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Author Topic: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device  (Read 25871 times)

Harry Baldman

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #120 on: October 14, 2016, 01:50:02 pm »

Disembark and see what there is to be seen.

You disembark to reasonable curiosity by the locals, who poke at you occasionally, but not nearly as boldly as the sailors did. Some ask what sound like questions, to which you can only offer strange looks and slight wiggles, which get a few chuckles for the most part.

All in all, this looks a lot like a dock, albeit one completely without any cargo or equipment to be seen. Instead the place seems to be serving as a reception area, Frog People having filed into it from all over the nearby caves to meet the sailors and also express more or less obvious admiration at their amazing finds which seem to be, in order, the capsule, the rotting corpse of the whale and, in distant third place, you guys.

You rather wisely get out of the way as they get down to unloading the whale onto the dock, the non-sailors gathering with woven baskets and boxes to gather chunks of the whale for themselves, getting into orderly lines as each sailor makes sure to get their own immediate family in line as soon as possible after what is probably a heartfelt reunion.

Interestingly, though many eyes are on you as you wander around, this seems to mostly be a thing of novelty, and nobody seems particularly eager to stop you from going anywhere in particular. In fact, the tunnel leading away from the dock has just about emptied of any incoming frogs at about this point, and you notice Eccentrica being herded toward it even now by what seem to be good friends of the third mate.

((What do you mean, "not a real doctor"? Doctor Carnifarex is most certainly a real Doctor. Perhaps not an actual medic, or the recipient of any form of degree, medical or otherwise, but a Doctor nonetheless.))
Stick with the crew.

You follow behind Bert, as he seems to have his wits about him and his shit together for now at least, though you do keep an eye on the others as well, making sure none of them get up to anything unseemly. Heehoo seems to have earned the ire of the frog captain by giving his froggy friend a less than polite look, Waffels seems to be watching and taking mental notes from all the myriad conversations happening on deck, and Eccentrica seems to be about to head off somewhere with new buddies of her own. All in all, seems to be the makings of an eventful afternoon.

Examine the local authority figures- are they carrying anything interesting?

[Mind: 1]

Still in something of a haze, you look around for the largest, most important of the frogs, and your fevered eyes settle on a giant specimen currently conversing with the captain in a frog song that easily drowns out most footfalls, moving crates and sailor chatter in the area. For a moment your eyes meet, and then you start rubbing your palms together and sweating profusely as you examine it from afar, taking note of every bump in its long flowing robe and odd curve, absolutely sure that treasure must be held within.

Needless to say, your less than subtle gawking is very much noticed, and the very large frog turns its head to you, followed by the captain himself, and both give you a dirty, bug-eyed look that strikes up within you a rather primal fear.

Rather wisely, you decide to gawk at some regular frog crewmen instead. They seem altogether less likely to take offense. And they're also carrying just about nothing useful. Maybe the two are connected, your head is spinning a little too much for you to say for sure. One is called over by the captain, and after a quick exchange begins to very unsubtly watch you.

Retainer Gained: Suspicious Frog Whaler

Eccentrica did her best to look generally enticing while keeping a general eye on the surroundings. These caves of ice were pretty cool, if she could pardon her own pun, but they certainly weren't the Heradian pleasure domes. It wouldn't do to get accidentally owned/married before the adventure could get underway.

I'll sway gently and try to get a feel for the conversation. Make the third mate look like the space hero he is.

[Finesse: 2+4]

The frogs seem increasingly incredulous as the third mate explains his adventures (well, so you assume, given how they stare at you every now and then), and you sway gently in the warm sea breeze as your legend grows.

[Mind: 2]

Though what they might be saying exactly does entirely escape you, they do eventually come to some sort of arrangement, you think, and the third mate conveys you into the hands of one of these other frogs. You look at him questioningly, and he gives you a nod before hopping back over to the ship, where he begins to organize getting the whale off the deck already, its rotting hulk having become especially gruesome these last few days.

Your new protectors, garishly robed to a frog, place their froggy hands gently upon your shoulders as they begin to usher you toward the edge of the half-dome, where a dark ice tunnel seems to have stopped disgorging frogs for the moment. The third mate's presumed relatives start to hop along behind you before realizing you can't possibly keep up with them at full tilt, and content themselves with herding you on while taking ungainly steps with their many-jointed legs instead. They croak to themselves with the self-satisfied assurance that you don't understand a single word they're saying, or so you think. You don't really know. All you do know is that you, a stranger in a strange land, are about to be separated from the rest of your crew. Not that they're necessarily the most useful lot, mind you. You hope the third mate takes care of your luggage, though. You did mostly leave it in the cabin.

Retainer Lost: Ship's Boy
Gifts Elaborated: Old Bottle of Unidentified Substance, Tiny Bouncy Ball, Armful of Iridescent Insects

Waffles stands around with the rest of his crew, looking much better than before. He had forgotten how much he liked insect based foods, and is really glad he traded his precious smoke grenades for the rations.

Stand around and see if I can understand what the frog people are saying.

Also, are these colourful sea urchins cute at all?


[Mind: 10-1]

Surprisingly, you do catch quite a few words you understand. Mostly the ones the sailors taught you, though, and it's mostly the sailors who seem to be repeating them as well. Mostly at each other or at various objects, particularly at the whale as they unload it off the ship. But you do also catch what's being said among the others, and the more basic phrases start to grow downright recognizable. Exchanges of greetings, expressions of gratitude, excited exclamations and what seem to be very frustrated descriptions of Eccentrica, mostly decipherable via the accompanying gestures they make that really can't be mistaken for much else. And, of course, the universal as well as universally meaningless how-are-you/I'm-fine exchange.

[Luck: 10]

As for the sea urchins, they seem to have held up pretty well outside of the water, unlike the great floral whale, so you'd say they're pretty cute, little gormless balls of spikes and obliviousness that they are. But then again, you're sort of an invertebrate, so maybe your standards of cuteness and those of the Frog People don't necessarily overlap. They seem to consider them more the exotic variety of interesting, you're fairly sure. Though they seem to apparently serve some other purpose as well, given that the Frog People almost certainly don't find them actually edible near as you can tell.
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Pancaek

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #121 on: October 15, 2016, 09:03:55 am »

Might as well endear myself to the local populace a little, Waffles decides.

Keep the two cutest sea urchins for myself, and hand out the rest to whoever wants one. Come one, come all, get your sea urchin here!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: October 15, 2016, 12:37:12 pm by Pancaek »
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S34N1C

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #122 on: October 15, 2016, 10:23:13 am »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Follow Eccentrica, but keep my distance. I'm unsure of the frogs intentions.
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ATHATH

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #123 on: October 16, 2016, 03:50:16 pm »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stare at my new retainer. Not so much that he runs away in fear, but enough to let him know that I know what he's doing.

Then see if any of the bumps in the surrounding frogs' skins react to attempts to use my metal-empathy on them.
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Draignean

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #124 on: October 16, 2016, 10:32:34 pm »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


For the moment, this was fine. Honestly, she'd had much worse, and things could certainly get much worse if she prodded too actively.

Go with the flow. Observe, listen, be docile and smile prettily back at my rescuers.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2016, 11:49:04 pm by Draignean »
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AkumaKasai

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #125 on: October 17, 2016, 06:13:06 pm »

Join Bert in following Eccentrica. While I do so, watch the frog people, and take note of any that seem particularly interesting or suspicious.
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Harry Baldman

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #126 on: October 18, 2016, 06:13:56 pm »

Might as well endear myself to the local populace a little, Waffles decides.

Keep the two cutest sea urchins for myself, and hand out the rest to whoever wants one. Come one, come all, get your sea urchin here!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You hold on to two of the most handsome of your sea urchins, their spines gleaming in the afternoon sun as you hold them up to the light. They're absolutely lovely, you think as you strongly consider naming them. One's a lovely metallic golden, with long spines that sort of bend like the attractive abdomen of a miniature female. The other is a bright cyan, with stubby little spikes that make you think it'd be a very nice back massager if you managed to get someone to rub it over your back. You then turn your attention on the Frog People on the dock.

[Finesse: 12+1]

You approach a group of younglings who've barely lost their tails, and present your armful of goods. They croak and squeak with absolute delight as they gather round and gently pick out an urchin or two each, lovingly caressing it before they start navigating their long fingers to poke them in the innards, drawing back painted fingers in a variety of colors. They start with each other, drawing strange-looking symbols and shapes of animals you don't really recognize on each other, chuckling affably as they render themselves uncommonly beautiful on this auspicious day.

Of course, there's only so much they can do with only themselves to work with, and you soon find yourself swarmed with the lovable little scamps, who start painting similar shapes on you, soon turning you into a wonderful tableau of primitive childlike art, your body painted head to multitudinous feet with funny images, the children laughing and climbing over you all the way as you affably bend down to permit them easy access.

What you assume are the parents of all these younglings seem to be watching amusedly as you let yourself be decorated. About five of them for a group of roughly three dozen children, seems about right for Frog People. They seem suitably assured of your good intentions, or at least unable to perceive somebody as garishly painted as you as any kind of plausible threat.

Items Gained: Cute Sea Urchin Body Paint, Golden Long-Spined Urchin, Cyan Blunt-Spined Urchin
Items Lost: Armful of Colorful Sea Urchins

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Follow Eccentrica, but keep my distance. I'm unsure of the frogs intentions.

[Finesse: 5+2]

They manage to make very rapid progress, and you're barely able to keep up without letting them know you're there, especially among the tight twists and turns of the labyrinthine frog homes, until eventually you reach a shining dome holding within it an icy estate of old, circled by tents wholly incongruous to the otherwise flawless aesthetics of the place.

Of course, you do not get to explore very deeply before a rather fierce-looking Frog Person moves to block your way in, croaking menacingly as Eccentrica is taken to a tent deeper in. If you had to guess, you'd say this is some kind of residential rotunda, and guests are most certainly only permitted in by invitation only.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stare at my new retainer. Not so much that he runs away in fear, but enough to let him know that I know what he's doing.

Then see if any of the bumps in the surrounding frogs' skins react to attempts to use my metal-empathy on them.


Your new retainer just stares at you with his bulging eyes. This seems to be a way easier job than his regular duties, and he seems plainly thankful for the privilege of doing it. So you decide to complicate things somewhat.

[Body: 2-1]

You go up to a nearby frog sailor and try to feel them up something fierce, looking for any sign of metal objects underneath their clothes. The frog sailor in question, a rather large specimen, does not appreciate this forwardness one bit, and with an errant flick of his powerful leg kicks you straight in the midsection, the force of it more than enough to make your internals shake and knock the breath straight out of you as you fly a short distance toward the railing, smash through it and promptly land in the water, the last thing you see before you're in the drink being the rather surprised look of your assailant and the very mildly concerned expression of your retainer as he watches your less than triumphant arc and the incredible crack of your body against the railing.

[Body: 12-1]

You groan and twist in the water, but even if you didn't know how to swim before you landed, several attempts to get to shore from the capsule when the claustrophobia became unbearable made you learn the hard way, and even with your amazingly bruised waist you manage to stay afloat and swallow a bare minimum of water, looking up bemusedly at the face of your retainer, loyally and silently still watching from above with absolutely no intent to help in any way whatsoever.

Wound Gained: Bruised Waist

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


For the moment, this was fine. Honestly, she'd had much worse, and things could certainly get much worse if she prodded too actively.

Go with the flow. Observe, listen, be docile and smile prettily back at my rescuers.

You follow along, up the stairs and along a corridor. Take a left, then take a right. The caves go on and on, and despite the lack of any visible fires the place still looks lit, the ice gleaming softly as if the light were conducted flawlessly through it. The paths wind on and on, branching out into the depths of the ice caves, until finally you come to a delicately carved dome of ice, its roof discontinuous with the ground, risen from it with no apparent means of connection. It's not very large, you find, hosting an estate that numbers three decent-sized houses, also carved entirely of ice and looking positively ancient at that. These seem to be entirely untouched - instead the Frog People present, what few there are, seem to have taken up residence in tents arranged circularly around the edge of the dome, the crude driving of their spikes marring the uninterrupted frozen floor in a way that makes your eyes hurt ever so slightly.

A small, but very fierce-looking frog eyes you as your lovely and polite protectors nudge you inside. A moment of suspicion gives way to froggy smiles and nods, and you are nudged very demonstratively by your guides to assuage any concerns as they croak out a series of phrases you do not at all understand. The small frog draws its face and lets you pass, and you are taken to one of the larger tents.

There is still no fire to be seen, but you are struck by how singularly warm it seems to be as you behold a great spike driven into the floor in the center, breaking an elaborate stylized rendition of, near as you can tell, Frog People in strange outfits and wings surrounded by the unmistakable pattern of interlocking snowflakes. And next to this great spike an old frog sits flanked by six or seven younger ones, all of them simultaneously working on strange-looking headdresses as they draw from a pile of unrecognizable junk behind them, very deliberately not looking as they draw what look like broken remnants of electrical parts to fashion elaborate ornaments.

Naturally, all work ceases as they look upon you with surprise and more than a little suspicion, the three frogs accompanying you placing you carefully by the spike in a freer location. They provide a terse-sounding explanation of some kind to the headdress-makers, but they only seem more confused at this. A suggestion of some kind is made by the seeming head of the frogs leading you here, but this is met with the oldest of the headdress-makers throwing a silvery thing that looks a lot like an electromagnet at the frog's head. Your guides retreat quickly afterward, leaving you in place, an entourage of Frog People all staring at you rather awkwardly.

Join Bert in following Eccentrica. While I do so, watch the frog people, and take note of any that seem particularly interesting or suspicious.

You follow Bert to the frog homes, and on the way regard the residents of this place with a curious 8 eyes.

[Mind: 12+1]

The tunnels show little of it, but even from what you do see it's plainly obvious (if only in the contrast of the relatively plain-looking sailors and the garishly robed village folk) that there is very clearly some sort of celebration either underway or very likely to start. Presumably they've been waiting for the whale for some sort of purpose - you see one frog in particular plunge its hand into it and bring out a handful of ichor, which it then pops into its mouth and seems to pronounce very good indeed - from the smell of it you're guessing it's fermented, to say nothing of the copious amounts of maggots in it. You suppose Frog People have good reason to love both those things.

Your bet is some kind of festival. And you also suspect that you are likely to have some role in it - you are hardly unobserved even as you run through tunnels, you notice, at all points at least one frog keeps at least one eye on you a bit too intently to be a mere passing glance or surprised look, following your movements with great care and mostly unobtrusive movements even as some of them palm rather well-hidden knives instinctively. Though you are a curiosity, you get the sense that this is only as long as you do not prove a nuisance, and what would qualify you as such is a somewhat good question, given the well-hidden, but nevertheless palpable tension in these people.
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AkumaKasai

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #127 on: October 18, 2016, 08:01:20 pm »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Doctor skitters her way over to Bert, and chitters urgently into his cephalothoracic sensory hairs.
The frogs are trying to hide knives while they watch us, and I think they're preparing for some kind of ceremony. I don't want to sound racist,, but we need to get out now before these savages sacrifice us or some shit.
Get outside.
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S34N1C

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #128 on: October 18, 2016, 08:19:27 pm »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((I don't remember what color I used before so I'll just use orange))

But what about Eccentrica? We can't leave her.

Try to convince the frog guard to let me pass. If this fails, walk back until he can't see me and try to sneak past him. Climb on the ceiling if it's high enough to remain unseen.
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Draignean

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #129 on: October 20, 2016, 11:55:20 am »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Right. Well, this was probably going to require a demonstration of some variety, and the spike probably had a couple of uses. Hopefully not ritual sacrifice. Eccentrica began a slow, swaying dance as soon as her guides left her, moving steadily closer to the frog in the elaborate headdress. At what she hoped was a respectful distance, she stopped and began moving around him, using her outfit to its fullest extent as she wove a circle around the frog-lord thrice and closed her eyes with what she hoped looked sufficiently like holy dread to show reverence.

Dance for Kubla-Frog

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Pancaek

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #130 on: October 20, 2016, 12:17:43 pm »

Wave goodbye to the frog children and try to find my way back to another member of the crew.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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ATHATH

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #131 on: October 22, 2016, 01:32:37 am »

Climb out, and try to remember what that frog who threw me into the water looked like. He will pay in time.

Start carving some ice into high-quality mirrors. My skin is metallic, can I use it to chisel the ice?
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Harry Baldman

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #132 on: October 22, 2016, 04:39:08 am »

Doctor skitters her way over to Bert, and chitters urgently into his cephalothoracic sensory hairs.
The frogs are trying to hide knives while they watch us, and I think they're preparing for some kind of ceremony. I don't want to sound racist,, but we need to get out now before these savages sacrifice us or some shit.
Get outside.

[Mind: 1+1]

You decide to get out. Quickly. So you run back into the tunnels, trying to avoid any larger concentrations of Frog People on the way. You try and maintain an upward trajectory, but much to your chagrin the tunnels wind without apparent reason or rhyme, and you seem to only be heading downward during your attempts to head up. So you try going downward, and that leads you downward as well. You try lefts and rights - still downward, and here the tunnels grow emptier, the alcoves looking increasingly like nobody's visited them for years as you keep going. Eventually, as you try just about any way possible, you don't even hear the distant sound of the Frog People attending to their daily business.

Turns out it's pretty lonely at the bottom. Who knew, right? You guess at least you're away from prying eyes that may or may not want to sacrifice you, though.

((I don't remember what color I used before so I'll just use orange))

But what about Eccentrica? We can't leave her.

Try to convince the frog guard to let me pass. If this fails, walk back until he can't see me and try to sneak past him. Climb on the ceiling if it's high enough to remain unseen.

[Finesse: 8+1]

You start to motion toward the guard in as harmless a manner as you can manage in an effort to insist on your good intentions, and he stares with very little good faith at first, tapping his foot on the ground as you try to make appropriate noises, but eventually seems either placated or annoyed sufficiently to relent - on one condition, it seems. He motions to your plasma machete - seems like you'll have to turn that over for the time being if you want to go in. You make a variety of distrustful motions in response, to which he seems to offer the guarantee (well, maybe not a complete guarantee) that you'll get it back later.

Naturally, the same seems to apply to your spidery friend, the good doctor. Or it did, you suppose, before she went ahead to try and escape some other way.

Right. Well, this was probably going to require a demonstration of some variety, and the spike probably had a couple of uses. Hopefully not ritual sacrifice. Eccentrica began a slow, swaying dance as soon as her guides left her, moving steadily closer to the frog in the elaborate headdress. At what she hoped was a respectful distance, she stopped and began moving around him, using her outfit to its fullest extent as she wove a circle around the frog-lord thrice and closed her eyes with what she hoped looked sufficiently like holy dread to show reverence.

Dance for Kubla-Frog

[Finesse: 11+4]

You've got a definite feel for the moves required to impress a contingent of Frog People - after all, most of your time on the ship was spent on little other than perfecting them in progressively elaborate variations. You sinuously move toward the elder frog seductively, letting the spangles do their thing in the gentle light shed by the surrounding ice. You close your eyes reverently as you become sure you've got the spatial relations of the room down, and let your body do the work as you weave a circle thrice around the leader of those assembled, putting some of your best moves to work as you internally hope you're not just setting yourself up for a ritual disembowelment for the Frog God's pleasure.

When you finish the dance, the response is silence, and a minute shuffling. You dare to open your eyes after a few moments, and the reaction is... not quite what you were going for, you don't think. The frogs all stare at you, most of them completely still, and only one or two to the very sidelines seems at all close to what you could describe as either hot and/or bothered, insofar as you've learned to read such things on the ship. The rest seem to be watching with a subtle sort of visceral distaste, your dance clearly having some sort of uncanny quality in their eyes.

The elder frog seems to ask a question, but you have no idea what that might be - you merely nod your head in absolute deference and lack of understanding, and that's when you see it, or, rather, you see yourself, reflected dimly in the cracked floor around the spike as if in a broken mirror, elements of your dance captured in the snowflakes and the winged figures of the frog ancients briefly before the resemblance fades like a strange illusion.

[Mind: 8]

The silence in the room slowly begins to lift as the Frog People murmur among themselves, and ask things of the elder frog, who responds in short sentences at first, then elaborates into longer thoughts as a kind of plan or idea begins to form. They seem to agree on something, and then turn back toward the endeavor of questioning you, first with croaking inquiries that graduate slowly into gesturing and speaking very slowly, seemingly very eager to get some vital piece of information out of you by any means at their disposal as they crowd around you, their headdress-making forgotten for the moment.

Wave goodbye to the frog children and try to find my way back to another member of the crew.

Good news is, you're fairly sure you're very much recognizable to them now compared to your less friendly peers, so hopefully they'll be just as friendly to you later. They certainly seem to be right now, waving back with both of their hands and laughing among themselves affably as they watch you head out to look for the others.

[Mind: 12-1]

However, you're just about to walk away when you hear something splashing around in the bay below the jetty - a quick look reveals this to be none other than Heehoo, who seems to have attracted the attention of some harbor-dwelling creature. You see a couple of Frog People observing him from the ship, making no motion to try and help him out of the water, merely watching with their bulging eyes. You sense that their curiosity, however, is more morbid than idle in this circumstance.

Climb out, and try to remember what that frog who threw me into the water looked like. He will pay in time.

Start carving some ice into high-quality mirrors. My skin is metallic, can I use it to chisel the ice?

[Body: 1-1]

You see, you'd love to climb out just like that, but there's a bit of a problem with that proposition, which is that, near as you can tell, pretty much all of the nearby walls are very sharply vertical, if not outright overhanging the water. You try to climb up a few that look promising, but the trouble with ice, even the highly exotic room temperature kind they seem to have around here, is that it's really rather slippery. So your ascent becomes more a series of abortive scrambles that invariably end with terrible splashes.

After a particularly embarrassing fall from the highest altitude you've managed to achieve thus far, you get the strange feeling that you're not alone in the water. First it is a motion in the water. Then you see a faint disturbance in the water. And then suddenly a shape emerges - long and fishlike, its blue-green slick skin iridescent in the afternoon sun, it leaps out of the water in a graceful arc, landing near you. It circles twice underwater before letting its head surface - it's a peculiar thing, a large, three-jawed mouth with a wealth of pointy teeth, five eye stalks scanning your face with more than a slight hint of intelligence as its plentiful whiskers feel you both above the water and below.

It seems rather curious about what you might be doing down here.
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S34N1C

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #133 on: October 22, 2016, 06:55:52 am »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


Look for Eccentrica.
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Pancaek

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Re: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device
« Reply #134 on: October 24, 2016, 08:33:48 am »

Oh shit, this isn't good.

"Heeho! What are you doing in the water?"

Shit out Make a simple strand of spider silk and lower it into the water so Heeho can grab a hold of it. Attach one part to the ground behind me so that I don't have to carry all of the weight myself.

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