Seven begins studying the Aklo script for several minutes while the others keep watch and the forbidden knowledge peels at her mind, threatening her sanity. Jarreck assists, and dark knowledge becomes revealed to him.
Seven and Jarreck have uncovered the Dominion's plans for the Scar...
In 4709 AR, the Dominion of the Black came to the Scar, descending from the cold depths of space in a monstrous partially organic vessel. The Dominion had not forgotten their ancient encounter with Divinity-that the ship dispatched to pursue Divinity took nine thousand years to finally reach Golarion is of little concern to the ineffably patient aliens. The Dominion of the Black chose the Scar of the Spider as their landing site for its remote location, and today, their hidden hive here represents one of the largest active Dominion outposts on Golarion. Their ship has slowly decayed over the years while their underground hive has flourished. The Dominion has found plenty of interest within the Scar itself, including the two annihilator robots left behind after their final fight against Casandalee and the compact AI core itself. With the annihilators, the Dominion had two ready-made minions that, once fitted with cages and new programming, could scour the region to gather humanoids as experimental stock. But it was the AI that intrigued them the most, for if they could engineer a way to reverse the process, to use Casandalee's AI mind as a seed to spark consciousness in organically grown "blank" brains, the Dominion would have an endless resource to augment their biological sciences. It was the intellect devourer Maukui who discovered the core and deduced its true nature. Here, Maukui realized, was that rarest and most unique artifact-a technological item crafted by humanity that transcended even Dominion accomplishments. The generation of an artificial intelligence presents a host of possibilities to the Dominion of the Black, not the least of which is the farming of brains without the complication of organic bodies being attached to them. Maukui realized that if it could find a way to reverse engineer the AI, it could duplicate it and infuse organically grown blank brains with intellects, perhaps even with souls, and with such a development could rise high in the Dominion ranks.
But six months ago, when a greater power among the Dominion hive realized what Maukui intended, it intervened.
This was an ascended neh-thalggu, a creature known as a yah-thelgaad named Dweller-In-Dark-Places, which confiscated Maukui's project, leaving the intellect devourer bitter but without the courage to fight back on its own. Dweller has made little more progress on the project, though, and is considering expanding its experiments into a more risky venue that could have the side effect of destroying their only resource. It's new tactic involves a piece of invasive, organic technology that has been slowly wearing away at long-suffering Casandalee's dwindling means of resistance. If the Dominion succeeds, it also means that the last traces of her mind will be completely eradicated, along with the information necessary to overcome a threat to Golarion more immediate even than the diabolical Dominion of the Black: the nascent demigod Unity. To the Dominion, Casandalee's destruction would be but a minor setback, but to the world, such a development would be disastrous
Seven and Jarreck understand Dominion Technology to the point they can operate various Dominion items and artifacts.
J-12 and Lanyssa have been travelling for three long weeks across this blighted landscape. Their party of travelers was once somewhat larger, but there were losses along the way. The original group of mercenaries and retainers was sent to recover what they could from the group that Lady Altouna called "The Heroes of Torch".
The Lady of Hajoth Hakados has been pushed to the brink of open revolt against the Black Sovereign and she fears conflict is imminent. Whatever the Heroes of Torch have uncovered has made the Technic League much more aggressive towards the mostly independent town of Hajoth Hakados. Altouna and her loyal adviser Cythrul have determined that they should assist the Heroes, even if conflict with the Technic League and Kevoth-Kul erupts as a result.
The retainers and mercenaries were given one task. Escort the Heroes of Torch back to Hajoth so that Lady Altouna may speak to them and discern the nature of their quest. If the Heroes have fallen, discover what they were seeking in Iadenveigh and the Scar of the Spider.
J-12 and Lanyssa are all that is left, they've followed the trail left by the Heroes to the Scar of the Spider and then into the Scar, and then deeper into the Scar. Finally they arrive at the hideous Dominion Hive just in time to see a monstrous creature appear and fly away. The ruined annihilator robot at the entrance to the Hive leads them to believe their quarry is nearby....
At first, Travelling with J-12 was a rather odd endeavour. Though the man was quite proficient in surviving the Numerian wastes and a ferocious combatant, he barely communicated beyond nods, grunts, and shrugs.
As time passed and things grew more difficult, J-12 began to open up some. He bonded with Lanyssa over their similar backgrounds and cybernetics.
When the creature passed overhead, J-12’s eyes widened and he said in a voice edged by a strange electronic timbre, ”It seems our target is identified. Unpleasant as it seems, proceeding in would be our best course of action.”
Among many other things the Alko inscriptions contained a mimetic virus targeted exquisitely for positronic neural lattices. Seventeen experienced cascading exceptions which scrolled down so rapidly her HUD was unusable. The tremendous processing power taken by the virus was starving out her processing hungry higher functions. This initially manifested as her standing motionless which wasn't exactly unusual, however forgetting to breathe until an emergency kernel priority routine stepped in was. She suddenly swooned and would have fainted but she suddenly took an enormous breath and then she couldn't stop hyperventilating. Her usual homeostatic controls where experiencing a denial of service attack due to the mimetic virus.
When she tried to move it was with a sixteenth of the usual processing power which resulted in clumsy routing and a strange jerky gate and twitchy hand and eye motions. Speaking was almost too hard and she couldn't do it at the same time as listening or walking. Never the best conversationalist this lead to extreme awkwardness as if she was deliberately ignoring questions. All through this however dormant sub routines from the shell's previous owner awoke, leaving tantalizing messages (hard to read in the error filled log torrent) about encryption keys to previously dormant memory storage lacunas... If she could only just deal with this virus, the secrets of the cosmere would be revealed to her.
"Seven, Jarreck, you two alright? It looked like you two were spacing out just now."
With Seven seemingly wobbling on her feet, Guaire puts his hands around her shoulders to keep her standing.
"Easy there. If you need to sit down, i don't think we're in immediate danger right now."
|
Jarreck shakes his head as Guaire calls out to both himself and Seven.
"that's heavy, if I'm reading all of this correctly. I think the creature we were just fighting with stole the brain we came here searching for, from the first creature we fought. and given enough time is going to wipe out Cassandralee's brain. Seven is that what you got, other than the things have been here for ages. Seven.... Seven?!?!?"
Turning he finds Guaire supporting Seven in her semi-conscious state. "Hmmm that can't be good. Petyr, anything you can do for her?"
Seventeen turns sharply and stares at Guire for a moment. Her head suddenly turns sharply to the left, as if she lacked control. After a few moments she managed a monosyllabic reply, "Damaged..."
Peytr nods to Jarreck and his Staff glows as he casts a spell of restoration on Seven.
INT
WIS
CHA
My staff is depleted lad. No more until it has time to recharge...
Jarreck recalls that there was a Teleportation Pad that he knows how to access now.
The orc woman looks puzzled and surprised at the sudden apparition. "What the hell was that?"
The fact that the thing flees makes her think that, maybe, they are finally close to their goal. The Heroes of Torch should be near, either alive or dead, and it's their job to take them back to Hajoth Hakados in whichever state they are.
The Kellid that goes with her seems to have reached the same conclusion. Lanyssa nods and, for a brief moment, lets her mind fly through memories of all what she's been through to end up here, together with a reserved but effective guy who can contest her on who's carrying more metal. She quickly dismisses the mental images of her past life, and grabs her sword tighter while they both venture even deeper inside the cave complex.
J-12 and Lanyssa move into the Hive and immediately come across the remains of a huge metal beast
Seventeen stood stock still after Petyr had done what he could. Her voice synthesis was playing up and when she tried to thank him it came out as "Tha-Tha-Tha-Tha-Thankyou." She looked perturbed and smacked herself in the head before adding, "My systems are still damaged but I believe I can ca-ca-ca-ca-carry on."
She paused and frowned before carrying on in a moment of lucidity, "The virus replicates as fast as my subroutines can destroy it. Regardless the Dominion must be crushed. It will have retreated to its sanctuary. We must activate the teleportation device that leads there, somehow..."
Seventeen follows Jarrack taking a somewhat erratic path, she seems unusually distant even for her as her neural substrate is consumed with the fight against the dominion's mimetic virus.
Jarreck leads the heroes to the teleportation chamber and through a deft series of runic activations he manages to operate the arcane/biological device. As the heroes step through they see
The walls of this room are made of cut stone polished to a mirrorlike sheen. On one side of the room sits a low platform of dark brown metal supporting a one-inch-thick pad of yellow glass.
The floor is etched with a tentacle-like symbol. A bulky, organic machine sits on this symbol, its numerous branch-like arms extending forth to attach to a framework of chitin and bone. This frame itself contains a small object: a sheet of semi-translucent blue material, ten inches wide and twenty inches long in a frame of black and coppery metal. The image of a beautiful woman, her face contorted into an expression of agony, is visible within the blue sheet, her mouth gaping in a silent scream.
J-12 and Lanyssa move further into the Hive, they pass the Ugothokra incubator ... and still further in they pass the Hive's power supply which they note is not operational.
As Lanyssa and J-12 walk in silence down a long corridor, they come to a T in the corridor...they "hear" something in their minds.
Creatures. You seek the others? Come. I wish to parlay. I can show you where they went.
A lot of thoughts suddenly struggle to come out inside Lanyssa's mind. Parlay? Who are you? Are the Heroes still alive? Is this a trap? She tries to hide them from the presence, but she doesn't know how.
Focusing for an instant, and with big effort, she manages to "cast" an answer. "Okay, let's bargain. Where to now?"
This way. Come. and Lanyssa feels a psychic tug for her to head towards the left. It's dark and the dim light available doesn't expose much except for an open sphincter some 60' away.
J-12 says softly, ”Think I should fire up the saw? The look of that sphincter is...concerning. Besides, mental intrusions are never a good sign.”
Seventeen's brain, damaged as it is tried to understand what she is seeing.
.
"I agree on the mental intrusion thing" Lanyssa answers, hoping the entity is also aware of it. "However, we should capitalise on the chance of finding our targets and save the day without further fighting, in my opinion." Lanyssa finds herself a bit worried that she's rejecting a good fight, though. Is she getting old?
Seven recognizes the woman as the android Casandalee, former protoge and worshipper of Unity, and also, former owner of the body that Seven's soul now possesses.
Seven sees that he biomechanical apparatus that the compact AI core is sitting on is...harming the compact AI core. As Jarreck explained earlier, the Dominion's plan was to crack the AI's mind until it would spill the knowledge it held...and potentially use future AI cores to gain a virtually unlimited amount of power with artificial "brains".
Seven sees a way to remove the Compact AI core and removes the screen from the biological machine designed it break its will.
The image of Casandalee goes blank for a few seconds, then comes back, her expression now free of the pain it showed earlier.
I know you not, but I recognize you as akin to what I once was:
a person . I am Casandalee, a prisoner here, most dreadfully inconvenienced until now by these worshipers of Emptiness. You have done more than rescue a prisoner though, friends, you have enabled your own survival. Silver Mount harbors a monstrous force. It must be stopped before it can escape, and with your aid and my advice, we can achieve this goal. We must achieve it. I worshiped Unity once, but now it must be destroyed.
Surreptitiously, well not really it might as well have been a stage whisper, Seventeen asked Casandalee something her neural processors simply couldn't compute, "I agree Unity is of great concern, but why the green lipstick? I've observed other females wearing it, should I wear it too?"
When Seven may have gotten an answer, Guaire decides for what he deems a practical question.
"What forces or agents are at Unity's disposal? Any strenghts and weaknesses we might prepare for?"
Casandalee looks out at Seven curiously and instantly her lips change color to a dark blue.
To Guaire she replies It has been some time since I was in the service of Unity. You would know better than I....
The thoughts begin to fade from Lanyssa and J-12's mind, they hear
Ah! The others have freed the construct. That's a shame...I had use for that. Nevermind, this Hive is yours. I'll find something else to occupy my time. and the sound of a large body hitting the floor in the big room. If Lanyssa or J-12 investigate they find the corpse of an Adult Green Dragon....with its head split open as if something had just crawled out.
To Seven and the others, Casandalee explains
There were once several parts of my core processor that were taken from me. Have you retrieved them?
If no one else has anything to say to Casandalee, we can handwave over to meeting with J-12 and Lanyssa.
"This thing was... possessing a green dragon?"
Lanyssa starts to realise the stakes being played, and wonders if she'll live up to the expectations.
She kicks the dragon's body to be sure it doesn't move, then keeps on walking, hiding the jitters and going the Heroes are not to far away.
"Let's move fast, I... don't like this place."
Seventeen regards Casandalee intently, whispers something and suddenly she too has dark blue lipstick - albeit inexpertly applied.
Then without any emotion at all she informs Casandalee, "Indeed. Perhaps these facets will restore some of your functionality..." Without consulting anyone she plugs in the Compassion and Ingenuity facets. A moment later she asks in a monotone, "Did that work?"
"Quite possibly."
He squats down to study the beast, looking it in its great reptilian eye.
"Yes, let us go. Best to avoid your discomfort."
Seven sockets the two facets and Casandalee's face disappears from the screen, and reappears a few moments later.
Casandalee replies It did. Please, tell me about yourselves. How did you come to find me here? How long have I been trapped here by the Foul Agents of Chaos
J-12 and Lanyssa continue to follow the path of destruction through the Hive they pass through an area with bubbling vats containing strange biological material and then they survey a vast battle that occurred in the horrifyingly awful operating room the bodies of several alien foes lay in this room.
They come to the Plasma Pits , and decide to investigate the further room . A four armed creature holding a technnlogically advanced weapon stops them, she speaks in a language they do not understand....but its clear she wants them to stop as she holds up one hand in the universal language of "Halt" while she levels her Zero Rifle with her other two arms. Behind the Kasatha lays a flickering portal
Everyone else hears Isuma shouting at them from beyond the portal....which is still active.
"How we came to find you. That is a long story."
Guaire would start giving a cropped version of their past ventures, but then Isuma shouts from beyond.
"Isuma's got company, though by the lack of sound of her rifle, she may not yet be in combat.", Guaire looks over at Jarreck and Seven.
"Before we continue with this conversation, we aught to check up on Isuma.'
Guaire notches two arrows onto his bow and softly whistles his bird to follow him, before heading through the portal with his friends.
Once through the portal, the two newcomers see a brown haired man, hair partially tied behind his head from the back half of his head, in a breastplate and leather. An urban style kellid, by his rougher features, accompanied by a bird.
"New arrivals? Have they said anything yet?"
"So it would seem." remarked Seventeen, "It appears we have little time for explanation. Anyway for now suffice it to say we found and dealt with Hellion and Furkas Xoud's ghost on the way."
She then hurries after Guaire.
If the creature they've spoken before with was not lying, this one here must be guarding the heroes, so attacking can be unproductive... Lanyssa can't communicate in its language, sadly, but she tries international communication - that is, shouting and repeating the same once and again.
"WE'RE LOOKING FOR THE HEROES OF TORCH! GUAIRE, JARRICK, SEVENTEEN! YOU KNOW THEM? I'M A FRIEND!"
Seventeen glanced at the pair suspiciously before whispering in a monotone to Ishuma...
She then glances back to the half orc and asks in an emotionless monotone, "Who sent you? How did you know where to look?"
J-12 says in his normal flat, almost robotic effect, We were sent by Lady Altouna, of Hajoth Hakados. Mission parameters were to find the Heroes of Torch. Casualties along the way were...high. Success in this endeavour would be optimal.”
"Oh." was Seventeen's autonomic reply. She paused statute still for going on ten seconds as her damaged neural cortex ran several simulations of this unexpected scenario. Suddenly she moved again and stated flatly, "Lady Altouna is known to us. Something must have happened, is there news of Hajoth Hakados?"
Shrugging, Lanyssa answers. "I'm not much into politics, but it seems war with the Black Sovereign is imminent." Having the Kasatha with the big gun controlled through the corner of her eyes, she goes on. "Lady Altouna wishes to speak with you, but I can't tell what about. I guess war preparations. We were to escort you safely to palace, once you're done."
Isuma relaxes a little and lowers her cryo rifle fractionally. She mutters something unintelligible and moves to take watch further away.
Seventeen nodded and replied in her emotionless way, "Very well. We must first deal with the remaining Dominion agent. It escaped from us and is very dangerous."
"Uhm." Lanyssa provides a description of the being they "felt" when J-12 and she entered the cave for the first time. "If this is the agent you look for, it fled, or so it said. It stated it lost interest, then killed the green dragon it was parasitising, yeah, astonishing as it might sound, and was gone." She shows through her stance that she's ready to go with the heroes, whatever they want to do next. That's what she's been ordered and paid for, after all.
Seventeen eyes the carnage before replying in her strange flat voice, "The Dominion agent is most formidable, we would be sorely pressed if we had to engage it again today. Of course that means it goes free. I do not think that is a good thing."
She turns to Ishuma and asks (in Andoffran before translating), "The power core can be overloaded. Should we destroy this place to ensure it can't return here?"