W5 🛸 PLAYER CYOA: FUCK IT WE EYEBALL (ALLI) 🚀 GUY, MARGARET, OWNER, SIDON

[dropoffs]

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[tombtaker]

[ 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. ]

[discomfort]

I am going to over there, I will be back.

[ 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. ]

[polliwog]

All right, I won't be far behind.

[ 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? ]

[mansplains]

Don't go too far, you two....

[ he is sticking with margaret. holding his little magical thing ]

Margaret, anything in the journal about how to use this? A password or anything?

[tombtaker]

[ 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.

Guy, your magic thingy thrums, dormant. ]

[bossbabygirl]

[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.]

[discomfort]

[ 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. ]

[polliwog]

[ 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. ]

[mansplains]

[ 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 ]

[tombtaker]

[ 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.` ]

[bossbabygirl]

[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.]

[discomfort]

[ rolls a 2

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. ]

[mansplains]

There is Wisdom In Order. [ he says charmingly to this beautifully made piece of magic technology that he is totally nerding out over. anyway ]

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 ]

[polliwog]

[ ow.... 2! at least he won a fight against a boulder, that's always nice for the ol' ego. he shakes out his arms with a grimace, though it's one he shifts into a little smile when owner asks. ]

I'm all right! Are you hurt much?

[ there is no argument that they need to be moving though. they can make their way swiftly like over to the others. ]

Margaret, Guy! We need to get moving.

[tombtaker]

[ A lot happens at once

Owner and Sidon get bonked, Margaret is absorbed in her reading, and then guy says the passphrase outloud and the piece of tech in his hand hums to vibrant life - turning red, then green - pinpoints of light erupting out of it as it spins up. It begins to float in the air by itself and starts projecting a ... field. Of some sort. None of you are fucking magic, so I guess I can't turn your magic off, but it's an anti-magic field. So there you go.

It takes a moment for it to begin working - the bubble is resilient, incredibly powerful magic, or it wouldn't have lasted all these centuries - but with a very unceremonious blip it suddenly blinks out of existence.

The first thing you hear is a SCREAM - the elven woman who was frozen in time after all these long, long, torturous years finishes swinging her fist through the air at the side of the bubble. It doesn't connect with anything, sending her stumbling forward onto her knees - dark hair hanging in her face. her nose is bleeding, and her eyes are frantic. She looks at you and then whips her head around as more ice in the ceiling begins to crack in the distance and she (and yourselves) hear the crash of stone into earth as portions of this terrible place begin to collapse. She speaks a question in a language you don't understand - that maybe no one has heard aloud in an age - and then curls her hands at either side of her head and starts screaming again. It isn't a scream of fear or pain, but complete and utter madness. The scream of someone who cannot understand what is happening or what has happened, and the concept has driven her beyond all help. In only a few seconds, you see her begin to age, her skin wrinkling, her hair growing longer and greying, the veins on her hands going prominent and dark and her cheeks and eyes sink into her skull and then she collapses forward again - skin coming off of her in dust like ancient paper.

The other three that were cowering behind her did the same without even a whimper.

But left on what little remains of her is a strange looking keyring. So. Yay? ]

[bossbabygirl]

[well. margaret remains absorbed in her journal while all of this happens and then once the woman stops screaming and turns to dust, she gets up, closes the book, and grabs that keyring off this terrifying pile of corpse dust.]

Great work, team. I always say this team can accomplish anything we set our minds to. Through the archway?

[she's still like. not at all paying attention to the cracking ice and falling rocks. let's go! can she try her key in the door?]

[discomfort]

[ oh. huh. all that happened. i am not sure if owner and sidon were close enough yet to like witness all of that close up but like. cool. ]

Yes, through the archway, we are on a bit of a time crunch!

[ because of the ice breaking that they did not cause! it was a coincidence!

is there like, anything owner can get from these pathetic remains of these ex-frozen guys or nah ]

[polliwog]

[ the scream alone was haunting and carried some distance, so that definitely sucks. he looks disturbed as they arrive to four entire people crumbling into aged dust. at least that answers if they can save them from these bubbles. ]

These poor people...!

[ WHAT HAPPENED HERE...... there isn't any time to waste though, so he'll just go help push the door open if it needs some persuasion. this place is absolutely not going to hold together. ]

[mansplains]

[ yeah, guy is kind of rattled by this scream ]

Holy shit....

[ but he understands they're on a time crunch, so he will hurry along. he will carry margaret and/or owner if he needs to ]

[tombtaker]

[ Owner is pausing to rifle through corpses and sure. He can come away with a couple of little things - a matching set of rings from the two people huddled together, two scrolls off of the elven woman (he can inspect this later) and also in her hand a small mechanical toy shaped like a bird in pristine condition.

For the others the key works - she’ll find as it goes in that there’s the feeling of a magical effect that happens as it slides into the door - and it opens easily. They can all run inside quickly as they hear the collapse rapidly approach them but thankfully with the door shut behind them the archway holds. The door in the archway was more human sized, but the whole thing is massive. Five stories tall and made of metal and rock and all along the inside of the door there are round objects glowing slightly - as you first step through they all flip to an ominous red, but because you used the key they fade back into a gentle glowing blue. It might have been a really funny idea to pick this lock, is what I’m saying.

In here is an enormous chamber - vast and echoing and filled with runes and magic circles that none of you can quite understand. You get the feeling it’s obviously important though. Of note is the fact that, despite the number of remains outside of this place … there don’t seem to be any in here.

In the middle of this chamber is a pedestal - huge wires strung to the ceiling, half-broken and snapped and chunks of the ceiling fallen in to the floor. There’s a chill wind in here - it seems like some of it might be exposed to the air. Maybe there’s way to get out from in here.

But first, all of you suddenly feel … drawn, to the center of this place. Sitting there, cracked, is an enormous piece of blue stone, craved into a crest shape. It looks like a chunk of a larger portion, but this one is broken, maybe about a third of it.

You’re all exhausted. This place seems safe enough.

You’ve reached your prize (you feel, strongly, without meaning to).

Maybe you should rest for the night. ]

[bossbabygirl]

Phew. I'm beat.

[it just feels safe in here to let her guard down, and with that feeling, she finds herself getting drowsy. she glances at owner and sidon.]

...What happened to you guys? [she completely missed them getting crushed. and she seems to have forgotten about blasting sidon with her gun, too.]

Let's call it a night.

[discomfort]

... nothing. We are quite fine!

[ figures margaret wouldn't notice. why would she.

but she does make a point, so owner will settle down in a spot. there are the belongings he looted, and he will check them out... later. for now, it feels really nice to rest. ]

[polliwog]

[ woah, he'll take a look at this crest stone like a magpie finding something shiny, a little distracted when the group starts to speak. ]

—Oh! Yes, we're all right! The ceiling was caving in.

[ it's a good thing margaret somehow knew how to get in here safely, and quickly. but he still looks at her with some concern. she could stand to show some more sympathy—they're more than just cutthroat looters.

but she raises a good point, and this seems like a nice place to take a break. start a fire, get their bearings, look at their cool loot. ]

[mansplains]

Are you sure you're both okay?

[ guy will nerd out about the mechanical bird later once he too is allowed to look through their loot, but he is concerned about the two of them. he's also looking over owner's prosthetic before they go zzz. ]

[tombtaker]

[ Yay! You all settle in for the night, get a campfire going, eat some of your rations and get cozy snuggly all in a pile because you love each other, remember? Geez, some of you have really been at each other’s nerves today, but it’s probably just … stress. Hopefully.

Your new inventory is:
The two scrolls turn out to be SPELL SCROLLS. Even the biggest idiot can now cast a spell in a pinch. One is Fireball, and the other is Telekinesis. These are really fucking powerful spells. One of these scrolls is worth thousands of gold alone, but you never know.

A matching set of rings. You have no way to determine if they are magical or not, but they are at least nicely made.

The mechanical bird seems to serve no purpose except to be a toy for a child, but it is beautifully made. If you wind its key, it takes to flight with all the grace and motion of a real bird, making soft chirps and peeps, glowing slightly. You can’t understand Aeorian, but Sonam is carved into its body.

Since it is Nighttime you’ll get to pick TWO ACTIONS as a group:

- Prepare your map (reveal some locations that might be of interest for the next day)
- Keep watch (You never know what will happen in the night)
- Take care of Equipment (With the right preparation, you can stretch your limited supplies further. This will add +1 days to your rations)
- Study the journ̷a̸l̴ (Learn.) ]