A good landing needs proper energy management. Well, no, whom do I aim to bullshit? The sky is too blue and cloudless, the sun is too majestic and the lake’s blue surface too inviting to rush this by going into a dive and actively breaking.
Besides I need to deliberate a bit. How do I want to continue? I have become a killer. Do I want to stay on this course? Can I deviate? There will be monsters to handle. I doubt that these lands are full of peaceful philosophers eating lotus fruit. In fact, what is so enticing about lotus fruits? Or am I misremembering classical poetry?
Are there people down there? There certainly were. Yet in a world with magic I cannot be sure that what looks like a wooden jetty in good repair is in fact what it looks like. Where are the pleasure craft this lake is worthy of? Nor have sea monsters eaten them. I do see fishing boats moored on the shore. Fishing boats that should be out and – well – be fishing. For fish, which people eat. Is fishing very seasonal here? If so, where are the people that ought to be out doing maintainance to boats and nets?
That is the problem with contemplative moods. Your brain keeps racing in circles driven by a lack of facts. I am not sold on the big benefits of introspection.
There! I’ve spotted the houses belonging to the jetty. They are beyond a fairly large boulder, that ends abruptly at the lake shore. And a faint column of smoke. People are alive down there. I am going to slowly circle down. I need to appear benevolent. Swooping in like a raptor is not a good idea. I would not like to appear harmless, as that might encourage them to seek transactions I would not benefit from. So I hope they’ll notice me.
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Malkro smashes the door open.
„Malkro, I told you not to smash the door and to take of your shoes when you …“
„Adventurer in the sky!“
His mother drops her broom.
„Go for your father! Tell him we’ll be in the cellar.“
She starts heading upstairs.
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I’ve altered course. And I should have noticed earlier. No power lines. No telephone lines. Underground to avoid monster damage? Possible, but I doubt it. They may have regressed to a pretechnological civilization after what dug out the lake.
But the bunker under the lake had been built with an air lock. A last holdout of technological civilization after a cataclysmic war?
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Yesklo is hoping that his son is calming down in his presence. He would like to put a hand on his shoulder, but he is operating the heliographic mirror with two hands. This message must get through.
„Father, why are they not answering?“
„What do you think, Malkro? Beside the obvious reason that they are not alert.“
„Oh, I get it! The enemy might notice it and then he would be warned.“
„Exactly. That is the reason we’ll go down after the next few repetitions. He is not supposed to know that we have a heliograph.“
„And then?“
„We’ll assemble in the yard for net repairs, as usual.“
„We?“
„The men. And yes, you can come with us. We want to have as few people in the cellars as possible. So we reserve them for the women.“
„Men need to be ready to fight.“
„Fighting an adventurer means that you are either foolish or desperate. No, our women are in a danger you and me are not. That is why we assemble on the outskirts of the village, too.“
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Malkro’s ancestry and days spent on a boat rather than indoors both giving him a healthy tan fail to hide his deep blush.
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I need to face the hard question. If they have potions, but do not want to trade, am I ready to take them by force? Tentatively I think the answer needs to be negative. I cannot start my life in a new universe by becoming an outlaw. Yes, this is selfish.
I decide to land in the square in the center of the village that also holds the well.
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Yesklo nods to his neighbor Heplo, the only man with an essence in their village. They do not want to fight. Yet for some reason people still have a lot of bats, knives and even a scythe with them.
Heplo still has the spyglass pressed to his eye. „This adventurer is not human. In fact I have no idea, what he is. He or I suppose she – I have no idea how to tell for sure – looks like somebody’s dad got to know a scorpion very well.“
People actually snicker a little at that.
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I set down in the square. It is empty. It seems people are assembling outside the village. I have been noticed. Yet rushing a first contact is not a good idea. From their perspective I am an alien. I should demonstrate peaceful intent. I conjure a low table and go into a meditative position.
Gun: [Tools of the Magister] Special Ability Iron 2 (49%) [Joy of Sustained Fire] Blood Special Attack Iron 2 (2%) [This is my Gun] Myriad Special Attack/Conjuration
Iron 2 (42%)
[Chemical Warfare] Defiance Special Attack/Conjuration
Iron 1 (5%)
[Hyperkinetic Cannon] Gun Special Attack/Conjuration Iron 1 (11%) Vast: [Giant Form of the Ancestors] Special Ability Iron 1 (55%) [Immortality] Tree Special Ability Iron 2 (36%) [Nebelwerfer 42] Focus Special Attack/Conjuration Iron 1 (4%) [Arsenal of the Mad Scientist] Magotech Special Ability Iron 2 (19%) [Eldritch Eyes] Water Special Ability & Attack Iron 1 (0%) Dimension: [Teleport] Special Ability Bronze 0 (0%) [Dance by my Will] Dance Aura Ability Iron 3 (11%) [Eternal Moment] Reach Special Ability Iron 1 (61%) [Path in Time] Hunt Perception Ability Iron 2 (60%) [Wrath of the Magister] Corruption Special Attack/Spell Iron 1 (70%) Battlefield: [Equip the Army] Special Ability Iron 3 (17%) [Robotic Servant of War] Magotech Special Attack/Conjuration
Iron 2 (12%)
[Pipes of War] Unity Special Ability Iron 1 (35%) [Cornucopia] Feast Special Ability Iron 0 (41%) [Feast of Decontamination] Light Special Ability Iron 0 (77%)
That has been fast.
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Heplo: Did you repeat the message?
Yesklo: Over a dozen times.
Heplo: Then we’ll assume that time is working in our favour.
Yesklo: We wait?
Heplo: For now. We cannot risk him getting the idea of searching our homes.
Yesklo nods grimly.