rolling 1d20
()
2
2
rolling 1d20
()
16
16
rolling 1d20
()
9
9
rolling 8d20
(+++++++)
2
2
11
15
7
3
14
14
68
rolling 8d20!!
(+++++++)
11
1
11
14
1
11
18
17
84
rolling 8d20!!
(+++++++)
2
9
14
2
18
10
4
4
63
rolling 8d20!!
(+++++++)
6
1
28
10
3
3
13
14
78
rolling 8d20!!
(+++++++)
2
18
13
19
3
11
16
30
112
Hello
#name
Log
time
g
g
g
g
g
dgd
gh
gd
g
dg
dg
d
dg
g
gd
September 18, 2018 10:24AMJason Roselli: Hello
September 18, 2018 10:28AMJason: Roselli
Box


The Almighty Box
haha
where people can do a quick refresher on who the NPCs are
i'm going to fill all that out
rolling 5d10
(++++)
4
3
1
7
7
22
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (++++)
5
5
2
7
8
1 Success
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (++++)
1
6
5
8
8
1 Success
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (++++)
5
6
4
2
2
0 Successes
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (++++)
5
7
3
6
4
0 Successes
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (++++)
1
4
7
4
7
-1 Successes
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (++++)
4
2
7
2
2
0 Successes
rolling {5d10!}>8f1
{}
= (+++++)
8
2
10
2
5
3
2 Successes
Interesting.
1's are designed to subtract a success.
Do we want that?
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++++)
3
10
10
7
9
6
4
3 Successes
That's the one.
1s only matter if there is 0 successes
if there is a 1 in that case, it's a crit fail
Counts successes and 10's explode.
our fate people
9 again is this: /roll Xd10>8!>9
rolling 5d10>8!>9
(+++++)
7
2
3
7
9
3
1 Success
Hmm, how do you delete your scribbling?
Found it. Right-click to select and delete.
#roll4
Feels like I'm the only one talking.
So you go to your profile and there's an option to add one
I was doing the tutorial but I didn't realize it would take ten thousand years
#name Jessica
[Jessica]
#Jessica
There we go
Build the memeworld
That is neat.
No lie, the company I work for is owned by mormons.
Where are we able to add these journal entries?
That might be just something the gm can do.
ok you should be able to upload character sheets now?
their manual is really weird
oh you may have to do it from the lobby
look at that
where is all that shit?
and making one for Jessica

had to log back in
Alright! Welcome welcome!
I can't believe I had to learn how to play MtG just to deal with your character, and then got addicted to MtG for like 2 years
Leipzig, Germany. Corner of Naumburger and Gieberstrasse, outside the gaming pavilion. It is a 30 minute break between the rounds of a local city MtG tournament. Jessica won her first game 2:0. The nearest Chinese food place is right around the corner, the Chinabrenner.
She ordered something that had a picture and looked sorta like broccoli chicken, and took a seat with a smal plastic number
(like enough to get by but little enough that if she moves away she'll start forgetting it)
(lemme look at her sheet and see if I remember)
(let's say art)
since she has 2 in computer we'll say digital illustration instead of free hand
unless you want me to move some points
I can put investigation at a 1 and put 2 in crafts
move empathy down and bump expression
I don't think I was thinking of her degree when i made her
so probably really great grades
but she's not like, thirsty for approval, she just treats it like a job
you cool if i make those changes?
((This is on top of what you have, don't take anything away))
I set an alarm on my phone and people watch for a bit while I eat.
I've got too much focus going on to text
Sometimes I'll makeout with someone at the bar but I pass on going home with them
Yeah, modern germany is full of teenage hipsters, but you're 20 now, maybe it's time to get around to a solid direction... speaking of mom and dad? How's the living? A house? An apartment? Or living on base? When is dad shipping out of Germany? A couple more years, enough for you to get your art degree?
Mom wants me to stay and get my degree so I can go to (insert art school i'll look up later) and dad doesn't want to pay for it.
One time someone brought up that they were glad Germany legalized prostitution and my dad went off about family values. I don't like diner with a side of politics
*dinner
September 20, 2018 4:17PMHeike: - your friend, art major, closest and most common hangout girl. German, but fluent in english. Texts you in intermixed language: "Jess, you at the tourney? Did it start yet? How you doing?! Good luck!!!"
I remember one loss after Frank texted me to tell me he got a new girlfriend. Yeah, too distracting
"Excuse me for intruding, may I have a word with you?"
Not a full suit, however, his lowers are jeans with a black dress belt, and black leather shoes.
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Hans offers you his handshake
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"You know, it's a good day when your assessment of a character proves correct. I like your spirit. Perhaps I will sign a card or two for you as well."
Hans sits down, not removing that genuinely curious smile off his face
"And what is your name, miss?"
Jessica's face warmed. So he was a pro player? "Um, Jessica. I-I'm sorry, are you in the tournament?" She felt bad suddenly for not recognizing him. Their community was large but at the same time, kind of small. She followed a lot of the pros on twitter and YouTube and she was wracking her brain trying to think if she knew who he was.
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"Aha! Jessica Murphy, a finger slip cost you a shot at 50 thousand at the World Championship two years ago."
He waits out but a two second pause
"Myself, no, I'm not in the tournament, but I sure hope to be... through you."
She was properly flustered now, and her face showed it. She was too caught off guard to be suave.
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"I know you have to run in 15 minutes, so I'll be brief. What's good on the menu here? Is that chicken good?"
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((so it would be....))
(( /roll 4d10>8! )) - like that
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
9
4
4
3
1 Success
.jpg)
The card reads
Hans Ehnske
Cube Transport & Data Corp
Arts, Entertainment, Digital Logistics Dept.
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Cube Transport & Data Corp
Arts, Entertainment, Digital Logistics Dept.
Hans: Senior Executive Assistant
((the box doesn't take bold, boo))
Hans Ehnske, Cube Transport & Data Corp Arts, Entertainment, Digital Logistics Dept.-Senior Executive Assistant
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((good to know))
.jpg)
((There is a logo. A cube of black on white with a golden trim, the sides of the cube are shaped out of letters C T D C
((Please roll your intelligence + academics or science, and add a bonus from Eidetic memory))
((+2))
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
3
9
3
3
6
7
1 Success
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"Did you bring a contract or something I can look over?"
.jpg)
Hans lays the briefcase with the CTDC logo on the table, clicks two silver locks open and the lid flies up. Inside there is in fact a shirt, in your size, with the CTDC logo, but he reaches in and takes the folded shirt out, revealing what's underneath.
Printed with CTDC logo on their backs, there are stacks of any imaginable overpowered MtG cards you have ever seen
.jpg)
(sleeve quality is a status symbol sort of)
.jpg)
categorized by color and name and card type, there are many thousands of dollars here
.jpg)
.jpg)
Without waiting for an answer, he leans in "What kind of money is up to you. You keep what you win. The tournament profits are all yours. Jess, look, I saw you play, I saw the way you think, how fast and precise you can be. I don't just want you to play, Jess. I need you to win. You win this one, and we'll go to the Nationals, and from there, if you're good, back to the World. The details of why or how are above my paygrade. I was told to find a talent, and I'm guessing by the way you rushed back into the game after blowing it last time, that you want the grand prize, or even more so, that you're simply obsessed and want to play. Now, you've been building decks, but lack the funds to do so. My offer eliminates that problem. Question is, do I have the right grinder?"
(too bad avatars dont animate)
(for perspective, my friend has a sponsorship with Monster and I think he's getting 4 figures to wear a shirt)
(if that helps)
(per game I think)
(I have another friend that got scholarships and went to school for free by playing magic)
.jpg)
Hans flips his card onto its face, sliding you the back side.
.jpg)
"Pick anything you want. Lunch is paid for. See you at the finish line."
this feels like a paragraph break
or scene change i guess i mean
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Hans happily starts on the chicken
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
"She's right, they really could use some more garlic in this."
With nobody to see it, Hans' eyes flash a dim orange for but a second.
NOW it's Interlude
Mage The Awakening: 2018
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Chapter 31: Jessica Murphy
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sgdfdgf
rolling 1d10>8!
()
9
1 Success
i am amazing
Wits + Dexterity
Intelligence + Composure
Resolve + Manipulation
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
9
9
2
5
2 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
7
5
9
1
3
8
2 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
3
6
1
8
5
1 Success
I mean not awful
Resolve + Composure
And Wits + Composure
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++++)
10
1
5
9
10
8
9
5 Successes
wow very steady hands, this is a perfectly smooth narrative
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++++)
7
10
3
2
10
10
5
5
2
3 Successes
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++)
6
5
9
6
6
2
6
1 Success
so her fingers are on point
she's doing okay with the poker face
and she's still being herself in terms of not really noticing stuff around her
----------------- so
The tournament continues.
Where does she keep the briefcase with the rest of them while she plays?
(she'd switch for alpha dual lands though, also she keeps it between her feet under her seat)
(like touching her ankles)
Long story short, you won the local tournament
Totes text her with the news
September 20, 2018 11:50PMHeike: : "Jess! How did it go!"
: "OMG You're AMAZING!!!111"
"So hype! What now?! Berlin? Want to meet up?"
September 20, 2018 11:56PMAiping: She is pissed. This little thing, menacingly grins at you
"This was mine to win, fuck you! I'm going to Hamburg, and I'm gonna take Munich, and I'll make up the points, so I'll fucking see you Berlin."
" -'Jessica'- or whatever your fucking name is. I will see you in Berlin."
flips you off
"Fucking bitch. You fucking bitch."
"I'll see you. In Berlin. Don't even bother showing up in Hamburg next week."
September 20, 2018 11:59PMAiping: very animated, very talkative, flammable. you'd have to talk over her to get a word in
"Okay, well bye." She let the Asian girl talk over her and walked away without taking her attention off her (like, listening for her to stomp after her or something, stupid pissy bitch)
September 21, 2018 12:04AMAiping: She is exactly the predictable type. She stomps, stomps again, yells a few more profanities, holds a finger up in the air, puts the other hand into her hip, and just holds the middle finger there the whole time, then walks away towards the losers, still looking at you, finger up, then turning her head away from you, but finger still up in your direction
"Fuckin biiitch. I'll see you. In Berlin. You're gonna suck my cock in Munich. Don't even show up to Munich. I'll see you in Munich. If you're not a pussy. Bitch."
eventually you leave her behind
September 21, 2018 12:05AMAiping: She went back to laughing with the nerds in like 10 minutes. Easily flammable, easily calmed. Still salty though
Her parents don't trust public transport and they have money so she has a car. I believe Germany is one of the countries with a transferrable license to the us as ell
Germany is, and even if it wasn't, it's not a big deal to get a german driver's license, and even if it was, Jess's dad being military, would have had it handled for her.
it's the most common car in germany
american cars are considered safer in europe, for good reason 'cause our standards are higher, but they can also be considered rude cause they're not fuel efficient (safety features are bulky)
like how we hate hummers here
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"Well. Done. Jess." - he punctuates with each clap, tactfully, without pompousness, in that silky baritone
"Thank you. That Bayou was perfect on turn 4."
.jpg)
He nods to her thank you.
"You're the professional. We've but put the tools into the right hands. So, now that we're partners, you can also wear the T-shirt. And give me your number, you'll be hearing from me. Assuming you want to go back to the World Championship and take the grand prize, of course."
"Man that Aiping girl was salty. Gonna have to get a security guard or something." She laughed in that conversational-but-not-belly-laugh kind of way
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He smiles at her comment about Aiping
"I'm sorry, didn't get to watch how it ended. Aiping's dangerous, but she doesn't have what it takes. I'm glad I bet on the right horse. You're a slayer. And when you want to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs, as you Americans say. A few disappointed salty eggs in your case."
He becomes a bit serious
"How you manage your opponents is your business. I only care about you winning. As for the briefcase, it's yours to keep for life."
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"It's an investment, Jessica. We want the company represented across Germany and the world. So we're going to make a name for you as often as possible. Clear your schedule for next week. I'll see you in Hamburg."
She comes home and fucking crashes. Her dad would be asleep already and mom doesn't care so long as the grades are good.
(like not just wine but that's probably the most expensive item)
I think she'd have her friend be the designated driver
and like, probably spend the ngiht or something
i figure a close friend probably knows to ignore her dad
but the briefcase gets left at home before she goes out. she changes into something nice. falls asleep in it when she gets home
so she's got like, makeup on her pillow and stuff when she wakes up
bad headache
etc
(i'm headed to bed here myself, i'm falling asleep. if you have stuff to add i'll read in the am)
Next Morning
It is indeed not a school day. Mtg tournaments are usually on Fridays.
Also, there's the briefcase, still there.*
Wizard decks were popular right now. Maybe she ought to give her new Jace a try. Red decks were capping at 2 mana a lot this year, maybe she needed to speed things up...
Thoughts of cards and strategies inevitably started cycling through her thoughts as she ate her banana, staring at notes on the fridge without really reading them. Just stuff like grocery lists and reminders.
September 21, 2018 2:59PMDad: Father is in the kitchen. Awkward breakfast. Mom is there too.
He looks at you and shakes his head
"This is your idea of a career, Jessie?"
September 21, 2018 3:00PMHeike: Heike shrinks
September 21, 2018 3:03PMDad: "Six hundred." he pinches his nose, not even wanting to do this anymore, he sighs. All the time and money she spends on these stupid card games "You're 20 years old, Jessie. Not 12."
September 21, 2018 3:05PMMom: "Oh,lLeave her be, Ed." - Mother walks into the kitchen space, changing its atmosphere to hospitable. "Good morning, Heike, would you like some tea? You girls want some tea?"
September 21, 2018 3:06PMHeike: "Thank you, Mrs. Murphy, same, please."
September 21, 2018 3:07PMMom: "Just Denise, dear. So, six hundred dollars, huh? And how much of it survived the celebration?"
"I mean, the sponsorship is the real money. And I got new cards. Mom, they spent thousands on these cards. And they're legit. At least near-mint on all of them. It's crazy." She remembers the business card. "These guys."
She pulls it from her wallet
September 21, 2018 3:11PMMom: Mom is making you girls tea with lemon and honey, obligating you to sit down next to Dad, who wants none of it and gets up to leave. Heike sits. Dad intercepts Mom as Jessica pulls the card.
September 21, 2018 3:11PMDad: "Let me see."
September 21, 2018 3:16PMDad: "Huh, odd. I heard of them. Orbital logistics resource data or something like that. I thought they were tied to space programs. Anyway, since you got the rich winnings, make yourself useful and buy some groceries. Start helping out. And don't drink so much. You're 20, it's not good for you. Eat breakfast instead of chugging aspirin. You'll mess up your heart. Already barely standing." He drops the card dismissively back on the table, and walks out towards the garage
September 21, 2018 3:18PMMom: Mother serves you two tea and talks you into proper breakfast, with eggs and bacon
"You should listen, you know" - she says kindly
"Dad really loves you, he just wants to make sure you're okay and don't fall in with the wrong crowd."
She fishes her phone back out and types the name of the company into the search bar. Her dad had to be crazy
September 21, 2018 3:20PMMom: "I know, sweetie." She kisses you on the head. "I know. Anyways, I'll leave you to it."
"Oh, you know, probably some bureaucrats. You know, consulting, powerpoint and spreadsheets. People who make money on stupid people doing nothing. My brother talked about this one project manager at work, who was literally useless, just sat and wrote notes all day long, but the company hired him anyway because he came attached with two programmers who actually did the work. Anyway, who cares, let's go get your mom some groceries, so your dad chills out."
Fast forward to next thursday. If you wanna do something before that, write it here.
thursday!!!!
It's 5 and a half hours by train from Leipzig to Hamburg, and he's got a hotel reserved
"You watching the tournament?"
.jpg)
He smiles responding without a hello to her lack of hello.
"I'm watching the competition."
.jpg)
On the tablet, there is detailed information about every participant, including the card decks they have registered. Every single card they have, and all their history of recorded plays. Full dossiers, as far as you can tell with a quick glance
"You got time to prepare, on the train, and at the hotel overnight."
.jpg)
"I'm thinking blue/black Control."
.jpg)
Presuming your nose is in the tablet, he wraps his arm around you and all but leads you by the hand to the bus stop, then to the train station, hands your tickets and you guys board the train. He orders food and whatever alcohol or beverage you want, and leaves the coupe, unless you stop him for any reason.
He'll converse with you of course, if you bother to look away from the intel you now possess
*kind of
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She'll be polite and thank him and stuff and get down to business. She takes out a notebook and a recuring theme is bell-curve sketches and numbers all over the pare
page
Instead of names labelling the drawings it'll be names of concepts or cards
Pretty abstract without an explicit explanation
"turn 3" "turn 4 combo" and stuff like that. The word combo is always circled or underlined. You know what, I think a stacks deck will actually work better
.jpg)
Hans appears into your field of vision entering the coupe and pointing out that it's evening, and Hamburg is outside the train's window, and we should get some dinner and get to our hotel.
.jpg)
Cube Transport and Data Corps - Arts, Entertainment, & Digital Logistics Senior Executive Assistant
Eidetic memory serves you well
(thanks)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
I understand."
.jpg)
She'll be polite about saying bye though
.jpg)
Do you sleep at all this night?
Jessica goes to sleep rather late, which isn't a problem because the tournament isn't until the evening and that means she isn't going to be tired in the later rounds
Thinking like 4:30 in the morning
Faaaaaast forward to the next day, you get your obligatory spam of friends messages, i.e. those who know. "Good luck in Hamburg" etc. etc. Some group school project partner is bitching that you're gonna be gone so she's gonna have to do the project herself, even though you already handed her your part, anyways.
An hour before the event, the hype is back at the doors outside the pavilion
That galvanized tense nerd atmosphere. Normies don't understand. This is the pound house, this is the wolf den, the hornet nest.
There is a line for the audience, and security line for the participants
Since you can't actually see anything that size from far away
So Jessica checks in and at this point is wearing her cube shirt. Her new cards are double-sleeved to protect them from humidity and from grubby hands since opponents cut the deck.
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"Hey, Jess. Quick update."
"Everything okay?
.jpg)
He sends a file to your phone. if the tablet is with you, the file will be updated too. The kind of information turn around this displays speaks not just about how long this was being collected, but that it's being somehow collected on the fly
"Anyways, gotta go. See you in Munich."
September 21, 2018 4:49PMAiping: Right in front of you
"Look at that! American Bitch! I told you I'll see you here. You think you get lucky twice, Jessica? You think you gonna get lucky twice?"
"I'm not really into Yugioh rivalries"
September 21, 2018 4:52PMAiping: It actually gets through to her, maybe for a second or two. Maybe. It's just... this passion is so ingrained in her personality, she's an antagonizer. But you actually talking back to her, made her nod at you with a bit of respect.
pointing at you and silently mouthing
"I'll see you in the final round, America"
September 21, 2018 4:54PMAiping: Please:
Wits + Composure
Dex + Composure
Intelligence + Resolve
Intelligence + Composure
September 21, 2018 4:54PMAiping: Resolve + Composure
Wits + Manipulation
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++)
7
2
9
4
4
7
5
1 Success
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
8
3
1
5
8
2 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
4
1
3
9
1 Success
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
9
9
5
5
6
3
2 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
7
4
9
2
6
4
1 Success
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
4
8
6
7
10
1
9
3 Successes
You have not lost a single round. It was 2-0.
The cards, they worked simply perfectly. The way you designed it. Just hard enough to give you that tingle and the sweaty palms, but just satisfyingly close, that lands accumulated properly and you were always on point for mana, and the mechanics worked exactly like on paper.
It felt like battle. Like battle solidly won. The bones were just crunchy enough for your strategy to satisfyingly crushed. There were points where your mind went "I really need that card now", and it came. And your opponents cursed as they were just a step behind. Just a step.
Cards she had used were going up in price on tcgplayer this very moment. There might even an article on a website somewhere about her deck. How crazy was that?!
She even texted Hans: Get on the hype train WHOO!
Your single text from Hans pointed to a time and place of the next tournament in Munich, which would take place in two more weeks.
Meanwhile, Heike got so excited for you that she asked if she could travel with you at her own expense, if she could get time off, just to be part of the meme team.
She had a hard time focusing on studies on Monday. By Tuesday seriousness had set in again, but she was still doodling monsters in her notebooks
Over the next few months, you, Heike, and Hans have ravaged the selective tours, winning 4 more local tournaments, solidly cementing Jessica's guaranteed place at the Nationals in Berlin.
Hans became a lot less hands on. He barely pestered you, and only appeared on the day before each game to give you the data on your opponents.
He dressed down to fit in among the nerds and hipsters. Sometimes appearing like this, this, this, and even THIS
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
2
4
5
4
0 Successes
Nothing unusual otherwise, no problems.
Aiping stayed away from you, keeping a place behind you
rolling 10d10>8!
(++++++++++)
6
9
8
5
2
2
6
1
9
10
5
4 Successes
From the 4 tourneys, you have accumulated additional $3600
In 3 days, it was Berlin. The best of Germany would play now from all the various tourney clubs, to represent 3 finalists to go to World.
Family climate has changed.
Parents watched you on TV now.
Dad was still a hard ass when he saw you, just to be sure, but there was a glimpse of respect for your hardheadedness and dedication to your things, even though he didn't understand it.
Watching Tolarian Community College for pointers on Burn
i'm ready
Thursday, your Mom hugs you goodbye and wishes you luck, Dad give you a genuine smile and shakes his head.
September 21, 2018 5:41PMDad: "Go get that 20 grand, kiddo. Finally your gambling pulls some weight."
September 21, 2018 5:46PMDad: "That goes without saying." - ... "I love you, Jessie"
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Berlin. 4 days ago.
Arnold is a confident, aggressive player, who will variate between red green and red blue. Prefers to deal tons of damage directly quick, and won't shy away from big creatures.
Kideo is a humorous troll, white black classic, curses and equipment, zombies and angels, centers his deck around Avacyn and Serin.
Peter is silent and reserved, he often variates his strategies, but has enrolled with black this time, necromancy and sacrificing are his preferred strategies.
Makartipan is a nerdy dweeby kid with a fast mind, he's a deck burner, running blue and white.
Aiping is sticking to Eldrazi, and you know her full well. You two actually have mostly been on okay terms since.
But here's something unusual that never happened since you started working with Hans. For once, he doesn't have any information on a player. Mladen has no dossier in Hans' file.
Assuming he beat Makarti
just doing laundry
and crochet
Berlin's pavilion is the biggest of the german ones you've seen by at least twice. Cameras and screens intensify, as do flags, flare, and fans. It's pretty neat, but you're used to it by now.
You play Arnold. He doesn't like you from the start. He has to put in effort not to be rude, and just keeps that face of superiority.
September 24, 2018 3:23PMArnold: shakes your hand, laughing at you as he does, and you guys begin. He's going with green red. World Breaker, Chandra, Atarka, Sylvan, Endless One, Kosilek's return, these are all in Arnold's arsenal.
You guys begin, he goes first this round
Rolls:
Wits + Composure to remain perceptive to his strategy
Dex + Composure to not fumble your fingers
Intelligence + Resolve to keep your head on the tactical task
September 24, 2018 3:25PMArnold: Wits + Manipulation to keep a good bluff and misdirection
And Resolve + Composure to remain calm and not get psyched out by his own pressure
rolling 7d10>8!
(+++++++)
2
5
10
9
2
4
4
5
2 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(+++++)
1
10
3
7
8
2
2 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
7
2
7
5
0 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
3
7
9
9
6
6
2 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
3
3
1
6
9
1
1 Success
whew, fuck
September 24, 2018 3:27PMArnold: Now Arnold rolls.
September 24, 2018 3:28PMArnold: =
rolling 5d10>8!
(+++++)
5
3
8
8
10
8
4 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
8
4
4
5
1 Success
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++++)
6
6
10
4
5
10
3
2 Successes
rolling 3d10>8!
(+++)
10
4
6
9
2 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
7
5
9
8
2 Successes
September 24, 2018 3:31PMArnold: You remain reasonably calm, you notice him slip a bit on picking up a card, and take advantage of it, you don't fumble, and his pressuring attitude doesn't really get to you. But he doesn't buy your bluff, and you just can't get a head around right away to how to formulate and apply a winning tactics. It's really close, but he takes the first round.
His land generation is fluid, and he slams down Atarka and World Breaker just in time and just a step before you can unroll. A step ahead of each planned manuever.
He doesn't bother with either insults or comments. Just goes "Pfheh!" It's somehow more insulting, because he's sipping soda out of a giant cup, and it makes it more annoying. SLLUUURRRRP.
September 24, 2018 3:34PMArnold: Round 2
Same rolls. You go first this time.
Wits + Comp
Dex + Comp
Int + Res
Wits + Man
September 24, 2018 3:35PMArnold: Res + Comp
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++)
1
3
3
9
5
2
1
1 Success
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
6
9
3
2
9
2 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
4
7
4
9
1 Success
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
1
9
2
9
10
9
5
4 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
7
3
10
2
3
6
3
1 Success
September 24, 2018 3:37PMArnold: And Arnold
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
9
9
6
2
3
2 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
6
4
7
2
0 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(+++++)
7
5
2
10
4
9
2 Successes
rolling 3d10>8!
(++)
6
2
1
0 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
4
7
6
2
0 Successes
September 24, 2018 3:40PMArnold: He's as perceptive and intelligent with his deck as he was, but luck is more even now, and you've grown accustomed to his pressure and his style, you don't let it phase you. Finally, when he drops a card from his hand, and is forced to play it, it in turn unnerves him, and your calm tips over. He starts getting nervous, snorting and breathing heavily, getting red, drinking, scratching, sweating, and all in vain. You pretty much have it in a bag this round.
Final around. He goes first.
Same rolls.
Dex + Comp
Int + Res
Wits + Man
Res + Comp
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++)
3
4
9
1
2
9
3
2 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
4
7
2
7
4
0 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
4
2
2
5
0 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++++++)
9
10
5
8
8
3
10
10
10
8
8 Successes
holy shit
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
5
3
1
1
10
7
5
1 Success
September 24, 2018 3:46PMArnold: Arnold:
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++++)
5
10
3
4
9
10
5
3 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(++++)
10
7
7
4
5
1 Success
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
3
2
3
8
5
1 Success
rolling 3d10>8!
(+++++)
7
10
10
10
8
7
4 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
8
9
7
1
2 Successes
September 24, 2018 3:47PMArnold: Aaaaaaaand
.jpg)
rolling 12d10>8!
(+++++++++++)
5
4
8
1
1
3
2
4
4
4
9
1
2 Successes
rolling 8d10>8!
(+++++++)
5
6
9
9
6
9
2
3
3 Successes
He mutters under his breath "Americans".
Something about playing him is just exhausting your mental capacity, something appalling and gross, and after all these months.... your fingers slip and you do it. You realize you did it, half a second after it happened. You overdrew. Again. A blink of an eye too late, you realized it. Your peripheral vision saw a clear 8 card profile of your hand.... and then suddenly, you didn't.
Wait no, you were sure you overdrew, but there are seven cards in your hand and everything is fine. The fuck?
Arnold didn't see it, nobody did. Could you have been mistaken? Okay.... Moving on...
You do your very best at a misdirection gambit, having him blow his big damage on a decoy card, delivering your true intended combination. And just before he recovers and gets within but one spell away from checking you out, he has the absolute worst luck, drawing nothing but lands, while you get a perfect shot.
September 24, 2018 3:59PMArnold: Now he lets himself go
"God damnit!!!!" He curses profusely in german, slamming the table with his puffy fists.
Then he takes many breaths to calm down, too many to be polite. Stands up. Calmly, bows his head, ungenuinely, and shakes your hand. Ungenuinely.
"Good game." he says. Ungenuinely.
September 24, 2018 4:06PMArnold: You got just under 10 minutes, and then there will be a 20 minute break for the next opponent.
"Congratulations." - Arnold responds, and bitterly takes his massive drink.
Kideo loses to Peter and starts frantically yelling in japanese on the phone
September 24, 2018 4:10PMKideo: He gets surrounded by his fanclub and yelling ensues in the japanese corner of the place.
September 24, 2018 4:11PMPeter: Peter looks intense, like he's trying to keep his zen, having endured similar bullshit you have, playing an intense high energy emotional player. He's just trying to shake it off and focus, it seems, though something appears to bug him.
He gives you a sideways look, watches you for a while, then shifts his eyes to Mladen.
September 24, 2018 4:13PMMladen: Looks at Peter, and then at you, with the same look he is having on the avatar, that intense analysis. He lights a cigarette, having bested the indian kid
September 24, 2018 4:13PMMakartipan: Makartipan straight up cries and disappears through the doors. Was anyone even with him here?
September 24, 2018 4:14PMAiping: Aiping decides to antagonize Mladen next, since she's never played him, and it's time to pick on him and see what he's made of. She's being challenging and trying to psyche him out.
I watch the exchange between Aiping and Mladen and then see if she wants to eat with me and Heike real quick
September 24, 2018 4:16PMAiping: You tune in on the interaction
"Oh heeey big man. Big man, cool, cigarette smoking, huh? What's your name? Mladen? Mladen from Cro-a-ti-a! How your game go? Beat the little kid. Boo hoo, little kid, little indian kid, boo hoo. I'm gonna make you go boo hoo next."
September 24, 2018 4:19PMMladen: Mladen ignores her at first, then simply turns, arches an eyebrow, says something quietly to her, and exhales smoke into her face.
September 24, 2018 4:21PMAiping: Aiping coughs, flips Mladen off, turns, makes a few steps in your direction, spots you, and grins
"Whaaaazzup America Jessicaaa? You beat the Wiener-schnitzel boy? Ate him up, nom nom? Ate him up? I ate my bitch too. It's you and I baby, to the finals, you little biiiiitch"
But this time she says that last part playfully, without mean spirit. And she doesn't hit you.
"Ya ya, let's go eat! I get hungry after killing! And before killing I'm hungry! I'm always hungry!"
September 24, 2018 4:22PMHeike: already has a plan of attack, a nice restaurant that can seat us
Heike did all kinds of research before you guys left for Berlin, and she'll take you both there
September 24, 2018 4:29PMHeike: "So I met this guy, right? Comes up to me, like, hey where are you from? And I was like, Germany? Oh, yes, coffee for me too please. So yeah, he's like, you look sort of foreign. Like, what is it supposed to be a pick up line? Real pantie dropper, lol"
September 24, 2018 4:29PMAiping: "Green tea!"
September 24, 2018 4:36PMAiping: "Aaaaaay, guys are idiots! I tell you, idiots! Dude, idiots at magic, idiots at life. I spin a tripple oblivion stone, slam down relic of progenitus, and worldbreaker and boom, he starts talking shit. Thinks he's gonna pull arts on me! Later on comes up be like all... oh, I waaaant kasespatzle! (egg pasta)
She keeps rambling on hyperly about MtG shit Heike barely understands, unless you're gonna bring up something else
"It was like a flashback."
September 24, 2018 4:40PMAiping: "Why? You overdraw before?"
September 24, 2018 4:41PMAiping: "Hoooo. Stupid nooooob. Noob noob. Don't overdraw when I play you. It's you or me to World, Jessica. I play you so much now, if you get disqualify, I maaaad! If you disqualify, I don't get to win and beat you, ahahaha!"
September 24, 2018 4:42PMHeike: "Well, you'll win technically then"
September 24, 2018 4:42PMAiping: "Nooo no. Does not count. Jessica knows what I'm talkin' about"
September 24, 2018 4:45PMAiping: "Ya, it's like a moron's win. Is like you eating a looooot of noodles, and then you throw up! Technically you ate, but don't feel full! It's like getting up for gooood fucking, then realize boy came already! Technically, you had sex, but really you didn't. Blue balls for a good win!"
September 24, 2018 4:46PMHeike: "Yeah, yeah, I get it, Aiping!!! I was just pointing it out."
September 24, 2018 4:47PMAiping: "Well you stupid then to point it out!"
September 24, 2018 4:48PMHeike: : "Not at all. Look. It may be a technicality in the rules, but it's not a technicality. Overdrawing, or not overdrawing is part of the game. Your fingers are part of the skill here. Otherwise you could say, well, I know how to play football, I just failed to kick the ball, sue me, I lost to a technicality. In my opinion, having the dexterity to handle your cards is just as important as building your deck. Nothing is a technicality. An outsider's observation, is all."
September 24, 2018 4:49PMAiping: looks to Jessica
"I seeeee why you liiike her. She's a pain in the ass!"
September 24, 2018 4:50PMAiping: "I'm sorry I didn't get to play the japanese dude."
September 24, 2018 4:52PMAiping: "An old asian rivalry. Played him before in Munich. Just mad he got randomly put into your half. He may have beaten Peter, but he had no chance against you. I wouldn't have gotten to play him, unless he was put in my half."
September 24, 2018 4:55PMAiping: "Eeeh, he's okay! As far as assholes go. Likes to undermine and remove. He's funny little bitch."
"Hey. If you beat Peter, do you want to just surrender to me? I really need a seat at World Championship, I need the money for my dying mother."
September 24, 2018 4:55PMHeike: stops chewing and swallows hard
"Nah. You wouldn't want to win that way. If your mom really is dying I might share the winnings though."
September 24, 2018 5:03PMAiping: punches you lightly "I'm fuuuucking with you, noob! I don't have a mother! What I do have? Is my biiig ass cock that I will put on the front panel of my convertible that I will buy with the money! That's right! 150 grand, I buy a big ass convertible and drive it in Malibu!"
September 24, 2018 5:04PMAiping: "Insurance can kiss my ass!"
let's go!
September 24, 2018 5:05PMPeter: Back at the tourney, Peter is already in the chair, his head in his hands, he's just looking down seriously and being calm. He seems a pleasant fellow. He looks up as you approach.
September 24, 2018 5:06PMPeter: "Hi, I'm well, thank you. Jessica, right? We've not met. I'm Peter."
Peter has a thick swedish accent
September 24, 2018 5:07PMPeter: "Oh. These things are over before you know it. Would you like to go slow? I don't mind."
Peter is large and athletic, broad shouldered. This guy should be a firefighter or a construction worker. Why is he playing MtG with nerds?
September 24, 2018 5:09PMPeter: (exactly!)
"First, draw, or roll for it?"
September 24, 2018 5:10PMPeter: "Whatever works for you?"
September 24, 2018 5:11PMPeter: He nods "Sounds good. Are you ready?"
September 24, 2018 5:12PMPeter: he offers a handshake
September 24, 2018 5:12PMPeter: "Good luck"
Dex + Comp
Int + Res
Wits + Man
Res + Comp
September 24, 2018 5:14PMPeter: As Peter plays very calmly and friendly, he is not trying to psyche you out at all
Dex + Comp and Int + Res are enough if you just want to play in good spirits without manipulation and tricks. If you want to try to take a psychological advantage of him and try to stress him out, and enter a battle of wills, roll all 5
Peter will actually occasionally talk to you, briefly, like
"Where did you go for lunch?"
or
"How long you been playing?"
September 24, 2018 5:17PMPeter: - just during the non stressful opening of the round
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
7
8
1
2
7
1 Success
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
8
7
3
6
1 Success
XD
"French place."
"Since highschool."
September 24, 2018 5:19PMPeter: "Nice. I had curry."
"Me too, middle school even. My brother taught me."
5d10>8!
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
9
8
5
3
2
2 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
4
1
3
7
1
0 Successes
September 24, 2018 5:21PMPeter: (no its crit fails she is right)
(1s and no successes)
It is a solid win for Jessica, and she takes the round. Peter is calm. Just his eyebrows maybe tense in a concerned fashion, like he's confused or humbled by a heavy burden, a puzzle. But there is no salt. He smiles, and quietly exhales: "Good round."
He is ready to move on to the second round and a fresh start. A welcome relief after playing someone like Arnold, and after playing Kideo, Peter seems to feel much the same.
Your turn, he draws.
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
6
5
6
3
7
0 Successes
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
4
9
5
1
1 Success
September 24, 2018 5:26PMPeter: =
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
4
3
5
8
8
2 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
8
7
8
4
3
2 Successes
Peter locks eyes with you and smiles, as the formula lines up in his head. He knew he had the win a turn before he got it. But it was close, hella close.
"That was close."
September 24, 2018 5:30PMPeter: "Final round. You want to draw?"
September 24, 2018 5:30PMPeter: Nods
He keeps his eyes on the table
He's absolutely calm. No sweat, no twitching, like he doesn't even care to win, as if it were a game in a garage with his buddies
rolling 5d10>8!
(+++++)
10
7
4
5
5
6
1 Success
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
7
8
7
2
1 Success
September 24, 2018 5:32PMPeter: =
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
7
8
1
6
7
1 Success
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
4
8
1
2
5
1 Success
He gives the cards the glance of a stubborn bull and sighs, thinking
another round of rolls
September 24, 2018 5:34PMPeter: yes you can
A +3
rolling 8d10>8!
(+++++++)
1
3
3
3
2
3
7
9
1 Success
rolling 7d10>8!
(+++++++)
2
2
7
7
7
5
10
1
1 Success
fuuuuck
September 24, 2018 5:35PMPeter: Peter senses your focus, and responds in kind, by spending his willpower point
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++++)
10
2
9
4
10
4
8
4 Successes
rolling 8d10>8!
(+++++++)
3
5
9
3
4
8
7
7
2 Successes
.jpg)
rolling 12d10>8!
(++++++++++++++)
9
1
10
6
7
10
4
10
5
5
7
6
3
7
9
5 Successes
rolling 8d10>8!
(++++++++)
1
4
6
3
7
10
4
8
3
2 Successes
.jpg)
"Good game. Congratulations."
September 24, 2018 5:43PMPeter: "You.... too.... that deck... is.... phenomenn..."
Peter's comment gets drowned out in a loud scream.
"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!"
((time for my sword class! okay, so ONE more session, i promise, it will be the final one!))
((maybe))
((Nobody has even been murdered yet.))
or even if he is doing anything
((i been working on this prelude for a month))
The finalists are displayed on the board, it is Jessica vs Mladen. Aiping lost, and is cussing him out so hard that security had to calm her and ask her to step off the stage.
((You saw the text above?))
Crowd's animated, getting kinda rowdy, security has to step in. There are fireworks outside. There's a crowd outside too.
since I have a minute
I don't want her banned from tourneys
September 25, 2018 12:45PMAiping: "Fuck you!! I'm okay, I'm okay. Let go. That piece of shit, FUCK YOU!"
September 25, 2018 12:45PMSecurity: "Take it easy, take a breath outside"
resolve + composure?
September 25, 2018 12:48PMAiping: that's to calm yourself down. Let's see. You want Wits + Manipulation if you're being covert about it or Wits + Presence if you're just going to try to overwhelm her with your support and have her focus on you
"Aiping, I don't want you to get banned or something. Why don't you grab a coke or something and we can harass him on Twitter later?"
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
7
3
7
6
0 Successes
(shit)
September 25, 2018 12:54PMAiping: Aiping sees you, and gets even madder.
"Jessica! No! Fuck him up! I want him dead now, America! That bitch! He's got all five colors, Bolas, Primordial Hydra, Skithirix, Thassa, Purphoros, Maze of ith, Kiora, Time Walk, Mana Drain, Sol Ring, Ancestral Recall, oh and fucking Tamiyo, how does he even draw all that shit and play it! He got at least 8 plainwalkers! I don't know how you gonna do it! I can't do it, I don't know how you will do it. Do it if you can, do it!"
September 25, 2018 1:00PMSecurity: The security guy keeps Aiping at bay, nodding to your wise choice to return to the game and prepare for the final. Aiping tries to throw something at the Security Guy, but they just block her way and don't let her in til she's calm. Heike waves to you from the stands front row. Good luck!
September 25, 2018 1:02PMHeike: "Gooood luuuuck, Jeeeeess!!!" - she tries to shout over the crowd. "Gooooo Jeeeessica!!"
: "Woooooooooo!!!!!"
"This is it."
September 25, 2018 1:15PMMladen: The crowd settles. Except for Makartipan and Aiping, the other players are also watching the game, they are in their reserved seats in front row. Peter especially, actually stands up in his seat and watches Mladen like a hawk with a look of calm heavy concern. Mladen, in his jeans jacket, knit beret, is handsome in a ruffian unshaved sort of way. He has no.... outward personality. You haven't heard him say a word so far. His gaze is obfuscated by the smoke from his lit cigarette. When the he sucks it all in to a crisp finish, he puts it out in the ashtray, and then finally sits down, and raises his eyes up at you. And you see his EYES
(or they're just pretty?)
September 25, 2018 1:19PMMladen: They are.... roll Resolve + Composure
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++++)
10
10
2
10
5
9
8
8
3
6 Successes
(YESSS)
(FUCK YOU MLADEN)
(I'M PRETTIER THAN YOU)
September 25, 2018 1:23PMMladen: wow
You find his eyes intense and captivating, he's staring deep inside your soul. Except your soul is very strong and is shielded by remarkable will and ability to compose yourself. If anything, he looks highly intellectual. Another broken stereotype. In his get up, he looks more of a street bard.
You perceive what he's looking at. He's not examining you per se, but something about you. That look when you have green hair, or something on your hood, or a person doing bunny ears behind you. He finds something unusual about you.
He says nothing of it, you just read it from his gaze. His eyes make micro movements around your face, taking in your details. He's serious, he's looking through you, maybe that feeling when you'd doing a job interview, and the evaluator doesn't notice you, the person, but rather, your attire, or your resume, and make intense contact with it.
September 25, 2018 1:34PMMladen: ((Please roll wits+composure))
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++++++)
10
8
10
3
10
6
3
3
10
2
4
5 Successes
September 25, 2018 1:35PMMladen: Mladen gives an upward chin nod at you and drops a single word
"Play"
(do i roll the normal rolls?)
September 25, 2018 1:42PMMladen: (you did everything great, i'm reading up on some rules, one minute pls)
(okay!)
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
9
8
6
5
9
4
3 Successes
rolling 13d10>8!>9
(++++++++++++++)
6
7
4
7
1
3
10
6
5
3
8
9
7
7
4
3 Successes
He plays a land, legendary land, Shinka
, immediately to follow up, he plays the Firedrinker Satyr
Wits + Composure
Dex + Composure
Intelligence + Resolve
Intelligence + Composure
Resolve + Composure
(we did wits + composure already, so dex + composure and Int + resolve next?)
(using a slightly altered Blue-White Miracles deck so I can remember what I'm doing.)
September 25, 2018 2:11PMMladen: ((that's perfectly fine, just narrate what you're putting down))
Island. Black lotus. sacrifice black lotus and play temporal mastery. One floating mana. Sol ring. Tap soul ring and island to play azorius signet
September 25, 2018 2:14PMMladen: Mladen watches your deck, the one you draw from. He slaps another land on the table, Gaea's Cradle. The card's corner slaps on the table, and the sound of the slap is so crisp, it's almost like a slap to your forehead, you almost feel it. He looks at you with a frown, and says scornfully:
"Stop it."
September 25, 2018 2:15PMMladen: (sorry, yeah go for it)
(he does the above when it's his turn)
September 25, 2018 2:15PMMladen: (wanna keep a pristine log of the game, but havent found a delete post button)
(assume you have played a second turn)
(lay it out)
"In response," she says, before Gaea's Cradle can resolve, she taps her Plains, Azorius Signet, and Island and plays Dissipate, countering the spell and sending it to Exile instead of the graveyard
September 25, 2018 2:22PMMladen: Looks at her and at her deck
"I said stop it. Cut it out. I know what you're doing."
September 25, 2018 2:23PMMladen: =
rolling 8d10>8!>9
(+++++++)
8
7
7
5
7
6
2
8
2 Successes
((roll Resolve please))
September 25, 2018 2:24PMMladen: ((just resolve))
rolling 2d10>8!
(+)
4
5
0 Successes
1. Mladen lays a black lotus, plays temporal mastery, and has another card in hand, but he uses it to point at you and articulate his conversation.
2. Peter opens his mouth to say something and gets ready to move towards the table to Mladen.
4. The cards in your hand - something happens to them. If you were to best describe it, there are overlaying transparent "ghost" images of cards cycling through the faces of cards you are holding, several dozen times per second. This effect persists for a blink at a time, like a rewind and fast forward, something is changing your cards with an overlay ghost form, and then putting them back into their "real" versions.
5. An overwhelming sense of vertigo comes onto you and punches you like a train into the solar plexus, it becomes hard to breathe, your eyes start drooping, and you feel sleepy.
September 25, 2018 2:31PMMladen: "Exactly. What are you doing?"
September 25, 2018 2:31PMPeter: "No no, wrong one, Mladen!"
.jpg)
rolling 12d10>8!
(++++++++++++)
1
2
8
4
9
2
2
9
1
1
10
4
3
4 Successes
September 25, 2018 2:32PMMladen: =
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
2
9
5
8
5
2 Successes
September 25, 2018 2:32PMPeter: =
rolling 7d10>8!
(+++++++++)
10
1
1
5
10
7
2
2
10
4
3 Successes
.jpg)
rolling 16d10>8!
(+++++++++++++++)
5
5
3
3
6
9
7
1
8
7
7
7
1
9
6
7
3 Successes
.jpg)
"It's okay, keep playing."
You feel better. You can breathe. The pressure in your temples feels like you're in a diving submarine, or an unpressurized plane, but it's better than it was a moment ago.
(did he still play temporal mastery cause if he did it's his turn, if something real fucky happened it might be Jess'?)
September 25, 2018 2:37PMMladen: (yeah he has a card in his hand too, Sol Ring like hers, and it will be his turn)
Mladen looks to Peter, then... another twitch. His entire image moves but by a mere fraction of an inch. "Really now? You gonna play dumb? Fine, I can do that too."
His image twitches again.
He plays a sol ring, then another turn full of lands, and then.... what happens then is kind of hard for Jessica to comprehend, unless she makes a stamina roll
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
7
6
5
3
0 Successes
(nope lol)
(mladen is a hologram)
September 25, 2018 2:47PMMladen: So... this is the best of what Jessica could witness:
Mladen is trying to place a card onto the table full of legendary cards.... the cards in Jessica's hands and in his hands seem to shift to, like, ghost versions of all possible hands, including cards not even in your decks... he also twitches unevenly, his chair seems to shift like "frames" are cut out of "reality", he grits his teeth, and grunts: "Put down the cards and go home, little girl."
The ghost flashes of cards become unplayable, as the cards start ACTUALLY shifting in your hand with the speed of several hundred per second. They cut your hand with the edges, so you had to let go.
Mladen's hand explodes, both your decks fly up scattered all around the table, and the last thing you hear is Hans yelling "Corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse!"
Just before you puke and the world fades to black.
"Wait, she's a sleeper?"
"The fuck she is."
"Did you see that?"
Gunshots. An explosion. You feel lifted off the ground.
You feel like you could open your eyes
(I feel like it would be reflexive to try if i'm being lifted up. what's my roll?)
rolling 2d10>8!
(+)
3
6
0 Successes
Some Time Later
Roll perception. Wits + Composure at -2
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++++)
5
8
3
10
10
2
9
4 Successes
(I LIVE!)
Third man adjusts your IV and looks at you.
"I think she's awake."
Fourth man sits on the side of your bunk to feel your pulse.
"What do you remember?"
The man has a badge, Adrian Kunst, of Nurrenplasse Hospital, registered immediate response nurse, etc etc
*if the guns are real
September 25, 2018 3:01PMKunst: "Where is Hans?"
*dream
General confusion and trying to get a sense of place
September 25, 2018 3:09PMKunst: : "Fraulein Murphey, everything's going to be okay, we just want to let you know that. There was a terrorist attack at the game pavilion, an explosion went off, and psychotropic gas was deployed, the effects of which you may have suffered. You have nothing to worry about."
September 25, 2018 3:13PMKunst: "Right now, Police is looking for Hans Ehnske for suspected connection to the attack. Last he was seen with you."
September 25, 2018 3:15PMKunst: "Did you experience anything out of the ordinary? We must evaluate the long term effects of the chemicals you were exposed to."
They're unlikely to leave fingerprints....
September 25, 2018 3:25PMKunst: looks to the man in the shotgun seat, and then to the guns. There is a tarp on the floor that was covering the guns, but it probably fell off during acceleration. Realizing they messed up, Kunst nods to the IV doctor, and the IV doctor injects the syringe into your IV, which makes it to your vein in about... well... a few seconds
not vein
based on your approach. forcing them stretched or wiggling out
rolling 3d10>8!
(+++)
10
1
6
4
1 Success
they want something from cube
rolling 3d10>8!
(++++)
10
10
4
4
1
2 Successes
YES
AMERICA
you been waiting for this XD
You rip out the cord from your arm just as the liquid reaches. You have the surprise round.
rolling 5d10>8!
(+++++)
10
2
2
3
4
9
2 Successes
So like, I wanna like, land on the guns kind of, so we're not just both grabbing them
I wanna roll over with one and have the rest under me
like fuck y'all
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
6
5
6
2
10
3
6
1 Success
Guy 2
rolling 5d10>8!
(+++++)
10
9
5
9
1
8
4 Successes
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
3
6
8
4
9
2 Successes
Ok you have the surprise round anyhow, cause they didn't see you wiggle out. You are armed with a cord.
You are going to move towards the guns and get on top of them
rolling 1d10>8!
()
9
1 Success
YES
literally
Okay so my next move is to point one of the guns at them and tell them to stop the ambulance
Now, we go in initiative order, and the guy who injected the IV goes first.
Everything stops.
As does Kunst, with a cord in his hand. Mid motion.
As does the traffic outside the van.
In fact, outside, doesn't look much like Berlin anymore.
You - are the only thing in the van that seems to be able to move.
You can try it.
wasn't sure how far along we got in that sequence
It's heavy.
Do you touch the bullet, brush it out of the way, or go around it?
Outside the windows of the ambulance is.... approximately.... this:
Very approximately
As far as the eye can see.
Blue mist covers the particular area, and the car has sunk into the water
Covering my nose with my shirt even though that's almost like not doing anything
There is water all around, it's marshy, with patches of fern covered ground spread everywhere you look
The plants the likes of which you have never seen before. Giant thistles, giant pions, and gladiolas the size of a car.
Giant mushrooms.
Do you exit the ambulance or TENTATIVELY exit it?
and what do you mean by tentatively?
Smelling the air was first step, second step is checking whether the water is an unreasonable distance between me and solid grounf
I don't want to just jump in the water
I picture kind of standing on the back loading bumper while I try to figure out what to do
If the water is anything more than a short hop, I want to test it before I do anything 'cause i'm not athletic at all
Around the shoulder is a big red glowing flower. It hums when you touch it.
Or it could have been the slightly smaller one, purple one beside it, it also hums when you touch it, a different tune
and they don't seem to care whatsoever
but they are really curious about the contents of the van...
as far as all your human senses goes, you are firing on all cylinders and this is unequivocally unambiguously real
Great strategy. Roll survival
rolling 1d10>8!
(+)
10
7
1 Success
The creatures are now consuming the flesh of the gun medics in the van... starting with hair, nails, lips.... they're plucking bits of skin out, and trying them on. Less humanoid creatures just devour them, the fairies try stuff on like decorations. Then they start playing around, covering everything in the van in glimmering dust
The van sinks a little more.
OMFG Time to go. She took small quick steps up the path, trying to make as little noise as possible and be simultaneously quick and careful
The man who shot you is already missing all of his clothes and most of his fingers
I don't know how to fight fairies even if I wanted to
Obviously my cube shirt
Sneakers and jeans
A hoodie if one was provided but I wouldn't cover up my sponsor shirt unless it was with another sponsor item
I am carrying the gun in both hands since it's probably too heavy for one, unless it has a strap, in which case it's hanging from my shoulder
Yeah, your jeans are wet knee down, and your sneakers and socks are full of water
out of the water
is it a sensation of something grabbing me or like sinking
or sucking
of course, with the sky being this mystical overcast blue, it's hard to tell
and the rich vegetation seems to hide a critter behind every flower
trunks of trees are few and far between, but the branches, the cover... is very wide, covering a good bit of the sky
like boas or albizias, but on crack
something on land
Not in this region.
But it's certainly alive. It hums.
Fuck it, nothing makes sense here anyway
September 25, 2018 5:10PMHumming Tree: Oooooooooommmmmmmm
glance back
The tree hums the melody back to you
But THEN
it continues the melody
just to make sure we're not full of shit here
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
7
3
4
7
4
6
0 Successes
daaaaaamn
giggling intensifies
now there are two little buzzing fairies
now there's three, four... and a few insects
Jessica is getting a little bit scared. And the more scared she is, the more interested in her the flying creatures get. One of them bites her ear, a little taste.
Just a taste, is all
she bolts
The Tree Hums the song as you leave it
running uphill. If the fairies close in i'm trying the gun on them
they giggle and egg each other on
around each fairie, a few dragonflies buzz around.
like their pets. whatever fairies touch, insects allow themselves to also have a taste of
at least that's how they treated the doctors
"doctors"
in quotes
I'm gonna try shooting one
and scatter
I've generally been trying to be quiet but I really want to scream out at the forest wtf IS THIS PLACE?
but it just comes out as an exhale 'cause i'm not attracting the fairy lions with noise
Are there anymore humming trees?
There are like, a visual infinity of humming trees
*at
it's a big hill, you've a ways to go up
*trees
nearest tree
yes
Surface emotion as you sing?
how many can i get humming?
somewhere between calm and ready for stuff to go wrong
or rather to react to stuff to go wrong.
like there's nothing scary currently in front of me you know?
when hakuna matata runs out i switch to i wanna be a mighty king
uphill
They get a little rowdy, as they take turns putting on a crown made of dust and subsequently killing each other, as new fairies fly in from around
so new song
If you step on water, it doesn't suck on your feet anymore
Be Our Guest
that one's friendly
Resolve + Composure, it's been some time.
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
8
10
7
8
1
2
2
3 Successes
i mean atmosphere is much better now
:)
And you can make plenty of conjecture on your own
But...
As you sing your new song, things start happening. The trees and bushes hum along, ferns line themselves just before you step, to make it less watery, an actual path forms, as fairies start plucking leaves and grass from the nearby flora and dropping it in front of you, even lining it with some purples and reds, making an improvised carpet for you to follow.
blink blink blink blink blinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblinkblink
They chirp and communicate to one another in a language you do not understand
They dart around frantically and bolt in a slightly changed direction, still uphill, but more to the left, about 45 degrees.
Were you walking when you asked the question?
well i start singing i can go the distance
and i follow the fairies
plants included
and the trees, and flowers - all hum along
trees can take deeper octaves than flowers
roll stamina please
rolling 4d10>8!
(++++)
9
8
10
1
7
3 Successes
yesss
this is not a "hill"
no villain songs or anything that might incite violence
They light the path around you with shining dust
You have left the blue fog below you, and the aura is now more green / yellow, from the light of your fan crowd
does it hurt to touch it?
Sinks into you.
Hope you're happy :)
I hop a little bit. I wanna see if I can fly
Your hopping improves dramatically.
Where were you going exactly?
This water is so clear, it's not even swampy anymore. Wouldn't you rather take a nice bath?
rolling 2d10>8!
(+)
3
8
1 Success
omg
you little
piece
of shit
You remember who you are, and grow back. Your hopping returns to normal, and you expulse the dust completely painlessly through your pores.
they start bowing to you
And they all together make a sharp 90 degrees turn into some deeper woods
i got nowhere else to be
let's go
The land critters also kind of skitter around and lay low
This oak's hum feels.... ancient, masculine, quizzical, and .... it's on the tip of your tongue.... what would you call it....
You could say that it has.... history. That's it. It's historical. Essential. Solid. Firm.
It has something that the fairies do not.
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
6
7
6
5
0 Successes
damn
they obviously have something to them, maybe not thought but i can try
"I'm trying to get to the Corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse."
get me your intelligence + academics + 2 for eidetic memory
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
3
2
2
8
1
1
1 Success
wow
Your fairy legion circles around frantically, they fly about your vicinity, making a maelstrom around your head, they chirp, arguing with each other
like aggressive or just like
kids arguing
they're not violent
but they're losing the galvanization you gave them
"Thank you for your hospitality and assistance."
I'm gonna go in
oh dude, singing Be a Man
the cavern is a nice wide and tall space, you can stand straight, it goes up and down, up and down, shrinks to a crawl at some points, but eventually widens again. The flute becomes more prominent, closer, while the humming of the oak retreats to the background and up up up above somewhere
(i dunno how permanent that explosion thing was)
I'm going towards the glow
There is actually a fireplace, lit, and a door next to it. By the door, on a decorative carpet - sits the flutist.
A red furred satyr. Just like on Mladen's card.
September 25, 2018 7:34PMSatyr: Noticing you, the Satyr puts down the flute.
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
7
7
8
1
1 Success
So the facial expression is curious, his tongue is out, his eyes blink more like goat eyes do, with eyelids meeting in the middle, which is freaky. The "face" is a little hard to read, because, you know, goat person creature. But... you do recall some stuff from school, that Satyrs are curious, mischievous, merry, tricky, relatively non malevolent, unless demonized or antagonized, hedonistic, and extremely lustful, so it's perfectly normal for them to be sporting a giant erection. Just like this Satyr is currently doing, a massive 12 inch cock sticking right up.
In greek mythology they were in fact masculine, and were considered woodland gods.
September 25, 2018 7:41PMSatyr: motions with an open palm to the food covered table, inviting you to eat
"Hoot-Hoot."
Jessica swallows and tries really hard not to look at the massive dick. "Good evening sir. Thank you for your generous offer. I came here by way of the old tree. I asked him for safe passage to the Corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse. Someone is waiting for me and I don't want to be rude. Do you happen to know the way?"
September 25, 2018 7:48PMSatyr: nods enthusiastically.
points to you, and to himself, and then to the door
September 25, 2018 7:50PMSatyr: he nods, and approaches, pointing to Jessica's lips, and to his own lips, puckers up, and opens hands for a hug
September 25, 2018 8:01PMSatyr: points at you, points to his lips, and to himself, and to the door, he smiles, and cowers a bit, puckers up, and opens for a hug
your compliment impresses him, he stomps the ground a bit, brushes his mane, preens his leg fur
September 25, 2018 8:09PMSatyr: motions to the food, offering you to take some and rest, he pats the carpet by the fireplace, and motions to the flute and to himself.
: "Hoooot. Hooooot. Hoooot" - his tone is gentle, loving, welcoming.
September 25, 2018 8:12PMSatyr: looks at you, scratches his head, and nods. Then opens his palm
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
1
2
6
6
3
0 Successes
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
September 25, 2018 8:15PMSatyr: looks at you and insistently motions an open palm towards you
I'mma see where he leads me
((i tried to survive as long as i could and hide))
((i was sure we'd make it, but what was i thinking?!))
((be back in a bit))
September 25, 2018 8:34PMSatyr: takes your hand, leads you over to the table, and puts your hand on his chest
He offers you food, and then points to the door, then to you, then to himself, then back to you.
"Hoot Hoot Hoot!" - enthusiastic
September 25, 2018 8:41PMSatyr: he takes your hand with his right hand, and rubs it on his manly-goatly furry chest; his other hand, he motions to the door, and then distinctly to the flute, to the food, or to his lips
September 25, 2018 8:55PMSatyr: : "Hoot hoot!" - excitedly, the creature puts your hand on the cup of red wine (two cups are already poured), and points for you to sit
Jessica: She pets his chest. "So I pet you and then we leave...I don't get the other parts."
Satyr: : "Hoot hoot!" - excitedly, the creature puts your hand on the cup of red wine (two cups are already poured), and points for you to sit
September 25, 2018 8:57PMSatyr: waves that away and nods many times, pointing to the door, then urges you to bring the cup to your lips, then he walks over to pick up the flute, and sits beside you, smiling, petting your hair a few times, and starting to play a merry tune
3?
that's.... a perfect specialty XD
for this very thing
rolling 8d10>8!
(++++++++)
9
1
4
7
1
10
5
2
7
2 Successes
The creature plays some really exquisite music. He is skilled and clearly ancient, this melody is from another... world... haha.
September 25, 2018 9:02PMSatyr: is happy, he looks at you, reveling in your company
September 25, 2018 9:06PMSatyr: finishes the melody and hands her the flute
September 25, 2018 9:07PMSatyr: nods and claps his hands, putting the flute down on the table, and bringing a quill and some ... is that real parchment? Yes it is.*
September 25, 2018 9:08PMSatyr: he appears to have no ink anywhere around the table... he looks into the chest in the corner of the cavern, not finding it... he points at your bandaged hand
September 25, 2018 9:10PMSatyr: nods, and points to the parchment, then to himself, then strikes a pose. "Hoot hoot!"
September 25, 2018 9:12PMSatyr: 's pose is truly heroic, especially the giant phallus. He totally lets you do all the dirty work. There is no ash shovel. There are some rocks though that might do.
Jessica draws the Satyr and adds faeries doing degenerate things to him and seeming to enjoy it
September 25, 2018 9:20PMSatyr: "Hooot! Hooot! Hooot! Hooot!"
Like, from 0 being stick figure to 10 being a well lined and shadowed pro charcoal drawing
like Deviant art tier
I don't think she usually uses charcoal
If you can draw you can draw
plebs take forever
Dex + Expression to draw him well
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
4
1
3
8
1 Success
okay so maybe closer to 5
still
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
4
9
7
2
10
9
7
3 Successes
Horns are so huge
You can opt to spend more time on it to get it better. Up to you how much you want to work on it.
September 25, 2018 9:27PMSatyr: is smiling wide, nodding, trying to not break the pose. Mid-way as you draw the fairies, he just starts jerking off.
Jessica will stall finishing while he jerks off
I don't wanna try to have a conversation with a goat man while he's wanking
September 25, 2018 9:30PMSatyr: "Hoot hoot!" with all the predictable circumstances that fly all over the place. The Satyr turns from red to blue, the color of the deck you were using.
"Um, will you take me to the Corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse now?" Jessica says a bit timidly
September 25, 2018 9:34PMSatyr: nods enthusiastically, and jumps up and down, admiring his painting, and dances.... for a while.
Jessica goes to the door and opens it. "Lead the way?"
September 25, 2018 9:41PMSatyr: he holds a finger up, like one moment, and takes a knife from the table, pointing at her hair
- points at her hair, gives her the knife, points to himself, as in, to keep.
(if he doesn't ask for the knife back she will keep it)
September 25, 2018 9:45PMSatyr: does point at the knife.
September 25, 2018 9:45PMSatyr: motions to put it on the table.
September 25, 2018 9:45PMSatyr: jumps up and down, and rubs a lock of her hair on his penis, (excessively lovingly, which is disturbing), before stashing it into the chest. "Hoot! Hoot!"
her strength is 1
she has a welt
September 25, 2018 9:47PMSatyr: offers her some food and wine once more.
September 25, 2018 9:49PMSatyr: nods several times, holds up a hand, takes the painting, and marvels at it, choosing where to hang it. Picks a wall above the fireplace, and using cum as glue, hangs it.
September 25, 2018 9:55PMSatyr: nods, and opens the door. The door leads into the closet. He draws a rune in the door frame with his furry hand, and sparkly blue glow traces the circumference, warping the place in an amazing effect you have never seen. You've seen portals in movies and anime, but in reality, it was nothing like that. It was just.... different, incomprehensible. Although, somehow, yet, now that you've seen it, your brain goes like "duh, how else would a spacial warp look, of course it's that!"
Is it...the Corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse?
X)
It's a stone porch in a steep cliff, overlooking the biggest valley you've ever seen, it's so colossal there is an immediate vertigo
And the tower.... looks like this
It is RIDICULOUSLY far in the distance, between you lie countless swampy forests like the one you came out of
There are countless quadrillions of fairies, human-sized fae, creatures of all sorts of awe, centaurs, satyrs, giant winged men, deer, unicorns, all kinds of mythical things, all of them radiating, playing, casting, spreading myriads of enchanted lights.
You get that Land Before Time Valley Beyond feeling
Except so much more intense, because the tower, adorned with the Lunargent Thorn at its top is simply humongous. Its top rests in the cloudy skies, and it is by far bigger than the biggest of the Earth's towers
Like, 10 Burj-Kalifas and more
September 25, 2018 10:03PMSatyr: points to the top of the tower, then to you, and you get the feeling that the corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse is a long term project.
- Anything dead or skeletal
- Demons
- Dragons
- Angels or any kind of energy elementals
"How am I supposed to get home?" she's not even asking the satyr, she's just upset
Resolve + Composure
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
9
10
4
1
1
3
4
2 Successes
September 25, 2018 10:11PMSatyr: *his face is crushingly worried, like "aw no no no no no", but he just says "Hoot... Hoot." He holds up her chin, and points to the tower.
Nah, man, fuck it, Jessica, cheer up, do it. You get up and you get to that place.
September 25, 2018 10:18PMSatyr: nods. He holds up number one. He points to you, then points to the painting. Points to himself, points to his home.
He holds up two fingers, number two.
He points to your cut lock of hair, and points to himself, and the door and the portal he made you.
He holds up 3 fingers for number three.
To himself. To the tower.
September 25, 2018 10:20PMSatyr: he is ecstatic, leaning in, all Satyrlike and shit
resolve + composure?
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
4
9
8
1
9
4
3 Successes
September 25, 2018 10:22PMSatyr: "Hoot Hoot!"
September 25, 2018 10:24PMSatyr: puts both of his palms on the stone porch into nowhere, and a light glimmering bridge of blue dust forms downward through the air, which would be saving you a lot of time. It forms like so.
((I am amazed at how you looking for shortcuts and singing had changed my original plan for this journey.))
yep
just kidding guys, coral's playing a changeling
((it's just mages, when they get strong enough, can bend fae into baloon animal shapes. fae be like citizens / lord of the world, where as mages are like.... well....))
that said, there are many shitty mages who were eaten by vampires, fae, werewolves, and other lesser beings
just because mages are hard to start, they're helpless when they're babies
omg mages are the humans, when other supernaturals are like, animals XD
September 25, 2018 10:55PMSatyr: points to the tower, and then smiles, coyly, suggesting a 4th exchange, he lifts 4 fingers, and motions to himself, makes a walking motion, motions to you, to both of you together, and towards the tower.
September 25, 2018 10:56PMSatyr: "Hoot-hoot"
September 25, 2018 10:57PMSatyr: "Hooooot?"
"Can you leave..." she gestures at the whole...world. "Can you leave this place?
September 25, 2018 10:58PMSatyr: nods
September 25, 2018 10:58PMSatyr: "Hooooot?"
September 25, 2018 11:02PMSatyr: nods, and motions to you, to his phallus, and to the place by the fireplace, gently beckoning you over, but not asserting any force. He points to himself, to you, to your cut on the hand, to the wine.
"Hoooo-hooot. Hoooot. Hoo-hoo-hooot"
twirls his tongue, producing sophisticated whistles
September 25, 2018 11:03PMSatyr: listens
September 25, 2018 11:07PMSatyr: points to you, then to his heart. Then to himself, then to your heart. He sends you many kisses. He motions two, shakes his head. Motions to you, nods enthusiastically.
September 25, 2018 11:09PMSatyr: points to your bandaged hand
September 25, 2018 11:09PMSatyr: licks his lips, flicking his tongue out
September 25, 2018 11:10PMSatyr: nods
September 25, 2018 11:11PMSatyr: shakes his head, points to your hand, points to his stomach, makes a drinking gesture. "Hoot hoot!"
nods enthusiastically, jumps up and down.
It's hard to answer 'cause he's not being threatening
he hasn't been threatening the whole time
he's just fucking weird like everything else here
I'm weirded out for sure
Not in a super great place to argue with him though. it's not like i can make him help me and i can't do it by myself
or what?
well, let's see if Jessica can piece it together for us. Wits + Composure, looking at the fog?
rolling 7d10>8!
(+++++++)
3
6
9
7
3
8
10
4
3 Successes
The fog was bad when you were scared or stood still, aimless.
Things in the fog tended to bite. Snowball effect.
The fog retreated when you were singing, moving.... doing.
It seems to be a guard force, waiting for you to mess up or despair. It crept up to the mountain, but it doesn't seem to be moving.
The fog makes things sink.
((illustrating where fog is))
Jessica unwraps her bandage. "No biting or sucking," she repeats. She kind of wrinkles her nose and doesn't look once he starts licking though 'cause it's gross.
Any amount of teeth and she'll jerk her hand away
September 25, 2018 11:25PMSatyr: taps her, and makes sucking motions in the air, nods repeatedly.
shows with hand, her wound, his mouth, his belly, and makes lip sucking and tongue licking antics.
"The deal was you could lick it."
September 25, 2018 11:27PMSatyr: motions "a little"
September 25, 2018 11:28PMSatyr: shakes head, saying: "Hoooo-hooot, hooo-hoooot."
: wiggles his palm up and down, like, eh, give or take, then shrugs.
points to her heart, points to his heart, points to her head, points to his head, points to his mouth, points to her ear, points to her wound, makes sucking lips
September 25, 2018 11:30PMSatyr: nods, and shrugs, and nods some more, and shrugs
September 25, 2018 11:30PMSatyr: nods.
But she offers it
September 25, 2018 11:33PMSatyr: gently takes her hand, puts his lips to the wound, which, he does so timidly, it does not hurt nearly at all, feels surprisingly okay, and wiggles the wound open with his slithering tongue, that part does hurt. Then he gulp gulp gulp, sucks her blood. The wound is small, so it takes some time.*
September 25, 2018 11:37PMSatyr: sucks and sucks and sucks for a while, and occasionally flicks his tongue and slides it up and down the arm, almost to the elbow, lustfully, and kind of.... ahem, worshippingly?
"Mmmm... Mmmm.... Yesss.... Yess... So beautiful."
is it going pale?
I mean
what's your Medicine skill? Yeah.
You're feeling a bit like when you get your blood drawn for donation
if she ever done that
Maybe a little light headed, yeah
September 25, 2018 11:40PMSatyr: stops. "Yess, Yess."
September 25, 2018 11:43PMSatyr: "Yes, you must go. I can come. I can help. Spend the night with me, maiden."
September 25, 2018 11:47PMSatyr: : "You understand? Good. It works. More blood. I can come if you spend the night. Listen to my flute. Play it. Let me love you. You do not understand."
"I need more. I live here. You - live up there." - He points at the tower.
September 25, 2018 11:48PMSatyr: : "A little more blood, and I can answer that."
"Yes? I cannot take. You must give."
September 25, 2018 11:53PMSatyr: "Beloved.... Maiden... You are safe here. But not in the fog. I learn. You learn. You understand language now. You need more. I need more. I can help you. Trust me."
September 25, 2018 11:57PMSatyr: "No! No! No eat! I am friend! I need more blood. Things will be better! Good! I have food here. Eat, drink, rest! Don't be scared! I love you! You make art! You give hair!"
September 25, 2018 11:59PMSatyr: "Bah! Fairies. Meresome pixies! Glubbersome knuckletons! Varmint."
September 26, 2018 12:00AMSatyr: : "You and I. Together. You must go there, to tower. To your home. I can stay. Or I can help. Cannot go, without more you, in me."
September 26, 2018 12:01AMSatyr: : "Protect. Show way. Come with you."
"I know my way up there. I have a job and a family and hobbies. I'm not lost up there."
September 26, 2018 12:03AMSatyr: nods "Yes. Go. Up there."
: "Real? What real? More blood. A little more."
: "A little blood, a little love, a little music."
(i need to sleep, this is fun though)
September 26, 2018 12:09AMSatyr: "Not yet. Need more. Soon. A little more. You are from there. This I know now."
- he points at the Tower
"If--if I agree to um, love and music, you'll go with me, and you'll protect me? Can you do your magic up there? There's really bad men after me. With more of these." She motions with the gun. "Do you know how to deal with these?"
I am playing from phone bc our internet is borked. Please excuse issues if they occur
Jessica just wanted to be safe and normal. "I just want to go--" home. A rather intrusive thought hits Jessica. Home isn't safe. There was a terrorist organization waiting back home, who knew her name. Jessica rubbed the place where they had tried to drug her with the IV. The satyr was asking for sex but she could have already been raped and tortured and murdered by now if it weren't for the ambulance falling in...whatever this was. They weren't a bunch of extremists with homemade bombs, they had fake ids and a fucking ambulance and they knew her name. What if her family was next? What was she going to do, try to shoot them with this gun she didn't know how to use?
"If--if I agree to um, love and music, you'll go with me, and you'll protect me? Can you do your magic up there? There's really bad men after me. With more of these." She motions with the gun. "Do you know how to deal with these?"
September 26, 2018 2:45PMSatyr: The creature smiles, reaching up to stroke her hair, comforting. His tone is gentle and soothing "Yes. Love. A good maiden, gentle maiden. Share music, share night. I protect, I come. I do magic. You do magic. You are magic. Bad men. With these. What these? What this?"
The Satyr looks at a rifle curiously.
September 26, 2018 2:50PMSatyr: looks at Jessica, clearly trying to understand. Notably, now Jessica can read facial expressions of the Satyr as well. He does look concerned.
"Eat, drink, enjoy flute, come, come, beautisome dame. Spledorlike wanderlust. Ek-ek-ek...." - The Satyr struggles to find complex words. "Need more. I need more."
September 26, 2018 2:54PMSatyr: He leads you to the table, and pulls out a chair. The charcoal painting you made for him, stuck to a cave wall with some sticky satyr-cum stains, carries the smile you drew him, punctuating the situation. The Satyr fixes you a plate of grapes, plums, lamb, venison, salmon, sweet bread, and hands you the wine. Now he realized you did not drink any, since the goblet doesn't need a refill. But he is not upset. His movements are in fact slightly more refined than when you met him. He is less.... "wild"
September 26, 2018 3:02PMSatyr: takes the flute, and plays a sweet and merry tune. It is not one Jessica has ever heard, but it pulls at the heart strings, and has enough cheerful aggression to let her feel that she'll pull through and everything will be okay. The Satyr's blueish hue fades a little to become less eerie. And when Jessica drinks the wine, a little sparkle forms on his flute. The Satyr half-lays on the floor at Jessica's feet, and puts his shaggy horned head half way in her lap, just to feel her thigh with the back of his head. He continues playing. As the music flows, the food smells delicious and fresh.
It's been a while since Jessica's eaten + lots of exercise + emotional trauma + loss of blood
so I think it's fair to say the food also has a lot of her attention
September 26, 2018 3:09PMSatyr: there are changes to the Satyr as well. As she drinks and eats, more sparkles run around his features. As he plays for her, she really gets that impression that he's playing his best shit, putting his heart into it. In an interlude, he looks at her painting of him, being pleasured by fairies, and suddenly, he looks in awe, as if a sense of sophistication awakened in his mind.*
September 26, 2018 3:10PMSatyr: , in a very different voice, much more humanly pleasing to the ear:
September 26, 2018 3:14PMSatyr: smiles, and points the flute at the painting, like it were a wand "I have something better. A bit of you." - he says so breathlessly in a half whisper, as if they were pillow confessions of a lover. His free hand plays idly with Jessica's hair.
A little blue spark shoot from the flute, and the cum botches vanish, while a solid ornate dark wood frame shapes itself around the otherwise unchanged painting.*
September 26, 2018 3:16PMSatyr: : "Much better, my dear. Oh, dear, dear muse. I see your beauty more and more clearly now. So complex, so troubled."
notices Jessica coughing, and touches the goblet with his fingertips, the claws of which have greatly diminished, into just really long nails. The wine becomes a easier to consume.
September 26, 2018 3:24PMSatyr: plays the flute, eats, and drinks as well, and will converse in the interludes and answer whenever Jessica asks. He also periodically plays with her hair and shoulders. His blue eyes gaze lovingly.
"Everything is magic. It is easy when I have a source. My own magic is little, small enough to keep this humble home. But your magic is real, large, it is not a reflection, but a flame. A flame I lit a candle from."
September 26, 2018 3:26PMSatyr: will whisper sweetnesses, play, and caress her continuously
"Oh my muse, how ever humble. I am too simple still, to explain, or to understand. But this I know - you are magic. Before meeting you, I was a lonely wanderer for many thousands of years. The last visitor I recall helped me create this place. I cannot remember what was before that. Perhaps I roamed the world as a simple beast. The understanding you seek is up there, in that tower. I made you a bridge to help you pass, but I must be more than I am now to travel with you."
: "This hunger... this passion I feel... for your light... it consumes, it draws, my maiden, my muse. Tell me about your world, tell me of your tastes and pleasures. Do you find wine to your liking? I sense in you a love for creation, for art, for games."
She's already forgotten his other questions
September 26, 2018 3:39PMSatyr: listens with interest.
((asking coz Satyr doesnt see the dye ))
September 26, 2018 3:49PMSatyr: looks into her eyes. A brush of the hair, a stroke on the cheek. "Countless worlds exist in your beautiful eyes. Their oaken depths hide forests and fields only you can traverse. Take me on the journey, Enchantress. Fear not. I will keep you safe."
"We shall walk hand in hand along the paths of Fate, my crimson valpurgia. Your mind is of a valkyrie, a harpy. You command battles and rule worlds. You control time. I see so much."
September 26, 2018 3:55PMSatyr: "A most noble dame, who fights alongside men and defeats them, and refuses to hide her hair or her breast. She comes with courage and vigor"
tells you a story of an ancient manuscript detailing exploits of a group of knights and their methods of training to perfect their art. Amongst them was a woman, dubbed Walpurgis, who later was named abbess and was knighted.
September 26, 2018 4:02PMSatyr: : "Your praise is silk and sweet fruit, pleasuresome music upon my ears. Come."
He gently takes your hand and offers to follow him to the rug by the fireplace.... which... woah, well, that's a change. That's not a rug but a fancy elk hide, and that fireplace is twice as big and looks like that in some fancy houses, with candelabras decorating it.
please roll resolve + composure
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
5
7
2
5
10
5
8
2 Successes
(yay luckamancer)
September 26, 2018 4:17PMSatyr: *kneels with you on the hide, lays you down, and at this point, the moment that in Jessica's mind, the acceptance of it kind of clicks, he goes through a serious stage of transformations. He becomes taller, more muscular, more slim, a lot less hairy, even on the legs, no hair above the knee, no goat tail, and his face changes, and this is the neat part, to Jessica's most sexually preferred male type. And if she's into girls, he looks more feminine. His equipment becomes more manageable size too. Hair, facial hair, color - everything is on the table. Pretty much google image search "handsome satyr" and pick any you like, it's done. He can be younger, or older, or whatever. The three things that remain that he cannot make go away: hoofed feet, horns, and penis. He cannot actually become female.
September 26, 2018 4:23PMSatyr: whispers: "This feeling, being so close to the goddess, touching the muse which lit my mind.... What a wonderful feeling. You are so close, so very close to me. Just one step to the precipice. We are like Darcy and Elizabeth now, but we must be like Bonnie and Clyde."
If you dose off, you wake up to him feeding you grapes and wine.
September 26, 2018 4:34PMSatyr: : Eventually, once the post-coital state subsides and it is appropriate time for conversation, he says: "I love you. You are absolutely amazing."
rolling 6d10>8!
(++++++)
9
8
10
4
2
4
6
3 Successes
Nice
September 26, 2018 4:41PMSatyr: - an abundant amount of sparkles runs down his horns, and manifests a fancy hat, it's huge and bulky, and looks even more strange. His horns are so big it's just even more suspicious. Without a hat he could pass as a very dedicated cosplayer, but with the hat, it's like, awkward. He smiles: "Up there... I feel so scared of that place. I understand so clearly now.... you worry about your parents, and about your friends. we have to get you home. Our connection is so strong now, I feel like I can come with you."
September 26, 2018 4:46PMSatyr: : "Hans... ah yes... your world has names. Names are very powerful. I can get lost. What is your name, my muse?"
September 26, 2018 4:47PMSatyr: : "I will now. You must name me."
Jessica plays with his beard more and thinks. Pan was a famous satyr-god-thing. Makes her think of Peter. "Peter?"
Peter is also sometimes a euphemism for dick. She snorts when she thinks of it.
September 26, 2018 4:51PMSatyr: inclines his head. "Blue words form in the air and hover over him as you speak the name, awaiting confirmation. These words are in a language you do not understand."
September 26, 2018 4:53PMSatyr: "I think it is a name. You must name me."
: "The name will help me remember."
: "Peter is a nice name, I like the sound of it."
September 26, 2018 4:58PMPeter: "My name is Peter. I will follow you, Jessica, for as long as my name exists!"
September 26, 2018 5:00PMPeter: "Names can be taken away."
September 26, 2018 5:02PMPeter: "I don't know, Jessica, I've never been a kind of creature that could use the power of names. I know that names can be undone. Not yours though. Not any of your kind, the kind that belongs to the Tower."
September 26, 2018 5:04PMPeter: "I hope not."
"Reviving after dying is very inconvenient."
September 26, 2018 5:05PMPeter: "I don't know. We could try..."
September 26, 2018 5:10PMPeter: "Let's go. I used your hair to conjure a path that will keep us above the forest. I'm not very strong, so the bridge is narrow. Try not to fall off. Also, it will get eventually lower to the ground level, as I cannot connect it to the Tower."
he takes his flute and packs a little satchel of bread, cheese, lamb, and grapes
September 26, 2018 5:13PMPeter: "You, silly."
September 26, 2018 5:13PMPeter: "Oh yes yes yes." He returns for the knife
packs it in his satchel
"Took the food, but forgot the knife to cut it with. Silly Peter."
September 26, 2018 5:16PMPeter: "With your hair, a lot."
You're glad it keeps you away, because there is quite the chaos in the valley. Fae turning each other into frogs, wild boar hunts, mushrooms dancing, all kinds of fern gulley style fairy like insanity. The amount of incomprehensible bullshit going on down there is a bit too much to take in, given the colossal area. Valleys and valleys and valleys.... luckily, you are so high above, nothing there pays attention to you.
However.... the flier type creatures.... in particular, human sized fairies, pixies, griffins, harpies - are a bit of a potential concern. For now, they idly fly at a distance, not noticing anything unusual about two figures walking at such height*
September 26, 2018 5:21PMPeter: "I think your hair looks ravishing."
(in human form is he permanently erect still and does he have clothes?)
(I forgot to ask)
September 26, 2018 5:27PMPeter: "I wouldn't know how to use a knife as a weapon. I only know music, and singing. Oh, those clumbersome oafs? Shunwise they art. Should they intrude on us, we will worry about them."
((He is erect as fuck, yes))
((and no, no clothes. ))
((just your basic run of the mill Satyr))
September 26, 2018 5:32PMPeter: "I... think so? It's a strange question. It would be like asking you if you can use your breath as a weapon."
"The greatest weapon is inspiration!"
September 26, 2018 5:36PMPeter: "Let me show you!"
sparkle sparkle - and his flute floats in the air and plays a tune on its own.
He walks alongside Jessica, admiring her hair. Then he starts to sing a tune, which his flute is playing.
"If the crimson of the dying light sky, could solace me bring, I shall hear Jessica, the many tongued sing. As I play on my flute, and I pluck string by string, I sense, having a heart is a terrible thing. When I ponder, amused, at the point of it all, I see Jessica Murphey craft my form with some coal, and at once I remember her touch, and it's delicate sting, because owning a heart is a terrible thing."
Intricate mosaics of runes form around you. They feel similar in nature to that fairy dust, but it's not residual, it doesn't just fall, it's... how to put it... it feels constructed, more substantial.
September 26, 2018 5:39PMPeter: Like a dancing cage
September 26, 2018 5:40PMPeter: Peter proceeds to sing impromptu about Jessica for a long, long, long time Melody after melody, switching tunes... you walk for COUNTLESS time
For a while it feels like the tower is not getting any closer at all, but just getting taller as the elevation goes down. But Peter's home cave is far behind now.
September 26, 2018 5:42PMPeter: (exactly like that)
September 26, 2018 5:45PMPeter: "The lute, the flute, the mandolin, the harp, the drum, the tambourine, whichever tool i use my tune to play, 'tis only Jessica my humble flesh will lay."
those items manifest and dance around together with the flute
Hm. Try pulling the trigger if I have time?"
Ignore quote
Surface thought as you pull the trigger?
The rider has the bird stall and climb, as he/she pulls a bow.
Like whoops
By absorb... it's gone?
Like the rune ate it?
Kind of like how fairies crumbled when they tried to fly into Peter's cave
I just figured aiming wasn't enough by itself
Feathers, dust, and the rider and its bird fall from the skies.
And this sweet action attracts a whole bunch of others.
Before too long, you are going to be fending off all sorts of giant insects, bird riders, butterly-people, and griffins
Thankfully, it's not a all vs you scenario. Plenty of them are at odds with each other, so it's a free for all. But you get plenty of action.
The runes seem to eat their melee weapons so I am focusing on ranged dude's when I can pick them out
You killed probably about 100 creatures without ever reloading, before this happened.
September 26, 2018 6:11PMPeter: "I don't know, Jessica! Run!" - Peter helps you up and urges you to run with him further along the bridge, to the tower.
Eventually the end of the bridge will lead down into the woods, and you'd be hidden in the tops of trees, so that logic could be sound.
September 26, 2018 6:16PMPeter: "I'm scared!"
September 26, 2018 6:19PMPeter: He nods, and together you sing it
"Let's get down to business to defeat the Huns!"
(this is the fucking best)
September 26, 2018 6:23PMPeter: You run, run, and sing, the incline of the bridge starts going down noticably now, down, down, down, and narrower, narrower, narrower.... and now you're getting closer... and the biggest fattest griffin was left behind as it tried to swoop in, and snatched Peter's last rune. Peter's rune generation slowed down to near nothing, song or not... but it keeps him going. The fog follows behind. But now.... something new, very new, completely new. A tingle in the back of your head. This is happening only to you.
The Tower.
Few more steps, and you feel a certain pressure. A pull. To turn back. And another, commanding force to pull forward. Like being dragged through shards of glass, like falling through thorns.
Peter stops to a dead halt. He tries to move further, but can't seem to. His 3D form phases in and out. He tries to reach ahead, but his skin sizzles with that shiny dust glow.
September 26, 2018 6:26PMPeter: "Jessica? I don't see anything ahead."
"Do you need more of my hair?"
*Of where Peter can't be
September 26, 2018 6:33PMPeter: "I don't know... I think we're near! Try it? Give me something of yours."
He holds out his palm
September 26, 2018 6:36PMPeter: hands you the knife, almost handing it in the wrong direction, his vision appears to be going bad
September 26, 2018 6:38PMPeter: grabs it blindly, and rubs it on his cock, then eats it. In that order. "Yes... yes..."
The music returns, and he seems to clear his vision a bit.
He needs to save his strength though, so he only has the flute. He pants a while, and follows you again.
September 26, 2018 6:39PMPeter: "I... uugh... offf... it's so hard to move... look at it.... this is it, isn't it...? I must be... the first of my kind.... to go... this.... far.... couldn't without you... I am so.... lucky..."
September 26, 2018 6:40PMSatyr: "You need it.... to live, Muse. More than I do.... we're doing okay, for.... now..."
September 26, 2018 6:42PMSatyr: : "Maybe more blood... I don't want to leave your side.... maybe you're right..."
: "I am Peter!" - he angrily rages a few inches forward. "I am Peter! And you are Jessica!" - the name rune on his forehead glows. He is able to move a bit more. His flute falls down.
September 26, 2018 6:46PMPeter: , defeated. "I'm afraid you are right. That path is closed to me. It is for you alone, as I felt it. So close. But you have so far to go. Please, remember my name!"
September 26, 2018 6:49PMPeter: hungrily drinks some of her blood, and is able to stand straight. He looks at her with tears in her eyes, and says "I love you. Forever. When you make it home, call my name. You'll know how. I believe it."
(omg did i put a summoning spell on peter? is this mtg irl?)
September 26, 2018 6:51PMPeter: "Til we next meet, my Muse"
*puts his hand on his forehead, and rips the rune out of it, extending it to you. The rune hangs in the air, and flies into your head. Peter turns back to a more primal, bestial variant of the Satyr, says "Hoot Hoot!" and vanishes.
Alright, we're going to the tower
The Tower presses on you more. You get closer to it now, the perspective is more like: THAT now
It's towering above going into the sky
As you get closer, you also get lower. Thorns now grow through the road, and the fog follows suit. You get closer to it.
She's breathing a little harder as she climbs over and around the thorns
You reach the tree tops. They are insane. So thick that to advance you have to climb through interweaved branches.
This kind of thick, but a lot denser placement. You'll either cut a while or start sliding in between
rolling 1d10>8!
()
3
0 Successes
Darkness... Pain... Breathing.... Headache.... Ringing in the ears....
(Can i move?)
(or otherwise in a weird body position)
But you're alive.
Like, twisting someone's arm behind their back is an example of an arm bar
And like, flick them away.
The tower is just a few miles ahead
It's huge, its top hidden in the trees and clouds, hell, you can't even see it... but you KNOW which way to go.
Like it won't hold everything immobile but at least it won't be hanging by my side getting swollen
I'm headed the way my brain is leading.
Looking around for a branch I can hack up and make a whatchucallit with
a tourniquet?
i don't know how to set the bone
crutch
crutch
rolling 2d10>8!
(+)
8
3
1 Success
YAY
it's not perfect though, so Dex + Crafts to carve it to fit you. You have 1 working hand and a knife
rolling 3d10>8!
(++)
6
6
8
1 Success
phew
The fog gains on you, you can see its white tendrils encroaching, passing you
As you go further the giant roots you climb become more slippery, the spaces you crawl through become tighter, and branches you pass through stick to you and try to hold you
huff huff
"Drifting through the wind..."
"Fuck. Wanting to start again..."
"Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin..."
"Like a house of cards...One blow from caving in..."
"Do you ever feel already buried deep..."
"Six feet under scream..."
"But no one seems to hear a thing..."
"Do you know that there's...still a chance for you..."
" 'cause there's a spark in you..."
You keep on crawling and crawling.... and then you hear a heart beat.
BUM BUM.
Rhythmic. Even.
BUM BUM.
It's coming through the ground.
*seen
A beat every 4 seconds exactly.
rolling 1d10>8!
()
9
1 Success
hahahahaha
well, you're doing incredible.
you freed a heavy rock.
I'mma see if something reacts to the thud
cause i'm not making as much noise as the rock
BUM BUM
BUM BUM
yup, every 4 seconds
wall*
not well
I'm gonna be literally dying in the few hours
*a
gotta keep going while i have strength
the penalties are negated by your knife
for now
rolling 1d10>8!
()
4
0 Successes
damn
shit
It looks familiar.
let's try that eidetic memory
intelligence + investigation + specialty
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
4
3
6
9
3
5
1 Success
yikes
still
Is that Gaea's cradle?
The heartbeat is the tree's.
I mean, we have no sense of "north" or "south" here
I'm gonna approach it
You approach it and you feel a little better.
The wounds don't hurt at much and the headache is a little soothed.
hug the treeee
BUM BUM
BUM BUM
every 4 seconds
so soothing
BUM BUM
the tree caresses you
Your mind calms, your heartbeat slows down....
You're getting sleepy
Pain becomes less and less...
Also is there any physical change happening while the pain is going away?
You're so good at this
No, your wounds are not healing.
But they don't hurt, that's good right?
Standing up.
you're almost as a quarter of normal human beat
the tree tries to pull you back
strategy?
picturing the poppy field scene
The tree branches which hold you burst into splinters.
It begins to rain.
The thick tree tops take a good bit of impact at first, so you're not feeling much of the drops yet.
I feel a little excited about getting home
Does it smell or taste foul?
Trekking on broke limbs is thirsty work
I'm gonna sorta lean right as I go so I don't land on the fucked leg if I slip
Moving a little slower but still faster than crawling
You feel the tower. It's near.
Wits + Composure please
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++)
7
4
5
2
1
9
5
1 Success
woooow
I almost died XD
Luckily, you notice this just to avoid the surprise effect. You can try to get out of the way.
or brace for impact
or whatever else
rolling 4d10
(+++)
8
8
8
7
31
noooo
wrong
dufus
rolling 1d4
()
4
4
how do i get "few" by typing "way"
i dont know
no penalty because you noticed early
rolling 1d10>8!
()
1
0 Successes
yaaay
yes
But it's pretty obvious the landscape was reacting to what I said.
"ALRIGHT! I'M SORRY! PLEASE STOP!"
Well...that happened
Some time passes. Cold. Freezing. You cough. You can breathe. Light. Wind. Frost.
The Tower is RIGHT. THERE. It's less than a mile away. It's enormous.
The fog is all around.
The metal of the gun is frozen to the belly. At this point our poor Jessica is exhausted. She has but little juice left to change her situation, before her body surrenders.
She covers her mouth with her hand to try to warm it up. "How the fuck am I supposed to get there? Is this a joke?"
She has to try, obviously, or she's dead, but it's just so far.
A chilling voice calmly speaks to your right.
Is it HANS?!
"Isn't it magnificent?"
"How can you do magic... that depends entirely on who you are. So, who are you?"
"I'm just a girl."
The figure turns to face you, the cleanly shaved monk head and a face you know. Runes shoot from his index fingers. He draws a door frame in the air around himself, framing him in a rectangular frame, just like you are used to seeing him in your hand.
September 28, 2018 12:29AMDelver Of Secrets: "... tell me. What is a nerdy girl doing here, at the Tower of The Lunargent Thorn, Whose Moonlight Pure fills all the Moons of the Multiverse with Quicksilver of the Supernal Truth? What is a girl doing fucking Satyrs and battling Fae?"
"No human can ever reach this place. Or am I mistaken?"
"I'm a human! I'm just a person! What do you want me to say? I'm-I'm creative. I figured out how to get here. I figured out how the fog works. I sang to the trees. I don't know what you want!"
"The satyr said I'm magic. I don't know what that means. I don't know how to turn my hair into a bridge or whatever you do here. I don't know how to do any of it or I would be at the tower already."
September 28, 2018 12:33AMDelver Of Secrets: The fog violently rises and starts to envelope the mountains
"All of the stupid questions, like you are stuck in one of your movies. You know the answers. Of course it is a plane. Have you seen a world where weather changes every hour? Of course you've gone insane. And the dumbest question is what I want? How can I want something? Don't you recognize me?"
September 28, 2018 12:38AMDelver Of Secrets: He smiles almost condescendingly
Okay I'm batshit
"When--When I cast an instand or sorcery off the top of my library."
"Libraries in magic represent, um, the mind."
"So a spell I remember."
*reveal an instant
September 28, 2018 12:41AMDelver Of Secrets: "Let's see what's at the top of our library."
He conjures a holographic card, the size of a window, in the air, it is a "Time Walk" card, it flies into the snow storm, and, following the rule, the Delver transforms, becoming flat for a moment, and turning with his ornate door frame. The effect is insane to witness. As he flips, he becomes Kevin, dressed in the Delver's clothes, and steps out.
now speaks in Kevin's voice
September 28, 2018 12:42AMDelver Of Secrets: "Recognize this face? I gave the Delver to you after all."
September 28, 2018 12:44AMDelver Of Secrets: "Eight dollars, remember?"
September 28, 2018 12:47AMDelver Of Secrets: Kevin parts his hands, the the door frame multiplies into countless frames, connected to each other with webbed glowing strands, whiter than falling snow. They are all interconnected and branching out, and aligned in intricate patterns, going into the depth of available vision, the images in them represent all possible hands played, but only for a moment, there are also images of people in them, moving, like on screens.
September 28, 2018 12:48AMDelver Of Secrets: assumes the Delver's face, as the main frame in front of you forms a fragment. It's perfect quality video. It's.... real. A portal, into the past.
"Mladen? Tsk. Fickle girl. Always focused on other men. But of course. Mladen is a better player than you. Is that why, here, now, on the verge of death you can't let go of him? His hand was better than yours, his deck was better than yours, and he's a better player than you."
September 28, 2018 12:52AMDelver Of Secrets: "You know who else was a better player than you? Kevin. Here, take a look"
You see in the frame, Kevin and his dweeby chips and soda covered friends in a disgusting basement that reminds more of a condemned hole for squatter hobbits, flicking mtg cards like crazy. Their decks are shit, but their speeds are so fast*
September 28, 2018 12:54AMDelver Of Secrets: "Something wrong with him? Or maybe something wrong with something else?"
cards flick, searching, traversing the connections from Kevin's timeline to yours to navigate to when you meet Mladen, but there are many fragments of your life in the way
"Oh, here's a good one."
You see Kevin coming to work the morning after you stole the From the Vault box from his parents' store.
(omg Delver was the perfect card for this)
(100%)
September 28, 2018 12:58AMDelver Of Secrets: You see Kevin finding the box missing, sighing, putting a deep slow facepalm and groaning "Uuuugh Jessica....", then he reaches into his wallet, and pays the full price into the counter.
images flicker
D:
September 28, 2018 12:58AMDelver Of Secrets: "Yeah, he paid for it. Feeling pretty shitty, huh?"
September 28, 2018 1:00AMDelver Of Secrets: "Oooh, ooh, but these are the white lines, see these white lines, connecting the images? These are the decisions you made in your timeline. These other, more grayish ones? These are even more interesting. These are alternate possibilities. Check this out. In this here timeline..." flick flick flick "Kevin is broke and doesn't have the money to put into the counter"
another fragment plays
September 28, 2018 1:02AMDelver Of Secrets: Kevin holds head with both hands
"Ooooh Jessica, god damnit, what am I gonna do?"
You see his mother yelling at him, he took the blame, lying to her, said he let a friend check it out on a promise of payment, and the friend skipped town.
"Oh that's it! That's the last straw. You're fired, go get that other job your dad wanted you to get"
September 28, 2018 1:02AMDelver Of Secrets:
flick flick flick
some images feature Kevin's childhood, his parents beat him as a kid, but he told no one
September 28, 2018 1:03AMDelver Of Secrets: distant, very distant timelines with very faint lines show your and kevin's wedding, another remote possibility, the Dweller doesn't roam to it
"In hundreds of these times, Kevin had really loved you."
"But don't feel bad. It's not all shitty for you. In fact, Time and Fate are so tightly interconnected in your case that by doing one bad thing you often did a good thing in another way."
flick flick flick flick
"This is your current timeline. The night of the robbery."
You and Frank get in the car
September 28, 2018 1:07AMDelver Of Secrets: The dweller flicks to the same day, a parallel timeline, the one closest to it, right next to it, the one next most likely probable to what actually happened. In this one, Frank refused to help you.
“Just say yes. Please? When Kevin tries to kiss you you can tell him you already have a boyfriend.” - Frank says.
“One condition.” - you reply.
“Name it.” - her shoots back.
September 28, 2018 1:08AMDelver Of Secrets: The familiar words all play back
"No. No way." - Frank says when you state your condition.
"If to be your boyfriend I have to be a thief, I don't want that kind of girlfriend. It's manipulation."
Frank is frustrated, and he drives away, leaving you on the road.
His emotions get the best of him, as he hits a rock and his car flies off the road, killing him in an accident.
September 28, 2018 1:11AMDelver Of Secrets: The Dweller flicks to the right, on the opposite side of the factual timeline, the other closest branch
"Just say yes. Please?"
And in that timeline, you do not pose the condition. You just agree to date him.
A lifetime full of events flickers, it shows you going to the store together, he buys you the box, you teach him to play, you go on vacations together, jobs, life, you quit mtg, abortion, remorse, another attempt, fights, miscarriage, slowing down at you injecting something into your veins.*
"Yeah that's... that's not a good one."
September 28, 2018 1:19AMDelver Of Secrets: *The Deliver switches the order to the present timeline, fast forwarding the bright white frames, to present days, your college career, etc, etc.
One frame shows Frank after you left for Germany. When he told you he has a girlfriend. He is in bed with her, she is prettier than you. She asks, "what about your girlfriend?" He replies "Eeeh, she's in Germany. She's crazy anyway. You know how we hooked up? She had me steal some gaming cards for her. Talk about weird, huh? Anyway, come here."
"Are you gonna tell her?"
"Yeah, yeah. come over here..."
flick flick flick
September 28, 2018 1:19AMDelver Of Secrets: The dweller answers your question
"You see an elephant without seeing the ground it stands on. I'm showing you these so that you understand that access to them is possible. See... most people participate in the passage of Time linearly. They can access the present and the future, but never the past. They can recollect the past, but not change it, and then can shape the future, but not recollect it. They have a grasp on the present. But those who channel powers of the Lunargent Thorn have more options. They see a way in which an individual participates in Time as a choice, not a cosmic absolute. Are you following? Or did your brain completely freeze?"
September 28, 2018 1:25AMDelver Of Secrets: "Depends. Who are you?"
"I'm Jessica."
September 28, 2018 1:29AMDelver Of Secrets: "Yes."
September 28, 2018 1:30AMDelver Of Secrets: The dweller transforms one more time.
In his otherworldly male voice, he says:
"And I.... am..."
September 28, 2018 1:30AMJessica: "You." - finishes in your voice, turning into you, wearing the Dweller's clothing.
That's not where I thought we were going with this.
(you can hit undo i think to undo the delete)
She stands in the frame still, motioning to the top of the tower
"I have always been you. So close to it, nothing else can pass but you. The rest of the way you must make it. But you must hurry, and you must be certain what you want to find at the top."
"The corner of Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse." If nothing else, the repetition helps her certainty. "Well, we Time Walked. You gonna turn into the Insect Horror with Flying now? I could use a ride."
"You're me, right?"
September 28, 2018 1:44AMJessica: "Yes. But I am but a part of you. So, you will!"
Dweller Jessica walks into you.
You hear the voice, fading.
"Just remember, we can't go home like this, we're running out of time. You're hurting here, because you're hurting there."
September 28, 2018 1:44AMJessica: The final image shows in the frame, of you dead in the minivan, the men who abducted you shot you.
"We must find a way."
the frame closes
You are missing a few legs, mandibles are dripping goo, but your wings mostly work.
The fog clouds the entirety of the mountain, the tower becoming harder to see, unless you immediately take to air
(done)
the pull of the tower weakens in the fog until you take off. you leave the fog down below and shoot up, up, up
it is a steep climb, snowflakes cut your insect skin like knives, wind and cold whip you
(i picture the wings sounding like flicking cards)
September 28, 2018 1:49AMJessica: you're truly not sure you can do this for some moments
(XD)
you fly along the magnificent tower, it's covered in thorny vines.... vines is a bad word, these vines are the thickness of whole cruise ships
and they in turn are covered in smaller vines, the size of buses
and those are covered in regular vines
vines upon vines upon vines
September 28, 2018 1:51AMJessica: the surface of the monolith itself is a reflectant solid mercury
(that's weird)
you are so close to the top, and your wings give out of exhaustion, you must use your momentum to grab hold of the vines and climb the rest of the way
Climbing
below you is solid fog
you climb
September 28, 2018 1:53AMJessica: you notice that the patterns on the walls of the tower and not just art, they are words
names.
the entire surface of the tower is covered in names
wow
I'm not gonna stop and read them, gotta keep climbing
without a detailed glance you recognize some of the names from school:
September 28, 2018 2:00AMJessica:
George Gordon Byron, Amir Temur Tamerlane, Roger de Moullins, Galileo Galilei, Evgeni Esenin, Tristin Lang... you don't bother to read more
Lord byron
yass
I will remember thoguh
They are written in various languages
September 28, 2018 2:02AMJessica: At last, you reach the top
White light shocks you, and you are back in your human form, beaten and broken, you bleed from many places, and instantly fall down. You look up, and before you, on the top of the tower, hovers a giant growing thistle, made of quicksilver.
What's my instinct?
The tower's been calling my lizard brain the whole time
September 28, 2018 2:09AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: You feel naked.
You feel absolute.
Small.
Weak.
Slow.
Powerless.
September 28, 2018 2:09AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: Question: do you feel defeated?
September 28, 2018 2:10AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: This is the big roll. Go Resolve + Composure + 3 for willpower. This will determine some secret stuff
rolling 9d10>8!
(+++++++++)
7
9
8
9
4
8
8
9
10
7
7 Successes
hahahahahahaha
September 28, 2018 2:11AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: OH MY GOD
really
September 28, 2018 2:11AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: please, after this, nobody tell me
September 28, 2018 2:11AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: that this game doesnt have karma
there are 7 cards in a mtg deck
ok pls hold
i need to write some shit down
i need some tea
September 28, 2018 2:12AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: pulls up old notes
oookay
Before you, manifests the briefcase with two silver locks. They open, as does the briefcase. Cards are lined up in them.
In the rows of neatly arranged stacks by rank and color.
"Hello"
The voice is in your head. It has no tonality. It speaks.... in concepts that you can understand.
September 28, 2018 2:19AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "Welcome to Arcadia."
September 28, 2018 2:22AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "You are a quick learner."
September 28, 2018 2:24AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "You have the will. You will be stronger, faster, brighter. I watched you. As you traveled and learned Arcadia, Arcadia traveled and learned you."
September 28, 2018 2:25AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "Everything is real. I tried to help you understand. For that I had to use what your soul understands. But you are yet just a child."
September 28, 2018 2:27AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "If you are strong enough. I shall grant you seven gifts to help you."
September 28, 2018 2:32AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "Three, you have already collected. Simpler beings, aspects of this world's lower races. I think they have become your friends."
Out of your head fly out, in order:
1. Some pixie dust, which forms into a shape of a friendly pixie. A glittering hologram that shapes itself into a "Faerie Harbinger" card. Not painted, but glowing blue.
September 28, 2018 2:32AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: 2. The Power Rune - the word you formed when you named Peter, which he gave back to you. It shapes itself in the air into a blue card, which shows his Robert Downey Jr. form.
3. The Dweller of Secrets - a shape in a robe, faceless, looking like neither you, nor Kevin, nor Frank.
These three symbols line up on your right.
"Three, you get to choose."
September 28, 2018 2:34AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn:
The cards present themselves out of the suitcase, yours to pick from.
September 28, 2018 2:42AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: (Any 3 MTG cards you like are in the case, except for the Black Lotus)
(cause it's almost 6 am)
September 28, 2018 2:42AMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: ok
(nini
"Temporal Mastery."
Faerie Harbinger let her search her library for a Faerie card...that meant... "Bitterblossom." It was an enchantment, but it was also a Faerie, a rare tribal enchantment. One more...her cards were essentially creature based. Harbinger was a faerie tutor, Btterblossom made more faeries...something to support that theme... Perfect. She smirked to herself. "Distant Melody."
September 28, 2018 3:16PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: The Bitterblossom Fairie, The Distant Melody, and the Temporal Mastery fly out of the deck, line up on the left, opposite of the Satyr, Harbinger, and Dweller. They all holographize and sparkle with real magic. If gods made playing cards, that's what they'd look like.
"Child of the Lunargent Thorn, your seventh, final gift is the one you covet deeply and the one you've had all along. You recognize it now."
The enormous floating thistle creates a small runic projection of itself, which floats towards you and colors black. A black thistle, the closer it gets, the more it glows, and its petals begin to change shape, until it morphs into a lotus flower.*
"Thank you."
September 28, 2018 3:40PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: As if to resonate her very feelings, the other cards in the case, and the case itself, turn to white ash and fall away into nothing, the epic super expensive decks that humans put so much value on - collapse into oblivion, except the seven she chose and imbued with her inner emotional meaning. They stand paramount.
"How do I do magic?" - her own plea echoes around in the wind, as the fog reaches the top of the tower.
*In response to the fog, The giant thistle breaks off a thorn, which falls, shrinking, and lands at your feet, long and sharp, as a pen. You've nothing but your dripping blood to write. The floor is covered in names just like the walls below.... Seth Heinrich, Keasar Korbata, Leomar Gesse, Simon Ray, Salvador Dali, Anatoly Kashpirovski, Nuh Alaihi Salam, Meshitihu of Goshen..."
Scenes fly frantically in your head... your parents, your school, your games, leading up to the two big choices.
"Put down the cards and go home, little girl" - in Mladen's voice
September 28, 2018 3:50PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn:
"Bellinghausen and Rosenstrasse" - in Hans's
"Tsk. Magic. Magic is not a career, Jessie" - in father's voice
"OMG That was so awesome!" - in Heike's
"I love you too, Jessie. That goes without saying" - father
September 28, 2018 3:51PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: "I love you" - mother
"Not Bonnie and Clyde" - Frank
"Need to be Bonnie and Clyde" - Peter
"Who are you?" - a voice from within
Not Kevin's girlfriend she owed him an apology, she was big enough to see that now, but she didn't owe anybody love.
Not Frank's girlfriend That horrible future with a substance abuse problem dropped away.
Who am I? A few unimportant cards still lingered in the black empty space of her thoughts.
Who am I?
But...the black...was comfortable. It wasn't even black at all, actually, it was white, now that she noticed. A canvas. She wasn't going to art school anymore. She knew this with certainty. Nothing so mundane would ever hold her attention anymore. But her whole life didn't drop down to card games or school anymore. It never really did, she saw, she just hadn't tried to make anything else of it.
"I'm whatever I want to be."
September 28, 2018 4:16PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: You sense that all these names, all these people, have pondered the very question
For you each person that question is phrased in their own terms
"Down there people play cards with human lives. Are you a card or are you a player?"
September 28, 2018 4:17PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: The fog storms the top of the tower and seeps closer in, shrinking the ring around you.
You know what you have to do.
Jessica Murphy
September 28, 2018 4:21PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: The fog charges the air, and as you breathe its moisture, you start feeling a phantom pain of a bullet pressing on your forehead, beginning to split your skull. Shapes form around in a shape of a frozen mini van and shadows in suits
There is an empty spot on the tower floor just between Christiaan Huygens and Miguelle Placido.....
Bandages fall, you inscribe the name.
The name burns a blue glow and smoke rises volently, as the inscription reacts with the quicksilver, molding into it. The shapes scatter.
September 28, 2018 4:25PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: Skies light up.
The seven cards in the air fly together in front of you, and break their frames and descriptors.
They are just the images now, moving, alive, floating, waving at you.
You realize deep inside that the world below is a lie, and this is your true home.
September 28, 2018 4:25PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: The Black Lotus lines up with the Thistle in the sky, and opens its petals.
The 7 images fly in a circle and start spinning around each other, until coming into such formation:
The sand clock and the music at the top sides, faeries in the middle, the satyr and delver in the bottom, and the Lotus at the crown.
(sorry for a crude drawing)
September 28, 2018 4:26PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: The cards were never special, but these aspects now are.
They come together, and violently, one by one, slam into your head.
WAM WAM WAM WAM WAM WAM WAM
"I await your return home, Jessica Murphy, child of Arcadia, Enchantress on the Path of The Thistle, Scion of The Watchtower of The Lunargent Thorn, to the Kingdom of Enchantment, Abode of Fae. I await to see how you will have grown."
The light envelops you and you lose orientation. Before every part of you is cut open, from fingertips to private parts, to your very heart. Rended open in completely real pain, and your mind disappears.
September 28, 2018 4:32PMWatchtower Of the Lunargent Thorn: *
*
*
"Murphy, your safety is on. Was your safety on the whole time, you idiot?"
*
"Beautiful creature, and as you can see, completely harmless when fed."
*
*
"You're never gonna be special! You american bitch!"
Blink.
You are Aiping, caring for her ill mother. You speak to her in chinese, holding her hand.
"It's okay, mom, I'll win this tournament and we'll get you the transplant."
"I won't tell anyone. They don't need to know."
*
*
*
Every time you meet Hans as he gives you dossiers, the cards reach out to him, and he pulls the tendrils out. Collecting some form of resource.*
*
"Jessie?" - but you're not there.*
*
"Stop it. I know what you're doing." - he says.
"Fine, I can do that too."
*Mladen begins to glow a red aura. Everything in the pavilion stops. Sounds, movement, air itself. You understand it now. He stops time. Only you are not frozen. Mladen brushes the Tendrils of Hans' cards away and stands up, simply opening his library, looking through it, and arranging cards how he wants to, and also rearranging yours. You just sit there and stare at him cheat. He sits down, trying to get his position just right, as he was.
He lifts the Time Stop effect and stops glowing, but he didn't get it perfect, so to everyone else it was a micro twitch in his posture. Your cards begin to glow again. They put something in opposition of his effect. Where as he physically switches the cards, your cards shift mystically, when they are face down, when their probability is unknown.*
"Stop it, god damnit!"
He violently shuffles cards, lays them all out on the table, face up, but the Tendrils of Hans' deck start to create a paradox, they shift the images ON the cards themselves, and Mladen tries to race the effect, by placing cards he wants in order.*
September 28, 2018 4:57PMMladen: "How are you even doing that? You read as a sleeper."
*
September 28, 2018 4:57PMMladen: : "Stop it!"
*
September 28, 2018 4:58PMMladen: : "Stop... o-o-o-o-... p... iit.!"
Boom
Your turn.
((can go if need to, pick up later))
(I was hooked though)
(catch you later)
(can i see the gold tendrils right now or was that only from my position outside time?
So what I want to do is to end up inside the time stop bubble when Mladen casts it so I can talk to him
October 02, 2018 1:39PMMladen: *He seems to feel it, does something, and you feel an odd familiar tingle on the back of your head, like your neck hair is standing up, localized goosebumps, and a heat coming across the right side of your face. At the very moment, Mladen begins to glow dim red, and starts examining you and your cards. He sees the aura and the tendrils as well, and you already know the two words he's about to say.
October 02, 2018 1:46PMMladen: He cocks his head "How... how are you even... you're a slee..."
Mladen stops time. Everything stops moving, except you and him... and actually, the Swedish fellow, Peter, he can also move.
"You're a..."
October 02, 2018 1:47PMPeter: approaches you two at the table
"That's what I'm telling you, it's not her, she's a sleeper."
October 02, 2018 1:48PMMladen: "Like hell she is, look." - Mladen points at you, and Peter does something. You feel a familiar tingle, and Peter starts faintly glowing green
October 02, 2018 1:50PMPeter: Looks at Mladen in terror "Oh no."
October 02, 2018 1:51PMMladen: To Peter: "She reads Acanthus."
To you:
"Did you just awaken?"
October 02, 2018 1:54PMPeter: Peter and Mladen exchange glances in panic
October 02, 2018 1:56PMMladen: "Yeah, we know. We're the terrorists. Listen carefully. You're not safe. Everything you felt is real. You're not crazy and you need to go. Now! Your awakening is about to send a temporal ripple so fucking high Angela Merkel's gonna feel it in her asshole. I can only hold time for 8 more seconds. Run somewhere safe!
October 02, 2018 1:57PMPeter: "Everyone is very powerful when they awaken! You'll be really helpless really soon, depends on the size of the distortion."
October 02, 2018 1:57PMMladen: "Stay alive."
October 02, 2018 2:02PMMladen: ((oh for fucks sake boss called meeting))
October 02, 2018 4:14PMMladen: he reaches into the golden tendrils of the deck over the table and pulls on them, ripping them out.
The cards fly into disarray
Jessica, the back of your head tingles, there is ringing in your ears, and the right side of your face burns
You hear Hans' voice
You hear gunshots in the audience seats, and men in gray suits start appearing among the crowd.
((Welcome to your first paradox roll, little lady))
She needed Mladen's spell to hold
rolling 1d10>8!
()
5
0 Successes
((this is good for you. You NEVER want this roll to succeed))
(is that every spell?)
((Every vulgar spell))
((See, pro mages have techniques to mitigate this))
The right side of your face burns hot like fire, then it feels cool like ice. The action in the arena slows down about 3 times. Sounds, gunshots, gravity, motion. You find yourself in a slow motion film, where only you move at real speed.
rolling 1d10>8!
()
3
0 Successes
You get a vague and unexplainable feeling that you just got extremely lucky, and that Mladen had something to do with it.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Rrr-u-u-un-n-n"
Wits + Composure +3 please
rolling 7d10>8!
(+++++++)
8
9
8
10
7
6
3
3
4 Successes
I can't get answers from Mladen and I can't save people
Are you heading outside?
I'm meeting Hans at that corner
you know the one
Let's try a differnt exit
You see three parked ambulance vans by the building, their sirens and lights are on.
Everything is still moving in slow motion.
i feel like roads and time magic are a terrible mix
A figure of a man just flew 20 feet up, struck by something, something obscured from view between the vans. There is a fight. Multiple people fighting.
It's on the other side of town from your home, in fact
Everything got left behind. Her cards, everything. Ah fuck, she was still wearing the stupid shirt. She typed the nearest clothing store into google maps.
The terrorists didn't need an easy way to identify her from a distance
Or wait til tomorrow.
Nearest bar?
Super vague
That's like the only business that would be open and have a lost and found
A sting of much greater pain in your left hand, it goes limply broken, and then suddenly doesn't. A faint pull of a rifle sling weighs on your neck, and suddenly doesn't.
October 02, 2018 11:26PMBartender: The bartender is a satyr. A fat orange one, washing the mugs and giving them a lick for good measure. He has a long tail with a fluffy tip, which wiggles casually. He looks at you, licking his nose ring with a fork-tailed tongue.
October 02, 2018 11:27PMBartender: Reacting to what? Bartender is a normal dude. I mean, he's just a bit on the heavy hipster side, nose ring, gauged ears, some cliche tats, but a reasonably chill guy.
October 02, 2018 11:28PMBartender: "What can I do for you?"
October 02, 2018 11:33PMBartender: Wits + Subterfuge (need 2 successes)
October 02, 2018 11:34PMBartender: (yup)
rolling 10d10>8!
(++++++++++)
4
6
1
7
5
4
10
4
8
3
1
2 Successes
shit, that was close
October 02, 2018 11:34PMBartender: squints at you
"Lemme see. Oh yeah, this must be it." - He rummages under the bar and produces a leather jacket two sizes bigger than you.
"Can you just tell me what it had in the pockets?"
October 02, 2018 11:45PMBartender: He reaches into the inside pockets, producing a lighter and a wallet. He goes through the wallet and counts a decent amount of cash in it. He gives you a meaningful look, the "i'm onto you" kind of look, but he hands you the jacket, keeping the lighter and the wallet for himself.
"Keep it quiet, and I don't care if you have it."
October 02, 2018 11:47PMBartender: Roll Composure + Subterfuge again
no specialties
rolling 8d10>8!
(++++++++)
7
1
3
9
3
3
10
3
3
2 Successes
rolling 8d10>8!
(+++++++++)
8
10
1
3
10
4
1
7
2
4
3 Successes
October 02, 2018 11:50PMThis one guy: "Omg, heeeeey, aren't you that chick?"
October 02, 2018 11:54PMGuy: "The sick Magic grinder girl, America, yeah? Blue burn deck in quarter finals! You're Jessica!! Hey, hey, let me buy you a drink! WOOOOOOOAH sick tattoo! Did they have you cover that up on TV?"
October 02, 2018 11:55PMGuy: (yes, yes you are)
October 02, 2018 11:56PMGuy: (there is no tattoo you should remember but you are not)
"Oh I'm not her. I think she's at a tournament or something up the street right now."
October 02, 2018 11:59PMGuy: "Yeah, like I'm buying that. A black lotus tattooed on your forehead. Nice try. Well, it's cool, if you don't want attention, I'll keep quiet. I get it with you celebrity types. Can I just have an autograph? Just one, and I bugger off."
October 03, 2018 12:00AMGuy: hands you a pen
October 03, 2018 12:00AMGuy: hands you his MtG deck
"Here, on the box, please"
And Jessica tries to leave
October 03, 2018 12:02AMGuy: laughs, ecstatic!
"Thanks! I gotcha! Cool cool!"
Once out on the street she gets her phone back out and puts the camera on selfie mode
October 03, 2018 12:08AMGuy: this is your face
October 03, 2018 12:08AMGuy: the circle of emblems is perfectly arranged around your left eye
it looks like blue ink
October 03, 2018 12:09AMGuy: You remember the exact place on your face that was burning and then icy cold when you slowed down time
It was that
or any visual differences from one pic to the other?
October 03, 2018 12:09AMGuy: it does not
October 03, 2018 12:09AMGuy: it is all normal blue tattoo
I'm gonna have to cover this up somehow before I go home
She shakes it off, but keeps touching the tattoos with her left hand as she walks
anyways, moving on
okay so train now
what is the next time it leaves?
I'mma set an alarm on my phone though
After Credit Scene
Between three ambulances, there is a fight. Several men in grey business suits lay dead on the ground. Several men in white medical coats lay dead.
12 men in white doctor coats are fighting against one man. The man is Hans. He punches one of the "doctors" causing him to fly 20 feet in the air, roundhouse kicks another into the van, dead. Two more shoot rifles at him, but the bullets go through, and soon, he has his fists through their throats. He throws another to the ground, roaring like a beast. Two more jump on his back, wounding him in the back with knives. He's killed half of them, when out of nowhere comes Mladen. He glows red and reaches with his hand to the ground. Mladen chants: "I hereby invoke the Squaring of the Ancient Circle"
"I accept." - Hans replies, and a circle between three ambulances shifts its air, separating itself from laws of reality.
.jpg)
12:37AMMladen: "You luck thieves had had enough!"
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
"Who needs cards when a soul would do?
SUMMONUM PER MANUM MEAM TEMPORE MAGNUS JESSICA"
.jpg)
Thusly, Hans has his last laugh, triggering Jessica's awakening
Two Days Ago
Your breath smells awful. Train is slowing down. It's still dark outside
I wake up and feel really disoriented for a second like waking from a very deep and needed sleep does to you
Sort of startle into a sitting up position and look around briefly for the grey men or satyrs or whatever else might be off about the train, and then try to relax
It's very hard not to be twitchy and paranoid given the events of the last few days
Last day? Time sucked
Water bottle and crackers sounds amazing for breakfast right now
Okay so water bottle and both cheese and peanut butter crackers
nom nom nom
ate*
I'm gonna grab the heftiest stuff in the vending machine until I'm out of quarters
It's 3:45 in the morning.
I'm gonna go ahead and assume for now that the terrorists aren't quite well connected enough to get a ping when i use my credit card and call for an uber
also twenty minutes isn't a lot of time for anyone to get their shit together
I'm gonna put the wrong address in the uber thing just in case
and give the driver directions verbally
rolling 1d2
()
2
2
You get a guy. He's coming from nearby, takes him like 4 minutes or so to get there.
Your impeccable sense of passing time is gone.
Anything funny about the guy who shows up?
1:07AMDriver: "Hi. Okay. No problem. Let's punch it in. Okay. That's a nice tattoo. My son has a tattoo."
drives
1:08AMDriver: "Oh some angel or something. Or raven. Or eagle. Something like that. I tell him, why you have tattoo, your skin is dark, can't really see it. He says I don't get it."
1:11AMDriver: "Yeah, sure." He turns on the radio on a random channel
1:13AMDriver: he switches channels to some rock song
1:14AMDriver: Roll stamina to not dose off. Your body wants more sleep
feel free to use willpower
rolling 4d10>8!
(+++)
5
4
9
6
1 Success
1:15AMDriver: you barely tank the nausea
repeating same words over and over both helps and hurts, but eventually you're there
"Okay, it will be.... 34 euro"
1:16AMDriver: drives off
Everything's closed
Jesus I'm tired
some really nice plants
like, magically nice?
they feel very soothing, good to take a nap under
that seems suspicious
yeah, they kinda do
let's find another bench
there's always concrete
and a hard wall to lean against
"I didn't expect everything to still be fucky when I got back," she mumbles to herself.
Concrete and hard wall it is
fuck plants
on concrete, like a bum, man, Jess, you've hit some low, man
everybody has a bad day
tic toc
1:24AMBusinessman: It's a man in a gray suit.
Startle real bad and scramble away
1:25AMBusinessman: he shakes you gently and beckons you to get up
Jessica scrambles to put some distance between them
1:27AMBusinessman: makes a hand gesture to follow
Just people coming to work
rolling 7d10>8!
(++++++)
8
5
4
2
8
7
5
2 Successes
rolling 6d10>8!
(+++++)
9
5
2
8
2
4
2 Successes
You can't tell.
1:33AMBusinessman: "You came to the right place. Everything will be cleared up. This way."
1:35AMBusinessman: flashes you a business card
"Herman Klauss, Cube Data & Transport Corp. Assistant"
motions at your t-shirt with the company logo
1:38AMBusinessman: Walks to one of the unmarked doors at the shared firm building, just a few yards across the plaza, and opens it for you
1:39AMBusinessman: It's a hallway, with a big register, with a front desk lady, and an elevator with at least 30 floors. Various firms are located on various floors. The man in gray calls up the elevator, ignoring the receptionist, and she ignores him, and he beckons you in
The lobby area is very nicely decorated, a coffee machine there, some bagels available
1:40AMBusinessman: THE BAGEL IS DELICIOUS
please roll stamina+composure
rolling 8d10>8!
(++++++++)
7
6
8
6
2
10
2
4
1
2 Successes
does it remind me of peter's?
1:41AMBusinessman: what a delicious ordinary bagel
1:42AMBusinessman: nope, nothing spooky here
nope nope nope
He pushes a button with an arrow down. There are 30 floors upward, but only one button to go down. And the elevator heads to the basement. For a while.
BECAUSE DRAGON
Jessica gets nervous jitters. She clasps her hands in front of her and still ends up tapping thumbs together
1:45AMBusinessman: Doors open, and the man motions for you to exit, into an even more luxurious office space, with big white letters on the oaken wall
CDTC
The furniture here is fucking top notch
1:47AMBusinessman: *There are several Gray Men in Suits here, all look very similar to one another, but Klauss leads you past all that, down some stairs and corridors into the richest lobby of them all, and motions for you to sit on the comfiest couch you have ever felt, in front of a set of closed office doors. The name on the office doors says "Leopold Cubic, CEO"
"Please remain seated. Herr Cubic will be with you shortly"
She tries to keep the figetting to a manageable amount while she stares openly impressed by her surroundings
(I gotta sleep)
(it's 5 am)
Doors open. And what greets you is... not even a man, but a personification of the very word "SLY"
Jessica, prepare to meet The Dragon
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He leans down to smile at you with deep concern. (This face)
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"Oh hush hush hush, you busy busy excited young thing. don't you worry, everyone will be alright. Have you eaten, have you showered, have you slept in a proper bed? Let's get you cleaned up first, eh?"
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"What kind of explosion, dearie?"
"Who wasn't there when you got there?"
.jpg)
I mean, he told me that in the alternate timeline but if that's the first place he though about in an emergency it's not a stretch to think he'd come here anyway.
.jpg)
the smell of eggs and bacon makes your tummy grumble as you near what appears to be a set of living suites
(One name was offered)
or Int+Investigation+2
Since you read their dossiers
rolling 5d10>8!
(++++)
4
7
6
5
3
0 Successes
try with investigation
As she is talking she is loading a plate with more food than what might be considered polite, but she's had a fuckawful day and night and eating is the only thing she wants to be doing besides sleeping. Omg eggs. All the eggs.
Orange juice or coffee? Why not both?
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For food, scrambled eggs, sunny side up eggs, omelette, bacon, sausage, schnitzel, waffles, pancakes, bread, fruit salads, shrimp, vegetables*
More hungry than choosey
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The man nods and inserts inflections into her pauses, careful not to repeat any names.
"That is very weird."
When she asks why anyone would blow up a Magic Tournament, he finally says something that isn't just a confirmation of him listening.
"Well, it's a difficult question, dearie. Germany's not a calm country right now. Surely you know that. We have two small wars going on, small ones but still. Terrorists are about, Berlin is a big city, sporting events are not uncommon targets. Buses get blown up, trains, airports. It's terrible, just terrible. I mean, we'd have to look into it, we'll investigate and figure it all out. You get yourself cleaned up and rest. Without your bright little mind working right, you'll be of no help to anyone."
.jpg)
tone
not town
.jpg)
"Well there are security cameras, dearie."
"You didn't know who I was."
.jpg)
Just shakes his head patronizingly and kindly, to a stupid question
"You need to sleep. Your brain is racing and stressed. Do you want dessert? Here, have something sweet. Cookies, ice cream?"
She reddened briefly at the kind remark.
"Thank you for this." She gestures at all the food.
"The Mladen guy...he didn't have like, an identity for Mr. Ehnske to check out...I feel like it's worth noting that these guys are more organized than a couple of kids. Also there were ambulances outside already when I got out. That's pretty weird."
.jpg)
Listens to everything along the way
sort of
(my dog is [helping one moment)
Eventually Jessica sort of runs out of gas as far as details to tell him. She makes the mistake of sitting on the bed for a second and it's so comfy. Her mind is split between being decent and showering first or just sleeping and worrying about being clean later. The shower and the bed are both singing a siren's song. "Thank you so much Mr. Cubic. Please let me know when you find out about Mr. Ehnske."
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He walks out and gently closes the door, leaving you in the suite alone.
everything is in roughly your size, not precisely, but roughly
That's weird
But without any choice, it's kinda also weird. Weirdly corporate. "You know I'm wearing under the suit, Mr. Ehnske? Absolutely nothing"
You are clean. Shower feels amazing. The events of the past 12 hours race through your mind, but it's more of a turtle race, because your stomach desperately wants to digest and begs to do it during a nap. You crash on the bed, and it is so insanely soft, warm, and comfortable, that you are the deepest you were ever asleep in a long time*
You have dreams.
You see your uncle, Charlie.
((Black Lotus was the reason she was here at the tournament in the first place, and also why she cringed at night when she tried to sleep. It was a pricey card—worth $3,000 dollars. Her best cards after it were comparatively beggarous at $135 or so last time she checked. Her uncle had bought it for her as a graduation present so she could compete in the World Championship—top prize $50,000. Her father had twitched his mustache a lot, and as soon as her uncle left he suggested she sell it on Ebay. - excerpt from your backstory file ))
11:02AMUncle Charlie: hugs you after you have won World Championship, you put the trophy down to hug him back
"I knew you could do that, Jess, my brilliant little princess!"
Am I cognizant enough to feel guilty about the dream since I didn't actually win?
Also I just lost all my cards T_T
stupid terrorists
If you feel guilty, then guilt is what will color the dream sequence
so I'mma say it just does its thing
11:37AMEd: Murphy: "See, I told you it was a bad idea. 3000 dollars would have been a good school investment. That's a semester in school."
11:38AMUncle Charlie: "That's your problem, man, you're always business business work work work, girl's gotta have fun, Ed."
11:40AMEd Murphy: "She's my daughter, Charles. Not you who's gotta pay the bills when she's broke. Not your doorstep she gonna come to if she can't find a job. Not you who gets to make her feel better if her husband dumps her. You get to do all the fun stuff, and buy all the toys. With money you wouldn't have, if you had...."
11:43AMCharlie: "If I had my own family? Yeah, go ahead, say it. It's fine. Maybe you're right, Ed. I mean, of course, you're right. But there will be times when she's alone anyways, and you won't be there, and neither will your doorstep. There will be times when she will be so alone, that the only things she can carry with her - are not her money, not her job, not your house - but the love she received, the joy she felt, the games she played..."
11:46AMEd: : "Okay, okay, bro, I'm sorry, I was out of line. I'm sorry." - your father goes to hug Charlie. Charlie hugs him, but insists on finishing his point.
11:49AMCharlie: : "It's okay, but no, listen, I've felt it. Trust me, I did. Laura and I never got the chance before she passed. And there were dark times, when I considered the temptation to join her. And I've wanted nothing else than to have children and be with her. But suicide isn't reunion. It's darkness, it's death. Just not easy to see it that way. In my darkest hour, it was the happy memories of Laura that pulled me through. It wasn't the plans we made, or the house we bought, or the jobs we worked."
: "In the darkest hour, it was as little as the kind words we've whispered, the things we said. Those were the things I could repeat to myself at night. To heal. To deal with my loss."
The dreamscape changes to a Satyr's lair.
11:52AMPeter: "Jessica!"
1:54PMPeter: "Hello, my Muse!"
1:57PMPeter: "I'm here, I managed to come with you! In what form I could. You're right, this world is very different."
2:01PMPeter: "You are so brave and strong! I'm happy you made it to the tower and back out."
2:03PMPeter: "I think so... I feel strange. There is a thing about this world. It is... complex and confusing. And it is also.... so very dry. It has no... this. It doesn't have enough of this kind of place."
2:05PMPeter: "I think it does have magic, everywhere, but it's too heavy for me to lift. Unless I'm near you. But now I feel okay."
2:20PMPeter: "I would love to have you in my arms again. Do you need anything? I could try to help."
2:23PMPeter: "We could try! Have you ever been to Greece?"
2:24PMPeter: "Let's go. I feel all the power now!"
You two lift off and fly through the air over green landscapes
"I think we're way past hair and blood now, my love! We are connected now. We're using all your magic!"
He laughs and hugs you and spins you around
"I'm really glad you made it."
2:29PMPeter: Images of ancient Greece grow around you, just like in illustrations. Not only did you jump in location, but also in time. In the lodges sit the greek oligarchs, petting giant greyhounds, women bathing in the fountains, you have a stylish toga on, Peter is in his usual blue nude satyr self. He dances and plays the flute
2:31PMPeter: "Oooh. That is a good question."
Peter approaches a man sitting on a stone bench, an obvious person of power
"This kind of person would obviously be dangerous, yes? We could not touch him without consequence, could we?"
2:32PMPeter: "Are you dreaming? Is this your dream?"
2:33PMPeter: "I will have to find out more. My memory is a little hazy. You could try to name this person. See what happens."
Jessica smirked. Another transforming card would be fun. She pointed at the man with a sort of silly amount of importance, saying, "Kytheon, Hero of Akros."
2:39PMKytheon: *the man stands up, petting a giant dog. "Hello. My name is Kytheon, the famed hero of Akros, and this is my loyal hound Atrius. How do you fare this fine day?"
2:41PMPeter: They're moving about their business, but you know how it gets in dreams. Things are sort of backgroundy, until you focus on something, and then it becomes more prominent
"We're great. Just exploring."
2:42PMPeter: Peter serves both you and Kytheon some grapes and a glass of wine each
2:43PMKytheon: "Thank you, kind and gentle devil-god, to your health, citizen explorer. Welcome to the city of Athens. The greatest city in Greece."
2:43PMKytheon: "What brings you here of all places?"
(it's not modern greece cause i've never been there)
2:49PMPeter: (yuuuupp)
2:50PMKytheon: "Sometimes it is a good decision to go somewhere in a random unexpected direction. There is a sense of lightness in it, don't you think?"
2:53PMPeter: "Do you think it's a good idea? What if the owner of the dream is in control there, and not us? I'd have to study up on this for next time."
2:54PMPeter: Sure, usually.
At least the idea of it.
2:56PMKytheon: "I say you fine people just go ahead and see what happens. Overplanning is complicated and rarely does good. Just like your uncle Charlie said, it's not the plans you make, but the fun you have. Plans go wrong, and that only adds to the weight of burdens. Have fun, play games!"
"I like you, Kytheon. But everyone is awake right now, unless I wanted to go to China or something. That seems kind of far."
(China's actually probably the wrong direction. we probably actually want like Greenland)
I dunno how many time zones that is
3:00PMKytheon: "Well, if you must. I like you too, by the way. Since you are such a charming duo, I, Kytheon of Akros, grant you my estate and all its denizens for enjoyment. Play, play, play with us!"
3:01PMPeter: Men and women around the fountain start taking off their togas, splashing each other with water out of their jugs and tubs, drinking, eating grapes, and making out. It's a start of an orgy.
3:01PMPeter: "This is really my kind of fun!" - Peter beckons you to join in.
3:02PMKytheon: "Who cares? Your mom's not here."
3:04PMPeter: "Okay!" - Peter was already balls deep in some blonde greek lady who looked like a statue dressed in oil painting clothes
Kytheon does not say goodbye, he just drops being a thing. Your neighborhood manifests. Not immediately. Some residual feeling of horniness still persists. The dream you is not wearing clothes, and your body is full of the libido energy
By the time you see your home, you are clothed. Peter is not.
Jessica takes Peter's hand and guides him towards her house. "Do you like it? The mortal world?"
3:07PMPeter: You feel a little drunk from the wine earlier
"Is this the mortal world though? I think this is the mortal would the way you see it in your dreams. I've seen the mortal world a little when I sit on your cheek, but it's all dry and flat. This... this is much better. Much more.... volume. Is this where you live, Enchantress?"
3:14PMPeter: "Wow. It is so... What is that for? Do you keep wyverns?" - he points to the garage door
3:15PMPeter: "Those chariots on four wheels?"
"Yeah."
3:16PMPeter: "They run without horses. Are they magic?"
3:18PMPeter: "Doesn't that make them magic?"
3:19PMPeter: "Of course, mages do."
"I can use a car but I'll never be able to build one."
3:21PMPeter: "That depends. I think I only know how to drive it, unfortunately. So, I'm not so great at stating my argument case. I play my flute and that makes magic. I think it works by... using the essence of greater things."
"So what's greater than a mage?"
3:23PMPeter: "Of course, I only know what you know. I can recall what you pick up when you're awake, or what I can dig up from your memories."
"Hmmm. What's greater than a mage? A mage who goes to school to study how magic works. I mean, why couldn't you build a car? You could go to school to learn that."
3:25PMPeter: "You seem sad. Did I make you sad?"
You two come near the house to find the door is unlocked and left open
"Is the Tower the only thing there?"
3:38PMPeter: "Wow, these are some complicated questions. I see your conflict. More so, I feel it. We could take it point by point. First being, just because you make something up, does not make it empty. Otherwise everything is empty, like art, civilization, or, you know, anything at all."
rubs his horns in thought
"Secondly, if we ignore that postulate, it still does not prove that I am not real, or that you are not real. In Arcadia you started doubting your own reality, and there was a clear boundary, past which you could go, but I could not. Which marks distinction between you and I. I know the Tower is real, but before meeting you, it was just a bright and frightening thing, a thing i did not go near. I became more brave and cogniscent once you shared yourself with me. So, if I were to ponder my own existence, which, mind you, is dangerous, as we satyrs are known to be demons, and demons are great philosophers, I would suppose that I am part you and part something much older. I think that you've encountered a genuine piece of Arcadia, the thing that I was, and shaped it to be something you can understand. While I retain knowledge I had of my home, most of it deals with making really good quality wine and pleasures of the flesh. I am a care free and magical being. But a union with you requires precision, goal specific existance, and that I can only pick up from the world around us... around... you. Since I am tethered to you, being a.... well, literally on your cheek. So....Where does that leave us?"
3:51PMPeter: Things are thrown around, dishes are broken, TV is ripped from the wall, chairs are missing cushions
3:52PMPeter: "Something's wrong, isn't it?" - Peter takes out his flute
"Which reminds me. Out there in the real world, I can protect you like I did on the bridge. But I think, only for a limited time. Remember that."
3:55PMPeter: "I have no idea. You can try?"
"I want to see what happened."
3:56PMPeter: "In your dream?"
3:56PMPeter: Family photos are broken on the floor, paintings, vases.
3:58PMPeter: Cupboards are open, drawers are out, all utensils are on the floor, pantry is emptied, everything is out of their containers. Water in the sink is running. The stove is on
4:01PMPeter: Windows are open, curtains flying, clothes are thrown on the floor, closets emptied, laundry bins flipped over
"I think maybe I need to wake up now."
4:03PMPeter: "Okay, I'll do some snooping, and I'll let the others know it's time."
4:05PMPeter: "Well there are five others on your face. Plus the Lotus. The Lotus is kind of in charge. The others just can't talk. Because, you know, no intimate connection. They didn't share a night with you like I did, so they can't do what I can do here, but they're still there. They can all do something. You'd have to ask. Keep in mind. The Hour Glass can be kind of a dick."
4:07PMPeter: "Oooops, time to go. See you later, Jessica!"
Poof
She fished her phone out and tried her mom's number
"The number you have reached is not in service at this time"
"Please try your call again"
Doing the cross-legged walk to the bathroom while it rings
Start to dial Heike's number and delete. Instinct is to not draw attention to her or Aiping. Uncle Charlie?
If you dial it
Do you dial it or not?
Same as Aiping's
What about Uncle Charlie?
I'm calling uncle charlie
4:32PMCharlie: : "Hello?"
4:34PMCharlie: : "Jessica! Hey, little miss! How have you been? It's been so long! What's with dad? Did you try mom?"
4:40PMCharlie: : "Oh sweetie, I'm in Vienna, on a tour, just got to see the Schonbrunn Palace. It is such a wonderful place, I have to take you there sometime. I'm so happy you had fun at the tournament, did you win?"
"I'm at Cube Transport and Data Corp."
4:47PMCharlie: : "Absolutely, when I come back, you can show me all the pictures! How's school?"
The door is locked
Present Day
((I'm keeping a GM copy))
Arcana: Time: 2 dots Fate 1 dot
These are [ruling]
Next to Forces arcana, put [inferior]
Wisdom 7
Remove Prized Possession - Black Lotus
2?
is it euqal to flaw points?
*equal
it's like free 20+ exp
Open your rotes now
No roll
No cost
(Special: Instead of 1 mana cost, may pay cost by feeling horny and drunk immediately after for same amount of hours as successes)
My sheet has it, your may not
This spell is actually above your level normally at the moment, and you can't cast it regularly, except through the brand until you learn more fate. The tattoo would let you bypass the level requirement once per day
Interconnections
Page 148
Intelligence + Investigation + Fate
(additional Wits + Empathy + Fate optional for more information)
Distant Melody (Undiscovered, Special)
Bitterblossom Pixie (Undiscovered)
And thaaaaaat's the way the news goes! :)
she made it though, barely
Justin awoke a little stronger
you gonna get the full experience of the climb
that was fun as hell
Or at least Anthony blew up.
200m
Later we will all look back at this log for subtle details
Like why did Leopold check his watch?
Which is longer than 3 sessions.
I have to say, look up Arcadia on white wolf wiki
how the FUCK do you work with a realm
that's supposed to change
at whim
laters! :D