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basement.order
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@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ src/epistolary/00045.md
src/epistolary/00046.md
src/epistolary/00047.md
src/epistolary/00048.md
src/epistolary/00049.md
src/bestiary/index.md
src/bestiary/aur.md
src/bestiary/blahoblin.md

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src/appendix/a/index.md
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@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ public: yes
Being apocryphal and supplemental material posted to the *Barefoot Quackery*
thread on tildepals, including depictions of loose pages torn from books of the
Runesocesius Library, and original fictions and other diversions, and more.
Runesocesius Library during the assault by the Cyberplasms, as well as original
works of fiction and other diversions.
### Cease and Desist

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src/characters/inky.md
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@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ What do you plan to do with your cut of the money? Buy lots of ink ingredients,
</details>
- Player: mio
- XP: 1
- Skills: Do Anything 1, Persuasive 2, Plantomancy 2, Throwing 2
- XP: 0
- Skills: Do Anything 1, Persuasive 2, Plantomancy 2, Throwing 2, Medicine 2
- Equipment: Handy Duffer Discette, Fine Feathered Quills, Jade Tea Set, Mountain Range Glyph Ink, Bead of the Werehare
Paths:

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@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
---
title: 00049
created: Thu, 29 Dec 2022 18:55:34 -0700
updated: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 08:12:55 -0700
syndicated: yes
public: yes
---
### 00049 {#00049}
> "They *are* a good guide," Inky corrects adamantly. "Do you hear
> that, Bread? You're not allowed to disappear until you've had an
> entire bag of these croutons, and even then you're still not
> allowed. If I'd known you'd never had croutons before I wouldn't
> have let you walk a step further into that hall. That was
> simultaneously the worst and best idea ever. Mango! Croutons! What
> a travesty. Did you even taste any of it? No? You have to! How can
> you offer guests delicious fondue without croutons? Speaking of
> which, we haven't gotten that fondue you promised yet, that's
> reason #144 you can't disappear. What's reason #143? Crostinis.
> Small toasted bread. Slice of life. You can put cheese on it too,
> if you really must …"
>
> And so on. While Inky talks at Bread in a bid to keep them
> conscious, they whisk out a first-aid kit from their courier bag
> and kneeling on the floor, proceeds to stem the bleeding from the
> chest wound with coagulant-coated bandages. Slowly, they tip a
> flask of tea infused with some restorative herbs down Bread's open
> mouth, careful not to pour too quickly. Inky pauses mid-diatribe
> and mid-pour to thrust another flask of tea into Confidence's hand,
> the one wrapped four-fifths of the hotelier and ask, "Are you
> injured? Please keep an eye on your companion, I will summon for
> assistance."
>
> Standing up, Inky walks to a window, opens it and peers out. They
> look around for a hot air balloon and notice the unmoored airship.
> After squinting at it with a mini-spyglass, they see Alex standing
> at the helm of the ship with a young hemogoblin on board. Inky
> waves, and makes a vertical cross sign with a fist and thumb on the
> opposite upper arm a few times. Next, they pull out a small tin
> whistle, and toot a few sharp notes in the same cadence as the
> one-liner directed at Bread earlier by the gondola station. After a
> moment, a scops owl swoops in to land on the windowsill. Inky
> inserts a rolled piece of paper into a small pouch hanging at the
> bird's back, and the bird flies off again.
>
> Returning to the figures slumped against the wall, Inky places the
> Ginnarak crystal in a lightly padded cloth bag, stowing it away in
> their knapsack-style backpack. They resume checking and tending to
> the toques' injuries, while expounding upon various permutations of
> toasted bread to a captive audience.
Bread closes their eyes and smiles dreamily at the descriptions of
various breads. They weakly sip the tea as you tip it into their
mouth and swallow with effort.
<!--
Inky rolls Do Anything 1 to stabilize Bread
2 = Things go poorly
Spend 1 remaining xp to advance = Success + gain Medicine 2
//-->
They sigh and open their eyes. They focus on you and maintain eye
contact as you draw from a seemingly bottomless well of knowledge on
the topic of toasted breads. Bread and life are clinging fast to each
other, neither ready or willing to let go of the other. They are
going to be okay.
Confidence's wounds are superficial. They are winded from dragging
Bread and the hotelier up seven flights of stairs. But they are fine.
The hotelier's wounds are sadly quite fatal. Honestly it was all over
for him the moment he took the full force of the captain's plasma
canon to his chest. He babbles, "It's not ... I wasn't ..." And then
with sudden realization and quiet resignation, a clear-eyed, "Oh."
And then he is gone.
His courage in the face of danger is the reason you now have the
third of the five Ginnarak Crystals in your pack. Whether or not his
death was in vain is now largely up to you and what you decide to do
with the crystal.
~
Downstairs in the Great Hall of the library, one of the remaining
Cyberplasms crouches down next to the inert cybernetic eye that until
very recently belonged to their captain. They pick it up and turn it
over in their hand. "Worry not, my captain," the ghost mourns. "We
will find the quintessence. And once we do, we will be made anew in
the forge of our Mother."
He rolls the orb in palm of his hand. A faint arc of energy crackles
across its surface. And the eye rolls over of its own volition and
looks up at the pirate.
Suddenly reverent, the pirate gently places the eye on the ground as
a ghostly face begins to form around it. The pirate waits patiently,
attentively. It's not every day one gets to bare witness to a new
birth. The ectoplasm that gathers around the eye forms a rail-thin
body. Its head is bald and its face sports a neatly trimmed mustache.
It is missing an arm and a leg.
Dutifully, the witness fetches a recently discarded arm canon and leg
booster. The exotica tap into the energy provided by a new crossing
over, and come online, and create a new mesh.
The hotelier stands and looks down at its new body. As it were. It
looks around at its surroundings. It picks up a few books and starts
shelving them.
The pirate, mostly wishing to provide companionship and comfort to
the new ghost, assists with tidying up.
~
Alex, you are at the helm of the balloon-ship. As you start to drift
slightly up and away, the blue dome of the hotel comes into view. On
its peak you can see a life-sized statue of a stern-faced
Runesocesius wielding a spear, drawn back as though ready to hurl an
angry thunderbolt down at the world below.
The hemogoblin is still down on the deck by the canons. You see it
waving cheerily at the library tower. You squint in that direction,
but can't see what has caught its attention.
A small tufted-ear owl silently lands next to you breaking you from
your reverie. The owl is wearing a small harness with a pouch at the
back. Inside the pouch is a rolled piece of paper signed by Inky, up
on the seventh floor of the tower.
You count seven windows up the side of the tower from its base. There
seems to be some movement inside, but you can't make much out from
here. With a lucky shot, you think you might be able to hook the
window frame with a zipline.
~
Outside, a pink zephynos is spinning raw cloud into a minuscule opera
house and performing arts center under the direction of an amber imp
with a new hunger for life. It is an organic looking structure: a
primary concert hall, surrounded by a number of smaller stages and
performance areas spiraling out from the center like a nautilus
shell.
The imp smiles happily, proudly. What tales will be told here! What
songs will be sung! "Lorehold," it whispers to itself. "You will tell
the world's stories."
It is already trying out lines in its head, imagining the play it
will write of this day. About the hotel and the library and the
pirates and the cloud dragons. About a pair of adventurers. And a
very brave and lucky drone pilot that dared to chase its dreams.
WHAT DO YOU DO
[www](https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00252.html)

2
src/notes.md
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@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Each crystal has an associated *element*, a *location* appropriate to the elemen
| -- |---------|-----------------------------|--------|
| ✅ | earth | cave | coin |
| ✅ | water | underwater pirate shipwreck | mirth |
| 🚫 | wind | cloudstuff | lore |
| ✅ | wind | cloudstuff | lore |
| 🚫 | void | spaaaaace | craft |
| 🚫 | fire | volcano | tact |

136
www/index.html
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@ -320,6 +320,7 @@ of the Were-Hare</a></li>
<li><a href="#00046" id="toc-00046">00046</a></li>
<li><a href="#00047" id="toc-00047">00047</a></li>
<li><a href="#00048" id="toc-00048">00048</a></li>
<li><a href="#00049" id="toc-00049">00049</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="#bestiary" id="toc-bestiary">Bestiary</a></li>
<li><a href="#geography" id="toc-geography">Geography</a></li>
@ -352,10 +353,10 @@ Runesocesius</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<h2 id="stats">Stats</h2>
<p>Total length: 51977 words / 222 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the
<p>Total length: 53179 words / 227 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 171 messages posted over 169 days since the first
<p>There have been 173 messages posted over 170 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
@ -510,8 +511,9 @@ very soon!</p>
</details>
<ul>
<li>Player: mio</li>
<li>XP: 1</li>
<li>Skills: Do Anything 1, Persuasive 2, Plantomancy 2, Throwing 2</li>
<li>XP: 0</li>
<li>Skills: Do Anything 1, Persuasive 2, Plantomancy 2, Throwing 2,
Medicine 2</li>
<li>Equipment: Handy Duffer Discette, Fine Feathered Quills, Jade Tea
Set, Mountain Range Glyph Ink, Bead of the Werehare</li>
</ul>
@ -5476,6 +5478,127 @@ It was Bread’s idea. They were a good guide.”</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00250.html">www</a></p>
<h3 id="00049">00049</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>“They <em>are</em> a good guide,” Inky corrects adamantly. “Do you
hear that, Bread? You’re not allowed to disappear until you’ve had an
entire bag of these croutons, and even then you’re still not allowed. If
I’d known you’d never had croutons before I wouldn’t have let you walk a
step further into that hall. That was simultaneously the worst and best
idea ever. Mango! Croutons! What a travesty. Did you even taste any of
it? No? You have to! How can you offer guests delicious fondue without
croutons? Speaking of which, we haven’t gotten that fondue you promised
yet, that’s reason #144 you can’t disappear. What’s reason #143?
Crostinis. Small toasted bread. Slice of life. You can put cheese on it
too, if you really must …”</p>
<p>And so on. While Inky talks at Bread in a bid to keep them conscious,
they whisk out a first-aid kit from their courier bag and kneeling on
the floor, proceeds to stem the bleeding from the chest wound with
coagulant-coated bandages. Slowly, they tip a flask of tea infused with
some restorative herbs down Bread’s open mouth, careful not to pour too
quickly. Inky pauses mid-diatribe and mid-pour to thrust another flask
of tea into Confidence’s hand, the one wrapped four-fifths of the
hotelier and ask, “Are you injured? Please keep an eye on your
companion, I will summon for assistance.”</p>
<p>Standing up, Inky walks to a window, opens it and peers out. They
look around for a hot air balloon and notice the unmoored airship. After
squinting at it with a mini-spyglass, they see Alex standing at the helm
of the ship with a young hemogoblin on board. Inky waves, and makes a
vertical cross sign with a fist and thumb on the opposite upper arm a
few times. Next, they pull out a small tin whistle, and toot a few sharp
notes in the same cadence as the one-liner directed at Bread earlier by
the gondola station. After a moment, a scops owl swoops in to land on
the windowsill. Inky inserts a rolled piece of paper into a small pouch
hanging at the bird’s back, and the bird flies off again.</p>
<p>Returning to the figures slumped against the wall, Inky places the
Ginnarak crystal in a lightly padded cloth bag, stowing it away in their
knapsack-style backpack. They resume checking and tending to the toques’
injuries, while expounding upon various permutations of toasted bread to
a captive audience.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread closes their eyes and smiles dreamily at the descriptions of
various breads. They weakly sip the tea as you tip it into their mouth
and swallow with effort.</p>
<!--
Inky rolls Do Anything 1 to stabilize Bread
2 = Things go poorly
Spend 1 remaining xp to advance = Success + gain Medicine 2
//-->
<p>They sigh and open their eyes. They focus on you and maintain eye
contact as you draw from a seemingly bottomless well of knowledge on the
topic of toasted breads. Bread and life are clinging fast to each other,
neither ready or willing to let go of the other. They are going to be
okay.</p>
<p>Confidence’s wounds are superficial. They are winded from dragging
Bread and the hotelier up seven flights of stairs. But they are
fine.</p>
<p>The hotelier’s wounds are sadly quite fatal. Honestly it was all over
for him the moment he took the full force of the captain’s plasma canon
to his chest. He babbles, “It’s not … I wasn’t …” And then with sudden
realization and quiet resignation, a clear-eyed, “Oh.” And then he is
gone.</p>
<p>His courage in the face of danger is the reason you now have the
third of the five Ginnarak Crystals in your pack. Whether or not his
death was in vain is now largely up to you and what you decide to do
with the crystal.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Downstairs in the Great Hall of the library, one of the remaining
Cyberplasms crouches down next to the inert cybernetic eye that until
very recently belonged to their captain. They pick it up and turn it
over in their hand. “Worry not, my captain,” the ghost mourns. “We will
find the quintessence. And once we do, we will be made anew in the forge
of our Mother.”</p>
<p>He rolls the orb in palm of his hand. A faint arc of energy crackles
across its surface. And the eye rolls over of its own volition and looks
up at the pirate.</p>
<p>Suddenly reverent, the pirate gently places the eye on the ground as
a ghostly face begins to form around it. The pirate waits patiently,
attentively. It’s not every day one gets to bare witness to a new birth.
The ectoplasm that gathers around the eye forms a rail-thin body. Its
head is bald and its face sports a neatly trimmed mustache. It is
missing an arm and a leg.</p>
<p>Dutifully, the witness fetches a recently discarded arm canon and leg
booster. The exotica tap into the energy provided by a new crossing
over, and come online, and create a new mesh.</p>
<p>The hotelier stands and looks down at its new body. As it were. It
looks around at its surroundings. It picks up a few books and starts
shelving them.</p>
<p>The pirate, mostly wishing to provide companionship and comfort to
the new ghost, assists with tidying up.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Alex, you are at the helm of the balloon-ship. As you start to drift
slightly up and away, the blue dome of the hotel comes into view. On its
peak you can see a life-sized statue of a stern-faced Runesocesius
wielding a spear, drawn back as though ready to hurl an angry
thunderbolt down at the world below.</p>
<p>The hemogoblin is still down on the deck by the canons. You see it
waving cheerily at the library tower. You squint in that direction, but
can’t see what has caught its attention.</p>
<p>A small tufted-ear owl silently lands next to you breaking you from
your reverie. The owl is wearing a small harness with a pouch at the
back. Inside the pouch is a rolled piece of paper signed by Inky, up on
the seventh floor of the tower.</p>
<p>You count seven windows up the side of the tower from its base. There
seems to be some movement inside, but you can’t make much out from here.
With a lucky shot, you think you might be able to hook the window frame
with a zipline.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Outside, a pink zephynos is spinning raw cloud into a minuscule opera
house and performing arts center under the direction of an amber imp
with a new hunger for life. It is an organic looking structure: a
primary concert hall, surrounded by a number of smaller stages and
performance areas spiraling out from the center like a nautilus
shell.</p>
<p>The imp smiles happily, proudly. What tales will be told here! What
songs will be sung! “Lorehold,” it whispers to itself. “You will tell
the world’s stories.”</p>
<p>It is already trying out lines in its head, imagining the play it
will write of this day. About the hotel and the library and the pirates
and the cloud dragons. About a pair of adventurers. And a very brave and
lucky drone pilot that dared to chase its dreams.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00252.html">www</a></p>
<h2 id="bestiary">Bestiary</h2>
<p>Some of the creatures who inhabit the world of Basmentaria</p>
<dt>
@ -5850,8 +5973,9 @@ more gentle conclusion.</p>
<h2 id="appendix-a-barefoot-quackery">Appendix A: Barefoot Quackery</h2>
<p>Being apocryphal and supplemental material posted to the <em>Barefoot
Quackery</em> thread on tildepals, including depictions of loose pages
torn from books of the Runesocesius Library, and original fictions and
other diversions, and more.</p>
torn from books of the Runesocesius Library during the assault by the
Cyberplasms, as well as original works of fiction and other
diversions.</p>
<h3 id="cease-and-desist">Cease and Desist</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>To: durrendal<br />

921
www/rss.xml
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@ -5,149 +5,6 @@
<title>BASEMENT QWEST</title>
<link>https://tilde.town/~dozens/quest/rss.xml</link>
<description>Friends having ADVENTURES! Huzzah!</description>
<item>
<title>46</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">46 - Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:36:07
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:36:10 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00046">00046</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Ah so I suppose those Toques were being honest then, there
was a Ginnarak crystal, and I guess they were going to give it
to us.. oh well, nothing good in life comes easy.</p>
<p>Alex cranks the dial on the sunspoke, grabs the hemogoblin
from the basket, and jumps out of the balloon and onto the
deck of the ship. He rushes over to the nearest pile of
bundled rope and barrels and stows his new hemo friend. “Just
stay hidden little guy, let me take care of these pirates
first.”</p>
<p>Alex grabs the dagger from his side as he makes his way
towards the side of the ship, first thing first, best to cut
the mooring lines and zip lines. The static clawing sensation
appears at the back of Alex’s mind, but he attempts to ignore
it. There’s too much that needs to be done too quickly, and
he’s all too aware of the danger he’s put himself in. “What
would Corraidhin do..” Alex thinks to himself, “perhaps a
spell?”.</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre
class="sourceCode lua"><code class="sourceCode lua"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">function</span> target<span class="op">:</span>new<span class="op">(</span>obj<span class="op">,</span> tbl<span class="op">)</span></span>
<span id="cb1-2"><a href="#cb1-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> obj <span class="op">=</span> obj <span class="kw">or</span> <span class="op">{}</span></span>
<span id="cb1-3"><a href="#cb1-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> <span class="fu">setmetatable</span><span class="op">(</span>obj<span class="op">,</span> self<span class="op">)</span></span>
<span id="cb1-4"><a href="#cb1-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span><span class="cn">__</span>index <span class="op">=</span> self</span>
<span id="cb1-5"><a href="#cb1-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>x <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">0</span></span>
<span id="cb1-6"><a href="#cb1-6" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>y <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">0</span></span>
<span id="cb1-7"><a href="#cb1-7" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>speed <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">0</span></span>
<span id="cb1-8"><a href="#cb1-8" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> reutrn obj</span>
<span id="cb1-9"><a href="#cb1-9" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">end</span></span>
<span id="cb1-10"><a href="#cb1-10" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb1-11"><a href="#cb1-11" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">function</span> target<span class="op">:</span>yeet<span class="op">()</span></span>
<span id="cb1-12"><a href="#cb1-12" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>x <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">100</span></span>
<span id="cb1-13"><a href="#cb1-13" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>y <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">100</span></span>
<span id="cb1-14"><a href="#cb1-14" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>speed <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">50</span></span>
<span id="cb1-15"><a href="#cb1-15" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> <span class="cf">return</span> self</span>
<span id="cb1-16"><a href="#cb1-16" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">end</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>After preparing the spell Alex makes his way towards the
guard rail ready to cut the mooring and zip lines, spell at
the ready should an enemy appear.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You crank the dial to 11. The sunspoke squeals in delight
and burns like a tiny star. You grab the hemogoblin, who
chirrups and clings tightly to you, and leap from the balloon
onto the deck of the airship.</p>
<p>You think you can hear—barely audible—the sunspoke singing
a song of homecoming as the hot air balloon continues to rise
unpiloted up toward the sun.</p>
<p>You rush over to cover behind a barrel, and deposit your
new hemogoblin friend safely inside the center of a large coil
of rope. It looks up at you quizzically, but nods when you
tell it to stay put.</p>
<p>You invoke the powers of the moon and prepare a quick but
(hopefully) sufficient Spell of Yeeting.</p>
<!--
Alex rolls Do Anything 1 to cut the lines and avoid detection
6 = Great Success! Level Up!
//-->
<p>When you draw the dagger, the world develops a faint static
background noise which is easy enough to ignore at the moment
given the state of things. You dash forward and start sawing
at the thick mooring lines. The dagger’s ruby hilt flashes in
the sunlight as you work, and in your mind’s eye you see a
bright red wine, and a drop of blood red ink flowing from the
nib of a fountain pen.</p>
<p>You shake the images from your head just as you finish
sawing through the rope. A Cyberplasm who was shimmying back
up the rope from the hotel to the ship yelps as the line goes
slack and swings back into the side of the cliff. The pirate
rebounds from the impact, bounces off the mountainside a few
times, and falls from view as it disappears through the clouds
below.</p>
<p>The ship drifts lazily, rising slightly, and despite your
best sneaking around, the remaining Cyberplasms on board
cannot help but notice that the ship is no longer tethered.
You successfully hide behind a barrel as three cyber ghost
pirates come rushing over to the ship railing and lean over,
looking below at where there are no longer any ropes attaching
the ship to the hotel.</p>
<p>Out of the corner of your eye, you can see the hemogoblin
toddling across the deck toward the Cyberplasms, no doubt
curious about what they’re looking at over the side of the
ship.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Indeed, Bread, it’s me. You have not yet escaped your fate
of untraceable disappearance just yet.” Inky deadpans, then
smiles. “We have much to discuss, but later. I do need a guide
… to your hotelier. Presumably I will find them by following
the racket and trail of ruined decor, but maybe you know of a
quicker route?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread smiles at the threat of being untraceably
disappeared, mostly confident that they are on the inside of a
private little joke and that they are presently in no actual
danger from Inky. They grip their hammer a little tighter
nonetheless.</p>
<p>Confidence slips their trowels into their apron. “Yes, this
way!”</p>
<p>They hurry down the hall. You know you’re going the right
way because tattered, torn, charred books litter the ground in
increasing numbers. Bits of paper and ash fall like snow.</p>
<p>Confidence guides you away from the entrance to the
library’s Great Hall, and takes you instead to a smaller, more
discreet staff entrance. They open the door a crack, and as
you look through you are just in time to see the ship captain
with their cybernetic leg, arm canon, and eye. Now that the
crew have cleared the way for them, they stroll across the
library over piles of fallen, damaged books.</p>
<p>A thin bald man with a neatly trimmed mustache is on the
other side of the hall, his back turned to the pirate. He
wears a fine suit and has just finished unlocking a glass
display case. He retrieves a multifaceted blue and gold stone
and hugs it to his chest with both arms. He throws a panicked
glance over his shoulder at the slowly approaching pirate, and
turns to run away. His retreat is halted by a small explosion
at his feet. He skids to a stop and looks back at the pirate,
who is lowering their arm canon.</p>
<p>“The crystal,” the captain demands in a voice part ghostly
moan, part mechanical drone. “Hand it over, hotelier.” It
steps closer. “Mother has promised us new bodies if we deliver
the quintessence. You won’t be permitted to stand in our
way.”</p>
<p>One pirate near the breach tucks a couple volumes of manhwa
under its arm and climbs out onto the mooring line, returning
to the ship with its plunder. It howls as the line suddenly
goes slack, flinging the pirate and its comics into the
mountainside, and then out into space.</p>
<p>Sunlight pours into the library from outside as the shadow
of the airship shifts as it starts to drift, suddenly
unmoored.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00231.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>42</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -297,6 +154,149 @@
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>46</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">46 - Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:36:07
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:36:10 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00046">00046</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Ah so I suppose those Toques were being honest then, there
was a Ginnarak crystal, and I guess they were going to give it
to us.. oh well, nothing good in life comes easy.</p>
<p>Alex cranks the dial on the sunspoke, grabs the hemogoblin
from the basket, and jumps out of the balloon and onto the
deck of the ship. He rushes over to the nearest pile of
bundled rope and barrels and stows his new hemo friend. “Just
stay hidden little guy, let me take care of these pirates
first.”</p>
<p>Alex grabs the dagger from his side as he makes his way
towards the side of the ship, first thing first, best to cut
the mooring lines and zip lines. The static clawing sensation
appears at the back of Alex’s mind, but he attempts to ignore
it. There’s too much that needs to be done too quickly, and
he’s all too aware of the danger he’s put himself in. “What
would Corraidhin do..” Alex thinks to himself, “perhaps a
spell?”.</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre
class="sourceCode lua"><code class="sourceCode lua"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">function</span> target<span class="op">:</span>new<span class="op">(</span>obj<span class="op">,</span> tbl<span class="op">)</span></span>
<span id="cb1-2"><a href="#cb1-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> obj <span class="op">=</span> obj <span class="kw">or</span> <span class="op">{}</span></span>
<span id="cb1-3"><a href="#cb1-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> <span class="fu">setmetatable</span><span class="op">(</span>obj<span class="op">,</span> self<span class="op">)</span></span>
<span id="cb1-4"><a href="#cb1-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span><span class="cn">__</span>index <span class="op">=</span> self</span>
<span id="cb1-5"><a href="#cb1-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>x <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">0</span></span>
<span id="cb1-6"><a href="#cb1-6" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>y <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">0</span></span>
<span id="cb1-7"><a href="#cb1-7" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>speed <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">0</span></span>
<span id="cb1-8"><a href="#cb1-8" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> reutrn obj</span>
<span id="cb1-9"><a href="#cb1-9" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">end</span></span>
<span id="cb1-10"><a href="#cb1-10" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb1-11"><a href="#cb1-11" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">function</span> target<span class="op">:</span>yeet<span class="op">()</span></span>
<span id="cb1-12"><a href="#cb1-12" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>x <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">100</span></span>
<span id="cb1-13"><a href="#cb1-13" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>y <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">100</span></span>
<span id="cb1-14"><a href="#cb1-14" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> self<span class="op">.</span>speed <span class="op">=</span> <span class="dv">50</span></span>
<span id="cb1-15"><a href="#cb1-15" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a> <span class="cf">return</span> self</span>
<span id="cb1-16"><a href="#cb1-16" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">end</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>After preparing the spell Alex makes his way towards the
guard rail ready to cut the mooring and zip lines, spell at
the ready should an enemy appear.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You crank the dial to 11. The sunspoke squeals in delight
and burns like a tiny star. You grab the hemogoblin, who
chirrups and clings tightly to you, and leap from the balloon
onto the deck of the airship.</p>
<p>You think you can hear—barely audible—the sunspoke singing
a song of homecoming as the hot air balloon continues to rise
unpiloted up toward the sun.</p>
<p>You rush over to cover behind a barrel, and deposit your
new hemogoblin friend safely inside the center of a large coil
of rope. It looks up at you quizzically, but nods when you
tell it to stay put.</p>
<p>You invoke the powers of the moon and prepare a quick but
(hopefully) sufficient Spell of Yeeting.</p>
<!--
Alex rolls Do Anything 1 to cut the lines and avoid detection
6 = Great Success! Level Up!
//-->
<p>When you draw the dagger, the world develops a faint static
background noise which is easy enough to ignore at the moment
given the state of things. You dash forward and start sawing
at the thick mooring lines. The dagger’s ruby hilt flashes in
the sunlight as you work, and in your mind’s eye you see a
bright red wine, and a drop of blood red ink flowing from the
nib of a fountain pen.</p>
<p>You shake the images from your head just as you finish
sawing through the rope. A Cyberplasm who was shimmying back
up the rope from the hotel to the ship yelps as the line goes
slack and swings back into the side of the cliff. The pirate
rebounds from the impact, bounces off the mountainside a few
times, and falls from view as it disappears through the clouds
below.</p>
<p>The ship drifts lazily, rising slightly, and despite your
best sneaking around, the remaining Cyberplasms on board
cannot help but notice that the ship is no longer tethered.
You successfully hide behind a barrel as three cyber ghost
pirates come rushing over to the ship railing and lean over,
looking below at where there are no longer any ropes attaching
the ship to the hotel.</p>
<p>Out of the corner of your eye, you can see the hemogoblin
toddling across the deck toward the Cyberplasms, no doubt
curious about what they’re looking at over the side of the
ship.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Indeed, Bread, it’s me. You have not yet escaped your fate
of untraceable disappearance just yet.” Inky deadpans, then
smiles. “We have much to discuss, but later. I do need a guide
… to your hotelier. Presumably I will find them by following
the racket and trail of ruined decor, but maybe you know of a
quicker route?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread smiles at the threat of being untraceably
disappeared, mostly confident that they are on the inside of a
private little joke and that they are presently in no actual
danger from Inky. They grip their hammer a little tighter
nonetheless.</p>
<p>Confidence slips their trowels into their apron. “Yes, this
way!”</p>
<p>They hurry down the hall. You know you’re going the right
way because tattered, torn, charred books litter the ground in
increasing numbers. Bits of paper and ash fall like snow.</p>
<p>Confidence guides you away from the entrance to the
library’s Great Hall, and takes you instead to a smaller, more
discreet staff entrance. They open the door a crack, and as
you look through you are just in time to see the ship captain
with their cybernetic leg, arm canon, and eye. Now that the
crew have cleared the way for them, they stroll across the
library over piles of fallen, damaged books.</p>
<p>A thin bald man with a neatly trimmed mustache is on the
other side of the hall, his back turned to the pirate. He
wears a fine suit and has just finished unlocking a glass
display case. He retrieves a multifaceted blue and gold stone
and hugs it to his chest with both arms. He throws a panicked
glance over his shoulder at the slowly approaching pirate, and
turns to run away. His retreat is halted by a small explosion
at his feet. He skids to a stop and looks back at the pirate,
who is lowering their arm canon.</p>
<p>“The crystal,” the captain demands in a voice part ghostly
moan, part mechanical drone. “Hand it over, hotelier.” It
steps closer. “Mother has promised us new bodies if we deliver
the quintessence. You won’t be permitted to stand in our
way.”</p>
<p>One pirate near the breach tucks a couple volumes of manhwa
under its arm and climbs out onto the mooring line, returning
to the ship with its plunder. It howls as the line suddenly
goes slack, flinging the pirate and its comics into the
mountainside, and then out into space.</p>
<p>Sunlight pours into the library from outside as the shadow
of the airship shifts as it starts to drift, suddenly
unmoored.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00231.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>47</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -525,157 +525,6 @@
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>41</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">41 - Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:50:38
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:50:44 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00041">00041</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Alex grips the encoded message he received in reply to his
last request firmly in his coat pocket. It was simple, curt,
impactful. “Trust no one”. Which begged the question, could
even it be trusted? Was HQ compromised? His informants in
danger? His allies and leads awash in the dark grey mist of
uncertainity. Or had his message been intercepted, cracked,
and a farsical response been sent in its place. Alex wasn’t
certain which, but the strange format and unusually speedy
response had him on edge.</p>
<p>This anxiety didn’t boil up to the surface, not a line of
worry or hint of the inner turbulence broke his cold blue
eyes. Outwardly he was just as composed as ever, but between
these uncertainties, the loss of his uncle, and now this
utterly strange dagger he’d found amongst his uncle’s
belongings, he wasn’t certain how long that composure would
last. It didn’t held that he felt this gnawing at the back of
his mind, as though something was probing, attempting to
communicate with him, somewhere between telepathy and utter
magic, and not in any sense that Alex understood.</p>
<p>And here he stood, a stranger amongst amidst his uncle’s
allies, and very little intention to change that situation at
the moment.</p>
<p>As the gondola touched down and the Toques rushed to greet
them Alex jumped blithely off the ship and onto firm, but
fluffy, ground. He cast a look around him at what appeared to
be an ordinary port of entry, noting the crowds of people
passing by. As the Toques arrived Alex spoke curtly to them,
“Who sends you to greet us, and where do you wish to take us,
and by what means do we travel?”. Short, cut, information
only. There’s too much unnerving in an unknown situation like
this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>~</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Inky greets the toques in turn politely, then turns to the
second toque and says, “A little bit of bread and no
cheese.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Cheese?” Bread cocks their head looks at Inky with a touch
of embarrassment. They start patting at their pockets,
presumably looking for a morsel of cheese to share with the
travelers, but finding none. They groan miserably. Confidence
butts in apologetically, “There will be plenty of food at the
hotel if you want some! Some delicious fondue perhaps? Kelsun
Peak’s famous liquid gold!”</p>
<p>“Blavin Blandfoot arranged for us to meet you,” Bread
answers Alex. Confidence nods enthusiastically in agreement.
“But I suppose technically the hotelier sent us.” Bread points
up at the sky, in the general direction of the summit of
Kelsun Peak. “We are to escort you to Palace Runesocesius.”
They thumb over their shoulder in the general direction of the
stairs. “By way of the cloud steps. On foot.”</p>
<p>Confidence leans in close and lowers their voice. “A
Ginnarak Crystal! I can’t hardly believe it! Thought they had
all been lost to the ages. I hear it’s complete dumb random
luck that this one turned up. Story is, an aetherwael beached
itself on some wide zephynos boulevard. Happens sometimes.
Poor things can’t distinguish between clouds and cloudstuff. I
don’t blame ’em! At a distance, you and me can’t either!
Anyway, this aetherwael has got a harpoon stuck in its side.
Dratted poachers. May they all fall out of the sky and be
dashed to a thousand pieces on the rocks below. But it had a
harpoon in its side and was trailing behind it a float bag
tethered to the harpoon. And you probably already guessed what
was inside of it!” By the time Confidence finishes their brief
story, they are trembling and nearly breathless with
excitement.</p>
<p>“Anyway,” Bread interrupts their excited companion in an
attempt to restore decorum. Both of the toques have been
gently herding you toward the base of the stairs this whole
time. “You know how the zephynos are. You could give them all
the coin in Basmentaria, or something priceless like a
Ginnarak Crystal, and they’d just as quickly misplace it out
of carelessness. If it’s not a cloud they can sculpt into the
shape of seussomorph or the likeness of some fantasy creature,
they just don’t give a fig. Luckily the hotelier caught wind
of the aetherwael and found out about the crystal before they
managed to lose it, or bury it inside of a sculpture or
something silly! He has it safe and sound in the library up at
Runesocesius now.” Bread climbs the first step, his foot
sinking barely a centimeter into wispy cloud before striking
the solid cloudstuff. “Come! The hotelier will be very excited
to greet you!”</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00193.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>
<item>
<title>48</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -914,6 +763,203 @@
]]>
</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>49</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">49 - Thu, 29 Dec 2022 18:55:34
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 Dec 2022 08:12:55 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00049">00049</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>“They <em>are</em> a good guide,” Inky corrects adamantly.
“Do you hear that, Bread? You’re not allowed to disappear
until you’ve had an entire bag of these croutons, and even
then you’re still not allowed. If I’d known you’d never had
croutons before I wouldn’t have let you walk a step further
into that hall. That was simultaneously the worst and best
idea ever. Mango! Croutons! What a travesty. Did you even
taste any of it? No? You have to! How can you offer guests
delicious fondue without croutons? Speaking of which, we
haven’t gotten that fondue you promised yet, that’s reason
#144 you can’t disappear. What’s reason #143? Crostinis. Small
toasted bread. Slice of life. You can put cheese on it too, if
you really must …”</p>
<p>And so on. While Inky talks at Bread in a bid to keep them
conscious, they whisk out a first-aid kit from their courier
bag and kneeling on the floor, proceeds to stem the bleeding
from the chest wound with coagulant-coated bandages. Slowly,
they tip a flask of tea infused with some restorative herbs
down Bread’s open mouth, careful not to pour too quickly. Inky
pauses mid-diatribe and mid-pour to thrust another flask of
tea into Confidence’s hand, the one wrapped four-fifths of the
hotelier and ask, “Are you injured? Please keep an eye on your
companion, I will summon for assistance.”</p>
<p>Standing up, Inky walks to a window, opens it and peers
out. They look around for a hot air balloon and notice the
unmoored airship. After squinting at it with a mini-spyglass,
they see Alex standing at the helm of the ship with a young
hemogoblin on board. Inky waves, and makes a vertical cross
sign with a fist and thumb on the opposite upper arm a few
times. Next, they pull out a small tin whistle, and toot a few
sharp notes in the same cadence as the one-liner directed at
Bread earlier by the gondola station. After a moment, a scops
owl swoops in to land on the windowsill. Inky inserts a rolled
piece of paper into a small pouch hanging at the bird’s back,
and the bird flies off again.</p>
<p>Returning to the figures slumped against the wall, Inky
places the Ginnarak crystal in a lightly padded cloth bag,
stowing it away in their knapsack-style backpack. They resume
checking and tending to the toques’ injuries, while expounding
upon various permutations of toasted bread to a captive
audience.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread closes their eyes and smiles dreamily at the
descriptions of various breads. They weakly sip the tea as you
tip it into their mouth and swallow with effort.</p>
<!--
Inky rolls Do Anything 1 to stabilize Bread
2 = Things go poorly
Spend 1 remaining xp to advance = Success + gain Medicine 2
//-->
<p>They sigh and open their eyes. They focus on you and
maintain eye contact as you draw from a seemingly bottomless
well of knowledge on the topic of toasted breads. Bread and
life are clinging fast to each other, neither ready or willing
to let go of the other. They are going to be okay.</p>
<p>Confidence’s wounds are superficial. They are winded from
dragging Bread and the hotelier up seven flights of stairs.
But they are fine.</p>
<p>The hotelier’s wounds are sadly quite fatal. Honestly it
was all over for him the moment he took the full force of the
captain’s plasma canon to his chest. He babbles, “It’s not … I
wasn’t …” And then with sudden realization and quiet
resignation, a clear-eyed, “Oh.” And then he is gone.</p>
<p>His courage in the face of danger is the reason you now
have the third of the five Ginnarak Crystals in your pack.
Whether or not his death was in vain is now largely up to you
and what you decide to do with the crystal.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Downstairs in the Great Hall of the library, one of the
remaining Cyberplasms crouches down next to the inert
cybernetic eye that until very recently belonged to their
captain. They pick it up and turn it over in their hand.
“Worry not, my captain,” the ghost mourns. “We will find the
quintessence. And once we do, we will be made anew in the
forge of our Mother.”</p>
<p>He rolls the orb in palm of his hand. A faint arc of energy
crackles across its surface. And the eye rolls over of its own
volition and looks up at the pirate.</p>
<p>Suddenly reverent, the pirate gently places the eye on the
ground as a ghostly face begins to form around it. The pirate
waits patiently, attentively. It’s not every day one gets to
bare witness to a new birth. The ectoplasm that gathers around
the eye forms a rail-thin body. Its head is bald and its face
sports a neatly trimmed mustache. It is missing an arm and a
leg.</p>
<p>Dutifully, the witness fetches a recently discarded arm
canon and leg booster. The exotica tap into the energy
provided by a new crossing over, and come online, and create a
new mesh.</p>
<p>The hotelier stands and looks down at its new body. As it
were. It looks around at its surroundings. It picks up a few
books and starts shelving them.</p>
<p>The pirate, mostly wishing to provide companionship and
comfort to the new ghost, assists with tidying up.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Alex, you are at the helm of the balloon-ship. As you start
to drift slightly up and away, the blue dome of the hotel
comes into view. On its peak you can see a life-sized statue
of a stern-faced Runesocesius wielding a spear, drawn back as
though ready to hurl an angry thunderbolt down at the world
below.</p>
<p>The hemogoblin is still down on the deck by the canons. You
see it waving cheerily at the library tower. You squint in
that direction, but can’t see what has caught its
attention.</p>
<p>A small tufted-ear owl silently lands next to you breaking
you from your reverie. The owl is wearing a small harness with
a pouch at the back. Inside the pouch is a rolled piece of
paper signed by Inky, up on the seventh floor of the
tower.</p>
<p>You count seven windows up the side of the tower from its
base. There seems to be some movement inside, but you can’t
make much out from here. With a lucky shot, you think you
might be able to hook the window frame with a zipline.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Outside, a pink zephynos is spinning raw cloud into a
minuscule opera house and performing arts center under the
direction of an amber imp with a new hunger for life. It is an
organic looking structure: a primary concert hall, surrounded
by a number of smaller stages and performance areas spiraling
out from the center like a nautilus shell.</p>
<p>The imp smiles happily, proudly. What tales will be told
here! What songs will be sung! “Lorehold,” it whispers to
itself. “You will tell the world’s stories.”</p>
<p>It is already trying out lines in its head, imagining the
play it will write of this day. About the hotel and the
library and the pirates and the cloud dragons. About a pair of
adventurers. And a very brave and lucky drone pilot that dared
to chase its dreams.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00252.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>39</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -1120,6 +1166,199 @@
]]>
</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>41</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
<guid isPermaLink="false">41 - Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:50:38
-0700</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:50:44 -0700</pubDate>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<h3 id="00041">00041</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Alex grips the encoded message he received in reply to his
last request firmly in his coat pocket. It was simple, curt,
impactful. “Trust no one”. Which begged the question, could
even it be trusted? Was HQ compromised? His informants in
danger? His allies and leads awash in the dark grey mist of
uncertainity. Or had his message been intercepted, cracked,
and a farsical response been sent in its place. Alex wasn’t
certain which, but the strange format and unusually speedy
response had him on edge.</p>
<p>This anxiety didn’t boil up to the surface, not a line of
worry or hint of the inner turbulence broke his cold blue
eyes. Outwardly he was just as composed as ever, but between
these uncertainties, the loss of his uncle, and now this
utterly strange dagger he’d found amongst his uncle’s
belongings, he wasn’t certain how long that composure would
last. It didn’t held that he felt this gnawing at the back of
his mind, as though something was probing, attempting to
communicate with him, somewhere between telepathy and utter
magic, and not in any sense that Alex understood.</p>
<p>And here he stood, a stranger amongst amidst his uncle’s
allies, and very little intention to change that situation at
the moment.</p>
<p>As the gondola touched down and the Toques rushed to greet
them Alex jumped blithely off the ship and onto firm, but
fluffy, ground. He cast a look around him at what appeared to
be an ordinary port of entry, noting the crowds of people
passing by. As the Toques arrived Alex spoke curtly to them,
“Who sends you to greet us, and where do you wish to take us,
and by what means do we travel?”. Short, cut, information
only. There’s too much unnerving in an unknown situation like
this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>~</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Inky greets the toques in turn politely, then turns to the
second toque and says, “A little bit of bread and no
cheese.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Cheese?” Bread cocks their head looks at Inky with a touch
of embarrassment. They start patting at their pockets,
presumably looking for a morsel of cheese to share with the
travelers, but finding none. They groan miserably. Confidence
butts in apologetically, “There will be plenty of food at the
hotel if you want some! Some delicious fondue perhaps? Kelsun
Peak’s famous liquid gold!”</p>
<p>“Blavin Blandfoot arranged for us to meet you,” Bread
answers Alex. Confidence nods enthusiastically in agreement.
“But I suppose technically the hotelier sent us.” Bread points
up at the sky, in the general direction of the summit of
Kelsun Peak. “We are to escort you to Palace Runesocesius.”
They thumb over their shoulder in the general direction of the
stairs. “By way of the cloud steps. On foot.”</p>
<p>Confidence leans in close and lowers their voice. “A
Ginnarak Crystal! I can’t hardly believe it! Thought they had
all been lost to the ages. I hear it’s complete dumb random
luck that this one turned up. Story is, an aetherwael beached
itself on some wide zephynos boulevard. Happens sometimes.
Poor things can’t distinguish between clouds and cloudstuff. I
don’t blame ’em! At a distance, you and me can’t either!
Anyway, this aetherwael has got a harpoon stuck in its side.
Dratted poachers. May they all fall out of the sky and be
dashed to a thousand pieces on the rocks below. But it had a
harpoon in its side and was trailing behind it a float bag
tethered to the harpoon. And you probably already guessed what
was inside of it!” By the time Confidence finishes their brief
story, they are trembling and nearly breathless with
excitement.</p>
<p>“Anyway,” Bread interrupts their excited companion in an
attempt to restore decorum. Both of the toques have been
gently herding you toward the base of the stairs this whole
time. “You know how the zephynos are. You could give them all
the coin in Basmentaria, or something priceless like a
Ginnarak Crystal, and they’d just as quickly misplace it out
of carelessness. If it’s not a cloud they can sculpt into the
shape of seussomorph or the likeness of some fantasy creature,
they just don’t give a fig. Luckily the hotelier caught wind
of the aetherwael and found out about the crystal before they
managed to lose it, or bury it inside of a sculpture or
something silly! He has it safe and sound in the library up at
Runesocesius now.” Bread climbs the first step, his foot
sinking barely a centimeter into wispy cloud before striking
the solid cloudstuff. “Come! The hotelier will be very excited
to greet you!”</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00193.html">www</a></p>
]]>
</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>40</title>
<author>dozens@tilde.team (dozens)</author>
@ -1322,100 +1561,6 @@ 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>

138
www/spoilers.html
View File

@ -320,6 +320,7 @@ of the Were-Hare</a></li>
<li><a href="#00046" id="toc-00046">00046</a></li>
<li><a href="#00047" id="toc-00047">00047</a></li>
<li><a href="#00048" id="toc-00048">00048</a></li>
<li><a href="#00049" id="toc-00049">00049</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="#bestiary" id="toc-bestiary">Bestiary</a></li>
<li><a href="#geography" id="toc-geography">Geography</a></li>
@ -355,10 +356,10 @@ Runesocesius</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<h2 id="stats">Stats</h2>
<p>Total length: 51977 words / 222 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the
<p>Total length: 53179 words / 227 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 171 messages posted over 169 days since the first
<p>There have been 173 messages posted over 170 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
@ -513,8 +514,9 @@ very soon!</p>
</details>
<ul>
<li>Player: mio</li>
<li>XP: 1</li>
<li>Skills: Do Anything 1, Persuasive 2, Plantomancy 2, Throwing 2</li>
<li>XP: 0</li>
<li>Skills: Do Anything 1, Persuasive 2, Plantomancy 2, Throwing 2,
Medicine 2</li>
<li>Equipment: Handy Duffer Discette, Fine Feathered Quills, Jade Tea
Set, Mountain Range Glyph Ink, Bead of the Werehare</li>
</ul>
@ -5479,6 +5481,127 @@ It was Bread’s idea. They were a good guide.”</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00250.html">www</a></p>
<h3 id="00049">00049</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>“They <em>are</em> a good guide,” Inky corrects adamantly. “Do you
hear that, Bread? You’re not allowed to disappear until you’ve had an
entire bag of these croutons, and even then you’re still not allowed. If
I’d known you’d never had croutons before I wouldn’t have let you walk a
step further into that hall. That was simultaneously the worst and best
idea ever. Mango! Croutons! What a travesty. Did you even taste any of
it? No? You have to! How can you offer guests delicious fondue without
croutons? Speaking of which, we haven’t gotten that fondue you promised
yet, that’s reason #144 you can’t disappear. What’s reason #143?
Crostinis. Small toasted bread. Slice of life. You can put cheese on it
too, if you really must …”</p>
<p>And so on. While Inky talks at Bread in a bid to keep them conscious,
they whisk out a first-aid kit from their courier bag and kneeling on
the floor, proceeds to stem the bleeding from the chest wound with
coagulant-coated bandages. Slowly, they tip a flask of tea infused with
some restorative herbs down Bread’s open mouth, careful not to pour too
quickly. Inky pauses mid-diatribe and mid-pour to thrust another flask
of tea into Confidence’s hand, the one wrapped four-fifths of the
hotelier and ask, “Are you injured? Please keep an eye on your
companion, I will summon for assistance.”</p>
<p>Standing up, Inky walks to a window, opens it and peers out. They
look around for a hot air balloon and notice the unmoored airship. After
squinting at it with a mini-spyglass, they see Alex standing at the helm
of the ship with a young hemogoblin on board. Inky waves, and makes a
vertical cross sign with a fist and thumb on the opposite upper arm a
few times. Next, they pull out a small tin whistle, and toot a few sharp
notes in the same cadence as the one-liner directed at Bread earlier by
the gondola station. After a moment, a scops owl swoops in to land on
the windowsill. Inky inserts a rolled piece of paper into a small pouch
hanging at the bird’s back, and the bird flies off again.</p>
<p>Returning to the figures slumped against the wall, Inky places the
Ginnarak crystal in a lightly padded cloth bag, stowing it away in their
knapsack-style backpack. They resume checking and tending to the toques’
injuries, while expounding upon various permutations of toasted bread to
a captive audience.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bread closes their eyes and smiles dreamily at the descriptions of
various breads. They weakly sip the tea as you tip it into their mouth
and swallow with effort.</p>
<!--
Inky rolls Do Anything 1 to stabilize Bread
2 = Things go poorly
Spend 1 remaining xp to advance = Success + gain Medicine 2
//-->
<p>They sigh and open their eyes. They focus on you and maintain eye
contact as you draw from a seemingly bottomless well of knowledge on the
topic of toasted breads. Bread and life are clinging fast to each other,
neither ready or willing to let go of the other. They are going to be
okay.</p>
<p>Confidence’s wounds are superficial. They are winded from dragging
Bread and the hotelier up seven flights of stairs. But they are
fine.</p>
<p>The hotelier’s wounds are sadly quite fatal. Honestly it was all over
for him the moment he took the full force of the captain’s plasma canon
to his chest. He babbles, “It’s not … I wasn’t …” And then with sudden
realization and quiet resignation, a clear-eyed, “Oh.” And then he is
gone.</p>
<p>His courage in the face of danger is the reason you now have the
third of the five Ginnarak Crystals in your pack. Whether or not his
death was in vain is now largely up to you and what you decide to do
with the crystal.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Downstairs in the Great Hall of the library, one of the remaining
Cyberplasms crouches down next to the inert cybernetic eye that until
very recently belonged to their captain. They pick it up and turn it
over in their hand. “Worry not, my captain,” the ghost mourns. “We will
find the quintessence. And once we do, we will be made anew in the forge
of our Mother.”</p>
<p>He rolls the orb in palm of his hand. A faint arc of energy crackles
across its surface. And the eye rolls over of its own volition and looks
up at the pirate.</p>
<p>Suddenly reverent, the pirate gently places the eye on the ground as
a ghostly face begins to form around it. The pirate waits patiently,
attentively. It’s not every day one gets to bare witness to a new birth.
The ectoplasm that gathers around the eye forms a rail-thin body. Its
head is bald and its face sports a neatly trimmed mustache. It is
missing an arm and a leg.</p>
<p>Dutifully, the witness fetches a recently discarded arm canon and leg
booster. The exotica tap into the energy provided by a new crossing
over, and come online, and create a new mesh.</p>
<p>The hotelier stands and looks down at its new body. As it were. It
looks around at its surroundings. It picks up a few books and starts
shelving them.</p>
<p>The pirate, mostly wishing to provide companionship and comfort to
the new ghost, assists with tidying up.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Alex, you are at the helm of the balloon-ship. As you start to drift
slightly up and away, the blue dome of the hotel comes into view. On its
peak you can see a life-sized statue of a stern-faced Runesocesius
wielding a spear, drawn back as though ready to hurl an angry
thunderbolt down at the world below.</p>
<p>The hemogoblin is still down on the deck by the canons. You see it
waving cheerily at the library tower. You squint in that direction, but
can’t see what has caught its attention.</p>
<p>A small tufted-ear owl silently lands next to you breaking you from
your reverie. The owl is wearing a small harness with a pouch at the
back. Inside the pouch is a rolled piece of paper signed by Inky, up on
the seventh floor of the tower.</p>
<p>You count seven windows up the side of the tower from its base. There
seems to be some movement inside, but you can’t make much out from here.
With a lucky shot, you think you might be able to hook the window frame
with a zipline.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Outside, a pink zephynos is spinning raw cloud into a minuscule opera
house and performing arts center under the direction of an amber imp
with a new hunger for life. It is an organic looking structure: a
primary concert hall, surrounded by a number of smaller stages and
performance areas spiraling out from the center like a nautilus
shell.</p>
<p>The imp smiles happily, proudly. What tales will be told here! What
songs will be sung! “Lorehold,” it whispers to itself. “You will tell
the world’s stories.”</p>
<p>It is already trying out lines in its head, imagining the play it
will write of this day. About the hotel and the library and the pirates
and the cloud dragons. About a pair of adventurers. And a very brave and
lucky drone pilot that dared to chase its dreams.</p>
<p>WHAT DO YOU DO</p>
<p><a
href="https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00252.html">www</a></p>
<h2 id="bestiary">Bestiary</h2>
<p>Some of the creatures who inhabit the world of Basmentaria</p>
<dt>
@ -5925,7 +6048,7 @@ guardian and their minions.</p>
<td style="text-align: left;">mirth</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;">🚫</td>
<td style="text-align: left;">✅</td>
<td style="text-align: left;">wind</td>
<td style="text-align: left;">cloudstuff</td>
<td style="text-align: left;">lore</td>
@ -6001,8 +6124,9 @@ more gentle conclusion.</p>
<h2 id="appendix-a-barefoot-quackery">Appendix A: Barefoot Quackery</h2>
<p>Being apocryphal and supplemental material posted to the <em>Barefoot
Quackery</em> thread on tildepals, including depictions of loose pages
torn from books of the Runesocesius Library, and original fictions and
other diversions, and more.</p>
torn from books of the Runesocesius Library during the assault by the
Cyberplasms, as well as original works of fiction and other
diversions.</p>
<h3 id="cease-and-desist">Cease and Desist</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>To: durrendal<br />