Thursday, May 21, 2015

Bujilli: Episode 130

Previously...
Bujilli and Leeja have left the undulating gronking-wave-beast-thing behind to go examine a mirror-aperture. They are curious as to where it might lead and what they might learn from it...

Leeja stopped with a low-toned hiss. Her claws were out. Her hair lashed about her like a halo of angry white cats.

"What is it?"

"The Vooric influence--it's moving."

"Is it coming this way?"

"I...don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever it is, I think it is hunting, searching after something...or someone..."

"Scheiss." Bujilli shifted his awareness to better discern the strange vibrations and ripples of things moving in the near aethyrial.

Biting green light shimmered across the murk, lashing outward and upward in a yowling frenzy.

"What is--"

"Do you really want to stick around and find out?"

"No. Let's go check out the mirror that's opening up. We might need some sort of exit sooner rather than later."

"It'll at least give us an option. I like having options."

A swarm of masks screamed and howled as it fluttered overhead in a looping spiral led by a glowing green face that pointedly ignored them.

The surrounding murk grew dimmer, thicker, colder as they walked away from the undulating wave-beast-thing. Drops of water condensed out of the swirling mist, lightly dampening their hair and slowly soaking their clothes.

Vast, black trees loomed out of the fogginess. they appeared almost hollow, like tubular shadows or the filmy remains of trees long absent.

The trees became a copse. A grove. A forest. Dark and dismal with wet, black limbs swaying out of step with the prevailing breezes.

Behind them, farther than either could see, someone was ringing a pair of sonorous bells through a ragged melody that they seemed to only half-remember.

Orange light gleamed just ahead. Angular and sharp-edged, crisp in the midst of the billowing fog...



Meanwhile...
Alphonse let the three little gnawed-bone charms dangle from his fingertips as he closed the door. One was from a rat, one of the big, brainy-things from the warrens along Curwen Street. He could tell by the runes growing out in ossified ridges along its length. The other two were from birds, probably penguins, with Tsalalian giggle-glyphs daubed sloppily across one another in three kinds of paint. Cheap things. But effective enough. Against tiny things. Like little folk from within the walls. Just to be safe, he added a fourth charm to the set. The naacal-incised curled lead curse tablet wrapped around a length of yellowish ape-sinew would discourage unwelcome visitations or observations...



"I thought it would be bigger."

"It's a mirror. We're lucky it isn't some spoiled princesses' hand-mirror."

"True. But what do we do now?" Leeja shivered as she looked about the place. It was rife with opportunities for ambush--all of them easily used against them by whomever or whatever might be out there.

Bujilli stepped up to the mirror-aperture and examined it. He had read a few things about mirrors in his Uncle's collection of grimoires and texts, but it had never been anything he had delved into in any real detail. Now he wished he had.

One side of the aperture was warmer than the other. If he let his eyes go out of focus, he could almost discern some vague impressions of a room of some sort, one with a balcony and the mirror in that room was facing out toward the balcony and a starry night sky.

The opposite side of the aperture was dimmer, colder and hurt his eyes when he tried to look at it.

Bujilli considered his repertoire of spells. He cast a minor spell* that let him sense  whether there were any thinking minds present on the other side of the mirror-aperture in the room beyond. Nothing. At least nothing he could recognize as a mind he could relate to in any meaningful way.

He cast another spell**, this one let him look into the space past the aperture. Rich tapestries, overstuffed cushions, censers emitting sinuous trails of incense smoke, glittering gems scuttled across a band of heavily-carved dark wood set over ten feet above the polished marble floors...

"It's some sort of mansion or palace..."

A cluster of Efts swam through the night air shedding a soft green light as they went on their way. The carpets in this place were thick and exquisite and had all sorts of strange geometrical figures woven into them by expert hands. Diaphanous, filmy curtains of silk fluttered gently in a slight breeze...

"Can you open the way?"

He considered the aperture using his sorcerously augmented sight. It resembled a sort of vacuole, like one might discover in the fossilized remains of an Orbiculate. He'd read about such a thing in one of his Uncles less cryptic scrolls. Smooth, slightly curving; the passage was rotating slowly...

"Yes. I think I can..."

"Good. Then you might want to consider doing so--we have company."

"Who?" Bujilli examined the artery-like passage connecting back through the aperture to the mirror in some exotic locale far from anywhere he'd ever been before. Fractals slithered across the hyperfolded skin of the thing like a type of weather...

"Two very tall quadrupeds, one of whom is wearing a monocle. They have a large, blue bird with them. The bird is armed with a glaive of some sort...it looks like it might be alive, or at least wriggling somewhat. I don't like the looks of them."

"As far as I can tell, there's no one in the immediate area on the other side. I can try to open the way through the mirror, but I don't know what will happen--I've never done this before. The passage might collapse, or it might remain open and allow these newcomers to follow us, if they are so inclined."

"Or..."

"Or what?"

"What if we offer them the chance to use the passage? you could open it for them and that would let you observe how it reacts, without having to go through it yourself." Leeja drew out her hand-axe. whoever these new-comers might be, they were drawing very near, very quickly.

"An interesting proposition. Ah. There. I have it. I can open the way into this other place now--"

"What have we here Jasko?" The monocle-wearing Cameleopard lowered its head to give Bujilli and the mirror-aperture a better look-see.

"The damp little monkey appears to have captured the backside of a mirror, my good Rollok."

"Indeed. Whatever for?"

"No good says I." Grumbled the large, blue emu in a heavy leather apron set with square rivets. The blade of his glaive seemed composed of compressed metallic, writhing, wriggling things. Werms of some sort.

"I was curious..."

"Ah. Of course. that's understandable. You wanted to see what was on the other side and like any good monkey you thrust your paw through the hole to grope about for some kernels of rice or some such."

"That is how they trap monkeys you know."

"This one has no tail. Not much of a monkey if it doesn't have a tail." the Blue Emu scratched himself in disdain.

"So what have you discovered little not-monkey?" Rollok squinted to look into the mirror-aperture through his monocle to no avail.

"Yes! Tell us!" Jasko moved closer, as though to sniff the mirror.

"I think it is a palace of some sort..."

"A palace! How wonderful!"

"Will you be visiting this palace? Or are you more of a voyeur, perhaps you're more interested in peeping-in on this potentate's harem? Eh?"

"We'd be willing to let you go take a look if you'd like..." Leeja smiled sweetly at the trio of strange entities.

"An interesting notion. Hmmm...."

"What an intriguing opportunity..."

"I don't like it--"

"Shush Molimer. You need not be so negative. I think it could be a pleasant diversion."

"Indeed. Yes. Please open the way for us to go forth and explore this palace you've discovered."

Bujilli reached into the orange light of the aperture. His Counsel guiding him as he shifted the subtle flows of energies he could work with and avoiding contract with those streams or fluctuations dreadful or deadly to touch. He gently coaxed the artery-like passage to dilate as it rolled along its axis.

Faceted pillars of alabaster and onyx and some strange greenish stone, possibly a type of malachite, held up three overlapping series of delicate arches that unfurled like flowers into a deeply-groined ceiling overhead. A soft, warm wind teased his nose with a peculiar fragrance that was both earthy and spicy, wonderfully aromatic but altogether unfamiliar...

POP!

The way was open.

The two aristocratic Cameleopards and their muttering Blue Emu henchmen strode through the aperture. They wasted no time in setting about examining and critiquing everything they saw, including the massive, ornately carved casket...no...not a casket...not a coffin...a clock...a clock with four hands...the rim etched in Tsannic glyphs...

Something vast and ancient and implacable stirred in deep places below those glistening marble tiles.

Bujilli felt his grip on the mirror-aperture slipping...


* ESP, Labyrinth Lord, page 31.
** Clairvoyance, LL p. 28.


What should they do next?

You Decide!


Synchronocitor Status: Fully Recharged.


Roll for Initiative!
Someone please roll 1d6 for 1) Bujilli, 2) Leeja, 3) The two Cameleopards and 4) Molimer the Blue Emu. Molimer gets a +2 bonus to being a grizzled veteran. Rollok and Jasko, the two Cameleopards suffer a -3 penalty each, as they are entirely caught-up in their explorations and especially their running commentary...

Close the aperture or Follow After?
Do you want Bujilli & Leeja to go through the mirror-aperture? Or should Bujilli attempt to warn the three creatures about what he feels/suspects? Or would it be better to just close the aperture before anything happens? Or it might be possible to hold the aperture open and observe what takes place on the other side...at least for a little bit longer. You decide!

Roll for Possible Observation.
Please roll 1d6 and let me know the result. If you get a 1, there is a bonus Random Encounter. If you get a 6, then the encounter is from the other side of the mirror-aperture.

Optional Spot Mirror Roll. (1d30)
We'll also need another d30 roll to determine if Bujilli or Leeja spot yet another mirror in the distance. A result of 10 means maybe/it isn't clear, a result of 20 means that there seems to be a mirror in a random direction, but it looks closed/shuttered; and a result of 30 means that they spot a mirror in the distance that might be open and accessible...or at least whatever they are seeing appears that way from a distance. A result of 1 means something else mirror-related happens, possibly some sort of environmental effect or shift in the surrounding terrain...

What Should They Do Next?

You Decide!

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5 comments:

  1. I rolled for initiative:

    Bujilli - 1
    Leeja - 5
    The two Cameleopards - 4, which with the -3 is 1
    Molimer the Blue Emu - 5, which with the +2 is 7

    Even with the risk of going through, it seems fair that having used the three arrivals to test the mechanism Bujilli and Leeja do now follow, especially if the three are unwittingly in danger - assuming of course Bujilli can react fast enough to get through. Wherever they end up, they do still have the Synchronocitor to help get them back, or somewhere else.

    But then again, whether they find it as tempting an idea as we might could depend on what they know about those glyphs...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the Initiative rolls.

      After spotting the Tsannic Glyphs on the four-armed clock, Bujilli certainly does feel that those unwitting Cameleopards and their Emu hench-bird are potentially in some serious peril. Bujilli's father is from Tsan Yian. The glyphs are those used for numbers in the Tsannic system. This place has clear ties or connections to some part or aspect or branch of Tsan Yian or one of its derivatives and that means that Bujilli's father might have some sort of representation or presence in this place...not automatically a bad thing, but it might not be his idea of a good thing either...

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    2. You might get a sense of the Tsanic glyphs from the 4-handed clock by peeking at the illustration for Arkash-Tal...one of the entities one might encounter in this place Bujilli and Leeja are contemplating from this side of a mirror...

      Delete
  2. Close the aperture. The Cameleopards and the Emu are not unwitting, they're imperious. Had Leeja not offered for them to go through they would have forced their way. It doesn't feel like the time for Bujilli to be dealing with Tsannic stuff. Bujilli and Leeja should explore more here.

    I rolled 1d6 and got a 3 for possible observation. I also rolled 1d30 and got a 30 for spot mirror. Finally I rolled 5d20s and got 15, 12, 13, 14, and 20, in case they're helpful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Okay...since Bujilli rolled pretty low for his Initiative this time, this will be resolved by the actions of the Blue Emu first, followed by Leeja. The Things Present In This Space will also go before Bujilli or the Cameleopards.

      The last time Bujilli cast a Tsannic spell, it really cost him greatly. that was back in Episode 13 when he used a spell translated from the native Aklo...and while it worked, and he did survive...it was a far from pleasant experience. Bujilli is most likely not in a hurry to repeat that performance...though he is naturally quite curious about his father and his people...and their spells that seem to have a sort of consciousness crafted deep within their coding. In some ways the Tsannic spell he cast was quite a bit more Vancian than the usual run of the mill stuff...after a fashion...

      A few more d6 rolls would be handy in the future, but thanks for the Observation Roll and those d20s!

      Delete

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