Flann follows, leaving a trail of colored dust.
Flann touches the glowing stone, and his body is instantly disintegrated at the atomic level, everything that was him is instantly destroyed, leaving raw bits of atoms and plasmids to float around in the air, breathed in by his companions. His soul is released to it's earned reward in the hereafter.
Elsewhere, another stone flashes and an exact duplicate of his body is created, along with his belongings, converting raw magical energy into matter. Positive energy floods his body, starting all the processes, memory encoded in the original bodies cells are encoded in the new body, and a new soul snaps into place in the body.
The all new Flann looks around, with no knowledge or even inkling of the metaphysical rebirth he's gone through, and finds himself standing on steps leading up to a glowing sphere on a pedastal. Volita is standing and looking around as well. The room is only about 40 ft by 30 ft, but oddly shaped. Rather than walls, there are mists at the edges, and the room simply fades away as the mist thickens.
The statue with the six arms is here, as it was on the Earth floor, but it's been destroyed, much as the previous one was. Arms lay in broken pieces, forever disabling the ability to turn the security off.
The only other thing in the room is a smaller pedestal with a light (cyan) blue globe on it.
Connor looks at Adran. "You go first." he demanded.
"No problem boss, I should have went first but the new guys seem in a hurry. Better go make sure they are not dead."
Adran hurries over and touches the globe.
With Adran (and then the nervous Connor) finally touching the orb, the entire group is dead...
...and alive again, completely unbeknownst to them.
Looking around the room, it's somewhat cramped with all the group and their summons standing around on the pedestal. The misty 'walls' ebb and flow slightly, the floor and other things interacting with them seeming to also ebb and flow.
Connor was the first to complain. "All I see is another orb to touch. And another broken statue. Someone had an opinion about this place after it was built!" he said.
"Let's get on with it. Any warnings, Volita/Kalvara?"
Volita shrugs. "Don't step into the mists. The portals are another puzzle, where you go with each is randomly set when the prison is opened. Some of them lead to different places each time you touch them, so we may have to backtrack repeatedly. The previous puzzle was designed to slow you down, this is designed to slow you down and whittle your numbers down."
"Looks like there were once two things to do here, but all there is right now is to keep touching orbs, I guess." Flann takes a second to re-establish his network.
Experimentally, Flann fans the mist with his wings.
"Slow us down again. Right. That didn't 'feel' like a psychoport, but I'm no Nomad. I guess we need to hurry along then. Everybody, we're playing 'Follow the Leader'. Single-file, with Volita, her constructs, then Flann, Adran, and last with me. My constructs will be 'extra'. If you don't end up with the person or persons in front of you in order, then go back-" Connor looked warily at the orb they all arrived next to. "-and try again. Remember what each 'room' looked like, just in case. Don't lose anybody. We can't move to the next orb-room until everybody arrives each time." Connor stated.
The mist swirls as Flann flaps his wings, but neither ebbs nor flows, just swirls in place, as if it were bound by something beyond his ken.
The first room is tiny, with just 10 ft between glowing posts, and the group begins to slam into each other as they enter!
"Oof! Good thing I left the astral constructs behind!"
The group trudges through, touching first the cyan, then the purple (and quickly to avoid a traffic jam), the group finds themselves in what looks like a library room that's been pulled out of the real world and dropped in nowhere. Three shelves of books are in the area, some books having fallen off for some reason, the rest are covered with dust of centuries.
Tables for reading sit around, and another pedestal with a yellow orb sits in the south of the area.
Seeing the small room, Flann heads for the Yellow orb quickly.
Having a little time in this room before the others come through, Flann first checks his network to see if each orb will cut the others off from his telepathic link, then scans the books, comparing any visible titles to those memorized from the Regent's office.
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Flann can't read some of the titles, they crawl under his gaze, as if the letters did not want to be pinned down by his gaze.
Others are in languages he doesn't recognize.
Some have titles that are similar to the ones the Regent had, others have titles such as 'How to Serve Man', 'Fivefold Pathway of the Soul: On the True Methods of Quintarian Theology', 'The Body in the Library', 'Eidolons of the King', 'How I Rose From the Dead in My Spare Time and So Can You', 'Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen', 'The Mrin Codex' (That one is bound with steel brackets and chained), 'The Life and Letters of Silenus', 'Black Tome of Alsophocus' (That one is bound in adamantine bands), 'Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male', 'The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism', 'The Show Judges' Guide to Dragons', 'Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit', 'The Six Bunny-Wunnies Join an Encounter Group', 'The History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill', and 'The Red Book of Westmarch', to name a handful...
"At least I have somewhere to come if we overstay our welcome..." Flann turns toward the next orb, but pauses. "So far this has seemed linear, but it is possible the orbs we are appearing next to are not strictly bound to the ones that sent us, even if they are color-coded." Flann reaches for the yellow orb. "I can take point..."
Flann appears in another room. There are 6 statues, an iron bound chest, and another globe of dark blue color. The 6 statues all look like demons standing there ready to attack anyone who comes close.
Flann looks up.
As the others file through, he'll send them back to avoid a traffic jam, waiting for Adran to come through.
When the two halvavians are alone in the room, he nods to the chest. "A lure? Either way, our choices are mist and statues," He points to either side of the row of statues, "or twice the statues, what looks like the safest way through? Looks like the statues are facing the other way..."
"We don't have the time!" Connor said, more to himself in a tone of regret than to the others in the library.
"Straight and narrow!" he reminded Flann in the demons-plus-chest room.
The library rooms are 10 ft high, high enough for large creatures, but much too low for flying to avoid anything major.
Even though Volita follows Flann, and Adran follows Volita, and Connor follows Adran, they do not all end up in the same spot.
Adran is the next person to come through behind Flann.
Volita and Connor, meanwhile, find themselves in a large open room with dozens of pillars, and several tables laid out.
A glowing tile exists in the center of the room, where the pillars intersect.
"Oh, alternating routes. So... I'm gonna run for it. You can figure out the chest. I'll be right back." Flann bolts for the other side of the room through the middle of the statues.
"I don't see the others." Connor said.
"Flann was first. But there's no orb in this room. So...we go back." Connor thought out loud. In case Volita was listening. He hesitated before touching the yellow orb.
Flann races between the statues, and then arrives near the dark blue orb without issue.
Connor touches the yellow orb, and returns to the previous room.
Volita returns a moment later.
"Ooo.. A chest. I will take a look."
+3 vs Traps
Adran approaches the chest, and realizes there is a magical trap on the chest, that seems to be tied to the statues.
Flann touches the blue orb.
Flann finds himself in a large open area with more books and book shelves, tables for reading, and a Green orb.
Wary without a trap expert, Flann decides to hover.
He makes his way through the room, having a rough time of it, but able to keep himself off the floor. He leaves a distinct trail of multi-colored dust in his wake as it shakes loose from his equipment. The vitalist bobs between the book cases, and pauses to make sure he has enough space between the book case and the mist to reach the green orb.
"I bet those statues will try and kill me if I don't have the key or something. I should leave it."
Adran waits around to see what the boss wants him to do.
Connor, in the library, with Volita with him, says "All right, we try the yellow orb again."
Connor touches the yellow again, and appears near Adran, with all the statues.
Volita does not come through after him...
Flann, way off by himself, touches the green and appears in a room with odd machinery that is banging and clanging loudly enough that he's having trouble hearing himself.
Flann continues on to the red orb, keeping his distance from things.
"Adran!" Connor exclaimed. "Volita and me found ourselves in a large open room with dozens of pillars. There was no exit orb - so it might be the last room." He looked uncertainly at the demon statues, and the bait in the form of the chest to one side.
"Let's go to the next orb." he suggested. "Volita, or the person in her head, might have stayed back. If that really is the end room."
"Sounds good boss."
Adran follows along.
Flann does find what looks like some pages with blood stains on them, and some blood stains, on the floor near the globe, but they seem very very old.
Connor and Adran touch the blue orb, one after the other.
Connor finds himself in a room with three book shelves, but the shelves are covered with only scrolls in thousands of pigeon holes. Adran does not come through behind him.
Adran finds himself in a room with bookshelves, tables, and another (green) orb. There is a trail of colored dust spatters here and there leading to the green orb. Despite having just followed Connor through the globe, Connor is not there when he arrives.
"I.Don't.Have.Time!" Connor muttered to himself. They were probably scrolls with magical writing on them anyway - anathema to someone from the Atalantian islands. He shuddered.
Connor didn't see another orb, so he went back to the blue orb and touched it.
Connor see's quite a few that seem to be the same as the two scrolls who led him here, there is a shelf of each.
well that plan went sideways quickly, guess I should keep touching these orbs.
Adran takes a quick look around seeing if anything peeks his interest before touching the green orb.
"Weird. Bones picked clean, no other evidence of injury, but here there are a few drops of blood..."
Connor thought to himself. Time to move the constructs. He slowly in his mind ordered:
Astral Construct One: Go to yellow orb and touch orb. Do not bump into anyone or anything on way. If someone in way, stop until free to move.
Astral Construct One: If you see [image of six demon statues], then go to blue orb and touch orb. Do not bump into anyone or anything on way. If someone in way, stop until free to move.
Astral Construct One: If you see [image of room with columns with glowing central square], then go to [image of table] and stop. Do not bump into anyone or anything on way. If someone in way, stop until free to move.
Connor is unable to reach his constructs mentally.
Adran sees lots of books on the shelves. Among them...
Murder for Love v. Murder for Gain by Ariadne Oliver
The Moswell Plan by Dorcas Bagby
Three Months in the Jungle by Colonel Sebastian Moran
Strangler Vines of Ecaz by Holjance Vohnbrook
A History of Everett Steering's Academy by Stewart Percy
九陰真經
九陽真經
A Journey to Tarabon by Eurian Romavni
The Buffalo Soldiers by Bobbi Anderson
Men, Monks, and Gamekeepers; a Study in Popular Legend (Unattributed)
Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan by Hsan the Greater
High Jinks in a Parisian Convent by Sadie Blackeyes
The Little Duckling Who Thought He Was an Elephant by Miss Felicity Beedle
Curses and Counter-Curses by Professor Vindictus Viridian
The Reckoning of the Years by Merry Brandybuck
After touching the green orb, Adran finds himself in a tiny little room with a table, his wings brushing mist...
When, after a few moments, no one arrives, Flann dismisses the paper, and touches the red orb.
Flann finds a glowing stone circle on the floor, and another book shelf.
Not seeing another orb, Flann touches the red orb he appeared next to. If he returns to the machine room, he'll touch the first red orb again. He'll go back and forth five more times (consigning a dozen Flanns to brief and uninteresting existences) to see if he can reach another path that way. If he cannot, he will start tracing his way back to the room with the constructs.
Flann steps through portals back and forth several times, and then goes all the way back to almost the start before he sees anyone. He finds Volita idly flipping pages in a book that's she's broken the iron binding on.
Her black eyes look up. "Oh, hello. There are 118 new books in the prison library, my new companion has requested I scan them before continuing. I've read 78 so far." She goes back to turning pages, her eyes moving up and down on the pages as she looks at the pages.
"Uh, don't you have the most to lose here? Twenty five years is a lot for a humavian. It would pretty much preclude your chances at having children were we to be trapped in here. Also, I don't think you should break into any more books. Save the ones in chains and brackets for last, at least. I mean, most are probably locked to keep people out, but some are locked to protect potential readers." Despite his concern, Flann wastes no time moving to the constructs, where he commandeers three.
"Back in a sec-" He has all three go through the yellow orb, has the second one come back, then takes the yellow orb himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABC + |
BC - A |
C + A | B
- AC | B
B ? AC |
Flann's investigation finds that when an orb has multiple destinations, it alternates the destinations on each trip. Unless someone uses the orb at the other end to return, in which case that disrupts the pattern and forces the orb to send to that destination the next time it's used.
"Okay, to go forward, someone gets left behind. Each time we go through, half of us goes the wrong way. They go back, and send half through, again and again, but because going back always resets the orb to the dead end, someone can't cross. Constructs, listen carefully: When I say us, I mean me, Volita, Connor, and Adraniel. Avoid mist. If you are in a room with only one orb; wait five minutes, or until you see at least one of us; then wave, and touch that orb. If you are in a room with at least one of us not being lead by another construct, lead one of us to an orb that is not the color you most recently touched, and touch it; otherwise, Wait until all of us are out of sight, then touch the orb that is not the color you most recently touched."
Connor is unable to reach his constructs mentally.
"Must be beyond the 1-mile limit." Connor grumbled, touching the blue orb in front of him.
Adran tucks in his wings tightly.
this is a small room and I'm a small guy.