The Eye of Anubis: Book Eleven

[Kaitou Kage]

"If only indeed," Kuzan murmured back to Harris, "He'll never be completely gone. Even if he's no longer manifest in my head, he's still present in the form of temptation. I'll never be able to be rid of that, but I can maintain the willpower to deny that temptation."

"No," Kuzan admitted after Lia responded to his dark half, "Kali has always been there, and she always will be. The Black Mother is as much a part of my faith as Lords Varuna and Garuda, to whom I've sworn service. Even if I don't worship her directly, I accept her existence and her purpose in the Eternal Cycle."

"But that doesn't mean I need her power. Choices define us and I've chosen. I've chosen not to call on her. I've chosen to give my vows to other gods, to draw strength from them in exchange for my worship. Destruction does not need to come from the Black Mother. Lord Varuna's waves and Lord Garuda's winds cause destruction, too."

Kuzan smiled a little. "It's almost flattering to know that any of the gods would accept my worship and hand me their power in exchange. But I better not let that get to my head. They are gods and they'd smite me if I got presumptuous. In any case, I have chosen, and I chose before I even encountered you here. And my choice does not include you."

"Besides, look at you, yelling at Lia like that. Welcome to last month! Lia and I made nice and I don't even feel the urge to smack her anymore! Sure, she still grates sometimes, but it's easier to deal with now. You really should get a grip."

Kuzan shrugged. "Like I said, I made my choice. And I choose not to take your path. I'll follow my way, and you are not my way."

[Isabella]

The Tomb of Menetnashte
August 29th, 761, 9:37 AM; Day 165 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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"As for my never shutting up? True. I don't. And I won't. Those who do not speak are not heard."

"How noble," the tulpa laughed, narrowing its eyes. "Maybe that would be worth something if you had anything worth saying. But you talk too much to bother listening."

"Harangued?" The tulpa scoffed. "Stop projecting, Lia. You call it that because you can't manage anything else. You've never even seen me before, you've never heard a word I've spoken. You just assume the worst because you don't like me, so just like a spoiled child, you say anything bad about me whether or not it's true. You say I know nothing of you, and in the next breath try and tell me my own motives and methods. Maybe it would have been better if I'd come to him in the shape of a ghost, trying to scare him into what I wanted?"

"Who said anything of a price?" the tulpa asked, his eyes taking on a slightly fanatical tinge. "There is no price, save to truly venerate the Black Mother. All other actions spring from this. You just threw the strings in to prove yourself right. We both have tried to tell you how things are, and still you argue. You don't care about truth, just being right so you can tell everyone you said so."

Kuzan shrugged. "Like I said, I made my choice. And I choose not to take your path. I'll follow my way, and you are not my way."

The tulpa smiled again, showing his unmarked teeth. "There is no path so straight that it never crosses another. When you find Cavendish, I will be there."

Water dripped into the silence that followed. The tulpa placed his head down and his hands into a sign of prayer. It seemed that it had nothing more to say.

After a short pause, Harris unfolded his arms, looking around the room. "I feel like I should say something congratulatory," he rumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "But if you don't mind me being honest, it doesn't feel like anything was resolved."

Devereux had meandered away from the rest of you, trawling through the air with his fingers and staring into space. Harris took off one of his metal gauntlets, tapping the pool bottom experimentally. The Tulpa rippled slightly as the water displaced around the guardsman's hand. The captain's fingers touched the stone surface and stopped. It seemed real enough.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"I heard what you said to him just now, though," Lia says, snorting her derision at the tulpa. "And I know enough of Kali to know her priests commit murder to 'honour' her. What's the body count? A body a day? And my words have value a-plenty, phantasm. But I see you are busy ignoring me, so I shall bid you good day and oblivion for your efforts."

Turning back to the others, the wizard asks: "So. Do we simply walk into the pool to get through those doors, or do we try what we see here before us?"

[Kaitou Kage]

Kuzan smiled a little at Harris. "It wasn't, really," he said, "We all have inner demons. Can we ever fully resolve them? As mortals, we face demons every day, both within ourselves and without. The best we can do is not give into their temptations."

Although he is right. Lia does care more about being right than hearing the truth. Even when someone clearly has no further interest in talking to her, she has to get the last word in.

Kuzan chuckled a little to himself and shook his head to clear it. He murmured a short prayer and placed both hands at his temples. As the healing magic worked its power, his eyes became just a touch more lucid and alert. He shook his head again, then surveyed the room as if seeing it for the first time.

"Unless someone finds another path, I suspect we walk through those doors," the priest spoke up again. "But I would like to suggest that we have our people skilled in such things look for traps and try to disarm them before we open any doors or turn on any music boxes."

EDIT: Cure moderate wounds, converted into Wisdom healing. I'm not going to roll the dice since my minimum covers it.

[DocBeard]

"Great." Tomas rubs the bridge of his nose, having found the entire experience to have been about as interesting as dipping his head in horse apples. If he wanted to hear three penny philosophizing he could've stayed home. "Because you've never made a mistake, Kuzan."

The swordsman pulls his fist back, and sends a right cross into the drink, smashing his hand into the stone bottom. Yes, it hurts, and it's wet and uncomfortable but if Tomas doesn't DO something he's going to go insane. He's walking to his death and the last thing he's going to hear is sniping, or Cavendish's mocking laughter.

Flicking the water off of his fist, Tomas heads towards the door, standing aside and waiting for Otto to do his thing.

[Kaitou Kage]

Kuzan gave Tomas an odd look, as if to say, "What's his problem," then shrugged and idly waited for Otto.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Careful, Tomas," Lia says in a tone of mild reproof. She crosses over to where the knight stands and gently grasps the hand he used to punch the stone basin. "You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" she asks, moving the Lamordian's hand about carefully. "Your strong hand is needed to keep us all safe, please take better care of yourself. Can you move all of your fingers? How are the knuckles?" The wizard carefully inspects Tomas's hand.

[lostboy]

Kuzan smiled a little at Harris. "The best we can do is not give into their temptations."

"I pray you continue to be strong enough then to resist, a life driven by hatred, even divine sanctioned hatred, is not a path that leads to inner peace." Sascha says as he claps a hand on Kuzan's shoulder as he makes his the way closer to the pool.

"Although quite why one would even be tempted to align oneself with such a capricious and querulous being is beyond my comprehension." He mutters under his breath gazing at the reflective surface as if it will yield an answer.

Not knowing what else to do he hoists up the lantern illuminating the pool for all to see.

[OOC: Spot: 12]

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"This reminds me of Dezbar Keep," Lia suddenly speaks, her voice absentminded as she starts to pace around the pool. "Recall how the presence of powerful fiends warps reality. There is no reason to assume that things are as we would expect here, even if ... the fiend in question is bound. Ronoph was bound, yet he managed to taint the whole Keep. No telling indeed what the fiend in the Eye is capable of -- and incidentally, I advise against mentioning its name. Might attract its attention."

The wizard continues to pace around the pool, eyes scanning the images in its depths. "Nothing is certain," she says. "But this might be a keyed portal of some sort, awaiting the proper word, gesture or other stimulus to open the way forward. If reality-warping is taking place, it might be impossible to detect the magical emanations caused by such a thing. Nevertheless ... Hoc quod est occultum video." Lia makes a brief pass over the water with one hand, and scans the water again.

"There is a lingering trace of illusion magic on everything and everyone here," she reports after a moment. "Feh. Probably the source of our little chat with Darkuzan ... There is active conjuration magic on the pool. I can't identify it right now. Would someone else care to give it a try?"

(OOC: Providing information yielded by a successful Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (planes) check. Casting Detect Magic, failing the Spellcraft check.)

[The Whistler]

"It is a difficult thing, to face one's inner self." Otto has been understandably sober throughout the whole exchange: while he may not have devotee of the Black Mother knocking about in his subconscious, he does know a bit from experience. "Not the facing, itself...to realize it exists is one thing, to *accept* it is another."

Otto cleans his spectacles briefly with his handkerchief, replaces them, and peers tentatively at the pool--partially to check for hidden portals, partially to avoid eye contact. "I am not sure whether I would have fared as well."

Dusts the inscription off with his hand, speaking quietly to himself. "'The path you seek lies before you'--difficult to read hidden significance into such. Accordingly, *something* to do with the pool..."

OOC: Not sure if I can take a 20 on Search--if I can, then it's a 36, if not, then I rolled a 21.

The gunsmith looks up, shaking his head. "Nothing--at least, not anything that may be found through mundane means. There *must* be some secret here, but I cannot find it."

[DocBeard]

"I'm fien, I'm-" Tomas looks alittle pale at Lia's sudden attention, and a little less so once she's found something more interesting to look at. To be honest, Tomas's arm is fine...

"Sorry, Kuzan." The swordsman murmurs, stepping back to let Otto do his thing. "It's this place. I'm sensing things in the worst possible light...it's like your body language is totally different. I'll...I'll get used to it, it'll just take a while."

Better to deal with it now than in the middle of a fight, Tomas admits to himself.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Oh?" Lia asks, eyeing Tomas again. "Then a warping of reality is taking place. Those sensitive to the emanations of evil would find their senses twisted against them, I'm afraid. Not the nicest way to see a theory confirmed, hm?"

[lostboy]

Holding up the lamp Sascha peers into the pool. Nothin particulaly obvious to help us in this predicament, he thinks with a sigh.

Moving closer he gazes intently at the image in the water, the Temple with its ivory double doors, and the red and black clad Tulpa standing before it.

The light on the pool seemed to illuminate the reflection a bit more, making it clearer, but it remains a reflection. The Tulpa was supposedly praying, but it seemed to be watching everyone with one bile-colored eye, silently laughing at your confusion. He straightens up and shuts his eyes when he notices Sascha looking at him, knocking one of the hanging lamps behind him as he does - it seems he has no trouble affecting the reflection.

[OOC: results of the spot check]

[yalenusveler]

Andre stepped up to the plate, or the pool as the case was, and proceeded to intone his own Detect Magic, giving it quite the thorough look over, then looking at everything else in the room, though perhaps not quite as intently.

It took him a few moments to register exactly what he saw on the pool, and his eyes quickly wandered back towards it...and went juust a touch wide.
"That...that would be a dormant Gate. I've no idea to where..but..a dormant Gate."

OOC:Detect Magic, 34 on a spellcraft

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"To proceed, open the door ..." Lia muses, kneeling briefly by the pool and making an attempt to touch the doors. Her fingers touch only water and the bottom of the pool beneath, so she retreats, considering again.

"Illusion ..." the wizard mutters. "Illusion. Perhaps ...?"

Lia makes a swift gesture and mutters arcane words: "Fantasma simpla." In the water, an image appears; Lia Mourneswaithe, changed into part of the scenery projected there. As the image starts to make its way to the doors, the tulpa makes a gesture and says a few words. The image of Lia disappears, and the actual Lia swears sulphurously. "Miserable externalized symptom of a mental disorder!" she curses the tulpa.

"Be warned: this thing is capable of casting real spells! It just dispelled my illusion. It is --"

Lia pauses, eyeing the tulpa strangely, then utters a nasty sound; half laugh, half snarl. "Kuzan," she says, turning to the priest, "if this ... entity is truly determined to be helpful, why not ask it to open the door? Seeing as this is all in the spirit of defeating Cavendish and preventing a fiendish outbreak, he should be sure to comply, yes?"

(OOC: Cast Silent Image, identified the tulpa's action as a Dispel, and finally got wise to an easier option. -_- Take it away if you will, Kuzan. *gloomy due to spell loss*)