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Tumunzahar makes Menegroth look like a contract project. Which, the Dwarves assure her, it was. The stonework is astonishingly careful and beautiful, silky to the touch up close while from a distance it gives the impression of stretching on forever above, a sky of stone with crystals for stars. Vast natural cave systems are connected by dozens of perfectly smooth, gently sloped broad stone pathways from which the fall, if she fell, would be several miles down. There are handrails. "We use those to move materials carts," someone explains to her, "we're not going to be reckless."
There's an amphitheater, a place where a hundred of the stone walkways twine around to create space for a hundred thousand people to sit in close proximity, and someone is giving a lecture or a demonstration at the base of it, the seats closest to him filled with eager, tiny, bearded Dwarf-children.
And they spiral down, and down, and down, past waterfalls and egg-sized gemstones left half in the rock and halls of crystal. Everything grows gradually more ornate and more perfectly maintained and the clang of hammers fades behind them. "People say," her guide says, "that we only have a council instead of a single King because there were nine winners of the competition to design the throne so we couldn't just select one person to sit it." And they push open the doors to reveal, indeed, nine thrones so elaborate it would be hard to choose between them, and nine squat bearded people sitting them.
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"We're nearly done."
purposeful_glory
"I can see that! It's a nice building, what's it going to be, a house or something else?"
"It's a temple to Melkor."
purposeful_glory
These aren't orcs.
What the fuck.
"Where'd you get the idea of building one of those?"
"Man came from over the hills, said the demons that come and kill us fear Melkor and if we worship him he'll protect us."
"Well, we're not done with the temple yet, but nothing's attacked us while we're singing songs to Melkor."
"He taught it to us. I'm not sure if we're supposed to teach it to other people -"
"I think we are," says one of the others, "so they aren't attacked by the demons, and so Melkor has more worshippers and is stronger and can protect us better."
And they awkwardly crowd around and begin singing a hymn of praise and strength to Melkor.
"I think we are," says one of the others, "so they aren't attacked by the demons, and so Melkor has more worshippers and is stronger and can protect us better."
And they awkwardly crowd around and begin singing a hymn of praise and strength to Melkor.
purposeful_glory
Loki records it, in case it turns out that the best she can offer the other Men is a demon-repelling song that lasts until Melkor catches on.
"Thank you for sharing that with me," she says.
"Thank you for sharing that with me," she says.
They are happy to have done so, and invite her to return once the temple is finished. They've been told that if they sleep in it they'll be perfectly safe, as the demons can't enter.
purposeful_glory
That's good, she is glad they have a way to be safe from the demons, the demons sound like bad news. Can they point out where their informative benefactor came from?
They gesture vaguely in the direction she travelled to reach them. "He's going around teaching everyone how to protect themselves."
purposeful_glory
Hmmmmm.
"Thank you," she says, and she walks thatawayish and instead flies further in the direction she went to reach the temple.
There are quite a lot of Men, all scattered in small groups of ten or so, at a population density that hunter-gatherers probably could not actually sustain. There are three other groups of Men building temples. They have the same story.
purposeful_glory
Do they all point in different directions when she asks who told them to build the temples?
Yep.
purposeful_glory
Ah-huh.
She goes up up up. Anything irregular-looking hereish?
She goes up up up. Anything irregular-looking hereish?
The mysterious benefactor doesn't seem to be presently active, though some groups saw him in the last few days. No demons to see either, though the sun's setting and they have been said to mostly come out at night.
purposeful_glory
Maybe she'll just have to find some of those and follow them home, then.
She listens through an iteration of her sleep-skipper and flies lower, listening, watching.
She listens through an iteration of her sleep-skipper and flies lower, listening, watching.
Demons come in the night, as she's been promised. They walk up in the form of Men, but the Men know better by now, and are wary. And then they turn into wolves.
Everyone who has been building a temple to Melkor is not attacked.
Everyone who has been building a temple to Melkor is not attacked.
purposeful_glory
Does the song work, if she slips it into the wolves' ears?
The song doesn't seem to do anything.
purposeful_glory
Maybe the Men just only sing in the daytime or something.
She'll interrupt if anybody is actually attacked by a demon where she can see, but if they're just prowling she flies around - marking wolves with dots, discreet-like - and constructs a map of the area (in a sky-blob) and waits until the wolves go home so she can see where home is.
She'll interrupt if anybody is actually attacked by a demon where she can see, but if they're just prowling she flies around - marking wolves with dots, discreet-like - and constructs a map of the area (in a sky-blob) and waits until the wolves go home so she can see where home is.
It takes until halfway through the night, but eventually they do attack. In three different places across the area.