Niborkerese: City of a Thousand Hazes.

Niborkerese: The Interworld Zone.

Niborkerese: The Thief with Fifteen Knives.

Three tall towers, dark monoliths guarding a purple city, stand as a mockery to the Valley of the Ten and to the Conclave. The houses range from slums to grand mansions to industrial factories and everything in between. Alleys, streets, ways, they all twist together, forming a wicked maze that many don't escape. The homeless trade freely with the rich, the damned with the sacred, and rebels walk the streets freely. Those species not deemed suitable for membership within the Conclave seek safety within the walls of Niborkerese, and are given sanction. Casinos, drug dens, brothels, bars.. open all night.

Drugs run flower than water here. There are more psionic users within Niborkerese alone than in everywhere else in the Realms. Banned technology from Earth finds is for sale, here, as do people, dreams, desires, wishes, narcotics, demons, freedoms, whores, extraterrestrial slaves, assassins, teeth, magic..

The only thing that is not traded here are the Conclave Stones. The only true law within the City of Anarchists is this: those who support the Conclave, or carry it's coin, are to be killed.

Niborkerese was once three Realms, united together by powerful magic through the actions of three powerful Gods. Two of those Gods passed away due to political confrontations, and Lord Macento the Dust, master alchemist and expert underground pharmacist, rules supreme. He is the last God of the three. Every town square bears his image through a myriad of statues, and his narcotics are at once the finest, most amazing and most illicit in the Realm Supernatural.

(.. "Wanna telepath? Wanna metacrate? Wanna 'port? Sniff some o' this, man, and open your mind..")
("What do the pills do? You don't know.. ? You never traveled? Never seen Layrad? Never been to Eeyho? You missin' out..")
("I took the beer and saw the Emperor saw the Emperor saw the Emperor saw the Emperor saw the Emperor..")

Here lies the Isubanite Shrine - an entire tower dedicated to the fanatical death-cult that has lived for over a thousand years. Here lie the True Sons of Metatron, peddling thoughtsmear and trading in psionic gifts. Here, allegedly, lives Msonus the Creator, building for eternity.

Here lies Free Market Pjah, where anything can - and is - traded for.

Restriction: One cannot be, for obvious reasons, in both the Valley of Ten Towers and the City of Niborkerese at the same time. Similarly, even visiting Niborkerese is a Grade I offense. 

Near the mighty entrance gates of the city of Niborkerese, a minor rift in reality opened up, flaring up brightly for a moment, then fading out into nothingness once more. In the short time it existed, a small, gear-like object fell through it, dropping onto the stones below with a faint clunk and spinning around for a bit before coming to a rest. It lay there for a short while, utterly motionless and ignored by all those that passed it by as if it were some worthless piece of junk - which it technically was.

However, it was not too long before the gear came into motion once more, springing back onto its side and rolling uphill into the city. More junk, all of the metallic variety, seemed to gather around it from out of nowhere, slowly creating a sizeable orb of rusty steel that rolled through the streets. It eventually halted near the centre of the city, at which point the components realigned themselves to take on a large yet vaguely humanoid shape. The moment it finished doing so, a red orb flared into existence within its head, and the components reshaped themselves once more, distorting their forms until Chalybis' second body was completed. It was an exact replica of the original one, complete with all of the mechanism that worked within Him.

The Book Of Connections
I: At Last I Have Arrived

He looked around Himself, trying to discover where exactly it was that He had arrived. His appearance here had been based upon a strange sensation, a dubious 'feeling' that told Him this place had something which He desired, although He had no idea what that might be...

Chalybis was in a large, purple-tiled bathing area, with steam a strangling cloud and naked bodies - human, divine, other - everywhere. No one paid him any attention. There were deals being cut in the corners of the bathing area, for drugs and other illicit things.

'This place is... awful...'

Chalybis was not too pleased to be surrounded by these beings, especially considering their non-metallic - organic even - nature which was an insult to the perfection which His progress brought into the universe. This was however not His realm to command - yet - and He would be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers in this place, so their continuing existence would have to be tolerated - for the time being. Of course, if He were to come upon such beings alone or in smaller groups during His presence in this realm, He would 'remedy' their unfortunate status immediately to expand His rule and simultaneously bring this place one individual closer to perfection.

Deciding that this place was not likely to contain anything that He would consider of any value to His plans, He turned around and looked for an exit. This wasn't an extremely difficult task, considering He had left quite a trail of filth and grime behind as a ball of steel - not to mention the fact that He was still oozing and fuming all sorts of pollutants in His normal form, slowly replacing the friendly white steam by a much darker and nauseating substance.

The exit wasn't difficult to find - the baths were open, heated by powerful sentient fire-stones, and while naked bodies fluttered everywhere Chalybis soon spotted a woman that appealed to him slightly more - her breasts were metallic, her many legs pistons, her body shining with steel. Her eyes glittered with the intelligence of an engineer. She smiled at him a little when she saw him.

Grumblar entered the realm, his stone legs and arms tripping over the uneven soil.  Deep within him Raelis whispered the word FIND and concentrated hard before directing Grumblar towards his goal.

Chalybis stopped in His tracks - quite literally as His tracks were puddles of sludge which were gradually spreading around until they dried up again - upon witnessing another mechanical being in this place. Although He could not quite figure out why such a being would have come here, it was a 'pleasant' change of view from the pathetic organic beings that were still swarming everywhere around them. Interaction with this being would be somewhat difficult though, as it had been a very long time since He had spoken to something as more or less equal, and decreeing that it ought to obey Him was probably not going to end too well - considering its physique appeared to be in a better shape than His own.

II: I Am Colourless Hallowed Leord Chalybis the First of the Lesser Remnants Of Telluratus, Returned God and Fragile Ignorant of Industrialization
III: Please Identify Yourself

Grumblar stumbles through the swathes of people, down small lanes much too tiny for his large frame, and across deadly streets. He eventually finds himself at a shabby building signed as the "Inn of the Serpent-Totth", where he knew to find Badh, the Spider of Logic. Above him rose a huge statue made of silver in the image of a great, tired-looking God - the Sign of Marcento, ruler of this place.

The street outside was reasonably quiet compared to many others in the Free City. To Grumblar's side sat a withered beggar, holding his money-pot out expectantly.

--

"My name, honey," said the woman, smiling excitedly, to Chalybis, "is Queen Laddua, Spider of Instinct. I'm a bath-woman, and you look like you need a bath. For a price, I can clean you up, make you glitter in the sun."

She seemed sincere.

Grumblar considered the beggar calmly, his rock face seemingly incapable of showing emotion then his arm moved to point at the beggar and the money pot flew out of his hand to fly down the street.  (Use of MOVE)  Grumblar watched the pot for a second before turning and entering the inn and walking up to the bar.

"I seek a spider."  He hissed quietly.  "I would feel less inclined to burn your bar down if I was to be directed to him now but currently I feel very interested to see how this place would burn."

'Bath? Spider of Instinct?'

Chalybis recognized neither of these terms, so He was somewhat confused. The latter appeared to be some kind of title which she bore, although it was clearly one of a lesser standing than His own, whilst the former appeared to have some relation to the activities that took place within this building. Although most of these activities did not appear to be the type in which He wanted to engage at all, having the glory of His corporeal shell at least partially restored sounded rather attractive, and the being did look as if it had sufficient knowledge about maintenance to actually do so.

IV: What Would Such A Price Consist Of

"A Spider?" said the tavern-keep, his face expressionless, his arms under the bar table. "Be more specific than that, stranger. There are Spiders everywhere. You looking for a friend, maybe? For maybe someone to spend the night with? I know an eight-legged brothel, runs cheap down here. Could set you up. No need for threats."

His face still did not betray his emotions.

--

"What do you have to offer, my darling friend? What would you care to pay? I do an extremely good job."

"I was told there was a spider of instinct here.  Bahd I think the name was.  I would very much appreciate being shown to his room now - no need to tell him I'm here, he doesn't require that information."

Chalybis considered the dubious offer in silence for a short while. What was He willing to give up to have His shell restored? And would anything done to it in this place even carry over to His other self that remained within Telluratus? There was no real sense in giving up anything just so that an effigy of Himself within this place might look more polished for a while. He was beginning to feel inclined to simply refuse the offer, but He did not do it quite yet. There were some things He needed to know about this place first...

V: I Must Know What Is Considered To Be An Acceptable Currency Within This Place
VI: And Above That I Must Know The Name Origin And Nature Of This Place In The Broadest Sense Possible

Tcyhe appeared here (which happened to be right next to where Chyalybis was) and sighed. "Fucking Systemarch!" He said a bit louder than he should have before looking around. Just the memory of his narrow escape from the Temple still made his head ache. "I really hate doing that..." He repeated, though of course the systmarch wasn't there to hear it this time. He looked for what was around him.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:22, Wed 09 Sept 2009.

'And what do we have here?' Chalybis thought to Himself as something made a rather flashy appearance in His vicinity. As He turned His gaze from the metallic female to look down upon the being, He noticed that it was an organic one - what a shame - yet it appeared to be wearing clothing, the first one He had witnessed doing so within this place. More importantly, its choice of words indicated that it had recently encountered a Systemarch, and that this encounter had come to a less than desirable ending on its own part, which might be somehow related to its rather sudden appearance here. He continued to stare at the being for some time, casting a red glow over its physique whilst wondering whether or not it was going to do something now that it had arrived in this place.

While the area around Tyche turned red from Chalybis' staring he looked back at the machine, his fist instinct was that it was some kind of giant gaurd, but then he realised that the thing was divine. "Umm... sorry, um, no offence ment... I'll be going now." He began to walk casually away from things deathly red glaze trying to find a gambeling game of some kind.

VII: You Will Not Leave Until You Have Explained What Your Reason For Dealing With A Systemarch Was Chalybis declared, even though there was nothing He could do within this realm to prevent the other divine being from leaving - apart from killing it instantly. The latter might still be necessary, if He found out that it was an ally of the Systemarchs despite its earlier outcries. Chalybis' gaze remained firmly upon the being, narrowing down until the light surrounded the being in a thin yet bright beam.

"Listen... I don't want any trouble. We just got into an argument is all, and he tried to have me arrested." There was no way he could over-power this thing, lessoned learnd, keep your mouth shut.

'Trouble?'

The other being appeared to be under the somewhat-mistaken impression that Chalybis was something to fear - and He saw no reason to alter that viewpoint for the time being. Extracting the information He desired from the being was a lot easier that way. Right now, He wanted to know where that Systemarch had been, and more importantly, how to get there. Although it was somewhat ahead of schedule, an opportunity to vanquish one ore more of His enemies should not be wasted for any reason.

VIII: In What Location Did You Encounter This Systemarch And How Many Of Them Are There In That Location?

"Well.." he looks around. "Listen, I'm not going to get caught saying stupid stuff in this place. Is there somewhere else we can talk... if its even possible for you to whisper?"

The woman had walked off a while ago, bitter expression on her face. As she wandered off, she cursed Chalybis and Gods and Speciesits.. she went to find work elsewhere. The steam within this place was suffocating.

Chalybis was vaguely aware of the fact that the 'female' engineer had left not too long ago, insulting Him in the process. That was a real shame, as He might have learned a lot from her presence if this outsider God had not chosen to attract His attention with a flashy appearance, and He might even have began to appreciate her existence, something which not many creatures could boast. But if she was to insult His divine stature, He would have to visit her again later, and that would not be for idle conversation...

IX: There Is No Need To Attempt Secrecy Concerning The Systemarchs Within This Place For They Are Not Present Anywhere Within This Locale Although We Could Relocate This Conversation To A Less Crowded Location If You So Desire He then declared to the other God, not answering its question directly, although the implications were obvious. Chalybis had lost the art of silence - or more precisely, never gained it in the first place - and felt no need to make any attempts at it. Still, this appeared to be one of the more crowded places in this Realm, and the conditions were probably not optimal for such an organic being.


OOC: Aww, I'd hate to have to kill her too...

Raelis takes the man's silence for insolence and renews his FIND and then follows it to his destination completely ignoring the barkeep and promising to set his bar on fire when he returns.

Tyche frowned and then looked at Chalybis.