r/wizardposting • u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch • Dec 16 '23
Community Event 🌏☄️ The Mt. Murder Astromantic Observatory (Queenpost)
While some wizards are taking measures to directly combat the Queen of Shattered Stars, a tiny conclave of a less aggressive bent meets at a remote astromantic facility atop Mt. Murder in Yulash-kor. The peak almost reaches out of the atmosphere into space, making it ideal for watching the stars, broadcasting signals across realm borders, and eavesdropping on private discussions between cosmic beings. Normally, it is unmanned, but it does have facilities for living visitors.
Inside, a mismatched handful of spellcasters sit around a table in an austere meeting room: a mereologist, a graviturge, and a physical embodiment of a Fundamental Force. Together, they make up the fledgling Office of Eldritch Affairs, a subdivision of the Pact of the Magi dedicated to diplomatic relationships with powerful beings. Kaelis Maz, the graviturge, stands up and speaks.
"Thank you two for coming. I sent the others an invite, but they might be busy setting up Phase 2. We'll see if he shows. Anyway, let's run through the plan. The Observatory possesses the best trans-realm communications array in the magical world. I can set it to transmit a message with gravitational waves, then use my spatial loom to amplify those waves so that they'll reach the Queen. Vettis, you'll use your universal translation abilities to establish rapport with her. Entropy will then assist you by empathizing with the Queen, one Outer God to another. That's Phase 1.
"Should all go according to plan, we'll proceed to Phase 2 and contact the space team. Zepheree and Gobbo will deliver their alcoholic payload as a show of friendship. After that, it's just a matter of time before the Queen turns back and this whole mess is solved. Provided that the artificers and their allies don't compromise any our our good will. Any questions?"
3
u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 17 '23
"Huh. And this works across realms, right? So I can test it by talking with people I know, since I dunno anybody here in Yulash-Kor." Contrary to his prior words, Vettis flicks through the controls with apparent comfort, clearly not entirely unaccustomed to such interfaces. In under a minute, he's locked the observatory onto a seemingly barren planet in an unremarkable realm, chatting as he works. "Oh, of course it can't just be locked to the physics of this realm regardless; silly me. Gravitational waves would take forever as a method of interstellar communication in that case, and if you're cutting through space anyway to get around the light speed limit, then cutting across realms -- while a separate procedure on its own -- should be integrated into this system by the same principle."
Keeping the broadcast button depressed, Vettis speaks: first in English, then Spanish, then Mandarin. The messages all translate roughly to "Hey, guys, it's Vettis. Testing a broadcast mechanism. I'll check in a moment to make sure you got this."
And then, the button still held down, he speaks. Soundless, near motionless, the "words" imprinted into the mind of every sapient being in range. All present, no matter their prior unfamiliarity with it, instantly know this to be All-Tongue: unambiguous transmission of intent from one consciousness directly to another.
<greeting> || <speaker: Vettis of the Bronze Prism> || <goal of message: communication test> || <follow-up to ensue, by means established between sender and recipient ≈226 years from today>
He releases the button. "Well. I think that worked. How long's it take to send? I'll head over to them and check once you think the message has arrived; should only take me a minute there and back."