Best Of

A little solo bit


You begin to wield a whirring screwdriver in your left hand.

You begin to wield a functional steel spatula in your right hand.

Nepenthe approaches one of the damaged machines and runs his fingertips over its face, exploring sugar-crusted seams and batter-clogged rivets.

Chipping away with a whirring screwdriver at a particularly stubborn glob of hardened caramel, Nepenthe manages to dislodge the only adhesive keeping a dented panel attached to the machine.

An enormous stuffed dragon leans over Nepenthe's head and watching him work with fascination.

Nepenthe glances up at an enormous stuffed dragon and over his shoulder surreptitiously before wedging the flat end of a whirring screwdriver into a small gap between the loose panel and its housing. With a deft bap of the tool's handle, he liberates the panel and reveals the hidden miracles of clockwork it had hidden.

You look up into the air for divine inspiration.

Nepenthe lays out an opulent, leather-bound brown sketchpad and opens to a page bearing detailed sketches of the contraption from earlier, and begins faithfully reproducing a diagram of the interior of the machine, utilizing some artistic license where the machinery's true shape is indecipherably obscured by confectionary detritus.

(Market): Raphie DiGagio says, "I've just arrived in Lyraa Ey Rielys! Will I be able to find some haute couture here, I wonder?"

You say, "Crap."

You easily vault onto the back of an enormous stuffed dragon.

[To aethertrade and back!]

You look undecided and say, "All right, where was I."

Nepenthe returns to an opulent, leather-bound brown sketchpad and the open panel, peering inside the latter and faithful transcribing it into the former.

An enormous stuffed dragon observes with nothing but a mechanical rumble, idly patting his belly as Nepenthe works.

Nearly conking his skull on the upper rim of the panel as he perks up, you say, "Oh yeah."

Nepenthe runs a claw across an enormous stuffed dragon's belly, as if to cut away a square of corduroy from the beast's front. No damage befalls the plush dragon, but a ripple trails behind the tae'dae's paw as he dispels the glamour concealing a few discreet fasteners.

Nepenthe unclasps the fasteners and pulls down a square flap of corduroy to reveal an intricate mechanism of shiny steel and brass, perpetually moving with fluid precision and smelling faintly of bacon.

A look of existential dread passes over an enormous stuffed dragon's docile face as Nepenthe exposes his innards.

Nepenthe instructs an enormous stuffed dragon to stand near the open panel so he can view both machines at once, taking a moment to draft a rough diagrammatic sketch of an enormous stuffed dragon's mechanism on the page opposite his other sketches.

Looking from the stuffed beast to the broken machine, you say to an enormous stuffed dragon, "They're nothing alike. I don't even know what I'm looking at in there."

You smile impishly and say to an enormous stuffed dragon, "But who lets a lack of understanding get in the way of Ingenuity?"

An enormous stuffed dragon nods warily at Nepenthe.

Nepenthe brings a whirring screwdriver to bear on some imperceptibly loose screws amidst an enormous stuffed dragon's mechanism, tuning up the workings with the precision of experience and familiarity before re-fastening his fabric belly and re-weaving the glamour concealing its seams.

A low, contented growl arises within an enormous stuffed dragon's chest.

Returning his attention to the stopped machinery, Nepenthe rumbles with a growl of his own, decidedly less content than Radlii's. Holding up an opulent, leather-bound brown sketchpad to compare his work to the model, makes a few subtle adjustments to his sketch before tucking the book away in an enormous stuffed dragon's endless bulk.

Nepenthe emits a faint grunt as he hauls up the loose panel and gently pound it back into its housing. Lacking any screws or other fasteners, the panel wobbles slightly but doesn't threaten to fall out on its own.

You say to an enormous stuffed dragon, "Can't let 'em down, bud."

An enormous stuffed dragon stares blankly at you.

You say to an enormous stuffed dragon, "We've got to at least look like we know what we're doing."

An enormous stuffed dragon nods his head at you.

You laughingly say, "Let's scram before Tantus or somebody pokes their head in."

You easily vault onto the back of an enormous stuffed dragon.

Appearance:

a Crumkanean grease monkey suit

Dropped:

Splotched with cooking oil and confectionery detritus, a pink coverall suit lies here in a crumpled heap.

Examined:

Sewn from sturdy, twill-woven cotton and dyed bubblegum pink, this coverall suit comprises straight-legged trousers and a long-sleeved shirt in one uninterrupted piece. Highly practical, if not entirely fashionable, the garment boasts an egregious number of pockets and superfluous belt loops on both the legs and breast, allowing for all sorts of tools or treats to be stashed away for easy access. Discreet slits in the upper back and an aperture in the seat of the trousers accommodate wings or a tail as needed, but otherwise blend in fairly seamlessly. A clean cut runs from collar to groin, secured with a baker's dozen lozenge-shaped, smoothly burnished steel toggles that can be fastened or undone with ease and efficiency. Sporadic splotches of cooking oil, streaks of crusted-over caramel, and a seemingly perpetual dusting of powdered sugar signify the wearer as a mechanical acolyte of the Lord Epicurean.