Date: Sat, 17 Dec 1994 18:24:18 -0800 (PST) From: "Kevin D. Karty" Subject: Crossroads Well, I promised I'd post the Asian cosms, and I'm still trying to regather the research, after I checked the stuff back intot eh library. So, till then, this is another cosm sketch which I'm not sure if someone has posted, or if anyone is interested in. The Crossroads Warning - if you're a player and your GM reads this, you may wish to not read this post. Reading it could ruin some of the surprise and fun if you're GM actually decides to use it, in a modified form or as presented here. A Core Earth pocket dimension. The Crossroads is essentially a bar - of a very unique type. It is a juxtaposition of realities, where different people of different places meet. It is the quintessential twilight Zone bar, except a little more cosmopolitan. I don't really think I have to explaint eh Genre. The setting is a mid-30's high class, but a little run down, hotel. High class callgirls (and jigalos as well), Red velvet curtains, wood pannelled walls, a back bar with every conceivable liquor stashed there, including many in foreign languages that you've never heard of. There are also card and pool tables set up, and air fans swirling the thick pall of smoke that inevitable hangs about, even if no one has lit up a cigar. The bar tenders name is Sam, or variably Joe, or a similar name. he has no last name. he wears a spotless white apron, is aging, has brown hair with white streaks, a semi-bald pate, and athick mustache. Sometimes he speaks with an accent, Irish perhaps, or gangester-talk. The odd thing is that everyone hears him a little different. HTe characters may eventually recognize this, though it may take a little while for them to recognize this phenomenon. The bartender only speaks english, but every character understands it as his/her own tongue - even simultaneously. The only way you know he speaks english is if he asks,a nd he answers English. Sam has always worked here. This is all he does. If asked when he went on shift, he answers at 5 PM. The clock reads 11:59 and the hands never move. Notably, so does every watch or timepiece in the place. Sam knows how to mix _any_ drink that has ever been invented, whether its knowledge was passed on or not. If you try to play a trick, and invent a drink he has never heard of, you might find yourself with a glass of a foul smelling and very strange lookign concoction. Since the reality wars began, the bar has seen from new visitors - Eidenos, Tharkoldu, Aylish fairies, etc... No one really pays them much attention. If someone asks about them, they are told that they are just "from out of town." Characters can talk to each other with the same effect as talking to Sam. There is no violence in the Crossroads. To even make a move is to invite Lou,t he bouncer, to thump you and toss you out. Lou is indestructable. He always wins fist fights, and these are the only fights that occur in teh bar (though natural implements, such as broken bottles may be used). This is not to say weapons don't work, it's just that No One ever uses them. No one ever thinks to use them in The Crossroads. There is no door leading out of the Crossroads. There is only a door leading to a hallway, where the rooms are. The rooms are the same style of the hotel, gaudy and circa 1930's. The rooms are always in order, and names are imprinted on the doors. To leave (and characters do not know this), one simply falls asleep and wakes up somewhere else. Sometimes, one wakes up where one was dreamign about. Sometimes, one wakes up "where you need to go," as Sam puts it. To enter the Crossroads, one just wakes up there. There's no way of purposefully going there, though some have theorized that going to a bar of similar nature and then using an extradimensional gate might do it. Information about the Crossroads is highly subjective and hard to find. Characters might make a Realm Lore Earth total of 15 to even have heard the name, 18 to know vaguely what it is, 21 to have heard of Sam or Joe,, more as weird people than as any special beings (later events might cause you to link these two personages to the barkeep and bouncer), and 25 to know info like leaving/entering. 30 for anything really specific, and much the characters simply cannot know. As far as how the Crossroads came to be, there is considerable speculation. A freak reality storm in a bar somewhere... Or maybe the realities invading earth have so weakened the frame of reality that it is starting to lose its coherency. This has many worried... No, teh Crossroads does not have a High Lord. It really shouldn't. Is it benevolent or malevolent? Well, that depends on the character. Characters tend to get what they deserve, though the more they look for something the less they seem to find it. it's usually when they stop lookign that they find answers. Sam knows a lot of information, but he rarely talks. he can be pressed, but even then just hints. If he overhears the characters talking about something secret or important, he might laugh, nodd his head, and say "Yah, that (name). Funny guy." Or, "Whew, nasty things, those (thing)." As far as interacting with others in teh bar, characters might find people they actually know there, but never seem to recognize them. The characters might recognize them after waking up the next day, but not while still in teh Crossroads. The characters just have this feeling they should know someone, or should dislike/like that person, but never figure out why. The primary purpose of the Crossroads is to learn. Characters learn thigns about themselves, which they try to hide. If characters learn well, they emerge from it not just unscatheed, but rejuvenated. If they learn poorly, they emerge fitful, depressed, almost suicidal. Good people, in general, tend to learn. Evil people tend not to. The Crossroads is essentially a manifestation of Core Earth, and is guide by the very reality of Earth itself, which is semisentient. Reality - axioms - well, those of Earth in 1930's. However, all WLs, all realities, and all tools seem to vunction here without disconnecting. Why? No one knows - perhaps a weakening in reality itself. WLs? Well, this is very hard. I'm goig to propose a slew, and see if people can help me narrow them down. Please, don't try to make this reality like the Nile Empire. The Law of Drama has no place here. 1930's does not necessarily equal pulp. Note that the bar has a lot of anachronisms - a jukebox fromt eh fifties, a dance floor from the 19th century, etc... No description of the place from anyone who has returned ever has it identical. Of course, people are hard pressed to remember anything from their visits, save maybe a few things Sam said which stick in their mind until they solve them to their satisfaction. Law of Strangeness. The place is just plain strange. Weird things just happen. Everyone has the sense of remembering but not remembering (what's that damn French word I can't remember?). Sometimes, people who the character remembers having talked to, or given them advice, are people the character later (concidentally) discovers are dead. ("But jimmy boy couldn't have been there. That's Jimmy alright, but you see, he's been dead Thirty years!" Tiem fluctuations, card games where one player _always_ wins, or _always_ draws the same hand, or a "regular" customer who simply cannot be woken up. Sometimes "bums will appear to beg, and be tossed into the hallway by Lou, but if the character follows the bum, they won't find him. He'll be gone. The Law of Archetypes - The Crossroads has a habit of being visited by archetypes - anthropomorphic manifestations of forces, or certain stereotypical people. This begins with Sam and Lou. Note, there is some speculation over wherether Sam and Lou ar in fact just archetypes or are in fact super-beings of some sort. Maybe, one wonders, Sam is a tech 33 being with control over time and reality, hm??? The archetypes are usually not readily apparent. Death (unlike in Terry Pratchett's series) does not walk around in hood, with scythe, etc... Rather, he may be a doctor, trying to get drunk to wear away the pain fo all the people he has to "fix" or "ease." Luck is just a gambler who always wins. Justice is a gunslinger, or an FBI agent, or someone who always sees things done fairly. Time is an old man or a young boy, and displays innumerable anachronisms, like pulling a gold pocket watch out of a boy's beggar's clothes. Truth is an innocent girl with open eyes, who always seems to be staring directly into your soul, or perhaps an aged and erudite professor who constantly corrects everyth=A0 might say. Knowledge may masquerade as an Shakespearean fool (that is, mildly mentally retarded - extreme Down's syndrome, perhaps). Tehy tend not to display powers, and whenever anyone figures out who they are,t hey disappear "Excuse me, I though i might get another drink," then dissappears in a crowd... OK, you get the idea. As far as powers - maybe, but they never use them openly. Just strange coincidences. The Law of Juxtaposition This explains the different perceptions of the place, and the things one finds here. Maybe even futuristic things, or magical things. Perhaps the bartender can cook up magical potions, as drinks... Basically, everything works, and anyone could be from anywhere,and go anywhere. All realities and world laws function perfectly. Anachronisms are easily acepted as normal. As well, this explains the strange temporal anomolies (Star Trek Talk...). That is, meeting people from teh past or the future, who seem to know more about the present than they should. Reality seems to have lost its frame of reference,a nd everything is happening simultaneously. The potential implications of this stretch the ideational framework of even an Akashan. THe paradox is ridiculous. Some claim that the Crossroads is able to affect the past, but if so how could anyone know? More likely, its influence is felt simultaneously in all frames of reference. Note, multiple truths are all equally real, and there is a sense of vast and hidden power just out of reach. As though you're just about to understand, and the understanding slips away. Additional notes - I may be compelled to exceed 4 WLs to explain teh Crossroads, and frankly this doesn't bother me. I've broken so many rules in building the Crossroads, that what is another? As far as getting there, I am likely to accept that The Crossroads chooses who goes and who doesn't - maybe a world law - and there is no way to force your way in. This is not because the Crossroads is so powerful, even if linked to Core Earth, but rather because it is _lost_ int eh Infiniverse. THERE IS ONLY ONE CROSSROADS IN ALL THE INFINIVERSE. Thus, it could be anywhere, and it's even conceivable that characters might encounter shadow of themselves - of who they might have been (even so, they won't recognize this until they leave). maybe shadows of their party, where one character has died and been replaced by another - one that one of the players almost chose to play. Because of its uniqueness and small size, and the WLs, it is impossible to find, and no being has succeeded. No, not even Ardinay, and no power seems able to hold or locate it. It might be a way of passing in between individual universes to other universes int eh infiniverse. Well, all this is wild speculation and thought spewing. If anyone has additional comments on how to further define it, or perhaps how to remove definition which should not be there, please post. I doubt the cosm could serve as more than a one act interlude in an adventure, and there is no such thing as "my character being from Crossroads." I dislike any theme which really emphasizes the "entrapment" aspect. That is another pocket dimension - "No Exit," a pseudo-French existentialist nightmare cosm, with tech 21, social 22, and spirit and magic of 0 to 2. The Crossroads is not a cosm which has a single goal - keep characters in and keep them board (Law of Ennui, anyone?). OK, that's my long post for the week. Hope people enjoy. When I finish grad appl's I'll hopefully post the Asian PDs. Kevin