An expansion spanning one coordinate position.

Closely connected to: Spawnpoint
Closely connected to: Unnamed Fabric Disc
Closely connected to: Unnamed Dark Soil Disc

The topography is six semi-spheres or spheres of disparate appearances. One red, one green, one blue, one pink, one brown, and one grey.

The composition of each sphere is different, with spaces of two to six feet between them.

On the pink ball, Emily notices that the tiny hairs on the ball seem slightly damaged.  She hopes she didn't do that, but she checks anyway. She uses the balance she gained from the enticing dance to attempt to lift one leg and examine the other boot without falling over.

She is looking for any sign that pinkness has rubbed off on her DMs.  She also observes whether or not the increased pressure of standing on only one leg causes her to sink deeper.

Once the group no longer needs his services helping cross, Arjun kneels down, pulls out his ebony stiletto, and carefully cuts out a section of the non Newtonian fibers, starting small and then carefully gathering more into his hands

The tension leaves his shoulders and his spine unstiffens, as he investigates the material, slowly becoming less guarded and angry than he has been since the Vine Crawlers massacre.

Emily checks the underside of her boot, and finds that a few strands of pink fuzz have partially dissolved on the semi-dried mud.

Unfortunately though, she also notices that the group are currently staining the place with whatever bits of mud, blood, dirt, and bug parts had been stuck to the soles of their footwear.

Emily also manages to stand on one leg quite easily for enough time to wobble as she feels herself clearly sinking a bit lower into the large orb.

It's just a couple inches though, so there is no real risk other than the butterflies in her stomach at the idea of falling into the endless void below her.

---

Arjun finds cutting the fibers is difficult if he tries to slice quickly, but is easier if he slowly applies pressure. Both have some resistance, but the material seems to be better against sudden shock than it is with prolonged pressure being applied to it.

Also, the material is too dense and he is not nearly dexterous enough to cut fibers one at a time, so he ends up basically shaving bits off until he has around a handful.

"Hmm, this pink one seems to be more synthetic in nature.

What is curious is that these were generated when Arjun tossed me the ball....so are the materials disparate to represent the will of the god of chaos?"

Visually examining the mound of shavings in his hand, Arjun also tries to mentally compare its weight to that of the other chunks of land he's collected so far, looking for clues.

"Looks like cotton candy, though the Brits call it Fairy Sugar, don't they? I'm willing to bet there's 'actual' fairies around here. I wonder what lore they'll be drawn from."

Turning to Jerry, he answers, "Why there are even multiple land masses here is a mystery to me. The System 'searches for compositions' every time the expansions trigger, which implies that this collection was somehow added to the list of options it could choose from. How that happened is a total mystery to me, but it seemed to me that the Gods of Chaos and Order were reacting to the choice the System made, rather than directing it, based on what little evidence we have"

Pulling out his plastic bottle of water, he adds the 'unit' of pink fluffiness to the bottle, closes the cap, and shakes it, trying to dissolve the pink stuff into the water, and studies the resultant mixture. He raises it up to study the light filtering through it, and then lowers it to compare the color of the new fluid against various colors within line of sight. Next, he examines the spot where he took his sample from.

Emily sniffs again the sweet smell and says, "We call it Candy Floss in England. We buy it in funfairs and at the seaside and it smells of being a child".

Arjun conjectures a bit before adding some of the pink fuzz to his water bottle, in hopes of dissolving it.

And indeed it works. In fact, the reaction is SO quick that he cannot even track it! It has an appearance of borderline just vanishing!

Though, he is able to tell the difference by closely watching as starting from the contact point, a pink color quickly (but slowly enough this time to track) spreads through the water like a drop of food coloring.

The result is pretty even, but if he mixes it even lightly for a half second, it will be completely even instead.

It seems this stuff dissolves extremely well, with many liquids. That's worth noting, to avoid any possible hazards...

The most interesting thing though is when he raises it up above his head in such an angle that it is parallel to both the ground in front of his feet, and the location where the group has calculate the light source of this world must be, considering the shadow patterns.

Immediately, he notices something impossible. The light reflecting through the pinkish water is... lightly pink?

This... does not make sense. The visuals before them are similar to when you stand before an open window and perceive 'the sunlight itself' as it bounces off whatever dust is in the room. However, in this case, the hue of that light is.... a very light pink.

Notably, the color of the pink ball is the darkest of the three, while the mixture is considerably lighter, and the resulting 'ray of sunshine' is even lighter than that...

Is this possible in optics? Or... some kind of mystical effect?

Lastly, Arjun examines the spot he took the sample from and finds nothing out of the ordinary (it has not regenerated or anything like that).

Emily looks around for anything on this ball that might be considered a monster.  She doesn't think there is anything but she wonders whether the monsters in the swamp would enjoy it. "I wonder whether the sniffers will enjoy this", she says,  "We can find out later.  I need to find something they like if I'm to tame them but let's try to complete the exploration quest first."

She takes a leisurely walk around the pink ball until she comes close to the grey ball and guesstimates whether she would be able to jump.

She does not notice any monsters on the surface of the ball. The edges also have none. She cranes her neck and the 'sky' above her is clear as well. The only other places they could be are below or within.

The jump to the grey ball is a bit tougher, but still doable unless something goes majorly wrong.

"The grey ball looks a bit tougher" says Emily.  "I'm going to try the blue next."

With that she moves further around the ball and tries jumping or stepping to the blue ball instead.

Dubious whether the pink fuzz is biological Jerzy attempts to bio-analyze.

He is expecting a crystalline mineral but Arjun's experiments could mean it is an organic crystal such as sugar. It's psychic effects (unsettling as a thought that is), appear to be subtle and positive, though perhaps to an insidious end.

Jerzy is still bouncing between fascination, distraction and abject horror it seems, mostly keeping it together but aware that this place is very, very unnatural.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:48, Wed 30 Mar 2022.

Eyeing the water bottle one last time , Arjun stows it away, and lightly leaps over to the great disc.

There, he studies it the same as he did the Fairy Sugar ball, first visually inspecting it and then cutting up a piece of ground to examine.

As Emily plans to leap to the small, blue ball... she finds it is a liquid... and it smells almost identical to salty ocean water! It's a fairly dark shade, also.

Probably best not to jump into that... Emily is not a trophy-winning swimmer, and so falling through before managing to float could be a real issue...

And since falling through would mean a straight old trip into an endless void... well, enough said on how that is not something to attempt.

---

As Jerzy uses his skill on the object, he finds that it is indeed 'an organic sugar', and also gets a strange bit of pure info which eventually translates in his min dinto language as "processed from a waste product" though the connotation on waste product is not particularly negative... this would make sense if this 'fairy sugar' comes from 'fairies' , since though most things that come from the human body are generally repulsive to other humans, that may not be the case for all life forms. Actually, it isn't even for some plants, so there you go.

---

Arjun leaps to the grey (?) ball, and finds that it is almost certainly made of some kind of stone... He doesn't really have a great way to cut up a portion of it.

Edit: Whoops, read that wrong.

"Hmmm, this.....may actually be some form of fairy sugar.

A sugary byproduct that engenders happy vibes. That might be the funniest thing I've ever seen."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:35, Fri 01 Apr 2022.

OOC: Emily didn't take the leap, so she's fine.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:01, Fri 01 Apr 2022.

Arjun scans his immediate area for loose stones or the like, and then surveys the set of ball-discs from his location, figuring he should probably be able to fire an arrow at any target in the region, assuming there's no hilly terrain.

Commenting to the group as he stows his sugar-water, "I'm half tempted to drink this cotton candy water. Bet it will get me high."

After a pause, he adds, "Maybe later."

Emily watches the blue disc for a while, wondering what makes it dark.  She does not jump into that because she imagines falling through into the void and she's not ready to do that yet.

She observes closely, looking for any variations in colour. Perhaps that is where the monsters live.

Then she has an idea. The distance to this water ball is quite short so maybe she can...

...the thought is mother to the deed. She reaches out and tries passing her butterfly net through the blue liquid to see whether she catches anything.

Seeing Emily use the net on blue disc, Arjun gestures to the rope wrapped around his waist. "Rope? It's what we made it for."

Emily nods to Arjun and pulls back the net.  She checks it before attaching it to the rope and twirling it above her head before casting it into the water, waiting to see whether she catches anything.

Arjun takes a look at the spheres around him, and finds they are all very diverse, in more ways than the other expansions have been until now!

The pink disc they are on turns out to be made of some kind of sugar.

The red disc appears polished and glossy... A bit dewy too. Emily will also note that it smells faintly sweet.

The blue disc is like the middle of the pacific ocean, even though Arjun recalls that the hue of the ocean compared to lakes wasn't dark because it was salty rather than fresh, but because it was so much deeper.

The green sphere is a little ... slimy? It has an extremely sour scent... also, it's hard to tell with this level of illumination... but... is it glow-in-the-dark? Emily thinks it may be, but it could just be reflecting the sourceless light and tricking her brain. They will have to wait til nightfall to be sure or not.

The gray sphere is clearly a kind of stone. The brown dirt also very clearly seems to be made of soil, dirt, or mud. It could also be... feces... though, no such smell is assaulting anyone so hopefully that is as unlikely as it appears.

---

Meanwhile Emily watches the blue ball but due to it's relative transparency (the deepest end is a bit hard to see, but not for her with her enhanced eyesight if she squints for a moment and lets her eyes adjust to it) can clearly note it contains no moving things, or even stationary particles. Unless they are invisible or microscopic or something, no chance of it harboring monsters or any other kind of life.

It's a little tough to reach out with just her armspan, so perhaps Emily would request someone to standby her to catch her in case she tips over (or to hold her over the edge to give her more distance)... Her balance isn't any better than on Earth, and vertigo could be a real threat if she loses her cool...

Regardless of her choice, there is no incident, and when she pulls back her net there is nothing in it, but it is very soaked. Notably, a few droplets that she moved fell into the void, and the surface of the sphere rippled like one would expect... though it maintains it's impossibly-floating shape of being an ideal sphere.

Then... Arjun, probably suggesting to rappel hands Emily some rope, and apparently her inner cowgirl awakens as she swings it like a lasso before tossing it into the water...

The rope gets wet, and she has to use most her strength to pull the soggy thing back...

Depending on which rope was offered, about six feet of it is either completely ruined (if the fabric one), or mostly ruined (if the plant one).

It's just water. Though, from the resistance, it seems fairly... heavy?

Arjun - analyzing this after Emily perceives it - has the idea that it could be under pressure... sort of like what you'd get under the surface of an ocean...

Could this ... orb of dark, dense water... have been copied... or even transported from a large ocean of some kind? It appears like that in many ways... Though, of course, it wouldn't be displaying these properties after having it's environment changed...

Strange stuff, anyway

Emily mutters as she looks at all the spheres.  Then she calls over to Arjun, "Try your rope on the brown disc.  Let's see whether it's mud or animal waste before we go there.  Of course, if we don't, I have no clue how we'll get to the button disc, except perhaps by naming this disc."

Jerzy diligently jots down notes on the composition of the orbs he called into being.

Their static existence belies their chaotic origin and Jerzy takes the time his group spends at the orbs studying interesting minutiae. He attempts to bioanalyze the water to see if there's any organic matter there.

The task reminds Jerzy of the quiet hours of the night watching footage recorded by the submersible on the Baluga. The serenity of the moment, away from civilization and most known life caused Jerzy to suspect that just outside of his perception may be a deeper and eldritch truth.

The constant calling of the deep had tempered Jerzy's mind, potentially towards hypersanity as he contemplated the unknown, collecting and studying occult paraphernalia.

Now he finds himself here, jotting notes of floating disks of water and psychic pink fairy dust, steadying his mind between the wild oscillations of reality and world-view shattering events and hyperfixating on minutiae that he could grasp and understand.

Jerzy starts to feel more like himself.

Emily takes Arjun's rope and tosses it over to the mud disc, before pulling it back. As she gathers the 4 or so feet covered in a brown substance, she takes a hesitant whiff and indeed it is a little earthy, but not rancid at all.

In fact, it's less rotten than the mud of a swamp, and more like the mud of a garden... if that makes sense.

---

Meanwhile, Jerzy reflects on various things which cause him various intense emotions, but in the end he finds himself feeling more stable and like himself - which is a great outcome given his current circumstances. This place does seem to have an overall good effect on the mood... and since his judgement doesn't seem less sharp, it's probably not a sort of malicious fascination or anything...

He also spends this time to bioanalyze the dark blue water... it's a bit hard to use the skill from this distance (in that he kind of needs to squint and strain his senses... as well as hyperfocus)... he even feels his toes go a little numb and thoughts become muddled at a point... but in the end he submerges back to his previous mood, though a little tired.

Indeed, this seems to be a short range skill. Regardless though, his efforts yield the very clear impression of 'no organisms'.... in fact he even gets the specific idea of there NOT being any sort of phytoplankton or whatever, meaning this is unlikely to have been actually dragged from an ocean on Earth...

Again, like most things, this is some kind of imitation or interpretation... Which makes sense given everything is being 'created' in some form or another!
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:10, Wed 06 Apr 2022.

Emily says to Arjun, "You need to explore everywhere and given that ball is more soil than anything else, I think it's safe.  You may wish to buy us some wellies first."

She suggests that they absolutely need to get to the brown disc as that's the only point from which they can reach the button.  "We can get to the button and I can try to find an acceptable name for it and then we can think of a name for here.  We don't need to go to the gobstopper or the radioactive place do we?"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:39, Wed 06 Apr 2022.

As Emily finishes speaking, a screen appears before everyone.


After a few moments, a screen appears to both Emily and Arjun.

Emily said to System, "Please define restrictions applied to {Player} Emily the Genocider."

Then to Arjun she said, "I believe that the candyfloss ball and the Pelagian ball are both devoid of monsters. Let us then explore the stone ball before passing on to the soil ball and then the soil ball.  We can explore the gobstopper and the luminous ball on our return."

"I just means that they havd returned to their stations and are paying us attention. ", Jerzy says, making a mental note to probe deeper into the meaning of this place tomorrow at dinner.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:17, Wed 06 Apr 2022.

Emily smiles and nods, "Ah yes.  I should have thought of that.  Thanks Jerzy."

Emily begins close examination of the grey stone sphere.  She asks herself the questions and then checks for answers using observation. "Does it look like a single rock or are there several lumped together?  What does the rock look like when I examine it closely?  What does it feel like beneath my fingers?  How does it smell (and depending on the answer to that, how does it taste?  What is its overall shape and in what way is it malformed?  Do I hear movement within?"

"The number of monsters that spawned is the same as the number of discs and balls that didn't have monsters in them before. Stands to reason there's one on each. But sure, let's grab low hanging fruit first." Arjun comments while taking one last look around the stone disc, hoping to see something he had missed.

After studying it for a few minutes, he agrees to move on. Rationally, he knew that this feeling of emptiness inside him was artificial, was done to him, that his emotions had been somehow manipulated. It still felt real, and he had to get that nonsense in check.

He just didn't know how.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:57, Thu 07 Apr 2022.

Emily frowned.  "Really?  I thought there was only one per disc.  We know the butterflies from cloth, the late beetles from the former vine disc, the worms of the ebony disc, the sniffers of the swamp, which I believe are beast type.  So let's see what we have here on the stone ball."

Music had worked once, so she decided to try again and began strumming on her banjo.

While the other two observe the stone orb, Jerzy finally gets a good look at the green orb.

"Now that is something.....reminds me of an art exhibit at the Warsaw museam of contemporary art.

I wonder if we could get a sample somehow. Oh what I wouldnt do for a full suite of sensors right now.....wait, it almost looks radioactive? Maybe we should avoid spending too much time near the green orb lady and gentlemen, or else we might have to experiment with rapidly regenerating skin and tissue damage....

Actually...have you all experienced a night cycle here yet? Is there any light after "Sunset"?. "

Arjun looks at the green ball at Jerry's words. "Do you mean...", and then proceedes to describe a painting that looks nothing like the green glowing ball, but still somehow resonated with him the same way as when he stared at the glowing orb, almost as if he's listening to himself as he speaks.


Regarding Jerry's second question, Arjun complains mildly."It kind of shuts off abruptly at regular intervals, but it doesn't get dark enough for anything to qualify as truly shadowed."

After a second, he adds, "Though... That could be different now, since the Goddess invested. She was Light, before she chose the mantle of..." He sounds almost wistful.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:06, Thu 07 Apr 2022.

Emily stomps her feet and dances while she plays a rousing version of the Ukrainian folksong, "Dark Eyes" on her banjo.

Emily leaps to the rock disc for closer inspection. She makes the jump.

Once there, she verbalizes some questions. Perhaps to help her focus on answers?

Firstly, determining whether or not this is one rock or multiple, is more of an ontological question rather than anything else, but in general the thing is closer to a single boulder than it is to having any negative space.


Secondly, the rock is a medium gray. It has a fairly rough texture. It's dry. Mundane stuff. Perhaps the most notable feature is how relatively even the color is. Many rocks on Earth are speckled with various bits here and there, but not this one.


Thirdly, the feeling is very hard, as much as you would expect from stone. It is slightly cool, though barely below the regular room temperature of this space. Emily believes she likely only notices this because of these mystical skills and stats of hers.


Fourthly, the smell is almost nothing. Though, by hyperfocusing, Emily ends up getting a very very faint earthen smell that is slightly stale. Yeah, rocks don't generally have a major odor. Pulling back, Emily has a minor headache from the effort of straining her senses.


Fifthly, deciding it's fine to take a lick... the texture is not great, and her tongue is a little scratched... not particles come off or anything, so that means there is no loose sand or whatever. The taste, again is almost nothing, but a very faint aftertaste of .... earthy something. .... does exist, in a way. I mean, it's a rock, through and through.


Sixthly, the shape is basically an imperfect sphere. It's not malformed in any strange way, just that it is not a geometrically-perfect form, which is actually how things NORMALLY work in nature... Emily is worried that she almost forgot that for a moment, given this impossible space's tendency to really really like using perfect spheres (and other geometrical weirdness like repeating patterns of identical grass)


Seventhly and lastly, she finds that by placing her ear to the ground, she does in fact hear intermittent noises that resemble jangles, a little?

It is extremely quiet and softened-out, to the point that the sense of 'hearing' anything is closer to her simply just feeling the faint vibrations through her ears. It actually takes a moment for her to tune out the rhythm of her heartbeat to be able to hear it, so it's less intense than her own internal biology. Meaning, very quiet.

---

After spending some minutes investigating, Emily gets up and plays her banjo. As she does so, she finds herself playing a bit of an irish/scottish/welsh tune of some kind and hopping around in a way that is sort of like a mix between tapdancing and some sort of gaelic festival dance, maybe?

As she does so, she begins to feel something like a tingling in her toes, but does not register it as anything important... before it quickly becomes actually more clearly a rumble!

The others notice it at this point, as they became aware of a vibration emerging from somewhere in, around or under the stone ball.

Emily is nervous for a moment and maybe about to leave in case of an earthquake or something, but then she alone notices that the rumbling is matching her in tune, though it's more than a little delayed, and messes up in some places.

Because of this, she likely feels a bit of a sense comradery with a fellow appreciator (?) of song, but her choices are her own to make on whether she will keep it going or call it quits, as the rumbling is indeed getting louder as she plays.

Public OOC - missed that you specified the song. I'm not gonna rewrite all this, so you can take either performance as canon, as you wish. I'll let you decide since it's your character's taste lol.

---

Jerzy meanwhile considers that the orb may be radioactive... though, he then figures with it's luminance, if it WERE radioactive and glowing that much, they would probably already been dead after having spent 10 minutes nearby...

Though, that is unless some sort of invisible god-barrier exists to block the wavelengths from escaping. It's definitely possible, given that they have already observed liquid staying in shape, while they themselves could pass into and out of it's space.

---

Meanwhile, Arjun speaks with Jerzy about art and the pseudo-nighttime of this space.

Public OOC: I think Arjun may have made a mistake, here. The nighttime gets very dark in this space. IIRC, you guys were almost blinded before getting the skill, and even with it - given its low level - it's still very very hard to see.

Albeit it's not true blackness or anything scary like that... there was a very faint silverly light that could be considered analogous to a moon
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:16, Fri 08 Apr 2022.

OOC: Oops. Feels like it's been weeks since we read about the quality of darkness and I was going by memory. He would have talked about the darkness and how he hasn't successfully Shadowstepped yet.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:06, Thu 07 Apr 2022.

Emily paused the music to hear the xorn's own rhythms [OOC I have not spoken this aloud yet yet but until I see the monster, it's a xorn] and begins to alter her own rhythms to see if they can be some kind of conversation between girl and monster.  After a while, she tries dancing a sequence of primes as rhythm to see whether the monster can anticipate the next prime.  If not, she will instead alter the tune to see if there's a particular kind of music it enjoys.

"Well in terms of resources, it appears that we may have have access to stone, water(?), fae dust and glow slime...Like something out of dobranockas.

Are you getting something Emily?"

As he waits for Emily's response, he goes to investigate the red orb, looking closely before tossing something small at it to ensure its solid before hopping over.

OOC: Consolidating information.

As Emily continues playing and changing her rhythms, the rumbling becomes loud enough for everyone to hear clearly, at a level close to conversation, and the adeptness of whatever entity is mimicking the patterns grows until it is following along, just one beat later, sometimes dropping a note or two when a shift is made.

At some point near  the end of that particular piece, Emily changes it up to play a tune which sounds not great but is mathematically aesthetic, as she both plucks the strings and physically dances around with her feet to prime numbers.

At first, the rumbling follows along a little bit, but quickly dies out and loses interest. Emily thinks she hears some sort of mumbling as well, though it may have just been a dampened rumble or something.

Realizing this is not a good method, she tries various tunes, which the cause of the vibrations follow - a little less enthusiastically than before - before she eventually starts playing the first couple notes in a sort of scottish/irish/welsh song...

This causes a huge reaction!

Immediately, the rumbling picks up to twice it's previous volume! It is loud enough to be a little overpowering for Emily who is the only one standing there and also has heightened senses, and for everyone else it is similar to a loud vacuum being run nearby, drowning out all non-shouted conversation!

After the first verse of this tune, the rumbling become so intense, that Emily trips a little and misses a note, which causes her to stop playing as she struggles to right herself...

However, even though she is not playing ,the rumbling is continuing, and in fact splits and branches into numerous derivatives of the original style she was using!

And just then...

"...Hoy tee toy hee hoy tee toy!" says the holly voice of an old male with a weird accent

"...And thar war faiv sailors!" erupts the boisterous voice of a young male with an even weirder accent

"...Ninety eight bottles o' rum on th' wall, ninety eight bottles o 'rum" erupts a voice that belongs to a middle-aged woman but is very butch, and that has the most recognizable accent so far

"Swinging and taking a swig! oooooh eerrrydaayyy" mutters someone with truly intense levels of vocal fry...

"There once was a mutt from Gallibut..." mutters a fellow in a skeevy-sounding whine

"OH AND I HAVE ME THREE SISTERS!!! THE FIRST --" bellows out a voice much like a female opera singer

Dozens and dozens of such tunes, chanties, limericks and musical bits emerge from within the rock as it begins to shake and shake with vibrations loud enough to force you all to cover your ears or retreat back a few discs!

The shaking is in fact physically visible now as the entire rock basically jolts in and out of place in strange directions, and tiny bits of gravel begin to break off as small cracks form in the stone!

This continues on for quite a while, but shows no further signs of escalating beyond something which can best be described as the atmosphere of an INCREDIBLY rowdy pub...

It's not entirely clear where the source of this all is coming from... though...

---

Jerzy throws a bit of rope to the red sphere, testing it for being solid. The result is that it is indeed solid, though he notices a bit of a dent caused by the force of the rope... It's very minor, and in fact he only notices it because of a lucky refelction of light...

He calculates that it can probably hold his weight, but it could be bad if he jumps around too much... Then, he is surprised by how he is able to be so confident of the math on that...


Anyway, after making the leap, he is a little surprised as a strange noise emerges beneath his feet at the impact!

He scrambles back quickly and turn around to check it... and as he does so he notices his ankles feel wet...

Fearful for a moment he has just stepped in a trap of some kind, but then realizing that there is no pain or loss of sensation in his body, he realizes the wetness is caused by some liquid that has sprayed up after he had landed...

In the spot where he is looking, Jerzy finds that his leap had crushed the red surface of the ball, and revealed a very pale yellow color underneath, with a texture that seems plantlike.

In fact... Jerzy gets a smell, and is suddenly aware of a very sweet smell coming from that... matter...

He quickly comes to the realization that this in appearance is very similar in texture to the fruit-meat of an apple! Though, the scent of the juice is quite a bit sweeter than basically any type of apple on Earth... it actually seems a bit similar to honey... maybe somewhere between the two in terms of sweetness? Yet, the appearance is all apple

His stomach rumbles then, and his throat feels thirsty... Indeed, he hasn't had any fruit for quite a while (no way in hell can that plum he choked on be counted)... and all his senses are telling him this will taste great...

He swallows his saliva and stands there. Will he hold back and do some more investigation first (he has many tools for this, with his skillset), or simply indulge in the delicious fruit before him?
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:44, Fri 08 Apr 2022.

As Arjun stands atop the stone ball, describing the painting that the glowing green ball reminds him of, it becomes pretty obvious to the rest of the party that he's a little fixated on the absence of things rather than what he's actually looking at.

As the rumbling starts, he mostly continues to stare at the green orb.

However, once singing starts up from inside it, and the stones start cracking, he panics and leaps to the brown disc.

Learning from his mistake with the plum, and knowning without a doubt that the others have not encountered this potential food source before, Jerzy pulls out the knife on his multitool and harvests a small sample.

Drawing on some of the survival tips he picked up rubbing elbows with explorers in Antarctica, first he smells it deeply to see if there are any unpleasant or almond-y odors.

If none, he will then touch the juice of the honey-apple onto his forearm to check for skin interaction and irration.

If no adverse effects after a few minutes, he will touch the flesh to his lips.

If no adverse affects he will take a small piece and chew it without swallowing.

If no adverse affects he will take a small bite and wait a few minutes.

If no ill effects, he is succumbing to his appetite taking a large bite of the honey apple

All the while keeping an eye on the situation at the stone orb.

OOC: usually edibility checks take like a full day with hours of exposure. Just tightening it up a bit since tomorrow might be in August. :P

Emily looks over first at Jerzy then at Arjun neither seem to be in trouble as yet although she may consider going over to Jerzy if he seems to be in trouble from poisoning.

Next she begins moving her head from left to right to see whether she can find the source, or at least the direction of the rowdiness.  What kind of monsters live in stones and like to sing Scottish folk songs?  Added to that, do they sound drunk?

She shifts the tone somewhat and continues with the Scottish ballads but tries to see whether they enjoy sentimental ballads such as The Bonny Earl of Murray or The Queen's Four Marys.  If so, then perhaps she can reduce the rowdiness somewhat and see whether they want to show themselves.

Arjun flees the stone ball, and finds himself drawn to the glow-ball... letting himself process his feelings... or something

---

Jerzy cuts a small bit of fruit - causing some appealing juice to appear due to the severance - and tests a portion of it for any disgusting odor, or a hint for what may be cyanide.

Neither are present. It smells very fruity, in a unique way. It's somewhere between a pineapple and maybe a ripe pear in odor, though less tropical due to a relative lack of citrus.

Testing it on his skin, he finds that the liquid causes no harm immediately, so it's not a fast-acting acid... After giving it a few minutes, and even rubbing it in with a small bit of force (not enough to irritate his skin by itself though cause that would defeat the purpose of this experiment) Jerzy is relieved that there is no serious irritation... though the tactile sensory effect of it isn't super pleasing, as it is slightly sticky. Not sticky at all like honey, but more like apple juice. It's honestly possible to ignore it, but some individuals may have low tolerance for the discomfort, and prefer to rinse their hands afterwards - which is possible as you all have freshwater.

Touching the fruit to the lips is no different, either.

After taking a bite, his tonsils immediately soar with sudden pain. Not in a sinister way, though, but in the way one would experience when suddenly tasting something very sweet or very sour, or when tasting something moderately sweet/sour after not having done so for quite a while. This is the latter case. Regardless, the pain fades quickly, and the full taste reveals itself.

While the odor was somewhere between honey, a pineapple, an apple, and a ripe pear, the taste is actually more lightly sweet than the smell, and the sweetness is not as rich as honey, and pretty close to the natural sugars in fruit (fructose?)

There is a tiny overtone of sourness, though it fades quickly (so it should be called whatever the opposite of an aftertaste is). It's not quite citrus-y, so maybe it is another kind of acid (like malic acid?) though again maybe not that at all.

It chews in a very satisfying way... It is somewhere between a pineapple and apple in terms of texture/density. Actually, the texture is near identical to an apple or an unripe pear, while the level of juicyness is much like a pineapple (it is definitely less than a watermelon)

For this reason, after a couple minutes of chewing, he is left with little meat, and mostly juice pooling by his uvula. The ratio is probably like 40% juice, and 60% meat, though two minutes of chewing is way too much for this kind of food, so it ends up being nearly 85% juice or pulverized-meat (do you call that pulp?) by the end.

Anyway, the taste is closest to honey though (despite not being as rich, sweet or strong/intense), but it is also significantly more refreshing in a way, which is similar to pineapples. This feels like it could be attributed to that sour overtone, which prevents the main sweetness from being dehydrating.

All in all, this is very pleasing in most ways, however it is probably best to drink it with some water as despite being fruity and juicy, it is not a replacement.

On a scale of 'how refreshing is this?', where 0 is cola (or other carbonated drink) that leaves your mouth dry and sticky and 10 is crisp summertime lemonade, this is a solid 8.

Of course, completely ignoring anything but how much ACTUAL hydration you get, water would be like a 30 on that scale, but it's nice to have variety!

Finally, swallowing causes no ill effects except for some stomach rumbling as his appetite grows and he struggles to restrain it... So, after counting to two-hundred, Jerzy allows himself to begin cutting up pieces to eat until he sates himself!


Public OOC: I'm sure it does xD. We'll say it took you like ten minutes or something, which would have you caught up with Emily since she spent time performing too

---

Emily watches Jerzy to make sure he doesn't poison himself... she gets a bit of a weird sense from the fruit he's testing, but it's certainly not poisonous... but... there's something about it? She's not sure if it's anything that could cause harm, or what it even is... honestly, she guesses that most things in this world are a bit off, but she can voice her half-formed idea if she desires.

She also looks desperately around for the source of this noise and these cracks... but, she finds nothing. Given her good senses, this means it's either not visible in the first place or it's hidden from view because it's blocked.

Then, Emily listens closely to try and parse the various noises, and finds it difficult at first... however, after some effort she does manage to listen only for slurred speech!

And, interestingly, she finds a couple such tones amidst all the others! Drunk may not be right exactly, but it's at least similar in being a bit off-pace, and having a kind of drawl.

Next, as Emily begins to play a song with emotional beats, she finds that the voices do indeed calm down, before becoming almost fully silent during the middle of the song...

By the last verse, she hears a strange sound beginning to rise but continues to finish the piece anyway for everyone's satisfaction

Lastly, as the first song comes to an end, the strange sound explodes into a loud noise! At first, it's scary, but quickly Emily's brain figures it out and she realizes it's not a scream/yell/roar or a hiss/spit but in fact a sort of cry! It's a bit weird, but it's something like a very deep, bellowing weeping coming mostly from the chest not the throat!

It's a bit spooky, kind of reminescent of the groan of a zombie or howl of a banshee... though, she can clearly get the idea that the sentiment behind it is... well, not anything evil or dark like those creatures.

After a moment of thought, she has the idea that this seems very much like an almost cartoonish variant of how individuals may cry after hearing a beautiful piece of music...

indeed, despite the cry being a sorrowful sound... the emotions behind it don't really seem sad, as much as... joyful? appreciative? even a little jubilant, actually...

So, she hesitantly plays a second song, which is also given the same response of respectful (at least, Emily thinks maybe it's that) silence  followed by an explosive response that is positive, but a little unfamiliar (though that's to be expected, given this weird world)

Then, as she finishes playing, a HUGE crack forms in the gray ball, splitting it basically down the middle vertically, before it spreads open slightly like an egg, and various hands begin to emerge...!!

---

---

---

You all watch as a number of gray-skinned creatures emerge from the gray ball!

They are extremely small, about up to your ankles (4 inches) or below your knees (16 inches) depending on their individual heights. They have vaguely humanoid figures, with two arms, two legs, a head and torso.

They also have strange-shaped heads.

The details beyond t hat are hard for anyone but Emily to notice though.

Emily in particular notices that their heads are like humans from neck to forehead, except that they have much more variance in the placement of their two eyes, from being very close and lowdown, or spread apart and high up. Also, they have flatter noses, to the point that even you with your great eyesight cannot see any nostrils on some of them!

Their ears have varying shapes, inside, but so do all humans (much like fingerprints). The outside shape is similar to humans, but with a bit more variance. Some have lobes and some do not, while some have their ears tilted slightly forward, backwards, upwards or downwards.

The cartilege is also pointed or very rounded for some of them, giving overall different perimeters more than most huamns have.

the most notable part of their heads though, is that above their foreheads, instead of a scalp, they have various semi-unique formations...

many have some kind of cone or elongated dome, while others have large quantities of horns all stuck together, and some even have a third giant ear!

One seems to have some half dozen tentacles which stand up erect but with floppy tips

As for the rest of them...

Their bodies are different from humans, but not in extreme ways. Their legs and arms are most similar, but interestingly there seems to be no certain number of fingers/toes. Though, it is always symmetrical for each of them (for example, one of these guys may have six fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot, while another has two fingers each hand and four on each foot- but nobody will ever have more than 6 or less than 2 appendages, and their fingers and toes will also always be the same on each half their body)

Their arms and legs also have the regular number of joints... but about 30% of them seem to have an extra joint right by their wrists along with extended arms with fingertips that are below their knees as they stand upright!

The torsos are anywhere from bone-thin (with exposed ribs, numbering six to twelve) to bloated to the point they likely cannot see their own toes! However, all of them seem equally healthy regardless...

None of them are wearing clothes, though you cannot see any genitalia are other sexual characteristics (thus you also cannot distinguish any biological sex)

The texture of their bodies varies quite a bit from very smooth stone (anything less than polished) to so rough and bumpy that it appears to be liverwort or spikemoss!

All of them seem to have skin, though some are so rough it could pass as scales!

Lastly, the colors of their bodies are all gray, with some of them having ebony or pearl extensions coming from SOME or ALL of the fingertips - but even you cannot get a good enough look to tell if those are nails, claws, talons or something else!

The insides of their mouths and ears (which you don't get many glimpses of) are darker in shade, but you cannot tell the hue right now.

Finally, the eyes vary A LOT. None of them have irises, and all of them have either pupils and sclera, or just sclera! Pupil and sclera can be same color or separate, and the palette is shared between them of: Ashen gray, dark chocolate brown, pitch black, deep blood red, or a speckled pattern of dark golden and dark hazel!

---

As these creatures emerge, they scramble up on four limbs, or by climbing with their arms, before standing upright and glancing in yours all direction. Many of the tiniest ones seem to look at Emily in particular, while they are either laying nearly face down or beind helg in the arms or on the shoulders of other larger ones...

It seems that those are the children?

This whole thing ends after a minute and a half, and you are left with nearly three dozen individuals standing and staring at you all.

---

What will you do?

"Good afternoon," says Emily, "which one of you is the Mountain King?" She smiles a welcoming smile and begins to dance once more, a dance designed to encourage others to join in, whether human or trollkin.

One of the larger individuals, who has large protrusions coming from his hands speaks up!

"THERE IS NOT ONE PYGNOM HERE CALLED 'MOUNTAIN KING'." the creature says in a booming voice like colliding rocks!

After a moment, several other voices pipe up...

"DOES THE SKIN WITCH... PERCHANCE SPEAK OF 'MANTONII KUNG'...?" says a noble sounding one

"NO HOW! THAT CRACKPOT??" says a goofy voice in a shocked tone

"IT... THAT BEING... MUST BE REFERRING TO BONDAHOM" says a voice that is deep and a little elegant but not clearly masculine or feminine

"HUH?? WHAT DOES THE DEEP GOLDEN ONE HAVE TO DO WITH THIS!?" says a drunkard's voice before adding "OH, PRAISE HIM"

Most of the voices then speak up to declare the words 'Praise Him!' in a gleeful tone or "Yes yes, praise him" in a tired tone or "Ho hoy hoyaaa!" in an enthusiastic tone with bellowing voices

Emily cannot pick out all of these accents, but several of them sound similar to if a southern housewife caricature were to go through a voice changer to lower her pitch by about 60%, and a couple others sound almost Victorian British

There indeed seems to be a load of variety among these creatures... though, perhaps that is also the case for humanity, too... it's not really easy to tell or draw conclusions, since they are so unfamiliar.

Also, by this point a couple of the smaller creatures have indeed started bumbling around in a clear - but bad - attempt to imitate your dance moves. Three fat (?) individuals are also shuffling in place, with slightly-distracted expressions as if trying and failing to avoid doing so while paying attention to your group

After the Pygnoms name Bondahom, Emily too praises His name out of politeness.

Then Emily, realising that the Pygnoms are not trolls after all and she does not risk the tender mercies of the Button Maker... in fact, she probably IS the Button Maker smiles and says, "Good." Ibsen must be spinning in his grave.

She lowers herself to her haunches and speaks to the ones facing her.  "I am Emily.  What are your names?"

After introductions she gets back to her feet and says louder,  "Jerzy is on the red ball over there and Arjun on the soil ball over there.  We have other friends called Vlad who has been sleeping for days and Otto who is a long way over there in the Sweet Smelling Swamp."

Then she asks, "Do you call yourselves Pygnoms or have I misunderstood?"

Seeing the tiny creatures, Jerzy hops off the red ball, announcing "The red orb seems safe to eat, kind of an ambrosia honey-apple consistency. I suggest we keep that resource and expand it if possible!

Now what have we here? Grey smurfs?" He begins sketching the tiny creatures, seeing if he can get a closer look by hopping onto the grey orb. If he can he'd like to pick up a couple of representative samples and look them over closely.

"The worms came and went quite suddenly, do we think these guys will do the same? " He asked the group. To the little guys he picked up he asks "What do you have to say about it? Is this grey orb your home? Or do you come from elsewhere? "

Emily gets some surprised and suspicious stares at her praise of this 'Bondahom', while her out-of-place comment of 'Good' (which could only possibly refer to there being a lack of any individual called 'Mountain King', semantically) causes a couple confused stares.

At her request for names, most stay silent, for unclear reasons. However, a group of seven individuals come rushing out from the crack-in-the-ground with the sound of muffled pattering footfalls, before bursting out with leaps and causing many exclamations of what are (probably) curses to emerge from those around them before everyone settles down, though a little more cramped with some people teetering right by the edge of the rock...

"One! I'm Julfrey! It's me!" says a haughty voice

"Two! I'm Duthkey! It's me!" says a relaxed voice

"Three! I'm Bungrey! It's m-!!?" says an annoying voice before being interrupted, as a palm slams down on his face, and causes all seven individuals by him to topple back down into the crack.

The source of the voice, the same individual with claws who spoke before turns back to Emily but does not offer any explanation or say further words.

As she lists her friends in a loud tone, there are no visible signs of any recoil due to the volume, or even a response to it like pupil dilation or jaw tensation something.

Nobody really says a word after Emily names her pals, and also notably there are zero pairs of eyes that look anywhere except where they were already looking. Though, a few more turn towards her. All eyes of these fellows are either on her or vaguely to her left or right, though she cannot tell if they are focused or not on anything.

The awkward silence is basically ended with one individual hidden behind some others simply mutters "Okay." in response to all the names.

Lastly, as she asks a question, the leader declares in a loud voice that is filled with pride (?), "YES. WE ARE PYGNOMS." and several individuals behind him wiggle their shoulders... perhaps indicating agreement? It's not clear.

---

As Jerzy moves towards the grey orb, one of the clawed fellows by the speaking one swerves and half-steps forward towards him at incredible speed and roars in an ABSOLUTELY BOOMING voice, loud enough to make your heads' spin, and even be quite surprising from the distance of your farthest party member, "HALT!!!!!" also it's pointing it's claws towards you.

(this interrupts the rest of your planned actions, causing them to fail or at least be postponed until this is resolved)

Surprised and bemused by the magical lungs of this farcical tiny giant, Jerzy complies, stops in his tracks and takes notes from afar.

It is clear the tint beasts are holding court with Emily and Jerzy saw no reason to interrupt the proceedings.

Emily jumps when the loud Pygnom booms at Jerzy but then calms down and says, "Well I'm very pleased to meet you Pygnoms.  I hope we become good friends."  She began to play some chords on her banjo as she moves into the next song.  "What's your favourite kind of music?"

There is some murmuring in response to Emily's question, but no individual really steps up to give a definite answer.

Then, with no clear forewarning, an incrementing number of individuals begin to return down the crack, either simply dropping in, doing triple frontflips with a 'waheee!' sound, or using their claws to help themselves down.

A fair number of the little people look a little... droopy or crusty? Perhaps they are tired? It's not really clear.

Then, the big-clawed guy who has spoken many times says in a flat-tone, "Well, bye." and turns to leave. Several other voices follow up with 'yeah, later' in a cool voice or 'buh buh bye bye!' in a singsong voice

Soon, few individuals remain, but one of the non-clawed guys, who appears to be quite on the small side, sticks his neck out towards Emily within half-shut eyes and says, "Emmelhee; Make some noise again" in a tone that it is not clear if it's a demand or a request... perhaps these creatures do not even differentiate between the two?

And with that, the rest leave together.

Afterwards, those of you who were involved in this brief and unusual conversation find a notification of having gained a new skill!

"I will", says Emily, "But not until your friends have had a chance to rest.  I promise to come back and make noise soon."

After speaking, Emily takes a running jump toward the soil ball, hoping that Arjun is there to catch her.  As she does so, she beckons to Jerzy from the Pygdoms' ball and then points to the soil ball before making the jump.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:43, Thu 14 Apr 2022.

Jerzy nods and adds a few parting notes on the tiny creatures before joining her.

"That was certainly unexpected. At the very least we'll have sources of light, sweets, and entertainment in the future.

Lets see what we have here" He says as he lands on the soil ball.

As you land on the soil ball, you quickly inspect it and determine that it is indeed just soil. It's a different type from the stuff you've seen so far, but it seems like normal dirt.

There may or may not be a monster species here... but frankly none of you have a great way to investigate besides playing music again... but, Emily did say she would hold off on that for a while and you are all still within hearing range of the pygnom's territory, so it would be pretty close to going back on your word if you did that.

You guys can spend some time on the dirt ball - like 5 to 10 minutes - and look around, to quickly determine there are probably no monsters here, and if there are they are purposefully hiding - and doing that well too.

---

Your party has explored all the spheres at this point except for the radiant lime-green sphere... will any of you decide to make that jump and risk touching stuff that may be pretty bad or simply leave it be?

If you guys briefly put your heads to it, you will all remember that at this point you have not discovered all of the new monster species...

Emily believes that there are monsters on each disc but not necessarily the balls. She moves to the closest point to the button disc before checking whether or not it is close enough to jump.

From the southernmost point of the dirt sphere, the jump to the button is doable, as it's only about 6 or 7 feet.

Emily beckons over Arjun because doable is not exactly easy.  While she waits for him to come along, she takes a deep breath, considers the smell.  She gets down on her haunches and plays with the dirt, feeling the texture, looking to see whether the ground follows a regular pattern or is genuinely chaotic.  Then she considers tasting it, but first of all, she tries to see whether she senses poison.

The smell is that of soil, though not particularly fresh, but also not decaying.

The texture is somewhat soft and a little granular... She doesn't know enough about gardening or anything to determine what kind of soil it is by the feel alone.

The pattern on the ground does not stand out to her as strange. It's just a clump of dirt, and even with looking closely and studying the grains, there is no particular geometric pattern or anything. What 'genuine chaos' would look like is not entirely clear, but there's nothing crazy happening here either way.


Then, she tries to focus her senses and this strange 'skill' to try and determine if poison is present... she finds herself deciding on 'none'... though, since she hasn't actually done any empirical research (and lacks the tools for that anyway) she is solely relying on her Skills here, which is a little weird given they are basically unexplained magic from an unknown source... but, what can you do.

Though, Emily is aware that even if it's not poisonous, doesn't really make it edible... what counts as 'poison' is not clear either... would a decaying corpse count as poison? It's definitely toxic to humans, but it's not a type of venom or anything...

Well, at the very last, this probably isn't laced with cyanide, but no more or less than that is being supplied to her by this skill at the moment... Maybe she will get more details from it as it levels up?

Jerzy squats next to Emily and puts his hand on the ground. He tries to bio-analyze the soil to see if it registers any organics at all though he will hold off on full analysis for when there's downtime.

Afterwards he sets his eyes on the glowing orb and decides to toss a rope at it, to see if the rope accumulated any of the green goo.

The bioanalysis of the soil takes a hot minute, but when it's done Jerzy gets the idea that there are organic compounds in it, but nothing 'living', which means it's significantly more sterile than a random patch of dirt on Earth.


After throwing the rope to the green disc, it is a bit difficult to pull it back without some effort, as it turns out the sphere is quite sticky!

Also, six feet of the rope returns, covered in a bright green slime...

Before any of you touch that or bring it onto the dirt sphere, will you inspect it from a distance in some way?