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It was fun for a long time but towards the end it just started to drag

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I wish I could have joined in.

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Total Members Voted: 28

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Neither of you watch aqua teen hunger force on adult swim?

You are totally missing out.  Gizogin is so totally Dr. Weird

I don't have cable...I am typing from a computer with dial-up...What does that say to you?

"Alright Weird, good luck. I'm headed topside. Promise me those books will be secure!"

HugoLuman sprinted up the hallway. He hoped greatly that everyone was into the bunker by now. As he ran around the next bend, he crashed into Zanzetkuken. "You! I've heard there's a draconic army on it's way here!"

"Yes. They're after me and my allies."

"Thought it would be something like that. Have something to do with that coup you mentioned? Well, I'm going out. Maybe I can treat with them or alert some friends. I might die, so I'll take this chance to tell you that I might do something without your permission."

"Wait, what?"

"I gotta go! There's no time! Farewell and all that!"

I would say that they are after the refugees, not what you wrote.  And I mentioned the coup out of character...

he went to the tower, the army might be ransacking the fort by the time he got back.

[You're a dragon, you can pull 25-30mph, it's only 1 mile away, 4 minute round trip maybe.]

2 minutes one way, then the speed of the elves coming back, so think longer.

Hmm, let's see. There were two things HugoLuman could do with the element of surprise. One, he could take the time to address the army and maybe negotiate or at least distract them. Two, he could go to the elven tower for help. If he spoke at the army, then he might not be able to sneak off. If he went to the tower, the army might be ransacking the fort by the time he got back.

The first is not a good idea, since most of those who came here a fanatical.  They have to be to try to kill me without hesitating.

[WillowLuman]

-Woops, posted by mistake. Meant to edit last post.-

I just presume you told me sometime, since you mentioned corruption when I came to you about Clockwork me.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Don't forget the edit, and I would not care about you doing something I didn't order you to do, since we are the same rank in the order.

[Corai]

Corai and his four companions slammed the chairs and tables against the dining hall, ripping off legs of tables, expect for Corai, who was already armed.


"I have a bad feeling about this, we should get to the shelter."


"Elf." Corai said, playing with his dagger. He wasnt exactly sure what the hell was going on, or why he was even at the fort in the first place, but he was going to get awnsers.




"You guys, guard the fluffballs. DO NOT. DO NOT. DO NOOOOOOOOOOOT, LET ANYTHING, GET NEAR THIS ROOM. NOONE."

"Not even my kid-"

"NOPE. NOONE. NOOOOOOOOOOOOONE" the kobold said, running off. "I sure do hope Eric is at the shelter. Or even Zanni-Zanzetkuken."


---

"We are so gonna die."

"Yep, but atleast we get to die like dwarves."

-Ninja'd by Hugo x2, and Zanzetkuken x2-

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Whatever Hugo does, thought Zanzetkuken.  I sincerely hope he doesn't do any thing stupid.  Now to find Wierd or Eric or someone who can speak of strategy.  With that, he took off sprinting.

Hey wierd, I found some things about artificial planes:

A plane is a self-contained world or universe of any size found within the multiverse. While planes can be governed by any conceivable set of rules and natural laws, or even indeed inconceivable ones, most planes visited in the storyline are comfortably similar to Earth.

There are almost infinite planes in the multiverse, separated from each other by the space known as Blind Eternities which is filled with chaotic energies, including Æther and mana. The inhabitants of most of these planes have no idea that theirs is not the only universe, or indeed the only world—generally only planeswalkers know that, and are able to travel intentionally between planes.

Planes are known to "move" in relation to each other. Additionally new planes are constantly created, while others drift out of existence.

There are also artificial planes, worlds created usually by planeswalkers with sheer will. The creator of such a world define all of its rules. These planes however, are unstable and eventually collapse if there is nothing what would sustain their existence (like constant flow of mana, or technical means like flowstone).

[WillowLuman]

HugoLuman reached the tower, sprinting as fast as his four legs could take him. That army could only be at most half an hour away, even moving as slow as a traditional marching army in full banners did. Knocking open the door, he came into the ground level dining hall. Is was deserted, so he ran up the stairs to the master bedroom, the only room with a full window. He found only Askak. The scorpion elf stood with his back to the dragon, looking out to the east. "I know why you have come. And I am sorry."

"We are about to be besieged by an army we cannot possibly hope to defeat. We need help."

"Once more, I am sorry. For we cannot help you. There are around 200 in this place. Many are disabled, most are not warriors by any means. We could not even fight against an army, let alone vanquish one."

"There's got to be something in this place that can help! Maybe some who are willing to fight, or a spell or something?"

"We may owe you our freedom, but I cannot watch my brethren go out to face certain destruction, not when it can be avoided. I am truly sorry. You should go back and tell them to flee while there is still time."

HugoLuman was disheartened, but he knew he couldn't force the issue. "I can't ask anyone to die for me. And I can't tell people to get themselves killed for no good reason." Then something occurred to him. "Bringing a force that size... hmm. Moving that much mass across universes would take a hell of a lot of energy. It must have left some sort of mark... damn, if only I was as clever as I wished."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Listen, there is still something you can do for me. Send a messenger back to our fort, and tell them that 'there may be an interdimensional hole or energy signature left by the coming of this army. There's probably not much to go on there but it's a start!' Can you relay exactly that?"

"I think so. Why not tell them yourself?"

"Because I've got a rant to spew!"

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

HugoLuman reached the tower, sprinting as fast as his four legs could take him. That army could only be at most half an hour away, even moving as slow as a traditional marching army in full banners did. Knocking open the door, he came into the ground level dining hall. Is was deserted, so he ran up the stairs to the master bedroom, the only room with a full window. He found only Askak. The scorpion elf stood with his back to the dragon, looking out to the east. "I know why you have come. And I am sorry."

"We are about to be besieged by an army we cannot possibly hope to defeat. We need help."

"Once more, I am sorry. For we cannot help you. There are around 200 in this place. Many are disabled, most are not warriors by any means. We could not even fight against an army, let alone vanquish one."

"There's got to be something in this place that can help! Maybe some who are willing to fight, or a spell or something?"

"We may owe you our freedom, but I cannot watch my brethren go out to face certain destruction, not when it can be avoided. I am truly sorry. You should go back and tell them to flee while there is still time."

HugoLuman was disheartened, but he knew he couldn't force the issue. "I can't ask anyone to die for me. And I can't tell people to get themselves killed for no good reason." Then something occurred to him. "Bringing a force that size... hmm. Moving that much mass across universes would take a hell of a lot of energy. It must have left some sort of mark... damn, if only I was as clever as I wished."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Listen, there is still something you can do for me. Send a messenger back to our fort, and tell them that 'there may be an interdimensional hole or energy signature left by the coming of this army. There's probably not much to go on there but it's a start!' Can you relay exactly that?"

"I think so. Why not tell them yourself?"

"Because I've got a rant to spew!"

We move far greater mass in reality, you realize that right?

Saurinae and Indewin are there, and are both planeswalkers!  I would have mentioned them to you when you joined the order, along with Askak being one...

[WillowLuman]

[Askak doesn't quite understand the extent of his abilities, so he doesn't think he could even put up a fight. He himself might be convinced to assist. He just won't let the other elves get killed. Might take some persuasion to get him, though, as he is also afraid of leaving them without a protector.]

[Far greater mass than what? If you mean 200, that's the approximate number of elves in the tower, not the size of the draconic army. I'm saying that moving such a large mass, like say an army, across Reality is bound to leave a ripple. Maybe that ripple can be exploited somehow to suck them back in or something, but it's a very slim hope.]

[WillowLuman]

The fort should be relatively safe in the bunker, thought HugoLuman. Depending on how long that army is willing to stick around. The army was now just 500 meters from the outside of the fortress, probably ready to launch a hail of arrows (which would be harmless) or, if they had it, some kind of magical artillery (which would be bad.) He wasn't sure that they wouldn't notice him, though, as he wasn't wearing their uniform. Or anything at all, he thought, but I can worry about that later. Sprinting onwards, he at last came near their front lines and nearly ran right into them. He really hoped he could do a good job channeling his favorite hero from saner times.

"ZUL MEY GUT"

The thu'um echoed across the woods, causing the army to stop. Soldiers raised their weapons in surprise, but were unable to find the source of the noise. "NOW THAT I'VE GOT YOUR ATTENTION," shouted HugoLuman, "THERE IS SOMETHING YOU OUGHT TO KNOW!"

[Eric Blank]

[Askak doesn't quite understand the extent of his abilities, so he doesn't think he could even put up a fight. He himself might be convinced to assist. He just won't let the other elves get killed. Might take some persuasion to get him, though, as he is also afraid of leaving them without a protector.]

[Far greater mass than what? If you mean 200, that's the approximate number of elves in the tower, not the size of the draconic army. I'm saying that moving such a large mass, like say an army, across Reality is bound to leave a ripple. Maybe that ripple can be exploited somehow to suck them back in or something, but it's a very slim hope.]

[If they are foreign matter in a given reality, they may also be suffering from illness or issues arrising from those differences, maybe related to differences in chemistry that could lead to all the helium atoms in their blood suddenly no longer bonding to lead, which in their world was a component of hormones that control emotions or something that isn't immediately fatal or too over-the-top crippling that they were still willing to launch a large-scale attack with confidence. Or if in the other world's gravity was slightly weaker, they would be moderately stressed physically, and the dragons certainly would have difficulty flying for long periods.
Again, the DF universe doesn't have any sense of "mana," so any battlemages or other magic users among their ranks, or any abilities of the dragons directly connected to their mana supply, would be "running on a battery", and once it's exhausted, they would have to return to their world to replenish it. Think the difficulties Blitikus encountered in A Kobold's Quest II (If you haven't read it, you should feel ashamed), when he used the time machine to travel to the future when magic had gone extinct because the atmosphere no longer generated it; he was a weak magic user and had a very limited supply, so he had to constantly recharge it by interfacing with an ancient artifact and stealing energy from the electrical grid, or come up with mundane means of accomplishing his goals.

Of course Zanzetkuken could also be suffering from this, which would make for an easy explanation for why he suddenly starts losing power after the battle (as I understood it, that was your intent with the story, right?)]

[WillowLuman]

I don't think the dragons/elves/humans/kobolds in this invading army come from a world where the laws of physics are so alien they have helium-lead blood. In fact, why would they even be described by us as being elves, humans, and kobolds if they were exotic whacky-physics aliens?

[Eric Blank]

[I dunno, they could be identical in every way besides having some adaptations to the chemistry of an alien dimension... I'm just making suggestions about where to go with it, that they are foreign matter and could be subject to rules that don't normally apply to native objects.]

[WillowLuman]

[They are deployed by whatever realm Zanzetkuken came from, and seeing as they are elves, humans, and kobolds, they likely came from Dwarf Fortress worlds in the first place. Not entirely sure about those dragons, though. Does MTG even allow for exotic physics in any of it's planes?]

[wierd]

Eric has a point.

Even something extraordinarily small, like the degree of spin a photon has, could have retardedly cataclysmic effects on an ID traveler.

A subtle change in spin means the difference between a cell having enough energy to live, and not meeting those requirements, because more energy is needed to metabolize the food now.

Case in point: a photosynthetic plant.

In our world, chlorophyll does a crazy quantum dance using entanglement to get the energy of multiple photons to work in concert, so that enough energy is directed to the active site to cleave a co2 molecule, and bind it with water.

If the photons it is absorbing have a different spin value, this dance fails. The plant can't make sugar. It dies.  The light is toxic.

Likewise, the energy needed for chemical reactions would also change from the slight poke at the standard model. Suddenly your body wouldn't be folding protiens properly. All sorts of shit.

Outwardly, the universe would look exacty like the one you were from, but your biology just wouldn't be able to survive there.

Rather, you need a universe with *identical* physics.  This means a different possible quantum future universe. (A universe with a shared past. The "same" universe, different history.) There are an infinite number of these for any given universe's genesis.

We can assume that zannie and his buds are jumping from universes with identical physics, because they have the same big bang in common. The difference is just the fallout of chaos theory on how that universe's matter clumped.  His universe produced dragons, and they made a civilization. The one we are in now didn't. They are, strictly speaking, the same universe, but with different histories.

[WillowLuman]

As evidenced by the fact that they ARE here, and have been for a few hours, I don't think it's the case. I strongly suspect that the non-dragons were recruited from other DF worlds, and those all have the same physics. Being somewhat magical as both this universe and (probably, not very versed in Magic the Gathering) whatever plane these guys came from, there is probably some compensation for slight differences anyhow. In many cases magic is basically bribing the laws of physics to look the other way. It'll cost you more to do more drastic things, and the more powerful someone is with magic the more they can get away with before physics bites back. This is not always the case, of course. Sometimes there are just rules in place for the magic.