From Out of a Dream [Quest]

[Mushroom King]

Is it reasonable for Nergüi to know how to impose his will on the Wyld? Given his background, I don't really think so.

It's unreasonable to for him to KNOW how to do so, but since he just used his blessing to retain the shape of his body, it's possible he would consider using his blessing to try and impact his surroundings somehow, see if he can return any of the old shape.

If he somehow succeeds in making ground to walk on, for example, he might consider what else he could reshape, such as the staircase to get down easily. If he manages that with only a limited degree of success, then yes, he'd stop there and feel lucky he was able to do that at all. If he manages that with a good degree of success, it's not unreasonable for him to wonder "what else can I change to benefit me?"

Conjuring up awesome gear or a horse is probably a long shot. Bringing back Ayumu is probably impossible. But Nergui has wondered about making people before, so there's a slim possibility he'd at least consider it, and regardless, he's got to get out of this effect somehow and his blessing is one of the tools he got right now.

He certainly wouldn't know how, but it's reasonable for him to try and maybe figure out some small degree of success, and then build upon that if it works really well.

[Erinys]

((The Stone of Making looks like Wyld Shaping in a Bottle, so making a new Ayumu might be theoretically possible. I doubt it'll work, though.))

[semicasual]

All of the sensations you feel make it difficult to concentrate, but the longer you hang there amidst the chaos, the angrier you become. The complicated morass of feelings dissipates before one simple desire: find out who did this to you, and kill them.

The obvious suspects are the magus and his beyonder witch. The Stone of Making might even be their weapon. You know nothing for sure, though, and you won’t know unless you can somehow escape from here… wherever here is.

To start with, you try moving again. You find that you can swing your limbs around very easily, like you were waving them through air. However, you cannot tell if you are actually going anywhere - the ever-shifting fog gives you no visual or spatial clues. The lack of ground under your feet doesn’t help.

Ground. You need ground to know which way is “down.” Does this place even have an “up” or “down?” You need ground to stand on. You need ground to see a path.

The more these thoughts roll around in your head, the more the character of the fog changes. Parts of it below your feet start to congeal, or crystalize. The changing colors become still, static - dull browns and greens. You look at the altered stuff, moving your feet through it, and decide to think really hard about what ground is like.

Ground is earth. It is made of dirt and rock and the things that grow from dirt and rocks. It can be gritty, mushy, or hard and smooth. It is strong enough to support your weight. It may be flat or sloped. Above all, ground is solid.

You watch, think, and focus, and soon you can see and feel yourself standing on… something. It is like scrubland, but the colors and textures don’t look quite right. The grass doesn’t spring beneath your feet. The light is wrong. It all feels strange… but it is ground, and you are standing on it.

Encouraged by your success so far, you next try to imagine a path. Paths are set into the ground. Paths are made of hardened earth or stone. Paths are clear of plants. Paths can be wide or narrow. You follow a path to go somewhere other than where you are.

Ahead of you, the not-quite-ground begins extending into the distance beyond your line of sight. Something like a dirt road emerges from nothing, splitting the pseudo-scrub and false grass. You scrape your boot through it experimentally and find it solid and gritty enough to believe in. Satisfied, you begin walking down the path to see where it leads.

---

Some time passes. With no sun or sky, you are not sure how much time. Normally you just know where sun is, but somehow that knack doesn’t work here. The path seems to stretch on for miles without end. Eventually, you get tired of walking and figure that as long as you’re going nowhere, you might as well get there faster - you try to imagine a horse. Horses have four legs and hairy hides. Adult horses are larger than you. They have thin but strong legs…

The strange mist spools together into the shape of a horse, gradually becoming denser and more clearly defined. You don’t recall imagining the horse quite this way, but it takes the form of a black stallion with strong muscles, already saddled. The stallion is sweaty and breathing hard… he seems oddly familiar to you. Frowning, you circle around the horse, gently patting it down. Your hand crosses over an old scar behind the right shoulder, and you feel a chill. You step away from the stallion and curse your luck. Of all the horses you had to create… but it’s still a horse. With some reservations, you mount up and ride on.

---

More time passes. Again, you don’t know how long you have been riding. The horse hasn’t tired yet, which is a good sign. Still, you are getting more and more worried that maybe this place-that-is-not-a-place has no beginning or end. But before you can get to the point where you’re desperate enough to try to make your own “end”, you start to hear a sound that is oddly persistent among the background of soft random noises - the sound of running water, like a brook or creek.

Curious, you ride off the road and follow the sound, going further into the scrubland which, you notice, is starting to look more like real scrubland, complete with rolling hills and dips. As you come over the crest of one of these hills, you see a strange sight.

A figure wearing Nuo’s clothes and straw hat is kneeling in the dip below you. Water continually pours off the brim of their hat on all sides, pooling around the figure’s legs and flowing away in a small channel. The hat also conceals their face from this angle. Their shirtsleeves and pant-legs are rolled up, showing skin covered with silvery scales, like a fish. Spiny, dull orange fins extend from the sides of their forearms and calves. Their clothes are soaked, and the way they cling suggests a female figure. They are motionless, resting their hands on their knees, looking into the water.

What do you do?

• Call out. “Nuo? Is that you?”
• Approach openly. This mysterious fish-woman (?) might know a way out. Get off your horse, walk towards them slowly, with your hands up to show you’re not here to fight.
• Approach cautiously. This mysterious fish-woman (?) might be hostile. Get off your horse, try to sneak up on them, and don’t try to talk until you have a blade at their throat.
• Attack. Pull out Archer’s Paradox, put an arrow in them. No creature in this place merits talking to.
• Something else?

[Erinys]

Approach cautiously. It might be a monster. Or Nuo having health problems.

[wonderandawe]

Approach cautiously. We didn't live as long as we have by taking risks.

[Mushroom King]

So we couldn't recreate a rich benefactor but we were able to make a horse! Aim for the moon, kids .

Approach cautiously. It might be a monster. Or Nuo having health problems.

It could be a monster, but I think Nuo is the most likely case. Anything with a form at all is probably something trying to resist the change of this place, like we did.
I recommend approaching cautiously, then calling out, at what Nergui feels is a comfortable defensive range for his fighting style. If the figure is hostile we want to be ready and if it is friendly we don't to spook it too badly.

[L'het'esh]

Nadine? Honey, is that you? (Chuck Berry version)

Call out. “Nuo? Is that you?”

[The MG]

Approach cautiously.

[Zelbinnean]

>Call out. This place is strange, but that doesn't make eveything in it inherently bad or hostile.

[semicasual]

Your horse snorts as you climb off him. You shush him with a gentle pat and a whisper, then start carefully walking down into the dip. The grass blows in a soft breeze you cannot hear or feel.

You creep closer, silently sliding your short swords from their sheaths. The fish-person remains still, either uncaring or unaware of your approach. When you are within a few arm-lengths, you call out – “Nuo? Is that you?”

The fish-person springs up, water flying from their hat as they spin around. Their arms are up in a defensive stance, spines pointed towards you. They have a face like Nuo’s, but covered in silver scales and with wider, darker eyes. Those eyes flick this way and that, taking in the scene. Finally, she speaks in Nuo’s voice – “Nergüi? How are you still alive?” She is looking at your upraised swords with a dubious expression.

You keep your weapons ready, unwilling to let down your guard just yet. “I am called Nergüi, and I asked you a question,” you growl back.

“Yes, it’s Nuo.” She isn’t letting down her guard either.

“Nuo, why are you a fish?”

“To protect myself. The unstable energies in this place were tearing everything apart, so I assumed my divine form.”

“Since when do you have a divine form?”

“Since I was born. Are you here to talk, or fight?”

After a long pause you lower your weapons, and then she lowers hers.

“Good…” she says, trailing off as she looks away from you to survey the area. “…so, do you know what happened? I don’t remember… I was caught in some kind of explosion, and I can’t make sense of much that came after.”

“I think the Stone of Making did this,” you say, fitting pieces together in your head. “…that’s the artifact I got for Himitsu. The inside of the stone looked a lot like this.”

“More like Stone of Unmaking,” says Nuo, darkly. “No power in heaven, earth, or hell should be able to just unravel the world like that.”

Lacking an answer, you simply shrug and sheath your swords.

“I don’t remember any of this being here before,” says Nuo, gesturing at the surrounding scrub. “It was all just… nothingness, before. Maybe the world is healing itself.”

“No,” you answer. “I made it. I’ve been trying to make a way out.”

“You made it?” she replies. Her incredulity is clear. “What do you mean, you made a grassy plain and… is that a horse up there?”

“I don’t know how I did it, I just did,” you huff. “I just… think about these things, and they appear. I don’t know. Maybe without the will of the gods to give this place shape, I can do it.”

Nuo looks unsatisfied, but she changes the subject anyway. “So, did you manage to ‘make a way out?’”

“Maybe. Come on, the path is this way.”

The two of you walk up and over the hill. Nuo doubtfully studies at your dirt road to nowhere while you look from her to your horse and back. The animal shies away from her when she comes close.

“Can you ride in your… divine form?” you ask, hesitantly.

She shakes her head. “No. Horses don’t like me. I can walk, just don’t gallop off on me.”

---

Yet more time passes while you and Nuo follow the road – you on your stallion, and she on foot. She leaves a light trail of wet earth behind her as she goes.

“You didn’t answer me before – how are you still alive?” asks Nuo.

“I have… a power,” you answer, carefully. “Heaven saw my strength and blessed me. I’m… not mortal, anymore.”

Nuo raises a scaly eyebrow. “A blessing from heaven? You don’t say.”

“I said it. You don’t believe me, woman? What’s your story, then?”

Nuo frowns. “I… my father is Shuukugaka… god of the Green River.” She exhales, then puts on a grim kind of smile. “I was a little surprised you didn’t know. It was the scandal in Eight Roads when I was a girl.”¹

Drawing on your fine command of language, you say nothing.

“Do you have any family, Nergüi?”

“No,” you snap.

She seems taken aback. “I meant no offense… godsblood, Nergüi, I’m only trying to make conversation…”

Nuo goes quiet for a while. Tension hangs in the air, simmering like a heat haze. Eventually, she tries again. “Where do you come from, Nergüi? You’re not from this country, clearly.”

“North.”

“North, where?”

“Just north.”

“That’s cryptic.”

“That’s all you’re getting.”

“Do you have something against talking?”

“I don’t talk about my past,” you answer with venomous finality.

Nuo lets out an exasperated sigh and becomes silent once more. Seconds stretch into minutes that feel like hours. “I don’t understand,” she says after a while. “You don’t strike me as a man who cares what other people think, but every time I ask you anything you act like I kicked you in the balls.”

“Nuo,” you growl, “drop it.”

“No, I will not drop it. I’m trapped out here with a hired killer I know nothing about. I think it’s fair to ask some simple questions like ‘what can you do?’ or ‘where do you come from?’ Do you expect me to just follow you around without knowing who you are or what you want?”

You suck air through your teeth, thinking.

• Tell her a little. Just enough to stop her questions.
• Tell her to shut up. This ‘partnership’ won’t work until she learns.
• Gallop off without her. Let her find her own way out.
• Something else?

¹

Unlike the southerners, you never believed that it was wrong for godkind to have children with humankind. On the other hand, the Green runs through the steppes. You remember you used to make sacrifices to Shuugaka, (or, as you knew him, Sügäka) every year. It feels strange to meet one of his daughters, probably much younger than you…

[wonderandawe]

Tell her to shut up. Her questions aren't helping you escape from this chaos. If she doesn't like it, she can get out on her own.

(( Gods, we are such an ass! ))

[Erinys]

"I am Nergui. What I want is to find a way out of this and kill the man or monster responsible. Which is probably Himitsu and Joy. If you want to follow me out, stop asking personal questions."

[Ferryman]

Tell her a little. But only as much as it takes to get her to stop pressing. We might actually need her help in a bit.

If she pushes her luck, tell her to shut up.

[Zelbinnean]

>Tell her a little. She told you a little about her, after all. Fair is fair.

[Erinys]

Okay fine, fair is fair. Tell her a little. The absolute minimum. Nothing about being a "devil."