Hereticwerks: Bujilli: Series One Summary & Episode Guide

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Bujilli: Series One Summary & Episode Guide

Series One, Bujilli's Sojourn, originally ran from Episode 1 to Episode 19. It began life at our Zalchis blog, then was transferred over here to Hereticwerks in January 2012, at the urging of Porky. Thanks for believing in Bujilli, and for convincing us to bring him over to this blog so his adventures could continue!

A Quick Summary of Series One
Series One took place primarily amid the ruins of the Air-Lord Zormur's Palace, on the other side of the world Bujilli knew as his own. Unwanted and unappreciated, Bujilli was a dreamer of sorts, despite his maternal uncle's best effort to beat it out of him. He grew up scurrying through deep, dark places in search of shiny-bits and useful loot for his unscrupulous and conniving uncle. When he grew too big to squeeze past some of the deeper crevices, Bujilli was forced to taunt and kill centipedes as a dangler; they either tied a rope to his ankles or strapped him into a basket and then dropped it down a hole where centipedes had been spotted. He got good at it. Despite his uncle trying to get him killed in order to cheat him of his inheritance.

It was an unhappy childhood with few friends and scarce any bright spots. But growing up in a sorcerer's yurt did have some advantages. Despite a mishap in casting a spell that was well beyond his capabilities. In spite of the cruel schemes of a demonness in a cage. Night after night Bujilli studied and learned and read, read, read. He knew he had to leave. But didn't know how. Then, after his uncle accidentally severed the cable hauling him back up from a particularly deep pit Bujilli discovered the Gem of Muktra. It was not just a glowing green gem. It whispered to the young misfit. Taught him things. Told him of a way to escape. And so the die was cast and Bujilli set off on his sojourn.

In the course of Bujilli's adventures beneath Zormur's Palace he encountered a number of weird and fantastic creatures including an ancient Miasmagaster, Dream-Snails, a Thing That Watches, a nasty old Muck-Raker, some mercenaries from one of the Wandering Cities of the Kalaramar Drifts, a Zurian Princess, and some sort of disembodied brain in a shell. Then he discovered and reactivated a Transveyance Mechanism that inscribed some sort of intelligent thing into his bones, what it termed his 'Counsel,' and sent him to Wermspittle in response to his request to go where he could learn the things he needed to know.

There are a couple of short stories from Bujilli's early days, prior to Episode One currently in-the-works. We'll provide more details once those become available. All the Episodes in Series One are also being revised, edited and compiled into a pdf and possible one or two other formats, as well as print version that will be available soon. There will be some bonus features in the Series One Compilation...

Series One: Episode by Episode

Bj1 Bj2 BJ3 Bj4 Bj5 BJ6 Bj7 Bj8 Bj9 Bj10 Bj11 Bj12 Bj13 Bj14 Bj15 Bj16 Bj17 Bj18 Bj19 (Bj1.5)

Episode One

...introduces us to Bujilli, an outcast half-almas who has been raised by his abusive and manipulative uncle, an Almas sorcerer whose yurt is packed with strange things and weird treasures from a myriad of exotic places. Bujilli has spent the last year preparing himself for his escape. The time has finally come. He's run away in search of adventures and answers. Oh, and he's not alone; Bujilli has found the Gem of Muktra and it whispers to him of a far off place called Zalchis and it tells him about a device called the Synchronocitor and how it can take him to another world. It teaches him spells. It urges him onward. It is not his friend.

Episode 1.5 was a brief departure where we wrote a short piece of fiction that was exactly 100 words based on the prompt at The Saturday Centus. That was fun. We may do it again.

Episode Two

Saw Bujilli entering the ruins beneath Zormur's Palace in search of the Synchronocitor. Using the Gloomlight Glyph Bujilli uncovers a hidden door that the Gem told him would be there. He uses a Knock spell to open the door. This causes a section of the wall covered in cold, damp plaster to collapse. Once the dust clears Bujilli renews the Gloomlight, draws his tulwar and enters the darkness.

Episode Three

Suddenly the floor collapsed out from under Bujilli. He manages to avoid falling while still holding onto his tulwar. A section of tree-limb salvaged from just outside the entry serves as a means to bridge the crumbling gap. But wait; the collapse of the wall has revealed another doorway. Which way should he go? The readers decided!

Episode Four

The newfound door proved too much to ignore. Bujilli investigated the doorway and considered using his Listen to Walls spell to learn more. Before he can cast his spell there is a loud crash followed by scratching noises. Movement. Something is coming toward him. Something that reeked terribly.

Episode Five

Bujilli meets the Miasmagaster. And not just any Miasmagaster, but an ancient, very venerable specimen who has been sealed-off from the outside world for a long, long time. Lonely and bored, the Miasmagaster challenged Bujilli to an unfriendly game of chess. The stakes were simple. Bujilli would be playing for his life.

Episode Six

Having won a night's respite, Bujilli is allowed to sleep, but instead he sits up practicing the various chess moves the Miasmagaster taught him. Disgusting, wet noises disturb his efforts and he casts Listen to Walls to find out what is happening. The Miasmagaster is giving birth to a swarm of spawnlings. A swarm of hungry spawnlings...Bujilli quickly confers with the walls, thanks to his spell, and prepares for the onslaught of the Misasmagaster spawnlings. He uses some of his climbing cord and a wine-skin to rig-up a container for one of the nasty little things. Then he casts a hastily revised and improvised version of Oneiric Bubble. He successfully captures one of the spawnlings.

Episode Seven

We consulted the newly-revised map for the Ruins Below Zormur's Palace so that the readers could help Bujilli decide which way to go next.

Episode Eight

Bujilli's revised spell collapsed into a deadly Vortex. It killed one of the hungry spawnlings hunting after him. He has another spawnling sealed within a wine-skin. Bujilli chooses to go North, away from the looming Vortex that seems to be exerting some sort of untoward influence upon him even at this distance.

Episode Nine

Dream-Snails begin oozing out of the Oneiric Vortex behind him. Large. Vicious. Carnivorous. He could feel the Vortex affecting his perceptions. A quick bit of exploring gives Bujilli some idea of his situation. Casting Thought Wall helps Bujilli clear his head of the Oneiric Vortexes' insidious effects. He leaves the spawnlings and Dream-Snails to fight among themselves. Bujilli makes his escape, spots some weird glyphs and comes face-to-face with The Thing That Watches.

Episode Ten

Starts out with Bujilli contemplating just what this Thing might be. He confirms for himself that this Thing is in fact sealed behind some extremely powerful wards. Not an immediate threat. Bujilli quickly dispatches a wounded Dream-Snail that had followed him into this chamber. He quickly examines the thing's carcass and takes samples that look like they might be potentially useful or valuable, as his uncle has taught him to do. Then Bujilli decides to ask the Gem of Muktra for some advice. It offers him directions to the Synchronocitor. After a fashion.

Episode Eleven

Bujilli finds out that one of his water-skins has been contaminated by Dream-Snail blood. The water is unsafe to drink. Probably. But it might be valuable. Unfortunately the stuff seemed to be affecting him somewhat. He determines to keep moving. Forwards. Onwards. Downwards. Just like the Gem advised him. Then something huge and heavy strikes the far wall with brutal force. He slips past a sorcerous portcullis in time to realize that the wriggling things in the muck covering the floor aren't any kind of eels. They're the tentacles of a Muck Raker.

Episode Twelve

Bujilli watches from behind the sorcerous portcullis as a band of mercenaries led by a Zurian Sorcerer-Princess fight the Muck-Raker he left behind. The battle is fierce, but ultimately doomed, as much for their ignorance concerning the fungal beast, as for the madness of their mistress. She was hunting after the Gem that Bujilli was carrying. The very Gem that led him here. She meant to take the Gem from him by any means necessary. Using his Ventriloquism spell Bujilli tells the last mercenary still standing how to fight the Muck-Raker, effectively turning his potential opponents against one another so he can make his escape.

Episode Thirteen

Bujilli finds his escape cut short by another sorcerous portcullis. He decides to set an ambush for the Zurian Princess who is determined to track him down no matter what now that she knows he has the Gem. In one of the Little Brown Journals he stole from his uncle, Bujilli finds the spell Malign and Particular Suspension of Natural Law, a spell from Tsan Yian transcribed in Aklo. It costs him quite a bit to cast the spell, not having learned it properly. Losing the page with the spell from the Journal is the least of it. But the spell works. After its nature.

Episode Fourteen

The Tsannic Spell nearly ends Bujilli's journey. As does another of the writhing fragments of the Muck-Raker. He has defeated the Zurian Princess Janildra. Her last surviving henchman carried her out of this place, back to her family to face the reckoning awaiting her. Bujilli eliminates the last vestiges of the Muck-Raker, only to find himself caught between the Thing That Watches and a possessed scimitar with designs upon his mind, body and soul...all the while the malevolent spell he unleashed from the Little Brown Journal is taking its toll upon him...

Episode Fifteen

Bleeding. Exhausted. Bujilli uses his tulwar to slide the whispering scimitar toward the cloud of spores coming into the chamber. He has no desire to give the possessed blade a chance to take him over. He also realizes that he needs to get moving. So he does what needs to be done. He spends precious vitality to cast one more spell. Slips through the second sorcerous portcullis. Goes onward. Forward. Downward. Just like the Gem told him to do. The Gem. It is at this point that Bujilli begins to come to some very disturbing realizations about that whispering green Gem he has been carrying. Hiding it from his uncle. Listening to its whispers. No more. Bujilli leaves the Gem behind him.

Episode Sixteen

Still bleeding, still exhausted, but free of the green Gem for the first time in years, Bujilli enters a dusty room past the portcullis. A flaccid, disembodied brain floating within a translucent shell hovers near the far wall. It seems inert, possibly asleep. Bujilli recognizes a pair of Transveyances, one on either side of the room. Hands shaking. Vision blurring. His nose-bleed growing worse. Bujilli finds a reasonably secure spot. Casts Oneiric bubble. Collapses.

Episode Seventeen

Bujilli awakens from a nightmare. He has been poisoned by the contaminated water in his water-skin. Dream-Snail blood has seeped through his clothes and through gaps in his armor. The bleeding has stopped. For now. Weakened and severely depleted, Bujilli considers the Transveyances and the inert Fixed Gate in the room. This might be a way out of this place. But where would he go? For now, he re-casts Oneiric Bubble and goes back to sleep.

Episode Eighteen

Bujilli awakens in darkness. An all too familiar experience. He takes stock of his situation. reviews his repertoire of spells to determine what might be the most helpful or useful ones to try out. He decides to modify the Protection from Aethyrial Intrusions spell, and use it to access the Transveyance. The spell works. He awakens the machine and they begin a dialogue that will change Bujilli's life in oh so many ways...

Episode Nineteen

The Transveyance completes its analysis and offers Bujilli what information it can offer in regard to the Synchronocitor. but before he can access this information the Miasmagaster spawnlings begin to ooze past the portcullis. He has the machine send them away. He has the machine show him the current location of the Synchronocitor. That nearly overloads his brain. Bujilli reconsiders whether he should continue looking for the Synchronocitor any longer. Perhaps it wasn't the solution he was really looking for after all. His difficulty in sorting out the overwhelming amount of raw data that the Transveyance continues to bombard him with prompts the machine to assign Bujilli his own Counsel. A form of supplemental intelligence imprinted directly into his bones as part of what the Transveyance considers his Inheritance. The machine determines Bujilli to be human. Enough to warrant giving him the Counsel, which then suggests that he request an Atlas of the Known Gates, which the machine then installs within Bujilli's Counsel or perhaps his own brain. He can't really tell. Troubled by all the high technological weirdness surrounding him, Bujilli decides that he needs to learn more about how things work before going any farther. Ignorance can kill. Or worse. He asks the Transveyance to help him find a place where he can learn what he needs to know. It sends him to Wermspittle...