Session 8
12 August 1999, 6:30pm
Attended by: Steve, Ken, Jason, Merwin, Scott, Chris
StoryGuide: Ken
Logged by: Jason
SCHEDULE NOTE: Next week we meet on 8/17, and the following week we’re back to the normal plan.
Game
Claudius, whisked away by a large flying thing, notices details about his surroundings. There are places around the expanse below him... each place significant and distinct. Distances are completely distorted, though, as if they’re warped before the image reaches him. Identifiable landmarks include the rosebushes--the patch of flowers is surrounded by dark mist. Claudius estimates the distance from himself to the giant wall with huge beanstalks is perhaps 40-50 miles. But the proportions are way, way off...
Finally, perhaps in a half hour, the moth approaches a tree, itself as large as Constantinople. The moth enters among the foliage, sets Claudius down on a branch, and looms over him, observing him. It starts prodding him a little, then picks him up and turns him upside down. It speaks what seems to be Latin to him: "You are not a moth." Claudius says, "I am not a moth. I am a man." The moth rights Claudius and they converse about winds and names. At one point, the moth looks toward the building from whence the magi came (which looks like a mountain) fearfully--it and Claudius come to an understanding that it is "the medium tower" (the "high tower" being, of course, the Emperor's palace). The moth says, "There is nothing beyond the medium tower, but God. God comes from the medium tower."
Then they journey to a flower so they can share some nectar. The moth asks if he is one of those "who will bring the night." Claudius says that he is not. The moth says that it has been day for a long time. It continues, "Those from beyond hold back the night. There has been no night. The night will come when those who come from beyond shall separate the night from the day, and teach wisdom."
The moth says, "The owl speaks the prophecy." After a lengthy discussion in a similar vein, they fly back looking for the other Claudiuses...
Meanwhile...
Purros awakens--hurting, naked, surrounded and being handled by ants making noises! ("Ni ni ni!") Worse still, the ants are regurgitating stuff all over him. He spies Iseus through the swarm undergoing similar ministrations--one of the attendant ants is apparently reattaching one of Iseus’s arms! Purros willfully keeps from screaming. He then falls out of consciousness again. Iseus has a vision: an ant with its legs sprawled out on a spider web, and it’s wriggling. It makes no noise, except for its movement. Marcus and Kurpat awaken in their "private" room with 8 ants. They encounter the counting ant who must count to 526 before the "sleepers" (Iseus and Purros) should be awakened.
Meanwhile...
Claudius and the moth return to the site of the recent battle, as evidenced by the dead wasp, and encounter some ants. The moth speaks to the ants and, cautioning that they can lie, reports that the ants can take Claudius to the other Claudiuses.
Meanwhile...
Kurpat and Marcus cast some spells and get to a central area, still on their quest to find the ant king. They are finally led to the king, and are announced properly. And there is Aurelia, sitting in a dirt-sculpted chair. Kurpat then asks about the Book of the Monolith. The ants make chairs for them, as the councilors speak over the matter.
Meanwhile...
Claudius dips his head in an ant, but does not eat of the goo. And opts to follow them where they are going.
Meanwhile...
The herald interprets, and mentions that the Five (is it five?) will come to "bring back the night. Is that why you are here?"
"They shall come seeking the place of falling waters.
They shall raise arms against the forces of hell.
They shall bring word of the spider, and of he who died upon the web.
They will seek that which has been lost.
And they shall separate the large from the small, the proud from the humble and the new from the old.
And their ways shall be in places of darkness.
Pray to god for the night and for the time of the owl."
"Other wisdom has been forgotten thanks to the empire of the Jetsam who made war against the holy empire of Emperor of the Ants, and they have stolen the Book. And none who have seen the writings live among the Council any more." The king then says, "Perhaps it is time that we declare a crusade against the ants of Jetsam. We must think on it."
Meanwhile Claudius is taken into the ant court, now able to speak the ant tongue on account of goo seeping into his mouth. And he meets up with Aurelia and off to another side five chairs, with Kurpat and Marcus. The reunited magi are then led to an empty antechamber where chairs are rapidly created for them. An interpreter ant is summoned so that the magi may investigate properties of the goo (vis?).
Meanwhile...
Iseus awakens and investigates himself, finding goo actually inside the wound. He speaks briefly to the ants. Purros also awakens, finding himself naked, bereft of his possessions, covered in goo, and surrounded by ants who say "Ni!" Wishing to cleanse himself of the goo, he intones, "Perdo Animal!" The spell succeeds; all the goo disappears. Purros shrieks as all his wounds reopen, and collapses. [Game effect: Spells that affect Purros now will have an Animal requisite.] Iseus, warned against making a similar effort to remove his goo, goes through a series of tests before he is allowed to leave the chamber, or have the friends he is asking for brought to him.
Meanwhile...
As an aside while talking about what he had seen along his way here, Claudius reports that the dead men have walked as part of the Master’s experiments. "It is simple to destroy, and not easy to create." Kurpat is very curious and focuses on this. Claudius continues: "The experiment is to create the life, for he is skilled in creating already. But he has failed. He works alone. But he has helpers." And it is revealed that the Master has created helpers, who act similarly to ants. "But the experiment failed. The master will be exceeded. The experiment will succeed." And then they returned to discussing their situation, the Book of the Monolith, and so forth.
Meanwhile...
Iseus passes his tests, but sees the work the ants do on Purros--he is utterly dismembered. As Iseus watches in horror, an ant walks past noncholantly carrying Purros' head. Iseus violently expels much of the goo from his system. The healer ant is startled and then demands that he be "filled." Iseus opts to do this manually by eating the goo, and is forced to consume mass quantities at a very fast pace.
Meanwhile...
The interpreter arrives, and the group discusses the possible magic involved in the interpretive arts. "It is a secret of the interpreter’s guild" the ant reports. But the ant agrees to give up a small quantity. Kurpat finds that a fingerful is not quite a pawn. Claudius determines that in some quantity it would produce Intellego and/or Animal vis.
Finally, Iseus is able to leave from the healing room and rejoins the group--though he must walk slowly, and is greatly pained. He makes his appearance naked, shorn of all body hair, and liberally slathered in dark brown goo. The group has many questions of the healing process, but Iseus is vague. He does say, however, that Purros is worse off than he. Iseus rebuffs attempts to have spells cast on him, or to have the others borrow a sample of the goo. He puts his sigil ring and clothing on. At some point later (fast forward until meal time) feeder ants come in, and Iseus gets a normal feeder plus a healer ant and a soldier, and he eats from both the feeder and the healer. Claudius continues to be interested and has discussions with the healer.
Meanwhile...
Purros wakes up once more to discover a swarm of ants around him. His reaction: "The ants did this to me!" (Recall that thus far Purros has ingested none of the interpretive gel--or at least not enough to be effective.)
Finding himself surrounded by a circle of ants who eye him watchfully, he invokes a ward against animal attacks. But his concentration soon falters and the spell fails, when the first ant approaches and presents an open, gaping maw to him. A second ant demonstrates the procedure of eating the substance, but Purros is repulsed and refuses to have anything to do with these strange ant rituals...
Meanwhile...
Kurpat and Claudius, their "healer" credentials acceptable to the ants, go to see Purros. They attempt to convince him to consume the interpreter ant’s goo, but Purros is stubborn and refuses--after all, Purros cannot understand them either. "By God, Kurpat, by what means have they caused you to succumb to their wiles? I swear I will have vengeance upon the Emperor for visiting these afflictions upon me!"
After much mayhem and botched communication efforts, Purros moves from suspicion to certainty that they are all acting against him. "They have taken the minds of my sodales! I swear I shall take my vengeance upon the ants as well!" he raves.
Kurpat’s final effort is successful, as Purros falls under the sway of Trust of the Childlike Faith. Claudius carves SAFE on a stone, and Purros visibly relaxes, at last believing himself to be safe. EAT GEL is carved on the stone, and Purros finally eats the gel! So deeply is he affected by Kurpat's magic [having botched his resistance roll], that he becomes convinced that not only is the gel safe to eat, he actually must consume the gel in order to be safe himself! He all but dives into the maw of the translator ant and gorges on it. [Game effect of the botch: Purros now has a predilection for food in goo form.]
Finally, he is sated. And the ant sighs in relief.
Updated on 25 August 1999
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