Pete's second shadowrun adventure: The Well of Wyrd

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 3rd, 2009, 19:00

I'll put my arm around Jon in a hearty hug, with a big grin, and concentrate on being where the Phlegmassbus thing is.

Post by **Roman Totale** » October 3rd, 2009, 19:10

Firenza wrote:Brought your ruby red slippers, Jasper?

I will follow suit.

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 3rd, 2009, 19:18

Jasper wrote:Dere's nah place like over dere.

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 3rd, 2009, 19:21

As you both concentrate on the point where Phlegastus appeared you feel a gentle tugging at your bodies, a brief whistle of noise and you're standing next to the creature again.

No portalling through hell dimensions and such, just a brief feeling of speed and a blur of light as you stepped forward.

Now you're in the middle you see that the books covering the tables cover a bewildering array of subjects, biology books are stacked next to books on children's fairy tales which are stacked next to scrolls of old maps, held open by ornamental daggers and wizened heads and the like. Just about every subject matter possible is represented in the piles, some teetering in their unbalanced stacking. You can just make out behind you were you set off from, a middle balcony seemingly unremarkable from any other part of the library.

You can also hear a low moaning sound issuing from somewhere.

Phlegastus wrote:I am sorry to bring you here to see this. But I need help.

It sets of around some of the piles of books toward the centre of the tables.

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 3rd, 2009, 19:30

Set off after him. Forgetting to take my arm from around Jon unless he reminds me.

Post by **fabyak** » October 3rd, 2009, 20:33

Jon wrote:Something you wanna tell me sweetheart? Just because you drag me on some magical fucking rollercoaster doesn't make me want to fuck you

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 4th, 2009, 12:18

Jasper grins, cigar clenched in his teeth.

Jasper wrote:Weyul sheeit bra, ah thank ah unnerstood one'o y'all's words dere. C'mon!

He gives Jon a squeeze and lets him go.

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 5th, 2009, 16:19

After rounding a few of the book piles and tables Phlegastus stops for a second and turns toward you

Phlegastus wrote:Do not stare unfocused at the gem, it is dangerous to those unused to power. Jon, do not linger in your gaze or you will be undone.

You walk into the epicentre of the mess, the books are stacked so high they teeter above you, giving the space at the centre of the room a feel of some sort of cave made from paper. Sitting at a desk with his back to you and making strange moaning sounds whilst rocking is a gaunt looking man, old beyond his years in a faded grey robe with a few threadbare sigils picked out around the hem and neck.

The space is lit by a strange glow that you can't really place a colour on, it just seems to fill the whole book cave with a steady unwavering light, but casts no shadows.

Post by **fabyak** » October 6th, 2009, 7:47

Jon wrote:You won't hear me say this often, but I ain't gonna argue with that.

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 6th, 2009, 11:39

Shop -

As you all spread out you see a gem hanging on a fine chain around the wasting almost skeletal neck of the mage. It's translucent and a pale finely cut into a teardrop, but its finery is destroyed somwhat by the two sides being jagged and uneven.

It's not drilled for the chain, it's covered in a filigree of an unknown metal wrapped around it like a mesh and the chain is looped through this. The art of the telkari surrounding the gem is too fine too see at a distance, you can only see the gaps where the jagged edges cut through it.

Phelgastus wrote:The blue robed elf came and left this gem behind, as you can see it has quite enraptured Aiden, my partner in this enterprise. For all my power it repels me as if it is from a plane of existence quite alien to my own and I can barely stand before it's power.

This is why I am being open and to the point. No doubt you feel its touch already, this thing has consumed my friend and I am powerless.

Warehouse -

Across the yard the siren sounds again, dinner time is over. There's no movement beyond the door that you can detect. You both going to carry on standing about?

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 6th, 2009, 17:33

How is the gem making me feel? Can I sense any ass?

Ass-sensing 3 + INT 4 =

1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 1, 4: 0 hits.

...

Apparently not.

Post by **deject** » October 6th, 2009, 17:55

Lex see what you can do with this slate. We should probably get out of here.

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 7th, 2009, 18:56

Shop/Library, Pants - despite that roll you can sense ass. You can't put your finger on any real 'flavour' but you get a fleeting sense of some almost subconscious, predatory affect from the gem. No doubt the enrapturing affect that has sucked the man in front of you into it's grasp.

He's still muttering to himself, a sudden burst of hand pointing and the light dims slightly as a few books float from the piles around you to land on the table by him. The pages flick over by themselves as he searches for something.

Phlegastus wrote:He has been like this for days, I have not seen him take sustenance and sleep only fitfully. His power has been magnified extraordinarily by the gem, but it consumes him like a cancer, he wastes and I cannot bolster him whilst he is in possession of it. Please help me humans.

Warehouse - good job these boss types are on a pub lunch really!

Post by **Roman Totale** » October 7th, 2009, 19:15

Firenza wrote:Does healing magic work on him, or can he only be helped by the removal of the gem?

Post by **deject** » October 7th, 2009, 19:15

joooooooooooooose!

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 7th, 2009, 19:31

Phelgastus wrote:Mine does not, but it may well be that you can heal him where I cannot. I don't know how the gem will react if you attempt to heal him however.

As for removing the gem, in this state I dread to think what harm he would attempt upon your mortal frames whilst under its influence. It has attuned to him and I do not know the limits of his power, he is a blank to me.

The feverish research he carries out, I do not know what he's looking for, but he has lucid moments when he mentions its power and the danger, or that there may be other gems like it. The elf in the robe mentioned this when he left it here, he wanted to know everything about the gem.

Possibly he knew of the danger in scrying it and decided to get another to sacrifice themselves upon the altar of knowledge. This man freed me from my bound state and I shall do the same for him, whatever it takes. If that darkling creature comes back there will be a reckoning.

As Phlegastus utters these last words its form grows, a wind picks up from nowhere and flutters through the pages of the books. A darkness creeps in against the light of the gem, like inky water pouring around a rock in a stream. It creates a visible orb of light surrounded by darkness around the man sat at the desk, a sphere of air and you can see for all Phlegastus' power, it cannot breach the gems influence. You're all standing in this influence to some extent except for Phlegastus. The air takes on a bitter tang as it fills with too much magic, but it clears quickly as Phlegastus calms.

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 7th, 2009, 20:03

Okay, first I'll have a ponder at the gem;

Perception; 6, 1, 4, 3, 6, 6, 1, 6: 4 hits.
Occult knowledge; 1, 1, 2, 3: 0 hits. CG!

Then I'll have a think to myself. Do I think a spirit might have any more chance of healing this chap? Also, do I think Arcana or Divining might lead anywhere? The skill descriptions don't specifically mention anything like this, but they seem like magical knowledge based skills which might help at a GM's discretion. Any spirits (Snake/guidance in particular) about?

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 7th, 2009, 20:42

You can instinctively tell the gem is ancient and whilst not possessing of any kind of captured/bound intelligence or such it naturally absorbs power from awakened and feeds a degree of power to all around it, even those who are mundane will feel it. You know from Phlegastus that some extra-planar powers are useless against it.

You can also tell it's acting as a focus without any attuning and it also affects all magics within the sphere of power it generates. Whether that's good or bad (other than the physical problems of the mage at the table) you don't know.

Given your method of interaction with spirits they are friendly toward you as long as you do your supplications each morning. As such any spirit you call upon with the help of Legba in the morning will be keeping an eye on you to some extent throughout the day, so that's every one you listed. The fastest response will always be from Samedi of course.

Your pondering helps you realise the use of a spirit could well protect you from any malign influence the gem exerts on this plane as their manifestation in to you alters you quite significantly. It may however leave you as incapable as Phlegastus or worse attack or even destroy the (your) spirit form if the gems reaction to cross planar energies is more extreme. You just can't tell right now.

Of course whatever spirit you summon may yield results without it even directly interacting with the gem or entering its sphere of influence.

Divining will work, using your arcana skill to interpret the resulting vision of the future will also work.

Post by **Dog Pants** » October 7th, 2009, 20:53

What if the spirit was to possess gem blokey? I'm thinking bad.

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 7th, 2009, 21:11

It could well tear him free from the hold of the gem and deliver him in fine health eager to paste the elf who duped him. Or it could render him long pig jam in some hideous cross planar meatsplosion. Again, you just don't know.