With a certain finally Fernando accepts that he doesn’t really remember much more than what he wants to be. Is he really Fernando? Was there ever a squire on a mission with an old bearded paladin?
He closes his eyes—
—for a single moment, letting the image go from his mind.
Then he moves his mechanical arm, feeling each copper tendon, each bronze muscle extend out. He moves a single finger one joint at a time.
“How about pressing this button for a start? No?”, he chuckles at Wei in the good natured way of friends.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited April 2020
[OOC: I'm going to greatly reward for acing that roll, but I want to give @Elvenshae a chance to nail down his questions.
ALTERNATIVELY! If Elvenshae's amenable to opening up the scene to the whole group, I'll move us forward with Exilis's magic on top of the results of Wei's activation of the Engine.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
The Time Between The Ticks of the Clock
Wei's hands lightly caress a nearby control panel on the Astral Engine, while the final words of Exilis's incantation echo off the walls.
The engine burns with a bright blue energy, and each of you feels a pull as if you are being ripped bodily through a pinhole in existence. The world goes black in an instant.
Tick.
You know you still exist, you can feel you exist, but you have no other perception. No gravity, no light, no warmth. Nothing.
Tock.
You perceive. You instantiate. You are floating, bodily, in a black void cross-hatched with lines of inscrutable energy.
You can perceive Exilis, just off in the distance. He's conversing with a man who gives you a look, and in that look you feel seen.
"It seems our friend Wei has trusted his instincts. The engine is in motion, and the beacons are lit. Friend Exilis, the timing of your incantation has proven fortuitous! Let us converse as we travel."
Tick. Tock. Tiiiiick. Tooooo.......
You reside within the Astral Plane. You're not sure where the rest of you is, but your immortal essence bobs gently on concordant waves of astral energy. Your astral forms perceive each other, including both Toth and Fernando, and the entity you've been introduced to as Tormlin gently guides you along a line of spectral light. You feel no weight, but you do feel the impetus of motion as the lines and nodes of energy shift around you.
"It will take some time, or no time at all, for us to reach our destination. The astral sea is strange in this way, and even a long-time resident such as myself hasn't mastered its navigation. The Baron's engines forcefully drive routes and clarity through the sea, but even then our journey is unpredictable. Nevertheless I am glad I am able to guide you how I can, and impart what knowledge and wisdom I have gathered while we travel."
[You have, at your leisure, the chance to ask Tormlin any questions you wish while you travel across the astral sea.] [What do you do?]
Is that you, master? he cries inwardly, Is that you... dad?I wish I had been better, I wish...
Fernando has a question he cannot ask. He’s too afraid to know it. It’s something he’ll maybe never know. He tries not to look too hard at the bearded paladin. It could be another. It could be that he himself is a forgery, and how embarrassing would it be to ask if so.
He takes a deep breath of astral and swivels in the winds of possibility. Once he’s facing away, he focused on a star (or whatever that big shiny thingy is far away) and musters his best Hero Voice.
“What ho fellow paladin!”, his voice cracks on paladin—he is only 15 after all, “Does that dastardly Baron draw his power from a source we can seal away from him for good?”
Without the barrel chest of his automaton body it’s clear Fernando is a slim youth who had just finished training. Heading to the island was his first mission.
[OOC: Feel free to ask your questions, I’m sure @Nips can reply in one post. This is about as deep as I want his arc to go, from here it’s all robot axeman.]
Well there goes any hope of nabbing one of those flying contraptions I 'spect. Ah well. Saving the world's gotta come first I s'pose.
Although Otto figures the contents of his darkener are still in the material plane he checks to see if it's still on his incorporeal self to use as a prop. He asks of the aged paladin: "I sucked a whole lot of... something from the Baron's gin back there into this device. I thought they where souls, but they could just be astral forms of people. Any way I can get them to their bodies, assuming they're not critters? Any way to tell they ain't hellbeasts for that matter?"
He thinks a moment. "Past that, any tips on defeating or capturing the Baron? Is he still in a mortal form, or is he inhabiting some super mechanical beast?"
For Otto, it's all about the practical, even when given the opportunity to ask about the nature of life and traveling a new plane of existence. Bein' a ghost don't pay the bills or make Aunt Syndy happy.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
On a beam of light from Here to There
Fernando
"Does that dastardly Baron draw his power from a source we can seal away from him for good?"
The paladin turns a warm smile toward you. "The Baron's machines, as best as I can tell, derive energy from the flow of the immortal souls through the Astral Sea. It is a peculiar thing; the Sea is a transitory place, one where a mortal soul leaves its material shell and journeys to its eventual great beyond. How his machines draw on this is beyond my understanding, but the end to their continued operation is key. I can say this: though the flow of these souls seems diverted to the Baron's strange ends, they do eventually depart this cycle and continue on to their eventual destination. Even so, it is a perversion of the natural order."
Tormlin's features harden slightly. "As for a means to seal it away, I'm afraid there is no way to do this from within the Sea. The Baron's machines must be dealt with directly, on the mortal plane."
The glowing knight turns to you and smiles once more. "And worry not about appearances, fellow paladin. Who you were and who you might have been all pale in the face of who you aspire to be, so long as you pursue that image with the ferver and totality of your character."
For reasons you don't entirely understand, a reassuring warmth spreads throughout your being.
Otto
"I sucked a whole lot of... something from the Baron's gin back there into this device. I thought they where souls, but they could just be astral forms of people. Any way I can get them to their bodies, assuming they're not critters? Any way to tell they ain't hellbeasts for that matter?"
The glowing knight regards your question with a wry smile. "I'm not familiar with the workings of your device, but I wouldn't worry. Even if its construction were half as devious as the Baron's machines themselves, I would still believe it to have negligible effect on the workings and denizens here in this place. Once a soul is set free to find its path across the Sea, there is little to nothing to stop it; it is eventuality itself. Likely what you experienced were the echoes of desire remaining in those souls before they truly embarked on their travel here. And I wouldn't worry about hell-beasts or the like; I've yet to encounter a truly malicious force here in the Astral."
"Past that, any tips on defeating or capturing the Baron? Is he still in a mortal form, or is he inhabiting some super mechanical beast?"
The paladin frowns. "Unfortunately I have been unable to come near to the Baron's stronghold, despite knowing its location. Something about his machines creates a void that I dare not approach and that obscures my senses. I hope that you, with the tether to your mortality intact, can be....navigated past this impediment. If I were to guess though, knowing the Baron, his defenses will be formidable."
[OOC: Still plenty of time to ask questions, for those that haven't yet!]
In a moment Fernando feels a sense of peace, and this peace seems to wash back and forth in time.
He sees a tall bronze paladin fighting side by side with a living conduit of nature, the most dangerous arcane pistoleer beyond the Wall, a shaman one with the four winds, and the brother of the moon herself!
Like a ripple to a pond the vision breaks away. Was it just a possibility?
He breathes out slowly. Rays of sunlight wash over this space, as if clouds part and pass over each other once again. The automaton swears he hears a refrain of a distant choir.
Fernando takes an... amount of maybe-time... to think of a reply. What he says isn’t as cool as he planned.
“Then I’ll dismantle his machinations and melt the engine of his villainy to... to recycle it into justice!”
He knows later on he’s gonna think of a better hero line.
Despite the impossible distance the would-be paladin can see their destination, a silhouette ringed in light blue light.
Wei contemplates the awareness and the things around him. He turns to the Paladin. "These machines are abominations against nature and must be destroyed." Wei, though he has no physical form at the moment, can still feel the pains and wounds of his mortal body echoing. "Tormlin, you say the Baron's defenses will be formidable. Would you perhaps be able to aid me with my wounds?"
Unlike Star Wars this setting doesn’t have a plithy phrase yet, so... May the wind guide your wings fellas. Catch you when you’re free. 8-)
+2
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
(Not going to lie, the world being increasingly on fire over the last couple weeks has really taken all the energy out of me; I think I'm sitting on like six or seven creative projects, all at a standstill. I'm clawing my way back though, damnit all, and that includes getting this game back on track! So here's a bit for @Cheeseliker and then if anyone else wants to take their Time In The Astral Sea, figure that I'll be moving us forward sometime in the early to middle of this coming week.
Onward!) Whooooooooshing through the Astral Sea
The ghostly paladin smiles at Wei. "Friend, it has been some time since I've had to consider the needs of the mortal form. Fortunately for you all, my faith and fervor have not dulled with the passing of ages." It seems to you as if the knight turns away for a moment, and a rush of blue energy roils in from behind the path of your travel.
Tormlin appears to close his eyes, and the wave crashes through, over, past, and beyond the group of you. You swear you can hear a singing chorus, or is that a wind whistling through a forest, or perhaps the joyous cries of children at play? You're unsure, but you feel invigorated nonetheless.
"As I send you all into the heart of these problems, so I send my hopes and faith along with you. May the gods and spirits guide and protect you all."
The paladin turns and views something in the distance. "We draw near, our travels won't be much longer."
[OOC: Everyone in the group will be restored to full hit points once you've been returned to the mortal plane!]
+3
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
A Conversation Overheard In the Void
Toth floats slowly through on the Astral currents, slightly tailing the group. Were anyone to turn and regard her, you would perceive a look of increasing sternness on her face as you begin to approach the outer coronas of the blue-light supernova ahead. Something about this catches Tormlin's attention, and after attending to each of you he slowly and imperceptibly slides toward the back.
"It would seem something weighs heavily upon you, augur. You haven't asked anything of me since this journey began, or hardly even said word one. Is there anything I can do to ease your burden?" The knight's voice is distant, but even so you pick up a certain soothing warmth to it.
"Paladin. I do not know how you came to be trapped here, nor whether your motives are guided by higher powers or true concern for us. Understand, however, that the place we go to and the situation we will arrive in is not as simple as you ascertain."
"Oh, diviner? While it is true that my senses cannot pierce the veil emitted by the Baron's machinations, I can keenly observe the echoes of its effects. I know it does harm on a scale simply unfathomable by most mortals. What more must we know? What more do you know?"
Toth turns, her entire body assuming a posture that is visibly defiant. "That..."
An interminable pause rings throughout the Sea.
The wizard's posture softens, and she sighs. It is clear that whatever weight she has been carrying has finally been laid bare.
"I only know what came before, what the Baron was. He was a true genius, someone unique among generations of generations. Our world never saw anyone like him before, and I doubt we will ever see his like again. And what I believed was that his genius would lead us all to something great, a new paradigm that all our cultures could unite behind. Instead I find his barony a haunted rock, scoured by the energies of his own creation."
Tormlin extends a hand to Toth's shoulder.
"Knight. I know as little as you do, for what lies beyond that veil. And that is what I fear most. I do not handle uncertainty well, for obvious reasons."
The spectral paladin turns to continue forward, side by side with the master diviner.
"Even before I was consigned to this place, in my mortal life I never knew quite where I was headed. Now, with the endless expanse of the sea surrounding me, directionality is even less useful. And in all the time past and current I have learned one important thing: trust your instincts and move forward with open eyes. Whatever you knew of what came past, I believe your path will become clear to you once you arrive at the barony's inner sanctum."
Toth's posture straightens again, returning to the typically-rigid posture you've become accustomed to.
The pair carry on in silence.
[OOC: Your time travelling the Astral Sea is running short! If you have any other conversation you'd like to engage in, now would be the time. I plan to land this bird back in the corporeal world sometime on Friday!]
Relatively speaking everyone arrives out of the Astral Sea at the same time, but Fernando arrives first. He’s renewed by his experiences, and so...
...he tries to do his best heroic paladin landing, you know, one knee, fist into the ground, axe outstretched. Unfortunately he gets the angle all wrong and smacks headfirst into... well, wherever here is.
He gets up at lightning speed, hoping the party didn’t see his fall. He rubs his bronze head as he surveys the surroundings.
Fernando squints, his effort to grasp what’s before him popping the newly made dent out of his metal head.
What happened here recently?
[OOC: Everyone can still be in the Astral if they wish, I’m sure the robot can survive, even if they’re no good at spotting absolutely anything worthwhile.]
Discern Realities:
2d67 [2d6=2, 5]
Endless_Serpents on
+2
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited June 2020
The End Of An Endless Journey
You can feel it now, something different in the motion of the astral waves. A slight but insistent tug, and you notice that the lines and arcs of energy in your surroundings begin to become more ordered, more marshalled.
"It is time, my friends. We have reached the boundaries of where I may travel." You look in Tormlin's direction, and you already see him disappearing into the distance behind you.
His final words to you reverberate throughout your psyche.
"Know that I am watching over you."
Your essence slams forward as if it has fallen down the edge of a dropoff, now in freefall.
The ordered lines of energy form sidewalls, and then tubes. You can feel your connection to the real pulled taut, pouring your essence back into the tight confines of your mortal shells. The last you perceive of the astral realm is the dimming of those lines of energy, until the darkness is finally replaced with light. Real light, coming from nearby machines.
Your mortal forms manifest, in a manner you're not entirely sure you understand. Yet, here you are, all meat and sweat and exhaustion, panting and catching your breath. It isn't more than a few heartbeats before you right yourself, and are able to assess your surroundings more fully.
You have entered a massive cylindrical chamber, bored out cleanly from the stone deep within the barony's crust. A series of catwalks and gantries [blue] run around the circumference of the chamber, encircling a massive pillar of machinery in the center [red]. It appears much like the Astral Engine your investigated back in the nearby town, but on a scale that causes pause in even looking at it. Brass, copper, and any number of other metals and alloys plate the machine and encrust it in pipes and wires, and periodic display-plates peek out to show their charge's disposition. On two sides of the chamber, unusual contraptions zip up the inside edge of the catwalks; they appear to have hand and footholds, but these points of purchase are continually pulled along up and down the length of the chamber at remarkable speed [green].
[OOC: I forgot to add this in my drawing, but let's call the lowest level 0, then 1, 2, 3, and 4 going up from there. This'll be important in a second.]
On each level of this facility, a number of automatic servitors [red stick figures, for scale] are milling about working at odd tasks. At this moment, none have taken notice of your arrival.
[ Everyone EXCEPT Fernando, give me a Defy Danger roll with the stat of your choice! However, you'll need to justify how your stat of choice helps you navigate your landing out of the Astral and back into the Real!]
[The better the roll here, the better your starting position in this final confrontation!]
Similarly, Hawthorne tries to stay loose and open, mentally, as he drops back into reality. Your mind should be a still pool reflecting the light of the moon. Don't thrash around reaching for the things you expected. Take each moment as it falls.
Otto instinctively remembers his air cav training for crash landings. He tucks into a ball, ready to roll to a relatively safe crash landing. He trusts his riding leathers to keep his skin on his body.
Geth, roll 2d6+2 Defy Danger (Dex)
Defy Danger (Dex):
2d6+210 [2d6=3, 5]
ironsizide on
|_
Oo\ Ironsizide
+3
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Otto
You tuck and roll, your instincts as sharp as they've ever been. You feel your astral form become hardened by the material of the real world, and suddenly you're tucked into a roll along a narrow strip of catwalk. You rise to your feet, hands on weapons and braced for an impending attack....that never manifests. You stand, balancing yourself on the straight catwalk between the wall and the Astral Engine, two floors above the ground (Level 2). Nothing here has noticed you, and you are alone for a moment.
Wei and Hawthorne
Your world goes momentarily black as your manifest physically back into the real, but the calmness of your minds lets you wash over the transition from astral to physical.
The two of you find yourselves standing on the east (right) side of the first catwalk above the ground floor below (Level 1). The catwalk extends in either direction to your left and right around the cylindrical room, and a narrow catwalk leads away toward the middle of the chamber where the massive Astral Engine is erected. Easy access to the upper levels via the zipline however is blocked by a trio of automatic workers, repairing a section of catwalk that has somehow suffered damage. They have not yet noticed you.
Fernando
Your landing is 65% Aspirational, 35% Execution. Your spirit flies out of the Astral Sea and in the process of manifesting the pristine automaton shell around you proceeds to land with a loud *thunk* head-first into the base of the Astral Core. You collapse to the ground in a heap, but are otherwise unharmed.
Well, it was pristine. That dent in your cranium is going to take a little more than buffing out with a soft cloth.
Regardless, you stand at the ready! Surveying the room, you see Wei and Hawthorne pop into existence on the catwalk above you, and Otto even further up. Exilis and Toth are mysteriously absent as of yet.
What happened here recently?
Moments after your arrival, the Astral Core began a kind of powering-up sequence; it is drawing energy from elsewhere in the barony, directing it through conduits into and upward through the core. You detect a subtle increase in this flow, and the rate of change is only growing stronger.
Also, several doors surrounding the ground floor here have opened up, and automatic workers are beginning to file in. Inconveniently, there are automatons in pretty much any direction you turn! Fortunately, they don't seem to have taken heed of you....yet.
The Astral Engine Core begins to thrum with force, its blue lines of energy beginning to ride circuits up toward the top of the tower.
Father Sun knows what he’s doing, thinks Fernando, there must be a reason for this whole automaton with a soul thing.
“Beep boop.”, says Fernando as he walks jankily up to the gathering worker robots, “I am a high ranking guardian and I now command you to follow my lead. We are going up. Do not be alarmed by any flesh and blood people we meet; they’re friends of our creator.”
Geth roll 2d6+1 for Parley
My leverage is hoping warrior class robots outrank them.
"Hawthorne, if you think you can handle yourself, I will make my way to the top." Wei's plan is to shapeshift into a bird to get to the top floor swiftly. (Is the baron at the top? That's what I'm assuming...)
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Fernando
In a strange twist of expectation, your commands do not fall on deaf mechanical ears. Two automatic workers stand to their full height and move to follow you, while the rest pay you no heed.
Wei
[Gimme that sweet, sweet +WIS roll! As for who's where....well, you'll just need to find out!]
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
(Damn, peeps knocking these rolls out of the park all of a sudden)
Wei
You expertly find the form of a bird and transform into it. Your form compacts and shrinks, until nothing but a hummingbird remains. Your feathers glimmer with a rainbow irridescence.
Take 3 hold, and you gain the following move:
Rather Small, Rather Nimble
You may spend 1 hold from your Shapeshifter roll to ignore the effect of any attack or attempt to restrain you while in your hummingbird form.
The three rust-eteers makes their way up. Fernando has no intention of stopping until he’s at the top, so unless something gets in his way he’ll just keep a quick march.
“Guys! Did you make it? Helloooooooo!”, he calls every few yards.
Otto looks for a way up, and upon finding a way up, proceeds upwards. Barring any easy way up, he plans to use his boom bracers (which allow him to leap twice as far as usual) to leap up the catwalks.
|_
Oo\ Ironsizide
0
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Otto and Fernando
As you move closer to the pulley system, you see that it is moving fast. At one point an automatic worker grabs it in front of you, and it is ripped from the floor and launched upward at an incredible speed.
It might be dangerous, but doable, to grab a hand- and foot-hold on the pulley as it ratchets by.
Hawthorne gives Wei the nod, and as Wei transforms and flutters off, Hawthorne mutters a prayer to Sister Moon and passes his right hand over his face, as though wiping it away from top to bottom. He's hoping to turn invisible, slink away from the workers on his level, and meet up with the others.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Fernando
You get a firm grasp on a hand-hold of the pulley system, despite the tiny hint of doubt in your mind. Suddenly you are rushing into the air, your two erstwhile companions behind and beneath you!
And then, just as suddenly, the entire pulley system stops. In an instant you are catapulted into the air, landing with another dull thud as your body splays out onto the catwalk of the first floor above the ground [Level 1].
Your two mechanical chums dangle from the pulley system, waiting for any sort of urging.
Hawthorne
For any outside observer, you seem to wave your hand in front of your face several times, and then are awash with an absolutely dumbfounded look. Anyone nearby would see the visible confusion on your face.
Sister Moon isn't here with you. Or at least, the story linking you to her is just...vacant. A blank page, throbbing with the pain of a writer's block a thousand times over. The magic just doesn't come, and your spell fails spectacularly in a shower of twinkling sparks.
On the plus side, it is completely evident to you what has happened: the activation of this colossal machine has somehow dirtied the aether between the physical realm and the philosophical one, and any conversation you intend to have with your patron will need to be shouted over the din.
[ Take a -1 Ongoing to Cast a Spell, until you roll a 10+ on that action or the situation changes! ]
The guttering sparks of your spell also cause several of those mechanical workers in the distance to turn and look at you. You've clearly been noticed!
Wei
You deftly zip up the open air, whizzing through a gap in the floor of the upper part of the chamber. You are met with the startling sight of a score of Automatic Soldiers in semi-circular rank formation, flanking a large armored form....and Toth, restrained by both arms by those same Soldiers. Toth is pleading to the large armored form.
"...you were our ally, and the best among us! Why, Christopher? You had the means..." The large armored form raises a hand, and Toth pauses.
The armored form stands easily nine feet tall, but moves with a smoothness and uncannily graceful bearing.
"Of course I had the means. I always had the means. I had hoped to convince your colleagues that my path was the correct one, and despite my inexhaustible means they chose to acquiesce to the opinions of lesser minds. To even hint at an interdiction! The betrayal of your councils and colleges to my research was inexcusable. Thus I set forward on this path without you."
Wei:
On a 7-9 for Discern Realities, choose one of the following questions to answer:
What happened here recently?
What is about to happen?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Who’s really in control here?
What here is not what it appears to be?
Posts
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
With a certain finally Fernando accepts that he doesn’t really remember much more than what he wants to be. Is he really Fernando? Was there ever a squire on a mission with an old bearded paladin?
He closes his eyes—
—for a single moment, letting the image go from his mind.
Then he moves his mechanical arm, feeling each copper tendon, each bronze muscle extend out. He moves a single finger one joint at a time.
“How about pressing this button for a start? No?”, he chuckles at Wei in the good natured way of friends.
Wei shrugs, smirking. "As long as you have my back, Fernando, I feel no worries." He touches whatever buttons feel right, switches, etc.
(ooc: int=0, +1 from spirits, +1 from fernando, right?)
geth roll 2d6+2 use machine
ALTERNATIVELY! If Elvenshae's amenable to opening up the scene to the whole group, I'll move us forward with Exilis's magic on top of the results of Wei's activation of the Engine.
Elven, it's your call!]
I reckon I can get a bond with Wei now, right?
Wei is a brave soul, I have much to learn from them.
That’s a +1 to my aid rolls with them.]
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Wei's hands lightly caress a nearby control panel on the Astral Engine, while the final words of Exilis's incantation echo off the walls.
The engine burns with a bright blue energy, and each of you feels a pull as if you are being ripped bodily through a pinhole in existence. The world goes black in an instant.
Tick.
You know you still exist, you can feel you exist, but you have no other perception. No gravity, no light, no warmth. Nothing.
Tock.
You perceive. You instantiate. You are floating, bodily, in a black void cross-hatched with lines of inscrutable energy.
You can perceive Exilis, just off in the distance. He's conversing with a man who gives you a look, and in that look you feel seen.
"It seems our friend Wei has trusted his instincts. The engine is in motion, and the beacons are lit. Friend Exilis, the timing of your incantation has proven fortuitous! Let us converse as we travel."
Tick. Tock. Tiiiiick. Tooooo.......
You reside within the Astral Plane. You're not sure where the rest of you is, but your immortal essence bobs gently on concordant waves of astral energy. Your astral forms perceive each other, including both Toth and Fernando, and the entity you've been introduced to as Tormlin gently guides you along a line of spectral light. You feel no weight, but you do feel the impetus of motion as the lines and nodes of energy shift around you.
"It will take some time, or no time at all, for us to reach our destination. The astral sea is strange in this way, and even a long-time resident such as myself hasn't mastered its navigation. The Baron's engines forcefully drive routes and clarity through the sea, but even then our journey is unpredictable. Nevertheless I am glad I am able to guide you how I can, and impart what knowledge and wisdom I have gathered while we travel."
[You have, at your leisure, the chance to ask Tormlin any questions you wish while you travel across the astral sea.]
[What do you do?]
Fernando has a question he cannot ask. He’s too afraid to know it. It’s something he’ll maybe never know. He tries not to look too hard at the bearded paladin. It could be another. It could be that he himself is a forgery, and how embarrassing would it be to ask if so.
He takes a deep breath of astral and swivels in the winds of possibility. Once he’s facing away, he focused on a star (or whatever that big shiny thingy is far away) and musters his best Hero Voice.
“What ho fellow paladin!”, his voice cracks on paladin—he is only 15 after all, “Does that dastardly Baron draw his power from a source we can seal away from him for good?”
Without the barrel chest of his automaton body it’s clear Fernando is a slim youth who had just finished training. Heading to the island was his first mission.
Although Otto figures the contents of his darkener are still in the material plane he checks to see if it's still on his incorporeal self to use as a prop. He asks of the aged paladin: "I sucked a whole lot of... something from the Baron's gin back there into this device. I thought they where souls, but they could just be astral forms of people. Any way I can get them to their bodies, assuming they're not critters? Any way to tell they ain't hellbeasts for that matter?"
He thinks a moment. "Past that, any tips on defeating or capturing the Baron? Is he still in a mortal form, or is he inhabiting some super mechanical beast?"
For Otto, it's all about the practical, even when given the opportunity to ask about the nature of life and traveling a new plane of existence. Bein' a ghost don't pay the bills or make Aunt Syndy happy.
Oo\ Ironsizide
Things concerning the Storm March setting, in no particular order.
Arcane marksmen’s tools of the trade.
A griffophat in flight.
Sky rays.
A person without a side.
Fernando
"Does that dastardly Baron draw his power from a source we can seal away from him for good?"
The paladin turns a warm smile toward you. "The Baron's machines, as best as I can tell, derive energy from the flow of the immortal souls through the Astral Sea. It is a peculiar thing; the Sea is a transitory place, one where a mortal soul leaves its material shell and journeys to its eventual great beyond. How his machines draw on this is beyond my understanding, but the end to their continued operation is key. I can say this: though the flow of these souls seems diverted to the Baron's strange ends, they do eventually depart this cycle and continue on to their eventual destination. Even so, it is a perversion of the natural order."
Tormlin's features harden slightly. "As for a means to seal it away, I'm afraid there is no way to do this from within the Sea. The Baron's machines must be dealt with directly, on the mortal plane."
The glowing knight turns to you and smiles once more. "And worry not about appearances, fellow paladin. Who you were and who you might have been all pale in the face of who you aspire to be, so long as you pursue that image with the ferver and totality of your character."
For reasons you don't entirely understand, a reassuring warmth spreads throughout your being.
Otto
"I sucked a whole lot of... something from the Baron's gin back there into this device. I thought they where souls, but they could just be astral forms of people. Any way I can get them to their bodies, assuming they're not critters? Any way to tell they ain't hellbeasts for that matter?"
The glowing knight regards your question with a wry smile. "I'm not familiar with the workings of your device, but I wouldn't worry. Even if its construction were half as devious as the Baron's machines themselves, I would still believe it to have negligible effect on the workings and denizens here in this place. Once a soul is set free to find its path across the Sea, there is little to nothing to stop it; it is eventuality itself. Likely what you experienced were the echoes of desire remaining in those souls before they truly embarked on their travel here. And I wouldn't worry about hell-beasts or the like; I've yet to encounter a truly malicious force here in the Astral."
"Past that, any tips on defeating or capturing the Baron? Is he still in a mortal form, or is he inhabiting some super mechanical beast?"
The paladin frowns. "Unfortunately I have been unable to come near to the Baron's stronghold, despite knowing its location. Something about his machines creates a void that I dare not approach and that obscures my senses. I hope that you, with the tether to your mortality intact, can be....navigated past this impediment. If I were to guess though, knowing the Baron, his defenses will be formidable."
[OOC: Still plenty of time to ask questions, for those that haven't yet!]
In a moment Fernando feels a sense of peace, and this peace seems to wash back and forth in time.
He sees a tall bronze paladin fighting side by side with a living conduit of nature, the most dangerous arcane pistoleer beyond the Wall, a shaman one with the four winds, and the brother of the moon herself!
Like a ripple to a pond the vision breaks away. Was it just a possibility?
He breathes out slowly. Rays of sunlight wash over this space, as if clouds part and pass over each other once again. The automaton swears he hears a refrain of a distant choir.
Fernando takes an... amount of maybe-time... to think of a reply. What he says isn’t as cool as he planned.
“Then I’ll dismantle his machinations and melt the engine of his villainy to... to recycle it into justice!”
He knows later on he’s gonna think of a better hero line.
Despite the impossible distance the would-be paladin can see their destination, a silhouette ringed in light blue light.
“Woah.”
Onward!)
Whooooooooshing through the Astral Sea
The ghostly paladin smiles at Wei. "Friend, it has been some time since I've had to consider the needs of the mortal form. Fortunately for you all, my faith and fervor have not dulled with the passing of ages." It seems to you as if the knight turns away for a moment, and a rush of blue energy roils in from behind the path of your travel.
Tormlin appears to close his eyes, and the wave crashes through, over, past, and beyond the group of you. You swear you can hear a singing chorus, or is that a wind whistling through a forest, or perhaps the joyous cries of children at play? You're unsure, but you feel invigorated nonetheless.
"As I send you all into the heart of these problems, so I send my hopes and faith along with you. May the gods and spirits guide and protect you all."
The paladin turns and views something in the distance. "We draw near, our travels won't be much longer."
[OOC: Everyone in the group will be restored to full hit points once you've been returned to the mortal plane!]
Toth floats slowly through on the Astral currents, slightly tailing the group. Were anyone to turn and regard her, you would perceive a look of increasing sternness on her face as you begin to approach the outer coronas of the blue-light supernova ahead. Something about this catches Tormlin's attention, and after attending to each of you he slowly and imperceptibly slides toward the back.
"It would seem something weighs heavily upon you, augur. You haven't asked anything of me since this journey began, or hardly even said word one. Is there anything I can do to ease your burden?" The knight's voice is distant, but even so you pick up a certain soothing warmth to it.
"Paladin. I do not know how you came to be trapped here, nor whether your motives are guided by higher powers or true concern for us. Understand, however, that the place we go to and the situation we will arrive in is not as simple as you ascertain."
"Oh, diviner? While it is true that my senses cannot pierce the veil emitted by the Baron's machinations, I can keenly observe the echoes of its effects. I know it does harm on a scale simply unfathomable by most mortals. What more must we know? What more do you know?"
Toth turns, her entire body assuming a posture that is visibly defiant. "That..."
An interminable pause rings throughout the Sea.
The wizard's posture softens, and she sighs. It is clear that whatever weight she has been carrying has finally been laid bare.
"I only know what came before, what the Baron was. He was a true genius, someone unique among generations of generations. Our world never saw anyone like him before, and I doubt we will ever see his like again. And what I believed was that his genius would lead us all to something great, a new paradigm that all our cultures could unite behind. Instead I find his barony a haunted rock, scoured by the energies of his own creation."
Tormlin extends a hand to Toth's shoulder.
"Knight. I know as little as you do, for what lies beyond that veil. And that is what I fear most. I do not handle uncertainty well, for obvious reasons."
The spectral paladin turns to continue forward, side by side with the master diviner.
"Even before I was consigned to this place, in my mortal life I never knew quite where I was headed. Now, with the endless expanse of the sea surrounding me, directionality is even less useful. And in all the time past and current I have learned one important thing: trust your instincts and move forward with open eyes. Whatever you knew of what came past, I believe your path will become clear to you once you arrive at the barony's inner sanctum."
Toth's posture straightens again, returning to the typically-rigid posture you've become accustomed to.
The pair carry on in silence.
[OOC: Your time travelling the Astral Sea is running short! If you have any other conversation you'd like to engage in, now would be the time. I plan to land this bird back in the corporeal world sometime on Friday!]
...he tries to do his best heroic paladin landing, you know, one knee, fist into the ground, axe outstretched. Unfortunately he gets the angle all wrong and smacks headfirst into... well, wherever here is.
He gets up at lightning speed, hoping the party didn’t see his fall. He rubs his bronze head as he surveys the surroundings.
Geth roll 2d6 for Superhero Landing
Fernando squints, his effort to grasp what’s before him popping the newly made dent out of his metal head.
What happened here recently?
[OOC: Everyone can still be in the Astral if they wish, I’m sure the robot can survive, even if they’re no good at spotting absolutely anything worthwhile.]
You can feel it now, something different in the motion of the astral waves. A slight but insistent tug, and you notice that the lines and arcs of energy in your surroundings begin to become more ordered, more marshalled.
"It is time, my friends. We have reached the boundaries of where I may travel." You look in Tormlin's direction, and you already see him disappearing into the distance behind you.
His final words to you reverberate throughout your psyche.
"Know that I am watching over you."
Your essence slams forward as if it has fallen down the edge of a dropoff, now in freefall.
[Run this bad boy at 2x speed, and you'll get the feeling!]
The Source
The ordered lines of energy form sidewalls, and then tubes. You can feel your connection to the real pulled taut, pouring your essence back into the tight confines of your mortal shells. The last you perceive of the astral realm is the dimming of those lines of energy, until the darkness is finally replaced with light. Real light, coming from nearby machines.
Your mortal forms manifest, in a manner you're not entirely sure you understand. Yet, here you are, all meat and sweat and exhaustion, panting and catching your breath. It isn't more than a few heartbeats before you right yourself, and are able to assess your surroundings more fully.
You have entered a massive cylindrical chamber, bored out cleanly from the stone deep within the barony's crust. A series of catwalks and gantries [blue] run around the circumference of the chamber, encircling a massive pillar of machinery in the center [red]. It appears much like the Astral Engine your investigated back in the nearby town, but on a scale that causes pause in even looking at it. Brass, copper, and any number of other metals and alloys plate the machine and encrust it in pipes and wires, and periodic display-plates peek out to show their charge's disposition. On two sides of the chamber, unusual contraptions zip up the inside edge of the catwalks; they appear to have hand and footholds, but these points of purchase are continually pulled along up and down the length of the chamber at remarkable speed [green].
[OOC: I forgot to add this in my drawing, but let's call the lowest level 0, then 1, 2, 3, and 4 going up from there. This'll be important in a second.]
On each level of this facility, a number of automatic servitors [red stick figures, for scale] are milling about working at odd tasks. At this moment, none have taken notice of your arrival.
[ Everyone EXCEPT Fernando, give me a Defy Danger roll with the stat of your choice! However, you'll need to justify how your stat of choice helps you navigate your landing out of the Astral and back into the Real!]
[The better the roll here, the better your starting position in this final confrontation!]
geth roll 2d6+2 wisdom defy danger
Geth, roll 2d6+2 Defy Danger (WIS)
Geth, roll 2d6+2 Defy Danger (Dex)
Oo\ Ironsizide
You tuck and roll, your instincts as sharp as they've ever been. You feel your astral form become hardened by the material of the real world, and suddenly you're tucked into a roll along a narrow strip of catwalk. You rise to your feet, hands on weapons and braced for an impending attack....that never manifests. You stand, balancing yourself on the straight catwalk between the wall and the Astral Engine, two floors above the ground (Level 2). Nothing here has noticed you, and you are alone for a moment.
Wei and Hawthorne
Your world goes momentarily black as your manifest physically back into the real, but the calmness of your minds lets you wash over the transition from astral to physical.
The two of you find yourselves standing on the east (right) side of the first catwalk above the ground floor below (Level 1). The catwalk extends in either direction to your left and right around the cylindrical room, and a narrow catwalk leads away toward the middle of the chamber where the massive Astral Engine is erected. Easy access to the upper levels via the zipline however is blocked by a trio of automatic workers, repairing a section of catwalk that has somehow suffered damage. They have not yet noticed you.
Fernando
Your landing is 65% Aspirational, 35% Execution. Your spirit flies out of the Astral Sea and in the process of manifesting the pristine automaton shell around you proceeds to land with a loud *thunk* head-first into the base of the Astral Core. You collapse to the ground in a heap, but are otherwise unharmed.
Well, it was pristine. That dent in your cranium is going to take a little more than buffing out with a soft cloth.
Regardless, you stand at the ready! Surveying the room, you see Wei and Hawthorne pop into existence on the catwalk above you, and Otto even further up. Exilis and Toth are mysteriously absent as of yet.
What happened here recently?
Moments after your arrival, the Astral Core began a kind of powering-up sequence; it is drawing energy from elsewhere in the barony, directing it through conduits into and upward through the core. You detect a subtle increase in this flow, and the rate of change is only growing stronger.
Also, several doors surrounding the ground floor here have opened up, and automatic workers are beginning to file in. Inconveniently, there are automatons in pretty much any direction you turn! Fortunately, they don't seem to have taken heed of you....yet.
The Astral Engine Core begins to thrum with force, its blue lines of energy beginning to ride circuits up toward the top of the tower.
What do you do?
“Beep boop.”, says Fernando as he walks jankily up to the gathering worker robots, “I am a high ranking guardian and I now command you to follow my lead. We are going up. Do not be alarmed by any flesh and blood people we meet; they’re friends of our creator.”
Geth roll 2d6+1 for Parley
My leverage is hoping warrior class robots outrank them.
In a strange twist of expectation, your commands do not fall on deaf mechanical ears. Two automatic workers stand to their full height and move to follow you, while the rest pay you no heed.
Wei
[Gimme that sweet, sweet +WIS roll! As for who's where....well, you'll just need to find out!]
Wei
You expertly find the form of a bird and transform into it. Your form compacts and shrinks, until nothing but a hummingbird remains. Your feathers glimmer with a rainbow irridescence.
Take 3 hold, and you gain the following move:
Rather Small, Rather Nimble
You may spend 1 hold from your Shapeshifter roll to ignore the effect of any attack or attempt to restrain you while in your hummingbird form.
“Guys! Did you make it? Helloooooooo!”, he calls every few yards.
Oo\ Ironsizide
As you move closer to the pulley system, you see that it is moving fast. At one point an automatic worker grabs it in front of you, and it is ripped from the floor and launched upward at an incredible speed.
It might be dangerous, but doable, to grab a hand- and foot-hold on the pulley as it ratchets by.
It probably pays to be obvious with these two.
All three of them grab on, bolstering themselves with their pneumatic grip and metal weight.
Geth roll 2d6+2 to Defy Danger with CON
Geth roll 2d6+2 discern realities
Geth, roll 2d6 + 2 Cast a Spell: Invisibility
You get a firm grasp on a hand-hold of the pulley system, despite the tiny hint of doubt in your mind. Suddenly you are rushing into the air, your two erstwhile companions behind and beneath you!
And then, just as suddenly, the entire pulley system stops. In an instant you are catapulted into the air, landing with another dull thud as your body splays out onto the catwalk of the first floor above the ground [Level 1].
Your two mechanical chums dangle from the pulley system, waiting for any sort of urging.
Hawthorne
For any outside observer, you seem to wave your hand in front of your face several times, and then are awash with an absolutely dumbfounded look. Anyone nearby would see the visible confusion on your face.
Sister Moon isn't here with you. Or at least, the story linking you to her is just...vacant. A blank page, throbbing with the pain of a writer's block a thousand times over. The magic just doesn't come, and your spell fails spectacularly in a shower of twinkling sparks.
On the plus side, it is completely evident to you what has happened: the activation of this colossal machine has somehow dirtied the aether between the physical realm and the philosophical one, and any conversation you intend to have with your patron will need to be shouted over the din.
[ Take a -1 Ongoing to Cast a Spell, until you roll a 10+ on that action or the situation changes! ]
The guttering sparks of your spell also cause several of those mechanical workers in the distance to turn and look at you. You've clearly been noticed!
Wei
You deftly zip up the open air, whizzing through a gap in the floor of the upper part of the chamber. You are met with the startling sight of a score of Automatic Soldiers in semi-circular rank formation, flanking a large armored form....and Toth, restrained by both arms by those same Soldiers. Toth is pleading to the large armored form.
"...you were our ally, and the best among us! Why, Christopher? You had the means..." The large armored form raises a hand, and Toth pauses.
The armored form stands easily nine feet tall, but moves with a smoothness and uncannily graceful bearing.
"Of course I had the means. I always had the means. I had hoped to convince your colleagues that my path was the correct one, and despite my inexhaustible means they chose to acquiesce to the opinions of lesser minds. To even hint at an interdiction! The betrayal of your councils and colleges to my research was inexcusable. Thus I set forward on this path without you."
Wei:
What happened here recently?
What is about to happen?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Who’s really in control here?
What here is not what it appears to be?