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Cast-Offs of Divinity - A Merchants of Divinity Quest
- Thread starter JayTar
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Fantasy
Chapter 1 Turn 4.9, The Expedition - T=4 (Week 18):
JayTar
Idea briefcase
Chapter 1 Turn 4.9, The Expedition - T=4 (Week 18):
[x] Plan: Goodwill and time-critical investigations.
-[X][Science] Follow that robot!
-[x][Science] You keep hearing something, just on the edge of perception. What is going on?
-[x][Social] Discuss: Truthfully share your current discoveries. Generates goodwill but may speed up Angela's investigation.
--[x] Ship layout: Share your overall knowledge of the ship layout.
[x][Goal] To really push the envelope on biological augmentation.
-[x] I want to design and build and grow ways to improve living things. I want to design and build and grow ways to improve *people*. Biological augmentation has enormous untapped potential, and I want to be the one to unlock it. The mind and body are ever the first tools that we must use to wield anything else in the world, and we have left the honing of those first and most important tools to the crude processes of nature for far too long. I want to be the one to rebuild them better. Everything we do is built on a foundation of what we are. If we can strengthen that foundation, then the ripple effects could revolutionize our society. I want to be the engine that drives that revolution. I want thousands of people to take my work into themselves and have it push them forward and help them succeed, and to have them know that they owe a portion of that success to *me*.
-[X][Science] Follow that robot!
-[x][Science] You keep hearing something, just on the edge of perception. What is going on?
-[x][Social] Discuss: Truthfully share your current discoveries. Generates goodwill but may speed up Angela's investigation.
--[x] Ship layout: Share your overall knowledge of the ship layout.
[x][Goal] To really push the envelope on biological augmentation.
-[x] I want to design and build and grow ways to improve living things. I want to design and build and grow ways to improve *people*. Biological augmentation has enormous untapped potential, and I want to be the one to unlock it. The mind and body are ever the first tools that we must use to wield anything else in the world, and we have left the honing of those first and most important tools to the crude processes of nature for far too long. I want to be the one to rebuild them better. Everything we do is built on a foundation of what we are. If we can strengthen that foundation, then the ripple effects could revolutionize our society. I want to be the engine that drives that revolution. I want thousands of people to take my work into themselves and have it push them forward and help them succeed, and to have them know that they owe a portion of that success to *me*.
Previously:
"-is to revolutionize biological augmentation." You seize a handful of air and begin pacing. "The body is a machine? Our first and most important tool? Then leaving its development to the crude processes of nature is unforgivable! We can do better, I can do better!"
Angela stares intently at you, and you match her gaze. "All I see from the city is hypertension in rhetoric but hypoxia in action. Every grand monument, every technological convenience, yet none within our bodies. Can you name single a biological mega-project since Genome Jack?" You slam a hand on the wall "No!"
You take a breath and draw yourself up. "It will be my masterpiece for the city, built not upon a foundation of crystal and steel, but upon it's very people."
Angela grins. Wide, and toothy. "Fitting."
Now:
Catching up with the robot isn't hard. There were only so many directions it could go.
BREACH DETECTED?
With that accomplished all you have to do is match its plodding rate. You pass the time updating Angela on your observations of the ship's layout.Poor thing.
"A giant sphere hanging from the ceiling? Makes me curious what your teammates are doing there." She ponders.HULL BREACH?
Unfortunately the stumbling figure isn't headed there. Instead the double doors to the upstairs peel open for it. The empty shaft is much as you left it, except for a star patterned scorch mark on the floor. An explosion.Vant Dewpoint. Angela said he specialized in chemistry. Did he use explosives to scale the shaft? "Do you think your teammate..." you trail off, gesturing at the mark. Almost a stereotype.
"Ah, they would do that wouldn't they." She replies, completely unperturbed.
Lift is absent. Manual it is.
The robot pays it no mind and walks up to the far wall to plant its head against it.The two of you watch it for a moment, but whatever it's doing is slow enough for your attention to wander. You'll take the chance to figure out that incessant whispering that has been bothering you.
I miss Lift. They make this look easy.
Science 3 + Biology 5 = 8 dice
8d7 = [4, 2, 4, 4, 6, 7, 7, 1] = 35
DC = 25 - 6 (Medicine synergy) / 30 - 3 (Auditory Training Aid) = 19/27
8d7 = [4, 2, 4, 4, 6, 7, 7, 1] = 35
DC = 25 - 6 (Medicine synergy) / 30 - 3 (Auditory Training Aid) = 19/27
It's not tinnitus. That was the first thing you checked. Hallucinations are more difficult to disprove, but it doesn't feel right.
But you have another theory. One much closer to your own work. You pull out the Auditory Training Aid, with a few quick tweaks you can tune it to detect-
I hope they are okay.
"You know what? Give me a moment, I'll be right back!" Angela declares and bounces off."Hey, wait-" you chase after her but only make it to the door. The moment you cross the threshold, that unidentifiable sound changes. If you weren't paying attention you would have missed it.
BREACH HULL?
What was once a wandering murmur is replaced with a harsh grating. No not replaced, you heard this before when you walked through this room previously, it was just masked by the whispering.But the only variable was the robot.
Cautiously you step back into the vertical shaft room. The murmur immediately returns.
Oh Dream Mother grant this figment the imagination to comprehend.
You check the Auditory Training Aid. No detections.A mad scientist trusts their intuition.
You approach the robot, the sound gets just a little clearer with every step. You can nearly understand it.
Not quite. Missing something. What am I missing?
Nearly understand.Did I forget? Am I doomed?
Reach forwards. You grab the frame's head. It squirms in your hand.Huh?
It squirms in your head.Oh, buried ember?
Who is this?I am The-beauty-of-flowers-in-engineering's engram fragment.
What are you doing?Something is broken. I seek answers.
What is this?A basic dream bridge. Are you not familiar?
No. How does this work?A dream bridge connects your meta-phantasic field with a pseudo-dream bubble allowing for direct information transfer.
That's nonsense. What are-The strain grows too much and the connection snaps. You stumble back, a splitting headache assaulting your cerebral cortex. For a split second you black out. Then cool relief washes from the ineffable place where your contracts exist and MD Old Bones's gift stitches your aching brain meat back together.
Ah how invigorating.
You reflexively check for a nose bleed and come back empty. One two three four five. Twelve times seven is eighty-four. Smile. Frown. Face moves correctly. Hold out your arms. Keep them steady. No drooping. "The kvik-" you cough and start again. "The quick brown clock skips over the lazy cog." Better. "The quick brown clock skips over the lazy cog." You say it again just to be sure.Okay Leviathan. What just happened. Process it.
The pain is mostly faded and your thoughts settled when Angela skips back into the room. "So I checked in with your- Wait, what happened?" She pivots and looks at you in concern.
You rub your forehead one last time and smile victoriously "Communicated with the robot. They call themselves ugh, something-flowers-something." You are just going to call them Flower.
"Wait you've established communication?!" Anglea exclaims, bouncing up on her toes. "Tell me, tell me. How? What did they say?"
"I went up and grabbed their head. I'm not sure exactly what happened, it was odd. Some sort of direct thought interface." Some sort of neuron electrostimulation? Their explanation was nonsense. At this point you are entirely guessing. Or. Is it not even science?
The thought pools in your gut unpleasantly. "Angela, are you familiar with any god or contracts which could have done it?" You ask, hesitantly.
She frowns but gives the question an appropriate amount of thought. "No. Do you think that's what it was?"
Wait, I can't get distracted. I can't forget what I need to do.
You shake your head "I don't know. The terminology sounded scientific, but like nothing I had ever heard of. Largely nonsensical.""Then we must not be discouraged! Did they say anything else?"
How do I make the lift work?
"That they were looking for something, because something was broken. That's all I had a chance for. The connection was mentally strenuous."Angela hums and stares off into space. "You were saying something when you walked in?" you eventually prompt.
"Right, I was smug!" She spins a full 270 degrees to point at you. "I checked in with your teammates. Seems like that hanging sphere thing is actually the reactor core."
What. "They just told you this?" You ask incredulously.
"Yup! Said they were working on a startup procedure? They were a little panicked about it actually. Something about it being necessary to counteract the destructive resonance buildup?"
Wait, a dream bridge! Now I remember.
"They were what? Should we do something?""Eh. They said it was slow. I'm sure we have time. They just popped a gear because the first thing they tried to fix it didn't work."
You think for a moment, trying to connect the dots. "Do you think what Flower is doing might be related?"
"Something broke, so now the reactor is going to go kaboom? Plausible I guess."
How far gone am I?
As if taking the cue Flower finally moves. Or rather the wall does. It squishes out, wrapping around their robot body, and pulls them up the wall."Uh. Huh." You prod the wall a few times to make sure, but it doesn't do anything. Looks like you will need to make your own way up.
What do you-?
"Last-one-up-is-a-rotten-cable"
-wait what.
6d7 = [6, 2, 6, 4, 3, 6] =27 + 6 (Spring Skater) = 33
DC = 30
DC = 30
With utterly inadequate warning Angela takes a running leap, bounces off the wall in front of you, bounces off the wall above you, and conquers the ledge with only a minimum of struggle.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Toss up a rope!"
Well. That simplifies things. You draw yourself up the shaft with your rope, which Angela anchors an arm length into the wall.
The upstairs is disappointingly ordinary, or at least for what passes as ordinary here. The first room you pass through has a good half dozen seats facing a blank wall.
It's when you follow Flower out into the hallway things get interesting.
From a side door ahead of you a tall cloaked figure emerges. "Oh Angela just what have you brought me?" He rasps out, slightly muffled by his long beaked mask. This is undoubtedly Vant Dewpoint.
Crystal sharp metallic clinking follows in his footsteps and moves to stand beside him. You struggle to see even a glint of humanity though Anne Anneal's visor, even as her armor glitters in the half-light.
Flower barely pauses at the new obstacles and slips through the narrow gap between them. Not that they make much effort to block Flower.
More buried embers? A shame I cannot pause.
"Dewpoint." Angela offers neutrally " Your exploration has been fruitful I hope?".You tap your fingers in frustration. As much as you would like to stop and dissect their personalities, you can't lose track of Flower. Who knows what you might miss.
Dewpoint tilts his to look at Flower. "Reasonably so. But it's looking up." His tone carries a hint of smugness.
Oh you don't like where this is going. "Hey. I'm sure your busy, and so are we. Mind stepping aside so we can get to it?" You cut in, tired of being ignored.
"Hmm, no." Dewpoint sneers, then dismisses you. "Listen Angela. Ditch this loser and we can split your find three ways. Wouldn't want to make the ride back too awkward."
"Excuse me?" How dare he. Anger. Worry. You rapidly try to approximate the odds of Angela turning on you, and scramble for what you can offer her to keep her on your side.
Angela laughs in his face. "I'd rather gargle a gearbox." she breezily quips.
You regret that you can't see the no doubt hilarious expression Dewpoint is making and settle for inferring it from his whole-body flinch. Now if only he scurries off, tail between his legs.
Regrettably reality will disappoint. Pride punctured, his reaction is predictable. He will escalate. The way his hands shake and unconsciously drift toward the many colored bottles hanging from his cloak tell you so.
You'll just have preempt that won't you?
+5 ???
???: 22/100
What do you do?
[] Perhaps a show of force will encourage them to back off?
-[] Pulling a gun is an excellent way to make people reconsider their life choices
-[] Perhaps Kutkh could fetch one of those wonderful colored bottles for you?
[] It's not quite too late to smooth certain ruffled feathers, if you talk quickly.
-[] No fight has started yet. Perhaps some logical rational arguments for why it isn't in anybody's interest to fight now will keep things cool?
-[] Perhaps they could be tempted away by a different find instead? After all it's not like you haven't discovered other things.
--[] Lie and bullshit to waste their time and keep them distracted.
--[] No actually give them some of your hard won discoveries.
[] Flip the script. If you can get Anneal to back off, Dewpoint won't have a leg to stand on.
-[] Intimidation. Scare her enough so she folds.
-[] Bribery. Offer her something to back off. (What?)
-[] Just words. Dewpoint may be beyond the point of rationality, but Anneal might not be.
[] Diplomacy is pointless. Skip to teaching these dullards a lesson.
-[] Focus on Vant Dewpoint
-[] Focus on Anne Anneal
[] Follow Flower's example and try to slip past them. If you can make it to the next door you can barricade it behind you.
[] This isn't worth it. Turn around and give up
[] Something else? (Write in)
AN: So long as there are votes I will never let this quest die! Even if um, it takes me longer then I would like sometimes. And this arc is already dragging on, bleh.
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