Turn 40 Results - 2489.5 - Part 3 - The Architecture of Fate
Well, this alone pretty much confirms Tzeenchian shenanigans. Personally, despite apprehension, I look forward to it.
There is, you discover through trial and error, a minimum amount of Vitae required for you to be able to get an adequate 'grip' on the liquid so you can attempt to squeeze it into a power stone. You end up settling on a third of a gallon as a minimum size to achieve adequate control, and after you've grown familiar with the metaphysical weight of the liquid as you enforce your will upon it, you lift it with a gesture into the air, holding it in as perfectly spherical a shape as you can.
Translation: There's a minimum amount of boomstuff to blow up in our face. No screwing up with just a drop.
Every distortion from that perfectly round shape signifies an unevenness in the willpower pressing in on the ball from each side, and having such plainly visible feedback makes it easier to refine your control than your experiments with power stones. You settle in, take a breath, and begin to squeeze.
This "visible feedback", given our ominous roll, seems to scream "this is nothing like powerstone creation" to me.
[Squeezing Vitae: Learning, 1+29=30.]
And there it is. Let's see how long we have till the boom.
But after your attention begins to waver and you turn some of your attention away from the ball of shimmering fluid you drag in your wake so you can see to biological necessities,
Does... Mathilde take the suspended sphere of AV with her to the toilet? Please tell me that there's a toilet located directly within the Room of Calamity and that the nat 1 doesn't result in Mathy Dhar-ing her apartment within vicinity of the wrong flushing mechanism.
Reassured, you continue your vigil over the fluid and keep pushing in on what only seems to be unable to be pushed any further. With carefully-honed patience you maintain and very gradually increase the even pressure that keeps the shimmering sphere suspended in the air.
Phew, I guess not.
Uh oh. Here we go.
But your will still grasps it from every dimension, doesn't it?
No... It doesn't...
In the place of the shimmering ball of Vitae is a hole orthogonal to real and about the size of your hand,
Well, fuck. Warp portal it is. At least it's small. At the moment...
You've seen that shade once before - in the Grey College, in the room without walls that reveals its existence within a liminal realm. Either you've uncovered a very small liminal realm - about two cubic meters, by your estimation - that just so happened to be where you performed this experiment, or your experiment has created it.
Wait, what? Usually I interpret low rolls as the MC screwing up, but this, in a way, is a success. Even if this liminal space rips open into lots and lots of daemons, it seems to me like she still got the only physically possible result and didn't screw up. Except, I guess, if pushing AV into the liminal space is trivial for someone with Mathilde's skills and she didn't do/notice her own massive blunder yet.
So what does that indicate? That when forced into the barrier between reality and unreality, Vitae undergoes a transformation into... what, into nothing? No, into empty space where previously there was none. There's nothing there, but there is a there there to contain that nothing, where previously it was not. How? Well, Vitae was the substance of the realm of Aethyr, so transplanted to where there was no realm, it creates some more. But what you're looking it is certainly no Aethyr in miniature, is it? Well, no, you don't know the ground state of the Aethyr, you only know it as it is with the many Gods in residence. It could be that without them, the Aethyr would just be emptiness? But isn't the Aethyr inherently psychoreactive? This little pocket you've created doesn't appear to be. So it's not mimicking the Aethyr, it's instead mimicking reality? Could it have been imbued with... reality-ness from its time as Vitae? Or was this tiny, nascent realm of Chaos overwhelmed by the weight of a much larger reality through the pinhole that the Vitae had escaped through?
No. You've tested Vitae in every way imaginable and know that it is unreactive, its nature unchanged from the moment it bled through into reality. This effect must rely on the inherent properties of the Winds it created. But that would mean that when Winds are presented with a blank slate and transform into a realm to fill it, they birth normality. But that makes no sense - the Winds are the energies of Chaos, aren't they? Well, no, not quite, that's why they're legal when Chaos Sorcery very much isn't. The Winds all represent facets of the real - life and death, light and shadow, passion and instinct, solidity and ephemerality. Mainstream theory is that this is the energies of Chaos having the nature of reality imprinted upon it when too far from the attention of the beings that command it.
And there is no weight of reality here. Your lab is magically isolated from the outside world, and the Aethyr was forced into a space between realms before it transformed. Placed equidistant between real and unreal and isolated from the pressure of existence to impose a decision upon it, Aethyr still became Winds and the Winds still retained the nature of reality.
Which means that the Winds can't be born of the mere inertia of what already is. Reality is being imposed upon Chaos by something other than reality.
This is some truly beautiful hypothesizing. But it is only hypothesizing. Sure, Mathilde has theoretical knowledge that none of us players do, but I still feel like she's jumping to conclusions. Like the idea that magically isolating a lab from the outside world also isolates it from "reality" might be wrong. Maybe reality is exactly what's left when you filter out every other interference found on Malus. Dwarves living under mountains doesn't isolate them from the laws of physics after all. And if this room didn't have plenty of reality in it then Mathilde's soul and Ulgu-essence would expand to fill the vacuum. Or at least that's what my counter-hypothesizing says.
Still, pushing real space into the liminal membrane seems too easy.
Second shoe...!
"Do you know what tickles me most about all of this?"
Aww crap. It's already close enough to just talk?! Well, at least it's going to be fun from a reader's perspective.
The thought arrives in your brain packaged and labelled as sound, but never existed as something so ludicrously inefficient as vibrating air. The past was simply changed so that the words had been heard.
I don't know if it is better or worse that the Daemon has access to our thinkspace instead of standing right behind us.
At the far side of the bubble of new space from the opening into reality, tendrils of magic wriggle through the thinned membrane that separates reality from unreality like maggots through dead flesh, and once they wriggle their way free they dissipate into will made manifest.
"Far side" being, like, less than 10 cm away, right? What with the bubble itself being fist sized. Or is it just the door
into the new liminal space that's that small?
Edit: My mistake. The liminal space is 2 cubic meters. So the Warp is more than 1.2 meters away. What a relief
"It's that every word I say will further excavate a warren of bad decisions that you will have to scurry your way through. Do you tell your little friends that you have thinned the one border of their reclaimed home that they cannot guard themselves? Do you tell them that you have been singled out for special attention by one of the Eyes of Tzeentch, the very one that once ensnared their brothers in the far north and began the twilight of their race?"
Did I ever tell you guys that I am a huge fan of well written Tzeentch-talk? So much to unpack. Even if it might all be filled with lies and half-truths.
Here we've got a threat combined with a guilt-trip, plus some deep lore of questionable veracity. No idea which specific event it is referring to though. So much stuff happened that doomed the Dwarves. And I don't think the Chorf creation was the worst of it. Nor am I sure that that's far enough north to be meant by "far north".
Also, "Eye of Tzeentch" doesn't seem to be a specific type of Daemon, according to a quick Googling. It's literally the symbol itself. So the moniker might be either literal and a never seen before entity or it might be a metaphorical title. If it's the latter it sure sounds impressive, until one remembers that all Tzeentch Daemons that can sense anything at all are Eyes for the whole of Tzeentch.
It took only heartbeats for you to activate the Rune that flushes the magic out of the air, but entire sentences had already manifested themselves.
Yep. The monologue was sent pre-written into Mathy's brain. Then again, did the flush even close the portal and destroy the vestibule to the Chaos realm?
"What about your little magic club? They've already fretted about this very possibility, haven't they? Can they distinguish between a few whispered words and a full ensnaring of a soul? Could they dare to take such a chance that one such as you might already be suborned when you have the trust and ear of so many?
Yep. Directly making us fear any more Daemon-checking. This is especially effective if the Daemon actually knows that a single monologue-injection wouldn't actually trigger it, while we can never be sure.
You already know what their response would be, because you've already delivered it unto another. The blood on your hands matches that on the crown on your friend's head."
We did? I can't remember killing someone who was involuntarily or partially possessed/tainted. The closest I can think of is Alberich, but he was an open disciple. Also how does this in any way relate to the ascend of Belegar, Heidi or Roswita (our only "crowned" friends I can think of).
How do you ignore words you never heard in a present tense? You do your best to focus on the whisking away of magical energies, and note that none are escaping the slit in reality you have created. Of course not. Magic bleed-off is the result of inefficiency in spellcasting, and this being is beyond such limitations.
So the hole is not closing. Crap.
"Do you know how much effort it normally takes to craft a platter of truth and lies that will so haunt a mortal that they will spend the rest of their days trying their best to decorticate it?
De-cor-ti-cate. Looks like I'm learning a new word today.
1. to remove the bark, husk, or outer covering from
2. (Surgery) to remove the cortex from (an organ or structure)
Beautiful.
But you and yours who have so wonderfully usurped the Sword of Tlanxla have so twisted your own minds that I could say anything or nothing and you will dwell obligingly on it forever.
It's using lore it knows we've heard of. Which in equal measure gives said lore weight and draws it though the mud of deception.
If I said 'I like your hat' - and I really, really do - you will wonder, is this an example of the pettiest of statements for you to nevertheless obsess over, to demonstrate that I can command your mind through only your ears?
Hey! Low blow.
Am I masking truth in lies, or lies in truth? Would it only be a truth if you decide it a lie, or only a lie if you decide it a truth? Or is eternal indecision that which I seek?"
Meh. Now the Daemon's just stating the obvious and self-congratulating. This makes me think that the Daemon in question is much lesser than it presents itself and downright amateurish in it's presentation. Maybe it's giddy to show off for the first time. Or, since we are dealing with Tzeentch here, that's what it wants us to think. Seem like a dumb minor nuisance that got it's moment in the spotlight and is best to be ignored while we focus on the right in front of us problem that is the open warp portal, only for something hidden in its memory package to majorly screw us when we least expect it.
Isn't dealing with Tzeentch fun?
"The importance placed upon such pleasure, upon who has delivered them, grows by the hour.
No idea what this means. Closest I can think of is that the Daemon is admitting on getting off on this.
The First Betrayer sobs his fury for all to hear, knowing that the time will soon come again when he will crown one that might achieve what he could not and will never. Already the Four tally their joys and prod their servants, willing and not, knowing and not, into greater efforts. And do you know the most delightful part? That of all the promises and threats that have been whispered into the ears of the greatest and most terrible of champions, none have removed so many of their competitors from the greatest of tournaments than you."
Ooh. IC confirmation of the Evertourney. And of the fact that we killed at least two contestants.
...Or it would be if IC Mathilde could trust anything at all that's coming from Tzeentch's mouths.
"You have heard for yourself how exquisitely cultivated the resentment within Egrimm is, and seen how convincingly soothed his ruffled feathers now appear.
Hey! This creature has access to our thread! Shoo, bird! Shoo!
You have tasted the millennia of curdled hate of the Briarmaven of Woe, and struck her down when she left her beloved shadows to finally act. You have known how blind Alric is to the unsuitability that all else know and sneer at, and you have thwarted his ambitions and eliminated his last chance to claw his way back into relevancy. You have felt your blade sing as it sliced through the Elector Count that demanded respect for a title when he had no part in the killings that brought it to him, and the knowledge that the one that thwarted him is also the one that has propped up two generations of the dynasty that usurped him will burn within him until the burning is all that remains of him."
So... this birb is directly implying that both Egrimm and Alric were Everchosen candidates, just by lining them up in this list. Spicy!
"And even now, my siblings bicker over whether you should be given credit that the brood that contained three generations of exquisite warlords that were so cleverly walked onto the precipice of apostasy, are now so utterly defeated that they will shriek and bite at any hand that reaches out for them, instead of allowing themselves to be properly usurped like their allies were."
What? I guess I'll have to see what others make of this in the comments.
You reach forward with your soul and bury talons of willpower into the newly-created fabric of reality.
Tendrils of the purest magic burrowing through reality seep into your now magic-starved soul and your grip on reality redoubles and redoubles again.
...What are you doing Mathilde? This isn't a spell you have experience with. This seems like it would lead to another roll. Let's hope it's a good one.
"Should you earn this world through right of conquest, your will here would be paramount. Not because you would be stronger than the Four, but because They want to see what you would do with it. They have worlds without counting where Their will becomes fact, and They have wrung every morsel of enjoyment out of such simple games. If you would take up the crown and with it make yourself the ultimate bulwark against Them, They would whisper and cajole and threaten and offer you every temptation to turn upon your wards, but every 'no' would be a rapturous novelty. All you'd need do to keep this world from their grasp is to stay true to your purpose. And is that not the founding purpose of your order? To be the 'no' in the darkness?"
Oh fun! Here's the recruitment pitch. And it says "just continue as you were pretty please. That would be perfect." Well, I vote that we take that deal.
You don't even know where to begin rejecting the strength that even the slightest wisp of the energies of the Changer of Ways has given you, and even if you could, it would render you unable to do that which needs to be done.
Oh Mathilde. Oh no. *hugs*
I guess that explains how she's manifesting novel magicks without the need to roll on it. The Daemon is literally helping her cast it.
"Why do you think you were able to pull back so many of the generations born in Chaos from the Desolation Hold? Because the sweetest of victories was not those bludgeoned into submission and dragged off in chains, but those that would forge the chains themselves. A single sentry that walked into the darkness themselves and let the Maidens of Ecstacy have them delights the Four more than ten thousand who fight and bite and scratch and need their souls flayed down to the gristle before they obey."
Other than the obvious about why Vlag survived, I find his implication that all Four enjoy it when one of them gets toys very interesting. Though this might be a Tzeentchian perspective. After all Tzeentch is the most likely to claim (maybe even without lying) that the other three are actually also extensions of itself. That true Tzeentch is Chaos Incarnate, split into Four for entertainment.
"When you can be sure of nothing else, be sure of the boredom of the Four. When they want puppets, they have as many of the likes of me as they could ever want. What they don't have is you. Should you be willing to change that, you could command any price. Every price."
That's a lie. And again an amateurish one. The only way that Mathilde is special enough to be able to demand a higher price than all who came before her would be if the Four are aware that she is the protagonist of a Quest, and thus both the most important character in this iteration of the world they like to play in
and the only one with a semblance of free will. But that is too meta, even for Tzeentch IMO.
So instead it again seems like an overeager lesser Tzeentchling reading off the basic script and fumbling instead of threading the needle towards a realistic temptation.
"You cannot prevent the emergence of a Thirteenth, just as you cannot prevent the existence of Ulgu. All you can do is decide whether such a weapon should be surrendered without a fight to the whims of the vilest."
So "be the Everchosen or someone worse/more typical will instead". Okay. I can't say I'm not intrigued.
I mean who knows, maybe it is finally time for some fundamental Change.
