alright, we now have shelter. Hopefully that will help keep everyone comfortable when the weather gets bad... though now I'm wonder if rain and what not are things we'll need to worry about in this shattered world? I mean I have yet to even see a cloud so I don't think weather patterns are a thing but than again this place is weird.

As for what to do. I guess double check all the void creatures to make sure they're doing ok and see how the little cloth golems are settling in.

Oh right we need to experiment with the voidmatter don't we? I'm not sure what we can do exactly, but right now we need warmth, so instead of messing with the terrain directly and accidentally making a volcano or something, maybe we can... give a flare rune to a section of voidmatter and hope it creates some sort of permanent warmth?

>>1100468
It might not even be a graveyard of worlds. It might be that whatever weapon did this seems to annihilate its targets, but actually shunts them into an astral plane, like the old bag of holding arrows.

>Need to eat
Let's make a campfire to warm up while we take inventory and cook some food.

>>1100470
yes, lets see what we can do with voidmatter. And if it ends up getting ruined, well, we didn't really know what to do with it anyway.

Can we cut the void matter into smaller pieces to test on? How is it affected by fire, water, or shock?

Let's see if we can get that hot spring going! It'll take quite a few runes but it should add a very nice bath, and if we're lucky, add some sort of magic cassiterite or tin that will be useful later.
So into the nexus, simultaneously throw:
3 Flare
2 Stream
1 Tremor
1 Ore
1 Primal

I think it's been getting colder here because we've been neglecting to use flare runes in the nexus. Hopefully this will rectify that some.

Oh, did Weaver say what he'd trade cloth for?

Also, re: cold, hmm, I'd been thinking "winter", but we're in a void, it may not have seasons, which could mean this is a non-reversing trend, which means we may have to do something about it in a hurry or die. :!

>>1100498
We have Flare. We'll survive.

>>1100466
A graveyard of worlds.
Heck, maybe the same world shredded so badly different epochs have been scattered into this unspace.
Theres a mystery to uncover, but right now my mind is on something else.

Fern is adorable.
Thats the first most important point.
Secondly, while we are insulated against it, the cold is growing.
We need a sustainable and managable heat source.
By magic or by scavenging.

Its got to be a priority before it becomes a threat to life.

1/4 Silv 2024/12/07(Sat)10:21 No. 1100901 ID: 1effd3
File 173359569609.png - (194.73KB , 900x750 , 120624_FromNothing193_.png )

>Hmm, world pieces that don't match up... well, could be we're in a graveyard of worlds yeah. We'd need to find another being who knows history to confirm that. That's not good for us in the long term though, what can we even do if these pieces were never meant to be joined? Well, maybe we can join some of them together. A larger mass can give rise to some semblance of civilization, like Fern's village.
>It might not even be a graveyard of worlds. It might be that whatever weapon did this seems to annihilate its targets, but actually shunts them into an astral plane, like the old bag of holding arrows.
>A graveyard of worlds. Heck, maybe the same world shredded so badly different epochs have been scattered into this unspace.
“If we find anyone else, maybe they’ll know. We haven’t found many people though. W3AV3R is the only one who could talk, and the Florafolk… we can’t exactly understand well.”

>It's getting colder, so we should make something to warm the island.
>Let's make a campfire to warm up while we take inventory and cook some food.
Silv and Fern break down the old stump to use for a campfire base. Silv doesn’t know how to start a fight normally, but Flare sets stuff on fire so…
Silv and Fern bask in the glowing warmth of the fire, while Silv tries to cook some glowshrooms.
x27 glowshrooms cooked.
x13 glowshrooms burnt.
-4 cooked glowshrooms as Silv and Fern eat them.

>Fern is adorable.
Fern doesn’t respond.
“...Fern? Tetsi said you look adorable, didn’t you hear them?”

“Chirp?”

“You can’t hear Tetsi?”
Fern tilts their head in confusion.

>Let's see if we can get that hot spring going! It'll take quite a few runes but it should add a very nice bath, and if we're lucky, add some sort of magic cassiterite or tin that will be useful later.
So into the nexus, simultaneously throw: 3 Flare, 2 Stream, 1 Tremor, 1 Ore, 1 Primal. I think it's been getting colder here because we've been neglecting to use flare runes in the nexus. Hopefully this will rectify that some.
“That’s a lot of runes… and I’m not sure exactly how it’d work with all of them… the Chromatic Copper was completely accidental. Maybe something a bit simpler?”

2/4 Silv 2024/12/07(Sat)10:22 No. 1100902 ID: 1effd3
File 173359572246.png - (167.44KB , 900x750 , 120624_FromNothing194_ScienceTime!.png )

>Oh right we need to experiment with the voidmatter don't we? I'm not sure what we can do exactly, but right now we need warmth, so instead of messing with the terrain directly and accidentally making a volcano or something, maybe we can... give a flare rune to a section of voidmatter and hope it creates some sort of permanent warmth?
>yes, lets see what we can do with voidmatter. And if it ends up getting ruined, well, we didn't really know what to do with it anyway. Can we cut the void matter into smaller pieces to test on? How is it affected by fire, water, or shock?
Silv attempts to cut the Voidmatter into smaller pieces using the shovel-pick, but is unable to do so due to its rubbery(?) texture. Next she attempts to use a Flare rune onto a piece of Voidmatter.

Infuse [Voidmatter] with [FLARE]?
>YES
-NO

3/4 ??? 2024/12/07(Sat)10:22 No. 1100903 ID: 1effd3
File 173359574408.png - (123.63KB , 900x750 , 120624_FromNothing195_Everburn.png )

LACKING “INSTRUCTION”… REINTERPRETING SUGGESTIONS.
REFORGING POTENTIAL…
RESTRUCTURING FUNDAMENTALS…
SORTING OUT IRREGULARITIES…
x1 Flare rune consumed.
x1 Voidmatter consumed.

[???] CREATED.

Everburn
A strange substance that will never run out of fuel, but creates minimal heat. It’ll burn anything to ash with enough time. It feels like wet, sticky sand.
Primary Runic Affinity: Unknown. Secondary: Flare.

4/4 Silv 2024/12/07(Sat)10:22 No. 1100904 ID: 1effd3
File 173359576253.png - (154.19KB , 900x750 , 120624_FromNothing196_SuccessfulExperiment.png )

“...Tetsi, what did you make?”

>>1100903
Ah, so not actually that good for heating, but pretty great as garbage disposal. Ashes make for some great fertilizer too.

Ah, we have something that can make charcoal without using fuel to heat it, maybe?

Also, if it produces *constant heat*, you just need a method of collecting and insulating that heat so it can't escape, so it can eventually heat a very very very large thing.

I wonder what happens if you put it in a large container of water?

Interesting. Not very useful right now, but interesting.

>Simpler
How about some more land, then water mixed with fire to make a hot sprint.

>Simpler
We can save two runes by omitting primal and ore, then. That's still six runes though but savings are savings.
I can't see a hotspring working with less than 3 flare, 2 stream, 1 Tremor, though.
Aside from expanding the island, hotsprings spring from the earth, so we need a tremor.
Hot needs to overpower cold, so there needs to be more flare than stream runes.
Using a 2:1 mix is risky though. If we tried 2 flare and 1 stream we might end up with a geyser or a tar pit, which are both dangerous.

Tremor, Flare, Stream, Nature, Recovery might make a healing spring for 5... But it could just as easily end up as a soothing mud pit or fertile ground.

I still think the hotspring is the way to go, though.

Something wonderful. You now have an infinite pilot light. Or the core of a reusable grenade.

Experimentation with voidmatter is new to us. If we can create some kind of void-based insulator, we could stuff the Everburn in it and let it charge up into a thermal grenade, throw it at particularly elite foes and re-collect the Everburn after the battle.

For now, though, place the Everburn at the campsite. When we have the resources and the knowhow to keep it suspended within the dirt, it can act as a miniature planetary core, to keep our island warm.

For a hot spring all we need is 1 flare 1 stream.

>>1100904
Hmm. Not bad for a first attempt. Apparently we're supposed to use more detailed instructions.
That stuff burns forever, but not very hot. Try it out! Also, it can be used to burn *anything* into ash, eventually. Wait, what do we contain it with? Doesn't that mean it'll burn rocks?

>>1100911

Well how hot do we want the stream to be? Warm? As hot as is comfortable? Hot enough that we need to actually divert some of it away from a heat source to be able to bathe and relax in it? And how do we know what ratio will do one or the other?

>>1100909
>Hot needs to overpower cold
Stream runes aren't inherently cold. >>1100911 is right, you're overthinking this.
>Recovery
Recovery is the spell, the rune is Life, and Silv did in fact experiment with it and notice that it doesn't have any healing effect in its rune form.

apparently a slow burning ash that makes very little heat but can burn down anything if given enough time... seeing how you're holding it though and it's not hurting you I have no idea how long it takes to burn something to ash.

...
...
... want to see what happens when we put it into a container of water?

>>1100918
>Stream runes aren't inherently cold.
Then why does this place get colder every time we use one?

>>1100904
A low heat generating substance.
It will consume items slowly by turning them to ash.
Im not sure if its real combustion slowed down or some other energy transfer but it does emit heat.
Small heat with good insulation can accrue to a comfortable temperature.
I dont think youll be boiling any kettles with it, but enough could create a faint warmth around in important spots around the island.

Hmm.
I wonder how it reacts to direct magic?
If you have a small amount of it separable from the whole, hit it with flare to see if it gets warmer or works faster. See how it reacts to other magics too.

2 flare, 2 stream, and a tremor for the good minerals; should make a fine hotspring.

1/1 Silv 2024/12/09(Mon)15:26 No. 1101032 ID: 1effd3
File 173378681451.gif - (73.32KB , 600x500 , FromNothingUpdateGifs1.gif )

Figuring out island expansion soon! Will be a few days!

1/4 Silv 2024/12/14(Sat)15:19 No. 1101235 ID: 1effd3
File 173421838195.png - (107.82KB , 900x750 , 121224_FromNothing197_SplashWasSuperEffective.png )

>Ah, so not actually that good for heating, but pretty great as garbage disposal. Ashes make for some great fertilizer too.
>Ah, we have something that can make charcoal without using fuel to heat it, maybe?
>A low heat generating substance. It will consume items slowly by turning them to ash. Im not sure if its real combustion slowed down or some other energy transfer but it does emit heat. Small heat with good insulation can accrue to a comfortable temperature.
I dont think youll be boiling any kettles with it, but enough could create a faint warmth around important spots around the island.
>That stuff burns forever, but not very hot. Try it out! Also, it can be used to burn *anything* into ash, eventually. Wait, what do we contain it with? Doesn't that mean it'll burn rocks?
>apparently a slow burning ash that makes very little heat but can burn down anything if given enough time... seeing how you're holding it though and it's not hurting you I have no idea how long it takes to burn something to ash.
“I don’t think it’s lit yet Tetsi. It’s cold, and feels kinda like wet sand. I suppose I could put it into the campfire…”

>How does magic affect it?
>What if we put it in a container of water?
“We… don't have any containers except for the bottles for water. We could probably make a hole and fill it with water.”
Silv digs a small hole and lights the Everburn in it with Flare, sparking it to life. The flame goes out once doused with water.
“Well it’s not waterproof. I’m not sure how magic affects it though, it seems all Flare did was ignite it.”

2/4 Silv 2024/12/14(Sat)15:19 No. 1101236 ID: 1effd3
File 173421839924.png - (98.81KB , 900x750 , 121224_FromNothing198_.png )

>[Simplify]: Expand the island with 3 tremor, and use 1 flare and 2 stream runes to make a hotspring.

x3 Tremor to expand the island.

Silv throws 3 Tremor runes into the Manapulse Nexus, expanding the island's mass slightly beyond the pond. Only 13 runes left.


x1 Stream Rune and x1 Flare rune for a hot spring.

Silv grabs the two runes and begins heading back to the nexus, however, something grabs her, yours, and Fern's attention.

3/4 Silv 2024/12/14(Sat)15:20 No. 1101237 ID: 1effd3
File 173421843052.png - (364.25KB , 900x750 , 121324_FromNothing199_aColdWindBlows.png )

“What’s… that…?”

“Chirp?”

A low wail begins to sound from elsewhere in the void. A chilling breeze begins to pick up, affecting even Silv who’s been able to tolerate it till now. Looking around, you see the Voidlings shifting around uncomfortably, and heading inside of Silvs shack. You soon learn why as the winds suddenly pick up from deep in the void.
“What’s this?!”

“C-c-chirp!” Fern cries as he grabs onto Silv to not get blown away.

Silv brings Fern into the shack before heading back out to make sure nothing else will get blown away by the sudden winds. After making sure everything is safe, she heads back into shelter with Fern, the Voidlings, and the Fabric Golems.

4/4 Silv 2024/12/14(Sat)15:20 No. 1101238 ID: 1effd3
File 173421844572.png - (341.61KB , 900x750 , 121424_FromNothing200_cramped.png )

It’s a little cramped.
“...Now’s probably a good time to sleep, huh?”

“Chirp?”

The wind howls outside, while Silv is (somewhat) comfortably squished inside with everyone. It’s not particularly warm, but the company is nice.
”...Anything you’d like to talk about Tetsi?”

Ummmm...know any good stories? Now sounds like good story time.

>Well it’s not waterproof
...with a name like ever burn I feel lied to. Though that does mean we don't have to worry about it spreading out of control so good to know.

>Anything you’d like to talk about Tetsi?
So, how you holding up? Enjoying the adventures, dreading them, indifferent? Don't think we've had a moment to really reflect.

I guess we can use everburn safely by putting it in a pot over a basin of water. If it burns through the pot, it'll be extinguished by the water. Nice little heat source for warming up the shelter!

>questions?
Have you remembered anything more about your past? Like, who was your teacher? Your family?

You've been through a lot in a short time Silv. Are you feeling okay? Anything you want to make our next goal?

That wind felt like it came from somewhere, or like it was produced by something, out in the Void. The timing came as we were expanding, maybe the nexus firing up is getting something's attention.

>talk
Try humming a tune, the first one to come to mind, see if it calls to mind any memories. Things like that can help jog amnesia.

>>1101237
the black wind is howling...

I've been busy theory-crafting spells. We should be able to make some with permanent effects, if we obtain more runes.
I've thought of one to allow you to heal by eating.
One that could trigger a metamorphosis and give you functional wings to fly with. On you they'd probably be the pretty gossamer wings of a dragonfly or fairy...
I've thought of a way to teleport, and a sort of blessing/curse that makes you stronger but more monstrous based on how much damage you take...

I've also come up with something horrifying. In theory the Eldritch rune should be able to reverse the law of entropy in an arbitrary space. I'll spare you the technical stuff, but that means with an easy to create, low mana spell, you could destroy... anything. Everything. An enemy. A nation. A world. ...And beyond. Even if extensive safety measures were programmed into the spell, it would still be trivially easy to screw up and cause a catastrophe.
I'm certain that more than a few of these fragments are from worlds that met their end with that very spell. It's probably why we keep seeing the ruins of advanced civilizations. In order to use the Eldritch rune like that one needs to have a deep understanding of how the laws of nature work. That's something primitive civilizations lack.
I don't think we're in too much danger of it- The laws of nature, while present, do not dominate this place. I still don't wanna find out first hand, though.

I think it might be a good idea to look into restoring the mana-pulse nexus soon. Call it a hunch, but I worry we may end up needing it sooner rather than later...

1/3 Silv 2024/12/17(Tue)14:30 No. 1101351 ID: 1effd3
File 173447465540.png - (148.15KB , 900x750 , 121624_FromNothing201_.png )

>Well it’s not waterproof
>...with a name like ever burn I feel lied to. Though that does mean we don't have to worry about it spreading out of control so good to know.
>I guess we can use everburn safely by putting it in a pot over a basin of water. If it burns through the pot, it'll be extinguished by the water. Nice little heat source for warming up the shelter!
“Too bad I left it outside in a hole… A little more warmth would be nice.”

>So, how you holding up? Enjoying the adventures, dreading them, indifferent? Don't think we've had a moment to really reflect.
>You've been through a lot in a short time Silv. Are you feeling okay? Anything you want to make our next goal?
“I’m doing OK I think. Exploring around has been fun, but also scary at times since we don’t know anything and have to manage surviving.”

>Have you remembered anything more about your past? Like, who was your teacher? Your family?
>Try humming a tune, the first one to come to mind, see if it calls to mind any memories. Things like that can help jog amnesia.
“Nothing’s really come back to me at all, only those few couple of memories.” Silv yawns.
“Tunes… tunes…”

2/3 Silv 2024/12/17(Tue)14:31 No. 1101352 ID: 1effd3
File 173447468090.png - (178.95KB , 900x750 , 121624_FromNothing202_.png )

>the black wind is howling…
“...It’s… an oddly comforting sound…”
Fern snuggles closer to Silv.

>>1101292
“...”
Silv has fallen asleep.
You slowly feel yourself drifting away as well…

3/3 Fern 2024/12/17(Tue)14:31 No. 1101353 ID: 1effd3
File 173447470798.png - (492.57KB , 900x750 , 121624_FromNothing203_SnowyFern.png )

You awaken to Fern attempting to wake Silv up, but to no avail. She continues to sleep soundly with the voidlings. Fern looks around, grabs you, and heads outside.

The air is chilly, and frost covers the ground.

“...?”

>>1101353
"...!"

man we picked a good time to build a shelter.

>Fern looks around, grabs you, and heads outside.
howdy, is your new coat helping you handle the weather?

Hello Fern. Is everything alright?

Has anyone told you that you're adorable, Fern?

You should play in the snow before the novelty wears off and the cold sets in.

Okay... that's not good.
Our mushroom crops need to be harvested before they wither, our island's heating core needs to be jumpstarted... lots of stuff to do before winter sets in.

[Scan: arid animals]

>>1101359
Fern's a plant, that would probably just cause lethargy.

Wake up the cloth golems. They can help us salvage the crops that can still be saved from the frost.

>>1101353
Say, fern
If you can hear us, carefully take a little walk around the island.
NOT near the edge.
Just enough to let us see the damage.

Youre ojay though arent you? Not too cold?

>>1101353
Sulv looks pretty arthropodal there's a chance she may have gone into a dormant staye due to the cold.

Hiiii Ferrrn

Oh, maybe Fern can get the Everburn out of the water for us and put it in the shelter to warm it.

Huh.
Neat!
Anything else different about the island, Fern?
We should look around.