Turn 3: The Erithreans.
Who are the Erithreans?
Erithreans: Rock- covered, 2m tall humanoids. Poor eyesight, electromagnosense- o.
Lived in the Deeps, a nightmare world, deep underground where rock turns into magma, until they were ported here by their god. Understandably happy with this. Slow breeders, small communities.
Eat rock. Like water.
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Underwater worlds, part II:
"Oh, yeah, then you asked me to shed my rock core and return to you after it was done!"
"Yes, Trokonatos."
"And then I asked why, and you said I'd probably want to swim while submerged, and I said what did that mean, and you said-"
"Enough. Yes, as you recall, I asked you to shed your rock core so you would have better buoyancy. I had some other workers gather different grass plants and consulted ancient texts to produce this", he said, holding up a piece of raw, poor-quality fabric.
"Wrap yourself around this, now."
"What's it do?"
Tousomornuatus sighed.
"Protects you from the possible effects of water on skin. We don't know what it does yet, so we must be careful. Now, I also have this tank of air", Tousomornuatus pointed at a crude sylinder-shaped, hollow iron object with a vent on one end. "You must take gulps of air from this whenever you need to, and exhale into the water. Understand? Keep your second eyelids closed at all times, we don't know what water does to eyes yet. This weight", Tousomornuatus pointed to a large rock,
"will help you get down into the lake bottom. Once you want up, simply release the rock and swim upwards. Understood?"
"Um, okay, I guess."
The only thought Trokonatos could think of while descending into the lake was: 'It sure is dark in here. I wish I could be flying.'
He did have to admit, though, once he reached the bottom, that the lake was very interesting. The lake was packed with all kinds of fascinating critters (Fauna and flora, said Tousomornuatus) that Trokonatos diligently Sent upwards. There was also a huge amount of tunnels sprawling from the bottom of the lake. There seemed to be an underground network of sorts, consisting of water-filled tunnels and underground lakes.
Um, do you want me to explore one of those tunnels?
No, Commoner, I think this'll do for now. We'll have better-equipped teams scour those for anything of interest. Bring back some specimens of the local flora, and fauna if you can get any.
The yield of the first expedition was minor, consisting mostly of small fish and a little algae. What was interesting, though, was Trokonatos' comment on how he felt incredibly light now without his rock covering. As the Mage watched keenly, Trokonatos ran back and forth and incredible speeds, with very little noise. Fascinating, though Tousomornuatus. This, possibly, could be used somehow.
Diplomats at the Tezari:
He couldn't believe it. They had located the bird-people's main city and had approached it with high hopes. After all, a civilization so eager to make contact would surely let a diplomatic group in. But no. They had been left outside the weirdly plant- themed city for what was almost a full year now. Incredibly impolite.
Glacier conclusion:
Well, the studies were conclusive. The icing of water was indeed caused by coldness. Even Trentomurates grudgingly accepted the results after the fifth or so time they repeated their experiment of leaving a unit of water in a cold place for a few hours and watching it freeze over. What the scientists hadn't discovered yet, though, was what they could do with it. It was far too brittle to be used in weaponry and the fact that it couldn't stand much heat meant it wasn't usable in uniforms, either. For a moment they considered using it to pack water more compactly, until they realized that the ice actually took up more space than the water. What an utterly useless substance. Well, it was time to pack up and go home.
Light-weight research:
Based on the experiences of the commoner Trokonatos, Tousomornuatus devised an experiment and called for volunteers in what would "Change the lives of Erithreans in both of our fair cities".
For two weeks, the volunteers had to move without rock skins, some performing heavy duties, others not.
After a fortnight, when the experiment was nearing it's completion, all of the Erithreans had lost muscle mass, although the Erithreans doing hard work had suffered far less muscle deterioriation. It seemed that carrying the heavy rock skin was what gave the Erithreans their huge strength, and losing the weight caused rapid devolvement.
Using the data thus collected, Tousomornuatus devised a plan for military scouts. They would be arranged into four shifts. Each shift would be skinless for a month, exercising regularly and speedily investigating the area around Erithnarum-t-Dornema. After a month, the scouts would regrow their skin, as heavy as possible, and keep it for three months, while other shifts would take up scouting duties.
We have contact!
After many months at sea the Tirokian scout spotted an odd-looking town. It appeared to be cradled in an extinct volcano with harsh cliffs on three sides, a wall covering the last side and a deep blue lake in the middle. Carefully he began his descent.
"Someone is coming.
Ready the men."
The Erithreans did as Tousomornuatus demanded. They always did.
The creature was riding a large eagle-like creature, yet the scout himself is very small and hard to notice. Somewhat like the bird creatures from before, noted Tousomornuatus, Telling his scribe to write it down.
"Hey, you! Who are you?" yelled the Mage.
The scout, for a scout it clearly was, replied "I have come to negotiate trades with your people.
"I speak your language. State your name and purpose."
"I have brought a gift for your leader, am I allowed to land?"
"Hmph. Go ahead."
The scout glided down, landing next to the Mage.
"Now, who are you? I am Trokonatos, a Mage of the Fourth Caste. I am the leader of this hamlet, Erithnarum-t-Darnoma."
"I am a scout of the Lord Fenir, I serve the good of all Tiroko, I hail from the city Bal'gorak."
"Very well. What do you want, scout of the Lord Fenir?"
"I bring offers of trading explosive crystals for any metal based armor, weapons or building material. Would you like a demostration?
The Mage sensed an opportunity. Although he did not know what an 'explosive' thing was, and the Scribes didn't know of the word, it sounded promising.
"Yes, please."
The scout took a crystal encrusted dagger from his pocket, then a piece of meat from his backpack.
He tossed the meat into the air and then threw the dagger, impailing the meat in midair. Before it could reach the ground the meat vaporized in a small puff of flame and smoke with the dagger also blowing away.
"I see." How fascinating. Perhaps these could be used to...
"Yes, we are interested in such crystals. How much can you deliver us?"
"It depends on the size of caravan you would allow inside the city at anyone time?"
"You can just load them outside the gates. We do not usually allow visitors in our Strongholds.
"Hum, that seems acceptible. I belive we cloud bring about 10 crates, each crate would only have a good 20 1/2 pound crstals though, mixed in with straw to prevent shocks." The scout laughed oddly.
"Straw?" Deep inside Erithmonorarum, scribes were hastily taking out new slates and feverishly writing notes. This stranger was a goldmine, it seemed.
"What else would you suggest to stop the crystals unexpected fracturing? It seems nice soft, dried grass would work perfectly."
"Ah. Straw is soft, dried grass?" The Erithreans' knowledge of the flora grew almost daily! Tousomornuatus wondered what seperated this kind of grass from the others.
"Oh, I am sorry, I suppose you don't get many plants growing up here do you? My people live in a forest-swamp, there is plenty of plants there." Forest-swamp? Best to ask later.
"I see. When can we expect the first delivery of the crystals?"
"My people live in an oasis, it is a forest that gets huge amounts of rain..... unlike the rest of our area." Ah. New slate, more scribbles.
"Okay. Now, I recall you wanting... building materials? Metal?"
"That is correct, nails, screw, metal sheets that sort of thing. Unless you lack those, in which case armor and metal weapons would suit. They don't need to be our size, your normal weapons would do fine."
"Metal sheeting sounds good to me. How thick? Two inches, three?"
The scout paused for a minute. Apparently he didn't expect metal quite that thick.
"How heavy is your metal...... how much would a 3 inch, 10x10 feet sheet weigh?
This time, the Mage paused. He'd never been that good at maths.
"About 5.4 tonnes." he said finally.
[19:04] <scout> "Hum if you could cut that up, and allow 10 or 12 caravans outside your city, that would do well. How much crystals for, say, 4 tons?
"For every caravan of steel you take, we want two in return."
"Perfect, the first 4 caravans will be by next year, until then would you accept this amulet from my leader?" What a luxurious deal! The Mage could hardly believe his ears! These strangers may be mysterious and alien, but they were also very, very easy to trick.
"Naturally."
The scout tossed the Erithean the amulet and then flew off.
Aftermath:
After his discussion with the Tiroko leader ((In Kila's post)), the Mage discussed with the Machinatus and the noblety at Erithmonorarum. This new race had to be respected, although they were poor tradesmen and their tampering with necromancy did raise concerns. What would have to be later determined was the level of black magic in the Tiroko society.
Machinatus also noted that the Erithreans would have to try and contact the other races mentioned, the beast-men and gem people, and try to see what they had learned. For that, though, they would have to learn to cross the oceans.
An unlikely tech:
Ah. Back from the grueling job of staying underwater.
Trokonatos shaked the water from his body, packed his equipment, and went to his secret stash a few hundred meters from Erinarum-t-Dornema. There he kept his Project. Yes, it was a Project with a capital 'P'.
You see, Trokonatos was building a flying machine.
He had gotten the idea when, on a foreign world, an alien princess (At least he thought it was a she) had taken him on a flight. He had seen so much and been so high... the memories still made him feel faint. Since that day, Trokonatos had spent every day, hour and minute he could thinking about flight, about balloons and planes and wings. He had gotten hurt a few times, especially with the ones that almost worked, but now he thought he'd finally gotten the idea. He looked proudly at his most beautiful and successful piece of work yet. It was a balloon with a fire under it, with a steel carriage underneath the whole thing for Trokonatos to sit in. He had made the balloon from the skins of dead animals. He had heard that was a common practice amongst other races, and had spent his time in the other world finding out about these sorts of things. It still sickened him, but it was a necessary evil.
Another interesting fact he had found was 'rope'. It was lighter and more easy to make than the traditional cable the Erithreans used, but it was not nearly as strong. However, it would do for the purposes of his flying machine, which he affectionately called 'Hinyo', after the alien princess who had first introduced him to flight. Now it was time to test it.
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Topic: Battle of the Gods II (an RP thread) - Second Edition (Read 8459 times)