OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] Plan The Gatekeeper
The Streetwalker's Guide to the Hierarchy
- Thread starter Birdsie
- Start date
- Location
- 1
I'm not sure we can actually make Masks in the dreamscape right now; we need Facelessness, and we don't have Artificer's Face on nor does Webweaver seem to be working, so probably dream-masks aren't really Masks. If we want to make Dream-Masks, we'll probably need a specialist Artificer's Dreaming Face or something, to make Facelessness inside the dream (or, preferably, a different crafting Mask which lets us craft Masks (in dreams) without actually making facelessness. Creating identity-killing stuff inside of what might be, in some sense, our own head, might be... a bit much.).
[X] "Do you know anything about the Street Where the Stones Speak?"
[X] "What even is the Silent House?"
[X] "Want to trade? I have a workshop full of masks just through here."
[X] "Why's it a bad idea to wake up the owner of this place?"
[X] "Was that really my sister I just met?"
[X] "How come you have my workshop in here?"
[X] "What even is the Silent House?"
[X] "Want to trade? I have a workshop full of masks just through here."
[X] "Why's it a bad idea to wake up the owner of this place?"
[X] "Was that really my sister I just met?"
[X] "How come you have my workshop in here?"
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] Plan Questions Three
So what is the relevant information we can get out of here? For me, the main thing is potential Street Attunement as it would directly impact how much we can get out of the current world. The second is dream world info, so we know what we can expect and how to prepare for it. Is there something else we would like to get out of this, or are these two the main ones?
It was the same as he'd left it back on Drethir. A single, sturdy oak workbench underneath a dingy lamp, and a cushioned red seat. Countless chest-stored dowels of wood, stone, metal, and other materials from across the world. A vice to hold masks as they were carved. Knives for whittling, chisels for gouging. Grinders to remove excess material and apply smoothing, polishing, or faceting. And on the wall to the right... an array of masks, missing only the one on his face: the centerpiece of the show.
We won't know if we don't even try. This is a special dream. There really is no harm trying - and moving onto the questions if he can't. Being able to charm the Marchwarden is worthwhile. Immediate possible benefit being more time for our questions.
And after all, it isn't a mask Dorian is using. But a denizen of this place, using things provided for here. Please reconsider guys. @OctarineShrike
And it also looks like the dream holds every mask Dorian has ever created on display - and I'd assume that includes Artificer. If there was no magic in place the webweaver wouldn't have the fixating aspect. Identity mechanic clearly is in place at least.
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] Plan The Gatekeeper
But there is? We ask Marshmallow, we go to our workshop and whoops, we can't actually use those tools to make shit, hehehehe, sorry Marshmallow man, hope this didn't just waste time of your very valuable exposition?
And meanwhile you have yet to bring up actual upside of this plan. So far it seems it is only there for your mask fetish as opposed to anything worthwhile. Why do something that doesn't accomplish anything?
Wow, harsh. Then give him an ordinary mask - a masterfully crafted one. He has all the tools of the trade lined up. The point is to win him over doing something personal. How many guests he meet would do that?
Make the most of our 98 roll, instead of being complacent.. In the event of a failure promise to enchant it the next time you visit. Which, Dorian will - he got an invitation to come again. Also, again Dorian got Viscerality done while making masks, he can work and talk.
It's like the time we met the last Cultivator Wayfarer, when someone proposed we make him a mask. And since we didn't get around to making that, I thought we could apply it here - and buy time for the conversation.
It's not even about the mask, you give me option A and B - and I naturally look for option W. That might not always be the optimal move. But I sure as hell want to have fun - and have things be interesting.
I apologise though if it looks like I'm being too Mask-pilled. I did listen to you and voted for fixation as well last vote. But what went down in the whole Viserality arc was a response to a few discord sentiment about a contingent of people actively wanting to do away with masks. I guess talk of rerolling away builds like the older quests might have agitated me. I'll tone it back a bit, I'm happy enough to have gotten something into the build.
But I am not going to turn away what I see as a good narrative device. I'm going to skip leg day and draw this.
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- Location
- 1
I'm aware about the physical materials! My objection was very specifically about needing Facelessness and the probability that the Masks in the room don't actually work. We already know Webweaver's actual powers aren't really... working, just its face-stickiness, and that could just mean, like, the dream considers it part of our face or something. If dream-Artificer's is like Webweaver, it follows that the Artificer's Face copy will have no powers except zero fixation of facial adherence.
We can't hold it explicitly as evidence that Identity magic is entirely out of the equation. We can't know unless we try.
Anyways, the point is moot. This is clearly an ascended being, it doesn't really matter if the mask works or not. It's an act of whimsy, something for Dorian to give him as a personalized token for his time - and to remember him in the future.
Entire point of the gift is to be friends, and to buy time for the conversation. I really am confused why are we treating something simple as if this is going to be a catastrophic failure. It's a fluff episode, from our main adventure. We're not making any major decisions.
Anyways, the point is moot. This is clearly an ascended being, it doesn't really matter if the mask works or not. It's an act of whimsy, something for Dorian to give him as a personalized token for his time - and to remember him in the future.
Entire point of the gift is to be friends, and to buy time for the conversation. I really am confused why are we treating something simple as if this is going to be a catastrophic failure. It's a fluff episode, from our main adventure. We're not making any major decisions.
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- Location
- 1
I don't think it's catastrophic, but we oughtn't be expecting it to work. There's a difference between thinking something is likely to fail and thinking it's misguided.
(Also I'm not sure Dorian can freely talk while Mask-Crafting? Getting Viscerality wasn't really a conversation, and someone else was doing the viscerality work. I'd expect that some parts of the work are simple enough to multitask but probably not all. Again, doesn't mean it's catastrophic, but I don't think the premises are as solid as one might initially assume.)
(Also I'm not sure Dorian can freely talk while Mask-Crafting? Getting Viscerality wasn't really a conversation, and someone else was doing the viscerality work. I'd expect that some parts of the work are simple enough to multitask but probably not all. Again, doesn't mean it's catastrophic, but I don't think the premises are as solid as one might initially assume.)
I humbly make my offering for the omake throne. Flowers cause he has the garland thing in his hair, and the stars in his eyes.
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[X] Plan The Gatekeeper
Demiimonde - Second Awakening
Birdsie
Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy
- Location
- Poland
Second Awakening
"I do have some questions," Dorian affirmed with a nod. He started to assess the doorways leading into the chambers around them, finding all the correct materials for making a mask. "But I would feel ill, to leave you without due recompense. Can I perhaps offer you a service? The furniture around here-"
"You should not vandalize," chastised Seizing-the-Night before Dorian could continue - an unusually sharp and harsh statement from him. "I know what you mean to offer, and it won't be needed. I am a Marchwarden. The bordermarch is a place of work, not a playground. Neither shall I need anything from you save the entertainment you offer."
It seemed the offer had overdrawn on some of the spirit's patience. He decided to hurry with the questions, speaking plainly and directly.
"Do you know anything about the Street Where the Stones Speak?"
As if discarding the rising impatience, Seizing-the-Night smiled at him euphorically. "Oh, so you know the proper name as well?"
"Yes, I've met another traveler."
"Alas, I can't tell you much beyond what a fellow traveler may have told you." The man's expression dissipated into firm neutrality, only the hints of satisfaction drawn on his face. His goblet rose, its contents swirled once with a dynamic wrist motion, as he took a curt sip. "The House's libraries should have more if you access them - but that'll require Guest Right. Not an honor easily issued, you understand. You could begin by, say, not contemplating the taking apart of our furniture. Improving your etiquette."
As one who'd prided himself on adherence to such etiquette, that stung, but etiquette also informed him to move on swiftly and accept the jab.
"And what, pray tell, is the House, exactly?" asked Dorian, casting a look down the hallway. Outside, the unending rain continued its soft tapping on the windows, the hubbub of the storm almost soundless from within; the House insulated sound rather well. Silver wall fixtures held candles, each flame a halting mark of defiance against the cold.
"Oh, it's a refuge of sorts." The man waved a hand, almost dismissively. "It's where dreamers move, to dream again. Or die the death of a long and peaceful eternity, as some say. The history's long and complex, and I shan't bore you with the Wars of Glory. Those records are quite dry, rather unlike anything else around here. We spirits oft become bored of reliving old events. Though, I suppose that sentiment may differ, as each of us does. Entertainments like you are rare and precious for one such as myself, for I am the incarnation of fervid joys lurking beneath unassuming appearances, the splendor and serenity of the more incomprehensible and... abstract parts of nature. I was made so."
A quirk of that statement modified Dorian's next query. "You're a spirit. Then… was what I met a minute ago not really my sister? Just another spirit like you?"
"Rather perceptive of you, mortal," said Seizing-the-Night, crushing a piece of Dorian's heart. The dream had been too beautiful to be real, as it turned out. "Although what you encountered, I suspect, was more of a visage of your own heart's disease. Here, in the bordermarches, the House intersects with the dreams of its visitors. Your despondency can be blamed for what you experienced tonight; anything the 'spirit' said was likely painted by your true feelings, although perhaps stained by your suffering, too. Sorrow is a potent catalyst of what you mortals call 'magic.' But so is pleasure." As if to demonstrate, he took a languid and protracted sip of wine.
"Thank you. I have no more questions."
He'd expected some parting words; if not encouragement, then at least a mysterious statement about the nature of the expected 'entertainment' he'd bring.
Instead, the spirit merely lowered its cup, smiled at him with glittering teeth, and waved a hand, as if sending him away.
And Dorian awoke, sweat-stained, back on the couch on the world of Demimonde.
A hand went up to check his face - unmasked. The Webweaver lay on the impromptu nightstand by him, untouched, exactly as he'd left it prior to sleep. He calmed down after a moment. The dream's clarity was unusual. It hadn't only been lucid, but he could almost fully recall its contents. This was clearly a supernatural contrivance of some sort.
After a second of debating its nature with himself, Dorian reached into a pocket and pulled out a fresh, violet grape.
His eyes closed involuntarily.
It was real, then.
He felt stirrings of an emotional concoction that was becoming as familiar as a rival duelist: deep-seated worry, existential curiosity, and a material instinct akin to avarice that drove him to seize every advantage as it came at him, even without the harness of forewarning.
He focused instead on Seizing-the-Night's mentions of how the bordermarches worked.
If that macabre apparition of Adeline were indeed one spawned of his own haunted emotions, didn't that mean he desired to be unchained from the pursuit of vengeance, deep down? Could Dorian Croft be a lax wretch, slothful enough to forget the meaning of repaying evil with its dues?
He recalled cutting down smiling Inquisitors. He remembered remorselessly ending the lives of watchmen who'd done little wrong, save desire to feed themselves and their families, because it was either that or being captured. Could one repay evil with evil, and still call the result justice? It'd been a while since he'd been so bothered. Years.
The Street and the worlds it showed, it seemed, were a spawning pool for unwelcome emotions. And yet, the stroke of Viscerality was blunted in application here. He frowned.
No matter. Focus on the present. One foot ahead of the other.
As he did almost every evening for over a year now, he donned the Webweaver.
His next two days were a buzz of acquiring materials and crafting masks.
---
Forewarned with Screentime and agile enough to cross rooftops on your own, you were able to avoid werewolves and other unfortunate encounters.
You couldn't secure 'rubies' as a crafting material within a mere two days of exploration, even after a very short visit to the city's wealthier sector, somewhat complicating your recreation of Crimson Lost. However, a simple use of Screentime yielded an equally 'profitable' if more dubious well of materials: the wrecked stained glass windows of a local church. You spent a while poring over the ruins and picking out red shards of glass that suited the mask you were trying to craft, and made something that works more or less as well as what you'd intended. You've also preserved some werewolf blood in a small bottle, in case you ever need some in the future.
As a reminder, after this is all done, you'll be attempting to find and meet with Dr. Musorov, the man whom Henry mentioned on your first day here. Therefore, if you wish to refine your plan to meet Dr. Musorov based on the masks you'll craft below, now is the time to do so, and should be included as a write-in mention in your vote.
It's currently your third day on Demimonde, out of an allotted limit of eight.
You've crafted three new masks. Here are their starting effects:
Trobadour [9 Potential] - A simple birch wood-cut, resembles a relaxed face.
*Serene (9) - Promotes calmness, most strongly on the wearer. Diminishes effectiveness of hostile mental effects, especially emotional.
**Dorian, ironically, feels this mask hasn't lived up to its Potential, and has some ideas on remaking it even better once you've assigned him more time to work on it. However, this'll cost you some Import, as the modification he intends to make is somewhat unorthodox and more of a promising hypothesis than a practiced technique.
Crimson Angel [10 Potential] - An ebony plate stacked with red stained glass scavenged from shattered church windows.
*Blood's Beckoning (6) - Increases Visceral blood regeneration and control, but constrains other uses of Viscerality moderately. Constraints lower with Potential.
*Enhanced Physique (4) - Grants +2 to all of a wearer's physical attributes.
Mooneater [18 Potential] - A misshapen lump of twisted, burned, cracked, and half-melted silver coated in a dried werewolf blood that resembles tear tracks.
*Lunarianism (16) - Drains lunar essence out of a target or environment, slowly stockpiling it, to a certain maximum limit. Lunar essence can be fired out as offensive blasts of moonlight or formed into weak constructs; easy to control and shape. With training, it might cause other effects.
*Sorrow's Touch (2) - Under direct moonlight, can form an illusionary specter of a wearer's loved one. Their appearance radiates a palpable sense of cool sadness, potentially affecting or distracting enemies. Can be cast out of direct moonlight, at the cost of lunar essence.
Artificer's Face has accumulated 3 Potential. How do you spend it?
[ ] Artifice - Generate Facelessness. Required to craft masks. Can increase Potential of exposed masks, or slowly overwhelm and crack them.
[ ] Handling - Increased manual dexterity when handling crafting tools. Can be used for non-crafting checks, such as to stab someone with a carving knife.
[ ] Conjurer - Can conjure more advanced tools out of thin air. Costs multiple Potential to make tools instantly; at three (3), requires ten seconds for a screwdriver. Even mild investment here can significantly increase your long-term crafting speed (although reduce it short-term) and reduce the amount of equipment you must carry significantly.
Screentime has accumulated 2 Potential. How do you spend it?
[ ] Teleview - Improve cooldown, reducing it by around half an hour; bringing it down to an average of six and a half hours.
[ ] Teleview (Multi-Use) - Costs 2 Potential each. Instead, Teleview has two 'uses,' which have a separate cooldown.
Specter has accumulated 2 Potential. How do you spend it?
[ ] Phase - Improve Phase's length, agility enhancement, and incorporeality a mild amount.
[ ] Invisibility - Conceptual, rather than physical: makes you less 'noticeable' while wearing the mask. Equivalent to mundane camouflage at 4 Potential.
[ ] Swiftness - +1 Agility when the mask is worn. Will eventually develop other bonuses to your speed and mobility
"I do have some questions," Dorian affirmed with a nod. He started to assess the doorways leading into the chambers around them, finding all the correct materials for making a mask. "But I would feel ill, to leave you without due recompense. Can I perhaps offer you a service? The furniture around here-"
"You should not vandalize," chastised Seizing-the-Night before Dorian could continue - an unusually sharp and harsh statement from him. "I know what you mean to offer, and it won't be needed. I am a Marchwarden. The bordermarch is a place of work, not a playground. Neither shall I need anything from you save the entertainment you offer."
It seemed the offer had overdrawn on some of the spirit's patience. He decided to hurry with the questions, speaking plainly and directly.
"Do you know anything about the Street Where the Stones Speak?"
As if discarding the rising impatience, Seizing-the-Night smiled at him euphorically. "Oh, so you know the proper name as well?"
"Yes, I've met another traveler."
"Alas, I can't tell you much beyond what a fellow traveler may have told you." The man's expression dissipated into firm neutrality, only the hints of satisfaction drawn on his face. His goblet rose, its contents swirled once with a dynamic wrist motion, as he took a curt sip. "The House's libraries should have more if you access them - but that'll require Guest Right. Not an honor easily issued, you understand. You could begin by, say, not contemplating the taking apart of our furniture. Improving your etiquette."
As one who'd prided himself on adherence to such etiquette, that stung, but etiquette also informed him to move on swiftly and accept the jab.
"And what, pray tell, is the House, exactly?" asked Dorian, casting a look down the hallway. Outside, the unending rain continued its soft tapping on the windows, the hubbub of the storm almost soundless from within; the House insulated sound rather well. Silver wall fixtures held candles, each flame a halting mark of defiance against the cold.
"Oh, it's a refuge of sorts." The man waved a hand, almost dismissively. "It's where dreamers move, to dream again. Or die the death of a long and peaceful eternity, as some say. The history's long and complex, and I shan't bore you with the Wars of Glory. Those records are quite dry, rather unlike anything else around here. We spirits oft become bored of reliving old events. Though, I suppose that sentiment may differ, as each of us does. Entertainments like you are rare and precious for one such as myself, for I am the incarnation of fervid joys lurking beneath unassuming appearances, the splendor and serenity of the more incomprehensible and... abstract parts of nature. I was made so."
A quirk of that statement modified Dorian's next query. "You're a spirit. Then… was what I met a minute ago not really my sister? Just another spirit like you?"
"Rather perceptive of you, mortal," said Seizing-the-Night, crushing a piece of Dorian's heart. The dream had been too beautiful to be real, as it turned out. "Although what you encountered, I suspect, was more of a visage of your own heart's disease. Here, in the bordermarches, the House intersects with the dreams of its visitors. Your despondency can be blamed for what you experienced tonight; anything the 'spirit' said was likely painted by your true feelings, although perhaps stained by your suffering, too. Sorrow is a potent catalyst of what you mortals call 'magic.' But so is pleasure." As if to demonstrate, he took a languid and protracted sip of wine.
"Thank you. I have no more questions."
He'd expected some parting words; if not encouragement, then at least a mysterious statement about the nature of the expected 'entertainment' he'd bring.
Instead, the spirit merely lowered its cup, smiled at him with glittering teeth, and waved a hand, as if sending him away.
And Dorian awoke, sweat-stained, back on the couch on the world of Demimonde.
A hand went up to check his face - unmasked. The Webweaver lay on the impromptu nightstand by him, untouched, exactly as he'd left it prior to sleep. He calmed down after a moment. The dream's clarity was unusual. It hadn't only been lucid, but he could almost fully recall its contents. This was clearly a supernatural contrivance of some sort.
After a second of debating its nature with himself, Dorian reached into a pocket and pulled out a fresh, violet grape.
His eyes closed involuntarily.
It was real, then.
He felt stirrings of an emotional concoction that was becoming as familiar as a rival duelist: deep-seated worry, existential curiosity, and a material instinct akin to avarice that drove him to seize every advantage as it came at him, even without the harness of forewarning.
He focused instead on Seizing-the-Night's mentions of how the bordermarches worked.
If that macabre apparition of Adeline were indeed one spawned of his own haunted emotions, didn't that mean he desired to be unchained from the pursuit of vengeance, deep down? Could Dorian Croft be a lax wretch, slothful enough to forget the meaning of repaying evil with its dues?
He recalled cutting down smiling Inquisitors. He remembered remorselessly ending the lives of watchmen who'd done little wrong, save desire to feed themselves and their families, because it was either that or being captured. Could one repay evil with evil, and still call the result justice? It'd been a while since he'd been so bothered. Years.
The Street and the worlds it showed, it seemed, were a spawning pool for unwelcome emotions. And yet, the stroke of Viscerality was blunted in application here. He frowned.
No matter. Focus on the present. One foot ahead of the other.
As he did almost every evening for over a year now, he donned the Webweaver.
His next two days were a buzz of acquiring materials and crafting masks.
---
Forewarned with Screentime and agile enough to cross rooftops on your own, you were able to avoid werewolves and other unfortunate encounters.
You couldn't secure 'rubies' as a crafting material within a mere two days of exploration, even after a very short visit to the city's wealthier sector, somewhat complicating your recreation of Crimson Lost. However, a simple use of Screentime yielded an equally 'profitable' if more dubious well of materials: the wrecked stained glass windows of a local church. You spent a while poring over the ruins and picking out red shards of glass that suited the mask you were trying to craft, and made something that works more or less as well as what you'd intended. You've also preserved some werewolf blood in a small bottle, in case you ever need some in the future.
As a reminder, after this is all done, you'll be attempting to find and meet with Dr. Musorov, the man whom Henry mentioned on your first day here. Therefore, if you wish to refine your plan to meet Dr. Musorov based on the masks you'll craft below, now is the time to do so, and should be included as a write-in mention in your vote.
It's currently your third day on Demimonde, out of an allotted limit of eight.
You've crafted three new masks. Here are their starting effects:
Trobadour [9 Potential] - A simple birch wood-cut, resembles a relaxed face.
*Serene (9) - Promotes calmness, most strongly on the wearer. Diminishes effectiveness of hostile mental effects, especially emotional.
**Dorian, ironically, feels this mask hasn't lived up to its Potential, and has some ideas on remaking it even better once you've assigned him more time to work on it. However, this'll cost you some Import, as the modification he intends to make is somewhat unorthodox and more of a promising hypothesis than a practiced technique.
Crimson Angel [10 Potential] - An ebony plate stacked with red stained glass scavenged from shattered church windows.
*Blood's Beckoning (6) - Increases Visceral blood regeneration and control, but constrains other uses of Viscerality moderately. Constraints lower with Potential.
*Enhanced Physique (4) - Grants +2 to all of a wearer's physical attributes.
Mooneater [18 Potential] - A misshapen lump of twisted, burned, cracked, and half-melted silver coated in a dried werewolf blood that resembles tear tracks.
*Lunarianism (16) - Drains lunar essence out of a target or environment, slowly stockpiling it, to a certain maximum limit. Lunar essence can be fired out as offensive blasts of moonlight or formed into weak constructs; easy to control and shape. With training, it might cause other effects.
*Sorrow's Touch (2) - Under direct moonlight, can form an illusionary specter of a wearer's loved one. Their appearance radiates a palpable sense of cool sadness, potentially affecting or distracting enemies. Can be cast out of direct moonlight, at the cost of lunar essence.
Artificer's Face has accumulated 3 Potential. How do you spend it?
[ ] Artifice - Generate Facelessness. Required to craft masks. Can increase Potential of exposed masks, or slowly overwhelm and crack them.
[ ] Handling - Increased manual dexterity when handling crafting tools. Can be used for non-crafting checks, such as to stab someone with a carving knife.
[ ] Conjurer - Can conjure more advanced tools out of thin air. Costs multiple Potential to make tools instantly; at three (3), requires ten seconds for a screwdriver. Even mild investment here can significantly increase your long-term crafting speed (although reduce it short-term) and reduce the amount of equipment you must carry significantly.
Screentime has accumulated 2 Potential. How do you spend it?
[ ] Teleview - Improve cooldown, reducing it by around half an hour; bringing it down to an average of six and a half hours.
[ ] Teleview (Multi-Use) - Costs 2 Potential each. Instead, Teleview has two 'uses,' which have a separate cooldown.
Specter has accumulated 2 Potential. How do you spend it?
[ ] Phase - Improve Phase's length, agility enhancement, and incorporeality a mild amount.
[ ] Invisibility - Conceptual, rather than physical: makes you less 'noticeable' while wearing the mask. Equivalent to mundane camouflage at 4 Potential.
[ ] Swiftness - +1 Agility when the mask is worn. Will eventually develop other bonuses to your speed and mobility
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Artifice
[X] Teleview (Multi-Use)
[X] Phase
[X] Teleview (Multi-Use)
[X] Phase