Clankers

Tenebrae - Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 6:41 PM

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-=--=--=--=--=--<* A02: Ma Rosie's Goblintown Gambling Hall *>--=--=--=--=--=-

The gambling hall might have had color once. Today, black soot coats the top from a mixture of smoke from incense, cigars, and previous fires. Yet, the hall keeps being rebuilt. Somehow. For some reason. Tables fill the hall, leaving little room for maneuvering, and each evening it's packed with as many as it may hold.

The haze is often thick, and the food as expensive as it is exotic. Though founded by gobbers, other species may often be found here, though the cuisine favors the gobber race, with its unpredictable edge, and fiery spices. Occasionally, there are dancers, always gobbers, with handsome warts and round stomaches that wobble sexily over their skirts.

Most any sort of game may be found here, so long as it may be played for cash. Chips are dispensed at the door at a booth underneath a picture of the hall's owner: Rosie. In the picture, Ma Rosie sits in all her gobber glory, aged but still beautiful, with big, generous lipstick'd gobber-lips and a dashing number of warts considered quite fetching by the race. Her ears are lengthier than any sildanyari's, a desirable trait, but which has often had some unsavory souls whispering, accusatorily, of 'enhancements.' The picture, by local legend, is dedicated to her one-time lover, 'Jinks'.

Zoob has been playing a game involving stacking metal bars into increasingly unlikely shapes but when his final creation collapses with a clatter before he completes it he pays up and looks around the room. Spotting Zalara just finishing her card game he trots over there. "Hey there, what's up? Cleaning up I hope?"

Zalara smiles, "Hello Zoob, yep I am just about done." She puts away the money, "What were you playing?" She asks as she takes a drink from her mug of ale.

Mikilos exits one of the back rooms, attempting to be inconspicious. Which is hard when you're twice the size of the average patron. But goblins need magic too, and not all care to meet in public. Stepping over to the bar proper, the elf peers around a bit.

Zoob shrugs. "It's named 'The Game Where You Stack Bolts Into Shapes To Win' but we usually just call it Clankers. I think it was named by whoever invented it and they weren't good at names." He looks around the room at all the patrons, big and small, green and slightly less green. "What brings you in here? The draw of cash available for the taking?"

Zalara oohs, "That does sound fun to play. Maybe you can teach me sometime. I think clankers sounds like a great name for a game." She chuckles, "Well I was helping fix something and was invited to stay for a game."

Mikilos selects somethign that may or may not be coffee based, and turns an ear towards the conversation. "TGWYSBISTW? Which version do you play? It's harder with different metals and alloys."

Zoob nods at Zalara. "You do know that they probably asked you to fix something in here just to get you gambling, right? Some of the regulars will do almost anything for a new opponent with significant cash reserves." He looks over at the elf by the bar. "Well, I prefer the classic game where you have to use bolts actually taken out of whatever devices are around but here the have a dedicated Clankers set, all iron and all the same size and shape. I think it takes the fun out of it but they claim it makes it more fair. I mean really, fair in gambling? Who would have thought? It's like a pack of wild stoats only swarming during the day to make it fair for the rabbits or something. Weird."

Zalara smiles, "Well if they did they made a mistake since I've really cleaned up at cards." She hmmms as she looks over teh game, "I think it would be fun to play something like that just using scraps from the shop, but I can see their point about making it more fair, you don't want others coming in with sets that have been obviously made to cheat do you?"

Mikilos snorts softly and grins, nodding to Zalara before turning focus to Zoob. "If you're told they're all alike, can bet is one that's diffrent, just to mess with you. More likely several slightly different, to be used in a number of ways. Perhaps slipped in amoung the other identical ones when you're distracted."

Zoob humphs. "I like playing for fun, mostly, so this whole competitive thing really isn't my thing. I don't know what I was expecting, I didn't mean to gamble really but I poked my nose in here and suddenly I had gold riding on whether I could construct a working airship out of seventeen metal bolts. This always happens, it's weird."

Zalara hmms as she looks at them, "Well there is an easy way to figure it out, you just have to take measurements on them. Length, width, weight, composition. They might look like the same on the outside, but the inside could be hollow or have a different metal in them."

Mikilos blinks, and frowns. "A working airship? That... would be a challenge." He nods to Zalara. "Assure yourself they are indeed all alike. Makes it easier to win once a ringer is slipped into the mix of those already measured."

Zoob nods. "See, that's what I thought, that a working airship wasn't easy, but somehow there I was betting I could do it. They were all just so convincing, telling me it would be a great achievement and they'd all be impressed. I know it's not possible, at least not without magic, but just think if I could do it!"

Zalara nods, "yes a working airship would be very hard especially without a mana engine or a levitator stone or some runeplates. I mean I suppose it could be done if you had miniature versions of all those."

Mikilos nods. "Just rods would be impossible. Even useing them as a primary base would be difficult. I suppose if seventeen rods were the sole -physical- component a working model might be accomplished, but even that would be quite the task."

Zoob shrugs in resignation. "I just need to learn to stay out of this place I guess, I'm just not good at saying no to people especially when they challenge me to something. It's the Gobber curse I guess. We know we're the best, so we like to prove it." He grins widely showing many teeth.

Zalara hmms as she starts to look at the rods, "Maybe it can be done." She says as she reaches into her backpack and gets out a small pad of paper to start to do some figuring on it.

Mikilos rolls his eyes, having his own opinion as to who is the best, but is too polite to say anything. Or at least too aware of what part of town he's in. Frowning, he quirks a brow at Zalara. "Make and airship out of simple rods? Strictly impossible. Almost by defination."

Zoob agrees with Mikilos. "The rules say you can't use anything to stack them except your hands. No magic, no artifice, no glue or spit, nothing. If you come up with something they haven't thought of it's already disallowed because it's a stacking exercise, not a building one."

Zalara hmms, "Okay so you can't use anything with the rods, but perhaps you can change the rods before you stack them." She says as she gets out a contraption and she fiddles around with it so there is exposed copper wire. She hmmms as she gets the rods and she wraps the exposed wire around them. She presses a button on her contrpation and sparks fly before she smiles, "Great." She starts to arrange some on the table in two parts. One set is a grid like formation and the other looks like an airship, sorta. "Now just gotta balance it." She says as she moves the rod-airship over the grid. She leans in as she works and concentrates "Just about got it." She carefully positions the ship and then pulls her hands back, "Tada! Airship!"

Mikilos frowns thoughtfully at Zoob. "'Nothing', eh? What of Nothingness? Stack the rods, and negate on a fundimental level everything that isn't airship-like?" He eyes Zalara's efforts, and nods. "Not certain that counts, but is certainly close. But I don't think the outside materials are allowed."

Zoob watches the tiny airship. "Well, not legal for Clankers but pretty impressive all the same. If you can do that with coins too I can see why you won at cards here. At that point it doesn't matter what happens in the game, all the money floats to you anyway."

Zalara aws a little bit, "Well that's too bad, all I was doing was using a natural phenomenon of magnetism." She sighs, "Only problem is that it doesn't last too long." She says as the airship drops and falls apart.

Mikilos nods, and frowns thoughtfully. "Wonder if would be economic to build magnitized 'roads' like that for frictionless travel. Likely not, but something to ponder."

Zalara hmms, "Well if you had a constant supply of electricity to it that's be easy, but also dangerous, it's magnetize the metal rails. Maybe instead just regular rails and magnetize the wheels."

Zoob nods, thiking. "If you magnetize the rails and the wheels in opposite polarity it would compensate for any loss of power on either side and also cut overall power loss over just doing the wheels. On the other hand, it might cause problems with making the rails more expensive to replace. I know that there's a Gobber back home who tried it in small scale in one of the mines, unfortunately it was an iron mine and the tracks kept attracting ore and clogging up so it was scrapped."

Mikilos nods and ponders. "Maybe something that just repells dirt... strap a few mothers to the bottom, they're repelled by dirt..."

Zalara giggles at Mikilos' comment, "True, but mothers would have babies and they attract dirt. All kids do."

Zoob shakes his head quickly. "You'd have to strap mothers to your floating carts, is the mothers who are repelled not the dirt. And you certainly couldn't use Gobber mothers, many of them are engineers or moners or what have you that has no issue with dirt."

Mikilos nods. "And there's the desire to eventually land.... maybe blindfolds on teh mothers. If they can't see the dirt, aren't repelled by it..."

Zalara hmms, "Yah, but who's going to blindfold them while you are moving." She nods, "Gnome mothers too, my mother was never really concerned about dirt at least while we were working."

Zoob is about to speak and then stops and looks at Zalara. "You are awefully tall for a gnome. And you aren't completely insane as far as I can tell. Whta do you mean?"

Mikilos blinks, eyeing Zalara as well. "Sounds like there's a tale behind that statement."

Zalara hmms, "Well I'm a human, my biological parents died when I was just a baby and my gnome father found me while he was collecting in the junkyard and took me home to his wife and they raised me, they are my mother and father."

Zoob nods understandingly. "I see. Er, sort of. I'm sorry if I've said anything disparaging about Gnomes in your presence, I... well, new topic I think. What's up in Am'shere recently? I hear they have a new type of ironwood!"

Mikilos mms, blinking at Zoob. "Indeed? I'd not heard any recent news of lumbers from Am'shere."

Zalara smiles at Zoob, "It's okay, I know gnomes don't like goblins and the feeling is mutual, but I do like goblins. I haven't heard anything about that."

Zoob sighs. "Okay, so I haven't actually heard anything about ironwood, I was just trying to change the subject. Apparently it didn't work, but that's okay. I don't have anything against gnomes personally, I just don't really agree with the typical gnome philosophy on how to build stuff. They just don't get that good enough really is good enough, things don'thave to be perfect."

Mikilos frowns mildly. "And on that I disagree. Why strive for less than the best you might acheive? There may come a time when your best isn't good enough, unless you push your limits each chance you get."

Zalara shrugs, "Everyone has their own styles of building and you are right sometimes gnomes do get obsessed with everything being perfect when they could have stopped 5 steps ago, but goblins are known for stuff blowing because it's not ready yet."

Zoob chuckles. "True enough, I just figure if I can build three things in the same time and have a fulltime job maintaining them that seems like a better deal for everyone. We make 'em easy to repair because we know they are going to need it."

Mikilos shakes his head. "And I build things to last forever, that I need never worry about them again, and thus can focus on ever bigger and better projects."

Zalara hmms, "maybe a better deal for you, but not for the people that keep having to call you back. Well forever is a long time and stuff naturally wears down."

Zoob shrugs. "I prefer to focus on effectiveness rather than longevity, but that's just me. I understand that others prefer the gnome way. Especially elves, when you live for centuries you really don't want to have to fix things hundreds of times. Some of us don't have the luxury of unlimited build time though."

Mikilos nods, and shrugs. "To each their own, I suppose. If we all agreeded all the time, would be a boring world. but regardless, I should be heading off. Are still some projects I need to check upon before the night is over."

Zalara nods a little bit, "Agreed, I think that it needs to be a mix of the too, but effectiveness and longevity." She smiles and waves, 'It was good seeing you, have a nice night."