- Location
- Pale Blue Dot
True. But the shape of the war machines are unimportant for a minion rush. Only that it does not matter how many are destroyed - more and more are incoming, and it never will stop.
Titan of Steel (Dungeoncore)
- Thread starter We Just Write
- Start date
- Original Novel Fantasy
- Location
- united states
Im only in the first few chapters, so I'm sorry if it's already been stated. But you realize by supplying the energy source for your reactor, you should be getting either the same or less mana out as you put in? Especially since you are venting some energy as steam. Unless making something through mana takes less energy than it releases through degradation. (Just a little nitpickyness as a engineering major with thermo in mind, as this is magic I'm perfectly willing to throw it to the side through sod. TL;DR version. It seems like you are getting more mana out of a closed system than you put it, where do you suppose that energy/mana came from? Secondly, don't waste steam! Steam has heat, which can be used as energy. Better to have a river spout of your dungeon than steam. Especially when you can produce psuedo materials that make heat exchange highly efficient.
The Conjuration Imbalance
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Ah, basically there's this in-universe magic phenomena known as the Conjuration Imbalance; it's based to some degree on how in video game magic it can have the same mana cost between zapping someone with lightning or conjuring an improbable amount of ice to encase them. Basically, for roughly the same amount of mana the amount of mass you can conjure vs the amount of energy you can evoke is grossly unbalanced in favor of mass being cheaper, considering E=MC^2. As such, if you can conjure a sufficiently energy-dense fuel, it's possible to get a net mana positive system. For the purposes of this story, the imbalance is around 145 MJ = 1 kg.
And yes, the Generation Zero reactors were awful in most ways; the reactor designs get much more optimized as the story goes on.
- Location
- united states
The only thing I can think of is that you're either not creating the material but rather summoning it from somewhere at a lower cost than making it, or you are not supplying the full mana cost. Possibly from some deal with a higher being. Who should feel spiteful since you basically tricked them into giving you mana.
- Location
- united states
Thank you! Sorry for the dump, my mind was just on the subject of energy just before reading this.
P.Hominoidea
A Briming Glass Of Spiders And A Mouthful Of Bees
- Location
- Canada
So I'm aware that this is commenting on super old stuff but I just discovered this fic and I didn't see anyone addressing it.
Cherenkov Radiation occurs when a light source (a high velocity electron in this case) travels faster through a medium (air, water, meat, steam, etc) faster than light does, creating an optical shock front, generating the glow.
Cherenkov radiation - Wikipedia
This means that air won't ever create a cherenkov glow as light traveling through air moves at near c speeds, much faster than a charged particle could ever go.
Sorry about the super late comment, but scientific accuracy is important.
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We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
True, that was an error on my part. On the other hand, the insides of human bodies are full of water, meaning it's perfectly reasonable for Karyll to glow blue as she walks besides what basically amounts to an active nuclear reactor. Thus, in a way walking through the Cherenkov Radiation glow.
Monster Profile: Clockwork Knight
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
An excerpt from the writings of the veteran Dungeon-delver Janise Cher
A monster found in the now-defunct orbital Dungeon known as the Celestial Palace (also referred to as the Titan of Steel), Clockwork Knights are quite formidable opponents for any adventurer who should be faced with one, seeing as they have incredibly high base capabilities along with extremely lethal weaponry.
First are the basic capabilities; Clockwork Knights have quite bluntly excessive amounts of physical strength, decently good speed, and an extreme amount of physical durability for a monster their size. In my fights with them, I had to sink significant chunks of my mana reserve into each hit just to dent their armor, and whenever they managed to get a hit in, my protection field nearly collapsed. If I hadn't thought to bring along a few Mana Beads to recharge myself, I would not have survived my third encounter with these constructs.
As for weaponry aside from sheer physical performance, Clockwork Knights have a mixture of integrated weapons and handheld items. In the integrated category, they first have a pair of rapid-fire guns mounted to their arms; these are pretty standard for a Clockwork Dungeon, but have a higher muzzle velocity than normal. The other major integrated weapon they have is that turbine in their chest, through which they can fire a massive explosive blast. Said blast also delivers a nasty damage-over-time effect that can stick to its victims, the general nearby area, and the Clockwork Knight itself for nearly a week; I was dependent on mana beads for a significant time afterwards to keep my Protection Field up, or I would have surely died.
Carried weapons fit into the general categories of sword, shield, and rifle. The sword is long, heavy, and has a much broader blade and thicker handle than many swords; it is just as excessively durable as the Clockwork Knight itself, but that isn't its only nasty trick; when activated, the sword is capable of sheathing itself in Dragonfire, and I mean the real stuff that can melt cities into slag if enough is used at once. There is no visible activation switch, but after prodding the sword with my mana for a few hours I was able to get it to turn on.
WARNING: Just because Dragonfire isn't touching you doesn't mean it can't hurt you! It also emits an invisible light that can lethally poison you with minimal exposure; fortunately, regenerative magic can save you if applied in time.
The rifle is another Dragonfire weapon, firing either bolts or continuous streams of Dragonfire at extreme velocity, depending on the setting. These shots are more than capable of penetrating almost any defense an Adventurer can carry, short of temporarily boosting their durability with the mana contents of an entire Blue Bead at minimum. Getting it to work was much the same as the sword; the internal mechanisms have to be prodded with mana just right in order for the weapon to activate.
Compared to this, the shield is almost boring, for the most part just being a single massive slab of whatever absurdly durable materials the Clockwork Knight is made from. All but the strongest adventurers will find it too heavy to wield properly, but if you can you will find few shields superior to it. It also has the additional feature of self-repairing when supplied with Mana, but the levels of mana required are so absurdly massive that a normal adventurer would be hard-pressed to fix a significant gash in the shield with even a week's worth of exertion.
Monster parts that can be harvested from a Clockwork Knight are fairly typical for Clockworks, being large quantities of refined metal, several dozen motors and other mechanical components that Tinkers tend to find useful. That said, the Clockworks from the Celestial Palace have two fairly notable properties that stand out. First, the material they are made from is absurdly durable and nearly impossible to work; it was quite clearly conjured in place, since there wouldn't be many practical ways to forge it. If you can get the parts out, they are therefore likely to last in projects for an extremely long time without replacement.
Second are the parts my party started referring to as the 'Dragonfire Cores', for lack of a better name. These parts are near-perpetual mana generators that make use of conjured Dragonfire to violate the Perpetual Mana Prevention Principle. As such, they can provide easy re-charging for any adventuring party that acquires them, and a near-perpetual power source for Tinker projects. A Clockwork Knight contains two Dragonfire Cores, and seems able to operate at full capacity with only one core functioning.
Thus, Clockwork Knights (if you can find them) will prove an extremely hazardous challenge for all but the most experienced adventuring parties, but taking them down is extremely rewarding.
A monster found in the now-defunct orbital Dungeon known as the Celestial Palace (also referred to as the Titan of Steel), Clockwork Knights are quite formidable opponents for any adventurer who should be faced with one, seeing as they have incredibly high base capabilities along with extremely lethal weaponry.
First are the basic capabilities; Clockwork Knights have quite bluntly excessive amounts of physical strength, decently good speed, and an extreme amount of physical durability for a monster their size. In my fights with them, I had to sink significant chunks of my mana reserve into each hit just to dent their armor, and whenever they managed to get a hit in, my protection field nearly collapsed. If I hadn't thought to bring along a few Mana Beads to recharge myself, I would not have survived my third encounter with these constructs.
As for weaponry aside from sheer physical performance, Clockwork Knights have a mixture of integrated weapons and handheld items. In the integrated category, they first have a pair of rapid-fire guns mounted to their arms; these are pretty standard for a Clockwork Dungeon, but have a higher muzzle velocity than normal. The other major integrated weapon they have is that turbine in their chest, through which they can fire a massive explosive blast. Said blast also delivers a nasty damage-over-time effect that can stick to its victims, the general nearby area, and the Clockwork Knight itself for nearly a week; I was dependent on mana beads for a significant time afterwards to keep my Protection Field up, or I would have surely died.
Carried weapons fit into the general categories of sword, shield, and rifle. The sword is long, heavy, and has a much broader blade and thicker handle than many swords; it is just as excessively durable as the Clockwork Knight itself, but that isn't its only nasty trick; when activated, the sword is capable of sheathing itself in Dragonfire, and I mean the real stuff that can melt cities into slag if enough is used at once. There is no visible activation switch, but after prodding the sword with my mana for a few hours I was able to get it to turn on.
WARNING: Just because Dragonfire isn't touching you doesn't mean it can't hurt you! It also emits an invisible light that can lethally poison you with minimal exposure; fortunately, regenerative magic can save you if applied in time.
The rifle is another Dragonfire weapon, firing either bolts or continuous streams of Dragonfire at extreme velocity, depending on the setting. These shots are more than capable of penetrating almost any defense an Adventurer can carry, short of temporarily boosting their durability with the mana contents of an entire Blue Bead at minimum. Getting it to work was much the same as the sword; the internal mechanisms have to be prodded with mana just right in order for the weapon to activate.
Compared to this, the shield is almost boring, for the most part just being a single massive slab of whatever absurdly durable materials the Clockwork Knight is made from. All but the strongest adventurers will find it too heavy to wield properly, but if you can you will find few shields superior to it. It also has the additional feature of self-repairing when supplied with Mana, but the levels of mana required are so absurdly massive that a normal adventurer would be hard-pressed to fix a significant gash in the shield with even a week's worth of exertion.
Monster parts that can be harvested from a Clockwork Knight are fairly typical for Clockworks, being large quantities of refined metal, several dozen motors and other mechanical components that Tinkers tend to find useful. That said, the Clockworks from the Celestial Palace have two fairly notable properties that stand out. First, the material they are made from is absurdly durable and nearly impossible to work; it was quite clearly conjured in place, since there wouldn't be many practical ways to forge it. If you can get the parts out, they are therefore likely to last in projects for an extremely long time without replacement.
Second are the parts my party started referring to as the 'Dragonfire Cores', for lack of a better name. These parts are near-perpetual mana generators that make use of conjured Dragonfire to violate the Perpetual Mana Prevention Principle. As such, they can provide easy re-charging for any adventuring party that acquires them, and a near-perpetual power source for Tinker projects. A Clockwork Knight contains two Dragonfire Cores, and seems able to operate at full capacity with only one core functioning.
Thus, Clockwork Knights (if you can find them) will prove an extremely hazardous challenge for all but the most experienced adventuring parties, but taking them down is extremely rewarding.
chrisleech
The Finder of Things Left Behind
- Location
- Jacksonville, Florida
I didn't think that anyone was given adequate chance for looting.
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
They're Adventurers; they loot stuff so fast that they sometimes don't even realize they grabbed the Infinity +1 Sword until they're waking up at the inn the next day.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
So, how fast is the SI/dungeon core going to equip all his 'bots with self destruct devices that ensure the reactor etc are rendered useless when he spots adventurers using bits of his clockworks?
- Location
- Hell
What he said!!
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Extremely quickly. Probably in less than a week.
- Location
- Australia
Just turn off cooling and summon a critical mass of uranium?
"Containment breached! Core undergoing catastrophic meltdown!"
- Location
- Earth, Sol System
Suicide bots! I can't be the only one thinking that when I hear self destruct, right?
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Yeah, there's *loads* of ways to turn one of my reactors into useless scrap. Just upping the amount of Protonium conjured at one time is one of the easiest.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Well that's an easy way to make bomber/suicide bots.
Make a little spider/head-crab shaped clockwork and stuff a comparatively oversized reactor into it. Little guys charge/leap/scuttle out of bolt holes that you can place in the walls, floors, ceiling etc, clamp on to an adventurer and go boom. If the shrapnel from the exploding machine doesn't get them, the resulting fireball/explosion and radiation blast will.
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18
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
The first indication that the Red Dragon had of my intentions was when I turned broadside and unloaded a full salvo of twenty-four Pulsed Proton Bolts into their left wing, my targeting computers enabling near-perfect placement of the c-fractional plasma shots, delivering a total kinetic energy roughly equivalent to six kilotons of TNT. Even the excessively durable scales of a Grand Dragon were hard-pressed to withstand such a pounding, and the plasma shots shredded the joint keeping the lifting surface attached.
Obviously, this caused the Dragon to immediately lose control of their flight path, tumbling out of control to faceplant in a field just outside the city walls of Regno Prima. This presented a minor issue, as with that proximity to the city I could not fire my main battery without causing unacceptable damage to the citizens of the place. On the other hand, I had my secondary weapons to make use of; swiftly, my Relative Conjuration broadside clicked into place for its firing solution.
I was indeed almost about to fire when the Red Dragon momentarily recovered, opening fire with the Grand Dragon's take on Proton Beam weaponry. The mana field I had surrounding my chassis held up to the blast admirably, but I didn't want to take any chances with how fast it was being worn down. Therefore, I slammed my thrusters to maximum acceleration, quickly dodging out of the beam.
notification
Briefly, I split my focus to the attractor panel in my forehull, even as I ordered my Relative Conjuration guns to fire. It looked like I had a group of about thirty heavily-armed individuals aboard, all wearing a distinctly familiar model of armor. Drake Guard.
Outside my hull, the first salvo of RC gun shots slammed home, shattering bones and punching large holes in the Grand Dragon's hide, though the dragon' skull and forward ribcage were apparently tough enough to bounce the shots. Seriously, who even designed these creatures!?
Internally, the situation was significantly more dire; the radiation trap in the teleport receiver room had fired for all of a few seconds before the boarding party had disabled it, applying healing magic before they continued on into a corridor. A corridor which I had coincidentally ordered obstructed by about eight Clockwork Knights. The casualties quickly began to mount among both my constructs and the adventuring party, as radswords removed limbs, various weapons put dents in Clockworks, and the corridor quickly became caked with a thick layer of deadly Sodium 24.
The situation with the Dragon outside meanwhile quickly resolved itself, as a Relative Conjuration shot went right down their throat in between bouts of nuclear firebreathing, punching a massive hole out the back of their neck in the process, and probably severing the spine since the Red Dragon stopped moving and keeled over.
This only left the contingent of Drake Guard, who were still going strong despite the quite bluntly excessive amount of radiation they were being exposed to, and had almost made it to the end of the corridor where they were currently held up. Admittedly they'd lost six members, but still. Fortunately, there wasn't anything too important in the room they were about to enter, but I would rather end this sooner instead of later.
Therefore, I pumped out all the oxygen present in that room, and replaced it with a mix of Hydrogen Cyanide and Hydrogen Sulphide. As the Drake Guard eventually bashed down my excessively reinforced door, I commented over the intercom "You know, both the blue dragon and the red dragon are dead now. If you surrender I'll let you live."
The first few to enter the room went down from the deadly cocktail of poison gas, before the rest quickly put up air bubble spells. One of them replied, saying "You lie! The country of Regno will ALWAYS be ruled by a Grand Dragon, for no other being can claim the life of one such as them!"
In response, I projected the footage of my final deadly shot against the Red Dragon against the wall, and noted "That image is not faked. It was pulled directly from my memories; I killed the Red Dragon myself, and if I'm not mistaken then the object he dropped when I shot his wing off was the severed head of the Blue Dragon who used to be here."
The Drake Guard continued on their attempt to reach my core and end me, unheeding of the advice I had offered; they lined up at one of the other armored doors, and began bashing away at it. Fine, if they wanted to be that way, I'd stop playing around. In the room opposite to the one the Drake Guard were attempting to enter, a Proton Tank was diverted. The door clicked open, and my war machine fired an unfocused continuous blast of nuclear death into the room, rated at around fifty gigawatts. When the Proton Tank stopped, the only sign that the Drake Guard had ever been here were carbon silhouettes on the opposite wall.
The long stint in her... cage for lack of a better term had not been kind to Urist McSmith. She hadn't been informed of anything whatsoever, and aside from the person assigned to feeding the potentially useful prisoners, it seemed that basically everyone had forgotten about the dwarf in the tower. As far as Urist could tell, a few hours ago there had been several extremely loud booming sounds, including the roar of a Grand Dragon, but she didn't dare hope that the Titan had come to her rescue.
Still, something unusual was definitely going on; she heard the footsteps of the person charged with feeding her approaching, but there was a second set of footsteps following them. A set of footsteps that sounded distinctly metallic.
There was some muffled conversation outside, before the door swung open. Not the small hatch that food was shoved through either, the big main door that hadn't opened since the day Urist was put in here. The man with the food tray entered, accompanied by a light gray automaton with a rifle slung over its shoulder. Unbidden, the machine spoke, saying "You're free to go; the hallway has been painted with arrows leading to the exit, though you can take your time if there's anything you wish to do in here before you depart."
Afterwards, Urist would swear that she had not impulsively hugged the cold, unyielding metal, merely that she had jumped in surprise, happened to collide with the automaton, and held on tight as she could. That didn't make the return hug any less well-received, if a bit lumpy.
It was the man with the food tray who spoke up and interrupted the moment, saying "Not that this isn't touching and all, but there's still about fifty prisoners who need to be freed today, and only so much time to do it in."
A bit embarrassedly, Urist released the automaton, grabbed her food tray, and headed for the hallway. As she passed through the doorway though, she couldn't help but ask "Curiously, why am I being released today all of a sudden?"
The automaton answered simply "Because there will never again be a Grand Dragon ruling this country." before continuing on to the next cell.
The newcomer to the town of Rofe was strange; they just showed up one day, with no apparent history of any sort. They weren't seeming to do much of anything, aside from collect gossip, hang out in the tavern, and generally just be around. They had proceeded to set up a machinery store and were indeed selling small devices of varying usefulness to anyone who came by, but they never seemed to require any actual time to make their devices, and there were none of the tools in their shop that a Tinker might normally be expected to have.
For Sherry Rosotz, everything about this situation screamed that this was a Deceiver, but other things didn't fit. First, the behavior pattern made no sense for a Daemon of any sort; they just sort of existed and did what they did without hurting anyone. Sure, there was that one idiot who tried to pummel the newcomer in a bar fight and got decked, but they started it.
However, the final nails in the coffin of the Daemon hypothesis were revealed by Sherry's sensory magic. First and foremost, her anti-illusion Eyes of Truth spell showed a being that still looked human, while a Deceiver would have been easily found out by such a method. The other major piece of evidence was the theme-ping spell, revealing that the oddity had a thematic type of Atomic Clockwork. No Daemonic components whatsoever.
As she looked through her previous writings to find where the theme Atomic Clockwork might have come up, Sherry's gaze happened upon her latest issue of the Titanomicon. It took her mere minutes to recollect that the theme had apparently only so far been used by the Titan of Steel. From there, it was a simple matter of deciding on a course of action.
The next day, Sherry went to the mystery man's store, and as soon as the other customers had left, she said bluntly "I know you probably aren't actually human. That said, you haven't yet hurt anyone, so I just want to know what you actually are, and what your intentions are for this town."
The newcomer tensed and relaxed, before they noted "This might take a while, but you are indeed correct about the fact that I am non-human."
It took several minutes for Sherry to tease the whole story out of the newcomer, revealing that he was a Dungeon minion working for the Titan of Steel, that he was in fact a Clockwork hybridized with an organic minion, and even the fact that the Titan of Steel did in fact run on Dragonfire.
Still, when she was done, Sherry couldn't help but ask "Curiously, would you be able to get me in contact with the Titan of Steel? I think that a text describing things from a Titan's point of view would be a great addition to the next edition of the Titanomicon, and I generally do like talking to interesting people."
Obviously, this caused the Dragon to immediately lose control of their flight path, tumbling out of control to faceplant in a field just outside the city walls of Regno Prima. This presented a minor issue, as with that proximity to the city I could not fire my main battery without causing unacceptable damage to the citizens of the place. On the other hand, I had my secondary weapons to make use of; swiftly, my Relative Conjuration broadside clicked into place for its firing solution.
I was indeed almost about to fire when the Red Dragon momentarily recovered, opening fire with the Grand Dragon's take on Proton Beam weaponry. The mana field I had surrounding my chassis held up to the blast admirably, but I didn't want to take any chances with how fast it was being worn down. Therefore, I slammed my thrusters to maximum acceleration, quickly dodging out of the beam.
Adventurers have teleported into the dungeon!
Outside my hull, the first salvo of RC gun shots slammed home, shattering bones and punching large holes in the Grand Dragon's hide, though the dragon' skull and forward ribcage were apparently tough enough to bounce the shots. Seriously, who even designed these creatures!?
Internally, the situation was significantly more dire; the radiation trap in the teleport receiver room had fired for all of a few seconds before the boarding party had disabled it, applying healing magic before they continued on into a corridor. A corridor which I had coincidentally ordered obstructed by about eight Clockwork Knights. The casualties quickly began to mount among both my constructs and the adventuring party, as radswords removed limbs, various weapons put dents in Clockworks, and the corridor quickly became caked with a thick layer of deadly Sodium 24.
The situation with the Dragon outside meanwhile quickly resolved itself, as a Relative Conjuration shot went right down their throat in between bouts of nuclear firebreathing, punching a massive hole out the back of their neck in the process, and probably severing the spine since the Red Dragon stopped moving and keeled over.
This only left the contingent of Drake Guard, who were still going strong despite the quite bluntly excessive amount of radiation they were being exposed to, and had almost made it to the end of the corridor where they were currently held up. Admittedly they'd lost six members, but still. Fortunately, there wasn't anything too important in the room they were about to enter, but I would rather end this sooner instead of later.
Therefore, I pumped out all the oxygen present in that room, and replaced it with a mix of Hydrogen Cyanide and Hydrogen Sulphide. As the Drake Guard eventually bashed down my excessively reinforced door, I commented over the intercom "You know, both the blue dragon and the red dragon are dead now. If you surrender I'll let you live."
The first few to enter the room went down from the deadly cocktail of poison gas, before the rest quickly put up air bubble spells. One of them replied, saying "You lie! The country of Regno will ALWAYS be ruled by a Grand Dragon, for no other being can claim the life of one such as them!"
In response, I projected the footage of my final deadly shot against the Red Dragon against the wall, and noted "That image is not faked. It was pulled directly from my memories; I killed the Red Dragon myself, and if I'm not mistaken then the object he dropped when I shot his wing off was the severed head of the Blue Dragon who used to be here."
The Drake Guard continued on their attempt to reach my core and end me, unheeding of the advice I had offered; they lined up at one of the other armored doors, and began bashing away at it. Fine, if they wanted to be that way, I'd stop playing around. In the room opposite to the one the Drake Guard were attempting to enter, a Proton Tank was diverted. The door clicked open, and my war machine fired an unfocused continuous blast of nuclear death into the room, rated at around fifty gigawatts. When the Proton Tank stopped, the only sign that the Drake Guard had ever been here were carbon silhouettes on the opposite wall.
The long stint in her... cage for lack of a better term had not been kind to Urist McSmith. She hadn't been informed of anything whatsoever, and aside from the person assigned to feeding the potentially useful prisoners, it seemed that basically everyone had forgotten about the dwarf in the tower. As far as Urist could tell, a few hours ago there had been several extremely loud booming sounds, including the roar of a Grand Dragon, but she didn't dare hope that the Titan had come to her rescue.
Still, something unusual was definitely going on; she heard the footsteps of the person charged with feeding her approaching, but there was a second set of footsteps following them. A set of footsteps that sounded distinctly metallic.
There was some muffled conversation outside, before the door swung open. Not the small hatch that food was shoved through either, the big main door that hadn't opened since the day Urist was put in here. The man with the food tray entered, accompanied by a light gray automaton with a rifle slung over its shoulder. Unbidden, the machine spoke, saying "You're free to go; the hallway has been painted with arrows leading to the exit, though you can take your time if there's anything you wish to do in here before you depart."
Afterwards, Urist would swear that she had not impulsively hugged the cold, unyielding metal, merely that she had jumped in surprise, happened to collide with the automaton, and held on tight as she could. That didn't make the return hug any less well-received, if a bit lumpy.
It was the man with the food tray who spoke up and interrupted the moment, saying "Not that this isn't touching and all, but there's still about fifty prisoners who need to be freed today, and only so much time to do it in."
A bit embarrassedly, Urist released the automaton, grabbed her food tray, and headed for the hallway. As she passed through the doorway though, she couldn't help but ask "Curiously, why am I being released today all of a sudden?"
The automaton answered simply "Because there will never again be a Grand Dragon ruling this country." before continuing on to the next cell.
The newcomer to the town of Rofe was strange; they just showed up one day, with no apparent history of any sort. They weren't seeming to do much of anything, aside from collect gossip, hang out in the tavern, and generally just be around. They had proceeded to set up a machinery store and were indeed selling small devices of varying usefulness to anyone who came by, but they never seemed to require any actual time to make their devices, and there were none of the tools in their shop that a Tinker might normally be expected to have.
For Sherry Rosotz, everything about this situation screamed that this was a Deceiver, but other things didn't fit. First, the behavior pattern made no sense for a Daemon of any sort; they just sort of existed and did what they did without hurting anyone. Sure, there was that one idiot who tried to pummel the newcomer in a bar fight and got decked, but they started it.
However, the final nails in the coffin of the Daemon hypothesis were revealed by Sherry's sensory magic. First and foremost, her anti-illusion Eyes of Truth spell showed a being that still looked human, while a Deceiver would have been easily found out by such a method. The other major piece of evidence was the theme-ping spell, revealing that the oddity had a thematic type of Atomic Clockwork. No Daemonic components whatsoever.
As she looked through her previous writings to find where the theme Atomic Clockwork might have come up, Sherry's gaze happened upon her latest issue of the Titanomicon. It took her mere minutes to recollect that the theme had apparently only so far been used by the Titan of Steel. From there, it was a simple matter of deciding on a course of action.
The next day, Sherry went to the mystery man's store, and as soon as the other customers had left, she said bluntly "I know you probably aren't actually human. That said, you haven't yet hurt anyone, so I just want to know what you actually are, and what your intentions are for this town."
The newcomer tensed and relaxed, before they noted "This might take a while, but you are indeed correct about the fact that I am non-human."
It took several minutes for Sherry to tease the whole story out of the newcomer, revealing that he was a Dungeon minion working for the Titan of Steel, that he was in fact a Clockwork hybridized with an organic minion, and even the fact that the Titan of Steel did in fact run on Dragonfire.
Still, when she was done, Sherry couldn't help but ask "Curiously, would you be able to get me in contact with the Titan of Steel? I think that a text describing things from a Titan's point of view would be a great addition to the next edition of the Titanomicon, and I generally do like talking to interesting people."
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
I love how his plans seem to succed, then something else somes to make them fail. Wonder what the next new and ridiculous problem will be.
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
In short: Running a country is hard.
I mean you say that, but I bet you wouldn't kick a flying battleship out of bed...
...what?