Prototype's Progress [IC]

[Roguenewb]

A Prototype's Progress

You've seen only a week on this world, but what a week it's been...

For each of you, your first memory is the same. Darkness. A darkness so profound you didn't even know you had a sense that was missing, you simply lacked the knowledge of light's existence. And then, a brightness. A brightness so shocking and unexpected, that it made darkness seem a sin against the order of the universe, but that too faded, and finally, vision became what it was meant to be, a sense, a way to explore the world around you.

And as your vision sharpened and focused, and the lines of eldritch energy in your head that allow your mind to see formed completely, you saw the same thing, a man. The man wore a full beard, and short head of shaggy hair, all of it a pure white. At first, you couldn't see his eyes, occluded as they were but the mirrored glass of a large pair of goggles. Around the goggles, and in the small gap between glove and shirt sleeve, you could see the paleness of his skin, and on the right side, some sort of electric blue lines. Despite the fact that you could see but a tiny fraction of those lines, something about them called out to you...

From the moment that this man pulled the goggles from his face, and you could see the steely gray eyes, the fine lines of wrinkles around them and the furrow of his brow, you could sense the drive in this man. Since that moment, you have worked. Worked for him.

It feels like a thousand times in the last week you have been asked to demonstrate a capability you didn't even know you had. And each time, the man watched carefully, said a single phrase, perhaps a "Satisfactory" or a "Needs Improvement" all while pressing a thin shaft of wood against a pad of paper.

For 5 days, it went on like this. For 12-16 hours, this man would drive you through every skill he thought you should have, and then, place you in an empty room, only a hair larger than your body, and leave you in the pitch black for 8-12 hours, and then it would begin anew.

Until two days ago, you didn't know the universe had beings besides you and this man. But, on that strange morning, two days past, the man lead you into a room. This room was like the rooms of your practicing, but it stretched far wider, perhaps three hundred feet on a side. Spread throughout this room were strange beings like yourself, but with many, many strange variations in form. They were largely seated, spread throughout the room at small work tables, where stone and metal beings like yourself, but in the shape of the man, worked on them.

Only two more beings of flesh like the man were in this room, and it was only through their conversation that the man introduced you to the idea of names. The man became Merrix d'Cannith, his young female assistant, Xira d'Cannith, and the large, muscular man, Draven d'Cannith. These three, all bore the lines that so compelled you, which you learned now, were called the Dragonmarks of House Cannith, the Mark of Making.

In the last two days, Draven and Xira have taken their turns with you, as have the less drastic stone and metal men, which you have learned are called "Warforged" while you and other strange ones are something different, something more exotic, referred too as the "Newforged", or in the quiet conversations of Draven and Xira, the "Freakforged".

At the end of each day, you were returned, as every night so far, to the small metal room, and left in darkness. This time, however, when the door opened it wasn't Merrix standing there with a checklist, it was one of the normal warforged.

A different warforged opened each of your seperate sleeping chambers this morning, but each bore the same message "Master Merrix d'Cannith wishes to speak with you, you will accompany me immediately".

[Ballista]

Macu's three eyes activate with a blink before returning to a steady red glow, his head rotates both left and right as servos turn and pistons open and close. His claw-like digits open and close as if he was a newborn, playing with new appendages. His voice is harsh and hoarse, almost like steel grinding on steel.

"Preliminary maintenance routine complete. Initiating program: Follower."

Macu steps outside his room, not budging any further until the Warforged moves again.

[TheDon]

PAHA-33 was contemplating the day he had had, taking the down time to process all the information and try and find any little tidbit he would have missed at the moment.

And then there was noise, quickly followed by light. PAHA-33's eyes flashed orange at the curiosity of the warforged in front of him rather than the little man. But he followed without a word.

[redmane]

Cemabe never liked the dark chamber; though it gave him plenty of time to explore his transformations - something he just didn't have enough time to do during the day, while running Master's tests - in the confines of his sleeping chamber, it all lacked practicality, and was nothing but pointless musings of his mind. So he got up eagerly, ready for another chance to see the open space, when he noticed that it was not Master that stood in the doorway. The situation was new, and called for some decision-making, something Cemabe never liked much - decisions are for some smarter units, he was not built for that, Master said so himself. Still, he queried his circuits for some insight, and decided that the situation was quite normal after all - the warforged was known to him, and have been seen to run errands for Master on an occasion.

Initial boot: success. System status: fully operational. Follow behavior: acknowledged.

He stepped out of his chamber, looking quizzically at the warforged.

[McGonigle]

MANTIS could feel the warforged approach before the door opened, still when the door was opened it gave no sign of anticipation or being prepared, it was waiting facing the other direction, enjoying the calm dark of the cell. An atmosphere where it was free to wander down the paths of it's own mind. Still despite that the unit felt it was waiting, while the time in the cell was better than the exercises, neither were sufficient to warrant an existence it reckoned.

"I hear, and comprehend," it replied in a voice that sounded flat even to it's own ears. With that it began to follow, unnervingly the eyes still didn't open.

[Roguenewb]

3rd of Therendor
Eighth Bell

The different warforged in front of you accept your replies without comment or apparent response. Instead, they simply turn, and begin to walk away from you. "This way", the warforged say, with an air of mild boredom.

The warforged continues to walk down the corridor of empty stone, decorated by metal attachments or fixtures.

[McGonigle]

Mantis thought about trying to initiate conversation, but then hesitated while it had found the few topics he had drew out the humans fascinating these assistants, were dull to converse with. Despite the lack of similarity they were apparently of a similar nature to him although in the newforgeds opinion that was like comparing gold to lead.

Not for the first time the being wondered just how large these tunnels were, and what if anything lay outside them. It seemed so tiny compared to what it could imagine, a vast expanse it could barely describe with the vocabulary it had picked up so far.

[TheDon]

PAHA-33's eyes turn yellow for a brief second but he follows the warforged in silence.

Pointless comment, it already said to follow it, one would assume that which ever way it took would be the way to go.

[redmane]

Cemabe followed the warforged without any further attempts to communicate. It wasn't his forte anyways.

[Roguenewb]

Third of Therendor
Eighth Bell

The warforged lead you through a sequence of a half-dozen twists and turns through stone-cut hallways. The four of you are briefly united as your four hallway segments meet in what appears to be a major access thoroughfare. This main hallway is thirty feet wide, and in the center of the hall are inlaid a pair of linear depressions, each with a thin strip of metal laid inside. Cart tracks comes the noun, unheard of before, to your mind. Perhaps of more import to each of you are the three other pairs of warforged and newforged. Each warforged assisstant acknowledges each other with a nod, and turns down the large hallway.

You are lead down this hallway for a short time, no more than 5 minutes, before passing through a large gate, as wide as the hall. The end of this hall has two huge swinging doors, like the twin doors of saloon, as someone other than yourselves might recognize. Each door lies lazily open, and the warforged lead you through.

On the far side of the door, you find yourself in what looks like a laboratory straight from Xoriat. In a space perhaps 200 feet on a side, there are no less than sixty benches, each with various items on them. Some have warforged, some have swords, other potions, still others have wands and staves. And yet, these huge array of benches cover only two thirds of the space. The last third is dedicated to a construction booth that towers 30 feet into the chamber. This collection of scaffolds and storage bins appears to be dedicated to the service, experimentation and repair of the massive Warforged Titan currently residing in it. Despite this huge accruing of artifice, only a single human, whom you recognize as Xira, and 3 warforged assistants are moving in the room.

Before you can finish a full assesment of the room, one of the warforged who led you here speaks "All of you are to follow me, now". Before waiting to see your response, three of your leaders head off into the room, and last leads you to a staircase cleverly concealed in the wall to your left.

The staircase takes you up, some thirty feet, and from there you can find you can take in the entire workshop in a single glance. This room has obviously been built to control the shop, as there are dozens of blue prints and scrolls laid out over most surfaces in the well maintained, marble room. There is a single other door at the far side of the room, made of beautiful dark wood, and heading away from the workshop.

The last of the Warfored stops before the window, "Stay here, Merrix will see you shortly." And turns back down the staircase you were brought up. The door closes behind him, and a nearly magical silence settles over the room.

[McGonigle]

Mantis
The first sound in the room was the slight clink as the insectoid war-forged began to slowly walk around on it's four legs. It was a very subtle sound but ın the preternatural silence it seemed to echo round the room. Mantıs was trying to take in as much as possible, this room was an experience the likes of which it was not likely to see again. The other newforged faded into the background, how interesting could they truly be in comparison to this the chance to gain insight into his very creation, or incarnation as it sometimes thought.

[TheDon]

PAHA-33 stood in the room, studying the different newforged around it, making sure to scan every one of them for latent arcane abilities. He patiently waited, used by now to waiting, so much waiting for everything. Waiting until they scribed notes, waiting for results, waiting for them to be interested in testing him again. PAHA-33 was used to waiting and took it stoically, passing the time by committing every detail of his walk here to memory and by judging the other newforged, trying to gage their strength and weaknesses.

[redmane]

Cemabe stood quiet, disinterested in what was happening around him. Sooner or later they'll finish scribing the strange symbols on sheets of paper, then proceed to another round of testing. Same as the day before. No new information.

[TheDon]

As PAHA-33's eye trail over the form of the slander newforged, they turn red for a brief second.

Arcane abilities detect. Target elevated to priority 2. Target Locked.
Awaiting orders...
Awaiting agressive actions...


PAHA-33 appears to spend longer analyzing the weaknesses of MACU then he does with the others.

[Ballista]

MACU turns his head slowly to take in the full scope of the room and its inhabitants. His eyes shift from green to red as he passes them over each of the others present, changing back to its original shade when otherwise turned away from an individual. He gives no indication of his inner machinations though he lingers ever so slightly on PAHA-33 who MACU has noticed to have been actively scanning him.

[Roguenewb]

Third of Therendor
Eighth and a Half Bell

For almost half an hour you stand in this quiet overlooking room. The time passes in silence, except for the creaking and shifting of the fibrous cords and composite plates of the other Newforged in the room. As the time passes, you can see the seven warforged and Xira in the main workshop below, working steadily on their various projects. They appear to call out to each from time to time, but their words are lost behind the enchanted glass of the oversight room.

Half an hour after being left in this room, you hear footsteps from behind the dark wooden door. A minute after that you begin to hear a muffled conversation. Two voices are in conflict. One is loud, masculine and aggressive, it sounds like Merrix d'Cannith. The other voice is flutelike, and higher in pitch, you can't make out a word of it. The last word before the door opens, is in Merrix d'Cannith's angry tones, "...they're mine, by Khyber!".

The door swings open, and two humans enter. One, is the familiar, white-haired form of Merrix, the other is...stranger. A tall figure, a woman taller than even Merrix, with hair of deep purple, and eyes of solid white light, with the tiniest hint of purple color. Her clothing is totally unfamiliar to you. Strange curls of cloth and metal wrap around a large amount of exposed chest and torso skin, apparently with no regard for temperature. All of the cloth is royal blue, and a cape of matching color hangs from her shoulders.

"They are no more yours than mine, master d'Cannith. You'd be well served to remember that my contributions are as important to you as they were to Aeren." She says, her voice light and musical.

Merrix sighs heavily, "Fine, fine, your inspiration is appreciated," he says, with a slight hesitation and decrease pitch. He turns to the four of you, and gestures in a large sweeping gesture, "Here they are, just as ordered. I imagine you want all my tests so far as well?"

"No, Merrix, too much of your time is always spent on the details, I possess vision. Simply summarize which four these are..." She says, with a hint of laugh in the bottom of her voice, she meets each of yours in turn as she says the last part of her statement.

"Fine!" Merrix says, he reaches into his vest, and draws a small dragonshard. He holds it in his hand for a moment, and you can see runes and text scrawling inside the shard, he looks deeply into it, and turns to Macu, "This one is Macu, the one built on the scrolls provided from the Riedran hanbalani. We integrated a fair amount of psy-active eberron shards, as well as a small eldritch engine that can modify the same crystals. Unfortunately, we it's still offline, as is the most of the energy control functions. Your claims about the usefulness of hanbalani data about collective energy manipulation were...overstated. Merrix finishes with a sigh.

He turns to the next, the strange, mithral plated insect, "Xira's been calling this one 'Mantis' since before I finished the design, and I approve. The hanbalani records on telepathy are faaaar more useful than the kinetics data you provided. I melded the basics with a lot of my own research left over from the 'Whirlwind Project'. I took it farther than I had before, and much to my consternation, it came out of the forge looking like half an insect" Merrix shrugs, palms up, "Mantis has been working well so far, except for it's constant reference to 'dreams' which of course, is impossible. The first 12 didn't have that problem, but were unsatisfactory in other regards. I added a little material from other projects for this one, and I wonder about cross reactivity..." Merrix trails off, and turns to Cemabe Simu.

"Now, I don't understand any of the mystical ravings of drow druids that you sent us, but Dreven claims he does. This one has been his special project, and I can't argue with the results. I don't know how, and I refuse to accept explanations involving 'incarnate soulstuff', but Dreven's quite good, and this 'Cemabe Simu' really does seem capable of channeling quite a few other magical beasts. Dreven gave me some strange logic about 'Draconic overcharge' and 'unshaped mode lock' that explain the fixed draconic features, but I won't complain, they are considerably useful features. Unfortunately, it's quite strong and hardy, but it's about as intelligent as beasts it imitates." Merrix shakes his head as he finishes, seemingly unsure about how to deal with these final problems with Cemabe.

"This final one is my pride and joy. I'm sure you're aware of the varied progress of the PAHA project. We've had enough discussions about how arcane magic is going to shape the next war, and how critical it is to Dragonmarked politics, so it should be obvious how key the PAHAs will be to the next stage of House Cannith. If what you sent is authentic, and I really have the only common-language copy of 'Oalian's Teachings on Form', then this one is finally worthy of the name. I call it Paha, which I know is jumping the crossbow on the project, but 33 is apparently my lucky number, if Onatar has any favor left for me.

"Is it reshaping yet? Channeling natural magic?" the woman says, with a smile on her lips.

Merrix reacts with anger, and hunching his shoulders, "Not yet! But it will! Gah, you're so...frustrating. Here they are, take them or leave them." Merrix finishes with a sweep of his arm.

The woman turns to the four of you, "Has Merrix told me true? Are you all as mixed as he says? Or does he simply want me to leave without you?" She says to you, while turning her head towards Merrix. "How would like the chance to prove yourselves to him?" She almost whispers, though you can hear her clearly. She turns her eyes to meet each of you, and you feel almost a tingle along your wooden spines.

[McGonigle]

"While I cannot speak on the similarity to an insect, lacking the experience necessary to make the comparison. However I would have thought the divergence of my form from that more commonly used in other such artificial beings would have been obviously clear." It turned it's gaze on the unfamiliar female that seemed to be having such arguments with their creator
"While you intrigue me, neither that or any induced feelings of family are sufficient for me to accept your vauge proposal, not least when the suggested reward does not even seem that likely givne your earlier conversation. Elaborate on what you desire and I may assist but for now all I am interested in offering is my metaphorical ear."

[Roguenewb]

Third of Therendor
Eighth and Half Bell

"I should have expected Merrix's control to be...less than complete." The woman says with a frown. Her eyes shift momentarily to meet Merrix's, and then she turns back to Mantis.

"It's simple enough, really. I have spent quite a bit of time and crowns providing Merrix with various bits of arcane lore to create you. If he's your father, than I'm your mother. And your mother, little mantis, has need of you and your brothers. Will you take care of a problem for me? It shouldn't stretch the abilities of you and your brethren, but it will require your special skills in combat." She says, in quiet tones, projecting a calm aura of need.

[McGonigle]

Mantis

The newforged paused, listening carefully to the woman clothed in blue as she spoke. His face displayed little obvious emotion although, that was as much due to the alien form of it.
"Perhaps were we to be more fully informed of this supposed chain of command I might be more compliant, after all till today Merik was the highest authority I had experience of. I mean we don't even know your name, mother.

While I can grasp the intended result of your emotional plea, it relies on cultural elements that Merrix has not yet seen fit to expose us too. I understand that he is our creator, and I suppose I should be gracious too you for providing some of the components that led to my sentience. Still the analogy to a situation I have never experienced is lacking. Nor is it enough to overcome my natural hesitation to the underlying assumptions behind the rhetoric. The assumption that as creations we can be assumed to be willing to work for nothing, as long as our creators have need of us. Still ..." then it paused for effect for a few moments as it moved it's head slowly to look the woman in blue in the eyes.

"Would I be right in assuming my dear mother, the last two words were spoken with a hint of humor and sarcasm This problem, that you speak of so evasively is another sentient being that you wish to cease thinking am I not correct? The evasion and mention of combat suggests it to me. Regardless mother, I will help on the condition of being told in depth about your part in our creation, although that does not need to be now." The warforged spoke carefully trying to hide it's actual enthusiasm for the task, since this woman was from outside his experience her problem must also be and that meant a chance to gain insight into the wider world.

[TheDon]

Paha eyes glow purple then yellow before he speak, turning to mantis. "While we know nothing of the chain of command, Merrix's attitude shows that she has at the very least the same rank if not higher, and... " turning to the woman in blue "I have the feeling from the discussion between you and Merrix that you are here under orders rather then by your own volition. But really, this is pointless.

The chatty one had this bit right. What's more interesting here is the choice. Are you actually giving us a choice? My current understanding is that we have been created to serve, and since my "birth" I have served to my best of my ability, and so if you order it, I will simply do it. But this choice you give us? This is new. This I will have to ponder further upon. As for the current situation, I suppose I feel duty bound to help you, so I will follow your orders willingly."

[redmane]

Cemabe tried to follow the conversation, but it proved a little bit too challenging. Still, he managed to understand that the woman was there to take them for herself, for whatever unknown uses she might have had for them. This possibly involved tasks of undisclosed nature, though clearly of a level more advanced that he's been subjected to, so far.

- Conversation analysis: partial, includes speculation. Possible meanings: pending change of first-in-command, reasons unknown. Query: speculation correct? Conditional permission request: - Cemabe's blue eyes fixed on Merrix, and his tone became demanding, - Grant full control on Cemabe to subject woman of unknown designation?

[Ballista]

Macu remains passive in regards to the new arrival, his red eyes scan over the woman, each lens shutter opening and closing, magnifying and whirling. This goes on for several seconds before Macu seemed to satisfy his curiosity, his photoreceptors returning to its pale blue. Hearing the hint of a challenge, the newforged seems to straighten up from his usual hunched appearance and largely freezes the grinding gears and pump pistons throughout his body. A cold voice echoes through the construct's throat; his mouth shows no movement, yet the sound is clear and crisp.

Initiating Standard Greeting Program and Local Customary Speech Patterns:
It would be my pleasure to complete any task for my creators. Though it would be through the creator that I will follow these commands, not by a proxy. Master d'Cannith, would it be in your best interest for myself to follow this one's instruction?

Never once does Macu take his eyes off the women, he seems rather fixated on her more at least than any of the many targets he's studied in past tests and practice simulations.

[Roguenewb]

Third of Therendor
Eighth and Half Bell

"By Khyber, try to make one command transfer, it slows 'em to a crawl, yes, yes do as Illustrian wants you to. Follow instructions as you would mine and so on and so on" Merrix d'Cannith says, with a wry smile

"Thank you Merrix, I didn't expect to need it" Illustrian says with a frown. "The task is simple enough. There is a facility owned by some of my associates, about three days from Sharn. Unfortunately, something...untoward happened there about a week ago. The facility has, for lack of a better word, become infested. The skill set of my allies is not well suited to dealing with the problem, so I came to call on your master Merrix here. So I want you to clean out our Sam's Well facility."

[redmane]

At Merrix's words, Cemabe's eyes flashed a glimpse of ... was it sadness? Still, it lasted for maybe a moment, then the usual, emotionless Cemabe took over.

- Permission grant: successful. Leader designation: updated. Request analysis: extermination of unknown species infestation, quantity: unknown, pending clarification. Unit's suitability for the task: high. Location: Sam's Well, name unknown, awaiting coordinate input. Direction parsing module: activated.

[McGonigle]

Mantis, looked away from the group and closed the shutters on it’s eyes, it had realised that the eyes had a tendency to betray it’s emotions and it didn’t want Merik to observe how his words had angered him. This change in authority would probably be for the best it decided, if only to escape the criticisms of their creator.

Neither had thought about addressing Mantis’s actual issues, it was strangely isolating to realise how little issue the other warforged had with it. It wasn’t the first time the issue of compliance had come up and every time Mantis had felt further adrift from what were apparently its own kind, ‘brothers’ it felt no connection with. The brutish and slightly bestial warforged was one thing, its odd disjointed sentences had rapidly convinced Mantis that it’s mind was ill developed. It was that the other two units were so willing to continue under the assumption that they were slaves, that left it feeling so separated.

Still three days travel, that was interesting an escape from the monotony of it’s cell an area of darkness it had studied many times before and now knew in an intimate detail. There were questions that the journey could answer, there were questions that the journey could ask.

"It intrigues me why you continue with this constant evasion, so something untoward has happened. Do you mean that you don’t truly understand the source of this infestation, or you are merely keeping us in the metaphorical dark.

It is not to your advantage not to simply brief us with less evasion, we will clearly find out what is infesting the place as we clear it and I am not sure you have any real hope of keeping it from Merrix. I have little motivation to keep your secrets and I am not sure the primitive moral system of my ‘brother’ for want of a better word, would allow him to keep it.”

[TheDon]

Paha stands there, listening quietly to what everyone has to say. He feels his first answer was sufficient.