On a Spider's Advice...

[Ferrix]

"Ah, the schematic, well it will cost you to get the schematic. It's no easy enterprise," she says leaning against a close chair.

 

[Ashy]

Skaith raises a bald eyebrow, "Cost me? I thought we were in this together..."

 

[Ferrix]

"In this together yes, but I don't think you've been sticking your neck out since your nose has been buried in these books," she says tritely.

 

[Ashy]

"Well, I'm willing to stick my neck out now - I'll do whatever you say to get in and get a look at that schematic, but payment is out of the question. I barely have enough coppers to rub together as it is..."

 

[Kelleris]

Kinda slow around here... Sorry, I haven't been encouraging advancement nearly as much as I ought.

*sigh*

Hmph. Sorry about this. As mentioned, I've been working on my thesis, which my amazing procrastinating ability forces me to do practically all at once over the last month or so. Looking at the posts, it looks like about 2 weeks since I last posted a turn. Sorry for the long quasi-hiatus guys. I'm taking tonight off to relax before writing my last thesis chapter tomorrow. I'll still have work to do through about the 20th, but not so much that I won't want to devote the energy to DMing.

I would've posted earlier, but even when I had the time and energy to do so, I just didn't want to have to get back into the swing of things again here when I had other things on my mind. But no more excuses.

Check this space Saturday afternoon. There shall be a post, I swear it!

In the meantime, if you want to raid the Library (a careful bunch, aren't you?), post some questions, plans, or what-have-you for me to work with, and I'll try to get this show on the road.

 

[Ferrix]

"Well, I'm willing to stick my neck out now - I'll do whatever you say to get in and get a look at that schematic, but payment is out of the question. I barely have enough coppers to rub together as it is..."

"Well, I can get you a look at the schematic. But getting you into the library I don't really feel like doing at the moment." Keys reaches back into her backpack and draws out the schematics (are they in a scroll or a book?), placing them on the table. "There, so that wasn't that hard, now don't be glaring at me like that. Glad to know you are willing to put that bloodless neck on the line."

 

[Ashy]

Skaith frowns and snatches up the schematics, "Why didn't you just say you had them with you?!?" With that said, he sits down in a huff and begins looking over them...

OOC: Knowledge checks galore!

 

[Kelleris]

*roll, roll, roll*

Skaith: [sblock] You sit down with the pilfered documents and set to work. The schematics are extremely detailed, so you don't think you'll even need to visit the Orrery itself to check you results. Confirming the locations of the bent pins with your partners (well, close enough, anyway), you try to trace where the mysterious blank spot would be.

After an hour or so of work, you think you could find it. It's several miles away, though, and you have no real idea whether or not the location is within the city or in the dangerous outlands. Judging from the extent of the damage, though, it doesn't look like anything much larger than a simple portal could manifest in the area and still be hidden. Well, maybe something a little bigger. It's hard to tell since you haven't studied the ways of the planes except incidentally while learning the various nuances of arcane theory.

As you start to pack up the papers, you notice something else: a notation at the bottom of the primary design schematic. You ponder it for a while until it comes to; this is a specification for a very precise alchemical alloy of copper, adamantine, and mithral. Two things nag at you about this:

One is that, besides being worth a fortune, you suspect the alloy would be magically active somehow. You've been told that the Orrery isn't magical though; everyone in the city knows that. Strange that they would use such a material, then. And it's no wonder that nobody would notice any latent magic, what with the very active wards on the Orrery.

The second thing is that the alloy seems to retain all the strength of the base adamantine. Bending it, even a very thin part of it, would be... hard. Very hard. The thought that a coterminous imp could manage it while surrounded by some of the deadliest wards in the city just doesn't add up. [/sblock]

Hrm. First post-hiatus post and it's all for Skaith. Hopefully he'll have something interesting to say to the rest of you, though. (Note also that Skaith can just tell the others everything, in which case Ashy can just direct everyone to read this spoiler.)

 

[Ashy]

OOC: Read da spoiler...

Skaith looks to the others after finishing his lecture on his findings. "So, what do you two think? Some sort of invasion, perhaps?"

 

[Ferrix]

"That seems a bit ambitious, with it not being such a massive obscurance and being relatively far out, an all out invasion seems less likely. It's probably something more covert," Keys says, letting the rest of the information mull over a bit longer.