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> What do we know of the lady in red? Not much. She tends to the furnaces and handles lighting and refueling in many other parts of this region, and isn't one for idle conversation. > We don't seem to have much fear of poo poo, only endless pragmatism. True enough. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Mar 22, 2020 |
# ? Mar 22, 2020 03:28 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 08:47 |
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> Move on. Head in the general direction of the city, stopping for any curiousities along the way. What you overheard is bad news for the Smith, but you have places to go and things to do. There's not much in the way of curiosities for the next leg of the trip. The light pumps are probably the only structures of any real note - massive pumps that suck in sunlight and pump it into the deep underground to make sure that even the inside of the world does not escape the merciful gaze of the Sun. You come across the first of the three bellows you'll pass on the way to the city pretty quickly. You stop and check it's functioning, and everything seems to be perfectly fine. It's not a surprise, the bellows are fairly simple machines and you ran maintenance on this one not even 30,000 hours ago, give or take a few thousand hours. Your memory, at least in regards to time, isn't perfect. You continue on down the road, leaving it behind. The next point of interest is a place that has no name, but which you have always thought of as The Chasm. Here, neatly bisecting the paved road, is an enormous split in the earth, as if a giant knife was dragged across the ground, leaving a gash in the world itself. The tiles of the road simply end, ragged and torn up, at the edge of the chasm, and then continue maybe two dozen feet away on the other side. There's a wide, well worn wooden trail that continues the road, running off and along the side of the chasm until it grows shallow enough to cross. You always hate this part of the trip. There's nothing to maintain along this next stretch of road, and it will take you about 10 hours to walk all the way around and rejoin the main road. You have often found yourself wishing the road was not broken here - that you could just stride across this simple gap. You stop for a moment, looking over the edge of the cliff into the deep drop. The bottom is dim, but visible. Far below, the sound of rushing water echoes - the river that comes down from the mountain. As you look up again, you see a man approaching you from the other side, hauling a large wagon. He nods to you as you catch each other's eyes. It is the Woodcutter, Tintuis, carrying his delivery, a cartful of logs, probably on his way to the Smithy. If you continue along the road, you'll be traveling alongside him for the next ten hours, finally meeting five hours in only to part again. Do you continue along the road, or is there something you wish to do that will keep you here for a bit longer yet?
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# ? Mar 22, 2020 03:53 |
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Consider how long it would take to build a bridge.
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# ? Mar 22, 2020 06:16 |
What caused the chasm? Also, walk along the detour and ask the Woodcutter for ...gossip?
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# ? Mar 22, 2020 09:06 |
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> What caused the chasm? > Consider how long it would take to build a bridge As you stand there and stare at the chasm, you're filled with the desire to bypass it somehow. It's been here as long as you can remember, as long as you've been alive, but it's also clearly wrong. Whatever did this did it a long time ago, and maybe it's time someone... fixed it? And that someone could be you. You consider your options. You could try and jump across. Maybe build some sort of swing. But you discard the idea as you have them. What you need is something reliable, something reusable, maybe something others could benefit from as well. What you would need is a bridge. You've never built a bridge before, so you aren't sure entirely how long it would take, and it probably depends on what sort of bridge you decide to build and how thoroughly you build it. How hard could it be, though? A few hours of work? Even if there's the possibility it will take you longer than simply going around - you have to come back this way as well, and you'll undoubtedly have to pass by this point many more times while catching up on your tasks. And you'll be doing something, so it's not like the time would be wasted, right? > Ask the Woodcutter for ...gossip? While you're thinking, the Woodcutter reaches the edge of the chasm and pulls onto the side road. You call out a greeting, and he greets you back. You think to say something more, since if you stay and build a bridge he will soon be out of conversation range and you'll miss your opportunity to talk to him, but gossip has never been something you've been good at drawing out of people and he offers none of his own volition. You suppose you could offer some of your own, since you know of the Smith's difficulties, and hope he reciprocates? What do you wish to say to the Woodcutter? If you want to build a bridge, how are you going to go about doing so? Notes and Addendums: Relevant Equipment You currently have a small hand saw, a hammer, and plenty of bolts and nails and rope. Sufficient equipment to build a bridge of sorts, perhaps, but if speed is important to you, you might be able to acquire tools that could help the process along.
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# ? Mar 22, 2020 12:05 |
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Specs: we should at least make a bridge that the wagon can ride across. Since this is a woodcutter, let's ask for help. Some timbers laid across and diagonal supports from below should suffice.
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# ? Mar 22, 2020 14:57 |
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Try to build a wooden bridge sufficient for carts to cross it. Requisition the woodcutter's supplies and help for as long as it takes.
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# ? Mar 23, 2020 00:46 |
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> Since this is a woodcutter, let's ask for help. > Requisition the woodcutter's supplies and help for as long as it takes. You tell the woodcutter you are Atuon, Doer of Things, and that the particular thing you are about to do is to build a bridge. You ask if he has any idea how to build a bridge, and he raises an eyebrow. "I do not." You ask if he has the time to stop and help you build it. " 'fraid I have deliveries to make, if I stay more than a few minutes I'll fall behind schedule, and I don't think I'd be much help anyway. Can't wait for a maybe-bridge." You think for a few more moments, and an idea comes to you. If he won't help you himself, maybe he has something that can... you doubt he'd give you any of his logs, but if you're going to build a bridge you'll need to acquire some of your own, and he has the perfect tool. "Your axe! I need it to finish the bridge, I don't have the appropriate tools. You're coming to this side anyway, right? Toss it across to me, and I'll give it back to you when you get to where I am." The Woodcutter is a simple man, who believes in doing what needs to be done and getting on with things. He doesn't need the axe at the moment, so if Atuon does he might as well give to him. He shrugs, unloops the axe from his belt, and tosses it across the chasm. Atuon goes to snatch it out of the air, misses, and picks it up out of the dirt. The Woodcutter says "Don't break it or nothing. I'll see you when I get around to the other side." and begins hauling his wagon down the side trail. You're ready to begin. > Try to build a wooden bridge sufficient for carts to cross it. > Some timbers laid across and diagonal supports from below should suffice. You head into the nearby woods, and make short work of a handful of trees with quick, solid strokes of your axe. The heavy, hollow tubes, branchless aside from the cluster of leaves at the top, fall to the ground, each one chosen to be at least several feet longer than the chasm is wide. Your first thought is to start simple - even if you want to build a bridge strong enough for carts to cross, it would help if YOU could cross first, and all that would take is getting a single log across the gap. So you lop off the leafy top, roll it into place, and start pushing it across. Easy as. It's a bit more than halfway across the gap when the weight begins dragging it down. You try to hold your end down as best you can, first thinking you'll muscle it the rest of the way across, and then simply trying to pull it back and save the log, but as it drags you to the edge of the cliff you're forced to let go and watch it tumble down, hitting the water with a massive splash. How are you actually going to build this bridge? What's your first step? Notes and Addendums: The Trees of the World Trees are long, straight, woody plants with tangled branches and tufts of leaves at the top and hollow cores. The ones you've cut down are about two feet wide, and the rim of wood is about 5 inches deep. The wood of trees burns hot and well, and the wood itself is strong and stiff, but very heavy.
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# ? Mar 29, 2020 03:27 |
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Is there a tree we can fell across the gap? That should get us started. If not, this might get tricky. Assuming we have rope or can use thin green branches: Join 2 logs into an A frame Lean that into a standing tree so it's upright We should be able to rest another log on the top of the A frame. Once that's there, we can shuffle the legs of the A frame closer to the standing tree to raise it closer to vertical. Shuffle the now tripod over to the cliff and give it a push so the frame falls into the cliff but the log on top crosses the span.
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# ? Mar 29, 2020 14:51 |
>the bridge is too hard to do on our own, we need to continue on our way
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# ? Mar 30, 2020 03:32 |
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hollylolly posted:>the bridge is too hard to do on our own, we need to continue on our way I see we've got a quitter in our midst.
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# ? Mar 30, 2020 17:44 |
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Edit: Wait, gonna rewrite this update. Cannon Fodder, can you clarify how you imagine "leaning the A-frame against the tree"? I will include this part of the post though: >the bridge is too hard to do on our own, we need to continue on our way You briefly consider giving up, but giving up is not something you are inclined to do immediately. The idea that something might be "too hard" does not rest well in Auton's mind. It's either possible, or not possible, and if it's possible it's not too hard. You do recognize it might not be possible, at least not within a reasonable time frame, and if not you'll have to accept that, but you're not convinced of that yet. It's at least worth trying a few different ideas first before giving up, especially since you already asked to borrow this axe for the next ten hours and told the Woodcutter you were going to do it. An extra ten hours added to your trip while you try to work this out is unlikely to change much of anything. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Mar 30, 2020 |
# ? Mar 30, 2020 17:59 |
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Are we strong enough to pick up a tree? If so we can stick it on its end and let it fall over the chasm.
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# ? Apr 14, 2020 22:31 |
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GlyphGryph posted:Edit: Wait, gonna rewrite this update. Cut down 2 trees. Tie the top of both together. Leave the bottom untied. Bring them to the base of a third tree. You should have L where the vertical bit is the tree and the horizontal is 2 logs. The tied end goes at the intersection. Then you lift the bottom of the L. And pull it into the standing tree to brace it. And lift. And brace. It walks the 2 tied trees up the trunk of the third. Do that till you have something like this l\. Spread the 2 tied trees to the side so they look like this ∆ with the third holding it up. Tie the third tree to the 2 others at the intersection. Then cut the top of the bracing tree. Now cut the bottom. Walk the logs, now a standing tripod to the gap and push them over. If the third log is tall enough, the 2 knocked into the gap and the longer, third, can bridge it. I tried to Google something to show visually but my google fu is weak on mobile. https://youtu.be/4aFjPDcQbZw Cannon_Fodder fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Apr 14, 2021 |
# ? Apr 14, 2021 03:48 |
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Only took a year for you to respond, hahahaha
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# ? Apr 14, 2021 05:58 |
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Toughy posted:Only took a year for you to respond, hahahaha Yeah, sorry. I was looking on mobile for some long-buried thread. Later in the day, I opened mobile again, not realizing it was like 5 pages back on my bookmarks and got excited that it had a comment. I am a fool, a buffoon.
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# ? Apr 14, 2021 13:54 |
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Cannon_Fodder posted:I am a fool, a buffoon. One of us. One of us.
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# ? Apr 14, 2021 16:05 |
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And here I was thinking this new story sounded great, only for it to be already dead and abandoned. Truly I am the April Fool.
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# ? Apr 14, 2021 16:09 |
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Effortposting dead threads in a dead forum. Is this hitting bottom?
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# ? Apr 14, 2021 19:37 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 08:47 |
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Nah you're fine there's always other ways to go lower
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# ? Apr 14, 2021 19:50 |