22/ 22 and the Time War

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Nůžky Appears

, in which 22 learns a terrible lesson and helps an enemy to kill a friend

TLDR: A stranger surprised and captured 22, compelling them to follow her commands, which included helping her to kill their friend Scope while escaping the settlement.

Kidnapped

22 discovered to their dismay in 795 PR, for the first time since gaining consciousness, that they were somehow still susceptible to Bluestone technology. A gnome traveler carrying mechanical gadgets approached them one night, suddenly revealing a Bluestone device and using it to transmit a control signal, taking over 22's motor functions, and compelling them to accompany her silently out of town.

22's warforged friend Scope greeted them near the gate, pressing 22 for a response and getting none. Sensing something was wrong, Scope tried to intervene, but The gnome compelled 22 to fight for her, restraining Scope while she retrieved another device from her pack and touched Scope with it. Scope dropped suddenly to the ground and the gnome led 22 out into the Deadfog of Cof. 22 would later learn that Scope had been damaged so badly by the attack that when they finally received medical attention, it was not enough to save their life. The guilt 22 would bear for their role in Scope's death would persist for many decades.

They traveled for most of a day before 22's captor ushered them into a concealed structure where she locked them in a large metal cage in an otherwise empty room where the only light came through cracks in the walls. Finding themself finally free of the Bluestone's influence, they assessed their surroundings and soon determined that escape was not immediately possible. The fine mesh cage was well constructed, suffering only the most minor damage from both their cannon and their claws, and 22 had been unable to force the door or pick the lock after several minutes of trying. They wondered about the fate of Scope, but there was nothing to be done, so they waited patiently.

Meeting Their Maker

, in which 22 discovers that a stranger is actually their oldest acquaintance, whose fate is entangled with their own

TLDR: 22 failed at first to recognize Colin Pendergras, who had also been captured and was being compelled to modify 22 to be subject to long-term commands. Colin discovered 22's sapience and telepathic ability and planned to use the latter to get information from their captor.

First Impressions

After several hours, a warforged entered the room followed by the gnome. She was holding a device like the one that had felled Scope and instructed 22 to allow this stranger to make adjustments to them and to await her return. Then she left her captives alone.

22 remained silent while the warforged tinkered with their insides, the Bluestone again compelling their compliance. The warforged made occasional comments to themself, appearing by turns surprised, annoyed, and impressed by what they found. Suddenly, they grew excited, and their interest in the task at hand seemed to double.

"What am I thinking?" the warforged asked a few minutes later, and they seemed to wait for a response. "Are you uncertain?" said 22. "Was that a joke?" replied the stranger, surprised. "Yes," 22 answered simply. "Who gave you a sense of humor?" demanded the warforged. 22 began to explain that many aspects of their own mind were a puzzle to them, whereupon the stranger exclaimed "You're sapient?!".

When the warforged had recovered from their surprise, 22 started to convey the story of their awakening, beginning from their activation by Colin Pendergras a few years earlier. "That's me!" the warforged interrupted -- and over the next minute, Colin demonstrated knowledge that provided sufficient evidence for 22 to accept the claim.

Colin explained that a fellow artificer had recently transferred his consciousness into a defunct warforged shell from the Awe Tom body he had inhabited since the death of his organic body. They exchanged quick overviews of their respective personal histories since their brief time together in Sneerwell.

22 had known of Colin's involvement with the Friends of Kragnux, his "death" at their hands, and his re-embodiment in the Awe Tom unit, but they had not yet learned of Colin's escape from Wyvern Mountain -- or even of his captivity there. Regarding 22, Colin repeatedly probed into the nature and origins of their consciousness and was eager to learn what 22 could tell him even though this only frustrated him with further questions.

Colin's Predicament

After several minutes they returned to their current situation, and 22 learned that Colin was being compelled to modify 22 to receive "persistent instructions" transmitted by Bluestone, instructions to which 22 would remain subject even once the Bluestone was no longer in range. Colin had believed he had no better choice than to comply because his friend Atnas, the artificer responsible for transferring his consciousness (twice), had been captured along with him, and the gnome had made a sufficiently credible threat that -- if Colin didn't complete this modification to 22 by the next morning -- Atnas would be petrified, turned to mud, and transported to an obscure demi-plane where he would be mixed into the native soil, presumably to spend the rest of time.

Colin's new plan (since his recent discovery of the telepathy unit Bones had installed) was to first perform an unauthorized modification, one which would give 22's telepathy unit a limited ability to detect the thoughts of nearby creatures. This would allow 22 and Colin to learn more about the gnome's machinations and hopefully to determine a way to free both themselves and Atnas.

Colin Effortlessly Saves Zugs McFlair

, in which 22 reads minds and Colin inadvertently protects the timeline

TLDR: 22 and Colin learned that their captor was going to send 22 into the past to ensure that Zugs McFlair was never born. It was possible for Colin to escape by joining 22 on their forced journey, and moreover, this was the only way he could conceive to avoid sacrificing his friend Atnas. Colin's plan and his willingness to be shut down during the trip to the past would serve to inadvertently protect the timeline and the life of Zugs.

Nůžky's Plot

By the time their captor returned, Colin had successfully modified 22's telepathy unit to grant limited mind-reading capabilities, and 22 used this new ability to examine the gnome's thoughts while Colin asked questions that surreptitiously prompted her to think of specific bits of useful information.

Thus, they learned three important things:

• There was indeed a way to to escape the mesh cage. Although the cage had appeared non-magical, three seemingly arbitrary words spoken in quick succession would trip the latch: "thermal" "exhaust" "port".

• Atnas had not been brought to Cof with Colin but was still held prisoner in Breme.

• Their captor believed Colin's long-time associate Zugs McFlair to be, as the gnome conceived of things, an "anomaly" who should never have existed; and she planned to rectify this by having 22 interfere in his lineage after hiding among the possessions of a time-traveler who she knew would soon be traveling to the past.

"Zugs McFlair," she thought loudly. "There is no such person."

Before exiting, their captor reminded Colin of the hours he had left to complete his task, and of the consequences if he were to fail.

Colin's Countermeasures

Unfortunately the distance to Breme left them with too little time to rescue Atnas before the gnome's deadline, and after some discussion, Colin resigned himself to a more desperate plan: acquiring the time he needed by to escaping into the past with 22.

Having learned that 22 had often smuggled contraband by simply picking it up and incorporating into the form of some common and inconspicuous beast, he told 22 that they should to use this technique to ensconce Colin himself in a form small enough to carry him beyond the reach of the gnome before she realized he was gone. 22 objected that they would not be able to merge a conscious person into their animal form, and when they insisted on this over his objections, Colin reluctantly revised his strategy to include 22 first removing his data core, thus rendering him inert for transport.

Once they had used the gnome's method of traveling back in time, 22 would restore Colin, he would reverse the modification that bound 22 to the gnome's instructions, Zugs McFlair would be born on schedule, and Colin would be at his leisure to think of a way to keep Atnas safe ...and perhaps a way to keep himself out of Wyvern Mountain.

Armed with this plan, Colin finished the modifications the gnome had mandated (which would allow her to issue commands 22 would follow even far away from her) and bided his time. When the gnome returned and Colin informed her the task was complete, she performed tests until she appeared satisfied with his work, whereupon she began putting it to use.

Instructions for Deleting Zugs

Their captor issued 22's new, persistent instructions:

Phase 1

• Take the form of a tiny creature, proceed without delay to the spring beyond the nearby hamlet, and wait unseen until the changeling Caligna appears.
• Hide promptly in the changeling's travel gear without attracting his notice or that of his companions.
• Wait discretely until he has travelled in time, and abscond.

Phase 2

• Travel to Osugbo's west coast without being recognized as a synthetic being.
• Find or construct a place in which you will remain undisturbed for centuries with a broad view of the sky.
• Remain there until you experience a full year during which no dragons appear in the sky.

Phase 3

• Travel to Champerty without being recognized as a synthetic being.
• Locate the infant Julian McFlair, and plan and execute his successful abduction, also without being recognized as a synthetic being. (Abduction by a frenetic chimpanzee might be funny.)
• Ensure that the boy will never be found by those who had known him in Champerty.

Once she had confirmed that 22 correctly understood these instructions, their captor -- almost as if to maintain a trope -- discontinued the Bluestone signal, relying on 22's new instructions, and left her prisoners alone, claiming she would return with something to help their mission succeed.

22 mentally verified that no conflict existed between the gnome's instructions and Colin's plan, which left them free to begin following both as soon as they were free of the cage. And they reflected on how pleasant it can be to know the secret weakness of the seemingly unassailable apparatus that your powerful enemy has engineered to thwart you.

"Thermal exhaust port," 22 intoned.

Quick Thinking

Outside their former prison lay a trail which led to a hamlet perhaps half a mile distant; and beyond the hamlet, 22 knew they would find a spring and their vehicle to the past: a changeling called Caligna. Seeing others on this trail, 22 devised a plan that would allow them to return to the present without needing to go the long way round.

Reaching out telepathically to a human walking the opposite direction, 22 imparted the following.

"Don't fear, I'm a friend. My mind is in the mouse that is passing you on the road. Please follow briefly. I need help and can reward you. Please go to The Sky Net and tell the warforged Bones that they must must dig at a particular location, today if possible, that they must pay you handsomely to tell them where, and that this course of action is very important to 22, who also says, 'Tacciath was the most courageous'. When they accept this proposal, tell them to dig at the northwest corner of the ruined church. Please repeat this plan back to me if you are willing to help."

One at a time, 22 imparted similar messages to three amenable passers by. Two others ignored the request to follow the mouse, and one fled the voice that spoke in her head.

Some elements of this hastily fashioned plan were ill-conceived.

• Although Bones would know that the message was really from 22 (and they would probably give even the late-arriving messengers some small reward for their efforts), if three messengers proved to be too few, 22 could find themself in the distant future.
• Worse yet, if 22 succeeded in their mission to change the past by kidnapping the young Julian McFlair, they would necessarily find themself in a different timeline from the one they had left -- and any such timeline would most probably be one where no extraction request specifying the northwest corner of the ruined church was ever sent.
• Finally, if 22 agreed to leave Colin free to make changes to the past, Colin would likely have some non-trivial ideas about how to "improve" the present, but if 22 somehow forced Colin to accompany them back to the present, it would already be too late to save Atnas from being turned to mud and stranded in some undiscoverable demiplane for eternity.

Despite 22's haste, these issues would all be resolved, some through sheer luck and others through centuries of patience.

In the Before Times

Still in mouse form, 22 arrived at the spring as instructed, to find the scarred and tattooed Caligna with a synthetic companion whom 22 would later learn was the protoforged 7. The equipment that lay on the ground near the pair included two backpacks, and 22 scurried quickly into the nearer one and nestled carefully into a layer of clothing to wait...

TODO: 22 follows 7, escapes their thrall trying to revive Colin, realizes that saving Atnas means going the long way round (but in reality Snow or 7 could help), meets Snow, and researches Nůžky