Personal Recollections of Ast Konosoth
Mayor of Gostzas
===Today, we had an unusual visitor from the outer lands. Clad in worn robes, with a spear on her back, and a crossbow at her side, the dwarf simply walked up to the bridge and gazed up at the pinnacle we've constructed into the sky. Normally this would not be of note, but something about this Id Matulcog was ... otherworldly. I do not know how to explain it better than that. She seemed to know the purpose of Archcrystal at a glance, and domination of the nightmares below.
She seemed somewhat surprised that there were living dwarfs, and after some hesitation, agreed to come down to the tavern for a pint of beer. Imagine my surprise when I saw that under her robe she wore a full set of adamantite armor, and on closer inspection, her blade was made of the same material. When I inquired on where she got it, she merely stated it was a relic of her home, and refused to elaborate further.
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The following day, I spotted Id walking the length of the grand halls below the fort. Out of something of a morbid curiosity, I tailed her for a time. I think she was aware of me, but said nothing. As she stepped into the slade cavern below, I could see her briefly tense up, before inspecting our cave dragons.
"Rare you see them at this size ... You guys have been here awhile I take it?"
Startled, I responded, "Just short of 375 years to the day."
She stopped dead in her tracks, and stared at me. She blinked. “Do you have a library?”
I nodded, and led her to the The Inky Bowels, a center of knowledge and learning. Erush was sitting at one of the tables, pondering the meaning of stars or some other nonsense like that. He completely ignored us for a moment.
“Where are the books?
“Books?”
“I’m sorry, madam, but we don’t have of these books you speak of …”
“How do you record things then? You know, history and such?”
“With the occassionally stone tablet, but they’re too bulky to use for anything beyond basic organization …”
Id pinched the bridge of her nose, and for a moment, I thought she was going to lash before letting out an exasperated sigh. “Come with me, I’m going to give you the best gift I can …”. Leading us to the main haul, she grabbed a bunch of pigtails, and began to ground them on a quern before adding water.
I watched her take the slurry, and begin pounding it into a paste with a screw paste, watching carefully to make sure that she extracted all the water out of the slurry, and then spread the rolls on a nearby crafts ship. As they hung, she asked me where I could find some coal or possibly charcoal. Something black.
Curious on what she was making, I located a lump lying near the original smelters, and handed it to her. Taking out a dagger, she grounded the coal into a black powder with the hilt, and poured it into a goblet, and retrieved a roc feather from our stocks. At the base, she cut it, and then dipped it in the coal slurry.
“Let’s see if I did this right.”
With a practiced hand, she began to write on the dried pig tail slurry, created recognizable letters and characters. “Good, now pay attention, this is how you’ll preserve yourself and everything you were.”, and motioned for us to return to the library. Sitting at a desk, she began to write. Erush walked over and watched in amazement.
“So this is called paper?”
“Yeah, something I learned in a place very far away ....”
On the quire (which is what she called the stack of papers), Id wrote out a detailed list of instructions detailing the creation of paper via a pig tail slurry, as well as two additional methods on creating parchment with a substance known as quicklime, and a method involving specific types of papyrus plants.
Additionally, she listed designs for a new type of item she called a bookcase, methods of binding the quires in longer lasting codexes.
“That should cover most of it … I think, now to bind this properly into an actual book.”
And with that, the first codex of Archcrystal came into existence, which became later known as the “Librum Primum”. Over the next several days, many of the scholars began committing their thoughts to paper. Id spoke very little, and simply wandered as a ghost in the library.
A week later, I spotted Id filling her backpack with supplies, and refilling her waterskins.
“Leaving already?”
“Yeah … I’m not needed …”
“Needed?”
Id shrugged, “Just a thing I need to do. Rarely do I find places so close the void filled with life.”
“The void?”
“Don’t worry about it. Not your problem. It was nice to stay somewhere with actual company for once, and the glass is beautiful. I don’t see much of it in my travels …”
“... You know, you’re welcome to stay if you want. It’s within my power to grant residency here at Archcrystal, and I’m convinced the king could grant you citizenship for your knowledge alone?”
I actually got a small grin out of her, “What, me? Knowlege? I’m just a marksdwarf who learned a bit in her travels. I might remember of siege operations though ...”
I actually glared at her, “One who has possibly revolutionized the sharing and storage of knowledge. You’re as much a marksdwarf as I’m the king!”
She shrugged, and continued to load supplies. That wasn’t enough to stop me, “Where are you from, where are you going?”
That got her attention, “Ast, I’ve walked the the infinite planes for far longer than you realize. There are SOME things you are simply better off not knowing. My home was destroyed in a fit of madness and depravity long ago. I’m all that remains.”
I tried to respond, but no words came to me.
“Use what I taught you. Preserve your knowledge for future generations, and let it spread throughout the world. Everything ends, Ast, everything. Even this place will eventually. It may not been for years to come, but it will. Let the legacy of Archcrystal, it’s history, it’s stories, it’s knowledge live on.”
Id holstered her backpack.
“I’ll leave in the morning. One final drink and a nice bed to rest in before I continue on.”
Unable to think of anything to say, I followed Id to the tavern. She didn’t say much aside from a minor disappointment for not having fisher berry wine in the stocks.
The following morning, I walked with her up the flight of stairs leading to the jungle. “Is there nothing I can say to convince you to stay?”
“No, but perhaps, just perhaps we may meet again, Ast. May the world itself protect this place.”
I thought I should say something, or perhaps stop her, but in the end, I simply watched her walk into the distance and disappear between the trees …
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OOC: Id Matulcog is originally from Deathgate and canonically escaped that place before it's end, and cursed to walk the infinite multiverse. She frequently appears in forts that have touched the void below. I'll likely post the save tonight or tomorrow. Not sure how well this came out, but I've felt crummy all day today 
Author
Topic: Archcrystal: 500 years in a fortress [SPOILERS] Finished (Read 494830 times)