Making Money With Amar - RPLOG
Participants
Date
6/9/479
Log
It is hot and clear here at the edge of the Green Valley and the grass sways gently in the breeze. Some of it sways AGAINST the wind, but that is a risk you take out here.
Amar Widestripe, the fat, purple tiger merchant is sitting in a large carriage alongside a pair of large wagons, one of which is pulled by a large golem. He looks around like he is waiting for someone.
Shira struggles a little with the high grass, but makes good progress non the less. As she arrives at Amar's cart, she gives him a wave. "Hey there. Heard you need some golem whacking and, since you did not seem to be convinced of my skills, I figured I would come show you."
Amar looks around at the tall grass and finally looks down at Shira. "Oh," the plump feline says, trying his best not to sound disappointed, "I was expecting a bigger turnout." He seems to realize that his words may have been poorly chosen. "I mean, I thought that there would be more of you. I am not so sure that one being can handle this job alone."
Shira looks around herself and places her fists on the sides of her waist, a cheery look on her face. "Well, unless you want to help, I will have to do it on my own, by the looks of it. How hard can it be, a golem without someone to control it?"
Amar considers the little mouse and strokes his little goatee. "Suit yourself," the purple tiger says, "The reward is the same either way." He does not comment on how hard a rogue golem might be to handle. "Rumor has it that the golem you are after roams the perimeter of the valley. If the reports I have are accurate, we should be hearing it any time n-" He is interrupted by a howl like grinding metal and angry machine spirits. "Ah, that will be our friend now."
Off in the distance a huge, lumbering shape crests a low hill. It is hard to guess what the golem's original function was, now it is just a hulk. It has four legs and is the size of a house!
Shira rolls her shoulder as she inspects the golem and starts going through the math for her first attack in her head. A few moments later, a bolt of lightning strikes the golem, aimed to burn it out.
The lumbering golem raises what might be considered a head on a living creature, though this is nondescript under a layer of hanging weeds and mossy verdigris. It roars in what might be pain or rage, but its shambling progress does not slow. Nor does it seem ready to deviate from its course.
Amar strokes his goatee, then folds his fat arms before leaning back in his carriage. "Good luck," he says, "And do try not to damage the inner workings too badly."
Shira considers another blast of lightning for a moment, but decides that all that plantlife on the thing probably dampens electricity to some extend. She focuses for a moment and extends her hand, sending balls of fire from it and onto the golem, before taking another quick look around herself, trying to spot better terrain.
The golem trudges on, unheeding of the balls of flame splashing against its side. The thing does not seem to care that it is being attacked, and only carries on walking, pausing every now and then to raise its "head" and bellow out its screeching cry. Whatever this thing is and whoever built it, it was definitely built to last. Not to say that the fire is not having ANY effect. Splotches of lichen and assorted plant life that has taken up residence on the mechanical monster's sides are seared away, revealling the thing's dull metal hide.
Amar leans forward out of his carriage and frowns at Shira. "Dear girl," the fat cat says, "I would appreciate it if you would go fight that thing -away- from my wagons. I certainly don't want it stomping around over here!"
Shira rolls her eyes. "Alriiiight." The tiny mouse uses a gust of air magic to catapult herself into the skies and towards the machine. She catches herself mid air and extends this jump into flight, until she has met up with the machine, at which point she draws her dagger and lands on the construct, jabbing the weapon into a joint to have something to hold on to.
The golem shows no sign of caring about the little mouse that has latched onto its side. There is no joint for Shira's knife to find purchase, but it sinks deep into the verdant growth on the construct's surface, leaving her dangling.
Shira finds something for her other hand to hold onto and is very thankful for being small and light right now. The rodent inspects the hull of the mechanical creature for a while, before squinting at one small spot on the hull in particular, trying to conjure up immense heat in an attempt to melt through the armor.
The mouse is able to sink her claws into the mossy side of the golem and latch onto some protrusion of the metal hide, but her fire working becomes her undoing. The blast of concentrated fire magic is effective, blowing a head sized hole of molten slag into the side of the mechanical creature. Unfortunately, that same heat is conducted through the rest of the nearby surface, singing Shira's bracing hands! That, coupled with the wild, swaying motions of the golem's lumbering gait disloges the magical little mouse, sending her falling toward the ground!
Having been thrown off by the machine, the mouse has catches herself in the air once more, flying again. From here she focuses on the hole she made once more, applying more heat to it to widen it to a size that would allow her to slip into the construct.
The massive golem continues to lumber along, oblivious of Shira and the hole she is boring into its side. Molten steel drips across the opening in the thing's metal hide as Shira bobs unsteadily beside it. She might be able to squeeze through. It will be a tight fit, and the surrounding metal is still searing hot. Smoke rises from the burnt moss and lichen surrounding the area.
Shira does not dive through the hole just yet, instead she remains suspended in mid air, hovering in place, as she sends some strong winds towards the hole she made, in an attempt to rapidly cool down the metal, so she can enter there without setting her nice fur coating on fire. Waiting for this to take place, she inspects the golem a bit closer, trying to figure out its purpose.
The golem continues to stump along, unheeding of the damage dealt to it and its vegetative coating. It certainly did not pick all of that up here in the Green Valley. As far as purpose goes, it is hard to guess. It stomps along on four sturdy legs and resembles a long legged turtle. At its front it has some sort of head-like projection that sweeps back and forth while it walks, occasionally rising as it gives its periodic cry. Suspended more than ten feet above the ground is its central body, though that is so covered in refuse that its purpose seems impossible to guess. The patches that Shira has cleared with fire seem to be plain steel panels. The other side of the construct might reveal more clues.
Shira flies back over to the hole that she made, giving the edge a testing touch, withdrawing her hand instantly. After a moment of consideration, she touches it again and nods to herself. The mouses uses the magic that is keeping her suspended in air to move her to the hole and squeeze her through it, and inside the giant construct.
The metal of the golem is still hot and leaves singe marks on Shira's outer clothing, but she manages to squeeze inside. Unfortunately, she does not seem to have pierced all the way in and finds herself between an outer layer of plates and whatever the actual inner part of the machine. The workings of the legs pump with clockwork regularity and careful scrawls of magic sigils line the inner shell of the golem.
Shira squeezes herself towards the inner parts of the legs after letting out a groan at the sight of the second metal plate in her way. She gives the mechanical constructions a close look, inspecting them for weakpoints and giving them a few testing cuts with her dagger in places that seem to not be completely plated.
There is not much room to make much of an attack against the inner wall of plates or any notable gaps. Where the leg rises through the outer shell it attaches to some sort of ball between the inner and outer shell. The whole thing glows with magical symbols. It must govern the movement of the leg.
Shira groans at the tight space and attempts to get her dagger in between leg and ball, hoping it will block it from moving and bring the metal construct to a stop so that it could be easier dismantled or destroyed.
The little dagger is not enough to stop the huge pistoning legs. It wedges in for only a moment before the knife snaps at the hilt. A good idea, but not likely to help here.
Shira pouts at her poor dagger's untimely demise and decides on a different plan. Making sure she is a good bit away from the leg joint as to not again become a victim of the hot metal, she focuses on the point where the ball touches the outer part of the leg, and attempts to melt both a little, so that they will fuse together.
Now we're cooking with gas! And magic! Shira's focused bit of fire is not enough to slag the leg, but it does melt and mar the magical sigils that power its motion. As the glow of carefully controlled magic is replaced with the glow of heated metal, the front left leg of the construct grinds to a halt.
Only problem now, is that the other legs did not get the memo.
The enormous golem starts, first slowly, then at increasing speed to tip and fall!
Shira grabs whatever bit of the golem she can get her tiny hands on and closes her eyes as she holds on for dear life! She waits till the golem stops falling till she opens them once more.
There is a sense of vertigo and of speed as the golem tips ponderously to one side and the world turns sideways. There is a tremendous crash and dirt sprays through the hole that Shira melted into the side of the construct and the little mouse is rattled around in the tight space as she finds herself alone in the dark with only a faint blue glow from the active runes on the leg behind her.
Shira lets herself to the new "floor" of the space she is in and considers her situation for a moment. For now she simply waits for a bit, listening for further attempts of the golem to move, and regaining a bit of mental and physical stamina after straining herself so much throughout the one sided battle.
There is a continuing grinding sound as the three remaining legs continue to thrash and dig, continuing the ploding pace from their impossible position. Dirt and grass grind their way into the space through Shira's entry. The mouse is not in any immediate danger, but she IS pretty stuck.
Shira groans at her situation. "Great." She squints through the dim light of the runes and to the entrance that she came through. She fumbles with her soul amulet in the darkness and pulls out a different soul gem from her pocket, squinting at it in the low light to make sure its the right one, before switching it in.
It may be dark, but it is most certainly NOT quiet as the golem continues to churn and dig with its other legs. There is a loud SNAP and the glow of the other leg on this side of the golem goes out with barely a flicker.
Shira smirks as another leg breaks. She quickly focuses on the hole she came through though, or to be more specific, on the earth and dirt that is blocking it. She does not use earth magic a lot, so she takes longer to create the formula, making sure she gets it right, before unleashing the spell that aims to move the earth away and let her escape from the mechanical monster.
Dirt fountains up from the hole Shira squeezed through earlier as a tunnel opens up underneath. The gap in the earth may not hold for long, though. The whole construct shakes and shifts as the two remaining legs continue to pump along at their sedate, but implacable pace.
Shira is not one to waste time and quickly darts towards the tunnel and then through it, doing her best to keep focusing on her earth magic to give it a bit more stability than it would normally have, as she makes her way outside.
The mouse makes a dive for the egress and tries to shimmy through, but is not fast enough to make it out before the whole mess shifts, slamming her into the side of her magically made tunnel with enough force to rattle her teeth!
Shira rubs her head, as good as she can in the tiny tunnel anyway. The mouse takes a second or two to snap back into it and squeezes through the last bits of tunnel and towards the light of the surface.
The little mouse is bruised and battered from her little fight with Promise and she undoubtably has dirt in places she did not know she could get dirt. The fallen behemoth is still thrashing in the dirt and some of the turf is actually moving away from the area!
Shira takes a deep breath of fresh air and rubs at her arm for a moment, before considering what to do about the remaining movement of the the behemoth of a golem. It seems o����to be more or less disabled, but its probably best to completely immobilize it. The mouse focuses on the earth surrounding the still moving parts of the machine and weaves a spell to harden it, hopefully enough for the legs to get stuck or even break.
A wave moves through the fertile ground around the golem and hardens around the legs of the behemoth, the ground does not hold on the front leg and shatters when it moves. The barrier around the rear leg holds, however and the construct is shifted hard across the ground and pulled back as it tries to move until there is a grinding noise, a squeal of tortured metal and steam and smoke erupt from the joint of the leg.
Shira nods to herself and tries one more time, this time a more concentrated effort, focusing only on the front leg and the earth around it. The small mouse is starting to feel a wee bit exhausted from all the magic, especially the earth magic that she is not terribly used to, but she finishes her spell once more, trying to break the last leg.
There is another groan and another crack of snapping metal as the final leg is broken loose from its mooring. The golem looses another screeching cry, but lies still.
Shira lets out a sigh and wipes her brow again as her smile returns to her face. She walks over and gives the golem a short inspection, before looking for her feline employer.
The mysterious, giant golem is just as mysterious, half buried in the dirt and still covered in moss and vines from somewhere else on Promise.
"Ah ha! Excellent!" comes Amar's voice from up the hill. The obese feline has transferred himself to his cart pulled by his own bulky golem. "Fine work! Fine work," he looks at the mired monstrosity, "You did not do too much damage to the inner workings, I hope?"
Shira shrugs a little. "I broke one of the legs from inside, but the inner core thing inside should be untouched. I suppose whats behind two walls of metal instead of one must be whats worth the most, yeah?"
Amar rubs his fat hands together gleefully. "Indeed it is," he says honestly, "If I can salvage the inner workings of this thing, it will certainly get me a firm foothold here in Firmament." The immense tiger wobbles out of the back of the cart and passes a heavy purse to Shira. "Crusher," he orders his golem, "Get to it!" He looks back at Shira. "You have my gratitude, little mouse. I am very impressed. You will also be happy to know that I have located your book. I will be pleased to discuss it with you when I return to the city."
Shira nods and takes the money. Working solo has it advantages it seems. "Thank you, and this is great news. I can't wait to hear about it." The small mouse claps her hands together, before dusting herself off some more and then finally stuffing them into her pockets as she makes herself on the way back to the city.
