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Encounter Conditions
Blood of the Stone or Fantasies of the Stone
black tablet shard equipped
Initial Text
Perhaps it's just curiosity and the shard you're carrying, but something keeps calling you back to the stone tablet. The shard obviously came from it or something like it, with the same languages you sometimes see playing across the shard reflected in solid stone before you.
Or, if Etheric:
Perhaps it's just curiosity and the shard you're carrying, but something keeps calling you back to the stone tablet. As you watch the same languages written on the tablet play across the shard, both begin to bleed as though every letter is a vicious wound.
Summary of Choices
- Look for the angular script (only with Angular tech) - Learn one of Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune, lose one Angular Script
- Check out the blocky script (only with Blocky tech) – Learn one of Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune, lose one Blocky Script
- Examine the flowing script (only with Flowing tech) – Learn one of Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune, lose one Flowing Script
- Compare the mysterious script (only with Mysterious tech) – Learn one of Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune, lose one Mysterious Script
- Contemplate the runes (only after learning all four Runes) - Gain 20 energy of Runic Contemplation with Shard of Language
- Look over the tablet - Fight Runic Hound, Runic Spider or Runic Orb
- Leave it be - Walk away
Choice Text and Results
Look for the angular script
You examine the shard in your hand, comparing it to the writing on the tablet. There are certainly runes similar to what you're looking at on the tablet, but they don't seem to fit with what's in your hand at all. Odd.
You learned a new Technique one of: Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune
(hidden: lose one instance of Angular Script)
Or, with Shard Of Language, the following is inserted between the above:
Having removed that distraction, you look back at the shard in your hand. The writing seems… clearer now, somehow.
You changed your equipped gadget to angular tablet shard.
Check out the blocky script
You examine the shard in your hand, comparing it to the blocky script on the tablet. There's something out of place, harsh and angular amid the more organic shapes.
It's really quite jarring.
You learned a new Technique: one of: Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune
(hidden: lose one instance of Blocky Script)
Or, with Shard Of Language, the following is inserted between the above:
Having removed that distraction, you look back at the shard in your hand. The writing seems… clearer now, somehow.
You changed your equipped gadget to blocky tablet shard.
Or, with Shard Of Language and a blocky tablet shard equipped, the following is inserted between the above:
The shard twists in your hand.
You changed your equipped gadget to black tablet shard.
Examine the flowing script
You examine the shard in your hand, comparing it to the flowing script on the tablet. There's something out of place, there, disrupting the perfect flow.
Hmmm, yes, there's a rune smack in the middle that doesn't fit at all.
You learned a new Technique: Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune
(hidden: lose one (?) instance of the Flowing Script technique)
Or, with Shard Of Language, the following is inserted between the above:
Having removed that distraction, you look back at the shard in your hand. The writing seems… clearer now, somehow.
You changed your equipped gadget to flowing tablet shard.
Compare the mysterious script
You examine the shard in your hand, comparing it to the mysterious script on the tablet. The rhythm is perfect, like a song captured in stone, except for a rune in the middle that seems… artificial and out of place.
You learned a new Technique: Jagged Rune, Open Rune, Triple Rune, Humanoid Rune
Or, with Shard Of Language, the following is inserted between the above:
Having removed that distraction, you look back at the shard in your hand. The writing seems… clearer now, somehow.
You changed your equipped gadget to mysterious tablet shard.
Contemplate the runes
You pick out the runes, comparing them, seeing what you can learn and why they were put there. It seems random at first glance, but there's definitely a pattern to all of this.
You're not sure how long you spent staring at the tablet, but no answers present themselves.
Or, with Shard of Language:
You pick out the runes, comparing them, seeing what you can learn and why they were put there. It seems random at first glance, but there's definitely a pattern to all of this.
You're not sure how long you spent staring at the tablet, but you only find answers in yourself.
You've gained 20 duration of Runic Contemplation.
Look over the tablet
You look over the stone, trying to piece together what might be meant by the strange languages nearly hidden by blood. Perhaps it's just what the plaque says, an artificial creation intended to inspire thought.
Well, if so, it's certainly done a good job.
You've earned 5 XP in random stats
Or, With all 4 runes in your deck, while Etheric:
The more you focus on the runes, the more they slip away.
Eventually, the writing itself begins to swirl on the tablet, breaking the stone into mind-twisting angles. Slowly, they resolve into something you can comprehend, a shape like a spider… its limbs already busy at work weaving more of the letters that cover its stony form.
The spider weaves letters in an <blocky/angular/mysterious/flowing> script as though they were strands in a web.
(Applies 1 energy of the related effect)(Fight Runic Spider)
Or, With all 4 scripts in your deck, while Etheric, and have beat the spider at least once*:
The more you focus on the languages, the more they slip away.
Eventually, the writing itself begin to swirl on the tablet, breaking the stone down with a wordless howl. Somewhere in the distance, you hear a responding howl… then another.
The howls shape the swirling stone, sculpting it into some strange reflection of their own kind.
(Fight Runic Hound)
Or, while Etheric, and have beat the hound and spider. Each time you fight the orb (win or lose), you need to beat the hound and spider again:
The more you focus on the meaning behind the languages and the runes, the more they slip away.
Eventually, the writing itself begin to swirl on the tablet, breaking the stone down into a single, swirling mass. As it rotates, the mass collapses into a dark sphere, covered in strange writing and runes you've come to recognize.
(Fight Runic Orb)
Leave it be
Something happens, but mostly it's just
See Walk Away