fellspiral

In my last year at college my preferred means of procrastinating was trying to understand art - reading Gombrich, and listening to classical music. I purchased my wife a Dali print - "Woman with a Flower Head".

I only knew the image from the printer's website, and between the quality of the image online and the quality of my early LCD display, the pencil sketched portrait of a man on one knee was not visible until the piece arrived for me to see in real life. The pencil sketched man unnerved me.

I knew how to read art the way I learned from Gombrich: what technique was used to create the art? What was the intention, the cultural context, the state of mind? What does the art evoke in me? Applying this analysis to the unexpected background subject got me nowhere. Did I just print a notebook doodle on a canvas? What does this mean for my taste in art? What does it mean about me that I see this unfinished man with unease, like a mistake?

My wife had a different reaction. She loved it without question. She understood Dali in a way that I could not. Interacting with Dali isn't about how the light of the work affects you. It's about descending into your own darkness and confronting what you have left behind.

Key: The Darkness

Amanda Lee Franck via Prismatic Wasteland. DISCLAIMER: this blog post is a statement of where the art took me, not a statement on the actual genre of the art.

The magic of the surface world does not penetrate the depths of this darkness. By following this map, each level of the darkness can be escaped, but at a cost. The gods demand a member of your company will be left behind at each level (they do not care whom, or why).

Play Notes:

This adventure "key" assumes a company of 5. Character loss is necessary to complete this adventure. Some recommendations for how to handle this:

• Players share agency of characters as they are lost.
• Players run pet companions after their character is lost.
• Play this as a duet with the player running all 5 characters.

1. A banquet hall with high ceilings and crystal chandeliers. Floor to ceiling widows frame an endless starry landscape. Finely dressed gentle-people chat over soothing music (Satie). Whatever you speak to them about, they find it so incredibly interesting. A long table overflows with fine food and features fountains of wine. There is no reason to ever leave, and you are forbidden from doing so by the other guests within.
2. Pneumatic works release loud whistles of hot steam at irregular intervals. You escape the previous room through a tight crevice in the machinery. Navigating the machine from the inside is treacherous. Each misstep threatens entrapment within the works. Only careful investigation reveals the path out. Investigation also reveals the function of the machine - to give life to the theater of the banquet hall (1).
3. Vast dark caverns house the pneumatic works (2). Outside the machinery the caverns are occupied by monsters that wander the darkness - the void is thick with the echo of their cries. Upon interrogation the company will learn that each is a lost adventurer, consumed by some part of themselves.

   d6 cavern wanderers

   1. Consumed by hunger: A swarm of bats. Can only be damaged by AoE. Inflicts weakness when dealing damage. Attempting to satiate only makes them more hungry.
   2. Consumed by weakness: Amorphous ooze that makes no attempt to engage. If touched, the ooze will attempt to "suck you in" - you are unharmed but cannot move.
   3. Consumed by vanity: Kneel to the grotesque Nupperibo and be left alone (true sycophancy may be met with aid). Fail to kiss the ring and the beast responds in violence.
   4. Consumed by hatred: This sentient flame cannot be extinguished. Attempting to do so will only make it spread like an oil fire.
   5. Consumed by fear: A screaming goat. Will speak to you from a distance (in screams). Flees on approach, faints if you catch it.
   6. Consumed by shame: A simple, spiteful goblin impedes your progress. Defeat the goblin and all other beasts are summoned to your location.

4. The Foreman's station is occupied by a visage that mirrors any one character that attempts to escape to the surface. The visage guards the surface with force. On return, any character left at the foreman station will guard the descent.

Magic Artifacts Found on the Surface

Upon reaching the surface and availing yourself of the magic to be found there, you find yourself either alone, or in conflict with the gods.

Adventurers may return to any level of the darkness they have left, but the further they backtrack, the more they lose their senses. They become blind, and mute. Artifacts aid the descent.

5. Servant homunculus: lacks sentience of its own.
6. Frozen Tear: You remain mute, but you may choose a part of yourself to release into the artifact. Only that part of you may speak. Choose wisely, or be consumed by it.
7. Glass Bell: You remain blind, but so long as the bell rings you may recite a poem to give another sight. If the poem is bad, the bell shatters.

There are only 3 magic artifacts.

Like many American millennials, my home from school indulgence was "The Price is Right". I had another favorite - a UK show that ran on daytime television - "Whose Line is it Anyway? The show where the rules are made up and the points don't matter". An improv "game show", the recurring segment involved the audience submitting odd premises for scenes that were pulled from a hat. As a "drama kid", there was no more formative experience in understanding what it's like to be an armadillo. It's not important if the rules are made up, but (apparently) it's important that there are rules. It's important to exercise sharp talent for points, but it doesn't matter how many points you have.

"The Smiling Fox" Mythic Bastionland fan podcast hosted a guest Amanda P. She referred to Mythic Bastionland Myths as "game technology". The dice tell a story, but there's another layer of narrative that emerges when "scenes from a hat" collide.

d10 Scenes from Armadillo Crag

On approaching any landmark near Armadillo crag, roll 2 scenes from this table. Some combination of the two scenes play out as you pass through.

1. The people are clearly wary of outsiders. Mothers corral their children away from the company. An elder steps forward. He speaks indirectly. When you don't take the hint he uncomfortably informs you more directly: you are welcome to their hospitality, but it is considered taboo amongst his people to ask any question.
2. A young boy sits alone on a log. He's too young to be alone and looks distraught. When he sees you he stares at you with intense curiosity, but doesn't speak until you do. Thoughts dart rapidly through the boy's mind, but something prevents him from sharing.
3. You hear the journey of a breeze across the landscape. It begins as a whisper on the horizon, grows to cacophony as you feel the breeze on your skin, then dissipates. The breeze has something to say to you. When it passes, the message goes with it.
4. You are caught up in debate over a trivial matter with another member of the company. One knight reaches a fever pitch as he strikes a rebuke that is sure to prove the other wrong. You round a bend and hear it before you see it, but it is too late. Two lovers - the young man hides his shame. The elder woman confronts you in the nude.
5. A swallow's song inspires you from a perch high above. As the keel of the bird's chest rises and bellows you consider a short poem... After the poem forms in your mind, your eyes still on the swallow, you open your lips to share. Before you can, a silent falcon steals the swallow from its perch. You keep the poem to yourself.
6. A drunk approaches you. He requires no invitation to join your company, telling you the story of his life. He insists he knows you. As he recites stories from his past, they sound eerily familiar.
7. You come across a burrow, or crevice in the rock face. A stream of humid air carries the smell of mildew and the sound of whispers. The passage is tight (too tight for armor). It is dark even a few feet in and seems to swallow any light. Even in these tight quarters you lose any company you bring with you. If you proceed to the depths, you find a secret you have hidden from yourself.
8. A surreal purple hue reflects off the horizon to hold your attention. Roll a clarity save. If you fail, you slip (or your horse bucks you) at the edge of a hidden sink hole. You fall 30 feet into a cenote below. A single ray of sun (or moon) light pierces the darkness and bends to illuminate the emerald green pool.
9. A frail woman with kind eyes struggles to catch her breath as she rests on a stump at the base of a hill. She wears an odd style of thick glasses, and a fine pendant around her neck. She has come to see the view from the hill top and begs your aid. After ascending the hill she looks out on the landscape, smiles and closes her eyes in breathless slumber.
10. You are hailed by a woman's voice from the top of a hill. She frantically rushes down the hill - part running, part tumbling. Before you can introduce yourself, or protest, she grabs you by the ears and pulls you down to a smush her lips against yours. Her strange, thick glasses scrape your nose. "It worked!" she exclaims. Without pause, she races off for a belated rendezvous, shouting back only terse, jubilant courtesies. She drops her fine pendant.

I took a music class in high school. I had a deep curiosity about the mechanics of playing an instrument, the mystery of how the music affected me, and the theory needed to translate the music to English. One of the lessons was to transcribe a piece we knew how to play for the class. I knew how to play the blues. I knew how to write the chords, but I didn't know how to write the melodies. I knew the time signature, but I didn't know I was playing a syncopated rhythm. I had fun sharing what I knew, I think some others had fun listening, and I was excited to learn what I didn't know.

"Most of what you played isn't written here," said the annoyed teacher. Ya, duh. "You didn't follow the instructions, you must play what's on the page." I took an F. I spent the rest of the class listening to soul-devouring renditions of "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Fuck that guy. Fuck this pervasive hot cross buns bullshit. Fuck the sophists and employers and advertisers that dangle the prospect of individual expression like a carrot on a stick. Fuck you for every time you've rejected another — not for morality, or curiosity, but for expressing anything other than pantomime for your emotional comfort.

TRANSMISSION

• Outer Rim Command: Disciplinary Review Operations
• ATTN: UNCSS Ìyánlá Enforcement Office
• Service Member: Sassy Diaz
• Assignment: Cargo Operations - Technician

Complaints:

1. Drunk and Disorderly Conduct: Multiple complaints of inciting violence under the influence of alcohol.
2. Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman (2 charges): Two complaints of harassment filed by Supervising Officer Montgomery. Twenty-seven complaints of harassment filed by Field Technician Goodman.
3. Attempted Field Execution (2 charges): Unwarranted violence targeting a) May Outpost Field Officer b) UPP Field Commander. Multiple company casualties.
4. Theft: Alleged theft of military equipment from arrested UPP Field Commander.
5. Violation of Quarantine Protocol: Customs breach of artifacts of unknown biological origin (one dark urn-shaped vessel).

• DISCIPLINARY RECOMMENDATION: Confinement. Forced psychiatric intervention.
• ADMINISTRATIVE OVERRIDE: Promotion. Cargo Operations - Officer. Biologics Division.

ATTACHMENT: Exhibit E

[partially recovered, noisy recording from visual cortex of UPP David model combat synthetic...a dark passage, the darkness pierced by rifle lamps, tall walls of large stone slabs, a UPP company wades through three feet of water...static...a dark cavernous hall, a UPP officer recovers an urn shaped artifact - matte black and seamless...static...screams, the David model jerks his head around to see "tentacles" pull a UPP officer below the water. Unknown biologic origin...static...automatic gunfire...unknown Science Officer (Rook) fleeing into the shadows...unknown pilot (Zier) shouting in native Mandarin - temporary standoff...unknown roughneck (Diaz) leaping at UPP Field Commander's throat wielding a combat dagger...(Rook) decapitating David model combat synthetic...UPP Commander and (Diaz) floating face down in the water...(Diaz) embracing unknown Officer (Montgomery) while sobbing...static...unknown landing craft...static...end]