The Crystal Sslugs of the Test

[AIiCE]

"If we want to convince Ravana that we've already left, it doesn't make sense to destroy any of his equipment just now, unless we do it in a way consistent with our cover story. Thrash, you could smash them in your role as gardener, or allow them to be overgrown by plants. I think we should keep at least some of them around for now. As long as we know how Ravana is watching, we have a chance of tricking his vision."

I strengthen Yerkan's illusion, fooling the sensors into observing obscure things like temperature and radioactivity which Yerkan may have missed.

[AIiCE]

"My probe made it through to the other side of the rift. Here's what it'd reporting:"

You can see what appears to be a fairly average Facet, certainly not one ruled by immortals. Humans are the dominant race. Magic is a bit on the rare side, technology levels are primitive, climate is temperate. Nothing cataclysmic seems to be going on apart from a few minor stars going nova a few hundred lightyears away.

[Steepest Durin]

Th' spinnin', spinnin', spinnin'? Was that th' Mirror's hint ta flip th' message, or was it somethin' else?

I've never met a Ravana. Mebbe some of our Sslug defenses can be used against him, should it prove necessary. I'm not sure all this talk of treatin' him as an enemy is wise. Be prepared, but hold your tongues, or th' cat'll hold 'em.

I'll create a device ta pump magma from Thrash's reservoirs wherever it is needed.

AIiCE an' I configure th' Field Projector ta reprogram th' captive Sslug in a way counter ta his current programmin'. Instruction meets counter-instruction, matter meets antimatter. Their programmin' is physical an' that can be a weakness, say I.

Yerkan, remind I again what ya wanted ta program th' baby Sslug ta do?

Flip th' switch!

[Diamond Master]

STEEPEST DURIN vs OSIS
Tier: Steepest vs Steepest
Domain: Crafting 4 vs Destruction 4
Weakness: None vs Mindless
Equipment: Field Projector vs Withering Eyes
Circumstance: Home Field Advantage vs Captive
Spell: None vs None
Allies: The Council, AIiCE vs 2 additional Sslugs
Insight: Their Strength Against Them vs None

[Yerkan of Elish]

The code I want for the sslug will basically have one command for now: resist. It will act as a shield, rather than crawling around randomly and falling off of cliffs. In the background, it will have other code running looking for other input/output methods so we can actually communicate with it (in order to issue it commands) and reverse engineer some drivers for whatever hardware it has.

[Great Thrash]

We need sorceries to reduce the advantages of the Sslugs. With my magma I will strike for the eyes.

Would it be possible to confine the Sslug of Apathy to a refractive facet where DM Favor doesn't work? Seems unlikely, given the nature of the Diamond Master. It should be relatively easy to separate Frost, since this Sslug is captive. Any other ideas on removing the influence of Apathy?

[Ptah]

"Oh dear, this is getting confusing. I came in in the middle of this action - would someone care to summarize what has happened thus far, and what is happening to each Sslug? It would be a great help."

[Great Thrash]

There are three Sslugs. We think they were dropped off by these flying Citadels, as seen in the first post.

The Sslug of Apathy is in the Diamond Watchtower, paying DM Favor directly to impact our plans or buff its friends. We've done nothing at all to deal with this Sslug.
The Sslug of Frost is the primary destructor. It has some wings crafted by the Sslug of Apathy in the Watchtower. It rains down blasts of energy.
The Sslug of Temptation is the one carving out the trail you decoded. We trapped it in Durin's fortress, which is now an Artifact in its own right. It's still trapped, temporarily, and we can close it off with a ceiling quite easily.

We know that none of our physical attacks do much, and that a Sslug can eventually ooze through any material. We know the Sslugs are wholly mindless and stupid, unless they are receiving instructions through their cyborg eye stalks (presumably, Ravana is involved here?)

We know the Sslugs' bodies are actually a manifestation of their programming.


I've begun writing up a history of the Diamond Pantheon that you can read here.

[AIiCE]

Any other ideas on removing the influence of Apathy?

"One. The HELRIDE transports anything that can be represented as data. I, as a being of programming, am an ideal candidate, but in theory it could transport anyone or anything as long as we could turn them into data. It's quite a stretch, but if we could make something which could break a creature down into a data stream, feed it into the HELRIDE, and reverse the process at the other end, we might be able to send the sslug somewhere else. Like into that black hole we just discovered."

[Ptah]

"Wait, so you're saying that you could take a physical object and turn it into data? It would be incredible if it worked, but I don't think it would. I mean, I know that almost anything can be represented as data, but turning an object into data doesn't make it stop being an object too. You can use the HELRIDE because you're only data, but to use it for the Sslugs - or anything else - we'd have to destroy their physical bodies. And we can't do that - not yet, anyway."