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Post by drallore on Dec 23, 2019 0:30:56 GMT
Upon passing through the portal, a party of a few more intellectually apted individuals find themselves in a poorly lit archaic hallway. The smell of dust and blood ruminate within the halls, and a dark presence emanates through your bones, causing unease in even the most stoic of heroes. Through the hall, a bright blue light radiates through a doorway at the very end, seemingly calling you all to step towards it. As you step closer to it, you're brought to a large room, seemingly some sort of large offering hall, filled with the same corpses as the hologram provided, along with the artifact, hovering and humming at the center of the room. Before any of you get much closer, a small blue goblin appears before you. "Hold there friends. Don't want to get too close just yet."Those of the Izzet league would recognize this goblin as Bartren, an explosives expert who has developed such incredible technology as the werewolf in a mech suit, the machine that turns elf's blood into Chicken Sandwhiches, and the notorious two headed duck, Darrell. "So I'm taking a shot in the dark here and guessing you're all the ones who volunteered to help me figure out what's happening with this artifact? Well here's what we got so far. It's scary. Stupidly scary. Anyone who gets near it starts feeling sick, and the ones we've tried to get to touch it, well . . . "Bartren tosses a chicken sandwhich at the artifact, which disopates in to a cloud cells as it gets mere inches away from it."Basically does that. 3 of my interns have lost their hands so far. They asked why I needed to do it three times. Just to be sure of course. Any other help we can get on this would be DEEPLY appreciated."
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Post by Trixander on Dec 27, 2019 4:32:42 GMT
It sounded like Bartren had already ruled a few things out. Chicken sandwiches and hands were a definite no-go. Judging by the symptoms people were feeling, Morden decided to rule out any living thing. He examined the corpses around the artifact. Were they untouched or did some of them have missing appendages? Was there a clean cut sphere of space surrounding the artifact or were there objects very near the artifact?
"What about non-organic matter? Same effect?" If it only destroyed organic matter, he may be able to retrieve it using an artifact creature. Morden also took note of any designs or runes on the artifact. Perhaps his experience with artifacts will allow him to glean some useful information about it without even touching it. "And have you been able to retrieve anything useful from the cultists? Anything on their bodies or in the area that may clue us into what this thing does?"
Morden tried to make sure that the discussion stayed on track. The last thing he wanted was to hear about was how Darrell's day has been so far. He also wanted to figure out what the artifact did without interfacing with it directly. Morden has a device that he uses to control his artifact creatures. He may be able to use it to try and wrest control of the artifact. Or it could melt his brain.
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Post by drallore on Jan 1, 2020 1:50:42 GMT
Bartren chuckles at Morden's observations
"Good eye ratchet. Yeah, seems to only be organic matter being affected by this thing. I tried throwing some rocks at it, and they just bounced off, nothing out of the ordinary. But watch this, when I toss a bomb . . ."
Bartren tosses a bomb at the artifact, which seems to suck the weapon into a portal hole, then, shoot it out in the direction of bartren through another portal. Bartren casually dodges the explosion, which leaves a large black scloding mark upon the wall behind him.
"It seems capable of identifying objects that could damage it, and just chucks them right back at you. Why and how it determines a threat is entirely unknown at the moment, but it seems to have some sort of logic built into it. As for the cultists, not much on them. They're tattooed in a bunch of indecipherable nonsense, and bearing necklaces that seem to be barious bones and teeth of different creatures and humans. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to the bones they collected, just whatever happened to be available."
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Post by Trixander on Jan 2, 2020 1:07:23 GMT
Taking out his ornithopter, Morden gives it a jolt. It flutters to life in front of him, awaiting instructions. "Let's see what it considers a threat. Just go up and touch it," he commanded. The ornithopter was equipped with practically no combat capabilities. It was the least threatening artifact creature in Morden's arsenal. If the artifact considered it a threat, then they would have to come up with a new way to move it.
At the same time, Morden took a second to consider who was behind him. Who else was sent to deal with this artifact? Maybe one of them would be able to deal with this puzzle.
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Post by drallore on Jan 3, 2020 2:20:33 GMT
Behind Morden are a few characters. There appears to be a teen wizard wish some sort of ooze creature in his hand, as the two are conversing between each other. The wizard isn't notable at first, but there are 3 other taller people, with masks on, trying to speak to the teen, but he doesn't seem to care for whatever they are talking about. The other masked individuals refer to the teen as "Kye", so it could be presumed that his name is Kye. Kye As for the Ornithopter, it seems able to make full contact with the artifact without retaining any damage or causing any sort of disruption. The ornithopter seems capable of even nuzzling the artifact without issue
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Post by raventhefree on Jan 5, 2020 21:30:17 GMT
Rasalas was mostly content to watch as the others poked at the artifact. He wasn't terribly capable of helping at the academic parts, but maybe he could help out with moving the artifact to a more pertinent location. "Does anybody have a creature that can be tutored Psychic?" Rasalas asked. They could use its ability to push objects to possibly move the sphere. Since it was an inanimate object, it seemed pretty unlikely that it would be damaged by psychic attacks. And, if it was, it might mean that they learn something about it. "Otherwise, I have one that might be able to encase it in ice--without damaging it--which would allow us to move it without touching that barrier. Or, perhaps, I can shape the ground around it to roll it to a different location?" All of these things seemed to be mostly worth a shot, but Rasalas got the distinct impression that he probably sounded pretty stupid to this group of Izzet.
While he was waiting on an answer, he went over to look at the tattoos on the cultists. Even if they were indecipherable now, maybe having a written record of these tattoos might come up later. He pulled out a small notebook and began transcribing them until he was summoned to help with the main artifact--if he even was at all.
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Post by drallore on Jan 11, 2020 0:31:16 GMT
Rasalas finds that the tattoos seem to be generic tribal style tattoos with no indication towards purpose or meaning. Many have black lines around their wrists, varying in amount, but there's little to be gained from them.
Bartren thinks for a minute.
"Hmmmm. Not a bad idea fluffball. Hey goo kid! got any psychic types?"
The boy presumed to be Kye rolls his eyes, and tosses out an espurr, who floats about aimlessly. Kye ignores Bartren and returns to conversing with his followers
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Post by Trixander on Jan 17, 2020 1:42:27 GMT
"Let's see if moving it will disable the field," Morden says. "Moving the artifact will be much to dangerous if it vaporizes anyone it gets near to." The artificer then commanded the Ornithopter to push the device over. Not using an excessive amount of force, just a slight push.
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Post by drallore on Jan 17, 2020 1:45:47 GMT
The Ornithopter gives the ball a slight, unassuming push. Initially, it gives off a bit of static upon contact, before the mild static becomes a high pitched screech that throws the ornithopter straight against the closest wall, not destroying, but lightly damaging the artifact.
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Post by Trixander on Jan 17, 2020 1:57:56 GMT
"Let's try something a little more sturdy," Morden commanded the Ornithopter back to him. With a small invocation of mana he summons his Colossus. Standing nearly ten feet tall, the massive artifact creature would hopefully fare better than the tiny Ornithopter. "This Colossus will also ground out any electrical attacks. We'll see if it can grab the artifact." Without needing much direction, the Colossus lumbered forward. Like the Ornithopter it wasn't going to attack, it simply tried to pick the artifact up.
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Post by drallore on Jan 22, 2020 23:49:04 GMT
Upon making contact with the artifact, the colossus suddenly finds itself being pulled into a portal which sucks up the large atomiton and disappearing. It isn't clear initially where the colossus went, until you hear the roof above you drop shake as if a large object was dropped upon it. It would appear physically moving the artifact isn't going to be enough.
However, as the espurr floats towards it, it notably does not become destroyed like the other living creatures were. In fact, the artifact even seems to start glowing red, eminating a comforting heat.
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Post by raventhefree on Feb 2, 2020 0:02:07 GMT
Seeing the orb respond to the Espurr floating nearby, Rasalas sits down and rifles through his bag. "Drat. Looks like I don't have a Psychic enchant handy," he says sheepishly, then slings the bag over his back. "No matter. There's still a variety of other things we can try." Crossing his legs to make himself more inviting, he gestures towards the Espurr. "It might take a little bit, but I can teach you all sorts of things that might allow us to move the artifact," he tells the much-smaller cat.
Inspecting the creature, he looks at the Izzet. "What do you think? Do you think influencing Gravity might be effective? Or should we try Telekinesis instead?" Rasalas was partially thinking out loud, but he was interested in the Izzet's insights. "If it was lifted, I might be able to move it with some wind produced by one of my own creatures." He taps his tail against the ground as he crosses his arms. "Or, since it's responding so positively to the Espurr, we might even be able to move it using something like Ally Switch...."
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Post by Trixander on Feb 6, 2020 23:22:21 GMT
"Gravity might work best, since it might circumvent the whole attack reversal mechanism. Moving it with wind or even roiling earth isn't out of the question either," Morden considered their options. "But I think you are right about the Espurr. We should see if the creature can move it. Worst thing that could happen is it gets vaporized and it will need to be re-summoned." Of course, that was assuming that the Planeswalker was using the modern method of conjuring a duplicate of the creature, as opposed to the archaic method of summoning the being itself.
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Post by raventhefree on Feb 12, 2020 14:56:58 GMT
"Hmm," Rasalas says, looking at the Espurr. "The creature should already be Telekinetic. Let's teach it Trick--or failing that, Ally Switch. The artifact looks very heavy, so the Espurr may have trouble lifting it. It might be more expeditious to move it with other means."
Rasalas gestured for the Espurr to approach, then extended a hand so that it could land. "You seem like the tricky type," he says. "But what you really need to do to become a better telekinetic is improve your focus," Rasalas instructs. "Look," he says, gesturing to some ground in the back of the area. He doesn't close his eyes, but the muscles in his arms clench as he gazes at the stone. In a moment, the ground warps into gravel-filled caltrops. "See? With focus, you can get precision at a small scale. But just as that focus can change the minutia, you can also use it on a greater scale as well."
"Let's start with small," Rasalas says, handing the Espurr a pebble. From his pouch, Rasalas produced a zino from his pouch. "You want this, right? Well, focus, and swap the two items." Once the Espurr could do this, they could possibly use it on the artifact.
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Post by drallore on Feb 19, 2020 4:14:15 GMT
With proper focus, Espurr manages to swap out the zino and the pebble using trick.
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Post by raventhefree on Feb 27, 2020 23:51:45 GMT
Rasalas felt a little uncomfortable ordering around another person's creature, but gestured towards the artifact now that the Espurr seemed to know how to move objects. This time, he put the zino towards the entrance of the cave, making sure nobody was nearby that might get injured by the Artifact's field if the Espurr could swap them. With any luck, the use of telepathic energy on the object might teach the nearby Izzet something more about it.
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Post by drallore on Mar 3, 2020 4:44:20 GMT
With little effort, the Espurr manages to swap the Artifact with the Zino at the front of the cage. As it appears on the other side, there's a notable lack of climactic change in the atmosphere. The artifact remains docile, and still hums pleasantly a bit as it is near espurr. Bartren scratches his head and approaches Rasalas
"No idea why that worked, but hell kid, it worked! Seems that thing really likes that espurr fellow huh? Probably best we keep them together for now"
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Post by Trixander on Mar 4, 2020 14:43:04 GMT
"Perfect. Let's get this thing out of here and some place more secure," Morden agreed. Honestly, this was anything but perfect. The thing was still active and there was still no indication as to how this was connected to Nicol Bolas. Still, research was about making progress one step at a time. Now that they can move it, they could have people with more knowledge on the subject take a look at it.
"Where would it be best to study the artifact? Simply getting it out of here should free us up to investigate the area better," Morden said as he unsummoned his colossus. It was only going to get in the way at this point.
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