflection points to the exit, the way you came in.

"Go. Do not want something. Take, but do not want."

"You don't want me to wear it?" ok. I guess I'll see you later."

I'll push the boat the way I came in and then start walking when I get to the shore.
I'll try reading the structure of the ring to see what it does.

You get a sinking sense of isolation, of desire, of overwhelming NEED. A need to escape. The person this was meant for was meant to end those needs. You sense the shadows pulling around it, and you feel as if the darkness itself were watching you, and studying you right back for your purpose.

Some kind of oath is written on it in a foreign language, the same script Mentat used on his prayer strips, but different somehow. More sinister, like they will shift if you look away from them.

I put the ring securely in my pocket. My gut is telling me this thing is Very Dangerous.
This thing of on the same level of evil as The One Ring from Lord of the Rings. As distasteful as carrying something like that is, I Can't let it fall into the wrong hands. I also need to work out how to destroy this thing.

I'll continue to walk out of the cave.

You realize at this point you have not slept for some time, and that you are really tired.

OOC: Until you get rest, you are taking some nasty penalties.

Let's see if I can find any real wood to build a fire with.(I'm staying near the cave.)

If I gather enough wood, I'll try to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.

I'll build a wind block at the mouth of the cave with snow.

I'll go to sleep

Your measures are sufficient, and you sleep soundly.

You awaken to the sounds of marching on the ground. You have less of a sense of agitation, but you have the impression it won't take much to reset that back.

Well great.
I'll get up and wait to see if the fae try to come in.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:23, Tue 03 Mar 2015.

After some time, a team of ten creatures you recognize as goblins manage to dig the snow aside. Upon seeing you, they shriek in terror, drop their shovels and run back to the rest of the force you hear camped not to far outside the mouth of the cave. You hear Cloaked Riddle speak.

"Hero, I know you are there. I also know that tunnel network extensively, and you will not escape from me easily in there. Step out, so that you. May. Die." He slows on those last few words.

I'll walk on out

"Ha. Your funny Hidden Riddle or whatever you are calling yourself now. I can rip apart you and your army so just run away before you really annoy me."

He steps forward, radiating white light, and beside him walks Tree-Rider, who shrugs as he speaks. "What can I say? My role is one of the traitor, and we sealed our deal over some delicious rabbit stew. I never realized why you enjoyed it so much!"

Riddle looks at him while raising his bejeweled staff. "And now you shall receive a traitor's reward!"

He strikes the screaming Tree-rider down with a single blow, but through your chi sight you see his life essence consolidate and fly off to reform elsewhere.

"Now that his role in our tale is finished, we shall focus on ours." He smiles malevolently at you. "I can see your essence patterns, and you are perilously close to unraveling yourself. You can just barely contain the power you have. And I don't think that trinket that reeks of our primordial foes will do anything to save you from me."

He spins the staff with what you can see is an inhuman level of skill. "Attack me, if you dare."

I'll focus my chi into Iron Skin Technique.

I'll enter into the Hero style I developed before.
I'll fight defensively to ward against his inhuman skill.

When I do strike I'll use the perfect attack I developed and I'll send in a pulse of calcifying chi to kill the chaos in his body.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:07, Sun 08 Mar 2015.

As your body enters the Iron Skin technique, the world warps around you, sending out a pulse that would have terrified every animal within three hundred feet of you with its unnatural presence, had any been available. As you shift into Hero stance, a swarm of enraged spiders bursts from the world around you, and attempt to fix the hole in reality. All of them.

On the plus side, you see Cloaked Riddle go down before you are subsequently buried in a wave of enraged pattern spiders.

OOC: Sorry, but I got a rather nasty random roll. On the plus side, you've learned a new martial art, a new magic technique that will only blow up if you overuse it instead of whenever it feels like it, and you have replaced a power limiter with the One Ring. If Oak allows it, I have your next world planned.

Sigh. I was hoping to last longer in this world.