HG: Okay, let's recap. Last time, you folks showed up in the Chancel, met Anamalech, captured the Three Demons, ordered your people to rebuild the Chancel, and set out to find the Dream Dynamo to restore the Cipher of Masks.
HG: To do that, you headed to California, then skipped up to Precipice Citadel--Locus Ambrolam--where for only a small price of one triumph, one atrocity, and one week of deep thoughts, you were allowed to travel the World Ash.
HG: You've been guided so far (as far as the front door, really) by a Power named Patrick. You're heading up to pick up the Dream Dynamo from the fae. Then you have to return and attend to other tasks, like Anchoring and repopulating.
HG: Sound about right? Anyone have questions?
Feng Po: no sir, I think I'm all set
HG: Vashti? Dessa?
Dessa: let's go
Vashti: geographically, we're driving on a huge, metaphysical tree miles above the earth, correct?
HG: Right. You're walking now, actually (the Mercedes would take a week to get cleared), and yes, you're on a very large tree, currently on a silver road, with another Power standing next to you.
Vashti: super
HG: Around you in every direction hang other worlds. Above you are the gates of Heaven, below you the fires of Hell, and far above everything shine the stars. What are you doing?
Feng Po: I'll talk to Patrick, I suppose. "how would we be able to find Fae who will have what we're looking for?"
Vashti: I think I'll ask Patrick how long he thinks it'll take to get to the Fae
Vashti: (drat, sorry, I'm a slow typist)
HG: Patrick rests against the silver banister. "Just follow the Silver Road. It'll take you right up there--" He points to what looks very much like the Moon. "I'm willing to tag along. As for time...no idea. Minutes? Years? Whatever."
Feng Po: "I suppose it doesn't much matter, does it?"
Dessa: well, we only have a month before our citizens need to change masks
HG: "Time? Well, time is tied to Earth's reality. You're no longer part of that."
Vashti: "Well, since it's our first time around this... place... if you could call it that, I'd feel better if you stayed with us."
HG: "A month? Well, if you think you're going to run out of time, you're going to the right place to barter for a longer month."
HG: "Sure, glad to be along. I'm afraid I can't offer too much advice, but I've taken this trip a few times. Let's go."
Feng Po: "How long have you been...like us?"
HG: Patrick starts walking, his reflection mirrored in the shiny silver of the road, which stretches up and up.
Feng Po: ::follows, walking and talking::
Dessa: walking with a purpose
Vashti: ::keeping up::
HG: "Well, I date back to the reign of the Nubian Queen Shalinga over England, and the uprising of Owain Glyndwr, Prince of Wales. Of course, I don't think any of that happened, so just say I'm from the Middle Ages."
Feng Po: ::nods::
Vashti: ::curious expression::
HG: The walk goes by without any clear way to tell time. Beings vast and powerful move by you, which you would call suns and planets if you were back on Earth. Here, they are titans and gods, floating silently by.
HG: As you continue to walk, the Moon grows larger, and you reach an expanse that looks something like a junkyard. Enormous vehicles--crumpled bits of tin and brass, now--lie scattered along the road.
Feng Po: "Do you think this is where we will find our dynamo?"
Dessa: I hope so
HG: "Don't remember this. Looks like detritus from some lost time, given a pale form of life by the spiritus Dei of the Tree." The crumpled ruins bear names--Helios, Queen Elizabeth, Pride of Foucault.
HG: All are written in plain English, on what may once have been burnished wood.
Vashti to HG: do I know about The Pride of Foucault, or was that B___'s advernture?
HG: Patrick fiddles with his tall purple hat.
HG to Vashti: You do: Sean asked if you knew about it. (You should really find out what happened to Sean and that teddy bear.)
Vashti: ::curiously glances over the wreckage as she walks by::
Vashti: Pride of Foucault... that sounds familiar to me
Vashti to HG: (oh, right... crap!)
Dessa: "how will we recognize these fae?"
Feng Po: ((how will we find this button, sir?!))
HG: Patrick leans out over the railing, breathing deep. Two creatures--enormous dragons, big as worlds, crash together, lashing and biting in a vortex of fangs and spite. After a while, one falls away, trailing down to the Roots.
HG: "The Fae are not spirits, like dryads or oikonomidads. Ah, oikonomidads. Anyway: they were like humans, once, but the Devourers brought them low, for humanity was favored by the Light...."
Vashti: "Um, Patrick, by any chance what would happen to a mortal if they fell through a portal into the mythical world?"
HG: "Now they cannot survive on Earth, except in rare places, and live in distant places, scattered and bitter. They were once the heirs to the world, though now they barely survive in the dust of the desecrated Moon."
HG: "A portal? Ah, you're so new. It's adorable, my dear. There's no portal to the Mythic; it's just a matter of perception. Think of that Vase & Faces drawing. Most humans only see the Prosaic Earth."
HG: "If they see the Mythic World, they begin perceiving it, without knowing how to interact with it. They go mad, reveling in an experience known as dementia animus. Some recover, forgetting the myth. Others recover and become shamen."
HG: "Most become useless, babbling idiots."
Dessa: let's go find a Fae!
Vashti: "Right, I think I know what you're talking about. But before I was changed, I think, a friend of mine and an object I held rather dear to me changed in some significant ways."
HG: Jogged on by Vashti, Patrick resumes his walk. The Moon now resembles less a world and more a leaf, the only one remaining that cradles around the Earth--all the others have withered to gray nothingness.
Vashti: "My friend mention a ship called Pride of Foucault, but I hadn't heard of it before"
Vashti: "Yes, Dessa, we'll find the Fae, I just hope I can solve this riddle along the way"
Feng Po: Do any of us know what a dream dynamo would look like?
HG: "Hm. Then your friend may have been an Anchor, because he was remembering a before-time. My own favored Anchor still has trouble adapting to a world without a Nubian Empire."
HG: You don't really know what a dream dynamo looks like. Hopefully there's a market for this sort of thing.
Vashti: "I...see? Is there any way I could find him now?"
Feng Po: And Patrick is leading us there, I would assume?
Vashti: I assume the Fae will know, we'll just have to pay a sucker-price for it
HG: "Search your Chancel, perhaps. He might have followed you there."
HG: Patrick is leading you to the beginning of the Moon. And you're gods--you don't pay sucker-prices.
HG: "Well, I prefer to savour the mysteries of the sublunar realm, with its turbulance and chaos. The perfect beauty of the Moon--oh, wait, that's long gone--then the formless dust of the Moon holds no interest for me."
HG: "I must return to Precipice Citadel. However, continue just along this road and you will arrive in Wisp City. There's even air."
Dessa: "Is there anyone around that might direct us to a fae?"
HG: "Wisp City is one of the last of their great cities. Finish the journey, and you'll find a kingdom of them. Now, if you'll excuse me, Colorado's on fire again." And Patrick disappears with a dancing flash of fractal light.
HG: What are you folks doing?
Dessa: heading towards the city
Vashti: Have we long passed those shipwrecks?
Feng Po: I'm following the group
HG: Yeah, the shipwrecks are gone. They might be back when you come back, though.
Vashti: good enough. Onwards and upwards or wherever the road leads.
HG: You finish following the Silver Road. Soon, the leaf-like appearance of the Moon disappears and you find yourself in what looks like a crater. Near you is a gray sand castle of a city below the starlit sky.
HG: Behind you is what looks like a trail. It's difficult to breathe: there's air here, but it's thin and foul-smelling.
Dessa: does the trail lead to the city?
HG: The trail, you think, leads back to the Silver Road. The city, though, appears to be open, with black metal gates raised.
HG: You can see people, though they appear eerily still.
Feng Po: what are they doing, besides not moving?
HG: Well, they're moving, just very slowly. There appears to be a market of sorts just inside the castle.
HG: There's an auction block, and a gavel descending very slowly.
Dessa: let's go in
Vashti: This must be related to that comment Patrick made on getting an extended month...
Vashti: Yes, let's see what's being auctioned
Feng Po: I agree, let's go down.
HG: You head into the castle, and are greeted by slow-moving gasps of astonishment and awe. The people here must be the fae: they look somewhat human, but blunted and ill-defined, as if by many years of erosion.
Dessa: can we talk to them?
HG: They are gray and move with gracefully and with infinite care, yet slowly. Occasionally, one rushes, and a bit of dust falls away from his flesh.
HG: Yes. For some reason that no doubt someone in Creation has an explanation for, they speak something not entirely unlike German.
HG: All sorts of peculiar devices, crafted out of dust or black or silvery metal, are available, although the auction block holds a variety of phials and elixirs.
HG: The fae gather around you, looking on in awe and fear.
Vashti: does any fae seem to stand out as one who might know a little about what we're looking for?
Feng Po: ::looks to Dessa:: I think you should do the talking
Vashti: hehe
HG: There are several that appear to be craftsmen, their sandy belts stuck full of odd-shaped tools, holding up various devices of curious make.
HG: One of the craftsmen approaches Dessa, and slowly speaks "Are you with Lord Malahdi?"
Dessa to HG: am I
HG to Dessa: Yes, you are. At least, according to Descartes.
HG to Dessa: Oh, no.
HG to Dessa: No, you're not with Malahdi. You've never heard of the fellow.
Dessa: " that is a man I have yet to meet.We are in search of a device to aid our people, and were hoping you would be able to assist us."
HG: Someone dressed in important-looking alabaster robes floats toward you. "Malahdi must return. The Devourers will return soon, and we cannot stand against them. We have lost so much, and have lost the knowledge of what we have lost."
HG: "Please, o Nobles Ones, speak of us honorably before Malahdi or Manaechus, who have cherished and honored the fae."
Feng Po: ::eyes perk up at the mention of Manaechus::
HG: Another fae asks "What is it you seek?"
Vashti: "We seek a dream dynamo. Do you know of such an object?
Vashti: :
HG: "A Dream Dynamo? We have one, but it powers our defenses against the Devourers. We could craft another, but it would take time, and by then the Devourers will have unmade us."
Vashti: "Will you stand more powerful against them if you had some your knowledge restored to you?"
HG: "Our knowledge and power are no more, and can never be restored."
HG: If you engage in negotiations, keep in mind the Code Fidelitatis of Lord Entropy, especially this law:
HG: TREAT NO BEAST AS YOUR LORD
Surrender to no beast-and man is a senseless bull.
Swear no oaths to beasts-and woman is a witless doe.
Accept no insult from beasts-and each child is a serpent.
Each submission to mankind is a drowning of the immortal spirit.
Feng Po to HG: translate that please
HG to Feng Po: The translation is open to interpretation by the Locust Court. The intent, though, is to forbid Nobles from serving, or even treat as equals, any lesser creature: Man, fae, beast, or spirit.
Feng Po to HG: roger that.
Feng Po: "How does this Dynamo you have assist Lord Malahdi?"
HG: "It is not Lord Malahdi's. It keeps us hidden and safe, but Lord Malahdi would come in force when the Dark Horseman came and drive him back. But Malahdi has disappeared, and we fear our destruction when we are again uncovered."
Dessa: We must search for Malahdi to protect them while they make us a Dream Dynamo
HG to Feng Po: It's nice to have an Imperator who imparts wisdom: Malahdi was a servant of Manaechus; if the Ebon Dragon is destroyed, so (most likely) is Malahdi--or at least he's lost power.
Feng Po to HG: excellent, thank you
Feng Po: Or could we find an alternate means of protecting them?
Vashti: Depends on how powerful the Devourers are.
Dessa: nothing we can't handle
Vashti: Or, really, WHAT they are. But I wouldn't expect the fae to know too much of their anatomy.
Vashti: I wouldn't be so sure. It's possible.
HG: "We fear that our time is short: the Dark Horseman will likely return in a month, maybe a bit longer, if his schedule holds steady. He will consume more of our vital essence if we are not protected."
Vashti: "And what is the nature of this Dark Horseman?"
HG: "We...do not know," says the alabster-robed fae. "We cannot know. He takes things from us, and we no longer know even them."
Dessa: Well then we have a month to find Malahdi to protect them from the horseman which will give them enough time to make us a Dynamo so we can save our own people.
HG: Except that you have considerably less than a month before new masks need to be handed out.
Vashti: btw, are there any rites we could perform to locate Malahdi?
Feng Po: Did Malahdi and Manaechus always come together?
HG: "We have never seen Manaechus, though he is said to take the form of a great...a great...something that is no longer here. I almost remember it. But he was said to be glorious. Only Malahdi came, and he was enough."
HG: You only know basic rites. There's likely a sorcery to locate a Noble, but it would be very difficult and require a great deal of study.
Vashti: coises
Feng Po: OOC, how pathetic do these people strike us as?
Feng Po: I mean, they seem to be on thier last leg
Vashti: yeah, and they sorta crumble with any sudden movement
HG: Pretty Goddamn pathetic. Not only are they on their last leg, they once had many more legs. It's like seeing a human trying to function with only two emotions and a knowledge of ten random things.
Dessa: are they worth saving?
Vashti to HG: was it an approprite effort? or did it reek too much of bartering?
HG to Vashti: Remember: you are the superior agent. You can barter, but only insofar as a king can negotiate with a subject, or a master with a slave. Whips and carrots, not promises and contracts.
Vashti to HG: okay
Vashti to HG: I'll try to keep that in mind
HG: And it's not even corruption--it's...hollowing. They're being Excruciated.
HG: Everything in Creation is worth saving so long as the battle against the Excrucians is waged. One of the firm beliefs of the Old Gods is that everything is natural and has its place.
Feng Po: These people are probably better off devoured at this point. We should just take the dynamo and be gone, before this happens to our people!
Vashti: well, we should think about what might happen to us once these wretched things get annihilated. Who or what might come after us for allowing it?
HG: The wisdom of your Imperator shines through you: these people are most likely doomed. It would take an army of winged nymphs bearing a thousand flowers from Heaven to restore them.
Vashti: Hrm, well enough.
HG: "Please, save us! The Lords of the Dark have always looked after the fae! We can survive and grow strong again!" The alabster-robed fae hisses, alarmed and fearful. Gray mist crumbles from his face, leaving him Sphynx-nosed.
Dessa: so, we can either leave them to be eaten, or protect them while they build us a dynamo.
HG: (He presumably thinks you're Lords of the Dark, which is what Malahdi apparently was. The Dark Lords loathe humanity, but it doesn't seem too outrageous that they would respect fae.)
Vashti: But it sounds like their Imperator abandoned them.
Feng Po: You all realize that Malahdi, wherever he is, will be most upset for taken the dynamo from these people. But I am resolved in this course of action. How about you?
Dessa: we do not need another enemy. We must find a way to get our dynamo without leaving the Fae to die
Vashti: I wish there was some way to make lemonade, but if their Imperator will no longer protect them, what could we do?
Feng Po: We will take the dynamo, no one who would have stood against us now will
Dessa: we cannot fight off all of their enemies forever. We will have to leave them eventually
HG: So, you're resolved to take the Dynamo?
HG: Because there's still one problem: you don't know what it is or what it looks like.
Feng Po: The Fae will tell us with the proper...motivation.
Vashti: um, small question: How long have they had this? Is it our old dynamo to begin with, or has ours been blown to smithereens? Is there a chance ours is in the junkyard, or is it too precious to be lying around for scrap?
HG: The Fae shrink back, gliding away like trash before a gust of wind.
Vashti: okay, many somewhat large questions
HG: Dream Dynamos, so you can gather, are precious and powerful things. They're probably not left around.
HG: And you don't know if English-speaking humans, even from another time, made or used Dream Dynamos.
HG: What's everyone doing? The Fae are growing fearful.
Feng Po: I say we make the Fae tell us where it is
Vashti: right. And is there any way of contacting our Imperator quickly and getting a scoop on Malahdi?
Feng Po: Um, OOC, I've been told not to worry about Malahdi
Dessa: agreed. we will decide wether to take it or not when we see it
HG: You can contact Gideon, if you want to sort through prophecy and mystical reverie and try to translate it into human-think.
HG: So, are you asking to see the Dream Dynamo?
Feng Po: Yes
HG: Alright, you're brought to the top of the largest tower in the city. The Dream Dynamo itself is fairly small--about the size of a CPU, though probably a bit heavier. It's surrounded by mists and gears that you don't understand.
Dessa: What happens if we take it
Feng Po: important to it's operation?
HG: "Once," says the alabaster-robed fae, "we received the dreams and reveries of humanity, fed off them, used them for power. Now we must survive on our own pallid dreams."
HG: No, looks like you can just lift it out with a bit of ripping and mangling: remember, whatever damage you can do, so long as you don't destroy it, can probably be repaired in-Chancel.
HG: And it looks like you're in the equivalent of a power plant, so if you take it, presumably the lights go out in fairy-land.
Dessa: Will the horseman come like we were holding up a neon sign?
Feng Po: "Poetice Justice, this is then." I respond to the fae.
Vashti: I thought they had a month to stew in their misery and doom before certain annihilation
Dessa: ah...so we could make it back in time before they were completely gone
HG: A month without power.
HG: You could, possibly, make it back in time, but time runs funny away from the Prosaic sanity of the Earth.
HG: And no, the Horseman shouldn't come, you don't think.
Dessa: ah. So, don't count on saving them.
Feng Po: Let's just take it and go. The devourers have taken most of what these people had anyway. Let them finish here, while we thrive.
HG: What's everyone doing? There are a handful of Fae, mostly engineers, around you, and the Dream Dynamo in the center of some sort of power system.
Vashti: They are a doomed race. Our concern is with the people of our chancel, first.
Vashti to HG: ::grapple grapple::
Vashti to HG: (questions to myself) okay, so how strongly should I object to the annihilation of the fae, according to my code? How should I respond in the face of overwhelming odds? To what extent should I feel that beings are worth fighting for, especially beings not exactly under my care?
HG to Vashti: Ultimately, that's a personal decision. Are these fae creatures of beauty? No--they're hollow shells of the glorious and terrible beings they once were. They're fallen obelisks and two rusted legs sticking out of the sand. Their continued existence doesn't serve beauty. So, if thinking purely as a servant of Heaven, they're not your concern.
Vashti to HG: okay, that helps
Vashti to HG: because I think I should still feel pity for them, and want to protect them as a matter of principle against the Excrucians, but Vietnam was fought under similar pretences
Dessa: what if this dynamo breaks, we will have destroyed those who can make another
Feng Po: we will find more, than
Feng Po: these people's time has come on gone. let them go.
HG: With an Aspect of 2 or higher, you can remove the Dynamo with no damage.
Dessa to HG: is my aspect higher?
HG to Dessa: You have an Aspect of 3.
HG: The Fae are growing more and more anxious. They can't understand you, but they fear that terrible matters are being discussed.
Dessa: yoink...let's get out of here before I change my mind
Feng Po: let's take it and go
HG: Dessa reaches into the contraption and removes the Dream Dynamo, which comes away with a hollow, echoing scream.
Vashti: Yes
Dessa: I just did
HG: The Fae yell in terror and confusion, and the wan lights that illuminate the tiny tower fade like dying fireflies. The tower wobbles back and forth ominiously.
HG: What's everyone doing?
Dessa: woah, let's get out of here. We'll take that trail back to the Silver Road
HG: Everyone agreed?
Vashti: Yes, out quick-like
Feng Po: I'm with Dessa, I'm up and out
HG: You move swiftly out of the tower, which crumbles and blows away. Wails of confusion and terror rise up behind you as you reach the trail, which fades, imperceptibly over time, back to a long Silver path high in the sky.
HG: Dessa has the Dream Dynamo in her hands, although you'll have to move fast to get back to Earth before time runs out.
Feng Po: does this count as an atrocity?
HG: No, this was closer to a necessity.
Feng Po: k
Vashti: oh, I see now.
HG: It's going to take an Aspect of 2 and a sustained miracle to run back along the Silver Road fast enough to make it.
Feng Po: let's do what we have to
Vashti: make it so
HG: That'll cost 1 AMP from Vashti and Po, though nothing from Dessa.
Feng Po: k
HG: Po has currently spend 1 AMP, 1 DMP, and 2 RMPs. Vashti has spent nothing. Dessa has spent 1 AMP and 1 DMP.
Vashti: well, 1 AMP now
HG: The three of you are racing along the Silver Road, ignoring the sights in favor of putting some serious metaphysical mileage under your feet, when you hear a dump clapping noise from behind you.
Dessa: is someone following us?
HG: Looking behind you, you can't see anything. But there's a dull clop-clop.
Vashti: the horseman
Dessa: that had better not be the fae
HG: The clop-clop is coming faster, and there's a terrible scream, like the sound of something whose hate cannot be contained by a cry.
Feng Po: to hell with the fae, we could crush them. it's the horseman I'm concerned about
Vashti: I say we fire up the proton packs, guys
HG: (This analogy is lost to the Chinese lawyer and the Russian peasant.)
Vashti: heh, sorry, OOC
Vashti: sorta
Dessa: well, we can't stop
Vashti: "It seems the Excrucian invasion has come earlier than expected"
HG: There's something you notice next to you, a twirling ribbon that you think might be the Milky Way--not the Galaxy, but the band in the sky. Along its bright path is a dark figure, uncounted leagues away, easily matching pace.
Feng Po: all the more reason for us to make it back and fortify.
Vashti: "Though I can't determine whether we're strong enough to defeat them on this battleground."
Dessa: exactly, let's worry about them later, first we must return home
Vashti: I agree with both of you for the most part, but I do fear a domino-effect in the long run.
Vashti: I pray we don't return to find the Excrucians stronger than before.
HG: You run and run, but the mounted figure keeps pace. Then, before you can respond, it's before you: a vast thing, like an eyeless horse, impossibly beautiful and sleek, its coat glimmering bone white, its hooves glittering like pearl
Dessa: is it friend or foe
HG: Upon it sits a thing like a man, with skin as pale as the horse's coat, lips curled into a sneer of utter arrogance and contempt before the Nobilis. He wears a helmet with horns that rise up to the roof of the world....
HG: His eyes are velvet black, and motes of white dust--suns and worlds, each one--fall and burn and die, forever, through that utter blackness. "You burn my eyes," he says.
HG: Oh, it's an Excrucian. It's very much a foe.
Vashti: so much a foe we should probably be soiling ourselves at this point
Dessa: already done
HG: What are you doing?
Feng Po: panicking
Dessa: well, how the heck are we going to get it out of the way?
Vashti: how the heck are we going to destroy it
Feng Po: How are they normally destroyed?
Dessa: I don't think we can. We can try to hurt it but I don't think we can easily break it in half to kill it
Vashti: I'm only going to be as strong against him as his greatest weakness, which I don't know, or even know how to reveal.
HG: The Excrucian laughs, and the Silver Road shakes, tiny flakes falling away. "You foolish guardians have wandered too far, and your Lord has placed a mark upon you. Die!" With that, the stars shimmer and...
HG: ...the bridge is slashed as if by a terrible blow traveling at some great speed. The destruction sweeps toward Dessa.
HG: Dessa, what are you doing?
Dessa: is this creature of flesh and blood?
HG: No, it's a horror from beyond Creation, sent to destroy all of reality.
Dessa: well, running towards Vashti so she can take the dynamo
HG: Aspect 3?
Dessa: yup
HG: The Excrucian raises its fist, and you see that it holds a whip. The handle is some dusky glass, though the tines are invisible, seen only by the distortion in the stars behind it. The whip slams full-force into Dessa as she runs...
HG: ....knocking her several dozen feet back along the Silver Road, though she still holds onto the Dynamo, which the Excrucian doesn't seem to have yet noticed.
HG: Though wounded, bruised, and battered, the injury would not have been mortal, and Dessa's broken bones and flayed skin knit back together.
HG: Po, what are you doing? There's now a huge rent in the road to the right of you, across from which is the Excrucian.
Feng Po: Hmm, time to work some miracles. What about creations? Can I create a field of etherice chains to bind him long enough for us to beat a hasty rtreat?
HG: How would you do that with Vengeance? Remember, you're not in your Chancel, so your Realm score means very little.
Feng Po: Ugh, that's frustrating. Well, then, lets turn the intent back upon him then, can I give Dessa the power to destroy the road beneath his feet?
HG: Possibly. How?
Feng Po: where is Dessa specifically?
HG: About fifty feet away from you, clutching the rail of the Silver Road for support.
Feng Po: in front and to the left of the excrution?
HG: Here, a little diagram. The bar is the rent in the ground, and the Road runs west-east. (The Road's about ten feet across here.)
HG: X | P V D
Feng Po to HG: I'm scrambling. suggestions?
HG to Feng Po: Um, make the road lust for vengeance after being hit with a whip--Lesser Preservation of Vengeance. Should cause the road to lash out at the one that hurt it.
Feng Po to HG: ok, let me put that into this, thanks
Feng Po: Ok, thanks to my better judgement (thank you judgement), the road has taken offense to the way it was atacked, and is going to seek out it's attacker and crumble beneath it
HG: That'll be a Lesser Preservation of Vengeance to get the road that mad. 1 DMP.
Feng Po: yes yes
Vashti: (good thinking, I'd be proud of that one)
Feng Po: (I take none of the credit)
Dessa: (Very well done, judgement)
HG: The spirit of the road, in its outrage at having just been hammered by a whip, crumbles away beneath the hooves of the eyeless horse. The creature hisses in fury as it and the Excrucian plummet.
HG: The Excrucian begins to slow its descent as you watch, but it'll still take several seconds for it to recover fully. What's everyone doing?
Vashti: watch out for that whip as he falls
Feng Po: let's high-tail it out of shanghai, folks
Vashti: yes sir!
Dessa: yes, I believe Gandalf learned that lesson well, ooc.
HG: Continuing your mad sprint?
Feng Po: yes, madly
Dessa: yes....run
Vashti: or huge leap over the gap
Dessa: that would be nice
Vashti: I fly over head if it's faster
HG: Alright, you start hauling as the Excrucian struggles to regain control of his mount. The gap's not wide, so you have no trouble with it. The Excrucian pursues you, cackling cruelly, though he appears to have lost his edge.
HG: The relentless clop-clop continues until you see Pricipice Citadel, then stops abruptly. When you turn, the Dark Horseman is gone.
Feng Po: thankfully
Vashti: Well, that was bloody close.
HG: (This is the price you pay for a Bright Warning.)
Dessa: yes, well, such is life
Vashti: (ahhh... right...)
Feng Po: (we'll learn to get by...it builds character)
HG: You're just outside Locus Ambrolam, where its twining paths wind back to the Citadel and to Earth. What are you doing?
Feng Po: taking the fastest route back to our chancel
Vashti: How's about we find the shortest road back to Winterport
Vashti: yeah, what he said
Dessa: well, trying to remember which road leads back
HG: Alright. *Poof!* You're back in your Chancel after a frightfully fast cross-country trek. We'll stop here. Well, actually, A___ needs to sleep, but what about you two? You up for a bit more?
Vashti: sure, I'm good for another hour, maybe more
Feng Po: Yeah, just let me try one thing real quick, Kyle, shut my IM if you still have it open
Vashti: ...fire in the hole?
HG: Done.
HG: A___, you crashing?
Dessa: <snoring>
HG: Well, good to have you here--we'll have Dessa helping with the rebuilding while the other two do the real thrilling stuff, okay? Any final requests?
Feng Po: alright, I'm Max Payne'd. It's cold like a walk in freezer, cold like a gun. Let's rock.
Vashti: LOL, fair enough
Feng Po: um, how about another 40 minutes or so? Cap it off at 2/
Feng Po: ?
Dessa: no, but thanks for fufilling my request
HG: Okay, goodie. Now, you two: you have the Dream Dynamo--no doubt Anamalech will be thrilled to get his hands on it--but you still have a lot more to do.
Dessa: G'night
Vashti: night
Dessa has left the room.
Feng Po: such as?
Vashti: restoring a populace to the chancel
Vashti: ?
HG: You need to repopulate the Chancel (it's still 3,000 people short), get one Anchor each, and restore the army. You can let Dessa take care of physically restoring the town.
Feng Po: Ok, let's round up 3000 people first, then we can have more variety when we pick our anchors
HG: You might wanna drop off the Dream Dynamo first.
Vashti: hrm, right. Where should we get these masses?
Vashti: well, granted
Feng Po: ok, well, let's do that
HG: Anamalech is thrilled when he finally gets the Dynamo. "I don't wanna know how you got it, I'll assume that you didn't destroy half the Ash, and this is just what I need. In it goes, and the Cipher is good as new."
HG: "Oh, one Rook Catchfly called about an Oliver, and the new Cammoran contact wants to speak with someone in charge--which isn't going to be me."
Vashti to HG: oliver was the bear, right?
HG to Vashti: Right.
Feng Po: freezing!
HG: "And something else...Oh yeah, the Brazillian branch of your mystery cult just committed mass ritual suicide by flinging themselves off of cliffs. It's all over the news. Glad I read the Times."
Feng Po: Ahhhh, unfreezing
Vashti: "That's... Po's mystery cult, right?"
HG: "That's Gideon's mystery cult. Imperial League of the Metal...something. I don't know; I don't care. Bunch of violent, clueless fools. I prefer a select cabal of crazed lunatics when I interact with humans, personally."
Vashti: "Right, well, that's.. understandable, sort of. How do I go about calling back Ms. Catchfly, by chance? I've been wondering about Oliver lately."
Feng Po: "Who, or what, is Oliver?"
HG: "First, she left a number for one of her Anchors. Second, I'm not a secretary: go enslave one. I'm only doing this because I don't fuck with Nobles."
Feng Po: "Must I repeat myself?"
Vashti: "Okay, thank you, I was just unfamiliar with the protocol." ::slunks away a little bit::
HG: Anamalech goes back to work on the Cipher of Masks, calibrating it to the new Dream Dynamo.
Vashti: "Well, before I changed, I had this little white, stuffed bear that got up and walked out of my apartment one day"
Feng Po: "That's...inconsiderate."
Vashti: "in a flood of other white animated bears, all very adamant about going to a warehouse"
Feng Po: "I'm assuming this white bear is Oliver?"
Vashti: "And I ran into an old friend of mine who had gone off his rocker and was babbling about things I had never heard of before"
Vashti: "No, my bear was Pearl, but in the attempt to retrieve her, I met Oliver"
Vashti: "who seemed to be a bit more, um, sentient than the other zombie bears"
Vashti: "So lord knows what he wants now (if you'll excuse the expression). I sort of lost track of him oncec I landed at the chancel"
Vashti: "along with my ranting friend"
Feng Po: "And who is this other one, catchfly?"
Vashti: "And that's the point where I met you and all this ::waves around:: started happening."
Vashti: "Oliver mentioned her at one point"
Vashti: "I think she's his master or owner or something to that effect"
Feng Po: "How bizarre. Well, let's get that done so we can get to the rest of our 'chores'."
Vashti: "So, excuse me if I'm a bit clueless still, things are a bit unexplained in my department."
Vashti: "Oh, yes, thanks for coming with, it shouldn't be long"
HG: The good news is that you have a cell phone. Reception sucks, but it seems to work fairly well.
HG: (Well, more than a hundred feet away from the Cipher, at least.)
Vashti: heheh, I wonder if there are roaming charges for calling shielded pockets of semi-reality
Feng Po: (and not in williamsburg)
HG: What's everyone up to?
Feng Po: I'm the tag-along while she calls
Vashti: well, hrm, how to find an anchor... is there an information service for this kind of thing?
Vashti: Oh, right, here's the number
Vashti: ::calling::
HG: The call goes through. "Hello?"
HG: When you're outside, Po, a woman walks up to you. "Viscount? Ah, good. We need to talk. I'm Sika Malavant, your Cammora appointee."
Vashti: "Hello, yes, this is Vashti Agraeradha, I received a message earlier from a Ms. Catchfly. I'm returning her call."
Feng Po: OOC, does this mean anything to me that I am aware of?
HG: The Cammora is the mortal arm of Lord Entropy's rule. They're the Illuminati, the Invisible College, the Men in Black, the Unseen Masters, the Men in the Smoke-Filled Rooms, whatever. They offer favors in exchange for power.
HG: "Right..." The person who answers the phone sounds a bit groggy. "Hold on...."
Feng Po: "Ah. In that case, what do you need to speak to me about?"
HG: "The one and only, indubitable, irrepressable, inconceivable Rook Catchfly, Power of Eternity and first-chair viola, at your service! How can I help you!" answers the phone.
Vashti: "Oh, hello. This is Vashti. You called earlier in regards to Oliver?"
HG: "Business matters, mostly," says Sika, fiddling with her plasticky hair. "I'm mostly here to establish my presence, to warn you not to kill me so as to avoid displeasing Lord Entropy, and to remind you that the Cammora..."
HG: "...offers a near-endless variety of services in any number of fields. We're here to assist you in your fight against the Excrucians or whatever it is you desire or require."
Feng Po: "I'll keep that in mind. And we are to contact you, if we need to contact?"
HG: "Oh, right, Oliver! I finally contacted him when he was wandering through your Chancel. Quite a mess you've got there. Now, though I have great respect for Oliver, he's not too sharp, so maybe you can clarify events for me."
HG: "Yes," says Ms. Malavant, "please contact me personally. We'll be setting up an office once a building is standing again. You can contact us at any time. I may be away on business, but I have two assistants."
Vashti: "I'll be glad to help however I can. I'm afraid I'm still in the dark about quite a bit myself. I wasn't even aware that he landed in the chancel until just recently."
Feng Po: "fair enough."
HG: "Well, from the stir here at Locus Ram-Khvastra, I can only assume that there's been some swapping of Noble titles. We all heard about the Death of Manaechus. Um...Strephon and the Hound, right? Those are Gideon's nobles?..."
HG: "So, whom did you replace? And how? I'd love to know what happened to Oliver, but he seems a bit shell-shocked."
HG: Sika Malavant nods and walks away, checking her watch as she struts through the ruined streets.
Vashti: "I'm... not sure, actually. I can't recall being told I've replaced anyone. Though my new changes seem to all be centered around mirrors, and I can, well, see myself quite a bit clearer now. I know what I'm thinking and how. Oh..
HG: "And remember, Viscount, Sika says as she walks away: aiding the Cammora is never a crime in the eyes of Lord Entropy. We can work together well, I imagine." She disappears around a broken column.
Vashti: and I got these wings and people react strangely when I take off my sunglasses"
HG: "Uh-huh. Well, welcome to the Nobilis. Listen, I'll be taking Oliver back for a good talkin'-to he is my Anchor 'n all. I might contact ya after I talk with him, 'kay?"
Vashti: "As if the events leading up to this weren't odd enough... I believe a pair of dark-looking characters were searching for Oliver. There was a whole parade of white bears trying to haul him through Manhatten."
Vashti: "Oh, right. Hope I was of some assistance to you. Tell Oliver I said hello"
HG: "Right....I'll certainly contact ya again, but I gotta go now, talk ta Oliver. You take care now." *Click.* Dial toooooooone.*
HG: Alright, we'll stop there.
Feng Po: wohoo!
HG: That excited to get to bed, eh?
Feng Po: No, just my usual post-game celebration
HG: Ah, very good then.