The Book of Knots - Jags
The Book of Knots - Jags
The Book of Knots - Jags
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wrap around themselves. Any travel that does not successfully navigate<br />
“inwards” into smaller and smaller chambers will return to where it<br />
started.<br />
Within the estate is a hall <strong>of</strong> many columns, each <strong>of</strong> which contains<br />
a human body suspended in light. <strong>The</strong>se people are surrounded by<br />
an aura <strong>of</strong> whispers that is their thoughts, memories, and experiences<br />
sublimating out <strong>of</strong> them in a s<strong>of</strong>t babble <strong>of</strong> many different languages.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se bodies do not decay—but they do collapse. In some columns only<br />
a brain, two eyes (connected with nerves) and a spine remain. In others,<br />
the skin is only starting to collapse. In each case, this person is yielding<br />
all that they are to the great listening machines somewhere in the nexus<br />
<strong>of</strong> the palace.<br />
Often, however, <strong>The</strong> Examiner is found beyond his home traveling and<br />
questing. In some cases he may merely wish to speak with a person. In<br />
other cases he has been known to find them and alter them. Sometimes<br />
beneficially, sometimes horrifically.<br />
Operations<br />
<strong>The</strong> Examiner believes that each expression <strong>of</strong> a human soul is a tiny<br />
expression <strong>of</strong> a larger whole and that this can be clarified by changing<br />
the state <strong>of</strong> mind <strong>of</strong> the artist. He was behind part <strong>of</strong> the Flower Power<br />
movement and is <strong>of</strong>ten associated with the Waldens as he is eager to<br />
make contact with those who can reach him.<br />
He works, himself, as an artist in the spectrum <strong>of</strong> mind-altering<br />
substances and produces vials and powers and rolled cigarettes which<br />
all have pr<strong>of</strong>ound effects on those who ingest them. In some cases, these<br />
materials, when ingested by a non-Infected lead to Infection and deep<br />
Descent. He has been active in getting traveling magicians to bleeds<br />
where they can transfer these materials up to the surface: in the hands<br />
<strong>of</strong> the right people, if they take his drugs, he can bring them down and<br />
examine them (a cross between a philosophy-class oral exam and a<br />
mutation-generating medical exam).<br />
Dramas<br />
<strong>The</strong> Examiner is <strong>of</strong>ten drawn to dramas <strong>of</strong> questioning. Actors will<br />
sometimes come to question “who they are” (in both an existential<br />
sense and an “I’ve awoken as a giant insect” sense!). He also meddles in<br />
one’s physical sense <strong>of</strong> self and has been an agent <strong>of</strong> Twisting for many<br />
who’ve undergone Descent.<br />
In some cases, he is sought out—he can provide interesting<br />
conversation—but there is always a risk that he will either be displeased<br />
with the simple mindedness <strong>of</strong> the applicant or decide to undertake an<br />
experiment that renders the subject “differently sane.”<br />
35<br />
<strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Knots</strong> - <strong>The</strong> Caretakers