Thursday, May 26, 2011

Footman's Logg, Cala Mondrago, Sultana's suggestion

I had awhile back, opened shopspace in the desert kingdom of Cala Mondrago. Selling automotons and automoton accessories imported from my factory in New Babbage. The upper floor I had used as a mall research lab into the 'Djinn' species that seem to be native here.

I had met a couple people I knew from oter steamlands already making their residence, the Sultana, Miss Bianca Namori being one of them. Whether that' a good or a bad thing, I am not sure.

I had been in Cala Mondrago that week, running tests on a mummy the pengi's had found in the desert, I'm not aware of any civilizations practicing mummification in the area, but it could easily have been a natural one.

Miss Gizzy had been printing posters advertizing a mummy on display in the lab, I let her run with it for now, as I'm leaving her to run the store while I'm back in Babbage, when I received a telegrahm from Bianca.

"Bianca Namori: Mr. Footman! STOP I have the dumbest idea ever....STOP
Open up an amaretto breedable auction house....in Mondrago for horses. STOP
I say you should start clockwork breedable pets...STOP
Do it. =_= STOP"

"Grendel Footman: ?
not a bad idea, I'd just need to work out the mechanics, STOP
I can build the pets theselves, making them breed, that part might take some research STOP
I'll look into it STOP"


So, somehow, from a suggestion "that almost sounded more like an order" from the sultana of Cala Mondrago herself, I now am finding myself stuck working out how to make 'breedable pet clockworks" how do you get a machine to breed anyway?


I first attempted on one of the pengi, #33, he was always somewhat mean tempered. Installing a miniturized factory to build smaller pengi. Once he was reactivated, he stood there, 'warked', then exploded. I left Miss Gizzy to clean up the peices and reassemble him as I prepared to return to Babbage, this was going to require more research.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Footman's Logg, May 25th, 188X, Test 47

:Refer to visual recording cylinder 12B, labelled 'Bio-Alchemical Power Generation Test-12, Projeckt test 47":

**when inserted into viewer and cranked, visor lights up to show a shakey image of a lab, Grendel Footman is standing at a table, connecting wires to an object in a dissection tray**



"#92, keep the imagfier steady and bring it closer."

*image zooms in as a mechanicle 'warking' is heard in the background* "Yes yes, I'll give you an extra ration of rum, just focus on the table already!"

*Image zooms in to what appears to be a dark, twitching tentacle, partially vivisected, held open by pins, with copper wires clamped inside the inscision, Footman is heard clearing his throat*

"Ahem, you're looking at a freshly amputated tentacle from the organism, nicknamed 'Edward', at a couple months old now, the rganism's growth has caused the need to cut back on some components of the serum/nutrient broth in the chamber. Thi tentacle was found growing through a crack found between two of the plates making the main body of the chamber, the gap has since been repaired. We have connected copper wires to the tentacle, in the hopes the organism has inherited the desired traits from the C-Cells. The other ends of the wires are connected to an invention of Edison's, the electric light bulb. We will proceed with the test now."

*Footman's hands appear in the image, wearing heavy rubber gloves, as the ends of the wires are attached to the lightbulbs. nothing happens.* "that's strange, it should have lit up, don't tell me the cells weren't really from -"

* a rubber gloved fist slams on the table, as the tentacle twitches, and sparks are seen, as the lightbulbs light up*

"ah, there we go, success!!"

*sounds of mechanicle warking*

"Hm? oh no, it won't be neccisary to bring a team of pengi to visit that dealer, anyway,"

*image zooms out as Footman clasps his hands together*

"As you can see, the power output of just a 12 in. tentacle is enough to power a few lightbulbs, imagine the whole organism. The next step is to figure out a way to control the growth and regeneraton of the organism, It's been occaionally forcing it's way into the plumbing. Sedatives were helping, but I've been having to use stronger and stronger chemicals."

*the image shifts past Footman to show a brass chamber with something dark floating in the window*

"work will continue on the development of the organism, As the test has shown, there is a very high probability the old man told the truth, and the sample I bought is in fact, cloud angel cells, or, they could just be the skin shavings of an incredibly large electric eel, eitherway, they have taken with the other cell samples, quite well, though I maybe should have gone lighter with planarian flatworm, one thing I can say, it does not like the human skeleton."

*the image centers back on Footman*

"it is my hope, that with further testing, we can soon replace steam and gas, even go beyond acheivements in electrical generation, by introducing a new surce of power, utilizing these self replicating, perpetual, power plants. Alright, you can turn the imagifier off now."

*Image dims and goes dark, just as the tentacle is seen waving in the background*

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Footman's Logg, May 17th, 188X, Purging the factory

As there still haven't been any snakes in the snake trap (just a very annoyed urchin), I've researched the sightings further, as it always seems to be exiting or entering one of the city's waterways, it seems to be apparant, that's primarily how it gets around.

So, to flush the thing out, I've had the waste tanks of the factory purged, opening the waste expulson pipes, and draining all the leftover material fromthe assembly room, excess chamber fluid from Edward, and the byproduct of the production of my serum, all dumped into the canal.

It should, with the inter-connectivity, eventually spread to all the canals, and possibly the Vernian, and hopefully expel the snake, for capture and study, as it should push the normal chemical levels of the canals, to a more extreme level.

Then again, if the snake is already used to the canals, there's a good chance the new chemical slurry introduced would only be a minor irritation to it, though it may cause an increase in wiggyfish size...


Monday, May 16, 2011

Footman's Logg, May15, 188X, Snakes on a Zepplin

After reading the articles, hearing the rumors, and finally glimpsng what I thought was the monster snake in Wheatstone slipping into a canal, I've gotten out my old monster hunting equiptment. The trap, thankfully was still in working order, if a little dusty, and so was set up near the canal I saw the tail end of the creature slip into.

Iron shod box with large iron plate opened on one side, one metal grate on the other, the mechanism of gears on top designed to slam down the plates on either side when the monster attempts to pass through, sealing it in, the grate on one sie allows the hunter to see the monster, this design has aided me well in capturing wild yeti in the hymalayas, As I have situated it near one of the waterways the thing travels by, I beleive it will be only a matter of time, then, the task will be a study and dissection




Friday, May 13, 2011

Footman's Logg, in the world of the Trichromat, the Monochromat is king

((just thought of typing this up after a conversation during the regreening party that came up, I'm monochromatically colorbling in RL, and since it's easier than faking that I see colors, I just RP Grendel as colorblind as well))



Earlier this week, when I was out and about, there was all this commotion, people staring at their walls and obsessivly scrubbing them. No idea what they've developed OCD over.

I had been taking a walk earlier, when I saw some sort of missle come out of nowhere and strike one of the buildings, splatting in some sort of dark grey liquid. It didn't seem too do much harm, so I continued on, despite the apparant distress at som of the fellow pedestrians, who started going on about something being purple.

As the week went on, I started hearing more about this 'purple', Dr. O apparantly had taken as his new evil plan, to launching purple paint all over Babbage.......he must be running out of ideas for death machines then is all I can figure.

Then I started worrying my own factry would be hit with the purple, and I wouldn't know. It's been dry the whole week, but if I was out and it was hit and had the time to dry, how was I to know?

So, a new test, while I've replaced many organs on myself in the past, I've never replaced my eyes. A trip to the hospital was in order. After making sure there wasn't any other staff or patients around, I paid a visit to the mourge. It took some doing, but I was able to find a corpse with both eyes still (I suspect a victim of the snake). Taking them was simple, then I prepped the surgery, and went to work. Work was....interesting, when you cant really see what you are doing. After a few false starts, and with the pengi orderly I brought with me busy with a bottle of jack daniels and a hammer (I'll have to replace the smashed bottles with ones from my own kit I'm afraid), it was soon done. I quickly left the hospital, and looked over the city to see what exactly everyone was so anxious about, and saw, grey.

Had I read the chart I would of seen the cadaver was colorblind as well.