>>6180249>VitruviaOn the eastern edges of Vitruvia reports come in of the Skrit moving into the jungles. They tend toward the bothersome, have no respect for personal property, and typically lower the property value of the neighborhood, but by and large the locals get by with strategic bribery of the ants, feeding them waste rubbish and bribing them to deal with local animal pests.
The gift of the dwarves is much appreciated, and more analytical research of the runes begins in earnest even as the walls of the Runic Workshop are being built, which is for the best given that no one is quite sure what a Runic Workshop should even contain. There appears to be five distinct symbols, the Spike, a prerequisite for other runes to activate, Bang, which seems to emit light, Chute, which seems to cause magical darkness, Brazier, which causes heat, and Bin which seems to remove temperature. Useful runic lab tools quickly find themselves in use in alchemical pursuits, and there’s further talk of developing weapons based on the runic abilities.
Vitruvia rarely pauses to ask ‘should’, usually more concerned with ‘could’. So it goes with the Pipeworks, a complex pump network powered by the hard labor of two dozen polymyria. With many a groan and gurgle and whisper of madness the Nachetar oil is pumped up from the deepest darkness. Here and there patches are applied, alchemist’s fire is applied to spills, possessed renovants put down. Slowly but surely the oil level falls.
There at the bottom are ebon statues, appearing to be of polished jet stone, only the faintest shine of reflected light revealing their contours. Each one is a remarkable work of art, startling in their beauty. They form little tableaus, each cluster a different race never seen. Tiny lizard men playing a game with a ball, lithe women with long staves topped with sizable crystals kneeling before a queen, a single twelve foot cyclopean giant reading a book, a pair of insect men with broad butterfly like wings, one gesturing his mouth open to speak words that will never be heard. The scene stretches out in all directions for some distance as the explorers trudge along in thick boots, there might be over a thousand statues here. Each and every one of them weeps a small but steady stream of Nachetar oil.
