Episode 51: Chatting with Divayth, Morrowind physics, and a small problem.
I agree, try to barter the phone for training
by all means ask if he'd be willing to teach us instead.
ask him (politely) if he'd be willing to teach us
Barter for Training.
consider having one of the most powerful wizards in Morrowind train us.
:
"Instead of gold, would you be willing to teach me magic?"He shakes his head.
"Basic spell school training? No, complete waste of my time. You're in that Imperial magic guild. Go ask them."mention that Mages guild was impressed when someone without any skill in magic could solve their equations.
Inform him that among other things you and the people from your world are vastly better at mathematics. Prove it to him.
:
"Hmm, ok. Speaking of the mage guild, I wonder if we might talk mathematics." "Oh?" He seems interested.
"What did you have in mind?":
"Well, every time anyone's given me a problem to solve, even problems that they thought were very difficult, I managed to solve them very easily. Why don't you show me something and let's see what I can do with it?" "Hmm." He considers for moment.
"There are quite a few unsolved problems, especially in the field of astral curvature mechanics. For example, given a basic Euclidian mana matrix..."He brings up his hands and casts a spell. A cube of light perhaps two feet across materializes between the two of you.
"Now, if I apply an Entian transposition, here is the result."You watch as light from his hands does...something. The cube looks different somehow, but the change is so subtle you're not sure what looks different about it.
"This, of course, is the standard proof used to demonstrate that the underlaying structure of the universe is analog. The problem is, if we first apply Divayth's fourteeth function..."He dismisses the cube, conjures a new one and then fills it with a smooth spectrum of pulsating colors. It looks kind of like someone took a drunken Rainbow Dash, locked her in an impenetrable glass box, told her to go fast and made a stoner movie out of it.
"...and we now apply the same transposition as before, we get this."He casts another spell and the cube rapidly fades out and...disappears? No, it's still there. You look closely and see that the whole cube has a taken a very...you're not even sure the word to use to describe it. It's one of those colors you don't have names for.
"The question is how to reconcile these two results. The effect of the second transposition should be a simple incrementation of the output of function fourteen. But clearly you can see that it isn't. This result seems to imply that the Planck interpretation is correct. But, if so, then how to explain the result of the original transposition? Why does it work? If Planck is correct, then astral curvature is mathematical fiction and the majority of modern schools of magic should not work. Yet, clearly they do."There's a moment of silence before you realize that Divayth is waiting for a response. Maybe the voices will have some input, but this is way over your head. You have no clue what he's talking about. At least you don't think you do. It kind of sounds like he's saying that when he adds one plus one he gets two, but when he adds one plus a million he's not getting a million and one. Sort of. His use of the magic color cube is kind of throwing you off. But at the same time you're not really surprised by it. A lot of higher math is done on computers. Here, where math is
used for magic...it makes a lot of sense that magic would be used to demonstrate it. That puts you at a serious disadvantage. He'd probably be similarly inconvenienced if you were to sit him down at a computer and ask him to use MATLAB. Either way, this isn't the kind of problem you were hoping for.
:
"Umm...'underlaying structure of the universe?' isn't this kind of a physics question more than a math question?"Divayth waves a hand dismissively.
"Don't be pedantic. I'm simply giving you a useful problem rather than an arbitrary one.":
"Ok, but I'm still kind of new to this whole magic thing. When I asked for a problem, I was hoping for something I could...you know, look at on paper?"He walks over to a bookshelf, picks up a book and flips through it. Then hands it to you.
"Pages 22 to 24 describe the basic problem, but I think you'll find it impractical to map the results on paper."You look through the pages. They're full of symbols you don't even recognize. Divayth picks up the dwemer puzzle cube from his desk and resumes fiddling with it, continuing to speak as he does.
"The whole point here is that the internal boundaries of each element container are variable. If you were to render it by hand with a conventional matrix, it would be necessary to re-specify the bounds with every iteration, as well as remap elements with every increase in resolution...which incidentally is non-trivial since the majority of increments are fractional. The function I just demonstrated would require trillions of trillions of matrices to describe even a tiny fraction of a second worth of transition. Also, at the lower limit we're talking container scales on the order of ten to the power of negative thirty five meters. Writing out only two dimensions of a single frame of a matrix only a millimeter across would require a piece of paper larger than all of Vvardenfell, easily."At least you know what most of those words he's using mean, but you're pretty much out of your depth.
:
"Ok, umm...well, thank you, but...I think this is something I'm not going to be able to help you with. From my conversations with other mages I was under the impression that basic algebra was considered really advanced here."He look at you with pity.
"That's what happens when organizations like your mage guild get involved with magic. It's all well and good to bring magic to the people, but they've doing a tremendous scholarly disservice dumbing it down like they have."accept the deal.
my vote goes to taking the gold.
Go see the dwemer guy
Either way, I say we go through the corprusarium
Agree to sell it to Fyr, but ask if we could show it to Yagrum first and talk with him about it
we'd like to speak to the Dwemer anyway.
Accept to have it appraised by Yagrum, use your invisibility potion if you are in trouble
ask if there's a way back up once we've finished our errand.
only if we can secure way back up first.
ask about levitation first
:
"To get back to the phone, I think I'll take the 600. But I'd hoped to speak with Yagrum anyway, and I'm sure he'll want to see it. How about I do that first and come back?"He shrugs.
"That's fine.":
"One problem though, how do I get back up here?" "Fly?":
"Right, but I used my only levitation potion to get up here. Is there any other way back up?" "Only if you're strong enough to punch through my recall wards."He doesn't even look up from his puzzle cube. Apparently that's all the answer you're going to get. You're briefly reminded of the time one of the voices told you to ask Vivec, basically a god, to train you in low level alchemy. Obviously the 4000 year old dimension-travelling wizard has better things to do than brew you a levitation potion. While you're at it, you may as well call Bill Gates and ask him to help you reinstall windows.
:
"Ok, well...I'll figure something out." "Check in with Beyte before you do. I expect she'll have dinner ready before long and I might be eating by the time you return. If I don't see you before then I'll ask her to give you 600 for the artifact."You feel a moment of disorientation and feel your senses dull a bit. Apparently the fortify intelligence spell he cast on you earlier just wore off.
explaining how it's charged, show him the battery that provides energy for it.
Oh, and to satisfy Fyr, here is some additional information for him:
-The device has the advantage of easy mass-production back home, and not requiring any training to use
-Our people power our technology by taking kinetic energy from things like rivers and wind, and converting it to electrical potential energy.
:
"...oh, speaking of the phone, in the interest of full and honest disclosure I should probably mention that it's nearly out of power. Remember how I mentioned we use non-magically generated electricity? At home it would be easy to recharge, but I'm pretty sure Morrowind doesn't have electrical outlets."You take out the battery and show it to him. He examines it closely.
"That's a peculiar way of storing magicka. Why not use a soul? Or design it to recharge in daylight. Or siphon life force from the wielder. Or even use a conventional mana battery. That would require a caster to recharge it, but this seems to require that anyway, except with an unnecessary conversion to lightning, which it appears to be highly susceptible to. I see no benefit to this design.":
"We don't have magic where I'm from."He gives you a look that screams "you are clearly an idiot."
:
"Also, these are mass-produced by the millions and it would be difficult to capture that many souls."He shrugs dismissively. He seems to be losing interest in talking to you.
"No matter. The device seems simple enough. I'm sure I can develop a spell to recharge it. The only difficulty will be feeding it gently enough that it doesn't melt or explode. It appears to be ludicrously fragile."if we don't figure stuff out, Dagoth Ur is totally gonna wreck stuff, imminently, and since he's right about things really being different enough that we can't be sure how things will turn out, he should probably be prepared for that.
:
"Unrelated, like you know, I spoke with Vivec, and Dagoth Ur is totally gonna wreck stuff. He's basically a mad god planning to take over the world-" ""Yes, yes," Divayth interrupts.
"And has been for centuries. That's why we have the ghost fence."find out what clover's task is
:
"By the way, what was the task you gave Clover?" "Not your affair."*click*
"Aha!"It seems Divayth just solved the puzzle. You watch as he opens it and reads a small note from inside then chuckles to himself.
ask about getting past that argonian down there and getting back to him.
:
"Ok, one last question and I'll get out of your hair. The rules for the corprusarium are, don't hurt the guard or the inmates, but they're allowed to hurt me?" "Yes, the warden will explain if you ask him."Divayth waves a hand in your direction.
"That should let him know you're here on scholarly business rather than to plunder the dungeon. So long as you don't take anything he should leave you alone. Now, if you'll- ...actually, wait a moment."He turns his back to you and pulls a piece of paper and quill from the table. You hear the sound of writing. After perhaps 20 seconds he turns back around and hands you the cube, now sealed. It's heavier than it seems like it should be.
Received dwemer puzzle cube "On the off chance you do make it to Yagrum, give him that."Divayth again turns his back to you. You're pretty sure you've been dismissed. You walk back out to the vertical tube in the hallway and consider what to do. Getting back up is going to be hard enough, but how do you get
down?
Yeah, 30 foot drop or so. Too bad you don't have any rope. The tube walls are close enough that you can reach both sides with your hands. Maybe you could put feet on one side, hands on the other and walk down batman-style? You remove everything breakable from your backpack and drop it down ahead of you then start to climb down.
You make it about ten feet down before you slip and fall.
Acrobatics is now 33Health is now 55/61:
"Celestia damn it that hurt!"You crawl over to a wall and check your injuries. Looks like nothing's broken.
:
"Ok, seriously guys...we've been here for like two months now. Why is stuff like this still a problem?"Well, good a time as any to chat with the voices in your head.
Michael, what functions does the phone have?
:
"I don't know. The usual stuff I guess. Let me check."Michael checks the various menus.
:
"Let's see, autodial, address book...currently empty, notepad, calculator, a couple games, ...web browser? Checking, no...looks like it can't find any connection. Ok, let's see, we can send text messages, we can...ok, apparently we can send email and attachments. Or at least we could if we could connect to anything. And camera and video mode. Not sure whether we can receive attachments, but maybe. Download apps...again, no connection. GPS...no connection. Yeah, looks like a lot of stuff we can't do because there's no cell network, but everything else basically works."I believe, in a principal sense, that physics works essentially the same here, in that energy is conserved. That is, to do something, you have to move energy from one place to another. A mundane example would be the chemical potential energy in our muscles being converted to kinetic energy to produce motion
Michael ponders that.
:
"Ok, but does the idea of 'chemical potential energy' even make sense here? I don't think I've had anything to eat or drink since my time in the Legion, yet I've never felt hungry or thirsty. Where's my body getting its chemical energy from? Does anything we know about chemistry make sense here? So far as I can tell, my body, the tube I just fell through and the air inside it plus everything else that exists here is made of light. Divayth described electricity as being a state of magicka and I can tell you because I'm looking at it that light and magicka are the same thing. So apparently electrons are made of light here. What does that do to the atomic model? What does that do to chemistry?"
"For that matter, what does that do to physics? Doesn't light have to always be moving...at the speed of light? How can objects be stationary? Or are the photons in everything moving...for lack of a better way of phrasing it...in very small circles? Why does anything interact with anything? Isn't it mostly electrostatic forces that keep objects from being able to pass through each other? Photons have no charge, so why is the floor able to hold me up? For that matter, photons are massless. Why does gravity exist here?""I guess we can write it off by saying that Divayth was being metaphorical, and that everyone here are science primitives who don't know what they're talking about. Maybe photons aren't really photons and this whole 'magicka is light' thing isn't real, but five minutes ago I was looking at cellphone radiation, clear as daylight. Here, let me show you. Cellphone is off."
:
"Now, I'll turn the cellphone on."
:
"Can you guys see that weird glow everywhere? For that matter, do you guys see that giant ball of sunlight shining through the planet and the ground right now? I'm pretty sure the sun doesn't shine through the planet back on earth. I think there's something fundamentally going on here that we've totally missed."
:
"Who are you talking to?"You jump as Cinia floats down the tube in front of you carrying a purple crystal the size of your head in one arm.
:
"Cinia, hi. Umm...just thinking out loud. How're things?"She lifts the crystal for you to see. It looks like the same crystal used in Telvanni towers. You get up and the two of you start walking down to the main entry hall.
:
"This one's ready, and Alfe's cutting the other one now. You've probably got another hour if you want a ride back to Sadrith Mora."That doesn't leave you much time. Down to the corprusarium, get in and talk to Yagrum, get back out alive, talk to Beyte and then get up the tower to talk to Divayth if he's not having dinner, and then finally track down wherever Clover is. You seriously doubt you can do all that in a Morrowind hour and since you lost your divine intervention scroll to the water, if you don't leave with Cinia you're not sure how you're going to get off the island. And if it turns out you do need to get back up the tower, how are you going to do that?
:
"Cinia, I'm about to head to the corprusrium but I need to get back up to talk to Divayth again later. Do you have a levitation potion I could borrow or buy?":
"No. Why would I? You don't get to be a wizard in House Telvanni without being able to cast levitation.":
"Would you be able to cast levitation on me?":
"No, I've never had a reason to pay for a target-other variant. But I'm headed back to the crystal chamber anyway as soon as I finish dropping this off at my boat. If you're here when I get back I'll take you with. You don't look heavy."You're pretty sure it's going to take longer than that to navigate the corprusarium and talk to Yagrum.
:
"Yeah, I'm going to be longer than that. I appreciate the offer, but don't feel you need to wait for me."She laughs and playfully pushes your shoulder, knocking you off your feet and into a wall, which stops you from hitting the ground. It's a bit disquieting how effortlessly she moves you.
:
"Oh, don't worry. I won't. See you later, Mitchel.":
"Michael.":
"Right, Michael."You head down the left path from the entry hall looking for the corprusarium. You're not certain, but a few details in here seem different than you remember them. And come to think of it, you don't remember there being any 'crystal room' in Tel Fyr. Where did Cinia get the one she was carrying? If you weren't so pressed for time you'd consider exploring a bit to find out what else is different. Continuing down to where you expect the corprusarium to be, you pass a large circular door apparently being guarded by one of Divayth's other daughters.
She glances up at you, saying nothing.
:
"Excuse me. Which way to the corprusarium?"She points at a passage and continues pacing in front of the door. Apparently not as talkative as the others. The rest of the trip is more or less as you expect it, and you're starting to wonder if the feeling that things look different than you remember is only because it looks different being here in person than it does looking at a computer screen. The door to the corprsarium is the same round style of door you've seen elsewhere, but moving it proves to be difficult. These doors are
heavy. Once you get it open you look at it from the side. It's easily a foot thick.
Cautiously you step into the room. No sign of the argonian. The door automatically closes behind you and you hear a puff of air as it seals itself closed.
:
"Warden?"You jump as a voice come from your left.
:
"It speaks."Was he waiting in here invisibly?
:
"Umm, hi. I'm Michael. Please don't kill me. I'm here to talk to Yagrum.":
"Understood.":
"Divayth said you'd tell me what the rules are if I asked?"He tilts his head, examining you.
:
"You are here to talk only? Then take nothing, hurt nothing, and you might live.":
"Right. But, I understand that Divayth has sort of a dungeon looting game thing going on? How does that work. In case I, you know...want to play, while I'm here anyway.":
"For the game, it is played in three ways. You take treasure, I kill you and yours adds to the pile. You hurt inmates, I kill you and yours adds to the pile. You take treasure, get lucky and escape, get greedy come back for more and I kill you. Yours adds to the pile.":
"I think I'd prefer not to die, thanks.":
"Most do."There's a moment of awkward silence.
:
"So...warden. I guess I'll just go talk to Yagrum now."He nods. Then makes a tiny motion with a finger and vanishes. You stand there for a moment, listening. The only thing you hear is your own heartbeat. It's funny. You were just talking to a thousands year old wizard who could set you on fire or make you explode. Probably both at the same time. After that you were talking to a pretty girl carrying what must have been a 50 pound crystal in one hand and who accidentally almost knocked you off your feet just trying to be friendly. Neither of them scared you.
This guy scares you.
Taking a breath you push open the wooden gate and step inside the bowels of the corprusarium.
It a bit more crowded in here than you expected.
Level 8
Health 55/61
Magick 69/69
Armor rating: 4
27.3 Strength (20)
35.0 Speed (30)
37.3 Agility (30)
40.1 Endurance (30)
42.4 Intelligence (40)
40.0 Willpower (40)
44.6 Personality (40)
57.0 Luck (50)
Numbers in parenthesis are starting values
33 Acrobatics (0)
22 Athletics (5)
7 Armorer (0)
6 Block (0)
7 Heavy Armor (0)
5 Medium Armor (0)
22 Light armor (0)
9 Unarmored (0)
5 Blunt Weapon
12 Hand to Hand
5 Longblade
6 Shortblade
8 Spear
7 Alchemy (0)
5 Enchanting (0)
21 Speechcraft (10)
12 Mercantile (0)
* Cellphone
* Cruel Viperblade
* Chitin shield
* Chitin left + right gauntlets
* Chitin greaves
* Chitin cuirass
* Chitin left + right pauldrons
* Chitin boots
* Combat belt
* Commoner's shirt
* Commoner's pants
* Interior coinpurse, containing:
* lockpick
* 1 standard invisibility potion
* 1 potion of water walking
* 1 empty bottle
Backpack (Worn) (damp)
Main compartment:
* Dwemer Puzzle Box
* Tennis shoes
* 3 illegible water logged papers
* 1 illegible water-logged scroll of divine intervention
* Yellow water-damaged notepad with 54 pages left
* 1 pen
* "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt (damp)
* Denim pants (damp)
* wallet with picture ID and $30 in cash
* 2 lesser soulgems (empty)
* 29 Whickwheat
Small compartment
* 122 gold
* 8 empty bottle
* 2 Ampoule Pod
* 1 Black Anther
* 7 bungler's bane
* 5 Chokeweed
* 3 Corkbulb
* 25 Heather
* 3 hypha facia
* 11 luminous russula
* 4 Racer Plume
* 8 saltrice
* 2 Stoneflower petals
* 5 spore pod
* 6 violet coprinus
Bearer of Azura's Mark
Blades, Novice
Imperial Legion, Recruit
Fighter's Guild, Associate (1 quest completed)
Mage Guild, Associate
Registered Sadrith Mora business visa, with slave-handling endorsement
* Steel tanto, with scabbard and carrying straps
* Imperial steel Cuirass
* Apprentice mortar and pestle
Alit Hide [1]Resist Poison
Ash yam [1]Restore personality
Ampoule Pod [1]Restore speed
Black Anther [1]Resist poison
Black lichen [1]Drain Health
Bread [1]Restore Fatigue
Bungler's Bane [1]Drain agility
Chokeweed [1]Drain health
Coda Flower [1]Restore luck
Comberry [1]Drain health
Corkbulb Root [1]Restore luck
Crab Meat [1]Restore fatigue
Gravedust [1]Burden
Green Lichen [1]Night Eye
Heather [1]Poison
Hound Meat [1]Poison
Hypha facia [1]Drain speed
Kresh fiber [1]Cure common disease
Kwama cuttle [1]Restore health
Large kwama egg [1]Restore fatigue
Luminous russ. [1]Paralysis
Marshmerrow [1]Resist common disease
Muck [1]Poison
Racer plume [1]Levitate
Rat meat [1]Poison
Roobrush [1]Restore intelligence
Saltrice [1]Restore endurance
Scale [1]Swift swim
Scathecraw [1]Paralyze
Spore pod [1]Paralysis
Stoneflower petal [1]Fortify health
Sm. Kwama Egg [1]Restore Fatigue
Violet coprinus [1]Water Walking
Whickwheat [1]Cure paralysis
Willow Anther [1]Water Breathing
* One picture of you standing in Divayth Fyr's study
* One, very jumpy 10 second video of you and Divayth waving the phone around inside his study
What do you do?
Author
Topic: Marooned in Morrowind (FINISHED) (Read 435348 times)