Meri moved away from the alcove she had been at, reaching down to pick up the helmet on the floor and slowly circling around the Shadow towards the central dais, eventually pausing close to Nym's position and sitting on the floor.

"So the Ball and the Dog were kind of a test then?  Or a call for help?" she asked, "to try to draw people here to find ones who could free you from Krunluc's control?  Were there any more of them out there?"


OOC: Curious about that :)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:05, Sat 29 Aug 2015.

The Shadow seemed to smile, if such a thing could be seen on its face. "Indeed. Magic itself. In a way."

The Ball and The Dog moved across to where the others were. Especially with Nym and Meri in rapt attention, The Shadow looked like some spiritual teacher.


"You see, the world and all in it was formed from light spun from dark. And the light gained awareness and became the gods, and the dark gained awareness from being observed, and became ... well, things best not spoken of, here of all places. Words have power, where reality is so fragile.

"And what is darkness but yearning, always pulling towards the light to claim it, snuffing it out. And what is the light but fear, flaring all the brighter to ward off the dark and yet simply becoming more and more alluring.

"And yet there is a boundary, between the light and the dark. The Shadow. In the darkness there is nothing. And in the light there is only what there is, perfectly highlighted and defined. Only in the shadows is there uncertainty. Something may be there, it may not be there. Imagination can replace fact. Probability replacing certainty. And that is where you mortals were formed. And that is where I gained awareness. Only in the shadow, the boundary, is there potential. The wish. Where fear of what could be and yearning for what should be have a home. All mortals sways this way and that way between it. And those with more imagination, more certainty, more faith than others find that potential flows in their veins. Not god given power, but true power pulled from the world itself and your place in it. I was given life by your imagination, I am magic because of you. You do not have magic because of me. The gods could shackle me to shackle you, but they could not destroy me while you all lived. Not once you knew the power you alone as mortals possess.

"So yes, magic was limited while I was away. Yet it cannot be removed while there are ones such as you that exist."


The Shadow then turned to Meri. "The wave of magic released upon the portal's open was a byproduct of the ritual, yet to the gods thinking I suppose it was to be an early warning of sorts of my return. Of course, the gods did not count on their most faithful being the ones to want me to return, and so slowly but surely erasing the meaning of the signs from record. I suspect very few would now know the meaning of what happened. Though I daresay that it has happened in so many places and so far afield that any it happens to, or who can feel such signs, will know that something unusual has occurred. Something significant."

The Shadow gave a small gesture of beckoning to The Ball, and after briefly hovering around Nym and Meri as if looking for permission, excitedly moved across. The Ball placed around the outstretched hand, become light then dark in opposition to the lighting in the room. With a wave of his hand The Shadow restored the torches and the sun alcove stopped flaring.

"I am afraid the Gods are the ones who try to bind those under them with fate. Pointing the finger and saying who lives, who dies, who is the hero, and who is the villain. The world should not work that way. I am afraid that there was no rhyme nor real reason for why these magical twists of reality occurred, why you were the ones to come here and free me. You were not picked, other than you were apparently the right people at the right time who had the right thing happen to them. You could have ignored what was going on, you could have acted differently. The world is potential. There is a different universe where a wizard, his polymorphing cat and a goblin bat handler came together to defeat evil. There is another where evil quietly carried on, quashing all curiosity, and finally a new Dark Orcish God formed to overthrow Gruumish whom he had once worshiped, and plunged reality in to unending night."

The Shadow looked sadly across at The Dog. "I can certainly prefer some possibilities to others, but it is mortals that determine and should determine their fates. I used the knowledge that opening of the portal would be seen, to try and deter our friend Krunluc from completing the ritual. I may wish my freedom, but not at any cost. Sadly, instead he set about more...fatal...measures to deter any who would be drawn by the magic."


The Dog seemingly ignored the attention, and was instead waddling slowly and sadly across to Meri. The Dog stuck a small paw up, trying to touch one of the glowing green stones. It looked to Nym then Meri in turn with large, sad eyes, whimpering quietly, then tried to paw the gem again. This time he managed to brush a pad on the bottom of the stone.

Suddenly, there was a flare of green light. The stone emptied, and green mist twirled around The Dog, and the familiar was lifted up in to the air. It sneezed at the intrusion of the mist, the first time becoming a small cat, the second back to its dog shape, and the third time a tiny black and green dragon with large, surprised eyes.

It wheeled around for a moment around Meri's head and the crown, the green mist trailing around it, if one squinted seeming like a person trying to hold on with a barely formed hand to its back. The tiny dragon squeaked them meowed them barked, then breathed out, though nothing but sad mist came out.

However, the mist around it whirled quickly around it. There was another louder sneeze, and the tiny dragon became a draon the size of a large dog. The Dog - or The Dragon - leapt excitedly up in to the air, no longer surrounded by green mist, and looking far more confident. It gave a single, happy roar, and then opened its mouth and breathed towards the helm Meri possessed.

Green ephemeral fire exploded around the helm, causing no sensation except the moving of air around Meri. Still, the other six gemstones dimmed, the energy pushed out. Something human looking and five goblin looking clouds of mist formed in surprise. The Dragon roared again, shooting up in to the air.

All around, the spirits - at least the humanoid ones - had been shifting with no purpose. Now they all started condensing on The Dragon's position. The six green spirits pushed to the front, and The Dragon nodded to them.

It hovered in the air, and with a bark then roar looked to Meri and Nym in turn, firing a small gout of green fire in the air and flapping its wings happily. Wings that were already starting to look no more solid than a shadow in summer's day.

With a final twirl, and a small gout of flame and wing flap to The Ball and The Shadow, The Dragon leapt to the air and headed towards the roof. All the spirits joined it, and in a strange gout of mist every spirit disappeared through the roof.

Only one excited roar echoed, sounded far more distant and fading than it should have. The other spirits of element and emotion had already departed, it seemed, back to where they slumbered in the earth. And now the ghosts of those who had passed had gone too.


The hall felt empty.


*sniff* Bye bye Dog :( We'll never forget you!

And who knows who may one day return...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:55, Sat 29 Aug 2015.

Meri yelped in surprise, dropping the helm on the floor, leaping up and fumbling for her staff again.
As the spirits in the room disappeared though she seemed to relax, looking up at the ceiling where they had gone.

A hint of a sad look passed across her face as she looked back down at the helm.  She didn't move to pick it up again though, simply leaving it there and resuming her seated position, leaning back against the central dais...


OOC: Hmm, guessing the wizard the Dog once belonged to was one of the souls trapped in the helm.  So the Dog freed its former master and they went off together?
Eh?  What?  No, I've just got something in my eyes, that's why they're watering a bit...  *sniff*

Nym watches with interest as the Dog becomes a dragon and lets the humanoid and goblinoid shapes out of the gems in the crown.

"Oh, is that your friend?" she asks. "You found him again - that's good."

She watches as they disappear through the ceiling.

"Bye, then." she says, giving a little wave. She looks back at the shadowy being. "So the doggy is back with his friend now, forever and ever, right? That seems like a good thing. I mean, I don't think they're gonna be split up again now, are they?"

She glances around the room.

"You know, what you said about light and darkness. Darkness isn't always bad. I mean, night is dark, and if it wasn't we wouldn't be able to see all the pretty sparkly stars. And it would be really hard to get to sleep. And light's not always a good thing, either. If too much light shines in your eyes then you can't see anything. Well, except the light shining in your eyes. Until they stop working. Your eyes, I mean. And Gobbat can't see - his eyes don't work. So for him it's always dark, but he doesn't seem to mind. He seemed like a nice person, just living with his bat-friends, who like the dark as well. Shadow's good, it's like a bit of both sides. You need that, I think - a bit of everything, otherwise there's too much of one thing and stuff starts to go wrong."

She looks down at the dropped crown, then goes to pick it up and looks closely at it and its dulled gems.

"This is kind of a strange thing." she says. "I wonder if I can make the gems light up again. It doesn't look very nice, though. Maybe it will change. Stuff seems to do that sometimes..."

She puts it on her head, which takes a couple of attempts as she forgets that she now has horns and bangs the crown against them once or twice. She finally looks back at the shadowy entity.

"So is magic going to be different in the world now?" she asks. "Will it go all strange? Are you going to do something to it? You mentioned that the gods put you in there."

She points at the lifeless frame of the portal.

"If they know you're out here again, will they think it was us who did it?" she asks. "I mean, if they put you in there then it must mean they didn't want you to get out, and they might be angry with us if they think we let you out, even though we didn't. I don't really want any angry gods after me. I don't really know to much about most of them but I know they're the most powerful things in the whole of everything and sometimes they mess with how things work in the world because they're trying to fight each other, or something."

She pauses as a thought occurs.

"Did they all put you in there?" she asks. "It's just that I thought a whole load of the gods had different views from each other and spent a lot of time fighting each other over that sort of thing. Did they finally find something they all agreed on?"

Whole bunch more questions for Mr Wishy there :).

Mr Wishy, new from Hasbro (comes with portal playset including 8 stones. Heroic artificer, heroic sorcerer, and nasty orc shaman sold separately.

Oh, and to remove some confusion, The Shadow is simply playing with The Ball, letting it buzz around his hands while he talks. The restoration of the light had nothing to do with The Ball and everything to do with Mr Wishy apparently possessing the great powers that any first level wizard with prestidigitation possesses :p Ok, sure, he's got about 10 times the range on the effect, I'll give him that :D


The Shadow watches the display with an unfathomable expression. "Yes. Some mages have the ability to project themselves - their more innocent side, their more inquisitive side - in to a familiar. I see the magic of the portal did some unusual things to the familiar, sadly what brought the mage here. I am glad in some small way that consequence has been mitigated, as best as it could be."

[Secret to Meri: Meanwhile Meri had felt the echo of something in her head. Some benign warmth from where the Dragon's fire had touched her. As if, somewhere in the reaches of her mind, a tiny part of The Dog had settled inside herself as a solid memory, a final gift of thanks for rescuing it and in turn letting it rescue its master.


I did say that if Nym didn't want The Dog there would be some other effect of its magic. The echo of the wizard has now left an echo of itself in Meri's brain. You permanently gain 1 Intelligence point. Not useful now, but you might find that it will be useful in conjunction with your leveling up soon... and in future, if you ever just scrape by with an intelligence based roll, it can always be from some odd quirk or memory or fact Meri didn't know herself :)
]
The Shadow meanwhile looked back to Nym, and seemed to smile somewhere. Black teeth and lips parting in the blackness of its face. Maybe.

"Indeed, balance. It is like the balance the two of you possess. One of you could be described as 'light', as innocent and free as the day. And yet it is you who feel the burning of magic - the yearning of the dark - most strongly. Whilst the other, has roots so dark. And yet the fear that only the light possesses."

The Shadow looks to Meri directly. Black eyes somehow easy to see, or at least feel, looking at her. "You made a wish in your heart, I could feel it, at the moment of the ritual. And yet you resisted. Not for selfish fear of the wish being twisted, as our friend Krunluc did. No, you had the more healthy fear of a path misspent. You know that progress is so much better than regress. I am sad that your roots and call to magic has most likely started from darkness. And yet where you channel it - in the energies of creation - can only be said to be 'light' in nature."

The Shadow gestured to the two of them. "In a random world you were the perfect ones to usher me back. Will the world change, upon my return? I hope not. For one I hope the gods do not realise their shackle has come back to silently work again. Certainly I would not bring their eyes down upon you. And I hope in my absence mortals have not become less driven to greatness than they were before. I am, after all, merely the embodiment of a tool within you all. Perhaps in time those who would have hit upon a ceiling may find ways to seek me out, and unlock greater potential. Who can say?"

The Shadow gestured to the helm, and it hovered over to him. "Yes, this helm is more godlike than truly magical. Turning the lives of mortals - even their ends - in to servitude. Still, it is a simple matter to change it, just slightly." The Shadow concentrated on the helm. It did not seem to change at all, but The Shadow gave the impression of being satisfied. "There. All mortal lives have magic in them, have potential. It is a sad time when that potential collapses to The Light, or to The Dark, fixed. However, at that time these gems will now harness the potential lost, and allow you to use the magic now freed."

The Shadow gestured for the helm to go to Nym, and it floated in the air towards the mage. "Perhaps your artificer friend can make some...improvements...to its shape. It seems too black, and too rigid for you."

The Shadow seemed to consider something. "Yes, the gods find little in common with each other. Indeed, they share only one need - mortals - and one fear - that mortals will outgrow them. It made the 'good' ones act with intolerance, sure they were removing something dangerous from their children, but showing they trusted no mortal, rather than the wrong mortals. And yes, even the 'evil' gods found a single reason to set aside their differences, against a common foe even those lords of death and destruction and fear found terrible. It is quite the thing, is it not?"

The Shadow seemed to shake off the thought, especially as The Ball kept bobbing around, eager to play. "Now, this little curious thing. Isn't it amazing?"

The Shadow turned to the two again. "While they would not be truly considered natural, clearly they normally have an origin much different from the one that occurred here. And a good thing too. Normally they become such hated creatures, hating everything - even their own kind - first. They should be the mortal closest to my heart, and yet the race sadly uses its potential for destruction, for hording, for solitude. It even naturally produces a means to remove the magic of others."

The Shadow looked to the others for comment, to see if they understood yet what they had created. "And yet here, we perhaps have hope. The species, you see, is actually two people in one. Two brains, forming a paranoid, uneasy alliance. A paranoia that goes out in to the world. And yet perhaps if it takes after you, it will instead have two complimentary brains. Perhaps with 'parents' other than its own kind, a better example, a more pure love of magic...perhaps it shall grow to be something new, and good."

The Shadow gave one last look to the other two, then gently beckoned for The Ball to come forwards. It did so hesitantly, sitting on an outstretched hand.

"Time to come out of your shell," The Shadow whispered, gently tapping The Ball. The outer surface of the ball went silvery and reflective for a moment, and then shattered in to motes of nothing. Underneath, a far more scaly surface could be seen, scaly skin. The sheen of the skin and scales was pinkish white, though blotches of darker colours were apparent for the moment.

The small ball of scales hovered uncertainly in The Shadow's hands. Four tiny tentacles raised from the top of it, and little eyes appeared, wide and innocent and blinking as is waking up. There seemed to be four other eyes on the top of its head, barely raised out form the forehead, also blinking.

The centre of the ball of scales - or at least the surface - then split open horizontally. A huge eye with a vibrant green iris and wide pupil was revealed. The eye blinked once or twice, and the smaller eyes all looked around.

The tiny creature - a miniature beholder - looked at first towards Nym, then Meri. And then did so again. And then again. Finally, somewhere on the very bottom of it, a tiny mouth with tiny needles for teeth opened up.

"Neh," came the noise as it looked to Nym.

"Meh," came the different noise, as it looked to Meri.

It hovered uncertainly again, wobbling as it tried to gain a little more altitude on The Shadow's hands, wobbling as it had to compensate for the unbalancing effect of excitable eye stalks.


Lol, and that's the secret of The Ball! Ta-da? You guys created a beholder! Isn't he/she cute? You know, with all the eyes... umm...well, maybe, maybe not (I'll withold a beauty is in the eye of the beholder joke)

So, you have a new friend. As I'm sure will be pointed out, you'll need to decide what to do with them, of course. Find somewhere for them to live, raise them yourselves, entrust them to someone else but act as their guardians... The really important thing, of course, it to give the little fella a name!

Also, without its protective shell and apparently strong initial anti-magic protection from that shell, Meri might not be able to blast it every two seconds with static :D
This message was last edited by the player at 09:28, Sun 30 Aug 2015.

Meri simply stared at the creature that had "hatched" from the ball, her expression suggesting she was half-expecting to wake up back in her workshop and find she'd dreamed everything that was happening here.
Perhaps she'd accidentally inhaled some Id Moss spores, or maybe Nym's magic had gone out of control again and done something weird to her...


OOC: There were a few things I thought the Ball might be, but this definitely wasn't one of them...
Not sure what Meri would know about Beholders, all I know about them is they can instakill things with their eyes, which doesn't make me nervous at all, nope, not at all...
(Out of curiosity, can I get a dark equivalent of Swift Fox's mirrored shield as well?  No reason!  hehe)

OMG AAWWWW CUUUUUUTE!!! BABBY BEHOLDER! :D :D :D Okay so I was confused when the Shadow was describing it as a "species" because I thought it was just a ball that had somehow been animated. Then he mentioned "removing the magic of others", which brought to mind a beholder just because I know their central eye dispels magic. Wasn't expecting that, though. Omg yay now we can freak people out with him (as though Nym by herself couldn't manage that already) :D.

Nym's eyes go wide as the Ball becomes a tiny beholder. She stares in a sort of awed fascination mixed with the expression of someone who's just seen something unbelievably cute. At the former ball's attempt at saying her name, she claps her hands together like a child.

"Yes! That's right, I'm Nym." she says. "What's your name? Do you have one? Aaww, look at all your eyes! That's so...I mean, I wasn't even expecting it but...wow."

She looks at the shadowy creature.

"Um. Did you say we made him?" she asks. "How come? I thought it was the ritual thingy that made these things happen, like it did with the doggy...dragon...friend. I thought Ball was just...a ball. I mean, all magic, but still a ball. How come he's now..."

She gestures toward the tiny mass of eyes.

Can't remember whether Beholders are magical or Aberrant. Can I just roll a d20 and you apply the skill rating for whichever skill is applicable from my character sheet? I just rolled a 14 :).

Yup, it's a tiny beholder :) I believe the two brains thing is might be new to 5th edition, or buried in lore/novels, but everything the Shadow said is canon, so Nym would know it as true with that roll. Beholders are aberrant so dungeoneering applies, though I was also happy to go with arcana for magical nature (as I said, a secondary knowledge skills seems an idea with only two players, plus I prefer it). Still, your highest is Dungeoneering, so you get a 22 overall and also stuff that doesn't overlap with Meri. Yay!


The tiny beholder looks confused at the question, and looks between Meri then back to Nym then back to Meri then back to Nym as if looking for the answer there. It temporarily rotates on The Shadow's hand to look for answers there. Seeing none in the black and impassive, if amused, face its eye stalks and eyes start looking at each other, bobbing and weaving if they can to take good looks. The beholder itself tries to rotate its central eye to look up at the top of its own head, making many struggling 'eh' noises.

Finally, all the eyes look back to the two companions as if in exited unison. "Me-ne!" it says triumphantly. It sounds a little like 'Many'.

So there you go, it's name is Many :D Is that a good name? Who knows! Not it, it's just been born, but you gave it the choice to name itself so there you go.

Also, I just looked up a word and started laughing maniacally at the definition of it. Maybe one day I'll share what that word is :D


The Shadow looks from the beholder to Nym, gently moving its hand to guide Many towards the floor so it could wobble its way towards the two. "I presume it was created by a combination of both of your magic. The wave of the portal opening would only have created small fluctuations and twisting of what existed already. The dog was an existing familiar, after all, not spontaneously formed. Perhaps one of the spirits like the ones you have seen around, spirits that drift around us never seen, was close - a spirit of curiosity - to be drawn in. But one way or another the life and form suggest a manifestation of your own magics. Certainly, you have already proved you both and your magic is something greater than what you are separately."

[Private to Nym: Knowledge roll results to come, on phone...
Lol, I can finish an update one handed while distracted or a 'quick' character post, but knowledge stuff needs both hands to badly type! So, Nym will sort of know or at least have no reason to doubt what The Shadow said. In addition, she would have heard that normal Beholders have ways to disintergrate rock (and people, you could suppose) to dig in to the ground and form underground lairs. They tend to be fun, complicated affairs with odd structure like chimneys and hgih ceilinged rooms stacked on top of each other, that let the beholder move about as they desire but are harder for other creatures to navigate and sneak around inside. They do tend to horde things too, usually grisly trophies from previous battles. They tend to stick to their own kind, and any others that are in their lair are usually charmed or oppressed slaves. The nicknane of the beholder is the 'eye tyrant' for a reason. Still, those are other beholders, not this cute little thing. As The Shadow said, it has had a different birth and different 'parents'.]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:44, Sun 30 Aug 2015.

"Curiosity" murmured Meri quietly, watching the small creature.

Then she looked up at the Shadow.
"My wish before was more of a foolish dream than a true wish.  Any praise for my restraint in wishing for it would be misplaced."

She looked over at Nym, her gaze occasionally moving between the helm and Nym's head, as if thinking over the suggestion of modifying its shape to fit her better.
Timur poked his head out of her backpack again, looked towards the Shadow and then at the tiny Beholder and immediately dropped back into the pack again, emitting an odd metallic sound that vaguely resembled a sigh...

"Many?" repeats Nym as the beholder gives itself a name. "Well, that makes sense - look how many eyes you have! Wow, you must be able to see everything!"

She pauses.

"Well, not quite everything. I mean, I don't mean everything-everything. Just...you know...everything...um...that can be seen from where you're looking. How come you can't fly properly any more? You were bouncing around all over the place, but now you're out of that ball it seems like you can't. How come you could see and stuff, anyway? While you were in the ball, I mean? Was it see-through but only from one side, or something?"

She pauses again as a thought occurs, then looks over at Meri.

"Hey...he just said we made him." she says, referring to the Shadow's statement about Many. "We made a baby. Um. It's not really something I know about in very specific details...I mean, it's never come up. But I'm pretty sure this isn't how it's usually done..."

Ok, I am so leaving Meri to answer that comment before I update :D

Though I will point out to Nym I've updated her PM with the knowledge roll info.

Cool, have just read it :). Nym may comment on it in between spamming people with questions and random comments :).

A hint of a wry smirk crossed Meri's face as she glanced up at Nym.
Pulling off her backpack, she dropped it to one side of her while reclining back against the dais, prompting Timur to poke his head out of it again and look around warily.

"Certainly nothing I ever planned on either" she replied with a sigh.  "Personally, I'd rather have run naked and unarmed through the Nine Hells while shouting insults at all of the Dark Gods with a target painted on me than ever have children!"

She raised a hand and ran it through her hair with a somewhat exasperated look.
"Still, at least this one probably doesn't have any elf blood in it, so not so bad" she added.


OOC: Yep, Meri has all the maternal instinct of a zombie, but at least she seems more resigned to the situation than freaked out.  And Timur is like: "I give up trying to figure this out, can we go home now?!"  :)

The Shadow looked to Meri at her first comments, a seemingly amused wrinkle on his face. "You think most mortal's conscious desires are not foolish dreams? To be mortal with so little time appears to be to spend most of that time drifting in the barely remembered pasts or unresolving futures. Do you really think Krunluc's earnest desire, had he wished it properly, would have brought him any real joy? And yet he pushed ahead. Do not belittle your clear eyes, for they are more rare than you may think. Fear and yearning can cloud mortal eyes far too easily, to navigate away from the self imposed shackles of the past and avoid false futures is truly a feat."

Meanwhile Many had turned all his eyestalks aroudn and around in hypnotic snake-like dances to prove Nym's point, then the beholder starts spinning on the spot as if chasing its own tail looking all around. It then looks to Nym with his tiny mouth turned in what approached a broad smile, or maybe imitating Nym's own expression. "Erreh-teh! Erreh-teh!" [Private to Nym: You can assume he's saying 'everything' :) Having Nym have high passive insight is cool!]

That expression falls a little when Nym mentions the flying. Its eyestalks look upwards, as does its central eye - or tries too. The central eye screws up as if in effort, and with a series of small bounces as spins the beholder tries to rise high in the air air and dance as it did before.

However, it ends up bobbing back near the ground, panting heavily and its eyestalks all wobble and sagging as if dizzy.

The Shadow regarding the beholder's efforts then answered Nym's questions. "In its shell the beholder was protected from the effects of the world - weight and friction included. I could feel the smooth shell resisting and riding upon the currents of magic, curving them as needed. And I believe it relied upon the senses of yourselves and those it considered friends to navigate emotionally and perceptively around the world. Still, a mortal must stand on their own at some point. I believe he is doing rather well, given its protection has been stripped away for all of five minutes. It just needs to find its feet, and get used to the strangeness of everything happening to it. Can you even recall how you dealt with the strangeness of being thrust in to such an overwhelming world?"

The beholder turned to The Shadow as it spoke, and seemed to perk up when told it was doing rather well. It looked back to Nym and Meri with a hopeful smile. Its expression seemed confused for a moment at Meri's words, but on reflection seemed to take it as a compliment and bobbed a little left and right while the eyestalks seemed to take turns bowing to each other.

It was The Shadow who seemed less than pleased about some of Meri's words. He brought a finger to his lips, and the gentle 'shh' he made carried across the whole hall.

"Here is not the place to joke of such things. Not here. Not at this time." The finger then pointed towards the alcove where the golden chalic had been placed. Whereas before it had taken the clear stone to see the hand that held the chalice, now it was very clearly visible hovering with the cup, and the cup seemed to be turned not to the portal, but raised in toast to Meri and Nym. "Many of the aspects in this hall are both symbolic and...not. If the normal gods are fear, and always looking everywhere and so missing what is under their nose, then...other ones...are yearning. And yearning needs nothing but the merest whisper of possibility in a mortal's head and heart to draw their attention. I would not speak their names, nor even acknowledge their existence, whilst in this hall. Certainly not whilst I am here."

The Shadow then seemed sad for a reason. "And that is a matter that must, eventually, be remedied. You might suspect by my method of entry that the power and rules of my imprisonment had a certain...flexibility. They could be bent under the right circumstances. But not broken. I have managed to gain a foothold because the shaman had a wish in his heart when he opened the portal, and then spoke a wish out loud. However, that is a twisting of the magic to get me out. No, he had lost the power. I am not truly freed. And the longer I stay here, not in yet not out, the more I may draw attention, in the one place most dangerous to stand. I am afraid, Meri, that you did make a wish in your heart - one I would not grant you if I have a choice. And yet to appease the magic here, it would do to free me. I owe you both a great debt, and I believe I can bend the rules of this place to grant a wish to each of you. And Nym's wish can wait, though when I am free of this place I am chained, and my ability to truly show my gratitude becomes shackled by my purpose. But you, Meri, your wish has the power here. It is both my debt to you and yet my burden to take satisfy, one way or the other. I would rather give you what you want and need consciously rather than what you dreamed of and desired unconsciously. I think we can both agree upon that, can we not?"

Lol, so no pressure, but one way or another, and soon, a wish of Meri's must be granted to fulfill the ritual. Of course, typical its Nym that has something solid to wish for. Still, if you don't mind saving up a more limited wish for later, you can always grant Nym's wish now as Meri's spoken wish.

Still, you can, indeed Meri, wish for anything. Like later, not so much without worrying about twisted wording, but right now, it can be anything....
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Sun 04 Oct 2015.

Nym herself doesn't consciouslyknow what it is she's wishing for, but it might start to make sense once said wish is granted. I'm interested to know what Meri's wish is, anyway...hopefully not for all elves to die or something ;). Maybe she wishes for some kind of super-cool magical device or something...imagine if we had a magical spaceship or the equivalent of a jetpack :D.

Nym giggles at Many's attempts at flight, and kneels down.

"Aaw, don't worry, Many." she says cheerfully. "You'll get the hang of it eventually. Just keep precticing and I'm sure it'll be easy one day. After all, baby birds can't fly straight away, can they? They have to jump out of trees and flap around a lot and maybe crash a few times, or something. And they have feathers. I don't really know how feathers catch the wind they way they do...maybe it's the shape. Or maybe feathers are just another kind of magic. I wonder if I had feathers, if I'd be able to fly..."

She trails off and holds up a hand, each finger of which momentarily changes in appearance to look vaguely feather-like, if still somewhat finger-shaped. Then they change back and she shrugs.

"I think it'd be rather difficult..." she says, more to herself than to anyone else. "Maybe I'll try it again some day."

She looks back at Many.

"Hey," she says, a thought occurring, "don't other beholders normally live in caves, or something? They dig them by zapping them with their eyes, I think. Does that mean you're going to live in a cave? I've heard other beholders aren't very nice. But you don't seem like that. You're our friend, aren't you? Are you going to leave us or will you stay? I'd like it if you stayed. I like having friends..."

She holeds out a hand toward Many to see if he'll come over.

[Private to GM: Thinking about it, I think Nym is secretly lonely, evne if she herself doesn't even realise it - she spends her time being actively friendly toward anyone who'll put up with her for more than five seconds, even if they were being unpleasant a short time before, and technically has no particular reason to be hanging around with Meri. All the more reason to get a familiar, even if technically it means she'll just be talking to herself whenever she addresses...her. I suppose the familiar would be female if it's just a part of Nym's magic made into a more constant material form. In Meri's case I think she probably built Timur and then put her magic into him, but in Nym's she will actually sort of spawn him out of herself (oh what a wonderful mental image), as it were, though she won't have a clue what's happening until it's happened and she realises what this random small creature in front of her actually is :D.]

Meri watched the small Beholder's attempts to fly, various hints of emotion flickered in her eyes, but eventually a hint of her grin resurfaced.

"I think I've used and abused their names so often they probably don't even notice it any more.  But I understand what you mean" she remarked.

She eyed the alcove with the chalice then reached back and took the clear stone from her pack, turning it over in her hands and examining it as she spoke up again.
"My dream is exceptionally foolish though.  You see, in learning my art, I've gained some understanding of arcane forces, and structures, causes and effects."

She raised the clear stone, peering through it at the Beholder before lowering it again and looking up at the Shadow.
"The only wish I have would unravel time itself, wrenching its structure in such a way that I would fear for its stability.  For one thing, I would likely no longer exist, at least not in this form.  Therefore, I would never have learned the skills I have now, I would never have met Nym and never have embarked on the journey here, opposing the Shaman and freeing you, therefore you would not have been in a position to grant my wish, and...  Well, I'm sure you understand the paradox.  Perhaps there is a way to safely twist a foundation into a new configuration without affecting the structure that rests on it, but I would not want to attempt it myself.  So that particular wish will only ever remain a foolish dream.  A yearning, as you say."

A weak hint of a smile crossed her face and she began to idly flip the stone around in her fingers.
"What of you though?  Would you rather be free to choose your own purpose, than shackled by one chosen for you?"


OOC: Yep, this guy does remind me a little of the Genie from Aladdin.  (And now I have to try not to imagine him speaking in Robin Williams' voice!)
Also yep, Meri's greatest desire would effectively unravel time itself and most likely cause her to cease to exist (at least in her current form, which might introduce the possibility of generating a new character, hmmm).  What would The Doctor do?  (O.o)


[Private to The Altweaver: As you've probably guessed, her wish is simply a sad yearning to have lived a normal happy life.
Yet her existence right now was shaped by her past and eventually brought her to this place, so chances are, it would never have happened which meant she wouldn't have freed the Shadow and it wouldn't have been able to grant that wish which would have unravelled it all again, resetting the original path, which would have also unravelled itself, creating an alternate path, which would have also...  Yeah, ok, I think you get where I'm going with this!  hehe.]

I'm gyessing she wishes she had different parents (ie the elf one not an elf, at least), or that she wasn't even born, or that whatever elves were mean to her previously hadn't been and so she would've been okay staying with them or something, instead of leaving and having this life instead.

The beholder looked around the hall at Nym's question, then vigorously shook its eyes stalks and body, pivoting about its own axis a couple of times. "Nyuh", came the little squeak of a voice. Nym's second set of questions seemed to confuse and worry Many until the last one. The the eye stalks were vigorously shaken forwards and backwards as Many rocked in place. "Nyeh! Nyeh!" It looked at her for a long moment, eyes wrinkling deep in concentration at something. "F...eh. Feh! Feh! Nyeh! Nyeh!"

Perhaps the concept had been a large one to understand, but Many happily moved across to Nym's hand once he has sorted it out and agreed with it. Settled happily on her hand, Many then went back to trying to fly. Or, for the moment, he seemed to be trying to perfect spinning on the spot without getting dizzy. "Erreh-teh. Erreh-teh," he seemed to mutter to himself as he did so, then occasionally stop and look to Nym for approval.

[Private to Nym: Aww, poor Nym! Sounds about right, sadly. I hope she gets tons of friends over the adventure!]

Lol, the Genie from Aladdin? Maybe I should have him turn bright blue :D


When Meri looked through the crystaline clear stone, she could see nothing different, aside form the refraction. Although the shadow cast by The Shadow, which she had not appreciated was a faint thing, seemed far more scattered than it should be.

"Ah, the eladrin thought they were being so clever," said The Shadow when he noted the clear stone in Meri's hand. "One reason to keep a part of the ritual separate was to act as a key, or sorts. After all, if you have one piece free then you can keep it safe. And if you cannot reset the ritual again and regain the bloodstone from the cup, then you cannot complete the ritual to reverse the effect. That was not why the stone was kept separate, but it was a handy side effect."

The Shadow gestured to the chalice again. With a snap of his fingers, the hand disappeared and the cup was in the recess once more. "Now, a powerfulmage could have still overridden the magic there. But not anymore. Meri, for as long as you possess the stone no one can unlock this place. Keep the stone safe. Destroy it if you can. For the magic of the portal may be far weaker with me gone, but it is still a device of communication. This place could still otherwise be found and used, perhaps to locate a different power. One far less encouraging of mortals yet  far freer with its supposed sharing of power, if you understand my meaning. I fear actually destroying this place or at least burying it might have...unintended consequences for those living close to here. There are weaknesses in the earth that should not be disturbed..."

The Shadow then concentrated fully on Meri, perhaps thinking upon her other comments. "Paradox?" it said eventually. "A very mortal concept. That thinking is one of your greatest strengths, the power of ignorance. I am sorry, that sounded insulting. Not knowing the limits can be what allows you to break limits. But there are other times when you impose limits where there are none. A believe that consequence follows action, that cause must be present before effect, pushes you to understand and do so much. But it is not the truth of the multiverse. Nothing inside the multiverse has the power to destroy the multiverse. That paradox is for the mortal mind alone. The more awareness you gain of yourself, the less you understand your core. Two desperate entities vied for a chance to exist, unthinking but with that solid drive at their core, and came together. And exploded in complexity until here you stand. That such an entity can surround not one but two points of light and imagine their end, or seek the end of other such miraculous points of life, that should be the incomprehensible thoughts."

The Shadow shrugged off the train of thought. "If you did consciously unmake yourself in 'time', I would still be as free from my timeless prison. The foundation would not be twisted, you would find the foundation existed that way all along. That is was unknotting itself. Still, it is better for us all if you keep this 'fear'. It is the good kind. By being aware of consequence you great consequence in the world. It is a good thing. And I am afraid that really, when you understand the truth of mortals, you may realise that the 'you' who wishes from the heart is not the one that spins words and thoughts around the core. It is mortal to think emotion follows thought. There is a core in yourself that is deep within the wish you think you toyed with. That true wish is far simpler than you know, and far easier to grant. And yet I think the conscious entity that is you would not like it. And I fear I would only be able to do so much to mitigate the effects of that wish, and allow you a path and time to reverse it." [Private to Meri: For some reason The Shadow's eyes flicked meaningfully to Nym for a second, as if in warning to Meri.
]
The Shadow rested clasped fingers below his chin, resting his elbows on his knees, clearly in thought. "And why would I wish to be free? I am Between. Tell me, which would you rather. Would you rather I give you an infinite workshop, and tell you to make whatever you would? Or would you rather I give you a solid item, simple but unformed. Nothing but raw, rough potential to be shaped as caught your imagination? Does your creativity became lessened when I constrain it, or does it deepen and grow? The balance - there is freedom being constrained."

The Shadow gave a small smile. "The gods may think they had the upper hand when they shackled me. They may have thought themselves the winners when I was imprisoned. And yet, here you both stand. You do not seem lesser than any mortals I have ever met. Quiet the contrary, in fact. And I presume you are not too far removed from where the lands above us are now? So tell me, do you think my desires are better served if I could be truly free? After all, I was free once, and the gods decided that was not a good thing. Much death and destruction was wrought on the world by the yearning of those who used my gifts when I had no awareness, and by those in fear of those gifts. Do we not value all the more than which we earn, which we have to push for ourselves, which we need to set out backs against a limit and make it yield?"

The Shadow then clapped his hand. "And perhaps that is the problem. I have not given you a limit. You are free of the shackles I would impose any other time. Hmm, perhaps I can share an observation from times passed. Only the most clever would ever meet me. I existed to limit the wishes of mages, but only a rare few ever pushed those limits so much as to draw my attention, to have me see them face to face. To try and steer their cleverness as best I could."

"Ah, the ones who wished for infinite wishes? They never saw me. Never saw anything, they were...are.. locked in a fraction of an instant wishing the same wish. No, what was something truly clever? Ah yes, the simplest of wishes. To wish for a word, a word that would mean what the speaker meant it to mean. For diplomacy, they would say, so others would know the truth of their words, they would say. Of course it drew me, for I knew the next step. Still, a good try at twisting fate. They could then wish for a true wish, a wish untwistable. And I would allow them to make one. Always small and experimental and specific. And then with a smile thy would try again for their great wish. Of course, the trick the first time would be that they had redefined the word. It now meant the the first wish, not whatever wanted to change it to now. And I would appear to them, and congratulate them, but appeal to their caution, appeal to their intellect. Sadly by the time they met me, they yearned too much. Arrogance and greed. They would try again, with a new stipulation, for the word to always mean what they wanted it to mean. And so, of course, the word came to mean everything they wished for, past and present. None usually had the power to have more than a few simultaneous wishes occur at once, a growing cloud of their greed echoed at them again and again."

The Shadow came back to himself. "Sorry, my point was simply this. This was the level of cleverness I was tasked against, I admired yet tried to steer. Mortals had so much potential, yet could never get beyond their weaknesses. Never, not one time, did anyone ever think of how to phrase a true wish." The Shadow raised his hands, gesturing to the two companions. "No one ever, truly, wished something for someone else. It sees an easy way for it not to be twisted. To keep the desires pure. A wish cannot be twisted if it is not your ephemeral desire. Yet...never once. Not truly."

The Shadow then looked to Nym and Meri in turn. "Perhaps offering you anything, forcing you to look in to the infinite depths of yourselves, is unfair. Perhaps instead, you look one to the other, to the small certainty you have each been in the other's life, and ask yourself - what do you think they actually want?"


So much typing, best leave it there!

Given that Many is, according to the Shadow, partly made from the magic of both Meri and, more importantly, Nym, surely he could change to any colour you want and it not seem too weird ;).

Nym smiles at Many's attempts at speech, cupping her hands (after placing her staff on the floor beside her) so that he has a larger "platform" on which to practice bouncing up and down.

"Nyeh feh nyeh nyeh?" she repeats, pondering. Then she puts her head slightly to one side. "Yes? Forever and ever, yes?" she asks in a hopeful tone, attempting to translate what Many has been trying to say.

As the Shadow gives his lengthy speech to Meri, Nym at first pays attention to him, but after a short time starts watching Many instead, apparently both highly entertained by and encouraging of his efforts. She seems to have tuned out the Shadow, having grown bored with his philosphical musings, but at the last question glances up at him.

"I think Meri wants lots of things she can make with magic." she says in a cheerful tone, without even looking over at the half-elf or acknowledging her presence. "Or for there to be no elves. Or maybe for all the elves to be nice, even though lots of them actually are anyway, maybe even most of them, I don't know. Or maybe for people to leave her alone forever so she can work and be grumpy by herself. Or maybe to have some friends to stay with her forever, or at least as long as she wants because actually she isn't really grumpy but just pretends to be because lots of people have been nasty to her before and she thinks she doesn't deserve it or something silly like that."

She pauses.

"Actually, never mind that last one." she says brightly. "I'm pretty sure that one's already true."

She goes back to lightly bouncing Many in her hands as he tries to fly, and smiling and giggling at him as he gets the hang of being himself rather than a ball.

Meri stared over at Nym for a moment, then sighed and shook her head.
"Well, there's nothing I would wish for really.  If I absolutely have to make one, then it'll probably be something small.  I certainly wouldn't want to make a decision on Nym's behalf since I really don't understand her."

With that, she went back to studying the clear stone thoughtfully...


OOC: I really can't think of a wish at all.  Certainly not one Meri would want...
Rolled 27 (11 + 16) for Arcana to see if that clear stone could possibly be made into something useful later :)

Maybe try and think of something that Meri doesn't know she wants, because this guy seems to know that kind of stuff and can grant Meri some desire she has but doesn't know about that will ultimately make her happier (even if it doesn't immediately, it may do so in the long run or something). Nym has a similar situation in that there's not really anything in particular she consciously wants (other than to carry on life as she is, poking around and generally having fun, which she's already doing so doesn't need to wish for), but as a player I thought of something that would be cool and have a logical reason as to why Nym would want that, even if she doesn't actually realise it.
Or, you know, you could just wish that we both get to Level Thirty without anything excessively horrible (including death) happening to us, or something ;).

Nym pauses briefly in her actions with Many.

"That's okay. I don't either." she says without looking up. "I don't think anyone does."

She then carries on as before.

Aww, that's so sweet and sad Nym - from the playing with Many to being all 'you've got friends Meri' to being all 'no one understands me'

The beholder pauses as Nym tries to speak back. It sqrunches up its face as if trying to work out what Nym herself had said. However, after a moment it rocks back and forth. "Nyeh! Fe-neh-neh. Eh Neh-neh."

It seems happy, and then goes back to its attempts at flight, though switching it up with little attempts to raise up in the air steadily now without rocking, clearly concentrating intently in making sure its eye stalks behave. It seems to have to settle for them getting in sync with each other, one moving one way and another moving a different way to compensate. Each time he manages it higher or with more certainty, he turns to Nym with a wide eyes happy look.


Meanwhile, as Meri looks to the stone, an idea comes to mind regarding a possible use. [Secret to Meri: The thing was used to see invisible aspects in the ritual, and even bring forth things that are clearly hovering elsewhere in some fold of the planes. It might be easy to physically make the gem more of a lens, whilst magically tweaking it so it can see anything invisible. The force spectre that hid from them earlier comes to mind. Even if the stone couldn't see everything invisible, it might be able to see or pull back in to this plane creatures like the spectre and other spirits who shift to the astral plane to hide themselves. Alternatively, there might be a way to reverse the magic of it to allow the stone itself to be the thing to push an item or energy in to the astral plane. It seemed to somehow do it to the chalice. If so, it might be able to create a weapon that could properly harm the otherwise insubstancial spirits like the goblin ghost and the force spectre.

Hope that's two cool possible uses to contemplate?

Even as Meri looked to the stone, that familiar odd feeling of some magic just being on the edge of her consciousness, floating ideas and words to her, came upon her. It was an odd sensation soon passed. Fragments of words and sights around her, odd thoughts briefly came through her head.

Seeing Nym play with the small beholder, the plaintiff note in her voice about how long the beholder would stay with them. Yet of course one way or another the beholder would not stay with them forever. It was a creature that would grow and need its own space, even if the two decided that they were the best people to guide it through its early life. And Nym's sad agreement about 'no one truly understanding her' just made Meri think of Timur. Timur was an odd presence in Meri's life. He might be annoying sometimes, and yet he was always there ans seemed to know exactly what she needed. Meri had to forge that for herself, and there was aflash of the departed dog, and the bond across death it had shared with its owner.

Would Nym ever be able to have that, even if she wanted a true companion? The way it seemed her magic and focus worked, most likely not. A wizard had disciplne in magic and Meri had been able to craft physical items. Nym's magic seemed raw and haphazard and explosive and ephemeral in nature. Indeed, it was perhaps hard to fpcus on fulfilling a need if you were constantly distracting oneself from it...

The final flash was of a black face looking with sadness to Nym, then eyes flicking to Meri. The feeling of external pressure subsided...

Lol, Nym was pretty good at highlighting something she's realised about her character in the last few posts, and I reckoned The Shadow would perhaps be moved enough to maybe highlight that for Meri :)
]
The Shadow meanwhile looked to Nym. "Nymmerannemallar, you may keep your wish for when you do find a need. Just remember, outside of this place, there are limits enforced by the gods themselves. And yet a selfless wish is as close to a true wish as makes no odds. Never fear helping those who you think would need it. I can empower the stone to let me hear your wish. Or as I settle in to the world, there may be a chosen few acolytes who would act as my conduit, and who may provide whatever help they can to you too. Not just to receive the wish, but also aid you as they can. You will know them by their purple robes, all red and gold."

The Shadow then turned to Meri. "And you must act as you feel is best," he said at large. "But one way or another, to leave this place, to help mortals once more, and to free you both from the eyes of fear and yearning that may be drawn to you both, I must complete the ritual that summoned me here. I must answer a wish with a reward."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:05, Mon 31 Aug 2015.

"That's it, Many - you're getting it!" says Nym encouragingly as the tiny beholder's efforts seem to be having an effect. "And don't worry if you get tired - I can just carry you. Hmm...does this mean you need food now? What do you eat? I can make it taste like whatever you want, anyway..."

She looks up at the Shadow's comments on the eventual use of her Wish.

"Well, I don't really want anything." she says. "I was talking about this with Krunluc earlier - he was talking about wishes as well, and I was saying how people make wishes without being careful and get something they don't actually want, or that isn't quite what they intended when they made the wish. But I'm pretty happy like this, really. I mean, it's just me and Meri and Timur, and now Many who isn't Ball any more. And anyone else we meet, like Gobbat and Crass, even though they're not actually here so we can't just talk to them. But we can talk to each other instead. Well, I can talk to Meri if she's not being grumpy, and Timur if he's not busy or hiding or whatever...although he doesn't talk back in any language I understand - it's just weird noises. But Many can talk now, so that's good."

She smiles at the beholder and bounces him gently in her hands.

Meri smirked a little at Nym's reply to her comment, although it seemed more of a sad reflection of an emotion than anything real.

She turned to look at Timur's head poking out of her backpack, his gaze shifting back and forth between the tiny Beholder and the Shadow.
As she did, her expression seemed to grow oddly vacant for a moment, as if she had sunk into some sort of trance.
After a few moments, she shook her head slightly, snapping out of it.  And her gaze went to Nym and then back to Timur again.
Handing the stone to him, she nodded her head, as if coming to some sort of decision and looked up at the Shadow.

"Very well then.  I have no wish for myself, but if I have to wish for something, maybe I can wish for something that will truly understand Nym.  A being with a bond like the one the Dog had with its former master, an instinctive understanding transcending physical separation and even death.  I wish Nym had someone like that..."


OOC: Never too sure how to word this sort of thing.  Trying to think about it, all I got was the goblins from The Labyrinth going: "That's not it!  Where did she get that rubbish?  It doesn't even start with 'I wish'!"
So yeah, trying to give Nym a familiar.  No need to thank me!  (Though I accept gifts of ice cream!)  :D

Cool :). It's not like I already got this approved by the GM a couple of days ago and have it all set up and waiting or anything ;).

Nym blinks and looks over at Meri in surprise.

"A who what?" she asks, confused.