Swirling Portal 2011

Image

Encounter Conditions

• Halloween 2011, after building enough of the stage
• Etheric

Initial Text

It's hard to ignore the massive, swirling disk of energy hanging above the stage. Perhaps other people can't see it, but you can see it clear as day, rippling with strange patterns of green energy and slowly growing outward.

Summary of Choices

1. Walk in - something happens
2. Send in a Hound (with a tome of binding equipped and at least one instance of Release the Hounds) -
3. Send in a Spider (with a tome of binding equipped and at least one instance of Unleash Spider) -
4. Try to seal it - this section can just be copied from the location page
5. Leave it alone - something happens

Note: Probably similar to Portal 2010

Choice Text and Results

Walk in

You hurl yourself into the swirling portal, drawn along its lines of power in patterns you doubt could make sense to any mortal man. The energies of the portal push back against you, tearing at you, until your bloodied remains are tossed back on stage.

You take <all HP> damage.

(Or with 15(?) etheric defense, and Emerald Gift or Hunt For The Gift playing)

You hurl yourself into the swirling portal, drawn along its lines of power in patterns you doubt could make sense to any mortal man. The energies of the portal push back at you, but you force yourself forward.

(Or, with a dual laser? (so far only seen by Cryptodynamic and Happy Yeti):)
You hurl yourself into the swirling portal, drawn along its lines of power in patterns like a dance you thought you had forgotten. The energies of the portal push back at you, but you force yourself forward.

(Before going through with a laser)
You pass through a wall of crystal, glimmering in the portal's unearthly light, shattered by some force beyond your reckoning. Beyond it is a bridge. You're so close, so close as the light begins to dim.

(And after going through with a laser, following two paragraphs:)
Your mind spins. The portal leads to a bridge. The portal is a bridge. The bridge means nothing. The bridge means everything. The Eclipse has opened your mind to new vistas. You have shown new vistas to Eclipse.

As the chaos of your own drug-addled mind threatens to consume you, the light seems to dim.

(And with homemade laser or dual laser):
The strange green light of your laser, almost invisible before the portal dimmed, shines forward in the growing darkness, guiding you for a last few halting steps before the portal takes its toll.

(With the Glimmering HUD, overrides the laser message (?)):
Even in the darkness, you can see the writhing energy of the portal, pushing yourself forward inch by painful inch.

Or, sometime later:
You find yourself on a crystalline bridge, more real than the world around you and yet strangely fleeting, as though it is forged from the surety of dreams. You put one foot in front of another, as though each step forges the bridge beneath it, but as you walk the light begins to dim.

You snap to sudden wakefulness on the floor of ballroom, dark wisps of smoke rising from your body, as panicked students gather around you.

You take <all HP> damage.

You're pretty beaten up. You can't make it any further without resting.

You've earned 10 XP in Will

(Nothing different for having as much as 36 Etheric defense, achromatic lamp, tome of binding, containment suit, dark smoke, Defense of the Gift, Call of the Gift, Battle for the Gift, no pain, jade amulet)

Send in a Hound

You read the words from your tome, reversing the binding to the best of your ability. The shape of a hound flickers into existence, then bounds into the portal.

(lose an instance of Release the Hounds)

Send in a Spider

Try to seal it

You consult the tome of binding and try to construct a ritual to close it, drawing on the energy of the hounds that haunt the ether. The portal shudders, but doesn't close.

Either you did something wrong or you just need more energy. It's hard to say which.

(or, with at least 10 Hounds in the portal?)

It's a best guess, but you put something together from your tome of binding, calling on the energy of the twisted hounds that haunt the ether. The portal groans, then collapses in on itself with a tremendous crack.

Motes of green light, all that remain of the portal, sprinkle down on the stage.

You've earned 10 XP in Will

Leave it alone

Yeah, there's crazy and then there's crazy and tangling with that is definitely the latter.

See Walk Away