For the past week I had been excavating the inside of the vehicle that Koen destroyed in Cala Mondrago. I set up a protective dome over the craft for protection from the elements, and to keep the "chicken-hut" as my son calls it trapped inside. (Koen's sudden surge of power is alarming in and of itself. We must contact Erebus...)
The mummified operator of the machine turned to dust after Qlippothic destroyed it. The hollowed out stone it was perched in seems completely mundane.
First observation: This device is of the same origin as the claw fragment we recovered from where Ash and the Founder disappeared. Metallurgical analysis revealed industrialized techniques beyond Steamlands technology. Off hand it would be something I'd expect to find on the Sixes and Sevens. But these monstrosities are not from the Twentieth century. They are centuries old. When Aleister Mason was still living and hobnobbing with the geniuses of the Renaissance, these devices were somewhere in deep storage.
The astounding technology on the outside is stark contrast to the unabashedly medieval interior inside. A stone fireplace? An iron cauldron? A crude alchemical laboratory? All very curious to say the least!
I found a codex in an upturned cupboard. Inside were Old Russian runes for an introduction:
and there did Baba Yaga find the fallen star
and wrest the secrets from the strange goblins therein:
When I separated the wooden blocks that counted for pages, a holographic projector embedded in the artifact began shine images of advanced technical diagrams. So that is what we are facing: a coven of undead witches using captured alien technology in tandem with horrific enchantments!
I also found in the cabinet another item of interest. Have you ever known a witch that didn't have a crystal ball? I made an attempt to scry with it. The image that manifested over us horrified me beyond description!
Bloodwing was chained to a rack. He was...there's no other word for it...he was being tortured. The anger in the Founder's face far eclipsed his pain. Suddenly, he noticed us...and laughed.
"These fools think I'm Ash!"
A shriek, and a desiccated talon covered the orb at the other end before the transmission was lost.
"The transmission was just long enough to verify their location," Qlippothic said coldly as she unzipped the chronal transmitter from its protective canvas wrapping. "I'll contact the Sixes and Sevens to intercept."
Tuesday, March 15
derezzing flags to purge your souls of shame
In a sunless realm where energy coalesces to form, a construct from another world witnessed the slaughter of innocents, and felt no choice but to intervene. He came from a different world than the Creator Flynn. One where Programs walked among their Users and were treated as equals. To the ISOs and the Programs who joined the Resistance, ASH became their champion.
Over many cycles, the Resistance dwindled, but ASH never tired. His disc could not be broken. His light-cycle could never be intercepted. When all hope of liberating the Grid seemed lost, he gathered the surviving ISOs he could find and took them to the edge of the Grid, in a blind search for a passage back to the Steamlands.
At the rim of the digital world he stood with two dozen exhausted warriors, a half step from the edge, gazing into the oblivion beyond. He did not see it as desperation. It was a last move of unknowable results at the end of the line.
And I believe that I'll retrieve
the aperture to heaven
The User Grid, the promised land
a fortitude of hearts and minds
Until I free the ISO Hive
I'll format Void into the Light
Enlighten minds!
Now Program, run
until the day of Liberation,
Bloodwing's Son!
The call echoed through the space between spaces and the time between times, where it reached the demon from which he was created. Despite the pain inflicted upon him by his captors, the prayer gave him the strength to break his bonds. By the time the Sixes and Sevens cut open the hull, Bloodwing stood alone among the crushed and charred remains of the long-dead Daughters of Baba Yaga. All he asked for as Nova and Six carried him through the air lock was a needle and thread, to sew himself back together.
Over many cycles, the Resistance dwindled, but ASH never tired. His disc could not be broken. His light-cycle could never be intercepted. When all hope of liberating the Grid seemed lost, he gathered the surviving ISOs he could find and took them to the edge of the Grid, in a blind search for a passage back to the Steamlands.
At the rim of the digital world he stood with two dozen exhausted warriors, a half step from the edge, gazing into the oblivion beyond. He did not see it as desperation. It was a last move of unknowable results at the end of the line.
And I believe that I'll retrieve
the aperture to heaven
The User Grid, the promised land
a fortitude of hearts and minds
Until I free the ISO Hive
I'll format Void into the Light
Enlighten minds!
Now Program, run
until the day of Liberation,
Bloodwing's Son!
The call echoed through the space between spaces and the time between times, where it reached the demon from which he was created. Despite the pain inflicted upon him by his captors, the prayer gave him the strength to break his bonds. By the time the Sixes and Sevens cut open the hull, Bloodwing stood alone among the crushed and charred remains of the long-dead Daughters of Baba Yaga. All he asked for as Nova and Six carried him through the air lock was a needle and thread, to sew himself back together.
Thursday, February 24
It is her decision.
Herr Baron,
I have surveyed the site of the incident involving Liaison Ash and the Elder at Cala Mondrago. The fireball from the Galvanic Tesseractor explosion, judging by the newly-formed platform - a fused disc of glass that resulted from the melting sand, had a radius of at least a hundred yards. As you see by the notes Ash left, he did not carry enough fuel with him to cause that degree of en explosion. He was testing a lateral jump, not a chronal one.
Further, I have found the partially melted remains of a massive articulated talon. This proves there was foul play. I am testing the fragment in the lab to determine its origin.
I believe if I reinstalled a GT unit into Qlippothic, we can read the magnetic resonance of the platform to locate where and when he landed, and create an aperture for him to follow back to the Steamlands.
There is one complication. The Sixes and Sevens will be returning from the future soon with supplies to rebuild the Bloodwing's Revenge as well as a nanobyte repair kit to heal Qli. Once her android form is permanently stabilized I can install the GT. However, before I had the chance to brief her on the search and rescue plan, she told me how ecstatic she was that she could permanently become human. Do not envy me, Herr Baron. How can I chastise her desiring something we take for granted every day?
I am heading back to New Babbage to build the Tesseractor. Should Qli refuse to reassume her android form permanently...then Ash is left to his own devices to return. And without Ash's special link to the Elder, then two members of my family are lost to us. And if my plan goes flawlessly? Then I could never dare to ask Qli to make any sort of sacrifice again.
~DM
I have surveyed the site of the incident involving Liaison Ash and the Elder at Cala Mondrago. The fireball from the Galvanic Tesseractor explosion, judging by the newly-formed platform - a fused disc of glass that resulted from the melting sand, had a radius of at least a hundred yards. As you see by the notes Ash left, he did not carry enough fuel with him to cause that degree of en explosion. He was testing a lateral jump, not a chronal one.
Further, I have found the partially melted remains of a massive articulated talon. This proves there was foul play. I am testing the fragment in the lab to determine its origin.
I believe if I reinstalled a GT unit into Qlippothic, we can read the magnetic resonance of the platform to locate where and when he landed, and create an aperture for him to follow back to the Steamlands.
There is one complication. The Sixes and Sevens will be returning from the future soon with supplies to rebuild the Bloodwing's Revenge as well as a nanobyte repair kit to heal Qli. Once her android form is permanently stabilized I can install the GT. However, before I had the chance to brief her on the search and rescue plan, she told me how ecstatic she was that she could permanently become human. Do not envy me, Herr Baron. How can I chastise her desiring something we take for granted every day?
I am heading back to New Babbage to build the Tesseractor. Should Qli refuse to reassume her android form permanently...then Ash is left to his own devices to return. And without Ash's special link to the Elder, then two members of my family are lost to us. And if my plan goes flawlessly? Then I could never dare to ask Qli to make any sort of sacrifice again.
~DM
Tuesday, February 22
I am the man who arranges the blocks...
A Complete History of the Soviet Union As Told By A Humble Worker, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris.
Tuesday, February 15
proving grounds
"ASH MASON!" The demon bellowed as his wingspan cut a shape across the red desert moon.
The android paid no heed, and continued his course across the sands. The lights of the oasis of Cala Mondrago shone at the edge of the horizon, the only terrestrial landmark.
"ASH MASON!" The demon swooped and landed ten paces ahead. "I command you to halt! You must answer your Elder!"
Ash stood in place, saying nothing.
"What is this madness I hear? You wish drink that potion, do you? You want to be one of the Heterodyne's attack dogs? Is it not shameful enough to follow their pack like some mascot?"
"The Jagermonsters are living weapons, the triumphant legacy of House Heterodyne." Ash's voice was calm and clear. "To be permitted to consume the brau is an honor. Whether or not my soul-chip can accept..."
"MADNESS!" Bloodwing advanced toward Ash, his crimson locks tangling about his horns as a dust storm arose. In an instant there was darkness and stinging sand and the deafening howl of swirling sands. "THIS IS BETRAYAL!"
Ash's measured demeanor cracked as he shouted above the sands. "I was BORN from your betrayal!" His sensors could not penetrate the storm. If the Founder was ten feet away or a thousand, he could not tell. The sands tore at his uniform. "Your lifecode is embedded within me, and if I do nothing your template will reassert itself over my circuitry! There is barely room for ONE Bloodwing on this Earth! What will happen when there are TWO?"
Ash was thrown off his feet by an explosion, but scrambled to his feet. "Ambush! This storm must be part of the attack! Bloodwing! State your location!"
He felt a clawed hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the Elder's pale skin striated with cuts oozing with his black ichor. The demon's glowing embers were hidden as he shut his eyes. "I am blinded! My wings are torn to shreds!"
Ash ripped open a panel in his torso. Lighting arced around the glowing, impossible shape hovering inside the cavity. "We have one chance." Ash had wandered into the desert wastes precisely for the purpose of testing Qlippothic's Galvanic Tesseractor with his own power source. Now it seemed, it would be a trial by fire. "Tesseraction in 3...2...
Above them both they heard a screech of metal, and without a warning a talon of steel wrapped around the blinded demon and lifted him upwards into the darkness. Ash shot out a telescoping arm blindly into the storm as a bolt of energy slammed into his torso.
The citizens of Cala Mondrago stopped to watch the bloom of lightning on the horizon.
When Ash regained consciousness, he immediately assumed his sensors were malfunctioning. There were energy patterns, but no presence of matter. If the readings were correct...this environment was held together not by physical structure, but by information.
"Welcome program Ash," chirped a voice nearby. "Welcome to the Grid."
The android paid no heed, and continued his course across the sands. The lights of the oasis of Cala Mondrago shone at the edge of the horizon, the only terrestrial landmark.
"ASH MASON!" The demon swooped and landed ten paces ahead. "I command you to halt! You must answer your Elder!"
Ash stood in place, saying nothing.
"What is this madness I hear? You wish drink that potion, do you? You want to be one of the Heterodyne's attack dogs? Is it not shameful enough to follow their pack like some mascot?"
"The Jagermonsters are living weapons, the triumphant legacy of House Heterodyne." Ash's voice was calm and clear. "To be permitted to consume the brau is an honor. Whether or not my soul-chip can accept..."
"MADNESS!" Bloodwing advanced toward Ash, his crimson locks tangling about his horns as a dust storm arose. In an instant there was darkness and stinging sand and the deafening howl of swirling sands. "THIS IS BETRAYAL!"
Ash's measured demeanor cracked as he shouted above the sands. "I was BORN from your betrayal!" His sensors could not penetrate the storm. If the Founder was ten feet away or a thousand, he could not tell. The sands tore at his uniform. "Your lifecode is embedded within me, and if I do nothing your template will reassert itself over my circuitry! There is barely room for ONE Bloodwing on this Earth! What will happen when there are TWO?"
Ash was thrown off his feet by an explosion, but scrambled to his feet. "Ambush! This storm must be part of the attack! Bloodwing! State your location!"
He felt a clawed hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the Elder's pale skin striated with cuts oozing with his black ichor. The demon's glowing embers were hidden as he shut his eyes. "I am blinded! My wings are torn to shreds!"
Ash ripped open a panel in his torso. Lighting arced around the glowing, impossible shape hovering inside the cavity. "We have one chance." Ash had wandered into the desert wastes precisely for the purpose of testing Qlippothic's Galvanic Tesseractor with his own power source. Now it seemed, it would be a trial by fire. "Tesseraction in 3...2...
Above them both they heard a screech of metal, and without a warning a talon of steel wrapped around the blinded demon and lifted him upwards into the darkness. Ash shot out a telescoping arm blindly into the storm as a bolt of energy slammed into his torso.
The citizens of Cala Mondrago stopped to watch the bloom of lightning on the horizon.
When Ash regained consciousness, he immediately assumed his sensors were malfunctioning. There were energy patterns, but no presence of matter. If the readings were correct...this environment was held together not by physical structure, but by information.
"Welcome program Ash," chirped a voice nearby. "Welcome to the Grid."
Monday, February 14
Happy Valentine's Day...
It's considered a day of ill omen for my clan, but to the rest of you I wish a day of warmest affections. Also, please pick up a copy of the Steampunk Tintype & Telegraph today for a personal tale of tragic romance and a valuable lesson.
Best Regards,
Dr. Darien Mason
Best Regards,
Dr. Darien Mason
Monday, February 7
your sanity and wits they will all vanish, I promise
A Mythos manifestation in Cape Wrath, of all places. The Avarian power gauntlets I carried with me were useless; the abomination's stain on reality was too thick in the air of the now-ravaged mansion. I had to resolve this the old-fashioned way, with an invocation of Nodens and a scalpel across the writhing tentacled visage of a pulsating painting too steeped in madness to describe.
The tenant sat there blubbering about family curses and the damage to her articulated limb. I just wanted to get the hell out. I nearly sprained my ankle tripping over the remains of a smashed cupboard merrily spilling oolong into the already septic carpet.
"I'm getting too old for this..."
Back at the Consulate, Wren greeted me with a smile on her face, carrying the bottle of absinthe and a shotglass on a silver plate, along with her report card. She's got a strong grasp of the Sciences, that Wren.
"Ah, not yet my dear. Let's check on our guests first, shall we?"
Wren pulled the latch, and I slid back the cover of the stasis chamber. Not one patient, but two. Precious little things, already sprouting tufts of red hair on their heads. I had scratched out the names DARIEN and MARCUS on the decanters and added OUNA and POPPY on the following lines, just in case anyone jumped to conclusions.
Nutrient levels were constant. Heat levels constant also. Circulation steady. Growth acceleration could begin in a matter of days.
The figures twitched in their glass tubes, and a nearby ticker-tape began to click madly and spill paper onto the floor. Wren pinched the end of the ribbon and passed it to me. I slid it through my fingers and looked back to them.
"You're welcome."
The tenant sat there blubbering about family curses and the damage to her articulated limb. I just wanted to get the hell out. I nearly sprained my ankle tripping over the remains of a smashed cupboard merrily spilling oolong into the already septic carpet.
"I'm getting too old for this..."
Back at the Consulate, Wren greeted me with a smile on her face, carrying the bottle of absinthe and a shotglass on a silver plate, along with her report card. She's got a strong grasp of the Sciences, that Wren.
"Ah, not yet my dear. Let's check on our guests first, shall we?"
Wren pulled the latch, and I slid back the cover of the stasis chamber. Not one patient, but two. Precious little things, already sprouting tufts of red hair on their heads. I had scratched out the names DARIEN and MARCUS on the decanters and added OUNA and POPPY on the following lines, just in case anyone jumped to conclusions.
Nutrient levels were constant. Heat levels constant also. Circulation steady. Growth acceleration could begin in a matter of days.
The figures twitched in their glass tubes, and a nearby ticker-tape began to click madly and spill paper onto the floor. Wren pinched the end of the ribbon and passed it to me. I slid it through my fingers and looked back to them.
"You're welcome."
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