Shards of Awakening

[] I bet there's lots of hidden passages and secret rooms in the library. I should go look for one of them. (may find secret items or places inside the library itself)
-[] 1d100 = 56


[You are Quan Jia]

The faint scent of dry air tinged with age and the slow decay of parchment tickles your nose as the lazy stroll of your slippered feet take you toward a source of momentary fascination. The Library, a massive building crowned by azure roofed towers, looms at the end of a wide granite stairway. Columns, twined by ivy carved in such a life-like manner that the leaves track the afternoon sun pass on each side as you take slow climbing steps. Above you, set atop a massive door painted with sinuous golden dragons set against an azure field, the Library's Wardstone awaits, glowing a sullen crimson.

Eventually, you climb ends, and you spend a moment to scowl back down the hundreds of stairs that had led to this point... not cool at all... before taking the final step forward. As pale yellow slippers cross the threshold of the Library, space warps and twists around you, depositing you in a place far removed from the mundanity outside. For a moment confusion fogs your thoughts, but that gives way to a nearly all encompassing sense of awe as you stare upward.

A dome of the night's sky, painted in the soft sable of cloudless midnight and studded with countless sparks of radiance, expands above you and stretches on to the horizon. A cool breeze ruffles through blonde hair as you take in the pale luminescence of the full moon as it reins atop the crown of the dome and illuminates the world beneath. Dai Qiao didn't say anything about this…

Green eyes drift slowly from heaven to earth, and you stare, caught between amazement and delight as shelves begin to unfold like the slow blossoming of a lotus. Borne amidst those slender leaves are scrolls of parchment bound by lengths of silk and silver and materials yet more unreal.

As the last petal nearby unfolds, dozens of columns of the purest jade rise slowly from evenly placed gaps in marble tiles growing steadily to a height almost farther than you can even see. Even as the columns stretch upward to touch the very stars, silvery vines begin to wrap around those verdant columns.

At some unseen signal, as one, hundreds of delicate pink buds sprout and blossom, pointed in your direction. Each bloom reveals a single tiny jade slip that hangs as though the stamen of the flower and dances with the chiming of wind-bells amidst the breeze.

A long, spellbound moment passes… why did no one tell me how cool this place was?... before the last of the changes becomes apparent as the previous scent of dust and age and decay vanishes before the fragrance of Spring's bloom.

I wonder who created all this… do they still live at the sect… could I meet them? Thoughts flitter on gossamer wings, but eventually, your mind returns to the task at hand… right… I'm here to find cool things and places, not to gawk at the entrance… but where to start?

As if summoned by your thoughts… perhaps it was... a ray of moonlight coalesces into a glowing ball of spectral fire. The wisp bobs in a kind of bow and a voice like a faint echo speaks, "greetings, young miss. I and my other selves are the Eight Revealed Archivists, and we have been tasked with the upkeep of the Library."

"I'm Quan Jia, and I'm here looking for cool secret things…," you frown as a sudden thought occurs, "but finding secrets is part of the fun, so please don't spoil it…"

"Welcome Quan Jia, there are many secrets to be found within this Reflection. Some are even hidden even from the One who created the Library." Eight bobs in a seemingly happy way as it responds to her request. "I am most gratified then to inform you that what secrets I and my other selves know we are proscribed from sharing."

"So you know who made all this, it's incredible," you gush… everything here was just so cool…

A mote of [Dream] flickers in within the core of the wisp and finds a resonance within you. A child's face appears from within the ball of spectral light and fire, smiles, and then disappears, "it seems that I and my other selves are not the only ones who know the Creator of this place."

Who? Ohh. Lady Shifting Sands?... "really but she just seemed so tired..."

"To one with the blush of youth still dusting her face I imagine She would," the wisp bobs in a way that manages to convey the tilt of a head. "But did you imagine Her to be now as she has always been? That this place was a construct of Empire to have been crafted in an eye's blink rather than an edifice grown over eons?"

"Oh, but it's in the sect, and maybe it looks a bit different on the inside so I just thought... and I didn't realize that…" you babble, even as your mind spins... was the Court really that old?... did it build sect stuff for the sect?... On the heels of those thoughts another one perks and you grab at it, "but if she made it… how could things be secret to her?"

"To each of we Eight was gifted a Mote of [Dream]." One wisp becomes eight and eight distant voices overlap in a resonant harmony. "To weave into this garden Wonder and Whimsy..."

Eight wisps merge into one and a glimmering childlike figure steps forth. "To the Ninth Revealed Archivist in turn was a Mote of Shen granted, to render ineffable that which was contained within."

"But you're not…" there was something… or rather a lack of something… in the way Ninth stood as a shoal amidst waves of [Dream]. "I mean it's not a bad thing, but…"

Long golden hair, radiant with threads of pure qi, sways as Ninth shakes its head and smiles gently. "There is no shame in the admission that the Barrier of Opal yet stands despite countless of my feeble attempts at shattering it."

"But to answer your question," Ninth continues, "what was crafted by Her and my lesser selves and my own hands is by that combination inexplicable to all."

"Hmm, pops never talks much about Shen, but… I guess that makes sense." it was actually kind of a bit of genius. Creations of Shen were only truly comprehensible to their creator, and if the creator themself couldn't understand the creation then…

"Perhaps in time, the Mysteries of this Library will be made clear to me…" Ninth muses, her voice sounding as though caught between hope and something else… Mei Mei sounds like that sometimes too… "but perhaps my Path will lead to a different destination."

"There's something weird about this...." there'd been a distant thought fluttering at the back of your head this entire time and only in this moment does it crystallize… if the Library really were this different, someone would have said so, right… "I mean, it doesn't really feel like [Dream], but it doesn't not feel like [Dream] either… you know?"

"Hmm," Ninth tilts its head and one becomes eight again, becomes one again as seven wisps drift away. Eight remains and bobs warmly, "perhaps if a girl blessed by Her hand were to seek Wonder in places otherwise mundane then she might see a little of that which yet lives beneath the veneer of Empire… perhaps."

"Isn't that too easy?" you can't quite help the frown that flickers across your face, one that deepens as you feel a sudden certainty that your time in this place coming to an end.

"Is it?" Eight bobs, still warmly, but with what almost endless familiarity allows you to identify as mockery… thanks Mei Mei… "a young Seeker catches a glimpse of what lies beneath the efforts of her kind… but what does she leave with save more questions?"

"Hey, that's right… I was here to explore," your pout turns into a grin despite the increasing insistence of the forces pulling you away. "I won't let you distract me so easily next time, Eight."

"A bold promise," Eight's wispy figure blurs as space warps and twists, "until next time, Quan Jia."

-[] Cultivate DEJ


A duck quacks, insistent. You toss a torn piece of bread at it and smile as you watch it gobble your treat down. A cool breeze flows in from the lake and the setting sun paints everything in pink and pastel. Sometimes the path to Fate was the path to some great mystery or treasure or whatever. Sometimes the path to Fate was was the path to something much smaller, but maybe just as important.

It could be better though. Maybe next time you'd drag one of your busy friends with you.

[Turn 7 Vote]

Quan Jia has 4 actions she may take for this turn, of which all 4 can be cultivation. She may cultivate any particular thing up to 4 times per week.

I've added a few more social options since it was starting to just look a bit like whack-a-mole with whatever was expiring in a given turn. You can probably still do that, it will just require more effort (re. turn actions).

Actions are broken up into categories that use the same general rules.

While there aren't any trap options in the sense of "rocks fall, everyone dies", there are options that are sub-optimal.

Feel free to ping me and ask for clarification or whatever on the particular voting options, if you have any setting related questions, or if you're trying to put together one of the write-in options.

1 Hour Moratorium.