Not unless I'm dying, Future Man. My own hood is the only thing that goes over my head. Olivius makes a nasty face at the hood.
Sinathel gives both of them a look from her crouched position. "Hush. Both of you."
Sinathel: You notice immediately that there's a huge vertical rectangular gap in the dome, presumably the beginnings of the true opening of the roof for the telescope. Well, you wouldn't presume that, but that's what it is - and you wouldn't need DR to see it either. Here's what you do learn:
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Useful knowledge: There's bars on the exterior of the windows on the first and second floors, but not on the third or fourth. There is nothing but single-story flats immediately surrounding the Dome on 3 sides.
What here is not what it appears to be?
At first, it seems as if the two guards from the Enforcers are the only things watching the door's entrance. However, the D.O.G. unit that walked past the alleyway is walking right to them, and indeed, it settles down on the front steps of the Observatory like a mockery of a true animal. The guards have D.O.G. reinforcements, and probably more than just the one.
What should I be on the lookout for?
While you're staring intently at the Dome, your mental missive to the People is answered by an unexpected source. "Hey Dame, you thinking of breaking into that coop?" a call in the voice of one of the People calls to you.
"Why are you offering to help this elf, Bobby?" comes another voice, as you look around. Across the street from you, on a roof ledge, three pigeons are looking at you.
"I think she looks nice, Pesto," a third voice chimes in. Now that you're looking at them, you see it's the middle pigeon talking.
"Thank you, Squit," the one called Bobby says.
"I didn't ask you, Squit!" "Pesto" says, in an angry voice. "Fine! Help her! I don't care!" with a huff, he turns his feathery back.
"Look ma'am, we don't wanna get too involved with whatever business you're up to, but you should know that there's some kinda force field in place over the dome of that building over there. The switch is on the roof, just find it and turn it off before you try flying in there or BZZT. Saw some poor canary get whacked earlier today." Bobby-pigeon continues. The one called Pesto is muttering to himself.
"Sounds like it is in everyone's best interests to turn it off then. Thank you." She smiles at them and gives them a gesture of thanks before she turns to the others to work out a plan.
"The vertical opening up there, would be a good way to get in, the problem is getting up there. The first two levels have barred windows. The other two don't. If we in from up there, I need to turn off the field around it. The switch is on the roof. Olivius, do you still have that grappling hook? Or... Do you think that saw you have could get us through the bars fast enough for us not to be caught. There is likely more of those metal dogs around."
You don't like the hood, alright... but you got those boots that should get you up there fast
Olivius takes out his grappling hook and rope. I can get up there just fine if the hook is secure, but throwing the hook that high is going to be difficult to do. The saw will inevitably draw attention if used in the open like this. If you have a larger bird form handy, Sinathel, you could easily fly the hook up.
Olivius examines the boots and asks Bolus. How high will these take me?
Olivius carefully examines his approach and his expected height for the jump. He thinks that, to definitely succeed, he'll need a few feet of wiggle room. So he hatches his plan. He dons the hood and activates the night vision, in spite of how it makes him feel, and dons the boots. He makes a running start, bounds up onto the edge of a first story window, then re-directs his momentum straight up toward the roof. Worst case scenario, he only gets his hands on the edge and can still climb up, but he figures this will allow him to easily clear the edge of the roof and land on the ceiling.
Once there (if this works) he will look for the appropriate button and secure his grappling hook for the rest to climb up.
The Hand of Gaia makes their way through the alleys to the side of the building. It's still fairly early in the morning, and although Terminus never sleeps, it is the quietest time of day. For that, you are thankful that the boots don't make as much noise as you would expect. The automatic stabilizing gyroscopes in the heels compensate for your height and weight, making the jumps from ledge to ledge feel easy. You land with a heavy THUD on the top of the roof. You see the opening in the roof leading to the main observatory in the rooftop ahead, and a lockbox attached to a post next to it that you imagine might control the forcefield. Securing the grappling hook to the Immovable Rod is child's play, and everyone can climb up after you without difficulty.
Now that you're on the roof of the observatory, you can see that the entire structure is built to be able to fold back on itself, opening as wide or in any angle desired. The steel is seamless, the engineering quite impressive. There's a circle on the front of the lockbox with an angry lightning bolt on it, and a slash through the lightning bolt.
Olivius does a quick once over of the device, examining it much like he would a trap, to determine if it is indeed what will disable the force field, but he waits for the rest before pushing anything. While he waits, he applies a dose of Golden Root to his right hand throwing dagger.
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
What here is not what it appears to be?
Sinathel had almost shifted, but with the easy way up, held off for now. Climbing up as she had long climbed the trees and vines of her home, Sinathel easily made it to the top. She kept low to the ground to keep line of sight on her smaller. She chose to keep guard as Olivius fiddled with the source of the forcefield. She did not trust this to be an easy infiltration. Better to be safe, than sorry.
Olivius, you're starting to recognize patterns in the way future tech works together with other pieces of technology. You don't understand the theory behind them or why they work the way they do; instead, you're getting street-smart about them, learning practical things like: pressure-sensitive fingertraps are a thing, or: stop moving forward when you feel static electricity making your hairs stand on end.
The lockbox is locked; you pick it.
The lock had an alarm hooked up to it that you disable.
There was a small, hard-to-notice box underneath the lockbox, tied to what looks like a trigger mechanism. You see a flap on one side, lift it up. Flechettes are smiling at you from the inside of the box, aimed at the belly of whomever would be standing in front of the lockbox when it opened. You're able to work it loose so it isn't pointing at any of you.
Finally, the traps look disabled. Whomever tried to secure this building certainly didn't want the field turned off. Too bad for them, as the lockbox swings open. You see a throw switch inside that is currently set to On. Pulling it downward creates a "Bweeeoooooooohhh" noise that descends in pitch as the force field over the roof's opening powers down.
Uhhh, I think I did it.
Dambreth looks up in anticipation and smiles, I think that they are here he says to the Professor and Eldar as he rises from his kneeling position on the floor from which he had been communing with the Earth Spirit herself, Gaia.
Sinathel quickly retireves the hook, rope and rod (unless someone else already has) and moves towards the opening keeping low. "We need to move now." She peeked into the opening to see if the rope would be needed to get them down.
You're getting to be real formidable with tech Bolus comments.
It's all kinda the same one you learn where to look. People haven't changed that much over time, it seems.
Let's do this.
Sinathel, you forget all about the grappling hook when you look down through the opening in the roof, for down below you see:
A gigantic (retracted) telescope,
A table of scientific instruments and equipment,
A door, barred on the inside
And three people, one of whom is your cousin, thought lost in the past.
There are metal apertures used for connecting together on the lip of the rooftop, where a grappling hook could be safely affixed. From there, it'd be simple to climb down far enough to drop safely the rest of the way. (It's about a 50 foot drop).
Sinathel froze in place the moment her eyes landed on her once-lost cousin. "D-dambreth?" It couldn't be possible... could it? Tentatively she reached out to sense for him. Then she was moving, hooking the hook and sliding down as fast as she could and still safely land. She didn't care if this was a trap, nor if someone else was in her way. She hugged him, holding him for several moments before pulling back to look at him, addressing him in their native elvish. "Y-you are here! How? I... I thought you to be gone."
"See here, you can't just barge in..." begins an old man wearing coveralls and thick goggles. When the elves embrace, he leaves off, grumbling.
Sinathel froze in place the moment her eyes landed on her once-lost cousin. "D-dambreth?" It couldn't be possible... could it? Tentatively she reached out to sense for him. Then she was moving, hooking the hook and sliding down as fast as she could and still safely land. She didn't care if this was a trap, nor if someone else was in her way. She hugged him, holding him for several moments before pulling back to look at him, addressing him in their native elvish. "Y-you are here! How? I... I thought you to be gone."
Dambreth returns his cousin's embrace with an equally affectionate hug. Replying to her question, he speaks common so that the others can understand what he says, Dear Cousin, my body was slain by that foul elf Temellen. My spirit wandered in deep and mysterious places before the Lady herself appeared to me. Dambreth, I must call on you to continue to serve me in the mortal realm, she said. She told me you still need to be looked after cousin he said with a smile, Dambreth continued. But the experience has changed me, Sin. No longer will I hunt our foes as I now realize we are all interconnected and each time I cause a death, I am weakening my bonds to the Lady.
Dambreth steps back from his cousin and gestures to Eldar and the Professor. He then lightly places his hand on Eldar's shoulder. He brought me back so that I can continue our mission. I owe him a debt. His name is Eldar. And this other fine gentleman is the Professor.
Dambreth's face becomes sad, Sin, Temellen slew Scram. Our spirits were together beyond the veil before I was drawn back. I will never take another animal as a companion as our path is too treachorous and my time upon it too short.
Olivius isn't so quick to jump into the dome, but he does use Sinathel's distraction to slide down the rope and approach unseen from the opposite side of the big metal thing pointed at the sky. How these people got this much metal refined he'll never guess.
He walks up behind the newcomer on silent feet and examines him closely. The man positively stank of death, and his gut recoiled at the sight of him. Whatever he was, he was smoking. Literally. Yet another sign that something was very wrong.
"Then I will hunt for both of us, so you no longer have too. Currently we run; hide because that scat Temellen made it through before us. He has those in power believing his lies. He aided some Mimics, Mimics that tried to cause a beacon and erupted the volcano. He will pay for all those deaths." Sinathel's eyes blazed with anger at just the thought. "Yours and Scram's included."
She turned to Eldar, eyeing him up and down but kept any and all comments to herself for now. "Thank you, for bringing him back."
She then addressed both Eldar, and the Professor she had mostly ignored. "I am Sinathel of the Jungle, Dambreth's cousin."
Sinathel paused for a moment before looking at Dambreth and changing the subject some to share her excitement from before, "We arrived in what Bolus called a Death Zone... but there was life out there! It was deep underground but it was there! We even got to see a Wyvern, though this one was a red one. Breathed fire. It was trying to burn down what green life could still be had."
Bolus lands with a grunt and a thump. And is very confused by Sinathel's reaction to one of the residents of the dome.
Wait a moment, you two know each other, and Temellen killed you? And now you're back from the dead? I don't know whether I should be surprised by anything anymore. I'm Bolus by the way. He then turns to the Professor. We've got a BUNCH of questions for you Prof.
The Professor has been getting more and more steamed as everyone keeps rappelling into the observatory dome. "Well, good, because I have questions for you! First being how you could have possibly bungled everything so badly so far!"
"Bolus, this is Dambreth, my cousin. We grew up together." Sinathel turns back to Dambreth, "Bolus is a Guardian of this City. He has helped us from the moment he appeared on the Island. You should have seen him with the young bull. He cares for The People too."
Olivius finishes his examination of the new guy. Next he examines Dambreth from the shadows. Amazing. Another returned from death! Suddenly he feels something. A sickening in his gut. It wasn't hunger. He searches for a word. He hasn't felt this way since that one time to literally stole candy from a baby.
Guilt.
Crap. He felt guilty! About what? Oh. That...
He fishes around in his pack and produces a bad of shiny rocks that he had lifted off Dambreth when they had first come together at the base of that crazy harpy mountain. His cat liked these...
Olivius appears from the shadows and steps around to Dambreth's side, giving the appearance of stepping from thin air that thieves of his caliber were famous for. He holds up the bag and says with, to his surprise, genuine regret, Here. You deserve to have these back.
There it was. The closest thing to an apology for theft he had ever uttered.
A whispy and haunting voice fills the air. As the hooded figure stands up and greets them. His face covered by his hood
"Greetings friends of 'Breth. I am glad you have returned to him"
He had grey and black robes. Covering his entire body. Only thing that could be noticed is the hilt of some sort of weapon
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Bungled what? Bolus responds to the Professor Don't know if you realize this but this is the first time we're meeting. Unless you had something to do with the expedition to the beacon that got everyone in my unit killed. Bolus' expression turns grim.
Olivius looks the black robed man over again and decides not to turn his back on him. Black robed men were generally not to be trusted. But then again the same held true for white robed men.
Olivius resolves to not trust a man not wearing pants ever again.
This situation was taking a turn that Olivius didn't like so a shiny throwing dagger appears in his right hand from a wrist sheath. If necessary, the poison on the blade would make just about anyone very friendly until the party was proven hostile or the poison wore off. Either way, the recipient was in for one skull-cracking headache.
Dambreth give a brief start as Olivius appears from thin air next to him. When Dambreth sees the bag of his rocks in the thiefs hand he gives him a smile. I thought I had misplaced those stone. Thanks for finding them for me Olivius. You keep them though as the elves have an old saying To the finders goes the keeping. Besides they bring back painful memories so I'd rather you have them anyhow.
Olivius bows and the rocks disappear into one of his numerous hidden pockets as he turns so that the new guy and the old man were both in front of him.
Professor Hardworthy shakes his head. "No, Bolus, this is not the first time we're meeting," he snaps, irritably. He lifts his goggles up to his forehead and wipes his face with his palm in exasperation. "Although it is the first for you, I've met you before. There's little time and less to waste on explaining it all to you again. This will be the last time you get a reset, Guardian!"
He gestures wildly at Eldar. "Why do you think an emissary of Death itself is present? The time streams are fraying from such use!"
Olivius, who usually rocks from one foot to the other subtly, freezes in place. Explain. Death's emissary? He glances at the robed man. It is confirmed, not that it needed to be. Robes were officially bad.
RESET?
"What has Gaia told you about this?" Sinathel asked Dambreth before looking at the Professor. "If time is so short, let us focus on what must be known, done and what must not go wrong."
"What has Gaia told you about this?" Sinathel asked Dambreth before looking at the Professor. "If time is so short, let us focus on what must be known, done and what must not go wrong."
Our world is being undone. Time is being undone. Life is being undone. It can still be stopped even before it starts but only if your quest, our quest is successful. Otherwise, everything we know and love will be gone forever.
Already knew that. The mountain spirit told us. Olivius says. His voice has gone cold, calculating. Something wasn't adding up, and he had to resist the urge to extricate himself from the situation all together.
Hardworthy brushes past Olivius and brings up a screen. There is a display showing an elf male, whose body is filled with red flowing veins and whose arm is...not. "It's plain as day," he says shortly, gesturing at the chart. "Damn those fools in the Archaeology Guild for denying the evidence that's in front of their faces. This...Eldar, who brought your friend Dambreth back from the dead? He's a wraithlander. Stuff of legend. Doesn't exist! No way! Undead arm," he slaps the arm on the screen for emphasis, "living body!" He grins at you, Olivius. "Impossible, no? But so is resetting time, isn't it? Impossible. IMPOSSIBLE!" the doctor begins to cackle uncontrollably, clutching his belly in mirth, tears streaming from his eyes.
The hooded figure simply listens. Death. Rebirth. Life. Death again. That is what he is and what he knows. These people... yes. People. Alive. He needs to hear and listen
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Let's get back to this reset business
Things have officially gone over Olivius' head. He takes a step back from the crazy man.