07.08f Upside Down

[khadjair]

(continued from here

"So, I wonder if Dworkin did that on purpose. Ow!" Cameron climbed to his feet and began to brush the sand off his clothes, gathering his wits and the few things that fell out of his pockets when he appeared upside down. The fall was only a couple feet, and onto sand, but it was still dangerous and uncomfortable.

Cameron looked over to see if Osmund was okay, sweeping his gaze across the water, pausing as he sees the hulk in the distance. "What... did they -do- here?"

The trump was painted from a small island of black basalt sticking up from the waters of the Black Sea, known for the large impression that, legend had it here at least, was where Prometheus was chained as part of his punishment for giving mankind fire. It wasn't big enough to put more than a few tents on without scaling the water- and moss-slick rock face. However, it gave a good view of the Fortress.

The Fortress had stood here, in one form or another, for millenia, though the most recent rebuild was less than three decades old. Prior to the siege, it was an imposing, hundred-yard tall monolith of red-black metal bristling with ports for cannon and other, less conventional weaponry. When Cameron had last seen it, it was scarred with marks from incendiaries and explosives and over two years of heavy bombardment by the western alliance. It was weakening, but still resolute under continued withering fire.

Now, however... The silhouette was the same as he'd left it, but the metal was twisted and showed signs of melting under high heat, like a wax sculpture in a bakery. One of the towers had fallen completely over, and another listed dangerously. The land around it, as best as can be told from this range, had been scorched as though by a great flame, though judging from the overgrowth from where the western main encampment had been, the battle had been over for at least a decade.

"I... I have no idea what happened here... We should go. I don't even know who controls this place anymore..."

[Joshua]

Osmund nods. He pulls something the size of a spellbook (with a handle) out of his robe, and with a swipe, the many metal sheets unfold around a telescoping substructure into a large buster-sword. He slings it over his back, and pulls out a strange contraption of a gun. He aims it at the ground, pulls the trigger, and it cycles through 4 or 5 firing mechanisms before it locks in a crystal that sends a red pulse into the ground.

"Have you been gone longer than you expected?" He asks. "And you going to shift shadow, or find out what happened?"

[khadjair]

Cameron watches the sword unfold and the gun cycle. "I'm not sure. It's been... well..." he gestures over to a broad scrubby field with small hillocks. "There were over 40,000 men and women camped there, the main body of the army enforcing the siege. If you didn't know what you were looking for, you might miss it. It looks lik eit's been... a decade? since the fighting ended."

He turns back to the Fortress, and shudders. "If I read the ruins right, the Tsar lost. And the Allies brought some new weapon to bear. Somethign capable of melting -that-. I'm not sure I want to run into th epower that has that kind of weapon. Especially since I technically deserted their army. We should go. This.. .can wait. This isn't home anymore... but I needed to see this anyway."

He turns abck to Osmund for a moment. "This may be my home, but you're the teacher. So... what next?"

[Joshua]

Osmund will nod. "So... pick one... A perfect workbench that you can use without issue, a party to get a little experience in, or a servant, to keep your workshop while you're gone." HE says... "Oh, and start walking... See if you can focus on a safe path to start."

[khadjair]

Cameron thinks this over for a bit. "The first thing I think we need is a way off this island without getting wet. Though I guess it's better that I think about the desitnation before I go. A proper workbench.. that might be hard to find in a way I could carry... And th eparty thing still terrifies me. An assistant, though... I'd rather forgotten one might be necessary..." He seems to have translated "servant" in his head to something he can handle a little better.

He heads to where there's a path in the rocks that he sees that wasn't obvious before. "Let's go this way. It feels... right."

[Joshua]

Osmund follows. "When I walk between shadows... I can only follow the cracks, the bad parts of the realms. You should be able to simply choose where we go... or let things work themselves out. The key though, is to focus on the destination. I suppose, if you have focus left over, perhaps you could also make the trip pleasant? That's something I can't do."

[khadjair]

Cameron nods, and guides Osmund up the winding trail. It will wind around a boulder, and then as it comes back about, things will shift, and the rock will no longer be an island, but on the end of a moss-covered causeway jutting out from the shore. It looks ancient but sturdy, even for not having been travelled.

"I think I spent most of my time avoiding people on my walkabout, so I probably default to just that... Though that's certainly not going to work if I'm trying to find an assistant. Though I'd heard of some interesting work from Columbia on autonomous mechanicals..."

[Joshua]

"Well, if you want to find an assistant, what you need to do is focus on the traits you want... or just... focus on a desire for one, and let the details work themselves out. The more generic you're looking for the easier it will be to find, but the more you focus on specifics, the better you can define the person. Nothing is off limits either. You want someone old, young, immortal... you can find that. You want someone recently freed from slavery whose family was killed ten years ago, and who believes an orc saved his life, and said orc, who looks just like you, was killed as he was trying to escape and in his dying breath told this person to look for his twin... That will actually work." Osmund explains. "Of course, some details will shift no matter what you do... for example..." He will try firing the gun again... this time it will flip through most of its mechanisms, before firing a burst of 3 bullets. "And it's likely to stop working before we hit our destination."

[khadjair]

Cameron nods again, eyeing that gun. "I'm pretty certain there's a heck of a story behind how you came to have a weapon like that.." He is thinking a bit though, clearly looking at things in his mind. Mulling traits he'd want in an assistant. He mull things over for a bit a he walks along the mossy causeway, nudging a stone into the water, looking off into the distance for a moment.

"Ever wonder what these worlds we walk between are like? If there are still people there, or people-like... people? Like this... It was built by someone, but why did they abandon it? Do they even still exist?"

[Joshua]

"Yes, yes, and if you want them to." He says. "they're not exactly real*, so these details are filled in by you. At the least, by your hidden desires."

"As for the gun, I made it. I got sick of having my guns misfire. This is the model that's lasted the longest."
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*: Minor reminder, this is an NPC's opinion. An NPC who was driven insane on this exact topic.