"Perhaps we could take the little fellow here with us..?" - the minotaur shrugs, then turns to their interloper - "Hello, I am Throrgar. do you have a name?"
The goblin huffs, arms folded. "Gribblix."
"I'm called Padlock! I sure would like to go on a trip! That would be grand!"
"Is that what we're offering?" asks Cheyanne quietly. "I'm Cheyanne. What happens if you don't turn that gear? Or someone else doesn't?"
"Why not?" - Throrgar shrugs at Cheyanne.
As you venture out into the streets, a nearly giddy Padlock along for the journey you see the patrols of Modrons entering this area. . .
Cheyanne follows the more-enthusiastic-about-escorting-Padlock-somewhere (?!?!?) PCs out of the building, her expression showing immediate concern as she sees the other modrons. "Um...who wants to talk to all of them and try to convince them to let us take their 'object of value' and just walk away. Are modrons violent? Should we be worried?" she asks with an unconfident tone. "And does anyone have a good idea how to get blood out of my clothes? They're not much, but I'd rather not look like a slaughtered animal if we run into anything too big and hungry..."
Glutton does a complete 180 on her attitude and says cheerfully to Padlock, "Welcome to the party!" She says to Cheyanne, "Sure! I can whip something up for you! It might take a couple of days though."
She continues to jabber on about the modrons, "Probably! Most beings are capable of violence when properly provoked. Its just a matter of figuring out how to provoke them. And yes! Always be worried that somethings out to get you!"
As you are talking, a group of Modrons turns a corner and begins marching towards you.
"Halt, citizens! Have you seen the lost object of significance?"
Avesska sighs and marches up to them.
”No, but I have lost my child. Have you seen her. She is very significant. To me. About 3’6”, sallow skin, surly expression....Well? Have you?” The githyanki looks as pensively as she can from one to the next.
[
"I guess it's time to make this happen..." mutters Cheyanne as she watches the modrons approach. "Yeah! We're looking for someone too - can you help us?" she says as she rushes up to the modrons and gently, but firmly, takes the hands of the lead one and turn them around to look somewhere else...
Cheyanne and Avesska begin distracting some of the Modrons.
Gribblix is looks for alternative routes, in case plans go awry.
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Rankev stomps in front of the gang of modrons and calls at them.
"You, sir, are being...inefficient!" he says defiantly at them.
He had been thinking about this problem ever since he heard about what Padlock's job had been. It just seemed -wrong- that a race of absolute lawful embodiments (if the sketchy knowledge he had about this place was true) would somehow surrender their ingenuity.
So too, to send a large number of troops on a trip just for a hand to do so menial a job? Have they never heard of water-powered mills? Or wind mills, for that matter?
Well...maybe they haven't.
"Sirrah, is it not the highest purpose of life to achieve Order?"
He paused here. The secret of debate was to start with a principle so absolute that none could deny you. Then you use that momentum to...end with a principle so impossible that none can debate it.
"And is it not Orderly to remove ALL instances of the the REMOTEST possibility to CHAOS infiltrating into any given system?
And YOU, sirrah, are doing just that! I say that you are a worshipper of CHAOS!
And how do I say this? It is your goal to put the Lost Object of Significance BACK into the job of turning aforementioned cog, IS IT NOT?
But you, sir, would be putting into place an object that has ALREADY shown to be SUB-OPTIMAL for doing that job. Why, sir, would you do such a thing?!? Do you WANT that cog to be turned intermittently? For that is what would happen! The Lost Object, already having shown to not have a high value for performing that job is NOT the best tool FOR that job. Wouldn't that be logical?
I mean, I have heard it said, and so you might agree with me, that the *ahem*,
Past Performance is the best indicator of Future Performance. Isn't that so?
Hence, I say to you that the ONLY way to retain Order is to NOT find or seek the Lost Object, and come up with some other way...a way that does NOT promote CHAOS.
Some years ago a great thinker of our time invented something called a "windmill". Basically it translates lateral, naturally generated power, into mechanical, rotating power. All by using the natural forces around us. Thus even those low-beings on the Prime Material Plane do NOT need Cogs or Objects to turn their cranks...they just hook it up to a mill. And it generates constant, steady, un-interrupted turning.
And isn't that what you, sirrah, are looking for?
Let the Object go, and I think we can work something out."
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"Stay behind me little one" - Throrgar whispers to the small modron, his mind reeling from Rankev's argument.
Glutton chuckles as Rankev tries to negotiate with beings of ultimate order with logic and well reasoned arguments of all things. She quietly gets toothpick ready for the inevitable scuffle but still suggests, "If you want to help Padlock lets give 'em the laugh." She casually takes toothpick into her hands, just in case.
"This is not the law; this is not chaos. The lost object must be returned, only then can the gear turn again." unfortunately, while Rankev's eloquent arguments distract the Modrons, they do not appear intelligent enough to truly understand and grasp what he is saying. . .nevertheless, the Modrons begin to move away continuing their search elsewhere.
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"Well, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance then baffle them with bull...something," Rankev muses as he watches the searchers retreat from the field of battle. Victory?
"And that," he says, turning back to the group, "is...Power!" he says, celebrating his win for whatever it may be.
"Where are we off to now?"
Cheyanne looks blankly at Rankev as he speaks, clearly not understanding at all...
"If I remember correctly, we were looking for a portal to this place... Mechanus?" - Throrgar commments to the others - "But after asking around, Glutton found no information about it... Would one of these 'modrons' be able to help us?" - he asks his companions.
Snapping out of her confused stupor at Rankev's soliloquy, Cheyanne looks at Throrgar and shrugs. "That would make some sense, I suppose. They have to have come from their home plane, so there must be a portal that leads in that direction..." she says thoughtfully.
Then she says, "Let's try asking them, but without the little guy around to distract them..." and excuses herself to a nearby group of the modrons, deliberately placing enough distance between herself and the rest of the party that, perhaps, the modrons won't spend the entire conversation looking at her companions.
"Hi there! I hear you are looking for an item of importance. If we find it, do you need it brought to Mechanus? How could we get there from here? Is there a portal?" she asks with a smile.
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Cheyanne looks blankly at Rankev as he speaks, clearly not understanding at all...
Well stuffed on his own importance at defeating an entire squadron without a shot fired, Rankev explains. "I simply illustrated, good Cheyanne, that there actions were not lawful. And if indeed these are creatures of purest Law, then surely that would be a horrible sin, hm?
I just explained that Padlock was 'broken' because he was turning the cog, but now wasn't, and why would you put a broken turner back instead of just replacing it?
They must have seen at least some merit in the argument," he finishes, musingly.
"Now that you are explaining it, it makes a lot of sense" - the minotaur nods at Rankev.
Glutton asks Padlock, "Are you broken? Are you just some part to be swapped in and out of the multiverse's machinery?" She then says conspiratorially, "Say do you want to get back at those modrons?"
"Yeahyeahyeah! We should totally get you back with the modrons, huh?" Gribblix encouraged.
"He does not want to" - Throrgar frowns.
"Get back. . . at? I do not understand. . .
What I am is a Gear Spirit- I suppose in most worlds what you might call a petitioner of the Plane of Mechanus. My eternal reward from life is just that- the joy of turning a gear in the great machine of Mechanus forever."
As the modrons prove useless, but also largely unthreatening, Cheyanne nods and returns to the rest of the party. "They're dumber than me, and much uglier," she comments, with not a hint of modesty but a healthy bit of self-awareness. "Let's steer clear of that large group over there," she gestures towards the group gathering several streets over, "...and see if any of the other petitioners we are shepherding know where to go. Come on!" Then she retraces the steps that took them to discover Padlock and looks to find those rescued from Loki's clutches...
Glutton says to Cheyanne, "Good idea!" She then walks up to the large group and asks brightly, "What's the chant?" Glutton does not bring Padlock with.
As Glutton walks over to see what the gathering modrons are doing it becomes clear- they've opened a portal and are beginning to file back through to Mechanus!
Cheyanne watches Glutton-For-Punishment with confusion. "But I said to avoid the modrons..." she mutters before noticing them opening a portal. "Oh! Will that portal take us closer to Sigil? Where are they headed?"
Cheyanne watches Glutton-For-Punishment with confusion. "But I said to avoid the modrons..." she mutters before noticing them opening a portal. "Oh! Will that portal take us closer to Sigil? Where are they headed?"
"Hey don't worry about it! I'm really sorry but you're a clueless leatherhead and you have really bad ideas sometimes but that just means if I do the opposite thing, in a circuitous way, you're a really canny cutter."
Glutton flashes a barmy grin, "It will take us somewhere!" She jumps into the unknown.
"But can anyone just travel through these portals? Are they just... open?" - Throrgar inquires.
"I think you need to have the proper key to use the portal properly", Gribblix remarked.
Cheyanne's expression grows upset for a moment as her knew friend insults her, but shakes her head and rolls her eyes at the circuitous effort to soften the blow. She then watches in shock as Glutton-for-Punishment dives into the portal with no more concern than one would diving into a stream.
"Um...is that safe enough to follow her? We should, right...?"
As you watch, Glutton begins approaching the portal and the Modrons do not say anything allowing her to simply sidle through alongside them.
When Cheyanne sees the whole process happening safely she shrugs. "I'm still just a Clueless Prime, so I don't know if this is a good idea, but Glutton-for-Punishment seems to know and has been a loyal friend. I say we go - we can help you-know-who avoid an undesirable fate once we get back to Sigil," she says as she falls into line with the Modrons and follows them into Mechanus.