Gloria Mundi update
The characters, still in the darkened theatre, felt a blast of magic from the balcony where Jack had landed. They felt his nimbus, but inverted somehow. All of Jack's duplicates in the audience vanished. Morrigan called up, and got no response. Ogma teleported up there to look for him, while Tyrrhenus tried to open the door. He immediately felt his will being crushed...and then turned around, possessed, and started for Gwendolyn. She backed up, but he grabbed her and apparently tried to grope her, foaming at the mouth and calling her "Mariah". Morrigan tried to pull him back, but y'know, he's bigger. He swung around and hit her, she pistol-whipped him (thank you Armory!).
Meanwhile, Ogma tried scrying for Jack and failed. He then tried using Finder and got an exceptional success, and realized Jack simply...wasn't. Shaken, he called Niamh to come and help them and ran back downstairs.
Downstairs, Gwendolyn ran around the seats and up onto the stage. At that point, everything went into slow motion, the roof disappeared, the theatre became a great big stone amphitheatre with the sun streaming down, and she was alone. She followed a path through the woods and found that everything seemed alive with meaning and possibility. She heard a voice from the forest which asked her to follow it, but when she stepped off the path she was in a dark and dangerous forest primeval. The voice told her it was going to hurt her, and dropped its cap near her - a red cap covered in blood. She wished she hadn't stepped off the path, and suddenly time rewound itself until she was standing on the path again. She followed it to a great silver tower made of thorns.
She climbed the tower and at the top met a figure in a hood. It laid out a spread of Tarot cards (I don't have my notes with me or I'll be more specific, but the future card was the 2 of Swords and the crowning card was The Fool). At the end of the reading, she saw that the floor was covered in names. She signed hers...
...and there she was, back at the theatre. Tyrrhenus had shaken off the possession and noticed Gwendolyn had Awakened. Niamh arrived, and the characters went out into the lobby. Niamh tried to open the front door, but the "spirit" picked her up and shook her. She used Life magic to stop her body functions, playing dead. The spirit set her down and folded her hands over her chest, and seemed to calm down a bit. Morrigan used Spirit's Tongue and talked with it, and the characters realized that it wasn't a ghost, but a highly powerful location spirit (the term "genius territorial" had already occurred to Niamh). The spirit identified with Isaiah Gravenor, the founder of the theatre, and it wanted to know if his granddaughter (Mariah) was still alive. Morrigan promised to find out, and it let them out.
They took Gwendolyn back to the sanctum and agreed to teach her. They also decided that before they could look into Jack's whereabouts, they needed sleep.
Meanwhile, Ogma tried scrying for Jack and failed. He then tried using Finder and got an exceptional success, and realized Jack simply...wasn't. Shaken, he called Niamh to come and help them and ran back downstairs.
Downstairs, Gwendolyn ran around the seats and up onto the stage. At that point, everything went into slow motion, the roof disappeared, the theatre became a great big stone amphitheatre with the sun streaming down, and she was alone. She followed a path through the woods and found that everything seemed alive with meaning and possibility. She heard a voice from the forest which asked her to follow it, but when she stepped off the path she was in a dark and dangerous forest primeval. The voice told her it was going to hurt her, and dropped its cap near her - a red cap covered in blood. She wished she hadn't stepped off the path, and suddenly time rewound itself until she was standing on the path again. She followed it to a great silver tower made of thorns.
She climbed the tower and at the top met a figure in a hood. It laid out a spread of Tarot cards (I don't have my notes with me or I'll be more specific, but the future card was the 2 of Swords and the crowning card was The Fool). At the end of the reading, she saw that the floor was covered in names. She signed hers...
...and there she was, back at the theatre. Tyrrhenus had shaken off the possession and noticed Gwendolyn had Awakened. Niamh arrived, and the characters went out into the lobby. Niamh tried to open the front door, but the "spirit" picked her up and shook her. She used Life magic to stop her body functions, playing dead. The spirit set her down and folded her hands over her chest, and seemed to calm down a bit. Morrigan used Spirit's Tongue and talked with it, and the characters realized that it wasn't a ghost, but a highly powerful location spirit (the term "genius territorial" had already occurred to Niamh). The spirit identified with Isaiah Gravenor, the founder of the theatre, and it wanted to know if his granddaughter (Mariah) was still alive. Morrigan promised to find out, and it let them out.
They took Gwendolyn back to the sanctum and agreed to teach her. They also decided that before they could look into Jack's whereabouts, they needed sleep.