After dinner concluded (the soup was delicious), Hunger stalked over to the Armament, Ring brimming with light. Slowly he ran his hand against the monstrosity's right shoulder-face, which in power-conserving mode slept ceaselessly through night and day. Verschlengorge's main head flicked open an eye, staring down with benevolent menace. It had a certain facility for making the most threatening expressions feel protective.
benevolent menace sounds pretty weird.
"He's not a dog, you know!" Letrizia came around his side, hands folded behind her. Her hair had, oddly, reverted to its natural shade. "You don't need to pet him to make him work!"
"Is that what dogs are to you? Just workers?"
"Huh?" She turned to face him, eyes wide. "Aren't they used in low-technology worlds to detect contraband?"
Letrizia, you're missing the point of pets!
Though I suppose you probably have something like improved tamagotchi and/or robot-pet instead... I'm not sure if I should think that's sad, or not.
"On Earth we kept them as pets. On my second world as well. Hmph. I say 'we,' but I don't think I ever had one. Civilization, human society did."
"Ah. I think most people these days use synthoids or virtual pets. Natural-born pets can't compete with their cuteness! Plus, it's less cruel than keeping natural organisms in a human-optimized environment. No need to forcibly neuter them in order to control the population."
"...Are you looking down on my barbaric ways?"
"Well, you're a product of your times. I suppose it's forgivable."
...when you put it that way... 😅
And yeah, that's a pretty good way of thinking about it. After all, as they say, "The past is a foreign country". Better not to apply modern ethics and morality to it, it just doesn't work.
Also I'm probably taking this a bit too seriously
"Or perhaps, somewhere along the line your civilization lost its way. Speaking of which, I'm trying to fix Verschlengorge's navigational system. You said it's Foremost technology, so it should be in its biologicals, correct?"
"Probably..." She leaned forward sternly. "Though I'm beginning to wonder if it's simply a function of his Rank. You're naturally able to navigate the Voyaging Realm yourself."
"May be. Still, four heads are better than one."
He began to circulate the equivalent of blood throughout the dizzyingly complex edifice beneath the Armament's skin. The head beneath his palm grunted discontentedly, shifting in its sleep.
healing attempt #1. Start!
"have to go out" pause...
I'm back to writing, only... 4 hours and a dinner later.
Ereadhihr. The Elder Implement. Though it had existed for eons of war, there was not so much as a scar or imperfection within the fantastically dense bio-circuitry of the Armament's body. Physical wounds existed, but what had healed had done so perfectly. Still, in some grimly intangible way he felt the weight of those eons as he communed with the creature, a legacy of savagery a billion times repeated, vigor and sheer heedless fury, the all-consuming urge to devour. So deep was the catalogue of its experiences that they'd been imprinted on its spiritual marrow, its very essence.
The Armament was no human veteran, whom war ground down to make hard and hollow. It was a being axiomatically designed for its purpose, and looked forward to battle and consumption with the invincible eagerness of deep instinct. To wade into chaos alongside its operator was its mission and inexhaustible purpose.
It could comprehend human minds, even feel compassion for their weakness and frailty, but that did not change the fundamental structure of its mind. A man could comprehend a beast, even feel pity for its misguided antics, without adopting the beast's values. So too with the Armament and its mortal operators. It was loyal to its pilot, and to its bonded Cursebearer, but understood that their minds were fundamentally alien to it.
Interesting insights into the Armament's nature.
He's sapient, but he's not
human. He doesn't have human valued or morality. It's a being born and bred for war, and while it can feel positive emotions, value its attachments, it's
bonds, to pilots and cursebearers... it's in a similar way to how a man can feel empathy for an animal. You like him, you value him, but you certainly do not share his priorities and values, and are often confused or disapproving of their behaviour.
It certainly makes sense for THIS Armament in particular. Verschle has the Decimator's Affliction. Not fighting means that he would have no way to mitigate it, which would slowly destroy everything around him, and once there wasn't enough to sustain him the curse would cannibalize him.
It's, in its most basic, a matter of survival.
It that sense it was not so different from the Forebear's Blade, or, presumably, even the synthoid pets Letrizia had commented upon. A tool created to fulfill a goal. He wondered what it was like, to enter the world with such unshakeable purpose.
eh. Good question. Humans are born with no real goal beyond survival and reproduction, and it's not even that rare for humans to go against these instinctual goals. We're purposeless machines in search of a goal, and if you put 3 humans together you could get 5 different possible goals, and 20 ways to achieve it!
The Armament's blood sang with amusement. It shifted its currents and eddies, directing circulation to a specific lobe within its primary head. Was that the navigational system he sought? He found that the structure of the lobe was oddly self-evident, as if its three-dimensional shape were itself a glyph in some instinctual Cursebearer language. It was a focusing organ for the application of Astral Rank towards spatial perception and manipulation. Not simply a tool for traversing the Voyaging Realm, but for positioning in spacetime as a whole.
He saw, too, that while the power of Blood could restore some functionality to the organ, there were hard limits to the work he could do without a much higher Rank. Technique alone was insufficient.
"The power of the Ring can repair some of it, but many capabilities remain locked," he said, frowning. "Still, we should be able to get around faster now. I'm curious how your technicians repair these organs. They seem to be well beyond the limits of human technology."
so... the higher our rank (our ring's power), the more we can heal it. Makes sense.
I wonder what will happen sooner, us reaching the Inner Sphere and getting the Armament repaired, or us becoming strong enough to repair it on our own?
Letrizia shrugged. "I think they use serums harvested from high-level Astral Beasts. For best efficiency, they have to be specially processed with Foremost artifacts. Verschlengorge can regenerate from eating enemies as well, but his effective Rank's too low to use that function right now."
mh... we have that +30% to rank growth now I think. A bit more rank, maybe ruling ring, and we could jumpstart him to the point he can heal itself..
He frowned. "Why is it that physical wounds can reduce its Rank at all? Typically you would need specialized attacks to do something like that. I could lose half my body and my Pressure would remain unaffected."
"Your guess is as good as mine! When he's at full strength, most injuries don't weaken his Pressure by much. But if you hurt him enough, I think he begins ablating Rank to preserve his fundamental structure. Unlike you, the Armament's not a complete person by itself. It was designed with a pilot in mind. Its astral shadow only exists because of its physical body, but it may be that high-grade Foremost technology can't exist in the physical world without some degree of support from Pressure. Kind of like how a black hole can't exist below a certain level of mass density. Since the two are co-dependent, it may have to sacrifice one side to shore up the other if catastrophic damage is taken."
short version: it uses the lost rank to preserve its fundamental abilities.
"How knowledgeable for a mere hobbyist."
"Hehe. It's important to be informed of things like this when you're entrusting your life to the device."
"How serious. You need a vacation."
"Hm? Not planning to head into the Temple tomorrow?"
"I can't, not in this state. I'll need a few days to integrate my new powers and see if I can fix my liver. This latest enemy gave me a lot of 'digest.' "
"You and Verschlengorge really are two peas in a pod. This swordsman seems to have made an impression on you. You don't usually talk about your foes."
"His name was Vanreir Amarlt. I had the sense he was fighting to protect someone dear to him. Most of the outriders carry more mercenary objectives."
"Amarlt?! Huh, to think some of them landed around here."
"Hm?"
He REALLY made an impression on Hunger. I'm a bit sad we didn't up taking him with inheritor. Long term we might even have been able to give him back a body, after all we'd have the most important bit (the soul) with us!
Then again we're already planning to resurrect all our lost friends in the VERY distant future, so what's stopping us from also doing the same for the "worthy" enemies we think didn't actually deserve to die?
Nothing is beyond a Cursebearer's power after all, given enough time. At some point even true resurrection will become a trivial thing to us, at least if the kill wasn't done through high-level conceptual annihilation of some kind. And even then, we just need an higher level of conceptual power.
Few things are truly absolute.
Also, we're about to learn a bit more about his family!
"They used to be a big deal in the Republic. The Republic makes a fuss about not recognizing noble titles, but they're an oligarchy whose upper ranks are still filled with the high nobility. The Amarlt family used to command Procyon, the Plenary Armament, but fell from power a few centuries ago. Procyon's actually stationed here in the Voyaging Realm right now!" She went quiet, perhaps remembering that the pilot - likely a friend - could well have betrayed her.
FINALLY!
CONFIRMATION THAT DIFFERENT ARMAMENTS COME WITH DIFFERENT CURSES!
..mh.. the plenary armament seems like a relatively easy one to deal with (in terms of curse management). You simply have to keep him mostly isolated from other people, and be carefull not to expose the same beings to it too many times.
Dealing with the natural strenghtening of the curse might be a problem though... I wonder how they deal with that. Maybe it grows slowly enough that it doesn't really matter, or that they can somehow keep up with the mitigation attempts?
He coughed. "No match for you, I take it."
"Of course not! ...So, why've you decided you need a vacation?"
"I'd like to see the sights now that we're here," he deadpanned. "We're planning to overthrow their civilization, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves in the vicinity. And now that your Armament's spatial organ is fixed, we can do just that. Anything in particular you'd like to do?"
"It'd be nice if we could recruit some mages... dangerous, though. I'd love to see some of the more exotic parts of the Voyaging Realm! The farmlands we passed through on our way here were beautiful, but a bit plain."
Yeah, we could definitely use a few mages, though it heavily depends on what magic systems they know
"How does that work, exactly? I'm surprised your civilization hasn't made a concerted effort to extract every mage they can from this place, especially if you don't have native magicians."
...that's a surprisingly valid question. I'd definitely want to take and develop as many magic systems for my space empire as possible after all, especially if they synergize well with each other.
At the very least I'd want to try and catalogue them, and hire a few mages from the most promising ones to teach my people!
"Ah, well... it was tried. The Voyaging Realm will tolerate some level of exploitation, but industrial-scale extraction of magics leads it to act out in increasingly apocalyptic ways... these days we're mostly limited to those mages that find their way to our City, and even then half the magics only work inside the Realm itself. There are unsanctioned efforts to extract more, the Republic especially deploys strike teams for that purpose, but the casualty rates are horrific. It's frequently a death sentence even if you succeed."
..interesting.
And yet, wouldn't just bringing a few mages back (with a decent collection of books) be enough to at least
start to build a magic school?
Of course not all systems can really be taught that easily... take Gisena's findross. She can't really
teach it. OR Astral Rank, that's mostly gained in battle. Some systems are probably simply innate, and can be taught at all to the people outside the Voyaging realms..
Or even standard d&d arcane magic. At low levels it would be thoroughly unimpressive, especially in a sci-fy setting, and the high levels are very hard to reach, and can't really be taught conventionally beyond a certain point... It would require massive investments to
artificially power level a mage, even assuming simply having him kill monsters for exp would work in a
realistic setting.
"Let's hope you aren't doomed for bringing two such mages outside the Realm, then. Gisena's findross is self-contained, so she should be alright. As for me..."
"You shouldn't even qualify, Lord Hunger! You only have an unusually high Astral Rank, which the Foremost themselves were theorized to exhibit in select individuals. That's hardly magecraft. And, while you're able to efficiently channel that Rank through your artifacts in unusually reliable ways, in principle that's no different from an Armament's Shroud-derived unique abilities."
...If we took Philosopher's wreath or Inheritor would it have been different? Usually I'd say that, as Cursebearers, we probably wouldn't count, but then again... Apocryphal.
"Why do I feel vaguely insulted? And just 'Hunger' is fine, Letrizia, we've talked about this."
"Hey, the path of magecraft is not for everyone! Wouldn't it interfere with your teamwork alongside Miss Gisena?"
"Just you wait. And here I was going to teach you magic once I'd acquired some."
"W-who'd want to learn magic from you? I'd much prefer Miss Gisena as a teacher."
"Good, that's one thing taken care of. We set out first thing in the morning."
"Hmph. I'll become the best sorcerous apprentice ever! That'll show you!"
"Yes, show me up. We could use the firepower."
---
Joke's on you, Letrizia! You can't teach Gisena's sorcery!
..well, you can't teach the STANDARD version at least. Gisena DID just improve upon it...
The winners are [X] Vigor Itself and [X] Vacation. How well could Hunger heal Verschlengorge via its circulatory system alone?
Vigor itself, uh? I suppose we can use the charisma, though I think I would have spent the 2 arete for Exalted Spirit instead, which also buffed our allies a bit.
Also we're going on a vacation! yay!
[ ] To Rank 4.5
50% chance of basic encounters
50% chance of modestly productive encounters
[ ] To Rank 5.25 - Req. 2 Arete
50% chance of productive encounters
30% chance of moderately challenging encounters
20% chance of significantly challenging encounters
[ ] To Rank 5.75 - Req. 2 Arete, -1 future pick
50% chance of moderately challenging encounters
30% chance of significantly challenging encounters
10% chance of overwhelming dangerous encounters
10% chance of major bonus (worth ~2 Arete)
Higher Ranks mean quicker travel time, stronger Astral Beasts and a more useful mech overall. Rank >5 enables Totality control method and potential access to more information.
mh... Totality control seems worth the 2 arete, and the 5.25 rank doesn't seem too bad.
On the other hand I AM really tempted by the Rank 5.75. Letrizia has been lagging behind after all. that 10% of Overwhelming dangerous encounter IS risky, but I'm sort of willing to take it.
What did they encounter on their attempted scenic escapade?
[ ] A Besieged Colony - This group of Imperial separatists, wishing to establish a colony in the Voyaging Realm for reasons of liberty and the likely vain hope of access to magic, founded a flourishing resort enclave around a natural hot springs. Carving out a space for themselves via plasma-fire and Armor Prototype, they've managed to survive for a few decades in this sometimes-harsh and often shifting land. Miraculously, magic has appeared among the new generation of children born in the Voyaging Realm, but alongside it a shadow has fallen over their colony, the titanic Rotbeast whose army of cadaverous spawn lays unending siege to their once-beautiful community.
*Encounter Difficulty: Moderate (if fighting spawn), Somewhat High (if directly attacking Rotbeast)
*Access to ruggedized Imperial Tech (moderately useful to Gisena and Letrizia, mostly useless for you), potential access to spellcasters, access to Elixir Springs.
*Elixir Springs: 70% chance of curing one Condition, 30% chance of curing two.
*~15% independent chance of a major bonus
This is a decent one. Not too risky, possibly cures our condition, possible access to another magic system (likely temporary, but who knows what they can do. Maybe they can do permanent buffs for example), some better weapons for Gisena (and tech to learn from...)
It even offers an alternative point of view on the Empire, which is nice.
Not too bad. Let's see the next one though.
[ ] A Wandering Magus - Something of a rarity, a lone wandering magician with which you've crossed paths. Enigmatic but cheerful, she's traveling to the Temple to investigate the death of her big sister, whom her prognostications say has departed this mortal coil. Her powers of divination are substantial, but her combat strength is lacking, or so she claims. She'll happily join you and help you breach the Temple if you assist in her investigations.
*Diplomatic Difficulty: Low, but Tyrant Proc possible (10-30%)
*Combat Difficulty: ???
*Foresight: Halves travel times, improves encounter effectiveness by 10-20% in all but a few scenarios. Will help you find an ideal vacation spot!
*Oracular Secrets: She may be willing to divest the techniques behind her lore-based magic, for a price. Goods of sufficient quantity and quality would suffice, or a period of contractual service.
This is interesting.. I wonder if we could have Gisena learn her magic as well? Or Letrizia?
Or both?
And if we could learn the basics without too much difficulty, combat progression could do the rest if we wanted it to.
[ ] A Republic Kill-Team - Surely this could only be a coincidence. Just as you and Letrizia were discussing the black ops extraction teams of the Republic, you encounter a badly ravaged force limping alongside the road, their Armor Prototypes charred and smoking from some recently unpleasant encounter. Wounded, weary, and far from resupply, nonetheless these represent very nearly the cutting-edge of human-scale combat capability in the Sphere. It would be unwise to provoke them.
*Diplomatic Difficulty: Medium, but Tyrant proc possible (10-20%)
*Combat Difficulty: Extreme. The group contains experimental-grade Armor Prototypes with effective Combat Rank 6.5, outfitted with bleeding-edge Astraltech augs and the finest armor-portable weaponry that modern science can produce. Crippled as they are, they would still be a formidable opponent... or irreplaceable ally.
*Bitchin': Hunger thinks these powered armors are cool and is more likely to enter negotiations with an amiable disposition. Letrizia remarks that Empire designs are cooler.
*Custody: The Kill-Team is "escorting" a hermetically sealed cocoon within which a magic user resides, "for their own protection."
*Aftermath: You're pretty sure operators like this come with nondisclosure warrants. Though you may work together for a time, they may turn their guns on you after the city is in sight, though Letrizia's not sure they would actually attack an Armament pilot...
Ok, so, in order.
The current limit of armor prototypes is rank 6.5
Letrizia is jealous because we're showing appreciation for their armors
Yeah, they're
escortin a mage.
Willingly, I'm certain... I suppose tyrant proc would be us asking to let us speak to him/her, and then saying no.
...Are we
sure Apocryphal is still sleeping? I suppose we wouldn't even have a chance of talking things out peacefully if it was active...
All things considered I'm not interested in them. I'd go with either the imperial separatists or the lone magus.
Probably the lone magus, a new magic system is worth more than some equipment and a chance of healing to me.
Thread participation has yielded a substantial bonus:
[ ] +1 pick at next spending point
[ ] 1 re-roll to be used on checks this update
[ ] +1 Arete, -10% Tyrant proc chance this update
I think I'd take the re-roll with the most difficult Verschle Rank option and magus. Other builds can obviously work as well obviously, but I'm mostly against the Republic.
