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Encounter Conditions
Etheric
Got the "staring at you" message from Starry Sky
Have not gotten a painted star or defeated The Painted Sky today
Initial Text
A strange wind howls through the museum hall as you feel something pulling at you from a great distance. You quickly find the source of the howling and the pulling, an ornate window looking out into the starry void of space.
As you stare in wonder, one of the stars opens its eyes, gazing back.
As you're trapped in its gaze, tendrils of milky light snake down towards you. They seem remarkably unthreatening, as though they are waiting for an offering rather than trying to take your life.
Summary of Choices
- Study it - Gain 4 XP in Perception
- Stare it down - trade five Evil Eye for one Starry Gaze
- Bind it (With a binding tome) - Gain 3 XP in Will
- Offer a feather and lace - (If you have them) Fight The Painted Sky or gain painted star
- Offer a flower and a feather - (If you have them) Fight The Painted Sky or gain painted star
- Offer a feather burning peat - (If you have them) Fight The Painted Sky or gain painted star
- Offer a flower and lace - (If you have them) Fight The Painted Sky or gain painted star
- Offer lace in peat - (If you have them) Fight The Painted Sky or gain painted star
- Offer a flower in peat - (If you have them) Fight The Painted Sky or gain painted star
- Offer a star - (If you have one) Gain 10 XP in Perception & Reflexes or Stellar Appreciation
- Tear yourself away - Gain 6 XP in Will
See the Notes section below for details on determining the proper offering.
Choice Text and Results
Study it
You look into the endless abyss of the sky and find it staring back. It's… chilling, but you could still spend hours picking out constellations while pretending the stars never look back on you.
As you tear yourself away, you find it difficult to shake the impression that you've seen something like this before… almost like this being is a pale reflection of someone you've met, but forgotten.
You've earned 4 XP in Perception
Stare it down
You force yourself to gaze into the eye, girding yourself as best you can. But its wispy tendrils slip through your mind without resistance.
It withdraws moments later and the best you can say is that you had nothing it sought.
Or, if you know at least 5 instances of Evil Eye:
You force yourself to gaze into the eye, conjuring to mind all the horrors you have seen to bolster yourself, shielding yourself in the green fire of the evil eye. It reaches through your memories, changing things, devouring things, until you can take no more.
You learned something from the exchange, but at a price… it's hard to even say what, because you cannot remember it.
You learned a new Technique: Starry Gaze
(Hidden: lose 5 instances of Evil Eye)
Bind it
You flip through your tome, looking for some way to bind it. It waits patiently, either unaware of what you are doing or unconcerned.
You try a number of incantations, drawing strange looks from the other patrons, but they only elicit strange patterns among the endless glimmering stars.
You've earned 3 XP in Will
Offer a feather and lace
You hang the burning feather from the lace, careful not to burn your fingers, and swing it into space. A misty tendril reaches down, pulling you into the starry void.
Either you've angered it somehow or it responds to offerings with gouts of star fire.
(Fight The Painted Sky)
Or, with the proper offering:
You hang the burning feather from the lace, careful not to burn your fingers, and swing it into space. A misty tendril pushes out one of the stars towards you.
You catch it, finding it surprisingly cool… and flat.
You found: painted star
(Removes encounter for the day)
Offer a flower and a feather
Carefully bundling the flower around the feather so they don't melt too quickly, you hurl both into the starry void. Moments later, a nebulous thread jerks you in after them.
It doesn't seem to appreciate your offering.
(Fight The Painted Sky)
Or, with the proper offering:
Carefully bundling the flower around the feather so they don't melt too quickly, you hurl both into the starry void. Moments later, they are met by a nebulous thread. It pulls back, leaving you with a brilliant star.
You grab the star, finding it oddly cool… and flat.
You found: painted star
(Removes encounter for the day.)
Offer a feather burning peat
You light the black peat with your feather and push it into the void before it burns your hand. A wispy tendril reaches down, grabbing your hand and pulling you into the night.
(Fight The Painted Sky)
Or, with the proper offering:
You light the black peat with your feather and push it into the void before it burns your hand. A whispy tendril reaches down, placing the burning peat in the sky.
From another part of the sky, a star falls… a strangely flat and cold star.
You found: painted star
(Removes encounter for the day.)
Offer a flower and lace
You tie a lovely bow of ribbon around the painted flower, offering your creation to the far away stars. A tendril of milky light gently plucks you into the starry void.
(Fight The Painted Sky)
Or, with the proper offering:
You tie a lovely bow of ribbon around the painted flower, offering your creation to the far away stars. A tendril of milky light gently plucks the flower and lace from your hand.
When you pull your hand back, you discover it contains a flat, cold star. Odd.
You found: painted star
(Removes encounter for the day.)
Offer lace in peat
You slather the lace garrotte in peat… at least this way it matches the night between the stars. Flipping it gently into that starry void, you watch it slowly dwindle… then begin to grow larger.
It takes you a moment to realize that you're being pulled towards it, drawn by some unknown force.
(Fight The Painted Sky)
Or, with the proper offering:
You slather the lace garrotte in peat… at least this way it matches the night between the stars. Flipping it gently into that starry void, you watch it disappear.
Seemingly an eternity later, a star falls to your feet. A… flat, cold star.
You found: painted star
(Removes encounter for the day.)
Offer a flower in peat
You plant your painted flower in the peat and push it into the starry void as an offering. It floats along cheerfully as a single star falls.
As the star approaches, it opens its single eye.
(Fight The Painted Sky)
Or, with the proper offering:
You plant your painted flower in the peat and push it into the starry void as an offering. It floats along cheerfully as a single star falls.
The falling star drops to your feet, strangely flat and cold rather than massive and burning.
You found: painted star
(Removes encounter for the day.)
Offer a star
You add your painted star to the rest's endless movements. It's incredible, watching the endless changes and interactions.
However, even at the end you feel as though you've missed a message somehow.
You've earned 10 XP in Perception
You've earned 10 XP in Reflexes
Or, with Art Appreciation:
You add your painted star to the rest's endless movements. It's incredible, watching the endless changes and interactions.
You follow their impossible dance step by step, watching perfection unfold in the interplay of the stars. Mortal art is nothing compared to this!
You've learned a new Skill: Stellar Appreciation
You lose a Skill: Art Appreciation
You've earned 10 XP in Perception
You've earned 10 XP in Will
Or, with Stellar Appreciation:
You add your painted star to the rest's endless movements. It's incredible, watching the endless changes and interactions.
You follow their impossible dance step by step, watching perfection unfold in the interplay of the stars. Mortal art is nothing compared to this!
You've earned 10 XP in Perception
You've earned 10 XP in Will
Tear yourself away
With great effort, you tear yourself away from the stars and flee. Hopefully they will not see you again tonight, hopefully you've escaped their seeking gaze.
You've earned 6 XP in Will
(Removes encounter for the day.)
Notes
The sky seems to choose one offering (of the six possibilities) that it will accept. If you give it the wrong offering, you will fight The Painted Sky. If you can survive past the first round, the sky may pluck a star and throw it at you. The color of the star it throws tells you the color the sky doesn't want. This allows you to determine the proper offering. The blazing feather is red, the yellowed lace garotte is yellow, the painted flower is blue, and the black peat is neutral. Other colors can be made as combinations of paint.
| Star pluck attack | Opposite Colour | Offering |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Emerald | Flower+Lace |
| Orange | Blue | Flower+Peat |
| Yellow | Violet | Feather+Flower |
| Emerald | Red | Feather+Peat |
| Blue | Orange | Feather+Lace |
| Violet | Yellow | Lace+Peat |
Giving the sky the proper offering, or defeating it in combat, removes this encounter for the rest of the day. This also seems to make it like new random color the next day (unknown if repeats are possible). (It looks like the color it likes persists over multiple days, as long as you don't correctly offer or beat it, but a few more data points would be good to confirm that.)