Lithaladhwen: Boo.
PapatymisonN: Hey.
Lithaladhwen: You read the thing, or should I summarize?
PapatymisonN: Go ahead and summarize. I doubt I'll get to it tong.
PapatymisonN: *tonight.
Lithaladhwen: Okay, this will take a while to do, but probably not as long as reading a log.
Lithaladhwen: The first thing we did was RP Sorune's reaction to the letter he received from Zea, essentially summarizing the first RP.
Lithaladhwen: He headed straight over to Zea's house with Sher'khan to make sure everything was all right. Once there he took it upon himself to work on the security of her house with various Druid-magic tricks and things.
Lithaladhwen: He also agreed to meet her at work every morning and stay there as long as she was in public by herself.
Lithaladhwen: I timelapsed forward a couple of weeks, and that became the routine for them.
Lithaladhwen: One day Solis and Sorune are at Zea's stand waiting for her to get there. It's still early, so it's no big deal.
Lithaladhwen: A guy shows up at the stand. He's a rather dapper-looking fellow arrives with closely-groomed black hair, black dress slacks and a white button-up shirt rolled back at the sleeves. He looks a bit like a bartender from a 20's gangster movie.
Lithaladhwen: Solis finds a piece of paper in his pocket along with a pencil, neither of which did he put there. His hands, seemingly without his consent, draw a symbol he doesn't recognize on the paper.
Lithaladhwen: The guy addresses the two men. As he speaks his voice has a nice warmth to it, but expression is totally blank. He seems to barely move his mouth when he talks.
Lithaladhwen: He asks if Zea is there.
Lithaladhwen: He calls them by name and, when they tell him they don't know where she is he smiles a little and replies, "Oh. ...I do."
Lithaladhwen: The man literally blinked out of existence. It's not as if he teleported or moved too fast to be seen, it's as if the molecules holding him together decided to stop doing so.
Lithaladhwen: Scene change, and James hears a rumor in the guardhouse about some bizarre noises and an influx of death energy over in the slums. He decides that Zea's been experimenting and decides to go over for a look.
Lithaladhwen: On the way, he comes across Sorune and Solis swearing to themselves because they know something's happened to Zea.
Lithaladhwen: James asks what their problem is, and they inform him that Zea's been kidnapped. James expresses his surprise and alarm, and while they wait for word from Sorune's animal sentries, the Druid takes a look at the symbol Solis drew. Sorune's seen it before. Zea uses it as her signature.
Lithaladhwen: They rush to her house when no word comes, and they find that her house is radiating death energy, but from the first floor and not from her lab in the basement like you'd expect.
Lithaladhwen: It looks like all the hinges, nails, and latches in her gate just pulled themselves out.
Lithaladhwen: In her front yard are more unsettling things. It looks like a cartload full of people were attempting to crawl up out of her garden and get in the house. However, many of them didn't even make it up out of the ground. They seem to have just... stopped.
PapatymisonN: fun..
Lithaladhwen: When they get to the front door, they find that the hinges have pulled out of it as well.
Lithaladhwen: Inside, the nails in the floorboards inside have all exhibited similar behavior. The floor is still in place, but the nails are all sticking up as if in defiance of their lot in life.
Lithaladhwen: Her basement door is open, and all of the little baskets of herbs, brick dust, chalk, and dirt have been broken and strewn all over the damn place. The centers of the floors are covered in piles of brick dust.
Lithaladhwen: They head to her living room, the source of all the death energy.
Lithaladhwen: They enter, and as soon as they turn the corner, the first thing they see is black. In fact, everything they see is black. The furniture, where it's been shoved against the wall, is black. The tables and lamp that have been knocked over... are black. The books, occasional articles of clothing thrown into corners... black. All of it.
Lithaladhwen: Everything's been tainted that color except for an extremely elaborate ritual circle drawn in the center of the floor.
Lithaladhwen: One side of it is badly smudged, which probably happened after it was used. It's the center of all this bullshitty energy and darkness and whatnot.
Lithaladhwen: As the group moves into the room, they notice that just about everything in there has been shoved aside to make room for the circle.
Lithaladhwen: They hear a smooth gentleman's voice from the doorway behind them. The man addressing them is the fellow from the market. After some initial interrogation they come to realize that, yes, this man knows where Zea is. He's also a ghost.
Lithaladhwen: He introduces himself like so. "My name, as she gave it to me, is John. High John the Conquerer, if you want it in its full glory."
Lithaladhwen: They move to the basement to talk, as there's actually less death energy there, and they find that on the stairs to the basement, it looks like a lot of horrible shit was trying to climb up all at once.
Lithaladhwen: Solis realizes why this is bad. These weren't zombies trying to escape.
Lithaladhwen: They were her zombies moving to defend her, and they all stopped before they could get to wherever she was.
Lithaladhwen: John gives Solis the address to Nagesh's little group by forcing him to write it on that paper. Apparently he was the one who'd controlled his handwriting before as well.
Lithaladhwen: He said, "I want you to go there," and disappeared.
Lithaladhwen: They went and found a small religious group dedicated to the revival of some ancient dead gods.
Lithaladhwen: They hear a whole long speech, which I won't reproduce here so you'll have to read the log for it.
Lithaladhwen: Sorune went in and found from their new leader, a Gregor Vincent by name, that there are plans for a fundraiser in two days to pay for the construction of a new ritual space.
Lithaladhwen: James and Solis, going around the back, find the ritual space that Gregor had mentioned. As Sorune is walking about gathering what information he can, he finds John standing in a corner casually.
Lithaladhwen: John ignores several relevant questions, instead offering his opinions about the group.
Lithaladhwen: He also lets Sorune know that Gregor has not, as he believes, been hearing the voice of a god, but rather "another suitor for the girl's attentions."
Lithaladhwen: He also states, "As you can imagine, they have Zea."
Lithaladhwen: He doesn't qualify that further, telling Sorune, "I want you to go to the fundraiser."
Lithaladhwen: He disappears, reappearing in the ritual room as James and Solis arrive there.
Lithaladhwen: When Sorune makes his way there, John informs them of what's been going on of late.
Lithaladhwen: He's not very good at being helpful, by his own admission. He's trying, though.
Lithaladhwen: Nagesh believed she could contact the old gods, so his followers are keeping her. Zea is more useful to them in this respect with her aura unbound. Gregor likely knows this because of the information he has received from John's "rival."
Lithaladhwen: John told them, "This ceremony has likely already been performed while I was locating all of you, not that I could have stopped it."
Lithaladhwen: "She is as she was when I first knew her. She will not know you now. It can be fixed if the second ceremony can be prevented."
Lithaladhwen: Eventually, the party wanted to know what the second ritual could be if the first essentially erased her individual identity. I mean, where do you go from there?
Lithaladhwen: "The second ritual is the problem, and gains nothing for anyone, despite the beliefs of... Mr. Vincent's sources. The theory is that in order to use Zea as a conduit for the old gods, her aura must first be unbound. This has been done. She can hear the dead, but none are gods that I know of."
Lithaladhwen: "The second step is to eliminate the last bit of interference between the old gods and this reality. This last resistance is, supposedly, Zea's aura itself. To channel the gods properly, her aura must more or less be dissolved to open the connection completely."
Lithaladhwen: This is where people started to get really alarmed.
PapatymisonN: .... this is neat.
Lithaladhwen: Solis remarked, "You realize with her aura unbound she's open to any THING that wants to get ahold of her, right? >.< The dead ain't always friendly." John grinned at him knowingly. "...wait, dissolved?"
Lithaladhwen: The guys wanted to go get her right fucking now, wherever she is, but John stopped them with a helpful tip. "This ritual circle, when it is finished, will be perfectly good, not only for dissolving her aura, but rebinding it. If you wait for it to be finished, you can repair what has been done."
Lithaladhwen: They still wanted to go get her, ritual and fundraiser be damned. They didn't want to leave her with these people.
Lithaladhwen: "If you retrieve her now, she will not be herself. If you wait until the circle is finished to retrieve her, you kill anyone you like, fix what's been done, and then leave."
Lithaladhwen: Solis expressed hope that "we come along BEFORE the ritual is actually finished, with Zea open to bad influence from all sides."
Lithaladhwen: John replied, "Bad influences? Zea has always been influenced by the dead. I simply refuse to allow another to usurp what is mine. Therefore, it is important that you succeed."
Lithaladhwen: This possessive side of John made them vaguely uncomfortable after a while, especially considering his claims to have known her since she was a little girl.
Lithaladhwen: After his suggestion that they succeed, John disappears again.
Lithaladhwen: The guys headed to Sorune's house to figure out what the hell they're going to do in two days when the fundraiser comes around and they have to not only stop the ritual that will kill Zea, but use the same ritual space to rebind her aura and return her to normal.
Lithaladhwen: </Summary>
PapatymisonN: IIIIIIIIINformative!
Lithaladhwen: I'll be pasting it into the thread, like...now.
PapatymisonN: Whee!
Lithaladhwen: But yeah, that's what you missed.
PapatymisonN: Well drat.
PapatymisonN: I wanna be in it, yes I do. Even if it's to just have Resh be all? "Old Gods? Screw THEM! New Gods RULE!"
Lithaladhwen: The old gods don't exist.
Lithaladhwen: It's just John's rival trying to take what John perceives to be his: namely Zea.
PapatymisonN: Oh. Didn't click on that.
PapatymisonN: Well, whatev. New gods still rule.
Lithaladhwen: Sorry I'm a little slow. I'm reformatting.
PapatymisonN: Trust me. I'm so busy, I'm surprised I responded at all during your recap.
Lithaladhwen: 'kay.
Lithaladhwen: Anyway.
Lithaladhwen: You were right that I want you to bring Reshtaha
PapatymisonN: When's the next session?
PapatymisonN: And if you say tomorrow night, I'll cry.
Lithaladhwen: NO.
Lithaladhwen: No way.
Lithaladhwen: I have work.
PapatymisonN: Good.
Lithaladhwen: How's Saturday?
PapatymisonN: Free and clear.
Lithaladhwen: Keen. Sage and Shaun are also available, and Brian as well.
Lithaladhwen: The things I plan to tell you are all spoilery and things, okay?
PapatymisonN: OK.
Lithaladhwen: But y'know. If you're going to be playing Reshtaha, then you're sort of co-GMing at that point.
PapatymisonN: ... kay... what would I need to know?
Lithaladhwen: The party knows what the second ritual is going to be, as John has indeed given them accurate information.
Lithaladhwen: I can give you more information about John's 'rival' than they have, however.
Lithaladhwen: His name is Jezreel, he was an elf when he was alive, and he's a poltergeist now. This is one of many reasons why John looks down on him. Poltergeists are vulgar little "noisy ghosts."
Lithaladhwen: He's not nearly as powerful as John, so he can't usually present himself visually or possess people as easily as John the Conquerer apparently can do.
PapatymisonN: Keep talkin'. I got stuff to do.
Lithaladhwen: ...'kay.
Lithaladhwen: If you're busy with your video game I can just do this another time.
PapatymisonN: No, gotta help with groceries. I killed Ares today.
Lithaladhwen: Ah.
Lithaladhwen: ... all right.
Lithaladhwen: I just wonder whether you're going to remember any of this if you aren't paying attention, that's all.
PapatymisonN: I am. I just have something to do for a bit.
Lithaladhwen: OK.
Lithaladhwen: Before the second ceremony is performed, Jezreel needs to be inside Zea. Since he's not John, he can't do this for long, so his timing is important.
Lithaladhwen: Once he's inside, it will be John's job to get him out and keep him busy while the boys hijack the ritual circle and do what they need to do.
Lithaladhwen: Of course, Jezreel inside Zea is not a pretty thing.
Lithaladhwen: A poltergeist inside a necromancer in a highly magical room.
Lithaladhwen: Insert lots of weird possession phenomena here.
Lithaladhwen: Depending on what they do, the guys may have to physically restrain her so John can get Jezreel out.
Lithaladhwen: He might have to get the other ghost out of her more than once. Yet again, it depends on what the PCs do.
Lithaladhwen: When the ritual is done, Zea will be more or less totally drained. Her aura will need some time to leech out all that death energy and return to its natural equilibrium.
Lithaladhwen: After some initial physical side effects, Zea will probably need to just sleep for a day or two before she's any good to anyone again.
Lithaladhwen: IM me when you get back.
PapatymisonN: I'm here.
Lithaladhwen: Ah.
Lithaladhwen: You read the stuff?
PapatymisonN: I did indeed.
PapatymisonN: What role EXACTLY will you need me to play.
Lithaladhwen: Well. You mentioned once during a conversation we had about Zea becoming a reaper that sometime in the next second gen RP you'd want to start her "initiation" as you put it, but I told you I had a better time in mind.
Lithaladhwen: Now, with Zea sitting there, head full of dead people, aura all over the place... seems like a decent opportunity for Reshtaha to grab a word with her.
Lithaladhwen: After all, s'not like she's doing anything else.
PapatymisonN: Ah, true.
Lithaladhwen: This can even be after they rebind her aura, so that if you wanted to have him actually manifest in some way, the other PCs would be able to enjoy the crazy deific RP fun.
PapatymisonN: I'm just trying to think of what toy he'd want to bring...
PapatymisonN: A sickle, a yoyo, or a skateboard.
Lithaladhwen: Heh.
Lithaladhwen: A yo yo would be entertaining, because Zea would take him totally seriously anyway.
Lithaladhwen: It would be, "Okay, my god has a yo yo. Have to do something with an eternity of spare time."
PapatymisonN: And he knows tricks!
Lithaladhwen: Hrm. At some point she's going to have to ditch that axe in favor of something more... professional, though.
PapatymisonN: Axe is fine. You use what you must to do the job.
PapatymisonN: Remember the cowboy?
Lithaladhwen: See, Zea's old-school about a lot of things, though. She uses the axe because it has sentimental value. However, if she were to be in some kind of tangible service to her god, she'd want to be carrying "his" weapon.
Lithaladhwen: It's just a matter of how convenient or inconvenient such a switch would be.
PapatymisonN: She could use a MODIFIED scythe.
PapatymisonN: Made in the SHAPE of an axe...?
Lithaladhwen: Um... I'm not sure that makes much sense.
Lithaladhwen: She likes the standard scythe.
Lithaladhwen: She just doesn't feel like she "should" use it yet.
Lithaladhwen: Like I said, she's a traditionalist. Maybe it's because she didn't have a father growing up, but anything that ties her to something larger than herself makes her feel good.
PapatymisonN: I'll remember that fatherly slant when I RP. Gods are remarkably adaptable.
Lithaladhwen: *snort* I see!
Lithaladhwen: That's entertaining.
PapatymisonN: Good to know.
PapatymisonN: I live to please.
Lithaladhwen: I'm just entertained by the amount of sympathy Zea can apparently elicit from other people. She really does a lot of horrible things.
PapatymisonN: Igalans are accepting to a noticeable fault.
Lithaladhwen: True.
Lithaladhwen: Anyway.
PapatymisonN: Oh, and if she ever met Dae, he'd be disgusted with her, just so you know...
Lithaladhwen: That's fine.
Lithaladhwen: I play characters that would kill her.
Lithaladhwen: Here's something from D&D I thought I'd bring up, from the metagamy-side of things. When you take a level in cleric you can, with certain finagling, gain access to your deity's favored weapon.
Lithaladhwen: You can guess what Reshtaha's favored weapon would be.
PapatymisonN: Hmmm... could it be what his religion's SYMBOL is?
Lithaladhwen: *gasp* Possibly!
Lithaladhwen: Anyway. Ordinarily I'd count on levelling her up to gain skill ranks in scythe, but there's so little GMed second gen RP these days that such a thing is unlikely.
Lithaladhwen: Y'know?
PapatymisonN: Indeed.
Lithaladhwen: Well, this would depend on how much of a plot device you feel like being at this point.
PapatymisonN: I am at your disposal, madam.
Lithaladhwen: This is something Zea wouldn't ask for but I'm pushy so I will.
Lithaladhwen: Since he's a god, and theoretically has some power to do favors for his followers.... maybe it would be possible for him to "give her" that weapon proficiency by switching her weapon ranks from axe to scythe. If he were to do so, she'd have the axe melted down and reforged as this whole symbolic thing.
PapatymisonN: He couldn't ask her to do that. Not if it's all symbolic.
PapatymisonN: Now, see, giving her one rank in scythes, THAT'S plausible.
Lithaladhwen: Giving her a rank in it would be cool. She intends to reforge her axe someday anyway.
PapatymisonN: Kay. And he could always GIVE her a scythe... he's got enough to go around...
Lithaladhwen: Right now, she views it as the weapon she carries around because, y'know. You should have one. Later on, she'd want something with more meaning attached to it, or at least to the design.
Lithaladhwen: That's why she's always planned to remake it when the time is right.
Lithaladhwen: Should be enough metal there, after all. Damn axe. >_>
Lithaladhwen: But yeah, a scythe from her god would be super keen as well.
Lithaladhwen: I only brought up the ranks-switching thing because there's actually a very slim chance she'll level up again, and therefore a slim chance of her getting better with it systematically, no matter how often she uses it.
PapatymisonN: Ah, true.
PapatymisonN: ... thought. Did you make her a Saint in SC3, or a barbarian?
Lithaladhwen: Barbarian, but I can always remake her. Why?
PapatymisonN: Well, for saints, the last Soul of is Zasalamel.
Lithaladhwen: I know.
Lithaladhwen: Brian made Darin, and he fights with a scythe.
Lithaladhwen: I'd change her SC3 character if she switched weapons that drastically.
Lithaladhwen: But do you see what I mean about the levelling-up practicalities?
PapatymisonN: I do. 2ndGen is not conducive to elvelling.
PapatymisonN: *levelling
Lithaladhwen: So, as acts of god go, switching her ranks in axe to ranks in scythe is not the most broken thing ever.
Lithaladhwen: It would just be... a change.
PapatymisonN: ... I'll consider it. And Resh will respond in kind.
PapatymisonN: ... maybe he'll give her the choice...
Lithaladhwen: The choice?
Lithaladhwen: For the record, as a god, he knows things about his followers if he wants to... like the fact that she fully intends to make the switch eventually, with or without his help.
PapatymisonN: Ah, true. Still, he'll give her the choice.
Lithaladhwen: *nod*
Lithaladhwen: He's whimsical, but he respects mortals' boundaries better than a lot of gods, it seems. If you don't wanna switch, you can keep doing what you're doing.
PapatymisonN: Exactly.
Lithaladhwen: You know what's awesome about reforging her current weapon?
Lithaladhwen: The name of her axe is 'Balance.'
Lithaladhwen: What better name for a reaper's weapon could there be?
PapatymisonN: Indeed. You bring balance to the world.
Lithaladhwen: Just between you/Reshtaha (because once again, gods know things), Zea's pretty sure she's been set up from the start to become a reaper. Her player did not do that intentionally, but Zea has this whole "pursue your destiny" thing going on.
Lithaladhwen: The childhood connection to the dead to keep her from forgetting that death isn't the end of the story, her talent in necromancy to help desensitize her just a little (or make her less squeamish at least), her research into the borderline between life and death with her zombies. All that.
Lithaladhwen: She's proud of it.
Lithaladhwen: She truly thinks that the reason she went through so much horribly bullshit as a child was that she was being groomed for something better and more meaningful.
Lithaladhwen: *horrible
Lithaladhwen: S'how she sees it, at least. Crazy people and their faith.
PapatymisonN: GOD LOVES YOU, ASHLEY HOLMES.
Lithaladhwen: *blink*
Lithaladhwen: Um. Which one?
PapatymisonN: The one true one.
Lithaladhwen: I see! *tosses a peace sign up to the heavens*
Lithaladhwen: Anyway. That's more or less Zea's view on the whole thing. Having a perception of a divine purpose tends to lend some meaning to what would otherwise be random unexplained and unresolved suffering, you know?
Lithaladhwen: It's up to you whether any of that is true.
PapatymisonN: Yeah. People Like that make me sad.
Lithaladhwen: She's been through a lot, but she's proud of the person that she became as a result.
Lithaladhwen: She's open about most of it. Possession is something she can handle talking about now.
Lithaladhwen: Not all of it, though.
Lithaladhwen: What do you think would happen if you're a little girl who can see, hear, touch, and feel ghosts? How do you think the ghosts react to that?
Lithaladhwen: Put another way, what would you miss about being alive? Emotionally, physically, whatever.
Lithaladhwen: Some of them treated her pretty badly as a child because they wanted to reclaim part of what they'd had when they were alive and, Oh look! Pretty little live girl! Neat!
Lithaladhwen: This is why Zea knows it's better if people pass on. That's why we need reapers. Keeping dead people around leads to a lot of imbalance and suffering all around.
Lithaladhwen: I don't know that it's something that should make you sad. She isn't.
PapatymisonN signed off at 12:48:17 AM.
PapatymisonN signed on at 12:53:05 AM.
Lithaladhwen: Hey.
Lithaladhwen: What happened?
Lithaladhwen: You still there?
PapatymisonN: Yep.
PapatymisonN: Overloaded my comp with stuff.
Lithaladhwen: Ah.
Lithaladhwen: Did you get that whole deluge of philosophical bullshit before you signed off?
PapatymisonN: I did.
Lithaladhwen: All the way up to "she isn't?"
Lithaladhwen: It really was a deluge.
PapatymisonN: Wait, I didn't get THAT...
Lithaladhwen: *nods* I logged it. I can send it to you.
Lithaladhwen: That work for you?
PapatymisonN: dA.
PapatymisonN: Da/
PapatymisonN: ... yes.
Lithaladhwen wants to send file C:\Documents and Settings\holmes\My Documents\RP\Logs\Zea_reaper_talk.htm.
PapatymisonN received C:\Documents and Settings\holmes\My Documents\RP\Logs\Zea_reaper_talk.htm.
PapatymisonN: Oh. I meant people who DON'T have a belief in anything. It's a sad situation.
Lithaladhwen: *nod* That makes more sense.
Lithaladhwen: It's how Zea didn't end up... well, like Shakti did.
Lithaladhwen: If people think Zea's bad now, they have no idea how unprincipled and destructive she would be if she didn't have anything to believe in. She'd also be a very unhappy young lady.
PapatymisonN: She'd be a Marvel Comics villain.
Lithaladhwen: Heh. Something like that.
PapatymisonN: Anyhow, the overloading of my comp sounded the death knell for my being conscious.
PapatymisonN: I gotta sleep.
Lithaladhwen: 'kay.
Lithaladhwen: I'm going to work on a paper for my Bible course until I do the sem.
Lithaladhwen: *same
Lithaladhwen: Glad we got a chance to hash over some Zea stuff that Reshtaha would be aware of -slash- might consider.
PapatymisonN: Indeed. Send me this in email, K?
Lithaladhwen: I will.
PapatymisonN: Night.
Lithaladhwen: Night!
PapatymisonN signed off at 1:10:48 AM.