William (#2330) has changed the GM of this room to William (#2330).

fadethecat swings into the room on a bit of rigging.

fadethecat has made fadethecat's local name Draco

StevenE materializes in a burst of blackness as he teleports in from 
elsewhere in the MOO.

StevenE has made StevenE's local name Ekur

Jesdyn materializes out of thin air.

Jesdyn waves. "Sorry I'm late."

The GM says, "I've never seen a batch of peaches with so many cracked 
pits before.  You could plant an orchard."

Jesdyn has made Jesdyn's local name Neil

The GM says, "Last log is up at 
http://earl.of.sandwich.net/In_Nomine/Civis_Game_Logs/ , but basically, 
you're descending deeper toward the bottom (if such a thing exists) of 
the Oblivion shard."

The GM says, "Anybody have anything to do, or shall we jump into it?"

Neil says, "I was being invisibly waddling to Destiny."

Ekur says, "Let's jump!"

William [to Neil]: You're only invisible when nobody's looking, though.  
And to Chastity.

Arc 7, Book 2, Chapter 4: This Little Light of Mine

The GM says, "The character of the rooms changes, as you can both see and 
feel underfoot.  The walls are now purer obsidian, crystalline with sharp 
fractures.  They might have been transparent, were they not black as 
pitch, giving the impression that you stand in a glass room suspended in 
nothingness."

Chastity walks down the stairs carefully.  She says, "Watch your step 
down here.  One of the security features on this level is that it's 
designed to be inhospitable to people who don't know their way around.  
An obsidian edge may only cut your mind instead of your soul here in the 
Marches, but it'll still hurt."

The GM says, "The room below is a round chamber with a tunnel headed off 
leading south and another one leading northeast.  There are scratches of 
writing on the wall, which glimmer in the reflected light of Chastity's 
staff."

Neil says <ooc>, "Probably no point in trying to read them."

Neil says <ooc>, "I might get unlucky and succeed."

Draco scampers up onto Chastity's shoulder. "Thanks for the warning," he 
tells the Lilim. "This image looks exceptionally silly with shoes."

Chastity says, "Quite unlucky if you did, yes.  The Helltongue bits, at 
any rate.  I can translate, but it'll be extra."

Ekur says, "I don't think it will be necessary."

William [to Ekur]: It's quite the mishmash.  There is Latin and Greek in 
regular, poetic-looking order, with the related numerals.  Many geometric 
calculations, and you recognize a number of astrological symbols.  There 
is also Hebrew writing, which is more along the lines of disjointed 
notes, but it's in a peculiar dialect -- not Biblical Hebrew.  
Interspersed are central figures of Helltongue lettering you don't 
recognize, with complex figures about them.

Chastity says, "Suit yourself.  We had some guys take some notes, but..." 
she trails off, looking at bits of it.

[ snip Perception roll ; announce critically failed ]

Chastity says, "Well, your lead."

William [to Draco]: Oh, and your resonance is wearing off.  Reroll yet?

fadethecat [to William]: Will do, yeah. Half a sec.

The GM says, "Standard Marches bonii, -5 for environment."

fadethecat [to William]: But my Marches Perception bonus doesn't apply to 
my resonance, alas. Does the -5 apply to the unmodified resonance TN?

Ekur . o O ( 111, 111, 111! )

The GM says, "Ah.  Then, yeah, just the -5."

Draco rolled 13 versus 17 and succeeded by 4.

Draco <ooc> shakes a fist at that roll. 4? Success by /4/? What kind of 
resonance roll is that?

The GM says, "CD 2, that's what.  :^)"

Chastity pokes at lettering with the butt of her staff.  "So, any of this 
interesting to you, or do we move on?"

She waves her hand south.  "There's more that way for a couple of rooms.  
Nothing north; pretty much a dead end that way."  Draco: The first part's 
very true, the second part's *mostly* true.

Draco looks over to the north. "Pretty much? What's the part that isn't 
quite a dead end?"

Ekur looks to our Helltongue-speaking ferret, to see if he thinks there's 
anything interesting here.

Chastity frowns at Draco.  "The part where *I* put something there, so 
it's not going to be a secret relic from Mariel's day as far as I know 
of."  True.

Draco hasn't been paying attention to the Helltongue scribblings; the 
implied dire warning seemed dire enough. "Then I don't think we're 
interested in that," Draco says. "South?"

Jesdyn [to William]: Once I get a fix on where they're going, I wander 
down the dead end and see what she stashed. HER loot still counts as 
loot...

William [to Jesdyn]: You mean you leave the rest of the party?

Jesdyn [to William]: Yes. I'm cloaked, and I don't think they can get 
/too/ far. If it turns out to be too long a walk, or I can't find 
anything once I get there, I'll turn around and scoot back,

The GM says, "Okay.  As the three of you turn south, Neil heads into the 
northeast tunnel.  As soon as he leaves Chastity's sight, she promptly 
appears to stop worrying about him."

The GM says, "Let's run that branch for a second."

The GM says, "Neil, Chastity was carrying the light."

Jesdyn [to William]: I'll just warm up my Laser Eyes, then.

Neil says, "Well, I'll dream up one with lucid dreaming, anyways,"

Neil rolled 7 versus 20 and critically succeeded by 13.

The GM says, "Done, then.  The tunnel is small, with sharp edges where it 
was carved from the rock by casual hacking, and a penguin form is not the 
most graceful walker in the Symphony.  So, Per-5 roll as you round the 
corner into the shadows, please. (13)"

Neil rolled 9 versus 13 and succeeded by 4.

The GM says, "Water, apparently from the Styx pool above, is dripping in 
small rivulets across an inconveniently jagged bit in the path, but you 
manage to avoid getting lacerated as you cross."

The GM says, "Down this direction there really is what looks to be a dead 
end.  There is a small office at the end with a bookshelf and some broken 
furniture all that is visible immediately upon entrance."

The GM says, "Nothing registers openly as relic."

Neil rifles the bookshelf and turns the furniture upside down, looking 
for drawers.

Jesdyn [to William]: I assume I've got the professional skills to turn a 
room over pretty quickly.

The GM says, "Oh yeah.  Typing..."

The GM says, "You find the cache inside the foot of the bookshelf.  It's 
a cheap reliquary with a single note of Essence inside it -- storage 
only, non-recharging -- and a relic jar containing what appears to be an 
alchemical dose of some Song.  Per-2 to identify."

Neil rolled 13 versus 16 and succeeded by 3.

The GM says, "EthHealing.  Looks like it's a bolthole stash in case she 
needed to run from someone."

Neil books it back to the branch, and heads down the path the rest of the 
Triad took.

William [to Neil]: Do you *take* the stash, or leave it?

Jesdyn [to William]: Err, yeah, 'bout to say -- grabbing them on the way. 
I'm pretty low on Essence anyways.

The GM says, "It's not unSummonable, and at present your form doesn't 
have any pockets.  Hell, it barely has hands.  You could carry them 
awkwardly..."

The GM says, "Or just suck the Essence from the reliquary."

Jesdyn [to William]: I'll just shape a belt pouch to carry them in.

Neil rolled 10 versus 20 and succeeded by 10.

The GM says, "No, wait.  You had the sack with the big green dollar sign, 
anyway."

The GM says, "Allright, you nab the stuff."

The GM says, "When good cops go bad, Neil is waiting for them.  With 
guidebooks for the territory..."

The GM says, "Back down south, you travel through tight and winding 
passages.  There are more notes scribbled here and there, chiseled into 
the stone.  Per-5 rolls from Ekur, and Neil as well for when you pass 
through the region."

Jesdyn [to William]: Napoleanic law, remember. d:

Neil rolled 10 versus 13 and succeeded by 3.

[ snip roll Chastity_Penalized_Per ; announce failed ]

Ekur rolled 9 versus 13 and succeeded by 4.

The GM says, "Ekur keeps his feet, as will Neil later.  At present, 
Chastity, navigating a tricky downslope, loses her footing in the middle 
of a winding stairway.  A Helltongue curse escapes her lips as she 
hurtles toward the bottom of the stairs."

Draco [to William]: Is this likely to, say, cause any trouble for the 
ferret on her shoulder?

The GM says, "Oh yes.  Since you tied your fortune in footing to hers, 
down you go as well.    Make a Dodge roll -- half Per-5 will be 8."

[ snip roll Chastity_Dodge ; announce fail ]

fadethecat [to William]: ...wouldn't (Perception -5) /2 be 10? Or 11, if 
rounding up.

fadethecat [to William]: It's not a resonance roll, so Draco still gets 
the Marches bonus before the penalty.

William [to Draco]: You're quite right.

Draco rolled 9 versus 10 and succeeded by 1.

William [to Draco]: Idly, Marches movement is based on Perception, so 
given Draco's stats in that area you're far better off taking your own 
footing.  :)

The GM says, "Draco manages to jump off Chastity's shoulder and land 
safely; Chastity, on the other hand, lands..."

roll 1d6

On 1d6, you rolled 2.

The GM says, "...not too badly, but with a pained grunt on a chiseled 
ridge."

From the ground, Chastity mutters a few choice imprecations at Mariel, 
whom she devoutly hopes is surviving in Haagenti's stomach and finding 
the situation as unpleasant as rumor would have it.

Draco swaps to a nebulously humanoid image to offer Chastity a hand back 
up. "Are you okay?"

The GM says, "You're in a hemispherical chamber with another two exits, 
one a better-chiseled staircase that leads up toward a familiar wall of 
undulating blackness, and another, more horizontal tunnel leading 
southeast.  The notes are thick here, and around the base of the 
staircase leading toward the sense-dep chamber there is indication that 
the ground has been repeatedly cleared and rewritten."

Chastity waves off Draco's offer and sits up, tests her weight, and then 
gets up.  "I'm fine," she says, which is a deliberately vanilla platitude 
not meant to have much truth or falsehood to it.

Draco swaps back to ferret-shape, and moves forward to examine the 
southeast tunnel.

Chastity brushes off an arm that has landed on a scribbled Helltongue 
glyph, leaving the name "Torn" pressed into her right forearm.

William [to Draco]: You catch a glimpse of what appears to be a tidier 
region.  There is an unmanned pair of guard posts next to a stairwell 
that descends off of the tunnel.  Mariel's sigil is prominently displayed 
on the opposite wall, in a manner which anybody in Hell would recognize 
as "If you are here, you had damn well better have business with the 
Prince in question or you are going to be recycled Force."

The GM says, "Neil, you show up at this point."

Draco scratches behind one ear with a pencil. "This is a good sign, for 
certain values of 'good'."

Jesdyn [to William]: I'm just going to quietly follow along, if I don't 
need to remind anyone I exist.

William [to Neil]: Okeedoke.

Chastity says, "The sanctum?  There's an artifact there, all right, but 
damned if we were able to get it to do anything.  It's password-only, and 
as far as we could tell there's nobody left in the Symphony who knows the 
password."

William [to Draco]: Truth.

"Worth a look," Draco says. "It sounds more likely to be what we're after 
than anything else so far."

Ekur nods.

The GM says, "At this point there is a small Disturbance and a 
glowing/translucent projection appears in the room.  A humanoid figure, 
his back to you, stands before the staircase leading up to the sense-dep 
chamber and studies the signs there writ."

[ snip roll Chastity_NeedReading ; announce passed ]

Ekur autorezzes the figure.

Jesdyn [to William]: Can I ID the song?

Neil didn't know you could resonate projections. 

Neil resonates the form.

William [to Neil]: Easily, from its visual effects.  Ethereal Projection.


William [to Ekur]: Primary motivation is concern for another.  Secondary 
is academic.  Mood is outwardly calm but worried.  Reaction?  So far you 
do not appear to have betrayed your presence.

[ snip roll Neil_Res ; announce succeeded ]

William [to Neil]: And yeah, you can res projections.  Think of it as 
through live media.  This man, Iacopo ben Levi, is completely unconcerned 
with anyone's opinion of him, being driven entirely by a personal need.  
Very few even knew of his existence, until now.  His primary relationship 
is one of mixed fear and love; the being on the other end is... tainted.  
Crazed, perhaps?  An unfamiliar mentality.  This is essentially the only 
relationship he maintains, though there are two pending and weighty 
claims on his presence that are as yet unresolved.

Jesdyn [to William]: MDA?

William [to Neil]: Becoming a Hellsworn Sorcerer.  Oddly, this is an 
unfamiliar result -- typically, after becoming Hellsworn, people do much 
worse stuff...

William [to Neil]: Oh, and geographic and cultural origins.  Originally, 
Spain under the Moors, circa 1000 A.D.  Now, a dreamshade anchored over 
in the Knowledge Shard.

Jesdyn [to William]: Wait, what? I didn't know Hellsworn /got/ to be 
dreamshades.

The GM says, "It's a temporary status, of course, regardless of how he 
managed it.  The conclusion -- unless he's soul-killed -- is still 
absolute."

Jesdyn [to William]: Barring intervention from Final Judgment, which I 
suspect might happen.

Jesdyn [to William]: Either way. He's just studying the notes, hmm?

The GM says, "True.  Or, well, becoming undead, which some might prefer 
to Hell."

The GM says, "At the moment, yes, his back is to you."

Neil glances at Chastity -- what's she thinking?

Jesdyn [to William]: Hey, you did this deliberately. Normally I'd 
heedlessly introduce myself and let the chips fall as they may, but now 
I'm physically incapable of the act. d:

The GM says, "She eyed him appraisingly, and apparently was interested in 
what she saw."

Chastity looks over at Draco and Ekur.  "Well?" she mouths.  She gestures 
pointing down to the floor of this room, then to the mouth of the tunnel.


Ekur hmms.  Reaction to my going forward and introducing myself as Ekur, 
Angel of Dreams?

William [to Ekur]: Startlement -- and he'd disbelieve you, given the 
demonic look you've adopted -- but if you could convince him fast enough, 
he would avoid terminating the projection to flee.

The GM says, "Convince him that you were an angel, that is."

William [to Ekur]: Also, that'd be if he understood you.

Neil . o O ( People not understanding Ekur? That /happens/? )

Ekur dreamshapes himself into a traditional-looking angelic form -- say, 
a Mercurian.

The GM says, "Dreaming-2"

Ekur rolled 15 versus 16 and succeeded by 1.

William [to Ekur]: Works.

Ekur walks forward as Mercurian Ekur, and says in Angelic, "Hello.  Can I 
help you?  I'm the angel Ekur."

Neil . o O ( Prinny Neil says, "You go, dood!" )

Iacopo gasps and spins around.  He lifts a hand to perform some arcane 
gesture, then halts it and looks at the four of you.  "Angel," he says... 
and you recognize a variant of Hebrew with a strong flavoring of Spanish 
that was prevalent in Medieval Spain, the dialect called Judezmo.

Iacopo says, continuing in Judezmo, "I was not expecting to see your kind 
here.  I had heard the noise of riot and was worried that something might 
have happened to her... err... can you speak this language?"  He switches 
to two others, saying in each respectively, "I also know Latin." and "I 
also know Greek."

William [to Draco]: While you don't get the content, you can tell he's 
telling the truth so far.

Chastity sighs.  "Great.  I recognize Latin, but I don't speak it."

Ekur answers, four times, in Hebrew, Spanish, Latin, and Greek, "I 
understand this well enough."

Iacopo's eyes widen, and he grins, continuing in Judezmo.  "An *educated* 
angel, then.  But of course, Mercurians are social creatures."  He eyes 
the armaments, and says nothing.  "You speak the dialect they use who 
still live in the Holy Land, which I believe means we will understand 
each other well enough."

Neil clambers ungainly to Ekur's shoulder and brings him up to speed on 
the more exotic elements of this sorcerer's resonance.

Jesdyn [to William]: I'm counting on it not being an interesting enough 
thing to comment on.

The GM says, "He eyes you, obviously, but it's clear he hasn't the 
faintest idea what you are, nor can he understand the English you're 
speaking, if he even hears it."

Iacopo says, "The advent of angels down here is most fortuitous.  Demonic 
contact I have avoided these long years, for the obvious reasons, but 
you, you might be able to assist me."  His mood changes; he is pleading.  
"We must help her, she is in such pain.  I ask nothing for myself, but 
please help my beloved wife."

Jesdyn [to William]: I figured the Song of -- of I can't even remember 
what (it's /that effective/!) would keep it from being scary or urgent or 
noteworthy -- just One Of Those Things.

William [to Neil]: Forgetting.  And as the text says, both a blessing and 
a curse.

Chastity leans back against the back wall, setting her staff down.  She 
addresses Ekur, saying, "If you're getting relics out of this guy, 
remember my cut."

Ekur, continues, in Angelic (so there is no difficulty in being 
understood) "I can try to assist you, as long as it doesn't require me to 
do anything hateful to God or which will compromise my current duties."

Ekur . o O ( Though I'm not sure if the wife of a dreamshade from the 
Middle Ages can be helped, so . . . )

Iacopo says, "I cannot imagine the healing of such awful pain could 
possibly be found unworthy by God, even..." he pauses, clears his head, 
and changes track.  "I have studied many years for the chance to aid her.  
I want nothing else.  I will assist you in your duties if it will speed 
her salvation."

William [to Draco]: He reconsided the truth of his first statement after 
he made it.  The rest is true.

Iacopo says, "What is it you are here to do?"

Neil holds up his bag.

Chastity says to the guy in English, "I'll assist you too, and I won't be 
worrying about the 'hateful to God' clause."  She nods to Ekur.  
"Translate that, would ya?"  She grins.

William [to Neil]: You don't speak Hebrew.  :^)

Jesdyn [to William]: So I don't.

Ekur says, "I am looking for something useful, something left in this 
place when the demon princess fell, which we can use to hide another 
location from another demon princess.  How familiar are you with this 
place?"

Iacopo thinks for a moment, and nods.  "Our purposes are one."

William [to Draco]: He very, *very* much believes whatever he just said.

Ekur doesn't react to Chastity.  Doesn't want to explain her, doesn't 
want to extend her offer.  If she gets mad, well, it's a risk he's 
willing to take.

Iacopo turns and gestures to the sense-dep chamber.  "That room... 
within, it is pitch-black, cold, silent.  The only sensation is pain.  
Only a few powers can penetrate it.  My beloved is in there... part of 
her.  If you can free her, take the..." he fumbles for the word... 
"...machinery, which maintains it, that will form a very effective 
barrier against scrying."

Iacopo turns back to you.  "But to do this, you must unbind her.  That 
means you must return her name.  She is torn... she must be mended."

Iacopo says, "Her mind is trapped below, in a great magic stone.  I have 
not been able to divine its operation.  If it could be released, I can 
summon her forth for long enough to, hopefully, restore her."

Ekur nods.  He relays to the others, in English, "His wife, or part of 
her, is trapped in the sensory deprivation chamber.  We need to get her 
out, and then we can use the machinery for our goal.  We need to unbind 
her, which means we need to return her name."  He then turns back to 
Iacopo, and says, "Okay, so we need to find the magic stone and figure 
out how to release her.  Can you give precise directions to the stone?"

Iacopo nods.  He points down the southern tunnel, and starts fading.  He 
blinks in alarm.  "The Song is ending, and I have no more Essence today," 
he says.  He looks up.  "The pool of twilight in the place with the light 
of Heaven!" he says, "I am anchored there-" and the Song ends, with him 
vanishing.

Draco says, "...well."

Chastity says, "Yeah, projections don't last very long.  Good for safe 
recon, bad for long negotiations."

Neil says, "So. Leave and confer, or keep going. We can Sing him Essence, 
if it comes to it."

Chastity says, "You can if you want, but it's not coming out of my 
pocket.  Helping the guy's wife isn't what I'm here for."

Neil says, "No, I suppose it's not."

Neil says, "Let's go see the magic stone anyways."

Draco says, "We should keep moving for now; we don't know how much time 
we have left."

Ekur says, "Okay.  He mentioned where he's anchored, but I don't know if 
that means we should meet him.  If we can release his wife from the 
stone, he can 'can summon her forth for long enough to, hopefully, 
restore her', but I'm not sure if he need Essence to do that or not.  I 
don't want her in the machinery when we're taking it out, so I consider 
releasing her part of the looting process.  The stone is to the south.  
We're under a pretty short deadline, so I say we look for the stone to 
get her out, then Tongues him to tell him she's out and to send him the 
bit of Essence.  Then we can loot the sensory deprivation chamber and get 
out of here."

Ekur resonates Chastity.

Chastity nods.  "Sounds like we're all on the same page, then."  She 
takes off South.

William [to Ekur]: Wondering if she thinks she's got a hook on him?  
Maybe.  She seems satisfied with the way things turned out.

The GM says, "She'll need to fulfill whatever Need she found to set the 
hook, of course."

The GM says, "The footing is better around the bend.  Once you've made it 
here, presumably you're authorized.  There are even torches forever 
burning in the walls, and Chastity extinguishes and vanishes her staff."

Ekur <oocly> nods.

Ekur turns back to his devilish look, just in case we stumble across 
someone.

Chastity says, "So who was that guy?  Ethereal Projection's not something 
most human Sorcerers can do.  Pagan priest?"

Ekur says, "Not a lot of pagan priests who speak Hebrew with a Spanish 
accent."

Chastity ahs.  "So, dreamshade then."  She muses.  "And given the Need I 
read, not your flavor either."

Chastity says, "Or, no, there's a Gorgon, I suppose."

Ekur grunts noncommittally.

Chastity says, "But no... I'm thinking dreamshade."  She grins wickedly.  
"Good.  Then he's *mine*."

Neil decides that putting the Lilim in her place is less important than 
spiking her wheels, and so remains silent. But it's /close/.

Draco scrambles back up onto Chastity's shoulder. "If you're counting 
coup from something discovered on the way, that's going to come from the 
total cost for this gig, you realize. Everything's worth something."

Chastity turns and begins descending the grand stair case toward the door 
below.  She says, "Deal was for relics.  I don't suppose Trade has any 
authority to bargain for human souls.  But in Hell we do, and this guy's 
gonna show up at Hellgate with *my* hook in him."

Chastity says, "And it's even part of your mission.  Yeah... let's help 
the poor soul out."

Ekur mutters, in Ancinet Sumerian, "Oh, Lord, I knew there was a reason 
why we shouldn't have hired a demon, even as a guide to Hell.  Please 
forgive me the indiscretion, preserve Iacopo from my bad decisions, and 
guide my path."  He adds an "Amen".

The GM says, "At the bottom of the stairs, there is what appears to be a 
well filled with the fine gray sand of the Marches.  A small area has 
been cleared in front of a cylindrical column of black stone, and 
Chastity grunts as she walks nose-first into an invisible wall."

Neil claps.

The GM says, "On the floor below you is a pentagram blocking entrance 
into the doorway... you can feel a ward here, one practically pulsing 
with centuries of reinforcement.  There is a distinct handwriting to the 
Hebrew characters adorning its glyphs."

Chastity frowns.  "I suddenly feel less generous."

--------------- Session End -------------------