Part 11: We Mix Things
Part 11: We Mix ThingsAt this point in the game, we've done everything that has been directly cued. So let's do some more experimentation, and also maybe start being systematic about our failures.
As an example, here's how my first attempt to create perfect mud went:
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>PUT SAND IN RETORT
You pour a measure of sand into the retort.
>SPEAK HERMETIC SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.
The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the reservoir of sand.
>PUT ELEMENTAL EARTH IN RETORT
You drop the shard of elemental earth into the retort. The bound's pearly light ripples.
>SPEAK WORD OF ENTENSION
You declaim the word of entension. The world seems to hold its breath.
>PUT ELEMENTAL WATER IN RETORT
You crack open the capsule, and pour the elemental water into the retort. The drops sparkle on the sand; then they sink in and disappear.
>SPEAK WORD OF EMULGENCE
You intone the word of emulgence; it feels creamy on your tongue. The shard of elemental earth and the reservoir of sand shift uneasily towards each other.
My mistake here was in failing to invoke the Crystalline Tempering before adding the elements. Interestingly, though, when you do this, what happens is that the elemental water disappears but the elemental earth does not. In the correct ritual, the shard dissolves but the water persists, forming a quicksand vortex.
Sometimes it isn't obvious whether a ritual is being done properly until it's too late.
Maybe we can get a more exciting failure out of a more volatile substance. Let's forget the word of entention while creating bamuriatic acid.
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>PUT FLUORSPAR IN RETORT. PUT VITRIOL IN RETORT.
You put the fluorspar crystal into the retort.
You pour a measure of vitriolic acid into the retort.
>SPEAK HERMETIC SEALING. TURN ON BURNER. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Hermetic Sealing.
The retort's equator begins to glow pearl-grey around the fluorspar crystal and the reservoir of vitriolic acid.
You twist the knob. The gas burner hisses, and then bursts into flame.
The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.
Time passes.
The gas flame heats the vitriolic acid.
Time passes.
The vitriolic acid bubbles over the flame.
Time passes.
The fluorspar crystal slowly dissolves into the acid, giving it a rich amber tint.
>TURN OFF BURNER. PUT SALINE IN RETORT.
You twist the knob. The gas burner goes silent, and the blue flames die.
You add a quantity of saline to the retort. Hot amber acid bubbles and spatters around the inside of the retort, but the diluted result eventually settles down.
Aw. Doing it right said there was "no boiling or explosion", but we don't really get that, either. Instead we get a dilute "moderate acid" that we can't do anything with but flush out with the dump lever.
Messing with the words of entension or culmination when they aren't necessary is a bit flavorful but has no real effects:
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>SPEAK WORD OF CULMINATION
You declaim the word of culmination. It seems out of place, however.
>SPEAK WORD OF ENTENSION
You declaim the word of entension. The world seems to hold its breath, although you're not sure for what.
>SPEAK CULMINATION
You declaim the word of culmination. It echoes, as if the world has been waiting ages for such a thing.
And, because the thread demanded it:
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>DRINK BAMURIATIC
Not for all the orichalcum in New Wales.
So much for intentional or typo-based failures. Let's do some actual experimentation.
Starting with the traditional magic words, which of course have no place in modern scientific alchemical theory:
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>XYZZY
[That's not an action I understand.]
>RECALL XYZZY
You read about this magic word in a fantasy novel once.
>SAY XYZZY
You don't know how to pronounce that.
That last isn't generic, mind you. Normally if you invoke or speak some text the game doesn't know, it just tells you "You don't know any such formula."
PLUGH behaves identially to XYZZY in all those commands, incidentally. PLOVER, on the other hand, does not, which is only right and proper. PLOVER was not, as I understand it, originally intended to be a magic word: the puzzle for which PLOVER was the solution takes you to the "Plover Room" as a response to that command. It wasn't an intrinsically magical teleport—you were expected to cynically exploit the fact that its primitive equivalent of >GO TO PLOVER ROOM was in fact a teleport.
Enough of magic. It's time, once again, for science.
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>RECALL LEAD WEIGHT INCREASE
"TROUTMAN'S INSCRIPTION, to INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF LEAD: (This unusual ritual derives from the Subcontinent, but we translate it into European terms.) Create an anchored (Saturnine) environment. Place any common bit of stone into the bound, and invoke a simple sealing. Add a resinous note to the atmosphere; speak a word of essential nature; add a measure of Gaian precipitate. Conclude with the Binding of the Celestial Sphere, to align the alchemical axis (Earth-Saturn, low-high) with the mundane axis of gravitation."
We have two angles on opening the lead safe in the Storage Nook. One of them is reversing this ritual to make lead lighter. Perhaps we can invert the Earthly and the Saturnine aspects of the ritual? Let's start by swapping the Horn coin we used for a Saturnine environment and the granite chip for the Earthly component:
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>PUT GRANITE ON SHELF
You put the chip of granite on the gestalt shelf.
>PUT HORN IN BOUND
You put the horn coin into the pedestal bound.
>SPEAK SIMPLE SEALING
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the simple sealing word.
The arc begins to glow beige around the horn coin.
>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its distinct resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.
>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature, but the pronunciation is off. Probably the symbolism of the horn coin complicates its material nature.
Whoops. Well. What else is Saturnine? Lead itself, it turns out:
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>LOOK THROUGH LENS AT LEAD ROD
You peer at the lead rod through the lens, and perceive an association with Saturn.
Still no dice, though:
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>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature, but it wavers as you speak it. Apparently the lead rod has too complex a material nature to evoke in this way.
We'll have to delay our investigations here. The other suggestion for opening the rod was simply to melt it down with elemental fire: We >PERFORM GOLD IGNITION. GO TO STORAGE NOOK. and then:
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>EXAMINE COVER
This lead panel must cover some kind of shielded storage compartment. It's closed.
>MELT COVER
(with the flaming phlogisticated gold rod)
Randomly setting things on fire won't help.
Aw, come on, parser, it isn't random!
We've been foiled for now. The last thing for us to try is the Great Marriage. Removing the marginalia and internal monologue, here's the ritual:
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THE GREAT MARRIAGE must be performed at the Heart of the House, in an Orderly Environment. Employ the Marcher's Invocation to seal an empty Bound. Add a Signifier of the Marcher's Location to the Gestalt; waft a Resinous Note. Now add the Four Elements to the Bound, and invoke the Dragon.
Let's see how much of this we can do.
- Heart of the House: Do the ritual in the Nave, which we describe as the "heart of the marcher."
- Orderly Environment: The thick key on the gestalt shelf will do that for us.
- Marcher's Invocation: Is a formula we know (it was on the sheet).
- Resinous Note: Wave the rosemary, swabbie.
- Signifier of the Marcher's Location: When we put the clock tincture into the horological calculator, it said the armillary sphere looked like the view through the windows. The ephemeris billet may be just what we need here.
- The Four Elements: Presumably Wood doesn't count. We've gotten these before, we'll just do it again.
- Invoke the Dragon: We know of four dragons. Unfortunately for us, trying to invoke any of them gives us the "You don't know any such formula" rejection if we try it while wandering about the Retort.
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>RESET. GET ROSEMARY. FIND ELEMENTAL EARTH. GET IT. PERFORM GOLD IGNITION. FIND ELEMENTAL WATER. GET IT.
Here's a fun thing. Since ritual requirements can sometimes be behind barriers, we can get ourselves into a minor spot of trouble if we're too casual about it:
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>PERFORM PROPHYLACTIC SCALPEL
You make your way to the Materials Store.
You take the long quartz prism from the storage bin.
You make your way to the Chymic Lab.
You take the impet of citronelle oil.
You make your way to the Main Store.
You recall the combination, and unlock the safe.
You take the orichalcum rod from the safe.
You make your way to the Library.
You take the rotor card.
You make your way to the Opticks Annex.
You conjure an impermeability symbol onto the long quartz prism.
You make your way to the Medical Wing Hallway.
You apply the impermeability symbol to yourself and stride through the cloud.
You make your way to the Medical Wing.
You take the crusty scalpel.
You aeroclave the scalpel clean.
You conjure a prophylaxis symbol onto the clean scalpel.
(You are now in the Medical Workroom.)
That puts us behind the aura vortex, though it also puts us where we need to be to get elemental air.
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>GET BUBBLE. WEST. PUT BUBBLE ON TANK.
That's all the elements. The last thing we need is the signifier of the marcher's location:
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>GO TO OBSERVATORY
The scalpel is already inscribed with the prophylaxis symbol.
You strike the gong and wave the scalpel.
You make your way to the Observatory.
Observatory
This is the observatory, the Retort's guiding eye. The dome overhead is set with windows, and each window shows a different sky and a different array of stars.
One level above you, an ironwork bridge crosses the dome, north to south. A ladder descends at either end, but only one of the two is lowered, and that one is obstructed by a fracture that cuts off the north side of the dome. The south-side ladder is folded up under the bridge; its counterweight hangs near the floor.
The door to the east is open. Open alcoves to the north and south house additional equipment, but again, the north side is fracture-blocked. You also see the flooded crawlway hatch at your feet.
In the center of the chamber, beneath the bridge, stands the compass pedestal.
>SOUTH
Observatory Alcove, South
This alcove houses the magnificent Horological Calculator—a complex machine whose controls include an armillary sphere, a dial, and a slot. There's a blank tin slip in the slot.
Two papers, a coarse sheet and a delicate sheet, have been discarded here.
>CREATE EPHEMERIS BILLET
You set the spheres to the coordinates you remember, and run the tin slip through.
Well, we have all we need. Meanwhile, there's been a request to try to kill ourselves with all the elements.
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>BURN SELF
(with the flaming phlogisticated gold rod)
Elemental fire would consume your flesh instantly.
Boring.
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>DRINK WATER
As a pure elemental substance, the water will draw any impurities into itself. Your body is made of impure water. Allowing the elemental water to touch you would—well, it wouldn't turn you into a splash of brine, but it would poison you pretty effectively.
Hands off the pure elementals, swabbie. No marchmen will melt themselves in my classroom.
Seen it already.
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>DISCHARGE BUBBLE ON SELF
Elemental air is wonderfully corrosive. Wonderful, that is, when it comes to cleaning metal and glass. Not so wonderful when it touches your skin. You don't do it.
No snorting the pure elementals, swabbie. No marchmen will melt themselves in my classroom.
Checks out.
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>TOUCH EARTH SHARD
As a pure elemental substance, the shard will draw anything it touches to its own level of crystalline harmony. That's not good for the elementally mixed substance you call your body. Elemental burns are nastier and more painful than frostbite. This shard is set into a crystal bezel, so that you can handle it safely.
The least dangerous, but still dangerous. I was wondering about why we were so casual about it, once we'd found the other elemental substances.
We've procrastinated long enough. Let's at least act out the beginning of this fairy tale.
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>PUT KEY ON SHELF
You put the thick key on the gestalt shelf.
>SPEAK MARCHER'S INVOCATION
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the Marcher's Sealing.
The arc begins to glow smoke-grey.
>PUT BILLET ON SHELF
You put the ephemeris billet on the gestalt shelf.
>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its fresh, resinous aroma. The air seems to sharpen.
>DISCHARGE BUBBLE IN BOUND
You twist the bubble's valve, and carefully vent the elemental air into the bound. It whisks around the arc, and slowly thickens into an indistinct haze in the circle.
>PUT EARTH SHARD IN BOUND
The grey light ripples as you push through the arc. The shard of elemental earth does not fall. It hangs in the center of the circle, spinning and spinning, until it blurs into the thickening haze.
>PUT FIRE IN BOUND
(the flaming phlogisticated gold rod in the pedestal bound)
The grey light ripples as you push through the arc. The elemental fire leaps from the rod; you pull the cold rod back. The flame whirls unsupported in the center of the arc, slowly dimming into the thickening haze.
>PUT WATER IN BOUND
You crack open the capsule, and pour the elemental water into the bound. The sparkling drops never land on the workbench surface. Instead, they whirl around the arc, and slowly fade into the thickening haze.
The whirling haze seems to expand and thicken.
You sense a ripple in the air—outside the bound, which is impossible. You look around. The black marks on the wall are... moving, flowing, coming free... being drawn towards the pedestal. That's bad.
You hear the walls creaking. You smell blood and copal incense. You feel the whirling force of the ritual against your mind. This is bad, you think.
Oh dear. That sounds familiar.
Next time:
