First appearance: Coriander Society, Fate of the Faithful Part 1 (A Crossover) · watch it on YouTube
Lawrence Booker Green is a wizened old traveler from another universe who tumbled into The Void alongside the Coriander Society. He is an archivist who studies the multiverse and “regularly invokes powers beyond mortal comprehension,” and he spent much of the crossover researching, surrounded by books and maps. He lost his shoes on the way in, his dignity at breakfast, and very nearly his temper while healing a werebear. In return he gave the party something they badly needed: answers about how the Void actually works.
Story
Fate of the Faithful Part 1
Lawrence arrived in Coriander Society, Fate of the Faithful Part 1 (A Crossover), when John, Asena and “the wizened old Lawrence Booker Green, another visitor from another universe” jumped into a tear in reality. Asena could usually manipulate portals and break out of astral conduits, but this one went “through the astral and beyond it. Beyond time and space, an impossible, paradoxical, infinite distance.” The three were hurled head over heels through the crossing. Lawrence came out the other side without his shoes. In this episode he cast bolts of fire, blasts of radiant light, and a banishing spell with a curt “fuck off.”
Fate of the Faithful Part 2
In Coriander Society - Fate of the Faithful Part 2 (A Crossover), the guests at the Faithful’s base sat down to breakfast made by Frank. The cauldron held beans, market meats, possibly a rat that “scurried too close,” pineapple, and bits of tanned hide added “for their nutritional value.” The dish was soon christened “the Hawaiian boot.” John magicked his bowl into tasting like steak, Asena declared it great, and a defeated Lyrus went back for seconds. Lawrence ate it and was left looking “a little bit pale.”
He pushed the party to get back to work. “We should be about our business quickly,” he urged. “We have our own to attend to.” He reminded them of their unfinished business with Josiah Parsons. John pushed back: they had earned a rest, and Lawrence didn’t even know where Parsons was. Lawrence backed down graciously, saying he had only been “reminding you of the stakes.” Then he settled in at the Forge to research, “noise or no noise.”
Fate of the Faithful Part 3
By Coriander Society - Fate of The Faithful Part 3 — A Crossover, Lawrence’s research was an item on the Faithful’s order of business, alongside Circe and Kenny’s intelligence report. He sat in the back of the headquarters, reading and drawing all over maps of different parts of the Void.
When Lyrus insisted he was fine while coughing up blood, Lawrence cast a powerful healing spell. It did almost nothing; it was “the worst fifth level cure I have ever seen.” Lawrence blamed the setting: “Void magic. Something’s going on with it.” Lyrus snapped, “Are you going to heal me? Fuck.” So, in frustration, Lawrence threw four more spells at the problem. Swearing in the ancient tongue of the elder evils, eyes rolled back and white, hair flaring with ancient power, he bellowed: “just freaking be healed!” It worked. “Okay, I’m feeling way better,” said Lyrus. “Is he always like this?” John’s answer was simply: “Yes.” During this stretch Lawrence also turned out to know the lore of the sovereign glue, and he kept a tuning fork tied to the party’s way back home.
Fate of the Faithful Part 4
Coriander Society — Fate of the Faithful Part 4 (A Crossover) opened with Lawrence snapping his book shut on a theory: “I think we might be outside the bigger picture.” Normally, he explained, travel between worlds runs through an in-between plane such as the astral. The Void doesn’t work that way. Its scraps of ethereal, astral and shadow exist only because the broken worlds brought those planes with them when they arrived, “clinging in bits and pieces to these different realms.” There is “no direct connection here.” John summed it up as “this weird little microcosm.”
Lawrence also divined the location of Ralzamon, and the effort left him bleeding from the ear. He carried a vintage bloodletting set and held a sample of Asena’s blood. When the party set out, he stayed behind at base, because if they failed, “Elder Evil threatens everything we hold dear.”
Personality and Abilities
Lawrence is ancient, bookish and fussy. He is “an ancient individual” with a gift for gathering knowledge. He worries about the stakes when the others want a rest, but he apologizes when he oversteps. His calm tends to hold until it suddenly doesn’t, and then he is swearing in the tongue of elder evils with his hair flaring. According to John, that is normal for him.
His magic covers fire, radiance, banishment, healing and divination, though in the Void his spells don’t always behave. He travels with a tuning fork linked to getting home and a vintage bloodletting set. He also draws all over his maps of the Void.
Relationships
- Asena: Fellow traveler through the tear into the Void; Lawrence holds a sample of her blood.
- Lyrus: Lawrence healed him through sheer, profane force of will.
- Frank: Lawrence ate his “Hawaiian boot” breakfast and did not look well afterward.
Memorable Quotes
- “We should be about our business quickly. We have our own to attend to.” (Fate of the Faithful Part 2)
- “I meant no slight… I was merely reminding you of the stakes.” (Fate of the Faithful Part 2)
- “Void magic. Something’s going on with it. This far away reality shouldn’t even be able to do things.” (Fate of the Faithful Part 3)
- “Just freaking be healed!” (Fate of the Faithful Part 3)
- “I think we might be outside the bigger picture.” (Fate of the Faithful Part 4)