OOC: *subdued clicking noises*


[Private to The Altweaver: Landing on the other end of the ledge, Timur grabbed the two stones, holding them under his arms.
Lowering himself to the ledge to avoid being seen, he watched until Meri began to move, then quickly got up and started moving along the ledge towards the stairs down...


OOC: Dunno if Timur shares my Stealth roll, or should I roll separately?]

Meri's sort of acting in the open again for a moment, pillar notwithstanding, so I was posting some of her stuff back in the open again. Not all of it.

Anyway, Nym's success (and Meri's) basically ends the skill challenge, you have very much aced criteria difficult for two people!

So you shouldn't need any more skill checks unless you want to do anything really weird, so Meri, feel free to just manoeuver around behind the orc's back. Nym, you have the opportunity to obviously try and get some info. I mean the orc's still dangerous, just you can't kill yourself or start a fight over a blown roll now :)

The orc's eyes narrowed a fraction. "Splat. Yes." He tried to move against Nym's movement, but was caught wrong footed and so Nym could see that the final alcove. [Private to Nym: The alcove seemed to have mist streaming down from a chimneyy, and pooling on the floor. The mist seemed to drain away as if water through cracks in the stone tiles.

The book that had been discarded appeared to be just a plain leather bound book, ugly sprawling notes scribbled on the pages that were visible.]

"What I want?" asked the orc. "I want. Reversal. I want. Those under to be above. Once more." The orc's gave flicked briefly around Nym's features. For some reason Nym could see her dragonborn appearance was something the shaman did not like. It was perhaps a good thing he had seen through it. "I want. Those silent. To speak. Once more."

The shaman looked as if he was going to turn around to the portal, but instead deliberately put his back to it. "There is one. Who listens. But does not hear. Splat, indeed. The wrong words. At the right time. Are what. He needs." The orc shook his head. "A wish is power. But I read. To find the mistakes. Of others first."

The orc for some reason leaned against the wall with one hand, looking to Nym speculatively. "Or. Find a loophole."


He seems awfully accommodating for someone who suspects you have a friend and guesses you killed his spirits that should have been guarding the way above. So, what does he think you are doing, and why is he mistaken.... we shall see!



Meanwhile, Meri was precariously doing a hanging fall from the ledge above. Luckily it was low enough she landed on her feet, and without too much sound. Nym helped very much by keeping the flow of words going.

Meri could see the little flame coloured and flame shaped stone for the mural close by. And scrambling to the small stairwell that led to the bottom of the portal, she could see a leaf shaped green luminous stone, and a gold disc with waves coming out of it, a perfect figurative sun about fist sized.

Now at the base of the portal, something came to mind. The floor was lowered by several feet here, at the entrance to the portal. And the dais behind was raised several feet. It was as if someone wanted to subtly reinforce the notion through architecture that the dais stander was higher - better? - than the one coming from the portal.

It couldn't be going to the portal, at least not in terms of a normal person. Because the frame of the portal was quite thick here. A normal person trying to step in to the portal - which seemed a bad idea - would have to step painfully up over the lip. No, the size of the step, and indeed the size of the portal itself, suddenly gave the impression of something large coming from the portal. And if so, then trying to reinforce such a meagre step down, and raising oneself on such a silly dais, seemed delusional. Of course, nothing said those who had built this place or used it had been in their right mind...

Above Meri, hovering by the portal, was The Ball. Although rather than mesmerised by the portal, The Ball seemed to be paying attention to Nym and the orcish shaman, for some reason shifting as if to keep to the orc's back perfectly.


Anyway Meri, you can easily grab the four stones down at the bottom here, and Timur is free to keep moving too. :)

Woohoo, go go Operation Talk-Bollocks-to-Distract-the-Bad-Guy-from-Seeing-the-Sneaky-Bastard-Stealing-His-Stuff! :D

Nym puts her head to one side in curiosity at the various statements of the orc.

"So...you're trying to figure out how to do something by learning from what other people got wrong before you?" she says. "That makes sense. I mean, it's a good idea to do that, so you don't just make the same mistakes they made. Whatever it was they were doing. What is it you're trying to do? Move some people from underground to the surface? Well, can they not just walk? Or do you mean these spirits all floating about? Or does that portal thingy lead to a big hole and you want them all to come up here onto this side of it? What would they do? And who is...He? Someone important? Someone you're trying to help, or working for or something? Or is he someone really powerful you want to grant your wish? What is[ your wish? Are you trying make all the spirits be alive again, or something? Is that supposed to happen?"

She pauses in her barrage of questions to give the orc some kind of chance at possibly answering some of them.

OOC: .......! (-_-)'


[Private to The Altweaver: Timur hurries along the ledge, at least as fast he can move with his small metal legs, while trying to keep his movements as small as possible so the faint clicking of his joints doesn't alert anyone to his position.

The size of the stairs poses even more of a problem.  Carefully lowering the two stones over the edge of the first step, one by one, he carefully lowers himself over too, as if trying to mimic Meri's drop from the ledge earlier...


OOC: Hehe, thought the steps might be a little tricky to navigate for someone small enough to fit into a backpack or sit on Meri's shoulder!
If he makes it to the bottom without adding a few extra dents to himself, he'll try and hide behind the dais in the middle with the two stones.]

OOC: Ok, I'll leave Meri's posts visible, since she's probably now in plain sight of Nym's position :)


Meri crouched at the bottom of the pit for a few moments before peeping up over the edge to make sure the orc's attention was still on Nym.
After a moment, she clambered out of the pit and quickly detached the orange fiery patterned stone from the side of the portal before darting back into hiding again and removing the lower two.

She glanced towards the remaining one, but then seemed to hesitate a moment, looking up at the portal as she did...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Okies, just checking, does my removing those stones seem to be affecting the portal in any noticeable way?  Just making sure I'm not about to actually open the thing and release something really nasty by removing all of these!
Rolled 22 (11 + 11) for Arcana.]
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 21:06, Tue 18 Aug 2015.

Lol, I like to think that Timur's picture represents how the little guy imagines himself sometimes :)

The orc carried on leaning on the wall, a bored smile on his face. [Secret to Nym: Despite his odd speech patterns, his manner seemed more dispossessed nobility than knowledgeable wiseman. He had the arrogance and confidence and disdain that seemed to come from the rare people Nym had met that thought they were better than others. Combined with his clothes, he may once have been someone with a decent station in life. How he came to connect to spirits, and possess strange leather armour and a helmet, seemed like an odd story must be behind it. And given his hauty garb and demeanour, his next words were stranger still.]

"Below. Of a lesser class. Disregarded. Those are the people. My people. Above their station. Flying literally. Thinking they fly figuratively. Those are the ones. You wear their face. But they are not alone. Yes. There are many mistakes. To learn from."

The orc leaned in, whispering, "What mistakes did those who faced you make? Did they fall for this act? You want to sneak in and take the power yourself?"

The orc leaned back. "Be. My. Guest." He laughed. "These spirits? They are lesser. They cling. Or simply exist. There were others. Stronger. Once living. Gone now. The Gods. Will not allow them. To return." The orc's eyes smouldered. "I will find. A way. A safe way. To return them. All of them. All that was lost. You? Think you can take. That from under. Me?"

The orc shaman gestured magnanimously. He said something in his original crude language, over his shoulder, luckily not looking backwards even as Meri's head briefly appeared over the lip of the lower stairwell then disappeared again. [Secret to Nym: Again, there was the impression that he was not as confident regarding the portal as anything else. His manner in speaking just now had been as if sharing a joke to the portal behind him, yet his eyes had flickered fear and uncertainty.

OOC: It's good having high passive insight against a foe not disgusing their actions well!]

"Come. Ask Him. Yourself. Who He is. What His price is."

You can address the portal if you like, but if you do it's probably a good idea to make sure Meri has moved first, and also make sure you draw focus to yourself and don't actually move forwards passed the shaman so he looks at the portal all the time. There...might be some things missing. Also, something might happen later you don't want him to notice :)


Even as Timur ran to safety, Meri hesitated. [Secret to Meri: However, the mechanism of the portal seemed to not care about the keys. Most likely, the portal probably considered the keys 'connected' to it whether they were embedded or not. It would be their interaction with the alcoves that was the thing. The orc shaman no doubt had put the keys back simply as a safe neutral state, to stop the very thing you were about to do. Or perhaps it just made it easier for him to close the portal, if the goblin bat handler had indeed meant the shaman often closed the portal himself. Of course, even if that was the case, when the shaman did it, he would still have had control of the magic by being the last one to activate the ritual, and by holding all the keys. Now though, now the power had shifted. The shamn would find it far harder to open the portal once more is Meri and Nym both reversed the ritual and held the keys to its reactivation... hopefully...]

And OOC, you know that somehow closing the portal will be actually defeat the guy, because this is the non-violent ending :) How it happens, you shall see...

OOC: Well I imagine Timur's image as "not to scale", hehe :)  Dealing with something small enough to perch quite happily on Meri's shoulder sometimes.


Meri turned to peek over the edge of the pit at the Shaman, as if curious about something he had said.
Then she shook her head slightly and reached for the last stone, detaching it and hurrying along the wall a short distance before breaking left to conceal herself behind the pillar on the opposite side from the Shaman's position...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: So, heading for the pillar on the left, then will head for the dais.  Hoping the Shaman's position means he can't see the area between the pillar and the dais.  After that, I'll head back to the entrance area where the dragon mural is and see if the fire stone fits :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 23:08, Tue 18 Aug 2015.

Shoulder Iron Man (tm), new from Mattel!
[Private to Meri:
The blue stone is rounded and flat, shaped like a bulbous water drop including a small taper at the top. However, once removed Meri would see that inside it is hollowed out like a dish.]

OOC: Is that what that is?  I've been trying to find a bigger picture on Google Images, but nothing is coming up.  Didn't know what it was called, I'd assumed someone had photoshopped the Iron Man suit to look more like a Warforged or something.  Whatever it was, it's as close as they have to the image in my head :)

To be fair it might be war machine. :) OR as you say photoshopped for war forged.

Nym leans a bit closer herself whn the orc does, as though playing a game involving plots and intrigue and generally being sneaky.

"I'm not trying to sneak." says Nym. "People are quiet when they're sneaking. I'm not trying to be quiet. And I'm not acting. That's what people in plays do. I've seen it, a few times - they stand on a raised thingy and talk loudly and pretend to be other people, wearing big clothes and using things that are done up to look like other things, so everyone can pretend that's what they are, because they're trying to tell a story."

She glances toward the portal at the orc's indication, but then looks back at him.

"I just wondered what you were doing. I mean, you must be trying to work out something really complicated to be doing it all the way down here away from everyone else. I mean, everyone else apart from these guys..."

She waves a hand to indicate the spirit-filled air around them.

"Oh, and what's all that misty stuff?" she asks, pointing at the nearby alcove.

To make sure Meri can have time to get done, let's see if I can distract this guy even more by getting him to tell me about his magic-mist-chimney-thingy :D.

Lol, it's funny that when you guys have never been working closer together, physically you've managed to pick diametrically opposite sides of the battlefield to be :) Of course, this is a good thing in this case...

Over at the orc shaman's alcove...

For some reason the orcish shaman laughed, an odd hissing laugh, as if he had lost his breath before even starting. Still, it did not seem to be at Nym's expence, een if perhaps there was an edge to it. "Yes," said the shaman, leaning in too. His stark eyes seemed to dance for a moment. "People standing on a stage, pretending to be something they are not, using props, telling a story."

The shaman gestured left and right, to the alcove behind him, and to the general directions of the alcoves that the orc currently could not see. He rolled his hands subconsciously whilst he spoke, as if smoothing that had been in his hands. "Those who build this place were telling a story. Destruction leading to life leading to mastery leading to the light. And warding the dark leading to temptation leading to death leading to nothingness. The story flows one way, but one is the reverse of the other. Mirror image. The Light and The Dark. The four elements - two for destruction, two for creation. The blood of man, the spirit of man - one for life and one for death, both bound in by the Dark when alone, only free when under The Light. Yes, those who built here thought they were so clever. Thought their art so good. Thought their faith was so strong, their message so pure. They thought they could do the thing they mocked in others, petition for their wishes to one hidden by the gods, to prove to their gods they were worthy of the power. The stories people tell to themselves. The mistakes they make when they see power in their grasp. Whatever happened to them was fortunate, that they did not speak their wish. Still, they left the means for one who can avoid the traps they were leading themselves towards."

The orc had stood proud again. "You. You hide in plain sight. You. You are transparent. Hoping no one will see. You want magic. You are magic. You barely exist. Except for magic. Does anything seem real? Does anyone else seem real? Beside the magic? When the magic flows?"

The orc starting tangling an errant hair again, as if in thought. "Is your friend hiding? Or forgotten? Did you come here alone? Without her? Did you feel the call. Of Him?"

Nym's unrelenting speech and inquisitiveness seemed to be grinding the shaman down. As if he started to suspect that no one so unrelentingly enthusiastic and single minded could actually be duplicitous.

[Private to Nym: Though hopefully as a player you might spot that it's an interesting question. Nym is all distracted, except when magic is involved, when everything is fun and violence and 'oh did I kill someone, oops'. You can see why a very perceptive orc might see the shadows of that in Nym, and come to that conclusion, even if it's not true. And hence, why he might starting going 'wait, maybe this isn't a trick...']

The shamn seemed to consider Nym with his milky white eyes and tiny pupils. "The mist. Is is air. Nothing left. The final destruction. Far from The Light. If the magic. Can be disrupted. If. It is weakest. It would. Be here. The words. Are here. His words. Somewhere here. Is His weakness."

The shaman stopped, perhaps looking for anything on Nym's face, as if despite her previous words she secretly knew what the orc was blabbering on about. Or perhaps looking for an innocent question or comment that might put his own search in a new direction.


Over at the dragon mural...

Meri managed to take full advantage of the distraction of the orcish shaman, getting back to the mural that started all this. The flaming shape of it was perfect, the lightly glowing colouring similarly unmistakable.

There seemed to be no way to refuse placing the piece, in a way just like back at the portal when taking the pieces. Although in this case, perhaps it was a more benign case of Meri's own desires. The piece almost pulled itself from Meri's hand to slot soundlessly in to the mural, becoming a seemless part of the mosaic.

The effect was immediate and un-nerving. The whole mural's glow disappeared. The pieces which had seemed to be vibrant and red cooled and faded to normal tiles. The effect was to turn the red dragon blue, and the flaming breath to smoke. The lightning became more prominent, as if the lighting was instead the breath, creating the smoke from striking things unseen.

The magic was not gone form the mural though. The lighting strikes, the jagged form of them, seemed to twist and turn in the light at the merest move of Meri's head. The tiniest movement shifted the words from elvish to common to goblin to other languages. Though the meaning sometimes shifted a little under the various languages, there was an obvious common meaning. Indeed, Meri could almost hear it loudly in her head as if spoken.

I RAISE A CUP TO THE LIGHT.

It did not seem to be a riddle, as such. It seemed as if the start of a ritual, as if the wall itself was part of an incantation.

Was was perhaps more disturbing was something that Meri spotted out of the corner of her eye. Now the portal has reacted. As might have been guessed, reversing the ritual was slowly closing the portal. It's glow had dimmed. Not by much, but noticeable out of the corner of Meri's eyes.

Why the orc had not spotted it was explained by The Ball's strange behaviour earlier. Still hovering at an odd angle between the orc and portal, The Ball now started to glow in immitation of the portal's previous glow. It also bobbed and weaved a little, to create some flicker. Clearly, The Ball had somehow knows what was to come, and was trying its misguided best to help. And who knew, it might work. As long as the shaman didn't look around and was kept distracted...


Lol, obviously it doens't matter as much if you were in the middle of combat. And if you'd ended the skill challenge without engaging the shaman, he would have left and the visible closing of the portal wouldn't have mattered. In this case, as you can see, I had planned for the eventuality that you would try to close the portal with the orc unaware but still around :)

Anyway, seven more stones to get. Six are doable, and we'll see how Nym gets you to the seventh. Still, maybe you just run across and throw the stone at the seventh shaman be damned by then :D


Carry on guys! Meri, I might update for your actions a little faster just so Nym doens't have to keep speaking for seven updates. Unless she wants to, of course. I might also allow Timur a little more flexibility in climbing/throwing stones if you want him to help. Originally I would have had The Ball help him, so as to explain him being able to manipulate stuff now but not later. Instead, we'll just hand wave it as 'don't worry about it' :D

OOC: Since Meri is probably out of Nym's line of sight, I'm going back to hidden posts again :)


[Private to The Altweaver: As Meri stepped back from the altered mural, she eyed the dragon curiously, her own curiosity as an Artificer perhaps taking over from any other feelings she had towards the Shaman and this place.
Red dragon to blue?  Did that mean something?

Shaking her head, she turned towards the opposite alcove.  Time to puzzle this place out later, maybe the Shaman himself would even explain it, if he didn't simply attack out of rage at his plans being disturbed.
Assuming we are actually disturbing his plans and not furthering them, came a nagging thought from the back of her mind.

Moving over to the opposite alcove, she studied it carefully, recalling what Nym had said.
Some kind of 'magic soot'?
Pulling out the brittle black stone, she reached out towards the alcove with it checking to see if anything reacted...


OOC: Since I'm there, might as well try that Streetwise check out of curiosity :)
Think I fluffed it though...  Streetwise 6 (6 + 0).  Antisocial Meri doesn't do much streetwising!
(Really hoping that still doesn't count towards the skill challenge!)  (O.o)']

As mentioned, I'll update for Meri separately to speed up the alcove hopping :) Nym, obviously well placed to dictate the pace of the final alcove piece placement if there's something you haven't had a chance to say by the time Meri gets ready to go to the mist alcove :)

And I prefer to keep story posts out in the open, and will keep the replies mostly visible unless there's something Nym shouldn't know. Nym the player can just not read the update below! :)


The black stone seemed to draw Meri's hand forwards, and once more there was the odd feeling of magic calling to magic, and Meri instinctively knowing and being compelled to an action without conscious thought.

The black rock easily marked the dwarvish runes - goodness knows what they said - and covered the white jagged marks easily. By the time Meri was finished, the stone was gone except for the barest of black residues in her hand.

Once more, the angular runes had somehow been replaced by different writing. Some of the black of the stone had not taken, and there were still white areas visible that spelled out words. Once more, if Meri moved her head a fraction of a inch, for some reason slivers of white were hidden in cracks, others were more prominent, and the language of the phrase changed. The effect was clearly magical. And once more, the common theme of the sentence was easy to understand, and once more that feeling of a voice in Meri's head saying them was hard to shake.

I RAISE A CUP TO THE DARKNESS.

[Secret to Meri: Another sentence that felt like a part of the ritual rather than a suggestion. Though Nym had described a cup in the next alcove... And the blue stone was shaped like a small dish, perhaps linked to the water in the fountain? Two 'cups' to raise, but it did not feel as if Meri was supposed to be the one to raise them.]
This message was last edited by the player at 16:57, Sun 30 Aug 2015.

OOC: Should I keep Meri's posts visible then?


[Private to The Altweaver: Meri stepped back and glanced towards the portal to see how it had reacted to that one.
She turned to look at the dragon one again.
Were the left side alcoves related to Light and the right side alcoves related to Darkness?  She wondered.  And should only one be active or does it require maintaining a careful balance between the two?

With this in mind, she turned and headed back towards the left side of the hall towards where Timur was waiting.
Giving him a pat on the head and lifting him up onto her shoulder again, she picked up the two stones he had and looked through them, searching for the one that fitted the water bowl...


OOC: Assuming that's the blue one that Meri picked up last? :)]

Up to you about making them visible or not. When the thread is archived PMs become visible, s Nym can look back and see what was happening, but it seems a shame to not see it quicker. Whichever, Nym can say I'm sure.

Also, best to make this the last post until Nym posts, for the simple reason that the main update post won't show up in the reply window otherwise!


The magic of the two alcoves did not feel as if they were fighting each other, they did feel as if they were part of the same ritual. And of course, even if there was an order required, it would only really be important to open the portal. For shutting it down again, simply lining up the keys was probably the most important aspect rather than the order.

Meri did see that the portal looked duller, once more, Certainly, The Ball was moving around a little more to compensate. The activating of the alcoves was definitely having an effect.


The blue stone is indeed the one that looks like its the same colour as the fountain. Let me know in PM or in the OOC thread if you're happy for Meri to carry on to the fountain.

Wow, you're actually discussing the thought of Nym keeping up talking for seven updates as though there's a possibility she may somehow be incapable of doing so? ;)

At the mention of the feel of the flow of magic, Nym smiles.

"Mmm...magic is fun." she says happily, hugging herself. "I don't know how people who don't have it ever manage to...well, I mean...I can't even imagine..."

She shakes her head, as though to throw off something unpleasant.

"Nope. Doesn't work." she says. "Can't think what it might be like to exist without all the...well, all of it. The feeling, the being able to make things happen, to change things. Lots of change" Staying the same all the time is boring - I bet that's why some people are so grumpy. They're fed up of being the same all the time. Oh well, they seem to manage with it okay. I mean, I don't really know how, but they do."

She shrugs.

"Anyway, I'm not trying to be anything. I'm just me. It's fun! I like being me - I don't know why I'd want to be anyone else. I don't know why anyone would want to be anyone except themselves. I mean, if they were someone else, what would happen to them? Would they stop existing? Or would they be two people at once? Themselves and the not-them person? I'm always me, I just look different whenever I feel like it. Some people don't seem to like that - they act like I'm going to do something horrible to them, just because I can change like that. It's really very weird. Why would I want to do something horrible to anyone? I like changing around, and I like making pretty lights, and all that..."

She holds up a hand, palm up as she has done numerous times that day already, and makes a small collection of multi-coloured lights dance above it.

"See?" she says. "Pretty!"

And Nym goes all philosophical and generally talks more bollocks - this is fun, lol :D.

It's not that we don't know the character of Nym can talk for that long, and we all know you can talk for that long, I just wasn't sure if you wanted to talk for that long!

And I love how this conversation has gone, especially the last couple of posts, this last one most. It's gone from 'yeah, the orc doens't beleive you' to 'is the orc just looking like an idiot or not blasting you' to 'woah, I can totally see how the orc would actually entertain Nym here'

Nym's superpower is her complete self assured speechifying, it seems!


At the orc's alcove...

The orc gives Nym another appraising look, but it does not seem flavoured with any form of dismissal nor disbelief now. The shaman again leans against the wall, absentmindedly brushing off the spirits that were bound to his leather jerkin. The jerkin again looks like a threadbare but once fine item of clothing instead of a piece of armour.

"They do not manage," he said in a whispering voice, "they layer their pretend stories on top of other stories in their minds, and speak them so loudly they cannot hear their true voice. They do this their whole lives until it is too late. Only in death, when everything strips away, do they realise their mistakes. Or see their true hatreds. See what they had they have now lost, or what they had turned from that they could have had. Only when they lose their false voices do they gain their true voices. And it is too late, for no one will hear. Not unless someone gives them that voice back."

The orcish shaman looked pleased with himself, and looked upwards for a moment at the swirling mass. "They have my sympathy. Not. My. Respect."

The shaman then looked to Nym once more. "But you are different. I can see that now. I do not believe you would be any different dead than alive. It is refreshing to actually speak to the person while they still draw breath. Rather than speak to the lies they need you to believe. It makes me sad for those I do respect, and despise those I am forced to waste breath on. And as you have seen, they get angry when you hold a mirror up to them. For me, when I show them their lies in others spirits, show how ephemeral their life is and how much of an act it is. I can see in you they fear the same, you know who you are and what you want, and throw away the rest. They cannot bare that you change what it unimportant, for to them it is all that they have. Their actor's costume's, their actor's props, their fanciful stories they need you to have believe as if it was true. They pretend to be so many different people no wonder they seem so small to themselves when they are nothing but spirit."

The orcish shaman gave one dismissive look to the miasma of spirits, then back to Nym. Now there seemed to be a different calculation. "Yes. Pretty. Your love. Of power. It is pure." His thumb started touching each finger in turn on one hand, as if counting them, back and forth. "The one. Behind the portal. Offers power. Yet it is obvious. It would be. Twisted. I search. For the mistakes. I search. For the loopholes. In His binding. Or the magic. Or the words. My desire is pure. My people were once. Strong. Knew themselves. Yet now. They lie. They are lied to. For so long. They believe it. To their core. They. Are only rage. Afterwards. I would see them. Be free. Of their lies. Whilst alive. And think. Once more. When they die. Yet the One. In the portal. Would twist. That wish." The orc shaman looked bitter. "I know this."

The orcish shaman looked to Nym, seeing if she was understanding what he was getting at.



At the fountain alcove...

Meri made it to the water fountain without any issue. Any surprise at that was alleviated by seeing that Nym was still deeply in conversation with the orc, who was safely behind the pillar. Though that might be a problem later. The shaman's current rocky spirit was worryingly in sight, yet its attention was fully focused on the ground. It appeared that The Dog - seemingly visibly shaking - was nevertheless capering aroudn the spirit's feet, keeping it distracted. This also meant that the spirit did not see The Ball still frantically trying to pretend to be the light of a large, swirling open portal.

Again as Meri got close to the portal, there was a the feeling of the magic taking hold, urging action on. The blue stone fit so perfectly in to her hand, and the blue of the water seemed to obviously linked to the water of the fountain.

It was a natural action to scoop the water up, Despite the fountain basin being large, one small scoop of the blue stone seemed to remove all of the water. All that was left was a dusty dry carving of the basin. There was nothing inside, the fountain and lion head seemed magically dead.

Instead, it was the blue stone itself that seemed empowered. The shallow cup filled with glittering water. And yet it did not seem tempting to drink it. Indeed, the stone once so perfectly fitting Meri's hand now seemed wrong, and she felt compelled to get rid of the too heavy item. The ritual had an inertia, now. She felt pushed as if to keep moving forwards to the next alcove on this side.


To the earth alcove or keep the zip-zag going to the the cup alcove? Part of the compulsion is DM moving things along, but part of it is the magic. It's not so overwhelming as to be shrugged off though. So you can do whatever you want :)

OOC: Ahh ok, I think I see how this is working...  :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Meri resisted the compulsion for a moment, then glanced over to the opposite side, the one Nym had mentioned as being a cup that apparently wanted blood of some sort.

She looked down at the water and then up at the plant in the alcove.
Water of Life indeed, she thought to herself then began to move around the stairwell hoping the spirit remained distracted by the Dog's antics.

Were the altered ones, the magical construct and the lingering familiar somehow deliberately helping to have the portal closed here for some reason?
Meri thought back to when she had been certain they were being led into some sort of trap.  Maybe they had actually been brought here to disarm that trap...


OOC: So Meri is definitely reconsidering the idea that the Ball is evil (or just uncaring of any lost lives resulting from leading others on its path).
Also adjusting the path as going from the water alcove to the plant alcove, following the strange compulsion.  She's guessing that the blood one will also pull her towards the next alcove on that side, and thus will probably resist it unless the Shaman is moved away from that side.  If he is, she'll likely take on the top-right one before the top-left since it'll likely be more convenient and less likely to get her caught at the time than zig-zagging across the occupied area :)]

Yeah, if I was a normal, rational person and wanted the players to know what was happening and feel like they were solving a logical puzzle, I reckon you'd be right about what happens next...

Anyway, the spirit is indeed distracted, the shaman is perfectly oput of sight, so feel free to interract with the next alcove as you wish.

And I swear, if things don't go how you think they should, there is at least a reason for everything narratively at the end of this :D Of course, you might be right.... who knows. Seriously, I do hope it's me! Though not right now, as time to sleeeeeeep

Lol "self-assured speechifying"...or the CLoudcuckoolander variant of the Wall of Text, thwarting bad guys through sheer force of complete and utter bollocks :D. Well okay, as a character with decent Insight, Diplomacy, and Bluff, Nym does sort of know what she's saying and what's going on...it's just sort of all buried beneath...um...herself :D. It's like some weird hybrid combination of Cloudcuckoolander, Obfuscating Stupidity, and erm...there was another one, but I've forgotten which it was. I'll probably remember it right after I hit the "Send" button :P.

Nym thinks about what the orc is saying.

"Hmm..." she says pondering. "So...you want to get all these spirits and show them to...to other orcs? So they can see what they'll be like when they're spirits, and also see what they're like now, underneath all their pretending-to-be-other-things, but you can't do it without...Him, but if you ask...Him to help you then he'll do it in a weird way that doesn't quite give you what you want because you have to make the with properly and not phrase it in a way he can change things around and, I don't know, turn you into a squishy tomato or something?"

She thinks a bit more.

"They said there was some war, or something." she says after a moment. "A whole load of orcs fought some lord I've never heard of, or something."

She points at the spirits around them.

"Is this them? Have they been here all this time since they all got killed and stuff? That must be really boring...still, I suppose they can talk to each other. And you. Do they talk to you? What kind of things do they talk about? Is it interesting?"

Her eyes widen in curiosity.

"No." said the orcish shaman, shaking his head. "Old orcs. Ancient. Dead. But strong. So strong. In spirit. I would bring them back. To truly live. Let living orcs see. And let them be led." He then gave a dismissive wave to the portal behind. "But yes. He would twist. And turn. That wish. I know this."

The orc looked surprised that Nym seemed to know more recent history. "Yes. We came. My 'brothers'. And the others. The fighters. The lied to. The lying. The rage filled. We came. To seek this place. Called by the spirits. Already here. Pulled by. The strength of it. The elements bound here. There was fighting. There was death. My 'brothers' knowledge was lost. Much of the lore was lost. I had to find this place. On my own. And pull them back. To know its secrets."

The shaman looked up at the swirl, and shook his head. He leaned forward. "Those "who were here before whisper the same words over and over, regret without even memory of what they did or did not do. Some are spirits of element or emotion only, not truly living with no true words." The shaman nodded to the rock thing still engrossed by The Dog and The Dog's antics. "Those who died recently here, in the 'war', not of my blood, know not why they fought nor died. They weep and wail as all spirits do. My 'brothers' curse my name for not following their mistake. And my other kin, as I said, are only rage now when they are spirits. I must make my people better than this."

The shaman then pulled a long hair again, and looked to Nym. "So. What would you do? How. Would you. Wish. For my wish? Or what. Would you. Wish for. If you. Could have. Anything. From Him?"

So there you go. There's a mish-mash of spirits here. Some drawn here because it's a potent place anyway. And the shaman had been trying to speak with both them, and also use the bones of the dead from the war to speak to the previous generation of his people to find out what they knew!

And he's basically saying that orcs used to be cool and complex, but now are kinda the dumb and angry orcs we always think they are. Or at least, many of them clearly are where he lived. So he wants to call back these 'better' orcs to inspire these current orcs, and lead them. See, he's just an old softy really...

At the earth alcove...

Meanwhile, Meri found herself in front of the alcove with the plant life growing from it. [Secret to Meri: Oddly, the water dish in her hand feels like it is reacting to the alcove with an expectation. However, there seems to be no pull to use the blue stone on the area.]

'Clothe me', the branches effective 'said' in the twists of their branches. Was the green stone the one to use here?

What's that reference to a rock and the Dog? I don't recall any mention of him doing anything throughout any of this conversation, other than standing next to me shaking in fear when we first started.

Nym blinks, a little surprised at the question.

"What would I wish for?" she repeats. "Hmm...I don't know. I'm not sure I really wish for anything. I mean, if I want something, I'll try and get it. Like if I'm hungry, I'll look for something to eat. And then eat it. As long as it's not poisonous or something, then it's alright. I can eat anything I want and make it taste yummy."

She shrugs.

"I'm magic." she says. "There's all magic in me, and I can do all sorts of things. I think it's really strange that people don't have magic like that - I wonder what it's like to be one of them. I would want to try it, though." she adds, hastily. "I'd rather just stay as me. That's fun!"

She puts her head to one side in curiosity.

"So is...He some kind of spirit? Is he in charge of all the other spirits or something? Or its he one of those...I don't know, gods or something? Well, maybe not a god - from what I've heard of them, they're far too big and important to bother with little people like us. Even though they do, sometimes. Apparently. You get people walking around saying they serve some of the gods, so I suppose they must have met them in order to be told what to do. Maybe? I don't really know how that works. Some of them are really bad-tempered, though. The people, I mean, not the gods. Well, some of them are probably bad-tempered too. But the ones like Baa-moot and Pelly are probably quite friendly. Baa-ha-ha-ha-moot's a giant shiny dragon, or something. I wonder what it's like to meet a dragon..."

The spirit that is flanking you is 'rocky'. The Dog started distracting it, but behind Nym's back.

The post was out in the open but you probably didn't see it because it was more from Meri's point of view as she could see what was going on.