Not Quite Lovecraft

JayTar said:

Play this like we are the villain planting a seed of corruption. Not the hero. Magic can go disastrously wrong if there is a mistake. This time we weaponize it against them.

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Hmm, seems like a reasonable plan. We should try to discern if the power of the King in Yellow is focused anywhere, that would give us the locations we need to sabotage. Or, if he is here in person, we might sabotage it to affect only him and no others.
We should try to pray to Isis for inspiration whatever else we do, this is the sort of thing she can help with. Might cost us, of course.

This all seem really good ideas to me, but how exactly do we write them in the current vote?

Blacksheep said:

That would be the best way possible to end the quest xD

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An ending worthy of Old Man Henderson.

Is it wierd I want to point out that's gold and not yellow?

Mystic Pentagram said:

This all seem really good ideas to me, but how exactly do we write them in the current vote?

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What need to decide is if we want to take a chance involving Ellie or not.

The way I see it, we can choose to directly talk to Ellie and get a sense of things, and then use what we learn to put the plan in action. Like, how far is Ellie gone.

Or we try our luck going at with less info, but being more incognito and try to interfere with the play without speaking to her. Both ways are gambles in their own.

Personally, I really want to read what Blacksheep has done with Ellie. I'm not sure if it's the right call though.

Plans so far..

Staying below notice
Putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Ellie. Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Eldritch Summoning spell for raw fuel to further power the working.
Touching up props and costumes, prioritizing staying below notice above all else.

Perhaps also Ellie while fixing up her costume during the conversation.

Should she be willing..
Using Isis's feast and Pachamama's warding in conjunction with the Water of Blessing to cut away at Ellie's connection.
Painting Ellie into a painting while magically supercharged to finish it in time? Red realm escape? Mundane escape if she is no longer anchored to the play and the stage hands are cleared of - summon Nemo/ Oliver channels Nemo to clear a path. Change her costume magically and sneak her out if stealth is still maintained by then.

Should she be unwilling..
Attempt to leave with regrets? Not talk to her at all? Enact containment procedures anyways? Escape the Yellow King's range and portal to red realm by just himself? Invoke the King in Yellow and have a contest?

[X] Approach Elle, after finishing your working here
-[X] Start helping putting together her costume, adding your own artistic touches to the ensemble. As if you were meant to be there and a part of the scene.
-[X] Talk to her as you work. Tell her you've looked, and looked for her so long.
-[X] Tell her about her family and the world that she's left behind. If there's time, tell about your tale. You might not have been able to save her, but you've promised yourself that you'll stand against the darkness in this world, and beyond.

[X] Do not approach Elle. Stay below notice and..

[X] Subversion
-[X]Start putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Elle.
-[X]Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Man-to-Animal spell for raw fuel to further power the working.
-[X]Touching up props and costumes, with your working prioritizing staying below notice above all else.
-[X] Making it so that all the separate paintworks connect together to a grand piece of art when you paint the final brushstroke with a drop of life essence. The separate paints inactivate magically and undetectable to Nemo's shared senses before primed.
-[X]Should you choose to talk to Elle, put the working into her costume as well while you both speak.

Blacksheep said:

You caught a glimpse of Elle dressed utterly decadantly in a dress embroidered with gold. A veil covered her hair and features, with golden facepaint in a captivating design that had you wondering how you had even recognized who she was through it. She was chattering with excitement with others dressed just as extravagantly. Elle had never looked so beautiful. She had never looked less real.

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Gotta say this is real good prose here

[X] Subversion
-[X]Start putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Ellie.
-[X]Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Eldritch Summoning spell for raw fuel to further power the working.
-[X]Touching up props and costumes, with your working prioritizing staying below notice above all else.
-[X] Making it so that all the separate paintworks connect together to a grand piece of art when you paint the final brushstroke with a drop of life essence. The separate paints inactivate magically and undetectable to Nemo's shared senses before primed.
-[X]Should you choose to talk to Ellie, put the working into her costume as well while you both speak.

yeah, i agree that staying beneath koy's notice is the way to go

[X] Subversion
-[X]Start putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Elle.
-[X]Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Eldritch Summoning spell for raw fuel to further power the working.
-[X]Touching up props and costumes, with your working prioritizing staying below notice above all else.
-[X] Making it so that all the separate paintworks connect together to a grand piece of art when you paint the final brushstroke with a drop of life essence. The separate paints inactivate magically and undetectable to Nemo's shared senses before primed.
-[X]Should you choose to talk to Elle, put the working into her costume as well while you both speak.

also, her name's Elle, right? I fixed that in the vote.

_brightwing said:

[X] Do not approach Ellie. Stay below notice and..

[X] Subversion
-[X]Start putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Ellie.
-[X]Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Eldritch Summoning spell for raw fuel to further power the working.
-[X]Touching up props and costumes, with your working prioritizing staying below notice above all else.
-[X] Making it so that all the separate paintworks connect together to a grand piece of art when you paint the final brushstroke with a drop of life essence. The separate paints inactivate magically and undetectable to Nemo's shared senses before primed.
-[X]Should you choose to talk to Ellie, put the working into her costume as well while you both speak.

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I like this, but I'm not sure about sacrificing the memory of the Eldritch Summoning spell. I'm worried about the... thematic dissonance. Opening a path for summoning here and now could go really badly, seeing as it is in the heart of the King in Yellow's power.

Our fuel regarding this is our emotions regarding Elle. With stealth as our priority it being low power is good. It just needs to be the right lever to judo flip the whole thing.

The drop of life essence sounds risky too. We don't want to be too linked into it. We want to make it blow up be far away.

So my modified version would be:

[X] Do not approach Ellie. Stay below notice and..

[X] Subversion v2
-[X]Start putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Ellie.
-[X]Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Man-to-Animal spell for fuel to further power the working. You will not turn people into Animals, and neither will they.
-[X]Touching up props and costumes, with your working prioritizing staying below notice above all else.
-[X] Making it so that all the separate paintworks connect together to a grand piece of art within the play. A subtle undercurrent hidden beneath that only activates at a critical moment. The separate paints inactivate magically and undetectable to Nemo's shared senses before primed.
-[X]Should you choose to talk to Ellie, put the working into her costume as well while you both speak.
-[X] As soon as you are done, leave.

The idea is that we have to hijack and poison the play. Low power, high finesse. Like how a single piece of context can make a joke funny or not. Or a play wholesome or foul. This is not just an act of magic. It is an act of literary criticism.

JayTar said:

I like this, but I'm not sure about sacrificing the memory of the Eldritch Summoning spell. I'm worried about the... thematic dissonance. Opening a path for summoning here and now could go really badly, seeing as it is in the heart of the King in Yellow's power.

The idea is that we have to hijack and poison the play. Low power, high finesse. Like how a single piece of context can make a joke funny or not. Or a play wholesome or foul. This is not just an act of magic. It is an act of literary criticism.

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We're not drawing the painting portal of the many limbed eldritch creature though, rather working on the memory of the spell itself. Still, thematically the many limbs could be reworked as connecting arms to all the separate pieces of paint possibly. The nightmare working earlier seemed contained enough in the canvas with Elle's memory. We're aiming for something different though - If we're successful in total dissolution of the spell.. the raw magical power could just be the edge we need here.

I really don't think for a working of this scale just the emotions would be enough - maybe if we're focusing on just Elle. But this targets the set and and all the costumes.. quite a large working. The essence part was in exchange for priming the whole thing with a spark of our soul, seeing we would be taking pains to make it magically inert so as not to set off alarm bells.

Everything has to have cost and balance, otherwise the ritual stands the risk of frizzling out prematurely or carving away another unintended cost from us - namely a heavy Sanity cost in the middle of possible fight and make us go crazy like in Peru. Only without a safety net this time..

Spell - font of magic source, Emotion - Will directing the magic,
Water of Forgiveness - the vessel it shapes in, Essence - spark that opens the floodgates

I'd also like not to leave right away, if there's still a chance we can help Elle.

_brightwing said:

We're not drawing the painting portal of the many limbed eldritch creature though, rather working on the memory of the spell itself. Still, thematically the many limbs could be reworked as connecting arms to all the separate pieces of paint possibly. The nightmare working earlier seemed contained enough in the canvas with Elle's memory. We're aiming for something different though - If we're successful in total dissolution of the spell.. the raw magical power could just be the edge we need here.

I really don't think for a working of this scale just the emotions would be enough - maybe if we're focusing on just Elle. But this targets the set and and all the costumes.. quite a large working. The essence part was in exchange for priming the whole thing with a spark of our soul, seeing we would be taking pains to make it magically inert so as not to set off alarm bells.

Everything has to have cost and balance, otherwise the ritual stands the risk of frizzling out prematurely or carving away another unintended cost from us - namely a heavy Sanity cost in the middle of possible fight and make us go crazy like in Peru. Only without a safety net this time..

I'd also like not to leave right away, if there's still a chance we can help Elle.

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My issue is more the thematic. The memory is associated with the calling of eldritch creatures, so getting that mixed into our working could be dangerous.

As for power and scale, my point is that we shouldn't be trying to use power. Power draws attention, and we will lose against a god anyway. No what we need is a properly thematic fulcrum to corrupt their own power.

I'm, concerned about the whole "In exchange for a spark of our soul". That sounds like it might be a rather unpleasant sacrifice to make. Instead of setting it up and then setting it off our self, I want it to be something which corrupts the play. We aren't trying to make our own working so much as we are trying to make malicious additions to theirs. They shouldn't realize anything is wrong until well past the point of no return. Preferably at some important point in the play.

Again we need to think like a villain here, not a hero. The big sacrifice isn't personal. They are the sacrifice. All the work, and power they put into the play is to be subverted. We aren't trying to make our own working go right, we are trying to make theirs go wrong.

Imagine instead we are the villain sneaking in and sabotaging some sort of holy ritual or working. Magic is dangerous, all it needs is a little nudge to make big things go wrong. We walk in, put a single drop of poison in the holy water, and leave.

I don't know, spark of your soul is a pretty big price. You could buy a lot with that

Blacksheep said:

I don't know, spark of your soul is a pretty big price. You could buy a lot with that

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Yeahhh. Well that just makes me doubly sure we don't want to get anywhere close to losing it.

Fortunately neither plan does, but I don't want to give "a drop of life essence" either. That reads to me as "A point of Constitution".

Priming it like that sounds like it would draw attention. I don't just want it to be undetectable while we are setting up. I want it to be undetectable until partway through the play.

JayTar said:

Yeahhh. Well that just makes me doubly sure we don't want to get anywhere close to losing it.

Fortunately neither plan does, but I don't want to give "a drop of life essence" either. That reads to me as "A point of Constitution".

Priming it like that sounds like it would draw attention. I don't just want it to be undetectable while we are setting up. I want it to be undetectable until partway through the play.

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I'm pretty surprised how you're underestimating the King in Yellow, JayTar. Normally, you're the cautious one in the group. Pulling off a full set wide contamination in his own realm..

Without the sacrifice the saboteur play stands to get discovered in the first place.

We want to make the working undetectable to the King's denziens. That's the goal here. We need to pay something for that.. and we also still need the emotion with Elle to get things done till the finale, the first version sacrifices those things at the last moment instead of doing it from the get go.

I don't think we're getting undetectability for free, all magic working in the setting needs a price to be effective as we saw. So I added the essence bit as a clause.

The spark of soul was just poetic language, @Blacksheep By life essence I meant a drop of blood - magical signature to spark the whole thing, like a detonation when we want to. Seeing it is designed to be inert.

Ideally, I'd feel more confident about this whole endeavor if we had the direct backing of the two Goddesses and the Dream God. Alas we're on our own.


Edit: Also, we are destroying the very memory. Not even trying to modify it into the spell, it's broken down to raw constituent - mana, and then we use it on the working - at the spark. I keep stressing this because the Avatar of the Outer God in Peru laughed when we used the Water of Forgiveness alone. We're in the King's Realm's threshold and this entity is a magnitude times stronger than the last one.

Two permanent sacrifices are the bare minimum we could apply here, instead of just one. We need to stack things in our favour.

_brightwing said:

I'm pretty surprised how you're underestimating the King in Yellow, JayTar. Normally, you're the cautious one in the group. Pulling off a full set wide contamination in his own realm..

Without the sacrifice the saboteur play stands to get discovered in the first place.

We want to make the working undetectable to the King's denziens. That's the goal here. We need to pay something for that.. and we also still need the emotion with Elle to get things done till the finale, the first version sacrifices those things at the last moment instead of doing it from the get go.

I don't think we're getting undetectability for free, all magic working in the setting needs a price to be effective as we saw. So I added the essence bit as a clause.

The spark of soul was just poetic language, @Blacksheep By life essence I meant a drop of blood - magical signature to spark the whole thing, like a detonation when we want to. Seeing it is designed to be inert.

Ideally, I'd feel more confident about this whole endeavor if we had the direct backing of the two Goddesses and the Dream God. Alas we're on our own.


Edit: Also, we are destroying the very memory. Not even trying to modify it into the spell, it's broken down to raw constituent - mana, and then we use it on the working. I keep stressing this because the Avatar of the Outer God in Peru laughed when we used the Water of Forgiveness alone. We're in the King's Realm's threshold and this entity is a magnitude times stronger than the last one.

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I admit this is a bit more audacious then my usual plans. But our mistake last time was taking things too slow.

Hmm, it's not a matter of underestimating. It's a matter of power vs finesse. The more power we spend the higher the chance someone notices.

Though hmm. A suggestion. If you want to sacrifice a spell for power, how about the Man-to-Animal one instead. The thematics are better. We sacrifice our ability to turn man to animal (Literally) in order to interfere with their ability to turn man to animal (metaphorically).

I don't think we can sacrifice something as eldritch as our knowledge of a spell and have it be entirely pure mana. This isn't a hard magic system where everything can be broken down into neat units. Metaphor and themes are what matter most.

As for triggering it with a drop of blood. I would rather not because it require us to be there when it triggers. There is no way they don't notice it triggering,
So my desire for caution says we should be somewhere else. Since we are going to be tying it into the play, it would be most logical for that to be the trigger.

JayTar said:

Though hmm. A suggestion. If you want to sacrifice a spell for power, how about the Man-to-Animal one instead. The thematics are better. We sacrifice our ability to turn man to animal (Literally) in order to interfere with their ability to turn man to animal (metaphorically).

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I really like this interpretation.. Edited it in. I originally went with the Eldritch one because I thought eldritch-eldritch yellow might have more compatibility. But you're right the thematics flow nicely.. Seeing we want to infect them with humanity - it's a case of reversing, which is an occult classic! I had some plans to repurpose them for Nemo, but that's not important right now. Survival is.

It's sensible to get away from the Yellow realm, but kinda feels narratively jarring to not get to speak with Elle and the finality of Oliver sacrificing his emotions for her too. Like an unfinished cliffhanger..

_brightwing said:

I really like this interpretation.. Edited it in. I originally went with the Eldritch one because I thought eldritch-eldritch yellow might have more compatibility. But you're right the thematics flow nicely.. Seeing we want to infect them with humanity - it's a case of reversing, which is an occult classic! I had some plans to repurpose them for Nemo, but that's not important right now. Survival is.

It's sensible to get away from the Yellow realm, but kinda feels narratively jarring to not get to speak with Elle and the finality of Oliver sacrificing his emotions for her too. Like an unfinished cliffhanger..

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You know, I think I will add it to my vote too. With properly aligned themes perhaps more power will help.

JayTar said:

[X] Subversion v2
-[X]Start putting Water of Forgiveness into paint channeling Oliver's emotions regarding Ellie.
-[X]Also permanently sacrificing memory of the Man-to-Animal spell for fuel to further power the working. You will not turn people into Animals, and neither will they.
-[X]Touching up props and costumes, with your working prioritizing staying below notice above all else.
-[X] Making it so that all the separate paintworks connect together to a grand piece of art within the play. A subtle undercurrent hidden beneath that only activates at a critical moment. The separate paints inactivate magically and undetectable to Nemo's shared senses before primed.
-[X]Should you choose to talk to Ellie, put the working into her costume as well while you both speak.
-[X] As soon as you are done, leave.

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As for talking to Elle or not, I'm not sure we even have time. We are at the last minute here and need to do our best painting wise. If our plan works then we can talk to her after, hopefully free. If it doesn't work, well the person in front of us isn't the Elle Oliver knew, just a lingering ghost.

I do think that if we talk to her it should be while we do the working however not after. After our only goal should be to run as far and fast as we can. We can come back later after the play is done (Or perhaps watch from a great distance) to see how things blow up.

hm, gonna have to reopen voting

You can add my vote to subversion v2

[X] Approach Elle, after finishing your working here
-[X] Start helping putting together her costume, adding your own artistic touches to the ensemble. As if you were meant to be there and a part of the scene.
-[X] Talk to her as you work. Tell her you've looked, and looked for her so long.
-[X] Tell her about her family and the world that she's left behind. If there's time, tell about your tale. You might not have been able to save her, but you've promised yourself that you'll stand against the darkness in this world, and beyond.


After a lot of thought, I'm in favor of talking to Elle. If she reached out to us, then that's the human part of her that we need to reach. Everything we attempt will be vastly more powerful with her affirmation. Trying to free her without her consent might (I think likely) catch Koy by surprise, but it will also startle her and risk catching her off-guard. She might react against us by reflex. We don't know what she's been through or how she's had to fight.

Thanks for keeping the vote open, @Blacksheep

Tascion said:

Thanks for keeping the vote open, @Blacksheep

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That's just the dialogue part of the vote though, we need to vote for an action one as well to dictate whatelse Oliver does with the limited turns in the backstage.

[X] JayTar

[X] Subversion v2