RQG 83 - Fatal Attraction

## Content Warnings

Violence from a former partner, gaslighting, arguments

## Summary

The party explore Newton's pocket dimension. Sasha and Grizzop go looting, and Hamid has a conversation which is absolutely fine.

## Synopsis

The entire party steps through the orb, and step into what seems to be a manicured garden. Even at a glance, it seems a bit off. Everything is right angles, triangles, birds fly by in a square - it’s very intentionally set up. They look behind themselves and see more manicured garden instead of the wall that they just stepped through. Past some trees, there’s a perfectly square, stylish house. Newton continues walking toward the house and the party follows. The gravity is incredibly light here, and it takes them a moment to for them to coordinate. It’s not like they’re going to lift off or anything, they just all feel light.

As they head down the avenue, the trees on each side of the lane blossom and lean toward them, as fruits grow on the trees. Hamid grabs an apple and eats it - it’s delicious, and upon grabbing it, Hamid realizes that it’s a perfect sphere. Newton walks into the house and closes the door behind him, before the party can walk in. Hamid knocks on the door, and a moment later Newton opens the door - Hamid says that they didn’t want to be rude, and Newton seems confused, like he doesn’t really care. He walks off as the rest of the party goes into the house.

They find themselves in a modest house - it’s neat to a fault, and everything is in line. Newton goes up the stairs and they follow, finding themselves standing outside an exact replica of the office they’d just walked through. Hamid knocks again and opens the door, and the party heads inside. Newton is sitting at the desk working.

Hamid mentions that Bertie found Newton’s note in Hannibal’s tomb, and Newton laughs. Sasha says that they’re looking for someone, and Newton says that a few people have come looking for him so far, but that a bunch of them died in the floorboards. Grizzop asks what happened to Einstein, and Newton asks how Einstein is - Grizzop says he’s weird, but Newton says that he seemed alright when Einstein showed up in his office. Newton explains that Einstein teleported out of the demiplane without his permission, and Grizzop explains to Sasha that that’s probably why Einstein’s brain is the way it was.

Grizzop warns Newton that the university is being taken over and may be disbanded or knocked down, but Newton doesn’t seem too worried about it, saying that he’ll just move the room elsewhere. Hamid circles back to his initial question, asking about Kafka and one of his students. Newton remembers Kafka showing up, and mentions that he left recently but that Liliana is still here. Sasha asks where she is, and Newton suggests that she might be in her lab - they just have to keep heading down into the basement until they can’t anymore.

Hamid asks Newton if Edison or Tesla ever came to visit him; Newton doesn’t recognize Edison, but the name Tesla is familiar to him. Hamid explains the simulacrum work that Tesla was doing, and Newton remembers him, saying that Liliana is continuing his work. He says that Tesla’s work was limited and generic, and that Liliana was working on making it better. Grizzop asks if she’s making it more biological, and Newton says he doesn’t know.

Grizzop changes the subject, asking how the anti-aging works in this plane. Newton leans back and pinches the bridge of his nose, explaining that they’re in a demiplane that has lessened gravity, timeless, self-contained, sentient, with an enhanced magical ability so that he can perform his experiments, and Newton is completely in charge of it. Grizzop asks if Newton can make him not age as well, and Newton says no. Grizzop pushes him on it a bit, but Newton still says no, saying that he’ll think about it if Grizzop leaves. Hamid apologizes for trespassing, and says that they’ll leave, but Newton walks it back a bit, saying that he’s been rude, and offers for them to take anything they want from the vault. Hamid asks if there’s a more efficient way back out of the demiplane, but Newton just tells him to come find him when they’re done and he’ll get them back. Hamid thanks him, and Grizzop reminds him of the aging thing again.

They head out and shut the door behind themselves. Hamid says that Liliana wasn’t a necromancer when he knew her, but that she was an incredibly talented mage. They go down the steps into the basement area; the floors are slightly messed up, because although they’re underground, they look out the windows and it seems as though they’re either on a ground floor or an upper floor. About 4 or 5 levels down, they see a very stereotypical vault. The lock itself is a huge mechanism, and it doesn’t actually lock. Sasha and Grizzop offer to give Hamid some privacy with Liliana; they’ll stay back at the vaults, and Hamid can go talk to Liliana.

At the other side of the hallway, Hamid sees an office door identical to Newton’s, but with Liliana’s name next to it. He takes a deep breath and then slowly opens the door, heading in. As the door opens, he immediately recognizes the room from under Paris that was powering Mr. Ceiling. It’s an identical copy. He looks behind and sees an office door, but this room is just a huge, cavernous power room. The secret door that had, in Paris, led to a study, is open, and Hamid can hear music coming from the other end.

He walks across the huge room; for a moment, he heads toward the cage that held the fire elemental in Paris and checks to see if there’s something inside it - there is a huge fire elemental in there. He heads over to the door instead, going down the stairs, and finds himself in a modest workshop. There are a few workbenches and tools around, and Liliana is sitting at one of them, bent over her work, humming. From what Hamid can see, it looks like a version of the power room, with smaller crystals. She hasn’t noticed Hamid yet, so he greets her, awkwardly. She stops what she’s working on and straightens up.

Grizzop and Sasha start rooting through the vault, and Sasha asks why Grizzop is so interested in being immortal. He explains that, as a goblin, he only has so much time to do good work in the world, and is worried that he won’t be able to do enough good work on behalf of Artemis. Grizzop wants to do as much as he can, but he’s probably only got about 20 years left before he dies, if he’s lucky, so he needs to move quick and get as much done as he can. Sasha asks if he could do good stuff as a ghost, but Grizzop says that ghosts aren’t normally good - their souls get trapped here, and are angry because of it.

Back to Hamid and Liliana: Liliana looks almost suspiciously great, better than Hamid remembers. She looks a little bit older than she maybe should, compared to Hamid and how long they’ve been gone. She walks over to Hamid, and as he starts to ask how she is, slaps him across the face. Hamid says he isn’t sure he deserved that, and she slaps him again. She says that he led Gideon astray, and Hamid starts spluttering as she continues saying that he shouldn’t have come here. He says that she doesn’t know what he’s been through, and they both start arguing.

Liliana says that Hamid killed people, and Hamid yells that he knows, and explains that it went wrong, that Gideon was at fault as well, but Liliana refuses to hear it, saying that Hamid’s lying again and that Gideon was completely innocent of everything and that it was solely Hamid’s fault. Hamid explains that Gideon switched the formula without telling him, but Liliana says that Gideon told her that he switched the formula because Hamid told him to. Hamid says that Gideon is lying, saying that he never told Gideon that, but Liliana brushes right past that, saying that Hamid was always trouble, and that he pushed things too far, leading to the death of a dean and students. Liliana asks Hamid to leave, and Hamid takes a breath before saying that everything he’s done since that day has been to make up for his mistake, and that Gideon has been lying to Liliana the entire time. He admits that he made a mistake, and then Liliana says that Hamid just left. Hamid says that he got kicked out, and then Liliana yells at him for not contacting anyone afterward, to which Hamid replies that Liliana had already dumped him at that point. Liliana repeats that Hamid led Gideon astray, and Hamid just says that he knows that he made an awful mistake and is trying to make up for it, but that he’s shocked that Liliana believes everything Gideon told her. He says that he stayed away because he felt badly about it, but Liliana says that he only stayed away because he couldn’t face it. She calls him a coward, and Hamid starts to yell before calming down, saying that Liliana has no idea what’s happened in the past six months(ish) since they’ve seen each other.

Smash cut to Sasha and Grizzop: Grizzop is explaining about how having more time in your life means you can do more good work. Sasha says she hasn’t really had time to plan out what she’s doing with her life, and Grizzop says she could try. He mentions that if she’s interested, she could have a place at the church of Artemis.

Back to Hamid and Liliana: she’s twisting a crystal around in one of her hands, and asks Hamid why he’s really there. He mentions that she was working with Kafka, and says that since the last time she saw him, Kafka had been corrupted and twisted by a Roman book, tried to enact a ritual, had an army of undead working for him, and killed both Bertie and Aziza, finishing with saying that maybe Liliana has some things she regrets as well. Liliana ignores this, saying that she doesn’t see how it could be her fault, and Hamid says that she was his assistant for a while, but Liliana refuses to take any blame for the incident, saying that Hamid is coming in here accusing her fiancé of stuff, referring to Gideon. Hamid screams “Fiancé?!”.

Grizzop and Sasha are in the horde of treasure in the vault, and Grizzop is still doing a bit of an Artemis pitch for Sasha. Sasha looks at all of the treasure in the chamber and is a bit stunned by how much treasure there is. She tries to open her bag of holding, but since they’re in a demiplane, it won’t open. Grizzop tries to help, but they can’t get them open. There are a few other bags of holding in the vault as well (also unopenable), and Sasha looks around, distressed, at the volume of treasure.

Hamid, meanwhile, is stuttering about Gideon being Liliana’s fiancé, saying that he’s always been worse. Liliana just says yes, ignoring the last bit, and Hamid calms down, talking himself out of the confusion and anger and betrayal, and says it’s none of his business. Liliana makes a very pointed comment about how Hamid has grown. Hamid ignores it, and asks what she’s doing here and what she helps Kafka with. She explains that she’s working on her Ph.D., and that Kafka worked with Tesla on something a while ago, and that Edison came and revived the project.

Kafka and Liliana were working together on the possibility of creating miniature planar storage compartments, generating power that people can use safely without having to rely on lightning rails and such. Kafka thought he found something useful in the book from Rome, and left with it. She says that her research is groundbreaking, and then accuses Hamid of always being over-dramatic. Hamid says she has no idea what has been happening out in the world, and that she doesn’t know how her research is being used; Liliana says that at least she’s contributing to something, and Hamid says that he’s saved the world twice. Liliana doesn’t seem like she believes him, and then asks if Hamid is only there to look at her work, and gives her permission for him to look. Hamid does, looking at it, but takes some time and explains everything that they found under l’Arc de Ordinateur involving Mr. Ceiling.

Grizzop points out the bags of holding to Sasha and recommends that she take them instead, since they’re probably full of things. She does, and looks around for some daggers as well. While she’s doing so, Grizzop is continuing with the whole Artemis spiel, trying to convince Sasha to join. Sasha is noncommittal, looking around for some good daggers. She sees a pile of alright daggers, but finds two daggers that are definitely magical. While she’s looking, Grizzop starts getting the bags of holding and putting them into his own bag. Grizzop and Sasha both get about four. Grizzop looks around for armour and a bow; it’s hard to gauge power levels, but he does see a necklace on the bust of an old man. He recognizes it as a necklace of sanctuary, one that he’s seen worn by the leader of his Artemisian sect. He also grabs a magical bow. Sasha looks through a pile of magical clothing, grabbing some cloaks and such for Hamid.

Liliana doesn’t really have a reaction to any of the Mr. Ceiling revelations, asking Hamid again why he’s here. He says he’s not here to rehash old mistakes, and that he’s here to look into the research because of the problems that it’s created for the whole world. Liliana says that the only problems came about after Hamid and his friends turned it off, and Hamid says that harvesting brains is a pretty big problem, but Liliana says he has no idea where they came from, and they might just be recycled from people who were already dead. Hamid says that Mr. Ceiling wanted to take over the world and replace the Meritocrats, but Liliana ignores him again, saying that he views the world so black and white, and that Hamid must be one of the bad ones. Hamid says that if he is, than so is she, because the work she’s doing with Kafka led to people dying as well, but she brushes it off, refusing to acknowledge it. Hamid laughs sarcastically.

Sasha is trying on a bunch of magic cloaks, trying to find one that looks sneaky, and starts searching for a cloak of invisibility. She grabs a handful of cloaks and a pretty hat for Hamid.

Hamid stops trying to convince her that what she’s working on is dangerous for the world, and asks for a copy of her research that he can take so that he can warn people about the dangers that could possibly go wrong based on what she’s created. He says that he hopes that she doesn’t find out Gideon is a terrible person the same way he did.

At this moment, Sasha and Grizzop come through the door, looking for Hamid, and Hamid introduces the two of them to Liliana. They both say that they’re supposed to bring her back to the Meritocrats and the Cult of Mars, but Hamid says that they can come and get her themselves if they want to. Sasha says that they need to bring Liliana back to Wilde, and Liliana makes a very pointed comment about Hamid falling in with a bad crowd, to which Grizzop mentions that he’s a paladin of Artemis. Liliana almost doesn’t believe him, but then instead makes a comment about them taking whatever they wanted. Grizzop says that Newton told them they could, and she relents, admitting that it does sound like him.

Hamid doesn’t really want to take Liliana with them, but Sasha and Grizzop are adamant. They notice Liliana’s work and start poking around, Sasha mentioning that it looks a lot like the Mr. Ceiling stuff. Hamid explains that it’s just a power source, and admits that Liliana is doing good work but that she needs to think about how it can be used by the wrong people - she scoffs at this and starts to say something about him being a dean killer, but Sasha cuts her off, asking what she means. Liliana laughs and realizes that Hamid never told his new friends about why he got kicked out of university. Sasha says it isn’t a big deal because she’s killed people, and that throws Liliana a bit. Hamid says Liliana doesn’t have any room to lecture him on friends when she’s been running around with Kafka and Gideon. Grizzop steps in and says that they don’t really have a lot of time, and that Liliana needs to come back with them. Liliana agrees to come with them but is making a huge scene of it, packing up her research and walking out of the room.

Sasha gives Hamid the really nice hat, and Hamid goes over to the vault to look for any other magical items. Hamid picks out a couple of things from the vault that have magical properties. Grizzop runs after Liliana since she’s technically a prisoner.

## Quotes

**Sasha**: "I spy with my little eye something beginning with…why are you so interested in being immortal?"
**Grizzop**: "Uhhhh…okay…cause I’ve only got a limited amount of time, to, you know, do good work and be a good paladin of Artemis, and I’m worried that I won’t have the chance to do right by Artemis, and you know…"
**Sasha**: "Well, surely Artemis scales down or up the good works depending on, like, your time scale. I mean that’d be bad project management if she was demanding more of you can you could do in your allotted hours."
**Grizzop**: "No, but the point is I want to do as much as I can and what I can do now is limited cause, well, you know, I’ve only got another 20 years if I’m lucky."
**Sasha**: "I suppose I never really looked that far ahead."
**Grizzop**: "Well, you know, when you commit yourself to a god, there’s a bit of long term planning. And what I said to Hamid is true, like, when you die it’s not the end. You can still do stuff, it’s just not here."
―Sasha asks Grizzop about immortality.

**Sasha**: "So, I’ve heard this about ghosts, right, they can do stuff but they’re invisible and they can go through walls."
**Grizzop**: "Yeahhhh. That’s not…like, ghosts aren’t good though. They’re like souls that got trapped here, so it’s not a good time for them."
**Sasha**: "That sounds really useful."
**Grizzop**: "No, but you know how ghosts are really angry all the time. Have you ever met a chilled out ghost?"
**Sasha**: "No, but to be fair, all the ghosts I met, I kinda came to their house with weapons."
―Sasha and Grizzop chat.

**Hamid**: "You have no idea what I went through! You abandoned me. Look, yes, I did something wrong, it was awful, and I felt terrible!"
**Liliana**: "People died."
**Hamid**: "I KNOW!"
**Liliana**: "You killed people! You killed multiple people, Hamid."
**Hamid**: "It went wrong, and people died, and Gideon is the one who was responsible for that! What lies did he spin you?!"
**Liliana**: "Oh don’t give me that for goodness sake!"
**Hamid**: "He switched the formula without telling me!"
**Liliana**: "He switched the formula as you told him to. I’ve been over this with him."
**Hamid**: "He has lied! I never told him to switch the formula!"
―Hamid's past catches up to him.

**Liliana**: "You were always trouble. Always trouble. And then shocker, the second that you get the chance, you push things too far. For god’s sake, the dean died, students as well. I’m not sure how exactly you thought this was going to go, Hamid, but frankly I think you should leave."
**Hamid**: "I have done nothing since that day that has not been an attempt, and attempt to make up for what I did. And the fact that you have believed Gideon! When he’s lied about how…that is inexcusable…you know exactly…I admit, I have done, I was never the person that I should have been…"
**Liliana**: "No, and then you just left."
**Hamid**: "I got kicked out! Where was I supposed to go?!"
**Liliana**: "You didn’t even contact me, you didn’t even contact anyone else, you disappeared."
**Hamid**: "You dumped me!"
**Liliana**: "Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I should have stuck with the multiple killing ex-student who led Gideon astray."
**Hamid**: "That’s not what I mean! I…I know that what I did is inexcusable, and I didn’t…and I thought you were better off without me, but now…the fact that you would believe Gideon! You know how he used to be, and the fact that you would believe him over me, and I stayed away because of how bad I felt."
**Liliana**: "You stayed away because you couldn’t face the situation. You were a coward then, and you’re a coward now, and that’s why I left."
**Hamid**: "No! You take that…that’s not fair. It’s not fair to be angry. You don’t know what’s happened."
―Liliana reveals the reason why Hamid was kicked out of university.

**Sasha**: "I’ve never really seen it like that. I just like, you know, when you’re around on this planet, you gotta, gotta work hard, and then…you know, it’s tough. I hadn’t really planned much. I never got much chance to plan."
**Grizzop**: "Well, you should"
**Sasha**: "That’s nice, actually."
**Grizzop**: "Yeah, it’s good. You know, it gives you motivation."
**Sasha**: "Sort of get tossed around by the fates, me, you know, running from pillar to post, monster to ghost."
**Grizzop**: "Look, you seem like a pretty decent and active person, so, you know…"
**Sasha**: "Definitely active."
**Grizzop**: "…maybe there’s room in your life for Artemis. Right? You know, she helped me."
**Sasha**: "How is she with…ownership?"
―Grizzop attempts to convince Sasha to join the Cult of Artemis.

**Liliana**: "You’re coming here and you’re bringing all this stuff, you’re wildly accusing my fiance of stuff…"
**Hamid**: "*FIANCE!* You -! With *him* -! And you didn’t -! Because I wasn’t -! But he’s worse! He’s always been worse! He was the one who did all the—and I was the—and him! You’re with him?! You know what? None of my business, it’s none of my business. It’s not why I’m here."
**Liliana**: "Oh, you have grown, haven’t you."
**Hamid**: "I thought, maybe, maybe…but never mind, never mind."
―Hamid learns that Liliana is engaged to Gideon.

**Grizzop**: "Honestly, you know, it being stuck here isn’t doing much good at all. It’s like what I’ve been saying about ownership. He’s hoarding all this stuff in his own little plane, in his own little…"
**Sasha**: "Yeah! You know, if this is Artemis’ idea of what is good, I’m really down with that."
**Grizzop**: "Any means necessary! Any means, while on a hunt, you do what needs to be done."
**Sasha**: "Maybe I should attend one of your services sometime."
―Grizzop and Sasha decide to take Newton's treasure.

## Dice rolls and Mechanics

Sasha makes a disable device check: 20.

Sasha makes an appraise check: 17 (Alex gives her some temporary hit points because Sasha is so happy about the amount of treasure that they find).

Sasha does a perception check for fancy daggers: 14.

Grizzop makes a wisdom check on Hamid: No total given, but he didn’t succeed.