Zephyr runs a quick self-diagnostic to make sure his servos weren't making any untoward sounds and says, "That wasn't me, but it seems we are getting close."
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When Veda accidentally brushes up against the wall it flakes and combusts in a tiny fireball.
"I've got a datapad," Jaeric offers Lorne, "It's self-contained, and likely still has enough room to hold a copy of the virus, if you want..." He takes the time to retrieve it from his pack and holds it out to the dwarven engineer. "Anything on there has already been backed up at Absalom Station, so if I have to buy a new one, I can still get all my files back in the event the virus corrupts this one. Either way, we should have something to turn over to our hosts. And that finishes off one of our missions..."
With that issue behind them, Jaeric returns to focusing on the acid trail. He listens with some amusement to Never's concerns about the maze and her unusual past living among street gangs. "Well, it's possible the maze is a security measure for whatever they've stored inside," he reasons, "Or, maybe it's a test of the mind? Sometimes, access to ancient lore in various cultures requires a rite of passage to prove your worthiness. We could be facing something like that. But, if our quarry went in there, that's going to make catching and subduing it that much harder for us. I mean, ksarik are a handful to begin with...and we can't afford to get separated or lost in there while hunting it. Luckily, the acid trail should give us an edge."
As the team begins to enter the maze of corridors, Jaeric pauses at each turn to mark their progress. To do so, he casts a simple spell () and creates a small colorful emblem in the shape of an arrow to point the way. "In case we need to find our way back..." he explains to anyone observing him.
"That'll do wonders, Jaeric! And you should really plan on losing this. Even if the virus will clean out of it fully, I bet our hosts will want to keep it. Wait, you just said that, kinda."
As Jaeric marks their trail, Lorne giggles quietly. "What, no breadcrumbs?"
As Jaeric marks their trail, Lorne giggles quietly. "What, no breadcrumbs?"
"The ksarik would probably just eat them...and then us..." Jaeric replies, "Besides, it would take a lot of breadcrumbs to make an arrow denoting direction. This is far easier and more reliable. In fact, when I was an adventurous teenager back on Castrovel, I used a method like this when me and some friends got lost spelunking off the beaten path around a few caves.
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The acid trail here crosses and recrosses itself, and so becomes useless for tracking. You move through the rune-illuminated corridors. Small bare chambers open up to the left or right at intervals.
When Veda accidentally brushes up against the wall it flakes and combusts in a tiny fireball.
Cautioned against touching the corridor walls, the party moves forward. From the rear Royo observes softly , "I think the runes are some sort of spell script. Hmmm." He stops to ponder the origin and meaning of the cryptic symbols. [smaller] "This might be related to the Thalassian time glyph..."
The party hears occasional grunting noises, and basso humming. A small chamber opens to the right. Alcoves, each about a square foot in size, cover the walls of this side vault; these alcoves are empty. Never hears a grunt distinctly coming from the chamber and leads the party inside....
Rounding a corner in the vault, she sees a green multi-hued elephantine creature. Silvery markings adorn its surface from its long stump-like legs, to a reptile-like frill. Only its mass of trunk-like tentacles is free of the metallic symbols.
It turns ponderously to face you. No eyes, or eye analog, can be seen, but somehow you feel that it is looking at you.
"Steady..." Jaeric puts out his hand both to keep the team from doing anything rash, and to try and placate the beast before it tears into them. "Our hosts said they've been studying this thing's rune markings for quite awhile, so there's a chance it's domesticated...maybe?"
He carefully moves into the room, spreading out so they can start to surround it and head off any retreat. "Does anyone have some spare food? he asks, "Maybe if we interact with it the same way its handlers have, it'll let us lead it back to its cage? But, if not...well, everyone stand ready to subdue it. They wanted it alive."
"Just remember...it drools acid...and watch out for those thorns or you might get infected with its spores..."
Warily eyeing the creature, Zephyr says, ”I don’t think I have any food it would like. Have we come across the location of its cage yet?”
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Never looks back to her companions, still safely hidden out of sight of the ksarik. She shrugs and takes a step forward.
"Vindurth the ksarik? Good evening. As a duly-designated representative of the Curators of Athaeum, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the next convenient parallel dimension."
She looks back over her shoulder and gives a thumbs up to the rest of the team, knowing she'd done her best.
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Warily eyeing the creature, Zephyr says, ”I don’t think I have any food it would like. Have we come across the location of its cage yet?”
While navigating the maze one of the side chambers catches your attention. It's larger than the others and the walls can't be seen behind holographic illusions of dense jungle. Through gaps in the foliage you can glimpse rugged mountains and a deep blue sky with the most miniscule tinge of green that Jaeric finds reminiscent of home.
A small stream even flows and pools between rocky banks shrouded in ivy runners.
A small control panel blinks idly by the door. Lorne recognizes it as a set of controls that will manipulate the holographic images, and activate a force field barring the door.
Never looks back to her companions, still safely hidden out of sight of the ksarik. She shrugs and takes a step forward.
"Vindurth the ksarik? Good evening. As a duly-designated representative of the Curators of Athaeum, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the next convenient parallel dimension."
The ksarik regards you impassively. Then starts a lumbering turn to its right.
"Oooookay..." Jaeric comments aloud, "Not immediately hostile. That's good. But not especially keen on welcoming us or following us back to that Castrovellian holo-holding area we passed downstairs." He looks uncertainly at the beast moving away from them. "I have to admit..." he tells the others, "I don't have any experience trying to herd such creatures. They're predators on my world, but maybe the unusual nature of this one...or it's time in captivity under the friendly ministrations of our hosts...has made it more docile? If so, we've just got to find a way to get it to like us and trust us enough that we can move it safely to its habitat again. Anyone have any ideas beyond tempting it with food? Master Royo? Do you think it might react favorably to music or elvish songs? Can you understand any of the markings on it? Perhaps they'd provide a clue?"
Veda stands by, seemingly a bit out of breath, rubbing her burnt shoulder and nervously fingering her bolter.
So, what are you going to do about this thing?
Then she seems to have an idea.
Maybe it likes magic?
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Intrigued by the sound, the ksarik turns and almost trots toward the corner.
Royo raises his pince nez and clips them on the end of his nose. He thinks before replying to Jaerik. "A placid beast, but I wouldn't want to get close enough to read the runes.
"It's not really my field, but we did observe that the beast walked all the way to the ground floor to graze on the atennius. One could infer that Vindurth preferentially eats that plant rather than other forage."
"Well, that answers the food question," Jaeric replies, "Maybe we should head back down and gather some atennius. Then, we can kind of lay a trail for it to follow back to its holding area? Or, in a pinch...and assuming anyone wants to get close enough to it...we could hand-feed it on the way."
He sees Never and Veda keeping an eye on the beast and generally keeping it occupied. "Hey, you two?" he calls out, "I'll take Zephyr and Lorne with me to collect some of the vines the ksarik was eating down below. Keep Royo here with you. And leave an open comm-line so we can keep in touch. Bottom line, don't let that thing out of your sight. Keep it calm. And don't aggravate it until we get back."
With that, Jaeric leads the android and dwarf back down the steps, following the acid trail back to the atennius vines so they can collect enough foliage to entice the ksarik.
Veda nods to the half-elf.
Food eh, makes sense. We'll watch it.
Then to Never.
Not sure what to do if it decides to do something funny though. Is this thing sentient? Or just some sort of animal?
”Works for me,” says Zephyr, ”Either the food or the sounds may be enough to entice it to follow a trail to its habitat.”
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Veda amuses herself leading the ksarik around the room with various sounds. Eventually Vindurth tires of the game, or perhaps learns better, and ceases to follow the sounds. It shoulders past Never and Veda on its way out of the room to stroll deeper into the maze.
It's easy enough for the two party members to follow; their presence does not bother Vindurth in the least. When the foraging team returns to the 18th floor, Never and Veda can guide them by comm.
Reunited in a curving stretch of rune-illuminated hallway, the party watches as Vindurth suddenly stops and cocks its head. It slowly turns around. In the process it brushes the wall, which releases a minor gout of flame. The ksarik trumpets weakly and backs away, igniting another gout. Then it's facing you and approaching slowly.
Jaeric offers the atennius vines to anyone feeling bold enough to feed and lure the beast back to its cage. "Who wants to do the honors?" he asks. "I'll be more than happy to supervise from a safe distance. And I think the main trick is going to be making sure it doesn't brush the walls along the way, lest it get aggravated enough to lash out at us."
"Some days you tell us to do what needs doing. Other days yer jest mean. Not sure which this is, really." Lorne does his part, walking back down 18 floor to gather a good double arm-full of the plants.
"I'll mule fer whoever's gonna feed the beastie."
Zephyr volunteers to take the lead in drawing the beast towards its home with the greenery unless someone else wants to have the honors
Taking the food, Zephyr proffers it to the creature, carefully holding it in the middle of the hallway so as not to cause the beast to hurt itself again.
plus any aid that others might be willing to offer
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"Easy there...go slow...no sudden moves," Jaeric recommends as Zephyr holds out the atennius vine, "Try and draw him away from the walls as much as you can..."
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As Vindurth approaches the android, it shuffles its steps slightly from side to side. Suddenly it lunges at Zephyr. A tentacle snatches the atennius out of his hand and curls back under the other tentacles to deliver it, presumably, to its mouth hidden behind the tentacles.
It's attention seems to focus on Zephyr and another tentacle reaches out slowly to gently stroke his arm. It takes another few steps closer.
"Uh...okay...it seems friendlier..." Jaeric cautions, "So, let's start slow-walking our way back to the habitat and see if we can get it to follow us with more food." He looks around at the rest of the team. "Everybody kind of stay back and keep your distance, but be ready in case things go sideways. If possible try to stay between it and the walls so it doesn't brush up against one and get startled again."
"So, make brushing the walls our problem?" He sighs. "Aye, aye."
Mh fun with tentacles...is it male, female or something else?
Veda grins at Jaeric.
Then she goes along with the Vindurth, trying to keep it from the walls on one side.
Zephyr continues to use the plant matter to entice the creature along towards its proper habitat.
The dwarf tries to stay at arm's reach from Z-4, but with the 'droid directly between his armload of plants and the beast. Just slowly heading back towards the apparent cage . . ..
Zephyr suppresses a jump as his armor starts steaming and continues to lead the creature to its den, saying quietly to the others, ”I don’t think I want this creature to be any more friendly than this—I might not survive it.”
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Vindurth follows Zephyr for a short distance, then seems to lose interest. The ksarik slows down, then turns into a side chamber.
After securing the ksarik, the party continues climbing.
The top floor of the tower is a single open chamber. A lone pedestal rests in the center of this space, with a small cube floating atop it. Complicated ridges cover the surface of the cube, forming a maze that somehow moves in on itself. The object glows with a faint blue aura.
"Albryan siad it would be here!" Excited to be so near the discovery, Royo scurries over to the pedestal to examine the cube and lets out a gasp. The cube, he explains, is a mindmaze. Made by the chitakin, a now-extinct race from a distant corner of the galaxy, the nearly indestructible mindmazes are the last remainder of that civilization.
The chitakin used these devices to store valuable information. Royo can recall only the most basic details of how mindmazes work but remembers that they send people into a trance and can be quite dangerous.
Creatures that touch the mindmaze fall into a trance. In their minds, these creatures find themselves suddenly standing atop the surface of the mindmaze. Any creatures that touch the cube appear at the same location in the maze, allowing groups to traverse it together.
Mental effort allows movement through the maze, but failed attempts to move drain the traveller and causes the surface of the cube to shift, further complicating the maze. Once inside, travellers can escape the maze only by reaching its center or by falling unconscious. Although trvellers inside the mindmaze cannot voluntarily leave the trance, PCs outside the cube can shake them awake.
People who do not touch the cube can observe that illusory duplicates of the travellers appear on its surface after touching the mindmaze. They can follow the progress of entranced PCs across the cube and can even provide aid by whispering directions.
Lorne looks at the floating cube with a decided lack of direct interest, but once Royo starts describing it, his face lights up. "I heard o' these! Best way ta get though this is ta have somebody who likes ta solve mazes stay separate 'n' everybody else touches it. Those who touch it'll be dropped into the maze, but the one watching can plan out a route and whisper instructions ta those in the maze. When the group solves the maze, those inside will get to learn whatever the cube's storin'. Thing is, if the group doesn't make the right choice towards solvin' the maze at every point, the whole maze CHANGES."
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"Why would everybody else touch it? What's the difference if one person goes into the maze as opposed to all of us going in?" asks Never, feeling like some valuable part of the nature of the puzzle is missing. "I'm not going in there if I don't have to." She was neither good at solving puzzles or following commands.
"Only those who go in get to see whatever's hidden in the cube. More people who go, more information we're likely to be able to bring out."
Zephyr thinks for a moment, then says, ”It sounds like some of my piloting training…although more like flying blind. Still, I volunteer to enter and be directed rather than try and puzzle out the overall path.”
"It would seem we've dealt with any threats remaining here in the tower, Never...at least, the ones our hosts asked us to address. So, it's probably secure enough now. Nevertheless, why don't you and Veda and Master Royo stay here?" Jaeric suggests, "Then, at a minimum, Zephyr, Lorne, and I can interact with the mind maze to see what we can learn. And, when we finish, we'll share what we know. In fact, those trained in the Desnan faith learn a special rite called a mindlink, which I know and can use on each of you to share the exact memory I'll have of whatever we experience there. It's not like making a copy exactly...as our hosts warned us not to do that...but it will be like all of you accompanied us."
That sounds like a plan. I'll wait for response, consensus, or a second.
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"Sure, Jaeric."
The bloom was off the rose. After a short lifetime of sleights, Never knew when she was being condescended to. It's not that she didn't want to be a team player - just the opposite. But she didn't appreciate the kind of meta-thinking that went into being dismissive of the likelihood that there are more dangers in the tower, despite the Curators focused concerns.
"Sounds like a plan. I'm confused, though. How do you expect to make Royo wait 'outside'? I figure Royo's going ta want ta be 'hand's on' at this point."
"Sounds like a plan. I'm confused, though. How do you expect to make Royo wait 'outside'? I figure Royo's going ta want ta be 'hand's on' at this point."
"I'd rather risk our lives inside the maze rather than one of the Society's best mentors. It's a mental construct, not a physical one," Jaeric explains, "Plus, the way I've heard these mystical devices work, those who observe our attempt can also see us in miniature form and give guidance as we attempt to traverse the mind-maze. Perhaps more importantly, if we truly start to lose ourselves along the way, any observer should also be able to shake us free of the trance, and I'm counting on Royo to do that while Never and Veda guard him. So, basically, our success...and perhaps even our very sanity...is in the hands our companions who wait here."
"Never?" the half-elf looks at the vanguard, allowing some of his own personal anxiety to show...not just for himself, but also for her, "You've worked longer with the rest of us than Veda here. And, I suspect Royo will be more focused on watching us three while we're in the maze. So, I think it's best if you're in charge of all the decision-making out here. You're the best fighter we've got. I'm putting all our lives in your hands. So, protect us and protect Royo at all costs. Hopefully, we'll rejoin all of you once we have the information we seek and I can share it with everyone."
"As you wish..." Jaeric concedes to Royo while vowing internally to ensure they all make it out of the mind-maze together so nothing happens to the senior Starfinder. "Do we all touch the cube together to activate it then? Is everyone ready?"
”I am ready,” says Zephyr simply.
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"Thank you. I shall endeavour to remain out of everyone's way."
The maze travellers gather around the pedestal and reach out to touch the small glowing, patterned, blue cube. Upon making contact they find themselves surrounded by high walls. There are four arched gateways leading out through the walls. There is no ceiling. The gigantic faces of Veda and Never look down from the sky.
Veda and Never watch the travellers slump and become immobile. Then peering at the surface of the cube, they see tiny simulacrums of their companions appear on the cube's surface, inside a small pocket from which four paths lead.