William looks at the others and shrugs. He walks over to the end of the line and follows the others into the gate.
Might as well join the party. Don't see that I have much choice. I can always make sure nothing comes up from behind.
Moving in her slow, measured way, Khazia trails the others to the portal. She slips in front of William, remaining mindful of the large man's footfalls upon the ground through the magic of her boots. She is entirely untrusting of any strangers at her back in her powerless state. Despite the wonders of the fully revealed city, and the strangeness of her fellow "Chosen," her attention remains focused on Altaen.
I must see if he or any of the other residents here can explain this void where my divine power should be, without revealing the fact that my power is gone. I doubt my equally confused companions have any insight on the matter.
"How long have you lived here, friend?" She inquires of Altaen, hoping to get their secretive host to reveal more information.
...The quotes one doesn't mention that it has to have quotation marks in the lead in, and doesn't make it clear that it's for replying to conversations. I made the exact same mistake when I first started PbP.
"I have been here for a very long time, little one," Altaen's tone takes on a whispering quality as he speaks, as if the eons were replaying inside his head as he spoke of them," Eternity has a much sharper finality than death..."
He shakes the reverie from his mind and returns to the duty at hand,"Your arm, please, Mistress Nyrazim," he intones firmly but not harshly," You wish to be reunited with your power, yes?"
Khazia frowns in puzzlement at the ancient machine's cryptic words, and her look grows sterner at his request. "You take that which you have no right to touch, and offer it back to me as if it were yours to give." She pauses, confusion written once more across her face, before again fixing Altaen with a stern gaze.
"Despite your wisdom to see beyond mortal comprehension, and the ability to tamper with such things.. No, because you have such power, I would expect greater compassion for your mortal charges, however few they might be." She glances to her companions and raises her arm.
"It is unfortunate that you've given us no choice in this matter. I hope this situation is not indicative of our stay here in Hideaway."
Flint rolls his eyes. Clerics. Mess with them and, for the most part, they forgive you. Mess with their god and they curse you with everything they have. Then he looks down at the gun at his hip. Oh yeah. Fair enough.
"Yeah. The irony here is staring you right in the face." He then looks at Altean's metal face and laughs at the pun.
"The blind cannot see until they are healed, Mistress Nyrazim," your words bringing a rare and genuine smile to Altaen's segmented metal lips.
The mechanical being gesticulates with aplomb, his gestures perfectly accentuating his words, and even his expressions conveying a genuine belief in them.
" Surely you see the wisdom in that. The power you once had is nothing but the gift of selfish beings you do not fully understand. Even if you could, the truth of their frailties would shake you to the core. I offer a freedom to wield the power of gods and you claim wisdom in obeisance to them. Here inside Hideaway divine power is severed to prevent their intrusion."
He shifts and his cloak opens to reveal his fully machine body beneath," They do not like what we seek to do here," the shadows begin advancing as he speaks, his eyes catch the movement and he straightens up, his voice changing suddenly as if he'd said too much," But for now simply be comforted in the fact that when you regain your magic it will be far less vulnerable to such suppression."
His change in pace causes the shadows to recede once again and he turns to the other newcomer.
"We have no more time to delay with philosophical dialogues. Master Grove, your arm, please."
His shift in demeanor is swift but somehow not as genuine as before, when he spoke to Khazia of gods and the like. His tone is almost... pleading.
For a moment you think the metal man has simply ignored you and then he suddenly bursts into strange laughter which then suddenly returns to somber silence as he waits fro William to reveal his arm.
"Irony, hah!" he mutters quietly.
"What is this mark about? I was a bit late to the party here and have not heard you give a reason for it? I would hate to lose my free will to you with that mark! I'm already looking for the one who kidnapped me and brought me here do I need to add you to the list of those that need pounding?"
William's fists clench and his jaw tightens but his hands stay away from his weapons as he waits for a response.
Flint leans in to Savyon, the one behind him, and whispers "Don't think he likes being called iron-y." He turns back to William and waits excitedly. Someone was laying down the challenge, this should be good.
"Fine," the answer from Altaen sudden and clipped,"If you wish to find your kidnapper, please step through the gateway there and be on your way. The rest of you stay put."
His last words are firm and authoritative.
Less than 20: You notice only the dialogue of the machine being before you.
20-24: It dawns on you that the shadows have stopped swirling weirdly at the edge of the platform and that aside from the last spoken words from Altaen, it is deathly quiet.
Natural 20 or 25+: You notice the sudden stillness and quiet and some ten pairs of white glowing eyes faintly visible in the shadows around the platform.
William looks into the gateway preparing to move.
As you step into the circular opening you feel a sudden static charge dance along the hairs all over your body and hear a hum begin to build all around you...
Reflex Save DC35
Williams muscles stiffen as electricity flows all over his body.
You feel the electrical buildup and brace for the inevitable...
It never comes.
You all see Altaen vanish suddenly and reappear standing over William, his back to the doorway and his face stern and looking each and every one of you in the eyes as the following horror unfolds.
The electrical energy courses into Altaen in a thunderous boom, the power building and building until the light from the discharge is almost blinding. The smell of hot metal and the stink of artificial electricity hanging in the smoke-ridden air.
As the light fades you first see the outstretched arm of Altaen, the glowing 'S' quite bright amid the clouded air. The armored warrior beneath him is completely unscathed, but Altaen is not.
Molten metal drips from various parts of his body, the drops cooling as they gather at his feet, oddly none seem to fall on William, as if Altaen had intentionally shifted his posture to avoid it.
Altaen's face is a warped ruin, only one eye visible in working condition, the other fluid and destroyed. His shoulders smoking from where the hot metal had caught fire. Altaen's cloak is completely untouched and the primary cover for William beneath.
"An example was needed, Chosen, and it has been given," Altaen gently moves William from the doorway with a gesture," Hideaway is the ultimate fortress and you are being given the opportunity to walk its streets and serve the greater good as its champions. Do well to remember we are at war here."
The machine man stumbles lightly from the doorway and reveals the Wand of Marking from beneath his cloak," Do you trust me now, Master Grove?"
Stunned, William holds out his arm for Altaen. "An explanation would have done. You didn't need to get melted a simple it's a mark so you don't get zapped by the traps would have worked. Unfortunately, I have no way of healing the damage you have taken and I'm thankful for you not letting it zap me. Do you need a hand?"
"Your compliance is welcome, Master William," Altaen waves the wand over your arm and the 'S' appears and fades," and I will be fine."
Placing both hands onto his chest, Altaen incants a spell of some kind and you watch the gruesome damage reverse at an alarming rate, metal reshaping and gears and wires reconnecting blindingly fast.
The damage is gone almost as fast as it came, only a hanging eye from his formerly ruined socket seems out of place. Firmly he pops the eye back into socket which elicits a whir as the iris goes through its different modes per a system reset.
"I know how to heal myself," remarks Altaen,"It is the first thing we are taught on Axiom." the mention of his homeplane causes his tone to soften a bit, as if in reminiscence.
Less than 20: You have never heard of such a place but assume he's speaking of his home.
20-24: You vaguely recall mention of a strange plane of mechanical entities, mathematical formulae given physical form, and bizarre ant creatures of considerable size.
Natural 20 or 25+: If memory serves, and you believe it does, Axiom is a Lawful Neutral aligned plane home to the Inevitables and Axiomites, beings devoted to eternal balance, as well as huge antfolk called Formians, that launch huge hive-meteors into the cosmos to spread their race across the planes.
Having lapsed into thoughtful silence after Altaen's strange insight on divinity, Khazia shields her vision from the destructive display. Looking up, her eyes widen when she sees Altaen's melted form. She immediately steps forward, hands raised to summon her strongest healing magic, when the current futility of her reaction dawns on her.
Her eyebrows raise in wonder at the power of the metal man's self-healing, and she focuses on his last words to her while falling back into line with the others.
"...When you regain your magic it will be far less vulnerable to such suppression."
"Speaking of home," She turns with a smile to Flint, offering a wink visible just below the brim of her hat. "If we do all return; I know a good Chirurgeon at the Venicaan College in Golden Katheer who'd pay a Satrap's ransom for the secret to your arms there." She punches the gunslinger's shoulder companionably with a light laugh.
Altean's display had an odd effect on Flint. He had considered the metal man a person until he was almost falling apart. It still had an impact on him, but once the concern wore off, curiosity took hold. Could he be as resilient as that? What could that eye do? What spell healed that much damage and what could cause that much? This place getting more and more interesting.
Then a pretty girl starts talking to him. Why did he even want to go home? "Please. Mr. Blackwood ma'am," he says mimicking Altean's tone. How bows deeply, removing his hat in a sweeping gesture. He also rubs his assaulted arm. Ladies got a good right. "And you can tell him they ain't cheap. Gonna cost him an arm and a leg," he says with a smile. "Something tells me he'd pay more to come here. I'd trade them to." He turns back to the city of metal before them. It really was awe inspiring. He could advance his research years just walking around.
In single file you all fall in behind the Accomodator and take your first wary steps through the portal, which closes quietly behind the last in line.
The city smells oddly pleasant, like lamp oil and flowers, maybe? No, maybe gun oil and incense? Regardless the reference, Hideaway is fantastically clean, little gnome-sized mechanoids moving about dusting or polishing things.
The path beneath your feet suddenly begins moving in the direction you are walking.
Altaen stops as the strange floor begins to move," This is a little thing we invented with the help of the Emporium. It moves so you don't have to when not in motion it converts the kinetic energy from footfalls upon it into actual energy, thus creating a nonmagical perpetual motion generator. Quite ingenius really."
Altaen's voice is far more congenial now, but the surrounding wonders are hard to ignore. Entire buildings seemingly sculpted from a single piece of metal, others a mass of wires and gears. Always, a soft hum accompanies you all.
After about 5mins of travelling along the strange moving walkway you stop at the entrance to a rather large and forbidding building, various creatures carved from some stone-like material mark your approach with gaping maws and hungry eyes. You can all hear hushed conversation as it echoes out to where you stand.
"Enter here and one by one you will choose from the factions that dwell in Hideaway. Forces of justice in an otherwise pointless existence. There will be a single plinth with small raised circles. Each circle represents one of the factions here. Fear not, choosing a faction to respresent does not negate interaction with the others, it merely exemplifies a dedication to a core set of ideals. When pressed each circle first gives you a summary of a faction's leader and its overall goal. Once finished the plinth shall prompt you to confirm your decision. Pressing another circle resets the process for a diffferent faction."
Altaen nods to you all with a wide smile,"If this is the last time we speak, Chosen, I shall never forget you," the machine being vanishes and before you all lies the next step towards your destiny...
Flint seems unperturbed about a moving sidewalk. He looks down and stomps a few times to test rigidity. Kinetic energy? Nonmagical perpetual motion? I wonder... Flint is lost for some time at the possibilities until they reach the choosing ground. He is a little confused. "Anyone gonna try and make a pitch? give us some info? Or do we base our decision on which is plinthier?"
Savyon chuckles lowly at Flint's jab. He nods along. "Perhaps he needs to temper himself?"
He watches things unfold, and far from being perturbed, his curiosity has been piqued. He follows along, looking around the area. Once Altaen disappears, thinking about which to choose.
Cthanos is shaken by what he has experienced.
"Hello?! Anyone here?!" Cthanos starts to walk down the dark and ominous hallway.
Flint scratches his head and lets a long, suffering breath. He had been back forth amongst the raised bits of dais, listening to the recordings about the different factions. Each was delivered in the same boring monotone the two metal men spoke in. He couldn't decide on one though. He couldn't empathize with any of them. The Immortals seemed to have some advanced weapons along the lines of his own guns but were too far ahead to make since of them. The Emporium even more interesting but their methods worried him. He'd seen the dark side of alchemy. This place seemed to have one too. And the Enclave just seemed like a good time but they were far more driven in their goals than he could ever be. Eventually he starts to wander between all of them, trying to figure out how the device works. He also tried to get several going at once but the technology at work here was smarter than that. What energy are they using besides magic, he wondered. Should have got those of other gloves. He eventually leaves without making a choice. Was that an option? Could he create his own faction? He'd find out eventually.
As you mull over each possibility, the sheer uncalculability of them hurting your psyche ever so slightly, you notice a small, unworn bit of the plinth, a stylized 'S' embossed proudly on its surface.
Guess that's the "I can't possibly make a choice with these unreasonable standards" button. Flint double taps the plinth and walks out.
They hold Life sacred, yet still respect the power and necessity of Death. Such collective wisdom as Kale has surrounded himself with is beyond value in a place so disconnected from the normal strictures of reality.
Having decided on The Brotherhood, Khazia rejoins the others with less fear and uncertainty about her future. There's a gleam in her eye at the prospect of lengthy philosophical discussions in the Grove of the Elders, and she nearly glows with the excitement of a journey just begun.
The professor considers his options carefully, but is ultimately unimpressed by any of them. The Collaborative is mildly interesting, but he does not wish to permanently align himself with a group he has so little information about. The Enclave's goals are admirable, but its members are not the sort of people he would find himself at home with. Ultimately, he decides to remain unaffiliated, and Professor Brooks taps the button indicating such.
Savyon really doesn't need much time to mull over his decision. He's a spellcaster to his core, so why would he align himself with any other faction? He chooses Pax Ad Nihilum without the slightest hesitation. Once done with his selection, he joins the others, quite confident in his choice.
As you mill about outside the Chamber you notice the approach of a familiar figure along the roadway: Solivagus.
The lithe figure of your new patron is as impressive as the first time you saw him, a robe of a wondrous and scintillating material shimmers as he is carried by the roadway's automatic function.
"Wisdom or indecision, I care not which forced your, hand, gentlemen," he begins, his tone authoritative and his gaze stern,"but now you are directly . You report to me and only me upon returning from your missions from Hideaway. I expect a full report of the goings-on of each mission and for you to keep your bias' out of it. If you cannot or will not sufficiently relay the necessary information, a small recorder will be installed inside of your head to do so, understood?"
The regal figure Solivagus was now striking seemed almost alien compared to your first encounter with him. He beckons you to join him on the roadway,"Command Center," he announces as the roadway begins moving. He waves his hand as a voice begins to chime in and is abruptly silenced.
"Damn Kasathans..." he mutters.
As you watch your new comrades fade into the distance a gust of aromatic wind brushes against your face,"Lady Nyrazim?" comes a voice from behind you.
You turn to see an older man wearing bright white robes, the cleanliness of which is quite off-putting, as if they are glowing but not simultaneously. He smiles warmly and bids you follow him down a nearby trail of worn stones, and for the first time since you stepped foot on this world you see trees and smell the freshest air you have ever smelled in your entire life.
"We give to nature and nature gives back," he intones as you take your first steps down the path. After the first step you realize that you are no longer near the Chamber.
"You seek power," hisses a female voice as a black robed woman steps from the nearby shadows, her gaunt and bedraggled look a bit unsettling,"I can feel the arrogance and confidence ooze from your soul like magma," she waves an arm before herself lazily, magma springing into existence and spiraling around her outstretched limb like a serpent. You can feel the heat even though she's easily 20ft away.
She approaches slowly, the serpent of molten rock swirling about her as she comes,"This is good, Savyon, the Pax Ad Nihilum greets you with open arms..." her tone is almost moribund as she turns, the serpent of fire and rock cools to stone and clatters agains the metal ground, little mechanoids hurrying about, cleaning up the ashen mess.
"Follow me," she calls out to you as she yawns obnoxiously,"I haven't got all day... rather I do but I don't want to spend it dealing with orientation, understand?"
She drags a nail on her right hand downwards in a vertical line, reality seeming to split like paper,"I do love magic..." she mutters as she disappears into the rift.
You watch your new allies all depart with their new patrons and find yourself waiting outside the Chamber alone for but a few moments when you hear the flapping of massive wings above you.
The resplendently armored form of an angelic being descends from above and touching down without a sound before you. Vibrant reds, blacks, and golds hang about his armor and two giant white and black feathered angel wings sprout from his back.
"William Grove of Golarion, I am Lord Commander Judas Alexander Belisarius, your new patron on this mechanical world we call Hideaway," you can hear the sarcasm in his tone, almost as if he's mocking the entire process,"BAH!" he declares suddenly and claps you on the left pauldron, his enormous hands markedly larger up close,"I can't do this thing without wanting to vomit and I just had quite a roast pig and the best damn ale in the cosmos. Would you guess that it's dwarven? I mean, yeah, dwarven stout is good, but some of their more high grain alcohols are just amazing. You thirsty?"
The angelic being's boorish behaviour is all at once repugnant and stupefying in its brashness. He smiles, the odor of alcohol wafts towards you from within his mouth.
"Don't tell me you don't drink?" his voice sounds genuinely worried and he scrunches his brow in response. The glaze of drunkenness is apparent on his eyes and one set of eyelids is struggling desparately to remain open, his other eye bloodshot.
The Professor raises an eyebrow at his new Patron's apparent irritation, but follows him silently, wondering exactly what he has gotten himself into.
Savyon grins like a kid when...the appropriate Christmas-like holiday...comes early. He watches her casual use of magic with an almost envious glint in his eyes. He's obviously made the right decision in picking Pax Ad Nihilum. I'll feel right at home here.
"Lead the way!"
He follows along behind the gaunt figure without hesitation. Magic was what he was after, and with her casual use of, he felt right at home. He steps through the rift, wondering what awaits on the other side...
You step through the tear in reality and the strange woman is waiting just off to the side. She licks the thumb and pointer finger on her right hand and simply 'stitches' reality back together in a pinching motion with said fingers. The display is altogether strange as she sticks out her tongue, a look of intense concentration on her face.
"There we go," she mutters as the tear ceases to be and turns to you, the look of despondence returning,"Almost forgot you were there, Savy, but, yeah, look around you, this is Moebius Sanctum. Here."
She tosses you a talisman of some kind, a glowing swirl of purple-black energy swirls endlessly within a tiny transparent orb. As you catch the orb you look around and the sheer scale of the place is almost vertigo-inducing.
Contrasted against a stary sky in all directions are ornate stone towers of impossible magnitude floating and connected by flexible stone staircases. The laws that govern reality seem supended here as your new patron waves you to follow her walk straight up a wall to get to a stairwell to a nearby tower.
"I am Zar'Doni Clade, pleased to meet you," she yawns again and stretches,"Feel free to peruse any of the books we have here, I'm sure you'll enjoy at least a few of 'em. I personally like the Tomes of Raistlin, what a heartthrob," she genuinely sounds enthused about the Tomes and you try to suppress the urge to freak out as you follow her upside down towards the tower, the stairwell beginning to spiral and forcing you to do so with it.
"Oh yeah! That little marble is a focus for teleportation magic, helps you to find this place once you're needing to come back and all that fun stuff," she yawns one more time and you notice that you've entered a bedroom of some sort, a large canopy bed with heavy blankets and dark wood posts dominating the center of the room.
She turns to you with a sultry look and drops her robe, your eyes lock for a moment and then you blink, you just had to blink. You find yourself standing on a metal floor of some kind, the metal is perforated in some way that you don't quite understand. Tall, machine men like Altaen and Solivagus are rushing about, apparently very busy.
You look over at a nearby exit, or what appears to be one, and you notice Solivagus arriving with the Professor and Flint in tow.
Savyon nearly starts to drool, Magic obviously the dominating function here. He watches Zar'Doni seal the rift, almost looking comical doing it. He catches the talisman and slips it around his neck, assuming its on a cord, otherwise he slips it into a pocket. He follows along and stares, looking almost overwhelmed. He nods at the reference to reading, as tomes of books in a place like this will contain a fairly large source of spells and knowledge.
Once in the bedroom, he almost forgets himself and is about to quip a witty (At least he thought) flirt towards the woman. He then blinks, before looking around, letting out a sigh. He then notices Solivagus, Professor Brooks and Flint, and heads in their direction.
Williams stands to attention as Belisarius begins to address him and remains so throughout his words even after his change in tone. In his most professional soldiers voice he replies, "Abstinence of alcohol is a great virtue that I highly promote" a big smile then breaks out on his face as he finishes most jovially "in other people as it leaves more for me to drink!" He then claps Belisarius on the shoulder, "I'd kill for a drink after what's gone on today already? You wouldn't have any dwarven single malt would you?"
Flint is a little taken aback at the shift in mood of the normally unflappable host. "I think I'll just..." he begins to say as he turns to head back into the Chamber. Space pirate might not be so bad. But then the sidewalk begins to whisk him away to wherever Solivagus was going. "Or not."
The massive figure that is Belisarius shakes with laughter and he cloaks you both in his wings, but only for a moment. He pulls them away and you behold a great feasting hall resplendent with exotic foods you know and love and countless others you've never seen before. The smells and sounds are almost overwhelming in their headiness.
You hear the sound of laughter from all around and you realize that the hall is packed with all manner of armor-clad people, the sight is jaw-dropping. A rough push from behind you causes you to turn and the Lord Commander hands you a flask engraved with a fiery clenched fist.
"This will help you to keep your nerves when the time comes for it, brother," his sudden seriousness a bit shocking,"and if you die be sure to return it!" his return to joviality is refreshing but short lived.
He waves his wings over you and you find yourself standing in the middle of a bustling office of some kind, you notice Savyon moving towards what appears to be an exit and Solivagus, two figures at his back. All the while the laughter of Belisarius and his comrades echos in your mind...
As you move silently along on the automatic roadway, Solivagus turns and tosses you each a small metallic sphere with a a raised red button protruding from one side.
"A last resort, gentlemen, use it wisely," he peers over his shoulder at both of you,"and just so you know, I prefer that you don't die, so try not to make us look bad by expiring during your first foray into the field."
You can't tell if he just cracked a joke or if he's serious and you get little time to decide as the roadway takes you into vast overhanging structure, hundreds of beings slightly smaller than Solivagus but also mechanical are hurrying about, the near-silence of the affair truly unsettling.
As you come to a halt you find yourselves at a vast circular white table, Savyon and William can be seen nearby. They both seem a bit perturbed but present. Solivagus leans over the edge of the table and begins pressing squares of light in the air, all manner of images begin to coalesce above the table, the curvature of some great sphere appearing and beginning to sharpen in focus.
"Once Mistress Nyrazim arrives we can begin the briefing. It may be a moment, Kale is a bit long-winded."
Solivagus grins wickedly and ceases pressing the squares for a moment, the curve of the sphere flattening out, a towering mountain on an island amid a sea of storms stands out to you all, the incredible detail is astonishing and then you notice tiny things on the image moving...
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As Khazia arrives to the table with a kind of pleased look about her, Solivagus presses a few more buttons at the light-structure display,"This is a 'hologram', an artificial structure formed by the arranging of luminal particles in specific ways to create any of a variety of images," he continues inputing something into the 'hologram' squares and the curvature shifts to a white desert-like locale on the topographical display before you.
"On this world you see here, called Terrath," the display generates the name and various other details about it in short, rapid bursts of common script,"humanity was first conceived, or at least in its most potent form. They advanced to technoarcanic levels far beyond anything ever encountered in the cosmos and we regularly traverse the plane for old relics of that indigenous human society for use as components for the most advanced devices we have here on Hideaway, such as the portal generator you will be using to get there."
He gestures to a platform nearby, crowded by technicians of the Immortal Initiative, most of them inevitables but a few are human-looking of even more exotic than both. At the far end of the platform lies an upright circular structure with a number of segments that range from rectangular to cylindrical.
"Just recently we've sent a team in to recover a cache of hyperspace teleportation transponder units, or HTTUs for short, but that will not be your task today," the display of the frozen wasteland sharpens and you notice a range of mountains and amid them are craters of varying sizes, some seemingly hollowed out somehow.
"This region is one of a handful across the planet that housed a scientific facility of the experimentation bent," Solivagus winks to Flint and Professor Brooks as he says this,"So those of you curious about how other breeds of humans handle their 'alchemy', this is just such an opportunity."
The wasteland zooms in and you notice what appears to be an inversed L-shaped landmass connecting the pockmarked mountain range to the rest of the continent.
"Antifreezing agents will be administered prior your departure via a shot to the arm, please offer one to the medic-bot as he comes to each of you," on of the gnome-size mechanoids moves up to each of you and kindly requests you do this and injects a blue liquid of some kind into your arm before moving on.
"This will only last one week before wearing off completely, leaving you to weather the radioactive wastes of the Terrathine northlands without its nominal protection," Solivagus shrugs slightly before moving on,"Your mission in this region is to confirm or deny reports of a node of the crystals contained within HTTUs, we're calling them transwarp crystals for lack of a better term," he swipes the display and the mountain range turns inside out and you see a dizzying network of tunnels and chambers all throughout the inside of the frozen rock and earth.
"Our preliminary reports also speak of an agressive native species of sentient arachnid life-forms, stone idols found in their settlements indicate their knowledge of a rather insidious entity known as Lolth. The technicians have made it a habit of referring to these archnidians as Lothilk for this reason," as he speaks the display generates the image of bizarre creature with a massive abdomen and an upright cephalothorax supported by four pairs of legs and using an additional pair as arms, completes with vicious grasping claws.
The display indicates that they are on average 8-10ft tall and each weighs roughly 600lbs. The females can grow up to five times this size and are generally sedentary, choosing to lay eggs and care for the young rather than travel and patrol their underground realm, as the males do. They each have a bite that utilizes a particularly powerful neurotoxin that renders animals as big as a small whale completely paralyzed within a matter of minutes. They secrete a thick, silk-like substance from their abdomens, that they use to reinforce their tunnels and to create a variety of unique and suprisingly sturdy structures.
"As your pour over the data I will tell you your purpose here: find the node and kill anything that gets in your way, for they will surely kill you," his tone is gruff and he swipes away the images before gestures for you to follow him over to the platform with the portal-structure.
The nearby technicians all scatter from off the platform as another one inputs data into a hologrammic display hanging in the air before him,"Portal Generation initiated! Radiation storm detected, Lord Solivagus, your orders?"
He waves them on and the circular structure breaks apart, its constituent parts suspending in the air as the cynlindrical portions generate powerful bolts of incandescent electricity,"Their stay above ground should be short," Solivagus mumbles,"Whatever you do, do not remain above ground for long, everyone, the energies within these 'storms' will literally disintegrate you over time."
The portal widens a bit and the technician from before frantically types into his display,"Detecting energy surges in the stabilization matrix far above acceptable levels, sir, our window will be a small one."
Solivagus nods to you all and smiles thinly,"This will be a harsh mission for such new applicants but I believe in each of you, as do we all here on Hideaway, otherwise you wouldn't even be here," his smile turns to a grin,"Once you've completed your recon to the best of your ability, as in are on site at the node, or have recorded the coordinates sufficently, simply summon your Marks and say the following words verbatim: Mission complete, extraction requested, and we'll work on retrieving you as soon as possible."
He shifts his stance and his gaze becomes stern again,"Under no circumstances will you do this if the enemy is present or you have yet to accomplish your tasks. Should this happen, Flint and the Professor will be held personally responsible and punished accordingly. That being said, I don't expect any problems."
He smiles one last time and you notice the portal has expanded to a size large enough for you to step through, the cold winds on the other side blowing through the orifice in space-time and even the machines seem off-put as the energy-laced breeze causes their delicate circuitry to misfire irritatingly.
"Good luck, champions, my best wishes go with you in this, your first and mighty endeavor on our behalf," his tone is genuine and he bows in deference as you step up to the portal, warning sirens blare as the winds intensify.
"Readings are off the scale, sir, requesting immediate departure of we'll lose the portal!"
Solivagus nods and beckons you all to enter the gateway to the icy wastes of northern Terrath, a world that could easily become that last you step foot on...
William nods to Solivagus, pulls out his greatsword and waves for the rest of the group to follow him. "Let's get this PARTY STARTED!" He then jogs through the portal ready to take on whatever awaits on the other side.