Edwin looked around and gathered his senses, glad to confirm that Dr. Munroe was alive. "I dreamt we were all Githyanki soldiers fighting the Voor. It seemed so real.
"It seems like we need to return to the ship if we want to get any sleep."
Apparently... we seem to have no other choice. I was hoping that clearing out that purple dust would save us from having hallucinations, but maybe they are coming from something else.
I dreamt we were all Githyanki soldiers fighting the Voor. It seemed so real.
"I know! I've read so much literature, yet nowhere have i read anything about such a phenomena."
Mariam had woken up with a bad hair day, desperately needing coffee. She struggled with a small alchemical spirit burner before eventually the blasted thing lit. She poured a generous double scoop of fragrent coffee grounds from a tin she carried in her backpack into her coffee percolator. She stared at it for a moment before adding in another scoop and about the same quantity of water from her canteen. She set it on the burner and waited until it started making those funny little phut-phut noised which were always accompanied the most amazing smell.
When she poured it out into her cup the coffee was so strong and dark you could almost eat it with a fork. She savoured the first sip before gulping down the rest of the scalding hot liquid. Turning to Edwin she noted, "I bet he's right, we're not going to get a wink of sleep in this accursed place. The Dawntreader should be ok though..."
Dr Munroe nodded at the observations and helped himself to some coffee before telling you, "Last night's experience puts an interesting spin on things I read about the first Kez expedition to The Nautilus. Apparently they found a way of learning about some of the machinery, but they refused to be drawn about how... As odd as that is for a university expedition I think I know what happened. This ship is huge, plenty big enough to have had schools and academies, and I bet they attended a few lectures in their dreams..."
"Shall we return to the Dawntreader then?", Edwin suggested. "I'm beat."
Exhausted, Zendara returns to the ship with the others, wishing they didn't have to backtrack all that way, but seeing no alternative.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Dr Munroe nodded his agreement. The giant ship was brooding quiet as everyone sat there for a moment before striking camp. You retraced your steps back towards the top side mooring noting precisely nothing that wasn't there on the way in. Beyond the disorientation of the deeper darkness near the airlock there was little of note that happened.
Once you were outside in the sun's rays several of the party started crying with relief. Even though it was late in the day, having the sun's rays warm you despite the chill on the air was a palpable luxury. Braenar and the rest of the ships company waved to you and asked all sorts of questions but nobody was in the mood.
As soon as you could without being rude Dr Munroe made excuses and suggested, "Let's get some rest and decide what to do next in the morning."
Blessedly your dreams were mundane and you awoke an hour after dawn feeling rather better if sill somewhat tired.
Over a generous breakfast, Dr Munroe pointed out some options, "We explored the forward section on the way in, there's that spiral tunnel leading down. There's also several levels unexplored down that trapped ladder. I don't think we have anything in particular to choose one path over another beyond personal preference. So what do y'all think?"
Edwin felt relieved to be back in the sunlight, even if the air temperature was quite bracing. Despite being very tired, he forced himself to jot down a couple of brief notes before turning in for the night.
In the morning he cleaned some of the giant spider ichor out of is clothing, before joining the others for breakfast. He listed to Dr. Munroe lay out the options. No-one else seemed to be rushing in with their opinion, so he ventured, "Perhaps down the trapped ladder? I don't have a strong opinion either way."
"Seems a logical place as any..." added Professor Dexter. She then asked, "By the way have any of you seen any evidence of anything living on the nautilus? I've been looking and not seen so much as a bit of moss or alge on the hull, and there was absolutely nothing alive inside, which freaks me out a bit."
As the ship's master, Braenar to his frustration wasn't going anywhere and had been soaking up all the gossip about the nautilus and suddenly gave a sharp look, "We have to swab the decks regularly to stop plant life building up especially after an uplift storm. I know we're pretty high up here but that doesn't sound right... A normal ship that size if neglected would have small pioneer trees cropping up after a dozen years or so and this thing has been here for way longer than that. Something must be stopping things from growing."
Edwin thought back to their exploration inside the ship; surely there should have seen some sign of growing things. "I think we need to figure out why that is."
Could just be the ship's systems still running. The whole thing is pretty advanced. I'm sure they would have something preventing mold and other things from growing in the ventilation system.
As for which way we go... I don't mind either way, as long as we eventually do both. This is a huge find and I'm of the opinion that we need to take the time to study it.
Xindyra thinks on what she may have learned or read about a cause for the lack of wild growth of even basic vegetation mentioned before.
(fail)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"The lack of even the lowest of life.", she taps her chin with an indexfinger.
"Hmm, i recall reading about a certain type of rock, called pitchblend.
Apparently, it has an inherent quality that, if in close proximity for longer periods of time, would harm and kill small animals. I would dare say it might be one of multiple options."
After breakfast Dr Munroe lead the away team back onboard. Again the area of utter darkness was disconcerting and several people reported hearing whispers that seemed to be in some foreign language. Curiosity piqued Dr Munroe duly lead everyone back into the darkness and out again but there was nothing. After a discussion he commented, "Probably just the imagination playing tricks, understandable considering the dreams we had the other night..."
The party resolved to head on and back at the fork the party retraced their steps until they found themselves once more in the massive engineering hall. It was equally silent as before although curiously much of the purple dust had gone, still despite a thorougher investigation the only foot prints where from members of the party.
The hatch leading below was just as you left it. The trap needed resetting but that was easily done and soon you descended to the level of the generator hall where the sound of electrical discharges and stench of ozone greeted you. The ladder stretched below into the inky darkness.
Beneath the concealed door leading to the bridge two more landings where spotted, one fifty feet below and another one hundred feet below. The seemingly bottomless shaft carried on down and down... The first of the two landings had a simple locked metal door with the by now familiar keypad. Next to the door on the wall was a silver embossed plaque in the alien githyanki script.
The second one had a shimmering force door again with a force door. The landing in this area showed signs of a firefight at some point in the past with dents in the walls and faded stains marring the grey metallic floor. Another embossed plaque labeled the compartment beyond the door.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
At the next plaque, Xindyra taps the control after a short deduction.
"This one says, i am fairly positive, 'captain's quarters'. This should hold some information, i'd suspect."
"Forward observation deck, i think this means."
After each opening, Xindyra quickly writes down the symbols and the meaning in her notebook.
Edwin followed behind Xindyra, noting her translations.
Impressed by Xindyra's skill, Zendara follows, searching to make sure they don't miss anything.
Xindrya was really getting the hang of these Githyanki codes, even the more complex ones used by the captain's quarters.
When the door to that room opened it revealed a short corridor which turns right after 10 feet. Along the left wall are what appear to be coat hooks, and on the floor is dust and detritus that might once have been coats. Suddenly it strikes you this room is dusty unlike anywhere else, and it seems the air isn't that great...
Downstairs the mirror door dissolves to reveal a 20 foot corridor which ends in a curtain of utter darkness.
Wait, wait. Let's check the ventilation first. Remember what happened before when the air was bad.
Zendara looks around for air ducts or ventilation like there was upstairs (where they had to pull the spiders out of), to see if she can improve the air quality before they continue.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Good idea, Zendara," Edwin replied. He cast a spell to heighten his senses and followed Zendara, helping with the search.
There are ventilation grills on the shaft side of the Captain's door and those are working correctly putting a whetted finger up to one you you can feel a steady breeze of fresh air. There are no visible grills in the L shaped corridor leading into the Captain's quarters.
Edwin cast several spells and cautiously started to move in but before they took more than a few steps the temperature suddenly plunged so much that their breath was visible and the spectral figure of a young 9' tall Githyanki woman in distress ran sobbing along the passageway and through the startled party! Before any of you could react she activating some device and floated down the shaft and disappeared into the gloom. The ghost or phantasm or whatever it was didn't notice you and apart from an incredibly creepy feeling as she rushed through you, no harm was done.
Inside the Captain's quarters you find a once fine two bedroom flat that has been choked with dust accompanied by a strange chemical stench. As before the air vents appear to be blocked by voor corpses. That's not what grabs your attention though, in the flat's tiny office you spot the spectral image of a regal looking male githyanki in a gaudy uniform furiously writing something on a spectral sheet of paper.
Private Norris is to be detained forthwith and condemned to the elemental cages for the capital crime of defiling Iarala Maxim's honour. No effort shall be spared in his capture. Upmost secrecy is to be maintained, no mention of this matter shall be made to the general crew. After a period of two days a 'search party' is to be organised to look for Private Norris, who will not be found.
This order is to be shared on a need to know basis, and upon your honour disavowed in a court of law.
The air is pretty bad in here and those present in the room feel headaches coming on.
Zendara reads the paper to everyone:
By order of Captain Erazimus Maxim III
Private Norris is to be detained forthwith and condemned to the elemental cages for the capital crime of defiling Iarala Maxim's honour. No effort shall be spared in his capture. Upmost secrecy is to be maintained, no mention of this matter shall be made to the general crew. After a period of two days a 'search party' is to be organised to look for Private Norris, who will not be found.
This order is to be shared on a need to know basis, and upon your honour disavowed in a court of law.
Then she retreats to where there is good air, explains the problem and tells everyone that they are going to have to take very short turns going in there to clear up the ventilation, so that they aren't harmed by the bad air.
Edwin was glad to have Zendara's translate the paper, since he was having difficulty reading it. "Sounds like Private Norris was made to 'disappear'. I wonder if the spectral woman we just saw is Iarala Maxim?"
He coordinated with the team on the task of clearing the air vent in the captain's quarters, ready to take his turn in the foul air.
Upon hearing about Private Norris Professor Dexter suggested, "I wonder if that's the corpse we found with the ring of the ram in side the elemental cage?"
Marek shivvered and sidled close to Yukarii as he muttered, "What an awful way to go in that god forsaken cage. I wonder what became of Iarala, presumably nothing good if she remained as a ghost..."
When Zendara can breathe okay, she casts unseen servant for some assistance, and goes in to try to clear the voor corpses from the ventilation shaft.
She holds her breath and pulls over the office chair so she can get to the vent more easily, examines the situation, and then asks the unseen servant to help her as she tries to work the corpse out.
She tries once, then retreats again to let someone else try, hoping they can slowly work the corpses out without harming themselves.
Edwin reamrked, "Something must be keeping the woman's ghost here, or her spirit would have moved on. She doesn't seem to be aware of our presence; that's not the case with all ghosts."
When Zendara returned, it was Edwin's turn. He looked around the apartment, finding a small ring in the drawer of the dressing table. He tried to climb up to the air vent to look in, but couldn't reach. He didn't attempt any more before retreating, wanting to limit his exposure to the foul air.
It takes some effort to remove the desiccated voor from the ventilation system because as before the grills where up inconveniently high. This took numerous trips in to loosen the grill little by little and the liberal application of mage hands. Eventually the desiccated voor was removed in another avalanche of purple dust and this time no explosives.
After that had settled and the air had a while to cycle the expedition was able to properly search the apartment. There was nothing left of value but an equally desiccated Githyanki corpse bearing a remarkable likeness to the captain's ghost was found lying in the foetal position in the bed wearing once luxurious pyjamas that crumbled to dust at the touch.
Edwin spent some time examining the ring that he'd found, before finally announcing, "This ring gives the wearer comprehensive understanding of any written or spoken language! It's truly amazing!"
"Looks like we're finished here at the captain's quarters. Do we dare brave the curtain of utter darkness?"
That is indeed amazing. Good find.
Zendara casts detect magic and looks over the captain's quarters to make sure they hadn't missed anything. She pulls on all of the coat hooks to see if they trigger anything, and then with detect magic still up she examines the hallway where they saw the ghost activate an item, to see if there is something there in the passage that she activated that is still here.
If she finds nothing in either of those areas then she'll move on and step carefully into the supernatural darkness, feeling ahead with her foot to make sure it isn't a pit or something.
Edwin took out his silk rope, asking Zendara, "Do you want to hold onto one end? It would make it easier to find you in case something unexpected happens."
As the minstrel stepped into the darkness, he listened carefully to see if sound was muffled within the zone of darkness.
Zendara thanks Edwin and ties the rope to her belt, in case she needs her hands free.
In the captain's quarters, while Edwin examines the ring, Xindyra had kneeled down to inspect the body.
"Looks very much like the spirit."
"Hey, his hands are a bit in grasping form, near his throat.
If i'd have to guess, this poor man suffocated."
Yukarii was not entirely pleased to hear those whispers in the darkness as they re-entered the derelict voor ship but at least nothing untoward seemed to be going on afterwards. She had precast her usual defensive spells before they re-entered the place though she didn't expect to need them and followed silently as they explored.
When they entered the captain's quarters and ran across the spirits Yukarii tried to sense if these were actual ghosts or a simple haunt. There was a definite difference between the two. Given the lack of anything other than a sensation of cold happening she came to the assumption it was a benign haunt that likely replayed at times. She was curious about what was said between the captain and the woman and was curious to try and find out. When she felt Marek move closer to her after the spirit went through them and wondered what happened to her Yukarii shrugged and said, "I do not know but from that order the captain's spirit wrote it sounds like Iarala was raped by Norris." Yukarii became thoughtful as she considered what they had seen and something didn't quite ring true to her. She wondered if the letter was true.
When they had finished their search of the captain's room and were leaving Yukarii said, "Munroe-sensei, it might be worth coming back to this room later, I think that was a haunt and it might restart periodically. I am curious if it only plays what we saw or if there is more to the story. If we could be in the captain's room where he was writing that letter we might learn more about the incident."
Yukarii looked at Zendara and Edwin and smiled slightly in amusement as she said, "You forget we have an easier way to do that do you not? Yukaari can manage to remove those easier than we can after all."
Dr Munroe nodded, "That's a good idea Yukarii, perhaps we should do that after visiting this observation deck..."
Holding the rope, Zendara bravely enters the darkness. The feeling of entering the zone of preternatural darkness was decidedly odd. There was no resistance yet it had presence, feeling cool and almost sensual as she slid into it. Inside was disorienting nothingness with a sensation close to flying in darkness for she couldn't feel her feet or anything really, and it was with a shock like being slapped when she popped out the other side.
The cavernous room she found herself in was decidedly odd, the floor had a gentle slope upwards on the left hand side and the wall on that side was rounded. The wall on right was normal however the whole floor space was taken up with a kind of amphitheater built for the ever so tall githyanki. The wall on the left hand side behind a stage seemed to be the focal point of this, with a strange array of metal slats on the far wall.
The room is large enough to seat hundreds, and being here along is decidedly peculiar. The acoustics are quite passable but there's this funny metallic smell, not like blood more a machine smell.
Zendara isn't going to turn a crank without backup, so she tugs on the rope twice, indicating that she is still alive and they should come along. :)
Edwin waited and fed out the rope when Zendara disappeared into the darkness. A short while later, he felt a couple of tugs. "She just pulled twice. I'm guessing she wants us to follow. Can someone else hold this end? I'm going in."
He summoned his courage and stepped into the inky blackness, following the rope.
Edwin had much the same sensory deprivation experience as Zandara and again the strange pressure but no resistance exerted by the curtain of darkness was odd. On the other side he gets a good view of the auditorium / amphitheatre.
Edwin looked around the amphitheater, and studied the visible parts of the mechanism. "Interesting. It looks to me like the crank is for opening the giant set of metal blinds.
"Sound doesn't seem to pass through the darkness, so the others can't hear us. I'll signal them the same way you did."
He pulled on the rope the same way that Zendara did earlier.
Now that someone else is here, Zendara unhooks the rope from her belt and walks closer to the crank in order to see the writing near it.
1. Caution! In most spheres the main star is bright enough to cause permanent damage, wear appropriate protective clothing and eye protection. See storage locker beneath stage.
2. Give a verbal warning: BEWARE, SOLAR BLINDS OPENING
2. Turn crank two revolutions clockwise, this will allow 1% light through. Check audience reaction. Allow 30 seconds eyes to adjust.
4. Turn crank two revolutions clockwise, this will allow 5% light through. Check audience reaction, and perform medical evac of any who become unwell.
5. Do not proceed without eye protection. Turn crank two revolutions clockwise, this will allow 10% light through and some direct rays may enter the observation deck. Prolonged exposure may blister and burn exposed skin.
6. Ten further clockwise revolutions will fully open blinds.
7. Always close blinds afterwards to prevent accidents.
Frustrated, Zendara says
There should be a storage locker beneath the stage, but I can't find it. The instructions say that these are solar blinds and we might need some sort of eye covering if we want to open them. I figure even if the ship isn't near a sun, it might go ghost and blind us or there might be some huge artificial solar light, so best to be safe. Can anyone help me find the storage locker?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Edwin looked around and pointed the locker out, "Here it is." He opened it up and took out pairs of glasses for everyone, handing one to Zendara.