The Crystal Sslugs of the Test

[Yerkan of Elish]

Hmm. A large cat.

I will go exploring, into the deeper parts of this world, and see what I can find. I will go where few have gone and where our names are not known. I will seek out this cat, and I will continue to seek out allies and believers who will provide sentiment against the Heralds. And I will laugh. I will do much work for the sole purpose of laughter, bringing people from one world into another, saving them through pure accident, and telling the Steep Comedies that I have collected in my studiolo.

[Diamond Master]

The imprisoned Sslug continues to carve. Then, he comes to a halt.

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Then he levels his eye-lasers at whatever is nearest and begins blasting away.

[the Steep Norns]

Without Eitr in the world, dearie, all that could possibly be new should have to come from we Sisters and our Brother.

But how little Eitr it takes to power the engine of imagination! The Eitr has always decreased as each Facet ages, ages. It leaks away, away, to fulfill new Facets. Things will become harder for you here: developing tools, growing in strength, maintaining defenses, altering reality as only gods can. This we prophesy: You will cope. You will maintain your potency and ingenuity, even without the Eitr all around you, visible and tangible.

Thrash, you know the physical threats to the Facet are not caused by the Eitr's state directly.

[Yerkan of Elish]

Hah! I dare anyone to try to take away my ingenuity, Eitr or no Eitr.

In many stories, the world as a whole is saved, but much that is beautiful is destroyed. Thrash, can you move parts of the garden across the world to a different place, leaving a clear landing for our coming enemy, that we may fight a fairer fight with them without risking so much of this universe's treasures. We'll want some sort of environment to utilize, though, so I shall set up a field representing all climates and elements in its place, with the help of any deities that will work with me. We can't predict what our minds will think up in the course of battle, so let's provide ourselves with as many resources as we can.

[Great Thrash]

Difficult, given the adamas component. I am sure many treasures can be saved, but others more deeply rooted are doomed to be destroyed, I think.

[Grey Aides]

The trilobite's oracular muddying will not show you who built the Sslugs, but you can see that the creator is coming slowly closer to the Garden.

• You see a conflated image of several muddy, tarnished, old elements fuse together into a shiny, untarnished stainless-steel Sslug
• You see wiring writhing about, and a big cat's teeth open in an agonized scream before it too becomes stainless steel
• You see spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning!

The first two images... enemies?
But what could the spinning be? An enemy...of boundless energy, a...vortex?




My friends....we must end this threat...conclusively! Before the...creator... arrives!

I shall assist in...striking a blow...As the Sslug fires...I slow time around the bolt...letting the writhing beast perchance crawl right into destruction...of his own making!

[Great Thrash]

I'm not sure that the appearance of two enemies in the Mirror means that all revealed within will be enemies. It is designed to show many things, is it not, Yerkan?

[Yerkan of Elish]

Indeed; it shows reflections of many kinds.

But what Aides says has made me think... The other hero deities and I have discovered strange, anomalous energies within the hamlet. An incising energy springing from nowhere. Perhaps this is the spinning that the Mirror has shown.

[Great Thrash]

I suppose there is no guarantee that it will show you things directly related to what you hold in front of it. Still, it would seem a bit of a non sequitor.

What do you know about the Hamlet energy? Does it spin?

[AIiCE]

There are a few different energies. One of them is electronic. Perhaps it has wiring somewhere.