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@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ updated: Sun, 27 Nov 2022 02:24:11 -0700
- Beaker (and Cio) trailing the BANDits?
- Benefactor wants Crystals to kill a god
- Golden Iris wants Crystals to make a new god
- Gnu Zealots seek Sitopotnia the Corn Mother (aligned with Golden Iris)
- Gnu Zealots (aligned with Golden Iris) seek to open source godhood
- Sitopotnia has offered new corn-based bodies to the cyberplasm if they can deliver to her the Quintessence
- Blavin double agent with Golden Iris
- BATT wants to preserve the timeline
- Felixe and Corraidhin

4
www/index.html
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@ -330,8 +330,8 @@ of the Were-Hare</a></li>
<p>Total length: 44522 words / 190 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the
length of this entire page, including all the extra bits and bobs. Not
just the story.)</p>
<p>There have been 163 messages posted over 162 days since the first
post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.00.</p>
<p>There have been 165 messages posted over 162 days since the first
post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.01.</p>
<h2 id="about">About</h2>
<p>This is a game that me and the kids in the basement are playing over
email.</p>

756
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@ -6,113 +6,151 @@
<link>https://tilde.town/~dozens/quest/rss.xml</link>
<description>Friends having ADVENTURES! Huzzah!</description>
<item>
<title>43</title>
<title>42</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">43 - Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:03:20
<guid isPermaLink="false">42 - Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:01:41
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:03:25 -0700</pubDate>
<pubDate>Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:01:48 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00043">00043</h3>
<h3 id="00042">00042</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Pirates?! Again?! Alex groans, unfortunately he’s run into
this crew of dastardly mostly cybernetic punks in the past.
Nasty group back home, always kept the precinct busy. Not
necessarily with the detective work, it was always a little
obvious when they showed up. They have a flair for the
dramatic.</p>
<p>Alex shouts to Inky &amp; Jarrod “Come on, we need to get
in one of those balloons and fast!” he then darts off in the
direction of the nearest abandoned balloon in the market
place, not looking to see if his companions had followed
him.</p>
<p><em>internally</em> I know these guys have pulled off
smaller heists, they could just be attacking the hotel to
plunder riches from its guests. They don’t seem the likes of a
retrieval team.. Then again, that Blavin fellow has multiple
teams working for him, and he doesn’t seem all too picky about
how they get the job done, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’d
hired some brigands hoping they’d get the gems faster.</p>
<p>Alex conjures up another bug, a stag beetle this time, and
casts it away at the pirate ship. It’ll probably take some
time to catch up, but once it does we’ll be able to keep an
eye on the pirate’s ship and general actions, at least within
line of sight of the bug.</p>
<p>As Alex reaches the balloon he grabs the ruby hilted dagger
and cuts the mooring lines keeping it down, and jumps into the
basket preparing for take off.</p>
<p>This seems a bit strange. Certainly Blavin has been pulling
strings from behind the scenes the whole time, but why
coordinate a special escort for us when there are other
retrieval teams, and we’ve been less than amicable with the
bloke the entire time.. Alex thinks to himself.</p>
<p><em>DM: I’d like to check for any signs of deceit in the
toques demeanor or communcations with us</em></p>
<p>Confidence you said right? What would you do if I simply
chose not to accompany you? I mean, there’s a whole city
around us, perhaps I’d prefer a drink before climbing a
mountains worth of stairs. Or better yet, I could get back on
the boat and ride to the top and same myself the hassle.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You spot a balloon that has already been knocked half loose
of its mooring by the pirate attack. The basket is listing to
the side and tugging at the one remaining rope tying it down
Its owner scurries around in circles trying to secure it.</p>
<p>The vertical panels of the balloon are all different
colors, creating a brilliant rainbow pattern. The large woven
basket is large enough for maybe three people.</p>
<p>You leap inside, swinging the ruby hilted dagger at the
remaining mooring line. The balloon owner cries out in dismay.
The basket shifts beneath your feet as the balloon tugs it
skyward.</p>
<p>In the burner, a small sunspoke—a minor fire elemental—is
merrily burning away, producing a modest flame that is hot
enough to lift the balloon slowly above the market into the
sky. There is a knob valve on the side of the burner to allow
more oxygen to flow in, thereby feeding the sunspoke and
encouraging it to burn more intensely and raise the balloon
higher and faster. The valve is currently only about one third
open.</p>
<p>A pile of blankets in one corner of the basket—and that
area of the basket itself—is covered in blood. Somebody
injured in the pirate attack must have temporarily climbed
into the basket looking for cover? As you’re about to look
away, something large-ish (small for a human, large for an
animal) under the blankets shifts and moves.</p>
<p>Bread once again looks confused. Confidence looks
surprised, caught off guard.</p>
<!--
Alex rolls Investigation 2 to check for signs of deceit
3 5 = Partial Success / Success at Cost
//-->
<p>Confidence sputters, “Well, yes, of course. You’ve been
traveling for some time now, haven’t you? I can assure you
that the food and drink at Runesocesius will be better than
anything you can get here! But the choice is entirely yours.
Feel free to avail yourself of the local offerings. We will
wait here at the steps for you.”</p>
<p>Bread nods slowly, and seems to trailing behind the
conversation just a second or two.</p>
<p>Their reactions seem genuine to you despite the
circumstances. They seem like a couple of low level employees
of a luxury hotel earnestly trying to follow the instructions
they’ve been given.</p>
<p>There are a couple of stalls and vendors set up around the
gondola station. Many of them serve mulled wine and hot
chocolate. There is some edible fare. Hot sandwiches and
pitas. Nothing that an empanada from Enrique’s wouldn’t put to
shame. But they look hot and steamy, and of great comfort to
anybody who might be hungry and cold. There are a few fire
pits, next to which there are long benches with blankets,
where you might sit and warm up for a bit.</p>
<p>The gondola lift ends here, and does not continue up to the
mountain any further. The cloud steps are the most common way
to get up to the peak, and to the Runesocesius. But you’re
pretty sure one or two of the stalls here offers balloon rides
up to the peak for thrill seekers and for those with
accessibility needs.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Inky stares after Alex’s sprinting figure before shrugging
and stepping towards one of the stalls selling sandwiches
bowled over by one of the large boulders. They place some
loose change on the stall’s wooden sign that had tipped over
on the ground and pocket one of the sandwiches displayed
inside an open chest oven. Next, they pick up several of the
scented candles scattered on the ground by the crash, throwing
some coins in the direction of the disoriented vendor before
continuing at a leisurely pace up the steps to the hotel,
taking in the balloonship and surrounding scenery. The members
of their merry party arriving first can hold their own as well
as the fort of a hotel.</p>
<p>“I think you already know I’m interested in neither bread
nor cheese, the second of which I certainly did not ask for
yet you tried to offer in your hasty pretence.” Inky smiles
thinly at the toques.</p>
<p>Taking out a small bag of gold coins and weighing it slowly
on one hand to the sound of coins clinking inside the pouch,
Inky continues, “Speak, answer our questions frankly and you
will be rewarded. The hotelier up there need not know. Breathe
a word of our little chat to another soul, however …” Inky’s
gaze cut briefly to four snow ravens perched atop a spiral
lamp post and back, “and you will learn the meaning of
disappearing without a trace.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You do a little leisurely shopping as the vendors and other
shoppers put out fires and tend to the injured. With a couple
scented candles and a sandwich safely in your pocket, you
start to climb the cloud steps, enjoying the scenery as you
go. Bread and Confidence have quite a bit of a head start on
you, and are nowhere to be seen. As the stairway winds around
the mountainside, the market and its bustle recede from view,
and soon you are quite isolated and alone.</p>
<p>The majesty of creation is humbling here: the endless,
roiling ocean of cloud; the towering mountain of rock. It’s as
though this was the creator’s playground when they were still
trying to figure out scale. Before they quite got it right for
human-sized creatures.</p>
<p>About halfway up your climb, it starts raining sheets of
paper. You snatch one and read it. Some heroic fantasy about
slaying demons and facing great peril. You grab another. A
bodice-ripping romance. Another. A gourmand’s food tour of
Basmentaria, eating their way from coast to coast. A murder
mystery whodunnit. An aetherwael handler’s guide to
interplanetary travel. How to grow your own fortified
pumpkins. On the Care and Maintenance of Fortles. The Rise and
Fall and Rise of Palace Runesocesius. Within a minute, you
have fists full of an entire library’s worth of snippets and
passages.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>It looks as though Alex will approach the hotel by balloon
from the non-pirate side. And Inky’s approach by stair will
deposit them at the hotel entrance, roughly
pirate-adjacent.</p>
<p>Bread looks confused. You are starting to believe it is
their default expression. “So, you <em>don’t</em> want no
chee—”</p>
<p>“Our only desire is to help!” Confidence hastily
interrupts. He smiles pleasingly. “We are your guides! Not
just physically up the steps, but in all things here on Kelsun
Peak. You have but to ask, and if it is within our power to
give it, it will be yours! We are but humble ser—”</p>
<p>And just then Confidence is also suddenly interrupted. A
thundering boom like a canon sounds from somewhere nearby,
followed quickly by an explosion somewhere up above. Snow
ravens fly off in all directions in a panic. The sound ripples
through the mountaintop, rattling the ground on which you
stand. A bunch of small rocks and two large boulders shake
loose from the mountainside. Shoppers and travelers shout and
duck for cover as they are pelted by the scree. One of the
large boulder bounces clear over the station and plummets down
the side of the mountain before disappearing into the cloud
ocean below. The second one falls straight toward the
platform. A vendor selling wreaths and candles dives out of
the way as his stall is crushed by the boulder. A bench is
toppled over, spilling its blankets into the fire pit, and
catches fire, quickly spreading to another nearby stall.</p>
<p>Bread looks up at the sky, confused. You see a thin line of
black smoke starting to rise up into the sky from over the
ridge where the Runesocesius lies. Confidence shouts, and you
see him pointing at the sea, where a balloonship is rising up
out of the cloud bank, sailing quickly toward you and the
summit of Kelsun Peak.</p>
<p>It resembles a seafaring ship, but instead of masts and
sails, it has two large, colorful, patchwork balloons that
provide it lift. A large fan on a pivot at the rear of the
ship provides thrust. As you watch, it fires a second
canon—that <em>is</em> what the sound was!—nearly straight up,
arcing up and over the peak at Palace Runesocesius.</p>
<p>The crew of the ship bustle around on the deck of the ship,
reloading the canons, firing the balloons, shouting, giving
and following orders.</p>
<p>“Cyberplasms,” groans Confidence, and Bread whimpers. Alex,
that quiet, dull, static roar that has been constantly
tickling the back of your head ever since you found that
dagger seems to rise in pitch and in tone. It conveys a sense
of urgency, of warning. You can <em>almost</em> hear a
desperate voice behind the static fuzz cautioning you,
“Evil…”</p>
<p>The only corporeal element of the crew are their cybernetic
enhancements. A mechanical leg. A synthetic eye. A claw, a
hook, a hand. An arm canon. Almost all of them have more than
one, some as many as 3 or 5. The cybernetic pieces of each
individual crew member are held together by plasmic energy
arcs, crackling blue and green. And surrounding the bioware
and the plasmic arcs of each crew member, like a blanket or a
cocoon, is the translucent, wavering, ghostly form of some
humanoid long-dead.</p>
<p>The figure standing on the deck surveying the work of the
rest of the crew—presumably the captain—has a synthetic eye
rotating freely, 360 degrees in all directions, inside its
skull-like head; a bulky arm canon; and a thin robotic leg
terminating in a thick boot. Plasmic blasts arc through its
core, sometimes disrupting and glitching its ghostly body.</p>
<p>The captain raises its arm canon and shouts to the crew.
Its voice carried on the breeze sounds like something
otherworldly rising slowly from the murky deep. “Fire the
canon, boys! And fire up the balloons! Drop the ballast! That
crystal is <em>ours!</em>”</p>
<p>It happens very quickly: the ship ascends to the summit and
soon is firing grappling hooks at it to pull themselves in and
breach the walls of the hotel.</p>
<p>Bread looks at you, wide-eyed and trembling. They let loose
a pitiful wail and turn and start running up the steps.
“Bread!” Confidence yells after them. They cast a backward
glance at you. “I’ve got to help Bread! We’ve got to save the
hotel!” And they give chase to their fellow toque, bounding up
the cloudstuff steps.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00217.html">www</a></p>
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00203.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
@ -260,151 +298,165 @@
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>42</title>
<title>43</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">42 - Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:01:41
<guid isPermaLink="false">43 - Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:03:20
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:01:48 -0700</pubDate>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:03:25 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00042">00042</h3>
<h3 id="00043">00043</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>This seems a bit strange. Certainly Blavin has been pulling
strings from behind the scenes the whole time, but why
coordinate a special escort for us when there are other
retrieval teams, and we’ve been less than amicable with the
bloke the entire time.. Alex thinks to himself.</p>
<p><em>DM: I’d like to check for any signs of deceit in the
toques demeanor or communcations with us</em></p>
<p>Confidence you said right? What would you do if I simply
chose not to accompany you? I mean, there’s a whole city
around us, perhaps I’d prefer a drink before climbing a
mountains worth of stairs. Or better yet, I could get back on
the boat and ride to the top and same myself the hassle.</p>
<p>Pirates?! Again?! Alex groans, unfortunately he’s run into
this crew of dastardly mostly cybernetic punks in the past.
Nasty group back home, always kept the precinct busy. Not
necessarily with the detective work, it was always a little
obvious when they showed up. They have a flair for the
dramatic.</p>
<p>Alex shouts to Inky &amp; Jarrod “Come on, we need to get
in one of those balloons and fast!” he then darts off in the
direction of the nearest abandoned balloon in the market
place, not looking to see if his companions had followed
him.</p>
<p><em>internally</em> I know these guys have pulled off
smaller heists, they could just be attacking the hotel to
plunder riches from its guests. They don’t seem the likes of a
retrieval team.. Then again, that Blavin fellow has multiple
teams working for him, and he doesn’t seem all too picky about
how they get the job done, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’d
hired some brigands hoping they’d get the gems faster.</p>
<p>Alex conjures up another bug, a stag beetle this time, and
casts it away at the pirate ship. It’ll probably take some
time to catch up, but once it does we’ll be able to keep an
eye on the pirate’s ship and general actions, at least within
line of sight of the bug.</p>
<p>As Alex reaches the balloon he grabs the ruby hilted dagger
and cuts the mooring lines keeping it down, and jumps into the
basket preparing for take off.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread once again looks confused. Confidence looks
surprised, caught off guard.</p>
<!--
Alex rolls Investigation 2 to check for signs of deceit
3 5 = Partial Success / Success at Cost
//-->
<p>Confidence sputters, “Well, yes, of course. You’ve been
traveling for some time now, haven’t you? I can assure you
that the food and drink at Runesocesius will be better than
anything you can get here! But the choice is entirely yours.
Feel free to avail yourself of the local offerings. We will
wait here at the steps for you.”</p>
<p>Bread nods slowly, and seems to trailing behind the
conversation just a second or two.</p>
<p>Their reactions seem genuine to you despite the
circumstances. They seem like a couple of low level employees
of a luxury hotel earnestly trying to follow the instructions
they’ve been given.</p>
<p>There are a couple of stalls and vendors set up around the
gondola station. Many of them serve mulled wine and hot
chocolate. There is some edible fare. Hot sandwiches and
pitas. Nothing that an empanada from Enrique’s wouldn’t put to
shame. But they look hot and steamy, and of great comfort to
anybody who might be hungry and cold. There are a few fire
pits, next to which there are long benches with blankets,
where you might sit and warm up for a bit.</p>
<p>The gondola lift ends here, and does not continue up to the
mountain any further. The cloud steps are the most common way
to get up to the peak, and to the Runesocesius. But you’re
pretty sure one or two of the stalls here offers balloon rides
up to the peak for thrill seekers and for those with
accessibility needs.</p>
<p>You spot a balloon that has already been knocked half loose
of its mooring by the pirate attack. The basket is listing to
the side and tugging at the one remaining rope tying it down
Its owner scurries around in circles trying to secure it.</p>
<p>The vertical panels of the balloon are all different
colors, creating a brilliant rainbow pattern. The large woven
basket is large enough for maybe three people.</p>
<p>You leap inside, swinging the ruby hilted dagger at the
remaining mooring line. The balloon owner cries out in dismay.
The basket shifts beneath your feet as the balloon tugs it
skyward.</p>
<p>In the burner, a small sunspoke—a minor fire elemental—is
merrily burning away, producing a modest flame that is hot
enough to lift the balloon slowly above the market into the
sky. There is a knob valve on the side of the burner to allow
more oxygen to flow in, thereby feeding the sunspoke and
encouraging it to burn more intensely and raise the balloon
higher and faster. The valve is currently only about one third
open.</p>
<p>A pile of blankets in one corner of the basket—and that
area of the basket itself—is covered in blood. Somebody
injured in the pirate attack must have temporarily climbed
into the basket looking for cover? As you’re about to look
away, something large-ish (small for a human, large for an
animal) under the blankets shifts and moves.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I think you already know I’m interested in neither bread
nor cheese, the second of which I certainly did not ask for
yet you tried to offer in your hasty pretence.” Inky smiles
thinly at the toques.</p>
<p>Taking out a small bag of gold coins and weighing it slowly
on one hand to the sound of coins clinking inside the pouch,
Inky continues, “Speak, answer our questions frankly and you
will be rewarded. The hotelier up there need not know. Breathe
a word of our little chat to another soul, however …” Inky’s
gaze cut briefly to four snow ravens perched atop a spiral
lamp post and back, “and you will learn the meaning of
disappearing without a trace.”</p>
<p>Inky stares after Alex’s sprinting figure before shrugging
and stepping towards one of the stalls selling sandwiches
bowled over by one of the large boulders. They place some
loose change on the stall’s wooden sign that had tipped over
on the ground and pocket one of the sandwiches displayed
inside an open chest oven. Next, they pick up several of the
scented candles scattered on the ground by the crash, throwing
some coins in the direction of the disoriented vendor before
continuing at a leisurely pace up the steps to the hotel,
taking in the balloonship and surrounding scenery. The members
of their merry party arriving first can hold their own as well
as the fort of a hotel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread looks confused. You are starting to believe it is
their default expression. “So, you <em>don’t</em> want no
chee—”</p>
<p>“Our only desire is to help!” Confidence hastily
interrupts. He smiles pleasingly. “We are your guides! Not
just physically up the steps, but in all things here on Kelsun
Peak. You have but to ask, and if it is within our power to
give it, it will be yours! We are but humble ser—”</p>
<p>And just then Confidence is also suddenly interrupted. A
thundering boom like a canon sounds from somewhere nearby,
followed quickly by an explosion somewhere up above. Snow
ravens fly off in all directions in a panic. The sound ripples
through the mountaintop, rattling the ground on which you
stand. A bunch of small rocks and two large boulders shake
loose from the mountainside. Shoppers and travelers shout and
duck for cover as they are pelted by the scree. One of the
large boulder bounces clear over the station and plummets down
the side of the mountain before disappearing into the cloud
ocean below. The second one falls straight toward the
platform. A vendor selling wreaths and candles dives out of
the way as his stall is crushed by the boulder. A bench is
toppled over, spilling its blankets into the fire pit, and
catches fire, quickly spreading to another nearby stall.</p>
<p>Bread looks up at the sky, confused. You see a thin line of
black smoke starting to rise up into the sky from over the
ridge where the Runesocesius lies. Confidence shouts, and you
see him pointing at the sea, where a balloonship is rising up
out of the cloud bank, sailing quickly toward you and the
summit of Kelsun Peak.</p>
<p>It resembles a seafaring ship, but instead of masts and
sails, it has two large, colorful, patchwork balloons that
provide it lift. A large fan on a pivot at the rear of the
ship provides thrust. As you watch, it fires a second
canon—that <em>is</em> what the sound was!—nearly straight up,
arcing up and over the peak at Palace Runesocesius.</p>
<p>The crew of the ship bustle around on the deck of the ship,
reloading the canons, firing the balloons, shouting, giving
and following orders.</p>
<p>“Cyberplasms,” groans Confidence, and Bread whimpers. Alex,
that quiet, dull, static roar that has been constantly
tickling the back of your head ever since you found that
dagger seems to rise in pitch and in tone. It conveys a sense
of urgency, of warning. You can <em>almost</em> hear a
desperate voice behind the static fuzz cautioning you,
“Evil…”</p>
<p>The only corporeal element of the crew are their cybernetic
enhancements. A mechanical leg. A synthetic eye. A claw, a
hook, a hand. An arm canon. Almost all of them have more than
one, some as many as 3 or 5. The cybernetic pieces of each
individual crew member are held together by plasmic energy
arcs, crackling blue and green. And surrounding the bioware
and the plasmic arcs of each crew member, like a blanket or a
cocoon, is the translucent, wavering, ghostly form of some
humanoid long-dead.</p>
<p>The figure standing on the deck surveying the work of the
rest of the crew—presumably the captain—has a synthetic eye
rotating freely, 360 degrees in all directions, inside its
skull-like head; a bulky arm canon; and a thin robotic leg
terminating in a thick boot. Plasmic blasts arc through its
core, sometimes disrupting and glitching its ghostly body.</p>
<p>The captain raises its arm canon and shouts to the crew.
Its voice carried on the breeze sounds like something
otherworldly rising slowly from the murky deep. “Fire the
canon, boys! And fire up the balloons! Drop the ballast! That
crystal is <em>ours!</em>”</p>
<p>It happens very quickly: the ship ascends to the summit and
soon is firing grappling hooks at it to pull themselves in and
breach the walls of the hotel.</p>
<p>Bread looks at you, wide-eyed and trembling. They let loose
a pitiful wail and turn and start running up the steps.
“Bread!” Confidence yells after them. They cast a backward
glance at you. “I’ve got to help Bread! We’ve got to save the
hotel!” And they give chase to their fellow toque, bounding up
the cloudstuff steps.</p>
<p>You do a little leisurely shopping as the vendors and other
shoppers put out fires and tend to the injured. With a couple
scented candles and a sandwich safely in your pocket, you
start to climb the cloud steps, enjoying the scenery as you
go. Bread and Confidence have quite a bit of a head start on
you, and are nowhere to be seen. As the stairway winds around
the mountainside, the market and its bustle recede from view,
and soon you are quite isolated and alone.</p>
<p>The majesty of creation is humbling here: the endless,
roiling ocean of cloud; the towering mountain of rock. It’s as
though this was the creator’s playground when they were still
trying to figure out scale. Before they quite got it right for
human-sized creatures.</p>
<p>About halfway up your climb, it starts raining sheets of
paper. You snatch one and read it. Some heroic fantasy about
slaying demons and facing great peril. You grab another. A
bodice-ripping romance. Another. A gourmand’s food tour of
Basmentaria, eating their way from coast to coast. A murder
mystery whodunnit. An aetherwael handler’s guide to
interplanetary travel. How to grow your own fortified
pumpkins. On the Care and Maintenance of Fortles. The Rise and
Fall and Rise of Palace Runesocesius. Within a minute, you
have fists full of an entire library’s worth of snippets and
passages.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>It looks as though Alex will approach the hotel by balloon
from the non-pirate side. And Inky’s approach by stair will
deposit them at the hotel entrance, roughly
pirate-adjacent.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00203.html">www</a></p>
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00217.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>44</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">44 - Tue, 20 Dec 2022 08:47:08
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 Dec 2022 08:47:11 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00044">00044</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>As Alex spots the sunspoke valve he grabs it and cranks it
up to the 2/3 mark. “Sorry little friend, we’re going to need
a little bit more juice”. The baloon lurches upwards as air
rushes in feeding the sunspoke, causing it to burn more
intensely. After setting the sunspoke ablaze and shouting back
to the balloon’s owner Alex takes account of his surroundings.
It’s during this time he spots the bloodied, moving blankets.
They seem to writhe, as though something beneath them is
injured.</p>
<p>Gripping the dagger firmly in one hand Alex grabs the
blankets from the corner of the balloon basket revealing
whatever lay beneath.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The sunspoke stretches its little arms and wriggles its
little fingers. It sighs happily, luxuriating in the extra
fuel. It burns twice as bright, shooting a hot jet of bright
yellow flame up into the parachute. The sunspoke starts to
glow a molten red, and you start to rise faster.</p>
<p>As you rise up over the peak, you can finally spot the
Runesocesius. The grand hotel is draped over the top of the
mountain, clinging to it like a dragon resting on its
hoard.</p>
<p>The “cyberplasms” as Confidence called them have docked to
the side of a tower on the other side of the peak from you.
They have shot a large hole in the side of the tower, and you
can see them now starting to zipline into the building. A
thick plume of black smoke billows out of the side of the
tower, carrying pages and pages of loose paper into the air
with it. They rain down like snow. The tower must house an
extensive library.</p>
<p>You cautiously pull back a corner of the bloody blankets,
jeweled dagger raised and ready to strike. You reveal a small
bloody furry blob. You see two big round eyes, a short-snouted
face, and enormous pointed ears. It quickly looks away from
you, chirps pathetically, and trembles as it cowers in place.
You have found a frightened hemogoblin stowaway!</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00219.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
@ -614,58 +666,6 @@
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>44</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">44 - Tue, 20 Dec 2022 08:47:08
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 Dec 2022 08:47:11 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00044">00044</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>As Alex spots the sunspoke valve he grabs it and cranks it
up to the 2/3 mark. “Sorry little friend, we’re going to need
a little bit more juice”. The baloon lurches upwards as air
rushes in feeding the sunspoke, causing it to burn more
intensely. After setting the sunspoke ablaze and shouting back
to the balloon’s owner Alex takes account of his surroundings.
It’s during this time he spots the bloodied, moving blankets.
They seem to writhe, as though something beneath them is
injured.</p>
<p>Gripping the dagger firmly in one hand Alex grabs the
blankets from the corner of the balloon basket revealing
whatever lay beneath.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The sunspoke stretches its little arms and wriggles its
little fingers. It sighs happily, luxuriating in the extra
fuel. It burns twice as bright, shooting a hot jet of bright
yellow flame up into the parachute. The sunspoke starts to
glow a molten red, and you start to rise faster.</p>
<p>As you rise up over the peak, you can finally spot the
Runesocesius. The grand hotel is draped over the top of the
mountain, clinging to it like a dragon resting on its
hoard.</p>
<p>The “cyberplasms” as Confidence called them have docked to
the side of a tower on the other side of the peak from you.
They have shot a large hole in the side of the tower, and you
can see them now starting to zipline into the building. A
thick plume of black smoke billows out of the side of the
tower, carrying pages and pages of loose paper into the air
with it. They rain down like snow. The tower must house an
extensive library.</p>
<p>You cautiously pull back a corner of the bloody blankets,
jeweled dagger raised and ready to strike. You reveal a small
bloody furry blob. You see two big round eyes, a short-snouted
face, and enormous pointed ears. It quickly looks away from
you, chirps pathetically, and trembles as it cowers in place.
You have found a frightened hemogoblin stowaway!</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00219.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>41</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -765,100 +765,6 @@
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>45</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">45 - Tue, 20 Dec 2022 10:15:23
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:29:11 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00045">00045</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>As the blankets draw back from the bloody mass, a cute
little hemogoblin appears. “Aww little fellas just scared.”
Alex lowers the dagger, but otherwise ignores the hemogoblin.
Best to leave it be for now, there’s more important
things.</p>
<p>As the balloon gets within range of the ship Alex begins to
scan the deck for Cyberplasms. At the same time he checks his
bug to track the location of the cyberplasms more acutely. It
looks like there may be an opporunity to jump from the balloon
to the ship. After that cutting the zip lines would give me
the opporunity to steal the ship, leaving the cyberplasms
trapped at the top of the hotel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Just a few Cyberplasms remain on the deck of the airship.
The vast majority of them have zipped into the hotel
tower.</p>
<p>You check your bug’s feed. It has gone almost entirely
unnoticed in the fracas, and you are able to piece together a
clear picture of the inside of the tower. It is indeed a grand
library, its galleries spanning each floor of the tower. One
of the largest collections in all of Basmentaria.</p>
<p>The Cyberplasms have breached the tower near its base and
are pouring into the Great Hall. You tune in just in time to
see a rail-thin, bald and mustachioed man standing defensively
in front of a display case. “No! You can’t!” he exclaims as a
disembodied sickle approaches him in a cloud of electricity
and ectoplasm.</p>
<p>Behind the glass in the display case is a bluish hunk of
rock the size of a melon, with gently pulsing gold veins.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Inky puts away the papers they caught in passing or picked
up along the path up to read later, including a number that
from a cursory glance appear to be from a culinary collection
and a few from some moth-eaten but finely illustrated
botanical tome, among others.</p>
<p>Eventually arriving at the hotel entrance, Inky enters and
manages to catch a frantic-looking attendant near the
reception to ask the whereabouts of the hotelier, indicating
they had a business appointment with said manager.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You walk in through the hotel’s main entrance. The grandeur
would take your breath away were it not for the shouting and
the smoke and the explosions coming from down the hall to your
right.</p>
<p>You wave down a passing hotel clerk and inquire after the
hotelier. They are hauling a large bucket of hot water, and
carrying an oversized bundle of clean towels under one arm.
They pause for a moment to look at you incredulously before
running off in the opposite direction.</p>
<p>A cry rings out nearby and a Cyberplasm flies through an
open door down the hallway. It lands in a heap of crackling
energy, smears of ectoplasm streaking the floor as though it
were bleeding heavily. It seems to be barely held together by
the energy stored in its cybernetic leg and a metal skull
plate.</p>
<p>It scoots backwards on its hands and its butt, trying to
stand up. Two toques leap out of the door after it. You
recognize Bread and Confidence right away.</p>
<p>Bread has obviously been to the kitchens. They are wearing
tin baking sheets and an oversized pot on their heard as
makeshift armor, and have a couple of dangerous looking
kitchen knives hanging from their belt. At the moment they are
swinging a large meat tenderizer over their head as though it
were a war hammer.</p>
<p>Confidence, meanwhile, has been to the gardener’s shed.
They are wearing a heavy leather apron and thick leather
gloves, and have a trowel in each hand, and a large hoe or
rake strapped to their back.</p>
<p>Bread lowers their hammer on Cyberplasms head, denting the
skull plate. And Confidence darts in and stabs with both hands
at the leg. As soon as the prosthetics go offline and the
plasmic arcs cease firing, there is nothing left holding the
ectoplasm together and the ghost kind of dissipates into the
air with a soft wail.</p>
<p>They look up and notice you at the same time, relaxing
their offensive stances. “Oh!” cries Bread. “It’s you!”</p>
<p>“You don’t happen,” asks Confidence, “to need a guide, do
you?”</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00227.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>40</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -1061,6 +967,100 @@ EXTREME CAUTION IMPERATIVE.</code></pre>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>45</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">45 - Tue, 20 Dec 2022 10:15:23
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:29:11 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00045">00045</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>As the blankets draw back from the bloody mass, a cute
little hemogoblin appears. “Aww little fellas just scared.”
Alex lowers the dagger, but otherwise ignores the hemogoblin.
Best to leave it be for now, there’s more important
things.</p>
<p>As the balloon gets within range of the ship Alex begins to
scan the deck for Cyberplasms. At the same time he checks his
bug to track the location of the cyberplasms more acutely. It
looks like there may be an opporunity to jump from the balloon
to the ship. After that cutting the zip lines would give me
the opporunity to steal the ship, leaving the cyberplasms
trapped at the top of the hotel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Just a few Cyberplasms remain on the deck of the airship.
The vast majority of them have zipped into the hotel
tower.</p>
<p>You check your bug’s feed. It has gone almost entirely
unnoticed in the fracas, and you are able to piece together a
clear picture of the inside of the tower. It is indeed a grand
library, its galleries spanning each floor of the tower. One
of the largest collections in all of Basmentaria.</p>
<p>The Cyberplasms have breached the tower near its base and
are pouring into the Great Hall. You tune in just in time to
see a rail-thin, bald and mustachioed man standing defensively
in front of a display case. “No! You can’t!” he exclaims as a
disembodied sickle approaches him in a cloud of electricity
and ectoplasm.</p>
<p>Behind the glass in the display case is a bluish hunk of
rock the size of a melon, with gently pulsing gold veins.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Inky puts away the papers they caught in passing or picked
up along the path up to read later, including a number that
from a cursory glance appear to be from a culinary collection
and a few from some moth-eaten but finely illustrated
botanical tome, among others.</p>
<p>Eventually arriving at the hotel entrance, Inky enters and
manages to catch a frantic-looking attendant near the
reception to ask the whereabouts of the hotelier, indicating
they had a business appointment with said manager.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You walk in through the hotel’s main entrance. The grandeur
would take your breath away were it not for the shouting and
the smoke and the explosions coming from down the hall to your
right.</p>
<p>You wave down a passing hotel clerk and inquire after the
hotelier. They are hauling a large bucket of hot water, and
carrying an oversized bundle of clean towels under one arm.
They pause for a moment to look at you incredulously before
running off in the opposite direction.</p>
<p>A cry rings out nearby and a Cyberplasm flies through an
open door down the hallway. It lands in a heap of crackling
energy, smears of ectoplasm streaking the floor as though it
were bleeding heavily. It seems to be barely held together by
the energy stored in its cybernetic leg and a metal skull
plate.</p>
<p>It scoots backwards on its hands and its butt, trying to
stand up. Two toques leap out of the door after it. You
recognize Bread and Confidence right away.</p>
<p>Bread has obviously been to the kitchens. They are wearing
tin baking sheets and an oversized pot on their heard as
makeshift armor, and have a couple of dangerous looking
kitchen knives hanging from their belt. At the moment they are
swinging a large meat tenderizer over their head as though it
were a war hammer.</p>
<p>Confidence, meanwhile, has been to the gardener’s shed.
They are wearing a heavy leather apron and thick leather
gloves, and have a trowel in each hand, and a large hoe or
rake strapped to their back.</p>
<p>Bread lowers their hammer on Cyberplasms head, denting the
skull plate. And Confidence darts in and stabs with both hands
at the leg. As soon as the prosthetics go offline and the
plasmic arcs cease firing, there is nothing left holding the
ectoplasm together and the ghost kind of dissipates into the
air with a soft wail.</p>
<p>They look up and notice you at the same time, relaxing
their offensive stances. “Oh!” cries Bread. “It’s you!”</p>
<p>“You don’t happen,” asks Confidence, “to need a guide, do
you?”</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00227.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>38</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>

10
www/spoilers.html
View File

@ -333,8 +333,8 @@ id="toc-acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></li>
<p>Total length: 44522 words / 190 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the
length of this entire page, including all the extra bits and bobs. Not
just the story.)</p>
<p>There have been 163 messages posted over 162 days since the first
post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.00.</p>
<p>There have been 165 messages posted over 162 days since the first
post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.01.</p>
<h2 id="about">About</h2>
<p>This is a game that me and the kids in the basement are playing over
email.</p>
@ -5535,8 +5535,10 @@ embers.</p>
<li>Beaker (and Cio) trailing the BANDits?</li>
<li>Benefactor wants Crystals to kill a god</li>
<li>Golden Iris wants Crystals to make a new god</li>
<li>Gnu Zealots seek Sitopotnia the Corn Mother (aligned with Golden
Iris)</li>
<li>Gnu Zealots (aligned with Golden Iris) seek to open source
godhood</li>
<li>Sitopotnia has offered new corn-based bodies to the cyberplasm if
they can deliver to her the Quintessence</li>
<li>Blavin double agent with Golden Iris</li>
<li>BATT wants to preserve the timeline</li>
<li>Felixe and Corraidhin</li>