The Baron's Third Test

Metaphysical / Paranormal event

A scientist may claim that they see farther for having stood on the shoulders of giants, but such thinking is idealistic, for rather than the shoulders of giants, we stand atop a pile of corpses and sacrifices. For one who can do more, has bereft the opportunity from another to do the same.

The third ploy by which the baron had drawn the attention of the more powerful exploration members by a simple measure of refracting the land around it, by giving alternative visions of what was and what wasn't, it became quickly and unnaturaly dangerous for those to go questiong to the area, and thus the veilbreakers was once again forced to rely on those that had the highest powers, and thus give in to the baron's unspoken desires.   This reality was a fractal image of things that were not, or could not exist, and would shape to best tap and draw out the innate force of those who came by, though those who lacked the appropiate spark would never be able to find such development. For those that came - Marrok, Pennie, and Anise, they would encounter rooms which contradicted the very essence that had grown within them.   The lich at the entrance, of course had a desire and willingness to explain such a test, however - having used more than 10 words to explain his thoughts, had lost the interest of Anise who walked over him, and proceeded directly to one of the following doors. Thus leaving his dramatic words unspoken, and a lich - once again, very depressed for lack of having the opportunity to speak them.   Pennie's room was simplistic, for she had long sought to weave the threads of history together and form a tapestry of knowledge. Thus, her room was chaos, as resulted from ignorance. Without words to define what was inside the room, the room had scattered and lost meaning.   Only by putting the room to words was organization achieved, and definition allowing the halls of books to define and sort themselves as they recorded the many knowledges that had been present there. Though it was mazelike and maddening, it carried a hidden secret to it, a reward for Pennie, as cultivated by the god's presence who lingered there. Supportive of the one he had found as a vessel for his will.   Marrok's room, was far more dangerous by comparison - riddled with cancerous plants and creatures alike, the very ground ached and grew in eternal chaos, For without destruction, things simply grew rapidly and randomly. The room was given destruction however, as it's denizens were teleported by Anise into the Lich's throneroom (much to his great ire), whilst the land itself was then hypercharged by constant bursts of illusory positive energy.   Creatively, Pennie stepped in to apply her own resolution to the matter, attuning the room away from the positive energy that should have healed it, towards negative energy that would harm it. Thus, with an evolutionary display, the plants grew in strange and dnagerous shapes, developing teeth and fangs, and canablizing each other rapidly.   Eventually, the chaos grew so destructive and disorganized, that the entire room began to destroy itself, each devouring another, until the goal of 'destruction' had been achieved, and Marrok reminded of the importance of his acts within the world, just as much as it was left to his judgement on the dangers of excess in one direction or another.   The final room - belonging to Anise, hypothesized the death of time itself, for it laid in opposition to her chronal presence, and if there was no time, then nothing would exist - everything all at once, and nothing all at once, an experience that would tear apart reality and return it to void.   Something that the room desired and attempted to achieve, unleashing haunted spirits that had merely a moment of time in which they existed and attempted to hunt down and kill those who had time, yet by killing them, a causality occured. If something happened before another thing, then time in fact did exist, and by slaying all of the creatures, they were able to move the time within the room forward again.   Yet this was only a test - only a fraction of the truth, for if reality had truly ever gone to such a state, none could even hope to recover it, and even fragmented, even not allowed to fully manifest, that which had hated reality as it had existed still presisted outside of reach, and outside of knowledge.   The reward, as offered by the lich was to encourage this internal growth and development, to understand for these explorers that a world without any law, and a world without it's basic realities would become quickly irreparable and deeply unpleasant, striking an importance to them that they carry on not just with adventuring, but with more importantly - choosing to be themselves, for if you exist in the darkness, then if your light disappears, none will shine in the way that you have.