BECMI Chapter 267 – In Darkmoor Again
We stepped through the Portal without fanfare. I whistled two sharp notes, the viewslit on the door popped open promptly, and Innkeeper Master Lalo waved at me perfunctorily, ten minutes after I had last left.
The door was opened hastily. The number of random things coming out of the Portal had lowered drastically since I had started tapping it for various purposes for the Inn, firming up the random Enchantments on both Shores and strengthening the bond between them. With less chaos in the travel mix, creatures were accidentally dumped into the path between times much less frequently, and so didn’t make it into the past to cause trouble.
Also, more attention was paid to letting them out if they were not destructive than destroying them, which also helped matters. My Sim Darkismoor One was permanently stationed here to deal with such matters, and a number of Elemental beings and other unfortunates had been released safely from the Inn thereby, instead of being slaughtered.
Of course, when the vampire, the beholder, the two confused chimeras, and the Croaking Fiend had tumbled out, things had gotten much more exciting, but there was a reason there was a Rune of Anti-magic in the place that could be activated, and some extremely dangerous mundane defenses of various, including a fully-functional Thaumaturgic Triangle on the floor suitable for containing otherplanars, and then killing them via baths of holy water, if nothing else.
“So how long was it since you left after dropping off the King, Lady Edge, Lady Cirru, Lord Duum?” the Innkeeper asked us politely as he escorted us past the saluting soldiers. “I notice the additional ivory in your mane, dragoness!” he pointed out cheerfully, at which Cirru, currently in her draconic halvyr form, simply preened.
“Fifty years, Master Lalo.” The Innkeep paused a step in surprise, but rallied gamely. “We went to the time of the Crimson Cataclysm on a matter of personal vengeance that proved quite successful.”
“Ah, say no more!” he waved it off cheerfully, certain whoever had done something had it coming. “I’m sure you know the biggest change since you left is changing from the morning to the lunch menu,” he went on affably, as we went up the much wider, rebuilt steps to the Inn. The greatly expanded area of the Inn, now growing into its own demiplane, naturally required a great deal of reworking of the original Inn, while the increased Portal traffic also meant more easily accessed ways in and out of it were important.
“I intend to be here for the longer term, this time, studying up on technology and aiding in the spread of artificing knowledge. My time here will be interrupted only by periods checking up on the Other Shore to make sure through the flow of people coming through is not causing any inconveniences there.” I sniffed. “Ah, you managed to locate some mulberry samples. Very good!” I congratulated them.
“Number Four is quite the traveler and explorer, building a seed reserve up for us. The Greens talk about a ‘genetic reserve’ and breeding and all that stuff, but the elves said they should be able to get a harvest up within a couple years at most, and Four can run some shipments from her source if needed!” He was always happy to lay in new foods, of course, and the larders of the Thisbean Inn were only expanding in breadth and quality as time went by.
“The stores of the Inn are going to be very important in the future, Master Lalo,” I told him quietly. “Don’t underestimate the importance of being able to teach people how to prepare and appreciate good food in a catastrophe.”
“Aye.” His eyes flickered. “Still working on all those menus and tests with the new cooks. Never thought I’d learn so much about cooking this late in life with those Greens teaching stuff the way they do. Of course, they call me the Master Chef, too!” He puffed his portly frame up proudly.
“Knowing about nutrition and chemistry doesn’t teach technique and the manual skills. Teach them all well, Master Lalo,” I nodded as we entered the top level, one path leading to a new rear entry door, the other directly into the kitchen, where I could hear the clatter and shouts of the menu changeover happening.
“I will indeed, Lady Edge!” he swore, seeing us out into the rear grounds of the Inn.
Master Lalo was a doomed man.
He was tied to the Inn, for good or for ill, and could not leave it long. My adding grounds and a small demiplane had been utter bliss for him, enabling him to take at least short walks in gardens outside the walls of the Inn.
Few things could reach him there, but it also meant he couldn’t flee. He couldn’t use the Portal, either, meaning when it was time, and the Doom came, he couldn’t run.
In the meantime, he didn’t age at all within the Inn’s protection, so he’d still be fairly hale and hearty when the time came, which was pretty good for a non-combatant human.
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Learning all that just made him more determined to do more with what time he had left. He’d had no motivation before I came here, coasting along on his job, knowing he was going to live to see many years, and even if someone killed him, he would be Raised so that others could continue to use his Inn.
Now, he was on a clock. It wasn’t precise, but it was there, so he had some living to get in!
In particular, he was definitely trying to start a family who COULD flee the Doom when it was time, and he could at least be content knowing that his children and grandchildren would survive in the future on the Other Shore.
I expected a lot of rugrats running around Darkmoor shortly. With the fighting here mostly over, the people were getting on with the business of living, enjoying not have to war against invaders, mad Imperials, and the like. There were still a lot of random beasts and magical monsters about, but the technology of the Greens was starting to deal with such things and push them away from lands claimed by the Alliance.
There were going to be some very prosperous years ahead, the populations were going to explode with better food, medical care, and education… and they’d also be slowly shuffling off to the Other Shore as they did so, escaping the fate that was decreed for them by Time’s unrepentant penchant for imitation and repetition.
That was why I was here, to help manage the coming population explosion (which likely had never occurred on the Other Shore) and the resulting covert migration to ‘a distant land’ by the people.
My magical power would also be integral to keeping the peace, even if we started getting technology years ahead of the other Darkmoor. Iberon had archmages and archpriests, all of whom could cause havoc if they chose to bother us… but soon enough they’d have worries of their own, as the Iron Graf started playing Empire in Flames and tearing the place further apart atop its own rotting corpse.
This was going to be a very different world by the time we were through, but we had years before it would happen, at least on this side.
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Time passes...
“Lady Edge, how do you propose we handle the Ei of Hazz?” Marius asked quietly, the whole table looking at me and the Holo map in front of us in the Smoking Chamber of the Thisbean Inn, still the preferred meeting place of King Antius’ people. If the Regency Council preferred more formal and elaborate chambers, well, cater to their egos, feed them, send them home, and let the job get done here.
I steepled my fingers thoughtfully. “Adventurers,” I finally said calmly. “Start sealing the land off by land and sea, but do not invade. Leave it to adventurers, no formal armies.”
The men and women at the table looked at one another curiously. “It is our nearest and greatest threat, Lady Edge,” Pious Godfrey spoke up warily. “Even without your help, I believe we have the force of arms necessary to pacify it and wipe it away from the land forever. Why such an… eclectic approach?”
“Information on Darkmoor on the Other Shore was hard to find, even soon after the Doom,” I replied to his statement calmly, bringing a book out of my sleeve and laying it upon the table, instantly getting all of their rapt attention. “Immortals went through and wiped out all the hard copy information on Darkmoor they could find, messed up memories, and so forth and so on. However, some information did survive, if biased, and my Sims on the other shore gathered what they could find and analyzed it.
“The Ei of Hazz persisted on the shores to Darkmoor right up until a year before the Doom.”
There was silence around the table as the Council there considered my words grimly.
“You believe the Ei has something to do with the Doom,” King Antius breathed out.
“Yes. And the other Darkmoor knew there was a danger, and did not move against it… until it did. And then things went south rather quickly,” I nodded slowly.
Sir Antonix, the Azure Knight, pounded the table. “That thing is an insane slaver, enslaver of minds, and crazed tyrant, barely a hundred miles from our shores! That we must keep it around is intolerable!” he swore fervently, receiving nods and grunts of agreement… and I nodded right along with him.
“It employs technomagic similar to, but more corrupted, and of the same era as your horse, Sir Antonix,” I stated firmly. “Technology I saw in several other places while we were fighting the nifloids, in hidden chambers no human was meant to see… places once made by human hands that are now long forgotten, whose science was nigh-equal to that of the Greens.”
Jorg Turmalez, who I had explicitly recommended for the Council, and who had reluctantly agreed, only to be pleasantly surprised to find men trying to get stuff done instead of more politics and paper-pushing, spoke up in surprise, “So, this really was an advanced world, Lady Edge?” the Green asked quickly.
I turned and gestured to the empty half of the room. Everyone straightened and turned around as the view of a certain chamber filled the area.
Towering war machines, prefabricated walls, technological lights, futuristic weapons, drones, sensor devices… it was all there. I panned the view back and around slowly so everyone could appreciate what was there.
They’d all taken tours of the Barhund and its environs by now. The areas being built up by the Greens were taking a more holistic approach, but everyone recognized the show of technology by now.
I accelerated out past the killing field where nothing lived, to the center of that lost cavern and the great psionic mold and the alien trees that surrounded it, saying nothing while they contemplated the corpses moving around with mutant flowers growing on them, the sizzle of energies in the air that weren’t normal, and the rippling mounds of fungi.
“A psionically-enhanced mutant fungi,” Jorg muttered in recognition. “They can grow to the size of whole nations and larger, spread through worlds via their spores, and more!” he indicated with a shudder.
His relief was great as I obliterated it, and then his jaw dropped open as he saw what was revealed at the core of it.
“A fusion bomb!” he blurted out, to the alarm of the other members of the table. “Lady Edge, that’s a full primary fusion warhead!” he repeated for emphasis, just before watching me Disintegrate the thing with open relief.