"Well--it's nice to see something that's in 'my' particular area of expertise!" Danae said, taking a second to catch her breath as the group reached this intersection, and she glanced down to the south.  "You guys want me to turn that thing off?  I probably shouldn't take 'Too' long trying it, and it looks like it'll get us into position quicker too..."

Dashu looks at the charges in the most perplexed manner.  It was obvious he had no clue what to do with the situation.  "Sure knock yourself out," he replied to Danae.

"Whatever will be fastest." Dena answers uncertainly.  "I do not recognize this area at all, but these bars look like a wind-aspect's anima.  I suspect it would be painful to touch." the prospect of pain doesn't seem too horrible to Dena as she observes the leashed lightning quietly.

"Probably... Fortunately, I don't plan on actually touching it" Danae replied, pulling out a shock-pike from earlier--and after popping open the head and removing some of the crystals built into it, rewiring it slightly so as to have it channel incoming Essence--as opposed to being fed it in a more serene manner--and taking a deep breath...

She quickly jammed the Shock Pike into one of the walls--wedging it in place, and angling it so the charge is absorbed into the spent capacitor, as opposed to roaming freely like it normally would--it wouldn't last for terribly long, but it should give the group ample time to cross over.

That was the theory anyway...

[Private to Gatekeeper: Int + Lore in any case--I'll put any Personal Motes I have left into second lore excellency though, and if I have more then 1 left, a WP too]

"T-minus five minutes until purging commences. Authorized personnel, commence final stages of evacuation." It's cutting it close, but Danae is already immersed in her task, and making great progress.

Fortunately, the Dawn Caste's theory proves true. For several seconds the electric charge is diverted into the pike, and it's just enough time for everyone to rush through before the weapon's capacitors are entirely fried. With its sensitive circuitry overwhelmed, the head of the shock pike explodes in a shower of sparks, and the useless shaft clatters to the floor.

The electric field renews itself behind the four Exalts, barring their way back. Almost as soon as they clear the electrically charged corridor, they hear another voice -- separate from the announcements -- resonate sharply in their minds:

"INTRUDERS. IDENTIFY YOURSELVES IMMEDIATELY. ON WHAT AUTHORITY HAVE YOU ENTERED THE DOMAIN OF THE GATEKEEPER OF WATER?" Even as the message is transmitted, the group begins to experience intermittent, intrusive visions -- familiar mental images of events that have occurred in their past. The Gatekeeper (who or what else could it be?) is attempting to probe their minds for information.

---

OOC: The Gatekeeper is executing what amounts to a social attack using Investigation. The attack has 8 successes. Defend as if you're in social combat -- use your highest social defense (probably Dodge DV from what I'm seeing) and stunt, channel, etc. for extra DV. If you succeed, it won't be able to read your mind, and you'll be able to deceive it (though deception will also require a social attack roll from you.)

Unfortunately, given the current circumstances, App bonuses for social combat won't count here.

If you want to continue moving at the same time you can and probably should do so, but if you want to also remain aware of your surroundings as you move, roll Perc+Aware. Conversely you can roll Int+Lore to draw upon what knowledge you might have to aid you now. This time you won't be able to teamwork, though, because you're all mentally preoccupied. You also get -2 dice to either roll due to the distraction.

Due to own skills at investigation, Dashu recognizes the investigation techniques employed by the Gatekeeper and immediately tries to restructure his thoughts to counter them.  While his skills were normally employed at crime scenes, he is able to cross apply them to the mental attack easily.  He stayed a step ahead of the Gatekeeper and tried to feed it information which would satisfy the inquiries without revealing his status as an intruder.  To do this though, required not just his knowledge of investigation techniques, but also his experience with countermeasures people had used against him.  His goal is to let the Gatekeeper know that he works in law enforcement and is trying to save the lives of residents of the Water District while keeping the fact that he was an escaped prisoner to himself... not a lie, just trying to present himself in a fashion the Gatekeeper would find acceptable.

As he did this he pressed forward, although he was too focused on keeping the Gatekeeper out to vocalize what he saw to Xurizu.  He hoped those who couldn't track the direction themselves would be able to follow in his footsteps.

[Private to Gatekeeper: I'm going to go with my Parry MDV and use my investigation excellency buying 5 sux.   I'm  also trying to stunt the use of my larceny score as a bonus to the Parry MDV.  I was trying to present it to his defence in such a fashion that it used his charisma and not manipulation.  I'm going to press onward with a perc + aware roll.]

Dena staggers a bit under the emotional assault, accustomed to provoking others to awe with her impressive physical appearance she's become weak without it to use as a tool but she begins to rally and turn the Gatekeeper's methods back on him.  Instead of trying to hide her memory or avoid his intrusion she instead forces the memories at him at breakneck speed, but focuses entirely on smells as only a Lunar with a beast's nose could, giving him too much information but none about wh.  Dena speaks loudly as she pushes back at him.
"Smoke from a blast furnace rising on a shimmering wave of heat. . . hot iron tangy on the forge. . . blood like iron drifting down the edge of a stone. . . stone dust where the city has broken. . . sweat and tears in the rebuilding. . ."

[Private to GM: Stunting and, at least theoretically, trying to figure out if I can bring my New Friend Aroma charm to bear on him.]

Xurizu has a strong mind.  One can't be a Sorcerer without that.  More than a strong mind though, he has a determination.  He is not going down to the Forbidden level once more, not spending the time he remembers in a tiny little cell far below the earth and not giving up any information which might put him back there.  And of course, he has so many memories that have have been ripped from him.  So many holes.  It's these holes which he offers up.  An empty mental landscape.  Like there was no mind there at all, no-one to identify, nothing to see here.

As he offered up the nothingness, he continued forward, deeper into the domain of the Gatekeeper, looking out for the sensors still, more careful than ever to try and avoid them after this, though gritting his teeth too much to relay any information to those around him.  He does his best to track them though, by their footfalls and breathes, to make sure no-one is lost.

To be truthful--Danae couldn't speak overly much about being 'Particularly' strong of will...  Or much in the way of a social ability--or really much of anything to be perfectly honest.  Her Essence was a bit more solid then the average however, and she was sufficient in command of herself that she was able to quickly capitalize on the sudden bit of freedom...

But when the mental broadcast came along--Danae took that moment to delve for a moment, to dwell on how generally tired she was--after all, when you're running on what's basically full blast, in an exceedingly hostile environment, and having had very little time to rest--it's very easy to wear yourself out.

And it was better then dwelling on any little bits of information that this Guardian might use to errect superior defenses as well.

She yawned lightly as the group passed along.  "Kinda sleepy right now... I hope we get a chance to take a nap when things settle down, don't you guys agree?"

An additional little push--a perfectly ordinary front--a tired worker who wasn't really quite getting paid enough for all the overtime--and trying to figure out where the next little bit to work at was...

What 'Was' the layout of this place anyway?  Roughly speaking?  Still better then thinking up on something more controversial after all...

[Private to Gatekeeper: Using MDDV, base is 6, so with a 2 stunt, I should be able to deflect the inquiry--also going to use Int + Lore as my direction pool]

Dashu pits his considerable powers of investigation against the ancient, artificial mind. Though the Gatekeeper employs every textbook trick with the single-minded efficiency one would expect of a machine, it finds that Dashu's answering thoughts are simply NOT lies, though it cannot pinpoint his exact identity -- only that he is what he says he is. [Private to Peleps Dashu: I ended up using Charisma+Investigation for you. The DV has to be based on one and only one skill. But fortunately you had more than enough to convince the Gatekeeper of your story, at 4+5(excellency)+2(stunt). Since you had the highest sux the Gatekeeper now thinks of you as the group's leader.]

Xurizu simply slips away from the Gatekeeper's notice, as it realizes the mind it has touched is devoid of information. It busies some small percentage of its processing power on the philosophy of nothing, and continues on.

Dena's approach quickly leads to logic errors and other such computational frustrations, as the Gatekeeper cannot quite figure how to process smells, much less thoughts about smells. [Private to Tervila Dena: You definitely could use New Friend Aroma -- the problem is that you've been avoiding the sensors and confusing the mind probe, so the Gatekeeper is unsure what to make of you. So it'll be more difficult to convince if you're not allowing it to 'see' you either physically or mentally.]

Danae's defense is a simpler one, and perhaps it is that simplicity that makes it effective. Weariness is certainly acceptable given the circumstances, though why laborers would be assigned to the control floor is another worrying thought altogether, one the Gatekeeper sends a swift inquiry downward to discover.

"ANALYSIS COMPLETE," states the Gatekeeper's mental voice. "PEACE FORCE REPRESENTATIVE REQUIRES ENTRANCE TO GATEKEEPER CORE TO PRESERVE LIFE IN THE DISTRICT OF WATER. PEACEKEEPER IS ACCOMPANIED BY AT LEAST TWO WORKER ENTITIES TO PERFORM CORE MAINTENANCE, SUGGESTING A SHIFT OF PRIORITY FROM BELOW FROM ELIMINATION TO PRESERVATION."

A pause of seconds, as the AI makes further inquiries, followed by a rather worrying conclusion. "IDENTITIES OF THE APPROACHING ENTITIES CANNOT BE CONFIRMED. COMMENCING FINAL SECURITY MEASURES. AT ANY TIME, OFFER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER AND SECURITY PASSWORD TO GAIN IMMEDIATE ENTRANCE."

The Exalts attempt to continue forward all throughout the AI's analysis. All Danae can figure out is that they have entered the outer chambers of the Gatekeeper core, putting them reasonably close to their goal, given their time limit. She knows that the traps here ought to be debilitating and environmental in nature: sonic waves, poison mists, extremes of temperature and so on. But she has no idea of the exact location or function of these traps.

Dashu and Xurizu continue to take the lead one after the other, and fortunately find themselves moving in the same direction. Unfortunately they are not as certain they are moving in the right one, particularly when Dashu's foot touches some invisible trigger, culminating in a hissing sound very much like air being pushed through a vent.

---

OOC: +2 stunts for all, you managed to avoid the mind probe. However, the AI has decided that the only way left to test your authorization is to see whether you know how to avoid the final traps in the way. At this point you can:

1) try to convince Gatekeeper that the trap is unnecessary, using a social attack roll to bypass authorization. Dashu gets +3 to this roll, but Xurizu cannot participate as he is supposed to be a non-entity. Everyone else choosing this action should roll separately, but the rolls may have synergy depending on the approach used. (diff 6+)
2) try to actually disarm the triggered trap before it becomes dangerous, I'll allow Wits+Lore or Larceny in this case. (diff 4)

Failing either, you will have to roll Stamina+Resistance, or hold your breath, unless you've some means to filter harmful air. (diff 3)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:44, Sun 04 Jan 2009.

Dena peers a moment at the hissing gas exits and, as is typical, spends several seconds thinking it over while she holds her breath.  She then carries out a fairly typical Dena-ish plan of trying to smash and collapse the inlets by kicking them very hard.  This only slows down the process slightly as the bad air bubbles around the rubble.
"Maybe we should just keep on moving.  The gas is seeping pretty slowly, and from the smell it's weak sauce anyway that won't hurt us any.  I'll bet we can outrun it before it gets to a dangerous concentration." she finally suggests.

[Private to GM: 23:55, Today: Tervila Dena rolled 5 successes using 8d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,9,2,7,4,3,6,10. Stamina + Resistance.
23:53, Today: Tervila Dena rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,3,2,7. Wits + Lore (Disable Device). ]

Dashu decides that he'll help Danae how he can with the disarming the trap.  He reaches behind him and produces a blue jade breath mask which he puts on. He then offers the Dawn Caste what assistance he can he can in disarming the trap.

Well, what do you know, it worked?

Xurizu swings his own breath mask down from off his back, and fastens it around his face.  He wishes they had enough for Danae and Dena, although Dena seemed confident enough about the gases ability to affect her, and with any luck Danae and Dashu could disarm the gas trap before it would be an issue.  Whilst they kneel to examine the trap, he turned his attention to the path they would need to take beyond this point.  By examining the sensors and searching for further traps, he planned to guide their movement as soon as it was safe to do so.  After all, legitimate workers would have no need to tarry and would know just where they were going.

Bonus--the thing 'Didn't' actually pick up on anything menacing from her--a part of Danae's mind that wasn't dedicated to maintaining the usual haze that a tired and hard-pressed worker in a stressful situation celebrated--but on the hissing noise after Dashu pressed the wrong switch--Danae was quick to move to the fray--quickly snagging out a couple of minor tools she had managed to carry along from earlier on--extending a few small prods--and once Dashu pointed out the vent in question--she was quick to slip them in--recalling the customary construction of these sorts of things--and with a slightly musical jingling noise, manipulated the two prods to reset the trap--manually having it report in that it was a false alarm--probably from shoddy maintenence...

And in that process, also reinforcing the opinion that the 'Workers' had been brought along to help repair any possible damages that may have been done in the duration of the purge...

Hopefully it would work out properly...

[Private to Gatekeeper: Using the motes I got back from the successful stunt to buy 2 succs on the Wits + Lore roll, and then rolling it]

Danae's skills are as peerless as ever. With Dashu's sharp eyes and logical mind looking out for minor errors she might have missed, she manages to shut off the gas trap in record time. [Private to Danae Adela: You... succeed! By a large margin! You also get a +1 stunt, I think I had rolled +2 but trying not to be *too* generous.]

The breathing masks Dashu and Xurizu kept from several floors below keep them safe from the effects of the gas. Unfortunately, Danae and even Dena (despite all her stamina) are still left with a vague, lingering lethargy, as if the weariness of all the intense combat, running and navigating through traps is finally catching up to them. Having seen the make of the trap herself, Danae knows that if they'd not disarmed it so quickly, they'd be much more than just tired... the gas would have put them instantly to sleep. [Private to Danae Adela; Tervila Dena: You both have -1 to your dice pools and movement rates, but keep in mind you DID avoid the much stronger effect.]

Xurizu scouts ahead for the others while they catch up, and the group continues on. It's very difficult to get lost now -- pretty much any path away from the lightning barriers leads toward the core. The Exalts progress at a deceptively swift pace, trusting in the senses of the Lunar, knowing they must surely be close to their goal.

But something is wrong. The further the Exalts travel, the more keenly they feel it. The temperature of the core is starting to drop at an alarming rate. The walls and floors have begun to freeze over, forming a sheen of mirror-thin ice.

The group abruptly reaches what appears to be a dead end, forcing them to backtrack slightly through the bitter cold. But they MUST be close now!

---

OOC: For this phase Xurizu was leading and actually botched. Unfortunately! The temperature change is a sign you probably did something very wrong. It's equivalent to a supernatural ice storm in the environmental effects list.

This is the last step before the core. I need from you...
- Stam+Resist roll. 4 sux means you avoid all damage for a minute, 2 sux means you get 2B damage per minute, less than that means 2L damage per minute. If you don't make the roll, you can still soak with natural soak and reduce to 1 level of damage/minute. Don't forget penalties if you have 'em!
- ONE last roll of Perc+Aware or Int+Lore to find your way to the core, can pool efforts again if you wish. This last roll is to determine how fast you get there (and thus how long you're exposed to the ice.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:26, Tue 06 Jan 2009.

Dashu pulls his shirt tighter around his body.  The cold doesn't slow him down any but he still doesn't like it much.  After a few minutes of it, the starts to wonder if they're going the right way.

[Private to GM: 20:25, Today: Peleps Dashu rolled 6 successes using 7d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,9,9,3,4,10,8. stamina + resistance.]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:29, Tue 06 Jan 2009.

Danae sneezed in a slightly mousy way--rubbing her nose slightly afterwards.  "I think we actually missed the door--it wouldn't be hard to miss actually, considering a lot of these things can't really have a lot of protruding portions going along wi...  *Achoo!*"

Rubbing her arms together with a frown, Danae took a look at the walls--it was COLD down here damnit!  Her outfit was 'Not' designed with warmth in frozen temperatures in mind--slight fire resistance was more appropriate when you often had to work in a foundry--and they're often made to 'Reflect' ambient heat as opposed to trap it...

"We've already gone along about this far though--geomantically speaking, the core should be back the way we came, probably along the wall to our left along the inside wall--likely without a whole lot to regulate it--but there sh...should be a handle on the wall about there--can we please hurry it up before I freeze to death?"

[Private to Gatekeeper: Int + Lore for me for 4 succs before stunt is added in...  And... O_o 3 succs on 2 dice for my resistance roll?  Dice gods are kind today!  I've already rolled sta + res prior to stunt in any case, so I'll leave it to you to add in any dice to see if I completely avoid damage for now.]
This message was last edited by the player at 03:07, Tue 06 Jan 2009.

Dena examines the wall for a moment, apparently hoping it's an illusion or easily-broken layer of normal ice.  Closing her eyes a moment, Dena breathes deeply and concentrates on her mercurial body, encouraging it to grow thicker and longer hair to trap in more heat and adding chemicals to her blood to keep it thinner and less likely to freeze.
"I think I remember it differently Danae.  I think it's on the other side of this wall and we should smash through it." Dena argues.  She smashes one fist into it with a sound like a tree falling to gauge the hardness and glances again at the radiating cracks from the blow, where flakes of ice are drifting away and sparkling in the dim light.  "And a little exertion will help you keep warm too."

[Private to GM: Can I stunt learn the first Stamina Excellency now?

Okay here's dice:
01:01, Today: Tervila Dena rolled 6 successes using 12d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,2,3,1,5,4,10,10,7,8,5,3. Stamina + Resistance + Excellency.
00:46, Today: Tervila Dena botched using 4d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,5,6,1. Int + Lore.
]
This message was last edited by the player at 07:05, Tue 06 Jan 2009.

And then we just turn down he-...oh!  The dead end had come as a real surprise to Xurizu, so much of one that he hadn't noticed the cold until his teeth started to chatter.  Snakes didn't cope too well with the cold, after all.

"H-h-hurrying it up before we f-freeze to death sounds like a good idea," Xurizu chattered out.  He didn't stop moving though, even as everyone paused to examine the wall Danae had pointed out, looking for the handle she had claimed must be here somewhere as he paced about, trying to keep himself as warm as he could.  He hoped wherever this Gatekeeper was, they would be warmer ...

Of the four, Danae and Dashu seem to have the best idea as to where they should be backtracking. Xurizu can at least follow their strategy enough to know it is sound, though the cold distracts him too much to concentrate further. Dena has to move on with them, or be left behind beating at the wall on her own.

At first the crafter-general takes the lead, guided not by instinct but by pure know-how. It takes a minute for her to navigate the majority of the inner maze, until Dashu suddenly shouts out a warning for her to stop. Just ahead of her is a Level 3 Core Security Measure: a corridor equipped with miniature pinprick holes punctured into the wall that (after a specific time delay) emit anything from synthetic skin-contact poison to corrosive acid. If she'd triggered that they'd have much more to worry about than the temperature!

Now Xurizu and Dashu put their senses together, discovering a maintenance-only detour that unfortunately needs another half minute or so to accomplish. The cold is still not abating, and Danae feels the chill penetrate through her clothes. Xurizu looks even worse for wear, the tips of his fingers starting to turn faintly blue, the color and warmth draining from his face. (2B damage for Danae and 2L for Xurizu, as it's over a minute of exposure.)

Finally they reach a wide corridor headed in a single direction. At the end of that corridor is a heavy, multilayered mechanized door. There is a black jade and adamant panel embedded into the wall, the screen flashing with a message in Old Realm. "HARMONY-WILL-HELP-YOU," it reads, inexplicably. Close to the door the air seems to be warming, though it is still quite cold.

As the strange message on the panel continues to flash, the Gatekeeper's voice enters the Exalts' minds: "FINAL IDENTIFICATION CHECK. SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE... CONFIRMED. YOU MAY ENTER."

The door into the central core opens, latch by latch, gear by gear, layer by layer.

---

OOC: And there you are. You're a bit above 3 minutes to go. Post your last thoughts and actions before moving to the new thread, which will be named "Floor B26 - District of Water, Gatekeeper Core." It will be a bit... chaotic in terms of number of posters, at least for a while, because you're not the only group that made it this far.

If you can read Old Realm, roll another Int+Lore if you would like to make sense of the Harmony message before you go.

Dashu takes one look at the message flashing on the display and is immediately confused.  He doesn't speak Old Realm. He doesn't want to verbalize his question, least the question triggers the Gatekeeper to shut the door.  However, he points to the message with a questioning look on his face, hoping the others pick up on his question.  If not oh well. He then turns and prepares to enter the core.

Xurizu is shivering and chattering, rubbing his hands together against the cold.  He really didn't cope well with the drop in temperature and it was with something of a relief that he felt the first stirrings of warmth by the door.  He frowned though, at the odd message, before he caught Dashu's questioning glance. "H-h-harmony w-will help y-y-you," he chattered out, keeping his voice as low as he could, deciding that if the Gatekeeper could have heard them normally, then they would have been declared hostile long ago.  And he had no chance of mouthing the words.

"Huh... Seriously?" Danae said, sneezing again, but seemingly recovering as the temperature warmed up a bit.  "No matter how you construe that statement, it's probably a good thing for us...  But I'll go into detail when we wrap all this up, or if it winds up becoming relevant..."

A bit abashed over her decision to break through what turned out to be a very solid wall, Dena keeps quiet and follows everybody else, keeping an eye out for threats but no longer offering bad advice about the route to be taken.

Dena encounters no more threats, no more tricks to mislead her. Xurizu and Danae find the chill has abated to a point it longer affects them adversely, uncomfortable as it may be.

The message in Old Realm continues to transmit from the panel as they join Dashu in stepping through the door.

"HARMONY-IS-WITH-YOU"

---

OOC: closing this thread, look for the next one opening on Sat. or possibly Sun. depending on how I'm feeling.