Session 4:

These rules will be malleable.

Vast chaos degrades structure both physical and conceptual when a world is ending.

If there is a method to which chaos is examined, something may yet come from it.

A vast creature roams the wastes on a multitude of long haphazard limbs.

Its body not quite a corpse, hewn unthinking stone seeping violent lost thought given physical form.

It has the appearance of great worms arguing where to go.

-Coyote

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Settle in, make some coin and get some leads.

Part 1

Working hours:

6 (4d4)

I do what’s asked of me and look for chances to look around a bit.

2 (1d6)

You spend a long morning milling about the slab yard while a few Cutters take a look at Accretio and spitball ideas of what to do with them.

There’s some talk of mounting a crane to the shell but the height isn’t quite right.

Building a towing rig isn’t going to work since his steps are a little too erratic to pull anything on wheels, and dragging skiffs won’t keep a tight enough turn radius.

Can I look around at the guilds around the Slab Yard while we’re hanging around? What else are people doing around here?

Added challenge:

Study the Guilds and familiarize yourself with the area.

4 (1d4)

Do you want to roll toward that instead of getting through your work day? You’d have to match that four before you keep making progress on the initial challenge.

It looks like the Cutters are drafting some plans for something. They keep pointing above Accretio and holding their hands flat and moving them up and down, mimicking different heights of potential platforms.

Yeah, I don’t really care. Accretio will take care of it. I hop off and wander a bit.

6 (1d6)

So you get a better idea of the Guilds cemented in your mind and will have an easier time getting around the streets.

Across a narrow cart path from the yard is a circular brick tower. It’s segmented so each of its floors can spin separate from one another, on casters built from painted plates. You see the window of a higher floor rotate toward where you stand in the path. An old bearded man peers down at you. The height of the tower causes it to bend slightly over top of the pathway.

Your eyes lock for a moment, then you see him wander between shelves of books before, after a moment, the window spins to the opposite side of the tower.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

You also see, further down that same path, a two storied tavern or inn style building. The lower floor has no doors and the side that faces the path is open: no walls, only support beams. You spot a job posting board, and overhearing some chatter from the crowds of well equipped toughs in the hall, you gather it’s a mercenary guild of some kind.

You see a flash of a familiar color scheme on the armor and equipment of one of the mercenaries before they disappear into the crowd.

There are several carved channels of flowing water that zig zag through the Guilds, powering waterwheels and pumps running to them.

Other details pass by your senses, but stand out less. It may be a challenge to remember any more specifics.

Do you want to pursue anything further?

No, I’ll save the rolls. I should get back to work.

When you return, the Cutters have come to a consensus and explain a sort of scaffolding system they’ll be constructing atop Accretio. With a few anchors, it will be able to be installed and removed relatively easily. Once they get to work, they set you up with busy work: hauling materials, maneuvering Accretio, pulling ropes.

Do what they tell me.

3(1d6)

They make quick work of the construction. A few other Cutters get interested in the novelty of the work; by the end of the day it’s done, and they’re satisfied with your help.

As evening rolls around, the walls of the city and it’s tall buildings cut the light in harsh shadows, and soft light from painted plates hung about the exteriors of buildings takes its place.

You’ve got one roll left and you’ve beat the challenge by one. Basically you’ll get a free roll toward something as the work day ends.

I want to ask Barrow if he knows what goes on in that spinning tower.

3 (1d6 + 1)

So if this roll is three or lower, Barrow knows about the tower.

1(1d4)

and if this next roll is two or lower, he’ll know who the strange man peering down at you from the tower is.

6(1d6)

Barrow catches you as you’re returning Accretio to their nook for the night.

“I like what I saw today,” he says as he wipes his wooden hands with an oiled rag. “You know that creature pretty well and can get a little work done, yourself.”

I say “I’ve had jobs before.”

“It shows. Now that we’ve put the time in on that scaffold rig for your beast, we’ll need a bit of a commitment from the two of you, or enough coin to cover the cost.”

I tell him that’s fine. When do I get paid?

That gets a smile from him, where you see a bit of cartoon-ink teeth flash.

“You’ll get some petty coin before you hit the markets tomorrow with your first load, you can grab some grub and supplies

He’s walked you back to the nook in the Slab Yard by now, where you slept the previous night.

“Can I stay here for a while?” I ask.

He thinks this over for a moment, hesitant to answer.

“This hoardosphere of yours might fit in with the scenery, but this isn’t really the kind of guild that rooms its contractors, I’m afraid. You’ll have to mosey in a night or two”

He pulls a pipe from his pocket. It looks like it’s made of smooth bone. With a snap of the heavy grain of his wooden fingers, sparks drop on the pipe. There’s a split in the wood somewhere where his mouth is painted, the ink lips forming around it as the pipe is placed to it.

“You might set yourself up in the taverns further up toward the Axle Ward within the next couple of nights, they have stable space for your more unconventional creatures. Once you’ve scraped some coin together you might get yourself a room, too.”

‘Thanks, Barrow.’ I say, ‘Before you go, I noticed that spinning tower across from the Slab Yard. I saw a lot of books up there.’

‘Just a stack of old idiots if you ask me. The Tower is called the Dissident Quorum. All of them study Plate Theory, just wasting air about the principles of this or the fundamentals of that. I don’t care how smart you are, painting plates isn’t like building a cart. It’s magic: you look at it too close and it starts to eat away your mind after a while.’

Okay. I ask him if they teach or lend their books out or anything like that.

He doesn’t know. But he’s surprised when you mention reading. He might’ve assumed you don’t know how to read.

Do I?