217 lines
9.9 KiB
Markdown
217 lines
9.9 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: 00040
|
|
created: Sun, 27 Nov 2022 01:30:42 -0700
|
|
updated: Wed, 14 Dec 2022 05:41:15 -0700
|
|
syndicated: yes
|
|
public: yes
|
|
---
|
|
### 00040 {#00040}
|
|
|
|
> As Blavin finished his afterthought about handing over the crystal,
|
|
> a yelp was the only warning they heard before a young waiter was
|
|
> suddenly half-sprawled over the hobbit, a tray of ginger beers
|
|
> toppled from his hand and the mugs' contents splashed onto the
|
|
> hobbit's front, though fortunately some of it ended up in a large
|
|
> puddle on the ground rather than on Blavin's person. The waiter had
|
|
> tripped over a bag on the floor on his way to the table two over
|
|
> from theirs and was scrambling to his feet.
|
|
>
|
|
> "By Nullar's nuts, I— OH SH——!! S-s-sorry, sir! Hold on, l-lemme
|
|
> get— uh—" the waiter looked around frantically. The waitress who
|
|
> had brought their drinks rushed over with some clean dry towels, a
|
|
> few of which she handed to the other waiter, and they both
|
|
> proceeded to wipe and dab at Blavin's damp clothes amid the hapless
|
|
> waiter's babbled apologies. Under the cover of the towels, the
|
|
> waitress patted down the hobbit's vest and replaced the sheaf of
|
|
> papers she had covertly lifted from one of the vest pockets earlier
|
|
> with a beguiling smile and wink. Once the beer on the floor had
|
|
> been cleaned up (the despondent young waiter had offered to pay for
|
|
> Blavin's next two rounds of drinks) and the waiters had moved on to
|
|
> serve other customers, Inky spoke.
|
|
>
|
|
> "You don't mind that we prefer to deliver it to the Benefactor
|
|
> personally, of course," Inky piped cheerily, referring to the
|
|
> crystal. "The late wizard thought it was prudent to cover our bases
|
|
> since you're a new, untested case manager after all. Besides, a
|
|
> little delayed gratification never hurt anybody, did it?" Inky
|
|
> smiled and raised their drink. "Another toast in tribute to Master
|
|
> Corraidhín! May his courage and buoyant spirit guide us on our next
|
|
> mission!"
|
|
>
|
|
> ~
|
|
>
|
|
> When Inky stepped out of the tavern and was a few paces away,
|
|
> someone clattered through the door and called out, "Hey! You forgot
|
|
> your takeout!"
|
|
>
|
|
> Inky turned in the direction of the voice. It was the waitress who
|
|
> had served their table earlier. She waved a brown paper bag in one
|
|
> hand. Inky gave her an embarrassed smile and said, "Thanks." As the
|
|
> bag changed hands, the waitress mouthed soundlessly, *We'll report
|
|
> any more.* She went back inside, and Inky strolled off into the
|
|
> cool night air with the bag securely tucked away next to a tea
|
|
> pouch and a more pressing question: what blend would go best with
|
|
> fried tofurkey balls?
|
|
>
|
|
> ~
|
|
>
|
|
> *(Meanwhile)*
|
|
>
|
|
> "The BANDit and his associates had gone to the tavern." His
|
|
> assistant looked up from the scrap of paper held under a claw.
|
|
>
|
|
> Beaker heaved a sigh and rubbed the tips of one wing against his
|
|
> forehead. Surely he had better things to do than play Eye Spy over
|
|
> a bunch of crackpots, such as peer reviewing the latest draft of a
|
|
> paper on the development of Cerylidian hunting techniques for an
|
|
> upcoming issue of *The Ichnition*. But Cio seemed to think
|
|
> something may come of it and unfortunately, she was usually right
|
|
> about troublemakers.
|
|
>
|
|
> "Tell them to continue tailing from a distance," he replied with a
|
|
> distracted wave, and his assistant left the room.
|
|
>
|
|
> Anyway, if he had the spare time, he could look at more interesting
|
|
> things, like the data he had collected surrounding the
|
|
> disappearance of the time anomaly that had popped up a few weeks
|
|
> ago. It had happened gradually, and he still wasn't entirely sure
|
|
> what had caused this particular incident, but the signals picked up
|
|
> by his instruments had later faded, just like other ones before it.
|
|
> Still, it was comparatively larger than previous ones, and seemed
|
|
> to have taken slightly longer to dissipate, which meant more data
|
|
> points.
|
|
>
|
|
> He stole another glance at his Dat repositories before sighing
|
|
> again, swivelling his chair and attention back to the manuscript
|
|
> before him. Work first … then more work.
|
|
|
|
~
|
|
|
|
> The party dispersed after the discussion with Blavin. Nobody had
|
|
> wanted to relinquish the crystal to him, personally Alex felt that
|
|
> was prudent, though he still wasn't sure what the point of it all
|
|
> was. The foolish hobbit had blathered on and on about their "mark"
|
|
> tactfully ignoring the real questions. And then the bug, damn it,
|
|
> the bug that chittered on about absolutely nothing for hours. It
|
|
> didn't take Alex too long to figure out why, but he clung to the
|
|
> transmission until it died out hoping he'd be mistaken.
|
|
>
|
|
> So there he sat, in the attic of his once Uncle, staring bleakly
|
|
> into a cup of dark black coffee. The desk strewn with hastily
|
|
> scratched notes pulled from the bugs feeds. At least the one that
|
|
> had tracked that nosey group had proved somewhat helpful. Turns out
|
|
> this little group has less friends than a drunk who's run up their
|
|
> tab.
|
|
>
|
|
> Still, there's no point to share any of this information. It's too
|
|
> loose, not definitive enough to action with the group.
|
|
>
|
|
> Alex begins to pen a message to an fellow operative, in hopes that
|
|
> HQ will pick it up and assign someone to the task.
|
|
>
|
|
> ```
|
|
> <- OP 2817 * LOC MB-A
|
|
> -> OP 25120 * LOC ESPER
|
|
>
|
|
> CLEARANCE: SECRET
|
|
> PACKET ENCLOSED. YOUR EYES ONLY.
|
|
>
|
|
> REQUESTING DETAIL ON BLAVIN
|
|
> EMPLOY OF "THE BENEFACTOR"
|
|
> PERCEPTIVE, AWARE OF BUGS.
|
|
> DO NOT CONTACT, DO NOT DISRUPT
|
|
> EXTREME CAUTION IMPERATIVE.
|
|
> ```
|
|
>
|
|
> Once penned Alex encrypts it with GPG and sends it along. These
|
|
> channels have worked well for him in the past. If Blavin wants to
|
|
> play games, then games we shall have.
|
|
>
|
|
> "I hate to do this" Alex mumbles to himself. "Normally I'd trail
|
|
> him myself, but I don't think I have much say in the matter." As it
|
|
> stands the group is dead set on gathering more of these cyrstals,
|
|
> regardless of what the danger may be, and if Alex wants to find his
|
|
> Uncle, they're his best bet in doing so. Blavin doesn't even matter
|
|
> outside of that. But if he can help the group reach their end
|
|
> faster, or force the information out of Blavin, perhaps it can come
|
|
> sooner..
|
|
>
|
|
> Alex lets out another sigh and glances wistfully around the gloomy
|
|
> attic room. It looked just like he remembered his Uncle's office
|
|
> looking like at the College of Sysorcerery when he had taught
|
|
> there. He always was so particular. Pushing his chair away and
|
|
> grabbing his coffee he wanders to the bookshelf where a large
|
|
> steamer chest sits beside it. The bookshelf is covered in
|
|
> manuscripts, "Practical Common Lisp", "The C Programming Language
|
|
> Vol 2", "RHEL 5 Systems Administration", each one arcane and well
|
|
> worn. And the amount of volumes, sometimes it's a wonder Corraidhin
|
|
> had time to do anything other than read.
|
|
>
|
|
> "Maybe if I had been a little more studious I'd know how to help
|
|
> you.." as he pulls "A Guide to Backups and All Things Necessary"
|
|
> off of the shelf a knife falls out of the book, and clatters onto
|
|
> the floor glaring malevolently up at Alex.
|
|
|
|
Your gondola lift finally rises above the thick layer of clouds. The
|
|
sudden flash of clear blue sky is a revelation after ascending for
|
|
nearly 60 minutes through clouds so thick you couldn't see through
|
|
the foggy windows more than three feet. Above you towers rocky,
|
|
imposing Kelsun Peak. You can just see a tiny portion of the hotel
|
|
roof through a cleft in the rocks. Below you, a frozen turbulent
|
|
ocean of clouds dotted with twisting leaning spires and spiraling
|
|
branching towers, all made out of solid cloudstuff. Handiwork of the
|
|
whimsical and industrious zephynos.
|
|
|
|
You spot two or three of them now, leaping and diving playfully
|
|
through the clouds like dolphins, spinning the clouds like yarn, and
|
|
packing them into solid constructs. Their current project resembles a
|
|
garden of outlandish, distorted tubas, french horns, and trombones.
|
|
|
|
The small cloud dragons are about 6 - 8 feet long including their
|
|
thick tails. They have wide faces with round lidless eyes, and always
|
|
seem to be smiling. Their heads are topped with multiple pairs of
|
|
filamented stalks. They have six short, stubby arms with long thin
|
|
fingers that they use to knead and pull clouds into solid shapes.
|
|
|
|
They build ceaselessly and mostly for the sake of building: they have
|
|
no apparent need for the structures themselves, living as they do
|
|
floating among the clouds. On occasion they have been entreated to
|
|
build on behalf of others. And the rare floating palace or city can
|
|
still be found drifting around Basmentaria as a result. The great
|
|
city of Vay'Neddas---tethered to the ground by great chains to
|
|
Primora in the north and Agendell in the south---is one of their
|
|
greatest enduring works.
|
|
|
|
You approach the gondola station at the base of Kelsun Peak, and exit
|
|
your cable car as it slowly rounds the bullwheel. There are two
|
|
toques---presumably meant to be operating the lifts---standing off to
|
|
the side, ignoring their responsibilities, complaining loudly to
|
|
nobody and everybody about being forced to work long hours and being
|
|
unfairly compensated. The tips of their soft, conical heads slump
|
|
forward, calling to mind revolutionaries, or smurfs.
|
|
|
|
It is wicked cold as you step out onto the platform and the wind nips
|
|
and bites at you relentlessly.
|
|
|
|
At the edge of the platform, foggy white steps made of firm
|
|
cloudstuff climb up around the side of the mountain peak to the
|
|
Palace Runesocesius. Once the conspicuously extravagant residence of
|
|
one of Basmentaria's most powerful politicians, it has since---after
|
|
its owner fell from public favor and was routed out---been gutted and
|
|
transformed into a luxury hotel of equally conspicuous extravagance.
|
|
It continues to be one of the highest inhabitable places on
|
|
Basmentaria.
|
|
|
|
Two small toques at the base of the steps rush forward to meet
|
|
you---the floppy tips of their coneheads waggling side to side in
|
|
their exuberance---and introduce themselves as Confidence and Bread,
|
|
your guides. They have been instructed to guide you up to
|
|
Runesocesius where you will take posession of the Ginnarak Crystal.
|
|
|
|
WHAT DO YOU DO
|
|
|
|
[www](https://framalistes.org/sympa/arc/tildepals/2022-12/msg00186.html)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|