Several days ago, a young man name Glonath had noticed one of the smaller boulders that hangs suspended alongside the Beanstalk has begun to descend. It is by no means plummeting to the earth, but it is in fact getting lower and lower.

At first this seemed to be a fascinating development in an otherwise sleepy town of farmers that attracts the occasional ambitious sole that boasts of climbing the Beanstalk. Several enterprising individuals spoke excitedly of getting their hands on the fungus on the underside of the boulder once it came within reach, having heard of what it can produce when mixed with the soil.

The initial enthusiasm around this strange development began to wane when the residents of the Beanstalk became aware of the trajectory of the boulder. The large floating rock, measuring easily 30 to 40 meters across and weighing several thousand kilograms, appears to be dropping toward the primary water source of the aldeia and the surrounding farms. The small community's water is primarily provided by a collector with a tap that runs deep into the ground, wicking the water up through a multitude of ultra fine filaments that deposit the water into large bulbs for drinking and through spongy tubes that run the water to the fields.

The small population of the aldeia are gathered in front of the Beanstalk. The  two Aeon Priests of the tiny clave and the two elders that help council the community are discussing the situation.

"It's not as if we can just move the water collector," Etra, the female elder says. "You realize the tap runs deep into the ground... who knows how deep down the source of water is."

"Yes, but the source is likely an underground stream or a lake even," Kullan the young Aeon Priest replies. "That's not the only spot in the area we can drill into."

The other male elder, Scytain, responds. "Even so, it will take us how long to dig or drill down to water, if we are even able to? The collector was here long before any of us. Who knows what means were employed to drill so far down?"

"So we do nothing, let the boulder crush the collector and any other structures nearby?" Kullan says.

"You've been trying to figure out the Beanstalk, why don't you apply whatever magic you learned toward stopping the boulder from coming down?" Scytain replies.

The middle aged Aeon Priest, Detlun, places a hand on Kullan's shoulder. "We have time, though not much. I calculate at the rate of its current descent it will come in contact with the collector within 3 to 4 weeks, a month at the outside. Unless its rate of speed changes, which of course there's no way to predict."

The wind from the surrounding plains softly billowed the plas-fabric of Fraksel's temporary workshop.

The bald, white-bearded nano continued shaping the flexgel into a lens-shape, his dark, metal hands attentive: wouldn't do to ruin the thing now! They where square-shaped, those hands - from the fingers to the over-sized forearms - clumsy, a bit, but strong, and sufficient for the present task, where others might have needed tools.

Limen had gathered with the many townsfolk at the forefront of the beanstalk. While not a resident herself - not a permanent one, as extended as this stay was becoming - the matters of the small town had grown to be of interest and means of passing the time. A good several of the daylight hours every day she spent out in the town, doing odd jobs to make enough coin for dinner and conversation enough to keep the hours from feeling like they were dragging. It was mechanical work and idle gossip, mostly - recently, rumors of the slowly falling boulder Glonath had spotted especially.

This gathering seemed like the next chapter in this whole boulder ordeal, and so she'd seen about pushing her way up towards the front. With two Aeon Priests and two of the people designated in charge, it had to be something important. She'd spread the word about the meeting on to the other three as soon as she'd gotten it, if they hadn't already, and had waited in the back to meet them before pushing forwards.

Presently, she was listening with crossed arms and a curious look, but soon felt the need to add her own voice to the conversation.

"Has anyone tried knocking it off course or breaking chunks off of it to make it several smaller, less destructive rocks? Might make slowing it down easier if nothing else."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Thu 18 Oct 2018.

 Lym will be standing next to his sister, standing out in the crowd as he moves to follow her leaving behind a light trail afterimage of himself as he moves as if it takes the world a moment to catch up with the young man. As he bumps into people they can feel the afterimage like a static filled unreal form, a brief sensation of a limb falling sleep that fades a moment after it begins. The trail stops when he stops moving through the crowd.

"Damnit Spooky, are we really gonna get involved with this too? This sounds soo boring, water and rocks?" He says rolling his eyes even as he stands at his sister's side looking up toward the Aeon priest and others.

Limen raises an eyebrow at Lym. "You mean to tell me a giant rock from all the way up there," she makes a large gesture upwards, flicking her hand open over her head, "is plummeting towards the town and you don't want to get involved? Is it interrupting your bird watching or something?" She teases.

 He sighs as he looks up toward where she is pointing "Well I might as well get some bird watching in while waiting for it to fall, at it's current speed I could us a hobby to fill up the time before it lands." He says with a sneer before lightly shoving Limen "Plus why do you care? Hoping to spend your day moving some water purifiers, or maybe we'll get really lucky and they'll put us on hole digging duty"

Her form gives a little under her clothes where he pushes, not unlike he was pressing into foam. She takes a small step to the side to regain her balance and puts on a laughing grin. At this point she was talking more quietly as an aside, not to the four but to Lym. "Mostly 'cause I don't want to be off picking up a new bird watching hobby. If we're putting shovels in the ground with our own two hands, we've been bested by this rock. Worried you can't come up with a clever solution for this one?" She prepares herself for the possible odd prickling feeling in her elbow and jabs him back a little in the side.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:36, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

A young woman holding a toddler by the hand addresses Limen. "I wish we did have something that could simply bust it up or knock it away. I'm not sure how we would do that. Look at the size of that thing. I reckon ain't no arrow gonna do much to it."

A man puts his arm around the woman, one who in no way resembles the toddler. "Maybe we could launch her at it, yeh?" The guy sniggers while the woman elbows him in the side, doing her best not to laugh at his rude comment.

Zijan watches the antics of Lym and Limen with tolerant amusement.  She's gotten used to their friendly bickering over the past couple of months, and was even starting to anticipate which ones would lead to them eventually settling down again, and which ones would lead to escalating shenanigans that might require intervention, medical care, or at least a hot meal and a lot of rest.

What was less amusing was this impending boulder of destruction.  Zijan spoke up to calm any rising stress.

"There are many things we could do to solve this.  We have some time to try many solutions if need be.  As Limen and Lym said, we could try to fragment the boulder.  We could attempt to find an alternate to the collector, or break down the current collector and reassemble it in a safer place.  We could attempt to find some way to arrest the falling rock with scavenged numenera.  We could attempt to find the reason it is falling in the first place and fix whatever has changed.  That will likely involve going into the Beanstalk itself, but it is certainly something worth trying," she says, gesturing at everyone, inviting more ideas.

"Limen or Lym, would one of you be so kind as to pry Fraksel out of his workshop?  This is a discussion I would certainly like his opinion on," she asks them.

Fraksel peered through his work-in-progress lens, gazing - not too coincidentally - up at the Beanstalk.

The gel still wasn't quite right, but he could still see it through the translucent material as he panned up- up the impossibly thick, and then impossibly slender building, stretching up - and up! - past its circling flock of levitating mountains, up a mile high into the blue, windy sky. More... Just then the sun hit the thread-thin "stalk" at the top just right, and from this angle it lit up like a line of thinnest fire...

A goddess letting down a single hair so they could climb up to her... Beautiful!

"The promised land," he mumbled, his voice rough with wonder. "The promised *tools*... To banish all our fears."

He stretched out his other hand, as if he could possibly just reach out and touch it...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:28, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Limen nods. "I suggest we launch Fraksel at it."

Her attempt at a straight face breaks just a few beats after saying it, but even with her hardly suppressed chuckle she wasn't completely unserious about the idea. She nods again, more casually, to Zijan. "Yeah, I'll go grab him." In parting, she pokes Lym in a place she knew he was ticklish and grins. "Looks like you're outvoted. I'm sure we can figure out a way to make this not dull."

She turns and trots off into the crowd, ducking and moving her narrow shoulders easily between people. Those who didn't immediately get out of her way might quickly have reason to as what brushed against them under her clothes feels almost unnatural, like it was giving way far more easily than it should.

Finding Fraksel was just a matter of looking in the most obvious place. His workshop, as Zijan had said, where else would he be? Her footsteps are light and purposefully quiet so as to not interrupt the man at work so soon as she makes her way around and behind. She slows as she approaches, hands behind her back, she leans up on her toes and forward to look a over his shoulder at what he was gazing at.

It's still not long before she quite suddenly speaks up. "Fraksel?" Her gaze was following his, up towards the beanstalk. "...Don't tell me you've cracked this case of a falling rock already, the puzzle solved long before any of our mortal brains had even begun to fathom it."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:01, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

"Eh?" The old man gave her his usual sharp look -- sharp eyes below extra-bushy white brows. As he was already leaning way back though...

Fraksel eyes went wide as he sloooowly tipped over; and then fell off the crate he was sitting on : *bump*!

A pause... "Falling rock? Oh the Glonath thing," with the slight frown of somebody who'se *maybe* heard something like that but can't quite recall the details.

Of course, it's a little hard to tell as he's upside down right now, chin (and long white beard) pressed on chest. As if getting up would be akin to admitting he's fallen -- and that would be ridiculous or something
This message was last edited by the player at 20:29, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Limen takes a quick sideways step as the old investor topples over backwards and towards her, wearing a calm and neutral expression as though this were as normal as the sun rising every morning. She crouches down next to Fraksel, hands on her knees and her face hanging over him, her head dropping most of a shadow over his.

"Yeah, the townsfolk don't want it crashing into their water supply so we were trying to figure out how to shoo it away. Zijan says she wants your science brain around for this one. You coming?"

The old man, still upside-down, crossed his arms and arumph-ed something that sounded an awful lot like bloody woman... But there was little heat behind it.

His faded-brown, gold-flecked eyes looked up into Limen's own (blue?) ones: "You can tell Zijan that *I* am presently pursuing important, *holy* work -" he grandly upside-down-gestured to scattered parts that included folding arms, mysteriously graduated circles, not to mention the half-finished lens he was still clutching "- and haven't got the time to-" He frowned... "Shoo- 'Shoo it away', you say...?" He blinked. A smile she knew all too well started to spread across his weathered features, a familiar fire lighting in his eyes: "What a brilliant idea, Limen-pup! After all, if it's coming *down*... it might go back *up*!" Without further ceremony Fraksel rolled sideways, back onto his feet, surprisingly, casually-limber for a man of his apparent age.

"How fast is it descending, do you know? How high is it off the ground? How close to the nearest structure?" This he was rapid-firing into the air as he was already briskly walking towards the water station area, mechanical arms crossed behind his back, tight-fitting robes flapping in the wind from the surrounding plains.

He didn't seem to care one bit about the sand now clinging to him.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:02, Sat 20 Oct 2018.

Fraksel gazes at the descending boulder, realizing that while it doesn't look as big from roughly 220 meters above, it is much larger than it appears, considering the size of the five gargantuan boulders that neighbor it.

He stares at the boulder, marking its position relative to anything stationary near it. Based on its approximate size and change in position, he supposes it might be descending at a rate of just under 30 meters a day. At its current rate it looks like it will reach the water collector in four weeks, give or take a week. He also sees a maintenance building and a couple of homes that are also in the boulder's shadow that are at risk of being crushed.

She pops up with him as he gets to his feet, moving into step with him without missing a beat.

"Glad to be of assistance, Old Man M." She says cheerfully. "Guessing you've got some guesses of your own already, but... Give me a sec and an angle or two and we can see if our arithmetics line up..." She grunts as she reaches backwards to dig around in her bag. A notepad and a protractor find their way into her hands, and a couple of triangles on the page as she trots along after him, just barely managing not to drop anything as she tries to hold the paper and pen in her hands and the protractor up to her blue-green eye. Her mumbled numbers would confirm and assure his.

"So what's the plan behind the spark in your eye there, this time?" She glances back up at him and hurriedly trots to catch back up, her belongings closed and moved under her arm. "Head into the beanstalk and poke things until we hear something go 'click', get onto the boulder itself to see if there's anything there to make it go back up, call it rude names in the hopes that scares it off?" Gradually, she was also trying to lead him back towards the gathering of townsfolk at the beanstalk's front.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Sun 21 Oct 2018.

Which earned her another look and a grumbled not *that* old... Eventually followed by a small twist of the lips: barely *begun* to cause trouble.

Let's say:
They stopped on a small rise behind what passed for a crowd in The Beyond (he'd been in the Steadfast -- through the Tremble Pass and the villages of Navarene; *those* were crowds) to look up at the boulders?

And when Limen mentions plans:
Ha! Those were all short-term possibilities - sure - but no: what got him excited was... "Imagine riding that to the top of the stalk, Limen-pup. You could build an entire exploration camp on top of it: water, supplies, a power source, good beds!" That was a factor when you got to be his age. But- He pulled at his beard, bothered... "It's so *slooow*."

Judging by its position relative to anything stationary near it, he supposed it *might* be descending at something like 10 meters a day -- maybe? At its current rate it looks like it would reach the water collector in four weeks, give or take a week.

"...Going to have to optimize that." (He also saw a maintenance building and a couple of homes also in the boulder's trajectory, at potential risk of being crushed, but who cared about that? They could just move.)

Finally yielding to her more and more insistant prompting, he went straight for Zijan and Lym -- straight through, utterly confident villagers would part before him. And they did. (Truth be told, someone hadn't, once, and he'd walked right over that guy without appearing to notice, leaving neat little footmarks on his back. (He'd done the same to a pressed wall later on.) That tended to stick in people's memory.)

Without further ado he filled the ebony woman and Limen's brother in on his thought process...

At the top of the hill behind the crowd she pauses and stares up at boulder, indeed imagining what it'd be like to ride the thing up to the top. It was enough to keep up that curious grin and have her tapping her chin with the back of her pen. Rather than drag Fraksel along, she walks down the rise, whistling an upbeat tune she'd heard a number of towns back and still hadn't gotten out of her head.

Once back again at the front of the crowd, she drops down to a cross-legged sit beside Lym and begins to flip through the notebook in her lap. "You got any plans?" She asks quietly to him.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:51, Sun 21 Oct 2018.

Zijan listens to Fraksel's idea with interest.  "So you have an idea to reverse the descent so you could ride it to the top?  What sorts of things do you need to make that happen?" she asks.  There were areas around here still not entirely explored, places where Limen and Lym's talents would shine in finding and making what Fraksel needed for his experiments.

Fraksel grinned through the white of his beard, gazing up at the floating constellation : "Data." The man could be infuriating sometimes.

Turning his back on the Beanstalk and facing them, he (dramatically) lifted a single, squarish finger, a sure sign The Game was about to begin: "How - do - these boulders - fly...? Zijan?"

Zijan smiled; sometimes Fraksel was, in his way, an entertaining and storyteller bar none.

"An energy from the Beanstalk sustains them, and the energy in the area where that boulder was has begun to run dry for a currently-unknown reason," she proposes.

"A good possibility for us, if we can find a way to bottle it up, or it has some sort of control center... Wonder what will happen when we bathe in it? Will we fly too?"

Without pausing, his brown eyes shifted over to the next contestant: "Limen?" (Or whoever posts next)
This message was last edited by the player at 02:41, Wed 24 Oct 2018.

Limen crosses her arms and taps her forearm with the tip of her pen, looking entirely serious so as to not let down his game. “After my observations and many calculations regarding their trajectory in conjugation with the happenings below, I have concluded these boulders are kept in levitation via,” she pauses dramatically, egged on by Faskel’s theatrics, “the power of love. I suggest we hug each other more.” She shrugs, adding, "That or it's some other kind of balance down here at the base that's keeping it up."

"Zijan can help you with the hugging," generously 'volunteered' the old man -- preventively stepping out of the direct line between the two. And, "Belief that holds up mountains, eh...? But is it *our* belief, or its belief? Maybe *it* decided it needed a hug..." Stranger things had happened in the last billion years...

Next-to-last on the roster. He pointed, smiling with barely restrained excitement : "Lym?"

 "I think Limen is just pulling your leg Fraksel...honestly I think it might just be whatever is at the other end is making the same kinda force that holds us to the ground? So if it gets further away or I dunno smaller the rocks would drift down" As he speaks he strokes his chin as if thinking as he grabs a rock dropping it as he speaks the next part of his idea "so if I'm right once we start climbing the beanstalk, at a certian point we won't be climbing up but instead cllimbing down toward somewhere else...so if we can get the boulder to go back up ,or is it down,the beanstalk it will hover again...though like I said hoverin boulders hardly seem like the kind of thing to waste  our time on."

"Is she now?" He glanced at the young woman and then back to Lym. "Then she'll look EXTRA silly when she wins, won't she?"


After Lym exposes his idea:
"Falling to the Promised Land...? I like it! Much easier than walking." A mechanical hand on Lym's shoulder: "Nanoes call it Gravity. And discovering its secrets might well be worth *several* of your lifetimes, Lym-lad."

Back to general address, "Its reverse is Counter-Gravity, and *that* is my guess: obviously the rocks themselves are laced with a substance that repels the ground instead of attracting it! Right now they've got just enough regular rocks around them to weigh each block down to neutral buoyancy. Except that one..."

Hu...

Making it up as he goes: "Well, maybe there was a Counter-rich part that broke off, leaving the rest too 'matter-rich'? Oh-Oh, or maybe Counter burns itself with time, like uranium, boiling away until it can't support the regular matter around it anymore? If this guess is even half-right, then we'll just need to gather enough of the stuff, purify it, and there: we too can get to neutral gravity. One tiny push (off the Beanstalk? Propellers?); one small pull (Grappling rope? Air balloon?) and we're off towards there," - a triumphant point upwards - "towards the very tippy-top."

Obviously.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:25, Thu 25 Oct 2018.

When the three utterly failed to comment, much less worship at his feet, Fraksel humphed, then grumped something about young people not knowing: pure genius if it bit them in the softies.

But never mind that right now.

Hands back behind his back, half-grin back in place, fire in the eyes: "So what will it be? How can we test out some of those theories, hm?"

Etra the elder can't help bu overhear parts of Fraksel's theories. She steps up to him to interject, with Scytain by her side.

"You are clearly a learned man, sir, as I see you have had at least as many years alive as I. While I appreciate your approach to discerning the numenera affecting the boulders which Detlun..." she indicates the middle aged Aeon Priest "...has been studying for the last two decades with only a handful of theories to show for it, we now need to make some decisions. While we do have three or four weeks before catastrophe strikes, likely any solution we decide to implement to prevent it or deal with it will easily take that long, if not longer without applying haste."

Detlun, having noticed he was being spoken of, comes over to join the conversation. "There's merit in Etra's words. I myself can fall into the trap of waxing theoretical on the nature of numenera, as it is something I do relish in. This may be a time to act first and theorize later. Perhaps one of you are versed in working with the numenera, helping us conceive some sort of force field around the water collector? Or developing an alternate way for us to collect water?"

Zijan nods at Etra and Fraksel both.  "We shall need to employ solutions based on two things - failure and success.  We must find an alternate water source, whether that be from moving some or all of the current collector to safety, or finding a new solution to bring water to the town.  And then we must find out why the boulder is descending, and if any others may do so, which will likely involve ascending the Beatstalk.  If we cannot do both, we must do what we can do most effectively."  She gestures to the collector, and turns to Detlun and Fraksel.  "What is known about the extent of the collector and how to power it?  And what is known about the interior structure of the Beanstalk?"

Detlun fields Zijan's questions. "Yes, the collector seems to be powered by some sort of numenera. It's as if the water below the ground is attracted to something within the collector, and is drawn to the surface as laaks to an injured aneen. No resident here is confident in disassembling the collector and reassembling it elsewhere without permanently disrupting its function, or worse. Even if successful, we would need a means of drilling down far enough to reach the water deep below the ground.

"As for the interior of the Beanstalk, nothing is known of it. No one I know of, in tales or alive today, has ever been inside it. I believe there must be a way in, but I'm not sure of the way."

Did a bit of scene re-arranging, hope that's alright with everybody?


Humph! "We do *not* 'need to decide now'," contradicted the old inventor without any hesitation -- and with some bother at the interruption, actually. "In fact we *shouldn't*, as a basic rule, make important decision with both eyes closed tight, Etra... Not if we have a single reasonable bone in our body."

Well-meaning amateurs- Well-meaning amateurs should stick to their own affairs.

Tensions were beginning to rise, when Zijan's smoothly intervened (this was by no means the first thing she'd  had to smooth over between Fraksel and the elder...)

(...)

Hm. Fraksel settled down after that, now that they were at least actually discussing data instead of proposing foolhardy leaps of faith (also, the phrase 'studying the boulders for the last two decades' had finally penetrated his dwindling annoyance).

The white-bearded nano focused his interest on the robed Aeon priest: "What did you discover during your study of the floating mountains, Father...? Looking at them right now, I've been sort of wondering if they remain perfectly pinned in place or if they bob up and down - orbit each other - with the seasons and the years?" He pulled at his chin hairs. "Has anybody gathered a piece? Do you have a sample now?" Which, granted, all boiled down to an interested: "Can you show us your research?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:30, Sun 28 Oct 2018.

Etra sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I'm not talking about taking action without examination. My concern, Fraksel M'ba, is that you would be apt to getting caught up in analysis paralysis, going about this too academically." She then turns to Detlun. "My concern encompasses you as well, Detlun. His point is a good one. What have your twenty years study revealed about the Beanstalk and its floating attendants? Have they merely gained you an opportunity to expand the tie of your sash from our hospitality?"

Detlun's face reddens and his brow tightens as he looks from Fraksel to Etra. His retort struggles in its forthcoming as his mouth open and closes like a fish in a dry boat. Finally, his words come with a bit of pride in divulging information Fraksel appeared not to have. "To the untrained eye the boulders appear completely stationery, not rotating, revolving, orbiting, or bobbing in any matter. However, they do indeed move, as would not be apparent observing them with the naked eye for a handful of days. The largest boulder maintains exact alignment with the position of the sun as it rises over the Black Riage, which changes with the time of year, and all boulders move relative to the largest one's position. Even the Beanstalk itself aligns with the boulders' movement, as it is suspended 30 meters off the ground it is free to pivot on its vertical axis..."

Etra interrupts the Aeon Priest. "You're not telling us anything we don't already know. We can tell that it turns when we look at it from the observation decks. Perhaps you can share some information that-"

Scytain holds up his hands, turning to show his palms to all involved in this particular discussion. "Everyone, STOP!" When the discussion halts, he continues. "Tensions and egos are getting the best of us." He indicates Zijan. "I concur with her, who seems to have the broadest perspective and the most inclusive observations. We need both actions and studies, not one at the exclusion of the other. We also need contingencies in the event any one solution or line of study leads to a dead end. Now, let's continue this conversation without undermining one another, shall we?"

The older of the Aeon Priest coughs. "Yes, of course. M. M'ba, no one has any samples from the suspended boulders at this juncture. And unfortunately, I am not at liberty to show you my research by order of the Papacy."

Zijan waits until everyone has had their say, looking intrigued by the various ideas.

"An elderly aunt of mine had a seskii hound who was the calmest beast you'd ever meet.  Spent every day cuddled up to her, as easy as you please.  Until the day he would not stop growling at something beyond one particular window.  One of the wall segments had begun to fail, making a high-pitched noise only the seskii could hear as it crumbled.  Only when the local wright found the fault in the matrix did they realize why Demma's seskii hound had been growling.

"Which is to say, Detlun, Etra, Scytain is there something in that direction which has changed around the time the boulder started falling?"  Zijan gestures to the native Beaners for their response.  "Limen, if the water station cannot be moved, and the source is very deep, is there an alternative way to bring water to the town, even on a temporary basis?  Lym, in your explorations around the area, have you noted any potential places for salvage?  Fraksel, while gravity may or may not be able to reverse once we are on the upper reaches of the Beanstalk, do you have a way to climb it now so the boulder or its former floating area can be investigated?"

Fascinating, thought Brother M as Detlun expounded on the boulders, a delighted grin spreading across his rough features. That seemed to imply a direct link between the Beanstalk and the bould-


Of course, bitterly thought Fraksel: Because knowledge in the hands of the people might actually be useful......

"Three days," he decided. "Give us three days to study the problem and *then* we can meet here again to choose a solution that actually might work."


To Zijan's question the nano gave a pleased grin. "Bah, who needs climbing when you can FLY? Was planning to unveil this a bit later, but:" From a robe pocket he proudly produced a cobbled-together piece of tech wrapped around a changing, iridescent crystal, bit smaller than his thumb. "Just one person though, so what we really need is about 200m of strong cabling, light as can be. (400 would be better so we can set up a pulley system)."

He fired a bushy-eyebrowed look Etra's way: take that, old biddy! Analysis paralysis indeed...

Limen had taken to sitting back and listening, looking between speakers with bated curiosity as tensions raised and then were quelled again.

To Zijan's question, she shrugs. "I could ask around and see if anyone knows of any other gatherings of water. Even something 'not exactly potable' can be made drinkable with some effort. The longevity of that solution'd take more details than I've got right now, but," she shrugs again, as though to dismiss the worry. She then gestures over her shoulder, back towards the water collector. "We could run some math and see how deep that giant rock is going to bury itself into that building. If the thing that draws up the water is below the 'will be crushed' ground range, we might be able to just reroute it."

Fraksel then was given a wide, toothy grin as she claps her hands in front of her once. "If all you need is a rope, all I need to provide are some materials and a bit of time. Maybe a bit of iotum, but," she pats her shoulder bag, "I always keep spares. 200 meters, you said?" (Using either a craft check, or perhaps her "right tool for the job" technique - whichever makes more sense) She says excitedly, eagerly wanting to play into her teammates' plans.

Zijan smiles widely.  "Excellent, we have a way to get up, and a problem to sort out for down.  Let us work on the up, the down, and," she gestures in Lym's direction, "the far for those two or three days.  In the interim, those structures which can be evacuated or moved in the danger zone should be emptied and other lodgings or storage areas found.  If the projected timeline holds, with enough people, most of the other buildings can be readily emptied and even possibly dismantled and relocated."

"And light, Limen-pup," reminds the wall breaker. "Entire roll shouldn't be more than a single man can carry -- if that! Although... No, no - Go for long and strong and we'll hoist it up with a smaller cable if turns out too heavy to lift, what do you think? Then we'll work on sensors."

His feet are already itching to get him back to the workshop!

From what he communicates to those around him, these seem to be the things Fraksel would like to build/see built:

• 400m of strong rope, with an anchoring pulley system (force-multiplying block-and-tackle style). Eventually with a powered ascender as well, but in the meantime let's just recruit 'volunteers' to pull the rope :D
• A rough gravity sensor (weight+a spring scale at the end of a long stick will do fine), a magnetic sensor (same with a magnetic weight), and a stethoscope; anything fancier they can scavenge out of pre-existing machines (radiation/energy/heat/distance/elevation) (?). He'll ask Deltun if he has anything of the kind to loan to the expedition? (Or come measure himself)
• Some way to collect samples or dig holes into rock (explosives, portable diamond drill rig, vorpal blade, hammer and chisel?)

Urm. Brother M abrubtly turned round, catching a few of eavesdropping crowd by surprise : "And you lot! Think HARD! If you've seen anything. Or heard any old stories about the boulders - the Beanstalk itself. Or you know about an artifacts you think might help, no matter how remote the chance..." A dramatic pause, mouth open... "Go see Zijan and tell her all about it as soon as you can, no questions asked!"

The white-bearded old man started beating a hasty retreat before the obsidian-skinned Arkus could wreck her revenge. (That was close: he'd almost volunteered for that one!)

"You coming, Limen...?"

Limen pulls a renewed wide grin and pops up to her feet. The little bobbles and doodads of deconstructed and half-reconstructed machines in and tied to her shoulder bag rattle against each other and her tools.

"'Course, Old Man 'M." She says cheerfully, trotting to quickly catch up. A glance is sent over her shoulder, back at her brother. "Lym? You coming too or will I be seeing you around later?"

Not that old, auto-grumbled the venerable nano before coming to a dead stop- And then quickly started back-tracking all the way to the front of the crowd, his plas sandals slapping the drit allegro. It quickly became clear that he was heading straight for... the robed Deltun and his distinctive priesty hat!

Fraksel came to a stop before him, hands behind back. "Forgot to mention it, but -uhurm - tracking the boulders descent will be of utmost importance -- *especially* if it starts accelerating (or I guess, the reverse). Changing course- Well that might be good, or that might be... not so good. This will require great precision, and *unbreakable* constance..." His sharp eyes looked up at the man's rounded visage. "Can we- Can the whole aldeia entrust you and the priests with being their advanced warning system, Father Deltun?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:15, Thu 01 Nov 2018.

Detlun holds Fraksel's gaze, then clears his throat. "Of course the aldeia can count on us," he says rather huffily. "I would be observing them carefully in any event, even more so at this time, and I will be taking copious notes on its descent... or otherwise should any changes to its progress come about. I also have Kullan here to check my notes and measures." He looks to the young man who is nodding obsequiously. "You worry not about my work and my affairs regarding the boulder, and I won't worry about you not destroying the entire Beanstalk with your- well, whatever it is you plan on doing with this ragtag bunch you seem to be aligning yourself with..."

He then looks to Zijan and clears his throat again. "Of course, present company excluded, m'lady..." her says demurely.

Ha! Feet, meet mouth! Fraksel raised both eyebrows. "Blowing up the Beanstalk, you say? Now there's an idea! But... I'll have to get back to you on that one, Deltun; Let's save it until after my raggedy bunch solves this little boulder problem of yours, hm?"

Then, remembering, he too eyed Zijan before resuming his interrupted retreat post haste -- this time actually half-running to catch back up with Limen: "I wasn't here!"


Shall we begin building the Ascender, Ninth World? :)

OOC: If you need 400 meters of rope that's about 25 coils, as one coil of rope is 15 meters. You'll need to see if there are enough townspeople willing to give up their rope for this cause. As for the rest of the ascender, describe how it would function and I'll tell you what you'll need to construct it.

"Interesting..." admitted the old man once he'd finished sketching, stepping back to look down on the thing and the parts-lists scribbled over it in his spiky scrawl.

"Now I admit, Limen-pup, that right now I have no idea how to build this wonderful little engine here," he tapped the squat cylinder dominating one end of the looped-rope drawing, "But it'll come to me, it'll come to me... Shall we get cracking on the heart of the system?" An enthousiastic slam of a metal hand next to the hollowed-out wheels and pulleys of their Ascender


Actions: Let's see. Since the pulley system itself is a commonplace object, Fraksel has just drawn a plan for building it, thereby decreasing the assessed DC by 1 to 2, making the craft time 1h once we've assembled all the parts (do I have that right? I'm guessing some sort of engineering roll to make commonplace plans?). He'll help Limen during the build itself, reducing the difficulty of each sub-tasks by 1 as well (uh, make that +1 to the roll since Fraksel isn't trained in crafting commonplace items).

Limen asked for the drawing Fraksel provided and spread it out in front of her, holding it up towards the sun, turning it left and right and letting out a low "hm..." until finally she nodded.

"Yeah this'll work, toss me those parts there and if we just tape-" The loud thunk of her bag of tools dropping onto the ground, followed by the ruckus of her rummaging through it downed out the next few words. Her head soon pops up from her bag, a wrench-like object rimmed like a hard metal that glowed slightly green in one hand, and a wheel of adhesive strips in the other. "Hey, what do you think of using a low-friction alloy for the little loops and axles we've got to wide the rope over for the pulley? It'd take even less effort to draw the seats up- I mean, it'd make it more likely the seat would drop, but it'd only be in free fall for," She tilts her head back and forth, considering, "fifteen feet before the safety catch catches it."

With Fraksel's help, she'd see about sticking metal and wood of different shapes and sizes together into a the base of a pulley system, then nailed down to something sturdy so all that was left to do was take the rope and side it into its place proper.

Also with Fraksel's help, the first and only subtask of level 1 auto-succeeds. For the final roll:

17:59, Today: Limen rolled 16 using 1d20.  Final task for building the pulley: assessed difficulty 2, reduced to difficulty 1 with Faksel's aid.

Backtracking a bit, Fraksel creates a commonplace plan for the Ascender Mk 0, with effort since he does everything to the fullest:

21:43, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 19 using 1d20.  Ascender mk 0 pkans with Int effort.

Oh hey, Minor effect! Requires less materials than initially planned...? Polished appearance? Takes less puller(s) to operate thanks to an efficient force-multiplying pulley system?

OOC: I'll give you one of the first two. The third would take a major effect.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:03, Fri 09 Nov 2018.

"Of course, Detlun.  Fraksel and Limen have a most unconventional way of thinking that will help this unconventional problem, while you and Kullen have the knowledge of the Beanstalk and the town to work with Lym in finding a way to route the water collection to another place, while Etra and Scytain know which buildings must be evacuated versus those which can be dismantled and moved during this crucial time.  Liballa, a good friend of mine, once told me that a single dossi is easy prey for a storm, but a herd can weather it when they work together.  Come, let us go about our very important work, for we have little time to waste."

In reply to The Ninth World (msg # 47):

Let's go for the second then: Professional Build "This build has been made by professional (or inspired amateurs) and it shows." Inspires confidence and maybe even admiration in those that use/look upon it. :D

Fraksel peered at their contraption with some pride: They'd outdone themselves, with just the perfect materials at the right place (the electric-blue plas wheels were a nice touch, he had to admit), and even the shape was pleasing to the-

"'Seats'? What 'seats'?" the old inventor finally clicked, blinking at Limen.

There on the page there wasn't any seat, only regularly spaced loops along the cabling, metal crimped and just the right size to place a foot in -- or hook-in a load, as the case may be.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:15, Fri 09 Nov 2018.

 Lym slowly walks up to the rest of the group having spent his time in town and away from the building of the contraption for the most part. He yawns deeply his hair tossled from enjoying a nice long nap and binge of various different food and drink while within the town limits.

" So what do we have here, this contraption gonna fix our problem?"

His voice is filled with the bare minimum of curiosity as he runs a gloved hand along the object as though he'd learn more about it just through diffusion a long wide smile on his face as he glances over to Limen hoping she will explain more.

Detlun nods, visibly relieved that he did not offend Zijan. They stay around, however, watching with fascination as Fraksel and Limen assemble the installation they had been speaking about. As they work on building the pulley system over the next hour, various townspeople willingly contribute rope to the project, encouraged by the elders.

When the project appears to be finished Detlun looks it over, attempting to hide his being impressed by their ingenuity. "It's a pulley system," he explains to the wide-eyed Kullan. "It's intended to hoist an individual or so up to a height roughly 200 meters. It appears they hope to reach the base of the Beanstalk." It is at this point a barely veiled look of condescension creeps into his eyes. "What I'd love to see is how in the world they plan to get the other end of this pulley system attached that far above our heads."

"And how far above our heads would that be, hm, Deltun?" Reminder of what the priestly fellow should be doing instead of gawking at travelling geniuses.


(Fraksel will then go and inspect the pile of donated ropes, rejecting any section that looks even a bit dodgy, ripping them off with is 'bare' hands after a starter-snip from a tiny glassteel scalpel taken from one of his pouches...)
This message was last edited by the player at 03:01, Wed 14 Nov 2018.

As for his question...

"Ah, Lym: perfect timing! Want to play for who gets to wear the wings and fly?" The old inventor's eyes were bright, almost... challenging: he wouldn't let this blue-steel opportunity for adventure go so easily.

He held up a closed fist before him...

Rock-Paper-Scissor, ninth world style:

• Drit beats/burries Monolith
• Monolith beats/controls Iron wind
• Iron wind beats/transforms drit

Fraksel has already posted his play in a private line to GM, so... your turn to choose!

Zijan waits until Fraksel and Lym have finished competing for the honor of testing new equipment at high heights before posing a question to Lym.  "Lym, in your explorations in the countryside around the Beanstalk, have you noticed any likely places to scavenge, should we end up needing more parts for whatever may need crafting?  It would be good to know such things before you ascend, so we can make preparations for needful things."

"And everything is probably going to be needful at some point," Fraksel helpfully added in typical science-y style. Anyways, putting aside the question of who flies up for a moment: "Let's build our first instrument of measure, shall we Limen-pup? The Giant Slingshot of Inquiry! (Mk I)"


Maybe something like this? https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/...Slingshot-Cannon.jpg

Design parameters: can consistantly fire projectiles 200m away. Projectiles don't need to be very big or heavy, just big enough to be visible from 200m away (Reflective/Painted bright colours maybe? if somebody in town has opera glasses or equivalent, the projectiles/slingshot can be even smaller!).

The idea is to test gravitational and magnetic fields around the boulder before sending a fragile flyer up there. Fire projectile near the boulder, watch trajectory for signs of disruption, repeat.

Thoughts, build DC, materials/parts/iotum?

But first, a plan. He starts drawing in bold lines, black on the blue of the pressed-synth paper :

18:47, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 10 using 1d20.  Slingshot of Inquiry Mk I -- Plans.
18:48, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 5 using 1d20.  Slingshot of Inquiry Mk I -- Plans with Effort.

Oky doke.

18:15, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 15 using 1d20.  Slingshot of Inquiry Mk I -- Plans with Effort. - Build diff is now 4/2 days (1/2 a day per subtask)

The design proved more elusive than before, maybe because Limen - his ward - didn't seem that into it... But finally, after 3 hours and a small, roving pile of crumpled blue sheets, Fraksel stood triumphant!

"There! Now all we need is to build the thing- Oh and parts- Parts for the ratchet-crank- And the trigger too, of course- somewhere around-" Various clanging and scrambling noises as he rummaged through the stuff he'd accumulated, even in so short a time. "Aha!"

Fraksel contributes 2 Parts from his personal stash.

"That'll do nicely..." He swiveled on those watching, fully in the moment: "Struts, lumber, laminates, who has them? Who will contribute to the frame of my glorious Catapult of Inquiry!? We can even inscribe your name on the side."

Looking to crowd-source those 5 units of materials :) (Extras welcome, will no doubt need them later)

Several of the townspeople pour through and examine the contraption, many dubiously. Most of them pretend they don't hear the older man's bold request. One woman does leave then returns with a unit of material.

"Despite these selfish people's unwillingness to help, I believe in your machine and what you're trying to do. Thank you for helping to save our water supply." She hands the material to Fraksel, smiles, and curtseys awkwardly.


1 down, 4 to go...

The old man curtsied back with an imaginary skirt (he wasn't at his first weird custom), then gripped her shoulder in a large metal hand: "Good woman," he declared with a firm nod. "And your name is?"

"Chatton," the woman says and smiles warmly. "I wish you good luck... or the guidance of your gods, in succeeding." She smiles and stands back to watch the continued progress on the building of the contraption.

"Hm, Chatton's Giant Slingshot of Inquiry...? Has a definite ring to it," the white-bearded inventor admitted. "Remind me to add cat ears over the business-end, will you Limen-pup? Something tasteful." He picked up a large chopping axe leaning against the enclosure and swung it on his shoulder before pointing outwards dramatically: "And now, onwards to the nearest forest, kids! Lym, could you guide us please?"

Heading for the nearest place where they can gather Materials. If we should happen on something with potential iotum inside, we'll do a detour for that as well of course. :)

Zijan smiles warmly at Chatton.  "You are a credit to the town for your generosity, Chatton. I will accompany Fraksel to harvest what else we need for the ascent and investigation.  If anyone else wishes to accompany us in this endeavor, then we would welcome your company.  Everyone else, I urge you to move what people, livestock, supplies, and even structures that are in the possible path of peril out of danger.  Together, calmly and cooperatively, we can find a solution."

Detlun clears his throat. "Might I make a recommendation? Perhaps you could salvage wood that's already been processed from the Qualseth? While there are many many trees around us, they would need to be cured and milled after being chopped, unless you can work with very rough wood that would warp as it dries over time.

"The Qualseth is a prior world machine- or maybe a creature- that mills itself. That is to say, it's a wooden structure/entity that builds onto itself using its own wood. Large pieces of wood drop from it regularly as the old pieces no longer accommodate its new shape, which it then pulls back into itself to repurpose into pieces that it uses to reshape itself. Kind of cyclically. Apparently it can be pretty challenging to get those pieces of wood, but a few people have been successful. Many have not, though."

In reply to Zijan (msg # 62):

"Careful," fake-warned Fraksel in an aside just for her. "You're likely to bore Lym to tears with all this calmness 'crap'."


After the amber priest finished speaking of his idea: "Good one for once, Deltun!" admitted the grumbly old inventor. He pointed dramatically in an entirely different direction than before -- and probably just as wrongly.

"Onwards to the nearest Qualseth, Lym-lad! Sim, Sam, Sung, you're with us!"

(A short pause before the three scuffed marble-drones roll-bounced out of the surrounding junk, only to take their usual bobbing hover-positions a foot or two above Fraksel's bald head and robed shoulders; their round laser eye, one each, glowed softly as they slowly swiveled, looking about.)

Onslaught-enablers now in place :)

Etra claps her hands to get the people's attention. "Alright everyone, let's get moving. We need to relocate as much stuff from the buildings next to the water collector as we can. We also need to start conserving water in the event that things come to their worst, so let's start filling up any spare jugs and bottles we have. We have some time as far as we can assess at this point, so let's take out time and be careful and thorough."

The people start getting to work, though no one has volunteered to accompany them to the qualseth. Detlun provides them directions to where they can locate it; it can be reached in half a day's travel.


It's currently midday and it will be dark by the time you arrive if you leave now. Do you want to make haste or wait until morning, and is there anything else you want to do in town before you depart?

"Half a day?!" Fraksel almost threw both arms in the air -- considering he was holding a felling axe at the time, that might have been... unfortunate.

With a sigh the old nano considered hard, thoughtfully pulling on chin hairs : That was a full day they'd be wasting just on travel! Did they really need the Chatton Engine that bad? (For a supposedly simple build, one only meant to insure the safety of their flier beforehand to boot, this was turning out to be...

Although...

Maybe the Chatton Engine could be made man-portable with a few modifications? Then it would probably be a simple matter to have it fire a grappling line too, and then- He gazed up at the floating boulders, the vertiginous distances between it and the other mountains in the chain, between it and the beanstalk itself. Hm... He started slowly grinning: Maybe. Maybe!

As for the rest:

"Aneen. Who would like to rent their aneen for a noble cause? You, Vols, you have one don't you? And a cart too if my old eyes didn't betray, hm?" Maker's randomizer if they were going to drag all that wood back by hand.


If it comes to negotiation, Fraksel will defer to Zijan's expertise in that domain. :) Idea = maybe someone would like a portion of the fine wood they'll bring back in trade?

For the Chatton Mk II, I'm thinking we could add a few Parts and/or iotum to the plan to make it a man-portable? Say stronger elastic material for example
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Wed 28 Nov 2018.

Vols stops walking across the plaza when he hears his name called and turns in the direction of the caller. He looks over at Fraksel and narrows his eyes. "You want to rent my aneen? Yeah, I don't know if that's a good idea..." The man scratches his bald head that belies his thirty-odd years of age.


Negotiations will indeed be in order. If you're deferring to Zijan I'll have her step in here...
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:15, Thu 29 Nov 2018.

Zijan will step forward to speak to Vols.  "We hope to solve this crises as quickly as we can, so hopefully nothing will be hurt.  The faster we are able to ascend, the more likely we are to sort out the mystery of the boulder's descent and resolve it.  A half a day's delay could be the crucial time needed to solve our dilemma.  If you would be so kind as to let us borrow your sturdy aneen and cart, we could cut our journey's time to the Qualseth, and also easily be able to transport back what we find.  We will care for your beast and cart, you know we will, and will be back soon so you will not be deprived," she says, smiling and sympathetic.


09:17, Today: Zijan rolled 16 using 1d20.  Persuasion (S).

The kindness in Zijan's voice, the resonating compassion, the care and concern for his beast and his cart that comes through her words, it brings a nod from his head. "Of course, you want to help figure out the boulder situation. Pardon me, how selfish of me. Yes, yes, by all means. Come with me."

Vols leads you to his home. Behind the home is his aneen, already bridled. He retrieves his cart and attaches it to the harness around the creature and give it a pat on the side. "Gles can carry the two of you easily," he says indicating Fraksel and Zijan, "but I'm not sure how he'll do with a full cart. It's only been me on him with a full cart. I suppose we'll see.

"Please take very good care of her. There's food for her in the sidebag there. It should be three days' worth, though I hope you'll be back sooner than that."

In reply to Zijan (msg # 68):

"Exactly what I said," is what could be heard in the middle of Fraksel's grumbling as they made their way to the house of Vols.

He did help him harness the cart though.

"'Two of us'?" repeated the old man, bushy eyebrows quirking in puzzlement. He swiveled around and - sure enough - nothing but dusty space! Neither Lym nor Limen to be seen... "What's up with those two? Wait a tick." And he made his way back to the enclosure...

"Lym's wandered off somewhere again," he announced when he got back, "but the girl says she'll start work on the Chatton while we're gone, make the most of the time... I swear, Zijan, if we could just average those two, we'd have power to shake the very spheres!"


Ready to set off :)

Having gathered supplies for cutting wood if need be, as well as three days' worth of rations, they make their way to the qualseth per Detlun's directions.

They are making great progress, half a day's travel appearing to narrow down to a handful of hours. The rolling hills dotted with spread out trees and short grasses make for easy travel.

Two hours away from the Beanstalk Fraksel and Zijan encounter a strange form ahead of them several dozen yards ahead of them. It is a strange metal hulk of sorts, with metal limblike struts protruding from it. Something can be seen contained in the center of the object, but it is hard to discern exactly what...


...and enters Xeno Bio-EX!

The hulk in question turns in a circle examining everything around itself. It sees the cart and on its strange tripod segmented legs lumbers slowly towards them. Its huge. Eight? Nine feet tall? In the middle is a skeleton of some humaniod type thing with runes words unknown. And symbols and numbers unrecognizable. Four metallic claws protrude from long segemented arms. The whole of its body and casing covered in a golden and black hues metal. A strange binaric screech blurts from some where on its body as it gets close.

"01000111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110011 01100001 01100011 01101011 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01011000 00101101 00110011 00101110 01001110 00101110 00110000 00100000 00111000 00101110 00110001 00101110 00110000 00101101 01000101 01011000 00100000 00101000 01011000 01100101 01101110 01101111 00100000 01000010 01101001 01101111 00101101 01000101 01011000 00101001 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100110 01110010 01100001 01101101 01100101 01110011 00100001"

sorry binary is super long....

A bit before, back at the aldeia (msg # 70):

Fraksel donned his black, sallet-like helm (Can never be too careful with your most prized possession) and climbed onto the cart, helping Zijan up if needed: "Onwards, Gles! Onwards to... wood, beams, and laminates! (I guess?)"

He shared a look with the obsidian woman

https://img2.cgtrader.com/item...bx-blend-mat-spp.jpg :)

Now:

The eyes of the bald, white-bearded human on the right of the cart frosted silver, silvery lines spidering away under his skin like circuits. He humphed, "73 110 101 102 102 105 99 105 101 110 116 46 32 82 101 113 117 101 115 116 32 99 111 109 32 99 111 100 101 32 61 32 84 114 117 101 32 84 111 110 103 117 101"

Zijan listened to Vols about anything in particular Gles needed (or quirks she had), gathered up needed supplies, and accepted Fraskel's help into the high cart.  As they drew close to the Qualseth, she stared at the bizarre thing that lurched from its shadow.  A skeleton?  Encased in some automaton chassis?

When it began to spew numbers, and Fraksel began numbering back, Zijan let out a very tiny sigh.

She raised a hand to the strange bone-machine.  "I greet you and wish you well!  Do you speak The Truth so we may converse?  We mean no harm, only to explore and seek needful things."  She repeats the phrases in the Beaner dialect, as well as those of other towns she's been, just in case one is more readily understandable than another.  She keeps one hand on the warm mouth guard in her belt pouch, just in case this being turns out to be hostile.  Keeping the community together through unusual resources was good; being broken down for component parts because one got too eager to meet new friends was bad.

language barrier noticed. language diagnostics and formatting program initated. "I apologize, i didnt realise i wasnt speaking your language. what i had said was.Greetings meat sacks. I am X-3.N.0 8.1.0-EX (Xeno Bio-EX) please state what i can do to ease your fleshy frames!"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:30, Fri 30 Nov 2018.

"Yes, yes, you said that already," confirmed the old man with a tut-tut, fist-sized marble drones hovering over him. A sigh... "I don't suppose 'easing our fleshy frames' involves easing our spirit into the glory of the datasphere, does it?"

Somewhere behind that question danced - had always danced - an almost child-like spark of hope...


Fraksel will stop the cart a fair distance away, angled away from Xeno so they can ride straight out if there's a need to run

the hulking machine stops and thinks.
"i do not understand? please explain. what is this data sphere? is it useful? can you use it in building many things? I like to build things. I have noticed that meat degrades and rots away with time. metal is longer lasting. but I have seen that most meat does not want to change. so what can I do in terms of what is considered help! you are the first people not to run from me. i do not understand. my processors do not equate this. its metal claws click in rythm with excitment

Zijan nods, liking the friendliness of this being, this Xeno Bio-EX.  It might be entirely strange, but certainly she had seen things much more humanlike who behaved far worse.

"Xeno Bio-Ex, I am Zijan, and the other is Fraksel M'ba.  He can tell you more about the datasphere, of which I only know a little, mostly through him.  It is information contained in energy and particles too small to see, accessed in strange ways that differ from being to being.  It is believed to be from some prior world.  You are certainly different in appearance to us, but the different are not always to be feared.  We have traveled far, Fraksel and I, and seen quite a bit.  Others have never traveled, and so only know sentient beings that look similar to themselves. 

"Those of us with more temporary vessels of meat do not always comprehend the lengths of time that metal lasts.  They do not wish to discomfit themselves by changing their meat, as that can lead to quicker decay if done unwisely. 

"We could certainly use help in building, for that is the reason we came here.  We have a dilemma at our home community; a large boulder that was suspended by unknown means is now slowly falling and will destroy a necessary piece of equipment for our survival.  We seek the means to travel up to the boulder and arrest its descent; and to that end we need supplies, such as what can be found here.  Does that sound of interest to you?  Would you like to help us?  Perhaps we can help each other."

You dont know how but you swear the hulk turns and looks at you.

"a boulder previously on some sport of stasis field now falling. sounds like the power source of the feild depleting and is losing control causing the boulder to fall. explosives to send to in another direction would be easiest if controlled correctly. but materials would be needed. a large ramp would work. or a battering ram. is there something that can be climbed to reach it? how long till it falls Completly?"

It rambles in quick succession with out waiting not knowing you should answer in between questions. Not only that but it throws you off because the mechanical like voice has the sound of one extremely happy and cheerful. The tineyness of the voice throws it off a little bit it almost sound a like the voice of an excited child. Sort of.

"'The other'?" grumbled the man in question, bushy-white eyebrows frowning.



"'Base Camp to the Promised Land," corrected 'the other' sotto voce.


In reply to Xeno Bio-EX (msg # 79):

"Wait, wait, WAIT," interrupted the old man with a wave of a bulky metal hand and equally bulky forearm. "First of all, the goal is *control* - CONTROL! - not destruction -- if we can gain control of a floating mountain, just imagine the things we could do with it... A secure, rising base for us to explore the Beanstalk all the way to the Promised Tools, all the way up there in orbit!" A wide gesture to the fat line of the Beanstalk and attendant fuzzy spots of the boulder-mountains  against the babby-blue of the afternoon sky, still quite visible even from all the way out here...

Fraksel shook himself away from that glorious vision, getting back to the present situation. "Uhum. Yes. Well... Second -" He vaulted out of the cart, surprisingly limber for one of his age, and approached the machine across the pale-purple grass, hands crossed behind his back, eyes sharp and scanning (they'd gone back to faded brown a while ago); if it was going to attack anyone, better it be him... "Talk is all well and good, X.3.N.0, but are you even able to help us? You don't *look* like a building automat..."

He leaned-in, obnoxiously close for a human, and peered into the glass (trans plas? glassteel?), trying to get a better look at the mess in there.

Are there physical connections between the skeleton and its "coffin", Xeno? And does it look like the skeleton was put in there as something alive (life-support systems, cryo stasis equipment maybe)?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:37, Sat 01 Dec 2018.

The hulk has been rather still. Well like a machine powered down. Not moving much in any way except for whirling of gears inside.

"control? if that is the purpose of your expedition then so be it. how do you plan to control a mountain that floats? these statements do not compute with the logic of physics that i am aware of.

Its four limbs click rhythmically a few times as the claws click together. It takes out a few scrap parts from a bag that seems to just hang from a hook on its back and fiddles with them.

"I build. yes. it is what i did. I explored where i awoke and I build many things as I traveled. i dont know why. i dont know wgat they did for once built i left them behind. but i build. yes.

um well I dont see it as having any life support no. the whole thing comes from runes and diagrams alien and unknown. so I dont think it has any life support no.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:10, Sat 01 Dec 2018.

"Uh. This thing is actually a solid block of crystal," the nano excitedly called back to Zijan, experimentally tapping on the surface with a squarish metal finger. "Was it coalesced around the skeleton? Stuck mid-move too, like a dragonwasp in glass-sap... *And* the leg bones are missing entirely..."

He hadn't noticed *that* from afar. "Can you move the skeleton in there?" Maybe it was like an extremely thick gel?


Going from the picture; correct him if he got something wrong in there :)


Fraksel grinned wide, delighted, his gaze snapping up to Xeno's 'face': "Exactly! Mountains don't usually float, but *these ones* definitively do! Step one is therefore: Discover the logic of physics that make these mountains float, as you put it. Step two will be gaining influence or control over what we discovered in step 1. Easy!"

When it claims to build things:
"Prove it then," countered the old man, bearded chin thrust out. "Build something. Impress us."

He stepped back to give the automaton room to maneuver.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:04, Sun 02 Dec 2018.

The hulk had been building something with two of the smaller arms this whole time. Something small.

"I would like to know why this mountain defies logic. and skeleton? oh you men inside the cyrostasis pod. I do no know. I somehow think that is me. but i do not remember every having or being a walking meat sack such as yourselfs I only remember this frame. it has legs they are just really far down there. as far as I understand it I can not move the skeleton. the diagrams and everything else etched upon it seems to be the processors of some sort."

idk how u did all the stuff u did in ur last post.... lol

Fraksel peered down at the developing object, evaluating building skill and manual dexterity - sure - but mostly just trying to figure out what it would BECOME. "I thought you might be a reliquary or something. A box for holding holy relics," he explained when that didn't seem to translate, not really taking his eyes off the build project. "So not that, eh?"

Which parts? The quotes you can get by pressing "Quote" in the upper right of each post instead of "Reply"

It didn't know what its was making either. Always was it building small things. Random bits. Some puzzles. Some just stationary. Sometimes they did things.

"reliquiry? I would not know. again I have no memories of before."

I'm always tinkering. its a skill. it'll be a cypher but I'm at my limit.

Fraksel was not the most patient of man, and that had gotten him into trouble a number of times before. He tssked. "Take a guess then, young sapient: why were you made? What drives you?" The old man gestured: "Imagine, for example, the perfect outcome to all things you desire... what do you see?"

Make something else than a cypher? Anything commonplace will do; go wild :)

The hulks roving hands over the pieces of scrap stopped moving. And it placed on the ground a strange looking item. Circles within circles that continuously moved in counter order. Each one following a different orbit around each other. In the middle a solid orb of silver. It stands upon a base of simple steel.

"perfection? everything working in concert. all pieces in their place. all things moving in harmony. all things balancing another. I enjoy making little things. big things. strange things. things that i do not understand. things that do wonders. perfection. it is hard to achieve."

Zijan is fascinated by this strange being, so driven for a purpose, though it knows not why.  "That is perfectly made," she says of the circles, orbits, and orb.  What the purpose of it may be, she is not certain, but the care and attention to detail show Xeno Bio-EX's skill.  He could be very helpful to the community, to any community really who could see past his odd appearance.

"We are not certain about how the boulder floats, nor how the tower it floats near works, but we are seeking a way to scale the tower, called the Beanstalk, and investigate ourselves.  Fraksel is creating a way to get up there, and we came to this place to seek materials for its crafting.  Would you like to join us in this endeavor?" she asks.

In reply to Xeno Bio-EX (msg # 87):

"Ah," Fraksel slowly nodded. "You like processes. Journeys rather than destinations... Eh, not a bad way of thinking, but too... artisticky for me." A dry chuckle: "Blast the journey, I want the destination!"


"It's nooot bad," reluctantly admitted the old nano, picking it up for closer study... Spring- driven?


A nudge into Xeno's crystal waist. "That's her way of saying: 'Climb on the censored cart right now or I'm leaving you two here!'," Fraksel 'helpfully' translated. He smiled fondly at the cowled woman, "She'll do it too."

He himself clambered aboard, then held out a helping hand to Xeno BioX: good thing the cart was long and large, made to haul plenty of cargo, but it was high too.

"How long ago was the before anyway? The time since you awoke. In - say - day cycles?" That should be easy enough to count for even the strangest of being.


Ready to resume the side-quest :)
This message was last edited by the player at 00:05, Thu 06 Dec 2018.

Even with stopping to interact with Xeno, they still make good time. It is wane (late afternoon), easily a couple hours before ebb by the time the reach the qualseth.

The area in which the qualseth resides is very rocky, the trees having abandoned any attempts of growing here for a few kilometers. The structure--or whatever it was--known as the qualseth stood roughly 25 meters tall, and perhaps 10 to 12 meters wide. It appeared to be completely comprised of wood, only discernible by the grain patterns on its surface. In no way did it resemble any tree, however. It consisted of a myriad of twists and juts and undulations on its surface, parts of it seemed to form in on itself while other parts seemed as if they were "growing" but suddenly ceased. Areas of it almost appeared chewed or torn. Various knots and intermittent misshapen holes can be seen in places on its surface.

The qualseth seemed to support itself with outreached "growths" that were intended to support and counterbalance the varying juts that would have otherwise threatened to tip it over. As they approached they would periodically witness a chunk of its surface cleave off and fall to the ground. Within a few seconds a strange yellow-orange tendril shoots out from one of the holes at the base of the structure and snatches the fallen wood piece back into itself. They saw a couple more chunks of wood drop in this matter, usually from the uppermost part of the thing, to be retrieved by a tendril in short order.

</quote> He himself clambered aboard, then held out a helping hand to Xeno BioX: good thing the cart was long and large, made to haul plenty of cargo, but it was high too.

"How long ago was the before anyway? The time since you awoke. In - say - day cycles?"
</quote>

You dont know how but you know it looks at your hand.
"I do not beleive you will be able to lift my bulk. I am quite heavy. Hm. according to my sensors I weight close to a ton." a few beeps and a strange motion with its large frame tilting sideways.
"is that heavy? I believe it best if I follow along side. I do not tire. and time? I do not know. i did not have a means to track time. there was no orb of light that circled overhead. it was just one thing continuous."

*now*

"this is a strange organisism. or is it a structure? it turns its bulk to the old man. what is it? I am learning many new things. this is a good thing."

"You can't possibly weight that much! And as for the rest: leverage, my friend, *leverage*! It's going to be doing most of the work anyway." The old man gestured with both hands, "Here, lean like you just did, but against the cart's edge. I'll pull on your top; you keep leaning more and more. If your center of mass is on *this* side of the edge, then our combined weight will eventually tip you over and in. Simple!"

Do we need to roll something for this, Ninth World?

For the number of days thing: "I meant after you got out into the meat world." He glanced at the sky, the grass and the elbow trees. "If you can call it that."

Nope. You can RP that between the two of you to see how it shakes out.

</quote>
"You can't possibly weight that much! And as for the rest: leverage, my friend, *leverage*! It's going to be doing most of the work anyway." The old man gestured with both hands, "Here, lean like you just did, but against the cart's edge. I'll pull on your top; you keep leaning more and more. If your center of mass is on *this* side of the edge, then our combined weight will eventually tip you over and in. Simple!" </quote>

Xeno makes a noise of assent and starts to lean towards the cart. As the old man pulls on the hulk sounds of suprise escape from the voice box on Xeno as his huge bulk falls into the cart with a crash.
"wah! this is not dignified! Hm. I dont think i know the full meaning of that word. time in meat world? land of light? no more then seven rotations of the light orb across the sky!"

It lays there unmoving in the cart.

"Timber!" Fraksel exclaimed before grinning as he squatted down a bit, to peer into Xeno's sideways features: "Ha! The pup will kick herself for missing *this*!" And as to the rest: "You got to get your hands dirty to learn things, X.3.N.0, no other way about it." He patted the hulk consolingly.


On the way, as the cart jostled away.. "Only seven days?! No, that can't be right: you said you met people and nobody at the Base said anything about- Oh... Could be that scraggly refueller, 'Blue Steel', caravan that came through, I guess." Uh. He hadn't paid a lot of attention at the time, but now that he thought about it...

ANYWAY: "So The Before is *seven day's* walking from here, you say, hm?"

The inventor's brown eyes were visibly glazing over, thinking about all that potential technology.

I call Roadtrip! (eventually) :D
This message was last edited by the player at 00:49, Mon 10 Dec 2018.

As the group approaches the qualseth, a brilliant green-black flash can be seeeing hurdling to the ground at tremendous speeds. Not shortly after, the “falling star” impacts, but doesn’t have the same explosive result that normally comes from such events. No, the resulting impact releases a shower of iridescent green-black particulate, the sickly lime easily spotted in the dusk.

As the group approaches, a thoroughly destroyed craft resembling an ovipositor, rife with occult, tendriled, decorum of the Outside, and just large enough to encapsulate a single man (or what one might assume to be a man), is buried halfway into the ground; a pulsing, ebb-and-flow glow of that same sickly green light comes from within, the blackened shielding of pod slowly crumbling into dust to reveal some swirling mass of void matter around a tendriled figure. The mysterious craft both beckons to be inspected, but also telegraphs a sense of danger...

X.E.N.O. (Link) as well as Fraksal (his background) would recognize the energy as Void matter, a dangerous and unstable prior world, or possibly other worldly, energy/matter amalgamation, and might even recognize the pod as a small seedcraft.

At the Qualseth:


Fraksel glanced sideways at the crystal skeleton machine... but it didn't *look* like there was a trace of irony in there!

Ah well. "What is it? It's our source of lumber is what it is. First thought : spray the fallen be-"

Just then a falling star fell!

That gave the old man pause... and a need to straighten his helmet back up, skewed by the hot-air blast. He stood there blinking... but only for a moment.

"I meant - Uh - That's our source of iotum is what it is! Let's go get it, hm?" Although the look of that black stuff rising from it wasn't very encouraging... "What is it with suddenly falling chunks of matter today?" he grumbled in his beard as he helped Xeno bodily disembark from the cart.

Could it all be linked? But a look up at the deepening sky of early evening didn't reveal any other streaks arching away from the Beanstalk...

Correct me if in fact there is :)


"Ugly thing all around," frowned the old man once they'd gotten closer, sight of the thing like a bucket of ice on his zeal to find iotum for their little project. To take even one step closer.

It almost seemed designed to repulse, to keep people away...

After a few moments of inspection, the craft crumbling, the void warp begins to congeal. When the glow fades and the energy dissipates, a limp form takes hold in the center; a tendriled thing, some kind of mutant, by the looks of it (or maybe an alien?) lay motionless in the craft.

Easily stretching towards 7 feet in length, covered in beastial hides and bio-mechanical furs, the strange being bears the look of some kind of ranger, or scout; the broadsword and bow strapped to its back poking out past its shoulders.

As the group stays to watch the spectacle, a few moments go by where the silence lasts eternities; without warning, the lights of its odd mask flair to life, bright viridian lights scanning the area, seemingly in panic. As the creatures attempts to get out of its contraption, it flails as it falls to the ground, the rasping, rapid breathing and shaking form giving away to a sense of dread in the creature.

Noticing the cart, and the giant mech, alongside the two humans, the creature cocks it’s head, and through a muffled mask makes an awkward noise akin to an octopus gasping for water in the air. Those eyes, though, seem to recognize the confusion to its question...

“Hoomans. Earth, yessss?”

Sprawled on the ground, this outer edges creature is a sight to behold, even more so as it slowly picks itself up, expressing its full slender frame.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:05, Sat 08 Dec 2018.

Buzzing and beeps of warning and flashes of red from within the hulk blink rapidly.

"warning! warning! warning! void energy source detected. void energy source detected! warning! warning! warning! proceed with caution."

A machine voice. Not the one of Xenos normal tone spews forth from spearkers from around the hulk. After a moment xenos normal voice comes over the warning lights.

"well i would say that is fairly straight forward. void energy. and dangerous. shall we take a look? I can go forth. my body isnt harmed by things like you flesh walkers."

"That is my way of saying that I enjoy finding a good place for people to fit, if that is what they wish," Zijan says, making a calming gesture at Fraksel.

The interlude where Xeno and Fraksel managed to get Xeno's large form into the wagon was rather amusing, and at least Xeno did not seem to take any of Fraksel's blunt abruptness in bad humor.



"Most curious indeed.  Perhaps we could intercept one of the fallen pieces before the tentacles grab it?  Though that would take some swift movement indeed..." she muses.



Zijan pulls back on Ges' reins, stopping and trying to keep the aneen calm as the dust of the impact settles.  It seems the Ninth World was being generous with its secrets today indeed, whether they willed it or no.  She touched the warm mouthguard in her beltpouch and eyed the strange thing warily.

As Fraksel went closer with far less caution, Zijan hung back.  Telling Fraksel to stop exploring a new phenomenon was like asking him not to breathe (though she was pretty sure he'd experimented with that once, until he'd passed out too many times).

"If you get yourself killed, you won't be able to investigate the Beanstalk, Fraskel," she said instead, standing up so she could be ready for action.  "Xeno, this isn't a normal occurrence..."



"Yes, Earth, and yes, two of us are humans," Zijan says, a tiny part of her hoping there is no lie to her words.  A mutant, perhaps?  She'd seen one or two lone travels, and at least one whole community of them.  Or something from the Night?  How did it come to speak the Truth?  At least its weapons were sheathed, though from the uncertain movements, it had taken the landing rather hard.



"Void energy?" she asked, quite confused now.  This was something entirely new.  "If you would be so kind, it seems you have more experience in this than I.  By all means," and she gestures forward for Xeno to take the physical lead.

Fraksel held up a single finger for patience. "Let me just..."

From the side they could see his eyes glaze silver, little silver lights tracing circuitry around them as he gazed at the visitor...

Casting Scan esotery on the craft and occupant... What does that reveal about him or it, Irinus, if anything?

In reply to Fraksel M'ba (msg # 102):

The mutant, as it’s revealed, is a low power target, some amalgam of octopi and human genetics; you feel a font of energy, foreign and unstable, held in check just below the surface. Feminine, yet lacking an apparent static gender. The tracings tell you it’s arms and armor are mundane, and nearly new; like the mutant, they radiate a slight tinge of cosmic life, confirmation of the travelers’ sojourn through space.
A slight reading of ‘Hunter/Gatherer/Delve” flashes before your eyes, marking the mutant’s physiology and abilities as a fellow explorer.

As to the craft, that’s on Ninth World to rule. Lemme know if I’m overstepping here?

The hulk moves forwards. Its slow but methodical and moves with heavy ponderous gait. It reaches out one of its clawed appendages as a squeal of code bursts from its speakers hidden around its body.

"01000111 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100001 01100011 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101111 01101110 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01110011 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110101 01101110 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101001 01101110 01110011 00100001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01011000 00101101 00110011 00101110 01001110 00101110 00110000 00100000 00111000 00101110 00110001 00101110 00110000 00101101 01000101 01011000 00100000 00101000 01011000 01100101 01101110 01101111 00100000 01000010 01101001 01101111 00101101 01000101 01011000 00101001 00101110 00100000 01010111 01100101 01101100 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110011 01100011 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101110 00100000 01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100001 01101011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01100010 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100110 01110010 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100001"

It stands there holding out its appendage without moving.

I can translate if u wish. Xeno doesnt realise he is doing it at this time.

Totally confused, the mutant has no idea what’s going on.

“Masheen broken? This one scavenge for parts? Only real use for...broken masheen.”

Silver holowindows started fading in and out of view all over the craft and its cargo, Fraksel's eyes snapping to: Two twirling double helixes with octopus and human woman; graphed output for the font of black energy, chaotic and unpredictably spiking into fluorescent-indigo warnings. A tinge of cosmic dust contaminating everything within sight; what could be cost estimates for its arms and armors; an endless poem on... something, scrolling by at lightning speed.

Everybody can see these

White eyebrows shot up in surprise at the mutant's speech. "You can understand us?" That was convenient, for once. No pidgin sign langage with big-brained flies.

"Uhum." He called to the tendril-thing, careful to enunciate every word -- chin out too, as he had to crane his neck back quite a ways to look up at it- Her - to look up at her. "He is not broken. Scavenge him later." (Fraksel bravely suppressed a smile). "You and your craft have been contaminated by Void energy. Do you know what that is?"

His eyes somewhat nervously flicked to the embedded craft behind her. He was no stranger to explosions, but... Wonder what a void-explosion feels like?

Its hand still stays out streched.

"Apologies! I did it again! I said, Greatings tentacle monstrosity of unknown origins! I am X-3.N.0 8.1.0-EX (Xeno Bio-EX). Welcome to this strange and wonderous place. I find it fascinating. What can I do to assist your weak and feeble frame!"

This is apparently a day for surprises and new people.  Or beings, at least.

"Xeno is not broken, merely new to this place.  I greet you, newcomer!  I am Zijan, the machine-like one you know, and the one with the chin-hair is Fraksel, tinkerers, experimenters, and crafters both.  I am a companion to Fraksel, here to help him find parts, true parts, to craft a needful thing for our community.  What may we call you?  And what are you?  What do you do?" Zijan asks the new being.

“This one is Irinus, the Void Seeker. It was engineered for the task of rediscovering the Secret. The Void. This one experienced it upon travel through the Great Outside.”

She waves her tendrils skyward in a grand, sweeping gesture.

“This is tasked by the Queen to follow the code of Seeker. Her aid is freely given in return for sanctuary...Home? Yes, home. Apologies, the Truth is...strange.”

A sound akin to a gurgle of air within a pool utters forth.

“Native tongue, more confusing, though.”

Fraksel tssked: "Fascinating, interesting, marvelous and all that," he only half-lied, "but do we or do we not have an unstable craft that may go shboosh! at any moment, taking us with it?" That's the way he read the ever-climbing graphs anyway. "Oh, AND a passenger contaminated by unhealthy amounts of Void energy, I guess..."

"Ha." Both hands back behind him, the old man went around the visitor ("Do touch his forsaken hand, will you?" he whispered as he went by. "Or he'll keep it there for the rest of eternity." Some of them didn't have eternity) and approached the craft proper, frowning down on it... Right.

Without further ado, Fraksel, ever a man of action, squatted down and casually ripped then pealed off a section of the craft's plating like it was cloth - tough cloth, but STILL - revealing pulsating black guts chaotically shining in all the un-colours of the evil alien rainbow. A slew of smaller holowindows faded in and out, pointing out things sometimes all the way inside so he had to lean in and crane to see some of them... "Light. Light might stabilize it long enough to..."


Attempting the salvage 5 task using Effort, the Scan esotery and his Training in breaking stuff to reduce difficulty down to 2. He'll also use his drone's laser to light a piece of parchment on fire at a crucial moment, to provide what he hopes will be an Asset against the void-matter's instability (?).

Others might help by Helping, or maybe furnishing more light?

---

Spoiler for The roll (for those who like the suspense :): (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
18:46, Today: Secret Roll: Fraksel M'ba rolled 14 using 1d20. Salvaging dark craft -- Damage Object, Scan and Effort.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 23:52, Tue 11 Dec 2018.

Irinus will help salvage the craft, if only out of proving it’s goodwill.

“Here, let me give you a hand. And yes, Stellar energies.....light...causes the Void to disperse. Opposites. You are well-versed.”

The tendrils move to a bag of tools, and begin weaving a working in their inhuman grace, the crackle and warp of the energy containment field barking against Irinus’ prying and prodding.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
18:53, Today: Irinus rolled 14 using 1d20.  Aiding in Salvage task—Trained.

---

Hope I did that right?

"Fraksel?" Zijan asked delicately, "Perhaps you would like to heed the warning of Xeno??"  It was a forlorn hope to keep Fraksel from his work, but better a note of interjection that might percolate through his creative fervor, than another explosion, implosion, or dimensional shift from his workspace.  But when Irinus stepped forward to help him further disassemble the vehicle it arrived in, Zijan mentally threw up her hands.

"What is this 'void energy' of which you speak, Xeno?  And Irinus, you mentioned a code of a Seeker by a Queen.  Which Queen?  And aside from aid for home, what else does your code entail?" she asks curiously.  There was great potential here, both for aiding and developing the Beanstalk, as well as possibly blowing up here and now.  It would be good to know which side things were shading on.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:43, Wed 12 Dec 2018.

As Fraksel and Irinus go to town on the remnants of the craft, dark bands of nothingness chaotically swirling around as flotsam, the layers beneath the plating contain some interesting material that must have served to carry the craft through the abstract barrier that is time itself, Three opaque synth boxes lay nestled within a bed of apt clay, while one box lay broken. The void matter and the former contents of the box seem to be angrily licking at each other like two puar fighting over prey...

You find 3 units of quantium and 5 units of apt clay.

Logistics: The salvaging task was a DT5 but it is hindered due to Fraksel's inability in salvaging numenera. I will allow the Breaker ability here but normally salvaging is an act of finesse and delicate disassembly. It may not always be an asset. All things considered, it was still a success.

...and Fraksel M'ba, I'm offering you a GM Intrusion...

Xeno still stands with its appendage out.computations and algorithms play over its sight.

"void energy is an unstable element of unknown origins. not much is known by this logic engine. though it contaminates and changes organic material as seen by the specimen before us. it is an energy used by previous ages. and highly unstable."

Xenos normal voice was replaced by one that was more mechanical and precise.

In between the delicate turns of tools and gentle applications of deconstructive knowledge, Irinus elaborates. She swoons and sways as she imparts her knowledge, pride swelling in her voice.


“Zijan, we are all created for a purpose, the Rooks and the Seekers. The King directs the Great Machine to give life, and the Queen sets the plan according to the Code. The Seekers are the forward, the next. Ours is to rediscover the Secret. That which was Lost. Some are Builders, like Kronys, others are Gifted, like Corpys, while others still are Hunters, like this one. But we are few. The Courtesans were once the children of Terra. Following  the Code from the Great Machine imparts wisdom; that Terra is potential-bound, the vortex of destiny and determination.”

It pauses to think on its recollections.

“This one, this Hunter, seeks the secrets of the Void. This knowledge is buried in her mind, like.....a house hidden in fog. Terra? Our greatest test. All Codes differ; mine? ‘Go forth; Help our gene-kin and set right the path of Man, to teach, to hunt, to learn, to understand, to master, The Gift.”

She pauses once more as a box of light and time emerges from it’s tendrils. The air is weft by the time construct being removed, seemingly held in place.

“Iotum. Numenera. The Gift!”
This message was last edited by the player at 16:49, Wed 12 Dec 2018.

"Yes well... I guess you can have half of those," Fraksel conceded, ever the generous soul. "That 'set right the path of Man' has me a bit concerned though." He patted the now quiescent craft, like a beast that had done its job well, before unfolding with a creak at the small of his back. "What, exactly, is right for us, tendril-girl?"

"Let's go set up camp in view of the Qualseth,"he suggested, gesturing to the top of the nearby hill (the place where they were before all this began).


You don't need to roll to Help in Numenera (although nice one!). Just saying you help and taking the time/action is enough.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:07, Thu 13 Dec 2018.

The bright spark of escaped quantium drifts toward a tendril of green-black void matter strand. The tendril is caught in the quantum field and jumps to a different area, its strange natural flow distorted by the effect of the freed iotum.

As Fraksel M'ba stands up to ready himself to approach the qualseth he suddenly finds himself wrapped in the strand that was within the inner layer of the pod a microsecond earlier...


Fraksel, you can try to channel the effect of the void matter energy with a DT8 Intellect task, otherwise roll a d20 to determine its effect.

A sound of disappointment escapes from the speakers of Xeno as its mechanical arm falls to its side. It moves forward ponderously

"i can use many things to make other things. but i would probably be best for others to hold on to them. I tend to become over zealous and create anything with what i have at hand."

The void energy moves around fraksel and warning lights flash red.

"fraksel! I told you to be careful. now you will reap the consequences of not heeding tge warning of my systems."

The Hunter ponders Fraksel’s query for a moment or two.

“That’s the real secret, isn’t it? What truly is the right path? Humanity has great potential, so I suppose it’s whichever path allows the fruition of that potential—-“

As the mass-energy Tendril swirls around Fraksel, Irinus, largely unphased, walks as close as she dares.

“Taste the words. Hear the energies and feel the material. Let the schism become you, then grasp at both infinities and command them into one singularity. Focus your will, and manifest!”

She raises her arms skyward, and seems to incant, like she’s invoking some hidden truth.

If possible, I’d like to try and aid Fraksel in tapping the void. If it looks like it’s going awry, I’d even be willing to pull him away (if possible) and take his place. If nothing else, this shows Irinus’ near-reverence for the Void, commanding it like quasi-magical power.

In reply to Xeno Bio-EX (msg # 118):

"Really?" mouthed the aged nano with minimal mouth movement, trying not to move a whisker lest it be immediately twisted by void mater, or snipped off to some other part of time and space! "Me knowing you were right is your *first priority* in this situation, is it?"

The nano tried to wrap his mind around Irinus' words for a second or two (both infinities? Taste what? *Both* infinities? What in the Maker's-)... and then gave up. "Conducting it through the craft," was his stiff-lipped guess -- through the hand that was helping him get up? Because he'd touched before? Heck if he knew. "Bring quantium box closer. Ground it like to like?"

And just because this was dire, he tried to WILL the evil blue-black genie into the box too, just in case that helped... He moved.


Fraksel accepts the 2 XPs and gives one to Irinus for interesting metaphysical distractions in the face of adversity. :)

Effort, Quantium box as an asset to attract/channel (part of?) the energy, and supposing Irinus is Trained in handling void matter, that makes it L5, only near-impossible

And survey says....

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
19:05, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 11 using 1d20.  Void tamer in training.
Doh!
19:06, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 14 using 1d20.  Void of time effect.

---

Watching the interaction closely between fraksel and the void energy and the tentacle creature it was fascinated. Walking meat were funny and made no sense and their judgement skills lacking. It would need to observe more. It moved close to fraksel to observe more closely.

Rather than grounding into the broken synth box the void matter instead latched onto Fraksel and began to bind with his skin. The swirling green-black threads formed thin streaks along his skin, responding with the numenera in his muscles that enable him to apply damaging force to objects. His will finds the intent of the void matter and is able to direct it in such a matter that it creates a contrasting energy in his musculature. His skin and muscles feel... springy.


For the next 28 hours Fraksel gains +2 Armor against damage from crushing attacks.

Once the void energy seems to disperse Xeno walks forward and and light seems to play over fraksel as if Xeno was scanning him. One of its appendages of the smaller form moves out and pokes his skin with a blunt end of the claws producing a boing sound.

"that is interesting and amusing. you seem to have gained some rather elastic properties to your skin. fraksel should you die of any nature would you be offended if i examined the remains for research. I am sure you would be against me cutting into you while your pain receptors are still active. I find you flesh ones fascinating."

“Yes! Yes!”

Irinus circles Fraksel as Xeno prods him, elation taking hold of her.

“That is the Voidsong, the taste of the words! The hearing of color! You touched parallel infinities and came away gifted! An auspicious occasion!”

She pulls a few black-green orbs from a high-tech pouch, counting them in her native octo-speak. She then casts them about the area, seemingly at random, the inert jeweled orbs bouncing and rebounding erratically.

“This is what I seek; the Voidsong! To hear it utterly, to know it’s secret truths and divine gifts. This is my reason for existence.”

As night slowly descends, the mutant removes her helm, drinking deep of the evening air. Something changes about her, though, as the same tendrils that course through Fraksel bulge underneath her skin, threatening to erupt, the cracks in her ebony skin glowing a soft, pale lime. A shroud envelops her, and seems to reinvigorate her form.

“Do you see know, Fraksel? The potential you may have missed absent Her wisdom? If you’ll have this one, she can show you so much more! Time, Void, Life.....the very energies of the unknowable at your command. Let us rejoice!”

She continues her odd, reverent ritual, the cast of beads of inert voidmatter seeming to dance in the light of her Shroud...

Zijan nods at the strange philosophy of Irinus, mentally noting it for later.  Her strange view of life could be very useful, if she could take the time to mull it over.  Philosophical musings had to be set aside when Fraksel managed to nearly break himself.  Again.

At least this time the strange energy-iotum he'd set free didn't blow him up, blow them up, or anything else up.  Or worse.  Their new friends found Fraksel's new... addition to be fascinating and useful.  Hopefully it would remain so.

"Xeno, I'm certain Fraksel would want to make sure scientific progress was not interrupted by death.  If there was a way to continue research beyond the bounds of death, I am certain he would find a way.  But yes, please do not cut into him while he's alive; that would be highly detrimental to us fleshy types.  So... this void matter is dangerous, but only in specific circumstances?  Because it seems to have not done Fraksel any immediate harm."  The last question Zijan directs at Irinus and Xeno both, cocking her head to hear their answers.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Sat 15 Dec 2018.

Irinus is quick with a retort, her pleasant demeanor shifting to one of a parent concerned for her children.

"Indeed, the dangers are real. Just as one can touch infinity, infinity can inhabit inside of us. It will eat at your spirit and warp your body. It must be given it's proper cautions, lest you become a tale one tells to younglings about disregard."

Xeno stops prodding fraksel and its bulk turns and looks to the woman.

"it can be harmful. yes. again not much is know of it. it is unstable. as proven by the interactions within fraksel. it has changed him at a molecular level. extensive test should be ran on any forms of void energy. though i think we should first gather the wood we came for do you not?"

I as a player dont know much about void energy....

"Aaaahhhh!"

But his will found the intent of the void matter and was able to direct it in such a matter that it created a contrasting energy in his musculature. His skin and muscles now felt... springy.

"aaaa?"

The old man blinked, looking down on his now-striped body. It no-longer hurt either. "Uuuh, What happened?"



"Don't go selling my body before it's even cold, woman!" Fraksel frowned and goggled at her at the same time, even has he was busily pealing off the top part of his tight-fitting robes, letting it flop over top the tool belts at his waist.

Under inspection the revealed torso was pale, thin, corded in dry muscles... and criss-crossed all over by dark strips. As were his shoulder and upper-arms. And face. Only the dark, scuffed metal of his mechanical arms seemed to have escaped attention...

Fraksel experimentally poked, prodded - and repeatedly hit - himself in various spots as Irinus celebrated... "Bit numb all over," he grumbled, working his jaw. "And there's an unpleasant feeling of pressure - like being caught in a net or something... Maybe a.. I don't know. But otherwise..." Although some of those blows should have broken bone...

Ah well. He'd gotten off light : Good enough for him: "Survive, and grow if you can, like the amber prophet said. I'll check on them again tomorrow, see if they're growing." *that* thought might disturb his rest a bit... As to the rest: "Camp first. We of the Flesh need to rest to be at peek efficiency. And we don't see that well in the dark either."

He resumed walking towards the hill, turning a striped head towards tendril-girl. "So you- You deliberately contaminated yourself with void matter?" he asked, incredulous -- as if he hadn't done any crazy things at all, this month alone. "It wasn't an accident....Why? How?"


Fraksel intends to set up camp on top of the hill and eat, please. Ideally with some sort of camp fire, if possible?
Has the qualseth changed in position or behavior in the interim, Ninth World?

As the campfire is struck, the silhouette of her Shroud angrily recedes as the light licked at her form.

“In a time before this time, we used the void to enhance ourselves beyond our normal potential. That process is all but lost, but she seeks to rediscover it. The day we fell from the Spyre, the Voidsong was strong, too strong to ignore. So I answered. Delved too deep in the waters of infinity, and was reforged. This one had found it, but not mastered it.”

She sits, and looks out at the qualseth, looking for a tell in its pattern. She unconsciously fiddles with the bag and the stones it produces, occasionally taking a few and rotating them together, like meditation stones.

“Oh. This one can see perfectly fine in the dark.”

Ninth World, while we camp, I’d like to take the hour to Familiarize myself with the qualseth’s area.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:34, Sat 15 Dec 2018.

Xeno turns from the fire and approaches the strange thing. It examines it and watches it without moving. Fully studying and trying to understand it. Looking within its memory banks.

and I die....  18:33, Today: Xeno Bio-EX rolled 1 using 1d20.  Understanding and identifying numenera.

"Like so many things of the prior worlds, it holds both boon and bane within it.  I had a friend named Se'carn who made his home in a huge shell of some prior-world beast for all his life.  For years upon years he lived within it, tending to things he made and fruit he cultivated, grateful for its shelter.  But the light that filtered through the shell began to give him strange dreams, and twice every month he found himself in a hidden center of the shell, carving symbols on the walls.  Eventually the shell up and left one day when Se'carn was an old, old man, taking him with it.  Or had he been directing it?  I shall never know," Zijan says, nodding thoughtfully.



"Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me of our quest!  Irinus, like Xeno said, we were here at the Qualseth to collect its wood for parts for a device Fraksel is going to make," she said, making sure such news hadn't gotten lost in their diversion into void matter.



"I would not sell you.  Only trade you for something greater.  And I have yet to find something greater, so you and your body are safe," Zijan says a bit impishly.



"I have no objections to tackling the Qualseth while fresh," Zijan says.  Private it amuses her to see Fraksel horrified by Irinus deliberately connecting with this void matter.  Certainly he had done stranger, and for little reason other than curiosity...  Perhaps it was different when he wasn't the one in control.

Zijan will help set up the camp, not exactly certain what sorts of bed their new companions may like (or even if they sleep), but makes a game attempt nevertheless at getting together accommodations and food.

"Urm," was Fraksel's reply to that. And it might have been a trick of the light, but were his cheeks just a little bit redder?


Which just created more questions!

"What and where is the Spyre? Is it the same thing we call the Beanstalk?" He briefly explained what that was, pointing up to the last little strand of it, up there where the sun still shined.

As Zijan helped with the camp, sticks were gathered, apparently too small for the qualseth to have bothered with. Fraksel took on a fighter's stance - hands and feet planted, one in front of the other - then pointed down to the pile with a "Ha!" and a simultaneous slap of his front foot.

Triple beams of ruby red converged on the pile from his marble-drones! When the fingers were pulled back and the beams blinked out again, a new-born fire crackled before them...

"Good job, Sim-Sam-Sung." Fraksel sank down unto a boulder with a sigh: first rest he'd had today!

Spirits did that feel good! (11:40, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 6 using 1d6+1.  1 action Recovery.)

"Good to know," he said to Irinus' night vision. Hm... Probably should get up and start cooking some-


Waiting to see what'll happen with Xeno's free GM Intrusion... :)

As Xeno studies the qualseth it becomes absorbed in the rhythm of the thing. There is a thrumming and a vibration it emits that no one else seems to hear. It resonates with the frequency Xeno seems to run on... it finds itself pulled, lured to the qualseth and it begins to approach it, wanting to get as close to it as possible.


For the GM Intrusion Xeno is inexplicably drawn to the qualseth. You'll need to roll a DT5 to resist the pull of the thrumming and vibration.

Hearing and feeling the pull and vibration but sensing that something is wrong with such a pull Xeno puts his servos into overdrive trying to resist the attraction.

23:17, Today: Xeno Bio-EX rolled 16 using 1d20 ((16)).

Guess he *would* start the cooking then.

Fraksel unfolded from the rock and leisurely went to retrieve their provisions from the cart. "What're you in the mood for, woman? Red rice à la Fraksel? Stew à la Fraksel?"


He started casually pealing and then chopping up white-reddish tubers - arko - with his glassteel knife -- scalpel really.

A rounded gesture towards Iri. "Faith - the Unknowable, as you put it - It's all well and good -- maybe even a necessity. But it's just a place-holder. Needs to be... See if it slows down any with the cold!" he called to Xeno as an aside before getting back to it with a umph. "We were once gods, you know? At least compared to what we are now. And I have no doubt we - all of us! - can be again. Through *knowing*!" The transparent knife punched at the darkened heavens, where sparks from the fire slowly merged with the developing mantle of stars.


Anyone making 1h or 10h camps with Fraksel around gains +1 on their Recovery rolls

Xenos hulk approaches the rest backing away from the quality.

"I do not know. I only know that it sort of 'called' to me. on a wave length that only I heard and felt and was trying to pull me towards it. it makes me feel uneasy."

Irinus watches the whole area, making any notes mentally about the qualseth as Xeno approaches it. The coming darkness was a boon; she was far more comfortable under many stars as opposed to one. She is especially fond of the moon, the green band it shows in the night a constant reminder.

“Faith and true knowledge rarely go hand in hand. But this one agrees, we were once as gods, shaping the mundus into form and function, creating kingdoms from drit and wonders from nothing. Once we were star-children, dimension travelers.....so much... lost to us all.”

She thinks for a moment on Fraksel’s other inquiry, and a pained, emotional tone can be heard in her voice.

“The Spyre is....WAS home: far beyond the last stone that circles the bright star, held aloft at the edge of the Outside. It is beautiful but dangerous; a green-black jewel amongst the dark tapestry, faceted and structured like crystal, but full of wonderous machinations even the King is baffled by. But the way home is lost; my craft all but destroyed, and the path back, uncharted. Terra, Earth rather, is my home now.....” She mutters a solemn prayer in octo-speak.

Her fiddling with the stones ceases as she approaches the campfire to sit and eat, her tendrils sweeping the area into a slight bowl for her to rest in. Her “legs” curl up underneath her, reminiscent of a coiled spring, and she somewhat compacts herself to be eye-level with the human comrades. An alarmingly loud gurgle and growl escapes her stomach as she eyes the food.

“This is....actual food? My stomach is rolling; the scent alone makes regret for consuming the nutrient paste. And, for what it’s worth, my comfort is as much a....concern?...No, not concern...Un-concern? Bah! I am a an explorer, a scout....bedding under sky, food for the body, and knowledge for the soul, all this one requires.”

She continues to watch the area while waiting for food.

Ninth World, once I’m Familiarized with the area, would it be possible to identify any non-hostile game for hunting? Irinus would love to help provide for these exemplary humans XD.

"And regained. Did you know there were no humans for at least half of the previous eight worlds... At all?" The white-bearded man made a rounded gesture: "And yet here we are tonight, all at least cousins to that disappeared something! Blessed be the Potential, I always say, for it holds all things." Into the pot it all went, as if to demonstrate.

In reply to Xeno Bio-EX (msg # 136):

"Hu?" Fraksel looked up from his pot-stirring and frowned at the non-sequitur... then sort of grokked what the crystal skeleton was talking about. "Siren powers, hm?" He gazed down at their strange, unwilling host, over there in the hollow... "Guess that sort of explains how it draws-in prey... What? House can't exist on wood alone, can it? From the yellow tentacles, seems to be a kind of mollusk to me... What do you think, X.3.N.0?"

"mollusk, sea creature, invertebrate, slug, snail. this is possible if it has lodged itself into a hollowed area. if we had maybe some slay we could scare it away. the salt tends to interact badly with their excreations. or fire. fire usually works. I do not know if it would attack us should we approach."

The hulk comes to a stop at the edge of the fire and turns to look again. In what seems a jovial tone coming from its speakers it says.

"if you salt it or smoke it to death from fire you could transport it back to this community and have a large quantity of food stuff for quite some time with something so large."

Irinus thinks on X.3.N.0.’s comment for a moment.

“Seems unnecessary to dismantle it. Maybe if it called to you, there is a song it will respond to? All else, we could use the quantium to gather the wood in the time warp...? I do not understand this creature, if it indeed is one, but danger usually follows violent endeavors......”

"Probably," Fraksel shrugged, then grinned: "Or make you into one fine post."

To Irinus' idea:
"Haven't got near enough quantium to affect that large an area, I'm thinking..." frowned Fraksel while tasting a splash of stew off his finger. "Although," After you, invited a metal hand: "Experiment away! But yeah, the idea's to keep it away from the falling timber long enough to grab some for ourselves. The extreme, adult version of milking an oxer! (Uh, long-eared critter, about this high, with antlers, very fas- Nevermind). I'm sort of hoping it'll slow way down during the night - and then we should make our move just before dawn, shouldn't we hm? - OR that it'll move away or towards something, interact, give us *some* clue what drives it. Done!"

Fraksel poured out the flagrant stew into their two bowls, going for the pot himself since they had no spare [Although he'll swap with Irinus or Zijan if they prefer]. Sitting cross-legged on his boulder, he placed the steaming bowl in his lap and set his piece of unleaven bred to soak in it... "Or should we make that our Question for tonight, hm?"

Turns out the group had a tradition of deciding on a Question every night. A question that the bearded old nano fired off into the datasphere. "Never know what'll come back, but usually... entertaining," grinned the old man. A dramatic gesture towards the heavens: "So what'll it be tonight!?"

This is his Bazian descriptor power :)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:03, Thu 20 Dec 2018.

"The red rice, please.  You do that quite well," Zijan says, in response about dinner.  "Irinus, your philosophy is quite fascinating.  Should we get through this crisis intact, I would very much like to listen to a debate between you and our Aeon Priest!  Comparing thoughts on science and life is always interesting."



Zijan frowns.  "We don't yet understand much about the qualseth.  Xeno, would you feel safer if one of us were awake all night to make sure it doesn't try to call you again?  I don't want you to be taken somewhere you don't want to go!"

She watches, interested, as Fraksel and Irinus speak back and forth of other worlds and dimensions and travel beyond both.  So curious to think that such a thing that crashed could convey one so far, so very, very far...

As the conversation turned back to the Qualseth, Zijan voiced her opinion, "If there is something inside the Qualseth, I would rather not see it killed if it offers us no harm.  That would mean an end to any possible harvesting of the woods.  But we see that pieces fall and are snatched back inside.  Could we try to snatch a piece away before it is reclaimed?  That may be the simplest way of getting what we came here for."

"that is ok. i do not wish to incovience anyone. I will keep watch since i dont really sleep. what do you mean tradition? ask what?"

Xeno seems generally perplexed at this.

Irinus, thoroughly intrigued, begins to ponder Fraksel’s comments as she slurps the stew, the tendril that makes up her mouth splitting into quadrants to reveal a beak of sorts.

“Hmmm...soft, subtle....flavor is good. You do this often?”

She eats like a starved aneen, and relaxes on her haunches.

“Zijan, these Priests are unfamiliar to me, but I’m open to sharing information—one way to grow. As for a question...I’d feel rude to interrupt ceremony. I shall watch first? Yes, she watches, and will learn this....’tradition’.”

Once the food is served, the gang all fed and resting, and the Question debated, Irinus stands, and as she leaves the campfire’s light, the green-black shroud re-emerges, her form wrapped by it, the delicate ribbons of the void matter bulging and writhing under her skin. She turns to look back, eyes brilliant and lime green, wisps of tendriled shadow reaching out from her face.

“We can split watch—I will take first, and survey the area in detail. X.3.N.0., if you do not shutdown, keep an...ear?... out, yes?

"Avoid Deltun though." Fraksel advised. "Unless you want to be blown away by the volume of wind coming out of his mouth."


"Anything! That's the beauty of it! The datasphere -- the real - the free! - not the tiny, stranded dust-crumbs that sort of echo when I ping/scan- The Datasphere, as I was saying, is an ancient sea of information, I say... I've seen some of it, blazing out into the depths on borrowed wings of knowledge!" Fraksel's eyes began to ice over silver, as they sometimes did when he got over-excited, loosing focus on the now to see only what he could see: "Body-less, semi-sentient programs, evolving their own ecosystems at the speed of thought; ascended races, data-Gods and Old Ones all dwell there - dwelt there? - at one time or another. In the shining, connected strands of the electrocean, or in cut-off legacy systems. Connected - and then not - at the whim of failing, insane or self-repairing hard-circuit or conversion bridges. It's an entire universe, my friends, where no-one needs fear perma-death; with amalgam entities that have lived there continually since Before... And - we - get - to - fire - off - a query request, a Question into THAT! To maybe dislodge a bit of knowledge long gone... Hmmm?"

His eyes had returned to the here and now.

In game terms, Fraksel gets to ask one question of the GM per day
This message was last edited by the player at 02:20, Fri 21 Dec 2018.

Xeno buzzes with excitement. Beeps and and blurts of unintellagable static and binary.

"then ask it how we can safely harvrst the wood from the qualseth. that is a relavent question that we should ask. dont you?"

"Immediate. Prosaic. I like it," nodded the old nano with pursed lips... "Zijan?"



"Cook?" He shared a non-plussed look with the obsidian woman on his left side. "Maybe."

He gestured with his utensil: "Chemistry and random chance, branching recipes, plans changing with the ingredients, occasional fires... What's not to like?" Both bushy-white eyebrows rose her way as she ate: "Not a gastronomic paradise over there beyond the moon I take it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:29, Fri 21 Dec 2018.

“Heh! Hardly. Nutrient paste with the texture of synth bags and taste of stale loaf only go so far—organic compounds are heavily regulated to secure proper rationing...”

Xeno moved again. Its ponderous hulk moving with loud clangs though it's movement suggested it wanted to be quiet and unobtrusive as it moved closer to watch the tentacle woman and the rest eat. Finding it intruqing.

In reply to Irinus (msg # 148):

"That's a good point," the nano admitted. "Where- *How* do you get your organic compounds? Your food? Want some?" he asked, jokingly offering a ladle of his red-rice stew to the staring Xeno.


Travelling all day tomorrow. Happy holidays to us all!
This message was last edited by the player at 02:29, Sun 23 Dec 2018.

<quote Fraksel M'ba>
In reply to Irinus (msg # 148):
</Blue>Your food? Want some?"</Blue> he asked, jokingly offering a ladle of his red-rice stew to the staring Xeno.


You feel it looking at you. Some how. Still not sure how it does it but it does
With a tone sort of exasperated and sort of cynical it says
"really? and i thought you were smart. I do not need organic matter to energize my powercells. they work fully functional at all times. unlike you fleshy ones who need to sleep consume and spell byproduct"

Fraksel jerked as if slapped... then reversed the offered ladle and splattered its contents against Xeno's frame!

"Care to amend that statement, little boy?"

"that was rude. I do not understand your reaction. I was just stating facts as i see them placed before me."

It tries to remove the stuff from him but unsuccessfully.

“At least his ornery nature belies his age! Winter hair, autumn skin, summer passion, but no spring seskii!”

Irinus chuckles at her own jest at Fraksel. For all her instilled knowledge of humanity, he seemed to stand out from the norms. A good thing; not often in a hostile land can one find humor. Or an ally willing to face both.

“But, I can’t jest too far, one must respect those who invented the wedge!”

In reply to Xeno Bio-EX (msg # 153):

The ladle was used as a poker this time. "So it's a fact to you that I, Fraksel M'Ba, raised in Holy Ascension, Holder of the Dragon's mind, Inventor of some renown - if I have to say so myself - am not smart, am I, hmm?"

This from a mechanism not seven days into the world! The sheer cheek!

Two wacks with the ladle to punctuate that thought -- although Xeno's solid crystal frame hardly seemed to notice [I'm going to guess :)] and the all-important ladle was, in fact, entirely intact afterwards. :)


Fraksel dropped back onto his rock with a humph! "And a damn fine invention it was too," he huffily agreed... though, eventually, something did seem to want to tug at the corner of his lips...

"Have some more stew, tentacle-girl." Offering to refill.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:37, Mon 24 Dec 2018.

All jesting aside, Irinus turns to accept another bowl, and before returning to her watching of the qualseth, poses an idea for Fraksel.

“Ah! She has a thought! A question, actually. ‘How does one create a qualseth?’; surely, if Fraksel can build one, we may glean some secret to harvesting this one?”

The hulk continues to try and clean its self to no avail and with a burble of strange static like a harumph it flicks a little of the stew at fraksel.

"i said i thought you was smart. and you exude an intelligence that surpasses many. but they you asked if I wanted to partake in organic consumption when I have no means or need to do so. thus this counteracts your intelligebce and confuses me. I may have only been out where the sun moves across the sky for seven days, but I have a large bank of knowledge as well. stuff I dont know I know. or how I know."

It crosses its smaller metal arms in a strange copy of a human. Making it look comical as the larger appendages hang loosely to its sides.

Fraksel dodged the blobs of stew -- not entirely successfully, as it turned out, flecks of it splattering his right cheek and sleeve.

"Maker protect me from newborns... One: How do you know anybody knows anything about how you work, you arrogant fetus? Nobody here has even glimpsed at your internals!"

Another sigh, longer this time... "Entire machine classes can - and sometimes do - eat anything and everything in their path, you know -- organic, synth, metal, drit, you name it... Now that's efficient (Ask me about the Iron Wind sometimes)... But that's not in those 'large databanks' of yours, I take it? These," and he held up both metal arms, palm back: "How do you think these work, hm? You can guess, but do you know? Why don't you know? Should we all think less of you for it?"

A pause, then the coup de grace: "Two: did I ever say what you should do with the organic matter if you wanted any?" Hmm?


In reply to Irinus (msg # 156):
Hm... "That's- That's large, you know?" frowned the old man: "'How does one create a Fraksel?' Or a Zijan. Or an Irinus?"

Not that he wouldn't love to know all three of those, of course!

A look to Zijan, who'd remained mute on the subject, then Xeno and Irinus. "Alright then, how about:"

Sitting cross-legged on his boulder, Fraksel closed his eyes. And when he opened then, they blazed silver like never before, and though he didn't raise his voice it somehow... echoed off of them, and off of the surrounding landscape as he uttered:

"What Is The Qualseth?"

Fraksel feels the alteration of his perception as he taps into the datasphere, accessing a layer of reality that is often fleeting at best, but very real, as real as all objects in the Ninth World can be perceived.

It is fleeting, but clear, completely understood in its context for that moment in time as his consciousness becomes momentarily attuned to the realm of the datasphere that resides... who knows where...

"Nothing yet... Nothing ye- Oh!" The old man rocked back ever so slightly, like he'd been hit by a sudden breeze.

"Memory-engram!" he announced like an over-enthousiastic tarjun caller -- though he'd sort of been hoping for something more spectacular on this first try with a new audience... Ah well. Never mind that: there was knowledge to be had!

He tasted the memory, lodged there at the center of his mind... Coded for something not too different from him, luckily (that'd save him some nightmares AND the terrible headaches). "Let's see... Something like: The entity we refer to as the qualseth was grown/constructed by a prior World. Ha, so it's not an animal or some sort of mutant: you were right, Tentacle-girl! Then -blast- this bit made a lot more sense a second ago." The engram was loosing cohesion fast, outside links pinching off in succession like deja vue soap bubbles! Quickly now: "It's - uh - purpose is to change... 'capital conrata' - whatever that is - into cellulose to... change the carbon all around us into something else- No - not something else. To change the carbon matrix so the 'tchlatch' visitants are... happy? So the tchlatch visitants are happier. Yes."

Then his eyes slowly returned to normal.

It was over.

A brief idea like a fleeting dream comes to Irinus, when Fraksel accesses the data-gods’ unlimited shapes light.

“A mutant? Some engineered abnormality? Maybe, just maybe, if we ask, it will shed what we need? Sounds like the danger here is being obtuse to the creature’s wants...”

Irinus slowly walks towards the qualseth, stopping just short of the radial fall of the tendril-and-shell dance it performs. Although her form is likened to that of some shadowy being from the depths of the dark, she begins to hum, a soft, sweet, simple melody, something one might hear When consoling a worried child. She sits there, lost in her song, attempting to somehow bridge the eons and entreat the creature for its harvest.

I’m going to attempt to ‘communicate’ with the qualseth. I make no effort to appear malevolent, instead trying to access it emotionally. My thinking is that even base creatures respond to empathy?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:34, Fri 28 Dec 2018.

The qualseth does not seem to respond in any way to Irinus' soft sweet humming. It continues to function in its machine like manner, shedding off wood pieces only to snatch them back into itself.

Zijan had eaten Fraksel's offerings with relish, offering several appreciative noises (occasionally degenerating into making sure she didn't choke with laughter during some of Fraksel's antics responding to Xeno and Irinus).  But when he went into a trance to determine what he could of the Qualseth, she put her empty bowl aside and listened attentively.

"Hmm... so it is not necessarily a sentient thing.  And it takes what is around it and changes it for the comfort and pleasure of another.  These 'tchlatch', has anyone else heard of them before?" Zijan asks.  She ponders herself, wondering if she had met them, perhaps under another name.  "And I also wonder if we might be able to quickly snatch a few pieces of wood that fall from the Qualseth for ourselves before they are snatched back by the tentacles.  That may be the swiftest way to collect the parts we need for Fraksel's project."

"It might respect something that looks like its makers," agreed the old man, agreeably twirling the ladle, "IF we only knew what they looked like!" He certainly didn't. "Hey! Tentacle-girl! Try singing 'tchlatch' to it!" Just in case it reacted to the name itself or something... Fraksel dropped back down: "And is it just me or does it seem stuck in some sort of loop?" That constant gathering of the same pieces... "Hey! Maybe the carbon-transforming organ's broken and all it can do is gather the same raw stuff to its bosom, over and over again?"

Fraksel will try to follow the cycle of a piece of lumber from gathering to drop, see if there's some other steps involved in there.

He'll also try pinging it with his datasphere powers, see if he gets a ping back from some sort of interface/maintenance/error-reporting module

Dangerous unknowns present themselves in simple forms, Irinus thought, as she continues to hold her song. She takes a few steps back, slinks her bow from her back, and mocks an arrow from the quiver on her hip. Before attempting to fire at a loose piece of wood, she reaches into her pouch, and produces a handful of the jade marbles, scattering a few in the qualseth’s area.

“Your inquiry may no longer be...relevant..to this time. But humor me; Stay near the campfire. She will poke and prod and decrypt the meaning. All else fails, She can try to dismantle it? She can render it inert. Maybe. But we must understand the movements and patterns first...yes, understand....”

She then “shoots” a few of the marbles at the organic machine itself, attempting to drive it to respond, first at its wooden shell, then aiming for the mass held within as the wood sloughs from it, now ready in off-hand should her worst thoughts come to pass.

As Fraksel and Zijan muse over ways to access the qualseth, Irinus will begin to slowly investigate it, first from a distance. Should no response come from the initial prodding, the nocked arrow is for shooting a piece of wood out from its grasp.

Xeno watches. Not exactly sure what to do at this point. He watches and observes everything.

"You do know we can hardly see you right now, right?" Fraksel pointed out to the (barely) starlit shadow of their tentacled visitant, down there at the bottom of the slope, away from their flickering circle of light. "Why do you want to do this *now*, for Maker's sake?"

The impatience of youth was truly puzzling sometimes.

("Any of us sensible ones have a glowglobe handy?" he asked as an aside to the others.)

Fraksel idly begins creating a few torches from the wood they've gathered and odds and ends in his pouches (L1, 5min, 4 materials for 4 torches, 16:18, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 5 using 1d20.  Torches. Success)

I'm also going to guess that it's been at least 10 minutes of rest for him, what with the eating and all so: 10 min recovery: 16:18, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 5 using 1d6+1.  10 min recovery

The strange lumbering wooden thing seems very rhythmic in its nature, but it is a rhythm without a consistent meter, as if it is following a pattern unrecognizable to any but itself. While the pattern of its shedding and grabbing seems random, it still seems mechanical and non-deliberate in nature. Fraksel's ping from it yields a response so foreign it is beyond understanding or identification.

The marbles that Irinus lets fly from her bow smack into the qualseth, thunking with the sound that wood generally makes when struck. It makes absolutely no response or overture to being hit by the marbles; the wood that it is comprised of doesn't even seem to show a dent. It continues in its near stillness save for the occasional shed-and-snatch process that seems to consist of the entirety of its function.

"Satisfied now?" he called to Irinus.

"So it resists simple force, or complex understanding.  I... do not believe it would respond any better to words, as it seems beyond or before understanding of the the Truth.  Shall we see if we can get something from it when a piece drops, before it snatches it back again, or if that will disrupt its process too much?" Zijan asks, watching the others with curiosity.  "Sometimes a simple way can work as well as a complex one."

"Not doing anything before my well-deserved nap," shrugged the white-bearded nano.

And he proceeded to do just that, rolling over on his side on one of Zijan's had-hoc resting places, back to the fire.

Sing-sam-sung simply dropped to the ground, rolling a bit before their 'eye' too went dark...

Fraksel plans to sleep the night away
12:21, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,3.  1h and 10h recovery

No, she wasn’t satisfied—but she respected the nano’s wishes nonetheless. Curiosity is a fickle beast, and hers was not yet sated. She returns to the campfire, her shroud receding as she entered the light’s grasp.

“Get your rest—I give my word to only observe until you’re rested. I’ll stay up a while with X.3.N.0. on watch. We shall prod more in the morning. Dream of tomorrow.”

She continues her melody, and as watch goes into the night, she goes through the motions and hymns of some unknown ritual, some appeasement of the Voidsong within her. Eventually, fatigue of the day finds her, and she, too, will sleep.

"Mrmghn muh," grumbled back the old man with a vague gesture... Which might mean any number of things, really, including nothing at all.

Nothing of note occurs during the night while the party slept or stood watch.

As the light of day begins to show itself, it illuminates the qualseth, causing it to cast a long shadow due to its height. The thing has moved during the night, though only a couple meters at most. It continues its strange pattern of shedding and snatching its wood, each falling piece being a different shape and shading, even varied in grain, from each previous piece.

The night had seen Xeno watching the qualseth. Just constant watch and data gathering. It knew there was spmething about it. It nagged at his circuits and memory banks. It just knew it. If only he could recall it. Maybe it should just approach the thing and be done with it. Maybe. Maybe.

10:46, Today: Xeno Bio-EX rolled 10 using 1d20 ((10)) (maybe asset from watching it all night?)

"You know, you got to wonder how it 'sees' where the falling bits land." Fraksel yawned and then stretched long, slowly getting the night-kinks out of his old frame. "If it's just sound and we cushion the timber... Oh-oh! AND I dreamed up a possible use for one of the quantium boxes in our Chatton of Inquiry project! See," And he scratched a rough diagram on a nearby boulder with his finger, "if the projectile's time frame can be slowed down enough - right? - then we can *recock* the mechanism and boost the thing multiple times *before* it's even left the firing ramp! Genius! if I do have to say so myself."

They might even be able to make the thing portable with no loss of power with this. Couldn't wait to talk to Limen-pup about it! The night had been fruitful indeed, as it often was!

(On the negative side, he was *still* stripped like a walleen leaning on a fresh-painted wire fence! Was it him though or did they look a bit paler, his skin a bit less numb..? Might be he was just getting used to it.)

"Well..." Fraksel levered himself upright and then slammed one palm into the other. "Let's get down to it, right?" He donned his black helmet and started strolling down towards the qualseth, hands at the small of his back.

And never mind about Gles not having had her breakfast -- in the face of a challenge, he'd frankly plain forgotten about eating himself!

Does it look like the qualseth has anything that could be interpreted as some sort of sensory organ(s), Ninth World?

Zijan makes certain their aneen is cared for before heating up the leftover rice from last night for a quick meal.  No use facing uncertainty on an empty stomach!  After she finished, she walked forward to stand next to Fraksel as he observed the thing.

"Well, I think I am going to try to lasso a piece of fallen wood before it is reclaimed.  I'd like to tie a harness about myself and hand it off to one of you, just in case it tries to claim me instead!  For certain, we have learned as much as we can with passive observation, and I hope this gives you new data.  Between yourself, Xeno, and Irinus, I hope we can learn enough about the Qualseth to get the parts we need whilst remaining intact," Zijan says thoughtfully.  "Unless someone has a different idea, of course."  If there are no objections, she goes back to the wagon to find some rope and begins to tie some into a loop, and then more about herself in a harness.

The hulk turns to the woman.

"I was just going to approach it out of bordem and curiosity. but your plan has merits. you can anchor one end to me as I weigh a fair amount."

It states in a strange cadence.

The morning brings curses and vitriol from the mutant woman. Quickly donning her masque and cloaks, Irinus sets off after Fraksel, her curiosity finally about to be sated.

“She had a thought over the night: what is this community you come from? You’ve spoken very little of it...”

She shows no hesitation in getting close to the qualseth in the morning light, confident the thing is no danger. To her other companion:

“A sound plan, Zijan! This one will stand by to aid as is needed, whatever our approach.”

Irinus’ familiarity with the area after studying it can be used by either Fraksel or Zijan as an asset if applicable. She’ll just aide the task, unless she’s called upon to Salvage the qualseth.

"Um? Oh, that's because it doesn't matter much," distractedly dismissed the old nano, still rubbing at his white beard as he analyzed the qualseth. "Ragtag Beaner farmers, less aeon priests than you've got fingers... water station... It's where it's built that's important!"


"Uh!" when it came time Fraksel just stood to the side and a bit in front of Zijan, stretching his metal fingers -- ready to immediately join the tug of war should there be one in the making.

"Experiment away!"

Aid another
This message was last edited by the player at 00:22, Thu 10 Jan 2019.

Zijan takes a moment to study the Qualseth's rhythm, such as it is; how long it takes to grasp a shed piece after it drops.  After a few minutes, she nods to herself, and then back at the others.  "I am ready.  I will run forward, loop the rope around a fallen piece, and then dart back as quickly as I can.  And I will not object to being dragged back if you can pull faster than I can run while burdened!"

OOC: Zijan will activate her Understanding precept, which will allow her an asset regarding a creature or action on her next interaction with it/them.

Thusly prepared, Zijan will run forward, get close to a fallen piece of wood, loop the rope around it and then run like the wind back to the others!

As Zijan studies the rhythm of the qualseth she sees that the shedding and snatching of the wood pieces has no discernible pattern; however, the fall-and-snatch timing is consistent. A piece of wood falls then hits the ground and is immediately snatched as it lands. There is hardly a span of time between the actions.




Zijan, give me a Speed roll, DT7 before your asset and any other assets you apply.

As Zijan dashes to the next fallen chunk of wood a tendril whips its way out of one of the gaps in the qualseth and is able to snatch the wood and retreat it back into itself before she is able to get rope around it.

Irinus looks on, somewhat bemused under her masque at the game of cat-and-tendril unfolding. She voices another thought to the group, in her musing out loud as Zijan attempts her ploy.

“She has a few things that she was able to whisk away from the untimely departure: one is a nano-detonator capable of rendering organisms into plant matter, another a null-field generator against the Numenera. Aside from those, This one is well-built for grappling, and she well may be able to contest the qualseth for the wood, exposing the grasping tendril. Is this thing of import to the locality, or was this thing a remnant happened upon? As in, can we afford it’s loss? Or, as an aside, we could make a use of the Quantium to breach the tapestry for the right moment....”

Somewhat brazenly, Irinus approaches the qualseth, where the wood could fall within her grasp, and readies for her companions input.

I have 2 assets in grappling, and the might to hold it (I hope LOL), I’m also familiarized, so the Movement asset should apply, I’m thinking? With effort, I might be able to get it with some help.

"Good effort, Zijan!"

"Try catching a medium piece *before* it hits the ground," the old nano suggested to Irinus from afar, hands cupped around his mouth, "then chuck it to me and I'll chuck it out of range! Random thing's too quick on the grasp, I'm thinking..."

He took up position down-range of the tentacled visitant, like some elderly player in a strangely serious keep-away game... For some reason he was sort of smiling in his beard though...


Hopefully that qualifies as Helping Irinus?

IC the idea is to 1. by-pass the lumber hitting the ground so the qualseth doesn't detect the drop (should its sensors work that way) and 2. throw the lumber to another PC before the qualseth can adjust its aim (assuming it did detect the drop after all)

Irinus is able to sight a chunk of wood beginning to cleave off from above and positions herself nicely enough to catch it. When the wood descends into her waiting arms she had not considered the weight of the wood nor the force of the drop. It knocks her off her feet while a tendril extends with whiplike speed to retrieve the wood, instead tangling it in Irinus' own tentacles and begins to pull her in toward the qualseth.

09:12, Today: Irinus rolled 1 using 1d20.  Snatching wood, Aid from Fraksel, 1 Effort.

Irinus gasps, then her training and instincts kick in; the danger was real enough.

“GRAB THE WOOD FIRST! I’LL TRY TO HOLD IT OFF!” She screams, and tries to hold the qualesth at bay.

Since I’m caught, I’ll try to hold the tendril through grapple so the others can grab the wood that fell.

Ignoring that like the stubborn old codger that he was, Fraksel planted his feet in a martial stance and forcefully pointed at the yellowish tendril with joined fingers.

A chorus of high whines and triple beams of fat red light shot out of Sim-sam-sung's eyes, triangulating on their wriggly target. "Plenty of wood but only one of you, Girl!"

Onslaught to weaken/distract/sever the tendril, please. AKA Help on Irinus' action (I'm guessing?)
Speaking of, don't forget to roll for your action!

Buzzes and whirs of machinery kick into over drive and a voice not normally of Xenos voice exudes from his speakers

"Priority alpha! rescue bystander from questing tentacles. priority beta. gather materials."

The cyropod turns red from lights as the hulk moves forward with surprising speed. A huge saw blade emerges from one of its appendages as it whips it forward flinging the blade out at the tentacle moving up to irinus.

01:52, Today: Xeno Bio-EX rolled 9 using 1d20.  Attacking the tentacle. Effort to hit 1 level.

Zijan, seeing the far more martially-inclined and capable Fraksel and Xeno on the case of Irinus' rescue, abides by her wishes and runs to grab the wood and haul it out of range.  No need to fight for nothing!

"Fight together to free her; there is strength in aiding each other!" she calls as she runs.

Irinus grits herself, and pulls with all her might to break free!

“Hah, what a beautiful, beastly thing!” She remarks, oblivious in the moment of her own dangerous predicament.

11:21, Today: Irinus rolled 18 using 1d20.  Resisting the qualseth; Aid + Grapple + Effort 1 (Might)

Seeing the tentacled-girl's mighty heave:

"Don't throw it too far : we still need to gather its wood," joked the old man. (She was hella-strong!)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:17, Thu 17 Jan 2019.

Fraksel and Xeno's attack on the tendril cause it to react, loosening its grip on Irinus' tentacles. She is able to apply enough opposing force to slip from its grasp, and the tendril retreats into an opening on the qualseth.

Zijan was clever enough to retreat out of range of another potential tendril reach, carrying the fallen wood with her. The wood is smooth and broad, somewhat flat, and will work well towards completing the slingshot.


The amount of wood dropped amounted to 2 units. One more piece will get you to the requisite 4 units needed.

Zijan drops the wood well out of the reach of the Qualseth, and returns to where Fraksel and Xeno are, lasso at the ready.  If they were able to get Irinus free, and played the next round more carefully, they might actually pull this thing off!

She dips her hands into her beltpouch and comes up with a metallic face mask.  If Irinus wasn't able to free herself, well...  She had a fiery cypher to give the Qualseth something else to think about.

"Once more into the breach, or switch to a pinch hitter, Tentacle-girl?" Fraksel questioned, taking up the same position he had before the kerfuffle.

Ready and willing!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:58, Thu 17 Jan 2019.

Laughing as she makes back to a safe distance, the others see a green light shine through her masque, as she calls upon the void shroud. The heaving and exertion are taking its toll, but she’s trained for this. Made for this. She drops into a low squat, readying herself for the next contest.

“Allow me to try first? At least this time, I’m prepared to the lash!”

Activating Shroud, since I’m fully clothed and armored. With that, I’ll put some effort into the movement task to snatch another piece, provided the aid is still there.


18:34, Today: Irinus rolled 12 using 1d20.

The mutant grinds into the drit, the void energy strengthening her resolve...

"You know," the helmeted nano commented while they eagerly waited for another piece of the right size to fall to them, "looking at it up close I'm thinking that- That what we're looking at here is probably the stockpile algorithm doing its fiery best to store the backlog as close to the broken carbon-organ as it can?"

Aid still here :)
This message was last edited by the player at 23:59, Fri 18 Jan 2019.

After almost 10 minutes waiting another piece cleaves off the qualseth and tumbles downward, Irinus attempting to snatch it from the air with Fraksel directing her as best he can. She is able to get close enough to it to snatch it out of the air with her tendrils, claiming another piece of wood for the contraption awaiting completion at the beanstalk.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:57, Sun 20 Jan 2019.

Zijan gave a cheer of encouragement as Irinus was able to do more deftly than what she had attempted. "Wonderful job, Irinus!  Your strength and speed are quite remarkable.  Fraksel, should we attempt to get another piece or two, in case we need some more for another project that may arise?"

The blade Xeno had launched pulls back on a chain and one of his other appendages had beeb waiting with a strange device in it that looked like a projector of some sort.

"Priority alpha complete. priority beta complete. reestablishing biological control over construct."

Xeno backs away and the light inside changes back to an icy blue around the skeleton.

"Apologies. did I miss something? oh. you gathered the organic compound. and the outer being is safe. I aplogize for not assisting."

"You did assist, X.3.N.0. Or parts of you did anyways. Seems you've got some sort of Reactive Mind on you -- or is that under you? Gonna guess that whoever built your frame didn't trust skeleton-boy to handle the important stuff, like staying alive?"

In reply to Zijan (msg # 200):

"Ha! When has that ever happened, Zijan?" good-naturally grumbled the bearded-one in reply.

He took up position once more, squaring his sallet and gesturing with a smiling palm to Irinus: Come on, girl, let's show them what we've got!


To save time, what say we take what extra we can get in an hour of gathering, so about 6 rolls in a row, Irinus?

"Nobody heard X.3.N.0 song again?" the stripped human questioned somewhere in there, recalling yesterday's events. "What do you suppose that was?"

Over the course of the next hour they spend their energy (especially Irinus) calculating the trajectory of the falling pieces of wood. Getting the gist of guessing and aiming the landing of the cleaving wood they manage to catch four more pieces. It worked out well that they had the cart pulled by the aneen as it would be challenging to carry the wood by hand. And it's still morning, plenty of day ahead for the return trip back to town.


You manage to collect a total of 10 units of wood (I think that's right).

Panting, wheezing, and laughing, Irinus lets her infusion down as she returns to the cart. She pulls her masque off, and allows herself a moment to rest on the cart’s edge.

“Well, this one is beat! Any chance our esteemed nano wizard could whip up breakfast? After all that exertion, this one is famished!”

I take ten minutes to rest, using both recovery rolls.

True to her form, though, she quickly recovers from her expenditure of physical labor, and soon after, is beaming with the positivity of successful.

In reply to Fraksel M'ba (msg # 203):

"You folks aren't much for idle theorizing, are you?" Fraksel complained when this comment too went without reply. Then he went on as if nothing had happened: "I'd put nindan to beru that 'song's some sort of distress call... And directed only at machine minds too apparently! (Or maybe it's broken, doesn't work all the time any more?). What do you say to that, hmm?"


"Breakfast?" pondered that worthy, as if he'd only vaguely heard of the concept before. "I suppose we've got bread and ribbon curds, plus what's left of yesterday's rice stew. Air temperature, of course."

Though, as he went by Irinus to pull those out, he patted her shoulder. "Well done," in a voice pitched only for her.

When the others were ready, Fraksel clacked the reins, Gles snorted and the qualseth quickly disappeared behind the low hills that were its home.

Sad, really...

Xeno had placed the last piece of wood into the cart.

"No I did not hear anymore of this song. or what it was that tried to pull me. maybe at another time I will come and dissect it to find out its cause. but for now we have the manner of the beanstalk to deal with no? the falling rocks?"

Xeno looks at the cart and then back to fraksel

"I do not believe i will fit this time. I shall follow along side."

Irinus wondered, taking a seat on the back of the cart with the wood.

“Well, it seems X.3.N.0. is both mechanical and biological, yes? But two parts of one whole? Maybe something in his machine mind could communicate with other machines? Maybe...less of a true song, but more....data converted to sound?”

"People writing songs that voices never shared," thoughtfully quoted Fraksel from some sort of antique scriptures... "Could be, tentacle-girl, could be... But then, what's so organic about him?" with raised brows and an up-and-down gesture at the towering crystal skeleton.

In typical fashion Fraksel will not slow the aneen down any... Though if they do get too far ahead, he *will* insist Xeno "Get in the random cart, you arrogant machine! Your raging ego will survive a few bumps."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:59, Fri 25 Jan 2019.

The party reaches the outskirts of the Beanstalk in a few hours, a bit longer than the travel out to the qualseth due to the ladened down cart. As they enter the town people quickly scurry out of the way of Xeno and Irinus. No one inquires about their errand as they just as soon not be too close to the strange company traveling with Fraksel and Zijan.

Over the course of the time they were away much work had been done. Many jugs and containers can be seen stacked up along various houses filled with water. People can still be seen traveling to the water collector, and other townfolk are carrying items out of the buildings near it.

Detlun sees the party and intercepts them as they head toward the area where Fraksel had been working on his project. "I see you both made it back with some wood... from the qualseth, I assume? I was sure your hubris would have gotten you in trouble, old man." He stops and looks over Irinus and Xeno, more at Xeno that the other. "Fascinating! Where did you find these remarkable beings? And what in Calaval's name are they? I certainly hope you did not bring trouble to the Beanstalk."

"Good idea that," Fraksel mentionned when he saw those. "Might consider building some sort of bassin away from the impact zone..."

Someone with a head on her shoulders had been thinking. (Probably Etra.)

Speaking of...


"They didn't propose a Cypher Registration initiative," mildly agreed the nano -- referring to one of Deltun's old project which *still*, to this day, stirred up some people.

Detlun snorts derisively. "Just mind whatever these beings are that you brought back. Unless you've gotten to know them so well in the 28 hours you've been gone that you can guarantee they won't do anything untoward."

He looks at the townspeople providing a wide berth between themselves and the party. "Good luck convincing them of that. Well, I suppose you'd better get back to your ambitious project over there. The boulder will not crush the collector in the next couple of days, but I don't want you to not finish it in time with your propensity for overthinking everything, Fraksel." He pulls up the corner of one side of his mouth in a wry smile then tips his head at Zijan while uttering "Ma'am...", then dubiously looks at the two new members of their party before retreating back to his work area.

Silent for the duration of the exchange, Irinus waits until the fellow is gone from earshot before responding in quiet:

“Fraksel, Zijan, that one seems like a shadow on the sun. Is he to be trusted here? The people will take time; I understand. But he seems...shifty. I don’t.....want him around me. Or X.3.N.0.”

Irinus is unquestionably unnerved by the icy reception she perceives; a quick adjustment of her bow and blade help her feel secured...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Mon 28 Jan 2019.

"Ha! You're asking *me* to guarantee somebody else won't do anything untoward?" boggled the white-bearded nano as he lithely disembarked, tossing the reins aside. "My my, When did I climb so high in your esteem, Father?" He seized one of the rotund aeon priest's hand in both of his own. "I'm touched, Deltun. Truly touched. You will not be disappointed."



<Afterwards:
The old man dismissed [Irinus' concerns] with a wave of a dark metal hand: "His heart's in the right place," he contradicted, maybe to the utter surprise of some of the listening beaners, only to ruin it with: "It's the rest of him that's 100% wind and 3/4 blubber... But enough of that."

He too turned to the townspeople: "They look kind of strange, don't they? Big one here's X.3.N.0.; he's just woken up so he's like a little kid, looking at everything with big eyes and lots of questions. You can tell him to go ask m- Zijan - Tell him to go ask Zijan if he gets too bothersome. Uhum. The stringy-tall one with the neat tentacle's called 'Irinus', we got all this fine wood off the qualseth this morning shiny-easy thanks to her help - hu - mostly easy... What are you waiting for? Introduce yourselves to the Base of the Beanstalk!" With a gesture encompassing the people, the scattered aldeia behind, all dwarfed by the seemingly infinite shaft of the Beanstalk and its five floating mountains.

Irinus steps forward, a curt bow to the gathering crowd, and clears her throat.

“Greetings, good folk! This one is known as Irinus, and you have my word that all is safe and well. She was glad to have helped these two, and hopefully, you as well. Irinus is a hunter, a scout, and hopes that my skills will benefit all. Do not hesitate to ask questions; in honor of trust, she will be transparent as glass.”

Afterwards, albeit nervously, she waits, leaning against the cart for any curious soul who approaches her for answers.

If so questioned, I will answer honestly—I recant all. A good story can do wonders.

Zijan let Irinus make the first move - after all, she had proved herself to be personable in a way more humans understood.  Not that Xeno was less trustworthy, just several steps stranger.

As Detlun decided to be stubborn, Zijan spoke up.

"Detlun, I take the safety of the Beanstalk very seriously.  I would not go and risk myself nor Fraksel unless it was for a reasonable chance to serve the community.  Xeno Bio-Ex and Irinus we found on the way, true, but they have proven themselves to be honest.  They risked their own safety for us, for strangers, to obtain wood from the Qualseth, in order to secure the safety of this community.  For that responsibility and dilligence, we owe them a fair and honest welcome.  You will see for yourself, Detlun," Zijan says, drawing herself up straight.

OOC: Activating demeanor of command, which gives her a free level of Effort on persuasion.
09:55, Today: Zijan rolled 7 using 1d20.  Persuasion (S) (1E).

"Or gain *knowledge*!" that worthy added from the side.

They can see Detlun visibly soften with Zijan's words. The Aeon Priest thoughtfully looks over Xeno and Irinus, taking his time to absorb them visually.

"If you availed yourselves to them to help collect this wood, I suppose that's saying something. I know the qualseth is nothing to be trifled with, and you took great risk in assisting them. Welcome to the Beanstalk. I give you the benefit of the doubt you will be an asset to our community during what may be a trying time."

The crowd that had been nervously eyeing Irinus listened curiously as she introduced herself, but still seemed slightly wary. Upon Detlun's welcoming of the strange being the nearby townsfolk seemed to relax even more, then they continued to go about their business, not paying them any further notice.

"So where are you in the construction of your device, Old Man?" Detlun inquires. "You'd better get that aneen back to Vols soon though. He's been fussing about it being away from him, grousing about how long it's been gone though you've only been gone a day."

"Welp, best you can hope for on short notice," consoled the old man, pating ranger-girl on the shoulder. "Curiosity doesn't burn as bright in some people as you and I might like."

Eh, what are you going to do?

"Let's find out!" he answered Deltun, clacking the reins and heading towards his and Limen's improvised work space (plas-fabric stretched over thin frames, episodically billowing like sails whenever the plain-winds gently gusted). "Lym? Limem-pup? You guys in there?" he called.


Are they? And have they made progress on the construction of the Chatton of Inquiry in our absence, or is everything as it was before?

The color of the inner light around the skeleton had been yellow. It changes back to blue and you hear whirs and beeps and a voice not of Xenos.

"Primary unit online. Cognitive structure reinstated. Autonomous action granted."

The hulk that had been following shifts and 'looks' around. And Xenos machine like voice comes through once more.

"Hm the treck here seems to have made my systems go into an auto mode. interesting. from my back logs i seem to register you needing something built. shall I accomplish this task? do you habe the materials? what is our objective now?"

again sorry for the delay. alot to deal with lately.

"We call it 'stage-fright'," the nano deadpaned his way.


Waiting to see what's what before answering the rest if that's alright?
And congratulations on Xeno Junior! <Thumbs way up!>

The installation which Fraksel had dubbed "Chatton's Slingshot of Inquiry" remained in the exact same state it was in when they left for the qualseth.

"No one dared work on it," Detlun said, looking over the piece. "No one had any idea what needed to be done to it, nor was there any wood to apply to it had anyone known what was the plan for it." He shrugs, slaps Fraksel on the back, then heads off back to his place.

"Where in the Maker's Spark are those two?" grumbled the nano interrogatively, walking in and setting a fallen pulley back out of the way. Limen certainly had all the parts save for the wood. AND the plan to assemble it all: *she* had helped design half of it!

"I'm... actually a little worried," he admitted, gazing about at the complete lack of any *other* work as well -- you would usually have to *drag* Limen away from experimenting with stuff... "You don't think anything happened to them while we were gone, do you Zijan?"




"Ah yes." Fraksel shook himself back to the matter(s) at hand! "Well we've already built the Ascender Mk 0 over there," he proudly gestured to neatly-arranged coils of strong cabling next to a professional-looking, elegantly-designed pulley system, "our Highway to the Sky! To be fixed on the boulder using our one flying cypher, you know," he explained, miming the rough outline of the operation. "Before that though, we wanted to investigate the area around the boulder itself, see if there's any gravity or tidal - or dimensional, or space-timey - hasards up there before risking one of us to untested wings. Hence the Chatton of Inquiry!" And he dramatically pulled out the plan for such from under dust, sand and a few random small parts that clinked to the ground!

Ta daa!

The Chatton is a crossbow-slingshot able to lob projectiles/grappling hooks 200m away. The version on the plan is the size of a dinner table and mounted on wheels, but you remember Fraksel mentioning this morning dreaming up a modified version incorporating a quantium box to potentially make it man-portable/crossbow-sized.

Irinus listened intently as Fraksel spoke about the plans, the bounce in her step restored from the....suprisingly mild reception. She half-expected to greet torches and pitchforks, but it seems Fraksel's word, as well as her efforts, did carry some merit.

She approached the workspace with intrigue, looking over the mess of parts and other things.

"Have you not tried simple rope and claw? No one has climbe atop one? Surely, some brave soul must have to warrant such a device to....correct it's path? Is that right?"

She thinks on it for a moment.

"At least in this regard I can still be of service: I was trained in archery, so if this...contraption can target it, I should be able to hit it. Would it be fine for me to survey the town? Being familiar with the area has its benefits."

If I have an hour or so to kill, I would like to Familiarize myself with the Beanstalk.

The hulk takes its lumbering steps and seems to 'bend' abd peer at the plans. A beam of light plays over it slowly both up and down and across.

"Blue print scanned. analyzing. processing. organizing. complete." the voice that isn't Xenos hurts.

"Yes. I believe I can build this. it seems simple and mundane enough for a quick job. lever. fulcrum. significant force from stretched rope or sinew. not hard. I shall get to it at once."

The hulk turns to the materials needed for the project and starts its methodical construction.

so what exactly do i need at this point? ive never played a wright. and idk what difficulty it is to make this xbow.

“Ah. Well. About that...” and Fraksel, hands behind back, led them merrily to a little hill overlooking the base of the Beanstalk (or the absence thereof, since the entire thing - the entire, gigantic thing - was floating 10 stories above its ellipsoid base). He pointed up, eyebrows raised.

The Boulder was 30m across.

And 200m up.


The Chatton is a L5 task, each task takin 1/2 a day (OOC post #45). That I recall, Ninth World didn't say if the addition of the quantium box would do what Fraksel wants it too though... Ninth World?

"I certainly hope not.  I shall leave you three to the construction of fantastic things while I try to discover what happened with the twins," Zijan says.  She gives a faint bow before leaving the Conclave of Creativity.

She would like to ask the others in the town council about how things are going regarding moving what structures they can away from the Fall Zone.

"I know I have only been gone a day, so expect only some of the contents of the buildings have been moved, but it would be good to know who is doing what so far.  Also, has anyone seen the twins since we left to visit the Qualseth?"

Irinus whistles, or rather, gurgles, an odd noise Fraksel and the others could only guess was either shock or disbelief.

“Well, that does present a challenge, then! Let’s say you can successfully tag the small mountain—how will we pull it off track? Aneen and cable? Or is this artifact designed to do just that? Send it off track to clear the shelter below? Hmm...”

She started to muse again, rant, even. Distortion fields and void matter and so on until...

“X.E.N.O., if I offer you a cypher, could you...translate it to another? Maybe one of our cyphers still retains a different use?”

If needed, I can offer up the Plant Transformation Detonation to see if XENO can Always Tinkering it Into a different, more relevant cypher?

Etra smiles and nods. "I see you made it back safely, with a couple of strange beings in tow. Yes, some of the contents have been cleared from the buildings near the collector, but we have put most of our efforts into gathering water reserves... just in case we don't find a solution to stopping the boulder's descent. The smiths and repair folks have been focusing on moving items from the buildings while families have been responsible for gathering their own reserves that they believe they'll need.

"As far as those two young ones you're referring to... they were getting a bit rambunctious and in people's way while we're trying to prepare for this impending disaster. We asked them to play somewhere where they would not be under foot. I haven't seen them since so I don't know where they're off to."

“Water collector,” corrected the old man in a distracted, who-would-care-about-that tone. “And no. What we aim to do is get up there, find out how the Boulder moves, and take control of it. It’ll make a glorious floating base for our exploration of the Beanstalk!”

Of course!

Irinus resolutely clamped on tendril onto another, and seemed eager. Yes, to tame a mountain!

“Sound plan—a forward base is a good base. I suppose I should leave you to your work; I would be little other use than a pair of extra hands....or a decent shot.” She admits, somewhat sheepishly. It’s the first time she’s been unbalanced since the crash, like being unused is some great anathema to her being.

So she does just that, and makes herself useful.

“Holler if you require my aid, wise one. The beanfolk look like they could use a strong hand in carrying and securing their resources. I can help there.”

And off she starts, hoping her able body might surpass her odd appearance if she’s a helpful sort.

Xeno listens and then thinks. Poking and prodding a few nodules upon its self it says.

"I have a device that will transmit to one I choose should my lifesigns cease that I am down. I also have one that will cause damage to any who strike me for a period of time. and I have one that can project a large hand at a far range and grab upon my target. are these useful or do you wish me to build something?"

In reply to Irinus (msg # 233):

“What are you prattling on about? *Everybody*’s needed if we want to finish the Chatton by tomorrow, girl! Come along now,” and he waved them back towards the projects shed.

So, to build the Chatton of Inquiry (Mk I), we need to succeed at 5 crafting tasks of difficulty 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Each attempt uses up half-a-day -- of which I figure 2 are left today if we finish a bit late.

Let’s each pick one of the five tasks for the first round and see what that gives us? We do have a plan, so each task is Eased.

Fraksel looked about and then started on... the most challenging/interesting bit, of course: welding the complex frame that would tame and then focus the quantium boxe’s energies into the desired time-dimensions!

Round 1: Taking on the L5 task
20:29, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 17 using 1d20.  Quantium shmantium with Plan and Effort.

Zijan sighed internally.  The twins would have been a good help in figuring out how to maximize the water reserves or getting everyone's goods and even structures out of the way.  For certain they would have had some interesting ideas.  Hopefully she might be able to find where they had wandered off to a little bit later.

"Then please show me where we are putting the water reserves for now.  Perhaps we can come up with a more capacious way of storage or better way of getting the water to a storage place.  We should also ask around if anyone has any cyphers stored that could be of use.  There are some that make walls or hole or transmute substances that could be useful, but we won't know if anyone has such things unless we ask!" Zijan says.

In reply to Zijan (msg # 236):

“Ah! And here I thought Master Fraksel M’ba needed no aid!” she chortles. But of course, it made sense; many of her brethren that crafted hosted workshops with helping hands to finish their projects. It all seemed so obvious in hindsight.


She picks up some of that hard-worked-for wood, and begins shaping it to form, her hands moving with purpose.

Crafting task 4— 11:48, Today: Irinus rolled 20 using 1d20.  Aid from plan.

She is confident in her work as she goes about it, the wood seeming to sing to her as she worked it.

Major Effect! How about the wood used for the project picks up some of Irinus’ Void energy, and is made more supple, light, yet hard as steel, and grants an easement when firing?

“Even data Gods need help... sometimes,” grumbled back the grumpy one...

I'll allow that. Nice roll!

Xeno wanders over to the materials and starts tinkering and following the diagram of the item that fraksel wanted created. As he works blurbs and worbles sound from his carapace as if he were humming to him self.

02:09, Today: Xeno Bio-EX rolled 17 using 1d20 ((17)) crafting task level 3

Fraksel began work on the elastic core of their slingshot, melting, evaporating and then coating a string with multiple layers of steaming plas vapours...

Round 2! Fraser takes on the L2 task, with Plan and effort = auto-success

One L1 task left to go!

Following Fraksel’s lead, Irinus takes the finished polymer string, the void-strengthened wood, the quantium applicator, and the steel bow and crank, and begins the final assembly.

11:42, Today: Irinus rolled 2 using 1d20.  Plan and Effort cancels Inability—Crafting.

But somehow, she manages to turn the torque winch backwards, and the string limply flubs forward, the tension obviously not set in the slightest.

“Ah, the the prior worlds with you!” She screeches in frustration. “X.3.N.0., Fraksel, how might this actually go together? She thought she followed the plans.....”

The old man reached-in with metal fingers and uncorked a bind in the line.

And just like that the entire thing unwound into the perfection of the dying of the sun over the horizon!

You actually got it on the first try, Irinus. L1 difficulty + 1 inability - 1 plan - 1 effort = a L0 task!

"Mostly we have been stocking water reserves alongside the buildings the residents reside in. So far we have only come up with a little less than a few days' worth per household. Now let me see if we can find any cyphers that might help your cause. Detlun should be able to determine what we have throughout the town."

Over the course of the week while the installation is being created, Etra has the townsfolk round up what cyphers there may be about town, with Detlun's help in discerning what are viable cyphers.

Detlun returns in a couple of days with a report for Zijan:

"I'm not sure you would be able to make use of what we have. I found five cyphers about town; a spatial distorter to help make a person harder to see during an attack, a device that can instantly create damaging  balls of hail, a cypher that creates a wall of complex fluid to defend against out of phase attackers, an item that causes extreme nausea, and an oculus that helps target an enemy more effectively. I'm sorry I wasn't able to find anything that would be more useful."

On the morning of the third day, Fraksel stood at the base of the Beanstalk, hands behind back, watching as the yellows and reds of dawn slowly - sloowly - blazed their way down the titanic structure.

Next to him, on a small table dragged there just for that, rested the completed Chatton of Inquiry...

Irinus rose early, likewise watched the sunrise, eager to see the device she helped create function. She still felt a bit embarrassed over the misstep, but likewise felt pride in helping the nano wizard build a concept to reality. She was eager to explore this new horizon with those three who helped her.

Speaking of new horizons: “The Game of Possibilities.” Fraksel suddenly declared before dramatically lifting a squarish finger: "How - do - these boulders - fly...?"

He then explained the rules to the two newcomers: One guess or theory per person; your guess should be as different from what came before as possible. Whoever ends up guessing closest wins a favor of his or her choosing.

“Zijan guessed some energy from the Beanstalk sustains them. While *I* have bet it all on ‘they are laced with counter-gravity ore’!" A pause... "Hunter-girl?”


Or Xeno should he happen to answer first, of course :)

The hulk that was Xeno turns to fraksels inquiry.

"How might the rocks fly? or rather float? Hm. it could be achieved via a mechanical and scientific engine inside the boulder itself creating a field of null gravity. or there could be some mechanism higher up creating a reverse gravity field but maintaining the stationary placement at a certain height depending upon the size of the rocks. something could be deteriating or have malfunctioned causing this said rock to slowly lose its place."

“Only one guess per person, Hulk,” tutted the whiskered old man, before brightening. “Meaning you get the Rock Engine theory. I rather *like* that one! Much easier to ziim and zom about with our own little built-in levitator... Tentacle girl?”

She seemed lost in thought, really trying to think of how this mountain of a boulder might float. A flash of inspiration comes to her candidly enough at the second prompting with an audible gasp.

“She thinks this probably is supported by synthesis—while the stone may be laden or charged naturally with gravity-based properties....So, too, must the Beanstalk. Irinus believes they are conjunctive; they play off each other’s fields, likely by some Numenera, an amplifier or maybe, an energy-field tether? My guess is Ore *plus* Device equals Levitation.”

“So synergy it is for our fourth! Hu... So nobody went for temporal stasis or multi-dimensional anchoring, hm?” puzzled Fraksel, rubbing into his whitish beard. “Surprising, really... And now, comrades! Who wants to claim the honor of the very first shot?” He reverently picked up their Chatton and presented it on both mechanical palms.

Irinus fights her glee back a bit as she reaches out for the weapon.

“Let our Voidsong entwine then.”

She rests on her haunches for a moment, peering at the spot Fraksel estimated was ideal for the shot. Her tendrils writhed about the Chatton’s stock, searching for the energy she laid to rest within it. With aggressive confidence, she squares up, focusing on nothing but the shot, maximizing the effort of her huntsman training.


16:57, Today: Irinus rolled 20 using 1d20

Fraksel watched as the projectile slammed directly into the boulder and seemed to just stick there, fully embedded…

Closing his open mouth with a snap, the old man grumbled: “Yes. Well. That… Well shot, girl. I suppose - Uhum - A fine reference point for Deltun’s observations, that’s for sure. *But* we wanted to know if the space around our little mountain had any distortions, didn't we? Try again. (Above, below and to the sides,)” he specified in a lower voice, just for her.

He leaned forward, eyes eager, heartbeat speeding up the slightest amount with the anticipation of upcoming discoveries: was there a field-effect propping up their future base? Was it uniform or directional? Was that weird ‘embedding’ their first taste of the strangeness ahead, or of the strangeness standing at his side?

Soon, they might know!


I figure we just repeat until we get the shots we want? Does the trajectory and behaviour of any of them show signs of outside influence, Ninth World? (Fraksel will also  examine some of the spent projectiles, see if their nearness to the boulder changed them in some way)

Each of the volleys flies near the giant boulder, following an anticipated trajectory based on the aim. None of the projectiles appear to change paths or are unduly influenced in their flight in any way.

As Fraksel investigates the spent projectiles he finds they have maintained their shape and structure, save any damage from their impact back to the ground. Nothing seems to have changed or altered them during their passing of the boulder.

“Oho. A severe blow against gravitational theory, I think – Yes, I really do think,” Fraksel exclaimed as he smoothed the white of his beard.

He went to investigate some of the spent projectiles. “Magnetism isn’t looking too good either.” He looked back at the others with a wide smile: “We might be dealing with something truly strange!”

“So now that we know we won’t be torn to pieces (always reassuring, that), who wants to have the honor of flying up there?” From a robe pocket he proudly produced the cobbled-together piece of tech he’d shown Lym and Limen before: the Dimensional Whistle! It was wrapped around a changing, iridescent crystal, bit smaller than his thumb. “I’ll play you youngsters for it.”

The old inventor's eyes were bright, almost... challenging: after two whole days of preparations, he wasn't going to let this blue-steel opportunity for adventure go so easily.

He held up a closed fist before him...

Rock-Paper-Scissor, ninth world style:
Drit beats/burries monolyth
Monolyth beats/controls Iron wind
Iron wind beats/transforms drit

Fraksel has already posted his play in a private message to DM, so... your turn to choose!

Irinus was stunned—-she was certain she had that shot, dead to rights. In her reflections, though, she soon sprang back; the shot was perfect, but the target was more complex than initially thought.

“Ok, Fraksel, She will play this game!”

My choice has been sent.

The nano looked to the side: “Zijan?”

(From what he’d seen before, Xeno was probably *way* too big for his little dimensional trinket.)

The stiff-bearded old man raised the weird contraption up to his lips and blew into it -- rushing air morphing into a shrill cry that rose towards the Stalk...

And then the blue crystal started keening in harmonic reply!

Zijan had been a little disappointed that there had been no particularly useful cyphers in town for what the people needed to do, but the ancients had not left things lying about in any convenient order or coherent fashion.  Instead Zijan just aided the rest of the townsfolk in storing water and moving their belongings in the most efficient manner she could until Fraksel's excitement about his invention had reached the fever pitch that meant it was ready (or he was about to blow something up; some days it was a toss-up about what would happen).

When he had wanted chance to decide who would go up first, Zijan demurred.

"By all means, I shall let one of you who worked so diligently go up first!  Besides, if something numenera-ish is required atop the boulder, I would not be the best choice to land first!  But I shall certainly go up second," she says, and stands back to make room for the first catapult to the upper regions of the Beanstalk...

“No sense of adventure, Zijan?” Irinus coyly prodded. Of course, she knew better; the woman’s gifts were better suited to society than scavenging.

“This one says, Fraksel should go first; he is the theorist, and scientist, and should danger come his way, he has answers for it. We can work on the ground to secure a reliable way to travel without flight after he’s there.”

But after the last days, Irinus doubted it would be so simple...

The old man spread his wings wide. Bunching his legs he bounded into the cloud-speckled blue with what could only be described as a mad, triumphant cackle.

“Fliiiight!”

12:56, Today: Fraksel M'ba rolled 83 using 7d20 with rolls of 2,2,12,19,20,10,18.  On foreign winds.
Bit of a difficulty getting off the ground, but then that 19 and 20!
Planning to circle the Boulder once (anything of note?) and then land on top with a flourish (fingers crossed)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:02, Thu 28 Mar 2019.

As Fraksel is able to reach the height of the great boulder he finds it is deceptively larger than appears from the ground. It is large enough to easily crush half a dozen buildings were it to suddenly drop from the sky.

Fraksel can see the fungus that has been rumored to grow at the bottom of the boulder. It is blue green in color with patchy growth along the underside. As he ascends he sees a few holes bored into the side of the great boulder, each about the size of an average window in an average building.

He reaches the top easily, landing on the flattened point of the boulder steadily. He can see the other boulders floating at various heights around the beanstalk, with none of them within close enough distance to possibly jump from one to the other. Though it is hard to discern from the distance he cannot readily see any similar holes in the other boulders.

If possible while flying, Scan esotery on one of the windows as he goes by, please; then on the boulder itself once he's landed on it.

Um… Folding his wings down like a great cape so they didn’t accidentally catch in the wind, the old inventor crawled as close to the rocky edge as he dared. (Peering down from up here, the ground seemed *a lot* farther than going up!)

“AH… TRY FIRING UP THE CABLING WILL YOU!” he called to the tiny specks of his comrades.

Hauling up the Ascender Mk 0 was *bound* to be easier that trying to fly he whole thing up here!

During his flight Fraksel scanned one of the openings on the boulder. His scan was able to reveal that the openings did extend further into the rock and continued beyond the range of his scan ability. Nothing further could be determined from the scan as to the purpose or function of the holes and if there was anything beyond the area he could scan.

Once standing upon the gigiantic rock his scan revealed that it was just rock, albeit a floating one.

While waiting for an answer, his brown eyes travelled over his surroundings with sharp-edged curiosity...

What does the top of the boulder look like? Any major veining (metallic or otherwise) in the rock itself? signs of something shaped by intelligent hands (straight lines, flat surfaces, writting)? something not made of rock or made from a different kind of rock?

Irony’s hear’s the bleating angry cry from the nano, and after winching the cable back up, she takes aim, carefully trying to account for wind, and the odd trajectory of the flight path. In truth, she aims as close to Fraksel as she possibly could, hoping that a near-miss would allow the nano the ability to secure the rope.

“HERE IT CONES, M’BA!” She bellows, and softly pulls the trigger.

Today: Irinus rolled 14 using 1d20. Asset from _Chatton of Inquiry_

“ABOUT TIME!” The old man prepared to reach out with either - or both - of his bulky metal hands.

*SWIiiiing* went the cabling.

*SNAG*

He set about hauling it up hand over hand, taking breaks when he got too winded... Conquering the Beanstalk was hard work!


Haul it up, fix it in place (using Breaking stuff and Irinus' bolt as assets), and then the others can ascend up to him! (Let me know if he needs to roll for anything in there NW)