One of the highest advancements made in Arclight City’s age of arcano-scientific enlightenment was the discovery of the Vortonite material and the harnessing of it for use in powering many of the technological wonders seen in the city, including the DeepEye itself. Seen as a hasty implementation, the Vortonite core is utilised in replacing the coal furnace to power the great boiler that drives the digging platform. All of the instrumentation of the digger is also powered by such arcano-electric energy.

Capable of much more though, the designer of the machine, used its Vortonite Core and harnessed the arcane overflow from that process to begin developing a rudimentary thinking engine. Necessary in balancing the DeepEye’s energy grid of shifting, arcane power produced by the core, the Thinking Bell is also capable of basic calculation, as well as logical output. It’s primary function onboard is to track the diggers orientation and calculate the depth at which the DeepEye sits.

The Chief Scientist Player Role is charged with maintaining the Thinking Bell, calculating the vehicle’s depth, as well as balancing the electrical grid, sending more or less energy to each command station in any one turn.

Energy Grid -

At the start of the ‘To Stations!’ Phase, the Chief Scientist Player must roll 3D6, two of one colour and one of another, to establish volatility in the energy network. One die will represent the energy surplus produced, while the others will affect an instability modifier to the overall energy number. The base energy which is always available to the digger at the start of the turn is five (5). The surplus die will give a modifier of x1 through to x6 of how much energy is available on top of the base number that turn. The instability modifier dice will show a number from 2 through to 12 which is then subtracted from the result of applying the surplus modifier

Example; The energy grid produced five (5) energy at the start of a turn. The surplus modifier die is rolled and shows a three (3), making the current turn’s surplus equal to fifteen (15). Following this, the instability total is rolled for an eleven (11) which is subtracted from the surplus total (15) for a result of four (4) being the final amount of energy available for distribution in the current turn.

If after rolling the volatility dice, the resulting energy number is negative, then the grid is damaged. If damaged, the sum of the negative numbers below zero will be added, in the form of red cards, to the Thinking Bell’s readiness deck. This is explained further in the section covering the readiness deck. The energy number will need to be re-rolled, following the same rules until either three rolls have been made, total, or a positive number is rolled.

Surges - If a large amount of energy is rolled for surplus, and the digger has no way to use it, aka; All stations have maximum power. Then a power surge will occur. The surge must be routed to one of the other stations on the digger, excluding the Thinking Bell itself, where damage equal to the amount of unused power is added to their readiness deck in the form of red cards. In all surges, an additional volatility die is added to the Thinking Bell’s rolling pool for the following turn.

Distributing Energy-

Energy is a resource, represented by a physical token which Control will distribute. Once the amount of energy produced is determined for the turn, the Science Officer may distribute it on their command station’s board. The board will include sections for energy distribution to each of the other command stations, and additionally, some local functions of the science command station itself. One energy must be put towards the Thinking Bell itself, if it is going to answer probabilistic questions, that turn. The more energy put towards the Bell, the more accurate its logical processing will be. Each other command station also requires at least one Energy to function at all. They will generally require additional energy to maintain any other tasks beyond that. The Science Officer should discuss energy distribution with the other crew in order to find an optimal balance.

Depth Calculation -

If the roll for volatility does not cause damage or create a surge, the Thinking Bell will have enough energy remaining and be able to calculate the precise depth of the Digger from the surface. This number can be elicited from Control and considered accurate, being passed to the Navigation Officer. If damage occurs or a surge happens, this number may not be available, or if it is should be considered suspect.

Probabilistic Questions -

In addition to it’s managing of the energy grid, the Thinking Bell can act as a knowledge engine, capable of calculating probabilities. Once every turn, Energy resource may be held at the Thinking Bell command station in order to ask the Bell one question which can be answered with a returned probability. E.g. “How probable is it that the digger will encounter an impassable obstacle, while moving forward this turn?” The answer will be given to the asking Player in the form of a percentage, or range. If the answer cannot be given as a probability, the Bell will return an error message.