You are all in a large room. A robot is at the front of the room. "Thank you for gathering here promptly as scheduled," it says in a pleasant voice. "Welcome to the first gathering of The Cloister Expedition Team."

"Grigori, since most of the facts surrounding the existence of The Cloister are lost to history, you are particularly suited to this team."

"Anchorite Tearful, your work Outside The Ziggurat, as well as your special skillset, make you particularly suited to this team."

"Aesop, your origin Outside The Ziggurat, as well as your special skillset, make you particularly suited to this team."

"The Duke, your... special skillset... makes you no less suited to this team than to any other team you might possibly be on... and may also offer unique opportunities."

"Are there any questions before we continue on to the next step...? Anyone...? Anyone...?"

Aesop looked down at the flimsy robot, his golden eyes glowed slightly as they focused on the machine. He could just breath on it and it would crumble. Sitting still as a statue while the robot gave its explanation, only his eyes followed it. As the robot paused to ask if anyone had questions the giant lion just shook his manes, stretched his back and laid down. He closed his eyes and his warm breath filled the room as he exhaled. A low rumbling purr could be heard. There seemed to be no questions coming from him.

"Mmmm... most interesting the existence of the cloister. It is a legendary place, lost to the mists of history and certainly full of ancient, rare, and curious knowledge that we've lost touch in entirely. If</b> it is real of course." Grigori starts to pace back and forth, "And while I am an obvious choice for an expedition as such, I do have my own... deficiencies. It seems as though you've brought together the right sort to make up for my shortfalls." He waves one hand absentmindedly at the gathered group of kinetically gifted compadres that have gathered in the room. "But I must ask, and only because ther are at least," He holds both hands up and stares in to them, wracking his brain and lifting a finger each time he mumbles a name, "six equally well qualified historians of the Ziggurat, each with their own expertise. Are we a lone expedition or one of many ventures to increase the odds of success?"

He stops pacing and looks at the robot, six fingers still held aloft on hands held out in front of him. "If I recall the latest, most comprehensive-textual review and analysis, there are several schools of thought regarding The Cloister...."

"You are a lone expedition."



(Keep going. I will allow Grigori to state up to seven things about The Cloister. The robot will confirm that-- as far as The Ziggurat knows-- one is NOT true, will confirm that one IS true, and the others will be left in doubt.)

"... it is fairly well said that they were a fork at the breaking of the planet, but who lives there is up for debate. Some believe the place is populated with a branch of humanity that had transcended to the point that they communicate without words, their art is a performance of visuo-audio-olfactory hallucination created by pods of "singers" who project psychic energy. Others claim it was a refuge for the wealthy, administered by machine and populated by those who knew nothing but leisure. Those whisper that the breaking was not so inevitable, but an excuse to escape the rabble." Girogri raises a conspiratorial eyebrow with a theatrical turn as he continues to expound on rumors that run across library tables deep in the Ziggurat's innards.

"There's a rumor that it's on the polar opposite of the planet, a strong line of energy running through the two the only thing holding the planet together, though the evidence isn't strong, and I've seen the primary sources, they're nearly to faded to be scrutable. Several madmen have babbled that there is a machine from the cloister that's put the sun back to the sky. The men who speak them have eyes that roll like marbles, and they're invariably consumed by mania, but the stories are remarkably consistent across decades. I think perhaps the most wondrous thing I've heard, though, is that a tree that exists that drops a seed twice a year that will double a man's lifespan." Grigori scratches at his beard, and stares into space for a long moment before reanimating and punctuating his next point with an upraised finger, "But the evidence isn't ever good or consistent enough to put into any respectable paper, it's more the provenance of pulp histories and vanity press. I don't know that I'd give it too much credence."

The Duke though used to be the biggest thing in a room now isn't this confuses the poor Duke that tries to comprehend just how a kitty has gotten so big. Maybe if he crushed it it would be small again so he could pet it? But the moment his intent to smash the big kitty into a small kitty crosses his mind Foers his imaginary friend gets mad yelling at him for being bad to a friend and to those near to him the audible crack of an electric discharge breaks his silence as The Duke grabs his head and stumbles away from Aesop. The duke ignores the whole robot as he mutters an apology to the big kitty.

"The Duke is sorry. The Duke just wanted to make you a small kitty to pet. Foers don't want you to be little kitty so The Duke is sorry."

With that out of the way The Duke looks around the room ignoring the waterfall of words that is Grigori and starts to look for some tasty treat op his left nose hole while humming some of tune song. He wondered why he was called here if nobody was dangerous. Hopefully not to listen to the talkyman. Pulling his finger from his nose to inspect the green throphy  for a second he sighs and puts it in his mouth.

"Thank you, Grigori," says the robot. "Allow me to add the input of The Ziggurat."

Grigori's theories become projected on the wall (in the form of written sentences) in front of the group:

1. The place is populated with a branch of humanity that had transcended to the point that they communicate without words; their art is a performance of visuo-audio-olfactory hallucination created by pods of "singers" who project psychic energy.

2. It was a refuge for the wealthy, administered by machine and populated by those who knew nothing but leisure. The breaking was not so inevitable, but an excuse to escape the rabble.

3. It's on the polar opposite of the planet, a strong line of energy running through the two the only thing holding the planet together.

4. There is a machine from the cloister that can put the sun back to the sky.

5. A tree that exists that drops a seed twice a year that will double a man's lifespan.

"The knowledge of The Ziggurat, which is slightly greater than the sum total of all the knowledge to which you have personally had access, can confirm that theory #3 is almost certainly not true. Firstly, The Ziggurat is not located at the planet's magnetic pole. Secondly, the records we have access to suggests that the plans for The Cloister were that it be built closer to The Ziggurat than the opposite side of the planet. Put the two pieces of information together, and it suggests that theory #3 may-- in all likely probability-- be safely dismissed."

"The theory that has the most truth to it is #2. Early on, The Cloister was in fact to be built by pooling the vast resources of those with above-average wealth-- quadrillionaires and their families, and, presumably, their servants and other retainers. The Ziggurat was to be for everyone else. Of course, it was also presumed that The Cloister was either never actually built, or was built but destroyed, but recent evidence suggests strongly that these may not have been the case."

"As for your other theories, there is too little evidence to confirm nor rule out #1-- one can merely observe that the designation 'human' has had many, many, many, many variations over the last five-or-more-billion years."

"The same is true for #5, but it must be said that it is perfectly plausible. Indeed, the existence of a tree which survives Outside The Ziggurat at all is less likely than the possibility that a tree with such properties might, at some time in the past, have been created."

"As for #4, again, there is too little evidence to confirm that theory nor to rule it out-- but it is an extremely interesting theory, is it not? Such technology could be very good to know about."

"...Are there any other questions...? Anyone...? Anyone...?"

The Anchorite watched as the massive man tried to interact with Aesop, and was measuredly pleased that the cat had no need of any excess protection. The juggernaut may indeed be useful outside, but his impulses may make him dangerous.

Reading the factual analysis of the intended place of exploration made the Anchorite quirk an eyebrow just a little, and her follow-up question was asked softly from beneath the dark purple hood of her robes.

"Are we even aware if life is currently present in the Cloister? And... As a question required by my superiors... I assume there is leeway for the Church to gain possible artifacts if any of religious natures are to be found?"

"Do we have independent proof of that, Anchorite Tearful? No, we do not... we only have the message we have received, which claims that there are humans there now. 'Humans,' more than one, was one of the few details of the message that was clear. And the message was coded legitimately, as much as anyone could hope for, so..." The robot spread its hands widely.



"Some of your superiors have already asked that question through private channels, and the answer is in the affirmative-- the Church does indeed, as you suggest, stand to gain if such finds are discovered... keeping in mind that the humans of The Cloister may have a prior claim that they wish to enforce on such items..."

Aesop opens one large golden eye and looks at Anchorite. A deep voice comes from the ashen lion. “Friend wants a toy? I can help friend.”
He rises up on his haunches and starts licking his front paw indifferently. It’s like the cat is pointedly ignoring the robot..

The words seemed to trigger a new subroutine of thought in the robot. "Well then... If there are no further questions..."

The robot wheeled itself to a nearby panel, and it pushed a button. The entire wall started to rise upward, so that there was room for even Aesop to move into the adjacent room. "If you would all step this way? You may choose to take a certain amount of equipment with you from this room. Of course if any of you think of any further questions in the meantime, please feel free to voice them."

The next room contained long counters filled with weapons, equipment, useful kits, clothes, and much more.

(You may each choose three classes' worth of STUFF, as explained in the STUFF thread. A simple, functional item like a basic jumpsuit is Class 0, which is to say free. Kits are Class 1. Aesop may choose extra stuff to be carried or used by Anchorite Tearful, or Aesop can be fitted with saddlebags, or just a pack around his neck.

Rations of food and water will be provided for free by The Ziggurat.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:46, Tue 10 Dec 2019.

Grigor walks into the rich room, spreading his arms out wide, palms upturned, as he takes the room in. Long fingers run through racks of satin, leather, and brocade.

"What a place this is...." Grigor says to nobody in particular. "A piteous lack of tomes, but a wonder nonetheless." He comes to a table of explosives and tarries only for a moment before moving on to the more 'sensible' self-defense devices. He picks up a shock baton and twirls it between to fingers as he continues to browse.

"What have we here?" He asks as he comes to a rack of tough canvas ensembles. He picks out a jumpsuit whose skin shimmers with color just past describing. He digs through the pockets and packs strapped to it, nodding and humming approval to himself as he does.

A weapon catches his eye and he slides the shock baton into the pack on his suit, hefting the weapon with a 'non-lethal' emblem on its side. He raises it to inspect it in the light, and as he does, notices the vehicles hulking in formation on one side of the room. He walks over to the QuadWalker, and holds his gun up to its side, "You know, the combination of technologies often proves to be greater than the sum of its parts."

(OOC: I'll take
1. Shock Baton - Class 0
2. Cataloguerer's clothes - Class 2 - canvas jumpsuit - Research Kit
3. Stunner Pistol - Class 1 - One-handed, stun, close/far
4. Quad Walker - Class 0

I would think about mounting a stun rifle (or other kind of gun) on the QuadWalker if we think we will mostly be in vehicles, and I'll be driving one of them, otherwise I'll probably keep it loose.

The Duke was excited like a kid in a toy store. He ignored the clothing he did after all already have clothes on. If the old rags could be considered that. Then he picks up a massive launcher and utters a pleased sound  but a second later drops it in favor of a power slegde he actually hits a rack of pistols with making it all scatter over the floor. There was a really violent kid in the toystore indeed. But one clear thing was coming up. The Dukes attention span was to low to keep hauling those big items. The only things that stay on even while trying all the other stuff was a pair of Impact Gloves. Mean nasty things that do not fall to the ground when released. Its evident The Duke will most likely carry what hasn't fallen off by the time he leaves the place. Wich at this moment are a fancy looking backpack that has a tag reading. 'survival gear' and those gloves. But who knows what else might stick before he leaves.

Aesop looks at the gear he cannot use himself, but also doesn’t need and yawns. If anyone but Anchorite asks him to put on stuff to carry stuff for the party he’ll give them a death glare. He is no mule, he does not serve.

Seeing all the things on the shelves triggers a strange longing in the back of his head to push things off, but once Duke starts to wreck shop he ignores it and instead watches the show indifferently.

(I'm fine with Grigori's choices.

I will also point out that we could also use the modifiers like Glove or Visor or maybe Rig to make wearable tools for Aesop. Mittens of Death or a Visor or Harness of doing something a kit could do. Or Lion-Armor.)

I think, based on how the Monster playbook is written, Aesop wouldn’t even think about needing extra protection. Nothing is stronger than he is, he can destroy armies on his own. Besides, he’s a cat, and too proud to even consider the thought of needing help.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:46, Wed 11 Dec 2019.

(That was a possibility I anticipated, and so I am unsurprised, but I just thought I'd mention just in case.

Just as well I didn't suggest an Easy-For-Anchorite-Tearful-To-Climb-Up-To Lion Saddle, then...)

"Oh... Oh! You, enormous galoot, be careful!" Grigori goes dashing off away from the toppling shelves and gun racks, holding his loot in front of him. "Watch what you're doing or what we'll owe for what we destroyed will outstrip what they're giving us!" He looks at The Duke with incredulity at his carelessness.

The Duke eyes Grigori who seems to be adressing him directly with fancy words but he isnt't sure Galoot is a nice word but he wasn't screaming like some people do when he goes to visit them so he was not sure. And Foers was telling him the man was a friend when he started to clench his fists. And then in just a few massive stepps he is upon Grigori and grabs him by the shoulders real tight and painful the fancy new cloves heavy as he leans in with his face real close to Grigoris so he can smell dental hygene was another fancy word The Duke never heard of as he whispers as if telling a great secret.

"Wordspinner speaks the wrong words echoing down a long tunnel. But the golden maggots will whisper the correct echo back. Wiggling into his ears to eat his bad brain."

Grigori grimaces and tries to shy away, but is locked in Duke's iron grip. Hia eyes water as the unbrushed breath of a thousand rotten meals crawls into his nose and refuses to leave.

"What in the blazes does that mean you ogre? Put me down and spare me the nonsense. Nobody will be eating my brains."

The robot spoke. "One moment, please. One moment..." Then it paused for a few seconds. "I have been informed that a fifth member will be joining this expedition..."

The door everyone had recently come through opened again, and a new being entered...

"HAh!! But the golden maggots will!!!"

He nearly bellows into Grigories face as he pokes his forehead with a greasy finger hard enough it might turn into a bruise as he releases him and steps away looking at the new thing and the wordspinner already forgotten as he tries to determine if the persone is a friend or foe! But really he was more interested to go somewhere else. This place was starting to get booooooring. Maybe he could kick over that armor stand?

"Isn't it uncomfortable when he sticks part of himself in you like that?"
The question hung a moment in the room, then was answered by puzzlement followed by anger and the crash of shattering pottery. "What? Who said that? There! In the duct!"
"Out! Get out you creepy monster! Out!"
JJ retracted zir eye and mouth, miffed. How was ze supposed to learn about this sexual reproduction thing if none of them would talk to zir about it? Still, it was time for his meeting, a little past time to be exact but he had been excited by the chance to observe the mating habits of Homo Sapiens in the field.

Taking the shape of a human (the last one that he had observed) to facilitate communication, ze headed into the appropriate physical address.

A pretty young woman wearing only a bra around her waist ambled in through the door, smiling and waving to everybody. "Hi all! I am JJMM1567-L but most people call me JJ. Or you creepy blob, but I think the last is pejorative. I am expert in database assimilation and light taste. Please treat me kindly." She bowed, then fell silent, waiting for their response.

15:58, Today: JJ rolled 12 using 2d6.  Shapeshift.
15:58, Today: JJ rolled 6 using 2d6.  Charming.
JJ's shapeshift is perfect (14), but his charm has a flaw (8) so I posted with 'doesn't really understand humans' in mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:01, Mon 16 Dec 2019.

"Goodness, woman! Cover yourself up! Don't you understand the gravity of what we're walking into?" Grigori turns to the clothing racks and pulls an armful of robes, tunics, dresses, and pantaloons down and throws them on the ground in front of JJ. "Robot, I see the utility of the enormous and dangerous here, but what does JJ bring to the party? Surely you recognize the wisdom of the ancient masters who proclaim that an uneven wheel sets a journey backwards as quickly as a broken axle stop one. You know, the school of thought that first brought forth this aphorism is said to have arisen from...." Grigori spills off into a tangent about the cultural exchange of the ancient world and the ways in which intermingling of cultures through the forces of trade and religion showed different....

Inevitably, Grigori is the last to lose interest in his own lecture.

"One might think that JJ's usefulness would be self-evident. JJ, you are welcome to this expedition. However, this unit was originally referring to our next arrival..."

In all the excitement ... naked women and angry giants ... it could be forgiven that nobody noticed The Lady wander in.
By luck, nobody had even glanced in her direction.  And so, soon enough, it became apparent that somebody else was in the room with them all.

The Lady was simply walking along the aisles of weapons, running her finger across them intimately but dispassionately ... the way one might aimlessly play touch a lover with whom one had become bored.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:43, Tue 17 Dec 2019.

In reply to Grigori (msg # 24):

JJ bounced up and down, then shrugged. "The gravity in here is working fine."

Ignoring the piece of scrambled RAM apart from that, she looked over at The Lady. "Hail Goddess. Lighting a candle is the usual response, yes?"

The Duke was really bored and the wordspiner was the absolute height of being boooooring. MAybe the big kitty came next just laying there purring but at least you could pet a kitty. And then comes in a woman and poor Duke gets all sort of confusing feelings looking at the naked skin. But then again poor Duke is looking at his first naked woman and not even Foers knows what to make of it so he just stares as the wordspinner rambles on trying to cover it up mouth slightly ajay and a trickle of drool slowly forming on his hanging lower lip. It was clear poor Duke had a little problem processing the situation and failed a goddess strolling into the room.

Grigori covers his face with his hand for a long moment, "No, not gravity like that you nincompoop." His hand slides down and off his face as he prepares to launch into another diatribe, and he notices The Lady, "Ah, see, here is a woman who knows how to prepare herself for an expedition. Who might you be, madame?"

JJ drew zirself up... and up and up, into her threat shape, a thing of fang and claw and sleek reptilian menace. "You are irritating" ze hissed. "Go bother sssomeone elssse."

When cute and interesting turns into something his pea brain can actually comprehend as something dangerous The Duke bursts ito motion and barges at JJ ready to pummel it into some bloody smear on the floor. At least thats what he intends to do because after just a few lumbering steps with malicious intent an electric discharge strong enough to make everyones hairs rise cracks from his head and The Duke drops to his knees geabbing his hear.

"The Duke is sorry Foers. But the thing threatens my new friend. I dont understand!!"

"Ah, it is good to see you all interacting. One feels confident that you will be working as an effective team in no time," says the robot, with no discernible irony.

To The Lady, the robot says: "The Lady, please choose any gear you may wish to take with you. The others have already chosen."

To the group, the robot says: "Once The Lady has made her decisions about what she may or may not wish to take with her, just let me know when you are ready, and I will escort you to the egress you will use to leave The Ziggurat."

Grigori recoils in terror and surprise, clutching at the neck of his robes behind his beard. His wide eyes seem to get bigger with every word, "Oh, oh, my good gods galore! I do apologize... JJ was it? Please forgive my manners!" He stumbles backwards as Duke bursts forward and stumbles, to his knees, leaving the whole room tingling. His wide eyes bounce from JJ to the Duke before finally landing on Anchorite Tearful. His mouth drops open and his whole face droops in a frown asking 'Are you seeing this $&*!?!

08:37, Today: JJ rolled 5 using 2d6+2.  Shapeshift.

JJ shrank back into the social form. "Noted. Apology accepted" she hissed.
Ze seems to have forgotten to remove the fangs, completely spoiling the whole 'pretty girl' effect.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:44, Thu 19 Dec 2019.

The Duke was confused. Pretty naked lady goes monster and Foers stops him from protecting the word weaver. And then the monster is the naked thing again that fill him with even more confusing feelings. It was to much confusion. He just wanted to go home and take his new toys. Getting onto his feet The Duke started to leave for his home.

"The Duke goes home now."

"Come now, The Duke," said the robot. "You may not have your gear if you are not committed to the Cloister Expedition. And the time has arrived."

The door closed, and there was a sensation of movement... it felt as if the huge room itself was moving, at a moderate speed at first, and then quickly faster and faster. Everyone steadied themselves on their legs and most people held on to a nearby table for support.

Then the new sensations eased, and the room could be felt gradually slowing... and finally, it came to a halt.

A huge door on the far side of the room opened. "Fare well!" said the robot. "Now is the time to take your things and set forth. The Ziggurat and its inhabitants will be eagerly awaiting the news of your success in finding and investigating The Cloister!"

The area outside the room seems rocky and barren, but well-lit...

The chaos was to be expected. A new group, one without any connection to each other previously, and some feeling, perhaps correctly, threatened by others.

"But now." Anchorite Tearful continued aloud, as if her thoughts were normally audible. "Such chaos can only harm us. We must work as a unit, sans malice. Coordination is key."

For a moment, she bows her head in prayer, then lowers the visor in her hood across her eyes. She then looks up, and for a moment, she takes in The Lady. Thankfully, her expression does not show her reaction, thus she remains temporarily inscrutable.

"Who should be guide?"

"Hmmmm...." Grigori stares out at the great, unwalled beyond and a shiver crawls up his spine. "We should have asked for a map. Robot, is there any chance you've got a map?"

"No map is available, Grigori," says the robot.

"No... no... of course not. That would be far too easy." He stares off into the distance, "You know, Anchorite. I've read histories and heard whispered tales that may provide clues as to finding the Cloister. There are star maps, landmarks marked out in legend, and stories of markings that maintain themselves... a sort of 'language of the land' if you will. But I am a leader of thought, not men, and the halls of the ziggurat might as well be the wilds to me. I am a creature of the stacks. my habitat is candlelit study carrols,  mandolin toned story halls, and stony chambers of debate. No offense to our... large friends here," He nods toward Aesop and the Duke, "But one seems disinterested at best, and the other... well, the other seems like his strengths may lay outside the realm of leadership."

He paces slowly toward Anchorite Tearful and strokes his beard, "JJ seems, new to the ways of the world and may... benefit from some guidance and direction until she acclimates herself to this world." He leans over and whispers so that only Anchorite can hear, "And frankly she freaks me out a little."

Then withdraws and holds his hands out, one toward Anchorite Tearful, and one toward The Lady, "Which leaves you and The Lady. The robot says you've ventured beyond the walls and lived to tell the tale. The Lady has... well.. she is a lady, you see, and-" He looks to the Lady, hoping she'll make a case for herself as the leader, or Anchorite will stand up and take the role.

The Lady continued to wander, seemingly dispassionate.
She chooses none of the equipment, completely disdaining the weapons and such .... and having little interest in the accoutrement and jewellery.

As the door opposite opens, she drifts over to the vehicle that Grigori has chosen for them.
She ran her finger along it, sensually; admiring the beast for what it was ... and listening to the banter.

"You're going to need a lot of Luck, out there, kids", she said.  Then, as she swung herself up onto the chariot, she swung herself up onto its side.  And looked at her companions, for the first time actually taking them in, "Worship me," she offered, "and I'll bring you that".

But she made no case for herself as the leader.



Ok, folks, heres the deal.
The Lady is a Goddess.  And Luck is her stock and trade.   But being a Goddess means her power is limited to how much she is believed in, and worshipped.
Truth is:  you pay her attention during the game, you worship her ... she has more power/Luck to exude upon the group, and its mission.

Ignore her, and seriously, you ignore a very valuable resource (the 'Moves' that come with my Playbook).
So speak her name, my friends.  Let her know you adore her, and need her, and love her.
And she will bless you.

JJ climbed into his skimmer, it rising on a faint hum of agravs. "Unable to access the Directory for this area" ze commented. "Looks like it has been a long time since the last scheduled maintenance out here." Sprouting binoculars, a thermal viewer and a radar dome, ze swiveled back and forth. "Visibility limited, excess thermal bloom, noteable EM interference, unable to determine route. I recommend we move away from the Zig, then try again."

08:44, Today: JJ rolled 9 using 2d6+2.  Shapeshift.
08:44, Today: JJ rolled 5 using 2d6+2.  Pathfinding.

As the others seemed to be talking again this time about who should be a guide The Duke starts to wander off. This place was strange. No walls and not even a ceiling. It was so unnatural The Duke needed to assert its dominance over these strange things roaring at the lack of a ceiling and stomping on the rocks to show them this was The Dukes turf now. And he even runs off to smash one particular rock outcropping thats giving him a strange look his new toys hissing as they activate and the rock is beaten into dust with one mighty blow before he gives it a small nudge with his foot.

"That will teach you!! Never look like that at me and my friends again!!"

JJ makes zir new input-gathering sensory organs just a little too sensitive, and is unable to determine that any one direction might be better to go than another... (JJ, temporarily befuddled, gets -1 to zir next roll...)

Still, at least The Duke has officially left The Ziggurat... Progress-- of a sort-- is definitely being made...
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 13:47, Fri 20 Dec 2019.

Grigori takes the driver's seat of his walker and looks at Anchorite, "Welp, you heard her, she deserves worhip." He shrugs, "So I vote you. You should be our guide." He opens an enormous journal that he produces from his lap and begins to leaf through the pages, "Now let me see here."

OOC:  Roll for insight into how we should choose our path to find the Cloister.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:30, Sat 21 Dec 2019.

(Insightful check: 08:49, Today: The GM, on behalf of Grigori, rolled 13 using 2d6+3 ((5,5)).)

Grigori, examining his journal, decides that the best thing to do is to check the transmitter station that helped pass the coded message along from The Cloister to The Ziggurat.

The transmitter station in question is to the east... suggesting that wherever The Cloister is, it might not be WEST of The Ziggurat.

And since the transmitter station demonstrably still exists, and is at least partly functional, then going there might allow the expedition to get one or more additional clues regarding the exact location of The Cloister.

"It would appear that the message that reached us from the cloister most likely was relayed through our near eastermost transmitter station, a rare and poorly understood technology to be sure!" He shuts the book and tucks it back into his robes, "We should head there post-haste if we are to pick up the trail at the most logical point. Perhaps there we can begin to triangulate the origin and continue to follow a trail of breadcrumbs." Grigori futzes with the controls of the walker and it jostles as it dips to allow easy access to the third seat, "Lead the way, Anchorite Tearful. Would anybody else like to come aboard?"
This message was last updated by the GM at 15:26, Sat 21 Dec 2019.

Having neutralized all nearby potential enemies after squashing them into piles of rock dust The Duke now was looking around for more dangers. And then suddenly came to a horrible conclusion.

"We forgot the food storage!!! I got to protect it!!!"

And with that he seems to be fully intend to return back inside to go do just that.

The Duke goes back and gets a box of rations. The box itself keeps things cool and warm things warm. If rationed properly, the rations inside should be enough to feed the expedition for weeks.

The Duke hauling the provisions decides its easiest to park his ward in the skimmer and puts the box in one of the free seats while squeezing hiomself into the vehicle and proceeds to accertain that the goods are properly secured mostly by transferring them to his internal vault.

JJ sent the skimmer hissing off to the east, circling back every so often to wait for the walker.

While it's true that the walker isn't as fast as the skimmer, it's surprisingly fast, considering, so the disparity between the two vehicles isn't SO bad...

One thing that should be amazing is when the expedition gets a mile or two away from the eastern wall of The Ziggurat, because it's only then that one can really appreciate just how huge the thing is. It's one thing to say "Although its center is mostly empty, The Ziggurat is several miles high and about twice as wide/long," and to accept intellectually that that's true, and it's another to see from the outside just how huge the thing is. It's as high as a very, very high mountain, and, as mentioned, about twice as wide. It's really very large-- and lit up, too, like a tourist attraction.

Of course, as also mentioned, it SHOULD have been amazing... but Aesop and Anchorite Tearful had already seen it before, and if the others were not impressed, one might not find it entirely surprising, since the inhabitants of The Ziggurat are, in general, a difficult-to-impress bunch.

(First: tell me how your character feels about leaving The Ziggurat, and seeing it behind them, very, very slowly growing a tiny bit smaller with every mile...

Second: If anyone would like to use the OUTSIDE THE ZIGGURAT playbook to say what the expedition finds/encounters once they're about 15 miles away from The Ziggurat in the hopes of getting a reward, go ahead, first-come first-post. (Feel free to be super-weird.)

If no one does in a few days, I'll use it to post myself...)

The Duke was working hard to protect the goods inside the container. At first it was easy as The Dukes internal storage was empty and beyond a glare at the JJ thing to make sure it had no interest in stealing what he was protecting and stuffing into his mouth, making sure any crumbs and spillage dropped back into the container so there was really no waste. By the time the Duke can not secure anymore of the food he licks his fingers clean and closes the cooler tightly like a pirate taking care of his treasure chest before he looks around and his gaze clings to a tower of shiny lights in the distance. A massive sob seems to bubble up from deep below and as he starts to cry he sings twinkle twinkle little star in a creepy tone. Its a contagious sadness as even the area around them starts to produce the melody for the song a sourceless haunting tune thats carried by an audible wind thats not there at all and that spreads a bitterness into everyones mouth like ash and despair. And the more The Duke sings the harder he cries wallowing in the sadness and its like his sadness manifests around them. Dead trees in which here and there a corpse softly swings in the non existend breeze their bodies no more then mare skeletons and at the end of the song the vehicles find themselves in a clearing with an ancient looking wooden house straight from a horror movie with a single candle behind the window.


ooc: Hope this is whats intended.
Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up2Texzg_Is

(Interesting... The Duke gets an extra +1 (which will stack, if need be) on his next roll, and other good things might be coming his way later...)

Dead trees abound, save in the clearing in which you find yourselves... Do you:

--try to navigate beyond them? or

--investigate the wooden house? or

--do something else...?
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:24, Fri 27 Dec 2019.

Again, sitting aloof and distant within the back seat of the walker, The Lady gazed out the window at the unnatural landscape that was the ‘outside the Ziggurat’.   She remembered when humanity used to live out here ... so very, very long ago.
When things were less certain in their lives, and they prayed to fortune and luck to bring them the resources they needed to survive; or prayed that the great beasts did not find them.

Now, within the Ziggurat, they wanted for nothing, and feared nothing ... except each other.

She missed those times, when her blessings meant something.
When she meant something.


She took no steps to lead this expedition.   One didn’t worship a leader: they simply were the one that made the hard decisions, and received no gratitude or love for doing so.

Instead, she watched the glowing mountain slowly diminish (ever so slowly) behind them as they travelled away from their home.
Her home?   She guessed so, head days.
She was nothing without the worship and attention of sentient beings ... and that’s where the sentient (for lack of a better word) brings were these days.  Right?

But they didn’t love her.
And now, maybe, there were others out there that she might find.
New beings who’s worship she might receive, and return to them in the form of her blessings.

Make so she turned her eyes forward, rather then back.
She watched the nearby trees, and saw within them the withered spirits of nature that had once flourished upon this land.
They looked as dry and unloved as she felt.

And the sorrowful so that drifted about them, brought a tear to her eye ... for herself, and all the once-mighty anthopromorphs of the world.


Soon enough, a ‘cabin in the woods’ appeared before them.
With Luck, it could be a great boon to the expedition ... but without any love, without any attention or worship, The Lady had none to bestow.

Grigori drives very distractedly, had swiveling every direction as he crashes through the trees. One hand is busy jotting notes on a long scroll as the walker bounces and jostles, following the path that JJ scouts out. His companions inside the walker have barely responded to the mumbled stream-of-consciousness narrative that is dribbling out of Grigori's mouth as they've made progress.

An unnerving song approaches from the direction JJ is scouting and Grigori slows the walker with some trepidation. "Do you hear that?" He asks, tucking the pen he'd been using behind his ear and rolling rhe scroll up quickly so he could put two hands on the controls. "Keep your eyes open. They say the things that sing in the Outside are terrible or wonderful, but very rarely adiaphorous. Let's hope this is a member of the latter group."

The walker makes slow progress through the last several hundred feet of dead trees before coming upon the cabin and discovering the source of the singing was The Duke.

Terrible, indeed. That big one seems madder and madder by the minute! He thinks to himself, taking in the scene of the clearing. I wonder if this is one of those houses....

Insight into this house

Something bothers Grigori about the house, but he cannot put his finger on it... Then he does. The house is perfectly like an illustration from a book for young children that Grigori recalled from his youth.

What could this mean? Grigori had heard rumors of sections of the world affected by long-ago psychic warfare... could this area be one of those theorized to respond to human thoughts and emotions...?

"Hmmmm..." Grigori's hand strokes his long beard in the walker's cockpit. Duke's song ends and the woods fall quiet save the sound of the skimmer and walker's engines. He taps the windshield with one long finger and speaks, "That house is familiar..." He wracks his memory for a point of reference, the house's image chases itself from neuron to neuron until he finally pegs it down, "Like an illustration brought to life."

His eyes narrow as he recalls rumors of psychically active sections of the Outside. He looks from one side of the clearing to the other, "This may be a construction, quick, look for something familiar. If this is what I think it is we could be in danger." His thoughts flash quickly to what may be hiding in the subconscious of some of his compatriots, the id of The Duke, the inscrutable Lady, the alien shape-shifting neophyte. He hopes that his mind is the only one that has been mined so far.

OOC: If we have them available, Grigori would broadcast this question to those outside of the walker as well (either radio if there is wireless comms or loudspeaker if he'd have access to one of those) otherwise, is there a window I can roll down and shout?

(OOC: I'm fine with the two vehicles having comm systems so that the two sets of passengers are able to communicate with one another.)

The Duke having overcome his sadness is now wiping the snot from his nose with the back of his hand and admires the green glob for a second before wiping it on the seat of the skimmer. Then the wordspinner calls out this place might be dangerous and he is on alert. If the house was dangerous The Duke will fix it. He works his massive bulk out of the skimmer and when not obstructed in any way will barge through the houses door to find and neutralize the danger.

The Duke attempts to leave JJ's skimmer...

Will JJ lower the skimmer to facilitate this...? Or...?

(OOC: I'll wait just a little while for a reaction...)

JJ lowered the skimmer, in fact ze landed it, moving to back Duke up.

The cottage drawn to her attention, The Lady leans forward for a better look through the walker’s windshield.
Grigori’s assertion that it might be dangerous ... an illusion, a trap^(?) ... makes her very curious.

And so when The Duke and JJ land, exit their vehicle, and move towards the place, she watches on with anticipation.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:07, Wed 01 Jan 2020.

(The Duke, roll Forceful please (in your case, 2d6 +2))

ooc: Knock Knock!!

Shouldn't i also use my +1 from setting the scene as its my first roll after getting it or can i apply it at any time?

11:31, Today: The Duke rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 1,5.  Forcefull.

(Good question... my intention was that it would just be on your next roll (less bookkeeping that way. So, 9.))

The entire front of the house shatters like glass.

The Duke is now Somewhat Wounded due to falling shards of sharp... house material.

Inside the house can now be seen, amongst various other rooms (it's like looking into a giant open dollhouse now), a primitive kitchen, where an old woman is stirring something on a stove. "...Oh, visitors," she says. "How careless. That'll have to be fixed, you know. Who's going to pay for it...?"

Aesop lays himself down next to the broken house. He wouldn’t fit, even if he tried. He looked at the woman, trying to gage if she was friend ... or food.

22:53, Today: Aesop rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,1.  friend or food (discerning).
I guess that means he does not know?.

"Oh, madame! Excuse us for the rude interruption." Grigori glares at the Duke after his careless smashing "That is a quandry indeed. Tell me, what laborers set this house for you at the beginning? Pay is really only useful if there are laborers to hire, after all, and we've a terrible dearth of laborers as it stands. Pray tell, what circumstance finds your home in such a remote locale?" Grigori watches the woman carefully, hoping to find some detail that marks her as strange in this particularly strange place.


21:55, Today: Grigori rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 2,6.  Insight into the old woman.

JJ had no idea what to do in this situation, having only the vaguest idea of what 'pay' meant. Ze simply waited, leaving it up to the humans.

The Duke stands on the far side of the shattered wall looking at all the splinters in his arms and starts to pluck them out dropping bloody pieces onto the floor as the waterfall of words takes care of the lady. As they talk The Duke inspects the pot on the stove as it smells like something he needs to secure.

The woman smells very wrong. Like dried blood and bone dust and stale rocket fuel and mouse sweat and million-year-old cheese. ...Or at least that's what his nose tells him. Nothing that moves and makes noise should smell like those things, especially all at once. It makes Aesop's nose... and brain... ache.

(Aesop gets a -1 on his next roll, but also gets 1 new xp.)




The old woman points at Anchorite Tearful. "The daughter of bombs there should know. It was her kind who built my house, and can build it again. She can work off the debt of the damage that's been done to my house... and I can teach her things she'll find valuable, if she does a good job..."

The old woman turns back to Grigori. "But as for you... I like your politeness. Housebreakers should have manners, at the very least... But I could also ask you what brings you six to this remote spot...? I haven't seen a little gathering like this in aeons... So I'll trade you, for a while, answer for answer... My home is here because this is where the bomb went off, so long ago, that pulled the dreams and fears from men's heads and turned them solid. When I was young, this spot was a decent-sized city. Now, it is a heart-crater, and barely that. To put it another way, the spot is only remote because everyone ran away... Now, you answer. What brings you this way, mmmmm...?"

She glances briefly at The Duke-- "--I wouldn't touch that if I were you, little boy. What I'm cooking may not agree with you, and not just because it's too hot..."

Bad food? The Duke eyes the pot suspiciously. He recalls bad food from a long time back. Made his tummy rumble in a bad way for days. It was no fun. But then why still be cooking it? It made no sense and the painful face The Duke makes as he tries to make sense of it might actually be accompanied by the sound of rusty gears grinding to a halt.

"Yes, Duke, please be careful. Do remember your manners when you're visiting company." Grigori lowers his walker and steps out of the cockpit, turning to wave his compatriots to exit with him."We will find you a tasty treat soon." Grigori approaches the huge man and places a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm the confusion that's crunching his face together.

He turns his head to face the old woman, "I've always enjoyed a good game of give and take. We come from the Ziggurat, a great tower and preserve for the sort of civilization we'd thought had been wiped from the face of the planet. We had thought we were the last of its kind but have learned of a signal from a long lost sister called the Cloister." He pauses a moment and watches the old woman's face carefully, hoping to discern whether the name registered as familiar before continuing.

"I've heard whispers and legends of the days of bombs, though they disagree with each other more often than not. My compatriot has not shared the stories of her people, mayhaps she shall share with us both should we find ourselves lucky. I am glad that the bomb has left your house standing and you in one piece, though I lament your lonely existence. I imagine the time has given you opportunity to learn much. Pray tell, what do you know of the Cloister?"

"Bah. There have been many days of bombs. Many, many days, many different kinds of bombs..."




"My bomb built my house, sonny..."




"Oh, yes, well, it's not so lonely as you might think... I have other visitors, now and then... just not your kind. More like him," she says, pointing at Aesop with a wooden spoon. "They buy things, sometimes try to sell me things..."





She cackles. "Sonny, you don't know the half of it."




"Ah, now, that's a good question. The problem is, we're trading answers, and now I have to think about what answer I would want in return. Because if I can't think of a new answer I want to know, why should I answer your new question...?" She thinks. "...This is the problem with monsters offering to sell me things... what do I need, really...? Mmmmm... So... I suppose the real question is... what might you want to buy...? Besides the answer to your last question, that is... Hmmmm..." She sighs. "I suppose I'll settle for that. The answer to your question is that yes, I have heard of The Cloister before, just as I'd certainly already heard of your Ziggurat. I don't know exactly where The Cloister is... Not exactly near here, I know that much... I don't recall if I've ever met anyone who claimed to be from The Cloister... but I'm pretty sure I've met people who claimed that they'd met such people... Not lately, though..."

"So, that's my answer, for now... And my question is, is there anything you people are looking to buy...? Of course, I gather you would like the location of The Cloister, but I don't know that right now, and I can't guarantee you that I can get it in a hurry... I have to wait for customers who know about it to come to me, you see..."

Aesop looks at the woman as she talks and even points at him. He blows his nose, troubled by the smells he got before. He nods as his tail flicks about and turns to Grigori.

“Yes, she probably meets creatures like me. She smells like she herself is more like me than she is like you.”

His voice is deep and rumbly, though he attempts to keep it at a passable volume.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:26, Thu 09 Jan 2020.

Hmmm, created by a bomb? Grigori wonders to himself. What sort of bomb creates? For that matter, how has this stood so long?

"Curious, Aesop. More like you than me, you say? Curious on curious..." He taps his chin as he speaks and paces back and forth.

"As for your question, please give me a moment to consult," He waves to Duke, AJ, and Aesop, urging them to gather close to him, Anchorite Tearful, and the Lady. If they do, he asks, "What sort of wares is this old woman like to have? Do you four need anything that the Ziggurat didn't provide? I'm not even sure we've got the sort of money she'd be looking for."

The Duke reluctantly leaves the offending kettle to join Grigory and the others. Foers wasn't yelling at him not to smash the lady but she didn't look dangerous at all and Grigori was talking to it so he might not like it if he would twist her arm to wring answers from her. He seems quite lucid when asked the question and answers the wordweavers question.

"We be lucky if a client comes soon with the answer we want. But she knows who knows. Does she know where to find the one who knows?"

“I would like ...”, replied The Lady dreamily, “the woman’s memory of her first kiss”.

She’d been carefully watching this interaction intently, but had spoken none, to allow those of superior diplomatic skill to take the fore.

"A purchase... A shopping list... an interesting question we hadn't thought we would run across outside of our tower. I suspect your wares are of limited nature, the most valuable of which may barely seem a ware at all. We would like to purchase information. A tale, a drawing, a prediction." Grigori steps forward from the group and reaches out with two open palms. "Tell ua the tale of your first kiss, sketch us a map of the area as you know it, and predict your next encounter with outsiders other than us. For this, we will pay what meager currency we possess."

"Currency? No. I have enough of that. As payment in advance... I want you to do something for me. I can do many, many things... but one thing I cannot do is leave this area. I want you to go somewhere, and deliver something for me... and pick up something from the same place, and bring it back to me... It is not far... especially not for beings such as yourselves, who possess such fine vehicles..."

"For these three things, we will gladly do you this favor. Give us the item and the place and we'd be happy to make this trade." Grigori bows in the traditional gesture of a deal well struck among the academics of the Ziggurat, then straightens himself and awaits more detail.

Aesop stretches and gets up as he gets a sense that they will be leaving again. While he won’t admit it, he’s glad they won’t be around that woman anymore.

The old woman nods solemnly. From a pocket of her clothing she pulls out a... a... what is that?

It looks like a sort of shimmering light.

But when she hands it to Grigori, it feels like a glass ball, about four inches across. Even though it doesn't look like a glass ball. The twisting, shimmering light keeps moving outside the boundaries of where the glass ball's edges feel like they should be.

It also smells like roses, and makes a very, very faint noise like a tiny little music box.

"Go south from here until you see the chrome mountains. It's less than an hour, in vehicles, and a safe journey. Give this to the fella that asks you about it-- no one else. He'll give you my payment."

Anchorite Tearful approaches Grigori and the others. "...I'm staying here," she says. "The woman and I have been talking telepathically, all this time... There are things she'll teach me that I must learn. You can come back for me later on... I hope you understand... This is too good an opportunity for me to pass up..."

Looking at the light one can hold The Duke oh's and ah's in rapt wonder and then reaches out with his massive hands.

"The Duke will carry it and keep it safe. You drive."

Aesop stops and looks at Anchorite, then at the old woman, and then back to Anchorite. He doesn’t seem pleased.
He walks over to Anchorite and gently puts his forehead against hers. “Be careful, friend. She smells dangerous.” he says.

He stands back up and goes to his full posture, standing tall and protective as he adresses the old woman. “If you hurt her you and I will have problems. Understood?” He then turns around and joins the rest, “accidentally” bumping over the mailbox.

---

22:31, Today: Aesop rolled 3 using 2d6 ((1,2)).

Sigh... XP I guess?

Aesop is embarrassed about having ruined his exit by knocking over the mailbox.

(Aesop gets -1 on his next roll, but gets 1 xp.)

The old woman watches closely to see if the party will let The Duke carry the object to be delivered, but so far she says nothing...

Grigori feels like he might loose himself in the fantastic object, but shakes the feeling at the Duke's words, "Yes, thank you, Duke." He hands the object over with a mix of regreat and relief and climbs back up into his walker.

"In that case, we'll be off to the chrome mountains, now. We'll see you in a matter of hours if this trip is as short and straightforward as you claim. Please, fill Anchorite with knowledge that she may share with the rest of us when the time is right." He motions toward the lady, inviting her to rejoin him in the walker, and prepares to head south as soon as everybody is mounted.

Taking the object with a lot more care one would expect of the brute monstrosity that is The Duke he gives Grigory a gleeful smile and then makes his way back into the skimmer calling out to JJ.

Lets go!"

Then he seems to loose himself staring into the thing mumbling to himself about how precious the little light is.

JJ nodded amiably, climbing back into the driver's seat and heading off.

The expedition force of five leaves the no-front house in the blasted tree trunks, and heads south. There are no obstacles, no dangers, just mile after mile of barren, rocky landscape.

The Duke notes that, slowly, the object he holds changes. The light widens, slows its shimmer.

It solidifies... into a ball of ice.

That's what it looks like, anyway. It feels like rough stone. Volcanic, perhaps.

Its smell changes, to wet leather.

Very soon, though, it becomes clear that there are, in fact, mountains ahead...

The trek continues... soon the mountains are near...

There are no foothills. The mountains rise up quite suddenly from ground level.

And these are surely the chrome mountains specified, because they shine in the dim light, like polished hematite...

There are various holes, most a little smaller than a man's height, in the face of the small mountains...

...And then, as the two vehicles (and Aesop) approach more closely... Forms emerge from those holes... Octopoid beings... carrying spears, and sometimes other weapons...

The suckers on their arms allow them to cling to the polished surface of the stone easily... It occurs to Grigori that perhaps the stone is polished merely through hundreds of thousands of years of friction, hundreds of thousands of years of suckers and tentacles rubbing the stone smooth...

The tentacled beings point the vehicles (and Aesop) out to one another, and they begin to descend down closer to ground level... There are only a couple of dozen of them now, but a few went back inside-- for reinforcements, possibly...?
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:19, Fri 24 Jan 2020.

Grigori brings his walker to a stop and looks at the beings, narrowing his eyes to make sure that his memory isn't playing tricks on him. He leans over to the Lady, "Ah, the chrome mountains. I've heard of these beings before, though the mountains have another name in the ancient texts. They must have gained this gleam since the words were first laid down."

15:04, Today: Grigori rolled 11 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 4,5.  Insight - knowledge about these creatures.

(I will allow Grigori's player to define one thing about these octopoid beings. If he declines, I'll do so myself...)

"I do not recall the name these things use for themselves, but the drawings are uncannily accurate. There is a signal that they share to identify friend from stranger, one that was interpolated to human hands and well described by the ancient nautralist, Hemsly Morrowbind. It looks something like this." He makes a series of maneuvers with his fingers and wrists to show The Lady. "We should step out together and show them this gesture, they'll offer succor. Assuming their tradition has not changed, that is.

The octopoids have gathered very near ground level, but not yet stepping off the slanted surface of the dark Chrome Mountain range.

A few more octopoids start emerging from the holes above...

Aesop licks his lips unconsciously. He likes seafood. He looks at his companions. They don't seem overly aggressive. Fine. Aesop lays down lazily. A signal that he doesn't feel threatened and isn't intending to be threatening himself.

---

ooc: just some flavor text to show that I'm still reading along.

The Duke has enjoyed the strange treasure at some point even trying to lick if to see how it tastes. When its cold it should taste like icecream!

When they reach the strange creatures The Duke gets protective and puts both hands over the light glaring at these things.If they would try to steal their light he would smash them all.

When The Duke tastes the ball of ice that looks like stone, he finds that it tastes like fresh basil.

But that was on the way to the mountains. By the time the expedition party reaches the mountains, the ball feels like it's just that, a ball of inflated rubber.

Looks like a ball of rainbow-colored yarn, though.

Smells like woodsmoke.

...It's making a sort of very quiet powered-on-electronics hum.

“Why, of course”, The Lady said, entwinning her arm through the gentleman’s, and allowing him to escort her.

Grigori lowers the walker to the ground and hooks his elbow for the lady to take. He opens the hatch and leads the way out onto the ground in front of the octopoids. He stops and begins the hand dance with his free hand, allowing The Lady to perform the other half of the greeting with her free hand.

The Duke is raptly facinated by this strange ball and beyond shooting a glance at his friends and the strange creatures he keeps focussed on playing with it. totally lost in this strange thing that fools all senses. As it starts to hum he tastes it again wondering if it tingles and if he can actually manipulate the ball.

The Lady joined Grigori in greeting the mountain folk.
She was magnanimous, and charming ... inspired and intrigued by these strange peoples.

"Can you speak their tongue, though", she teasingly smiled at her companion.

(Since The Lady has a higher Charming stat, I'll let her make a Charming roll now, please...

The Duke, make an Insightful roll...)

Ha

-rolled 6 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,2.  Cham roll, as requested.

"I hope they speak the same language as the rest of us. If they're the one's the old woman wanted us to meet, she said they would identify themselves." He whispers to the lady as she moves forward to charm them.

As the adults talk The Duke enjoys his toy.

ooc: 09:24, Today: The Duke rolled 12 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,5.  Lick my ball.

JJ let Grigori and The Lady speak, however ze did search zir database for any data ze had on this species.

06:00, Today: JJ rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,3.  Shapeshift.
06:00, Today: JJ rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,3.  Insight.

It seemed that he had extensive files, and ze opened them to discover...

It has a taste like mangoes and oranges and mint. (The Duke gets a +1 on his next roll.)




(The way this generally works is that a shapeshift roll of 7-9 is slightly flawed. Describe how you shapeshift to search for information, please, JJ...

Also: So I take it that no one is going to try to Aid The Lady in her failed roll? (Or is that what JJ is trying to lead up to doing...?))

Grigori will continue to gesture in the typical friend greeting to the octopoids as an assist.


12:12, Today: Grigori rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,1.  Charm.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:29, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

(No no-- when I said

quote:

If you want to try to Aid someone, just say how you help in the narrative, then roll based on how you help, then report your roll and I'll decide what happens and narrate from there.

I meant roll normally-- 2d6 and your Charming modifier, in this case.

You may attempt to help/assist someone who has failed a roll, but we're not using the PBTA Aid move as such.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:45, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

OOC: Oops, edited to reflect the right roll.

(Before anything else:

The Lady, Grigori speaking to you earlier caused you to Hold 1 Attention.

I don't want you to use it retroactively-- only for things that haven't already been posted-- but I was remiss in not pointing this out sooner, so I offer to let you instead have 2 Attention right now instead of just 1.

Is this compromise acceptable to you...?)

In reply to The GM (msg # 111):

Yeah that's good with me!

(Er, that's nice, but I was asking The Lady)

OOC: so, I have 2 Attention currently, but cannot use it to modify my failed Charm roll.  Correct?
That sounds just fine to me.  Thank You



Never the less, The Lady stepped forward to greet them in the traditional way of many such primitive peoples, by showing them that she wished to acknowledge their ownership of this land.

Almost ceremoniously, she crouched and scooped up a handful of dirt and small stones, and threw it into the face of the nearest octoperson.

(Yeah thumbs up)



The octopoids throw a few spears at the party. However, only Grigori and The Lady are close enough to get hit.

(Grigori and The Lady are each now Somewhat Wounded.)

The throws aren't very damaging to Grigori... they seem... sort of lackluster? Ceremonial? Either these things aim differently than humans, or they weren't throwing to kill...

Of course, the spears don't hurt The Lady physically at all, but it's a rejection by a thinking people, and that hurts her a little...

"Ack! Good lord! back to the walker!" Grigori throws his hands over his head to protect his soft parts and dashes back to the walker, sustaining some cuts and bruises but no life threatening injuries in the process.

"What was that, Lady? You seem to have insulted them! Can't say I blame them. I've never been a fan of having dirt thrown in my face, either!" He looks at her with consternation and strokes his beard with agitation.

Aesop sees this happening and gets up on his feet quickly. The lazy tameness is gone and his coal-black body seems to have grown as he leaps between the Lady and Grigory, ready to intimidate. His golden eyes seem to start to glow and then he ROARS!
The earth itself seems to shake, dust kicks up slightly around him. Suddenly people realize that this beast is wild, primal and savage!

---

19:58, Today: Aesop rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,4.  Scary (+1, -1 from previous fail) intimidate!
If someone aids, he can bump the partial success up to a full success!

The Duke was savoring the taste of his magical ball and the way its texture and sound was messing up his perception of the thing. It was soothing in a way. And then he was distracted by those weird things The Lady and Grigory where talking who got aggressive and Foers wasn't screaming anything against him. A wide grin crosses his face and just the thought of the atrocities he was about to inflict on these things make the giant cat roaring seem like a kitten purring.

"Do not touch my friends!!"

The Duke barrels into their midsts one hand holding cupping his strange prize as he turns these agressors into calamiris.

ooc: Lets go Atrocious on them.
Thats a powerfull Atrocity. I guess we are done talking here now ;-)

23:33, Today: The Duke rolled 13 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 5,5.  Atrocious.

JJ shifted into Defense mode, then into Combat mode, then into Sneak mode, completely unable to make up zir mind on how to deal with what was happening.

The Lady watched in horror, as this scene turned from (what she hoped would be) a positive first impression with these people, into a ... a ... battlefield.

What had gone wrong?
She wondered this, as she stepped back behind the big kitten for protection.

At Aesop's mighty roar, half the octopoids rush back inside their holes. It's hard to say if they're frightened, or if the roar just caused them physical pain, but the result was clear: 50% of them retreated.



The Duke rushes into the remaining octopoids like a (large) cannonball, and tears them apart. Their ripped-up tentacles drip ichor as they twitch on the ground. It's almost too easy-- there's nothing hard about them at all except their beaks, and those don't even give The Duke any scratches worth worrying about. None are left except those who didn't run away-- and Foers didn't have a thing to say about it. These things might or might not count as people, but Foers clearly wasn't classifying them as friends...

The Duke pauses proudly looking at Grigory and giving him a thumbs up octopoid ichor still dripping of his fist has he does.

"No worries The Duke protects his friends."

He then turns and seems to be intend on rooting out these bad guys entirely.

Grigori climbs down from the walker gingerly, and walks over to the Duke, "Good man, Duke. I truly appreciate your protection." He reaches up and places a thin hand on the Duke's massive shoulder, "It is good to have friends."

He looks back at the others, "I don't understamd, though. These are the correct mountains, but the one who asks for the orb isn't here. Who could the old woman be talking about? Perhaps we should investigate those tunnels to see if wjoever we were supposed to meet got the same friendly greeting."

'Yeash', The Lady thinks to herself, as she looks at the carnage around her.

If only these octo-people could have accepted her greeting; for she had been respectful and gracious.
But it seemed that they had chosen a warlike response, and too late had discovered the folly of their way, for they were not so warlike as those who accompanied The Lady.

"I just hope that one of these was not the one we were supposed to hand the globe to.
Do you think they intended to simply take it, without offering back the renumeration that the old lady expects?" she asked.

As she spoke, she aimlessly and casually stroked the big kitty.
He surely was a powerful and majestic being ... a worthy guardian for a Goddess to have.

When Grigory mentioned investigating the tunnels, The Lady smiled at him and simply offered, "Pray that Luck will guide you in your choice, my friend ..." The Lady said, subtly and gently encouraging him (or anyone) to pay her attention.
If Grigori, or anyone else, makes a roll to determine which caves to investigate, The Lady can now augment their success, by shining some luck on the situation ... so long as the PC specifically prays to her (or calls out to her) in the post where they do what they want her help with.

JJ blinked a few eyes at the scene, then gave zir form's best approximation of a shrug. " Great and powerful Lady of Luck, grant me the fortune to find the one I seek" he beseeched her then prepared to investigate the tunnels.

As the zenomorphous form called upon her, The Lady smiled to herself.
She hadn't felt that ... that ... Attention in some time.    It felt good.
For is it not said that, to a starving man, even a crumble tastes like a banquet.

GM, when he makes his roll, you know what to do ... please
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 09:23, Fri 14 Feb 2020.

Going tunnel snake, JJ headed in.

16:01, Today: JJ rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 1,5.  Shapeshift.
16:01, Today: JJ rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,1.  Looking for group.

(The Lady, using your power to boost each of JJ's rolls by one won't help (since the maximum Attention you can hold is 3). Since he's got two 8s, you'll have to spend 2 points of Attention to boost just one roll.

But will you bless his shapeshifting, or his searching...?)

The Lady watched JJ morph casually into some kind of serpentine form with intrigue.

Then, as it slithered off, she smiled upon his effort to “... to find the one I seek".
- Spend my 2 Attention to add +2 to JJ’s ‘looking for ...’ roll.

(The Lady loses 2 Attention.)

JJ turns into a large (but not threateningly large) tunnel snake, and heads in.

The snake is a bit disoriented by the new world of smelltaste that suddenly opens up before it... but mostly, the snake is cold. This new sensitivity to cold is what's really distracting... It's so tempting to curl up and try to preserve warmth... (JJ takes -1 to its next roll... -2 if it's an Agility roll...)


JJ manages to slip by a few of the octopoids, mostly because they are a bit stunned from the black lion's roar... but one picks the snake up in a tentacle.

JJ's head is rapidly brought toward the octopoid's hungry beak...

The Duke was pleased friend Grigory was happy and when the intent to explore the tunnel was made evident and then put into practice by friend JJ The Duke proceeds to follow planning to turn any of the octopoids in their way into a moist smear on the wall. They are after all not friends.

The octopoids The Duke encounters upon entering the hole JJ (the snake) entered run away... So far, no sign of JJ... Hm, which way did the snake go? It's pretty dark in here...

While Aesop the cat seemed to ignore The Lady showing appreciation he actually is comforted knowing that it's appreciated. Is this what friendship is like? He keeps scanning the surroundings and wonders wether he should stop The Duke before things get more out of hand.

JJ didn't really care about random octopoids. This one showed no signs of being the one he was looking for, so he sprouted spikes and an electric eel gland and discouraged it.

23:22, Today: JJ rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,5.  Spikey bits.

Good thing The Duke was holding a ball of light. He holds it up to see and simply gives pursuit. The enemy will most likely was running after friend JJ and The Duke would protect him making sure to smash any calamaris on the way there.

(Actually it's looked like a ball of ice (that feels like rough stone) since msg #90. Although that might change in the future, at the moment, it continues to not be a light source.)

ooc: Ah i sort of assumed the light was a constant next to the other stuff. Well The Duke has his own light source in that case,

(Ah! Yes! The light sources in the wilderness kit you brought! Good job remembering!

Describe the form of the "light source," and then roll an Insightful check, please...)

The Duke seeing the dark frowns and then puts his pack down. He recalled there where lamps in there. Handy little pocket torches but also a 10000 lumen light beacon meant to provide an emergency beacon to far away places. It was clumsy and big exactly like The Duke and so he takes it out and proceeds to shine the living daylight out of everyones eyes.

ooc: 10:39, Today: The Duke rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,6.  Insightful.

The Lady continued to stroke the big kitty, and watch the cave entrance that SnakeJJ and The Duke entered by.
She seemed curious about whether they would return soon with news of (or the actual) person they were apparently sent here to meet.

Aesop liked being stroked, and seeing that the Lady wasn’t going to move anywhere, decided to lay down and enjoy the petting.

As the shapeshifter dives into the mountain and The Duke takes off after xem, Grigori strokes his beard, wondering what ruckus must be happening in the depths of that mountain.

JJ miscalculates a bit-- JJ's spikes are so spiky, they damage JJ a bit when the electric shock makes the octopoid shake violently. (JJ is now Somewhat Wounded.)

They work a treat toward discouraging getting eaten, though. The octopoid shakes JJ off, and flees.

The Duke appears, and sees JJ the spiky snake...

Reunited!

The Lady turned to Grigori and Aesop, "We should bury these poor fools".

Walking around Aesop so that she could pat closer to his head, she asked gently, "Do you think that you could dig a hole for their bodies to be placed in, my furry friend?"

Then to Grigori, "Perhaps your walker can help, or be used to move the bodies?"

JJ shifted back up to zir combat form since stealth wasn't working, and waved hello to The Duke. "No sign of the one that we are looking for yet" ze said, shrugging. "Perhaps further in?"

The duke seeing his friend in that weird shape nods at it.

"Aye deeper inside the hole is as liquid as your skin. Bubbly and foul the ooze slithers and seeks till its skin is devoured by all wrong paths."

He then carries the light ahead to find any bad calamari and the one looking for his what was it now? He looks and gives it a state to make sure its still there.

"Yes, that's a kind thing to do. Very generous of you, Lady." Grigori starts to grab octopoids by the tentacles and drag them into a pile near the pit that Aesop will (hopefully) dig.

OOC: I think the arm was an optional add-on I didn't take for the walker. If I'm wrong, then I'd like to retcon this post to use the walker.

(Yeah, sorry, you took the quadwalker, which has no arms.

The Lady does get 1 new Attention, though, which I think brings her total to 2 right now.

JJ, if you've changed form again, roll for it.

If you roll 7 to 9, say what small disadvantage you have.

If you roll 6 or less, say what major disadvantage you have.)

Aesop stretches and tilts his head at all the good scritches he’s getting. Then the Lady asks something of him, which usually is a deal breaker, but those scritches are so good though! And so he starts digging a pit, which takes no work at all.

“What a strange way of things, burying people.”, he says, “It’s like a waste of food for all surrounding creatures.”

(Aesop does as The Lady asks, so she's maxed out on Attention now.)

08:38, Today: JJ rolled 9 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,4.  Shapeshift.

JJ twitched irritation as ze noticed that zis shapeshift had left the wound mark still on ze, but didn't care enough to shift again.

JJ would have to be careful... wouldn't want to get that dirty.

But, oh well, ze could get it cleaned up when ze got back to the walker. For now, it was best to just press forward...

---

In the meantime, one member of the expedition party noticed someone watching them... a small, shy octopoid, half the size of the ones they'd already seen... He, she, or it was watching them from the nearest hole, close to the ground, just barely sticking enough of its head out so as to observe them with one eye...

Seeing the little, shy critter, The Lady decides to approach it while Aesop and Grigori were burying the octopersons.

When she got close, she gently crouched down nearby ...
        - rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,1.  Charm it.
and, scooping up a handful of dirt and stone, threw the handful right at the cute little fella’s eye.
Maybe this octopod would finally accept her graceful greeting, rather than trying to kill her instead.



apparently the Dice Roller hates this character!

(You may spend all your Attention, and give yourself a 7...? Or you can just take the xp point, and go from there...?)

well, now, how boring would that be?
But I do think a ‘-1 ongoing’ when using Charm/Insight with regard to Octopeople would be appropriate

(Works for me. The Lady gets a -1 ongoing on Charm/Insight rolls related to the octopoids of the Chrome Mountains, but she also gets 1 new xp.)

The small octopoid zips out of sight, back into the hole.

JJ nodded to the Duke, reached inside zis mouth to retrieve zis plasgun, and moved on.

Should I roll something? No clue here.

(Normally, I would think that turning into something with no arms nor other holding limbs would mean you'd leave your gear behind and come back for it later, but you did it in a cute way, so I'm not gonna quibble this time.

Now, The Duke has scared everyone away for the moment, so if you want to keep searching for the person/being you're looking for, yeah, roll Insightful.)

Aesop heard something-- well, a barely-audible sound, but also a smell. He ran off to investigate it...

He was soon completely out of sight of the others.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:18, Wed 26 Feb 2020.

Please don't forget that I have, earlier,  blessed JJ's search with a +2 ... turning his '8' into a '10'

(I haven't forgotten... he found the octopoid he was looking for... but since he looked like food, the being in question tried to make a snack of him, and then he scared 'im off.

To try to find that person again will require a new roll...

...And The Lady can't bless what she isn't aware of...)

Being a God, wouldn't she be able to sense when someone 'prays to {her} or calls out to {her}'?
Its kinda part of worship, really ... gods tend to get 'attention' that is thrown at them from any source anywhere ... and tend to be able to affect worshippers, not just those within line of sight/hearing.

(My stance is that there was a time, long ago, when that was true, but The Lady is much weakened from those days.

I will rule that she feels SOMETHING that may involve her... she may use the FATE power I gave her (via PM to you) to try to discern what it is...)

UPDATE-- WHERE THINGS STAND RIGHT NOW:

--The Duke and JJ are in the tunnels, looking for the one they seek.

--Grigori and The Lady are outside the tunnels... The Lady has just inadvertently chased away a small octopoid (although the hole it vanished back into is easily big enough for Grigori and/or The Lady to follow, if they wished).

--Aesop has run off, perhaps sensing his own kind nearby, or perhaps his favorite food.

With the dead buried, The Lady performed one last rite upon their grave.
Just as she'd greeted them, she sent their dead off to octoheaven by throwing some dirt on their grave, and blessing it with Luck.
Luck that they would arrive safely in their afterlife; and return reinvigorated, if that is what their people believed.

Then she turned to Grigori, "I wonder where Kitty went?
Should we follow The Duke and JJ into the belly of this place, or return to the Walker and scout the area?"

Grigori rubs his cuts and bruises, "I truly fear no fate more than delving into those tunnels. It is likely they could use assistance, though." He hesitates, "Perhaps I should wait a bit longer in case our quarry shows."

"Indeed", The Lady said, smiling warming at her companion.

After a moment, she said, "Come, let me know you a prayer that once was prevalent in my honour.
My worshippers were far and many", she casually explained, as she found a comfortable bit of grass to sit upon,
"Although, many worshipped me with realising it ... or without deliberation".
She shrugged, "It mattered not.  They called upon me, regardless, in their own ways".

So long as Grigori sat before her, she showed him how to hold his hand in the traditional way ... elbow at his side, but forearm out in front of him.  His hand, palm up but fingers closed as though holding something.

Then, she began gently swinging her forearm and hand back and forth ... almost as though she were simulating stabbing herself in the stomach with the invisible knife she held.
And she waited for Grigori to follow suit.  After all, she was teaching him this prayer.

When he was following her actions, she smiled, feeling the old attachment to the ritual/prayer,
"Now, as you perform the action, One recites this easy cant:

C'mon baby, Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.
C'mon baby, Daddy needs a new pair of shoes".

With the squid people turning out to be enemies threathening his friends one just momentarily trying to eat his buddy JJ The Duke moves deeper into the tunnels activating his powered fists to show these things he was serious bellowing through the corridors.

"Your choice!! You be friendly and help my friends or i will treat you like the enemies you are and nuetralize you all!!!"

Grigori joins the lady in her gestures and chant.

"Ah, yes. I can feel it already!" He says as he moves his hand back and forth faster and faster, culminating in a jerk of his arm forward forward, extending his fingers as though he were releasing something. "Ah! The spirit has taken me!" He cries, startled by the sudden action as though his arm had a mind of its own.

"Let's test this." He says, standing and cupping his hands to his mouth, shouting into the sky, "Hello! We've come to meet you. Now come on! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!" He shouts to the heavens.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:14, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

The Lady smiled at Grigori's enthusiasm ... and felt this slightest, smallest, barely sensed trickle of Faith.

It was nothing compared to once she had once felt; but the proverbial 'crumb to a starving man' ...
and her eyes closed in ecstasy as she felt it.


Yes.  Yes.
Grigori's attempt to draw some good interaction from those within hearing range would be blessed.

When he makes an appropriate roll, I will add between +1 and +3 to his roll, to increase it to either a &= or 10+ result.

JJ attempts to figure out which octopoid scurrying around might be the one they're looking for, but without success.

(JJ fails an Insightful roll, and gets a -1 on their next roll, but gets 1 new xp.)

---

The octopoids all slowly stop running. They're afraid, but they're convinced that running will make things worse, so they force themselves to hold their ground (but not attack).

"So..." says one tall, thin octopoid, "you... want us... to help your friends...? What... do you want, exactly, o mighty slaughterers of The People...?" He or she (or it?) isn't trying to be sarcastic, they're trying to be respectful to a being they see as mass murderers...

---

(Meanwhile, Grigori, make a Charming roll...)

The Duke gives the thing a toothy grin that might be intended to look friendly but most likely signals the thing he was about to eat it as he holds up his special thing.

"The old lady gave us this and send us here. Then you attack the Lady. Thats bad!"

"...What... is that...?" asks the tall, thin octopoid.

"...It's mine," says a voice.

Everyone looks at the speaker. It's a small octopoid, half the size of the others. The small octopoid reaches two of its tentacles out, slowly, for the thing The Duke holds (currently looking like a green rubber balloon... but feeling like a round lead weight). "I traded a limb for it," says the little being, and indeed The Duke counts and realizes that this being is technically a septapoid.

"...You said a flarg ate your limb!" says one of the others, shocked.

"No. I traded it to the old woman. And now its ready, and she sent these warriors to deliver it..."

Will The Duke give the small septapoid the object?

The Duke looms over the puny thing his voice bellowing.

"You sure its yours? If you fool the Duke he will eat you and your friends."

Still beyond the threat he holds out the item to be delivered.

"Then you also know where we go next?"

"...We were supposed to give it to the one who asked us for it, or about it, or something like that, remember...?" JJ says to The Duke quietly.





The little septapoid takes the item-- and it turns back into a ball of shimmering light again, though more sea-green than before.

The other octopoids fall down on their-- well, okay, they sort of sink down lower, bowing. "It is true. Hsyui is indeed the prophesied one who will lead us, the bearer of the light."

Hsyui looks The Duke in the eye, then looks at the light. Murky images seem to swim in it. "...You and the woman outside will go back to the old woman, and get your payment," says Hsyui. "The man outside and this being at your side will follow the black lion. I cannot see where they will end up... but you and the woman will go where the old one guides you..."

The Duke nods at JJ and then gives the septopod a firm tap on its shoulders that would make its knees buckle if it had any and then turns to leave.

"Next time don't attack my friends."

And with that he returns to the Lady.

The Duke and JJ return to Grigori and The Lady.

JJ informs them of what transpired in the tunnels...

The Lady smiled, and nodded.
"It was Lucky that you found the one we needed to find, gentlemen", she intoned gracefully.

"Perhaps it is fateful that we must part company now," she replied to JJ and to Grigori, "for I also sense that Aesop will need your aid.
It is Lucky for him that you will be there for him.

In turn, The Duke and I will return to collect our Tearful Companion.
With Luck, our two groups will remerge when Destiny deems it appropriate".   She spoke that last name with familiarity and  ... familial connection?

To Grigori, she said, before he left, "Remember me, as I have taught you, and Luck will always be with you".

When Grigory and JJ are to depart the Duke looks at both their rides a little sad he now had to walk and he expresses this sadness to the fine lady.

"We not lucky. Friends got rides we have to walk far."

"Do you trust me, Duke?
If you say, 'In Luck I trust', I'm sure we can have a vehicle"

So long as The Duke payed The Lady the attention she deserved, the lady drifted over to where Grigori and JJ were preparing to leave.
- rolled 7 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,3.   +3 Attention
As she ran her finger across Grigori's chest, she intoned, "You wouldn't leave a Lady without transport now, would you?" she asked.

Grigori sighed.

Soon, The Duke and The Lady were using Grigori's vehicle to head back to the strange, blasted forest where the old lady's house had been.

When they got there, there was half a wall back in place over the kitchen area.

Anchorite Tearful comes out to greet them. "I've got to stay here, for now," she says. "I'll never have a chance like this again. Whatever the old woman is, she can teach me things I feel I must learn..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:23, Thu 09 Apr 2020.

The Duke found it strange he had to say he trusted in Luck but if it meant he didn't have to walk what was the problem against it? Once they returned to the lady The Duke gravitated to the kettle with food.

"But Anchorite we need smart people. The Duke is strong and the Lady looks nice but we need smarts to find our goal."

The Lady joined The Duke into the old woman's hut.
As The Duke worked to convince Anchorite of their need for her, The Lady gave her attention to the witch.
"The deed is done", she intoned, "And her merchandise delivered".

She sat then, across from the older, with grace.
It occurs to me that we are now left with the two PC's with the least personal investment in this mission: one who was simply along for the ride, and one conceivably unable to fully comprehend the purpose.
So I guess I'd better step The Lady up into more involved motivation, eh.


"Please, you agreed to tell us what you could of our destination, and how to get there".

"You have done as I asked, so I will do as you ask. While you were gone, I remembered who once told me that they had met people who claimed to be from The Cloister. It was a plant-man, called himself Juniper. Two legs, two arms, head with eyes, but wood, or as much like it as makes little difference. He came from the northeast, and he went back there. It was a long time ago, but if he's not alive anymore, his children-- or whatever he might have instead of children, might be, and they would likely know what he would know, because that's how it works. Go that way, and ask about Juniper the plant-man, or his people. And take this bag... Mixed with water, it's like food and medicine to those plant-people. They'll find it very valuable..."

She gives The Lady a brown velvet bag with whitish powder inside...
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:43, Sun 12 Apr 2020.

The Lady graciously accepts the offered bag, and the guidance of the old lady.

"Thank you, and may Luck be with you.
With your permission, we shall rest here for the night, and move on in the morning?" she asked.

The Duke eyes the pot again when the Lady says they are going to stay there and chips in seemingly having found a way to express his desires without needing to foorce them.

"If we are lucky a fine meal too!"

He looks at the Lad with hopeful eyes.

"You may rest here in my yard, amongst the tree trunks. I'd rather not have your ox in my house knocking over my fine china and eating all the food in the house..."

She pauses. "You may have some strange dreams, out here, though. Even you, Lady."

Another pause. "I can loan you quilts and pillows, if you wish... but it would likely make your dreams even more vivid and strange..."

The Lady was intrigued by 'strange dreams'.
Strange was The Lady's middle name*, and she was interested to see what her brethren God of Dreams would bring her in this way.

"Thank you.  We will accept your gracious hospitality, and take our sleep upon your lawn this eve", she bowed to the old crone.
The Lady was glad, in ways, that she herself would never age ... never fall to the misfortunes fated for this woman, and her race.

To The Duke, she said, "Let us retire to yon grassy knoll, to sleep ... perchance to dream", thinking to herself, 'ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come…'

                                                * not really, of course.   It's 'Karen' ...  ;-P 

The Duke sighs when there is no food offered but then remebers he has their supply cache under his guard and and it now needs to be shared with two less. He takes a moment to pitch his tent and then demolihes a few trees for firewood to start a small campfire and helps himself to some sausages from the supply chest to roast on a stick even offering the lady some and a stick.

That night, The Lady slept, and had a dream.

In it, she stood at the top of a tall, silver tower, at the top of a breathtakingly beautiful cityscape that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Standing on the wall was Foers, The Duke's teddy bear. "You may ask me three questions," the bear told her, waiting...

---

That night, The Duke slept, and had a dream.

The Duke was a deity of fate and luck. Billions of sentient beings prayed to him, and their thoughts sustained him and kept him alive, so alive he could grant wishes and appear anywhere, to anyone he chose.

The mighty, the lowly, the rich and the poor, robots and things grown in vats and alien things all worshiped him and begged for his attention.

To whom will The Duke next appear?

(Choose one:
--the mighty
--the lowly
--the rich
--the poor
--a robot
--a thing grown in a vat
--an alien thing)

The Duke was confused. People always loathed him and now he was worshipped. Now that was such a strange feeling. Naturally he feels compelled to appear to those most like him. Those below anyones notice. It was not more then right that he would be with he lowly.

The Duke manifests near a man in his thirties. He's got clothes, including a jacket (though everything is ripped and torn here and there, but is bareheaded, and it's raining and cold. He sits alone at the bottom of a thousand-story-high tower, in a city that's grimy and dark. "Bona fortuna..." the man cries when he sees The Duke. "You have come. All my life, when I have called you, you have been elsewhere, favored others. I bear no grudge. I know that many things are beyond my understanding. But I ask that you smile on me, just this once, please. Change my fate, mend my destiny."

The Lady smiled at Foers.
"What is it that you most want the Duke to know, little one?"

The Duke towers over the man and is still a little confused. This man wanted the Duke to smile on him? What a weird request. But who was he to deny this man his prayer and he shows the person a wide toothy grin as he looks at the massive tower looking for a way in.
Once he found or made one he grabs the man and pushes him inside his voice taking on the tone of him Prophesying.

"Men like us need to make our own fortune. Go take what you need and i will have your back but wallow in the mud and i will not hear you."

Foers appears startled. "...Very good. That was a wise question... however, answering it is complicated, because of what The Duke is capable of knowing. Nonetheless, it shall be answered..." Foers appears to consider... "...The best answer has two parts: first, that madness is not a cloak to strength, but can instead be a mirror for it... and second, that true strength is not simply in brute force, even though sheer force is sometimes a part of life."

---

The man finds a rusty ladder, and begins to climb.

There are stairs, hand-winches, more ladders, and, eventually, a few elevators to ascend, but finally the man walks slowly through a door to where there are people... people who have never seen anyone so dirty. "Wh-- who are you?" asks a nurse.

The man gives her, and the man at her side, a look... and then he collapses.

The pair immediately checked his vital signs. "Fever. I'm amazed he walked in here under his own power."

"It's worse than you think," said her companion, "he's got no tags. He's an underdweller."

"Underdwellers even still exist? I thought they were just legends!"

"This man must be one-- he has no tags. And look at the state of his teeth, and his facial hair..."

"Those can be fixed... but are we authorized to treat him?"

"There's no law against it--"

"--Because no one ever thought an underdweller would walk into a clinic!"

"--Which means it's my call. And I say yes. Did you see the look in his eyes? Fortune has smiled on his man--" --and the doctor made a quick religious gesture.

In the weeks to come, the man would near death's door, but not actually open it. He recovered, was treated, and was altered to pass for a civilized human being. He educated himself, worked hard, invested his savings, and began his rise...

In thirty years, he traded a fleet of starships for a dose of longspice. His age fell away from him, and he started over.

In another thirty years, he had several fleets of ships, and became young a second time.

In 400 years, he was the richest man in his sector, and one of the most respected, the man who had sent expeditions into the city's foundations and proven the existence of underdwellers, and was solely responsible for raising them out of their ignorant squalor and misery.

In 900 more years, the empire began to crumble, and he realized that humankind itself was in danger of being lost. He began to conceive of a mighty bulwark against entropy, a safe haven for humankind...

He looked out at the stars. "Bona Fortuna," he called. "I have not called upon you in almost a thousand years, but I call upon you now. I have tried to spread my good fortune to those who needed it, as you granted it to me. I invite you-- what is your will? Should I go ahead with the building of this refuge that I have planned...? I cannot see far enough ahead to understand what may come of it... My intentions are good, but anything good can be corrupted, no matter what the intentions behind it..."

The Lady nodded, an took some moments to consider the advice of the bear.
Then, "And what would you do to protect him?"

"Ah, that is a wrong question. I am not truly his textile chaperone. I am something else. Perhaps you should be asking yourself what you would be willing to do to protect The Duke... and how you might best do so."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:45, Tue 05 May 2020.

Looking at those who make their own fortune is a good thing to see and The Duke enjoys the good life the man leads especially as he shares what he has. When called upon this blessed client of his The Duke favors him with a visit again his massive bulk sitting on the mans desk as it creaks under his massive bulk. His dream self feels a resonance with the mans plan and he smiles as he plunders the cookie jar on the desk.

"I am born in a future where i was lucky enough to live in a structure build by a benefactor that wanted to save mankind. And survive they do but i know not if those above me are actually alive. They have forgotten about me and or what it is to be human. Does that mean you should not follow your heart my friend? Or not do good in fear of corruption?"

The duke shrugs and puts the empty cookie jar back on the desk.

"If the fear of corruption prevents you from doing good have you not been lost already?"

He pokes the man with his meaty finger leaving a smudge of crumbs on the mans chest where his heart is breathing heavily as if he has talked more then is normal for him and looks at the man expectantly.

The man weeps happily. "Beautiful Bona Fortuna..." ...All right, the man is definitely seeing what he wants to see... "I see the truth of your words..."

The man commissions work on his refuge... Miles wide and long, and to be made with the most expensive technologies...

And then, he is assassinated by a rival, beyond the means of science to revive.

His daughter shakes her head and refuses to clone him... she will carry on his great work herself.

And the work is important, for the mind of the structure must still be programmed, and programmed carefully.

Years later, the work is still going on. The daughter sighs, one day... "Father wanted this to be a refuge for humans, but he seemed to be all right with allowing non-humans refuge, too." She gazed upon the nearby statue of the goddess of fate and luck that he father had commissioned for his office. "...Isn't that contradictory, Bona Fortuna...?"

The Duke stands next to the woman looking at the beautiful lady. He knew that person did he not in a life where he was an outcast and not this being of incomprehensible power. What was life easy then. He helps himself to the expensvie port and sits down in the comfortable office chair looking at the daughter.

"What makes you happy my dear? Your fathers legacy is one of sharing good fortune with all that are in need. Do only humans deserve good fortune greedy as they are or can good fortune be shared by all that need it? The more souls call my name the less chance she will be forgotten by the dark future that awaits us all."

The woman nods. "I see. Humanity is more than a genetic structure. It's a perspective that we value, too. I'll program the refuge to allow non-humans in as long as it can be determined that they pose no danger to others. Thank you, Bona Fortuna."

The woman rushes from her father's office, now her office, and gives a speech to her programming team.

Hundreds of years later, the statue has been moved several times, and is now in a bunker deep underground. The woman does not come near it nearly as often as in the old days, but one day she comes again, looking much older than the last time. "Bona Fortuna," she says. "I am filled with doubts, greater than ever. The work of building the ziggurat moves slowly. We are constantly at war with others who think we are building a military base. Maybe we are, from their point of view. There are rumors of the rich pooling their resources to build a similar structure, but just for their own families. Is there a point to this? Can humanity survive? Can the planet? Can the sun? Should humanity be preserved, if all we do is fight amongst ourselves...?"

Now this was interesting. The Duke had been thinking he had been dreaming of his home and how it came to be. Was it maybe not that but a guide to their destination. And if this was a dream would he remember? There was only one way to find out.

"Human greed and egoism is nothing new under the sun now is it? Does that keep you from bringing hope into this world? Only if you make a shelter humanity might be fortunate enough to live long enough to see the sun die. And who knows at that time maybe fortune looks down on those people again if they do not forget. For the rich have already forgotten. I do not even sense them. Tell me whare do the greedy build and i will bring them some misfortune."

"No no, it is a good question.  It tells me much.    As you will not answer it, though, nor tell me what you would do to protect him,  I should ask a question in its place.

What are you, that you cannot or will not protect him?"

"Another wrong question, though it is much more understandable that it would seem otherwise. I am the zeitgeist of this spot, the weight of the long road through the fourth dimension, that winds on and on for so long. I am the psychic vestiges of time and events imprinted on this spot by psychic bombs and tears in the rules. I am the echoes of antiquity, the emotions of the antiquity that flap in the endless night. I am merely a recording of sentience from long ago, from every head that has ever slept in this place. I am thought and feeling, dream and fear imprinted into the stones beneath you and the energy around you."

"That was your third question."

---

"Yes... yes, until the sun dies... Or longer..." The woman looks up, tears in her eyes. "No, Bona Fortuna. I will not forget, as have others. I do not wish ill upon them. I will seek survival for all... You have taught me well..."

---

The Lady and The Duke awaken.

The moon is just rising. It is what passes, at the end of history, for morning.

"Well, that was ... interesting", The Lady hummed to herself, as she lay there slowly waking.
It wasn't every day that one met the spiritual incarnation of a location.
Argumentative little thing it was.
She smiled.

Sitting up, she began to prepare some breakfast for she and The Duke.

The Duke wakes to the smell of breakfast and groans as he works himself into an upright position and gives the lady a toothy grin.

"That was weird. I dreamt i was some Bona Fortuna but before i could find out where my temple was i woke up. So sad. That would be a great help for sure."

The Lady listened to her big dumb companion.   In his simplicity, she'd come to like the idiot.
And she wasn't surprised to hear that he'd had his own ... weird ... dreams.

And she was surprised at his vocabulary also:  not just its extent, but the choice of his words.
'Fortuna' ... The Lady had not gone by that calling since the world was young.

"Would you like a temple in your honour, little brother?" she asked.   "Would you like to have others adore you and admire you ... to worship you and beg your favour?"

The Duke shrugs more interested in the prepared breakfast then the weird dream really. But as the Lady asks her question he chews with a thoughtful look and then shakes his head.

"Nah. It was nice to have people like me for a change. But everyone wanted me to solve their problems. The Duke has plenty of problems don't need no more."

The Lady nodded.  “And one of those problems is finding the Cloister.
Let’s finish up here, and be on our way”.
The next leg of their expedition was a foot ...   oops, I mean ‘afoot’.

The Duke nods and finishes the food thanks the lady and parks his behind in the vehicle again ready for the lady to drive them to their destination.

The quad walker lopes across the barren ground... rocky, featureless...

Until... over three hours later... a feature comes into view.

A long strip of tall grass meanders down from a far rise to the east... terminating at a spot very near the walker's path...

The Lady slowed the walker as they approached the strange environmental strip.
"Do you trust your luck, Duke?  Do you trust in me?"

The walker came to a stop near enough that they could see the grassy strip from a safe distance, before agreeing to go nearer ... or give it a wide berth.

The Duke eyes the lady eyebrows up in a question as if he did not understand.

"Why should i not trust you? FOERS says you are a friend."

He then looks at the grass field.

"Think that we got to investigate?"

“The old Witch said to look for ‘a plant-man, called himself Juniper. Two legs, two arms, head with eyes, but wood, or as much like it as makes little difference. He came from the northeast, and he went back there. It was a long time ago, but if he's not alive anymore, his children-- or whatever he might have instead of children, might be, and they would likely know what he would know, because that's how it works’.

Wood and plants ... and that there is the strangest formation of ‘wood and plant’ I’be seen since we’ve headed northeast.
I am guessing that where there is plants and wood, there are plant and wood people”, The Lady said.

And so, she slowly piloted the Walker parallel to, but a safe distance from the grass stream, up towards the summit of yonder grassy hill.

The hill led to a rise, and then a pond, about 80 feet in diameter... but the trickle of water led farther uphill... slowly rising, upstream, off into the distance...

But at the pond, some strange animals or creatures were gathered, to drink... The arrival of the walker alarmed them... they were torn between fleeing from such a large arrival, and continuing to drink...

(For 1 xp, each of you may describe one strange animal or creature that was drinking at the pond until your arrival... None of them (so far) is a plant-person, though...)

The Lady sat in the drivers seat, looking out over the idillic (at least, in this ‘world’) scene before them.

She was particularly taken by the large, iridescent butterflies with the mandibles and exceptionally long tentacles that dangled from their belly’s like jellyfish of old.
She watched as they hovered and danced over the pond ... some having caught small prey in their tentacles ... winding said dinner up, and tearing it slowly apart with those mandibles faces.

She couldn’t help wondering how long these incredible creatures had taken to evolve to this point.

(Jellyflies described... The Lady gets 1 new xp.

Standing by to see if The Duke has one to add...)

The Duke eyes the land in all its unnatural glory. He would never admit it but a place this serene was scary for the creature made out of pure violence. There was a strange feline creature drinking at the pond its head almost fully in the water, It made him think of a little Aesop and he was just about to ask the Lady if she though he could go and pet it when one of the jellyflies hovers over the clearly unaware creature to end it. The Duke utters a disconcerted NO!! and starts to leap out of the ride when the water seems to bulge as the jellyfly grabs onto the feline.

Even before The Duke has completed the movement of leaping out and landing on the floor a massive hybrid of Crocodile and Hippo the size of a small van bursts from the water. The feline seemingly the tongue of the creature. As its massive yaws slam close around the yellyfly the beast retreats back into the water the only proof of the violent disturbance some bubbles rising to the surface by the second The Dukes Boots hit the ground.

"That is a bad place."

He exclaims with something of disbelief in his voice.

(Hippodiles described: The Duke gets 1 xp.

Proceed, y'all. You may:
--Continue to follow the water uphill/upstream
--Attempt to fight a hippodile and/or jellyfly
--Anything else you want

I will say, though, I consider this experiment to be a success... may try something similar again soonish)

The Lady climbed down beside The Duke, and put a gentle hand upon his massive forearm,
"No, I don't think so.  I think it is just ... different.
And there is nothing wrong or 'bad' about different, is there, my friend?  After all, are we each not different?"

She eyed the verdant strip of land about them curiously.
Was this a place were sentient life might flourish ... she thought so.

There was plantlike, just as the beings they sought were.  And what better place for it to live and ... hide.
There was water: all plantlife likes water, right.  And food ... plenty of food for a race of beings (carnivorous or otherwise).

They could go on, for sure.  But this seemed like as good a place as any to make camp for the night: with all those resources at their disposal.   And maybe, just maybe, they would be seen here by any plant folk in the area: and staying the night would give those an opportunity to make contact on their own terms.

"Lets have the night here?  We can gather some wood for a fire, and forage something to eat ... then sleep in the walker where it should be safe", she suggested to her large and powerful friend.

The Duke grumbles a sound of disgruntled approval. Most likely just because the Duke had no better idea on his own. When he steps onto the grass he starts to speak his tone of voice not entirely his own.

"This land cherishes the lady luck. A long forgotten thing that wants to connect with the land for it like her is of a time long past."

And then as if he had not said a word points at one of the jellyflies.

"Think we can eat those?"

ooc: The Lady has been prophetised. On a roll made she can ask me if this is what the Duke talked about. If yes, roll another dice and choose which two you want to use.  If no it can be used later.

Using it in this place has the biggest chance of a yes.

And a success again. I never gain xp with rolls like this.

The Lady looked kindly at her gentle but murderous giant, and patted his arm.

Something had come through there that was not him, and she was intrigued ... but she wanted some time to consider what he'd said, and perhaps, what it meant.

With a somewhat maternal smile, she invited him to "Go find out!"
She was pretty sure, from previous incidents, that not even the hippodile would stand a chance if it tried to ear him ... and some fresh meat to cook up tonight for them both would be nice, eh!

She was inclined, though, to wander off into the nearby bushland, and find some fallen, dead wood to use for a fire, for said cooking.
And to use that time for the aforementioned considering.


Tonight, she'd decided, they would camp here.
They could, hopefully, get a fire started, and cook up some dinner.    Then bed down inside the walker, for protection from anything (including pesty insects) that might be out and about in this new, strange environment.

The Duke grins and like a child let out into the play garden on the first nice spring day bumbles onto the field and goes to hunt them a jellyfly

(Hmmm... The Duke, roll
--Forceful if you try to attack a jellyfly
--Agile if you try to herd one away from the flock first
--Insightful if you try to use strategy
--Charming if you try to lure one away from the flock
etc.)

The Duke Blunders into the field and actually starts skipping and singing an awfully off tune song as he skips past the flock of Jellyflies trying to present himself as a nice tasty morsel to the beasts to lure one off. At one point he even gets so confident to drop his pants and moon the poor things with his hairy behind and what happens then......

Snake Eyed Charm!!

23:14, Today: The Duke rolled 2 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,1.  Charming. Plaing bait.

Not one, but two jellyflies flap over and take interest in The Duke.

(09:07, Today: The GM rolled 5 using 2d3 ((2,3)).)

Ow. They not only move faster than one would expect, they hurt a little more than one would expect.

The Duke howls in anger as the beasts hurt him (how much?) and its only a moment for him to retaliate in kind grabbing the things by their stingers and slamming them into each other with excessive violence.

ooc: Its opposite day. From snake eyes to double 6.

21:23, Today: The Duke rolled 14 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,6.  Grabbing the Jellyflies.

</quote>
The Duke howls in anger as the beasts hurt him (how much?)


(Pfffffff. Mea culpa for being unclear. 5 points of damage.)


 </quote>and its only a moment for him to retaliate in kind grabbing the things by their stingers and slamming them into each other with excessive violence.

ooc: Its opposite day. From snake eyes to double 6.

21:23, Today: The Duke rolled 14 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,6.  Grabbing the Jellyflies.</quote>

The two jellyflies are destroyed.

The other jellyflies-- all the other animals-- move a bit farther from The Duke. Their primitive brains have learned a new fear this day.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:55, Tue 23 June 2020.

As The Duke procured dinner, The Lady went about acquiring means to prepare the feast ... namely dry wood from the nearby foliage.

She watched the creature known as ‘The Duke’ as she did so, curious over this strange mortal.
A simpleton ... but with greater depth, she guessed, than most would understand.
And ... touched!   Maybe by some form of divinity, as well as mental instability: perhaps one caused by the other.  Perhaps each feed by the other.

The Jellyflies greatly hurt the poor Duke and when he has proven himself the new apex predator of this patch he finds a nice tree and leans against it as he inspects the painfull stings that cover his body. When The Lady joins him with the wood to make a fire he sighs unhappy.

"Bad beasties hurt me good. Look at this. I hope they taste good or i will be really sad."

He shows her where one of those tentacles has dug into his arm up till the bone a piece of it still in the wound.

The Lady put the wood down, and attentively looked at the big guy’s wounds.
Soothingly, she said, “That does look painful”,  gently touching an unharmed part of his arm.
“Lets go back to the Walker,” which was, of course, still outside the floral tract, “and we’ll find out”.

Reclaiming the wood, she wandered off back to the vehicle; making sure to look back and provide any words of encouragement her murder machine needed.
Again, she found herself thinking on the vulnerable and complex being inside that large, simple-minded being.

The duke shakes his head.

"The Lady wants to camp. The Duke was planning to set up the tent for her. Don't want to make the Lady sad she wants to be lucky."

He wil follow her when she insists though but clearly doesn't want to spoil her camping trip.

With aid from The Duke, The Lady set up a fireplace just outside the walker ... within view of the nature strip, but not among it (lets say several minutes walk away).

They would do their best to get a dinner cooked; a combination of the Jellyflies and whatever they could compliment with from The Duke's amazing food box.

If The Lady could find any medical (or even simply soothing') equipment in said box ... such as an icepack ... she'd make sure it went on some of The Dukes ooowies.

"We shall sleep in the Walker tonight, for safety.  Anything that comes near us will have a harder time getting into he vehicle", she said.   She wondered if it had a locking system that they could use.
"Then tomorrow, we shall follow this green trail up over yonder hill, and see how far it stretches".

"Where is Foers?"

The Duke was more then happy to roast the Jellyflies over an exaggerated big bonfire that would be visible for anything with eyes in a large radius. One for immediate food and the other would go into the cooler to supplement the rations already 'secured'. Even the Dukes stomach had a maximum capacity. And while eating the beast and a bag of cold peas on the biggest cut in his arm the Lady drops the bomb and the Duke looks up at her in surprise. Nobody believed in Foers so why did she ask about him when he was clearly pointing at the Lady telling him not to kill her as she was a friend. He points next to her leg.

"There. He is telling me i can not kill you cause you are a friend."

Now, to clarify: Foers is ... an imaginary friend? or a real, holdable Teddy Bear?
Can The Lady see him?

The Lady glanced down at where The Duke gestures beside her leg.  She gave a warm smile, as she returned her attention to The Duke.
“He is a good friend to you.
Tell me, how and when did you two meet?”

The fire crackled happily nearby, as the two ate dinner, and warmed themselves in its light.

The Duke shrugs.

"Foers came with me into the world. When the Duke was so was Foers. We both broke through the wall and then where in the Ziggurat but i was not allowed to kill the people screaming and yelling at me. At first i thought up smart ways to get rid of em anyhow but Foers now knows when i want to do bad stuff even before i do."

"I see", The Lady replied, with a frown.
She wondered if, really, the man needed such external control.  Maybe he did.

"He is a good friend to you", she reasserted.  Then, "I know that you don't attack everyone ... just people who try to hurt you, and your friends.

Do you have any other friends?"

The Duke shakes his head.

"Only Foers is always there. Everyone else avoids me. But even Foers only tells me who i can not kill and not much else. He likes to listen to me though. "

Th violent brute gives a sad smile as he starts pitching the tent.

"Foers says everyone in the  ziggurat is my friend."

It was clear the Duke didn't really know what he had to do with this conversation and that he might have been really lonely before he was 'volunteered' to leave.

The Lady smiled, warmly, but as much to herself as to her big companion.
She felt sorry for him.

When he began pitching his tent, she didn't try to stop him.   She was going to sleep in the vehicle ... for safety as much as anything else.  But she was pretty sure that little out here was going to harm the big guy.

The earth out here, several mixtures walk from he verdant stretch yonder, as all stone and crag, so she used a stick to disperse the hot coals from the fire so they could cool quickly, but wasn't concerned that anything nearby would catch fire.

When The Duke was ready for bed, she wandered over, and put a gentle hand on his arm, to stay him.
She checked his wounds, and replaced the (now not-so) frozen peas back into the food cooler.

"Good Night", she said to the giant, before wandering off to make herself comfortable in the Walker.

The Duke smiles at the Ladies administrations and waits for her to get into the vehicle before retreating to his tent. The Duke didn't worry about any potential threats and just went to sleep hoping a good nights rest would fix the hurting arm.

In the morning the Lady wakes to the Duke having made a small campfire over which he is roasting the second jellyfly. From the size of the fire you think everything in a wide radius will know they where there but at least the roast was smelling nice.

The Lady smiled, as she joined The Duke for the breakfast he'd prepared.
She chastised herself for her surprise that he'd been competent enough to build a fire, and prepare a meal ... he gave the impression of being such a simply being, but in truth (as she was learning) he was as competent and capable as anyone else.

"Good morning, I hope you slept well", she bid him.  "This smells lovely".

Then, not wanting to mother him, in the way she'd been expecting to have to days ago, she asked, "Will you be accompanying me into he verdant stretch today?  to look for plant folk".  Rather than simply expect him to follow, she was now inviting him to join her.

The Duke nods at her question tearing some of the food with his hands and presenting it on a 'plate' made from the wings of the beasts.

"Sure we can explore here. If these things live here who knows what else bumbles about."