Chapter 16-424: Testing, Testing... (1/2)
While all this excitement was going on, the test-firings of rockets and missiles were going on.
Many of the experiments didn’t need to be guided, and basically we were just looking for when and how they exploded. There was no need for complex systems, as long as they made it above the Haze. Fiery contrails were blazing skywards from all over the edges of Lake Huron, both in Michigan and Canada, looking for more data on conditions of science and magic above the Haze.
The results were not heartening, and I could tell by some of the distant detonations that they were backing up what had been already analyzed to be in effect.
Nay-sayers were going to have to shut up, eat their words, and either knuckle down to the reality of being primitive again, or get magical and do something about it.
Work, as they say, eventually solves everything. We just needed to verify the directions we needed to work in.
I sighed and considered how many smelteries for junk we were going to need to set up. There were millions of tons of metal that would need to be disposed of and melted down for retasking, a much simpler task than mining new ore. A certain someone could make Permanent Walls of Fire hot enough to do just that...
We’d have a better look at the sky and the solar system we were in this time, too. We’d identified several potential orbiting planets, guesstimated distances, and were tracking them. Whether or not these would actually be in those orbits was another matter.
Magical universe, anything could happen. We were pretty sure one of the distant worlds had its own moon-sized sun orbiting it... and the odds were two of the planets were orbiting outside the standard orbital plane.
Or maybe we were. Nothing said all the planets had to be in the same orbital plane in a magical universe...
Another of the things we were looking at was trying to see if the sun was actually spinning, or just sitting there spewing out fire and heat. If it wasn’t spinning, why would there be an orbital plane? The system could be more like an atom or something...
I also had another message to compose.
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Ho, Original Knucklehead! Number Einz Traveler Morningdark calling! Here’s the Algorithm!****************...
New items of interest...
First, The Shroud seems to transport worlds into magical realms once it engulfs them. This alternate Earth I’m on retained most tech capability for now, but we’re doing tests outside the Shroud itself and it seems to be a tech-restricted magical universe similar to Terra-Luna. When I purge the Shroud the Tech Level is going to plummet, with some modifiers to available magic. Still no Soul Magic available in this realm...
Two, it is definitely possible to pull things up to CR 20 into the Shroud, although they can’t leave. Our CR 21 Planetar Cleric/4 is certain that if he leaves, he’d be memory-wiped, so he’s staying here. If the Summoners are dumb enough to bring in something appropriate to the Shroud, the Shroud will instantly deem them fit to be a Shroudlord, and the Summoners get ganked as its first minions!
Three, Location Coordinates: #*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#. I’ll do a fine-tuning when I get a Pyramid set up. I’ve held off making one so as not to alert the enemy.
Four, confirmed Pentara as the nexus world to here, so a quick possible Jump from here to there to get you home, if you can make it here.
Five, confirmed a Pact Mortai and Pact Morituri, and by Shroud harmonics, this should be available across ALL SHROUDWORLDS. Here are the details (*). The Curse of the Dawn might/might not be accessible on other worlds. If we can precipitate it across Shrouded Worlds, it would be of immense help to everyone involved.
Six, here’s the names and faces of some of the people I trust here. (*#*#*). You will find My Warlock Legion especially interesting...
Seven, here’s some information on Worldenders. (*) This is what we think is going to happen here, and I’m planning some Pyramid Power Pugnacity to counter it...
Eight, is the Level I’m frozen at, although I’ve got functioning Theurgy at Fourteen. As I expected, the Shrouded Souls are forcing me to catch up on my Masteries, nothing revolutionary...
Nine, it has been 182 solar days since the last time I Sent to you, for comparison of temporal flows.
Ten, we figured out how to recruit Shoggoths, of all things. Credit a Blooded, of all people! Here’s the details...
That’s pretty much it. We’re slowly dealing with random elements of Cultivators, Shattered, pocket worlds, undersea forces, and there were even Cold Blood dragons here in an inhabited Hollow World. This Earth was crazy under the surface, literally.
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The return Sending came in only an hour later, which was a good sign.
Return Sending with Fistbumps included! (#*#*#*#*##*#*#*#*#*#*#*#)
I decoded it and watched it unfold in front of me, reading with interest.
Point One: None of the others managed to reply to me, although the Sendings found their targets.
That wasn’t ominous at all, no, no.
Point Two: I wasn’t sent here randomly. Korbald is here! I’ve a feeling you aren’t there randomly, nor the others.
My eyes glittered. Mithar could be such a bloody subtle hand when He wanted to be. He might not even be able to see the Shroud, but He’d sensed the hand of the Aberrant get involved, and He’d sent me on that path...