2025-06-20 a Cycle in Cinshan
General Summary
Scene: Tower control room
Fortifier inspect the rest of the floors of the tower and finds they’re all very similar to the ground floor but missing the control chair, though they might have similar connection dais.
We hear a distant whistle blow and peer out into the ground below the Orbulin.
There is a gigantic locomotive with a tail of cars behind hit.
Dreamflower discerns that the tower was a separate vehicle from the Orbulin and is now adhered to it, but could theoretically disconnect.
Fortifier recalls that the Orbulin once housed the Eye of Autochthon and the hole we entered in from was approximately where the Eye used to be.
The tower seems to be drawing the Blight out of the Orbulin and concentrating it.
In light of the Orbulin having Blight, we decide not to land it directly on the ground at this time.
We plan to move the Orbulin close to the ground and then move down to acquire supplies for the Metagalapans who have been captive for a month in their experience.
The Orbulin’s controls were previously on autopilot.
It’s previous orders were to avoid the cities of Autochthonia.
Dreamflower and Fortifier work together to figure out how to halt the Orbulin for now and the city moves toward it.
Hidden-by-radiance recalls being first formed in Estasia, but wants to see this city.
Fortifier cautions Stelsor and Dreamflower about displaying their anima while we are in the city. Solars and Infernals would be entirely new concepts to Autochthonians.
Dreamflower recalls a past incarnation once saw the great monorail of the sky.
Scene: Visiting the roving city
Dreamflower, Stelsor, Fortifier and Hidden take a cloud skiff down to land in the city.
When we set down, a mechanical Palanquin with nothing pulling or carrying it came to meet us.
Fortifier steps forward and the mecha-palanquin sets down and a fanfare of horns rings out as it opens.
A voice announces Foremost Fist of Righteousness as an Orichalcum-Caste Alchemical steps out.
When Foremost asked which nation he hails from, Fortifier claims to be on special assignment from the Divine Ministers -- (an extremely bold lie, but Foremost doesn’t seem to doubt him.)
Foremost claims the city is headed to the Orbulin to claim it for Claslat.
Foremost bears the name of her city on her almost like the jersey of an athlete.
She leads us in our cloud skiff to the great market.
The market is a hole in the cube about 5 stories tall and about twice the size of the Firewander Market in Nexus.
Great cogs move in the floor.
Hidden-by-radiance doesn’t recall there having been a market economy like this in Claslat.
Foremost explains the city has had a luxury market for several centuries.
Collecting and trading exotic goods are some of the benefits of the city’s mobility.
We come upon some opulently dressed Humans and address one who is named Anjar.
Anjar trades in lightning crystals, soulgem frames and other jewelry.
Stelsor is looking to trade for crystals. Stelsor provides 10 opals (part of his infernal mutation is that he sheds opals) for 5 large crystals that have lightning trapped inside.
5 Lightning Gems,
3 soulgem frames,
3 forehead trinkets,
3 bracelets,
3 pairs of earrings,
3 rings,
1 techno-alchemical talisman
The techno-alchemical talisman is said to ward against the Blight.
Fortifier senses that Foremost is skeptical of this charm.
Fortifier asks if there is much demand for Blight-warding talismans here.
No, they hear stories about miners encountering it, but that’s why the miners are rotated out frequently.
The talisman fits atop the soulgem and is made of Soulsteel. Its clasps grab onto the soulgem when when it is worn and a tiny scream is heard by the wearer when they put it on.
We encounter a food merchant who has barrels of nutrient slurry and also some containers of pickled fish.
The pickled fish come from the Ocean of Oil. The Autochthonians feel no side effects from eating these, but Fortifier is less certain the Metagalapans will stomach these.
We are quoted a price in glots, the glass currency of Claslat. Anyone who works for the city can earn glots. We don’t have any at this time, but Foremost covers the bill for us.
We have 8 barrels of slurry sent to a space on the surface of the city where it will be tied down and we can get it later.
Dreamflower finds the sorcerous energies seem weaker here, though there is some coming off of buildings labeled as generators.
Dreamflower asks about any sorcerous wares for sale. Alas, sorcery is relatively rare here and the Alchemicals are the primary practitioners.
Foremost explains that the 8 divine ministers were brought together to form the Seal of Eight Divinities. It was a gigantic octagon, but no one has seen it in many cycles.
Dreamflower asks Foremost what one of Dreamflower’s sorcery tomes would be worth.
Foremost mentions that Perfected Censor of Heretical Works is an Alchemical known to prohibit works like this.
A few of the other nations might be more open to trading in texts like these.
Fortifier asks Foremost what protections the city has against the Blight.
No special protections, but the city has been known to manifest charms that will defend the city from the Blight.
Fortifier is curious if there is a way to speak with the metropolis Alchemical.
Foremost says it is theoretically possible, but hasn’t been done in some time. In the first and most sacred plaza, the Locomotive itself, where the 9 holy horns are loudest, some have been able to speak with Cinshan.
Foremost thinks Fortifier has more questions about Blight protection. Fortifier divulges that we encountered a sickening fog inside the Orbulin.
Foremost is saddened to hear this; the Orbulin was to be a great prize for the city and nation.
Foremost mentions that apostates are said to have removed the Eye of Autochthon from the Orbulin and after centuries of search, the consensus is that it seems to have departed from Autochthonia.
Foremost drops that some say she is the reincarnation of an Alchemical named Marathon.
Fortifier asks if there is an archive facility in the city. Foremost explains the mobility of the Cinshan demands they travel light. They download the city’s records to stationary cities when they visit them.
We learn that there are tram connections to the other nations of The Octet in the city of Arat, the Forge of the Nation.
Claslat is, presently, fairly cordial with all the other Nations.
Foremost mentions that they expected to encounter an ancient nation living in Orbulin.
Fortifier shares that there were many holy symbols inside Orbulin.
She asks us if there were any people living in the Orbulin.
Fortifier claims they met no humans there. (Half-true. The person we met probably isn't human.)
She asks if we encountered any machine-spirits there.
Fortifier says we only found a Blight-tainted fog elemental.
Fortifier tells Foremost that they shouldn’t send any teams to board the Orbulin until we have the Blight inside it under control.
Hidden-by-radiance suggested that Dreamflower, Stelsor and Foremost all go to the mine to watch Stelsor dig, suspiciously not including Fortifier.
Hidden-by-radiance seems very disconcerted by the techno-alchemical talisman that Fortifier is wearing. Other than the initial scream he heard when he put it on, Fortifier is blithely unconcerned about the talisman.
Fortifier assumes Hidden is trying to keep Foremost busy so Fortifier can try to speak to the metropolis Alchemical.
Scene: Digging in the mine
Stelsor negotiates his share and then transforms into his Devil-Body Incarnation to begin digging.
He makes less progress than he anticipated. There seems to be soulsteel deposits in the mine. It is screaming distractingly at him when he tries to tunnel.
Dreamflower summons an Autochthonian earth elemental to help.
Their share of what they recover
4 talents of Soulsteel
2 talents of jade
2 talents of Starmetal
1 talent of Moonsilver
Stelsor sends Seline an update, especially that we acquired a good amount of starmetal.
Scene: meanwhile, Fortifier goes before Cinshan
On the outside of the main cube of the city is a plaza where the horns of Cinshan reside.
The 9 horns are widely separated. Each is about 10 meters tall.
Celestial Overseer Concordat shows this is the equivalent of Cinshan’s head holes.
The plaza is made of multi-colored tiles and every 8th tile is made of jade.
Fortifier looks around for evesdroppers.
While the city is moving, no one really seems to go on the outer surface of the city without a mecha-palanquin.
Fortifier addresses the metropolis: “Elder sister Cinshan, what is your interest in Orbulin?”
“I wish to look upon and touch the holy Orbulin.”
“There may be a danger inside. Do you know the name Varakleion?”
“Yes, the Tri-Sided. He is an apostate. He is of the Void. Repent for even saying his name.”
“That apostate has attached a device within Orbulin. We do not yet understand what it does.”
Cinshan is incensed to hear this.
“Please, sister, for the sake of your population, would you steer away from the holy Orbulin until we know what the apostate has done to it?”
“Perhaps you are right. I will ponder this and give you my answer before the holy time of Autochthon.” (roughly 8 hours from now)
Fortifier is satisfied by this and goes back to the barrels of slurry.
Scene: Meeting up and taking our acquisitions back to the Orbulin
Stelsor hears back from Seline
“Hey Hunny, I've missed you, I found out stuff about that Eye of Autochthon artifact. I'll try to rejoin you, where are you at? I went back to Peaches, but no one's here…”
Dreamflower is very concerned at how Seline could reply if we’re in a different plane of existence. Perhaps this wasn’t Seline. Perhaps other assumptions are less certain that we thought.
Scene: Inside the Orbulin Tower
Fortifier tries to figure out if the tower’s controls can tell him anything about the amount of Blight inside the Orbulin and how much the tower has acquired.
The tower is a device for pulling the Blight together and used to have a component that would neutralize the Blight it accumulated.
Varakleion removed the neutralizing parts but did not remove the sensors or the concentrators. Now all the floors are stinky with Blight.
We use an infallible messenger to tell Cinshan the Blight read-out.
Cinshan is fuming. “This apostate must have been fouling the Orbulin for many cycles”
Cinshan has stopped a safe distance from the Orbulin. It seems to be pondering where to go.
Fortifier is satisfied that the metropolis knows the danger well enough to plan accordingly.
Before we leave to return Metagalapa to Creation, Dreamflower leads the others in constructing a crystalline gazebo to shield the control chair from the Blight that is building up inside the tower.
It encompasses the dais and is large enough to protect 3 people.
Fortifier notices that his soulgem has gotten hot.
He tries to remove it to inspect it, but it resists and is clinging to him.
He wrests it off. It falls into the Blight cloud where it grows 2-feet tall and looks like a centipede/millipede.
Dreamflower weaves a Chaos-Repelling Pattern while Stelsor and Fortifier work together to corner and capture it.
Fortifier produces a jar-like container from his Portable Utility Compartment and we trap the Blight bug inside it.
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