IC: Ch 6c: Together at the Museum

[DrPeterson]

Ben,No problem, Ben, just post in this thread and it'll pop up in my feed.

[Papa Gateau]

Ok Michael let's get back to that house. Catch ya later Harry. He turns to Ms. Patton "Ms. Patton"

[BenTheRat]

"Take care boys," Ms. Patton says.
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OOC:   Michael and Sonny go here.

[BenTheRat]

Translations are tough going for you and slow, but the more you do it the pace picks up a bit.
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So far you are able to determine the real name of this tome is the 'Book of Eibon' an alchemist and wizard of Hyperborea. A very strange and wondrous place. An island somewhere centered between the 2 great continents until is was swallowed by the waters and covered in ice.
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Harrison,Sorry this is taking a long time, they are really taking their time in the other thread. I've spent the last day seeing nothing but posts of 'we should do this', 'yes we should'. So I'm moving them along now.

[DrPeterson]

Harrison keeps working on the translation, finding great elation in unlocking its secrets.

OOC:,No worries, mate, plenty of games going on here, and working on translations is a rather time consuming activity.

[BenTheRat]

Everything you read in the book is difficult to get through because you are missing whole passages and parts of words here and there.
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You read a story about Eibon travelling to a part of the underworld called the Vale of Pnath. A vast pit flanked by the Peaks of Thok. Heaps of bones the sizes of mountains liter the plane. The bones were the refuse piles for ghouls. The story describes how Eibon faced off against a massive worm creature called a Dhole. Only by a <spell you cannot make out the name> allowed him to wound the creature and escape and catch a ride from a <xxx> back to Earth and Hyperboia.

[DrPeterson]

Harrison sketches a impromptu map of Eibon's travels, shorthanding the rest of his adventures as he reads on, eagerly, but ever so slowly.

His cup of coffee has grown cold several times over and more than one cigarette has burnt down to the butt, unsmoked in the ashtray.

[BenTheRat]

After several hours of study and translations you come up with the following. If you want more specifics on anything in particular, you can study a specific section, later.

Harrison,Liber Ivonis by Caius Phillipus Faber (written in Latin) tr. The Book of Ivon Copied from The Book of Eibon Skimming will give you the following: Ch 1: Eibon was an alchemist and wizard of Hyperborea. A very strange and wondrous place. An island somewhere centered between the 2 great continents until is was swallowed by the waters and covered in ice. The rest of Ch 1 is destroyed and illegible. Ch 2: a story about Eibon travelling to a part of the underworld called the Vale of Pnath. A vast pit flanked by the Peaks of Thok. Heaps of bones the sizes of mountains liter the plane. The bones were the refuse piles for ghouls. The story describes how Eibon faced off against a massive worm creature called a Dhole. Only by a <spell you cannot make out the name> allowed him to wound the creature and escape and catch a ride from a <xxx> back to Earth and Hyperboia. The spells which are listed are both destroyed and useless. Ch 3: Eibon travels through a portal to a panet called Shaggai, inhabited by a race called the Shan. The planet orbited 2 green suns. The rest is pretty useless. Ch 4: Eibon's home kingdom of Hyperborea was invaded by a horde of savages. After the savages slew 1000 of Hyperborea's best soldiers the king begged Eibon to help. He agreed at the cost of 20 virgins and gold equal to the weight of the dead soldiers. The king agreed and gave him the 20 virgins. Eibon sacrificed the virgins while casting the spell 'Dei Scutum' which is legible. He then fought single handedly through the savages suffering 1000 times 1000 sword blows without feeling a scratch while slaying the hordes with only a dagger, until he came upon the savage king and slew him. The remainder savages fled. Ch 5: A continuation of Ch 4. When Eibon went to collect his gold, the king refused the 200 thousand pounds of gold. Eibon slew the king and all his body guards and took his payment from the king's treasury. When Hyperborea tried to king him Eibon laughed and asked why he would want to be saddled with such a burden. Ch 6: Destroyed. Ch 7: Talks about the the Great Race the Yithians, who switch bodies with people and creatures throughout time and space using a spell called 'Commercium Animae'. Eibon helped them increasing the size of their massive library. The spell is mostly legible. Ch 8: Eibon talks about his veneration rituals of Zhothaqquah, which appears to be his diety of choice. He is an Old One also called the Sleeper of N'kai. He was very squat and pot-bellied, his head was more like a monstrous toad than a deity, and his whole body was covered with an imitation of short fur, giving somehow a vague sensation of both the bat and the sloth. His sleepy lids were half-lowered over his globular eyes; and the tip of a queer tongue issued from his fat mouth. He also speaks of a spell blessed to him by Zhothaqquah called 'et Arescet' that he used to slay several horrid beasts. Ch 9: Is a rather strange poetry example using very archaic language. The name is 'The Coming of the White Worm' that describes a creature that kidnaps a collection of wizards and warlocks. The end is burnt off. Ch 10-12: are also burnt. Ch 13: Eibon has started talking about hiself in the 3rd person. You can see there appears to be large gaps in time several years between entries. He talks of infiltrating a cult. The cult used an ancient artifact known as the "Shining Trapezohedron" to summon a terrible being from the depths of time and space. He was able to defeat the creature by countering his spells using a melody that cancelled its harmonic casting. Ch 14: Another cult would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an avatar of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal. Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area. Ch 15-18: Appears to be water damaged to the point of being illegible. Ch 19: Several hundred years have passed since the beginning of this book. Eibon seems to be depressed and rambling on about not being able to die. Sleeping is his only respite from the nightmares of the real world. Ch 20: This chapter is also badly damaged but you can make out that Eibon has found a way to counter <damaged>. The rest of the chapter is damaged. Ch 21: Eibon talks of being mortally wounded by an arrow while facing off mongrels off planet. That is the last entry in the book.

[DrPeterson]

Harrison leans back, having skimmed through the book for the first time. He stands up to stretch his legs and goes to get a fresh coffee and something to eat, but halfway across the room he stops. He returns to the desk and carefully opens the book again, making his way to chapter 8. The reference to that weird deity has him intrigued. He'd need to check out chapter 14 too, that strange cult with the skeletons sounded too familiar...

[BenTheRat]

Harrison rubs his eyes and looks up. Nightfall has easily fallen. Ms. Patton has fixed you some soup and a sandwich which sit by cold. There is one bite take out of the breaded meat, but your not sure it was even you. What time was it? You hear the clatter of the typewriter in the next room over. She must have moved into there at one point to work. The clock says 6 pm. You've been at this for 4 hours.
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You were so engrossed in the translations themselves, more worried about successfully deriving each word, and not so much on the context of a passage. Trying to get the gist of a chapter before moving onto the next. You know you skimmed over or skipped over 80% of the text. Still as you think back on what it is you have read the enormity starts to set in. Is this just fiction, the ramblings of some mad man who had too much time on his hands. Could these places be real, the spells that were complete could be seen blurred and phased like they were there, but not firmly.
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If you had read this alone last week, you might have scoffed at it as nothing more than the delusional spinning of some drug induced rants. But the details were so great, the feel and age of the book, what happened last night at the chapel? Can one so easily dismiss the writing within?
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Harrison,you'll need to make a sanity check to continue, 1d2/1d6 and add +5 to your Cthulhu mythos.

[DrPeterson]

Sanity 48%,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4315518/]Harrison rolls sanity 48% (1d100=72)[/url]

Sanity Damage,That could have been worse :D [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4315519/]Sanity Damage (1d6=1)[/url]

Harrison shakes his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. He didn't know what they'd landed in, but it all seemed so unreal. No, that wasn't it. If what was written here was true, then the world humanity knew was so small, so veiled. True reality was endless and understanding it all would grant more pow..more inspiration.

What he'd read here and what they'd experienced had already given him material for enough novels for the rest of his days. The rest of my days...Eibon seemed to be able to extend his days by a...No no, surely that's all fictionalised. if only there was a way to find out...

He looked at the largely untouched meal and felt only the hunger of his mind.
Maybe if he could try one of those spells, if they worked they would add veracity to the tale...

Ben:,[b]Harrison [/b]is going to try and learn the one [b]Eibon [/b]used in Chapter 8 to combat the creatures.

[BenTheRat]

Harrison,The spell does not look too difficult, but the translations for everything could take a few hours. You will then need to study it to make sure you understand it well. Possibly an all nighter.

[DrPeterson]

Ben:,I think it's safe to say that Harry is absorbed enough in the matter to go for it.

[BenTheRat]

As Harrison begins his preparation to learn a spell, Ms. Patton walks in and says, "Ms. Jordie is on the phone from the home in question. They want to know if you will join them?"

[DrPeterson]

Harrison looks up from his work, not too pleased by the disruption.

"Wha-...They're phoning from the house? That's odd.
Is something going on?"

His brow knits together in a mournful look at the book and his notes and all the work he still has to do, all the knowledge he still has to mine from every single word.

"I-uh, I..Just let me finish this little bit here and tell them i'll be on my way."

OOC,I'll be out of town for a couple of days and I don't want to drag the game down to a standstill in my absence. Is it okay if I drop you a line when I'm back and see if I join them up then?

[BenTheRat]

ooc,its only about 6:30 in game time, so you just barely got started on the spell. I haven't heard exactly what they are asking, but she will probably explain, they have had more strange happenings in the house and are about to try and go in what they think is the door to the basement. It had 3 deadbolts and a lock on it. They are discussing bashing the door in. They want to know if you want to join them for this? 1. So if you go now to join them, that is fine, but you will not have learned anything of the spell you are working on. 2. Or you can stay and work on the spell, it should be an all nighter, I'll probably make you roll at some point to see if you pick it up quickly (8 hours), normal (12 hours) or longer than nomral (16 hours). 3. Or you can run to the house for this part, and then hope to come back and start again. I can guarantee you they will not finish the adventure without you, if you do not go to the house now. What they are doing is not the end game, if that makes sense. If you let me know what you want to do, and I can NPC you while you are out.

[DrPeterson]

OOC:,Unless they say it is of the utmost urgency, Harrison will stay at the museum, saying he's onto something important that could help them break the riddle. Given his fascination for the content of the book, he'll only go if their lives are at stake. And especially since it's not the end game yet :) I quite fancy him going loopy from this spell :D

[BenTheRat]

The studying is not easy but you are making progress.
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OOC:   I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you. They are taking a long time to do anything in the other thread. Time is going by but not a ton.

[DrPeterson]

OOC:   No worries, studying takes time

[BenTheRat]

Ms. Patton walks into the room, "I'm sorry to bother you sir, but Ms. Jordie is on the phone for you?"