>>30355924
You are in the light grey confines of your apartment, currently only containing the built-in fixtures, and a surprisingly comfortable (to your peasanty sensibilities) foam mattress.

>A wide and strange town/arms-dealership awaits, how would you like to proceed?
[Head out to the busiest section and wander around getting a feel for things]
[See what you can find at the 'convenience shop' Lialla pointed out nearby, though she noted that the prices were a little higher, most life and hygiene needs can be found there]
[Go see Axmel about making that terrible beard of his look good]
[Visit Lialla, Thrickett, and Jana at the Medical Pavilion]
[Other]

>>30356038
>>30355924
Did I seriously just forget my QM trip?
Yes, yes I did.

>>30356038
>[Go see Axmel about making that terrible beard of his look good]

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>>30356106
You did say you would come back and give him a free trim (he may even of not been upset by that point).
You gather and check on the tools of your trade, which seem to have suffered your travels none the worse.
Packing them up again after cleaning them with the local wonder of 'in-door plumbing', you head out toward where you believe his shop to reside..

>Please roll 1d100, roll low.

Rolled 2

>>30356364
Please, dice gods?

Rolled 62

>>30356602
Thank you, my friends. It has truly been a wonderous evening, but now I have depleted the favor of the dice, for the night. No other rolls will likely be so great.

Rolled 44

>>30356364
Oh, sorry, did I break the simulation?

>>30356602
>processing

>>30356672
Nope, got it off to a good start, actually.

Rolled 48

>>30356739
Ah, good.

>>30356364
>>30356602
You make your way down the streets and aisles of Arsenal, passing flashing displays, booth girls, and vivid depictions of products in action. For the most part you have managed to adjust to the strange landscape, and have even learned most of the proper terms for much of the strange items they sell here. By this point you are certain your simple garb is helping deflect the attention of the flashier salesbeings, though the ones selling simpler gear still hawk a pitch your way as you pass by. While curious about them, the prices generally seem to be far outside your means at the moment.

>Rolled 2
As if a map were laid out in your mind, you unerringly make your way, not only retracing your steps but also correctly guessing at a few shortcuts along the way. You don't think you are going to have much trouble getting around for now on, landmarks and iconographic signposts are well noted, and you believe you have a fair idea of how the place is laid out. Much like your home town, the general layout is matter of regular patterns and alloted spaces, if it weren't so jarringly different in every other way, you'd almost feel at home.
Ahead you can see Axmel's pavilion, a couple curious travellers seem to be looking at his displays, though Axmel seems to just be standing with his arms crossed watching them in return.

Beyond, you can see the mystic entry-point and flow focus that you arrived at. Looks like they got their security and checking barriers back up again, directing dimensional travellers in and out of that section.

Seeing you approach, the short and wide fellow unfolds his arms and offers a simple wave in your direction. It is difficult to tell if he is pleased to see you through is beard.

>Action?
[Wave back and approach]
[Stand back for the moment]
[Browse his wares]
[Chat up his potential customers]
[Other]

Rolled 18

>>30356987
>Wave back and approach
Hey, he apologized before, so he's likely not mad.

>>30357148
>processing

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>>30357213
You wave in return and stride over, he's probably cooled off by now.

"Ach lad, 'ow are ye doin' with yer sprite lass and yerself? Looked a might off 'en ya collapsed befer."
You pray for your linguistic ability to kick in soon and filter out that terrible accent he seems to have, at least you understand him a fair bit without it, but to your ears he does seem to be chewing the words up and spitting them out.

"So, you interested in some of my fine wares? Or have you come back to insult my beard some more?" He says, getting a finger caught in it as he attempts to stroke it.

>Response?

Rolled 85

>>30357489
"I wasn't insulting your beard before. Where I come from, I was a great sculptor of facial and upper head hair. Your beard has the possibility for greatness, by the standards of my world, and I wanted to know if you wished to realize it. But no, I have just come to visit, and perhaps perouse your wares."

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>>30357755
He raises a bushy brow at you.
"Hrmph. Perhaps I'll consider your offer, guess I haven't done much with it since sinking my money into the forsaken place."
*snort*
"-but I'd be surprised if you knew your head from your ass when I comes to quality equipment. Hell's boy, none of these dumbasses know what they want.." he says gesturing at the now offended looking people browsing the outskirts.
"..so how are you going to?"

Rolled 11

>>30358088
"Oh, I can tell the quality of equipment the same way I knew all that stuff about Arsenal before."

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>>30358088
"Bah, so want do you want to do? This face-sculpting of yours or is there something you actually want to buy?"

>Response?

>>30358152
"Oh really now?" he retorts with a raise of his bushy brows again.

Rolled 32

>>30358155
"Yes, so let's see how good your merchandise is, from the view of me"
>>30358189
"Yes, you know how I had heard about electricity and magic and the people who made Arsenal? I can basically do that much better now, because I practiced."

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(My apologies for extended delay, I got way too caught up in trying to find an image of Red Forman as a saleman)

>>30358282
He step back and looks at you expectantly.
"Alright then, what do you want?"

>Intentions? Where are you going with this?

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>>30358282
>>30358606
(I am actually a bit confused as to what you are up to. Bit concerned something has been misunderstood along the way.)

(Feeling a certain irony in my Red-like depiction of Axmel's sales technique, finding that I feel like I am similarly floundering at the moment.)

>>30359293
Use our dimensional sense to see which items are invested with that flow we were able to sense. I'm thinking it's kinda like life-force, or something. While we do this, discuss what sort of style he wants his beard to be.
Late arival due to work

>>30360021
Welcome to the party!
You have found you have some awareness of potential life energies and the flow, focusing on that for a moment as you peruse his wares.

"So Axmel, how do you like your beard done?"
"Hells if I care boy, as long as it doesn't get caught in my work, I'm a happy t-smith."
Well, you guess that explains the rough braiding and knotting, if he's just shoving it out of the way..
Not the best customer-service attitude either, you gather that whatever a 't-smith' is, he didn't normally deal with customers.

>Please roll 1d100, roll low, as you investigate his wares.

Rolled 56

>>30360258
"Style is important, it says something about you that people often don't even realize that they're seeing. For instance, I could probably give that beard a bit of a curving, flowing look that would make those who see it think you're sophisticated, but effete. Or, and this seems more your style, I could make it intricate, but firm, giving you the look of a skilled and disciplined craftsman, possibly with some military background..?" Ramble on about beard art like this.

>>30360258
>>30360458
As you talk, you walk along his displayed goods, seeing if anything stands out to you with any of your senses.
You do note that the items here seem to be different than most of the stock you have seen around this place. Hard to put a finger on it, but it does seem a bit more.. crafted and cared for that the racks of identical product elsewhere. Also, much of it seems to have flat-cut gemstones and/or etchings in gold or silver tracing parts of their surface. All done in a simple, seemingly utilitarian style, despite being what you would think of as decorative materials..

Axmel nods absently, "Hrm.. alright lad, you seem to have a fair eye for understanding people, and I'll grant that it sounds like you have some decent ideas regarding hair as well. Whenever yer ready, I'll be willing to see what you can do."
He eyes you for a moment, "Though do know what you want yet, or are you just smudging the finish?"

..As your fingers graze along one of the items not behind glass, you find your self filled with an awareness of functions you don't fully understand, but you do realize that the item stores and channels energies such as the ones you use and can be discharged for.. functions of some sort. While you aren't entirely sure what to make of it, you are certain that you haven't encountered this with any other goods that you've come into contact with here.

Rolled 7

>>30360849
"What is this item over here, this one?" Point to it. "I can sort of sense it is a sort of container for the energy I use to do what I do."

>>30360999
"Eh? That one? Just a bit of a survival tool, one of the few things I feel safe leaving outside the display case without some idiot burning their eyebrows off."
*guffaw*
"If you've got the knack for it, that's no surprise, as me and the sign (that you can't read) have said already, 'Axmel, finest technosmithy in all of Arsenal!'.. not that these idiots would know fine craftmanship if you beat them to death with it.. To Death! Argh."

["I.. see." Let him simmer.]
["So, about that trim." Try to learn more as you work.]
["So, about that trim." Avoid the topic as you work.]
["Alright, I give, what the universes is a technosmithy?" The blunt approach.]
["What's it do, exactly?" Feel vague concern about burnt eyebrows.]
[Other]

>>30361288
[So, about that trim...]
[What in the Unkempt Places is a technosmith, anyway?]

>>30361288
>>30361377
Entering barber-mode:
>Please give me 2d100, roll low on both.

Making use of home references: +exp

Rolled 29, 58 = 87

>>30361482

Rolled 17, 55 = 72

>>30361377
Please dice.

>processing

Following him into the back of his pavilion space, you find a walled area that seems to serve as his stock-storage and workspace. Possibly living area, judging from the cot against on side.

Taking a few moments to get together a comfortable place for him to sit and you to work, you start chatting him up in a friendly sort of way. As he relaxes into your work, you inquire as to what in the Unkempt Places a technosmithy is. While a he gets a bit irritated that someone wouldn't know that he seems to recognize it as an honest question and goes about explaining it as roughly as he can in exchange for you explaining what an 'unkempt place' is.

Trimming, cleaning, rinsing, combing, repeat.
You have a fair amount of time to talk as you set about expertly fixing the rats nest he had on his face and rework it into something professional.

Along the way you learn the 'technosmithy' is the what the Dwarven Guildmasters (also, short and wide folks like him are 'dwarves' apparently) call their technowizard smiths that combine magics and craftsmanship into complex magical devices, often similar in style, or paired with, 'mundane science' (though science still seems a bit magical to you in general).

Axmel spent a 'short tour' (which seems to consist of at least a couple decades) with 'the Navy', maintaining star(?!)ships and serving as quartermaster before striking out on his own and thinking to strike it big opening shop somewhere outside 'the Union' where he'd have less competition.
Sunk his saving into opening his pavilion here, hasn't been going as well as he'd like. No one knows what they want. You gather he is used to receiving specific requests or inquires in his previous line of work.
While unfamiliar with his specialty, you note that, as a barber, you have often found people don't know what they really want until it is explained or shown to them..
With that, you lean him back up and dust him off before handing him your handmirror..

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somehow lost the image i was going to use here. argh.

>>30362248
"By the Forge boy, I think you just might a craftsman yourself, if a different medium than myself."
Axmel nods approvingly at his reflection, stroking and tugging as the interlaced braidwork, fastened (his his approval) with a few bands of precious metal from the workshop around you.
He tilts the mirror around to examine the work on his his non-beard hair as well, "Aye, I think I see what you mean. on both counts. You've done a fine job."

Rolled 55, 89 = 144

>>30362508
"Ok, well I guess I better explain what the unkept places are..." Explain the horror to him.

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>>30362619
"Sounds like a right unnatural place, though to be honest these 'lords n ladies' of yours sound a bit worse, I mean, you _never_ hear back from anyone that has ever gone in there? ..Seems fishy to me."

Nah, that's just paranoid talk, right? ..mean all those people you've known that have gone to safety with the Lords & Ladies, to suggest otherwise.. When to suggest otherwise you might not be around anymore, lost to the bad luck that comes with losing faith in your protectors.

>>30362508
>Barber styling: Major Success.
>Barber conversation: Moderate Success.

"I tell ya what, I know you said you were doing it for free, but a feel a might guilty as a fellow craftsman if I don't at least say that I own you one. Maybe a discount some time, eh lad?"

["Discount sounds fine."]
["Tell you what, when folks ask, just let 'em know who did the work and how to reach me."]
["Hm, I'll have to think on that one, thanks."]

Rolled 18, 17 = 35

2nd option

>>30362780
Word of mouth advertising is best advertising. Also, give him a bit of advice about telling people what they need, rather than waiting for the "idiots" to figure it out.

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>>30362824
>>30362868
The Steelhearth clansman nods thoughtfully in response to your request, "Aye.. yes, I could that for you. Clever move there. I may need take advice from you more often."
Handing back your mirror as you clean up your materials and the area you worked in, he gives a rueful chuckle, "Guess I jumped into this thing thinking that I knew everything about my work.. and I do, mind you, at least when it comes to my forging, but I think you've got a point, I've been looking for people to belly-up and ask for what they want and scowling at anyone 'wasting my time'.. but I sure as Hades didn't know what I wanted on my face until after i got it."
He claps you on the back, tell you want, I know a decent enough bar in this place if feel like getting pissed sometime, I think I own you a drink as well at this point.. I better get back out front though, see if I can't tell any of the idiots what they should be buying.."

Well, it's an improvement.

>>30363174
(With that, I'm calling a brief break to eat some food and try waking up a bit more)
Please feel free to post any questions, comments, or suggestions while I muck about. Going to be looking at longer-term actions/goals soon as well.

>>30363226
And back again.

How's everybody doing?

>>30363226
Is that place we came through at supposed to be there? If not, let's see if we can fix it.

>>30363655
You saw the area nearby, it seems they've repaired or replaced the barriers and checkpoints they keep around it normally.
Metaphysically, you are aware that it is functioning as intended, not a true flow-convergence so much as a pool of it drawn into the created realm and the focal point that most normal dimensional travelers should appear and depart from.

>>30363760
Right then, cheese (and other groceries) time!

>>30363760
At least navigating in general shouldn't be hard for you now, just need to figure out who sells what you need.

[Head out to the busiest section and wander around and check out the food vendors]
[See what you can find at the 'convenience shop' Lialla pointed out near the apartments, though she noted that the prices were a little higher, most life and hygiene needs can be found there]
[Try searching around the suites areas, see if there is any food source besides these restaurants you've been told of.]
[Other]

>>30364060
Silly options. Obviously ask the dwarf about cheeses.

(Side question: bit of a headcold seems be making the staying up and focused properly a little more difficult. Would any of you be interested in picking up again in few hours?
I am going to either end up stopping shorter than my usual 10-12 hour marathon run, or take a bit of a nap and then keep going on rolling.

>>30364173
*blink* That is a really good idea.
That it didn't cross my mind beforehand is a sign of how off my game I am.

>>30364241
Work was hard this week, exhaustion will probably claim me in a few hours. So, sleep when you get tired, reattain healthyness.

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>>30364173
"What's that, cheese you say? Hm, besides my mother's clan's famous mushroom swiss, which I am sadly out of, lemme think for a moment..

>Roll 1d100, roll high. Fortune favors the high rollers.

>>30364350
(I'll keep trucking for a bit then, though I'll be tending a bit shorter with the answers than I might normally prefer. Eventually to take a full sleep, rather than a nap in that case.)

Rolled 93

>>30364398

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>>30364398
>>30364494
>Rolled 93
>Cheesemonger Tier.

"Yes lad, down near the Executive areas, on the side towards the suites, there's a proper Cheesemonger, fine ol' fellow, sell direct and carters most big-wig events and supplies spreads for meetings, does pretty well for himself, even if he does have the damnedest time getting the non-milk cheeses in for me."
Non-milk, what? Might best not to think too much about what that 'mushroom swiss' of his is..

>>30364705
Sadly, with that I think I'm going to have to call it.
My apologies for not running as late as I normally would, starting to nod in my seat, and I'd like to do The Cheesemonger justice, actually have great respect for the profession.
Again, really sorry about this. Circumstances working against things.

In all events, I'd like to wish you all a good night and thank everyone for their participation. Take care!

>End Part 5

Rolled 8

>>30364705
This is where we go now. With directions from wierdest (only) dwarf we know.

Rolled 41

>>30364931
As I said before, sleep to healtyness, and thanks for running.
Also, monty python's cheese scetch is now going through my head.