Video: UN - JustD

[distant_one]

[The video isn't of D, but instead a carefully drawn map of Trench and its close surrounding areas with rough lines indicating the tunnels. The video zooms back to show a rough outline of a path leading from Trenchwood further inland, denoted as '30 miles' and then a point circled and labeled as 'outpost lantern'.]

Earthquakes and underground tunnels last month, and severe storms this month. If this city sinks into the ground or is washed away, there's nowhere to go.

[D puts another sheet of paper down in front of the video, this one showing a rough outline of ruined building and some sketched in structures and a perimeter wall.]

Last month, Manabu Yuuki led an expedition, this lantern point is as far as we went before we had to return. The wilds are full of aggressive plants and animals, high levels of corruption, and even the plants that don't attack will probably kill people.

But this is a chance to make an outpost. Every time I've gone out there I've come under attack almost immediately, but if we made it that far, we can make this work too.

I'm looking for anyone who can and will fight, anyone who can aid in building fortifications to make defenses easier, and anyone with the ability or knowledge to provide magical protection and reduce corruption, or who can provide supplies and support.

I'll provide food and shelter or items for trade to anyone who works on turning this outpost into a haven.

My name is D. I'm setting up a staging point for people and supplies in the house near the Watch Tower with the red door and cloth banners. Contact me here, or look for me there between mid afternoon and sundown.

[OOC: Plotting post for this open and approved player plot here and location post and information here. An open log post will be going up sometime in the next week.]

Comments

[mehanizovati]

I think extravagant may be underselling it. [viktor offers, vaguely amused though he does not look away from the coffin. it means he just squawks a little when lifted, a shocked 'hey-' before D jumps in.

it's a lot to adjust to, the sudden wild shift of gravity, the space's rapid change, and he grips D's shoulder to try and anchor himself. luckily he kept a grip on his cane, and he does consider giving D a small whack with it for grabbing him like that but at the moment he's a bit dazzled by the space.

mostly that it exists, that it truly has its own, singular climate it seems, that it's far larger than he could have assumed. when he's set down he takes a few steps, taking it all in before turning to D.]

This is remarkable. Did you make this? And if so how?

[distant_one]

I didn't. I would need manufacturing and energy production facilities far beyond what exists here.

[D does a lot of things that get him smacked. He's not going to stop.]

But I do know how it works well enough to make one, or to explain it. I saw your notes, I think you can adapt this. Not as complex, unless we get several very clever darkbloods involved, but functional at least.

[mehanizovati]

[he is forgiven a great many things if he can explain this all in a way viktor can begin to work with and replicate, and he moves to the window to stare out at the sky.]

I'm working on a technology that could harness darkblood reality warping powers through the use of darkblood gems, I wonder if facets of that could be adapted to this.

That mountain, is that an illusion?

[distant_one]

It is. This one is fairly simple, reality just stops past the hedges and is replaced with an illusion, it's easier to tell up close. Running into it isn't a pleasant experience.

[D has some other ideas for the reality warping powers of darkblood to be put to use, but this takes priority in his mind.]

If you can give it complex and precise instructions on what parts of reality to warp, this should be possible. It's an extension of closed dimension, teleportation, and dimensional compression theories.

[mehanizovati]

It would be possible with some work. I would have to speak to Palamedes, he is the expert in the wards and runework, the eh... magic manipulation I suppose.

But still, if we could manage something like this it could be incredibly useful, even simply as panic rooms against beasts for those less equipped to handle such a situation.

[distant_one]

There's a lot of mystical and physical reinforcement on the coffin itself. Installation as a panic room runs the risk of collapse if its physical anchor or power source is damaged.

The fail safes on the coffin will prevent a collapse from causing catastrophic explosions even if it was destroyed, but no one inside would survive.

[mehanizovati]

Hm, a shame. [not something he's willing to give up yet but put on the back burner.]

Is this level of technology and magic typical of your world?

[distant_one]

The factories needed to make them are long gone, but when they were around it was a luxury item. Carriages too, but they weren't as popular as coffins.

[Technology in D's world has a tendency to go back and forth as civilizations rise and fall.]

[mehanizovati]

The technology of your world must surpass most worlds I've heard of. [by a lot, really.]

If you have notes on this I'd like to see them. We can see what we can manage on a Trench budget, at least.

[distant_one]

I wouldn't be surprised if it did, this isn't even among the greatest of achievements there.

[D's constant lingering sadness is a bit more obvious as he thinks about all the wonderous things that were lost when humanity overthrew the Nobility.]

I can write it down.

[It's going to be a very large notebook or two.]

[mehanizovati]

What would you consider the greatest achievement then?

[must be damn impressive. he nods to writing it down- hell, he'll supply the notebooks when they're back.]

[distant_one]

[The word for it is on the tip of his tongue, but D's never going to bring himself to say that cursed word that brings so much pain and misery into the world.]

Picking just one is hard.

[Especially when any of the contenders for it were created or used almost exclusively by him.]

Sway generators; perpetual motion machines that generate energy indefinitely with no need for additional fuel once they're running. Or the transportation networks.

[Since they're in here, D goes over to the head of the coffin they came out of and spends a moment adjusting something in a hidden panel.]

[mehanizovati]

Perpetual motion? [yeah hold up on that one, his brow raises.] That's incredible. How old is your civilization?

[surely it's ancient, to have come so far. he's so used to people being from this 'earth' and having mostly that level of technology.]

[distant_one]

The height of vampire rule over the planet lasted around five thousand years before they began to decline. Most advances were during that five thousand year time and the war that overthrew them saw a lot of their knowledge and factories destroyed.

[D finishes whatever he's doing and then lifts the coffin into an upright position. Looking into it must be a bit disorienting as it's vertical in here and horizontal on the outside. D hops through it and raises the coffin's physical anchor into a vertical position as well before he steps back in.]

Dimensional manipulation and the technology to bend space and time are some of the precursors to sway generators. There were other generators using dimensional technology before that, but they angered an adjacent reality and started a war with extradimensional horrors. Sway generators were their replacement, but only a few were made before the decline began.

[One of the few topics D is relatively willing to talk about is the science and technology made by the Nobility.]

[mehanizovati]

Were these horrors what overthrew the rule? [what a fascinating history, though he feels a pang for the loss of such advancement. surely a more complicated story all around, wars always are, but he can take a moment to mourn the brilliant progress lost.]

At least some were made. It seems a sad fact of history and too many worlds that being on the cusp of something so great often comes in turn with a great downfall.

[distant_one]

No. In the end it was their species natural decline combined with humanity's determination to rebel. Most of the horrors are back where they belong, but not all of them.

[If they had waited, they could have overthrown the Nobility without destroying everything. But patience on the course of a couple years is hard for humans, never mind the thousands that would have taken. Particularly after several failed attempts.]

They're coming up with new things to fill in the gaps, new generators and material processing brought on by the inconsistent available technology, but it'll be thousands of years to get close to what it was. The Nobility no longer rules, but their beasts and terrors roam the world freely.

It's very similar to this place, with Sleepers bringing knowledge and technology at varying levels and adapting what we can under the constant threat of death from beasts beyond our knowledge.

[mehanizovati]

Why did humanity wish to rebel? I suppose it is not shocking peaceful coexistence is not always the case. In my own world most species get along well enough, though there can be problems.

[not overthrow problems. yet.

he considers that, mostly the likeness to the trench. says,] Inheriting the troubles of those before us. I suppose that isn't unlike us and Julia Sodder's lost dream as well.

Did your world have anything like corruption?

[distant_one]

Despite their ruler's wishes and frequent punishments they used humans as food, slaves, and hunted them for sport.

We didn't have anything like this. Some of the effects it has on the mind are like the changes people who have become vampires go through, and there were parasites and demons that could possess people, but nothing quite like this.