Heart of Artifice Temporary 2--Aethelus Alone

[Rystil Arden]

*Aethelus feels a disorienting sensation as if falling through some sort of gelatin as the world becomes full of random colours, and then his vision focuses again and he finds himself in a large white marble structure looking out into a beautiful clear blue sky. He is not alone, however. There is a large and fancifully-built construct of gleaming silvery metal, with a rounded head, two slightly loping arms, sturdy legs, and a big golden clockwork key in its back. The construct stands inert, as if deactivated. A giant pike, sized for the massive construct, lies some feet away on the marble floor.*

 

[Erekose13]

Aethelus calls out to Kharas and looks around for evidence of anything that has to do with their current mystery (like children or the like).

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Aethelus scans the white marble structure. Other than the framed archway against the wall where he started, there are pillars and a dome above, and the structure opens out on three sides, leading outside, where the clear blue sky is visible. All in all, it is a very small open structure with no sign of children.*

 

[Erekose13]

While extremely intrigued by the golem-like statue in the middle of the room, Aethelus is currently very concerned about where he is. He walks towards the open edge of the room to peer out and try to place himself.

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Walking outside the structure, he sees that it is adorned with fanciful and imaginative architecture, including alabaster lions in much the same style as the lions in the Dhakaani complex from before. But he doesn't dwell on that for long, as he walks down the marble stairs and his eyes settle on the beautiful green field around the structure and then...the abrupt ending of the land here. He looks out into the clear blue sky to see that his marble shrine on a grassy field is floating in the sky. At the edge of the small floating island, there is a drop down precipitously into a white mist that obscures the bottom. Looking back up again, he sees other floating islands nearby, mostly small like the one he is occupying, with a much larger island in the distance. Flying shapes, some small like lone birds, some huge like transport barges, move at varying speeds, some darting and flitting, some slowly floating through the air, all hurrying about their tasks with varying levels of grace.*

(OOC: Apologies if he wouldn't walk down the stairs, but I wanted to reuse the description from last time)

 

[Erekose13]

(ooc: reuse?)

Aethelus is amazed at the view, though perplexed that he has no clue where he is at the moment. He returns up the stairs to the room and begins to inspect the statue. He'll try to see if he knows what it is or how to make it work (with an extreme UMD hopefully helping).

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Aethelus has never seen anything exactly like this before, but he sees a control box inside, made of incredibly complex magically-artificed components of that strange metal from the flying constructs, and it seems to have been disabled. The way this thing works is...unusual. There are a few clever and ingenious choices that would normally not mesh together well, but they are counterbalanced and allowed to work by a few design choices that shouldn't be able to work at all, and yet perhaps they would, if the control mechanism is repaired and the clockwork key is turned.*

 

[Erekose13]

Aethelus will work to repair the control mechanism, mentally trying to figure out how someone would come to build something as complex as this.

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Aethelus finds that it is fairly simple to repair the control mechanism--despite the complex design, the deactivation was not performed in an entirely complex fashion. Now all he will need to do in order to activate it again is turn the key in the back.*

*He is unsure exactly how this could be designed, but it shows an incredible technique.*

 

[Erekose13]

Aethelus will spend a few more minutes examining the statue for clues into its construction before turning the key.