MIT Reality Collapse Event - Sun, Oct 27, 2019

Luke opened the session with a recap of the prior events:

• Philomena had met Dr. Evelyn Vail in the Marriott Hotel bar.
• Vail described the Book of Eibon in MIT Special Collections, framed occult mathematics as ordinary scholarship, and invited Philomena to consult on carvings from a sealed chamber beneath an Ottoman bathhouse in Turkey.
• Frank had stayed with the body of Devin Ayers, the Hushfather acolyte who threw himself under a car.
• Justin and Matthew had returned from destroying contaminated electronics.
• The team had tested the shimmering barrier with the “rope protocol,” which failed immediately.
• Frank crossed the barrier and found himself alone, with the rope slack at both ends.
• Justin and Matthew vanished into Cool’s world.
• In Cool’s reality, Picky Eater was treated as scripture and infrastructure. Dr. Wesley Cool had perfected truth, rebuilt society around it, and moved on to something greater: the Xanatheraphone.
• Justin and Matthew lost time, later found themselves eating falafel hours or days later, and made their way to MIT.
• At MIT they were received by Vicki King at the Office of Pre-Revelatory Mathematics.
• Back at the hotel, Frank and Philomena finished a bottle of wine while comparing notes on how badly the operation had gone.
• At breakfast they were watched by Captain Nathan Havel, an operator from another version of Delta Green who believed Frank Booth was a legend.
• Havel said he had lost half his team in the physics building sub-basement, where something had come through a quantum experiment and started teaching people things they should not know.
• Justin had begun shifting deliberately between worlds, and each jump cost him.
• Justin warned Frank and Philomena that he meant to infiltrate the high tower and might fall out of the sky if reality snapped back.
• Matthew remembered his original mission: keep MASTICATE away from MIT before the university became the nexus of a dimensional collapse.
• It was too late. Matthew had retrieved heavy weapons, crossed back, and cleared the high tower entrance with a grenade launcher.
• The session resumed with bodies on Vassar Street, sirens approaching, Justin inside the tower, Matthew advancing with the lightning rifle, and reality delaminating around MASTICATE.

Philomena and Frank began at the intersection of Vassar Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

• One side of Vassar had been cut off because of the deaths there.
• A bicycle lay on its side in the middle of the intersection.
• There was no visible sign of Justin.
• Frank and Philomena were in their own reality, where there was no tower at the intersection.
• They could feel the growing tension in reality, like static electricity that pulled at them.

Philomena decided to try to cross into Matthew’s reality.

• She put herself into a trance and focused on the membrane between realities.
• She tried to use the mental techniques she had been building on.
• She lost Sanity and Willpower from the attempt.
• She projected the Sanity loss onto a bond, taking no Sanity loss but losing Willpower and bond strength.
• She reached for the reality where Matthew was.
• She experienced vertigo, then smelled blood and cordite.
• She found herself in Cool’s world, on the steps near the tower.
• Exploded human remains were scattered around her.
• She saw a forearm among the bloody pieces and realized the chunks were human.
• She saw Matthew McCarter’s back as he headed through the door into a large white gleaming tower.
• Philomena chose to let Matthew get ahead of her and begin clearing the way.

Frank was left alone at the original intersection.

• From Frank’s perspective, Philomena had been with him and then was suddenly gone.

• Frank’s mind struggled with multiple versions of events and people:

  • two versions of Matthew,
  • two versions of Justin,
  • and now two versions of Philomena.

• Frank focused on Philomena and tried to find where she had gone.

• He lost Sanity and Willpower from the attempt.

• Frank arrived in Cool’s world with Philomena.

• He saw Matthew entering the tower and saw the signs of the explosion around the entrance.

• The crowd that had fled the tower had cleared away, leaving the agents as the only people currently at the scene.

• Frank drew his sidearm and followed Matthew and Philomena into the tower.

Justin was several floors above the tower entrance.

• He was in a very well-appointed living area with:

  • a large leather couch,
  • high-end academic décor,
  • many bookshelves,
  • comfortable seating,
  • and a fireplace.

• Justin had seen Matthew fire the grenade launcher and heard the explosion from the window.

• Justin decided to stay put and wait for Matthew to catch up.

• He hid himself away in a corner and prepared to pretend to be someone who belonged there but was hiding from the armed intruder.

• If he saw Matthew, he planned to flag him down.

Matthew entered the ground floor lobby of the tower.

• There was a reception desk.

• The receptionist did not react to the chaos outside until Matthew approached.

• She looked up, smiled, and asked if he had an appointment with Dr. Cool.

• Matthew ignored her and went toward the elevators.

• The receptionist shifted her attention to Philomena and asked the same question.

• The receptionist was passingly similar to Vicki King.

• The tower had:

  • elevators,
  • an emergency stairwell,
  • floors labeled as research labs,
  • a graduate student floor,
  • Cool’s living quarters,
  • and Cool’s office at the top.

• Matthew chose to take the elevator to Cool’s office on the top floor.

• Frank and Philomena followed.

• Justin saw one of the elevators pass his floor and continue upward.

• Justin waited long enough to see it stop on the top floor, then took an elevator up as well.

The group reached Cool’s office.

• Matthew, Frank, and Philomena arrived first.

• Justin joined them roughly 20 or 30 seconds later.

• They had still not encountered anyone else inside the tower.

• The top floor was the largest and most lavishly furnished area they had seen.

• The office had:

  • polished hardwoods,
  • leather furnishings,
  • tasteful high-quality furniture,
  • a cathedral-like ceiling roughly three stories high,
  • wood balconies about 15 to 20 feet up,
  • and two levels of bookshelves lining the walls.

• A desk stood at one end of the office.

• The dominant feature of the room was a huge polished hardwood table with a large coffin-sized contraption on it.

• The device was made of bronze, iron, machinery, gold gears, copper wiring, and large crystals.

• It included a gyroscope with calipers attached to it, clutching a large prism at the center.

• A large metal hand crank extended from one end.

• Electrical leads and cables trailed from the device over the edge of the table and connected to a high-voltage industrial outlet.

• The device emitted an audible electric hum.

• Two books sat on the table in front of the machine:

  • one open,
  • one closed.

Philomena examined the books.

• The open book looked older, handwritten, and bound.
• Based on Philomena’s background, she estimated it was from the mid-to-late 1800s.
• Its title page identified it as a manual for the operation and construction of the Atherophone by Erich Zann.
• The second book was modern, printed, and mass-produced.
• Its title was Meaning Without Master.
• Its author was Wesley Cool.
• Philomena briefly examined the introduction and table of contents.
• The beginning of Cool’s book appeared to be a primer on Picky Eater and the ideas behind it.
• The first quarter or third seemed to be a history and set of essays by Cool about Picky Eater.
• The remaining two-thirds appeared to contain mathematical proofs and instructions for making one’s own Picky Eater.
• The latter portions were extremely mathematically dense.

The group tried to determine what to do with the device.

• Justin suggested reading how the device worked and then possibly destroying it with the grenade launcher.
• Frank suggested pulling crystals out of it.
• Matthew said they clearly needed to use the lightning rifle.
• Philomena looked for a way to cut power.
• The device was plugged into a high-voltage source in the wall.
• Philomena threw the switch or breaker.
• The electric hum did not stop.
• They concluded it might be powered from another world, or that the power source existed in more than one reality.
• Frank pulled the heavy power cable from the wall.
• The device still continued to hum.

Justin examined the Atherophone manual.

• The page it was open to gave the basic operating directions.

• The instructions were brief and amounted to:

  • stare at the crystal,
  • turn the crank,
  • and “think on the spheres.”

• The group did not yet know what “the spheres” meant.

Philomena recalled the story the children had told about crossing between realities.

• The children had described a place of mist and clouds.

• The sky had a strange color they could not name.

• There were many large stone blocks.

• There was an old sleeping man beside a strange machine that looked like an inside-out computer.

• The old man woke when the girls prodded him and told them to go away because he was waiting for someone.

• Another figure appeared from the mist:

  • very tall,
  • robed,
  • face hidden by a heavy hood.

• The tall robed figure shushed the old man when he tried to speak.

• The tall figure spoke in ways that did not make sense to the children.

• The children pleaded with the figure because they wanted to know more about where they came from.

• Then they found themselves back at the house where the agents later found them.

• Philomena concluded that the strange place from the children’s story might be where they needed to go.

Frank and Matthew favored destroying the Atherophone rather than using it.

• Frank said he thought Philomena was crazy and that they needed to destroy the device and end it.
• Matthew agreed.
• Before anyone acted, the agents found their eyes drawn to the large prism at the device’s core.
• The light playing through the room revealed wire filaments running through the inside of the prism.
• The agents recognized the Picky Eater circuit in the prism, rendered larger and in three dimensions.
• The part of the circuit that had appeared as a blurred hologram before was now clearly visible.
• They could make out the shapes of both sigils at the heart of the circuit.
• Philomena took photographs of the device and the sigils.

Matthew tried the lightning rifle against the Atherophone.

• He told everyone to get behind cover.
• The others backed away across the room.
• Matthew fired the lightning rifle at the machine.
• The rifle discharged with a crack and a boom of superheated air.
• Lightning arced across the room and played over the device.
• The energy dissipated.
• The device appeared no worse for wear.

Frank tried shooting the central crystal with his handgun.

• The bullet struck the crystal and ricocheted.
• A second impact sounded from above where the round hit after bouncing away.
• The crystal showed no visible damage.

The group decided to throw the Atherophone out the window.

• They shattered a window by shooting it and smashing it out with a chair.
• Working together, they pushed the device off the table, moved it to the window, and tipped it out.
• The machine fell from at least ten stories up.
• It struck the ground with a heavy boom.
• It did not explode or shatter.
• From above, it still appeared largely intact.
• The group went down to inspect it.
• When they reached the ground, the Atherophone was still intact and still humming.
• Some peripheral crystals had been bent or knocked out of position.
• Some of the metal had been rent and bent.
• The impact showed the device was not indestructible, but the core remained functional.

The crowd outside began reacting to the damaged device.

• People started walking toward the agents.
• They looked curious and concerned.
• Someone asked whether the fallen object was Dr. Cool’s invention.
• Others asked what the agents were doing to it, where Dr. Cool was, and whether they were interfering with his work.
• Matthew displayed a recognizable rifle and shouted that it was a crime scene, ordering people to get back.
• The crowd continued closing in.

Matthew used the grenade launcher against the Atherophone.

• He backed away far enough to fire safely and shot the machine with a grenade.
• The blast damaged it and sent pieces flying, but the machine remained mostly intact.
• The crowd continued moving toward it.
• One person ran forward and threw themselves on top of the device as a human shield.
• More people piled onto or around it to protect it.
• Matthew hesitated because firing again would kill people.
• The group debated whether the people counted as innocent, fully real, or mentally enslaved by Cool’s reality.
• Matthew concluded that the people of this world were essentially dead or soulless mental slaves, with no indication they could ever change.
• He fired again.
• The grenade killed several people shielding the device.
• Limbs and body parts flew from the blast.
• The remaining people around the device were stunned and rattled.
• Matthew continued firing grenades until no intact people remained on the device.
• Body parts were left on and around the machine.
• The crowd was gone.

The Atherophone was heavily damaged but not fully destroyed.

• The main prism remained intact.
• Many peripheral parts were scattered and broken.
• The wooden base or core was cracked, scorched, and full of holes.
• The prism was attached by heavy gold calipers at the ends and middle.
• Frank examined whether the calipers could be opened or detached.
• There was no obvious screw, hinge, or mechanism for opening them.
• The device’s construction did not reveal how the prism had been mounted.

Philomena tried to sense whether destroying the machine had changed the state of reality.

• She focused on the veil between realities.
• She still sensed the world they had come from.
• Nothing felt better or worse.
• She tried to mentally search for a reality that contained a way to destroy the machine.
• She could sense only the group’s original world and Cool’s world.
• She found no other reality to draw on for a solution.

Matthew continued damaging the Atherophone with the grenade launcher.

• He fired until his ammunition was nearly gone.
• His final grenade dislodged the prism and scattered it away from the machine.
• The entire device cracked apart into multiple pieces.
• The central prism remained intact and unscarred.
• Nothing changed in the larger state of reality.
• The prism continued audibly humming.
• The crank had been blown loose and was no longer connected to the machine.
• Philomena considered whether the crank could be reseated.
• It could be put back into part of the damaged machine, but the mechanism did not function in its current state.
• Looking inside the broken housing, she saw loose mechanical parts that might be repairable, but the machine would not currently operate.

Frank picked up the central prism.

• It did not physically vibrate, but part of him felt as though it did.
• The Picky Eater circuit was inscribed within the prism in three dimensions.
• The sigils were still visible.
• Frank placed the prism on the ground and shot it with his handgun to see if it was only protected while mounted in the machine.
• The bullet ricocheted again.
• The prism remained undamaged.
• Frank concluded that simple physical destruction was likely not possible.

The group reconsidered the manual.

• Justin, with his technical background, realized the manual might contain more information than the brief operating instructions on the open page.
• The group returned to the top floor of the tower to study the manual more thoroughly.
• They spent days in Cool’s tower reading and working.
• The tower remained comfortable, but being in Cool’s reality was not restful.
• The agents remembered sleeping, but did not feel as if they had experienced sleep.
• They did not recover Willpower.
• They could still feel their original world behind the membrane of Cool’s world, beckoning and thrashing.

Justin studied the Atherophone manual.

• The manual’s directions were relatively clear.
• It became apparent that the prism was the real machine.
• The rest of the device existed to make the prism work and empower it.
• The crank turned a mechanical device inside the housing.
• The construction resembled a music box.
• The mechanism turned gears and plucked metal bars to make specific tones.
• Those tones interacted with the prism.
• The manual did not explain the deeper mechanism of how the sound affected the prism.
• The construction did not seem extraordinary in ordinary engineering terms, but it was very particular about materials and spacing.
• The manual included music theory to ensure the right notes were produced by each turn of the gear.
• The “music of the spheres” was explained as the stars and planets strewn throughout the universe.
• The operator was meant to envision the impossible expanse of an infinite universe.

Frank suggested that the original music-box mechanism might be unnecessary if they could reproduce the correct notes.

• He reasoned that the gears and timing existed to create reliable tones.
• If the necessary tones could be produced electronically, a synthesizer might work.
• Justin noted that faking part of what was effectively a spell could be dangerous.
• The group still decided to try the synthesizer approach before rebuilding the exact mechanism.
• They had no phones because their own had been destroyed or abandoned.
• Justin planned to scavenge a phone and laptop from people outside.

Philomena read Meaning Without Master while Justin studied the manual.

• She failed a Sanity roll and lost Sanity from reading Cool’s book.
• Cool’s book laid out, for a lay audience, the inherent falseness of reality.
• It argued that the reader did not exist in any meaningful sense, nor did Cool as the author.
• It claimed that there was something that could be considered true reality, but that it was hidden and inaccessible.
• Cool wrote that reaching true reality was his goal.
• The book contained dense philosophical arguments about why the distinction between existence and non-existence was never meaningful.
• Cool wrote of seeking Tawil at’Unr, the All-is-One, the Gate and the Key.
• He described Tawil at’Unr as the gateway and keeper between reality and true reality.
• Cool argued that what people think of as reality is only a veneer created by attempts to comprehend or interface with true reality.
• According to Cool, any mind able to access the true heart of existence could craft any reality it desired through thought.
• Philomena recognized some of the ideas from prior exposure to the unnatural.
• Her Occult and Unnatural knowledge increased.
• The mathematical sections remained inaccessible to her.
• The latter parts of the book appeared to describe how Picky Eater works and how to create it.

Justin built a synthetic version of the Atherophone’s music.

• He scavenged a phone and laptop from people outside the tower.

• He wrote software to reproduce the tones described in the manual.

• He spent time double-checking the sound, timing, and setup.

• He prepared a simple button on the laptop to play the pattern.

• The group gathered around the prism.

• They planned to stare into the crystal and think about the spheres while the synthesized tones played.

• Frank stared into the crystal and thought about the vastness of space:

  • stars,
  • planets,
  • and the infinite universe.

• The others joined in.

Justin activated the synthesized tones.

• The speaker played the pattern described by the manual.
• The crystal glowed.
• The filament within it burned with light.
• The crystal began emitting the sound back at them.
• The pattern layered on top of itself again and again.
• The music recursed and exponentially multiplied.
• It was not a cacophony.
• It became a music of creation itself, heard by few or none before.
• The agents suffered Sanity loss from the sound.
• Frank and Justin both critically failed their Sanity rolls.
• The agents’ vision was drawn into the heart of the prism.
• They felt as though they were racing along the circuit itself, following the filaments and intricate patterns around and around.
• Vertigo overtook them.
• The music of the abyss overwhelmed them.
• When their vision returned, the crystal and Justin’s cobbled-together device were gone.

The agents found themselves in an alien place.

• Light of an indescribable color filtered down from a sky that seemed almost volumeless.
• The light moved across things and through their eyes in contradictory directions.
• The glow seemed to play across stone and mist as if it were intelligent or alive.
• Fog stirred along the ground.
• Strange shoals of stone emerged from the fog.
• Vast shallow pools of perfectly still water reflected the alien light.
• Towering masses of rock stood according to some alien law of geometry or geology.
• Faces were carved into the stones.
• The faces belonged to things the agents had never seen, only barely recognizable as faces.
• Not far away, in the fog, they saw a bearded, weathered, mostly naked version of the man from the inside cover of Meaning Without Master: Dr. Wesley Cool.
• Cool sat on the ground, leaning against a stone.
• Another Atherophone sat nearby.
• Its cables and wires sprawled off into the distance, disappearing into the fog.
• The web of cables seemed to expand outward from that place.

The agents approached Dr. Cool.

• Cool appeared almost unconscious, unaware, or zombified.
• His hand rested on the crank of the Atherophone.
• He was just finishing a turn.
• The tones from the machine faded.
• His eyes focused as if he were emerging from a coma or fugue state.
• He saw the agents and cocked his head in confusion.
• Philomena greeted him as Dr. Cool.
• Cool confirmed he was Dr. Wesley Cool.
• He asked whether they were followers of his and whether someone had finally bridged the gap and followed his work.
• Philomena said they had bridged the gap.
• Cool congratulated them and said they were closer than ever to truly existing.
• He said he needed to take one more step and speak again to the All-is-One.

Philomena questioned Cool about Tawil at’Unr.

• Philomena used the name from Cool’s book.
• Cool reacted with excitement and said she did know.
• He commended her academics.
• Cool said that with more of them congregating there, the entity would have to address them.
• He said it had spoken to him when he came and that he thought it would speak to them too.
• He said they just needed to wait.

Philomena asked Cool about the two children who had previously come to the alien place.

• Cool was surprised and said he had thought the children were a dream.
• Philomena assured him they were not.
• Cool said the entity did speak to them, though he did not know what they discussed.
• Frank told Cool the children were trying to find him, their father.
• Cool dismissed that as of little consequence.
• He said the children had answered the entity’s questions incorrectly.
• He said that, being children, they could not have been well-read enough.
• He said they vanished within moments of appearing there.

Justin asked what questions the entity had asked Cool.

• Cool said it asked fundamental things:

  • what are good and evil,
  • what is reality,
  • and what is substance.

• Cool said the questions burned into his mind and that he would never forget them.

• He said he told the entity he wished to craft any world and make anything he could think of real and true.

• The entity granted that wish, and he had been there ever since.

• Cool said it had not been what he thought it would be.

• He had wanted to walk among worlds like an architect, envisioning every detail and feeling it come to life around him.

• Instead, the process was more indirect and difficult.

• He said he was still learning to control it.

• He believed the great flaw he needed to overcome was the weakness of being human.

• He said humans were only animals and that he was on the verge of being more.

A robed figure began to form.

• Cool looked into the fog and said the entity was coming.

• Fog accumulated atop a mound of cubic stones inscribed with alien symbols.

• The fog took shape as a tall hooded figure like the one the children had described.

• Justin asked where they were.

• Cool said he thought this place was the All-is-One, Tawil at’Unr.

• He said humans were simple compared to it, so it needed to make a face, an interface they could understand.

• The robed figure climbed down from the stones.

• It moved like a spider:

  • gliding through the air,
  • dropping down,
  • and approaching through the stones and mist.

• The figure was over seven feet tall.

• It wore heavy robes that hid all details of its body.

• Its hood hung low, leaving only darkness where a face should have been.

• The robes dragged across the ground.

• Those who succeeded at observing its movement realized it was obviously not human.

• Beneath the robes, movement suggested at least three arms, possibly more.

Justin asked Cool what anchored them to the place.

• Cool seemed confused by the question.
• He said they had arrived and that nothing else was real.
• He said if they wished to return and live among one of “those places” again, the All-is-One might grant that or teach them how.
• He said they were no longer things of those places, which were not really even places.

Cool performed a rite before the entity.

• Cool rushed forward to meet the robed figure.
• He knelt, bowed his head, stood, and performed a few formal motions.
• The motions were simple enough to reproduce.
• Once he completed the rite, the entity stopped before him and observed him.
• Cool rushed closer.
• The entity stooped over him.
• Cool appeared to speak to it, though the others heard nothing.
• After a moment, a shaft of brilliant light descended from the sky.
• Cool was enveloped in blinding light and vanished.
• The agents perceived this like light unmaking a shadow: not destroying it by force, but making it unable to exist.
• The agents suffered Sanity loss from witnessing Cool’s disappearance.
• After Cool vanished, the robed entity stopped, waited, and observed the remaining agents.

Philomena approached the entity.

• She watched Cool’s rite carefully and repeated the same motions.
• The entity did not acknowledge her until she completed the rite.
• Once she finished, it craned its head down and seemed to notice her.
• The entity asked whether she came as a creature of truth.
• Philomena answered that she did.
• The entity described “hunters and prey,” “servants and nourishment,” and “slaves to a one that found the hungers of eternity.”
• It asked whether she had come to glimpse, for a dying instant, the timeless scope of creation.
• Philomena said she had come to fix the thinning veils between the realities she came from.
• The entity said it was all the same fabric.
• It asked her what good and evil were.
• Philomena answered that they were two sides of the same coin, and that she was not certain anymore.
• The entity asked what reality was and what substance was.
• Philomena answered that they were what she could feel or perceive.
• The entity made a rasping grunt.
• It said she claimed to be a creature of truth, but her answers showed she was unknown to the truth.
• It said such things must strive between madness and evil lest they be ruled by those twin tyrants.
• It asked where the border lay between madness and evil.
• It said it was madness to cross the threshold and evil not to seek the threshold.
• It asked which she chose.
• Philomena said she sought the threshold.
• The entity said the threshold would be revealed.
• The robe folded inward.
• The environment inverted, enveloped Philomena, and recursed around her.
• Philomena became one with a fractal eruption of awareness and power.
• She was joined to something that inhabited every reality and was every reality: the gate to every world and the key to every gate.
• For one brief instant, she was one with everything.
• Philomena critically failed the Sanity roll and lost 100 Sanity.
• To the other agents, Philomena spoke with the entity and then vanished in a flash of brilliant light, like Cool before her.

Frank reacted to Philomena’s disappearance.

• Frank was already under severe mental strain.
• Watching Philomena vanish drove him into temporary insanity.
• He chose to submit rather than flee or fight.
• He approached the entity and performed the rite.
• The entity craned its head down at him.
• It told Frank he was “the same.”
• It repeated the imagery of hunters and prey, servants and nourishment, and slaves to one that found the hunger of eternity.
• It asked whether he had come to glimpse the timeless scope of creation.
• Frank, because of his mental state, answered submissively: “Yes, whatever you wish.”
• The entity said one like it had no wish, that it was a spark.
• It asked whether Frank came as a creature of truth.
• Frank said yes.
• The entity asked what good and evil were.
• Frank answered that good was what the entity was and evil was what humans were.
• The entity said perhaps he was not as known to the truth as he thought.
• It said creatures unknown to the truth must strive between madness and evil lest they be ruled by those twin tyrants.
• It asked whether Frank chose to cross the threshold or not.
• Frank said he just wanted to go home.
• The entity said it offered one alternative: to rejoin the All-is-One and seek ceaseless dreams in the infinite, a truer existence than the one he sought.
• Frank answered, “Yes, if it is your will.”
• The entity nodded.
• To the others, Frank spoke with the entity and then the entity touched him.
• Frank flowed outward and became part of the mist.
• Frank was gone.

Justin responded to Frank’s disappearance.

• Justin still had his medication for phase shifting.
• In the high-pressure situation, and wanting guidance from his god, Justin took the pills.
• The drugs needed time to take effect.
• Matthew remained standing with the lightning rifle in hand.
• Justin told Matthew he was waiting for the pills to kick in and that Matthew could go first if he wanted.
• As the medication took effect, Justin became sleepy, disoriented, semi-conscious, curled up on the ground, and incoherent.
• He was not communing with his god.
• He could not meaningfully communicate.

Matthew tried to deal with the Atherophone and cables.

• The Atherophone remained in the alien place.
• It was still humming.
• Its cables sprawled outward into the mist and water.
• Matthew examined whether there was an obvious power source.
• There was not; there were only many cables connected to the machine and extending away.
• Matthew began cutting and disconnecting the cables.
• As he cut one cable and it fell, more cables crawled or shot out to reconnect.
• Matthew tried to cut faster than they could regrow.
• The entity watched but did not interfere.
• Matthew became exhausted from the effort.
• He cut himself in the process.
• He failed to outpace the regrowth.
• He lost Willpower from the exertion.
• He ended the attempt panting, sweating, surrounded by heaps of severed cables, with many more still sprawling out.
• Reduced to very low Willpower, Matthew broke down sobbing.
• He asked if there had to be another way.

Matthew questioned the entity.

• He asked what he was supposed to say and said he wanted things to go back to normal.
• The entity said the rite had been performed.
• Matthew understood this referred to the formal motions Cool, Philomena, and Frank had performed.
• He asked whether performing the rite would send him back to his own world or theirs.
• The entity answered that it was a matter of his nature.
• It asked whether he was true or untrue.
• Matthew asked what his nature was.
• The entity said it would be known if he performed the rite.
• Matthew said this version of McCarter was more true than the others.
• He performed the bowing and hand-sign rite as best he could.

Matthew spoke with the entity.

• The entity asked whether he came as a creature of truth.
• Matthew answered, “Yes. True as I know.”
• The entity asked what good and evil were.
• Matthew answered, “Lies.”
• The entity asked what reality was.
• Matthew answered, “Sure today, I think more lies.”
• The entity asked what substance was.
• Matthew answered, “Substance is mind.”
• The entity said Matthew had the look of a creature of truth.
• It asked whether Matthew would rejoin the All-is-One to seek ceaseless dreams in the infinite.
• It asked whether, being hungry as he was, he would seek the freedom of a hunt never ending.
• It also allowed that he might seek something else.
• Matthew said he wanted their world.
• He said he wanted to be away from his own world.
• He said that if the entity spoke of dreams, his world was a nightmare.
• Matthew found himself by a dumpster in an alleyway.
• It was daytime.
• He was exhausted.
• People walked by on a sidewalk at the end of the alley.
• He saw the outline of a building on the MIT campus that he had seen in one or more realities.
• His memories of the people he had been with began fading.
• He remembered that there had been people and vaguely remembered their names.
• The tug and pull between realities was gone.
• Matthew McCarter was once again the only survivor.

Justin eventually woke up alone in the alien place.

• The Atherophone was still present.
• Heaps of loose cables lay around it, but many cables still sprawled outward.
• The robed entity was gone.
• Matthew was gone.
• Philomena was gone.
• Frank was gone.
• Justin called out into the void for the entity to reappear.
• Tawil at’Unr reformed on the rocky stone spires and returned to stand before him.
• Justin asked where his comrades had gone.
• The entity answered that each had sought their own truth.
• Justin asked whether they had done so successfully.
• The entity gave no useful reassurance.
• Justin said that, without the guidance of his god, he would submit to the trial of truth.
• He performed the rite.

Justin spoke with the entity.

• The entity said Justin was different from the others.

• It called him:

  • a priest,
  • a beacon,
  • and a candle drawing in a hungry beast.

• It asked whether Justin was a creature of truth.

• Justin said he thought so.

• The entity asked what good and evil were.

• Justin answered that good was something felt deep within, a feeling that pulled and guided one toward righteousness.

• The entity said Justin’s eyes were veiled and that he was unknown to the truth.

• It said he must strive between madness and evil lest he be ruled by those twin tyrants.

• It asked where the border lay between madness and evil.

• It said it was madness to cross the threshold and evil not to seek the threshold.

• It asked whether Justin chose to cross or not.

• Justin chose to cross the threshold.

• The entity’s robes fluttered, turned inward, and turned inside out.

• What was inside revealed itself as everything and all things.

• Justin was enveloped by creation itself.

• He became part of a fractal eruption of awareness and power extending through all realities.

• He became aware of the gate to every world and the key to every gate.

• Justin failed the Sanity roll and lost 64 Sanity.

• This reduced him to zero Sanity.

• There was nothing left of the thing called Justin Smith.

• Justin was gone.

The session ended with Matthew McCarter as the sole surviving agent from this sequence.

• Philomena was exposed to the threshold and lost herself in the revelation.
• Frank accepted the entity’s offer to rejoin the All-is-One and dissolved into the mist.
• Justin crossed the threshold, was exposed to the totality of creation, and was erased as a person.
• Matthew, after answering the entity’s questions differently and asking for the others’ world rather than his own, was returned to an alley near MIT.
• Matthew’s memories of the others were already fading.
• The dimensional tug was gone.