... and Seeking Knowledge

"Point Rising Swiftly ..."

Of the Survivors of the Tel, one Gan is looking into the nature of the sword recently retrieved from the so-called Sixth House inside the Great Spire of the Klackons. The sword is a two-hand estoc-type sword with a long narrow "blade" and stylistically lengthened hilt. The "blade" has a stiff diamond cross-section and is actually too thick to cut properly, but is rather intended to puncture armor and carapaces, and can also be used as a bludgeon (no one likes getting hit in the face with a 3' steel bar).

The hilts have an upward-facing crescent cross guard, ornately engraved with whorls. The grip, meanwhile, is decorated to represent a length of knotted silk which spells out a poem in the Klackon "script": "Point rising swiftly, thrusts home to crack carapace--the cousinless fall." There are a number of small gold rings strategically placed around the hilts for the hanging of other poem- and prayer-silks.

As to its make, the sword is constructed of an unfamiliar metal or alloy of green/black color which tests harder than any metal it is scraped against. It has enough spring/give to be useful as a sword (you need some flexibility), but seems like it would be nigh-indestructible in combat against iron, steel, or other such weaponry.

Altogether, it is obvious that this weapon is a splendid item, and thus +1 to hit (representing its strength and design and ability to pierce even plate armor), and therefore is also a candidate for being imbued with psychical energy (i.e. becoming a magic item).

No test in the alchemical library at Cothon-Under-Star is able to identify the metal or alloy of which the sword is constructed. Turning to other means, Gan, remembering the mention of the Sixth House having commerce with the clan of Barcid Bulrathi looks for mention of the Barcids in metallurgical texts. Sure enough, there they are--but as a physician by training, Gan has difficulty parsing the abstruse terminology. Nevertheless, he is able to learn that Barca Mzurak is the master-armorer at the Migdol of the Dyers and Fish-Fermenters, and that he is heir to the methods of the Barcids.

(concerning research, the nature of the sword is closed; the nature of the alloy remains open, but requiring resources outside of Gan and Cothon-Under-Star)

صوأعو -- "The Illusions-Master"

Also in the tavern Under-Star, Ravna seeks knowledge of her own: laid out on a dissecting table, the corpse of a strange beast of ropy tentacles and ganglion nerves is put to the knife by the fellow Survivor of the Tel.

Hoping to discover that the mechanism of the creature's illusions, which allowed it to face the party in the guise of a stony statue, is a merely physical transformation (and that she could thus use it!), Ravna cut certain tentacles apart and submitted them to various alchemical tests suggested by fellows Under-Star or texts taken from the extensive library ...

But dissections and all of these tests failed to indicate any direct physical quality. Unlike the myriad variformae species swimming Dirac's Sea, which are able to make their flesh physically resemble rock, coral, seaweed, sand, etc., the flesh of the strange ganglion-and-tentacles was inert to various tests.

Frustrated, Ravna finally turns to certain texts commenting on the alchemical uses of various creatures, and discovers a description matching her and her companions' encounter with the creatures--the "tsu'uru" or illusion-master, which appeared as gilded warriors in battle, but when slain reverted into bundles of weird tentacles. The particular text, Ibn Roh's Ancients Places and Certain Secrets describes the uses of the tsu'uru in various potions: the raw extract can powerfully enhance psychical energy, though at great danger; distilled properly, it is useful in potions of ESP, of illusions, and of delusions.

(Ravna has particular formulae regarding what she discovered, including the distillation of raw tsu'uru extract; further research from the corpse is closed)

The Empty Hilts

Guest of the Kantor Kabljauhof's common house, Durham takes up the strange device retrieved from the Ocean's Throat sea-caves, described before as a kind of sword-hilts without any blade, but with a black screen on the face of the ball where the guard should be, surrounded by studs and dials.

Intent on knowing just what this strange object is, Durham retreats into his room in the common-house for some time. The studs can be pressed; the dials can be turned; after enough experimentation, Durham discovers that a certain stud will "illuminate" the screen, creating a strange map of lines and points upon its face. Fiddling with the dials and other studs changes the nature of the "picture" in chaotic and uncertain ways.

But at some point, Durham settles on a collation of dials that seems to offer some stability; in a moment of inspiration, he drags it through the air of the room he rents from the Kantor, taking note of a pile of gold coins he has on the table, the candle on the bedstand, and a tiny ilwrath arthropod that has made its nest in the corner of his room. The first sweep pings in the direction of the ilwrath when the object is hefted in its direction. A minute change of a dial further pings when pointed at the small pile of gold, though also at a variety of other metal objects in the room, such as Durham's quiver of crossbow bolts, and the metal fittings of his bed.

Through certain further experiments in town, Durham is thus able to ascertain that the object is able to detect lifeforms and metal within a 60' distance between the two obvious "settings"; a "full sweep" takes 10 minutes (1 turn) to complete, but it can be used in a directed fashion much more quickly; it seems to have a limit of power of 60 minutes (6 turns) continuous use, though allowing the sun to shine over it for a day seems to "resurrect" the spirit within.

(There are clearly other functions beyond what Durham was able to ascertain; the use and nature of the hilts remains open for further research)