Tracks to the Junkyard
MEET-UP
It's Kesenday, Vhast 13 14:02:06 1019. The full moon is up. The tide is high and rising. Fair weather clouds drift through the blue sky from the west, along with the wind. The sunlight on the snow is dazzling, and it gleams on the ice.
A02: Old Clunk's Junkyard (Spot of the Day)
Ga'Elian is poking around through the icy piles of scrap metal, whistling merrily.
Azog is off in a corner, laying back on the remains of a bench. He is lifting up a bar, to which has been fastened several heavy chunks of refuse. He is bench-pressing this with some difficulty, but seems pleased at making the effort.
Selerik is not far off from Ga'Elian, trying to decipher the writing on a stack of converters. "None of these seem to match, maybe it was custom work." He glances over to the side, finding another stack and checking them against his notes.
Ga'Elian looks over toward Selerik and says, "Well, I'm sure I'll be able to tell if we find something that does match those tracks." He casts a momentary glance over to Azog.
Ga'Elian looks back and adds, "That, at least, is one benefit of snowy ground. It makes identifying tracks a whole lot easier."
Azog pounds out reps in his makeshift gym. He's not really concerned with any of this junk other than that it's heavy. Overhearing Ga'Elian, he says, "But where's the challenge in that?"
Ga'Elian chuckles. "The challenge comes in following the tracks before more snow falls to cover them."
Selerik waves a hand dismissively. "It had to be artifice, all the signs were there. Rather know what kind before we go chasing something through the snow." His love of the cold is becoming well known at this point. Selerik picks up a converter, comparing it to his notes, and hurriedly carries it over to Ga'Elian. "There! That looks like a match, yeah?"
Azog continues his weight training regimen as he watches the two artificers. "What is it you're looking for?" he wonders curiously.
Ga'Elian looks the piece over. "Yep. That matches. See the little nick on this edge? Very distinctive."
Selerik squints at the nick. "That does seem to be part of the design, yeah." Looks up and over at Azog, he offers a smile. "Oh, hello. Not sure yet!" He tosses the converter lightly in his hand, looking around. "Think I'll need Old Clunk or an artificer to tell us."
Azog looks puzzled for a moment. "If you don't know what you're looking for, how do you know when you've found it?" he asks. This is either very deep philosophy or Azog's weakness with Tradespeak.
Ga'Elian looks over as he steps down from the heap, "Well, mostly because we found its tracks. I'm guessing that a pair of smaller folks were carrying it, because it seems like they would stop and set it down from time to time. Gnomes, if I had to hazard a guess."
Selerik looks around for the not-appearing assistance, and decides to jot down the info off the converter they found into his book. "Or they were driving it, or there doing maintenance, who is to say. Whatever it is was, certainly mobile and it had one of these. Past tense, the one we saw was broken scrap." He wrinkles his nose. "Wonder how it broke?"
Azog grimaces at the mention of gnomes. "Yes, that sounds like something gnomes would do," he allows. "How could they be riding it if it was scrap?" he wonders.
Ga'Elian smirks, "Clever, that one... brawny AND brainy."
Selerik looks between Ga'Elian and Azog. Clearing his throat, he nods to Azog before looking back to his writing. "I apologize, I mis-spoke. We found the broken part, not the full... Whatever it was."
Azog ahhhhhhs. Now it's explained. If there is sarcasm in Ga'Elian's remark, Azog doesn't note it. "I see. And you feel these gnomes are a threat somehow?" he wonders.
"Only relative to those who happen to be inferior," comes a caveat from behind Ga'Elian in Aya's soft words. She was not present a moment ago, or was not apparently so. "All gnomes can be a threat, or far more annoying than their worth, at least," she further adds.
"I'm just bored, actually." Selerik puts the converter back, having finished his notes. "And this is a riddle. Maybe it is dangerous, maybe it is meaningless. Still better than watching water freeze."
Ga'Elian says, "I find many gnomes to be an unwitting threat quite often. In fact, most threatening when they are least trying to be--or perhaps then is when they are most threatening to themselves." He turns to Aya and shakes his head. "Hi."
Azog snorts at Selerik's comment, and says, "I know a few druids who would disagree with you." He nods agreement with Aya's comment, and peers at Ga'Elian, trying to work out just what he's saying.
Pelka circles high overhead a few times, descending as he turns until he finally touches down on the top of one of the buildings. The roof groans alarmingly at his weight. But Pelka flexes his knees to crouch and then plants his hands on the building to steady himself.
A mangy mutt scurries out of the building and starts barking and yipping at Pelka, then turns and scurries back inside again.
Selerik tucks the book with his notes away, looking around. "Well, without an artificer to give some insights I'm stuck."
Ga'Elian laughs at the dog, then looks up at Pelka. He says, "Never fear, I think one has just dropped in."
Azog continues his weightlifting regimen and peers at Aya, Selerik, and Ga'Elian, then over at Pelka.
Pelka eyes the dog until it disappears, then turns to the others. "It's true! I'm an artificer!!" he looks around and then ventures, "You mean you all are not? None of you? Wow - I had no idea anyone except for artificers came here!"
"We'd hoped to witness an accidental gnome crushing or two," Aya offers an explanation with a roll of one should. "A quiet afternoon, unfortunately."
A glance at Azog before Selerik looks to Pelka. "Well, we were hoping to find some information on artifice. This seemed the place." He gestures to Ga'Elian.
Ga'Elian sticks his foot out to stop at a piece of machinery that tumbles down the heap toward him. He bends down and picks it up. Responding to Selerik, he says, "We were just following a set of curious tracks, and they led us here." Then looking at the piece he just picked up he says, "This has burn marks on it, long and thin, like it was scraped with a flaming sword or shot with a flaming projectile." He hands this piece to Selerik.
Azog has constructed, rather crudely, a weight bench from the assembled parts, and he is doing bench presses while talking with the others. This is the extent of his own knowledge of artifice. It is heavy.
Selerik accepts the part from Ga'Elian, looking it over. He turns his book around in his other hand, offering it to Pelka on an open page. He has sketches of a partially broken part, and then notes taken from a part that matched the description here in the yard. "Mostly just want to know what it might be, or who may've made it." Aya gets a glance and a friendly smile.
Pelka hops down off of the building and then comes closer to look. He peers for a long then bogs his beak in a nod. "Yes yes...definitely artifice." He hesitates, then spreads his arms out to indicate the surroundings. "Not all the pieces in here are."
"Not anymore, at least," Azog says in reply to Pelka. He has tamed his parts, he seems to feel. Put them to more benign use.
Ga'Elian shrugs and walks over to the building's door, then crouches into a squat and whistles to the pooch. From inside, a couple of yips emanate.
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls WildEmp/animal: (16)+10+1: 27
Aya glances over to the sil. "Does it matter who may have done what to a piece of garbage?"
About a minute later, the dog comes forward, and allows Ga'Elian to pick it up. It licks his face as he stands up.
Selerik rubs the back of his neck. "Well, convenient it wasn't some sort of scrap golem playing tricks on us, then. Still, trying to figure out what it was, traipsing through the forest and making a mess. If you've got any notions?"
Ga'Elian turns and says, "I suppose it could matter, but it seems like it doesn't this time. On the other hand, what a pair of gnomes might be doing in the forest was worth at least checking out. Hopefully they don't end up starting a forest fire."
Azog says sagely, "Not to worry. If it's a problem, the guild will soon be called to help out the crying populace who can't be bothered to stand up for themselves." His opinion of humans is not so high, it seems.
Pelka says, "Gnomes in the forest?" He turns and gazes off towards the west even though that's not where the forest is. "I wonder what they were doing there. I only know one gnome, very well." One of his taloned hands twitches. "Although I almost wish I didn't."
"I have no idea what gnomes in the forest, if there are any hiding there, have to do with this pile of trash, here" Aya looks to Azog and the corner of her mouth rises, "But I do know a thing or two about crying, fearful commoners. If someone didn't always rush to their aid, maybe some would learn to act for themselves."
Azog says to Aya, "I don't think that's the case. I think they just keep crying until they get help." He shrugs. "Oruch are different, of course." And much less common, because they'll generally fight hopeless battles rather than cry for help.
Selerik shakes his head. "People have different callings in life. A baker, a shoemaker, a painter. Perhaps they can't win the battles that some others can, but they strengthen our society. They have their contributions, not the least of which is to your purses."
"Definitely not the least of noble contributions," Aya agrees with a dip of her chin to Selerik, "and contributors are acting on their own behalf... though I heavily doubt that they are the likes of bakers and shoemakers."
Ga'Elian says, "Hm. I frankly think that many gnomes are sincerely trying to advance their society, but they are so accident-prone, it's a wonder they don't go extinct."
Azog shrugs about his purse. "I would rather see all the bakers and shoemakers learn how to use a sword than have all the gold in the world. My honor is to fight, but fighting for those who will not defend themselves is a .... poor calling."
Ga'Elian nods, "Perhaps."
That gets a tilt of Selerik's head towards Azog. "Some are too young, some too old, others infirm or with child. Some do fear death, it is true, for selfish reasons. Others worry for those they would leave behind." He shrugs. "I am a human, so there is bias there, it is true. Yet for all our weaknesses and inadequacies, we thrive as a people." He looks around. "Gnomes, though? I sometimes wonder at how they breed fast enough to stay about, and it is an answer I often deter myself from learning with heavy drink."
Azog says to Selerik, "I do not demand that children or the infirm fight. But when a man comes crying to the Guild that he has been robbed, and he shows no sign of having tried to stop it, then I feel he has given up his honor." He shrugs about thriving as a people. "It may be that shirking honor is a way to fill the world with honorless souls. I do not call it a good thing, however well it works."