To be fair, so does Nym...it just might get through a bit more than the door, depending on what said door and surrounding doorframe/wall/furniture is made of ;).

Nym giggles at this talk of "bumping" the ship.

"Well, it sounds like it might be a fun way to move." she says. "Well, maybe for a while. So...it's bumpy moving? It's not all smooth and stuff? Does that mean your stuff always keeps falling on the floor when you turn?"

Ryn, meanwhile, sniffs at the proffered hand and tilts her head quizzically at its owner. She then goes over to the gnomin with the sticks and starts nosing at those, no doubt causing further disarray.

Meri nodded as the Captain left, then turned to reply to Farren.
"I couldn't look at him, or hear what he was saying.  I could only hear Nym's side of the conversation and guess about him from that.  If I tried to look at him, or even speak about him, it made my head itch so badly I could barely manage it.  Exactly like when the itch kept interfering with my thought process back in the workshop before, I'm certain it was the same sensation, only much stronger than before.  Still got a bit of a lingering headache now after that.  If I see him again he'll have worse than a burned arm to worry about!"

She paused, clearly making an effort to calm herself down a little.
"Could you see him and hear what he was saying?" she asked.  "I still don't understand what caused that, I'm certain I'm not wearing any items that could have reacted to him that way, and I spent most of my energies fighting that dragon, so if anything I should be less likely to create such a damaging effect now than at any other time."


OOC: Will wait and see if he has a key for it.  If not, maybe Meri can pick the lock (or just plain dismantle it, before rebuilding it after she's done, complete with a trap that incinerates anyone else trying to pick it!)
I get the feeling if Nym tried it, the door would be the only thing left of the ship afterwards! ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:45, Mon 27 Aug 2018.

Farren looked perplexed. "I could see him perfectly. I suppose there mus have been some sense - either one shapeshifter to another, if rumours of vampire powers are true - or revenant to undead - that something wasn't right with him. And seemed just as instinctively cold to me too. There was some mutual instant dislike that, for my part, I had no idea where it came from. And I've been good at looking for signs of recognition on people I meet, I didn't feel he knew who I was, he was just..reacting." Farren shrugged. "Sorry, as to what he said? He introduced himself as Tybur, said he'd been waiting for meeting at least you and Nym for a lifetime, which being a vampire seems more terrifying now. That while it wasn't exactly certain, it wasn't entirely chance either that you met with him now. After that, realise that... well, Nym being Nym appeared to throw him a little from his grandious statements. He seemed to indicate that until he actually foudn you, he could be forgiven for thinking he was mad. And that what he served had only been hinted at in poems, and the ravings of madnmen. Or something like that. It seems like now is the time that those touched by 'The One' are being drawn together. He called him 'The Master', or 'The Giver', and appeared to think you should know who he meant...."

Something occurred to Farren. "He spoke with the dragon. Somehow. Knew its name, 'Bethasus the Bold', and had been told the ship was beneath its notice. Though if what I understand of its origin is true, I'm not sure that sounds believeable... Though was it Tybur who lied, or this dragon? Tybur seemed to think the dragon wasn't fully in control of its own drives. Or was Tybur behind it, and covering? I mean, I would have assumed if the dragon saw and moved against this ship, this ship would be destroyed. Perhaps we should ask the captain..."

Farren shook his head. "It all seemsquite confusing, really. Even without the distraction of any memories to weigh me down." He said the last a little bitterly. "Why your...odd affliction stopped you from seeing and hearing him, I do not know. Is it helping you? Though badly, if you can't see foes coming... Perhaps the reaction to you wasto do with his vampirism? Maybe you are somehow blessed? Or he, cursed? He did seem surprised, as if he knew the reason it happened, but maybe he was making assupmptions.?"

The Captain returned, looking perplexed and embarrassed. "I'm sure I had the thing... Iwas so sure of it..." he said, muttering to himself, then looking expectantly to the two talking figures, as if to see what he missed.

Lol, unsurprisingly the NPC doesn't really know what's going on,but at least he filled you in on the stuff you missed. I would just undo all the secret text as I'm not really hiding anything, but it's a little less simple than it sounds...


The gnomin considers the question from multiple angles, if its distorted face is anything to go by. "Small bumps, very small bumps, all the time. Very smooth. Mostly very smooth. Smoother than normal wind. Unless big wind also around, than it can get bumpy. Very bumpy. But mostly things stay on the floor. Unless we have to turn tightly. Then things slid. Then fall. Then bump."


The gnomin with the offered hand looks quizzically at the retreating Ryn in return, as if not sure what people are supposed to do next, then and shuffled around to simply see what Ryn is doing. The gnomin with the sticks is taken aback by the interest. At firstit awkwardly tries to keep moving the sticks around without toughing Ryn, but the anglesof its short arms don't work and Ryn actually doens't thesticks doens't help either. It tries to pass off the sticks with little success to its fellow, mostly because the other gnomin doens't appear to understand what is going on, so doesn't take the sticks. "Nice sticks!" it instead says encouragingly to Ryn, as if expecting her to take them from the stick-wileding gnomin.

Nym nods in sage agreement with the gnomin's analysis of the nature of a bumpy ship.

"Ah yes, of course. I suppose that's like anything else, isn't it?" she says. "I mean, if you were in a wagon or something and it turned really fast, you'd probably fall over. Or out. Or the wagon might fall over. And then you might hurt yourself. And if you had any stuff, that would probaly get broken. But I suppose a ship is bit more smooth than that, because it doesn't have a bumpy road to to ride along. And a flying ship must be even more smooth...at least as long as you don't accidentally crash into a tree or something. Or the ground."

She peers over the side.

"What happens if it...er...gets tired?" she asks. "I mean, you know, like, if you use too much magic you need to have a rest fora bit in order to sort of...build it back up again. Does the ship have that? Or can it just keep going forever."

While Nym continues to question the gnomin on all things flying-ship-related, Ryn sits back and cocks her head at the two gnomins looking at her, as though waiting to see what else they might do.

"Tiamat was behind the dragon" replied Meri.  "I saw her, for a short time, until I got pulled back to this world.  And whatever inflicted that itching was there too.  As with Tybur, I couldn't look directly at it, could only see a red glow.  Maybe it was him.  As for being blessed, I very much doubt that."

She looked over the side of the ship at the ground below.
"The dragon seemed to be specifically out to destroy anything with the aura of the Shadow's magic in it.  The bear had been changed by that somehow.  And Many was created by that power's reaction with something in my workshop three weeks ago, who knows what else it may have destroyed before it got to us?
After it fled though, it seems Tiamat took direct control of its power, turning it against the dragon itself, perhaps as punishment for its failure, tormenting it until it was compelled to return and attack again.
I had intended to seek out one of the priests of Bahamut in Fivespears about another matter, seems now I have another reason to, their knowledge might help me create a more effective means of warding off dragon attacks in future..."

She trailed off and looked around as the Captain returned.
"Well I may be able to get the door open without the key" she suggested.

The more talkative gnomin nodded equally sagely, and given its wrinkled face it managed to seem very sage like. "Yes, though air tricky, tricky like water. It moves around and flowsand creates balls and lines and waves and bumps. Can feel like a wagon on an old road, if you don't sing to it and smooth it out. Yes, sing. With your mind."

"Magic," said the shy-er Gnomin, still half standing behind its talkative fellow.

'Mah-jic!' came a tiny, far off voice from Nym's pocket, showing thatperhaps Many was listening in.

The talkative gnomin seems to consider the answer to Nym's other question for a long time, from all angles. The shy gnomin took another stab at talking, sounding hopeful. "Been three weeks now. That's a long time. Maybe that's like forever..."

Lol, if that's a good moment for Nym to notice Meri start to be led in the direction of some strong magic, which might answer those questions, then all's good. If not, you have new friends anyway :)

The two other gnomins around Ryn still seemed to be confused. The stick user put them away, and tried to delicately take out a piece of string instead. It was in a wasteband loop, and unfortunately it caught arond its wrist and on its belt, so it started pulling its own arm backaround itself.

The more friendly gnomin shook its head. "It look like it understand us," it said, waving a hand to see the reaction. "Hello! Do you understand us? My name is Shoosha, and my friend Tithee is trying to measure you. I do not know why. I think it's how he says hello to things that interest him."


Meanwhile, The Captain looked to Meri, and seemed happy at the suggestion. "Oh, of course!" he said, waggling his fingers as if mimicking magic. He turned, and gestured to the stairs downwards he had indicated before, and started walking that way, indicating for any who cared to follow him.

Farren took advantage of the confusion to reply to Meri. "You saw a goodess? How?" His voice was a mixture of emotions, perhaps a combination of relief at someone else knowing his pain, and being put out that he was not sospecial anymore. "What was the thing in red,exactly? A light? A shape? Are you sure it was behind the itch? Maybe you were being protected from that, too?"

Farren nodded regarding the dragon's behaviour. "I noticed its drive to attack...well, you know who...when it first attacked. And I was surprised when it attacked a second time. That didn't seem natural, even for a creature on a mission. I suppose the five headed goddess does not take failure well, even from Her most faithful servants." Farren brows knotted together. "You might do well to remember that though, and perhaps seeking out Bahamut's favour as well as his knowledge might not be a bad idea. Though let's see about getting us to Thirdgate or Fivespears first, of course."


Assuming either or both of you follows the captain...


The stairs went to a slightly cramped hallway, with the stairs awkwardly curving out of the way making going down them difficult. There was a long hallway going back towards the front of the ship, two doors at either side, and a door leading to a room at the rear of the ship. If the innate call of magic and the thick obvious lock did not denote this was the door with the 'engine room', then the fact there was a pulsating yellow glow coming from under it may have instead been an indication.

"Well, this is...it?" said The Captain. He seemed slightly intimidated, and straightened his hat for comfort, despite it almost being high enough to be knocked squint again by the roof. Of course, it was very possible he had not seen inside this room since the incident that had created the glow, perhaps an odd feeling for a captain of a ship.

"Oh, three weeks? That's ages." says Nym, seeming confident that the given answer means they aren't going to start plummeting from the sky any time soon. "Well, I mean, it'd be ages for me. I hope it's ages for the ship as well. Actually, no, I suppose it needs to be not-very-long for the ship, so it's still got loads left..."

She seems to notice at this point that Meri seems interested in following the captain wherever he's going, but seems undecided on whether to go over and ask about that or stay with the gnomins.

"Hmm, maybe I should go and see what's interesting over there..." she mutters. "Hmm, but it's probably Meri-stuff with how things work and maybe I won't find it so interesting. Hmm, and there's still everyone else down below who might want to come up here...or at least find somewhere to sleep that isn't all rainy and stuff. Hmm, there are so many new things here...lots of nice people...oooh, I wonder what else there is?"

Ryn, meanwhile, sits up on her hind legs and waggles a forepaw in mimicry of Shoosha's wave. She watches Tithee's little escapade with the string and makes a sort of light chattering noise that might be laughter. Maybe.

Incidentally, since it's probably getting pretty late by now, how is this place lit up? Are there lanterns around the edge of the ship or something? And is it still raining? I think it started raining at some point, right? I sort of forgot in between getting attacked by dragons and then vapourising them >:).

Meri eyed the door, lowering the goggles over her eyes again and pulling down some of the smaller magnifier lenses before stooping down to peer into the keyhole.
On her shoulder, Timur clambered down into her pack, as if responding to an unspoken request to fetch some item...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Just checking first to make sure there's no magical traps or anything set on it by creepy vampire guy...
Perception 21 (3 + 14 + 4) - Not having much luck with dice rolls at the moment.  The Dice Roller is already trying to kill my newly-created Kai Character over on the other game!]

Farren and The Captain stood in polite silence while Meri looked at the door. Well, for Farren it was probably polite silence, For The Captain he was possibly too intimidated by Meri to interrupt her despite the lack of magic happening, and still too sore regarding 'boats' to whisper anything to Farren.

An old looking but still sandy haired sailor appaered from one of the corridors, but upon seeing the gathered throng, kept back respectfully and tried to not make his own gawking too obvious.

[Private to Meri: Heh, well, for missing the Hard DC, the punishment has to be that Meri would be perfectly convinced there's no traps there, despite the fact that you, as a player, are aware you missed the Hard DC so there moght well be something...

Still, I'm sure Meri would be cautious, so just roll well with any subsequent rolls and I;m sure nothing bad will happen...

Look, Im not Sabre Fox, I'm sure if I wanted to kill you in this game I'd have tried it with the dragon right? But you were fine, not rolling death saves. Oh, wait, that was Nym. Nm, yeah, maybe roll me some 3d6 rolls along wiht your next roll... :p]


Nym's two interested gnomins sudden;y looked at each other. "The room!" they both said in unison. The more talkative gnomin gave a small, awkward bow and rushed off in the direction of the steps. The other gnomin awkwardly stayed, perhaps because they were still nervous around Nym, and perhaps also because they were now torn between two interesting magical things to pull focus.

OOC no one else will be coming up the rope, if Nym is staying where she is, unless she actually startstrying ot see what's happening with them. The time of day is around 8pm, actually. The wagon stopped early to give lots of food prep time and camp time. And because when it got really dark on the road (which has happened earlier than normal due to rain clouds) it would have been a bad place to stop.

So yeah, it is dull, and still at least drizzling, and there are lanterns dotted around. The idea would be that when the ship can actually land, you and Meri could most likely turn in, and everything would be loaded and done - assuming the people down below agree - by the morning :)


Shoosha is encouraged and waves again. She is not sure what the noise Ryn makes is, so tries to imitate it. She then walks over to Tithee, still looking to Ryn. She then looks between Ryn and Nym. "I am sure she understands me well.  She must be smart if she Hadarararim." Soosha then raises her voice in Ryn's direction. "Can you help me with Tithee?"

Tithee, for their part, had been resisting being helped, despite how much more of a tangle it causes. However, his arm was becoming increasingly white, and his face wrinkling more in what could be pain, and he seemed to finally, if still reluctantly, relent.

Meri frowned slightly, as if uncertain about something, but then shook her head slightly and looked back at the others.
"Can't tell if he set some kind of defensive enchantment on the lock to stop anyone opening it without the key, so probably best to stand back, just in case" she warned them.

Timur emerged from the pack again, carrying several small thin tools apparently taken from Meri's toolbox.
Taking two of these from him, Meri reached cautiously for the lock, sliding them into the keyhole and starting to tamper with the mechanism...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Should be ok as long as any traps don't do 38 or more damage :)  *crosses fingers*
Thievery check to pick the lock:  19 (9 + 10) - Hmmmm...
3d6?  13 (5 + 4 + 4) - 13, my lucky number! :)]

Nym gives a bemused wave at the departing gnomin and looks over to see what Ryn is up to. Ryn, for her part, is twitching her nose curiously at the antics of Tithee and Shoosha.

"Well, let's see what's going on over there..." says Nym to her remaining gnomin, and strolls over to stand beside Ryn, dropping to a crouch to be closer to the action.

At Nym's arrival, Ryn looks up at her and makes a few chattery-growly noises, then turns her gaze back to the somewhat-ensnared Tithee.

"Oh, do you want some help with that?" Nym asks, reaching forward with a slight amount of hesitancy in case for some reason the gnomin doesn't want her help. "Try and find an end and then sort of go from there..."

Sorry for the delay in posting, and apologies for the delay again since I'm going to ask for some rolls :)


Meri, could you roll me a percepion check?

And Nym, could you roll me a dexterity check for helping out, or two if Ryn would alsobe helping too.

OOC:  Perception 21 (7 + 14) - Seems to be a month for low rolling here...

No worries - I figured from the recent lack of posting that you were probably busy :). A plain Dex check, you say? I can't remember if these use just the Mod or if it's Mod + half-level. If Ryn helps it's basically a free bonus roll since familiars use the stats of their master ;). Didn't think Familiars were "allowed" to make stat rolls like this but I can do it if you want ;).
Roll for me = Ugh, really? Botch :P. Total is five, or eight if it's Mod plus half-level.
Roll for Ryn = 17, or 20 if half-level is added.

You're quite right Nym regarding physical checks and normal familiars! So although you rolled the bad roll, annoyingly I can't quite have fun at your expense because I suppoooooose I should use your good roll to make up for accidentally telling you to roll it :)


Tithee does not make it particularly easy for Nym, partially from trying to spin to kep Nym insight, slightly in awe of her, and partially because once they find an end they go back to trying to measure Ryn.

Soosha tried to keep their fellow Gnomin still, and eventually one loop was removed that allowed the whole sorry mess of a gnomin to tumple to the ground, freed of their bindings. The strong had managed to unravel to about half its length, a small ball falling out. Sticks, other flat sticks, tiny weights, a tiny balance, a few balls of different sizes and hues, and even a couple of springs fell out on to the deck.

"Oops. Thank you." came the squeaky voice of Tithee. They started gathering all their small items together, then dropping them again from trying to use random ones at the same time.

"Thank you," said Soosha, giving a small odd bow that was like twisting a corkscrew. She then asked, "So, does your friend know what you say? Does she know what I say? Does she know Tithee means nothing by what he does? Normally."


Down below, Meri tried - and succeeded - in unlocking the door. The lock was simplistic though, perhaps less advanced than Meri might have expected. Her tools were fine, but it felt as if one of the tumblers had been less robust than expected, and had shifted oddly. [Private to Meri: So as a consequence, the door won't relock unless later on Meri tries to repair or replace the lock. Make Whole would work, but the lock is shockingly poor, and so not really that secure.]

The door shifted, and slowly opened itself of its own accord - perhaps due to the angle the ship was at. Nothing exploded nor erupted, instead, the corridor and everyone's vision was filled with a bright, white light.

Beyond was what was, possibly just a a simple, large storeroom. However, it was hard to make out anything in the shadows around it, as all eyes were cautiously drawn to the large mass in the centre of the room. In some ways it was disappointingly plain, a simply bright shining ball, about the size of a person, and floating in the air.

Of course, the translucent shimmer, floating streamers of red and orange and yellow on its surface, and slow mesmerising spin were not for nothing. It was, for all its simplicity, still an impressive hovering mass of light energy. It was clearly magical, not just due to the spinning and hovering and ephemeral feel of it, but because its bright light was somehow dim enough to still look at. Like a sun seen through dark glass. And there was no heat nor noise from the thing, aside from the most gentle impression of air slowly frizzling right against its surface.


See, nothing to be afraid of, just a plainand simply large ball of light!

Nym starts picking up Tithee's dropped things and handing them to him, answering Soosha's questions as she does so.

"Oh yes, she understands us." she replies. "Otherwise she wouldn't be able to reply, would she? She was just curious about you because we haven't seen gnomins before. She said you called her a...Hara...Haradrarararim...or something. What's that?"

Meri straightened up, handing the tools back to Timur who busied himself returning them to the box and clambering back down into the depths of her pack.

"Well, not what I was expecting, but definitely interesting" she murmured to herself.
She raised the smaller lenses of her goggles away from her eyes and rotated two more into place, her eyes appearing oddly glittering through them as she moved a little closer to the strange light, taking care not to touch it.

Timur reappeared on her shoulder, acting out of breath from the climb up and down before apparently remembering he didn't need to breathe.  He opened up another box with the crystalline and metal rod shaped tools in it and held out a pale yellow one for Meri to take.
Pointing this in front of her, the Artificer eyed the light curiously...


OOC: Arcana check to see if Meri can figure this thing out.
22 (8 + 14) - I think my dice are cursed this month.  Need to see if I can find some holy water...

Just to double check, Nym saying she hasn't met any Gnomin'sbefore is a character lack of recollection/ lying not a player lack of recollection. The two little magic users on the bridge fight with Alynn were Gnomins, though clearly more mage like than these more tinker like ones. You might have simply avoided the section where I said what they were OOC or maybe only Meri identified them IC? Anyway, they would look vaguely similar, though more friendly.

Soosha look a little embarrassed that Ryn's understanding was so good that she could have told Nym about the exact word used. It was up to Tithee to speak, as he was nervously picking up things, and give Nym odd looks. "Hadar is Magic!" he said.

"Hadar is Life," said Soosha automatically and reverently, as if completing a well known religious phrase.

"Hadarar are children of Hadar, known Magic too!" said Tithee nodding happily. "And Hadarararim are the ones of the Hadarar."

Soosha still looked a little embarrassed, but nodded. And then as if to turn attention away from themselves, looked to the stairwell with an odd mouth turn that might have been a smile. "Billarr and Seemarr think you Hadar Itself. But that's silly! They silly!"

The shy-er Gnomin was still loitering at the top of the stairwell, and seem to be still peeking across to Nym from around the door.


Feel free to roll Insight regarding their speaking of Hadar, or you could roll Arcana on Hadar itself. I know one of the two of you has done this already last time you encountered the Gnomin though!


Meanwhile, down in the 'engine' room, the light grew a little brighter the moment Meri raised her instrument at it. The Captain and Farren, independently, both took a small step backwards.

[Private to Meri: Your Arcana roll lets you at least know that the magic is not alive, but feel like some sort of interface. Despite not being alive, the Insight roll lets you know that despite not being alive, it still seems to act like it. It seems to be reacting to your will - and specifically your curiosity - being directed at it, reflecting it in kind with a reaction. So at the very least, it seems to want some form of interaction from you. Perhaps an emotional one rather than, or as well as, a physical one?]

Ohh yeah...sorry, that was me forgetting, not Nym. But I mean, considering the circumstances under which we met the last pair of gnomins, I think her managing to forget them for the moment could be understandable, just like she'll probably be vague on ever having met a dragon in a few days :D.
I have heard of "Hadar" OOC but only in the name of a spell from other editions of the game...but for now I suppose I shall roll, hmm, I think Insight would be more appropriate for Nym right now, since I don't know any reason why she might know of this thing already...okay so that's a 24 (12+12) :).

OOC: I think there's a Warlock power that mentions Hadar, can't remember what it does though.
Meri has a theory about what it refers to here, from her last encounter with these creatures, but I doubt Nym would think to ask her ;)
Hope these guys don't turn out to be related to the one we killed...


Meri's eyes widened behind the blue lenses as the glow increased, although she didn't seem particularly afraid of it, more intrigued.
The crystal rod she was holding had glowed briefly with a small spark inside it at the same time as the light had.  Meri lowered the rod and peered at it as the light in it went out.  She handed the rod back to Timur and took off her backpack, lowering both it and Timur to the ground next to her.

Raising the goggles back onto her forehead, she reached down into the pack, (noticeably further than the size of the pack should indicate was possible, for those not yet aware of its odd properties).
For a few seconds, she seemed to be manipulating something inside, frowning slightly in concentration, then pulled her hand out again, now holding the clear stone from the Falls portal room.

Turning back to the light, she closed one eye, raising the clear stone in front of the other to look through it at the light.
'What are you?' she thought, focusing that thought at the light 'I want to understand you.'


OOC: By the way, the fact that the Clear Stone is in Meri's pack, but isn't visible on the shared inventory thread isn't a mistake.  Just in case anyone thought that was my memory playing up again ;)

[Private to The Altweaver: Checking to see if it looks different through the Clear Stone, remembering its connection to the portal that held the Shadow and guessing that this is the magic that was altered on its opening to make the ship fly.

At the moment Meri's theory is that someone forming a connection to this thing can pretty much 'will' the ship to move.  Though not going to test that just now, in case we accidentally squash anyone below by landing the ship on top of them :)  (Hoping it works on deck when we can actually see where we're going, although that might explain why the Gnomins are in charge of the steering!)

(Also, would Meri need any items or anything to repair that lock?  Not sure if she'd also need to make a new key for it, since the old one has apparently gone byebye...)]

Yes, Arms of Hadar - that's the one I was thinking of. I believe it conjures up some kind of gribbly-looking dark cloud thing that...does something bad...I can't remmeber what...to anyone inside it. Damage or a debuff or something.

Yeah, it's believeable that Nym wouldn't recall the Gnominsince thye only really revealed themselves during the battle, and Nym was... a little distracted... doing stuff...

Hadar as I've used it is particular to this game. I seem to recall doing due dilligence with it, and the references I found were either niche and I ignored them, or they gelled well enough that I went 'that's fine' :) I forget which though, it's been a while!

Edit: Since Nym has posted before I posted this, I quickly checked - yup, in forgotten realms there is a reference to Hadar, and that's where two spell effects that I can see get their names from - Arms and Hunger of Hadar. Up to you if you think I just decided it was too obscure, or if it ended up being acceptable as a reference...

[Private to Nym: Yeah, when they are talking about 'Hadar',they definitely have a reverence to it, as if they are speaking of a diety or something being worshipped. Therefore, when they were speaking of some of their folk thinking Nym was 'Hadar', they didn't mean it like 'made of magic, which would of course be interesting given Nym's actual origin, but literally mean as if Nym was a demi-god or some sort of powerful spirit of magic.

As an OOC note, I just want to reassure you that while there is obviously a very interesting correlation between them working 'magic' as a being, and The Shadow saying he was Magic, I'm not saying that's directly and obviously what's happening here. It's understandable that they could be drawn to something powerful and magical, and it's understandable that the being in question is powerful enough to say they are magic itself. I'm actually saying it's more complicated and just a fun understandable correlation, rather than a direct 'these little gnomins workship The Shadow and that's why they are here.

Just thought it worth pointing out! :)

Of course, if Nym or Meri decide to introduce magic worshipping beings to the cause of a powerful magic  effect and they start worshipping The Shadow as a manifestation of their deity.... well, that might be bad, in fact. Or good. Who knows!]

The light dimmed a little when Meri lowered the device, flared very brightly, briefly, the moment the clear stone was taken out,and went back to its previous radiance when Meri regarded the ball of light again.

Through the stone, the room looked different. A drab room, only illuminated by the light spilling in from outside. The spinning sphere wasinstead replaced bya single figure Meri knew well. It was Meri herself. She was not holding the clear stone, nor was Timur present, but otherwise it was her. She had a puzzled look on her face. It also took Meri amoment to realise what else was wrong, or not wrong, with the figure - the figure looked correct to Meri. Therefore, logically, this was a reflection of Meri, not a representation of Meri. It was how Meri had seenherself in any other reflective surface.

Also, now the focus of the room was briefly remove, the surprising doppleganger was now not enough to distract from something else in the room. Curled up in the corner, like a discarded sack, seemed to be some dirty robed figure.

Yeah, remember that Perception check earlier you didn't make? Yeah, that second figure actually exist in the room even without the clear stone :P

[Private to Meri: Indeed, although it sounds by what the Captain said that this 'Tybur' maybe knew the portal effect was going to happen, and knew enough to actually take advantage of it by deliberately being present, and most likely sparking some magic to be interacted with to create this effect. Unlike the previous random interactions that just happend to occur because of magic being already present that you've previously encounterered, like Many, The Dog, or Goodwin. And certainly, all previous portal manifestations seem to have to do with the portal's magic interacting with magic already present.


That seems like a very good theory regarding how the sphere works. What the fine details of that are, and how dangerous it is to interact with it without knowing those details, I'll leave to your caution and Nym's recklessness to find out :p

As for the lock, I presume Meri has or can find parts, si it's as simple as paying the gold piece cost during some down time for an equivalent lock. If I haven't listed those locks in the simple items thread, I'll go look it up. If you want to trap it or add a magical effect I will say that canbe added at the time or later, and tha twill have a separate gold piece cost (and perhaps a skill check for a trap, depending upon the complexity of the trap).]

Meri's eyes widened, although it wasn't the strange reflective effect that seemed to disturb her.
Lowering the Clear Stone and handing it to Timur, she reached for her staff that had been placed aside with her pack.  Extricating it from the straps, she held it ready in front of her as she approached the strange figure in the corner, circling around the light and taking care not to touch it.

Reaching out with the staff she lightly nudged the figure with one of the tips.
"Who are you?" she asked warily.


OOC: Ah, I thought the Perception check request was only aimed at Nym.  Lack of sleep and too much busy stuff doesn't help.  Still, easy enough to assume Meri was distracted by the shiny :)

Anyways, seeing if who/whatever that is is asleep or dead or about to jump up and use Meri as a chew toy...

No, it was the perception check I requesed a few posts back, and you made it... well, made it as in rolled one and rolled a 21, not made it as in made the Hard DC check to notice the person :p

The light dimmed back to its previous radiance when not being focused upon. It still illuminated the room, but it was clear the illumination was odd, in that the figure still felt as if it was in shadow. Perhaps the light only illuminated itself.

The figure simply groaned, as if groggy or drunk. They seemed like a youngish human male, but pale and dirty. They may have been living in this room for the whole time, as getting close to them there was certainly a rank odour that spoke to that.

Meri: Feel free to try a Heal check if you desire, or something else (like fire) if you prefer :)

Nym: Just to signal boost my previous post, since we posted near the same time - you have public and private messages to look at below :D

That's okay, I did see the IC stuff before but wanted to see the results of my check in case it would affect Nym's respnose in any way...not that I'd come up with a specific response for her at that time, but it seemed a good idea to get all necessary info first before I started thinking of something ;).
[Private to GM: You know, "Eek, maybe they worship the Shadow/the Other" wasn't a thought that had occurred to me - it was more along the lines of "Oh, they think my secretly-an-elemental is some kind of entity made of pure magic...Can they tell something about Nym that she can't see herself?" ;).]

"Weeelll..." says Nym, thinking. "I suppose Ryn kind of is, seeing how she sort of...popped out of me one day. So she's made of my magic. But I'm not made of magic, at least not any more than anyone else, I suppose. I've got magic in me that I can use for stuff, but I think everyone has that, just some have more of it than others or they don't know how to use it or something. Because not everyone uses magic. But I'm sure it's there. Magic is like...well, like you say, it's like life, isn't it? If you didn't have any magic in you, even a tiny bit, wouldn't you be dead? Magic is what makes everything work, right?"

From the looks of things, it seems that Nym largely agrees with them, though not quite to the point of worshipping anything - if magic is just a part of the world, after all, it's not a sentient thing to be worshipped. And she knows there are gods, like everyone else knows it, but she doesn't worship them either.