"What manner of assistance do you need?" Vernalis asks, his misgivings growing, "And, what is this Sovereign City?"
As he speaks with the creature he tries to gauge its intentions, and trustworthyness...
an opportunity to meet the needs of others does sound like exactly what the Optimumist bid me do... and this creature certainly seems earnest in its offer... so, why do I still feel so uneasy about this...
"What manner of 'dutiful service' exactly?" Vernalis asks guardedly.
this offer is intriguing, but I have far too much yet to learn to enter into the service of anyone or anything... particularly anyone or anything with a representative as evasive as this one...
Vernalis weighs the creature's honeyed words and replies, "Thank you for your generous offer, whisper of the mist, but I have too much still to learn about your world, I can not enter into anyone's service yet, not even one so glorious as the Lord Prismatic."
With a flash of mystic insight, Vernalis realizes that something is about to happen, though he's unsure what...
Trusting his instincts, as the Optimumist had trained him, Vernalis blasts the weirdling with a cascade scintillating colors.
Vernalis stands and steps backwards into the mist before unleashing a spell in front of him. Though unable to clearly see his weirdling doppleganger, his best guess is that it his spell has been successful based on the angry cry it utters and it's subsequent lack of movement.
Hmm... there's no going back now... I can't flee, I need those hot rocks. I could try to hide and hope it leaves but even if it does, it may come back with reinforcements. The bergmanns must fear the weirdlings for a reason, I suppose I better try to destroy it... I've never killed any kind of humanoid before...
Vernalis draws his rapier as he moves towards his replica. When he gets next to it he begins lining up the blade to thrust into its heart...
As Vernalis draws close he suddenly realizes that in his fear he wasn't thinking clearly...
its not unconscious... it would have fallen over if it was unconscious... I sincerely hope I've at least succeeded in blinding it as well...
Nervous, he stops five feet short of the creature and lets the tip of his blade fall. Instead of trying to stab at the all but helpless creature he conjures an orb of acid and throws it...
,
well, the acid seems to have damaged it... and it doesn't seem to be feigning it's condition... I wonder if the sword would be faster...
Tentatively, the young wizard steps forward and thrusts his rapier at his double.
,
that's less than ideal...
Vernalis moves backwards ten feet and then, stretching out his left hand, invokes a cone of flames centered on the creature that bears his likeness.
,
I can't let it escape... I can't hardly chase it into the mist and the darkness though... if only I had mastered that glitterdust spell... I hate the idea of it, but it seems my only option is to let it go and hope I gave it enough of a fright to stay gone...
With great trepidation Vernalis only watches as the creature vanishes. Then he begins getting situated in his campsite once again.
Vernalis warily resumes his evening's rest, falling off to sleep after several uneventful hours. He wakes the next morning, his fire burned down to embers and a distinct chill in the air. He straps the Bergmann hotbox to himself as he was shown, breaks camp, and continues on his way.
The mist lingers until late morning and the day grows colder as it progresses, clouds obscuring the sun and sky with a biting wind blowing from the direction of Bergmann. Thankfully Vernalis has the hotbox and furs provided by the people of Bergmann, and the wind at his back does little more than speed him on his way. On his day's journey he sees more of the small feathered lizards, many crossing the road headed towards his left. The uniformity of their direction of movement suggests to him that they are in fact migrating in that direction; knowing from Bergmann Klaus that a cold season is coming, the direction to the left of the road must lead to warmer climes more hospitable to the (most likely) cold-blooded creatures. He also passes a large pond which abuts the road to his right around mid-day. Otherwise the rolling grasslands and rutted road remain much the same from yesterday.
As night falls once again it brings with it a thin mist which affords the wizard far more visibility than the night before, save for the overcast sky does not provide much light. He again makes camp, but the elevation of the road for miles in either direction leaves him exposed to the wind and he's unable to find sufficient fuel for an all-night fire. Despite his best efforts to stay warm, he awakes with a chill in his bones that he can't seem to shake.
Vernalis hems and haws over his spellbook...
perhaps I should prepare infernal healing, I think it would relieve this chill... what would I neglect for it though, especially now that I've angered that weirdling...I suppose I'll wait and see how I feel tomorrow...
After preparing the same spells he had the previous day, he packs up his belongings and heads back out down the road.
I hope there's a road south from Aerugo, clearly I'm not well suited for this climate...
Vernalis sets out on the road once again. Shortly before midday there is suddenly a veritable swarm of the ubiquitous feathered lizards across the length of the road, gliding from the grasses to the right, which causes the wizard to stop in his tracks, being struck several times by the airborn creatures which bounce off of him and continue on their way. One lands for a moment on his right shoulder, cocking its head and studying his face with multi-colored faceted eyes before springing away into the air.
After a brief minute the deluge of animals stops just as suddenly as it began and Vernalis continues on his way until several minutes later he notices a loud noise coming from the right side of the road. Once it registers he's sure that it had been building for quite some time, but he dismissed it as the wind through the grass. Now, however, it is obviously much more than the rustling of the fields - a constant 'whooshing' sound underscored by a rhythmic clacking which seems to be growing closer at some speed.
it could be a gale... or some new type of mist creature... or perhaps a robust, six-legged version of a wolf- a bowolf... best not take any chances...
Vernalis heads off the road to his left and invests his minute in finding the best hiding spot nearby and arranging whatever mud, vegetation, or other resources he can find to conceal himself.
Vernalis hides himself in the grass just off the left side of the road as he awaits the arrival of whatever's causing the noise. It grows into a deafening roar before the grass across the way is suddenly ripped away, consumed by a horizontal cylinder of whirling scythes which pushes up onto the road. Momentarily stricken by the fear that he, too, is about to be consumed, the lethal apparatus swings to the side along the road towards Bergmann, revealing an autobulation-like carriage pushing it along. The device makes an about-face turn on the road and then heads back into the fields from the direction it came, unceremoniously spewing the landscape it shreds out its back as it goes and drenching the wizard in a rain of wet, sticky, fibrous pulp.
After wiping his eyes clean of plant matter with the inside of his fur cloak, Vernalis can see a mile down the clear swath the device has cut through the grass; the path obviously goes further, but it seems that unlike B4's autobulation this one follows neither a set of ruts nor a straight path. Indeed, he can tell that its current trajectory is far from parallel to its original.
remarkable! it appears to be some manner of harvesting contraption... likely animated by the same manner of magicks as Mister Beefour's autobulation... I wonder if these devices are driven like a cart or carriage, or if they accept commands like a golem... perhaps they are even given a spark of intelligence like that sword the Optimumist had me read of... whatever the case, this world is not at all what I expected. I don't really know what I did expect, but I know it wasn't this... whole cultures, and farming on this level... I wonder how much time has passed here since the cataclysm... or, what if the world was destroyed and this is a whole new creation of the gods formed around the sphere...
As Vernalis' mind spins along, he comes out of hiding and walks over to the edge of the road where the... autobulation-harvester passed by. He inspects the ground there fairly thoroughly, partly out of curiosity and partly to see if there is any apparent foodstuff that could be easily gleaned. After his inspection he turns his face back towards the capital and sets out once again.
Vernalis's inspection turns up little in the sappy mess of cut grass but bits of lizards that were caught in the harvester's path, finding nothing he'd consider prime food-grade material. Once done he continues down the road towards Aerugo, until a short time later he hears a thunderous 'clang' roll across the fields from his right, as of a giant hammer striking an anvil.
metal on metal, out here? It seems most likely another autobulation... I wonder what function it might serve... or, what if the scything contraption struck something...
After a moment of hesitancy, Vernalis cautiously heads north across the field to see if he can spot the source of the clamor.
Vernalis pushes his way through the tall grass towards the source of the noise, stumbling upon the trail the harvester has cut through the field; looking down the lane of cut of grass away from the road he can see the harvester sitting still several hundred yards ahead.
Vernalis follows the path towards the stationary autobulation-harvester, hoping he might be able to offer some form of assistance.
Vernalis approaches the contraption and sees that twisted gears, springs, and unidentifiable shrapnel are strewn across the ground all around it. Up close he realizes that two such autobulations have crashed into each other with disastrous results, rendering both near unrecognizable and apparently inoperative. The two are conjoined in a tangled mess of metal, one have ridden over top and crushed the other while its own side and belly have been ripped open; the front threshing machinery of both have torn themselves apart eating through the bulk of the other. Inside the top carriage Vernalis can see the remains of axles, pistons, and other machinery, but is unable to make sense of the ruined jumble the parts have become. There aren't any signs of operators or passengers outside the wreckage, though it could be that they are crushed inside.
remarkable... what a violent collision... searching through this wreckage could take all afternoon, and I'm not certain the bergmanns have given me enough provisions for that... what if one of Beefour's kin is alive and trapped in there, though... do good for as many as I can, right? I suppose I could always take the time gather some extra supplies as I travel if I do run low on food...
With some concern, Vernalis calls out in Viridian, "Hello! Can anyone hear me in there?!?" Then he casts detect magic and begins to inspect the scene.
The wizard searches through the wreckage as best he can, though the heart of the mass remains inaccessible. The collision seems to have caused an impressively strong explosive reaction, both harvesters having blown apart from the inside upon or immediately following their impact - the sides of the bottom unit have burst out and the roof of the top unit has been blown off and shredded. There are no signs of the fire or burning Vernalis would usually associate with such a violent reaction. He finds no traces of any people, and concludes that the devices were most likely autonomous. Whatever makes them work appears to be mundane in nature, or a very minor temporary magic, as he detects almost no magical auras in his search.
Several dozen yards from the wreckage he finds an intact sealed canister, about the length of his forearm, out of one end of which extends a telescoping rod of the same length topped with a centered flat, crosswise piece that is angled so as to appear to be drooping down slightly from the rod. There is a three inch slot on the canister's side near the opposite end. The entire thing weighs about ten pounds, being quite top heavy on the rod end, which is also making a faint clicking noise.
well, this is certainly odd...
Placing the clicking canister off to the side, Vernalis looks for another piece which might fit into the three inch slot he identified on it.
I wonder if the people of Aerugo have devised some new means of magic... or, perhaps, they've obscured the aura on their contraptions so that others can not copy them? how could such things work without magic... maybe if they bound an elemental within and they escaped, or perished, in the crash...
While there appear to be no exterior decorations or mechanisms, Vernalis notes that the heavy end of the rod gives a slight kick in time with the clicking - it would seem something inside the device is moving.
Vernalis takes some time to tinker with the strange scrap... pushing, pulling, and twisting at first (particularly focusing on transition points where there are changes in material, shape, diameter, etc); then he tries shaking it in concert with its natural motion and contrary to that motion before using the tip of his rapier to prod around in the slot.
The "drooping" cross bar at the end of the telescoping rod can be moved with some force, rotated around at the end of the rod. The rod itself cannot be pushed back down/into the cylinder. After fiddling with the rotating piece, Vernalis gives the device several good, hard shakes and suddenly the rod telescopes out another three feet and with a kick the rotating piece whirs into life, generating a great deal of noise as well as a force which propels the young wizard forward across the harvester's cleared path as he reflexively hangs on. His current trajectory, however, will soon find him pulled back into the grass fields.
Vernalis tries desperately to reverse whatever specific action had triggered the vigorous motion in the hopes of halting it...
Vernalis's best guess is that the device was somehow damaged in the collision of autobulations and had become "stuck" mid-activation, a condition remedied by his vigorous shaking. Of course, if damaged, it may be that further shaking might cause the device to cease functioning. Vernalis tries shaking the device side to side, which achieves minor course changes but does not result in the desired effect.
As he rushes towards the sea of tall grass he lifts the device up to try a vertical skaking, and is surprised when he suddenly becomes airborn, his legs briefly dragging through the grass before it falls away beneath his feet. The device generates enough force to carry him 10 feet above the grassline, and looking up he sees the rotary bar has inclined itself slightly such that it carries him roughly parallel to the road while keeping him aloft, maintaining a lateral speed of 100' per round. Further attempts at shaking serve only to swing himself about as he dangles from the device.
Looking down, he feels confident that with luck he could survive the drop with little more than bruising - assuming he doesn't land on a sharp rock or the like hidden by the grass...
Sensing that the length of time he'll be able to hold on is limited, Vernalis attempts to tangle the straps of his hot-box harness around the telescoping rod just above the canister.
After a bit of struggling and squirming he manages to secure his connection to the mysterious device.
well, you've done it now... safer in the short-term but what happens when this thing stops spinning? And what if it takes me the wrong direction?
Deciding that the most pressing concern now is trying to move in the correct direction, the young mage begins shifting his weight back and forth, forward and back, trying to aim his movement back towards the road and, ultimately, down it towards Aerugo...
Despite his swinging and twisting, Vernalis is unable to change the path of the device and quickly realizes that the rotor self-adjusts to always point in the same direction. As the sun creeps down the sky and the fields pass by under his feet he can see the paths cut by the harvesters - they waver, bend, criss-cross, and in some cases even loop around themselves. If their goal is to cut as much grass as possible, then they're going about it in quite an inefficient manner. Throughout the evening he spots several harvesters chewing their way through the fields, as well as two that are stationary and seemingly derelict.
Eventually the sun goes down and despite his best efforts the young wizard eventually dozes off. It seems that he has barely closed his eyes when suddenly his legs are dragging through cornstalks and he jolts awake. Blurrily he can see a rise ahead of him covered in corn, and it's all he can do to pull himself up and shield himself as best he can as the device plunges him into the crop, the stalks whipping and whacking him as he is dragged through their midst. After a moment it's over, the ground falling away as the land opens into a great circular depression beneath his feet. In the early morning light he can see a walled city a few miles ahead in it's center, a road a half-mile on his left leading to the walls. It's outer battlements are arranged so that the circumference resembles the shape of a gear, and the city looks to hold approximately 5,000 people; a veritable metropolis in Vernalis's experience, the center of which is dominated by a massive domed metallic building.
As he marvels at what is undoubtedly Aerugo he notices that the ground is rising back up at him, though not because of a change in the landscape - the device is descending, and at a rate that a man prone to worry might consider alarming...
no time to untangle the strap... what if I need to use the hotbox in the future...
Vernalis makes a snap decision to preserve his source of heat and try to land relatively safely while still connected to the whirling device. He picks up his feet and pedals them quickly in the closest thing he can manage to a running motion- he attempts to match the speed of his motions to the speed at which the ground is passing beneath him, in the hopes of hitting the ground running to avoid a real collision...
Vernalis's feet touch the ground and he manages several steps; however, just as a wave of elation at his reckless plan's success swells within him his arms and hands, numbed by his awkward in-harness slumber, falter and slip from their grip on the device. Free of his grasp the device bobs up and down on it's hotbox tether for a moment, then suddenly begins to swing about wildly, the rotors clipping the ground and the sudden drag yanking the running wizard off his feet. Vernalis tumbles along the ground for several dozen yards as the device bounces and spins dangerously about him, both of them finally coming to a stop approximately a quarter mile from the edge of the road two miles out from the city walls. While he is badly shaken and bruised from his ordeal, it seems Vernalis has escaped without catastrophic injury.
Vernalis groans as he rolls onto his back. For a moment he considers standing to test his legs for serious injury but he quickly yields to the all encompassing ache and remains horizontal. Focusing on his bonded ring, he conjures the uncomfortably dark magic that is the only means he has of healing himself.
Once the spell has done its work, he rises and inspects the... aerobulator? before making his way across the field to the road. Once he reaches the road he does his best to make himself seem presentable then turns and marches towards the city.
Upon inspection of the device Vernalis sees that the rough landing has snapped off the rotor blade and damaged the outer casing on the non-rotor end of the main cylinder. Prying at the end of the cylinder with his rapier, he manages to pop off the end cap and a long, thin strip of paper spills out. The paper has irregularly spaced holes along it's length and is wound around a spool inside the cylinder, several yards of paper having unrolled out the end onto the ground. At a guess, the strip is probably several hundred feet in total length.
Studying the pattern of holes he is convinced it is some form of cypher or language, but after almost half an hour of poring over the paper without understanding he decides he cannot decipher it without some outside reference or aid.
Collecting himself, Vernalis walks to the road and follows it to the city walls. He believes the road to be the same one that started at Bergmann, as it comes from that direction and possesses identical deep wheel ruts. The road leads up to a large set of double doors set into the city walls. Both the doors and the battlements loom forty feet high, and appear to be made of rusting iron. No guard or other observer is visible.
Vernalis carefully sets down the broken aerobulator then draws his sword and cuts a length about four inches bigger than the width of the strange scroll from one of the grass stalks. Using the stalk as a spool he meticulously transfers the whole roll of paper out of its metal housing. Once it's safely wound around its new fibrous, green center he places it in his bag.
Upon arriving at the unattended door, the young wizard waits a few minutes in the center of the road, hoping to be noticed by someone. When that proves ineffective he removes the fairly large stone from his hot box and uses it as a knocker to ring out his arrival on the massive metal door.
Vernalis painstakingly unwinds the hundred-plus yards of paper while re-winding it around his makeshift spool. Once done he has a light but bulky roll which he carefully stows before continuing towards the city.
Once at the gate he waits for several minutes without any sign of greeting before banging on the massive door. The rock clangs on the metal, displacing several flakes of rust which float to the ground as the noise seems to reverberate and amplify inside the door. A moment later a hole opens high up on the wall and a lensed orb extends out from it on a long, jointed metal rod, until it dangles five feet above the wizard's head. Vernalis is reminded somewhat of the broken looking glass which The Optimumist had shown him (which had been devoid of the necessary lenses to be functional.) A harsh, metallic voice emits from the orb.
"State your name and business!"
Looking up into the lense the young wizard answers in his still somewhat awkward Viridian, "I am Vernalis. I have come looking for information."
The orb darts forward and downward several feet, now much closer to Vernalis's face.
"State your Province and title!"