[IC] New Crobuzon & the World Beyond

[Selina Parcellus]

[OoC: Simon will be translating for anyone who has difficulty understanding or speaking Ragamoll.  Selina, have you put 1 skill point into Ragmoll yet?  If you have then you can understand and speak it.  Ragamoll is close enough to common where you can understand about half of the conversation.  That's why it only requires 1 skill point instead of 2pts.]

"I don't know exactly why the Ziggurat is able to counter the worst of the chaotic effects of the Stain, or who built it.  I've only seen it a few times, myself.  But you can literally feel the energy radiating from the structure before ever laying eyes on it."

When Selina mentions being from another plane her eyes widen further.  "From another plane?  Is it possible the Stain is reaching out into the chaos to draw other worlds here?  My home was caught in a Torque storm and before I knew it my entire farm was deposited in this cave.  I'm not even sure where I am but it's obvious I'm on the outskirts of the stain."  Suddenly there's a noise from behind the hut.  It sounds like the grinding of metal on metal.  Something large and rusty leaps out from behinding the hut.  All of you recognize it as a triple bladed plow.  All the blades rise up menacingly when suddenly a loud thud from a sturdy broom seems to knock some sense into it.  

"Bad!  Bad, Cul!  Bad!" the old woman scolds.  "These are friendly visitors not those other beasties.  Now you apologize!"  The animated plow shrinks away from the scolding blows.  Then it seems to kneel slightly apologetically.  The woman rolls her eyes and smiles.  "Don't you hate it when your farm equipment gets protective?"

[[Yes, Selina has a point in Ragamoll.  But I'm sure it gives her the equivalent of 'English' English to native Crobuzonians (...Crobuzonans?...Crobuzonos?...um...?)]]

Selina blinks once at the response, mouth hanging slightly open at what the woman just said about the Stain 'reaching out' to other planes.  Half-remembering something about the government of New Crobuzon performing experiments on the Stain, she turns her head to Betimi on one side of her, and then craning her head up slightly to look at Tomeal on her other side, she ponders in bewildered uncertainty "Wait...What did she...?  Do any of you remember the...'Ambassador' [[?I think?]] and how interested he was in gathering information about other planes?  Or what we learned about the Stain having been experimented on by the government?"

Selina is starting to get a very distinctly bad feeling about this.

[Betimi]

Betimi merely silently nods at Selina. She has a distinct feeling of dread.

She whispers back to Selina in Common
"I don't think we want to share our findings with anyone but Simon. I am also not sure we want to open a portal to your world, what if our returning to your home gives this Cacoptic Stain access to your world?"

[Selina Parcellus]

Selina can only nod mutely, in fatalistic grief that it would likely still be some time before she saw the place she still called 'home'.

[GM Marvel]

"The wooden giant and I are friendly," she replies to Crozar.  "But it's not much of a conversationalist.  And it doesn't usually travel beyond the shallow river with the fish with colorful peacock tails that splits the cavern in half.  Not sure why and I never really thought to ask.  It does its thing and I'm busy doing mine.  Everyday something new happens.  Either a new threat like the strange crows you just saw me dealing with or some new chaos imbued inanimate object coming to life.  Just a week ago I had to deal with a pack of what I call , Were-Snails.  Terrible creatures.  They slime everything the come in contact with and after you've been slimed 3 times you become one of them!  I lost my poor little pumpkin to a late night slimeing.  With their hard shells the only real chance I have to defend myself is on account that they're so slow.  I can spot them, finish working on my fields, and have a tea before they arrive to menace the farm."

When Ning suggests her accompanying them she pauses for a moment.  She looks back at her tiny dilapidated hut and to the animated plow and says, "I had given up on escaping.  But maybe it's time to try to make another attempt."

[Crozar the Sunspot]

"Even if you do not want to travel with us, although these folk are among the most determined and persistent I've had the pleasure to come across, if there is anything we could do to help you, I'm sure we would be happy to try," Crozar says with a smile, "Truly, if you still would like to try to leave here, I have high confidence that this group will find a way if there is one."

[Selina Parcellus]

Betimi merely silently nods at Selina. She has a distinct feeling of dread.

She whispers back to Selina in Common
"I don't think we want to share our findings with anyone but Simon. I am also not sure we want to open a portal to your world, what if our returning to your home gives this Cacoptic Stain access to your world?"

"Betimi, we will have to travel to another plane altogether.  We cannot risk going to yours either.  Besides the inherent dangers you have hinted at, if there is even the slightest chance these...Daelkyr, yes?...if there is any chance of either they subverting or being subverted by the Stain, we must avoid that at all costs.  Who knows what horrors that would cause??  I only pray that we are wrong and we do not corrupt our next place of travel."

[Betimi]

"Not just the daelkyr, but almost any one of there creations, if mutated furtrher by the Stain, would unleash unimaginable horror. Perhaps we can escape to somewhere that is not in the prime material at all."

[Knowledge- Planes [1d20+6]=11+6=17    to attempt to define a safe plane in the outer planes where they could go, that would then have access to the prime material plane of their choice\  [OoC to see if she knows of nexus locations like Sigil]

[GM Marvel]

[OoC: Going with your thoughts - and I'm neither confirming or denying you're on the right track - the Stain could theoretically follow along with anyone who traveled into any plane that can be easily reached by the Prime Material.  The Ethereal Plane in particular could be your best bet for the Chaos to spread since the Ethereal closely borders almost every Prime Plane.  Once in the Ethereal it could gain access to other Prime Planes through Color Pools, through people coming and going from the Ethereal (like with the Ethereal Jaunt spell) or maybe even just peering into the the Ethereal to detect ghosts and other creatures.  From the Ethereal the Stain could then also infect the Inner Planes (elemental planes).  ]

[Betimi]

[OoC that is good information, but what Betimi is wondering is if there is a plane where the Stain would NOT easiuly chause a problem, perhaps a plane that is already Chaotic, like Limbo or Pandemonium.]

[GM Marvel]

[OoC that is good information, but what Betimi is wondering is if there is a plane where the Stain would NOT easiuly chause a problem, perhaps a plane that is already Chaotic, like Limbo or Pandemonium.]

[[Any plane that has strong Chaos like Limbo would be a good choice but I doubt Limbo is a place where you'd want to live unless you enjoy sharing space with the Slaadi. A mildly chaos aligned plane would probably not be a good idea.  It could tip the plane over into complete chaos.  Sigil would also probably be safe because The Lady of Pain is an Over-god much like AO is in the Forgotten Realms.  She can bend reality on a whim but she chooses to keep her influence confided to Sigil and obliterates anything that might harm her precious city.  Though she might wipe you from existence for daring to use Sigil as some kind of safety net. Ao on the other hand, controls the realms but he's much less hands on than the Lady of Pain so he probably would let the Chaos go until the Realms was about to dissolve into elemental chaos.  Then he would step in and destroy a bunch of gods (Mystra seems to be always one of the gods who gets the ax for a few years) for letting it happen. 

But you have to remember that the Stain is limited to 3 spots in this world.  The further away you are from it, the less influence it has.  So unless you're opening up a portal to another plane in the middle of the Stain, it's very unlikely it will have any affect on that plane.  Even the portal that Kubo came through, as far as you know, is one way.  If your theories are correct, it might not be a good idea to try to reverse the portal to take you home.  Or you could be wrong and it's perfectly fine to use the portal to return to your home planes.]]