< Stilt-Walking Solars | Ex Pulplogs | And Now We Must Fight >
ST The dark cavern beckons and, being nice folks, the Solars don't resist the beckoning cavern. Walking carefully, weapons ready, the mighty Solar crew starts on their way into the deep, dark passages of the mountain. It becomes apparent quite soon that this passage may not be safe or hospitable for when Myrrh turns to Oteki...
ST he finds the air-pirate has vanished.
Carmine continues on into the cave, still unaware of the air-pirate's disappearance
Myrrh "...Oteki? Don't go running off now, this is an extra-dimensional space! You could wind up Elsewhere."
Corve is a bit busy accompanying Carmine. His rifle is carefully poised on his shoulder, held by one hand, as he gently squeezes her hand with the other. At Myrrh's comment, he turns, raising a brow. "What?"
Carmine "...Where's Oteki?"
ST Oteki, it would seem, is gone. None of the Circle heard or saw anything and the man certainly didn't make a noise...but there is no trace of him within the dark cavern.
Corve "This is no good," Corve says, his eyes narrow. He squeezes Carmine's hand again before letting it go to move over next to Myrrh and investigate.
Carmine wanders a little deeper into the cave while the pair investigate.
Myrrh "Carmine don't go off, you could wind up bunking with random artifacts for the rest of your days until I can invent some sort of elsewhere ship!" Looks at where he last saw Oteki. This wasn't good. Hopefuly he was just treasure hunting and not in the belly of some roper stalagmite beast.
Corve isn't worried about Carmine. She can take care of herself, as she and everyone else have reminded him time and time again-- now if anything happens to her, he's totally not at fault (even though he'll feel like it). Kneeling down where Myrrh last saw Oteki, the Night caste pries his eyes to the subtleties of Essence and traces that are not seen by mortal eyes. He spreads his attention over what he sees, integrating it, analyzing it; there has to be some sort of clue around here.
ST As she wanders ahead, Carmine finds the cave blocked several yards further down by a flat stone wall of obviously artificial origin. Back with the others, Corve's magic leads him to a small depression in the cave floor where Oteki was probably standing. Digging around in the dirt and gravel yields nothing except that Corve is sure the ground is solid, no trap doors. Only a vague sense of something odd lingers but he lacks the ability to determine wh
ST he lacks the ability to determine what it is.
Corve cusses, and rises again. "Something's weird around here-- but that's not surprising." He grits his teeth, tired of losing people to this place. "I'm so sick of this," he mutters, walking off to find Carmine.
Carmine is scowling at the wall.
Corve comes up behind her and rests his hand on her waist, staring at the wall. "What?" he asks, noting her scowl.
Myrrh looks up from the spot Corve was studying. "Maybe he...jumped up?"
Carmine "This wall is in the way."
Corve raises a brow. "That's all?" He takes a step forward and inspects the wall, trying to find any way to remove it without-- errm-- busting through it as they usually do.
ST As far as Corve's prying eyes can tell...the wall is solid, made of the same greyish-black stone as the rest of the cave. It doesn't seem to be forced into the cave, but rather as if it were carved from the already-existing end of the cave. Seems this place started as a dead end and someone just wanted to make sure it was obvious.
Corve "Hmm. Solid. I don't know if there's anything behind it to bust through, honestly."
Myrrh "Well then I think we should go looking for Oteki. He's clearly found a different way."
Carmine "But there wasn't another way to go..."
ST Carmine, having deduced that seeing as the only way to move is back or forwards in a rocky cavern with no alternate routes, decides this apparently solid stone wall must be the key to moving on. Somehow.
Carmine tries pushing on it.
ST When Carmine touches the wall, something odd happens. The wall shimmers, turns briefly white and a bubble starts to emerge from it.
ST About a foot in diameter, the "bubble" of stone emerges from the wall and hovers at chest-level. A round, greyish-black sphere of stone.
Myrrh "Another "gate" I hope...or another trap." Studies the stone, maybe it's a sensor of some type.
Corve "Trap most likely."
Carmine "It doesn't feel like a trap..."
ST Carmine and Myrrh, peering deep into the depths of the sphere are startled to find that while dark, grey and made of stone the surface is translucent. Inside they can see shadowy clockwork gears and gadgets turning, whirring and clicking away. Corve can see things moving inside, but nothing more. It's actually Carmine who sees a tiny moving shape near the base of the sphere.
Corve "... the hell is that?" He narrows his eyes.
Carmine "...There's something in there."
Carmine starts to pull it away from the wall
Myrrh "Amazing! Such a complex apparatus..." studies it carefuly, if only Xar were here!
ST Even Carmine's strength isn't enough to budge the sphere from it's position in the air.
Carmine tries giving it essence, then moving it
Corve moves to help her, wrapping his hands on it and tugging. He's much stronger now than he was when he met her.
ST When Carmine gives the machine a bit of Essence it glows faintly, then goes dark again. Even with Corve's help, it refuses to be moved.
Myrrh "I wonder if it's another machine messenger..."
Myrrh tries giving it some essence. Maybe if they maintain the charge...
Carmine "It wasn't trying to crush us like the last spheres..."
Corve is reminded of Falling Blackness' messenger. He growls, and pours some Essence into the contraption; maybe it's just hungry.
ST The sphere glows brilliantly as Corve feeds it. The inside is illuminated, clearly outlining the inside gears and cogs...and two very tiny figures near the bottom.
Carmine "There are PEOPLE inside it!"
Myrrh "People?" Peers down at through the blinding light. "Who would put dolls in a sphere?"
Carmine "They're moving..."
Myrrh "Well then I don't think we should shake it...and I don't think we can just break it open.
Myrrh tries looking for an "off" switch of some kind, fruitlessly.
ST There doesn't appear to be one.
Myrrh "Open up you stupid ball?"
Corve "Abrete sesamo?" Corve blinks, raising a brow. "This is getting a bit tiresome."
ST Distracted by the sphere, no one has yet noticed that words in complicated Old Realm caligraphy have appeared on the stone wall behind, illuminated by each flash of Essence fed into the sphere.
Myrrh "I wonder if there's some sort of...key. Like it's some sort of prison."
Carmine looks up, annoyed, and back to the wall
Carmine "...Oh."
Carmine starts to read
Myrrh "Oh? Don't tell me there's more of them?"
Corve raises his brow at Carmine, and then looks at the wall. "... not my thing. Myrrh?"
ST The walls has a very simple message. "To pass, shatter the stone."
Carmine reads it under her breath. "To pass, shatter the stone."
Corve "Wonder which stone it means," Corve says, looking at the sphere.
Myrrh "Oh, is that all?" Brings his fist down upon the sphere.
Corve "WAIT!"
Myrrh halts. Why does everything have to be so complicated? It's a sphere! It says to smash it.
Corve "... the people inside, Myrrh. We don't know what'll happen."
Myrrh "Well they'll...pass? It's not a hard concept..."
Myrrh "I doubt they'd put them in there just to have them smooshed when you use the dang thing."
Corve "Oh? Because the Dragon-Blooded are known to be so nice."
Myrrh "Well then It's not like we can just...reach into the thing. If it had a seam like a globe I could just pop it open."
Myrrh looks inside to see what the little people are doing.
ST They can't be seen now that the globe is dark.
Corve "I'm just saying, we should consider the possibilities. Aren't you the one that was so worried about people back at the city with Shajumani?"
Myrrh "Well yeah but why would they remain shrunk? I..I think I need to study the mechanism more. Either it's a prison or they're a power source."
Corve "Do it; I don't feel like killing more people that might not have anything to do with this just to get through. Not unless it's the /only way/."
ST From Myrrh's careful examination of the sphere and the wall, he determines that the sphere is another defense system, but a fairly straight forward one. If they break the sphere they can probably pass. But, as Corve mentioned, doing so may kill the tiny people inside. From his examination of the sphere (including a few more Essence Flares) he determines it contains some kind of complicated locking mechanism.
Myrrh "Hmmm...it's a defense system. Although if we smash it, they might die...but it does have some kind of lock! Corve, do you have any magic way to get past locks?"
Corve shakes his head. "Not yet, man." He purses his lips and grits his teeth.
Carmine frowns at the sphere. "Hmmm."
Myrrh "Well where there's a lock there's a key."
Myrrh thinks for a moment. "Tiny people inside the sphere...can you hear me?"
ST The tiny people inside don't respond at all. Myrrh does some more inspecting while trying to figure out what to do. As far as he can tell, the lock is not related in any way to the wall itself. It's locking something totally different. What, he has no idea, but not the wall. It would seem that the only way to pass this wall is to break the sphere. Or so something else that he hasn't figured out yet.
Myrrh "Hm...it doesn't really...unlock the wall. Either we smash the sphere or...do something else. Maybe Oteki knows."
ST If only Oteki wasn't disappeared!
Myrrh "Maybe we should go find him?"
Corve narrows his eyes, and finally shakes his head. "Give me that;" he mutters, taking the sphere and sitting down with it. He hasn't done this before-- it's a first for him. Eyes glazed, Corve digs deep inside, carefully calling upon knowledge he has, and infusing it with Essence. There has to be some way to open this thing, and if anyone has this skill, it's him. "Come on you stupid rock," he mutters, as he grips
Corve * it tighter, and tries to pry it open with his mind.
ST As Corve twists and pushes and prods, the sphere suddenly explodes. Bits of light and dust fly outwards leaving only two tiny figures standing in his palm.
Corve "AH, FUCK!" He covers his eyes with one hand, and then waves the dust away, looking.
Myrrh "AHHH!" Shields his eyes, not sure if he can take the loss of another limb! "Are they alright?"
ST The vibrations of Corve's movement set the two little figures sprawling, hanging onto his hand for dear life!!
Corve cups his hand a little, trying to catch them.
ST The two figures remain caught in Corve's hand, moving around in confusion
ST Each one is no bigger then the first joint of Corve's thumb.
Xar`Ex jumps off the hand, flying up to see the monstrous head better
Corve narrows his eyes and whispers softly. "Xar?"
Xar`Ex navigates the winds of the whisper valiantly!
Xar`Rex "Corve?" He looks around at the enormous group. "Why are you so big?"
Myrrh gawks at Xar and the unidentified little man. "Why are they so small?"
Corve is silent-struck.
Xar`Rex flies around to inspect his other giant friends, and lands on Carmine's butterfly pin.
ST The other figure is a small blonde-haired man with a lean build wearing a scrap of clothing tied around his waist. He looks quite irritated.
Myrrh "...who's the other guy?" He looks down at the other tiny man.
Xar`Rex "That is Sands. He is a friend, I think."
Xar`Rex tests the air to see if he can feel the Essence again
Myrrh "He looks a bit grumpy...how long has he been in there?"
Xar`Rex "Fifty years, or so."
Myrrh "He must be hungry then!"
Xar`Rex "He said there was no hunger inside."
Myrrh "Oh! Well he must be interested in the outside world...he does know we're at the bottom of the ocean, right?"
Xar`Rex "I am not sure he believes me."
Carmine looks down "..it's really Xar..?!"
ST Sands, apparently having had enough time to adjust to his escape, leaps from Corve's palm. The tiny man's figure swells as he falls. When his feet touch the ground he stands as tall as Corve and looks over the group with a glaring, unhappy expression on his rather pleasantly featured face. The only one he doesn't scowl at is Carmine, who he gives a distinctly appreciative look.
Xar`Rex "How did you grow?"
Corve "Try touching the ground, Xar," Corve says.
Sands adjusts his makeshift loin-cloth which, somehow, was able to change shape and size to match him as he grew. "Everyone knows the Silver Lady doesn't let none but me change my shape less I'm willing."
Xar`Rex "Hmmm I wonder if being small will be useful."
Myrrh "You'd rather be easily mistaken for a fly?
Xar`Rex "Well I can fit through very small places this way."
Myrrh "Well yes but what if someone swats you?"
Carmine smiles back at Sands, before looking at Xar on the clip.
Xar`Rex hops down to perch on Carmine's nose. "Okay, I will try." He jumps down, gliding to the ground
Sands And now Xar is a tiny lizard on the ground. A bug trundles past, looking about the size of a mule as far as Xar is concerned.
Myrrh "This might be a problem..."
Xar`Rex scratches his eye-ridge
Carmine crouches down, looking concerned.
Xar`Rex tries to lift the enormous bug
Sands "If you weren't stuck being the size of a dust-mite, I'd have your neck for trying to get us killed in there, you stupid lizard."
Sands The bug makes clicking noises of protest as it is lifted by Xar. It's quite heavy for the tiny dragon-king.
Xar`Rex "I did not get us killed. We are free, see?"
Xar`Rex sets it back down.
Sands "Just luck your friends got us out before you got us eaten by that machine."
Myrrh "The machine tried to eat you?
Xar`Rex thinks for a minute, and attempts to shift into the Form of the Terrible Ancestors.
Sands Saddly, Xar has not regained enough power to fuel the transformation.
Xar`Rex flies up and sits on Myrrh's shoulder. "When we leave this place, it might be better."
Myrrh "So how did you come to be trapped in the sphere mr. Sands?
Sands "A botched attempt at piracy. Much the same as you all, I'd guess."
Corve narrows his eyes at the new guy. "We're not pirates."
Xar`Rex "The Oteki is... where is he?"
Myrrh "We don't know, he's vanished somewhere."
Myrrh "I hope he isn't stuck in another sphere..." He looks at the wall, maybe something has changed now that the sphere is shattered.
Sands The writing on the wall has disappeared, replaced by a single character which means "Forward."
Myrrh "Hmmm..." touches the wall...maybe it'll give?
Carmine presses against it with all her might. The damn wall better move.
Sands The wall fades away when Myrrh touches it, revealing more dark, stony passageway.
Xar`Rex sniffs, and looks down "Is your arm different?"
Myrrh "That's because it's a different arm...i'll explain later." He glances back at Sands. "Care to join us? I don't know if you can make it to the surface alone, and we're still at the bottom of the ocean."
Sands "I've had enough of this place and your little lizard friend isn't one I'd trust around tombs and traps. No, I'll be taking my leave."
Xar`Rex "Hey! We were NOT going to explode."
Carmine "Well, try not to step on the grass."
Myrrh "Well alright. Don't step on the grass outside, it'll cut you up! And look out for giant rampaging spheres."
Sands "Ah-huh.."
Xar`Rex "I hope we meet again. Good luck, Sands."
Sands turns and heads back down the passage
Xar`Rex "Well, we should continue. Sands will be fine."
Myrrh "Are you sure? He's been in a ball for the last fifty years..."
Xar`Rex "Well he is hard to convince of things."
Myrrh "Well i'm sure we'll see him on the way out. This is a big city after all!"
Xar`Rex "We should find Oteki, and the thing we are looking for."
Corve "Good idea;" Corve says. "Let's get going."
Xar`Rex leads the way, tinily!
ST It takes some time but eventually Xar starts regaining his usual size. After nearly two hours wandering the caverns of the mountain the Dragon-King is nearly as big as he was before being trapped in the sphere. Still, his stores of Essence are low and he feels desperately hungry and rather sad that none of the Circle carries bagged lunches around.
ST Not long after Xar regained his "normal" size the group stumbled across a door carved into the cavern's walls. Almost invisible it was only Corve's keen eyes that found the door and noticed the inscription upon it. "To Pass Beyond Is To Invite Death."
Corve "Nothing new," Corve says, pointing it out.
Xar`Rex "Is not this entire tower inviting death."
Carmine "Stupid door."
Xar`Rex 's stomach rumbles.
Xar`Rex eyes Snuffles
Xar`Rex opens it, on the theory that opening it is not passing yet.
ST The door creaks open slowly to reveal a round room with a door at the opposite end. The other door is emblazoned with a sunburst contained within five rings, one green, one red, one blue, one white and one black. The sunburst is black. There are three ovoid "pods", for lack of a better description, set into the walls at points spread evenly across the room.
Xar`Rex "The Sun inside the colors of jade, but darkened?
Carmine 's eyes narrow at the pods
ST Each of the pods is large enough to contain a person but they are perfectly smooth and dark with no windows or other means of seeing into them.
Corve doesn't move, his eyes scanning the place. "This is getting more and more weird," he mutters to himself.
Xar`Rex "Hm. I do not like this."
Xar`Rex "I do not know what it will do, but I do not like how it looks."
Myrrh "Maybe it's there to catch the...sun? Well it doesn't have any sun. You know maybe it's some sort of riddle or puzzle!"
Xar`Rex "It has a dark sun, like Falling Darkness had, here." he taps his brow
Myrrh "Maybe it needs the anima of a sun chosen?"
Xar`Rex "Perhaps it is to speak with Death."
Corve remains quiet. This is their turf, not his. He steps over to Carmina and takes her hand, looking at her. "You okay?" This talking about Abyssals might make her edgy.
Corve Carmine*
ST Myrrh, after studying the room for a while and deciding that it's a bit old to involve the Abyssals...he guesses the blackened sunburst may just be the way Shogunate Dragon-Blooded decided to represent the Solar Seal. After all, they weren't very kindly towards Solars.
ST The pods, he's fairly sure, are a defense mechanism to prevent anyone from opening the door.
Carmine nods, still eyeing the pods distrustfully.
Myrrh "I think they're some form of defense system...the black sunburst is just the dragonblooded having a last laugh it seems. I don't know how we'll open the door without triggering the pods."
Corve tightens his hand around Carmine's as he unslings his rifle out.
Xar`Rex "What is in the pods?"
Myrrh "I'm not sure. Some form of defense measure...and since there's no scorch marks on the floor I doubt they got Oteki..."
Carmine "You all get out then, go back. I can open the door. If it is any kind of essence trap, it cannot harm me."
Xar`Rex "Are you sure?"
Corve "... you sure, love?" He looks worried.
Myrrh glances at Carmine. "Are you sure? I mean you'
Carmine "Yes. I can make myself utterly invulnerable. And if it is automations in defence, I can defeat them."
Myrrh "You're tough but these are first age defenses...or atleast as high as those dragonblooded could piece together!"
Corve puts a hand on Myrrh's shoulder. "If she's sure-- she's sure."
Myrrh "Well...just be sure to drop and roll if you catch fire! We don't have any spare clothes."
Carmine gives Myrrh a curious look of "And this bothers me?"
Myrrh "Well alright, just don't blame me if you get cold when we swim up from the bottom of the ocean." He smirks.
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