[owner: at first they seem kinda random, both in location and size, but actually when you study it, it seems like they are clustered around certain locations. You aren't sure what those locations are necessarily, but there's more than a few around your location.
next is guy he looks insanely cool making his lockpick, just so sexy. margaret is a lesbian but even she is distracted by this.
did you know in the explorer's guide to wildemount the suggestion to breaking these bubbles is to have like, powdered unicorn horn and flumph jelly, insanely rare substances, or to own one of the Arms of the Betrayers - a weapon so rare and powerful it was blessed by one of the Betrayer Gods thousands of years ago. There are like. Five of those. And I was gonna let you shoot it with a gun. Anyway I can't do that on a 5 and an 8.
The plasma shot falters and ricochets off the side of the bubble and shoots sidon directly in the chest. ]
[i think a plasma gun counts as an arms of the betrayers, though. anyway, i shot the floor you asshole stop railroading me!!!!
she shouts when the gun goes off and hits sidon and will run over to him.]
Sidon! Oh no, I'm sorry!
[that plan was so stupid, she should not have done that. how hurt is he? just because he keeps second guessing her does not mean she wants him to die.]
and it is your injury to do what you will with it, my sweet Lucky Charms. if you'd said he'd died instantly I'd have respected that too.
This bubble seems unaffected - the inside remains as perfectly and eerily still as it had before. And you can notice nothing else seems to have been set off - only some distant shift of rocks in the silence. I'll give you this with your Gun Investigation (shooting it) it doesn't seem likely that other bubbles are going to erupt. They seem to be ancient magic that has hung around this long, but the technology to create a new one ... that would be rare.
Lock picking the archway door you mean or the magic device?]
[she fusses while she watches sidon either die or not die depending on what nu decides in two tags from now.]
If you're sure. [a huff of breath that's both relieved and frustrated at once.] You idiot, just be careful, okay? [she says like she was not the one who shot him.] You're pushing yourself way too hard, you need to take it easy. Stop hovering around me and just let me handle the journal, you know?
[the bubble remains a huge priority, but she doesn't have any idea how to get in there.]
Guys, we need to get in there. That woman has something we need; it's not safe to go through the archway without it.
You do not need to remind us so often that you have the journal, Margaret. We are aware.
[ a little curtly. but we will see if sidon lives or not.
but he will leave his potion with margaret and sidon for now, and then he will just sort of... walk around their immediate area if there is like, anything else that might stand out here besides what they have already investigated. are the other bubbles in this spot too far away to go walk to reasonably? ]
[ he dies instantly and i contribute to this cyoa's untimely end. no, it's a gnarly burn, but he'll walk it off. sure he'll hold onto the healing potion. ]
Oh, sorry, Margaret! I know you can handle it.
[ had he been hovering? it's true she'd worried him a little, earlier. but her concern is appreciated... they're friends, they have bracelets and everything.
since guy is sexily lockpicking stuff, he'll go with owner to help take a look around and make sure nobody goes falling off a ledge. ]
[ Owner, you can see some bubbles further away - you could probably get there on your own. You'd have to leave the others pretty far behind, out of earshot, but you see one off in the distance. It'd take a little time but it doesn't seem too hard to start trekking. That bubble is smaller than this one here, but still glowing. Inside you can almost make out a figure, arms outstretched. `Curse Elatis, curse Vigilan and curse Luctus! Damn then all to the hells! May their ward burn and the fire consume them for eternity--`
Sidon can watch as Owner gets a lil enraptures by another bubble, probably not noticing that there's a sprinkle of dust opening up near him. Ominous.
The arcane lockbox light turns briefly red from its faded yellow as Guy lockpicks it ... ! But then it sputters out entirely. A nice 18. Inside is a strange device - about palm-sized, and Guy isn't magical but it thrums with some power, waiting to be unlocked. It seems like it anticipates a keyphrase of some kind. ]
[ he is just going to wander off there, it's fine. he will at least keep checking to make sure that he isn't going too far, because if he loses sight of them that is a big no no
but damn what did these people do. owner picks up a rock and lightly tosses it to the blue bubble, but like... pointing it at a direction he is not standing at. ]
[ Owner, this one is a singular person - a mage, by their robes - halfway through speaking something aloud. The pebble bounces harmlessly off the side of the bubble and skips off. I think it's fair to put together at this point, with the whispers and having seen a few that perhaps these are some sort of emergency failsafe - activated as their great city was crashing and meant to keep people in suspension to be rescued shortly after. Only, if there are no survivors ...
Sidon, the dust is pure plain ol' mundane rock dust. From the giant boulder that has shaken loose from the ceiling and is now plummeting to the ground. Right above you.
[at guy's suggestion, she will get out the journal and investigate it. she's focused on that - can she find a way to use this magical device or get into the bubble from the journal? she is not paying attention to alli bullying sidon.]
[ owner turns around to mention to sidon what he noticed and watches as a gigantic ass rock is just about to crush him ]
Sidon!!
[ HELPPP can he try to yank sidon out of the way. i realize this will do absolutely fuckin nothing because owner is half his size and does not have the str attribute. ]
[ neat! he gets hit by a giant boulder and dies instantly
owner's warning helps, even if he is physically a tiny guy and the tugging does not help. in fact now i am not sure if this means owner will also get hit by a rock. but he'll use his charm to persuade the boulder to drop less fatally on his noggin. alternatively, since he has an entire trident, he's going to try to STR his way into using it to block some of the force of the boulder. ]
[ meanwhile in NERD land, the NERDS are trying to figure out how to activate this magical artifact. because guy can't read, he's going to look the magic thingy over for any clues to what its password might be. i hope french charles is written on the back or something ]
[ he also winks at it charmingly. there are metaphorical sparkles here ]
[ Margaret as you open the journal ... it's still written in that extremely archaic language that you have trouble parsing, but as you start looking for the answer to this specific question, it seems that you're actually able to start picking out words, patterns in them, that start making sense. It's interesting, it seems this is the journal of a previous explorer to Aeor and they have actually written quite a bit down about these particular objects. They are known as Stasis Bubbles and though the writer himself is a mage, he is not familiar with the magic used to make them. It seems this is a secret lost with Aeor itself. He notes that force hadn’t seemed to work, and neither did dispel magic but posits a few solutions: the bubble has to be powered by some sort of arcane force, that if it can be turned off it should release the inside of it to the natural flow of time, and perhaps divinely enchanted objects could have an effect upon it, or an anti-magic field may be a more effective solution than the dispel. She is so absorbed in reading this journal she does not notice anything else happening to either Owner or Sidon. Honestly she can’t even hear it. It is, in fact, very quiet and lonely here in this desolate graveyard beneath the earth. The only thing she can hear is the shifting of rock, of ice cracking in the depths. It’s cold, here.
SIDON! Good thinking. I'll make it a large boulder the side of a small boulder - small enough that with the strength used on it he can divert the worst of it. The trident might chip under the weight and his arms will be hella sore as the boulder crashes (if either if you would like any crush injuries, feel free to take them) off to the side with an enormous sound and rolls off. At first, there is silence.
And then the sound of ice cracking.
You guys might wanna hurry it along here.
Guy! You know ... you're a charming fellow. Very charming. You talk to a lot of different people, you've probably even traded in magical objects before. There's even a few that are sentient - this one is not. It continues to hum. He'll look it over and see that it's exquisitely made - technology like this just does not exist anymore in the rest of Exandria, only found in Pre-Calamity ruins like this. It's beautiful, really. It seems like it probably emits something. As he tries to put his charm into the world ... a thought floats into his head. `There is Wisdom in Order.` ]
[cool. she just continues to read the journal, absorbed in it. you all can deal with the problem of cracking ice and falling rocks, actually. but she will murmur to herself as she reads.]
The bubble is powered by an arcane force - yes, we have to use that device to shut it off, that's what will get us through.
[hopefully somewhere guy just flirted the password out of it, i guess.]
okay he can get crushed a bit. i will be "nice" and say it mostly falls on his prosthetic, which honestly, is more of a hindrance than anything else in this cold weather because this thing isn't built for this.
he ignores it because there is a very distant feeling that he thought this prosthetic was stupid anyway. ]
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they can try the box if this doesn't work and they don't die. continues to find ways to make this the shortest cyoa ever. ]
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next is guy he looks insanely cool making his lockpick, just so sexy. margaret is a lesbian but even she is distracted by this.
did you know in the explorer's guide to wildemount the suggestion to breaking these bubbles is to have like, powdered unicorn horn and flumph jelly, insanely rare substances, or to own one of the Arms of the Betrayers - a weapon so rare and powerful it was blessed by one of the Betrayer Gods thousands of years ago. There are like. Five of those. And I was gonna let you shoot it with a gun. Anyway I can't do that on a 5 and an 8.
The plasma shot falters and ricochets off the side of the bubble and shoots sidon directly in the chest. ]
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she shouts when the gun goes off and hits sidon and will run over to him.]
Sidon! Oh no, I'm sorry!
[that plan was so stupid, she should not have done that. how hurt is he? just because he keeps second guessing her does not mean she wants him to die.]
Who has the healing potion?
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sidon just gets fucking SHOT i guess and he just starts shuffling through his pack to grab a potion and rush over. HELLO. get healed. ]
At least it wasn't a direct hit.
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Ow... Ah, it's all right! [ surveying the damage ] We should save it for now, we don't have much left on us...
[ unless alli is like no actually he's actively dying. anyway did the bubble change at all. did upsetting this bubble set off any other bubbles. ]
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[ but oh shit sidon got shot! at least owner has the healing potion but he frowns ]
How bad is it?
[ don't be a hero if alli says you're actually dying.... ]
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and it is your injury to do what you will with it, my sweet Lucky Charms. if you'd said he'd died instantly I'd have respected that too.
This bubble seems unaffected - the inside remains as perfectly and eerily still as it had before. And you can notice nothing else seems to have been set off - only some distant shift of rocks in the silence. I'll give you this with your Gun Investigation (shooting it) it doesn't seem likely that other bubbles are going to erupt. They seem to be ancient magic that has hung around this long, but the technology to create a new one ... that would be rare.
Lock picking the archway door you mean or the magic device?]
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If you're sure. [a huff of breath that's both relieved and frustrated at once.] You idiot, just be careful, okay? [she says like she was not the one who shot him.] You're pushing yourself way too hard, you need to take it easy. Stop hovering around me and just let me handle the journal, you know?
[the bubble remains a huge priority, but she doesn't have any idea how to get in there.]
Guys, we need to get in there. That woman has something we need; it's not safe to go through the archway without it.
[so maybe lockpick the magical device.]
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[ a little curtly. but we will see if sidon lives or not.
but he will leave his potion with margaret and sidon for now, and then he will just sort of... walk around their immediate area if there is like, anything else that might stand out here besides what they have already investigated. are the other bubbles in this spot too far away to go walk to reasonably? ]
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Oh, sorry, Margaret! I know you can handle it.
[ had he been hovering? it's true she'd worried him a little, earlier. but her concern is appreciated... they're friends, they have bracelets and everything.
since guy is sexily lockpicking stuff, he'll go with owner to help take a look around and make sure nobody goes falling off a ledge. ]
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Sidon can watch as Owner gets a lil enraptures by another bubble, probably not noticing that there's a sprinkle of dust opening up near him. Ominous.
The arcane lockbox light turns briefly red from its faded yellow as Guy lockpicks it ... ! But then it sputters out entirely. A nice 18. Inside is a strange device - about palm-sized, and Guy isn't magical but it thrums with some power, waiting to be unlocked. It seems like it anticipates a keyphrase of some kind. ]
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[ he is just going to wander off there, it's fine. he will at least keep checking to make sure that he isn't going too far, because if he loses sight of them that is a big no no
but damn what did these people do. owner picks up a rock and lightly tosses it to the blue bubble, but like... pointing it at a direction he is not standing at. ]
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[ he's a little worried about leaving margaret and guy, especially margaret, but he'll try to keep an eye on all his ducklings.
however, first, this dust—what is it. is it magic. can he touch it. does more of it spawn around owner when he goes to the next bubble? ]
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[ he is sticking with margaret. holding his little magical thing ]
Margaret, anything in the journal about how to use this? A password or anything?
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Sidon, the dust is pure plain ol' mundane rock dust. From the giant boulder that has shaken loose from the ceiling and is now plummeting to the ground. Right above you.
Guy, your magic thingy thrums, dormant. ]
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Sidon!!
[ HELPPP can he try to yank sidon out of the way. i realize this will do absolutely fuckin nothing because owner is half his size and does not have the str attribute. ]
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owner's warning helps, even if he is physically a tiny guy and the tugging does not help. in fact now i am not sure if this means owner will also get hit by a rock. but he'll use his charm to persuade the boulder to drop less fatally on his noggin. alternatively, since he has an entire trident, he's going to try to STR his way into using it to block some of the force of the boulder. ]
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[ he also winks at it charmingly. there are metaphorical sparkles here ]
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SIDON! Good thinking. I'll make it a large boulder the side of a small boulder - small enough that with the strength used on it he can divert the worst of it. The trident might chip under the weight and his arms will be hella sore as the boulder crashes (if either if you would like any crush injuries, feel free to take them) off to the side with an enormous sound and rolls off. At first, there is silence.
And then the sound of ice cracking.
You guys might wanna hurry it along here.
Guy! You know ... you're a charming fellow. Very charming. You talk to a lot of different people, you've probably even traded in magical objects before. There's even a few that are sentient - this one is not. It continues to hum. He'll look it over and see that it's exquisitely made - technology like this just does not exist anymore in the rest of Exandria, only found in Pre-Calamity ruins like this. It's beautiful, really. It seems like it probably emits something. As he tries to put his charm into the world ... a thought floats into his head. `There is Wisdom in Order.` ]
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The bubble is powered by an arcane force - yes, we have to use that device to shut it off, that's what will get us through.
[hopefully somewhere guy just flirted the password out of it, i guess.]
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okay he can get crushed a bit. i will be "nice" and say it mostly falls on his prosthetic, which honestly, is more of a hindrance than anything else in this cold weather because this thing isn't built for this.
he ignores it because there is a very distant feeling that he thought this prosthetic was stupid anyway. ]
Sidon, are you okay? We must go.
[ THE ICE SOUNDS ARE BAD. TIME TO GO. ]
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I think I've got it--- where are Sidon and Owner?
[ he is now looking around for them..... hopefully no one got crushed by boulders or anything ]
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DAY 3
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