For that kind of power you'd need a bolt of lightning

[Ebiris]

[18:06] <~Kotono> Again it is like growing, sprouting, sporing. The party appears just outside of Malaines, in the shade of several trees. It's ferociously sunny, the heat baking everything here. From a distance, the city is bustling. You can see a lot more elves on the streets, at least on a glance.
[18:06] <@John> "Looks like they're doing well," John says, approaching the town.
[18:08] <~Kotono> Myann follows along, "This is so unbelievably useful," she comments. "It's like stepping to the neighbor's instead of a week's trip."
[18:09] <Gildas> Gildas nods. "It does take some of the excitement out of traveling, though."
[18:11] <Feather> "No branches hitting your head as you go, too."
[18:11] <~Kotono> OOC: Are y'all going anywhere in particular here?
[18:11] <Gildas> OOC: I suppose the best thing would be to talk to the mayor?
[18:11] <Feather> OOC: Let's see the mayor/
[18:14] <~Kotono> A trip to the mayor's manor is without incident. There's the now familiar cleaning and flower garlands, the party settling in over a few snacks and water. The maid bows, "The mayor will be along shortly," she says, "But he's finishing refugee business right now. Please, be comfortable until then."
[18:15] <~Kotono> Myann sits back, nibbling on a crispy bit of fried honey. "Mmm-hmm," she murmurs, eyes closed and a little smile on her face.
[18:15] <Feather> "Sounds like he could use our help?"
[18:16] <Gildas> Gildas takes a snack to chew on.
[18:17] * @John idly looks out the window and zones out while waiting.
[18:18] <~Kotono> It all looks like fried honey. It's tasty, sweet and a bit crunchy. The party kills about a half hour before the mayor comes in. "Humanfriends," he greets, coming in to sit down. "Are you here about the refugees?"
[18:19] <Feather> "That we are, friend," Feather responds happily.
[18:20] <~Kotono> "Any help would be favored," he says, getting right to it. "What can you do?"
[18:21] <Feather> "We got ourselves a brand new magical castle, complete with a portal that leads nearby. How's that for starters?"
[18:23] <~Kotono> "That's amazingly good," He says, rather slowly. "Stunningly good."
[18:23] <@John> "Folk've been by to trade our food with you, right?" John checks, vaguely recalling Robert mentioning something a few weeks ago along those lines once the big vegetables started appearing. "Portals'd make the journey easier."
[18:23] <~Kotono> "Y-yes," he says after a beat, shaking his head, "A magical castle. Food too."
[18:24] * Joins: Corwin (~DarkFlame@bzq-109-66-132-179.red.bezeqint.net)
[18:24] * Corwin is now known as Feather_
[18:24] <Gildas> "It's best to not really spend too much time dwelling on why we suddenly have a castle." Gildas says. "If possible."
[18:24] <Feather_> "It's some strange magic that was lost for ages," Feather elaborates. "Not lost now, though! So there's that, and we can bring plenty food and other, uh, essentials over real quick. Little danger of getting attacked in the woods during the trip, either. Of course, folks could visit each other easy enough, so no need to break apart friends and family. And there's all that space to live in."
[18:25] * Quits: Feather (~DarkFlame@109.66.132.179) (Ping timeout)
[18:26] <~Kotono> "Yes. And if the regular crops aren't enough, we have a bumper crop of mushrooms," Myann adds, "Food won't be a problem at all."
[18:27] <Feather_> "Might even have time to deal with other things, like normal trade and luxuries and stuff like that?"
[18:28] <~Kotono> "This portal, can I see it?" The mayor asks after some consideration.
[18:29] <Feather_> "Sure? They won't be expecting us back till a bit later, but it's just some waiting."
[18:30] <@John> "Yeah, only opens on one end but when it's open you can go both ways," John says.
[18:31] <~Kotono> "If that's true, we can do a lot," he says, "We can sort this all out well and see to the refugees. Even take more of them," he admits, "It's ugly over west."
[18:32] <@John> "S'a shame," John shakes his head in sadness at the senseless conflict.
[18:33] <Gildas> "Maybe once we have things sorted out here we can see if we can help them." Gildas offers.
[18:33] <~Kotono> OOC: Ready to skip along?
[18:34] <Feather_> OOC: Sure
[18:34] * Feather_ is now known as Feather
[18:42] <~Kotono> From there is a little bit of portal waiting, then a trip back and forth. The Mayor's eyes are wide as he tours the castle briefly and then back. His hands shake as he replies, "Such magic and that castle. If there's space, we could start bringing over refugees immediately."
[18:43] <Feather> "We need some of those magic rooms clear, but the rest's just begging to be used, I reckon."
[18:43] <Gildas> Gildas nods. "We can figure out exactly how much room we have."
[18:44] <~Kotono> The mayor offers his hand out at that, "We'll see what we can do in payment," he says, "But we'll figure something out."
[18:46] * Feather is all too happy to shake it. "Glad to help, 'specially with folk who need it."
[18:46] <@John> "Yeah, having more folks around'll brighten the place up anyway," John says. So long as they don't just offload all the troublemakers here.
[18:49] <~Kotono> From there, the rest of the day passes in getting people to and back. You'd guestimate about a hundred refugees all told. Getting them settled in and moving the mushroom gold out of the portal path goes past sundown. The party shares a simple dinner at Feather and Myann's, "By the way, I've been having the mushrooms look around the upper floors. There's what you'd expect. Plenty of rooms and
[18:49] <~Kotono> nice things, as well as some art if we need to make money fast." Meanwhile, there's a knocking on the door.
[18:51] <Gildas> "Nice things? Anything we'd use, you think?" Gildas asks, before he looks over at the door.
[18:51] <Feather> "Not bad-- I'll get it." Feather stands up, heading over to answer the door.
[18:51] <~Kotono> "Mushroom art. Lots of mushroom art," Myann makes a face as she smiles, "I'll get-oh." Settling back down as Feather beats her to it, "Cheerful mushroom art. The mushrooms seem so happy today."
[18:52] <~Kotono> The door opens. There's two people there in the night's darkness. The first is Kral, cleaned up if still limping a bit. The other is Vasili. The two are standing several steps apart. "Evening," Kral greets, "I came by to talk."
[18:53] <Feather> "Evening!" Feather returns, wondering if Vasili can enter without an invitation.
[18:53] <Gildas> Gildas raises a hand in greeting.
[18:55] <~Kotono> Kral comes on in, while Vasili raises his hand likewise. "May I come in?" he asks.
[18:55] <@John> "Hullo," John says, looking up from dinner.
[18:56] <Feather> "Sure thing," Feather agrees, his question answered.
[18:59] <~Kotono> Once in, Kral joins the others while Vasili stays standing. Myann quickly fixes him up a plate of mushrooms and vegetables as he speaks. "The Circle's defunct, as all of you know. The Dreamer's gone - not dead, gone. She visited when that castle appeared." Starting on his food, a pause to try it before going on, "She said she was going deep into the realm of dreams, beyond the waking world
[18:59] <~Kotono> entirely."
[19:00] <@John> "Yeah, was some heavy stuff when we last saw her," John agrees.
[19:01] <Gildas> "Ah, so that's where she's off to." Gildas nods.
[19:02] <~Kotono> "That must be why." Kral merely says after eating more. "She mentioned all of you had a daring plan."
[19:03] <Gildas> "If we hadn't dealt with most everyone from that fellowship, changing the castle probably would've gotten their attention..." Gildas says with a shake of his head.
[19:05] <~Kotono> "Yes. So are all of you going to do it, and more importantly, can I do anything to help?" Kral asks.
[19:07] <@John> "I dunno," John admits. "We really need to get down there and see how it's all set up before we can figure out how to fix it. We want the fey to lose their mantles without getting hurt or putting it all on one person. But we found this pixie who doesn't have a mantle, she's like a normal fairy like they were before mantles showed up. I was figuring she could kinda like... be a guide for the mantle removing thing, make it smoother and not as dangerous for everyone?"
[19:08] <Feather> "And maybe they could have the mantles, but... I dunno. If they're mostly crazy now, maybe what we do could make it so they're all mostly responsible and such?"
[19:10] <~Kotono> Kral crosses his arms as he listens. He gets up and starts to pace, limping in spite of it. "Maybe. Any solution that sobers the fey or gets rid of the mantles is an improvement."
[19:10] <~Kotono> "If all else fails, we can use my mantle," Myann speaks up, "I'm fairly sure I can make sure the results are benign, as long as you don't mind fungi."
[19:11] <Gildas> "I think there's information in the castle, probably within their books. That might give us some ideas on what to do." Gildas says, then nods to John. "He's right too, once we actually get to where everything is stored, we'll have a much clearer idea as well."
[19:11] <~Kotono> "It seems the mantles were given for a reason," Vasili speaks up now, "Is that reason no longer valid?"
[19:12] <@John> "Yeah they used it to fight off these aberration monsters," John tells the vampire. "They're all gone now, so yeah. We don't want crazy all-powerful fairies anymore."
[19:13] <Feather> "But say the monsters come back," Feather voices. "Not like we're gonna break this thing. If we gotta, we could always add better mantles later. Or someone else could?"
[19:14] <~Kotono> A nod from Vasili, "Aberrations are serious but fairly rare," he says, "Friends, as long as they don't come back, that's a manageable risk."
[19:14] <Gildas> "We can't say for certain what sane fey would or wouldn't do." Gildas says with a nod. "They might just stay... on their side, so to speak and exert their control over the world there. For all we know, we could even ask the royals to simply ensure that they try to keep to their side of things."
[19:15] <Gildas> Gildas continues, "Admittedly, we have no idea if the royalty would agree..."
[19:15] <Feather> "Yeah we're not asking them. They're all crazy right now anyway."
[19:16] <Gildas> "They might listen to the Ex-King." He says.
[19:16] <Feather> "The one who said they all hated him enough to kill him?"
[19:16] <Gildas> "They might not hate him once they're not insane."
[19:17] <Feather> "Maybe!"
[19:17] <@John> "The thing is, even if they're sane, they can still get pissed off," John says. "And if they're all-powerful that'll get messy for the rest of us."
[19:18] <Gildas> "Well, unless we're going to try and seal off all the Fairy Circles everywhere, I'm not sure we can do much but to try and get more information." Gildas says.
[19:18] <~Kotono> "We can worry about that when we get there," Myann suggests, "It sounds like we have some studying ahead with those books, anyway." Here she pauses, "I know. If we do that, what the Fellowship feared can come to pass." She gives John a look after that, but slowly shakes her head.
[19:18] <Feather> "Could help, too," Feather muses. "We got this castle with crazy weird magic and it helps with the refugees. And we got enough food to last the winter with the mushroom magic."
[19:20] <~Kotono> "If you don't mind mushrooms, I think I could feed them forever," Myann remarks, "That's not a problem."
[19:20] <~Kotono> "Then we need ot read and prepare," Vasili says, "Where is this library?" OOC: Ready to move along, y'all?
[19:20] <Gildas> "I wonder if the gem fruits ever grew." Gildas muses. OOC: Sure.
[19:24] * Joins: Corwin (~DarkFlame@109.66.132.179)
[19:25] * Quits: Feather (~DarkFlame@bzq-109-66-132-179.red.bezeqint.net) (Ping timeout)
[19:27] <~Kotono> Days of sunshine and study pass - or shadows when Vasili reads at night. One evening the party is at the castle's upper tower. The second to top floor is taken up by stained glass windows of Myann's magical mushrooms. The full moon has risen and sends pale light through the windows, joining candle-light for illumination. The party's settled, everyone plus Vasili, Kral and Eltia. The last is
[19:27] <~Kotono> serving wine found in the castle - mushroom wine is possible, it looks like, and it's rather tasty in a different way. "We've finished our findings," he announces, "I'll summarize them now, as there were several helpful tomes."
[19:28] <Gildas> "I'm glad he was here, there were several in languages I've never even heard of." Gildas says with a smile and a nod.
[19:28] <~Kotono> Myann sits back in a plush, cushioned chair. She sips her wine and nods, "Let's do this."
[19:31] * Corwin figures that he would need to be slightly drunk to listen to this, and indulges himself properly.
[19:31] * Corwin is now known as Feather
[19:31] <~Kotono> "First of all, you understand what the mantles are? We know more of how they work now, how they communicate. There is a certain type of energy," Vasili explains, "That can be used to transmit sound and words, among other things. The mantle system amplifies that and tunes the fairy into it. These are called sound waves. It doesn't translate the meaning of what the mantle sends, that happens at
[19:31] <~Kotono> the fairy when they get the information. They also translate whatever they sends or command out before they send it. The system seems to be build around relays like that, with each fairy being one.""
[19:33] <~Kotono> "Which means?" Myann asks after a moment.
[19:34] <Gildas> "It's something like sonic-type magic... something you can't see, but you can hear, I believe." Gildas adds.
[19:35] <~Kotono> "By itself, not much." Vasili admits, "Let me continue. The main mantle system - it's called several things, like the garden, the dreaming garden, relay and so on. I get the feeling they never agreed on terminology or changed it a few times. If each fairy is a relay, that's the main source. It coordinates everything and ensures the mantles work. It powers the entire system and distributes mantles
[19:35] <~Kotono> as well."
[19:36] <~Kotono> "They did seem to like codenames," Myann observes idly. "Alright, so it's like a heart and the Sidhe are veins or arteries or some such?"
[19:36] <@John> "So does that mean if you like, put a fairy in a sealed room or got really far away from any other fairies, they'd lose access to their mantles?" John asks to clarify.
[19:37] <~Kotono> "No. The main system's too strong. It penetrates across layers of reality," Vasili shakes his head, "You'd need something really strong to do that. It's not practical. I think, theoretically, walls of force specially tuned to it in the shape of a force cube - which is another spell altogether - might be able to do it as long as it holds. But it's theoretical."
[19:39] <~Kotono> Going on from that, "The waves naturally bypass solid material and penetrate somewhat as it is. With the garden in play, they're so strong that no solid material can stop them. The system's also built with protection to stop attacks to it from an individual fairy."
[19:39] <@John> "Right, so it's not actual sound it just kinda works like it?"
[19:41] <~Kotono> "More or less," Vasili nods, "It's close enough. This energy's new and there's things to do with it...but yes, that's close enough." He nods again, "The garden's core is essentially what does all of this. It's dozens of wrapped and interlinked enchantments combined with an infinite energy source as well whatever's behind Unison. It got a little vagu there, I'm afraid." He slowly frows, thin-lipped.
[19:41] <~Kotono> "The energy source powers it all, the enchantments regulate it and the source of unison is what actually does it. It's modified, I gather, from what the Stratum does with it."
[19:43] <~Kotono> Here he pauses, "What we need to alter is the enchantments or the unison. The infinite energy source is stable so long as it isn't disturbed. Trying to stop that is dangerous. If it goes unstable..." Vasili spreads his arms out, "I don't know ohw big an explosion it would be, or if it would consume everything. At the same time, if we want to stop the system, finding a way to stop it from powering
[19:43] <~Kotono> the mantles is the simplest way."
[19:44] <Gildas> "Perhaps the best option would be to simply turn the... ah, noise down?" Gildas says. "Would that lessen the power of the mantles while also making it so they didn't permeate everything, perhaps?"
[19:53] <~Kotono> "It might," Vasili says, "That's one option. Another is to try and alter the enchantments and thus alter how the mantles are manifested. A third is to try and change the unison component directly. The first is the easiest but has little versatility. The second is harder but has a lot more room for creativity. The third is the hardest and perhaps the most fruitful, but we don't know much about
[19:53] <~Kotono> it yet. Alternately, fixing a mantle onto the garden will have it take over. That's what putting Myann's mantle on would do. Instead of broadcasting the mantles, it would broadcast them all. It would radically change the world. The good news i sthat since mantles respond to the fairy that has them, it wouldn't be an entirely bad result. Myann would have a lot of say so to how it was manifested."
[19:54] <~Kotono> Myann finishes her wine and gestures Eltia over, taking the entire bottle from her. As the purple haired bard gives her a look, Myann freshens her glass and offers the bottle to Feather. "It depends if we want to gamble and try the hard ways, or take easier options?"
[19:55] <Feather> "What about John's idea?" Feather asks, being lost already. He does happily accept more wine from Myann, of course.
[19:56] <@John> "Yeah, if we used Tangles instead of Myann for that last one, like a non-mantle instead of a mushroom mantle?"
[19:56] <Feather> "That even possible? And if it is, can we use us?"
[19:56] <Gildas> Gildas looks at the wine-drinking and shakes his head with a small smile.
[19:56] <~Kotono> "I'm not sure," he admits. "ASsuming it is possible, it would project her across all the mantles. It might do nothing, it might change every fairy into a copy of her or change them all into cute pixies," here he shrugs, "I tmight even do exactly as we hope."
[19:57] <Feather> "Any way to figure out more from their notes?"
[19:58] <~Kotono> "Not really. There's a lot of tangential information and technical notes, but I don't think the Fellowship fully understood the entire dreaming garden." He paces before the window, moonlight washing over him. "It may be this comes down to choosing what option we think is best and gambling, if studying it directly nets no more clues or we don't have the chance to."
[19:59] <~Kotono> Myann drains her glass at that, filling it up again. "Wonderful. Fucking wonderful." She growls that out, "So you're telling us we may have to play dice with this entire outcome?"
[19:59] <Feather> "So hey, different question. Were they better mages than us all when they thought it all up?"
[20:00] <~Kotono> "Yes. The work is rather advanced," Vasili admits, "That actually touches on an interesting point. Normally, research is advanced over time. Knowledge builds on itself, friends. They don't. At best they stayed stagnant, and late entries show what is almost a regression."
[20:01] <Feather> "My point is, if we can catch up, even if it takes a couple years, we could make our own garden with what we have here, right?"
[20:01] <~Kotono> "I suspect whatever means they used to extend their life were flawed," Kral speaks up, "I discussed this with Myann earlier, and she mentioned one of the Fellowship referred to stagnation?"
[20:02] <Gildas> "It didn't help that all they did was listen to each other." Gildas says with a frown. "There was no room for new ideas for most of them."
[20:03] <~Kotono> "In theory, perhaps," Vasili admits, "But there's one problem. Even if we get everything else, we need an infinite energy source. The mantle system takes up a tremendous amount of energy. A single minute of it takes up as much energy as..." he shuffles in his pockets, taking out a scrap of paper, "About 4,000 3rd circle spells."
[20:03] <Feather> "We could take theirs. Just not use the other stuff if it's not working for us."
[20:03] <Gildas> "Wow." Gildas says. "Where do you think they got the current one?"
[20:04] <~Kotono> "That's a good plan," Myann points out, "Take it, assuming we can, or at least build over the old one."
[20:04] <@John> "That'd drain the healing spring in a couple of minutes I reckon," John figures.
[20:04] <~Kotono> "They didn't say. The fairies provided it. All they know is that it's tied to the stars and starbirth, and the energy stars emit. Apparently stars and the sun emit unthinkable amounts of power," Vasili says, "The tiniest fraction of which reaches us as sunlight."
[20:04] <Feather> "No reason we gotta make ourselves fit to what they had. Heck, maybe they were right that there is no better option under their design. Don't mean we got to stick to it beyond the basics."
[20:08] <~Kotono> "Hm." Myann works on her third glass of wine. "Maybe."
[20:10] <~Kotono> "The infinite power source is safe, s olong as it isn't disturbed," Vasili goes on, "Which is why I emphasize being careful about it. Imagine if a star rises in that garden - literally."
[20:11] <Gildas> Gildas nods again. "Well... perhaps our best bet, then, is to actually prepare for the trip to get down there. Once we finally get there, we can see it for ourselves and then gather more information... that way we may not have to leave anything up to chance."
[20:13] <~Kotono> "We need to finish our preparations before committing," Myann points out, "We need to make our trip there count. Trading time for better odds makes a hell of a lot of sense."
[20:13] <@John> "I guess we're not really on the clock, since those Fellowship guys aren't gonna cause any more trouble," John agrees.
[20:14] <Feather> "Maybe Vasili or that Enforcer could even ask around?" Feather suggests. "See if what's left decided to change their minds about helping with this?"
[20:15] <~Kotono> "I can try," Vasili says, "I can also tell you this: You'll need as much skill in arcane knowledge and spell crafting as you can manage. That's the meat and potatoes of this problem. A knowledge of mind magic may be helpful for unison as well, should you interface with that part."
[20:15] <Feather> "Figured. Which is why it'd help."
[20:16] <Gildas> "We should find some books here that should at least help a bit with that." Gildas says. "I know I have an encyclopedia, we can probably get more information like that."