Game time

[Anastasia]

Last time, for reference:

It's absurdly long and complex, you can tell that much. Attempts to distill it or speed it up fail uniformly, and thus you begin it the long and hard way. While you aren't a trained mathematician, you are superhumanly intelligent and bolstered by as many means of supernatural power as you can lay hands on.

The math is intensely beautiful and complex, like entire worlds in each long equation that describes but one point of the great Prophecy of Primus and its conclusions. It's like reason, thought and power were distilled into formulae. It's like reading math with each number or letter beyond a word of power, resonating with the greater document in ways you can't even begin to comprehend.

You're certain a lesser mind would go mad merely reading this.

You're also certain it is the greatest thing you've ever read, as if Creation was formulated and expressed through this Prophecy.

After a day of study, you're convinced of one thing: You could spend eons plumbing every bit of the calculations here, and thousands and thousands of eons coming to fully appreciate and understand what Primus has written. Yet you begin to see the basics of it, the very beginning of it.

You also believe that you can go in several directions from here, all given from the insight of your research chops.

You could continue to study the Prophecy of Primus directly, learning more about it and gaining further insight in general.

You could attempt to find some bit of useful formulae and study it, and perhaps gain an insight and power from it.

You could attempt to find a trained mathematician or numerologist, which would doubtlessly provide additional insight and aid.

You could attempt to bolster your lawful nature somehow, as surely the unity would make it easier to understand such a fundamentally lawful thing.

You could attempt to find a way to make the words of power and the greater structure illuminate the way - high difficulty but possibly high reward, and possibly dangerous as well.

And now part 2.

With Thurmar's help and more time, you make headway.

"If nothing else," Thurmar says, "There's numerological patterns to be understood, if excessively complex. The sheer self referencing and interlocked nature of it's unlike any work I've seen before. That math flows together, and more than that, each answer suggests the next, building on it."

You can see the pattern yourself now, more evident with a ringer to help you in that field. It all leads to some sort of great final answer, though you're still quite far from it.

"The way it weaves in numbers and patterns that are words of power is remarkable," Thurmar continues, "You were correct about those. Numbers have power of course, everyone who is familiar with the field knows that, but I'm startled out comprehensive this set is."

[Corwin]

"My intention is to get as far as we can manage, and then have the words of power show us the rest of the way to the greater conclusion," Seira voices. "And once we've taken the whole thing in, something of this level of complexity would be altered by a single unforeseen variable. We just need to find the right spot to use it."

[Anastasia]

"That assumes it's possible and not accounted for," Thurmar says, tapping the scroll, "Anything like this tends to self reference and self reinforce. For example, have you ever read a Baatorian document? If you look carefully, the number nine will feature repeatedly and often, lending power and support to it, especially if used with any other relevant numbers. Imagine that on a far greater scale an far more empowered and you begin to get the lava flow of it. Properly done, it's hard to alter a system like that because it's so well reinforced by itself that a deviation is accounted for and corrected automatically."

"Are you saying that..." Here Kascha peers in at once such formula, "That it's a self reinforcing reality?"

"I wouldn't call it with those words, but yes," Thurmar explains, "If merely changing a number or adding a bit could invalidate such a grand calculation, what would be the point? Now it's possible the Beyond may suffice regardless, and if anyone could plan for that it would be Primus, but it won't be plugging in a single variable and gleefully watching it crash down."

[Corwin]

"Primus might be reinforcing reality in this manner, but he isn't the only one in play," Seira says reasonably. "Besides, Creation is not a deterministic multiverse. To even suggest it is ridiculous, since its most important rule is the existence and importance of free choice."

[Anastasia]

"What precisely do you mean by deterministic?" Elle asks at that, "It really depends on how you define terms."

"AHEM!" Thurmar clears his throat, "Winnowing down the vent of philosophy and definitions is a great way to waste time," he says, "When we aren't trying to do that, it's best avoided. You still test yourself against the magic, sight and mind of Primus, even if so."

Kascha studies the scroll a little more, "Saying it it or isn't doesn't help if we can't keep up with Primus and counter him," she says. "For our purposes, it doesn't matter because if we can't, it's meaningfully as if it was because we can't use that information to effectively prove that it isn't. In other words: We need to keep going and not put the cart ahead of the horse."

[Corwin]

"If we show him an alternate path, I believe Primus will actively move to counter Shar. So in a sense, we're trying for a self-fulfilling prophecy here ourselves. Now let's find that one thing unaccounted for, be it the Beyond or Antenora's ascension."

[Anastasia]

"Something, anything," Elle agrees, as...

Going to spend more time on it, then?

[Corwin]

Of course

[Anastasia]

Gimme the same checks again, spending another day on it.

[Corwin]

21:06 <Seira> roll 1d20+64+4+2+18+4 researcher
21:06 <Kobot> Seira rolled 1d20+64+4+2+18+4 researcher --> [ 1d20=13 ]{105}
21:06 <Seira> roll 1d20+20+2+2+20+4 int
21:06 <Kobot> Seira rolled 1d20+20+2+2+20+4 int --> [ 1d20=1 ]{49}

[Anastasia]

A day of work and you can tell one thing - so far, nothing seems unaccounted for. At least in the sphere you're slowly working through. Everything is incredibly interlinked and tight, leaving no openings that you can see for such a thing. Every time you think you have one, you soon find something that ties into it, denying that and strengthening the Prophecy.

It's rather like if you try and push someone aside, only to find two people are holding that person in place. You go to shove one of them, but two more are holding each of them, and in turn that lets that one holds the first one, who is surely holding someone else and so on and so forth. It's almost as if it's anticipating your questions and answering them by the very way it flows.

You feel as if you could sometimes stop thinking and simply follow the Prophecy, understanding that's complete and can provide you everything you need. You merely have to trust and submit to it.

You haven't hit on mention of the Far Realm yet, admittedly.

You now have a beginning grasp of the Prophecy of Primus. This grants a +1 bonus to any rolls related to it. You aren't remotely close to the full thing, but you at least understand how it's structured and how the logic tends to work.

[Corwin]

Seira maintains a wall of separation between her growing understanding of the Prophecy and her instinctual rejection of it. Thurmar might dismiss it as philosophy, but everything in Creation was made to seek the Answer and Primus's Prophecy isn't it. Seira's own belief is that the Answer is in cooperation for mutual benefit and the decent nature of people.

But there are concrete reasons to think the Prophecy is wrong, even if she won't voice them in present company. She knows far more of the Beyond than she's spoken, and she knows of Io's efforts. She knows of One, and of how Asmodeus and Zaphkiel must be working towards a common cause in saving Creation from Shar, which would no doubt shock most who learn of it. She knows of Ao's plans, and of the Arbiter's counter-plans, and Primus simply cannot be privy to all that for if his Prophecy had revealed suchit is likely Ao would have moved to neutralize the threat or merely rejected she and Alicia when they were candidates for Ascension. And finally, Primus cannot understand Hope properly. Could he have accounted for it, when Seira is the first deity to represent that power? What of how Hope saved Lifasa? Would Baator had moved against it if everything were predetermined, given how much they must have studied the Prophecy? Seira has to trust in herself and in that power to make a difference as she seeks to find her mathematical proof!

I will keep going for up to a week, unless I feel I'm treading water. Given I got a bonus for rolls, I feel I'm on the right path.

[Anastasia]

As you mull that all over, and during a break?

"Seira," Amaryl comes to you, hugging you from behind. "I have wondrous news - our war effort has become easier now."

[Corwin]

"How so?" Seira asks her curiously, startled from her thoughts.

[Anastasia]

"Alicia and Antenora reached Eblis," Amaryl explains, "He'll no longer interfere." Her smile is radiant, "He's no longer a factor on Fire at all."