conversations: human
conversations:  Like so many good tales, this one begins in The Cage - Sigil, the City of Doors - in an ordinary day...
  
  The five of you go about the Great Bazaar, when suddenly a sensation rises in the back of each of your brain-boxes, like a cross between a tickle and an interrupted sneeze.
  This feeling quickly grows in intensity, becoming a painful, relentless squeeze on your brain. Unconsciousness calls to you like a sweet song of a secret haven, but you resist.
  You take an involuntary step forward and discover that the pain diminishes ever so slightly as you move in that direction.
  
   
   Spoiler: An overview of Sigil 
   
   
  
  
  A few blocks off the Bazaar, the path leads to an old two-story building marked with a sign that simply reads Jysson. As you approach it, you notice four other shady characters making their way toward the same building.
conversations: Filtro:
conversations: human
conversations:  "Ugh..."  Orvin, the gnome forge cleric says. Although he's not sure if he said it aloud or just in his head.
  
  He takes a step in the leading direction, not really paying attention to where he's going, but just hoping the pain will subside.
conversations: mgshamster:
conversations: human
conversations:  Foster inspects his foliage as he comes to his senses and approaches the sign. His frame is tall and wide-his face a stone mask etched along wooden structure, and his silhouette would be block and odd if not for the many vines wrapped around his back and right shoulder. He is covered almost head to toe in moss, with mushrooms thriving along his upper back and a wreath of flowers decorating his head. He's pleased to find most of his personal garden is intact and presses onward.
  
  There is little apprehension in his stride. A life of curiosity, metaphor, torment and illusion at the hands of the Fae have left him quite without a sense of surprise, and not much of a sense of danger. He pays the shady characters little mind-even the most murderous of sorts tended to wanted to give him a look over before killing him, which was great for avoiding ambushes. He turns to the gnome.  "Issues with a headache, Godsmen? I have some stems you could chew that would numb up your noggin, though it makes talking a bit difficult. Only four coppers." 
conversations: RedSand:
conversations: human
conversations:  "Ugh. Yeah. It's seems to have nearly cleared up. Thanks, um.."  Orvin looks up to see who, exactly, he's talking to.  "Woah. You're quite the basher, ain't ya?  
  
  Orvin, a gnome of the Believers of the Source, aka the Godsmen (he wears his faction symbol on a clasp that holds his brown cloak together), stands just over three feet tall. He has medium-to-long length shaggy brown hair and a trimmed beard. Beneath the cloak is a hammer which could easily double as a tool of the trade or a weapon.
  
   "You're quite the work of art, aren't you? A genuine mix of plant and machine. Quite impressive! I'm saying 'quite' too much.
  
  Anyways, my name is Orvin. What's yours? 
conversations: mgshamster:
conversations: human
conversations:  Pain.
  
  Why pain?
  
  Head pain.
  
  Building removes pain.
  
  No!  Others are at building.
  
  Shadows.
  
  Still pain, but less pain.
  
  Hide.
  
  Mission must not fail.
  
  Where is great beast?
  
  In building?
  
  Building too small.
  
  Must wait.
  
  How long?
  
  Patience.
  
  ((O.o.C.: Do I need to make a stealth check?))
conversations: Reality Glitch:
conversations: human
conversations:  Kalinas was curiously resistant to the pain in her head.  A cynic could say that its because she hardly paid any attention to her brain to begin with.  A true Cipher would claim the pain was just a symptom of dissonant, self-defeating thought.  Kalinas was more of the latter than the former, but in any event, she was one of the closest 'shady figures' approaching the building.
  
  Really, she wore the scarf and sand-brown clothes out of habit, not out of any particular decision.  She wasn't aware of how 'shady' she looked to others, an amber humanoid with claws and fangs that shrunk every day, a mane that she had raggedly cut shortish on a whim.
  
   "Jysson, eh?  Kind of an odd name for a building, but I like the tall, strong, silent type!"   With a shout over her shoulder and nary a concern for an ambush, she started to open the door.  "Well, you boys coming with?" 
conversations: Ursus the Grim:
conversations: human
conversations:  Quite so!  Orvin calls back as he hustles towards the building.
conversations: mgshamster:
conversations: human
conversations:  The front (and only) door is unlocked.
  Once you enter the building, the pain stops. Looking about, you can determine that the place is obviously some sort of long-abandoned clerk's office. Dust covers the desks and tables, which are strewn with papers, ledgers, and notebooks. All the documents are filled with incomprehensible columns of numbers.
  
  Any examination of the room, its contents, or each other is cut short by the sudden sound of a meek voice.
  
   "Oh dear,"  it states,  "I had no idea that would be so...painful for you. Please accept my apology." 
  
  You can determine that the voice comes from the back of the room, near a book-covered table and a rickety wooden staircase that leads upstairs. No speaker is evident, but after a moment a small gray cat jumps onto the table from the shadows under the stair and looks at you.
conversations: Filtro:
conversations: human
conversations:  "Was that you, cat?  Orvin asks.
conversations: mgshamster:
conversations: human
conversations:  Safe?
  
  Unknown.
  
  Enter?
  
  Yes.  Enter.
  
  Must be quiet.
  
  Must hide.
  
  Voice?  Where?  Cat?
  
  No. Cat is prey.
  
  Hunger.
  
  ((O.o.C.:  (1d20+5)[ 7 ]  Stealth and Bow at the ready.))
conversations: Reality Glitch:
conversations: human
conversations:  The cat talks back in a surprisingly human voice,   "I didn't say anything."  
  
  On the far table, one of the books - a particularly large, leather-and-metal-bound specimen - flips open, revealing a humanlike face in the gutter between the pages, which otherwise seem to be blank.  "I really am sorry,"  it says in the meek voice you heard before.
  
  It continues:
   "I needed to call for help, so I reached out and tried to curb some 'pertish folks off the street. It's been so long since I've done that, I guess I grabbed too hard. Perhaps some sparkle would make it up to you? After you've heard me out, I'll see to that, I promise.
  
  You see, we need a few kind pivers who will take myself and my associate here to the gate-town of Automata. Have you heard of Automata, gate-town to Mechanus? It's still there, isn't it?" 
  
  Canny bashers notice first off that the book speaks with very old mannerisms - it uses a long-outdated version of the cant. Second, since no one else appears in the room, you realize that the book's associate is the cat.
  
   
   Spoiler: About Automata 
  Chaotic planars have a saying: "Nobody with half a brain or a bit of free will goes to Automata on purpose." - While this is an opinionated exaggeration, there's some truth in that. Automata is the gate-town on the Outlands that leads to the plane of Mechanus, home of the modrons and the seat of ultimate Law. Consequently, Automata's an extraordinary orderly burg.
  The local government, the Council of Order, rules over the town with a rather tight fist. A mire of bureaucracy wraps its tendrils around everything and everyone there, and that bureaucracy is mostly controlled by members of the Fraternity of Order. The town guard enforces the stringent laws that control not only commerce but movement, dress, and even personal interaction (that is, they tell a basher what he can and can't say, and who he can say it to).
   
conversations: Filtro:
conversations: human
conversations:  City of Order.
  
  No. Beast would not go there.
  
  Have no reason to oblige.
  
  Leaving now.
  
  " SH**! "
  
  Floor broken.  Needs repair.
conversations: Reality Glitch:
conversations: human
conversations:  Din sen bow gently, in respect for the magical...thung, and then step forward "excuse me for the rudness of the question but...what the hell?! Who are you and what do you want? Why do need us? I have more important things to do then helping a book! And then he shake his head "again, sorry for my  lack of manners, butni was never good at talking and i have an important mission." He close his mouth to a thin line, and his hand is moving around his swords and daggers as he waits for the book's answer.
conversations: Halfelf ninja:
conversations: human
conversations:  Kalinas tilted her head to the side.
  
  'Automata, Automata, treat it like a black banana.'
  
  Ah, that's where she had heard the name before!  Not a good place to go, according to some of the other ciphers she had met.  Too much thinking and rules.  Too little action.  This was not a good job to accept, not at all.
  
   "Sure, I'll do it!" 
conversations: Ursus the Grim:
conversations: human
conversations:  No one notice.
  
  Chance to flee.
  
  Going back out; painless.
  
  Now, where is beast.
conversations: Reality Glitch:
conversations: human
conversations:  The gray cat identifies itself as Ydemi Jysson and tells you that the book is, well, The Book.
  Without answering any of your questions, Jysson begins telling you his tale.
  
   For ages, it seemed, he was a petitioner on the Beastlands and quite happy to be there. One day, last month, the ruler of his kind (the Cat Lord) came to him and asked him to deliver a message to someone in Sigil. Loath though he was to leave the Beastlands, he obeyed his mistress. He completed his task and headed back to the Beastlands gate, but as he walked down this particular street, something seemed to beckon him inside this building.
  Here, he encountered The Book, which explained to him that Jysson (in his mortal lifetime) had been a clerk who owned this tiny firm and lived in the apartment overhead.
  
  In order to improve his business, the clerk had purchased a magical book to help him with his work. The terms of the purchase involved a series of payments over a number of years - terms that he defaulted upon when he died. Though not particularly lawful, the petitioner Jysson's benevolent demeanor compelled him to right this wrong - but there was no way a cat could carry a large tome like The Book all the way to Automata, where he'd bought it.
  Jysson ordered the tome to help him find aid, and The Book did so by calling you.
  
  Jysson bought The Book from a wizard named Heiron, who specialized in creating sentient, powerful magical items. Unfortunately, Jysson doesn't remember where the wizard lives. In fact, he doesn't actually remember anything about his former life and only knows what The Book tells him, but such recollections always strike a certain chord within him. 
  
  The Book, of course, does remember. The Book also knows where Jysson kept his hidden jink, and promises it all to you if they take it back to Heiron.
  
  If you want, you can also have this building.
conversations: Filtro:
conversations: human
conversations:  "That is a fascinating story! You've moved your spirit up the ladder and rung! Well done, Jysson, my boy! Erm, I mean, cat. And now you're on a quest to right a past wrong! Yes, I will help; this challenge will improve you! It will improve us all!" 
conversations: mgshamster:
conversations: human
conversations:  "Well...if what you want is to retrive your honor...my sword will be at ypur side for.this task." Din sen smile and then look at the cat "when should we get to auto..whatever?"
conversations: Halfelf ninja: