Tower To Heaven

[Drakzel]

We start off in the lower city of the tower, Odor. A toxic environment, filled with despressed, sick and unfortunate people.. Father, is off to work for the day and mother tells you and your siblings, to run along and tell her good stories about your day, when you come back. The world is filled with magic and many from Odor, wishes daily for that miracle, to find a piece of powerful magic that will change their lives, and so mother has always had this little hope, that one of her children one day might come back home with a wonder.

Introduce yourself, and let me know what you're up to;
A few points of interest.

The School
There is the remains of an old school, that hasn't been in use for years, but lately an older man, has started teaching how to read and write in one of the old classrooms
Near The Blight Pool
Mostly people from the religious order are here, but sometimes they hand out food and tells some interesting stories.
Before The Ashfields
At the points where you can see the beginning of the jungle on the other side, this is were you want to be, if you want to see jungle riders or find the other more energetic kids of the city.
Behind The Bar
You know this place were many last minute dealings goes down. (try to score a small job, or listing in on conversations)
The DeathDome
Has fights every evening and bets can be made on fighters.


You're ofcourse more than welcome to come up with your own idea of a hangout spot in Odor, should you have a better idea, that goes with the current theme :D

[Sønderjye]

Samara was sitting in a group of youngsters by the northern blight pool, not too far from a religious shrine on which some hopeful Faithful were placing their weekly sacrifice.

'The crazy lunatics are at it again?', a mental voice rang in her head. Ivy continued: 'I know that old Margret claims that her kiddo was cured due to her sacrifices but that could just as well have happened by chance. Other people have gotten better without sacrifices, you know.'

'Ivy!', Samara responded indignantly. She knew that she couldn't win against Ivy in a battle of wits so she retorted to the one weapon that younger sisters over millenia of evolution have honed to perfection, guilt-tripping: 'That was mean! Margret is a nice lady. She gives us treats and she would be really sad if she heard you say that!'

Ivy was silenced by that. 'Score!', Samara privately thought. Then Ivy brought her attention to something a new couple were carrying to the shrine, apparently all too happy shifting the conversation away from Margret: 'I mean look at that delicious meal. It's such an utter waste.'

'Maybe that's one of the sacrifices they'll hand out instead of throwing in the Blight', Samara said hopefully. That was after all why the group of youngsters was here. They'd pretend to be religious too and get to eat a sacrifice now and then. Ivy had complimented on how well she was pretending but Samara didn't really like the compliment. She had objected to the idea in the first place and even if she had accepted Ivy's argument that ma and pa already were struggling to feed them, she didn't like it. It still felt wrong.

Ivy will be speaking using the colour blue and Samara with the colour gold. I suggest a convention of using " " for regular talking, cursive ' ' for thoughts and coloured cursive ' ' for mental conversation. If you other suggestions feel free.

[Drakzel]

After a few more prayers and small sacrifices to The Great Blight.
The crowd silences, everyones attention goes to a small building, from where a man is taken out by 4 monks, the man is wearing nothing more than a piece of linen cloth around the waist and 4 ropes around the neck, held by the 4 monks. The adults around suddenly bursts into cheering and loudly spoken prayers, it seems to be a celebration.

The man is heavily drugged and seems to have no idea where he is!
He seems to be wearing a bit of makeup and his hair has recently been cut.
This man, is from another platform further up in Odor and is known for speaking out negatively about the monks.

The man is taken to a pillar, on which he is tied up and carried from, by 2 monks. The crowd follows as he is carried to the small bridge which waves a little over the blight pool, they stop right before the bridge and a third monk takes out from his sleeve an old document, he opens it up and starts stalking:
"For he who has sinned and shown no chance for recovery, will be taken care for and sent to the one true god, by us The Messengers of blight!" Followed by an older monk with no hoodie, who mumbles some words in the mans ears.

The man hanging from the pillar, is then ignited and thrown into the blight pool!

A Monk: "Worry no more children of Odor! For he will not die nor mutate, he will meet with the all knowing God, as he went to blight willingly and without fear!.. But for now lets eat!"

A small table with some food upon it, is taken out and some of the monks hands out portions.

[Sønderjye]

Empathy roll: [roll0]

[Sønderjye]

Perception roll: [roll0]

[Sønderjye]

Such nested
Streetwise: [roll0]

[Sønderjye]

After a few more prayers and small sacrifices to The Great Blight.
The crowd silences, everyones attention goes to a small building, from where a man is taken out by 4 monks, the man is wearing nothing more than a piece of linen cloth around the waist and 4 ropes around the neck, held by the 4 monks. The adults around suddenly bursts into cheering and loudly spoken prayers, it seems to be a celebration.

'What do you think is going to happen? Think they'll feed him special food as part of the celebration?' Samara asked, not wanting to consider the alternative.

'Yes, Samara. That is usually what happens to drugged people. First you drug them all the way to the Top Floor and then you give them food while making sure they don't droll on themselves.' Ivy answered. Despite her sharp demeaner Samara could detect an underlying nervousness. She was in the process of finding a good comeback but was interupted by the torch is lit and brought close to the man.

"STOP!", a shout rings over the crowd.

'What are you doing?', hissed Ivy, sounding almost.. afraid?

Samara blinked and realized that she was standing up with the eyes of the assembled crowd weighting her down. "I..". She wanted to run away. But no, she couldn't leave a man to be burned alive. That was just too horrible to imagine. She had to think up something good. Something that sounded at least religiously plausible. "You can't sacrificed a man pumped that full of drugs. It's impure. An impure sacrifice won't appease the one true god!"

In the back of her mind she could hear Ivy screaming for her to run away.

[Drakzel]

The monks speech is interrupted, a chill falls down your spine, as he locks eyes with you!
He takes a few steps towards you and says: "Impure! Do you question our ways of the blight little girl! DO YOU!?", he grabs onto your arm and says: "Well maybe the girl thinks herself better than the rest of us! In that case, only the best for the Great Blight! Little girl we accept your sacrifice!"

The monk starts dragging you towards the edge, but is stopped by a hand on his shoulder. A very large man, stands next to you: "There is no such thing as a willing child sacrifice, Monk!" He gently looks at you and smiles, "Do not worry child, we haven't all fallen for his silver tongue." He turns to the monk as he starts to speak, immediately interrupts him "I hope you recognize my face old friend, I know it has been long."

Worried, the monk seems to have no other response. After what feels like more time than you could count passes... he looses his grib and lets you go.
The large man, turns to the crowd, smiles and says: "The monk, had no response to the girls comment, so I can only assume he must have made a mistake this morning with the sacrifical meal, for the girl is right, that man is drugged beyond recognition! So I believe none would mind, if I were to take him back home.", he smiles gently and softly after most sentences.
Monk: "Dran! You have nothing here, you left our dogmas! You're not worthy to speak of our ways and a sacrifice must be met, unless ofcourse you're ready to finally offer yourself in exchange!"
Dran: "Monk, I have had it, another word and I'll personally take over and make sure the Blight gets SOMEONE (Eyes dead-locked on the monk) it likes."

A tension is left in the crowd, as Dran slowly starts moving towards the drugged man near the bridge, while keeping his eyes on the monk.

[Sønderjye]

Samara jerked and pulled to get away from the priest but to no avail. When he finally let go she practically fell out of his grip and bumbed into the ex-monk named Dran. She briefly debated running away but she could see too many monks and she didn't favour her chances. Maybe she could lose them in the group of people.

As she considered her options she stuck close to Dran until she realized that they now were standing in the middle of the circle with everyone's attention on them. Her face turned a scarlet pink.

[Drakzel]

By the cover of Dran, the two of you walks to the edge of the pool, with a silent audience around you.
Dran, squats down and whispers; "Keep an eye on them, okay?", he smiles, turns and starts to untie the man.
The older monk, goes to the one with the scroll from earlier and whispers something in his ear, immediately afterwards the monk who seemed so furious just a moment ago, calms down with a small smile and starts to fast walk towards their nearby buildings.
The whispering;"The man has been touched, worry no more, for his touch shall now spread to the world, let them leave high priest."

Dran, turns around looking at you, while now holding the man over his shoulder; "Seems they're getting busy, this is our chance, come with me child and I'll make sure they won't get to you." In the opposite direction of the monk, Dran starts to jog from the pool, towards a pair of stairs going upwards into Odor.
Whispers for himself; "What are they up to now, i was getting ready for a chase.. Hmmm?

[Drakzel]

The two of you, quickly disappears in between the many bridges, houses and miscellaneous platforms of Odor.
Not far in, Dran stops between 2 houses and turns to you.

Dran: "First I'll bring this man back to his family, then...
Oh! Haha, in this mess i completely forgot to introduce myself, you must have a million questions at this time, haha.
Why don't we start of simple, I'm Dran, an older member of the monks, but the more i understood, the more reason i found to leave them."

A gentle smile and a slight tilt with his head;
"You know, they're not all bad, most of them are simply scared or in need of a purpose. . .
I can tell you have quite a lot on your mind, that's not a problem, what do you say i make it simple for you?"

Dran explains how his father is the one, in the old school building, teaching those who are willing, to read and write. If you like you can meet up with him there in a few hours or you may join him as he goes to return the man he is holding to his family, although he lives at the top of Odor, making it a few hours to travel back and forth.
Either way, if you ever need help, he points out, then you can always find it in the school building as it's a safe place for children! Which he seems exceptionally proud about, when saying out loud.

Throughout his explanation, he seems to fiddle with a small document in his pocket while looking in another direction of Odor.

[Sønderjye]

"Keep an eye on them, okay?"

Samara nodded vigorously and turned around to watch the crowd, keeping her eyes out for anything suspicious, which mostly was just her tracing the ground in front of her and looking for sudden movements out of her peripheral vision.

As the monk leads the way away from the crowd she keeps her gaze locked at the ground in front of her, avoiding doesn't dare to leave his side.
"Did they really want to murder that guy just because he was speaking out against them?", she asked in a small voice once she has listened to Dran's explanation. "Oh, also I'm Samara", she adds


After a prod from Ivy she asked a much more urgent question:

"What will they do to me now?"

[Drakzel]

Dran: "Pleasure to meet you, Samara.

Now you must understand, that the monks don't believe you die, when given to the blight, they believe it to be a portal for another better world, in their mind they are the good people, saving the rest of us! Regarding your little situation here, if you avoid the monks for the next few months, then they will most likely have better things to do by then, than look for you. But remember if anything comes up go to the old school, and we'll help you out.

For now however, you can either come with me as i get this man safely home, that way i can also help you look out for the monks or you can go home of course?. .
I assume you do have a home, yes?"

Throughout his explanation, he seems to fiddle with a small document in his pocket while occasionally looking in another direction of Odor.

[Sønderjye]

Pleasure to meet you, Samara.

Samara sends him a smile that cold melt ice in responds to the nicety.


"
Now you must understand, that the monks don't believe you die, when given to the blight, they believe it to be a portal for another better world, in their mind they are the good people, saving the rest of us! Regarding your little situation here, if you avoid the monks for the next few months, then they will most likely have better things to do by then, than look for you. But remember if anything comes up go to the old school, and we'll help you out."

'Then they are even bigger morons that I thought they were,' Ivy started: 'Ohhh, I have an idea guys. It's great, trust me. You know that acidic thing that literally can melt your bones away. It's totally not that, actually it's a portal to heaven. Why do we have to burn people alive before we throw them in? Well, don't ask me, I'm just doing what the voices in my head are telling me. Gods above, that's even dumber than...'

Samara felt a smile grow on her lips at Ivy's tirade and forcibly reframed the question she knew her sister would want answered: "What makes them believe that?"



For now however, you can either come with me as i get this man safely home, that way i can also help you look out for the monks or you can go home of course?. .
I assume you do have a home, yes?

"Yeah, I do have a home," she looked down for a moment, feeling the fear creeping in : "You really don't think that the church is going to come after my family?"

Boom, natural 20 baby!

"What is on that document?", she asks curiously as she looks into his pocket.

[Drakzel]

Dran stops for a moment and with a much more relaxed face he starts to sit down.


Boom, natural 20 baby!
Like an open book, you start to read Dran, as he clearly gives up on reaching his deadline and starts to explain.


Samara felt a smile grow on her lips at Ivy's tirade and forcibly reframed the question she knew her sister would want answered: "What makes them believe that?"
Dran: "The writings of the blight, which can be found in their sanctum. Has not been written by one person, no no, they are writings of great Oracles and Madmen over generations, who happened to share thoughts, words and visions, usually on important days and special events."
Dran clearly, has a problem talking about the monks scripts, as a previous monk he seems to have a hard time figuring out which of the "holy" words he should acknowledge and which he shouldn't, but attempts to his very best to give you a neutral explanation.


she looked down for a moment, feeling the fear creeping in : "You really don't think that the church is going to come after my family?"
Dran: "The monks might seem scary, but you have nothing to fear as the monks would end up with more problems than ever before if they actually did anything to a child of Odor, parents truly protects and loves their children here. Though if you like to be sure, then simply avoid their paths for awhile and tell your loved ones what happened, to ensure that people will know if they do you any harm and trust me, they exist on their reputation, so they wouldn't risk such a thing!"
Without any doubt, you see a man who whishes his words to be true more than anything else, and he truly is trying to give a positive and useful advice, but fact is, he doesn't trust his own words when he says: "they wouldn't risk such a thing!"


"What is on that document?", she asks curiously as she looks into his pocket.
Dran: "Well.. It's a very important document, that I have to deliver across town, unfortunately it doesn't seem like I'll have time for it today. You know, if you like we can make a little deal, you deliver this document for me and I'll pay you 2 copper pieces! It's a simple errand, but Samara, I want to be clear about 2 things first!
1. Growing up here in Odor myself, I met many desperate people and i want you to know that I'm not trying anything funny here, you can ofcourse just forget about the scroll or help me get this guy home or even run along for now, there is no pressure.
2. This scroll is very important to me, and you have to promise me, that you won't run away if you take this scroll, that you WILL deliver it and that you won't open it!"
His face says it all, scared to let you be alone with the scroll, but also accepting that you probably won't meet the difficulties that he would with the scroll, most likely a child wouldn't be expected to have something THIS important.. Whatever it is.

[Sønderjye]

The writings of the blight, which can be found in their sanctum. Has not been written by one person, no no, they are writings of great Oracles and Madmen over generations, who happened to share thoughts, words and visions, usually on important days and special events

'Excellent references,' Ivy comments: 'Corporeal bodies are overrated anyway, I suggest that we relinquish our claim on our corporeal form and take a swim in the pool of toxic acid, what do you say.'

A flicker of something ran over Sarama's face,*Equal annoyance and amusement* 'Shut up Ivy', but it quickly disappears and she asks: "What made people think that the Oracles spoke for the Blight?"

"Actually Dran, why did you leave"


"The monks might seem scary, but you have nothing to fear as the monks would end up with more problems than ever before if they actually did anything to a child of Odor, parents truly protects and loves their children here. Though if you like to be sure, then simply avoid their paths for awhile and tell your loved ones what happened, to ensure that people will know if they do you any harm and trust me, they exist on their reputation, so they wouldn't risk such a thing!"

Samara noticed the way Dran looked down to his envelope and started fiddling with it as he said the last words. No, surely he didn't mean that her fam… No, she shook her head. She had to believe Dran here, he just saved us from literally being burned alive.



Well.. It's a very important document, that I have to deliver across town, unfortunately it doesn't seem like I'll have time for it today. You know, if you like we can make a little deal, you deliver this document for me and I'll pay you 2 copper pieces! It's a simple errand, but Samara, I want to be clear about 2 things first!
1. Growing up here in Odor myself, I met many desperate people and i want you to know that I'm not trying anything funny here, you can ofcourse just forget about the scroll or help me get this guy home or even run along for now, there is no pressure.
2. This scroll is very important to me, and you have to promise me, that you won't run away if you take this scroll, that you WILL deliver it and that you won't open it!

"Sure," she says beaming happy to have something else to think about and to be able to repay the man from saving her earlier. 2 copper pieces could get her some delicious leftover bread pieces and she felt hungry after leaving the Greenies before the food was served. She holds out her hand to take the scroll and assuming she gets directions she will head that way. *Curiosity*

After they had gone a little distance away Ivy's curiosity had apparently reached a breaking point: *Burning curiosity* 'So are you going to open it?'

Samara sighs 'No I won't Ivy. I literally promised 10 minutes ago that I wouldn't.'

'Sure, sure', Ivy continued in a tone that made Samara suspect that Ivy hadn't actually paid attention to what she just said: 'You did. I didn't. So I say I just open it with the hands of this body. Besides, he already lied to us, this would just be payback. *A bubbling kettle of excitement accompanied by mild resentment and a sense of utter loss*

For a second Samara stopped walking and then continued. She might not be as clever as her sister but she wasn't dump either. She had noticed the pattern of how Ivy tended to feel loss when she thought about her own body but the resentment was new. Or not new, she remembered it from a few times before but it was at least a year ago. '*Guilt*Ivy, we can't..'

'Oh, come on. If this was something important he would have given us at least 5 coppers. Listen to your old sister, I know best.' Then after a pause: 'Just a quick glance'

"Fine", Samara grunts out loud and goes to a discrete place to have a quick look at the content of the scroll.

I'm introducing the notation of coloured *Emotion* to show emotions in a more condense way. I'll give it a shot for a few posts and let me know what you think of it.


Samara, we can't ignore. Felt rush of fear. You can't really hide from someone living inside your head. A surge of discomfort.

[Drakzel]

#!&?!: Oh sweet little Samara, a kind, simple and curious little girl. Who could EVER blame YOU!
As the words flies around in your head, you see infront of you, your act, walking from the streets, to open the scroll

Sweet little us, who could blame knowledge, it is but natural to learn.

You realize yourself and your place, your head is spinning. You're down on all four, faced over the opened scroll as you see the last of the words disappear.
A memory, of you intensely reading through the scroll, absorbing all its knowledge, "ripping" out the letters and signs of the scroll. A blank scroll is left, but you know exactly what it was and how it works. It is a primary ritual, named such, because it grants a person one of the magical cores, more specifically the ability to create matter!

The ritual has a few components.

Dirt from your birthplace.
A clear and relaxed mind.
A simple ritual drawn around the target, by the target.
Incantations in another language, Stone glyphs.
A creation of your own, portrayed.

You already fully know the verses in stone glyphs, though you do not understand it, you also know exactly how to draw the ritual all you need in something to draw with and around 10 minutes.

#!&?!: [Whistling begins.]
I CAN WHISTLE!

AHAHAahahaha, oh man, humans are FUN!

See Samara, you learn something, I learn something, this way you know, that I'll never have reason to walk you off a cliff. Till next time!

You feel the uncomfortable feeling of "The Dark One" creeping back from your bones, muscles, fat, veins, skin [..] to your head into and through your thoughts, shoving itself back into were you cant feel it anymore, leaving you well aware it knows you, your thoughts, your powers, your abilities and capabilities, your every secret. . .

[Sønderjye]

Delivery Girl

Air current quickly enters and exits Sarama's lungs as her breath quickens. He just.. it.. them.. Just took control over me like it was nothing. Violated. Her breathing quickens further. She wants to run away but her body doesn't move by itself. It could just walk them into the Blight it if wanted. A drop falls from her cheeks and splatters onto the scroll beneath her.

*She smashes a man with an iron bar and he screams.Again. She throws his blodied body into a burning inferno. The man screams in agony. He is burning, the fire eating into his flesh, turning his eyeballs into g..* Samara shudders as Ivy's anger comes through with an intensity that overwhelms her and pushes her into action and she gets onto her feet. 'That vile PARASITE' *Helplessness. Fear*

Samara focuses her eyes down and she notices that her knees are muddied. "Mother won't be happy" *unloved*

'Who gives a rats arse about what..' *Hurt* *Guilt*. Ivy mentally sighs and after a moment of silence she says: 'OK. Fine. That happened. Let's move on, yes?'

'Yes', Samara answers in a small voice. Ivy had always been better than her at navigating difficult situations and she trusted her big sister.

'This is a big opportunity. With that magic we might be able to find ways to feed the family or even more' *The entire family walking up to the guards and paying money to all get past* *Hope*. 'But this stuff is really powerful and if Dran learns that we handed in an empty scrolls I doubt that he will be our biggest problem. Someone powerful is moving behind the curtain.'

Ivy quickly instructs Samara to pick up the scroll. Run to the secret hideout under an old ruin in which they have stored all of the scraps of coins and valueable assets which they acquired through clearly legitimate means. They then run to old Henderson who had been teaching at the old school. "Mr. Henderson, sir", Samara starts: "I have a letter that I need to have written and I need it done with ink. I can pay", she holds out some coins.

Ritual of selling my soul to evil entities kinetic awakening

Later, once the whole scroll business have been concluded Samara finds herself in her secret hideout with a weird sortiment of items in front of her. An oddly shapes circlethingy is drawn around her and with her she have a bucket of dirt and a wood figure that she carved using some of her fathers blight-manufacturing tools. The figure have a few green glowing spatters on it but is otherwise mostly clean. She calms her mind and in unison the two girls say the magic words.

[Drakzel]

Chain Reaction
A plan was set in motion and Samara was on her way.
Mr Henderson seemed very frindly, eager even to help out, the money he rejects in a blink without another mention of it, being allowed. Before even getting to mention her name he starts to write as instructed by her onto the paper, as he works Samara remembered, Mr Henderson was no other than Drans father, having him write the paper means there to be a good chance for Dran to hear about this.

As Samara thought of her next move, Mr Henderson turned to her and says: "Here you go, Samara." Handing her a scroll nicely rolled up with a string around, just like before, as she takes the scroll he winks to her and lightly goes "Shh. .", gesturing with his hand Samara towards the door.

POWER!
A ritual performed, two sisters chanting from two sides of reality, a beautiful light from the rituals writings and a wind that fills both their lungs, inbetween parts of the chanting, very naturally, very organically. A hidden power, a new breath, like learning that you have legs and can walk and so another shadow walker is born.

Look at newly updated character sheet and shared google doc, as you visit the docs you may level up.

By the end of the ritual, Samara finds herself leaning quite a bit and realizes her little statue has turned into gold!

[Sønderjye]

Chain Reaction

After receiving the finished scroll Samara darts out the workshop and off to actually hand off the scroll.

Power UNLIMITED!

Samara and Ivy watches the now golden creation in awe. Samara gently takes it up. She feels the new.. limp would probably be the best word for it. She looks inwards holding the statue in hand and tries to examine her new limp, slowly trying to put weight on it.

After realizing that nothing really happened unless she actually tried throwing out a spell she tried to form a square block of stone just above her hand. She draws on the knowledge of magic that was imparted into her by the spell and forms some weird hand sigils as well as speaking in a language she doesn't really understand.

[Drakzel]

Not According to Plan
In rush samara is on her way, delivering the scroll as expected, without much thought. From roof to roof, from bridge to bridge, from neighborhood to neighborhood. After a long travel and later hours, Samara finds herself in a part of the city, that she have never visited before, lost, though without much problem she finds a person who helps with directions towards her given address, although enough has interrupted her to realize her journey, she won't be home for dinner, mom will be worried and not all parts of Odor is safe, both mom and dad has been very clear on that in the past!..

After a few hours, Samara finds her way home, hungry and sleepy. Luckily dad has leftovers from work today, he talks of his work buddy again, the one that wants to travel into the wilderness, father always talks of Dostons (work buddy) ideas as a comedy setup, although tonights story seems more interesting than funny to dad. Apparently Doston found some material a few years back and have ever since attempted to find enough to build a weapon out of and now father talks of his plans as if they are getting close, he says if Doston comes back successfully then they have a promise between them, that he will bring some meat from the jungle, father seems very excited letting the rest of us try meat for the first time.

After hours of asking for directions and trying to find your way through, not the night or darkness of Odor, but the illuminating green light, that seems to exist all over Odor, as a foggy mist during night hours. Though for some reason, Samara have never felt as scared or uncomfortable as others seem in the "Green Darkness", in fact she has always been better than most at spotting things the dark.
Spotting out on Odor from a higher up platform, you easily spots out the different levels of thickness of the Green Darkness all over Odor. The old school building is almost clear, while the public houses and living areas seems as thick as near the blightpool.
Getting closer to the address, Samara realizes for the ritual afterwards she will need "dirt from her brithplace" and the only dirt you can find inside Odor, would be next to the blight pool, were all the closest buildings are owned or controlled by the monks...

A quick knocking and an older man with a long beard, opens up, without question or answer, he grabs your scroll, flicks you 4 copper pieces! And closes the door. Left in the night, in an unknown neighborhood
Any specific direction, requires a streetwise check accompanied with its description for your next post


Price and Power
After having messed around with her new found powers, Samara understood, not the mechanical parts of it all, but that the magic she had been granted, seemed of a different art, than the previous ritual and the words she new, probably only worked for said ritual.

Finishing her first spell a simple iron cube, is formed from thin air onto her palm. For a moment nothing but wonder and excitement, realizing her new potential, but then, complete and instant fatique, an overwhelmingly exhausted state, followed by almost complete recovery after a few seconds of heavy breathing. This magic, seems to affect the physical body and using up all her power at once, seems to come with a supernatural exhaustion.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! A quick rush fills your body, this is your safeplace, who could possibly be knocking!? Mom, dad, Dran, The one you gave a fake scroll or maybe... The monks !?
You see through one of your many lookouts, without being heard, there are 3 people outside, they are all hooded.

[Sønderjye]

Not According to plan

Samara tries to hide the guilt from her face as she takes the coins and quickly scuttles away back home. She breathes a sigh of relief of finally being done with that whole thing before a flash of mother's disapproving face appears before her eyes. Ugh.

Price and Power

A smile had formed on Samara's face as she was lying on her back recovering. This was really interesting. There was a lot of things to try out here but it seemed really useful. Though she hadn't quite figured out how to make money with it yet. The knowledge she did have implied that it would disappear sometime soon.

Hearing the forceful knocks she jerks up and silently moves closer to the peeking hole. Monks! she claps her hands in front of her mouth before her mouth betrays her. Immediately she starts backing away. She picks up the golden statue and quickly scrambles the circle before quickly but silently moving towards one of the emergency exits, a small hole between two stones that no adult would be able to fit through.

Stealth [roll0]

[Drakzel]

The Endgame or the Beginning?
Dark, unknown streets and tired.
Half awake, you decide to take the easy way home, walking directly to the second to last bottom layer of Odor, one whole level between you and the last tier before the blight, keeping your distance from the monks "turf".
A good adventure and the use of your skills, have extended your streetwise, DC's are lowered for another quarter of Odor, making it easier to find your way in the future.
New places of potential interest, that caught your eye.

The Happy Goat - A bar, with gambling in the night.
Gregory & Son - A tinkering and repair shop.
Old Public Library Building - Seems empty from the outside.
Sign: Exhanges all values - A simple home, exchanging copper to silver, etc.
Middle Layer Lookout Point - +10 perception, when scouting over Odor (1 hour walk from you home).


Following the pool around to the other side, were streets becomes recognizable, you find your way back without much trouble,
Mom's angry, but mostly scared it seems, though you fail to keep up with your tired mind and are quickly taken to bed.

Waking up refreshed and ready for a new day, dad has left for work and mom is probably out shopping, a very small breakfast is left next to your bed.

The Escape!
Easily and swiftly you are out!
Here, near your safeplace, you could disappear and run away, regardless of how close they had gotten to you.
You jump to a higher spot and scouts out from a cover, they stand patiently waiting outside for 10 miutes, before briefly discussing something between them and leaving.
This damn girl! When i get my hands on her, I'll make sure she learns her lesson!
Calm down now, yelling won't do any good here, lets go back.
A voice you recognize, the one trying to calm the other down, Dran! The one with the old monk hood, is without a doubt Dran.
Lets go to the school for now and collect our thoughts.
You DO understand this is gonna be your problem too, if I don't get that scroll NOW!
I know, I know, and as i said I'll take full responsibility, but listen, she's a little girl, it reasonable to think she couldn't have read and consumed it, just hang in there for the day. I'll find her eventually...

[Sønderjye]

The Endgame or the Beginning?


This is a really cool bonus and nice information on the city.
What is the 'another quarter' or Odor? Is the DCs already lower for some quarter(s) of Odor?



Samara feels a flash of guilt as she sees the extra small breakfast. Then her stomach loudly complains and she hurries to shovel the meal inside and get out to perform the magical ritual. She promises herself to be home at a reasonable time tonight. This was going to be an exciting day!


The Escape




This damn girl! When i get my hands on her, I'll make sure she learns her lesson!


Calm down now, yelling won't do any good here, lets go back.



Samara slows her crawl through the long crack at the voice. 'Dran? Dran is here and... Looking for me?'. She completely comes to stop, turns to head back and explain the entire situation and scrapes her knee in the process causing her to wince.



'But how did they find us', Ivy muses uncaring for the injury: 'We've been careful to keep this a secret place. I has..'




Lets go to the school for now and collect our thoughts.


You DO understand this is gonna be your problem too, if I don't get that scroll NOW!



I know, I know, and as i said I'll take full responsibility, but listen, she's a little girl, it reasonable to think she couldn't have read and consumed it, just hang in there for the day. I'll find her eventually...




'.. to be magic. But they still don't seem o be able to find us here'



*Hope* 'Maybe if we just go out and talk to Dran', Samara suggests starting to crawl towards the pair.




'No, stop. We have no idea what they'll do once they find out that the smug one consumed the scroll. Remember that story in which Grindingwald extracted knowledge from someone's soul and you remember how it horribly killed the old guy? Maybe that's actually true.'



*Fear* Samara stops in her tracks. 'What do we do then?'



'Well, given that they don't know where we are and don't seem able to track us we should wait here and see if they spill more information.'


They then crawl back until they can see the two monks and hiding in the dark they watch, ready to run away if anything happens.


Stealth [roll0], assuming I get some bonus from being in the dark while their eyes are seeing the green light.
Perception [roll1]
If they show any fancy objects Samara will use her ability to gain clues on them. [roll2] [roll3] [roll4]

[Drakzel]

The Problem
Quick Samara rushes out the door, towards her secret hideout, "let the ritual commence!".
She shouts out excited.

On her way, she checks through her bag to ensure everything is there and sadly finds that she still lacks one component for the ritual "Dirt from birthplace". Unfortunately as Samara quickly realizes, Odor is made up from different metal plates and scraps, the only place with dirt would be right next to the blightpool, in the center of all the monk buildings.

Sneaky Sneaky
Deciding to follow them around, Samara quickly realizes her immense advantage running through these individual tunnels that she has played in many times, without any problem she follows them to the edge of its area, without being noticed.

Unfortunately, all 3 of them stays silent walking back, as they leave the area Samara easily follows them by scouting out from the edge and different holes of her platform watching as they walk all the way back to the school building on the platform below, were they walk inside.

Following them walking on the platform below, allows the chance for having spotted something of interest.
Some of the other kids, seem to be in a hurry, getting to the highest level, that connects to the surface and the assfield.
Gathering bits and pieces you get that someone has come back from the jungle, but not an upper person, someone from Odor!
The person coming back is Doston, fathers work buddy, the one he always makes up stories about during dinner time.

[Sønderjye]

The Problem



"
let the ritual commence
!"

Samara feels a chill to her bones as the chipper voice involuntarily escapes her lips. It was terrifying how Darkside could just take control over her body on a whimp. It used to just be a looming threat but for whatever reason Darkside had been more active lately.

She shakes her head and gets her head back on her task. There was nothing she could do about Darkside for now and while the thing definitely was both disrespectful and disruptive it hadn't done anything severely damaging to her yet.

"Out of the way kid," a gruff voice says as she is violently pushed towards to the side into the outer edge of the crater. Samara pressed herself up towards the wall, not moving a muscle, as the pusher moved past her in a rush. As the threat was leaving she started to relax and her awareness was moved back into her body. Her hand twitched against the wall and she felt something odd, it wasn't iron. It was.. soft and cold and earthy.

A grin formed on her face. Dirt!

Sneaky Sneaky

Samara discretely trails along the trio hoping to learn something later. Ivy had put it perfectly: 'We need to figure out why it's a problem that we gave them a copy and how far they are going to go to get it back.' She suppress a sneeze as dust falls through one of the holes platform above and hurries along, blissfully unaware of the commotion around her.

[Drakzel]

HahahaHAHAHAHahahaha!!!

Ritual of selling my soul to evil entities
Later, once the whole scroll business have been concluded Samara finds herself in her secret hideout with a weird sortiment of items in front of her. An oddly shapes circlethingy is drawn around her and with her she have a bucket of dirt and a wood figure that she carved using some of her fathers blight-manufacturing tools. The figure have a few green glowing spatters on it but is otherwise mostly clean. She calms her mind and in unison the two three girls shades say the magic words.


POWER!
A ritual performed, two sisters three shades chanting from two sides of reality, a beautiful light from the rituals writings and a wind that fills both their lungs, inbetween parts of the chanting, very naturally, very organically. A hidden power, a new breath, like learning that you have legs and can walk and so another shadow walker is shadow walkers are born.

Look at newly updated character sheet and shared google doc, as you visit the docs you may level up.

By the end of the ritual, Samara finds herself leaning quite a bit and realizes her little statue has turned into iron!

Ivy, realization!
Ivy, sees an event unfold that has already happened, she sees the changes made by the Darkside and that she can "follow" the Darkside, in the same way that Ivy can see out from Samaras perspective, she can also decide to follow the Darksides vision around. When Ivy "looks back" she easily finds her way to her Samara again and nothing has changed, "this" Samara also still holds a golden statue.
This allows Ivy to "dissappear" for awhile, leaving Samara to her own thoughts for once and then follow around the Darksides perspective for information.
From having accidently witnessed the Darkside, also unlocks the other Samara, from the slightly altered past, as a point for Ivy to jump to.

Spymaster
As the trio went inside the school building, Samara sneaks her way up to the building, in an attempt to eavesdrop, luckily they mostly sit inside one of the classrooms.
The trio takes of their hoods and are fully revealed as; Dran, Mr Henderson and the older man you delivered the scroll to.

That little ****, ran off didn't she... I say track her down and just get the real scroll.
... Even if we made a ritual to locate her, we would have to use from our own personal reserves and I do believe we all added what we had to completing the plan. If we locate her, then it wont matter anyway and I do trust her, she didn't look like one that would run off.
You are so naive...

Lets say, its too late, then what is our plan?
For you see, if i were a child of Odor and I was given a mysterious object, then i promise you, I would look it through.. Meaning!? Come on guys.. sigh. The girl unlocked the magic, but is that really so bad? We could continue and simply replace Olens part, with Samara. If she is interested in helping out that is.
That might be better actually, having the youth showcase what can be done, if we work together.

This is getting ridiculous! Are you seriously going to REPLACE ME! With a damn 8 year old!
I see CLEARLY now, what a stupid bunch the two of you are. We have been spending WEEKS trying to entertain kids here rather than actually getting on with our plans!
The kids, are the plan...
Right right, let me know when that works out for you!

Olen walks out of the building, leaving for the same direction you delivered the scroll.

Hehe.. No Dran, wait.
If thats all it takes, then we couldn't have used him anyway.

A silence breaks out, as Henderson starts reading and Dran starts warming water for tea with a small machine, he seems to have made.

[Sønderjye]

Ivy, realization!
Ivy, sees an event unfold that has already happened, she sees the changes made by the Darkside and that she can "follow" the Darkside, in the same way that Ivy can see out from Samaras perspective, she can also decide to follow the Darksides vision around. When Ivy "looks back" she easily finds her way to her Samara again and nothing has changed, "this" Samara also still holds a golden statue.
This allows Ivy to "dissappear" for awhile, leaving Samara to her own thoughts for once and then follow around the Darksides perspective for information.
From having accidently witnessed the Darkside, also unlocks the other Samara, from the slightly altered past, as a point for Ivy to jump to.


is Ivy able to do this at any point or only when/after Darkside is controlling them?



[B]Spymaster
As the trio went inside the school building, Samara sneaks her way up to the building, in an attempt to eavesdrop, luckily they mostly sit inside one of the classrooms.
The trio takes of their hoods and are fully revealed as; Dran, Mr Henderson and the older man you delivered the scroll to.

That little ****, ran off didn't she... I say track her down and just get the real scroll.
... Even if we made a ritual to locate her, we would have to use from our own personal reserves and I do believe we all added what we had to completing the plan. If we locate her, then it wont matter anyway and I do trust her, she didn't look like one that would run off.
You are so naive...

Lets say, its too late, then what is our plan?
For you see, if i were a child of Odor and I was given a mysterious object, then i promise you, I would look it through.. Meaning!? Come on guys.. sigh. The girl unlocked the magic, but is that really so bad? We could continue and simply replace Olens part, with Samara. If she is interested in helping out that is.
That might be better actually, having the youth showcase what can be done, if we work together.

This is getting ridiculous! Are you seriously going to REPLACE ME! With a damn 8 year old!
I see CLEARLY now, what a stupid bunch the two of you are. We have been spending WEEKS trying to entertain kids here rather than actually getting on with our plans!
The kids, are the plan...
Right right, let me know when that works out for you!

Olen walks out of the building, leaving for the same direction you delivered the scroll.

Hehe.. No Dran, wait.
If thats all it takes, then we couldn't have used him anyway.

A silence breaks out, as Henderson starts reading and Dran starts warming water for tea with a small machine, he seems to have made.


Samara sat for a long moment before the realization hit her. 'They can't track me with magic!' She thought excitedly.

'Well, maybe not, but Henderson know father so they will find us sooner or later,' Ivy said, squiching the hope out as soon as it appeared.

'So.. what now?' Samara asked dejected as the angry man stomps out.

'Well..', Ivy begins: 'Honestly our options are rather limited. Take Henderson ans co. down or leave our family. There's no way this won't lead to a confrontation somehow maybe we can create something heavy over one of them or inside their throats.'

Samara blinks twice and then says indignantly 'We're not going to kill them!'. An idea appears to her and she quickly gets to her feet to move towards the couple.

'Samara, what are you doing?' Ivy asks, consern ready in her voice.

'I'll just talk to them, Henderson have known me all my life, I'm sure we can just talk it out.'

'Samara, gods please, no. You don't know how'

Ivy's complain were cut off by Samara calling out: " Dran, Mr. Henderson, what's going on?"

[Drakzel]

The Confrontation

Ivy's complain were cut off by Samara calling out: " Dran, Mr. Henderson, what's going on?"

Both Henderson and Dran, looks at Samara immediately, with very different faces. Henderson looks happy, pleased even to see you, while Dran looks irritated and as if he's about to scold you like your dad would, his eyes are even the same, it's as if he almost forgot why he's angry and doesn't know what to say, he simply looks at you as if you have become a stranger, someone who he has to evaluate again, rather than answering you, he walks a bit back and forth trying to start a conversation, but constantly stops himself from speaking out, this goes on for a few very long seconds.

Mr Henderson: Samara! Good to see you. Would you like some tea?
He smiles gently and holds out towards you a cup with some green-looking water.

Dran: Tea! Screw the tea, dad! Samara, do you still have the scroll? It's very important and we need it badly, please tell me you didn't lose it?

Mr Henderson shift his looks to Dran with a more worried expression.
Dran, has the eyes and demeanour of those people you have seen, just before during some crazy like jumping from a ledge to the blight pool at the bottom. Desperation.
A third tension comes from Henderson and their eyes meets for a moment, which seems to completely disarms Dran. The look of a father who isn't used to being called dad and a grown man, who now feels like a child for having used the word, for some reason?
Dran seems embarrassed by his inability to keep a cool face in front of a child, your presence seems to be making a big deal for Dran

Mr Henderson, with no sound, holds forth the cup of tea again and gestures you to take it. Dran looks up at you, anxiously although patiently awaiting an answer from you.

A Journey Through Time and Space
As Samara yells out, Ivy "jumps" to the Darksides perspective.
He?she is talking to 2 boys a little older than Samara, in a dark room. He?she is inside what looks like a ritual, like the one you made, although this one looks a little more complicated. They seem to be making a deal of sorts.
Suddenly a new "jump point" seems to happen as if he?she is in 2 places at once?
The Darkside is eating a man alive, he is screaming for the most parts, unless drowning in his own spit and blood.
With a force, Ivy jumps a few more times watching mostly just the dark shadowy figures outline, portraying as the Darkside, in all matter of moments, places and times, and what point it is in the old western time with cowboys, the next jumps he?she is in medieval times and the next again it is back in Odor, whispering to homeless people?
Along the skips, Ivy hears a few things that seemed important and could be worth looking into.

Outsider (Mentioned as if it was a race of actual aliens)
The Great Alignment
Reality Manipulation
Summoning, the supposedly natural human magic?

The Darkside, is timetraveling? but not just that, it is literally existing in multiple places at the same time, it seems to have no plan though it acts as if it does. Most of the time it is just cruel or confusing.

The man is slowly being eaten, it seems he is being enjoyed...
No, its not just enjoying him, it is eating him part by part to see when he dies, this is he?she learning, how humans work.
The screaming continues.
#&%?: Ohh hahaha, okay YES! I will make sure this Jim, won't ever bully you again. All I need from you, is to let me stay here... So I can help, just free me from this ritual and I will begin.
A horrifying grim forms, but not on its mouth, on its back out of sight from the boys, but just in view for Ivy, overviewing.
Ivy, can shift the perspective around her as she's currently watching this room from a third perspective.
With a force of will, Ivy can shift around and look at a scene anywhere she likes, as long as it was observed by her vessel, which means the Darkside can see in all direction from where it is standing.
If Ivy can communicate with Samara while "inside" her head, maybe she could talk out to the Darkside now?

[Sønderjye]

The Confrontation

Samara takes a quick look behind her towards her escape route and then looks back. She really just wants to run away from all of this. No, she tells herself, a brave girl doesn't run away from danger.

She takee a moment to still herself and then responds with a forced smile: "Tea would be nice"

Before she sits though she says to Dran: "The scroll was destroyed mr. Dran. Sorry, sir!" If he makes any sudden movements she is ready to bolt out the place as fast as she can.

A journey through time and space

Ivy tries to be discrete as she tags along Darkside's journeys. At the revalation that both she and he can move around she gets an idea. If he can control bodies then maybe she can do that too and maybe she can stop her little sister next time she does something dumb that might get them killed.

The idea is filed for later thought as she floats down towards the ritual circle and starts examining it. Maybe it could give a clue to what kind of creature Darkside is.
using Profound Understanding to gain [roll0] clues about the ritual/ritual circle/inscriptions in the ritual circle/whatnot

[Drakzel]

The Great Speech
Dran with seems for a moment to lose all hope, as his body just stays in place after your remark, with a dead stare drifting off into the side.

Mr Henderson: Samara, please give me a minute here and I'll explain.
Dran, don't you see? This is perfect, lets be honest the other guy wasn't reliable and we need someone young to understand too, afterall look at me.. Time is of the essence.

I silent room is filled up for a good few seconds.
Dran: (Sigh) We can't just drag people into our plans at all time.. but if you like, then go ahead and explain, I'll go for a walk.

As Dran takes his jacket and walks out of the room.
Mr Henderson: Don't worry, he just needs to process it, he'll be back in a few minutes.
Perfectly replicating his earlier innocent, calm old man smile, while putting down the tea next to you.
Samara, I have something very big and very important, I would like to discuss with you, but first I want you to know 2 things;
1. You can obviously hear me out and then walk home, you're not being dragged into anything, but after what have happened we do now need you.
2. We hope you understand that what I'm about to say, is what Dran and I have been working towards for years! So if you hear me out, but would like to walk away, then please don't tell people of our secrets.
Again followed by his perfected smile.

A few seconds are left silent before he then starts talking again.
(Well go on then, interrupt)
As you know, our home is but a single level of the tower and it is said that; "The further you get up the tower, the better life becomes." The main reason for this, is magic, on the other levels people have direct access to learning magic, so Dran and I have been gathering money for us to get to the next level, to learn magic and then come back to live a more poor life here, but teach and reapir Odor, with everything we have learned. But unfortunately the scroll you used up, was a very expensive piece of magic, that was supposed to have helped us repair Odor or sell for immediate departure, with our own money we could have afforded 5 people to leave.
But now with you having consumed the scroll, I think the three of us should leave, we'll take you to a better town, were you can learn to use that power you have gotten and when you have learned enough, we can return to repair Odor with magic! Your magic! You'll be the one who saved this place from falling apart.

There is even magic up there, that in a matter of seconds could heal all the sick here...

If you like I can even start teaching you some magic, as I'm not a comlete novice
Followed by his perfected smile and a small chuckle

While you're currently holing the power of "Matter". I myslef have acquired "Mysticism" and Dran has "Instinct", it brews down to, magic that grants; "information", "immediately physique" and "repairing, destroying and creating matter"
So what do you think, wanna save Odor?

Ivy's Choice
1. The symbols aren't just power words, like in a normal ritual, this is a whole language with a message inside the ritual.
2. The ritual, the room and everything here, is in place, like a story that has already been told, you can touch and examine, but you cant change anything, like opening the doors or windows, although the ritual is different, the ink used smears itself over your fingers, like ink would and seems directly interactable.
3. ?+¤&%!DEATH¤!!(TO*/%#MIND&%'*TO%&?PUNY-LOGIC
FEAR LEARNING ITS SECRETS FOR IT'LL DEVOUR ALL!!

As your examining comes to an end, you see the creature in the circle of the story surrounding you, looking directly at you, breaking the story, it blinks and snarls at you, trying to get to you, but stuck, stuck in this story explaining itself to these boys. It seems overwhelmingly frustrated by you learning from its circle and almost scares the boys off, before calming down.

All stops, like pieces of a scene, all crumbles, the roof, the sky, the boys, the ?%& stays frozen, the planet. Floating almost in a dream-like state, through cosmos watching stars being born and die, watching planets and worlds build itself up through aeons. By the very point Ivy starts to have any thoughts or ideas, space bends and warps to make "room" for a great creature spawning out of thin air and by the size of planets.
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Reaching out a finger to give you a world to stand on, an immediate message is in Ivys head.
I am a thing, a thing like the one you have met, but am different. I see all and exist outside of time, I am here, for i have never been able to exist infront of a mortal like yourself before. This moment I see our world is taking over and that the Great Alignment will come in place, your mere presence here, makes me see whole new futures.
As a thank you, I'd like to show you 1 of 2 answers, would you like to see the future off;
1. she?he / it, the one you're currently dealing with and see its plans.
2. Samara, the body you're attached to and its future.

So little one... who?

[Sønderjye]

The Great Speech

Samara listens to the speech and agrees to go with Henderson.

Ivy's Speech

Ivy chooses option 1.

[Drakzel]

Introduction To Magic
Mr Hendersen starts walking around the room, seemingly pulling old dusty books from all sorts of secret places, while giving you a study on magic:
Before we can talk of the Arcane, which is defined magic, we must first understand its origin, Ritualism.
It's an ancient form of spellcasting, often requiring the caster to sacrifice something in return for something else. This is why through out time, Ritualist found a way to define magic to more direct and simple terms, Arcane, unfortunately for us in Odor, all that knowledge of how to invoke the Arcane inside of us, is held by people on floors we can't reach from down here.

So since we'll have to rely on different magic at times, we might as well get used to the idea of both;
- Arcane; Is powered by the magical essence of your environment, its air and ofcourse yourself as a conductor. This is why most people don't bother learning Arcane here, its expensive, difficult, takes a long time and you quickly realize how rarely you'll be able to cast another spell, this is because of the state of Odor, it has no magical influence, its mainly made from garbage and nothing has a chance to grow here. One day, try to walk up to the ash field, wait for the security systems and then walk a bit out and just breath in, not only is the air more fresh and clear, you can literally feel the difference in your aether (aether regen goes up or down, based on location.)
- Ritualism; Is powered by the relevants of a place, creature, act, intention, item etc which the caster can draw out that power from. Most Rituals are vague and weak, but few that has survived through time as it keeps being restored, are named Rites, these are usually powerful rituals that has been more defined and therefore comes with no surprises as many others have done the same ritual before. However these Rites as you could imagine doesn't come cheap. Luckily for us however..

He slams down a large stack of books and scrolls on your table and continues:
The bigger one of the scrolls is a Rite, a recognized ritual, you can have that one to study first and once you understand the basic, we'll move on to the Arcane.
Unlocks 4 ways of acquiring occult point.

Full-Moon: 4 OP. Used for all dealings with the occult.
Blood sacrifice: 1 OP. Used as tribute or when dealing with physical changes or mechanism.
Magical diagrams: 2 OP. Used for dealing with physical or metaphysical changes.
Relevant components: 1 OP. Depending on the component on which context it can be used.



The Great Alignment
The enemy, above the ally!
What a thing, you are... already.

As all, but yourself starts to bend, reform and build itself up over aoens, but at speed that takes seconds from the perspective of Ivy.
The setting around her, becomes that of the previous scene, with the ritual, as this scene becomes a perfect scripts running from beginning to end, on repeat. Ivy unable to do anything but understand the situation, realizes eventually the magic behind this summoning, it was done by some boys, from a different time, at a school for wizardry. The magic is arcane based, and Ivy gets to the point where she understands it well enough to replicate it and explain it to someone with an aether pool.
The summoning is from another plane of existence, named; The Outside.
The creatures name is found in the symbols and writing of the ritual, however attempting to read it, seems excruciatingly to the head, immense headaches and visions.
Visions of deep space and a timeless existence, bound by no restriction or rules. A universe of your own.
Eyes and monsters lurking, between the darkness of the stars.

(Ivy suffers 2 wisdom dmg and her attached body-partner, Samara suffers 1 wisdom dmg)
Ivy retains the knowledge of the creatures name and the ability to read; Void-Scripts!
The name itself, is incromprehensible, unspeakable and only pieces of its true named can be attempted, outside of void-scripts. Also using the name, writing it down or even thinking about it, allows the entitiy to know that you're aware of it.
(Clarification; If you write his name in voidscripts, and people attempts to read it, they'll take wisdom dmg.)
The entity can't possess its true vessel on the earthly plane, which is why the scripts (The Arcane ones) in the circle and a vessel (human), is used, for its summoning (the vessel is immediately corrupted and maintains only a vague human outlook, after the entity is summoned).

As she "finishes" the scene and realizes that she is half-awake, being drawn through a sketch, just like every other thing is. The previous moment with the ritual is nothing more but rules put down by the past that locked it, this is the rules opposed by the great outside.
My influence spreads itself far and corrupts your thoughts, it is for the purpose of "The Darksides" plans, and the purpose of all outsiders, we see through time and exist at any and all moments. Our existence ensures the Great Alignment, which is absolute power to all, all of cosmos and its vast complexes shared in a mass of chaos and glorious existences.
It is inevitable, but you can help progress it.

All around Ivy, just like earlier reshapes to another point in time, the darkside, in another vessel comes to Odor, starts a cult and sacrifices not only many to the blight, but also jumps in itself, to ensure its powers to be spread throughout. However on one occasion an accident happens....

Yours, Ivy watching herself, her own past and the reason for the accident, as someone attempted to lean on a large cauldron (One of dads working buddies, who never came forth explaining himself or what he saw, because of what happened), as something different seemed to be in the collected blight (The entity or rather a piece of it, found a new vessel to possess, Samara).

[Sønderjye]

Sad Goodbyes

"Soo yeah. I'll be leaving with Old Man Hendson and Dran for the upper layers…" Samara looks down as the words are caught in her throat like a lump is blocking the sound from coming. She wants to tell Ma and Pa that she is getting a chance for a better live and that she'll bring riches and good food back to them but her stupid throat won't obey. Stupid Henderson for making her go say goodbye. She notices water on her cheeks, Ma must have been cutting onions. She wipes the tears away with her sleeve, smearing dirt over her wet face. She trembles as she waits for her to respond.

Summary of prep time

After agreeing to travel with the older men and learning about rituals from Henderson, Samara convinces the elder man to wait a few days with travelling. Searching his library she finds an old book on ancient Odor. She investigates Odor and compares it to the current layout, which allows her to find tunnels that allows her to infiltrate the Monk Monastery Library to steal some books.

She also spends time to gather books and write down information relevant to surviving in Odor and spend time experimenting with enchanting metal pipes using rituals.

This all culminates at midnight during which she performs multiple rituals under the moon-lit sky involving absorbing knowledge from two piles of paper. She learns that the books found in the monastery already are used at catalysts for a different ritual and not having the power to undo the enspelling of being a catalyst she puts them back into the library. Here she learns that something is happening and her temporary 'borrowing' may or may not have been discovered.


Rituals done:
Metal pipe + Sharpened + Blight[Physical]: Now deals acid damage
Metal pipe + Sharpened + Blight[metaphysical]: Can lower durability of object hit
Self + Pile of streetwise stuff + Skull[Metaphysical]: Gain ability to reroll Streetwise 2/day after learning result.
Prior target + Blank Paper + Reversely doing ritual[Both]: Undoes the prior ritual

Tries to sacrifice rat and gains 1 occult point for offering. Learns that living sacrifices gives a lot of occult things.

Old Map of Odor which allows to learn about tunnels about Odor and thus easily find ones way into places one shouldn't be in.

[Sønderjye]

Day 1 after Odor

Finding herself back in the ritual room Ivy continues looking around all while Darkside trapped inside the ritual is unable to escape. She takes a look at the three summoners and trying to find threads goingout from them similar to the thread she followed here she takes it and jumps to a scene in a classroom. Realizing she is now hidden in a magical school she scouts multiple classes and learns much magic. She is spotted despite being outside time by one teacher and another teacher says 'code yellow' after using some magic that probably detected her. Her confusion is big when she realize that she somehow affected this timeline without consequences while the minor act of barely bending a page in a book caused reality to shook. A golden line extends into the teachers room and by suspicion Ivy choses to avoid going into that room. Her suspicion seems confirmed when every teacher she comes upon consistently walks into the teachers roombefore and after every class.

Once she returns she explains Samara what happened as Samara walks towards meeting Dran and Henderson before they head out. Ivy realizes that she somehow bend time to share more knowledge with Samara than theduo really had time to.

When Samara sees Dran she asks him a question that came up when she realized that she could sacrifice rats to empower rituals, what stops others from sacrificing those three when they head up a layer. Dran tries to brush it off and pretend confidence in front of the kid but his concern becomes clear once the man talks to Henderson. The two men hadn't done much preparations to avoid that scenario and ultimately relies in the goodness of the heart of the mages in the tower above, the same mages who are contend with letting Odor rot. This does wonders for the girls confidence in their elders.

Eventually the trio makes their journey to the second layer. They pay the gold for the elevator and the exit leads them into a dark cave in which they are attacked by ghosts. After a mad dash they manage to reach a city that is protected by the ghost repelling light.

To the two mens strong disappointment the place is almost as big of a hole as Odor and the entire floor is meant as an extermination floor. Samara feels some disappointment as feeling a little of it too, however she now has magic and many many ways of growing in power with abilities unlocked and the ability to summon being from another plane for help.

They get a room and Samara teaches the two men what she has learned of magical prowess. She also summons Merlin again and after summoning his druid friend she gets a name of a woman with many contacts. The druid, it turns out, is at war with something called the Bernoid. Ivy jumps along one of Merlins threads and comes to a scene four hours in the future in which Merlin and his friends are annialated by a big cloudy monstrous thing that deleted existance and replaces it with whiteness, as if a canvas is wiped clean. She quickly returns and tells Merlin of the ills and sends him back so he can evacuate his friends. They are told not to sleep at midnight and at midnight aclock rings but nothing seemed to happen, and after reading in theevening they go to sleep. In the flurry of everything that had happened she forgets to channel her familiar ritual and makes a mental note to remember that tomorrow.

[Sønderjye]

Day 2 after Odor

As the trio wakes up the day after the men wants to head into the darkness filled with hordes of undead with little to no preparation and Samara convinces them that if they just wait one day she will be able to actually hurt the creatures.
She then summons the woman called Henrietta and offers her service as a courier in exchange for payment. Henrietta is interested and asks her to summon her in an hour.

To pass the time Samara heads back to the vendor she met the first day and offers to trade knowledge. They engage in friendly exchange and Samara learns news of traditions and cores. She thanks him and does the same with a man in a shop that sells tomes.

Running up towards the deadline she heads back to their room and summons Henrietta who brings her the news that she indeed will be happy to make a deal. She has 6 deliveries at 2 silver a pieces spread one for each day the rest of the week and two friday. Despite being overwhelmed with the literal fortune she keeps her cool and requests that deliveries are made in bulk in the future
though otherwise she agrees to the deal. She immediately begins the delivery for the day and happily summon two merchants who exchange a chest filled with something. Henrietta asks her how long she can keep the summons going and she tells her 10 minutes with an additional 20 minutes for 1 more silver of which is only partly a lie. Samara really doesn't want to be shepherd for a long time with the many projects she has going. She feels bad when she sees Henriettas disappointment regardless.

After dispelling the summons she heads to the two last shops with tomes and makes similar deals as with the first two. She runs to the first vendor she met and asks if he'd be willing to sell his small collection of tomes for 6 silver pieces and the poison causing metal pipe she made as her SECOND ritual back in Odor. Because he 'likes' her and is so f*cking friendly he tells her that he just screwed her over on the deal and that the metal pipe essentially is a incredibly strong component in any ritual that is targeted at her. She is mortified that he can cheat her like that and has the guts to pretend that telling her that he can blackmail her at any time is a favour. She heads away feeling defeated.

Trying to get her mind off her recent failure she reads through some of the tomes she has acquired, and discovers a way to gain UNLIMITED aether using an unorthodox way of converting the force done to herself into aether by poking herself with a sharp object. She also finds a book on relic crafting and realizing it's potential she summons the Great Druid of the Wall with an offer to help in the druids enclave's war by giving them magical items in exchange for resources and knowledge. She gains a pouch with a minor fortune's worth of crafting iron dust and heads out to find somewhere she can craft.

Following Ivy's lead she start by knocking on the only hut with a forge underneath it. Not getting an answer she moves back to the inn keeper to ask for information, remembering to flip him a copper as she does so. He directs her to the tunnels underneath but appearing at the smithey she finds the door to be locked. Ivy howeve ris able to enter, and in the process learns how to walk freely around, and after a long time sorting through threads she finds something that leads way back. A wizard of some kind is performing magic that seems to defy the rules of magic as Ivy knows them. She tries to observe for a while but is unable to learn anything of how to do it. She keeps the thread to that moment in the time continuum in her set of locked threads as she heads back to Samara.

Meanwhile Samara manage to find a shop with something that generously could be called a forge. She makes a deal with the angry, weirdly bipolar shopowner that she can use his tools in exchange of enhancing his equipment. The first rune she makes is a drag to get through but as her supply of crating enhancing cloth-rings increase it becomes easier. She goes at it until close to 11 in the evening and having left the shopkeeper a rune of enhanced structural creation on the forge she leaves to meet with her older companions. At this point with her full set of runic cloth-ringer-wraps she can make any single rune she knows without fail through putting multiple rules on the same piece of fabric will still pose a challenge.

Returning to their base of residence they meet up and share what they have done to prepare for tomorrow. Dran have found a map and Henderson have found books about the universe at large. Samara performs the familiar ritual at midnight and reads a tome before bed.

[Sønderjye]

Day 3

As promised Henderson wakes her up early and she has time to head over to the pseudo smith to craft some runes before her scheduled courier job.

As she is about to head out she is approach by a dark hooded mysterious stranger who demands that she meet him in a dark alley around the corner. He leaves and a moment later she follows the way he walked around a corner though she stays on the main street. He is further down an alley and gestures towards a corner. She shakes her head, willing to have a talk with a stranger but not willing to follow a dark stranger into a place that no one can see. He gets upset and stomps the ground, and interpreting the movement as a spell she darts away.

She performs the courier job at the scheduled time and after meeting with Henderson and Dran the trio heads north. Before leaving she empowers herself with the fruits of her arcane labour and is ready for war for 2 hours.

On their way Henderson casts a spell and starts running. It isn't clear to Samara whether he is running towards something or away from something but she follows nonetheless. They find a lone house and using their fists as lockpicks they are able to enter. Bodies are lying around inside and looting them they find runes and valuables, as well as a chest. As they are looting the corpses Dran suddenly starts acting weird and assuming ghostly magic at work Samara puts one of the spiritually charged runs on Drans fingers. It doesn't work however and the possessed Dran shortly attacks her. She jumps out of the building and as Dran pursues her she puts the wodden cross amulet over her head and puts it on him. He spasm and the cross appearently was enough to exercise the ghost.

Samara follows the ghost inside the house again and beats up the ghost. Realizing it's defeat it withdraws into the house and makes everything shake, and chose the better side of caution the trio retreats.

When they come back Samara still has the ghostly tongue of the ghost in her empowered gauntlet and she tries to tell it off to some ritualists in town. A group come out and while interested in the fact that this is possible they weren't interested in buying. They did give her a gift and are now on good terms.

Afterwards she heads to the pseudosmithy shop and crafts for a while. When she gets back after twelve the two men are upset for her not being there, thinking that she had agreed to meeting up at midnight every night. She doesn't remember agreeing to that but agrees to do so in the future.

[Sønderjye]

Day 4

[To be finely written at an undefined later point]

Samara wakes up, teaches the other two some practices. Then heads over to the pseudosmithy to continue crafting things. She summons the druid to show the ring he asked for. She reads some tomes and writes some thing, and deconstructs the two relic rings learning their secrets.

She summons the summon for the day(a witch doing research on this reality) and gets some money.

She then starts doing preparations for the finishing the familiar ritual in the evening. She spends time contemplating and discussing names with the villagers. There were no answers to whether a similar being existed.

In the night(after some running around) she starts out doing the ritual outside of the city, hoping to gain something extra out of the ritual. Ivy however notices the increased number of ghosts in the area and following a thread to the future she learns that the ghosts eventually form into a giant ghost and will then possess Samara. She follows another thread shared by the ghosts and underneath the entrance mountains she finds a giant ghost dragon. She tries to possess the creature but it reacts and she retreats. She tells Ivy to run and they retreat to complete the ritual in a room in the underneath tunnel system.

As she completes the ritual, instead of a small lynx, a massive catlike abomination with eyes underneath it's pelt and fangs sharper than knives appear. She takes a step back but then loudly speaks the final words of the ritual. My true name is Samara daughter ofApril and I am your summoner and master. I name you Alistair( meaningprotector because your first duty is to protect me and mine),Jaeger(meaning hunter because your second duty is to hunt alongsideme and mine) tiberius(meaning king and of the river because yourthird duty is to grow to become a king amongst your kind). I havenamed you and claim you as mine.

Alistair Jaeger Tiberius kneels and the bond is complete.

Ivy sees that if Samara enters the main street ghosts will attack her so the group stays underneath, Samara teaches the group and once they are done she spends time deconstructing a dagger learning how to create stronger runes until 4am at which points she does the last summon of the day and heads to sleep.

[Sønderjye]

Day 5

Samara wakes up and summons Henrietta. She shows her the ring she made the prior day and Henrietta is very interested in having her supply many more. They agree for her to make 30 enchangted rings and Henrietta provides the resources. She then the Great Druid of the Southern Wall and shows him the the same ring, druid says that the council might be interested in a trade. She dismisses her and summons the merchant to give him the ring as agreed upon.

She spends the day crafting and later she gives Henrietta the rings and she trades for a lot of gold and a corpse of a fable. She uses the corpse to unlock Crystal and finding Dran and Henderson she also unlocks their Crystal. She then sends them off to find someone who also wants fable and wants to trade. Meanwhile she spends 6 hours deconstructing the dagger and eventually unlocks the secret. When they haven't gotten back at that point she heads up to town to buy book. She buys a bunch of tomes from various shops and one of the shops sells her a book that contains a song that it recommends to sing.

Meanwhile Ivy pauses time to enter the faraway land and search for local knowledge and skills. Her journey leads her down to the Great Wall, a giant forest, from which people are running away from. She finds the that a big army has gathered around it and awaits the arrival of the Banale, a giant monster that once arriving destroys the defending army. She tries to follow it backwards but it doesn't have any threads going from it, she then plays time back and walks with it but it reacts and Ivy immediately jumps to another points in time. She has a failed will save, sees the blight pond for a brief moment, and eventually returns to Samara.

As she starts hymning it her magic changes and suddenly her comboes doesn't work anymore. This happens at the same time as a man suddenly tackles her and yells angrily at her. She is scared and runs off to the next shop.

Before entering the shop she tries giving control over to Ivy to be able to recover her own resource but while the magic does work it isn't Ivy that gets the new resource but something inside her mind. Following the thread she finds something terrifying and exits, releasing control to Samara.

She enters the last shop and buys some tomes, and as she exits it she finds people looking at her angrily and pointing her towards the shop. She figured it probably had something to do with the hymn and goes back to the shop she bought it from to ask. The shopkeeper doesn't answer her and instead throws her out. From scouting she learns that this is a hymn that somehow attracts the undead. Desperate of finding a way to get a running aether supply again she manages to find a shop that sells dragon parts.

Commiting to an action and having Ivy follow the future of that action, Samara learns that she definitely can't break into the smithy she knows to craft a few last minute things. She searches multiple futures and finds that if she exits the village Darkside has taken over her body within a week. She finds that she can probably hide for a few month if she stays underground but is unable to hide Dran.


The hole town is in uproar trying to find her.
They don't find her but instead finds Dran and he looks like he's about to get into a fight with the others. She wants to go out and save him but low on aether due to the world change she first summon Henrietta in hopes of finding a way to get her mojo back. Through trading she is able to acquire a mana concuction and 4 sticks that should wards ghosts off. Unfortunately none of her tries to getting her mojo back seems to be working. Knowing that her life is at stake she pleads with Henrietta and manages to convince Henrietta to get her a piece of (whatever gives time) in exchange for crafting for free for a month. As Henrietta looks for that item Ivy scouts Henderson and Dran, and they seem to have a peaceful if tense conversation with the villages.

Hoping that things will stay pieceful for a while she choose to hide in the city below.

She finds a small house, mostly ruined but one room with all walls intact, and puts up the ghost repelling sticks which violently expels a ghost from the house.

Before crying herself to sleep our young hero summon the last order of summons. Also realizing that their fire in fact can give themselves aether back they summon Henrietta and tells her that they don't actually need the scroll anyway. They do need materials and things to do, and so it rather pleased with agreeing to do a bulk order of big ass rings in exchange for things.

[Sønderjye]

Day 6 morning

[Being put in later]

[Sønderjye]

Day 6 late evening

'Look Samara', Ivy starts one night as the now 5 refugees and the giant abomination enjoy the weirdly cold light coming from the cosy magically created bonfire replacement consisting of a 2 by 1 meter firewal. The group are sitting in the closest thing to her own house she has ever had. Not the greatest house certainly, the walls are partly absent, there's no roof, the floor is broken in multiple locations, the neighbourhood isn't particularly lively, but it was theirs and the girls had both shared enjoyment with that fact. Ivy was hoping that she wouldn't completely ruin the good mood that had come upon them within the last few days but Ivy's best guess is that it's not that Samara is most likely to listen.

'I know that this has both been new and difficult AND exciting', she says trying to ease into the conversation: 'But I really need you to start being more careful.'

'I've been careful!', Samara answers defensively, blinking twice and keeps her gaze locked at the flames.

'Well yes.. sure.. ', Ivy answers diplomatically: 'But an.. let's say impulsive kind of carefulness. What we need is measured and defensive carefulness to keep us safe.'

Samara is quite for a while, the reflection of the 'bonfire' dacing in her iris. Eventually she responds: 'There is no 'safe' here, Ivy. If the ghosts doesn't kill us the magic will, or Darkside, or the villagers.'

The image of Samara covered in scars flashes Ivy's mind and next the image of her being possessed by Darkside. A beat passes and she says in a low voice, not even needed to fake her fear: 'I saw a timeline in which you were dead. I saw on in which Darkside took over and sacrificed Dran and Henderson. I saw myself dying. One single unfair slip-up and everyone dies.'

'Last week you almost got us thrown into the Pool because you you had to play a hero. This week you humned a random tune from a random book and we were almost thrown at the undead hordes without our magic working. What happens next week?'

The fire in Samara's eyes starts to blur and a tear slowly starts moving down her chin. The air seems to swirl and burn in her lungs: 'I know Ivy, I know, it's just. It's so much and so scary and everyone hates us. I don't know what to do.'

'Shh, it's okay sis', Ivy says as she send the mental equivalent of a hug: 'We just need to be more careful in the future yeah? If we find new magic we ask about it before we do anything. If we encounter something scary we run. Okay?'

Samara does the equivalent of a mental nod, whiping away a tear with a dirty piece of cloth.

'Good, as long as we learn from our failures everything will be good alright? We know that Dran will be heading out soon and we need to tag along if we want him to stay safe but let's get the mastery from chaos, we need to find a way for me to gain a familiar, and we need information about what we can expect out there. We will need to take risks but they need to be calculated and they need to be careful.'