Session 1 Downtime - Locke Looks for the Key

 
After the events of Session 1, Locke threw himself into what he does best... locking himself away from other people and working to decipher the hidden truths of the Actuality. For nearly the entire month, his routine was normal: wake up early, head into "town" to pick up the newspaper, chat with Heironymous over coffee, spend a few hours researching scientific notes and scholarly texts, then head back to the Observatory to integrate new findings into a rapidly growing personal library, before experimenting into the wee hours of the night.
 
In an important way, this was just Locke diving head-first into the life that he loves best. In a secondary sense, however, it was driven by his return from Shadow, and the traumatic events of the Suffering Engine. Certainly, he worked hard to build his own personal power (with advances in both Forte and Order), primarily a hedge against being overpowered by mysterious, evil entities.
 
Also, frustration about not being able to collect sufficient information about the Devil responsible for the Suffering Engine crystalized his ideas for the new magical technology that he is working to develop in his New Discovery character arc, Finding the Roots of the Tree of Life.
 

Sooth Card

• The Cat

 

The Teamup

Partway through the month, Locke went around to check on his friends. He found Gwyn deeply involved in a very sympathetic plot... investigating the Suffering Engine to determine how to undo it. Gwyn had constructed a magical tool to analyze a magical effect, but couldn't get into the Hate Cyst without dealing with the bruisers who were guarding it from outside.
 
That was not a problem for Locke, who took Gwyn's object, Witchstepped into the Hate Cyst, collected the information they wanted then bounced.
 

Vignette

Locke cursed quietly in frustration and tossed his pen onto the stack of wooden coffee crates that stood in as a makeshift bookshelf and writing desk in the observatory's main room. The summer sun poured in through the shattered ceiling, perfectly illuminating an experiment that was going nowhere.
 
No matter how Locke tinkered with the bits of brass and glass carefully fitted into something not entirely unlike a child's kaleidoscope, the predicted effect just wasn't happening. Maybe there was something wrong in his math. Maybe it wasn't possible to diffract the objects of Actuality into their fundamental components. Maybe there was some idea that he'd missed in the tract by Calivos... or maybe A'isha would have an idea.
 
"Ugh. Maybe I should just forget this. Maybe it's..."
 
High above, feathered wings whirred as one of the birds roosting in the broken dome took panicked flight! Locke looked up, surprised that-- so far above-- he could see someone he knew.
 
"Haha! Bedlam Tom! You old bastard, what are you doing up there? That's not really a good place for a cat, my friend..."
 
But...
 
"Wait, actually. Maybe..."
 
Locke moved quickly, dragging a ladder from the other side of the room and setting it up above the desk. "Yes, maybe... it's an issue of the focal length, it's..."
 
The brass device was strapped to the ladder; one end pointed down at the table, the other up at the cat above.
 
"Yes, that seems... okay, maybe..."
 
All vislae have an instinct about magic. It is this inner light that marks them apart from other mortals, gives them the ability to do things like... With the habit of long experience, Locke reached within him and awakened that instinct. His mind turned and he made something happen...
 
Light streamed through the shattered dome, over the form of Ol' Bedlam Tom, then to the device, where the cat's image was condensed and refracted, and came through the other end as a series of clear purple symbols projected onto the desk below.
 
Locke laughed, delighted, and took up his pen to trace the symbols, transcribing-- for as much as he knew, for the first time in the history of Actuality-- the fundamental truths of the Sefirot of Physcality (in this case, the Sefirot of Physicality of Ol' Bedlam Tom the stray cat) onto paper.
 
"Oh, Tom. Tom, Tom... I owe you a fish, my friend. This is it. This is proof that it can be done. This... I have to add this to my notes, I have to distill this into the spell..."
 
"Hey, get down from there, you brilliant cat! You're going to fall if you're not careful!"
 

Accounting

• Advances
  
  
  
  • Spend 1 Crux to increase Forte, learn Consume Memory (and +2 Sorcery)
  
  
  • Spend 1 Crux to increase Order, learn Extra Spells (Witchstep and Restoration of Form)
  
  
  • Spend 2 Acumen to start Black Cube personal arc
  
  
  • Save 1 Crux
  
  
  
  


• Actions
  
  
  
  • 10 days to perfect new spells, Witchstep and Restoration of Form
  
  
  • 7 days of research for Finding the Roots of the Tree of Life
  
  
  • 6 days studying ancient texts to look for Hidden Secrets
  
  
  • 2 days to interact with other humans
  
  
  • 1 day of writing up research plan for Finding the Roots of the Tree of Life
  
  
  • 1 day for starting the Black Cube arc.
  
  
  • 1 day for self care
  
  
  • 0 days to learn Consume Memory
  
  
  • 1 hour to scatter Boneseeds around the top of the hill to start the process of regrowing the woods there.
    
  
  

 

Character Arc Progress

 
New Discovery: Finding the Roots of the Tree of Life

1. Cost: Thrill of Discovery. (Acumen cost waved as this is Locke's first arc)


2. Opening: The idea. (Events in the world pass too quickly to give them proper attention. I need a magical technology which allows me to encode and record the fundamental nature of a thing, so that I can work with that data at a later point. Complete. Worth 1 Acumen reward, not yet collected.)


3. Step: Research. (Tinkering with basic scientific tools (anything which can measure) and testing how they dip into the ebb and flow of magic. For each of the Sefirot, develop a sub-process to decode and measure that particular component. Complete. Worth 1 Acumen reward, not yet collected.)


4. Step: Trial and Error (Next)

 
Uncover a Secret: Measuring the Black Cube

1. Cost: Seeker. (2 Acumen cost paid.)


2. Naming the Secret: (The Secret I seek is an understanding of the Black Cube sufficient to summon it from its eldritch plane, that I might experiment with it. Worth 1 Acumen reward, not yet collected.)


3. Step: Research. (Next)

 

Gains for Session

COLLETED: 1 acumen from Uncover a Secret, 2 acumen from New Discovery, 1 joy for Inside the Book there is Happiness
 
CURRENT BANK: 3 acumen, 1 crux, 1 joy