Nemnosti session 45
Summary
Session
- Session date: April 26, 2026
- Negili Reckoning date: IE 769, Pesme
Prologue
[Nemnosti-GM] Greetings, acolytes! Last night I was having dinner at the iftibal with all my kin. The new hengi, Ajemika, likes to bring us all together every so often, and as her husband Regivus manages the cellars of the ulajeta, the food and drink is excellent. Towards the last course, the conversation turned to the fact that this is the one hundredth anniversary of the Unrendering. Now, I will not turn our fireside chat into a quiz, but I assume that you all remember that, and ... yes, Rembes, you have a question? Yes, you are correct, it was the time when the bubunne of Nemnosti, and indeed much of the land, were affected by a disease that could be transmitted to humans, causing damage to the lungs, and even death. The cure, so to speak, was for our sister Hands to unrender the bubunne, preventing the plague's further transmission by returning them to Ancestors. In any case, it was at that moment that my young niece Henda, the hengi's daughter, asked her mother, apparently in all innocence, how old she was when the plague happened. Now, do not laugh too hard - for it illustrates a real point. When you are only nine, whether it is a hundred years or ten years or even a thousand, they are just numbers. One has no sense of the scale of things when one has lived so little. But in turn, the reverse is true. When you have lived as long as the Grey Carver, a hundred years is not nearly so long. She remembers the Unrendering, that impossible choice that She was forced to make, to end their service prematurely. Now, of course, She knows what my young niece does not, which is that you do not blurt out such things at dinner. But still think how incomprehensible it must be to her that we are so transient, so thin a slice of the course of the world have we seen.
Marga travels with Meze, Lijun, and Rechegoko up to Momichas for the suralai ritual to honour Achoreza
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga, you have gathered with Meze, Lijun, and Rechegoko to take the trip into the Ghengom, up, past your home in Hong Sogo, and beyond to great Momichas at the far western edge of the province.
[Nemnosti-GM] Your task today is a bittersweet one; Achoreza has died, and at the end of her long life, the Queen of Bones has summoned you all to Her putative home within the caldera of blood-red Momichas to honour her life. It is a Great Wake, a calling-together of whatever vultures can come.
[Nemnosti-GM] The suralai ceremony is a recognition given by Ushukuna Herself only to those of great and faithful service to Her, a promise and a bond of an ever-recurrent cycle of reincarnation - person to bird, bird to person, dying-repeating, as the name suggests.
[Nemnosti-GM] You are no theologian, Marga, but you know from the Courses that Nemnu's own thinking was greatly impacted by what She learned from Ushukuna when She arrived in the Pardopasu. Whether the reverse is true, whether a First Ancestor such as your Mother can learn from a Sainted human, one can only speculate.
* Meze gathers you all, and in her habitual way, is triple-checking that everything is organized for the trip, as you expect to be at Momichas for a period of days for this Great Wake.
* Meze hands each of you a pack full of food from the ulajeta, to be brought for whatever feasting will be taking place.
* Marga tries to peek at what kind of food is in it
[Meze] I hope I don't need to remind you all that while you can bring your weapons, I don't want to see any steel out during this. This is sacred space.
[Marga] uh-huh...
[Meze] I know we don't know what ... or who ... to expect. But I think we can be sure the Snapping Dog will be there, with his gaggle.
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga, it looks like dried meat and sheep bones, mostly.
[Meze] Well, then, I assume you've all eaten already, so we can get on our way.
* Marga nods.
* Marga is anxious to get this all going one way or another.
[Nemnosti-GM] It is late springtime, and while the worst of the rains and snowmelt are over, the land is still muddy and, at higher altitudes, hazardous as the shifting snows cut new channels. Given how heavy the spring rains were this year, travel up to Momichas would be difficult if not impossible for any but a vulture.
[Nemnosti-GM] Perhaps that is the point.
[Nemnosti-GM] Fortunately, all of you can assume bird form, definitely at least long enough to avoid the worst of the sludge - and even when you do need to land, you are adept at finding the paths upward and westward.
[Nemnosti-GM] After a time, you reach the crest of the great mountain. At this high altitude, there are still large patches of snow around the rim, reaching all the way down to the great crater lake in places, although the lake itself is ice-free.
[Marga] (what colour is the lake)
[Nemnosti-GM] The white snows, red rocky soil, crystal-clear blue waters, and green spring grass present a picture that few of any Kind will ever see. Many others, bird and human, have gathered already, although you are not the last to arrive, setting up small camps around the lakeside.
[Nemnosti-GM] You know, in principle, that there are vultures from a hundred miles or more away. That the mountains span not only the Pardopasu and Naftusa province, but great swaths of the rest of Khutu, and indeed of Taizi, and even a corner of Daligash. All have vultures who serve Ushukuna.
[Meze] Well, let's find a spot by the lakeside before they're all taken.
* Marga nods eagerly.
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga, you see the Snapping Dog and those of his followers who are vultures have set up along one whole side of the lake. They are heavily armed; Momichas is a holy place and it is hard to imagine any vulture breaking the peace of the suralai ritual. Even so.
* Rechegoko looks around, as if seeking a familiar face. You realize after a moment that he is calmed by what or who he does not see. Then he frowns slightly.
[Rechegoko] They have sent our bird-brothers in their stead. Those three, there. I know them, from the village.
[Marga] Is that good or bad?
* Rechegoko shrugs.
[Rechegoko] Maybe they are fearful. Would that be good?
[Marga] ... Probably?
[Lijun] I think whenever one of us feels afraid to be here in Mother's presence, we should be worried.
[Lijun] It means they fear something more than Her.
[Marga] It'll be good if we don't have to deal with them *and* my father, though
[Rechegoko] Yes, well, She is not here yet.
Marga talks to her dad about Rechegoko, the Naznaz, and about Achoreza
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga, by this point, more or less any vulture you know is here. Were you wanting to talk to anyone (including your father?) or were you hoping to lay low and be unobtrusive?
[Marga] (might as well see what he's gonna be like and get it over with)
[Rechegoko] Be careful.
* Rechegoko says, hypocritically for someone who went seeking him out not too long ago.
[Marga] Careful doesn't make much difference, really.
[Rechegoko] Still.
* Tocha is dressed elaborately, in a long robe with slits cut out at the back, red and green like Momichas itself. His iftijasi slate asserting his status as hengi is matched with a great silver torc of unknown meaning or provenance.
* Tocha smiles toothily as he sees you.
* Marga smiles reflexively back
[Marga] Hi Daddy :)
[Nemnosti-GM] Hello. I wondered if you and your fellow would come.
[Marga] COuldn't really miss it!
[Tocha] Mother would be disappointed. As would I, of course.
* Marga nods knowingly.
[Tocha] Achoreza ... once a name that was feared in the Turtu, if not the Ghengom. Not for many years now, though. She settled.
[Tocha] You were not born yet, then, of course.
[Marga] WHat was she like, then?
[Tocha] Angry. Strong. Cunning.
[Tocha] There is too much softness now. Too many who forget that to be a vulture is to take.
[Marga] To take?
* Marga is puzzled
[Tocha] We live by taking what others leave. Taking before it is taken from us. That is the life of a scavenger.
[Tocha] I know they taught you this, even at Nemnosti. And I certainly did.
[Marga] It's necessary, though. It's not like... thieving.
[Tocha] Of course. Thieving is cowardly. Scavenging is noble.
[Tocha] If I am to take, I take openly.
* Marga nods again.
[Tocha] Your savage treating you correctly?
* Tocha nods in Rechegoko's direction.
[Marga] Yup! :)
[Tocha] If he were in my pack then I'd make good use of him. But he's already declined that. Did he tell you?
* Tocha seems to be almost admiring your beefy companion as one would assess a prize herd animal.
[Marga] No :o
[Tocha] When he came to me, it was my first offer. You and he, joining forces with me, against the Naznaz threat. It would have been ... triumphal. It could still be.
[Tocha] He values his independence. I can respect that.
[Marga] Have they been doing anything up here?
[Marga] ANy more spies?
[Tocha] I think they've learned their lesson. No further sign up here. But the mountains are large, so perhaps they are looking for softer perches than Hong Sogo.
[Tocha] Which suggests that this Aizhanefer is trainable, at least.
[Marga] Maybe... Or he's scheming else
[Marga] (something else)
[Tocha] How tiresome. Well, he'll need to be dealt with one way or another.
[Marga] What about Auntie Saza?
[Tocha] She'll need to be dealt with too.
[Marga] They keep sending people to try and get me,
[Marga] But they haven't been very good.
[Tocha] Well, you are a Gago, after all.
* Tocha looks up and to the north.
[Tocha] Hear that?
[Tocha] (make a Perception check)
[Marga] !roll 1d20+14
* Jevai rolls for Marga: [ 1d20+14 ] getting [ 4 ] which, after the modifier [ 14 ] totals [ 18 ].
* lan-werk2 rolls for Marga: [ 1d20+14 ] getting [ 11 ] which, after the modifier [ 14 ] totals [ 25 ].
[Marga] (+2 if this counts as wilderness)
[Nemnosti-GM] You hear it, now that he's drawn your attention to it: WHUMP. WHUMP. Distant still, but unmistakeable.
[Marga] ... Yeah
[Marga] What is it?
[Tocha] It is Her.
[Nemnosti-GM] WHUMP. WHUMP.
[Marga] Oh :o
[Nemnosti-GM] The beating of unimaginably great wings causes the still volcanic lake to ripple. And from the north, you see a shadow cast against the scarlet soil of the ancient caldera. It is your First Ancestor, the Queen of Bones, Ushukuna Herself.
* Marga looks up in awe.
[Tocha] We will talk later, then.
* Marga nods.
[Tocha] Go back to your prize. He will be missing you.
[Marga] I'll see you soon then...
* Marga goes to find Rechegoko
Ushukuna arrives at the crater-lake inside Momichas and honours Achoreza in the suralai ritual, causing the lake to turn blood-red and the vultures to drink and revel
* Ushukuna flies over the lake and around it three times clockwise before landing her great body, fifty times the size of any of you, against the snowy side of the crater.
[Ushukuna] Cra-craa!
[Marga] Cra-craa! :O :D
[Rechegoko] Cra-craaaaaa!
[Nemnosti-GM] The gathered wake echoes, bird-voice and man-voice together, against the blood-red bowl of ancient Momichas.
[Ushukuna] We come to this Great Wake to sing our sister homeward and onward, deathward and lifeward, dying-repeating, suralai, suralai.
[Ushukuna] Achoreza has stilled her wings. Her children have settled her death's-nest. And I have eaten her bones, suralai, suralai.
[Ushukuna] There are few humans who would ever accept the bird-burden. You are my few, my precious Kind-traitors, my beloved. I love you for that.
[Ushukuna] It is a betrayal that comes with a cost. Always. Achoreza's cost was one she bore gladly. We spoke of it only twice. Once, when she was taking it on, decades ago. She would have surrendered all of her humanity, if it had been within her power, then.
[Ushukuna] And once more, recently, when she knew she was dying. There are few now here old enough to remember her, before. And those few know enough to know that some silences are worth keeping. So I will speak no more of the past.
[Ushukuna] Among you few who serve, fewer still are called to the suralai, called into the cycle, hand-to-claw-to-hand. It is never asked for. Achoreza, I know, would not have asked for it, would have recoiled if it had been offered.
[Ushukuna] It is, like all of my gifts, a burden, suralai, suralai. A burden to be reborn without memory, but an even greater burden to be remembered.
[Ushukuna] Achoreza, as we look for your new life, may we be sustained by your bone-gift.
* Ushukuna carefully takes a talon and pulls out from within her breast-feathers a pinch of chalky powder, though a pinch for Her is surely a sizeable quantity, and casts it into the lake.
[Nemnosti-GM] The blue water, which had been still since Ushukuna landed, ripples, then roils. Then in an instant, the lake turns blood-red.
[Marga] :O
[Nemnosti-GM] The gathered vultures, whether in mouth-form or beak-form, lower their heads to the lakeshore and slake themselves with the blood of Achoreza's bone-gift.
* Rechegoko follows suit, drinking from the hallowed, transformed waters.
* Marga drinks deeply.
[Nemnosti-GM] All right, please give me a Fortitude save.
[Marga] !roll 1d20+9
* lan-werk2 rolls for Marga: [ 1d20+9 ] getting [ 1 ] which, after the modifier [ 9 ] totals [ 10 ].
[Marga] (destiny pls)
[Nemnosti-GM] (if you wish)
[Marga] !roll 1d20+9
* lan-werk2 rolls for Marga: [ 1d20+9 ] getting [ 19 ] which, after the modifier [ 9 ] totals [ 28 ].
[Rechegoko] !roll 1d20+6
* lan-werk2 rolls for Rechegoko: [ 1d20+6 ] getting [ 5 ] which, after the modifier [ 6 ] totals [ 11 ].
[Nemnosti-GM] As the sun sets over the Taizian side of the great volcano, the red spring sunset, the red soils that they say are the remnants of ancient kills, and the chill red waters of the suralai are as one.
[Nemnosti-GM] The feathered congregants of the wake soon turn to rutting, not without sense, but rather, with a common awareness of purpose, that just as death comes with rebirth, so too does new life emerge.
* Rechegoko has a strange look about him.
[Marga] Rechegoko?
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga, you feel it within you too, and at first, it was about to overwhelm you. You were about to lose control when, inside you, that kernel that you find, from time to time, that tiny voice, became loud and powerful.
[Nemnosti-GM] And you feel loud and powerful too, but fully in control.
[Marga] (what does it say :v)
* Rechegoko looks over the gathered frenzy, and then at you. He comes towards you.
[Rechegoko] I would mate with you, my queen.
[Marga] Well you gon't gotta ask ME twice
[Nemnosti-GM] Later ...
Ushukuna takes Marga on a journey to the bottom of the lake to see the ancient stone husk of the First Ancestor of the ammonites, and the growing crack at its center
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga, almost all at the Great Wake were completely overcome by Achoreza's bone-gift, given to you by Ushukuna.
[Nemnosti-GM] You feel ... different. Empowered. Full.
[Nemnosti-GM] The blooded water has been restored to its ordinary form. The whole ritual seems almost of another time and place now. Only the ineffable and unmistakable presence of great Ushukuna, nestled against the snowbank, tells you that this is no ordinary gathering.
[Nemnosti-GM] You hear a voice in your head.
[Ushukuna] Come over. Nestle with me.
* Ushukuna opens a lazy half-eye from across the lake.
* Marga goes to her Mother.
[Ushukuna] How are you feeling?
[Marga] ... Strong.
[Ushukuna] Mmm. Good. Up for a journey?
* Marga nods eagerly.
[Marga] Where will we go?
[Ushukuna] We are going to go swimming. You do swim, don't you?
[Marga] Oh, yes!
[Ushukuna] Fortunately you have already discarded most of your excess, over by your mate. But for this, you will need to leave it all.
[Marga] Excess like.. clothes?
[Ushukuna] Exactly.
[Marga] Alrighty!
* Marga strips off the rest of her kit.
* Ushukuna shifts her great body, and leans out over the lake, and then down, in. It is a strange sight, stranger still since the others do not seem to be paying you, or Her, any mind.
* Marga will dive on in!
[Nemnosti-GM] (oh heck, why not, make a Swim check)
[Marga] !roll 1d20+9
* lan-werk2 rolls for Marga: [ 1d20+9 ] getting [ 4 ] which, after the modifier [ 9 ] totals [ 13 ].
[Nemnosti-GM] You descend swiftly. The lake is almost painfully cold as you escape the light, and enter into almost impenetrable darkness. Still, you feel safe under your Mother's wing.
[Nemnosti-GM] Whether it is the aftereffect of having drunk of Achoreza, or some other aspect of the ritual, or perhaps just your Mother's protection, you find yourself able to breathe and move quite freely within the chill lake.
[Ushukuna] Come, we are headed down.
* Ushukuna 's great body spirals downward towards the center of the lake, where, you imagine, once, Momichas erupted for the last time upon this earth, spreading its magma down in channels that one can still see throughout the Ghengom, and indeed into the Pardopasu.
* Ushukuna circles sunwise - thought there is no sun - once, twice, thrice - into the deep. You struggle to follow her, but she slows her pace.
[Nemnosti-GM] It is so dark, now. There is nothing but your awareness of Mother to guide you.
[Marga] I'm not used to being so deep is all...
[Ushukuna] It is strange for me as well. I do not often come here.
[Nemnosti-GM] But then, the darkness passes, and a new light appears, below you, almost imperceptible at first, a dim violet. And then you reach that for which you have no other word but 'bottom', but which hardly seems to suffice.
[Nemnosti-GM] Below you is a great spiral coil, at least three times across the height of a full-grown person, spiralling inwards, counter-sunwise, not that there is any sun for reference. And it glows, dimly, to be sure, but enough that you can see it. Is it ... stone? You cannot say. But it is, clearly, kin and Kind to those spiral ancestors which you have seen before.
[Marga] ... Whoah
[Marga] If JEvai saw this she'd lose her mind _
[Marga] ... What is it?
[Ushukuna] I do not know Her name. But I know what She is, or was, for we share the same honour, though not the same Kind. First Ancestor.
[Ushukuna] First among a Kind that lives no more.
[Ushukuna] The mother of all the ammonites, long-lost now, encased in stone. I never knew Her, but she must have been ageless, simply ageless. Could she have lived a thousand thousand years ago, when the world was still incoherent and forming?
[Ushukuna] You think that I am old, and surely that is true, relative to you. But I am nothing, compared to Her.
* Marga shivers involuntarily.
[Marga] ... That's... wow
[Marga] I don't know what to say
[Ushukuna] There are many such things, in the oceans, still. Turtles from the western sea, whales to the north, ageless and timeless things. I have come to see that though I live here in the high hills, at the top of great peaks we are still connected to the sea. And I am one of them. I stand beside my ancient sisters - as old as I am, still just the latest in a cycle, dying-repeating.
[Marga] You're not the first First ancestors?
* Marga struggles to keep up
[Ushukuna] Each Kind has its own. But yes, some Kinds are older than others.
[Marga] how many Kinds are there? were there?
[Marga] I'm starting to think there are so, so many... Ones we can't even imagine
[Ushukuna] Now you see why your other Mother and I share so many interests. She shall make a philosopher of you yet, I reckon.
[Ushukuna] You are asking questions that, if they have an answer, no one can truly comprehend it.
[Marga] Oh, I'm not smart enough for that...!
[Ushukuna] You are smart enough to know that what you are seeing is a precious, precious treasure. And not to be shared except in urgency.
[Ushukuna] Which is why I am showing it to you.
* Marga nods...
[Marga] So I... *should* tell someone?
[Ushukuna] Here, look.
[Marga] like Jevai? or Nemnu?
* Marga looks.
* Ushukuna points at the tightly-coiled center where the shell of this great creature lies. And there, you see it. A crack.
[Marga] Uh... is that suppoed to be there?
[Ushukuna] It is ... and it is not.
[Marga] I don't understand.
[Ushukuna] No, of course. I am moving too quickly.
[Ushukuna] Let me slow down, and explain.
* Ushukuna lands and runs a talon along the edge of the crack, which you can see now, is far larger than it would have seemed at first.
[Ushukuna] You know that this place was once a volcano. But it is, has always been, more than that.
* Marga listens, waiting for something to make sense
[Ushukuna] It is the last refuge of an ocean that once covered great expanses. A link to the oceans that are, to the ammonites and whales and turtles and all the great Ancestors and their smalls.
[Nemnosti-GM] (you're not quite sure about that last word - it's something about small things. Maybe she means you?)
[Marga] Small like me?
[Ushukuna] Like all of you, yes.
[Marga] LIke descendants?
[Ushukuna] Yes.
[Ushukuna] This place used to be a link. A gate. A tunnel. A ... conduit.
[Marga] To where?
[Ushukuna] I think that Her lying here is not a coincidence. I think, rather, it is a choice.
[Marga] So the... conduit was here before she.. died?
[Ushukuna] I believe so.
[Marga] But where does it go?
[Ushukuna] To a place where all oceans go. A place so deep that no one, not even a First Ancestor, can simply go there.
[Marga] what's in there?
[Ushukuna] Again, the philosopher speaks!
[Ushukuna] Whatever it is, wherever it is, is a place so important, and yet so dangerous, that an entire Kind would turn to stone to protect it.
[Marga] All the ammonites?
[Ushukuna] It would seem so.
[Ushukuna] But now ... a change.
[Marga] What change?
[Ushukuna] The crack becomes the crevice, and then the crevasse.
[Ushukuna] My silent sister's unfolding folly.
[Marga] so... it's getting bigger because of... Nemnu's unkind stone?
* Marga scrunches up her face.
[Ushukuna] Precisely.
[Marga] How? Why?
[Ushukuna] If any of this can be known exactly.
[Ushukuna] I don't know, child.
[Ushukuna] I don't think Nemnu knows.
[Marga] but it's bad, right?
[Marga] Because people aren't supposed to be able to get in there, but the bigger it gets, the more things can get in... or out?
[Ushukuna] I can't say for sure. Change is often good for some, bad for others. I think that the only ones who know are intent on bringing about the change.
[Ushukuna] And their intentions are veiled from me.
[Marga] the Hulti?
[Ushukuna] I love my Hulti vultures, just as I love you.
[Marga] the Writhing?
* Ushukuna nods.
[Marga] That... seems bad then
[Marga] For me.
[Ushukuna] So yes, you must tell Nemnu. Whether you tell Jevai ... I leave to your discretion.
[Ushukuna] This knowledge, it is not comfortable for me to share with you. I love you, and I know that knowing this, even as it is meant to protect you, could lead you into harm.
[Marga] She knows more about these spirals than anyone else... I think Nemnu will tell her if I don't.
[Ushukuna] Understand, though, that if she were to come here, she would not see all this.
[Ushukuna] Where we are now, this place is not for her. Or, indeed, for Her.
* Marga nods.
[Marga] I understand. Mostly.
* Ushukuna laughs, insofar as a fifty-foot long vulture can laugh underwater. There are bubbles.
[Ushukuna] Then we share in our mostly-knowing, while remaining perplexed.
[Ushukuna] Come, let us ascend. Eventually they would miss us.
[Marga] Alright...
* Marga gives the glowing spiral a last look as if to preserve the memory
[Nemnosti-GM] You leave the strange place and the ancient Ancestral ammonite, hardly believing that it can be real. You circle against the invisible sun, once, twice, thrice, emerging into the chill, and still, blue waters within the crater. No one seems to have noticed your absence.
Ifa tells Kuspir about Detevus’s misbehavior with Veruve, and asks Kuspir to intervene with his brother stoneguard
* Ifa will try to catch Kuspir later the same day that Veruve came to talk about Detevus.
* Kuspir can be found at his house
[Ifa] Ah, good, I was hoping to find you. Somewhat obviously, I suppose, as this is your house. :)
* Kuspir smiles
[Ifa] Sorry, a bit out of sorts. Are either of the kids around?
[Kuspir] Not at the moment. Is something wrong?
[Ifa] A bit, but I also wanted to be able to do this.
* Ifa crosses to where Kuspir is and gives him a kiss.
* Kuspir embraces Ifa
[Kuspir] Well, I will never complain about that.
* Ifa smiles, perhaps a little awkwardly.
[Ifa] I'm a bit worried that I haven't been as discreet as perhaps I should.
[Ifa] That's not the thing I came to talk to you about, but it has been on my mind.
[Kuspir] It seems to me sometimes that everyone who looks at me knows. Maybe because at least a couple of people have told me that they knew by looking at me. But not everyone is as observant.
* Ifa nods.
[Ifa] Ajemika said something earlier that at least suggested she might suspect.
[Ifa] I don't want to cause you any trouble.
[Kuspir] You're not.
* Kuspir gives Ifa another kiss.
* Ifa returns it, and will lean into Kuspir for a moment before pulling back to be facing each other.
[Ifa] So, there is something I came to talk to you about.
[Ifa] It's perhaps not surprising, but it *is* upsetting.
* Kuspir listens, concern showing on his face
[Ifa] After the Detevus's recent, ah, incident, Veruve went to check on him.
[Ifa] Unfortunately, Detevus has taken this act of kindness in an...untoward direction.
[Kuspir] Oh?
[Ifa] He's been following her around the ulajeta, not taking the hint, making her uncomfortable, invading her space...
* Kuspir sighs, frowning
[Ifa] Nothing too far as yet, but I thought you might have a conversation with him before anything escalated. Veruve doesn't feel safe.
[Kuspir] I can have a word with him, yes.
[Kuspir] How intimidating should I be about this?
[Ifa] I trust your judgement. :)
[Ifa] Though he should perhaps know speaking to you is easily the lighter sentence here.
* Kuspir nods
[Ifa] Were it up to me...
* Ifa mimes chopping off...something.
[Kuspir] That's fair.
[Ifa] Okay, that's not really true.
[Ifa] I just want everyone to be able to feel safe in the ulajeta.
[Ifa] *sighs dramatically.*
[Ifa] Unfortunately that includes Detevus.
[Ifa] Unless he actually *does* escalate, in which case, well, I believe I made myself clear.
* Kuspir nods
[Kuspir] Hopefully it won't get to that point.
* Ifa nods.
[Kuspir] Do you think I need to go deal with this right away, or would tomorrow be soon enough?
* Ifa considers.
[Ifa] I don't think it's emergent, as I think Veruve is fairly practiced at avoiding him, but it still sucks she has to be cognizant of it.
* Kuspir nods
[Ifa] Sorry to have to ask, but I thought he'd listen to you.
[Kuspir] It's all right. I'm not asking because I want to avoid the problem, I just wondered if you were here for the evening :)
[Ifa] Ooooohhhhh. Well then, I don't believe I have other committments for the evening. :)
[Kuspir] Then, if you aren't otherwise busy...
* Ifa waggles her eyebrows.
Izu calls a convocation of Voices with Faifir, Kailas, and Rupun to tell them that Lurusiru is alive but sleeping, and that They are awakening
[Nemnosti-GM] Izu, how does one announce the reawakening of a saint? There is no manual for this. Of course, it has happened before - to Nemnu Herself, multiple times.
[Nemnosti-GM] But Her slumbers have been short, and hardly secret from those around Her when they happened. This thing with Lurusiru is different. They have awakened, which would normally be cause for great joy. And it is joyful, truly.
[Nemnosti-GM] Your memory of that moment in the Inner Caves with Rupun, where you experienced just a fleeting few moments. The smell of cedar, the humming of a long-forgotten child's song, a cool breeze.
[Nemnosti-GM] How can you sing that song for your brothers, smell for them the cool forest dew, when all the world has believed for centuries that Lurusiru Ula is an Ancestor?
[Nemnosti-GM] That is the task Nemnu has set before you, then, to open the door upon a great silence, even if only to those you have trusted.
[Nemnosti-GM] Who are you inviting to this convocation of Voices?
* Izu will gather Faifir, Rupun, and Kailas in one of the small meeting rooms and ensure that the doors are closed and that they are not to be disturbed.
[Nemnosti-GM] Today, the Voice temple is "merely" - as if anything here can be merely anything - the westernmost third of the ulajeta complex, dwarfed by the Carver's Hall and enmeshed in centuries of construction and reconstruction. It is a testament to linearity, pattern, structure, and defense.
[Nemnosti-GM] The chamber in which you are gathering your brothers today is part of that, yet shows clear signs of more ancient bones. The oldest, first temple on this site was oriented slightly to the northwest, to align more with the mountain cliffs against which the ulajeta was built.
[Nemnosti-GM] Then the temple was called Nimirgeta, and they say that even before there was an ulajeta worthy of the name, Voices would come here to rest in a small stone building. Now that building is surrounded by more building, encased in new angles.
[Nemnosti-GM] And where once this was the temple, now it is merely a small gathering-place with a square table. But there are still bricks of greenish stone here and there in the walls of the room, surrounding panes of swirling alabaster that must have once looked out upon sunlight.
[Izu] Brother, thank you for coming. This is a matter of great discretion and some urgency.
[Kailas] What is this all about?
* Kailas asks, sounding annoyed.
* Izu sighs.
[Izu] You all know of Lurusiru Ula, called Cedar. They were the sainted companion of Our Lady for many years until they became an ancestor. Correct?
* Faifir nods.
[Kailas] Yes ...
[Izu] What you know is.. a half truth. Lurusiru is not, and has never been an ancestor. They sleep, as Our Lady slept for a time. And now... They are beginning to awaken. We believe the power of the New Saint has roused Them from Their perpetual slumber.
[Kailas] What nonsense is this?
[Izu] It is true. Rupun?
* Faifir seems surprised, and is alert and attentive all of a sudden, but says nothing.
[Rupun] Izu speaks truly.
[Rupun] Brothers, by our Order each of us is called upon to carry the secrets of Ancestors. This one, I grant, is different.
[Rupun] But ever since the Purge, there has been only one Lurusiri Voice, only one to keep the vigil, to speak the prayers. And to bear the secret of Their Kind, sainted still.
[Izu] For the moment, this information must not leave this room. I have called you here for your council and judgement. We must decide if we are to actively pursue awakening them, or if it is best to let things go as they are and let the unfolding happen on its own.
[Izu] I would hear your thoughts and questions.
[Kailas] This is preposterous! What gives you the right? Who else claims this?
* Kailas is up out of his seat, almost as if to come at you.
[Izu] Kailas, you would do well to sit down. If you wish, we can bring you to Their tomb and you can hear Their song for yourself, but do not act rashly.
[Izu] There is no 'Right' here. I claim it based on my own eyes and ears. Nothing more.
* Faifir chuckles to himself.
[Kailas] I am the eldest Nemni Voice. It has been so for some time. This is ... unthinkable.
[Izu] Yes. And now we must think about it.
[Kailas] Has Ingo been informed?
[Izu] He has not. We are on our own here for now. Getting word to him would be... complicated... considering his position.
[Kailas] Brothers, I must object to all of this! How unbearable the thought! To conceptualize that generations have been so deceived - not just the ordinary folk, but the whole Nemni lineage, so many of our own Order? And for what?
[Izu] Protection.
[Kailas] Protection from whom or what?
[Izu] From those who might wish Them harm.
[Izu] Of which there are many.
* Faifir is just sitting there, almost laughing.
[Izu] I am sorry that it had to be so closely guarded a secret, but it is her Will that it be so.
[Kailas] How is it that you are entitled to this secret? You are ...
* Kailas trails off.
[Izu] Young?
[Kailas] Yes.
[Izu] Yes. I am. But I am also Her keeper, and that means I see things which others do not.
[Rupun] I assure you, Brother Kailas, that we Lurusiri, are hardly in the business of sharing.
[Rupun] It seems that whatever Sanar Ula did, last month, the thing that the people are calling Bliss, brought about this change in Them.
[Izu] Consciously or not, Sanar Ula called to Them.
[Izu] And They have answered.
[Faifir] What have They had to say?
* Faifir seems almost amused by this all.
[Izu] Not yet words. Only a song, and the scent of Cedar. I believe they are in the middle of unfolding, of returning to wakefulness, but not yet fully there.
[Rupun] I had thought I would never see this day. I had imagined I would die, leaving this legacy, and this secret, to others.
[Rupun] I will admit that it gives me pause. A gift one always hoped for, but upon receiving it ... well. It is a difficult burden as a secret, made more difficult in the sharing.
[Kailas] I hesitate to criticize Her, but why are we here if not to speak the truth to Her when she is ill-served by Her own intuitions? This is ... awful.
[Faifir] Oh, come now, Sizzlepate, you are being petulant.
[Faifir] Think of it this way, now you have a secret that Imas does not.
[Izu] We cannot undo what has been done, for better or worse. It is not put upon us to judge Her actions. We can only decide what to do now.
[Faifir] Are we being asked to decide?
[Izu] We are being asked to advise.
[Kailas] Advise Her? I advise Her to pick better counsel.
[Faifir] I was just thinking the same thing, Kailas.
[Faifir] I was thinking she might not have chosen you at all.
[Kailas] I ask that you remember, _Brother_, that Losturi and Nemni are not the same thing!
[Faifir] And I ask that you remember that in this room, none of us are any of the above.
[Faifir] We serve the Ancestors, and the Saints, as their Voices.
[Izu] Then how best are we to serve this Saint?
* Faifir pauses.
[Faifir] In my duties over the Inner Caves, I have always respected the privilege of the Lurusiri to care for Lurusiru's Ancestral remains. And yet that sepulchre has always been passing strange. I had assumed it was because it was saintly, that there was some other-ness to it. If I now find myself unsurprised, perhaps it is because some part of me always suspected.
[Faifir] It is, in a way, amusing.
[Kailas] I do not find any of this amusing.
[Izu] Brothers, are we unable to set aside our petty squabbles even for something of this momentousness? I thought us priests, not school children.
* Faifir giggles.
[Faifir] And yet we are all acolytes, even so.
[Faifir] Sworn to defend Her. And given this responsibility.
[Faifir] I see that the others, Bistu, Verga, Nalazh, are not here. Her choice, or yours, Brother?
[Izu] Both. The fewer who know a thing, the easier it is to keep it that way.
[Kailas] I suppose I am meant to be honoured that you would include me among your few.
* Izu sighs.
[Faifir] I agree with your call for prudence.
[Faifir] Bringing it to light only slowly, given our new guests here, and given the other concerns, about the Hulti and so on?
[Faifir] e can hardly control the
[Faifir] We can hardly control the pace of Their awakening.
[Faifir] But we can control its revelation, perhaps.
[Izu] We believe that Sanar Ula is the cause of the awakening. Perhaps her power could be used to speed it more.
[Kailas] Does Sanar know what She is doing? Nalazh hardly seems trustworthy, and some of these new Sanari are scandalously ignorant.
[Izu] No one knows what they are doing. This is unprecedented.
[Faifir] I will say, at least in this regard, I share Kailas's fears. It is a most inopportune time for this to be happening.
[Izu] That is very true.
[Izu] I cannot believe that it is coincidence either. These things all happening at the same time...
[Faifir] What I mean is ... is it really wise to want to accelerate Their reawakening?
[Faifir] Perhaps it is best to slow matters down.
[Izu] To what end?
[Faifir] To give us - and Her, and Them - more time.
* Izu considers this.
[Faifir] To wait until the Sanari are in place in their new home, and perhaps until the Hulti get distracted by some new troublemaking.
[Izu] I do not believe that the Hulti will be easily distracted this time, but I take your point. Rupun, you have been quiet yet. What are your thoughts?
[Rupun] If Sanar's Bliss began this, I would want to encourage us to explore how to use it. Not that there are no risks,but ... what if They fall back into slumber?
[Rupun] I could never forgive myself.
* Izu considers this as well.
[Izu] They are an ally of the Lady, and right now that is something we cannot take for granted.
[Kailas] How much do we really know of Their intent? Their personality? Their will? Old stories and legends, the reminiscences of Ancestors who never really knew Them.
[Kailas] How do we know it is not a Hulti trick?
[Izu] And those of a Saint who did.
[Rupun] It is not a trick.
[Faifir] Be that as it may, Rupun, I think that the reaction of Kailas will be shared by many.
[Izu] That is indeed something to consider.
[Faifir] I do not feel personally betrayed by this new knowledge, any more than I am of any piece of Ancestral knowledge that I do not yet know.
[Faifir] I like to think we are privileged to be in this very room. Look around us, Brothers. So I exult in the knowledge. But we are trained - or should be trained - to be custodians of such knowledge.
[Faifir] I recommend caution, not despite its import, but because of it, Izu.
* Izu nods.
[Izu] I understand, and it is wise council. Kailas? What do you suggest we do?
[Kailas] Well, I clearly have some reading to do.
[Kailas] This is a theological matter, and a historical one, as well as a practical one.
[Kailas] It will take time, and discernment.
[Faifir] I think that is reasonable.
[Rupun] I would urge you, brothers, not to delay past the point where our choices to act become further constrained. If Sanar has another accident, for instance ...
[Izu] That is also wise. I will take all of your opinions to Her and I will inform you of Her intentions.
[Izu] In the meantime, I hardly need to remind you of the gravity of this situation. On your oaths you must not breathe a word of this outside of this circle.
[Faifir] Gently, Brother. I do not wish to pull rank, but I will remind you that I am, I believe by your recommendation, the high priest here.
[Faifir] But I share your view.
[Faifir] I therefore urge you, on your oaths, to keep your silence on this matter.
[Izu] Of course. Thank you, Brother.
* Rupun frowns.
[Rupun] Very well.
[Rupun] I defer.
[Kailas] Are we done, then?
* Kailas asks, exasperated.
[Izu] I believe so. Thank you all for your words and your silence. They are both appreciated.
Jevai meets with Saza at the Vulture-Pecked Stone to attempt to contact Eng-dur
[Nemnosti-GM] Jevai, since your recent meeting with your Downward, you have been full of a mixture of hope and anxiety, which is not an unusual brew as far as you are concerned, but both are at extreme levels.
[Nemnosti-GM] Hope that there may be answers about Eng-dur's condition, the two realms in which you have travelled, and the Fraction you have left there, and of course Gunuremai. And anxiety that you may be asking the exact wrong person for her assistance.
[Nemnosti-GM] Tetavai Ikhanne, the Vulture-Pecked Stone takes its name because it literally appears to have been pecked repetitively by vultures. Poorly known even among sigillants, you and Eng-dur reacquainted yourself with it during your training. And of course, at that time, you were sharing everything with Saza, as any good Pebble should.
[Nemnosti-GM] It is safe from others, insofar as it is deep within the Turtu, in a valley within the dawn-shadow to the northwest of Zarizi, and abandoned by use for the Ravre. And for the same reasons, it is dangerous for you to be alone there.
[Nemnosti-GM] All right, having chosen the place, and made your preparations, go ahead and put your plan into place.
* Jevai will Send to her Downward on the night of the new moon, when she would usually speak to Eng-Dur, for her to meet me at the stone in an hour
* Jevai will also tell poeple she is going :x
[Nemnosti-GM] All right, who are you telling?
* Saza replies that she will be there.
[Jevai] (I don't know if marga is back, but if so her, if not Ifa, and lets' say Veruve)
[Nemnosti-GM] Marga is still away and will be for a while. But that's fine, Ifa and Veruve.
[Jevai] mindblank
* Jevai rolls [ 1d20+15 ] getting [ 14 ] which, after the modifier [ 15 ] totals [ 29 ]
[Jevai] made it
[Jevai] word of recall
* Jevai rolls [ 1d20+15 ] getting [ 11 ] which, after the modifier [ 15 ] totals [ 26 ]
[Jevai] made it
[Jevai] teleport
* Jevai rolls [ 1d20+15 ] getting [ 11 ] which, after the modifier [ 15 ] totals [ 26 ]
[Jevai] made it
[Jevai] sending
* Jevai rolls [ 1d20+15 ] getting [ 8 ] which, after the modifier [ 15 ] totals [ 23 ]
[Jevai] made it
[Jevai] glibness
* Jevai rolls [ 1d20+15 ] getting [ 18 ] which, after the modifier [ 15 ] totals [ 33 ]
[Jevai] made it
* Jevai will go to be there before the hour is up, taking with her some snacks and some kind of small portable project to pass the time and keep her nerves calm
* Jevai will look around when she getsthere to see if there is any evidence of poeple or peoples being out here recently
[Nemnosti-GM] (give me a Survival check)
[Jevai] !roll 1d20+12
* lan-werk2 rolls for Jevai: [ 1d20+12 ] getting [ 4 ] which, after the modifier [ 12 ] totals [ 16 ].
[Nemnosti-GM] There's no sign of anyone having been here.
* Saza arrives at the site.
* Jevai remains vigilant just in case
* Saza is dressed simply in Ravre country garb, along with a large satchel.
[Saza] Hello, Pebble. How nice to see you again.
[Jevai] Hello Downward
[Jevai] Thank you for coming
[Saza] Does it bring back memories of happier times, when we were younger and more innocent?
[Saza] Or at least, when you were?
[Jevai] (I was hoping to time there for around the time I'd usually see ED), but we'll see how this goes at alll
[Jevai] Memories that I can feel in my bones, Downward.
[Jevai] I remember when I told you about finiding this place - did you already know it?
[Saza] I knew it existed, of course. By name and reputation. But it's so small now, sunken, and hardly anyone out here to know where it is.
[Saza] It's not one of the more significant places, in my experience.
[Jevai] no
[Jevai] can it still function as a door, as sunken as it is?
* Saza examines it, walking around it.
[Saza] It is interesting, to be sure.
[Saza] The pattern of the hollows defies any ready organization that I can see. Ordinary glyphs can be made through repeated divots in the stone, of course, but we always structure them into channels or furrows. These are not deep - no more than half a finger-joint - and worn away by the years. But clearly made by one of us.
[Saza] The name is apt, though I would think of them more as seeds strewn by the wind. A vulture would not peck so arbitrarily.
[Jevai] could they represent stars?
* Jevai will reach out and touch the stone, as though measuring the depth for herself
* Saza looks down at the stone, and then up at the stars.
[Saza] That is a very intriguing idea.
* Saza pulls out a slate and begins to sketch.
[Saza] So, tell me, what is supposed to happen here?
* Jevai watches her closely (and somewhat nervously)
* Jevai keeps a hand on the stone
[Jevai] well - I'm not sure. Maybe nothing. It's a test.
[Jevai] . o O (Are you out there, Upward?)
* Eng-dur appears before you.
[Jevai] ahhh
[Eng-dur] Hello there, Pebble. Is ... is something different?
[Jevai] yes.
[Jevai] We are at Tetavai Ikhanne, and Downward is here.
[Eng-dur] What has happened to bring that about?
* Eng-dur sounds quite alarmed, for him.
[Jevai] I invited her here.
[Eng-dur] ... because?
[Jevai] To explore possibilities
* Jevai is watching Saza
[Saza] I take it you are seeing him, speaking to him?
[Jevai] yes
[Saza] Well, let me just try something then.
[Jevai] try what?
* Saza pulls out her slate and quickly traces a familiar glyph for See Beyond.
[Nemnosti-GM] You are a little surprised to realize she has that kind of power, to slate such a spell, though perhaps you shouldn't be.
[Jevai] ahh yes
[Saza] !roll 1d20+24
* lan-werk2 rolls for Saza: [ 1d20+24 ] getting [ 6 ] which, after the modifier [ 24 ] totals [ 30 ].
[Saza] Well, isn't that something. Eng-dur. Fine pickle you've gotten yourself into.
[Saza] Can he hear me? What is his experience of the world around him?
* Jevai looks to see if he can 9I know he coud see Ifa but she's all fucked up and I never got a chance to birn Alai to him)
[Jevai] Limited.
[Saza] This will be annoying, I can see. And insufficient for our purposes.
* Saza considers.
[Jevai] She says hello. And that you are annoying.
* Jevai relays, if he can't hear her
[Eng-dur] Hello, and I agree with her.
[Jevai] what are 'our purposes', Downward?
* Saza is pacing around, considering her options.
[Saza] Well I assume you want to find a way to get him out, if that's possible. And that also means, finding a way to get in.
[Jevai] I don't know if it is possible to get him fully out. I don't kno if he still has a physical form to retrieve.
* Jevai can relay what she's said though
[Eng-dur] I have no reason to think she actually intends me harm. She's a vicious, wicked shrew - she can hear me, right? - Good. Spiteful, malevolent, awful person - but would have no actual reason to wish me harm.
* Saza chuckles.
[Saza] He does know me well.
[Jevai] Now, this *is* nostalgic -_-
[Saza] If we have some time, I can try something.
[Saza] The 'night of the new moon' is so imprecise.
[Jevai] it is.
* Jevai can give her an approximate time
[Saza] Well, it's worth a try.
Saza works a great lodging to create a portal using the star-map of Tetavai Ikhanne under the new moon, and then aids Eng-dur to fly Upward out of the stone into the real world
* Saza looks at the Vulture-Pecked Stone, then back at her slated glyph, and begins to make another one of her own, pulling out a blue-grey mottled slab and beginning to work at it with small chisels.
[Nemnosti-GM] You have never doubted your Downward's power, even as you have doubted so much else about her. But having worked with flighty Eng-dur and scattered Giri as your Upwards, you are reminded now just what you have learned from her over the years.
[Nemnosti-GM] Intention mixed with creative energy, structure placed against the bounds of curiosity, intestine wrapped around the spleen, not to kill it but to give it force. Saza lodges not with great speed, but with a sense of purpose, reminding you that her reputation among the tekrur is well-earned.
* Saza carves left-handed, unusually among you, and you have always assumed that is how she got her moniker Widdershins, though that really raises more questions than it answers. Her lodging is like See Beyond, but extends further.
[Nemnosti-GM] You see what she is doing, moments after she does it, feeling frustrated each time that you are still being tutored, rather than able to see it.
* Jevai watches
[Nemnosti-GM] She looks up, as if gazing for insight, then smiles, and returns to her work, placing another line between dots on her slab.
* Jevai also looks up (is it a constrallation od some kind in there?)
[Nemnosti-GM] You see now why the new moon is relevant - because it is then that the stars are visible most clearly - not just the ones seen on bright evenings, but the hidden ones, the ones seen only in darkness, in solitary places. She is drawing the pattern of See Beyond, overlaid with the pattern of the hidden stars inlaid into the ancient stone. Bringing about some new unfolding.
[Nemnosti-GM] (you can give me a K:nature roll, I guess)
* Jevai rolls [ 1d20+12 ] getting [ 16 ] which, after the modifier [ 12 ] totals [ 28 ]
[Jevai] ahh...
[Nemnosti-GM] Jevai, whatever she's tracing with the stars is no constellation you know of. However, it does strike you that it resembles nothing so much as a counterclockwise spiral.
[Saza] !roll 1d20+24
* lan-werk2 rolls for Saza: [ 1d20+24 ] getting [ 4 ] which, after the modifier [ 24 ] totals [ 28 ].
[Saza] Well, that should do it. Shall I?
* Jevai looks to Eng-Dur
[Eng-dur] Don't ask me, I'm just a figment of your imagination, or something.
[Jevai] yes, very well
* Saza will dislodge her spell, then.
[Nemnosti-GM] The starlight barely gives you any purchase on sight, and your eyes had become acclimated to that starvation. But as Downward dislodges her glyph, new light emerges - a kind of dull grey, made of smoke or steam, shifting, diffuse, without source or direction. It sits atop Tetavai Ikhanne and reshapes itself into a mirror-plane.
[Nemnosti-GM] And through it, you can see, as if from above, Eng-dur.
[Eng-dur] Oh my goodness!
[Nemnosti-GM] It's as if you can hear him double - once in his apparition before you, and again, from below.
[Jevai] huh
* Jevai reaches out to the plane
[Nemnosti-GM] You touch it, and it is as if the pecked stone surface is not there, replaced with something more soft and permeable.
[Jevai] (let's test how permeable....)
[Jevai] what is this?
[Saza] It is really no more than a temporary gate. But it is real, if that is what you mean. A portal or tunnel, from wherever he is, to here.
[Eng-dur] That is fascinating.
[Jevai] Can you come through?
* Jevai asks him
[Jevai] or, do you want to try?
[Eng-dur] To say no would be folly. But perhaps also folly to try.
[Eng-dur] It's not that I think Saza would do something intentionally to harm me. But we do not know much about any of this.
[Jevai] This is all true
[Saza] Well, I cannot tell you what to do, having just given you exactly what you wanted.
[Saza] I cannot promise what will happen, but the portal is safe and stable.
* Jevai can't make this decision for him
[Eng-dur] All right, then.
[Eng-dur] If I die, let it be known that I curse you both eternally from wherever it is I am.
[Jevai] That's fair
* Jevai will offer her hand, then
* Jevai is just holdoing her breath :x
[Saza] You're going to pull him up with ... your bare strength?
[Jevai] I don't know if he has any weight where he is
[Jevai] do you?
[Eng-dur] I don't know!
[Jevai] there's no direction there
[Saza] Amateurs.
[Jevai] mmhmm
* Saza slates a quick spell and casts it.
[Saza] !roll 1d20+24
* lan-werk2 rolls for Saza: [ 1d20+24 ] getting [ 7 ] which, after the modifier [ 24 ] totals [ 31 ].
[Saza] All right, then, fly, you fool!
* Saza reaches down and touches Eng-dur.
* Eng-dur floats Upward, and emerges, first head then torso, then the rest of his body, through the Vulture-Pecked Stone and onto the ground before you, naked, sort of moist or oily, but apparently unharmed.
[Eng-dur] Well, isn't that something.
[Jevai] how do you feel?
[Eng-dur] I feel ... intact.
* Jevai asks, trying to sound calm when she is very much not
[Jevai] good
[Jevai] I have.... so many questions
[Jevai] Thank you, Downward.
* Saza smiles.
[Saza] Thank you, Pebble.
[Jevai] mm.
[Nemnosti-GM] Until next we gather by the firelight, young acolytes!
