Fun with Divination
Mar. 5th, 2006 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothFriday night we had a session of Lazar's Shadake game... most of it was spent building stuff. There was a brief interlude for a battle of sorts... oh, and then we found the source of all knowledge, which wasn't nearly as useful as we'd hoped.
We also spent some time making miniatures out of sculpy. We already had a few... the one I made was really awful and asymmetrical and lumpy. I don't think I get sculpy.
Jardin started building a permanent, reusable future-viewing machine. Perrel started work on a batch of oracle potions. Wayne and Roshan worked on single-use items to answer one question at a time, and since some of the questions were about the present (which was much easier to divine than the future) they were done first.
Wayne's initial attempts, where he interpreted the patterns using his magitech skill, were a bit too cryptic to be useful -- the result of Balthazaar's plan was 'war', the source of their powers was 'willful ignorance', and so on. So he started over using better materials and a bit more time, and got actual pictures -- still cryptic, but there was more information there to look at.
One picture was of Jirae, with the council looming over it. One was worried about how the magical rainstorms were affecting nearby cities (apparently), one was angry and sending out people in all directions with different weapons, and one had his hands over his ears and was looking down. There was no sign that they'd been invaded or anything, at least.
Another picture was of the network of mirrors, which showed where the breakdown was -- the mirror they'd placed in the middle of nowhere atop a lifeless, featureless mesa had been 'blinded'. So the only people they could talk to were the centaurs (or someone) back on the mushroom-shaped island.
Roshan's question 'who am I' gave a detailed family tree, which had the Cytherian mage from the robot-infested city they'd bombed not too far up in it, but didn't have 'Roshan' anywhere at all. 'Ka'sa' was there, off to one side, not connected to anything else. This was not a particularly helpful answer.
By then, Perrel's potions were finished, so he and Wayne and Roshan took turns being the oracle, and having a cryptic vision they'd describe to the others under the influence of the powerful hallucinogens.
What was Chochang up to? She wanted to vivisect Balthazaar.
Was it safe to leave Jeff with the others? No, not at all -- he'd be dead or crazy by the time they got to Jirae.
Where was a tunnel they could take to get ahead of the army? Black.
Where could they find a nonviolent means to stop the army? A vision of the source of all knowledge tower, with blackness inside. A vision of an empty city, being beseiged by the army.
What countermeasure should they prepare? A bomb that just shook things.
What was Balthazaar planning, etc? He'd destroy all the floating cities, then force everyone else to worship him in temples.
After that, (well, after that and a disastrous attempt to map the tunnels like he'd mapped the mirror-chain), Roshan and Wayne started working on a propulsion system for their remaining cart, while Perrel brewed up another batch of oracle potions, as well as some healing potions and antivenoms. Wayne also made a reusable shaky-bomb, that was activated by shaking it. Throwing it would also work, since it would hit the ground.
He and Roshan went out to test it, flying a distance away so as not to shake their camp. The bomb's effect wasn't very powerful, but the range on it was about a quarter mile. As soon as they lifted off, they were able to spot the source of all knowledge tower, which was right nearby -- they'd only missed it the night before because it was dark.
But first things first, and ow ow ow! It didn't shake living things, but it did shake the silver paint that had infiltrated his feathers! While Wayne was adjusting to that, someone fired a crossbow at him. It didn't *hit* him, because among other things the bolt was being shaken as it tried to fly at him, but it didn't really need to -- it trailed a magic rope that started trying to tie him up.
Wayne tried to sting the rope to sever it, but it was tougher than his stinger could manage (and of course his poison was useless against inanimate objects). He did get a moment's stillness that he used to toss a dart at the juruki who'd shot at him, but he missed. However, he kept struggling against it, and managed to get it snagged on a tree -- so while he ended up cocooned as intended, the juruki was yanked off her feet and dangled next to him.
So, then, there was a short conversation about who she was and why she was chasing him. Apparently, she was a bounty hunter sent from Jirae -- one of many after them. Wayne explained that they were heading back to Jirae anyway, so she could just ride back with them and skip all this silly mucking about with taking them prisoner. "You promise to stand trial peacefully, then?" "Yeah, I guess... but first we have to get Jeff back from Balthazaar."
Of course, she probably actually let him go by accident, since she didn't really know how to work the crossbow that well. Still, she did follow him back to camp, where she was reunited with her brother, Perrel, and they talked about how much trouble they were all in, back in Jirae.
There was quite the bounty on their heads -- a total of $70,000. The charges included heresy, starting a war, and multiple counts of murder. "Murder? We didn't really *murder* anyone." "You did kill people, then?" "Well, pretty much everyone we've met out here has attacked us..." Apparently, the people back in Jirae had reacted to the mirror-chain being cut off by scrying on the expedition -- and the party had just had a lot of experience with just how misleading scrying could be. Not that they *hadn't* done things that the people back home would disapprove of...
At any rate, they finished a few other preparations (mostly, waiting for Jardin to finish his machine, which took all night and all day, but Wayne also made some nerf weapons for himself and Perrel -- a knitted battle-axe that did massive stun damage) and decided to test the flight speed of their cart by taking it to the nearby source of all knowledge, perhaps to look inside and see if they could find the 'nonlethal means' of stopping the army hinted at by the vision.
The cart didn't fly as fast as they'd hoped, though -- merely 400 miles per day instead of 1000. Apparently, dragging an extradimensional space slowed it down some. It was also quite the testy critter, and Wayne was the only one who could coax it into moving. Perrel's sister was rather shocked that Wayne had decided to make his device a creature that you had to talk to. "Well, how else would you control it?"
The source of all knowledge opened to a certain tone, that they'd discovered by accident earlier while testing the vibration bomb (Roshan had noticed it while Wayne was all tied up). So they used the bomb again to get inside, and started exploring.
There were lots of books... but those weren't interesting, because they'd probably just explode. The source of all knowledge was supposed to be special, in that its knowledge was *not* contained in books. Eventually, they found a room with a desk set up in front of a tapestry on the wall with a strange symbol. Weird magitech devices were pointed at the desk, which had three chairs set up behind it. "Wait a second, we've seen that symbol before..."
It was the symbol that this obsessed person back in Jirae was occasionally able to get on an odd magitech device he had, which normally just showed random noise, but would occasionally switch to the symbol. As they realized that, there was a click from one of the devices pointed at the desk, and its display changed to read 'now broadcasting'. The broadcast it showed was of the symbol behind the desk, since that's where it was pointed...
This wasn't the 'source of all knowledge', this was the location from which knowledge was broadcast. They did, at least, find the little eggs that had old programs recorded on them, but most of the old programs were basically fiction. There was probably something to be gleaned from some of them, but how to tell the useful ideas from the pure fantasy?
So, instead of mucking about with those too much, they recorded a warning about the army and about Balthazaar the next time the camera came around to newsroom time (which it did fairly often), and Perrel found the device controlling the schedule and set it to broadcast the show on a continuous loop. The guy back in Jirae would eventually see it, and hopefully pass the message on -- and forwarned was forarmed, after all. Maybe this *would* help Jirae stop the army.
last session | next session
Sooo tired now... got roped into a group in CoH fighting endless trolls... so many trolls...
We also spent some time making miniatures out of sculpy. We already had a few... the one I made was really awful and asymmetrical and lumpy. I don't think I get sculpy.
Jardin started building a permanent, reusable future-viewing machine. Perrel started work on a batch of oracle potions. Wayne and Roshan worked on single-use items to answer one question at a time, and since some of the questions were about the present (which was much easier to divine than the future) they were done first.
Wayne's initial attempts, where he interpreted the patterns using his magitech skill, were a bit too cryptic to be useful -- the result of Balthazaar's plan was 'war', the source of their powers was 'willful ignorance', and so on. So he started over using better materials and a bit more time, and got actual pictures -- still cryptic, but there was more information there to look at.
One picture was of Jirae, with the council looming over it. One was worried about how the magical rainstorms were affecting nearby cities (apparently), one was angry and sending out people in all directions with different weapons, and one had his hands over his ears and was looking down. There was no sign that they'd been invaded or anything, at least.
Another picture was of the network of mirrors, which showed where the breakdown was -- the mirror they'd placed in the middle of nowhere atop a lifeless, featureless mesa had been 'blinded'. So the only people they could talk to were the centaurs (or someone) back on the mushroom-shaped island.
Roshan's question 'who am I' gave a detailed family tree, which had the Cytherian mage from the robot-infested city they'd bombed not too far up in it, but didn't have 'Roshan' anywhere at all. 'Ka'sa' was there, off to one side, not connected to anything else. This was not a particularly helpful answer.
By then, Perrel's potions were finished, so he and Wayne and Roshan took turns being the oracle, and having a cryptic vision they'd describe to the others under the influence of the powerful hallucinogens.
What was Chochang up to? She wanted to vivisect Balthazaar.
Was it safe to leave Jeff with the others? No, not at all -- he'd be dead or crazy by the time they got to Jirae.
Where was a tunnel they could take to get ahead of the army? Black.
Where could they find a nonviolent means to stop the army? A vision of the source of all knowledge tower, with blackness inside. A vision of an empty city, being beseiged by the army.
What countermeasure should they prepare? A bomb that just shook things.
What was Balthazaar planning, etc? He'd destroy all the floating cities, then force everyone else to worship him in temples.
After that, (well, after that and a disastrous attempt to map the tunnels like he'd mapped the mirror-chain), Roshan and Wayne started working on a propulsion system for their remaining cart, while Perrel brewed up another batch of oracle potions, as well as some healing potions and antivenoms. Wayne also made a reusable shaky-bomb, that was activated by shaking it. Throwing it would also work, since it would hit the ground.
He and Roshan went out to test it, flying a distance away so as not to shake their camp. The bomb's effect wasn't very powerful, but the range on it was about a quarter mile. As soon as they lifted off, they were able to spot the source of all knowledge tower, which was right nearby -- they'd only missed it the night before because it was dark.
But first things first, and ow ow ow! It didn't shake living things, but it did shake the silver paint that had infiltrated his feathers! While Wayne was adjusting to that, someone fired a crossbow at him. It didn't *hit* him, because among other things the bolt was being shaken as it tried to fly at him, but it didn't really need to -- it trailed a magic rope that started trying to tie him up.
Wayne tried to sting the rope to sever it, but it was tougher than his stinger could manage (and of course his poison was useless against inanimate objects). He did get a moment's stillness that he used to toss a dart at the juruki who'd shot at him, but he missed. However, he kept struggling against it, and managed to get it snagged on a tree -- so while he ended up cocooned as intended, the juruki was yanked off her feet and dangled next to him.
So, then, there was a short conversation about who she was and why she was chasing him. Apparently, she was a bounty hunter sent from Jirae -- one of many after them. Wayne explained that they were heading back to Jirae anyway, so she could just ride back with them and skip all this silly mucking about with taking them prisoner. "You promise to stand trial peacefully, then?" "Yeah, I guess... but first we have to get Jeff back from Balthazaar."
Of course, she probably actually let him go by accident, since she didn't really know how to work the crossbow that well. Still, she did follow him back to camp, where she was reunited with her brother, Perrel, and they talked about how much trouble they were all in, back in Jirae.
There was quite the bounty on their heads -- a total of $70,000. The charges included heresy, starting a war, and multiple counts of murder. "Murder? We didn't really *murder* anyone." "You did kill people, then?" "Well, pretty much everyone we've met out here has attacked us..." Apparently, the people back in Jirae had reacted to the mirror-chain being cut off by scrying on the expedition -- and the party had just had a lot of experience with just how misleading scrying could be. Not that they *hadn't* done things that the people back home would disapprove of...
At any rate, they finished a few other preparations (mostly, waiting for Jardin to finish his machine, which took all night and all day, but Wayne also made some nerf weapons for himself and Perrel -- a knitted battle-axe that did massive stun damage) and decided to test the flight speed of their cart by taking it to the nearby source of all knowledge, perhaps to look inside and see if they could find the 'nonlethal means' of stopping the army hinted at by the vision.
The cart didn't fly as fast as they'd hoped, though -- merely 400 miles per day instead of 1000. Apparently, dragging an extradimensional space slowed it down some. It was also quite the testy critter, and Wayne was the only one who could coax it into moving. Perrel's sister was rather shocked that Wayne had decided to make his device a creature that you had to talk to. "Well, how else would you control it?"
The source of all knowledge opened to a certain tone, that they'd discovered by accident earlier while testing the vibration bomb (Roshan had noticed it while Wayne was all tied up). So they used the bomb again to get inside, and started exploring.
There were lots of books... but those weren't interesting, because they'd probably just explode. The source of all knowledge was supposed to be special, in that its knowledge was *not* contained in books. Eventually, they found a room with a desk set up in front of a tapestry on the wall with a strange symbol. Weird magitech devices were pointed at the desk, which had three chairs set up behind it. "Wait a second, we've seen that symbol before..."
It was the symbol that this obsessed person back in Jirae was occasionally able to get on an odd magitech device he had, which normally just showed random noise, but would occasionally switch to the symbol. As they realized that, there was a click from one of the devices pointed at the desk, and its display changed to read 'now broadcasting'. The broadcast it showed was of the symbol behind the desk, since that's where it was pointed...
This wasn't the 'source of all knowledge', this was the location from which knowledge was broadcast. They did, at least, find the little eggs that had old programs recorded on them, but most of the old programs were basically fiction. There was probably something to be gleaned from some of them, but how to tell the useful ideas from the pure fantasy?
So, instead of mucking about with those too much, they recorded a warning about the army and about Balthazaar the next time the camera came around to newsroom time (which it did fairly often), and Perrel found the device controlling the schedule and set it to broadcast the show on a continuous loop. The guy back in Jirae would eventually see it, and hopefully pass the message on -- and forwarned was forarmed, after all. Maybe this *would* help Jirae stop the army.
last session | next session
Sooo tired now... got roped into a group in CoH fighting endless trolls... so many trolls...
