Part 9: Lab Work and Aithery Work
Part 9: Lab Work and Aithery WorkLast time, we worked past our first set of barriers, and collected a complete set of elemental substances and many new rituals. We've still got plenty of rituals to try out, but first, our explorations turned up some new keys to old locks.
First, the cabinet in the Deck Suite, where the top officers live and work. It was locked with the Aithery Seal, and we have created a fresh badge for that seal.
quote:
>UNLOCK CABINET WITH AITHERY SEAL
You touch the lead Aithery File seal to the cabinet, and the lock snaps calmly open.
>OPEN CABINET
You open the cabinet, revealing a folded sheet and a ripped sheet.
>READ FOLDED
The paper has a description of two vowel-heavy formulae, the Mediate Anima and the Relative Anima. Both are concerned with relations between moving objects.
You memorize the information, including the two formulae. You also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.
>READ RIPPED
"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."
You memorize the instructions, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.
Curious. We also can't perform that ritual yet, because we do not know how to produce "Gaian precipitate."
Our next stop is the Junior Quarters, where a locker was tied shut with white-fuse. This cord burns away quickly when exposed to elemental fire, but there's an alternate solution if you happened to get the elemental air.
For you see, if you got the elemental air, you by necessity also got an item that would serve to open the locker...
quote:
>CUT CORD
You hack at the white-fuse with the scalpel. It's a messy job, but after a few moments, the cord falls to bits. You try to ignore the feeling that you've cheated on a test.
We can do what the Sergeant wanted, so let's.quote:
>UNDO
Junior Quarters
[Previous turn undone.]
>BURN CORD WITH ELEMENTAL FIRE
You hold the flaming phlogisticated gold rod under the white-fuse. The cord ignites with a flash and a pop! It burns away almost instantly, leaving only the smell of burnt metal in the air.
>OPEN LOCKER
You open the large locker, revealing a lesson sheet.
>READ LESSON
This looks like an assignment for junior-level alchemists. "TO RENDER GLASS PERMEABLE TO MATTER: Select a chime in the key of F sharp. Invoke a Helian environment (the aspect of the Sun). Place the chime into the bound; speak a simple sealing. Sprinkle pure sand onto the chime; vocalize a resonant tone; strike the chime, and conclude with a Relative Anima. Once the chime is invested, one need merely strike it again and embed it into a pane of glass. The chime's vibrations will permit it entry, and the entire pane will then be semi-fluid for as long as the chime resonates. But only attempt this with simple, flat sheets of glass—curved glass has irregular vibrational modes, and the tuning will fail."
You memorize the instructions, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.
That sounds cheerfully abusable. Alas, at the moment we lack a chime in the key of F sharp, though we did see a bronze chime in the Chasm Rubble out beyond where we were willing to reach. If that's F#, that's our ticket to easy and safe defenestration.
Our last cabinet to check is another one tied shut with whitefuse in the Exoscaphe. There's nobody to frown at us here for solving the problem in the Alexandrian mode.
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, much like the one you saw on the locker.
>CUT CORD
You hack at the white-fuse with the scalpel. It's a messy job, but after a few moments, the cord falls to bits.
>OPEN CABINET
You open the cabinet, revealing a creased sheet and a plain sheet.
>READ CREASED
"A TALISMAN TO ATTRACT METALS: A common lodestone will attract iron, but to exert influence on other metals requires alchemical preparation. Begin with a Saturnine environment, and a bound containing a chime tuned to the desired metal. (Metal chimes are preferred, as glass may be insufficient to the strain.) Use a simple sealing. Surround the chime with zafranum, and immediately ignite this. Vocalize a resonant tone to prime the metal, and then strike it (without removing it from the bound!) Use the Mediate Anima to set the vibration. Once the ritual is complete, striking the chime will attract all nearby objects of the given substance."
You memorize the instructions, and also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.
>READ PLAIN
"WINFIELD'S CLOCK TINCTURE (to repair or realign clockwork): This ritual requires an environment of precision and order. Place a measure of alum into the bound, and perform the Sealing of Shamash. Add perfect mud; speak a syllable of counterbalance; add sublime spirit, then a token of brass. Conclude with the Major Animus. The resulting potion embodies perfection in brass, and will induce perfection in any brass mechanism it touches."
You memorize the instructions, including the Sealing of Shamash. You also add the sheet to your bundle of paper.
Those both look interesting, and that talisman just might be our key to checking out that chime we couldn't reach. Before we play with that, though, let's do the things we definitely can do.
Let's start with sublime spirit. This one required nickel, but the ritual also suggested we maximize surface area. "Small flakes of nickel are best", and we've done that before by failing to alloy nickel wire with something else. Unfortunately, those flakes aren't collectable afterwards. Maybe nickel wire alone will have an acceptably large surface area. The other things we need are mineral oil and elemental fire, both of which we have immediately to hand.
quote:
>CREATE NICKEL WIRE
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 are now in the Mechanica Lab.)
>FIND MINERAL OIL
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 is closed. The only other exit is the hatch in the floor, which is open.
A supply rack holds three chymic flasks (sand, vinegar, and mineral oil), neatly lined up.
Two papers, a folded sheet and a wrinkled sheet, are lying here.
You can also see a dried mushroom here.
>PUT MINERAL OIL IN RETORT
You pour a measure of mineral oil into the retort.
>PUT NICKEL WIRE IN RETORT
You feed the length of nickel wire into the retort, where it lies in a coil.
>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 length of nickel wire and the reservoir of mineral oil.
>SPEAK WORD OF ENTENSION
You declaim the word of entension. The world seems to hold its breath.
>PUT ELEMENTAL FIRE IN RETORT
You drop the flaming phlogisticated gold rod into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.
The nickel glows red where the elemental flame touches it—then orange, then yellow. You wince, expecting the oil to ignite at any moment; but it does not. Instead, the nickel slowly liquifies into a shining metal pool. The oil shimmers and ripples above it.
Pale vapors rise within the retort—the volatile fractions of the oil. They condense on the inner surface of the glass. Minute droplets gather and flow downwards. When they reach the release valve, you tap the sublime spirit into a fresh vial.
When you have extracted all the fractions you need, you pull the dump lever. The greasy remains of the oil and nickel are washed away. The gold rod—dephlogisticated and cool now—falls into your hand.
Up next, perfect mud, consuming two more pure elemental substances.
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.
>SPEAK CRYSTALLINE TEMPERING
You recite the Crystalline Tempering. The sand shifts subtly within the reservoir, grains aligning on inner axes.
>PUT SHARD IN RETORT
You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.
The shard seems to fall apart the moment it touches the surface of the sand. A shower of crystalline dust spreads across the sand, giving it a glassy translucency.
Looks like we're going to be on report until the Sun turns green.
quote:
>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 sparkling drops sink into the sand, and a slow upwelling current begins, like a tiny pool of quicksand within the retort.
>SPEAK WORD OF EMULGENCE
You intone the word of emulgence; it feels creamy on your tongue.
Circulating within the retort, the sand begins to dissolve. Its color darkens to a beige, then to tan, as the grains roll themselves finer and finer. After several more moments, the water and sand have resolved themselves to a silky brown sediment.
The upwelling current ceases, and the bound goes dark. You extract the perfect mud into a fresh vial.
These rituals are not to be done casually—they consume pure elemental substances and we have no way to get them back without resetting. But both of them are ingredients in the clock tincture, so let's put them to use while we have them:
quote:
>PUT KEY ON SHELF
You put the thick key on the gestalt shelf.
This ritual requires an environment of "precision and order." The key has an "orderly" nature, so it should work fine for this. This ritual is interesting only in that it has this new "orderly environment" requirement. The rest is completely straightforward:
quote:
>PUT ALUM IN BOUND
You locate a beaker in the clutter, pour a measure of alum into it, and place it within the pedestal bound.
>SPEAK SEALING OF SHAMASH
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Sealing of Shamash.
The arc begins to glow smoke-grey around the beaker of alum.
>PUT PERFECT MUD IN BOUND
You empty the vial of perfect mud into the beaker. The alum absorbs the moisture, and the substances merge into a pale, glittering paste.
>SPEAK SYLLABLE OF COUNTERBALANCE
You speak the syllable of counterbalance. The paste roils gently in the beaker.
>PUT SUBLIME SPIRIT IN BEAKER
You dribble the sublime spirit into the beaker. The paste softens, shimmering, and liquifies into a translucent silvery solution.
>PUT BRASS PIN IN BEAKER
You drop the brass pin into the beaker. Plop! It lies at the bottom for a moment... and then in the next moment dissolves, all at once, lending the solution a brassy tinge.
>SPEAK MAJOR ANIMUS
You voice the Major Animus, trying not to choke. As the clicks and pops roll on, the solution slowly darkens to a rich, brassy opacity. When you reach the final sound, the bound flashes bright silver, and the solution precipitates all at once—glittery particles of brass, suspended in a dark tincture.
The bound fades. You lift the beaker, tilt it appreciately, and decant the tincture into a fresh bottle.
Cleverly done, kid.
But our mental model of the Sergeant approves anyway. Maybe this is the first time we've correctly pronounced a formula based on click consonants.
Now it's time to work through our inventory of uncompleted rituals. This is now a little bit trickier, because we now need to start integrating ritual requirements with the facts we've learned about broader alchemical theory. First let's try the metal attractor synthesis. We'll need a chime that's tuned to the metal that we want to attract.
quote:
>RECALL MUSICAL THEORY
"Music is the most complex of ritual elements; one might well call it 'obfuscated.' We begin with the nursery-school lessons: the pitch A is associated with iron, the color red, the liver; B with bronze, orange, the stomach; C with brass... yes, you can all chant along. But this is simplified to uselessness. What of non-classical metals? We now associate C-sharp with rutilum, F-sharp with aluminum, G-sharp with nickel. Researchers have invented entirely new scales to deal with the spectrum of aither-metals. Then the Eastern Empire uses the well-tempered scale; thus while F-sharp is the mode of extension, G-flat is the mode of ostension, G-natural is intension, G-sharp is paratension, and H—yes, there's an H—is the mode of recension..."
The inaccessible chime in the Chasm was bronze, so we need a B Chime. We found one of those in the flooded crawlspace on the way to the Observatory. (Also, it appears I was wrong before when I mentioned that the Empire used the german key names; the keys of H and B natural appear to not be the same thing at all.) We'll also need zafranum and an anchored/Saturnine environment, both of which are trivial to pick up.
quote:
>PUT HORN COIN ON SHELF
You put the horn coin on the gestalt shelf.
>PUT B CHIME IN BOUND
You put the bronze B chime 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 bronze B chime.
>PUT ZAFRANUM IN BOUND
The slate-blue light ripples as you push through the arc. You strew the zafranum threads around the chime.
>LIGHT ZAFRANUM
You lack any handy way to set things on fire.
... I beg your pardon?
quote:
>LIGHT ZAFRANUM WITH LIGHTER
The torch-lighter is not a source of fire.
>X TORCH LIGHTER
It's a ceramic oval the length of your little finger. It doesn't seem to work now, though.
... we've used all the butane. I didn't know that was possible in this game. Well, no matter, we can improvise.
quote:
>GO TO PYRICS
The ritual energy disperses when you turn your attention from it. The pedestal bound goes dark behind you.
You make your way to the Pyrics Lab.
>GET CEDAR. LIGHT IT. GO TO NAVE. GET ZAFRANUM.
You take another splinter of cedar from the jar.
(in the gas burners)
You hold the splinter of cedar to the gas burners. The cedar catches quickly, and burns with a dull orange flame.
You make your way to the Nave.
Take two, and let's be quick about it before the cedar burns down.
quote:
>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 bronze B chime.
>PUT ZAFRANUM IN BOUND
The slate-blue light ripples as you push through the arc. You strew the zafranum threads around the chime.
>LIGHT ZAFRANUM WITH CEDAR
The zafranum threads flare up and vanish. A puff of pungent yellow smoke rises, and then swirls around the bronze chime.
>SPEAK RESONANT TONE
You hum the resonant tone. The bronze B chime vibrates sharply in response.
>STRIKE BRONZE CHIME
The bronze B chime rings brightly, as if it were not lying in the bound, but suspended above it. The sound swells to a thrilling intensity, then fades.
>SPEAK MEDIATE ANIMA
You raise your voice in the Mediate Anima. The bronze B chime resonates again, this time with a deep vibration that buzzes against the bound's surface.
The slate-blue light flares and fades, and you see a symbol gleaming on the surface of the bronze B chime.
>BLOW OUT CEDAR
You blow on the splinter of cedar until the flame goes out.
>GET CHIME
You pick up the bronze B chime, careful of its inscribed attraction symbol.
Okay. Now let's go try it out.
quote:
Chasm Rubble
Rubble and fallen rocks litter the ledge here. You can walk north or south alongside the abyss, which waits patiently to the west. But you have an unnerving sense of vertigo. The world seems to sway around you.
A particularly massive slab lies at the chasm edge. Half its length rests on solid(-ish) ground; but the far half hangs out over empty space, quite unsupported.
You see a bronze chime lying on the far end of the slab. It looks very far away; the idea of crawling out there makes you feel even more unsteady than before.
>STRIKE BRONZE CHIME
(the bronze B chime)
The bronze B chime emits a sharp, eager thrum.
The bronze F-sharp chime vibrates in response. It rolls across the slab and leaps into your hand.
F#!
That's what we wanted for the glass permeability ritual. It doesn't require anything beyond the F# chime, a solar environment, and sand. That's really easy to get.quote:
>PUT BRASS COIN ON SHELF
You put the brass coin on the gestalt shelf.
>PUT F-SHARP CHIME IN BOUND
You put the bronze F-sharp chime 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 yellow around the bronze F-sharp chime.
>PUT SAND ON CHIME
(the bronze B chime)
You don't want to go applying random chymic substances outside the bounds of a ritual.
Et tu, parser?
quote:
>PUT SAND ON F-SHARP CHIME
You carefully sprinkle sand over the bronze F-sharp chime. Each grain falls with its own tiny note.
>SPEAK RESONANT TONE
You hum the resonant tone. The bronze F-sharp chime vibrates sharply in response.
>STRIKE CHIME
(the bronze B chime)
The bronze B chime rings brightly. The bronze F-sharp chime resonates sourly in response, out of tune.
quote:
>UNDO
Nave
[Previous turn undone.]
>STRIKE F-SHARP CHIME
The bronze F-sharp chime rings brightly, as if it were not lying in the bound, but suspended above it. The sound swells to a thrilling intensity, then fades.
>SPEAK RELATIVE ANIMA
You raise your voice in the Relative Anima. The bronze F-sharp chime resonates again, this time with a deep vibration that buzzes against the bound's surface.
The yellow light flares and fades, and you see a symbol gleaming on the surface of the bronze F-sharp chime.
>GET F-SHARP
You pick up the bronze F-sharp chime, careful of its inscribed permeability symbol.
Great. Everything else we can do right now requires orichalcum or a product made from it, and we used that up in the aura impermeability inscription. We'll have to reset, but before we do, let's try out what else we've made.
The clock tincture will "repair or realign" and "induce perfection in brass". What's brass and in need of perfect configuration?
quote:
>GO TO OBSERVATORY
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.
>PUT CLOCK TINCTURE IN HOROLOGICAL CALCULATOR
You slowly pour the tincture into the guts of the Calculator. Just as slowly, the spheres begin to turn, until they are all aligned: zeta, rho, pi, omicron, iota, pi, beta, mu.
An escapement whirrs. The patterns on the spheres seem to match the stars arrayed around you, as far as you can tell. The blank tin slip is drawn into the Calculator.
After a brief cantata of rattles and clunking noises, the slip is ejected back into your hands, now imprinted with complex symbols. It is now an ephemeris billet, summarizing the heavenly coordinates you have set up.
Now that we've done this, we can now >CREATE EPHEMERIS BILLET without burning three pure elemental substances. That's a good day's work.
Now, where can we find a window to try to walk through, and why would we want to?
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.
>X WINDOW
The thick glass is a bit wavy, but you can see the exoscaphe bay on the other side. It's a high brick hall, the mirror of this one, but with vast steel doors on the far side.
Most of the bay is taken up by the exoscaphe itself, a lumpy metal tortoise on track-tread wheels. The 'scaphe is backed up to its entry portal, which connects to this hall, southward.
The bay roof appears to have been damaged.
There seems to be a bit of paper lying at the far end of the bay.
Oooh, a bit of paper. That's worth snagging before we reset.
quote:
>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 F-SHARP 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.
>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.
More unnerving, however, is the suction you feel on the other side. The bay must be in hard vacuum—depressurized through its damaged roof. Walking through in this state would be deadly.
If we're under the influence of a breath-holding potion at this point, we get some additional text averring how unwise this is:
quote:
More unnerving, however, is the suction you feel on the other side. The bay must be in hard vacuum—depressurized through its damaged roof. Walking through in this state would be deadly. (And you can't hold your breath in a vacuum.)
Drill! What happens if you try to hold your breath when the air blows out the door?
My lungs blow out of my ears, Sarge.
Don't you forget it!
While we're here, though, we might as well check out just how scandalous this door is.
quote:
>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT MARBLE DOOR
The marble door has a bit of a Bacchanalian tint when viewed through the oculus. Nothing explicit, mind you.
>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT MARBLE DOOR
You peer at the marble door through the lens, and perceive an association with the Earth.
I guess these don't have the wholesome alchemical purposes of the more explicit illustrations in the Nave and Observatory, and thus are filth and smut.
Time to reset. This time we'll make the Lodestone of Centrality.
quote:
*** You awaken again ***
Before we can make that, though, we need to make viridigris. This is a very simple procedure that requires nothing that isn't available in the tutorial area:
quote:
>PUT ORICHALCUM IN RETORT
You put the orichalcum rod into the retort.
>PUT VINEGAR IN RETORT
You pour a measure of vinegar 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 orichalcum rod and the reservoir of vinegar.
>TURN ON BURNER
You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.
The gas flame heats the vinegar.
>Z
Time passes.
The gas flame heats the vinegar.
>Z
Time passes.
The vinegar bubbles over the flame.
>SPEAK PHLOGISTICAL CATALYSIS
You begin murmuring the Phlogistical Catalysis. Immediately, the orichalcum starts to dissolve, tinting the solution a delicate turquoise.
It takes some time to run through all the permutations. By the time you are done, the orichalcum is gone, and the acid solution has been reduced to a thick turquoise layer. A few moments later, it is entirely dry.
You shut off the gas flame, and tap the viridigris powder out into a fresh vial.
The lodestone of centrality has a lot more components than this, though.
quote:
Prepare an environment of earthy influences. Place a silk thread within the bound, and a labyrinth symbol upon the gestalt shelf. Begin with the Mithraic Sealing. Pour a sample of viridigris over the silk, and then lay a shard of elemental earth onto it. Strike a chime in the mode of recension. Now lay elemental fire upon the labyrinth symbol (not into the bound!) Finally, the Minor Animus will bind the lodestone to potential motion.
Earthy influences are easy; we can just put a chip of stone on the shelf. There was a marble one up where we were trying to walk into hard vacuum. The silk cord is in the storerooms, and the labyrinth symbol is the clay tile from the study room. Elemental earth and fire are solved problems. What remains is the chime in the "mode of recension", and if we check the music theory fact we see that this is in the key of H. The H chime was also basically just lying around.
quote:
>PUT SILK IN BOUND
You put the length of silk cord into the pedestal bound.
>PUT MARBLE ON SHELF
You put the chip of marble on the gestalt shelf.
>PUT CLAY TILE ON SHELF
You put the labyrinth tile on the gestalt shelf.
>SPEAK MITHRAIC SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Mithraic Sealing.
The arc begins to glow beige around the length of silk cord.
>PUT VIRIDIGRIS ON SILK
You empty the vial of viridigris onto the length of silk cord. The turquoise powder clings to the silk as if to a magnet.
>PUT EARTH SHARD ON SILK
The beige light ripples as you push through the arc. You lay the elemental earth on one end of the silk cord, where it clings.
>STRIKE H CHIME
The glass H chime rings sweetly, and you let its resonances fill your mind.
The shard of elemental earth brightens, seeming to capture and radiate light.
>PUT GOLD ON CLAY TILE
You put the flaming phlogisticated gold rod on the labyrinth tile.
>SPEAK MINOR ANIMUS
You voice the Minor Animus, trying not to cough. The shard of elemental earth acquires a milky tint. As the formula progresses, it thickens towards opacity; and the elemental flame dims, its phlogiston draining away.
When you reach the final throat-clearing stop, the bound goes dark. The earth shard is now pure white, with fine labyrinthine lines crazing its surface. The silk cord has melded with the stone, forming a pendulum.
Good work, kid.
Thanks, Sarge. The next two rituals—aura imitation with quartz and aura invisibility—require copper percalcinate. We don't have a ritual to make that, but we can put one together from the facts we've collected.
quote:
*** You awaken again ***
Now, what do we know about percalcinate of copper?
quote:
>RECALL COPPER CALCINATION
"Lab demonstration #5: Calcinate of copper. Place muriatic acid and quickcopper (orichalcum) in the retort. Heat to dissolve, and continue heating until the green salt crystallizes. Note: product is unstable! Flush retort directly after demonstration; do not extract calcinate."
>RECALL PERCALCINATION PROCEDURE
"Percalcination: to repeat the calcination procedure. (Typically produces a more stable and potent reagent.) First, calcine a metal. Then seal the retort (Hermetic) and invoke the Crystalline Tempering to clarify the salt's structure. Add more acid to redissolve, and continue heating until a second crystallization occurs."
That seems simple enough.
quote:
>PUT MURIATIC IN RETORT
You pour a measure of muriatic acid into the retort.
>PUT ORICHALCUM IN RETORT
You put the orichalcum rod into the retort.
>TURN ON BURNER
You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.
The gas flame heats the muriatic acid.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The gas flame heats the muriatic acid.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The muriatic acid bubbles over the flame.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The orichalcum slowly dissolves into the acid, lending it a lovely grass-green tint.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The grass-green acid bubbles over the flame.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The green acid solution is noticeably reducing in volume.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The green acid is now a thick pool in the bottom of the reservoir.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The green acid thickens to a paste, and then rapidly dries, leaving a residue of coarse, dark-green crystals.
We've now calcined the orichalcum, but this is unstable. Time to lock it in place and perform the percalcination procedure.
quote:
>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 dark-green crystals.
The gas flame heats the dark-green crystals.
>SPEAK CRYSTALLINE TEMPERING
You recite the Crystalline Tempering. The crystals darken further, while also taking on a lucent green clarity.
The gas flame heats the dark-green crystals.
>PUT MURIATIC IN RETORT
You add a quantity of muriatic acid to the retort. The crystals dissolve, forming a brilliant viridian acid.
The gas flame heats the viridian acid.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The viridian acid solution is noticeably reducing in volume.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The viridian acid is now a thick pool in the bottom of the reservoir.
>WAIT
Time passes.
The viridian acid thickens to a paste, and then rapidly dries, leaving a residue of green-gold powder. This must be your percalcinate. You extract it into a fresh vial, and switch off the gas flames.
I think that's the most waiting we've done for any individual product. We have two rituals that need percalcinate, and copper percalcinate was the only hard part:
quote:
"OEHLKE'S INSCRIPTION, to MIMIC THE AURA OF ANOTHER: Invoke an environment of spiritual peace. Begin with a quartz token in the bound; this represents the ka soul. Invoke the Ka Sealing. Sprinkle copper percalcinate over the token, representing the ba soul. Invoke an isomorphic structure. Pour elemental water over the token; this represents the mutability of the soul's name. Close with an elementary word of binding. Touch the token to the donor, then to the recipient. NOTE: Imitating the aura of a superior officer is malfeasance under Naval law."
quote:
ROYCE'S INSCRIPTION, to RENDER ONE'S AURA INVISIBLE: Invoke an environment of spiritual peace. Begin with a quartz token in the bound; this represents the ka soul. Invoke the Ka Sealing. Sprinkle copper percalcinate over the token, representing the ba soul. Invoke an idempotent structure. Pour sublime spirit over the token; this represents the evanescence of the soul's name. Close with an elementary word of binding. This inscription will render the subject's aura indetectable to malign forces, though only briefly.
These are very similar rituals. Each of these requires the orichalcum and one elemental substance (water for mimicry, fire for the sublime spirit for invisibility). Both also need a spiritual environment, which as we've seen is trivially available by turning the rotor to "rainbow". We'll have to reset between them, too, because the percalcinate is used up. Each ritual goes smoothly, though. We start with the aura imitation inscription:
quote:
>PUT ROTOR ON SHELF
You put the rotor card on the gestalt shelf.
>PUT QUARTZ IN BOUND
You put the long quartz prism into the pedestal bound.
>SPEAK KA SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Ka Sealing.
The arc begins to glow indigo around the long quartz prism.
>PUT COPPER PERCALCINATE ON QUARTZ
You empty the vial of copper percalcinate onto the long quartz prism. The green-gold grains adhere to the quartz prism, slowly losing their color, and are absorbed into the crystal.
>INVOKE ISOMORPHIC
You begin reciting the formulae that make up the isomorphic group. After a rigorous chain of axioms and lemmas, the group elements fall into a one-to-one relation.
>PUT ELEMENTAL WATER ON QUARTZ
You crack open the capsule, and pour the elemental water onto the long quartz prism. The drops sparkle on the crystal for a moment, and then evaporate—or are absorbed.
>SPEAK ELEMENTARY WORD OF BINDING
You intone the elementary word of binding; the syllables snap cleanly away. The indigo light flares through the clear crystal.
When the light fades, a symbol shines on the surface of the long quartz prism.
>GET QUARTZ
You pick up the long quartz prism, careful of its inscribed imitation symbol.
This could plausibly get us into the Birdhouse, if we could touch it to a high-ranking Aithery officer. Unfortunately, both Captain Hart and Lt. Powes are behind fractures and we can't touch them to identify their auras.
quote:
*** You awaken again ***
With time reset we can recreate the percalcinate, fetch the rotor and crystal, and create the sublime spirit. I'm getting ready to go to the Nave to perform the actual inscription ritual, but then I realize I've never had to leave the tutorial area this whole time—all the physical ingredients are in safes in the East Wing, the library with the rotor's on this side of the fire door, and everything else we need for for gold ignition is right here in the Pyrics lab. So let's do this one in the Opticks Annex instead.
Also, while we're here, let's rebuild our science toys and look at the fractures themselves, because we forgot to do that along the way:
quote:
>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT FRACTURE
Through the oculus, the fracture looks like... a fracture. Pieces of space, of the marcher, that do not connect as they should.
>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT FRACTURE
You peer at the fracture through the lens, and perceive an association with the Higher Spheres.
These both seem relevant to the theory we've been developing that the Retort has suffered some kind of hyperspace-related mishap. But for now, that's just trivia. On to the invisibility inscription:
quote:
>PUT ROTOR ON SHELF
You put the rotor card on the gestalt shelf.
>PUT QUARTZ IN BOUND
You put the long quartz prism into the tabletop bound.
>SPEAK KA SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Ka Sealing.
The arc begins to glow indigo around the long quartz prism.
>PUT PERCALCINATE ON QUARTZ
You empty the vial of copper percalcinate onto the long quartz prism. The green-gold grains adhere to the quartz prism, slowly losing their color, and are absorbed into the crystal.
>INVOKE IDEMPOTENT
You begin reciting the formulae that make up the idempotent group. After a rigorous chain of axioms and lemmas, the group elements resolve to a singleton.
>PUT SUBLIME SPIRIT ON QUARTZ
You dribble the vial of sublime spirit onto the long quartz prism. It forms a rainbow sheen, which quickly evaporates.
>SPEAK ELEMENTARY WORD OF BINDING
You intone the elementary word of binding; the syllables snap cleanly away. The indigo light flares through the clear crystal.
When the light fades, a symbol shines on the surface of the long quartz prism.
>GET PRISM
You pick up the long quartz prism, careful of its inscribed invisibility symbol.
Those are all the rituals we can do for now—Electrum phlogistication requires yang oil, the alternate aura imitation inscription requires a jade bead, and the lead weight increase inscription requires Gaian precipitate. We don't know where to find or how to make any of those. We do, however, have one more corner to poke into. Remember the Captain's office? There was a cabinet made of rutilum, sealed shut by an alchemical rune of attraction. We've been able to deal with that for several updates now. The dispersal brush is for destroying alchemical runes, and here's one holding the door shut.
quote:
>CREATE DISPERSAL BRUSH. GO TO HIGH TOWER. BRUSH SYMBOL.
(the cabinet)
(with the dispersal brush)
You brush the quill over the rutilum cabinet. The attraction symbol blurs and fades away.
>OPEN CABINET
You open the cabinet, revealing an ornate sheet.
All right. "Rutilum," incidentally, is almost certainly titanium, since "rutile" is a titanium ore made mainly of titanium dioxide. Also, one of the other titanium ores is called "titanite," which makes sense but also makes me consider the crafting system in Dark Souls in an entirely new light.
The ornate sheet is a bit disquieting.
quote:
>READ ORNATE
This receipt is not Navy printing. It's hand-written; not neatly, perhaps in haste. And it reads like a bad joke.
"THE GREAT MARRIAGE..." (and there you stop for a moment, because half the alchemical rituals of antiquity are bombastically called "the great marriage" and it means nothing more than "I mixed things"—but that's what it says) "...must be performed at the Heart of the House, in an Orderly Environment." (...scribbled with an arrow: "?NAVE!") "...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."
Great Marriage? Classical Greek elements thrown into an arc like beans in soup? This isn't modern alchemical science; it's a fairy tale. It doesn't even say what it does.
No, wait, there's something scrawled on the back: "THE HOMUNCULUS." Sure, that clears everything up.
OK, new theory: The Retort crashed because the Captain has gone utterly whackadoodle. Also, full credit for the proper respect given to the alchemists of old there in the aside.
We don't have time for mad fairy tales. We have a dragon's lair to infiltrate. We make our way to the Birdhouse door, and then...
quote:
>TOUCH QUARTZ
You press the long quartz prism against your hand. The invisibility symbol discharges with a nerve-grating whine.
You feel a sudden sense of distance, as if you were a very long way behind your own eyes. The world seems colorless and still.
>WEST
(first opening the engraved door)
The handle is solid in your fingers now, although your hand doesn't exactly feel like part of your body.
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 unexpectedly lifeless.
A fragment of paper lies to one side.
The sense of distance fades away. The reality of the world reasserts itself.
Behold, the dragon Syndesis.
quote:
>EXAMINE SYNDESIS
Circles of grey-glimmering runes hang on the Birdhouse wall. This is Syndesis, one of the marcher's four dragons. Syndesis is responsible for the Retort's travel between worlds and its coherence within itself.
Something is wrong, however. You've never seen a dragon before, but by all accounts, the circles of runes should be rotating, eternally reading themselves. The color is wrong too. Syndesis can't be dead (or you'd be stuck in a doorless room), but it clearly isn't working correctly.
You wrack your brains, trying to recall the Sergeant's lecture on the theory of dragons.
>RECALL DRAGON LECTURE
A marcher is built around four incredibly complex alchemical constructs, called dragons. ("Because they'll bite you on the arse if you're careless," runs the joke, but in fact nobody knows the origin of the name.) Pneuma regulates light and air; Baros regulates stability and gravity; Aistheta manages navigation; Syndesis binds the rooms of the marcher together and to its destinations.
The dragons are the Retort's vital organs. Constructing each one took months of work by a crew of trained rectors. The idea that they've gone wrong is deeply disturbing.
>LOOK THROUGH OCULUS AT SYNDESIS
The oculus reveals Syndesis as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It doesn't look good.
The architecture of the marcher is full of holes. The worst are by the secondary alchemy lab, the chymic lab, the opticks lab, and the deck suite.
>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT SYNDESIS
You peer at Syndesis through the lens, but you don't perceive any planetary association at all. It makes sense, you suppose. The dragon is the marcher, and the marcher can never be associated with any single planet.
This confirms a lot of the theories we'd had about what it is that a marcher is, and in particular it seems that the dragon's malfunction is directly responsible for the doors that open to other worlds. When operating correctly, the Retort would seem to exist simultaneously on many worlds, which would explain both the chasm in the basement and the way the basement crawlspaces wrap around in the East Wing.
There's also a sheet of paper here. It's not immediately useful to us, but perhaps it will make more sense once we get more information about its proper context...
quote:
>READ FRAGMENT
You don't recognize the handwriting. "...to combine an aitheric vibration—the transitory structure—with a spark of animation. This is a well-understood technique to create a self-sustaining aitheric form, e.g. memory daimons. But if the supra-aither or soul-aither exists, suggests Gopinathan, then the same technique may be applied..."
Sounds like metaphysics. That's a bit beyond Ensign Forsyth's remit. For now, let's review the barriers before us.
- The Dragon Pneuma lairs in the center of the paper maze. The Lodestone of Centrality is an obvious thing to try here.
- The Dragon Baros presumably lairs in the Barosy, protected by a fancy brass tumbler lock. There aren't obvious things to try here, but there are things.
- The Dragon Aistheta, by process of elimination, lairs on the Bridge. Access to the bridge is blocked because the ladder's jammed. Its counterweight is made of lead, though, so the lead weight increase inscription is an obvious thing to experiment with. Except...
- The Lead Weight Increase Inscription requires Gaian precipitate, which we don't have or know how to make. It might be available in the three places we can't get that are surely holding Neat Things:
- The Deep Stacks have a sheet of paper trapped under an outcropping of coral. We could tear a bit of coral off of it but not enough to free the paper.
- The Exoscaphe Bay has a sheet of paper out in it, but it (and the exoscaphe's upper dome) are in hard vacuum.
- The Storage Nook off the main store has a floor safe whose door is solid lead and which is too heavy to move. Perhaps we can reverse the lead weight inscription? It's got a lot of moving parts, but that's borrowing trouble until we find the Gaian Precipitate.
- Electrum phlogistication would get us an extra unit of elemental fire, but it needs yang oil, which we haven't found and don't know how to make. It also requires a catalytic environment, which needs the platinum wire that we needed to make the electrum rod in the first place. We need more platinum or another way to produce a catalytic environment.
- The Great Marriage is patent nonsense.
Next Time: Given the size of these updates, we'll probably end up resolving about half of these.