The Cereal Box:Log: Difference between revisions

Line 1,292:

Subsequently, Jer called and informed Nikolai that he would be cashing in on his deal on Friday. After he asked if this had to do with the Chronophage, Jer deamanded that Nikolai exaplin what he knew to him. Nikolai sounded like he was going to try to weasel out of the contract as he told Nikolai the would be going to Arcadia together, and the Pumpkin King - who is known not to cuss - told him that he will "NOT fuck this up for me." Nikolai informed him that for his favor of up to half his Kingdom, the Pumpkin King must help him become King of Autumn. "Done" was the response.

==Session 47==

===Thursday, May 27th===

Nikolai broke the bad news to his Motley. A discussion of the tense differences between English and Russia resulted in the recitation of the pun "You cannot go running at a campground, you can only ran, because it's past-tents."

Sephie puts together a medical bag for the trip to arcadia including a lot of bandages, IVs of goblin fruit, etc. She also planned to bring one of her kitties with her. She took some time to train her cats, which were at that stage where they could be relied upon NOT to be detriment.

April and Alana were able to steal a durometer from the garage of a handyman running a garage sale. April created a mighty distraction while Alana plundered the garage. April's distraction was so good that stealing the money would probably be trivially simple.

Hestia went to WalMart to slap a woman, implying that she's having an affair. She does manage to collect a small amount of glamour from mostly bewildered people. She then did this again at Meijer, which worked as well.

Nikolai decided to go with Ernie to Sullivan's library to attempt to research the Chronophage. He found a leaflet written by an A. Francis Williams entitled "Time," which had a long list of things about the Chronophage. The author suggests:

* Time is linear. There are no other "timelines"

* The Chronophage can "create" alternate "timelines" and "extract" and "place" things in them, but they're ephemeral and cease to exist after he finishes with them

* The Chronophage does not know its own future and past, despite existing in them simultaneously; this confusion is not predictable

* The Chronophage chooses its changelings based on their ability to bring him more changelings

Other information:

* Saying it's "weak to life energy" isn't correct, but its ability to manipulate things is based on its life energy

* Things that are "permanent" are its weakness

* Fate is its weakness

Further details:

* The Chronophage has a compulsive need to correct the chronology of things as presented; e.g. lining up objects from oldest to newest

Nikolai reminisced about the order of his Keepers: Prince Kindhearted - Koscheii the Lich - the Collector - Baba Yaga - The Erlkoenig

Baba Yaga - Erlkoenig - Koscheii - Kindheart - Collector

At about 2 PM they fininshed their research; Nikolai resolved to call Firestarter about his sword, but decided, instead, to call Firestarter and just see if he knew where some platinum-iridium could be found. Firestarter said he could ask around, but he didn't know. Nikolai set up to go to the Autumn archives at 7 PM.

April needed plans for how to convince the durometer to measure the crunch factor. Alana promised to help her when she had a chance. She helped Smith train. April asked Ernie and he suggested "horses for horsepower" and "inchworms"; April accepted the plan to steal inchworms from the butterfly garden at the zoo. They left with a few inchworms in tow which they released near the bowl of cereal she was marinating the durometer in.

"Had anyone else defeated the Chronophage? If so how?" The magic 8-ball says, All Signs Point to No "This is frustrating" rolls over to a yes

Firestarter told him that Chalkos agreed to sell him platinum-iridium bullets and would meet with him at 3 AM.

"Will Nikolai be able to come back?" the pendulum rusts through and breaks

"Does anyone else in the freehold, other than Chalkos and Firestarter, have platinum-iridium?" The myth of Orpheus.

They exchanged the voodoo doll with Phlox for the metal and had a brief and, apparently, ugly discussion of what they could do power-wise. But eventually Nikolai felt badly for him.

===Friday, May 28th===

Ernie made the sphere into punch daggers. Nikolai meditated to prepare to enter Arcadia.

Regina explained that she was concerned that it would depress her to come close to Arcadia again, so she decided to stay home.

===Saturday, May 29th===

3:00 AM

The motley met with Jeremiah in the wee hours of the morning outside the Autumn meeting ground. They following him into a hedge path he opened along the Equinox Road to Arcadia. As they traveled, Jeremiah explained that he had made a deal with one of the Fae that would permit him to "get what he wanted most," but that now that he had Nikolai - who could leave Arcadia at will - it was no longer necessary for him to hand over a changeling to the Chronophage as payment.

They arrived at a gate to arcadia inside the pendulum door of a massive grandfather clock. Nikolai and Jeremiah entered the Chronophage's domain together and the Chronophage presents Jeremiah with the ragdoll woman Tasha and an infant. It explains that the child, whose name is Victoria, was taken from a timeline wherein Jeremiah and Tasha never were taken to Arcadia, but died in a horrific car accident on their way to a date night. Jeremiah took the child. The Chronophage demanded that Nikolai hand over his tongue, which he did after much shouting, demanding and coaxing from Jeremiah and the Chronophage. It took his tongue and ate it, and Nikolai realized he was no longer THE GENTRY'S GENTLEMAN. He attacked the Chronophage as Jeremiah had a brief meltdown over not getting his way, but then left Arcadia, hoisted his wife, and ran. Nikolai fought the Chronophage briefly, but did not take the opporutnity to leave Arcadia. He demanded his things back from the Chronophage, and it gave him *a* tongue, but not *his* tongue, obstentiously because it was sick of watching him try to talk without it.

Nikolai challenged the Chronophage to a duel, and it asked him when. He said, "Now, and in the hedge where you are limited." The Chronophage agreed. This did not seem like the best decision.

Episode End Credits

==Session 48 - "Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey"==

Nikolai began the duel with the Chronophage who shunted him forward in time 3 rounds and used various powers to duplicate itself and increase its power. For a few rounds, Nikolai held his own (and tried to summon the Baba Yaga to come to his aid or at least waylay the Chronophage). The fight suddenly took a turn for the worst. Baba Yaga showed up and explained she couldn't interfere in the duel, but did thrown one of the Chronophages into her mortar and pestle.

Eventually, Nikolai was defeated by the Chronophage, being horribly killed a dozen times over and taken to Arcadia. The motley was horrified, but could do nothing to stop him.

As the motley left the hedge, Jeremiah was dealing with Wolfgang and one of his associates, who were interrogating Jeremiah (and sort of Tasha and Victoria) with a video camera. Jeremiah says "See? It's fine!" but when he's told it's complicated, he says, "See? It's complicated!"

Sephie grabs a car seat for Jeremiah.

Seaphie spoke with Jer about the situation with his daughter and asked if it was all worth it.

Jer leaves with his wife.

Everyone goes to sleep at 5 AM and wakes up.

10 AM

Sephie collected and prepared goblin fruit. As she was doing so, a tool letting out a low pinging beep was sitting in a bowl of cereal. The tool measures the crunch factor, but can also temporarily bolster supernatural barriers.

Episode End Credits

===Sunday, May 30th===

(a strange day)

The motley negotiated with Phlox to teleport Nikolai back to their home using the sympathetic connection created by the vial of his blood. In return, Nikolai would, once again, give Phlox a reverse voodoo doll.

==Session 49==

The motley slept until morning. Cadence also stayed until morning.

Ernie had an idea regarding what they could do during the Strange Days re: Chalkos' lair and wanted to enter dreams to talk to James Sullivan, the dreamer.

They talked to April about The Forever Dream. It sounded as if Ivey had been trying to "help" her and give her a "makeover" which changed her completely. She remembers Ivey "Disney Princessing" and she and the other forest creatures would follow her about. She was then caught in a butterfly net and pinned in a display case, where the Collector would look at her periodically. She said, clutching at her chest, "It still hurts."

Nikolai and Ernie went to Arthur Sullivan's to research the Arcadian Realm of the Forever Dream. A history of the Cereal Box had some information on Ivey as the ruler of Spring. She was a plant woman who gravitated toward flowery places. Her frailties were laid bare (cannot desecrate nature, loses power when her feet are "not planted on the ground", harmed by herbicides). She and her people took out and forged the first Contract of the Cereal Box on the heart of the King of Wellville. They learned that Ivey had stopped visibly aging in her mid-late 30's and that she was about 60 when she hooked up with 16-year-old Billy. They researched this, and the process of becoming a True Fae (which is treated primarily as theoretical).

Hestia made food to bring to Tasha (and the baby?). She helped Jeremiah clean the house, and there was a thick air of hostility between Jeremiah and Hestia, although Tasha seemed to genuinely appreciate everything she did. Tasha explained that Jeremiah was stressed and argued that he really did want what was best for everyone. When she was asked if it was worth it, she responded, "I don't know." Hestia spent most of the afternoon helping out at the house.

Sephie asked about the mages that attacked them. Songbird explained that she's a member of an organization dedicated to the preservation of magic and that the mages they were fighting were dedicated to destroying and hording magic.

They drove around the neighborhood to measure the crunch factor. At the meeting grounds, the crunch factor was approaching a 4.5, at the Hestaurant, it was a just under 2, and outside the Cereal Box it was a 0. Average of 3.3. A single hedge gate opened immediately dropped it by about 0.5 until the gate was closed, then there was a very small lingering decline. At the motley's home, the crunch factor is just below a 3. At the original meeting ground locations are not over 2.0. They decided to head to Freddie and Aaron's and take measurments there. Outside was just over 1, but entering it went up a bit. They went next door to the changeling ghetto and found a 0.8 rating on the mirror, which seemed to follow the mirror.

"This is Jack. I'm out for a snack. Call me back! *BEEP*"

Met up with Smith for training. He said a freebooter named Stephen Sullivan lived in the house and there was some discussion of who he was friends with (not many, but Ivey, Arthur and Holly may be some of them). The mirror led directly to an Arcadian Realm.

Seaphie spoke to Ernie about making something for Firestarter to trade for the Club.

Nikolai and Ernie performed an augury to determine where the mirror went, giving Ernie a sensation described as "the opposite of going home." That was almost certainly the Collector's Realm

The motley goes to sleep hoping to contact James Sullivan, the Dreamer. Hestia and Nikolai were able to make contact with Sullivan and ask him several questions, finding out that he was trying to prepare them for an upcoming battle that he could foresee, but not directly advise them regarding the outcome and nature of it. He revealed that if the Cereal Box was brought down, it would kill him. Thus, it is important that when the Cereal Box is brought down that the Dreamer be awakened first.

Deal with Chalkos - one or both

Collector - connected to all

Lyrissa knows knife

Smith is tied to your destiny

Mary Kingman is w/ her husband

Dahlia is dreaming

Billy's instability

Ivey McCree is the neighbor

56 - you have 2!

@@ Line 1,292: / Line 1,292: @@
 Subsequently, Jer called and informed Nikolai that he would be cashing in on his deal on Friday. After he asked if this had to do with the Chronophage, Jer deamanded that Nikolai exaplin what he knew to him. Nikolai sounded like he was going to try to weasel out of the contract as he told Nikolai the would be going to Arcadia together, and the Pumpkin King - who is known not to cuss - told him that he will "NOT fuck this up for me." Nikolai informed him that for his favor of up to half his Kingdom, the Pumpkin King must help him become King of Autumn. "Done" was the response.
+==Session 47==
+===Thursday, May 27th===
+Nikolai broke the bad news to his Motley. A discussion of the tense differences between English and Russia resulted in the recitation of the pun "You cannot go running at a campground, you can only ran, because it's past-tents."
+Sephie puts together a medical bag for the trip to arcadia including a lot of bandages, IVs of goblin fruit, etc. She also planned to bring one of her kitties with her. She took some time to train her cats, which were at that stage where they could be relied upon NOT to be detriment.
+April and Alana were able to steal a durometer from the garage of a handyman running a garage sale. April created a mighty distraction while Alana plundered the garage. April's distraction was so good that stealing the money would probably be trivially simple.
+Hestia went to WalMart to slap a woman, implying that she's having an affair. She does manage to collect a small amount of glamour from mostly bewildered people. She then did this again at Meijer, which worked as well.
+Nikolai decided to go with Ernie to Sullivan's library to attempt to research the Chronophage. He found a leaflet written by an A. Francis Williams entitled "Time," which had a long list of things about the Chronophage. The author suggests:
+* Time is linear. There are no other "timelines"
+* The Chronophage can "create" alternate "timelines" and "extract" and "place" things in them, but they're ephemeral and cease to exist after he finishes with them
+* The Chronophage does not know its own future and past, despite existing in them simultaneously; this confusion is not predictable
+* The Chronophage chooses its changelings based on their ability to bring him more changelings
+Other information:
+* Saying it's "weak to life energy" isn't correct, but its ability to manipulate things is based on its life energy
+* Things that are "permanent" are its weakness
+* Fate is its weakness
+Further details:
+* The Chronophage has a compulsive need to correct the chronology of things as presented; e.g. lining up objects from oldest to newest
+Nikolai reminisced about the order of his Keepers: Prince Kindhearted - Koscheii the Lich - the Collector - Baba Yaga - The Erlkoenig
+Baba Yaga - Erlkoenig - Koscheii - Kindheart - Collector
+At about 2 PM they fininshed their research; Nikolai resolved to call Firestarter about his sword, but decided, instead, to call Firestarter and just see if he knew where some platinum-iridium could be found. Firestarter said he could ask around, but he didn't know. Nikolai set up to go to the Autumn archives at 7 PM.
+April needed plans for how to convince the durometer to measure the crunch factor. Alana promised to help her when she had a chance. She helped Smith train. April asked Ernie and he suggested "horses for horsepower" and "inchworms"; April accepted the plan to steal inchworms from the butterfly garden at the zoo. They left with a few inchworms in tow which they released near the bowl of cereal she was marinating the durometer in.
+"Had anyone else defeated the Chronophage? If so how?" The magic 8-ball says, All Signs Point to No "This is frustrating" rolls over to a yes
+Firestarter told him that Chalkos agreed to sell him platinum-iridium bullets and would meet with him at 3 AM.
+"Will Nikolai be able to come back?" the pendulum rusts through and breaks
+"Does anyone else in the freehold, other than Chalkos and Firestarter, have platinum-iridium?" The myth of Orpheus.
+They exchanged the voodoo doll with Phlox for the metal and had a brief and, apparently, ugly discussion of what they could do power-wise. But eventually Nikolai felt badly for him.
+===Friday, May 28th===
+Ernie made the sphere into punch daggers. Nikolai meditated to prepare to enter Arcadia.
+Regina explained that she was concerned that it would depress her to come close to Arcadia again, so she decided to stay home.
+===Saturday, May 29th===
+:00 AM
+The motley met with Jeremiah in the wee hours of the morning outside the Autumn meeting ground. They following him into a hedge path he opened along the Equinox Road to Arcadia. As they traveled, Jeremiah explained that he had made a deal with one of the Fae that would permit him to "get what he wanted most," but that now that he had Nikolai - who could leave Arcadia at will - it was no longer necessary for him to hand over a changeling to the Chronophage as payment.
+They arrived at a gate to arcadia inside the pendulum door of a massive grandfather clock. Nikolai and Jeremiah entered the Chronophage's domain together and the Chronophage presents Jeremiah with the ragdoll woman Tasha and an infant. It explains that the child, whose name is Victoria, was taken from a timeline wherein Jeremiah and Tasha never were taken to Arcadia, but died in a horrific car accident on their way to a date night. Jeremiah took the child. The Chronophage demanded that Nikolai hand over his tongue, which he did after much shouting, demanding and coaxing from Jeremiah and the Chronophage. It took his tongue and ate it, and Nikolai realized he was no longer THE GENTRY'S GENTLEMAN. He attacked the Chronophage as Jeremiah had a brief meltdown over not getting his way, but then left Arcadia, hoisted his wife, and ran. Nikolai fought the Chronophage briefly, but did not take the opporutnity to leave Arcadia. He demanded his things back from the Chronophage, and it gave him *a* tongue, but not *his* tongue, obstentiously because it was sick of watching him try to talk without it.
+Nikolai challenged the Chronophage to a duel, and it asked him when. He said, "Now, and in the hedge where you are limited." The Chronophage agreed. This did not seem like the best decision.
+Episode End Credits
+==Session 48 - "Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey"==
+Nikolai began the duel with the Chronophage who shunted him forward in time 3 rounds and used various powers to duplicate itself and increase its power. For a few rounds, Nikolai held his own (and tried to summon the Baba Yaga to come to his aid or at least waylay the Chronophage). The fight suddenly took a turn for the worst. Baba Yaga showed up and explained she couldn't interfere in the duel, but did thrown one of the Chronophages into her mortar and pestle.
+Eventually, Nikolai was defeated by the Chronophage, being horribly killed a dozen times over and taken to Arcadia. The motley was horrified, but could do nothing to stop him.
+As the motley left the hedge, Jeremiah was dealing with Wolfgang and one of his associates, who were interrogating Jeremiah (and sort of Tasha and Victoria) with a video camera. Jeremiah says "See? It's fine!" but when he's told it's complicated, he says, "See? It's complicated!"
+Sephie grabs a car seat for Jeremiah.
+Seaphie spoke with Jer about the situation with his daughter and asked if it was all worth it.
+Jer leaves with his wife.
+Everyone goes to sleep at 5 AM and wakes up.
+AM
+Sephie collected and prepared goblin fruit. As she was doing so, a tool letting out a low pinging beep was sitting in a bowl of cereal. The tool measures the crunch factor, but can also temporarily bolster supernatural barriers.
+Episode End Credits
+===Sunday, May 30th===
+(a strange day)
+The motley negotiated with Phlox to teleport Nikolai back to their home using the sympathetic connection created by the vial of his blood. In return, Nikolai would, once again, give Phlox a reverse voodoo doll.
+==Session 49==
+The motley slept until morning. Cadence also stayed until morning.
+Ernie had an idea regarding what they could do during the Strange Days re: Chalkos' lair and wanted to enter dreams to talk to James Sullivan, the dreamer.
+They talked to April about The Forever Dream. It sounded as if Ivey had been trying to "help" her and give her a "makeover" which changed her completely. She remembers Ivey "Disney Princessing" and she and the other forest creatures would follow her about. She was then caught in a butterfly net and pinned in a display case, where the Collector would look at her periodically. She said, clutching at her chest, "It still hurts."
+Nikolai and Ernie went to Arthur Sullivan's to research the Arcadian Realm of the Forever Dream. A history of the Cereal Box had some information on Ivey as the ruler of Spring. She was a plant woman who gravitated toward flowery places. Her frailties were laid bare (cannot desecrate nature, loses power when her feet are "not planted on the ground", harmed by herbicides). She and her people took out and forged the first Contract of the Cereal Box on the heart of the King of Wellville. They learned that Ivey had stopped visibly aging in her mid-late 30's and that she was about 60 when she hooked up with 16-year-old Billy. They researched this, and the process of becoming a True Fae (which is treated primarily as theoretical).
+Hestia made food to bring to Tasha (and the baby?). She helped Jeremiah clean the house, and there was a thick air of hostility between Jeremiah and Hestia, although Tasha seemed to genuinely appreciate everything she did. Tasha explained that Jeremiah was stressed and argued that he really did want what was best for everyone. When she was asked if it was worth it, she responded, "I don't know." Hestia spent most of the afternoon helping out at the house.
+Sephie asked about the mages that attacked them. Songbird explained that she's a member of an organization dedicated to the preservation of magic and that the mages they were fighting were dedicated to destroying and hording magic.
+They drove around the neighborhood to measure the crunch factor. At the meeting grounds, the crunch factor was approaching a 4.5, at the Hestaurant, it was a just under 2, and outside the Cereal Box it was a 0. Average of 3.3. A single hedge gate opened immediately dropped it by about 0.5 until the gate was closed, then there was a very small lingering decline. At the motley's home, the crunch factor is just below a 3. At the original meeting ground locations are not over 2.0. They decided to head to Freddie and Aaron's and take measurments there. Outside was just over 1, but entering it went up a bit. They went next door to the changeling ghetto and found a 0.8 rating on the mirror, which seemed to follow the mirror.
+"This is Jack. I'm out for a snack. Call me back! *BEEP*"
+Met up with Smith for training. He said a freebooter named Stephen Sullivan lived in the house and there was some discussion of who he was friends with (not many, but Ivey, Arthur and Holly may be some of them). The mirror led directly to an Arcadian Realm.
+Seaphie spoke to Ernie about making something for Firestarter to trade for the Club.
+Nikolai and Ernie performed an augury to determine where the mirror went, giving Ernie a sensation described as "the opposite of going home." That was almost certainly the Collector's Realm
+The motley goes to sleep hoping to contact James Sullivan, the Dreamer. Hestia and Nikolai were able to make contact with Sullivan and ask him several questions, finding out that he was trying to prepare them for an upcoming battle that he could foresee, but not directly advise them regarding the outcome and nature of it. He revealed that if the Cereal Box was brought down, it would kill him. Thus, it is important that when the Cereal Box is brought down that the Dreamer be awakened first.
+Deal with Chalkos - one or both
+Collector - connected to all
+Lyrissa knows knife
+Smith is tied to your destiny
+Mary Kingman is w/ her husband
+Dahlia is dreaming
+Billy's instability
+Ivey McCree is the neighbor
+- you have 2!