User:RAFANO

Lunar Experiment: The Arbiter's Stylus

Summary & Motivation

The Arbiter's Stylus, a spell granted to the Trader's Guild as part of the Contract struck with the Arbiter in Darkness, attacks an enemy with written words of starlight, carved into the target's very flesh. And yet the content of these abstract writings of arcana has never been deciphered. Similarly, the exact terms of the Contract are also unknown . . . by deciphering the former we hope to uncover more about the latter.

Background & Supporting Lore

The original inspiration for this experiment was from the very messaging of the Stylus spell itself, some examples of which include:

• Radiant words etch themselves across a fledgling gryphon's abdomen.
• Inked in starlight, myriad lines of script cut glittering arcana onto a baby forest gryphon's back!
• White lines of light reach out with geometric precision, marking a fledgling forest gryphon with frostbitten symbols on its head.
• A fledgling forest gryphon is suddenly haloed by celestial geometries, lines sketched with rigorous precision, inked with the brilliance of concentrated starlight. Its body collapses in iced pieces.
• Your calligraphy of light assailing a fledgling forest gryphon dulls into nothingness.

With this initial inspiration, further research was conducted. Given that the focus of this experiment is the Arbiter, it is interesting that the records of precedent events suggest that it has a certain affinity for symbols and writings. From the records of the Planar Observatory:

• The two entities regard each other and then walk wordlessly toward the opposite end of the cavern. The second entity’s illumination reveals more serpentine symbols, carved into the floor with greater frequency toward their destination. The first entity either cannot see or does not care about the carvings, but the second one pauses. It kneels down to examine one of the carvings for a long moment before catching up with its companion.

The following short story was written and posted to the Forums as a potentially interesting "teaser" that skirts many of the themes that this event was building towards, but without suggesting any direct links:

• The Arbiter's Stylus

Execution

The quick summary of the plan was to go to origami creatures, near Dirge, and have any Traders present cast Arbiter's Stylus at the creatures, scarring them with the starlight symbols, and then having those adventurers present attempt to decipher the symbols.

In the end, the symbols were not able to be deciphered, and no new information was gleaned. However, the Negotiants did present themselves to those assembled, and gave several interesting messages:

• With a screech of shattering glass, the Negotiants suddenly unfold from empty air, extend fractal extremities that bristle with red hot crystal needles, and begin to survey the area.
• The Negotiants extend a line of swirling crystal into a broad loop held before them, the space within contorting and shimmering into a bizarre kaleidoscopic polytope which slowly morphs and shifts.
• The Negotiants rotate slowly in place, as if viewing the area through the lens of the polytope. Distorted images fracture behind the shifting geometries, ephemeral and angular.
• As the Negotiants scan the area, you catch a glimpse through the polytope -- branching equations reduce physical phenomena to shifting abstraction and expanding polynomials. Functions asymptotically weave across infinity, and reality itself is laid bare. The scattered symbols of the Arbiter's Stylus blossom behind the polytope, radiant and sharp.
• Through the polytope, degenerate bijectives swirl harmoniously between linear morphisms, algebraically reducing dust, light, gravity, time, to monoid variants. You have no framework to comprehend the otherworldly information creeping through the Negotiants lens, and find yourself gritting your teeth as your mind tries to make sense of it all!
• As the polytope rotates around the Negotiants, you are able to see twisting lines of abstraction rendered into reality, cycling between symbol and substance. The faded symbols of the Arbiter's Stylus wink in and out of being, language drawn from the rules of reality.
• Suddenly, your head fills with the psychic backlash of the Negotiants chatter, "... HAS BEEN NOTED AND ACCOUNTED FOR THE CONTRACT REMAINS AS INTENDED THIS STANCHION REMAINS..." before meandering into whispers.
• The Negotiants begins to whirl chaotically, their crystalline form rapidly retracting into nothingness and suddenly, they vanish!