[IC] TotM:DC "Terraria: A fresh start"

[Sutoratosu]

"Dear gods your world has gone full Scenario Alpha... That's... Reassuring. I guess?" She can't but think back to that old lecture, the one Gen, Leewald and Leon had taken her so long ago. Scenario Alpha. Proposed by lord Alhem Meir, some alarmist mage who'd lived back during the old age. The foundation of the generations long fear of Arganorian Thaumists for about as long as they'd known how to synthesize and tinker with flesh. The day when lax policies and rampant ambition to create ever more perfect lifeforms would result in a, or several, race(s) of Sapient entities which would ultimately go on to destroy their creators and take the world for themselves. Either that, or they would assimilate the inferior men of Arganor into their own genetic stock over a course of several generations, and the same ultimate effect would come to pass. What he described... it wasn't quite the same, but damn if it wasn't close enough.

       "And uh, pray tell, the children of these.... let's call them 'feedings'. What are they like? More monster, or man? Though I've an even more important question come to think of it; where did these monsters come from? Are they someone's creation, perhaps this 'Demon King' you spoke of?"

[kj1225]

Arminius has to think on that for a while.

"We don't interbreed actually outside of specific circumstances. In fact, used to be aside fron Enchidna couples the children were always the mother's race. Now it's easy to find someone that can make it a 50/50 chance for human or monster though. As for where monsters came from... no clue. They've just always been there."

[Endlessblaze]

Leo decides to do some mana testing. He sits outside at the table he made, and gets to it.

 

Spoiler

Thaum > Crimtane Ore > Healing Potion(12 vs 8): This mana type causes the target to gain a 50% resistance to all healing effects(including itself) for one turn for every point applied, they are then healed for HP equal their Con at the end of each of their turns while under this effect.  Prolonged use may cause the target to develop increased regeneration and resistance to healing.

Thaum > Crimtane Ingot > Healing Potion(8 vs 18): This mana type causes the target to become sick at their stomach to the point of vomiting, but also forces them to reflexively hold the urge back as long as possible.  This causes many episodes of dry heaving and gagging in quick succession.  Prolonged use may cause the target to develop an increased chance of suffering from sickness and a resistance to the effects of sickness.

The first two results are....interesting. Hes not sure how comfortable he is using them, but options are always nice.

Spoiler

[Thaum > Iron > Tin + Thaum > WL Hull Wood > WL Hull Metal](19 vs 2): This mana type creates small shiny metallic bubbles that slowly drift through the air, they are repelled by and sort of ferro-magnetic object they drift close to.  When popped the bubbles release a surprisingly powerful EMP for their size.

The next one seems much more useful. But not in this scenario. Maybe if he ends up having to fight robots.

 

Spoiler

Thaum > Thran Metal > Pink Slime(20 vs 8): This mana type violently bounces off of anything in comes into contact with be it matter, energy, magic, or anything else Leo can thing of.  It shakes and quivers in the air as it tries to bounce of the air molecules it comes into contact with, requiring most of Leo's attention to keep it in place.  Sadly his will and intent seem to bounce of every now and then, causing him to stand stock still for a split second.

Thaum > Demonite Ore > Pink Slime(1 vs 15): This mana type covers the target in a slimy film that converts organic material into more of itself over the course of days or weeks.  This slime seems over all to be nonreactive.

Thaum > Crimtane Ore > Pink Slime(3 vs 4): This mana type causes anything that the target touches or that touches the target to be pushed or "bounced" away.  This may create problems gripping or wearing things.  It also causes the target to become more "springy" in composition, making knockback and similar impacts have a more pronounced effect on them.  Prolonged exposure may cause the target to retain some of the gelatinous properties, further exposure may cause their flesh to become slimy and transparent, and their bones to soften.

He then decides to see if he can synthesize new types of slime with the pink slime he got before. Standing up and takeing a few steps away for space. The Results are all interesting, though only one seems to synthesize....but that one seemed a bit dangerous.

Now, on the ground, was a slime that could convert all organic matter into more of itself. The process seemed very slow and it wasn't really in contact with anything, so it was not an immediate threat, but it did need to be contained, he could study it later, in a more controlled environment. Naturally, leo goes right to eternal ice as his method of choice. He would freeze it, then stop it form melting, and everything would be fine....

 

Spoiler

Eternal Ice quality: 100, Holy fuck
Random Blitz: 9, Shit

As Leo realizes what he's created he instinctively reacts by casting his go-to spell on it, Eternal Ice.
The good news?  Leo has made a magical breakthrough, he has figured out how to create Eternal Ice that instead of holding a temperature brings the temperature of the object down by consuming heat as fuel.
The bad news? The blob of pink goo is now a glob of half-frozen pink goo eating heat and organic matter to grow and move more quickly.  It is now also attracted to sources of heat.  Leo is the nearest heat source.

~~Funny how Dragon was thinking almost the same thing as I was~~

Except he somehow fumbles the spell in what, in another situation, would be the best possible fumble, but in this scenario is the worst possible outcome. As the slime begins to feed on heat it speeds up rapidly, and quickly heads for leo. "NOPE"

 

Spoiler

Dex Check: 11 vs 10,
Luck: 68,

Leo manages to shape solid a dome of rock around it that should hold it back for now, it isn't perfect but he was trying not to get bitten in the process of making it.

He quickly uses his OTHER go to spell to seal the whole thing in a dome of rock. But its not perfect, and with its new heat absorbing properties, its only going to build pressure.

'DAMN IT YOU IDIOT! DO SOMETHING"
"I AM! EVERYONE BACK! NOW!"

In a more controlled environment, he would love to study this stuff.
This was not a controlled environment.
In this case, there was only one way to be sure


The ambiance is the magic present in any given area, and is responsible for powering many enchantments, such as his golem cores.

But its also a barrier that separates the world, from other planes of existence, and the void itself.
And mana can be controlled by will, thats a basic fundamental of magic, one that, as a mage. he is used to exploiting.

Leo exerts his will over the mana around and inside the containment of the goo, and attempts to rip it all away, every last drop. This will open a hole to void, and drop the thing in.
 

Spoiler

Ess check: 7 vs 16,
Luck: 76,
Random Blitz: 24,

Leo wrenches and pulls at the mana in the air, as he draws it away several nearby plants start to wilt a little and the colors of the world around the box seem to lose saturation.  But beyond that Leo is at his limit, there's just too much mana to try and pull away at one time for one mage.
The color seems to be slowly returning.

But theres just to much magic here, and he is not used to doing this The color of the world drains a little and the plants wilt slightly, but its just not enough.

 

The only thing left to do is try to contain it.
He runs inside and grabs a bone jun had, and some iron off his table, and begins to wrap it around the thing and contain it, attempting to enchant it as a core to improve its durability. 

 

Spoiler

Crafting: 3 vs 17,
Quality: 17,
Random Blitz: 96,

Leo finds that with the pressure of the goo trying to escape the stone/dirt sphere is crumbling as fast as he can build it.  He jumps back as a large glob oozes out and falls to the ground...

Syn Check: 20 vs 6,
Quality: 48,
Random Blitz: 43,

Only to be caught and levitated slightly above a sunflower that had bloomed underneath it.

As his attempt fails and the goo starts to reach for him he falls back, but finds himself levitated over a sunflower. Oh. You know. That makes sense.
This stuff was made in part with corruption magic. He should have tired using purification powder on it....
Well now he felt stupid. 

Turning back to the dryad he rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Heh heh...ahhh thanks..."

[StormLord]

"That's an interesting slime you've got there, I hope it isn't the only thing you wanted to talk to me about though."

She walked a little closer to get a better look at it.

"Very interesting.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a slime like this before, it looks like a Pinky, but...it's frozen."

She glanced over to the side, noticing the wilted plants and coloration changes, then looks at Leo, then back to the slime.

"Alright what's going on here?"

[Endlessblaze]

“Well I uh...I should probably start by explaining one of the basic principles of my magic. See when mana comes into contact with Matter, it changes its type and effects. And you can chain together different things in different orders to change what you get. I got this pink slime stuff the other night when one attacked me and I had frostbrute squash it. When I applied thaumic mana it made more slime. So I decided to test some combinations and see if I couldn’t synthesize something useful.....and uhhh... one of the combinations made slime that could consume organic matter to make more of itself. Takes a long time, but I still dident want to leave it loose. So I decided to contain it”

 

”And then he fucked up”

 

”I uhh... went To freeze it but fumbled my spell and gave it the ability to consume heat...causing it too move much faster and head towards nearby heat sources. So I trapped it in a dome but I knew it wouldent last long, between hasty construction and the building pressure as it made more of itself from Eatting heat. SOOOOOO I went to dispose of it in the most certain way I knew.”

 

”He tried to drop it into the void, but couldent manage it”

 

”The mana in the area is responsible for more then just powering enchantments. It acts a barrier between other planes and the void. So if you pull all that magic away, you open a hole to the void. But there was just so much magic here I couldent manage it manually. The attempt is what’s caused the fadeing color and stuff, should be back to normal soon. Then the dome broke and you showed up. And THATS when I realized I probbly could have just tossed some purifcation powder on it”

[StormLord]

The Dryad lists fairly intently only stopping about half way through to pinch the bridge of her nose and shake her head.

"If you wanted to kill it why didn't you just set it on fire? and the purification powder probably won't work on it, that stuff is made for dealing with the Corruption and Crimson, not whatever this is."

She sighed and stood there in thought for a minute.

"You said it ate only organic matter and heat right?  If you make a box out of metal or rock and lock it up I'll find some kind of digestive enzyme to pour on it later."

[Yours Truly]

Jun had stepped out of the smithery and headed back for the inn a moment earlier to try and find an appropriate room to 'powder her nose' in; after she remembered that a promise she made to a certain someone the other day would take her out to the forest, potentially for hours. The fact that she came back to find Leo jumping down from a particularly large sunflower to frantically try to form a box over what appears to be the crumbling remains of a smaller box was in all honesty, not as surprising as some would find it. She slowly sidled up to the Dryad as the man continued to try and clean up his mess, and she coughed a bit before she said, "So uh... what happened while I was away?"

[Endlessblaze]

Spoiler

Craft: 19 vs 3,
Quality: 87,

Leo creates a nice stone box big enough to fit the small goo monster with some room to grow and no obvious or notable weaknesses.

Leo never got far enough with the other crafting project to use the bone, it's still in his hand.

Leo now calmer and with the slime held back by the sunflower, seals the little death slime up tight. and sits the box on his table. On the side is the ingraveing 'Danger. Do not touch'

 

"Something that could have ended much worse then it did. Its under control now"

"If he hadn't panicked, it would have never gotten out of control"

It was then leo noticed that kusuke fellow walking around and waved at him. Maybe he could get some use out of those fancy powers of his.

 

"Heyyyyy kusuke right?!"

 

 

[Chevaleresse]

Kuske, for his part, had mostly been wandering around trying to remember how to be alive for the day. He wasn't a morning person, and usually didn't get to sleep until far later than he really should. Combining that with a dearth of caffeine meant the time traveler was fighting off an unfortunate combination of early-morning tiredness and a headache. Then, the guy with the golems showed up. Leo, was it? . . . The guy who insisted on setting everyone on fire. Nice.

 

"Uh, yeah, what's up?" he said, rather guardedly.

[Endlessblaze]

"Nothing much, I made some golems for the engineer girl, and did some......basic testing. I'm also helping these guys with some metal, but it will be a few hours at least before its ready. What are you doing today?"

He seems friendly enough, though the way the colors seem a little faded in the area around him is a bit odd.

 

[Chevaleresse]

"Nothing in particular. Could probably speed that project of yours up, if you can promise me it won't explode or set me on fire." 

 

Evidently Kusuke isn't a fan of the attacks of his allies going off in his face. Who knew?

[Endlessblaze]

"I'm pretty sure i got all the air bubbles out, so it shouldn't blow up, unless you jump it so far ahead it turns into plasma. You can move other things through time right?"

[Chevaleresse]

"I can. Just uh, how far ahead are we talking here? If that's a risk, I need a general idea of the timeframe you need." "Pretty sure" and "shouldn't" were not things he wanted to hear, but he did want to do something productive here. Worst case scenario, he burned more energy than he wanted to by jumping back after it blew up. Assuming it didn't kill him on the spot, of course, but that was unlikely.

 

. . . Not impossible, but unlikely.

[Endlessblaze]

Leo picks the ingot off the table.

"This alloy. The furnace is not strong enough to work it. Ive coated it in eternal ice so that the sunlight can warm up, but the heat can't escape. If you can jump it ahead a few hours, we should be able to work it sooner, rather than later."

 

"It should be safe, though there is a slight chance it will blast you with a sort of magical pain energy."
"I don't know, I think the coating would probbly interfere with that."

[Chevaleresse]

"You're not doing a very good job of selling me on this," Kusuke said rather bluntly. Magical pain bolts and probably not exploding? 

[Endlessblaze]

"Toshrio got hit, and he's fine. I would do it myself if I could."

Leo puts a hand to his chin, thinking.

"Unfortunately what little time based effects I know how to enact wouldent help here." 

[Chevaleresse]

"Are we talking 'slight jolt,' or 'will echo in your nightmares for decades to come' levels of pain bolts here? At least give me an idea of how hot it is before I go sticking my hands into fire."

[Endlessblaze]

Leo thinks for a second before opening the door and calling inside.
"Hey toshiro, that shock of pain the alloy gave you, on a scale of 'slight jolt', to 'will echo in my nightmares for decades' where did it fall?"
 

[Aurorix]

"Oh that, hmmmm," Toshiro said rubbing his chin,  "I'd say it's like a spreading wave of agony, though my only lasted for a couple of seconds. So, larges amounts of pain in a short amount of time." He spoke oddly cheerful given the subject

[Powder Miner]

Satomi couldn't help but feel a little smug as she watched the bundle of logs that made up the "wall" at the northern end of the village come down bundle by bundle. She didn't let this smugness show (she wasn't very good at hiding her emotions behind a face of impassivity and politeness like samurai were supposed to be, yet she could do it sometimes), but she had been disgusted by the shoddy excuse for fortification that that wall represented, along with its southern counterpart that she'd start work on later that day. Honestly... they hadn't even built a wooden wall -- and they hadn't even built Dragon's Teeth with those logs. It was just... a bunch of logs. Bundled together.

 

The removal of the northern wall was, however, obviously only part of the equation, and once that was complete, Satomi also had to-- her train of thought was interrupted by the Mason coming up to her and discussing their stone supplies. Apparently, unfortunately, they didn't quite have enough, but the Mason did tell her of another kind of material, called "concrete". As the Mason spoke, it became clear that this substance was what the buildings on Earth Bet were often made of... so, paired with the advice of the Mason, Satomi now had a fair understanding of the capabilities and characteristics of concrete. Thanks to the Mason, she knew that it was fairly easy to make and very versatile to shape, but she knew from Earth Bet that it wasn't as strong as stone and seemed to need significantly more maintenance, if she were to judge by the state of the buildings there, as wondrous and incredible as those buildings were.

 

Still, she did have to use concrete, so she made a couple of adjustments to her plan. First of all, she'd have the concrete made into bricks very similar to the stone ones -- her structuring was precisely planned out, and anything less regular would create worrying asymmetries in the structure of her wall -- so, at strategic points where she didn't think the greater need for maintenance and lower durability would really hinder the rest of the wall, Satomi marked out locations for concrete bricks to be used instead of stone.  And then she began to, along with the Mason (a very useful man, she would have to take the time to pay respect to him once the wallwork was done), get to work.

 

Thankfully, the work went rather well indeed. The ground here was solid and rocky, and with just a little bit of evening out of the ground, the wall's foundation was placed down fairly easily and definitely stably. Then she spent hours helping out with the actual laying and alignment of the stone, carefully carving and aligning some of the more irregular pieces of the wall herself with the fervor of someone with both determination and experience, she dashed between workers and the golems, making sure things were getting done correctly, and she even laid some of the bricks herself! By the time the Mason offered to switch out management with her for a couple of hours so that she could get some rest and work on other things, Satomi was a bit sweaty and a bit dusty.

 

But she didn't go to the baths yet, since there was still so much work to be done, she just headed down to find somewhere to sit in the middle of the village, managed to acquire a towel from somewhere in the village, and she wiped some of it off (without removing her clothing, though). Oh, and she muttered to herself as she did, jotting down a little checklist in her notebook as she did. "Okay, let's see, first I need to get some mining done, perhaps I can hunt down Kusuke-san and get him to help be acquire stone for the second wall... maybe get a third person involved if someone seems available, hmmhmmhmm... then I begin the stonework on the second wall, then I do the woodwork on the first one... other way around if circumstances demand it... yes, yes, I think I know what I'm doing today."

[Yours Truly]

Jun had chosen to politely step away from the conversation going on between Leo and Kusuke a few moments ago after she realized that she really couldn't add anything to the conversation, especially since Leo was already doing a halfway decent job of convincing the timefucker to work his magic on the ingot... despite his insistence on teling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of course.

 

It was only good fortune (or presumably as Satomi would see it, bad fortune) that Jun's mostly aimless jogging brought her right to where Satomi was seated. She slowly tried to make her presence known by politely coughing before she said, "I would suggest that the third person be Leo, but I am pretty sure that he won't be free until this evening. Although you could probably ask him to make some extra mining drones and direct them to gather stones instead of gems."

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke sighed. "Awesome. You're lucky I'm nice and not a good decision maker." Kusuke started toward Leo, punctuating the movement with a somewhat irritable wave. "Well? Where's it at?"

[Powder Miner]

Satomi slowly closed her notebook upon hearing the voice of her current least favorite person in the group, and slowly turned to give Jun a very, very cold look. Jun was actually not off base with her suggestion, Leo was someone it would probably behoove her to ask for the assistance of, but Satomi wasn't, of course, about to allow Jun the pleasure of getting her suggestion acknowledged, even, not after last night. Really, Satomi was almost just as furious with Jun for the "diplomat"'s humiliation of her the previous night, but now the anger had settled and distilled itself into the kind of anger so often seen in Rokugan, icy, cold anger hidden behind the careful emotional mask of the samurai. Satomi wouldn't say anything specifically regarding her humiliation (which really she'd rather not bring up anyway) to Jun, nor would she say anything explicitly impolite unless Jun pushed her... but when she did speak, her voice was icy. "What do you want, Jun?"

[Endlessblaze]

Leo hands him the Ingot, still covered in ice.

"A few hours should do it, if this works, we might be inclined to ask you to do the others as well. Assumeing you don't mind."

[Yours Truly]

To Jun it was pretty damn obvious that Satomi was still more than a little angry about what happened last night if her tone of voice and the look she was giving her was any indication, and she tried vainly to steer the conversation to a slightly more friendly direction by saying, "I just wanted to find out what your plans were for today; because I wanted to know if you had the time to help me out with improving my armor's plating."