jdnd/ideas/Chamber.md

Prelude

Darius tells the PCs that Rennick is in the chamber. She explains that Rennick and his manifestations are reflexively defensive and that they've learned to be hostile to Signers, and that she's already lost some faction members trying to extricate him. She thinks that if the PCs bring Signers along, they'll get a more hostile reaction than if they go alone. So Darius refuses to send Signers along with the PCs. Instead, she instructs one of her assistants to lead the PCs into the basement, but the PCs won't be led the whole way: they'll have to go the last few hundred feet themselves.

Darius also warns the PCs that manifestations can actually exit the chamber and continute to exist for a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how complicated the manifestations are. So, she cautions, there may be some weird phenomena before they even get there.

Lost in the basement

Outside the chamber there are no overt manifestations, but there is one very subtle one: the portal to the chamber is disguised as just more hallway. The PCs enter the chamber, but they don't know they have. Beyond the portal, they see what appears to be just more hallways in the basement of the hall of speakers.

Along the sides of the hallways they start to see doors that lead into rooms. The first room appears to be a classroom. The next, an office with a desk and lots of papers and books, but the papers and books are all blank. Continue to invent random empty rooms as necessary.

As the PCs wander, the hallways get increasingly twisty and weird, and the PCs should have long since figured out that they're in the chamber.

The PCs turn a corner, and the walls around this corner have a different appearance: they look like the labyrinth below castle Green. They imagine the feeling of a presence in the labyrinth, just as they did last time. If they try to communicate with the presence, a scroll appears: the scroll says, "A conversation will cost you 5gp".

If the PCs wander further, they come to a steel door. The steel door has 5 coin slots in it. Putting a gold piece into each one causes the door to open, and an imaginary version of Rico Sparks steps forth.

Talking to Rico Sparks

Rico is his usual cheerful self. He knows that he's a figment, and it doesn't seem to bother him. he says:

"I manifested just about 10 minutes ago. When I did, I wandered around hallways that looked like the basement of the hall of speakers, then they changed to look like a wooden labyrinth (the labyrinth under Castle Green). Then Rennick popped out of a door - I don't know how I recognized him, but I did. I introduced myself, and I asked Rennick how to get out of this maze, and Rennick said, "I'm just as lost as you, this isn't from my imagination." Rennick and I walked together for a few minutes, but then he was gone. Then, I encountered a steel door, and now we're all here."

He says, "but I guess I haven't really done anything to earn my 5gp, hm. Got any questions for me?" He is able to answer any reasonable question that a tout can normally answer. He doesn't know too much about the chamber, but he's willing to investigate. He says, "I won't even charge the hourly rate for investigation, given that you're probably going to pay me in imaginary money anyway." He asks the PCs if there's anything in particular they want investigated.

Rico, despite being a figment, is perfectly capable of being a competent tout. He can move around independently inside the chamber, and he will ask questions and follow up on whatever the PCs want investigated. As a figment, Rico has an unfortunate tendency to just "not be there" when you look away for a few moments, but he's not gone forever, he's just somewhere else in the chamber.

You, the DM, can use Rico to help keep things moving whenever the PCs get stuck. He can appear and offer useful information or advice. Use your judgement about when he should appear: it should only be when things are bogging down and the PCs need a boost.

Meeting Some Clones

After Rico vanishes, four clones of Rennick emerge from a doorway. The PCs can talk to the clones. They freely admit that they aren't the real Rennick.

Clones have shared knowledge: anything you tell any clone is known by all clones, and by Rennick himself. The clones have no individual survival instinct. There are an infinite number of clones, so losing a single clone means nothing. But collectively, they don't want "the clones" to stop existing.

The clones can discuss anything that the real Rennick would be able to discuss:

• They can explain the logic of hiding in the demiplane.

• They will probably express some fears about Crow. They don't know that Crow is dead yet.

• They can explain that no, Rennick didn't deliberately conjure a bunch of clones, it kinda just happened when a bunch of Signers tried to force him out, and he needed numbers to fight back.

• They can speculate about where the real Rennick is - probably in his office in the courthouse?

• They aren't sure about how to get to the courthouse, but they say that the landscape in here is pretty mutable, and the courthouse is important, so it will probably just show up.

If the PCs tell Rennick that Crow is dead, Rennick will demand some evidence. If the PCs provide anything reasonable, the Rennicks will get real quiet for a moment, then one of them will say, "so... there's no reason to stay in here any more, is there."

They are suddenly realizing that this means that Rennick can leave, which means the clones would cease to exist.

A moment after this realization, all four clones just pop out of existence.

The Courthouse Square

The PCs emerge from the labyrinth into the courthouse square. The square is filled with "people" moving around, doing things, just like it would be if the PCs were really in Sigil. But looking too closely at any one person, or trying to talk to one of them, causes that person to fade into vapor and drift away.

The reason for this is that these people are part of Rennick's imagination, but he hasn't bothered to imagine them individually, he has only imagined "a square full of people." These individuals simply don't have any details, because they weren't imagined in full.

If the PCs look carefully, there are a few Rennick clones in the square. Any effort to contact them will cause them to rush into doorways and vanish.

On one side of the courthouse square is the courthouse. It looks the same as it does in Sigil. Surrounding the other sides of the square are a variety of administrative buildings and some restaurants.

Entering any building other than the courthouse will cause the building to be revealed as a facade. It's just a flat cutout with a doorway. On the other side are some logs propping up the facade, and beyond that, an endless sea of giant gears, as you would find if you were in mechanus. If the PCs want, they can go back through the facade to reenter the square, or they can explore the sea of gears.

If the PCs are in the square and they try to approach the courthouse, the courthouse quickly recedes. The square gets much, much bigger. The people dissipate. The courthouse rises up on top of a huge, steep hill, and a 100-foot wide moat forms around it. Two more hills with two more moats appear: there is nothing on top of the other two hills.

The square is much larger now, but it's still feasible to cross it on foot. It just takes a good 15 minutes. It's possible to walk up to the moat. The building-facades that surround the square are still there, and it is still possible to go through to the sea of gears.

There are basically two directions the PCs can go now: toward the courthouse, or into the Sea of Gears.

Approaching the Courthouse: Attempt 1

The PCs can cross the moat, if they can figure out some way to do it. Swimming is problematic: the moat contains biting fish. Flying works. Walking on water works. Building a boat could work, although there's not much to build a boat from.

Assuming the PCs figure out some way to cross, they end up at the base of the very steep hill, which gets steeper as soon as they touch it. They have to climb cliffs. Ask the PCs to make a variety of DEX and STR rolls as they climb.

All of this difficulty is defenses that Rennick imagined, unconsciously. It is all here to protect him from Crow, and from the various people trying to eject him from the visualization chamber.

When the PCs finally get 80% of the way up the hill, the entire courthouse gets up baba-yaga-style and walks over to one of the other three hills.

Underneath where the courthouse was sitting are stairs leading down into the basement of the hall of speakers. Yes, under the courthouse is the basement of the hall of speakers. If the PCs go down, they find themselves back in the labyrinth where they entered the chamber.

Sitting on the stairs is a signer: his name is Carruth.

Meeting Carruth

Carruth is not a figment of anyone's imagination: it's a real person. He and his squad were sent in by factol Darius to try to extricate Rennick. He got separated from his group and now he's stuck in here. He's exhausted, he's been in here a week trying to unravel the knots, and he's getting nowhere. Fortunately for him, the Rennick clones have been bringing him food and water.

Carruth explains that Rennick has a pretty vivid imagination: definitely in the top 10%. He says that Rennick is good at weaponizing his imagination: most people imagine things that may or may not be helpful, but Rennick seems to be mainly imagining things that are effective for protecting him. He points out the moat, the steep hill, the courthouse that walks away - he says all of that is designed to keep Rennick from being nabbed.

He says, "one thing I'm grateful for is that there have been a few attacks, but they've all been pretty half-hearted. Rennick just doesn't have the mindset of a killer. Thank goodness."

However, Carruth points out that no matter how disciplined we are, we don't have total control over our imaginations. He says: "I have no doubt that Rennick's greatest fears are all in here too."

As soon as he says "Rennick's greatest fears," there's a rumble, and Carruth says: "oh, I shouldn't have mentioned his Greatest Fears." Then he points to the skyline: it's Crow, and he's approaching.

As soon as Crow appears on the horizon, a few Rennick clones emerge from the labyrinth and say, "come down here, he won't come down here." If the PCs reenter the labyrinth, they don't have to fight Crow. If they refuse, they do.

The Sea of Gears

The Desk

The PCs enter a room with grey walls. In the center of the room is a grey desk, with an inbox and an outbox. There is a big stack of grey papers in the inbox, there's an inkwell full of grey ink, and a quill. There's a grey chair.

You would think that Crow would be Rennick's greatest fear. No. Crow is Rennick's immediate-short-term fear. The Desk is Rennick's greatest fear.

As soon as Lada sees the Desk, she stiffens up, and says: "Don't touch that desk. Don't touch anything. We should get out of here." This is one of her greatest fears too.

If anyone touches the desk, their hand immediately fuses to the desk. If anyone sits in the chair, their body immediately fuses to the chair. If anyone picks up the quill, their hand fuses. If somebody sits in the chair, and touches the desk, their eyes glaze over. They pick up a paper from the inbox, write on it with grey ink on grey paper (leaving no mark), and then they put it in the outbox. They continue, automaton-like, forever.

This is Rennick's greatest fear: that he will work a desk job, filling out paper after paper, but never accomplishing anything meaningful, and leaving no mark on the universe.

If you touch a small object like the quill or a piece of paper, then separating your hand from the object is possible with a sharp knife: 2D6 damage. Separating your hand from the desk is also possible with a sharp knife: 3D6 damage. But if somebody sits in the chair, and their whole body fuses to the chair, it's too much: a knife isn't going to do it.

Once somebody is in this state, there's only one cure. One of Rennick's clones enters via the door and says, "move aside." Then he speaks to the Desk: "you're not here for him, you're here for me." Rennick puts his hand on the desk, and fuses with it. As soon as Rennick's hand fuses with the desk, the PCs' hand is freed. Rennick scoots his butt onto the chair, and fuses with the chair: as soon as he does, the PCs' butt is freed from the chair. When Rennick's eyes glaze over, and he starts writing, the PC is free to go.

If the PCs try to dissuade Rennick from doing this, Rennick says, "I'm not the real Rennick. I'm just a figment of his imagination. He imagines this desk, and he imagines himself stuck at the desk (pointing to himself). But if it's me, a figment, stuck at the desk, then it's all just imaginary. An ugly nightmare, but still just a nightmare."

When the PCs leave the room, Lada says: "Fuck."