Axeleron Cutscene: Power of the Plot

[Bookwyrm]

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Galvyn: Uhhhhh… where am I? What happened…

???: Well that’s an easy one to answer. You’re dead!




Galvyn: What?! Wha? Who said that? Who’s there?

???: Over here.




???: You’re disoriented, getting shanked in the gut does that to you. Sit down for a second, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Or are one. Which is partially accurate actually. Anyway. Sit.

Galvyn: Who are you? What do you mean I’m dead? Is this the afterlife? What plane are we on?




???: Slow down my dude. Everything will be explained to you in due time. I’m not one of *those* mentor characters that only speaks in riddles and cryptic remarks. To answer your last question though, this is technically a pocket world in the Primordium, the plane of dreams. I’m not really here though, what you’re seeing and hearing is just a dream projection I’m currently possessing to be able to communicate with you.

Galvyn: But I am here for real?




???: In a manner of speaking. It will all make sense soon. If you are feeling sufficiently recovered from the shock, I’ll get you up to speed on everything, but as I said before, I’d recommend sitting down, there’s a lot to process.

Galvyn: Okay, yeah, fine. It’s about time I had some answers.

???: Excellent, then we can begin. Allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Bookwyrm.




Galvyn: Why does that name sound familiar to me?

Bookwyrm: I once went by the name Jareth Bookwyrm, a very long time ago.

Galvyn: I do know that name! You were one of the members of an adventuring party with the Warden and my great-grandfather!

Bookwyrm: That is correct. Your great grandfather was a good man, which is why you are here today.




Galvyn: You said you once went by that full name, but now you refer to yourself as just Bookwyrm. Why is that?

Bookwyrm: It is the result of events that occured that have no small amount of relevance to those occurring now. Observe.




Bookwyrm: Greater Illusory Image.




Bookwyrm: This is the planet Axeleron, the world that you and everything you know are a part of. As you may know, it is home to countless different types of unique peoples, creatures, and dimensional tears leading to other planes of existence. What you do not know is that Axeleron is also the home of one of the weakest portions of the fabric of the entire Brikverse. This is the reason for the myriad of planar rifts that occur here, as well as for the existence of Lore Mastery and The Plot that allows people to harness the wealth of dimensional energy emanating from within the planet.

Galvyn: The Plot? You’re talking about the Author? I thought that was just a myth?

Bookwyrm: No, the Author is very real. You see, in a way, I am the Author.




Galvyn: What?

Bookwyrm: How can I put this… How much do you know about the Ramayana tradition of becoming an Avatar?

Galvyn: Where rather than being blessed by divine power like a cleric, they instead become like a fragment of the god’s personality and power?

Bookwyrm: Good, so you know your stuff when it comes to adventuring jargon. That's good. Means I won’t have to explain as much. See, this all started over a hundred years ago.




Bookwyrm: As you said before, I was a member of the Ivory Tower, an adventuring party that consisted of your ancestor Tannis Kent the warrior, a rogue named Anatheme Blake, Gregorius Trey the bard, Andor Maroth the cleric and the man you knew as The Warden, and myself, the party’s mage and loremastery expert. We weren’t incredibly highly ranked like some other parties, but we were still fairly well known in some areas, and had taken on a few moderately perilous quests. Nothing too extravagant, we saved a few villages from monsters and recovered a few powerful lost artifacts, fairly good stuff for a midlevel party. But one day, while doing some routine exploration, we stumbled across a hidden section of the Dungeon and in the process, uncovered the activities of a mysterious cult obsessed with the power of the Outer Gods and the chaotic loremastery abilities granted by them.




Bookwyrm: Their leader was a fanatical and quite insane loremaster known as Dorius Moraz, also called “Dorius the Mad.” He had become consumed with the idea of gaining enough magical strength to actually break free from the power of the Plot, and undermine the influence of the Author himself, and he had turned to the Outer Gods to accomplish this insane goal. By the time we encountered him, he had already spent years delving deep into forbidden tomes and dark rituals, accumulating the knowledge into his cursed grimoire, and recruiting like-minded followers as acolytes. We spent many months pursuing him across Avross, thwarting his attempts to accumulate more arcane power, as he and his ilk searched the land for artifacts and lore to advance their insane quest. But by the time we discovered his true plan, it was already too late to stop him.




Galvyn: His true plan? What do you mean?

Bookwyrm: We initially believed he was looking for some sort of spell or item that would allow him to channel the power of the Old Ones, making himself into some sort of avatar of darkness. You know, standard big bad evil guy stuff. But the real threat was much, much worse. We captured one of his cultist lackeys, and after days of trying to get a straight answer out of the man, he finally broke down and revealed the truth. Moraz wasn’t trying to channel a god. He was trying to create one.

~<Pt. 2 Coming Soon>~

[ninja_bait]

Oh man loving this so far

[Kommander Ken]

Yessss finally! Time to go build a Bookwyrm fig.

[sahasrahla]

meta in all the right ways

[Bookwyrm]

Galvyn: What?! How is that even possible? A mortal can create a god?!

Bookwyrm: Technically speaking, basically all of the gods were created by mortals. See, the way I understand it, a “god” as we see them on Axeleron, is simply an intelligent, sapient manifestation of an idea. War, Nature, the Sun, the Moon, Time, Life, Death… all of these are ideas that are so universal, so integral to civilization, that their very existence necessitates some kind of divine force to embody them. That’s why the gods need avatars, they are so powerful that no physical form they could take in the material planes could hope to encompass their energy, so instead, they are depicted in symbolic forms, and use mortals as their instruments when directly interacting with the world. True, you might see a god using an avatar the size of a tower, but ultimately, that’s still a mortal vessel that houses only a tiny fraction of the power that god possesses.

Galvyn: This is too much to process.

Bookwyrm: I did warn you you’d want to be seated for all this.




Galvyn: So where does this all tie into the story?

Bookwyrm: We quickly realized what this meant. If he had somehow figured out how to create a god to his exact specifications, then this wasn’t just a threat to a region of Avross, it was a threat to Axeleron itself. This entity would have the strength to defy the will of the Author and unravel the Plot itself, overthrowing the narrative elements and possibly causing the entire planet to fall apart. If Moraz succeeded in bringing about the ends of his insane quest, then all life on this world would be utterly destroyed.




Bookwyrm: Now knowing all of this, we redoubled our pursuit, and became even more desperate as he continued to elude our grasp, as we made deals, retrieved more powerful weapons and artifacts, and recruited allies, looking for anything that might give us an edge to overcome the seemingly overwhelming odds of success. Andor, Anatheme and I delved especially deep to try and discover some way of stopping this before the world ended, scouring countless libraries for scraps of lore and meditating for countless hours to try and glean knowledge from our connection to the Plot. In case Moraz tried to open a planar rip in reality to the outer dark to summon forth extradimensional horrors to defend him, we prepared a number of artifacts, Dimensional Seals capable of closing such a rift should the need arise.




Bookwyrm: And finally, after chasing Moraz down for over a year, we managed to pin him down, trapping him inside an abandoned city deep within the Metallix Mountains that he had holed up in to complete the final stages of his plan. We gathered the allies we had made and called in the favors we had earned. Disciples of the Pyre, defenders from a world across the stars, and a fey lady of the Winter Court all stood by our side on that fateful day.




Bookwyrm: It wouldn’t be enough. By the time we had begun the attack, it was already too late. This was to be the day that would come to be known as The Great Sundering. The sky turned to swirling gray ash and cracked, the winds became cold, and the earth began to tremble. And when we reached the inner sanctum of Moraz’s fortress, we were met with a veritable army of aberrations and cultist loremasters, and behind the arrayed forces of the enemy, was a towering monstrous avatar, silhouetted by a swirling miasma of nothingness torn in reality, pouring forth abominations from beyond the limits of our universe. The Plot Hole had been opened. The Outer God Metavoth, He Who Lives Between the Lines, had arrived.




Bookwyrm: Our forces fell upon his cultist allies and summoned aberrant monstrosities, while I and my party engaged with Moraz and the avatar of his newly created god. The battle was a bloodbath, but despite cutting down waves and waves of otherworldly horrors, and even defeating Moraz himself, we found ourselves becoming overpowered. None could stand before the might of a god capable of undoing the Plot.




Bookwyrm: It seemed that all was lost. In utter desperation, I reached deep into my magic, delving deeper and drawing upon the Plot more than I had ever done before. And at that moment, I remembered the piece knowledge I needed. A ritual to become an avatar. I recited the words of power, summoning forth all my mana and will, and called out to the only power I knew capable of destroying a god, and stopping this abomination, to the only thing able to reverse the damage to the Plot. To the Author. And something answered back. In doing so, I became something more than an avatar. I became an avatar of a Human, a Self-Insertion, a SigFig; and I took on a new title.




Bookwyrm: Quantum Surfer.




Bookwyrm: With my newfound abilities and new, powerful artifacts granted by the Author, we were able to turn the tide, binding the infant deity’s power inside its mortal body and and pushing back the Avatar of Metavoth into the gaping maw of the Plot Hole. While I kept the god occupied, Andor, our loremaster allies, and Lady Mab were able to channel their magic into the Dimensional Seals we had prepared, closing the Plot Hole, and locking Metavoth outside of our reality, never to return. I was… Unable to make it back without allowing the Outer God to escape as well. The casualties had been dire, and the destruction was undoubtedly catastrophic. But we had triumphed.




Bookwyrm: And so, I remained trapped to this day, barred out from the reality I called home, never to return. Or so I initially thought.

Galvyn: So that’s what the Seals are for then? They were used to shut a rift in reality?

Bookwyrm: That was their purpose before, yes. Now, however, their purpose is to keep that rift closed. This is why the situation you have found yourself in is so dire.

Galvyn: What do you mean?

Bookwyrm: I and my party were able to defeat Metavoth that day, at great cost, but for all our efforts, we were still unable to destroy him completely. Now, he desires to once again walk the face of Axeleron, and to finally tear down the Plot as he was created to do.


~<Part 3 coming soon>~

[Falk]

So good.

[Kommander Ken]

[ninja_bait]

This is a great interpretation of the quantumsurfer mythos.

indeed

[Bookwyrm]

Galvyn: So he’s the one behind the attacks, and behind Balor’s rebellion?

Bookwyrm: Yes, or at least, his servitors are. I had thought we destroyed all remnants of his followers that day, but it seems that some survived, and now seek for their dark master to rise again. And they are succeeding.

Galvyn: What?!

Bookwyrm: Several Seals have already been destroyed, thereby weakening the enchantment holding the Plot Hole closed. That’s why I’m able to communicate with you now, while you are still in your deceased state, a fragment of my consciousness can slip through the cracks that are already forming as a result of that magic weakening. And with Ragnablok on the horizon, the fabric of the Brikverse will only become more unstable. Even the Plot might not be enough anymore to protect Axeleron from incursion by off-world threats in the coming days. You will have to take great caution going forward.




Galvyn: Balor mentioned that word a couple times before, what is “Ragnablok?”

Bookwyrm: The prophesied end of all things as they are in the Brikverse. It is an apocalyptic event of cosmic proportions that will not likely pass Axeleron by without significant hardship, but it is a storm we are capable of weathering. Reality will break and be remade, as it always has in this universe, but not everything will be destroyed. Not unless Metavoth’s return were to come to pass.

Galvyn: And if it does come to pass?

Bookwyrm: Then that could spell disaster not just for Axeleron, but for the entire Brikverse. Metavoth is not the only Outer God who wishes to have access to this world. Brikthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, and many others of the Old Gods desire to enter into the Brikverse to bend it to their whims, and have already begun to pull the strings necessary to make that happen. I believe it likely that they arranged for the creation of Metavoth as a way to break through the dimensional weak point in Axeleron and open the Plot Hole in the first place, manipulating Moraz and his insanity for their own ends. They are already gathering their servitor races and preparing their followers by whispering to them in their dreams. If this remnant of the Esoterica Metavoth is able to destroy enough of the Seals, all of reality will be plunged into chaos.




Galvyn: Okay, this is a lot to take in, and I understand what we’re up against a little better, but what does any of it have to do with me?

Bookwyrm: Just as I became a vessel for the power of the Plot in my time of need, so also have you been selected by it to combat the rising tide of darkness.

Galvyn: But… I’m dead, aren’t I?

Bookwyrm: Pshh, that’s only a minor inconvenience. The Plot will restore you to life here soon. In fact, it should continue to do so until you have finished your quest, or else it is no longer able to. You’ve already awakened some of your innate loremastery abilities as well, but just because you have magic powers and can’t be killed doesn’t mean this next stage is going to be easy.




Galvyn: Soooooo, I’m immortal...?

Bookwyrm: Ehhh, that’s not the best way to put it. You’ll still age and bleed like normal, so don’t go throwing yourself off of cliffs because that’s still going to hurt. I think a better term for it is “Plot Armor;” as long as you’re still important to the continuation of the Plot you won’t be able to be taken by surprise and get stabbed in the back, or if you do, then you won’t be out of commission permanently.

Galvyn: I guess that makes sense. I still have a lot of questions though.

Bookwyrm: And I’ll try to answer as many as I can before our time--




*A quaking rumble shakes the ground and sounds like the crashing of glass on steel ring in the air.*

Bookwyrm: --is up… Huh… That’s inconvenient...

Galvyn: What was that?

Bookwyrm: Paradigm shift; something is disturbing the planar alignment. More tremors of Ragnablok. This was the biggest one yet. I think the entire space around us changed somehow. This doesn’t bode well. I…




Galvyn: What? What’s wrong?

Bookwyrm: Something is happening… I can feel something disturbing my real body...

Galvyn: You’re starting to fade!




Bookwyrm: I’m being pulled away from here by something. I will try to contact you again as soon as I am able to.

Galvyn: Wait! What do I do next?




Bookwyrm: Get in contact with a representative of the Traveler’s Society and warn them of the danger, the Warden wasn’t the only member of that group who knows the direness of the situation, but be careful who you trust, the enemy could have spies anywhere! And good luck!

Galvyn: I can’t hear what you’re saying! Hello?

Bookwyrm:

Galvyn: Terrific.




Galvyn: Guess I’m the Chosen One then.




Galvyn: …




Galvyn: …




Galvyn: Man, being dead sucks.


END OF ACT 1.

AXELERON CHRONICLE WILL RETURN.

[sahasrahla]

dude, that fire spiral, holy shit

[Kommander Ken]

Hypehypehypehype.

Also I love the idea for Plot Armor.