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::Unseen forces shuffle recently returned texts to their shelves, iron cobras smoothly clatter across the floor, bringing messages and notes to and fro, and the thrum of the forge above are the only sounds aside from quiet conversation and the occasional turning page.::

[This area represents time spent in the Arcanopteryx.]

Though she managed to maintain her composure during and immediately after the... birth-transformation-event. Aine makes what excuses she must in order to retreat to the Library. She starts to let her composure break, then, as she starts a nearly frantic search of the library's collection.

One question dominates her thoughts, "What in the nine hells just happened?" On one level she already knows the answer. Still, something in the ancient lich's books must be able to help her describe what she's seen - to classify and codify and quantify the... event. Transformation. All of her quick tests had come back negative for illusions or transmutation magics. Her companions were in their true forms - they just didn't look like themselves anymore.

Hours past as she poured through the library. She continually cross referenced mentions of the origin of magic and ancient pre-history with anything she could find about the descriptions of the entities that had created the cosmos - entities for whom the only labels she had were 'mothers' and 'fathers'.

There had been some discussion amongst her companions about the artifacts that they'd found in the graveyard of the gods, in the mammoth mausoleums that housed the still-living bodies of the creators of everything. The primary question had first been "Is it ok/right for us to take these things?" The consensus had been 'yes'. Then the question had become "Who should retrieve the items?" Answers for some were more apparent than others. It was generally agreed that if she, Aine, were to claim any of the items, she should claim the book of the mother that they called 'Magic'. It seemed only natural, given her proclivities. She had agreed, until she witnessed the transformation. She felt doubt on the topic now; even fear.

The transformation undergone by the pair that had retrieved these items was both intriguing and frightening. She couldn't help but wonder if it was only the first stage of a greater transformation. That line of thought triggered even more questions: "Transformation into what?" and "What is it like?" among them.

Once she felt like she'd exhausted most of the library's most immediately available resources on the topic of the first beings, she returned to the origin and history of magic and found herself continually returning to the illustration of the cave painting. She stared at it and allowed her curiosity to get the best of her. Her wizard training veritably demanded that she pick up the book and seize what power it represented. It certainly wasn't doing the ancient, giant woman in the sarcophagus any good. Indeed, the Mother of Magic had almost seemed to want her to try the last time she'd visited. She'd bestowed a knowledge upon Aine that no else had, she was certain, a fundamental understanding of the nature of magic that was outside the bounds of all of her previous knowledge and training. If fear was the only thing holding her back, there was really no reason not to make the attempt during their next visit - whenever that might be.

In her frantic searches, Aine journeyed academically through the vast landscape that is the library of the Arcanopteryx, perhaps for more than the first time, and a small part of that landscape, a distasteful part, and one that seems as a horrible scar in the beautiful rolling hills of academic introspection and scholarly writing, suddenly held the promise of insight into the birth-transformation-event. The written ravings of an Alienist, pried from his dead hands by Xeromonius the Lich, after he slew him for impeding his search for relics, filed away in the literary hell of "other" and "irrelevant" books in his collection, now seems, in light of her current search, the most important work Xeromonius ever had. The passage that caught her eye was short and brief, but perhaps warrants additional study.

I had begun the fifth circle of transformation on my own, but was soon joined by others in the land of Worean, where I had come to meet others from the outside. The great many faced serpents and writhing beings had formed their fifth circle around me, and forced their minds into mine, whereupon I had began to understand the mutability of flesh. Perhaps it was intentional, or unintentional, or perhaps in their great uncaring nature they had no concern for it, but they showed me their enemy, the "Orderors" as they thought of them, those beings that create meaning and structure, rather than dismantle it as the Aberrations do. I caught a glimpse in the mind of a battered seven headed ten faced creature, a colossal humanoid of perfected features, who carved apart the matter-stuff with his bare hands, and blended the unformed beings into nothing, and from them formed structured beings, and a world of law, chaos, good, evil, and all the elements within and without nature. The Unformed Ones opposed these Orderors, and all the places they had made, and sought to undo that structuring, and bitterly hated the great beings for their work. The many patterned creature's mind then grew dark, and showed me where one of their number had allied with the Orderors, and had sought balance with them, but for this he was deposed from his....throne? He was forced out. But after showing me these things, they forced their physical bodies into mine, to feast on my life juices. The pain was tremendous at first, but then I began to enjoy it, and I began to change again.

Saubwa entered the library full of questions and no idea of where to go for answers so this seemed like a good place to start. "Something obviously exists outside of this universe, this plane, what is there out there?", "Are the "unformed beings" that seem to hate all that is made of form the only things out there, or were there other types of beings?", "What if a person could draw power or attune their soul to the energies or the lack of energy as the case could very well be, out there? Would they have the ability to survive an encounter with the form-bound gods?".

He knew now that he was not a correct vessel for a fundamental weapon, but he also knew that in his current state he didn't have the power to withstand the power of the gods. Sure he had formed an intimacy with Belian, but while her power seemed to be considerable, he had doubts in regards to her being able to slay the gods if he didn't also find a path towards apotheosis of his own. With these questions in mind he began scouring the library for any shred of information that could aid him in this new line of thinking. Surely someone had considered these questions beforehand, and if they had and there were any record of their discoveries they would be found here, in this library.

He wanted to be able to remember all of the answers that he found and have the ability to reference them, so he began a journal detailing his findings. Also if something were to happen to him while he was on this quest, this book may offer a warning to others who might decide to tread down the same path of thought.

With those questions in mind, he began scouring the library for any information at all that could aid him in his quest for this knowledge.

::Saubwa finds, in his frantic disorganized studies, several references that seem to lead in the direction he desires. Xeromonius had visited a city in the astral plane, though using a plane shift ability inherent to the arcanopteryx, where he had encountered a cult dedicated to the study of creatures from the outer darkness, exemplified by Tonacatecuhtli. Perhaps more forboding, was his journey into the Inner Planes, where he visited with a contemporary who had made arcane visitations to the outermost reaches of the planes, and beyond, where he had discussed the nature of creation and the outer beings. His friend had established a small fortress in the negative energy plane, the location of which is noted in the transcript. Perhaps other avenues of investigation wait to be discovered with further research.::

:: Big Sister enters the library, flanked by Little Sister, who has her Son, Whshhhhaahh, in tow. They each carry several scrolls, which they lay out on the table and unroll. The scrolls are written in Auran and in the ever elegant penmanship and illustration of Little Sister, whose illuminated manuscript would make a centuries old monastic cleric blush, and whose illustrations appear to be quasi-magical minor images in their detail and vibrancy. A final, blank scroll is unrolled, which, discussing occasionally in their own strange tongue, Little Sister begins to populate with writing and illustration. Whshhhhaahh entertains himself playing with the wooden sword his mother made for him, which he struggles to lift with both hands, but seems to insist on playing with nonetheless. ::

Rachnar begins looking though the library. Having been helpless to fight the gods, and nervous about picking up a weapon of creation, He begins to research how to gain the power to kill the gods.

Upon reading about the keep in the Negative Energy Plane and some of the research that might be contained there, Saubwa makes up his mind about his next course of action, and begins to do research on the other planes of existence...if he was going to travel he was going to be prepared.

"So Belian, my beloved, are you ready to go on a journey together? I have a very strong feeling that we may have to go this alone, but I can guarantee that through this I will find a way to bring you revenge upon your persecutor."

He looks up from his reading to see Big Sister and Little Sister talking over the scrolls.

"Hello! I didn't hear you come in. What are you two working on?"

arete wrote:Rachnar begins looking though the library. Having been helpless to fight the gods, and nervous about picking up a weapon of creation, He begins to research how to gain the power to kill the gods.

::After some hours of research, you come to the conclusion that you have no reason to believe that either the fundamental weapons or anything else can give a mortal the strength or power to slay a deity. The only actual information about anybody ever doing anything that resembles slaying a deity with a single ability, who was not themselves a deity of sufficient power or a warrior of epic proportion, is the Deicide spell that the zodiac gods used in their ascension. Xeromonius made some notes on what he knew of it, which are spartan and reserved in suppositions, and of more use to someone with the ability to cast arcane spells and both knowledge arcane and spellcraft scores at epic levels. You do, however, learn about suppositions by the Green Star Adepts that certain "outsider materials" may be able to do harm to gods. Of rather curious importance to Xeromonius was, however, the source of Godly power. He discovered that, rather intuitively, an important proportion of the divinity of a god depended on the worship that that god received, but that the worship must be defined. In this sense, you infer, the cosmic beings that formed the realms aren't gods at all in the strictest sense, but rather were beings of inherent power. Nor are the Zodiac gods deities in the most strict definitions, as part of their power comes from unconventional sources. You come to the conclusion that the only "conventional deities" in all the realm are Xenon, The Weaver, Bulwark, Respirion, and Tonacatecuhtli, and that last one is certainly debatable.::

Amseriah wrote:Upon reading about the keep in the Negative Energy Plane and some of the research that might be contained there, Saubwa makes up his mind about his next course of action, and begins to do research on the other planes of existence...if he was going to travel he was going to be prepared.

"So Belian, my beloved, are you ready to go on a journey together? I have a very strong feeling that we may have to go this alone, but I can guarantee that through this I will find a way to bring you revenge upon your persecutor."

He looks up from his reading to see Big Sister and Little Sister talking over the scrolls.

"Hello! I didn't hear you come in. What are you two working on?"

::Little sister responds with::
"Hssss whhhhh haaa shwaaa hshhh."

::Her son translates, sort of.::
"My mom says 'I'm making a list of...arcranosicks...powers. And pictures. And she said something about 'oprah hating' everything. I don't know."

::Upon realizing that Big Sister and Little Sister don't have the ability to speak common, Saubwa reaches into the untamed, unformed spark within his soul andimagines the familiar sensation of being weightless and having the winds blow past and through him. Image clearly in his mind he pulls the body that he was born with into his soul and suddenly ripples and shifts into one of the primal beings of air::

Now able to speak and understand Aurian, "I'm sorry could you please repeat that? I am not a native speaker of your tongue."

Amseriah wrote:::Upon realizing that Big Sister and Little Sister don't have the ability to speak common, Saubwa reaches into the untamed, unformed spark within his soul andimagines the familiar sensation of being weightless and having the winds blow past and through him. Image clearly in his mind he pulls the body that he was born with into his soul and suddenly ripples and shifts into one of the primal beings of air::

Now able to speak and understand Aurian, "I'm sorry could you please repeat that? I am not a native speaker of your tongue."

::Big sister, impressed by this display, attempts to speak Auran to you, and though she does not know it, the shared written language with her own tongue makes simple communication possible.::

"Yes. Good. We are making something. It is rules or instructions. The place in which we live has things it does. This is something that learners use. You can learn how to use everything with the thing we are making."

"That will be very useful! I did not realize that this place had more secrets. Thank you very much for making this. I would like very much to learn these functions. When you finish could you find me? I would like very much to learn about where you and Little Sister came from."

Amseriah wrote:"That will be very useful! I did not realize that this place had more secrets. Thank you very much for making this. I would like very much to learn these functions. When you finish could you find me? I would like very much to learn about where you and Little Sister came from."

::Big sister turns to you, her constantly shifting form barely restrained by her robes.::

"Yes. Yes. Good. We are making the thing learners use to learn about the home we live in. You can learn about it that way. We are working expeditiously."

After his dealings with the market square. Imoak truly felt the oppression of the stone walls. He had never liked this place. He his instinctual disdain for such places, coupled with the clear insanity he had witnessed here, came together. After a night of drinking to wash the taste of blood, and the memory of his recent fight away, he had come to a decision.

In the morning he awoke packed his things, and wrote a short note for his companions. It read:

I am going to stay at that place you don't wished named out loud. Doubtless I will see some of you there soon, but I thought you should know where I was. I have grown tired of this city, and am leaving.

I'm sure you will hear rumors of the incident in the market place. I left a dagger with this note. It is a piece of the puzzle of that event. I don't know, and don't care what you do with it, but if you find the one that threw it, you will probably find the instigator of the massacre.

Anyway, I'm off now. See you around. You know where you can find me, but unless there is a pressing reason to do so... and I mean a REALLY pressing reason, I will never set foot inside these walls again.

Imoak.

PS: I'm taking the cats...

On his way out of the city he handed the note to one of the kobolds, along with the knife he had taken from the ground in the market square, and told it to see the message delivered to his comrades. It was important, and they would want to see it.

With that Imoak Stormdrinker walked out of the city of Arturia feeling a refreshing sense of freedom as he walked, 30 cats around his heels, and following him. it was nice to feel appreciated, even if they were just cats. He noticed, and wandered through the festival taking place at the time, and enjoyed the wild abandon with which the people played. Perhaps there was some hope for the city, but not much.

Imoak began the long trek to the Arcanopteryx. He probably could have been teleported there, but he liked the journey, and it had been some time since he had just gotten to wander. It took him some time, but eventually he arrived, and was happy to finally be in a place he could relax. Also, he was pretty sure there was someone or someone's waiting for him, and he found he was actually looking forward to seeing them. They at least might appreciate having him around, even if they were a bit strange.

He also marveled at the changes to the architecture, and wondered at the magic at work in such a place. This he decided was as good of a home, away from home as he would ever have.