ORIGIN

Somewhere in Canis, the Collector stood hunched over, giggling softly, struggling to keep it from becoming hysterical guffaws. With his magic he could watch them--the chaos that unfolded as some Gembound tumbled after the sled, some attacked it (and here he was both surprised, and rather appalled; he hadn't intended for anyone to die today) and others just generally fumbled about. All at high speed, all hilarious.

Some were successful in their tasks. Take Rainstorm, for example, who barely managed to snag a scroll from the massive, careening sled. Algol wasn't entirely sure what the bird could do with it, but they'd found a diagram depicting several types of boats--made with treated wood, or hollowed-out logs, some wrapped in leather--and both sails and oars. Or Aran, who'd safely snagged his glowing orb and made good his swift escape (probably wise, really). Dip he paid close attention to. She'd gotten the tea! Good. And now she was reaching up, pulling a scroll down from a low-hanging stalagtite--one of the last. That one, he knew, explained how to create cement, by grinding shells, or porous rock, and combining the powder with clay and water. It had a few different methods, but the Collector wondered if Dip would actually be able to do all that much with it. Ahh, well; the game was random, that was rather the point of it. Garnet-Episilon grabbed what he considered one of the more important advancements--one of the ones that a few others relied on, in fact. It was a small cup of salt, with a paper card sticking out of it. This paper's diagram depicted how to refine rough salt by first steeping salty stone in water, then evaporating the water, leaving behind the salt. And Volta, with an admirable display of agility, snagged another scroll. Ahh! He particularly liked that one: a diagram showing how to build a kiln to heat temperatures to extremely high levels. Alongside it, rolled up within, was a bonus diagram showing sand being melted into glass, and blown into shapes, a window among them. The Gembound would make good use of that, he gauged--assuming Volta thought to share.

And then... there were the failures. He enjoyed watching them just as much, though Attikias he watched more grimly. Of those trying to catch the sled, Nemo and Haven both missed badly, potentially falling and getting a tad scuffed-up in the attempt. Neither, he gauged, were too hurt to try again. Eythan tried to flip the heavy chest, but it well-outweighed him; still, the strong rock that he gave it sent its lid (and far too many wooden teeth) snapping shut on nothing. The Collector laughed at this a little too hard; it was a good thing he was muffled, and invisible, or even Eythan might have heard him from even this distance. Electrum was leaping and failing to snag the last scroll, and Attikias...

Oof.

The spear drove into the wood, and the sled turned, all the legs scrambling and skittering on the ground. Normally it was a shy and frightened thing, but Attikias had attacked it-! Harmed it! ...And now it struck back.

The sled, weighing perhaps six or seven hundred pounds, with half that weight in the dozens of legs alone, wnt careening for the humanoid. It was a clumsy thing, and if it hit, it would likely only knock him aside; it didn't seem to have aimed very well.

And for the rest-? What remained was a single scroll, dangling tantalizingly above Electrum, and a few final items hidden on the sled, and in chests around the cave.

The sled whirled, Nemo successfully attracting its attention. It was not, with its dozens of humanoid legs, particularly agile; it stumbled to one side, skidding, a few of the legs briefly folding with the strain of the sharp turn.

Electrum snagged the last scroll: a long parchment, once unrolled, depicting various types of pottery and how to create them--including a brief example of heating clay on a hot fire.

The chests were far too heavy for Rainstorm to open alone; yet the one they tackled opened of its own accord, the lid lifting and tilting back. Strange... Out popped two items, landing neatly on the floor before the pigeon. The first was a small cup of sugar, which spilled only a little; the second was a paper detailing how to refine sugar from nectar, honey, or fruit.

Haven snagged something rather small: a silver needle with a long piece of thread threaded through its eye. This was stuck through a half-sewn pair of silk scraps, laid end-to-end, clearly woven from spider-silk. By studying it, the art of sewing and stitching would become clear. Though it would probably be easier to someone who had eyes.

Ischium missed his mark entirely, indeed; and lucky for him (and for Attikias), the sled was now distracted by the flapping Nemo. Otherwise, the coyote might have had a very bad time indeed.

Two items remain in chests in Canis. One remains atop the sled.