Never Full: A Tale of Adventure, Curiosity and Hunger Without Ending [Original Quest]

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veekie said:
Any current actions relevant to that task? Kind of forgot what was needed to see it through.
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While I might need clarification on that, your current objective is simply to find the damn thing, after which you'll have your chances to case, investigate, and raid it. What you're doing right now is establishing a better foothold in the city for the time being, as well as seeking it out so you can start making plans. And your objective within the Palace is to find a clockwork bird in "Mock Vey's" chambers, while also making as much of a mess/nuisance of yourself as you possibly can. A "Bedlam Job", to use Skyrim parlance.
 
[X] Diemen's Steps, the staircase island.

[X] The Qoman Bulletin, a local newspaper. Headline: LONGWINTER BOMBER STRIKES AGAIN! A picture of a destroyed building.
[X] The Common Sun, a local newspaper. Headline: RAIDERS RAIDED? A picture of the burning Vespergrenite Embassy.
[X] The Bone Echo, from the nation of Nashax. Headline: CONTINENT A POWDER KEG? An exaggerated drawing of a burly, stupid-looking Erzan shaking a spear at a hideous Locust holding a bag of money.
[X] The Obsidian Herald, from the city of Mhar Zirax, capital of the Erzan-and-Oriza Confederacy. Headline: RUMORS OF WAR? A picture of two guns crossed behind the profile of a generic Vesakh with a question mark superimposed over it all.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
So I had been thinking she had disintegrator breath, but now I'm guessing nanites. Something like that, anyway. TK-sandblasting? Actual moth summons? If it's that last one, it'd be focused on the "moth doth corrupt" theme more than the "giant insect monster with poison powder" one, I imagine - which is cool, and I wish I'd thought of it.
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Thought a bit more on this, and between the head-plates and how loud it is, I'm half sure it's actually a sonic disintegrator. Some kind of SASER array, maybe - that'd explain the 'moths', if they double as sensors in low-power mode. (Which they'd kind of have to, given that they'd need to have some way to adjust for target resonance in order to work in combat mode.)
Only problem with the theory is that the thing looked dusted-but-with-whole-bits, rather than generally splintered. Maybe it was just segmented, and she kept her attack pretty carefully narrow in order to avoid killing us? Hm.

...

I want to unlock the next set of Diary entries. Where's our best source for that?

[ ] The shore and docks, to explore the islands you've visited already.
Probably not. Just on grounds of having explored those already. Doesn't seem like that's where this particular plothook would be.
(That said, it might be where the Scab Palace is.)

[X] The edge of the Rise, to better explore it and the Lodgepole.
Lodgepole? What's that? Well, in any case, it's a possible lead towards the riddle-key.

[ ] Diemen's Steps, the staircase island.
Sounds a bit too traditional touristy for the journal's writer, but on the other hand they might have just repurposed an existing landmark. It'd be a real shame if their journal became unreadable because of a simple housefire, after all.
Still not likely, but I suppose I wouldn't mind checking.

[ ] Little Sister.
A slum, I think? Sounds a little more upmarket than Not Much Sink, though. Possible, but not super likely.

[X] Not Much Sink.
A slum/industrial area? Sounds kind of likely.

[X] Halfbright.
Not a clue what this is! Might hold any number of things, including less-toured landmarks, and the Scab Palace we're looking for.

[X] The surface.
...Ooor we could go boarhunting and get a lot more food. Should be kind of trivial with our loadout, honestly. Seems like the MAXIMUM VESAKH option, which means lovely bonus xp.

[X] The Qoman Bulletin, a local newspaper. Headline: LONGWINTER BOMBER STRIKES AGAIN! A picture of a destroyed building.
[X] The Common Sun, a local newspaper. Headline: RAIDERS RAIDED? A picture of the burning Vespergrenite Embassy.
[X] The New Leviathan, provenance unknown. Headline: SABER RATTLING IN THE EAST. A map of the area.
[X] The Certain Sure, from Pandemonium. Headline: MOLOCH ROLLS OFF LINES. An image of a ferocious-looking horned war machine behind a smiling devil.
[X] The Bone Echo, from the nation of Nashax. Headline: CONTINENT A POWDER KEG? An exaggerated drawing of a burly, stupid-looking Erzan shaking a spear at a hideous Locust holding a bag of money.
[X] The Obsidian Herald, from the city of Mhar Zirax, capital of the Erzan-and-Oriza Confederacy. Headline: RUMORS OF WAR? A picture of two guns crossed behind the profile of a generic Vesakh with a question mark superimposed over it all.

Papers are fairly cheap, given that our only other real need for money is to buy bullets, and I want to get as much lore as we can. Please?
 
The Rise is the base of the central pillar of Iash Qoma, and the real estate on the island. The Lodgepole is the pillar itself, everything between the highest points of the Rise and the lowest of the Cap, the mountain island at the center of the hole in the ceiling.
 
The reason I didn't choose everything is the time that takes to write them all. >_>

We already have an Almanack to go through.
 
The Scab Palace 2
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Diemen's Steps, the staircase island to the surface.
    [X] The Qoman Bulletin, a local newspaper. Headline: LONGWINTER BOMBER STRIKES AGAIN! A picture of a destroyed building.
    [X] The Common Sun, a local newspaper. Headline: RAIDERS RAIDED? A picture of the burning Vespergrenite Embassy.
    [X] The Bone Echo, from the nation of Nashax. Headline: CONTINENT A POWDER KEG? An exaggerated drawing of a burly, stupid-looking Erzan shaking a spear at a hideous Locust holding a bag of money.
    [X] The Obsidian Herald, from the city of Mhar Zirax, capital of the Erzan-and-Oriza Confederacy. Headline: RUMORS OF WAR? A picture of two guns crossed behind the profile of a generic Vesakh with a question mark superimposed over it all.
    [X] The Certain Sure, from Pandemonium. Headline: MOLOCH ROLLS OFF LINES. An image of a ferocious-looking horned war machine behind a smiling devil.

    -1 Astrel
    +5 Assorted Newspapers

    After eating, you take a little time to read your newspapers. You can read faster than the majority of people talk, so it's a lot more efficient to do this than to listen to a crier. These probably wouldn't work at home, though. There's hardly enough factory labor to go around as it is, you can't imagine that anybody would be able to muster up the time and hands to print newspapers. Still, might be worth looking into. And this paper! Who can't think of a plethora of uses for thin, cheap paper?
    You quiet down the suddenly racing entrepreneurial section of your mind. Time enough to scheme about bringing the newspaper to Vespergren later. For now, it's time to bring yourself up to speed on what this part of the world thinks it is, for today at least.
    All of the papers contain a variety of advertisements for things you don't understand, stories about mundane local affairs, photographs, exaggerated drawings depicting various current events, and at least one page it takes you some time to comprehend, stocked with word puzzles, complaints from readers, and printed representations of stages in various card or board games. The Certain Sure has the most pages dedicated to these things, while the Bone Echo instead has a page dedicated to "star signs" and what they mean for the people "born under them."

    The Qoman Bulletin, a daily publication, is primarily concerned with the "Longwinter Bomber." Apparently, this person or group has been using magic-augmented explosives to wreak havoc across the city, striking every few weeks at government buildings, Law installations, and important parts of the city infrastructure, attempting to do as much harm to the city's workings and institutions as they can. Ominous statements about the corruption in Qoma and the vileness of the administration accompany each successive bombing. This most recent bomb hit a train depot, shutting down rail travel between Little Sister, Not Much Sink and the Rise.
    Other pertinent information within the Bulletin mentions the Nashaxi ambassador coming to town within the week, a rainstorm being drawn across the city tomorrow, and "Candlewind Warnings" for the next few nights.

    The Common Sun, a daily publication, prominently features a surprisingly in-depth story about the attack on the Vespergrenite embassy. Apparently, this was the culmination of multiple threats directed at the embassy, and is not the only Cicada activity to hit the city in recent weeks. The Sun's sentiment is very... critical of the Embassy in general, full of veiled insults towards the Vesakh and heavy implication of the paper's position on them: especially how they desire the Locusts to vacate Iash Qoma entirely.
    Other pertinent information includes suspicion of the Nashaxi ambassador, a passionate editorial primarily concerned with staying out of the "Eastern Situation," and warning of crimson eels spawning in the waters around Diemen's Stairs.

    The Certain Sure, a weekly publication, is one of the main newspapers of Pandemonium, and so deals with the events that concern Pandemonian residents. The cover story is all about a war machine called the Moloch, which appears to be an autonomous battle engine, being created by the Dissian forges as an upgrade to their Vindicators, Justifiers, and Validators, which are apparently an entirely automated police force that patrols Dis. Being Pandemonian, the Sure's position on this is disapproving and fearmongering, advising everyone to be wary of Dis and their ways, and implying without outright stating that this is something they consider to be an aggressive act, a sign of Dis's willingness to get involved in the area's politics in a warlike manner.
    Other news includes a small piece on Iash Qoma's Longwinter Bomber, a gleeful-sounding piece on the Confederacy's decaying foreign policy, and a series of letters to the editor which are so baroquely worded and metaphor-dense they just have to be coded messages.

    The Obsidian Herald, available weekly, sheds light on this "Eastern situation." Apparently, the Confederacy has been skirting around war with Vespergren, something that would draw most of the Continent into the war, with any neighboring nations forced to pick a side. Being Confederate, the Herald makes a big deal of how vicious and untrustworthy Vespergrenites are, and is in general very hawkish and enthusiastic about the war and how it's a regrettable but honorable necessity to chase them back into their city and make them stop interfering in foreign affairs.
    Other news include an article dedicated to making what's apparently a controversial figure, the "Shark General" Khrizhan Orsus, seem more palatable to the public, warning of the storm system, and an explanation of the draft for if war is declared.

    The Bone Echo, a twice-weekly paper, tells a less biased story about the war, explaining the long history of distrust and violence between Vesakh nations and the Confederacy, and what they consider to be the sad inevitability of war. It goes on to tell of how Nashax will be attempting to keep the peace and provide relief in the event of war, without committing to either side. Notably, the Echo also contains a list of what nations they think will be forced into which sides of the war, with the Vesakh nations on one side, the Confederacy, Chelqath, and Dis on the other, and Nashax, Qoma and the Republic in the middle.
    Other news is entirely dedicated towards advising Nashaxi citizens of the weather, the star patterns, and the "declarations of the Oracles of Sea and Sky."

    By the time you look up from the last of the papers, the sun has finished rising, your voracious reading having taken you a good handful of hours into the early-mid morning. Still plenty of time to do what must be done, and now you feel, if not better, then at least better-informed about what you may face in the days and weeks and months to come.
    Next, Diemen's Steps.
    [ ] Spend time focusing on this potential war?
    [ ] Ignore the rumors of war for now. It'll wait.
     
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    • Aw, we got all the papers except one? Now I really want to know what the Leviathan said.

    I'm... actually inclined to ignore the rumors for now. Not sure why exactly. Might be meta reasons.

    [X] Ignore the rumors of war for now. It'll wait.
     
    [x] Ignore the rumors of war for now. It'll wait.

    A war is much bigger than us. Coincidentally, it makes us unlikely to miss it, even if we don't go out of our way to chase the news and rumors.
     
    [X] Spend time focusing on this potential war?

    I'll admit I've been reading too much worm fanfic whilst waiting for the next update. I now visualize myself, and other Questors in SV/SB, as shards, and must thus NOM DATA ALWAYS. MORE DATA GOOD. I HALP.

    Also, war. Those tend to be important- let's pay attention. Who knows how it'll effect the economy?

    ...and our safety, I guess, although that seems less likely. Considering where we are...
     
    boo600 said:
    [X] Spend time focusing on this potential war?

    I'll admit I've been reading too much worm fanfic whilst waiting for the next update. I now visualize myself, and other Questors in SV/SB, as shards, and must thus NOM DATA ALWAYS. MORE DATA GOOD. I HALP.

    Also, war. Those tend to be important- let's pay attention. Who knows how it'll effect the economy?

    ...and our safety, I guess, although that seems less likely. Considering where we are...
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    Why yes, Vespergren's most prosperous ally. Which has recently had an anti-Vesakh campaign, and which carries enough of a population of embittered veterans of one Locust War or another to produce the Spear of Justice.
    You know, it's totally plausible that Quoma will end up a battleground. I just don't know if I want our girl distracted while she's moving. That's probably my objection, actually.
     
    The Scab Palace 3
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    • [X] Ignore the rumors of war for now. It'll wait.

    You furl the newspapers tight and stow them away. That much paper will surely come in handy at some point. If nothing else, it'll be good kindling and insulation for those cracks around the window-frame. As you pack, you think. War and rumors of war, involving your home city and a nation close enough that you can get their newspaper. It'll be a huge opportunity for profit and bloodshed, as well as a huge opportunity to get yourself shot or trampled underfoot, so you should keep an eye on those proceedings--but, at the same time, you're just too small-scale to worry too much about it right now. You'll keep your ears perked and your nose in the wind, but right now getting yourself richer, better-equipped and more thoroughly connected in the city is your priority. The war can wait until you're better-prepared to enter the exciting field of war profiteering and soldier-of-fortune-ing. Your concerns should be focused on solving your outstanding debt to an Augur, and all the opportunities for fun and profit that infiltrating any place called a 'palace' can offer you. So with that you decide to put the war out of your mind for now, paying attention but not going out of your way to deal with it, while you apply your skills and your effort towards the Scab Palace.

    Diemen's Steps caught your attention last night, when you looked at that map of the city's islands and bridges. A gateway to the surface and the various regions and nations that surround Iash Qoma, it seems. It's as good a place as any to start your search, with the added bonus that if you don't find it at least you can get to the other islands from there via the Lodgepole to keep searching. Approaching the edge of the Rise and the bridges that lead there, you see it glittering in the dawnlight. Gleaming buildings line the massive roads, rails, and tram cables that descend the stair-like fall of stone bridging the plains above and the sea below, and the causeways leading from the "foot" of the stairs to the edge of the Rise already have scatterings of people crossing them back and forth. Trains, wheeled vehicles, walking vehicles, beasts of various descriptions, and dozens of pedestrians exit the imposing stations at the Steps' top and bottom and continue along the paths laid for them, invigorating the city. Even from here, the smell of prospects and commerce rolls off of them like cold air from an icefall.

    Approaching the bridge on foot, you see something that wasn't present on the bridges to Irontown or Great Men--groups of Law, each clustered around an enormous machine, part vehicle and part guardpost with a cluster of legs under a riot shield in front and an engine and tread system in back, the Law agents crouched at its controls or sitting or standing on its armor, masked faces swiveling as they keep an eye on the influx of visitors. As you pass by one of these mobile guardposts, a Law holds up a device you recognize as a magnifying glass, this one built into an occult rig of copper wire, feathers and glass beads. It flashes green as they pass it over you, and they nod. You pass by them without incident.
    The foot bridge to Diemen's Steps is wide, with multiple lanes and the railroads on either side, the vehicles moving freely if slowly amid the pedestrians, who merely watch their step around the deliberate passage of the various giants. An ezzaldiak snorts at your passage, steam escaping its neck gills, and you hop to the side, avoiding the stern gaze of the veiled Chelqathi merchant atop it. If this wasn't a crowded public place, you'd consider seeing what those pockets and saddlebags contained--the stink of wealth is all over her. But no, too many people are giving you a cautious eye to try anything, so you just smile at her, eliciting a shudder, and move on, promising yourself you'll recoup the potential profit in the Scab Palace. Now is no time to elicit the attention of the law for some random pigeon on the street.

    The station at the other end isn't as big as the one you gated into back at the start of this, but it's more opulent, great statues of the founders of the city and its various gods looking down from their alcoves between various murals and other wall pieces. Though relegated to side positions that could be overlooked by the average traveler, you recognize your gods portrayed in dark stone, each lacking the ferocity and hunger you're familiar with. The Rhakui image doesn't even smell like someone was walled alive in there! Must have been sculpted by Unchosen, then. Still, wise of them not to call down wrath by excluding the Tribulations entirely. You've felt the air pressure down here. If there was a true kaz-morosh to come down from the North, the air currents would drag the blizzard right down on top of the pillars and freeze the sea solid.
    There are trains running from here to Great Men, Irontown, Little Sister or back up to the rim, and they might come in handy later, but for right now you don't need to worry about getting back off the island. Instead, you just pass on through, tipping a little bow to each of your gods in turn before getting out of the station. Direct sunlight is washing across the Stairs, with no cavern ceiling or clouds above, and it's a little bright, but you can handle it. The lack of perpetual cover is weird, though. There's smog here, sure, but they let the sun out so much more often. Bizarre.

    In the plaza outside the station, you scramble up a lamp-post to get your bearings, and a few things catch your eye. How shall you prioritize them? The winning 3 will be acted upon.
    [ ] There's a moving staircase, made of wagon-sized platforms, leading up to the top and the rim, and whatever's there.
    [ ] There's a large and well-appointed caravanserai with lots of parties coming in and out, the sign declaring it to be "da Costa's".
    [ ] There's a spiral staircase big enough for groups. Leading up, it says "Echo Station", and down it says "Underlevel." Take the up route.
    [ ] There's a spiral staircase big enough for groups. Leading up, it says "Echo Station", and down it says "Underlevel." Take the down route.
    [ ] There's some kind of fight or argument taking place near a palanquin that has a gallows sticking out of the top. It's drawn a crowd.
    [ ] That wagon has a bunch of grubs instead of wheels, and is covered in gongs and mirrors. The guards around it look well-equipped...
    [ ] Try and observe a Law group or officer, maybe even speak to them. Those mobile guardposts are interesting...
    [ ] Get on a train to Little Sister. You haven't visited yet, and from here is likely the only way given the bombing.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] There's a moving staircase, made of wagon-sized platforms, leading up to the top and the rim, and whatever's there.
    [X] Try and observe a Law group or officer, maybe even speak to them. Those mobile guardposts are interesting...
    [X] Get on a train to Little Sister. You haven't visited yet, and from here is likely the only way given the bombing.
     
    [X] There's a moving staircase, made of wagon-sized platforms, leading up to the top and the rim, and whatever's there.
    [X] Try and observe a Law group or officer, maybe even speak to them. Those mobile guardposts are interesting...
    [X] Get on a train to Little Sister. You haven't visited yet, and from here is likely the only way given the bombing.

    Jeez, Veekie, let the rest of us post a plan! How did you pick the best options (well, most interesting) so quickly!?
     
    Wicked Sanguine said:
    If there was a true mokazkrai to come down from the North, the air currents would drag the blizzard right down on top of the pillars and freeze the sea solid.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Hmm? What's that?

    [x] There's some kind of fight or argument taking place near a palanquin that has a gallows sticking out of the top. It's drawn a crowd.
    [x] That wagon has a bunch of grubs instead of wheels, and is covered in gongs and mirrors. The guards around it look well-equipped...
    [x] Try and observe a Law group or officer, maybe even speak to them. Those mobile guardposts are interesting...
     
    Oh, forgive the confusion
    It says it later in the sentence but they're basically hurricane-force blizzards that come down from the North and are said to be Rhakui's servants, wrath, avatars, or children, variously
     
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    The Scab Palace 4
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] There's a moving staircase, made of wagon-sized platforms, leading up to the top and the Rim, and whatever's there.
    [X] Try and observe a Law group or officer, maybe even speak to them. Those mobile guardposts are interesting...
    [X] Get on a train to Little Sister. You haven't visited yet, and from here is likely the only way given the bombing.

    You remember a story you heard from an old Sixth in a taverna, once, halfway between your First and Second treatments. An old triumph of the Vesakh, one of the most prominent scars your people ever put on the face of the world. The Siege of Dis. Before the Brimstone Republic was a Republic, back when they were merely the Brimstone Rebellion, the civil war had progressed to the point where only an act of great and terrible violence would shake them loose. So the Rebellion engineered a portal right in the heart of Dis. The Golden Smoke Rade, thousands strong, poured into the city like a flood, tearing the Dominion a hole that lasted for a century after the last Locust had been driven from Dis's streets. In the confusion and bloodshed, the Rebellion were able to steal valuable components and leave the Dominion entirely, and it wouldn't be long before the ceasefire was called and the Hellfire Concord was signed. But you remember sitting there, eating your crickets and listening to the Sixth hold forth on how the Rade swarmed over the Dissian engines of war, toppled their towers, ate their civilians, stole their weapons. It consumed your thoughts for weeks afterwards, daydreaming of being a part of a Rade someday yourself, of participating in the sack of a city like that. And, even now, you remember what he said:
    "Once the door was open, it wasn't hardly a week before Dis was at our knees, kid. Six days before we were in the inner walls, their blood running down our chins. You remember that. Six days."
    Six days to break down the bastions of one of the most powerful empires the Continent has ever known.
    With that in mind, the six days you have to pull a simple smash-and-grab feel like all the time in the world. If it took that long for a Rade to break through the inner gates of Great Dis itself, then doing your own duty in that time or less is hardly a consideration. It makes you feel giddy with potential.

    All that to say, of course, that you feel free to look around for now. There's a time consideration, but there's no rush. So, first and foremost, you just have to get a look at one of those mobile guardposts the Law are fielding. You remember what an oppressive feeling it was inside that watchtower, and the vile feeling you got off that official. If you're going to be pursuing the proper life for a young Locust on the rise, i.e. one of theft, battle, and profit, you're going to go up against the Law sooner or later, especially if that war on the rise goes through. Hence, it's never too early to get a good idea of what exactly you'll be facing and how worried you should be about it. A little judicious intel gathering is rarely a bad idea, and is even more welcome in volatile times like these.
    All that in mind, you saunter casually past the nearest guardpost you can see, making sure that your good eye gets its eyeful through the curtain of hair. Can't be too cautious..
    The things are huge, built like oversized skittercycles with an armed bastion of a wall above a cluster of mechanical legs in front, and a walled platform bearing a sort of tiny crow's nest and a smoke-belching engine, supported by great treads, in back. Each is attended and crewed by over a dozen Law, some sitting atop it with rifles or pikes in hand, others following by with their weapons low but out. They're not too fast, but you saw one climb a flight of stairs, so they're about as agile as any skittercycle. Coupled with the big rotating guns, the armed attendants, and the plated front, you'd estimate these as perfect siegebreakers or point guards. The impassive masks of the Law do nothing to mask the scent of boredom on most of them, and you get the impression this is a dull, rote sort of duty. Something to keep in mind. Fighting one of these head-on would be foolish, but dodging or sabotaging it should be quite a different story.

    Your potential enemy has been observed, and found dangerous but not insurmountable, leaving you free to start ascending the platforms. As soon as you're on one, joined by a pair of large wagons, a scattering of ezzaldiak and skittercycles, and a Teuthis curled on the back of a peddler turtle, playing the double-flute, you feel the gears and pulleys below you clank into action. Your scent tells you more about the machine--perpetual movement powered by steam engines, fueled with coke and dried dung, greased with animal fat, forged in foundries from pig-iron and tempered bronze, topped with large steps of wrought steel and local flagstone and masonry. You can smell the smoke and feel the wheels turn, though the ride seems pretty smooth considering what a big, heavy contrivance it all is. As clear in your mind as the scent of the fat, as well, is the knowledge that it would take a moment's sneaking and a good whack with a sharp blade to cut a leather band that would lead to the entire thing grinding to a halt. Something to remember if you ever need to shut this thing down...

    Your neighbors on the step never really stop looking at you suspiciously, and you're glad to be shut of their company when you arrive to the very top. Looking behind you, you can see the entire city of Iash Qoma, or at least the parts not blocked by buildings and the central pillar, rising out of the Unfound Sea with the lip of the pit all around. Looking ahead, you see the Carrock Flats, endless miles of huge stony plateaus separated by height or thin rivers, the tower-cities of the waste dimly visible even from here. Around the circumference of the pit to the southwest is the dark and brooding expanse of the Yasherits Forest. And all around you are the low buildings, mostly adobe, timber and sandstone here and becoming darker stone further along the edges, of the Rim neighborhood, gateway to Qoma from the land route.
    [ ] Find a caravanserai for information.
    [ ] Find a route to the Forest.
    [ ] Wander around and get yourself into a situation.
    [ ] Visit the Bureau of Incomings.
    [ ] Go crowdfishing, and by that you mean pickpocketing.
    [ ] Write in.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Skittercycles are those vehicles with the wheel in back and legs in front that have been mentioned.
    What a Rade is will be covered in future updates.
     
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