Remove ads

Abrogation (Steampunk)

Reader mode
For my own proposal, IC:

We need an Infinite, modular generator, easily scaled up or placed in tandem to meet all our future needs and desires, from the smallest ray gun to a massive warclank or even a personal airship. If we are to achieve our destiny and fly among the clouds then we need power. Power enough to defy gravity, power to shield us from all assailants, power to blast away the fools who dare stand in our way, power to propel our war machines to victory; power to rend reality itself, as Skybreaker's greatest flaw is that it has a limited charge. If we had enough power then in time we can make a larger Skybreaker as the primary weapon and tool for our flying fortress.

the sky is our dream, but what about the ground? A drill-diver as a mobile base, to bury us beneath the earth and harvest its riches for ourselves. It can even be self-modifying, capable of expanding itself with further weapons and additions as the need arises.
 
Last edited:
Undead Martyr said:
-spoilered-
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We need an Infinite, modular generator, easily scaled up or placed in tandem to meet all our future needs and desires, from the smallest ray gun to a massive warclank or even a personal airship. If we are to achieve our destiny and fly among the clouds then we need power. Power enough to defy gravity, power to shield us from all assailants, power to blast away the fools who dare stand in our way, power to propel our war machines to victory; power to rend reality itself, as Skybreaker's greatest flaw is that it has a limited charge. If we had enough power then in time we can make a larger Skybreaker as the primary weapon and tool for our flying fortress.

Energy compatibility.

You think Inspiration at least likes the basic idea, but you seem to have lost its attention fairly quickly. You're pretty sure it simply tuned out everything you said after that point.
 
Last edited:
@Alivaril Sorry, were my ideas too long or OOC to catch the attention of Inspiration? I'll try listing them more shortly
  • Bag of Holding
  • Luggage with multiple space-bending compartments and ability to walk around by itself and tackle/eat people it doesn't like
  • Antigrav platform
  • Mini pocket dimension
  • High-end self-fueling power supply. Native output would be for things like Skybreaker, since those will likely have the greatest consumption by far, but support for adapters might be useful. (EDITED thanks to Vebyast suggestion)
  • Cloaking field (light bending for camouflage/invisibility)
  • Null/'muffle' field (no energy/light transmission outwards)
  • Device to half-phase out of reality
  • Timestop/timeslow device. Preferably mobile, but being able to set down a field of slowed or stopped time would be good too.
  • Highpowered scanner. Able to detect unusual power signatures around us. Ideally, able to scan another Inspired's invention to identify weaknesses. Possibly upgrade with an AI to continuously scan our surroundings and be aware of any possible threats to us. Basic version may be installed into reconnaissance drone for stealthy infiltration.
  • Clockwork minions. Should be small enough to perform reconnaissance, able to fetch and carry, preferably enough dexterity to perform sabotage. Should have video/audio recording/transmitting capability to be used as spies. Preferably with some limited intelligence, or at least a form of remote control.
Is that better?
 
Last edited:
Our Muse seems to respond well ro music so lets try something a bit different.
If you have an idea how to improve this, please feel free to respond to my idea, I just had quickly put this together.

Oh muse recieve my plea
for to construct we seek
an engine mighty strong
of which no part is weak

an engine of renown
that turns unceesingly,
and runs unerringly
to drive us further on

the sky we want to reach
but for now we must demure
to build and build some more
until the parts we have each

assembled as best we can.


beauty of brass
a clockwork turns
infinite power
 
Okay, plan.

We make noise. In the middle of the night.

First, mechanisms. Void portals are void on both sides, which means that they're incredibly quiet in their stable state - the flow into any reasonably-sized void portal will be supersonic and any generated noise simply can't escape. There's a ton of compression, but it won't be particularly heterogenous or turbulent, so not much noise in the first place. There's a reasonable chance that stable void portals placed away from any obstacles are actually silent. However, that doesn't mean we're stuck. First, apparently tearing reality a new asshole is super loud. Second, void portals should only be silent in big open spaces; introducing obstacles will generate ridiculous turbulence. Good thing we have linked portals. Putting a void portal next to a linked portal, for example: Turbulence on the rims of the linked portals should yield an amazing amount of noise, and mixing between the jet coming out of side into void and the air falling into the void portal should make that side pretty noisy as well.

@Alivaril How good is Lorelei at dealing with loss of sleep? Taking into account that she could wake up when she wants to, scare the crap out of the entire camp, and then bugger off and go back to bed while they take an hour to recover from the adrenaline rusharound expecting to defend themselves from an attack, how much of a relative advantage would we gain by doing that once or twice?

Either way:

[x] If you think it'd help, use some smallish void portals to interrupt their sleep.
[x] Attack tomorrow morning. Ideally just before sunrise so you can use that to punctuate your Surge, but if they get up early you'll settle for interrupting their breakfast.
-[x] Announce yourself with a void portal in the sky. Not necessarily a big one, but you might as well start developing a trademark.
-[x] Try to keep 2.5 to 3 batteries available for use during your attack.


Kai Merah said:
Infinity power source (preferably modular). Possibly power crystals set into spider-bots to be used as interface/mobility and to prevent theft
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No need for this to be the same build. We can build clockworks any time, we only need a major surge for the power supply, so focus on that. There's no need to specify what kind of power supply, we can go back and forth with Inspiration on that. I also don't think we need that much modularity, since I imagine the majority of our super-high-consumption devices will require the same energies that Skybreaker needs. So I think that a more reasonable expression of this proposal would be like:
  • High-end self-fueling power supply. Native output would be for things like Skybreaker, since those will likely have the greatest consumption by far, but support for adapters might be useful.
Alivaril said:
Energy compatibility.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think that we might need a short explanation of what types of energy we can use. Clocks are obviously mechanical. Is Skybreaker aetheric or electrical? Or is it using electrical batteries and some kind of electric->aetheric generator the same way an electric motor is an adapter that converts electrical power to clockwork power?
 
Last edited:
Looks good. Let's get this show on the road!

[x] Vebyast
 
Kai Merah said:
@Alivaril Sorry, were my ideas too long or OOC to catch the attention of Inspiration? I'll try listing them more shortly
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
OOC: Actually, I didn't even realize they were meant to be actual proposals instead of just bleedover ideas / ones proposed to the thread. Usual colorcoding rules apply. (Yellow ideas are ones Inspiration seems to like, Green ones it seems to love, Red you don't have the materials for, blank either "no comment" or "meh."
Kai Merah said:
-Spoilered for easy quoting-
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
  • Hammerspace. This is what we most need so we can lug around parts and gear while staying mobile. Given we're getting more glider than fortress, we'll need somewhere to stash our stuff, meaning hammerspace. Possible ideas for how to get hammerspace: mini-pocket dimension (possible seed to full dimension of our own where we can build our stronghold), bag of holding / container that is bigger on the inside than it is outside (bonus if it comes with its own mobility/defence system, e.g. Rincewind's Luggage). If we are unable to do that kind of space-bending fuckery just yet, then at the bare minimum, an antigrav platform that we can drag around with us will do.
  • Infinity power source. We would want multiple of these, and they'd need to be modular like batteries so we could slot them into different projects as we liked. Ideally, they should come with their own defense mechanism to ensure they can't be stolen/scavenged from any future projects we have. Right now, I'm kind of picturing a power crystal set into a clockwork spider. The spider legs are the interface to fasten the power source into our project, but in autonomous mode, they can scurry around, be recalled back to us, and possibly shoot laser beams from the power crystal to deter thieves and saboteurs.
  • Cloaking field. Obvious utility. Possible methods: straightforward device that bends light around us. Device that phases us half a step out of reality so we're undetectable by normal means. Device that absorbs incoming energy to kind of 'muffle' our presence. Notice-me-not perception field.
  • Timeslow/timestop. Freeze time around us, or accelerate us to the point time around us looks frozen. Mobile device would be best, but merely being able to set up a field of slowed time would also be beneficial.
  • Highpowered scanner. Knowledge is power. Being able to scan our general vicinity for unusual power signatures as a bare minimum. Ideally, able to scan another Inspired's invention to identify weaknesses. Possibly upgrade with an AI to continuously scan our surroundings and be aware of any possible threats to us. Basic version may be installed into reconnaissance drone for stealthy infiltration.
  • With the above in mind: A set of tiny minions. Thinking something like Bonesaw's spiders, but clockwork and much less creepy. They should have basic intelligence and be able to do things like fetch things for us and possess some video/audio recording/transmitting capability to be used as spies. If basic intelligence is too difficult, maybe include some way of remote controlling them so they can be used as saboteurs as well.

Vebyast said:
@Alivaril How good is Lorelei at dealing with loss of sleep? Taking into account that she could wake up when she wants to, scare the crap out of the entire camp, and then bugger off and go back to bed while they take an hour to recover from the adrenaline rusharound expecting to defend themselves from an attack, how much of a relative advantage would we gain by doing that once or twice?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

She thinks she's pretty good, but is willing to admit her impulse control goes faaaar down the drain when she gets tired enough. This lack of control is pretty much universal among Inspired. She believes she could set up an easy clockwork "alarm" without even using a Surge, though.
 
Last edited:
I think what we really need is.

  • Forgeclock, a walking workshop able to do things like devour raw materials and seperate out the useful parts while everything else is either ejected (possibly at high speed for defence) or used as fuel for the machine itself and it's internal devices, it'll need internal and external mechadendrites with the internal ones being mostly tools while the external ones are grippers and harvesters.
 
Alivaril said:
Right now, I'm kind of picturing a power crystal set into a clockwork spider. The spider legs are the interface to fasten the power source into our project, but in autonomous mode, they can scurry around, be recalled back to us, and possibly shoot laser beams from the power crystal to deter thieves and saboteurs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Huh. Okay. I guess we're trying to demonstrate interesting projects, so "show not tell" is a thing to pay attention to?

Carrnage said:
Forgeclock, a walking workshop able to do things like devour raw materials and seperate out the useful parts while everything else is either ejected (possibly at high speed for defence) or used as fuel for the machine itself and it's internal devices, it'll need internal and external mechadendrites with the internal ones being mostly tools while the external ones are grippers and harvesters.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Giant boxy scorpion-pede. Tons of legs to minimize ground pressure and ensure all-terrain capability. Claws on the front for turning things into small scrap that's suitable for ingestion. Tail is a crane, for picking up bigger bits of wreckage to feed into the intake and to unload products after they're done. Slap on some shields, have some fabber blueprints on hand for various guns, you've got yourself a clockwork mecha-fatboy. Hardest part is probably going to be the fabricator; we'd need designs for things that can be produced without Inspiration around to tell physics that those parts can, in fact, be assembled without exploding.
 
Hmm. A pity that Inspiration-chan isn't interested in bags of holding or personal pocket dimensions. I really did want some way to carry all our stuff. On the bright side, at least she likes the spider-power-crystals and the half-phase concealment! I bet the spider-power-crystals can kind of work as minions too.

EDIT: Also, it's interesting that timestop is apparently something we do have the materials for, and something Inspiration-chan is at least interested in, if not loves.

EDIT2: Wait a minute. Vebyast previously suggested time-modification and we didn't have parts for it then. But we have parts for it now?

Alivaril said:
Time-rate modification
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited:
I've taken @Vebyast's plan and made some modifications, mostly the inclusion of falling rocks water from the sky, a dramatic entrance, and a good night's sleep.

[X] Plan Water from the Skies
-[X] Find a decent sized pond near the armies path of advance.
-[X] Use small Void Portals in the dark to interrupt their sleep. Make the void portals from fairly far away from camp, and don't portal to the same place twice or stay long while doing so, we have no idea where Smiley is and we don't want then to sneak up on us.
-[X] When day comes, open a portal in the sky and pour tons of water on the army.
-[X] Make a medium void portal in the sky, we should make this our trademark.
-[X] While the water is landing, make a portal in front of the army, attach our defensive device, step through and start our speech.
 
Last edited:
Sigil said:
-[X] When the army passes by, (We can track them by opening a small portal high in the sky and looking though) open portals in the sky and start dropping rocks. Try not to hit the supplies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There're going to be people near the supplies, and I'd like to hold a policy of not killing people that we don't have to. I'm also not sure we can do boulders very well; note that Skybreaker can't open portals underneath things and we don't have anything that'd let us exert the force to roll a boulder. Boulders will also be rare; IIRC we're in something approximating a dense central-european forest with no hills, which means no glaciers to have carried rocks down from the mountains and any that are here will be half-buried and have trees growing over them.
Sigil said:
and demand that they kneel.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'd rather leave this part to Lorelei.
Sigil said:
may as well give the mercenaries as little reason to fight as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think that we may need the Mercenaries to try to fight us. We may have a hard time inspiring a sufficiently strong belief in our invulnerability otherwise. You're also ignoring the Inspired.
Sigil said:
, and a good night's sleep.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We'll have a better night's sleep than the army or its Inspired, which is what I'm after. Lorelei might lose 2 minutes of sleep - portal over, void portal, portal out, go back to sleep. The army, Inspired included, will have to deploy to respond to a potential attack, then get back to sleep after the mother of all adrenaline rushes. There's not much that beats a midnight assault for OH SHIT factor. They'll be lucky to get back to sleep in under three hours.

I don't think that we need that advantage, but I do think that it'd be quite nice.
 
Last edited:
Vebyast said:
We'll have a better night's sleep than the army or its Inspired, which is what I'm after. Lorelei might lose 2 minutes of sleep - portal over, void portal, portal out, go back to sleep. The army, Inspired included, will have to deploy to respond to a potential attack, then get back to sleep after the mother of all adrenaline rushes. There's not much that beats a midnight assault for OH SHIT factor. They'll be lucky to get back to sleep in under three hours.

I don't think that we need that advantage, but I do think that it'd be quite nice.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It will also be hilarious. Which, frankly, is good enough reason to do it in my book, so long as it's not a stupid plan. Which this isn't. Also, agreed on not killing people unless necessary.

[x] Vebyast
 
Hmm. Assuming pond-drenching the army is possible... Although I'm not in favour of randomly splashing them before we attack (or letting the army start their march before we ambush them), it might be a good idea to do the drenching during our random night raids. After the second or third time we make a loud noise and nothing happens, they might start relaxing and ignoring it. Forcing them to wake up with a cold water shower sounds fun!

I wonder if they'll recognise the sound of the sky tearing when we're making noise to bother them at night. They'll probably try to look for us, and their Inspired may start working on something to counter us. If only we could disguise our night time bothering of them as something besides hostile enemy action...

Hey. Hey, instead of loud noises, why don't we open a few small portals and chuck torches at their supply tents/whatever is flammable? Theoretically, that could be accident, or the work of an actual saboteur who snuck into the camp. It's less obviously Inspired work than random creepy loud noises at night I think.
 
Don't underestimate thousands of kilo's of water moving at dozen's of meters per second as a harassing force.
I like the torches, do we have any oil from the warclocks? I bet that's pretty flammable.
Maybe go portals as noise, then inter-space fire, then after the fire is out, water everywhere!
 
  • Making a skybreaker portal and then BREAKING the portal, mixing the pieces into some kind of alloy or coating, in order to get a physical material with some of its properties.
  • Using either a portal or the above coating underneath a heavy structure to block or redirect gravitons, thus making it lighter.
  • Manipulate reality on a more abstract layer to make so that for a certain material or structural point of view, the earth does not exist, and thus cannot pull it down.
  • Instead of trying to make a tool to change the "phase" of stuff, maybe we could make a portal that is "phased" or "angled" relative reality, so that anything that passes through it will have altered effective properties as well. Basically, phase is just an offset, so if a portal is created with that offset so will anything emerging from it.
  • Instead of specifying "phasing" what about more generally considering altering a material or object such that it cannot interact with some specific substance or phenomena, or so that that substance or phenomena subjectively "doesn't exist".
  • It seem like the void portals already connected to something that can function as a pocket dimension, and this might be useful in more ways than we're using it. If we can open void portals that lead to the SAME space, and are near each other within that space, it could be useful as an actual space. Even better would be if we can open a void portal near an object previously sucked into the void to retrieve it, or open a portal to this world from inside the void in case we get sucked in; one would let us use it for storage, and the other would let us hide ourselves in it.
  • Would it be possible to alter the nature of a void portal to alter the nature of the space it opens into? Basically different "versions" of the void, that light be more suitable to actually doing stuff inside it.
  • Could we generate lift by simply removing the air above an object using a portal and generate differential pressure? Possibly using:
  • We should make a "frame" of some kind we can generate a portal inside, which'd do at least one and possibly both out of a) making it last longer, and b) making it able to move around with the frame instead of being pinned to space.
  • Either using a frame, or some kind of power source that can be attached to the back or side of a portal to recharge it, if we could keep portals stable longer we already have a way to store things in the sky, simply using a downwards facing portal as a platform.
  • An extension of the portal-as-platform idea, we could put hooks onto either such a big platform portal, or into several smaller portals, and suspend a larger structure from it using cables. By extending the cables, it could be lowered through another portal in order to move it, and then the hooks reattached to portals around that site.
  • Another variant of that idea in a fortress with large arms, that hook into and swing between small portals that it creates itself at the last moment, using motion patterns inspired by monkeys.
 
Vebyast said:
Setting fires I'm also very much not a fan of.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Can I ask why not? I wasn't thinking of setting fire to places people were actually sleeping, just supply tents and areas of the camp where not many people would be. The reasoning would be to make it less obvious that a malicious Inspired was targeting their camp. Anyone can throw a torch after all, whereas loud, weird noises sound a lot more like Inspired work.
 
Remove ads
Ideas Inspiration Likes, 3 of X
  • Informational
    • Right, sorry about the delay. Some things fell through the cracks yesterday.

    ArmokGoB said:
    • Making a skybreaker portal and then BREAKING the portal, mixing the pieces into some kind of alloy or coating, in order to get a physical material with some of its properties.
    • Using either a portal or the above coating underneath a heavy structure to block or redirect gravitons, thus making it lighter.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    OOC: These two were not asked for different reasons. The first, since Lorelei doesn't believe it would say good things about her self-preservation if she proposed tearing apart tears in reality. Two was due to no effective conversion to IC knowledge. The rest have been spoiler'd, save for the "inspired by monkeys" bit. Lorelei has never seen a monkey and does not know how they move.

    • Manipulate reality on a more abstract layer to make so that for a certain material or structural point of view, the earth does not exist, and thus cannot pull it down.
    • Instead of trying to make a tool to change the "phase" of stuff, maybe we could make a portal that is "phased" or "angled" relative reality, so that anything that passes through it will have altered effective properties as well. Basically, phase is just an offset, so if a portal is created with that offset so will anything emerging from it.
    • Instead of specifying "phasing" what about more generally considering altering a material or object such that it cannot interact with some specific substance or phenomena, or so that that substance or phenomena subjectively "doesn't exist".
    • It seem like the void portals already connected to something that can function as a pocket dimension, and this might be useful in more ways than we're using it. If we can open void portals that lead to the SAME space, and are near each other within that space, it could be useful as an actual space. Even better would be if we can open a void portal near an object previously sucked into the void to retrieve it, or open a portal to this world from inside the void in case we get sucked in; one would let us use it for storage, and the other would let us hide ourselves in it.
    • Would it be possible to alter the nature of a void portal to alter the nature of the space it opens into? Basically different "versions" of the void, that light be more suitable to actually doing stuff inside it.
    • Could we generate lift by simply removing the air above an object using a portal and generate differential pressure? Possibly using:
    • We should make a "frame" of some kind we can generate a portal inside, which'd do at least one and possibly both out of a) making it last longer, and b) making it able to move around with the frame instead of being pinned to space.
    • Either using a frame, or some kind of power source that can be attached to the back or side of a portal to recharge it, if we could keep portals stable longer we already have a way to store things in the sky, simply using a downwards facing portal as a platform.
    • An extension of the portal-as-platform idea, we could put hooks onto either such a big platform portal, or into several smaller portals, and suspend a larger structure from it using cables. By extending the cables, it could be lowered through another portal in order to move it, and then the hooks reattached to portals around that site.
    • Another variant of that idea in a fortress with large arms, that hook into and swing between small portals that it creates itself at the last moment, using motion patterns inspired by monkeys.

    EWilanO said:
    Oh muse recieve my plea
    for to construct we seek
    an engine mighty strong
    of which no part is weak

    an engine of renown
    that turns unceesingly,
    and runs unerringly
    to drive us further on

    the sky we want to reach
    but for now we must demure
    to build and build some more
    until the parts we have each

    assembled as best we can.


    beauty of brass
    a clockwork turns
    infinite power
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    You don't really think this worked. Inspiration seemed interested at first, but seemingly didn't want to put in the effort necessary to translate it into its component ideas; you'd likely be better off just proposing the ideas directly. It also seems quite amused by, and happy about, your various attempts to figure out the best ways to extract information from it.


    Carrnage said:
    -spoilered-
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Vebyast said:
    -spoilered-
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Forgeclock, a walking workshop able to do things like devour raw materials and separate out the useful parts while everything else is either ejected (possibly at high speed for defense) or used as fuel for the machine itself and it's internal devices, it'll need internal and external mechadendrites with the internal ones being mostly tools while the external ones are grippers and harvesters.

    Giant boxy scorpion-pede. Tons of legs to minimize ground pressure and ensure all-terrain capability. Claws on the front for turning things into small scrap that's suitable for ingestion. Tail is a crane, for picking up bigger bits of wreckage to feed into the intake and to unload products after they're done. Slap on some shields, have some fabber blueprints on hand for various guns, you've got yourself a clockwork mecha-fatboy.     Hardest part is probably going to be the fabricator; we'd need designs for things that can be produced without Inspiration around to tell physics that those parts can, in fact, be assembled without exploding.

    You think something like the "Forgeclock" might've been done before, complete with an autonomous mechanical mind to run it. It eventually killed its creator and went on to devastate the empire it'd been built in. Thanks to all its little minions, you're pretty sure it's supposed to have taken months of warfare to bring it down. It might as well have been a powerful Inspired all on its own. Either way, building one is likely to bring you quite a bit of negative attention and plenty of people insisting on its destruction before it could turn on you. You're well aware that said insistence would, more likely than not, lead to it going rogue should you give it intelligence of its own.
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • ... since the only red part of the first thing was the "tool" that we DON'T need to make for it, does that mean we in fact CAN do that right away?

    Likewise, does this mean we CAN makes something that swings around like that, just not fortress-sized?

    Also regarding the issue various creations seem to have with "killing it's creator and going rouge" thing, the obvious approach to me seems to be to DELIBERATELY give it free will, and then *not try to enslave it*? Instead, you'd be kind to it, and offer it employment with good terms that it is free to leave at any moment.
     
    ArmokGoB said:
    ... since the only red part of the first thing was the "tool" that we DON'T need to make for it, does that mean we in fact CAN do that right away?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    No, reds are usually just put somewhere arbitrary in the description. Given the various things described lately, I've been tempted to retire it and start using something like blue to designate stuff you might actually be able to make with the stuff you have on hand. I'll need to mark less overall. :p


    ArmokGoB said:
    Also regarding the issue various creations seem to have with "killing it's creator and going rouge" thing, the obvious approach to me seems to be to DELIBERATELY give it free will, and then *not try to enslave it*? Instead, you'd be kind to it, and offer it employment with good terms that it is free to leave at any moment.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    But then it might actually leave you and all your hard work will be for naught. Where's the fun in that?

    (Lorelei isn't too opposed to the idea, but still wonders if it'd really go well.)
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top