Now Audience, let us turn our attention to the magiscreens we will use to display everything! With no particular order in mind let’s start with Marlene. Don’t worry about missing the others as we will temporarily freeze them in time so we can watch each turn in order.
Travel to the garden of Leizu (chinese goddess of silkworms and silk) and work there for a year in exchange of enough silk for a traditional dress, if possible try to work with the draconic-silkworms in exchange of divine dragon-silk.
The process of harvesting silk is simple the silkworms are fed mulberry leaves grown in the divine garden until they form their cocoon (Draconic-Silkworms are also feed algae and fish if they are aquatic or horse flesh if they are not), once this cocoon is formed is left to dry for a week (or actively dried in case of aquatic Draconic-Silkworms). Once the Cocoon is dry the pupa is killed through a careful application of heat normally through steam or leaving them in a low heat oven (The aquatic Draconic-Silkworms should have died during the process of drying the cocoons and for the others Draconic-Silkworms one must use the steam of a specially prepared poison).
Dragons are normally divine beings and their killing would be a great offence but these Draconic-Silkworms are the exception, guilty of innumerables crimes these dragons were partially turned (because is impossible to fully force a shapeshifter into a form without their approval) into their opposites (worms being the opposite of dragons in chinese culture) and condemned to death.
Once the pupas are dead the cocoons are carefully tipped in hot water so the silk filament separate from it, these filaments are then woven into a thread with a silk reel and from threads into cloth through a silk loom, both of these tools were invented and crafted by Leizu herself.
Anyway, Marlene has requested to work a bit in Leizu’s garden! Normally we don’t allow people to visit realms outside of our control but [5] as we are on good terms with her we decided to let it slide. Now in exchange for enough silk for a single dress she was willing to work for a year. How about we get Leizu up here and negotiate with her!
[Leizu stands up in the God section of the stadium to a resounding applause before teleporting next to the announcer]
Leizu - You left out an important little thing from her request. Not only does she want to work in my garden but she would like to work with my Draconic-Silkworms. Now [4] we don’t have that many at the moment. The local Dragons have been a bit docile lately. [5][1] In fact we only have the aquatic variety. The normal ones we had around all decided to self destruct and escape their punishment. This damaged the gardens a little bit in that area so this could cause some complications for her.
Announcer - That is an interesting story but you still haven’t told us if you want her to work for you?
Leizu - [2] I want to use her for a full decade. Depending on how well she does that may earn her a single kerchief of my regular silk or she could end up with enough Dragon-silk to dress an entire harem. I won't accept anything else!
Announcer - Well there you have it Audience, another round of applause for our lovely guest and we can watch how our contender does!
For the first year [1] the gardeners force her to just collect the mulberry leaves to prove her worth. Sadly the whole year is a bust as through no fault of her own a disease swept through the grove. Of course that doesn’t stop anyone from blaming her and keeping here there for 2 extra years. [4] Those following years are incredibly boring. In fact the announcer fast forwards through it. [4] Finally she will be allowed to care for some silkworms, normal divine silkworms instead of the Draconic variety but still a step up. Of course it is hard to do that when there is still a shortage on good mulberry leaves as the disease still ravages the grove. Luckily no one blames her this time. [6] To make up for it the next year she seeks out an alternate source of leaves. In a wild area nearby she manages to find a few lonely mulberry trees. Those leaves not only work but it seems that they were Fae touched and the silk those worms produced shone with a divine rainbow. Up in the stands Ophelia whistles innocently. The camera zooms in on the announcer and with a cocky grin he give a big ol wink. Luckily Leizu doesn’t care about this and counts this discovery as being worth half a dresses worth of Draconic-Silk. The sixth year they decide to let her work with the Aquatic Draconic-Silkworms. [4] Luckily by this point the leaf supply is good and she remembers to also feed them algae and fish. [1] Though that doesn’t help her with drying them as the silkworms seem to be actively working against her. In fact one of them struggles so much it ruins the thread. Leizu was tempted to take back that half dress of silk but instead penalizes her by invalidating the previous years care. With three years left Marlene will have to try her best. [1] That wasn’t good enough in the eight year though. In fact Leizu stage whispers to the announcer that sometimes the Draconic-Silkworms just don’t like a person and nothing can change that. Then she smirks and says that “Maybe Marlene shouldn’t have been so cocky as to attempt a divine task. It isn’t like she is some demigod” Then she waves over at Hercules and yells that she might have another task for him if a certain someone wrecks everything. While this is going on another year goes by and nothing bad actually happens. Marlene might have earned some silk for it if anyone had bothered to pay attention to it. [6] Luckily the final year doesn’t go badly. In fact the most recalcitrant of the Draconic-Silkworms takes a liking to her. With a smirk not only does Leizu grant her another half dress worth of silk but also gifts her the reincarnated Dragon’s soul as she doesn’t want such a pair to be seperated. Marlene will now have to take care of a Dragon egg.
[The Announcer claps]
Announcer - Wonderful! Who doesn’t want a Dragon? Now next up we have Erin Quill!
I need a forest.
That does not mean "all the trees in a forest", that means "I need a forest. The whole thing. Intact, preferably". It would be helpful if the forest was particularly magical; either "good" magical or "evil" magical would be ok, but frankly I'd prefer it just be unaligned magical.
It doesn't need to be a huge forest, mind you. I could probably do well enough with a sizeable chunk of a forest.
Anyway, basically I'm going to get some chalk or other manner of marker - probably some other manner, I need it to stick around - and go around the forest (or through, for a sufficiently large forest), setting up the markings. Then, returning to my base, I'll set up and conduct a ritual (well, of a sorts; it involves checking that all the machinery being used for the process is working properly, the bronze pentacle I have worked into the floor hasn't warped at any point, I've gotten all the leylines properly aligned, etc.) that should bring the place in - full-size but also small enough to cover about 1/5 of a globe. I'll be wearing special gloves so that I can handle it without going into it or breaking anything.
I'm going to make a planet. One made of magic, too.
He had what at first thought was an average request. He wanted a forest. The catch is he was being quite literal. Not just the ability to traipse through one or even just all the trees in said forest. No! He wants the entire gosh darn thing! Preferably a magic forest as well. Luckily we have a few of those in storage. Now let’s see what kind of forest he gets. The forest part is simple enough as we have as close to an unlimited number of them as we care to think about. Instead how about we figure out what type? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… [6] THIS ONE! Oh nice, we have an oddity here. In fact it is automatically magic. While every forest is a study in life and death to some degree this one takes it to the extreme. Half the forest is an extreme jungle. Constantly expanding but kept in check by the other half. Now some of you are thinking swamp. Those are a popular location for death magic but no, that isn’t enough to restrain that mess of a jungle. Instead we have a petrified forest! A whole area of once trees, towering pillars of rock left as testament to what once was or rather that is how they normally are. This one though is the result of a death curse of some sort. Our scholarly types assume someone used a basilisk hatchling to cast it though we aren’t quite sure. Didn’t stop us from scooping up the entire area into a subplane for later. We went with a sphere shaped plane for this because it makes a nice pattern. Like one of those yin yang symbols though without the dots. Each area has a center and they are slowly rotating around each other. Constantly trying to overwhelm the other. These forests had previously taken over an entire planet though now a good bit more restrained. Now your going to wonder, Erin wanted a unaligned magical forest right? And you would be correct, luckily there is a nice sized band of stabilized magical forest at the tail of each were the death and life magic balance eachother out. Let’s see what he makes of this!
Looks like he wants an absolute ton of ritual chalk. It seems he wants the entire thing and not just parts of it! This might take just a squidge of time. [4] Okay fast forward a bit and stop. Seems it took him just under 8 years to mark out one of the bigger rituals Some of the areas might have smudge slightly with time but overall it seems to have worked out for him. Now he seems to be going to use his workshop. [4+1] After a quick check nothing was damaged from the abrupt removal by god it had experienced. [6-1] Now the ritual has started and things seem to be working just fine. The entire forest including the magical centers have disconnected from the dimension proper. [4+1] Now the magical formation he has drawn out has fully activated. The smudges tried to short out but his equipment in the workshop correct it for it. Quite a sight, an entire forest slowly shrinking and warping. [4+1] I can’t believe him. This is the most complex ritual in attempted in the last 10 competitions and it is going off perfectly. Slowly the entire forest is being drawn into his workshop. One final step [5] and he aces it! Everything is wrapped up and all the ley lines were perfectly preserved. He now has a complete magical forest that embodies the concept of Yin and Yang, Life and Death!
Announcer - Okay, surface things like a forest are nice but what might Cacaw want? He is a bird after all so maybe a special type of cloud?
The Deep Underdark of kilometers beneath the ground of course, I need metallic ores, precious gems, and eldritch artifacts that are bountiful in here. Utilizing my genius level IQ crafting a Infrared-Vision Helmet that fits for a Kenku head and that Demonic Communer which is basically a Universal Translator.
The simple process is metal and gem extraction. First is to setup a stockpile base made of Stone on where I spawn and then setting up a foundry and smithing area made out of stone and coal as its fuel to extract precious ingots out of metal. Then the true harvesting begins, where the search of all metallic ores are desired from the largest preference is for titanium and gold ores and none of that fake gold, as well as for gems any will do but the biggest priority are ruby and topaz. The usage of Cacaw bionic graspers that serve as a multi-tool Swiss Army knife is perfect here because it can be used to extract ores and natural fuels, craft buildings like stockpiles and a foundry for casting metal.
This is a lot of mining and extraction that is required of precious ores, so inside the Stockpile Base, Cacaw The Wondrous will perform very simple demonic rituals because he’s trying to collect imp workers the weakest kind of devils, there intelligent enough to follow basic command though rather small but great servants to be sent to extract precious metals while Cacaw helps by gathering more workers and mining in-between. The imps would even be great workers for the automation that is required in being a laborer for hauling ores and working in the foundry. Now you may wonder that there are a ton of eldritch horrors in the depths but Cacaw with his Legendary cunning guide can even with his Demonic Communer (Universal Translator) will allow him to make any deal of tentacle aberration from grells and hooked horror to appeal to their greatest motive and turn it around on their head, allowing them to leave them alone during mining operations without trouble. If there is trouble, sending imps at the problem is still a secondary solution.
Now seeing for even an immortal is difficult during the total darkness of the Underdark Caverns and that Crows and Kenku have a thicker retina than most mortals, and their eyes are larger in proportion to their head size. They have much denser rods and cones packed on the retina, giving them superior vision in both black-and-white and color. Therefore through Cacaw intellect, the vision doesn’t really affect the imp workers since they have demonic senses, is that more than just coal-based torches after the beginning stages will be utilized for vision but instead the transition to electrical lights from a coal generator, will be utilized as the copper wiring is in-between and the ore extraction efforts will begin.
As you can see the starting in this area is for the most precious metal of all, a composite, it’s a titanium-gold alloy that has a multitude of uses and is very powerful. The gems will also be useful in making the artifact that Cacaw desires to be very alluring and captivating to look at.
Nah, he wants to go to the Underdark in search of ores, gems, and most importantly Eldritch artifacts! Now he did want to do some intermediary crafting of things like night vision goggles and a universal translator. We respect his get up and go with crafting but then firmly yet kindly point him to the bin off the side of the stage. I am sure you all wondered how he would make his gadgets in a completely dark spot with nothing but the clothes he is wearing and his graspers. Sadly this challenge will evade him as we provide translators and some other basic equipment. Anyway turn to the screen and we can find out were he gets placed! [3] Notice those formations there? He isn’t exactly in some abominations backpocket but that could limit his options. More from the giant lava sea. I guess he won't have to worry too much about the dark to start! [4][5] Luckily though there is a deposit of gold in his back pocket with some titanium a few hours walk away! [2] Gems aren’t looking plentiful at all though. In fact [1][3] rubies are completely nonexistent in this part of the underdark and the only topazes are complicated.
Once he is in place the Kenku gets to work right away. Quickly draining a nearby goblin tribe of blood he [6] manages to summon an unending supply of imps, quite literally. He probably should have checked the goblins for any bloodlines as it seems at some point an angel’s bloodline got mixed in. Now there is a portal constantly spewing imps. Luckily a convenient lava lake is nearby if there is ever too many on hand. As long as he doesn’t end up destroying that portal this sub-plane will likely become quite a hot ticket in a future auction! The imps are right away put to work creating his base and exploring the surrounding area with the local resources quickly being found. That includes the lava serpent nest in the magma sea. Not exactly something you can bargain with. Luckily plan B of sending imps at it has become supremely optimal. A base quickly forms in the first few months and has quickly advanced to having electric lights and such within the first year. Cacaw no longer having to mind getting more minions can focus on mining. [3+1] Being moderately successful, not exactly pave the roads level of gold but it should be enough for a few projects or a few attempts. [1+1] The titanium though isn’t going as well. He mined as much as he could but the vein quickly ran out and was generally of poor quality. [6] Luckily were the titanium ended a deposit of gems started. The topazes to be precise. Cacaw might be swimming in them but that undead horror swarm is really cutting into his imps. After he is done with the place a good platoon of light priests will take care of that but as is not much can be done. [2] In fact the rest of his time there is spent pushing them back. Trying to anyway and so he doesn’t get much processing on his ores done.
Announcer - Exciting that, got the undead out of the way! So next is Ravana.
I, Ravana, roar! I, Ravana, the hero, shall go forth and plunder the most ancient tombs and crypts and temples across a myriad and a myriad myriad worlds in search of my quarry! I, Ravana, the strong, (having learned many secrets of Maya during my long seclusion) shall break the seals and smash the stones of forgotten graves with my hammer and carry back the hearts and eyes of a thousand martyred ascetics, that their piety and wisdom may anoint my creation! I, Ravana, the fierce conqueror whose hand guides the wheel, will allow no man or beast to exceed my efforts, wherefore I shall take the most daring steps and shirk at neither fire nor sea to gain my prize! Though the lost places bear many curses and hold the ever-lurking shadow of evil, I know no fear, for I wield the Hammer of Śūnyatā, at whose strike even the strongest of illusions are made null and revealed in their emptiness. I am Ravana and against the dark things that creep my ferocity is infinite! I, Ravana, shall overcome all competitors!
Oh and I was lying about being done with the undead. Ravana wants to go tomb raiding in our oldest of tombs, crypts, and temples! Seeing as they mention wanting to raid across a myriad of worlds we will give him a year in ten different burial grounds to hunt for him materials. [6] Or that is what we had planned to do until someone reminded us of a convenient little plot of land we keep around. It is the crypt of a multiverse! Everything must end but sometimes even that must go. Anyway his starting point is in a regular graveyard area without any undead or curses. Both good and bad as it will provide well for him but only the lowest of mortal remains. Farther afield she will find the good stuff though.
As Ravana travels across a continent sized graveyard they find a few hundred temples to raid. [3] Though only a hundred true ascetics were found and then only the bones. Everything else long reduced to dust. Finally though we get to a more interesting area. An ancient sect of cultivators needs to be cracked open by him. [1+1] Though even with that hammer only the seals on the outer sect area can be broken into. A pitiful handful of remains are there. In fact if it wasn’t for his hammer I know for certain that a powerful curse would have stricken him. Anyway next in his path is an old burial ground of a tribal nation. [6-1] Not exactly the stoneworking sorts. Honestly this is almost like cheating. He is just ripping those bodies from the ground. That is some nice bead work. [6-1] Luckily his hammer casts away the angry dead spirits and so lets him continue his plundering and he manages to gather his thousand eyes and skeletons.
Announcer - Huh, I guess I didn’t lie about the undead? That was unexpected. So, last up is our dwarf, Sankis!
"So you're saying I can go anywhere? Anywhere?"
"But of course. Just tell me where you want to go and I will weave the portal for you!"
"A dream come true." Sankis sits upon the stone floor, strokes his long beard, and thinks of the many things he will need for his ultimate work.
"I've decided."
"Oh? Where do you want to go?"
"Send me to a plane where souls are born. Where the sun's rays infuse the matter souls are made of into everything they touch. To forge a man I'll need a heart of soul gold."
Sankis goes out to the Plane Where The Sun Shines Souls in search of Soul Gold ore. Of course, this is hardly a simple task. Everything on the surface is infused with soul essence, but gold ore underneath likely won't be. Sankis will need to find a river on the surface that then flows underground and flows over a patch of exposed gold ore, infusing the ore with the soul essence.
We must not forget that Sankis is a dwarf and like all dwarves his blood is of the earth. What would he be if he didn't seek out an ore for his greatest creation?
He was a bit excited about this prospect to say the least. His request was actually a bit hard for us. [3] In fact because we don’t really know how souls are made we don’t exactly have a place available were they are literally made by the sun. Instead we had to settle for a land full of spiritual energy and many loose souls to provide a chance at finding Soul Gold. You can just feel the disappointment roll off of him. Not for long though as there is a mountain to mine. [2+1] Though right away he can tell this isn’t exactly a gold mine though he does find some Soul Copper. Seems the idea of finding gold in a stream might have been a better idea. [2+1] He is working his way up. After a couple of years he finds another Soul Metal. Silver this time so not he should find gold next right? [5] Oddly enough that seems to be true as he gets to spend his last year mining the thing he actually came for.
Announcer - So to wrap this up none of them died! Not that any of them can really ‘die’ but still. The lack of lost limbs is boring. Whatever, Marlene got a dress worth of Draconic Silk and a dragon egg to take care. Next Erin Quill got an entire forest magically contained in his workshop. Then Cacaw learned to check bloodlines before using them in a sacrifice as well as getting all the gold he could want, some titanium, and a boatload of topazes. After that Ravana looted an ancient burial ground for a thousand sets of bones and eyes. Finally Sankis managed a plethora of Soul metals including copper, silver, and just enough gold that he probably has enough! Next up we give our contestants a year to process all these goodies!
((For this step you are provided with a decent crafting station for what you want to do. Anything special will improve the product but might not be available. Describe what you want to do and as long as you don’t complete something you should be fine.))
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Topic: Once a Millennium Crafting Tournament (Read 2997 times)