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Awake
Mar 4, 2009 4:41:12 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Mar 4, 2009 4:41:12 GMT -5
Brother Onk's dream continued.
As he walked through places familiar, a resonance afflicted him. Everything was wrong. Buildings were shaped differently. People he knew were older or younger, taller or shorter than they should be. Different colors. Different species. Things were in the wrong place. The school where he had spent a year... three of the walls were made of steel instead of wood. Another was missing, covered in plastic sheets that blew in the wind.
Then he came to it. A cathedral of sorts. A tall building that rose from the barren land. The middle was empty and encased in glass, but either side was imposing concrete. Inside was an enormous atrium. Littered with bones. Eerie music played from all corners. Ahead were a series of terraces, upon each sat a row of lords in wicked dress and armor. The top most tier had their lord of lords wearing a battle suit of black and blood.
"Why do you come to my kingdom vicious creature?" yelled the armored one.
"I come to face the truth."
"You lie. You have never faced it and never will. The truth would only kill you. Rend your bones, mash your flesh, and drink your blood."
"Why have you been king?"
"I am not king. Kings must die. I will not die."
Onk shook his head. "You lord over a kingdom of death. You are a king!"
"If you really wish the truth to be yours, do what you most feared might happen and that must never happen, ever. Only then will you uncover what is your greatest fear. You will find your truth. And then you will know that I am not a king."
-----
The Mink in blue sat up with a start. The wooden floor creaked under his shifting weight, alerting his mate to his movements.
"Something wrong?" asked Quar.
Onk nodded. "It was the dream again."
Quar sat up and hugged the other mink. "I'm sorry love. Anything I can do?"
"No... except..."
Quar nuzzled Onk.
"Except... forgive me."
Quar whined. "So you're going to do it then. I told you they wouldn't let you. You'll only cause trouble. They kick you off the council if you leave too."
"I don't care about the council," growled Onk. "Bunch of week willed fogies. Elections are soon anyway. They don't matter. I don't matter here."
Quar rubbed Onk's shoulders. "I will go with you."
Onk nodded. "You don't need to, but it would be appreciated."
-----
"Onk! Stop now! This is madness!"
Onk picked up the shovel and gazed into his fellow brother of the Upper Claw, Swall. "Madness? This is our answer. Our own teachings have lead me to this. Truth is truth that must be known if it important. This is important. Scientists will be here soon as well."
Onk pushed past Swall. Swall yelled, "This is against our highest notions!"
-----
The dig site was small. Which was needed as the small plot next to the slab was the only place they had managed to cordon off before the rest of the pilgrims swarmed them. Even as they broke ground the chants grew louder than the equipment.
As the first day came to a close, they had dipped ten feet down and were ready to start moving towards the tomb. Security that night was never quiet as the pilgrims remained active all night.
The following morning they began to burrow under the slab. But only to run into the slab. They had underestimated its thickness by far. Another ten feet and another day. The deeper hole was reinforced extensively to prevent cave ins, now much more likely in the dry Pargalonian winter air.
They had started after the first semi-thaw of the season and if they didn't work quickly the ground would freeze again as the next winter storm moved in.
Again, they hit only stone. Murmurs began to circulate that perhaps this wasn't a tomb at all, but simply a large flat rock that people thought was a tomb. A decision was made, they'd dip to 40 feet before giving up.
Two days later, they dug their way towards the slab.
They ran into it once more. But this time it wasn't simply a smooth stone surface. Small lettering, impossibly dense began at 37 feet and was practically solid as far down as they had dug.
Brother Onk was at a loss for what any of it said, as were the scientists. Tinisian linguists were flown in three days later. A few attempts were made by the pilgrims to rush the hole or to throw dirt in it.
Among the linguists was a Dr. Camus Termrag. Upon inspection of the writing she determined that it was indeed derived from ancient Tinisian. But that she had never seen anything like it. She and the other linguists would spend another five days working on it. During those days, a new effort began by the digging team to excavate around the tomb to try to find all the writing at that depth, after which they would begin working down until they could find a bottom.
----
"Thank you for coming Onk," said Camus. "And you Swall."
"I'm here representing the Upper Claw, nothing more," said Swall.
Onk only smiled at this claim.
"Yes, well have a seat please. There's been some success on working out what the writing says. And it was deemed important enough to share it with both of you."
"Thanks for being generous," said Swall.
Camus shrugged as her tail swished annoyed. "We think they are instructions. However we're not entirely sure what they are instructing or what they mean beyond that. The phrases we've been able to put together seem at first like logic puzzles, but when you put them in order, their results seem to build on each other."
Onk leaned on the table between him and the scientist. "That is interesting. Do you think its some sort of directive for Glorvanists? Or is it more general? Or something else entirely?"
"My instincts suggest something else entirely. The most obvious actions we've figured out so far come from puzzles that suggest answers of placement or affix, black, capacitor, through or past. Another is: twist, blade, orbit or around, push or pull. Any insight on what that means?"
The two believers leaned back. Swall frowning, Onk smiling.
"I'm going to write a letter," said Onk.
Swall shook his head. "I hope its the letter Fa for Fail."
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Awake
May 18, 2009 21:29:33 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on May 18, 2009 21:29:33 GMT -5
Swall strutted into Onk's tent. "Any luck with your letters?" he asked expecting the answer to be no.
Onk looked up at the boar with a grin. "Actually the first of the helpers will be coming in next week it looks like. Camus won't be alone any more in trying to figure out the riddles as some of these folks seem like quite the bright bits of clay."
Swall's half grin faded. "So who you got coming in?"
"There's a couple anthropologists, a scientist, possibly several actually, they weren't exactly clear. The reply came from a friend of the person I contacted. At least one of them is supposed to have some skill at Genius' equation. A trio of academics whom together specialize in small historical site excavation and preservation. A decent photographer. And an electricity expert."
Swall seemed pleased at the mention of preservation. But confused by the last part. "What kind of expert did you say?"
Onk shrugged, "The riddles in a couple spots seem to mention capacitors and currents. Thought it might be useful to have someone who knows what they're doing point us to what that might mean."
Swall then asked, "I hope you're not wasting their time. How are you paying them?"
"I'm not. Some use the academic travel system of our friends in the Union, others seem to come and go as they please and have volunteered their time. Tinis can be a wonderful place for allowing people to leave it for a time."
Swall nodded. "Any foreigners?"
"Don't be xenophobic my brother. Some of them may be. Don't get in a hoot about it all if they are."
"I was meaning more in, would they respect the site."
Onk giggled. "You who accuse me of wanting to defile the tomb, who doesn't trust your friend whom you have shared so much time and knowledge with..."
Swall shook his head and left.
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Awake
Jul 22, 2009 0:51:24 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Jul 22, 2009 0:51:24 GMT -5
"Well this is rather disappointing," commented Doron while he and Sana toured the school once run by Genius. The class rooms were full of broken desks. The libraries had few books, most of which were rotten with decay.
"What do you expect?" asked Sana. "Its a wonder the old regime didn't torch the place. To call Wune and Jirie's rule here insane would be an understatement."
Their guide, a very twitchy feline spoke up, "Not everything was lost. This way."
The feline lead them down dark halls and into one of the libraries. She then pushed hard against one of the book cases. The grinding of some mechanism echoed through the halls. Of course behind it was a stairway leading down.
Soon, under the school, the trio found themselves in a new room. A flick of the lights revealed a hall full of wonders. Almost a late steam punk mad scientist lab in prevue, but all of the machines decayed and non-functioning.
"Now this is more like it," said Sana grinning at the draco-lich.
Doron and Sana began inspecting the remains of the machines as their guide said, "We're not entirely sure but we suspect this might of been one of Genius' labs. The devices are just to unusual, with no real analogue to anything any of us have ever heard about before, to be just some random lab or machine shop."
"You got that right," commented Doron. "I think this one might be a rudimentary Haderech Drive. Not anywhere near complete... but it was on its way."
"Unfortunately, there were no papers down here," announced the cat. "Would of been useful."
Sana poked her head inside one of the larger devices. "Smells like bananas in here," she said before emerging again. "That's very strange."
Doron went to Sana and followed her lead in looking inside. "Very interesting. No bananas here. Its certainly making me feel... different..." Pulling out again. "Yes... no...? I don't think this is a very pleasant place any more."
"What's this?" asked Sana, whom had already moved on. Doron and the feline looked over. She was holding a solid blue cube. Sana then blinked a few times and began to wobble. The cube fell to the floor as the feline caught Sana as she collapsed.
------
Sana woke up a upstairs in a cot. Half panicked she sat up. Doron being the first person she spotted didn't help matters. She screamed briefly before her senses came back.
"Welcome back," said Doron. "I think you need to be less stupid about picking up random objects in a mad scientists lair."
"Thanks... what happened?"
"You picked up this," said Doron holding the blue cube. "I don't know what it is. Maybe you might."
"It... it... hmm..." Sana thought for a minute. "Remember when Kam picked up the trippy sphere?"
Doron nodded. "You had a vision?"
"I think... its hard remembering. A few flashes of things. But none of it made sense. It... was painful..."
"See anything interesting?"
"Uhh... kinda... horrible things mostly. People I know hurt or being hurt." Sana looked down a bit. "I don't think I want to talk about it."
"I don't think its active any more. I can't get it to freak me out."
Sana pondered for a moment what sort of things could cause Doron to feel pain, fear, and ultimate guilt. The thoughts were forced out as she realized that such thoughts were counter productive.
"Lets... lets get going..."
Doron nodded. "I hope you don't mind if I take this with me."
Sana scowled at the cube. "If that is a praxi-cube or what ever, I hope you know what you're doing with it."
Doron nodded. "It could also just be a cube that has psycho-active substances on its surface."
Sana twitched her ears. "I'm not dumb sir. It might not be a praxi-cube, but there's gotta be a good reason you'd want to drag it around with us."
-----
The jeep with the two scientists, another passenger, and the local driver stopped at a landing strip on its way towards the tomb. The passenger got off and the driver went off for a spell leaving the two in the back seat. Doron was holding the cube up and inspecting it.
"Its pretty much flawless."
"Ugh, leave it alone won't you?" asked Sana with a sigh.
"I think Genius made it. Its my best guess so far."
Sana shook her head. "Any clue what it is yet?"
"I... I'm still not sure... Probably a system equation based device, but... I can't see any deeper than you can. And why is it blue? Really. Blue? Why not some sort of insane pattern or mirrored? But perfect sky blue?"
Someone was coming near the jeep from behind. Doron put the cube back in his bag. "An enigma for sure."
"You do seem to be full of them," said a voice from outside. Doron looked up at the rear view mirror and almost groaned.
"So where you two off to?" asked the new comer.
"None of your business," said Doron slightly annoyed.
"Uhh..." said Sana, a little surprised. "We're off to Glorvan's Tomb."
"Joining the dig eh?"
"Why do you care?" replied Doron.
"Because I was asked to help out there. Something about riddles or something. Got a letter asking for help with electrical capacitance issues, and ask one of the biggest walking capacitors around, I figured I'd come myself instead of sending off someone else whom wouldn't have nearly as much fun. Or would and whom wouldn't be me. Besides, I don't have much to do these days. I'm not scheduled to get a real job again for a century or so due to how much forward taxes I've put into the system back home."
The newcomer was already crawling into the front seat of the jeep. His wings were already poking at Doron's legs.
"Its... an honor Fir..."
"Nope. I'm not First Speaker any more. I'm just citizen Izixs. Even retired entirely from the military. Don't need to get called up randomly for the moment."
"Its still an honor," finished Sana.
The driver came back and shortly they were on their way towards the tomb.
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Awake
Jul 25, 2009 20:02:51 GMT -5
Post by miokalia on Jul 25, 2009 20:02:51 GMT -5
"I apologize. Politicians. You know.
After last years' elections I forgot that there are still politicians, former ones at least, that are something more than just politicians.", said Doron concilliatorily.
He continued, "Also, heads up, I think there's going to be another wave of curious folks dropping by. Let's just hope it doesn't get too crowded there.
We've got a Mr. Toht, who is a... self-styled 'technical paranormal scientist'. I guess he measures ghosts and spirits in exact units or something. He might be a total crackpot, although apparently he has someone who thinks highly enough of him to get research sponsorship to come out here. And there's supposed be a Mr. Arolf, who has recently taken a hiatus from another archaeology project. I've never met either of them that I know of, but there's some other people who were in our Syseiq group in Arx that did. And when someone sets their personal social webmail password to "haha" then knowledge travels."
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Awake
Jul 25, 2009 20:37:36 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Jul 25, 2009 20:37:36 GMT -5
"Can't say I heard of either of them," said the dragon. " At least that I can remember. I have no idea how many people will be there, but from what I've learned, there's been a whole dig team there for a while now."
"I think we've been aware," replied Sana. "It was kind of implied in the original letter. And something about riddles."
Izixs laughed. "Yes, I found that a tad amusing."
"Why?" asked Doron.
"Easy, according to ancient writings, Glorvan would use stories to teach, questions to encourage learning, but would reserve riddles for those whom were trying to do harm. Of course, if all of this is how things actually panned out and will pan out with this thing, then perhaps we're all walking into a trap?"
As the dragon shrugged, the rabbit in back looked out the window. In her mind played visions of what this land must of looked like a century ago. For miles it seemed were nothing but broken rotten stumps. An entire forest felled a few years ago, probably by the previous regime.
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Awake
Jul 27, 2009 23:01:32 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Jul 27, 2009 23:01:32 GMT -5
The jeep barreled through the spot where a large iron gate once stood between the walls of the fortification around the tomb. Now most the walls were gone, either destroyed or dismantled. The frame of the old gate remained though, its supports buried deep down so as to make it difficult for something trying to ram the fort.
Once past the gate and the immediacy of the walls, the jeep slowed and entered the large open space in the center. Well, former open space. A tent city ringed the middle, with peoples of various species and attired going about their business. Then there was the ring of excavation. Machinery for digging the trench or moving dirt away from the tomb were parked all around it. The trench itself was fully braced from what the passengers could tell.
Then there was the Tomb of Glorvan in the middle. A seemingly flat topped stone cylinder. Grey and smooth from what they could tell. The jeep parked.
"So that's it?" asked Doron as they got out of the jeep.
"Yes," replied Izixs. "Its been many years since I've seen in. Pretty much everything except the tomb itself is different here. They even cut down the dead lemon tree."
"Lemon tree?" asked Sana.
A mink walked up before an answer could be given. "Hello there, I have been expecting... all three of you I think. Call me Brother Onk, or just Onk. I dare say..." Onk moved up towards Doron. "I hath never seen something like yourself before. This land has seen many horrors... but at least your own is beautiful." Onk turned then to the dragon, "And I hear this is your first trip back since days long past."
"Yes. I decided I had gained and lost enough to be able to get past the pain that kept me away. That and the shoot on sight order is no longer in effect."
Onk then turned to Sana. "And though I don't know you or your boney friend's names, I must say that if I were to spend an evening in light conversation I'd much rather do it with a beautiful rabbit such as yourself."
"And for a moment I thought I was the most pretty flower," said Doron flatly.
"The name's Sana. And if you're curious, I do have a bit of a beau. And by the looks of that earring, you do too."
Onk grinned. "Yes, you got me there. But he might not object to much to my behavior." Onk gave a wink. "And what's your name then?" he asked of Doron.
----
A few minutes later, more introductions were being made. Dr. Camus Termrag had become de-facto leader of the team thus assembled. There were the anthropologists Ablitz Mragtada and Ferdale Olmi, whom were best known for their work on the cultural development of the Apolytam since expulsion from Tinis. Also arrived were the trio of historical diggers, doctors Wat, Ki'mrag'tot, and Vermillion. They had already been at work for a few weeks uncovering the remainder of the writing and had been spending the morning showing the site to Mr. Arolf. There was also the photographer, a western born human named Billy Sraehs.
Onk explained that there were a few more folks who would be arriving later that day still. That evening he hoped everyone would be up for a round table of the unknowns and unknowns over dinner in the mess tent. Shortly after, the recent arrivals were shown to tents.
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Awake
Jul 28, 2009 0:21:01 GMT -5
Post by miokalia on Jul 28, 2009 0:21:01 GMT -5
Mr. Arolf was unusually tall. A slightly brown and grey coyote. He looked almost Erenmoren with his northern-looking features. Although his fur hung oddly and some of the others there thought it might have been some kind of disease. Although Doron instantly knew what it was when he saw him, if not from having seen that effect on another fur before, then from his previous knowledge of Mr. Arolf's work. "Mr. Arrrrolf.", said Doron, as he approached him in the mess tent. Arrolf was drinking something that appeared to be gin from a personal tin bottle, in a rugged kind of fashion. He looked over at Doron and his tail went down, the words "Oh no. You again." could almost be read silently from his mouth. "Mr. Xoto Arolf. What brings you so very very very far to this place?", asked Doron, "Why the hell is someone like you drinking gin?"
"BECAUSE", said Arolf firmly, "I can drink gin if I want to.
You got some nerve coming out here like that. Are you trying to creep the good folks out on purpose or are you just trying to create ambience? Since after all, this is a tomb."
"Likewise, you have some lack of nerve and/or huevos for coming out here hiding in that shaggy throw rug of yours.", said Doron, "It's good to see you again."
"Indeed, indeed. It's been too long. So what have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know. The underlying mathmatical programming of the universe. Intrigue and stuff. You?"
"Meh. Chasing down 2000 year old ghosts, opening Pandora's Boxes, Giving the folks back home reasons to stay wide awake at night." Arolf took another drink of gin. "So, do you know Mr. Tdoht?"
"I can't say I do"
"He's a supposed 'technical paranormal scientist'. I keep imagining Egon Spengler from ghostbusters for some reason.
He's totally going to zap you with his proton pack blaster thing."
"Just fantastic", said Doron.
"Actually, he's supposedly already here. I think he's the raptor with the goggles over there.", Arolf indicated someone sitting nearby, "The goggles and the bandages on his tail"
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Awake
Jul 28, 2009 0:48:58 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Jul 28, 2009 0:48:58 GMT -5
Izixs was not exactly happy with his tent. Setting his satchel inside he surveyed the rubble around the site. "Ah," he said as he spotted the rusted and twisted remains of a guard tower in the south western corner. A few moments later he was air born and on his way there. He circled around a few times to be sure it wasn't doom to land on it. Upon landing, the tower creaked slightly. The dragon clamored to the top of the tower to perch and looked out at the ruins, the dig site, and the more pleasant land beyond. "Much better."
-----
Sana wandered into the mess tent. Already present was most those she had already met. Her long ears perked as she tried to figure out if she wanted to join a conversation already in progress. After a bit, she realized a goggle wearing raptor was not yet being conversed with and figured she might as well say hello.
Along the way she was stopped by Dr. Vat Wat whom wanted to know if she'd seen the full print out of the writing yet or not. After a brief conversations and a 'no, haven't seen it', she progressed further only to be paused again, but this time by Ferdale who asked her how the Centralis Physics Ball team was doing. Another denial of knowledge later and she was finally saying hello to the odd Mr. Tdoht.
"Hello there, I'm Sana. I'm one of the scientists who knows nothing about digging. Are you part of the investigation team?" Before a reply could be made, "And what happened to your tail?"
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Awake
Dec 28, 2009 1:25:58 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Dec 28, 2009 1:25:58 GMT -5
CAST PAGE
-Because this one probably needs it!
Pargalonians: Brother Onk - Mink (dyed blue fur) Quar - Mink, Onk's best friend and lover (dyed orange) Swall - Upper Claw high up muckity muck, bobcat (dyed purple)
Tinisians: Dr. Camus Termrag - Linguist, one of three, feline Sana - Rabbit, mathematician, sort of dating a skunk back home Izixs - Pargalonian dragon, recovering politician, son of a bitch Ablitz Mragtada - anthropologist, fox Ferdale Olmi - anthropologist, wolverine Wat, Kl'mrag'tot, Vermillion - trio of historical site excavators, not really important
From further afield: Doron - Dracolich, he's like this guy, ya know? Mr. Toht - technical paranormal scientist, bandaged up raptor Mr. Xoto Arolf - archaeologist, looks like a coyote Billy Sraehs - photographer, human, Canadian, wears sweaters
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Awake
Dec 28, 2009 1:46:57 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Dec 28, 2009 1:46:57 GMT -5
Before the evening's meeting, the dragon in the tower took a nap.
------
He stood alone in a dark forest. What little light there was seemed to come from the trees themselves. And it was fading. As the night took over his eyes adjusted. He began to walk. He was quiet but not silent. Then he paused. There were other things now about him. In the near total darkness he could make out moving shapes between the trees. The life of the forest was here now. Cousins of his friends, the non-sapient residents of such places. Moving, eating, hunting, loving, searching, exploring, hiding, fearing, resting, birthing, playing, squawking, jittering...
The brief vision of these lives of the night is broken. His eyes need to adjust again as now instead of the weak reflections of star light giving only the faintest hint of his surroundings, there is the brightest spot light from above. And mechanical sounds. And gun fire.
He dives to the side, away from the center of the spot light. Towards a tree. Bullets rip into his flesh. He bleeds and roars, but will not fall yet. He begins to run despite his major wounds. He slaps the ground with his tail. His mind doesn't register why, but his instincts command it as his left leg can not fully spring him into the next step. So his tail, injured and cut as well, pushes the ground down when he must use that leg.
He tries to charge. To create enough friction in his head to project a blast of electrical current towards what must be a helicopter of some sort that is now moving after him. His head aches and sparks shoot from a broken horn. His horn saved his life. But that one would not hold a charge. It became a short circuit with a bullet buried deep inside. He could not hold a charge.
Gun fire chased after him and it struck him in the back and sliced through his wings. He fell to the ground as blood entered his lungs. He glanced around looking for cover. None. He began to pull himself along the ground. Bullets impacted in front of him. He stopped. Someone was on the ground near by. They were coming closer. Did he have enough strength to spring at them?
"Move and you're dead," came a voice. It was not a voice he had ever heard but he knew it some how. As if it was a voice upon which voices sought to emulate. "Stay down. Just stay down."
"Why," he coughed out.
"Heh." The voice continued, "Because you've tasted the forbidden fruit. And for that you must be contained or die.
"I don't understand. You... you vile thing..." he coughed a few more times. "You are a being of no soul if you must murder."
"Wake up sleepy head," came a different voice.
----
Izixs' eyes snapped open. They were already focused on the rabbit whom had climbed the tower.
"Heh, and I was told I might have to push you off the side before you'd wake up."
"Sana... hi."
She smiled. "Did I wake you from a dream?"
Izixs nodded as he lifted himself up. "Not a very good one. So I guess I should thank you." Izixs rubbed his back. No holes there. "I'll be down in a few. No worries. Now how'd you get up here?"
"I hopped silly," she said, which was half a truth. But enough of it. "Now to make sure everyone else who opted to nap is still awake."
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Awake
Feb 2, 2010 23:18:23 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Feb 2, 2010 23:18:23 GMT -5
The table was covered in print outs of the riddles, both as photographs and as translated text. All those whom had come to help were pouring over the pages and arguing over the meanings of each clue and question. Except for Camus of course since she had been the one whom had translated most of it with the aid of her colleges in the first place and posed the initial answers.
"The trouble is they wouldn't of had record players in 4th century Pargalo. So that doesn't make much sense. On the other hand, if you use the second meaning of 'lakfexieti', it might imply a dance where one spins a lot," added Abltz
"So this group phrase has a subject of a dance?" replied Sana. "Think I should add it to the list of anomalous results?"
The dragon at the table leaned back. "Ya know, we've been at this for hours now. And we're not even a third of the way through this mess. Nothing seems to point towards a direct answer on what this giant bit of rock is about or how to open it up, if indeed it can be. Are there other options?"
"If you mean breaking in," answered Onk. "I'm sure my brothers would cease their cooperation. What more, people have tried. The great enemies now gone shot cannons at the top and did not do more than leave a scorch mark that has since wash off. At least that's what legend says. That was a few years before I was born supposedly."
Camus nodded. "Indeed, its not exactly what it appears to be. The chemical analysis still can't pull it apart properly, but what they've managed to burn off of it there's a great deal of carbon, sodium, and tungsten in the tomb's room. And finding any that would chip off short of bringing in industrial equipment and thus irking the locals was damn near impossible. The few scrapings we got were from the corners. Its not rock. We're sure of that now."
----
"Where does it being? Where does it end? What does any of this mean?" yelled Ferdale. It had grown dark. He and Izixs were the only ones still either awake or present.
"It doesn't end," answered the dragon. "It wraps around the whole thing as a circle. No start, no end. Its a loop. As for the meaning… well, if I would have to guess at this point, the riddle is either a trap, or its exactly what its supposed to be."
Ferdale tilted his head and raised an ear. "And what is it supposed to be?"
The dragon grinned. "A couple years back they dredged up a ship from the exodus from Pargalo. Contained the library of a dearly departed friend of mine. When I was able to get a copy of the scans of some of the books I enjoyed some classics that I had read m'self a number of years ago. And a few others from her collection. You see, Genius surmised that somewhere there were instructions on how to enter Glorvan's tomb without being killed off. And that those instructions were either buried near by, or encoded in something left behind. Would seem that she might of been correct on both counts."
Ferdale frowned. "And how do you suppose she figured that then? She had an impressive resume but I don't remember archaeology being on the list of credits."
"Easy, she read it in a book."
"Ok, which book."
Izixs nodded. "An early copy of Tail of Stars. Someone had scrawled notes in the back on some matters of interest to her. And among them was a mention of such things. I read the notes m'self before coming up here."
Ferdale was now much more interested. "What kind of notes? Like did they say anything else?"
"Most of the notes were on the origins of the monarch election process in the early years, and how it actually worked as to how it was supposed to work. This included mentions of rumors and words of sages of the time. And just thrown in there was a mention of encoded messages left by Glorvan to find him if the elections ever when afoul. And worries that they might indeed be buried near the tomb as someone named Ivortral claimed."
"That name is familiar."
Izixs nodded. "He was my great great grandfather. Killed by Lilumeleate the second in 832 CE. So dead before even my grandfather was alive."
Ferdale was familiar with the long lifespans of these species before him but such spans of time always caught him off guard.
"And if I remember rightly," said Ferdale. "Ivortral is claimed to of known Glorivixs whom was a late associate of Glorvan's, taking part of her name as her own. And thus likely to of known things."
"Exactly. So yeah, I think its a clue on how to get in. And not a trap."
-----
At lunch, Sana was interrupted by an excited Wat.
"Hey, you. We think we've found the bottom of the column. Everyone had been there a number of days and were nearly done with the primary pass over the riddles of the tomb.
"Hit bottom? Like you hit solid rock?"
"No no, we mean we found the under side of the cylinder."
-----
Over the next few days the decided to and began work on a tunnel under the cylinder of faux-rock to pass through the axis. The work was difficult but steady. Despite a depth of over 60 feet, they were still working mostly through compacted clay and not bed rock. Though with the pressure of the tomb above, it would likely be a couple thousand years before the clays had been baked into something harder. Even then, there were still large rocks to move out of the way as they went.
They started such a tunnel but were unable to complete it. For on the third day of work they encountered more of the faux rock. A much smaller radius cylindrical extenuation of the main event. But there was no writing. There was however a door. But no knobs or levers to open it with. And after some extensive tries, no budging either.
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Awake
Feb 6, 2010 5:23:25 GMT -5
Post by miokalia on Feb 6, 2010 5:23:25 GMT -5
Near evening, during a pause in the activity, Tdoht came out to do his work. Weird equipment and recorders all of which, in their odd applications, seemed almost comical. Doron watched him, initially hoping to start an argument about the scientific basis of these things for which Mr. Tdoht was looking for with what seemed like an array of TV ghost-hunting equipment. The raptor set up a tripod with a lazer and then a rail mount which would cover about 90 degrees of the cylinder. He placed a small motorized rolling cart onto the rail when Doron asked, "Archaeaccoustics? Seems a little too cinematic to work, don't you think?"
"My job is to exhaust all the highly unlikely possibilities here. The ones which may not have been considered by the Ivory Tower-trained professionals. At the very least, I might find a detail which was overlooked. Don't you have a curse to enforce in some fantasy novel somewhere?", Tdoht was not interested in getting sucked-in to an argument about legitimate sciences, as he finished setting up his device to see if sound was recorded on the outside of the cylinder.
"Yeah well whatever.
I'm not leaving by the way.", Doron said, he was distracted by some thought and it took the wind out of his arguing sails.
"You're always here at the same time as I am, in the evenings and at night. And I've been under the impression that you either don't trust me, or you are cooking up a way to embarass me. Because I have the feeling that you hate me. ", said Mr. Tdoht who then turned to face him and said, "And I want you to know that I don't care. I have instructions to do these alternative observations, and it doesn't matter if you believe in them or not."
Doron was quiet for a moment. He let Tdoht resume his weird laser thingy experiment for a bit and then said,
"To tell you the truth, I'm drawn to this because of an inexplicable curiosity.
I think your paranormal stuff is dumb, true. However, I know that if let's say, for some bizzare stretch of a reason, this cylinder is opened by shining a laser at it, or playing "Dark Side of the Moon" backwards at it, or whatever. You are probably the only one here who is going to try it..."
"So then why do I have to explain myself. Why do you maintain this condecension?", Tdoht interrupted him.
Without thinking Doron said very quietly, "Because I can't control it", He opened up one of Tdoht's bags, in it was one of his many paranormal imaging cameras. Either Infrared, UV, or some other piece of spectrum which could be used to supposedly visualize globular geistage.
"How low does this go in RF band?", he asked.
"What?
That's a Differential Attenuation imaging device. Don't break it.", Tdoht said with the annoyance clear in his tone.
"Differential Attenuation Imaging. Boy, you aren't going to see no ghosts with this thing.", said Doron, "This is an instrument used in a field which I am actually quite familiar."
"Yeah.", Tdoht was still busy.
Doron brought the camera up on his shoulder and turned it on, taping Tdoht working on the whimsical experiment of his.
He zoomed in on Tdoht and said in a spooky tone, "Wait. Oh! Whoa. Did you hear that? Breathing. I think... I think we... Look at that!. We are making contact... with the living." Tdoht looked back at Doron and said "Awesome. You're leaving me a souvenir. Fanfuckingtastic."
Doron looked through the viewfinder and zoomed out to see more of the cylinder. He started twiddling knobs and the image got brighter and darker and eventually he got it adjusted to show a sort of video echo effect. "Hey stop that, you'll break something", Tdoht protested.
Doron kept going, particularly interested in the video echo effect. He twiddled the knobs some more to make the echoes into a kind of smokey fog.
"neat.", Doron said, "In paranormal circles, you might inaccurately attribute what I've got on here now to some kind of Kirlian effect. However, this is not something one would expect to see with this instrument whilst viewing this specific subject."
"Oh shut up and go away", said Tdoht working on the rig.
Doron put the camera back into the case.
"Actually I do have a theory about what's in there.", said Doron.
"Are you about to make fun of me again?", asked Tdoht, sounding annoyed.
"What if Glorvan is hylopathic, and this cryptic cylinder... and the way it functions is an extension of his being... And thus in our interactions with it... his riddles and such... we are in fact partaking in some kind of dialogue, in some capacity, wether it is cerebral or visceral, with Glorvan himself.", said Doron.
Tdoht stopped for a moment and stared at Doron.
"Ok... Huh.", Tdoht said for a moment.
Doron, lit a cigarette and stuck it into one of his fenestrae. "I guess maybe that's why I keep coming here, when you're here.
Because in my theory, all three of us have something in common.
Your tail... isn't going to heal is it?"
Tdoht turned off the laser for a moment, they were now both near the bottom of the top cylinder.
"I don't like to spread it around but,", Tdoht said, "Basically."
"Seriously? I was just guessing actually.", said Doron.
"Yeah, I've got about a foot and a half of freaky, bony tail which I still have feeling in by way of some kind of phenomena. What you said I guess.", said Tdoht.
"How did it happen?", asked Doron.
"I used to work as a janitor at a major laboratory at the Dopblaron Operations Reservation. You're involved in Haorological research so you might know about this particular accident involving the infamous Monopolar Stochaton Emission Array in 1995?", said Tdoht.
"Hmmm. Yes. They inadvertantly recreated many of the results of the Philadelphia Experiment. For the record: I did basically tell them so but they were trying to prove something wrong I guess.", said Doron.
"Well I was no where near the actual equipment, I was in another building...
And, from what I've been told, a Carruthian field of about 5.988 Dns charge was suddenly and inexplicably flung in my general direction and it took a bit of my tail.
It was a fraction of a split second of pain followed by an indescribable warm tingling which got colder over time you know? I can't really relate the sensation to anything else. I thought I was being vaporized. But it didn't progress any further than that.
I can't explain it, but I can still feel things with it...", said Tdoht.
Doron wasn't sure how to express his new found personal empathy for Tdoht. He had suspected something, but now it seemed that Tdoht and he had something very strange in common.
Tdoht took off the bandages a little and revealed a bit of his exposed vertebrae. "and it feels as though it were skin.", he said.
"I'm sorry", Doron picked Tdoht up off the ground with a huge hug of all things.
Tdoht squeakgrowled in shock and then looked around nervously.
"It happened to me. Somewhere else. I didn't know what I was doing and I guess I was just careless.", Doron said. Then he let go and put Tdoht back down.
"I think that would generally qualify as disturbing", said the raptor who had just been hugged by a dracolich, "See, now I don't know what to say."
"I'm sorry I messed with you so much. I just have a hard time you know... being nice", said Doron, "I hope you find something which ends up being the button to open this thing. Good luck."
Tdoht looked at the computer which had collected the data from the laser scan and said, "Well, the instructions are apparently not encoded on the surface of the cylinder in sound. So there's one more remote possibility down"
Doron said, "Well, there's plenty more angles to take. And let's keep that exchange we just had between you and me ok?"
Tdoht replied, "Of course, as long as you keep the situation of my tail a secret."
Doron then happily said, "I think we have a deal then"
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Awake
Feb 10, 2010 0:15:13 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Feb 10, 2010 0:15:13 GMT -5
"I must apologize for not speaking to you very much since you arrived," apologized Onk. Tdoht looked at the mink slightly perplexed by the start of the conversation. He was also surprised by the mink's command of his own language.
"I… don't think an apology is necessary."
"I thought it apt to give one. As you might imagine, if one is not used to seeing certain species routinely it can be daunting to say even hello. As such, I was compelled to face my guilt on the matter and offer up the apology."
Tdoht rotated the device of the hour on its tripod to point down the excavation towards the middle section of the cylinder.
"Well, I guess I can accept that. Now of course, what are we going to talk about?"
The mink padded about to look over the precipice of the dig. "I am curious about what it is you are doing."
"I'm… trying to figure out what this so-called tomb is. And more to the point, what sort of extraordinary attributes it might have. Maybe something beyond our current understanding of science."
Onk nodded. "Then it is good that you are here then. This place is exactly that."
Onk silently stood by for a time while Tdoht adjusted some settings on the ultraviolet camera.
"Tell me then, what do you do?"
Onk shrugged, "At the very basics I survive. But you might be asking about a profession. I was selected to be part of this nation's new government in a minor role, so I guess that might be it. But usually I farm for my daily bread."
"So you're invites, they were…"
"Not an official government correspondence no," Onk scratches behind one of his ears. "I requested everyone to come and help as it was high time we sought the occupant of this object. The politics are a little complicated but in the end, if things go for ill, I will be responsible and will accept the consequences. Else, the boon is for all."
"Alright, I understand you're supposed to be a holy man."
Onk laughed. "Holy men worship at the feet of their own delusions. I seek to understand my delusions so that I can over come them. I might be a member of what others would call an 'order', but we are more a group of individuals whom assist each other in seeking that goal. We revere Glorvan for letting our forebears know that one can over come the obstacles that hinder one, be they personal or external."
"Oh dear, this seems kind of spiritual to me, sure you're not a holy man?"
"Until recently I was sure Glorvan was quite dead. And not a spirit or hanging out in an after life. Nor a god nor a demon. Be careful with throwing such an identifier around. There are others whom would take very great offense to it."
Tdoht shrugged. "Ok, will do." Tdoht stared through the eye piece of the camera. "Still nothing."
With a head tilt. "Sure?"
"Positive. The material looks a little different, but not much compared to the dirt on the sides of the dig."
"How different?" asked Onk curious.
"Just a slightly different intensity. Mostly because of reflectivity I'm guessing. Surface feature change it a bit to." Tdoht zoomed in to a spot near the top of the writing. "Yeah the bit where the riddles starts looks, well, different." Tdoht scratched under his chin. "You know, its a little too different. I mean, it looks like there's a mark over a few of those words there. I… I need to do something I think."
Over the next few minutes, several of the other visual scanners were set up and pointed towards the same spot of text. Onk looked on curiously in the late evening air, a cool breeze providing an epic flow to his robes.
"And, its different at different ranges. Inferred has different words marked. And little further down and still others. Onk, I think we have our next clue."
------
"Well the son of a bitch did find something," commented Doron after Sana entered the tent the next morning. Onk and Tdoht had been up the whole night with copies of the print outs of the complete text marking up with highlighters the different extra visual strikes.
"Find something? More like found everything," replied the investigator.
"Now don't go overboard," commented Xoto.
"Quite right," added Camus. "This odd marks you say you saw could be just left overs of the creation of the engravings."
"Say you saw?" asked Ferdale. "I looked myself. I saw them too. Hey boney head, Toht's equipment is legit right?"
"Hey, I resembled that..oh you meant me," answered Doron. "Yeah, his stuff's was in working order last I checked."
"So what does this all change if you mark out a bunch of words on our print outs?" asked Izixs.
Onk grinned. "It leaves only a few of the riddles in tact. I believe they're the key. The text was a cipher of sorts."
-----
Shortly after dinner, the entire group gathered again in the main tent to inspect the results. Camus, Sana, and Ablitz had spent their dinner time writing up the answers of the remaining riddles and trying to figure out where the line of things might of began. And they had an answer.
Camus stood up before those assembled. "The first utterance shall be commanded by a person of the western ally of this land's first king whom ruled justly. The second utterance shall be commanded by a person of the people whom served the second just dynasty. The third shall leap forth from the relative of the third just dynasty. The fourth shall come of the twisted retainers of the last two just dynasties. The final powered roar shall come from the one most wrong by the unjust line. Speak of love and enter."
"Well that's a bit more sane," said Doron. "We just have to dig up a bunch of dead people and have them tell the tomb about their love lives."
Sana giggled. "Maybe it just needs certain species to be the one's speaking. Like a voice recognition thing. We all speak a little differently and create different noises to form common words. So what species were those twisted retainers of the some old kings?"
Quar, Onk's mate, raised his hand. "May I ask a question?"
"Of course," replied Camus. "Six dynasties were mentioned. The Tail of Stars, which supposedly tells of the creation of the tomb, supposedly happened during the second dynasty of Pargalo, that of of Emlez. Does it make much sense for there to be writing buried under ground with secret codes and all detailing hints connected to events that happened centuries later?"
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Awake
Feb 10, 2010 2:57:53 GMT -5
Post by miokalia on Feb 10, 2010 2:57:53 GMT -5
Xoto was looking over a tape from some of Tdoht's equipment. The discovery of the cipher in the riddle had caused Tdoht an unusual amount of attention, and even afforded him some opportunities to 'endorse' some of his favorite paranormal theories. Doron seemed to stop directly messing with Tdoht since the night of the discovery, which Xoto found incredibly strange, since the monster seemed to be heckling or making fun of him more often than not prior to that. It looked like Tdoht had basically force-fed Doron's words right back to him with the discovery. That could do it.
Some of these tapes were shot by Doron while he was messing with Tdoht's equipment. A lot of brightly colored scales and video effects it seemed. Nothing particularly meaningful though.
Xoto glared at Doron as he entered the tent. Whatever it was that happened, Doron didn't seem to be acting like his tail was between his legs about it though. He didn't seem to even notice. This both impressed and annoyed Xoto. Enough that he finally said something,
"So... are you and Tdoht okay?"
"What? Yeah. Why?", Doron asked.
"Well since he kinda... well he kinda revealed something and you didn't think he would.", said Xoto.
"So. I was there with him before he found it. And we had a talk and we resolved something I didn't expect to actually resolve with him.
Oh yeah, these tapes. I want to bounce something off of you about some of this.", he said.
"Huh? I thought all of this was just you messing around with Tdoht's equipment to annoy him", asked Xoto.
"Yeah, about 80% of it is that. But while I was doing that, there's a few things in here I'm trying to figure out.
The problem is I can't really come up with any practical meaning for it.", said Doron.
He switched the tape to the one from the RF Differential Attenuation device.
The tape played back:
"neat." .... "In paranormal circles, you might inaccurately attribute what I've got on here now to some kind of Kirlian effect. However, this is not something one would expect to see with this instrument whilst viewing this specific subject."
Doron paused the tape and looked at Xoto.
"Ok... what am I looking for?", he asked.
"There is... like a cloud of very minute variation going on here, it's refraction... but it's not changing direction, it's changing the polarity of the RF waves moving through it. It's very noisy too, as you can see here. It's this fog right here.", Doron pointed to the screen and said.
"Oh haha. Ghost camera? Why are you showing me this again?", asked Xoto.
"No. Not ghost camera damnit.
This is interference. It's a signal leak.", said Doron.
Xoto leaned forward, "So you think there might be some kind of equipment in there?"
"If so, this stuff on the tape here is the inaudible whirring of some kind of quantum device. Photons don't change speed like that through air. They are behaving in a way which suggests that the there is a cloud, or fog where the air particles are being effected in such a way that their quantum probabilities are altered. Which is indicative of a few things.", said Doron.
"This is a similar mechanism to some of the Pattern Barrier stuff that Tinis is doing. With entanglement. Except it's not organized it's more of a leak or emission. Similarly, alteration of probability within a particle within a specific volume also sounds like something Haorological.", said Xoto.
"YES. but I'm not seeing evidence of runaway entanglement so that matter in that volume isn't Haoroaffected, at least that I'm aware of. So I'm assuming it's unintentional noise which is leaking from something. It's like an inadequately sheilded quantum computer which is leaking probability-altering noise.", Doron said.
"So it's not like it's a focussed projection of altered probability, There's no pucons are there?", asked Xoto
"None, there has to be runaway entanglement to have pucons. This is a very very small abberation in probability we're seeing here. If there was runaway entanglement and pucons, the abberation in probability would be more profound and it would also be symmetrical along a single axis. This is a fairly random cloud though and it's not very profound.", said Doron.
"So why is Glorvan radiating quantum noise?", asked Xoto.
"I think we could be dealing with an entity that may have the ability to manipulate matter in an extremely subtle and precise way.", said Doron, "Or... maybe that's a cloud of gnats and gnats are apparently weirdly translucent to RF in a way which was previously unobserved.", said Doron.
"Well the gnats would be a simpler explanation.", said Xoto.
"Yeah, but it's the middle of winter. And Tdoht wasn't covered in gnats or waving around like he was. Insects don't move like fog at this scale. And I know what a swarm of gnats looks like on this kind of visualization.", said Doron.
"So what does this mean?", asked Xoto.
"I have no idea. It could be completely a fluke. Or maybe there's something to this. I have no idea what it could mean.", said Doron.
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Awake
Feb 10, 2010 3:37:54 GMT -5
Post by The Union of Tinis on Feb 10, 2010 3:37:54 GMT -5
Sana looked down at the weird instant meal on the table before her. Her stomach wasn't really in the mood, but she had skipped breakfast. And she needed the energy.
"You look like that slop's your best friend," said Camus.
"No, think the opposite of that."
Sana picked up a fork and poked at it. It was slightly better than the old, almost expired, MREs they had when they first arrived, but not by much. "I haven't felt that great today. Might have a flu."
"That's no good." Camus flicked an ear. "Sure its not something different?"
Sana gave the linguist an annoyed look.
"Ok, sorry I asked."
Sana tried a bite of her food. It didn't taste as nasty as it looked. Which considering it looked like green slime isn't saying much.
"Heh, maybe there is."
Camus put down her book and leaned over to listen.
"I've been having some strange dreams. Last night I dreamt of a very very good friend of mine. He was upset with something. Or about something. Or maybe someone. I couldn't comfort him. And that made me sad. And then I remembered how much I missed him."
Camus nodded. "Maybe its that missing him that's causing you to have this dream."
"Well, there was more than that. He… told me once of an experience he had where he was in a place. I saw this place myself later. And there was different visions he had of that place. Some exciting, some odd, one very grim."
"Wait wait, he had visions? This friend of yours a crazy?"
"No no, it was due to a device we encountered. Long story there. Anyway, my dream turned into something very similar to what he saw. The bad vision that is. That was my dream last night. But my dream the previous night was in a castle. And he was there, hurt and bleeding. I tried to help him, but I couldn't. The dream the previous night was only slightly better."
"Maybe you should give him a call? The satellite phone is open if you wish."
Sana sighed. "Yeah, might be a good idea."
She took another bite of her food. Camus began reading again. "Sorry to change the subject, but I've narrowed down our candidates for shouting at the door."
Sana chewed slowly. The gooey food getting stuck between her teeth like shavings of rubber cement. "Oh-wkay."
"So, if these dynasties match up with those of Pargalo, the question is, which one is the unjust dynasty. Now, some might argue that the Second Rollvox dynasty would be that as it lead to inept King Zelt, not to mentioned Lilumeleate III's carnival of pain. But Rollvox X ns XI were instrumental in separating the power of the judiciary away from that of the monarch. So even though they might of been harsh on the punishments, it was still courts of law that ruled the domain of justice.
"But there is easily a more infamous dynasty, the Lilumeleate dynasty. Lilumeleate I was a just king yes, but his son was a psychotic dictator whom handed out punishment to those whom had done no wrong. Then the question is, who was most wronged by the unjust line?"
Sana finally swallowed the gummy bite reluctantly. "Ok. So who did Lilumeleate II persecute the most?"
"Difficult to answer, none of the books me, Ablitz, Ferdale, and Xoto have seem to have anything related to death statistics of 10th century Pargalo."
Camus turned a few pages back in her book. "But if Lilumeleate is the unjust dynasty, then the third just one is the Givig Um'Civ dynasty. And as that was lead by felines, would seem a cat of some sort would be the clue."
"Like yourself?" asked Sana.
Camus chuckled. "Would seem so. But there are several felines here of different types so we could try different goes. Still no clue what love we'd have to speak about."
Sana tried another horrific bit of the chemically heated food. Even more of it seeped between her herbivorian teeth, gumming up the works for possibly hours.
"Also, I think I've figured out who the western ally of the first king might be species wise. Minks."
Sana stopped chewing and gulped. And gulped again as a good deal of the now jelly like meal hadn't come loose from her teeth. "You, mean, like that Onk guy?"
Camus chuckled. "And you thought the feline bit was surprising."
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