Another massive thank you to everyone who worked the hexes to ground Woolie and me. I’m feel about 3,000% better. Like I said, in the last post, Woolie is still in here, but separate. I can hear him but it’s not this chaos of noise and emotion. So thanks for the peace (of mind.)
Another thing the grounding hexes gave me was a bit of clarity. I told you I was pretty fixated on the footage from my trip to City Hall Station and all the weird lights and sounds I kept hearing in them. I was looking over them this morning, still in bed, but with clear eyes, and the thing that struck me was that the sounds I thought I heard weren’t gone completely, but they’d changed. I was convinced I had fever-dreamed what they originally sounded like, I mean, how would a sound recorded on video change over time. Well, magiq, of course.
I realized I had something to compare them to, the original video I made to show you all the station.
This video:
Watch it again, starting at the 2:20 mark. The moment it shows the green cordoned off area behind our tour guide. You hear that? That sound? That’s not in the raw video I have. It’s changed.
You know what it sounds like to me? It sounds like someone knocking.
I think there’s a door down there. I think a door to Neithernor was knocking for me. Maybe it’s a way to get Woolie back home and out of my head. I don’t know why it’s only one door, and why it’s down there, but maybe something’s been drawing me to that door, “my door”, for years. Now I just have to find a way to get back to it without being arrested or killed.
But I need your help. If there’s a door down there, a door knocking, asking for me to knock back, well I need a knock to knock back with. It might be one of the few knocks we already know, but I have a feeling it might not be, and I want to be armed with options if I manage to get back down there. So Secret Society, once more into the fray?
91 Comments
I’m glad the spells are helping! And heck yea, down for some more magiqal detective-ing! Let’s get you guys to Neithernor!
Edit: I guess the question is…how does one go about determining a knock to Neithernor…
Exactly. But I feel like this might all be part of “The Last Figuration” and if it is, then there has to be some way to answer the knock. Some clue to the directions of the knocks. I just can’t see it right now.
well then, lets look it over and figure something out for it.
At least everything seems to be okay for now.
Starting with The Last Figuration, we can break it down and maybe find the pattern?
Okay, anyone have the phrases we found? Perhaps there’s some keywords in them that could give us a knock? Trying to find them all again…
Edit: I found them!
Any I missed?
If these are the only ones, that’d give us four points to knock at. Sea would suggest tides (Ebenguard), not sure on the second one, third thought? (Thornmouth), and then last light (Weatherwatch).
I’ve listened to that video at near ear-deafening levels quite a few times now. (and a few more now that you called out 2:20) between the background noise of probably a dozen people wandering around you, and the music, I don’t hear anything special. But then I don’t have to, maybe it’s just for you.
To the question at hand.
I agree there’s a knock in what we’ve found. I like Nimueh’s idea that it’s the 4 quotes. Definitely try that. I’d suggest “the way to leave this world behind” would imply travel, so maybe Weatherwatch again.
There’s also the items we’ve “found”,
I really think I’m just randomly guessing though. But that’s all we seem to have.
Maybe Flinter for the Tales of Wonder as it mentions Northeast? Journal sounds either Goss or Thornmouth.
TBH, I can’t remember if we need to have 6 or not…
Another random thought I did have was the journal entries? I know some of them directly linked to location notifications we’d had, but some of them didn’t. Maybe they link in here?
I like this logic!
@Nimueh I think the first is weatherwatch the second might be Flintforge out the third is thornmouth and the last one is gossmere but for your idea to work then won’t we need six, instead of four
Did anyone count the knocks as I heard six?
ill go ahead and do some audio isolation, if anyone can get it into a multi-wavelength format? I suppose i could do that, too, but its so much work
EDIT: i counted eight
Eight I wonder if this could involve the seal of Solomon, the eight pointed star. maybe?
Can we get another mounty to confirm? 6 for rimor, 8 for me… lets see if we can find a common, correlating number. From there we can possibly determine the total number of combinations we can try, figure out a few key bits for each knock position, and brute force the rest.
I feel certain that if we can figure out what clues we’ve been given that we won’t have to brute force anything.
The knocks I heard would change in number and rhythm. I don’t think they’re the key.
Today’s nagging random thought.
There’s kind of a theme here with 2 character initials.
Tales of Wonder – ??
Ticket for the lighthouse has ‘AB’ on it.
The hermie proof is ‘for WG approval’
Avis journal – She always signed her posts ‘AG’
The green man has ‘for WG’ on the back.
??
AB
WG
AG
WG
2 characters, first character is either A or W, second is either G or B.
That looks an aweful lot like it’s similar to NW, NE, SW, SE to me.
Are there 2 characters in the radio play somewhere? Edit: I can’t find any. Huh.
Hm… I would say AG again for Tales of Wonder, as it’s Ackerley Green’s Tales of Wonder. But then we’d need to work out if A is North or South, and G is East or West, cause straight away you have 4 possible variations (NE, NW, SE, SW).
Well as you mentioned before Tales of Wonder does specifically say NE in it. If it is also AG, then AG = NE? And then WB = SW?
I don’t know, I think I’ve piled too much tin foil on this one. But if assumptions 1 through 26 are right (ha!) then
A= N, G=E, W=S, B=W
So that’s
NE, NW, SE, NE, SE.
Proudly puts on Tinfoil Tricorner hat.
im going to make a guess and say that if the Tales of Wonder is actually AG, it would go something like this.
AG, AB, WG, AG, WG
with
A = S
and
W = N
G = W
B = E
so
SW, SE, NW, SW, NW
but this is based purely on conjecture and the idea that the lighthouse ties to Thornmouth.
I’d say it was some kind of substitition cypher, but given that each of the letter designations of N E W S are not within a single letter of each other i doubt it.
If we need a final knocking point, maybe we use East, for Ebenguard. given we have an Ebbie Ghost and an Ebbie Sabes.?
EDIT: Unless i got my designations mixed up and the lighthouse ticket is WB not AB, in which case, refer to Robert’s above post.
And… you both just illustrated my problem, lol
Edit: Nope, Grim, the lighthouse ticket is AB
so unless we’re taking ToW to be NE due to its use of it,
we have SW, SE, NW, SW, NW for me,
or NE, SE, NW, SW, NW
or NE, SE, NW, NE, NW
or NE, NW, SE, NE, SE
thats 4 possible combos.
maybe we can try a couple?
or sabes can maybe weigh in and see if any of them feel right.
EDIT: personally i like NE, SE, NW, SW, NW, E as the possible set. it feels more like a key to me.
So I was thinking…we’re taking a very guil-centric approach here (which makes sense, that’s how we got to other knocks). But are there other things that we could try to connect to the clues that might link them to the knock? We have six elements, linked to the guilds, as well…and we did just invoke them to call the corners…
why not?
Tales of Wonder – Aether
Lighthouse – Tides
Hermie Sticker – Light?
Avis Journal – Thought
Green Man Block – Ore or Wild
Would Hermie be tides, since it sounded like our animal friend in the Minnying was a hippocampus?
possible too!
So…
So…
Any idea how you’re going to get down there to try it out? I admit I’m curious.
Please don’t do anything too dangerous.
I feel like we are missing something. Like we don’t have all the pieces yet.
OOH. idea. one sec.
The alchemical wheel! it has elements in cardinal directions! The japanese has a belief that there is a fifth element, called aether or void.
here we go, found it. its actually chinese in origin.
okay, so going off that. the order is aether, light, tides, thought, and ore. Seems like the chinese thing wont do, so im gonna go with probably… North,East,West,South,South
however, you then also have the japanese circle, which has void in the north.
as such, perhaps… North, South West, South East, West, and East.
I’m pretty sure it’s referring to the six magimystic elements related to the six guilds.
Witches have a similar belief.
The idea is that body is the star the hands are air and water the head is spirit and the feet are earth and fire and all five are need for balance. maybe the answer lies in the placement of the witches star and the directions and some kind of elemental spell you have to cast in order of the objects found. For example the light house has AB on it which is SE which aligns, if soul is north, with fire.
Wow, it’s interesting that all of these systems are so similar to each other; plus, they’re also similar to our own magimystical understandings of the elements. I think it’s a really good example of the idea of many paths leading towards the same truth. Since Woolie was a magimystic, though, I think it’s safe to say that we’re dealing with the same six elements that are associated with our six guilds.
So that would mean that it would be NW (Gossmere’s position on the chronocompass), W (Weatherwatch), E (Ebenguard), SE (Thornmouth), and then either NE (Flinterforge) or SW (Balimora), if Sabes is right.
So which one do we think the last one is? Do we think Sabes has it right?
I think he can try both. Could go either way.
I think I might have an idea but it’s very risky. If you guys are up for it.
The Green Man in general makes me think Wild.
A metal printing block makes me think Ore.
I guess it comes down to which aspect we think means the most, the material or the subject matter.
I’m one of the worst people to ask to make a decision like that, but if someone were shouting for me to make a choice! I’d likely throw my first guess at it being Wild.
We could try and ask Woolie again. He seem to be the only one with actual answers instead of more questions. We could try what @Saberlane with woolie did again. She was the only one of us to have some insight into what is woolie But if we do try it again this time we will need to be more prepared. There is a spell called the mind hedge that could protect the person from going insane when the try to get close to woolie and a relatively simple spell to cast. @saberline seems to have suffered from information overload which is common in possession victims because they have two minds inside them but do not know how to process that amount information. So what a mind hinge should protect The next person who tries it from suffering the same fate as it will not protect from a complete merge with woolie. But like I said it is risky and possibly dangerous. I would understand if no one would want to attempt this, but it is a great chance at finally getting some answers rather than questions
I like it. Ambitious and crazy. I’m not sure it’s fully required yet.
I honestly doubt Woolie has any answers, at least like he is now. I’m 50% thinking he’s just another cog in the grand machine being moved around by the Green family, and the Council of 18 gates like we all are. The other 50% I think he’s Warner Green but his mind is so shot with grief we need to get him back to some source of magiq, like neithernor to help him.
True I didn’t think of that. It’s probably to risky if I’m wrong. How does that saying go, too much risk and not enough reward.
I think we’ll probably be able to manage with what we have, we just need to figure out how to use it.
Not helpful in terms of solving the knock, but I’m super interested in the relationship between our elements and the Chinese elements now. The five Chinese elements are actually fire, water, earth, wood and metal; no air there, but it seems like the Magiqal elements might have some tangential relations? I might actually pull that out into a different discussion thread.
And maybe also another for discussing Neithernor knocks, because my tinfoil is picking up some weird vibes. (Yeah, I might need to expand from a tinfoil helmet into a…welding mask, or something.)
It feels like the grounding hex has separated out our minds, but having him in there still feels like a knife to my skull. I’ve got to try and get him back to Neithernor.
No one has called back regarding a one-man tour of the station. And even if the conductor let me stay on the train while it passes through, there’s no way to get off. I’m still waiting to hear from the Transit Museum but if I don’t, I’m just going to break in and hope that door is still knocking.
I didn’t want my possible first visit to Neithernor to be like this, but if it has to be, it has to be.
On the plus side, if you succeed they can’t find you after you break in?
You know… we DO happen to have a spell sitting around from our Kenetic Solution days to make it so people wont notice you.
Probably be a lot easier to just trick one person than an entire office building from hell too. That took a bunch of people. We might be to do it more quickly than a bigger production.
As for stopping the train. If no one sees you maybe theres an emergency brake you could pull? I admit my knowledge of nyc subways is 1 short ride above nil though.
I forgot about that spell! That’s a brilliant idea. Though, like Robert said… I’m not sure on the legalistics of actually getting off the train. Plus, once you’re off, how would you get out of there, assuming you can’t just knock back to the offices?
Fun fundamental magiq question. Have we ever magiqed a mechanical thing like i train? We have only ever affected people or entities like the Storm right?
If we wanted to stop the train with magiq we know magiq and tech interact weirdly. I guess Flinterforges could handle it though.
Probably a side track to the matter at hand though. Fun mini thought anyway.
I came in just after the whole KS brouhaha, so I had to do a bit of digging to see what I’d be getting myself into by volunteering to help cast (because I was definitely not about to blindly throw myself at doing some unknown magiq…
).
I’m down to give Saberlane some cover.
Do you have a link handy for what went into it Ashburn? Sorry i cant dig too much now my 3 year old is on a sleep strike and everytime i look away something else goes kabamo.
Otherwise i can in the morning.
Last spell in Augo’s initial post.
Looks like ideally two groups of six and some element-decorated blindfolds but can be done with six?
I’d be curious to see how our magiq works with tech. In some cases, like in Neithernor, the two seem fundamentally opposed. However, Aethers adept ability implies the two are totally capable of working together.
Speaking of Aether, anyone have him on speed dial? Lol, he would be sooooo helpful right about now.
Speaking for myself, I’m reasonably sure we could affect anything purely mechanical if needed, and I think it’s even fine if you’re trying to change a flow of information – e.g. the Joradian safeguard worked on the Forum as far as we could tell. I have a theory that there might be problems when you get electricity directly involved; I get the sense that those two types of energy might not play nicely, at least not without some help.
And I won’t even pretend to know how Aether’s thing works, but yeah, he’d be super handy to have around right now. I wonder if his adept powers were also a “flow of information” type deal, or if he could casually just mess with circuitry, or both?
I’ve been to the Brooklyn Bridge station three times now, down to the 6 line which eventually passes through the City Hall Station loop. I went twice yesterday, once in the evening and once in the middle of the night, and once this morning. They let me take the loop once, but I can’t leave the first car because the conductor’s room is between cars 1 and 2. And I can’t open the doors or windows manually without pulling the alarm.
I think I know what I have to do and I think going when it’s busy is my best best to do it, honestly, because there’s a windowed MTA officer break room at the end of the platform. The only way I could get past the break room without them seeing me, run the track, and get to City Hall Station before a train runs me over, would be during rush hour when I might be missed because of the rush of people.
The only problem is rush hour = more trains. So I would have 90 seconds, two minutes tops, to run the entire track line to the station, in near pitch black.
The pain is murder. I have to try. Going now.
Good luck, don’t die!
I’ve wanted to say this for a long time…
I’ve been to Neithernor.
I ran down the track, and they saw me and ran after me. There was an announcement on the loudspeaker that trains had been delayed. I broke into the cordoned off area before they could get to me and the door was there. One door out of the four or five down there was knocking, waiting for me to knock back. I tried the few knocks we thought of, but the correct knock was Gossmere, Weatherwatch, Ebenguard, Thornmouth, Flinterforge, Balimora.
I’ll have to try and adequately describe what I saw later, but I was in an old stone tower overlooking Neithernor. It was bare except a table and chair near a long window. There was one door, the one I’d come through, but I couldn’t open by normal means. It was raining, at least where the tower was, and I could see different weather patterns drifting across the land below.
I want to tell you everything I saw, but I know many of you have been there, and honestly, I can’t put it all into words right now. But the smell. The smell there was like… nostalgia on the air. Like I’d always known this place. I can’t explain it, but I was finally there, and I wasn’t alone.
A woman, translucent, with braided hair and boots and a long coat, appeared. I knew she was Molly. She smiled and came to me and took my hand. I could feel her fingertips on mine, like the tickle of a spiderweb, only for a moment though, because she pulled away, and I saw Woolie’s hand in hers, his body emerging from mine.
The pain I’d been dealing with for weeks ended immediately.
They hugged and then Molly held out her hand, to me I thought, but then I felt a rush of electricity as another translucent entity passed through me. A girl. No older than my daughter, maybe ten. She ran to Woolie, and he fell to his knees and held her.
I looked away. It didn’t feel right to watch, so I watched the rain instead. It looked like aquamarine falling from the sky. Woolie and I had been through so much, and though it hurt to have him in my head, it also kind of hurt to let him go.
I felt a tingle on my chest. It was Woolie. He had one hand on my heart and one on his own. He nodded. I nodded. We didn’t need to say anything. And then, in a blink, they were gone, and I was alone.
I sat on the edge of the desk and watched Neithernor for hours.
I know I have a life here, a family, friends, a business, all of you… but it felt like an ending of sorts there in the tower, and so I stayed and embraced whatever was ending. Honored it, and let it go.
But I did take something with me. Something that felt familiar, or at least like it was left there for someone to find.
It’s your’s, @Saberlane. May you travel with it well.
I don’t know how long they spent looking for me, but I was gone for almost an hour in “here time.” The trains had started running again and I followed one out of the loop and no one noticed me climb onto the platform from behind it with a five foot walking stick because, well, because this is New York City.
So glad you finally made it in, Sabes! And glad we could reunite Woolie with his family.
(Also, I’m now definitely going to imagine whenever the Metro is delayed on my way to work and they won’t say why that someone is running down the tunnel to find a door to a secret, magiqal pocket world.)
Wait a minute. Weren’t these things supposed to open the vault/safe?
Like, actually poke it with a (magiqal) stick and it’ll (hopefully) open?!
(Okay, was more complicated than that, but poking things with a stick is funny, especially when it works)
And they do.
I just opened one of the little “rabbit doors” on the vault.
There are six faint notches on the top of the box (which I only discovered when I took the printer off
), kind of laid out like the guilds on the chronocompass, and so I put the ticket, the journal, the hermie proof, and the letterpress block on them in their corresponding places.
Then I leaned the walking stick against “The Wild” and played the recording we captured of the old Tales of Wonder radio show (aether.)
The objects were like magical stops in a lock combination.
I heard a click and tried all the doors. They unlocked one of the top left rabbit doors.
There’s a silver necklace inside, with a pendant that’s sort of like a little cage. And inside it is what looks like a glassy pearl. About the size of a marble.
And it’s glowing.
It’s weird. It’s matching my breathing pattern.
My camera is reacting it to it the same way it did in the station. Little bits of green light are showing up like artifacts.
My gosh, that is some gorgeous filigree work right there! And then of course the glowing… I wonder if it is the thing from the picture?
Oh my Goss, it’s beautiful.
It’s warm, very warm.
When Steve was giving us all those puzzles, wasn’t the final story bit he shared something about a stolen heart? (That may have had something to do with a necklace if I’m remembering right?)
It’s oddly reminiscent of a heart, in a way.
There’s a note in the cubby.
Got my hands full right now…
There’s a note on an old washed out business card. Holy crap.
I can’t take a pic of it. It’s fading in and out like A.G.’s journal entries. Hang on…
It (partially) says,
So much has happened! I’m glad you finally made it to Neithernor Sabes!
Also…“trust in magic” sounds a lot like “trust in the flow of magiq” and it’s probably just a coincidence but I love how different ages of magiq have that idea…
That struck me too, @Tinker, and made me strangely emotional. We’re all tied together.
so. the final, enormous question at hand: what the heck do we use it for?
It gets warmer the longer you hold it.
Ummmm, WHAT! This is amazing, Sabes! I’m so happy you finally got to go to Neithernor – I know you’ve been waiting a long time
Onto the slightly more pressing issue, the aliquary. It’s interesting because the word reminds me of Anne of Brittany and her reliquary. Reliquaries are just things that hold relics, typically of saints, and the word “relic” in the beginning of the word. This aliquary holds something that a powerful magimystic (in place of a saint) has left behind. What is this object/force/entity, and why is it called an aliquary instead of a reliquary? What does the “ali-” prefix refer to here?
It’s beautiful, can’t help but wonder whose energy is in that thing… and what purpose we are to use it for. If the letters right then it may be the last magiq in the book of kings, I think we’ve all felt it draining more and more. This gives us hope, this is our seed.
Now we just need to figure out how to make it grow.
if its a seed and all we need to do is make it grow, i assume we would just plant it in a pot of dirt. Unfortunately, something tells me that wont do.
Congrats on making it to Neithernor Sabes. You deserve to see that place.
The pendant reminds me of an Egg in some ways.
Aliquary…seems like a powerful artefact. Maybe we can try using the pieces in different combinations to see if they unlock any more places?
Sounds like quite the adventure Saberlane. Well done! Glad you’re okay.
And yeah, we never would have figured out that knock. Good thing you’ve got good instincts. You were chosen well.
I can’t take the credit for the knock. @Tinker and @grimangel53 figured most of that out.
And to me that letter means we were chosen, not just me. I imagine any of you would’ve done what I did. You’re the brave ones. I’m just more prone to breaking laws in search of magic.
Bah. you’re own awesomeness this day does not take away from ours. Yes, we rock. But we don’t regularly run down pitch dark tunnels into oncoming trains to find a door to another world.
Hold onto this victory with both hands and accept you done good. We’re proud of you.
how did Tinker and I figure out the knock?
Im not entirely following here.
Tinker had the idea to use the elements:
And you started attributing elements to objects:
Which helped me figure out a possible final combination:
Since the elements are connected to guilds, I tried the knock combination: Gossmere, Weatherwatch, Ebenguard, Thornmouth, Flitnerforge, and I took a wild guess that the last knock would either be one of the other guilds repeated, or Balimora. It was Balimora.
I feel like this is a too-generous assessment of my contribution here BUT moving forward…I think it’s safe to assume the aliquary and it’s energy isn’t Avis’ magiq since the letter is signed by Avis. Are there any other prevalent magimysts that we know of yet? Is the “who” an important question here?
Sorry I haven’t been around to contribute much but well done on getting to Neithernor Sabes!
I know things are crazy lately; what with @Saberlane breaking into train stations and finding Neithernor while we cast a spell continuously for 30 days straight and get strange messages through Instagram that we’re apparently doing something right. I just wanted to pause, step back from the chaos, and share my gratitude with everyone.
Yesterday, my phone (not the AG app, just plain ol’ Google Images) reminded me that it’s been a year since I went to Bancroft Tower and found Buried Treasure. A whole year. Think about it, Mounties. In the past year, we’ve scoured the globe for a lost magimystic vault, pieced together the broken memories of a Neithernorian spirit, eventually setting him free and rejoining him with his lost love and family, read the secret diary of a woman in an alternate dimension as the world she knew crumbled around her, ultimately found a tiny, coalesced pearl of pure magiq, and more!
I can’t believe what an adventure this year has been, and I couldn’t ask for a better group of kindred spirits to have been on it with. I’ve learned about myself as a person, what you and I are all capable of as magimystics, and about just how deeply the secret history of our world is buried.
Thank you for taking over Ackerly Green Publishing, keeping the lights on, and for your continued feats of derring-do @Saberlane. None of us would be here without you. Thank you, again, Mountaineers. Keep climbing!
Augo