Image
Encounter Conditions
Etheric
Only after asking the Floating Skull In The Niche about Baldur.
Initial Text
You make your way back to the skull's niche. It floats there, watching you with those empty eyes, glimmering with something ancient and vast.
You get the feeling it's waiting for a question.
Summary of Choices
- Who are you? - Information
- What about Eclipse? - Completes David's Oldtown quest?
- Who was Wotan? - Information
- What is happening now? (Only after asking about Eclipse) - Information
- Just stare back - 3 XP in Will
- Pry it out - 3 XP in Strength
- Leave it be - Walk away
Choice Text and Results
Who are you?
The skull remains motionless as you hear a cold, humorless chuckle. "You can call me Mim. My creator wanted to call me Mimir, but apparently it was already taken and he didn't want to mess up his naming scheme."
"But at the end of the day, I am just a stepping stone on the way to progress," the whisper continues, utterly dispassionately, "a brilliant mind attempting to speak with itself."
What about Eclipse?
The skull doesn't respond visibly and you don't hear even the slightest whisper of that chill voice.
When you indicate the symbol on the skull's forehead, the whisper wraps around you. "Eclipse, is it? It's a better name than Niflheim, certainly."
It pauses, leaving you to wonder whether it's done speaking. "Wotan found something more than a simple drug, unless I am merely your hallucination. He was excited… unbelievably excited, but he never learned how to control for the differences between tests. Different subjects gave different results, but holding multiple trials nearby tainted the others."
"It would have been enough to drive most men mad, but he saw the patterns. The more people in a test, the stronger the effects became and the closer their hallucinations grew. Even he was surprised when I was still in his office after he tested the drug himself… although he naturally suspected after-effects at first."
The chuckle returns for a moment before the voice grows serious again. "It's only grown stronger these past few years, settling its roots into the city. I can feel… there are greater changes than pulling this humble skull out of the mists."
Who was Wotan?
A whisper chills the air around you. "I call him my creator, but he was never sure if he created me or brought me here from something else. He tended towards the latter, but I digress."
"The others saw him as a visionary, a genius, a prophet. And perhaps he was, but I was there to bear the weight of his troubles… as petty as they may have seemed against the weight of his accomplishments."
"But his troubles are not mine to share."
What is happening now?
"Well," the chill wind whispers around you, "the effects of Niflheim… your Eclipse are growing stronger and stronger. Where Wotan was surprised by objects remaining after tests and I still exist half in the shadow, your Eclipse is leaving sweeping changes."
"Where Baldur was once the star pupil, I've met those in Midgard who rival his power and… felt some who greatly exceed it. It's possible this is a natural effect, the tear that slowly opens ever wider, but…"
The skull tilts slightly, this way and that, as though looking at the corners of its enclosure. "The one who created this cage around me acted mad, seeing things even I cannot, but used an Internal Security clearance."
"Even if Midgard has not been strengthening Niflheim, some of them are certainly benefiting from the effects."
Just stare back
You stare into the skull's eyes. It seems the longer you stare, the more you forget about life, until you drag your eyes away.
You've earned 3 XP in Will
Pry it out
You claw at the glass, if it's really even glass, but find no purchase. Its connection with the surrounding wall is perfectly seamless, as though part of it just became transparent… or the entire wall grew organically.
You've earned 3 XP in Strength
Leave it be
You back away from the skull's niche. Its empty sockets follow you as you retreat back into the vault proper.
See Walk Away