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[Dwarmin]

"Evil, good...no has ever quite adequately explained the concept to me...Elementals don't really bother with those ideas..." She(?) comments idly, studying you with her fire eyes.

"In any case, hunting us would be quite useless. You can't kill an Elemental in the physical plane-any more than you can 'kill' a fire by splashing water on it. We're energy, and can't be destroyed-only transferred to a different state. The best you can do is...well, I'll leave that for you to find out, 'great' hunter." She(?) says with a toasty little laugh.

[UXLZ]

Ispil relaxes once more and resumes feed her(?) coal, though maintains enough awareness to avoid another slip-up. Her reaction wasn't too unexpected, though he would have preferred it to lack the element of sarcasm.

He looks at her(?) as he speaks of good and evil, his hood drawing back enough for their eyes to meet.

"Things that are good, and things that are evil, is ultimately... Perspective. The only one who can decide something like that is yourself. If you think they don't matter, then they don't matter. It's as simple as that."

He sighs, his hood falling back in place as he averts his gaze.

"To me, something evil is a creature that unduly harms others, though it's nowhere near that simple. Good is likewise hard to define. He thinks about it further. "I guess you could say it's 'whatever I feel like.' Once again, perspective"

Continuing to bucket coal, Ispil comments on the 'to kill an Elemental' advice.

"I guess I'd be more of a bouncer than a hunter, then. Chucking the unruly Elementals out. Still, if they can't just return straight away, it's something. Though I deal mostly with more corporeal creatures. Basilisks, undead, wyerns, those sorts of things. Rather, I intend to deal with those. I doubt the New World will be so kind."

[Dwarmin]

"Well, good luck with that, Fleshling. I do hope you do not perish too painfully. I'm doomed to be a component in this infernal machine for the rest of it's existence."

[UXLZ]

"What would you do if it... Broke?"

"Head back to your plane? Wait for it to be fixed and continue as normal?"

[My Name is Immaterial]

"Being quick with all my faces is an oxymoron; everyone I've seen is mine. I can cover the common ones, though. First, we have the throwaway, bland faces."
"Marcus, Louise, Clark, Penny, Lynn, Terry, Tyler, Al, Ellen and Jessie. All humans of various skin tones and hair colors."
"Dorn, Grudat, Korad, Tuli, and Liha. Dwarves, mostly from the hills instead of the depths."
"Legoyan, Aultheridan, Aledra, Glirwen, Isuialiel. Elves, with only Aledra and Legoyan from the wilds. There are no drow in their number, since they draw to much attention."
"Now there are the specialized faces."
"Mali, the female human mercenary. A sellsword that's truly wicked with a bow, and the epitome of the word 'rogue'."
"McGillth, the crazy old male human hermit. He tends to only show up in town when adventurers are getting too interested in rumors of Changelings and sits in the tavern, waiting to give out quests before vanishing back into the woods."
"Daglara, the male dwarven trader. His life is one of variety. He's the richest man alive one day and broke as a dropped bowl the next. He deals in everything from silks and turnips to gems and shit."
"Gondiliel, the female elven hunter. She likes to wander from town to town, only stopping by for supplies before returning to the wilderness."
"Those are the most useful ones."

[Dwarmin]

"Broke?

Well, in the event of complete and total mechanical failure. or the impending notion of such-as if the ship was about to sink-I'd be free to go home, and pursue a new contract. If they fixed the machine, they would have to get another Elemental to run it. Otherwise, my contract stipulates I am to power this machine until the end of it's lifecycle.

You must understand, mortal! I am here by order of my Prince, Flemaxis. I have no real freedom in this task. I am what you would call a slave...though I am bound by no chains of yours, or magical bindings-I must follow the law that is my being. I have no other choice." She says, giving a flaming shrug.

---

"Those are the most useful ones."

"Thank you for your cooperation!"
"So, uh...which form do we want him in when we eat him?"
"I like to eat Elves. Halflins make me sick."
"Crunchy Dwaves for me. I can't stand the taste of Elves."
"...aaaand now we're back we started."
"Okay mortal, no fooling around this time-you're going to get eaten, but it's fair that you choose."
"True. Since you were so helpful, I'll only light you on fire a little bit, before I devour you-my solemn promise."
"I've naught to offer but superior mastication. I really do take my time. A little more painful, sure, but you'll live a few hours in my...er, our stomach. Enough to ponder the afterlife! Surely, that's what the Gods would want you to do..."

They both look at you with interest.

[UXLZ]

Ispil smiled. He'd made up his mind.

"I see."

He brushed his hand against the cage on his hip, absentmindedly.
So she(?) was like him, then. A slave without chains or magical compulsion, but a slave nonetheless.
He couldn't help himself.
He hated such things.
He knew it ultimately wouldn't make a difference, she(?)'d probably just end up on another ship just like it, or as a guardian in some insane Wizard's dungeon, but it was what he felt like doing.

Were there any weak points in the machine or the ship? Could they be broken easily? He wracked his mind to see if he could remember seeing anything that might be useful in his endeavor.
His timing would have to be flawless.
There would be no second chances.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Nigma shifts into the form of a half-elf/half-halfling he once met.
"I do believe that we are at an impasse. Goodbye," and he turns to leave.
((Edited because I miss-read.))

[Dwarmin]

Nigma shifts into the form of a half-elf/half-halfing he once met.
"I do believe that we are at an impasse. Goodbye," and he turns to leave.

You hear their angry, defeated twin-roars even as you exit the dream, with a sense of triumph...and perhaps some insight into your own problems, as well.

Nigma spends the rest of night peacefully. Truly, the sleep of the just.

+50 XP Reward

---

Ispil smiled. He'd made up his mind.

"I see."

Ispil takes a moment. It's not that hard to figure out, really. He can think of a few ways.

-Close the pipes tightly, that regulate the steam pressure to the boiler. Too much pressure, and the boiler explodes. Probably a bit self defeating, though-depends on how strong the blast is. He has no idea how to calculate that.
-Throw a wrench into the works. He knows the steam powers a spinning thing (turbine). Stop the turbine, or the machine it runs, and the thing breaks down. Also leaves you dead in the water.
-Sink the ship. At this rate, it might happen anyway, right?

[Dwarmin]

Nigma shifts into the form of a half-elf/half-halfling he once met.
"I do believe that we are at an impasse. Goodbye," and he turns to leave.
((Edited because I miss-read.))

((I know. Thankfully I'm in too much of a hurry to be evil today. ))

[UXLZ]

((Blaaaarh, I need to go. Now. Right as it's getting interesting.))
((By the way guys, sorry about whatever difficulties this causes. Me trying to sink the ship, that is. xD))

Ispil decides to try sink of the ship, spending his efforts towards that goal. There are a lot of things he needs to balance. It needs to sink near enough to land for the ship's passengers to escape, but far enough for it to actually sink properly. He also needs to avoid doing so in a way that makes it obvious he was the cause, at least the intentional one.

What he was doing most would consider 'evil.'
It didn't really matter to him.

Oh, and he needed to try and avoid letting the Elemental know what he was up to, at least until after it is too late to be stopped. (s)he might be duty-bound to stop him. He didn't want to have to deal with that.

[Dwarmin]

((Yeah, I'll need some more concrete actions whenever you get back. ))

[UXLZ]

Ispil tries to remember what he knows about ship 'anatomy'. Would simply poking holes in the hull be enough to sink it in time?
Maybe those areas where water was already leaking through? Could he enlarge them without it being obvious that it was unnatural? Those were probably his best bet at the moment, but he wasn't sure if his hands or sword would be enough to do the job.

((These should be a bit more specific. I'll be here for about 5 and a half hours after this point so there's opportunity for a lot of progress. Sadly, the others aren't here. What I wrote was more of an indication for what he'd be spending his time doing if stuff happened while I was gone.))

[Dwarmin]

All Ispil can directly guess is what's right in front of him-the oven that feed the boiler has many large pipes leading to the riveted ceiling. He would guess the steamworks are in the deck above him.

As for the other tactic...he's not sure he could hack through the entire wood/metal hull himself, even with it damaged. Maybe if he was eight feet tall, and had a giant battleaxe. It's also likely he'd be heard-sound travels through the hull, and the reverberations of a blow from the inside would likely alert someone.

[UXLZ]

He sighs.

This is going to be harder than I had hoped.

Would he actually be able to close the regulating pipes tightly enough to make the boiler explode?
He wasn't particularly strong, the martial style he practiced was more focused on precise hits than heavy ones. Monsters were often far stronger than almost any man could hope to be, contesting that strength directly wouldn't work.
Even if he was strong enough, wouldn't the heat be too intense for his hands to handle?