Part 14: The Soul of the Marcher
Part 14: The Soul of the MarcherThe 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.
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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.
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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...
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>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.
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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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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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?
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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?
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>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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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*** 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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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.
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.