When Experiments Go Wrong...

Rathenn D 'Abo, Minister without Portfolio, Teutonia

There are those who would have you believe that the life of a researcher is an easy, safe existence, perhaps pottering around libraries with your head in a dusty tome or examining ancient relics for vague signs of lost civilisations. On the contrary, it is possible that looking into the mysteries of Erdreja and beyond might be more peril-laden than any war.

At the first moot, I created an item by ritual for the Archers Guild that allowed the bearer to attune several spells to them that they would not normally be able to cast. One of these was the chant of Heal Wounds. As a matter of curiosity, we pondered whether the book would allow an unliving the ability to use this spell reasoning that it was the book itself that was connected to the Plane of Life, and simply passing the ability on to the bearer to cast the spell from it's the knowledge contained therein - along with the reassurance that many living have the ability to channel from Unlife

Obtaining the item from Master Luhan, ittimin focussed the powers held within the Tome, aligning the correct spell to her; as soon as this was complete she collapsed to the floor and vanished, leaving only her hat.

Whilst I panicked and attempted to find her - firstly by running to and fro to both transport and ritual circles - and secondly by rite, for which I will be forever grateful to both Fama and Willum McCaullich for their aid - it transpired that as Life and Unlife met violently and clashed she had been transported to a place she described as a 'quarantine bubble' in the void. The moment she attuned herself to the book the two planes clashed, one with energy flowing forward, the other with energy flowing backwards. This initially caused a great amount of energy destroying all magical items she carried. Then as the two forces which were never meant to occupy the same space came together it proceeded to rend her pattern ... until she was removed from their effects by being 'quarantined' in the bubble. The experience left her void-scarred as if a ritual had gone terribly wrong.

It should be noted that the Jackals acted upon this with great haste, and thanks to Snowy McTaff's peerless mastery of the ritual circle the scar was healed by the Sunday lunchtime.

In this case, this is a clear example of rushing in without giving the consequences of our actions enough thought; given the wisdom of hindsight, I recall what had happened with Hellbron when he came in contact with the Planes of Life. I should have known better and it will temper my somewhat lackadaisical approach to such experiments in the future

However, the end result of this disastrous mishap does throw up some interesting questions about the nature of Life and Unlife.

We know the following is true:

That an entity with a living pattern can take their link to the Plane of Life and alter it so they may channel from Unlife instead.
That an entity with a living pattern can travel to the Plane of Unlife and, for a short period of time at least, exist upon it.
That any currently recorded occurrence of an entity with an unloving pattern having contact with the Plane of Life creates a violent eruption of power, and potential annihilation of that entity.

Three obvious possibilities present themselves to my mind. Firstly, that the Plane of Life was the initial spark that ran through Erdreja and, despite the events of the Cataclysm, a vast majority of entities that roam its surface are linked to it. Life's ascendancy means that when the Cycle of Unlife comes into contact with it, it is immediately overwhelmed.

The second is that as all Unliving inherently have the ability to channel from Unlife, they cannot sever this channelling link, and therefore the problem is not so much creating a channelling link to Life, but that they have a channelling link to both Life and Unlife at the same time. Whilst those with a living pattern are tied to the Cycle of Life, to be able to channel from the Plane of Life is a talent that must be nurtured whereas those in Unlife have this tied into their pattern. It is possible that simultaneously having links to both the Planes of Life and Unlife caused the violent clash described earlier.

The third option is unlikely, but not altogether out of the realms of possibility; that Satuun as the creator of Unlife desires as many patterns out of the Cycle of Life and into Unlife as possible - that he specifically allows those connected to Life to touch Unlife whenever possible as a form of temptation, to give them an inkling of the powers they may possess. Once that person is within the Cycle of Unlife, it violently rejects any of those who connect with Life (its great rival and opponent) once more. As said, this is probably incorrect but would fit in with the character of the creator of Unlife to the extent that I cannot discount it completely. These inklings, however, do not outweigh the risks that were taken blindly. The real joy of discovery is to have the opportunity to share the revelations of your work with your peers - no investigation, no possible gain is worth the demise of your friends.