/* the sky itself: a low 0xfff4dc sun, drifting sun-lit cloud banks, and distant scavengers */ var discMat = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({ color: 0xfff4dc, fog: false }); var disc = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.CircleGeometry(24, 32), discMat); disc.position.set(320, 150, -280); disc.lookAt(0, 0, 0); scene.add(disc); if (false) { var halo = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.CircleGeometry(36, 32), new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({ color: 0xfff4dc, fog: false, transparent: true, opacity: 0.12 })); halo.position.set(320, 150, -280); halo.lookAt(0, 0, 0); scene.add(halo); } var cloudMat = new THREE.MeshStandardMaterial({ color: 0xdfe6ee, roughness: 1, flatShading: true }); atmoClouds = []; for (var cl = 0; cl < 8; cl++) { var bank = new THREE.Group(); for (var p = 0; p < 4; p++) { var puff = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(6 + Math.sin(cl * 3 + p) * 3, 7, 5), cloudMat); puff.scale.y = 0.32; puff.position.set(p * 8 - 12, Math.sin(cl + p * 2) * 2, Math.cos(cl * 2 + p) * 3); bank.add(puff); } bank.position.set(-360 + cl * 95, 105 + Math.sin(cl * 2.3) * 12, -160 + Math.sin(cl * 1.7) * 220); scene.add(bank); atmoClouds.push(bank); } var flockMat = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({ color: 0x2a2a22, fog: false, side: THREE.DoubleSide }); atmoFlock = []; for (var fb = 0; fb < 5; fb++) { var bird2 = new THREE.Group(); for (var wg = 0; wg < 2; wg++) { var wing = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.PlaneGeometry(1.6, 0.5), flockMat); wing.position.x = wg ? 0.8 : -0.8; wing.rotation.z = wg ? 0.4 : -0.4; bird2.add(wing); } scene.add(bird2); atmoFlock.push(bird2); } Moorpost: The Yam — 1260 AD Gyrfalcon
The Gyrfalcon · The Yam, 1260 AD · W A S D / R F soar & dive · E inspect · Q look · X recover · click = mouse steer
🔊 Audio On

The Ortoo Master’s Roster

Each stop should say its own word. A tablet that says another stop’s word is a copy, whoever carries it.

ALT 0m
➤ Return to the Front Door

One tablet is wearing another stop’s word.

Fly to the four stops. Read both lines on every tablet — the word and the count. Name the stop, name the line, and say what would prove you wrong. A wrong name saves nothing and does not say which line was the tell.

Four stops on a road. Each stop has a tablet, and each tablet should say its own word. One of them says a word that belongs to a different stop. That one is the copy.

Fly to every stop. Read every tablet. When you have read all four, name the stop with the copied word — and say what would prove you wrong.

W Forward · S Back · A/D Turn left / right · R/F Up / Down · E Read the stop in the circle. Or click the sky and steer with the mouse.

Name the wrong stop — the judge says no and saves nothing. Leave out what would prove you wrong — nothing saved. Name the copy and say how you know — a receipt is saved with your name on it, and a friend cannot hand it in as theirs.

What is this? The history.

The year is 1260. You fly the Gyrfalcon down the Yam — the relay road from Karakorum to the Volga. No rider passes an ortoo (a relay station) without a paiza — the iron tablet of the relay, carrying the gate’s watchword pressed under its own shift. Somewhere on the relay one paiza was copied: it speaks another gate’s word under its own shift, and a guard who checks the tablet but not the word will wave it through. Read every paiza; the one that decodes to a stranger’s word is your copy. The road is old. The theft is not.

Sarai, the last stop, was not a stop \u2014 it was the place the stops were for. Batu put a city on the Akhtuba, the Volga\u2019s quiet arm: kilns, customs men, Rus merchants, Venetian silver, scribes who could scold you in three tongues before noon. Silk came west; furs, wax and honey came south; horses moved whether the river allowed it or not. A clerk at Sarai could price a thing in more than one tongue before the owner finished his tea. That is why a copied word matters: a tablet that passes the gate passes the warehouse. A lie that clears Volga still has to clear that yard \u2014 unless the yard trusts the seal and not the word.