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[katana]

BONE OPALSSSSSSSSS

[SalmonGod]

Amazing stuff, SethCreiyd. 

Whenever I get a chance, I'm going to try and make a 3d model of a crossbow with axe blades attached

---

Olin knocks on the door to the kennel tower nervously, stoically phasing the chaos of child activity which follows her out of her senses.  After a couple minutes without response, she lets herself in.

Inside, she finds everything pushed up against the walls, except for a giant mass of flailing teeth, claws, fur, and scales.  An adamantine mask frequently appears above the mess.  She calls out to SalmonGod, but can't get her voice over the collective roar of feral noises that fills the chamber.  A loud whistle emanates from the corner, and within seconds every creature is sitting attentively in rows organized by species.

SalmonGod brushes himself off confusedly for a moment, before he notices Olin.  "Ah.  Thanks Collie.  Olin, meet my new assistant."

Collie nods.

Olin regards the assembly for a moment.  "I'm amazed at the transition from ferocity to discipline..."

Collie clears his throat.  SalmonGod responds "Yes, the organizing rows by species was Collie's idea... anyway before that, I was just allowing the beasts to get some of their wild energies out in some battle training.  Good for them in more ways than one."

"Impressive stuff, but I'm sure you know I didn't come up here to admire your work.  I have things to discuss with you in private."

"Ok.  Collie, take the dogs out."  Collie rolls his eyes as the dogs follow him outside.  "You see that?  He wants my job.  Badly.  Thinks he's so smart.  I need to keep my eye on him..."

"SalmonGod.  Completely alone."

"...sure.  Gorillas, stay here and play with the kids and get everyone else in their cages."

The throng of children erupt in a unified chorus of  "YAAAAY!!"  and fearlessly tackle the gorillas, who seem to take it very good-naturedly.  Olin looks apprehensive...

"Oh don't worry.  They have incredible paternal instincts.  Very intelligent.  Many uses actually.  Could open a daycare or set up regular parasite groomings..."  SalmonGod leads Olin upstairs to his personal chambers, and sits opposite from her at his dining table.  "So... more therapy stuff?"

"No, actually.  Although, you may have heard that Quakemortal now has a religious leader.  A hierophant.  I suggest we arrange a meeting with him.  He may have insights about what happened to you.  More importantly, I've come for some advice..."  Olin takes a deep breath... "I'm troubled by the arrival of this new king.  He seriously disturbs me.  It's my job to closely monitor the mental health of our leaders, and Domas is very elusive in our meetings.  Even more than that, he's drops cryptic hints of information that I can't understand, but leave me with a sense of dread foreboding.  Seth has a history with him, and doesn't trust him.  I don't know how much you hear about what happens below, but there was an investigation..."  Olin tells the whole story about Seth's embarrassing encounter with King Domas and the human law-giver.  "The whole episode has left his confidence shattered.  Not only that, but I don't think he was wrong.  The whole story reminds me of the things you told me about your days as a wandering spirit.  You said you saw dark forces at work, manipulating people.  I think the nature of this place is no longer secret to anyone, much less Seth, but he hasn't seen it the way you have.  I don't think he's knows that he hasn't ruled dark manipulations out of his investigation, but he also doesn't fully understand them and Domas is crafty...  We're losing a leader in the face of a new threat.  I thought you might at least be able to suggest a starting point for re-launching this investigation."

If not for the mask, Olin would see the color gone from SalmonGod's face.  "I'd like to help... I... may have some ideas.  First, I didn't hear mention of the law-giver or the king wearing adamantine protection against influence.  I think we should assume anyone without protection to be tampered with by default.  Second... we need some way to observe spiritual energies, as I could when I was bodiless.  This place won't survive without some way of doing so.  I bet the hierophant could help devise something.  Since I've been through it before, maybe I could even find some way to travel in spirit again... you know... without dying... I don't know.  We should meet with the Hierophant, and see if he has any ideas.  I'm sure he knows some rituals or something that could help."

Olin nods and contemplates for a moment... "You're right.  There's not much more we can do here.  I'll go arrange a meeting for us very soon.  Be prepared, and don't let ANYONE know about this conversation.  OK?"

"Yeah."

"... anything bothering you?  I wish I could see past that mask... it really is welded to your face permanently, isn't it?"

"It IS my face.  I was reborn from it... manifested through it.  And no.  I'll be ready."

"Good."  Olin pats SalmonGod on the back and leaves him to his thoughts.

SalmonGod locks the door and sits for hours with his favorite leopard... lost in thought... what if the Hierophant understands what happened?  How will his deed be judged?  Deep down he knew he couldn't hide the truth forever, and the secret has weighed on him greater than he could have imagined.  The future becomes blurred with a dread uncertainty, except for one thing... he'll do whatever it takes to protect Quakemortal.

An aggravated Collie tends to the rest of the day's animal care.

[peregarrett]

BONE OPALSSSSSSSSS

Agreed. But we should dig for more opals - we have just one in our stock.

[katana]

How bout we go hunting in the caverns for some amethyst men too

[peregarrett]

How bout we go hunting in the caverns for some amethyst men too

You say, amethyst men?! I have to catch some!!! We could tame and breed them here, in Guild. I need to think about the bait......

[katana]

Green glass statues

[peregarrett]

Maybe. Maybe any statue will work, regardless of material.
Also, a cage traps! I'll ask someone of mechanic guild to make it there.

[SethCreiyd]

Spoiler: katana (click to show/hide)

You had a strange dream involving a change in gender.  Fortunately, this morning you went to the brook for a bath, and all the requisite bits would appear intact.

The decorations were made with the new custom reaction tokens added in recent versions of DF (not sure how recent, exactly) , like the example:

Code: [Select]

[IMPROVEMENT:100:A:COVERED:GET_MATERIAL_FROM_REAGENT:X:NONE]
The reaction for the statue and sword took the material from the corpse and limb reagents, so in game terms, it's actual muscle rather than modded-in stone (don't think you can add new materials after world gen, unless you overwrite an existing one).  So, through the miracles of mad science, we have learned that creature corpses and pieces seem to take their material from the creature's [MUSCULAR] tissue.

I don't think there are any opals to be mined on-site, but amethyst men are a possibility.  Unfortunately, amethyst men are only found on the third cavern layer, where the hole to Hell and a large number of demons lie in wait.  Before we can access those caverns we need to send in a strike force to secure the area.  We'll probably need to send in masons to cover the hole before it can be considered safe.  This is all up to Derm, the soldiers can't be sent into such a dangerous mission without the Commander's oversight.

I really like the Olin/SalmonGod dialogues   Should Neyvn be able to discern SalmonGod's secret?  What would the Dungeon Master say if the Hierophant asked him how how came back?  Or if he were familiar with such happenings?

I also just realized Neyvn's name was spelled wrong in the dwarfing.    I'm very sorry about that.  Sometimes I do updates very late at night.

[katana]

Woop. Flesh swords can be done! Sadly would suck.

How about making some clear glass? Then the carpenter's guild gets angry about all their wood being used for pearlash.

[SalmonGod]

I really like the Olin/SalmonGod dialogues   Should Neyvn be able to discern SalmonGod's secret?  What would the Dungeon Master say if the Hierophant asked him how how came back?  Or if he were familiar with such happenings?

Interesting questions that I was leaving for you to answer    I see the overarching plot flow as for you and the rng to determine.  I just try and provide interesting flavor, nudges, and bits of canon.

There's a pretty broad range of possibilities in this situation, and lots of opportunity to add to the mythology of this story, which you've proven very creative with.  All I can tell you is that my character hopes that he will not have to reveal the truth, but is willing to do so if that is what's needed for Quakemortal to survive.  Should the truth come out, he will submit his fate to his peers.  Should he face death, he will try to have some adamantine on his person to bring into the afterlife, and use it to remain as a guardian in spirit.  If possible, he will also try to bring a couple of his best animal companions with him on any bodiless adventures, such as if the hierophant designs some astral projection ritual or something.

[SethCreiyd]

If the Hierophant knows about that particular property of adamantine, then it could probably be easily figured out.  But that's for Neyvn to decide.  I'll keep those details about SalmonGod in mind. 

Anyway, clear glass could be an option now that the Guildhall is done, there's wood to spare.  OP is finally updated.  I'll be busy with Failcannon for now, so my next update will take a little while.

[peregarrett]

I don't think there are any opals to be mined on-site, but amethyst men are a possibility.  Unfortunately, amethyst men are only found on the third cavern layer, where the hole to Hell and a large number of demons lie in wait.  Before we can access those caverns we need to send in a strike force to secure the area.  We'll probably need to send in masons to cover the hole before it can be considered safe.  This is all up to Derm, the soldiers can't be sent into such a dangerous mission without the Commander's oversight.

Opals are nice... Well, keep searching!

About amethyst men - I could make a capturing device with two-bridge design, and use it for capturing purposes only. Like:

Code: [Select]

   ###
####Ω###########
#<╞╡.^^^^^^^^╞╡▓
####Ω###########
   ###
Bridges should be raises and lowered in anti-phase, maybe linked to single lever through logic invertor (animal or fluid NOT-gate). And the last tile to the exit should be dug AFTER the whole device is fully functioning. The lever should be put into my own quarters with a secret code required to operate it (profiled lever, I mean). Huh, I could even steal borrow a pick and a bunch of mechanisms to make everything by my own hands! I'm really eager to capture some of them.

Also, when we'll have a GCS, we can reconfigure it for capturing demons.

[peregarrett]

Journal of Peregarret, Master of Jewelers Guild:
Yes, I'm a guild master now. I ever have an apprentice, who's working on cutting glass. Since that strange vision I saw studying glass globe, I don't like working with it, so I was glad to push this work on someone. And I'm busy with materials that suit my nature better - tourmalines, opals, you know.

But that's not what is completely filling my mind. I had a small talk at dining hall with Katana, swordsdwarf, and he mentioned about semi-mythical creatures, amethyst men. It's like a golem made of amethyst, but no one knows where they come from and who makes them. They can be killed, though they are tough, and after death they transform into usual uncut amethyst.

The idea of capturing one still wanders in my head, I'm kind of possessed with it. Sometimes I find myself designing trap system for capturing it, I even took a study book of basic mechanics to refresh my memory - I didn't do any studies since college engineering course! But anyway... I feel it's quite feasible task for me. And wouldn't it be a true sign of Great Guild of Jewelry - a golem made of precious gem at the main guild hall? But I should keep it secret, I wonder if Sethrist will allow construction work at last cavern - he's quite mad with those demons. But I think I can make it completely safe. Just to be sure I can ask Katana to accompany me - he's very good with sword.

I had a talk with bookkeeper, and asked him if we have a spare pick.. well, I just want to mine some gems there. I'm interested in studying the nature of gems, the way they are formed, you know... Oh, and I wanted to test one invention that came to my mind, something about automated gem-polisher. Do we have some mechanisms that I could borrow?
Bookkeeper looked surprized, but said he'll check his inventory list. Well, fine.

This idea doesn't get out of my mind.

[katana]

How good am I with a sword anyway?

[peregarrett]

*watching with suspicion*
You'd better be ☼very good☼ with it, otherwise we both could be fucked up...