Origin Story: A Green Sky in New Britannia

The sky was green. Sometimes it happens during a thunderstorm, especially when the sun is low, but this rainy afternoon it seemed portentous, though I couldn't explain why. I was slogging through puddles, returning home from a Chinese dinner which yielded a completely worthless fortune cookie: "Win tiny barbarian tent," the paper strip read. It wasn't even a fortune...or so I thought.

I turned the corner and bumped into a crippled beggar on crutches. As he gained his balance he held on to me more than I think he needed to. "Get your grubby paws off me, dude!" I shouted. He smiled, saying in a deep, throaty voice, "Dollar for dance?" He stank in that way that homeless people stink, a blend of smells that takes days to cultivate. "How about I give you two dollars and we forget the dance?" I asked as I pulled out my wallet. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a soaked rabbit doll wrapped in a torn-off piece of fishnet stockings. He dropped his voice to a low whisper, "Want rainy rabbit in net?" His eyes darted about in what could have been melodramatic craziness, but it seemed like real craziness to me. "Um...I'll pass?thanks." Then, some kid walked by and pushed the guy over, spat on him, and hurled a silver dollar at his head. "Have a buck, loser!" the kid teased as the coin bounced of the beggar's head. The poor bum shouted, "I want ninety, brat-brain!", and mashed his teeth together repeatedly. "Look, punk" I said, shoving the kid aside, "don't you have better things to do?" He just laughed and ran away. I helped the beggar back on his feet. "You all right?" I asked. "Yeah, thanks. You've always been good to us," he said with remarkable clarity, despite the welt growing on his forehead. Somewhat weirded out , I said, "Sure. Whatever. Take it easy" and continued home.

At my door, I fumbled for keys in my pocket, and found a card that should not have been there. It smelled suspiciously like the beggar I had bumped into. The card had one of those Egyptian crosses, but most alarmingly, it had my name printed on it!

"Find your path, Paus. Call (282) 827-4357."

I had never heard of an area code 282, so I looked it up. "Unassigned," said the web page. I figured that I might as well try calling it. Not much chance of getting charged for an unassigned number. The call went straight to voice mail; a recording of an old woman welcomed me, "I'm afraid I can't get the phone right now, but thanks so much for reading the number and calling, Paus. Please meet me tonight at Old Folley's Tavern." How did she know me? I had to follow through. How much trouble could an old lady be?

Old Folley's was one of those neighborhood dives long past its heyday, yet it had an appeal acquired only by enduring the changing times. I was just about to walk through the saloon doors when I noticed a beat-up VW bus parked along the sidewalk. The paint job was some hippie-gypsy-anti-war theme with peace signs, Egyptian crosses, hearts, and a yin-yang looking symbol with a silver snake along the "S" dividing the black and white. There were dark green curtains covering all the windows that masked all but a little of the inside light. The back had a gaudy sign, "Fortunes by Madame Celestis." The side door opened just a bit and a cloud of smoke escaped that made me almost expect Spicoli to emerge. Mandolin music sneaked out and through it came the old lady's voice, "You may approach, Paus."

I pulled open the door and parted the curtains, nearly choking on the incense and trying to get my bearings through the haze. "Shut the door and sit down, please," she instructed. So I did as asked, feeling a stool (more like a stump) to sit on. The clearing haze revealed an old woman sitting across a table from me. Her hair was black with streaks of gray, and she had eyes that were a golden hue.

"What is this about? How do you know who I am? Cool contacts, by the way."

She smiled and nodded, asking, "Did you not read the number? Did you not call? Perhaps Madame Celestis knows who you are better than you do, eh? We've met before; do you remember?"

"No, I definitely do not. Look, um, Madame Celestis, what is this about?"

"You tell me," she replied psychoanalytically.

"You're the fortune teller."

"I'm *a* fortune teller, not the fortune teller."

"Well, I'm not giving you any money for a fortune."

"No, you aren?t; money is not necessary, but you will pay in your own way." She chuckled to herself.

"Yeah, I'm sure I will. Ok, so what do we do? Tarot cards?"

A smile cracked her ancient face, "No, I don't use those anymore. Do you play Scrabble, by any chance?"

"No. Not really."

"No matter. Reach inside this bag and pull out a large handful of the tiny wooden squares."

I did as she instructed, pulling out 20 or so Scrabble pieces. She held a pewter mug toward me and said, "Place them in here." After I dumped the pieces in the mug, she made some strange gestures in the air, as if tracing out runes in the incense smoke. Shutting her eyes, she began chanting in a language that sounded something like Russian, but with a quality I didn?t recognize. Holding one hand over the top of the mug, she shook it vigorously and picked out one of the pieces and placed it on the table. Opening her eyes, she read it aloud, "W". She repeated again for the next letter, "I". Next came "N", and then "T". By the time she took the last piece out she had spelled the phrase, "WIN TINY BARBARIAN TENT." I stared at the pieces as if using my gaze to pull an answer from them.

"Are you all right my dear? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine. Do it again."

"Place them in my mug, Paus."

I did, and she again shook the mug and repeated the ritual as before. This time, my shock was doubled. The pieces spelled, "WANT RAINY RABBIT IN NET." I already knew what the next "reading" had to be, but I needed to see it. I stared at the words, trying to make sense of what was going on. "Again," I demanded.

"But you already know the next reading, don't you?"

"Again."

"?Again...please,? Paus. Where have your manners gone?"

"Again, please." I scooped up the letters and placed them in her mug. My hands were trembling. I was right. The third reading was, "I WANT NINETY BRAT BRAIN."

"I don?t understand." My voice was shaky. "What does this mean? Who are you?"

"Three times you've been shown the same place; I can do no more."

She got up, went thought the curtains and left the bus. Her exit broke me from my trance. "Wait!" I shouted and leapt after her. I flew through the curtains and fell about 4 feet onto a hard dirt ground. The VW bus had become some dilapidated covered wagon that had no horses to draw it. As I lay sprawled on the earth, I saw that the sky was green, but there was a moon that I did not recognize; it had a chunk missing from it, as if smashed away. My neighborhood was gone. There was still a road, but it was by no means paved, and there were wheel ruts in it. My heart was racing. I had no idea where I was, but somehow I had to figure out how to get back. She said I had been shown the same place three times. What did she mean?

 

The above story has been posted for a little over a week now, so I?ll briefly discuss it for those interested. Admittedly, I don't know if anyone has read it =). I wrote ?A Green Sky in New Britannia? as an answer to LB suggesting that players come up with stories regarding how they discovered their way to New Britannia (dev. hangout 30Apr2013). I wanted to incorporate some references to Ultima history. ?Spoilers? for the less obvious references are below, as well as answering the main puzzle. Stop reading now if you want to figure these out on your own! I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading.



The crippled beggar who asks ?Dollar for dance?? is a reference to Komor in Ultima VII, a crippled beggar that would claim to be a dancer if you asked him what his job was. He was located in Paws, thus Paus? line, ?Get your grubby *paws* off me.?

The phone number (282) 827-4357 spells out ?Avatar Help?. Just for kicks, the segment 28274 spells out ?Atari?. As of this writing, area code 282 is not assigned to any region.

Old Folley?s Tavern is a reference to Folley Tavern, also in Paws, in Ultima IV. I describe Old Folley?s as having ?an appeal acquired only by enduring the changing times.? This is how I feel about Ultima IV. =)

Celestis is mentioned as a place in the 30Apr2013 dev. hangout with LB and TH, so I decided to use it as the Gypsy?s name.

The three phrases that Paus encounters are anagrams for ?Brittany New Britannia.? A fun anagram that I decided to cut is "A nearby tin barn, nitwit". Too funny.

 

Nice Spicoli reference (and more)! Thanks for supplying the spoiler decoders... really enjoyed this.

 

Thanks a lot, Hazard! I appreciate your feedback and am glad you liked it.

 

I like the references, also like the way you changed the gypsy slightly with the scrabble. Good to see mixing of new things in with old so it isn't simply a repetition.

 

Thanks Aventari! I'm glad the scrabble worked for you. I was trying to work some new things into the "canon" without trying to completely alter it. Thanks for letting me know that it came across.

 

Whoops, like me, you didn't realize the topic already had a Thread started. We need to get more organized and merge these.
It's here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/arrival-in-new-britannia.1923/#post-29729

 

Your point is well taken, Fireangel. However, when I did the original post on May 9th, the thread you refer to was just QuixstarDragon's story; I didn't realize at the time that others would be adding their own stories to it (as Matheryn did on May 12). Ah well, here's to a little more chaos in the storm . With that being said, I tend to prefer a thread devoted to a single story so that discussion of the story can be focused and easy to follow. For me, if there are multiple stories and multiple discussions about those stories in a single thread, it can get a little confusing...