Let's >RECITE THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE and Play Hadean Lands

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ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

Part 10: Hic Sunt Dracones

We discovered many new facts, formulae, and rituals as we explored the Retort. However, we've still got several rituals we can't do, and there are two papers we could see but not read. One of them was stuck under a giant outcropping of coral, and while we could hack a piece of it out, we couldn't free the paper.

But that coral might be the key, mightn't it?

quote:

>RECALL FUNGICIDE
You applied the bottle of fungicide to the pine Mechanica door.

That may have been what I asked for but that is not what I meant. :argh:

quote:

>RECALL FUNGICIDE SYNTHESIS
"A BANE for MUSHROOMS, LICHEN, and OTHER FUNGI: Prepare your chymic retort with mustard seed and a sample of fungus, in a saline bath. Seal; turn on burner, and heat to a gentle simmer. Invoke the Binding of Antipathy, thus attuning the mustard's toxic qualities to your sample. Decant."

That sounds... generalizable. Let's go to the Chymic Lab and try it out.

But first, there was a loose tile in the lair of Syndesis, and we can go down through it:

quote:

Birdhouse Crawl
This space must have been a crawlway, but it's entirely fallen in now. You barely fit, and there's no space to wriggle in any direction but back up.

There is, however, nothing here. No items; no hidden sparks; no exits but the way we came. We'll be back later, but for now a room which serves no purpose whatsoever is a greater mystery to us players than it is to the ensign.

Let's get over to the Chymic Lab. The parser politely reminds me that we have seen things and the kinds of shorthands smaller games might allow don't cut the mustard here:

quote:

>GO TO CHYMIC
Which do you mean, the flask of saline, the flask of rubbing alcohol, the flask of mineral oil, the flask of muriatic acid, the flask of vitriolic acid, the flask of vinegar, the flask of lubanja, the flask of alum, the flask of sand, the vial of sublime spirit, the vial of copper percalcinate, the vial of bamuriatic acid, the vial of perfect mud, the vial of viridigris, the potion of breath holding, the potion of fire resistance, the bottle of clock tincture, the bottle of fungicide, or the Chymic Lab?

But the traditional disambiguating answer does indeed do what want.

quote:

>LAB
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.

Chymic Lab
This wide room is dominated by a huge glass retort. You've practiced many chymical rituals in this apparatus. Hanging above the retort is an instructional sign.

The lab door to the east is closed. The only other exit is the hatch in the floor, which is open.

A supply rack holds two chymic flasks (sand and vinegar), neatly lined up.

Two papers, a folded sheet and a wrinkled sheet, are lying here.

You can also see a plain gold rod, a dried mushroom, a brass coin, an impet of citronelle oil, and two chymic flasks (mineral oil and muriatic acid) here.

Our previous adventures have littered the area a bit, but we'll be resetting everything soon enough and everything will be nice and tidy.

quote:

>PUT CORAL IN RETORT
You put the chunk of coral into the retort.

>PUT MUSTARD IN RETORT
You put the pinch of mustard seed into the retort.

>PUT SALINE IN RETORT
You pour a measure of saline into the retort.

>SPEAK HERMETIC
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the pinch of mustard seed, the chunk of coral, and the reservoir of saline.

>TURN ON BURNER
You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.

The gas flame heats the saline.

>WAIT
Time passes.

The gas flame heats the saline.

>WAIT
Time passes.

The saline bubbles over the flame.

>SPEAK BINDING OF ANTIPATHY
You begin invoking the Binding of Antipathy, forcing out the bitter phrases. Gradually the coral and the mustard seeds dissolve, and the saline solution acquires a rosy tint. Pink fumes begin to fill the retort.

When you finish choking out the formula, the liquid is bright pink in hue. You find an empty vial in the clutter and tap the potion from the retort. It has a bitter stink to it. With luck, this will act as a coralicide.

As an afterthought, you shut off the gas flame.

Let's try it out! Back to the Deep Stacks, and...

quote:

>POUR CORALICIDE ON CORAL
You splash the coralicide onto the outcrop. The yellow growth bubbles, pits, and shrivels.

You don't have enough potion to completely destroy the outcrop. But you manage to dissolve enough of a hole to free what was poking out: a stained sheet of paper.

>READ STAINED
"THE SYNTHESIS of GAIAN PRECIPITATE: This reagent is of great value in rituals pertaining to the Earth. Prepare your retort with a measure of vitriolic acid; place orichalcum therein. Invoke the sealing and raise the heat. When the metal dissolves, recite a symmetric sequence (the symmetry induces a positive connection to the Earth). Measure in alum until the solution turns violet; then add pure elemental earth and reduce to a powder."

Just what we needed! Unfortunately, it also requires orichalcum and elemental earth, both of which we've used up. And so...

quote:

*** You awaken again ***

Another tour to collect our ingredients and we get to work.

quote:

>PUT VITRIOLIC IN RETORT
You pour a measure of vitriolic acid into the retort.

>PUT ORICHALCUM IN RETORT
You put the orichalcum rod into the retort.

>SPEAK HERMETIC
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the orichalcum rod and the reservoir of vitriolic acid.

>TURN ON BURNER
You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.

The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.

>WAIT
Time passes.

The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.

>WAIT
Time passes.

The vitriolic acid bubbles over the flame.

>WAIT
Time passes.

The orichalcum slowly dissolves into the acid, lending it a lovely sky-blue tint.

>SPEAK SYMMETRIC
You begin reciting the values of the symmetric sequence. After a few minutes and a bit of counting on your fingers, you reach the end (which is of course the same as the beginning).

The sky-blue acid bubbles over the flame.

>PUT ALUM IN RETORT
You pour a gentle stream of alum into the retort. At first nothing happens; the powder simply dissolves into the sky-blue solution. Then the color begins to darken. You pull back your hand, and watch the solution turn to a clear violet.

The violet solution bubbles over the flame.

>PUT EARTH SHARD IN RETORT
You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.

The elemental earth dissolves. The violet solution boils more vigorously, now releasing a thick cloud of steam.

Slowly, the solution is reduced, growing darker and more opaque. You coddle the gas valve as it thickens. After several careful moments, you have dried the solution to a purple-grey dust. Excellent. You shut off the heat, and tap the Gaian precipitate from the retort into a fresh vial.

>EXAMINE GAIAN
This vial contains a small quantity of Gaian precipitate�an impalpable dust in a odd shade of purple-grey.

Simple enough. Now, how to do the lead weight increase, again?

quote:

>RECALL LEAD WEIGHT INCREASE
"TROUTMAN'S INSCRIPTION, to INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF LEAD: (This unusual ritual derives from the Subcontinent, but we translate it into European terms.) Create an anchored (Saturnine) environment. Place any common bit of stone into the bound, and invoke a simple sealing. Add a resinous note to the atmosphere; speak a word of essential nature; add a measure of Gaian precipitate. Conclude with the Binding of the Celestial Sphere, to align the alchemical axis (Earth-Saturn, low-high) with the mundane axis of gravitation."

This definitely is playing by different rules than the usual technique. Any random rock will show up as earthy, and the horn coin has an anchor on it and the resonant oculus tells us it has an "anchored" nature. More importantly for this ritual, though, the planetary lens confirms that the coin is Saturnine and the rock is Earthly. Rock chips are in the Materials Store, and the horn coin is in the Exoscaphe. Snag those, head to the Nave, and proceed to business:

quote:

>PUT HORN COIN ON SHELF
You put the horn coin on the gestalt shelf.

>PUT GRANITE IN BOUND
You put the chip of granite into the pedestal bound.

>SPEAK SIMPLE SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the simple sealing word.

The arc begins to glow slate-blue around the chip of granite.

>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its fresh, resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.

>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature. The mineral nature of the chip rises to the surface.

>PUT GAIAN PRECIPITATE IN BOUND
You empty the vial of Gaian precipitate onto the chip of granite. The purple-grey dust whirls around the pebble for a moment; then the vortex tightens and is absorbed.

>SPEAK BINDING OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERE
You begin invoking the Binding of the Celestial Sphere. The sounds seem distant and foreign, but you speak them precisely.

The blueish light flares, drawing together the mineral and celestial principles you have assembled. When it fades, a symbol shines on the surface of the chip of granite.

Clever work, swabbie.

Thanks, Sarge.

quote:

>GET GRANITE
You pick up the chip of granite, careful of its inscribed ponderosity symbol.

That's right. Ponderosity symbol. Now then, what's made of lead and isn't sufficiently leaden? How about the ladder's counterweight in the observatory?

quote:

Observatory
This is the observatory, the Retort's guiding eye. The dome overhead is set with windows, and each window shows a different sky and a different array of stars.

One level above you, an ironwork bridge crosses the dome, north to south. A ladder descends at either end, but only one of the two is lowered, and that one is obstructed by a fracture that cuts off the north side of the dome. The south-side ladder is folded up under the bridge; its counterweight hangs near the floor.

The door to the east is open. Open alcoves to the north and south house additional equipment, but again, the north side is fracture-blocked. You also see the flooded crawlway hatch at your feet.

In the center of the chamber, beneath the bridge, stands the compass pedestal with its capsule of elemental water.

>TOUCH GRANITE TO COUNTERWEIGHT
You carefully lay the ponderosity symbol against the lead. The symbol flares brightly and transfers to the counterweight.

The cable vibrates with sudden strain, and then emits a portentous creak. You jump back just as it snaps. The counterweight, now freed, slams to the floor and lies there like the corpse of Atlas.

The shock has evidently been too much for the jammed mechanism. The cable whips up and out of sight; the folded ladder, in reaction, unfolds segment by segment until it reaches the floor.

That'll do.

quote:

>UP
You climb the ladder.

Aithery
This bridge crosses the upper span of the observatory dome. There's nothing at either end except a ladder. This is a place to stand and watch the Cosmos, and the Retort's place in it.

Well, that's an obvious invitation.

quote:

>BROOD DRAMATICALLY OVER THE INFINITE VASTNESS AND MULTIPLICITY OF THE COSMOS
[That's not an action I understand.]

Bah, though I suppose it's no surprise. Not only is brooding over the Cosmos Aithery-work, you don't even qualify for the instruction until you reach Commander.

Also present here in the Aithery is the dragon Aistheta.

quote:

The dragon Aistheta is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed on the dome just overhead. This one, too, looks lifeless and inert.

A fragment of paper lies on the bridge.

quote:

>EXAMINE WINDOWS
The dome windows show... to be honest, you've never understood the theory. Each one is a world where the Retort has ever been�or each one is the heart of some constellation�or each one shows an aspect of the Retort's relationship to the Cosmos. Or something.

The dragon Aistheta is inscribed across the dome, just overhead.

>EXAMINE AISTHETA
Circles of grey-glimmering runes hang on the dome. This is Aistheta, one of the marcher's four dragons. Aistheta is responsible for awareness of the Retort's location and environment.

Something is wrong, however. By all accounts, the circles of runes should be rotating, eternally reading themselves. The color is wrong too. Aistheta can't be dead (or you'd be hopelessly lost), but it clearly isn't working correctly.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT AISTHETA
The oculus reveals Aistheta as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It doesn't look good.

The compass-rule lines throughout the marcher are weak. They are mostly aligned with the architecture, providing your familiar sense of direction. But where the passages twist�the garden maze, the cracks by the chasm�the compass lines are snarled and useless.

>GET PAPER
You don't recognize the handwriting. "...Chuang argues that the soul exists in an as-yet-undetected medium, a soul-aither as it might be. The echo is then a transitory vibration of this substance. Lacking volition or identity, the vibration is not self-sustaining. Chuang's computation of the characteristic decay time accords with observation..."

More metaphysics, and apparently it is Aistheta's malfunction that has made the paper maze and the confusing cracks such a, well, confusing maze. We've already got a ritual to create a maze-solving Lodestone of Centrality, though, and we practiced it last time. We can get it in our hands as easily as saying

quote:

> RESET. CREATE LODESTONE OF CENTRALITY. CREATE OCULUS. CREATE PLANETARY LENS.

quote:

*** You awaken again ***

On the way to the paper maze, I realize we'd never gone north from the Nave. This takes us to the front of the Retort:

quote:

Portico
You stand in the foyer of the marcher. It's wide and comfortably appointed, with lounging seats and potted tropical ferns. The Retort likes to look its best for visitors.

The main doors to the north are closed, however. A broad window in the east wall reveals the reason: the world outside is a Hadean land, grey and lifeless.

The Nave is south, and a narrow dark doorway opens to the west.

>EXAMINE WINDOW
The thick glass is a bit wavy, but you can see a grey, stony wasteland outside. The sky above is pitch-night with stars and an icy bright sun.

Not a lot to do here, but the view is nice. Off into the Paper Maze!

quote:

You step through the arch. Within moments, you are entirely turned around.

Lost in Paper Maze
You are standing in a hedge-maze of paper screens which form folding and forking paths in every direction. The screens are taller than you.

>WAVE LODESTONE
You hold the silk cord by one end, and set the stone swinging.

The stone circles oddly for a moment, then leaps to one side. You turn down the path it indicates. Soon the pendulum tugs the other way, and you follow it further. After just a few moments, the maze opens up into a wide clearing.

Paper Maze, Center
You have found the heart of the hedge maze: a circle of paper screens. A single opening to the west leads back to the labyrinth. You also notice an open hatchway which leads to a crawlspace below.

The dragon Pneuma is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed on the screens. This one, too, looks lifeless and inert.

A fragment of paper lies by the hatchway.

(These portrayals of the dragons, incidentally, are from the full-scale images unlocked by the game's Steam trading cards. Don't let anyone tell you the trading card system isn't good for something.)

quote:

>EXAMINE PNEUMA
Circles of grey-glimmering runes cover the inner screens. This is Pneuma, one of the marcher's four dragons. Pneuma is responsible for light, warmth, and the flow of air.

Something is wrong, however. By all accounts, the circles of runes should be rotating, eternally reading themselves. The color is wrong too. Pneuma can't be dead (or you'd be suffocating in the dark), but it clearly isn't working correctly.

>EXAMINE SCREENS
The screens are painted with abstract leaf designs, representing hedgerows. Pneuma is inscribed across them.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT PNEUMA
The oculus reveals Pneuma as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It doesn't look good.

Sophic lanterns are everywhere, of course, drawing meager streams of phlogiston. Deep beneath the marcher, the nexus points that supply air and warmth all seem healthy. However, the control paths that rise to the marcher proper are another matter. The air-pumps in the airlock and exoscaphe bay have no power at all.

We didn't try to commit suicide with the airlock, but if we had, it would have failed because Pneuma cannot power it. We did try to explore the exoscaphe bay�there's a paper in there we want to read�but it's depressurized thanks to Pneuma's malfunction.

Yet more metaphysics awaits us on the paper.

quote:

>READ PAPER
(the partial sheet)
You don't recognize the handwriting. "...as alchemy's domain now encompasses the human body, the aura, and even the mind, we are left with the question of the soul. Could the human soul be can be created, destroyed, or duplicated by alchemical means? The religious answer is of course an adamant negative. Nonetheless, Nassib's investigation of the echo phenomenon is provocative, if not yet conclusive evidence of soul mirroring..."

Additional possible clues to our identity? Or the fate of the Retort?

More interestingly, we've got a new place to go here. Maybe it will lead somewhere more interesting than the Birdhouse Crawl did.

quote:

>DOWN

Garden Crawlway
You are at the west end of a low corridor, but the way east is fracture-blocked. Light spills down from an opening above. There's a wide crack in the south wall, although it looks like it narrows ahead.

You feel oddly heavy.

>SOUTH
The sense of weight grows more intense as you move along the crevice. Within a few yards, you feel as if you are carrying a backpack full of bricks.

This passage must run through the terrain of a high-gravity land; and Baros is not compensating for it. You turn back before the weight becomes lethal.

Well, it doesn't lead anywhere now but that is still more promising.

Before we reset to go visit Baros, let's take our maze-solving lodestone to the Confusing Cracks and see what it hides.

quote:

>GO TO CONFUSING CRACKS
You make your way to the Confusing Cracks.

Confusing Cracks
You are lost in a maze of claustrophic cracks. You've stopped in a fairly wide space, but planes of basalt close in all around you. You could crawl in any imaginable direction; the largest passage heads back west.

In the center of this space is a thick column of stone, colored an eye-catching indigo. It runs from floor to ceiling.

A chip of basalt lies here. It must have cracked loose from the walls.

>WAVE LODESTONE
You hold the silk cord by one end, and set the stone swinging. It spins in a tight circle, indicating that you are already at the center of this "maze". Which is not very helpful.

Ah. Yes. It's not actually a maze-solving lodestone. It's a center-finding one. Aistheta's malfunction continues to perplex us, here.

We've already found two places that Baros is malfunctioning. It's time to check in on it personally.

quote:

*** You awaken again ***

The Barosy is blocked by a fancy brass lock. What do we have that can manupulate brass?

Why, the clock tincture. Furthermore, the clock tincture requires three elemental components and is the longest chain of deduction we've produced so far this run:

quote:

>CREATE CLOCK TINCTURE
You make your way to the Herbarium Nook.
You take the pinecone from the herb shelf.
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.
You take the impet of ginger oil from the side table.
You conjure a redoubled saturation symbol onto the steel bolt.
You make your way to the Mech Lab Crawlspace.
You lay the steel bolt on the hatch.
You recall the combination, and unlock the hatch.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of saline from the rack.
You make your way to the Herbarium Nook.
You take the dried mushroom from the herb shelf.
You take a pinch of mustard seed.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a bottle of fungicide.
You make your way to the Mechanica Lab.
You apply the fungicide to the Mech Lab door.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of saline.
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.
You take the impet of ginger oil.
You take the impet of peppermint oil from the side table.
You brew a bottle of fire-resistance potion.
You drink the potion of fire resistance.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You reach into the kiln and take the thick key.
You make your way to the Lab Wing Hallway.
You make your way to the Under Ward.
You take the flask of alum.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of sand from the rack.
You head to the Deck Suite.
You take the impet of kelp oil.
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.
You take the flask of saline.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You reach into the kiln and take the porcelain paten.
You take the splinter of elemental wood from the table.
You make your way to the Under Ward.
You take the torch-lighter.
You brew a bottle of breath-holding potion.
You drink the potion of breath holding.
You stash your possessions, swim through the flooded crawlway, unlock the observatory door from the inside, and then retrieve your possessions.
You make your way to the Observatory.
You take the capsule of elemental water from the compass.
You make your way to the Opticks Lab.
You make your way to the Main Store.
You take the length of silver chain from the shelves.
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the moon-metal rod from the storage bin.
You enchant the lodestone of purity.
You make your way to the Opticks Lab.
You use the purity lodestone to recover the elemental earth.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a vial of perfect mud.
You take the flask of mineral oil from the rack.
You make your way to the Mechanica Lab.
You take the nickel rod from the counter.
You draw the nickel rod out into wire.
You head to the Materials Store.
You make your way to the Storage Nook.
You take the rutilum Alchemy File seal.
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the phlogisticated gold rod from the cabinet.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You take the splinter of blackwood from the table.
You take the splinter of winter-oak from the table.
You ignite the blackwood splint from the winter-oak.
You place the phlogisticated gold in the vapor crock with camphrost, and ignite them with the blackwood splint.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a vial of sublime spirit.
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.
You take the brass pin from the side table.
You brew the clock tincture.
The breath potion has worn off. You suck in a startling gasp of air.
The fire-resistance potion has worn off.

Seventy-seven lines of actions, if my counting is right. Note also that any chain of actions requiring visiting the Observatory also automatically stashes our inventory along the way so that nothing is destroyed. This is a bit of a cheat�you actually can't >DROP PAPERS which are the primary objects destroyed by immersion�but it's a welcome one.

quote:

>GO TO GRAND STAIR BOTTOM
You make your way to the Bottom of the Grand Stair.

Grand Stair, Bottom
This basement is bare, square, and dank. It has, as far as you are aware, no function whatsoever. (Perhaps every house needs a basement, but the Navy does not stoop to clutter.)

The walls are tile; they arch up to join the grand staircase as it ascends to the main levels. The Barosy lies to the east, through a narrow iron gate with a brass lock. An irregular gap in the south wall opens out into a larger, darker space.

The chamber has been defaced with more of the illegible black marks.

Your eye is drawn to a pale yellow bead lying in a corner.

>EXAMINE LOCK
The gate is tall and narrow, with heavy bars of wrought iron in an iron frame. The gate is shut, and the heavy brass lock is locked.

You've never been inside; the room beyond looks like a bare stone tomb.

>POUR CLOCK TINCTURE ON LOCK
You carefully pour the tincture into the keyhole. The dark liquid disappears into the brass lock, leaving no trace... but you hear a series of faint clicks and chimes from within the mechanism. After several moments, the lock emits a satisfying click.

>OPEN LOCK
You open the iron gate.

>EAST

Barosy
This is a long, dim chamber whose walls are immense stone slabs. It's like a burial chamber, but with no smell of decay. There is only a sense of weight and time.

The iron gate stands open to the west. You also see a crevice between two slabs to the north; it looks wide enough to wiggle through.

The dragon Baros is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed across the entire end wall of the chamber. This one, too, looks lifeless and inert.

A fragment of paper lies nearby.

>EXAMINE BAROS
Circles of grey-glimmering runes cover a wall of the Barosy. This is Baros, one of the marcher's four dragons. Baros is responsible for gravity, stability, and orientation within the Retort.

Something is wrong, however. By all accounts, the circles of runes should be rotating, eternally reading themselves. The color is wrong too. Baros can't be dead (or you'd be floating off the floor), but it clearly isn't working correctly.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT BAROS
The oculus reveals Baros as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It doesn't look good.

A curved net of gravity lies beneath the entire marcher. It looks patchy and unstable. The crawlway beneath the garden and Barosy is particularly knotted, and the south end of the chasm is oscillating.

It looks like Baros has no additional critical malfunctions that we have not already discovered. Also, "crawlway between the garden and Barosy"?

quote:

>NORTH
You squeeze into the crevice.

Barosy Crevice
You are crawling along a tight passage through the bowels of the Earth. Or some world, at any rate. Some light leaks in from the Barosy, behind you, to the south. To the north it only gets darker.

You feel oddly heavy.

>NORTH
The sense of weight grows more intense as you move along the crevice. Within a few yards, you feel as if you are carrying a backpack full of bricks.

This passage must run through the terrain of a high-gravity land; and Baros is not compensating for it. You turn back before the weight becomes lethal.

Well, now we know where that other passageway went. Time for one last bit of metaphysics.

quote:

>READ FRAGMENT
You don't recognize the handwriting. "...in the three centuries since Newton and Malamed's first march, the experience of spheric transition has become commonplace. But our theory of the phenomenon remains maddeningly incomplete. The 'echo' is the most familiar mystery: the traces left behind, howsoever briefly, when any entity enters the Higher Spheres..."

And with this, we have checked the status of all of the Retort's dragons and confirmed that it is in very poor condition indeed. We are also out of well-grounded and solid leads, and we will need to resort once again to less directed experimentation and exploration next time. Speaking of which, it is now time for another

:siren:

DRAGON VOTE :siren:

At various points in the future, I will need to make prioritization decisions regarding the dragons and, by extension, the Retort's basic functions. Please vote for a priority order for our four dragons, with a higher priority meaning a greater focus on that dragon's functions being repaired or preserved. We will end up in the same place no matter what, but the path we take to get there can vary dramatically.

Here is what we know about the dragons so far:

Syndesis holds the Retort together. Its malfunction blocks access to the Master at Arms' office and a closet in the Optics lab. It also complicates access to the Secondary Alchemy Lab and the Chymic Lab.
Aistheta makes navigation possible. Its malfunction may be hiding something in the Confusing Cracks, and it complicates access to Pneuma.
Pneuma provides light, heat, and air, and thankfully it is still working well enough that none of these things are in danger. However, its malfunction has rendered the exoscaphe bay inaccessible.
Baros provides gravity. Its malfunction blocks access to the Deep Lab and has rendered the secret passage between itself and Pneuma unusable.

ManxomeBromide fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Jul 16, 2018

# ? Jun 20, 2018 08:47

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# ? May 4, 2024 22:47

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

Syndesis seems like a good place to start but I'd wager that one of the ones with fewer immediate options contains things that make dealing with the others easier.

# ? Jun 20, 2018 09:11

Fat Samurai: Feb 16, 2011; To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

Usually making sure that we don't die should be our first priority, but given that we seem to be immortal we can dick around a bit. The Deep Lab must hold Deep Secrets, so Barosi. Then I guess that holding the marcher together is somewhat important, so Syndesis. After that, ehhh, Pneuma, because breathing. We can decide where to go after not being at risk of blowing up, suffocating or being crushed by gravity, so Aistheta goes last.

# ? Jun 20, 2018 11:12

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Baros, Pneuma, Aistheta, Syndesis

So...we have an echo of one or more souls, which echo(es) are transitory in nature? Poor pseudo-Forsyth isn't long for these worlds.

# ? Jun 20, 2018 14:46

Sydin: Oct 29, 2011; Another spring commute

So we know that you can create a homunculus using the Retort and the power of the dragon(s), that you can transfer or recreate memory using memory daimons, pondering on whether a soul can be created or duplicated, talk of how the Marcher creates "echos" as part of its travels that aren't well understood, and that echos of a soul would theoretically decay over time. Some poo poo definitely went down to create maybe-but-probably-not-Forsythe, and it's almost certainly the reason all four dragons are malfunctioning and the Retort is a mess. It also probably means we're not getting a very happy ending either, yeah.

Let's do Syndesis, then Baros, then Aistheta, and finally Pneuma.

# ? Jun 20, 2018 18:45

Digamma-F-Wau: Mar 22, 2016; It is curious and wants to accept all kinds of challenges

Sydin posted:

Let's do Syndesis, then Baros, then Aistheta, and finally Pneuma.

2nding this order

# ? Jun 20, 2018 18:49

rchandra: Apr 30, 2013

Pneuma, Baros, Syndesis, Aistheta

# ? Jun 21, 2018 00:53

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

Part 11: We Mix Things

At this point in the game, we've done everything that has been directly cued. So let's do some more experimentation, and also maybe start being systematic about our failures.

As an example, here's how my first attempt to create perfect mud went:

quote:

>PUT SAND IN RETORT
You pour a measure of sand into the retort.

>SPEAK HERMETIC SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the reservoir of sand.

>PUT ELEMENTAL EARTH IN RETORT
You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.

>SPEAK WORD OF ENTENSION
You declaim the word of entension. The world seems to hold its breath.

>PUT ELEMENTAL WATER IN RETORT
You crack open the capsule, and pour the elemental water into the retort. The drops sparkle on the sand; then they sink in and disappear.

>SPEAK WORD OF EMULGENCE
You intone the word of emulgence; it feels creamy on your tongue. The shard of elemental earth and the reservoir of sand shift uneasily towards each other.

My mistake here was in failing to invoke the Crystalline Tempering before adding the elements. Interestingly, though, when you do this, what happens is that the elemental water disappears but the elemental earth does not. In the correct ritual, the shard dissolves but the water persists, forming a quicksand vortex.

Sometimes it isn't obvious whether a ritual is being done properly until it's too late.

Maybe we can get a more exciting failure out of a more volatile substance. Let's forget the word of entention while creating bamuriatic acid.

quote:

>PUT FLUORSPAR IN RETORT. PUT VITRIOL IN RETORT.
You put the fluorspar crystal into the retort.

You pour a measure of vitriolic acid into the retort.

>SPEAK HERMETIC SEALING. TURN ON BURNER. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the fluorspar crystal and the reservoir of vitriolic acid.

You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.

The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.

Time passes.

The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.

Time passes.

The vitriolic acid bubbles over the flame.

Time passes.

The fluorspar crystal slowly dissolves into the acid, giving it a rich amber tint.

>TURN OFF BURNER. PUT SALINE IN RETORT.
You twist the knob. The gas burner goes silent, and the blue flames die.

You add a quantity of saline to the retort. Hot amber acid bubbles and spatters around the inside of the retort, but the diluted result eventually settles down.

Aw. Doing it right said there was "no boiling or explosion", but we don't really get that, either. Instead we get a dilute "moderate acid" that we can't do anything with but flush out with the dump lever.

Messing with the words of entension or culmination when they aren't necessary is a bit flavorful but has no real effects:

quote:

>SPEAK WORD OF CULMINATION
You declaim the word of culmination. It seems out of place, however.

>SPEAK WORD OF ENTENSION
You declaim the word of entension. The world seems to hold its breath, although you're not sure for what.

>SPEAK CULMINATION
You declaim the word of culmination. It echoes, as if the world has been waiting ages for such a thing.

And, because the thread demanded it:

quote:

>DRINK BAMURIATIC
Not for all the orichalcum in New Wales.

So much for intentional or typo-based failures. Let's do some actual experimentation.

Starting with the traditional magic words, which of course have no place in modern scientific alchemical theory:

quote:

>XYZZY
[That's not an action I understand.]

>RECALL XYZZY
You read about this magic word in a fantasy novel once.

>SAY XYZZY
You don't know how to pronounce that.

That last isn't generic, mind you. Normally if you invoke or speak some text the game doesn't know, it just tells you "You don't know any such formula."

PLUGH behaves identially to XYZZY in all those commands, incidentally. PLOVER, on the other hand, does not, which is only right and proper. PLOVER was not, as I understand it, originally intended to be a magic word: the puzzle for which PLOVER was the solution takes you to the "Plover Room" as a response to that command. It wasn't an intrinsically magical teleport�you were expected to cynically exploit the fact that its primitive equivalent of >GO TO PLOVER ROOM was in fact a teleport.

Enough of magic. It's time, once again, for science.

quote:

>RECALL LEAD WEIGHT INCREASE
"TROUTMAN'S INSCRIPTION, to INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF LEAD: (This unusual ritual derives from the Subcontinent, but we translate it into European terms.) Create an anchored (Saturnine) environment. Place any common bit of stone into the bound, and invoke a simple sealing. Add a resinous note to the atmosphere; speak a word of essential nature; add a measure of Gaian precipitate. Conclude with the Binding of the Celestial Sphere, to align the alchemical axis (Earth-Saturn, low-high) with the mundane axis of gravitation."

We have two angles on opening the lead safe in the Storage Nook. One of them is reversing this ritual to make lead lighter. Perhaps we can invert the Earthly and the Saturnine aspects of the ritual? Let's start by swapping the Horn coin we used for a Saturnine environment and the granite chip for the Earthly component:

quote:

>PUT GRANITE ON SHELF
You put the chip of granite on the gestalt shelf.

>PUT HORN IN BOUND
You put the horn coin into the pedestal bound.

>SPEAK SIMPLE SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the simple sealing word.

The arc begins to glow beige around the horn coin.

>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its distinct resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.

>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature, but the pronunciation is off. Probably the symbolism of the horn coin complicates its material nature.

Whoops. Well. What else is Saturnine? Lead itself, it turns out:

quote:

>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT LEAD ROD
You peer at the lead rod through the lens, and perceive an association with Saturn.

Still no dice, though:

quote:

>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature, but it wavers as you speak it. Apparently the lead rod has too complex a material nature to evoke in this way.

We'll have to delay our investigations here. The other suggestion for opening the rod was simply to melt it down with elemental fire: We >PERFORM GOLD IGNITION. GO TO STORAGE NOOK. and then:

quote:

>EXAMINE COVER
This lead panel must cover some kind of shielded storage compartment. It's closed.

>MELT COVER
(with the flaming phlogisticated gold rod)
Randomly setting things on fire won't help.

Aw, come on, parser, it isn't random!

We've been foiled for now. The last thing for us to try is the Great Marriage. Removing the marginalia and internal monologue, here's the ritual:

quote:

THE GREAT MARRIAGE must be performed at the Heart of the House, in an Orderly Environment. Employ the Marcher's Invocation to seal an empty Bound. Add a Signifier of the Marcher's Location to the Gestalt; waft a Resinous Note. Now add the Four Elements to the Bound, and invoke the Dragon.

Let's see how much of this we can do.

Heart of the House: Do the ritual in the Nave, which we describe as the "heart of the marcher."
Orderly Environment: The thick key on the gestalt shelf will do that for us.
Marcher's Invocation: Is a formula we know (it was on the sheet).
Resinous Note: Wave the rosemary, swabbie.
Signifier of the Marcher's Location: When we put the clock tincture into the horological calculator, it said the armillary sphere looked like the view through the windows. The ephemeris billet may be just what we need here.
The Four Elements: Presumably Wood doesn't count. We've gotten these before, we'll just do it again.
Invoke the Dragon: We know of four dragons. Unfortunately for us, trying to invoke any of them gives us the "You don't know any such formula" rejection if we try it while wandering about the Retort.

Let's get to work.

quote:

>RESET. GET ROSEMARY. FIND ELEMENTAL EARTH. GET IT. PERFORM GOLD IGNITION. FIND ELEMENTAL WATER. GET IT.

Here's a fun thing. Since ritual requirements can sometimes be behind barriers, we can get ourselves into a minor spot of trouble if we're too casual about it:

quote:

>PERFORM PROPHYLACTIC SCALPEL
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the long quartz prism from the storage bin.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the impet of citronelle oil.
You make your way to the Main Store.
You recall the combination, and unlock the safe.
You take the orichalcum rod from the safe.
You make your way to the Library.
You take the rotor card.
You make your way to the Opticks Annex.
You conjure an impermeability symbol onto the long quartz prism.
You make your way to the Medical Wing Hallway.
You apply the impermeability symbol to yourself and stride through the cloud.
You make your way to the Medical Wing.
You take the crusty scalpel.
You aeroclave the scalpel clean.
You conjure a prophylaxis symbol onto the clean scalpel.

(You are now in the Medical Workroom.)

That puts us behind the aura vortex, though it also puts us where we need to be to get elemental air.

quote:

>GET BUBBLE. WEST. PUT BUBBLE ON TANK.

That's all the elements. The last thing we need is the signifier of the marcher's location:

quote:

>GO TO OBSERVATORY
The scalpel is already inscribed with the prophylaxis symbol.
You strike the gong and wave the scalpel.
You make your way to the Observatory.

Observatory
This is the observatory, the Retort's guiding eye. The dome overhead is set with windows, and each window shows a different sky and a different array of stars.

One level above you, an ironwork bridge crosses the dome, north to south. A ladder descends at either end, but only one of the two is lowered, and that one is obstructed by a fracture that cuts off the north side of the dome. The south-side ladder is folded up under the bridge; its counterweight hangs near the floor.

The door to the east is open. Open alcoves to the north and south house additional equipment, but again, the north side is fracture-blocked. You also see the flooded crawlway hatch at your feet.

In the center of the chamber, beneath the bridge, stands the compass pedestal.

>SOUTH

Observatory Alcove, South
This alcove houses the magnificent Horological Calculator�a complex machine whose controls include an armillary sphere, a dial, and a slot. There's a blank tin slip in the slot.

Two papers, a coarse sheet and a delicate sheet, have been discarded here.

>CREATE EPHEMERIS BILLET
You set the spheres to the coordinates you remember, and run the tin slip through.

Well, we have all we need. Meanwhile, there's been a request to try to kill ourselves with all the elements.

quote:

>BURN SELF
(with the flaming phlogisticated gold rod)
Elemental fire would consume your flesh instantly.

Boring.

quote:

>DRINK WATER
As a pure elemental substance, the water will draw any impurities into itself. Your body is made of impure water. Allowing the elemental water to touch you would�well, it wouldn't turn you into a splash of brine, but it would poison you pretty effectively.

Hands off the pure elementals, swabbie. No marchmen will melt themselves in my classroom.

Seen it already.

quote:

>DISCHARGE BUBBLE ON SELF
Elemental air is wonderfully corrosive. Wonderful, that is, when it comes to cleaning metal and glass. Not so wonderful when it touches your skin. You don't do it.

No snorting the pure elementals, swabbie. No marchmen will melt themselves in my classroom.

Checks out.

quote:

>TOUCH EARTH SHARD
As a pure elemental substance, the shard will draw anything it touches to its own level of crystalline harmony. That's not good for the elementally mixed substance you call your body. Elemental burns are nastier and more painful than frostbite. This shard is set into a crystal bezel, so that you can handle it safely.

The least dangerous, but still dangerous. I was wondering about why we were so casual about it, once we'd found the other elemental substances.

We've procrastinated long enough. Let's at least act out the beginning of this fairy tale.

quote:

>PUT KEY ON SHELF
You put the thick key on the gestalt shelf.

>SPEAK MARCHER'S INVOCATION
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Marcher's Sealing.

The arc begins to glow smoke-grey.

>PUT BILLET ON SHELF
You put the ephemeris billet on the gestalt shelf.

>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its fresh, resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.

>DISCHARGE BUBBLE IN BOUND
You twist the bubble's valve, and carefully vent the elemental air into the bound. It whisks around the arc, and slowly thickens into an indistinct haze in the circle.

>PUT EARTH SHARD IN BOUND
The grey light ripples as you push through the arc. The shard of elemental earth does not fall. It hangs in the center of the circle, spinning and spinning, until it blurs into the thickening haze.

>PUT FIRE IN BOUND
(the flaming phlogisticated gold rod in the pedestal bound)
The grey light ripples as you push through the arc. The elemental fire leaps from the rod; you pull the cold rod back. The flame whirls unsupported in the center of the arc, slowly dimming into the thickening haze.

>PUT WATER IN BOUND
You crack open the capsule, and pour the elemental water into the bound. The sparkling drops never land on the workbench surface. Instead, they whirl around the arc, and slowly fade into the thickening haze.

The whirling haze seems to expand and thicken.

You sense a ripple in the air�outside the bound, which is impossible. You look around. The black marks on the wall are... moving, flowing, coming free... being drawn towards the pedestal. That's bad.

You hear the walls creaking. You smell blood and copal incense. You feel the whirling force of the ritual against your mind. This is bad, you think.

Oh dear. That sounds familiar.

Next time:

# ? Jun 22, 2018 18:15

Fat Samurai: Feb 16, 2011; To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

I�m getting the strong impression that whatever happened to the marcher, it was our fault. :ohdear:

# ? Jun 22, 2018 18:29

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

That's what we get for doing the ritual without having any idea how to do the final step. :colbert:

# ? Jun 22, 2018 19:44

Yzuped: Apr 22, 2014

Fat Samurai posted:

I�m getting the strong impression that whatever happened to the marcher, it was our fault.

Maybe it will have been our fault?

random thought: Have we looked through our lenses at the other lens, yet?

# ? Jun 23, 2018 02:14

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

Also, in case it isn't obvious, dragon priority vote is still live. At the moment, Syndesis and Baros are tied for first, followed by Pneuma in third and Aistheta in fourth.

We've got at least one update and possibly two before I have actually make a decision based on the results.

# ? Jun 23, 2018 03:03

whitehelm: Apr 20, 2008

ManxomeBromide posted:

Also, in case it isn't obvious, dragon priority vote is still live. At the moment, Syndesis and Baros are tied for first, followed by Pneuma in third and Aistheta in fourth.

We've got at least one update and possibly two before I have actually make a decision based on the results.

Syndesis, Pneuma, Aistheta, Baros to break the tie.

Edit: Forgot we were ordering all 4 dragons

whitehelm fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Jun 23, 2018

# ? Jun 23, 2018 08:55

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

Part 12: Bonus Tech Post: The Hadean Lands Software Stack

We've just reached, approximately, the halfway point in the game. This seems like as good a time as any to discuss what this application I've been running actually is. This isn't super-revolutionary but it is sort of amusing because there is in fact a clean line of descent here all the way back to Zork.

The application itself that I've been taking screenshots from is a program called "Lectrote", and that is how it identifies its interpreter when you type >VERSION. Lectrote itself is a JavaScript text-game engine executing in Electron�which is a fairly generic wrapper program you use to turn web-based applications into desktop ones. (Slack and Discord use it for their desktop versions, for instance.) Lectrote basically includes a complete copy of Google Chrome and a JavaScript-based internal web server, and that's why a text game ends up being fifty megabytes when you download it from Steam.

The interpreter that's actually being run is called "Quixe", and that in turn is an implementation of the "Glk" graphics library and the "Glulx" virtual machine.

And yeah, Plotkin is not well known for naming his technologies things that are easy to pronounce. I suppose it makes it more unlikely that you've accidentally named it after something that already exists. I personally pronounce them "lecked rote", "quick see", and "Glk" and "Glulx" as rhyming with "bulk" or "bulks".

Glk was an attempt to make it reasonably possible to have mega-interpreters in the early 2000s for all of the various text game file formats. This worked well enough but by the 2010s it seems like HTML is the new standard.

Glulx, on the other hand, is a 32-bit extension of the "Z-Machine", which is something Infocom invented in the 1980s to solve a problem that we don't face as much these days. Back then, there were a half-dozen wildly incompatible but also wildly popular different kinds of home computers. Being able to sell their games as broadly as possible would mean having to rewrite the game for every platform. A lot of software houses would actually do this for action-style games, and you can still see the occasional flame wars about which version of some 8-bit game is the best one.

Infocom solved their problem by, essentially, inventing Java ten years early. They'd make a simple virtual computer, compile their source code to that, and then just write one emulator for that virtual computer on each target system. As a result, the Z-Machine was built to cap out at 64KB of RAM and a chunk of "ROM" that it could load in from disk as needed, which in turn let the game run seamlessly despite being larger�sometimes much larger�than you could fit into memory all at once.

Infocom themselves used a language called ZIL (Zork Implementation Language) to write their games. This was a dialect of Lisp, and code looked something like this:

code:

<ROOM LIVING-ROOM
  (LOC ROOMS)
  (DESC "Living Room")
  (EAST TO KITCHEN)
  (WEST TO STRANGE-PASSAGE IF CYCLOPS-FLED ELSE
    "The wooden door is nailed shut.")
  (DOWN PER TRAP-DOOR-EXIT)
  (ACTION LIVING ROOM-F)
  (FLAGS RLANDBIT ONBIT SACREDBIT)
  (GLOBAL STAIRS)
  (THINGS <> NAILS NAILS-PSEUDO)>

As far as I know, nobody but Infocom actually used ZIL. However, in the early 1990s, Graham Nelson created a tool called "Inform" that produced very similar output files that could be run on Infocom interpreters. Inform is much more in the C- or Java-like school of language design:

code:

Object Living_Room "Living Room"
  with name 'living' 'room',
   e_to Kitchen,
   w_to [; if (cyclops_fled) { return strange_passage; } else { "The wooden door is nailed shut." } ],
   d_to trap_door,
  has light, land, sacred;

Inform was a major IF development language in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and as ambitions grew, the Z-machine was expanded in various ways so that people's designs wouldn't be constrained by the old necessity of only having 64KB of RAM and a few diskettes' worth of ROM. Glulx was the final evolution of that, expanding the instruction set and execution model to a full 32-bit address space. In Plotkin's words, he did it this way because it was easier to invent Glulx than it was to modify Inform to emit something more generic. Hadean Lands blows past the old limits; the part of the package that is actually Glulx code and data clocks in at a bit over two megabytes. Most Glulx games are not so vast.

Note that there is also considerable similarity in the Inform code and the ZIL code that's roughly equivalent. Inform would produce a RAM layout that was extremely similar to the old Infocom game engine. (Similar but not identical; Inform's standard library could do all the things late Infocom games could do, but they were implemented from scratch in Inform itself. The Z-Machine included a lot of special instructions for dealing with text, but the world model was reasonably generic.)

In 2006, Nelson released the first public beta of "Inform 7", which was a dramatic departure from its predecessors in both structure and syntax. Game objects no longer have the same structure as they did, the logic of command processing is based on series of "rulebooks" and declarative assertions, and the language syntax borrows the parsing capabilities of the text game itself:

code:

The Living Room is east of the Strange Passage, west of the Kitchen, and above the trap door. The Living Room is lit.

A room can be terrestrial or aquatic. A room is usually terrestrial.
A room can be sacred or profane. A room is seldom sacred.

The Living Room is sacred.

Before going west from the Living Room when the Cyclops is on-stage:
    say "The wooden door is nailed shut." instead.

Usually making a programming language read like natural language ends in hilarious disaster, but Inform 7 largely got away with it. I think a big part of that is because you're writing something that needs to accept commands that look like this anyway, so framing the assertions as text-adventure-like sentences ends up exploiting the "don't repeat yourself" rule. (The late 1990s are littered with games that had game critical objects that were never described with any word that it would allow the player to type. Inform 7 lets objects have multiple words in their in-source identifiers, and it uses every word in that identifier as a default thing the player can type to refer to it. This can be overridden, but carelessness no longer results in an unplayable game.)

There's also a strong notion in Inform 7 of intercepting actions before they happen (as in the "Before going west..." rule). That kind of structure makes it a lot more reasonable to attempt something like Hadean Lands's autosolver ("Before taking something from the kiln when the player is not fire-immune..."), though it's still a terrifying amount of work to do. Nevertheless, Plotkin was already famous at this point for the things he'd managed to accomplish using the Inform 6 systems, and for him to say that Inform 7 was a necessary tool for Hadean Lands... it's a bit sobering.

That pretty much covers the technology used for the game here, though. If you want more information on any of these things, Google searches will turn up relevant stuff pretty much immediately. (I suppose that's another advantage of utterly unpronounceable names.) But in short, here we are, using Steam to run a web application wrapped for desktop use that is running a 32-bit extension of original execution engine of the original Zork games.

# ? Jun 23, 2018 11:06

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

Part 13: A Spark of Animation Without Volition

Last time, something bad happened. Let's continue from where we left off.

quote:

*** You awaken again ***

quote:

Secondary Alchemy Lab
(You make your way to the Chymic Lab, brew the fungicide, and open the Mechanica Lab door.)

Mechanica Lab
This workshop features two of the more mundane devices of the alchemist's life: a hand-cranked wire-drawer, and the wire-splicer wheel.

The lab door to the north is open. The crawlway hatch is open. You also see a small storeroom to the west.

An extremely corroded cabinet is fastened to the wall. It is closed.

To one side, some supplies are lying on a counter: two metal rods (platinum and nickel), an iron bead, and a lump of rock salt.

Something glitters on the floor. It looks like a circle of fine glass thread.

You notice a fresh sheet of paper by the door. Hm? That wasn't there before.

Is this the Retort we knew? :tinfoil:

quote:

>READ FRESH
The paper appears freshly written, but you don't recognize the script.

"A homunculus is not a daimon or a servant. It is a seed of animation without volition, a quickening spark. It cannot act or move on its own; but in combination with other works, it may become something greater."

Uncannily relevant. Possibly an explanation for why we can move and act but everyone else is frozen behind fractures.

Speaking of fractures, the one underneath the Secondary Lab has changed:

quote:

Secondary Lab Crawlspace
You are in a low, dimly lit corridor that runs from east to west. A hatch by your (ducked) head opens to the laboratory above.

Lt Anderes has vanished. Only a shadow remains within the fracture.

To the east, the crawlspace is interrupted by another fracture�or perhaps the same one you saw in the lab.

A chymic flask rests nearby; it reeks of rubbing alcohol.

>EXAMINE SHADOW
You see a faint trailing shadow where Lt Anderes was standing.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT SHADOW
This is very strange. Through the oculus you do not see a shadow, but words:

"I must bring to your attention certain discrepancies in the storage records. Significant quantities of reagents have vanished�always those rare and most dearly sold on the black markets at home. The records have been skillfully obscured, but the evidence implicates Lt Anderes."

>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT SHADOW
You peer at the shadow of Lt Anderes. It doesn't seem to be visible through the lens at all.

That's troubling, though perhaps it also explains her miserliness when distributing reagents to the other alchemists. Let's check in on the other places we'd seen the crew. Ensign Ctesc was in the Main Store:

quote:

Main Store
This is the general storeroom for the Retort's laboratories. Shelves begin here and extend to the east and west. However, a fracture to the east blocks a large part of the room. The door to the south is open.

Ensign Ctesc has vanished. Only a shadow remains within the fracture.

A steel safe is set into one wall. The safe is closed and locked with a heavy combination lock.

The nearest shelves are mostly empty, but a rough diamond, a length of silk cord, and a length of silver chain are within reach.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT CTESC
Again, strangely, the oculus renders the shadow in words:

"I am concerned about Sydney. Diligence is commendable, but I fear that his thirst for alchemical lore may lead him down dangerous byways. He has made shrift to get hold of textbooks not normally available to students, at least."

I wonder what Ctesc would make of us in our current state. I wonder if he'd consider it worth the cost.

Lt. Powes was at the top of the Grand Stair, but before we get there...

quote:

Lab Wing Hallway
This hallway runs east and west. However, the fire door to the west is locked, sealing you off from the rest of the Retort. A smaller door to the north leads to the Primary Alchemy Lab; it is open, but blocked by another fracture. An archway to the south leads to the Library.

You see Lt Anderes here�no longer isolated by any fracture, but still unmoving. Whatever has the Retort in its grip, it has not let her go. She seems to be peering at the fracture to the north, as if contemplating the Primary Lab.

Another standard glass chime lies in the middle of the hall. This one is a glass G-flat.

>EXAMINE ANDERES
Lt Anderes is a tall, sour-faced officer. She is no longer behind the fracture, but she still seems to be frozen in place.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT ANDERES
You peer through the oculus, and see the complex mesh of elements that makes up a human body.

Lt Anderes is a tall, sour-faced officer. She is no longer behind the fracture, but she still seems to be frozen in place.

>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT ANDERES
You peer at Lt Anderes through the lens. She has Gaian associations, as human beings always do. The image is oddly distant, though.

>TOUCH ANDERES
Although she is no longer fracture-blocked, she feels like a statue�not stone, but hard and utterly still. It's as if she exists within an imperceptible layer of altered time.

Well, at least now we don't have to worry about how to get past a fracture for plans that involve aura impersonation.

Then we reach the Nave, where we were last seen Ruining Everything.

quote:

Nave
The Nave is the marcher's heart, though the rows of benches are empty now. The seats face a pedestal, on which is a ritual bound and shelf. The side walls boast symbolic frescos; the south wall is a high, ornamented metal mesh�the writ screen�which separates the Nave from the Chancel.

Something has happened here.

The murals are badly cracked. One to the southwest has collapsed entirely, leaving a ragged gap which leads down into a crawlspace.

The main corridors run east and west from here, and the Retort's entry hall is north.

The black markings have disappeared from the broken mural. No, they've been replaced. Rewritten? You now see a dense cluster of silvery lines on the ceiling, directly above the pedestal bound. They do not resemble the black graffiti you saw before; this is a random scribble of silver.

What is this?

quote:

>EXAMINE SILVER
Is this the homunculus that the ritual promised? You have no idea what a homunculus is supposed to look like, outside of the doll-figures of medieval art. You suppose this silvery scrawl might be a distant cousin of the dragon-mandalas that you've seen. But it is entirely disorganized, chaotic.

Although if you squint, you could imagine that the scribble has a dog-like outline.

The scribble seems to have changed position slightly.

Puppy!

quote:

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT HOMUNCULUS
You peer through the oculus at the silvery scribble. It has a more symmetrical, intricate cast from this vantage. You can make out the blend of fire, water, earth, and air that went into its making.

The scribble shifts slowly across the ceiling.

>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT HOMUNCULUS
You peer at the silvery scribble through the planetary lens. Its associations are incomprehensible.

Symmetrical and intricate, and with strong but incomprehensible planetary associations? That's a lot like what we saw when we turned those tools on ourselves. A spark of animation without volition...

quote:

>WEST
West Side Hallway
The Retort's main hallway continues from the Nave, to the east, towards the exoscaphe bay to the west. A cross-corridor runs north towards quarters wing and south to the paper garden.

The scribble silently arrives.

Awww. It's following us! I will name you Argy. :kimchi:

A spark of animation without volition... What happens if we lead Argy to Lt. Powes?

quote:

The scribble slides into the room behind you.

The scribble slides past the Lieutenant's frozen form. As it does, you hear her voice: "How can I get the stuff out without being seen?"

You peer at Lt Anderes. No, she has not moved, not even her lips. But the words echo in your ears nonetheless.

Interesting. That doesn't sound good for her. We proceed towards where we last saw Lt Powes.

Argy reacts a bit in the Paper Garden.

quote:

The scribble arrives a moment later. It is slightly distorted, tilted towards the arch.

Argy influenced the human crew. Is the dragon Pneuma having a similar influence on Argy?

quote:

>SOUTH

Grand Stair, Top
Two hallways intersect beneath an elegant vault of brick-red tile, which sweeps around to follow a grand staircase down to the lower levels. The garden is visible to the north. To the west is the ornate door of the Birdhouse, which is closed.

The hall to the south is blocked by yet another fracture. The side corridor to the east is much the worse; its far end seems to be on fire.

Lt Powes has vanished. Only a shadow remains within the fracture.

The scribble drifts into the room. It is slightly distorted in the direction of the engraved door.

>DOWN
You head down the grand staircase. The air grows cooler and quieter as you descend into the depths.

Grand Stair, Bottom
This basement is bare, square, and dank. It has, as far as you are aware, no function whatsoever. (Perhaps every house needs a basement, but the Navy does not stoop to clutter.)

The walls are tile; they arch up to join the grand staircase as it ascends to the main levels. The Barosy lies to the east, through a narrow iron gate with a brass lock. An irregular gap in the south wall opens out into a larger, darker space.

The chamber has been defaced with more of the illegible black marks.

Your eye is drawn to a pale yellow bead lying in a corner.

The scribble arrives a moment later. It is slightly distorted in the direction of the iron gate.

Syndesis is behind the door up top, and Baros behind the iron gate. Argy is definitely being drawn towards the dragons.

But the dragons can wait. We've still got to investigate the rest of the crew.

quote:

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT POWES
Again, strangely, the oculus renders the shadow in words:

"I am certain that Lt Powes has been covertly compromising alchemical supplies. What is less clear is his motivation. The contaminated reagents are not in Powes' area of oversight, which suggests that he is setting up another officer for blame. Please permit my discretion in investigating this further.�M"

Hmmm. The last shadow, if this pattern holds, will be in Officer Country.

quote:

Officer Country
It is widely rumored that an ensign walking this far up the hall will instantly combust. You still might, you suppose. The officer's mess is somewhere up there, but a fracture prevents you from going any farther.

The senior officers' quarters are east, and the juniors' are west.

Captain Hart has vanished. Only a shadow remains within the fracture.

The scribble silently arrives.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT CAPTAIN
Again, strangely, the oculus renders the shadow in words:

"I suspect that the Captain has been fraternizing with an officer under her command. I realize the seriousness of this charge, and I have no direct evidence to offer. However, I am sure that she has been adjusting duty schedules to this end, and to the detriment of the Retort's good conduct. Please look into this.�N"

I'm starting to feel like whatever has befallen the Retort did not have a single cause. This also raises the question of what villainy Forsyth got up to, but I suppose we'll have to find our own shadow to learn that.

I begin searching through the Retort more thoroughly, hunting for the crew's new locations and to let Argy sample their memories. Ctesc is in fact just to the east:

quote:

Deck Suite
This looks like a comfortable place to drink tea. It must be a lounge set aside for the deck officers�the three important enough to rate private staterooms. The three doors are marked with the symbols of Venture (north), Alchemy (south), and Aithery (east). All three are closed.

You see Ensign Ctesc here, in the middle of the room, but still unmoving.

A locked cabinet hangs on the wall.

You notice another aromatic impet nearby. It's labelled "kelp".

The scribble drifts into the room.

The scribble slides past the Ensign's frozen form. As it does, you hear his voice: "How can I get those books from the Rector's quarters?" But he has not moved.

>EXAMINE CTESC
Ensign Ctesc is a round-faced young man who always looks slightly unkempt. He is peering at the doors with unnerving intentness.

Lt Powes is in the burning hall:

quote:

Burning Hall West
This hall runs west to east, from the grand stairs to the high wing. Except the high wing is on fire at the moment.

The entire east end of the hall is enveloped in flame. You can't tell what's burning�the walls? the floor? But the heat is intense; you can't go any further.

Lieutenant Powes stands here. His eyes are narrowed, fixed on the flames�or the door at the far end of the corridor. You have to reassure yourself that he is frozen in place, like the others, and not merely stilled by intense concentration.

The scribble arrives a moment later.

The scribble slides past the Lieutenant's frozen form. As it does, you hear his voice: "How can I ensure that the blame falls as it should?" But he has not moved.

>EXAMINE POWES
Lt Powes is a thin man with unnervingly sharp eyes. He is looking down the corridor towards the high wing.

That is not okay, Lieutenant.

Finally, the Captain herself is in the Exoscaphe Arcade:

quote:

Scaphe Arcade
You are in a pleasant red-brick gallery edged by a row of wooden columns. A heavy steel portal in the west wall is the access to the marcher's exoscaphe. It's currently closed. A valve wheel is mounted next to the portal.

The arcade runs north towards an overlook window. There is a corridor to the east. You also see a crawlway hatch in the floor; it's open, but it seems to be flooded.

You see the Captain here. She is still frozen stiff�caught still while peering around the room.

You notice a small brass cube lying by a column.

The scribble arrives a moment later.

The scribble slides past the Captain's frozen form. As it does, you hear her voice: "How can I clear out that crawlway without alerting anyone?" But she has not moved.

>X CAPTAIN
Captain Hart is a burly woman with a clean-shaven head and one gold earring. She is looking around with a discontented air.

Not as damning as the other three, but it's curious that the Captain is worred about "alerting" her crew.

There's one last new thing to check. There was something in the Nave we didn't check out.

quote:

Nave
The Nave is the marcher's heart, though the rows of benches are empty now. The seats face a pedestal, on which is a ritual bound and shelf. The side walls boast symbolic frescos; the south wall is a high, ornamented metal mesh�the writ screen�which separates the Nave from the Chancel.

Something has happened here.

The murals are badly cracked. One to the southwest has collapsed entirely, leaving a ragged gap which leads down into a crawlspace.

The main corridors run east and west from here, and the Retort's entry hall is north.

The scribble silently arrives.

Do you see it?

quote:

>SOUTHWEST
You twist yourself through the crack.

Nave Crawlway
This was once the north end of a crawlway, but the passage has collapsed, leaving only this small space. Debris is heaped up to the south. Light slants in from a gap in the ceiling.

You see a vial of white powder lying in the rubble. It's labelled "highlime".

>EXAMINE HIGHLIME
This vial contains a small quantity of highlime, a bone-white, crystalline powder.

>EXAMINE DEBRIS
The crawlway to the south has collapsed. Slabs of rock lie half-buried in a spill of earth. It doesn't look very stable, even now.

>SEARCH IT
You tentatively dig under one of the slabs. It shifts, and an alarming runnel of earth slides down past it. You quickly back away, hoping that the entire heap isn't about to envelop you.

A new reagent, albeit one for which we have no known use. What else might be here?

quote:

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS
You peer through the oculus. Everything acquires a colorful, hazy fringe.

The oculus reveals a lavender spark floating in the air.

We're not yet done with this mechanic, no.

quote:

>EXAMINE LAVENDER SPARK
You focus on the lavender spark through the oculus. A new memory comes into focus. It concerns a potion. "MULDOON'S POTION, for SURVIVAL in VACUUM: This potion is a staple of marcher work, for it permits one to walk freely in Hadean lands for up to six hours. Fortunately the procedure is simple. Prepare an exhilarant environment and a measure of saline. Begin with a sealing word of passivity. Add highlime to the beaker; follow with the Anodyne Evocation and the Greater Phlogistical Saturation."

You consider these memories.

That sounds very useful indeed. That will get us not only into the Exoscaphe Bay for that sheet of paper we don't understand, it will get us outside into the Hadean Land itself. Six hours is long enough that the game isn't tracking time, so it's essentially forever.

Unfortunately, we lack the Greater Phlogistical Saturation, so we can't actually perform this yet. We're out of rituals again, though we do at least have Argy here to keep us company.

So this seems like a fine time to look through the rituals we have in fact already completed. When we were trying to make lead weigh less, we were messing with the horological symbolism of the components, trying to use Gaian Precipitate and the Binding of the Celestial Sphere to align with a Saturn-Earth axis instead of an Earth-Saturn one.

quote:

THE SYNTHESIS of GAIAN PRECIPITATE: This reagent is of great value in rituals pertaining to the Earth. Prepare your retort with a measure of vitriolic acid; place orichalcum therein. Invoke the sealing and raise the heat. When the metal dissolves, recite a symmetric sequence (the symmetry induces a positive connection to the Earth). Measure in alum until the solution turns violet; then add pure elemental earth and reduce to a powder.

The symmetry induces a positive connection to the Earth. When we learned the symmetric sequence formula we also learned the antisymmetric sequence formula. Can we reverse the ritual by inducing a negative connection to the Earth, and leave the planetary alignments intect?

quote:

>PUT ORICHALCUM AND VITRIOLIC IN RETORT. SPEAK HERMETIC SEALING. TURN ON BURNER. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.
orichalcum rod: Done.
flask of vitriolic acid: You pour a measure of vitriolic acid into the retort.

You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the orichalcum rod and the reservoir of vitriolic acid.

You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.

The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.

Time passes.

The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.

Time passes.

The vitriolic acid bubbles over the flame.

Time passes.

The orichalcum slowly dissolves into the acid, lending it a lovely sky-blue tint.

>SPEAK ANTISYMMETRIC SEQUENCE
You begin reciting the values of the antisymmetric sequence. After a few minutes and a bit of counting on your fingers, you reach the end (which is of course the inverse of the beginning).

The sky-blue acid bubbles over the flame.

>PUT ALUM IN BOUND
You pour a gentle stream of alum into the retort. At first nothing happens; the powder simply dissolves into the sky-blue solution. Then the color begins to darken. You pull back your hand, and watch the solution turn to a clear indigo.

The indigo solution bubbles over the flame.

>PUT EARTH IN BOUND
You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.

The elemental earth dissolves. The indigo solution boils more vigorously, now releasing a thick cloud of steam.

Slowly, the solution is reduced, growing darker and more opaque. You coddle the gas valve as it thickens. After several careful moments, you have dried the solution to a indigo-blue dust. Excellent. You shut off the heat, and tap the counter-Gaian precipitate from the retort into a fresh vial.

That looks promising. Let's leave the rest of the lead-weight increase ritual the same and use this instead.

quote:

>PUT HORN COIN ON SHELF. PUT GRANITE IN BOUND. SPEAK SIMPLE SEALING. WAVE ROSEMARY. SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE.
You put the horn coin on the gestalt shelf.

You put the chip of granite into the pedestal bound.

You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the simple sealing word.

The arc begins to glow slate-blue around the chip of granite.

You wave the sprig, and inhale its fresh, resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.

You intone the word of essential nature. The mineral nature of the chip rises to the surface.

>PUT COUNTER-GAIAN PRECIPITATE IN BOUND
You empty the vial of counter-Gaian precipitate onto the chip of granite. The indigo-blue dust whirls around the pebble for a moment; then the vortex tightens and is absorbed.

>SPEAK BINDING OF CELESTIAL SPHERE
You begin invoking the Binding of the Celestial Sphere. The sounds seem distant and foreign, but you speak them precisely.

The blueish light flares, drawing together the mineral and celestial principles you have assembled. When it fades, a symbol shines on the surface of the chip of granite.

>GET GRANITE
You pick up the chip of granite, careful of its inscribed gossamerity symbol.

Gossamerity seems like a worthy antonym to ponderosity.

We got access to the Aithery before by using lead weight increase to snap the cable. What happens if we decrease it, instead?

quote:

>TOUCH GRANITE TO COUNTERWEIGHT
You carefully lay the gossamerity symbol against the lead. The symbol flares brightly and transfers to the counterweight.

The cable relaxes slightly. The weight is now swinging more easily, almost bobbing back and forth.

>GET WEIGHT
You seize the counterweight. It moves in your grasp, albeit sluggishly. But it's still fastened to a cable; you couldn't walk away with it. So you let go again.

Well, that's no fun. But there's still some fun to be had:

quote:

>BRUSH SYMBOL
(with the dispersal brush)
You brush the feather across the counterweight. The gossamerity symbol blurs and fades away.

The loose cable twangs taut, vibrating with sudden strain. You jump back just as it snaps. The counterweight, now freed, slams to the floor.

The shock has evidently been enough for the jammed mechanism. The cable whips up and out of sight; the folded ladder, in reaction, unfolds segment by segment until it reaches the floor.

It looks like it's the shock and not the raw force that unjammed the ladder. That's possibly useful information, but given that these rituals all used the same components, it's just a curiosity. We have a much better use for that gossamerity symbol.

quote:

>GO TO STORAGE NOOK
You make your way to the Storage Nook.

Storage Nook
You are in an awkward nook behind the storeroom's last shelf. The rest of the room is east.

You see another hatch in the floor, though it's too small for a person. The cover seems to be solid lead. It is closed.

A glint of light reveals an Alchemy File seal lying near the hatch. Some officer will be in deep trouble for losing it.

The scribble arrives a moment later.

>TOUCH COVER WITH GRANITE
You carefully lay the gossamerity symbol against the lead. The symbol flares brightly and transfers to the panel. The lead cover somehow looks less massive now.

>OPEN COVER
The lead cover retains a massy inertia, but you can lift it. The compartment opens in surreal slow motion. You discover a flimsy sheet and a singed sheet inside.

>READ FLIMSY
This recipe describes a specific solvent. (Which is far more useful than a universal solvent. Universal solvents just destroy your lab and kill you.) "TUCKER'S SOLVENT, which will DISSOLVE ONLY GRANITE: Begin with the Hermetic sealing, and a mixture of muriatic and bamuriatic acids. Add some elemental earth; use a word of anaphylaxis. Add a bit of slate�this being the symbolic opposite of granite�and conclude with the Binding of Antipathy."

You memorize the instructions, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

>READ SINGED
It's a potion receipt. "THE FIRE-DEVOURER (a potion to extinguish even the greatest conflagration): Prepare a strong fiery environment�several influences should be combined for this ritual. Place a measure of alcohol into the bound. Begin with a sealing word of passivity to oppose the alcohol's fiery nature. Ignite the beaker with elemental fire; this will provoke combustion despite the passivation. Conclude with the Greater Phlogistical Saturation. The resulting potion is of great strength; one vial, flung into a burning building, often suffices to end the danger."

You memorize the instructions, including the Greater Phlogistical Saturation. You also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

Jackpot. The Fire-Devourer should let us quench the burning hallway permanently, which means once we figure out how to get through that obsidian door at the end of the burning hall we don't have to worry about how to get back through the inferno again from the other side. Not only that, but learning this ritual also taught us the Greater Phlogistical Saturation, which means we can brew the Vacuum Protection Synthesis.

We don't really need to disolve granite, but we have a lot of stone chips we could experiment with, and we've been given a lot of information about what those chips might do.

quote:

>RECALL PERIODIC TABLE OF STONE
"We are familiar with earth as a pure element in the Greek system. However, minerals need not be considered as imperfect approximations of a Platonic ideal; each has an alchemical structure, and we may discern relations between them. Thus, marble and obsidian are opposites�white versus black, crystalline versus glassy, pelagic versus volcanic. Soapstone and basalt are another light-dark pair. Other opposing pairs rely on different relations. Chalk and flint are found together, but with different qualities. Granite and slate are formed by opposing geologic processes; so too sandstone and malachite. Porphyry and quartz are an interesting case..."

Obsidian and marble. Wasn't there a marble door, too? We have access to both marble and obsidian chips. That sounds like a pretty good approach to getting those doors open, but we'd have to reset to play with those because they cost elemental Earth that we already spent opening the safe in the first place.

We can, however, perform the vacuum-protection synthesis right now.

quote:

MULDOON�S POTION, for SURVIVAL in VACUUM: This potion is a staple of marcher work, for it permits one to walk freely in Hadean lands for up to six hours. Fortunately the procedure is simple. Prepare an exhilarant environment and a measure of saline. Begin with a sealing word of passivity. Add highlime to the beaker; follow with the Anodyne Evocation and the Greater Phlogistical Saturation.

Our list of formulae doesn't include "a sealing word of passivity," but it does include this:

quote:

The phlegmatic sealing word creates a boundary circle. It has a stable, passive pattern�Yin in the Oriental traditions, cool and moist in the Greek.

Highlime was revealed in the same place we found this ritual, so we're good to go.

quote:

>OPEN KELP
You pop open the impet, and the kelp aroma rolls out, salty and faintly rotten.

>PUT SALINE IN BOUND
You locate a beaker in the clutter, pour a measure of saline into it, and place it within the pedestal bound.

>SPEAK PHLEGMATIC SEALING WORD
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the phlegmatic sealing word.

The arc begins to glow golden around the beaker of saline.

>PUT HIGHLIME IN BOUND
You empty the vial of highlime into the beaker. The powder slowly dissolves.

>SPEAK ANODYNE EVOCATION
You begin the Anodyne Evocation. The rhythm beats in your chest and blood. The liquid in the beaker shivers and begins to effervesce.

>SPEAK GREATER PHLOGISTICAL SATURATION
You begin the Greater Phlogistical Saturation. The tonal vowels and labial stops require all your concentration, but you manage to hold them in place. The bubbling of the solution increases to a rolling boil, and then ceases abruptly.

The bound fades. You lift the beaker and gently decant the clear potion into a fresh bottle.

Let's give it a shot. There's that paper in the Scaphe Arcade we couldn't reach.

quote:

>PERFORM GLASS PERMEABILITY
You make your way to the Chasm Rubble.
You make your way to the Scaphe Arcade.
You set aside your possessions for a moment and dive for the bronze B chime.
You make your way to the Herbarium Nook.
You take the pinch of zafranum.
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.
You conjure an attraction symbol onto the bronze B chime.
You make your way to the Chasm Rubble.
You use the B chime to attract the bronze F-sharp chime.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of sand from the rack.
You take the brass coin.
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.
You conjure a permeability symbol onto the bronze F-sharp chime.

(You are now in the Secondary Alchemy Lab.)

The scribble drifts in through a wall.

>GO TO ARCADE
You make your way to the Scaphe Arcade.

Scaphe Arcade
You are in a pleasant red-brick gallery edged by a row of wooden columns. A heavy steel portal in the west wall is the access to the marcher's exoscaphe. It's standing open. A valve wheel is mounted next to the portal.

The arcade runs north towards an overlook window. There is a corridor to the east. You also see a crawlway hatch in the floor; it's open, but it seems to be flooded.

You see the Captain here. She is still frozen stiff�caught still while peering around the room.

You notice a small brass cube lying by a column.

The silver scribble trots into the room.

The scribble slides past the Captain's frozen form. As it does, you hear her voice: "How can I clear out that crawlway without alerting anyone?" But she has not moved.

>NORTH

North Arcade
This is the north end of the gallery. A long window in the west wall overlooks the exoscaphe bay. You can see the 'scaphe itself on the other side, hooked up to the portal you saw back south.

To the north is a massive door of pale marble, outrageously carved. The door is closed.

Perhaps the door has suffered some damage. A chip of white marble is lying loose on the floor nearby.

The scribble slides in along the wall.

>RING F-SHARP
You tap the bronze F-sharp chime. Its bright resonances fill the room�and then shift to a steady, sustained hum.

>PUT CHIME IN WINDOW
You press the chime against the window. The glass vibrates, and the bronze sinks slowly into it�not like metal into tar, but like a knife sliding between infinitesimal layers of glass.

When you draw your hand away, the chime remains suspended in the glass. Its vibration continues at a steady pitch.

>DRINK POTION
You swallow the clear potion. The liquid feels waxy and thick in your mouth. After a moment, your skin itches furiously, all over�but only for a few seconds.

>WEST
You press your fingers against the glass. You feel a steady vibration... and a yielding, as the glass slides through your flesh. It's rather unnerving, and you push the rest of your body through as quickly as possible.

The vacuum plucks at your clothing for a moment, but the only other sensation is a nagging dryness in your sinuses. Very strange.

Unfortunately, your possessions do not fare so well. In the vacuum, two chymic flasks boil away; the torch-lighter shatters.

Whoops.

quote:

Exoscaphe Bay
You are in a wide brick hall, or perhaps an indoor courtyard. It is unfurnished and undecorated�not meant for human occupation. It was built to house the steel bulk of the exoscaphe, which vehicle occupies most of its floor space.

The west wall is dominated by enormous steel doors, wide enough for the 'scaphe to trundle out on its missions. The doors are currently closed. A much smaller (and darker) doorway is visible to the north. A long window on the east wall provides a view of the arcade.

Fallen bits of brick vaulting lie everywhere. Stars shine in through a jagged gap in the roof, and the dead silence of airlessness fills the hall.

A brittle sheet of paper lies on the ground near the window.

You no longer see the scribble.

The vibration of the bronze F-sharp chime continues.

Argy didn't follow us into the vacuum. I hope it's OK.

quote:

>READ PAPER
(the brittle sheet)
The sheet is somewhat fragile after its exposure to vacuum. It carries an alchemical formula of the Oriental tradition. The Name of the Tortoise is an elemental invocation of water. (Everyone knows that there are five elements in China, not four, but this is the first time you've seen one spelled out.)

You memorize the information, including the Name of the Tortoise. You also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

That's a formula we'll need for the jade-based aura imitation inscription, but we don't actually have any jade.

quote:

>EAST
You slide back through the vibrating glass.

North Arcade
This is the north end of the gallery. A long window in the west wall overlooks the exoscaphe bay. You can see the 'scaphe itself on the other side, hooked up to the portal you saw back south.

To the north is a massive door of pale marble, outrageously carved. The door is closed.

Perhaps the door has suffered some damage. A chip of white marble is lying loose on the floor nearby.

The scribble drifts into the room.

Welcome back! We missed you. :3:

Let's go visit a dragon, OK? As a spark of animation without volition, I know you can't pick which dragon to visit. So I outsourced your volition to a thread vote. At the time I'm writing this, the dragon priorities are such that we will be visiting Syndesis. So I make my way to the outside of the Birdhouse, and...

quote:

>WEST
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the long quartz prism from the storage bin.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of muriatic acid from the rack.
The orichalcum rod is gone; you used it in a ritual, here in the Chymic Lab. You don't know where to get another one.
(While trying to create copper percalcinate, to create the aura invisibility, to open the engraved door.)

(You are now in the Chymic Lab.)

The scribble drifts in through a wall.

I guess we'll need a reset. Before we do that, let's get a little more use out of our vacuum support.

quote:

Exoscaphe
The exoscaphe is a vehicle for exploring hostile lands. From the inside, it's more like being in a spherical steel tank. A windowless tank, at that. Presumably there's a better view from the pilot's dome; but the hatch above your head is closed.

A circular bench runs around the perimeter, broken only by the dark engine compartment to the west and the exit portal to the east. The portal is open. You see a small emergency lever next to it.

A cabinet is fastened to the wall. Its latch is tied shut with a knot of white cord.

On the bench is a crumpled sheet.

You no longer see the scribble.

>EXAMINE LEVER
This hand-length lever is marked "Emergency Exoscaphe Pressure Equalization".

>PULL LEVER
The lever is locked in place�no doubt because the steel portal is open. You wouldn't want to depressurize the entire marcher.

Well, we'd be fine, but I suppose all our lovely reagents wouldn't.

quote:

>CLOSE PORTAL
You close the heavy steel portal.

>PULL LEVER
You pull the lever. Air shrieks through the valve... and then the whistle fades away, as the pressure in the 'scaphe drops towards zero.

The vacuum plucks at your clothing for a moment.

Unfortunately, your possessions do not fare so well. In the vacuum, the flask of muriatic acid boils away.

>UP
(first opening the small hatch)

Exoscaphe Dome
If you were piloting the 'scaphe, you'd sit in this seat and work the controls, peering out through the glass dome around you. The vehicle looks to have fallen on rough times, however�or vice versa. The dome is cracked, the air is gone, and the controls look dead.

The only exit is the hatch in the floor, which is open.

A dessicated sheet of paper and a thin key are visible under the console.

>READ DESSICATED
"A DIAMOND PURGED of EVERY FLAW: This ritual requires an environment influenced only by living stone; the deeper and purer, the better. Place a diamond within the bound and employ a phlegmatic (passive) sealing word. Sound a note in the mode of ostension. Place elemental earth upon the gestalt shelf, to serve as a template. Speak the Crystalline Tempering. This will bring the structure of the diamond as close to perfection as mortal substance can sustain."

A note on the back says, "While elemental earth is essential for many procedures, a perfectly flawless diamond may sometimes be substituted. This is particularly true in the synthesis of caustic reagents."

You memorize the instructions, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

Oh, that'll be nice. Earth and Orichalcum are the two reagents we have to reset the most often to restore.

quote:

>EXAMINE THIN KEY
This looks like a key to the Tertiary Alchemy Lab. Why someone left it in the scaphe, you have no idea.

That could have all kinds of great stuff in it. Now we just have to get the key out.

quote:

>GET THIN
Taken.

>EXAMINE DOME
The dome surrounds your upper body, allowing you to look out on the bay in every direction. However, the collapse of the bay roof has damaged the glass. The dome is still in one piece, but several cracks run across it. They look nasty enough to have let the air out.

>DOWN

Exoscaphe
The exoscaphe is a vehicle for exploring hostile lands. From the inside, it's more like being in a spherical steel tank. A windowless tank, at that. You recall that there's a better view from the pilot's dome; you could climb up through the hatch and see.

The emergency evacuation has left the chamber in dead, airless silence.

A circular bench runs around the perimeter, broken only by the dark engine compartment to the west and the exit portal to the east. The portal is closed. You see a small emergency lever next to it.

A cabinet is fastened to the wall. Its latch is tied shut with a knot of white cord.

On the bench is a crumpled sheet.

>CLOSE HATCH
You close the small hatch.

>PULL LEVER
You pull the lever, but nothing happens. It snaps back when you release it.

>EAST
(first opening the heavy steel portal)
The steel portal cannot be opened against a pressure differential.

We're stuck in here, now. Pneuma controls the air pumps, and Pneuma is broken. We've only got one option left.

quote:

>WEST

Void
You find yourself drifting through a familiar void.

*** You awaken again ***

Secondary Alchemy Lab
(You make your way to the Chymic Lab, brew the fungicide, and open the Mechanica Lab door.)

Mechanica Lab
This workshop features two of the more mundane devices of the alchemist's life: a hand-cranked wire-drawer, and the wire-splicer wheel.

The lab door to the north is open. The crawlway hatch is open. You also see a small storeroom to the west.

An extremely corroded cabinet is fastened to the wall. It is closed.

To one side, some supplies are lying on a counter: two metal rods (platinum and nickel), an iron bead, and a lump of rock salt.

Something glitters on the floor. It looks like a circle of fine glass thread.

You notice a fresh sheet of paper by the door.

That's the same sheet of paper as before. But where's Argy? We head to the Nave, and...

quote:

The silvery scribble is visible on the ceiling, where you first saw it.

>X SCRIBBLE
You suppose this silvery scribble is the homunculus that you summoned. You have no idea what a homunculus is supposed to look like, outside of the doll-figures of medieval art. This scrawl might be a distant cousin of the dragon-mandalas that you've seen. But it is entirely disorganized, chaotic.

Although if you squint, you could imagine that the scribble has a snake-like outline.

The scribble seems to have changed position slightly.

>WEST

West Side Hallway
The Retort's main hallway continues from the Nave, to the east, towards the exoscaphe bay to the west. A cross-corridor runs north towards quarters wing and south to the paper garden.

... Argy? Are we not friends anymore?

Turns out we have to wait around a few turns in the Nave before the homunculus re-imprints on us. That accomplished...

quote:

Grand Stair, Top
Two hallways intersect beneath an elegant vault of brick-red tile, which sweeps around to follow a grand staircase down to the lower levels. The garden is visible to the north. To the west is the ornate door of the Birdhouse, which is closed.

The hall to the south is blocked by yet another fracture. The side corridor to the east is much the worse; its far end seems to be on fire.

Lt Powes has vanished. Only a shadow remains within the fracture.

The scribble slides into the room behind you. It is slightly distorted in the direction of the engraved door.

>WEST
(first opening the engraved door)
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the long quartz prism from the storage bin.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of muriatic acid from the rack.
You make your way to the Main Store.
You recall the combination, and unlock the safe.
You take the orichalcum rod from the safe.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a vial of copper percalcinate.
You take the flask of mineral oil from the rack.
You make your way to the Mechanica Lab.
You take the nickel rod from the counter.
You draw the nickel rod out into wire.
You head to the Materials Store.
You make your way to the Storage Nook.
You take the rutilum Alchemy File seal.
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the phlogisticated gold rod from the cabinet.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You take the splinter of blackwood from the table.
You take the splinter of winter-oak from the table.
You ignite the blackwood splint from the winter-oak.
You place the phlogisticated gold in the vapor crock with camphrost, and ignite them with the blackwood splint.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a vial of sublime spirit.
You make your way to the Library.
You take the rotor card.
You make your way to the Opticks Annex.
You conjure an invisibility symbol onto the long quartz prism.
You make your way to the Top of the Grand Stair.
You apply the invisibility symbol to yourself and open the door.

Birdhouse
The Birdhouse is a circular chamber with no roof. It's not open to the sky; it just goes up forever. The door to the east is open. You also see a cracked flagstone with a gap leading to a crawlspace below.

The name comes from a ring of metal pylons that take up the center of the room. You can see the fanciful resemblance to a birdcage, although they don't imprison anything.

The dragon Syndesis is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed across the curving wall. But the runes look lifeless and inert.

A fragment of paper lies to one side.

The scribble drifts into the room. It doesn't quite stabilize, this time. It seems to be drifting slowly towards the dragon-mandala.

Nothing to do but wait.

quote:

>WAIT
Time passes.

The scribble is drawn towards Syndesis like a bubble to a drain.

>WAIT
Time passes.

The scribble spirals around Syndesis�inward�inward�

The mandala flares with violet-red light, and it is blinding.

You hear the aroma of copal incense; smell the texture of shattering glass.

We seem to be making a habit of this.

quote:

*** You awaken again ***

Secondary Alchemy Lab
(You make your way back to the Nave.)

Nave
The Nave is the marcher's heart, though the rows of benches are empty now. The seats face a pedestal, on which is a ritual bound and shelf. The side walls boast symbolic frescos; the south wall is a high, ornamented metal mesh�the writ screen�which separates the Nave from the Chancel.

The murals are badly cracked. One to the southwest has collapsed entirely, leaving a ragged gap which leads down into a crawlspace.

The main corridors run east and west from here, and the Retort's entry hall is north.

You notice a fresh sheet of paper by the pedestal. Hm? That wasn't there before.

>READ FRESH SHEET
The paper appears freshly written, but you don't recognize the script.

"It is now clear that the ritual must be performed in the Chancel. I had hoped�foolishly�that the Nave bound was sufficient; but my attempts there have provoked no reaction from the Retort at all. I suppose that, in attempting to reanimate the dragons, I am in a sense re-enacting the marcher's original investment. I must therefore maximize the sympathy with the Chancel rituals.

"I am not sure whether I can break through the security strictures, but I will have to try. If I fail, then�whoever finds this�you will have to try harder..."

The Dracon Invocation is spelled out below.

You memorize the information, including the Dracon Invocation. You also pick up the sheet. Just in case.

... That's the second time we've gotten a new sheet of paper deposited within the Retort. Who exactly is giving us advice here?

Also, Argy is missing, and we last saw it merging with Syndesis. What has happened to the Retort's internal coherence?

quote:

>GO TO SECONDARY LAB
You make your way to the Secondary Alchemy Lab.

Secondary Alchemy Lab
The lab is unsettlingly dim, but familiar enough: rough wooden walls, the broad stone surface of the workbench. The lab door is to the north; it's open, and the lab hall is reassuringly visible outside.

Well then. That's a good feeling.

Next time: We explore our new options.

ManxomeBromide fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Jul 16, 2018

# ? Jun 24, 2018 00:56

azsedcf: Jul 21, 2006; ...a place of unlimited darkness.
"Where are the doors?" they asked nerviously.
Even my bellowing laughter couldn't fill this space.

Have the human statues moved this time?

Also, we should try using the various potions and items on them. Like the various pure elemental items and acids.

For SCIENCE!

Also,

Nakar posted:

That's what we get for doing the ritual without having any idea how to do the final step.

ManxomeBromide posted:

The Dracon Invocation has something to do with dragons, clearly.

Since we now have the last step, we could try again?

# ? Jun 25, 2018 06:42

Sydin: Oct 29, 2011; Another spring commute

I echo that we should retry the Grand Marriage ritual now that we know how to invoke the dragon. What's the worst that could happen? :v:

# ? Jun 25, 2018 07:36

Glazius: Jul 22, 2007; Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.; Clapping Larry

Oh, so the ridiculously ill-advised ritual was a desperate attempt to repair the ship? That makes sense.

# ? Jun 25, 2018 14:41

RBA Starblade: Apr 28, 2008; Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

It's looking to me like between the tampering with reagents and other illicit actions that the accident may have been sabotage.

# ? Jun 25, 2018 15:07

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Does anyone else find it a little suspicious that so many people on the Marcher are under suspicion for highly illegal activities? For that matter, where are all the rest of the crew? Surely the Marcher has a crew complement of more than...five? Captain, lieutenant, sergeant, two ensigns, did I forget one?

I agree that some kind of sabotage seems plausible, either of the "give them enough rope to hang themselves" variety or of the "get all the bad eggs in one basket, then drop it" variety.

# ? Jun 25, 2018 15:44

devildragon777: May 17, 2014; They'd be a lot more scary if they were more than an inch tall each.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Does anyone else find it a little suspicious that so many people on the Marcher are under suspicion for highly illegal activities? For that matter, where are all the rest of the crew? Surely the Marcher has a crew complement of more than...five? Captain, lieutenant, sergeant, two ensigns, did I forget one?

We haven't seen the sergeant and there are two Lts: Powes and Anderes. And then whoever N and M are. Maybe these are just the people who are visible to us, and everyone else is in the primary lab or someplace else blocked by the fractures?

# ? Jun 25, 2018 17:36

Ratoslov: Feb 15, 2012; Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Everyone else is having a party with cake and we're not invited.

# ? Jun 26, 2018 00:25

RBA Starblade: Apr 28, 2008; Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Does anyone else find it a little suspicious that so many people on the Marcher are under suspicion for highly illegal activities? For that matter, where are all the rest of the crew? Surely the Marcher has a crew complement of more than...five? Captain, lieutenant, sergeant, two ensigns, did I forget one?

I agree that some kind of sabotage seems plausible, either of the "give them enough rope to hang themselves" variety or of the "get all the bad eggs in one basket, then drop it" variety.

We know that the Sargeant trains Not Swabbies because he treats Forsyth a lot shittier than them. :v:

# ? Jun 26, 2018 02:44

macdjord: Oct 26, 2013

ManxomeBromide: What happens if you perform a ritual for which you haven't actually learned of yet? Is there any special text for the good ensign going 'Oh, hey, that worked!', or for him figuring out what to call the potion or glyph so generated when he notionally has no idea what he just did? Is the knowledge of the ritual added to your Remembered Things list despite still not having actually read the relevant paper?

# ? Jun 26, 2018 04:52

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

macdjord posted:

ManxomeBromide: What happens if you perform a ritual for which you haven't actually learned of yet? Is there any special text for the good ensign going 'Oh, hey, that worked!', or for him figuring out what to call the potion or glyph so generated when he notionally has no idea what he just did? Is the knowledge of the ritual added to your Remembered Things list despite still not having actually read the relevant paper?

If you are capable of performing a ritual, performing it will add it to your list of rituals. We saw this last update with the Counter-Gaian Precipitate. Forsyth never evinces surprise at the results of his experiments and invariably immediately identifies what they do. I have :speculate:

about this but will be reserving that for when we reach all the relevant facts.

Individual alchemical formulae, however, cannot be performed without knowing them, and crucial rituals that we don't learn until we solve some puzzle invariably are also the only source that teaches us a formula said ritual uses.

There are some wobbles there. I'm pretty sure it's possible to perform the Perfect Diamond creation without knowing the ritual, but actually doing that in a timely manner would have required a different dragon priority than the one we got.

I plan to dig into the puzzle design and how it varies with dragon priority as we address the issues the dragon malfunctions have caused.

azsedcf posted:

Have the human statues moved this time?

We'll find out soon!

quote:

Since we now have the last step, we could try again?

We now have the last step, but we have also been informed that our first step was wrong. My goals for the next update are to explore the Retort as it has become, and do what it takes to get past the Chancel's security measures like that note suggested.

# ? Jun 26, 2018 05:32

macdjord: Oct 26, 2013

ManxomeBromide posted:

If you are capable of performing a ritual, performing it will add it to your list of rituals. We saw this last update with the Counter-Gaian Precipitate. Forsyth never evinces surprise at the results of his experiments and invariably immediately identifies what they do. I have about this but will be reserving that for when we reach all the relevant facts.

So far every ritual we've done without instruction has been an obvious modification of a known ritual - it had to be, since that's how we-the-player thought to try it - so it's not unreasonable that the ensign would be able to accurately guess the product. I was talking about doing a completely new ritual 'blind' - but, as you pointed out, that would require a ritual that doesn't use any academical formula that are learned from the same sheet of paper the ritual itself is on. Is Perfect Diamond really the only such ritual in the game?

Edit: I suppose the only way to be sure would be to check the Inform 7 source and look for pieces of paper which either give you a ritual without giving you any formulae or which give you a ritual and a formula but there's an alternate source for the formula.

ManxomeBromide posted:

We now have the last step, but we have also been informed that our first step was wrong. My goals for the next update are to explore the Retort as it has become, and do what it takes to get past the Chancel's security measures like that note suggested.

Be interesting to see what happens if you try the complete ritual in the Nave anyway.

macdjord fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jun 26, 2018

# ? Jun 26, 2018 21:07

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

Part 14: The Soul of the Marcher

The Dragon Syndesis seems to have been repaired. We can now freely enter and leave the Secondary and Chymic Labs, but more importantly, there were two doors that were entirely blocked to us before: one in the Opticks Lab and one in the Deck Suite. Let's check out the Opticks lab first.

quote:

Opticks Lab
This chamber is dedicated to experiments involving rays of light. A solid block of bluestone forms an immense workbench in the center of the room.

Whatever mirrors, prisms, and lenses are supposed to be arranged on the bench are there no longer. The equipment lies shattered on the floor�all just an inextricable heap of broken glass, now.

The lab's door stands open to the west. A closet door to the east is open, revealing a closet. To the south is a storage annex.

A scrawled sheet lies next to the glass disaster.

>EAST

Opticks Closet
This closet is sometimes used for storage, but the whims of marcher scheduling have left it empty at the moment.

In one dusty corner you notice a fist-sized glass bubble, which is rather dusty itself.

>GET BUBBLE. EXAMINE IT.
Taken.

This is a glass bubble, slightly dusty, with a valve attached. These bubbles are designed to contain elemental air; the inside surface is insulated with Baio's wax. However, this one is empty�or rather, it contains only the ordinary sort of air.

A small prize but a precious one. The tank of elemental air is effectively unlimited for our purposes, but the aura vortex makes it extremely expensive to visit it. This bubble will let us carry out two measures of elemental air.

On to the Deck Suite, and the Master-at-Arms's quarters.

quote:

Deck Suite
This looks like a comfortable place to drink tea. It must be a lounge set aside for the deck officers�the three important enough to rate private staterooms. The Aithery door (east) and the Alchemy door (south) are both closed. The Venture door to the north is open; it appears to be a normal door now.

Ensign Ctesc has vanished. Only a shadow remains.

A locked cabinet hangs on the wall.

You notice another aromatic impet nearby. It's labelled "kelp".

Looks like Ctesc has moved again. It turns out everyone has moved again, but examining their shadows only produces the same accusations we saw earlier. We'll need to keep an eye out for their new locations. In the meantime, though...

quote:

>NORTH

Master-at-Arms Quarters
You know little about the Retort's Master-at-Arms, and this stateroom reveals little more. She must spend a bare minimum of off-duty hours here, in between bruising drill sessions and management of the combat alchemies.

I believe this is the first indication that the Retort actually performs military missions of any kind.

quote:

Lying by the bunk is a key. It appears to be made of delicately-chipped flint. Thus it must be the key to the Barosy gate�but what the Master-at-Arms was doing with the Barosy key, you have no idea.

>GET KEY
(the flint key)
Taken.

Excellent. Fixing Syndesis has given us free access to Baros. That's a much cleaner prize than our understanding of Baros's malfunction, which would only grant us free access to Baros or Pneuma given access to the other.

Also note that the autosolver only remembers the most recent way you did something, so after picking up this key, commanding >GO TO BAROSY will give you sixty steps of actions and consume three elemental substances. We'll need to do this by hand once to tell the autosolver to lay off.

quote:

>GO TO GRAND STAIR BOTTOM
You make your way to the Bottom of the Grand Stair.

Grand Stair, Bottom
This basement is bare, square, and dank. It has, as far as you are aware, no function whatsoever. (Perhaps every house needs a basement, but the Navy does not stoop to clutter.)

The walls are tile; they arch up to join the grand staircase as it ascends to the main levels. The Barosy lies to the east, through a narrow iron gate with a brass lock. An irregular gap in the south wall opens out into a larger, darker space.

The chamber has been defaced with more of the illegible black marks.

Your eye is drawn to a pale yellow bead lying in a corner.

>UNLOCK GATE WITH FLINT KEY
The flint key unlocks the gate's brass lock with a complicated-sounding cha-lunk.

>EAST
(first opening the iron gate)

Barosy
This is a long, dim chamber whose walls are immense stone slabs. It's like a burial chamber, but with no smell of decay. There is only a sense of weight and time.

The iron gate stands open to the west. You also see a crevice between two slabs to the north; it looks wide enough to wiggle through.

The dragon Baros is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed across the entire end wall of the chamber. They still look lifeless and inert.

A fragment of paper lies nearby.

Our meddling hasn't helped Baros any. Let's actually check on Syndesis proper, now that we've confirmed that the marcher is holding together properly.

quote:

>GO TO BIRDHOUSE
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the long quartz prism from the storage bin.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the flask of muriatic acid from the rack.
You make your way to the Main Store.
You recall the combination, and unlock the safe.
You take the orichalcum rod from the safe.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a vial of copper percalcinate.
You take the flask of mineral oil from the rack.
You make your way to the Mechanica Lab.
You take the nickel rod from the counter.
You draw the nickel rod out into wire.
You head to the Materials Store.
You make your way to the Storage Nook.
You take the rutilum Alchemy File seal.
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the phlogisticated gold rod from the cabinet.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You take the splinter of blackwood from the table.
You take the splinter of winter-oak from the table.
You ignite the blackwood splint from the winter-oak.
You place the phlogisticated gold in the vapor crock with camphrost, and ignite them with the blackwood splint.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You brew a vial of sublime spirit.
You make your way to the Library.
You take the rotor card.
You make your way to the Opticks Annex.
You conjure an invisibility symbol onto the long quartz prism.
You make your way to the Top of the Grand Stair.
You apply the invisibility symbol to yourself and open the door.
You make your way to the Birdhouse.

Birdhouse
The Birdhouse is a circular chamber with no roof. It's not open to the sky; it just goes up forever. The door to the east is open. You also see a cracked flagstone with a gap leading to a crawlspace below.

The name comes from a ring of metal pylons that take up the center of the room. You can see the fanciful resemblance to a birdcage, although they don't imprison anything.

The dragon Syndesis is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed across the curving wall. The circles rotate majestically, shining with violet-red radiance.

The dragon has wakened! The presence of the the scribble must have... you do not know what, but something occurred in that moment.

A fragment of paper lies to one side.

>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT SYNDESIS
The oculus reveals Syndesis as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It looks healthy now.

The architecture of the marcher is still somewhat fractured. But you can see patches covering the worst holes�by the secondary alchemy lab, the chymic lab, the opticks lab, and the deck suite.

Very good. Not ideal, but very good.

Maybe we can perform the Great Marriage again and get a new homunculus to awaken Baros as well. We even know the last step now, too.

quote:

>PUT KEY ON SHELF
You put the thick key on the gestalt shelf.

>SPEAK MARCHER'S
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Marcher's Sealing.

The arc begins to glow smoke-grey.

>PUT BILLET ON SHELF
You put the ephemeris billet on the gestalt shelf.

>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its fresh, resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.

>PUT WATER IN BOUND
You crack open the capsule, and pour the elemental water into the bound. The sparkling drops never land on the workbench surface. Instead, they whirl around the arc, and slowly fade into an indistinct haze which is accumulating in the circle.

>PUT AIR IN BOUND
You twist the bubble's valve, and carefully vent the elemental air into the bound. It whisks around the arc, and joins the thickening haze.

>PUT FIRE IN BOUND
(the flaming phlogisticated gold rod in the pedestal bound)
The grey light ripples as you push through the arc. The elemental fire leaps from the rod; you pull the cold rod back. The flame whirls unsupported in the center of the arc, slowly dimming into the thickening haze.

>PUT EARTH IN BOUND
The grey light ripples as you push through the arc. The shard of elemental earth does not fall. It hangs in the center of the circle, spinning and spinning, until it blurs into the thickening haze.

The whirling haze in the bound slows. It is more difficult to see, now; not dissipating, but developing an aching lucent clarity. The space above the pedestal seems more transparent than air.

>SPEAK DRACON INVOCATION
You rumble your way through the Dracon Invocation.

An oppressive weight comes into the air. A flicker of multicolored light begins to play across the writ screen; you can see runes whirling on the other side, in the Chancel.

Then, with a snap that you feel in your guts, the ritual falls apart.

It is as the fresh sheet of paper said: it is clear the ritual must be performed in the Chancel. At this point, we are in a situation not unlike where we were after getting the fire door open. We have a large set of possibilities to explore and not a lot of direction. We do have something of an end goal�we want to perform the Great Marriage, properly, and in the Chancel�but we haven't even made it into the Chancel yet.

The obvious thing to do is to combine our knowledge of the periodic table of stone with the granite-solvent ritual and and brew up some obsidian solvent. The fire tends to boil off our potions, though, so we also should brew up some fire-devourer to wipe out the inferno.

Before we go into that, though, let's dissolve the marble door by the Exoscaphe arcade.

The Periodic Table of Stone tells us that marble and obsidian are opposites, and so we'll need an obsidian chip for this ritual. There was one of those in the Materials Store, right by the fluorspar we need to make the bamuriatic acid that we'll also need for this ritual.

With everything gathered and created, we can then perform the ritual.

quote:

>PUT MURIATIC IN RETORT
You pour a measure of muriatic acid into the retort.

>PUT BAMURIATIC IN RETORT
You empty the vial of bamuriatic acid into the retort. The acid mixture fumes acridly, and turns slate-grey.

>SPEAK HERMETIC
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the reservoir of grey acid.

>PUT ELEMENTAL EARTH IN RETORT
You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.

>SPEAK ANAPHYLAXIS
You intone the word of anaphylaxis; it makes your mouth itch.

The shard of elemental earth fizzes and dissolves. The grey acid solution darkens and thickens until it is black as ink.

>PUT OBSIDIAN IN RETORT
You drop the chip of obsidian into the retort. It dissolves instantly into the black reagent.

>SPEAK BINDING OF ANTIPATHY
You begin invoking the Binding of Antipathy, forcing out the bitter phrases. The black reagent seethes, and then begins to bubble slightly.

By the time you have finished choking out the formula, the black solution has quieted. It seems less viscous now. You tap the solvent into a fresh vial�which doesn't dissolve, you are happy to see, so you've probably gotten the ritual right.

Nice work, kid.

Off to the marble door.

quote:

North Arcade
This is the north end of the gallery. A long window in the west wall overlooks the exoscaphe bay. You can see the 'scaphe itself on the other side, hooked up to the portal you saw back south.

To the north is a massive door of pale marble, outrageously carved. The door is closed.

Perhaps the door has suffered some damage. A chip of white marble is lying loose on the floor nearby.

>POUR MARBLE SOLVENT ON DOOR
You pour a drop of marble solvent onto the door. The dark liquid soaks instantly into the pale stone, leaving a rough scar. Perfect! You concentrate on the area around the handle, corroding deep grooves into the door's substance. After some careful work, the entire locking mechanism falls away, leaving the door swinging loosely.

>NORTH
(first opening the marble door)

Dressing Room
The side chamber is reserved for marchmen to change into protective suits, before boarding the 'scaphe. It is rather less sumptuous than the carved door led you to guess. The only exit is south through the marble door, which is open.

A row of persy suits are lined up along the wall. You don't see any helmets, though.

Someone has left a greasy sheet of paper here.

>EXAMINE PERSY SUITS
These suits let a man walk out into a Hadean land and return alive. They look fearsomely complicated, and the helmets are all missing�an odd omission.

Interesting, if useless. I'm also open to suggestions as to what the "persy" in "persy suit" is short for. UPDATE: I was expecting something alchemical here, but Glazius has the right of it, I think:

Glazius posted:

Well, they are Hadean lands. If a persy suit lets you visit them, clearly it must be short for that most famous and constant visitor of those lands, Persephone.

It seems inevitable in retrospect. Now then, what's this sheet?

quote:

>EXAMINE GREASY
It's a reagent receipt. "THE SYNTHESIS of SCHEPLER'S OIL, or YANG OIL: Place a measure of mineral oil into a catalytic environment. Seal with a passive (phlegmatic) sealing. Compound the atmosphere with a sweet floral element; speak a word of essential nature. Then add a bit of reed pith to the bound, and ignite it. While it yet burns, recite the Phlogistical Catalysis. The resulting oil will ease the flow of phlogiston through certain metals."

This sounds like something we can do immediately. We need it for electrum phlogistication, but we can't yet actually perform the electrum phlogistication�creating the electrum removes our only known method for creating a catalytic environment.

quote:

>FIND MINERAL OIL. TAKE IT. CREATE PLATINUM WIRE. FIND REED PITH.
The flask of mineral oil is in the Chymic Lab, as you recall. You head that way.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.

Chymic Lab
This wide room is dominated by a huge glass retort. You've practiced many chymical rituals in this apparatus. Hanging above the retort is an instructional sign.

The lab door to the east now opens onto the hallway, as it used to. The only other exit is the hatch in the floor, which is open.

A supply rack holds two chymic flasks (sand and vinegar), neatly lined up.

Two papers, a folded sheet and a wrinkled sheet, are lying here.

You can also see three chymic flasks (saline, vitriolic acid, and mineral oil), a plain gold rod, a dried mushroom, a brass coin, and an impet of citronelle oil here.

Taken.

You make your way to the Mechanica Lab.
You take the platinum rod from the counter.
You draw the platinum rod out into wire.

(You are now in the Mechanica Lab.)

The splinter of swamp pith is in the Pyrics Lab, as you recall. You head that way.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.

Pyrics Lab
Waves of heat fill this room, radiating from a massive brick kiln and the roaring gas burners that fire it.

The lab door to the south is open. A storage area lies to the east.

You see Lt Powes crouched over a shelf. His expression is shifty; whatever he is doing, he fears discovery.

Within the kiln, half-obscured by rippling heat, you can see a porcelain paten.

A table at the other end of the room supports a glass vapor crock. The crock is open and empty.

You also see a jar of cedar splints on the table. Next to this are four splints of assorted woods: swamp pith, green linden, maple, and elemental wood.

You can also see two wooden splints (blackwood and winter-oak) here.

>GET PITH
Taken.

>GET LINDEN
Taken.

>GET MAPLE
Taken.

Oh, er, hello Lt. Powes.

quote:

>LOOK AT POWES
Your perspective shifts.

Lt Powes is searching a shelf of supplies, although he has not yet found his goal. His aim is clearly covert, but you sense that his target�whoever that is�deserves his ire.

>LOOK AT POWES
Your perspective shifts.

Lt Powes is searching a shelf of supplies, although he has not yet found his goal. His aim is clearly covert, and you feel a flash of sympathy for his target�whoever that is.

This seems to persist. We are being invited to stand in judgement upon our miscreant crewmates.

But we were in the middle of a yang oil synthesis procedure. We need a sweet floral aroma. There's an obvious place to look for that.

quote:

Herbarium Nook
You are in the Retort's herb-house. A short ladder leads up to the ceiling hatch through which you entered.

You are trapped in the east corner of the greenhouse. The main space, with its trays of sun-lit herbs and vines, is blocked off by another fracture. Only a few bits of herbage remain within reach.

A shelf holds a small bin labelled "mustard seed". Next to the bin is a sprig of honeysuckle.

You notice a few orange threads lying in a crack in the floor.

>EXAMINE HONEYSUCKLE
It's a sprig of dried, pale yellow honeysuckle flowers.

>SMELL IT
The honeysuckle retains a bit of its sweet aroma.

This will do.

quote:

>GET IT. GO TO MATERIALS STORE.
Taken.

You make your way to the Materials Store.

Materials Store
You are in a small storage area. The Mechanica Lab is back to the east.

To one side stands a heavy table, upon which is another ritual bound. This one is adjustable; it is currently empty.

There's another cabinet here. It is open but empty.

An untidy storage bin contains two stone chips (granite and sandstone) and a broad quartz prism.

A crumpled recipe sheet is lying by the ritual bound.

Someone has dropped a standard glass chime, the sort used in musical rituals. It's marked as being in the key of H.

You can also see a moon-metal rod, a rutilum Alchemy File seal, and a flask of lubanja here.

Let's have a go.

quote:

>PUT PLATINUM WIRE IN ARC
You carefully press the length of platinum wire into the groove. It forms a complete circuit around the arc.

>PUT MINERAL OIL IN BOUND
You locate a beaker in the clutter, pour a measure of mineral oil into it, and place it within the adjustable bound.

>SPEAK PHLEGMATIC SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the phlegmatic sealing word.

The arc begins to glow green around the beaker of mineral oil.

>WAVE HONEYSUCKLE
You wave the honeysuckle, but it's not very aromatic.

We've faced issues like that before.

quote:

>CRUSH HONEYSUCKLE
The dried flowers crumble and sift from your fingers, releasing a burst of astonishing honey-sweetness into the air. The perfume lingers.

Perfect.

quote:

>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature. The pinguid nature of the oil rises to the surface.

>PUT PITH IN BOUND
The green light ripples as you push through the arc. You lay the splinter of swamp pith next to the beaker.

>LIGHT PITH WITH LIGHTER
You hold the torch-lighter to the splinter of swamp pith. The swamp pith goes up in a bright flare; you snatch your hand away. Within instants, the swamp pith has been entirely devoured, and its flame winks out.

Whoops! We should have seen that coming. We ran into that effect when we were trying to light the blackwood. Of course, to actually light the blackwood we needed to light a different wood with a hotter burning temperature. The linden burned dim red before. Maybe it will be safer than butane?

quote:

>UNDO
Materials Store
[Previous turn undone.]

>LIGHT LINDEN WITH LIGHTER
You hold the torch-lighter to the splinter of green linden. The green linden catches quickly, and burns with a dim red flame.

>LIGHT PITH WITH LINDEN
You hold the burning splinter of green linden to the splinter of swamp pith. The swamp pith catches quickly, and burns with a barely visible flame.

>SPEAK PHLOGISTICAL CATALYSIS
You begin murmuring the Phlogistical Catalysis. It takes some time to run through all the permutations. As you do, the ripple of heat from the swamp pith begins emitting a thin vapor, which swirls around the arc. The surface of the oil shimmers.

Slowly, the oil reduces and darkens. By the time your formula is complete, the beaker contains just a thin film of orange-tinted oil.

The bound fades. You lift the beaker and gently decant the yang oil into a fresh bottle.

Another ritual done. This also gives us a chance to look in on a question that macdjord posed a few updates back.

macdjord posted:

What happens if you perform a ritual for which you haven't actually learned of yet? Is there any special text for the good ensign going 'Oh, hey, that worked!', or for him figuring out what to call the potion or glyph so generated when he notionally has no idea what he just did? Is the knowledge of the ritual added to your Remembered Things list despite still not having actually read the relevant paper?

This usually isn't possible because most important rituals include some formula that's part of the ritual's own paper, but it turns out that yang oil is not one of those rituals. I tried restoring from a previous save and performing this ritual while Argy was still following us around�it turns out that the text is identical and it's just added to our journal with no fanfare, just like variant rituals are. Quirk of the game engine, or ominous hint of what we really are? That's beyond my ability to answer.

Incidentally, since I was just typing >GO TO MATERIALS STORE there I ended up skipping right past Lt. Anderes, who was in the Mechanica Lab just outside.

quote:

Mechanica Lab
This workshop features two of the more mundane devices of the alchemist's life: a hand-cranked wire-drawer, and the wire-splicer wheel.

The lab door to the north is open. The crawlway hatch is open. You also see a small storeroom to the west.

You see Lt Anderes here. She is peering at the shelves, her face pinched with greed.

An extremely corroded cabinet is fastened to the wall. It is closed.

To one side, some supplies are lying on a counter: two metal rods (platinum and nickel), an iron bead, and a lump of rock salt.

You notice a fresh sheet of paper by the door.

>X ANDERES
Your perspective shifts.

Anderes looks toward the shelves. They are her responsibility, of course. She may have been keeping a hand in towards her own needs; but then, haven't you been taking a free hand with ship's supplies yourself, recently?

>X ANDERES
Your perspective shifts.

Anderes looks toward the shelves. They are her responsibility, of course. But you sense that she has begun viewing them as her possessions, which is quite a different thing.

Once again we are invited to judge our crewmate. Ctesc, meanwhile, is in the Library and the Captain is on the way to the library:

quote:

Lab Hall Northeast
This is the northeast corner of the laboratory hallway, which runs south and west. The lab stairwell opens to the southwest, but a fracture prevents entry. The Tertiary Lab is to the east; its door is closed. The Pyrics Lab door to the north is open.

The Captain is standing here, gazing moodily off down the hall. The crack in her martial facade is disturbing, and faintly disappointing.

>X CAPTAIN
Your perspective shifts.

The idea of Captain Hart being moody is nigh-incomprehensible. But you suppose that even a marcher captain can have a human side. Good for her.

>X CAPTAIN
Your perspective shifts.

The idea of Captain Hart being moody is nigh-incomprehensible. You suppose that even a marcher captain can have a human side. But it would be irresponsible of her to let it affect the marcher, of course.

quote:

Library
This library serves the laboratory wing. You haven't spent much time here�the trainees have their own study room�but you have often admired the rows of fat musty tomes on their elegantly-carved shelves. The archway is north.

You see Ensign Ctesc standing here. His normally placid face is sharpened into expression of feverish avarice.

Two papers, a neat sheet and an untidy sheet, lie unregarded on the floor.

>X CTESC
Your perspective shifts.

Ensign Ctesc looks toward the books. Clearly he has snuck in here without permission. You can understand that, even if he has bent the edges of the rules. You too are on the Retort for knowledge.

>X CTESC
Your perspective shifts.

Ensign Ctesc looks toward the books. Clearly he has snuck in here without permission. You sense that his desire for knowledge has outstripped his wisdom; he has set foot on some unseen path to self-harm.

We'll need to reset to create the obsidian solvent�it requires fluorspar and elemental earth, both of which we've used up for the marble solvent.

quote:

*** You awaken again ***

Okay. Let's make the fire devourer. We need "multiple fiery influences." Very early on, we learned that the Pyrics Store's area was intrinsically fiery, and also that unlit bits of wood provide a fiery influence.

quote:

>FIND ALCOHOL. GET IT. PERFORM GOLD IGNITION. GET ALL SPLINTS.
The flask of rubbing alcohol is in the Secondary Lab Crawlspace, as you recall. You head that way.
You make your way to the Secondary Lab Crawlspace.

Secondary Lab Crawlspace
You are in a low, dimly lit corridor that runs from east to west. A hatch by your (ducked) head opens to the laboratory above.

To the east, the crawlspace is interrupted by another fracture�or perhaps the same one you saw in the lab.

A chymic flask rests nearby; it reeks of rubbing alcohol.

Taken.

You make your way to the Materials Store.
You make your way to the Storage Nook.
You take the rutilum Alchemy File seal.
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the phlogisticated gold rod from the cabinet.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
You take the splinter of blackwood from the table.
You take the splinter of winter-oak from the table.
You ignite the blackwood splint from the winter-oak.
You place the phlogisticated gold in the vapor crock with camphrost, and ignite them with the blackwood splint.

(You are now in the Pyrics Lab.)

splinter of blackwood: Taken.
splinter of winter-oak: Taken.
splinter of swamp pith: Taken.
splinter of green linden: Taken.
splinter of maple: Taken.
splinter of elemental wood: Taken.

I hope this is enough.

quote:

>EAST

Pyrics Store
This is a tangle of storage racks, mostly empty. The Pyrics Lab is to the west.

On one rack you notice a jar of camphrost lumps.

A silver coin and a lead rod lie on another rack.

A stack of firebrick in back serves as a crude ritual bound, complete with gestalt shelf.

>PUT ALL SPLINTS ON SHELF
splinter of elemental wood: Done.
splinter of maple: Done.
splinter of green linden: Done.
splinter of swamp pith: Done.
splinter of winter-oak: Done.
splinter of blackwood: Done.

>PUT ALCOHOL IN BOUND
You locate a beaker in the clutter, pour a measure of rubbing alcohol into it, and place it within the brick bound.

>SPEAK PHLEGMATIC
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the phlegmatic sealing word.

The arc begins to glow crimson around the beaker of rubbing alcohol.

Crimson! That's different from the mere orange we normally got with fiery influences.

quote:

>LIGHT BEAKER WITH ELEMENTAL FIRE
You dip the flaming phlogisticated gold rod into the beaker of rubbing alcohol. The gold is instantly extinguished, as its phlogiston is drawn into the alcohol. Blue flames erupt, and a red phosphorescence builds within the liquid.

As the flames die down, the red light does as well; but the liquid in the beaker remains a brilliant crimson.

>SPEAK GREATER PHLOGISTICAL SATURATION
You begin the Greater Phlogistical Saturation. The tonal vowels and labial stops require all your concentration, but you manage to hold them in place. Sparks crackle through the crimson liquid for a moment.

The bound fades. Is that all? Apparently that's all. You lift the beaker and gently decant the red potion into a fresh bottle.

Let's see how it goes.

quote:

>GO TO GRAND STAIR TOP
You make your way to the Top of the Grand Stair.

Grand Stair, Top
Two hallways intersect beneath an elegant vault of brick-red tile, which sweeps around to follow a grand staircase down to the lower levels. The garden is visible to the north. To the west is the ornate door of the Birdhouse, which is closed.

The hall to the south is blocked by yet another fracture. The side corridor to the east is much the worse; its far end seems to be on fire.

>EAST

Burning Hall West
This hall runs west to east, from the grand stairs to the high wing. Except the high wing is on fire at the moment.

The entire east end of the hall is enveloped in flame. You can't tell what's burning�the walls? the floor? But the heat is intense; you can't go any further.

Lt Powes has vanished. Only a shadow remains.

>THROW FIRE DEVOURER AT INFERNO
You pull the stopper, and whip the crimson liquid into the flames. There is a mighty whump as the hallway goes dark.

When the green afterimages fade from your sight, the hall looks like�like a long-dead fireplace. The walls are blackened and the floor is layered with ash. But there isn't a spark left alight, and while the air smells of smoke, it is not intolerably warm.

Not bad at all. There'd probably be a market for this stuff if it didn't require a reagent more precious than gold.

quote:

>EAST

Charred Hall East
You are at the east end of the hall, now grey with ash. The hall ends at a door of solid obsidian. You know this door leads to the high wing and the Chancel, but it is closed and locked.

A singed sheet of paper has survived.

>READ PAPER
The paper contains the aura imitation inscription (with jade) and the Chi Binding, both of which you already know. You pick up the sheet. Just in case.

>EXAMINE DOOR
The door to the east is an obsidian slab, polished and obdurate. The heat hasn't even touched it.

You know that the chancel lies that way, but you've never been permitted inside. The obsidian door is firmly shut.

Time to recreate the rock solvent, but with a marble chip this time to turn it against obsidian.

First, we'll need our materials:

quote:

>FIND ELEMENTAL EARTH. GET IT. FIND MARBLE CHIP. GET IT. CREATE BAMURIATIC. FIND MURIATIC. GET IT.

And then the ritual itself, which we've mostly seen before:

quote:

>PUT MURIATIC IN RETORT. PUT BAMURIATIC IN RETORT. SPEAK HERMETIC SEALING. PUT ELEMENTAL EARTH IN RETORT. SPEAK ANAPHYLAXIS. PUT MARBLE IN RETORT. SPEAK BINDING OF ANTIPATHY.
You pour a measure of muriatic acid into the retort.

You empty the vial of bamuriatic acid into the retort. The acid mixture fumes acridly, and turns slate-grey.

You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.

The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the reservoir of grey acid.

You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.

You intone the word of anaphylaxis; it makes your mouth itch.

The shard of elemental earth fizzes and dissolves. The grey acid solution darkens and thickens until it is black as ink.

You drop the chip of marble into the retort. It dissolves instantly into the black reagent.

You begin invoking the Binding of Antipathy, forcing out the bitter phrases. The black reagent seethes, and then begins to bubble slightly.

By the time you have finished choking out the formula, the black solution has quieted. It seems less viscous now. You tap the solvent into a fresh vial�which doesn't dissolve, you are happy to see, so you've probably gotten the ritual right.

And with this...

quote:

Charred Hall East
You are at the east end of the hall, now grey with ash. The hall ends at a door of solid obsidian. You know this door leads to the high wing and the Chancel, but it is closed and locked.

>UNLOCK DOOR WITH SOLVENT
You pour a drop of obsidian solvent onto the door. The dark liquid soaks instantly into the black stone, leaving a rough scar. Perfect! You concentrate on the area around the handle, corroding deep grooves into the door's substance. After some careful work, the entire locking mechanism falls away, leaving the door swinging loosely.

>EAST
(first opening the obsidian door)

Antechamber
The high officers presumably wait here and prepare themselves for the solemn rituals of the Chancel. That august space is to the north, through a sturdy circular gate, which is closed.

The antechamber itself has nothing in particular to offer. The obsidian door to the west is open. A narrow hallway runs south, but a fracture blocks it.

Two papers, a neat sheet and a faded sheet, are lying here.

All right. More information.

quote:

>READ NEAT
"If one of a marcher's dragons becomes disorganized, the vessel is in serious danger. As an emergency measure, the faulty dragon may be subsumed into an active one, transferring its functions. The composite will be unstable, but may suffice to rig the marcher to a safe berth.

"Place a fulcrum in the active dragon's lair." (A footnote here: "Any lair will suffice, in fact; the fulcrum merely provides leverage.") "Prepare an orderly environment and use the Marcher's Invocation. Follow with a symmetric sequence to indicate a forward transition (active dragon consuming damaged one). Conclude with the Dracon Invocation. This will summon the active dragon; one can then translate it to the presence of the other. Warning: do not allow the dragon's presence to cross the fulcrum node!"

You memorize the information, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

>READ FADED
"THE DRAGON FULCRUM: This ritual requires a bound of metallic quicksilver, or a quicksilver amalgam. Place a stone token within, and speak Grendel's Sealing. Pour vitriol onto the stone (for sulphur and quicksilver are the polar principles of alchemy). Invoke the dragon's name, and conclude with the Relative Anima." But the words "dragon's name" have been scratched out. Below them is a smudged knot or tangle of lines�as if someone had tried to copy a multidimensional structure onto the paper, without much success.

You memorize the instructions, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

Well well. This looks like a path forward. We're missing quicksilver, though.

There is also a spark here, with a memory of a lecture about strange and alien worlds:

quote:

"Newton presumed that the aither, as a medium, must be everywhere uniform, because physical and alchemical processes were everywhere the same. We now know the contrary: the 'laws' of natural science are properties of the aither, and currents of alien aither flow between certain stars. Marchers rarely venture through these foreign belts, for the slightest shift of chymic law poisons human life..."

I'm sure that won't be relevant later. Onward to the Chancel!

quote:

>NORTH
(first opening the circular gate)
You reach for the bars, but your fingers go numb and slide away.

This gate has a psychic security stricture as well. It feels even tighter than the one on the Birdhouse.

We used up our elemental fire extinguishing the inferno, which means we can't make the sublime spirit we need to create the aura invisibility sigil. However, we do still have our elemental water and our orichalcum. Tha means we can create the aura impersonation sigil. Let's go commit a malfeasance under Naval Law.

quote:

Lab Hall Northeast
This is the northeast corner of the laboratory hallway, which runs south and west. The lab stairwell opens to the southwest, but a fracture prevents entry. The Tertiary Lab is to the east; its door is closed. The Pyrics Lab door to the north is open.

The Captain is standing here, gazing moodily off down the hall. The crack in her martial facade is disturbing, and faintly disappointing.

>TOUCH QUARTZ TO CAPTAIN
You press the long quartz prism against Captain Hart. You feel nothing, but the symbol distorts, absorbing the imprint of her aura.

>GO TO ANTECHAMBER
You make your way to the Antechamber.

Antechamber
The high officers presumably wait here and prepare themselves for the solemn rituals of the Chancel. That august space is to the north, through a sturdy circular gate, which is closed.

The antechamber itself has nothing in particular to offer. The obsidian door to the west is open. A narrow hallway runs south, but a fracture blocks it.

>TOUCH QUARTZ TO SELF
You press the long quartz prism against your hand. The imitation symbol discharges with a thrum.

You feel a sudden dissociation, an estrangement, as though your thoughts belonged to someone else.

>NORTH
(first opening the circular gate)
The bars are solid in your fingers now, although your hand feels like part of someone else's body.

Chancel
The Nave may be the heart of the Retort, but the Chancel is its soul. The Master Rector performs the marcher's most crucial rituals here. The ritual bound is a low pedestal of chased rutilum, with a shelf beside it.

The rest of the room is rather emptier than it looked from outside. To the north is the writ screen, and the Nave beyond it. To the south, the circular gate stands open.

A crisp sheet of paper is pinned next to the screen.

So you've made it to the center of the universe. Good job�if you know what you need to do here.

The sense of estrangement fades away. The reality of the world reasserts itself.

>READ CRISP
The paper is headed "GRENDEL'S SEALING", and a phrase is spelled out in phonetic symbols.

You memorize the information, including Grendel's Sealing. You also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.

We do know what we need to do here. Unfortunately, we can't do it. The Great Marriage requires all four elements, but we've used three of them:

The fire went into the fire-devourer. Electrum Regium might get us more, if we could actually phlogisticate it. Doing that requires us to be able to create a catalytic bound that doesn't use up the platinum that we need to make the electrum itself.
The water went into the aura impersonation ritual. We have no source of extra water, but we do have an alternate ritual that requires jade and air. Unfortunately, we have no jade.
The earth went into the obsidian solvent. We might be able to use a perfect diamond instead, but making one requires us to be in a lab carved from the living rock�probably the Deep Lab. That's Baros's job, and that's our next priority.
We didn't use any air, and, in fact, we've got the ability to get two measures of air already. That makes the jade/air aura impersonation ritual attractive, if we can just find that jade.

Next Time: We go where no Alchemy File Ensign has gone before.

Bonus quasi-vote: We have been invited to pass judgement upon our crewmates. What say you all? We may alter our opinion of each individually. It is possible this might have an effect later on. It is possible it might not. But even if it comes to nothing, it is a choice we may make.

ManxomeBromide fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jul 4, 2018

# ? Jun 27, 2018 06:57

Ratoslov: Feb 15, 2012; Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Who are we, a mere homunculus, to judge?

# ? Jun 27, 2018 07:53

macdjord: Oct 26, 2013

ManxomeBromide posted:

What's this sheet?

This sounds like something we can do immediately. We need it for electrum phlogistication, but we can't yet actually perform the electrum phlogistication�creating the electrum removes our only known method for creating a catalytic environment.

Aha! Yang's oil looks to be a ritual that we could have performed without finding the instruction - possibly before we even heard of the stuff.
> RESTORE OLD SAVE. CREATE YANG OIL WITHOUT EVER READING INSTRUCTIONS.

ManxomeBromide posted:

Bonus quasi-vote: We have been invited to pass judgement upon our crewmates. What say you all? We may alter our opinion of each individually. It is possible this might have an effect later on. It is possible it might not. But even if it comes to nothing, it is a choice we may make.

My vote is
> Why Can't We be Friends?
Let's all just try to get along.

# ? Jun 27, 2018 08:12

Ratoslov: Feb 15, 2012; Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

macdjord posted:

Aha! Yang's oil looks to be a ritual that we could have performed without finding the instruction - possibly before we even heard of the stuff.

Pedantic note: I'm pretty sure this isn't Yang's oil, it's Yang oil- as in, essence of Yang energies from Chinese alchemy. Presumably there's a Yin oil somewhere.

# ? Jun 27, 2018 08:36

azsedcf: Jul 21, 2006; ...a place of unlimited darkness.
"Where are the doors?" they asked nerviously.
Even my bellowing laughter couldn't fill this space.

So to be clear, Dragon Syndesis gave us access to the Master-At-Arms room, the closet in the Opticks Lab, and cleared the doors from the Secondary Alchemy Lab and Chymic Lab to the Lab Hall.

That's it? What about the Secondary Alchemy Lab closet, the east side of the main store, and other fracture areas?

Edit: I just noticed, if the doors to the Secondary Alchemy Lab and Chymic Lab are open, we don't need to go through the lab crawlway to get between them. The only reason to go down there is to get into the Herbarium. Can we get into it from the Chymic Lab side or is the padlock only accessible from below? Also, can we clear out the mold on the Mechanica lab from the outside? If we can, we can save the Pinecone for anything else that might use it.

azsedcf fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Jun 27, 2018

# ? Jun 27, 2018 10:05

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

I have a new hypothesis: we are a synthesis of the statues we have seen, plus Forsyth and the Sergeant. The reason why we haven't seen any other crew is because they aren't caught up in the ritual that created us. As the game says when we examine the various people, our behaviors haven't exactly hewed to the letter of the law: we've been stealing reagents (Anderes) and learning forbidden knowledge (Ctesc). So far as I'm aware we haven't been adulterating reagents (Powes), unless performing rituals with them counts. We certainly haven't been fraternizing with anyone (Captain) though...not that there's anyone to fraternize with. Unless, again, synthesizing a bunch of officers together counts as "fraternizing".

Still, I get a distinct feeling of "judge not, lest ye be judged in turn" here.

# ? Jun 27, 2018 15:48

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

azsedcf posted:

So to be clear, Dragon Syndesis gave us access to the Master-At-Arms room, the closet in the Opticks Lab, and cleared the doors from the Secondary Alchemy Lab and Chymic Lab to the Lab Hall.

That's it? What about the Secondary Alchemy Lab closet, the east side of the main store, and other fracture areas?

Correct. The "fractures" that don't lead to alternate lands are still solid, and also resonate with the Higher Spheres when we check them with the lens.

quote:

Edit: I just noticed, if the doors to the Secondary Alchemy Lab and Chymic Lab are open, we don't need to go through the lab crawlway to get between them. The only reason to go down there is to get into the Herbarium. Can we get into it from the Chymic Lab side or is the padlock only accessible from below? Also, can we clear out the mold on the Mechanica lab from the outside? If we can, we can save the Pinecone for anything else that might use it.

I'm skipping a lot of text when I'm redoing things that I've already shown we know how to do, but it turns out that the "(You make your way to the Nave.)" after our most recent resets is the game, not me. It automatically unlocks the Mechanica Lab and thus burns the pinecone away as part of the reset now.

# ? Jun 28, 2018 04:57

ManxomeBromide: Jan 29, 2009; old school

macdjord posted:

> RESTORE OLD SAVE. CREATE YANG OIL WITHOUT EVER READING INSTRUCTIONS.

It turns out this works exactly like a variant ritual; you get the same text, you immediately identify it, and the ritual is added to your store as if you had read the relevant papers.

# ? Jun 28, 2018 05:05

Glazius: Jul 22, 2007; Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.; Clapping Larry

Well, they are Hadean lands. If a persy suit lets you visit them, clearly it must be short for that most famous and constant visitor of those lands, Persephone.

# ? Jun 28, 2018 20:34

hyphz: Aug 5, 2003; Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.; Unlockable Ben

I actually have the source code to this game in a printed book due to having backed it long ago (back when I had to do it by writing to Zarf because Kickstarter didn�t accept payments from outside the USA!)

The first room, with the two tarnish rituals, was the backer demo and was available for YEARS before the actual game.

It�s interesting that the goal seeker is more or less Prolog written in Inform. Given that he wrote LISP in Inform as an ifcomp entry I�m not too surprised.

# ? Jun 28, 2018 22:37

90s Cringe Rock: Nov 29, 2006

Glazius posted:

Well, they are Hadean lands. If a persy suit lets you visit them, clearly it must be short for that most famous and constant visitor of those lands, Persephone.

I love this game.

# ? Jun 29, 2018 05:26

The_White_Crane: May 10, 2008

Glazius posted:

Well, they are Hadean lands. If a persy suit lets you visit them, clearly it must be short for that most famous and constant visitor of those lands, Persephone.

That's amazing.

# ? Jun 29, 2018 11:59

Dybael: Jul 11, 2017

Thank you so much for this incredible LP, ManxomeBromide! I love interactive fiction, but interactive fiction does not love me back. Or maybe I'm just terrible at puzzles. (If a room has three defined objects and a bit of flavor text, I will frustrate myself to the point of ragequit trying to perform actions related to the scenery every time...) I am very thoroughly enjoying this chance to experience this delightfully complex game. The game may keep track of a lot of things, but you still have to keep an outrageous number of moving parts in mind, and as someone perpetually stuck at the "wondering why you can't get ye flask" stage of IF literacy, I'm in awe.

Having said that, I did try to keep track of my observations while reading the last page and a half or so of updates. I'm not sure any of them are USEFUL observations, but they might be interesting even if they're nonsense? Please forgive me if the thread has already covered any of this:

* There have been a couple of rooms the Ensign knows no use for - the basement of the Grand Stair, and I think there was a crawlway somewhere? Could the Oculus or planetary lens reveal anything about these locations, or is "look generally around this space" too vague for those tools?

* The second glass bubble is described as being lined with Baio's wax. Is that a real substance, or an alternate-universe-etymology version of a real substance? Might we need to break the bubble at some point to use that wax for something?

* When performing a ritual, each step provides flavor-text feedback that hints to what each thing is, or how it's reacting with the other ingredients. That's useful for troubleshooting (and eventually, experimenting with) rituals. The flavor text for spoken components, though, describes how the protagonist reacts to saying them. The Minor and Major Animus are phlegmy, antipathy is bitter and hard to say, etc. Might there ever be a point where saying a ritual phrase reveals more about the protagonist than about the phrase? I'm desperate for more clues about our mysterious, nonhuman protagonist.

* I'm having (extra) trouble keeping track of the crew across resets. It's all blending together for me as "shifty people doing shifty things everywhere." Are the snapshots we see progressing in time? Regressing? Skipping around? I feel like having a better grip on that might help figure out what exactly is happening.

* Is there any similarity between the smudged "multidimensional structure" on the faded paper and the unreadable black graffiti?

As for passing judgement on the crew, I don't feel like I have enough context to judge anyone. How about we fix the Negative Space Wedgie before we figure out assigning blame?

# ? Jun 29, 2018 22:49

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# ? May 4, 2024 22:47

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

You can definitely look generally at a room through the Oculus at least, that's how you find the sparks.

The Baio's wax is just an explanation of how the bubble isn't eaten through by the elemental air, I think.

# ? Jun 30, 2018 00:59

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's >RECITE THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE and Play Hadean Lands

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