Hlapven wasn't playing with others, not yet at least. He planned to, if only give it a shot, but from the expressions of those seated around him this promised to be an entertaining venture. He just wouldn't do it yet. There was something else he was in the middle of right now.
"Who did this. . ?"
Hlapven was inspecting the items he had been given with vigor, the two dice and 25 chips displayed a level of detail that were astonishing to him. The chips were his focus of course, given their closeness to currency. His territory was home to more minerals than just Seahrdrin - silver and gold were also present in large enough quantities to be profitable - so he was familiar with the processes of minting, casting, and forging. It was those fields that provided him his justification for confusion.
As far as he could tell, these chips should not be possible. More specifically, the little engravings that ran across the surface violated some basic understandings with the metalworking techniques he understood.
Forging was almost certainly out of the question, the precision required to repeat those little lines running all across the surface ad nauseum was not within the realm of human possibility. The indentations seemed to be as thin as or thinner than hair at certain points, smoothly transitioning to larger divots without any roughness along the edge that would indicate the use of separate tools. Even if one person could theoretically do this once, just for the sake of argument, Hlapven was confident that not even a god could recreate the design so perfectly 24 more times. Doing it 500 times? More? It simply wasn't possible.
Casting, that being the process of pouring metal into a mold, was also out of the question. The sands used to cast couldn't possibly give such a smooth surface, nor could it make such clean lines on the engravings. Minting was out for a similar reason, even a stamp would show some sort of imperfection at some point. Besides, Hlapven could very clearly see that this was Sword's Metal. It was far too hard to make an indent with a minting stamp.
To take that last point further, not even the Bulsarszian Empire would issue a mint for a party currency. Hell, even if this was pure gold they wouldn't be able to get the stamp this precise. Ceramic stamps, the most precise variety he knew of, could not physically be molded to such precision.
That brought up further questions, questions about tools. This was steel, one of the hardest metals he knew of, and it could only be produced in limited quantities if you wanted anything useful out of it. Even using a steel tool to make the carvings would result in wear on the edge, resulting in flaws. But there were no flaws. Hlapven could only conclude that no tools were involved in this process, at least none that he had any knowledge of.
". . . should I go and ask?"
He didn't want to seem clueless, but it was apparent to him that this technique was beyond anything he knew. If he didn't know, then there wasn't much of a chance that anyone else knew either. That being said, keeping this inquiry discrete was probably for the better.
- - - - -
Diana was sitting at a table with a group of other nobles, watching them play as she ate. She would join later, but for now she was content to let them figure out the rules.
"Does that make 24?"
"I think you are only at 23."
"Really?"
Diana didn't know if their math skills were subpar or if they had simply forgotten their score from their last turn. "Your score is currently 21. Last round you were left with thirteen and your cargo for this round totaled eight, which sums to 21."
"Ah, thank you Lady Helmsguard." A nod from one of the involved parties. "I do wish it was easier to keep track of this."
"Perhaps you could use a counter of some kind? Placing coins or using the spare dice to keep track?" Diana wasn't going to try to teach them about numbers right now, she had neither pen nor paper to do it with. "You could do something like have the number on your dice multiply the number of coins next to it plus whatever you place to the side."
Diana began to think about all of the permutation to reach every number between 1 and 23. One through six were covered, seven was a plus one, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18 and 20 were all achievable with some permutation of a die number multiplied by 1 to 4 coins, meaning that you could make every number with seven coins and one die. 23 was the most taxing on the coin front, but they could probably remember that.
"Excuse me, Lady Diana?" One of the wait staff Merndil had hired approached Diana from behind. "Lord Hlapven wishes to discuss something with you."
"Hm?" Diana looked up and to the side, noticing the relevant party seated at a nearby table. "I see. Gentleman, thank you for humoring me but I must be going now. Something has come up."
"No matter, we will be enjoying ourselves regardless."
Diana brought her plate with her, not wanting to waste the salad.
"Have I done something to offend?"
"No, not in the slightest. I would go so far as to say you have done an excellent job with your current level of experience." Hlapven gestured for her to take a seat. "My question was a little more personal, but still related to the party."
"Is there something you wanted to know about the games?"
"Tangentially. My question was more in regards to what accompanies them. These," Hlapven slid a coin towards the center of the table with his index finger, "these coins, tokens. I've never seen such exquisite craftmanship before! Where did you find them? Are they a product of the craftsmen in your homeland?"
Diana kept a smile on her face, but internally there was a hint of panic. Nobody had though about the coins, there was just a general agreement that it was a good idea.
"I'm not entirely sure, about where we found them that is. They are certainly a product of our nation. Donovan was the one who suggested them." Diana was trying to figure out what the hell she should be doing here. Was it a good thing Hlapven found out? Were the production methods supposed to be a secret? What did he even find so exotic about them? "He would know more about it."
"Ah, yes, of course. I remember you mentioned he had something of a fascination with metals. I would certainly be interested in speaking with him about this." Hlapven rolled one of the dice, marveling at the sheen, smoothness, and artisanry. "Do you know where I might find him?"
"I believe he mentioned something about Snakes and Ladders before running off, so I imagine that he would be close to that station if he was to be anywhere at all." Diana was preparing to abandon her plate. "Shall we head over?"
"I am capable of going on my own if you have something else to do. All I need is a direction."
"You misunderstand, I also wish to know. It would be rude of me to send every person who wished to know in his direction, being able to explain it myself would be a preferable alternative."
"I see. In that case I will trust you to lead the way."
- - - - -
"So how did this game get the name again?" Donovan had accompanied Merndil on Diana's request while she ate, though he was not speaking to Merndil at this moment. "It was Snakes and Ladders, right?"
"You'll have to forgive me for not knowing the specifics, but I believe that it was first created as a means to impound virtues and evils into children's minds by way of an easy to play game. Snakes, those scaly legless beasts you see, are often seen as an incarnation of evil. One of our more major myths proclaims that the reason they don't have legs is because they deceived the Great God." Donovan put his index fingers in front of his canines. "They hid in bushes and grass, waiting for someone to pass so they could bite into them and inject a deadly venom."
"They sound like hideous creatures!"
"Undoubtedly so for their actions against the Great Csillacra!"
Some in the room were a little tipsy, others a little more.
"I see, what of the ladders then?" Prince Merndil had taken some interest in the games he had seen thus far, more intrigued by the cultural significance than anything with regards to the rules. "Presumably they are virtues? If so, why are they ladders?"
"I believe the reasoning is that maintaining a virtuous lifestyle is difficult, but will bring you to higher places. Once again, I ask you not to quote me on that." Donovan was bullshitting a little bit right now, he had forgotten some of what Arc told him about the game's history.
"I see. . ." Merndil sunk into thought as he watched some of the others roll the dice. "Might I hazard a guess at the deeper meaning of this game?"
Donovan was a little puzzled, but he played his part to a satisfactory degree. "Be my guest."
"I posit that the intended message behind this game is as follows. The path to the top is a long and arduous journey, one with many opportunities and many obstacles. That said, there are ways to shorten that journey. Being virtuous, while difficult, will grant you opportunities to excel and grow, however you must beware the snakes, evil people and actions that wish nothing more to bite your heel and drag you back down to where you began. Should you maintain a virtuous lifestyle and watch out for the evils that lurk, you shall find yourself climbing to the pinnacle in time." Merndil took a light sip of his wine. "Is that correct?"
"That just about covers it, yes." Donovan was a little stunned by the analysis out of left field. Of course he wasn't alone in that regard, many of those sitting around the table were stuck with 'enlightened' faces as they murmured their approval of the Crown Prince.
"I must say it is quite an ambitious endeavor for a mere game, but I cannot help but feel that it would work. I won't claim to be familiar, but I remember being quite the impetulant child. I could very easily see how they might come to avoid such evils should they lose in a game because of them, though I cannot imagine such a feeling would extend into adulthood."
"Perhaps not, Crown Prince, but perhaps that is where the influence of adults come in."
"Having the game give them an impression while an adult impounds upon them the reason would certainly be more effective."
Other nobles seemed eager to engage in conversation with Merndil whenever possible. The reasons for which were fairly obvious, even to Donovan.
"I see, would you two happen to be familiar with children? Are you perhaps fathers in your own right?"
"I am merely the eldest of many siblings, I am intimately familiar with the behavior of children."
"My sister has a son who I have grown somewhat attached to, so I have picked up on a thing or two."
Merndil chuckled, making himself a more inviting conversationalist.
"Lord Merndil, Donovan." Diana approached from behind, addressing the highest ranked individual before her spouse as a sign of respect. "I apologize if I am interrupting anything, but Lord Hlapven has a question for Donovan."
"Oh? Don't worry for us, Lady Diana." Merndil gestured to the chair on his left, an invitation for Hlapven to take a seat. "My apologies, Lady Diana, but we don't have a seat open for you."
"I'll stand, I'm more comfortable on my feet anyways." Donovan got up and offered his seat to Diana, he had been paying attention to his manners.
"No, I couldn't dare ask you a question while seated!"
"With all due respect Lord Hlapven, my roots are with the military. I am more than used to addressing those who are seated while standing at attention." Donovan pushed Diana's chair in before making his way to Hlapven's side. "Now what was it you wanted to know?"
Hlapven's token resistance was squashed by the insistence of the host, further pushback would only make him look bad.
"It is to do with these tokens you have handed out tonight, I have never seen anything like them. The level of precision and detail that went into their production seems impossible for the amount you have presented us. How were they made?"
Donovan took out a token from his pocket and inspected it closely. He knew all about the basic processes involved, but he wanted to go through each step.
"Those of you more familiar metals might know that it is a form of iron, steel in this case. I believe it was probably first cast into a long uniform cylinder and then cut at even intervals to give identical tokens. After that the engraving and polishing took place, though I cannot say which came first. Does that satisfy you?"
"You cut ste-" Hlapven stopped himself, he could believe someone could do that with a sufficiently large amount of split. "Not quite, I was really more interested in the tool used to engrave the wing on the faces of the coins. From what I can tell they are all identical, which leads me to believe it was a stamp or cast of some kind, but I don't think I've ever seen one that can make such precise and uniform indentations."
Donovan cringed inside. It was a glaringly obvious oversight on his part, Arc had done this with one of the Cutter lasers. These were all laser engravings.
"It's . . . something of a secret I think. I for one have no clue how they actually do it, but I know that the 'tool' that was used to make those patterns was something you are all pretty familiar with." Donovan wondered how far he should go. They wouldn't understand the concept of lasers and instantaneous sublimation, but maybe he could dumb it down to a technically incorrect but fundamentally similar concept, it wasn't like they were going to figure that shit out without centuries of technological advancement. "They used light."
Shock and awe from the small audience. Even Diana raised an eyebrow, though she was doing it because she wasn't sure if it was a good idea.
"Light?!"
"That's preposterous!"
"Hahaha!"
Donovan took the disbelief and disregard with a neutral expression. Their disposition towards the information was irrelevant to the truth.
"Believe it or not, that is how it's done." He thought about the Cutter, both it's reputation and capability. "It is dangerous, of course. As you might imagine, a blade of light is incredibly hot. However it is also incomparably sharp, just as capable of melting away metals as it is cutting through them. It's particularly effective at making shallow cuts like this, it doesn't require as intense a light and can be moved around quite quickly."
Hlapven was the only one who didn't seem to doubt him, Merndil perhaps being the only exception. Nothing he knew of was capable of what he had seen, so it must have been the responsibility of something he couldn't imagine.
"Would I possibly be able to witness such an engraving take place?"
"No. It is an incredibly secretive and precious technique, not to mention a dangerous one." Donovan wasn't about to bring someone out to where Arc was. "That being said, should you suspect that I am lying and that the dice and coins are instead cast I will consider bringing a dagger or something to the craftsman to be engraved. Surely that would ease your suspicions, no?"
Hlapven still appeared to be the only one convinced that Donovan was telling the truth, and he was incredibly tempted to take him up on the offer. The only thing holding him back was that he was hesitant about handing over another Seahrdrin dagger.
"Should you have a specific design in mind, that can be arranged."
Well, so long as he got the dagger back there wasn't anything to worry about. Bending over and pulling up a pant leg once more, Hlapven prepared to hand over another precious item.
cakeonfrosting Hehe, laser goes BZZZZZZZT!
Yeah, I'm losing my mind in Thermodynamics, what of it? It totally hasn't affected my writing quality at all, no siree!
Hlapven wasn't playing with others, not yet at least. He planned to, if only give it a shot, but from the expressions of those seated around him this promised to be an entertaining venture. He just wouldn't do it yet. There was something else he was in the middle of right now.
"Who did this. . ?"
Hlapven was inspecting the items he had been given with vigor, the two dice and 25 chips displayed a level of detail that were astonishing to him. The chips were his focus of course, given their closeness to currency. His territory was home to more minerals than just Seahrdrin - silver and gold were also present in large enough quantities to be profitable - so he was familiar with the processes of minting, casting, and forging. It was those fields that provided him his justification for confusion.
As far as he could tell, these chips should not be possible. More specifically, the little engravings that ran across the surface violated some basic understandings with the metalworking techniques he understood.
Forging was almost certainly out of the question, the precision required to repeat those little lines running all across the surface ad nauseum was not within the realm of human possibility. The indentations seemed to be as thin as or thinner than hair at certain points, smoothly transitioning to larger divots without any roughness along the edge that would indicate the use of separate tools. Even if one person could theoretically do this once, just for the sake of argument, Hlapven was confident that not even a god could recreate the design so perfectly 24 more times. Doing it 500 times? More? It simply wasn't possible.
Casting, that being the process of pouring metal into a mold, was also out of the question. The sands used to cast couldn't possibly give such a smooth surface, nor could it make such clean lines on the engravings. Minting was out for a similar reason, even a stamp would show some sort of imperfection at some point. Besides, Hlapven could very clearly see that this was Sword's Metal. It was far too hard to make an indent with a minting stamp.
To take that last point further, not even the Bulsarszian Empire would issue a mint for a party currency. Hell, even if this was pure gold they wouldn't be able to get the stamp this precise. Ceramic stamps, the most precise variety he knew of, could not physically be molded to such precision.
That brought up further questions, questions about tools. This was steel, one of the hardest metals he knew of, and it could only be produced in limited quantities if you wanted anything useful out of it. Even using a steel tool to make the carvings would result in wear on the edge, resulting in flaws. But there were no flaws. Hlapven could only conclude that no tools were involved in this process, at least none that he had any knowledge of.
". . . should I go and ask?"
He didn't want to seem clueless, but it was apparent to him that this technique was beyond anything he knew. If he didn't know, then there wasn't much of a chance that anyone else knew either. That being said, keeping this inquiry discrete was probably for the better.
- - - - -
Diana was sitting at a table with a group of other nobles, watching them play as she ate. She would join later, but for now she was content to let them figure out the rules.
"Does that make 24?"
"I think you are only at 23."
"Really?"
Diana didn't know if their math skills were subpar or if they had simply forgotten their score from their last turn. "Your score is currently 21. Last round you were left with thirteen and your cargo for this round totaled eight, which sums to 21."
"Ah, thank you Lady Helmsguard." A nod from one of the involved parties. "I do wish it was easier to keep track of this."
"Perhaps you could use a counter of some kind? Placing coins or using the spare dice to keep track?" Diana wasn't going to try to teach them about numbers right now, she had neither pen nor paper to do it with. "You could do something like have the number on your dice multiply the number of coins next to it plus whatever you place to the side."
Diana began to think about all of the permutation to reach every number between 1 and 23. One through six were covered, seven was a plus one, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18 and 20 were all achievable with some permutation of a die number multiplied by 1 to 4 coins, meaning that you could make every number with seven coins and one die. 23 was the most taxing on the coin front, but they could probably remember that.
"Excuse me, Lady Diana?" One of the wait staff Merndil had hired approached Diana from behind. "Lord Hlapven wishes to discuss something with you."
"Hm?" Diana looked up and to the side, noticing the relevant party seated at a nearby table. "I see. Gentleman, thank you for humoring me but I must be going now. Something has come up."
"No matter, we will be enjoying ourselves regardless."
Diana brought her plate with her, not wanting to waste the salad.
"Have I done something to offend?"
"No, not in the slightest. I would go so far as to say you have done an excellent job with your current level of experience." Hlapven gestured for her to take a seat. "My question was a little more personal, but still related to the party."
"Is there something you wanted to know about the games?"
"Tangentially. My question was more in regards to what accompanies them. These," Hlapven slid a coin towards the center of the table with his index finger, "these coins, tokens. I've never seen such exquisite craftmanship before! Where did you find them? Are they a product of the craftsmen in your homeland?"
Diana kept a smile on her face, but internally there was a hint of panic. Nobody had though about the coins, there was just a general agreement that it was a good idea.
"I'm not entirely sure, about where we found them that is. They are certainly a product of our nation. Donovan was the one who suggested them." Diana was trying to figure out what the hell she should be doing here. Was it a good thing Hlapven found out? Were the production methods supposed to be a secret? What did he even find so exotic about them? "He would know more about it."
"Ah, yes, of course. I remember you mentioned he had something of a fascination with metals. I would certainly be interested in speaking with him about this." Hlapven rolled one of the dice, marveling at the sheen, smoothness, and artisanry. "Do you know where I might find him?"
"I believe he mentioned something about Snakes and Ladders before running off, so I imagine that he would be close to that station if he was to be anywhere at all." Diana was preparing to abandon her plate. "Shall we head over?"
"I am capable of going on my own if you have something else to do. All I need is a direction."
"You misunderstand, I also wish to know. It would be rude of me to send every person who wished to know in his direction, being able to explain it myself would be a preferable alternative."
"I see. In that case I will trust you to lead the way."
- - - - -
"So how did this game get the name again?" Donovan had accompanied Merndil on Diana's request while she ate, though he was not speaking to Merndil at this moment. "It was Snakes and Ladders, right?"
"You'll have to forgive me for not knowing the specifics, but I believe that it was first created as a means to impound virtues and evils into children's minds by way of an easy to play game. Snakes, those scaly legless beasts you see, are often seen as an incarnation of evil. One of our more major myths proclaims that the reason they don't have legs is because they deceived the Great God." Donovan put his index fingers in front of his canines. "They hid in bushes and grass, waiting for someone to pass so they could bite into them and inject a deadly venom."
"They sound like hideous creatures!"
"Undoubtedly so for their actions against the Great Csillacra!"
Some in the room were a little tipsy, others a little more.
"I see, what of the ladders then?" Prince Merndil had taken some interest in the games he had seen thus far, more intrigued by the cultural significance than anything with regards to the rules. "Presumably they are virtues? If so, why are they ladders?"
"I believe the reasoning is that maintaining a virtuous lifestyle is difficult, but will bring you to higher places. Once again, I ask you not to quote me on that." Donovan was bullshitting a little bit right now, he had forgotten some of what Arc told him about the game's history.
"I see. . ." Merndil sunk into thought as he watched some of the others roll the dice. "Might I hazard a guess at the deeper meaning of this game?"
Donovan was a little puzzled, but he played his part to a satisfactory degree. "Be my guest."
"I posit that the intended message behind this game is as follows. The path to the top is a long and arduous journey, one with many opportunities and many obstacles. That said, there are ways to shorten that journey. Being virtuous, while difficult, will grant you opportunities to excel and grow, however you must beware the snakes, evil people and actions that wish nothing more to bite your heel and drag you back down to where you began. Should you maintain a virtuous lifestyle and watch out for the evils that lurk, you shall find yourself climbing to the pinnacle in time." Merndil took a light sip of his wine. "Is that correct?"
"That just about covers it, yes." Donovan was a little stunned by the analysis out of left field. Of course he wasn't alone in that regard, many of those sitting around the table were stuck with 'enlightened' faces as they murmured their approval of the Crown Prince.
"I must say it is quite an ambitious endeavor for a mere game, but I cannot help but feel that it would work. I won't claim to be familiar, but I remember being quite the impetulant child. I could very easily see how they might come to avoid such evils should they lose in a game because of them, though I cannot imagine such a feeling would extend into adulthood."
"Perhaps not, Crown Prince, but perhaps that is where the influence of adults come in."
"Having the game give them an impression while an adult impounds upon them the reason would certainly be more effective."
Other nobles seemed eager to engage in conversation with Merndil whenever possible. The reasons for which were fairly obvious, even to Donovan.
"I see, would you two happen to be familiar with children? Are you perhaps fathers in your own right?"
"I am merely the eldest of many siblings, I am intimately familiar with the behavior of children."
"My sister has a son who I have grown somewhat attached to, so I have picked up on a thing or two."
Merndil chuckled, making himself a more inviting conversationalist.
"Lord Merndil, Donovan." Diana approached from behind, addressing the highest ranked individual before her spouse as a sign of respect. "I apologize if I am interrupting anything, but Lord Hlapven has a question for Donovan."
"Oh? Don't worry for us, Lady Diana." Merndil gestured to the chair on his left, an invitation for Hlapven to take a seat. "My apologies, Lady Diana, but we don't have a seat open for you."
"I'll stand, I'm more comfortable on my feet anyways." Donovan got up and offered his seat to Diana, he had been paying attention to his manners.
"No, I couldn't dare ask you a question while seated!"
"With all due respect Lord Hlapven, my roots are with the military. I am more than used to addressing those who are seated while standing at attention." Donovan pushed Diana's chair in before making his way to Hlapven's side. "Now what was it you wanted to know?"
Hlapven's token resistance was squashed by the insistence of the host, further pushback would only make him look bad.
"It is to do with these tokens you have handed out tonight, I have never seen anything like them. The level of precision and detail that went into their production seems impossible for the amount you have presented us. How were they made?"
Donovan took out a token from his pocket and inspected it closely. He knew all about the basic processes involved, but he wanted to go through each step.
"Those of you more familiar metals might know that it is a form of iron, steel in this case. I believe it was probably first cast into a long uniform cylinder and then cut at even intervals to give identical tokens. After that the engraving and polishing took place, though I cannot say which came first. Does that satisfy you?"
"You cut ste-" Hlapven stopped himself, he could believe someone could do that with a sufficiently large amount of split. "Not quite, I was really more interested in the tool used to engrave the wing on the faces of the coins. From what I can tell they are all identical, which leads me to believe it was a stamp or cast of some kind, but I don't think I've ever seen one that can make such precise and uniform indentations."
Donovan cringed inside. It was a glaringly obvious oversight on his part, Arc had done this with one of the Cutter lasers. These were all laser engravings.
"It's . . . something of a secret I think. I for one have no clue how they actually do it, but I know that the 'tool' that was used to make those patterns was something you are all pretty familiar with." Donovan wondered how far he should go. They wouldn't understand the concept of lasers and instantaneous sublimation, but maybe he could dumb it down to a technically incorrect but fundamentally similar concept, it wasn't like they were going to figure that shit out without centuries of technological advancement. "They used light."
Shock and awe from the small audience. Even Diana raised an eyebrow, though she was doing it because she wasn't sure if it was a good idea.
"Light?!"
"That's preposterous!"
"Hahaha!"
Donovan took the disbelief and disregard with a neutral expression. Their disposition towards the information was irrelevant to the truth.
"Believe it or not, that is how it's done." He thought about the Cutter, both it's reputation and capability. "It is dangerous, of course. As you might imagine, a blade of light is incredibly hot. However it is also incomparably sharp, just as capable of melting away metals as it is cutting through them. It's particularly effective at making shallow cuts like this, it doesn't require as intense a light and can be moved around quite quickly."
Hlapven was the only one who didn't seem to doubt him, Merndil perhaps being the only exception. Nothing he knew of was capable of what he had seen, so it must have been the responsibility of something he couldn't imagine.
"Would I possibly be able to witness such an engraving take place?"
"No. It is an incredibly secretive and precious technique, not to mention a dangerous one." Donovan wasn't about to bring someone out to where Arc was. "That being said, should you suspect that I am lying and that the dice and coins are instead cast I will consider bringing a dagger or something to the craftsman to be engraved. Surely that would ease your suspicions, no?"
Hlapven still appeared to be the only one convinced that Donovan was telling the truth, and he was incredibly tempted to take him up on the offer. The only thing holding him back was that he was hesitant about handing over another Seahrdrin dagger.
"Should you have a specific design in mind, that can be arranged."
Well, so long as he got the dagger back there wasn't anything to worry about. Bending over and pulling up a pant leg once more, Hlapven prepared to hand over another precious item.
cakeonfrosting Hehe, laser goes BZZZZZZZT!
Yeah, I'm losing my mind in Thermodynamics, what of it? It totally hasn't affected my writing quality at all, no siree!
