So here I am, transported by a purple tentacle to a room with a man I can barely communcate with. The woman, Cordelia, said that she had been attacked by something, and went to bed, leaving the human with some sort of gunor small cannon I think, (although the projectiles must be very small) and a sword.
The room itself was interesting though.There wasa kitchen with food inpackets- mostly a very thin metal I think.An ice boxwith some sort of light inside (not magical and who would put a gas lamp in an ice box?), sink and pump, and an apparently gas powered oven. The door looked like a bank vault door - metal with a large wheel. The sword was magiacl and very sharp, and a damaged suit of armour in the corner seemed to be made of very tough cloth (couldn't pierce with a fork) with metal plates stitched into it.
There were also some guns around, so I took a short musket and familiarised myself with it. The breach loading mechanism was novel and seemed to involve some sort of 'pump' action.
Five, maybe six hours later another wanderer turned up by tentacle. She said that she was called Charity and seemed to know both the original two occupants( the other one was asleep when we arrived, but called herself Vialle and clamied she was a Queen. She was also blind.)
It seems that Charity could understand both myself and my companion, but wasn't very helpful when I asked about this. Mind you, she also claimed that I was human! Also that we weere related! if she continues to make these claims I shall have to watch her closely - she may be unstable.
Shortly it was time to leave. We took supplies for the journey (48 hours) and some weapons. Apparently some would not work where we were going - metal fatigue in cold climates perhaps? I hear that Napolean had these problems.
The land outside was a waste-land. A city apparently attacked by some massive artillery bombardment. It must have been very localised though, for we quickly walked into a much more pleasent landscape. Charity mentioned something about this being somewhere else - mentally unstable perhaps?
After a few hours walking we found horses, and then a few hours later we came across two trucks, apparently hidden by a "Holo screen"? They did appear out of thin air an no magic appeared to be used.
Perhaps I should describe these 'trucks', as they are nothing like I have seen before. Apparently controleld by some giant magical engine, they are of metal. perhaps 20' high, 10'wide and 60' long. you must climb into them up a ladder where there are some padded seats, a few dials, and more glass than I can remember seeing in a single sheet. Its also curved. There is only a single row of seats, and a bed, though. Apparently the rest is for cargo.
Charity seemed familiar with piloting along lanses, and soon we were travelling along lanes with similar machines.
Our first stop was at Fort Worth, where we loaded up with cargo, using something that seems to be called a 'fork-lift truck', the concept of which I cna more clearly see, although I am a little surprised by the size of the machine and consequent necessary reduced engine size.
Our next stop was before something called 'The Black Road'. An apparently harmless half mile wide stretch of black earth. Never the less, travelling across it filled me with dread, even though I hardly saw what was on it.
We were assisted by artillery fire, but even so something managed to make a hole in the metal armour of our truck. What ever it was was only driven away when I fired musket round after musket round into it. The damage to our truck after we had crossed was quite something. Cordelia seemd to be quite overcome. She didn't seem like the Jane Austen type, but you can never tell with Humans.
Our next stop was York - although not a York I'm familiar with, and then Lucern, and then we end up parked in a forest again.
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| Hero of the Hour - Alfred | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |