- set out from the City of Needles on a mission from R.A.M.O.T.H., a widespread but decrepit machine intelligence
- initial pay included a set of three chainpods with oddly overbuild power cores (more Amber Crystal than expected)
- overclocked a volcano tamer, resurrecting Elanya as a plasmar, under geas to serve as a mountain king's emissary

- Saharnya and friends slew the Azure Mountain (whose breath is despair)
- used its remains to subdue the tunneling machines before they could fully reunite and awaken into a Sawblade Titan
- secured a couple of very favorable trade agreements:
-- canned beans to the University of Doors outpost on banded mesa, in exchange for otherworldly tropical hardwoods
-- structural stone to Cerdyn's Pass, in exchange for stasis gel and, eventually, freight from the Steadfast

- Natalina and Paprika learned how to use the automated public transit system in the vast, desolate Cloud Giants' Tomb
- just as they reached the top of the Beanstalk proper, encountered another red eyed, stone-armored gravity-manipulator
- survived another bizarre banishment, evaded the Hunger In The Halls by breaking a window to the U of D on Banded Mesa

- after reuniting, saved the worm-farming village of Glawv from bandits led by Halcus the Magnificent
- he's the fourth son of the guy Eliznyabeth sold an Earthshaker too, might have repercussions for the volcano embassy
- traded Halcus's mind-enhancing symbiote to the Elsawn clave, who then cured the Red Cough (possibly N & P's fault)
- learned much more about the nature of Amber Crystal iotum, and the Beard of the Sun vanishing ca. 200 years ago

- crossed Plains of Kataru, finding once-safe routes menaced by astraphin monoliths and "nomyn" tumbleweed-symbiotes
- Sahara proved that Milaconi Whose Mere Touch etc. wasn't just a dream, but the augmech was disabled in that big fight
- Callard Sebane is as strong as the legends say, but not a villain; iron wind gave him powers he can barely control
- got separated when he lured away the Kataru Behemoth, clearing your path toward the Beanstalk

It's winter. The snow is deep enough that every house in town has either switched to coming and going through doors on the upper floor, or been forced to dig tunnels. Icicles hang from the five 'near moons.' Energetic children make a sport of seeing how high they can climb before those colossal blue-white crystal spears brush against the ground and break off. There are surprisingly few injuries, even when someone ends up pinned underneath a shattered pillar; the snow is soft and gravity is light.

Your hearts nonetheless feel heavy. You have six chainpods: the three you received as advance payment for a world-saving mission (Elsawn's observatory has since confirmed that threat as very real, a cylindrical object 20 miles wide and 160 miles long, spinning through the night at exactly the coordinates R.A.M.O.T.H. described, vectored to impact the Clock of Kala) and three more pods which you found inside the Beanstalk's 2.5 * 3 * 6 meter transit box, which should be easy enough to repair.

Wasn't random damage, like the encrustation of volcanic ash removed by that cleansing arch under the Eye of the Sea. All three had their entire power / buoyancy cores extracted with deliberate precision. How they came to be stranded ten miles above the ground, with mummified human corpses inside, R.A.M.O.T.H. will not say. The lone surviving memory ant which spelled out "plete success, need only return to collect our rewa" bears dark implications, particularly in combination with Natalina's farspeaking pylon misdial which revealed that all six of these chainpods have sequential serial numbers, indicating they were manufactured as part of the same batch.

rolled 13, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 12, 4, 6, 20, 10, 2, 7, 3, 18, 9, 20, 7, 18, 8 = 221

---

Reiko looks up to the beanstalk, wondering how many mercenary parties this R.A.Moth has sent to their deaths.

When Saharnya and the other Youngmason delegates (reluctantly) restored some of Reiko's standing, Reiko was tempted to go back to her cushy bodyguarding job. Her very, very 'cushy body'-guarding job. Let someone more qualified from the House take her place. But Saharnya's been moving up in the world. Slaying titans, taking titles... preparing for a promotion she's guaranteed to get. If Reiko doesn't do her part, Saharnya will eventually climb high enough to fire Reiko for good.

Come to think of it... R.A.Moth paid each mercenary crew a lot. Enough to simply ghost the contract, retire, and force R.A.Moth to send in the next mercenary party.

Paranoia grips Reiko's mind. She does a full sweep of the three disabled chainpods, looking for anything that may have activated or detonated, comparing them to the set of three chainpods the party was using. If there's any time left before the next company meeting, she'll scan for some loose iotum hidden within any secret compartments - or secret compartments that were made by hollowing out critical components of the vehicles - may hint at R.A.Moth's contingency plans.

Initial Actions JamesLeng 2025/09/26(Fri)00:14 No. 1114387 ID: 5f5c2b
File 175887089883.png - (408.71KB , 362x596 , Accelerator.png )

What is the "Viridian Re[~~]ion," and why is it trying to 'unlock' or 'rewind' the Clock of Kala by hurling giant doomsday rocks? How is that related to the rising prevalence of bizarrely hostile plant life, and the Beard of the Sun going dark? Can you trust your datasphere-dwelling patron to actually pay you when the job's done?
Most urgently, what are you doing next?

Each character can participate in a number of simultaneous long-term actions equal to their Tier. Some may be harder to combine. Most take at least a month per interval of significant progress, though depending on the project and available bonuses, crafting can be significantly faster.

[] repair gutted chainpods (requires amber crystal)
[] expedition to the Cloud Giant's Tomb (riding the Beanstalk takes more than fifty hours, each way, so remember to bring at least five days' food and water, plus anything else you might need on short notice)
[] discover new area of interest (dungeon, neighboring community, etc.)
[] scrounge / distill materials (gather iotum and parts - safer but slower than the above)
[] goof around, relax, pursue hobbies
[] serious training / research
[] recover from an injury
[] build up something good in town (infrastructure, relationships with NPCs... lot of possibilities)
[] travel to somewhere else on the ground (requires a way to cross snow efficiently, at least within the next three months)
[] other (write-in)



While you're resting up, and talking over those plans, someone else arrives in town, trudging through the snow from the opposite direction you did. Road that way leads past the Orgotek, to warmer lands in the northern Beyond. This newcomer is nearly five meters tall, visible parts entirely mechanical, almost but not quite entirely unlike those spiders under the Eye of the Sea - proportions more resembling a snail or squid.

"Well, howdy stranger! Big fella, aren'tcha? What can I..." The innkeeper steps forward, hand outstreched in greeting,
...then abruptly flies back and ragdolls against a wall. Still breathing, nothing major broken, but out cold with a concussion.

>anyoNe elSe approachiNg witHin thRee meteRs withoUt exPress perMission oR aimiNg weapoNs wIll bE forcefuLLy neutraliZed
>plaNet surfaCe hAs becoMe insufficienTLy SAFE so thIs oNe requiRes tHe sinGle-occaSion uSe oF yoUr "Beanstalk"
>iF soMe foRm oF paymeNt permiTs passaGe withoUt furTHer violeNce thIs oNe shAll renDer whateVer paymeNt yOu requiRe
>perMission Is noW extendEd fOr tHe askiNg oF relevaNt questioNs

>>1114386
>Paranoia grips Reiko's mind. She does a full sweep of the three disabled chainpods, looking for anything that may have activated or detonated, comparing them to the set of three chainpods the party was using. If there's any time left before the next company meeting, she'll scan for some loose iotum hidden within any secret compartments - or secret compartments that were made by hollowing out critical components of the vehicles - may hint at R.A.Moth's contingency plans.
>inability at understanding numenera https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y7mG47_4soYkAB7JlTaSKcTxQcwGrunViY7KblW_O4g/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.yoh080wdi1ab
>rolled 13
Not much room for secret compartments in a vehicle that's mostly chair and transparency.
Power core is definitely designed to explode, with all that extra amber crystal positioned to amplify the blast. Minimum safe distance would be a mile or more... but you're pretty sure there's no way to trigger such a detonation remotely. Setting it off at all would require a few minutes of fiddly work wiring together things that are currently air-gapped. Anyone with the ability to bypass that from arbitrarily far away would almost certainly have easier ways to kill you, if they were so inclined. Meddle with the nerves controlling your heart or lungs, for example.
>rolled 11, 12
> No Penalty for Salvaging numenera
After most of a day going over the beanstalk carriage's contents with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, Reiko manages to scrape together about ten pounds of apt clay (three units), three units of Parts, a small clear synth bag (worth one shin, just the right size to hold the previous), and other assorted debris which ends up cobbled together into four temperamental cyphers (below).
>rolled 13, 14, 14, 12, 4
There's obviously more iotum that could be extracted, but all the identifiable bits keep turning out to be important to the functionality of either those disabled chainpods, or the space elevator itself.

GRAVITY CHANGER
Level: 2
Usable: Metal plates
Effect: Once placed, the plates change the direction of gravity within an area up to a short distance in diameter. The gravitic warp could be continuous across the affected area, or it could bend and curve, changing directions within the area up to a number of times equal to the level of the cypher. Once gravity is warped, it cannot be changed and persists for 28 hours.
(mostly just a fresh coat of paint on the same "this way is down" sign Eliznyabeth used last week - could add a curvy arrow)

RAGE THROWER
Level: 5
Usable: Bulky handheld device attached to large tanks and a wide hose
Effect: When activated, creatures within short range are coated with a fine mist of insinuating nano particles that enter their blood and stimulate their behavior for about an hour, making them more violent but less able to feel pain. This grants them +1 Armor but an inability to use Effort from their Intellect Pool. If the use is coordinated with attackers who make up a community’s or horde’s combat force, the force is treated as a marauding horde during that community action.

>Marauding Horde: Marauding hordes are trained and have equipment for getting over community walls and mixing it up with the population. A marauding horde inflicts all its damage on a community’s health and doesn’t split it between health and infrastructure (unless it wants to). A marauding horde is usually unable to retreat. These abilities and limitations do not apply when attacking another horde.

STIM
Level: 4
Internal: Pill
Effect: Eases the next action taken by three steps.

WARMTH PROJECTOR
Level: 1
Wearable: Belt
Effect: Keeps the user warm and comfortable in the harshest cold temperatures for 28 hours. During this time, the user has Armor equal to the cypher level that protects against cold damage.

rolled 7, 12, 17, 14, 10, 16, 4, 3, 13, 11, 7, 16, 4, 6, 14, 4, 14, 14, 15, 10 = 211

---

>simultaneous long-term actions equal to their Tier.
Think I'll go with:
1. goof around, relax, pursue hobbies
2. build up relationship with NPCs in town
3. discover new areas of interest (with mostly an ear out for places to get her hands on tokens of strength and conquest)

>someone else arrives in town
Paprika stays seated, maintaining a nonthreatening posture."We're planning a trip up the beanstalk within the next few months. You'll need to talk it over with Nat, but she might let you ride along. What are you trying to get away from? Permission is extended to ask questions. And to relax...we're pretty friendly around here."

rolled 19, 1, 12, 7, 19, 5, 12, 6, 2, 20, 8, 20, 13, 14, 2, 6, 12, 17, 1, 1 = 197

---

>>1114387
>[] repair gutted chainpods (requires amber crystal)
By fate or happenstance, Natalina carries three amber crystals, one for each disabled chainpod. Would that be sufficient for Reiko to make repairs?

>3x mummified corpse
>How they came to be stranded ten miles above the ground, with mummified human corpses inside, R.A.M.O.T.H. will not say
Natalina removes her hat and inclines her head. "They were our predecessors, compatriots on the same endeavor. We owe them obligation, beyond even the fellowship of travelers and explorers."

Is R.A.M.O.T.H willing or able to provide identification? Failing that, do the townsfolk remember who they were from when they passed though? (Or if it happened long enough ago, do they appear in records?). These people deserve to be laid respectfully to rest, however that's done in the ninth world (do we need the services of an Aeon priest?). Messages sent to their homes or families, assuming they were contemporary.

Making suitable arrangements (and possibly doing corresponding research) seems like it might amount to a month long task, depending. Letters might take much longer, especially if there's no mail service, or travelers headed in the right direction (especially in winter).

>[x] serious training / research
>encountered another red eyed, stone-armored gravity-manipulator
Looking into these infuriating and obstinate things to determine some manner of defense, countermeasure, effective offense, or preventing gravity-assisted-banishment seems prudent. Even just understanding their motivations or goals might be useful, but it seems clear the expedition will need to get past the individual atop the Cloud Giant's Tomb.

>[x] other (write-in)
It might not take a month, but now that things have gotten a little calmer, Natalina will want to craft a set of eyeglasses as a gift for Paprika (something she's been planning since the fuzzy-handcuff environmental suits). The cultured arkus has braner lenses and responsive synth, she just needs a place to work, and possibly to borrow Reiko's book on crafting. She might need to come up with some way to get measurements without letting on what they're for?

Applying powers to long-term tasks as appropriate. Learned and Understanding (and Effort) are broadly-applicable, Community Leader might be useful for making funeral arrangements, Demeanor of Command and/or Babel might help in social aspects of arrangements or research.

>>1114399
>You'll need to talk it over with Nat, but she might let you ride along
Demeanor of Command, training in persuasion and negotiation, and the inability from Cultured (though the cultural context might be too different for that to matter) all seem applicable.

>plaNet surfaCe hAs becoMe insufficienTLy SAFE so thIs oNe requiRes tHe sinGle-occaSion uSe oF yoUr "Beanstalk"
"Is this in regards to the celestial impactor? May I ask, do you plan to attempt to prevent the collision or merely to relocate elsewhere? If the former, we may be allies."

>iF soMe foRm oF paymeNt permiTs passaGe withoUt furTHer violeNce thIs oNe shAll renDer whateVer paymeNt yOu requiRe
Taking the opportunity to secure compensation for the injured innkeeper seems prudent.

Beyond that, information might be most useful, especially about the looming disaster. Are there more beings like it on the way? If so, transmitting that the town permits passage to the Beanstalk without violence would be appreciated.

>>1114401
>Is R.A.M.O.T.H willing or able to provide identification?
>rolled 19
The "primary cognizance" of R.A.M.O.T.H. (supposedly) attends to other urgent matters which require its full attention, but a "tertiary reclusiarch process" has cached notes relevant to this inquiry. Natalina is unpleasantly reminded of some terrified mid-ranking house-servant delivering oblique insults to someone their boss wishes to shun. It's possible that's just personal bias talking, though, since the actual news isn't too bad. Two potential courses of action are outlined:
a) pack the bodies in snow and ice as a preservative measure, until that automender Reiko's been ranting about is built, then wake them up and ask them yourselves
b) obtain a particular key - resembling a silvery egg or piece of fruit, with a dent which would fit a human's thumb while holding it - from that "self-defense" obsessed traveler, then follow said key's guidance to Nachant in the Phaeton Halo and consult archives there

>Looking into these infuriating and obstinate things to determine some manner of defense, countermeasure, effective offense, or preventing gravity-assisted-banishment seems prudent. Even just understanding their motivations or goals might be useful, but it seems clear the expedition will need to get past the individual atop the Cloud Giant's Tomb.
>rolled 1
Proposed intrusion: paranoid automaton overhears these inquiries and leaps to the conclusion that you are actually scheming to overcome its own capabilities, which, although entirely distinct in theoretical underpinnings (R.A.M.O.T.H.'s cached notes mention "applied kinetic-vector algebra"), imply somewhat similar tactics.

>craft a set of eyeglasses as a gift for Paprika
>rolled 12, 7, 19
>inability at crafting numenera
>no plan
>trained at transdimensional navigation
>asset from Understanding
>asset from book about crafting
A strange mood strikes, and Natalina gets somewhat carried away with making the best gift she can: a level 3 artifact which, in addition to resolving that hyperspatial astigmatism, will allow Paprika to see in the dark, and possibly yield other benefits. At one point a branar lens needs to be split with (for lack of anything more suitable) a meat cleaver, then the two halves end up shattering into six finite tomic point-subsets, before being recondensed into what looks almost like soap-bubbles on the circular wire frames - iridescent and delicately wobbling. Cautious poke with the cleaver sees a sturdy bronze blade's corner chipped right off, while the lens-membrane is unperturbed, so apparently that "Banach-Tarski" method the book described can work adequately even if you're just following instructions by rote. Still need to add a unit or two of Orthogonalium Fiber, though, to fully stabilize and hold everything together, before it'll be safe to wear.

rolled 6, 2, 4, 4, 2, 3, 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 6, 6, 4, 3 = 72

---

>>1114387
Stirred from her den by the commotion of new salvage being recovered from the Beanstalk, Cricket has been doing her best of observe the newcomers unnoticed. Of particular interest to her is the half-machine mechanic. Endlessly fascinated by the salvage of the old world, Cricket's eyes burn brightest in the moonlight, wondering just how does she do that every time Reiko interfaces with the numenera.

Cricket's main goals are to eventually try to ingratiate herself to the newcomers and join them on wherever their next delve is. To this end.

Long term actions:
- scrounge / distill materials
Looking for things of value to trade is how Cricket normally spends most of her time

- Develop Community Networks
This one is in the book as a Jack-specific long term action. Not sure if that's allowed? Picturing this somewhat like the scrap exchange from The Office, taking one mans trash, finding another man to whom it's treasure, and skimming a bit off the top as a service fee. This is how Cricket gets most of the things she needs that she can't do for herself, making money from odd jobs or trading her way up to useful parts and materials.

- Build Up Food or Water Stores
This one is also listed in the book but not on your list, and there's a couple specifics I wanna ask questions about.
Firstly, you mention needing rations to go on an expedition. Cricket wants to go on an expedition, so, I want to get rations. Not sure if that's an appropriate long term action?
Secondly, the text specifically calls out building up stores as a task that involves leading a group. But, if I just want rations for, say, 4-6 people, would that be necessary? Can I get like, 30 man-days worth of food and water myself stored using long term actions and then use that for expeditions?

>someone else arrives in town, trudging through the snow from the opposite direction you did. Road that way leads past the Orgotek, to warmer lands in the northern Beyond. This newcomer is nearly five meters tall, visible parts entirely mechanical, almost but not quite entirely unlike those spiders under the Eye of the Sea - proportions more resembling a snail or squid.
Intensely curious about this mechanical newcomer, Cricket is watching the inn from a tunnel in a nearby snowdrift, silently stalking through town to the best vantage points to observe and absorb.

rolled 14, 16, 18, 20, 10, 19, 15, 13, 9, 9, 5, 19, 14, 9, 13, 6, 18, 6, 12, 12 = 257

---

Long-term actions:
* Reiko slowly repairs a chainpod using Natalina's amber crystal.
* Reiko works on building a Farspeaker Pylon in the town. Her agreement with the town is to use some of their iotum stocks in exchange for mutual ownership of the device.
* Between projects, Reiko prowls the Bars for rumors of any recent 'dungeons' that opened up. Bounties on local banditry as well.
* Reiko acts as an intermediary for House Youngmason, offering up trade deals to the local merchants, using the latest news and documentation that she got from her last meeting with the Youngmason representatives as a catalog.

>Pack the bodies in snow and ice
Reiko believes they may have decomposed too long, but may as well.

Short Term Action:
Reiko quietly escorts any remaining civilians in the bar away from the temperamental killing machine while Natalina does all the talking.

rolled 13, 8, 13, 7, 6, 3, 7, 8, 5, 2, 13, 11, 7, 7, 6, 3, 1, 13, 12, 10 = 155

---

>>1114432
Rolled the wrong dice. Here's a new set.

>>1114399
>2. build up relationship with NPCs in town
rolled 7
Barmaid has the looks to be a flute boy, but is a bit too shy... or possibly just gets panic attacks around a common type of customer. Name is "Go'ran," or "G'oran" - either he's inconsistent about the pronunciation himself or there's some weird contextual factor. Eccentric taste in clothing when off-duty, dark skin (almost blue-black), straight white waist-length hair tied near the end, very expressive ears. Seems a few years younger than you, but claims to be more than ten times older. Knew Natalina's family name the moment he saw her, based on - supposedly - description and pictures from one of the eelfolk they had trade agreements with two centuries ago. https://questden.org/kusaba/quest/res/1034928.html#1040499
Been working here in Jackson's Landing ten years, but still thinks of it as a temporary thing: sleeps in a broom closet, everything he owns could be either packed up to flee inside five minutes or abandoned without regret. Open to the possibility of friendship, dating, or other connections. Has never been outdoors during the daytime.
>3. discover new areas of interest
rolled 12
House on one of the outlying farms recently had a mysterious hatch - the sort of thing you might see on a submarine, with sturdy hinges, watertight seal, wheel in the center to lock or unlock - appear in their second floor hallway. Behind the hatch appears to be a staircase leading up to the third floor, which would seem completely unremarkable (matching architectural style and so on) except that the house doesn't have a third floor, and the angle it's at should be protruding visibly from the exterior, but isn't.
Same general kind of thing happens often enough there are regional superstitions and legal precedents. Usually just to new construction, though, while this particular house has been stably occupied by the same family for generations, without any major structural modifications in at least the past year. Usual approach would be to just burn it, but that would definitely destroy the house, and might not even solve the problem given the kind of metal that hatch is made of (a quirk of local building safety codes defines both maximum and minimum acceptable levels of flammability), so the family in question is desperately flailing around for alternative solutions.
Travel to get there would be an easy hour's walk during the half of the year with pleasant weather, grueling slog taking more than half the day under current conditions.

rolled 4 = 4

---

>>1114432
>halfway homes, catacombs, twilight zones. Looking for Technics turntables to gramophones. So take a last lick of your ice cream cone. And lock up what you still want to own. [...] All of your pretty little rags and bones

Rolling for how many units of Orthogonalium Fiber are found in the trash-heap behind that house with the mystery hatch. Cricket will also obtain some shins or lower-level io from networking, and facilitate the town's economy enough to help build up 1d6 days of extra food stockpile, but exact quantities are less immediately relevant there since even a single day of food and water for a town of a thousand people is enough to supply an expedition for a month or more, given that said expedition has less than thirty mouths to feed.
Of course, that's food in the town's granary, not Cricket's own pocket, but Natalina's cut of the profits from that beans-for-timber deal can easily pay for buying up necessary basic supplies, given that sufficient local surplus exists. Might want to consider fully looping in Jackson's Launch to the Vorkruns family's teleporter-based trade network during a subsequent month.

>"Go'ran," or "G'oran"
Paprika's a little too busy with her current infatuation to pursue more romance right now, but she'll probably find some kinship with the barmaid. Lots of late nights listening to his stories and drunken trash talking her evil adopted mother.

>one of the eelfolk they had trade agreements with two centuries ago.
"Do you know what 'reverse honey' is?"

On the day of the Accelerator's visit, Paprika convinced Go'ran to take some time off and let her cover his shift. Wearing the maid dress with her hair down, and between her flat chest and deceptively delicate-looking dancer build, she bears a pretty striking resemblance in terms of silhouette. Either the innkeeper hasn't looked her way enough to notice yet, or he doesn't care. She is putting a whole lot of effort into entertaining the guests.

Currently sitting on the edge of Nat's table with a feather duster in hand, acting like a tease. She's careful not to brandish it at the newcomer.

>>1114444
>Reiko slowly repairs a chainpod using Natalina's amber crystal.
>rolled 14, 16, 18, 20, 10, 19, 15, 13, 9
Replacing the power cores goes very smoothly, only ten days each.

>Reiko works on building a Farspeaker Pylon in the town. Her agreement with the town is to use some of their iotum stocks in exchange for mutual ownership of the device.
>rolled 9, 5, 19, 14
Also done in ten days, apart from lack of a local supply of Quantium. Scored two minor and one major extra effects on crafting rolls, with only one failed roll - and even that only just barely a failure. Let's say Reiko spends the remaining two-thirds of a monthly action on the Wright version of "operate workshop," then trades the loot which that work would normally provide for enough Parts, Responsive Synth, and Pliable Metal to meet the needs of both the Farspeaking Pylon, and Paprika's glasses.

>Between projects, Reiko prowls the Bars for rumors of any recent 'dungeons' that opened up. Bounties on local banditry as well.
>specialized in raider tactics
>rolled 9
Tribe of yovoki are camped out about fifty miles away. They've got a heavy wagon pulled by a pair of avatrol, a dozen large tents, a few spears with tips that are even colder than the frozen surroundings (at least, according to somebody who climbed the watchtower and surveyed the camp with some thermal-telescope cypher) and seem to be following in the wake of a "mech shambler," type of automaton the size of a small house that roams around, constantly modifying itself by swapping parts with any other machine it encounters - occasionally causing trouble for functional installations in the process, but more often creating valuable salvage opportunities in areas which had previously seemed fully picked over.
Yovoki are reputed to be savage cannibal abhumans, but there are baffling inconsistencies. They take pride in their own flabby, jaundiced hideousness, can't be reasoned with, and worship the toad-demon Tsathoggua... but somehow also barter various things (goldgleam from the Slant Milieu, elixirs from Umdera, stranger stuff from deep underground) for azure steel, and have a caste of professional diplomats who many humans find beautiful? What's not in dispute is they're excellent at jumping, and can shoot darts from under their tongue which carry a fast-acting but very short-lived paralytic. Relatively common for somebody hit with it to be incapacitated within seconds, then back on their feet half a minute later, before the fight's even over.
Avatrol are ornery grazing ungulates, probably nonsapient. Odd-shaped skull which whistles in the wind when they charge, and looking through the hole in it supposedly can yield visions of the future. Main interesting thing, though, is fur and hide with broad-spectrum retroreflector properties. Almost any sort of energy beam fired at them gets returned to sender. That's probably how the tribe has been dealing with astraphin monoliths.

>Reiko acts as an intermediary for House Youngmason, offering up trade deals to the local merchants, using the latest news and documentation that she got from her last meeting with the Youngmason representatives as a catalog.
>rolled 13
Difficulty 5 and no passive bonuses, but Intellect Edge 4 means you can apply a level of Effort for free, so the trade agreement just barely succeeds. However, House Youngmason is only prepared to provide four units of level five iotum (such as quantium) per month, starting next month, so the farspeaking pylon won't actually be ready to power on for a while yet unless you find more quantium some other way.

Also, you'll need to pick a place to set it up. Jackson's Launch is clustered in a 150m radius around the Beanstalk, while the Farspeaking Pylon needs to be at least 15-20 meters further away than that to minimize risk of reactive field interference, and none of the locals are particularly eager to shovel the hundreds of cubic meters of snow which would be necessary to clear space for an optimal-sized parabolic signal condenser.

>>1114401
>intrusion rejected, rerolling
>rolled 5
Local aeon priest says they're called "hedrons" or "anhedons," and has an illuminated bestiary which lists them as "peaceable pilgrims seeking the 'Meeting of All Things,' details of which they will not or cannot describe." Armor is actual stone (or at least responds identically to certain corrosive chemicals), and is either permanently sealed airtight, or there's no vital organic tissue anywhere inside. Telepathy works on them more or less normally. Enough of the other details in the old book are contrary to firsthand experience to mostly spoil any credibility of the remainder, at least what little of it isn't uselessly vague.

>Demeanor of Command, training in persuasion and negotiation, and the inability from Cultured (though the cultural context might be too different for that to matter) all seem applicable.
>max Effort for haggling with a violently paranoid genius
>rolled 12
Just barely succeeded. Trusts you, to the extent it ever trusts anyone or anything, and will attempt to deal in good faith so long as you do the same.
>plaNet surfaCe hAs becoMe insufficienTLy SAFE so thIs oNe requiRes tHe sinGle-occaSion uSe oF yoUr "Beanstalk"
>"Is this in regards to the celestial impactor?
yEs
>May I ask, do you plan to attempt to prevent the collision or merely to relocate elsewhere? If the former, we may be allies."
tHe lattEr

>Taking the opportunity to secure compensation for the injured innkeeper seems prudent.
Clear synth pouch of money appears from some inner compartment. With soft whirring and clinking, a stack of coins is transferred to the nearby counter. Enough to cover local standard penalty for simple assault, a week of lost wages, repairing and re-plastering the dented section of wall... but not one shin more. An itemized receipt is hastily engraved on a palm-sized slab of pink quartz, details of phrasing on which demonstrate alarmingly specific knowledge of the town's legal system and economy.

Newcomer's bladed limbs also fiddle with the wreckage of Milaconi Whose Mere Touch Can Heal Or Slay: consulting diagnostic displays, reaming out disgusting calcified gunk from interior pipes, and adding a few new components. Fountain of smart fluid erupts from the wreck, then folds back around into a partial cocoon and extends tendrils, waving almost like the hands of a clock, which the newcomer explains correspond to a five-day countdown.
Per that explanation, if no further action is taken before then, or if anti-tamper contingencies are triggered, the augmech will be reduced to irreparable slag. However, if a hostage rides along (in a chainpod) while ascending the Beanstalk, and conditions at the top are as described - or, if different, only in ways reasonably attributable to honest error rather than malice - said hostage will then be given passcodes by which to not only prevent that detonation, but allow certain other aspects of the modifications to restore the augmech to original spec. Or, at the very least, functionality more than sufficient to resolve any lingering complications from the innkeeper's injuries.

>Beyond that, information might be most useful, especially about the looming disaster.
The "beard of the sun" is - or rather, was, and hopefully soon will be again - the exhaust plume of a device intended to move the sun itself, thereby carrying along the children of the sun (such as the world you're currently standing on) as well, in order to flee... it's not sure exactly what, and is even less sure whether those details really matter. Anything that the kind of people capable of moving stars look at, thinking "let's run away," presumably can't be fought head-on - and would also surely be capable of throwing more than just one or two rocks.
>Are there more beings like it on the way? If so, transmitting that the town permits passage to the Beanstalk without violence would be appreciated.
Impression Natalina gets is that there are other such beings, but they don't routinely communicate, much less coordinate. They'd be more likely to regard each other as a source of danger, or spare parts, than of useful advice.

rolled 10, 8, 14, 18, 12, 4, 12, 12, 17, 12, 20, 18, 4, 7, 10, 8, 13, 13, 3, 8 = 223

---

Reiko bites her claws. If they want to cut it close, they can only prep for two days and then have to rush the escort up the beanstalk.

Reiko semi-reluctantly volunteers to be the hostage. Milaconi is her responsibility, she can't let the steel goddess die.
Reiko also asks Natalina to try and negotiate for an extended time limit, they're not going to get any prep adventuring done in just two days.

Reiko gets to work on crafting some water purifiers, and purchasing food in bulk discounts. Target goal is eight days of food and water, in case something happens to their stock mid-transit.
Effort 2

>Pylon snow problem
Reiko's solution is the construction of a ramp or a rope bridge up an artificial hill. The snow won't gather as densely on a bridge. The heat belt can make constructing the hill easier.
But this is a problem for later. Right now, they have a client to appease.

>>1114783
>they can only prep for two days
No, when taking the length of the return trip into account they'd have to leave pretty much immediately.

rolled 20, 12, 16, 17, 19, 6, 11, 9, 1, 12, 5, 15, 8, 16, 10, 11, 18, 11, 3, 16 = 236

---

After several seconds of heated discussion, Natalina manages to talk Paprika down and avert an immediate fight. Wisps of smoke rise from Paprika's fingertips as she sets down the feather duster and stands in front of the robot. She speaks with the fiery authority to (hopefully) quell any other would-be volunteers.

"I'm your hostage. I need half an hour to gather supplies, unless you can provide food and water. If you can, we leave now."

rolled 15, 12, 17, 12, 15, 5, 8, 18, 18, 14, 3, 5, 2, 5, 13, 18, 10, 11, 7, 16 = 224

---

>>1114427
Annoyance and frustration quickly gives way to shock followed by bemusement. Natalina was not expecting resurrection to be more straightforward than an information request for names and identification. (Perhaps the innkeeper-abbot's optimism in regards to his deceased charges was more warranted than she realized). Reallocating the time that would have been spent arranging funerals and possible cross-continental mail to secure or fashion watertight coffins for the mummies seems straightforward enough. For the moment, the remains just need to be stored somewhere exposed to the winter cold, but not the damp. Longer-term storage, to preserve mummies through warmer months, can be revisited later.

>>1114571
>Currently sitting on the edge of Nat's table with a feather duster in hand, acting like a tease.
Natalina finds herself more confused than ever by glaives and other warriors who choose to go into battle in skimpy outfits, or perhaps more precisely, by those who choose to fight besides them. Yes, not everyone requires bulky armor (her own armored cloth and jewelry serve her quite well, thank you), but having an attractive ally (much less a romantic partner) in a distracting outfit while one is staring down a demonstrably dangerous five meter opponent is... difficult. Even in an arkus' battle of words seeking to avoid swords. (When did Paprika even discern how much she would appreciate dressing like that)?!

>>1114780
>"hedrons" or "anhedons,"
Peaceful her posterior. Unless the two they had met earlier were exceptions- criminals, outcasts, exiles from their people, belligerents starting trouble elsewhere? Or... something changed. If the "meeting of all things" refers to the celestial projectile meeting the clock of kala... perhaps where they once were content to wait, they now act more overtly.

>With the benefit of your prior encounters and tactical planning, squidbot could obliterate a lone anhedon in fifteen seconds flat, at basically no personal risk unless the anhedon in question had superior weaponry AND the element of surprise.
Natalina takes absolutely no vindictive satisfaction in warning the machine about the hedron atop the Cloud Giant's Tomb and its propensity for unprompted banishment. Though perhaps our guest might consider the Endless Abode a desirable evacuation zone?

>Taking Milaconi and one of our own as temporary hostages
Milaconi's cousin faithfully and reliably saw the cultured and graceful duo through their sojourns across the void (hopefully her automated return voyage was successful, and she made it back to her berth in the innkeeper abbot's care), and Milaconi was no less important in their time of need on the plains of Kataru. As abrasive (and potentially offensive) as their guest's negotiating tactics are, it is sincere in the arkus' judgement (if something of a sociopath trying to follow a script for how to interact with people in lieu of empathy; "communicate needs", "offer compensation", "secure leverage", etc.)and a restored augmech would be a great boon while allowing her to fall into ruin would be a terrible shame and poor repayment.

rolled 2, 6, 17, 2, 10, 7, 10, 12, 3, 3, 10, 7, 3, 4, 17, 14, 5, 7, 9, 4 = 152

---

Crawling out of a back room, slowly and cautiously approaching the threshold with open palms displayed in in a gesture of peace and non-hostility, you see a grimey teenage girl. Huge glistening black eyes are about the only thing on her not covered in some combination of dirt, soot, and rags.
"I want to see the top of the beanstalk" she volunteers.
"If I would be a suitable candidate, please allow me to go in their stead".

>>1114786
> unless you can provide food and water. If you can, we leave now."
>rolled 20
thIs oNe caN

Two days up, with nothing to do but stare at the stars, read that borrowed book about Natalina's family, or sip (surprisingly tasty) blue sludge.

Watched a brief, frantic six-limb-plus-telekinesis martial arts duel, which ended with the loser resembling an imploded pincushion. All that flying scrap metal can't have been good for those windows encircling the arrival platform.

Two days back down, alone, with enough extra room to roll the chainpod around inside the Beanstalk's transit carriage. Gallon jug's still three-quarters full.

Scored some loot, despite not participating in the action, since
>thIs oNe neeDs nO tRophies
Specifically, an anhedon's severed (?) head, and a blackmail dossier on an Uxphonese baron by the name of Tichronus, which makes for much more interesting reading. Apparently the paranoid cephalopoid automaton was carrying these papers as part of some contingency, and now, with the Cloud Giant's Tomb validated as a feasible escape route, realized that one way or another it wouldn't be returning to Uxphon until long after everyone involved in the documented misdeeds was dead, possibly of old age.

Milaconi's not back at 100% immediately, but smart-fluid cocoon seems to have jumpstarted some ongoing self-repair process, and follow-up instructions had as much or more to do with guiding and stabilizing that as with disarming actual traps.

Natalina, with her focus on the cephalopoid, is relived and gratified when the others interrupt to volunteer for hostage-escort-duty. And then confused, with one more volunteer than she had companions present.

When the automaton selects Paprika to accompany it, the arkus introduces herself to the camouflaged teenager (it's not filth if it's deliberate, right?), and offers reassurance they plan to mount a longer, multi-person journey up the beanstalk in the near future. "It's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of someone willing to selflessly put herself in danger for others. I'm Natalina, the cultured arkus who shreds the walls of the world. We are on a longer expedition to, to put it bluntly, prevent an enormous rock from falling on everyone."

>an anhedon's severed (?) head
The arkus' happiness at Paprika's safe and triumphant return is tempered by a sudden onset of doubt. "It occurs to me, rather too late, that I may have effectively arranged a contract killing. I've... never done something like that before. Perhaps I should not have. Maybe they would have ended up in conflict regardless?

>Cricket
"Oh, hello! Aren't you a cutie! If you want to join us, go right ahead! I'm the team's Wright, so let me know if your gear's on the fritz and I'll poke it until it works."

>After the trip
Reiko's glad none of them will ever see that jerk again... but at least they tipped the waitresses. The blackmail's worth quite a finder's fee. Reiko offers to sell the blackmail to House Youngmason; they'll pay well for a permanent leash on yet another Baron, and Reiko offers to split the proceeds 30-70 since it's her reputation that's getting a boost.

>>1114791
"Far as I'm concerned, we helped two jerks fight to the death because one of them was threatening to kill civilians, and I don't think our new friend (pointing at the dead anhedon) was 'hospitable' towards the previous party of mercs. We need to make sure this doesn't happen again. The next traveler who pulls this stunt might not pull their blades back on the bartender."

Are the rest of you going to be visiting the farmhouse with the mystery hatch, or doing anything else potentially risky, during the four days Paprika's away? If so, what's the plan?

>>1114795
Let's leave the risk and visit for after Paprika gets back. The interim can be spent on characters getting to know Cricket and vice versa, preparing for the trip (snowshoes? Cross-county skis?) and fretting.

>>1114792
It's difficult to tell if the little gremlin is blushing under the layer of grime, but Cricket seems to spend most of the next four days watching Reiko work and hiding when caught before cautiously coming into the open to watch directly.

Of few words, Cricket explains she doesn't have family anymore- her "powers" apparently made her a target by some interested parties, and at the age of six she had to flee to somewhere no one would find or recognize her. She hid in an old blind traders shop and learned how to read and understand numenera from him, before setting out on her own a couple years ago to try and learn more about herself. She's been wintering in Jackson's Launch and trying to figure out a way into the beanstalk since.

When Paprika returns, Cricket is intensely curious about the trip. She seems willing to follow you all just about anywhere or to do anything as long as it involves investigating some sort of mystery.

rolled 15, 4, 11, 2, 14, 15, 17, 19, 6, 15, 4, 2, 12, 11, 2, 13, 7, 14, 14, 17 = 214

---

While they waited for Paprika to come back with the disarming codes, Reiko kept her mind off the potential doom of Milaconi by doubling down on building up a storage hill for the Farspeaker Pylon. It took a while, but she managed to build up a pillbox, something that gave off the impression of armed forces, with a small, bare-bones engineering lab inside.

With the remaining time left, Reiko asked their new friend Cricket if she knew any broken machines that needed fixing, and did some iotum scanning in the garbage piles Cricket pointed towards.
(Effort 2 on all actions)

Snowshoes acquired, you hike out to the farmhouse with the mystery hatch.

Ground floor, currently buried, consists of an uninsulated front porch - thin screens for keeping insects out during the warmer months, extra food storage currently - then in the main body of the house, just two big rooms: kitchen in back, living room in front with an elaborately jointed reconfigurable table.
Upper floor has a long central hallway with several smaller closets and alcoves, including the family shrine, but most of the actual floor space is bedrooms. Two quadrants for the kids, one for the parents, last quadrant is the coat room / winter entrance hall, which you approach up the sloped roof of the front porch.
Coat room inner door is arranged such that you have to take a couple steps down the stairs toward the ground floor, then turn around, close it, and climb back up to reach the second-floor hallway, since that's meant to be a more private family space, while the living room at the bottom of the stairs is more open to guests.

Copper hatch is at the far end of the upper-floor hallway, next to one of the bedroom doors. Mom and the kids have been sleeping in the barn's hayloft. It's decently warm, with all the animals gathered up in there, and the smell is nothing compared to nightmares about what might emerge from that hatch when their guard's down.
Dad, in greeting, says "So you're those foreign exorcists?" Explains that he doesn't really care if you find valuables inside, just wants "the intrusion" gone ASAP, without wrecking the rest of the house.

Curving stairs inside the hatch lead to a duplicate of the house's second floor, starting with the same coat room you arrived through. Overall layout uncannily accurate, but bare of personal touches, as though newly constructed or long abandoned. Main pieces of furniture in place, but no mattresses on the beds, and each frame or chair draped with cloth of a type that Jackson's Landing residents refuse to use for anything other than funerary shrouds. Not counting windows, there are two other exits: hatch to the attic, where the fold-out ladder arrives soaking wet and there's an impossibly inverted pool of dark water, or the main stairs which - if this were the actual second floor - would lead down to the dining room.

rolled 19, 8, 16, 10, 3, 9, 11, 12, 17, 19, 13, 17, 14, 14, 7, 5, 16, 12, 16, 2 = 240

---

>General Strategy
Reiko decides that Plan C will be to throw Paprika's Living Solvent Cypher at the hatch. We do that if there's a horde of monsters preparing to invade from the portal.

>Inverted Pool
"Hm..."
Reiko tosses a pebble at the gravity-inverted pool, wondering what her gravity inverter will do to the water in the pool if the range is high enough. Paprika could use that swimming cypher of hers (and at that, Reiko does a double take, realizing that her party is over their cypher limit and should probably unload on this adventure) to scout the 'bottom' of the pool for artifacts or something.

The pebble does a physics.
Reiko shrugs. They need to investigate the area a little more before they can 'hatch' a plan.

>Dining Room, or whatever's inside
Reiko scans the dining room for iotum, spending 2 effort, looking for that Quantium in particular.

rolled 8, 17, 1, 18, 18, 11, 15, 16, 10, 1, 15, 5, 20, 16, 3, 4, 17, 11, 10, 12 = 228

---

>thIs oNe caN
"Don't worry madame! I will return soon to sweep your bedchamber." Paprika kisses Nat, deftly removes the garter from her thigh and presses it into the arkus' hand, then turns to follow her captor.

Between her unlikely outfit, the tasty sludge, and the squidbot's cold calculating demeanor paired with its capacity for brutal violence, this is definitely the most fun Paprika's ever had in a hostage situation. But she is glad when it's over.

>It occurs to me, rather too late, that I may have effectively arranged a contract killing. I've... never done something like that before. Perhaps I should not have.
"I know it's ugly, but we are saving the world here. Things could have been dicey if we had to fight it ourselves." Paprika decides to leave out how cathartic it was to watch the killing unfold.

>Reiko offers to sell the blackmail to House Youngmason
"Sure, I dunno what to do with it. Can you look at the head too, see if you can figure anything out about these things?"

>When Paprika returns, Cricket is intensely curious about the trip.
"There's not much to say! An old friend pulled me into this mess, but we got separated and now she's off on some other adventure. At this point I'm only really in it to help Nat get her palace built. Why are you so interested in the beanstalk?"

>no family
>her "powers" apparently made her a target
Paprika's moved to tears by Cricket's story. "I'm so sorry, I lost my parents too. Why don't you stick with us a while?"

>So you're those foreign exorcists?
>impossibly inverted pool of dark water
Paprika lets out a heavy sigh, having had her fill of gravity-warping parallel dimension brainfuckery lately. "Let's leave the attic for later and check out the rooms downstairs." Heading down to the dining room.

Forgot to mention, Paprika does her best to clean and repair G'oran's maid dress before returning it along with apologies and her best attempt at an explanation.

>>1115197
>Reiko decides that Plan C will be to throw Paprika's Living Solvent Cypher at the hatch. We do that if there's a horde of monsters preparing to invade from the portal.
>rolled 19
Reiko realizes that would likely achieve the opposite of the desired result... but, it might be possible to cut the hatch out of the wall with ordinary woodworking tools and carry it away, bringing the extradimensional space along with.

>The pebble does a physics.
>rolled 8
Plops into the water, then falls back out and bounces down the ladder. Resulting ripples intensify rather than dissipating.

>Reiko scans the dining room for iotum, spending 2 effort, looking for that Quantium in particular.
>rolled 16
No viable salvage sources in the room itself, but the copy of the dining room table has seemingly been broken up into chunks and used to barricade the ground-floor windows (in combination with a sticky spiderweb-like material, which Natalina and Paprika previously encountered desiccated traces of in the same maintenance bay where they found Milaconi's Cousin), and something behind those windows responds to the scan in very promising ways - though it's a bit indistinct, as if erratically moving around.

>>1115199
>rolled 8
He's appreciative of the effort, and you manage to spend some pleasant time together before heading off to the farmhouse.

>Heading down to the dining room.
>rolled 17
In the copy of the kitchen, there's what initially appears to be a partially butchered hog carcass - realistic color, subsurface translucency, and even smell - but it's actually some sort of squishy molded foam. Pool-noodle material, basically. Chain dangling off one of the hind legs is metallic paint over pallid synth, and trails off across the floor down to the basement pantry, where there are hundreds more like it dangling from the ceiling.

All those chains could be melted down into ten units of synthsteel for crafting purposes, but gathering it up would take a few hours, and you'd need to find somewhere else to put the fake bodies. Might also be other things down there. It's dark, and they're packed in densely enough to block line of sight to the basement's far wall.

>had her fill of gravity-warping parallel dimension brainfuckery lately
>rolled 1
Good call. Proposed intrusion: when (or if) Paprika tries to go swimming in the attic, her personal gravity resistance will interfere with whatever is holding up the water, producing a flood.

rolled 8, 11, 6, 19, 14, 11, 7, 18, 4, 1, 19, 4, 9, 16, 4, 5, 5, 14, 2, 14 = 191

---

Today, Natalina's travelling clothes include a stylish winter coat, with furs in black and white. Brilliance cloth shapeshifting: every bit as practical as it appealing!

>Dad, in greeting, says "So you're those foreign exorcists?" Explains that he doesn't really care if you find valuables inside, just wants "the intrusion" gone ASAP, without wrecking the rest of the house.
"We'll do our best, sir."

>Not counting windows
Do the windows from inside the so-called "intrusion" show the exterior one would expect to see from the farmhouse? (At least, the ones above ground floor, assuming they're less boarded up). Including the group's tracks through the snow? The arkus will also check if her compass heading changes as they enter the anomaly.

Training in perception / noticing differences, transdimensional navigation may be relevant. May as well apply Understanding as well, as we're not in a hurry yet.

>>1115198
Paprika succeeds at flustering Natalina mostly speechless right before her departure. Embarrassingly, several locals seem enthusiastically approving of a 'hero getting the girl' right after averting a crisis.

>Can [Reiko] look at the head too, see if you can figure anything out about these things?
Morbid as it is, Natalina supposes the local aeon priest could get their uncertainty on anhedon organic tissue cleared up.

>>1115229
>Do the windows from inside the so-called "intrusion" show the exterior one would expect to see from the farmhouse? (At least, the ones above ground floor, assuming they're less boarded up). Including the group's tracks through the snow? The arkus will also check if her compass heading changes as they enter the anomaly.
>Training in perception / noticing differences, transdimensional navigation may be relevant.
>rolled 8
No change in compass bearing. Beanstalk is visible at the same position outside, objectively - but through different windows, since the copy-house is effectively rotated 180 degrees relative to the original. Also, the viewpoint is three or four times further above the ground than you'd expect, and there's no snow at all. Judging by crop maturity, birdsong, and the sorts of work people are doing out there... early summer? Could be looking five months into the past, or the future. Antipode of the year either way.

rolled 4, 5, 6, 1, 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6, 2, 5, 3, 3, 4, 2, 5, 5, 6, 6 = 78

---

>>1115198
>"Don't worry madame! I will return soon to sweep your bedchamber." Paprika kisses Nat, deftly removes the garter from her thigh and presses it into the arkus' hand, then turns to follow her captor.
When Paprika takes the role of "hostage", Cricket stammers, half stepping forward and reaching out a hand as if to say something, before standing back, wrapping her cloak around herself and scampering off to who knows where. Secretly watching Paprika and "thIs oNe" board to travel the beanstalk is only part of the reason she disappears though. After the duo leaves, she, rather red-faced, scribbles in her personal journal about a maid-knight using herself as bait to lead a mechanical dragon away from the nobelwomans chamber. She considers adding an invisible thief who aids the noble martyr in a crucial moment, but abandons the idea for the time being.

>"I'm so sorry, I lost my parents too. Why don't you stick with us a while?"
Upon Paprikas return, Cricket is... unsure how to deal with receiving sympathy. So far, attempts to connect on an emotional level are met by her putting her goggles and hood up, and mumbling something about going to scout around. Despite her awkward attempts to avoid or brush off direct emotional connections however, she seems to want to stick close to Paprika during downtime. At one point, while attempting to keep warm during a snow flurry, she inadvertently falls asleep cuddled up next to her.

>>1115226
Roll to assess the viability to transporting the hatch elsewhere, and the relative safety of leaving through the window. Don't want to get caught in a magic-painting or tricked by a mimic if the window isn't what it seems. One level of effort, which I think brings me down to 15/16 intellect.

rolled 12, 7, 19, 13, 8, 15, 7, 9, 1, 10, 17, 20, 17, 19, 10, 7, 19, 4, 8, 8 = 230

---

>>1115264

rolled 6, 11, 9, 13, 12, 15, 8, 2, 8, 11, 7, 9, 3, 18, 1, 3, 15, 5, 11, 1 = 168

---

>Might also be other things down there. It's dark, and they're packed in densely enough to block line of sight to the basement's far wall.
The false-corpses might be flammable, and the farmhouse definitely is, so we shouldn't rely on Paprika's aura for light. Fortunately, the group is not without other options.

Natalina will light up a major glowglobe and explore the basement. Same benefits as last time >>1115229 likely apply.

rolled 1, 20, 4, 12, 15, 5, 1, 11, 17, 12, 8, 17, 18, 19, 10, 18, 18, 1, 12, 16 = 235

---

>[Cricket] seems to want to stick close to Paprika during downtime
Paprika doesn't give Cricket too much attention so as not to overwhelm the shy kid, but she accepts the company and jumps down the throat of anyone who tries to brush Cricket off or treat her poorly.

When Paprika's not being all mushy gooey with Natalina, she spends almost all her free time in the inn lobby hanging out with locals, occasionally trudging out into the snow to check in on Reiko. Lots of cozy lively evenings with plenty of yelling, laughing, and table thumping that fade into warm glowy nights with just Paprika and G'oran and maybe a couple sleepy stragglers all speaking in low tones.

>inadvertently falls asleep cuddled up next to her
Three rounds into a game of go-fish that Paprika convinced Cricket to sit in on. (Whoever brought the cards already went to bed.) Paprika lets Cricket lean on her a while, then wraps the girl in a thick blanket and finds a bed for her.

>Proposed intrusion
Works for me!

>Natalina will light up a major glowglobe and explore the basement
Paprika follows. That basement is way too creepy to let anyone go down alone. Did the original house have a basement big enough to fit a hundred hog carcasses?

>>1115264
>>1115265
>Roll to assess the viability to transporting the hatch elsewhere,
>rolled 12
Five minutes with an axe or carpentry saw - maybe a bit more if you want to be extra careful about not messing up the wall of the house. Might be wise to leave the hole exposed for while to check for residual contamination, but if you got all the directly affected / substituted material, that should be the end of it.
>rolled 7
You don't anticipate any complications in transporting it. Should be equivalent to a wide, flat, heavy-but-manageable backpack. Ergonomics of that wheel in the center, up against somebody's lumbar vertebrae, wouldn't be great, but that's solvable with a bit of padding. Bigger question is where you'll be hauling it TO.

>and the relative safety of leaving through the window. Don't want to get caught in a magic-painting or tricked by a mimic if the window isn't what it seems.
>rolled 19
Looks like a thirty-plus meter descent, onto hard ground, with no wall most of the way. If some normal person tried to just jump down, or anything went wrong with the rope, "impact broke both legs" is pretty much the best-case scenario. Even assuming a safe landing, you'd probably end up stranded either five months in the past or future - and based on that shed (on a neighboring farm) flickering between 'new construction' and 'wrecked' whenever you look away, it'll be a coin toss every time.
See, people usually talk about time's passage as a straight line, or series of concentric spherical shells (with each surface encoding 3-space holographically), but it's really more like a fractal helix. Picture a long, narrow coil spring, but instead of being a straight tube overall, it's looped around a tree trunk, and then the tree gets bent into an even bigger loop, and so on. Our world rotates on its own axis, and orbits the sun, so as the sun moves, the sun's children trace out helical paths around it, and the sun in turn orbits the Thon Iridescence at the galactic core. Anyway, if you think of the tube formed by one of those helices as similar to a sausage casing, this sort of extradimensional space would be the equivalent of a precancerous polyp on the intestinal wall: extending just far enough to reach the opposite side, flexible enough to reach half a cycle forward or back, but its most straight-ahead connection point actually aligns with the void between cycles.
Landing in the past means more downtime actions, but you have to worry about paradox until you're caught up to the point where your younger self left.

>>1115271
>>1115270
>Did the original house have a basement big enough to fit a hundred hog carcasses?
If everything else down there (dry beans, root vegetables, woodworking tools the man of the house is justifiably proud of, frog statuettes, shelving to hold it all, etc) was cleared out, yeah. Barn just gets used for the really bulky or heavy stuff that they wouldn't mind animals potentially getting into.

Other exit from the basement is a short flight of stairs through a pair of angled doors leading straight outside. The original / "real" basement, that is. Behind the fake hog carcasses, where that cellar door might be expected, is instead a vertical stone cylinder - like a castle tower or the inside of a grain silo - with a wrought-iron spiral staircase at least two stories tall. Stair treads are each less than an inch wide, leaving pie-slices of empty space it'd be easy to trip on or even fall through, but the risers are rectangular latticework panels which would make excellent stair treads if only they were rotated appropriately.

Displayed on the walls of that defective stairwell are a series of framed paintings. Serene landscapes in bizarre color palettes (and an odd lack of the traditional foreground human figure to establish scale) alternate with iconic scenes you can easily match up with famous passages from Jack Giantslayer's legend. After more than a full circle of that, roughly level with the barricaded ground-floor windows, there's a full-body portrait of some huge predatory beast in repose - with a curved frame that must have been custom-fitted to this space - then back to the previous pattern. Cratered gray desert with lurid neon-green highlights that clearly aren't plants, followed by Jack flirting with the Rainbow Harp. Can't see much beyond there without climbing the stairs.

rolled 20, 17, 20, 11, 8, 17, 8, 14, 10, 10, 14, 16, 17, 2, 4, 11, 15, 12, 16, 6 = 248

---

>Bigger question is where you'll be hauling it TO.
"I would assume none of the locals want a potentially dangerous portal nearby."

If we want to maintain access to an emergency temporal escape hatch, an isolated or disused location outside of town might be ideal, but the snows make scouting for such a place more challenging. We could ask the farmer if he knows of a suitable location?

>If some normal person tried to just jump down, or anything went wrong with the rope, "impact broke both legs" is pretty much the best-case scenario. Even assuming a safe landing, you'd probably end up stranded either five months in the past or future
Natalina winces and flickers. "Thank you for that warning, and thorough analysis, Cricket." Sudden drops, and other unseen hazards, are the arkus' least favorite thing about being able to walk through walls.

Traveling to the past doesn't seem... much of an advantage, strangely enough. Leaving the chainpods behind would sharply curtail travel to places where we could exploit future knowledge, and nothing has gone wrong enough to brave the paradox of trying to deliberately change our personal pasts. (And whatever benefits there are, they're more than offset by the risk of ending up in the future).

>defective stairwell
"You might be able to fly up?" Natalina suggests to... her girlfriend. In the spooky basement which doesn't quite measure up to the place they has their first kiss on the scale of macabre horror. "Although I'm not sure your wings would fit, and while the stone isn't flammable, the paintings might suffer for it."

If the basement stairs are best left to those of us who can fly, Natalina is going to head upstairs, divest herself of anything vulnerable to water damage, and spend 10 minutes reconfiguring her outfit into a wet suit to explore the attic. And tie a rope line, so she can be quickly pulled back if she runs into trouble.

...although, it might be a good idea to check first that it really is water up there, and not something more caustic or toxic. Willing to apply Understanding and a level of intellect Effort trying to check that the liquid is safe to enter.

JamesLeng 2025/10/20(Mon)08:43 No. 1115321 ID: 5f5c2b
File 176097498572.png - (501.64KB , 738x557 , Lorub.png )

>>1115320
>check first that it really is water up there, and not something more caustic or toxic. Willing to apply Understanding and a level of intellect Effort trying to check that the liquid is safe to enter.
>rolled 20
Wouldn't want to drink without boiling first, and it's a bit chilly (though still far warmer than the air outside), but should be safe enough to swim in.

Other than the, ah, four-meter long territorial carnivore rapidly emerging into the upstairs hallway.
>rolled 17, 20
Natalina dodges its initial venom spray, and manages to parry a follow-up attack from the thing's club-like snoot in such a way that it ends up tangled in that folding ladder built into the attic access.

Creature is called a "lorub." Breathes air, but can stay submerged for hours. Usually encountered near the coast, in pods of three to five. Pirates and daredevils sometimes train them as mounts. That spray takes a few rounds to recharge, but if it dies while submerged, un-pressurized venom reserve will likely contaminate surrounding water. Daytime on the open ocean, area affected by those death throes is safe to swim in as little as a few minutes later, but, with far less volume to dilute it across, and no direct sunlight to denature the chemicals involved... dissipation might take considerably longer.

rolled 4, 6, 1, 5, 7, 2, 15, 12, 6, 19, 3, 15, 16, 14, 12, 18, 16, 1, 13, 11 = 196

---

>"You might be able to fly up?" Natalina suggests to... her girlfriend.
Paprika pushes on the first step/rung with the sole of her boot to test its sturdiness, then she steps up onto it."Think I got this, babe. You want me to bring any of the paintings on my way back?"

Paprika will invite Cricket along too, ready to catch her if she falls.

rolled 20, 11, 11, 13, 2, 14, 5, 5, 5, 19, 17, 4, 10, 17, 19, 16, 6, 6, 16, 2 = 218

---

"Okay girls, I think I've calculated its migration pattern- Whoa!"
Reiko was distracted chasing the thing with the iotum from within the 'rooms', only discovering the Lourb after looking up from her AR screens.

Reiko really wishes Saoirse went with the team; she's going to yell at them for not giving her an opportunity to make a pet of this blubbery-

Reiko realizes there's some kind of cybernetic device attached to the side of the Lourb. She quickly dashes in, and uses Disable Device on whatever the heck that thing is! (Effort 1)

Any extra actions should involve whacking the beast in the back of the neck.

>>1115347
>Reiko realizes there's some kind of cybernetic device attached to the side of the Lourb. She quickly dashes in, and uses Disable Device on whatever the heck that thing is! (Effort 1)
Reiko feeds a bit of undyed yarn into a tiny whistling port on the lorub's shoulder, just above the fin. Slurps up almost the whole skein like a plate of noodles, then starts making distressed noises, similar to a cat which can't decide whether or not it needs to vomit. Fiber which went in pale brown comes back out, an inch at a time, bright purple. Won't be another venom spray within the next hour, at least not from this individual.

rolled 2, 1, 18, 15, 16, 15, 20, 7, 8, 8, 18, 8, 12, 9, 4, 17, 17, 15, 2, 16 = 228

---

"I may need a bigger fireplace poker." Natalina quips, somewhat put off by the size of her attacker, and still mentally catching up with her own quick defensive reactions (training paying off, it would seem).

With the lorub distracted by Reiko's-less-than-tender-mercies, and its mobility hampered by the ladder, the arkus makes a bid to strike it decisively. Applying three levels of Effort on a rapier (light weapon) attack, split between attack and damage, and Learned for training in "fishing".

>>1115322
>"Think I got this, babe. You want me to bring any of the paintings on my way back?"
"They're a bit macabre for my tastes. I'm not sure the townsfolk would be interested, given where these are from."

rolled 4, 20, 19, 7, 12, 15, 11, 10, 8, 12, 11, 18, 15, 20, 9, 8, 4, 12, 19, 8 = 242

---

>>1115381
Reiko does a double take at the [censored] inflicted upon Natalina.

"OH SWEET FUCKING PIKACHESUS! DIE! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!"
The time for mercy has passed. While the Lorub is busy doing unspeakable and unknowable things to Natalina, Reiko aims true, and unleashes the rage of her tribe upon this abomination, intending to snap its neck or vaporize its whole head. [Iotum Beam] (Effort 1 - Damage) <Repeat until enemy is dead>

Don't Split the Party: Taoist Carpentry Edition JamesLeng 2025/10/25(Sat)04:10 No. 1115521 ID: 5f5c2b
File 176139061976.jpg - (312.57KB , 728x410 , 1918 UB-110 german submarine control room.jpg )

For a few confusing moments, all four of you end up in separate rooms.


Cricket Moon was in the upstairs hallway of the original house. The corroded-copper watertight submarine hatch - entrance to the mysterious otherspace - is shut, but nobody's turned the central wheel to lock it, and has been hacked loose from the surrounding wall by the father of the family who lives here. He's actually quite enthusiastic about an opportunity to solve the problem using tools he's more familiar with.
With the detached door slung on her back, for the first few steps it seems almost like everything's going to work out fine.

Halfway to the coat closet, progress starts to slow down, like trying to push a wheelbarrow through increasingly deep mud. Right underneath the hatch to the attic, Cricket's feet lift off the floor, and she's carried along helplessly flailing as the detached door flips over in midair with the glacial grace of an avalanche. A deep, irregularly curving gouge is left across the ceiling - and upper portions of both sides of the hallway - which narrowly misses the family shrine.
Cricket and the man of the house manage to get that slow-moving projectile partly back under control, but only redirect its overall movement about 45 degrees, into the coat closet and crashing through a window, rather than taking out any load-bearing walls.
Next thing she knows, she's buried in a snowbank, starting to shiver. Only potentially useful things within arm's reach are her cyphers, nightvision goggles, the copper door itself, a single snowshoe and a pair of well insulated (but oversized and disgustingly sweat-stained) pants - camo cloak, backpack, tools, etc. were left behind inside the house.
Barn seems to be within shouting distance, but direction is unclear.


Natalina, meanwhile, was in the upstairs hallway of the Otherspace, plunging her rapier into the exposed underbelly of that lorub which just descended from the flooded attic. Blade connects, but practiced movements of a lunge intended for flat ground puts her forward foot atop the fins of the beast's muscular tail. When it flexes, she's lifted off the ground at exactly the same moment, and along roughly the same arc, as Cricket Moon in the other hallway, not that either of them are in a position to directly observe this coincidence.
There's no actual moment of impact with the water's surface. Phase sprinting plus reflexive efforts to protect her own head result in skipping straight from fully dry to fully submerged, floating upside-down, between two other lorubs who vigorously attempt to avenge their fallen brother and/or secure their next meal.
>18, 15, 16, 15, 20
Fortunately the glowglobe is still stuck to her off-hand, so in between effortlessly dodging all that, Natalina observes the scenery. Water's actually surprisingly clear, beyond a thin layer of silt at the entrance, and continues to the limit of visibility - at least a hundred feet - in every other direction. Roughly where roof-beams would be in the actual attic, there's... well, it might be the burned-out wreckage of a crashed airship, or a cyborg whale's ribcage, but either way it's a level 5 mechanical salvage source, which can plausibly yield quantium.


Reiko Lastname, remaining behind while Nat was launched, thoroughly confirms the kill on that first lorub - then extracts an intact venom gland and 3 units of Allophene Nodule from the corpse. Plenty of good meat in there too, and maybe other useful stuff for crafting, but full disassembly and preservation will have to wait, since teammates are still in immediate danger.


Paprika is carefully climbing the spiral art gallery when Nat flickers away to help Reiko with something way back near the entrance. Even with multiple walls in the way, her relative proximity remains reassuringly clear. There's a sudden cold breeze from overhead, and she's ba... wait, no. Nat's up in the attic now. Movement from the corner of her eye was the curved "portrait" abruptly going blank, flat image shrinking near-instantly to a single horizontal line, like a cathode-ray-tube display when power to the vertical scan is cut.
Then that thin dark line starts to come closer, shedding sparks and broken-off fragments of iron lattice as it passes smoothly through stair risers.
Confused shouting, and splintering-wood noises, echo oddly from overhead, soon followed by a deluge of snow.

rolled 18, 15, 5, 16, 20, 4, 13, 6, 15, 12, 4, 5, 5, 13, 15, 13, 3, 1, 11, 5 = 199

---

Swerving around a second round of aquatic ambushes—this time with twice the attackers, and a third dimension of freedom in-play—Natalina no longer feels surprise. Something clicks and there's just the effortless freedom and safety in movement as she flows around blows; the familiar sensation of slipping out of phase but in a different direction. (4xp on +1 Speed Edge for 3 total; that's effectively a free level of Speed Effort on defense going forward).

Breathless with success and well, her literal predicament, the arkus decides not to push her luck any further, and to make a quick exit before physical exertion depletes her limited air supply. Ceiling above, the way out is back down- and she's already oriented in that direction. Phase sprinting swimming back out of the attic, using scratch existence to swipe at one of the lorubs in passing. Aiming to entice (angry? hungry?) pursuit rather than scare them off, if possible. Light can be a lure and... most predators feel an urge to chase fleeing smaller prey, surely?

rolled 3, 17, 18, 16, 12, 14, 10, 17, 17, 7, 6, 16, 18, 4, 11, 16, 7, 1, 2, 17 = 229

---

Reiko has a few seconds to comprehend her position.
Snow's coming from the entrance. That means something happened to the hatch on the other side... or the rest of the house. No further abnormal noises, so it's probably fine for a while.
But Natalina needs help. Now.

Reiko fires iotum rays at the two predators, holds fire long enough for Natalina to blink her way to the entrance, and attempts to yank her back into the hallway. Once she's safely back inside, Reiko slams the attic hatch shut ASAP.

>>1115547
>rolled 3, 17, 18, 16
Supporting fire mostly successful, but that first shot curved unexpectedly and left a scorch mark on the ceiling, which is now dripping like a leaky faucet.
>Snow's coming from the entrance.
Not in the upstairs hallway where Reiko is, though if Paprika yells a report about recent events on the spiral stairs, that'd be audible.

>>1115538
>using scratch existence to swipe at one of the lorubs in passing.
>rolled 18
A solid hit...
>Phase sprinting swimming back out of the attic,
>rolled 15
...descent proceeds safely...
>Aiming to entice (angry? hungry?) pursuit rather than scare them off, if possible. Light can be a lure and... most predators feel an urge to chase fleeing smaller prey, surely?
>rolled 5
...but Natalina is not pursued.
>Lorubs avoid peril and combat if possible.
With one KIA, both survivors already wounded, and a disorienting swarm of opposition which they can't seem to land a single solid hit on, the pod considers this territorial dispute a total loss, and retreats.

rolled 20, 14, 4, 13, 8, 4, 20, 5, 4, 5, 11, 6, 4, 3, 8, 18, 9, 19, 14, 15 = 204

---

>if Paprika yells a report about recent events on the spiral stairs, that'd be audible.
Less an explicit report, more a string of confused curses and the sound one makes when ice water's been poured over her shoulders.

Paprika activates her flame shroud and springs up to meet the flat doggo with a high scissor kick, toes pointed, straight to the broad side of its jaw. Aiming to land on the best available step.

Flame shroud is 1 intellect point - edge for 0 cost. Using Fleet of Foot to move a short distance as part of my attack (1 speed point - 1 speed edge for 0 cost.) Specialized in jumping. Attack is medium bashing thanks to No Need for Weapons, and I'm trained. I'll spend three levels of might effort on the attack, one to hit and two for damage. That's 7 might points - 2 (edge) for 5 spent in total. Also trained in "balancing and careful movement" as needed for dodging or sticking the landing.

I'll spend 3 effort to dodge the counter-attack, if it comes to that. (7 - 1 speed edge for a cost of 6)

>>1115565
>the counter-attack, if it comes to that
>rolled 20
It doesn't. Paprika summarily obliterates the bladehound with a variation of that same move she once used against a Lightning Mourn. Maybe ought to formalize the technique, give it an overwrought name, start up a dojo?

Flames are directed vertically, melting just enough of the snow to send steam back out the door up above (warding off Cricket's oncoming hypothermia) without wrecking any of the paintings, and...
>rolled 14
>inability at salvaging numenera
...a level 3 Monoblade cypher is extracted from the bladehound's remains.

rolled 1 + 3 = 4

---

> ...but Natalina is not pursued.
After diving back onto solid ground the arkus waits at the ready in a guard position... until it becomes clear no further violence is forthcoming, relaxes, and offers a nod of thanks and appreciation towards Reiko as she sheaths her blade. After taking a moment to center herself (and make a recovery roll):

"I think it's safe to see to our catch of the day, now. There's a mechanism on the submerged ceiling above, we will have to see about rigging an air hose to get close long enough to salvage."

>>1115565
>Less an explicit report, more a string of confused curses and the sound one makes when ice water's been poured over her shoulders.
"Paprika? Did you get looped around behind us?" Natalina calls out, opening the hatch behind then, only to pause in momentary confusion- finding herself looking up at a frazzled Cricket, inside a column a cleared snow... outdoors. The arkus beats an undignified retreat back indoors. "Ack, wet hair, no coat, I'm not dressed for this!"

rolled 5, 2, 7, 8, 6, 6, 2, 20, 5, 4, 12, 4, 8, 17, 6, 15, 8, 2, 7, 13 = 157

---

Disoriented by her sudden tumble, Cricket Moon spends a while trying to get her bearings. She crawls out from under the hatch and sits in a daze for a minute before trying to get the hatch propped up somewhere in an orientation that would roughly align with that of the interior, so there's no stepping out upside down or anything like that. Understanding Numenera seems like it might apply, if such a task proves difficult.

She collects her scattered belongings from her immediate surroundings, then attempts to get the attention of her new traveling companions while through the open hatch, not wanting to risking going inside and having it float off somewhere. She blushes at the somewhat inappropriate use of a possessive in her own thoughts- referring to the adventurers humoring her as hers, even just in passing thought, is enough to make her a little giddy.

rolled 3, 15, 4, 4, 7, 7, 10, 6, 16, 9, 9, 19, 2, 2, 8, 8, 3, 13, 18, 5 = 168

---

Reiko hears the two girls yelling outside and stumbles out to see them shivering in the snow.

Reiko activates her heat belt, using it to project an aura of warmth so the girls don't catch illness. She helps Cricket move the hatch; preferably, they could use the time remaining with the heat belt to move the hatch further away from civilization, but just close enough to travel to if needed.

rolled 17, 14, 14, 12, 3, 3, 18, 9, 10, 1, 7, 10, 5, 11, 15, 16, 1, 6, 10, 20 = 202

---

>>1115566
Damn it! Nat wasn't even around to see that.

>Maybe ought to formalize the technique, give it an overwrought name, start up a dojo?
"Rising Phoenix Smack" feels right. The idea of Paprika teaching her techniques is intriguing, but her style involves a requisite amount of severe childhood trauma, which seems like it wouldn't lend itself well to a formalized learning environment.

>>1115611
>"Paprika? Did you get looped around behind us?"
Paprika rushes up to the top of the stairs and climbs out the hatch to check Cricket for cuts and injuries. "Are you ok? Nothing broken? Looks like you went through the window!" Paprika will take off her coat and drape it over the girl's shoulders. "Sit and rest a minute, ok?"

Paprika takes the top of the hatch from Cricket and props it up herself, then leans over to look in through the other side. "Hi Nat!"

rolled 14, 17, 2, 16, 6, 5, 14, 4, 13, 9, 15, 2, 1, 1, 15, 3, 8, 18, 2, 4 = 169

---

>Paprika takes the top of the hatch from Cricket and props it up herself, then leans over to look in through the other side. "Hi Nat!"
"Ah hello, there[i] you are," Natalina answers with an earnest smile. "You [i]did find another way around!" Gesturing expansively towards she fallen lorub, "We found dinosaurs in the attic."

With Paprika's aura, and Reiko breaking out the heat belt >>1115763 , the arkus' hair won't be too-wet-for-winter for long. If nothing else, a shroud covering some of the otherspace furniture could be used to towel off.

After returning her clothing from swimwear to winter garb, Natalina will try to assist with the problem of hatch-transportation. Perhaps it can handle slow acceleration? Or once airborne, it could be gently guided with ropes, as if it were a balloon? Might try to establish teamwork with Cricket, possibly combing Understanding Numenera with Transdimensional Navigation (or if an exact match is needed, Nat could use Learned, or Cricket could use Flex Skill, for overlap).

Natalina will also consider the problem of where to store an otherspace house... from which dangerous creatures might emerge. Inside the borders of Jackson's Landing feels irresponsible. Is there an... outbuilding? Disused lodge? Somewhere that could be secured outside but nearby? She casts her memory back over any conversations with the locals, or any maps she happened to come across in her earlier research. Training in current events and history may apply.

Applying Understanding to both problems, and may as well splurge for 3 levels of Intellect Effort on each.

As for the salvage site in the attic, Natalina's recommendation is they return to harvest it another day, after purchasing a synth tube or similar in town to act as an air hose. Holding one's breath long enough to extract anything useful isn't very feasible. The synthsteel could be gathered then, or now.

>>1115938
>severe childhood trauma, which seems like it wouldn't lend itself well to a formalized learning environment.
Well, in principle, you could try simply repli...
>rolled 17
...but that would be wrong.

Maybe teach people the physical jumping-and-spearing moves first, then investigate alternate methods of attunement to otherworldly flame only as it becomes necessary.

>>1115948
>the problem of hatch-transportation
>where to store an otherspace house... from which dangerous creatures might emerge.
>rolled 14, 17
It turns out that an old shapestone drainage tunnel - wide enough to walk in, albeit single-file and hunched over, frustratingly just slightly too narrow for chainpods - leads all the way from a contaminated pond, not far past the farmhouse, back uphill to the basement of a tanner's shop in town, right across the street from the clave where that aeon priest is still examining the anhedon head. Would've been nice to learn about that shortcut sooner, though risk of fumes is a plausible enough reason locals wouldn't see it as a viable option.

The pond has swirling opalescent cobalt-blue water, topped with clots of lemon-colored foam and glittering pink sprinkles, with a sickly-sweet scent, making it seem almost like some fancy parfait scaled up to fill a swimming pool... but anecdotes about how "that last fella, years back, died screamin' after he drank some," as well as the mere fact it's not frozen in this weather (nor is there snow or grass nearby, just bare drit), suggest diving in would be unwise.

Timber soaked for weeks in fluid from that pond, then baked dry (and subjected to certain other treatments), tends to swell or warp oddly, and any dust from cutting it - or smoke from burning it - has to be kept far away from children for their own safety, but it's extraordinarily rot-resistant. Somewhat structurally stronger, too, though other downsides usually outweigh that. A few spare planks of such wood are soon used to construct a crude bridge to reach the double-sided otherspace door, after it snaps into its new resting place with an audible clunk, a handspan above the surface and three meters from shore.


Inside the original farmhouse's wall, behind where the hatch was, they found an unglazed ceramic tile - same material Old Grundle used to build the lava-proof pontoon bridge, but flat, about 15cm square - with an engraved design, perhaps for printing: abstract yet organic, bilaterally symmetric, fractal branches resembling a butterfly or a tree. Origin unclear.

In gratitude for your service, said tile is offered as payment, and they'll cook and preserve all that lorub meat for you.
>People who are not Cultured may think of you as a snob. Any task involving getting people to believe or trust you is hindered.
>rolled 2
Well, most of it for you. The lady of the house insists on keeping half the choicer tail cuts in payment for wall and window repairs, plus overnight use of their sled and draft animals while transporting that cursed hatch. Local superstitions and taboos may have been a significant factor in negotiations.
>a shroud covering some of the otherspace furniture could be used to towel off
>>1115185
>cloth of a type that Jackson's Landing residents refuse to use for anything other than funerary shrouds


Anyway, everybody gets 1 xp for mission success, and there's more to be had if you figure out what's up with that tile.

rolled 19, 1, 9, 10, 10, 20, 10, 11, 2, 19, 13, 10, 19, 14, 1, 16, 10, 8, 4, 5 = 211

---

Embarrassed by the lavished attention and unsure how to deal with people doing on her, Cricket Moon lets out a call like a startled loon and quickly disappears. She hides out in her burrow, spying on the party as they re-home the dungeon, and doodling adventures they may or may not have actually gone on.

In the night when she suspects she won't run into anyone, she works on salvaging io from the hatch and leaving them as gifts for Paprika. Using flex skill to gain "Salvaging Numenera" and applying a level of effort to her attempts until we've been able to clean it out.

rolled 3, 8, 15, 17, 9, 6, 6, 9, 16, 3, 19, 11, 10, 10, 3, 6, 3, 4, 4, 14 = 176

---

>>1115948
>"We found dinosaurs in the attic."
Paprika's eyes widen with shock when she sees the lorub. "Oh fuck, I'm sorry I left! Looks like you two handled it alright though. Don't even need a glaive around!" Paprika is trying to pass it off as a joke but there's clear anxiety in her voice.

>>1116090
>Well, in principle, you could try simply repli...

Intrusive thoughts getting a little intense. After the hatch is dealt with, Paprika will take some time to cry on G'oran and Reiko's shoulders, meditate, take up journaling, maybe fill out some DBT workbooks or find a therapist or whatever working on one's self looks like in the Ninth World.

(to prevent overflow, spending 4 XP on Moving Toward Perfection to raise Paprika's intellect edge from 1 to 2)

rolled 12, 2, 19, 2, 19, 6, 13, 20, 3, 5, 10, 3, 17, 20, 3, 14, 9, 7, 12, 18 = 214

---

>>1116114
> "Oh fuck, I'm sorry I left! Looks like you two handled it alright though. Don't even need a glaive around!" Paprika is trying to pass it off as a joke but there's clear anxiety in her voice.
The flush of victory (and hope of commiseration) dims slightly, as Natalina recognizes Paprika's distress. Reaching for her hand, "I'm glad to have you as my knight in blazing armor, Paprika, but you're more than just a glaive." she offers in reassurance.

>>1116090
After returning to Jackson's Landing (probably the next day? If it took half a day to get to the farmhouse, the exploration and brining things back, even with the shortcut, seems like it would use up the rest), Natalina will go shopping for a hose to facilitate accessing the underwater (overwater? It is suspended in the attic) salvage point.

Before heading out, she'll also approach Paprika. "Before the next leg of our expedition," the farmhouse exorcism was just a day-trip, loreb and bladehound peril notwithstanding, "do you think... we should buy patches?" Natalina asks, with uncharacteristic hesitation. "Just so, others can see that we're together. The brilliance cloth can look like anything we want, I know" the arkus continues, tugging at her affected winter jacket, "but stamping a symbol of our relationship in something fickle and impermanent feels... wrong. As if we're cheating ourselves, or tempting fate."

rolled 2, 2, 5 = 9

---

>>1116106
rolling for salvage results...

JamesLeng 2025/11/02(Sun)07:20 No. 1116183 ID: 5f5c2b
File 176209679312.gif - (3.60MB , 496x280 , table.gif )

>>1116106
Cricket dives into the attic-ocean with no real plan for an air supply at first, picking at shiny fragments more for distraction than lasting value, while letting the water cool her head. When the burning sensation moves from her cheeks to her lungs, it's time to turn back, with not much to show for the effort. Mostly just a single oddity: Dozens of smooth translucent green coins on an exceptionally elastic loop of ribbon (fits around a wrist, snug but comfortable, then stretches to at least the circumference of a dining table with little effort and no apparent damage). The coins cling to wood or bone like refrigerator magnets to iron, but repel each other.

Drip-drying in the spooky extradimensional dining room, ideas for alternative gifts collide and stumble. Seems like a shame that table got broken up for scrap just to cover the windows...
Soon enough, sticky stuff has been scraped off of the parts, converted into sealant to make one of those shrouds from the bedroom airtight. Sun's coming up by the time the table has been reassembled, that oddity used to keep cloth tight around the edges (just above the dangling weights), air hose connected to the central pillar, then trailing away up the stairs. Result resembles a huge mushroom, or scale model of a domed city. As the weights descend and the tablecloth deflates, internal flywheel should keep the airflow nice and steady.
Assembly was nine or ten hours of hard work, all told, but it's immediately worthwhile: next thirty minutes of picking over the attic's ribs would have taken at least TWICE as long if she'd had to keep turning back for fresh air. In addition to collecting all the synthsteel chains from the basement, Cricket finds eight kilograms (two units) of Pliable Metal, three little electric-blue Quantium cubes, enough miscellaneous useful machine parts (eleven units) to fill more than a cubic foot of tiny drawers and pouches, eighteen shins worth of additional corrugated air hose (which she does end up periodically returning to the attic ladder in order to splice on as extensions, allowing deeper exploration)...

...and, once the salvage source seems to be exhausted, a set of muddy bootprints. Definitely not her own. Fragments of fresh green grass, smells like somebody hiked through a recently-fertilized field. Positioned like they first climbed in through one of the dining room windows - which are barricaded again, now with rough-hewn planks of that poison-infused wood, affixed by silver nails - but the trail gets rapidly less coherent, even though each individual print is distinct and there are no signs which would really be consistent with multiple separate people. Irregular gait beyond the point of caricature, stray prints on the ceiling, a string of five evenly spaced prints on the kitchen wall that couldn't reasonably be explained by parkour, one heel mark on the hose itself (with creasing and discoloration of the corrugated synth as proof it was made with real force) despite the fact that any corresponding interruption to the air supply would definitely have been noticeable.
Despite tracking mud everywhere, the intruder also seems to have somehow tidied up scratches, glue residue, and other cosmetic flaws of the reassembled table more thoroughly than Cricket was able to. It's good as new.

Sounds of movement from the basement. A yelp of pain and surprise, followed by a second, a third... trailing off into mumbled curses, as if a recording of someone stubbing their toe were overdubbed onto itself. Word choice among the curses doesn't quite match, though rhythm and vocal timbre does.

rolled 2, 16, 11, 9, 13, 15, 8, 20, 20, 6, 11, 17, 1, 8, 2, 1, 20, 13, 6, 16 = 215

---

>>1116125
>"I'm glad to have you as my knight in blazing armor, Paprika, but you're more than just a glaive."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Paprika draws in a deep breath and steadies herself. "Nat, Reiko, you are amazing and glorious. What in the ninth world were dinosaurs doing in the attic?!"

>"do you think... we should buy patches?"
"Want to go shopping now? I know a few folks who make them here in town!" Paprika's either already done her homework on this, or she's just been doing a lot of schmoozing. But for some reason she looks like she's about to shrivel up and die. "I uh...actually. Before we go any further, I need to tell you something." She takes a moment to gather herself and find the words.

"I didn't want to bring this up before, because I thought it was...all in my head. And it probably is. I mean, ah, sometimes the things that happen in my dreams can actually effect the real world. It's hard to explain. But I can see you, no matter where we are. Not clearly like if you were standing right in front of me, but I can tell which direction you're in. It's like you're this constant anchor point. Even when I'm...experiencing a flashback, I can still see you. You're just...there."

"What happened at that house made me realize I needed to bring it up. Hear me out." She then describes Natalina's exact route through the otherspace house while Paprika was away in the basement, mentioning how Nat appeared at the top of the stairs for a moment before Cricket went out the window with the hatch.

"I've never experienced this with anyone else before, and I'm not sure what it means. But...I didn't think I should keep it from you. I hope it doesn't change how you feel about me?"

(from chat, regarding Cricket's intrusion)
>Does anyone want to have wandered in alone on a whim? Not a requirement, but, it would make it easy to assign out the XP
Paprika can't sleep. Fixated on some troubling thoughts about her mentor, who taught Paprika how to harness her halo. The woman was about a decade older, which means she would have been a young adult when the fire happened...

Frustrating that Paprika could face down telekinetic squidbots and giant bugs in space, but the events surrounding this otherspace hatch have her in shambles. She decides to slip on her shoes and coat and go check on the thing. Hopefully whoever owns the tanner shop won't mind.

>>1116193
>Want to go shopping now?
Yes, immediately-

>I didn't think I should keep it from you. I hope it doesn't change how you feel about me?
Huh.

"I suppose it is fortunate I'm not an outlaw on the run, nor are you my vengeance-driven rival." Natalina muses, looking more contemplative than upset, to Paprika's likely relief. "This... entanglement, began after we first met? You didn't react as if you recognized me in the City of Needles. I'm not sure I could live up to a lifetime of distant impressions. Aside from that worry, no, it doesn't change anything.

"I wonder how it works. Did I shred a wall you're attuned to?"

In light of this new information, Natalina likely isn't going to be able to resist attempting sneaking up on her girlfriend several times over the next new days, curiously testing how reliable Paprika's sense is. Even if that means temporarily setting aside her usual gear, just to make sure it's not anything she's carrying. (And even if they don't learn anything new, it's not as if she needed an excuse to seek her out...)

rolled 14, 16, 9, 1, 12, 1, 6, 11, 9, 20, 15, 7, 8, 18, 8, 14, 5, 7, 10, 19 = 210

---

Reiko was the one who caught a cold. Go figure.
*chuff* "At least this will" *achoo* "keep me warm... guh... where'd Cricket g-" *coughing fit*

Upon returning to the city, Reiko isolates herself from the others to prevent herself from spreading something. She spends some time studying Milaconi, watching the loom work its weave across the hull, making sure the repairs are going smoothly, and capturing any thoughts radiating from Milaconi's dreaming mind through the datasphere.

Well, what do you know. Some of these repair nanomachines broadcast their documentation. With the new information, Reiko is able to learn new engineering principles (and some helpful breathing techniques), helping her decipher more of the encrypted codex in her head. One deciphered piece of software increases her processing power juuust enough to efficiently utilize her scanner, among other things.

[4XP - Intellect Edge]

After some time, Reiko gets bored. She buys herself a gas mask and returns to the pond, scanning it to see if some mineral storage deposit is leaking.
[Scan For Iotum, Effort 3]

>>1116183
And then she notices Cricket hanging around.
"...Cricket? What are you doing here?"

rolled 1, 9, 17, 9, 20, 18, 4, 9, 18, 17, 4, 11, 15, 5, 12, 16, 3, 4, 14, 9 = 215

---

>>1116183
Her plan to surprise everyone by harvesting the io they need is going far better than she hoped. Until, that is...
>>1116237
"...Cricket? What are you doing here?"

She freezes for a second, not expecting to be caught, but, then again, she is finished, and wanted to give it to them anyways, and it'll be easier to carry with two sets of hands... she just hoped Reiko doesnt think she was trying to steal it.

"Reiko!"
She somewhat sheepishly holds out a hand of io.
"I was hoping to surprise you all. I wanted to say thank you, for taking me out and letting me explore the otherspace with you. I figured gathering this stuff up would be pretty boring and tedious, so if I could do it for you, you all could focus on the real adventuring. And I'm pretty good at it! If you want to help me, I have a little more in the house to car-

>Sounds of movement from the basement. A yelp of pain and surprise, followed by a second, a third...
Turns out that her worry about some monster hiding in the basement isn't actually just sensational thinking. She gives Reiko a glance that's hard to read, from underneath the goggle and re-accumulated grime. Dropping to all fours, she attempts to move quietly towards the basement.
"I'll scout it out, see what it was. It could be someone who needs help, or maybe a trick. Probably not another one of those sea monsters... maybe a rancher? Someone who was using this place to store otherspace animals and io?"

>>1116193
As she approaches, Paprika sees Cricket drop to the ground, then carefully and slowly move further into the house. Body language makes it clear she's tense, though Paprika can't make out much more of the situation at a distance.

Accepting the intrusion puts me over the line on xp. Giving the other xp to paprika, who was the initial volunteer to have a nighttime soiree. Buying an intellect edge for an advancement towards tier 4, putting me at 7/10xp and 1/4 tier advancements.

rolled 10, 7, 20, 1, 4, 16, 7, 9, 1, 18, 4, 20, 7, 2, 5, 18, 1, 9, 16, 12 = 187

---

>>1116233
>This... entanglement, began after we first met?
"Never seen you before the City of Needles. At least, I don't think I have."

>no, it doesn't change anything.
Paprika's suddenly all sunshine and rainbows again. She takes her girlfriend's hand and drags her across town on a patch-shopping adventure.

>I wonder how it works. Did I shred a wall you're attuned to?
"Not sure. I don't really understand my fire powers. I just know you need to have something awful happen to you involving fire in order to bear the halo. Like...if you go somewhere completely, remember every tiny little detail exactly - see it, hear it, feel it, smell it...you can bring part of it back with you. That's what I was taught."

>sneaking up on her girlfriend several times over the next new days
Even with the ability to walk through walls, Nat always comes across Paprika looking directly at her with the same puppydog grin.

>(And even if they don't learn anything new, it's not as if she needed an excuse to seek her out...)
During her most elaborate attempt yet, Nat emerges into an unused closet in the aeon priest's clave to find Paprika already waiting for her in the cramped space. "I like this game. Did you already have a plan for what we'd do alone in the dark tiny closet together?"

As for why Paprika's here in the first place...
>>1116090
>aeon priest is still examining the anhedon head
Any new info?

>>1116237
>Reiko isolates herself from the others to prevent herself from spreading something.
At some point during all the hide and seek shenanigans, Paprika asks Nat to help her make some soup to bring to Reiko.

rolled 37, 99, 22, 43, 71 = 272

---

>>1116237
No sign of leakage. In fact, scan shows that copper-alloy retaining wall around the poison pond extends a long, long way down. Tens of meters, twice or three times as deep as it is wide. There's a 'floor,' quite a bit thicker than the sides, with an indentation around the edge, and an odd vacuole at the bottom center, almost like a...

...primer...

...it's brass. A spent firearm cartridge, which must have once held propellant for a bullet larger than most houses.

>>1116237
>rolled 16, 9, 1
Two hours of poking around in the sediment with various tools on the end of long poles yields 14 units of parts, some scraps of ecledda cloth that nobody in their right mind will be willing to wear until they've been very thoroughly cleaned, a bucketful (two units) of low-density Platonic Fluid, and - incredibly - a Scalar Boson Rod, highly prized by anyone trying to pack more numenera infrastructure into less real estate without catastrophic reactive-field interactions.

However, she also failed to resist the effects of toxic waste exposure, and accordingly will be suffering severe narcolepsy for the next three hours, along with vivid hallucinations of being watched - otherworldly beings that flicker away when stared at directly, making casual comments about her behavior, appearance, nature, and destiny, mostly vapid tourist babble but sometimes hinting at alarmingly profound insights. Or are they hallucinations? Others can see and hear them too, when paying the right sort of attention.

An old man, balding and strangely blurry around the edges, lays a hand on her left shoulder as she kneels on the shore. The old man's reflection, hand on her own reflection's right shoulder, snarls in frustration and shoves. Reiko's reflection erupts from the surface of the water, suddenly solid and swimming in midair.

>>1116243
>If you want to help me, I have a little more in the house to car-
>rolled 1
Time seems to slow down, or stutter. Cricket Moon is standing on the pair of wooden planks which looks, from the shore, almost like a U-shaped dead-end pier. (Each side of the otherspace hatch has a separate plank leading into it, and they're securely weighed down and/or braced at the other end, but it makes people's heads hurt less if the two are positioned so they appear to line up neatly with each other.)
Behind her, an old man she's never seen before sticks his head out of the spiral-stair side, picks up one of the planks - without removing it from under her feet? It's been duplicated - then withdraws, mumbling about barricading windows. He's got a few silver nails dangling from his mouth like cigarettes, as well as a ball-peen hammer, carpentry saw, and elaborately mechanized crossbow in his other visible hands.
In a blink, a trail of muddy footprints appears, crossing the bridge beneath her own feet, and at the end of them, that same old man has his hand on Reiko's shoulder. Reiko, kneeling on the shore, has a thousand-yard stare interrupted by a drowsy blink.

Another instance of Reiko, floating above the pond's foamy surface, flails in a panic while wielding a long-handled boat hook. There's a point near the end of that pole where it bends unnaturally - broken perspective, rather than a conventional hinge - which allows it to double back on itself, trapping Cricket's neck in a narrow triangle. Six damage from the impact, can't breathe or speak until it's removed.

rolled 16, 3, 13, 1, 14, 2, 8, 5, 1, 5, 11, 16, 5, 12, 7, 2, 6, 16, 19, 18 = 180

---

>>1116344
>>1116348
"Yeah...just how we left it." Paprika blearily takes in the mad scene unfolding before her.

Fleet of Foot (free with speed edge 1) to move up to Cricket and untangle her from Flying Reiko's hook. Until further notice all actions will be spent trying to protect my three? allies from incoming attacks.

"Cricket what is happening?!"

rolled 17, 14, 17, 7, 9, 16, 14, 3, 18, 3, 2, 7, 11, 12, 12, 15, 20, 5, 7, 16 = 225

---

Upon witnessing her doppelganger, Reiko spends a few moments panicking, but with the old man out of the picture and no other monsters coming to roost, Reiko comes up with a quick strategy against herself.

First and foremost is to disarm Doppelganger Reiko's arm and implant, preferably without killing either of them. Reiko's already prepared contingency codes for her own cyberware, in the event that a hacker somehow manages to turn them on her. The override codes won't shut the cybernetics down completely, but it would stall Reiko's threat modules and cyber weapons long enough to bash the hacker's brains in the traditional way, and in this case, long enough to prevent Doppelganger Reiko from unleashing a shooting frenzy. Now, it's just a matter of transmitting those codes into the doppelganger's cyberware, along with all combinations of potential 'mirror codes'. [Disarm Device, Effort 2]

Then, Reiko grasps and French-kisses her doppelganger, attempting to 'breathe' air into the panicking alternate self. Really, if this is an alternate version of Reiko and not just some VI, Doppelganger Reiko should know they've both had half-mad fantasies about this. [Intelligence Effort 2, to convince Doppelganger Reiko that she is safe and Reiko is a full ally]

rolled 12, 17, 16, 15, 14, 14, 8, 3, 8, 2, 17, 17, 12, 16, 8, 8, 4, 4, 17, 18 = 230

---

>>1116361
If Paprika is able to successfully free Cricket Moon, she'll attempt to cough and splutter out something close to "Thanks", and insist she go help Reiko. Er, wait, what would that even mean in this case...

A few things:
1) trying to duck out and escape immediate harm/entrapment. If Paprika's efforts are enough to get her clear passage, then she uses fleet of foot. If she's not able to safely get distance, would Obstacle Runner help escape something like being grappled/pinned by weapons? If she's in danger and Obstacle Runner doesn't apply, then just a level of speed effort. Just let me know how exactly that plays out so we can do pool math correctly.
2) figure out what is going on with these dopplegangers. Trained in "Tasks related to detecting falsehoods, piercing illusions or disguises, and seeing past facades." if that's relevant. Applying a level of intellect effort.
3) Making a debilitating poison and applying it to a weapon (arm blade if she's in close range, dart thrower if she gets away) ready to try and take on whatever she perceives as the threat based on the prior roll.

>>1116363
>rolled 17
Reiko successfully disarms
>rolled 17
and pacifies her doppelganger
>rolled 14
but takes 5 points of speed damage in the process (toes curling, shaky with giddiness, etc)
>rolled 7
then both of them flop over on the cold sandy beach, unconscious and coughing up lemon-yellow smoke.
A ring of shadowy silhouettes clap politely before vanishing.

>>1116361
>rolled 16, 3, 13
Cricket is successfully rescued.

The old man walks over to ask Paprika where the Bryant Street Theater is at this time of year
/ reloads his crossbow
/ pulls a shovel out from behind his back and starts digging
/ feebly tries to drag Reiko and alt-Reiko further away from the pond
/ stares at the sky and says the Iron Wind certainly won't approach while his bones ache like this
/ slides sideways at the speed of a brisk jog, without moving a muscle
/ nods and waits for his turn to speak
/ covers his eyes
It's like watching through a dozen different funhouse mirrors at once. He doesn't seem to be attacking.

rolled 14, 19, 13, 8, 9, 17, 19, 9, 6, 2, 3, 11, 13, 19, 20, 2, 8, 6, 18, 17 = 233

---

Paprika sits cross-legged on the spot to make herself look unthreatening to as many iterations (??) of the old man as possible. Does he look related to the family that lived in the house where the otherspace hatch appeared, or anyone else in Jackson's Launch? Can Paprika conceive of any way to fix whatever broken time affliction this man seems to be suffering from? I'll apply 3 intellect effort toward puzzling this out. (7 - 2 edge = 5 point cost.)

"Not sure. Are you from around here?" Trying to gather information about who this guy is and keep as many of him talking as I can.

>>1116371
>Does he look related to the family that lived in the house where the otherspace hatch appeared, or anyone else in Jackson's Launch?
>rolled 14
No. None of the natives, anyway.
Going by skin and hair color, clothing style, accent, things like that, you'd guess he's feluban - maybe from a city-state called Rachid, way up north past the Jagged Wastes, about 150 miles east of the Great Slab. Supposedly they use words as money, somehow?
Going by more family-specific details, he's either a decades-older version of one particular mummified corpse found stranded in the Beanstalk, or a very close relative thereof - father, maybe grandfather.

>Can Paprika conceive of any way to fix whatever broken time affliction this man seems to be suffering from? I'll apply 3 intellect effort toward puzzling this out. (7 - 2 edge = 5 point cost.)
>rolled 19
>inability at understanding numenera
It's the causal equivalent of a shattered bone that has already started to heal wrong. Ultimate Automender... might be worth a try, but you're not optimistic. If a cure is possible at all, probably needs to be 're-broken' somehow, then straightened back out by some cosmic entity who routinely transcends mortal concepts of space and time. Which, if so, would mean you'd somehow need to get such a being to owe you a favor, then spend said favor on helping someone you don't even know.

In the final minutes of a cramped two-day journey, disembodied datasphere-spirits offer cordial, albeit formulaic, greetings in an unfamiliar tongue:
Zone noire est destinée à l'industrie lourde, la construction en cours n'est pas encore ouverte aux visites
Zone d'ivoire est pour le chargement et le déchargement uniquement
Zone jaune comprend des restaurants et le salon d'observation

First thing you notice when the hatch opens is a millipede the size of a freight train - white with blue veins, like a fancy porcelain vase - coiled on the ceiling.
Second thing you notice is that's not actually the ceiling. You're above geostationary orbit now, so "gravity" points the other way. It's coiled on the floor.
Third, and only clearly good news, is that cyborg bug is either dead, or so soundly asleep that you, and all your stuff, falling out of the elevator onto it didn't wake it up.
Fourth thing is there's scrap metal stacked haphazardly all across the rest of the room. It's a huge space, palatial verging on cavernous, with floor-to-ceiling star-field visible around the whole perimeter.
One of those distant scrap piles has tipped over, punctured a window, and air is slowly but visibly leaking out.

You are in Zone Ivory - Central. Available exits are {E}ast, {W}est, {A}irlock, {S}outh, {U}p, {D}ig, and {N}o Your Other Up.

rolled 1, 6, 13, 8, 1, 20, 5, 11, 2, 20, 14, 11, 2, 4, 8, 12, 4, 16, 8, 6 = 172

---

>>1116398
Which way did my squidbot friend go, when I rode along with it? Any relevant info from thread 3 that could help us get our bearings?

JamesLeng 2025/11/05(Wed)10:01 No. 1116400 ID: 5f5c2b
File 176236570290.png - (707.04KB , 900x540 , The Nightcraft.png )

>>1116399
>Which way did my squidbot friend go, when I rode along with it?
>rolled 1
You didn't see - stayed inside the elevator the whole time - but suspect West, which appears to be the docks. There's a hallway there, sturdy retractable floor and railings inside a flexible tube of thin clear synth about five meters in diameter, leading to the underbelly of... some other structure, hundreds of meters long, shaped vaguely like a manta ray or three-fingered hand. A working starship, hopefully.

>Any relevant info from thread 3 that could help us get our bearings?
>rolled 6
Previously, Paprika and Natalina came in through those airlocks on the north side. There's a whole network of ferromagnetic rails beyond, out in the void, positioned such that someone in a chainpod could drive straight through the lock, barely needing to slow down as iris doors maintain a seal around the spherical hull, then easily reach other habitable areas in Zone Black (aka the Cloud Giant's Tomb) before their pod's air ran out. Ought to be careful about patches of that electrostatic dust potentially interrupting the magnetic link, though.

rolled 17, 2, 18, 15, 8, 1, 13, 19, 1, 3, 8, 7, 20, 7, 4, 14, 9, 10, 5, 19 = 200

---

>>1116090
Natalina doesn't begrudge the good woman her reaction, they were fishing in her home, a share of the catch is only fair! And not braving below freezing temperatures with wet hair was the correct decision. Reiko caught a cold without even entering the water, despite the heat belt!

>>1116267
>During her most elaborate attempt yet, Nat emerges into an unused closet in the aeon priest's clave to find Paprika already waiting for her in the cramped space. "I like this game. Did you already have a plan for what we'd do alone in the dark tiny closet together?"
"Paprika!" Natalina answers in a scandalized whisper, verging on giggles. "What did you even say to explain needing to hide in here?"

>>1116398
>One of those distant scrap piles has tipped over, punctured a window, and air is slowly but visibly leaking out.
Oh... ancestors. That's not good at all, is it?

Natalina quickly moves to investigate. Two level of Speed Effort on traversing the unstable scrap safely, training in perception (and assessing flaws!) to examine the damage, with Understanding applied.

>>1116403
>Natalina quickly moves to investigate. Two level of Speed Effort on traversing the unstable scrap safely,
>rolled 17
No sweat, hopping and flickering from one small stable platform to the next.
>training in perception (and assessing flaws!) to examine the damage, with Understanding applied.
The windowpane seems to already be healing itself, it's just stuck because one girder in particular is porous, like sponge or bird bone. Just need to pull that one back out of the way, or push it the rest of the way through... It'd be a lot easier and safer to move a little stuck pipe like that if you had firm footing, and more space to maneuver. There's a solid, wide-open platform right there, in plain view, less than two steps away.
>rolled 2
Nat hesitates, a heartbeat before starting to phase through the window. Better leverage wouldn't be enough to compensate for lack of anything to breathe.
>rolled 18, 15
Given that the material is self-repairing, that spiderweb pattern is probably some equivalent of scar tissue, stronger than the transparent parts, rather than weakened fractures as it would be in inert glass. Might be as simple as bracing boots against the window and putting your back into it? Or could rig up a block and tackle, to be extra slow and careful. If this pile got tipped over during the fight, it's been leaking continuously for almost a week, so you can probably spare a few more hours.

rolled 9, 6, 10, 4, 6, 19, 17, 18, 8, 6, 20, 20, 1, 1, 15, 8, 4, 7, 4, 2 = 185

---

"Hmm."

Reiko looks around, comparing her Gravity Changer plates to any of the nearby apparatus. There might be some kind of immediate transport between the two gravity-based zones, potentially the kinetic kind.

Also, Reiko casually looks for iotum in the direction of the Dig Site. [Scan For Iotum, Effort 1]

rolled 20, 6, 8, 16, 4, 11, 20, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 16, 14, 7, 16, 11, 13, 1, 11 = 184

---

>>1116403
>"Paprika!" Natalina answers in a scandalized whisper, verging on giggles. "What did you even say to explain needing to hide in here?"
"UGH, priest's had his nose buried in his books the whole time I've been here. Saw you coming, told him I had to take my clothes off, he just nodded, so I left and wandered til I found the room you looked like you were headed for."

>>1116400
Paprika's reshaped her brilliance cloth into a rubbery skin-tight suit. Covers wrist to ankle, with a belt and a little skirt that hugs her thighs, boots and gloves to complete the look. Space outfit! She's attached her new diamond-shaped lightning mourn patch just above her left breast.

Paprika will stick with Nat, maybe give her a hand moving that girder.

"Ensign Prika reporting for duty! Can we explore the space ship first?"

rolled 12, 14, 3, 2, 9, 19, 18, 9, 16, 7, 2, 12, 15, 20, 2, 11, 6, 16, 16, 4 = 213

---

Cricket is awestruck. Not really sure what to do with herself. The whole ride up she was second guessing, feeling like an unwanted add-on, a chore being brought along out of some sense of unearned pity. Now that she's actually up here... she just sits, and waits, and watches. When she's able to scrape her jaw off the cloor a bit, she starts trying to gather some of the fallen supplies and make camp. Part of her wants to investigate the millipede, but she's honestly afraid to even look at it, lest she accidentally messes something up and ruins the whole trip.

For now, just stay quiet, small, and out of the way. Be useful and unobtrusive, and don't mess anything up.

rolled 2, 7, 18, 5, 3, 19, 17, 4, 7, 13, 13, 16, 12, 3, 1, 16, 10, 6, 15, 2 = 189

---

>>1116405
>Nat hesitates, a heartbeat before starting to phase through the window. Better leverage wouldn't be enough to compensate for lack of anything to breathe.
Now that she can walk though walls, Natalina really needs to work on making that kind of instinct habitual.

>Or could rig up a block and tackle, to be extra slow and careful.
Extracting the girder quicklymight be problematic if the window-healing is slow... and the sudden change in pressure or airflow might cause the rubble-piles to shift or fall, which might make standing nearby unwise. Using rope to extract it from further away would be prudent.

Applying Understanding, Learned, a level of Intellect Effort, possibly borrowing Reiko's book on Crafting, and cooperating with Paprika.

>>1116412
No active artificial gravity anywhere inside, far as you can tell. It's working entirely by centrifugal force - like swinging a rock on the end of a long string.

Lot of good potential salvage in all those piles of scrap, though, particularly the terapede.

>>1116435
>investigate the millipede,
>just stay quiet, small, and out of the way.
>rolled 12
Turns out the terapede's interior has been almost entirely hollowed out - it's spacious enough to walk around in there.
>rolled 14
Someone else, similarly shy, apparently also thought it would be a good hiding space. They whisper something about being lost and hungry, but they don't...
>trained in perception
...have an...
>trained in detecting falsehoods, piercing illusions or disguises, and seeing past facades.
...actual face, as such, under those shadows and rags.
>rolled 3
Even without the benefit of surprise, sluggish ambush predator stretches bonelessly and bites a chunk out of her forearm. Six damage, reduced to five by armor. Now it's about 25% larger, and has the shape of Cricket's face - her entire body above the waist, actually, clothes and all.


>>1116267
>aeon priest is still examining the anhedon head
>Any new info?
The head's clamped to a workbench, holes drilled in at several points and copper probes inserted. Apparently those red beams can distinguish trace chemicals, instantly and nondestructively, with incredible detail and nuance, so he's running through a long backlog of oddities and contaminated samples to see what the new data can reveal.

Speaking of contaminated samples, doppel-Reiko's saliva, urine, and even blood contain virtually no water, and the aeon priest suspects that drinking any significant quantity of pure water would be very bad for her health. Conversely, the opalescent cobalt-blue antifreeze her alien organic chemistry IS using as a solvent has well-studied ill effects on the human nervous system - mostly temporary, assuming you survive the seizures, but not something anyone made of normal meat should be casually messing around with. Fortunately there's an abundant local supply, provided she doesn't mind using a hazardous waste dump as an oasis.

>>1116440
>Using rope to extract it from further away would be prudent.
>Applying Understanding, Learned, a level of Intellect Effort, possibly borrowing Reiko's book on Crafting, and cooperating with Paprika.
>rolled 2, 7
Incredibly frustrating to limit herself to moving slowly enough to stay in Euclidean space, while under an audible time limit. Knots keep clipping through themselves due to some hasty gesture and needing to be re-done. Attachment points on irregular pieces of metal have to be chosen with exquisite care, to both balance the center of mass, and avoid ropes abrading on sharp edges. Worst of all, those "how to move heavy things" diagrams in the book almost all assume some stable fixed point to start from, but the entire indoor portion of Zone Ivory doesn't seem to have a single load-bearing pillar!
>>1116414
>Paprika will stick with Nat, maybe give her a hand moving that girder.
>rolled 20
There's a second door in the ceiling, just like the one you arrived through, but wedged open with another piece of debris: a wrist-thick iron bar about four meters long with a small mangled gear at the midpoint, broad flanges on both ends with elaborately textured black synth padding around the rims. similar to https://flakypastry.runningwithpencils.com/comic.php?strip_id=971 or a pugil-stick https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-05-11 sized for a giant Adequate anchor-point for the comealong to clear the punctured window. Once it's pulled out, window seals up and cuts off the jet of twinkling crystals where air was escaping into the void, and the disembodied greeter-voice returns.

Normalisation de la pression barométrique. Libération du confinement d'urgence.

Second elevator door swings wide, padded axle drops out like a cigar from the mouth of someone gone slackjawed in shock.

Le blocage de la porte a été éliminé.

...which apparently means "both sides of the Beanstalk are now open for business."
Another 1 xp for everybody, and the more flexible transit timing means Zone Ivory is now within range of diplomatic downtime actions from Jackson's Launch.

rolled 3, 9, 14, 18, 16, 18, 12, 4, 10, 16, 7, 12, 19, 7, 6, 12, 9, 5, 11, 3 = 211

---

>"both sides of the Beanstalk are now open for business."
Now somehow even more sunshiney after that win, Paprika bounces back across the room. What do the south and east paths look like?

rolled 3, 15, 9, 10, 10, 15, 20, 17, 6, 9, 10, 19, 10, 11, 17, 20, 14, 13, 2, 14 = 244

---

Reiko spends a little time salvaging bits and pieces across the station, casually making her way up to the terapede once Cricket calls out and confirms the metal beast is a 'desert skeleton'.
[Salvage Numenera, Effort 2]

Unfortunately, it takes her a while to realize that Cricket is screaming her head off. Rushing to the terapede, Reiko takes one look at Cricket's mangled arm and the blood-jawed Cricket doppelganger, and promptly shoots at the exoskeleton of the terapede, intending to cave the skeleton upon the enemy doppelganger to subdue them without killing them outright; maybe Cricket can get a cute body double of her own - or maybe she'd like to get revenge personally. [Iotum Beam, Effort 2]

rolled 2, 8, 8, 8, 2, 5, 16, 12, 18, 16, 3, 16, 16, 8, 13, 6, 17, 17, 13, 4 = 208

---

>>1116469
>doppel-Reiko
Does this mean the alternate was conscious and well, conversing, before we headed up the beanstalk? It would be interesting to know if she came from a similar situation. Though given respective supernormal abilities, Natalina is at least a little surprised that if any of them were to stumble across an alternative self, it wasn't her.

>has the shape of Cricket's face - her entire body above the waist, actually, clothes and all.
...surely you can't jinx things by thinking about about them.

To avoid a classic dilemma, applying training in perception, detecting minor differences, and detecting flaws (in the works of shapeshifting mimics) to differentiating Cricket and the ambush predator. Zipping over to Cricket with phase sprint and pulling her back, assuming a defensive posture (trained in speed defense, one level of speed Effort), mainly against further attacks by the ambush predator, but also to reduce the risk of mistaken friendly fire.

rolled 9, 5, 11, 2, 18, 20, 14, 20, 13, 5, 1, 3, 13, 16, 8, 18, 13, 2, 7, 19 = 217

---

>>1116469
Cricket, cursing herself for exploring the millipede when she knew better, attempts to lash out with a poisoned arm blade (debilitating poison applied right before reaching the top of the elevator, just in case) and then uses fleet of foot to dart away backwards as part of the same action. I'll apply a level of whatever effort is appropriate for attacking (speed? might?)

>>1116502
Zone Ivory - East has a majestic staircase leading up to a landing with a reception desk, then those stairs split and curve back around, hugging the windows. It's the main route up (for centrifugal values of "up" which are actually closer to the planet's surface) to Zone Jaune, a fancy restaurant / lounge under a dome for viewing the night sky unobstructed. The earth hangs directly overhead, appearing 80 to 85 times wider than a full moon.

Zone Ivory - South has the tallest piles of scrap, and is where you got banished to another dimension at the end of your previous sightseeing visit. That rift is long since closed, but there's some sort of active energy source...
>rolled 3
...which you can't quite identify, apart from being fairly sure it wasn't there (or at least wasn't active yet) last week.
>>1116562
>rolled 2, 8, 8, 8, 2, 5, 16
Nat circles back through the south side to check out that anomaly, but ends up getting turned around and lost, only finding her way out in response to Cricket's distress call.

>>1116514
Reiko rips an entire leg off the terapede husk, harvesting five units of parts and one of Azure Steel in the course of expediting Cricket's escape.

>>1116591
Cricket is treated to the unsettling sight of a mockery of her own face melting away into shimmering, sickly rainbows as the poison takes effect, then splitting into multiple independent slug-like portions. She sprints to the opposite end of the hollowed-out interior space in five seconds flat, but isn't effectively pursued; by the time she and Reiko return to observe the site of the attack, those little mimetic monsters have either retreated into inaccessible crevices, or found something else to disguise themselves as.

rolled 8, 2, 4, 12, 13, 18, 11, 3, 15, 20, 15, 9, 12, 11, 4, 20, 8, 17, 15, 9 = 226

---

>>1116469
>Paprika's reshaped her brilliance cloth into a rubbery skin-tight suit. Covers wrist to ankle, with a belt and a little skirt that hugs her thighs, boots and gloves to complete the look. Space outfit! She's attached her new diamond-shaped lightning mourn patch just above her left breast.
Natalina's outfit is more reminiscent of her original adventuring garb, with a pillbox hat, blouse and trousers- and an ample selection of pockets for useful items not stored in her pack. The color scheme is differs though- predominantly creams and tans over a darker layer, with the occasional highlight or embellishment in blue. No longer needing to accommodate the leather jerkin acquired by the eye of the sea, she is instead adorned by a set of jewelry on her wrists and ankles comprising her otherspace anchor. The aesthetic is reminiscent of some of the mechanical life the duo encountered on their previous visit—automatons with sleek ivory shells, with colored markers, gylphs and lights. And of course, the arkus is displaying her new patch as well.

>>1116604
>only finding her way out in response to Cricket's distress call.
"Oh, you poor dear."

Natalina will pull out her first aid kit to clean and bind the bite on Cricket's arm, we certainly wouldn't want that getting infected (fortunately, with Cricket around, there's not shortage of clean water). Healing action with one asset.

>those little mimetic monsters have either retreated into inaccessible crevices, or found something else to disguise themselves as
The arkus gives the delegged terapede husk a considering look. "Well, if it can be repaired and cleaned of biting creatures, a cargo hauler could be useful."

"We might want to salvage what we can from the piles of debris now, so later we can push away what's left without worry. If we are to use this location as a base camp, we wouldn't want so many places for ambushers to hide."

> a majestic staircase leading up to a landing with a reception desk
Reception often include information for guests. Does the desk include a computer interface? If so, Natalina would like to apply her familiarity with the area's datasphere to see if it is reporting anything of interest. Local crises, damage reports, alerts, things of that nature. A map or directory? (If information is not displayed using truth or Uxphonese, willing to activate Babel).

rolled 6 + 5 = 11

---

>>1116604
>>1116608
>Natalina will pull out her first aid kit to clean and bind the bite on Cricket's arm

Cricket Moon initially jumps back, leveling a blade and dropping into a defensive stance. After some assurances that Natalina isn't a shapeshifter, she lets her examine the wound. Still flinches away from your touch instinctively, but something tells you that's not related to the mimic.
Using my first recovery roll. Can I choose to take my 10 minute roll now, and save the 1 action roll for later?

rolled 18, 16, 14, 19, 4, 1, 4, 2, 8, 7, 12, 6, 6, 18, 1, 19, 20, 10, 18, 6 = 209

---

"Nat, I left the Microhealer in the chainpod. Bring her over and healing Cricket will be easier."

If Cricket agrees, Reiko helps carry Cricket back to the chainpod, hooks the Mechanic artifact to herself and Cricket, and assists with the healing process.

Afterwards, Reiko stores the Azure Steel, and tries to invent some kind of mimic lure. If they can capture these creatures, they might be useful as a cross-reference for maintaining Doppel-Reiko's health, and they might know things about this station. [Crafting Numenera, Effort 2]

rolled 5, 6, 3, 2, 11, 12, 19, 20, 19, 16, 7, 5, 17, 9, 14, 8, 19, 19, 4, 5 = 220

---

>>1116591
>Zone Jaune
>The earth hangs directly overhead, appearing 80 to 85 times wider than a full moon.
The party hears Paprika's awestruck shriek echo throughout Zone Ivory - Central, and then she's gone. Leaping up stairs as fast as gravity will allow in order to check out Zone Jaune.

If the lounge is less cluttered, it might actually be better to set up camp here?

rolled 9, 1, 14, 10, 16, 9, 6, 3, 4, 10, 3, 12, 20, 3, 19, 11, 13, 4, 7, 18 = 192

---

Cricket awkwardly plays along as Reiko tries to take care of her, then creates a hasty, almost comedic distraction- "wait, did you hear that? What if a mimic got into the medibot and is waiting to ambush us!" then slips away while Reiko looks it over for bugs.

Seeing Paprika bound away, she hesitates- they shouldn't be splitting up, and if any of them get separated who knows if they'll show up with a stolen face... but she should really try to clear out the threats here, and help set up camp before they can regroup...

She goes after Paprika anyways. Following more closely behind than usual; hanging back in the shadows is an easy way to get stolen away without anyone realizing. Looking up at... that place hanging in the sky makes her skin crawl. All that water... it's like she can feel the moisture in her guts, in the air, like she can't get the feeling of pulling, tugging, off of her skin...
she snaps back and tries to focus on what's in front of her. Threat assessment first. Check the angles, the dark and hidden places she would scamper off to. Stay in line of sight to each other at all times. Another dose of debilitating poison on her arm blade, held at the ready just in case.

Searching the room for threats, applying a free level of intellect effort to the task.

>>1116608
>Reception often include information for guests. Does the desk include a computer interface? If so, Natalina would like to apply her familiarity with the area's datasphere to see if it is reporting anything of interest. Local crises, damage reports, alerts, things of that nature. A map or directory?
>rolled 8
Most of the interesting stuff seems to be locked away behind security barriers, or just broken, but there's a map of the facility as originally designed, and a toggleable screen which initially appeared to be surveilance cameras is actually a set of remote controls.
>rolled 2
Natalina can't figure out how to extract those controls from the desk while retaining functionality, or where the things they're controlling are located, besides one.

As for the map, apparently what's now known as the Cloud Giant's Tomb was originally three similar-sized zones, arranged like a layer cake: Zone Black for industry, Zone Ivory for docking and freight-handling, and Zone Yellow for tourists. Following the alchemical symbology, "Zone Red" would then be the remaining length of the Beanstalk. Industrial infrastructure expanded and compounded over time, so now Zone Black is classifiable as a planetoid while the other two stayed as they were.

>>1116658
>If the lounge is less cluttered, it might actually be better to set up camp here?

It's less cluttered, but not by quite as much as Paprika was hoping. Roughly half again as many chairs as there should be - none individually in incongrous spots, just crowded around tables and booths so there's not quite enough elbow room for convenient dining or server access. At least one table has a full set positioned around it normally, upright on the floor, and then another full set inverted as if for closing time.

A three meter tall Locutus-class augmech, equipped for bartending, waves hello and speaks in an oddly-modulated but recognizable version of Natalina's voice. The real Nat is operating it remotely from that desk Paprika sprinted past.

>>1116649
>hooks the Mechanic artifact to herself
>invent some kind of mimic lure
>rolled 18

Reiko unpacks the Mechanic, turns away for a moment to grab a tool needed for fully integrating it with her personal implants, then looks back to see six seemingly identical instances of the artifact in a tidy vertical stack.

rolled 6, 11, 10, 3, 3, 20, 17, 7, 20, 13, 4, 4, 16, 1, 13, 6, 3, 19, 18, 8 = 202

---

>>1116663
"Hey Nat!"

>Roughly half again as many chairs as there should be
Weird! Paprika will poke multiple chairs with her spear. If none of them grow teeth and bite her, she'll run up to the bar.

"Straight whiskey, please. And Cricket's drinks are on me tonight." Paprika waves Cricket over. "Stack up all these chairs, push em off to the side. Much easier than moving all the junk downstairs. And we get to take in the view. What do you think?"

rolled 3, 10, 2, 8, 5, 11, 12, 11, 4, 6, 8, 13, 6, 4, 15, 11, 1, 16, 12, 16 = 174

---

Luckily, Reiko Machine-Bonded to the Chainpods and the Mechanic already... but the party should try to tame the creatures before shooting them.

First things first, Reiko sends a subtle command to the Mechanic, getting a response that lets her know which of the cases is the real artifact (if any).

Then, Reiko throws out a few different cheap objects, and some extra food. Stuff that's not worth picking back up off the floor.

Finally, Reiko gets into a defensive position [Might], and waits for the mimics to de-morph and eat something in the pile. If they try to eat her, she's going to counterattack with the halberd and then direct a chainpod to bowl the mimics over.

>>1116669
>Paprika will poke multiple chairs with her spear.
>windslice spear + combat prowess for base damage 9
>rolled 6, 11, 10
Targeted chairs are either unaffected, or obliterated, depending on how much force you're putting into those pokes.
>If none of them grow teeth and bite her, she'll run up to the bar.
>rolled 3, 3
Squeezing between a pair on the way to the bar, both chairs do in fact grow teeth (1 Might damage each, after armor)...
>rolled 20
...and are swiftly dispatched.
>rolled 17
Paprika reaches the bar without further incident by hopping across tables.

>>1116673
>Reiko sends a subtle command to the Mechanic, getting a response that lets her know which of the cases is the real artifact (if any).
>rolled 3
All six respond exactly as the real one should.
>waits for the mimics to de-morph and eat something in the pile
>rolled 10
Reiko might actually be able to beat a mimetan's patience, but under the circumstances that'll probably result in sitting and staring until someone else gets involved.

rolled 14, 20, 3, 6, 20, 8, 10, 9, 19, 11, 20, 6, 11, 10, 2, 3, 10, 12, 4, 1 = 199

---

> A three meter tall Locutus-class augmech, equipped for bartending, waves hello and speaks in an oddly-modulated but recognizable version of Natalina's voice. The real Nat is operating it remotely from that desk Paprika sprinted past.
Oh, an augmech! Remote controls (especially those fixed in place) are less exciting than piloting from a cockpit, but that's still a gladdening discovery. Natalina quite enjoyed the time with Milaconi's cousin.

>"Hey Nat!"
>"Straight whiskey, please.
Caught up in the moment, and having been cooped up for days, Natalina can't resist playing along. The bar-bot curtseys in Paprika's direction. "Of course, madam. Coming right up."

Rolling to, well, provide drinks! Presumably this variant provides augmech shifts to bartending actions? Assuming the locutus can locate or provide uncontaminated, human-safe refreshment, she'll mix drinks (such a specialized model should have sensors for that kind of thing, surely?). If there's nothing useful on tap, she'll have the bar-bot offer a polite apology- catering will be delayed while the freight elevator's delivery is being unloaded.

rolled 13, 12, 7, 20, 5, 10, 2, 7, 9, 20, 19, 20, 14, 9, 16, 13, 20, 7, 5, 11 = 239

---

>>1116676
Okay, time to systematically clear the room. Cricket (hopefully with Paprika's help, so they both get a +1 on the roll) will get something long with minimal value- a pool cue from the lounge or something similar, and start testing various pieces of furniture to check for hidden bugs. 1 Level of whatever effort is appropriate. Intellect maybe? Two, if it's intellect.

rolled 14, 17, 19, 11, 3, 15, 1, 17, 8, 8, 8, 13, 1, 7, 14, 15, 19, 9, 14, 1 = 214

---

>>1116676
>Targeted chairs are either unaffected, or obliterated, depending on how much force you're putting into those pokes.
I'll go with "obliterated"

>>1116738
>hopefully with Paprika's help
"I am not doing shit until I finish my drink. Come on, sit down!"

At Cricket's insistence, Paprika takes the simpler option of activating her flame shroud and hacking away at all the furniture in the room until every chair is in at least two pieces.

rolled 20, 10, 12, 8, 14, 7, 5, 9, 5, 2, 15, 5, 10, 3, 18, 13, 10, 14, 16, 3 = 199

---

Reiko continues to wait and stare at the mimic stack, but also tries to call the party back.

Reiko attempts to communicate with the mimics in the meantime.

rolled 6, 1 = 7

---

>>1116738
>rolled 13, 12, 7, 20
>>1116739
>rolled 14, 17, 19, 11
From the stairs to the bar Cricket and Paprika clear a slightly circuitous path of chairs, tables, or any other suspicious objects. Resulting route is wide enough for chainpods, and crosses a small dance floor, but ends up needing to avoid several chest-high walls topped with potted plants, which Paprika simply jumped over on her initial traversal. Zone Jaune is mostly laid out to favor conversational privacy over rapid movement.

Rolling for how many units of mimetic gel you manage to gather over the course of those hours.

>>1116754
>Reiko attempts to communicate with the mimics in the meantime.
>rolled 20
They're not particularly smart - they can imitate the repair device's superficial syntax, and its physical shape down to details finer than a normal person's eye could see, but utterly lack the technical expertise encoded in nanoparticles of machine-phase matter. Which means they also don't quite understand what it can't do. After what amounts to a rigged game of Simon Says, the five fakes have de-stacked and slithered into the barrel of a rusty but (probably) repairable paint-mixing machine. Reiko could reconnect a few frayed wires and push a button to puree them into an additional unit of mimetic gel.

rolled 17, 18, 6, 9, 12, 1, 8, 7, 10, 6, 12, 13, 19, 17, 4, 1, 13, 14, 7, 6 = 200

---

After what feels like days of contemplation, Reiko decides to puree the mimics. They could be useful pets - if not for the threat of them eating their owners alive and replacing them for a few days to reproduce and spread out into the wild. No, not worth the risk, especially with their lack of higher thought. Hopefully none of the surviving mimics are smart enough to learn from this treachery.

Reiko grabs her artifact and the paint barrel for good measure, and follows the trail of footprints after Cricket and the lovebirds. If they get paranoid, she can just demonstrate her new 'trick'. They have a mimic-eliminating strategy now, they just have to ration it out between rooms.

rolled 5, 4, 12, 2, 1, 12, 15, 17, 17, 12, 5, 18, 4, 6, 18, 1, 7, 18, 9, 9 = 192

---

>>1116734
Natalina discovers the bar isn't stocked with whiskey per se, but does offer ethyl hydroxide, similar to the innkeeper-abbot's shelter ( >>1040931 ) along with non-perishable flavorings for mixed drinks. And the bar-bot is more than up to the task of providing refreshment to the heroic mimitan-clearers.

The arkus-driven-augmech also offers Paprika a brief dance in the cleared space; it's not often Natalina will be the taller of the pair and in a position to lead (a dance).

>the innkeeper-abbot
>Wonder if any of my monster friends can help
Does the reception area have access to internal communications? If so, Natalina could try dialing the life-shelter they visited before, check in with the proprietor. Let them know we're back in the area, inquire if Milaconi's cousin made made it back to her berth (thank them again for the loan) and see if they have any new information on the local situation to share.

>what do
Zone Ivory and Juane have a mimitan-infestation of unknown size remaining: which makes them navigable with caution, but makes the prospect of establishing a base camp (or sleeping here) more perilous. For the moment, can we close the elevator doors, to prevent mimics hiding among (or consuming!) the food supplies we brought along?

There’s still more salvage to collect in the local area, but that could be done at our convenience.

Investigating the hopefully-a-starship is mission critical, but perhaps we should examine the energy source in Zone Ivory South first? It might be someone (or something) else arrived since our last visit, or some system failed or activated.

rolled 20, 16, 8, 10, 10, 8, 14, 20, 4, 11, 5, 19, 14, 1, 16, 13, 9, 10, 13, 2 = 223

---

>>1116920
>From the stairs to the bar Cricket and Paprika clear a slightly circuitous path of chairs, tables, or any other suspicious objects.
Paprika wipes sweat from her forehead. "I think that's a good start!"

>>1117102
>refreshment to the heroic mimitan-clearers.
Paprika almost cries sipping the colorful cocktail. "It's really smooth! I haven't had a drink like this in ages. Thanks Nat."

Paprika nudges Cricket and gestures up at the Earth. "That's where I'm from! City of Needles." She points at where she thinks it should be. "And when I was nine my house burned down and I moved there, Hallux. It felt like another world at the time, but the distance looks so small from up here..." Waving her finger around in a small circle, "Then when I was about your age, I left Hallux and went to all the small towns round the city to perform. I never got as good as my mom, she was famous. But I scraped together enough to get by. Never thought I'd end up going on some grand adventure in space."

>dance in the cleared space
>not often Natalina will be the taller of the pair and in a position to lead (a dance).
Paprika jumps into the augmech's arms to be carried out onto the floor. She's very mushy about it.

>can we close the elevator doors, to prevent mimics hiding among (or consuming!) the food supplies we brought along?
Paprika will try to help ferry our food back up into the elevator, if that's the plan we end up going with.

>perhaps we should examine the energy source in Zone Ivory South first?
"I can't figure that thing out. I'm sure Cricket and Reiko will know what they're looking at. I can show you where I found it."

>>1117014
>[Reiko] follows the trail of footprints after Cricket and the lovebirds
>They have a mimic-eliminating strategy now
"Reiko you are so incredibly smart. Do you think you can get all the mimics to climb in?" Paprika gestures at the thousands of chairs in the room. "We think there's a lot of them."

rolled 3, 11, 5, 14, 9, 14, 9, 15, 1, 16, 4, 3, 4, 2, 12, 10, 1, 3, 4, 5 = 145

---

>>1117257
>when I was nine my house burned down and I moved there,
Cricket blinks.
"I'm sorry." she says, quietly- "I know what that's like".

>"That's where I'm from! City of Needles."
Cricket takes a moment, then points to a small island off the coast of the main continent.

"In a city by the coast, there was a road. The Lord who ruled this city built his offices along the road, and trade was good. Because of this, his neighbors saw his bounty, and they killed him, and his brothers, and sons, and they took what was his and demolished what they could not take. The new lords, not being fools, built a castle on the bones of the trade office, to prevent their neighbors from doing the same.
Of course, the first lord was not as foolish as you might think- the office, between two rivers, was a poor space for a castle. The ground was swampy and cramped, and so they built using an unusual design- a spiral, to make the smallest space require the longest routes to reach the heart.
It was here, in the heart of the blood soaked spiral of a castle on an office on in a swamp, held tight in the claustrophobic grasp of the twin rivers, that I was conceived. I do not remember much of my time here, but I was bathed in something unnatural and otherworldly. My birth was... not natural. I am half native, of the ninth world, half... something else. When I was six, a nursemaid disguised as my mother stole me from that place. We fled for four days and four nights. I grew up in a no-name fishing village, hiding and hoping our pursuers would not be able to find us. When I was caught..."

She trails off, staring off into space (literally!). As she does, she absentmindedly forms a small globe of water in her hands, seemingly pulling it out of thin air, turning it over and over like a worry stone.

"Anyways, once I was older, I had learned all I could from watching others. I decided I needed to set out, to see more, to do more, understand more. I think one day I may go back to that castle. But not today yet. There is so much in the world I still do not know and understand."

After the couple have their fun dancing and drinking, Cricket will silently get up from her spot of contemplation under the bar, and work with Reiko to continue the project of trying to isolate and remove the mimics. One level of whatever effort is applicable, two if it's intellect.

>>1117257
>Do you think you can get all the mimics to climb in?
>inability at understanding numenera
>rolled 20
That specific trick only worked because the mimetans were already in the shape of a machine which they didn't know couldn't climb around like that, but did know Reiko had remote-access credentials for. Maybe... if you could get a bunch of the mimic-chairs to switch to copying the bartender augmech? Somehow? ...but then what would you tell the copies to do, that a mimic can, and a Locutus-class non-obviously can't?

After the dance, Nat climbs out of the augmech's cockpit (yes, even though she was remotely piloting it from the reception desk dozens of meters away, and has no recollection of entering said cockpit - compared to some of the distracted mishaps she had as a teenager, that's nothing) at which point Paprika notices a hexagonal scrap of greenish-yellow paper stuck to the back of Nat's shoulder. It's a note from that shy, spider-ish construction-assistant creature you met in the haunted-house dimension.

>"Hi! Your world has a lot more open space than I'm used to. It's kinda scary, but awesome! Sorry about [untranslatable]ing you >>1116604 I panicked and I've had almost nothing to eat since I squeezed through to here three (?) lighting-cycles ago"

rolled 10, 3, 2, 18, 16, 16, 5, 15, 11, 14, 3, 19, 2, 1, 17, 5, 15, 6, 5, 5 = 188

---

Reiko brainstorms a few ideas, but nothing that can kill the mimics all at once. If they kill a few in the vicinity of others, they risk the other mimics learning 'these are not your friends' and just attacking as a ravenous horde. The party wouldn't stand a chance.

However, they can mimic delivery units. Units that go nowhere important - the risk is the point. Trick the mimics into pretending to be beverage transport units, of some kind, feed them in exchange for whatever garbage they retrieve (and then pretend to make booze out of it, to sell the deception), and send them on increasingly long delivery jobs through rough, elementally-saturated terrain until they get bored and mimic something else somewhere elsewhere, or die walking through a deathtrap.

We can fool them into marching into deathtraps for us. Win-Lose.
[Come up with the plan above or better, Intelligence, Effort 2]

>>1117257
>>1117663
Reiko shrugs and chimes in. "I'm from a tribe of nomads, but..." she points at a small desert, out in the east. "Most of the time, we'd live around there. It sucks as much as you'd expect, but that was kind of the point. Sometimes we took a bad job and needed to let the heat blow over. Sometimes we stooped to raiding what we wanted. People would want us dead, but most bounty hunters and mercenaries would give up before they'd chased us a few dozen miles into a sandstorm.

For a long time, we were just your average, everyday, chrome-obsessed gang. And then we overdosed.

See, my tribe knew about the Vault hidden within the desert. Every other tribe that ever crossed that desert knew all about it - knew just how many foolhardy adventurers died to its automated defense systems. I think it even had an anti-missile defense matrix, or whatever that crown of lights was. Like the other intelligent tribes, we learned how to camp around it, how to convince it to treat us as a neutral entity. We'd spend a few weeks basking in the light of its protection, but leave before it started getting paranoid about our presence.

We happened to be the ones nearest to the Vault when the machine-spirits in charge dropped dead. Scout drones fell out of the sky, the main defense cannon crumbled and crashed to the sands before our eyes. Every light powered down. We only wasted five seconds of jaw-dropping before the War-horns sounded and my battle-brothers devolved into whoops and moans, leaving most of our camp in the sand-dust.

We rushed into the vault, barred one of the entrances with our own defenses, and relentlessly cannibalized the Protector Spirit we had depended on for so long. We craved the Vault's power, and now that its inhabitants had finally died, we stopped caring about our 'sacred pact' with it. After all, at least two other tribes had the same exact idea, invading from other entrances. We were all competing to see who could strip-mine the place the fastest.

We were fools. We wasted no time taking anything that wasn't welded to the floor and welding it straight into ourselves. That's how mad I was when I begged to have a technology-infused spike jammed directly into the back of my head.

And then everything went red.

I woke up in a different part of the desert. Whatever we did destroyed the Vault, or something, because all that's left are a few defense towers and half-forgotten stories. I don't know how much time I lost, and I don't know how I lived, but I never saw a hint of my tribe ever again. Still trying to find out if any of them survived."

Reiko also points at a specific city. "And that's the headquarters of House Youngmason. You could wander the halls for a century and never find everything they've collected down there. I guard the hallway leading to the room of the 'crown princess'." Reiko licks her lips. "Well... when I'm not guarding the inside of the room."

>>1117839
>[Come up with the plan above or better, Intelligence, Effort 2]
>specialized in raider tactics
>rolled 10
Occurs to Reiko you don't really need to wipe out ALL the mimetic horrors, and make this place permanently safe to camp in. If there's a working ship docked here, immediate objective is to load your stuff (plus incidental loot, as opportunities permit) into that ship and go; if there's a broken ship, only need to stick around long enough for necessary repairs.

rolled 10, 3, 4, 11, 9, 19, 12, 11, 2, 17, 1, 9, 10, 15, 15, 4, 2, 13, 20, 3 = 190

---

>>1117663
Paprika quietly listens to Cricket's story. For just a second her eyes fall on the wound on Cricket's arm, move up to the girl's face, then Paprika turns to look back up at the Earth.

"Well with all you've been through, sounds like you'll have no trouble facing down whatever horrors we find up here. I'm glad to have you along, Cricket."

>>1117664
>...but then what would you tell the copies to do, that a mimic can, and a Locutus-class non-obviously can't?
Well, plenty of things spring to mind. Extend its arms? Climb around on the walls? Combine into some kinda augmech megazord?

>Nat climbs out of the augmech's cockpit
Still right where Paprika knew she'd be. Starting to feel like Nat's a fixed constant and the world just moves around her.

>note from that shy, spider-ish construction-assistant creature you met in the haunted-house dimension.
>had almost nothing to eat since I squeezed through
"You think she's got an appetite for mimics?"

>>1117839
>average, everyday, chrome-obsessed gang
>mad
>begged to have a technology-infused spike jammed directly into the back of my head.
Paprika feels a little uneasy after hearing Reiko's story. "Why'd you do it? I mean...what made you want that? If it's something you can explain."

>"Well... when I'm not guarding the inside of the room."
"Nice, a princess? How'd you go from a gig like that to working in Hallux?"

>>1117934
>immediate objective is to load your stuff into that ship and go
"I've been dying to check out that ship since we got here anyway. Anyone else ready to go take a look with me?"

>>1117946
>"You think she's got an appetite for mimics?"
Those lack essential nutrients, to say nothing of aesthetic appeal. It would be like a human trying to live on a diet of dry rice, clay, and seawater.
Also your contact doesn't know how to salvage the useful gel from them. Could be taught, as a downtime action.

>>1117946
>"Why'd you do it? I mean...what made you want that? If it's something you can explain."
"Peer pressure? Yeah, peer pressure. My tribe worshipped augmentation. When I was a cub I got to see a live heart transplant. I got my arm before my period. My first 'boyfriend' replaced his junk with a fleshlight. It was - it was heresy to reject augmentation.

And then the Vault died. We had the opportunity to graft ourselves with the stem cells of a god. We weren't thinking straight, we thought we could become demigods, and only if we were faster at augmenting ourselves than the other tribes.

I guess the threat of eternal madness and incomprehensible brain damage wasn't as scary as some other tribe seizing the full godly power of the Vault first, and then torturing us with madness and mutilation anyway because we had committed the grievous sin of being in their way."

>"Nice, a princess? How'd you go from a gig like that to working in Hallux?"
"Social tip: there's no law against baking pastries with alcohol. Well, maybe there is, but the aristocracy doesn't care for it. I nabbed a few croissants at the banquet gala I was on guard duty for. Not sure what was in them that got me hammered, but by the time I realized something was wrong, it was too late. Last thing I remember was getting frisky with some visiting business-guy's concubine. Still don't know why that got me banished; she was into me for some reason and covered in tattoos that would have made a barbarian recoil at the crass language on display! Definitely not the wife. I dunno, maybe I spilled Youngmason secrets to her, or maybe I got even more drunk and barged back into the gala. Point is, I accidentally got drunk, and did something that pissed my employers off. So I got 'banished' from the Youngmason Estates. Again. I wandered around for a few months, did some merc jobs here and there, but I was getting close to broke. Hallux had help wanted ads posted all over the entrance gates, they offered a six-month contract for apprentice mechanics. I thought it would be a good skill to learn. And then one day, he fired all the other mechanics! And he blamed me for screwing up, and it was never his fault that I couldn't finish my apprenticeship and learn half of how the Volcano Tamer worked! And I wanted him to hire the mechanics back, but he punished me for asking by making me do even more mechanical work across the spa! He and his wife would gossip about me all the time, and that meant the whole town looked down on me! I can't tell if he was senile or if he hated me for existing, but I bet it was both!" Reiko realizes she's been ranting about Paprika's home. "Sorry, I had to vent that out. I'll stop."

"I'm really glad Tayle and your mom are in charge now. I always knew Hallux could be more, but the old farts held it back. Now they've got new blood, newer cornerstones, and a living god for a patron. My tribe prospered under those conditions, and I think your home will too."

"Say, your siblings are pretty... energetic. I saw them doing some kind of hopping dance for a whole hour. What are they planning to be when they grow up? Dancers, or glaives?"

rolled 6, 8, 13, 18, 16, 7, 16, 16, 7, 1, 15, 20, 10, 16, 19, 14, 17, 4, 8, 9 = 240

---

>>1117950
>Those lack essential nutrients, to say nothing of aesthetic appeal. It would be like a human trying to live on a diet of dry rice, clay, and seawater.
>Also your contact doesn't know how to salvage the useful gel from them. Could be taught, as a downtime action.
Sounds like we need to find our spider some food first and foremost. Is the conundary perceivable, or in the same room as us? Feel like I would know this IC since we met before, or at least have an idea, but I haven't looked up the monster manual entry or anything. Would be nice if we could get a message down the beanstalk and have the town send up some livestock.

>>1117958
>"Peer pressure? Yeah, peer pressure."
>"brain damage wasn't as scary as some other tribe seizing the full godly power of the Vault first"
"I see. That makes a lot of sense."

>"So I got 'banished' from the Youngmason Estates. Again."
"Well if it's already happened once and you found your way back into their good graces, maybe you can do it again? Sounds like this princess really likes you, at least. In the meantime, I'm glad we get to travel together."

>Reiko realizes she's been ranting about Paprika's home. "Sorry, I had to vent that out. I'll stop."
"Hey, it's fine. I still have a lot of mixed feelings about that place. Nothing you said surprises me. Small towns are like that, just nonstop gossip. And I remember the mechanics who worked at that volcano tamer were always complaining about how it was run. Sorry you had such a rough time there."

>"I'm really glad Tayle and your mom are in charge now."
Paprika groans, "I really hope they didn't end up going through with that organ harvesting scheme, but it's out of my hands now. Maybe you're right though, all those big changes might be good for the town in the long run."

>"Say, your siblings are pretty... energetic. I saw them doing some kind of hopping dance for a whole hour. What are they planning to be when they grow up? Dancers, or glaives?"
"Hahaha, hard to say! Their dad's a flute boy, maybe he taught them some moves. My biological mom was the dancer, she died in the fire. I don't think Mia could dance to save her life."

"The 'glaive' thing was always kind of a joke. Saoirse started calling me that when I was basically playing bodyguard for her. That girl just loves getting herself into trouble. Guess she did it to make me seem more intimidating. It worked! She's really good at making things stick."


>what do?
spaceship spaceship spaceship

rolled 9, 2, 7, 10, 7, 10, 7, 3, 2, 14, 18, 12, 1, 15, 5, 12, 3, 1, 2, 7 = 147

---

>>1117257
>Paprika almost cries sipping the colorful cocktail. "It's really smooth! I haven't had a drink like this in ages. Thanks Nat."
"I'm more partial to tea myself, but this does make a nice treat. I'm glad you like it."

>>1117663
Cricket was a princess? Well, associated with one or both of two ruling families, at least. Small (ninth) world.

>I think one day I may go back to that castle.
"I remember 'saving the world' being pitched as an excellent opportunity to restore familial legacy."

>>1117839
>guarding the 'crown princess'
Small ninth world indeed.

>>1117664
>Nat climbs out of the augmech's cockpit
Oh, it does have a cockpit, wonderful! Hmm. Do the remote or internal controls take priority, Natalina wonders, if they're both used at once?

> a note from that shy, spider-ish construction-assistant creature you met in the haunted-house dimension
> I've had almost nothing to eat since I squeezed through to here three (?) lighting-cycles ago
Ah, back to the game of talking out loud and waiting for an indirect response. "Should we offer them something to eat?" Preparing a meal for a larger-than-human would put a dent in our supplies, but from the sound of it, they may not need to eat as often as we do. If they require live meals, we'll have to get more creative.

If they accept the offer, Natalina will attempt to prepare something for them; one level of Intellect Effort and an asset from the cookbook.

>>1117950
>Also your contact doesn't know how to salvage the useful gel from them. Could be taught, as a downtime action.
The idea has merit. If they plan to settle in this area, that could help control the mimitan population, and provide the shy spider with iotum trade-goods. Something to consider the next time we're on a downtime cycle.

>>1117963
>I really hope they didn't end up going through with that organ harvesting scheme
"I tried to dissuade master Tayle by explaining the drawbacks when the ethical concerns escaped his notice. Your loud and public condemnation of the plan might have done more to prevent it."

>what do
>spaceship spaceship spaceship
Assuming Paprika's spider-contact was the energy signature, there's checking the spaceship is probably a higher immediate priority than clearing all the salvage sites in the vicinity, or delving deeper into the orbital installation.

>>1117966
>checking the spaceship is probably a higher immediate priority
>rolled 9
Seems like a clear, open path down the five-meter-wide docking tube, but before you get within a hundred meters of the ship, a spotlight on the ship's underbelly swings over. Clear synth walls ripple like a sail in shifting winds as it passes, and when it shines on you, you soon feel too heavy to move.
>>1117963
>spaceship spaceship spaceship
>rolled 6
Paprika sprints past, trusting in her antigrav conditioning to push through what seems to be a level 7 gravity turret, but instead falls flat on her face and can barely breathe - it's almost like partly negating effects of gravity made the problem worse.

Neither of you are injured, and the immobilizing excess weight dissipates after a minute or so, but accessing the ship seems like it'll require more effort than just walking in the front door. Could try zigzagging to evade the spotlight, or circle around through the airless outdoors, or maybe something else?

Ship is resting on a flat grid of girders which becomes steadily more sparse as it extends further from the pressurized region of Zone Ivory - portions right outside the window mesh tightly enough a finger could barely fit between them, but further out there are gaps wide enough for those solid segments of the ship's gradually-rotating halo to slip easily through.
There are four contact points - arranged in an oval or diamond - between the mottled semi-organic material of ship's main hull, and the dock's vacuum-welded steel: the narrow end, the wide end (with the halo), and two tusk-like protrusions flanking the ship's arched midsection. Under that midsection are the two visible entrances: a horizontal iris door on the flat underside, thirty meters above the 'ground,' which the clear synth docking tube leads up to, and a much larger vertical... cargo bay, possibly? ...resembling Venetian blinds, or the mouth of a baleen whale.

rolled 16, 9, 2, 15, 8, 13, 1, 4, 12, 20, 14, 13, 11, 19, 11, 19, 1, 12, 20, 1 = 221

---

>Could try zigzagging to evade the spotlight
Doing it! Three levels of speed effort.

(cost 7 - edge 1 = 6 total)

>>1118308
>fleet of foot
>speed pool 18/18
>rolled 16, 9, 2
This time, Paprika successfully crosses about four-fifths of the horizontal distance before that spotlight catches and pins her. Oddly, it doesn't interfere at all with the return trip. Her Speed pool is down to zero, though, meaning she's impaired, and she got close enough to see for sure that there's no ladder - just a tube of open air roughly the size of a ten-story building, straight up to the hatch. Need to fly, or maybe jump, unless somebody trusts those flimsy-looking clear synth walls to bear weight.

rolled 9, 6, 9, 5, 6, 19, 15, 18, 10, 8, 14, 5, 16, 1, 11, 5, 13, 17, 13, 14 = 214

---

>>1117966
>Ah, back to the game of talking out loud and waiting for an indirect response.
No response? Perhaps leave a note accepting the apology and asking if they need help with a meal.

>>1118307
Oh that's terrifying. If that catches her while she's not entirely here, she's going right through the floor into the void.

Is there just the one turret? It might not be able to handle a spread out group. Or can we see anything that looks like cameras, or other sensors it might be using for targeting?

rolled 3 + 3 = 6

---

Chest heaving, drenched in sweat. This is the most disheveled Nat's seen Paprika since the two got tossed into the sky in Hallux. Paprika collapses at Nat's feet with as much elegance as she can manage, "hah...just needa... minute..."

Recovery roll! All to speed.

>>1117966
>Natalina will attempt to prepare something for them; one level of Intellect Effort and an asset from the cookbook.
>rolled 2
Results are disappointing - tolerable enough by wilderness-camp standards, maybe, but you've got fresh ingredients and, in the backrooms of Zone Jaune, a nearly intact commercial-scale kitchen!
>>1118329
>No response?
>rolled 9
>trained in negotiation

After some further discussion, Natalina figures out that the conundary is deliberately teasing to get a rise out of her, and further manages to deduce that its nutritional needs are at least as much mental as physical - can't feed effectively on mimetans, despite their potential to be transformed into almost any material substance, because their minds are too simple.

>Is there just the one turret? It might not be able to handle a spread out group. Or can we see anything that looks like cameras, or other sensors it might be using for targeting?
Looks like there's a ring of emitters, maybe six or seven spaced evenly around the hatch. No more than one of them lit up at a time, though. Might be able to disable the whole system by severing that ring? Assuming you don't mind risking damage to the airlock of a ship you're planning to ride around in.
As for sensors... during Paprika's run, Natalina kept an eye on the spotlight's procession, and she knows as well as anyone how Paprika thinks mid-fight. Each time, another emitter started to light up as soon as she decided which way she'd be going next, before there was any clear outward cue. Consistently aimed ahead of her, at the next place she was intending to go, without regard for feints. Only reason she managed to dodge as far as she did is it's absurdly slow at ramping up to full power, or traversing to track lateral movement after having done so - much too slow for something actually designed as a point-defense weapon, considering what shinspinners managed with their own energy cannon.

rolled 18, 9, 14, 10, 6, 2, 6, 19, 19, 10, 20, 2, 15, 7, 11, 13, 17, 13, 19, 7 = 237

---

Cricket hesitantly tests the chameleon cloak- seems like it detects thoughts in some way, rather than relying on visuals, but more test data couldn't hurt.

Also... can we see if it can tell the difference between a mimic and a normal object? Applying a level of intellect effort to see if we can successfully test that.

JamesLeng 2025/12/03(Wed)20:41 No. 1118415 ID: 5f5c2b
File 176482329520.png - (94.63KB , 268x251 , The Nightcraft's hangar bay.png )

rolled 86 = 86

---

>>1118401
>rolled 18
>trained in stealth
>trained in understanding numenera
Cricket casually strolls down the gangplank to a point directly underneath the ship's hatch, occasionally kicking a five-gallon clear synth barrel full of angry mimic so that it continues rolling on ahead of her, being careful to think only of the present and the next single step. So far so good, no response from the spotlight. Now for the tricky part.
>chameleon cloak eases sneaking and hiding by two steps
>rolled 9
Silver wings unfold and Cricket flies straight up, pointedly staring at the floor as it recedes under her feet. Something moves in her peripheral vision - from all sides at once, panic-flinch of "surprised, surrounded, where am I going?" disrupting her concentration, spotlight starts to flicker on... but she's already through, inside the ship.

Entry hall is almost as organically curvilinear as the outside. Roughly trapezoidal, two stories high. About as wide as a small palace or two basketball courts awkwardly wedged together. Circular patterns on the floor seem to imply the central hatch could be made to open up MUCH wider, if necessary, and some of those fixtures on the ceiling vaguely resemble what Paprika and Natalina said about the shrine where they found Milaconi's Cousin.

There are four other visible exits, all on the second floor, which otherwise seemingly consists only of two relatively small balconies or stair landings. A recessed track across the ceiling leads from the sole door on the narrow wall, to the middle door on the wider side.

Rolling for chameleon cloak depletion. On a 2+, it's fine.

rolled 7, 9, 20, 3, 5, 10, 9, 9, 17, 12, 2, 5, 8, 1, 11, 11, 16, 4, 13, 15 = 187

---

>Well if it's already happened once
"Fifth time. No, what really worries me is if Saharnya makes good on her promise to ensure my banishment. I like Saharnya, so I'm not going to drag her down. I have to rise up alongside her, prove I'm not expendable to the company."

>Sounds like this princess really likes you, at least.
"...Yes. That is literally the point I was trying to make. I'm gonna be blunt: I don't expect we'll get married, but I'm shooting for a spot in her future harem."

>Cricket was a princess
"Wait what? Is that what - wait, where'd she go? Again?"

"I wonder..."
An eye that stops the one thing that it stares at.
A room full of mimics.
An artifact that's too tempting to the mimics to resist mimicking.
And an anti-gravity plate to climb the ladder.

Reiko lets her ears twitch mindlessly as a plan comes together. By the time she's ready, another clutch of mimics have amassed into a stack on top of the Mechanic.

Reiko's plan is simple: Order the mimics to move (in a silly, David O'Reilly's Everything kind of way) in a spaced line formation towards the big juicy saucer. (Make sure the Mechanic artifact doesn't get taken along for the ride, that would be expensive.) Observe the effects, see if the ship escalates its response or is forced to stall each mimic one at a time.

rolled 1, 8, 18, 19, 15, 13, 11, 8, 2, 8, 1, 12, 2, 6, 2, 5, 8, 19, 16, 3 = 177

---

>>1118415
>About as wide as a small palace or two basketball courts awkwardly wedged together
Cricket Moon has frame of reference for at least one of those comparisons.

>There are four other visible exits, all on the second floor
Alright, time to put her Jack skills to use. Sneak in first, disarm the traps, unlock the castle gates, and let down the drawbridge. Lets try the entrance that seems to go towards whatever she guesses the "bridge" is, try and shut down the grav beams first. If she can't find any obvious controls to let the others on up, work clockwise through the rest of the openings until she can find something useful to do.

Lets say 3 levels of Intellect and Speed Effort (Intellect for disarming and figuring out the controls, speed for if that goes wrong). That should cost me 4 int and 6 speed, putting me at 13/11/12. Ha, funny that.

rolled 9, 3, 19, 11, 12, 6, 9, 4, 2, 11, 12, 16, 6, 14, 11, 6, 10, 12, 16, 12 = 201

---

>>1118309
>Paprika successfully crosses about four-fifths of the horizontal distance before that spotlight catches and pins her.
>Her Speed pool is down to zero, though, meaning she's impaired
Natalina sighs in relief when the spotlights make no effort to prevent Paprika's return, not stranding the arkus where the rest of the ground can't reach. "Are you all right? You're looking winded there."

>>1118340
>Natalina figures out that the conundary is deliberately teasing to get a rise out of her
Well, understandable, if they're bored and hungry up here. (Of course that's how one of Paprika's friends reacts).

>>1118415
>cricket is goat
"I'm not sure if applauding would be the correct response? That was impressive, but it feels somehow inappropriate to express appreciation for stealth with noisemaking."

>>1118459
>I'm gonna be blunt: I don't expect we'll get married, but I'm shooting for a spot in her future harem.
Caught off guard, Natalina lets out an undignified giggle. "Well, ah, it's good to know what you want?"

>Order the mimics to move [...] in a spaced line formation towards the big juicy saucer.
"If the mimitan haven't managed to board the ship, perhaps we shouldn't help them board? Though occupying all the spotlight emitters with distractions might allow someone else to pass."

If the beams truly are intent based, Natalina might be able to pilot the bartender bot into approaching remotely- her intent would be by the control panel rather than approaching (assuming the the remote controls reach that far outside the bar). Doesn't seem worth attempting at the moment though- she doubts that flimsy synth could support the large machine attempting climbing.