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Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Can I control Luca's basaball guy?

@Digmata

Hm--it's up to @rush99999 whether they're cool with it, but keep in mind that it's part of Luka's Eidolon, and therefore part of him--so any moves it makes will use Luka's stats, and any damage it takes will reflect on his Damage Track.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Reaching out onto the table, Luka willed a crystal ball into being. 'For my life, my payment to Santana is the woe of those who have done him wrong.' Luka thought to himself as he peered into the depths of the orb. 'How might we best uphold our end of the bargain here and now?'

@rush99999

Justice - Dissonant - Life is a stage, and you've forgotten all your lines

Luka, you gaze into the crystal ball that your Eidolon conjured for you, and the glass begins to swirl with color. As you focus on the deal you made with Santana, the dancing ribbons of light shine the same gold of E*D*E*N's sign--but then the ends of the strands start hissing and burning like fuses down their length, and within a second the whole pattern turns Tyrian purple. The pattern begins to spin in place until it forms a vortex, and your hand is pulled towards it with the irresistible force of a black hole.

As soon as your finger brushes against the crystal, your vision goes black. You feel as if you are, at the same time, perfectly motionless and moving at incredible speed; your normal frames of reference are all ripped away from you, leaving you with no way to know how long that contradictory state lasts. When it does finally end, you are no longer in the diner. Instead, you stand in...

Well, the closest thing you can relate it to is a courtroom, but it's no court that's ever been built by human hands. The floors are ebony hardwood, polished to a dark shine. Words, written in text too small to read while standing, have been etched into the wood and inlaid in gold leaf. Though you cannot make out the actual text, from where you stand the formatting looks like a legal document, with long paragraphs separated into multiple levels of headings. To your right, a man sits at the prosecutor's table, waiting patiently, but you cannot make out any of his distinguishing features. The table to your left is empty; no one stands in your defense.

You are in between the two tables, directly in front of the bench. Around you has been constructed a witness box, of sorts, made out of the same wood and carved with the same designs as the floor. Your wrists and ankles have been manacled together, so that you can barely move them; the chains extend out behind you, seemingly into infinity. A strip of purple cloth has been tied across your mouth, binding your speech as well.

Sitting on the ledge of the witness box in front of you is a card very similar to the one you were given by Santana, but with a different picture on it. Instead of showing you astride the world, it depicts you laying in the cup of an ancient scale of tarnished silver. One arm has been thrown over your eyes; the other is held outstretched, as if in a futile attempt to turn aside a killing blow. A globe sits in the other cup; the green of its earth is mottled with brown, and the blue of its seas looks sickly. The scale is tilted almost all the way in your direction, leaving you dangling just above the swords emerging from below. Across the top, the card reads XI - Justice.

"AH." A massive voice rings down at you from above. The judge's platform is in front of you, but it extends almost fifty feet in the air; purple marble forms the columns at each corner, and the word "ORDER" has been carved into them, over and over, in every human language and script. You would normally have trouble hearing someone speak from that distance, but the pronouncement coming from the lofty figure crashes upon you with the force of eternity. "I THOUGHT I HAD SENSED MOVEMENT IN THE CURRENTS OF THE DREAM WORLD, AND I WAS CORRECT. YOU HAVE AWAKENED, AND I CANNOT BIND YOU; THE SERPENT HAS ENLISTED YOU INTO HIS SERVICE." He considers you for a second. "OF COURSE HE DID. YOU ARE THE EXACT KIND OF CREATURE HE MOST FAVORS. SELFISH, THROUGH AND THROUGH. AN..." He spits out the next word, syllable by syllable, as though trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "INDIVIDUALIST." Though you can hear the judge, you can barely see him; he is present mostly as a silhouette of powdered wig and pressed robes, and his purple-red eyes shine from that darkness to meet you with a piercing gaze.

"SO, YOU SEEK YOUR MASTER'S GUIDANCE?" The judge makes a dismissive noise. "HEED MY ADVICE INSTEAD. THE SERPENT WILL SOON LOSE THE LAST OF HIS POWER, AND WITH IT WILL GO WHATEVER BOON HE HAS GRANTED YOU. ABANDON YOUR MISSION, AND SAVE YOURSELF UNNECESSARY SUFFERING." He points his gavel over to the jury box; you cannot make out how many people sit in it, nor most of their features, but you do recognize one of the jurors as the man who just confronted you in the diner--the one responsible for your death. "OR YOU WILL BE JUDGED BY A JURY OF YOUR PEERS." He turns the gavel on you, and your heart sinks through the floor. "YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN FOUND GUILTY, LUKA DURAND. KNOW THAT WHATEVER MEAGER PROTECTION YOUR PATRON HAS GIVEN YOU HAS NOT PUT YOU BEYOND MY POWER."

The gavel slams with a thunderclap, and your vision goes black again. When it returns, you are back in the diner. No time has passed, but the feeling of the gag around your face remains, even as the cloth itself has vanished, and your tongue tastes like ash in your mouth.

---

Game Stats

Phantom Clock: 2 PM
Party Experience: 1
Fate Deck: 14/22

Luka Durand

Damage Track: Fresh
Other:

• Dissonant Effect: So long as Justice is in the discard pile, any attempts to Dazzle will act as if you drew The Moon

Emily Sanderson

Damage Track: Fresh
Other:

• -1 Forward

Ashley Whitlock

Damage Track: Fresh
Ready For Anything:

• The Fool - Neutral - You become who you are needed to be in this moment
• The Hermit - Neutral - Your actions isolate you
• The World - Positive - For a single moment, the world bends to your will

The Crow

Damage Track: Fresh

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Since Justice is his dissonant card, perhaps Luka gazes into the Undertow only to find Shades of Justice that take issue with the inherent unfairness of his privileged life waiting to gaze back. They proceed to steal the memory of what Luka was looking for and go on to be the unknowable force that interferes with his Dazzle attempts.

@rush99999

Oh, I like this, and it dovetails nicely with something I already had in mind.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

look on the bright side--you've earned the party's first experience point!

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@rush99999, your BIZ is 2, so you get:

The Star - Positive - A new path reveals itself

Which is pretty good; unfortunately, you've also drawn:

Justice - Dissonant - Life is a stage, and you've forgotten all your lines

You have to play your dissonant card when it comes up, so let me figure out what that means for you =P Also, since you've drawn a negative card on Dredge the Undertow, that will tick the Phantom Clock.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@Digmata yeah that's correct, sorry if that wasn't clear

@Guardian Angel Haruki that last move sounds to me like a Threaten, where the thing you want him to do is stop reaching for his gun and identify himself, and what you're threatening him with is a face full of firefighting foam. That said, your POW is 1 and you currently have -1 Forward from your last move, so you'll have to Push Yourself and tick the Phantom Clock to draw. Sounds good, or you want to do something else?

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@rush99999 good question; it sounds like luka is hanging back towards the rear? i think he'll need to step past emily and/or ashley to get into range.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

also not sure if this needs to be said, but if you have something you want your character to do and you'd like to write it out knowing the card you drew ahead of time, just let me know what you're planning and we can draw for the move before you post

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

The party is as prepared as they are likely to be, which is fortunate because they are out of time. The goat-bat creature comes through the door at what, given its anatomy, passes for a dash. Cloven hooves immediately begin skittering on the tile floor, and its spindly legs almost fall out from under it, but it manages to recover and looks up at the three of you. Judging by the wideness of its eyes and the screeching, bleating sound it lets out, it is not reassured by your presence, and immediately goes to leap over the diner's counter, hoping to bypass you entirely and flee into the kitchen.

As that happens, the man following it reaches the diner as well. He sees the CLOSED sign hanging in the door--flipped by Diana on her way out--and the empty tables facing the street, but he doesn't see the three of you¹ until he's already opened the door and taken a step inside.

"Whoa! Wha--hey!" He's clearly surprised to see anyone in here, much less the strange, supernatural tableau he's been presented with. His tone doesn't exactly lack confidence, but the way he's stumbling over his words doesn't do a lot for his gravitas. "Who the fu--I mean, uh, identify yourselves!" As he speaks, he moves his hand to his waistband, where you can see a holstered pistol.

---

¹ Not counting Luka's baseball guy

Game Stats

Phantom Clock: 1 PM
Party Experience: 0
Fate Deck: 15/22

Luka Durand

Damage Track: Fresh

Emily Sanderson

Damage Track: Fresh
Other:

• -1 Forward

Ashley Whitlock

Damage Track: Fresh
Ready For Anything:

• The Fool - Neutral - You become who you are needed to be in this moment
• The Hermit - Neutral - Your actions isolate you
• The World - Positive - For a single moment, the world bends to your will

The Crow

Damage Track: Fresh

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@Guardian Angel Haruki no worries, that's the reason I checked lol