Lilandra looks wide eyed from Goragg to Cale and then her expression falls, "Did none of you pay attention at all?" Frustration, tiredness, and sadness all plainly color her expression as she huffs an aggravated breath out, opens her mouth as if to speak, then throws her hands up in the air in defeat. Turning, she stalks off to the far side of the giant rock, too overcome to try and explain it all again. "I can't- I can't go through it all again."
She shakes her head and mutters to herself as she stalks off away from the main body of the group.
Kalasin gives both of them a look before she sighs. 'Is this really that unexpected? No, not really.'
Looking first at Goragg, "I'm not sure it works if you write someone else's name. Could be it targets the one who wrote it, not the person who's name was written. Since I doubt you wish to forget everything and be replaced, you might not want to write a name on there."
"Cale, this rock, is considered a holy site to the locals. The egg, this rock, causes a 'rebirth' of sorts to happen. This 'rebirth' is triggered by writing one's name on the egg. It doesn't just erase your memories, it erases all of who you are to replace it with a blank slate that looks just like you. It seems, once a name is on the egg, it cannot be removed. Not to mention, it seems to heal or repair itself."
Having explained best she understood, Kalasin looked in the direction Lilandra had went off, concern on her face.
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Goragg looks aghast at the possibility that he might have inadvertently replaced himself.
Sooo...if your locals know all about the egg, why don't we ask them about it rather than yammering and guessing and stormin' off because some folks were busy gettin' shot at while you were prancin' 'round your precious egg?
Can one of you chip a tiny piece of it please
says grim as he stets down his portable alchemist kit and starts digging near by.
Abbas, silent as the others deliberated over the egg, contemplated the massive stone and his name upon it. There had been such a loss of self and then a chance to undo it by the voice past the hecate but something about undoing all that work to become who he was now, even the barest risk seemed incomprehensible in the face of having been so completely stripped, and not even knowing what regret triggered his transformation. Still to know more of what was going on here was essential...
Abbas pulls a mining pick and chips at the rock, attempting to only get a sliver and not do too much damage to the egg. I have felt its effects, I remember the blankness. Let it met its anger upon me if this should not be done...
Abbas hits the rock a few times with his pick and knocks off some chips and slivers, leaving an ugly gouge in the otherwise smooth surface.
The egg rolls over and crushes everyone...
Nothing happens...
Nothing unusual in the rock, as far as magic goes.
The bits of stone chipped off don't look normal. They have very tiny thin striations, all perfectly even and parallel to each other and the outer surface. Each is the thickness of a hair.
Picking through the pieces and bringing them to Grim, the suli picks up a piece and then another and places them back in his hand as he brings them to the tiefling. Passing them over Abbas points with his other hand, Notice the small marks? Even and parallel. So small, yet...consistent...
With the small chips of the Giant Egg rock Grim will prepare a few vials and place a small chip in each vial. Different solutions will be added into each mix
Cale shrugs knowing that his new party member is upset but he needed to make sure.
"This egg as it is does seem sentinent if it can 'hear' regrets and make it undone. Although the tale has being told and I do not wish offence, could it not be perhaps a mistranslation somewhere over the years it has being passed down? To focus on a regret and will it undone? It does sound a bit farfetched to be 'reborn'."
Watching as the others chip off a piece, he observes to see if the rock repairs or grows itself back.
"I wonder...." he muses to himself before facing the rock.
Speaking in a tongue that sounds like pebbles grating against each other.
"I wonder if you are truly a feeling being that is at slumber or something else?"
Kalasin watched the others for a moment before moving to follow Lilandra. She didn't speak, but made sure to make enough noise so that Lilandra knew she was approaching. She wanted to give her a chance to tell her to go away. She didn't wish to force her presence upon her.
At Palakka the suli can only chuckle, They mean marks, like little ridges you might say. It could mean all sorts of things. Growing. Being organized. Maybe even constructed?
As Cale speaks Abbas shrugs, Well I certainly am not who I was before. The voice in the center area certainly confirmed that...
As Kalasin rounds the far side of the stone, she finds Lilandra slowly pacing back and forth with one of the leather bound journals she'd requested from the Voice open in her hand. The elven woman looks up as the other approaches.
She shuts the journal and raises it briefly, wagging it slightly in the air as she does. "I started writing in this shortly after we got on the boat, you know. I've been recording what I know of the egg and what I know of how I- how we, came to be here. I've been recording instructions, a letter to the new, truly free version of Lilandra to help ease her through the trauma of opening her eyes with no memories of anything or anyone, but being here before this strange rock again- I find myself lacking the nerve to etch my name upon it." The hand holding the journal falls to her side at this, as she looks from Kalasin to the giant rock.
"I just feel so lost now, like nothing is real." Her voice is soft and sad as she reaches up and touches the face of the egg with her empty hand. She glances back to Kalasin expectantly and shrugs.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Abbas consider the stone pieces carefully as he passes them to Grim, I'm not sure what you might think this is but based on what the locals have taught me and what things I seem to simply know from the back of my head this is volcanic rock. Basalt. An entire egg made of this in the middle of this land? So strange... Abbas looks off to the horizon and then over to see Kalasin and Lilandra talking off a bit.
Looking at Palakka, Cale, Grim and Goragg Abbas gestures to the egg, Not sure what more there is to see here. But I can verify it does work... Abbas' gaze lingers overly long on the egg as he speaks.
Something about the gouge that was put into the egg seems different.
Something about the gouge that was put into the egg seems different. Then it hits you, the discolorations on the stone from the hit seem to be fading. Looking closer, the bottoms of the gouges seem to have smoothed over ever so slightly.
Oops! Sorry, the spoiler for Abbas should have been for you, I was in the airport when I posted. No accrette, just pure basalt.
Cale places a hand on it feeling the rock.
"Strange that such as you remains here in an unchanging landscape....."
Cale do you think it would be possible to dig a bit under to egg in order to see if "it" is attached to anything? he says still working over on his portable lab
The rock remains unresponsive to Cale's caresses.
Furrowing his brow for a second Abbas drops his bag and pulls a shovel working his way into the trench so there is space enough for both the suli and hobgoblin and then working down and across as necessary.
The two spend the rest of the day digging out a 10ft square area next to the egg.
They get down about 3 ft, by the time it's turning dark. The egg continues to curve in as they dig. Based on the size and the curvature, the egg's bottom is probably another 3-4 feet down and centered under the egg.
Based on how big the egg is, and how little of the egg is actually under the ground now that the digging has been carried out, the egg should not be stable and should have fallen over at the first good wind.
"I've learned that when you've lost your way, that it can take someone else to help you find it again. I've been lost. When Granny died, everything I knew changed. My world felt destroyed, shattered beyond repair. She was the only family I had. I barely wanted to live. If this egg had been available to me, I have little doubt that I would have chose to forget all of it, even Granny." Kalasin absentmindedly messed with her locket and the holy symbol handing near it as she remembers.
"Most of my time was spend laying under the light of the moon, wishing for the pain to stop. That's... That's when she found me. Ashava saw my lost soul and came to guide me out. Without her help, I doubt I would even be here. She helped me find my way again. Since then, I help guide those I can, as she helped guide me."
Kalasin moved forward and placed a hand on Lilandra's shoulder with a gentle smile on her face. "Here, in this world, we are still alive. While this world is not ours, that is not to say it can't be real. It's just not the reality we are used too. I don't know all the hows and the whys for the voice choosing us and this place, but I can keep on living with the chance I've been given. I choose to keep my memories, the good and the bad. That said, I can't make the choice for you, because it is your choice to make. But whatever option you decide to choose, I'll help you through it. You won't have to be alone."
Lilandra smiles wanly at Kalasin's offer, nodding appreciatively at the kind gesture. "That's what's so troubling though, you didn't find Ashava. Just like I've never hugged my mother or wrestled with my younger brother. Those things happened to other people." She pauses and turns back to the egg, "It's left me wondering, just because I remember something doesn't mean it's real. I remember the feeling of the rocks pressing against my back and the blood running down the side of my face when I was caught in a collapsing tunnel. But those events never happened to me; they happened to Lilandra. And while I call myself Lilandra, I'm not really her am I? That realization leaves me so cold inside, Kalasin."
She looks back to Kalasin at this and her brow wrinkles with worry, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply your faith wasn't real. Please don't take it that way. I just- I just don't know how to reconcile all of this. Do I owe anything to the real Lilandra who died in that tunnel? Even if I do, is it worth remaining unknowingly bound to an indifferent, intangible Voice from Elsewhere?" She sighs and her shoulders slump.
The woman calling herself Lilandra pauses again, her gaze falling to the journal in her hand. "It's a lot to think on and, even after how long it took us to come back here, it's still dizzying." She nods to the far side of the giant rock with a thrust of her chin, "It makes me almost envy their mutual disregard for all of this, for all the implications, all the consequences."
"Strange even though I would say I'm but a fair hand at building, this egg should have blown over at the first strong breeze. It doesn't have a base to stand on to make it stable and somehow it just is. A perfect marvel I'd call it. There has to be something else to it."
Cale looks around as the others continue their dig.
Nothing happens throughout the night.
The next morning, Goragg continues to dig under the egg.
The dirt under the egg isn't compacted. It's the same consistency as the dirt several feet away.
After a full day of digging, Goragg has excavated a tunnel underneath the egg, and found the 'tip' of the egg. It appears as smooth as the rest of the egg.
See we are uncovering interesting facts about this Egg. thank you Goragg and cale says grim as he takes a sample of the dirt under the egg
it should have tipped long time ago and the earth beneath it should have been compacted. The most intriguing thing is that it is made of pure basalt and nothing special. Maybe it is the content that make it so special.
"That's the mystery. This egg should have fallen over many times back but it isn't."
Abbas continues to aid Gorrag and as the others comment on the eggs nature the suli warrior shrugs, IS it even really sitting on the dirt?
Goragg's muscles strain and he grunts and gives a mighty heave...
...and other than a vein pulsing on his forehead...
...nothing happens.