Not noticing anything else around the entrance for now, and with no buttons in the booth for Ted to punch, Isu leads the way north into the building proper.
The murals continue into the room to the north, this time showing smaller figures in the streets of a stylized city looking in reverence toward a large physical archway to the west. The archway appears to be an entrance deeper into the complex, but is currently closed off by a heavy ceramic shutter. The shutter has no obvious means by which to open it. There is a small counter in the northwestern corner of the room, and a number of dusty shelves occupy the eastern side of the room.
Interestingly, while most of the shelves are empty - their contents long since decayed - one relic remains. A full body suit, sized for a kish, lies carefully folded on one of the shelves. It has a neutral gray appearance and lacks ornamentation.
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Nothing of consequence then. Jellico thinks to himself.
He moves to examine the murals on the walls.
"Look here; these show the kish receiving some sort of blessing or guidance before leaving for a pilgrimage. These symbols on the walls must have been marked places where they would have started off."
Jellico moves closer to examine one of the symbols.
Jelico doesn't detect any magic in the room. Jelico's examination of the symbols doesn't yield much more than what appeared at first glance - that some sections of the room are designated as meditations spots. Arc kneels in one such spot and notices an intermittent hum can be heard from the wall. It seems that the building has power, and that the barely audible hum of machinery can be heard in each of the meditation spots.
Its quite clear from the murals in this room that there must be some way to open the shutter, but Jelico's sharp eye doesn't spot any way to do so in this room (nor does Arc's).
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"Just be careful, Ted. We don't know what the combination of that suite and those specific places will do to you." Jellico says to the other man.
"Although I'm sure it'll be less destructive than lobbing a grenade at the window." He says that last part a little under his breath.
He puts his hands on his weapons and waits to see if something will happen to Ted.
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Spectre examines the suit Ted has put on.
"Curious. The suit appears to be threaded with metallic fibers and there's a hard white nub on the collar reminiscent of the medical pod's terminal. I have determined that this suit is actually an ancient Kish equivalent of a holoskin, still charged after all these years."
The suit hangs loosely on Ted's frame, and when he kneels in one of the areas for meditation, he doesn't experience anything unusual. Once Spectre explains the purpose of the suit, you're all able to work out how to operate it as a holoskin.
While some of you are trying to work out if there's some strange method involving meditation to open the path forward, Isu takes the more straightforward route. He doesn't find any kind of handle or grippable edge to work from, so trying to lift it proves extremely difficult. After his first attempt, he gets the sense that he might not be able to get it open with sheer strength.
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Ted shrugs, "Why not." He kneels on the floor at one of the stations, pushes the white button on his color, and tries to act as Kish as possible. Ted's top dances around, making adjustments to his attire. He swipes at it annoyedly.
TOKEN SPELL M0 T0
School transmutation
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range 10 ft.
Targets, Effect, or Area see text
Duration 1 hour
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
Token spells are often some of the first minor changes that spellcasters produce when they begin experimenting with magic. Once cast, token spell enables you to perform simple magical effects for 1 hour. The effects are minor and have severe limitations. You can slowly lift one item of light bulk. You can alter items in a 1-foot cube each round, coloring, cleaning, soiling, cooling, warming, or flavoring them. You can create small objects, but they look Artificial and are extremely fragile (they can’t be used as tools or weapons). You can illuminate an object to shed dim light in a 30-foot radius.
Token spell lacks the power to duplicate any other spell effects. Any actual change to an object (beyond moving, cleaning, or soiling it) persists for only 1 hour.
Ted does not make for a particularly convincing kish, even with the holoskin helping him disguise himself. The results he gets with the suit are pretty basic and he manages to capture only the broadest features - their height and their skull-ish faces. Either way, his attempt to meditate in the room doesn't yield any insight or results.
Returning back to the entrance chamber with the "ticket booth", you start examining everything more carefully. It takes a few minutes, but with Jelico and Arc searching together, you locate a small sliding panel built into the wall behind the booth. The kish have drawn a mural around the sliding panel such that the panel doubles as a door to a building in the mural. When you touch the sliding panel, it clicks up a notch and the entire building begins to hum! It seems you've fully restored power to it, at least for a time.
When you return back north, you arrive in time to watch the shutter slowly retract into the ceiling.
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Lights flicker on to produce a warm orange glow in the hall beyond. Ancient hologram projectors spark and buzz before producing blurry forms. Animated holographic displays line the walls of the hall, depicting a planning and construction of a huge city among the clouds. Blurry, towering ancient kish manipulate three dimensional wire models. An important looking figure standing on an open-air cloud barge and pulling a lever that starts large construction machinery. A handful of ancient kish draw ceramic rods from the very air, then blow on them to spin them into building materials. The animations loop every few minutes.
The current kish have added a mural along the floor of this hallway - the swirls of air currents or water currents, its not clear which.
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"Evolution can't go backwards, Jelico. The kish of today did not de-evolve from their ancestors, their ancestors evolved into the kish of today," Arcalinte says. "And this IS the city in the clouds. Nejeor VI lacks a terrestrial surface that we could walk upon. I suspect Isu is on to something. What we're seeing could easily seem to a kish pilgrim to be spiritual visions from their ancestors, while we have the cultural context to know holograms when we see them."
He begins looking around, to see what the next step would be.
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"This one thinks a species can devolve, at least at a cultural level. A massive battle or raging virus could wipe out nearly an entire population and those that survive lose education and technology. Arcaline Soter, do you not watch The Walking Undead? It is this one's favorite series on Absalom-net."
Spectre attempts to locate and inspect the hologram projectors. The systems are unintuitive and well-concealed inside the exhibits, but once he gets a hold of them, he works out that they function on a similar crystalline-ceramic basis to the holoskin. He attempts to manipulate one of the hologram projectors and its associated image immediately freezes up and a bunch of garbled audio emits from hidden speakers. You realize from your experience with the audio log earlier that this is the language of the ancient kish - but glitchy and muddled.
Up ahead at the southern end of the first hall, Arc spots a particularly interesting hologram. A proud looking ancient kish in ceremonial-looking garb beckons in a way that seems directed straight at your group. The display's audio speakers activate and a stream of ancient kish flows forth. You catch the words for "Welcome", "City", and "Questions", though the rest remains unintelligible.
As you get closer, the hologram turns to face you more directly.
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"That's still a forwards trajectory, Isu. And I rarely have time for trivids."
Arcalinte approaches the seemingly friendly hologram.
"Hello? I am Arcalinte Soter of the Starfinder Society," he says cautiously in the Kish language, hoping they'd manage to establish some mutual understanding right off.
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Jellico can't believe that Isu and Arc are arguing about an Absalom-net show when they've finally got the systems in here to turn on.
"I don't think we need to worry about that now," he says to the two of them. "Let's focus on this hologram."
Jellico turns back to the projection, waiting to see if it'll respond to Arc's introduction. I doubt it'll know anything about the Starfinder Society. Hopefully it doesn't interpret that as some kind of threat.
The holographic figure doesn't even pause in its strange speech, showing no sign of having understood Arc. However, the way it seems to be directly at your group seems to say otherwise. It raises its arms mid oration and a lightning bolt emits from its form! Arc reacts quickly to dodge the electric shock, which strikes the far wall in a cascade of small sparks!
Despite the sudden attack, the hologram continues its even oration as if it were still part of the exhibit.
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|||| INIT ||||
Jelico
Spectre
Ted
Animate Hologram
Arc
Isu
Bold are up
|||| INIT ||||
Arc (9 dmg)
Isu
Jelico (RArmor)
Spectre (12 tempHP)
Ted x2
Animate Hologram (currently mia)
Bold are up
Even sweeping his detect magic across the holographic displays, Ted can't locate any magical auras behind this strange manifestation. Isu readies to deliver an extremely powerful slam of his hammer.
Spectre notices no obvious access points for any systems running the holograms, leaving his wireless hacking devices unable to establish a link. The holograms themselves or their panels have no wireless presence it seems.
|||| INIT ||||
Arc (9 dmg)
Isu (readied attack)
Jelico (RArmor)
Spectre (12 tempHP)
Ted
Animate Hologram (currently mia)
Bold are up
The holographic figure emerges next to Ted, arms raised as though extolling some particular aspect of this city in its heyday. Lightning bursts from its fingertips and traces a path across the ground near Ted. He's able to step out of the way before it injures him.
|||| INIT ||||
Arc (9 dmg)
Isu
Jelico (RArmor)
Spectre (12 tempHP)
Ted
Animate Hologram
Bold are up
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Ted glares at the image, "That's it; Let's level the place." He pulls out a grenade and waits for Arc's confirmation.
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Isu does not wait for Arc's confirmation.
"We did not come here to die while Arcalinte tries to be an archaeologist. We need to take this out before it kills us, as survival of the group is this one's prime directive."
Isu wades through his teammates to get close enough to attack. [provokes]
[disruptive fusion seal, mystic strike]