Special Edition: Tsedek's adventure while away from the party

A few sessions ago we were without Tsedek for a little while, so I asked his player to write up his adventure. This story is completely written by Tsedek's player, in his voice. Also, Tsedek's player is quite the story teller. I have much to learn. :)

Tsedek and the Crystal Baubles, part 1

Tsedek climbed upon the building adjacent to the clock tower to get a look inside.  Stooping to look into a broken window, a glimmer caught his eye.  He noticed two baubles of crystal upon stands in a room below.  Caustic ooze filled the room making any attempt to approach the items difficult at best.  Your average man might be dissuaded, but Tsedek had a few tricks up his sleeves.

An affinity for magic has always been in his blood.  He never knew his parents, but both he and his brother seemed more attuned than your average devil to the mysteries of the arcane.  Perhaps one of them was a powerful sorcerer?  Regardless, its not unheard of for "half-bloods" to manifest magical abilities or qualities.  

It wasn't until he came to the material plane and began work in his trade--Procurement and Logistics--that he saw the innate value that his arcane affinity added to his life.  Sometimes, when people needed just a little more persuasion, he leaned in, speaking his words more carefully, and they became putty in his hands.  Sometimes, as in this case, when an item seemed just out of reach, he would will it into his hands, and it would be his.

Tsedek willed the first bauble into his hand.  Beside the bauble a translucent image of his hand appeared, grasping the item and lifting, effortlessly toward Tsedek.  As the hand transported the glimmering crystal ball before his face, he put out his right hand, and the ball was dropped into it.

Everything inside of Tsedek turned upside down, his stomach felt as though it was being pulled out through his throat, and darkness consumed his vision.  “Well, I knew it’d happen eventually.  I guess this is my last catch,” thought Tsedek to himself.

The darkness gave way to a strange console covered in levers and buttons spread before him, and the crystal bauble recessed within a compartment on top of it.  “Well this is unexpected.  Now what is it we have here?”

Tsedek looked upon the dashboard and all of its mechanical components with a childlike curiosity, not entirely sure of their significance.  After a moment, he realized that above the console was a window into a world with which he was unfamiliar.  It was almost as if the mechanical contraption that he sat within extended out endlessly over the landscape.  As his eyes became acclimated to the new objects before his eyes, he came to realize that it wasn’t a single massive construct, but a world full of constructs.  Mechanical gears spinning, metal scraping, springs compressing and releasing, smoke whistling into the air, and the acrid smell of burning coal filled all of Tsedek’s senses indistinguishably, at first, until gradually the edges sharpened before his eyes and one became distinct from another.

After several moments of adjustment, Tsedek began to realize that he was in a mechanical world full of metal, glass, and smoke.  Tall machines littered the landscape like trees reaching up to touch the clouds of smoke, which hovered much lower than any clouds he’d ever seen.  Tsedek spoke, from his gaping mouth, “Bloody ‘ell, this is marvelous!”

Tsedek then turned his attention back to the levers and buttons all around him.  It was clear that he was inside one of these constructs.  He may have never seen an entire mechanical world of this scope, but he’s not unfamiliar with how such things work.  He’s seen many such devices over the course of his career.  “How does this one work?” he thought to himself; “well theres really only one way to figure out…”, and placing one hand on a lever to his right, and one on the lever to his left, he pulled back.  The construct lurched to life, stepping forward, and then collapsed.  Tsedek’s head slammed into the dashboard before him, drawing blood just below his left horn.  “Dammit, that hurt.”  He licked his lips, and spat a little blood out by his feet, wiped his forehead and stated determinately: "Lets try that again, a little more carefully…”

This time Tsedek, now having a bit of an idea of what the levers did, applied a more gentle touch, and the construct righted itself, and began to move.  After a few minutes of trying this or that button and lever, Tsedek felt that he had the general idea of how this thing worked.  He didn’t feel a mastery, but a basic comprehension.  That was good enough for now.  Practice makes perfect, after all.

Suddenly, something was caught in the corner of his eye, and Tsedek felt a sensation he was all too familiar with: danger.  He looked to his right.  Everything in this world seemed to be moving, clicking, humming, puffing, but before him stood some thing different, or rather many things different.  Numerous creatures were approaching him quickly.

The sensation of panic overwhelmed Tsedek.  This is a new world, with strange creatures, and somehow he seems to have attracted the attention of the whole lot of them.  "This has been fun, but maybe it’s time to go.  Only, how do I get out of here?” he wondered, looking around frantically.

His eyes landed upon the crystal bauble sitting recessed within the dashboard, reached out his hand and touched it.  Again, the feeling of being turned inside out overwhelmed him as darkness overtook his eyes.  Just as quickly as before, he found himself standing atop the building holding the crystal bauble.

“Well, that was interesting.  I think I might like to try that again sometime,” and he slipped the bauble into a compartment within his bag.  “Now, where was I?"