Session 21 Downtime
Beyond the Labyrinth
After the events of the last game, my first priority is to retrieve the Cutting Stone. When I pass beyond the Labyrinth, I find a universe which consists of a single gigantic world. This universe is connected to an unknown number of other worlds, of which The Actuality is one. This world is quiet, and completely uninhabited, although there are signs (buildings on a grand scale, libraries, bones) of the scholars who have previously entered this universe from wherever they came from. None of the writings these scholars left behind provide any information about true nature of this place, or provide any true knowledge about its origin, only baseless imaginings intended to anchor it in the creation myths of their own original worlds.
It does not appear that any of these ancient scholars ever returned to their own worlds; they stayed, and studied, and got so caught up in the puzzle of the place that they never really turned their full efforts into finding a way back.
In this world, the Cutting Stone does not exist. However, there is a note from the Hidden Prince, "I have what you're looking for. Come find me when you're ready." (+1 despair for failing to successfully cache and recover the most important item in my universe.)
New Character Arc: Explore (Just Over the Next Hill)
- Cost: The Undertaking (-2 acumen) -- I will go to and through the Labyrinth, and explore whatever lies beyond.
- Opening: Make a Plan (+1 acumen) -- I set things up to take care of themselves in my absence, with Simone prepared to convene the team and search for me if I am not back within a year.
- Step(s): Gather Resources (+1 acumen) -- I acquire permission from the Magisterium to try the Labyrinth. This turns out to be easier than I thought it would be, because they're all beholden to the Deathless Triumvirate.
- Step(s): Travel (+1 acumen) -- I pass through the Labyrinth.
- Step(s)Exploration -- Entering this new world, I am stunned by what I've found. The greatest mystery of my world is just... literally just a gateway into another world. I spend more than a little time exploring and examining the things I find, learning whatever I can of this unbelievable place.
- Climax: Conquest (+2 acumen, +1 joy) -- I stand at the center of what I believe to be this world's greatest repository of knowledge, a library collected and left by one of the ancient scholars who came before me.
- Resolution (+1 acumen)
Enlarging the Observable Universe
While within this world-- which has no name that I can discover, but which I have chosen to call Agora, for now-- I finally have the perspective I have been seeking my whole life, the opportunity to study my world from an external spot. My studies provide me with insight into the nature and shape of the different components of known reality... I now have data to support the the following statements:
- The Actuality is one reality among what appears to be many realities, which may or may not be similar to it at all.
- The Kaleidoscopic Void is made up of the jumbled light of the Suns, and appears to be a boundary layer of the Actuality which has been rendered incoherent by by the effect of entropy.
- The Outer Dark truly surrounds all things, including not only the Actuality but these other worlds as well. There is a contradiction here, because the Outer Dark doesn't truly exist, and is rather an actual lack of existence.
New Character Arc: Uncover a Secret (The True Shape of the World)
- Cost: Seeker (-2 acumen) -- I cannot conceivably pass up this opportunity to observe reality from such a truly unique vantage point.
- Opening: Naming the Secret (+1 acumen) -- What is the relationship of this world to my own? What does its existence mean? What is the greater context?
- Step(s): Research (+1 acumen) -- I sort through the records left by ancient scholars of this world, studying everything I can that they left behind on cosmology and ontology, not just of their own worlds, but of this unique one.
- Step(s): Investigation (+1 acumen) -- I place myself in a trance at the highest point I can find in this world, and use my only really good tool to examine the Actuality from this vantage. That is, I carefully measure everything I encounter/observe/consume with Gnaw the Universal Mind, even knowledge I have already consumed in the past, to determine what transformations or interference affect knowledge passing between that place/state and this place/state. I learn everything that can be learned with such a tool, and while it is not insubstantial, it is not enough.
- Step(s): Tracking (+1 acumen) -- I try to find some other angle for observing/measuring/understanding reality from here, but there really isn't any.
- Climax: Revelation (+2 acumen, +1 despair) -- I have learned a lot, but not enough. I cannot answer my questions without better sources of information. I need something more like the tools which are available to me in the observatory.
- Resolution (+1 acumen)
I Encompass The World Within My Self
Frustrated with the limitations of my research/exploration in this place, desperately missing Simone and reluctant to abandon my universe to somebody else's will, I decide to go home one day while sitting among the remains of the ancient failed scholars who spent their entire lives investigating this place and came up empty.
I was thus left in the interesting position of trying to work out a way back into my own universe, which apparently none of the ancient scholars ever did, but possibly the Hidden Prince did. As is my habit, I did not jump directly into this, but simply thought about it first.
When it came down to it, my strategy was not to overcome an external barrier, but to look within. I started work on a spell I've intended to put together for a long, long time, but was not confident enough to move it to the start of my project list.
But I have no such concerns anymore. I cast the spell, act within the spacetime before I entered the Labyrinth, use magic to communicate to Simone that I will return in 'x' (however many that is, based on how long I was in that other world) days and not to worry, then am back in the current time, right outside of the Labyrinth.
New Character Arc: New Discovery (True Perdurance)
- Cost: The Thrill of Discovery (-2 acumen)
- Opening: The Idea (+1 acumen) -- When I consider my temporal parts, I am already where I want to be, to say nothing of when.
- Step: Research (+1 acumen) -- I review magical theory that already exists in my memory.
- Step(s): Trial and Error (+1 acumen) -- There is something to basic about this... I'm basically just putting a massive amount of energy into breaking down temporal limitations and bringing my true self into manifestation. There's not a lot of trial and error necessary for this... it just works.
- Climax: Eureka! (+3 acumen, +1 joy)
- Resolution (+1 acumen)
Back Into The Actual World
Gonna do some stuff. Maybe learn some stuff.
- Writhing Soul - level 9 secret - https://satyrine.com/main.php?resource=database&type=character_secrets&list=131
- 2 points of stealth
- Daylight Caster - level 7 secret - https://satyrine.com/main.php?resource=database&type=character_secrets&list=12
- Night Caster - level 6 secret- https://satyrine.com/main.php?resource=database&type=character_secrets&list=46
- True Defense - level 7 forte power - https://satyrine.com/main.php?resource=database&type=fortes&list=301
I need someone that I can rely on, so I use the invocation Tulpa Creation to build a tulpa named Keye of level 13 (5 base, +5 sorcery, +2 from magical heterodyne, +1 from wending path, +1 from rhyming magic, +1 from silver thumb, +1 from casting while the silver sun is active, -3 from effects of the invocation), then set it on a path of self-improvement, ordering it to perform research and experimentation to perfect itself (increase its level, eventually to level 17).
New Character Arc: Creation (Key)
- Cost: The Idea (-2 acumen)
- Opening: Make a Plan (+1 acumen)
- Step(s): Gather Materials (+1 acumen) -- I have to acquire a level 17 ollari rod, which I doubt is easy to find. I use my contact Taiyo to help me with this.
- Step(s): Progress (+1 acumen) -- I cast the invocation Tulpa Creation and create Keye at level 13
- Step(s): Progress (+1 acumen) -- Keye increases its level to 14
The world is no longer safe for anything or anybody in my world, now that I am secretly in rebellion against the powers that be. I need to ensure that those which look to me are safe. I think that the best way to do this is to make sure that they can be with me, in me, when necessary. Thus, I think I need to be able to take my Observatory and its contents with me; I need to be able to let my house live inside me.
New Character Arc: New Discovery (A Very Very Very Nice House)
- Cost: the Thrill of Discovery (-2 acumen)
- Opening: the Idea (+1 acumen]
- Step: Research (+1 acumen) -- I research house secrets which have to do with the transformation of the house, and with the relationship between the house and the vislae)
- Step(s): Trial and Error (+1 acumen) -- I make a Sefiroth of my house, and another one of myself. Instead of experimenting directly upon myself and my house, I experiment upon the symbols within those Sefiroths, essentially modeling this praxis within my ideosyncratic magic rather than within the Actuality.
Locke's Journal Ordered oldest to newest
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Session 19
04 Jan 2020 10:08:55
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Session 20
15 Feb 2020 11:52:52
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Session 1 - Wake Up
1 1 1
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Session 22
2010 5 2
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Session 1 Downtime - Locke Looks for the Key
2018 9 9
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Session 2 - Into the World
2018 9 30
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Session 2 Downtime - Knuckles Cracking
2018 10 1
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Session 3 - The Key to Locke
2018 10 27
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Session 3 Downtime - So Much Study
2018 11 5
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Session 4 - The Shining Isle
2018 11 18
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Session 5
2018 11 26
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Session 5 Downtime
2019 2 14
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Session 6
2019 2 23
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Session 6 Downtime
2019 2 24
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Session 7
2019 3 9
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Session 7 Downtime
2019 3 10
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Session 8
2019 3 24
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Session 8 Downtime
2019 4 2
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Session 9
2019 5 5
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Session 10
2019 6 1
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Session 10 Downtime
2019 6 2
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Session 11
2019 7 1
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Session 12 - It's Bat Country!
2019 7 22
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Session 12 Downtime
2019 7 23
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Session 13
2019 8 1
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Session 14 - Hand in Unlovable Hand
2019 10 6
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Session 14 Downtime
2019 10 7
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Session 15 - Everybody Has Their Limits, Nobody's Found Mine
2019 10 12
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Session 15 Downtime
2019 10 14
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Session 16 - Spooky Oneshot
2019 10 19
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Session 16 Downtime
2019 11 10
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Session 17
2019 11 16
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Session 17 Downtime
2019 11 18
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Session 18
2019 12 15
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Session 18 Downtime
2020 1 20
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Session 19
2020 1 25
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Session 21
2020 4 11
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Session 21 Downtime
2020 4 30
04 Jan 2020 10:08:55
15 Feb 2020 11:52:52
1 1 1
2010 5 2
2018 9 9
2018 9 30
2018 10 1
2018 10 27
2018 11 5
2018 11 18
2018 11 26
2019 2 14
2019 2 23
2019 2 24
2019 3 9
2019 3 10
2019 3 24
2019 4 2
2019 5 5
2019 6 1
2019 6 2
2019 7 1
2019 7 22
2019 7 23
2019 8 1
2019 10 6
2019 10 7
2019 10 12
2019 10 14
2019 10 19
2019 11 10
2019 11 16
2019 11 18
2019 12 15
2020 1 20
2020 1 25
2020 4 11
2020 4 30
The major events and journals in Locke's history, from the beginning to today.
Session 10
Test...
09:23 pm - 22.06.2019Session 10 Downtime
Blah....
11:50 pm - 04.07.2019Episode 11
Hanging out at Fynlan's house, we meet an anthropoid frog named Grabblejean....
09:47 pm - 14.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
Can't stop here....
09:11 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. ...
09:42 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims....
09:43 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
09:50 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
10:16 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
10:37 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
10:52 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
10:56 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
11:32 pm - 20.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
12:15 am - 21.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
12:25 am - 21.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
12:55 am - 21.07.2019Session 11 - It's Bat Country!
We head back into the ruined expanse. On the path ahead, Gwyn notices a giant snake on the road in front of us. It's a Patchwork Crawler, a serpent composed of the sewn-together skins of its past victims. We don't care to fight it though, so we just move ...
12:57 am - 21.07.2019Session 12 Downtime
Scratch pad of possible actions: * Get Iu to be my patron. * Put my rare and magical books business into movement * Level up house, buy house secret * Start up meetings of the The Second End (Call it something else? The West Henge Circle?) * Invite p...
09:13 pm - 22.07.2019Session 13
We were sitting on the garden patio at the Angel, celebrating Fynlan's birthday. Suddenly, Fynlan and Locke are attacked by a thing (I take 2 points of damage and 1 scourge to physicality). We see two folks in Church of Midnight attire, who shout at us, "...
12:59 am - 18.08.2019Session 14
The Vespertine Order is looking for the Vault of the Lost Hour. Blood Prince told us to look for Lavondra, who is staying at a DoubleTree hotel in the Fade. We have Fynlan send a spirit to tail her, she never goes anywhere other than the Church of Midnigh...
08:30 pm - 14.09.2019Session 14 Downtime
Fall From Grace – The Ruin of Reason [b]Cost: The Initial Misstep[/b] (-1 acumen) [b]Opening: The Descent[/b] – while reviewing my Project Moksha lab notes, I discovered that everything pertaining to Axon had re-appeared. Quite basically, thus unde...
10:53 pm - 07.10.2019Session 15 - Everybody Has Their Limits, Nobody's Found Mine
Fynlan goes home, and the doors and windows no longer open to his home. They are now portals to the Grey Sun. Locke has been banned from all libraries, bookshops and learning establishments in Satyrine because they all thing he's an uncontrolled Logovore....
09:43 pm - 12.10.2019Session 15 Downtime
Some stuff....
06:40 pm - 14.10.2019Session 16 - Spooky Oneshot
We go to Fynlan's house, for his family's celebration of their dead members. When the party gets boring, the Blood Prince suggests a murder mystery game. We accept, then they cast a spell which nullifies all magic and changes the geometry of Fynlan's hous...
01:17 am - 20.10.2019Session 16 Downtime
Wisps of Autumn fog curled around the edges of the observatory's open roof. Below, Locke stepped carefully through the area, taking careful stock of his surroundings, his pen scrolling down a checklist in a tidy notebook, making marks as he verified that ...
11:34 pm - 11.11.2019Session 17
Simone, using her new language secret, learns to decode the terrible writing in Chorian Marsh's notes and Locke's death records. It is a form of eidolon, which tells other people to ignore it, but for us, says "Go back to Shadow, you did nothing wrong, go...
09:04 pm - 16.11.2019Session 17 Downtime
[h1]Character Arc: Restoration: Bookworm[/h1] I just want to finish this out, though at some point I need to decide what to do with our little assassin idiot. [ul][li]Climax: the Final Act: Putting on the charm act and bringing Heironymous in tow, I spe...
09:49 pm - 18.11.2019Session 18
Background: When we did the sword quest, we found a sword that had Gwyn's writing in "the language" on it. That thing is a formula (kind of a grand unified theory) which describes the mechanic by which energy is transferred from one state to another. F...
01:12 am - 15.12.2019Session 19
This is an old story. The tenth sun is like a true sun, a big radiant ball of energy. Each of the other suns is a universe bathed in a specific kind of light, although they do have every kind of light. The war started at Satyrine, because hitting th...
10:08 pm - 04.01.2020Session 18 Downtime
[h1]Existing Character Arcs[/h1] [h1]New Character Arcs[/h1]...
05:27 pm - 22.01.2020Session 19
Red comes over. We have tea, and talk around what we've done. He suggests that we collect more information from the Princes. Thus, we decide to smoke out the Golden Prince; Fynlan has a party (he takes an Establishment arc for this, I take an Aid a Friend...
10:28 pm - 25.01.2020Session 20
We're going to the Golden Prince's party. To prepare for this, we all get clothes of matching cloth of gold. When we get there, we give the Golden Prince some gifts in puzzle boxes of increasing difficulty, are graciously welcomed by them, and then are al...
11:52 pm - 15.02.2020Session 21
The Deathless Triumvirate threatens us and provides us with a choice: give them the stone and go into quiet seclusion, join them, or die. We invite Red over. Discuss his experience with them in comparison to our experience with them. We argue about the...
10:48 pm - 11.04.2020Session 21 Downtime
[h1]Beyond the Labyrinth[/h1] After the events of the last game, my first priority is to retrieve the Cutting Stone. When I pass beyond the Labyrinth, I find a universe which consists of a single gigantic world. This universe is connected to an unknown n...
08:20 pm - 30.04.2020Session 22
We start out by following up on this invitation: https://files.slack.com/files-pri/T10DSNA2Y-F012X00JFGD/screen_shot_2020-05-02_at_12.31.34_pm.png On Limerance Street, we chat with Axon a bit. He has never seen the sigil and believes that the house ...
11:46 pm - 02.05.2020The list of amazing people following the adventures of Locke.
Social
Birthplace
Satyrine
Current Residence
Phoebus Observatory in West Henge
Contacts & Relations
Locke's Minions
Axiom Fortis
Level 11 Thoughtorm
Axiom Fortis is a vordir (guardian thoughtform) created by Locke Aletheia. She is an animated suit of grey metallic spiked armor; just over six feet tall, willowy and distinctly feminine, but without breasts or other overt signs of biological gender. Axiom seems good natured and friendly, though she is more likely to listen than speak, and is a deeply thoughtful and philosophic being whose personal time is spent in meditation and the contemplation of the beauty and the mysteries of the Actuality. In battle, Axiom wields an elegantly tooled zweihander with a blade that's about four feet long.
Neko
Level 8 Living Statue
Neko is a bronze statue of a cat which Locke brought to life with the spell True to Life. It is a magical creature with intelligence and a personality of its own, and it chooses sometimes to act like nothing more than a simple cat, and sometimes to engage with the world with the full scope of its human-level intelligence and mental agility. Locke has no control over Neko, but he does have a deal with it... as long as Neko does no harm to any of Locke's things or friends, and protects the Observatory from enemies (particularly from the Fluxrat), Neko is free to cat-own the grounds and do whatever it wants. What it wants, mostly, is to wander around following the sun (often up on top of the observatory), heating its bronze body until it's too warm to comfortably touch. Slightly feral, Neko doesn't actually like to be touched, though it does appreciate the offer of treats. It mostly ignores everyone else in the Observatory.
Song of Drifting Ashes
Level 2 Demonic Servitor
Song of Drifting Ashes is a minor demon summoned by Locke via the Demonic Servitor conjuration, and serves as a personal assistant and business administrator for his projects. Ashes has manifested in physical form as a petite woman in her late 30s, with long black hair and pale skin that blends smoothly into the blackish red of long, goat-like horns, a swishy leonine tail, and furry, clawed hands. Ashes has a ridiculous, sarcastic sense of humor, and never follows instructions from anyone but Locke, who she treats like a little brother. Ashes is not a very diligent worker, preferring to spend her time exploring Satyrine and enjoying the artistic and decadent scenes of the city.
Nefeli
Level 2 Angelic Attendant
Nefeli (Ne-FÉ-lee) is an angel summoned by Locke via the Angelic Attendant conjuration. She serves as the Master Librarian of Phoebus Observatory, working diligently to keep the books and research materials of the facility organized, safe, and orderly. She appears as a pale-skinned young woman with golden hair and a beautiful face, wearing sparse white linen robes and an ornate silken veil which covers her head and the upper half of her face. Nefeli is nearly silent, the ultimate, inscrutable librarian. Nefeli rarely leaves the observatory.
Maxim (01011000)
Level 2 Spiritual Minion
Maxim (whose proper name is 01011000) is a Spirit of Knowledge which serves as Locke's research and laboratory assistant. Their true spiritual form is unknown, but while incarnated they are a small person completely wrapped in silken robes of white light, glittering gold and black shadow. Maxim speaks quietly, but shows great enthusiasm for anything involving rare knowledge or unsolved mysteries. When they're not busy helping with one of Locke's projects, Maxim tends to wander around the observatory, following Nefeli or Ashes as they do their own things, or trying to convince people to play a board game of their own devising called Quartzon, a sort of combination of backgammon and chess derived from a base seven number system.
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Wealth & Financial state
My income is based on publishing residuals.
Religious Views
None
Social Aptitude
Although compelling when dealing with others in a one-on-one basis or in small groups, Locke is generally unwilling to put any energy whatsoever into public interactions or his relationships with strangers.
Speech
Speak softly and carry the truth.