Oddestsey V: The Seven Lords

[PyroTechnica]

Samira starts saving up as much money as she can, living off as little food as possible, and looking for a better job

[Alexjh]

DURG

Though he can't immediately find either Richfield or Bear in Mind, Durg is able to talk to the Sea Wizard.

"I am here purely to assist Bear in Mind as we arranged, though perhaps I could use a Space Ogre of your talents in acquiring the stone needed for the ritual. It may involve some amount of combat. That is, if you even would choose Bear in Mind for this - have you yourself any interest in winning?"

THE BEING
The Being prostrates himself before DeMerfrall, and beseeches him as planned. The Knight looks truly moved by such a gesture and reaches for his sword, but it's almost as if he can't quite reach it, just mere centimeters from the blade. His hand strains, and his face flushes red with exertion. He continues to push for it, but it's clear that there is some severe mental block in place.

"I must apologise righteous changeling, there is something I haven't admitted to anyone. A few days into this tournament I seem to have been struck with some kind of curse - I can no longer even hold the blade in my hands - I fear I am no longer the worthy wielder of this weapon. I cannot even rest my hand upon it. But I do not know what shame I could have done to achieve such - I do not believe I have caused any infamy that would justify it."

The hilt is well within your grasping reach.

SAMIRA/MIKHAIL
It seems that with the refugee crisis ongoing, the job market is flooded with prospective candidates (roll: 2). Samira manages to stash aside a little money, but not much. A modest amount of 500 credits, but perhaps that could be invested in a way that would allow her to make more money later.

[Madman]

"OH NO," DURG SAY. "DURG KNOW NOT MAKE GOOD LEADER OF WORLD. WANT KNOW ABOUT BEAR. YOU TRUST? IF TRUST, MAYBE DURG GO BREAK THING YOU NEED BREAK. DURG WANT YOU BE HONEST, THOUGH..."

[The Monsterworks]

The Being furrows its brow in concern. "Good knight...have you told anyone else of this curse? Surely you know it is no trifling matter. What measures have you taken to lift it? In the interest of the tournament, allow me to be of service in any way possible if we can yet lift it!"

[MadBull]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Madman</dt><dd>Mar 11 2018, 12:05 PM</dd></dl><div>

DURG THINK MAYBE TIME GET BACK WORK. ASK DINO MAN, BEAR, SEA WIZARD WHAT DO NEXT. ASK BEAR IF DURG HELP HE BE PERSON IN GAME, HOW HE NOT KILL OTHER PEOPLE IN GAME? HOW HE GET OUT GAME, OR HE WANT WIN AND BE NEW GOD?[/quote]Honestly I wanna infiltrate and see if I can calm the battle down from the inside, improvise once I'm in, see if that position gives new insights.

[That Kode Guy]

U-ugh... uggg...

SPLATTER.

Hey drama queen, you all right down there... ?

A-agh... ugh... I-I... m-maybe...

Shaking like mad, Tellu clumsily gets back to her feet, though still rather weak-kneed. All the information... all of it... the power... all the power... too much...

Gotta... contact... the others...

Tellu stumbles around to try and find any of the other arbiters... they need to know.

[Alexjh]

DURG
The Sea Wizard looks at Durg with a fierce intensity.

"I am yet to decide what I think of the prospect of Bear in Mind wielding such power - thus far he seems an amenable sort, but given his nature he would either be a very wise or disastrous choice for the role. He may reflect on how people perceive bears, but what happens if he steps beyond that role? Does having a being that changes so much mean he can be changed to suit the whims of others, or does it mean that Bears become overlords of us all if their avatar is ruler? I do not claim to be familiar enough with his nature to discern which...."

He catches Durg's somewhat glazed expression.

"errr..... BEAR SEEMS OK. BUT BEAR CHANGE WITH HOW PEOPLE THINK OF BEAR... MAYBE OTHERS CONTROL BEAR WITH THOUGHTS OR MAYBE ALL THE BEARS ARE KINGS. MAYBE SOMETHING ELSE. DUNNO"

"But the Bear isn't the only option, are there any others in the group you would trust with this more?"

At this point, Bear in Mind himself arrives and asks his question (see above)

THE BEING
DeMerfrall replies "It is my shame that I have not. I feared that if such knowledge should get out, it might make this camp a target if it were not seen as protected my presence. I have tried everything - I have meditated, I have performed rituals of atonement, I have eaten the Chicken Korma of Purification and sought out the wisdom of the Black Owl, and yet nothing. Perhaps you may help... with eyes unclouded by circumstance as mine are. What would you do?"

TELLU
Bear in Mind, Cyrus, Quinn, Durg and Richfield are all still around the castle, and though not in the same place, are easily found enough to talk to.

[That Kode Guy]

Tellu wanders around, and eventually stumbles onto the scene with Bear in Mind and Durg talking to some sort of wizard... it seems. Her vision's still spinning, but she tries to stay upright. She can see them about... some 50 feet away? Maybe. She opens her mouth to shout something at them, but at that moment she gets incredibly sick again and has to turn away.

No... i-it's no good... I-I need to rest again... damn it...

It's too bad that at that exact moment her legs give out again and she falls on her knees with a whimper. The separation from the Oak did a real number on her.

[PyroTechnica]

Samira decides to, well, spread negative rumours about the arbiters.

[NWOWWE]

Richfield finished reading the letter and was thinking it over when he heard what sounded like somebody falling down. He hurried to the location of the noise and saw that Tellu had collapsed. Evidently something very traumatic had happened to her. He walked over as quick as he could. He wasn't able to see much in the way of physical hurt.

"What happened to you?"

[That Kode Guy]

It takes Tellu half a minute, but she realizes someone is speaking to her and slowly twists her head... it's the dimetrodon, Richfield.

G-guh... at least SOMEONE came...

Very slowly, Tellu tells Richfield all about the Timesplitting Oak and what she found out, taking every few seconds to either cough or gasp, or even retch and nearly throw up again.

"I... I just don't know why it... it did this to me," Tellu croaks, finishing.

[NWOWWE]

Amazing Richfield thought as he took in all the information.

"At least you got some good information for all the hell that tree put you through. Now I have to insist you lie down and relax for a few minutes. People never treat physiological trauma with the proper respect. I'll take care of filling them in them." He gestured towards Durg and Bear in Mind.

[That Kode Guy]

Still feeling utterly ill, Tellu listens to Richfield and goes back inside to lie down.

[Venice Queen]

[Communicator message to Hortense:
"hey, what all can you tell me about SONA - I need help finding a way to destroy this golden watch and disable the golden man? Also do you know anything about someone called 'Sikander?'"]

Cyrus wanders out of the room he was in. He slept restlessly, still cautious of the castle. It was still a decent sleep, and he got some play time in on this new mandolin to help calm his nerves, so he was feeling a bit more centered. He then wandered by where Tellu was, and sighed. she's really a mental mess he thought as he touched his aura to hers. Calm...re-center...what's this all about anyway?

[Alexjh]

SAMIRA
Samira begins to spread rumours about the arbiters prolonging the contest for their own amusement. While many don't seem to take her seriously, the rumours find fertile ground in the poorer members of the population, particularly those who were displaced or whose livelihoods were destroyed in the contest. It seems the Volgarthan is a particular sore point for these people a vast monster that demonstrably destroyed a lot of property, and yet the arbiters, despite knowing full well where it is ignore it. Surely if they cared they would have killed it ages ago.

It is not long before Samira hears her own rumours circling back to her.

CYRUS
Hortense answers after a few minutes:

- SONA is a moderately powerful company focused in technology. They've got security, but not not necessarily insurmountably so. Their main offices will be fairly lightly defended. As for the watch, she doesn't think it'll be any tougher to destroy than a normal pocket watch, but getting hold of it in the first place will be the trick. The Golden Man will be arriving by helicopter to this location in an hour, so will probably be leaving in abotu 25 minutes. She gives a description of the helicopter to you - that might be the best window if you plan to assault him directly. She doesn't think the Golden Man himself is necessarily super dangerous, but his lackey, the Snake Handed Man needs to be looked out for.

- She hasn't heard the name Sikander recently, but vaguely recalls overhearing an odd conversation between her father and a rather ancient Necromancer friend of his at the time about how said Necromancer was "sad that he'll ever be able to brag about the job with Sikander - some of his finest work".

DURG, BEAR IN MIND, CYRUS, RICHFIELD, TELLU, QUINN

The Sea Wizard overheard Tellu's description of the knowledge she gained, and is happy to fill any arbiters who are interested in on it.

(OOC: Full info in spoiler tag here)
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Spoiler: click to toggle</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">The Volgorthan
The conversations hit her like a wave - most are from refugees displaced by the destruction he wrought, but she manages to focus in on a single conversation. She realises she doesn't know who is speaking, but they seem to be discussing ways to attack it using the damage it took against Doomforall in Mind. Speculating perhaps some explosives inside the gash might be enough. The discussion is from a warehouse downtown.

Lissa
You find little talk of Lissa, save for one heated debate at a police station between a woman and an officer, with the woman demanding the police help her find Lissa.

Sasha or the Girl with the Golden Staff
You find only a little more on Sasha than you did on Lissa, but suddenly manage to hone in on what you think her talking to merchant of some sort. She seems wary, but is discussing that now the Doomfauxalls have stopped pursuing her, she wants to buy some components to empower her staff further should things escalate.

DeMerfrall
Talk of DeMerfrall sweeps over her like a wave - most is talk from the refugee camp, but wading through that she finds something special. A conversation in a board room heard through a pot plant reveals what she speculates may well be the Golden Man discussing the offensive and defensive capabilities of DeMerfrall. He cannot currently use the sword at all, but as she listens in she learns the power that he has within himself. Points including dragon steed, armour makes him very resistant to both magical conventional damage, but there are a few straps that could prove weak points. He's also inhumanly fast and strong, but not continuously - he can put himself into that superhuman state for about half an hour, but once it's over he will be physically exhausted. What's more you get some insight into the control mechanism - apparently he isn't controled all the time, but can be directly dominated by the Golden Man at any time, and his consciousness will filter it into something resembling his normal personality. They are also selecting the next target to go after with him - and have lowered it down to Sasha or Lissa. The final useful bit of info is that a certain wavelength radio wave blocks the signal from the control watch, so he cannot go into the Old Radio Station without escaping the control.

Sikander
There is nothing in the ether for a while until eventually she comes across two distant snippets. "you need to clean the tank" and "Right now, he is dealing with Vengeance".

Golden Man
Following on from your earlier direct connection to where he was talking you come across a lot. He is currently in the SONA Headquarters, and will be moving via helicopter to the Technological Research Facility in about 20 minutes - and the flight plan should be visible from here. You also gain some more detailed insight into the projects Hortense (or Mikhail directing Hortense) set in motion (OOC: see that post, this one is long enough as is :P)

Rift
There is a decent amount of discussion of rift, but largely only in the context of school classrooms, which don't offer any insight beyond what you already have.

Old Magic
It seems that Old Magic is a far more obscure topic than rift, and while a few casual mentions of the stuff crop up, the only one of note is the Sea Wizard that had arrived with Bear in Mind poring over tomes in the Castle to look for a source of power for the Bear's plan.

Vengeance
There is plenty of mention of Vengeance throughout the city, but most recently about his fight with Axel and then Ziggy. The police are talking to some witnesses, and say he seemed to teleport out of the conflict after he had destroyed the other Ziggy. The officers in question talk aside for a bit and say that it sounds like a set destination teleporter - but that the destination in question must be small and fairly obscure - they had thought all the large Vengeance bases had been discovered by now. They also think he may have robbed all the jewels from the Exhibition at the museum.

Eudial
There isn't much about Eudial being said, beyond a few vague conversations about how long she'll be in the tree.</div>