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The Roaring Age (nWoD)

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Character Sheet
  • Informational
    • Name: Miriam Green
    Shadow Name: Morata
    Age: Sixteen.
    Gender: Female

    Path: Mastigos.
    Gnosis: 3
    Mana: 4/12
    Wisdom: 7

    Arcana: Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 1, (In Progress) Spirit 1

    Aspirations: Unlock the Secrets of the Fire.

    Obsessions:

    Virtue: Faith
    Vice: Curiosity

    Health: 8/8
    Willpower: 7/7
    Defense: 2
    Destiny (Merit): 4/4

    XP: 0
    Arcane XP: 1

    Attributes:

    Strength 3, Dexterity 2*, Stamina 3
    Presence 2*, Manipulation 2*, Composure 3*
    Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 4

    Aspects:

    Promising High School Student (4): She's smart and well liked around school. In fact, she has a pretty good grasp of not merely the basics of high-school learning, but even the things that are up to the senior year. Beyond what a person might learn in a she's a little lost, and so there are limits as to the kinds of things she'd know about, but if it can be found in a textbook she might have read, she's probably read it. As well, she knows how to plan her time, to get along with other people at school and not get into fights, and otherwise do well in this respect. She's best at history.

    Preacher's Daughter (3): Growing up with a father who tells the gospel word, you learn how to mimic the way he gives sermons, quote the bible chapter and verse, and know more than a little about how to interact with people and their religions, faiths, and how churches function. Whether it is mingling after church, being a sounding board for her father's sermons, or playing games that involve reciting long passages of the bible from memory, she is good at it.

    *A Bit of a Tomboy (2): She's really at the age where you're supposed to outgrow this sort of thing, really. But she still likes climbing things, she still likes running around the school, she still knows a little about getting into a scrap, even if she hasn't actually gotten into a fight since...well, a few years. She's keen, athletic, and very, very interested in baseball (boo, Kansas City Monarchs, boo!) which she read about, not having a radio, and that being fledgling besides. In any wise, it certainly isn't fading with time, and it's given her a set of interests and hobbies that meshes quite interestingly with her obvious piety and (reasonably, mostly) obedient nature.

    Breaker of Chains (2): Abraham Lincoln was a swell guy, in her opinion. Her own father's involvement in the NAACP and her engagement in High School history has made it so that she's actually surprisingly knowledgeable on race issues, and quite talkative about them in the right circumstances. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, of course, around older white men or the like, but she has her opinions and she wears them on her sleeve, and that includes knowing a lot of things most girls her age wouldn't know about, academically and otherwise.

    A Practicing Mage (2): While Morata has a lot to learn, and has only been practicing magic for a short time, she is now fully settling into magical society. She knows the Orders, and more than that she is starting to understand both the personalities and how magic truly works. It is a long journey, but she has taken another step forward.

    Can We Keep Him? (1): She has had dogs and cats before, and currently has one of each, which she of course does all of the work taking care of, because her mom said that if she had to deal with that, she'd throw them out. She has a bit of a way with animals, and after the third or fourth stray, also with people and convincing them to go along with her quite innocent and well-meaning requests.

    Problem Solver (1): Kids in her neighborhood and at school tend to trust and like her, or at least she's tried to be liked, and even go to her for help sometimes, whether of an academic nature or just to see what she has to say. She's not exactly a local guru or anything, but she's clever and tends to be able to help people with minor problems, or dispense advice, even if that advice is often enough 'Really, you should tell your parents, they're gonna find out, you know, and if they find out and you didn't tell them, they'll cane your hide raw.'

    Sneaking The Cookie Jar (1): She's not a dishonest person, but being someone with a lot of friends means that you sometimes know how to lie for them, and more than that, that you know a little about sneaking an extra quarter here and there. Whenever caught she's full of contrition, and more than that she's not a fundamentally dishonest person, but...well, she knows plenty of people who deserve an extra cookie every now and then.

    Mother's Teachings (1): Her mother has tried to at least teach her the basics of cooking, cleaning, and keeping house. The logic that she'll probably need it if she goes to college has been pretty persuasive, and while there are gaps, she's quite self-sufficient when it comes to balancing a budget or all of the other things a modern woman is expected to do, as far as it goes. She's best at cooking meat, and her recipes are all pretty simple, but it's food that'll fill a belly, and that's the most important thing.

    To Dream A Dream (1): Morata has become a truly expert in the magic of dreams, and indeed has begun to truly explore what Demons and other denizens of the Astral can and will do. This is merely an extrapolation of what she can already do, hence the discount. Special: Can use Arcane XP for this.

    Powers--

    Mage Sight (Peripheral, Active, and Focused): She seems to be able to see something that others cannot. Magic itself, and her eyes seem especially attuned to distances and the spaces between things, as well as the minds of other people.

    Mage Armor: Mind, Space

    Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 2 (In Progress up from 1)

    Spirit 1 (Will complete in two weeks)

    Rotes--

    Dividing the Mind (Mind 1): A rote to divide the mind in two, this means that it has extra reach to add to duration and so on, and that there is a two-dice Yantra that can be done to add to the power of the spell. Involves imagining the split in her mind to enact it.

    Scholar's Little Helper (Mind 1): Scholarship is hard work, and it's often difficult to sift through a five-hundred page book on Astral adventures for the single passage on a threatening Goetic demon that's currently ripping the rest of the Cabal apart. Plus, cross-referencing other works can be difficult. Through this tiny little rote, the caster can input a word, phrase, or topic, mentally, and essentially search the book just by holding it up to the light, copying knowledge of what was said in those passages and the passage surround it into their brain without having to search. It does not grant perfect understanding, and sometimes the section requires context to make any sense, but it can save weeks on a big scholarship project. (Rote Mudra, Promising Student, +4) Reach: With each additional Reach, you can search an additional book in the same spell; You can absorb the entirety of the contents of the book, if not always parse its meaning, as if you read the entire book in the instants it took to cast the spell, cover to cover. It may take some hours of thinking and consideration to fully parse the contents, and of course at times understanding and applying it can be more difficult: but an entire book read in less than a second is still something.

    Strengthen Mind (Mind 3): It does not, obviously, only effect the intellect, but any aspect of one's mind can be made sharper, as can one's social abilities. The key to doing this, or rather the Mystagogue form of it, involves closing one's eyes and pressing one's fingers against your forehead, as if trying to stimulate thought by motion. When you open your eyes, the spell should be cast. You cannot improve your mind or social abilities to superhuman levels (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4), Reach: You may divide the 'Potency' of the spell, eg: Potency 4, enhance Intelligence by 1, Wits by 2, and Resolve by 1; spend a point of Mana: temporarily, for as long as the spell lasts, Attributes can reach supernatural levels.

    Scholar's Protection (Mind 3): Adapted from a famous Silver Ladder rote, this grants protection ot the humble scholar. They make a sign with their hands as if their hands are books, their palms pages, and then so long as they neither attack or order an attack, others struggle to gather up the will to attack them. If they do order an attack, or attack themselves, the spell automatically fails… but only for the target, and not any others. Automatons, or beings without thought are immune, but this potent spell makes it so that anyone with a Resolve less than their Mind +1 cannot bring themselves to attack. Those that can still feel hesitation, and it is as if the Mage has two points of Armor. Supernatural beings have an advantage: if they have a supernatural trait, they get +1 to the comparison of Resolve versus Mind, if it is equal to the Mage's, they get +2, and if it is greater, they get +3… even then, a weak-willed but powerful supernatural being might find themselves frozen in fear and doubt. (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4) Reach: Spend 1 Mana, the spell may now last for an entire day; You may spend Reach to increase the difficulty of overcoming the Protection, once; Attackers lose 10-again on rolls to attack someone, if that person has willpowered through the magic.

    The Dedicated Will of the Just (Mind 3): A spell taught to her by her Uncle, it is in some ways an extension of previous spells. By touching the forehead and spreading one's fingers across it, yours or others, when someone grits their teeth and uses their will, they find it stretching out, like hitting a high note and holding it for longer than a single action, based on the power of the spell. (Rote Mudra, Preacher's Daughter +3) Reach: Willpower when spent can add +2 to all resistance traits; Willpower spent both increases one's ability to endure, and one's ability to 'act'; By spending a Mana, the caster can imagine the benediction and thus enact it in a single breath on themselves or any target, as fast as the speed of thought.

    Determined Will (Mind 2): The Mystagogue must go through many hardships for knowledge. Whatever a materialist thinks, anyone experienced in Mind magic knows that willpower exists, and so by a series of invisible taps against either their own or--imagined--someone else's skull. By doing so the Mage can make sure that when they, or others, gather their will for a great task, as long as it isn't magic they will get a bonus to the will-enhanced roll (9-again.) (Rote Mudra: Preacher's Daughter, +3: Inspire others and inspire yourself), Reach: The bonus can be increased; the bonus might be able to be used even to enhance magic, strengthening the will that brings itself to bear in casting a spell.



    The Bonds of Fate (Fate 1): It is one thing to look at someone and see them, it is another to be able to look at them and see the destinities, the curses, the broken oaths and more that mark their soul and their persons. Mystagogues imagine a cobweb of connections and strands of fate itself, and carefully reach out a finger to tap at the edges of the cobweb without breaking it, to see what creeps up. (Mudra: Can We Keep Him? (+1), the spider spins its web.) Reach: The Mage can know when someone is possessed, mind controlled, or otherwise has their destiny majorly influenced; the Mage can tell someone's Destiny and Doom, can know when the curse they're affected by will be lifted, or so on.

    The Unusual Path (Fate 1) : Fate itself can sometimes intervene in small ways. Through this spell, a Mystagogue can state a goal and then receive omens, sometimes faint and contradictory, on how to begin working towards it… and can even allow them to match strength with strength: subtly twisting fate so that their talents are just the right ones needed to advance upon the goal. Miriam uses it to occasionally leverage her way through a tricky social situation. The Mudra involves tugging on strands and pulling them in with a flip of a hand, as if examining something. (Rote Mudra: Problem Solver, +1) Reach: Can substitute any skill needed while under the spell for another within the same category, e.g. the character's religious passion turns out to be just what it might take to convince the homeless person to tell you where the body is hid, instead of a skill involving the streets or crime; Can, if taken further, substitute any skill for any other skill: your athletic prowess intimidates the homeless man, your knowledge of petty trivia charms the high society lady you need to steal from.



    ] No Shackles For The Scholar (Space 2): A Mystagogue cannot be stopped merely by a locked door, or being chained up above a pit of sharks while a villain monologues about how the Secret of the Amazon will die with them. So by imagining their own escape, and circling around that thought a few times as fast as possible, they can affect it. Any one barrier: locked door, handcuffs, barred window, or so on is fine… though it cannot get one through a bouncer or through fire. It can also be cast on an object, such as if you want to push a macguffin through a locked door and then face the enemy yourself. (Rote Mudra: Breaker of Chains, +2), Reach: Can pass through even shackles or objects they could not move through, such as being chained up, or trapped in a coffin, or anything else; subject can squeeze through narrow gaps that they should not physically be able to make it through: you can in fact drive a car through an open front door half its width if you cast this spell on it.
    Merits--

    (**) 'Profession'--Student
    1--Gain 9-again on any roll that can be justified as having to do with one's profession.
    2--Gain two dots of Contacts related to one's 'profession.'
    3--+1 to rolls against any mental, physical or social stress that might get in the way of performing one's profession.[1] This cannot create a positive bonus.
    4--8-again on rolls.
    5--One special bonus based on the nature of the 'profession.

    [1] Okay, in this case, imagine the college student who is good enough at class that he can show up hungover and still get something out of class, or the athlete who can go out not feeling 100% and still actually manage not to fuck everything up forever, even if he's not putting in his best performance.

    (***) Parents: It may seem absurd to say it, but having parents in the picture who can help solve moderate problems is a boon. Obviously the drawback is that if they get involved and it's over her head, it could end badly, and that more than that, they obviously are sure they know best, but asking Mom or Dad is totally an option available to her, and one that can enlist their aid and ask their advice.

    (***) Contacts:

    She has contacts with both People She Knows At Church, a broad group but in some ways self-selecting, and among those kids she knows around the neighborhood, as well as People At School. People are willing to talk to her, ask her advice, and that goes both ways, doesn't it? If she wants to ask around, she could certainly do worse than asking when she's at church, with someone inclined to see her well already.

    Egregore--Mysteriorum Arche (•): In a teamwork spellcasting roll in which the character is participating, she does not suffer the –3 penalty to contribute without the necessary Arcanum rating, and adds an automatic success if a full participant. All members of the ritual team must possess this Merit.

    (*)Language: Latin

    She knows Latin, read and spoken.

    (*) Order Status (Mysterium)

    She has been initiated in the first mystery of the Mystagogues.

    (*) High Speech

    She can use High Speech as a Yantra in spellcasting, and knows enough to be (roughly) conversational outside of the very formal language of Spellcasting.

    (*) Egregore

    1) In a teamwork spell in which she participates, she doesn't take -3 to the roll if she couldn't cast the spell on her own, and if she can she adds an automatic success to her dice roll for the purpose of granting the ritual leader the bonus dice. However, everyone involved in the ritual must have this level of Egregore. This represents her connection to magic, and through it, others of the Order.

    (*) Resources:

    She has a little bit of spending money saved up. Not much at all, but it's something. And it's more than a lot of people have, and so she knows to be grateful for it.

    (****) Destiny

    Effect: Miriam does not yet know the specifics, but she is destined for greatness and yet also doomed in some way.

    Currently at 4/4.

    (***) Astral Adept: Can enter the Astral far easier, by paying just a WP and meditating.

    (***) True Friend (Virginia)

    Effect: Miriam has a true friend. True Friend represents a trusting relationship that cannot be easily breached. Unless Miriam really does something to deserve it (really, really) Virginia will not betray her, and I, the QM, has to go easy on her in terms of throwing her into danger. Slightly kid gloves with her, as part of an implicit contract, though that does not mean that Miriam's mistakes or actions might not involve her in deeper problems than she should be facing. And any roll, natural or supernatural, that has the purpose of influencing Virginia against Miriam takes a 5-dice penalty. Additionally, once per...let's say week, Miriam can regain a point of Willpower by having a meaningful/heartfelt/important interaction with Virginia.

    Consilium Status (*): Consilium--Increasingly she is a known entity, someone whose existence is no secret at all and whose fame is even harder to deny.

    Contacts: Vampires (1)--Her work with vampires means she has a greater awareness of where she can go to talk to them, especially once she thinks through what she saw.

    Allies (1): Guardians of the Veil--In the aftermath of yet another Interview with a Vampire, she has been contacted by the Guardians of the Veil, who are curious and who are willing to trade curiosity for curiosity.

    Trained Memory (1): She has trained her mind to be something like a steel trap, though perhaps rather more effective than that, all things considered: steel traps can rust, because outside of stressful moments she never needs to roll to remember anything… she just remembers, and without Magic at all.

    Minor Elements:

    --Having studied a Spirit Bestiary, Miriam is now more able to tell some common spirits apart, even without using magic, and can call up basic facts about said common spirits.
    --Has the Memories of a vampire in her head, which can be examined/considered later.
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] Accept the deal. Three moons of free travel through his Garden to the Dreaming Earth, but she must search for and find a way to make him happy, such as an animal companion, a cure for the sickness of the soil, or some other method. If she does not, then if she ever comes back again, she might-probably die. If she succeeds, then she has a personal way into the Dreaming Earth for the next… possibly forever?
     
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    Page 46: The Journey--Part 3
  • Threadmarks
    • Page 46: The Journey To the Outer Reaches of the Universe, Part 3--Dreaming Earth

    It wasn't an easy decision, really. Miriam was aware that there was such a thing as hubris, that one could be overconfident. She was smart and she knew it, but that didn't mean that she could do everything. She didn't even know how she'd do what she had promised, merely that she wanted to try.

    It was an instinct as much as anything else, and she smiled a little.

    She could hear her uncle sigh, and wondered what it was about her smile that said what she thought. "I'll take the deal."

    "Ahhh," Anant said, frowning and scratching at his face, "really? Well, very well then, so I pledge it, and so it shall be, without binding fate or with it, for the Gods shall witness this."

    Miriam didn't comment on the mention of Gods. "Yes. I will be back."

    "In three months, to beg forgiveness, no doubt."

    "No, I will visit you," Miriam insisted.

    "To beg forgiveness," Anant said, "or try to lie to me or convince me that you're something you're not. I've seen Mastigos before, and when they tell the truth, flowers bloom in deep winter."

    "I resemble that remark," Jack said, with playful frustration. "I think you're making a mistake, Ruth, but the reason I think she is is because she's going to be honest and earnest in trying to help you, rather than just doing what I probably would have done?"

    "And what is that?" Anant asked, his voice a harsh whisper.

    "Made the promise and just never come back. After all, all I need to do is go here once. I can find some other Ordeal later on, and you can't leave here, even if your magic can. Even things created by you cannot step beyond the bounds of this place." Jack shrugged at Anant's glare. "But she is not me, luckily enough."

    "Some people would not be so quick to admit something like that," Coniunctio said, his voice dry, as if this were normal.

    Miriam thought it highly dishonorable, to say the least, but she was used to her Uncle's antics, and knew that he was a good man at heart. She wasn't sure how much of what he said when he claimed things like that was the truth, and how much of it was play-acting. It was all one in the same, sometimes.

    "You're right. But, Anant, she has made the promise, and more. Will you let us through?" Jack asked.

    "I suppose I shall. Follow me."

    "However," Jack said, raising a finger.

    "What?"

    "Clothes. You need to wear clothes," he said, "if Ruth is going to be visiting you."

    Anant glared at them, shaking his head. "She is the one asking boons of me."

    Ruth wasn't blushing, but certainly it wasn't proper for a man to walk around naked. It was a little embarrassing, to say the least. "I would appreciate it. I could bring robes or something for you?"

    "Fine, fine. Very well," Anant said, waving his hand, looking annoyed again, glaring at them. "Now, get out of here, if all you're going to do is make demands."

    "How?" Miriam asked.

    "Just keep on walking through the forest until you reach the pole," Anant said, with a grunt of annoyance, as if she should have known better. "Then touch it."

    "Seems simple enough," Jack said, with an easy smile.

    ******

    The trip through the forest was quiet. Anant had seen them go with not a word, and Jack seemed tense, despite his smile. The forest didn't trouble them though, and soon they came to a clearing, and beyond it what looked like a thick stone wall. In the middle of the clearing was an iron pole, about thick enough that she could wrap an arm around it, and covered in strange glyphs that had been carefully carved into its surface.

    Miriam took a breath, not sure what she was going to be seeing, and stepped forward.

    "No, not yet. You need to raise up your shields," Coninunctio said.

    "My… shields?" Miriam asked, not sure what he meant. "My Mage Shield?"

    "No, all Mages have to protect themselves against the fell winds of this place. There are other dangers it can protect you from as well. You need to focus, first. Focus on yourself," Jack said, waving a hand. "Focus on your mind to draw it up."

    Miriam frowned, "Focus how?"

    "Imagine a bubble around you. Seperate yourself from the world," Coniunctio urged. "Breathe in."

    She did, her eyes closed.

    "Breathe out."

    She did.

    "But those breaths are not real. This place is not real. The winds you will face are not real, the warmth that they provide is not real, not truly," Jack chimed in. "You are separate from the world. You are real."

    She opened her eyes, and blinked, looking down. She was wearing old-fashioned catcher's gloves. They weren't as big as the modern ones, but her hands were still enmeshed in them, and more than a little awkward. And she was wearing the padded armor of a baseball catcher as well, and even shin guards, as well as a mesh helmet. She looked as if she were ready for standing at first base.

    And she wasn't the only one now equipped.

    Coniunctio armor now had a helmet, and Jack was dressed in long, flowing robes that clanked as he walked back and forth.

    She brushed her gloves against each other and said, "These feel awkward."

    "Yes. You've insulated yourself from the world," Coniunctio said, his tone lecturing, "that makes it harder to interact with it. A lot harder, in some cases. But the alternative is rather worse, though a tough mage might decide to drop it for a short time if he needs to work with something."

    "There's no way around it, and you'll see why it's needed once we get there," Jack said.

    Then he stepped forward and touched the iron pole, and disappeared.

    Coniunctio hurried after him, and she followed close in his wake.

    When she touched it, it was as if no time passed at all. She blinked and she was standing in a wet, damp forest.

    Wet and damp, but larger than she would have imagined. Looking up, the trees stretched hundreds of feet in the air, wider around at the base than any she'd ever seen. It was a loud forest, filled with bird caws and the sound of dripping water, and everything seemed larger. She saw bugs skittering across the ground that went up to her waist, and the grass was up to her shoulders. Yet another things seemed no bigger. The small pool of water that had formed from beneath the leaf of a tree seemed the size that it would be in real life.

    It was warped, and it was strange. She stepped forward, and then was pulled back.

    Falling down in a drop of water was a strange insect. It had a dozen arms, and its body seemed to flow and twist. It was blue-brown, with pale wings, and it seemed to exist bounded entirely by the drop of water.

    "Don't get too close. They flow like water, and seek to drown others," Jack said. "Though they can be negotiated with if one is strong enough."

    When the drop hit the ground, the thing skittered off, but the water droplet came with it, and Miriam watched as it found a nearby tree and then began to crawl up it. As if it were looking to fall down all over again.

    "Falling-Water-Dooms, they call it," Coniunctio said. "I know where we are."

    "Not near the sea, are we?" Jack asked.

    "Luckily not," Coniunctio replied, his voice calm as if this was not freaky.

    She was breathing carefully, panic just around the corner, her own nerves a little stretched thin. She could smell a strange sort of scent in the air, at once invigorating, and yet oddly exhausting.

    "So, we need to go north, and once we're through the forest, we should be close to whatever the Ordeal turns out to be. I'm not sure what it'd be this time," Coniunctio said.

    "Well, we'll just have to see, then," Jack said, with a shrug.

    *******

    Miriam watched carefully as she moved. The Falling-Water-Dooms didn't follow them, luckily enough, and they wandered through the huge forest, the broad leaves no longer dripping water as the sun shone brightly but strangely hot on them. She continued on, feeling the warmth slowly spreading across her as they journeyed, steering clear of animals large and small. There were deer twice as large as she expected, and a horse that was startlingly small, running through the forest and then gone just as quickly.

    She heard screams sometimes, of dying animals, and felt eyes on her in a way she couldn't have justified at all, and yet that she didn't doubt for even a moment.

    It was bizarre, and unnerving, and yet there was also something familiar about this forest. She couldn't explain why, but it felt like she'd been here before. Like it was waiting for her. But she felt different from it, at a remove in a way she wasn't sure she liked.

    But she was also sure that if the remove existed, it existed for a reason. She was a hardy girl, and so a hike didn't bother her, and it only seemed like an hour had passed. And yet the sun had begun to dip, and the dark shadows seemed to hold bright yellow eyes whenever she looked back.

    The sun had not yet set, but was nearing it, when they reached a clearing.

    No, clearing was not the word, for the trees were still there, but downed, chopped one after the other and left to lay there, and a few had been dragged away, leaving but one in the center. It was huge, though, and stretched so far up that she could not see the top. She gaped at it, and gaped even more as a woman stepped out from behind the tree.

    A woman ten feet tall and as naked as Anant, crowned with a laurel leaf, antlers poking out from rich red hair that she wore long and straight, flowing almost to her waist.

    "Oh," Jack said, "well…"

    "Trespassers," the woman said, speaking as if words were difficult, her pronunciation not quite right. "Destroyers of lands!"

    "...well," Jack said. "I think you have the wrong humans, except I'm not so sure that people are that different to you. However…"

    He stepped forward, seeming to draw himself up, and she could smell smoke, that same smell she knew now was his magic starting to work. "Know that we are friends, or at least not enemies, and that if you set yourself against us--"

    "Face what you have done," she said, striding forward, raising a single pale hand, and petals seemed to float down into her hand.

    "What we've done?" Miriam asked.

    "Ireland's not a nice place to be a tree, I gather," Jack said, glancing back at Coniunctio.

    The petals seemed to grow in reverse, blooming dark, nearly black flowers that looked almost like roses.

    "Harming them is not wise. If this place is still alive, and not swallowed by the Swath, then it still exists in the world," Coniunctio said. "You know what a…"

    "Yes, yes, a Thyrsus would take my balls and I'm using...oh, sorry Miriam," Jack said, shaking his head when he saw the look on his face.

    He was clearly used to talking a lot more freely than he was now.

    The woman, the… forest? That was the feeling Miriam got, held out the roses.

    "That's one way," Coniunctio said, pointing at them, "but there's another. That tree. Look how far it stretches. I bet it goes into outer space."

    The woman pressed the flowers harder, her eyes cold and dead.

    Miriam shuddered. She was clearly inhuman, and her every movement seemed to reinforce that, as did the way she talked.

    "Eat. See."

    Jack sighed, and pressed forward, glancing at the tree and then up it. It seemed like it would be a hard climb, though Miriam trusted in at least some of her skills in that department. There were branches at regular intervals, and they even looked strong, so the climb itself would be more long than difficult, and she was pretty sure that roses in general weren't meant for eating, let alone strange dark flowers that looked like roses, but smelled different.

    They smelled as if they were rotting.

    What to do?

    [] Climb the tree.
    [] Eat the flowers.
    [] Run off into the woods.

    ******

    Hour 1, Winds: Gnosis (1)+2=3 dice=Failure

    Navigation: 3 sux

    Magic: Partially successful, not that it matters that much.

    A/N: Sorry it's really short, I really did hit something of a roadblock, but the adventure continues. Boring rolls, by the way, up until meeting the Anima Loci.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Eat the flowers.

    This is likely not too great an idea, but it's the one I'd prefer to read about particularly as we've also just met a Thyrus mage that we're likely going to be interacting with quite a bit in the future and hopefully he may teach or tutor Miriam. Given that, I feel it's a better choice overall for it and may give some magical inspiration in how to heal the soil of his, although that would be a fortunate happenstance.
     
    [X] Climb the tree.

    The Laurent said:
    Baseball: 2 (Tomboy)+3 (Strength)+3 (Willpower), Inspired means it takes only 3 sux to get an exceptional. And Destiny is spent on this too. For this is a moment that could echo. 7 sux. Well holy shit.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Since I haven't seen any comments on this (maybe I missed them), I think this little hint drop from the DM is worth remembering

    I suspect it means that the below mocking comment could become a thing, a key aesthetic of her Shadow Name acting as a mnemonic reference back to that moment of freedom, strength, and overcoming others. In other words a step towards the Shadow Name merit and the grounding of her identity as a mage
    The Laurent said:
    She held up a hand. "One moment before you throw," Miriam said, "I need to check my makeup."
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    Page 47: The Journey... Part 4.
  • Threadmarks
    • Page 47: The Journey To the Outer Reaches of the Universe, Part 4--Life's Ending

    Miriam reached a hand out. She was aware that this was probably a bad idea. She could feel it in her bones. But she wanted to see what this was, and what it'd do. This was a whole new experience, and while she was scared of this strange woman and this situation, she also knew that barring some horrible accident, even dying in her dreams would not destroy her, though she knew that it would leave her mentally scarred.

    Jack had been very insistent on making sure she knew, and Miriam but that he had thought that without knowing that she would throw herself into foolish situations just to see what happened.

    Miriam resented the remark, but was self-aware enough to admit that this was certainly a possibility, even if it wasn't likely. She'd seen what dangers dreams could hold, and--

    Well, she would have been very careful!

    As it was, she reached a hand out, and Jack sighed and did so as well. Soon each of them held a flower. There were thorns on the flower, and the petals themselves felt rough, as if they were damaged, or made out of wax. She turned it around and around in her hand, trying to ignore the prickling against her flesh, and then pulled out a petal and put it in her mouth.

    It tasted of blood, and something primal and yet cruel. She didn't know how an emotion could be a taste, but she felt angry, her body sweating, as she plucked off another petal. It was an uncomfortable sort of feeling, as she took petal after petal.

    He hates me, he hates me not, Miriam thought, though the thought didn't seem as if it were hers. It felt like a foreign thought, twisted and strange, and then she found herself somewhere else, as someone else.

    Kill.

    The thought echoed and repeated in her mind, and she looked down at white, hairy arms. Somehow she knew at once what she was here for.

    Destroy.

    No. Not that. She was standing at the edge of a forest, and next to her were two other people, two other lumberjacks. One with a black beard, one with a red beard. And he was the one with a brown beard.

    She was a man now, and yet somehow that didn't seem to matter in the strange dream logic that was filling her. She was holding an axe, and when she looked down at the sharp point, she imagined all of the trees and animals she could kill.

    Yes. Yes. Kill it all! Destroy it all! I don't need it!

    Miriam tried not to understand hate, tried not to feel it, but she did. And the hatred she had at the moment for nature and all of its workings was the kind of hatred she had imagined only the worst people could have. It reminded her of the baying hordes that had sought after Negro blood in the riots, the way she had imagined them almost inhuman in their vicious desires.

    Now she felt it, stronger than she had felt anything.

    She prepared herself to resist the urges, only to hear a thought that was neither hers, nor that strange foreign one.

    'Play along' Jack thought at her. 'I know this one. We have to destroy the forest.'

    'Why?' Miriam thought, struggling with the fury that was making her want to just run ahead and chop and chop without asking questions.

    'You'll see,' Jack thought.

    It was a lovely day to destroy. She was aware that she needed to chop down this wood because she wanted to destroy the forest. Interrogate those deeper thoughts all she might, even divide her brain up into two, and she couldn't figure out any deeper motive. In this hallucination or vision or whatever it was, these tall trees, green and beautiful, and the flowers that carpeted the floors of this magnificent forest, all existed for the purpose of being destroyed.

    Was this how humans were viewed, in the Dreaming Earth? Monsters and creatures that destroyed for no reason, without sense or anything other than hatred?

    She knew that it was a place outside of human consciousness, human thought and feeling, but not the impact of human actions. There was some sort of tower that man had created, and there was the Swath, and even here, the natural world was damaged by man.

    She had never truly considered it, not really. The natural world existed for man to exploit and control. She appreciated it, and she was not the sort of person who would ever think about harming an animal. She loved animals, even, and cared for them when they were hurt. But nature existed to be consumed to some extent.

    God made forests, but man needed firewood. God had made the entire world, and made man master of it. He had to be kind, he needed to be wise, for what else would God expect, but it existed in part for him.

    The thoughts that were being forced on her were more primal and more primitive, the kinds of thoughts that she would have rejected, except she'd been told to go along with it.

    So she stepped forward, sighted her first tree, and began to chop.

    The wood splintered on the first hit, which made some progress, so she pulled it away, looking at the gaping wound, or sort of wound, and smiling and swinging again, and then again and again. Next to her, the other two were trying, though neither were quite as strong as she was.

    There was an odd pride in this that she knew wasn't hers, and her second mind was freaking out, trying to distance itself, worrying in ways that didn't make sense to her right now. Two thought streams went at the same time, but one was infected by this drive.

    She heard animals screaming, and yet she kept on chopping. Finally, the first tree went down, tumbling to a crash that sent hundreds of birds flying, fleeing up into the dark, smog-choked skies as if there was some escape there.

    There wasn't.

    It was an odd feeling, the memories and the certainties, and she didn't like it at all, and she also loved it.

    Holding two contradictory thoughts at once was odd, but the 'he' that she was now didn't seem to care as he moved onto the next tree, and the next.

    He didn't tire as a person was supposed to do, and he didn't stop to admire the roses. He just sweated and sweated, until sweat and smog and blood was all that Miriam could smell. She kept it up, feeling that rage building and yet cresting and crashing back each time she chopped down a tree.

    The forest seemed to be dwindling fast, and she held a part of herself back from it. But another part was laughing inside, was enjoying the destruction, the end of all things. All would fall into the Swath, and then into nothing. Everything ended. Nothing stayed.

    And this thing, this thing that she was, this 'person' liked it.

    She coughed, her breathing getting harder, as she continued. It was just an endless series of tasks and actions. There was no beauty, there was no compassion, just the chopping. They fell, one by one, and she felt sicker and sicker.

    A deer darted in front of her, and down came the axe, cleaving through nuance and possibility as the beast died.

    She stared for a moment, overcome. It lay there, gushing blood. From the lack of horns, it was a female, and she was just screaming and thrashing, confused. She'd just run out, trying to get away, and she was dead.

    Everything was dying, piece by piece, and she was doing it, stripping away the wildness and the life of the world so that she could make stumps out of it. Burning it all up for nothing.

    She was nearing the center of the woods, and her head hurt. She was dizzy, and now each breath was labored, as if she was running a marathon. And then in the center of the forest, there was a dead stump, twisted by lightning and blackened by fire and age.

    Next to her, on either side, there were her companions. The forest, somehow, was almost gone. She hadn't chopped that many down, but for each she cut down, dozens more fell, as if she were merely the vanguard of the end of this forest.

    And now the black sky was unimpeded, and yet she was struggling to stay awake.

    'Without trees, life on earth could not exist' Jack said. 'So by destroying it, we pass beyond life on earth. We pass into something far less human.'

    'I… I… what was that?' she thought, as slowly she felt as if her form was shifting back.

    Her skin grew darker, and she lost height, slipping away from the rage and the swirl of emotions, and left confused and horrified. She held out a hand, still covered in the glove, and then looked up at the sky, which was now a different sort of dark.

    It was the dark of a sky without stars. It was the dark of an endless void, and the trees were falling away, almost literally. They went down through the floor to leave this blasted wasteland, the dust red and fine beneath their feet, stretching onward and onward. There were hills, here and there, but everything felt wrong.

    She could breath, now, and she was herself again, but wounded and worried.

    'That was an ordeal. Not all of them are lessons or even tests. Some of them are horrible,' Coniunctio said, 'And yet you did it.'

    Miriam trembled slightly, and then out loud, as their own forms returned to what she was expecting, "W-what now? Where are we?"

    "Almost to our destination, that's where," Coniunctio said.

    But Jack had a different answer. "A void, that's where we are. What we bring here is what we have. When you step into a person's Oneiros, you are stepping into something defined, something loud and noisy. This, though, is quiet. This wasteland is what we imagine it to be. But look at the dust…"

    She looked down, and gasped. It seemed to shift colors, and yet also swirl in patterns that revealed that beneath their feet should be nothing at all. It was as if dust was covering an entire lack of ground. But then in another moment she saw the ground, and it was thick, dark mud.

    "Expectation matters here, because there's so little else. Time is strange here as well. The time we're taking now, to talk… and of course this is why he wants us to hurry, takes about twelve seconds in the real world. It is exactly the same as the action of walking to that far hill there," Jack said, pointing, "in the time it takes. Time is subjective here, time warps and twists and does not obey human expectations. An Acanthus could explain it further. But for each discrete action: a conversation, a walk of ten thousand miles or of just a single mile, time passes, stretches away, and the winds blow. Listen for them."

    She began to hear it, but she wasn't quite sure what it was. The wind didn't whistle, no, for her it was like a far off shout. "Wait… would I have heard it before you said anything?"

    "Aha, that's clever. Possibly not. Maybe you would have seen it, or felt it, or understood it. What matters is that it keeps on blowing, more and more with each action, with all of the time we spend here. It is not that long, compared to the journey. People have wandered for subjective months and had it feel like subjective hours and take real world minutes."

    "I understand what you meant when you said that human expectations didn't apply," Miriam said, turning around and around, her eyes bright. This was… well, it was horrible and wonderful at the same time.

    She wanted to see more, though she was not sure what more was. Just something beyond this.

    She couldn't feel the winds, only hear them, and that certainly made her feel safer. "What else is here?"

    "If you go up, you can reach Mars, you can reach Jupiter. Any planet with enough time, and that time is nothing, looked at from the real world. But from your mind, it can be dangerous, so there are routes and tricks to take if you wanted to go that way. But we don't," Jack said. "Instead, we're going to reach the end of the universe, not merely the outer edge of a single solar system."

    Miriam nodded, wondering just what the end of the universe looked like. "How does this work with multiple people?"

    "The subjective time?" Jack asked.

    "Yes."

    "If Coniunctio would not mind demonstrating, I can show you. It will mean more time facing the winds, but his armor protects him."

    Coniunctio sighed, almost as dramatically as Jack might, and then disappeared in a flash of light.

    Miriam blinked as she saw him, blurring, running at well over the speed of the fastest car towards the far hill.

    "To us, since we have chosen to stay here, it looks as if--" Jack said, gesturing wildly, "he is going fast. To him, it looks as if we are standing still. Both of them are true."

    Miriam's mouth was agape. She could barely grasp it, and yet it seemed intensely useful. Could that mean that she could spend weeks or months here, and yet have only a minute pass? Though of course, the mind and self might get bored or wander, and she was aware of how dangerous even getting this far had been.

    "Well. That's useful," Miriam said, trying not to get lost in indulging her fascination.

    "Well, come with me. This is going to be a long hike."

    It was. It was a full thirty minutes before they drew close to Coniunctio, who stood at the top of the hill. On the way, she felt her skin prickle with the power of the Winds. Just a little bit, but it hurt in a way that she couldn't quite place. Couldn't place because it almost felt good, and that made no sense.

    Then she was there, standing at the top of a hill, looking down at…

    At what?

    There was a smear of darkness across the edge of her vision, and then more of it, and more of it, stretching forever without end. It was like tar, though she couldn't be sure from here, and it looked far off. Over a dozen miles off, or more.

    Or just a few seconds, objectively, she thought.

    Something about the ocean made her want to hide.

    "What is that?"

    "That, my dear," Jack said, "is the end of the world."

    Where to go from here? (Choose 1)

    [] Walk along/near the ocean and talk about it, and the Abyss in general… though keep a safe distance.
    [] Visit the FIVE, and there's definitely not a sixth, niece, no siree, Aeonic Palaces. Just to look at them from the outside, so that she knows where each is, so that in the future she can visit them without having to walk on the beach hunting for them. And to talk about the lore of each in more detail.
    [] Visit one… and enter it. This might or might not be advisable.
    -[] The Fallen Tree of Arcadia. There rest Gloriana of Time, and Medraut, Mordred, of Fate. Do not eat of the fruit and honey, for it is as the Fae would have it. Mordred lectures on destiny, and Gloriana on the inevitable passage of time, her very form aging and growing young with each passing moment.
    -[] The Orchid of Pandamonium: There is but one Aeon, Dahhak. He has two twin-headed dragons on his shoulders, and can effortlessly read all minds that enter his domain. Cruel, but in a human way, he speaks of deep secrets and dark truths of those who enter, and only by sacrifice can one gain his blessing and boon. What about Sara?
    -[] The Unquiet Mansion of Stygia. Supported by Dragon Bones (Dragons? Miriam asks), and made of lead and gold, this place is strange. It is in an Atlantean tomb that one meets Typhon of Death, who takes the form of one of his creations and slithers around, quietly, and usually lets Echidna of Matter talk. People can make great requests of them, if one is willing to pay the price, and there are stories of people giving up their lives and souls to truly resurrect the life of one who was lost. Miriam stared when she heard this, and asked about Echidna.
    -[] The Copse of the Primal Wild. A stand of trees or a shoot of bamboo, this is the home of the only Aeons that can run free beyond their homes. One can, it is rumored, even reach the Shadow from the Copse, if one knows how. The Spirit Aeon often takes the form of a giant snake, the Life Aeon is a Stag, or a bear. Animal Masters attend them, and they know much in hidden lore of life and spirit, as all Aeons do for their Arcana.
    -[] The Imminent Temple: Its gates are always open, and yet it is silent. Like no temple Miriam has seen. Two thrones sit at an alter. Azazel, said to be an Angel, the Aeon of Forces who teaches power over the forces of the world in exchange for service. Lilith, who denies and tempts, who is the will of the Sorcerer to conquer all, but to discipline themselves in doing so. Both are strange in their own ways.

    *******

    Chopping: 3 (Strength)+5 (Temporary Aspect: Chop! Chop! Chop!)=8 dice=3 sux.

    Composure: 1 sux

    Choppping #2: 3 sux

    Composure: Failure

    Int+Lore/Understanding: 5 sux.

    The Winds!: 1 (Gnosis)+3 (Whorl)=4 dice=0 sux, you're safe!
    The Winds 2 (Miriam): 4 dice=1 sux…-1 from armor, so none.
    The Winds (Jack): 3 sux...but armor blocks it.
    The Winds (Conny): 3, but armor blocks

    Winds #3: Blocked again (1 sux versus 1 armor), but deals a Bashing damage from length of time exposed.

    A/N: Huh, this is longer than I thought it would be.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Walk along/near the ocean and talk about it, and the Abyss in general… though keep a safe distance.

    Just curious.
     
    Very interesting, and much better than what I thought was gonna happen as I believed it would be more traumatic.

    [] Walk along/near the ocean and talk about it, and the Abyss in general… though keep a safe distance.
    [] Visit the FIVE, and there's definitely not a sixth, niece, no siree, Aeonic Palaces. Just to look at them from the outside, so that she knows where each is, so that in the future she can visit them withouthaving to walk on the beach hunting for them. And to talk about the lore of each in more detail.
    [] Visit one… and enter it. This might or might not be advisable.
    -[] The Copse of the Primal Wild. A stand of trees or a shoot of bamboo, this is the home of the only Aeons that can run free beyond their homes. One can, it is rumored, even reach the Shadow from the Copse, if one knows how. The Spirit Aeon often takes the form of a giant snake, the Life Aeon is a Stag, or a bear. Animal Masters attend them, and they know much in hidden lore of life and spirit, as all Aeons do for their Arcana.
    -[] The Imminent Temple: Its gates are always open, and yet it is silent. Like no temple Miriam has seen. Two thrones sit at an alter. Azazel, said to be an Angel, the Aeon of Forces who teaches power over the forces of the world in exchange for service. Lilith, who denies and tempts, who is the will of the Sorcerer to conquer all, but to discipline themselves in doing so. Both are strange in their own ways.

    These are the options that interest me. The first because walking along the Abyss is fascinating, and learning about it is incredibly useful given how fundamental it is to Mages and it can be related to via the Seers.

    Visiting all of the Aeon Palaces is a good general option given they each incredibly important, and it would be smart to get an overarching idea of them before delving into them.

    Finally the two visit options. Going to the Palace that contains both the Spirit and Life aeons could be incredibly helpful with fixing the soil for Anant, and visiting the Imminent Temple should help with Miriam's religious views and virtue (piety/faith) given the names of the aeons and Lilith and Azazel. Lilith in particular is likely to be interesting given Miriam's previous discussion on the theory of magic and religion relates.

    My personal preferences are the Abyss, a general overview, and the Temple; but I'll wait for further discussion and make a vote tomorrow morning or afternoon given how late it is.
     
    [X] Walk along/near the ocean and talk about it, and the Abyss in general… though keep a safe distance.

    I'm rather more interested in seeing how Jack explains the Abyss than meeting the Aeons.
     
    [X] Visit the FIVE, and there's definitely not a sixth, niece, no siree, Aeonic Palaces. Just to look at them from the outside, so that she knows where each is, so that in the future she can visit them without having to walk on the beach hunting for them. And to talk about the lore of each in more detail.

    Since I don't know about the 6 Aeonic Palaces this sounds nice?
     
    NemoMarx said:
    [X] Visit the FIVE, and there's definitely not a sixth, niece, no siree, Aeonic Palaces. Just to look at them from the outside, so that she knows where each is, so that in the future she can visit them without having to walk on the beach hunting for them. And to talk about the lore of each in more detail.

    Since I don't know about the 6 Aeonic Palaces this sounds nice?
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    Click to shrink...

    Didn't you hear him? There are only five Aeonic Palaces.
     
    [X] Visit the FIVE, and there's definitely not a sixth, niece, no siree, Aeonic Palaces. Just to look at them from the outside, so that she knows where each is, so that in the future she can visit them without having to walk on the beach hunting for them. And to talk about the lore of each in more detail.
     
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