The Crystal Sslugs of the Test

[Yerkan of Elish]

We need to get rid of this menace! I have a small plan that might give us an advantage.

Since I can see basically what Osis is doing now, and it looks to me like it's gonna be creating an upward stroke about now, I'm gonna follow its moves and get a good shot in with my Estoc. I'm mostly hoping to get a really good weakness, learn more about its programming, or at least learn the rest of what it's trying to write, even if I only get the shapes.

Not much of plan but we're running out of garden!

[Diamond Master]

Ever, the trilobites confuse things. Osis is not beginning an upstroke, but you get some good data this time about its slimy programming.

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[Yerkan of Elish]

I wonder if that first symbol is a picture of a sslug... They don't seem very sentient - no reason they'd develop personal pronouns. So it could be an omen such as "Sslug will dominate" - no clue what that 2-like symbol is, though.

Also, why would they ever waste their time writing something like that.

[Great Thrash]

Upside down pi.
Next letter is clearly a D.
The blob could be an O or a period. M or N. i. r?

[Diamond Master]

Suddenly, the Sslugs move into furious action.

Amatin rains down hellfire, eyestalks flailing madly, concentrating on the Steepest nearby. It dares to attack Durin in his own fortifications, blasting open the very earth.

The flying citadel swings back into view. It too rains down fire on Durin and any allies who move in to help, in the form of wicked barbed arrows under powerful enchantment. Trilobites also appear, casting their tiny tarots on the fate of the Sslugs and the fate of Durin.

Meanwhile, Mix struggles forward to reach its goal, leaving a shallow furrow in the ocean. It rears up as it reaches the Diamond Watchtower, and slams against the marbled surface. Finding an arrow slit, it compresses its body and slimes its way inside.

A short time later, the light of large amounts of Favor shines forth brightly from the windows of the Diamond Watchtower. Enormous scaly wings, wreathed in icy winds, sprout from Amatin's upper body and it takes to the air.

CRYSTAL SSLUGS VS STEEPEST DURIN
Tier: Steepest vs Steepest
Domain: Destruction 5 vs Creation 4
Weakness: ??? vs None
Equipment: Wings of Apathy, Eyes of Frostfire vs Giant's Gauntlet
Circumstance: Aerial Advantage vs Home Field Advantage
Spell: Fate Muddying vs None
Insight: Filled with DM Favor vs Composition Awareness
Allies: Three Sslugs, 1 Citadel vs Unknown

It is clear who the victor will be. It is only a matter of time before Durin's fortress underground is no more than a ruined rabbit warren and its creator lies dead within, if all goes the way the Sslugs seem to plan it.

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Yerkan realizes it is not from the Sslug of Temptation that knowledge could be gained with his divinatory dagger, but from the Sslug of Apathy. Analyzing the sslime of Mix, Durin and Yerkan find trace amounts of DM Favor within. This, then, is that with which the Sslug of Apathy came armed.

[Yerkan of Elish]

Curses! Curses, curses, curses, curses, curses! Volatilus was right!

The temptation was the writing after all. It was just a ruse to get us to ignore the other sslugs. What else should I have expected of Osis, the Sslug of Temptation! Curses!

Meaningless writing! Clan graffiti! "A will to dominate"

But I think we can still change that! Make it a will to dominate temptation! As well as apathy and bloody Frost. We'll think of something. Ragnarok had better not come today.

[Great Thrash]

This is it, men!

We need an immediate defense of Durin and an immediate counteroffensive after that!

How much DM Favor does everyone have? We too can benefit from the Diamond Watchtower. I've been saving up - 46.

Durin, perhaps you wish to make your stand in the Council's Wave where your portal can protect you? That'll balance out the quartermaster's count.

Yerkan, what's your evaluation of their weakness? We need to target it.

Obviously we are all on board as allies. Grey Aides, I don't know much about you, but you have joined our Council - you're in, right?
Ka will join in too.

We are fully stocked up on insight.

Leaving spell and circumstance. Aides is the only spellcaster. Work up some sort of desiccator; that seems your style. Ka will help - water is her specialty.

That leaves circumstance to me. We've got one, but I feel we could have better circumstances. I go to work on Durin's land. He hasn't posted much about the details of his realm so I am playing by ear. I'll stretch in powerfully charged clay, chock full of cations, from neighboring areas to cover vital damages. Then lava will begin to flow up from the earth's center to counter the lasers.

What is the best use of our collective DM Favor?

[Yerkan of Elish]

I have but eight Favor remaining; I used the majority of my savings on the Loupe Estoc.

If only I knew their weakness for sure! I will think about the clues that we have, and also run more tests with the Loupe Estoc to see if I can pinpoint something that says how they are best tackled. Electricity? Reprogramming? A counter-offensive based on what we know about how they work - they seem to be deterministic beings after all.

I run all the knowledge-seeking tests and experiments that I can think of, utilizing a quantum search algorithm in conjunction with the Estoc to find blocks of programming that may hint at the weakness. This lends itself well to the use of a reverse bounded-storage system to decode the data.

Durin, do you have any other ideas? You know how to put one together, what about taking one apart?

[Diamond Master]

Exactly - they are deterministic beings. Their programming and their being are one and the same, aside from their mechanical eyes which are independent artifacts.

[Yerkan of Elish]

Hmm. So we only have to destroy their programming.

I wonder if we could devise some sort of cancer for them. An incorrectly written program that will propagate inside of them. Like a bug, an error that will go through their programming and destroy them from the inside.