Soup of the Primordial Sort
Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2020 8:19 pm
This quest ran from May 31, 2017 to Sep 01, 2019.
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8832
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8834
(Consolidating these for ease of reading/running)
Doctor MIRACLES summons up a host of goats, which promptly start glitching out and are swept up in the flow, cast about the world on winds of mana. Thaaaat's probably going to do something later down the line. Regardless!
Crazy Roy and Error Flynn change shape, appearing as something else (that they might have always been?).
He greets the pair. They greet him. Mana twinkles.
What are you guys aiming to do from here?
Aeromage wrote: "The ADVENTURE? HE which is ME that is I, DOCTOR MIRACLES give to you THE YES!"
The Doctor is both intrigued at the sudden goat-sweeping and elated at the possibilities on display!
He is the creator of the element of Azoth- the base and pinnacle of Alchemy, the Divine Firey Water, the Universal Cure, the supreme transmutation agent, among so very many other things. It is tied to him, and he, to it. But it remains vanishingly rare, an element unheard of! And with that, the progression of its personal tree of boundless potential is stunted!
And yet.
And yet, here the Doctor stands, in the midst of a world (apparently) undergoing reconstruction, happily taking in all it can (although oddly not the Doctor or his two new companions) presumably in an effort to remake itself in a grand fashion.
What possible right would the Doctor have to call himself the progenitor and guider of his element if he didn't take this opportunity?
Using his skill with Channeling and Azoth, the Doctor sets about introducing the element into the glorious mixture around him!
(Notable skills/things to use: Classname-tier Channeler and Divine Philosopher, Classname Geomancer to figure out how to introduce it properly or at least prevent it from going to waste, plenty of XP)
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: How much of his XP is he dumping into this?
Aeromage wrote: And here the Doctor hits the issue of how much would count as 'too much' or 'not enough', especially given how much he brought with him.
Considering that there's an entire planet's worth of stuff around here to disperse the mana into, the Doctor begins with 20,000,000 of his initial 50 million, in order to ensure that the element is at least somewhat seeded into the mix.
However, he'll be trying to keep the flow at least somewhat steady rather than dumping it all in at once. If it looks to him like he might be adding too much, he'll stop.
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: Right. What is the other pair doing, while this is happening?
Pathaky wrote: Crazy and <ERROR> brandish implements of Mystery, created wholesale with the intention not to deceive, but to create a retro-reflexive truth. Was it a lie if it was there from the beginning? Could it be?
They scatter, along with skeins of elemental Mystery, the following items.
1. A hoard of Currency, as established in the Currency Scheme, having symbols that secretly pertain to the Enigma Men. Found in a vault of a ruined ziggurat.
2. A strigil, or oil-scraper, found in the ruins of a lavish bathhouse used by The Descending Ones.
3. Pottery shards inscribed with the motif of an inverted ziggurat with a meteor streaking above it.
4. A broken fragment of machinery, purpose unknown. The metal retains it's shine, even all these centuries later.
5. A circlet made of woven metals, inlaid with semiprecious stones. At it's crown is a small face made of metal, eyes closed and smiling. The face is set with a smaller circlet, which has a smaller face. This continues until the space is too small to provide meaningful detail.
(References for these items is found here: viewtopic.php?p=147574#p147574 )
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: The items disappear quickly into the current, glitching out and moving off semi-guided in different directions.
Before I process the greater implications of applying Mystery to this, is he inputting just the barest hint or wholesale dumping Mystery mana into things?
Pathaky wrote: Since this is already a primordial rebuilding, they're putting barest hint in.
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: Doctor MIRACLES sends a spark of divine alchemy into the mix, flooding it with a wave of mana afterwards. It carries the tide to the corners of the world, dissipating it into droplets and instilling it into the mana pattern of the planet in small, subtle ways. Unborn mages now have a small chance of becoming rare alchemists. He gains 30 upfront Divine Philosopher bonus weeks (that can only be used on that and cannot be transferred/changed into other sorts normally) and feels that this is definitely going have further effects down the line, as well as a resonating feeling that he just empowered the element, may have massively empowered it, and might have also have deeply poisoned it. Elation, triumph, and despair mix in equal measures as he feels enormous potency and vile corruption swirl through the Doctor's mana pattern (and to a much lesser extent those of Crazy (Er)Roy) briefly before they suddenly stop entirely like an electric current going dead. A subtle new force spreads like a warm glow from where that torrent once flowed, and a change resonates through the world; some cosmic factor has suddenly, and abruptly, been altered.
Divine Philosopher can get template-equivalent abilities similar to the other T1 abilities post-quest. It is now, on Noix, associated additionally with peering behind the outward workings of reality at the truth of how things really are, with divine sparks of inspiration (that often come entirely at random), with ancient, secret knowledge that tends to be repetitively rediscovered by prodigies over the ages, with links to Immortals, Divines, and other such entities of primal enduring power (but not the direct power of them), and with the blossoming of individual potential. It can be generally treated as a T2 element, but this effect is entirely limited to Noix for the time being (and most likely after that as well; I don't see this migrating over to the setting as a whole).
Noixian Sigil Magic, globally, has utterly vanished. At the same time, a new setting-specific magic has come into being.
Classname: Concord Magic (Bound Other: Agent of the Concord)
(Subject to change)
Basic Concord Magic Attunement- (Passive Ability, Bound Other: Agent of the Concord) All Concord Magic spells possessor casts that possess a Magical Attack, Melee Attack, or Ranged Attack bonus gain +10,000 additional Magical Attack, Melee Attack, or Ranged Attack; All Concord Magic spells cost possessor 10,000 less MP to cast
Basic Unified Knowledge of Azoth and Concord Magic- (Passive Ability, Divine Philosopher) Possessor may count Divine Philosopher abilities possessor possesses as Agent of the Concord abilities (including for prerequisite purposes), Possessor may count Agent of the Concord abilities possessor possesses as Divine Philosopher abilities (including for prerequisite purposes)
The specifics of that field of magic remain entirely vague at the moment, but the Doctor senses it is inherently tied to this world and unlikely to work at all outside of it under all standard circumstances.
Crazy (Er)Roy, on the other hand, successfully stows the items about the world. He instantly accomplishes his current plot through the self-constructive powers of Mystery and thinks he might have the opportunity to do that a few more times should he so desire.
What are you guys doing now?
Pathaky wrote: This bodes well and good. And greatly.
Crazy Roy and <ERROR> complete the scheme: Discovery of the Century.
The schemes continue.
The items that they scattered before are added to, created from Mystery and conviction. These are additional Relics of a Lost People, establishing retro-evidence of the ruins of an Ancient Civilization.
1. A threadbare stole woven with magical thread that stabilizes/pacifies the area spawn patterns of the surroundings. These were worn by the Descending Ones as additional insurance and protection toward the end of their hegemony, when the area mana patterns were twisted violently enough to spontaneously spawn angry mobs and other hostile entities. Mystery associates this with the tower of Sin-Mushtal, a moldering ruin in an isolated mountain range.
2. An unsummoning baton, carved from a single piece of dark wood and engraved with constellation-patterns. Retro-associated as being found in the sunken ruins of Silili.
He adds a few more implications to the previous items with the intention to establish more isolated ruins.
3. The ruins of Adad, a a crushed (formerly) inverted ziggurat. Deep in *some* jungle. The stirgil/scraper is retro-associated with it.
4. Ruins of Nin-Lil, a stone tower in (weirdly) good condition, despite the environmental weathering of the desert it resides in.
5. The Kalbum Patterns, an area of geometric empty space seemingly punched into the ground over an area of a few miles of desolate scrubland. Purpose unknown.
These are fixed and established using the Soupiness of the world at present to establish them as having always been there, an archaeological feature of a society long-dead.
Aeromage wrote: The possibility of corruption is concerning to the Doctor, but Azoth is, among other things, the Divine Cure, and he is a doctor of some merit. The sudden halting of the corruption-spread and its replacement with another force, combined with the new themes Azoth has picked up (at least on the world) seem to bode well. Should there be some corruptive force remaining in the element, it can be addressed further down the line.
Or possibly now, even! He's in on the ground floor, so what better time to try what he can? With a bit of a flash of inspiration, the Doctor mixes up an Expert Alchemist's Eternal Restorative, has it eternally apply Purified and sends it off into the Azoth-stream in order to help counteract any remaining corruption-issues. It's meant to be an element open to everyone to let them experience its grand new power, gain brilliant inspiration, and further their knowledge of the alchemical and healing arts as well as that which lies beyond, not something to be wrested control of and twisted to any one factor's ends, after all!
The new Concord Magic sounds interesting! Its specifics may be vague, but the Doctor believes, based on the name, that it can- and should- be based on banding together to achieve great things, forging bonds where there were none before, and drawing upon such for further power. Rather like Alchemy in a way, only with less atomic chemical bonding and more metaphorical sorts. He'll keep an eye on that to see how it looks like it's developing, and see if he can't nudge and/or learn from it.
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: Doctor MIRACLES mixes up a divine curative and tosses it into the mix. He has no idea what effect that is likely to have, if any.
Looking on Concord Magic, he senses its presence but not the how or why of it. That could be because he lacks the conceptual background to interpret such things properly, could be a result of the magic remaining in this glitchy, partially unformed state, could be a result of it being newly created, could be because he cannot entirely comprehend something of this scale even with his position of current clarity... Hard to say. He does determine to to be quasi-directly linked to the shining mass of power at the planet's core, though.
The Doctor gets the awards-
Sowed Azoth across Noix
Responsible for the universal replacement of Noixian Sigil Magic with Concord Magic
Created the Link Between Azoth and Concord Magic on Noix
5 Fame (as an effect that will take effect after this quest ends)
(Er)Roy, taken by a spark of mad genius, uses Mystery to light the embers of ancient civilizations. It goes both terribly wrong and more gloriously than he could have imagined.
The Descending Ones, come and gone.
Dread Sin-Mushtal, once grand Silili, Adad the broken. Nin-Lil and its endless core. The Kalbum Patterns, which have baffled scholars since their discovery.
The threads of Mystery latch onto some greater force, weaving on their own in ways unknown and uncontrolled by the Enigma Man as they continue in the act of unbounded creation, carrying it far further than (Er)Roy could themselves. The far shores of Ib, the perplexing disappearance of the mists of Norn, the riddle of three waters. Mystery, caught in the swirling tide of something potent, reaches fingers across the world, dotting it with ruins and infusing them with new life and confounding secrets. The undiscovered and untrodden has more power now than ever before, here. Then, quite abruptly and similarly to what happened with that vein of corruption infecting Azoth, it vanishes.
(Er)Roy, both as the originator of this force and an Enigma Man himself, feels a curious presence peering back at him through the veils of madness. Cold, calculating, weighing and judging him. It feels almost like another identity, though something is stranger than usual about it and its power dwarfs his own (though he thinks it is probably below level 80, probably somewhere around level 60 at the moment). Before he can get anything approaching a bead on it, it vanishes behind the vast curtain of the unknown, a great tide of mist covering part of the world that swallows up secrets like a man in the desert gulps down water even as he feels a lingering tie bind him and it. They aren't done with themselves.
There are still traces of Mystery, touches of its influence, but the element itself seems to have largely vanished and not rooted itself there like Azoth did.
On the flipside, he thinks the effort with Nin-Lil has gone particularly well. That place has firmly affixed itself as a powerful, unyielding core element of the world and he thinks he has a greater degree of control over it than most, were he to visit it and attempt to utilize this.
He finishes his second scheme.
Crazy Roy and <ERROR> Flynn get the awards-
Indirectly restructured the Ruins of Noix
Created many mysteries on Noix
May have Breached the Unknown Ocean
May be Operating on the Unknown Continent
May be Enacting a Plan He Does Not Understand
May Possess an Uncontrolled Identity
7 Obscurity (shared between them)
Crazy Roy is now suffering from Insanity. Error Flynn remains fully functional.
Doctor Miracles feels something stir in connection with Azoth. It locally gains an association with insanity and mad inspiration.
What are the duo/trio doing from here?
Aeromage wrote: The new connotations are concerning, but so long as they remain local and a mere facet of the element rather than an overarching theme, manageable.
The Doctor sparkle-pirouettes to face the duo.
"GENTLEMENS! YOU and YOU and THE FACES OF YOURSELF have THE OPPORTUNITIES! The WORLD of REBUILT! The ITEMS of RARE and POWERING! The LEARNING of UNUSUAL! The ADVENTURE of MANY EXCITING and YES! Let you and you and HE which is ME that is I, DOCTOR MIRACLES be of THE EXPLORATION!"
Pathaky wrote: C. Roy, the piles of bananas that he is, grabs his ankles (as they are) and begins staring into his belly button (as it exists).
ERROR remains far more lucid.
"Ȯ̵ͦͤ̈́̆ͤ̐ͅh̖̪̤̀-͇ͥ̃̎͊H̡͓̪̱̲̝̰̞̄ͯo̢͚͙͍̮̱̥͓̅ͣ̎̒̍! Yes! There are worlds to be see, swashes to be buckled, adventures to be sown! Let us sally forth!"
The pair and the Doc attempt to begin the exploration!
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: Crazy Roy thinks someone put bananas in his belly button. Now who would do that, and why?
The world is your <DESCRIPTION NOT FOUND>. Where are they intending to go? They can see <everything>.
A non-comprehensive list of options includes (Please pick one):
- Check out Syveria, more specifically one of the many locations on it
Notables on Syveria:
- Check out the Dead Lands. Lots of quasi-hostile undead, rendered in a state of stasis, and the sprawling necropolis of Gammelsbright below it.
- Check out the Diet Lands. Lots of low-calorie things here!
- Check out the Fields of Fitness. Expect Swole sights.
- Check out the Grandwood, where the Noixian elves dwell
- Check out the Holy Confederacy of the Dragonpact. Bunch of kingdoms with rather a lot of dragon and paladin themed things. Their capital, Thousand Shining Spires, is particularly pretty.
- Check out the Icy Northlands! Mammoths, barbarians, cavemen, and assorted neolithic life dwell there.
- Check out the Plains of War. They're currently in the process of glitching out more than everything else, it might be worth seeing why
- Check out the Skyspear Mountains. They're rather expansive, dotted with new ruins and dwarven cities.
- Check out Roriana and her kingdom of Orcs, deep in the Skyspear Mountains. Might be interesting to see what she's done with the place.
- Track down the Bandit Fortress in the Skyspear Mountains. PCs never did finish that original plotline.
- Check out the Confederacy of Free Cities. Quite a lot of assorted cities on rather conventional land.
- Check out Shadeslow or Shades, Yo, two cities nearby each other that PCs have previously visited.
- Check out Elkie, the town with the infamous mayor.
- Check out the Ironwood Expanse, a vast metal-element forest.
- Check out the Southern Jungles. Plenty of new ruins, lots of jungle-y stuff.
- Check out the Sultan's Lands and its many new ruins, or his palace in Tamal.
- Check out the Unformed Lands, and the Conflux at its heart. The Kalbum Patterns seem to have fixed themselves here, providing a rather stark change in the mutable landscape.
Places beyond Sylveria:
- Check out the Archipelago. Lots of assorted islands! Plenty of new ruins.
- Check out Gnoma's continent. Probably has a lot of gnome stuff on it, is visibly shaped like a goofy head.
- Check out Aetheryis, the Vanishing Continent. See what happens when the rare and unreal gets put in this state.
- Check out Arcannis, the continent of ancient mages. Its shield is currently entirely down.
- Check out Opula, the continent of wealth and wonders. Money does grow on trees!
- Check out the World's Depths. Many unexplored pathways and ruins to see, down there. The two could try to see how Eggman is interacting with all of this, or visit the order of Doombreakers.
- Check out the world's oceans. Quite a lot to see down there! Plenty of new ruins, too.
- Check out one of the many, many subdimensions nested around the world. The pair see no less than four full, alternate timelines and fourty three sublayers of creation (such as the Mirror Realm, the Distant, the Void, the Labyrinth, New Beginnings (the sub-cosmos PCs created), the Halls of Glory, etc...)
Places beyond the surface of Noix:
Options for the Constant Moons include:
- Doctor Moonacles, the moon carved to look like Doctor Miracles's head.
- Harragern and its volcanic surface
- Sepqual and the gigantic life present on it
- Tenkanichi-Sudakai the Artificial Moon
- Vi the Vibrant Moon, and its lush jungles
- Vo The Hollow Moon, and its insectiod residents
- Vaal the Boiling Moon, with its ice, hotsprings, and penguins
Options for the Absent Moons (which are, uncharacteristically and for perhaps the first time, all present at once) include:
- Goragonai the Dreaming Moon, covered in Dream
- The Blue Moon, Herald of the End of Times (!, generally not accessible, may indirectly start the apocalypse event chain)
- The Empty Moon, GoNe
- Xxii the Omen, which reflects truths and possibilities
- Yami the Fallen Moon, and its hoards of world-devouring demons
Options for nearby planets:
- The nearest world, Zeat
- The nearby world, Havel
- The nearby world, Throne
- The nearby world, Faeholm
- Check out the nine stars surrounding Noix. All but one seem to have a deity in them, all of which are in stasis. Curiously, only one is set to appear from Noix at any given time and the look very similar to each other.
- Places beyond the Great One's Cradle (Immediate system around Noix)
- The galactic core
- The Seven Kingdoms
- Assorted other worlds, near and far
Riskier options include:
- Check out The Core. It is radiant with passive mana and appears less shielded than normal. They sense it being highly dangerous purely from the potency of the mana coming from it, but think they could get somewhat close without putting themselves at risk given the state of things.
- Check out The Mayline. It is a conflux of colors and appears less shielded than normal. Most of what is inside seems quite effected by whatever is going on, though it could be dangerous purely from the nature of what it contained.
- Check out the Lost Ocean and Unknown Continent. They have a reputation for causing insanity for those who visit them, but are less overtly hostile in this than normal. Error Flynn gets a generally bad feeling about that place and doesn't think himself suited to facing whatever might lurk there just yet, though Doctor MIRACLES himself believes his odds to be better but still gets a nervous feeling in his gut about it.
- Check out the Darkness Beyond Space at the universal edge, where black, writhing things burrow through the flesh of the cosmos. Distance is no object at the moment since space is subjective and mutable. Might be interesting to see the shape of the universe from somewhere beyond it. What sane mortal would want to seek out the Outer Gods, though?
General goals (please pick one):
- Track down the new areas Crazy (Er)Roy just created, or try to find concentrations of Azoth.
- Try to determine how Concord Magic works and where it is most prominently based.
- Wander entirely at random! See what there is without a semblance of direction!
- Try to find out what's causing all of this.
- Something unstated.
Note that their unhinged state is going to make actually grabbing and keeping any loot here very difficult, and general direct interference with things tricky.
Shitty general illustration of Noix (Note that it's a bit smaller than Jupiter. Noix is not a small world.):
http://imgur.com/wM03812
Aeromage wrote: While the Doctor is interested in seeing what's up with Concord Magic, he thinks he may well end up stumbling across some answers regarding that in the course of Finding out what's causing all of this, given the current events are affecting everything and likely caused Concord Magic to come to be.
To this end, he suggests the gang start with the moon of "Xxii the Omen, which reflects truths and possibilities", in order to get pointed in the right direction(s).
Pathaky wrote: (Er)Roy agrees. He's specifically interested in using the Moon to shed light on the current state of Noix. Also figuring out why the moons are called Absent?
Wriggle Nightsparrow wrote: Doctor MIRACLES and at least half of Er(Roy) set off in earnest towards Xxii, moving up and out towards the glimmering pearl in the sky. The Skystair is visible through the atmosphere, and various clouds of possible-monster float about, random encounters that could have been.
It takes a few minutes to make their way to the moon by merit of distance, even somewhat displaced from the concept though they are. Xxii is surrounded by a field of possibility, meaning it can either Exist or Not Exist based on assorted conditionals (likely what the Absent title refers to). Said field is currently in a state of stasis, much like the moon itself. Bits and pieces of broken and currently-being-(re)written prophesy flit across its surface, like that of a vast ocean of swirling mist.
Doctor MIRACLES sees bits of shining light he takes to represent Concord Magic scattered like pieces of glass in the sun across Noix, but without any clear pattern to them.
Er(Roy) sees a giant ball of twine, with mice between the folds. Er(Roy) sees a reflected world amid a restructuring, with some hinted-at greater purpose or force guiding it, of shaping hands holding the strings. He thinks, if he watches it long enough, he might be able to find the location of whatever is guiding things.
Best Diviner/Enchanter/Magus/Sage/Esoteric Wiseman/Destiny Weaver abilities on each of them? Any additional actions in the pursuit of their courses here? The two/three are essentially watching a giant crystal ball looking for patterns.
Aeromage wrote: The Doctor has the best and mightiest of Sage abilities!
The Pimp's Cane Brooks No Disobedience From Hos- (Passive Ability, Sage) Once per round, possessor, if wielding a Staff, may conduct a 'Melee Attack' action as a preemptive counter against the source of an action that would have a chance of inflicting Charm on possessor; if said counter deals Damage, said action may not inflict Charm
More seriously, though, he only has Apprentice Diviner and Apprentice Enchanter. He'll likely be relying on <ERROR> or Crazy Roy here.
He'll make a note of what places Concord Magic is concentrated, at least, in case the gang goes there in the course of investigating. He's also Excellent at Counting Large Numbers of Things Quickly if that ends up coming into play.
Pathaky wrote: Adept Divining Attunement- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Divining spells cost possessor 10,000 less MP to cast, Possessor counts as being 5 Levels higher, to a max of Level 99, for stat-scanning purposes as an effect that does not bypass 'Immune to Under Level X' effects, Possessor gains 10 Spell slots that may not be used for purposes other than carrying spells, may only carry Divining Spells, and may not be converted into other types of slots by individuals below Level 100
Auto-Scan- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor scans the stats of all individuals in battle at the beginning of battle
On both ERROR and Roy! None of the other stuff, alas.
The pair search specifically for the patterns that will explain the hands pulling the strings.