"Why don't you ask them?" Sirona says with a charming smile "I'm sure that they would want their supplies as soon as possible, after all, they did send for them."
"This is getting somewhat repetitive", Sarsam remarks with a hint of irritation in his voice. "Is Hataniah your boss? Is she one of the priests? Perhaps you should summon her, for she'll certainly be more criterious as to what merits an exception to your current policy. We bring cargo of utmost importance to the priests, one they are surely expecting urgently. You wouldn't want your superiors to know you were the reason they didn't get it, I assume."
[ooc]If it's ok, I'll make a retroactive recovery roll, just before Sarsam went to sleep. It's his first recovery roll of the day.
"Yeah, Hataniah is my boss. My older sister too. Nothing gives her more joy I think thank bossing me around" the man sighs. "Here's the thing folks, I've got the key to this here gate," he reaches back and clangs his hand against the gate in the outer wall, "but there is a defense field right on the other side of that wall. If the Priests don't shut it down, it's lights out for anyone caught inside it. So, I mean, I guess I can let you past to make your delivery but unless the Priests say so...you are out of luck. I can take down your names and pass them along to Hataniah in the morning and she can pass them to the Priests the next time she sees one. I know you just want to get paid, I mean, who doesn't? Amiright?"
"Do you mean lights out as in unconscious, or lights out as in dead?" Sirona asks leaning casually against the wall next to him "Because the former seems rather extreme, and the latter begs the question of what happens to them"
"Oh geez sorry, like unconscious. Dead, that would be a little extreme. As for what happens to them, well... he stops and thinks about it. "Ya know, I've never had to deal with that. People see a wall and a gate and a guard, they leave it be."
"So you have no way of knowing if the field is still functional, or if it ever existed?" Sirona continues without missing a beat
"Well, I mean Hataniah told me it was there. She wouldn't lie to me. If you are asking if I have ever seen it zap someone, perse, I guess the answer is no." he says. "You are welcome to try for yourself, I'm just trying to warn you..."
Voss had been standing listening to the questioning of the guard, looking bored, lightly bouncing up and down on the ball of his feet.
At the guard's last statement, he steps forward, "I'll try it. Open the gate."
He waits for the guard to open the door, then steps through...
"Wait! calls Sirona reaching into her pack and pulling out a length of rope;"Let's make sure we can get you back if something happens"
Voss bravely offers to take one for the team, and Sirona ties a rope around his waist.
After Voss walks toward the tower, once he is with about 5 meters, there is a massive bright green flash of light which knocks the glaive off his feet onto the soft grass!
"Woah!" the man manages.
"Oooof!" Voss says, shaking his head.
Voss manages to shrug off the effects of the green pulse of light! His optic nerves are saturated and he squints to continue forward, but manages to get next to the tower door! Reaching out with a steady hand he tries to open the door only to find it locked however.
Sarsam approaches the force field and starts looking for any switches, pannels or devices that seem to operate the energy barrier, both on their side of and on the other.
Sarsam looks around a bit but finds nothing of interest, and then heads closer to the force field trying to understand it better.
Still shaking his head a bit, Voss looks at the wall, checking if it was climbable.
"Maybe we can just go over the top?" he suggests.
"How often do the Priests come out?"Sirona asks the guard; "When was the last time that you saw them?"
"I mean, they come and go as they need. A few times a week or more." Then he stops to think about the other question, "Probably, ummm, three or four days ago?"
"And you had no way to get inside on your own, or to contact them?" Sirona sked the guard; [b]Voss she called across the courtyard "what is the tower made of?"
The man shakes his head, "Nope. They talk to Hataniah mostly and she talks to me. I'm just the night shift guy really."
Voss relays that the tower appears to be made of the same redstone material as the walls and most all of the surrounding buildings in town you have seen. The lock on the door seems to be quite strong and intricate to Voss.
Voss moves away from the door and steps back from the tower, looking up, guaging how climable it is...
Climbing the tower wall would be a difficulty 4 task. There are some shuttered windows on the 2nd and 3rd levels, which you may be able to open from the outside.
Voss stands under one of the windows, pondering....
Voss eyes up the nearest window, then places himself under it. His gaze intent , his feet begins to rise off of the ground. Using the aid of his strange ability, he begins to ascend the tower...
Voss is able to hover and then climb up to a second floor window, which he finds actually opens quite easily! Climbing in through the window, the graceful glaive enters a dark room which comprises the entire floor of the tower. There are some small lights which flicker, seemingly at random, but it is difficult to see much else without a light source.
Voss takes a glow globe out of his pack and activates it, casting its light around the immediate area.
Satisfied, he puts the globe down on the floor next to the window, then leans out smiling to his friends below.
Disappearing for a moment, he returns to quickly unspool his rope, tying it around his waist to help the other ascend.
Sirona Attempts to cross the field, steeling her mind against external assault.
Sirona tries to cross the courtyard, triggering the green pulse of light from the defense field!
Voss gets a better look inside the tower, it appears to be a lab or work area of some kind, there are a number of different experiments in the works involving chemicals, mechanical devices and batteries, and
stranger things. A notebook is open on a table here amid a number of chemicals and tools for working with chemicals. There is an iron staircase along the wall of the tower which leads both up and down.
As the green pulse of light floods over Sirona, her optic nerves carry a complex burst of light energy to her brain and she falls to the ground slumped over with a light grunt.
Voss sees the familiar pulse of green light from below and smacks his thigh , realizing he's forgotten to turn off the defensive field.
Not terribly interested in the lab instuments, Voss ties off the rope, picks up his globe and makes for the stairs, heading downward.
Voss hurries down the stairs to the ground floor. Again the entire level is a single room. It is unfurnished, and currently holds a number of wooden crates. It is lit by glowing panels on the ceiling (about 5m above). There is the iron staircase that leads back to Level 2. On the wall is a metal panel with glass screens and various controls. It is a difficulty 4 Intellect task to figure out and use.
Voss approaches the metal panel and stands before it, scratching his head. "Hmmm, I wish Sarsam was here...."
"Well, what would he do..." Voss murmurs to himself, tracing some lighted controls with his finger tip, the pressing one, pausing to consider then another.
Voss is actually able to easily understand the icon touch screen system and locates controls for the lights on all three floors of the tower, the defense grid controls, and a voice communication system that allows all three floors to talk to each other.
Voss disables the defense grid and opens the door from the inside! Looking out into the grass, he sees Sirona groggely shaking her head and standing up...
"Well," she mutters as she slowly stands up That was not one of my best ideas
The guard comes forward and offers Sirona a hand up. "You better make your delivery and be on your way. I don't want to get in any more trouble than I am already likely to be..."
"They must be up in the higher levels, I didn't see anyone .." Voss says, gathering up some of the boxes and bringing them inside the tower.
Sirona follows him with a boxes of her own
"Well done, Voss. Let's deliver the cargo... and hopefully talk to the priests. This story about the nightmares intrigues, and they might know something about it. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some numenera behind it. I've seen them do stranger things", Sarsam says, looking at his forearm as the shadow nanites undulate within his veins. He picks up one of the boxes and follows Voss and Sirona.
Bringing in the boxes and looking around a bit more, the crates that were already here seem to contain a pretty random assortment of things, a few of them have been opened and have had things removed, several are still closed. Voss calls out several times but gets no answer, and tries the glass panel to project his voice to the 2nd and 3rd floors but again gets no response.
The group heads back up to the 2nd floor and looks around a bit more, Sarsam likely taking an interest in the lab area. The notebook is of most immediate interest to the nano. Skimming through the pages, Sarsam learns the notebook belongs to one of the priests and details a number of different attempts at creating a cure for the malady plaguing the town without apparent success. Sarsam also finds three cyphers on that same table. One is a small amount of level 4 powder that, if consumed or inhaled, restores 1d6+2 Speed. Another is an injector with a level 3 serum that grants a creature the ability to resist a poison or disease as if the task were 2 levels lower for 28 hours. The last is a bit of level 5 liquid in a tube that will put the imbiber to sleep for 1 hour.
Heading up to the 3rd floor...this is the living quarters for the individuals in the clave. There are three beds here, along with other comfortable furnishings. It is obvious that no one has been here for a few days. Old food sits on plates on a table next to half-full mugs of cold, stale coffee.
Amid the personal belongings of the priests, is a journal started months ago by a man named Xarmun. Most of it is rather meaningless, but it does note the date when the dreams began, and the various attempts of the clave in combating it. The last entry mentions that Brogun has convinced Xarmun that the dreams are a transmission from somewhere, and that they should go to the Faceted Dome northwest of the village to check if anything is amiss there. It mentions that it will be a full day’s journey, and that Xarmun is leery about it. Lastly, it says that they are not going to tell anyone about their trip for fear that people in the town will think they have abandoned Redstone.
"Facetted Dome, neh?" Voss days after Sarsam reveals the contents of the journal. "I guess we should go see what happened to the holy men."
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Well that sounds,... Ominous" Sirona sets down her boxes and comes over to look at the journal over Sarsams shoulder
Alhtough Sarsam would rather spend more time in the lab and study the clave's tech and numenera, he refrains from lingering too long in there. For a moment, he considers taking the cyphers with him, but on second thought decides to leave them behind, since these objects are accounted for, and removing them would make him a common thief. After a quick look, he follows the rest of the party.
He reads the journal with great interest, seemingly oblivious to Sirona's curious eyes peeking over his shoulder. He lifts his stare from the diary and starts thinking about Xarmun's report.
"So, the lockdown is just a diversion to prevent the locals from noticing their absence." He looks at Voss. "We were hired to do deliver these boxes, and thus we ought to find its adressees to finish our work... but I admit that this is secondary to my curiosity. If what Xarmun and Brogun tell is true, then there's some strange device acting in the region, and I wish to see it. " He finally nods in agreement to Voss' suggestion. "So, yes, let's find the 'holy men'."
Since you are all new to the area, the name means nothing to you. But you come back down the tower and inform Dal what you have found inside and ask him about this Faceted Dome.
He says, "Well, I've never been myself you see, but sure most everyone knows where it is. It's northwest of Redstone, take you about 7 or 8 hours to get there across the desert. As I've heard it told, you shouldn't have much trouble finding it. When the sun's up, you can see a bright glint off it for miles around."
Voss nods to Dal, "OK, thanks....northwest, 7-8 hours, bright light... he mutters to himself.
"I guess we won't be getting any rest," he says glumly
"Well, if theres nothing we need around here, we should probably get moving"
Anything else you want to do/investigate in Redstone or just head off into the wastes?
"Yes, let make what progress we can toward the bright dome with what light we have left in the day..."