The Far Realm

[*Rust]

/// Lump any threads here together, that aren't faction-specific, etc, etc. Feel free to post ICly /////

> This space will be filled, for now: <

îðà ,îðà, ú÷ì, åôøñéï


Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin


Tarion eyes the words, written by the Golden hand, and frowns. Scratches his head.

Jezebel throws her head back and laughs.

Layla stops cackling, and grumbles. She begins to pack up her shoppe, although the bulk of her inventory is still for sale.

Bob bloops happily.

[*DemonAbyss10]

Ordethus would be strolling through the bazaar at that moment. He would notice the words and Tarion as well.

:::So when did this occur? ::: he would ask around mentally to those gathered. He knows some individuals may get uncomfortable with such communications, but he knew it would be beyond time consuming to write it all out. After all he had to make a sacrifice for his abilities.

He would crouch by the words and try to discern their meaning and origin. He is a specialist in the obscure, specifically relating to the Far Realm. If it is indeed what he thinks it is, he would wind up feeling that he needs to get his ass in gear and stop a potential incursion from the far realms.

((Id have to check his lore score sometime when I get the chance. I think it is in the mid-upper twenties, not exactly sure.))

[*Rust]

~ A minor news item, buried on page six of S.I.G.I.S:

A senior Namer of the Harmonium, one Patricia Von Slurme, was found guilty of Accepting a Bribe, Improper Acts Involving Harmonium Property (to wit: a corpse), and Conduct Unbecoming an Officer-In-Training.

As she confessed, her trial was a mere formality, and conducted swiftly in Judge Roland's private chambers, the verdict, Guilty on All Counts. She is bound over for transportation and release into Mercykiller Custody. ~

[*kitteninablender]

Word would inevitably reach the information-broker Rith that text from the Far Realm has been found. Fortunately, Rith was prepared for such.

Rith had once again bound his father, the Vestige Davoren, who was very much an expert in the Far Realm (even having travelled their himself with Hildmor). Rith knew the secret to being able to read Far Realm text without going crazy.

The Key was that one needed an anchor for their own sanity. A constant reminder of who they were, so that in their madness they wouldn't forget themselves.

Davoren would prove invaluable in this for yet another reason: Reading Far Realm text was overwhelming to the mind. That is...if it were a single mind. By learning how to freely switch between his own personality and the personality of his Father, Rith could in essence insure that each mind would only read half of the text.

Sentient minds, after all, comprehend entire words as a whole. It's why if you raed sutff lkie tihs yuor bairn sitll can see the wrods as a wlohe, so lnog as the wrods hvae teihr frsit and lsat ltetres in the rgiht palce.

Rith and Davoren would read the words, altering their consciousness back and forth they would be able to read the text and comprehend it's meaning without any single mind being over-whelmed. This was, indeed, the nature of Far Realm text. It was designed to be read by creatures who possessed multiple sets of senses, such as multiple eyes, or multiple minds.

Text designed to be read by those who were "insane." The Far Realm was madness incarnate, the reason it made others mad was that as their own logical minds tried to rationalize it they would lose grip upon reality.

Fortunately, Rith was already quite Crazy before Davoren ever came into the picture. Insanity that would, this time, prove more of a benefit than a burden.

[*ManyFaced]

Under a proper off-Sigil lab could be found, Nienna kept a low profile with her legally questionable acquisition. She sent a letter to Ugdum.

"Considering the nature of our largest sample it would be best to do our studies outside of Harmonium jurisdiction, especially with the unchecked mercy-killer about."

She has also begun daily blood and tissue samples of the following individuals: Alista, Sara, Ugdum, Isendis, and herself.

A current list of her material:
Personal blood and tissue samples. Several drops collected every ten minutes along with larger amounts on the hour
Several vials of questionable gloop, tissue, blood, and brain juice.
One headless harmonium corpse.
Blood of the following:
Isendis, Alista, Ugdum, Sara(Collections began day of the incident)

[*Captain Vanguard]

Zoel spends the next several days in the Prison, seemingly questioning every half-sane prisoner with the appropriate levels of pain and discipline untill they responded to her interogations.

The Inquisitive Red Death does not stop bombarding these questions untill a reletivley clear answer can be given. Bullying the weak and rewarding the obedient, she gives the prisoners she can divulge information from a promise of extra foodstocks and longer sleep shifts, at least, untill the crisis has ended.

[*Rust]

//// Need to clarify something, I know it was confusing - as that was intended - but a few facts have surfaced
///////////////////////////
1. The dimensions/planes traveled to were not, indeed, not the Far Realm. The fact that the party returned, sane, and with souls intact, is the evidence.
2. Ownership of the Wooden Fish is disputed. Either Zoel or Alista had/has it. If this can't be resolved, I'd suggest flip of a d6, in front of witnesses.
3. Stroden the Archivist is a known figure often frequenting the Hall of Records. He also has a room at Muriel's Inn, locked and heavily warded, and refuses visitors. He does still come out and visit Khazeet's Bar & Grill often, however.

He accepts messages delivered to Muriel which takes 24-48 hours to be read or replied to.
4. Lastly: there is no record of a Planar Ship or Jammer named the I Could Have Been A Contender visiting Sigil
////////////////////////////

[*Captain Vanguard]

((As i distinctivly and strongly recall with a pm included you directly announced to me via pm that a wooden fish wasfound on Zoels person, weather its the same one or not is up to you but it was indeed what you had told me via pm.

I believe Alista did indeed possess the origional but that suggests Zoel either has a second copy or the origional somehow blipped out of Alistas grip and ended up in Zoels by fate.

Either way, the last person to own the fish was the Faction the Red Death, because Zoel distincitvly gave the fish to a generic mercykiller Justicar (up to you to decide a name if you want or not) to be given to Factol Alisohn as a gift of interest.

Also at that last part, absoleutley no one barring a Red Death could know about the Faction related passing of said wooden fish and anything it may potentially lead to. Zoel intentionally bundled it in a wrap with the note attached to be sent to a Justicar or Alisohn herself.

Anyway, thats my clairification unless anyone else has anything to add during the event.))

[*Dathi]

Ugdum spent a lot of his 'free' time in the Hall of Records, rummaging through the shelves upon shelves of books for titles specifically on the Far Realm, no matter how obscure the author or title of the book it would be scanned thoroughly, he also copied up paragraphs and more of bits he thought were particularly useful, mainly on beings or objects that could make or simply were mists of some description. He also began searching for any traces of the name 'Stroden the Archivist' in any of the books he found, and asked the keeper of the records if they knew of the name or if there'd be any information on him here.

The rest of his 'free' time was spent working in the lab Nienna was in, helping her alongside the distilling, examining and recording of changes and reactions to the 'matierials' she'd acquired.

Whether his delving into the unknown gloop or the Hall of Records paid off was yet to be discovered.

[*ManyFaced]

(This meant to go up a long time ago, back when Dathi posted... doh! Below is a description of the lab and their starting steps. )

Once the decision of their studies is made, Nienna expands her normal study area and materials to set up for an unknown pathogen. A large warehouse is bought out and the needed supplies are quickly acquired. To give the two times to properly set up, Ugdum casts gentle repose on the gathered test subjects. He estimates it wills a reprieve of twenty days. Once the lab has been constructed the two get to workÂ…

The warehouse itself is split into several distinct areas: Entrance room, conference room, holding and storage, decontamination and preparation, 'dirty' storage, lab.

Holding and storage: Notes collected in experiments and important pieces from the books, books such as the ones gathered with information on the Far Realm, Stroden the Archivist and any with links to a disease/curse/entity that is the Whispering Plague. unused materials which aren't part of the specimen/body/possibly contaminated equipment, tools to perform the various tasks of examining/containing/experimenting on the substances, nothing here has had direct contact with the material.

Decontamination and preparation: This area houses several lockers with full body clothing and safety wear. It has bins and areas for thorough cleaning and sealing off of used equipment. Something of note is a cabinet full of sound-proof ear-muffs.

Lab: The lab itself is filled with steel cabinets, two cages, and two examination tables (with restraints). There is a full dresser of surgical instruments ranging from cruel looking to simply odd, made of varying materials. Ample alchemy supplies and stations are about, along with tempered glassware, complete with a full range of alchemical tools supplied by Ugdum (Decensors, Alembics, Retorts etc. etc.)

Dirty Storage: This room is nearly the size of the lab and contains currently unused specimens, instruments that have been in contact or will soon be used on the specimens, or other items. Items are kept in tempered glass or corrosion resistant steel containers. Sound dampening liners are placed between closely resting specimens.

Procedures taken to experiment on the unknown pathogen:

Before any experiments take place, Nienna and Ugdum would wear full body clothing to protect themselves from any infection and Ugdum would ward them both with just about everything in the book before attempting anything, and refreshing these wards would take place every ten minutes, to make sure they did not run out regardless of how long it took.

Blood samples taken from Nienna, Ugdum, Isendis, Alista and Sara (which were gathered on the day of possible exposure to the mist and for several days after) are kept under close examination. They compare the samples to each other and the red gloop, looking for signs of infection or change.

Some of the 'gloop' taken from the Hardhead (brain fluid, blood, tissue and any other bits) would be taken to the lab and parts would be distilled through alchemical by Ugdum means to determine what elements were present in the mist.

He also attempts to determine whether or not the substance was magical or ‘normal’ in nature by exposing it to various levels of dispel magic (up to a Disjunction). In either result, he also tries to understand how the human’s body was reduced to the ‘goop’, through his knowledge of transmutation and alchemy. If magical in nature, he even attempts to revert the process magically using transmutation.

Nienna seems mostly content to wait for some of Ugdum’s preliminary results before starting fully on her own studies. She does expose two lame lim-lims to the material. The first, beyond a bite to its back, is intact. The second lim-lim has been completely deafenedthrough destruction of its ‘ears’ and auditory pieces. Each is left in a box with a dollop of the goop three inches from their heads. For once, her kitten’s ‘presents’ would do something productive.

In the mean-time, she began reading up on her own notes on Illlithids and beholders; trying to remember how best to keep them talkativeÂ…