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Not Quite Lovecraft

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_brightwing said:
I'm a bit worried if we leave Robert alone he might get murdered like last time. And there's a chance Oliver ends this loop for good. Or run afoul of the Hound. We're about to head to a dangerous encounter ourselves.

The Waitress although misguided doesn't seem like a bad person, I'm hoping they'd be alright together under the sight of the guards and other staff. Excellent ideas btw, updating my vote with the questions.
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That is why I would rather bring him with us then leave him with the waitress. While we seem to have at least somewhat convinced her, that doesn't make her a reliable ally. All we know for sure is that she isn't willing to stand up to us. And considering that we just killed her, that may be due to fear as much as anything.

I suppose if we make sure to tell Robert to stick to areas with plenty of witnesses that might be okay.
 
[X] Plan Before the Confrontation

This seems like a good plan to me.

Better get more information before confronting the cultist. And keep Robert and the Waitress safe.
 
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    • Scheduled vote count started by Blacksheep on Feb 1, 2024 at 10:01 PM, finished with 8 posts and 6 votes.
    • [X] Plan Before the Confrontation
      -[X] Tell the Waitress Robert does not remember and took a mental strain last time. To please look after your friend while you go intervene.
      -[X] Reassure Robert that everything is fine and to stay with the Waitress until you return. She will help him make sense of things in the meantime.
      -[X] Warn her about the Hound who always appears at 10. It might be after her having attacked her once, but she should be fine if she and Robert is in a place under observation with a lot of mundanes. Give her a glass of Water of Forgiveness - and tell her to drink it this time should the Hound corner her. If you manage to stop the loop things might be permanent, so to do things keeping that in mind.
      -[X] Finally ask her about who the cultist (don't mention the grey hair to check if she is lying) is before you leave for the baggage room depending on what you learn. If she has never seen them, who does she suspect?
      -[X] What abilities has the cultist displayed so far? Does she know about any of any other parts of the plan? How did she get roped into this scheme in the first place?
      -[X] Also find out what the purpose of the runes in his room are if she knows. Did he use that place to start the loop or elsewhere?
      [X] Plan Conversation juggling
      -[X] Stop and reassure Robert. You will explain you just need a moment first.
      -[X] Give the waitress a glass of Water of Forgiveness - and tell her to drink it this time before the hound arrives, in case it goes after her again. If you manage to stop the loop things might be permanent this time.
      -[X] Ask the waitress a few quick questions:
      --[X] What does the cultist look like (Don't mention the grey hair in case she lies)
      --[X] What abilities has the cultist displayed?
      --[X] Was she informed of any other parts of the plan?
      --[X] What was the purpose of the runes in his room?
      -[X] Explain things to Robert on your way to your next destination. Presumably the Luggage compartment, unless the information from the waitress drastically changes things. Reference the "four days, five hours" thing he told you previously. Try to soften the blow to not shake him more.
      [X]Focus on stopping the ritual
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    Setting Up
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    • You wanted so badly to rush to the back. You could almost taste the success at finally hunting down the cultist to take out. But Robert was struggling. You took a deep breath, reminding yourself that his welfare was important. Stopping the cultist would mean less if you lost your friend doing so. You had too much experience to even think otherwise.

    You stepped back to your friend and grasped his hands. "It's going to be alright, friend. I'm going to fix this." You looked back at the waitress. "I would ask you to look after my friend. He's suffered because of you and the other cultist's plans. You can explain to him what is happening."

    The waitress looked guilty as she nodded. "Alright." She smiled as warmly as she could at Robert. Your friend looked far more shaky than you liked, but you were afraid of the time finally running out.

    "The hound is likely to return at ten, you will have to be cautious. I believe it will not come after you in a crowd, but just in case." You prepared the water of forgiveness and passed it over. "You must say these words while drinking it." You carefully recited the words to her. The waitress nodded and quickly downed the water reciting the verses. You didn't see an immediate result, you would have to see how it worked once the hound appeared once more.

    "Now, is there anything you can tell me about the one who started this before I meet them? Who are they? What can they do? How did they involve you? The markings in the cabin, do they help with the ritual?"

    "Ah, his name is Charles Harrington. He met me and told me things that were impossible. He promised that he was going to bring a new era of enlightenment to the world. All he needed was a special kind of stone. He stayed in the cabin while the extra car for the train for the ritual was set up. He wrote down secrets there, but it wasn't for the ritual. The ritual space had to be clean, untouched, until it was time. He's a very smart man, he only involved me as a precaution against someone noticing the ritual car and trying to get in. I don't know what it's like in there at all."

    [ ]Write-in
     
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    • [X] Go to the ritual site and stop the ritual

    And now that we've wasted even more time and gained only useless information, perhaps we can try actually stopping the end of world now?
    Seriously, the delay was getting utterly ludicrous multiple updates ago.
     
    How exactly was she supposed to prevent interference? I guess she could have manipulated the guards? Or was she just bait for the hound?
    At least we know about the ritual space needing to be clean. That should make it rather easy to disrupt things.

    Hopefully the waitress survives. She seems like an interesting character, and we could use a minion...
    We can talk with her after. (And uh, maybe learn her name?)

    Mild concern that the last car of the train may have traps or defenses.
    What exactly are we going to do with Charles after? I guess we can pin the theft of the gemstone on him? That should be enough to get him arrested, but given his apparent level of occult knowledge and lacking sanity (seriously, if it is just for notes you can use a notebook instead of the walls you know?) he might still be dangerous.

    I guess backlash from the disrupted ritual might take care of him. Maybe.

    Anyway I don't think we have spent that much time. But we should get going. So lacking anything better:
    [X] Go to the ritual site and stop the ritual
     
    It was always the plan to go there. It wasn't wasted time, we have the keys now and a way of keeping the Hound occupied or contingencies to manage things if it causes problems.

    I understand the need to speedrun, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't engage with the setting. Playing, the game.

    [X] Go to the ritual site and stop the ritual
     
    _brightwing said:
    I understand the need to speedrun, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't engage with the setting. Playing, the game.
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    I am engaging with the setting, because I'm putting myself in the shoes of our character.
    Which is why I'm sick of us wasting time when there is something trying to eat the world.
    You, on the other hand, seem to be trying to help the cultists win, so I'm beginning to think that's the game you are playing, a cultist voice in our head trying to stop us from saving the world.
     
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    Ternasta said:
    I am engaging with the setting, because I'm putting myself in the shoes of our character.
    Which is why I'm sick of us wasting time when there is something trying to eat the world.
    You, on the other hand, seem to be trying to help the cultists win, so I'm beginning to think that's the game you are playing, a cultist voice in our head trying to stop us from saving the world.
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    It's kinda unfair to accuse all of us of suboptimal gameplay.. You'll note that I opted to attack the cultist instead of resting for the loop last time. But it was deemed a strategic decision unanimously to ambush him this loop. Talking to the Waitress now was not an unsound decision - we'd be spending the exact amount of time breaking down the door - and possibly attract the patrolling guards from the ruckus. We get to skip that, have someone babysit the Robert, not get backstabbed potentially in the cultist fight by the waitress accomplice and keep the Hound busy. It's useful to have contingencies and prep like that before a boss fight. I wish we found something more concrete about the cultist from her though, maybe we didn't roll that well.

    I admit that we wasted some time last loop after looking into the keyhole, and I remember you voting to break into the luggage then, but the thread voted for infospec which is again, a fair choice. I wanted to set fire to draw out the cultist lol - change up the board. Later you pretty much saved Oliver from getting an occult injury figuring what the eldritch entity was - we'd have risked a melee with it otherwise. And now, here we are. Bit of a detour, but I love that we did something novel like shooting a character and then speaking to her later - and managing to win her over. Stuff like this is why I enjoy this quest so much, my personal highlight of this arc.
     
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    [X] Go to the ritual site and stop the ritual

    Personally, I hadn't ruled out the ritual being on top of a train car, with the cultist laughing at us whenever he got an update from the waitress about us focusing on the (obvious) baggage car. I also hadn't ruled out the engine room or even underneath the train. Maybe the cultist had strapped his body to the bottom of the car and basically integrated himself into the ritual to become the gate. I did also wonder if the ritual was necessarily on the train at all. It might be on the train tracks, but a week ago or into the future, happening at a different ten o'clock after the stone gets transported through time.

    I considered these all very low odds options, but this quest gets twisty enough that I can't internalize the logic at times. So, I try to keep an open mind as to alternatives to obvious solutions or choices.
     
    Tascion said:
    [X] Go to the ritual site and stop the ritual

    Personally, I hadn't ruled out the ritual being on top of a train car, with the cultist laughing at us whenever he got an update from the waitress about us focusing on the (obvious) baggage car. I also hadn't ruled out the engine room or even underneath the train. Maybe the cultist had strapped his body to the bottom of the car and basically integrated himself into the ritual to become the gate. I did also wonder if the ritual was necessarily on the train at all. It might be on the train tracks, but a week ago or into the future, happening at a different ten o'clock after the stone gets transported through time.

    I considered these all very low odds options, but this quest gets twisty enough that I can't internalize the logic at times. So, I try to keep an open mind as to alternatives to obvious solutions or choices.
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    Thank you for the fantastic compliment! I try my best :)
     
    The Ritual Car
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    • "Alright, I'll be back, hopefully when all this is stopped." You turned and half jogged down to the luggage car. It was eight as you broke through the lock and started making your way through the overly crowded luggage car. You grasped the key the waitress had given you and shoved it into the lock forcing that door in the back open.

    The air was thick and heavy. You could feel the warp of time and space as it was compressed around the car. Strangely enough the car you fought so hard to reach was almost empty. You could see a small platform set at the far end of the car with a carefully crafted alter. A grey haired man in an elegant suit sat in the middle of this set up, eyes closed. You pressed closer through the pressure. You could feel your mind buckling under it.

    Sanity Roll
    DC: 14
    Roll: 6
    Loss: 2 (-1)

    You blinked, for a moment seeing doubles of yourself overlaid and moving just so slightly out of sync with yourself. You had to take a moment to figure out where your body actually was, staggering with disorientation. You reached the end of the car and looked more closely at the man sitting in the center of his ritual. Carved sigils marked the circle around him, with three stones each marked with a celestial body set around him that seemed to flicker with power. In his hand he held a crystal that you just knew had to be the one that Robert had been robbed of. It had an unusual sense to it.



    [ ]Disrupt lines in the ritual
    [ ]Steal the stones
    [ ]Pull the cultist out of the ritual
    [ ]Write-in
     
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    • Hmm, here's what we know about the ritual:
    Blacksheep said:
    "They said four days, five hours, three stones, one crystal. Keep the stars to your right, the sun on your left, and the moon in front of you. A reflection of the natural state of the universe. That's all I know though, I didn't pry too deeply into it."
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    Blacksheep said:
    You nodded and settled back watching as the guard began to examine the other cabins in the passenger car. Most of them were empty, but one was locked, and when he knocked no one answered. You reflected silently to yourself. The time loop seemed likely to be part of the ritual. Five hours, four repeats. The crystal taken from Robert was of course the centerpiece used to start everything, but the three stones and the part about the sky was more difficult. You would make the assumption that it meant the ritual was to be done at sunset or sunrise with the moon and sun both visible, but things had fallen apart at midnight. You would have to assume that it would be something more symbolic. Perhaps the ritual circle was inscribed with the symbols of the celestial bodies. The symbolic turning of the universe off balance combined with an appropriate entreaty would allow something from beyond this reality to enter. Placing the symbols in the correct order in the circle would then allow you to reverse such an opening and reseal it.
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    So putting the symbols in the correct places would be the correct move. Right now, the moon is on the left, the sun is on the right, and the stars are in front of him. If the sigils are carved into the floor, it might be a bit tricky recarving them though. Would be nice if we could just turn him, but I don't think we can just reach into the circle, sadly.
    Or we could shoot him and try to do the corrected ritual ourselves, but that seems unlikely to work.
     
    Blacksheep said:
    Ah, I meant to say the stones have symbols of the celestial bodies on them. Forgot that piece, sorry!
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    Ah, that makes things clearer. Wish we had tongs to grab them, but hopefully we don't need them.

    [X] Move the stones to the positions Robert told us(Stars to the right, Sun to the left, Moon in front, all relative to the person doing the ritual), then stand back to avoid any fallout

    We might want to leave the train car as well, but I think we should keep an eye on the guy doing all this.
     
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    [X] Move the stones to the positions Robert told us(Stars to the right, Sun to the left, Moon in front, all relative to the person doing the ritual), then stand back to avoid any fallout
    -[X] Overcharge the locket, hiding your presence.
    -[X] If not fully possible, hide your real body and let the dimensional overlay double be focused on instead.
    -[X] Try not to hold the stones with your bare hands - use gloves or your jacket to move them.

    Most sensible. But if I may I'd like to overcharge the locket as well as we do this - I don't think we'll need it to escape the hound this turn. Or feel free to add any other contingency tactics..

    We don't have tongs, but we certainly could use Oliver's jacket to wrap them maybe. Or lengthen his nails into claws - claws technically are dead tissue right?
     
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    [X] Move the stones to the positions Robert told us(Stars to the right, Sun to the left, Moon in front, all relative to the person doing the ritual), then stand back to avoid any fallout
    -[X] Overcharge the locket, hiding your presence.
    -[X] If not fully possible, hide your real body and let the dimensional overlay double be focused on instead.
    -[X] Try not to hold the stones with your bare hands - use gloves or your jacket to move them.
     
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