What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events. Any internal thoughts I portray the characters as having are my assumptions rather than confirmed by my players. Any future conflicts of personality are more likely a result of my assumptions, rather than actual player inconsistency.
If you want to stay updated on the events of the Toybox crew, but don't want to read through the whole prose write-up, a summary follows at the end.
If you want to start the story from the beginning, check out the first episode.
If you want to see what just happened, check out the previous episode.
If you want to continue the story, check out the next episode.
For more information on the Toybox Campaign, check out the Toybox Homepage.
Episode Main Cast
Episode 105
The Entry
User felt as the Toybox began to grow within his pack. He drew it out and set it down on the ground. It grew to its full size, and then orange energy poured out from it, surrounding Scarlet and drawing her into the Toybox. As the Toybox reduced itself in size, User picked it up once again.
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| Image by Yuri Shwedoff |
"Are we interested in towering the tower?" Jack asked. "Or are we touring the tower?"
The group continued to look up at the monumental structure.
"Should we knock?" Jack suggested. "I think User should knock, since the note was addressed to
'user and friends.'"
User climbed up the stairs and his hand descended upon the metal of the doorway. Each knock resounded with a hollow metal-banging noise.
"Weeeelll, nobody's home," User said.
"Dang, I was hoping they'd be right behind that door waiting for us," Jack said.
Even after a few minutes passed, no reply was heard.
The blue-clad man turned the wheel of the door several times until the sound of hissing air was heard. He pulled the door open to reveal a short, round, metal hallway that ended in a rectangular door that had a standard handle on it.
Jack moved towards the door and reached out to open it.
"Should we announce our presence first?" User asked.
"Well, he's been watching us, so he should already know," Jack suggested.
"I mean, we're expected here," the blue-clad man said.
"Yet he didn't come to the door..." User said.
"USER AND FRIENDS ARE HERE!" Jack shouted at the door. The sound echoed around the hallway, but nothing happened. Jack then opened the door.
Faith and Trust
A damp, cool feeling poured over them as the door opened. They tried to look ahead into the new room, but it was unlit. User dug through is pack, drawing out a torch and setting the end of it ablaze.
The room on the other side of the door was mostly squarish in proportion, with walls that were not quite flat. Each side was about 90 feet across. Despite that the outside of the tower and the hall had been metal, the inside of the room seemed to be dirt floor with stone walls.
As they entered the room, they noticed that the door they were passing through was a divided one. The outer-facing half of the door was metal, while the inner side of it was wooden.
Each wall of the room had a wooden door upon it. Other than the door the crew had just come from, each door had a word etched above it. The door to their left bore the word "FAITH." The door across from them had the word "HOSPITALITY" written on it. The door to their right had on it the word "TRUST."
"I don't trust hospitality," Sara said.
"Hospitality," User suggested.
"I don't like that one," Sara said.
"What's wrong with hospitality?" Jack asked.
"I don't trust people who are nice."
"I mean, obviously you don't TRUST them," Jack said. "But, then you don't have any FAITH in them either. So, really, we just can't let you choose a door. What if hospitality means food?"
"What if it's poisoned food?"
"That'd be fake hospitality," Sara said.
"Are you saying the door's a liar?" Jack asked.
"Yes," Sara said.
"I mean, we were invited here," the blue-clad man said. "Were we invited just so they could kill us? That doesn't seem likely."
"Well, maybe," User said.
"It seems lazy," Sara suggested. "I mean, if I wanted to kill someone, I'd be like 'yeah, come to my house.' I don't have to do anything."
"I feel like...they're not gonna try to kill us," the blue-clad man said.
"So we trust them?" Jack asked.
"I wouldn't go that far," the blue-clad man answered.
"Do we trust that we're gonna live?" Jack asked.
"Do we have faith in them?" Sara asked.
"I trust that they're not gonna try to kill us. That's about as far as I trust them at the moment," the blue-clad man responded.
"Well, then let's go through the 'trust' door and see if that takes us anywhere," Jack suggested.
"Uhm...no," User said.
"Which door would you like to go through?" Clio asked.
"I am the least interested in going through the 'trust' door," User stated.
"Okay, well, then which door would you like to go through?" Jack asked, echoing Clio's question.
"I would like to go through the 'hospitality' door, but there's strong opposition to that as well," User said.
"I don't really care," the blue-clad man offered. "I mean, for all we know, could end up going to equally bad or good places. We know nothing of this."
"I didn't see a door on the other side of this tower," Jack said. "So, I think 'hospitality' sounds good to me."
"Okay, that makes sense," Jack said.
"I will even open the door, if you like," User said.
"Okay," Jack accepted.
The other side of the door opened to a hallway which opened up into another unlit room. Carrying the torch, User began to move forward.
"It looks like there's a room," he said to the others. "Do you guys wanna come with me?"
"Yeah," Jack said. "You have the box, and I don't want to get zapped."
"You also have the torch," the blue-clad man said. "I don't really want to stand around in the dark."
As they entered the room, they saw that it was a small, closed off room. Along the walls hung seven portraits. Each of the portraits hung in a golden frame from a metal spike that had been dug into the cave wall.
Faith Portraits:
The first portrait to the left of the doorway depicted a man with slightly pointed ears who carried two blades. The second showed man with slightly pointed ears and long dark-colored hair, wearing fine clothes. The third depicted a pale hooded figure with red eyes, carrying two daggers. The forth displayed a green-skinned abhuman with dark hair and an angry expression. The fifth was a portrait of a woman dressed in old-fashioned robes. The sixth was of an abhuman with a bull’s head. The final portrait showed a humanoid automaton, wearing a tall black hat.
"Oh my," Jack said, looking from portrait to portrait.
User walked to the picture of the man with the two swords. He drew the torch close to the bottom of the frame, searching for a name placard. There was none.
The blue clad man lifted the portraits from the walls, trying to see if there was anything hidden behind them. There was not.
"Well, there aren't any abhumans in our group," Jack said. "So, I don't think they're us."
"Alright" the blue-clad man said as they returned to the more open entryway room of the tower. "So, we have what, hospitality and trust left?"
"Hospitality might have a bed," Jack suggested.
"That we can all share?" Sara asked, laughing.
"That would only be if we trusted each other," User said.
"But do we?" Sara asked.
"Then, let's go through 'trust,'" Jack said.
"Let's try hospitality first," Sara said.
"Yay!" User exclaimed. He moved forward and opened the door marked 'hospitality.' The doorway opened to a long hallway-far longer than the light from user's torch extended. The hall stretched upwards at an incline. The corridor was slightly rounded at the edges with scratch marks along the bottom and sides of the hall.
"Do we want to go down the hallway?" Clio asked.
"No," Jack answered.
"What?" Sara asked. "Are you afraid of halls?"
"Yes," Jack said. "Hallways are terrifying."
User shone the light on the scratch marks along the walls and floor. "It looks like something rolled along this hallway to create these scratch marks."
"Well, I guess we should look into 'trust' first," User suggested.
"You don't think that something rolling down an incline is hospitable?" Jack asked. "Well, I mean, you were the most against 'trust,' so if you want to go to 'trust' now, okay."
The 'trust' doorway, much like the 'faith' one, led down a short hallway ending in a small room.
Trust Paintings:
The first painting to the left of the door showed a tall tower. Outside, several short green-skinned abhumans lay slaughtered. In the second painting there was a flying ship. A tree appears to be growing out one of the ship’s windows, and a large white bird sits upon one of the branches. The third painting showed a city of odd-looking mole-like abhumans in celebration. In the fourth painting, there was an odd red vessel soaring over a desert. The fifth painting depicted a circus tent; a large golden gyroscope hangs in the middle, being watched by the crowd. The sixth painting showed group of warriors combatting large humanoid creatures of stone. The seventh painting was of city built upon a disk atop a thin stone column. In the eighth painting, there was a portal, through which odd blue-black creatures poured out and began ripping up their environment. The ninth painting showed an aurora waving over a small coastal city. The tenth painting showed a large snake-creature with tentacles around it’s head. The eleventh painting depicted a long vessel of many compartments floating over an even longer track that stretches out into the distance. The twelfth painting, immediately to the right of the door, was of the Toybox, floating in space.
"I don't trust what's in here," Jack said. "I don't trust the Toybox, so there's that."
"For all we know, you're one of the people who made the Toybox," the blue-clad man said.
"This is true," Jack admitted. "This is possible. But, until I can make sure I'm not getting sucked up into it, I don't trust it. If I was one of the people who made it, or tinkered with it, you'd think I'd be able to undo that."
Hospitality
"So, who's fast?" User asked, looking up the incline of the middle doorway. After a short discussion, the group decided that Clio was fast, but that the blue-clad man was probably slightly faster.
"If there is going to be something that's going to be rolling down this ramp at us...Either, I'll go, carefully, and look out for something that might trigger it, or, we should send somebody up willy-nilly, hoping they trigger it, and then hope to outrun it."
"Yes, but if it's a giant rock, it could block the pathway," the blue-clad man pointed out.
"Well," User offered. "I can phase through things, so if it came down, I could go through and...you'd have to trust me."
"This isn't the 'trust' path!" Jack said.
The blue-clad man rifled through his pack and drew out a disk which he placed down on the ground around the corner from the doorway.
"That's the teleportation artifact we found in the ruins, right?" User asked. The blue-clad man nodded.
"I think we should just go up and have 'faith' that there's nothing going to kill us and 'trust' that Mr. F didn't just send us into a death trap," Jack suggested.
Sara let out a skeptical sound.
"I have a pit in my stomach," User said. "I think we should just leave."
"Well, we've already come this far. I think we should check it out," Jack said. "I'll tell you what. I'll go ahead up, and if it squashes me, you all can rest easy knowing that you didn't die."
"I'm gonna go as well," the blue-clad man said.
"I mean, I'm fine with all of us going, I just, you know...more eyes, hopefully we won't trigger anything," User said.
"I will use all my eyes, all two," Jack said.
Eventually, they saw a metal lever along the wall. They also saw, at the same time, that the hallway ended in a door. Trying the door, they found that it was locked.
User pressed himself against the solid surface of the door, phasing through it. Jack drew out and lit another torch for those who had been abandoned on the other side.
User hit the red button on the device. The inner parts began to move and swirl and churn throughout the glass orb. A loud voice echoed ominously in the room: "Fifteen...Fourteen"
"Run!" Jack said, hearing the counting through the door.
"Thirteen"
"I say we pull the lever!" the blue-clad man said.
"What?" Jack insisted. "Pull the lever!"
"Twelve"
"Well, something's coming down anyway, what's it going to hurt?"
"Pull it, fine, and then run!" Jack yelled.
"Eleven"
The door glided open with a rumbling sound. Two balls-only a few inches across-came rolling down the hall past them.
"Ten"
"Nine"
"Eight"
The others ran across the room to check the door, finding it locked.
"Seven"
"We're going to die in here, great," Jack said.
"Oh, be calm," User said. "It's nothing."
"Yeah, ominous countdowns are nothing," Jack answered sarcastically.
"Six"
"Five"
so, the door they came from slammed closed. A loud voice echoed ominously in the room: "Fifteen...Fourteen"
"Wait a minute...did that reset it?" Jack demanded
"Thirteen."
"Oh, come on!" Jack cursed.
Jack moved to the device and hit the button. A loud voice echoed ominously in the room: "Fifteen...Fourteen"
"There's no point to this!" Jack said
"Thirteen."
"Come on, just let it finish," User said.
"Twelve."
"Yeah, let's just see what happens," the blue-clad man agreed."
"Eleven."
"Fine, we'll see what happens," Jack huffed.
"Ten."
No one moved towards the device.
"Nine."
"Eight."
"Seven."
"Six."
"Five. Four. Three."
No one moved forward.
"Two."
Everyone watched the device expectantly.
"One."
Both doors slid open.
"Trust," the blue-clad man said with a shrug.
"Yeah, that's hospitality right there," Jack said, glaring at the device. "Giving us a countdown to nothing other than the doors opening."
As the group passed through the second door, User turned back towards the device. Manipulating the nanotech in the air, he caused the device to activate again.
"You jerk!" Jack said, laughing, as the door slid closed behind them and they heard the countdown begin behind them.
The long hallway they found themselves in ended in a door. There was also an open crack of a passage on the right-hand side of the hall, but it looked tight and hard to pass through.
The group passed through the door. They found a room that didn't seem to be very special. There weren't even pictures on the walls.
"Alright, so, cramped tunnel it is," the blue-clad man said.
The crew shuffled their way through the cramped crevice in the wall to find that it opened into a small room. Here, there were three levers on the far wall. One of gold, one of silver, and one of bronze.
"So, does somebody else want to help me pull these levers at the same time?" User asked.
"I was actually thinking the same thing," Jack said.
"Sure," the blue-clad man said.
"I'll take gold," Jack said.
"I'll take silver," User said. "I was going to take gold cause I'm wearing yellow, but whatever."
"Then I'll take the other one," the blue-clad man said.
They pulled the levers simultaneously and heard a rumbling sound from the way they came. They then forced their way back through the narrow path to get to the room they'd come from. In the room at the end of the hall, one of the walls had a portion missing. Through the missing portion was a set of stairs.
"Someone stick their hand in," Sara suggested.
User stuck the lit end of the torch into the hole. It enveloped the light. User pulled the torch back out of the hole to find that it was lit.
Jack lowered his head towards the hole and shouted into it, "USER AND FRIENDS ARE HERE!" Nothing happened. "Well, I tried announcing us again...Am I the only one who is thinking of sticking their hand in the hole?"
"Yes," User said.
"Go for it," the blue-clad man said.
"Let's figure out what happens," Jack said, sticking his hand into the darkness. Feeling around, he felt something stick-like within. "I think I found a lever in here. If I lose a hand...well, I fight with my mind anyway. Here we go guys. Moment of truth. Three. Two. One." He pulled on the stick-like object.
The door slid open.
"Yes," he said. "No death for my hand! Thank goodness it wasn't hot, since User just stuck his torch in there."
The room on the other side of the door still looked like stone, but it wasn't the rough cave-like environment that had been seen through the rest of the structure. Instead it looked like finished and smooth stone of what seemed like a fancy ballroom. The floor was completely open except for one large chair positioned upon a platform made of metal gears.
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wore a bright purple cape with yellow embroidery. He had brown hair sticking up. He turned to face the group, smiling when he saw them. In his hand, he carried a golden staff topped with a blue jewel. His clothes were colorful and in an elegant style-except for the fact that the colors entirely clashed with each other. Shimmering wings unfolded from behind his cape and he rose into the air above them, stretching out his arms as he did so.
"Hello! My name is Feste. I am the harbinger of the calamity."
The Enigmatic Mr. F.
The crew looked up at their mysterious host as he flapped his wings, floating gracefully above them."Okay..." Jack said slowly, unsure of what to make of this newcomer.
Feste's eyes skimmed over the group. His eyes locked onto User and he began, "User! I've been waiting to see you a long time. It's a shame that Eldon couldn't be here with you."
Some of the Toybox crew members had to think longer on it than others, but they all came to remember having seen the name Eldon before. It was one of the names on the screens from the rooms in the Toybox with the dead people.
"I'm sorry that I might not be quite as you don't remember me. Well, not you not remembering me...at least...not directly..." Feste's eyes drifted off for a moment and then snapped to attention gain. "In any case, welcome!"
"So...questions," Jack said, raising a finger with each question he asked. "What's the calamity? How did you know User? And are we the 'friends' that you'd mentioned?"
"Of course," Feste answered.
"Okay," Jack said. "Cool."
"That's one answer," Sara said.
"There was more than one question," the blue-clad man said.
"Oh..." Feste started.
"Sooooo..." User interrupted. "Your message said...actually, I can't remember what your message said." User began rummaging through his pack for the note.
"You are having a whole bunch of remembering problems, aren't you?" Feste asked. "Memories are funny things."
"Just recently," User said, continuing to look through his pack.
"Who was that you said wasn't with us?" Jack asked.
"Eldon," Feste answered simply.
"So..." Jack said. "How did Eldon die? Do you know?"
"There's a lot with my knowledge that's give and take," Feste said.
"I don't have much knowledge to give," Jack answered.
"I have thoughts that there was a dark power that infected, and indeed, still infects your vessel, that destroyed many of those within it."
"Okay..." Jack said.
"Okay, so, aside from that, what's the calamity?" the blue-clad man said.
"Well, there's a person. I guess you could think of her as a writer, of sorts. After all, she is trying to rewrite the universe itself. Her name is Vinka. She...well, she just wants the world to be a different place than it is now. Change the stage! And the results of that are...well, calamitous."
"Okay," Jack said.
Feste drew from within his robes a small wooden cube which he began to idly toss and catch in the air while continuing the conversation.
"Calamitous how?" User asked.
"Entirely," Feste offered simply.
"Calamitous like us losing our memories calamitous?" Jack asked.
"I think the two things are certainly interrelated," Feste answered.
"Okay."
"What would the end result be of her succeeding?" User asked.
"Oh, all the time in the world," Feste answered.
"What?" Clio asked. Not understanding, she figured she might come at it from a different track. "What is Vinka trying to change?"
"Everything," Feste said.
"What is she going to make it be?" Clio said.
"Things," the blue-clad man muttered, under his breath.
"He says it well!" Feste said.
"And how are you involved in all this?" the blue-clad man asked.
"But, of course, it wasn't, cause I'm here now. I was pulled from the void and stationed as many things since then. I was a god, I was an angel-I liked the wings, so I decided to keep them."
"Were you ever an automaton?" User asked.
"I was not an automaton," Feste answered. "That would have been interesting. I have tried to meet with you, User, in many other lives, but it always seems to go afoul."
"Well, you succeed this time," Jack said.
"You've finally met now," Sara inserted.
"It has been a long journey to get here," Feste explained. "However, I don't belong here. I was torn through a rift from the coming calamity, and thrown back through the force of the explosion. So, I brought you here for two reasons. First to ensure I didn't miss yet another opportunity to meet with User. Second, to do what I can to prepare you for the disaster that's approaching.
"Now, there are many paths before you. Of course, you don't remember any of them..."
"Do any of them lead to us getting back memory of them?" Jack asked.
"Perchance," Feste answered.
"Do you know any of the rest of us?" the blue-clad man asked.
"Depends on how you define 'know,'" Feste answered. "I've not met any of the rest of you, but I know many things."
"I mean, you knew User, without having met him," Jack said.
"It's true," Feste answered.
"So, what about this one?" Jack asked, gesturing towards Sara. "What's her name?"
"I don't know."
"Okay."
"And he still calls him User," Sara pointed out.
"Yeah," Jack admitted. "Wait, how'd you know he was called User? How have you been watching us?"
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am also saddened that the one who calls himself
"Yeah, if only we knew some way to open and close this as we desire," User said, drawing out the Toybox."
"That's where we think he is," Jack explained.
"I have no doubt about that," Feste agreed. "A Toybox is a very powerful and hard to control tool."
"There could be," Feste shrugged.
"Is this reward for him something that you can leave with us that we can give to him, or does he need to collect it in person?"
"I could leave it with one of you if you could assure that it would get to him," Feste said.
"We can at least attempt it at best we can," the blue-clad man said. "In any case, if whoever's holding it gets put back in the Toybox, we can leave it in his room for him."
Feste reached into his tunic and drew out a metal automaton shaped like a winged insect. The lower part of its body came to a sharp point.
"I'll take it for him," the blue-clad man said.
Feste handed it off to him.
"Why did you want to meet user?" Clio asked.
"Because I've been trying for a very long time," Feste answered.
"Why?" the blue-clad man pressed.
"Cause he wanted to meet him," Jack offered.
"Because I wanted to meet him," Feste answered.
"Because we have a past," User said.
"Yeah," Feste agreed.
"If you remembered your friends, would you not want to see them again?" User asked.
"Yeah, if I remembered my friends," Jack said.
"Yes, but he's never met you, he said," the blue-clad man persisted. "So, how friendly can you really be?"
"Of course I've met User!"
"I thought you said you hadn't."
"In past lives..." Jack recollected.
"In worlds far from this one," Feste supplied.
"Well, was there anything else, Feste?" User asked.
"Yes!" Feste said. "As I said, I wished to aid you in surviving the coming calamity."
"Is it possible to stop it, not just survive through it?" the blue-clad man asked. "I mean, I'm good with surviving, but..."
"Preventing is also surviving," Jack said.
"Only you can prevent the calamity!" Sara said, in imitation of some long-gone catch phrase.
"I am a result of the calamity," Feste explained. "So, for me, the calamity has already happened. This seems to imply an inevitability, but it is an event that is not yet occurred. Therefore, there is a fluidity to the inevitable."
"I'm getting a relativity headache," the blue-clad man said.
"Okay, so, if fluidity is inevitable...no...I'm thinking too hard," Jack said.
"So, basically, we don't know. Yes, we might be able to stop it, but we also might not be able to," the blue-clad man summed up.
"Sounds mutable," Jack said.
"So, how do you wish to help us?" User asked.
"Is this safe place just like somewhere else outside of...like, kindof where you came from?" the blue-clad man asked. "Outside of the...world, if you will?"
"In a sense, yes."
"How would we get there?"
"I would take you there."
"And can you do that, whenever?" the blue-clad man continued.
"If you can find me again later, I can take you there later," Feste answered.
"Will you be here?" Jack asked.
"I'm unsure. I suppose that depends on what the future holds. I will note that once people begin to realize that you are back on the planet, they will begin to look for you. They will try to hunt you down."
"So what did we do to warrant being hunted down?" Jack asked.
"On the one hand, you're enemies of Vinka," Feste said.
"Right, Vinka and her armies," Jack sighed.
"The W.R.E.N.C.H.s are tools," Feste answered.
"Yes, but are they Vinka's tools?" Sara questioned.
"They are tools of long gone eras."
"No one uses wrenches anymore, it's all screwdrivers," Jack mused.
"Why is Vinka angry with us?" the blue-clad man asked. "Have we actually done anything, or..."
Feste looked incredulous. "I mean, this whole thing," he waved his arms about the room, particularly gesturing towards the Toybox crew, "has been about stopping her."
"So we've already tried to stop her once," the blue-clad man stated.
"At least," Clio offered.
"At least," the blue-clad man agreed.
"We must have at least had some impact, if she's trying to hunt us down and stop us, so we must have been on to something," Jack said.
"How can we recognize people who support Vinka, so we can hunt them down first?" Sara asked.
"Those guys," Sara sighed.
"Oh," Jack mused. "Lovely. We've already found one of those."
"Now, I say that they've built an empire, but it's odd in comparison with other nations in that it's not contiguous. Yet it seems that they're able to move between the areas of their dominion without issue. Alal, of course, knows more about this. Or he would, of course, if he could..."
"Remember?" Jack supplied.
"Yes"
"Do you know why we erased the memories?" Clio asked.
"I believe that you erased your memories to stop what would happen if you hadn't," Feste said.
"Sounds like we might have been thinking too hard and overthought ourselves," Jack said.
"You said that the people of the nation could get around?" User said.
"They travel through the void, probably," the blue-clad man said.
"Yeah," User agreed.
"Cause we opened that portal, at the needles, where we found the clock banner," the blue-clad man explained.
"But there's nothing in the void," Feste countered.
"But you were in the void," Jack said. "So, there must be things in the void."
"Touché, touché my good man!"
"Ha!" Jack exclaimed, raising his fist to the air in victory.
"Well then, what if we returned you to the void?" User asked.
"And how would you aim to do that?"
"Well, we know where there is a portal into the void," User said.
"We don't technically know it's the void," the blue-clad man said. "We know it's a realm of darkness."
"I don't believe there is something as simple as a portal into nothingness," Feste said.
"Well, wherever that portal goes, that's how they get around," the blue-clad man said.
"But, one would think, if they moved into nonexistence, they would no longer be able to come out the other side," Feste contended.
"Unless they just use it as a way station and open two portals at the same time," the blue-clad man suggested. "Since it's nothingness, it takes up all the space in between."
"It's possible," Feste said.
"If you move yourself into nonexistence in one place, you could move yourself into existence in another?" Jack suggested, unsurely.
"How? You wouldn't exist to move yourself into existence."
"The same way you were brought out of the void into existence again," User answered.
"Through the calamity, which hasn't happened yet," Feste said. "Which means that they would need to very specifically, in the future, control their actions which affected their past and allowed them to, in the future, take those actions to..."
"The calamity hasn't happened yet, but you are here," User pointed out.
"This is very confused," Jack said.
"Anyways," Clio said with a raised voice, trying to get things back on track.
"How less assuredly could you help us?" User asked.
"Well, I'd sort of been hoping you'd just take me up on the transport thing," Feste admitted. "Well, I am finding my bearings in this world and with the knowledge I do and don't and will and will not have. It's quite a burden to bear, as you must understand."
"Being that you don't exist," Jack said.
"Well, I shouldn't, by any means," Feste answered. "But even when I did exist, knowledge was a bit tricky. You have to understand that I spent many years in the most important role in a kingdom."
"A soldier?" Jack asked.
"No," Feste answered. "No, no, no. I was the court jester."
"Oh," Jack said. Realization dawned on him. "Oooooh. Okay."
"But that world changed, like all the others I've been in, of course," Feste said.
"So, what's making this change a calamity, as opposed to all the others?" Jack asked.
"Well," Feste said, pausing to think a moment. "One could argue that the other changes were calamities. They certainly put an end to the worlds that they were occurring in. Hopefully that doesn't happen with this calamity, even if it occurs."
"So, do we have to be in a specific place for you to take us away?" the blue-clad man asked. "Or can you do that from anywhere?"
"Wherever I, and my tower, am, I can move you to the places that I would take you," Feste said.
"And you can move your tower?"
"Within limits, yes."
"As long as those aren't where Vinka and her armies are going to reach us, I think it sounds safer than where Vinka and her armies are hunting us, on this planet, or this world, or wherever this is that we're considered." Jack said.
"This plan though, it's basically just running away," Clio pointed out. "We're not stopping her."
"Right," Feste said. "Yes, of course."
"We chose to run away in the first place, when we erased our memories, didn't we?" Jack asked.
"Not necessarily," the blue-clad man said.
"That's just because things went foul," User said.
"But how do we un-foul?" Jack asked. "Wouldn't we need our memories back?"
"There are several options with memories," Feste said. "Perhaps you were afraid of what you were going to do with the knowledge you had, but perhaps also, you were afraid someone else might gain the knowledge that you had if you still had it."
"Hmmm..." Jack said, wrinkling his face in thought.
"Okay," the blue-clad man said. "My idea was, if we're going to try and stop this, instead of just leaving now, we could always leave one of the transporters with him. That way, if anything goes wrong, we can find him easily. Then, even if we fail, and we decide that we need to leave, we can at least get to him."
"Feste, this place that you're offering to take us," User said.
"Yes?" Feste asked.
"Would we still be connected to the Toybox there?" User asked.
"Oh yes, of course, I can't do anything about that," Feste said. "The Toybox is far more powerful than I am."
"So..." User said. "We can't just have some of us go."
"You have to understand," Feste explained. "I have great power at my disposal, to whatever degree I can control it, but I am ultimately a servant of the universe. The Toybox you carry with you is a fundamental part of it."
"Have you met the Aeon Priests?" Feste asked.
"I mean, I must have at one point," Jack said, gesturing to the Aeon Priest robes he was wearing.
"It's basically their favorite thing to do," Feste pointed out.
"That's why they exist," User pointed out.
"Okay," Jack accepted. "Are they connected to Vinka and her armies? Or are they an entity we might be able to trust?"
"I have only been in the world a short time," Feste said. "However, it is my assessment that the Aeon Priests, at their core of intention, are aligned with good and truth. However, as with any collection of individuals, there are those that are not necessarily in line with the core of the organization."
"Okay," the blue-clad man said. "So maybe. A firm maybe."
"And, of course, in any large clave, you'll find that there are snakes," Feste said.
"Well, they better not be here," Jack said, checking his sleeves. He didn't find any snakes there.
"Do you know why we're connected to the Toybox?" Clio asked.
"Like I said, this is all about stopping Vinka," Feste said. "That was the reason for the choice that was made. Or, choices, since there are many of you."
"So, it seems like we were the ones chosen to stop her," the blue-clad man said. "That's why we're all linked to the Toybox."
"More like we volunteered," User said.
"It's possible," the blue-clad man acknowledged.
"If we just run away and let the calamity happen and then come back later to pick up the pieces, how will that help?" Jack asked. "We can at least dodge the calamity, but then what?"
"You will be alive," Feste offered.
"Yes, but if we erased our memories to stop the calamity in the first place, shouldn't we continue trying to stop the calamity?" Jack asked.
"What happens to us if we don't stop the calamity?" User asked.
"It's hard to predict these things," Feste answered.
"What happens if we stop the calamity?" User asked.
"Then, of course, I never would have helped you," Feste said.
"So then, we wouldn't have," Jack said. "And then..."
"That's not what I was asking," User cut in.
"If the calamity is stopped, then the calamity never occurs," Feste said. "Which means the effects of it will not destroy the universe or otherwise change it."
"Okay, so if we stop the calamity, then you don't exist and things break." Jack said. "If we do stop the calamity, things might not be here, and they'll probably be broken, but you'll be alive."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the universe will break if I go away. I was never meant to be here to begin with."
"So are you okay with not being here then?" Jack asked.
"That is the choice I made, but I am here, nonetheless," Feste said.
"Okay. Because I don't want to make you not exist if you want to exist again."
"I have lived for a very long time," Feste explained. "When I lived, that is. I chose to give up the amulet of immortality, and I chose to leave this life."
"Do you regret that choice?"
"No."
"Well, then if he chose not to exist and ended up existing again..." Jack said. "He's making non-committal ways of saying he doesn't mind not exist again. This is so confusing."
"Yeah," Sara agreed.
"Morals and time continuum should not have to cross," Jack said.
"So, if we decide we don't want to run away and we do want to stop her, if that's possible, how do we go about that?" Clio said.
"Okay," Feste sighed. "Well, the first thing I find with any challenge is to understand it. Of course, you're running at a little bit of a deficit here since any understanding of it you used to have, you no longer have. In fact, I've probably already told you more about this situation than you knew, you know, before coming here. And, I've only been here a few weeks, so... So, if you decide to go after Vinka and stopping her, then there are two trains that I think are important. First I think is figuring out who you are and why you lost your memories and second is figuring out what Vinka is up to. Then, again, stopping her."
"Sorry to derail," Jack said, bringing out a rolled up scroll. "But does this mean anything to you?"
Feste took the scroll and looked it over. He set it down on the edge of the chair. He took the cube he'd been throwing in the air and rolled it across the paper. He picked the cube back up. He took the paper and looked it over, front and back. He handed it back to Jack.
"It's a flyer," Feste said. "It wants you to buy...some sort of fried meat."
"Well...that's...do you know why the letters tend to materialize and pop off?" Jack asked.
"You know, advertising scheme," Feste said with a shrug.
"That sounds really important," Sara said. "You should hold on to that."
"Okay," Jack said, looking at it. "Why would I hold on to this?"
"Maybe you didn't know what it was," Feste said.
"Well, obviously," Jack answered. "Well, why not keep holding on to it."
"Another derailed question," Clio said. "Do you know who Koloman is?"
"I don't know who that is," Feste said, looking down at his sleeve. He shook his sleeve and pulled out a pendant on a chain. His eyes grew wide in surprise.
"That doesn't happen to be the Amulet of Immortality, does it?" Jack asked.
"You know," Feste said, his eyes scanning over the Toybox crew that stood before him. "I reckon it might be. Do any of you know where this came from?"
"I mean, I wish I could say I just stuck it in there," Jack said. "But I'm not a magician. I'm a telepath, but not a magician."
"Aren't those kindof the same thing?" the blue-clad man asked.
"Magicians can do card tricks," Jack explained. "I can fry your brain. Why would we know how that amulet got in your sleeve?"
"You had the Amulet of Immortality before," the blue-clad man said. "Could it have just come back with you? What did you do with it when you got rid of it?"
"Put it someplace that I couldn't get to it again," Feste answered.
"Technically, now you're somewhere that you shouldn't be able to come back from," the blue-clad man pointed out.
"It's fair," Feste admitted.
"You didn't put it in the void, did you?" Jack asked.
"No, of course not," Feste said. "There was someone else who wanted it, and I was fine with them having it at the time. Therefore, I put it someplace where I figured they might get to it after I left. That is not...it doesn't matter what happened with that. What matters is that it's here now. If I didn't bring it back, which, I don't believe I did, that means that someone else did. Which would imply that I'm not the only thing that's come out of the calamity so far. Which is...worrying, but...that's no matter!"
"Well, if multiple things have come out of this calamity, which is entirely possible since you weren't supposed to in the first place," Jack said. "There's no theoretical limit on what can come out of the calamity."
"Yes, but other things might not be so public," the blue-clad man said.
"It's true," Feste agreed.
"Maybe that's why you came out in the first place," Jack theorized. "Because Vinka and her armies had done whatever they done, and in trying to pull out whatever they wanted to pull out, you got pulled out along with your amulet that you shouldn't have, into an existence that you shouldn't be in."
"I'm imagining, and I could be wrong about this, that Vinka imagines that whatever effect of the calamity she wishes to procure, will occur after the point in time in which the calamity will happen. I don't think she expects me, or anyone else, to be here. Of course, I could be wrong, I've not talked with her about it. I don't know how civil that conversation would be."
"So things are possibly happening backwards from what she expects," the blue-clad man said.
"So that means we have the element of surprise," Jack said. "We should attack now."
Sara laughed.
"If you would like to march into Vinka's palace and oppose the fullness of her armies, I will provide whatever help I can in tracking down such a location."
"I doubt she has the fullness of her armies all in one spot," Jack said. "They're probably all scattered across..."
"Remember, they seem to be able to move about without hindrance," the blue-clad man reminded. "They could always gather and pop up all at once."
"Well that would be very inconvenient!" Jack exclaimed. "Then they'd be all on top of each other and they couldn't defend very well."
"You said that we need to figure out what she's doing," Clio said. "Any ideas where to start on that?"
"Well," Feste said. "I would look at places that we know she is or has been. Places where she would put up a stronghold seem to be places near things that she would want. Presumably she is collecting things that she needs to make the calamity occur. Unless, of course, she has everything she needs, in which case it's just a matter of putting everything together."
"Like the Band of Enigmas," the blue-clad man suggested.
"Certainly," Feste agreed. "The Band of Enigmas would be an excellent example of something that would be good not to let her get her hands on."
"What is it?" Clio asked.
"The Band of Enigmas is a mysterious device that causes mysterious things to happen," Feste said. "It's really all a big mystery. Something of a circular mystery. But it's not really one mystery, it's more like a collection of mysteries."
"So we don't know," the blue-clad man said.
"So it's like many mysteries banded together," Jack offered.
"Yeah."
"So, how you got here's a mystery. Do you think that maybe that's how you got here?" Jack asked.
"No, no, I think that's unlikely. However, if she has, or will have the Band of Enigmas, it could be that the Band of Enigmas will have played a roll in my coming here."
"So, a firm maybe," Jack said.
"So, yes, I think it would be very very good for you to get your hands on the Band of Enigmas, especially if you can do it before Vinka does. I also think it would be a very bad idea for you to go to Yrkallak Tower."
"Why?" Clio asked.
"I believe that the only thing that awaits you there is death and destruction."
"Is that not where the Band of Enigmas is?" User asked.
"Oh, I'm certain it is," Feste said.
"So, we either go there, where we will face death and destruction," Jack started. "We've faced death and destruction before and we've come out alive, so can either face it again and possibly come out alive and prevent Vinka from getting a thing, possibly prevent, because she might have already got it. But no, he's certain that it's there, so we can hopefully prevent. Cause he's not been certain about everything, but that one he was certain about, so I say that's a key that says 'it's a good idea to go get it!'"
"I am certain of many things," Feste said. "Some of which are true."
"Oh boy," Jack said. "Well..."
"Well, at the moment, it's the only idea we've got, unless you've got a better one," the blue-clad man said.
"Would you be able to use the Band of Enigmas for anything, if we were to bring it back here?" Jack asked.
"I could probably find a use for it," Feste said with a shrug. "Sure."
"Yeeeeeeah," User cut in. "I don't think we need to be giving him the Band of Enigmas. No offence."
"What are we going to do with it?" Jack asked. "Other than keep it away from Vinka?"
"An O Fence would be really great," Feste mused. "Because it could go around the tower in a perimeter. It would be good. Yes, I agree that you can bring me an O Fence. I accept your offer."
"In your past life were you the god of puns?" Clio asked.
"No."
"You should have been."
"I was actually the god of gnomes," Feste said. "It was a fun story. Now then, if you insist on going to Yrkallak tower, despite my objections, I will say that you can all spend the night here. Also, I have one potion that may be of use to you. Of course, it's one and there's several of you."
"And it only may be of use," the blue-clad man pointed out.
"Yeah," Feste agreed.
"What does it do?" Clio asked.
"Oh, it's helpful when you go to the tower," Feste said.
"So it's not a potion that can bring our memories back," User said.
"Oh, no, I can't do that," Feste said. "Remember, the Toybox is more powerful than I am."
"So we used the Toybox to remove our memories," the blue-clad man said.
"Yes!" Feste said. "I believe so. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. Which means that, if you wish to get your memories back, you'll either need to somehow figure out how to get that function of the Toybox functional again, or you'll need something that is equally an element of the universe and therefore able to affect the universe in fundamental ways, such as the Toybox is capable of."
"Like the calamity," User said.
"For example, yes."
"Is the Band of Enigmas anywhere near that same level?" Jack asked.
"No," User answered for Feste.
"I can hope!" Jack protested.
"It's probably on the same level as that Amulet of Immortality," User said.
Feste sighed. "Yeah, the Amulet of Immortality."
"You really don't know how that got up in your sleeve even?" Jack asked.
"Nope!" Feste answered.
"And you didn't notice it until now?" Jack asked.
"It's true."
"I mean, how long have you been in this tower?"
"Weeks," User repeated.
"Yeah, I've been planetside for a few weeks," Feste agreed.
"Where did you come from?" the blue-clad man asked.
"Probably the same place we were when the thing crashed," Jack said.
"Outside," Feste answered.
"Outside of the planet?" the blue-clad man asked.
"Yeah," Feste answered.
"I'm still wondering how he just noticed it now," Jack said. "Have you changed clothes at any time in the last few weeks?"
"A gentleman, of course, has many different outfits."
"So that may have only come into existence within this conversation," Jack pointed out.
"Well that was my thought," the blue-clad man said. "He apparently just tossed into being somewhere in space, apparently. But does this mean that things are going to randomly keep showing up?"
"It's possible," Jack said.
"There's a distinct difference between a living essence and an item that's infused with...you would say 'nanotech,' and it seems to me that the rules of the universe apply differently to a living essence, such as myself, than they would to an item infused with nanotech, such as the Amulet of Immortality."
"An amulet that prolongs indefinitely an essence of life," Jack said.
"For instance," Feste continued, as though he hadn't heard Jack at all. "Because I had my staff with me when I left, I have it with me now that I've come back. So, it seems to me that if someone or something that was alive had the Amulet with them when they left, then it could be with them when they came back. But it doesn't seem likely to me that the Amulet, of it's own volition, could have come back, especially not coming back to me as I severed all ties with it."
"Do you know who had it after you?" the blue-clad man asked.
"So far as I was aware, no one had it after me."
"If no one had it after you, then you would have been the last person who had it. So, would it not come back to you, if it was going to come back?"
"It shouldn't have come back at all."
"Neither should you," User said.
"You said you left it for someone, who'd you leave it for?" Clio asked.
"There was a young woman who, like my younger self, was interested in pursuing immortality. I believed that it would not do her well, but I believed that finding the amulet might teach her that."
"Does she have a name?" Clio asked.
"The name that comes the most to mind is Snorria," Feste said, his eyes glazed over.
"Hey, that's a name I recognize," Jack said, thinking of the word on the ship in the room with the dead young woman. "Yeah. She dead."
"One might say she was never alive to begin with," Feste said.
"So we were just traveling with a dead body the whole time?" the blue-clad man asked. "That's comforting. Wait, if that's her...if he came from a completely different realm, then how did..."
"He had also been looking for User, in his other realm," Jack pointed out. "I think we all might have come from this other realm."
"Or different other realms," Sara offered.
"I think that User and the rest of you have your history in this world," Feste said. "I think it would be a wrong track to be looking down other worlds. I think that my past with User or Snorria or Eldon is not particularly valuable to your solving the riddles of the calamity. They are, perhaps, something that we can talk about more when I've collected myself moreso."
"Collected yourself and either ceased existing because you didn't exist or..."
"If we succeed in stopping the calamity, do you just cease to exist immediately?" the blue-clad man asked. "Otherwise this might be the only chance we get to ask these questions."
"No, no, no, I wouldn't cease to exist 'immediately,'" Feste said. "I would cease to exist about three weeks before this point in time."
"And you'd never have existed," User said.
"I think if there's nothing else, then we should go and face our destiny," User said.
"There's like ten thousand other things," Jack grumbled. "But we're going in circles."
"Yes, yes, of course," Feste said. "As I said, if you'd like, you can stay the night. Then you can head out refreshed in the morning."
"That sounds like a plan," Jack said.
Feste gestured towards a door on the side of the room. They hadn't noticed the door before. In fact, they might have sworn that there hadn't been one there previously.
The Next Morning
The crew of the Toybox each slept the most relaxing sleep that they'd experienced since waking on the Toybox without their memories. When the woke in the morning and came out into the great hall, they found that Feste had laid out a magnificent breakfast for them, served upon a long, and immensely heavy-looking, stone table. A table that hadn't been there the night before."Who are the people in the 'faith' room downstairs?" Jack asked as they ate. "That's the room with the seven individuals."
"Yes, yes, of course," Feste answered. "They are...I mentioned earlier that I am a servant of the universe. They might be representatives of the universe that I serve."
"The universe is a person?" the blue-clad man asked.
"What about the pictures in the 'trust' room?" Clio asked.
"Oh, those are representations of my friends."
"Your friends had a Toybox?" Jack asked.
"No, that's you," Feste said. "You guys are my friends."
Before they left, Feste took out a potion vial. He tipped his staff to it and it filled with blue liquid.
"Who wants this?" he asked.
"What does it do again?" the blue-clad man asked.
"It'll be helpful if you go to Yrkallak Tower," Feste answered.
"Okay, I'll take the potion," the blue-clad man said. Feste handed it to him.
When they had eaten and were ready to leave, Feste led them to another door in the ballroom. Another door that they would have sworn hadn't been there the night before.
"Honestly, I don't know why you didn't take this way up," Feste said. "Far less trouble than trying to go up through the caves below."
The door led to a set of stairs that led them down and out of Morio Tower.
Before they left, User said to Feste, "I'm wish I was of better personality to enjoy your presence again, and I'm sorry when we fail to stop the calamity."
"Well," Feste said. "Hopefully I will see you again in this life, and we can continue to work on that."
"You're sorry we're failing..." Jack stammered as the group walked away. "Never mind."
"He's here," User said. "Clearly we've already failed to stop the calamity."
Jack just shrugged and accepted it.
The Four Trees¹
Late afternoon, the group came upon a clearing in the woods. This clearing had within it four trees-equally spaced around it. Not relatively equally spaced-exactly equally spaced.
"Very purposefully placed trees," Jack mused.
In the center of the clearing were the ruins of the foundations of two small buildings-long since gone.
One of the trees was very tall. Water poured out from its base at a steady pace, forming a stream that wound away into the forest. One of the trees had a red tint to it. Another tree was thick-of a greater width than the others. The final tree consisted of many tangled and twining branches woven together. Visible within the knots of the tree were three metal objects-either being held by the branches or crafted into them by design.
Jack moved towards the tree with the metal objects.
"You're going to get attacked by a tree," the blue-clad man warned as Jack moved towards it.
"I hope not," Jack said. "Other than the fact that it seems to be either graft around or grasping these spikes..."
"If it's grabbing them, that sounds like attacked by a tree," the blue-clad man pointed out.
"Oh, come on, if any of them are going to attack us, it's the one with the stream," Jack argued, continuing to move forward towards the tree. "I think that the trio of devices in the tree are each their own machine. I think one of them might have caused the tree to form this way. Another one seems to be giving off an active nanotech aura."
He continued to look at the device, analyzing it and calling upon all his knowledge of the nanotech.
"I think that the aura does something to keep things from changing," he said. "Among its effects might be keeping food from spoiling. It's like some sort of selective stasis inducer."
"I have one of those," User said.
"You have one of those?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I've got a...like a sleep pod," User said. "It's large enough to hold a human sized creature. Anything that fits into the container doesn't experience time passing for nine years."
"Well, I think this thing here," Jack said, gesturing towards the device. "Is what's keeping the trees the way they are. At least, that's my best guess. Do you think we should leave things the way they are?"
"We have no reason to mess with them," the blue-clad man pointed out.
"If things are going to stay the way they are here, it seems like it could be a safe place to set up camp," Jack said. "And there's fresh water here."
Sara went over to the water and looked at it. "Yeah, I think this is probably drinkable." Clio looked down at the water and confirmed this assumption.
Clio moved towards the red tinted tree. She found that it was giving off a lot of heat. She realized that it would probably hurt if she touched it. As she drew near, she had a strange sensation like a memory.
"I think that there might be people who see this place as spiritually significant," Clio said, trying to grasp at the sense of memory, but failing to catch it.
"Maybe we shouldn't camp at a spiritually significant site," the blue-clad man suggested. "That's a good way to get people to try to kill you."
"Or, if we're just found in it, maybe they'll think we're gods," Jack suggested, smiling.
Jack moved towards the remaining tree: the wider one of the four. He stuck his finger towards the tree and felt a light feeling of air around his finger as his finger got next to it.
The group decided to set up camp at the edge of the clearing, rather than within it. They established a watch, but experienced no intrusion in the night.
The Camp
The next morning, as they progressed, they could see a mountain off in the distance. The edge of the range would have been in the way of the path to Yrkallak tower, but because it was just the edge, the party decided take a route that went around the mountains, rather than taking the time to go over them.As the crew approached the edge of the woods, they saw plains stretching out away from the woods. Near the edge of the plains was a collection of about 20 tents. In the center of the camp was a large pole. Atop the pole was a large banner that looked like a golden clock.
"Fantastic," Sara sighed.
User pulled the banner out of his bag and held it up, looking at the one over the camp. "I think these look the same."
Episode Summary
- The Crew of the Toybox enters Morio Tower
- They find many paintings (portraits in a room from a hall labeled "Faith" and paintings of larger scenes from a hall labeled "Trust")
- Progressing down a path called "Hospitality," the crew faced several puzzles of a non-damaging nature.
- Finally, the crew met their host, the mysterious Mr. F-a short winged being named Feste.
- Feste tells them many things, including, but not limited to:
- He is the result of an event yet to happen called the calamity.
- The calamity is being orchestrated by Vinka.
- Feste offers to take the crew to somewhere outside the bounds of the world, where they will be safe from the calamity. The crew declines.
- Vinka has an empire that is spread between different locations, but which has the ability to move between the locations with ease.
- Vinka is collecting and/or assembling objects needed for the calamity; If the crew wants to stop her, they need to stop her from getting these objects.
- The Band of Enigmas is one of these objects, but Feste warns that only death and destruction await the crew at Yrkallak Tower.
- Feste grants the crew a potion that will be useful if they go to Yrkallak Tower.
- Feste finds the Amulet of Immortality has been returned to him-he believes that this is an indication someone else has come through from the calamity
- The crew discovers a strange clearing with four odd trees. Clio believes that there are people who hold this clearing to have spiritual/religious significance.
- The crew comes upon a camp bearing Vinka's banner.
If you want to start the story from the beginning, check out the first episode.
To continue the story, go to the next episode: Episode 107: "Welcome Home".
If you want to see what happened immediately previously, check out the previous episode.
For more information on the Toybox Campaign, check out the Toybox Homepage.
¹For more information on the four trees in the official Numenera setting, check out the Ninth World Guidebook, pg 105.
Numenera, The Strange, the Cypher System, and their respective logos are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC. Content derived from Monte Cook Games publications is © 2013-2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC.
To continue the story, go to the next episode: Episode 107: "Welcome Home".
If you want to see what happened immediately previously, check out the previous episode.
For more information on the Toybox Campaign, check out the Toybox Homepage.
¹For more information on the four trees in the official Numenera setting, check out the Ninth World Guidebook, pg 105.
Sounds like the story is really getting good! I laughed out loud at the "Mr. F." I always appreciate your references to shows and movies during RPGs, even if my Beauty and the Beast ones got a little old... I still hope to be able to play a LeFou some day. ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, "Mr. F" was, at one point, supposed to return in a similar fashion during the Strange campaign that you were a part of. I'd done it that way largely because I knew that You/Brandon would get a laugh out of it. But, oh well.
DeleteIn any case, Feste has now returned to us, and that is always fun.
I'm not sure what sort of character LeFou would be. I'm sure that in some 'player-defined-attributes' game like The Puddle or Over The Edge, one could come up with attributes for him, but I think I'd have a hard time figuring out how to stat him out as a useful player character in most systems.