Of Magick and Machina Pt 1

I'm a huge nerd and I play a DnD type game with my friends. Here's a novelization of our first adventure.

Of Magick and Machina Pt l

 

 

Gryn spread the paper wide across the long wooden table. The man to her left leaned over and studied it with dark eyes. “What does this mean?” he asked. His voice was soft and gravelly, as if he was unaccustomed to using it. Gryn frowned, “I was hoping you could tell me.” Arlo gave a flicker of a smile, “I have some friends who may be able to help.”

 

It was just a few short minutes before Ignatious arrived. The older man was short, with mangy hair and wild, bulging eyes. However, what really made him stand out was the metallic, almost kangaroo-like pair of machina legs that replaced his missing organic pair. No doubt the originals had been blown off during his younger years. Gryn caught herself side-eying those steam powered hams whenever he was around.

 

While they waited for their last party member to arrive, Gryn spent some time getting acquainted with the small team she’d put together.

 

She’d known Arlo for years. He was a quiet man, on the shorter side but a skilled climber and resourceful treasure hunter. He could climb up a sheer wall with his bare hands if he had to. As for Ignatious, she knew almost nothing about him. The demolitions expert seemed to be a man who spoke only when he had something to say, as though his words were precious golden coins. “I like to blow s**t up,” he grumbled.

 

The doors to the smoky tavern opened and a tall, elegantly robed man entered. He made no apologies for being late, though Gryn estimated nearly 40 minutes had gone by since the agreed-upon meeting time. He introduced himself as Elon and Gryn immediately got the impression that he was kind of a dick. “Nice to meet you,” she said somewhat stiffly. I’m Gryn, this is my robot, Boyfriend.” The tall android stood handsomely behind her. “And this is Ignatious. I think you already know Arlo.” Elon and Arlo shared a glance that seemed to convey some complicated emotion between friendship and loathing. Once they had all settled down at the table with a round of drinks, Gryn explained how her contact, Norval, had given this scrip of paper to her and had promised their weight in gold if they could recover the salvage from a recently discovered cave.

 

Using a book, some brains, and only a little arguing between Elon and Arlo, they translated the paper. “Lotus Aerospace Engineering?” Gryn questioned aloud. “I wonder if they develop some kind of flower” They puzzled over the lotus symbol for at least the length of a glass of mead. Finally, Gryn put down the paper, slapped her grease-stained hand on the table and leaned forward, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. “Well boys, who wants to go on an adventure?”

 

Arlo smiled and nodded, Boyfriend stared at the wall in the way that meant, ‘anything for you, my darling,’ and Elon nodded once, curtly. All eyes turned to Ignatious, who sat scratching his ear. “Do I get to blow s**t up?”

 

 

 

Their journey to the cave took about three days. All their supplies fit neatly on a small cart attached to a thick rope that fit neatly around Boyfriend’s beautiful waist. After they made camp each night, Arlo would always vanish into the woods, returning a short time later with a rabbit or some other small game to cook over the fire. Ignatious frequently took his legs off and cleaned them methodically, and Gryn couldn’t help wondering more than once, ‘if that guy died, would those fit on Boyfriend?’

 

It was late morning when they finally arrived at the spot Norval had marked on Gryn’s map. There was a small camp of scruffy men around a fire who shot up when the gang approached. “Who are you?” yelled one of them as his companions nocked arrows and drew swords. Gryn put her hands up and spoke calmly. “You wouldn’t to shoot Norval Marshand’s crew, would you?“ Then she slowly drew out the paper with the lotus etching and threw it on the ground in front of who she presumed to be the leader of the camp. He came closer and examined it. “Okay boys, let them through.” Then, to Gryn, “I’m Rel. Forgive me for being careful, lots of untrustworthy men in these parts.”

 

Elon squinted. “Yeah, I bet.”

 

Rel shot him a poisonous look and carried on. “If you folks want to stop and rest, we have food and bed spreads. The cave entrance is right up that hill there.” He pointed with one stubby finger toward a green cresting hill, which had a large black opening at the peak like a gaping maw.

 

“We’ll take the food, but then we’ll get right to it,” said Gryn. Something in her stomach tightened as Rel’s beady eyes went to Boyfriend. She put her hand on her crowbar staff, “he doesn’t eat.” The food was greasy and cold - some kind of stew and hardtack carelessly thrown together - but they all ate it quickly. Elon made a face and some rude comment to Rel, but Gryn was too far away to hear. As they finished and made their way toward the cave, Gryn couldn’t help but notice the pointed glances from the men around the fire.

 

There was a swampy marsh between them and the hill, so Boyfriend was forced to carry Elon lest his clothes get wet. The rest of them walked through the waist high water without complaint; Ignatious gave off a cloud of steam as his hot legs cooled in the tepid water.

 

Once they got to the base of the hill, it was a nearly vertical climb to the top, Arlo made short time in scampering up and lowering a well knotted rope to the rest of the crew. Ignatious jumped from ledge to ledge, nimble as a mountain goat on his steaming legs. Gryn caught herself wondering again how Boyfriend would look with a pair like that. Once at the top of the impasse, the crew stopped to look at the simple Lotus symbol etched into the silver metal of the cave. “Lotus Aerospace Engineering.” The plaque looked old, like from the time before. Gryn entered the place without hesitation. Once inside, they realized it wasn’t a cave at all, or at least not a kind they had ever seen before. Everything before them was man-made, and seemed to be slowly giving up to the inevitable flow of time and the natural decay of nature.

 

Arlo squinted into the darkness, his eyes glittering and catching whatever small light there was within the ruins. “It’s all… metal.” He pulled out a wooden torch wrapped tightly with cloth and soaked with pitch. “I think it’s an old ship of some kind.” The crew had to set up another series of ropes to navigate down into the maw of the ship. Slowly the daylight ebbed and waned until only Arlo’s torch lit the way before them. Giant rusting sheafs of metal made up the walls. Something was weird about the structure, though. The walkway seemed too narrow, and the walls too tall. Gryn’s mind itched as she tried to make sense of it. If it was man made, why this odd layout?

 

They came immediately across a forking hallway. To the left was a dark pool of water, unknowingly deep, to the right stretched more darkness. Arlo’s torch made the shadows dance as they proceeded down the dryer corridor, per Elon’s insistence. They followed another narrow curve in the hall until they got to a large cavernous room, and then realization struck Gryn at once. She pointed at the high walls. “Look, there are tables and chairs up there. I think-”

 

“-that these people could sit on walls?” Ignatious interrupted. There was a long silence and from somewhere deep in the ship, a cricket.

 

“I think,” Gryn continued, “that this whole place is sideways. We’re walking on the walls, as it was built, and the floor is actually here.” She slid her hand along the wall to their right slowly, deep in thought.  Everyone nodded, Elon somehow seeming smug even as he agreed with her.

 

With the light of Arlo’s torch, they were finally able to take stock of the ship. Every surface was grimy, wet, and metallic. Even in the vast room that they were standing in, the firelight barely touched the ceiling. It was as though the darkness in the ship was heavier than your average darkness. The noises that they made as they examined the room reverberated back at them in strange, distorted ways. All in all, the place was pretty spooky.

 

When they reached the other end of the room, Gryn saw a dark metal grille on the floor to their left. Without hesitation, she said “neat” and jammed it open with her crowbar staff. The metal grille went flying and narrowly missed Arlo’s head. Elon let out a short bark of laughter. Inside was a cornucopia of sweet junk, random parts and doodads that could no doubt be upgrades for Boyfriend. The tall android stared at the wall in the way that undoubtedly meant ‘oh my sweet, how endlessly selfless and caring you are, I love you with all my heart.’ Gryn felt a lump in her throat and whispered “I know.”

 

Ignatious turned to her. “What?”

 

Gryn immediately frowned and pointed into the dark corners of the ship. “I said let’s go!”

 

Suddenly, from far away there was a heavy, ragged howling sound. Arlo immediately put his hand on his blackened quarter staff. “What was that,” he whispered. But the noise stopped as quickly as it had started. They all looked at each other and held still for another moment.

 

Silence.

 

“I guess we’ll find out,” said Ignatious. He began hopping forward, his clunky, metallic legs making loud clangs with every step. Directly ahead of them the floor took a sharp and dramatic turn toward the ceiling and disappeared into the darkness above.

 

“Well, here we go,” said Arlo, who started walking up the steep incline, leaning forward and using hands at some points. Elon followed suit, slipping twice and nearly falling. Ignatious cleared the entire metal expanse with two graceful, noisy bounds. Boyfriend scooped Gryn up in his powerful arms and carried her up the slope while she giggled like a child. Once they reached the top they found a corridor of doors set into the walls below and above them.

 

Elon went to the first one on the floor and put his hand to it. “I can get through this.” He pressed his nose against the metal and slowly his entire face sank through the solid door. His body seemed to grow more transparent as he let his head phase through the metal. He stayed that way for a moment, a seemingly headless man leaning over the ground. Then he pulled back up and looked at them gravely.

 

“What’s in there?” Gryn asked, a hint of trepidation in her voice.

 

“I don’t know,” Elon replied. “I need a light.”

 

Arlo rolled his eyes and reached into his backpack, then tossed him a glow globe.

 

With the use of Elon’s abilities, Gryn’s staff, and Ignatious’s small cluster of explosives, they managed to open most of the remaining doors in the corridor, each of which yielding a decent amount of salvage that they piled high near the entrance to the ship.

 

The majority of the day was spent with this sweaty, backbreaking work. Their ears rang with a perpetual whine from Ignatious’ many detonations. However, they could still hear the occasional raspy howl from someplace deep within the ship.

 

“Maybe it’s the wind,” Elon ventured after they heard it for the third time. Arlo’s hand was once again clasped to his quarterstaff as his eyes darted from left to right. Even Gryn, who prided herself on being fearless, had a hand gripping Boyfriend’s bicep. Only Ignatious seemed unperturbed by the unnerving sound.

 

“We’re underwater, ya doofus,” Ignatious said. “Whatever it is, we’ll find out soon enough I’m sure.” Then he began noisily walking another armful of salvage back toward the entrance.

 

“Quiet,” Arlo said softly. Something in his voice made Ignatious stop, and the silence that followed was deep and vast. Only the dripping of water echoed back at them from the unexplored end of the corridor. After a time, they all gave up straining their ears for a hint of what could be making the sound and continued with their work.

 

Finally, there was only one intimidating door left. It was high and out of reach, set into the rusted ceiling of the ship. Below it the floor curved sharply downward into a deep pit that Gryn was sure would be near impossible to climb out of, should one of them (probably Elon) fall.

 

“Now that looks like an interesting room,” said Arlo, cracking his fingers and taking measure of the large gleaming door.

 

“How do we get to it?” Ignatious asked as he paced back and forth, pulling on his small beard. “With the stuff we found, the stuff that doesn’t go boom, maybe we could make a ladder?” He loped off without waiting for an answer, returning soon after with a long metal pole. He wedged it hard against the ceiling and the floor, then ran back to the pile of junk. Soon there was a rickety ladder that Gryn helped keep steady as Arlo climbed up and tied it together securely. Finally, he reached the door and tied a measure of rope around a large bolt and let the rest fall back down to Elon’s feet.

 

Elon stroked his neatly-trimmed beard and looked up. “That looks pretty intimidating, how could we get through it?” The rest of them stared blankly at him for a long moment. Finally, he threw his hands up and exclaimed, “fine!” As he began to tie the rope around his waist, Arlo bounded down the bridge gracefully and landed with a nearly silent thud on the metal floor. “Need help?” he asked in his gruff-but-oddly-quiet voice. Elon took a shaky step onto the ladder, saying “No,” and then immediately lost his footing and nearly fell into the pit. He moved painfully slow the rest of the way, never letting his grip loosen on the rope.

 

There was a faint breathing noise from somewhere, not as loud as the howls they had heard, but noticeable even over the grunts Elon made as he worked his way up the pole. Gryn looked around but couldn’t locate the source. As she did so, Elon reached into his robes and removed the glow globe from his pocket, twisting it so the sharp green light illuminated the hallway for a moment. Gryn saw six pairs of eyes reflect the light, for just a fraction of a second. Then Elon phased into the wall and they were plunged back into darkness.

 

“Guys…” Gryn said, reaching for her crowbar staff. The ragged breathing was suddenly surrounding them and a faint patter of sharp claws against steel echoed from all sides.

 

Suddenly, out of the dark a large wolf lunged at Arlo, who reflexively swung his wooden staff at it. There was a soft yelp as it struck and the beast... folded? There were several of the creatures now, breathing heavily as they skittered around in a wide, predatory arc. Something about them made Gryn’s eyes ache. They seemed to be ordinary wolves when they ran past, but as soon as Gryn saw them from another angle, they seemed to be as thin as a sheet of paper.

 

“Boyfriend, kill!” she shouted while the others took up arms. Ignatious pulled a sling from within his pack and started hurling small smoking grenades at the creatures. Even in the faint light of Arlo’s torch, one of them hit a wolf square on the side of its head. It squealed with a start, quickly folding in two and then scampering up the wall with no regard for gravity. Ignatious’ second bomb went off near the rickety ladder, which set it shaking violently.

 

From inside the dark room Elon held up his glowing orb of light. He was phased about halfway into the room when he felt the ladder beneath his legs give way and fall from under him, forcing him to drop the globe and hold fast with both hands. He slowly crawled forward, bringing his whole body into the room. He had to sidestep a massive pile of rusted junk and heavy iron barrels. Elon heard a muffled cry from below, and several sharp concussive blasts.

 

Down below, the wolves attacked mercilessly. Two came at Boyfriend with a leap, but he smacked them together with his powerful arms, their thin bodies crumpling to his feet before crawling meekly away, tails between their two-dimensional legs. Arlo crouched and let arrow after arrow fly from his shortbow. One wolf snuck from behind, nearly tearing a chunk from his arm. He dropped his bow with a clatter and extended his forearm. A hidden blade came out with a sharp click and Arlo sunk it into the creature’s neck. It howled like a banshee and slowly withered to the ground. Arlo was already on his feet and firing another arrow.

 

Up by Boyfriend, Gryn stood protectively and bashed away with her hooked iron staff. Row after row of sharp teeth erupted from the darkness and tried to grab her hands. She quickly parried them all and sent them hurtling away. She reached into her pouch with one hand and felt for the small, fleshy device she had been saving for just such an occasion. A large wolf took an unexpected turn and ran from the wall to the to the ceiling and then dropped onto Gryn. She quickly slammed the small fleshy pouch into the creature’s flank before it could grab hold of her. The effect was immediate.

 

Within the span of a heartbeat, the creature arched its back as all its fur seemed to dissolve into a strange goo. It fell to the ground in a writhing mass. “Boyfriend, kick!” she barked, and her sexy boy gave a mighty kick with his long legs, sending the thing flying right toward Arlo.

 

In the room above, Elon scrambled in the fading green light. It had to be here somewhere, he thought desperately. His hands finally found purchase on a thick iron bar set in the door. He smiled.

 

Arlo heard a shout and looked up just in time to see a massive fleshy shape hurtle toward him at an unbelievably high speed. He managed to take a single step to the left before the thing hit him square in the chest and they both went hurtling toward the pit. Ignatious was aiming his crank crossbow when he saw Arlo fall, but he didn’t have time to understand what he was seeing before another wolf attacked his large metal leg. He fired three quick shots into it’s head and heard a rumble from above.

 

Arlo fell and hit the ground, entwined with the disgusting fleshy thing. Somehow he managed to roll into the fall and got to his feet, just in time to lock eyes with another massive, slobbering wolf clinging to the wall. It turned its odd paper-thin head toward Arlo and braced to jump. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, a smack, and the roar of metal on metal hurtling through space.

 

From above, the large door had opened, releasing an avalanche of rusted metal and twisted scrap. On top of the pile, Elon was keeping balance on a rusty table and surfing towards the bottom of the pit, knocked bow in hand. Before Arlo could process what he was seeing, an arrow came flying, inches from his head, and went through the wolf’s eye, erupting from the other eye in a gory mess. Elon smiled and let loose two more arrows while in free fall, one of which hit its mark and took out a scrambling wolf.

 

Arlo watched in horror as a metric ton of scrap metal and one dramatic a*****e came flying toward him, the latter’s robes billowing wildly behind him. He yanked the small rough cube from his neck and threw it hard against the approaching mass. Within seconds a massive rush of air and the sound of water came pouring from the cube. There was a frightening whoosh and the mass of water stayed perfectly still, hovering in midair mere feet above Aro’s head. It held a roughly spherical shape and held there like a small, watery planet. There was a massive splash as the metal sank into it. Elon dove from his table and started swimming frantically downward as soon as he hit the water. As he swam the water pulsed as object after object sank into it and fell with a clank to floor. Arlo danced around the falling metal, barely managing to avoid being crushed.

 

“Boyfriend, help them!” yelled Gryn. The robot immediately jumped forward into a sprint, his lifeless gaze dead ahead in a way that meant ‘Gryn, you are the stars in my sky, if I don’t come back, know that I will always love you with everything I am.’ Gryn nodded and teared up as she understood his subtle, nonverbal message.

 

Elon broke through the bottom surface of the sphere and fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding the squirming mass of flesh in the bottom of the shaft. Whatever Gryn had hit the wolf with, it didn’t seem able to gain purchase on the floor and was struggling wildly to stand upright. “What the HELL is that?!” he yelled, to which Arlo answered by smacking the thing hard with his blackened quarterstaff, sending it skittering to the middle of the floor. A second later the dark shape of Boyfriend came bursting through the water above, his metal body pointed like a missile. There was a squelch, a thud, and a grinding of metal. The android had landed perfectly on top of the squirming wolf, killing it immediately.

 

He stood up shakily, covered in goo from the creature, and then stared at Arlo and Elon. The two men shared a sigh of relief. Then the ocean above came rushing down.