ELEVATOR facts

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## Synopsis

Juniper's plan for ascending Sorian's Castle (which the group is about to enact) is for the group to reach the elevators, secure themselves to the hoist cables above the elevator cab, sever the cab from the cables, and let the elevator cab's counterweight fall in order to carry them to the top—using Prince's Invulnerability to ensure a safe ascent. However, Juniper recalls many safety features that modern elevators on Earth have—potential failure points for his plan if elevators on Aerb are designed similarly. Juniper wonders whether his ability to remember all of the safety features is due to the game layer putting the information directly into his mind now that his KNO stat is at 4 instead of its starting value of 2.

The rest of the group is not too sure about the details of elevators, but they decide to go through with the plan. Leonold pulls out a length of rope from one of his smaller tattoos and prepares a makeshift harness that will attach the group to the hoist cables. Meanwhile, Juniper continues to practise moving the Fool's Choker around his neck. The group leaves the time-out space and immediately springs into action. They quickly reach the elevators, and Quills and Carter punch a hole in the door to the elevator shaft. Three greater umbral zombies emerge into the hallway, and Quills calls for Fenn to use her single remaining artillery shot. After cutting into the door of an elevator cab on the castle's fourth level, Quills dispatches the umbral zombies.

At the same time, Juniper follows Leonold into and on top of the cab. His role is assisting Leonold with the ropework by providing light, holding the rope, and telling him about the elevator mechanism. Juniper is still stealthily attempting to move the Fool's Choker, and when Leonold ducks down to deal with some undead, Juniper finally displaces it away from his neck to the top of his shoulder.

The fireteam, Juniper, and Fenn get on top of the elevator cab and attach themselves to the makeshift rope harness. Quills cuts the cab away from the hoist cable, Leonold activates one of his Prince's Invulnerabilities, and the group starts to rise through the shaft, the plan having gone off without a hitch.

*Juniper recalls Tiff telling the gaming group about the "unspoken plan guarantee"—which is to say that, in a fictional story, plans are either made clear to the audience beforehand (in which case they go wrong) or not (in which case they are likely to go right). In either case, there is a source of tension.*

Arthur and Reimer question the application of the concept to tabletop role-playing games, because the random dice rolls already provide tension, but they concede that small secrets have their place. Tom suggests a third option—having no plans at all.

Unbeknownst to both the rest of the characters and the audience, Juniper was additionally planning to kill the fireteam—in response to Fenn telling him that the fireteam intended to kill him and Fenn, and in response to Juniper's pre-existing tie with Amaryllis. When the group is near the fifteenth floor of the castle, Juniper uses Aarde's Touch with his palm tightly gripping the rope holding Tova, which causes the rope to snap but injures his hand. The injuries from the fall are transferred via soul link to Carter, with Tova dying immediately after, prompting a cacophony of game messages—Juniper's skill in ***Deception*** rises to level 8, ***Inge Carter*** is defeated, Fenn's ***Loyalty*** rises to level 1, Juniper unlocks the ***Microhitler*** achievement, ***Tova Feidlimid*** is defeated, Fenn's ***Loyalty*** rises again, and Juniper unlocks a new virtue, ***Ruthless***.

As these messages come up, the elevator cables are still rising. Quills calls for another Prince's Invulnerability, Leonold grants it, and the group lands on the scaffolding in the elevator shaft by the top floor of the castle. Juniper acts as if he is struck and surprised by Tova's death, but Leonold begins to suspect him regardless.

Leonold, Quills, and Fenn go through the elevator shaft door to the top floor. As Juniper follows, he feels a sharp pain in his shoulder from the Fool's Choker activating and slicing into him, and thanks to a notification sees that ***Leonold Pavran*** has been defeated. This completes the quest ***Heading Off the Skin Mage***, and—***Level up!***—Juniper's sliced shoulder and burned hand are healed by the golden light.

Juniper comes to and sees that Leonold has a dagger sticking out of the side of his head, and that Quills is chasing after Fenn with his sword drawn. Fenn goes through a door which luckily isn't locked, closely followed by Quills and Juniper follow. The room beyond is a wide open area with a makeshift barricade some distance away from the door. Juniper hears a *thunk* and sees a circular hole appear in Quills' blade. Amaryllis is at the barricade with her void rifle. Fenn, meanwhile, is hiding behind some lab equipment without a clear shot at Quills.

Amaryllis calls for everyone to identify themselves, and Quills and Fenn do so as Fireteam Blackheart's former leader and consultant, respectively. Upon questioning, Quills tells Amaryllis that Prince Larkspur Prentiss sent his team.

Juniper checks his Companions screen and sees that Fenn and Amaryllis are present. Juniper vouches for Fenn, telling Amaryllis that she is a companion while Quills is not. When Amaryllis asks Quills why he came, Quills takes Juniper hostage and advances towards Amaryllis, who tries to get a shot off with the void rifle but only does a little damage to him. Quills' reasoning is that Amaryllis has the key already, but set up the defensive position to wait for Juniper, meaning that she values him. Quills tells Fenn that he is capable of deflecting any arrow she fires using his blade-bound techniques, and Fenn verbally concedes that she can't do anything. Juniper, unable to do anything about the predicament he is in, waits.

When Quills is halfway across the room, Fenn draws her bow and gets his attention. As he prepares to parry her shot, Quills lets Juniper duck behind him—but Fenn (having secretly kept one of her bow's artillery shots in reserve) looses an arrow that multiplies in flight, killing him and injuring Juniper. Juniper sees notifications informing him that ***Brownsnout Quills-in-hand*** has been defeated, the quest ***Into the Fryer*** has been completed, Amaryllis' ***Loyalty*** has increased level 5 and Fenn's ***Loyalty*** has reached level 3.

Fenn apologises for the stray arrows, and Juniper makes a joke about the situation—increasing his ***Comedy*** skill to level 2. Juniper requests to Amaryllis that she stops aiming the void rifle at Fenn, and she does so—coming over to patch up Juniper to the best of her ability.

Fenn asks where the three of them should go next, given that she and Amaryllis would have a difficult time getting by in the Kingdom of Anglecynn. When Amaryllis mentions what Juniper said about Fenn being a companion, Juniper shares with them that Fenn's current loyalty level is the same as Amaryllis' was when she was leaving the sewers, which is less than Amaryllis' current level.

Amaryllis then says that the three of them will stay together for the moment. She pulls the teleportation key out of her handbag and says that their next destination is Barren Jewel, an isolated city of thieves and cutthroats.

Before they go, Fenn looks for loot to sell at Barren Jewel. Amaryllis apologises to Juniper for not coming back for him. Fenn returns, Amaryllis activates the teleportation key, and the last thing Juniper sees is ***Achievement Unlocked: Tutorial Complete!***

## Featured characters

* Juniper Smith
* Brownsnout Quills-in-Hand
* Leonold Pavran
* Inge Carter
* Fenn Greenglass
* Tova Feidlimid
* Amaryllis Penndraig
* Tiffany Archer *(flashback only)*
* Arthur Blum *(flashback only)*
* Arthur Reimer *(flashback only)*
* Thomas Clint *(flashback only)*

## Quotes

“If it works, we skip past seventeen floors of hard fighting. If it fails … we’ll have spent resources that we can’t afford to spend. The undead will come at us and we’ll have to kill them, rather than just running away. Still, on balance … Leonold, the Prince’s Invulnerability will protect us?”
“Yes. It’s six seconds, no more, no less. If our ascent takes longer, I’ll have to activate it twice. And if our ascent fails, then we’ll be out a use.”

—**Quills** and **Leonold** are on board with Juniper's plan.

“If you fuck this up, I’ll kill you.”

*(later)*
“I shouldn’t have said I would kill you, that was just nerves talking. This mission … you don’t know the half of it. And now it’s down to this insanity.”

—Nevertheless, **Leonold** is on edge.

“There’s this thing called the unspoken plan guarantee. Basically what it means is that if you hear people talk about a plan in a movie or novel or TV show, then that plan will fail, or if not fail, then run into some unforeseen complication.”

—**Tiff** segues into a topic relevant to Juniper's present situation.

“So you’re saying that we should keep things secret from the DM? In my experience, that doesn’t work too well.”

—**Reimer** is sceptical about applying the unspoken plan guarantee to tabletop role-playing games.

“Or. We could just not ever plan anything. If you have no plans, then you don’t have plans that need hiding.”

—**Tom** gives his take on the unspoken plan guarantee.

“Is there anything anyone needs before we go?”
“Loot. Let me look around here and grab some valuables we can hawk in the Jewel.”

—**Amaryllis** and **Fenn** prepare to leave Sorian's Castle.

“I’m sorry I didn’t go back for you.”
“No, that’s --”
“I left you for dead with just enough of a veneer that I could feel at peace about it. You must have known that. It wasn’t until I was making the climb that I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t going back for you. I’m glad you’re alive, Juniper. You’re a very decent person.”

—**Amaryllis** faces up to her actions and apologises to **Juniper**.

## Notes

* This is the last chapter in Book I of *Worth the Candle*.

### Continuity notes

* The ***Ruthless*** virtue does not appear to have much (if any) effect on Juniper or others—from the time it is gained in this chapter to the time it is lost in Chapter 38, "Don't Split the Party".
* The ***Microhitler*** achievement is explained by the text itself in the next chapter.

### Real-world references

* Juniper references Elisha Otis, the inventor of braking systems in elevators on Earth.
* The unspoken plan guarantee is a fairly well-known trope.
* Fenn notes that she chose an arrow with a bodkin point when killing Quills, to minimise damage to Juniper.