This post has the following content warnings:
This post's authors also have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
Aestrix doesn't remember the specifics of how exactly she became this... whatever thing... she decided to become, but she definitely remembers making a conscious choice and being kind of excited about the results of it. She wanted to do this, and while she's a little nervous, she thinks it will go well, and regardless, she will have fun.
She goes to sleep, and then when she starts to reawaken, it's done. Whatever 'it' is.
"Just bringing me things to enchant would be great! I might also refine them to be stronger, depending on if you've got a steel forge or not.
"... And I was just going to request permission to make a magic item and literally go check myself. It's just that I suspect doing that without checking with you first would be, you know. Alarming."
"Ooh. How would that work, then?" Rokat asks, leaning forward. "I've not heard of magic like that."
"Also, Timrat, pick those gifts up. Don't just leave them on the floor like that," she chides. Timrat hurries to obey, scooping the magic items into a carrying pouch.
"Along the same sort of line as the communication pendants. A multi-part interconnected magical tool with different parts doing different things. One to fly," drone style, "one to send visuals to me, probably some for protections, since it sounds dangerous? And then remotely piloted via the same logic of the pendants. It can be set up to respond to things I do, after all. But that might take a while to set up, so. Probably first should be shielding and magical item renewal? And night vision and alarms, and, ways to track people that get taken, was it? I'm going to need to make a list..."
Perkre has a look of barely-restrained enthusiasm at the thought of getting to break down a multi-component complex magic item.
"Tanth, would you run back out and let people know it's going well? And that they should bring any run-down magic items, and also anything they want to get rid of. We can make two separate piles."
"Oh, I've just been taking notes in my walls. But thank you, that's very sweet. Let's see, directional kinetic barrier? Things coming in all directions except the allowed one get slowed...? Hmm. Defining the parameters large scale would be tricky, I'll need to think about it. Seeing in the dark would just be infrared, and I guess this is important enough to use the sub-standard glass for..."
She starts putting together a pair of glasses to see in the dark. With the pyrex and - what does she have extra of that's good for holding magic? - electrum. Amplify infrared light and other faintly visible light to give a black and white image...
Without much delay: here are a pair of night vision... glasses. Tink, onto the floor where she'd dumped the rest of her goodies.
"Are those night-seeing glasses?" Rokat guesses. "That was ... fast. Kose made it sound like new items usually take a lot longer than that."
"They do! Usually magic items take, like, at least half a day to get the dungeon to put together a good version. Making them work is easy, but making them work robustly and be usable usually takes a few iterations. But Aestrix just ... pops out magic items that work perfectly first try! Somehow."
She leans back against the wall.
"Honestly, it's very impressive," she continues. "But it is a bit unnerving."
"Oh. Uh. I'd say sorry but I'm... kind of not. Heh. To be fair, I do make iterations, I just don't bother to show anyone until they're any good.
"Anyway, night vision glasses are really straightforward, and I already had the materials on hand from the magic seeing glasses. These won't hold up as well under stress, by the way, electrum is not a very strong alloy, and I haven't sat down to figure out the perfect alloy combination to hold this type of magic. This is just what I had on hand right now without needing to blow resources making things."
Perkre takes the glasses from Timrat, and turns them over in his hand.
"Electrum, you say? I don't know it by that name. What's it an alloy of?"
He delicately scratches one nail along the frames to see how the hold up.
"Gold and silver. And the magic seeing glasses have a platinum-titanium alloy. Actually, while I'm being a magic item nerd, you should be aware that as far as I can tell, alloys are much better at holding enchantments than pure minerals. I also don't think there's a flat 'better at holding enchantments' value, I think it's more like certain materials are better for holding different concepts. Which I have yet to systematically experiment with. Yet."
He strokes his chin.
"Interesting. I don't get a lot of call to work with gold and silver, but we've long suspected that they play some role in magic, since they're so often found in dungeon-made items," Perkre replies.
"We might be getting a bit away from the subject," Rokat remarks. "Aestrix, were there any other questions you had for us? Either more general things, or thoughts about the design of defensive magic items to get started with?"
"Mostly I want to," minmax and powergame like the little shit she is, "figure out the exact definitions of what constitutes a proper 'challenge' for dungeons to get extra extent? Like, I don't have to personally make each and every challenge for you to be challenged by, do I? Can I just make a little gym and let you all go to town as you like and not have to be involved at all? Does assisting in the practical design of magical items count, because I absolutely want to have you go test things I make and have design opinions and whatnot. Do animals also work, or is it just humans?" Can they tell she has been bottling up her urge to SCIENCE, she has absolutely been bottling up her urge to SCIENCE. ... Actually! Science is only science if you write it down, therefore, her actual priority should be:
"Oh! Oh and, this is unrelated to my ceaseless curiosity, but! Do you want a copy of my material library sooner rather than later so that if things go poorly, you have a thing to waft at your next baby dungeon to get them to make specific materials? Having a specific physical slab of materials to look at would almost certainly get them making stuff that lasts longer."
"Having a library of materials would be amazing!" Kose agrees. "... but don't strain yourself. I don't actually know if it harms a dungeon to make too many things without being challenged, but that's because none of the other dungeons I've known are willing to make as many things as quickly as you are."
She taps her lip thoughtfully. "As for the exact limits, I know that feats of strength absolutely qualify. But I don't know whether self-imposed challenges do. Once we're done having people come in and out with initial loads of refuse, we can have someone try it and see? I do know that animals don't work — one of the dungeons I worked with tried using treadmill dogs, like from a kitchen, and that did nothing."
"Dang. Oh well. I guess if it were that easy to game it would have been done. But yeah, I was going to ask you to please pay for making the material library, however you want to. I do have literally any self interest in me to speak of. Just, I am absolutely willing to make a copy for you as a just-in-case precaution in the future. Uh, scrubbed of some dangerous materials, for full disclosure, but that's probably best for your future interests, too. There are some things I know how to make that I haven't because they are, you know. Poisonous. Or explosive." Or radioactive! Wouldn't that be an inefficient and horrifying way to kill people! She'll do it never, thanks!
Kose gets a pained look at the mention of poison and explosives.
"Yes. Thank you for holding on to those. It's definitely best not to give young dungeons ... ideas."
Perkre makes a generally apologetic face at Kose, who waves him off.
"Well, I'm certain we can get some strapping young people in to do some challenges," Rokat continues. "I think the threat of death usually puts a damper on how many people really want to spend time in a dungeon, so since that's not an issue here we should be able to get people through more frequently."
"Right! Overall I expect that this will be more profitable in the long run. Plus, you know. Ethical. Kind of important, that. ... Do you want age related accommodations? I can just drag over the marker puzzle, it's absolutely appropriate to all ages. The ring one might be too, I have lightened up the rings a bit but I'm not sure sure I got it where anyone could do it by themselves."
Rokat blinks a little at 'age related accommodations', as though this isn't really something she's ever encountered the concept of before. She pushes herself out of her chair and makes her way over to the ring puzzle.
"Well, I'm still hale enough to make the trek up here," she responds. "And as much as I enjoy ordering Tanth around, I think the ring puzzle was the only one that would have given me any trouble, physically."
She tries turning one of the rings, and confirms that it moves easily enough.
"Honestly, you might want to make some more physically demanding challenges. Young people love showing off like that. Maybe an archery range, or a stone-lifting challenge, or an obstacle course."
"Sure, sure," she says casually, tone definitely belying how she regrets nothing and probably can't be argued out of her ways. "But these are my first puzzles, no reason I should cut out large swathes of my demographic for no reason, right? And I had been planning to have the puzzles correspond to specific items, and this one is for purifying water, so, uh. No, I don't want to gate that behind something many people can't do, actually, that's supremely messed up."
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post