GM Elberion's To Seal The Shadow (Inactive)

Game Master GeraintElberion

GM: Is there a response to Eka's last question?

"Sure, let'ss go talk to people. Maybe we'll ssee who'ss ass ssurprissed ass uss about what happened in the arena." Eka is in a foul mood. She has no problem with going through the ceremony, but it isn't right for troublemakers to try to kill the Pathfinders without even trying to talk out their differences first.

Glowering behind her mask, Eka's breath seethes loudly through her nostrils. Hmph. "Do thiss or rissk myssteriouss peril." Well, that'ss on par with many of the Ssociety'ss misssionss. Her muscles ripple as she rises to her full height. "But iss there pressedent for what happened jusst now in the arena? And if not, perhapss you should tell uss more of what to exsspect for the nexsst trialss."

Harjandi shakes her head, "In all my time, never."

The mayor jumps in, "And I've not heard any old stories either. I mean, apart from the first one. That must have been fought in earnest."

Okay, give me some details about where you are going to go looking for answers (stopping people in the street, asking children, talking in bars, asking shopkeepers, consulting officials...) and make a gather information check.

Does anyone want to do something different?

Don't forget to read the debate rules in the discussion thread. Everyone needs to get the basics or running that will make my head explode!

Lydia sets out for the one place she knows she can always find somebody worth talking to: The local graveyard.

In a place like this, it must be a doozy, too...!

Yulau suggests the local inn/watering hole. ”No better place in town to get people talking than where they are drinking,” she points out. ”Anyone else in with me? Don’t fancy heading out alone after all this.”

Eka watches Lydia head off to the graveyard. Ssomeone should go with her, but my sskillss work better on the living. "I will join you , Yulau." She flexes her muscles as she grips her own bardiche. With a hint of ominousness, she intones: "Let'ss talk to ssome localss."

"Uhm...Lydia will you need an escort to your destination? I fear there may be people that want outsiders gone one way or another. If not I can join the others talking to the patrons of the bar." Okaze asks as Lydia begins to head away from the group.

Lydia emits a short, wheezing, laugh-like noise at Okaze's observation. "Find me someplace where there aren't, why don't you? Fine, sure, whatever."

Okay, Khoda's player is out so...

As you are hatching plans, Khoda makes a face and staggers toward the latrines. After a few moments, the sounds become embarrassing and the smell so unpleasant that you all have to move further away.

Harjandi promises that he will be taken to the best doctors and clerics as you hear him mutter, "Too many 10,000 year old picked snakes..."

Lydia & Okaze - graveyard
Yulau & Eka - bar

Miseria?

Miseria doesn't commune with the dead and so she heads to the bar.

A kitsune, a nagaji and a tiefling walk into a bar...

The bar is dimly lit but your eyes are all comfortable with the conditions. The tables are all circular and made of twisting threads of wrought iron shot through with copper wires.
A few groups sit around tables, talking in hushed tones which you have become used to since arriving in Inahiyi.

The bar has no 'bar' at which to order, instead you see waiters taking orders from tables. The waiter all wear conical hats with glinting copper tracery and you realise why the bar is called The Writhing Spirit of Metal.

As you take a seat, a short wayang flits over to your table and gives a serious nod, "What pleasures do you seek, good masters?"

Meanwhile, Lydia and Okaze have to walk some way across the city to reach a burial ground. A delicately traced archway of black stone etched with spirals marks the entrance to the site. An unoccupied shrine to Pharasma is near the entrance.
The graveyard within is a series of large mounds with stone entrance ways in the side. Each entrance has an ornate decorative door. These doors however are not locked.
The closest doors are marked, respectively, with twisting flowers, shadowy hounds or a geometric pattern of triangles and diamonds.
Which door will you choose?

Within lies a chamber with three sections.

At the back, alcoves in the wall contain cream-coloured urns.
Toward the middle, piles of bones are neatly arranged on grey stone tables.
At the front, a dry, semi-decomposed corpse is stretched out on a glimmering crystal platform, supported by six glistening metal legs.

Lydia tries the door with the mysterious geometric pattern.

”Three cool beverages will be wonderful,” Yulau advises the server.

Once the server heads off to collect the drinks, the kitsune tries to listen to the conversation around her, hoping to pick up any information on the festival going on around her.

Perception 1d20 ⇒ 15

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

Okaze walks alongside Lydia as she chooses a door until he starts hearing a voice behind them that causes a chill to run down his spine.

"Lydia, do you hear that? Either there is a ghost in this graveyard or I may be losing my mind. I am not used to communing with the dead..." he asks nervously staring into the area the voice is permeating from.

A kitsune, a nagaji and a tiefling walk into a bar...

Hahahaha!

Eka allows Yulau and Miseria to go ahead of her. Indeed, the unease she always feels around Miseria is just cause enough to want to avoid having that one behind her. Aware that her imposing height and build have a tendency to seem at first glance to be more intimidating than friendly, she is initially inclined to let Yulau start the talking. Of coursse, with the two of *uss* with her, no one will think she'ss ssimply a friendly lasss. Her eyes flit to Miseria before darting away to survey the scene. She tries to nonchalantly determine who, if anyone, may be watching them, and if their interest is simply based on the novelty of this odd group, or something more useful.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Sense Motive: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (6) - 1 = 5

"Lydia, do you hear that? Either there is a ghost in this graveyard or I may be losing my mind. I am not used to communing with the dead..."

"Alright, alright, both of you," Lydia replies without breaking stride. She seems to be in a better mood than earlier. "It always gets to this part," She pauses for a moment, then adds, as if in reply, "Yes, I know about last time, let it go. Urrhg. No time like the present, right?"

Lydia turns around and centers herself in the chamber as best as the architecture will allow; as she does so, the muting of ambient hues that seems to follow Lydia everywhere she goes now intensifies and spreads, casting the already-gloomy Wayang crypt in downright-impossible extremes of black and white. She begins an occult incantation:

"As I travel Night's domains,
I see wounds gape through the planes.
Enter now this house of rot,
Fomalhaut,
FOMALHAUT,
FOMALHAUT!!!"

With the minutest flicker in the air, like a heavy eye suddenly blinking open, the light and color (such as it ever was) returns to the chamber, and all is as it was before.

With one exception...

...namely, that Lydia's shadow is gone from behind her...and is now standing upright next to her like a twisted and utterly-black wraith with features that continuously shift and writhe as you watch, with the exception of one constant: A single, terrible, massive, unblinking eye...

...that, and one of the cheerful paper hats from the festival earlier.

"Well, now this is more like it! Damn civilized," Announces the entity, in a stronger iteration of the voice you'd heard just a minute ago, as it takes in the crypt. Its gaze eventually gets around to Okaze.

"...And how are you? A fine, fine place you have here, but if you're here to take my hat, I think I shall keep it, if it's all the same."

After a moment's consideration, the thing extends a spidery-looking pseudopod-claw, as if in greeting.

Okaze nervously shuffles around while Lydia begins her incantation. He had little experience with ghosts in his journeys and Lucentis was waiting outside the chamber.

She is an ally so this ritual shouldn't be a threat....still.

As the new shadow peers at him he looks back for a moment to make sure it wasn't addressing someone behind the wayang.

"I-I am quite well since I wasn't hearing things and you seem to be a denizen of the shadows rather than a ghost! Please keep your hat as I prefer hoods." Okaze says almost in relief that it wasn't a ghost around them. He pauses for a moment then sheepishly extends his own claw.

He then looks to Lydia expectantly.

"I feel this isn't a spirit from the graveyard. Are you two bonded?"

At The Writhing Spirit of Metal

The server brings three drink in horn cups. At first glance they look like milk but the taste has the heat of alcohol and a strong flavour of cardamon.
She also brings a small platter with a few cold cuts, various pickles and a little bowl of some kind of crunchy noodles and small nuts covered in a spicy salt.

The Writhing Spirit of Metal is cool and calm but whenever the door opens you are reminded of the bustle of the festival outside.

Eka notices two interesting tables. At one, two wayangs talk with unusual animation, flicking their fingers to emphasise points and occasionally talking above a whisper. At another, two younger wayangs went completely quiet when you entered the bar and are now barely whispering to each other. Several times, their eyes drift surreptitiously back to your table and then dart away.

In the interest of moving things forward, I'm going to assume Eka will give us an indication of the interesting tables.

Misera stands up and walk towards the table with the younger wayangs. Each step is deliberate an imposing, bringing the velstrac-spawn's superior size to bear as she approaches the tables, towering over them.

"Do we frighten you," she asks, thinking she already knows the answer.

Miseria's query carries in the quiet sussurus of the room. If they weren't before, they are now! Wary of making things worse, Eka watches their reaction closely to see if she needs to go ease their minds somehow.

Sense Motive: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16

"I feel this isn't a spirit from the graveyard. Are you two bonded?"

"My, my, aren't we terribly forward?" Fomalhaut chuckles (a sound like the rustling and crunching of Autumn leaves) as he shakes Okaze's claw; his firm grip feels like gelid gelatin.

"As for what I am, well...Lydia is a Threshold, and hence I am the obligatory Lurker-Upon. Call me a bon vivante, if you will. None know how to live better than the dead! I think that's what I'm here for, to tear Countess Gloom over yonder away from her reading desk long enough to see how to be the LIFE of the party! It is toilsome and exasperating work, Abaddon knows, but I persevere out of love...." Fomalhaut pinches the sides of his necromass as slivers of it morph into something like coat lapels, and his eye begins staring wistfully into the distance...

...and Lydia crosses her arms, lets down her shoulders, and gives Okaze a "welcome to my world" sort of look.

The two wayangs look up at Miseria. one is... insubstantial; the other has a complex array of piercings around each ear.
The feintly drawn one scowls and shakes its head, "No, you don't scare us. It's just-"
The other butts in, "It's a farce is what it is. A load of blow-hard showing off from a spiv like Farzhan."
Then her friend jumps back in, "We don't need anyone interfering. Fancying the place up, all noisy and clumsy and garish." It snorts derisively, "Inahiyi is somewhere a for wayangs. These are our shadows."
The wayang with the pierced ears shudders in a way that might be a shrug, "Nothing against you personally. You've done nothing wrong. It just isn't right."
"Aye, bringing you hot-bloods in just for a show."
"At least you've bought a lost shade home with you."
"But, really, you wouldn't want us wandering around your home town, now would you?!"

The volume of their talk rises until it is close to normal speaking volume in a place like Absalom. Suddenly, they realise how loud they have become and fall silent.

At the graveyard, you hear a tinkle of small bells and a shadow falls across the entrance. Soft singing and gentle footsteps pass by the entrance.

Ah, good. They will talk to her. Now, about thosse other two... Eka subtly indicates the other group. "Do you want to talk to them, or should I?"

”Greetings to you two,” Yulau says as she greets the other table of wayangs. ”I’m Yulau. Nice to meet you both. How do you feel about us being here to help celebrate all the festivities,” she asks, knowing they heard the eruption from the nearby table.

"I think you would be well tolerated in my home city, you might never rise to more than mere servants there though, but you would not be feared or abhorred. For I come the land of shadows just like your ancestors did."

"Why don't you come join us, perhaps tell us your side of the story."

Okaze has a nervous forced smile stretching across his face as he thinks about how to respond.

"You two seem like a wonderful team. Did you hear that? I think we should investigate that singing. Maybe a gravekeeper...I hope." Okaze says leaving the chamber to search for the noise patting Lucentis for waiting outside.

”Greetings to you two,” Yulau says as she greets the other table of wayangs. ”I’m Yulau. Nice to meet you both. How do you feel about us being here to help celebrate all the festivities,” she asks, knowing they heard the eruption from the nearby table.

The animated wayangs smile, one has a blue tint to its form, "Kids are always worked up about something, don't worry about them."

Their partner nods, "They've got too much free time, that's their problem."

"I think you would be well tolerated in my home city, you might never rise to more than mere servants there though, but you would not be feared or abhorred. For I come the land of shadows just like your ancestors did."

"Do not let my otherwise human appearance fool you. Do you see these scars running down my arms and along my neck? They are not battle scars, but birthmarks. I am spawn of the velstracs. Those who follow Kaikyton stitched together my shell from human flesh that which cover a heart of darkness inside me."

"Why don't you come join us, perhaps tell us your side of the story."

The wayangs look at you in confusion and, perhaps, disgust?

"Um, err, right..."

"I think, what we're trying to say is..."

"Yeah, I mean... no offence but that's the whole thing. What's velerstarks and Cacitons? That's not anything to do with Inahayi."

"Exactly." The ephemeral one crosses their arms and sits back like a final statement has been made, "Exactly."

Okaze has a nervous forced smile stretching across his face as he thinks about how to respond.

"You two seem like a wonderful team. Did you hear that? I think we should investigate that singing. Maybe a gravekeeper...I hope." Okaze says leaving the chamber to search for the noise patting Lucentis for waiting outside.

Outside, a decorated hand-cart, piled with firewood and herbal plants, is being pushed along by a wayang. Small bells hang from the front of the cart.

Hmm... Who to join? My pressensse may hinder Yulau'ss converssation more than Misseria'ss. Well, here goes... Grabbing the back of her chair, Eka swings it around and places it at the younger, louder wayang's table so that when she sits, she's straddling it facing them. "Sso talk to uss. We want to undersstand well enough to resspect your culture. What do we need to know about all of thiss and how we as outssiders pertain, or not, to it."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

”Yes, we are here to learn and be respectful of your history and traditions. We do not want to step on anyone’s toes in the village.”

Just to be clear, the suspicious ones are the younger ones.vThe more animated ones are older (although, as wayangs, hard to tell more than that.

The blue-tinted wayang shrugs, I was always told that it went both ways: we had to fight the others, we had to talk to the others; we had to trade with the others, we had to provide for ourselves... What was it Sarangya always said?"

The other replies, "You've got to look after everyone, just start closest to you and work your way out."

"That is beautiful." Okaze thinks out loud before slowly walking up to the wayang.

"Hello, I don't want to startle you but my name is Okaze. I am a visitor here. The song you are singing is wonderful. I am not familiar with it but it certainly resonates. May I have your name?" he asks in the native tongue.

The wayang pauses and looks at Okaze, "Oh, well, hello. I am Oboskursuma Karavinek. And the song, it is the song we always sing at a tending."

He lifts up the cart handles again, "I must get going, it shall be a busy day. Are you going my way?" Oboskursuma nods further down the path, "or is your tending in there?"

Yulau wasnt finding the discussion particularly effective. It was fine to meet the townsfolk, but it didn’t seem they were winning any of them over. She was ready to head back out and get on with the competition. At least she doubted there would be spears this time.

"Oh, well I am...not from here. So I am not familiar with the tending. I have been wandering to try and learn as much as I can. It is a peculiar situation being an outsider but around other so many of my people for the first time. I am not sure if I am wanted especially with my companions who are not Wayang. Can I walk with you and hear your views?" Okaze offers to help so he can speak with them. He looks back wondering where Lydia is and if her companion will complicate things.

The wayang leads Okaze on, "Ah, you have never been at a tending. Well..." He grunts as he bumps the wheelbarrow over some uneven ground, "I will have to give you an education. I go to tend my family tomb. The ancestors fall further into shadow as time goes on, until they are lost. My uncle has been In Repose for several months and it is time for his Gathering."

The wayang leads you into another mound, within there are the bones in deep recesses and a few neat piles on tables near the back. On a long table at the front, a complete skeleton lies, yellowed and almost clean of decay.

Oboskursuma takes a bucket of soapy water and a set of rag-cloths from his wheelbarrow, "I will clean Uncle Tendeskay's bones now, and gather them in the gloaming," He indicates the tables containing neat piles, "Otherwise, he'll end up all over the floor." He stoops down and retrieves a few toe bones that have tumbled off the table as the corpse decayed.

"Would you like to help me?"

Yulau wasnt finding the discussion particularly effective. It was fine to meet the townsfolk, but it didn’t seem they were winning any of them over. She was ready to head back out and get on with the competition. At least she doubted there would be spears this time.

Essentially, the wayang are a diverse people with robust traditions of debate and public disagreement. There is no single party-line in Inahiyi and no clear division between the attitudes of young and old.

However, there are few non-wayang who live in, work in or visit Inahiyi. Although contact is rare, it does happen. This means that older people, for all kinds of reasons, are more likely to be comfortable with outsiders.

I hope I have also made it evident that wayang views on the ceremony vary wildly from 'an excuse for a party' to 'an essential ritual without which we will all die'. And nobody can say for sure which is correct.

Everyone who is talking to wayangs can make a diplomacy check to gather information.

Lydia and Fomalhaut follow Okaze and Oboskursuma.

Sorry, just can't think of much to contribute at the moment.

Upon seeing the venerable skeleton, Lydia contemplates her surroundings with her second sight; a place like this must surely have stories beyond count, to those who know how to read them....

I have another idea if nothing interesting comes out of that, but it will take a little more effort to pull off....

Oboskursuma steps back in surprise as Formhault enters the chamber. His eyes flash between Okaze and the newcomers as he sees they know one and other, "What's going on?"

Diplomacy 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18 to gather information

"Nice to meet you too," Replies Fomalhaut without missing a beat. "Some wise elder realized this fine, fine necropolis nonetheless wasn't dark and gloomy and foreboding enough, so they sent for an expert. How do you do?" He again extends a clawed pseudopod in greeting, and his great eye attenuates and curves upward in a mockery of a salesman-like grin.

Diplomacy (could be Perform {Comedy} if you prefer): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

"Oh I would very much like to assist you. The ancestors are something I am very interested in...what can I do to assist?" he says following her lead throughout the process.

When Fomalhaut enters Okaze nods.

"Oh yes, that is Fomalhaut. We just met recently but he seems very polite. He is the companion to Lydia, another visitor. We are participants in the festival. We wanted to get to know the people of Inahiyi before the debate." he says feeling a bit embarrassed that he didn't think to make introductions sooner.