Post by Frederic Bourgault-Christie on Apr 8, 2013 20:37:33 GMT -5
For those in the new campaign, here are the visions that the Fellow, aided by Nozdormu, has perceived.
The first vision, apparently of the god now known as the Shezurabayl, the Elanvital-Zontas-Bahrum-Shishe:
“You feel yourself disembodied, floating in endless black space. The sheer cold and emptiness is so staggering, as each time you look a little further you continue to see the great nothing. You then begin to hear something. It takes a second or two to realize that there is no air, and nothing should be heard. You then realize that something so big that it has its own atmosphere approaches. You look up and see something that appears like a gigantic black spire. While it has an appearance of rock, it is very clear that it is more like a massive shell, a shell capable of undulating motion of incredible complexity. There is a deep, incredible sound of a heartbeat, and then a million sounds of fluids pumping, air moving, an unimaginable and pressing sensation. The creature continues to move forward, and it takes several seconds to pass above, very much like that scene in Spaceballs where the ship keeps coming. And then it comes to pass that it moves overhead and away from you. You see its great arms, infinitely articulated like a tentacle but infinitely dextrous like a hand, moving. You see arcing leg-like protrusions grabbing and moving. You see long atom-thin cords, the only sign of their presence being crackling energy. The cords, like giant cat's whiskers, seem to process and transmit information. Jets of blueshifted plasma erupt behind it, and there is a clear warpfield extending from around it, moving it forward easily. The creature is unimaginably vast, its whiskers stretching for lightyears.
The god then goes towards the western spiral arm of a seemingly unremarkable galaxy, so far in the distance that you can see all of it, seemingly the size of a beachball. The god is quickly swallowed up, for as massive as it is, it is nowhere near as massive as a galaxy. It takes a few moments, and then there is the most beautiful bright blue light you have ever seen. It comes at you, glowing with infinite luminescence, consuming an entire galaxy in a moment. You hear a glorious and indescribable song without words before the light consumes you too, instantly ending the vision".
The second:
A woman lies in complete darkness. It's clear from the acoustics of the room and how close things seem that it has to be some kind of room underneath the ground. There's a very distant trickling of water, like a spring or pipes. It's difficult to see much about her, but she seems to have porcelain-white skin and seems very tall and thin. Her clothes are tattered. She whispers, 'Please... no... don't hurt her... why! Why! Why does this keep happening! Why couldn't you just have walked away?! Why didn't she do anything!' There's a creaking up above, and this sudden bright blinding light. The woman backs away and screams, and a voice comes from above, a voice which is staticky and uncertain. The voice from above says, 'So sorry! So sorry!' and closes the door rapidly. Two large-ish figures, though cloaked in this staticky humming shadow, come in. One leans in front of her while the other stands calmly with hands crossed behind his back. 'Hello', the one says. The woman looks at the kneeling figure and says, 'It's... so beautiful... all I see... is darkness... you are just bringing cool, loving... darkness'... The kneeling figure says, 'Are you not afraid?' 'No...' 'You see pain. Perhaps together... together we can end it'. The kneeling figure extends her or his arm and starts to stand up. The woman takes her or his arm and stands with the figure, and as she stands, you see that her eyes look like they have been burnt shut”.
The third, apparently about the Krogan Prophet:
"A Krogan stands on red soil. The planet he is in is actively storming with blue and purple clouds, black streaks running through them. There is the clear sign of massive element zero corruption. He is injured, chunks of him missing, his left arm burnt together into his torso, holding onto a massive energy weapon with an even longer blade. His armor is shredded. The brand of the gun is not easily identifiable. The Krogan screams to the sky and says 'Fine! Fine, you monster! If you leave them, I will do as you ask!' 'What of that Krogan honor?', a voice responds, booming in an incredible harmony as if singing the deepest bass from a thousand lips. 'I am their commander! Damned be the honor!'”
The fourth vision:
“Black-armored, jackbooted soldiers march in lockstep down a narrow ravine. The sky is dusty, and off in the distance the distinctive whine of railgun artillery fire can be heard. The soldiers each stare out of skull helmets. Trundling around and through them are massive tanks, armored in so many layers, with the distinctive faceplate of grim skulls.
Suddenly, a voice cuts through the confusion and fear of the battlefield. From your perspective, your eyes move upwards instantly to someone standing on top of the ridge. This man speaks with a calm fury, a distinctive sensation of a man rejecting everything he has known in revulsion and anger. He wears an armor made of white, an armor whose pauldrons are shaped as skulls, an armor made of ceramics and metals and hydraulics. 'I will give you a mercy you have not given these people and allow you a minute to throw your weapons to the ground and leave your vehicles. Your weapons are forfeit. They will be ground into plowshares'.
A murmur comes about. Someone behind your position whispers, 'Oh, holy fucking fuck, that's the Shining One'. Someone else says, 'He ain't so tough'. A third voice laughs and says, 'Why, cuz last time he spanked you you say you got a single laser shot off on him?' A commander says, 'Light him up, boys!' Everyone raises their weapons, but by the time they have reacted, the man is amidst them. You see underneath his transparent helmet an immense sadness. 'Why couldn't you have put your weapons down?' There is a flurry of motion; even Jerlock struggles to see what is happening.
Kicks, punches, and blades all form this beautiful, harmonious tornado, while the Coalition soldiers fall into confusion and disarray. In panic, they fill the air with rounds, lasers, bursts of ion and plasma, gouts of flame, and vibro-blades and neural maces. Missiles are aimed and destroyed with ease, as Mark Chirho the Shining One advances as an impenetrable field of blades. A few soldiers die from their own fire, while Chirho's own punches and kicks break a few bones but claim no lives. The blades instead bisect rifles, disarm weapons and remove armor. As broken and beaten men retreat, Chirho leaps from vehicle to vehicle, chopping them to pieces, his blades penetrating into cockpits, reaching in and throwing men out.
One of the commanders curses, 'How in God's name is he this powerful?! I ain't never seen a Cyber-Knight that can tear through cerasteel armor like goddamn sheetcloth!' The man is kicked into a wall by the Shining One's feet and the Shining One replies, 'Because I saw a group of heroes with powers beyond imagination. Because I know what one can become'. He takes his blade and cuts into the top of the man's helmet, bisecting it, but leaving the man completely unharmed, not a single hair cut. He slaps the man, who drops unconscious. He then turns around and says to the defeated soldiers, 'Run. Run before more of you die'. In panic, soldiers climb out of the ravine, jumping from flaming vehicles, gripping the walls of the ravine instead of daring to be even within arm's length of Chirho.
The Shining One hisses to himself, 'Why do they fight?' Even under his power armor, one can see his muscles sag in disappointment. He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a well-weathered book, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In English, he begins to read, 'O ye Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, abiding in the Ten Directions, endowed with great compassion, endowed with foreknowledge, endowed with the divine eye', while he lights incense over the few fallen soldiers, closing each of their eyes...”
Another vision:
The Fellow speaks to an individual whose shape, race, class, and fighting style is indeterminate. It's clear that it is during a combat. The Fellow is trying to call this individual out. He says,
“Don't you see what you've done? [static] You made a cult! You're no better than Jim Jones or any other charlatan! [static] Look at Baas. He restrained every single instinct he had just so he could make you proud [static] You took an Observer riddled with guilt and doubt about his function and made him into a traitor and a weapon!”
Another vision:
City streets. Gaslamps light the street. Model Ts, Buicks, Minerva Cabriolets, and Packard Speedsters drive through the streets. The Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower are visible in the distance. The perspective seems to be of several people, who walk into a university building. “This may be the greatest breakthrough in thaumatogenetic research ever. I've encountered the first teleological particle!”
Another vision:
This vision is the most silhouetted and damaged of all. It is virtually impossible to isolate very much signal from all of the entropy and noise. However, a few things can be gleaned. The silhouettes seem to be mostly members of Crashing Heavens. They seem to be standing around a lone figure on an island that is clearly going through a major storm event. Two voices can be heard amongst the static once it has been cleaned up. The first, The Fellow's, says,
"Oh, guldammit! That's what the Q, the arachnid, what they all meant by us confusing symptom and illness! The god was never the cause, it was the catalyst! You were the cause, all along! You knew that something that massive and powerful would always trump our attention. We'd never ask why a creature that embodied life itself would seek to destroy the universe including itself! And then you got that Raider to wipe out the strands that would lead anywhere but to the most obvious, and wrong, conclusion!”
Meanwhile, Vanaya, apparently in his god form (and apparently winded from previous great battle), says,
“I know despair! Trust me, I know what it is to bathe in it! It's so dark it's like sleep, you can just let it push you forward! You just put your head underneath it and you don't even have to think. But what you're doing is running. Destruction isn't a solution to despair, it's just part of it. You're just giving up to despair in a different way!”
The first vision, apparently of the god now known as the Shezurabayl, the Elanvital-Zontas-Bahrum-Shishe:
“You feel yourself disembodied, floating in endless black space. The sheer cold and emptiness is so staggering, as each time you look a little further you continue to see the great nothing. You then begin to hear something. It takes a second or two to realize that there is no air, and nothing should be heard. You then realize that something so big that it has its own atmosphere approaches. You look up and see something that appears like a gigantic black spire. While it has an appearance of rock, it is very clear that it is more like a massive shell, a shell capable of undulating motion of incredible complexity. There is a deep, incredible sound of a heartbeat, and then a million sounds of fluids pumping, air moving, an unimaginable and pressing sensation. The creature continues to move forward, and it takes several seconds to pass above, very much like that scene in Spaceballs where the ship keeps coming. And then it comes to pass that it moves overhead and away from you. You see its great arms, infinitely articulated like a tentacle but infinitely dextrous like a hand, moving. You see arcing leg-like protrusions grabbing and moving. You see long atom-thin cords, the only sign of their presence being crackling energy. The cords, like giant cat's whiskers, seem to process and transmit information. Jets of blueshifted plasma erupt behind it, and there is a clear warpfield extending from around it, moving it forward easily. The creature is unimaginably vast, its whiskers stretching for lightyears.
The god then goes towards the western spiral arm of a seemingly unremarkable galaxy, so far in the distance that you can see all of it, seemingly the size of a beachball. The god is quickly swallowed up, for as massive as it is, it is nowhere near as massive as a galaxy. It takes a few moments, and then there is the most beautiful bright blue light you have ever seen. It comes at you, glowing with infinite luminescence, consuming an entire galaxy in a moment. You hear a glorious and indescribable song without words before the light consumes you too, instantly ending the vision".
The second:
A woman lies in complete darkness. It's clear from the acoustics of the room and how close things seem that it has to be some kind of room underneath the ground. There's a very distant trickling of water, like a spring or pipes. It's difficult to see much about her, but she seems to have porcelain-white skin and seems very tall and thin. Her clothes are tattered. She whispers, 'Please... no... don't hurt her... why! Why! Why does this keep happening! Why couldn't you just have walked away?! Why didn't she do anything!' There's a creaking up above, and this sudden bright blinding light. The woman backs away and screams, and a voice comes from above, a voice which is staticky and uncertain. The voice from above says, 'So sorry! So sorry!' and closes the door rapidly. Two large-ish figures, though cloaked in this staticky humming shadow, come in. One leans in front of her while the other stands calmly with hands crossed behind his back. 'Hello', the one says. The woman looks at the kneeling figure and says, 'It's... so beautiful... all I see... is darkness... you are just bringing cool, loving... darkness'... The kneeling figure says, 'Are you not afraid?' 'No...' 'You see pain. Perhaps together... together we can end it'. The kneeling figure extends her or his arm and starts to stand up. The woman takes her or his arm and stands with the figure, and as she stands, you see that her eyes look like they have been burnt shut”.
The third, apparently about the Krogan Prophet:
"A Krogan stands on red soil. The planet he is in is actively storming with blue and purple clouds, black streaks running through them. There is the clear sign of massive element zero corruption. He is injured, chunks of him missing, his left arm burnt together into his torso, holding onto a massive energy weapon with an even longer blade. His armor is shredded. The brand of the gun is not easily identifiable. The Krogan screams to the sky and says 'Fine! Fine, you monster! If you leave them, I will do as you ask!' 'What of that Krogan honor?', a voice responds, booming in an incredible harmony as if singing the deepest bass from a thousand lips. 'I am their commander! Damned be the honor!'”
The fourth vision:
“Black-armored, jackbooted soldiers march in lockstep down a narrow ravine. The sky is dusty, and off in the distance the distinctive whine of railgun artillery fire can be heard. The soldiers each stare out of skull helmets. Trundling around and through them are massive tanks, armored in so many layers, with the distinctive faceplate of grim skulls.
Suddenly, a voice cuts through the confusion and fear of the battlefield. From your perspective, your eyes move upwards instantly to someone standing on top of the ridge. This man speaks with a calm fury, a distinctive sensation of a man rejecting everything he has known in revulsion and anger. He wears an armor made of white, an armor whose pauldrons are shaped as skulls, an armor made of ceramics and metals and hydraulics. 'I will give you a mercy you have not given these people and allow you a minute to throw your weapons to the ground and leave your vehicles. Your weapons are forfeit. They will be ground into plowshares'.
A murmur comes about. Someone behind your position whispers, 'Oh, holy fucking fuck, that's the Shining One'. Someone else says, 'He ain't so tough'. A third voice laughs and says, 'Why, cuz last time he spanked you you say you got a single laser shot off on him?' A commander says, 'Light him up, boys!' Everyone raises their weapons, but by the time they have reacted, the man is amidst them. You see underneath his transparent helmet an immense sadness. 'Why couldn't you have put your weapons down?' There is a flurry of motion; even Jerlock struggles to see what is happening.
Kicks, punches, and blades all form this beautiful, harmonious tornado, while the Coalition soldiers fall into confusion and disarray. In panic, they fill the air with rounds, lasers, bursts of ion and plasma, gouts of flame, and vibro-blades and neural maces. Missiles are aimed and destroyed with ease, as Mark Chirho the Shining One advances as an impenetrable field of blades. A few soldiers die from their own fire, while Chirho's own punches and kicks break a few bones but claim no lives. The blades instead bisect rifles, disarm weapons and remove armor. As broken and beaten men retreat, Chirho leaps from vehicle to vehicle, chopping them to pieces, his blades penetrating into cockpits, reaching in and throwing men out.
One of the commanders curses, 'How in God's name is he this powerful?! I ain't never seen a Cyber-Knight that can tear through cerasteel armor like goddamn sheetcloth!' The man is kicked into a wall by the Shining One's feet and the Shining One replies, 'Because I saw a group of heroes with powers beyond imagination. Because I know what one can become'. He takes his blade and cuts into the top of the man's helmet, bisecting it, but leaving the man completely unharmed, not a single hair cut. He slaps the man, who drops unconscious. He then turns around and says to the defeated soldiers, 'Run. Run before more of you die'. In panic, soldiers climb out of the ravine, jumping from flaming vehicles, gripping the walls of the ravine instead of daring to be even within arm's length of Chirho.
The Shining One hisses to himself, 'Why do they fight?' Even under his power armor, one can see his muscles sag in disappointment. He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a well-weathered book, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In English, he begins to read, 'O ye Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, abiding in the Ten Directions, endowed with great compassion, endowed with foreknowledge, endowed with the divine eye', while he lights incense over the few fallen soldiers, closing each of their eyes...”
Another vision:
The Fellow speaks to an individual whose shape, race, class, and fighting style is indeterminate. It's clear that it is during a combat. The Fellow is trying to call this individual out. He says,
“Don't you see what you've done? [static] You made a cult! You're no better than Jim Jones or any other charlatan! [static] Look at Baas. He restrained every single instinct he had just so he could make you proud [static] You took an Observer riddled with guilt and doubt about his function and made him into a traitor and a weapon!”
Another vision:
City streets. Gaslamps light the street. Model Ts, Buicks, Minerva Cabriolets, and Packard Speedsters drive through the streets. The Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower are visible in the distance. The perspective seems to be of several people, who walk into a university building. “This may be the greatest breakthrough in thaumatogenetic research ever. I've encountered the first teleological particle!”
Another vision:
This vision is the most silhouetted and damaged of all. It is virtually impossible to isolate very much signal from all of the entropy and noise. However, a few things can be gleaned. The silhouettes seem to be mostly members of Crashing Heavens. They seem to be standing around a lone figure on an island that is clearly going through a major storm event. Two voices can be heard amongst the static once it has been cleaned up. The first, The Fellow's, says,
"Oh, guldammit! That's what the Q, the arachnid, what they all meant by us confusing symptom and illness! The god was never the cause, it was the catalyst! You were the cause, all along! You knew that something that massive and powerful would always trump our attention. We'd never ask why a creature that embodied life itself would seek to destroy the universe including itself! And then you got that Raider to wipe out the strands that would lead anywhere but to the most obvious, and wrong, conclusion!”
Meanwhile, Vanaya, apparently in his god form (and apparently winded from previous great battle), says,
“I know despair! Trust me, I know what it is to bathe in it! It's so dark it's like sleep, you can just let it push you forward! You just put your head underneath it and you don't even have to think. But what you're doing is running. Destruction isn't a solution to despair, it's just part of it. You're just giving up to despair in a different way!”