|
Q. How do I get into the Birdhouse?
A. You can try to enter the Birdhouse:
> go to grand stair top
> w
(first opening the engraved door)
You reach for the handle, but your fingers go numb and slide away.
Lovely. With everything that's wrong on the Retort, this one security stricture remains perfectly
functional. It's reacting to your psychic signature - an ensign can't just walk into the Birdhouse,
so when you approach, the door gets defensive. Yes, "defensive" is a technical term in aura
engineering.
But you can't just walk in. So we're going to need something to get us past that bit of "aura
engineering". Hey, how about this ritual we found in the Master Rector's Quarters:
> recall aura invisibility
"ROYCE'S INSCRIPTION, to RENDER ONE'S AURA INVISIBLE: Invoke an environment of
spiritual peace. Begin with a quartz token in the bound; this represents the ka soul. Invoke the
Ka Sealing. Sprinkle copper percalcinate over the token, representing the ba soul. Invoke an
idempotent structure. Pour sublime spirit over the token; this represents the evanescence of the
soul's name. Close with an elementary word of binding. This inscription will render the subject's
aura indetectable to malign forces, though only briefly."
OK, we need to make 'copper percalcinate' first:
> recall facts
> recall percalination (procedure found in Opticks Annex)
"Percalcination: to repeat the calcination procedure. (Typically produces a more stable and
potent reagent.) First, calcine a metal. Then seal the retort (Hermetic) and invoke the
Crystalline Tempering to clarify the salt's structure. Add more acid to redissolve, and continue
heating until a second crystallization occurs."
But that requires that we first calcine the metal:
> recall copper calcination (from a sheet found in the Chymic Lab)
"Lab demonstration #5: Calcinate of copper. Place muriatic acid and quickcopper (orichalcum)
in the retort. Heat to dissolve, and continue heating until the green salt crystallizes. Note:
product is unstable! Flush retort directly after demonstration; do not extract calcinate."
Ah. We need to do this in two steps, leaving the results of the first step in the retort as
it's unstable: Click here to show/hide steps for
creating copper percalcinate
> find muriatic acid
> take it
> find orichalcum
> open safe
> take orichalcum
> go to retort
> put muriatic acid in retort
> put orichalcum in retort
> turn on burner
> z (7 times, until the mixture turns into crystals)
> turn off burner
Just leave those crystals in the retort, and carry out the next steps straight after:
> recite hermetic sealing
> recite crystalline tempering
> put muriatic acid in retort
> turn on burner
> z (4 times, then you automatically turn off the burner and transfer the percalcinate to a vial)
Another prerequisite for the aura invisibility inscription is sublime spirit, the recipe
of which can be found in the Observatory Alcove, South:
> recall sublime spirit
"THE SYNTHESIS of SUBLIME SPIRIT (the eighth distilled essence of mineral oil): Place mineral
oil and nickel into a retort. (Thin pieces of nickel are best, as the surface area must be large.)
Invoke the sealing, followed by a word of entension (to prevent the oil from igniting). Introduce
elemental fire into the retort to begin the distillation. You may then easily extract the desired
fractions."
The instructions state: "Thin pieces of nickel are best, as the surface area must be large."
So I ran the nickel rod through the wire-drawer first. The word of entension was on a sheet of paper in
the Chymic Lab. You can create the elemental fire easily too:
> perform gold ignition
Then we can make the sublime spirit:
Click here to show/hide ritual steps
> put mineral oil in retort
> put nickel wire in retort
> recite hermetic sealing
> recite word of entension (found in the Chymic Lab)
> put elemental fire in retort
That does it, but note that we have de-phlogisticated the gold rod in the process.
Oh well. But now we can finally perform the aura invisibility inscription ritual. You can use either of
the quartz prisms as a token, and either the rotor card set to 'Rainbow' or the Chinese amulet to create
the atmosphere of spiritual peace. Click here to
show/hide ritual steps
> put amulet on shelf
> put prism in bound
> recite ka sealing (found in Study Room by looking through oculus)
> sprinkle copper percalcinate on prism
> recite idempotent group (found in Master Rector's Quarters)
> pour sublime spirit on prism
> recite elementary binding
> take amulet
> take prism
Now we can head back to the Birdhouse and gain entry:
> go to grand stair top
> touch self with prism
> w
Click here to show/hide
spoilers concerning what you find in the Birdhouse
Birdhouse
The Birdhouse is a circular chamber with no roof. It's not open to the sky; it just goes up forever.
The door to the east is open. You also see a cracked flagstone with a gap leading to a crawlspace
below.
The name comes from a ring of metal pylons that take up the center of the room. You can see
the fanciful resemblance to a birdcage, although they don't imprison anything.
The dragon Syndesis is a mandala of alchemical runes inscribed across the curving wall. This
one, too, looks lifeless and inert.
A fragment of paper lies to one side.
If this is your first dragon, it's very likely not what you expected at all (I was expecting to
have to fight a powerful creature... or something :-) Anyway, it's very important that you do the
following with all the dragons you encounter, because you need the resulting info to figure out what's
wrong with the marcher:
> x dragon
Circles of grey-glimmering runes hang on the Birdhouse wall. This is Syndesis, one of the
marcher's four dragons. Syndesis is responsible for the Retort's travel between worlds and its
coherence within itself.
Something is wrong, however. By all accounts, the circles of runes should be rotating, eternally
reading themselves. The color is wrong too. Syndesis can't be dead (or you'd be stuck in a
doorless room), but it clearly isn't working correctly.
You wrack your brains, trying to recall the Sergeant's lecture on the theory of dragons.
> recall lecture on dragons (obviously, you only need to recall this
lecture once)
A marcher is built around four incredibly complex alchemical constructs, called dragons.
("Because they'll bite you on the arse if you're careless," runs the joke, but in fact nobody knows
the origin of the name.) Pneuma regulates light and air; Baros regulates stability and gravity;
Aistheta manages navigation; Syndesis binds the rooms of the marcher together and to its
destinations.
The dragons are the Retort's vital organs. Constructing each one took months of work by a crew
of trained rectors. The idea that they've gone wrong is deeply disturbing.
It's also very important to investigate a bit further, to figure out exactly what parts of the
marcher aren't functioning correctly because if this dragon's impairment:
> x dragon through oculus
The oculus reveals Syndesis as a web of occult relations running throughout the Retort. It doesn't
look good.
The architecture of the marcher is full of holes. The worst are by the secondary alchemy lab, the
chymic lab, the opticks lab, and the deck suite.
Hmm. Looks like fixing Syndesis might get rid of the fractures in those locations.
Return
to the main walkthrough
|
