Editing Quest:Ruby Quest/Summary (section)

== Setting: The Metal Glen ==

[[Image:Metalglen.png|thumb|right|The Metal Glen]]
[[Image:Metal glen1.png|thumb|right]]
[[Image:Metal glen2.png|thumb|right]]
[[Image:Metal_Glen3.png|thumb|right]]

'''The Metal Glen''' is the name of the facility that serves as the setting for Ruby's adventure, as seen in a schematic designed by one "W. Murdoch". The exact nature of The Metal Glen is still unknown, but it appears to be a large medical research facility mostly submerged beneath the sea. The facility's unique location, unusual architecture, strange physics, changing rooms, and occurrences of odd biological growths, along with a reference to at least one room having been "excavated", all imply that The Metal Glen may be more than a mere research facility.

Before the name of the facility was revealed in-game, a poem titled "The Metal Glen" was anonymously posted to an RQ discussion thread, attributed to 18th-century engineer William Murdoch (inventor of the pneumatic tube, also the name of an obscure 19th-century poet). The poem appeared to closely parallel the characters and events taking place in the story, and served to fuel widespread speculation, though no-one could find the supposed original source. After the name of the facility was given in-game, Weaver revealed over IRC that he was the poem's true author.

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{|border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="font-style:italic"
|+ '''The Metal Glen'''
|
:My mother told me once of when
:A young hare ventured from her den
:And as she danced in field and glen
:The world sang joy about her.
:But wicked hateful things abound
:And that young hare these evils found
:Then whisked her up from off the ground
:And glen was left without her.


:The wicked power tore asunder
:And with this cruel and fateful blunder
:Cast her to a world of wonder
:Would she e'er see home again?
:And so hare flew that mournful day
:Over the sky and far away
:And down and down, beneath the sea
:To a place unlike the glen.


:A world of men and man's design
:A place where God's light would not shine
:A Hell of steel beneath the brine
:Where misery's echoes boomed.
:And all around her there were others
:Beasts like her, all sisters, brothers,
:Locked up, all, with one another,
:In deep sea-dark, entombed.


:And in this crypt far from the shore
:The hare lay down upon the floor
:Imprisoned there forever more
:And left to all her sorrow.
:Her tender world was lost and gone
:So joy and happiness foregone
:She slept and cried and prayed for dawn
:To wait the coming morrow.

|
:The hound was still, the birds said naught,
:The fox denied he had been caught,
:The bear cried "This is just our lot",
:And surrendered to his pain.
:But the cat stood up and shook his head
:And rising from his metal bed
:He said "For now, I am not dead,
:And I will not die in vain!"


:He cried aloud with much disdain
:And tore about his stark domain
:And said "These walls cannot contain
:A force as strong as I!"
:And the fox just laughed, and the birds all cried
:And the bear knotted up himself and died
:But the hare looked on as the poor cat tried
:To break him free and fly.


:He shook his chain with all his rage
:And flew in anger 'round his cage
:Decrying this dark mournful stage
:And the hare stood up as well.
:With passion did she then respond,
:She chewed her ropes and broke her bonds,
:And freed the cat, they ran beyond,
:They ran to flee that hell.


:And what became of cat and hare?
:Did they break free to purer air?
:To guess their fate we shouldn't dare
:Perhaps their tale closed well.
:But for all the beasts trapped in the Nether
:All life from out the loch and heather
:The flock that could not work together
:Are sure still trapped in Hell.
|}
</center>

Finally, Weaver posted one last part of the poem:

<center>
:Incense sweet, and cradled warm
:Like lovers coddled, arm in arm
:Two souls, nomadic, fleeing harm:
:That wicked, metal glen.
:Now coming morn drives off the curse
:Too startled still to dare converse
:Both praying they have seen the worst
:So ends their tale --
:Amen.
</center>