Heart of Artifice: Part I--Engineered Enigma


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(ooc: Since the last time I was curious about her possibly being a construct, I've been dying to tell her it's made of "Baby skin. Pure baby skin." Not that Anvuss is a construct in the Harrison Ford image, but still....)
 



(OOC: The DC on the first one was 15. The DC on this one was 25 or 30, for tiered results. However, I gave you a +2 bonus because Kharas succeeded by 5 extra in convincing her that additional info, even irrelevant-seeming info, could help Lucy, and there's another +2 circumstance bonus because Anvuss asked. However, since you only succeeded at DC 25 with the last circumstance bonus, she's going to ask to speak with Anvuss in private)

"Umm...can we talk about this in private?"

*Assuming Anvuss is willing to go with Elizabeth to somewhere private.*

[SBLOCK=Anvuss]"Look, you promise not to tell anyone, right?"

*If so:*

"I used to be a Warforged, but now I'm a human. I was reborn, with Diggy's help. So of course now the Lord of Blades doesn't care about me one way or the other."[/SBLOCK]
 

Anvuss has a private conversation with Elizabeth, and agrees to keep her confidences to himself. He does, however, make further inquiry:

[sblock=To Elizabeth]"Is there any chance the Lord of Blades might be under the impression that the girl is yours? He could conceivably have an interest in the daughter of a reborn warforged... he might even consider such a person a 'forged in spite of a complete lack of physical resemblance. If he thought there was such a thing as a biologically conceived warforged, the novelty alone might keep his interest."[/sblock]

Anvuss does indeed still wish to look through any available personal effects, in hopes of discovering some clue.

Aslo, Anvuss inquires as to whether the Wyrd Ruby has been conclusively determined to be free from magical power.
 

[SBLOCK=Anvuss]"No, that's impossible. I was living with Diggy, Helen, and Lucy even back when I was a Warforged, as Diggy's assistant...it was complicated...I love that family and though I fell in love with Diggy, it broke my heart to see the divorce and I would have none of it, but it was Helen who called for it in the end..."

"The Wyrd Ruby? Oh of course it is magical. It was crucial in my rebirth, actually. When Diggy loses something mundane, which happens far too often, he useually doesn't bother after a few hours of looking around."
[/SBLOCK]
 

[sblock=Re: The Wyrd Ruby]"It is magical, then. What are its properties, and are all of them fully understood? Could it have played some role in this? Could Lucy be in posession of the Ruby currently?"[/sblock]
 

[SBLOCK=Anvuss]"Okay, you definitely have to promise not to tell Aethelus this one! My other secret is such that only my pride will be hurt if it gets out...well that part of it anyway...but this next, if House Cannith gets ahold of this because of me, Diggy will be terribly upset. He won't take it out on me, either, but that will make me hurt even more than if he did. So please swear to me, Warforged to Warforged?"

*If so:*

"The Wyrd Ruby...we found an old Dhakaani ruin in the Undercity, and it had four pedestals, though only three held gems, a sapphire, a diamond, and an emerald. It seemed that they couldn't be removed, which made it seem strange that the fourth was empty. The Wyrd Ruby fit on the final pedestal, after which the altar in the centre granted my Wish. We took it back with us, since it was the only gem we could remove, because that seemed like something dangerous to leave around, and yet we couldn't bring ourselves to destroy such a wondrous antiquity."

"I don't see how it could be related to this, though."
[/SBLOCK]
 

[sblock=To Elizabeth]Anvuss swears to keep her confidence. He takes on an abstracted countenance while he considers the information.

"You are saying that the Ruby is the only mobile portion of an arcane device which is so potent that on at least one occasion it was able to grant a wish. Lucy and her friends have disapeared, and it is entirely possibly that they were in posession of the Ruby at the time. With a device of such massive power, any number of creatures might be willing to go to extreme lengths to obtain the Ruby... not least the Dhakaani, who are always interested in maintaining control over their own artifacts. It is possible the children were scooped up only incidentally in an attempt to obtain the ruby, and a variety of possible methods occur to me. First, utilizing the law of Similarity it is possible that the ruby can be effected by sufficiently potent magics from the machine of which it is a part. Second, troops or construct servants may have been sent to retrieve it. Third, the machine itself may have some ability to repair or reunite itself and might be able to exert its abilities through the ruby even over vast distances, making small or gross adjustments in reality in order to restore itself to one piece. Additional possibilities exist beyond my present ability to recite, but in a large number of those possibilities the Ruby and the rest of the machine are significant players. Unless you have a better suggestion, it would seem extremely likely that our best bet at finding Lucy and the others would be to head for the fixed location at which the Ruby must be used."

"Fortunately, I take it that by the 'undercity' you refer to a location beneath the towers of Sharn... is this correct? If instead you refer to a place in Xen'drick Lucy may well be beyond our reach without substantial additional resources."[/sblock]
 

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