Session 98

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Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 11

BethE: Yep, three years now...

      • You are now known as Theresa.

DanteE: it's been 3 years?
DanteE: we've played through, what, 1 month IC?
Random_Nerd: Month and a half!
Brian_: :D
Brian_: 2 weeks per year
DanteE: now that's impressive :)
Theresa: Time moves slower as the Age comes to an end...
DanteE: and yet never slows enough
Random_Nerd: Well, you guys never seem to want much downtime.
Brian_: that's 'cause something's always going on that's Very Important.
DanteE: so, the whole gang's back in Aniseed, oui?
Brian_: yah
Theresa: The Universe waits for no one!@
Theresa: That's where we were headed, I think.
Random_Nerd: Ready to start?
DanteE: sure
Theresa: Think so.
Brian_: sure
Random_Nerd: ______________START_____________
Random_Nerd: (And so you arrive at your destination.)
DanteE: (Here we go... we can check to see if the remaining cultists finished retrieving the bricks)
Theresa: *to Giant* "So, what are you thinking of your promise?"
Random_Nerd: The Giant squints at you. "What about it?
Random_Nerd: "
Theresa: "Well, just wondering what is considered 'fulfilled' through all of this."

  • DanteE uses the Sight and Mythic to check for a trace of the corruption

Theresa: (Shall we go to Jim's for bricks?)
Random_Nerd: Giant: "Have you even found out who did that to me?"
DanteE: (Actually, the cultists might bring them back to the factory)
Brian_: (... I'm vaguely interested in what happens when Snow eats a brick)

  • Snow trots around Theresa.

Snow: (So ask her to. :))
Random_Nerd: (There're some traces of corruption, as if cultists have been nearby, but aren't present now. Or did you bring your pet cultist?)
Brian_: (I thought we were heading to the factory)
DanteE: (about 5-6 hours later Capriciousness shits a brick.)
DanteE: (We damn well better have brought him, he's not staying around Amyra)
Theresa: "Not yet. But we've gotten a lead on why the weapons worked on you."
Random_Nerd: (Yeah, you get the same effect at the factory. It looks like the cultists have cleared out.)
Brian_: "... I thought we told them to take the bricks here?"
DanteE: "You know of the Valde Bellum, right?"
DanteE: "It hasn't been long, they might still be getting them.
DanteE: "or going home and re-evaluating their lives"
Brian_: "You don't want to sell me Death Sticks?"
Random_Nerd: (Or moving to other countries under assumed names!)
DanteE: (Hm... I could do Jedi Mind Tricks with ghosts, couldn't I?)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm. Probably to some degree.)
Theresa: "Ask Jim if his bricks have been picked up yet. He had the start of a deck in his backyard..."
Brian_: Anchor: "Hey, Jim, any weird guys come around to pick up your bricks?"
Random_Nerd: (Let's see, you left them out in his backyard?)
DanteE: (BTW, that 'You know about...' was to the Giant, forgot that)
Theresa: (I believe so. This was the 'happy bricks' incident.)
Random_Nerd: Jim: "There were some people driving by a few times, but they didn't knock on the door or anything, and the bricks are... okay, yeah, they're still back there."
DanteE: (Hello?)
Random_Nerd: (Mmm?)
DanteE: (bit of a lull there)

  • Snow nibbles on grass.

Random_Nerd: Giant: "That's the war you guys are always going on about? Never really saw any signs of it."
DanteE: "Hm... y'know, some of the folks who placed bricks might be the ones we sliced up."
Theresa: "They had a map, though."
DanteE: to the Giant: "The enemy are the forces of Anti-Creation, basically.
Snow: "Me neither," Snow says to the giant.
Theresa: *to Snow* "Yes, you have. It's how you got Horse. And you swallowed that guy."
DanteE: "They're actively twisting our control of our Domains by their presence.
DanteE: "Their rituals to do that ... are why they grabbed you."
Random_Nerd: The Giant stares at you guys as if you're telling him that the moon is actually Ed Sullivan's left kidney.
Snow: "Meh. Horse needed me."
DanteE: (Don't be silly. It's his liver.)
Brian_: (sorry guys, I'm apparently a lot more tired than I thought ... I'm not sure if I'll be coherent >_>)
DanteE: (That's not really a deterrent... :) )
Theresa: "That may be, but you had to kill his other Mster first. After he came closer than I like to killing me."
Random_Nerd: Giant: "I've seen wars. Lots of them. And if you tell me that Earth is the front of a war, I'll say that you don't mean by that word the same thing I would."
DanteE: (What was the Courage in the dream div?)
Brian_: "Not quite the same word. This brick thing we figure is an aspect of the war"
Theresa: (Master even)
Brian_: "oh, speaking of, Jim's bricks are still there." (Anchor LDiv of number, quick count)
Random_Nerd: Giant: "So, they throw bricks around and you call it a war."
Theresa: "It is a war in which the battles, the spoils and the wreckage are aspects of the universe. We win, the world keeps going. They win and..everything is gone, even existance itself."
DanteE: "It's more than that. They're trying to eat reality one concept at a time."
Snow: "You know People. They're like that."
Theresa: "They're throwing bricks that are made of you and your suffering, aimed at the concept of cities."

  • Snow nods at the Giant.

DanteE: "It's an Imperator-lev... erm, an Angel-level war we got drafted into."
Random_Nerd: (The divination indicates that the same number are still there.)
Brian_: (... were we just insulted?)
Theresa: (Perhaps.  :) )
Snow: (Maybe.)
Theresa: (Define People. Snow's tribe might have a different definition.)
Random_Nerd: Giant: "Okay, so they're doing some sort of weird magic, and they're hurting Cities. So, which one of you is Cities, again?"
Snow: (You ask her to define People. :P )
Brian_: "The one who's missing. Well, one of the ones who's missing."
Brian_: "The one who sent the ominous Corwin-esque message through the Lesson-phone"
DanteE: "Hm... this is aimed at our missing brother..."
Random_Nerd: Giant: "So, they're doing a number on Cities while he's either away or actually on their side? Man, you guys are screwed."
Random_Nerd: Giant: "Never really liked cities, myself."
Brian_: "Feel kinda screwed. Except not the good kind. It's somewhat less pleasant than the good kind"
Theresa: "That might have helped them."
DanteE: "Could they have turned him? And this is aimed at consolidating control?

  • Theresa will extend her senses to see if there are any pockets in town (other than Jim's) that bricks are still. Might also detect bricks moving with cultists. (LDiv of her Domain.)

Brian_: "In the one who claims to be wiser than I, maaaaybe" (Hollyhock = aspiration to power, IIRC :p)
Theresa: (Using the 'We hate you! :P ' reponse from her plants as an indicator.)

  • Snow nods at the Giant.

Random_Nerd: (There are less bricks than there seemed to be earlier. It seems like they got a fair percentage of the ones in obvious or accessible places, but not ones that are harder to get to or that have been moved.)
Theresa: (Can I tell where the biggest concentration of them are, since they were at the factory?)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm. They seem pretty spread out. And the factory is not filled with plants, so you don't really have eyes there.)
Theresa: (Good point. Thank you.)
Theresa: "Looks like they've gotten most of the bricks in town, but not the ones that moved or got stuck in weird places. Can't tell where they're taking them, though."
Brian_: "Where can you not look?"

  • DanteE uhohs...

DanteE: "Uh, guys? ... Think about what you generally do with bricks...
Brian_: "build?"
DanteE: "Bring 'em together...
Theresa: "I can't look where there aren't plants, Brian."
Theresa: "Like we told the cultists to do?"
DanteE: "Which is exactly what a Strategist would predict we'd do when we stumbled on this."
Theresa: "Because of course, waste the cult's energy on spreading bricks around town just so we could have them go and pick them up again."
DanteE: "They don't give a rat's ass about the cultists."
Theresa: "True, but if they want to build something with the bricks, why not just do it? We still wouldn't have any warning. Heck, the reason we got a notice is because Jim got a brick. And we'd either have to nuke each one separately by ourselves collecting them or else run the same risk."
Random_Nerd: Giant: "Even I can tell that. They didn't give those guys any direct support, unless one of them pulled some weird trick to make the leader die, and that was just covering tracks."
DanteE: "Because it's important that _we're_ involved, for some reason
Brian_: "... we gave the order to unmake Urbanization?"
Brian_: (I wonder if that's a rule 0?)
Random_Nerd: (You think I can't think up more evil stuff than that? I'm hurt!)
Brian_: (oh, no, I think you can come up with more evil stuff. Just that particular evil?)
Random_Nerd: L: "If bricks are not supposed to be together, and are together now... should go see what's happening?"
Brian_: "So, now: where are big blank spots in your tree-vision, T?"
DanteE: (Do the Cultists know Jim's Important?)

  • Theresa checks again for area with large number of bricks.

DanteE: (Speaking of Blank Spots... your Miracle Div)
Random_Nerd: (None of them mentioned him as anyone unusual)
Brian_: (the miracle div is Realm based, IIRC)
Random_Nerd: (There is no area that shows the signs of a large number of bricks and, in addition, has enough plants present that you can tell.)
Random_Nerd: (If they're gathered up, it's somewhere without much herbage.)
DanteE: "The cultists would bring them to the factory"
Theresa: (I thought we already checked there?)
DanteE: (We are there... but no one went inside)
Theresa: "Wherever they are, it's somewhere my plants aren't."
Theresa: "Let's check the factory again, then."
Random_Nerd: (You're standing outside of it, I figure.)
Random_Nerd: (Since you said you went to it, but not that you went in.)

  • DanteE heads into the factory...

Brian_: (... just like us to stand around outside and not even bother looking in)

  • Snow follows, looking bored.
  • Brian_ will fallow along.

Brian_: (or follow works too)
Theresa: *heads in too*
Random_Nerd: Inside the factory are about ten or so cultists, a quite large pile of bricks, and some corpses from earlier.

  • DanteE checks the pile with Sight and Mythic...
  • Snow runs to sniff the corpses.

Random_Nerd: The pile, mythically, looks like about half of a really big brick that gleams in an odd way.
Random_Nerd: Pile: "BRICK."
Random_Nerd: Pile: "BRIIIIIICK."
DanteE: (FUUUUUUUUCK...)
Theresa: (Hmm..happy sound or half-a-brick sound?)
Theresa: "Okay, no one create a sock..."
Brian_: (half-a-brick sound would be BRI
Brian_: )
Random_Nerd: (To the Sight, it's like it isn't even there. It's as though the world in the direction of the pile ceases to exist and you don't even see blankness, but just blindness.)
Random_Nerd: (It's like the effect of the cultists on the Sight, but amplified.)
DanteE: (Sometimes I hate being right)
Brian_: (and, Brian, not having Sight, or bothering ever to go mythic, doesn't know any of this. So won't suggest to Snow to eat a brick in the hopes that that would disrupt their plans)
Theresa: *to the cultists* "How's it going?
Theresa: "
Random_Nerd: (And it's less "happy brick sound" and more "annoyed brick sound with the bass turned to eleven".)
DanteE: to the CUltists: "OK, guys... new project."
Brian_: "... Snow, I'm interested in what happens if you eat one of those bricks. I ... almost haven't suggested it because I'm afraid it'll explode or something"
DanteE: "I want each of you to grab onbe brick from the pile...

  • Snow sniffs the corpses, trying to see how they died. Blunt trauma, lots of blood, etc.?

Snow: "Huh? Okie dokie."

  • Snow trots over and eats a random brick off the pile.

Random_Nerd: (Some were shot, some got torn to pieces or partially eaten, that kind of thing.)
Brian_: (... Lolbilis? Lolyote? ...)
DanteE: "And then try to stay as far away from each otehr as possible, oooo=kay?"
Random_Nerd: It sits in your stomach like a... brick. A really heavy brick.
Brian_: ("I has a brick! omnomnomnom")
Random_Nerd: Like a lead brick. Or a uranium one, if they made those, and you ate one.

  • Snow burps.

Random_Nerd: It's not enough pressure to cause internal damage, but it feels quite uncomfortable.
Theresa: "Do you think Snow'll explode?"
Brian_: "I hope not"
Brian_: "I like her."
DanteE: "I think Snow might do that just for fun..."
DanteE: (do the Cultists respond?)
Snow: "I can't eat all of those."
Brian_: "I think she can only transform into other animals. I think an explosion is out of her scope."
Random_Nerd: They seem to be about ready to shit a bri^H^H^H^H^H they seem very startled and on edge.

  • Snow shakes her head. "Can't s'plode."
  • Snow belches.

Snow: "'cept like that."
DanteE: to the Cultists: "Go on, guys! Grab a brick! Only one per person."
Brian_: "I love my Sister..." (said in the Kaylee "I love my captain" voice)
Theresa: "So, this is half a brick. The other half is either still out there or they didn't make as much of the big brick as they thought." *to the cultists* "How many more do you think you're missing?" *thinking of Jim's bricks.*
Random_Nerd: The Giant suddenly twitches, and stands perfectly straight.
Brian_: "Wait. Jim's bricks didn't congeal into a giant mas..."
Brian_: "uh oh?"
Snow: "I think I could eat one more brick. If you want me to eat the other half."
Random_Nerd: His pupils contract to pinpoints, and he rushes towards the pile of bricks.

  • Snow blinks at the Giant.

Brian_: "Don't eat the giant."

  • DanteE checks out the Giant in Mythic...

Random_Nerd: The Giant then starts shoving bricks down his throat.

  • Theresa will run up to the giant and smack his hands as hard as she can.

Snow: "Heeeeeeeeeey, I can eat more!"
Random_Nerd: (Mythically, the giant looks pretty muc like Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son, but with bricks instead of a human body.)
Brian_: "... eating competition of the soon to cease to exist?"

  • Snow gobbles more bricks, unless it becomes too uncomfortable and she has to stop.

DanteE: "Guys! STOP!"
Random_Nerd: The Giant keeps shoving bricks down his throat. Snow, the bricks in your belly seem to be pulling towards the Giant. It's like they're heavy, but heavy pointing sideways rather than down.
Random_Nerd: (How uncomfortable would be too uncomfortable?)
Brian_: "Snow! Pizza! In town!"
Snow: (Say, moderate heartburn.)
Snow: (I'd say moderate cramps, but what do you know. :P )
Random_Nerd: (It's about that bad now.)

  • Snow burps.
  • Theresa will smack his hands again, Aspect 3 (break his arms if I have to.)

Snow: "Ow." *wince*

  • DanteE rushes up and grabs the remaining bricks...

Random_Nerd: The giant looks like he's in a great deal of pain, but keeps eating until Theresa smacks his hands, which go flying with great force, dislocating one of his shoulders.
Random_Nerd: The Giant looks at you with a pleading expression.
Snow: "What's wrong, Giant?"
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and when Theresa touches him, his eyes go back.)
DanteE: to the Giant and Snow: "These are contaminated with Excrucian-stuff."
Theresa: "No. No more bricks. We will heal you, but the bricks are bad for you."
Random_Nerd: Giant: "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"
DanteE: "These bricks could kill or change you, so stop."
Brian_: "Looked like you were briefly possessed by something"
Theresa: "That was me keeping you out of the cookie jar. How's the bricks in your stomach? Got enough for an outhouse yet?"
Snow: "Once it goes inside, it becomes part of me," Snow explains.
Theresa: (Was he talking about the possession or the slappage?)
DanteE: (Is there anything we can use to grind these bricks?)
Random_Nerd: (Ambiguous!)
Brian_: (BONES!)
Brian_: (... bread?)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm, to grind them, you could hit them with some of the metal rods that are still there, I suppose, or you could break apart the kiln and use some of the metal parts of it, or similar things.)
Brian_: (Laz sleep soon, Laz thinks is best)
Random_Nerd: Giant: "I don't feel very good."
Random_Nerd: Lesson: "Don't eat bricks."
Brian_: "I imagine not. Eating bricks made of un-done is not good"
DanteE: "Let me see something..."
Theresa: "If you need to throw up, try to use a corner. And not on a cultist, please, they're fragile."
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and some of the cultists have started to make for the exits.)

  • DanteE drops all the bricks but one. HOw's it look in Mythic?
  • Theresa yells at them. "Don't go _anywhere_!"

Random_Nerd: (Mythically, it looks like...well, a brick. It looks almost exactly the same. It seems like a slightly more abstract and stylized brick, mythically.)
Brian_: (A level?)

  • Snow curls up for a snooze, to sleep off the stomach upset.

Theresa: *teacher-voice* "Or I will smack you harder than I smacked him!"
Random_Nerd: The giant starts gagging.

      • Nemesis has joined #nobilis.

Snow: (Hey hey!)
Theresa: (Hi again Nemesis.  :) )
Brian_: "... this feels ominous"
Random_Nerd: (Hey, welcome back.)
Brian_: (hey)

  • DanteE snaps his brick into pieces

Nemesis: (Hello, hello)
Theresa: (Did Theresa stop the fleeing cultists?)
Random_Nerd: The giant throws up a congealed mass made of brick and blood, about the size of a german shepherd. In doing so, his face and throat distort the way they did when he ate half a cultist, and the sound this makes is happily undescribable.
Brian_: (ok, I feel crashing. Sorry I have to disappear >_> see you next week)
Random_Nerd: (They did indeed stop fleeing, although they're pressing themselves against the walls farthest from you guys and the giant.)
Random_Nerd: (Later, Laz.)
DanteE: (G'night Laz
DanteE: )
Theresa: (Night, Laz. *HUG*)
Snow: (Does Snow feel nauseous?)

      • Brian_ has signed off IRC (Disintegrated: Leaving.).

Random_Nerd: (Quite so, now, but you can control it if you choose to.)
Random_Nerd: The mass starts crawling across the floor towards Snow.

  • Snow opens and eye and watches it.

Random_Nerd: From the broken bricks, some of the bits are starting to roll across the floor towards it, also.
Theresa: "That...is a new one. Snow, you seem to be popular."
Random_Nerd: (Not the entire mass of the broken bits, just about a fifth of the smaller parts.)
Random_Nerd: Snow, your stomach continues to pull you, but now in the direction of the crawling mass of brick-bits and blood.
DanteE: "Damn, guess that didn't work..."

  • Snow continues to watch what happens.

Random_Nerd: It begins to pick up pace as it crawls across the floor and accumulates more brick-bits, so that it'll reach Snow in about ten seconds.

  • DanteE jumps and pulls some of the bigger bricks out of the mass...

Random_Nerd: As it moves, bits of brick are being left behind, leaving it smoother and less lump.
Random_Nerd: (So, you're actually touching thse bricks that are part of the mass?)
Snow: "Give me some time and I can eat the whole thing. Then it'll all go away and b e part of me."
DanteE: (uh... yeah...)
Snow: (dun-dun-DUUUUNNN!)
Nemesis: (Something tells me that can't be good or smart, but what do I know *continues eating peanuts*)
Theresa: "But Snow, we don't know what those would do to you. It could kill you because you would be taking in the giant's blood and who knows what else."
DanteE: (Yeah, but that's pretty much SOP for Dante... :) )
Random_Nerd: (There aren't any entire bricks, but you grab some of the bigger chunks. They writhe in your hand, and the bloody slime burns your skin slightly.)
Random_Nerd: (Err, that shouldn't have been in brackets.)
Snow: "Want me to dig a hole and put them in there?"
DanteE: "...it's his blood."
DanteE: (Can I tell if there's any remaining giant blood in the bricks?)
Random_Nerd: The mass of bricks reaches within a few feet of Snow. Snow, you feel as though you'd swallowed a person, and he's decided that he doesn't like this and is trying to crawl back out.
Random_Nerd: (You can still keep it down, but it's harder now.)
Random_Nerd: (How are you checking, Dante?)
DanteE: (Sight & Mythic...)

  • Theresa will get closer to Snow, hoping to fend off the brickblob.
  • DanteE points to a cowering cultist. "You! Fire up that kiln, now!"
  • Snow siiiighs and goes to eat some grass just outside the door. If necessary, she'll vomit up the bricks and whatever.

Random_Nerd: (When you turn your Sight on, you see nothing at all. It's like trying to look through your knees or watch with your left foot.)
DanteE: "Snow... get behind the kiln"
Random_Nerd: Cultist: "The kiln is over there. That thing is also over there, and right now I'm much more afraid of it than I am of you."
DanteE: "It's not after you!"

  • Snow siiiighs again and goes over behind the kiln.

Random_Nerd: Cultist: "I have just your word for that."
DanteE: "The word of your supposed GOD! MOVE!"
Random_Nerd: Snow, you vomit up a mass that looks similar to the one the giant produced, but smaller. It starts crawling over to the other one.
Snow: (How do I feel?)
Random_Nerd: (Better. Not all the way, but far more physically comfortable than you were a moment ago.)
Random_Nerd: Cultist: "I'm experiencing a state of existential doubt produced by the thought of having my soul eaten by an evil magic blob."
Theresa: (So, it's covered in Snow-blood?)
Snow: "Where's the pizza?"
Theresa: "It won't eat your soul...we think."
Random_Nerd: Another Cultist: "Friggin' philosophy students!"
Random_Nerd: Third cultist: "That's not good enough for me. Even if you said it definitely wouldn't eat my soul I don't know if I'd believe you."

  • DanteE goes over and starts up the kiln...

Random_Nerd: The two blobs flow together, into something slightly larger than a human.
Theresa: "Hey guys, Noble blood is pretty powerful. And we know the giant's blood is too. So what happens when they mix and does it become an Anchor to Snow?"
Random_Nerd: It churns, bringing bricks to the surface and producing a ragged shell.
Snow: "I don't think I can have more Anchors. I got Horse."
DanteE: "Let's not find out..."
Random_Nerd: (It would only be Anchored by Snow if she either loved or hated it, and she performed the Rite.)

  • DanteE tackles the blob into the kiln

Random_Nerd: (The blood is necessary but not sufficient.)
Random_Nerd: The blob lands in the kiln, and twists and turns.
Random_Nerd: It seems to be starting to form itself into something less shapeless.

  • DanteE holds it into the heat source...

Theresa: (Yay, Sancrosanct and Holy Fire!(
Random_Nerd: As the heat sinks in, it violently spasms, turning itself into the rough shape of a man.

  • Theresa will pick up one of the altered weapons.

Random_Nerd: The heat seems to be drying it, and it looks more like greyish stone than anything else.
DanteE: (...)
Random_Nerd: Then it sits up.
Random_Nerd: It opens its eyes, and in them, you see stars drifting.
Theresa: (Hi James.)
Random_Nerd: James: "Hello. Long time no see."
Theresa: "Dammit."
Snow: "Hiii!"
DanteE: "So they turned you... brother."
Random_Nerd: James: "It's not that simple. I just..."
Random_Nerd: J: "Well, that's odd. I don't remember. I don't remember anything after Kudzu sent me Outside."
Random_Nerd: One of the less cowering cultists: "So... /are/ you going to eat our souls?"

  • Theresa points at Brian. "Seee! See what happens when you want to go outside of the Universe for a quart of milk?"

Random_Nerd: No response.
Random_Nerd: Lesson: "You... I..."
Theresa: "I'm surprised that you survived that kind of ordeal, James."
Random_Nerd: L: "Something is wrong. Obvious, suppose. But something wrong. Many things."
DanteE: (We spent enough time with him that he'd know his character sheet IC, right?)
Random_Nerd: (I figure.)
DanteE: "He didn't."
Random_Nerd: (I believe he was high-Aspect, had some defensive Gifts, fight, and less Realm and Domain. But I don't have a copy on hand.)
DanteE: (how about Spirit?)
Random_Nerd: (I don't think you'd know /that/. You never saw him in a miraculous fight.)
Theresa: "Anything more specifc on that, Lesson>:
Random_Nerd: L: "When stepped into my head, what did you mean, Master?"
DanteE: (Worth noting we're both still in a fire...)
Random_Nerd: James: "I don't know. But do I seem... the same? I'm talking differently, aren't I And where are we?"
Random_Nerd: (Eh, you both have defensive gifts. Fires are not a big deal.)
Random_Nerd: (You can feel it, but only like slightly too hot bathwater.)
Theresa: (Dont let it muss your hair.)
Theresa: (Technical question..so...what is he, now? He can't be an Excrucian shard because he was already a Noble...right?)
Random_Nerd: James: "This isn't Amyra, I can tell that..."
Random_Nerd: (As far as you know, yes.)
Theresa: "No, we're over in America. We came to examine a cult."
Theresa: "Nice eyes, by the way. How do you get all of the stars to fall to the right?"
DanteE: (How's he look to Sight and Mythic?)
Random_Nerd: James stares at Theresa.
Theresa: (They're all falling to the left now, aren't they...)
Random_Nerd: (Mythically, he looks like a statue covered in fist-sized triangular projections of some different kind of stone.)
Random_Nerd: (To the Sight, he looks like a hole in the world, a James-shaped outline around somethimg that your eyes or your brain won't let you see.)

  • Theresa waves with a hand missing fingers.

Snow: (I'm gonna head off now guys, but this is interesting!)
Snow: (Not as interesting as my pillow however.)
Random_Nerd: He starts to open his wings, and to try to pull himself out of the fire.)
DanteE: (So, he's probably turned... but I'm guessing ol' Bloody-Hands would still consider him 'innocent'?)
Theresa: (Night, Sara! *HUGS*)
Random_Nerd: (Later, Sara.)
DanteE: (G'night Snow)
Snow: (G'night!)

      • Snow has left #nobilis.

Random_Nerd: (I imagine that at this point, unless he knows something you don't, Entropy would consider him "really damn weird.")
DanteE: (And we've lost half our players.)
Theresa: (Wild.)
Theresa: (SHould we call it a night, then?)
Random_Nerd: (That seems good.)
Random_Nerd: (Anything before we stop?)
DanteE: (NIce cliffhanger point...)
DanteE: (Just to clarify: the fire isn't even mussing my hair, right?)
Random_Nerd: (Perhaps mussing your hair, but not burning it.)
Theresa: (It's that nice, heat wave wafting look.)
Random_Nerd: (And your clothes are burnt in places, but aren't utterly ashes.)
DanteE: (Well, it adds to the permanent personal breeze. :)
Random_Nerd: ________________STOP_______________

      • DanteE is now known as Knockwood.
      • You are now known as BethE.

Random_Nerd: (But really, for someone like Dante, being in a kiln is not a big deal.)
BethE: I liked the surprise, dear.  :)
Random_Nerd: So, what'd you think?
BethE: And also the thought that Kudzu might have sent him outside. Especially since maybe as being nonhuman, he might last longer.
Knockwood: It's nice that I finally got something about this right.
Knockwood: Of course, it has to be this... :/
Random_Nerd: Oh, you've gotten a fair amount right.
Random_Nerd: I'd say that at least a third of your guesses were at least pointing in the right direction.
Knockwood: Sam's people really are made of humanity's lost socks? :D
BethE: *giggle*
Random_Nerd: And coat-hangers!
Random_Nerd: In fact, that's why they wear clothes but don't have bodies under them.
Random_Nerd: They're mythically apothesized coat-hangers.
BethE: The thing is...is James an Excrucian, really? If he is (or even if he isn't), is he the one whose presence is 'corrupting' the cult? What if this was the only way to bring James back?
Knockwood: NOt likely, considering this started 6 months back
Random_Nerd: Those are all good questions.
Random_Nerd: Yeah, if this started six months ago, then that means that the Excrucians somehow knew Kudzu would send Urbanization Outside, before he even Ennobled you.
Knockwood: Maybe Urbanization was considered the weakest of Kudzu's domains?
Random_Nerd: Possible.
Knockwood: or... they figure Kudzu will eventually send each of us Outside
Random_Nerd: Which raises questions of its own!
BethE: I don't wanna go Outside. All of my stuff is in here.
BethE: Besides, I'm just Plants. I can't even grow my own World Ash.
Random_Nerd: But, yes. "This was all a plot to bring James back" seems to be at least partly true, but it also has some big gaps and questions.
Knockwood: afk for a few...
BethE: Then it sounds like a Kudzu plot.  :)
Random_Nerd: Would Kudzu plot with the Excrucians?
Random_Nerd: I mean, other than that one time.
BethE: Depends on what the plot is.
Random_Nerd: Of course, he argued that one as the Excrucian plotting with /him/.
BethE: And would taking another Imperator's Estate be considered Excrucian-like?
Random_Nerd: To some degree.
Random_Nerd: Imperators do it too, but not as much, whereas Excrucians are practically known for it.
Knockwood: bak
Random_Nerd: Of course, the two do it different ways, and Kudzu did it Imperator-style.
Random_Nerd: But it's possible that the Excrucians /could/ do it that way, it's just not tactically advantageous.
Knockwood: have the Dark Horsemen ever been known to negotiate?
Random_Nerd: Yes.
Knockwood: There's a slight chance James is an envoy, then.
Knockwood: About of par with the chances of monkeys flying out of my butt, but still...
Random_Nerd: After all, with all the enemy maintaining a line to hold you back, if you try to jump one and eat his soul, the others will probably just stab you.
Random_Nerd: And Shards trying to do it to an Imperator would just get eaten.
Knockwood: Hey, is my Dim Warding doing anything?
Random_Nerd: To James? Not that you can tell.
Random_Nerd: Which suggests that he isn't just simply an Anchor.
BethE: Can we tell if he is still the Noble of Urbanization?
Random_Nerd: Maybe, I don't know. How would you check?
Random_Nerd: The Sight is out, at least.
Knockwood: Lesson's ... hm.
Knockwood: Someone touch Lesson next time, see if he gets de-Anchored
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and Theresa's repeatedly touching the giant when he was possessed was what caused him to come back. He wasn't Anchored, exactly, but it seems that the process was similar in some ways, enough for the Warding to work to some degree.)
BethE: Ahh. I am sorry for dislocating his shoulder.
Random_Nerd: (As a rule, flat-out Anchoring even minor miraculous beings just doesn't work.)
BethE: Hmm...if I had slapped him in the face with that level, what would have happened?
Knockwood: That'd mean he's definitely Excrucian
Random_Nerd: (See, for instance, the Magical Inhabitants chancel property.)
Random_Nerd: If you had, it would would have broken his jaw, probably into several pieces.
Random_Nerd: Aspect 3 is a lot of force.
Random_Nerd: It's the "shattering rocks with a blow" level.
Knockwood: of course, I kinda broke my 'Don't yell' rule...
Random_Nerd: Oh?
Knockwood: at the cultist.
BethE: I yelled too.
Random_Nerd: Ah.
BethE: I thought the giant was less squishy and would need a rock-smacking blow.
Random_Nerd: Basically, he has miraculous defenses, but they're against weapons.
Random_Nerd: Against unarmed force, he's big and strong, but not supernaturally so.
Knockwood: then again, if he can't fend off a kindergarten teacher... :)
Random_Nerd: Jackie Chan on PCP probably couldn't fend off someone with Aspect 3.
BethE: You should see Theresa break up a fight over a dolly.
Knockwood: well, Chan has an advantage in that he doesn't particularly care if he gets hurt...
Random_Nerd: Heh.
Random_Nerd: So, what did you two like most and least about both this session and the larger storyline?
BethE: I liked the twist. I did not expect it and I was pretty much just joking around when I typed 'Hi James.'
Knockwood: We finally did something instead of just talking!
BethE: Liked least...I feel lost. I don't know why. And I don't think that it's because I feel useless..I just don't know where to go.
Knockwood: That's how I felt last story, when it looked like Barakiel was right... by my interpretation, anyway...
Random_Nerd: I'd say that if he's right, it's on a technicality, and his plan is still exceedingly stupid and dangerous.
Knockwood: current plan, last plan, or both?
Random_Nerd: Both! But I was thinking of the original one.
Random_Nerd: That even if it technically worked and stopped the next Age, it wouldn't stop the problems that he was trying to use it to stop.
Random_Nerd: But, yeah, on this storyline, while I like the idea I had of what the cultists were up to and what the Excrucian has in mind, I don't think the execution was great.
Knockwood: it would, in theory, postpone the resolution of the Big Whatever and give us more time to come up with something that does work.
BethE: We had a lot of down time in between sessions, though, thanks to the surgery.
Knockwood: Aren't you going back into surgery at some point?
Random_Nerd: Yeah, I suspect that the loss of momentum there hurt us. But still, as the GM, it's my job to compensate for that kind of thing.
Random_Nerd: Yeah, she is.
Random_Nerd: We don't have a date set for it yet, though.
Knockwood: and we lost Hope.
Random_Nerd: True. But we got back Capriciousness.
Knockwood: BTW, I was considering putting together an online THS game...
Random_Nerd: THS?
Random_Nerd: Oh, Transhuman Space?
Random_Nerd: I haven't read that, but what I've heard about it interests me.
Knockwood: if I get a good group, maybe it'll do for THS what this game is supposedly doing for Nobilis. :)
BethE: And maybe I'll handle recovery a bit better the second time around. No promises, though.  :P But hey, if we're at a good point, Theresa could always be off doing something else while everyone else has adventures for a couple of weeks.  :)
Knockwood: well, the APs, anyway
Random_Nerd: Yeah, I do like that people read our logs and find the game more playable.
Random_Nerd: I think it helps that we're a bit more gonzo than the idea most have of the game.
Knockwood: gonzo as in two-fisted writing about anything that bugs us...
Knockwood: or gonzo as in having chickens try and fire us out of a cannon? :P
Knockwood: (Name... Those ... References!)
Random_Nerd: Don't make me choose!
Random_Nerd: Hunter S. Thomson and The Muppet Show, right?
Knockwood: ayep. :)
Knockwood: (granted, I mainly know Hunter through his Transmetropolitan doppleganger, but still...)
BethE: I hope they read the wiki more than the thread. I haven't updated the thread in so long...
Random_Nerd: And I was more referring to the fact that, yes, it's a game that sometimes deals with deep issues, but it's also a game where bricks go "Brick!" and horses from outside of reality deliver hamburgers.
BethE: (I only know him through watching Fear and Loathing. My favorite part - Johnny Depp saying, "So, there I was..." *looks over, sees Thomson* "My God, there I am!")
BethE: We also have Imperators incarnating through a Whopper.
Knockwood: One advantage of the thread is that it's edited... :/
Random_Nerd: Heh.
Random_Nerd: Anyway, do you mind if I head out?
Knockwood: Tpyo controls the Wiki version
Knockwood: oyasumi-nasai.
Knockwood: you too Beth
BethE: True, it's edited but when people want to read it _now_... <G>

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 11