The Ballad of Adler Young, Canto 2.5

Show Content

Spoiler

Meadow, realize the scope of the threat the Vulpitanian plot could present.
Process of elfying the old crow: Have some... interting and nforseen side effect.

"If these Vulpitanians made that change, how would we know they had done it?" Meadow mused. "As far as I can tell, the Old Crow was declared an honorary elf by King Adler the Prudent. Any changes made to history would be imperceptible as changes .. We would all think that's the way things had always been."

SALVs, perform acts of great embarrassments.
>Meadow: Be simultaneously appalled and intrigued by Rotnev and Nexi's antics.

"You've got to be kidding me," Meadow gasped as she stared through the spyglass and then peered incredulously around it.

Show Content

Spoiler

Meadow: Witness their wholesome and family friendly tap dancing routine.
Which heightens the vulpitanians mood!

"Tum tumm da dee da," Rotnev sang merrily. "I feel as giddy as a schoolkit!"

"Oh Rotnev, darling!" Nexivydah giggled. "How long has it been since we danced? I'm much more elated by our thaumaturgical success than I thought I'd be!"

Adler > look for a spare elf light, give it to your daughter to fly up and replace the burnt out one.
>Get some servant later to replae the elf light for the sergeant. (unless he likes it better in the dark), it'll take a few minutes at most.

"Ixie, can you locate and re-ignite the elflight in this room?" I asked.

"One step ahead of thee, Sire," she replied, buzzing into the shadows near the ceiling.

Avogadro's office, contain many secrets. A few of them, be revealed when the light comes back.
Somebody other than Adler, Avogadro and the Ixie, be lurking in the office.
Adler > Be told the vulp scitentists are eating their supper. Soon it will be time to go to the the lab and investigate or sabotage their experiments.

"Oh dear," Avogadro murmured as the light came back on. "Now you can see how messy it is in here. I'll really be in for it if the Marshal ever stops by for an inspection!"

"Sire," an Ixie thought at me with Elfmind.

"Another one??" I exclaimed suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"Lurking, mainly, and spying on thee for the Queen," she replied. "I also need to tell thee that the Vulpitanians have had their supper and will soon dance themselves into a stupor."

"The special ingredients - ?" Avogadro deduced.

"Yes. The Language of Flavors is a specialized branch of Body Magick," I explained. Turning to the Ixie, I ordered her: "Go and report to the Queen now. She can know where I am but I'd prefer to make the next few minutes' worth of plans in private."

She saluted and buzzed away.

Adler > see if there is anything you could use to disguise yourself or something to hide your self
>All of these disguises could be useful. Maybe grab an armful of supplies before you leave. Want to play dress up?

"Perhaps you could use one of these disguises to conceal yourself from Her Majesty's spies," Avogadro offered helpfully, opening one of the large trunks strewn about the office.

Adler > Be a little dismayed as most of the disguises are for women and a bit suspect.
Adler & Avogadro > try out a variety of disguises. find a mariner outfit with a fake parrot, have a feeling of foreboding

"Umm," I said, examining some of the garments in the trunk. "These are all just a bit too .. lacy and feminine for me."

"I think thou wouldst look quite fetching in that, Sire," the first Ixie remarked with a giggle.

"There is a sailor costume, complete with eye patch and parrot," Avogadro pointed out.

"Forget it," I snapped. "Who's going to fall for that one? A sailor walking around in Government buildings doesn't make any sense."

"Well, what shall we do now?" Avogadro asked.

Adler, see if you can contact an Elfhamian magineer to take a look at it.
> You don't know much about mecanicals so you must seek the help of an engineer.

"While we wait for the visiting SALVs to wear themselves out, perhaps we should look into re-activating Alice Chetsweeks," I decided. "I believe she is of Elfhamian manufacture. I wonder if there's any way we can contact an Elfhame engineer?"

An Elfhamian magineer, be present in the capitol, but be rather busy at the moment.

"There's one of those Elfhamian roebucks here in Albric Tor," Avogadro exclaimed. "He does design and maintenance on the King's mechanical, er, amusements."

"Like that crazy Hoffmann cycle thingy?" I asked.

"Among others."



We made our way quickly to the office of Glencoe Redbough, Royal Magineer, but his secretary mournfully informed us that Master Glencoe was out on a service call at the moment.

"When will he be back?" I asked.

"Sometime, but he still won't be available. See this pile of work orders? He's swamped. Backlogged for weeks. We need more help here, but with the Gaps blocking the roads, and the Tithe Barn under-filled, Elfhame won't be sending anyone any time soon. You can fill out a work request and I'll add it to the pile, and Master Glencoe will eventually get around to it, maybe next month."

"I can't wait a month!" I exclaimed. "I need a mechanical vixen restored to functionality TODAY!"

"Did you say mechanical vixen?" the secretary asked, suspiciously.

"The prosthetic body of a Scuti going by the name of SALV Alice Chetsweeks," I explained.

"That's a confidential Vulpitanian account, and the firm of Redbough & Son cannot release information regarding .." the secretary began.

I pulled out my Hand hat and put it on.

"OFFICIAL Imperial Business," I declared. "Give me whatever documentation you've got on this, because I need to get SALV Chetsweeks working again as soon as possible."

"Have you tried turning her on and off?"

"I don't know how to do that," I explained.

Helpfully produce the manual for the automaton

"Well .." the secretary turned towards a huge filing cabinet and pulled out a drawer. "Because SALV Chetsweeks is normally installed at the Vulpitanian Embassy, we do keep a spare manual and Diagnostic Tool .. the foxes have a tendency to lose track of things like this. I really shouldn't be handing this over to you, but .. well, if it's OFFICIAL Imperial Business .. just bring this back when you're done."

He pulled a medium-sized box out of the drawer and pushed it across his desk toward me.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to parsing these work orders. Any time I can save Master Glencoe on a call is silver in the bank."

I handed the box to Avogadro and we hurried out of the Magineer's office.

Arriving at the Detention Center, I asked the guards to wait outside the door. SALV Chetsweeks' Scuti was sulking angrily inside a large glass jar, but seemed to be unhurt.

(Manual) Unfortunately, be untranslated from the original dialect in which it was written
(Tool) Look very dangerous and possibly embarrassing to use, or be used on.

Avogadro opened the box and pulled out a bizarre-looking implement, which he handed to me. Then he extracted a large, floppy codex which he opened to the table of contents.

"I'm afraid I can't read this," he sighed, squinting at the page.

"Is that Elfhamian?" I asked. "I don't .. hmm. It looks a little bit like Old High Elvish."

"Can you read Old High Elvish?" Avogadro asked, awestruck.

"Just a little. I studied Gramarye when I was an elflet. Let's see ... 'Congratulations on your purchase of Special Automatonic Lifelike Vixen. To more perfectly manage the using of it, please read you a chapter of this firstly: Quickly Starting Guide, parts one through ending' ... no, let me see ... 'The turning of it on,' that might be useful ... oh hey, 'trouble archery!' Something about arrows and trouble, I think, is what Alice said had to be done to her the last time her body malfunctioned. Turn to section Thorn-35."

>Adler: Who knows how to perform maintenance on Alice's body? Her partner, perhaps?
>Adler: Pick random spot, apply Dangerous Looking Tool enthusiastically

The manual was difficult to decipher, but as best I could tell, the bizarre looking tool was some sort of diagnostic doohickey which was to be plugged into the slot where the Scuti pilot went. Presumably this probe would then give us information about the problem, which we could then look up in further detail in the manual.



I rolled Alice's body over, and was steeling my nerves to insert the probe, when suddenly Mara Supial burst in, yelling "WAIT!"

"How did you get past the guards?" I asked.

Show Content

Spoiler

SALVs, go back to the embassy. Half way there, run into the Silverbrushes.

"IT'S THEM!" Sofia squealed.

"Hudalaleigh!" Estvan exclaimed, pointing at Ambassador Chesswick. "Sure, and now THERE'S a cute and grown-up lookin' uniform!"

"Oh yeah?" Yolanda snorted. "I suppose you'd like it if I dressed like that!"

"One way to find out, macushla," Estvan chuckled.

"How can you say such things right in front of the children?" Yolanda barked indignantly.