Journey to the Center of the Old Guy

gridley wrote:

"We are in a land of metaphors, Penelope, where even a bridge of stone can burn before our eyes!"

"Penelope's the woman with the burkha we left behind. He's Lizzy," Artichoke explains, seeing that the new Odanais has not got all their names down yet.

Then he nods and adds, "And you're right. Anything's possible here." He turns and, cupping a hand around his mouth, calls to Yatagan, "So don't be letting off fireworks suddenly. I don't want to know what Hidimba's heartburn would do to us!"

gridley wrote:

"We are in a land of metaphors, Penelope, where even a bridge of stone can burn before our eyes!"

"Quite so! My own beliefs are unshakable. Unfortunately, we are not in my head."

It's a solid sort of bridge, considering how questionable its existence is. It traces a graceful arc through the void, and if it's decorated with spikes, skulls, and leering gargoyle heads, so what? It's still more tasteful than most Goetic architecture.

The torches that line the bridge each burn with a subtly different color, and the flames take curiously suggestive shapes when Yatigan regards them....a rearing pig, a broken sword, a fiercely staring eye...only to vanish when he turns his full attention to them.

The garden beyond is, from what he can see, lush and beautiful, and rather inviting....

shilsen wrote:

gridley wrote:

"We are in a land of metaphors, Penelope, where even a bridge of stone can burn before our eyes!"

"Penelope's the woman with the burkha we left behind. He's Lizzy," Artichoke explains, seeing that the new Odanais has not got all their names down yet.

"It's OK, Our new Mr. Dare was just busting my balls. Weren't you Mr. Dare?

You wanna get going? I can't see us going back." Lizzy follows Yatagan onto the bridge.

overeddie wrote:

"It's OK, Our new Mr. Dare was just busting my balls. Weren't you Mr. Dare?"

"Perhaps just a tad," he says smiling. "Let us adjourn to the garden, eh?"

Yatagan will stand at the garden's edge, trying to avert his eyes from the inviting flora, but otherwise at the ready in case we're jumped by unearthly delights.

Lizzy stands shoulder to uh um hip or something with his dragonborn comrade.

"The marvelous thing about a garden," says Odanais, readying a fire spell, "is that you feel as though absolutely nothing bad could ever happen there."

"Unless of course you're the one providing the sweat while the master enjoys all the beauty."

gridley wrote:

"The marvelous thing about a garden," says Odanais, readying a fire spell, "is that you feel as though absolutely nothing bad could ever happen there."

"Somehow," says Artichoke, as Christabel and he join the others, "That's not as reassuring as it might be. Especially here." He looks around and then shrugs. "Let's go see what tries to kill us."

"Gardens are artificial," Christabel mutters, shaking her head. "That's not very reassuring. Now, a nice, unadulterated forest would be..."

She then utters a few unintelligible words, which results in the appearance of the large armadillo Oothoon. Turning to Artichoke, she adds somewhat excitedly, "Sounds good to me. And Oothoon. We don't like bad spirit things that inhabit other people's bodies!"

Penelope wrote:

"Now, a nice, unadulterated forest would be..."

"...the forest prime-evil!" interjects Yatagan, butchering the pun through over-emphasis as his kind is wont to do.

If nothing counter-Edenic attacks from the garden, Yatagan moves to the front entrance of the manse and listens at the door, momentarily forgetting he has no skill in such things.

It's beautiful, really. The whole affair is set upon an irregularly shaped platform of stone, with white gavel paths winding through patches of exotic flowers. The scents and colors of the blossoms flow together, changing in an almost symphonic structure.

There are benches here and there, and statues of white marble, painted in subtle and lifelike colors, mark each bend in the path; most of them depict Tieflings, with a marked resemblance to Hidimba, but not all -- some are human, or elven, or species unknown even to the most educated of the party.

They speak, these statues, in voices too quiet to be comprehensible.

At the center of the garden is an apple tree, of an odd sort. The fruits that hang from its branches appear to made of silver, and each sports a woman's face. The same woman in each case, but looking older or younger depending upon the fruit examined. Each is silently weeping, producing a circular pool of water from which the tree arises.

Hidimba, it seems, has a taste for melodrama.

OOC: If, perhaps, Sir Lien were to be wandering about the garden, that would not be inappropriate....

Rolzup wrote:

OOC: If, perhaps, Sir Lien were to be wandering about the garden, that would not be inappropriate....

I was just thinking that after reading Lien's background. Him dying somewhere in the "real" world and waking up here would seem entirely fitting.

And give Mike far more openings for bullshitting up his past than he really needs.

Odanais walks foolishly right up to the tree and, focusing a well-practiced look of concern on one of the apples, says "Oh, the tragedy to see such a beauty weep. What has happened? Is there anything I can do to lift your sadness?"

Yatagan walks up to Odanais and the apple tree. "A freakish thing of beauty is a joy forever". He'll then take hold of an apple with a younger face on it.

"Did Mr. Hidimba forbid us from taking souvenirs?"

The apples make no reply, and offer no response to Yatigan's touch.

Yatagan takes a particularly beautiful and freakish apple and places in the satchel with his journals. "Like a desktop muse" he says to himself.

As Yatigan plucks it, the apple lets out a single despairing cry before returning to silent tears. There's a very good chance that his journals will end up sodden before long.....

Odanais considers the apple that Yatagan plucked. Although he's not well-learned, he has developed some instincts on arcane matters. What, does he suppose, is the chance that anything we take from inside will survive the journey back?

Arcane check: 22

The member 'gridley' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 15

gridley wrote:

Odanais considers the apple that Yatagan plucked. Although he's not well-learned, he has developed some instincts on arcane matters. What, does he suppose, is the chance that anything we take from inside will survive the journey back?

Arcane check: 22

This is entirely new ground, in several senses -- his instinct is no, it won't. It's a purely mental construct, and has no physical existence whatsoever.

On the other hand Yatigan DOES exist, in a purely non-subjective way. And he's laid hands upon this imaginary object, after physically entering this imaginary space.

The acid test, so to speak, is whether you can get drunk on imaginary booze.

Rolzup wrote:

The acid test, so to speak, is whether you can get drunk on imaginary booze.

Odanais laughs. "Let's get inside and see if we can find where these devils kept their liquor."

Rolzup wrote:

On the other hand Yatigan DOES exist, in a purely non-subjective way. And he's laid hands upon this imaginary object, after physically entering this imaginary space.

OOC: does Odanais share any of his musings with Yatagan?

In the meantime, Yatagan will empty his waterskin and shove the apple into it, thus keeping his precious journals (and pyrotechnics) dry.

Mallus wrote:

OOC: does Odanais share any of his musings with Yatagan?

OOC: Sure.