20:57 <Crion> In the stories -- the modern American ones, anyway -- it's usually seven heroes riding on to meet their fate. Right now, however, it's just the five of you, and Benjamin Best. The Door to Nowhere in the basement of 301 Locust Drive, an unlocked portal into the Hedge, beckons. Beyond it...the man(?) known to the mages as Gary? Some sort of trap? Both? A silly hob having tea and crumpets? 20:57 <Crion> Any which way it goes, time to tool up. 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's armed and enchanted and backing up his friends. He won't get more ready than this. 21:06 <trenchfoot> Nels is... as ready as she's ever going to be. 21:06 <CBN> Tony was ready for what the house upstairs held (other than what the upper upstairs held), and he's about where he was before. Shotgun's reloaded, a protective layer of fae soil still covers his form, and he is resigning himself to the bad possibilities on the other side of a door. 21:07 <dammitwho> Maggie slaps her fist into her other palm and looks around for some exposed brickwork. She's gonna need to hit hard when they're fighting this guy. 21:08 <banana> Melanie didn't much like leaving Gemma in the kitchen, but.. there's work to do. She doesn't know or want to know what was upstairs. Gary's fate was sealed... centuries ago, if you can trust Stewart's ebook. It's a surprisingly shitty basement for the power of those entities that lived here, but maybe their real home is on the other side of the door. 21:08 <banana> She guesses she should say something. 21:08 <banana> Melanie: "Um, let's take a moment to get ready, then- are we all together on this? G.A.R.Y. must die. We're the ones who can do it." 21:10 <trenchfoot> Nervously: "Are we?" 21:11 <CBN> Tony: "Honestly, I don't want him around but I dunno if we can go toe-to-toe with full wizard bullshit and walk away from it. But we've got him spooked, maybe we can do a little more." 21:12 <banana> Melanie: "Yeah. We're actually really strong when we have to be, a hell of a lot tougher than these guys thought. They're complex, rather than overpowering - not a higher link on the chain, die große Kette bricht." 21:13 <dammitwho> Maggie reaches toward a crumblier part of the cellar walls and grunts with effort. Dust flies into the air as she pulls two bricks loose and begins pounding on them with her fists, crudely shaping them with the fae metal of her Mien. It only takes a few moments, and when she's done she sticks her fingers through a brand new pair of brick knuckles, ready to cause a ruckus. 21:13 <dammitwho> "We can get him. We'll thump him and thump him and thump him again!" 21:13 <Crion> For his part, Benjamin Best closes his eyes...and then screams. The Oracle at Pimlico crawls out from his open mouth, also screaming, around onto his back, great talons cleaving out of her knuckles as her hands cover and intertwine with his; three horrid, multi-elbowed arms plunging out of her back into the air above his head. The Geist is made manifest. Both their eyes are silver. The 21:13 <Crion> Sin-Eater is ready for war. 21:14 <Crion> His voice has another voice behind it when he says: "Ready." 21:14 <banana> "We have to move all at once and be prepared for an immediate attack or trap on the other side, but we can survive it. In principle, there's less force arrayed here than the gang that Praetor- Principal- whoever the fuck, the people he had. The kings and queens have tied up some of that force somewhere else. It's going to come down to wanting to win." 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> Is this what locker room pep talks are like? 21:15 <CBN> Tony allows himself a little nervous chuckle. "Feelin', heh, pretty good you're in our tent pissin' out here, Ben." 21:16 <banana> As Melanie speaks, bits of skirting-board are ripping loose from the floor and walls, drifting over to her and wrapping snake-like around her arms legs and neck. The splintered wood merges seamlessly with what everyone but Best can see of the true bark underneath, turning inside-out to present ripped-free nails and jagged chunks. 21:16 <Crion> The Oracle goes somewhat translucent with her manifestation complete, but Ben's smile still has her in it. It's really unnerving. 21:17 <CBN> Tony looks around: "So me, Mags and Mel out front, Ben, then Nels and Stewart cover our back?" 21:17 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart rocks on his feet a bit like a poppy stalk buffeted by conflicting winds as the naked displays of power multiply. He doesn't speak up with objections are support. But nor does he waver, and his face has settled into placid focus. 21:17 <Crion> Ben: "Fi (Fine) ne." 21:18 <trenchfoot> Nels looks at Ben but does not reply. 21:20 <banana> Melanie: "Yes, let's keep a wide front rather than presenting one of us as the obvious target." She coughs. "Excuse me." 21:21 <banana> Melanie coughs again, drawing in huge lungfulls of air - which somehow comes out again through cracks in her bark and the holes of her shirt, begining to swirl like a fast and very tiny tornado. 21:22 <Crion> Ben: "Im (Immm) pressive." 21:22 <banana> The violent wind whipping past all the nails makes a little ragged howl and bits of splintering wood are now starting to rise into the air and whirl around nastily as well. She makes sure NOT to stand near any friends, for which purpose Best counts. 21:23 <trenchfoot> Okay, that is never going to not be weird. 21:25 <banana> Look, not all of us can have nice acne-free skin, or skin at all, or whatever. 21:25 <Crion> When the six of you are ready, you open the door, and step through into... 21:27 <Crion> ...a field. You don't usually get fields as big as this in the Hedge; it's bigger than the baseball diamond at the Oriole Park Hedge by half again. Why is obvious: it's been clear cut, the subject of the tremendous application of power, some sheer will simply pressing the Hedgerows back and back over and over again until they stopped -- or maybe they didn't stop, and that will is pushing 21:27 <Crion> them back still even now. It's obvious who that will belongs to. 21:27 <trenchfoot> ... 21:27 <Crion> God Above Rejoices in You floats in the center of the clearing, in the middle of...something. Some prefigured, monstrous thing. Like from the baseball field, but bigger. Worse. More complete. 21:27 <Crion> "Greetings." His voice echoes. 21:27 <trenchfoot> ...... 21:28 <banana> Oh, so he really is that arrogant. 21:28 <Crion> "Took...longer than I...expected." 21:28 <Crion> The sigil shifts around him. And again. 21:29 <Crion> The Many Shapes of Gur Fha va Fcyraqbe https://i.imgur.com/EYWeMZ0.jpg 21:30 <Crion> It seems to be making an odd, singing sound, right at the corner of your hearing...always offkey. 21:31 <trenchfoot> Okay, that is offensive. Probably not on purpose. But this was her life for God's sake. 21:32 <Crion> Gur Fha va Fcyraqbe -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_V94YwYtc This is what you'll get. This is what you'll get. This is what you'll get. 21:35 <Crion> G.A.R.Y.: "Behold...the imperfection of Fate. The warped face of the Ruin: Gur Fha va Fcyraqbe. I will set it in this mockery of a sky." 21:36 <Crion> There's something wrong with his voice. He sounds flat, robbed of affect. 21:36 <Crion> "I admit...it is not yet perfect." 21:36 <Crion> "So." 21:36 <Crion> "Trials." 21:37 <Crion> The strange, writhing sigil is limned in sickly light, and suddenly casts hard shadows on the ground...which begin writhing themselves, unmooring themselves from their referent, moving and moaning on their own... 21:38 <Crion> Gur Fhpx -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFGmO1e_sAU I-I-Iiiii got ffive on it. 21:59 <banana> Melanie doesn't waste time yelling challenges and so on; she strides at a decent if twisted pace toward the floating rune-sequence, glaring at G.A.R.Y. The Sun, the real one, burns briefly about her, and it's a real challenge, but this guy IS a wizard with mindpowers. He seems to have protected himself against the will-to-battle. 22:02 <Crion> His eyes flicker momentarily. "No, not this time, I think. But I do respect it. Your ability to make one feel." 22:02 <Crion> "It had been some time." 22:02 <Crion> "It was bracing." 22:02 <banana> It never works, but as usual she'll content herself with actually hitting the enemy - she starts raking and whacking the ephemeral and glittering sigils. 22:03 <Crion> The sigil-creature nods even as it twists and refigures. 22:04 <banana> Feel? Only psychopaths need to fight to do that. Melanie steps to the side around the edges of the shapeful disgrace, leaving room for Maggie and Tony to get in here and fuck up its angles. 22:13 <dammitwho> This rune-thing is hard to miss, but it's made of mystic condensations of sorcerous something-or-other, which means Maggie's fists might go right through it or something. They don't, though. She charges up and gives it the ol' one-two, and it feels like something halfway between shattering crystal and punching a hanging pig corpse. 22:15 <trenchfoot> They have to stop this. Nels might not be capable - but this is important. 22:17 <Crion> After Maggie hits it, it shudders again...coils and changes...but this time something about those roaming shadow-shapes changes with it. 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart squares up, but there's not a lot of room to miss. All the oscillation means that there's going to be something for a bullet to rip through. In Path of Exile you would call this the 'burn phase' of a boss fight. 22:26 <Crion> After Stewart fires, every shadow on the field wriggles about, agitated, and with the strange sight of whatever the ever-shifting sigil put on it, strikes -- 22:26 <banana> Surprising herself, Melanie ducks under a sweeping arc of shadow. Nails and flying splinters rip up her sweatpants from the rapid movement, but this was not meant to be a reusable outfit. 22:26 <Crion> And doesn't do much except...wait, it got Nels. Not a crippling blow, not even a really bad one, but a blade so cold... 22:28 <trenchfoot> This fucking HURTS, holy - okay, she didn't cuss out loud. That's good. ...is Stewart older than her, technically? 22:28 <trenchfoot> He probably is. This is awful. 22:31 <trenchfoot> She fires from her hip anyways. She can handle herself. 22:32 <banana> It's hard to tell how much we're impairing the geometry. Someone's firing- "Can you aim at the dickwad inside?" 22:36 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I am! Something's always spinning in the way!" 22:38 <Crion> Ben lopes forward, almost, the ghost-arms from the Oracle pushing him on, and her teeth, talon and claw lay into the great sigil. It shudders under the ghostly assault just as it did under the bullets, but it seethes and holds. 22:38 <banana> Melanie: "There are a lot of burning rays traced through air like a hot needle drawn through butter in there." 22:38 <banana> It'd take longer to say outside the Hedge. 22:41 <CBN> Tony aims over Ben's shoulder and pops off a double-barrel shot. It's hard not to hit center mass when there's so much of it. "Uf." Solid. 22:41 <trenchfoot> Jesus Christmas. 22:41 <Crion> The weird, atonal music seems to be getting louder...but it's holding its shape. 22:42 <Crion> G.A.R.Y.: "Yes. Yes. Prefigure the Ruin!" 22:47 <banana> Melanie: "You want ruin?" 22:53 <banana> "You're fucking with all our lives for fun. You're tearing families apart because you're some sort of hell-knight out of time that can only get off on fractured spaces. This graph-paper doodle you've laid down is as subject as any other construct to exmetriation - you don't value anything of ours and we won't let you value your own shitty plan!" 22:54 <Crion> No reaction. 22:54 <Crion> Just a somewhat expectant look on its face. 22:55 <trenchfoot> ... 22:57 <banana> Melanie calls in a deal she made in a story about a nightmare. Her personal tornado expands from roughly skin-tight to cover most of the field, winds and splinters, gale-force blasts of the kind that casually pick up cars and smash wooden homes to smithereens. The noise is impossible to hear anything over - except for the Motley and Benjamin Best, who're totally unaffected by either the 22:57 <banana> roaring or the actual physical storm. 23:00 <Crion> The storm rages and seethes and begins to incohere the form of the sigil itself, whipping it around into a strange orb, removing its shape, its definition, and therefore its meaning -- have you won? Have you -- 23:01 <Crion> The storm explodes and the sigil, shining, is larger than before. Three impossible triangles atop each other, shifting in and out. No more circles, or squares, or hedrons. It has found a form. In the center, G.A.R.Y. hovers, his body oddly in shadow, seeming to consume light. 23:01 <Crion> The sound around it has changed. 23:02 <Crion> Gur Fha va Fdhnybe -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTED9CABsHE Sephiroth! (Youuu!) Sephiroth! (Youuu!) 23:03 <trenchfoot> ... 23:03 <trenchfoot> .......... 23:03 <trenchfoot> Well. Okay. 23:03 <Crion> The shadows beneath you hiss. The light in the Hedge sky dims. 23:03 <VoxPVoxD> Ahahahahahaha. 23:04 <banana> Melanie: ????? 23:05 <dammitwho> What? 23:06 <CBN> Tony continues trying to get a clear view of Gary, and failing to do so, tightens his grip on his stock. 23:10 <dammitwho> Some people try to punch their way through a brick wall. Maggie uses the brick wall to punch through a person, which is much easier. Well, she would, if Gary would freaking float on over here so she can punch him! Instead, she has to settle for disrupting High Wizardry with her fists. Musclemancy. 23:12 <trenchfoot> Maggie IS a brick wall. It's sort of alarming. 23:17 <Crion> The great triangles turn and fold, and form an impossible eye staring at Maggie -- and a bolt of sickly, damning light blasts through her, a spear of aether straight from above...except tainted somehow. 23:18 <Crion> It does the job, though. 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> Despite the frenzied motion, the thing is still. Stewart focuses, squares up, fires. 23:21 <dammitwho> "Aaagh!" 23:25 <Crion> The bullet is true; the triangle so struck shudders. 23:28 <Crion> The shadows beneath them stab up as swords, and catch Nels and Melanie to differing degrees. They're less rigid this time...now they wriggle as they strike. Unpleasant. 23:29 <banana> Most of the shadow burns away on the Mantle of Summer, but the shock of it has Melanie.. shook. Too shaken for synonyms, and all the stuff she's been reading about thesis-writing emphasises those! 23:32 <trenchfoot> Augh-- 23:32 <trenchfoot> She fires. She misses. 23:36 <Crion> The Oracle's talon catches the bullet out of the Hedge 'air' as it passes off-target and drives it as the leading-edge into the rotting signifying-sign as Benjamin Best descends on it in an orgy of violence, trying to reach G.A.R.Y. in the center. He doesn't get much closer, but he tears most of the 'bottom' triangle apart in the process before it reshapes itself. 23:39 <CBN> Tony takes aim, pops off another round. Both barrels are now empty. He strikes true. World's biggest beer can, all set to get knocked off a runic fence. 23:39 <Crion> The entire thing ripples and twists. 23:40 <trenchfoot> This needs to stop. 23:40 <Crion> G.A.R.Y.: "Such power! That thing...that is no mundane tool!" 23:41 <banana> You're a- no time for that. Maggie's bleeding. No- Maggie's holed. 23:41 <trenchfoot> No, go on. He's a mundane tool. 23:41 <dammitwho> She's leaking steam, slowing down! 23:42 <trenchfoot> ...Nels knows that phrase. Messed up but true. 23:42 <banana> Melanie swats away an incursing triangle-point and and turns to her friend, gesturing outward - a stream of wind and splinters flows from her to Maggie, but don't worry: thanks to faerie magic, this is actually a good thing. 23:42 <banana> Wounds knit, or possibly weld. 23:42 <CBN> Tony: "You wanna get down here and settle this with fists I'm happy to, sport." He glares. 23:45 <dammitwho> Oh lordy, that feels weird. Bent and scorched ruddy fae metal straightens with creaks and pops and spot-welds itself back together. The needles on the occasional small dial on Maggie's metal skin swing back towards the safe zone, and she grunts as she puts her weight into another strike. 23:47 <Crion> G.A.R.Y.: "And forego this experience?" 23:47 <VoxPVoxD> It feels like more and more matter is concentrating at a point. Is it shrinking? Growing denser? All Stewart knows is he's seeing more and more shadow-matter shredded with each shot. 23:56 <Crion> "You like to feel! Feel this! And this!" 23:57 <trenchfoot> Jesus Christ this hurts. 23:58 <trenchfoot> Why...? 23:58 <Crion> The shadows beneath them writhe and laugh in the languid fake-sun, and then they rise up, carving across all of them. Even Ben is momentarily engulfed and torn by their wriggling-sharp razors, the odd absences that cut, the blades that should not be. "When I am through, the Ruin will carve a bloody crest upon this fallen world. And its neighbors." 23:58 <banana> Melanie's bark is coming off along with her jumper and she's got unstemmable sap leaks, but the triangles are so out of phase an electrical engineer would have a fit. "I can't believe this guy ever came across as sinster instead of just lunatic." 23:58 <banana> *sinister 00:03 <trenchfoot> She's absolutely ravaged by - well. She fires, and hits, and -- Christ Almighty. This is... she did this. 00:03 <trenchfoot> "Oh yeah, this happens." Fuck off. She killed someone. 00:06 <Crion> Well. 00:06 <Crion> "Well." 00:06 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I don't feel all right." 00:08 <Crion> The sigil falls apart, and G.A.R.Y. flicks the bullet away in annoyance as he comes down to the 'ground.' The shadows -- the suck -- vanish as the sunless, bright sky reasserts itself above. The mage simply sighs. "It still needs some--" He's doing something with his hands, maybe trying to escape-- 00:09 <Crion> JUNG JUNG VF GUVF, JUVPU FCNXRA? <WHAT WHAT IS THIS, WHICH SPAKEN> 00:09 <Crion> Something's coming through the Hedge. 00:09 <banana> Melanie: "Everyone get back, not our fight, it's the High House all over again!" 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart holsters his gun, backing away, favoring his uninjured leg. 00:13 <Crion> And we'll find out precisely what...next week. 00:13 <trenchfoot> Nels holsters her revolver, too. 21:02 <Crion> <@Crion> JUNG JUNG VF GUVF, JUVPU FCNXRA? <WHAT WHAT IS THIS, WHICH SPAKEN> 21:02 <Crion> <@Crion> Something's coming through the Hedge. 21:02 <Crion> <banana> Melanie: "Everyone get back, not our fight, it's the High House all over again!" 21:02 <Crion> <VoxPVoxD> Stewart holsters his gun, backing away, favoring his uninjured leg. 21:02 <Crion> <@Crion> And we'll find out precisely what...next week.