Portals CYOA CH 5
#5 of Portals CYOA
those things you suggested? they sure got done.
Action: Use your arcane energy to sense any arcane powed in the runes or devices.
Action: Use the middle hallway. Suddenly realise you don't know either the name or even gender of your disciple.
I go over to the rune-stairs and press the index and middle fingers of my right hand to one of the perfect-looking runes. I take a few deep breaths and try doing what I did earlier, but instead of reaching within myself I try reaching outwards. And I feel... nothing. I shake my head and get refocused again, going back to focusing inwards on myself, and feel my own Arcane energy, but now theirs something else too. A sort of... thrumming? Like if you've had too much stress throughout the day and you close your eyes and you just feel the thrumming behind your eyes? It's like that but outside my body.
If I had to guess, I'd say that means there's arcane energy in the runes, or at least in the parts of them that aren't scraped up too badly. If they're here for helping with the forging or something they probably won't work right though, what with their condition, but if it's a cultural thing it probably won't be important to me whether they work right or not. Though, why they'd have something like this for cultural reasons in the same place as where they make their generators and the like would probably be pretty interesting.
I walk over towards the table with the bits and pieces of generators on them and put my index and middle fingers against the internal-parts of one of them, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to restart the process. ...
...
...
Yeah no, after spending what felt like 10 minutes of focusing inwards I don't feel any thrumming or reverberations or anything in these things.Which makes sense, if I think about it. A generator doesn't use electricity to make electricity, it burns gas or turns a fan with wind or water to do it in a process I don't remember much about. Lots of stuff gets turned though. Anyway, if it doesn't work like that with electricity, it probably doesn't work that way with this stuff right? I don't know how these things work at all though, I don't see any wheels or anything like that in here.
I shake my head and refocus on the tasks at hand. I've got to find ... Oh wow I don't even know their name yet, do I? Well I'm a dick. I fucking asked them to fuck around with my genitals before I asked them their name. I'm gonna need to fix that.
I walk back out of the blacksmith-area and go back down the hallway towards where I entered, then turn left to go down the Central pathway.
I open the door to my immediate left and am surprised by what I find in there. It, in full honesty, shook me with how unexpected it was in a place like this.
Another boring room with a bed, work table, and bookshelf. With no color or liveliness or personality, and an abundance of dust. Truly a dreary and depressing sight. I take a deep breath and let out a deeper sigh, shoulders slumping. I can already tell there's gonna be, like, thirty of these with one interesting room at the end or something. How many monks or priests did this place house?
I do what I did when I went to the hall to the left, opening each door and peaking inside. about halfway down the hall, however, the doors stop being to boring little bedrooms. To the right is what I'm thinking are either pools or a bathhouse, although the various pools/baths are empty, and have some moss growing in them. I might need to do something about that one day, but today isn't that day.
To the left is a large room filled with tables and stools, with what looks like what a classic school lunchroom counter would look like in a medieval set of ruins. Overall it looks better kept than most of the place, less dust, more use. Several of the tables have flowers in vases on them. It's a nice touch.
Several doors on the left and right lead into these same rooms before a stretch where there aren't any doors at all. At the very end of the hallway, however is another set of large doors, these ones have nice ornamentation, covered in vines and flowers and stars, carved and painted into the wood. Also unlike the large doors to the forge, one of these doors is wide open. I go through the door and am truly shocked by what i see, and not in a sarcastic way. it's a massive balcony sort of thing, open to the sky and overlooking the jungle below, massive with chairs around tables, benches, and plenty of view into the jungle and, later, sunsets. Maybe the monks or priests didn't personalize their rooms because they hung out outside all the time? The Jungle is a cacaphony of colors, greens, and reds and blues, flowers and fruits and various alien bird-things. At least, I think they're bird-like, it's kinda hard to tell at this distance.
I look at the various tables and benches and see the Servant sitting close to the edge of the "balcony". I walk over towards them, weaving between the tables and benches and sit next to them on their bench. "Look, this is gonna sound pretty crappy but uh... I kinda didn't catch your name?" The bird looks at me and then gives a shrug "It is fine, master. You saved my life, my wife's life, and possibly my entire world, and you've had a lot of things dropped onto you quite suddenly. I'd be shocked if you hadn't forgotten a few formalities here and there. My name is Sha-Dar-Ruhk."
it doesn't tell me for certain whether they're a male or female, but since they had a pretty shitty and backwards society, it's safe to say they're probably a male. Although, it might not be fair to call it backwards, depending on how old it was.
"oh, Sha-Dar-Ruhk, could you call me mistress instead of master?" They tilt their head and blink, but then seem to shake it off and nod "I do not see why I couldn't, mistress."
Is there anything else that needs to be done here in the temple, and rooms that need more exploration, questions that need asking? perhaps look for a robe so you don't have to worry about the semi-loose pants, or see if the bathhouse could be fixed? maybe look for food or a dustless bed?