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The Aluminium Dancer


Martin

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47 minutes ago, Martin said:

Does anyone know anything about the Aluminium Dancer that was in the City of Wonders?

I don't, and don't even immediately get the reference, but I'm going to throw out a possibly vaguely related idea I had a while ago.

As Everyone Knows, lo-metal (alumin(i)um) has an enchantable rune metal, which is also possible to magically transform into sa-metal, an apparently entirely different (but also enchantable, rune) metal.  Different colours, different states of matter, different supposed elemental associations.  That's a lot of magical possibilities already, but what if you could sculpt or forge an item in solid form, and further enchant it such that when transformed to its liquid state, it retained a "memory" of that shape, and would instantly revert to it if changed back again?  That could be artistic applications (like statues as "installations" with funky and surprise behaviours), or practical ones.  (Plot twist, I have an aluminium sword in my waterskin, in liquid form!)  Assuming, of course, that the change of form is a conveniently quick and triggerable one, or more plausibly, by the use of Yet More Magic Still, can be made that way.

MCU fans will no doubt recognise certain items with this behaviour -- yes, it's true Agents of SHIELD nicked this idea out of my brain! 😄  (Where my brain stole it from in the first place is sadly not recorded.)

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1 hour ago, Martin said:

Does anyone know anything about the Aluminium Dancer that was in the City of Wonders?

I can find only two references:

YBoT#1 (1998), page 74 - The City of Wonders by Simon Bray (@blackyinkin).

Tradetalk #4 (1998), page 31 - Right Arm Islands, again by Simon Bray and some guy called Martin Hawley.

 

 

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A silly thought, to flesh out the choreography: perhaps the Aluminium Dancer was/is a hydraulically operated automaton. Daedalus in Greek myths was said to have used quicksilver to make automata that can talk, which seems to synchronize up given the aluminium/mercury relationship in Glorantha. 

And of course, if you want to have this water-powered robot in play (perhaps a collaborative effort between the Rightarm and Leftarm Isles, fixing up a harmless Clanking City relic) then obviously some aesthete of a Wolf Pirate picked it, or them, up at the City of Wonders going out of business sale. 

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