Vast Expectations (Part 5)

Log Info

• Title: Vast Expectations, part 5
• Emitter: Whirlpool
• Characters: Faranmidahn, Paenitia, Jinks, Razen, Edinaz
• Place: The Vast
• Time: Monday, February 07, 2022, 10:01 PM
• Summary:The adventurers head out with Av-de towards the Vast. The broken features of time are discussed, and some strange occurrences are observed. It goes from bad to worse, however, as the sounds of battle manifest into two warring armies of demons.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  Appearing  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Paenitia     3'0"     34 Lb      Halfling          Female    A Lucht knight, dark skinned in bold feathery finery.
Faranmidahn  3'3"     35 Lb      Halfling          Female    Albino Lucht woman. Knight of Spiders. So, SO Fluffy.
Jinks        3'4"     39 Lb      Gnome             Male      A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry.
Lysos        5'6"     105 Lb     Human/Tsuran      Female    Dark eyed tsuran girl.
Razen        6'9"     258 Lb     Half-Orc          Male      A large half-orc in well loved scale mail.
Edinaz       6'10"    296 Lb     Half-Orc          Male      Grey-skinned half-oruch, extensive black ink.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  As the GM  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Whirlpool                        Otyugh                      I am stinky! 
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

Previously

Adventurers, led by Farland, head to the Vast to meet with the Phurai Dae. They arrive, and are met, but not by the ones they expect. A battle with trolls ensues, and the grasslands are set on fire. Once the trolls are defeated, the adventurers put of the fires and tend to the wounded. They also investigate the face-bag, which turns out to be a handy haversack with lively mouths. It is destroyed. The ones they seek finally arrive, it's a centaur, who takes them to the edge of the vast.

It's been a long trip, after all, and now it's going to be an even longer one given the ride through the grasslands. Hours of riding, actually, that's going to further wear on you after the frenzied fight against the trolls. Farland clings to the mount's neck.

The Centaur, of course, seems casually glad to be on the move. He enjoys the feel of the grasslands under his hooves.

"The Sea of Sundered Time. Do any of you know much about it? The way we tell it, the Sea began with the Demon Wars -- a conflagration so destructive that it broke the flow of time itself. Did you know, no one is quite certain how long the demon wars actually lasted? Historians gauge a hundred years, but ... that's relative. With the flow of time itself broken, it applies ... unevenly. A hundred years is just how they make sense of disparate stories. In the Sea, in the right conditions, you can see into a past or into a future. They don't even need to be *our* past, or *our* future. Some people have been snatched up and deposited in another time, only to find their way back decades later into a future they don't recognize -- our present, of course, and there's no telling if they're even from *our* past."

The grass here grows taller, but then, you can see an odd melding of patterns amongst them, a sort of unevenness, as if they grass and the blades next to it are growing at uneven rates.

"We're near it. You can see the grass here. The damage to time spreads out from the center of the sea, and none but the Dae dare travel it. The paths of safety are known only to us, and even they are dangerous. The hope is to learn what Farland needs to learn for his aims, yes? The return of Animus?"

"More than that," answers Farland, quietly.

"A time ago," he begins, "a group of our scholars sought to reach into the past, to uncover a mystery. But they didn't find it. I don't mean to say they failed -- they succeeded... but the *past* was missing, as if we had been severed from that moment in our history somehow. Like something itself cut away a piece of time."

Now

"Ramirez, keep in the wings. You do not want to go bald on the one side." Paenitia advises her trusty mount.

'Rawwk!' Her peacock-andalusian does as advised.

The little red knight checks over her shoulder at her pillon passenger, then turns her leering visor towards her fellow cavalier. "This the bigger thief of time than I have had the experience with, Farland. There are more details to what they do not find?"

"Mother spoke of it on occasion." Faranmidahn notes as she sweeps the horizons for sign of more trouble, just in case, "Her interest was more the great storm in the Desolation, but there was some thought that the sundered time here could have some similar effects, or explain some of the phenomena there."

The albino Lucht shrugs, "She's by far more learned than I am on the matter, and I still only grasp it at the basest level. I'm not entirely certain that theory ever proved true."

Razen trundles along silently. History and magic are not his forte, and in truth he has little interest in either. Maybe if it were a battle story? But even then. He yawns and keeps moving along.

With nowhere to go but down, Jinks remains sat in the saddle behind Paenitia. He's not winning any jousting tournaments (without cheating) but the gnome has become a halfway-competent rider under the paladina's instruction. One hand holds loose on the straps indicated by the dame and his other holds his bow, quivers restocked and ready to harry should the need arise.

"I can pluck at memories from the Hymn should the need arise," offers the gnome. Up this high his jewels sparkle in the daylight.

Edinaz walks along quietly, listening. When Farland tells his story though, his head jerks around and he stops for a moment, staring. He blinks, then inhales-exhales, squares his shoulders, and keeps walking.

"That may not be the worst idea to try," admits Farland to Jinks, thoughtfully.

"I'm hoping to find the missing moment, so that we can find out where it's all *going*."

He leans forward, staring off into the distance. He and the Centaur haven't budged a muscle forward yet. There, on the wind, seems to occasionally be an echo. A small sound.

Before you, there's a flash of movement, like something was moving across your field of vision, briefly, but you were never actually able to see it.

Something catches Paenitia's eye. Not the movement, not yet, it's Jinks' bow. "Ah, Av-de, I had the thought. If we shoot the arrow into the air, will we see it move through the broken time. Will it hang in some places and speed through the others like lightning? Is this the safe way to navigate if we are separated from you."

Now, she notices movement, the flicker. The Red Knight points a guantlet, "Like that. Is that an arrow we have yet to shoot, or the thing we should try shooting now?"

Lysos trudges along, listening to the centaur's description of the Sea without offering too much in comment.. she's no scholar, and though she's dabbled in history, any of her knowledge of this place was that it was one best avoided. One hand is outstretched to the side, brushing at the longer grasses as the ones in front of the group get eventually trodden down by all of the feet.

Razen eyes the flicker suspiciously. But it doesn't reveal itself as a danger yet. Still, he puts a hand on the hilt of his weapon. Better safe than sorry.

Edinaz looks up, knees flexing. "Wha'?"

Faranmidahn draws up in her saddle at the flicker of movement, reaching first for her lance, "Did everyone see that as well?" she wonders.

"Tell me what to look for and I will," Jinks gnod and grins to his fellow. "A missing moment is too inspecific; I have no shortage of those." He bard frees his hand from the anchoring strap and taps the studded doublet over his heart-- no doubt hiding his trusty flask of spirits.

The minstrel follows the flash with a darting of his onyx-black eyes, eyelids narrowing. "... it almost looked like Halani running," he admits, closing his eyes to try and recall what passed in the blink of an eye.

"Yes, we've seen things like that work. You know, most of us imagine time as a river, ever flowing in one direction at a steady rate. This is what we see, what we feel. Here, however, it has currents, some slow, and others rapid. It has eddies, and that's not to mention the risk of crashing into the rocks or getting ... stuck. But here, it is different. It is more as if all of time is happening all at once, in any given particular space. The past, present, and the future comingly in ways they ought not to be able to. I wonder, perhaps, if this is a more accurate idea of what time is like tha our own perceptions?"

Av-De spreads his hands in a magnanimous gesture. "Fortunate, it is, that my people have learned how to navigate them, if only imperfectly. I will be your guide on the currents of time."

A beat.

"...I drew the short straw."

Farland sighs heavily, then nods towards Jinks.

"We'll need to go a little deeper in before we can do anything. We have to get to a spot where the tapestry is more ...accessible." Oh good.

GAME: Jinks rolls Knowledge/Geography: (7)+15: 22
GAME: Jinks rolls Knowledge/Arcana: (12)+16: 28

"Mind shimmering shafts or threads of light as we journey in," Jinks warns Paenitia, raising his voice and looking around to include the rest, too. "They may offer simple glimpses into other points of the world's histories or apocrypha... but are also said to take the unwary to different points in time, into other versions of our pasts, or out of time entirely."

"There are stories and theories about the especially canny-- or lucky-- stepping outside of time and traveling along the edge of the Weave, intentionally arriving elsewhen as desired..." He raises a whispy white eyebrow at Farland, wondering if the gnome might seek a place in history where Animus yet lives.

"You know, sometimes the short straw means you won... if we're talking about perspectives," Lysos notes as she begins gathering strands of grass, half distracted by the sounds and sights of this portion of the vast. "Still unclear it's so important to look into this place, especially if the histories and futures we're looking at are probably not even ours."

Razen's eyes are practically crossed at this point. Not-history? Time-woozels? It makes no sense to him! He looks from one person to the other and then back to their leader. Farland. "So ah... Where are we going?"

The spider Knight listens to the discourse of the more knowledgable souls in comparative silence, gently guiding Torrent along on their guided path. In time, she wonders, "Rather like those that jaunt through the planes, like the ethereal, or the shadow plane, to arrive at a specific place without the time needed for more conventional travel?"

Edinaz nods slowly, blinking. "It certainly complicates how we speak to each other, if everything happens all at once." He's in the shallows of comprehension, himself.

The red knight exhales and looks between her lance and her bow. She picks up the reins, "We should try the arrows, or lancing? The wanderings of time are not the things I study, only fall into. So, I am ready to follow wherever we are going."

Farland no doubt has an idea of what Jinks is thinking. He shakes his head at him. "Nothing so bold," he tells him, "Instead, we're hoping to get an inkling of what took that piece of history and why. In this case, we're hunting for a Shard of Animus, whose position we knew in the past, but has vanished alongside the history that it was part of. Not just blocked from our view but ... *gone* entirely. If we can move into closer proximity in that moment, we might be able to see it through a different angle, if you understand."

Av-de nods to Paenitia, "Yes, you might as well shoot an arrow off now and then. It can't hurt. It may even warn us of a change in the 'tide'. Come, then, I know of a 'stream' that might let you do what you wish."

With that confirmation, Paenitia picks up her bow and draws an arrow from her quiver. She takes out a piece of coloured cloth, marks a one on it and ties it around the fletching, and then pulls back and aims into the distance.

Woooosh! Off it goes.

"Okay, I follow, and will take the care to not shoot us in the future." A palpable risk here.

Razen watches an arrow go off into the distance and frowns. It doesn't make sense to him. None of this does. So he'll just follow along until there's something to kill. Or maim. Or at least injure. He hopes.

Edinaz looks increasingly discomfited, looking at the arrow fly, then sneaks a look behind him.

"Tallman," Jinks calls to Lysos, twisting back to look for her. "Stick close, yes? The way Coyote laughs for you some days..." He grins and winks, "You might find the thread of a world where the Harpist has vanished and Ea is trapped in undeath."

The gnome's beringed fingers play at his lapel and looses his brooch he gestures a toss to prepare her and then sends the jewelry through the air when he knows she's ready for it. "To twist your luck," he nods.

"Huh," the dandy grunts at Farland. In a 'that's interesting/thought provoking' kind of way. He can't help but wonder how his little tricks with the Hymn will interact with that sort of gap. "If we do end up in the past some fifteen-or-so years ago we should detour back past Alexandria; I've some advice for a younger-me."

Lysos watches the arrow fly off, ribbon rippling through the air, then returns Jinks's grin. "Laughs for me, or laughs at me?" Although, she can't help but rub at her hip as she remembers the hole she fell in shortly after the airship landed. "Can't control it, so all I can do is let it happen." By now she's woven several of the strands of grass she's collected together, humming a little bit. "Are there going to be any rules when we get there? Anything we need to do, or avoid doing?"

GAME: Razen rolls perception: (11)+10: 21
GAME: Edinaz rolls perception: (4)+13: 17
GAME: Paenitia rolls perception: (10)+8: 18
GAME: Jinks rolls PErception: (12)+12: 24
GAME: Lysos rolls perception: (4)+10: 14
GAME: Faranmidahn rolls perception: (2)+4: 6

Carefully, then, you proceed forward at the Centaur's insistent guidance. All seems to be going well, at first, but who can say? It's interesting, though. There are moments when you look up, and you're sure the position of the sun was a little different. Maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later. Different. You're sure of it. And it's never the same *twice*.

Apparently, they weren't kidding with that title.

On occasion, too, you hear things. A clash of steel. A shout fading into the distance. See things too. Glimmers of light on the horizon, dancing just on the edge of your vision. A gentle, sloping hill you pass seems to have within it the sounds of a great battle being fought by forces with a language you can't even come close to identifying.

But the sounds of violent death are fairly universal.

It sounds like prayer. Edin bows his head, murmurs something under his breath to Kor, and grits his teeth, sticking to his mission. The muscles in his jaw bunch as he grinds his teeth, though.

Faranmidahn busies one hand with both reins and lance, even as she strokes the chitinous shell of Torrent, "Easy, friend. It's alright...." she croons, expecting the bizarre shifting in sounds or other factors she can't actively perceive are contributing to the subtle tension in the arachnid. <halfling>

She looks to the others, trying to guage their reactions, then turning her attention back to the disjointed tableaus about them, trying to spy an extra-incongruous movement that would suggest their travel is no longer to be peaceful. The temptation to make the trek with her magic detection spell is strong, but with so much at play, she could knock herself out, again.

Don't ask.

Paenitia has been shooting arrows off in random directions, each with a ribbon and a number. While colour coded, she feels a number is necessary also. At the sounds of battle she draws and looses a shaft in its general direction. She stares thoughtfully at it as it vanishes.

"I have the thought, I may have just shoot the arrow that strike the king and turn the tide, in the battle we have never hear of, lost to history and the other time. This would be the thing of great dishonour to do, yet, it also may have land and harm none, or never land at all. There is no way to tell."

A glance over her shoulder, showing her grinning visor to Jinks, "What you think, Tarien would approve, or not approve?"

"Bit of blind luck? Coyote laughs," Jinks smirks, plunking at his own string indicatively. "Could've ruined your draw if He didn't want the shot to go off. Just be sure not to shoot the drummer boy or you might fell my great-great-great-grandsomeone and then who'd sing to you at the stables?"

The gnome pats the paladina's pauldron with a loose fist, "We can add 'kingslayer' to your voluble assortment of titles just to make sure it wasn't the trumpeter." He keeps grinning as he turns to make sure they haven't lost anyone, as relaxed as you can be in the saddle surrounded by unfiltered chaos. At least it's not gobbertown during an inventor's faire.

"Unlikely," ad mits Av-De to Paenitia, "but it's possible your arrow was the decisive factor all along and we only ensured the outcome we now enjoy! Ha! I love time weirdness, don't you?"

Farland groans. "Don't you start," he tells the centaur, "I had enough of this the last time we spoke."

"Well, forgive me for WONDERING."

And then things change.

You are surrounded by ghostly afterimages as you move on, yes, faint flickery images of demons engaged in chaotic battle with ... other demons.

There can be no other description for them. Fullscale, monstrous creatures of gore and blood and chaos and pain rending flesh lovingly with their bare hands and claws. All around you.

As if you're in the middle of *their* fight, yes.

"Ah," says Av-De.

"Balls."

Farland agrees with that assessment, "Shit."

OOC

Flexing at the centaur
<OOC> Razen nods!
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "He looks pretty strong!"
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Much musle wow"
<OOC> Razen grins!
<OOC> Jinks says, "His top's got a sixpack. His bottom's got a sixpack. He does two leg days for every arm day. His trainer rides him hard."
<OOC> Jinks says, "He's not fond of crop tops, though, surprisingly."
<OOC> Razen has to squash the urge to say something.
<OOC> Jinks says, "He came in second place at the bit. But he hopes to be champing some day."
<OOC> Edinaz doesn't think the trainer is PG-13 ;)
<OOC> Razen wants to BE his trainer ;3
<OOC> Edinaz says, "But that's what I get for watching Drag Race while we play :)"
<OOC> Jinks says, "He's clueless to your affections, Raz. He's got blinders on."
<OOC> Razen snickers. "Shame. Raz is good at taking the reins."
<OOC> Edinaz crops this before it gets any more hayneous.

Demons Warring
<OOC> Jinks says, "And the man in the back said 'everyone attack!' and it turned into a ballroom blitz."
<OOC> Paenitia says, "Ballroom Blitz!"
<OOC> Paenitia says, "time to switch to Cold Iron and pick the side that isn't vulnerable to it"
<OOC> Jinks says, "The trick is to have a +3 weapon so it counts as Cold Iron and Silver for the purposes of DR."
<OOC> Edinaz says, "Boy, I want to warn you." Eye-wormed. Augh.
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Okay, but what about the purposes of DDR?"
<OOC> Jinks says, "the DDR will be televised."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Any kind of banners or notable demons to identify the forces, Whirl?"
<OOC> Faranmidahn says, "oh, good, demons, my fireballs would have been useless anyway"
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Nope! Just flickery images of demons around you."
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Probably the demon wars? You hope? xD"
<OOC> Paenitia says, "I have k/local and k/mil tac if.. it helps. Though I'm guessing this is either the Blood Wars out in the planes, or the Demon wars"
<OOC> Jinks says, "Gotta get your sanctified 9-iron. Or whatever club it was in Dogma."
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "'The blood wars' aren't *exactly* the same thing in our theme as they are elsewhere, but they do exist in a kind of way :)"
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "But that's something to get into in the new theme, dohohoh"
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "But yes, demon v demon conflict exists both i nand out of the demon wars."
<OOC> Paenitia nodnods
<OOC> Edinaz apologizes. am ded on feet
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Yeah, let's pause here :)"
<OOC> Faranmidahn says, "ty for the scene whirl, ty for coming everyone!"
<OOC> Jinks says, "Yus, always good to see everyone."
<OOC> Paenitia nods, "Okay. Thanks for scene, it was very good
<OOC> Jinks will practice singing "A Whole New World" so I'm ready to serenade you next time, Pae.