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15:26, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

[In-Character Thread] Deciphering Tomorrow.

Posted by GMFor group 0
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 219 posts
who Talks to Machines
Sat 5 Jun 2021
at 00:30
  • msg #585

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Attilisk pulls a cloth mask over his face and leans toward the broken panel.  "This doesn't look like it belongs here.  And it's an odd place to grow.  Do you think the grime here eats metals and synth?"
GM
GM, 252 posts
Storyteller
Sat 12 Jun 2021
at 08:12
  • msg #586

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

As Attilisk moves nearer, the thin fronds of the pinkish organic material leans towards him, like a plant towards sunlight.  They emit small puffs of something that smell like... salt?  Suddenly Attilisk hears something, the voice small, tiny, but still just audible.

Help...
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 220 posts
who Talks to Machines
Sat 12 Jun 2021
at 14:21
  • msg #587

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Attilisk blinks a bit, feeling both confusion and anxiety.  "Elesai," he eventually musters, "Can you sense anything about this pink material?  I think it ... spoke to me."

As he waits for the Nano's response, he will look around to see where there might be more of the material and how it is behaving.  Perhaps the waving of the fronds is showing a path?
GM
GM, 253 posts
Storyteller
Tue 22 Jun 2021
at 05:20
  • msg #588

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Attilisk examines the area around with more care, and can see thin traces of the fungal matter a little higher on the wall.  This time it's less of an explosion and more of a delicate tracery, quite geometric and precise.  Looking at it, Attilisk realizes it looks like more of a diagram or map than just random striations of growth.  There's a round spot with three emergences, similar to the hub you entered from the vessel: one shows the long corridor you have traversed, the second a curving room split into six sections, the third to a spiral.  The long corridor has a series of square and rectangular chambers? rooms? corridors? at the end, with a myriad of grids splayed out from it like petals from a flower.
Eleisai
Empathic Nano, 127 posts
who Works Miracles
Tue 22 Jun 2021
at 05:38
  • msg #589

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

The older woman considers.

"I sense intelligence, and pain.  Let me see if I can communicate with it..."

She stretches forth her empathic senses toward the intelligence she sensed.

:: Can you understand me? ::
GM
GM, 254 posts
Storyteller
Sun 27 Jun 2021
at 08:35
  • msg #590

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Eleisai gets a wave of pain, first and foremost, but then it fades into a dull, persistent ache.  Then a wave of fear washing over everything, and a sense of being trapped and attempting to escape.  Then curiosity, followed by a scent of salt, iron, and copper.

Then a gentle warmth.  Yes, you believe you are being understood!
Paraton
Resourceful Seeker, 126 posts
a Resourceful Seeker
who Delved Too Deeply
Tue 6 Jul 2021
at 14:21
  • msg #591

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

quote:
Looking at it, Attilisk realizes it looks like more of a diagram or map than just random striations of growth.  There's a round spot with three emergences, similar to the hub you entered from the vessel: one shows the long corridor you have traversed, the second a curving room split into six sections, the third to a spiral.  The long corridor has a series of square and rectangular chambers? rooms? corridors? at the end, with a myriad of grids splayed out from it like petals from a flower.


Paraton approaches their friend and, after conversing about the diagram, asks: Do you want me to go ahead and explore? What should we do? I feel so lost here.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:21, Tue 06 July 2021.
GM
GM, 255 posts
Storyteller
Wed 7 Jul 2021
at 08:26
  • msg #592

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

There is another tiny puff of pale vapor, this time smelling of something fresh and clean.  Both Paraton and Attilisk can hear a faint sound.

Weak... lost... trapped... help...

The diagram pulses slightly, and the spiral area turns a slightly different color.
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 221 posts
who Talks to Machines
Wed 7 Jul 2021
at 11:57
  • msg #593

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

"Is that a map?  Providing directions?  I'm open to exploring the way it suggests, if we have no better option."
Paraton
Resourceful Seeker, 127 posts
a Resourceful Seeker
who Delved Too Deeply
Wed 7 Jul 2021
at 15:59
  • msg #594

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

I feel we should check in that direction, yes. It might be a trap, but... I feel strongly that we should see if somebody or something needs help.

The seeker starts in the direction of the spiraled area.
Eleisai
Empathic Nano, 128 posts
who Works Miracles
Wed 14 Jul 2021
at 06:10
  • msg #595

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

:: We are coming to try and help now... ::

The older woman moves over to her companions, and touches Paraton's arm reassuringly.

"I agree.  I have made telepathic contact with... some type of presence, and it seems to be trapped, and to need our help.  Let us try to do what we can..."
GM
GM, 256 posts
Storyteller
Thu 15 Jul 2021
at 09:38
  • msg #596

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

The group retreats slightly and follows what they recall of the map (someone can to mark it down for reference as you travel), backtracking until close to your original entry.  Just before the door back into the "greeting room", the long corridor now has an opening in it you hadn't seen before, that leads off at a gentle angle.  A little experimentation proves that the opening is only visible walking back towards the door, not when going away from it.

Along the gentle curve you can see various places where there are small fuzzy places on the wall where tiny fungal tendrils spread out like veins, or desperate fingers.  On closer examination, it seems that where the fungal matter protrudes, there are small vents, cracks, or slots.  The walls are otherwise far more plain than you have seen in this place, more... utilitarian.

Spiraling in and in and in, the curve getting tighter and tighter, the instances of fuzzy growth grow more numerous, though never very large.  As the spiral tightens to a circular chamber in the center, you emerge in a central chamber that has a clear dome at the top of thirty foot high walls that looks out onto the black void.  Instead of stars, however, you see tiny glowing tendrils of fungi that sprout from a tall central mass of spongy stalks in the center of the large room, ringed by a wall of glowing light that is halfway to the dome.  Where the wall exists, the fungal growth is contained.  It's only where the wall ends that it starts to sprawl.

All around the room are a number of panels of buttons, bulbs, levers, handles, and plates that hint at mysterious functions.  The scent of salt and gall hangs heavy in the air, and a tiny, faint keening grates upon the ears.
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 222 posts
who Talks to Machines
Thu 15 Jul 2021
at 11:38
  • msg #597

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Seeing a room full of electronic devices brings a wide smile to Attilisk's face.  "Hello, beauties!"  Almost ignoring the barrier of light and the fungal stalk within, he begins to slowly circle the room, heading to the left first.  He takes in the panels and controls, whispering his appreciations, sometimes gently brushing fingers along the panels and screens.
GM
GM, 257 posts
Storyteller
Tue 3 Aug 2021
at 06:26
  • msg #598

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

The fungal growth and the hands of time have worn away or broken some of the functions, but Attilisk knows machines, their songs and verses, their dances and stories.  Examining some of the panels and controls, he sees some symbols that remind him of those on the vessel, particularly those related to the propulsion that brought them here.  As the various destinations one could select for the vessel were seemingly very widely far-flung, it would follow that this place was also meant for some kind of far-flung travel.  He finds some twisting knobs that change the temperature, change the light color, make the air more or less purple, and finally a set of controls (a triangular wheel, a small squeeze ball, and a hard-light rectangle, used in a sequence that makes you wish you have an extra hand or two) that will allow you to control the glowing "collar" around the fungal column.  There seems to be an array of other functions relating to far-flung travel, but it looks as if they suffered some deliberate damage.  You might be able to kludge them back together for a use or two, you think.

Paraton gets the impression this area, being as it is less gracefully appointed, plus the spiral entry that would not allow for a large build-up of speed, was meant for more utility and perhaps for security, rather than the "welcome center" that you first entered.

Eleisai, you sense a greater "volume" of the mental contact here from the large fungal column.  The volume is loud enough that the tenuous connection you had retained to the insectile creatures you met in the "welcome hall" is entirely drowned out.  You sense a terrible longing, specifically for home, and a kind of despair.
Eleisai
Empathic Nano, 129 posts
who Works Miracles
Tue 3 Aug 2021
at 07:18
  • msg #599

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

The older woman blinks back tears as her empathic senses resonate with the longing and despair.

:: I sense that you wish to go home.  Do you need help?  Where is your home? ::
Paraton
Resourceful Seeker, 128 posts
a Resourceful Seeker
who Delved Too Deeply
Mon 9 Aug 2021
at 15:11
  • msg #600

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

It is fitting that we find ourselves in a port of sorts. I wonder why this creature is still stuck here, and how long it has been since they got to this place.

This fungus makes me... introspect. I don't even know what home is anymore, and I haven't been away for more than a month. It has probably been stranded here for aeons, and yet it still feels that need.

How can we help it?

Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 223 posts
who Talks to Machines
Fri 13 Aug 2021
at 03:10
  • msg #601

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

"Eliasai, if we work together, we may be able to make this device function again, although I doubt the power will last more than a use or two.  It would be best if we got it right the first time."

Attilisk will continue to examine the machine parts, especially those that seem intentionally dismantled, trying to figure out their function and reparability.
GM
GM, 258 posts
Storyteller
Tue 17 Aug 2021
at 09:22
  • msg #602

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Eleisai:
The older woman blinks back tears as her empathic senses resonate with the longing and despair.

:: I sense that you wish to go home.  Do you need help?  Where is your home? ::


The fungal column writhes very slightly, and there is a faint keening sound, less heard than felt.  While the part of the column within the collar of light seems to turn colors when it moves, the parts at the top and bottom branch out slightly more, forming a pattern like stars and veins.  The view of the stars above, between the web of fungal growths, almost looks like a map.  Between one segment and another, the growths thicken, ringing one point of distant light with layer upon layer of its own substance.

The scent of salt and iron thickens in the room momentarily, and the collar of light brightens, making the column of fungus retract as its keening increases.

Attilisk takes a look at the dismantled parts, finding the evidence that someone with a taste for numenera has been here before.  It looks like its been salvaged at least once, and that the removed parts may have been certain... parameters?  Limiters?  Some sort of guildline or something of the sort.  It's also reasonably clear that there is a biologic component to some of the machines here... and that the fugus seems to extrude from one of the damaged panels.  Or is it invading it?
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 224 posts
who Talks to Machines
Fri 20 Aug 2021
at 00:50
  • msg #603

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

To Eleisai, he asks "Can you ask it?  Ask them?  If they are from ..." he waves at the technology, especially the gaping wounds of past theft and the fungus(?) around it.  "Or are they trying to get into ... whatever this was.  If we know what they did in it or what they hoped to do in it, that would be useful knowledge."
GM
GM, 259 posts
Storyteller
Thu 26 Aug 2021
at 06:36
  • msg #604

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Elesai can gently ask the fungal column about its home or destination, asking it, where does it want to be?

The spreading fungal tendrils on the dome above twist and writhe a bit more, circling and circling one distant point of light.  This, you gather, is a very important or significant place for the fungal intelligence.  But Elesai does not get a sense of nostaligic longing, or a wishing for a homecoming.  She has an impression that while the indicated place is important, and that the intelligence would like to be there, it has never been there themselves.

The tendrils climb down the walls, making more and more intricate connections that follow along the interlocking plates and other parts of the numenera in this place, similar to the way parts of the damaged panels would have fit together.  Attilisk and Paraton, working together, seek something interesting.  The fungal strands are threaded through the open panels and seem to go neatly and cleanly into the untouched panels, as if they had been designed that way from the beginning, or at least as far as you can tell.

OOC: I know Elesai's in the middle of a work crunch, so I'm going to assume she's up for questioning the fungal column.  :)
Eleisai
Empathic Nano, 130 posts
who Works Miracles
Sat 28 Aug 2021
at 03:48
  • msg #605

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

OOC: Yes and yes!  Many thanks.  :)
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 225 posts
who Talks to Machines
Thu 2 Sep 2021
at 03:00
  • msg #606

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Attilisk will do what he can to make sense of the panels and mechanisms within.  Is this something he could repair if he had the parts?  Does he even have a sense of what the missing parts might be or look like or function as?

He sits and begins to sketch the panels and the fungus and the patterns, seeking inspiration.
GM
GM, 262 posts
Storyteller
Thu 23 Sep 2021
at 05:43
  • msg #607

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

As Eleisai relates the impressions she's gotten from the fungal intelligence, Attilisk examines the panels closely, trying to see what the ancients may have done to the panels, or if it was some subsequent salvagers who may have damaged this facility.

Attilisk comes to the conclusion that the "limiters" (as best he can figure) were salvaged at some time in the past five years.  Likely there was some potentially interesting or useful cypher or artifact that could have been made from the components, probably something involving protection. That could have been greatly useful to various numenera hunters, who certainly find themselves in all sorts of dangerous situations.

He thinks he could make this work a couple of times after some repairs, though considering that the "limiters" are gone, the accuracy and safety of its ability to move things would likely be compromised.  You may end up reaching farther than anticipated, or bringing (or sending) more than you intended.  Or it might blow up.  Hopefully not the last.

Paraton, with your own experience in exploring and the integration of your body with energies and other numenera, along with Elesai's insights, comes to a possible conclusion about the fungal growths.  There is certainly more than one ancient installation that has some kind of biologic component to its numenera, and certainly more than one aldeia whose numenera tends to be organic.  The fungus may have been integrated into the facility, but with age and the "limiters" being looted, it was freed of whatever constraints the ancients put on it, and began to do tasks they were never "supposed" to do.  If the fungus wants to go "home", perhaps it originated somewhere other than the moon.  No longer tied to its former tasks, it may have been attempting just that.
Attilisk
Imaginative Jack, 227 posts
who Talks to Machines
Thu 30 Sep 2021
at 02:59
  • msg #608

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

Attilisk will explain his examination of the devices and the risks of getting it to run.  "If we can find something to use as replacement limiters, or maybe even the originals, I'd have a better chance of restoring full functionality."  He begins to sketch his concept of what the device(s) in question might look like.
Paraton
Resourceful Seeker, 130 posts
a Resourceful Seeker
who Delved Too Deeply
Fri 1 Oct 2021
at 15:14
  • msg #609

Re: [In-Character Threat] Deciphering Tomorrow

What shape, what material would you need?

Paraton wonders if they are perhaps called to be something greater, if all these changes they've subjected themselves to aren't meant to conclude in something much bigger than they ever imagined.
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