[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/7f28c785-bb7c-4826-8dbd-4f45a4e28f0c.png[/img]
[color=Peru][b]The Great Artisan, Divine Mason, Builder of Civilisations
Level 5 God of Crafting (Masonry, Carpentry, Smithing, Alchemy, Armaments)[/b]
32.25 Might & 1 Free Points[/color][/center]

Teknall watched as his daughters departed, then was alone with his thoughts and the hums and clanks of the Workshop. He looked around and considered what he would do next. The vats of arksynth in front of him were where his experiments in developing a manufacturing process for the nanomachines would start. The Stellar Engine core above him was due for an upgrade to enhance its storage capacity. The Promethean Manipulators around him were a reminder to check up on the Prometheans and see if they needed any help in advancing. The scouting drone mainframe reminded him of Tauga and how he should check in on her. The leftover weapons from his daughters' experiments signalled in his mind that there were other threats on Galbar to be dealt with. And the ruined remains of Teknall's Mirror Armour...

Teknall hobbled towards the warped and torn plates of adamantine, partially lined with charred god-flesh. This armour, together with energy stored in the Stellar Engine, had shielded him from the direct blast of the Primordial Spark for a couple of seconds. That gambit had proven futile in preserving his own life, for he could not escape Xos' clutch, the Spark eventually overwhelmed the shields and help did not come in those few seconds. But for those moments he had seen with clarity the Primordial Spark in action.

He needed to speak with Toun.

Teknall had synchronised memories with Goliath, so he knew that Toun had departed to fulfil the favour he owed Aihtiraq. What that favour was or how long it would have taken, Teknall had no idea, but it was likely that Toun had finished that task and had resumed hunting Xos.

Teknall reached out to Toun with a message. [colour=Peru][i]Toun, can we speak?[/i][/colour]

[colour=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]Teknall!?[/i][/b][/colour] The answer was uncharacteristically flustered but levelled out quickly. [colour=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]You are awake. Good. Your children performed as needed. I have the trail of the shade. Be swift or leave me to find it.[/i][/b][/colour]

Teknall hesitated. He had hoped for a better reunion with his brother, but he could tell Toun would not tolerate any idle pleasantries at this time. [colour=Peru][i]I saw Xos' weapon in operation and can design a countermeasure. I'll deliver it when finished.[/i][/colour]

[colour=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]I cannot halt to wait for another tool, Teknall,[/i][/b][/colour] Toun responded quickly and coolly. [colour=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]This will end whether you finish your countermeasure within time or without. See to it your delivery makes a difference.[/i][/b][/colour]

[colour=Peru][i]Noted,[/i][/colour] Teknall replied.

Time was short. There was no shaking Toun from his quarry now. Enough time had been wasted already, so Teknall was fortunate that Toun had not already fought Xos. Perhaps Aihtiraq's favour had contributed to that delay, although Teknall could not say for sure. But if Teknall did not want to be late as Toun had been, he had to move quickly.

Teknall waved a hand and the Workshop's manufacturing lines came to life. The Workshop began producing satellites, similar to those the Prometheans had made, except with a few modifications and optimisations. These satellites would be deployed around Galbar and the solar system. They were connected to the scouting drone network and equipped with an array of sensors. While they would serve as standard spy satellites, they would also tell Teknall if any major outbursts of divine energy occurred, which would in turn indicate the location of Xos and the Primordial Spark when that battle broke out. Given Teknall's active involvement in protecting Galbar, this intelligence network was long-overdue.

As the manufacturing lines continued their work, Teknall stretched out his hand and the Shard Conduit appeared in it. Then he nodded and an inky black rift appeared in front of him, which Teknall stepped through.

He stumbled as a wave of nausea overtook him. His walking stick slipped, his balance gave out and he fell upon the barren surface of an airless planet. Teknall held back retches for several seconds before the worst of the sensation passed. Stomach still queasy, Teknall slowly crawled back to his feet, brushing dust off his face and muttering, [colour=Peru]"Right, gut was wounded too..."[/colour]

Teknall looked up at the dark sky of stars above him. Among those stars, not too far away by stellar standards, was Galbar's sun. Teknall had chosen somewhere outside the Galbaric solar system because it should be far enough away from Xos and other prying eyes to be safe. He was grateful that he did not choose somewhere further away, otherwise the journey back to Galbar may have been unbearable.

Once Teknall had recovered fully, he looked at the ground beneath him. A thin layer of coarse dust lay across a vast expanse of bedrock. Teknall struck the ground once with his cane and with a dazzling pulse of golden divinity the regolith for kilometres around blew away from him, leaving only bare bedrock. Teknall struck a second time, and the exposed bedrock became perfectly smooth, a blank canvas for his coming creation. Then Teknall jerkily knelt down on the stone. He pressed one hand directly against the bedrock. In the palm of his other hand he held starburst shape the Shard Conduit, which he pressed into the ground. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated.

He had witnessed the Primordial Spark first-hand. He knew how it worked, since identifying the functioning of objects was one of his specialties. Its operation was tied to the Mechanism of Change, that plane of primal entropic energy which Zephyrion had breathed into the Universal Blueprint. It was not a direct portal to the Mechanism of Change, but it did draw from its vast power. That energy was then manipulated by Xos to be a force for destruction. It was a bottomless well of energy siphoned from the inner workings of the Universe.

While Teknall could attempt all manner of manipulations on the Spark, up to and including cutting it off from the Mechanism of Change and effectively destroying it, any such efforts would require personal possession of the Spark. The next-best countermeasure would be to block the bursts of energy Xos produced from the Primordial Spark. A brute-force approach was possible, pouring more energy into a barrier than the Spark could produce as Logos had done with his armour (according to the description he had received), but inefficient, especially since Teknall knew the nature of what was to be blocked.

As Teknall thought and designed, lines of glowing energy streamed out of the Shard Conduit and etched their way through the bedrock Teknall knelt upon, tracing symbols and patterns not unlike those in the Universal Blueprint. The Primordial Spark relied upon some of the underlying mechanisms of the Universe, so Teknall would also borrow from the Universe which he had helped design. He had designed the barriers between the Gap and Reality, barriers which had to withstand things much more terrible than the Primordial Spark, so he could use that as the base of his design. Kyre had blessed the Universal Blueprint with resilience, so Teknall borrowed from that resilience to make his creation able to withstand the fiercest blows. Niciel had blessed the Universal Blueprint with a bit of purity, so Teknall allowed his creation to share that purity so it would not be subverted from its design.

Teknall wrote these things with glowing lines in the bedrock using the language of the Codex of Creation. He also formed vast tracts of interconnected calligraphy and runes which specified the functioning of his creation. He took great care in each and every symbol, for it was a complex thing he was creating that could not afford to have any weak points. He granted it topological protection to resist localised breaches. He coded in regenerative energy feedback so its protective qualities would scale with the strength of what it was blocking. He implemented self-rejuvenation so it could recover from damage. And he implemented many other details and modules which would maximise its effectiveness against the Primordial Spark.

After what had felt like a long time, Teknall finished writing his creation in the stone. He checked it over again, then a third time, trying to find any flaws or further optimisations, but there were none. It was time to complete it.

Unimaginable amounts of power surged through the Shard Conduit, and every line and symbol Teknall had traced in the bedrock flared with brilliant golden light. The stone melted and crystallised under the flood of divine energy, the light bright enough to sear the words and runes into the fabric of space itself. The stone plain was washed out by the dazzling radiance.

Then, suddenly, the blinding white light gave way to a more subdued blue glow, uniformly coating the ground on which Teknall knelt. Teknall opened his eyes and looked around him. The ground was coated in a light blue barrier of opaque energy, slowly fading to translucence as the initial burst of energy faded. A smile crept onto his lips as he slowly returned to his feet.

Teknall raised his free hand, and in an instant the barrier curled up into a sphere around him. A slight lift had the bubble rise above the ground, carrying him with it. He then lowered himself and the bubble back to the ground, and with a twist of his wrist the barrier unfurled into a vast flat sheet above him. Tilting his hand rotated the plane so that it stood as a vast wall in front of him, and a turn of his hand curled the barrier around so it formed a tall ring surrounding him. Then he closed his hand, and it shrunk into a disc in front of him only a metre in diameter.

It had worked. Teknall let out a laugh, almost intoxicated by the power. He had single-handedly created a construct of immense strength, not from metal or stone or flesh but from warped space and interwoven rules of reality. The [i]Hyperspatial Barrier[/i], he would call it.

The disc floated down to hover parallel to the ground in front of Teknall. He stepped upon it, crouched down, then braced himself as he teleported from that distant planet to orbit around Galbar.

Teknall's stomach twisted and he retched and gagged on arrival. He was grateful that he had not eaten or drunk anything recently. He soon recovered and looked around him, checking for any nearby gods and finding none. The planet Galbar stretched out far below him. In a blink, Goliath appeared beside Teknall.

Teknall gently pushed off the blue disc. The disc then floated from Teknall to Goliath. [colour=Peru][i]Take this, and give it to Toun. If he is engaging with Xos, deploy the Hyperspatial Barrier, but do not engage yourself.[/i][/colour] The disc merged into Goliath's armour and the robot's shields took a blue hue. Then Goliath departed, trailing a stream of incandescent plasma from its rocket jets.

Still floating in orbit, Teknall reached out a hand and a black rift opened beside him. Out from that rift came the satellites which the Workshop had been manufacturing. Rocket engines flared to life to move the satellites into their allocated orbits around Galbar and beyond, where they could watch for any major events.

Teknall took one last look around him. [colour=Peru]"Should have left me alone, shade,"[/colour] Teknall snarled quietly. Then he floated through the rift which closed behind him.

[hider=Summary]
Teknall remembers that, in his battle with Xos, he had seen the Primordial Spark in action. He tries to talk to Toun about it, but while Toun is happy to hear Teknall is alive and conscious he is hot on Zyus' trail and has no time for chit-chat. Teknall says he can build a countermeasure to the Primordial Spark, but Toun can't stop and wait.

Teknall immediately sets off to a neighbouring star-system to build his promised countermeasure. On the trip there, we learn that on top of Teknall's other disabilities he also has teleportation sickness. Not fun.

Teknall starts writing Codex of Creation-style code with pure energy. There's some pseudo-scientific fluff descriptions, and the construct borrows/shares some aspects of the Universe to bolster it (namely, Teknall's Gap barriers, Kyre's resilience, and Niciel's purity, all written into the Universal Blueprint long ago). The end result is a mobile malleable nigh-impenetrable wall of force called the Hyperspatial Barrier. It's a 10 MP artifact.

Teknall hands this to Goliath, who goes out to find Toun to give it to.

Teknall also deploys a network of spy satellites around Galbar and the Galbarian solar system. (1 MP)

[u]Might Summary[/u]
[i]Start:[/i] 32.25 MP & 1 FP (14 MP reserved by Workshop)
[i]Spent:[/i] 11 MP from Workshop
[i]End:[/i] 21.25 MP & 1 FP (3 MP reserved by Workshop)
[/hider]