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Post by Spwack on Jun 11, 2021 7:58:42 GMT
With the box open, you can look down a metal shaft lined with ladder rungs. Climbing down, you can feel the air getting even colder than normal, you can just barely see your breath. At the bottom of the ladder is a wide hallway, going (nominally) east and west. The walls, floor and ceiling are all made out of the same metal as the box “above”. To the east is the smell of rust and stale water, while to the west you can hear strange plinks and the occasional rattle.
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 11, 2021 13:04:16 GMT
Hmmm the smell of rest?
West sounds good.
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Post by Spwack on Jun 12, 2021 6:02:02 GMT
((Rust, whoops))
West a short distance, and it looks like you have run into a dead end. However, it's not a very good seeming - the wall directly ahead of you looks weirdly slanted, and there are dark gaps around the edges. The whole edifice judders every few moments, and occasionally you hear strange clicking sounds coming from beyond it.
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Post by red_kangaroo on Jun 12, 2021 14:29:46 GMT
I put my hand against the wall. Does it seem to be moving towards us, or away from us?
How big are the gaps? Could a person squeeze through? Or perhaps a flexible worm-person?
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Post by Spwack on Jun 13, 2021 1:09:56 GMT
It has a bit of give in both directions. It’s about a third the size Blerble would need to fit through. You can feel it rattle and clunk under your hands, the feeling a lock makes when the key isn’t fitting quite right.
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 13, 2021 13:30:36 GMT
What do we see through the gaps? How does it appear to be connected to the walls or ceiling and where? If I knock on it does it sound “hollow”? Ah shoot I forgot scout. I could probably bop back and get her we aren’t too far from the throne room outside of the box. If it seems something isn’t moving quite right perhaps the soot sprites could lubricate something.
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Post by Spwack on Jun 14, 2021 7:26:26 GMT
Machinery, and more metal.
Not at all, the gap seems to go all the way around the edge of this wall, and it extends under and behind the solid metal as well.
It does sound hollow.
Scout would definitely have met back up with you in CB0 when you didn't return to the secret passage. Scout blips out of your bag, scuttles along the floor through the largest gap, and then scuttles back out again a moment later. The lights for "safe - uncertain" blink up, as well as the one for "unusual" very briefly.
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Post by red_kangaroo on Jun 14, 2021 10:19:27 GMT
I try to push it as far as it will go.
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Post by Spwack on Jun 15, 2021 7:08:53 GMT
You give it a push, and feel it grind against something. Then, you hear a crunch, and a pop, and a sudden loud clatter! The wall flips upwards, shoving your legs and dragging you upwards. Behind and underneath you, a pile of dry bones rattles to the metal floor, snapped from where it as jamming the mechanism.
It’s rather dark Jax. What do you do?
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Post by red_kangaroo on Jun 15, 2021 10:25:55 GMT
The wall is lifting me upwards through a shaft in the ceiling? Can I see an end to the shaft? Is there a gap between the wall/platform and the shaft walls where I could jump off if need be?
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 15, 2021 13:56:29 GMT
How’s tremorsense doing in here? Heightened or muffled?
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Post by Spwack on Jun 16, 2021 3:26:03 GMT
Jax: It's dark as hell. You aren't being dragged upwards anymore, it's more like being pulled up by a garage door, which is now stationary.
Blerble: Both? Somehow?? You can feel heaps of vibrations, but none of them make any sense at the moment, and they ripple in confusing waves.
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Post by frankiestein on Jun 16, 2021 5:16:48 GMT
Seeing Jax eaten by the wall, I'd like to pull out my crowbar and try to wedge open the place they disappeared, cursing lightly. If it opens up I'll shout in "Hey! Jax! Are you alive? Should I follow?"
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Post by red_kangaroo on Jun 16, 2021 7:09:12 GMT
I have a torch on me. Can I light it up? Were we handwaving flint & steel?
If not, I will try to feel my way around the space.
If I hear Hurricane, I will shout back: "I'm alive! I'm okay, so far, but I have no idea where am I."
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 16, 2021 9:59:08 GMT
What do we see? Is the path now clear because the garage opened?
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garmr
Full Member
King Henry XIV
Posts: 227 Likes: 31
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Post by garmr on Jun 17, 2021 1:46:17 GMT
Henry comes wandering down the corridor, a little late. "Good sir Blerble, what is this place? Does your box contain a portal to somewhere in the dungeon, or is it a location all its own? Also, why is Jaxudyzad stuck in that wall?"
(Also, who is Scout and what do they look like?)
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Post by Spwack on Jun 17, 2021 2:39:31 GMT
Directly before you lies a tangle of cogs and pulleys, a lot of it still rattling and clanking, with bits of shredded bone jamming the mechanisms. It looks like it is trying to shift large panels of metal like the one currently in the roof, but the whole assemblage is just in a bit of disarray.
Before Jax can light the torch (which no matter what would be difficult to do in the dark), Hurricane crowbars apart the metal and Jax can get back out of the space.
Looking at the inside of this machine, you can see there are shafts leading in all six direction, up, down, left, right, directly ahead, and back the way you came.
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Post by Spwack on Jun 17, 2021 4:07:12 GMT
Henry: Scout is a small disc of crystal and silver wire, with metal legs allowing her to scuttle about pretty much in any direction. They are a construct from the gem people before the siege, and communicate via blinking lights on the shell.
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 17, 2021 6:28:43 GMT
The box is its own dimension. All completely unexplored. Not sure where to go from here. I guess do we see anything electrical? Do we see any objects amongst the detritus and bones? I will go about clearing the wreckage to help the machine function better while scout pops around to check out a passage or two.
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garmr
Full Member
King Henry XIV
Posts: 227 Likes: 31
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Post by garmr on Jun 18, 2021 2:05:43 GMT
"Where did you acquire this box, then? It is a topological wonder to be sure."
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 18, 2021 2:46:46 GMT
“Buried treasure. Mind lending me a hand?”
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Post by Spwack on Jun 18, 2021 4:46:58 GMT
You can't see any wires, just a lot of cogs and gears. There's the battered remnants of a walking stick jammed in the spokes of one of the bigger gears, but apart from that, just shredded rags and dry bones. Scout scuttles in amongst the machinery and pokes her head down each of the tunnels as you clear the bits and pieces. She comes back in a hurry, blinking her "danger" light on and off. A few moments later, the machinery makes a rattle, then a louder CLANK, and the whole assemblage spins up, whooshing round and sending the rest of the garbage jammed in the gears spraying everywhere. Moments later, the metal corridor appears to be a right-hand turn, and nothing else. (I'll presume you all stepped back when Scout came back)
What do you do now?
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 18, 2021 6:03:42 GMT
I will speak to the contraption. “Lead us to the lady… guide us to the lightning.”
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 18, 2021 6:04:07 GMT
If nothing happens I will go around the corner and follow the path.
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Post by frankiestein on Jun 19, 2021 3:10:27 GMT
I'll follow closely behind, both swords drawn and guard on high."And where did all these bones originate from?" I'll inspect them closely, trying to discern origin or purpose.
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 19, 2021 5:07:55 GMT
“Someone stuck in the contraption it appears”
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Post by red_kangaroo on Jun 19, 2021 20:53:01 GMT
I will jump down through the hole provided by Sir Hurricane and then get out of the way of the resetting corridor.
"How or by whom is lady Pykhalla held?
If this box can rearrange its corridors at will, I would very much like to see its control room."
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Post by Spwack on Jun 20, 2021 3:40:24 GMT
Blerble: The contraption doesn't respond. As you walk over the floor, you can feel the metal slabs flex just the tiniest fraction, but they don't otherwise move.
Hurricane: It definitely seems like someone got stuck in the mechanism and mashed. Not a great way to go.
As you turn north, you can see a gentle glow coming from up ahead. Looking inside the room, you can see a circular metal chamber with no exits apart from the way you came in. The centre of the room is a large glass cylinder, thick glass that warps the light a little. Inside, you can see blobs and streamers of glowing fluid, rising and falling and twisting, forming ephemeral... symbols? Maybe? Before coming apart again. The glass tube extends up into the ceiling and down into the floor, and is wider than a man.
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 20, 2021 6:41:55 GMT
“I do not know how lady phykalla is trapped here just that she is.” Hmmmm I attempt to sense magic in the tube. Not sure what I would want to do with it but curious for sure. “Phykalla isn’t here, she would be accompanied by her butler.” His rumor table is quite fun
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Post by wingilbear on Jun 20, 2021 6:47:29 GMT
Oh my word, speaking of rumor tables. This tube could contain the magical cow!
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