Fief Name: The Pit.

Fief Purpose: Mining.

Fief Layout: The fief is divided into two main sectors. The first is known as “The Cube”, a giant stone building that covers the southern area of the Castle. On the exterior, its surface is unnaturally pristine, seemingly unaffected by the erosion of the wind. It connects to the walls that lead to the Storm and Dead towers at an entrance that lays at the center of the respective walls of the cube. If one were to cross from either of those, they will find themselves staring at the second sector: The Pit. A seemingly bottomless pit that extends far below what the eye can see. Crossing between the walls of the pit, one may find a multitude of walkways and rough constructions set hanging in the air. The inhabitants of this wing know the whole of these as the Hanging City.
Down the pit, several artificially made tunnels branch out, where the miners extract the treasures the earth has to offer, and through a complex lift system they send it up to the upper levels to be later shipped to the other fiefs that may need them.

Fief Servants: The whole wing is populated by golems. They are divided into two castes with no physical differences: the Miners, who are in charge of extracting stone, metals and gems from the Pit and sending it upwards to the Cube; and the Senders, whose job is to collect all the materials received from the Pit and redistribute it to the rest of the castle.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:24, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

Domonokos stood at the edge of The Pit and stared at the abyss below. A quote from earth came to him as he did that, but he couldn't quite remember who had said it.

His fief was a strange one, he thought. Despite he knew for a fact it did not exist until mere moments ago, it seemed to be not only populated by some diligent golem workers, but they seemed to have been performing their mining job since before the fief itself was created. Domonokos even suspected that The Pit itself might be their creation.

He was startled away from his thought process by the whirring of the elevator that reached his level, a minecart full to the brim with what looked like regular stone on it by it's lonesome. An Sender, one of the golems that populated the edge of the Pit, gently pushed Domonokos to the side, grabbing the minecart and dragging it to some unknown location.

"So this is mine, huh"

Having looked at his own stats (he wasn't quite sure how he pulled it off, but he had definitely done that somehow), Domonokos extended his hand towards a rock that was resting against one of the inner walls of The Cube.

"Erode" he commanded, and the rock obeyed, being reduced to dust in mere moments. If anything, this was going to be interesting.

OOC: Using [Grave Magic] against a common rock

The rock became dust, but not all at once. The rock was chiefly feldspar, but there were - there were so many bits of other minerals mixed up in just that one common rock, and he could tell because different minerals eroded at slightly different speeds.

He was quite adept at this magic already, to have such a fine sense for it.

Seeing as the rock slowly became dust, it took a minute for Domonokos to understand what was happening. It seemed like the variety of minerals that the Pit could provide was bound to be useful, so he set two tasks in his mind.

First, he would need to travel to the other fiefs, and figure out who there could make use of the materials that were so rich in his own fief.

And second, while the golems were diligent in their work, they didn't seem fine-tuned enough to separate the minerals in a way that they could be best harnessed.

There was a lot of experimentation to do aswell, to test his own limits and those of the area he ruled over. He felt a thrill that he hadn't felt for a while, even back when he was Dorival. There was a word of possibilities in front of them, and seeking his own path in it was exhilarating. So, he set to the task.

Selecting a similar rock from nearby, Domonkos pointed at it with a bit more intention that wanton destruction, and casted his [Grave Magic]. He intended to erode the rock but stop once it had been reduced to the most resistant materials. This wasn't precise enough, so the remaining product would likely be severely damaged unless his [Intuition] was good enough to spare some of the product, so he could take a perfect sample of the material with him to the others' realms.

Next on the schedule: his servants. He had several questions about the nature of the golems, and he planned to clear a few. First, he selected a Miner and a Sender, and took them apart from their group. He examined them thoroughly for any differences using [Appraisal]. Then, he commanded both of them to step out of the boundary of his fief, to see if they were tied to it or could wander to other realms. If they could leave, perhaps he could trade the diligent and tireless golems for servants better suited to work on classifying and separating the minerals.

The rock collapsed into gravel, then dust, leaving behind a bit of iron powder. He wasn't an expert, but the rocks seemed to be granite; appraisal told him the rock had been mostly potassium and magnesium feldspars of varying types, with a small amount of iron and trace minerals.

The golems were just . . . quarrying stone, not mining for any particular mineral. They would require direction for that.

The golems differed only in their assigned duties; a Miner and a Sender were identical, that aside.

The golems easily left the fief, and then returned. They were not bound to his fief, specifically.

Domonkos nodded as each test seemed to yield the expected results. However, he was pleasantly surprised when the golems showed that they could roam outside of his fief. Since they were automatons, he didn't expect them to be able to do much on their own outside the walls of The Cube, but that opened the possibility of exchanging servants with other fiefdoms or even expanding The Pit beyond the walls.

Having satisfied his curiosity for the moment, Domonkos pulverized a few more granite rocks into iron dust, collected it and commanded the two golems he had been experimenting with to follow him, and left the confines of The Cube to learn if the other fiefs would have any want or need for the minerals that The Pit could provide. The first stop, as it seemed the most likely candidate, were The Ratworks.

[Heading to The Ratworks]

[From The Ratworks]

Back into his fief, the first thing Domonkos did was command the two golems he had taken for a walk to return to work. He then stared back at The Pit again, the darkness broken only by the motes of light that the golems had set up inside each tunnel branching out of it.

"Well, guess I should stop speculating and see what you actually hold for myself".

Taking a nearby lift, Domonkos started decending to the depths below, to see how far it went and what kind of minerals did The Pit hold on it's different levels.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:25, Fri 16 Sept 2022.

[From: The Ratworks]

Euphoria followed Domonkos from the Ratworks, lurred by the promise of metals to feast on and thoughts to banish. Thinking too hard - especially of terrible, stressful things - was not good for her. It wasn't good for anyone, but few achieved the single-minded bliss with which she lived her life, so these new found worries were disterbing to her indeed.

"Have you though about what sort of servants you are looking for?" she asked, following the Prince of Relics onto the lift. She couldn't imagine anyone's feifdom was deeper or colder than her's but his was certainly a contender as they decended. Though he probably didn't see it that way. "All mine will probably be best for guarding and hunting and telling shitty riddles." At least that was her slim experience with them.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:24, Sat 17 Sept 2022.

They designed into the pit on a curious kind of lift, operated by depressing a central switch and recalled by throwing a lever.

When they reached the terminus of the first lift, they came to the entrance of the active mining shaft. Some golems could be heard mining deeper on, while others pulled carts full of ore out of them to be deposited into specialized crane-lifts that lifted the carts up and out of the central shaft back on to rails on the surface.

The "Pit" went far, far deeper still, but as of yet more lifts and platforms to go deeper had not been constructed.

As they walked through the mineshaft, Domonokos was looking around, examining the rock formations of its walls.

"My current priority is builders and servants capable of refining the raw materials my golems mine into something more useful"

By combining [Appraisal] and [Grave Magic], Domonokos worked through the walls trying to find something different from what he had seen so far from the granite rocks.

"That said, I plan to build a vault eventually, to hold the treasures of The Pit. Your riddlers may come in handy then."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:59, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

Euphoria followed closely behind Domonkos, behaving herself (generally) and not touching anything (mostly). "Well, if you don't need anyone yet, you know where to find me. I would set your own riddle, if I were you, though," she warned. "The one I passed earlier was mega annoying." And hard. She hadn't been able to solve the riddle, and though she was the lord of her fief, and could have probably ordered her way through, she was so embarrassed and pissed off she stomped away in a different direction.

"Hey, I know that I asked you for some metal to chew on, but I actually have a more specific request for you. Haloise needs Khamrabaevite for this plan of her's. Can you find some? I'll give you double riddle doors for it. Just say the word."

In the middle of their conversation, Euphoria felt the pull of several conversations at once: the one in the hearth and the silent one she was nearly always carrying on with Haloise. "Something... is going wrong. At the Ratworks and the front gates... maybe?" She held her head like it was suffering from a splitting headache. Was it just the result of trying to juggle too many conversations at once? Her mind was not well equiped for being so frazzled and fractured. "Aaaah fuck," she cursed. "I don't know what to do!" she screeched.

Then she turned her blazing eyes on Domonkos. The other him asked her a question. "You can come with me, if you want, but I don't know yet where I'm going. Actually, I think I do. Either way, we need to get to the Golden Artery, pronto! I want to see if I can open a backdoor out of here..."

Euphoria tried to focus on the dank wall in front of them and imagined a mouth into a darker, deeper cavern. She wasn't even sure if it worked this way, but she had just sort of found herself in the Ratworks last time she willed it. Would the same only work while already in her domain? Or was it possible to open a new door she and Domonkos could escape through?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Tue 20 Sept 2022.

Lyngel Lajos

A crack in the wall widened into a passage, and deeper within the passage took on the characteristic aesthetic of the Golden Artery.

[-> Golden Artery ->]

As Domonkos reached out to the Pit, the Pit reached back out to him. He could feel the veins of a thousand ores that stretched throughout the pit. The Pit held everything; it was only a matter of how long and how deep he would need to mine. As it was, in this passage alone he found useful veins of cassiterite and skutterudite.

"I can find it, I'm positive it's somewhere in here. How long it would take me to find it is another matter."

Getting ready to follow Lyngel-Lajos, Domonkos commanded two nearby golems to start mining the cassiterite and skutterudite veins. He had no knowledge about the properties of this metals (or minerals?), but it seemed like a good idea to have them be taken to the Cube for further inspection later on.

"That's convenient. Guess we don't need to walk all the way to your fief then"

If Lyngel stepped through, Domonkos would follow

Euphoria was only somewhat in awe that willing a path to open worked. That was good news, and not just because it meant she and Domonokos didn't have to walk through the palace to get to their destination. It meant all the other fiefs were her's to enter, whether she was invited or not. Normally, not a boon she'd take advantage of, but under today's stressful circumstances, it was a blessing.

"I appreciate your help, Domonkos. It kinda sounds like this new Sysling guy is confused," she said, feeling bad for the mechanical spider. Waking up in this world was stressful enough without thinking you were immediately in danger. Of being eaten, nonetheless. "Not sure if I'd call it bad news that you probably won't get to see a Ghost-Eater up close but... you know," and she smiled nervously. Sweat dripped from her brow. Had opening the door been difficult? Or was she just stressed out? "But you're still welcome to come with me, check out what's going on. We actually might need your help in the Ratworks..."

Of course, she didn't need to give him permission. He was already following her through the door and into the Golden Artery.

[To: The Golden Artery]
This message was last edited by the player at 22:08, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

The golems began the work of excavating the newly identified ore veins.

[Continue posting in the Golden Artery.]