Session 3 - Michael Collins

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Traveling to Magnostadt
* Only Maryn sees the sky "flicker," and she reads the words "Rigel" and "Algol"
Magnostadt (Day Before Founder's Festival)
* Large, wealthy trading hub
* Stone and red brick buildings
* Bathhouses
* Markets with fresh fruits and vegetables
* Animals being sold on the streets
* People of every race, except Rip's
* Posters taped to signposts
** "Missing: Son of Librarian Crane > Kidnapped 7 days ago > Reward: 150 gold"
** "Wanted: William Vaelin Krenting"
** Other wanted posters, but very few
* Town square
** Stalls with games and food are being set up
** Statue of the Founder in the center, carved out of marble
*** Cloaked in white robes, covering his eyes and the top of his face
*** "To the great Founder, Soren - King of the Desert, Benevolent to All"
Turning on Castor's father's Flipstone (#0)
* The phone turns on, and the last call was to the #1 Flipstone with the handle "GOD"
* Words "call it" on the screen
* The #1 phone is called, and a brick under your foot vibrates
* Inside the brick is the #1 phone, which has a recorded message between #0 (presumably Castor's father) and #1
** Lee 1: "I have seen this world change, just like you have. The seas have become more violent. The stars have come and gone. Copper burns high in the atmosphere. But even after all this time, I know there is good left in you. You cannot do this to the world. Has everything been a lie?"
** Collins 1: "Some know the truth, but do not know the cost that comes with it. As long as it remains hidden in the back of their minds, never breaching the surface, they will live in peace. Their blood will not be on my hands if they decide to wake it before the time has come. I will not let anything prevent his arrival. I alone will provide the path. Do not stand in my way."
** Lee 2: "I am far from a perfect man. I do not deserve this world, these people, and the beauty of their existence. But my mind has escaped from the endless darkness. There is no one else to stop you."
** Collins 2: "There is little you know of the truths of this world. You are but a slave to your pride. You cannot fathom that the future has already been set. I know how you will die, how your family will die; your hand, and when your cards will deteriorate into dust. A glorious, ordinary ending for a man who had been so far from everyone else."
** Lee 3: "The least I can do is to right the wrongs born of your evil. It is just us, has always been us, and will forever be us. There's no changing that. You and I were meant for a fate like this."
** Collins 3: "You fail to realize how much I will sacrifice. I have shed the mortal coil that is glory, and have become but a shadow. I have overcome both desire and destiny. If a god does exist in this world, then it is me. This is the truth. I am Collins."
* You call Sylas and he says that he never made number 1, because he thought that people would fight over it (over having the #1 phone), and when you look back to it, it's gone
Library
* Hajun Crane - 300 year old elf wizard, very powerful, one of the most respected men in the town
** He's been "researching certain parts of history and the origins of certain countries and groups," and is certain that Theodore was kidnapped so he would stop investigating
** Came to the town when it was first founded hundreds of years ago
*** Founded by a man named Soren
* Castor Fallendrok donation section
** Copy of the original ancient "prophecy" created by the town's founder (incomplete)
* Crane says that his first ever visitor dropped off something, and told him to give it to a group of 5 with a man of a race he'd never seen before
** Chest with 3 letters (Unmarked letters #3-5)
*** Big Letter: “Humans will writhe in their own ignorance, but sometimes that ignorance is what they need to live. Don't you want to go back to your days of not knowing?"
*** Small Letter 1 (Maryn): "The stars exist in unison. Pieces - scattered, but whole. Each, a cry to be heard, a song to be sung. And the universe sings, just for you, Maryn. Can’t you hear the music?"
**** Images flash through her mind: of places she’s never been, people she’s never seen, a machine with twisting curves, a light brighter than the sun, a woman with outstretched arms, and a dark void
*** Small Letter 2 (Rip): "This world is like a book, bound in strings of light and harmony. Pages, wrought in ink and blood. Born from a sea of shared souls. The story is almost over. And you’re the only one left, Rip. Haven’t you read the epilogue?”
**** Images flash through his mind: of walls covered in looping, esoteric script, a mountain of corpses, a man standing before him, and the world fading to black
* Crane then offers the party to help figure out who wrote it, since he doesn’t remember the man > he funnels all the knowledge of the library into his mind, and then his face goes blank, before he whispers “…echo chamber…,” and then gets obliterated
Day of the Founder's Festival
* Rich nobles wealthy from trade are walking around with guards
* A man stands against the crowd, looking exactly like Castor, before vanishing
* Lottery for "Founder's Apostle" where someone is chosen and given gold and gifts
** A boy is chosen, and then is killed by some guy disguised in the uniform of a soldier from Corcoran
*** He's wearing a suit of armor, has a scar under his left eye, and the "white circles" symbol on his shoes
*** He's the leader of the "Order of the Black Earth" - a group that has been hunting people all over the world in order to resurrect a godlike being that they call "Ugashi," who they claim once manifested on the continent and is now trapped in the Abyss. They believe that the souls of those they kill will "fuel" his return into the prime material plane
** The man says: "Hello everyone. I have an important announcement for you all. That boy was supposed to be our bait, you know. His disappearance would silence the people of this town. To drown out the hushed whispers of that which cannot be known. But you've given us no choice now. Since you all love your secrets so much, Master said the time has come for you all to know the truth. And that is..."
** The Caspar Loach metal sphere then automatically activates, creating an "area of silence" around you
** Almost everyone in the town square is obliterated just like Librarian Crane, and those who manage to survive go into a bloodlusted rage
** The Caspar Loach sphere, now activated, turns on
*** He asks about the "satroleye"
*** He says he locked away most of his memories in case someone else were to take him (the sphere)
*** "Door of Justice"
*** He can speak the ancient language, and translates the sign: "Welcome to New York City"
**** As he says that, the Infinite-Page Book glows and flips to the first page:
***** Log 1 - New Stellar Year 1
***** “It's my earliest memory: I’m sitting in the grass on top of the hill, looking at clouds. Mom says I have to go outside for at least an hour when it’s sunny. I think it’s boring, but arguing doesn’t work. And there’s a shape in the sky, but not really. It made my brain think interesting, complicated things. Things that I didn't know how to talk about. But I couldn't stop thinking about them. At night, dreaming, those strange shapes; looping and whirling. And in my dream I know what they mean, but I forget when my alarm clock wakes me up in the morning. The next day, at the library, I took out a book on math, the librarian smiling at me as she checks it out. I picked the one with an interesting picture on it; it was called Introduction to Multivariable Calculus.
***** No one understands it but me. It's a force, ever-present, within all of us: resonance. What I always wanted was to bring it out from within every crevice from which it was hiding, but I knew it was never possible with today's technology. This book, however, has given me answers. Its seemingly countless pages are filled with such invaluable knowledge. It's as if it has a mind of its own, always thinking, always learning.
***** The old me never would've believed that my dream could be realized, much less in my lifetime. But the old me has disappeared - turned to ash, much like the rest of the world. My name is Lily Caspia. I'm a head researcher for the New World Initiative, set to fully chart and document all the unexplored areas of the world. There are around 20 people in our group, as well as another we found out at sea. We're all that’s left.
***** To whoever may be found by this book in the future, let me at least help to tell you about us, and about this world. Six months ago, the human race was obliterated from the face of the Earth.”
''
Questions asked to the infinite-page book
* Why is this happening to us?: No answer
* What will happen to Theodore?: "He will move on"
* Where is Ugashi?: "He's right next to you"
* What are Rigel and Algol?: "Stars"
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