Hard Landing

NathreeDe'Shezbron · Post by **NathreeDe'Shezbron** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:03 pm

Elwyn turned around, after drinking his fill, "Now then my friends, what should we do about this little problem that we have discovered? Currently my plan would be to find a powerful mage, and relocate onto some other plane... I hear Mechanus is nice this time of year, lots of things to tinker with and build." He looked at his three comrades, looking for support.

Aylstra Illianniis · Post by **Aylstra Illianniis** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:39 am

Lothir fills his own waterskin from the river, takes a long drink from the cool river himself, then listens to Elwyn and sadly shakes his head.

"While that might seem the expeint course for us, Somehow I doubt we can just go knocking on the door of- say, Elminster- and politely ask to be whisked to some other plane to avoid some POSSIBLE destruction of the world. And what of everyone else? No, I think we need to determine exactly what is happening, and whether it can be prevented, if it IS what Ven here thinks."

He looks to Gareth for support, and starts pacing, to think better. His mind is racing in a dozen directions, picking up and discarding ideas one after another until he finds one that seems plausible.

"What if we had a way to go up and see for ourselves? It might bring us a different perspective to see it from above. Perhaps we could even discover how fast it is happening, and that might even give us a time-frame to either evacuate the plaent, or find a solution. Any ideas how we could get up there?"

NathreeDe'Shezbron · Post by **NathreeDe'Shezbron** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:22 am

Elwyn nodded, "Agreed, but I have nothing that would let me, not to mention any of us, high enough to see more than a mile away, if the conditions were good..."

Gareth Ravenmantle · Post by **Gareth Ravenmantle** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:19 pm

"Well im with lothir on this one, I like this planet, i dont want to evacuate to some far off place. We really do need someway to find how fast this is happening. If all else fails we might have to evacuate anyway... Somewhat grim isnt it?"

Xaraphim · Post by **Xaraphim** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:43 am

OOC: Okay, I'm back...again... :S

Ven was staring down at the softly glowing image of his holographic control interface, barely noticing his surroundings. Even as the hut melts into sand, even at the appearance of another dal'Seroth he seems oblivious.

"Odd." He says after a while, then looks up.

"Well, the further out my secondary probe goes, the more land it finds. I'm having the both of them scout out for--"

He then sees the other jet-skinned elf and smiles brightly at first, a look of hope on his face. He pauses, hope melting away to puzzlement as he takes in the strange, archaic garb of Lothir.

"Ah. Pardon me, I was lost in thought, sir..."

NathreeDe'Shezbron · Post by **NathreeDe'Shezbron** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:21 pm

Elwyn shruggs, "How far away are they?" Looking up at the sun, "It might have been just under half an hour since we last checked. Perhaps that could give us a rate of this thing's progression."

Aylstra Illianniis · Post by **Aylstra Illianniis** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:35 pm

"More land? But that's good, right? Which direction did you send it? If it went far enough East, you might run into my homeland. Of course, if THAT place dropped off the map, I doubt anyone would ever miss it. Can't say I would be overly saddened by it, either."

He watches intently while Ven fiddles with his device, utterly fascinated. "Are you certain you're not a follower of Gond? The only time I've ever seen things like that was with gnomes, and theirs wasn't even close to this! It's amazing!" he says in sincere admiration. The novelty of the stranger's gear has him intrigued, and he tries to study the device while Ven operates it, to determine how it works.

After a few moments, he starts thinking again, idly tapping one foot, staring off into nothing with a far-away gaze. A thousand questions tug at his mind, all of them going in diferent directions. He stops to pull out his lute, and moves over to a small log to sit down and strum randomly, still concentrating on the matter at hand.

He notices the others staring at him and gives them a small shrug. "It helps me think sometimes," he says, with a lop-sided grin. He goes back to playing, just random chords, really, when an idea strikes. He looks over at Ven.

"Hey! What if we could fix that ship you said you came on? Could it take us high enough? Or maybe we could build something out of what's left of it! Gareth there could help find the pieces, and I've seen Elwyn here around often enough to know he's good at tinkering with things. He and that- whatever it is- could build it. Since you know how the ship worked, you could show us how to work those strange devices, and.... Or is that a stupid idea?"

Gareth Ravenmantle · Post by **Gareth Ravenmantle** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:46 pm

"Not a very good idea, We probably wouldnt have enough outside... Shielding or whatever and do we have the devices to install into the ship to keep track of everything and can we salvage enough of the most important ones?"

NathreeDe'Shezbron · Post by **NathreeDe'Shezbron** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 4:39 am

"As far as I can tell, the ship is toast," Elwyn closed, his eyes, and a small halo of crackling lightning surrounded him, "Yes, it most assuredly is toast. If there was more, I might have done something... but there is an idea that you just gave me." He waved his hands, and the sand on his back swirled around him, "I could use this to make a more or less usable 'ship' as Gareth put it here. And I could have my roc take up at least one of us.

Xaraphim · Post by **Xaraphim** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:21 pm

Ven tilts his head slightly.

"I've never heard of any deity by name of Gond, I'm afraid...

Also, what's a gnome?"

He goes back to touching the floating glyphs again in rapid succession. Soon enough, another image begins to hover before him: Toril herself, with about three fourths of the surface visible, and the other quarter grayed out.

"This is the latest projection so far. Not very high resolution, but I can have the probes make a detailed sweep later on."

He studies the image for a few minutes, frowning unconsciously.

"This doesn't make any sense," he says as a series of yellow arrows appear, all pointed towards the planet's core. "According to this, gravity is relative to a fixed point right here...and it looks like this world is a--" he stops, perplexed.

"A sphere world? But if that were true then that means we're somewhere in the Aetherial, maybe the Deep Aether. Still, gravity should be pulling downwards, not towards an arbitrary fixed point."

He begins to chew his lip thoughtfully.

"Well, the good news is that I don't think this world is being eaten by a planar anomaly. The bad news is that I think someone severely damaged your laws of physics."

He looks up and over to the others. "Has anyone noticed anything strange lately? Errant spells, gods being killed off by other gods, or anything else of the sort?"

NathreeDe'Shezbron · Post by **NathreeDe'Shezbron** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:40 pm

Elwyn chuckled, "Not that i have attempted, but then again, I do not use spells per-se."

Aylstra Illianniis · Post by **Aylstra Illianniis** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 11:29 pm

The drow bard struck an off chord at the news. He looked up, confused by Ven's words. He knew enough from Sodril's astronomy lessons what a sphere world was, and that was nothing new to him. He'd spent enough time stargazing on his father's ship to understand astronomical movement and phenomena.

"Physics? You mean like exercise? Explain, please. And if you mean the Ethereal plane, I don't think we are. It's different, as far as I know. I'm no wizard, but I DID pay attention to my Spellmaster's lessons."

He cocks his head and shrugs. "As for errant spells and gods battling each other, THAT sort of thing has happened since the dawn of time! I know of several gods who have died, been brought back by followers, absorbed by other gods, or been buried or trapped in some kind of limbo-state, and what-have-you. That's nothing new. We've had areas of wild magic ever since the Time of Troubles, but most of those are known now, and people tend to avoid them. "

He thinks again for a moment, puzzled that Ven could know so much off-world knowledge, and never hear of gnomes. "You've never seen a gnome? Little wrinkled guys who look like someone crossed a dwarf with a halfling? They're good with illuions, and they love magic and building things. Usually both at the same time. That's what we need- gnomes!! I'd bet a bunch of them could figure out how to fix or rebuild that ship of yours!!"

The bard starts to jump up from his seat excitedly, then stops, frowning, now where would we find a bunch of gnomes around here? Gareth? Elwyn?"

NathreeDe'Shezbron · Post by **NathreeDe'Shezbron** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:53 am

Elwyn scratched his head, "Gnomes... not that I know of that live around here, but I know a few that I have means to contact."

Xaraphim · Post by **Xaraphim** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 3:50 pm

Ven rubs his eyes and sighs. "The ship, when last I saw it, had completely disintegrated. We can go salvage bits of it if you like, but it's a gith ship. Even if we could somehow piece all of it back together, their engines aren't designed to function in gravity."

He shakes his head and says, "No, physics as in the laws that govern how the universe operates unless otherwise overridden by divine will or arcanological practice, better known as magic. For example--"

He picks up a small pebble and holds it out. "Normally, gravity pulls an object downwards relative to the ground."

He releases the pebble, which falls as expected. "But here, "down" is not actually down. It's hard to see this close to the surface, but both we and that little stone are being pulled towards the center of the sphere we're on.

That's one of the laws of physics: gravity pulls objects towards the ground. Now, divine beings and magi can circumnavigate these laws, but for the most part the laws of physics do a good job of keeping the universe running smoothly."

He pauses, letting the bard continue and nods. "Well, evidently the laws of physics don't work the same way as they do back home. That means that I'm not in the Aetherial at all, and probably on some sort of alternate universe." He breathes a sigh of relief.

"I think I may be overreacting, then. This world is a lot more alien than I could have anticipated."

He listens to Lotyir explain about gnomes. "Do are they dal, then? I know that mortal races sometimes refer to the dal'Anduin as dwarves."

Gareth Ravenmantle · Post by **Gareth Ravenmantle** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:52 pm

"I think you just overreacted a bit, after all, For every alternet universe or different plane of being there are different rules, Laws of physics and such."