"Just as well Mariam isn't here eh Dr? She'd want a pair of those for the zoo!" quipped Marek.
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As the group where donning their VR headsets, Marek spoke softly into Yukarii's ear, "I'm not sure about this..." Inside however was a revelation to Marek who exulted, "Wow I can fly!" as he flew a loop around Yukarii and beckoned her to follow him as he soared towards Zendara.
Marek was incredulous, "What are you saying Doctor? They've got little fairies to do the dishes when you're sleeping? That sounds utterly decadent, surely nobody would be so wasteful?!"
Marek tried to comfort Yukarii, "I'm sure they don't mean to force you..."
Marek listened to Yukarii and gently leaned into her. Catching Zendara's eye he said, "She's right, I'm sure of it. It seemed so utterly alone, fighting a doomed battle that nobody alive was aware of, until we arrived that is. Now we have the spare parts, we should try and contact Dr Taproot again, maybe he'll have some idea of what to do?"
Many hours later Marek awoke bleary eyed, a half remembered dream still running through his head. He looked around to find everyone still sleeping, and then with a start he noticed a number of boxes had appeared right next to Edwin's curled form. Alarmed, he reach out and gently tried to wake Yukarii...
Looking decidedly greenish, Marek muttered softly "That thing they said, it sounded religious didn't it..."
Sounding rather uncertain, Marek replied, "I'll try..." He gently put Yukarii down and stoked her cheek as he whispered to her and very gently kissed her forehead. Yukarii: "Love, it's time to wake up now love. You're scaring me now, please wake up love. We need to walk a couple of blocks, I can carry you all the way back up if I had to but I don't think I can run and there's more of those spider bots outside... Come on love, come back to us, come back to me. Please?"
Marek couldn't believe it when Xindrya hopped onto the couch after hearing Zendara's screams from down the corridor. To Yukarii he whispered, "What's gotten into the girls?! They're insane!" He wasn't entirely wrong. The procedure went as before but nothing could have prepared Xindrya for the pain, it was sudden, complete and all encompassing. Perhaps mercifully she didn't recall more than a fraction of a second before passing out but the others in the room would remember that scream to the end of their days.
Marek was appalled by this idea, "None of you are crazy enough to do that right? I mean look at those restraints and that needle! God's that's horrific!"
"Damn it!" snapped Marek before he pulled out a funny looking arrow with a blunt head. He didn't really bother to take aim but the unseen hand of fate or perhaps Saint Christopher intervened because his arrow struck true, striking the spider's abdomen where it smashed open a corroded panel and damaged the inner workings resulting in a shower of molten sparks! <--- HIT
"Don't just stand there, RUN DOCTOR!" cried a horrified Marek.
"That's kind of alarming, how can a killing machine get dementia? And what if it goes nuts?" asked Marek in a loud whisper as he eyed the towering spider robot with concern.
Zendara presses a button and to her surprise there was a disembodied chime followed by the sound of movement from above. A few moments later a louder chime sounded and the doors slid open to reveal a clinically clean looking metal box with the most perfect mirrors you've seen on the walls. Marvelling at this, Marek asked "Do you think we should go in?"
"Yeah she's right what is that?" asked Marek pointing to a translucent green rectangle that was attached to a curious metal cylinder about six inches in diameter which rose twelve feet off the ground before an abrupt right angle where there was a short section leading to a strange looking light. The green rectangle seemed to be showing a repeating loop where a strangely dressed woman offered a box with weird characters on it. A bunch of other characters pop up before shuffling off to the side and after a bit the thing repeats. Yukarii:
Most of it's incomprehensible to you except for the glyph for perfume and another that means reassuringly expensive with the connotation of it being imperial. "Look!" said Marek, "I can pass my hand through it, it lights my skin up but otherwise it's as if it's not there!"
The group cautiously head down. At first this was exciting, especially considering the sheer drop, but after a while it became a boring slog. "My legs are not looking forward to the return journey..." laughed Marek as he stopped to stare up the now distant entrance.
Shyly to Yukarii, Marek noted, "Look at the field of view those two things have. If you had a pair of ballistas here you could hold off Ann army..." Running his hand along the walls he added, "Something has knocked a bunch of chunks out of the walls and look on the ceiling and floor too. The rest of the tunnel has been so smooth, it's weird seeing this." Possibly not the weirdest thing, the shaft going down seems to descend a loong way. There's a tiny pin prick of purplish light way below. The sides of the circular shaft are sheer, and very smooth. It's kind of alarming to walk close to, considering the depth. Perception DC 18: There's a small box sticking out of the shaft down perhaps a foot down. It looks like it's a removable cover for something red and circular underneath. There's a strange glyph on it from a language you don't recognize.
"Another tunnel..." remarked Marek dryly, clearly thinking of the Nautilus, "Still at least this one is made out of stone and not weird alien metals."
Marek has been listening in the background and he looked troubled. He walked next to Yukarii and put his arm lightly around her shoulder and leant into her as and he asked, "Do you think they're aware of their fate? Presumably the village has an elder, it might be worth talking to them."
Marek was leaning on the airship's stern railing, marvelling at the imposing wall of cloud they spent what felt like weeks traveling through. Suddenly he pointed and cried, "Look! What are those?" The Dawntreader was half a mile from the wall clouds and perhaps a mile below there were a series of dark shadows within the clouds. The shadows were long and thin, with a shape suggestive of an eel or some kind of fish. Kn: Nature DC 20: This is a school of finbacks, a flying whale like creature. Rather bigger than their aquatic cousins they're very rare and seeing them is considered good luck. Long ago they were hunted almost to extinction but modern advances mean there's no reason to hunt them anymore.
Airing what was likely a common sentiment, Marek spoke up, "Dr Munroe sir, I think we should go back to the Dawn treader and leave this tomb before it becomes our last resting place."
Marek nods, "By the saints Yukarii, I hoped my eyes were playing tricks! I want out of this accursed place, but what of the others? There should be time right? The tendril seems very slow."
It wasn't cold but Marek shivered nonetheless as he listened to Yukarii's words. Leaning in close he whispered, "This whole place feels wrong, artificial, it gives me the creeps. The worst of it is, just think of how advanced these Githyanki were, sailing through the stars with a technological marvel of ship big enough to carry all this. But now they're dead and gone, every last one of them! And to cap it off the Githyanki found the darkness on other islands. What the @#!$ supposed to do now?!" Towards the end he was practically shouting. Chest heaving it took long moments for Yukarii's closeness to calm Marek down. Quietly he whispered, "I'm sorry, this place is getting under my skin. Look there's something you should probably see..." He lead Yukarii just outside to a spot where they had an unobstructed view of the central district, above which was the amorphous sea-urchin like cloud of darkness. Marek pointed, "There, it's hard to see but there's a tendril reaching out towards Xervish's tower where we where. The scale is hard to tell but I think it must be over two hundred yards long. Professor Dexter thinks we didn't notice it earlier because it was pointing directly at us. Maybe I'm going crazy or my eyes are playing tricks but I swear it's shifted in our direction."
Marek had been waiting quietly as Dr Munroe talked but when Yukarii mentioned the demon he blanched, flashed Yukarii a concerned look and blurted out, "A vrok?! Heavens above, yet you survived?" Looking concerned he asked, "How? Did it uh... Require a bargain?"
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..." Kn: Religion DC 18: Ghosts are usually unable to pass on because something real or imagined is holding them back. At least so far these one seem oblivious to your presence although that can't be guaranteed for all ghosts some of whom are murderously violent towards the living.
There's not many red head male characters unless I missed some. So this will have to do for Marek but his hair color is much closer to Xindrya's. |