And then!? And then!?
No "and then", eager Clinger! It is not time to reveal more.... To delve too deeply into the future is dangerous to my circuitry....
She shocked awake at the sounds coming from the odd device.
Then looks from Clinger and back to it as they talk. Trying to keep track of what they are saying. She snatches up her note pad and pen and makes notes as fast as she can.
"Please talk slower" She says "I'm trying to take all this down"
And so does Lady Zal record the first prophecy of the Oracle Chamberlain, of the Silver Turret, which foretells a great siege of the Silver Turret laid by avaricious and immoral men--The Technic League--and the drug-addled barbarian king, Kevoth-Kul, and how the defenders would wield weapons unearthed within the Turret itself to hold it against the horde of Kevoth-Kul and the Technic League....
How the powerful and evil magus, Ozmyn Zaidow, Admiral of the Technic League, would brandish his blazing green star-sword in battle until he was struck low by the great light cannon of the Silver Turret, as would many other villainous commanders of that debased cabal of magi and alchemists meet their just fates....
But the Weave of Time was malleable, and this prophecy described only one possible outcome of an infinite multitude of possibilities....
Gnaarrg watches the exchange with some surprise, then some amusement.
"Sure. I help." she answers. "But I want to have reward too. Be taught how to use. Taught how to fix. Taught how to MAKE."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Gnaarrg watches the exchange with some surprise, then some amusement.
"Sure. I help." she answers. "But I want to have reward too. Be taught how to use. Taught how to fix. Taught how to MAKE."
-Posted with Wayfinder
All shall be revealed, rugged Golarionite! Ask, and it shall be revealed. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and the door shall be thrown wide! All in good time, and only as quickly as your primitive brain can process the information....
Oh, you'll find that Gnaarrg is rather clever, My Lady Chamberlain.... She has reconfigured the explosive slave collars that were once these young heroes' yoke and tether to the Technic League into a most marvelous and lethal piece of jewelry. She also understands how to use the computers aboard the Silver Turret, and has become quite formidable with the laser pistol she wears on her hip....
And my Lady Zal, here, has such a wonderfully sophisticated intellect and curiosity, which has led her to discover the meaning of many of our Androffan texts from absolutely no context, and with only my meager assistance.... Soon, she will be a master of Androffan lore!
I feel that one of these heroes has been a part of our ecosystem from the beginning, waking and falling asleep from one life to the next in the same synthetic body: an android.... A child of Divinity....
Yes, My Lady Chamberlain. He is called Zed, wielder of the relentless Chain-Sword! His like has not been seen before by these Golarionites, and I suspect his legend will soon spread the length and breadth of Avistan! Zed, the Sawyer! Chain-Swordsman and and nanite sorcerer supreme!
And what of these others?
Only time can tell what will become of brave Nalket, Shaman of the Ghost Wolves, who speaks with birds and beasts, and manipulates the very energies that thrum and vibrate through the natural world of Golarion.... She may rise up to be a mighty leader of her people.... Or she might have even larger scope in store....
And stalwart Geirmur, marksman and cavalier, a true soldier! I foresee great deeds being the stuff that makes up his legend.... Who can stand against his fearsome aim should he obtain a laser rifle within the Silver Turret?
"Well that is nice and good, but I am with Gnaarrg on this one. Now I have been reading some things and it seems I am missing a LOT of knowledge about things most of all, what is the system of equerry known as Science. It comes up again and again in your texts. Could you start by explaining just what the lore is please."
She says consoltinhg her notes
Science is the observation, recording, and study of the multiverse as it truly is. Science seeks to reveal authentic truth, freed from superstition, confusion, mythology, or mistaken diagnosis.
The methodology of science involves observing phenomena, recording data without bias or speculation, only the provable facts, and experimentation to confirm or eliminate that which proves untrue....
It is a very broad field of study, concerning everything, as it were.... Scientists tend to focus on a specific aspect or field of inquiry, such as Geology, the study of minerals, or Astronomy, the study of space, or Zoology, the study of animals....
Or chemistry, the science of elements and their interactions.... Or demonology, the study of those malign entities that inhabit the Abyss....
Zed looks on with a blank stare as the conversation continues.
"My t-thanks C-clinger for the kind words.
He then crosses his arms.
"Greetings Chamberlain. You said i was a child of Divinity...what am I? What is my purpose? I do not fit in with the people here. I have never seen another like myself."
Zed looks on with a blank stare as the conversation continues.
"My t-thanks C-clinger for the kind words.
He then crosses his arms.
** spoiler omitted **
You are one of the androids created in the bioengineering labs of HealTex Incorporated on planet Androffa and assigned as crew aboard the Divinity space station. Some of your kind served as crew during Divinity's ill-fated voyage, and some were never even activated, and lie in stasis in the life support pods at the bottom of the Silver Turret, awaiting their chance to be born and utilized in colonizing a new frontier....
As the two explain Science to her she just mouths the word "O"
Then pulls at the tablet and looks at it.
"The explains the headings"
She looks up as Zed is not working to the AI. And goes back to reading, lost in the new low of data.
I think we have our 1st Scientist.
Around 8:00 in the morning on Pharast 7th, a heavy rain begins to fall like lead rounds on Numeria, drumming chaotically on the star metal hull of the Silver Turret....
A strange aurora shimmers green, blue, and purple in the sky over the crater....
It might be a strange day today....
Before they go to be she says.
"I think I am going to be a scientist, its seems a far more logical way of understanding thing that just superstition"
Then in the morning.
"So Chamberlain you said something about us fighting off the head techno priests and his army. I have a feeling this could be the day, so where is the stuff that will help us do this?"
She says looking over the controls.
Gnaarrg spends as much time as she can paying attention to Zal's questioning of the chamberlain, adding a few questions of her own of course.
Gnaarrg's not as interested in learning the science as she is the mechanical development of the tech. She'll also spend time repairing Maagun, so that the cyberhorse is closer to full functionality.
"You said there are more like Zed?" she asks after a while. "How do we wake them? They could help defend the turret. Do repairs, repel invaders."
Before they go to be she says.
"I think I am going to be a scientist, its seems a far more logical way of understanding thing that just superstition"
Then in the morning.
"So Chamberlain you said something about us fighting off the head techno priests and his army. I have a feeling this could be the day, so where is the stuff that will help us do this?"
She says looking over the controls.
It will not be today, Lady Zal-Azra Qlin-Zra, but it would be wise to begin preparing today.... My calculations predict a siege time some 257 Golarion hours from now.... Approximately 10.7 Golarion days from now.... If you search all weapon lockers and storage vaults on all levels, you should be able to arm yourselves sufficiently to stand a fair chance of defeating the coming invaders of the Technic League and the barbarian horde of The Black Sovereign of Numeria. Accounting for estimating looted by infrequent adventurers over the past six thousand years, there should still be several laser weapons, a variety of melee arms superior to the average primitive weapons used on this planet, and armor far superior to that worn by the best equipped knights of this world, not to mention demolitions materials unknown to this planet's most sophisticated civilizations. Of course, your most powerful weapon against the invasion will be the Silver Turret's heavy laser cannon.
Gnaarrg spends as much time as she can paying attention to Zal's questioning of the chamberlain, adding a few questions of her own of course.
Gnaarrg's not as interested in learning the science as she is the mechanical development of the tech. She'll also spend time repairing Maagun, so that the cyberhorse is closer to full functionality.
"You said there are more like Zed?" she asks after a while. "How do we wake them? They could help defend the turret. Do repairs, repel invaders."
There are currently eighteen intact androids still alive in the stasis pods on Life Support Deck, or deck 21. Their disposition on being awakened should be favorable.... but that cannot be guaranteed....
As if by illusory magic, the Chamberlain displays a holographic, three-dimensional plan of deck 21.
She looks at the image amazed, then stops This is all amazing, think what to do
"So from what I have read about you last night, you use mathematics to calculate possibilities of reality. Your a form of navigation device that seeks to find the best path for this craft to fly. How is beyond me but I think I am starting to understands some of it. This also means you use this capability to asses possible future events by means of complex mathematical extrapolation"
She reads that last part off from her notes.
"Which means with the sen-cers you have you predict we will be attack and with what. Now if that is the case then you can also predict possible paths those attackers will take on their way here. That leads me to an idea, we go on the offence"
She looks at the others.
"We have more than one advantage here, a tower yes, a big gun yes but also we know they are coming and we also may know how and where. If we can weaken their force, before they can mount a full attack in 10 days we have a better chance. Also when they do mount a full attack we can prep the grown with some surprises from Gnaarrg. Trap the land around. If we plan things right we can funnel the attacks into places and areas we want and that could be what we need to swing the fight our way."
She looks back at the AI.
"Chamberlain can you calculate possible attack paths they would take. When where they would be mustering forces."
The small young elf seems to be infused when it comes to protecting there discovery.
It is 90% probable that the invasion will follow a direct route south from the major metropolitan region known as Starfall, the city that grew in the shadow of the greatest portion of Divinity, approximately nine Golarion miles north of the Silver Turret. They will 89% likely depart Starfall in nine days, arriving in ten days. I predict that the siege will be led initially by the Admiral of the Technic League, Ozmyn Zaidow, on whom I am still collecting data. After meeting strong resistance from the defenders, a message dispatched to Starfall will 85% likely pique the Black Sovereign of Numeria's curiosity, and in twelve days from now, he will arrive at the head of a horde of barbarian warriors to bolster the besieging Technic League. They will bring primitive siege engines to add to the assault by the Technic League's more advanced artillery, which will likely include combat robots, mobile armored vehicles with mounted laser cannons and a variety of warheads launched from rocket launchers.... It will be a harrowing contest, a defining and test of your skill and prowess, and will to fight. You will need to gain as much experience and training in defending the Silver Turret as you can over the next ten days if you hope to prevail.... That said, a preemptive sortie against their supply line, and cautiously applied guerilla warfare might help turn the tide of war in your favor.
Suppose we awaken the 18 androids and program them to fight in defense of the Silver Turret? They would go at least a little ways toward evening the odds....
My sensors detect that there is still an annhilator class battle robot in the Observation Deck above the Bridge.... But I also detect a possible virus infecting its AI, which could mean it will react in an unpredictable manner, and could prove a lethal encounter for your party. I cannot ascertain the probability of hostility.
But if we can make friends with it, it could massacre the combined armies of the Technic League and the Black Sovereign single-handed!
Sending the annhilator robot against the Technic League is 75% likely to backfire when they capture and reprogram the annhilator, and unleash it against us.
Oh.... Hmmm....
"Wait." gnaarrg interrupts. "I could fix the robot. Make it so I could ride inside it. Drive from inside. I think."
"Still should awaken androids. They help protect us. Operate turret. I go out there, set traps. Others find weapons, get armor."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Zed looks around as the conversation continues. "I agree we s-should head to Deck 21 and a-awaken the other androids. Then continue s-searching the s-ship for equipment to arm them with."
After returning to the Silver Turret, Nalket says to the team, "If we have a few days it may be worthwhile for a foraging party to range further afield. There were no signs of game nearby, but perhaps if we strike out some distance we can find something to eat and bring it back."
"I think we may be heading out Halket. I wish we had a means of flight, we could drop the things Gnaarrg makes on the force coming in. Also we could mount an attack on those powered wheeled weapons carts they will be using. If we could destroy them, that puts them all on foot. Zeb are you happy to talk to your brothers and sisters as they become awake again. Can you convince them to aid in protecting the tower. Gnaarrg we need that killer robot so we alone can control it, also more bombs. Nelket, We need traps lots of traps, all around the tower. We need to slow and thin down the attackers. We know they will be coming in to waves to we need to hold some back for the second wave. Geirmur, this big laser gun here, we need you able to last a balls of a nat, out there. Also with me searching the rest of the tower here, how dose that sound to everone"
"Hmm. Mostly I know how to trap rabbits. I will see what I can come up with."
"Sad as it makes me to say, I think our best shot is to abandon the tower for the time being. Leave them a nasty treat or two, take everything we can."[b]
He looks wistfully over at the turret controls, and smiles sheepishly.
[b]"Maybe fire a shot or two at the League before we head out."
"I understand what your saying Geirmur, but even if we go they will hunt us, for what they THINK we have. Also I have to stay and try and save what is priceless here. This AI the Robot and ones like Zed, they are all priceless, but much more than that is the collective history of another world. 1000s of years of knowledge. That is power beyond anything we could dream of"
She say.
"If you want go. Go." Gnaarrg will reply curtly. "You not my tribe. I not afraid. I stay. I fix..." She closes a panel on Maagun's side. "Kill enemies who try to take."
She nods as Gneerg talked, she did not want to be that blunt but she did feel the same way.
"Do you know how I got to be a slave of the Technic League? I let myself be captured. I had prepared for it, and let them take me. Finding me walking around clueless in the scrap fields. I wanted them to use me to explore the silver towers and ruins. I let them fit a collier to my neck just so I could get here. That is how much THIS means to me."
Her mind now in full swing, is was clever she knew that but she wanted to get a point over so others could understand.
"I believe that we on this world are held in mysticism and held in bondage to powerful beings seeking to enslave a world for thire own use. But here we have the history of a world that freed itself from that, one that went on to travail the cosmos. How many millions have died on this world for beings that care little or nothing for them. They only seek their own ends. I have been learning here, I have learned that every creation myth told on this world is WRONG. That beings CAME to this world and fight over it. Like a pack of dogs. We live in a planetary systems going around a much bigger body called a Galaxy made of billions of worlds. One Galaxy of a billion billion billion more. There are things in the cosmos so large and terrifying!!"
She looks over at the Chamberlain.
"Chamberlain can you show an image of the Gravitational singularity at the center of our Galaxy please. Show the suns and star systems being pulled into it. I watched it last night over and over, power like NOTHING any god here could ever come close to, I want you to understand, we are dealing with Knowledge that others will do anything to hide."
She waits for the projection.
Chamberlain projects the awesome and terrible Singularity image Lady Zal requested....
Is this the image you refer to, Lady Za-Azra Qlin-Zra? Or perhaps this one?
The Chamberlain shows a series of images in three dimensional hologlyphs....
This more artistic depiction shows a yellow sun and other celestial objects being drawn inexorably into the Singularity....
The rain drums steadily upon the hull of the Silver Turret for hours, obscuring vision beyond the edge of the crater to those peering through viewing ports or transparent walls.... The heavy spring shower washes away the dust and grit of many dry days previous, and provides (dubiously irradiated) nourishment to the sparse scrub of the Numerian wastes.... It continues until dusk, at which point it abates to a drizzle for about an hour before ceasing entirely....
The strange heavenly auroras continue well afterward into the night, illuminating the landscape with eerie green, blue, yellow, and red light....
When Divinity crashed in this location, known to you as Numeria, it brought energies and radiations hitherto unknown to Golarion with it, creating unpredictable reactions in the local atmosphere. The auroras currently visible in the sky are a symptom of this disturbance, and are known to the indigenous Kellid tribes as "Skyfires". They are mostly harmless to most humanoid physiologies, but you are at some risk for mutation if you venture outside the Silver Turret's protective barriers just now.... You may wish to reschedule hunting and foraging for tomorrow, when I predict the atmosphere will return to a more stable condition....
Having returned with Geirmur, Nalket folds her arms at the sight of the singularity and says, "Hrm. Seems hungry."
Geirmur looks at the image of the Singularity with an expression of non-understanding and awe. He shakes his head.
"Such a thing may be powerful, yes, but it holds no candle to the glory of our Gods. But I understand how much this place means to you. If you truly intend to put your lives at stake for this place, I will stay and help."
Happy that Geirmur is staying she nods.